Narrative expressions of identity and intimacy concerns in college students

This study focused upon the presence and positive/negative quality of identity and intimacy concerns, in academically successful undergraduate students of both sexes, as expressed in Four Picture Test (FPT) story narratives. Scores for frequency and quality of identity and intimacy concerns were derived by applying the Stewart, Franz, and Layton coding system, which was developed to assess narrative data from the perspective of Eriksonian developmental theory; these scores were also compared to same-subject scores on the Differential Personality Questionnaire (DPQ) scales of Wellbeing, Achievement, Social Closeness, and Alienation. Identity concerns were expressed twice as often as intimacy concerns by these subjects; groupings by sex and by age (17-21 years and 22-39 years) failed to moderate this finding. This supports the research suggesting that identity development tends to be intensified and prolonged by the college experience; moreover, such a focus upon issues of identity may push into the background or even preclude concerns with intimacy issues during this period. Indeed, expressions of positive identity significantly increased with age within this sample, whereas the total number of intimacy concerns expressed was negatively correlated with age at a level approaching significance. While there were significant correlations amongst all identity and intimacy scores--except between positive identity and negative intimacy-- the strongest relationships were between positive and negative identity and between positive and negative intimacy; this supports the view of Erikson's developmental stages as involving a dynamic interplay of positive and negative aspects. Both positive and negative identity scores were significantly correlated with the Wellbeing scale scores; positive identity scores were significantly correlated with Social Closeness and Achievement scale scores, although this latter correlation was, unexpectedly, in a negative direction. While only positive intimacy scores correlated significantly with Wellbeing scale scores, both positive and negative intimacy scores were significantly correlated to Social Closeness scale scores. Neither negative identity nor negative intimacy scores correlated, as had been hypothesized, with Alienation scale scores. This successful application of a system of narrative analysis to projectively-derived stories makes promising the use of such methodology in future personality assessment research.