In Diversity There is Strength: An Autobiographical Memory Research Sampler

Abstract

Abstract In this introduction, the author argues that methodological concerns induced early experimental psychologists to shy away from research that used autobiographical memories as stimuli. Consequently, no dominant paradigm or theory developed and the study of autobiographical memories was left to various other subdisciplines of psychology. These subdisciplines brought with them a variety of theoretical concerns and empirical methods. The author argues that these concerns and methods have been carried forward into current autobiographical memory research and cites the present compilation as evidence. The author further suggests that the diversity prompted by the early marginalization of autobiographical memory research ultimately may have been a boon to the area, in that it yielded a similar diversity in theories and approaches that makes the area well–positioned for the future.