| Ethnic-minority-value refers to minority ethnic members'self-perception of the importance of ethnicity based on their own ethnic contacts and practices;it indicates ethnic belonging,ethnic feeling,and recognition of one's own ethnic group through,for example,ethnic language,customs,and religion,and is a subjective criterion for ethnic members to select and evaluate matters relevant to their own ethnic group.There are 55officially defined minority ethnic groups.On one hand,the most difference from the Han ethnicity is much smaller population of each minority but has its own ethnic uniqueness from others in the long development process,such as historical origin,ethnic customs,language,clothing,which may give birth to something that they value and carry forward.On the other hand,during the process of jointly creating the Chinese civilization,56 ethnic groups continued to communicate and exchange,and gradually formed the Chinese nation community with the most populous,basically unified characters,and basically the same concepts in the world.A strong sense of community for the Chinese nation has made the important ethnic characteristics of various minority groups have something in common,namely,minority ethnic values.“Modernizing China's system and capacity for governance…speeding up the construction of a value system that full reflects Chinese characteristics,national peculiarity,and features of the times.”From the existing researches,little research has been done on the value system of ethnic minorities.This dissertation aims to explore the common value system hidden behind the uniqueness of each ethnic minority.Everyone has multiple values of different importance.When faced with decision-making or to engage in behavior,values??will play a guiding role at the cognitive level.The consistency of values??and behaviors has always been controversial.Relevant empirical research results have their own opinions.However,it is generally believed that values??and behaviors are consistent.Undeniably,the consistency of values??and behaviors is also affected by personality,attitude,context,et al.In addition to their own characteristics,the propensity for the behavior of ethnic minorities is influenced by the collective unconscious of the ethnic groups in which they live,such as ethnic values.When ethnic behavior occurs naturally,the minorities can hardly feel their ethnic value;once the concept or behavior that conflicts or deviates from the ethnic value is generated,it will enter the level of consciousness to play a binding role.At present,there is no research on the relationship between minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors based on the identity features of ethnic membership.These important ethnic features are the basis of ethnic identity,the premise of ethnic inheritance,and the coping strategies to currently deal with the challenges of various modern cultures.Does ethnic individual behave in accordance with their ethnic values?Does the level of ethnic value affect the ethnic behavior?What is the internal mechanism of minority values??affecting ethnic behavior?None of these issues are clear.To sum up,based on the value theory and the commonalities of important ethnic characteristics of minorities,this paper followed the principles of research content from general to special and research methods from survey to experiment,started with verifying the consistency of the basic values and daily behaviors among ethnic minorities,and comprehensively and systematically explored the consistency and influencing factors of minority ethnic values and behaviors through 9 sub-studies.In Study 1,we applied Schwartz's refined value theory to assess the association between basic values and daily behaviors among southwest Chinese minorities.Respondents(N=532)reported values using the Portrait Values Questionnaire and rated their postulated behaviors with the Everyday Behavior Questionnaire.The results showed that there formed 19 separate value factors on the circular motivational structure among our samples,which revealed a better discriminant validity of 19 refined values.Seven locations of value indexes on our structure were inconsistent with the theorized motivational continuum.After 19 narrowly refined values were combined into 10 basic values,the final continuum revealed three deviation regions compared with the original theoretical circle.More importantly,the correlation analysis showed that 13 of 19 values correlated most strongly with its postulated or adjacent behaviors,which supported the cross-cultural prediction of behaviors by values.Variations differing from theoretical structure and the moderating of value-behavior relations by gender better reflected the effects of Chinese traditional culture,such as harmony,benevolence,and“the Golden Mean.”The results of this study and enhanced our understanding of the multiculturally influenced minority population.enrich the cross-cultural validity of the refined value theory among Chinese minorities.The results of this study provide a psychological basis for the unique and inclusive cultural characteristics of southwest Chinese ethnic minorities,enhance our understanding of the multiculturally influenced minority ethnic value-behavior relations,help to explain ethnic behaviors guided by basic values,and provide another valuable evidence for the cross-cultural validity of the 19 refined values theory from a sample of Chinese minorities.In Study 2,using a qualitative research methodology and the Rooted Theory,we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 minorities ethnic individuals from different regions and ethnic groups through telephone and internet.The themes of interviews are what are the important characteristics of your ethnic group?How do they manifest in daily life?”Then NVivo 10 was used to analyze the original text and conduct the coding procedure.The results showed that four meaning categories were included,namely,ethnic consciousness,ethnic exploration,ethnic involvement and ethnic mastery after summarizing the factors that reflect the important ethnic characteristics of minorities,and the core category of minority ethnic values is formed.As can be seen from the examples of reference points in the relational coding table,the core concept of ethnic values is extracted from the interviewers'descriptions of ethnic behaviors what they have experienced or seen,and ethnic behaviors keep consistent with ethnic values;that is,what important ethnic characteristics,namely ethnic values,do ethnic individuals have,they will perform the corresponding behaviors in daily lives;in addition,the results also show that the factors that affect the formation of important ethnic characteristics(e.g.,place of residence,ethnic atmosphere in family)also affect their corresponding ethnic behavioral performance.The study made us understand minority ethnic value-behavior relation more comprehensively and vividly;It also provided the necessary theoretical framework and practical materials from a qualitative perspective to develop minority value measurements and the following related researches.In Study 3a and 3b,we developed the Chinese Minority Ethnic Value Questionnaire(CMEVQ)and the Chinese Minority Ethnic Value-Expressive Behavior Questionnaire(CMEVEBQ)to assess the importance of ethnic characteristics from the standpoint of multidimensional ethnic values and behavioral performances.Data were collected from three samples of Chinese ethnic minorities(mainly college students).We generated two sets of item pools from the pilot sample(n=438).Then we examined the dimensions and items of the CMEVQ and CMEVEBQ using exploratory factor analysis(EFA)with sample 1(n=665),and there were 6 shared factors and 18 items in two final questionnaires.After that,we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis(CFA)to recheck the factor structure of two refined,mutually matched,yet independent scales obtained from sample 2(n=1309);meanwhile criterion-related,K-means cluster,t-tests,and multiple regression analyses were used to test the validity of and relationship between the CMEVQ and CMEVEBQ.Results showed that the two multidimensional constructs with six shared first-order factors(Minority Ethnic Consciousness,Exploration,Involvement,Alienation,Inheritance,and Mastery)demonstrated a better fit for the data and supported the conceptual framework.Both questionnaires demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability,convergent and discriminant validity,and ecological validity.That is,as practical,psychometrically sound measures,the CMEVQ and CMEVEBQ can be used to measure the importance of ethnicity for Chineseethnicminorities.Two(ethnic-minority-explorationand ethnic-minority-inheritance)of six minority ethnic-minority-values correlated most strongly with their corresponding ethnic-minority-behaviors than with the other five sets of behavior,presenting a consistent relationship.This study also extends the content and sample fields of value researches.Study 3c asked 1619 eligible minority ethnic subjects,including 41 ethnic groups,to fill out a series of questionnaires to build a psychological path model for predicting ethnic behaviors by minority values.The results showed that the demographic variables of parental ethnicity and source area moderated the relationship between minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors;Extraversion,Agreeableness,Conscientiousness and Neuroticism personality respectively moderated the relationship between minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors;there are the multiple mediation roles of Inclusion of ingroup in the self(IIS),ethnic value-expressing attitude,optimism and tenacity in resilience,and relational self-esteem in the relationship between minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors;social desirability and face consciousness jointly moderated the relationship between minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors;essentialist theory of ethnicity partly mediated minority ethnic value-behavior relation,and the mediating effect was moderated by negative coping style;finally,self-esteem moderated the part mediation effect on the relationship between minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors,and minority residence status moderated the moderating effect of self-esteem.The above six simple multi-path models may statistically provide the psychological mechanism what factors may affect the prediction of ethnic behaviors by minority ethnic values.Implicit values refer to the concepts that individuals exist,are important,are not perceived,and have a significant impact on individual cognitive judgment and behavior decision-making.In order to explore whether there are minority ethnic implicit values associated with the important ethnic characteristics of ethnic members and their relationship with ethnic behavior,119 minority ethnic college students,were randomly divided into two groups in Study 4a.One group answered“Are you a minority?”before the formal experiment in order to activate their ethnic identity,and they were regarded as“Identity Activation Group”(IAG,n=58);the other group who did not answer the question was regarded as“Identity Control Group”(ICG,n=61).The two groups completed the single Category Implicit Association Test(SC-IAT)and the Chinese Minority Ethnic Value-Expressive Behavior Questionnaire(CMEVEBQ).The results showed that there were significant differences in response time(RT)and D-values between the two groups,and ethnic minorities tend to associate ethnic characteristic words with“importance”;IAG's D-values had a tendency to be lower than that of ICG,presenting marginally significant;the D-values of religious believers and families with parents of the same minority was significantly higher than that of non-believers and families with parents of different ethnic groups.ICG's D-values was not correlated with all explicit scores,while IAG's D-values was negatively correlated with ethnic-inheritance-value and positively correlated with the ethnic behaviors of ethnic consciousness,exploration,involvement,and inheritance.It can be inferred that activating ethnic identity affected the performance of ethnic implicit values,and it not only reduce the implicit effect,but also strengthen the relationship between the implicit and explicit ethnic values and ethnic behaviors.There is a strong consistency between ethnic inheritance values and its corresponding ethnic behavior in this study.In order to further verify the relationship between the minority ethnic implicit values and ethnic behaviors and prove that the ethnic Han does not have such implicit values,Study 4b asked 52 minority and 51 Han college students to finish the Go/No Go Association Test(GNAT)and minorities also need to fill in the ethnic value-expressive behavior questionnaire.The results showed that minority ethnic subjects were faster and showed greater sensitivity at responding to target words when the categories were Minority+important than when the categories were Minority+unimportant and Han+important;however,the ethnic Han subjects showed greater sensitivity when Han and important were signal than when Han and bad or Minority and important were signal.Minority ethnic subjects'RTlogindex is significantly different in two demographic variables of gender and parental ethnicity,that is,males and family with parents of different ethnic groups were faster at responding to target words of Minority and important than females and family with parents of the same minority.Minority ethnic implicit value was not correlated with all explicit values,but significantly positively correlated with minority ethnic behaviors of consciousness,exploration,involvement,inheritance and mastery behavior.Study 4b used an implicit experimental paradigm different from Experiment 6 to verify that the implicit values of ethnic minorities associated with important ethnic features existed,but were absent among the ethnic Han.In Study 4a and 4b,minority ethnic implicit values showed the differences between parental ethnicity,indicating that family environment had a great influence on the formation of important ethnic features.The strong correlation between ethnic implicit values and ethnic exploration and inheritance behavior also provides further evidence for their consistency.Values are cross-situational,and situation is a realistically external factor that affects the consistency of values and behaviors.When the“reality”puts pressure on choices,it can cause people to temporarily ignore their important values and reduce their corresponding behaviors.In order to explore the impact of stressful situation on the consistency of minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors,Study 4c recruited 143minority college students and asked them to complete Minority Ethnic Value Questionnaire.We ranked the total scores of the four factors of ethnic consciousness,involvement,exploration,and inheritance in the questionnaire from high to low.The first 27%of the scores were grouped“ethnic closeness”group(n=41),and the last27%were named“ethnic alienation”group(n=38).Using a sequential priming paradigm,we measured the baseline of factual thinking(pretest)and primed the counterfactual thinking(posttest)of all participants.We wanted to examine whether stress scenarios generated by mental representations of counterfactual thinking would affect ethnic behavioral intentions of minority members at high and low levels of ethnic value.The results showed that the rating scores of two groups in the posttest were significant higher than that in the pretest;the scores of the ethnic closeness group in both pretest and posttest are significantly higher than that of the ethnic alienation group;for the ethnic alienation group,the correlations of their ethnic values with ethnic behavioral intention in the counterfactual priming task were higher than that in the baseline task of factual thinking.Based on the positive or negative effects that may be generated by counterfactual thinking,this study proved that pressure situation changed ethnic behavioral intentions of minority members at high and low levels of ethnic value,and may affect the consistency of minority ethnic value-behavior.In order to test whether self-esteem and temporal distance affect the consistency of minority ethnic values??and ethnic behaviors,Study 4d randomly divided 83subjects into two groups:the self-esteem priming group(n=42)and the self-esteem control group(n=41),measured their ethnic exploration,involvement and inheritance value and self-esteem level in different experimental stages,and asked them to complete a five-step experimental procedure.The results showed that the self-esteem level of the priming group was successfully improved and their level of implicit and explicit self-esteem were significantly higher than that in the control group;ethnic exploration and inheritance value has stronger correlation with its corresponding ethnic behavioral intentions;self-esteem do not moderate the relationship between minority ethnic values??and ethnic behaviors;in addition,the results from the correlation,regression,and multivariate analysis of variance showed that ethnic exploration value??better predicted near future ethnic behavioral intention than distant future ethnic behavioral intention,however ethnic inheritance value better predicted its distant future ethnic behavioral intention than near future ethnic behavioral intention.This study initially applied construal level theory(CLT)to interpret minority ethnic value-behavior relations and the result is more in line with the ecological validity of ethnic research and the reality of minority ethnic development.In general,the study on minority values is in line with the development trend of the container metaphor and pattern of difference sequence in ethnic psychology.In fact,the basis of minority ethnic value is the container metaphor.Each minority has its own implicit ethnic cognition and explicit cultural representations,but they are all members of the Chinese nation community(container),and have important national characteristics in common,namely the minority ethnic values;however,influenced by geographical relations,blood relations and other factors,a pattern of difference sequence still exists to a certain extent for minority ethnic groups.This paper,through 9sub-studies,combined qualitative and quantitative methods,followed the deductive rules from general to special and from investigation to experiment,developed two ethnic-minority-values questionnaires,constructed six multipath psychological models for predicting ethnic behaviors by minority values,and conduced 4 experiments through9 sub-studies.The paper preliminary systematically explored the consistency of minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors and its influencing factors.Although a series of studies in this paper have greatly promoted the development of ethnic value theory and practice,some studies,as the first attempts in this field,still have some limitations.For example,the internal consistency of several factors in the newly developed questionnaires is low;the experimental materials with important ethnic characteristics are not typical enough;since it is difficult to sample ethnic minorities on a large scale,we did not proportionally match the demographic characteristics in the online surveys and experiments;the psychological path model lacked integrity and ecological validity,thus they need further verification by more relevant researches.In a word,the research on the consistency of minority ethnic values and ethnic behaviors in Chinese multiethnic contexts not only enriches the theory of container metaphor,provides new evidences for an ethnic pattern of difference sequence,but also helps to seek the common ethnic features of different minority groups implied in their characteristic cultures,strengthen a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation,and promote all ethnic groups together“like seeds of a pomegranate.”... |
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