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Chinese Culture (chinese + culture)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	37%
Medical Sciences	25%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	25%
Humanities and Social Sciences	12%

Selected Abstracts

Guilt and Shame in Chinese Culture: A Cross-cultural Framework from the Perspective of Morality and Identity

JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2003
Olwen Bedford
Olwen Bedford and Kwang-Kuo Hwang, Guilt and Shame in Chinese Culture: A Cross-cultural Framework from the Perspective of Morality and Identity, pp. 127,144. This article formulates a cross-cultural framework for understanding guilt and shame based on a conceptualization of identity and morality in Western and Confucian cultures. First, identity is examined in each culture, and then the relation between identity and morality illuminated. The role of guilt and shame in upholding the boundaries of identity and enforcing the constraints of morality is then discussed from the perspective of each culture. The developed framework is then applied the emotions of guilt and shame in Chinese culture drawing on previous field research. Implications for future research are discussed. [source]

Dignity in Western Versus in Chinese Cultures: Theoretical Overview and Practical Illustrations

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 4 2008
DARYL KOEHN
ABSTRACT Dignity is an important concept in ethics. Human rights organizations justify rights by appealing to human dignity. Prominent politicians have cited the need to protect human dignity and urged the founding of international institutions. The concept of human dignity is often used to evaluate and critique the ethics of select practices. In addition, the idea of dignity is used as a universal principle to ground universalist business ethics. This paper argues that there are substantial differences between the ways in which the West and China construe human dignity. Having documented these major differences, we consider two cases to show how the differences might "cash out" in actual business practice. Instead of relying upon a nonexistent universal concept of human dignity, we suggest that it is respectful and sound to seek to identify the many goods (teamwork, initiative, autonomy, respect for elders) that differing parties see at play in the case at hand and then to try to come up with ways to realize as many of these goods as possible. [source]

Decomposing the construct of ambivalence over emotional expression in a Chinese cultural context

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2005
Sylvia Xiaohua Chen
The present study examined the construct of ambivalence over emotional expression proposed by King and Emmons (1990) in the Chinese context, and identified a factor structure different from those proposed in previous Western studies. The results of this study provided discriminant validity for this newly extracted two-factor structure of ambivalence, viz., Emotional Rumination and Emotional Suppression. Emotional Rumination was significantly predicted by the personality scales of introversion and inferiority, and the belief dimension of fate control, whereas Emotional Suppression was predicted by the personality scales of diversity, face, and harmony, and the belief dimension of social complexity. The different effects of Emotional Rumination and Emotional Suppression in predicting life satisfaction showed that emotional experience has its own specific characteristics in Chinese culture, and that responding to its emic characteristics will yield a more culturally responsive understanding of emotional experience and expression. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Correcting misconceptions about the development of social work in China: a response to Hutchings and Taylor

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2008
Cunfu Jia
Hutchings and Taylor, in their article entitled ,Defining the profession? Exploring an international definition of social work in the China context'[International Journal of Social Welfare 16: 381,389], no doubt had good intentions in offering their account of the development of social work in China, as the opening and concluding sections of the article show. Within the text, however, their critique of contemporary social work in China is, in my opinion, unfair in relation to, among other things, (i) the undemocratic nature of the Chinese political system, which they say hinders the development of social work in China; (ii) the ideology of the Communist Party, the government, and traditional Chinese culture, which they say are at odds with Western social work's value system and methodology; thus concluding that (iii) it is doubtful whether social work development in China could integrate with that of the international community. In this response, I comment on (i) the information base of the authors; (ii) the disconnection between their conceptualisation and historical facts; and (iii) their use of the international definition of social work. [source]

Guilt and Shame in Chinese Culture: A Cross-cultural Framework from the Perspective of Morality and Identity

Chinese inpatients' subjective experiences of the helping process as viewed through examination of a nurses' focused, structured therapy group

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 7 2004
Fei-Hsiu Hsiao RN
Aims and objectives., This study examined Chinese inpatients' views on what aspects of a nurses' focused, structured therapy group worked to help their psychological and interpersonal problems and what traditional Chinese cultural values influenced their viewpoints. Methods., Nine Chinese inpatients with mental illness participated in the four-session nurses' focused, structured therapy group. After they completed the last session of therapy, they were invited to participate in a structured interview and a semi-structured interview regarding their perceptions of the change mechanisms in nurses' focused, structured group therapy. The semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed to be further analysed according to the principal of content analysis. Results., The results indicate that (i) all patients believed that a nurses' focused, structured group psychotherapy enhanced their interpersonal learning and improved the quality of their lives, (ii) traditional Chinese cultural values , those emphasizing the importance of maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationships , influenced the Chinese inpatients' expression of negative emotions in the group and their motivation on interpersonal learning. Conclusion., In conclusion, we found that transcultural modification for applying Western group psychotherapy in Chinese culture was needed. The modification included establishing a ,pseudo-kin' or ,own people' relationship among group members and the therapists, organizing warm-up exercises and structured activities, applying projective methods and focusing on the issues of interpersonal relationships and interpersonal problems. Relevance to clinical practice., The small sample size of the present study raises questions regarding how representative the views of the sample are with respect to the majority of Chinese inpatients. Nevertheless, this preliminary study revealed a cultural aspect in nursing training that requires significant consideration in order to work effectively with Chinese patients. [source]

Understanding families in their own context: schizophrenia and structural family therapy in Beijing

JOURNAL OF FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 3 2002
Lawrence Hsin Yang
Evidence from a number of family intervention strategies demonstrates a beneficial impact on the course of schizophrenia. It appears that different family interventions have generic features that aid the patient to avoid relapse and improve functioning. A significant challenge for researchers is to modify these generic strategies to be sensitive to different cultural groups in order to ensure their effectiveness. Chinese culture, with its distinct cultural norms governing family interaction and intense stigma towards the mentally ill, would seem to raise a particular challenge. This paper offers an account of an eclectic model of structural family therapy that incorporates psychoeducation and behavioural treatments for schizophrenia as a theoretical guide to working in a cross,cultural context. A Beijing family, consisting of parents and their daughter with schizophrenia, were seen for sixteen months during a trial of family intervention in China. Through structural family concepts, China's sociocultural context of treatment resource constraints, population policy and stigma are examined and the impact of the illness on family organization is explored. [source]

Organizational commitment, supervisory commitment, and employee outcomes in the Chinese context: proximal hypothesis or global hypothesis?

JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 3 2003
Bor-Shiuan Cheng
This study examines the relationship between organizational commitment and supervisory commitment (commitment to supervisor) in terms of their effects on employee outcomes in the Chinese context. Based on the principle of compatibility, we hypothesized that organizational commitment and supervisory commitment served as logical mediators (global hypothesis and proximal hypothesis) for predicting organization-relevant and leader-relevant outcomes respectively. Moreover, because of the impact of personalism in Chinese culture, we predicted that supervisory commitment also significantly influenced organization-relevant outcomes, in addition to its effect on leader-relevant outcomes. Two separate questionnaires were administered to 538 subordinates and their supervisors in Taiwanese companies. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical block regression analysis shows that the principle of compatibility and personalism can explain the proposed relationship in this study. Implications and research directions are discussed in light of Chinese culture for future investigation into organizational commitment and supervisory commitment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Independent Thinking: A Path to Outstanding Scholarship

MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
Xiao-Ping Chen
abstract This editorial essay addresses the importance of independent thinking in the process of developing outstanding scholarship. Through analysing the difficulties of maintaining independent thinking in the Chinese culture, the paper proposes four approaches: understanding the power of the minority; transforming outside pressure into intrinsic motivation; listening with an open mind; and developing a passion for research. [source]

British-born Chinese teenagers: The influence of Chinese ethnicity on their attitudes towards sexual behavior

NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 1 2007
Juping Yu msc
Abstract, This paper explores the influence of ethnicity on attitudes towards sexual behavior of British-born Chinese teenagers. Using an ethnographic approach and snowball sampling, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 20 British-born Chinese teenagers and 20 Chinese-born parents. The parents highlighted the influence of Chinese culture and religion on their sexual values and wanted to convey these values to their children. Although direct communication about sex-related topics was rare within these families because of a number of barriers, the parents used other strategies to pass on their values. The paper concludes that sexual values within families and the influence of culture need to be considered in order to provide culturally competent health services. Chinese parents need extra support and help to discuss sex-related topics and pass on their values, which encourage teenage sexual abstinence. Considering the fundamental influence of the parents, this support will be crucial. [source]

The evolving experience of illness for Chinese women with breast cancer: A qualitative study

PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 2 2003
Wendy W.T. Lam
The study of illness meaning in cancer in western communities has usually focused on causal attributions. We report a phenomenological study of 17 Hong Kong Chinese women with breast cancer, interviewed on completion of initial treatment, and describe how the illness experience and hence, meaning evolves for women in the Hong Kong Chinese culture. Themes arising from the identification and treatment of the disease include the difficulty of living in uncertainty and of maintaining and regaining normalcy in a superstitious society. The initial uncertainty of disease detection and the diagnostic process are characterized by shock and disbelief mingled with fear of death. Treatment choice presents women with difficulties arising from more uncertainty over the pressure to make quick decisions and the dilemma of death or mutilation. Following treatment, re-evaluation, re-prioritizing and positive life-re-evaluation occur. Changes in appearance proved problematic for those women who tried to hide their disease to protect themselves against stigmatization and social exclusion. In many ways, these findings parallel studies on western populations, suggesting that a common disease,medical care process is a predominant influence in shaping breast cancer experience. Implications for care are drawn from these data. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Psychosocial ramifications of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Li Liu
The Beijing Olympic Games, one of the most significant social events for contemporary China, is a milestone for China's efforts for globalization. ,One World, One Dream', the motto of the Beijing Olympic Games, is an embodiment of the encounter between Chinese culture and Western civilization, and a symbol of integration between China and the rest of the world. This Special Section seeks to address the psychosocial ramifications of the Beijing Olympic Games and, thereby, to shed light on China's domestic situation and its international relations from a social psychological perspective. Moving beyond the psychology of athletic excellence, the four papers included use a wide range of methods, ranging from longitudinal tracking to priming, to examining self-construal and volunteering, to representations of China's past and future, competition towards foreigners, and perceived intercultural differences. Consistently found across the papers, patriotism was associated with ingroup cohesion, whereas nationalism was associated with competition and differentiation towards outgroups. This Special Section thereby pays tribute to the social psychological significance of the Beijing Olympic Games to China and the world. [source]

Rural-urban differences in generation of Chinese and Western exemplary persons: The case of China

ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
Xia Chen
Chinese adolescents in urban cities (Beijing, Chengdu) and rural towns (Wei Shan Zhuang, Zheng Xing) generated Chinese and Western exemplary persons and rated the values these exemplary persons represent. The results showed that the tendency to differentiate Chinese culture from Western culture was greater among urban (vs rural) Chinese. Specifically, only urban Chinese consistently attributed Chinese moral values (more than other types of values) to self-generated Chinese exemplary persons and Western moral values (more than other types of values) to self-generated Western exemplary persons. Because urban Chinese have more frequent exposure to foreign cultures, our results suggest that frequent exposure to foreign cultures can lead to enhanced perceptions of cultural differences. [source]

Original Article: Prenatal family support, postnatal family support and postpartum depression

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 4 2010
Ri-Hua XIE
Background:, Inadequate social support is an important determinant of postpartum depression (PPD). Social support for pregnant women consists of supports from various sources and can be measured at different gestation periods. Differentiating the effects of social support from different sources and measured at different gestation periods may have important implications in the prevention of PPD. In the family centred Chinese culture, family support is likely to be one of the most important components in social support. Aims:, The aim of this study was to assess the association of prenatal family support and postnatal family support with PPD. Methods:, A prospective cohort study was conducted between February and September 2007 in Hunan, China. Family support was measured with social support rating scale at 30,32 weeks of gestation (prenatal support) and again at 2 weeks of postpartum visit (postnatal support). PPD was defined as Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score ,13. Results:, A total of 534 pregnant women were included, and among them, 103 (19.3%) scored 13 or more on the EPDS. PPD was 19.4% in the lowest tertile versus 18.4% in the highest quartile (adjusted odds ratio: 1.04, 95% confidence interval 0.60, 1.80) for prenatal support from all family members, and PPD was 39.8% in the lowest tertile versus 9.6% in the highest tertile (adjusted odds ratio: 4.4, 95% confidence interval 2.3, 8.4) for postnatal support from all family members. Among family members, support from husband had the largest impact on the risk of developing PPD. Conclusions:, Lack of postnatal family support, especially the support from husband, is an important risk factor of PPD. [source]

A review of the Chinese cultural influences on Chinese enterprise management

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 4 2000
Kit-Fai Pun
In order to create and sustain competitive advantage, a company should not only develop technologies to create products and processes that meet customer needs, but also stimulate a corporate culture that commits to continuous performance improvement. Managing corporate culture is one of a number of important factors that make for organizational change and business success. This paper reviews the cultural roots and identifies the characteristics of Chinese cultural values and management. A comparative analysis of the differences between Anglo-American and Chinese cultures is made. The cultural influences on Chinese management systems are then elaborated with reference to enterprise management in Mainland China and Hong Kong. With unique cultural heritage, collective orientation has a pervasive influence on the mode of Chinese management and organization. The prevailing Chinese culture values stress largely the paternalistic approach to management, acceptance of hierarchy and the importance of relationships. Today's Chinese enterprises need to determine changes in practice or value or both aspects of corporate culture in order to facilitate organizational change and maintain a competitive edge over their rivals. The paper also discusses the links of cultural values to employee involvement (EI) and total quality management (TQM), and initiates a need to manage cultural influences on EI/TQM practices to improve organizational performance in Chinese enterprises. [source]