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Judgments of personal autonomy and interpersonal responsibility in the context of Indian spousal relationships: An examination of young people's reasoning in Mysore, India
Author(s) -
Neff Kristin D.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1348/026151001166056
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , autonomy , interpersonal communication , context (archaeology) , wife , developmental psychology , hinduism , interpersonal relationship , patriarchy , social environment , gender studies , sociology , social science , law , paleontology , philosophy , political science , biology , theology
This study examined social judgments of autonomy and responsibility in the context of Indian spousal relationships. The sample included 72 Hindu Indian children, adolescents and young adults (M ages = 10.2, 15.1 and 19.8 years) from Mysore, India. Participants were presented with a series of vignettes in which the needs and desires of spouses conflicted, designed so that the protagonist in each situation was either a husband or wife. Participants were asked to decide what the actor should do and why, indicating whether personal autonomy or interpersonal responsibility concerns were dominant. A repeated measures MANOVA found a main effect of spousal condition, indicating that judgments were influenced by norms of patriarchy: autonomy was emphasized more often for husbands, responsibility more often for wives (particularly among male children). However, participants also went against cultural norms, with 58% of participants supporting autonomy for wives when their personal concerns were relatively important. Although Hindu India is often described as a collectivistic culture in which personal concerns are subordinated to interpersonal concerns, the Hindu Indian participants in this study displayed concern with both autonomy and responsibility, and gender hierarchy played a role in the manifestation of these concerns.