Dealing With The Family Conflicts Caused By Differences In American And Chinese Cultural Backgrounds

With rapid changes in the global economy, technology, transportation, andimmigration policies, the world is becoming a small interacting community. Wefind ourselves in increased contact with people who are culturally different.Cultural strangers may develop friendships and romantic relationships differently.They may also have different communication patterns and conflict-solving styles.China's adoption of opening-up policy has facilitated Chinese visits to othercountries and foreigners into China. So it is not unusual to see more and moreintercultural families founded in China and in other countries. The couples comefrom different cultures and their in-laws are cultural strangers to them. Whiledifferences in cultures may be a source of attraction they may also be a source ofrepulsion. Thus conflicts in communication appear.In this thesis, the author believes that family conflicts under different culturalbackgrounds can be traced back to the primary cultural factors so the authorconcentrates on some cultural factors and attempts to reveal their influence onconflict and communication styles in intercultural families.Given that Chinese and American cultures are perceived to be quite distinct,the thesis attempts to explore some primary elements behind the communication infamily conflicts caused by the differences in Chinese and American cultures.To this end, the author did some research to test the Chinese and Americanpreferences to communication and conflict styles in families respectively and inintercultural families.Based on Hofstede's (1980) cultural dimensions, the paper presents aconceptual and theoretical review about cultural values and conflict in the firstplace. Then the paper continues to make a comprehensive comparison of differentconflict resolution styles commonly found in the two cultures in chapter 3. On thebasis of the cultural analyses in the previous chapter, the author puts forward threehypotheses:1. Chinese people value group harmony and avoid conflict to preserverelationships, so in Chinese families people will show a preference for avoidingand/or obliging styles.2. Americans pursue to maximize the individual goal and show greatconcern for self, so in American families people will show a preference fordominating and/or compromising styles.3. In intercultural families, culturally different couples will maintain theirpreferences for conflict styles respectively influenced by Chinese and Americancultures.To test the above hypotheses, the author conducts some research work onconflict between couples and conflict between in-laws with the help of bothinterviews and questionnaire in chapter 4. In addition, a case is analyzed to showconflict styles in an intercultural family as a supplement. By means of bothqualitative and quantitative studies, the paper reveals that Chinese and Americansdo show the distinct communication and conflict resolving preferences in familiesdue to different cultural backgrounds. According to the findings, the author offerssome concrete suggestions for those who will be involved in an intercultural familyin the concluding chapter.