Remembering and telling self-consistent and self-discrepant memories

Abstract

It has been argued that memories that are inconsistent with one's self would differ from those that are consistent with the self. The present study addresses retrieval, phenomenology, rehearsal and narrative characteristics of autobiographical memories that are consistent versus discrepant with one's self. One hundred participants were asked to recall one self-consistent and one self-discrepant memory as well as an episode of telling these memories to others. They also filled out the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire and the Centrality of Event Scale for each memory. Results showed no difference between self-consistent and self-discrepant memories in retrieval time, specificity or phenomenology. However, self-discrepant memory narratives contained more meaning-making statements and less autonomy than self-consistent memories. Compared to self-consistent memories, self-discrepant memories were told to fewer people, and listener responses were more negative when they were told. Results are discussed in relation to the functions these memories serve.

Psychological and clinical correlates of the Centrality of Event Scale: A systematic review

“…The CES was first introduced to measure the centrality of a traumatic or stressful event in a person’s identity and life story and how this related to PTSD symptoms (Berntsen & Rubin, 2006a). However, since its introduction, the CES has been used to examine the centrality of a wide range of events, including memories for events not directly associated with trauma or PTSD, such as memories of shameful events (e.g., Matos & Pinto-Gouveia, 2010, 2014), happy memories (e.g., Janssen, Hearne, & Takarangi, 2015; Zaragoza Scherman, Salgado, Shao, & Berntsen, 2015), self-discrepant memories (Mutlutürk & Tekcan, 2016) and memories of public events (Koppel, Brown, Stone, Coman, & Hirst, 2013). Likewise, the scale has been employed in a wide range of study populations, such as veterans (e.g., Brown, Antonius, Kramer, Root, & Hirst, 2010; Staugaard, Johannessen, Thomsen, Bertelsen, & Berntsen, 2015), older adults (e.g., Boals, Hayslip, Knowles, & Banks, 2012; O’Connor, Piet, & Hougaard, 2014), patients with schizophrenia (Allé et al, 2016; Berna et al, 2017) and patients with multiple sclerosis (Voltzenlogel et al, 2016).…”