Throughout this paper, we will refer to Conway and Pleydell-Pearce’s Self-Memory System ( Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000) to illustrate the reciprocal and intricate relationship between autobiographical memory and the self. Finally, we will suggest some new and exciting research possibilities and we will describe in more detail how integrating both in future research could be beneficial for research on both memory specificity and memory coherence. We will make a first attempt at a theoretical integration by positioning both memory specificity and memory coherence within Conway and Pleydell-Pearce’s Self-Memory System. Then, we will link both features of autobiographical memory by describing some important similarities and by formulating hypotheses about how they might relate to each other. We will also point to some remaining questions and limitations within both research fields. First, we will focus on the relationship between autobiographical memory and the self, after which we will give a brief overview of the literature on memory specificity and memory coherence and how they relate to the self. The goal of this paper is therefore to point out the exciting research possibilities that can come from integrating coherence and specificity and explain why and how both research fields could benefit from such integration in future research. Integrating both research domains offers, in our opinion, new and exciting possibilities for future research. These similarities make us wonder how they might relate to each other and how they both relate to the self. They also show a quite similar developmental pathway throughout childhood and adolescence. Memory specificity and memory coherence show, for example, similar associations to well-being and psychopathology. This is, in our opinion, quite surprising since there seem to be similarities between both when comparing both literatures. Research on these two features developed rather independently throughout the past three decades. In this paper, we will focus on two features of autobiographical memories in particular: memory specificity and memory coherence. Different features of autobiographical memories contribute to well-being and effective functioning of the self in various ways and some of these memory characteristics show some overlap. Research has consistently demonstrated the intricate relationship between autobiographical memory and the self. Finally, we suggest some new and exciting research possibilities and explain how both research fields could benefit from integration in future research. By situating both memory specificity and memory coherence within Conway and Pleydell-Pearce’s Self-Memory System, we make a first attempt at a theoretical integration. We link both features of autobiographical memory by describing some important similarities and by formulating hypotheses about how they might relate to each other. How do these two characteristics of autobiographical memory relate to each other, both theoretically and empirically? Additionally, how can the integration of these two facilitate our understanding of the importance of autobiographical memory for the self? In this article, we give a critical overview of memory specificity and memory coherence and their relation to the self.
This raises some important theoretical questions.
Research on memory specificity and memory coherence has developed as two largely independent research domains, even though they show much overlap.
It has likewise been related to psychological well-being and the occurrence of psychopathology. Memory coherence refers to the narrative expression of the overall structure of autobiographical memories. Difficulty retrieving specific memories interferes with effective functioning of the self and is related to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Memory specificity refers to the extent to which retrieved autobiographical memories are specific (i.e., memories about a particular experience that happened on a particular day). During the last three decades, there have been two characteristics of autobiographical memory that have received special interest regarding their role in psychological well-being and psychopathology, namely memory specificity and memory coherence. Autobiographical memory forms a network of memories about personal experiences that defines and supports well-being and effective functioning of the self in various ways.
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