When we feel good and bad about ourselves: Self-esteem memories across cultures
Abstract
Abstract
Young adults in the United States, Croatia, and China described personal episodes of times when they felt especially good or bad about themselves. These self-esteem memories were either recent (episodes that occurred during the previous 4 weeks) or remote (episodes that occurred between the ages of 10 and 15). Systematic content differences between memories of positive and negative self-worth were apparent primarily for remote rather than for recent memories. Across cultures, long-lasting positive memories frequently represented achievement themes, whereas negative memories frequently represented social themes. Links between achievement success and positive self-regard, and between social distress and negative self-regard, are explained using theories of self-esteem and autobiographical memory.
Department
Psychology
Publication Date
2008
Journal Title
Memory
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1080/09658210802251406
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
vcevic, Z., Pillemer, D.B., Wang, Q., Hou, Y., Tang, H., Mohoric, T., Taksic, V. When we feel good and bad about ourselves: Self-esteem memories across cultures. (2008) Memory, 16 (7), pp. 703-711.