Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:16:19.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The sociocultural functions of episodic memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2018

Robyn Fivush*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. [email protected]://scholarblogs.emory.edu/familynarrativeslab/

Abstract

The functional use of episodic memories to claim epistemic truth must be placed within sociocultural contexts in which certain truths are privileged. Episodic memories are shared, evaluated, and understood within sociocultural interactions, creating both individual and group identities. These negotiated identities provide the foundation from which epistemic claims to truth can be made.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beike, D. R., Brandon, N. R. & Cole, H. E. (2016) Is sharing specific autobiographical memories a distinct form of self-disclosure? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 145(4):434–50.Google Scholar
Bird, A. & Reese, E. (2006) Emotional reminiscing and the development of an autobiographical self. Developmental Psychology 42(4):613–25.Google Scholar
Bordo, S. (1990) Feminism, postmodernism and gender skepticism. In: Feminism/postmodernism, ed. Nicholson, L., pp. 133–56. Routledge.Google Scholar
Bracken, P. J., Giller, J. E. & Summerfield, D. (1995) Psychological responses to war and atrocity: The limitations of current concepts. Social Science of Medicine 40(8):1073–82.Google Scholar
Chandler, M. J. & Lalonde, C. (1998) Cultural continuity as a hedge against suicide in Canada's First Nations. Transcultural Psychiatry 35(2):191219.Google Scholar
Conway, M. A., Singer, J. A. & Tagini, A. (2004) The self and autobiographical memory: Correspondence and coherence. Social Cognition 22(5):491529.Google Scholar
Fivush, R. (2000) Accuracy, authorship and voice: Feminist approaches to autobiographical memory. In: Towards a feminist developmental psychology, ed. Miller, P. & Scholnick, E., pp. 85106. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fivush, R. (2007) Maternal reminiscing style and children's developing understanding of self and emotion. Clinical Social Work Journal 35(1):3746.Google Scholar
Fivush, R. (2010b) Speaking silence: The social construction of voice and silence in cultural and autobiographical narratives. Memory 18:8898.Google Scholar
Fivush, R. (2013) Religious narratives, identity and well-being in adolescence. In: Religious voices in self-narratives: Making sense of lives in times of transition, ed. Buitelaar, M. & Zock, H., pp. 105128. DeGruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. D. (2005) The long civil rights movement and the political uses of the past. The Journal of American History 91(4):1233–63.Google Scholar
Hammack, P. L. (2006) Identity, conflict, and coexistence life stories of Israeli and Palestinian adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research 21(4):323–69.Google Scholar
Han, J. J., Leichtman, M. D. & Wang, Q. (1998) Autobiographical memory in Korean, Chinese, and American children. Developmental Psychology 34(4):701713.Google Scholar
Kirmayer, L. J., Brass, G. M. & Tait, C. L. (2000) The mental health of Aboriginal peoples: Transformations of identity and community. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 45(7):607–16.Google Scholar
Kulkofsky, S., Wang, Q. & Koh, J. B. K. (2009) Functions of memory sharing and mother-child reminiscing behaviors: Individual and cultural variations. Journal of Cognition and Development 10(1-2):92114.Google Scholar
Laible, D. & Song, J. (2006) Constructing emotional and relational understanding: The role of affect and mother-child discourse. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 52(1):4469.Google Scholar
McLean, K. C. & Syed, M. (2015) Personal, master, and alternative narratives: An integrative framework for understanding identity development in context. Human Development 58(6):318–49.Google Scholar
Pasupathi, M., Fivush, R. & Hernandez-Martinez, M. (2016) Talking about it: Stories as paths to healing after violence. Psychology of Violence 6(1):4956. Available at: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/vio/6/1/49/.Google Scholar
Pratt, M. W. & Fiese, B. H., eds. (2004) Family stories and the life course: Across time and generations. Routledge.Google Scholar
Scherman, A. Z., Salgado, S., Shao, Z. & Berntsen, D. (2017) Life script events and autobiographical memories of important life story events in Mexico, Greenland, China, and Denmark. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 6(1):6073.Google Scholar
Summerfield, D. (1997) South Africa: Does a truth commission produce social reconciliation? British Medical Journal 315(7120):1393.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. (2013) The cultured self and remembering. In: The Wiley handbook on the development of children's memory, vol. I/II, ed. Bauer, P. J. & Fivush, R., pp. 605–25. Wiley.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. (2016) Remembering the self in cultural contexts: A cultural dynamic theory of autobiographical memory. Memory Studies 9(3):295304.Google Scholar