Cross-cultural understanding : an examination on its measurement, teachability, and application
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Markus and Kitayama's seminal work (1991) on the independent and interdependent self-way has greatly benefited psychologists in understanding and interpreting cultural differences observed in the East and the West in the past decades. But it is unclear how much insight lay people have about this framework. How well do people from independent and interdependent cultures understand each other? I studied this question with two cultures that had been used frequently in past research: The mainstream American culture (an example of independent culture) and the traditional Chinese culture (an example of interdependent culture). I developed a scale that measured independent/interdependent cultural understanding, and used it to examine and compare Chinese and American people's understanding of each other (Study 1). I found that, in general, American participants were more "accurate" in their cross-cultural understanding than Chinese participants, and while Americans tended to stereotype the Chinese culture, the Chinese were more likely to project their own cultural values on Americans. I then looked at whether we could teach people about the independent/interdependent framework to help them gain insight into the other culture (Study 2). I found that learning about the framework led American participants to exaggerate the difference between Chinese and American culture. Lastly, I selected one cross-cultural setting to examine whether greater insight would lead to better cross-cultural interaction (Study 3), and found that cultural insight did not readily translate into culturally appropriate behaviors. Taken together, these studies begin to look at lay people's understanding of culture and of other cultures. It creates a space for research and discussion of how psychologists can best help people to understand and appreciate other cultures and "culture" itself as a construct that shapes and is shaped by every one of us.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2016 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Zhang, Xiao |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
| Primary advisor | Walton, Gregory M. (Gregory Mariotti) |
| Thesis advisor | Walton, Gregory M. (Gregory Mariotti) |
| Thesis advisor | Markus, Hazel Rose |
| Thesis advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
| Advisor | Markus, Hazel Rose |
| Advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Xiao Zhang. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2016. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2016 by Xiao Zhang
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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