Skip to main content

Autobiographical Memory: Where Self, Wellbeing and Culture Congregate

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

Autobiographical remembrance, ‘memories of past personal experience’, is vital for social, emotional and directive dimensions of the cognition and behaviour of an individual. This form of memory, unique to humans, is a key constituent of the concept of self, strategies for coping up with stress and thus vital to understand the wellbeing. Studies are available to suggest that the structural and functional properties of the autobiographical memory of a person are sensitive to the culture to which the individual is adapted. This chapter reviews the interrelations between the self, autobiographical memory and culture, and its implications for the wellbeing of individuals.

There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.

Aeschylus

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Addis, D. R., & Tippett, L. J. (2008). The contributions of autobiographical memory to the content and continuity of identity a social-cognitive neuroscience approach. In F. Sani (Ed.), Self continuity: Individual and collective perspectives (pp. 71–84). New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, T. A., & Fortin, N. J. (2013). The evolution of episodic memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(2), 10379–10386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M. V., & Salmon, K. (2013). Reasoning about the self in positive and negative ways: Relationship to psychological functioning in young adulthood. Memory, 21(1), 10–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berman, S. L,. & Weems, C. F. (2016). Identity distress. In Encyclopedia of adolescence (pp. 1–8). Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnot, O., de Montalembert, M., Kermarrec, S., Botbol, M., Walter, M., & Coulon, N. (2011). Are impairments of time perception in schizophrenia neglected phenomenon?. Journal of Physiology-Paris, 105(4), 164–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C. (2015). Fish intelligence, sentience and ethics. Animal Cognition, 18(1), 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2007). Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bshary, R. (2011). Machiavellian intelligence in fishes. In C. Brown, K. Laland, & J. Krause (Eds.), Fish cognition and behavior (pp. 277–297). New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castiello, U., Becchio, C., Zoia, S., Nelini, C., Sartori, L., Blason, L., … & Gallese, V. (2010). Wired to be social: The ontogeny of human interaction. PloS one, 5(10): e13199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clayton, N. S., Bussey, T. J., & Dickinson, A. (2003). Can animals recall the past and plan for the future? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4(8), 685–691.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Courage, M. L., & Howe, M. L. (2010). Autobiographical memory: Individual differences and developmental course. Handbook of individual differences in cognition (pp. 403–417). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Erber, R., & Erber, M. W. (1994). Beyond mood and social judgment: Mood incongruent recall and mood regulation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 24(1), 79–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fivush, R. (2011). The development of autobiographical memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 559–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Göz, İ., Çeven, Z. İ., & Tekcan, A. İ. (2017). Urban–rural differences in children’s earliest memories. Memory, 25(2), 214–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, T. J., Myggland, A., Duperreault, E., May, Z., Gallup, J., Powell, R. A., … & Digweed, S. M. (2016). Episodic-like memory in zebrafish. Animal Cognition, 19(6), 1071–1079.

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, S., & Ma, Y. (2015). A culture–behavior–brain loop model of human development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(11), 666–676.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, H. A., Zahka, N. E., Kojkowski, N. M., Inge, A. P., Schwartz, C. B., Hileman, C. M., … & Mundy, P. C. (2009). Self-referenced memory, social cognition, and symptom presentation in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50(7), 53–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howe, M. L., Courage, M. L., & Edison, S. C. (2003). When autobiographical memory begins. Developmental Review, 23(4), 471–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, S. B. (2016). Autonoetic consciousness: Reconsidering the role of episodic memory in future-oriented self-projection. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(2), 381–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, S. B., German, T. P., Cosmides, L., & Gabriel, R. (2004). A theory of autobiographical memory: Necessary components and disorders resulting from their loss. Social Cognition, 22(5: Special issue), 460–490.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konrad, A., Tucker, S., Crane, J., & Whittaker, S. (2016). Technology and reflection: Mood and memory mechanisms for well-being. Psychology of Well-being, 6(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lind, S. E., & Bowler, D. M. (2010). Episodic memory and episodic future thinking in adults with autism. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119(4), 896.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, Y., Bang, D., Wang, C., Allen, M., Frith, C., Roepstorff, A., et al. (2014). Sociocultural patterning of neural activity during self-reflection. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(1), 73–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (2004). The redemptive self: Narrative identity in America today. In D. R. Beike, J. M. Lampinen, & D. A. Behrend (Eds.), The Self and Memory (pp. 95–115). New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrill, N., Waters, T. E., & Fivush, R. (2016). Connecting the self to traumatic and positive events: links to identity and well-being. Memory, 24(10), 1321–1328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mineo, L., Concerto, C., Patel, D., Mayorga, T., Chusid, E., Coira, D., … & Battaglia, F. (2016). Modulation of sensorimotor circuits during retrieval of Negative autobiographical memories and its correlation with personality traits. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 26, S321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mullen, M. K. (1994). Earliest recollections of childhood: A demographic analysis. Cognition, 52, 55–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108(2), 291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogle, C. M., Siegler, I. C., Beckham, J. C. and Rubin, D. C. (2016). Neuroticism increases PTSD symptom severity by amplifying the emotionality, rehearsal, and centrality of trauma memories. Journal of Personality.

    Google Scholar 

  • Öner, S., & Gülgöz, S. (2017). Autobiographical remembering regulates emotions: A functional perspective. Memory, pp. 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pasupathi, M., Mansour, E., & Brubaker, J. R. (2007). Developing a life story: Constructing relations between self and experience in autobiographical narrative. Human Development, 50(2–3), 85–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasupathi, M., & Wainryb, C. (2010). On telling the whole story: Facts and interpretations in autobiographical memory narratives from childhood through midadolescence. Developmental Psychology, 46(3), 735–746.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker, J. W., & Chung, C. K. (2007). Expressive writing, emotional upheavals, and health. In H. S. Friedman & R. C. Silver (Eds.), Foundations of health psychology (pp. 263–284). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polman, E. (2010). Why are maximizers less happy than satisficers? Because they maximize positive and negative outcomes. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 23(2), 179–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quoidbach, J., Berry, E. V., Hansenne, M., & Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Positive emotion regulation and well-being: Comparing the impact of eight savoring and dampening strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 49(5), 368–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ricarte, J. J., Ros, L., Latorre, J. M., & Watkins, E. (2017). Mapping autobiographical memory in schizophrenia: Clinical implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 51, 96–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, S., Howlin, P., & Russell, A. (2017). Personality traits, autobiographical memory and knowledge of self and others: A comparative study in young people with autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 21(3), 357–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, M., & Wang, Q. (2010). Why we remember and what we remember: Culture and autobiographical memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 401–409.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rusting, C. L., & DeHart, T. (2000). Retrieving positive memories to regulate negative mood: Consequences for mood-congruent memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(4), 737.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sahin-Acar, B., & Leichtman, M. D. (2015). Mother–child memory con-versations and self-construal in Eastern Turkey, Western Turkey and the USA. Memory, 23, 69–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sales, J. M., & Fivush, R. (2005). Social and emotional functions of mother–child reminiscing about stressful events. Social Cognition, 23(1), 70–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., & Buckner, R. L. (2007). Remembering the past to imagine the future: The prospective brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8(9), 657–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeman, M. V. (2017). Identity and schizophrenia: Who do I want to be? World Journal of Psychiatry, 7(1), 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, 33(47), 74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanweer, T., Rathbone, C. J., & Souchay, C. (2010). Autobiographical memory, autonoetic consciousness, and identity in Asperger syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 48(4), 900–908.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Triandis, H. C., McCusker, C., & Hui, C. H. (1990). Multimethod probes of individualism and collectivism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1006–1020.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and consciousness. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 26(1), 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vandekerckhove, M., & Panksepp, J. (2009). The flow of anoetic to noetic and autonoetic consciousness: A vision of unknowing (anoetic) and knowing (noetic) consciousness in the remembrance of things past and imagined futures. Consciousness and Cognition, 18(4), 1018–1028.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Q. (2006). Earliest recollections of self and others in European American and Taiwanese young adults. Psychological Science, 17, 708–714.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Q. (2016). Remembering the self in cultural contexts: A cultural dynamic theory of autobiographical memory. Memory Studies, 9(3), 295–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Q., & Conway, M. A. (2004). The stories we keep: Autobiographical memory in American and Chinese middle-aged adults. Journal of Personality, 72, 911–938.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Q., Koh, J. B. K., Song, Q., & Hou, Y. (2015). Knowledge of memory functions in European and Asian American adults and children: The relation to autobiographical memory. Memory, 23(1), 25–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Q., Leichtman, M. D., & White, S. H. (1998). Childhood memory and self-description in young Chinese adults: The impact of growing up an only child. Cognition, 69, 73–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waters, F. A., & Badcock, J. C. (2008). First-rank symptoms in schizophrenia: Reexamining mechanisms of self-recognition. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 36(3), 510–517.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters, T. E. (2014). Relations between the functions of autobiographical memory and psychological wellbeing. Memory, 22(3), 265–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whishaw, I. Q., & Wallace, D. G. (2003). On the origins of autobiographical memory. Behavioural Brain Research, 138(2), 113–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to V. V. Binoy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Binoy, V.V., Vashishta, I., Rathore, A., Menon, S. (2017). Autobiographical Memory: Where Self, Wellbeing and Culture Congregate. In: Menon, S., Nagaraj, N., Binoy, V. (eds) Self, Culture and Consciousness. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5777-9_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics