Abstract
Older female and male volunteers from three cultural groups (native Chinese, Malaysia Chinese, and Malay) recalled and dated autobiographical memories from across the lifespan in response to cue words. Memories were subsequently plotted in terms of participants' age-at-encoding to draw lifespan retrieval curves for female and male participants. The curves revealed no gender differences in the reminiscence bump for native Chinese in which both sexes showed bumps for 10-29 years. However, clear gender variation was found in the bumps for the Malay and Malaysian Chinese participants: females had bumps for 10-19 years, whereas males had bumps for 10-29 year. It was proposed that the distinctive cultural beliefs and social expectations prevailing in the Malaysian society (for both Malay and Malaysian Chinese) concerning the age of attaining adulthood in female and male populations caused gender variation in the reminiscence phenomenon.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Casting the Individual in Societal and Cultural Contexts |
| Subtitle of host publication | Social and Societal Psychology for Asia and The Pacific |
| Editors | James H. Liu, Colleen Ward, Allan B. I. Bernardo, Minoru Karasawa, Ronald Fischer |
| Place of Publication | Seoul Korea |
| Publisher | Kyoyook-kwahak-sa Publishing Company |
| Chapter | 14 |
| Pages | 273-293 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Edition | 1st |
| ISBN (Print) | 9788925400792 |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Autobiographical memory
- Reminiscence bump
- gender studies
- Cross-culture