An Intercultural Study Of Chinese And Western Personality

In a static sense, personality is an individual's characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms and in a dynamic sense, personality is the social role an individual plays in a team or group. Individual thought and behavior and different social roles each individual plays become meaningless without the influence of social values. Values occupy a significant position in personality. Values represent an orientation which is expressed through interactive activities between man and man and between man and nature. In the relationship between man and man, the realization of individuals'potentials is emphasized in western culture while in Chinese culture self-restraint and the spirit of taking the overall situation into consideration are prioritized. In the relationship between man and nature, man's mastery over the environment is stressed in the West and harmony between man and nature is hailed in China. Personality is an abstract entity shared by all nations with different cultural implications but plays an important role in daily lives and intercultural communication activities. A healthy and sound personality is conducive to meeting challenges in our daily life. Hence, with the combined methodology of literature study, case study and observations, the thesis aims to explore different personality in western culture and Chinese culture and to discover deep-rooted culturally specific reasons.This thesis comprises three parts including six chapters. The first part, composed of Chapter One and Chapter Two, introduces the significance of the research on personality and makes a general review of the extant research in this regard. The second part, made up of Chapter Three and Chapter Four, constitutes the body of this thesis which presents the meaning of personality in the West and China, the contents of personality in the West and China and the manifestations of personality from perspectives of human nature, relation of man and nature, time orientation, activity orientation and social relationships orientation in the West and China in Chapter Three and explores the reasons behind the difference in Chapter Four. The third part consists of Chapter Five and Chapter Six. In Chapter Five, the relationship between personality and intercultural conflict and conflict management are discussed and proposals for diminishing the conflict are raised. Chapter Six summarizes the argument of this study and points out the potential for further research in this field.In the extant researches on personality, many researchers have realized that the concept of personality entails different implications. However, systematic paradigm researches on Sino- western personality are hardly seen. Therefore, this paper starts from the different interpretations of personality in China and in western countries. Then this paper expounds and analyses different personality manifestations from perspectives of human nature, relation between man and nature, time orientation, activity orientation and social relationships orientation. Individualism and collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and self-construal function as theoretical structure. Based on the analysis, the paper finally concludes the difference of personality both in China and in the West. In other words, dependent moral other-oriented personality is the mainstream in China while independent self-oriented personality is prominent in the West. What is noteworthy is that although China's policy of reform and opening-up contributes to the influx of western ideology, the mainstream personality remains unchanged. Meanwhile, this paper discusses the personality-related intercultural conflict management in an attempt to raise people's cultural awareness.