Memory and future thinking for self-conscious emotions: The role of self-esteem and culture.

Abstract

The present research examined the accessibility and phenomenological quality of autobiographical memory and future thinking involving self-conscious emotions and the effects of culture and self-esteem. European American and East Asian participants recalled (Study 1, N = 237) and imagined (Study 2, N = 279) emotional events of self-conscious emotions triggered by appraisals about the self (i.e., pride and shame) and appraisals about a close other (i.e., admiration and contempt). European Americans demonstrated greater accessibility to positive than negative memories for both self and other targets, which was further correlated with self-esteem, and they imagined more self- than other-targeted future events for both positive and negative emotions. Their positive memories, but not future projections, were perceived as more important and temporally closer than negative ones. East Asians showed less differentiation in their accessibility to positive than negative memories and to self- than other-targeted events, and the relative accessibility was mostly unrelated to self-esteem. In addition, self-esteem mediated the effect of culture on the accessibility of positive relative to negative memories, but not future events, such that the higher self-esteem among European Americans accounted for their greater positivity in recall when compared with East Asians. The findings are discussed in the light of the influence of culture and culturally prioritized self-goals in shaping cognitive processes involving self-conscious emotions.