The sharing of autobiographical memories elicits social support.

Barry, Tom J.; Boddez, Yannick; Chiu, Christine H. M.; Raes, Filip

doi:10.1037/mac0000052

Cited by 5 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…These findings are inconsistent with some existing research which states that people use reminiscing to elicit emotional support and use emotions to elicit opportunities to reminisce (Alea & Bluck, 2003;Barry et al, 2021;Cutrona, 1996;Don et al, 2013). Our finding coheres with research that says partners are most attentive to the intensity of present-(rather than past-) tense emotional expressions when judging the level of emotional support required (Christophe & Rimé, 1997;Hellawell & Brewin, 2004;Pillemer et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Our finding coheres with research that says partners are most attentive to the intensity of present-(rather than past-) tense emotional expressions when judging the level of emotional support required (Christophe & Rimé, 1997;Hellawell & Brewin, 2004;Pillemer et al, 1998). One possibility is that people only use memory detail as an emotional support cue in the absence of emotional support seeking information (e.g., survey designs; Barry et al, 2021). For instance, if Charlie sends a message to their friend Jamie which says, "my cat just died", Jamie would likely infer that Charlie is upset, whereas if Charlie told them in person "my cat just died" but non-verbally appeared relaxed or happy, Jamie would likely react very differently.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…With social reminiscing and emotional support, several forms of jangling are possible. For example, existing autographical memory theory and empirical research posit that memory sharing can elicit empathy (e.g., Alea & Bluck, 2003;Barry et al, 2021). Similarly, existing support theory and research suggests that talking about past events is a way to directly request support (Cutrona, 1996;Don et al, 2013).…”

Section: Conceptual Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, actor's reminiscing initiation can help them articulate their support needs (Don et al, 2013) and theoretically encourage partner empathy (Alea & Bluck, 2003). For example, a recent study indicated that participants expressed more willingness to support actors who reminisced in greater episodic detail (Barry et al, 2021). However, the experimental design used imagined actors and written narratives, so participants did not enact support; they simply reported how much support they would hypothetically provide.…”

Section: How Might Social Reminiscing and Emotional Support Interact?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, we predicted that actor emotional support seeking would predict greater partner reminiscing facilitation (Hypothesis 2b). Given the more developed theoretical and empirical research linking reminiscing initiation and emotional support provision (e.g., Alea & Bluck, 2003;Barry et al, 2021;Don et al, 2013), we expected that the relationship between reminiscing initiation and emotional support provision would be stronger than the relationship between emotional support seeking and reminiscing facilitation.…”

Section: Current Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Untangling Social Reminiscing and Emotional Support

Burgess¹

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<p>Different researchers prioritise different conversational processes as core to our relationships and our wellbeing. Two such processes are social reminiscing and emotional support. Social reminiscing and emotional support share conceptual and functional similarities, but previous research has not systematically compared them. Could they be the same? This thesis sought to disentangle social reminiscing from emotional support in several ways. In Chapter 2, participants imagined stressful scenarios (Study 1, N = 381) or recalled stressful and happy past events (Study 2, N = 380), and reported on the social reminiscing and emotional support that they desired (Study 1) or received (Study 2) from their conversation partner. Study 1’s results indicated that social reminiscing and emotional support are statistically distinct processes: People desired more reminiscing when they felt closer to the support provider, but desired consistently high levels of emotional support, regardless of how close they felt to the support provider. Study 2 produced more mixed results, finding no evidence that closeness changed how much reminiscing or emotional support was recalled in real life. Chapter 3 developed and validated a dyadic observational coding scheme for social reminiscing with a sample of people who discussed past events (a memory-directed context; Study 3, N = 51 dyads) and a sample of romantic partners who discussed future goals (i.e., a support-directed context; Study 4, N = 100 dyads). Results provided further evidence that social reminiscing and emotional support are distinct processes that work in tandem within a conversation. Finally, Chapter 4 included an observational study (N = 66 dyads) which examined the links between people’s depressive symptoms, dyadic patterns of social reminiscing and emotional support in conversations, and relational wellbeing. No evidence emerged linking depressive symptoms with patterns of social reminiscing and emotional support. However, discriminant findings indicated that social reminiscing predicted greater satisfaction with the conversation, but not perceived partner responsiveness. Conversely, emotional support predicted greater perceived partner responsiveness, but not satisfaction. Altogether, this thesis presents the first evidence that social reminiscing and emotional support can be statistically distinguished and are each a unique feature of conversations. Practically, this research suggests that in a real-world conversation, people respond qualitatively differently to past-tense and present-tense emotions. More inter-disciplinary work between relationship scientists and autobiographical memory researchers will be fruitful because their different theories are complementary.</p>

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Conceptual Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: How Might Social Reminiscing and Emotional Support Interact?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Untangling Social Reminiscing and Emotional Support

Burgess¹

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Autobiographical memory and psychopathology: Is memory specificity as important as we make it seem?

Barry

Takano

Hallford

et al. 2022

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Several decades of research have established reduced autobiographical memory specificity, or overgeneral memory, as an important cognitive factor associated with the risk for and maintenance of a range of psychiatric diagnoses. In measuring this construct, experimenters code autobiographical memories for the presence or absence of a single temporal detail that indicates that the remembered event took place on a single, specific, day (Last Thursday when I rode bikes with my son), or multiple days (When I rode bikes with my son). Studies indicate that the specificity of memories and the amount of other episodic detail that they include (e.g., who, what, and where) are related and may rely on the same neural processes to elicit their retrieval. However, specificity and detailedness are nonetheless separable constructs: imperfectly correlated and differentially associated with current and future depressive symptoms and other associated intrapersonal (e.g., rumination) and interpersonal (e.g., social support) outcomes. The ways in which the details of our memories align with narrative themes (i.e., agency, communion, identity) and the coherence with which these details are presented, are also emerging as important factors associated with psychopathology. The temporal specificity of autobiographical memories may be important, but other memory constructs warrant further attention in research and theory, especially given the associations, and dependencies, between each of these constructs. Researchers in this area must consider carefully whether their research questions necessitate a focus on autobiographical memory specificity or whether a more inclusive analysis of other autobiographical memory features is necessary and more fruitful. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Memory

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