Activity and Affect in Early Memories of Adolescent Boys

Summary

The reporting of early memories is seen as a valuable projective technique, particularly because it is relatively “culture-free.” Sets of early memories individually reported by 32 adolescent boys were coded on the dimensions of activity vs. passivity and positive vs. negative affect. Variation in these early memory dimensions, hypothesized to be associated with variation in measures of current self-representation and coping effectiveness, was found to be significantly related to active stance in figure drawings, self-description as an initiator, and Witkin's measures of differentiation of body-concept and sense of separate identity. These findings provide support for the validity of early memories as a projective technique.