Gratitude endures while indebtedness persuades: investigating the unique influences of gratitude and indebtedness in helping.

What is the temporal course of gratitude and indebtedness and how do these feelings influence helping in the context of reciprocity? In an online-game tapping real-life behaviour, Study 1 (N = 106) finds that while gratitude towards a benefactor remains elevated after an opportunity to reciprocate, indebtedness declines along with helping. Yet, indebtedness rather than gratitude better predicts real-life helping of a benefactor. Using a vignette-based experiment, Study 2 (N = 217) finds that after reciprocation indebtedness and likelihood of helping a benefactor reset to a baseline level while gratitude endures. Furthermore, the decrease in helping after reciprocation is better explained by indebtedness than by gratitude. Study 3 (N = 217) assessed the unique influences of gratitude and indebtedness on helping by comparing contexts in which gratitude is at a baseline level but indebtedness is elevated (e.g. before a monetary payment for a service received) to contexts in which indebtedness is at a baseline level but gratitude is elevated (e.g. after reciprocation of benefits freely given by a friend). People are more likely to help in the former compared to latter context, and this difference is better explained by indebtedness rather than by gratitude. We discuss the interrelated and understudied relationships between gratitude, indebtedness, and reciprocity.

Norm-based spontaneous categorization: Cultural norms shape meaning and memory.

When cultures have different norms for the same situation, does culture affect memory by influencing the weight individuals assign to information or also by affecting the meaning of information itself, influencing memory via categorization? We present 4 experiments showing that, in relying on contrasting cultural norms of reciprocity (Studies 1 and 2) and spiritual purity (Studies 3 and 4), Indians and Americans differ in their interpretation of and memory for identical information. Studies 1 (N = 123) and 3 (N = 78), utilizing cued-recall, and Studies 2 (N = 143) and 4 (N = 79), utilizing multiple-choice incidental-memory tests, show cultural differences in memory and categorization in culturally relevant normative domains. In Studies 1 and 2 Americans, applying their own culture-specific reciprocity norms, were more likely than Indians to interpret gifts given after receiving help as implying reciprocity. Hence, Americans (and not Indians) tended to categorize information about gifts in terms of whether it was norm-consistent or inconsistent, evidenced by memory that reflected greater within-category confusions. In Studies 3 and 4 Indians, applying their own culture-specific norms of purity, were more likely than Americans to interpret images of shoes on sacred objects as implying spiritual impurity. Thus, Indians (and not Americans) tended to categorize information about shoes in terms of whether it was norm-violating or nonviolating, evidenced by memory that reflected greater within-category confusions. Applying culturally variable norms to the same situation leads to different understandings of the same behavior, resulting in memory that reflects norm-based spontaneous categorization. We highlight the role that culture-specific norms play in cognitively predisposing individuals to organize information in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Culture and the development of views of agency: Perspectives from storybooks, parents, and children.

The present three-study investigation examined cultural influences on the internalization of social expectations. Testing the claim of self-determination theory that lesser internalization of social expectations is linked to socialization practices that portray social expectations as in conflict with autonomy, in Study 1 we undertook a content analysis of the views of social expectations portrayed in American and Indian storybooks. Results indicated that only American and not Indian storybooks more frequently portrayed characters as displaying negative emotions when behaviors were socially expected as compared with spontaneous. In Study 2 (n = 120), we undertook a vignette-based experiment, which showed that American parents viewed social expectations as incompatible with agency whereas Indian parents viewed them as compatible with agency. In Study 3 (n = 224), we undertook a related vignette based experiment among 7- and 10-year-old children in the United States and India. Results indicated that younger children shared a view of social expectations as compatible with agency, with qualitative developmental change occurring among American children who come to view social expectations as in conflict with autonomy with age, and quantitative developmental change occurring among Indian children who deepen their earlier understandings of social expectations with age. Our results point to the presence of early relational outlooks that young children use in assimilating cultural variable messages communicated in socialization practices. Challenging simple "fax" models of cultural learning, our results indicate that children do not passively absorb cultural messages but actively interpret them in integrating them with their emerging sense of self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A Cultural Psychology of Agency: Morality, Motivation, and Reciprocity.

We highlight the need to culturally broaden psychological theories of social development in providing an overview of our programs of cross-cultural research on interpersonal morality, motivation, and reciprocity. Our research demonstrates that whereas Americans tend to treat interpersonal morality as a matter of personal choice, Indians tend to treat it as a role-related duty. Furthermore, Americans associate greater satisfaction with acting autonomously than with acting to fulfill social expectations, whereas Indians associate high levels of satisfaction with both types of cases. We also demonstrate that cultural variation exists in reliance on communal norms versus reciprocal exchange norms in everyday social support interactions among American, Indian, and Japanese populations, with these norms providing a background for contrasting experiences of agency. In conclusion, we highlight the contributions of cultural research to basic psychological theory. Although cultural research provides greater awareness of diversity in psychological functioning, its fundamental value is to contribute new insights into the theoretical formulations and methodological stances adopted in the discipline more generally.

Cultural variation in communal versus exchange norms: Implications for social support.

Whereas an interdependent cultural view of self has been linked to communal norms and to socially supportive behavior, its relationship to social support has been called into question in research suggesting that discomfort in social support is associated with an interdependent cultural view of self (e.g., Taylor et al., 2004). These contrasting claims were addressed in 2 studies conducted among Japanese, Indian, and American adults. Assessing everyday social support, Study 1 showed that Japanese and Americans rely on exchange norms more frequently than Indians among friends, whereas American rely on exchange norms more frequently than Indians and Japanese among siblings. Assessing responses to vignettes, Study 2 demonstrated that Japanese and Americans rely more frequently on exchange norms than Indians, with greatest relational concerns and most negative outlooks on social support observed among Japanese, less among Americans, and least among Indians. Results further indicated that relational concerns mediated the link between exchange norms and negative social support outlooks. Supporting past claims that relational concerns explain cultural variation in discomfort in social support (e.g., Kim, Sherman, & Taylor, 2008), the findings underscore the need to take into account as well the role of exchange norms in explaining such discomfort. The findings also highlight the existence of culturally variable approaches to exchange and call into question claims that discomfort in social support can be explained in terms of the global concept of an interdependent cultural view of self. (PsycINFO Database Record

Culture and the role of choice in agency.

Three cross-cultural studies conducted among U.S. and Indian adults compared perceptions of helping friends in strongly versus weakly expected cases, views of helping family versus strangers, and responses to a self-determination motivation scale. Expectations to help family and friends were positively correlated with satisfaction and choice only among Indians and not among Americans. Also, whereas U.S. respondents associated lesser satisfaction and choice with strongly versus weakly socially expected helping, Indian respondents associated equal satisfaction and choice with the 2 types of cases. Providing evidence of the importance of choice in collectivist cultures, the results indicate that social expectations to meet the needs of family and friends tend to be more fully internalized among Indians than among Americans. Methodologically, the results also highlight the need to incorporate items that tap more internalized meanings of role-related social expectations on measures of motivation in the tradition of self-determination theory.

Bringing culture to basic psychological theory--beyond individualism and collectivism: comment on Oyserman et al. (2002).

D. Oyserman, H. M. Coon, and M. Kemmelmeir (2002) offered a comprehensive literature review on individualism and collectivism that forwards valuable suggestions for ways to enhance future research conducted within this framework. The author argues that although their criticisms of much contemporary social psychological research on individualism and collectivism are valid, even more fundamental problems need to be recognized as characterizing work within this tradition, such as the insufficiently subtle nature of the views held of culture, the limited attention given to meanings, and the downplaying of contextual variation. The author suggests adopting more nuanced and process-oriented conceptions of culture and more contextually grounded views of its impact on psychological functioning as a way of realizing the promise of cultural psychology to broaden and provide insight into basic psychological theory.