An Interdisciplinary Research On Chinese Millennial College Students’ Stereotypes Toward Americans

The term "stereotype" is an extremely complicated concept.In this thesis,stereotype is defined as an inevitable cognitive method;stereotypes are the over-simplified,over-generalized,fixed,commonly shared,and relatively homogeneous views of one social category of people held by another;those views may include appearance,personality traits,values,and norms of behavior belonging to that stereotyped category.Researches on stereotypes have been conducted across disciplines,such as social psychology,intercultural communication,communication etc.On the basis of those previous studies,this thesis will explore Chinese millennial college students’ stereotypes toward Americans.An interdisciplinary approach involving social psychology and intercultural communication,which respectively investigate the static and dynamic aspects of stereotypes,will be used.Implications of the findings for foreign language teaching and learning will also be suggested.Online survey was the main instrument for this research.The data was collected from three questionnaires,in sequence,having investigated 320,342,324 millennial college students all round China.In analyzing the data,SPSS was used to account for the contents,direction,intensity,homogeneity,sources,and affecting factors of Chinese millennial college students’ stereotypes toward Americans as well as their impacts on intercultural communication.The major findings are:Firstly,in general,Chinese millennial college students hold positive stereotypes toward Americans,but these stereotypes also contain negative components,for example,assumptions of Americans as being "arrogant","rude",and "hypocritical",accordingly,the intensity of these positive stereotypes is not intense or strong.Secondly,these stereotypes can be differentiated into three categories by content,which are respectively referred to as "Personality","Appearance and Temperament",and "Morality and Personal Values." Among them,"Personality" holds the highest degree of homogeneity,whereas "Morality and Personal Values" has the lowest.Thirdly,these stereotypes are stemmed from multiple sources,including the mass media,school and organized education,family,and peers.Although the mass media is the most important source of these stereotypes,it is not one of the main social factorsthat affect the formation of these stereotypes’ direction,for early information coming from school and organized education,family,peers and so on has exerted significantly greater influence.Moreover,Sino-US relation is also an important social factor that can affect the formation of these stereotypes’ direction.Fourthly,the formation of these stereotypes is also affected by multiple personal factors,like major difference(mainly referring to English majors and non-English majors),degree of similarity to Americans in personality,degree of interest and enthusiasm for America,and amount of contact with Americans.And among them,those factors including major difference,degree of similarity to Americans in personality,and degree of interest and enthusiasm for America are possibly the most important personal factors that can affect the establishment and long-term development of these stereotypes.Fifthly,for Chinese millennial college students,stereotyping has real impacts on their intercultural exchanges.For example,these students prefer to choose interact with white Americans and young Americans as opposed to others.This is largely the result of the stereotypes they hold "surrounding" Americans in the mind.And this affected cross-cultural communication can be both positive and negative.On the one hand,stereotyping accelerates the process of intercultural communication,serving as an important and powerful basis for choosing attitudes and behaviors,helping reduce uncertainties and anxieties,and heightening the interest,confidence,and predictive competence in intercultural communication.On the other hand,because of its one-sidedness and incompleteness,stereotyping,when misused,often misguides in intercultural communication,making intercultural exchanges difficult and unpleasant;negative stereotyping can often bring forth prejudiced attitudes and even discriminatory behaviors and conflicts,which may leave a long-term negative influence on communicators’ intercultural communication.