title: Going global: functions of autobiographical remembering world tour.
abstract: This special issue showcases research from around the world that takes a functional approach to autobiographical remembering. In doing so, it inspires researchers to reach out to new populations. This commentary begins with a brief history of the functional approach. Person-environment interactions, in this case how individuals use memory in their current cultural context, are at the core of that approach. Based on current theoretical thinking in this area, I review the papers in this issue with the aim of exploring: (1) where culture and function might fit in current conceptualisations of autobiographical memory, (2) the relation of culture to socio-structural variables such as gender and life phase in shaping the functions of memory and (3) differences in cultural tendencies to use autobiographical memory as a resource to fulfil universal human needs.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Florida , Gainesville , FL , USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bluck
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall; D012727:Sex Characteristics
keywords: Autobiographical memory; Culture; Function