Chinese Psychological Aspects

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Chinese Psychological Aspects
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Outline

• I. Chinese Childhood Socialization
• II. Traditional Education for Chinese Boys
  Girls
• III. Emotion Among the Chinese
• IV. Contemporary Psychological Findings Chinese
  vs. Western

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I. Chinese Childhood Socialization

• Psychologists focus on individuals, examine
  individual capacities and variation in child
  development .
• Anthropologies pay more attention to cultural
  environmental influences, e.g. socio-economic
  condition of a population

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I. Chinese Childhood Socialization

• Childhood Socialization
• how parents rear their children
• how children learn to become acceptable members
  of a society.
• That is
• what is an acceptable Chinese way of socializing
  children
• what kind of adults Chinese socialization aims to
  produce.

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I.1 The Confucian Tradition of Parental
Education??????

• Chinese concept of the child
• Scholars (Confucians) political authorities
  developed over 2000 years
• important roles for adult family-members in early
  childhood education.
• first essays (in 1st century B.C) by Confucian
  scholars
• Neo-Confucian???scholars in Song, Ming?
  (1368-1644) Qing? (1644-1911)--- short essays
  in plain language to guide parents in providing
  their children with proper discipline e.g. the
  Sanzijing ??? e.g. ???, ???,???,???).

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I.1 The Confucian Tradition of Parental Education

• Traditional Chinese
• a person by nature is not yet an acceptable/ full
  human being
• xue (deliberate efforts) to attain ren.
• Emphasis
• on paternal responsibility for instruction
• a childs responsibility for learning about the
  way of becoming human (zuo ren ??).

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I.1.1 Environmental Theories of Child
Development fetus

• before birth and during gestation
• need for womb education
• When a woman becomes pregnant she is put into a
  school of gestatony education, in order that
  she may be able to impart to the child a proper
  disposition before it is born. ??
• If she is affected by good things the child will
  be good, if by bad things the child will be bad.

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I.1.1 Environmental Theories of Child
Development- fetus

• A pregnant woman wish to shape the character of
  the coming child
• restriction of her activities
• avoiding spicy or bitter food
• listening to good music
• Always smiling be peaceful

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I.1.1 Environmental Theories of Child Development

• After birth
• parents must provide the correct environment for
  raising it.
• A good mother seeks the best environment
• e.g. Mencius mother (mentioned in Lei Nu Zhuan
  ???, 77-6 B.C.)

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I.1.1 Environmental Theories of Child Development

• Confucians to be a full human
• must begin very early in the family
• to lay the foundation for the child
• to be one with proper manners and moral tenets.
• Ancient Chinese theories of child development
  emphasize
• formation of habits of correct behavior without a
  trace of deliberate teaching or coercion.

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I.1.2 Models and Strategies of Traditional Child
Rearing

• Teaching by example ??
• was and still is an important principle.
• e.g. father/mother/ school-teacher the standard
  of personal morality.
• Parentsa childs first teachers
• Must of exemplary behavior to set a life-long
  foundation for the child.
• i.e. yi shen zuo ze ????
• Physical punishment??, normal effective
• Mencius passage

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I.1.3 Training of Affective Control

• Yanshi Jiaxun ,Yans Family Teaching ????(531-91
  AD), 20 essays set a model for all
• --train a child from infant to learn to
  interpret adults facial expressions (the control
  of affective display) and to act according to
  parental wishes.
• Our family has always emphasized strictness in
  teaching children. When I was a young child at
  home, we walked properly and took every step
  delicately, spoke gently and calmly, showed great
  reverence and fear in front of parents and
  elders.

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I.1.3 Training of Affective Control

• Emphasis composed, reverential behavior the
  restriction of physical activities among
  children.
• Text on family education
• Parents should teach their children no leaping,
  arguing, joking, or using vulgar language.
• How children should be taught to sit, stand,
  walk, speak, bow, recite, and write.
• The little ones are exhorted always to walk
  slowly with the arms held under the sleeves, with
  no waving of the arms or jumping.
• Yans ideas vs. Nature of kids ???

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I.1.3 Training of Affective Control

• Aware of adults emotional states--to distinguish
  pleasure from anger.
• To educate a daughter-in-law, one must begin on
  the first of marriage to educate a child, one
  must begin with infancy.
• i.e. bugou yanxiao???? (not to reveal ones
  thoughts and feelings)
• To sum up Chinese parents were pressured to
  instill solemnity and self-control early on in
  their children.
• Why? social/community norm

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I.1.4 On Dongshi ??(understanding things)

• The age when a child is old enough to be punished
  (capacity for moral reasoning right/wrong)
  dongshi (understanding things)
• When the son reaches the age of dongshi
  (understanding/reason), the father must be
  serious and proper in his speech and way of
  living in order to teach his son.
• Qn why son father ???

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I.1.4 On Dongshi (understanding things)

• Sima Guangs ???(AD1019-86) Jia fan?? (Family
  Examples)
• As soon as the child can eat by himself, he must
  be taught to eat with his right hand. Family
  discipline must begin as soon as the child can
  talk and know things. By the age of six,
  teaching of numbers and names of things must
  begin.
• Cheng brothers ????(11 century Confucian
  scholars) said, People in ancient times
  discipline children as soon as they can eat and
  talk.

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I.1.4 On Dongshi (understanding things)

• Filial devotion?
• taught to toddlers as soon as they can walk/talk.
  
• pay daily respect to seniors to address them
  properly.
• The family regulations are such that as soon as
  a child begins to understand, he is not only
  taught to obey, but also loses his freedom of
  action.

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I.1.4 On Dongshi (understanding things)

• Chinese theories of psychological development.
• E.g. Li Shiyi??? (AD1611-72)
• study at the age of 4 use the innate memory
  capacity
• At 15, to be pushed to study the classics (The
  Four Books Five Texts????) for the national
  examination??.
• 4 Books Great learning??, Chongyong??, The
  Analects??, Mencius??
• 5 Texts The Book of Poety/The Book of Songs, The
  Book of Documents, The Book of Rites, The Book of
  Change, The Book of Spring Autumn ?,?,?,?,??

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I.1.4 On Dongshi (understanding things)

• Lis theory
• Base on an Analects passage
• (Analects 2.4) Confucius says, At 15, I set my
  heart on learning. At 30, I took my stand. At 40,
  I was no longer in doubt. At 50, I know the
  propensity of tian. At 60, I follow the my ears
  were attuned. At 70, I followed the propensity of
  tian without overstepping the line.
• ????????,????,?????,??????,?????,??????????.
• Confucius presents his own stages.
• Not that everyones developmental stages is as
  his

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I.2 Contemporary Chinese Conceptions of
Socialization

• Modern Chinese socialization
• for obedience
• for proper conduct
• for impulse-control
• for the acceptance of social obligations
• A relative lack of emphasis
• independence, assertiveness, and creativity
• extremely important for Western children

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How About Kids in Hong Kong ?

• British colony
• Over 97 are ethnic Chinese
• 2 written and 3 spoken languages
• What do you think Chinese identity, parental
  control, independence????

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How About Kids in Hong Kong?

• Young Parents
• Western vs. Chinese influence ???
• Background Upbringing ???
• Education ???
• Cosmopolitan citizens ???
• Small family ???
• Good quality of life ???

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I.2 Contemporary Chinese Socialization Summary

• All Chinese, even modern, parents share certain
  traditional values and practices.
• To train children to develop a moral character,
• e.g. respect elders, cooperate maintain
  harmonious social relations.
• To help push children to achieve in school
  (value educationxue)
• Adults to be role models
• Young parents not harsh disciplinarians,
• Yet, to obey, to act on parents command.

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II. Traditional Education for Chinese Boys
Girls in the Past (till the end of the monarch)

• Education
• VERY expensive, only for better families
• Boys (at 6-8)
• study in the village school
• hire a live-in teacher??
• The Poor
• illiterate, help in the family since young,
  inherit his fathers profession

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II.1 Traditional Education for Chinese Boys in
the Past (till the end of the monarch)

• Boys study/memorize text to prepare for the
  public examination-- to bring glory (to family,
  village, county)
• Exam Content (since Tong)Ancient texts
  (Confucian- Four Books Five Texts????)
• Strategic issues
• Calligraphy
• Poetry writing since Tong to early Ming
• From late-Ming to Ching Dynasty
• exclude poetry strategic issues--not included
  in the exam

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II.2 Traditional Education for Chinese Girls
(till the end of the monarch)

• Most girls illiterate, even from a rich family
• Females without ability are virtuous ???????
• Sewing, clothes-making, cooking, take care of the
  family, kids-raising, how to serve a hushand
  parents in-law
• Few parents more open-minded
• A live-in teacher/ teach by female family members
  for girls
• Main Texts for these lucky girls Four Books for
  Females ???
• An ideal daughter/ daughter-in-law/ wife/
  mother??????

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II.2 Traditional Education for Chinese Girls
(till the end of the monarch)

• The most important female text
• The Text of the Great Ladies ???, of West Han
  Dynasty (no authorship)
• 8 chapters
• 105 stories of famous moral ladies
• Ch. 1-7 ladies in antiquity
• 1. queens mothers of important people
• 2. ladies who help their husbands (focus on
  morality)
• 3. clever intelligent wives mothers

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II.2 Traditional Education for Chinese Girls
(till the end of the monarch)

• 4. virginal obedient ladies
• 5. ladies acting according to yi(righteous), such
  as sacrificing their lives assets for their
  fathers, husbands, sons
• 6. ladies with good reasoning arguments
• 7. Counter-examples of virtuous ladies, mainly
  the bad queens, concubines of previous corrupt
  kings
• 8. Moral and famous ladies in West Han

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II.2 Traditional Education for Chinese Girls
(till the end of the monarch)

• E.g. Ch 1. queens mothers of important people
• Most famous Mencius mother changes the location
  of their house 3 times for a good environment for
  her son.
• 1. next to a market -- Mencius learns to be a
  merchant
• 2. near the grave -- Mencius is following the
  burial/ritual performers practices
• 3. next to a school -- Mencius is surrounded by
  the text-phrases, interested in studying

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II.2 Traditional Education for Chinese Girls
(till the end of the monarch)

• E.g. Ch. 2. ladies who help their husbands (on
  moral aspect)
• wife of Liuxiawei??? reminds Liu When dao did
  not prevail in the kingdom (when the king was
  corrupt), it was shameful to be rich and of high
  status.

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II.2 Traditional Education for Chinese Girls
(till the end of the monarch)

• Teaching Aim help ones husband or sons
• E.g. on morality, on problem-solving, be virginal
  pure, obedient, sacrifice of oneself, to
  provide good upbringing for the children
• These ladies
• do not plan for/ think about themselves.
• praised to impose/ bring good influence to
  their closest males.
• Females with a GOOD name/ highly regarded live
  SOLELY for the male.

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II.2 Traditional Education for Chinese Girls
(till the end of the monarch)

• Later Classical Texts for Girls
• Theme as that of The Text of the Great Ladies
  ???
• 1. NuJie??, Prohibited Rules for the Female, by
  Banzhiu??
• 2. Jiafen??, Models for the Family, by
  Zimaguang???
• 3.Yuanzizifan????, Models of the Yuans Family,
  by Yuancai??
• 4. Nufenjielui???? 156 ladies as models
• All by famous Confucian scholars

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III. Emotions Love among Chinese

• Arthur Kleinman (Harvard anthropologist, 1986
  paper) Chinese tend to believe emotion to be
  dangerous, value moderation?? in all matters, and
  emphasize social harmony over individual
  expression.
• That is, emotional behavior is normatively
  moderate or suppressed.
• In traditional Chinese medicine, extreme emotions
  are thought to cause/closely related to physical
  illness (e.g. depression/worries illness in
  liver ?????)

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III.1 Emotional Behavior in a Social Context

• Potter (1988 paper) provides a different
  analysis Emotions are less relevant in China
  than they are in the West.
• Emotions are best ignored like minor aches and
  pains, They do not achieve social ends and are
  not needed to legitimate social relationships.
• Harmful emotions can therefore be discouraged
  others emotions can be expressed but ignored.

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III.1 Emotional Behavior in a Social Context

• According to Potters research, villagers in his
  research did not expect emotional expressiveness
  to help in achieving an end. (e.g. anger would
  not help repeal an unpopular policy/ make a
  travel permit available).
• E.g The open expression of sorrow did not elicit
  public sympathy.
• Expression of sorrow did not elicit any valued
  response, and sharing of emotion was not a sign
  of intimacy between individuals.

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III.1 Emotional Behavior in a Social Context

• Chinese society/interpersonal relation
• harmony
• avoid conflict
• comply with group norm
• Childhood development
• suppress/ do not show emotions
• Extreme/ Strong emotions
• Discouraged
• ignored

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III.2 Romantic Love in Traditional Chinese
Community

• Western love basis of all relationships
• Chinese human attachment role duty,
  responsibility
• Potters research village in rural China
• Passionate/romantic love- not required for a
  successful relation
• social order/ relationships and behavior do not
  require an emotional basis.
• e.g. arranged marriages deliberate passionate
  love between two persons harms social structure

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III.2 Love -- a Social Context

• E.g. Dad/Mom love a kid too much spoilt/ no
  respect/ improper/ bring harm to the kid
• Strong deliberate Love
• not affirming the social structure
• BUT to endanger it.
• Potter Romantic love is culturally alien in
  Mainland China even marriage is based on good
  feelings.
• Similar to love in family one to work and
  sacrifice on others , unconditional
  responsibility and altrusim
• Love/ oi-ching??, a new term, only since modern
  Chinese in 1954

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III.2 Love in a Social Context

• Jankowiak (1993 paper)
• in his study of Hohhot, the capital of the inner
  Mongolian Autonomous Region.
• Romantic love as the theme of films and
  magazines. Young people date and fall in love.
• Jankowiak Romantic love existed well before the
  founding of the Han dynasty, in some cases,
  actually thrived in the face of powerful parental
  opposition.
• Famous ancient literature on love
• poems in Book of Songs (Early Zhou Dynasty) e.g.
  Kwantsui??
• A long poem in Han (the 1st Chinese love story)
  Southeast the Peacock Flies

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II.2 Love in a Social Context

• Traditional marriage arranged, without
  passionate love but emphasis obligation duty
• Yet, love between a man a prostitute/ a
  concubine-- he can make his own choice of his
  love.

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IV. Contemporary Psychological Beliefs

• 1. Locus of Control????
• 2. Externality the Nature of the Outcome???????
• 3. Effort and Ability Attributions in Academic
  Situation????????

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IV.1 Locus of Control

• Locus of control internal/external
• Internal control???? the belief that
  reinforcements are under the control of the
  individual
• External control???? reinforcements are under
  the control of external forces, e.g. fate, luck,
  chance
• It is widely agreed in literature that because of
  the collectivistic orientation, Chinese tend to
  possess a stronger belief in external control
  (fate, deterministic) than Westerners.

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IV.1 Locus of Control disagreement

• Tsui (1978 paper) HK Chinese undergraduates were
  more internal than were American-born Chinese
  undergraduates in the US.
• Hung (1974 paper) undergraduates in Taiwan did
  not differ from the Americans in internality.
• Smith, Trompenaars, Dugan (1993 paper) Chinese
  are not necessarily more external than are all
  Westerners.

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IV.2 Externality the Nature of the Outcome

• Humility?, which originates from Confucianism, is
  a norm in Chinese culture. Chinese employees in
  Taiwan evaluated their performance less positive
  than did their supervisors, a pattern opposite to
  that commonly observed in the US.

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IV.2. Externality the Nature of the Outcome

• The humility norm is related to the attributional
  pattern of the Chinese, who tend to make external
  attributions for successes (others joint effort)
  and internal attributions for failures (blaming
  oneself).
• HK Chinese subjects made self-effacing
  attributions for their performance in public but
  self-enhancing attributions in private.
• The salience of the humility norm in Chinese
  societies suggests that Chinese people select
  more internal explanations for failures than for
  success, the US the opposite.

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IV.2. Externality the Nature of the Outcome

• The internality of Chinese is qualified by the
  nature of the outcome.
• Chinese were more external for successful events
  than were the US.

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IV.3 Effort and Ability Attributions in Academic
Situation

• Compared with Americans, Chinese believe that
  academic achievements is more strongly related to
  effort.
• Chinese parents of primary students in Taiwan put
  more stress on the importance of hard work, and
  less on the importance of innate ability, than
  did American parents in explaining their
  childrens academic results.
• Such an emphasis on efforts is rooted in human
  malleability which is advocated by Confucianism.

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IV.4 Self-Concept

• Chinese culture group-oriented, believing the
  group rather than the individual is the basic
  unit in society.
• This group-orientation hypothesis has obvious
  implications for the conception of the self.
• The collective self??? was more salient for
  subjects from China than for the US. Chinese
  identify themselves as the member of a specific
  group.
• Yet, Chinese subjects from HK responded at a
  level similar to the US.
• So, was the difference due to cultural or
  political economic differences?

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IV.4 Beliefs about Self-Concept

• The idea of yuan? (predestined interpersonal
  affinity) is endorsed in Chinese societies.
• Yuan refers to the belief that interpersonal
  outcomes are determined by fate or supernatural
  forces.
• Yuan, as an external explanation for those who
  enjoy a positive interpersonal relationship and
  protect the face of others who enjoy less
  interpersonal relationship.

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IV.5 Collectivist Beliefs

• Chinese collectivistic
• Because the futures of individuals from the same
  in-group are inter-related and that each persons
  well-being depends upon the results of collective
  effort. If each person follows the norms of the
  group and acts in the interest of the group, the
  group will be harmonious and prosperous.
• E.g. Chinese subjects in HK allocated a larger
  share of a group reward to in-group members than
  did American subjects.

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IV.5 Collectivist Beliefs

• The collectiveness of Chinese leads them to
  believe that an effective way to get things done
  is often through ones guanxi ??(interpersonal
  connections).
• Chinese tend to believe that out-group members
  are less likely to be dependable and trustworthy
  than are members of the in-group.
• HK Chinese were more likely to sue a stranger
  than were US subjects.

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IV.5 Collectivist Beliefs

• In Chinese culture, it is widely believe that it
  is more effective to resolve disputes through
  negotiation and compromise rather than through
  confrontation.
• Chinese subjects from HK prefer mediation????
  over adjudication?? in dispute processing,
  whereas US subjects prefer both to the same
  extent.
• Chinese employees in HK, when ranked the five
  conflict resolution compromise first and
  competition last UK managers who worked in HK
  competition second and compromise third.

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IV.6 Beliefs Related to Power Distance????

• Social structure for Chinese hierarchical and
  exhibits a large power distance.
• The basic belief is that the ideal way to
  organize a collective is through a well-defined
  hierarchy, with explicit responsibilities for
  each role in the hierarchy.
• E.g. the typical leadership pattern in Chinese
  societies tends to be paternalistic ??and
  authoritarian???.

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IV.7Primary Secondary Control

• Primary control is a predominant strategy in the
  West. In order to attain ones goal and wishes,
  one has to attempt to bring about objective
  changes in the environment.
• Secondary control is prevalent in the East.
  Because of the emphasis on interdependence and
  harmony in groups, people should show a stronger
  tendency to adjust themselves to fit the
  environment.
• Chinese believe that secondary control is a more
  effective way to attain their goals than is
  primary control.

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IV.8 Beliefs about Uncertain Events

• British subjects tend to adopt a probabilistic
  view of uncertainty and are able to assess the
  likelihood of occurrence of uncertain events more
  accurately.
• The South-east Asian subject (including HK
  people) tend to view the world in terms of total
  certainty or uncertainty, and were less inclined
  to make a probabilistic judgment of uncertain
  events.

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IV.8 Beliefs about Uncertain Events

• A probabilistic view of the world is conductive
  to a rational approach to decision-making and to
  use of facts and figures in coming to a decision,
  and it is derived from the social logic of low
  power distance.
• A non-probabilistic world-view would diminish the
  importance of objective facts and figures, thus
  making the role of intuition important and
  arbitrary authority acceptable. e.g. major
  business deals are made by Chinese tycoons (the
  head of the company) rather than meticulous
  calculations by the management.