Korean Beliefs about Everyday Memory and Aging for Self and Others

Studies in the West have demonstrated that more everyday memory problems are expected for typical older adults than for typical young adults. In order to examine memory beliefs about aging in Asia, we conducted a study in Korea which parallels that of Ryan and Kwong See (1993). We used the three self-efficacy scales of the Metamemory in Adulthood instrument (Dixon & Hultsch, 1983) to determine whether age changes are anticipated for oneself as well as for typical adults. Young adults (N = 468; mean age = 21.0 years) rated the memory of either typical adults (aged 25, 45, or 65 years) or themselves at one of these ages. As in Ryan and Kwong See (1993), anticipation of decline was obtained on two of the three self-efficacy scales (i.e., capacity and change). In addition, beliefs about everyday memory decline (i.e., capacity and locus) were weaker for the self than for typical others. Hence, support was obtained for negative stereotypes about memory and aging in Korea as well as a self-protection bias indicating stronger anticipation of age-related decline among others.