Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Parental Relationship-Oriented Guilt Induction Versus Harsh Psychological Control

In this study, we examined whether culture moderates the correlates of psychological control as a function of the type of measure used. We administered two measures of parental psychological control to university undergraduates from India ( n = 166) and the United States ( n = 177), as well as a measure of participants’ self-esteem. One measure assessed harsh psychologically controlling tactics; the other relationship-oriented guilt induction. We argued that while relationship-oriented guilt induction might be deemed inappropriate in the United States, Indian parents might more frequently use this technique to promote familial interdependence, a culturally specific value. Harsh psychological control, on the other hand, is unlikely to be used for benign purposes in either group. We had the following hypotheses: (a) across groups, harsh psychological control would be more strongly associated than relationship-oriented guilt induction with lower levels of reported self-esteem; (b) reports of relationship-oriented guilt induction and harsh psychological control would be more strongly associated in the United States than in India; (c) reports of relationship-oriented parental guilt induction would be more strongly associated with lower levels of self-esteem in the United States than in India; and (d) the negative associations between relationship-oriented guilt induction and self-esteem for students from the United States would become non-significant when controlling for harsh parental psychological control. Support was found for all hypotheses. Unexpectedly, in the Indian group, relationship-oriented guilt induction was positively associated with self-esteem. The implications for the measurement of psychological control are discussed.