The Stories of Our Lives

Positive Psychology

Songs and Stories Can Transform Lives

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on March 31, 2025

The songwriting of Mary Gauthier illustrates how writing and listening to songs can change lives.

The songwriting of Mary Gauthier illustrates how writing and listening to songs can change lives.

Fantasies

Read a Book With Your Child and Dream Together

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on March 10, 2025

Reading fiction with your child builds connections and relationships, and increases empathy and understanding.

Reading fiction with your child builds connections and relationships, and increases empathy and understanding.

Positive Psychology

Creating Hope Through Future Selves

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on January 20, 2025

Hope helps us cope with the present through the belief that good things will happen in the future.

Hope helps us cope with the present through the belief that good things will happen in the future.

Family Dynamics

Family Stories and Secrets

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on December 6, 2024

Family secrets can be destructive. Bringing these stories to light, even as adults, can help us understand, heal, and forgive.

Family secrets can be destructive. Bringing these stories to light, even as adults, can help us understand, heal, and forgive.

Child Development

Stories Give Us Roots and Wings

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on November 11, 2024

Stories that help us understand how someone navigated difficult paths, their missteps, corrections, and recalibrations, help make that path more real.

Stories that help us understand how someone navigated difficult paths, their missteps, corrections, and recalibrations, help make that path more real.

Family Dynamics

Family Stories Are Embodied in Cherished Possessions

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on July 30, 2024

Through our most cherished family possessions, we come to know our families and ourselves.

Through our most cherished family possessions, we come to know our families and ourselves.

Race and Ethnicity

Do You Need to Talk to Your Child About Race?

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on June 26, 2024

Difficult conversations about race and discrimination can help children process and validate their experiences, provide coping strategies, and build strength and resilience.

Difficult conversations about race and discrimination can help children process and validate their experiences, provide coping strategies, and build strength and resilience.

Family Dynamics

Celebrating the Sabbath with Family Stories

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on May 29, 2024

Personal Perspective: Family stories are powerful because they provide us with roadmaps for perseverance and strength.

Personal Perspective: Family stories are powerful because they provide us with roadmaps for perseverance and strength.

Religion

The Intergenerational Family Seder

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on April 17, 2024

Personal Perspective: How do we celebrate during a crisis?

Personal Perspective: How do we celebrate during a crisis?

Adolescence

Narrating Growth Predicts College Students' Well-Being

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on March 28, 2024

Encouraging young adults to tell their stories may help heal the sense of disconnection technology and the pandemic have created.

Encouraging young adults to tell their stories may help heal the sense of disconnection technology and the pandemic have created.

Education

Learning Family History Helps You Understand Yourself

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on March 8, 2024

Personal Perspective: What my colleague and I learned about the power of family stories at a recent convention.

Personal Perspective: What my colleague and I learned about the power of family stories at a recent convention.

Family Dynamics

Why Family Storytelling Is Good for Us

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on February 23, 2024

Sharing stories with and about our families connects us to a deep sense of human frailty that, ironically, makes us stronger.

Sharing stories with and about our families connects us to a deep sense of human frailty that, ironically, makes us stronger.

Trauma

Never Forget: Listening to Stories of the Holocaust

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on January 29, 2024

Ukrainian President Zelensky states, “Eternal memory to all Holocaust survivors.” We must listen, and we must hear. And we must not let these stories die.

Ukrainian President Zelensky states, “Eternal memory to all Holocaust survivors.” We must listen, and we must hear. And we must not let these stories die.

Family Dynamics

Family Dinners and Stories Are More Important Than Ever

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on January 11, 2024

Sharing family stories about the intergenerational past helps build resilience and hope for the future. It can help us connect and heal in troubled times.

Sharing family stories about the intergenerational past helps build resilience and hope for the future. It can help us connect and heal in troubled times.

Personal Perspectives

Remembering Rosalynn Carter

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on November 27, 2023

Personal Perspective: Honoring a powerful ally who advocated for both mental health and women's rights.

Personal Perspective: Honoring a powerful ally who advocated for both mental health and women's rights.

Positive Psychology

How Stories of Illness Help Us Heal

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on November 20, 2023

Perhaps illness narratives, narratives focused on disruption and disempowerment, provide a different way of understanding one's self, a self that is often not autonomous.

Perhaps illness narratives, narratives focused on disruption and disempowerment, provide a different way of understanding one's self, a self that is often not autonomous.

Family Dynamics

The Value of Family Stories

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on October 2, 2023

Family stories define who we are and who we strive to be by anchoring us in our past and cementing our current connections.

Family stories define who we are and who we strive to be by anchoring us in our past and cementing our current connections.

Positive Psychology

Family Stories Connect Us to History

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on August 28, 2023

With the explosion of technology to help us record our family stories, to hold history closer than ever before, let us not forget why this history matters.

With the explosion of technology to help us record our family stories, to hold history closer than ever before, let us not forget why this history matters.

Child Development

Why Sharing Family Stories Is Vital

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on August 14, 2023

Intergenerational stories are more important for positive youth development than either personal stories or stories about friends.

Intergenerational stories are more important for positive youth development than either personal stories or stories about friends.

Identity

Graduation Stories: How College Creates a Narrative Identity

Robyn Fivush Ph.D. on May 8, 2023

Our story is never ours alone. Who we are and who we will become is always part of the larger mosaic of stories, of family and friends, of mentors and colleagues.

Our story is never ours alone. Who we are and who we will become is always part of the larger mosaic of stories, of family and friends, of mentors and colleagues.