This project aims to increase understanding of cultural differences in the experience of social support exchange within family and friend relationships. The research will be conducted among African-American and European-American adult populations in New York City; Japanese adult populations in Tokyo, Japan; and Hindu Indian adult populations in Baroda, India. The research is expected to identify cultural variation in rules of reciprocity and in the moral meanings of everyday social support exchange. African-American, Japanese, and Indian respondents are predicted to give greater weight to generalized reciprocity than European-American respondents. Generalized reciprocity is expected to be associated with greater comfort in accepting help than is balanced reciprocity. It is further predicted that a distinct moral outlook on social support will be evident in each community, with European-Americans giving greatest weight to personal discretion, African-Americans stressing the importance of ongoing affective bonds based on mutual reliance, Japanese emphasizing the need to promote smooth interpersonal relationships, and Indians according priority to role-based duty. The hypotheses are to be tested in a series of naturalistic and experimental interview studies that assess rules of reciprocity, moral meanings, social assurance, as well as positive and negative implications for the self linked to cultural differences in social support. Some of the long-term objectives of the project include: a) enhanced understanding of the processes contributing to cultural variation in the experience of social solidarity; b) an emphasis on the need to go beyond the individualism/collectivism dichotomy in understanding cultural outlooks; and c) uncovering mental health implications of the different culturally-based approaches to social support. The research will promote inter-cultural understanding by challenging stereotypic views held of collectivist and individualist cultures, as well as broaden knowledge of understudied populations. In addition, graduate students from each culture will participate in training activities during each project year.
