Collective Memory: Persistence and Change Over Fifteen Years

Schuman，HowardSES-0001844这项研究的主要目的是确定1985年在美国国家样本中首次发现的公共事件记忆的“关键期”的队列效应在多大程度上持续了15年后的2000年，从而帮助划分“世代”（例如，“越南一代”）。重点特别放在1985年和2000年的队列上，但自1985年以来进入成年期（18岁）的队列的公众记忆也很重要。主要的假设是，每一代人都会从其青年时期发生的重大政治和社会事件中获得独特的印记，这种印记的影响贯穿整个生命过程。1985年进行了全国跨部门电话调查，2000年也将进行调查。开放式问题（例如，你能举出一两个在你看来特别重要的事件或变化吗？）将被用来获取记忆信息。 作为密歇根大学调查研究中心每月定期调查的一部分，将对大约3500名18岁或以上的美国人进行采访。 这项研究是一个更大的项目的一部分，该项目还研究了其他五个国家（德国、以色列、日本、立陶宛和俄罗斯）对公共事件的记忆，其中包括对过去事件知识的同伴工作，并考虑了过去记忆对当前出现的新问题的态度的影响。

Schuman, HowardSES-0001844The primary purpose of this research is to determine the extent to which cohort effects of a "critical period" on memories for public events that were first discovered in a U.S. national sample in 1985 (in a NSF funded study) persist fifteen years later in 2000, thus helping to demarcate "generations" (e.g., a "Vietnam generation"). The focus is particularly on cohorts available in both 1985 and 2000, but the public memories of cohorts that have entered adulthood (age 18) since 1985 are also of importance. The major hypothesis is that each generation receives a distinctive imprint from the major political and social events that occur during its youth and the effects of this imprint persist throughout the life course. A national cross-section telephone survey was used in 1985 and will also be used in 2000. Open-ended questions (e.g., Would you mention one or two such events or changes that seem to you to have been especially important?) will be used to obtain information on memories. Interviews will be conducted with a total sample of approximately 3500 Americans 18 years of age or over as part of the regular University of Michigan Survey Research Center Monthly Survey. The research is part of a larger program that has also studied memories of public events in five other countries (Germany, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, and Russia), that includes companion work on knowledge of past events, and that considers the effects of memories of the past on attitudes toward new issues arising in the present.