When is meaning making unhealthy for the self? The roles of neuroticism, implicit theories, and memory telling in trauma and transgression memories

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine how three factors-neuroticism, implicit theories of personality, and memory telling-relate to patterns of healthy and unhealthy meaning making in two kinds of negative memories: traumas and transgressions. Healthy meaning making was defined as self-growth, whereas unhealthy meaning making was defined as viewing the self as damaged in traumas (damaged self) and as a bad person in transgressions (bad self). A total of 85 adult participants completed survey measures of personality and memory telling (retrospective reports of extent to which memory was shared with others) and wrote a narrative of a trauma and a transgression which were coded for specific forms of meaning making. Results revealed distinct patterns of associations for trauma and transgression memories. The combination of low neuroticism and an incremental theory (belief that personality can change) predicted self-growth in traumas, whereas memory telling was predictive of self-growth in transgressions, especially among incremental theorists. For unhealthy forms of meaning making, an entity theory (belief that personality is fixed) was associated with the bad self in transgressions, and viewing the self as damaged by traumas was more common among younger adults than older adults.

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