This thesis begins with a critical overview of crosscultural
psychology and a re-examination of the concepts
of emic and etic. It argues that the time has come for
cross-cultural psychology to free itself from the moorings
of its Western, universalistic paradigm and take non-
Western, indigenous psychology seriously, especially that
of East Asia.
To address the need for an East Asian psychology, the
thesis presents an empirical study on the psychological
influence of Confucianism on East Asians. It hypothesises
that the Confucian values of filiality, propriety and
harmony induce a strong need for approval and a range of
approval-seeking behaviours in the individual. In
contrast, the Western values of individuation, autonomy
and conflict induce a strong need for independence and a
range of independence-seeking behaviours.
To test this hypothesis, a 26-item, 5-point Likert scale
was developed and'administered to 1625 university students
across East Asia, which include East Asian samples from
China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia,
Singapore and Taiwan, as well as Caucasian samples from
Australia, United Kingdom and the United States.
The study has confirmed its hypothesis that the Confucian
values of filiality, propriety and harmony characterise
the approval-driven social behaviours of East Asians and
that the values of individuation, autonomy and conflict
characterise the independence-driven social behaviours of
Westerners. However, it has also found that, contrary to
many long-held assumptions, there are significant
differences in the way Confucian values have exerted their
respective influence on the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and
other East Asians.
The findings suggest not only that the culturally induced
need for approval can be used as an overarching construct
for the psychological study of East Asians from an
indigenous perspective, but also that the innovative model
used in this study can be applied to the study of other
indigenous psychologies as well. More significantly, the
study has found that, in contrast to the need for divine
approval which has motivated the achievements of European
Protestants in the past, the need for human approval is
what characterises the achievement motivation and
behaviours of Confucian East Asians today.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221892 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Stephen Kin Kwok Cheng |
| Publisher | Murdoch University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.murdoch.edu.au/goto/CopyrightNotice, Copyright Stephen Kin Kwok Cheng |
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