Autobiographical Memory: Exploring Its Functions in Everyday Life (Autobiographical Memory)

✍ Scribed by Susan Bluck

• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 177
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This special issue of the Psychology Press journal Memory spotlights and aims to encourage research that uses a functional approach to investigate autobiographical memory (AM) in everyday life. This approach relies on studying cognition, in this case AM, taking into account the psychological, social, or cultural-historic context in which it occurs. Areas of interest include understanding to what ends AM is used by individuals and in social relationships, how it is related to other cognitive abilities and emotional states, and how memory represents our inner and outer world. One insight gained by taking this approach is that levels and types of accuracy need not always be regarded as memory 'failures' but are sometimes integral to a self-memory system that serves a variety of meaningful ends of human activity. The papers in this issue include theoretical and empirical work by individuals who have made central contributions to our understanding of memory functions in their programmatic work. Previously hypothesized functions of AM fall into three broad domains: self, social, and directive. Each paper addresses how AM serves one or more of these functions and thereby examines the usefulness and adequacy of this trio.

✦ Table of Contents

Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 2
Copyright......Page 4
Autobiographical memory: Exploring its functions in everyday life......Page 6
A REVIEW OF THREE FUNCTIONS: SELF, SOCIAL, DIRECTIVE......Page 7
Social......Page 8
Directive......Page 9
Shifting roles of individual and collective memory narratives......Page 10
Self-enhancement and coherence: Time is on our side......Page 11
Emotion regulation as a function of AM: Self meets social......Page 13
Why are you telling me that?......Page 14
“What happened then, Mom?” Telling as teaching......Page 15
Drawing on the reservoir of personal experience......Page 16
Linking with the reminiscence literature......Page 17
SPOTLIGHTS AND HIGH BEAMS: FUTURE DIRECTIONS AND CONCLUSION......Page 18
REFERENCES......Page 20
Self and social functions: Individual autobiographical memory and collective narrative......Page 24
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY IN EVOLUTIONARY CONTEXT......Page 25
CULTURAL NARRATIVES......Page 26
THE RISE OF INDIVIDUALISM IN NARRATIVE AND MEMORY......Page 28
TIME, NARRATIVE, AND MEMORY......Page 30
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SELF IN MEMORY AND FICTION......Page 32
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND NARRATIVE IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURES......Page 33
FROM INDIVIDUALISM TO PERSONALISM......Page 35
REFERENCES......Page 39
The identity function of autobiographical memory: Time is on our side......Page 42
CURRENT SELF-VIEWS INFLUENCE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY......Page 43
THE SELF-ENHANCEMENT FUNCTION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY......Page 45
APPRAISING SUBJECTIVELY RECENT VERSUS DISTANT FORMER SELVES......Page 47
FEELINGS OF SUBJECTIVE DISTANCE: PUSHING THE PAST AWAY AND PULLING IT FORWARD......Page 48
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORIES INFLUENCE CURRENT SELF-VIEWS......Page 49
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE OF POINT OF VIEW......Page 52
MEMORIES ALTER CURRENT AFFECT AND LIFE SATISFACTION......Page 54
REMEMBERING IS OFTEN A SOCIAL ACT......Page 55
REFERENCES......Page 57
Autobiographical remembering and emotion regulation......Page 63
The special case of remembering in conversation......Page 65
Measures......Page 67
Results and Discussion......Page 68
Participants......Page 70
Measures......Page 71
Results and discussion......Page 72
GENERAL DISCUSSION......Page 75
Implications for functional approaches to autobiographical memory......Page 76
REFERENCES......Page 78
Why are you telling me that? A conceptual model of the social function of autobiographical memory......Page 83
A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF AM......Page 85
Components of the model......Page 86
Social functions of AM: Use and adaptivity......Page 87
Lifespan context......Page 88
Memory characteristics: Detail and emotion......Page 89
Speaker characteristics: Age, gender, and personality......Page 90
Listener characteristics: Familiarity and similarity......Page 92
Memory-sharing process: responsiveness......Page 93
Relationship qualities: Valence and length......Page 94
Substantiating the model......Page 96
Employing the model......Page 97
REFERENCES......Page 98
Functions of parent-child reminiscing about emotionally negative events......Page 104
Participants......Page 109
Coding......Page 110
Style and content of maternal reminiscing......Page 112
Mother-child conversational themes......Page 115
Summary......Page 117
DISCUSSION......Page 118
REFERENCES......Page 123
Directive functions of autobiographical memory: The guiding power of the specific episode......Page 126
TRAUMATIC EVENT MEMORIES AS DIRECTIVES......Page 128
EVERYDAY EVENT MEMORIES AS DIRECTIVES......Page 130
EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF REMINISCENCE FUNCTIONS......Page 132
ASSESSING DIRECTIVE FUNCTIONS: CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES......Page 135
IDEAS FOR NEW RESEARCH......Page 137
REFERENCES......Page 138
The reminiscence circumplex and autobiographical memory functions......Page 141
Conceptual classifications......Page 143
Conceptual classifications......Page 144
Empirical taxonomies......Page 145
Participants......Page 148
Second order factor analyses......Page 149
Multidimensional scaling analysis......Page 151
DISCUSSION......Page 152
Advantages of a circumplex model......Page 154
CONCLUSION......Page 156
REFERENCES......Page 157
Commentary Cognitive-affective mechanisms and processes in autobiographical memory......Page 161
EPISODIC MEMORIES: IMAGES OF THE PAST......Page 163
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE: UNIQUELY HUMAN?......Page 165
Goals......Page 167
Reality testing......Page 168
Mental models......Page 169
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY: THE FUTURE......Page 170
REFERENCES......Page 171
Subject Index......Page 173
Author Index......Page 177