How Do I Narrate My Marriage: The Relationship Between Attachment Orientation and Quality of Autobiographical Memory.

Yan Wang,Brooke C Feeney,Qianrong Wang,Dahua Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02107

Abstract

Attachment orientations play important roles in the generation of emotional autobiographical memory (AM). However, little research has considered the quality of autographical narratives, which may reflect the structure and content of internal working models (IWMs) of attachment. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between attachment orientations and narrative quality of marriage-related autobiographical memories. Ninety-four married adults were asked to retrieve two episodes of emotional autobiographical memories. The coherence and vividness of their narratives were then coded. Results indicated that adults who were highly avoidant were more likely to present their memories in a less coherent way and to describe negative memories with more perceptual details. In contrast, attachment anxiety was associated with lower vividness of negative memories. The current findings suggest that an attachment schematic-processing strategy was used in narrating the attachment-related experiences.

Highlights

Autobiographical memory (AM) represents the personal memory of ones’ experiences and reflects the history of an individual’s life (Conway, 1992)
Given that the function of attachment in narrating autobiographical memories of relationships with romantic partners have not been explored, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between attachment orientations and the quality of autobiographical narratives of older adults in long-term marriages
Greater coherence for positive memories was associated with greater coherence for negative memories, and greater vividness for positive memories was associated with greater vividness for negative memories

Summary

Introduction

Autobiographical memory (AM) represents the personal memory of ones’ experiences and reflects the history of an individual’s life (Conway, 1992). Given its self-referring nature (Brewer, 1986), the construction of AM should be influenced by the self (Conway et al, 2004). This investigation considers attachment orientation, which reflects internal working models (IWMs) of the self and others, as important predictors of the quality of autobiographical narratives. Previous studies usually examine the phenomenological experiences associated with remembering, such as vividness and coherence (e.g., Sutin and Gillath, 2009). These conscious evaluations after self-regulation do not reveal attachment influences on the actual content of AM.

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Conclusion