Over and Over Again: A Study on Recounting and Reconstruing After Marital Separation

Abstract

The present study explores the acts of recounting and reconstruing memories in participants following a marital separation. Six undergraduate judges listened to stream-of-consciousness (SOC) recordings about participants' separation, then rating the degree to which participants engaged in two patterns of self-reflective thought, recounting or reconstruing, which refer to dwelling on details with a self-immersed perspective or trying to uncover the meaning behind the experience with a self-distanced perspective, respectively. Judges’ ratings of these constructs were not only highly reliable, but recounting memories were positively correlated with self-reported rumination and negatively correlated with reconstruing memories as predicted. The results of this study provide evidence of not only third parties being able to accurately identify when a person is reconstruing and recounting, but that recounting and reconstruing are associated with many other constructs related to psychological distress.