The Impact Of Travel Alone On Female Personality

Female's travelling alone has become a prevailing phenomenon in recent years in China.By travelling alone,many of them desire to experience different kinds of life and expect to gain more room and opportunity to get along with themselves.Meanwhile,they tend to challenge themselves,hoping to gain a sense of different achievement in the past and relieving pressure from the society and their own families.Seeking relaxation,inner-peace,freedom and emancipation is the goal they pursue during the journey.So far,the studies concerning female's travelling alone in China are still at the macro scale tourism marketing stage.From the perspective of female personality development,this article researches the phenomenon that many women choose to travel alone and in particular,it explores their psychological experience,the change of personality structure and the reasons that promote the change during the process of travelling alone.The effects of female's personality development of travelling alone on their future life are also examined.Based on the documents which are relevant to female's travelling by themselves and through in-depth interviews and case analyses of four women aged 30 with different family backgrounds,occupations,marital status and personality growth stage and who have received bachelor's degree,this article provides insights into the effects of travelling alone on female's personality growth and factors that influence the growth with the combination of the theory of human nature.The study shows that female's travelling alone brings them more trust on real self,changes their values based on social criteria and enhances the trends towards self-actualization and thus promotes the health of their personality development.Six factors that affect female's personality development through travelling alone are included.They are "good society" situation during travel,the atmosphere that promotes the personality growth,the occurrence of peak experiences,the acquisition of optimistic experience,the space of solitude and the opportunity of self-disclosure,among which the last two factors play an even more significant role in those women who are ambivalent and lost.In addition,the growth-friendly atmosphere can be created mainly through good communication with strange companions with sound personality during the journey.It is concluded that,with good interpersonal relationships extending from the process of travelling to real life,travelling alone acts as a stimulus to personality growth in real life as well as in the course of travelling.