Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality traits and autobiographical memory. Ninety-one (91) undergraduates completed an autobiographical memory questionnaire, describing experiences of unpleasant emotional episodes, and then rating their qualities: Vividness, emotionality, influence, and so on. They also completed a number of personality inventories, including the Yatabe-Guilford Personality Inventory and Self-Acceptance Inventory. Results indicated that emotionally stable and high-activity subjects perceived past unpleasant episodes as more positive, although there was no qualitative difference. Compared with emotionally unstable and low-activity subjects, they also had a higher self-acceptance score, and acknowledged and accepted own shortcomings. People with adaptive personality appear to have positive views on many aspects of the self. These findings were interpreted from the self-schema perspective of memory.
