How did you feel back then? Emotional memory conversations among mother-father-child triads


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Bürümlü Kısa E., Şahin Acar B.

in: Autobiographical memory development: Theoretical and methodological approaches, Sami Gülgöz,Başak Şahin Acar, Editor, Routledge, London/New York , London, pp.136-147, 2020

  • Publication Type: Book Chapter / Chapter Vocational Book
  • Publication Date: 2020
  • Publisher: Routledge, London/New York 
  • City: London
  • Page Numbers: pp.136-147
  • Editors: Sami Gülgöz,Başak Şahin Acar, Editor
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This chapter focuses on autobiographical memory development through family conversations about emotionally charged past events. Previous literature usually investigated mother-child pairs’ dyadic memory conversations, and showed that mothers provide more and various emotional content when they converse with their daughters. However, we do not know much about how family members talk during these conversations in a more natural and ecologically valid context, where both parents are present. With this aim, we recruited 183 participants (61 mother-father-child triads), who talked together about emotionally charged shared past events. Our findings provide an overview about triadic family reminiscing patterns, as well as each family member’s contribution to the overall composition of family reminiscing.