Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, October 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2005. / Typescript.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-29). Also available via the World Wide Web.

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Complicated Grief (CG) has been identified as a potential consequence of bereavement that is associated with unique and debilitating outcomes. This thesis investigated autobiographical memory in CG. This program of research focused on the specificity and content of autobiographical memories in the context of CG. Study 1 investigated memory retrieval specificity using a cue word paradigm. Bereaved individuals with CG displayed an overgeneral retrieval style (OGM) compared to bereaved individuals without CG. Study 2 found that CG participants were also less specific in imagining future events in response to positive cues. Further, there was a significant independent relationship between memory retrieval specificity and the specificity of future imaginings. Study 3 investigated the relationship between overgeneral memory and social problem solving. CG participants performed more poorly on this task; however, there was no independent relationship with memory retrieval style. Study 4 investigated the impact of treatment on OGM. Results indicated that as symptoms of CG reduced following treatment, individuals retrieved more specific memories to positive cues. Studies 5-7 examined proposed relationships between self construct and autobiographical remembering in CG, as outlined in Conway and Pleydell-Pearce??s (2000) self memory system model. In Study 5, individuals with CG were more likely than bereaved controls to view their self-identity as being related to the deceased. Study 6 investigated the relationship between self-discrepancy, personal goals and memory content. CG individuals were more likely to recall loss-related memories, and there was a relationship between personal goals and memory content. Study 7 extended examination of these factors to future-related thinking. Finally, the program recognised the importance of investigating the impact of the cognitive strategies that individuals may adopt to manage painful memories. Using an experimental Stroop procedure as a measure of thought accessibility, Study 8 investigated thought suppression in CG. The results suggested that CG individuals experienced greater interference from death-related cues. In summary, these studies highlighted some of the key memory processes that may be involved in the maintenance, and potentially the resolution, of CG.

By telling and retelling their life stories in everyday social interaction, adult learners describe times of continuity and change in their lives, and give an account of their self-formation. A disjuncture between the learners' life stories and events experienced either in their social context or in their inner life invites their reflection on its significance. Transformative learning occurs when reflection on such experience leads to interpretations which change the learners' meaning perspectives and their social practice. These changes are incorporated into a new version of the life story. Adult education approaches to perspective transformation have generally emphasised the interpretive role of critical reflection and thinking. Autobiography, as a metaphor for transformative learning, proposes that transformative learning also has the quality of a narrative constructed with imagination. Through ongoing interpretation of events in their inner and outer experience, learners compose their lives and their life stories. The social context is a dynamic setting for autobiographical learning. Its structures and institutions concretise the learners' social and cultural tradition, which has been shaped by design and historical circumstance. Through the prejudgments of their tradition, learners perceive reality and construct corresponding lives and life stories. Theoretical approaches to interpreting life experience differ in their estimation of the value of the learners' tradition. In adult education theory and practice, Habermas' critical theory has been enlisted as a conceptual basis for perspective transformation. Little attention has been afforded to either Gadamer's hermeneutic consciousness, or Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics as ways to understand the interpretive activity which leads to the learners' self-formation and the re-invention of their life story. Six former Roman Catholic priests participated in a cooperative inquiry, telling their life stories of remarkable change in life choice. They sought deeper self-knowledge, as well as an understanding of the widespread social phenomenon of Catholic priests choosing to marry. Their autobiographical accounts indicate that, as they gradually composed new life narratives, these learners gained personal authority as the authors of their lives. The stories also indicate that, at one time or other, a state of stagnation developed in the authors' lives. Despite the learners' lengthy periods of consciously attempting to resolve the stalemate, it was an act of spontaneous imagination which illuminated a way through. The explanatory understanding of autobiographical or transformative learning proposed here claims that imagination, which bridges the domains of conscious and unconscious knowing in the author, is a partner with critical reflection in interpreting the life in its social context. Through transformative or hermeneutic conversation, adult educators may foster and promote the formation of autobiography and transformative learning. Further research, linking autobiography and transformative learning, would purposefully explore the role of other internal processes in transformative learning, such as feeling, and examine their relationship with imagination. It is likely that the acknowledgment of imagination as integral to transformative learning would lead to research which considers models of personhood other than those which emphasise ego as the conscious director of knowing and learning.

This study examined the associations between behavioral inhibition in early childhood and patterns of social-emotional functioning in adolescence. As part of a larger longitudinal study on temperament and social development, adolescents who were recruited as infants completed two tasks to assess social-cognitive biases at follow-up: an information-processing task and an autobiographical memory task. The information-processing task assessed adolescents? interpretations of ambiguous situations. Next, adolescents completed an autobiographical memory task where they were exposed to both social and neutral-cued words, and recalled the first memory that came to mind. Memories were coded for specificity, affective tone, response latency, and emotional intensity. Afterwards, adolescents were also presented with a word recall task. In addition, shyness and socially anxious behaviors were observed as adolescents participated in a self-presentation speech task with an unfamiliar peer. Behavioral inhibition at age two was found to predict higher levels of observed anxious behaviors (self-presentation anxiety) during the peer interaction. This relation appears to be mediated by a pattern of blunted affect in response to socially-cued autobiographical memories. While the relation between temperament ratings of early behavioral inhibition and the blunted memory affect was content-specific to social-cued words, current self-presentation anxiety during the peer interaction was related to a more generalized bias that was not content-specific. In addition to the blunted memory affect, adolescent self-presentation anxiety was associated with less affective interpretations on the story task, poorer word recall, slowed response times, decreased emotional intensity.

Visual perspective in the context of autobiographical memory research refers to the point of view from which an individual constructs a visual image of a past event. While the number of studies focusing on this phenomenological aspect of retrieval has increased in the last decade, a basic understanding of the meaning of perspective and its fundamental characteristics has not been fully established. The current studies attempt to further this understanding. The first series of studies examine the role of memory age in perspective using continuous scales to measure self-reported perspective. These studies show memories change in a linear fashion, from first- to third-person perspective, as memories become more remote. Furthermore, individuals report more than one perspective during a single retrieval episode, females report more third-person perspective than do males, and individual differences in perspective use were observed. These individual differences were not accounted for by personality differences, such as levels of public self-consciousness. A second series of studies asked participants to describe the location of their visual perspective, rather than using continuous scales. These studies show visual perspective location varies greatly and consistently across space and for different events. For example, memories of giving a presentation were more likely to be visualized from in front of the individual, whereas memories of running from a threat were visualized from behind the individual. Although perspective location varies across events and space, location did not affect other phenomenological aspects of retrieval, such as memory vividness, belief in the accuracy of one's memory, or the degree of reliving experienced, nor did location map onto the ideal location for watching an event unfold or for watching one's self complete a task. Together these studies further characterize visual perspective during retrieval, suggesting it is more complex than a simple, dichotomous distinction between first- and third-person perspective. Additionally, they highlight the importance of understanding the phenomenological experience of perspective in order to appreciate its significance in other domains. / Dissertation

By telling and retelling their life stories in everyday social interaction, adult learners describe times of continuity and change in their lives, and give an account of their self-formation. A disjuncture between the learners' life stories and events experienced either in their social context or in their inner life invites their reflection on its significance. Transformative learning occurs when reflection on such experience leads to interpretations which change the learners' meaning perspectives and their social practice. These changes are incorporated into a new version of the life story. Adult education approaches to perspective transformation have generally emphasised the interpretive role of critical reflection and thinking. Autobiography, as a metaphor for transformative learning, proposes that transformative learning also has the quality of a narrative constructed with imagination. Through ongoing interpretation of events in their inner and outer experience, learners compose their lives and their life stories. The social context is a dynamic setting for autobiographical learning. Its structures and institutions concretise the learners' social and cultural tradition, which has been shaped by design and historical circumstance. Through the prejudgments of their tradition, learners perceive reality and construct corresponding lives and life stories. Theoretical approaches to interpreting life experience differ in their estimation of the value of the learners' tradition. In adult education theory and practice, Habermas' critical theory has been enlisted as a conceptual basis for perspective transformation. Little attention has been afforded to either Gadamer's hermeneutic consciousness, or Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics as ways to understand the interpretive activity which leads to the learners' self-formation and the re-invention of their life story. Six former Roman Catholic priests participated in a cooperative inquiry, telling their life stories of remarkable change in life choice. They sought deeper self-knowledge, as well as an understanding of the widespread social phenomenon of Catholic priests choosing to marry. Their autobiographical accounts indicate that, as they gradually composed new life narratives, these learners gained personal authority as the authors of their lives. The stories also indicate that, at one time or other, a state of stagnation developed in the authors' lives. Despite the learners' lengthy periods of consciously attempting to resolve the stalemate, it was an act of spontaneous imagination which illuminated a way through. The explanatory understanding of autobiographical or transformative learning proposed here claims that imagination, which bridges the domains of conscious and unconscious knowing in the author, is a partner with critical reflection in interpreting the life in its social context. Through transformative or hermeneutic conversation, adult educators may foster and promote the formation of autobiography and transformative learning. Further research, linking autobiography and transformative learning, would purposefully explore the role of other internal processes in transformative learning, such as feeling, and examine their relationship with imagination. It is likely that the acknowledgment of imagination as integral to transformative learning would lead to research which considers models of personhood other than those which emphasise ego as the conscious director of knowing and learning.

Complicated Grief (CG) has been identified as a potential consequence of bereavement that is associated with unique and debilitating outcomes. This thesis investigated autobiographical memory in CG. This program of research focused on the specificity and content of autobiographical memories in the context of CG. Study 1 investigated memory retrieval specificity using a cue word paradigm. Bereaved individuals with CG displayed an overgeneral retrieval style (OGM) compared to bereaved individuals without CG. Study 2 found that CG participants were also less specific in imagining future events in response to positive cues. Further, there was a significant independent relationship between memory retrieval specificity and the specificity of future imaginings. Study 3 investigated the relationship between overgeneral memory and social problem solving. CG participants performed more poorly on this task; however, there was no independent relationship with memory retrieval style. Study 4 investigated the impact of treatment on OGM. Results indicated that as symptoms of CG reduced following treatment, individuals retrieved more specific memories to positive cues. Studies 5-7 examined proposed relationships between self construct and autobiographical remembering in CG, as outlined in Conway and Pleydell-Pearce??s (2000) self memory system model. In Study 5, individuals with CG were more likely than bereaved controls to view their self-identity as being related to the deceased. Study 6 investigated the relationship between self-discrepancy, personal goals and memory content. CG individuals were more likely to recall loss-related memories, and there was a relationship between personal goals and memory content. Study 7 extended examination of these factors to future-related thinking. Finally, the program recognised the importance of investigating the impact of the cognitive strategies that individuals may adopt to manage painful memories. Using an experimental Stroop procedure as a measure of thought accessibility, Study 8 investigated thought suppression in CG. The results suggested that CG individuals experienced greater interference from death-related cues. In summary, these studies highlighted some of the key memory processes that may be involved in the maintenance, and potentially the resolution, of CG.