Emotions experienced at event recall and the self: Implications for the regulation of self-esteem, self-continuity and meaningfulness

Characteristics of positive and negative autobiographical memories central to identity: emotionality, vividness, rehearsal, rumination, and reflection

Introduction

Some events are remembered as more central to a person's identity than others. However, it is not entirely clear what characterizes these autobiographical memories central to one's identity. In this study, we examined the effects of various characteristics on centrality to identity of positive and negative memories. Characteristics such as emotionality, vividness, and how frequently a memory is retrieved and shared with others as well as ruminative and reflective self-foci were studied.

Methods

The sample included 356 participants (18-92 years of age). First, participants responded to demographic questions and individual difference questionnaires. Next, they recalled memories in response to 12 emotional cue words. The cue words were balanced for emotional valence (i.e., six positive and six negative) and presented in a random order. After retrieving all memories, participants rated them regarding centrality, using the short seven-item Centrality of Event Scale and other memory characteristics, on a seven-point Likert scale. Multivariate multilevel regression was used for data analyzes, to consider multiple characteristics at the same time and account for data dependency within individual.

Results

The results showed that emotionality, vividness, and frequency of memory retrieval contributed to higher centrality of memories, and employing a reflective self-focus resulted in rating memories as more central. In specific cases, these characteristics were associated differently with centrality of positive and negative memories.

Discussion

Central memories can be perceived as markers in a person's life story. The findings of this study suggest that these marker events are also highly available in a person's memory system, by being actively emotional, visually rich, and frequently retrieved. Moreover, not only memory characteristics but also individual's features are important to fully understand the autobiographical memory centrality.

Construcción y validación de una Escala de Claridad Subjetiva del Autoconcepto en adultos mexicanos

Los propósitos del presente estudio fueron construir una Escala de Claridad Subjetiva del Autoconcepto para adultos, y aportar evidencias de su configuración y red nomológica. Participaron 697 voluntarios de entre 18 y 60 años, residentes de la Ciudad de México y área metropolitana. El instrumento se construyó basándose en dos estudios exploratorios y en un modelo que propone que la claridad del autoconcepto (CA) se compone por la certeza, congruencia y estabilidad de las autodescripciones. Con base en la realización de análisis factoriales exploratorios y de consistencia interna, se obtuvo un instrumento conformado por 18 reactivos, distribuidos en cuatro factores que explican el 49% de la varianza, con una Alfa de Cronbach de .84. y con evidencias de validez convergente al estar relacionado con la autoestima. En conclusión, se aporta un instrumento con evidencias de validez y confiabilidad para medir la CA en México, el cual permitirá conocer el papel de este constructo para el bienestar y salud mental de los adultos.

Dust yourself off and try again: the positive process of career changes or shocks and career resilience

Purpose

To deepen the understanding of the process of growth and development of career resilience, this study aims to investigate the impact of career history and openness to change as antecedents of career resilience and the effect of career resilience on career self-management and career outcomes (salary and career satisfaction) over time using the Career Construction Theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors applied structural equation modeling with cross-lagged associations between career characteristics (number of employees, job seniority and missed promotions), openness to change, career resilience, individual career management (ICM) and career success (salary and career satisfaction) using three-wave data of 872 employees.

Findings

Openness to change had cross-lagged positive relationships with career resilience. The number of (previous) employers and missed promotions had a positive effect on career resilience, whereas job seniority was related negatively to career resilience. Furthermore, career resilience had a positive effect on individual career self-management in terms of networking, practical things and drawing attention over time. No effect was found on the individual career self-management dimension of mobility-oriented behavior over time. Finally, ICM had a positive effect on salary and career satisfaction over time.

Originality/value

Altogether these results suggest that career resilience is not only a way to stay active as an employee and cope with career changes, but it also enhances employees’ chances to achieve objective and subjective career success.

Resilience and anxiety among intensive care unit professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

The situation of the COVID-19 global pandemic has generated an unprecedented state of emergency worldwide that has had a psychological impact on health care workers working in the ICU and this has created the need to implement different psychological strategies.

AIM

This study explores (a) the prevalence of symptoms associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), (b) the relationship between GAD symptoms and resilience skills, and (c) which of the resilience skills were associated with a probable GAD among the ICU professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey design.

METHODS

We explored anxiety and resilience in 448 ICU health care workers using an online survey.

RESULTS

The participants showed high resilience levels and more than half of them presented symptoms consistent with a possible diagnosis of GAD. The GAD symptoms were more prevalent among women, nursing assistants, interns, staff who worked on rotation and health care workers who had to attend to more than 20 COVID patients. Significant negative correlations between resilience skills and GAD symptoms were found. The multiple regression analysis showed that resilience skills contribute to 14.4% of the variance for GAD symptoms. The binary logistic regression showed that the only skill that had a significant and negative predictive effect was "I usually take things in my stride" (OR = 0.774, 95% CI 0.67, 0.88; P = .000). This ability was the differentiating skill between professionals who equal or exceed the cut-off point established for the diagnosis of a probable GAD regarding those who do not.

CONCLUSION

ICU professionals developed symptoms consistent with a possible diagnosis of GAD due to their exposure to extremely stressful circumstances. However, resilience skills acted as a protective factor.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The importance of incorporating programmes that mitigate these psychological effects and to promote adaptive coping styles during pandemics has become a need after what ICU professionals have gone through.

Job meaningfulness, employee engagement, supervisory support and job performance: a moderated-mediation analysis

Purpose

Guided by social exchange, broaden and build and conservation of resources theoretical perspectives, this study explores the moderated mediating role of supervisory support (SS) on the relationship between job meaningfulness (JM) on job performance (JP) through employee engagement (EE).

Design/methodology/approach

Field data were collected from two hundred and nineteen executives and their thirty-eight supervisors of a large paint manufacturing industry through a time-lagged research design and was analyzed with partial least squares based structural equation modeling.

Findings

Findings of this study indicate that JM mediated by EE contributes to JP, which means if an employee finds one's job meaningful, she/he is likely to be more engaged emotionally, psychologically and cognitively to deliver better JP. SS is also found to be salient as it moderates both direct and indirect relationships between JM and JP through EE.

Research limitations/implications

Generalizability of the findings of this study should be done with caution. Though the study has time-laggard data from two different sources but missing longitudinal data restricts causality of relationships/findings.

Practical implications

These findings are relevant for organizations given that organizational leaders can create a context, by appropriate job design and engaging work context that motivates employees to perform better in their jobs. Insights of this study will be useful for organizations to curate meaningful jobs for their employees and also groom leaders with requisite skills and competencies to help subordinates perform up to their potential.

Originality/value

This study is an attempt toward a better understanding of the interplay of JM, work engagement and SS on JP in a manufacturing set-up in India, which has not been hitherto examined in Indian context.

The Relationship Between the Motivation to Commit Infidelity and Negative Affect and Self-Esteem: How Cheating in Romance Might Signal Positive Well-Being in Adolescents

Infidelity occurs in adult romantic relationships quite often; however, little is known about this relational phenomenon in the adolescent stage, despite its being a surprisingly common behavior. Through a correlational study, we set out to examine how the various documented motivations to engage in an act of infidelity are associated with negative emotional responses, self-esteem, and psychological well-being. In a sample of Spanish adolescents (N = 346 [M_age = 15.71, SD = 1.27; range from 13 to 19]), results showed that committing an act of infidelity due to sexual or emotional dissatisfaction (vs. neglect and anger) is related to higher levels of psychological well-being by undermining negative affect, thereby increasing the levels of self-esteem. The discussion of the findings emphasizes that infidelity could favor adolescents' personal growth, because of the need to explore new sensations and feelings that arise during this period.

Cultural patterns in autobiographical memory of childhood: Comparison of Chinese, Russian, and Uzbek samples

In the present study, I examined whether the regular patterns of variables that referred to mental representation of the entire childhood in young adults might be associated with the different types of cultural selves proposed by Kagitcibasi's model of family change. In this model, three types of cultural selves (heteronomous-related self, autonomous-separated self, and autonomous-related self) are merged with culturally specific styles of parenting and childhood experience. Chinese, Russian, and Uzbekistani participants (N = 439) visualized their childhood on timelines. The exploratory factor analysis suggested a three-factor solution. Factor 1 combined memories of achievements and vicarious memories; that is, memories representing events that happened to other people. In my point of view, in contrast to "we-memories," vicarious memories portray a readiness to view other people as a valuable part of one's own life, but in the context of well-defined self-boundaries. Therefore, they denote the kind of relatedness which does not contradict autonomy. Because Factor 1 was found to be the most articulated in the Chinese sample, it was linked to the autonomous-related self, with the focus on directive function of autobiographical memory. Factor 2 was composed of the abundance of recollections, the early age of first memory, and prolonged childhood. Due to the highest scores being achieved on Factor 2 in the Russian sample, it was attributed to the autonomous-separated self, employing predominantly a self-reflective function of autobiographical memory. Factor 3 consisted of memories of attending social groups, positive emotional bias, and a tendency to mention one's own birth. Taking into account that the Uzbeks achieved the highest scores on this factor, it was interpreted as a mnemonic database of a heteronomous-related self, predominantly associated with social bonding and emotion regulation functions. Taken together, the findings highlight the assumption that childhood memories reveal a cultural self.

In Human Memory, Good Can Be Stronger Than Bad

Some researchers assert that the psychological impact of negative information is more powerful than that of positive information. This assertion is qualified in the domain of human memory, in which (a) positive content is often favored (in the strength of memories for real stimuli or events and in false-memory generation) over negative content and (b) the affect prompted by memories of positive events is more temporally persistent than the affect prompted by memories of negative events. We suggest that both of these phenomena reflect the actions of self-motives (i.e., self-protection and self-enhancement), which instigate self-regulatory activity and self-relevant processes.

Cannabis-associated impairments in the fading affect bias and autobiographical memory specificity

We investigated potential relationships between cannabis use and 2 phenomena associated with autobiographical remembering: the fading affect bias (FAB) and memory specificity. The FAB is an emotional affect regulation mechanism that is observed when the intensity of affect associated with experiencing negative memories fades faster than the intensity of affect associated with experiencing positive memories. Memory specificity refers to the level of detail with which events are recalled. No studies have examined the relationships between cannabis use, the FAB, and memory specificity simultaneously. Chronic cannabis users (N = 47) and non-users (N = 52) recalled and described positive and negative autobiographical events and rated the affective intensity for the events at the time of occurrence and at time of test. Participants retrieved additional memories using a sentence-completion recall task, which were coded for specificity. Cannabis users showed reduced fading affect for unpleasant events and reduced memory specificity compared to non-users.

Self-narrative focus in autobiographical events: The effect of time, emotion, and individual differences

Individuals may take a self-narrative focus on the meaning of personal events in their life story, rather than viewing the events in isolation. Using the Centrality of Event Scale (CES; Berntsen & Rubin in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 219-231, 2006) as our measure, we investigated self-narrative focus as an individual differences variable in addition to its established role as a measure of individual events. Three studies, with 169, 182, and 190 participants had 11, 10, and 11 different events varied across the dimensions of remembered past versus imagined future, distance from the present, and valence. Imagined future events, events more distant from the present, and positive events all had increased self-narrative focus, in agreement with published theories and findings. Nonetheless, CES ratings for individual events correlated positively with each other within individuals (r ~ .30) and supported a single factor solution. These results are consistent with a stable individual differences tendency toward self-narrative focus that transcends single events. Thus, self-narrative focus is both a response whereby people relate individual events to their life story and identity and an individual differences variable that is stable over a range of events. The findings are discussed in relation to narrative measures of autobiographical reasoning.

Higher Levels of Grit Are Associated With a Stronger Fading Affect Bias

The affect associated with negative events fades faster than the affect associated with positive events (the fading affect bias). The fading affect bias is present in most participants and is thought to be evidence of a healthy coping mechanism operating in autobiographical memory. Prior research shows that the fading affect bias can be distorted by negative individual difference variables such as dysphoria and anxiety. The goal of this research is to link the fading affect bias to the positive individual difference variable of Grit. A total of 197 participants completed the short Grit Scale and were divided into four groups based on their Grit scores (i.e., low Grit to high Grit). Participants retrieved positive and negative event memories and then made affect ratings for the events. The results show that increased levels of Grit were associated with a stronger fading affect bias.

Autobiographical recall of mastery experiences is a mechanism of self-affirming under social identity threat

Autobiographical memories are relevant to many areas of psychological functioning. So far, however, there is no evidence whether personal memories can also be instrumental for self-affirmation. We conducted two experiments, varying national identity threat among U.S. Americans recruited through MTurk. In Study 1, participants spontaneously recalled autobiographical memories after being exposed to varying levels of threat. When the threat was identity-relevant, those who spontaneously recalled mastery autobiographical memories had higher collective self-esteem than those who did not. In Study 2, we instructed participants to recall either mastery autobiographical memories or routine memories. When the threat was identity-relevant, collective self-esteem was again higher for mastery recall compared to routine recall, moderated by national identification and self-esteem. We also found a general, self-affirmative effect of autobiographical memories, regardless of threat relevance or recall content. Findings provide a first empirical demonstration that autobiographical recall can enhance self-affirmation in identity threat situations.

Testing Hypersensitive Responses: Ethnic Minorities Are Not More Sensitive to Microaggressions, They Just Experience Them More Frequently

Racial microaggressions have attracted significant empirical attention and have been associated with profound negative effects. However, some argue against the importance of microaggressions arguing that (some) responses to microaggressions merely reflect “hypersensitivity” to trivial events among certain ethnic minority individuals. Three studies tested this hypersensitivity hypothesis. In two cross-sectional studies with dissimilar samples ( N1 = 130, N2 = 264), ethnic minorities reported experiencing more microaggressions than ethnic majorities did, and microaggressions predicted less life satisfaction. However, contrary to the hypersensitivity hypothesis, minority identity did not moderate this relationship. In a randomized, controlled experiment ( N3 = 114), White and ethnic minority participants reported their positive and negative affect before and after recalling either a microaggression or a control event. Recalling microaggressions reduced positive affect and increased negative affect, but this was also not moderated by minority identity. Implications for the hypersensitivity hypothesis, and microaggressions research, are discussed.

Character Strengths, Strengths Use, Future Self-Continuity and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese University Students

The study was designed to explore the relationships among character strengths, strengths use, future self-continuity and subjective well-being. A total of 225 undergraduates completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires assessing character strengths, strengths use, future self-continuity, and subjective well-being. Results suggested several character strengths were correlated with subjective well-being and the strongest correlations were found for hope, curiosity, zest, perseverance and love. All character strengths were significantly correlated with strengths use. Strengths use and future self-continuity were robustly correlated with subjective well-being. The mediation analysis showed that strengths use mediates the relationship between character strengths and subjective well-being, and specifically, the indirect effects of strengths use varies from different character strengths. The moderated mediator suggested that future self-continuity moderated the mediation of strengths use because future self-continuity moderates the effect of strengths use on subjective well-being. Furthermore, the indirect effect of strengths use was stronger with high level of future self-continuity than those with low level of future self-continuity. The present findings make a contribution to understand the underlying mechanisms involving in character strengths are associated with higher level of well-being. Additionally, the findings expand knowledge about future self-continuity and its relation to strengths use and subjective well-being among undergraduates, having significant implications in the educational context.

Self-Regulation Facilitates Meaning in Life

Meaning is a central feature of human life. Our overarching proposition is that self-regulation helps facilitate meaning in life. We propose that purposeful, effortful, and directive actions that regulate selfish impulses are necessary to continually develop a sense of meaning in life. We explain how self-regulatory processes map onto this process: the drive for meaning is governed by internalized standards of meaning, people monitor their experiences to ensure a fit between their experiences and standards of meaning, and strength is required for deliberative behaviors aimed at reaffirming and regaining meaning. Moreover, we outline various self-regulatory pathways to gain meaning via coherence, significance, and purpose. Finally, we suggest various ways to test and expand our model and hypotheses.

On the advantage of autobiographical memory pliability: implantation of positive self-defining memories reduces trait anxiety

This paper is devoted to the mechanism of the positive construction of autobiographical memory. Positive construction consists of the spontaneous transformation of memories in the direction of the subjective enhancement of self-competence in past activities to anticipate improvement over time. We speculated that trait anxiety may indicate a failure to exhibit this mechanism that results in a deficit of affirmative self-esteem. We hypothesised that the implantation of positive self-defining memories in anxiety-evoking domains would decrease trait anxiety. One hundred twenty adults recollected three negative self-defining memories. Then, half of the participants imagined episodes of desired behaviour that differed from the originally recollected ones either in discussion or in hypnosis. Thirty participants experienced a hypnotic state without any references to memories, and the rest formed the control group. Subjects from the "Memory Implantation in Hypnosis" group became unable to distinguish the originally reported memories from the imagined ones, exhibited decreased trait anxiety scores after a 4-month delay, and reported enhanced self-esteem. In contrast, the participants from the "Hypnosis with no reference to the past" group exhibited decreased scores at a short delay but later returned to their original scores. These findings highlight the power of cured episodic-like autobiographical memory for updating the self.

The fading affect bias shows positive outcomes at the general but not the individual level of analysis in the context of social media

Unpleasant affect fades faster than pleasant affect (e.g., Walker, Vogl, & Thompson, 1997); this effect is referred to as the Fading Affect Bias (FAB; Walker, Skowronski, Gibbons, Vogl, & Thompson, 2003a). Research shows that the FAB is consistently related to positive/healthy outcomes at a general but not at a specific level of analysis based on event types and individual differences (e.g., Gibbons et al., 2013). Based on the positive outcomes for FAB and negative outcomes for social media (Bolton et al., 2013; Huang, 2010), the current study examined FAB in the context of social media events along with related individual differences. General positive outcomes were shown in the form of robust FAB effects across social media and non-social media events, a larger FAB for non-social media events than for social media events, negative correlations of FAB with depression, anxiety, and stress as well as a positive correlation of FAB with self-esteem. However, the lack of a negative correlation between FAB and anxiety for social media events in a 3-way interaction did not show positive outcomes at a specific level of analysis. Rehearsal ratings mediated the 3-way interaction. Implications are discussed.

Narcissism, self-esteem, and the phenomenology of autobiographical memories

Across two studies, we investigated the influence of narcissism and self-esteem along with gender on phenomenological ratings across the four subscales of the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ; impact, recollection, rehearsal, and belief). Memory cues varied in valence (positive vs. negative) and agency (agentic vs. communal). In Study 2, we used different memory cues reflecting these four Valence by Agency conditions and additionally investigated retrieval times for the autobiographical memories (AMs). Results were consistent with the agency model of narcissism [Campbell, W. K., Brunell, A. B., & Finkel, E. J. (2006). Narcissism, interpersonal self-regulation, and romantic relationships: An agency model approach. In E. J. Finkel & K. D. Vohs (Eds.), Self and relationships: Connecting intrapersonal and interpersonal processes. New York, NY: Guilford], which characterises narcissists as being more concerned with agentic (self-focused) rather than communal (other-focused) positive self-relevant information. Narcissism predicted greater phenomenology across the four subscales for the positive-agentic memories (Study 1: clever; Study 2: attractive, talented) as well as faster memory retrieval times. Narcissism also predicted greater recollection and faster retrieval times for the negative-communal AMs (Study 1: rude; Study 2: annoying, dishonest). In contrast, self-esteem predicted greater phenomenology and faster retrieval times for the positive-communal AMs (Study 1: cooperative; Study 2: romantic, sympathetic). In both studies, results of LIWC analyses further differentiated between narcissism and self-esteem in the content (word usage) of the AMs.