Vicarious Memories in the Context of Siblinghood: Comparisons with Personal Memories and the Role of Individual Differences

Date

2026-8-19

Author

Budak, Yağmur

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Memories related to personally experienced events have a prominent place in the autobiographical memory system; however, recent research has also started to explore vicarious memories of events experienced by other people. The current study aimed to examine vicarious memories that are experienced by siblings, who are among the most important figures in individuals’ lives. With this objective, 178 young adults aged between 21 and 25 who have one sibling were invited to narrate low, high, and turning point memories from their own lives and their siblings’ lives. Narratives were rated across several memory characteristics and coded in terms of thematic coherence, subjective perspective, and identity connections. Results revealed that personal memories not only rated higher in significance, frequency of retrieval, clarity, and emotional positivity but also were narrated with higher thematic coherence and higher subjective perspective terms compared to vicarious memories. However, none of the individual difference variables (i.e., gender, gender constellations, birth order, and sibling attachment) were found to have a role in how vicarious memories of siblings were narrated. The current study replicated findings showing differences between personal and vicarious memories in the sibling context, which is a relatively unexplored area of research. Results were discussed in the light of autobiographical memory literature.

Subject Keywords

vicarious memory, personal memory, sibling, gender, sibling attachment

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/120072

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis