Life Scripts Research Paper

If you were to ask a friend of a list of events they expect to happen within the near future, they would most likely tell you a prototypical list such as graduating high school, getting a college or technical degree, and eventually getting married. We may refer to this list as a life script;. Life scripts are one of many packages of information that a cognitive schema includes. Schema’s include packaged pieces of information on familiar scenarios, behavior and other bunches of complex worldly knowledge. Schematic knowledge integrates previous semantic and episodic knowledge and guides future behavior. A study by Grymas and colleagues shows that when individuals anticipate a future event, they do so through previous episodic and semantic memory. …show more content…
A review of the literature on life scripts suggest life scripts contain several unique qualities besides being manipulated by semantic and episodic memory. Rubin defines several defining qualities of life scripts: (1) Life scripts are a temporally ordered series of events, (2) life scripts may be compared to slots that need filling, (3) life scripts operate in a hierarchy as culturally important events will superordinate and guide future behavior and subordinate scripts. (4) People may use life scripts to comprehend their own life story. (5) Culturally important events that signal transition are also orderly and are requirements in order to fill the slots with important and defining scripts. (6) Life scripts are transmitted through culture and not personal events. Younger individual’s life scripts do not differ significantly from older individuals. (7) Life scripts are idealizations of how and when certain events may occur albeit life scripts do not accurately display an average life. (8) Life scripts tend to favor events experienced during the reminiscence bump. Previous research theorize that individuals tend to experience reminiscence bumps when asked to recall previous events; often the number of positive memories outweighs the negative …show more content…
Using a similar method to Coleman, we will test see if there are any differences in life scripts (2015). Moreover, we hypothesize that African Americans life scripts may not differ significantly from the overall United States life scripts regardless of age, ethnicity, or ethnic consideration. Moreover, African Americans students will experience the reminiscence bump and expect more positive events to occur between the ages of 10-30. African American students will fill the scripts slots with the anticipated events of previous studies; there will be no difference in the expectation of what age the events are expected to unfold s well rating on the events emotional valence appropriately in comparison to previous studies. Overall, similar life script events will be nominated between participants. In regards to age, no age effects are expected to be found between Coleman's sample and our