Chinese Humility And Its Relationship With Wisdom

The dualistic model of value and instrumental modesty is an indigenous modesty theory developed by combining the essences of Chinese traditional thoughts and existing modesty models.According to this model,self-modesty,also called modesty,refers to a low-key or self-deprecating form of self-presentation one adopts when getting along with others.There are two kinds of modesty among the Chinese:value modesty and instrumental modesty.Value modesty refers to recognizing and persisting in the low-key way of doing things,and graciously accepting the sacrifices modesty may require.People with value modesty believe modesty is a virtue,emphasize that modesty in and of itself is valuable,and firmly regard modesty as the ultimate goal.In contrast,people with instrumental modesty stress only modesty's instrumental value and the main aim of their modest behaviors is to realize other utilitarian purposes.Based on the dualistic model of modesty,this study aimed to explore motivations underlying Chinese people's modest behaviors deeply and comprehensively,and develop a Chinese Modesty Scale(CMS),which has satisfactory psychometric properties and high cultural validity,and be applied to different demographic groups(undergraduates,postgraduates and working people).Then,using this self-developed scale and the performance-based wisdom measurement to explore the relationship between one's level of wisdom and his/her modesty views(value modesty and instrumental modesty).The conclusions of the present study were as follows:(1)The dualistic model of modesty was confirmed,and the CMS scale duly included two subscales:value modesty and instrumental modesty.As a reliable and valid measure,this scale can be used to measure Chinese modesty in different age groups.Compared with females,males preferred instrumental modesty,and there was no significant difference between males and females on the value modesty dimension.Age was positivity correlated with value modesty,but not with instrumental modesty.And,when age variable was controlled,the covariance analysis revealed no significant differences between three different demographic groups(undergraduates,postgraduates and working people)on the both dimensions.(2)Among the six wisdom assessment criteria,the creative criterion had the lowest average score,and the caring for others criterion had the highest average score.One's levels of wisdom was most closely related to the image promotion function of instrumental modesty.As to performance-based wisdom measurement paradigm,the difficulty,complexity and familiarity of the designed materials would affect one's wisdom performance.