Abstract
Introduction. A substantial body of work has established that friendship is an important non-kin interpersonal relationship, with many positive outcomes. An issue with this literature is that it originated primarily in anglocentric Euro-American societies, when several studies have shown that the meaning of friendship varies across cultural settings. In particular, linguistic analyses advance that the meaning of friendship in Russian is quite different from that in English. The goal of this study was to seek psychological evidence of these linguistic findings by documenting similarities and differences in people’s understanding of friendship in both cultural contexts.
Methods. The research consisted of a qualitative investigation of friendship cultural models among Russian migrants to Canada, through semi-structured interviews that were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis, whereby data segments are coded and codes are gradually refined and streamlined in order to identify the main themes that emerge from the data.
Results. Participants’ depictions of friendship in Russian vs. Canadian contexts were largely in line with semantic analyses of friendship in Russian vs. English, with friendship being described as a stronger and deeper bond, but also more demanding in Russia than in Canada.
Discussion. The findings support Wierzbicka’s proposal that key terms in a language encapsulate cultural models prevalent among its speakers. The results are also consistent with the existence of close parallels between people’s cultural models and the linguistic ecologies in which they live.
References
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Argyle M., Henderson M. The rules of friendship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 1984, Vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 211–237. DOI: 10.1177/0265407584012005
Chen G. M. Differences in self-disclosure patterns among Americans versus Chinese: A comparative study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1995, Vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 84–91. DOI: 10.1177/0022022195261006
Wierzbicka A. Understanding cultures through their key words English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 328 p.
Searle-White J. Personal boundaries among Russians and Americans: A Vygotskian approach. Cross-Cultural Research, 1996, Vol. 30, no. 2. DOI: 10.1177/106939719603000203
Sheets V. L., Lugar R. Sources of conflict between friends in Russia and the United States. Cross-Cultural Research, 2005, Vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 380–398. DOI: 10.1177/1069397105274833
Sheets V. L., Lugar R. Friendship and gender in Russia and the United States. Sex Roles, 2005, Vol. 52, pp. 131–40. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-005-1200-0
Wiseman J. P. Friendship: Bonds and binds in a voluntary relationship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 1986, Vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 191–211. DOI: 10.1177/0265407586032005
Hall J. A. Friendship standards: The dimensions of ideal expectations. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2012, Vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 884–907. DOI: 10.1177/0265407512448274
Waldrip A. M., Malcolm K. T., Jensen-Campbell L. A. With a little help from your friends: The importance of high-quality friendships on early adolescent
adjustment. Social Development, 2008, Vol. 17, Issue 4. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00476.x
Jerrome D. Good company: the sociological implications of friendship. Sociological Review, 1984, Vol. 32, pp. 696–718. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1984.tb00831.x
De Vries B., Utz R., Caserta M., Lund D. Friend and family contact and support in early widowhood. Journals of Gerontology – Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 2014, Vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 75–84. DOI: 10.1093/
geronb/gbt078
Knight G. P., Berkel C., Umaña-Taylor A. J., Gonzales N. A., Ettekal I., Jaconis M., et al. The familial socialization of culturally related values in Mexican American families. Journal of Marriage and Family, 2011, Vol. 73, pp. 913–925. DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2011.00856.x PMCID: PMC3196592
Lincoln K. D., Taylor R. J., Bullard K. M., Chatters L. M., Woodward A. T., Himle J. A., et al. Emotional support, negative interaction and DSM IV lifetime disorders among older African Americans: Findings from the national survey of American life (NSAL). International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2010, Vol. 25, pp. 612–621. DOI: 10.1002/gps.2383
Travis L. A., Lyness J. M., Shields C. G., King D. A., Cox C. Social support, depression, and functional disability in older adult primary-care patients. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2004, Vol. 12, Issue 3, pp. 265–271.
DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajgp.12.3.265
Wethington E., Kessler R. C. Perceived support, received support, and adjustment to stressful life events. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 1986, Vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 78–89. DOI: 10.2307/2136504
Mehta K. M., Simonsick E. M., Penninx B. W. J. H., Schulz R., Rubin S. M., Satterfield S., et al. Prevalence and correlates of anxiety symptoms in well-functioning older adults: Findings from the health aging and body composition study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2003, Vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 499–504. DOI: 10.1046/j.1532-5415.2003.51158.x
Brown S. C., Mason C. A., Spokane A. R., Cruza-Guet M. C., Lopez B., Szapocznik J. The relationship of neighborhood climate to perceived social support and mental health in older hispanic immigrants in Miami, Florida.
Journal of Aging and Health, 2009, Vol. 21, Issue 3, pp. 431–459. DOI: 10.1177/0898264308328976
Gillespie B. J., Frederick D., Harari L., Grov C. Homophily, close Friendship, and life satisfaction among gay, lesbian, heterosexual, and bisexual men and women. PLOS ONE, 2015, Vol. 10, no. 6. DOI: 101371/journal.pone.0128900
Demir M., Davidson I. Toward a better understanding of the relationship between friendship and happiness: Perceived responses to capitalization attempts, feelings of mattering, and satisfaction of basic psychological needs in same-sex best friendships as predictors of happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2013, Vol. 14, Issue 2, pp. 525–550. DOI: 10.1007/s10902-012-9341-7
Kitayama S., Markus H. R. The pursuit of happiness and the realization of sympathy: Cultural patterns of self, social relations, and well-being. In: Diener E., Suh E. M. (eds.) Culture and Subjective Well-Being. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000, pp. 113–161.
Kuo W. H., Tsai Y.-M. Social networking, hardiness and immigrant’s mental health. Journai of Health and Social Behavior, 1986, Vol. 27, pp. 133–149. DOI: 10.2307/2136312
Sawir E., Marginson S., Deumert A., Nyland C., Ramia G. Loneliness and international Students: An Australian study. Journal of Studies in International Education, 2008, Vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 148–180. DOI: 10.1177/1028315307299699
Casson R. W. Schemata in cognitive anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 1983, Vol. 12, pp. 429–462.
D’Andrade R. G. Schemas and motivation. In: D’Andrade R. G., Strauss C. (eds.) Human Motives and Cultural Models. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 23–44. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139166515.003
Strauss C., Quinn N. A cognitive theory of cultural meaning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 323 p.
Fischer R. Standardization to account for cross-cultural response bias: A classification of score adjustment procedures and review of research in JCCP. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2004, Vol. 35, Issue 3, pp. 263–282. DOI:
10.1177/0022022104264122
Chiu C.-Y., Gelfand M. J., Yamagishi T., Shteynberg G., Wan C. Intersubjective culture: The role of intersubjective perceptions in cross-cultural research. Perspectives Psychological Science, 2010, Vol. 5, Issue 4, pp. 482–493. DOI:
10.1177/1745691610375562
Johnson R. B., Onwuegbuzie A. J. Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Research, 2004, Vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 14–26. DOI: 10.3102/0013189X033007014
Glaser B. G., Strauss A. L. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine Publ., 1977. 271 p.
Braun V., Clarke V. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2006, Vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 77–101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Charmaz K. Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. New York: Sage Publications, 2006. 297 p.
Hsiung P.-C. Conventions for transcribing interviews. Lives Legacies Guide Qual Interviewing 2010. Available at: https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~pchsiung/LAL/interviewing/conventions (Accessed 15 September 2018).
Fowler F. Interview Schedule. In: Lewis-Beck M., Bryman A. and Liao T. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods. Sage Publication Inc., Thousand Oaks, 2004, pp. 519–520. DOI: 10.4135/9781412950589.n451
Gibbs G. Thematic coding and analyzing. In: Analyzing Qualitative Data. London, UK: Sage Publications, 2007, pp. 38–55. DOI: 10.4135/9781849208574
Sun J., Ryder A. G. The Chinese experience of rapid modernization: Sociocultural changes, psychological consequences? Frontiers in Psychology, 2016, Vol. 7, pp. 1–13.
Twenge J. M. Generation me-revised and updated: Why today’s young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled–and more miserable than ever before. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014. 292 p.
Greenfield P. M. Cultural change over time: Why replicability should not be the gold standard in psychological science. Perspectives Psychological Science, 2017, Vol. 12, pp. 762–771. DOI: 10.1177/1745691617707314
Oyserman D. Culture three ways: Culture and subcultures within countries. The Annual Review of Psychology, 2017, Vol. 68, pp. 435–463. Semin G. R. Culturally situated linguistic ecologies and language use: Cultural tools at the service of representing and shaping situated realities. In: Gelfand M. J., Chiu C., Hong Y. (eds.) Advances in culture and psychology. Oxford University Press, 2010, Vol. 1, pp. 217–249.