1 Habermas, T. (2010). Autobiographical reasoning: Arguing and narrating from a biographi- cal perspective. In T. Habermas (Ed.) The development of autobiographical reasoning in adolescence and beyond. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 131, 1–17. 1 Autobiographical Reasoning: Arguing and Narrating from a Biographical Perspective Tilmann Habermas Abstract Autobiographical reasoning is the activity of creating relations between differ- ent parts of one’s past, present, and future life and one’s personality and devel- opment. It embeds personal memories in a culturally, temporally, causally, and thematically coherent life story. Prototypical autobiographical arguments are presented. Culture and socializing interactions shape the development of auto- biographical reasoning especially in late childhood and adolescence. Situated at the intersection of cognitive and narrative development and autobiographi- cal memory, autobiographical reasoning contributes to the development of per- sonality and identity, is instrumental in efforts to cope with life events, and helps to create a shared history. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, no. 131, Spring 2011 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). • DOI: 10.1002/cd.285 Thanks to Verena Diel for critical comments on this chapter and to Anna Kenney and Andrea Silberstein for their editorial help with the volume, and to Susan Bluck with whom I ﬁrst developed the concept of autobiographical reasoning.