Autobiographical memories of coming out among Turkish speaking LGBT individuals

<p>Young people frequently talk about memories of experienced events with their parents and peers. These conversations are selective and little is known about the fate of memories that are not talked about. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF; Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994) is an experimental paradigm that can be used as a proxy for selective conversations under controlled conditions. While some studies have been conducted with adults (see Storm et al., 2015 for review), the impact of selective discussion on young people’s recall of their autobiographical memories has not yet been investigated. This thesis, therefore, addresses a number of key gaps in the literature. In the first study, we investigated the impact of selective discussion on 8-9-year-old children’s (N = 65) recall of their autobiographical memories. Selective discussion produced RIF for children’s positive and negative memories. Selective discussion also produced RIF for children’s memory details; even when non-discussed memories were recalled, they were recalled in sparser detail. In addition, children who discussed a selection of their memories in more detail later forgot a greater proportion of their non-discussed memories. These findings are the first to demonstrate that selective discussion with children results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. Moreover, the findings indicate the importance of memory detail in RIF for autobiographical memories. In the second study, we investigated the short and long-term impact of selective discussion on 13-15-year-old adolescents’ (N = 58) recall of their autobiographical memories. After a short delay, selective discussion led to RIF for adolescents’ negative memories only; RIF did not occur for adolescents’ positive memories. After a long delay, RIF occurred for both positive and negative autobiographical memories. Given that Study 1 demonstrated that for children, RIF occurred for both positive and negative memories after a short delay, these findings with adolescents represent a novel developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories with regard to memory valence. In addition, they suggest that RIF for different kinds of stimuli may occur over different delay periods. In the third study, we expanded on the findings of Study 1, investigating the impact of selective discussion on specific kinds of autobiographical memory details for both children and adolescents (N = 123; combined sample from Study 1 and 2). RIF occurred for some memory details but did not occur for others. Moreover, the details of children’s, as compared to adolescents’, non-discussed autobiographical memories were more vulnerable to being forgotten following selective discussion. These findings again demonstrate a developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories and highlight the importance of investigating how selective discussion may impair non-discussed autobiographical memories even when they are recalled. Overall, our findings extend the field by establishing that selective discussion about young people’s everyday autobiographical memories results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. More specifically, we found developmental differences with regard to memory valence and detail that had previously been overlooked in developmental studies of RIF. Our findings add clarity about the specific types of memory detail that are vulnerable to being forgotten from non-discussed memories and highlight the necessity of investigating the long-term effects of selective discussion, even when RIF is not immediately evident.</p>

<p>Young people frequently talk about memories of experienced events with their parents and peers. These conversations are selective and little is known about the fate of memories that are not talked about. Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF; Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994) is an experimental paradigm that can be used as a proxy for selective conversations under controlled conditions. While some studies have been conducted with adults (see Storm et al., 2015 for review), the impact of selective discussion on young people’s recall of their autobiographical memories has not yet been investigated. This thesis, therefore, addresses a number of key gaps in the literature. In the first study, we investigated the impact of selective discussion on 8-9-year-old children’s (N = 65) recall of their autobiographical memories. Selective discussion produced RIF for children’s positive and negative memories. Selective discussion also produced RIF for children’s memory details; even when non-discussed memories were recalled, they were recalled in sparser detail. In addition, children who discussed a selection of their memories in more detail later forgot a greater proportion of their non-discussed memories. These findings are the first to demonstrate that selective discussion with children results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. Moreover, the findings indicate the importance of memory detail in RIF for autobiographical memories. In the second study, we investigated the short and long-term impact of selective discussion on 13-15-year-old adolescents’ (N = 58) recall of their autobiographical memories. After a short delay, selective discussion led to RIF for adolescents’ negative memories only; RIF did not occur for adolescents’ positive memories. After a long delay, RIF occurred for both positive and negative autobiographical memories. Given that Study 1 demonstrated that for children, RIF occurred for both positive and negative memories after a short delay, these findings with adolescents represent a novel developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories with regard to memory valence. In addition, they suggest that RIF for different kinds of stimuli may occur over different delay periods. In the third study, we expanded on the findings of Study 1, investigating the impact of selective discussion on specific kinds of autobiographical memory details for both children and adolescents (N = 123; combined sample from Study 1 and 2). RIF occurred for some memory details but did not occur for others. Moreover, the details of children’s, as compared to adolescents’, non-discussed autobiographical memories were more vulnerable to being forgotten following selective discussion. These findings again demonstrate a developmental difference in RIF for autobiographical memories and highlight the importance of investigating how selective discussion may impair non-discussed autobiographical memories even when they are recalled. Overall, our findings extend the field by establishing that selective discussion about young people’s everyday autobiographical memories results in non-discussed memories being forgotten. More specifically, we found developmental differences with regard to memory valence and detail that had previously been overlooked in developmental studies of RIF. Our findings add clarity about the specific types of memory detail that are vulnerable to being forgotten from non-discussed memories and highlight the necessity of investigating the long-term effects of selective discussion, even when RIF is not immediately evident.</p>

Social anxiety is characterized by maladaptive self-schemas about being socially undesirable. Self-schemas are deeply held beliefs which are derived from negative autobiographical memories of painful social experiences. In contrast to the plethora of past research on negative memories in social anxiety, almost no research has investigated objectively positive social autobiographical memories. In this preregistered study, we examined the effects of social anxiety and self-schemas on the appraised impact and meaningfulness of retrieved positive versus negative social autobiographical memories. Participants recruited via Prolific (final n = 343) were randomized to one of two conditions in which they were instructed to retrieve, orally narrate, and appraise a positive or negative social autobiographical memory of a specific experience from their personal past where they felt either valued or unvalued, respectively. Results demonstrated that participants rated their positive memories as more impactful and meaningful than negative memories overall, but this effect was reversed for participants who endorsed having either stronger negative self-schemas or greater social anxiety symptoms, for whom negative memories were more impactful. Additionally, participants who endorsed having stronger positive self-schemas rated their negative memories as significantly less impactful and their positive memories as nearly more impactful. Together, these results elucidate how self-schemas and social anxiety are related to autobiographical memory appraisals, paving the way for future research on memory-based therapeutic interventions for social anxiety disorder.

Reduced specificity of negative autobiographical memories in repressive coping

There is a positivity bias in autobiographical memory such that people are more likely to remember positive events from their past than they are to remember negative ones. Inhibition may promote this positivity bias by deterring negative memories from being retrieved. In our first experiment, we measured individual differences in retrieval-induced forgetting, a phenomenon believed to be the consequence of retrieval inhibition, and correlated that measure with individual differences in the recall of positive and negative autobiographical memories. Participants who exhibited lower levels of retrieval-induced forgetting recalled significantly more negative memories despite recalling fewer positive memories. In our second experiment, participants attempted to recall negative memories from childhood and from the previous month. Participants who exhibited lower levels of retrieval-induced forgetting recalled significantly more negative memories in both conditions. These results suggest that inhibition plays a key role in preventing the retrieval of negative autobiographical memories.

Kynurenine pathway metabolites are associated with hippocampal activity during autobiographical memory recall in patients with depression

In two experiments, we examined the effects of high and low levels of dysphoria on retrieval‐induced forgetting (RIF) of positive and negative autobiographical memories. In Experiment 1, participants took part in an RIF procedure that was adapted for autobiographical memories. Regardless of level of dysphoria, participants showed facilitation for both negative and positive memories; they only showed RIF for negative memories. Differences in baseline memories were responsible for this effect: Participants recalled more positive than negative baseline memories. Experiment 2 was conducted to address these baseline differences, and also focused only on participants with high levels of dysphoria. Again, high dysphoric participants showed facilitation for both positive and negative memories; they only showed RIF for negative memories. Recall also varied depending on the content of practiced memories and individual differences in anxiety. Overall, these results suggest that retrieval‐practice might have different outcomes for different kinds of autobiographical memories, that these outcomes may depend on individual memory biases and memory valence, and that practicing positive memories may assist mood repair. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Short- and longer-term effects of selective discussion of adolescents’ autobiographical memories

Autobiographical memories for negative and positive events in war contexts

Current researches are largely concentrated on the characteristics of the activation of neural networks related to the autobiographical memory's retrieval process with the technologies of fMRI and ERP;very few studies investigated the effects of emotion on the retrieval of autobiographical memory.Since the autobiographical memory has a distinct emotional characteristic,Will the retrieval processing of autobiographical memory be impacted by the emotion of the memory itself? An ERP study with the lexical decision task(LDT) was conducted to explore the effects of emotion on the implicit retrieval of the information from the autobiographical memory.The present study included two parts:the memory induced phase and the lexical decision task.Fifteen right-handed participants took part in this study;all were recruited from the university.In the memory induced phase,participants were asked to retrieve the positive、negative and neutral autobiographical memories according to the paired words(an emotional adjective-a neutral noun),these words were firstly assessed prior to the formal experiment.The nouns were evaluated again for their emotionality,importance and clarity on a 7-points scale after the retrievals.A relationship between the given nouns and the autobiographical memory was established,this relation would be used in the lexical decision task.The lexical decision task was conducted after the memory induced phase,in which participants needed to decide whether the item was a word or a pseudo-word by pressing the allocated keys.Each item was presented for 500ms and 2000ms was given to respond.The EEG was recorded while the items appeared.The results showed that participants successfully extracted three types of autobiographical memory with same degree of clarity,the positive and negative memories being more important than the neutral ones.The results of the lexical decision task revealed that the negative information of autobiographical memory triggered more positive ERP than the positive and neutral ones during 450～900ms.Although no difference was found between the positive and neutral information,significant difference existed between the negative information and the positive information,as well as between the negative information and the neutral information.This indicates that more cognitive resources are demanded for the retrieval of negative autobiographical memory.In short,we can conclude that the emotion does affect the implicit retrieval of the information from the autobiographical memory.It requires more cognitive resources in the retrieval of negative autobiographical memory than the positive and neutral autobiographical memories.

This study examined how cultural distance, acculturative stress, and social support interacted to influence emotional responses among international students studying in the northern part of Cyprus. Acculturation models and the stress-buffering hypothesis served as theoretical frameworks. The research questions involved understanding whether international students experienced more negative emotional responses compared to students from the home culture and whether social support moderated acculturative stress and reactions to being in the northern part of Cyprus. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) examined differences in emotional reactions between home and international students while hierarchical multiple regression was used to examine the moderation hypotheses. ANOVA results indicated that Turkish-Cypriots had more positive emotional responses than international students to being in the host culture. Results did not support social support as a moderator for either international students’ acculturative stress or their emotional reactions. However, results suggested that unmet expectations, less financial satisfaction, and less social support predicted acculturative stress, while being in a relationship, higher Turkish proficiency, unmet expectations, and higher acculturative stress predicted more negative emotional responses. These results may help universities design programs to support psychological adaptation among international students, which could ultimately facilitate student retention.

Autobiographical memories are characterised by a range of emotions and emotional reactions. Recent research has demonstrated that differences in emotional valence (positive vs. negative emotion) and arousal (the degree of emotional intensity) differentially influence the retrieved memory narrative. Although the mnemonic effects of valence and arousal have both been heavily studied, it is currently unclear whether the effects of emotional arousal are equivalent for positive and negative autobiographical events. In the current study, multilevel models were used to examine differential effects of emotional valence and arousal on the richness of autobiographical memory retrieval both between and within subjects. Thirty-four young adults were asked to retrieve personal autobiographical memories associated with popular musical cues and to rate the valence, arousal and richness of these events. The multilevel analyses identified independent influences of valence and intensity upon retrieval characteristics at the within- and between-subject levels. In addition, the within-subject interactions between valence and arousal highlighted differential effects of arousal for positive and negative memories. These findings have important implications for future studies of emotion and memory, highlighting the importance of considering both valence and arousal when examining the role emotion plays in the richness of memory representation.

People living with HIV (PLHW) and other concealable stigmatized identities (CSIs) face continual decisions about the degree of openness they are willing to allow for their identities in different social contexts. Disclosing or concealment of CSIs describes potential stigma management strategies that may have distinct psychosocial consequences. This study aimed to examine disclosure processes in a sample of sexual minority men (SMM) with intersecting CSIs, who use substances and were suboptimally engaged in HIV care. Interviews (N = 33) were initially double coded following thematic analysis, which identified disclosure as a theme. Subsequently, content analysis and additional selective double coding were used to iteratively identify and refine subthemes related to disclosure decisions. Illustrative quotes and frequencies of the invoked subthemes and identities were recorded for each participant. The majority of participants discussed experiences of disclosure and nondisclosure (N = 31, 94%). Among these, a spectrum of related behaviors and preferences emerged, including active disclosure, passive disclosure, passive nondisclosure, and concealment. Across disclosure-related content, in addition to HIV status, the majority of participants also described navigating decisions about disclosure of sexual orientation (71%), substance use (61%), and multiple identities at once (55%). Findings from this study highlight the fluid and multi-dimensional nature of identity-related disclosure processes in SMM with multiple CSIs. Participants in this study possessed interlocking stigmatized identities and described being varying degrees of "out" across identities and time. Moreover, these findings challenge common beliefs that disclosure is a binary construct associated with positive gain.

Black sexual minority men (BSMM) in the USA navigate a range of factors that may influence the extent to which they disclose or conceal their sexual identity in various social contexts. To date, few studies have investigated the correlates of sexual identity disclosure or concealment among BSMM across multiple life domains. Guided by a minority stress perspective and intersectionality, we analyzed data from N = 809 BSMM who participated in the Social Justice Sexuality Survey. We conducted ordinary least squares regression to examine the relative weight of perceptions of homophobia, religiosity, LGBT community connectedness, racial identity salience, and sexual identity salience on disclosure of sexual identity in six social-relational contexts: (1) family, (2) friends, (3) neighbors, (4) religious community, (5) work, and (6) online. Findings indicate that BSMM disclosed their sexual identity unevenly across social-relational contexts. Notably, LGBTQ community connectedness and sexual identity importance were consistent predictors of sexual identity disclosure across contexts. In contrast, perceptions of homophobia were not related to sexual identity disclosure, suggesting that other factors may be more salient for BSMM when deciding to disclose their sexual identity. Finally, bisexual men consistently reported lower levels of sexual identity disclosure relative to gay men in all six contexts. Study findings have important implications for future research on sexual identity disclosure with diverse samples of BSMM.

BackgroundIt has been demonstrated that health disparities between lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer (LGBQ) populations and the general population can be improved by disclosure of sexual identity to a health care provider (HCP). However, heteronormative assumptions (that is, assumptions based on a heterosexual identity and experience) may negatively affect communication between patients and HCPs more than has been recognized. The aim of this study was to understand LGBQ patients’ perceptions of their experiences related to disclosure of sexual identity to their primary care provider (PCP).MethodsOne-on-one semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted, audio-recorded, and transcribed. Participants were self-identified LGBQ adults with experiences of health care by PCPs within the previous five years recruited in Toronto, Canada. A qualitative descriptive analysis was performed using iterative coding and comparing and grouping data into themes.ResultsFindings revealed that disclosure of sexual identity to PCPs was related to three main themes: 1) disclosure of sexual identity by LGBQ patients to a PCP was seen to be as challenging as coming out to others; 2) a solid therapeutic relationship can mitigate the difficulty in disclosure of sexual identity; and, 3) purposeful recognition by PCPs of their personal heteronormative value system is key to establishing a strong therapeutic relationship.ConclusionImproving physicians’ recognition of their own heteronormative value system and addressing structural heterosexual hegemony will help to make health care settings more inclusive. This will allow LGBQ patients to feel better understood, willing to disclose, subsequently improving their care and health outcomes.