The redemption and contamination research form: exploring relations with narrative identity, personality traits, response styles, and life satisfaction.

Narrative identity is typically assessed by collecting participants' autobiographical scenes and then coding these stories for themes including redemption (negative beginning, positive ending) and contamination (positive beginning, negative ending). Complimenting this approach, we introduce a self-report measure capturing the degree to which individuals explicitly view their lives and social worlds in redemptive and contaminated ways - the Redemption and Contamination Research Form (RCRF). In Studies 1 and 2, participants completed the RCRF and a measure of life satisfaction. In Study 2, participants also provided three autobiographical scenes, later coded for redemption and contamination. Across studies, our novel self-rated redemptive mindset variable corresponded positively with life satisfaction and, in Study 2, the redemption present in scenes. Relations remained significant after considering several covariates (e.g., traits, response styles). These results, which illustrate the utility of self-rated redemptive mindsets, carry implications for the multi-method assessment of constructs indigenous to narrative identity.

What growth sounds like: Redemption, self-improvement, and eudaimonic growth across different life narratives in relation to well-being.

OBJECTIVE: We disentangled three growth-relevant concepts (redemption, self-improvement, and eudaimonic growth) in personal narratives of high, low, and turning points and tested their relations to well-being. METHOD: In two studies, participants (Study 1 n = 111, Study 2 n = 206; overall ages 17-83, 56% women, 75% white) wrote narratives of high points, low points, and turning points. Researchers coded each narrative for redemption sequences (i.e., affectively valenced changes in life from bad to good), self-improvement sequences (i.e., affectively valenced changes in oneself for the better), and themes of eudaimonic growth (i.e., values or motives for cultivating meaningful activities or relationships, helping others, or wisdom). Participants also self-reported well-being. RESULTS: Redemption sequences in low points predicted higher well-being but in high points predicted lower well-being. Self-improvement sequences and growth themes each predicted higher well-being in each life event (and interacted in high points). Growth themes consistently mediated predicted relations between both redemption and self-improvement sequences and well-being. Findings held when controlling for global narrative affect, self-reported growth motivation, and big-five traits. CONCLUSIONS: Thematic motives for eudaimonic growth were more closely tied to well-being than were affective evaluations of either changes from bad to good (redemption) or one's becoming better (self-improvement).

The extended clinical phenotype of 64 patients with dedicator of cytokinesis 8 deficiency.

BACKGROUND: Mutations in dedicator of cytokinesis 8 (DOCK8) cause a combined immunodeficiency (CID) also classified as autosomal recessive (AR) hyper-IgE syndrome (HIES). Recognizing patients with CID/HIES is of clinical importance because of the difference in prognosis and management. OBJECTIVES: We sought to define the clinical features that distinguish DOCK8 deficiency from other forms of HIES and CIDs, study the mutational spectrum of DOCK8 deficiency, and report on the frequency of specific clinical findings. METHODS: Eighty-two patients from 60 families with CID and the phenotype of AR-HIES with (64 patients) and without (18 patients) DOCK8 mutations were studied. Support vector machines were used to compare clinical data from 35 patients with DOCK8 deficiency with those from 10 patients with AR-HIES without a DOCK8 mutation and 64 patients with signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) mutations. RESULTS: DOCK8-deficient patients had median IgE levels of 5201 IU, high eosinophil levels of usually at least 800/µL (92% of patients), and low IgM levels (62%). About 20% of patients were lymphopenic, mainly because of low CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell counts. Fewer than half of the patients tested produced normal specific antibody responses to recall antigens. Bacterial (84%), viral (78%), and fungal (70%) infections were frequently observed. Skin abscesses (60%) and allergies (73%) were common clinical problems. In contrast to STAT3 deficiency, there were few pneumatoceles, bone fractures, and teething problems. Mortality was high (34%). A combination of 5 clinical features was helpful in distinguishing patients with DOCK8 mutations from those with STAT3 mutations. CONCLUSIONS: DOCK8 deficiency is likely in patients with severe viral infections, allergies, and/or low IgM levels who have a diagnosis of HIES plus hypereosinophilia and upper respiratory tract infections in the absence of parenchymal lung abnormalities, retained primary teeth, and minimal trauma fractures.