Relationship‐Defining Memory in the Cultural Context: The Relation to Psychological Well‐Being

ABSTRACT This study examined relationship‐defining memories in the cultural context and how phenomenological characteristics of those memories were related to psychological well‐being. A total of 105 Asian and 108 European American college students (Mage = 20.16 years; 64% women) each recalled a positive and a negative event significant for their relationships with parents and peers, respectively. Participants rated difficulty, affect, and subjective distance in retrieving the memories and reported psychological well‐being. Independent of culture, less recall difficulty and closer subjective distance for positive parent memories were both correlated with better psychological well‐being. As for negative parent memory, culture moderated the relationship between affect and psychological well‐being: More fading affect was correlated with higher well‐being only for Asians but not for European Americans. The phenomenology of peer memory was not significantly associated with psychological well‐being. We discuss the phenomenological characteristics of relationship‐defining memories in relation to psychological well‐being in the cultural context.