Mother-child memory conversations and self-construal in Eastern Turkey, Western Turkey and the USA

Date

2015-01-02

Author

Şahin Acar, Başak

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

226
views

0
downloads

Eighty-seven mothers and their four-year-old children from Eastern Turkey (N = 32 pairs), Western Turkey (N = 30 pairs) and the USA (N = 25 pairs) participated in a study of mother-child memory talk as a reflection of mothers' self construal, in view of differences in the function of memory talk across cultures. Mother-child pairs were audio-recorded while talking about shared past and anticipated future events. Mothers completed the Balanced Integration-Differentiation questionnaire measure of self-construal and were scored as high or low on individuation and relatedness orientations. Mothers' memory and future talk showed similar patterns of cultural differences: American mothers provided the most voluminous, descriptive and elaborative talk, while Eastern Turkish mothers showed the highest level of repetitiveness, and Western Turkish mothers' talk fell in between. Children's memory talk was similar across cultures. In all cultures, mothers who scored high on both individuation and relatedness (balanced self-construal subtype) engaged in more voluminous and contexted memory talk, and individuation was associated with more elaborative talk about future events. Results are discussed in light of literature on cultural differences in self-construal and memory function.

Subject Keywords

Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous), General Psychology

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/49210

Journal

MEMORY

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2014.935437

Collections

Department of Psychology, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Intrafamilial similarities and cross-generational differences in the earliest childhood memories of daughters, mothers, and grandmothers Şahin Acar, Başak; KUŞ, Elif Gizem (Informa UK Limited, 2017-01-01) This study aimed to examine how daughters, mothers, and grandmothers from the same families resembled each other and how these three generations differed from each other in narrating their earliest childhood memories. Fifty-nine triads from the same families filled out a memory questionnaire and were asked to narrate their earliest childhood memories. Results revealed both intrafamilial similarities and cross-generational difference on characteristics of triads' earliest childhood memories. After earliest c...
The role of culture and self-construal in autobiographical memories of US and Turkish college students Şahin Acar, Başak (Informa UK Limited, 2013-11-01) This study examined memory variables both cross-culturally and across four cultural self-construal types. US (N=240) and Turkish (N=174) college students described their earliest childhood memory, and another significant childhood memory, and completed the Balanced Integration-Differentiation (BID) Scale (Imamoglu, 1998; 2003), which measured relatedness and individuation, and allowed for the classification of students into four different self-construal types (Related-Individuated, Separated-Individuated, R...
Perceived Functions of Family and Friends During Childhood, Adolescence, and Youth: Developmental Theories of Two Turkish Groups Hortaçsu, Nuran; Gençöz, Tülin; Oral, Atiye (Wiley, 1995-01-01) The present study compared Turkish University students' and middle-aged adults' developmental theories about the perceived importance of needs related to different life tasks and functionality of relationships with parents, same-sex siblings, and friends for need satisfaction during childhood, adolescence, and youth. A retrospective method was used. The following results emerged: (1) the importance of needs related to a search for identity and intimacy increased and the importance of those related to depend...
How three generations narrate their vicarious family stories: intrafamilial similarities, gender and cross-generational differences Bakir-Demir, Tugce; Reese, Elaine; Şahin Acar, Başak (Informa UK Limited, 2020-04-01) This study investigated the memory characteristics of vicarious family stories. Seventy-two families including three generations of women and men from different samples of families were recruited. Results can be described in three main sections: (a) intrafamilial similarities; (b) gender differences; and (c) cross-generational differences. For intrafamilial similarities, members of the same family showed similarities in terms of the volume and number of other-related words. For gender differences, women foc...
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE TURKISH VERSION OF THE AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS QUESTIONNAIRE SAHIN, NH; SAHIN, N (Wiley, 1992-05-01) The present study investigated the reliability and validity of the ATQ in the Turkish cultural context. It is hoped that with this type of cross-cultural information, the universality of the proposed cognitive constructs can be advocated more reliably. The subjects were 345 university students; the split-half reliability of the ATQ was found to be r = .91 and Cronbach's alpha was .93; and item/total correlations ranged between .36 and .69. The Turkish ATQ correlated well with the BDI (r = .75), and it discr...

Citation Formats

B. Şahin Acar, “Mother-child memory conversations and self-construal in Eastern Turkey, Western Turkey and the USA,” MEMORY, pp. 69–82, 2015, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/49210.