New perspectives on autobiographical memory: The integration of narrative processing and autobiographical reasoning.

Singer, Jefferson A., Bluck, Susan·2001·Review of General Psychology

Abstract

Researchers from diverse psychological subdisciplines have increasingly turned their attention to the storied aspect of human thought. Narrative processing and autobiographical reasoning are 2 forms of this conscious thought. Narrative processing is the tendency to create thought units that use vivid imagery, sequential plots, characters, and salient goals. Autobiographical reasoning consists of interpreting and evaluating remembered experiences. Both forms of thought are discussed in D. P. McAdams's (2001) personality theory and D. B. Pillemer's (2001) cognitive research. S. Bluck and T. Habermas (2001) highlight developmental aspects of narrative processing and autobiographical reasoning, particularly in adolescent identity formation. U. M. Staudinger (2001) illustrates how autobiographical reasoning about memories and life stories serves as a springboard for wisdom at different stages of the life cycle. Implications for integrating subdisciplines of psychology are discussed.

Cites (8)

  1. Possible selves.
    Markus, Hazel, Nurius, Paula · 1986 · American Psychologist
  2. The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system
    Conway, Martin A., Pleydell-Pearce, Christopher W. · 2000 · Psychological Review
  3. The Psychology of Life Stories
    McAdams, Dan P. · 2001 · Review of General Psychology
  4. Emotional attention, clarity, and repair: Exploring emotional intelligence using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale.
    Salovey, Peter, Mayer, John D., Goldman, Susan Lee, Turvey, Carolyn, Palfai, Tibor P. · 1995 · Emotion, disclosure, & health.
  5. Getting a life: The emergence of the life story in adolescence.
    Habermas, Tilmann, Bluck, Susan · 2000 · Psychological Bulletin
  6. When Bad Things Turn Good and Good Things Turn Bad: Sequences of Redemption and Contamination in Life Narrative and their Relation to Psychosocial Adaptation in Midlife Adults and in Students
    McAdams, Dan P., Reynolds, Jeffrey, Lewis, Martha, Patten, Allison H., Bowman, Phillip J. · 2001 · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
  7. What is autobiographical memory?
    Brewer, William F. · 1986 · Autobiographical Memory
  8. Stories of commitment: The psychosocial construction of generative lives.
    McAdams, Dan P., Diamond, Ann, de St. Aubin, Ed, Mansfield, Elizabeth · 1997 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Show all 8 references

Cited by (6)

  1. The self and autobiographical memory: Correspondence and coherence
    Conway, Martin A., Singer, Jefferson A., Tagini, Angela · 2004 · Social Cognition
  2. Narrative Identity and Meaning Making Across the Adult Lifespan: An Introduction
    Singer, Jefferson A. · 2004 · Journal of Personality
  3. Autobiographical memory and sense of self.
    Prebble, Sally C., Addis, Donna Rose, Tippett, Lynette J. · 2013 · Psychological Bulletin
  4. Narrative identity in schizophrenia
    Raffard, Stéphane, D’Argembeau, Arnaud, Lardi, Claudia, Bayard, Sophie, Boulenger, Jean-Philippe, Linden, Martial Van der · 2010 · Consciousness and Cognition
  5. Actually, a picture is worth less than 45 words: Narratives produce more false memories than photographs do
    Garry, Maryanne, Wade, Kimberley A. · 2005 · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

See all 160

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: New perspectives on autobiographical memory: The integration of narrative processing and autobiographical reasoning. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//1089-2680.5.2.91
The paper
Singer, J. A., & Bluck, S. (2001). New perspectives on autobiographical memory: The integration of narrative processing and autobiographical reasoning. Review of General Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037//1089-2680.5.2.91

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.