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This chapter presents a critical overview of theory and research on culture and morality. The authors address both classic and contemporary models of morality, with consideration given to empirical findings that support the claims of these models as well as to how the claims of the models are supported or challenged by cultural approaches. The authors examine models of justice morality, including the classic cognitive developmental framework of Kohlberg and the contemporary distinct domain perspective of Turiel, work on moralities of caring, and moral ethics frameworks that dominate current work on morality in social psychology. They identify valuable directions for future research, including studies of culture and morality that go beyond taxonomic approaches to moral content and that examine such concerns as intergroup relations and prejudice, power dynamics in school and family relations, and cultural influences on the course, outcomes, and processes of moral socialization.

After receiving help, individuals tend to experience an immediate increase in obligation to be responsive to the helper. Cross-cultural research has shown that whereas this sense of obligation dissipates for Americans after reciprocation, it remains unchanged after reciprocation for Indians. Is this decrease in obligation felt by Americans temporary, or can it endure over years such that it provides immunity from responding to the helper? And is there a statute of limitations on the experience of obligation for Indians? If individuals do not reciprocate, can obligation expire? We addressed these questions in a vignette-based experimental investigation involving American and Indian adults. Study 1 (N = 153) demonstrated that Americans but not Indians felt less obligation to aid the helper after reciprocation than in situations in which they had not reciprocated years after receiving a benefit. Reciprocation thus provided Americans, but not Indians, with immunity from being responsive to the helper. Study 2 (N = 141) demonstrated that Americans but not Indians felt less obligation years after as compared with months after receiving a benefit. The passage of time thus expired obligation to be responsive to the helper for Americans but not for Indians. Study 3 (N = 129) provided ecological validity to our hypotheses by assessing real-life friendships, showing how both reciprocations and time passage affect obligation independently and in combination. The findings imply that prosocial behavior is affected by both time passage and reciprocation among Americans but not Indians.

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. We also demonstrate that cultural variation exists in reliance on communal norms versus reciprocal exchange norms in everyday social support interactions among American, Indian, and Japanese populations, with these norms providing a background for contrasting experiences of agency. In conclusion, we highlight the contributions of cultural research to basic psychological theory. Although cultural research provides greater awareness of diversity in psychological functioning, its fundamental value is to contribute new insights into the theoretical formulations and methodological stances adopted in the discipline more generally.

We investigated the relationship between empathy, prosocial behavior, and frequency of humane interactions with animals among 3 rd grade children (n = 158). We measured the frequency of humane interactions with animals via the Children’s Treatment of Animals Questionnaire ( Thompson & Gullone, 2003 ), empathy via the Bryant Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents ( Bryant, 1982 ), and prosocial behavior via teachers’ evaluations of children’s helpfulness towards others in the classroom. Results showed that children who had more frequent interactions with animals that involved a strong element of companionship reported greater empathy, and that this, in turn, related positively to prosocial behavior (measured by teacher’s report). A mediational model in which empathy accounts for the effect of positive interactions with animals on prosocial behavior provides consistent, if not conclusive, support for the relationship between interacting with animals and socio-emotional development.