Incremental validity of narrative identity in predicting psychological well-being A replication and extension in Korean adults

The goal of the present study was to replicate and extend previous research that demonstrated the incremental validity of narrative identity in predicting psychological well-being among Korean adults. We recruited 147 Korean adults living in South Korea who completed a battery of questionnaires that assessed the Big Five traits, extrinsic value orientation, selfconcept clarity, and psychological well-being. Participants then wrote a story about how they had become the persons they were, which was subsequently coded in terms of agency. We found that psychological well-being was positively related to extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and self-concept clarity, but negatively to neuroticism and extrinsic value orientation. The positive relation between agency, coded from narratives, and psychological well-being was significant both with and without controlling for the other variables. These results showed that narrative identity has incremental validity in predicting well-being among individuals who live in a culture where collectivism and individualism coexist.