Miller J G
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1984 May;46(5):961-78. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.46.5.961.
The impact of cultural meaning systems on the development of everyday social explanation is explored in a cross-cultural investigation undertaken among Indian and American adults and children (ages 8, 11, and 15 year). It is demonstrated that at older ages Americans make greater reference to general dispositions and less reference to contextual factors in explanation than do Hindus . References to general dispositions also undergo a much greater developmental increase among Americans than among Hindus , whereas references to contextual factors show the opposite pattern of developmental change. Evidence suggests that these cross-cultural and developmental differences result from contrasting cultural conceptions of the person acquired over development in the two cultures rather than from cognitive., experiential, or informational differences between attributors . Discussion focuses on theoretical implications of such a demonstration for understanding: (a) the importance of integrating semantic with structural considerations in theories of social attribution, (b) the need to develop nonteleological frameworks for interpreting age and cultural diversity in conceptualization, and (c) the role of cultural communication in the acquisition of everyday social knowledge.
在一项针对印度和美国成年人及儿童（8岁、11岁和15岁）的跨文化调查中，探讨了文化意义系统对日常社会解释发展的影响。结果表明，在年龄较大时，与印度教徒相比，美国人在解释中更多地提及一般性格特征，而较少提及情境因素。与印度教徒相比，美国人对一般性格特征的提及在发展过程中的增加幅度也大得多，而对情境因素的提及则呈现出相反的发展变化模式。有证据表明，这些跨文化和发展差异源于两种文化在发展过程中所形成的关于人的不同文化观念，而非归因者之间的认知、经验或信息差异。讨论集中在这种论证对于理解以下方面的理论意义：（a）在社会归因理论中整合语义与结构考量的重要性；（b）为解释概念化中的年龄和文化多样性而发展非目的论框架的必要性；（c）文化交流在日常社会知识获取中的作用。
