Autobiographical Memory in Emerging Adulthood: Relationship with Self-Concept Clarity

Autobiographical Memory in Emerging Adulthood: Relationshipwith Self-Concept Clarity

Amanda Fuentes • Mary Desrocher

Published online: 21 October 2011

� Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Abstract Autobiographical memory research documents

increased access in the number of memories recalled by

emerging adults (ages 18–25) with stable, clearly defined

self-concepts. Very little research has examined the rela-

tionship between self-concept clarity and the episodic and

semantic components of emerging adults’ autobiographi-

cal recollections. This study examined the relationship

between episodic and semantic autobiographical memory

and self-concept clarity in 100 undergraduate students.

Contrary to previous findings, which indicated that stable

self-beliefs may be used to facilitate access to episodic

memories, the results suggested that self-concept clarity

may not be associated with memory specificity. Instead,

self-concept clarity was associated with recall of events

involving cooperative social interactions. Results further

showed that older age was associated with higher SCC. The

implications of these results are discussed within the con-

text of the theoretical literature concerning the relation

between autobiographical memory and the development of

the self-concept during emerging adulthood.

Keywords Autobiographical memory � Self-concept �Emerging adulthood � Episodic � Semantic

Introduction

Autobiographical memory (AM) is a higher-order cogni-

tive ability that entails the recollection of personally

experienced events (episodic memory) and personal facts

(semantic memory) (Levine et al. 2002). This type of

memory provides a means through which one may access

general knowledge, interpret behavior in a social context,

exchange experiences, and essentially, remain oriented in a

shared social world (Nelson and Fivush 2004). The par-

ticular function highlighted in the current study is that of

self-concept clarity (SCC). SCC refers to the ‘‘extent to

which the contents of an individual’s self-concept are

clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and

temporally stable’’ (Campbell et al. 1996, p. 141). The self-

concept is a multidimensional, dynamic cognitive schema

that contains knowledge and evaluative components about

the self (Campbell et al. 1996). SCC concerns the structural

aspect of the self-concept, as its focus is on the organiza-

tion of these components. SCC is theorized to be attained

once judgments have been formed about one’s self-beliefs

and values (Campbell et al. 1996). Although a strong

positive correlation (r = 0.61) has been reported between

SCC and self-esteem, evidence suggests that these two

constructs are distinct (Campbell et al. 1996). Specifically,

SCC has been reported to predict unique variance in per-

sonality variables (e.g., neuroticism, extraversion, self-

reflection, internal state awareness, self-consciousness)

after controlling for self-esteem (Campbell et al. 1996).

AMs play a major role in SCC, as they ultimately operate

to define the self (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce 2000).

AMs are of primary importance at the point of the life

span known as ‘‘emerging adulthood.’’ Emerging adult-

hood extends through the late teens through the mid-

twenties (specifically, ages 18–25) and represents a new

A. Fuentes (&) � M. Desrocher

Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto,

ON M3J 1P3, Canada

e-mail: [email protected]

A. Fuentes

Behavioural Science Building, 057, 96 York Boulevard,

Hamilton, ON, Canada

M. Desrocher

Behavioural Science Building, 124, 96 York Boulevard,

Hamilton, ON, Canada

123

J Adult Dev (2012) 19:28–39

DOI 10.1007/s10804-011-9131-1

period of the life span in industrialized societies (Arnett

2000). Evidence for the distinctiveness of this period is

drawn from research indicating the demographic diversity,

risk behavior, and examination of life possibilities that

characterizes this population (Arnett 2000). This period of

the life span has emerged as a result of dramatic demo-

graphic shifts (e.g., higher median age at marriage and first

childbirth, higher proportion of young people pursuing

postsecondary and postgraduate school) (Arnett 2007). The

result of these demographic shifts has ultimately been to

postpone entry into traditional adult roles, as this period is

now spent exploring a variety of life directions (Arnett

2007). Recent research has shown that deciding on per-

sonal beliefs and values is viewed by this population as

one of the most important markers of the transition into

adulthood (Arnett 2001).

The construction of what McAdams (2001) calls the ‘‘life

story’’ is critical for the attainment of SCC. McAdams

(2001) defines the life story as a ‘‘psychosocial construc-

tion, coauthored by the person himself or herself and the

cultural context within which that person’s life is embedded

and given meaning’’ (p. 101). McAdams (2001) affirms that

during the late teens and the mid-twenties, individuals liv-

ing in modern societies begin to organize their AMs into life

narratives in order to achieve a sense of unity and purpose.

In support of McAdams’ (2001) theory, recent studies have

demonstrated an age-related increase in the coherence of

AMs recalled by emerging adults (Habermas and de Sil-

veira 2008; McLean and Breen 2009). For example, Hab-

ermas and de Silveira (2008) found that the life narratives

recalled by 20-year olds contained more temporal, causal,

and thematic details than the narratives recalled by 8, 12,

and 16-year-olds. Similarly, the content of turning point

memories recalled by 18-year-olds was found to contain

more statements of meaning-making compared with

younger adolescents (McLean and Breen 2009). These

findings suggest that AMs may be resources that can be

used during emerging adulthood to construct the life story

and ultimately, achieve the developmental goal of SCC.

AMs contain episodic and semantic details (Conway and

Pleydell-Pearce 2000). Episodic details are characterized as

vivid and time and place specific (Tulving 1972). Semantic

details consist of general knowledge about the world and

ourselves and are not linked to a particular time or place

(Conway and Pleydell-Pearce 2000). To illustrate, details

linked to a particular event (e.g., sights, sounds, smells,

emotions, etc.) would be classified as episodic, while fac-

tual details that serve as contextual or background infor-

mation to the event would be classified as semantic. Thus,

episodic memory is required for the vivid recall of personal

experiences, while semantic memory is required for the

storage of information about the world and the self (Levine

et al. 2002).

Strong evidence suggests that the recall of episodic and

semantic memories is governed by the self-concept. Several

AM studies have shown that individuals selectively access

memories that are consistent with their views of themselves

(Dunkel and Lavoie 2005; Woike et al. 1999). In a study

using Marcia’s (1966) 4 levels of identity formation (i.e.,

diffuse, moratorium, foreclosed, and achieved), emerging

adults with more committed identity statuses (i.e., achieved

and foreclosed) were found to recall a greater number of

AMs during a cued recall task, suggesting that individuals

with more stable identities may have more articulated

semantic self-knowledge structures to support episodic

memories (Neimeyer and Rareshide 1991). In line with this

conclusion, recent evidence indicates that episodic and

semantic components of AM are structurally related, such

that accessing semantic self-knowledge facilitates access to

episodic memories (Sakaki 2007). This evidence is in

keeping with the Self-Memory System (SMS) model pro-

posed by Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000), which

assumes that abstract knowledge about the self is linked

with episodic knowledge. Taken together, the literature

suggests that individuals with high SCC may have more

defined semantic self-knowledge structures which in turn,

may enhance the retrieval of episodic components of AMs.

The organization of episodic memories and the semantic

abstractions about the self that are drawn from them is

theorized to provide individuals with SCC (Conway and

Pleydell-Pearce 2000). Given that SCC is posited to be a

key developmental goal during emerging adulthood, AMs

should be of primary importance at this point in the life

span. While research supports the idea that the accessibility

of AMs is determined by the self-concept (Dunkel and

Lavoie 2005; Neimeyer and Rareshide 1991; Woike et al.

1999), few studies have addressed the relation between

SCC and the episodic richness of AMs. Thus, the question

of whether the stability and consistency of self-beliefs is

associated with the recall of episodic and semantic ele-

ments of AMs remains unresolved. The overall purpose of

the current study was to document the relation between

SCC and the components of AM in emerging adulthood.

Specifically, it examined whether high SCC was associated

with enhanced recall of episodic and semantic components

of AMs. Given that past studies have documented the

facilitative effects of semantic self-knowledge on accessi-

bility to episodic self-knowledge (Dunkel and Lavoie

2005; Neimeyer and Rareshide 1991; Sakaki 2007), it was

hypothesized that high accessibility of episodic and

semantic components of AMs would be associated with

high SCC. In addition, we were also interested in exam-

ining the relation between age and SCC. Based on the

previous work by Arnett (2000, 2001, 2007) and McAdams

(2001), we expected that older age would be associated

with higher SCC.

Autobiographical Memory in Emerging Adulthood 29

123

The current study explored the relation between SCC

and the episodic richness of AMs in a sample of 100

emerging adults (aged 18–25 years) using the Autobio-

graphical Interview (Levine et al. 2002) and the Self-

Concept Clarity Scale (Campbell et al. 1996). This age

range was selected in order to reflect the period of

emerging adulthood outlined by Arnett (2000). In addition,

the restricted age range reduced the effects of retention

interval that could potentially confound the interpretation

of the association between age and AM. There were several

benefits to using the Autobiographical Interview (Levine

et al. 2002). First, because this measure employs a stan-

dardized, reliable system by which to derive measures of

episodic and semantic memory components from partici-

pants’ transcribed autobiographical protocols, it allowed us

to test our specific hypothesis regarding the association

between episodic and semantic components and SCC.

Second, the detailed scoring system of the Autobiograph-

ical Interview (Levine et al. 2002) allowed for a direct

examination of specific detail areas (e.g., emotion, time,

place, etc.) that may have been differentially related to

SCC. Third, the Autobiographical Interview (Levine et al.

2002) includes conditions with minimal and high retrieval

support, which may have been sensitive to differences in

SCC and age.

The Self-Concept Clarity Scale (Campbell et al. 1996) is

a brief questionnaire designed to assess perceived tempo-

ral stability, consistency, and conviction of self-beliefs.

Compared to other measures of the self-concept (e.g.,

Rosenberg 1965), the SCC Scale (Campbell et al. 1996)

focuses on the structural aspects (i.e., organization of

components) of the self-concept rather than the evaluative

components (i.e., self-esteem and positivity of self-beliefs).

Given that previous work in emerging adults has indicated

that the organization of self-beliefs may be related to AM

recall (Neimeyer and Rareshide 1991), the structural

characteristics of the self-concept were of primary concern

in the current study. Furthermore, the SCC Scale has

been shown to be a valid and reliable measure of SCC

(Campbell et al. 1996).

Method

Participants

The sample consisted of 100 undergraduate students

enrolled in Introductory Psychology classes at York Uni-

versity. Participants were recruited by means of the

Undergraduate Research Participant Pool (URPP). Inclu-

sion criteria required participants to be between the ages of

18 and 25. All participants received 2 percent toward their

final grade for their participation. The mean age of

participants was 20.18 years. The sample included 50 men

and 50 women. A post hoc power analysis indicated that

this sample size provided 88% power (Faul et al. 2007).

Measures

Autobiographical Interview

The Autobiographical Interview (Levine et al. 2002)

required participants to recall specific AMs from 4 time

periods: early childhood (up to age 11), teenage years

(11–17 years of age), 1–2 years ago, and within the last

6 months. The initial phase was designed to establish

autobiographical recollection through free recall and min-

imal retrieval support. A list of approximately 50 typical

life events (e.g., buying a pet, attending a wedding, etc.)

was presented in order to assist with memory retrieval (see

‘‘Appendix 1’’ for a sample list of events). Participants

were permitted to select events that appeared on the list or

to choose events of their own preference, (see ‘‘Appendix

2’’ for verbatim instructions). The first task was for the

participant to describe the event. The examiner’s role was

simply to allow the participant to arrive at a natural ending

for the event without intervening. Once the event was

recalled, the examiner provided a form of minimal retrieval

support referred to as ‘‘general probing.’’ General probes

were used for all participants to elicit more details (e.g., ‘‘Is

there anything else you can tell me?’’). In the event that

semantic (i.e., general) information was given instead of

information that was specific to a time and place, general

probes were used to clarify instructions (e.g., ‘‘That’s not

quite what I am looking for. I need a memory for a single

event or instance that happened to you.’’). If general

probing was unsuccessful in eliciting a specific event, the

participant was given the option of selecting a different

event.

The second phase consisted of a structured interview

that elicited additional details that were not spontaneously

recalled in the initial stage. The interview itself was con-

sidered a condition of retrieval support referred to as

‘‘specific probing.’’ This stage was reached only once free

recall and general probing were conducted for all 4 events,

(so as to avoid the contamination of subsequent events).

After all 4 events were recalled, the examiner returned to

the first event and administered the interview for each one.

At this point, the participant must have established a clear

‘‘story’’ with a beginning, middle, and an end. Examiners

were trained to work with participants’ earlier responses in

order to obtain this goal if a clear story was lacking (e.g.,

‘‘You said XXX happened. What happened next?’’).

Standardized questions were used to query the following

categories for more specificity: event (e.g., happenings,

other people, clothing, weather, etc.), time (e.g., year,

30 A. Fuentes, M. Desrocher

123

month, season, time of day, etc.), time integration (events

occurring before and after the event), place (country, city,

building, location within building, etc.), sensory/perceptual

information (e.g., physical sensations, colors, tastes,

smells, etc.), and emotions/thoughts (e.g., feelings/thoughts

at the time of the event and expressed emotions). Exam-

iners were trained to modify their questions according to

the information that was given in the previous stage and to

elicit as much detail as possible. The amount of probing in

this stage was contingent upon the amount of information

that had been supplied in the initial recollection. The final

step of the Autobiographical Interview procedure consisted

of a subjective rating component. Participants responded to

items on 7-point Likert scales that were designed to tap into

emotionality, perceptual re-experiencing, personal signifi-

cance ‘‘then’’ and ‘‘now,’’ and goal orientation of the event.

Participants were provided with visuals of each rating scale

in order to clarify instructions and to aid them in estab-

lishing their ratings (see ‘‘Appendix 3’’ for sample partic-

ipant rating scales).

The memories were subsequently encoded according to

the framework outlined by Levine et al. (2002): (1) epi-

sodic—aspects of the personal recollection that are specific

to a time and place or (2) semantic—details of the memory

that pertain to general knowledge. The psychometric

properties of the instrument have been shown to be strong.

For example, the past investigation conducted by Levine

et al. (2002) showed good interrater reliability, as the

concordance rates between the four independent scorers

were between r = 0.79 and 0.94. The construct validity of

the Autobiographical Interview was also reported to be

good, as a significant relationship with the Autobiograph-

ical Memory Interview (Kopelman et al. 1990) was found

(s (28) = 0.65 and 0.68, s \ 0.001) (Levine et al. 2002).

Self-Concept Clarity Scale

The SCC Scale (Campbell et al. 1996) contains a pool of

12 items designed to assess perceived temporal stability,

consistency, and conviction of self-beliefs, (see ‘‘Appendix

4’’ for SCC Scale). Participants responded to items on a

five-point Likert scale anchored by ‘‘strongly disagree’’ (1)

and ‘‘strongly agree’’ (5). The SCC Scale was scored by

summing the ratings of the items to yield a total score.

Campbell et al. (1996) reported high levels of internal

consistency (average a = 0.86) and temporal stability,

(with test–retest correlations between r = 0.79 and 0.70) of

the SCC Scale. The construct validity of the measure was

also confirmed on the grounds that the pattern of correla-

tions with related constructs (such as the Big Five per-

sonality dimensions, self-focused attention, and self-

esteem) adhered to theoretical expectations.

Procedure

After participants provided written informed consent, they

completed the Autobiographical Interview. All participants

were interviewed individually in a quiet laboratory at York

University. One examiner (A.F.) conducted 48% of the

interviews, while another four examiners conducted 17, 14,

13, and 8% of the interviews, respectively. The majority of

interviews were approximately an hour in duration, but

they ranged in length from 30 min to 2 h. All interviews

were tape-recorded, and identifying information was kept

separate from the tapes. Taped interviews were destroyed

upon transcription. Participants were asked to complete

the Self-Concept Clarity Scale after they had completed

the Autobiographical Interview. Participants were then

debriefed and allotted their participation credits.

Scoring Protocol

Autobiographical Interview

Interviews were transcribed verbatim and re-arranged such

that all levels of probing were presented together for each

event. Scorers followed a standardized, manual-based

procedure to arrive at 3 sets of scores: free recall, general

probing, and specific probing. The first step was for the

scorer to define the main event of the narrative, which was

defined as a singular, time-restricted event (i.e., no more

than a few hours in duration). This was a crucial step in the

procedure, as it guided the text segmentation that followed.

When the main event was unclear (i.e., more than 1 event

was described, or the event was very impoverished),

scorers selected the event that had the most detail and that

had occurred within a short time frame. Events were then

segmented into quantitative details, which were defined as

unique occurrences, observations, or thoughts. Information

bits contained within grammatical clauses were scored as

separate details if they were determined to convey addi-

tional information. For example, the statement ‘‘she had a

small, black dog’’ would receive 2 perceptual details

because the term ‘‘small’’ significantly alters the meaning

of the black dog, which on its own would receive one

detail. See ‘‘Appendix 5’’ for a sample of a scored auto-

biographical memory protocol.

Segments were categorized into 2 broad categories:

internal details (those directly related to the main event)

and external details (those not part of the main event).

Internal details were considered to reflect episodic con-

textual aspects of the memory, while external details

reflected semantic information. Each category was

assigned a score by summing the amount of details in each.

Each retrieval condition was scored separately, but ana-

lyzed cumulatively across levels of recall. Information that


123

occurred in previous conditions was considered when

assigning scores in order to determine whether the details

were new pieces of information or repetitions. The cate-

gorical distinction between internal and external details

was of primary interest, as it allowed for the detection of

any bias that may have occurred toward reporting episodic

versus semantic information. Table 1 provides a compre-

hensive list of descriptions and examples of each detail

category.

Rating scores were also generated for each memory as

an additional means of assessing participants’ responses.

Each memory was rated on episodic richness, time, place,

perception, time integration, and emotion/thoughts. Each

category was rated on a scale ranging from 0 to 3 with the

exception of the episodic richness scale, which was

extended to 6 points to provide a higher degree of sensi-

tivity due to the importance of this category relative to

others. The ratings that concerned the contextual infor-

mation were assigned based on the following criteria out-

lined by Levine et al. (2002):

3 points: A rich, highly specific, vivid description

that appears to emerge from a feeling of

re-experiencing

2 points: A detailed description that falls short of a 3 in

the degree of richness

1 point: A description that is limited to general, non-

specific information but is still episodic in

nature

0 points: No mention of information pertaining to the spec-

ified category, or a response based on semantic

information rather than episodic memory

SCC Scale

All participants were assigned overall scores which

reflected their levels of SCC based on their ratings of the

items. A high score on the SCC Scale was interpreted as

indicating a high level of internal consistency, temporal

stability, and articulation of self-beliefs, (and vice versa for

low scores).

Inter-rater Reliability

A.F scored 60% of the memories, while the other four

examiners scored 12, 11, 9, and 8% of the memories,

respectively. Each of the examiners had previously under-

gone training using a set of 5 previously scored memories. In

order to assess inter-rater reliability, 10% of the memories

that were scored by the other four examiners were re-scored

by A.F. Inter-rater reliability was assessed using intra-class

correlation (one-way random effects model; McGraw and

Wong 1996). Coefficients for the Internal detail composite

scores ranged from 0.85 to 0.96 for free recall, 0.86–0.98

for general probe, and 0.80–0.95 for specific probe. Coeffi-

cients for the External detail composite scores ranged from

0.75 to 0.97 for free recall, 0.74–0.94 for general probe, and

0.80–0.99 for specific probe.

Statistical Analysis

Spearman’s correlations were conducted to examine the

relationships between SCC, autobiographical details, and

age. This nonparametric method of correlational analysis

was selected due to the fact that an exploratory analysis of

the data revealed that the variables were positively skewed.

The alpha level was set to 0.05 for all analyses due to the

exploratory nature of the study. In order to examine the

effects of retrieval support, correlational analyses were

conducted for the free recall, general probe, and specific

probe conditions. Correlational analyses were also con-

ducted for each memory (i.e., early childhood, teenage

years, 1–2 years ago, and previous 6 months) in order to

assess the influence of time period. Stepwise logistic

regression analyses were conducted in order to investigate

the significant correlations obtained.

Results

Contrary to our hypothesis, SCC was not significantly

correlated with the majority of semantic and episodic

components across memories and retrieval conditions. In

terms of the individual detail categories, an analysis of the

retrieval conditions revealed that SCC was only correlated

with repetition details (r = 0.12, p \ 0.05) and experi-

menter ratings of perceptual details (r = 0.17, p \ 0.01) in

the specific probe condition. An analysis of the time period

conditions revealed that SCC correlated with place internal

details (r = 0.20, p \ 0.05) and semantic details

(r = 0.21, p \ 0.05) in the early childhood condition. SCC

was also correlated with participant ratings of memories

involving cooperative interactions with others (r = 0.17,

p \ 0.01).

Across memories and retrieval conditions, age was not

significantly correlated with total episodic or semantic

details. An analysis of the individual detail categories

showed that age was negatively correlated with time details

in the free recall (r = -0.04, p \ 0.05) and specific probe

(r = -0.10, p \ 0.05) retrieval conditions and in the early

childhood memories (-0.22, p \ 0.05). Age was signifi-

cantly positively correlated with place details (r = 0.12,

p \ 0.05) in the general probe condition and perceptual

details (r = 0.24, p \ 0.05) in the early childhood condi-

tion. A significant correlation was obtained between age

and SCC (r = 0.13, p \ 0.05). Significant negative


123

correlations were obtained between age and participant

ratings of amount of rehearsal (r = -0.13, p \ 0.01) and

educational experience (r = -0.11, p \ 0.05) (Tables 2, 3).

A logistic regression was carried out using the enter

method to further explore the significant correlations

obtained between SCC and recall of autobiographical

details. With the exception of age, all of the variables were

dichotomized using their medians due to the fact that they

were positively skewed. SCC (Mdn = 38) was entered as

the dependent variable and the following variables were

entered as covariates: experimenter ratings of percep-

tual details (Mdn = 3), repetition details (Mdn = 2),

Table 1 Description of scoring

categoriesCategory Description Example

Internal Details related to an event that occurred within 1 day

Event Happenings, people involved the actions and reactions of

others, the weather, buying objects or food

–‘I fell asleep’

–‘3 friends’

–‘she was smiling’

–‘my mom drove’

–‘it was sunny’

–‘I bought a burger’

Time Year, season, month, date, day of week, time of day –‘1 year ago’

–‘2010’

–‘it was summer’

–‘2 months ago’

–‘it was May’

–‘it was the day before my

birthday’

–‘afternoon’

Place Country, province, city, street, building, room, part of

room

–‘my house’

–‘I was in the kitchen’

–‘I was in the 3rd row’

Perceptual Sounds, smell, tastes, physical sensations, visual details,

body position, duration of event

–‘it was loud’

–‘it smelled like wood chips’

–‘the apple was sweet’

–‘I had a headache’

–‘she was short’

–‘I was standing’

–‘I was there for 3 h’

Thought/

emotion

Feelings, thoughts, opinions related to event, expectations –‘I was so excited’

–‘I did not know what to do’

–‘the worst part about the trip

was…’

–‘I expected a lot of people to

come’

External Event, time, place, perceptual, or thought/emotion details

(see above descriptions) that pertain to other events not

identified as the main event in the recollection and

factual information

Semantic General knowledge or facts, personal knowledge or facts

ongoing events, extended states of being (‘Paris is the

capital of France,’ ‘Scott also lives in Toronto’)

–‘Paris is the capital of France,’

–‘Scott also lives in Toronto’

Repetition Unsolicited repetition of details –‘standing, yeah I was standing’

Other Metacognitive statements (‘I’m not sure if I’m

remembering this right’), editorializing (‘it was fairly

good’), inferences (‘I must have been wearing my coat

because it was winter’)

–‘I’m not sure if I’m

remembering this right

–‘it was a fairly good day’

–‘I must have been wearing my

coat because it was winter’


123

participant ratings of memories involving cooperative

interactions (Mdn = 5), and age. These covariates were

selected due to the fact that they were significantly

correlated with SCC. The results indicated that only age

and participant ratings of cooperative interactions had

significant effects. Table 4 presents the results from the

regression analyses.

Discussion

The present study investigated the relation between SCC and

the AMs of emerging adults using the Autobiographical

Interview (Levine et al. 2002) and the Self-Concept Clarity

Scale (Campbell et al. 1996). SCC was not associated with

enhanced episodic recall, in contrast to prior research indi-

cating that individuals with high SCC may have more stable

semantic self-knowledge structures in which to support

episodic memories (Conway 2001; Dunkel and Lavoie

2005; Neimeyer and Rareshide 1991; Sakaki 2007). These

results may reflect the tendency of individuals with high

Table 2 Spearman’s Correlations (rs) between autobiographical

interview measures, self-concept clarity, and age in the free recall and

specific probe conditions

AM measure Age Self-concept clarity

Free recall condition

Composite scores

Total internal -0.035 -0.011

Total external 0.001 0.027

Internal detail scores

Event -0.042 -0.040

Place 0.046 0.039

Time -0.117* 0.074

Perceptual 0.032 -0.048

Emotion/thought -0.084 -0.061

External detail scores

Semantic 0.014 0.033

Repetition -0.004 0.069

Other 0.012 0.039

Experimenter ratings

Place 0.019 0.021

Time -0.118* 0.069

Perceptual 0.008 -0.014


Time integration -0.078 -0.083

Episodic richness -0.022 -0.088

Specific probe condition

Composite scores

Total internal -0.001 -0.037

Total external 0.091 0.056

Internal detail scores

Event -0.016 0.018

Place -0.039 -0.032

Time -0.100* 0.021

Perceptual 0.074 0.061


External detail scores

Semantic 0.088 0.036

Repetition 0.033 0.115*

Other 0.071 0.047

Experimenter ratings

Place -0.022 0.006

Time -0.043 0.080

Perceptual 0.078 0.169**


Time integration -0.070 -0.029

Episodic richness -0.032 0.008

Bold values indicate significance at the .05 or .01 level

* p \ 0.05, ** p \ 0.01

Table 3 Spearman’s correlations (rs) between participants’ ratings of

their memories, self-concept clarity, and age

Participant rating Age Self-concept

clarity

Emotional change 0.021 0.097

Importance now -0.009 0.037

Importance then -0.036 -0.016

Visualization of event -0.094 0.054

Amount of rehearsal -0.132** -0.066

Confidence of memory 0.003 0.066

Strength of memory -0.020 0.011

Negativity of memory -0.037 -0.068

Enjoyment in social situation -0.058 0.098

Cooperative interactions -0.070 0.174**

Goal pursuit -0.079 0.049

Cultural/educational experience -0.112* 0.004


* p \ 0.05, ** p \ 0.01

Table 4 Logistic regression analysis for age, cooperative interaction

rating, perceptual, and emotional details: self-concept clarity as the

dependent variable

Predictor B SE Wald df p Odds

ratio

Perceptual

experimenter

rating

0.233 0.230 1.024 1 0.312 1.262

Repetition -0.164 0.212 0.597 1 0.440 0.849

Cooperative

interactions-

participant rating

0.767 0.209 13.435 1 0.000 2.153

Age 0.156 0.052 8.966 1 y.003 1.169



123

SCC to engage in more ‘‘meaning-making’’ during auto-

biographical recall, which is theorized to be an important

process in integrating AMs into patterns and consolidating

the self (Singer et al. 2007). With this in mind, it may be

that by maintaining well-defined perceptions about the self,

one is more motivated to link specific memories to themat-

ically similar experiences in order to develop a greater sense

of continuity. Interestingly, an inverse relation has been

reported between statements of meaning-making in auto-

biographical recall and episodic components (Singer et al.

2007). Due to the age range of the current sample

(18–25 years), it is likely that not enough time had elapsed

since the occurrence of the events for this semantic bias to

occur. Longitudinal study of the association between AM

components and SCC would provide a means in which to

investigate whether a semantic bias would occur over time in

individuals indentified with high SCC.

Alternatively, it may be the case that the discrepancy

between the current study and previous studies demonstrating

the connection between semantic self-knowledge and epi-

sodic memories resulted from methodological differences.

The present study is one of the few to explicitly examine the

specific components of episodic memories (e.g., time, place,

emotion/thought details, etc.). In contrast, the majority of

previous studies have focused on the priming effects for

autobiographical recall and as a result, little information was

provided in regard to the level of specificity of episodic

memories. In addition, differences may have emerged based

on how the self-concept was measured. The current study is

the first to empirically assess the relation between the self-

concept and AM using the Self-Concept Clarity Scale

(Campbell et al. 1996). The Self-Concept Clarity Scale is

quite brief and focuses specifically on the consistency and

temporal stability of self-beliefs (Campbell et al. 1996).

An unexpected finding was that high SCC was associ-

ated with greater recall of events involving cooperative

social interactions (as indicated by participant ratings). The

association between SCC and memories related to social

themes fits well with previous studies, which have reported

that emerging adults tend to emphasize the importance of

integration into society (Arnett et al. 2001; Conway and

Holmes 2004). For example, an examination of the ideo-

logical thinking of emerging adults revealed that many

individuals relied heavily on the ethic of Community,

indicating that emerging adults tend to draw on their roles

in the family and the community when making judgments

about their own beliefs and values (Arnett et al. 2001).

Consistent with this finding, content analyses of the AMs

recalled by emerging adults have shown that the majority

of AMs involved issues relating to integration within

society (Conway and Holmes 2004).

As anticipated, older age was associated with higher

SCC. This finding is consistent with previous research

which has shown that deciding on personal beliefs is a

fundamental goal of emerging adulthood (Arnett 2007).

Thus, the correlation found between age and SCC may

reflect the fact that major gains are made during the

emerging adulthood years in achieving a stable, consistent

self-concept. Long-term follow-up will be required to

determine whether age continues to predict SCC into

adulthood.

Several caveats to the present study must be noted. First,

the chances of detecting reliable relations may have been

reduced by the limited scope of the measures used.

Although the psychometric properties of the Autobio-

graphical Interview (Levine et al. 2002) and the SCC Scale

(Campbell et al. 1996) are strong, the scoring ranges are

limited. The findings of the current study must be consid-

ered preliminary given its exploratory nature. Accordingly,

the finding of a positive correlation between SCC and AMs

of events involving cooperative social interactions in the

current study will require further exploration. This finding

can be used to direct future studies in the emerging

adulthood population examining whether self-concept

development is related to episodic specificity of AMs

involving social experiences and whether AM is related to

the development of interpersonal skills. A second short-

coming is that it was not possible to control for important

individual differences due to the confounding variable of

self-esteem. For example, evidence suggests that individ-

uals higher in SCC are generally higher in self-esteem

(Campbell et al. 1996). This raises a difficulty for the

current study, as an important interaction may have existed

between AM recall, SCC, and self-esteem. Future research

investigating the relationship between these variables will

be needed in order to provide further insight on this issue.

Related to this, it was not possible to control for differences

that may have been present in participants due to the

confounding variable of identity exploration. One impor-

tant future direction would be to examine the relation

between identity exploration and episodic and semantic

components of AM using Marcia’s (1966) paradigm. It

could be argued that a more accurate approach to assessing

the role of SCC on AM processes would be to examine the

differences in recall between high- and low-SCC groups.

However, due to the fact that the Self-Concept Clarity

Scale (Campbell et al. 1996) is not a clinical measure, there

was no clear way of developing cut-off requirements that

would serve to accurately divide participants into mean-

ingful groups. In addition, given the moderating effect of

time since event on autobiographical recall, it could also be

argued that a better understanding of the relation between

SCC and AM would have been achieved by dividing the

participants into age groups. The present study attempted to

compensate for this potential confound by restricting the

age range to 18–25, thereby limiting any major differences


123

that may have occurred due to variability in distance from

memories. In addition, the relation between age and auto-

biographical recall was explored through correlational and

logistic regression analyses. It remains possible that AM

recall was influenced by the interview situation. For

example, previous work has shown important differences

in the quality of memories told to distracted versus atten-

tive listeners, with distracted listening resulting in a

reduction in the amount of details and elaboration provided

(Pasupathi et al. 1998). Furthermore, individuals have been

shown to adapt their storytelling goals according to their

audience (McLean et al. 2007). For example, the respon-

siveness of the listener has been shown to facilitate the

telling of negative events (McLean et al. 2007). Future

research should consider examining the influence of the

listener on the episodic and semantic components of AMs

by comparing the quality of memories provided during

various situations (e.g., written narratives versus structured

interviews). Finally, this study did not investigate the

effects of gender on SCC and AM recall. Past studies have

reported that the AMs recalled by women contain more

episodic detail (Buckner and Fivush 1998; Niedzwienska

2003; Pillemer et al. 2003; Wang et al. 2011), emotional

content (Fujita et al. 1991; Ros and Latorre 2010; Seidlitz

and Diener 1998), and thematic coherence (Habermas and

de Silveira 2008) than men. Past evidence indicates that

parents are more likely to elaborate about their feelings

with girls (Fivush 1991), leading girls to develop more

emotional self-concepts than boys (Fivush et al. 2003). The

data gathered from the present study are currently being

examined in a retrospective study to examine the effects of

gender on episodic and semantic components of AM.

In conclusion, although past research has suggested that

SCC could enhance episodic and semantic recall, the

present study found evidence against the validity of this

assertion when applied to the emerging adulthood popu-

lation. A significant relation was found between SCC and

recall of events involving cooperative social interactions,

suggesting that social memories may be crucial for the

development of the self-concept during the emerging

adulthood years. As expected, SCC was positively corre-

lated with age. Given the importance of social memories

during this developmental period, it will be critical for

future studies to conduct content analyses on the AMs

recalled by emerging adults in order to identify specific

social themes. Further, given that measures of episodic and

semantic components of AM were not related to SCC, then

it is important to determine which measures of AM are

related to SCC in the emerging adulthood population.

Recent research in children and adolescents has demon-

strated that the coherence of life narratives increases with

age, suggesting that the creation of the ‘‘life story’’ may

play an important part in self-concept development

(Habermas and de Silveira 2008). Studies investigating the

relation between SCC and the global coherence of life

narratives in emerging adults may therefore prove useful in

developing a comprehensive view of the relation between

AM and self-concept development during this phase of the

life span. There is also a need to explore the association

between self-beliefs and accessibility of AM details in

individuals at various stages of emerging adulthood. There

is evidence that the mental health of the individual may

serve to compromise accessibility to memories. For

example, over-general memory has been reported in indi-

viduals diagnosed with clinical depression, indicating an

attempt to inhibit retrieval of specific memories associated

with negative self-knowledge (Conway and Pleydell-

Pearce 2000). Importantly, a decline in depressive symp-

toms and an increase in self-esteem have been reported to

occur throughout emerging adulthood (Galambos et al.

2006). Ultimately, by employing an integrative approach

that encompasses cognitive and social aspects of develop-

ment, it will be possible to improve our current under-

standing of self-concept and AM processes during

emerging adulthood.

Appendix 1: Autobiographical Event List

Choose events that happened to you at a specific time

and place

Early memories Leisure Social

–Buying a pet –Going to a sport event –A party

–Birthday party –Going to a

performance

–Giving a gift

–A birth –A significant movie or

play

–Receiving a gift

–Playing a game –A memorable meal –Going to a dance/

prom

Emotional Romance Buying something

–Losing something

important

–First kiss –Surprise party

–Being embarrassed –First date –Being visited by

somebody

Family events Misbehavior

–A wedding –Breaking something

valuable

–A holiday or

celebration

–Telling a lie

–First day of school Physical

–A family reunion –A doctor or dentist

appointment


123

Appendix 2: Instructions for the Autobiographical

Interview

I am going to ask you to tell me about an event from each

of these time periods of your life. You can choose any

events you wish. I will ask you to describe the events, then

I will ask you some questions about them. To help with

scoring, we will be audiotaping your responses. Otherwise,

your responses will be kept completely confidential and

your tape will be assigned a subject number and stored in a

secure place. The event must be one that you were per-

sonally involved in, and you must have a recollection of

being personally involved. Do not pick events that you

heard about from others. They must be events from a

specific time and place. For example, describing a 3-week

vacation would not be sufficient. However, a specific

incident that happened on that vacation would be good. I

want you to provide as much detail as you can about the

event. Our interest is not so much which events you

choose, but rather how you describe them. So do not feel

pressured to pick any particular event. I want you to know

that I will be asking you to give some details later, so be

sure to choose events that you feel comfortable discussing

in detail.

Appendix 3: Participant Rating Scales

1. How personally important is the event to you NOW?

2. How personally important was the event to you

THEN?

3. How clearly can you visualize this event?

4. How much did your emotional state change from

before the event occurred to after it happened?

5. How many times do you think of this event?

6. How sure are you of what you remembered just now?

7. How strong is your memory of the event?

8. Overall, was this event experienced or recalled as

being negative?

9. Would you say this event reflected your enjoyment in

a social situation?

10. Did this event involve friendly or cooperative inter-

actions with others?

11. Overall, would you say this event demonstrated

persistence or success in pursuing a goal?

12. Would you say this event reflected your interest in a

cultural or educational experience?

Appendix 4: Self-Concept Clarity Scale

Statement Strongly

disagree

(1)

Disagree

(2)

Undecided

(3)

Agree

(4)

Strongly

agree

(5)

My beliefs

about

myself often

conflict with

one another

On 1 day I

might have

one opinion

of myself

and on

another day

I might have

a different

opinion

I spend a lot

of time

wondering

about what

kind of

person I

really am

Sometimes I

feel that I

am not

really the

person that I

appear to be

Appendix 1 continued

Job related Public

–A job interview –Seeing someone famous

–Speaking in public –Being on TV, radio,

or newspaper

–Being promoted/given a raise Religious

–First job –Holiday or celebration

–First paycheck School

Travels –Taking a test

–A vacation –High school graduation

–Camping outdoors –First/last day of

elementary school

–Going away on your fist trip –First/last day of

high school

–Going to summer camp Transition

Triumphs –Buying a car

–Voting –Moving

–Performance success –First time driving a

car

–An award received

–Winning something/

a competition

–Building/

constructing

something


123

Instructions: For each of the statements below, please

indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement by

checking the appropriate box. The ratings range from 1

(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Appendix 5: Sample scored autobiographical memory

protocol

Main Event Oral examination for dentistry school.

It was back in June (Time-Int) 2007 (Time-Int). I was in

Europe (Place-Int) and I had an entrance exam for dentistry

school (Event-Int). I remember that day (Other). I was so

nervous (Emotion/Thought-Int). The oral examination was

on Thursday (Time-Int). A professor (Event-Int) asked me

some questions (Event-Int). She picked a topic (Event-Int)

and I explained it as much as possible (Event-Int). I wanted

to show her that I had the knowledge to get into dentistry

school (Emotion/Thought-Int). It was so good (Other),

because I was accepted to the dentistry school (Event-Int)

and one of my dreams came true (Semantic).

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Documents

Autobiographical Memory in Emerging Adulthood: Relationship with Self-Concept Clarity