Self-defining Memories - Narrative Features in Relation to Adaptive and Maladaptive Personality Traits (Replication and Extension of Blagov & Singer, 2004)

Resumen

Self-defining memories (SDMs) are units of life-story analysis, whose features resemble elements from narrative identity’s factorial structure. To bridge narrative-identity and personality-trait domains, we conducted a replication and extension of Blagov and Singer’s (2004) research in a small sample that was well-powered for multilevel modeling (133 participants, 1330 SDMs). We linked four SDM features – affect, specificity, meaning making, and content – to the Big Three trait domains of personality and psychopathology, finding support for several claims. Affect: SDM affect correlated with indices of Positive Emotionality and Negative Emotionality, and narrative themes of contamination were associated with Negative Emotionality. Specificity: SDM specificity vs. overgenerality related to Constraint and Negative Emotionality indices, lending support to the executive dysfunction and emotional disorder theories of overgeneral autobiographical memory. (Tests of the avoidance thesis of overgeneral memory were inconclusive.) Meaning making: Explicit meaning making in SDMs reflected adaptive personality. It moderated the link between SDMs’ affect and chronic emotional distress. Content: The links between SDM content and traits suggest that SDMs reflect personal goals, whose fulfillment or frustration relate to psychological health. This research serves replication purposes as well as the purpose of connecting two major domains of personality: narrative identity and adaptive and maladaptive traits.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

Pavel S. Blagov, P., Singer, J. A., Kathryn M. Oost, P., & Joshua A. Goodman, P. (2020). Self-defining Memories - Narrative Features in Relation to Adaptive and Maladaptive Personality Traits (Replication and Extension of Blagov & Singer, 2004). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2auzm