Self Concept and Subjective Temporal Distance and Memory Ownership

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the person's current views of self and judgments of subjective temporal distance and ownership of experiences in the remembered past. Study 1 showed that an equally temporally distant episode was felt close or remote, depending on the congruency with current self-evaluation. That is, participants with high self-esteem reported that they felt positive events closer in time than equally distant negative events, whereas participants with low self-esteem reported that they felt negative events closer than positive events. Similarly, the “not me” feeling appeared to emerge from a mismatch between current self-evaluation and a remembered event. Study 2 also showed participants reported that they felt remembered episodes that were incongruent with their present self-concept more remote in time and as if “It does not belong to me,” regardless of actual temporal distance and memory ownership. These results suggested that current self concept had bearing on the feelings of subjective temporal distance and the “not me” feeling of the remembered past.