Shaping the Relative Importance of Needs from Recent to Early Autobiographical Experiences
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18061/ojs.v117i2.5815Keywords:
enhancement, security, self-esteem, competence, autonomy, relatedness, needsAbstract
Although past work suggests that people place greater importance of enhancement needs (e.g., self-esteem) over safety needs, recent work demonstrates that contextual factors like event valence (satisfying or distressing) can shift the importance of security above enhancement needs. This study examines whether the effect of event valence on relative need importance for recent memories can carry over to shift the importance of safety relative to enhancement needs in one's earliest childhood memories. At time 1 (T1), participants recalled their most "distressing" (security-relevant) or "satisfying" (enhancement-relevant) experience and rated the importance of 10 needs in defining the event. Next, all participants freely recalled their earliest memory and rated the importance of different needs in defining that event. As predicted, event valence determined the importance of security relative to enhancement needs at T1, such that enhancement needs were more important for satisfying events whereas security needs were more important for distressing events. Moreover, as predicted, these differences in relative need importance at T1 (satisfying vs. distressing) carried over to shape relative need importance in participants' earliest memories. We close by discussing implications for human motivation.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Joseph P. Green, Patrick J. Carroll, Kathryn A. Williams
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This Author Agreement for The Ohio Journal of Science ("Agreement") is entered into by and between The Ohio State University, on behalf of its University Libraries ("Publisher") and the author ("Author").
For good and valuable consideration, Publisher and Author agree as follows:
1. Author hereby grants to Publisher the right to publish, reproduce, distribute, translate, transmit and display his/her submitted work and an abstract thereof ("Work") in The Ohio Journal of Science in whole or in part and in all formats and all media. Author also hereby grants to Publisher the right for Publisher to enter into agreements with third parties that grant such third parties any or all of the rights that Author has granted to Publisher herein. The aforementioned rights may include the rights necessary to index and abstract the Work. The Author agrees that any subsequent publication of the Work will credit The Ohio Journal of Science as the site of first publication and provide a link to The Ohio Journal of Science website. This Agreement is subject to the terms and expectations outlined on Publisher's website (http://go.osu.edu/publishing-services).
2. Author represents and warrants that: (1) they are the creator and rights holder of the Work; (2) Publisher's exercise of the rights granted to Publisher herein will not infringe or violate any copyright or any other right of a third party; (3) if the Work contains any third party content, they have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner or that use of third party material is allowed because the material is in the public domain or an appropriate fair use analysis has been performed and there is a reasonable belief that use is permitted and (4) the Work contains nothing libelous or otherwise unlawful. Author hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Publisher and its trustees, officers, employees, agents, and subgrantees from all claims related to Publisher's exercise of the rights granted to Publisher herein or related to the subject matter covered in Author's representations and warranties.
The Ohio Journal of Science is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, to allow for certain types of reuse without permission. By submitting this agreement, the Author agrees to apply a CC BY 4.0 license to the Work upon publication.
