Cultural difference of meta expectation about interpersonal relationship -Comparison between Japan and America-

不难想象，发展人际关系的速度和深度取决于人们通常对建立友谊抱有的积极或消极期望。如果存在对人际关系期望的文化差异，就会影响跨文化活动。本研究旨在揭示意象（元期望）对人际关系发展的文化差异。我们主要进行了两项研究。这些研究的主要目的是揭示与朋友的朋友的关系的元期望。在第一个研究中，我们使用了图像场景的方法，称为“食堂场景”。在这个场景中，据称参与者在餐厅遇到了一个人“a”，他是受访者朋友的朋友，但他们彼此并不熟悉。我们通过开放式和封闭式问卷的方式询问参与者他们会如何表现。结果显示，与日本人相比，更多的美国人希望与“A”人相处。另一方面，日本受访者倾向于回避a人。在第二项研究中，我们在人际关系中提倡单位取向和自主取向概念，并测试了测量这些概念的量表。从量表、单位、关系关注和自主性中提取三个因素。在这些因素中，美国受访者的单位取向得分高于日本受访者。这一发现意味着美国人比日本人更积极地拓展自己的社交网络。这些发现提示了美日两国在人际关系元期望上的文化差异。在未来，我们希望澄清人际关系亲密和崩溃过程中的文化差异。

It is not difficult to imagine that speed and depth of developing interpersonal relationships depend on the positive or negative expectation that people generally hold for forming friendships. If cultural differences for the expectation about interpersonal relationships exist, they affect intercultural activities. The purpose of this study was to reveal the cultural difference of the image (meta-expectation) for the development of interpersonal relationships.We conducted mainly two researches. Main purpose of these researches was to reveal the meta-expectation for the relationship toward a person who was a friend of one's friend.In the first research, we used image scene method called "dinning hall scenario". In this scenario, participants allegedly encountered a person "A", in a dinning hall, who was a friend of respondent's friends but they themselves did not know well eath other. We asked participants how they would behave by using open-ended and close-ended questionnaires. Results showed that compared with Japanese people, more U.S.people wanted to get along with the person "A". On the other hand, Japanese respondents inclined to avoid the person A.In the second research, we advocated unit and autonomy orientation concepts for interpersonal relationships and tested the scale which measured these concepts. Three factors were extracted from the scale, unit, concern for relationship and autonomy. Among these factors, unit orientation score for U.S.respondents were higher than Japanese respondents. This finding means U.S.people expand their network more actively than Japanese people.These findings suggest the cultural difference for the meta-expectation of interpersonal relationships between U.S.and Japan. In the future, we hope to clarify the cultural difference in intimate and collapsing process of interpersonal relationships.