Memories of me, memories of we: Trait self-knowledge, prototypical norms, and autobiographical memories

To more fully understand the complex relationship between self-knowledge and significant autobiographical memories, two studies examined the degree to which agency and communion orientations were consistently represented across self-views and autobiographical memories, and measured the strength of these relationships in relation to prototypical thematic norms in autobiographical recall. Participants completed measures assessing agentic trait and communal trait self-knowledge in the laboratory and later wrote descriptions of six significant autobiographical memories. Results of two studies indicated that agentic trait and communal trait self-knowledge were positively associated with thematic content across memories; however, these associations were more pronounced for events in which the themes were consistent with prototypical thematic tendencies. The roles of trait self-knowledge, prototypical norms, and temporal aspects of the self-concept on significant autobiographical memories were discussed.