Understanding and Organizing Emotional Experience: Autobiographical Accounts of Traumatic Events

Abstract

Autobiographical accounts of traumatic and stressful emotional events reveal how we understand and organize personally meaningful experiences. Our analysis of traumatic and emotional narratives focuses on the ways in which the person's event memory predicts the impact of trauma and emotional experiences on psychological well-being (e.g., depression or positive morale) of both children and adults. Four primary factors account for the relationship between memory and psychological well-being: 1) beliefs (evaluations) about the experience of trauma or stress; 2) specific emotions expressed in reaction to the events; 3) beliefs about one's competence at coping with and overcoming adversity; and 4) the generation of new goals formulated to replace those lost irrevocably. The organization and narration of emotional understanding, while diverse and complex in content, is highly constrained as to the number and kind of emotions expressed. The relationships among specific emotions, antecedents, beliefs, and plans of action are also constrained. The presence of these constraints, as well as the use of a causal theory of emotion and goal-directed action, allow us to make predictions about psychological well-being and memory for emotional events.