Development and Validation of the Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire (ANIQ)

This presentation will introduce the first quantitative, self-report measure of the awareness of narrative identity and how globally coherent one’s autobiographical memories are perceived to be, in terms of temporal ordering, causal associations, and the perception of unifying themes. The construct validity and reliability of the Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire (ANIQ) were assessed across a series of studies. In the first study, exploratory factor analysis of an initial item pool resulted in a 20-item, four-factor structure congruent with the proposed subscales, and convergent and divergent validity were established. In the second study, and with a different sample, further evidence for the factor structure was provided through confirmatory factor analysis, validity findings were replicated and extended upon, and test-retest reliabilities were found to be high. Importantly, in the third study, criterion validity was established, whereby the ANIQ subscales were demonstrated to be associated with dimensions of narrative coherence coded from written turning-point narratives. Findings from subsequent studies assessing associations with time perspective, reminiscence functions, and other variables are also presented. The ANIQ represents a valid, psychometrically sound, and novel method of assessing the awareness of narrative identity and autobiographical memory coherence.