Young Adults' Relationship Memories and the Life Story: Examples or Essential Landmarks?

Personal memories increasingly have been implicated in the process of identity-making, but systematic study of stability and change in memory telling is rare. Comparisons of relationship memories told by 46 young adults during two interviews separated by about 6 months found moderate thematic consistency across the two sets of memories. The similarity obtained despite a high turnover in the specific events that were selected for telling each time. These findings, paired with ancillary data indicating a similarly high turnover for earliest memories, high points, and low points, suggest that relationship memories for young adults serve more as examples of enduring concerns than as essential landmarks for the life story. Twice-told tales showed quite stable storylines, and were most dense for memories of intimate encounters in late adolescence, suggesting the centrality of this period for the development of relationship identity. {Development, Narrative, Memory, Identity)