Brinkhuis, Iris E.M. (2023) The Within-Person Effects of Shifting From a Field to an Observer Vantage Point on the Content of Aversive Autobiographical Memories and Their Characteristics. Research Master thesis, Research Master.
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Abstract
Autobiographical memories can be recollected from a field - and an observer perspective. Shifting from a field to an observer perspective is often considered an emotional avoidance strategy in clinical settings. Moreover, vantage points may influence how people re-experience memories and what they remember. This study explored what differences emerge in memory characteristics and content when the same aversive memory is recalled from different perspectives over time. Students retrieved and wrote a negative personal memory from their spontaneous field perspective. After a filler task, participants did so again, yet, half of the sample then recollected their memory from an observer perspective. Results indicated that shifting to an observer perspective reduced the emotional intensity during recollection and led to fewer affective reactions in content relative to when a field perspective was retained over recalls. The total content and the extent to which memories were experienced as vivid, emotionally distant and narrative coherent did not depend on whether participants switched perspectives. Exploratory analyses revealed that students who shifted perspective had fewer details on physical sensations, psychological states and first-person accounts in their memories at the second recall. To conclude, shifting to an observer perspective might lead to the omission of affective reactions in written content and seems to dampen the emotional intensity during the recollection of an aversive personal memory
| Item Type: | Thesis (Research Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Wessel, J.P. and Nauta, M.H. |
| Degree programme: | Research Master |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Psychology and Clinical Neuropsychology [Research Master] |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2023 10:05 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2023 10:05 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2552 |
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