The goal of the planned investigation is to examine cultural influences on the moral status of interpersonal responsibilities - defined here as obligations to be responsive to another's wants or needs, which arise, in part, from ingroup identity. Three experimental studies will be conducted examining the impact of factors such as affective closeness, cost, role and non-market based social contracts on American and Hindu Indian adults' and childrens' (second grade and sixth grade) moral appraisals and attributions regarding interpersonal responsibilities. The long term objectives of the project are: 1. to contribute to a theoretical understanding of cross-cultural variation existing in the moral status of interpersonal responsibilities; 2. to highlight some of the mental health consequences of this variation; 3. to further an awareness of cultural influences on inferences regarding prosocial motivation; and 4. to enhance knowledge regarding self constructive and enculturation processes influencing the development of moral judgment. On a theoretical level, the research is expected to demonstrate that two diverse perspectives exist regarding interpersonal responsibilities, rather than one as is generally assumed. It will be shown that Americans tend to hold a relatively voluntaristic """"""""relationship-based"""""""" perspective on interpersonal responsibilities, in which commitments to others are seen as affectively mediated, low in cost and capable of being voluntarily renounced. In contrast, it will be shown that Indians tend to hold a less voluntaristic """"""""role-based"""""""" perspective, in which commitments to others are seen as mediated by ingroup obligations potententially high in cost and relatively immutable. These alternative cultural perspectives, the research is also anticipated to reveal, have contrasting mental health implications, in the tradeoff each offers between freedom of choice and social support. On an attributional level, the research is expected to demonstrate that whereas Indians tend to treat individual inclinations as satisfied through the fulfillment of social obligations, Americans show a greater tendency to treat individual inclinations as constrained by social obligations. Finally, in identifying commonalities in young childrens' earliest interpretations of interpersonal responsibilities, the research is expected to highlight ways in which the development of social cognition depends, at least in part, on active self construction of culturally mediated information.
| Miller, J G; Bersoff, D M (1992) Culture and moral judgment: how are conflicts between justice and interpersonal responsibilities resolved? J Pers Soc Psychol 62:541-54 |
| Miller, J G; Bersoff, D M; Harwood, R L (1990) Perceptions of social responsibilities in India and in the United States: moral imperatives or personal decisions? J Pers Soc Psychol 58:33-47 |
