1. Remembering the good and bad and the self and others in a culturally modulated self-memory system.
- Author
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Wang, Qi, Mert, Nazike, and Tian, Yuchen
- Subjects
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SUCCESS , *SELF-esteem testing , *SELF-efficacy , *TASK performance , *DATA analysis , *CRONBACH'S alpha , *ASIAN Americans , *RESEARCH funding , *CULTURE , *ETHNOLOGY research , *POSITIVE psychology , *SEX distribution , *GOAL (Psychology) , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *EMOTIONS , *AGE distribution , *MOTIVATION (Psychology) , *SURVEYS , *AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL memory , *EXPERIENCE , *MEMORY , *RESEARCH methodology , *STATISTICS , *DATA analysis software , *CONFIDENCE intervals , *SELF-perception , *PROFESSIONAL competence , *REGRESSION analysis , *EUROPEAN Americans , *COVID-19 pandemic - Abstract
Wang and Conway (2006, Autobiographical memory, self, and culture. In L.-G. Nilsson, & N. Ohta (Eds.), Memory and society: Psychological perspectives (pp. 9–27). Psychology Press) posit that remembering takes place in a culturally modulated self-memory system in which working self-goals are shaped by society and, in turn, influence the encoding and construction of memories in a culturally canonical fashion. The current research examined the self-goal of competence, which manifests through self-enhancement versus self-improvement motivations, in influencing remembering in different cultural contexts. We conducted two cross-cultural studies to examine memories for personal successes and failures (Study 1) and autobiographical and vicarious experiences (Study 2) in connection with individuals' positive self-views. European Americans recalled a greater number of success than failure memories (Study 1) and US participants recalled a greater number of autobiographical than vicarious memories (Study 2), which was further associated with positive self-views at the individual level. In contrast, Asian (Study 1) and Chinese participants (Study 2) recalled even-handedly the different types of memories, and the memory retrieval was unrelated to individuals' self-views. We discuss the findings in light of the different manifestations of the competence goal in shaping memory in the culturally modulated self-memory system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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