Historical change in the Emirati life script

Abstract

Cultural life scripts organize culturally shared expectations regarding order and timing of life events during a prototypical life course. Prior research sustained that the semantic knowledge of cultural life scripts is relatively stable across decades and between age groups, even though this notion had only been investigated in relatively stable societies, and in mostly female samples. Therefore, this study obtained the newborn and elderly Emirati life scripts in an equal number of younger and older women and men. As expected, the Emirati newborn life script displays current Emirati lifestyle and customs. The elderly life script mirrors the traditional Emirati lifestyle; however, much less in the younger than in the older participants. Furthermore, we found differences in the temporal distribution and emotional valence of events between newborn and elderly life scripts. This study implies that cultural life scripts change with cultural transformation, but that adapting life script knowledge may necessitate experience.