La Vie en Rose: High Levels of Well-Being and Events Inside and Outside Autobiographical Memory

Abstract

The present study examined adolescents’ interpretation and memory for stimuli inside and outside autobiographical memory in relation to high and low levels of Subjective (SWB) and Psychological Well-Being (PWB). Participants (69 high school pupils), identified as being either the 5 % upper or the 5 % lower scorers from 687 pupils who self-reported SWB and PWB, were asked to recall and list the most positive and negative life events during the past year. Words in a short story were used to assess events outside autobiographical memory. The high well-being groups remembered more positive than negative life events. Conversely to the other groups, the high PWB group interpreted positive and negative life events equally and had no preference for recognition of positive words. The number of words rated as positive predicted false recognition of positive words among the high well-being groups. Thus, suggesting important cognitive differences and similarities related to SWB and PWB.