Sociocultural Approach: Culture and Cognition

Question 1

Kulkofsky et al (2011) can be used for…

Answer 1

culture on cognition, cultural dimensions, the impact of emotion on cognition

Question 2

Kulkofsky et al (2011) - aim

Answer 2

• to see if there was any difference in the rate of flashbulb memories in collectivistic and individualistic cultures
• researchers studied five countries - China, Germany, Turkey, the UK, and the USA

Question 3

Kulkofsky et al (2011) - procedure

Answer 3

• all adult participants were identified as “middle class”
• participants were given 5 minutes to recall as many memories as they could of public events occurring in their lifetime (events had to have occurred at least one year ago)
• researchers used this list of events to create a “memory questionnaire”
• they were asked 5 questions about how they learned about the event that mirrored the original questionnaire used by Brown & Kulik
• questionnaire and instructions were constructed in English, translated, then back-translated into Mandarin Chinese, German, and Turkish by bilingual research assistants to guarantee that translation was not a confounding variable

Question 4

Kulkofsky et al (2011) - findings & conclusion

Answer 4

• researchers found that in a collectivistic culture like China, personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM, compared with more individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on an individual’s personal involvement and emotional experiences
• because focusing on the individual’s own experiences is often de-emphasized in the Chinese context, there would be less rehearsal of the triggering event compared with participants from other cultures - and thus a lower chance of developing an FBM
• however, it was found that national importance was equally linked to FBM formation across cultures
• thus culture plays a role in the formation of FBM

Question 5

Kulkofsky et al (2011) - evaluation

Answer 5

strengths:
- a representative of the culture administered the test and the questionnaires were given in the native languages of the participants to avoid interviewer effects
- since they were responding in their native language and the language in which these memories were mostly created - the participants were more likely to recall these memories
- study used back-translation to make sure that the translation of the questionnaires was not a confounding variable - increases credibility

limitations:
- danger of the ecological fallacy - just because the participants come from the culture being studied, this does not mean that they necessarily share the traits of the culture’s predominant dimensions
- etic approach to researching cultural differences - it’s possible that cultural factors affected how information was self-reported
- it cannot be verified in this study whether those personal memories actually exist but were not reported