The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Matthew Schaublin will present Master’s research titled, Composing The Self: Examining Dynamics of Meaning and Agency in Narratives of Authenticity and Self-Transformation on 03\/20\/2026 at 2:00 PM in McCallie 394. Everyone is invited to attend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psychology<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chair: Dr. Jill Shelton<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Co-Chair:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abstract:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authenticity often refers to a quality of being \u2018true\u2019 or self-enacted. Agency often refers to the attribute of acting or enacting some purposeful behavior. Meaning refers to the result and means of intelligible engagement between an agent and their being in the world. I propose here a mixed-methods investigation into the relationship between authenticity, agency, and meaning in autobiographical narratives, recollected scenes in a person’s life. Drawing from contemporary models of authenticity and personality functioning, this research employs narrative methods to explore how dispositional tendencies and situational experiences of authenticity contribute to the sense of agency and meaning in life. Particular attention is paid to the SAFE model of state authenticity (Aday et al., 2024), which proposes that momentary authenticity arises from three distinct yet interacting forms of \u201cfit\u201d between a person and their environment: self-concept fit, goal fit, and social fit. Participants (N = 175) will be asked to write narratives of either an authentic, inauthentic, or transformative life event. These narratives will be thematically coded using established schemes for authenticity and novel deductive schemes for forms of environmental fit derived from the SAFE model. Participants will then complete adapted, retrospective measures of agency and meaning as they pertain to their narrative moment. Quantitative analyses will assess between-group differences in recalled agency and meaning, while qualitative analyses will explore how themes of fit and authenticity relate to each other and to these outcome variables. This study aims to provide evidence for an integrative framework linking narrative identity processes, momentary self-concept coherence, and trait authenticity and, ultimately, to clarify how the lived experience of being one\u2019s \u201ctrue self\u201d confers existential meaning and perceived agency through coherence among self, goal, and social context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UTC Graduate School is pleased to announce that Matthew Schaublin will present Master’s research titled, Composing The Self: Examining Dynamics of Meaning and Agency in Narratives of Authenticity and Self-Transformation on 03\/20\/2026 at 2:00 PM in McCallie 394. Everyone is invited to attend. Psychology Chair: Dr. Jill Shelton Co-Chair: Abstract: Authenticity often refers to a… <\/p>\n