Three items assess whether a recalled or imagined experience carries genuine self-defining weight -- whether it has shaped the respondent's identity, signals their place in the world, or constitutes a meaningful personal achievement. The scale distinguishes experiential events that bear on who a person is from those that are merely pleasurable or memorable but lack identity significance. It emerged from a broader item pool designed to differentiate ordinary from extraordinary experiences in happiness research.
Bhattacharjee, A., & Mogilner, C. (2014). Happiness from ordinary and extraordinary experiences. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(1), 1-17.
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