Gratitude endures while indebtedness persuades: investigating the unique influences of gratitude and indebtedness in helping.

What is the temporal course of gratitude and indebtedness and how do these feelings influence helping in the context of reciprocity? In an online-game tapping real-life behaviour, Study 1 (= 106) finds that while gratitude towards a benefactor remains elevated after an opportunity to reciprocate, indebtedness declines along with helping. Yet, indebtedness rather than gratitude better predicts real-life helping of a benefactor. Using a vignette-based experiment, Study 2 (= 217) finds that after reciprocation indebtedness and likelihood of helping a benefactor reset to a baseline level while gratitude endures.

Norm-based spontaneous categorization: Cultural norms shape meaning and memory.

When cultures have different norms for the same situation, does culture affect memory by influencing the weight individuals assign to information or also by affecting the meaning of information itself, influencing memory via categorization? We present 4 experiments showing that, in relying on contrasting cultural norms of reciprocity (Studies 1 and 2) and spiritual purity (Studies 3 and 4), Indians and Americans differ in their interpretation of and memory for identical information. Studies 1 ( = 123) and 3 ( = 78), utilizing cued-recall, and Studies 2 ( = 143) and 4 ( = 79), utilizing multiple-choice incidental-memory tests, show cultural differences in memory and categorization in culturally relevant normative domains. In Studies 1 and 2 Americans, applying their own culture-specific reciprocity norms, were more likely than Indians to interpret gifts given after receiving help as implying reciprocity.

Culture and the development of views of agency: Perspectives from storybooks, parents, and children.

The present three-study investigation examined cultural influences on the internalization of social expectations. Testing the claim of self-determination theory that lesser internalization of social expectations is linked to socialization practices that portray social expectations as in conflict with autonomy, in Study 1 we undertook a content analysis of the views of social expectations portrayed in American and Indian storybooks. Results indicated that only American and not Indian storybooks more frequently portrayed characters as displaying negative emotions when behaviors were socially expected as compared with spontaneous.

A Cultural Psychology of Agency: Morality, Motivation, and Reciprocity.

We highlight the need to culturally broaden psychological theories of social development in providing an overview of our programs of cross-cultural research on interpersonal morality, motivation, and reciprocity. Our research demonstrates that whereas Americans tend to treat interpersonal morality as a matter of personal choice, Indians tend to treat it as a role-related duty. Furthermore, Americans associate greater satisfaction with acting autonomously than with acting to fulfill social expectations, whereas Indians associate high levels of satisfaction with both types of cases.

Cultural variation in communal versus exchange norms: Implications for social support.

Whereas an interdependent cultural view of self has been linked to communal norms and to socially supportive behavior, its relationship to social support has been called into question in research suggesting that discomfort in social support is associated with an interdependent cultural view of self (e.g., Taylor et al.

Culture and the role of choice in agency.

Three cross-cultural studies conducted among U.S. and Indian adults compared perceptions of helping friends in strongly versus weakly expected cases, views of helping family versus strangers, and responses to a self-determination motivation scale.

Bringing culture to basic psychological theory--beyond individualism and collectivism: comment on Oyserman et al. (2002).

D. Oyserman, H. M.