The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 8 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Life is Pleasant—and Memory Helps to Keep it that Way!
Abstract
People's recollections of the past are often positively biased. This bias has 2 causes. The 1st cause lies in people's perceptions of events. The authors review the results of several studies and present several new comparative analyses of these studies, all of which indicate that people perceive events in their lives to more often be pleasant than unpleasant. A 2nd cause is the fading affect bias: The affect associated with unpleasant events fades faster than the affect associated with pleasant events. The authors review the results of several studies documenting this bias and present evidence indicating that dysphoria (mild depression) disrupts such bias. Taken together, this evidence suggests that autobiographical memory represents an important exception to the theoretical claim that bad is stronger than good.
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Cites
A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Festinger, L. (1957) · doi:10.1515/9781503620766 · Cited by 24,241
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323 · Cited by 7,678
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Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass.
Öhman, A., Flykt, A., & Esteves, F. (2001) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.3.466 · Cited by 2,542
Happiness Is a Stochastic Phenomenon
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Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the nun study.
Danner, D. D., Snowdon, D. A., & Friesen, W. V. (2001) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.80.5.804 · Cited by 1,406
Autobiographical memory in suicide attempters.
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Differential change in affective intensity and the forgetting of unpleasant personal experiences.
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Cognition and Depression: Current Status and Future Directions
Gotlib, I. H., & Joormann, J. (2010) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.121208.131305 · Cited by 2,420
Nostalgia: content, triggers, functions
Wildschut, T., Sedikides, C., Arndt, J., & Routledge, C. (2006) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.975 · Cited by 1,252
Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C. (2006) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.01.009 · Cited by 822
Neural mechanisms of motivated forgetting
Anderson, M. C., & Hanslmayr, S. (2014) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.03.002 · Cited by 533
Beck, A. T., & Bredemeier, K. (2016) · Clinical Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/2167702616628523 · Cited by 510
Metadata
- Authors
- Walker, W. R., Skowronski, J. J., & Thompson, C. P.
- Venue
- Review of General Psychology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-06
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 203-210
- ISSN
- 1089-2680 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1552
- OpenAlex
- W2123372240
- Cited by
- 625
- References
- 8
- FWCI
- 6.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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