ABSTRACT The current paper examines systematic differences in life story high and low points. Narratives from a young adult sample (n = 145) and a late midlife adult sample (n = 154) were coded for vividness, meaning, and coherence. An automated linguistic coding technique was also used. Mean level comparisons found high and low points had similar levels of vividness and coherence. Among the young adults, but not the late midlife adults, there was greater total meaning making (positive and negative combined) in low points than in high points. Across high and low points, levels of positive meaning were greater than negative meaning, in both samples, suggesting a positivity bias in meaning making in valenced life stories. Moreover, the bias was large in both samples (68% in young adults, 450% in late midlife adults). Preliminary analyses suggested midlife adults, when compared to young adults, had a greater bias towards producing more positive than negative meaning. In both samples, automated linguistic analyses indicated that low points displayed greater word counts and usage of cognitive mechanism words, suggesting greater cognitive processing in low points at the level of word usage. Findings are framed within autobiographical memory and narrative research and socioemotional selectivity theory.

中文翻译：

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生活故事高低点的生动性、意义和连贯性的平均水平差异：有价生活故事如何做与不做不同

摘要 本文探讨了人生故事高潮点和低谷点的系统差异。来自年轻成人样本（n = 145）和中年晚期成人样本（n = 154）的叙述被编码为生动、意义和连贯性。还使用了自动语言编码技术。平均水平比较发现高点和低点具有相似的生动性和连贯性水平。在年轻人中，但不是中年晚期的成年人，在低点比在高点有更大的总意义制造（积极和消极的结合）。在高点和低点之间，在两个样本中，积极意义的水平都大于消极意义，这表明在有价值的生活故事中，意义创造存在积极的偏见。此外，两个样本的偏差都很大（年轻人为 68%，中年晚期为 450%）。初步分析表明，与年轻人相比，中年成年人更倾向于产生积极而非消极的意义。在这两个样本中，自动语言分析表明，低点显示出更多的字数和认知机制词的使用，这表明低点在单词使用水平上的认知处理能力更强。调查结果是在自传体记忆和叙事研究以及社会情感选择理论中构建的。