USC Autobiographies, 1952-1970

The purpose of the assignment was to ask the students to reflect on marriage in the context of their life histories. Students were asked to write detailed autobiographies based on an outline which covered specific areas of their lives including their parents' marriages, their own infancy (they often interviewed their parents for this information), childhood and adolescence, up to current dating activities.

They were also asked to reflect on their own ideals about marriage and a possible marriage partner, as well as their social class positions and their ambitions for making money. The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study [307 (77 men, 230 women) dated original autobiographies]. If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data.