The beginning of the life story: The meaning of the earliest autobiographical memory from an adult perspective
Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-318610
- Earliest autobiographical memories mark a potential beginning of our life story. However, their meaning has hardly been investigated. Against this background, participants (N = 182) were asked to think about two kinds of meaning: the meaning that the remembered event might have had in the moment of experience and the meaning that the memory of the event has for their present life situation. With respect to the meaning in the moment of experience, participants most frequently referred to situational characteristics. The meaning for the presentEarliest autobiographical memories mark a potential beginning of our life story. However, their meaning has hardly been investigated. Against this background, participants (N = 182) were asked to think about two kinds of meaning: the meaning that the remembered event might have had in the moment of experience and the meaning that the memory of the event has for their present life situation. With respect to the meaning in the moment of experience, participants most frequently referred to situational characteristics. The meaning for the present life situation was most frequently related to aspects of the memory that told something about the person beyond the immediate context of the remembered event. Moreover, these meanings were more frequently associated with continuity than with a contrast between then and now. Apart from these overarching commonalities, our data also show that the earliest autobiographical memories of different people can tell very different stories.…
Author: | Fabian Hutmacher, Karolina Morgenroth |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-318610 |
Document Type: | Journal article |
Faculties: | Fakultät für Humanwissenschaften (Philos., Psycho., Erziehungs- u. Gesell.-Wissensch.) / Institut Mensch - Computer - Medien |
Language: | English |
Parent Title (English): | Applied Cognitive Psychology |
ISSN: | 0888-4080 |
Year of Completion: | 2022 |
Volume: | 36 |
Issue: | 3 |
First Page: | 612 |
Last Page: | 622 |
Source: | Applied Cognitive Psychology 2022, 36(3):612.622. DOI: 10.1002/acp.3948 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3948 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 30 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie / 300 Sozialwissenschaften |
Tag: | autobiographical memory; earliest autobiographical memories; early memory; life story; meaning-making |
Release Date: | 2023/07/24 |
Licence (German): | CC BY-NC: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung, Nicht kommerziell 4.0 International |