E-Book Overview
What informs the process of remembering and forgetting? Is it merely about our capability to store and retrieve experiences in a purely functional sense? What about 'collective memories', not just those of the individual - how do these manifest themselves in the passages of time?
The authors present a new, fascinating insight into the social psychology of experience drawing upon a number of classic works (particularly by Frederick Bartlett, Maurice Halbwachs & Henri Bergson) to help develop their argument. The significance of their ideas for developing a contemporary psychology of experience is illustrated with material from studies focused on settings at home and at work, in public and commercial organizations where remembering and forgetting are matters of concern, involving language and text based communication, objects and place.
As their argument unfolds, the authors reveal that memories do not solely reside in a linear passage of time, linking past, present and future, nor do they solely rest within the indidvidual's conciousness, but that memory sits at the very heart of 'lived experience'; whether collective or individual, the vehicle for how we remember or forget is linked to social interaction, object interaction and the different durations of living that we all have. It is very much connected to the social psychology of experience.
This book is written for advanced undergraduate, masters and doctoral students in social psychology. However, it will also be of particular value on courses that deal with conceptual and historical issues in psychology (in cognate disciplines as well) and supplmentary reading in cognitive science.
E-Book Content
The Social Psychology of Experience Studies in Remembering and Forgetting David Middleton & Steven D. Brown Middleton-Prelims.qxd 2/19/2005 10:26 AM Page i The Social Psychology of Experience Middleton-Prelims.qxd 2/19/2005 10:26 AM Page ii Middleton-Prelims.qxd 2/19/2005 10:26 AM Page iii The Social Psychology of Experience Studies in Remembering and Forgetting David Middleton and Steven D. Brown SAGE Publications London ● Thousand Oaks ● New Delhi Middleton-Prelims.qxd 2/19/2005 10:26 AM Page iv © David Middleton and Steven D. Brown 2005 First published 2005 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP SAGE Publications Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B-42, Panchsheel Enclave Post Box 4109 New Delhi 110 017 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 8039 7756 5 ISBN 0 8039 7757 3 (pbk) Library of Congress Control Number: 2004099522 Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd., Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press, Gateshead Middleton-Prelims.qxd 2/19/2005 10:26 AM Page v Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements ix Transcript conventions xii 1 2 Introducing remembering and forgetting in the social psychology of experience<