Choice as an Engine of Individualism: When and Why is Choice Beneficial or Detrimental in Three Cultural Contexts

选择作为个人主义的引擎：在三种文化背景下选择何时以及为何有益或有害

• 批准号: 0844085
• 负责人: Hazel Markus
• 金额: $ 50.01万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-06-01 至 2015-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0844085&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Choice; Engine; Individualism; When; Why

This research project aims to provide a better understanding of the human motivational system, and particularly the role of choice in organizing and guiding behavior. While choice is generally seen as universally impactful, recent cross-cultural comparisons reveal that the powerful motivational effects of choice may be limited to middle class European American groups of people. In other words, choice and its effects on behavior are intimately tied to an individualistic cultural perspective. This research project explores the role of choice in self processes, especially with respect to a sense of agency, and the nature and consequences of choice in three cultural contexts -- middle class European American, middle class Indian and working class European American. Fourteen studies will examine several key ideas. First, in middle class European American contexts, choice impacts self expression and feelings of agency, which benefits performance on cognitive and physical tasks but negatively affects interpersonal relations. Second, in middle class Indian contexts, self restraint rather than self expression via choice is associated with agency and benefits individual performance. And third, in working class European American contexts, social solidarity rather than self expression (again, via choice) is related to agency and benefits performance. Thus, choice is not equally powerful for everyone and has some negative consequences even for those who are most likely to reap its rewards. The theoretical significance of this project rests, in part, on refining and enriching previous understandings of sociocultural effects and not, as is often the case, on introducing a novel dimension of cultural variation. Moreover, of both theoretical and practical significance is that the research seeks to show that while choice can be effective in motivating behavior, its impact depends on the specific sociocultural contexts with which people engage. That is, effectively motivating people to stop smoking, to vote, or to save energy resources depends on invoking socioculturally matched models of agency. Overall, then, this research promises to more fully explicate the choice by embedding it in sociocultural contexts and thereby contribute to policy makers' efforts in designing interventions that benefit communities.

这一研究项目旨在更好地理解人类的动机系统，特别是选择在组织和引导行为中的作用。虽然选择通常被认为具有普遍的影响力，但最近的跨文化比较显示，选择的强大动机效应可能仅限于欧洲裔美国中产阶级群体。换句话说，选择及其对行为的影响与个人主义文化视角密切相关。本研究探讨了选择在自我过程中的作用，特别是关于代理感的作用，以及在三种文化背景下选择的性质和结果--中产阶级欧洲美国人、中产阶级印度人和欧洲美国工人阶级。14项研究将检验几个关键观点。首先，在欧美中产阶级的背景下，选择影响自我表达和代理感觉，这有利于认知和身体任务的表现，但对人际关系产生负面影响。其次，在印度中产阶级的背景下，自我克制而不是通过选择表达自我，与代理和个人表现有关。第三，在欧美工薪阶层的背景下，社会团结而不是自我表达(再次通过选择)与机构和福利表现有关。因此，选择对每个人来说并不是同等强大的，甚至对那些最有可能获得选择回报的人也会产生一些负面后果。这个项目的理论意义部分在于提炼和丰富了以前对社会文化影响的理解，而不是像通常情况下那样，在于引入文化变异的新维度。此外，具有理论和实践意义的是，这项研究试图表明，尽管选择可以有效地激励行为，但其影响取决于人们参与的特定社会文化背景。也就是说，有效地激励人们戒烟、投票或节约能源取决于援引与社会文化相匹配的机构模式。总体而言，这项研究承诺通过将选择嵌入到社会文化背景中来更充分地解释这一选择，从而有助于政策制定者努力设计有利于社区的干预措施。