UIC Seminar: Centrality of Positive & Negative Life Events

A look into how we remember the big stuff

Info about event

Time

Wednesday 2 March 2016,  at 15:00 - 17:00

Location

Konferencesal 2, 1653-018, Internationalt Center, Høegh-Guldbergsgade 4, 8000 Aarhus C

Alejandra Zaragoza Scherman, a postdoc at the AU Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences is giving a talk at the University International Club next week.

Here is Alejandra's description of the seminar:

"What are the most important events in your life that define who you are? What are the most important events that you talk about when you tell your life story? Are these life events emotionally positive or negative? In the scientific literature about autobiographical memory, the important life events in your answers are called central events. These life events constitute the most important memories that help you create your personal identity and life story. 

In a cross-cultural study with participants from Mexico, Greenland, China and Denmark, my colleagues and I found that, similar to Leon Tolstoy’s suggestion that Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, the centrality of positive life events was similar across cultures, whereas the centrality of negative life events was different. Results also showed that across samples, positive events were rated as more central to identity and life stories than negative events."

Alejandra will expand on these insights, which demonstrate how cultures are both similar and different when it comes to defining our lives.