A Correlation Study Of Interculturai Sensitivity And Psychological Well-Being In Chinese Oversea Students In The U.S.

With the accelerating trend of economic globalization, communications andinteractions among cultures are coming up with increasing frequency. Fostering theability to communicate effectively and appropriately and fulfill the desired purpose hasbecome the core and ultimate goal of the intercultural communication study. Thereforeintercultural communication competence (ICC) has drawn great attentions from scholarsand experts both at home and abroad. Intercultural sensitivity (ICS), the affectivedimension of ICC, reflects an individual’s ability to maintain positive emotions andunderstand, appreciate, and accept cultural differences, and is becoming the focus ofICC research. In the intercultural adaptation process of oversea students, their ICC,especially ICS will determine their capacity to cope with the great impact and challengearising from culture shock. As the result of psychological impact, they will feel stressed,anxious, frustrated, and painful in this course, and these feeling will surely have someimpacts on their life satisfaction and well-being. Psychological well-being (PWB)which is an important indicator of well-being would also fluctuate accordingly.Therefore, this thesis boldly predicts the relationship between ICS and PWB by rationalanalysis, verifies the hypotheses by empirical study, and tries to find some approachesto improve the well-being of oversea students.This thesis takes100Chinese oversea students in the US as the research subjects,adopts Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) by Chen and Starosta and Scales ofPsychological Well-Being (SPWB) by Ryff as the authoritative research instruments,investigates the current state of ICS and PWB, and carries out correlation analysesamong the subjects with the help of SPSS18.0. The research findings are as follows:1. The current state of ICS among the Chinese oversea students is between themedium level and the higher level.“Respect for Cultural Differences” enjoys thehighest score while “Interaction Confidence” gets the lowest score among the fivefactors;2. The current state of PWB among the Chinese oversea students is a little higherthan “slightly good” but much lower than the “good” state. Among the six dimensionsof PWB, the subjects are strongest in “Environmental Mastery”, and weakest in “Self-Acceptance”;3. There is a moderate positive correlation between ICS and PWB;4. There are moderate correlations between “Interaction Engagement” and“Positive Relations with Others”,“Respect for Cultural Differences” and “PersonalGrowth”,“Respect for Cultural Differences” and “Positive Relations with Others”, aswell as “Interaction Attentiveness” and “Purpose in Life”.With the discussion on the findings, this thesis suggests that in the course of ICCtraining oversea students should be encouraged to participate in interpersonalcommunication, understand and respect cultural differences and have a clear purpose in life so that they can overcome culture shock and go through their life abroad happily.