Abstract
The impact of anger on autobiographical recall was examined in two studies. In Experiment 1, 76 participants differing in trait anger completed an autobiographical memory task (AMT). In Experiment 2, 50 participants with elevated trait anger were either provoked or not provoked and subsequently completed an AMT. Across both studies, participants with high dispositional anger reported more anger-related memories, describing themselves as the primary agent of anger. In Experiment 2, provoked participants reported more memories describing themselves as the target of anger. These findings highlight the distinct patterns of memory recall associated with trait versus state anger. Findings are discussed in terms of retrieval biases operating in angry individuals and proposals stemming from self-memory system models of autobiographical memory.
Highlights
Autobiographical memories are recollections of personally experienced episodes from our past
high trait anger (HTA) participants scored in the range 22–33 (M = 26.44, SD = 2.86), medium trait anger (MTA) participants scored in the range 15–21 (M = 17.77, SD = 2.12), and low trait anger (LTA) participants scored in the range 10–14 (M = 12.68, SD = 1.28) on the 10-item STAXI-2: T-Anger
HTA participants in Experiment 1 recalled more angry memories in which they described themselves as the primary agent of anger and related emotions compared to MTA and LTA participants
Summary
Autobiographical memories are recollections of personally experienced episodes from our past. Despite considerable investigation in the emotion and memory literature, a notable gap in this field involves the role of anger and personal memories. Anger has been the focus of some studies, including those that have focused on trait anger in recalling anxious memories [10] and those that study emotion regulation strategies on anger resulting from anger-related autobiographical memories [11]. These studies have not directly investigated the impact of elicited anger on the nature of autobiographical memories. This is an important omission in the literature because studies of depression, PTSD, and grief have highlighted how other emotional states can impact on the nature of autobiographical memories is related to numerous indices of psychological functioning [12, 13]
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