Motive-related memories: Content, structure, and affect

Two studies tested hypotheses on the content and structure of autobiographi cal memories and the affect linked to them. In Study 1, agentic- and commun al-motivated individuals recorded their most memorable experiences and comp leted the PANAS each day for 6 weeks. Memories were coded for content and s tructure. Agentics and communals reported more motive congruent memories, a nd their congruent memories were structured using more differentiation and integration, respectively. In addition, agentics had slightly higher PA and lower NA scores. In Study 2, agentics and communals recalled an event pert aining to either social separation or connection and then completed an affe ct measure of agentic and communal items. Agentics recalled more agentic me mories in the separation condition and communals recalled more communal mem ories in the connection condition. Complexity analyses showed that agentics and communals used differentiation and integration respectively to recall their motive-congruent memories. The affect data showed a modest predicted pattern. Results suggest that implicit motives have an impact on autobiogra phical memory but are not as clearly related to self-report affect measures , possibly due to method variance.