Culture and Motivation: A Cross-Cultural Study

调查的目的是研究文化对动机发展的影响，以响应他人的需要。 三项实验研究将在美国和印度教的印度成年人和小学年龄的儿童中进行。 第一项研究审查了个人对同伴需求作出反应的感知原因的发展，重点是这些原因的结构及其与个人社会情感功能的关系。 第二项研究评估了角色相关的人际责任是否会降低助人行为的内生动机并降低其质量。 第三项研究评估了规范期望对内在动机和个人行为绩效质量的影响。这项研究预计将表明，反映出他们对自我的不同文化观点，美国人对人际责任的自我决定动机取向比印度人少。 因此，有人假设，在美国人中，帮助他人的规范性期望会导致内源性动机形式的减少，并与较低的适应性行为功能相关，而在印度人中则不会产生这种影响。 这项研究也被期望记录在哪些方面的主流心理学理论的内化是文化的约束。 这些理论将出于责任感的行为与压力或胁迫的感觉联系起来。 然而，这种联系被假设不会发生在印度人，预计他们不会感知到自我决定的动机和社会责任之间的对立关系。 最后，该项目预计将揭示，发展变化的方向，在人际动机是文化上的变量，与美国人发展一个相对外源的观点，人际责任和印度教印第安人保留一个相对内源性的观点。 调查将有助于了解社会发展如何受到更大文化背景下的信仰和价值观的影响。 一系列的实验研究将进行对比的动机，以帮助他人之间的成年人和小学年龄的儿童抽样从美国和印度。 实质上，这项研究预计将确定美国文化的个人主义的重点导致美国人发展较少的自我决定的角度来帮助他人比出现在文化中强调更多的集体主义观念。 它还将提供急需的数据，在两种文化背景下发展的对比文化基础的动机取向影响学校和友谊关系的适应方式。 关于发展的影响，研究重点是来自明显不同文化背景的儿童的社会观念和行为，这将使人们有可能确定儿童发展的共同和特定文化方面。 最后，在理论层面上，调查将有助于完善现有的心理模型的动机，确定方面，这些模型可能会反映文化的具体假设，并可能需要修改，以考虑在更集体主义文化的人际动机。

The goal of the investigation is to examine cultural influences on the development of motivation to be responsive to the needs of others. Three experimental studies will be undertaken among samples of American and Hindu Indian adults and elementary- school aged children. The first study examines the development of individuals' perceived reasons for being responsive to the needs of their peers, with a focus on the structure of these reasons and on their relationship to individuals' socio-emotional functioning. The second study assesses whether the presence of role-related interpersonal responsibilities reduces endogenous motivation for helping behavior and degrades its quality. The third study evaluates the impact of normative expectations to render aid on intrinsic motivation and on the quality of individual behavioral performance. The research is expected to demonstrate that, reflecting their contrasting culturally based views of self, Americans maintain a less self-determined motivational orientation toward interpersonal responsibilities than do Indians. Thus, it is hypothesized that whereas among Americans, normative expectations to help others will lead to the diminishing of endogenous forms of motivation and will be associated with less adaptive behavioral functioning, they will not have such effects among Indians. The research is also expected to document respects in which the dominant psychological theories of internalization are culturally- bound. These theories link acting out of a perceived sense of obligation to feelings of pressure or coercion. However, such a linkage is hypothesized not to occur among Indians whom it is anticipated do not perceive an antithetical relationship between self-determined forms of motivation and social duty. Finally, the project is anticipated to reveal that the direction of developmental change in interpersonal motivation is culturally variable, with Americans developing a relatively exogenous view of interpersonal responsibilities and Hindu Indians retaining a relatively endogenous view. The investigation will contribute to an understanding of ways in which social development is affected by the beliefs and values of the larger cultural context. A series of experimental studies will be undertaken contrasting the motivation to help others among adults and elementary school aged children sampled from the United States and India. Substantively, the research is expected to identify respects in which the individualistic emphasis of American culture leads Americans to develop less self-determined perspectives toward helping others than arise in cultures emphasizing more collectivist conceptions. It also will provide much needed data on ways that the contrasting culturally grounded motivational orientations that develop in the two cultural contexts affect adaptation in school and friendship relationships. Regarding developmental implications, the research focus on the social perceptions and behavior of children from markedly different cultural backgrounds will make it possible to identify both common and culture-specific aspects of child development. Finally, on a theoretical level, the investigation will contribute to the refinement of existing psychological models of motivation by identifying respects in which these models may reflect culturally-specific assumptions and may need to be modified to account for interpersonal motivation in more collectivist cultures.