Sociocultural Variation in Models of Agency: Implications for Choice, Motivation, and Well-Being

本项目研究人类代理的理解，经验和操作的文化差异，重点是代理模型。世界各地的人们都认为自己是能动的，都有一种自己是在做某件事的“我”的感觉，但他们对自己所做的事情的体验可能会有很大的不同，因为他们参与了不同的能动模式。对于那些在独立的文化背景下工作的人来说，能动性通常被认为是个体化的或不相交的，主要是一个人自己的欲望、目标和意图的结果。对于那些在相互依存的文化背景下，机构经常被体验为联合，一个人与他人的参与和相互义务和期望的意识的结果。在这项研究中，重点是积极的“我”谁是做某事的性质。尽管代理通常被认为是自治和“自由意志”的代名词，但越来越明显的是，代理呈现出特定于文化的形式。该项目是围绕三个具体的假设：1。在相对独立的文化背景下，当一个人自己的利益和意图被体验和理解为这些行动的来源时，行动将与规范上的良好结果相关联。然而，在相对相互依赖的文化背景下，当相关他人的利益和意图被体验并理解为这些行动的来源时，行动将与规范上的良好结果相关联。独立的文化背景的特点是普遍分布的不相交模式的机构，促进和要求专注于自己的利益和意图，而相互依存的文化背景的特点是普遍分布的联合模式的机构，促进和要求专注于他人的期望和义务。在相对独立的文化背景下，幸福感与独立自主感相关，而在相对相互依赖的文化背景下，幸福感与联合自主感相关。这一结果对文化与心理过程相互构成的基础研究，以及进一步分析心理健康与社会文化背景的关系具有重要意义。

This project examines cultural variation in the understandings, experience, and operation of human agency with a focus on models of agency. People everywhere regard themselves as agentic and have a sense of themselves as an "I" who is doing something, but what they experience themselves as doing can vary dramatically because they engage different models of agency. For those engaged in independent cultural contexts, agency is often experienced as individualized or disjoint, as primarily a result of one's own desires, goals, and intentions. For those in interdependent cultural contexts, agency is frequently experienced as conjoint, a consequence of the engagement of the person with others and of the awareness of reciprocal obligations and expectations. In this research, the focus is on the nature of the active "I" who is doing something. Although agency is often thought to be synonymous with autonomy and "free will", it is increasingly evident that agency assumes culture-specific forms. The project is organized around three specific hypotheses:1. In relatively independent cultural contexts, actions will be associated with normatively good outcomes when one's own interests and intentions are experienced and understood as the source of these actions. In relatively interdependent cultural contexts, however, actions will be associated with normatively good outcomes when the interests and intentions of relevant others are experienced and understood as the sources of these actions.2. Independent cultural contexts are characterized by the pervasive distribution of disjoint models of agency that promote and require a focus on one's own interests and intentions, whereas interdependent cultural contexts are characterized by the pervasive distribution of conjoint models of agency that promote and require a focus on the expectations of and obligations to others.3. In relatively independent cultural contexts well-being is associated with a sense of disjoint agency, whereas in relatively interdependent contexts well-being is associated with a sense of conjoint agency.The research addresses classic theoretical issues concerning freedom, responsibility, and the role of others in individual behavior. The results should have important implications for basic research on the mutual constitution of culture and psychological process, and for further analyzing the relationship between mental health and sociocultural context.