SOP4731
Reaction Paper #
Article Title: "Temperament, Socioemotional Functioning, and Peer Relationships in Chinese and North American Children"
The impact of temperament on the mechanisms of psychological adjustment and the process of socialization is obvious, and its importance cannot be underestimated; however, there exist other factors – external ones – that are also essential components in the system of the adaptive functions development. It is worth noting that development occurs in a particular situational context, namely cultural environment, that to a great extent determines the peculiarities of individuals’ social behavior. In their article, the authors draw attention to this fact stating that “During development, temperament and culture interact, which may lead to different developmental patterns and outcomes of certain dispositional characteristics” (Chen, Wang, & DeSouza, 2006). Due to the stereotypes existing in certain society and historical changes that may provoke the appearance of new stereotypes, the expressions of the characteristics of the same temperament type may cause different reactions in different cultural settings. As a consequence, the experience of receiving a social response to temperamental peculiarities always varies within cultures.
In order to prove such a hypothesis, the authors analyze the development of social competence of the representatives of two opposing cultures, Western and Eastern ones, focusing on North American, mainly Canadian, and Chinese cultures respectively. In the course of their research, they studied the concepts of social initiative and self-control “as manifestations of the fundamental dimensions of reactivity and regulation in social domains” (Chen et al., 2006): the former was defined as individual’s style of involvement in social interaction, while the latter – as the ability to choose the most appropriate behavior while responding to social situations. In this respect, the authors argue that the main difference between Western and Chinese cultures consists in the fact that what prevails in Western cultures is social initiative, while Chinese culture is characterized by the emphasis on self-control. Such a difference is a direct result of social values that are responsible for the general public attitudes. Western culture is highly individualistic: the key concept of Western societies is individual autonomy that requires individuals to be socially active in order to achieve acceptance and success; thus, the ability to develop and maintain social relationships is considered to be a need of primary importance in the process of establishing one’s authority. Concerning China, it is a group-oriented society in which there can be traced a tendency towards sacrificing personal needs to the well-being of the whole group; here individuals are expected not to prove their own importance but to conform to the norms according to which the society functions, and the condition necessary for this is the ability of self-control.
Taking the afore mentioned facts into account, the authors state that “different cultural values on social initiative and self-control are directly related to the meanings of specific socioemotional characteristics” (Chen et al., 2006) such as aggression-disruption, shyness-social inhibition and other aspects of social competence (Chen et al., 2006): in other words, the expression of these characteristics is treated differently in Western and Chinese societies. Naturally, in individualistic North American culture shyness is definitely inappropriate since it is perceived as a sign of weakness and maladaptation that put at risk individual’s authority. However, in Chinese culture shyness is treated more supportively.
The impression created by such findings is that the capitalistic values of North American culture cause such a social environment where people suffering from shyness, which is an innate temperamental characteristics, encounter unfair prejudices that consequently make them feel even more insecure. This situation has a negative effect on the further development of children’s personalities: according to the authors, socialization difficulties “may develop problems, such as academic failure, juvenile delinquency, and psychopathological symptoms” (Chen et al., 2006). Therefore, judging by the scientific data received by conducting experiments, Western culture seems to be more aggressive as compared to Chinese one since it provokes intolerance, and makes shy people vulnerable to abuse within social environment.
Obviously, the influence of culture on psychological peculiarities of individuals is enormous. Any society is an oppressive system that requires individuals to follow a particular model of behavior imposing on them a set of values and norms to which they are expected to conform. What is very important is that the notion of norm is interpreted differently in different societies: the things that are highly appreciated according to the norms of one society can be rejected in another one. The fact that in North American culture an image of a successful person is associated with self-expression and competitiveness (Chen et al., 2006) logically leads to the erroneous stereotype that people who are shy and avoid social interactions lack intellectual abilities and thus cannot achieve success. Such an opinion is deeply untrue since in fact many if not the majority of shy people are talented. Unfortunately, unfair attitude on the part of other people, especially peers, may become a serious obstacle to the development of their talents. As for Chinese culture, the focus on respect for other members of society that is nurtured from the early childhood alleviates the challenges encountered by shy people in the process of adaptation. Chinese children receive more support, and thus are less prone to depression and other negative effects of social rejection.
Concerning the concept of global citizenship, I would define it as diminishing the importance of your nation in favor of identifying yourself with the humankind in a general sense. In my opinion, to be a global citizen means to eliminate the borders between cultures with the aim of uprooting the stereotypes that in fact are subjective and artificial, and developing values that are true for all people despite their nation. A global citizen is someone who does not treat social norms as sacred laws since he or she realizes the futility of the attempts to make these norms acceptable for all the people in the world. What makes sense is humanity as love for every human being, the love that is devoid of any imposed rules.
References
Chen, X., Wang, L., & DeSouza, A. (2006). Temperament, Socioemotional Functioning, and Peer Relationships in Chinese and North American Children. Peer Relationships in Cultural Context. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499739.006.
