Co-constructing Memories and Meaning over Time

• Published in: Emotion in Memory and Development
• Main Author: Fivush, Robyn
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: New York Oxford University Press 01.12.2009
• Subjects: emotional events; stressful events; memory; scaffolding; socioemotional contexts; meaning-making
• ISBN: 0195326938; 9780195326932
• DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326932.003.0013

This chapter considers how time is conceptualized as a developmental process that occurs both within individuals and within socioemotional contexts that both shape and are shaped by what we remember. It begins with a discussion of aspects of individual development, focusing on the tension between change and continuity, and how developmental level and individual differences are complexly intertwined across time. It then turns to how individual development is modulated within socioemotional contexts that provide the framework for the development and expression of memory and emotion. It argues that the concept of “scaffolding,” how adults guide and structure social interaction, helps to integrate the ways in which attachment and reminiscing interact with individual development in shaping memories of emotional events. Finally, the chapter returns to the question of meaning-making. In the end, what may matter the most about our memories of highly emotional and stressful events is how we are able to create meaning in such a way that our memories do not overwhelm us, and this is a process that may only be possible within a social context in which meaning is co-constructed.