Development of Past Self-Continuity Scale from Narrative and Essentialist Perspectives.

Abstract

It is essential to understand the perception of self-continuity across time to understand the nature of personal identity and its development. To fill a gap in existing psychological research, this study introduces a novel scale designed to measure past self-continuity from narrative and essentialist perspectives. We developed and validated the Past Self-Continuity Scale through four studies involving Japanese university students, adults, and high school students. This scale differentiates between narrativity-based continuity, where past and present selves are integrated into a coherent story, and essentialist-based continuity, which focuses on the stability of the core of the self attributes over time. Results indicate that narrative and essentialist strategies for perceiving self-continuity are distinct and may change with development. The development of this scale advances our ability to measure and understand the complex nature of self-continuity and its implications to identity development and psychological well-being.