Two Aspects of Past Self-Continuity from Narrative and Essentialist Perspectives

Self-continuity, the sense of connection between one's past and present self, is at the core of identity. However, differences between two perspectives on self-continuity, the narrative perspective and the essentialist perspective, remain unexplored. This study investigates whether these two perspectives represent distinct facets of past self-continuity. We examined the relationship between self-continuity and factors such as acceptance of the past, self-concept clarity, and temporal comparison orientation, and whether these associations vary depending on the perspective through which self-continuity is understood. A total of 57 Japanese university students ( M age = 19.68, SD age = 1.74, range = 18–28, 33 women, 24 men) participated in an experiment in which either the narrative or essentialist perspective was activated through descriptive tasks. Results showed that self-continuity correlated positively with acceptance of the past and temporal comparison orientation specifically in the narrative condition. These findings suggest that the two perspectives reflect distinct components of self-continuity.