Identity development across the lifespan
UMRA’s first Living Well Workshop for 2026 featured McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor of Psychology Moin Syed from the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts. His presentation, “Identity Development Across the Lifespan,” explored how personal and cultural narratives shape identity over time.
Syed began by distinguishing research psychology from counseling psychology, situating his work within the research tradition. He traced the evolution of identity theory, noting the waning influence of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and highlighting Erik Erikson’s enduring impact. Erikson (1902–94) emphasized the social nature of development, introduced the concept of the “identity crisis,” and framed identity as something constructed across the lifespan through ongoing tensions such as identity versus confusion.
Central to Syed’s talk was the idea that healthy identity integrates past, present, and future into a coherent whole. He reviewed methods used to study identity development, including the Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test, which reveal how individuals project meaning onto ambiguity and construct narratives from experience.
Syed explained that memories function as stories through which we understand ourselves. These stories follow a common structure—orientation, complication, evaluation, resolution, and coda—and are continually interpreted and reinterpreted over time.
A cultural preference for redemptive narratives
In the United States, personal narratives are strongly shaped by culturally shared “master narratives” such as the American Dream, which emphasize redemption, growth through adversity, and “rags to riches” trajectories. Alternative narratives—those that foreground structural constraints, systemic racism, or unresolved loss—exist but are less socially rewarded.
Research shows strong pressure to align with redemptive narratives: people who frame their experiences this way are often viewed more positively. This expectation extends to life transitions such as retirement, which is commonly framed as redemptive despite the presence of more complex or ambivalent experiences.
Syed also contrasted U.S. narrative norms with those of other countries, noting that the norm in Sweden, for example, allows for more balanced accounts of positive and negative experiences; and pointing to stark narrative differences in Israel and Palestine.
He concluded by observing that research on adolescence and aging has focused disproportionately on problems rather than developmental potential—an imbalance that, he said, calls for greater scholarly attention. In the U.S. context especially, stories tend to be evaluated through the lens of “what lessons were learned,” reinforcing the cultural preference for redemptive meaning-making.
—Nanette Hanks, UMRA Program Committee
Identity development: How memories become selves
Tue, January 20, 2026, at 11am
Moin Syed
McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor of Psychology
University of Minnesota
Event to be held via Zoom.
Have you ever wondered how we become who we are—how the stories told about us and by us shape our sense of self and the course of our lives? Developing an identity, or the process by which individuals understand, define, and continually revise who they are, is one of the most important psychological tasks across the lifespan.
Our identities are built not only from the memories and experiences we personally carry, but also from the cultural stories that surround us. These broader “master narratives” provide templates for what a meaningful life should look like, influencing how we interpret our past and imagine our future. One powerful example in the United States is the cultural master narrative of redemption—the idea that individuals can transform adversity into growth, purpose, or success. This redemptive storyline is deeply valued in U.S. society and plays a significant role in how people construct their identities and how we evaluate the lives of others.
However, research reveals that redemption is not a universal narrative. Different cultural communities draw on different master stories—each shaping identity development in distinct ways. Understanding these culturally grounded narratives provides a richer, more nuanced view of how identities form and why people make sense of their lives the way they do.
Join us at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, January 20, for UMRA’s Living Well Workshop via Zoom. This presentation will include a discussion of the core theoretical ideas and key empirical findings related to memories, stories, and identities from the U.S. and elsewhere.
Moin Syed, PhD, our guest speaker, is a McKnight Presidential Endowed Professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His substantive research focuses on identity and personality development among ethnically diverse adolescents and emerging adults. Much of his current scholarly work is focused on scientific reform and open science, which he writes about sporadically on his blog, Get Syeducated.
Register online for this webinar through the UMRA Member Portal. Registrations are accepted any time up to and including the day of the webinar. The Zoom link to join the webinar will be sent to you in the confirmation email, and in a reminder email the day before the program.
Cancellations can be done in your online profile at umra.wildapricot.org > My Profile > My event registrations. Or, send questions on registrations/cancellations to the reservationist.
Please register and join us at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, January 20.
—Nanette Hanks, UMRA Program Committee