Think back to your first days of college. You could probably name the people you talked to, the classes you were in, how well you did in those classes, the teachers you had, and so on, right? Now, imagine you are telling one of your friends these things. Is what you are describing to them accurate? Did you really write a ten page paper your first semester, or was it really three pages? According to social psychologists, you probably didn't do all these things the same way you remember them.
As social people, we tend to describe ourselves to others in a positive light. After all, you wouldn't go around telling your friends something that would be embarrassing for yourself. By doing this, we tend to alter or exaggerate our memories of the past.
These autobiographical memories, as they are called, are important for having a "coherent self-concept" (Markus et al., 67). Therefore, our perceptions and recollections of our memories must influence our self-concept.
What does this mean? It means that we take what we perceive ourselves to have been and this influences who we see ourselves to be. If you've ever told anyone anything inaccurate about the past, this just means that you see yourself or want to be seen in that manner.
How can autobiographical memory analyzing be useful to social psychologists? We have all seen the cop dramas on television. The investigators are in the interrogation room grilling one of their suspects and they ask, "What were you doing the night of the murder?" The response of this suspect could probably be analyzed by a social psychologist for accuracy and inaccuracy using this autobiographical memory insight.
Also, I believe that how we recall our dreams is another way social psychologist or anyone can analyze their self-concept. Whenever we say, "I had the craziest dream last night!" and then proceed to describe that dream, our self-concept is evident. I know that whenever I try to describe a dream I have trouble remembering all the details, so I tell people what I think happened as best I can. At this point, you know that by filling in details it shows exactly what we perceive ourselves to be. I think this is a great way to find out about your self-concept.
I'm sure there are many other ways social psychologists use this method, and these are just a few ways that I can think of at the moment. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or anything from your personal experience you would like to add.
