Personal narratives are integral to autobiographical memory and to identity, with coherent personal narratives being linked to positive developmental outcomes across the lifespan. In this article, we review the theoretical and empirical literature that sets the stage for a new lifespan model of personal narrative coherence. This new model integrates context, chronology, and theme as essential dimensions of personal narrative coherence, each of which relies upon different developmental achievements and has a different developmental trajectory across the lifespan. A multidimensional method of coding narrative coherence (the Narrative Coherence Coding Scheme) was derived from the model and is described here. The utility of this approach is demonstrated by its application to 498 narratives that were collected in six laboratories from participants ranging in age from 3 years old to adulthood. The value of the model is illustrated further by a discussion of its potential to guide future research on the developmental foundations of narrative coherence and on the benefits of personal narrative coherence for different aspects of psychological functioning.

中文翻译：

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整个生命周期中个人叙事的连贯性：多维模型和编码方法

个人叙述是自传体记忆和身份不可或缺的一部分，连贯的个人叙述与整个生命周期的积极发展成果有关。在本文中，我们回顾了为个人叙事连贯性的新生命周期模型奠定基础的理论和实证文献。这种新模型将语境、年表和主题作为个人叙事连贯性的基本维度进行整合，每个维度都依赖于不同的发展成就，并在整个生命周期中具有不同的发展轨迹。编码叙事连贯性的多维方法（Narrative Coherence Coding Scheme）源自该模型并在此处进行描述。这种方法的实用性体现在它对 498 个叙述的应用，这些叙述是在六个实验室收集的，参与者的年龄从 3 岁到成年不等。该模型的价值通过讨论其指导未来关于叙事连贯性的发展基础和个人叙事连贯性对心理功能不同方面的好处的潜力的讨论得到了进一步说明。