Gender differences in autobiographical memory for childhood emotional experiences

Research to date has paid remarkably little heed to gender differences in a utobiographical memory. To redress this, the author examined memory for chi ldhood events in adult men and women remembering back to childhood, and in children themselves. Five studies were conducted, and results revealed that females consistently recalled more childhood memories than males did and s ere generally faster in accessing the memories recalled. Furthermore, the g ender difference observed was specific to memories of events associated wit h emotion and was apparent across a diverse range of emotions experienced b y both the self and others. The overall pattern of findings obtained is con sistent with the proposition that gender-differentiate socialization proces ses influence the content and complexity of representations of autobiograph ical emotional events in memory. To some extent, then, autobiographical mem ory appears to be a socially constructed phenomenon.