How Culture Affects Memory Encoding: Extending the 'Threat to Conceptual Self' Model (TCSM) for Traumatic Experiences

Culture has been identified as an important factor in mediating how individuals experience and process trauma. This thesis investigated the import of various cultural dimensions on traumatic symptomatology by scrutinizing key elements of the ‘Threat to Conceptual Self’ Model (TCSM). The model explicates the role of culture in arousing heightened traumatic responses associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Four studies are discussed involving participants from conflict-affected Colombia who were still living in Colombia or now living in Ecuador as refugees and asylum seekers. Participants contributed data via surveys and solicited cognitive representations in the form of autobiographical memories of everyday memories, traumatic events, self-defining memories, and future imaginings. Study One investigated the extent to which participants from Colombia around the Ecuadorian border share a specific culture, as well as the extent to which this cultural disposition is stable over time. Evidence suggests that the Colombians appear to share a cultural milieu, though cultural constructs vary longitudinally on an individual level. Study Two investigated the extent to which the cultural milieu of the Colombians in Ecuador comports with their traumatic experiences. Findings indicated that traumatic experiences prime cultural dispositions addressing independence, individualism, security, stability, and autonomy. Study Three examined the import of cultural elements vis-à-vis extreme traumatic symptomatology, finding that significant trauma comports with significant incongruity with many cultural constructs. Finally, Study Four confirmed that the cognitive representations examined in this thesis are consistent with previous reports of the impact of trauma on autobiographical memories and future imaginings. The evidence is unclear, however, regarding the degree to which culture mediates the effects of trauma on thoughts addressing one’s conceptual sense of oneself, which the TCSM suggests is a significant perpetuating and maintaining factor of traumatic symptomatology. The thesis concludes in discussing the theoretical implications of the TCSM; reviewing the evidence of cultural elements and traumatic symptomatology among various cognitive representations; and proposing key areas of further research into the import of culture into the ways in which trauma is experienced and maintained.