Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

The concept of culture refers to aspects of life, including thinking, belief and behavioral style that are specific to particular societies. Culture casts influence on people who live in it by three facets: observable artifacts, values and underlying assumptions. In this article, on the basis of analyzing method and train of thought of cultural psychology, we attach importance on discussing the relationship between culture and the thinking style of Chinese people. By providing theoretical and experimental evidence, we can prove dialectical thinking and holistic thinking to be notable characteristics of Chinese people. Chinese used to consider a thing with principle of Change, Contradiction and Holism, when appraising a man, Chinese people are not dependent on a person’s trait, but his or her social background. Those features not only determine the interpersonal action style of Chinese people, but also make our behavior different from western people. Using those different thinking styles, we can explain Yetes and Zhu’s (1987) findings on possibility judgment as well as Joseph Needham’s paradox. This analysis is important to the understanding of Chinese people and future study.

_{[Chinese Version | Index | Acta Psychologica Sinica | Other Journals | Subscription form | Enquiry ]}

Mail any comments and suggestions to hkier-journal@cuhk.edu.hk .