PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Seiji Takaku

MA-Research
August 1997

Culture and Status as Influences on Account-Giving: A Comparison Between the U.S.A. and Japan

    The account appropriateness of 52 American and 52 Japanese participants were examined as a function of account types, status of the transgressor, and status of the victim.  A vignette described a situation in which a person was accused by another of breaking a promise at work and was asked to give an account.  The participants rated the appropriateness of an account given and responded to attribution-related questions.  Results showed that Japanese participants rated apology as significantly more appropriate across situations than the Americans did.  However, the American participants rated justification as significantly more appropriate than the Japanese did.  Although the status variables exerted similar influences on both Japanese and American ratings of the appropriateness of mitigating accounts, the status variables differentially influenced their ratings of the appropriateness of aggravating accounts.  An attributional analysis of the data revealed the same underlying motivational pattern for the two cultures.

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