ABSTRACT
Self memory and autobiographical memory are inextricably tied. Our experiences shape our developing self-understanding, and our self-understanding influences how and what we recall of our pasts in an ongoing dialectical relation (Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004), and this process occurs in social interaction (Gergen, 1994; Hermans, 1996). Self both emerges from and contributes to ongoing social interactions, such that how we narrate our experiences with others shapes how we come to understand these experiences for ourselves (Fivush, Reese, & Haden, 1996; Pasupathi, 2001). Through describing, explaining, and evaluating our pasts in socially situated reminiscing, we come to construct an interpretive framework for understanding both our experiences and our selves.
