Personality correlates of autobiographical memory

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personali ty traits and autobiographical memory. Ninety-one (91) undergraduates compl eted an autobiographical memory questionnaire, describing experiences of un pleasant emotional episodes, and then rating their qualities: Vividness, em otionality, influence, and so on. They also completed a number of personali ty inventories, including the Yatabe-Guilford Personality Inventory and Sel f-Acceptance Inventory. Results indicated that emotionally stable and high- activity subjects perceived past unpleasant episodes as more positive, alth ough there was no qualitative difference. Compared with emotionally unstabl e and low-activity subjects, they also had a higher self-acceptance score, and acknowledged and accepted own shortcomings. People with adaptive person ality appear to have positive views on many aspects of the self. These find ings were interpreted from the self-schema perspective of memory.