Welcome Students!
Welcome Students!
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Feeling overwhelmed, behind, or questioning if you're really cut out for college? If you've experienced:
Ever-present stress or days when getting out of bed feels like climbing a mountain
Struggle with procrastination and time management issues, or
"Imposter syndrome" (feeling like you've fooled others into overestimating you),
You are certainly not alone!
Research shows that these issues affect almost one in five college students (Swenson, 2019) nationwide. These moments of stress and self-doubt can snowball and shape how we see ourselves and our vision for the future. In the long run, this leads to inner dalogues that just keep the cycle going. But you're in luck! We've created a self-help workbook centered around memory, creativity, and personal narratives that is here to help you take a step back and re-examine those stories.
Our Guide
Our Guide
So, let's flip the script! In our guide, we will:
Show you how to notice what's already working -- maybe it isn't all as bad as we tell ourselves it is!
Build skills of narrative coherence through activities and self-reflection -- the evolving story you tell yourself about who you are
Teach you how to frame your experiences -- you have the power to change your story!
You'll learn tools through a "Wise Intervention" program to make small shifts that can lead to lasting changes
Our Program - A Wise Intervention Model
Our Program - A Wise Intervention Model
A psychological approach aimed at disrupting self-defeating patterns and fostering well-being by transforming negative perceptions into motivating, adaptive behaviors. (Walton, 2014)
What is a WI?
What is a WI?
Subtle shifts in thinking that create significant, lasting, positive changes
Breaks self-defeating cycles by reshaping perceptions of situations, leading to more adaptive behaviors and positive meaning-making
Through a recursive, self-reinforcing positive cycle focused on changing negative situations, meanings, or behaviors, improved interpretations lead to better outcomes.
Repetition of practical exercises helps reshape personal stories and build resilience even during challenges
They work by helping people develop more beneficial interpretations of themselves and their experiences
Reminder: You don't need "fixing"
This book will help expand your view of yourself, highlight your strengths, and recognize how your experiences contribute to a more positive sense of who you are, which you can connect to the present and future.Reminder: You don't need "fixing"
What You'll Find in our Workbook
What You'll Find in our Workbook
Part 1 - Building the Foundation
Part 1 - Building the Foundation
To begin to change the way we handle these stressful thoughts, the first priority is to tackle the foundation of our very thoughts; language! The words we utilize in association with schemas hold a strong connection to how you interpret the world around you. Expanding one's vocabulary with stronger positive language is essential for curating the story we want to tell ourselves.
To begin to change the way we handle these stressful thoughts, the first priority is to tackle the foundation of our very thoughts; language! The words we utilize in association with schemas hold a strong connection to how you interpret the world around you. Expanding one's vocabulary with stronger positive language is essential for curating the story we want to tell ourselves.
The Goal: grow your word toolkit in a positive, helpful direction!
The Goal: grow your word toolkit in a positive, helpful direction!
The Why:
The Why:
- Something as simple as the vocabulary we store in our minds actually guides our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
- We need a strong, uplifting language foundation before we can transform our personal stories.
Activities!
Activities!
Zebra or Elephant?
Reverse Hangman
Stuck in a Rut
Shining Strengths
Cardinal Compliments
Role Mapping
Part 2 - Broadening Horizons
Part 2 - Broadening Horizons
The Goal: practice telling positive stories.
The Goal: practice telling positive stories.
The Why:
The Why:
- The stories we tell about every experience are important, the good and the bad.
- If we can strive to keep the narrative positive, but realistic, we are setting ourselves up for success!
Activities!
Activities!
Road to Success
Own Your Awesome
Positive Poetry
Highlight Reel
The Tree of Life
Part 3 - Looking Ahead
Part 3 - Looking Ahead
The Goal: link your skills to what comes next, planning for the future.
The Goal: link your skills to what comes next, planning for the future.
The Why:
The Why:
- Our memories are for creating plans for the future.
- It's subtle, but we are always taking in cause-and-effect relationships.
- We use our past experiences to tell us the best way to make decisions moving forward.
Activities!
Activities!
Your House
Traits to Fate
Self-Talk in Contexts
Let's Plan!
Plus, you'll also find 6 short chapters explaining the memory, creativity, and personal narrative processes at work in our Wise Intervention!
Our WIs vs Self-Help
Our WIs vs Self-Help
But Wait, how does it Work?
But Wait, how does it Work?
The Self Memory System
The Self Memory System
The Self Memory System (SMS) explains how our memories and sense of self are deeply connected. Autobiographical memories—personal memories about our lives— shape and maintain our identity (Conway et al., 2004).
It is guided by the “working self,” which manages goals and helps us stay balanced between two needs: being accurate and grounded in reality, and maintaining a stable, meaningful self-concept (Conway et al., 2004).
Main Components of the SMS
The Working Self
A constantly shifting set of goals that influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Conway et al., 2004).
The Long-Term Self
Autobiographical Knowledge Base: Stores personal information in layers—from specific moments to broader life periods and cultural life story templates (Conway et al., 2004)
Conceptual Self: Contains beliefs, values, and possible versions of ourselves, shaped by culture and social experiences (Conway et al., 2004).
The Episodic Memory System
Stores vivid, detailed memories of specific events—especially those linked to personal goals (Conway et al., 2004).
These memories feel like we are mentally “reliving” the experience.
Balancy Accuracy and Identity
Adaptive Correspondence: Focuses on accurate, detailed memories that help us navigate the world and react to challenges.
Self-Coherence: Focuses on keeping our identity and life story consistent, even if some details are smoothed over.
A healthy balance between these two is key. Too much focus on coherence can lead to depression, while too much focus on correspondence may be linked to anxiety (Conway et al., 2004).
How it Works
When we try to remember something, the process often starts with general information (like a category of events) and narrows down to specific moments. This memory search is driven by our current goals and emotional state (Conway et al., 2004).
Why It Matters
The SMS connects our memories to everyday life by supporting the key functions of autobiographical memory (Fivush and Waters, 2019):
Self-Definition: Helps us understand who we are over time.
Relationship Closeness: Strengthens emotional bonds and shared histories.
Guiding Behavior: Offers lessons and insights that influence our future choices.
Memory and Creativity
Memory and Creativity
Memory isn't just about remembering—it's a creative force that shapes how we understand our past and imagine our future.
How Memory Works Creatively
How Memory Works Creatively
Memory is an imaginative reconstruction, not a perfect recording, often filling gaps with new information
Flexibility isn't a flaw - it's a feature that helps us make meaning of our experiences (Ditta & Storm, 2018)
Brains are designed to use memories as building blocks for envisioning new possibilities
This forward-looking aspect is what makes memory essential for creativity (Ditta & Storm, 2018).
Memory's Role in Creative Thinking
Memory's Role in Creative Thinking
Semantic memory (knowledge and facts) forms a network where creative thinking happens through connecting concepts (Kenett, 2024).
People with higher creative ability typically have more flexible networks and excel at navigating them, making larger mental leaps between associations (Kenett, 2024).
The "gist-based" representations—synthesizing information into patterns— allow us to bypass surface details to recognize similarities and problem solve (Ditta & Storm, 2018; Kenett, 2024).
The Productive "Failures" of Memory
The Productive "Failures" of Memory
What we often consider memory's shortcomings—like forgetting, misattribution, or bias—actually serve important creative functions:
Forgetting helps us overcome mental fixation, making room for fresh ideas during incubation periods
Memory blocks can focus our attention on the most relevant information
Even biases and inaccuracies support our ability to generalize, predict, and imagine alternative scenarios (Ditta & Storm, 2018)
Reshaping Our Stories
Reshaping Our Stories
Coherence helps us maintain a stable sense of self by organizing experiences into meaningful patterns, essentially "sorting signal from noise" (Conway et al., 2004)
Adaptability gives us agency over our personal narratives.
By consciously practicing positive interpretation and developing narrative coherence, we can actively promote mental flourishing and improve our psychological health.
Memory, Narrative, and Mental Health
Memory, Narrative, and Mental Health
The Power of Coherent Narratives
The Power of Coherent Narratives
Narrative coherence refers to how well our stories make sense to listeners, with clear context, chronology, and themes (Vanaken et al., 2022)
People who tell more coherent life stories generally show fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety
Higher narrative coherence correlates with greater psychological well-being
Those who construct coherent stories about their past typically have better social relationships (Vanaken et alk. 2022)
Narratives Support Well-Being
Narratives Support Well-Being
The "meaning-making" of turning memories into narratives is essential for healthy identity development & mental health (Merrill et al., 2016)
Coherence in positive narratives predicts fewer depressive and anxious symptoms over time (Vanaken et al., 2022)
Coherent stories predict fewer negative social interactions = better mental health outcomes (Vanaken et al., 2022)
About The Authors
About The Authors
Jackson Cowherd
Hi there, I'm Jackson (he/him) -- a sophmore psychology major here at Pacific University! This project has complemented my learning by highlighting the importance of our self-memory-system for daily life. It's revealed that our relationships, self-definitions, and future behaviors are almost entirely dependent on the interworkings of our memory. Isn't that just amazing?!
Morgan Reed
Hello! My name is Morgan Reed (she/her), and I'm a soon to be B.A. in Psychology at Pacific University. The making of this workbook has taught me a lot about how I can use the tools we created in my own life to make my memory work for me! I look forward to sharing more about the connection between creativity and memory with friends and family as well!
Daria Tsybina
Hi! My name is Daria Tsybina (she/her) - a junior psychology major at Pacific University. This project transformed my understanding of mental health and the crucial role memory plays in shaping who we are. It revealed how memory is malleable and open to change, influenced by a range of factors—from culture to subtle elements like language—all of which impact our identity and well-being.
Trystan Abdill
Heya, I'm Trystan. I am a junior majoring in psychology at Pacific. Since this project's beginning I have learned a lot about just how much control we have when it comes to our memories. It pleases me that I am still learning more about the complexities of the human mind. It's empowering to know just how much control you have over your mental health.
References
Wise Intervention
Walton, G. M. (2014). The new science of wise psychological interventions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(1), 73–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413512856
Three Memory System Articles – One from Each Unit
Unit 1
Fivush, R., & Nelson, K. (2004). Culture and language in the emergence of autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 15(9), 573–577. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00722.x
Wang, Q., & Ross, M. (2007). Culture and memory. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology(pp. 645–667). Guilford Press.
Unit 2
Fivush, R., Waters, T. E. A., & Mace, J. (2019). Development and organization of autobiographical memory form and function. In J. Mace (Ed.), The organization and structure of autobiographical memory (pp. 52–71). Oxford University Press.
Conway, M. A., Singer, J. A., & Tagini, A. (2004). The self and autobiographical memory: Correspondence and coherence. Social Cognition, 22(5), 491–529. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.22.5.491.50768
Unit 3
Salmon, K., & Reese, E. (2016). The benefits of reminiscing with young children. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(4), 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721416655100
Two Unit 3 Articles That Connect to Mental Health
Vanaken, L., Bijttebier, P., Fivush, R., & Hermans, D. (2022). An investigation of the concurrent and longitudinal associations between narrative coherence and mental health mediated by social support. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 13(1), 20438087211068215. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438087211068215
Merrill, N., Waters, T. E. A., & Fivush, R. (2016). Connecting the self to traumatic and positive events: Links to identity and well-being. Memory, 24(10), 1321–1328. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2015.1111381
Creative Cognition Articles
Kenett, Y. N. (2024). The role of knowledge in creative thinking. Creativity Research Journal, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2024.2300235
Ditta, A. S., & Storm, B. C. (2018). A consideration of the seven sins of memory in the context of creative cognition. Creativity Research Journal, 30(4), 402–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2018.1530914
Other Project-Centered Reading
Schamel, C. (2020). The self of self-help books is adrift from social and economic facts. Psyche. https://psyche.co/ideas/the-self-of-self-help-books-is-adrift-from-social-and-economic-facts
Others
Swenson, P. (2019, September 23). Impostor syndrome is more common than you think; study finds best way to cope with it. BYU News. https://news.byu.edu/intellect/imposter-syndrome-is-more-common-than-you-think-study-finds-best-way-to-cope-with-it
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