The role of subjective time in identity regulation

Abstract

We explore the function of subjective perceptions of time in regulating personal identity. Events that reflect favourably on the self feel more recent than events that reflect negatively on the self. We propose that this systematic bias in subjective time judgment serves an identity regulation function: These biases allow people to maintain a favourable evaluation of current self. Recent events are likely to be judged as 'belonging' to the current self and thus incorporated into current identity. Distant events are more likely to be viewed as belonging to a former self who is quite distinct from the today's self. Therefore, by perceiving past positive experiences as more recent than negative ones, people are able to continue to take credit for former glories while reducing the threat of past failings on present identity. We discuss evidence for both the motivational account of subjective distancing and its role in regulating and maintaining a desired current identity.Like fingerprints, autobiographies are unique. No two adults experience precisely the same life events. As a result, memories of personal experiences can help individuals distinguish themselves from others and construct an autonomous self-identity (Ross & Wang, in press). There is at least one sense, however, in which people's life narratives are similar, at least in Western cultures. Life narratives are chronologically ordered. Chronological order is the norm for publically told life stories, fictional or true (McAdams, 2006). These stories usually unfold in a forward direction, occasionally in a backward direction (Lam & Buehler, 2009), and only very rarely in a random or haphazard manner. Chronological order lends coherence and meaning to a life story (Landau, Greenberg, & Sullivan, in press). Temporal order is not only important to public storytelling, it is also important to the private life stories that influence our self-identity. Our current identity includes beliefs about how we have developed over time, how we used to be and how we became the individuals that we are today. We see ourselves quite differently if we believe that we used to be crotchety and are now easy-going, rather than that we used to be easy-going and are now crotchety. Temporal sequence matters. Time matters.When we talk about time, what do we really mean? Often we mean clock or calendar time, as in the preceding paragraph. Although this kind of time is a relatively recent development in human evolution, we have come to work reasonably well within its constraints, especially when armed with day planners and personal digital assistants (PDAs). We can typically retrieve some dates fairly easily-we remember birth dates, anniversaries and significant APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

How is physiological arousal related to self-reported measures of emotional intensity and valence of events and their autobiographical memories?

“…For example, our results are consistent with other findings showing that everyday life events of university students are typically in the low to medium range of arousal reactivity (e.g., Myrtek, Aschenbrenner, & Brügner, 2005), and that this group experiences and reports disproportionally more positive, as opposed to negative, events (e.g., Brewer, 1988;Finnbogadóttir & Berntsen, 2011). This is in line with work suggesting that most biases in AM favor positive information (see Alicke & Sedikides, 2009;Conway, 2005;Rasmussen & Berntsen, 2009;Wilson, Gunn, & Ross, 2009) as it likely plays a more central role in the autobiographical knowledge that helps us define ourselves in the present (cf. Salgado & Berntsen, 2019).…”

Narrative Identity: the construction of the life story, autobiographical reasoning and psychological functioning in young adulthood

“…Although the actual time that had elapsed between the event and the time of the study was the same across conditions, participants in the "close" condition rated their past and present selves similarly, while participants in the "distant" condition rated their current selves more positively than their past selves. These findings are consistent with the notion that a sense of subjective distance from past events may maintain the individual"s perception that they are improving and developing over time (see also Wilson, Gunn, & Ross, 2009)..…”

Writing about life story chapters increases self‐esteem: Three experimental studies

“…In fact, prior research suggests a contrasting view: selfesteem can be enhanced by the belief that the self is discontinuous and that it has changed in positive ways. In particular, psychologically distancing the present self from negative past life experiences is self-enhancing (Wilson & Ross, 2003;Wilson et al, 2009). Our findings suggest that the experience of systematically reviewing one's life and identifying, describing, and conceptually linking life chapters may serve to enhance the self, even in the absence of increased self-concept clarity and meaning.…”