Self-defining Memories in the System of Self-Memory Interfunctional Relationships

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to extend the field of research in cultural-historical psychology by assimilating the construct of self-defining autobiographical memories (SDMs), which are in high demand among cognitive psychologists of personality. On the one hand, SDMs reflect one’s core motivation, personal traits, and leading goals. On the other hand, SDMs serve as a means of forming a sense of personal identity and continuity within one’s individual history. In the literature review, evidence supporting the SDM construct's validity was critically appraised through the lenses of individual differences, correlations with other variables, clinical cases, and experimental results on causal links between SDM transformation and various measures of personality. The Self-Memory System model (SMS), which connects autobiographical memory and the self, is discussed as a pertinent framework for interpreting SDM’s unique properties. The argument ends with the proposition that the cultural-historical approach would benefit from accommodating SDMs as an ideal mediator of interfunctional relationships, both inside personality and between personality and cognitive processes.