The purpose of the present research was to examine the automatic role of psychological need satisfaction in episodic memories and in their associated networked memories on people’s sense of well-being. In each of four studies, participants were asked to describe a main episodic memory and networked memories, that is, other memories related to their main episodic memory. Results of Studies 1 and 2 revealed that levels of need satisfaction in a main episodic memory and in its networked memories both uniquely contributed to the prediction of well-being (based on either participants’ or peers’ ratings). Study 3 examined the automatic effect of priming an episodic memory network on people’s well-being in the here and now. Study 4 revealed that need satisfaction in episodic memory networks predicted changes in well-being over time. In addition, this relationship held after controlling for broad dispositional traits, mental health, and general need satisfaction ratings.
AndersenS. M.BaumA. (1994). Transference in interpersonal relations: Schema-triggered inferences and affect based on significant-other representations. Journal of Personality, 62, 459-498.
2.
AndersonJ. R. (1984). Spreading activation. In AndersonJ. R.KosslynS. M. (Eds.), Tutorials in learning and memory: Essays in honor of Gordon Bower (pp. 61-90). San Francisco, CA: Freeman.
3.
BarghJ. A.ChartrandT. L. (2000). The mind in the middle: A practical guide to priming and automaticity research. In ReisH. T.JuddC. M. (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 253-285). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
4.
BauerJ.McAdamsD. P. (2004). Personal growth in adults’ stories of life transitions. Journal of Personality, 72, 573-602.
5.
BauerJ. J.McAdamsD. P.SakaedaA. (2005). Interpreting the good life: How mature, happy people frame their autobiographical memories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 203-217.
6.
BirnbaumM. H. (2004). Human research and data collection via the Internet. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 803-832.
7.
BowerG. H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36, 129-148.
8.
BrownN. R.SchopflocherD. (1998). Event cueing, event clusters, and the temporal distribution of autobiographical memories. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 12, 305-319.
9.
ChristiansonS.-A.EngelbergE. (1999). Organization of emotional memories. In DalgleishT.PowerM. (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 211-228). New York, NY: John Wiley.
10.
ConwayM. A. (2008). Exploring episodic memory. In DereE.EastonA.NadelL.HustonJ. P. (Eds.), Handbook of episodic memory (Vol. 18, pp. 19-29). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
11.
ConwayM. A.Pleydell-PearceC. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107, 261-288.
12.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (2000). The “what” and the “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268.
13.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M.GagnéM.LeoneD. R.UsunovJ.KornazhevaB. P. (2001). Need satisfaction, motivation, and well-being in the work organizations of a former Eastern bloc country. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 930-942.
14.
DienerE.EmmonsR. A.LarsenR. J.GriffinS. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-76.
15.
EhrhartM. G.EhrhartK. H.RoeschS. C.Chung-HerreraB. G.NadlerK.BradshawK. (2009). Testing the latent factor structure and construct validity of the ten-item personality inventory. Personality and individual Differences, 47, 900-905.
16.
FergusonM. J.BarghJ. A. (2004). How social perception can automatically influence behavior. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 33-39.
17.
GagnéM. (2003). The role of autonomy support and autonomy orientation in prosocial behavior engagement. Motivation and Emotion, 27, 199-223.
18.
GoslingS. D.RentfrowP. J.SwannW. B.Jr. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504-528.
19.
HodginsH. S.KneeR. (2002). The integrating self and conscious experience. In DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (Eds.), Handbook on self-determination research (pp. 87-100). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
20.
JohnO. P.SrivastavaS. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In PervinL. A.JohnO. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102-138). New York, NY: Guilford.
21.
KempS.BurtC. D. B.MalinenS. (2009). Investigating the structure of autobiographical memory using reaction times. Memory, 17, 511-517.
22.
KingL. A.ScollonC. K.RamseyC.WilliamsT. (2000). Stories of life transition: Subjective well-being and ego development in parents of children with Down syndrome. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 509-536.
23.
KleinS. B.GangiC. E. (2010). The multiplicity of self: Neuropsychological evidence and its implications for the self as a construct in psychological research. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1191, 1-15.
24.
KleinS. B.LoftusJ. (1993). The mental representation of trait and autobiographical knowledge about the self. In SrullT. K.WyerR. S. (Eds.), Advances in social cognition (pp. 1-49). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
25.
LeDouxJ. E. (1992). Emotion as memory: Anatomical systems underlying indelible neural traces. In ChristiansonS. A. (Ed.), The handbook of emotion and memory: Research and theory (pp. 269-288). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
26.
Lodi-SmithJ.GeiseA. C.RobertsB. W.RobinsR. W. (2009). Narrating personality change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 679-689.
27.
NeelyJ. H. (1977). Semantic priming and retrieval from lexical memory: Roles of inhibitionless spreading activation and limited-capacity attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 106, 226-254.
28.
PhilippeF. L.KoestnerR.Beaulieu-PelletierG.LecoursS. (2011). Need satisfaction as a distinct and basic component of autobiographical memories: A look at well-being. Journal of Personality, 79, 905-938.
29.
PhilippeF. L.LecoursS.Beaulieu-PelletierG. (2009). Resilience and positive emotions: Examining the role of emotional memories. Journal of Personality, 77, 139-175.
30.
ReisH. T.SheldonK. M.GableS. L.RoscoeJ.RyanR. M. (2000). Daily well-being: The role of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 419-435.
31.
RosenC. S.DrescherK. D.MoosR. H.FinneyJ. W.MurphyR. T.GusmanF. (2000). Six- and ten-item indexes of psychological distress based on the Symptom Checklist–90. Assessment, 7, 103-111.
32.
RyanR. M.FrederickC. M. (1997). On energy, personality and health: Subjective vitality as a dynamic reflection of well-being. Journal of Personality, 65, 529-565.
33.
RyanR. M.RigbyC. S.PrzybylskiA. (2006). Motivation pull of video games: A self-determination theory approach. Motivation and Emotion, 30, 347-365.
34.
RyffC. D.KeyesC. L. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 719-727.
35.
SchwartzG. E.WeinbergerD. A.SingerJ. A. (1981). Cardiovascular differentiation of happiness, sadness, anger and fear following imagery and exercise. Psychosomatic Medicine, 45, 109-114.
36.
SheldonK. M.ElliotA. J.KimY.KasserT. (2001). What’s satisfying about satisfying events? Comparing ten candidate psychological needs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 325-339.
37.
SheldonK. M.RyanR. M.ReisH. T. (1996). What makes for a good day? Competence and autonomy in the day and in the person. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 1270-1279.
38.
SingerJ. A.SaloveyP. (1993). The remembered self: Emotion and memory in personality. New York, NY: Free Press.
39.
SmithC. A.KirbyL. D. (2000). Consequences require antecedents: Toward a process model of emotion elicitation. In ForgasJ. (Ed.), Feeling and thinking: The role of affect in social cognition (pp. 83-106). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
40.
SrullT. K.WyerR. S. (1979). Role of category accessibility in the interpretation of information about persons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1660-1672.
41.
SutinA. R.RobinsR. W. (2005). Continuity and correlates of emotions and motives in self-defining memories. Journal of Personality, 73, 793-824.
42.
ThompsonE. R. (2007). Development and validation of an internationally reliable short-form of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38, 227-242.
43.
WoikeB. A.LavezzaryE.BarskyJ. (2001). The influence of implicit motives on memory processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 935-945.
