The text shows how to shape the personality by memories and illuminates categories of

self-defining memories. A sense of self identity considers an individual to characterize

themselves. The formation of self identity starts when they are children and progresses
through adolescence. Events in a person’s life define identity and it is called self defining
memories. Self-defining memories are the positive progress that a person categorizes their
experience and creates a story of life. Singer’s sturdy lists ten self defining memories and
classify it through categories including specificity,meaning and emotions. First of all,
specificity of memory is the time period of memory. There are three levels of specificity
including a highly specific memory, a nonspecific memory, and a generic memory. In terms of
meaning, the two kinds of self-defining memories are an integrative memory and non
integrative memory. While the integrative memory is a memory causing significantly to the
personal growth, the non integrative memory is contrast to the first type of memory. Last but
not least, the differences between positive and negative emotions is that positive
emotions are generally considered to be beneficial and negative ones are often seen
as harmful.