Relational motivation and well‐being: A cross‐cultural comparison

Abstract

Culture plays a crucial role in motivation. Personally autonomous reasons (PARs) for goals reflect the needs, desires, and commitment for oneself, whereas relationally autonomous reasons (RARs) for goals reflect the needs within close relationships. It was hypothesized that PARs are the better predictor of well-being for Americans, while RARs are the better predictor of well-being for Japanese. Onehundred and seventy American and 219 Japanese university students completed well-being questionnaires and rated seven goals on several attributes. The results confirmed that RARs were a better predictor of well-being for Japanese than for Americans, but PARs predicted well-being for both groups. Implications for theories of goal motivation are discussed.

The relationship between autonomous motivation and goal pursuit: A cross‐cultural perspective

“…() and Yi et al . (), suggesting that the cultural differences in the beneficial effects of autonomous motivations on well‐being exist for both PARs and RARs, but they might be reflected on the evaluation of the social aspects of the self, rather than the personal aspects. However, these results and explanations must be considered with caution, because the moderating effects of culture were not significant in these associations.…”

“…According to Yi et al . (), personal self‐esteem is associated with PARs in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures, but it is associated with RARs only in collectivistic cultures. Regarding collective self‐esteem, to our knowledge, no study has examined how RARs and PARs are associated with this form of self‐esteem in different cultures.…”

“…For example, Yi et al . () found that RARs predicted more types of well‐being for Japanese people than for Americans; whereas PARs predicted the same number of well‐being variables for people in both cultures. Similarly, Rudy et al .…”

“…With respect to well‐being, previous studies showed that culture moderated the relationships between RARs and well‐being, but not between PARs and well‐being (Rudy et al ., ; Yi, Gore & Kanagawa, ). For example, Yi et al .…”

“…Based on Yi et al . (), it is expected that RARs will predict personal self‐esteem only for Chinese people, whereas PARs will predict this form of self‐esteem for people in both cultures. In addition, because collective self‐esteem is related more to individuals' interpersonal identity than personal self‐esteem, it is expected that RARs will predict collective self‐esteem in both cultures.…”