Remembering pride and shame: self-enhancement and the phenomenology of autobiographical memory.
People's self-images are grounded in autobiographical memories and, in particular, in the phenomenological experience associated with remembering. The desire to increase or maintain the positivity of the self-image (i.e., the self-enhancement motive) might thus play an important role in shaping memory phenomenology. This study examined this hypothesis by asking participants to recall positive and negative events that involve self-evaluations (i.e., pride and shame) and positive and negative events that involve evaluations about others (i.e., admiration and contempt); various phenomenological characteristics (e.g., sensory details, feeling of re-experiencing) were assessed using rating scales. The results show a positivity bias (i.e., subjectively remembering positive events with more details than negative events) for events that involve self-evaluations but not for events that involve evaluations of others. In addition, this bias was stronger for people high in self-esteem. It is concluded that biases affecting the phenomenology of autobiographical memory are part of the arsenal of psychological mechanisms people use to maintain a positive self-image.
University of Liege, Belgium. a.dargembeau@ulg.ac.be
Arnaud
A
D'Argembeau
Martial
M
Van der Linden
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires