Whose narratives? Divergence in how history is organised across generations and its impact on well‐being

Abstract

Singapore is a young and affluent global city-state located in a region that is historically known for its ethnic diversity and racial politics. A recent study identified three dominant narratives embraced by Singaporeans: Nation Building-events that highlight milestones and achievements, National Resilienceevents that exemplify national unity and resolve in addressing a national crisis, and Conflict-events that demonstrate social divisions. These narratives predicted present and future satisfaction to different degrees and patterns. Further analyses, however, point to generational divides not only in how history is organised but also how it is associated with satisfaction and life experiences. Citizens from all ages converged on the type of events that constitute the Nation Building and National Resilience narratives but hold different views on the constituents of the Conflict narrative. In all, future satisfaction among each cohort of Singaporeans is shaped by a different set of historical narratives-Nation Building for the seniors, National Resilience for the middle-aged, and Conflict for the young. These results suggest that collective remembering is shaped by a cohort's generational character.

If the past weighs on the present, then the present also weighs on the past: Collective remembering as an open system for human science

“…A very selective and differentiated pattern of correlations was found between the historical narratives and life satisfaction for each generation. Lim and Leong (2021) argued from these data that generational character moderates the relationship between perception of historical events and the construction of historical narratives, and these narratives in turn are related to subjective well-being.…”

“…This idea of a historical trajectory in collective remembering is also implicit in Lim and Leong's (2021) cohort analysis of a historical events inventory in Singapore using a large representative sample. They argue that "common experience and ideological differences can combine to form a generational character" (p. 351); and divided their sample into three age cohorts, Seniors 50+, Middle Aged 35-49, and Young Aged 21-34.…”

The Psychology of Well-Being in the Margins: Voices from and Prospects for South Asia and Southeast Asia

“…There has been some inquiry on well-being amid climate change (Aruta & Guinto, 2022 ; Kumar et al, 2021 ), after war and conflict (Milazzo & Cuesta, 2021 ), rapid economic growth (Cai et al, 2021 ), the rise of information and communications technology (Lim et al, 2021 ), among others. There has even been research on how representations of important national historical events relate to well-being of people (Lim & Leong, 2021 ). South Asian and Southeast Asian psychologists can also investigate how significant social changes in their respective societies shape well-being processes, particularly as such processes seem to have an adaptive dimension.…”