First, the genders differ in the extent to which self-relevant information is as-
sociated with emotions. Second, men and women differ in the extent to whichinformation about themselves is connected with information about personal
relationships.
Emotional Memories
From an early age, females learn to pay attention to their emotions and the
emotions of others. Consequently, women are more likely than men to en-code information about themselves in terms of emotions (Bloise & Johnson,
2007; Feldman Barrett, Lane, Sechrest, & Schwartz, 2000; Kuebli, Butler, &
Fivush, 1995). And if women organize their memories around emotions, we
should not be surprised to find that they are better able to recall both positive
and negative emotional experiences (Fujita, Diener, & Sandvik, 1991). Memories
for both happy and sad experiences should be more accessible for women.Moreover, the cognitive link between one emotional memory and another
should be stronger for women than men. Thus recalling one sad experience is
likely to trigger another sad memory for women, but perhaps not for men.
Number of Events Recalled
Past 
3 Y earsPast
Ye arPast 
WeekMenWomen16
1514
13
121110
Personal Experiences 9
87
6
Historical
Facts
FIGURE 16.3 Number of Events Recalled
Source: Adapted from “Sex differences in the recall of affective experience, ”by L. Seidlitz and E. Diener,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 74, 1998, p. 262 –271. Copyright © 1998 by the American
Psychological Association. Adapted with permission of the author.Gender, Memory, and Self-Construal 441