Judgments of personal autonomy and interpersonal responsibility in the context of Indian spousal relationships: An examination of young people's reasoning in Mysore, India

This study examined social judgments of autonomy and responsibility in the context of Indian spousal relationships. The sample included 72 Hindu India n children, adolescents and young adults (M ages = 10.2, 15.1 and 19.8 year s) from Mysore, India. Participants were presented with a series of vignett es in which the needs and desires of spouses conflicted, designed so that t he 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, indicat ing that judgments were influenced by norms of patriarchy: autonomy was emp hasized more often for husbands, responsibility more often for wives (parti cularly among male children). However, participants also went against cultu ral norms, with 58% of participants supporting autonomy for wives when thei r personal concerns were relatively important. Although Hindu India is ofte n described as a collectivistic culture in which personal concerns are subo rdinated to interpersonal concerns, the Hindu Indian participants in this s tudy displayed concern with both autonomy and responsibility, and gender hi erarchy played a role in the manifestation of these concerns.