Life Script Events and Autobiographical Memories of Important Life Story Events in Mexico, Greenland, China, and Denmark

Abstract

1 This name uses Spanish naming customs; paternal last name is Zaragoza and maternal last name is Scherman. Please, use Zaragoza Scherman as the last name for citations. AbstractThe aim of this study was to test the cultural life script theory across four different cultures.We collected life scripts from 606 middle-aged and older adult participants in Mexico, Greenland, China, and Denmark, and examined whether key characteristics of life scripts generalize across these cultures. We also collected autobiographical memories of important personal events from the same participants, and coded them for their correspondence with the life scripts to establish whether the life script serves as a guide for autobiographical memory recall. Finally, we compared the life span distribution of life script events with that of the autobiographical memories. Consistent with predictions, a life script was found in all samples and the life span distribution of life script events tracked the life span distributions of personal autobiographical memories retrieved within the same cultures. These findings indicate a central interplay between cultural life scripts and autobiographical memory across disparate cultures.

Cultural life scripts of Japanese adolescents

“…This tendency was also indicated by Berntsen and Rubin (2004), although it seemed to be stronger in this study than in theirs. Whereas we can assume that the inclusion of more private social events in Japanese life scripts reflects the Japanese emphasis on cooperation and harmony, in view of the discussion of cultural differences in life scripts from the individualist/collectivist perspectives elucidated by Scherman et al (2017), additional investigation and data are needed to determine the existence and, if relevant, the cause of such differences.…”

“…Ottsen and Berntsen (2014) investigated the life scripts of university students in Qatar and showed that some events were specific to Qatari students (i.e., mainly religious events), but concluded that there were many similarities among the life scripts of Qataris, Americans (Rubin et al, 2009), Danes (Berntsen & Rubin, 2004), and Turks (Erdo gan et al, 2008). Moreover, Scherman et al (2017), which included approximately 150 participants from each of four countries (Mexico, Greenland, China, and Denmark), found that some events were specific to each country but also concluded that there were many similarities across the four cultural life scripts.…”

“…Participants completed the cultural life script questionnaire, which was developed by Berntsen and Rubin (2004) and has been used in many previous studies (e.g., Ece & Gülgöz, 2014;Erdo gan et al, 2008;Rubin et al, 2009;Scherman et al, 2017;Tekcan et al, 2012). This questionnaire asks participants to imagine a typical newborn boy or girl of their gender and to list the seven most important events the child is likely to experience.…”

“…However, the differences were not discussed extensively. Instead, the life scripts in Mexico, Greenland, and China were discussed from an individualist/collectivist viewpoint, and the life scripts in these three cultures included more social group events than did Danish life scripts (Scherman, Salgado, Shao, & Berntsen, 2017). Hatibo glu and Habermas (2016) collected data from four cultural groups in Germany (i.e., those of individuals originating from Karabük, Istanbul, Germany, or from migrants) and discussed the data from an individualist/collectivist viewpoint.…”

Narrativa autobiográfica y reminiscencias en costarricenses con Alzheimer

“…Se ha propuesto que la identidad requiere de la creciente semantización del funcionamiento de la memoria autobiográfica durante el ciclo vital (Piolino, Desgranges & Eustache, 2009), donde eventos personales recientes pueden tener más componentes episódicos en su reconstrucción, mientras que eventos remotos son reconstruidos con componentes más semánticos, llegando incluso a constituirse en esquemas o guiones de vida de momentos prototípicos, distintivos y emocionalmente significativos que resultan de interés para el 'sí mismo' o para otros (Berntsen & Rubin, 2002, 2004Janssen et al, 2011;Zaragoza-Scherman, Salgado, Shao & Berntsen, 2017). Se ha demostrado incluso que la actividad neuroanatómica y neurofuncional de la memoria autobiográfica varía a lo largo del ciclo vital cuando se reconstruyen recuerdos recientes o lejanos en el tiempo (Svoboda, Mckinnona & Levine, 2006;Markowitsch & Wezler, 2010).…”