Role of Gender and Stress in Emotional Autobiographical Memories Retrieval

Abstract

Emotional autobiographical memory (AM) comprises a set of personal events (episodic) and general information (semantic) highly relevant to the self. This type of memory refers not only to past events, but also influences the meaning of the present and guides future behavior. Even so, there is little literature on positive MA and this is related to an inherent methodological difficulty. In the present study, the evocation of positive and neutral MA was assessed in a sample of 72 participants based on the reported gender identity, the typicality of the gender role (BSRI), the retrieval modality (free recall or recognition) and the basal stress level (EEP-10). The amount of details present, their assessment and the subjective self-report of the emotional AM evoked were evaluated. The results indicated significant differences in subjective self-report according to the typicality of the gender role; differences in the amount of details present depending on the retrieval modality and differences in the value of the thoughts/emotions/actions present depending on the evocation modality and baseline stress. No differences were found based on gender identity. These results present an original contribution to the study of the phenomenological and content characterization of positive emotional MA