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The lifetime temporal distribution of older adults’ autobiographical memories peaks during the transitional period of late adolescence and early adulthood, a phenomenon known as the reminiscence bump. This age-specific memory enhancement suggests that transitions may provide a more general organizing structure for autobiographical memory. To test t...
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... shown in Figure 1, the overall temporal distributions of memory ages for movers (n = 733) and non-movers (n = 377) were similar and relatively uniform, as was the distribution of ages at the time of the most important move (n =149). The distribution of most important move ages was similar to the overall distribution of move ages. ...
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... The TIS is designed to measure the impact of transitional events (in this case, the Pandemic) on individuals' lives, considering both psychological and material aspects. Mean TIS scores over 4 out of 5 have only been observed in major life transitions and collective events that radically altered people's lives (Enz et al., 2016;Gu et al., 2020;Shi & Brown, 2016). Based on prior research (Heanoy et al., 2021), we expected that the material TIS score would be around the middle point of the scale, indicating that the Pandemic brought about some change but that it did not radically alter the lives of the students who took part in this study. ...
... Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc comparisons revealed that participants rated the psychological impact of the Pandemic higher than its material impact both in Transitional events that cause a big and enduring change in people's lives usually produce a TIS score over 4 on this scale (Enz et al., 2016;Gu et al., 2020;Shi & Brown, 2016). Consistent with this point and prior research on the COVID-19 pandemic (Heanoy et al., 2021), these data indicate that the Pandemic did affect the lives of these students, but it did not radically alter them. ...
... In general then, these findings are in line with the findings of previous studies demonstrating that wars (Bohn & Habermas, 2016;Brown & Lee, 2010;Zebian & Brown, 2014), and natural disasters (Brown et al., 2009) produce H-DAPs in the affected populations. These results are also consistent with research demonstrating that voluntary and forced relocation delineate lifetime periods (Enz et al., 2016;Pillemer et al., 2023;Shi & Brown, 2016). However, in contrast to other H-DAP-spawning phenomena, the Pandemic was not a violent event, and for most people, it did not bring about a dramatic and enduring change in the fabric of daily life, as observed in TIS scores. ...
... Enz et al. [38] further theorised that a life involving a major transition, such as home moving, should give rise to a higher density of memories because the transitions give individual events a novel backdrop. If home movers are owner-occupiers, their autobiographical memories would be expected to be stronger in a specific location. ...
Moving homes has long been considered stressful, but how stressful is it? This study is an original attempt to utilise a micro-level individual dataset in the New Zealand Government’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) to reconstruct the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) and thereby measure stress at a whole-of-population level. The effects of residential mobility on people’s mental well-being in the context of their stress-of-moving homes are examined. By using difference-in-differences analysis, this study scrutinises the stress level across movers, namely homeowners and renters (i.e., treatment groups) and non-movers (i.e., a control group). The results show that the change in residence increases people’s overall stress levels. Homeowners are more stressed than renters, with non-movers as the counterfactuals. Furthermore, the frequency of change in residences increases individual baseline stress levels. By progressing the understanding of such stresses, residential mobility researchers can contribute to broader discussions on how individuals’ interpersonal history and social mobility influence their experience. The whole-of-population-based SRRS will better advance our current ways of measuring mental stress at a population level, which is crucial to broader discussions of people’s well-being.
... The type of residential relocation being studied relates to relocation for reasons of health (Bharucha et al., 2004;Miller & Weissert, 2000), reduced autonomy (Enz et al., 2016;Hallberg & Lagergren, 2009;Miller & Weissert, 2000) or overwhelming frailty (Bloem et al., 2008;Puts et al., 2005), all of which are accumulated by needing care (Larsson et al., 2006). Thus, it is not about relocation for logistical reasons (Hansen & Gottschalk, 2006;Stimson & McCrea, 2004) or regarding home management issues (Sergeant & Ekerdt, 2008). ...
The current literature on the geriatric population highlights that relocation into a healthcare facility is a crucial event in the existence of many older people and their families. Guilt, difficulties, concern and restlessness may characterise this transition and even accelerate the ageing process in some. However, the manner in which the decision to relocate is made and communicated has not been well investigated. The following study aims to explore how older residents experience the transition into a care home as well as how they experience their relationship with it and its clinicians, and what processes may determine their own sense of autonomy. The researchers used a qualitative method and conducted semi-structured interviews. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was chosen as the tool for data analysis. Results showed that relocation into care homes is described as a passive and influenced choice. Further, the facility is described as a place that provides essential services to older people but also as a place where it is possible to maintain personalised relationships. Finally, the study discusses the implications of older people’s mental representations not only on their lives but also on how their relatives, clinicians and society perceive them. This also extends to the implications on how services are organised and implemented.
... Our study design offered the opportunity to observe whether vivid and highly accessible memories of marriage and childbirth provide an organising structure for the identification and recall of less prominent life events occurring during the bump years. This component of the study design was inspired by Enz et al. (2016), who found that older adults' personal memories are often organised around a distinctive and important transitional life event: a residential move (also see Schrauf & Rubin, 1998, 2001and Svob & Brown, 2012, for parallel findings involving immigration). The researchers sampled memories from ages 40-60 years, an interval that is not densely populated by highly scripted, age-linked personal milestones. ...
... Furthermore, an elevated memory incidence was still evident when memories of the move itself were omitted from the analyses. One explanation for memory clustering around a major life transition is that associated events benefit from enhanced cognitive processing and repeated rehearsal (Enz et al., 2016). In addition, a highly salient and frequently rehearsed transitional event may be temporally linked to neighbouring events, facilitating their recall (e.g., "The car accident happened just before we moved to Ohio this set our planning back a few weeks"). ...
... To examine the role played by a singular transitional life event on the temporal distribution of personal memories, Enz et al. (2016) intentionally sampled memories within a life period outside the bump years, where highly memorable, age-linked landmark events are less likely to occur. The current study design allowed us to test the hypothesis that personal memories occurring during the more densely populated bump years also would cluster around the two most common and salient landmark events of this age period: getting married and having a child. ...
When older adults are asked to recall personal events that occurred at any point in their lives, memories from late adolescence and early adulthood are overrepresented, forming a reminiscence bump. Thematic analyses have indicated that the bump memories that emerge in response to such prompts frequently represent milestone events that are consistent with cultural life scripts. This study employed a novel method that explicitly targeted only memories of events occurring during late adolescence and early adulthood, allowing in-depth exploration of the contents and potential organising principles associated with these memories. Older adults (N = 197) completed an on-line survey in which they described 7 memories of personal events that had occurred at any time between the ages of 19 and 34. Content analyses indicated that memories frequently portrayed landmark events, consistent with cultural life script theory. After completing the memory task, participants who had been married or had their first child between ages 19 and 34 provided their age at the time of these events. Temporal distributions of memory ages centred on participants’ ages at the time of their first marriage or childbirth also were consistent with the life script explanation for the reminiscence bump.
... First, consider how the Pandemic might affect the temporal distribution of memorable personal events. Prior research has demonstrated that memorable personal events tend to "pile up" around impactful transitions (Enz, Pillemer, & Johnson, 2016;Kurbat, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Pillemer, Goldsmith, Panther, & White, 1988;Shi & Brown, 2016;Thomsen and Berntsen, 2005) and occur more often during unstable periods (e.g., wars and natural disasters) than during stable ones (Bohn & Habermas, 2016;Brown et al., 2016;Gu et al., 2017;Zebian & Brown, 2014). This happens because people in transition (or living in unstable times) have left their old routines and are taking part in many one-off events and having many first-time experiences (Robinson, 1992;Rubin, Rahhal, & Poon, 1998). ...
The COVID-19 Pandemic is unique in its near universal scope and in the way that it has changed our lives. These facts suggest that it might also be unique in its effects on memory. A framework outlined in this article, Transition Theory, is used to explicate the mnemonically relevant ways in which the onset of the Pandemic differs from other personal and collective transitions and how the Pandemic Period might differ from other personally-defined and historically-defined autobiographical periods. Transition Theory also provides the basis for several predictions. Specifically, it predicts (a) a COVID bump (an increase in availability of event memories at the outset of the Pandemic) followed by (b) a lockdown dip (a decrease in availability of event memories from lockdown periods compared to other stable periods). It also predicts that (c) people may consider the Pandemic an important chapter in their life stories, but only when there is little continuity between their pre-Pandemic and post-Pandemic lives. Time will tell whether these predictions pan out. However, it is not too soon to highlight those aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic that are likely to shape our personal and collective memories of this very unusual historical period.
... First, consider how the Pandemic might affect the temporal distribution of memorable personal events. Prior research has demonstrated that memorable personal events tend to "pile up" around impactful transitions (Enz, Pillemer & Johnson, 2016;Kurbart, Shevell, & Rips, 1998;Pillemer, Goldsmith, Panther & White, 1988;Shi & Brown, 2016;Thomsen & Berntsen, 2005) and occur more often during unstable periods (e.g., wars and natural disasters) than stable ones (Bohn & Habermas, 2016;Brown et al., 2016;Gu, et al., 2017;Zebian & Brown, 2014). This happens because people in transition (or living in unstable times) have left their old routines and are taking part in many one-off events and having many first time experiences (Robinson, 1992;Rubin, Rahhal & Poon, 1998). ...
The COVID-19 Pandemic is unique in its near universal scope and in the way that it has changed our lives. These facts suggest that it might also be unique in its effects on memory. A framework outlined in this article, Transition Theory, is used to explicate the mnemonically relevant ways in which the onset of the Pandemic differs from other personal and collective transitions and how the Pandemic Period might differ from other personally-defined and historically-defined autobiographical periods. Transition Theory also provides the basis for several predictions. Specifically, it predicts (a) a COVID bump (an increase in availability of event memories at the outset of the Pandemic) followed by (b) a Lockdown dip (a decrease in availability of event memories from lockdown periods compared to other stable periods). It also predicts that (c) people may consider the Pandemic an important chapter in their life stories, but only when there is little continuity between their pre-Pandemic and post-Pandemic lives. Time will tell whether these predictions pan out. However, it is not too soon to highlight those aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic that are likely to shape our personal and collective memories of this very unusual historical period.
... Some evidence suggests that narrating particular kinds of events as having created damage to the self may be associated with perceiving those events as more central to the life story , but thus far, relatively little empirical work has tried to connect the situated construction of meaning to the nature of people's life stories. Examining this process might benefit from a focus on life transitions, as events in and around such transitions are known to be particularly memorable (Enz, Pillemer, & Johnson, 2016;Schrauf & Rubin, 1998). Further, transitions may provide occasions for narration of parts of the life story as people engage in new relationships and experiences, thus rendering some parts of the prior life story-those that are relevant in a new situation-strengthened. ...
This chapter elucidates the two dominant approaches to the study of narratives, identity, and the life story, which we label structural and process approaches. Structural approaches have focused on the relationship of the life story to other domains of personality, the specific features that constitute narrative identity, as well as the associations between narrative identity and other outcomes, such as psychological well-being. Process approaches have focused on the ways in which the situated process of narrating one's experience (including contextual factors such as features of listeners) impacts memory, emotion, and self-conception. We argue that structural approaches have not sufficiently elucidated the ways in which narrative identity develops, while process approaches provide little guidance about the structures purported to arise from narrative processes. We elaborate the key issues and major contributions of each approach, as well as their shortcomings, and then offer possible pathways forward toward integrating structure and process in the study of narrative, identity, and the life story.
... Similarly, the findings of Janssen et al. (2015) do not contradict the findings that external factors, such as wars and natural disasters (e.g., Benson et al., 1992;Brown et al., 2009;Conway & Haque, 1999;Zebian & Brown, 2014) or spinal cord injuries and residential moves (e.g., Enz, Pillemer, & Johnson, 2016;Schrauf & Rubin, 2001;Uzer & Brown, 2015), might cause a higher prevalence of personal events as well. Those events can have such impact on daily life that they supersede age-related changes in encoding efficiency. ...
People tend to recall more specific personal events from adolescence and early adulthood than from other lifetime periods, a finding known as the reminiscence bump. Several explanations have suggested that events from the reminiscence bump are especially emotional, important, or positive, but studies using cue words have not found support for these claims. An alternative account postulates that cognitive abilities function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, which may cause more memories to be stored in those lifetime periods. Although other studies have previously discussed the cognitive abilities account as a possible explanation for the reminiscence bump, it was only recently shown that cognitive abilities are indeed related to autobiographical memory performance. When this recent finding is combined with previous findings that cognitive abilities as well as autobiographical memory function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, they suggest that the cognitive abilities account is a promising explanation for the reminiscence bump in the temporal distribution of word-cued memories. However, because the account does not aim to explain the reminiscence bump in the distribution of highly significant events, it should be regarded as complementary to the existing accounts.
... Apart from the above predictions on the role of transitions in the organization of autobiographical memories, we also directly tested the transition theory that autobiographical memories would form a bump around major transitions in individuals' lives. Previous studies demonstrated an immigration bump that the temporal distribution of immigrants' memories formed a bump around the middle-aged years when they emigrated to a foreign country (Shi & Brown, 2016) and a relocation bump that movers' memories between ages of 40 and 60 clustered around their most important moves (Enz, Pillemer, & Johnson, 2016). The presence of these bumps suggests that autobiographical ...
Transition Theory posits that autobiographical memories are organized by major life transitions, which is often supported by the Living‐in‐History effect that occurs when people frequently refer to public events to support their date estimates of personal events. In the present study, 52 Chinese older adults in Hong Kong recalled autobiographical events using cue‐word method and justified the date estimates of the events. They also reported the most important events and assessed their impacts. Results showed that participants referred to public events only when estimating the date of 5.5% of word‐cued events and reported a few public events as personally important, suggesting an absence of the Living‐in‐History effect. Nonetheless, word‐cued events and important events accumulated around major life transitions to form a transition bump; the material change that important events brought about predicted whether the important events were used to organize autobiographical memory, thereby providing new evidence for the Transition Theory.
... Similarly, the findings of Janssen et al. (2015) do not contradict the findings that external factors, such as wars and natural disasters (e.g., Benson et al., 1992;Brown et al., 2009;Conway & Haque, 1999;Zebian & Brown, 2014) or spinal cord injuries and residential moves (e.g., Enz, Pillemer, & Johnson, 2016;Schrauf & Rubin, 2001;Uzer & Brown, 2015), might cause a higher prevalence of personal events as well. Those events can have such impact on daily life that they supersede age-related changes in encoding efficiency. ...
People tend to recall more specific personal events from adolescence and early adulthood than from other lifetime periods, a finding known as the reminiscence bump. Several explanations have suggested that events from the reminiscence bump are especially emotional, important, or positive, but studies using cue words have not found support for these claims. An alternative account postulates that cognitive abilities function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, which may cause more memories to be stored in those lifetime periods. Although other studies have previously discussed the cognitive abilities account as a possible explanation for the reminiscence bump, it was only recently shown that cognitive abilities are indeed related to autobiographical memory performance. When this recent finding is combined with previous findings that cognitive abilities as well as autobiographical memory function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, they suggest that the cognitive abilities account is a promising explanation for the reminiscence bump in the temporal distribution of word-cued memories. However, because the account does not aim to explain the reminiscence bump in the distribution of highly significant events, it should be regarded as complementary to the existing accounts.