Cultural life scripts structure recall from autobiographical memory

Cultural Life Scripts (CLS) are shared knowledge about personal events expected to be experienced by individuals within a society, and used as a framework for life story narration. Differences in CLS for individuals with depression and trauma, and their relations to anxiety, stress, and well-being, have not been investigated. Malaysian participants (N = 120) described and rated seven significant events most likely to be experienced by a prototypical infant from their culture, and seven significant events they had experienced or expected to experience in their own life. Participants then answered questionnaires about depression and trauma symptoms and about anxiety, stress, and well-being. The subclinical depression group listed less typical CLS events, whereas the subclinical PTSD group listed less positive individual life story events. The findings indicate that, although individuals with depression and trauma possess knowledge of the CLS, there may be small differences in the cognitive processing of CLS and individual life story events.

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Generational differences in cultural life scripts and life story memories of younger and older adults

Applied Cognitive Psychology ◽

10.1002/acp.1641 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 24 (9) ◽

pp. 1324-1345 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

Annette Bohn

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Generational Differences ◽

Life Story ◽

Cultural Life ◽

Life Scripts

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RETROSPECTIVE LIFE HISTORY SURVEY REVEALED AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY BUMP

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igz038.2559 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S695-S695

Author(s):

Marina Larkina ◽

Lindsey Meister ◽

Jacqui Smith

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Life History ◽

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Life Events ◽

Early Adulthood ◽

Mail Survey ◽

Reminiscence Bump ◽

Cultural Life ◽

Specific Order ◽

Life Script

Abstract The reminiscence bump is a well-documented autobiographical memory phenomenon characterized by middle-aged and older adults reporting a disproportionate number of memories from adolescence and early adulthood (Rubin, Wetzler, & Nebes, 1986). It is typically assessed through either cue word or important memory techniques. The Life History Mail Survey (LHMS) in the Health and Retirement Study affords unique data to investigate this phenomenon among a representative US sample of older adults. At the beginning of the LHMS, participants (N=3088, M age=70, range 50-107) completed a calendar noting the important things that happened to them in seven life decades, starting with ages 0-9 and ending by ages 70-79 (or their actual age). For each life period, we coded the number of events respondents reported. We observed significantly more memories reported for the age decade 20-29, compared with other life periods (80% vs 47-66%). Our results are consistent with previous findings in the autobiographical memory literature. Follow-up analyses evaluated existing theoretical accounts of the bump, such as cultural life script theory which suggests that life events occur in a specific order and are characterized by a prototypical life course. For example, we determined whether respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, such as age cohort, gender, marital and educational histories (information available in LHMS) influenced the size and temporal location of the reminiscence bump. We also analyzed the content of reported important life events to investigate whether types of events included in each decade of life are consistent with the cultural life script account of the phenomenon.

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Relations Between Cultural Life Scripts, Individual Life Stories, and Psychological Distress

Psychological Reports ◽

10.1177/0033294120913490 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 003329412091349

Author(s):

Michele Anne ◽

Steve M. J. Janssen

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Life Story ◽

Well Being ◽

Trauma Symptoms ◽

Post Traumatic Stress ◽

Individual Life ◽

Significant Events ◽

Cultural Life ◽

Positive Individual ◽

Life Scripts

Cultural life scripts are shared knowledge about personal events expected to be experienced by individuals within a society and used as a framework for life story narration. Differences in cultural life scripts for individuals with depression and trauma, and their relations to anxiety, stress, and well-being, have not been investigated. Malaysian participants ( N = 120) described and rated seven significant events most likely to be experienced by a prototypical infant from their culture, and seven significant events they had experienced or expected to experience in their own life. Participants then answered questionnaires about depression and trauma symptoms and about anxiety, stress, and well-being. The subclinical depression group listed less typical cultural life scripts events, whereas the subclinical post-traumatic stress disorder group listed less positive individual life story events. The findings indicate that, although individuals with depression and trauma possess knowledge of the cultural life scripts, there may be small differences in the cognitive processing of cultural life scripts and individual life story events.

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Cultural life scripts across religions: The influences of religion on expectations of life events.

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality ◽

10.1037/rel0000392 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Worawach Tungjitcharoen ◽

Dorthe Berntsen

Keyword(s):

Life Events ◽

Cultural Life ◽

Life Scripts

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Some personal life events are more prominent than others: Younger and older adults agree on which life events matter most

Memory Studies ◽

10.1177/1750698017754250 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 551-569

Author(s):

Sharda Umanath ◽

Dorthe Berntsen

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Autobiographical Memory ◽

Life Events ◽

Life Experience ◽

Life Story ◽

Personal Life ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Cultural Life ◽

Life Script

Some important life events are part of the cultural life script as expected transitional events with culturally sanctioned timing. However, not all personally important events align with the cultural life script, including some events that are widely experienced. Here, we ask whether there are specific characteristics that define the events that become part of a culture’s life script and what role life experience plays. In Experiment 1, younger adults rated life events on different measures tapping central event dimensions in autobiographical memory theories. Cross-culturally extremely frequent cultural life script events consistently received higher ratings than other commonly experienced life story events. Experiment 2 demonstrated that these findings did not interact with age. Both younger and older adults rated the extreme cultural life script events most highly. In addition, older adults rated all types of life events more highly than younger adults, suggesting a greater appreciation of life events overall.

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