Journal of Asian Pacific Communication - Volume 14, Issue 2, 2004

The primary aim of this study is to test a process model of cultural conflict styles. Specifically, we propose a theoretical framework for illuminating the relationship between individual-level equivalents of cultural variability dimensions and the face-maintenance dimensions, which, in turn, serve as guiding motives or criteria for selecting conflict strategies. In the model, it was predicted that the greater the individual’s construal of self as independent, the higher the concern for self-face maintenance, which, in turn, leads to the higher preference for forcing (dominating) conflict styles. In a separate path, it was also predicted that the greater the individual’s construal of self as interdependent, the higher the concern for other-face maintenance, which, in turn, leads to the higher preference for nonforcing (obliging, avoiding, integrating, and compromising) conflict styles. Data to test the proposed model were drawn from undergraduates of diverse cultural backgrounds, studying in Hawai‘i. After being presented at random with one of the three conflict situations, participants rated the scales measuring conflict styles, face maintenance dimensions, as well as scales to measure the independent and interdependent dimensions of their self-construals. The theoretical path model was supported by the data except for one path. The implications of the model for theory and practice are discussed.

In addition to its role in news dispersal, the newspaper has been cited for its potential in both education and identity creation and confirmation. This paper will examine the Newspaper in Education columns in a rural Japanese setting, revealing how these columns, while framed toward education, also address local identity creation through what is termed ‘locally scholastic’ content. The Newspaper in Education (NIE) practice is dated in America to the 1930s and in Japan to 1988. This paper will briefly outline the NIE concept and general NIE activities in Japan before hypothesizing the role of NIE in local identity creation and presenting a case study of NIE columns from two newspapers in Aomori Prefecture, Japan — one prefecture-wide and the other a local newspaper — over the period from January to May, 2002. The examination used a team of native-speaker readers in order to establish the readability and balance of ‘scholastic’ versus ‘local’ content and orientation of the columns. This paper ultimately contextualizes how the NIE columns of these two newspapers contribute to both education and local identity creation in this rural Japan setting.

The present study aimed at investigating possible cultural effects on the perceived importance of interactional concerns in service encounters. Individual values were examined to establish an explanatory framework for any effects that might emerge. Hong Kong Chinese and Filipinos participated in the present study by rating the importance of 12 interactional concerns in five hypothetical scenarios involving service provision. “Rapport promotion” was the only consistent factor of interactional concerns to emerge from the five scenarios in each of the two cultural groups. The dimensions of individual values, labeled “Conservation” and “Self-Transcendence” by Schwartz (1992), significantly predicted a respondent’s level of rapport promotion across all scenarios, with self-transcendence partially unpackaging the cultural difference that emerged in one of the service scenarios. We use these results to support a model of communication in service provision that predicts communication concerns as arising from cultural socialization for personal characteristics and situational features of the encounter, leading to the petitioner’s being more dependent on the good will of the service provider.

This paper delved into the nature of face as a socio-psycho-linguistic concept through the examination of its varying conceptualizations and components in three different cultures: Chinese, Japanese, and U.S. American. The points of investigation are as follows: (1) semantic fields of the terms which signify ‘face’ in the Chinese, Japanese, and English languages, (2) cultures, social behaviors, and social systems of the three peoples, (3) differences between face and other similar concepts, such as prestige and honor, (4) comparative weights of attributes comprising face, such as formal position, personal reputation, conformity, and integrity of social being, which may vary significantly according to culture.

This study represents the first cross-cultural investigation of the third person effect hypothesis, which states that individuals overestimate mass media effect on others (Davidson, 1983). It is predicted that the difference between perceived effects of the media on self vs. other will be greater in an individualistic than collectivistic culture, because in the latter self and other are not as separate and the motivation for self-enhancement is not as salient as in the former. Survey data were collected from 671 South Korean (n=351) and U.S. (n=320) college students regarding their perceptions about the effects of beer commercials, liquor advertisements, television news about AIDS, and television news about the effects of smoking. The third person effect of undesirable media content emerged from both American and Korean samples, but the size was consistently greater among Americans compared to Koreans. Likewise, the first person effect was greater among Americans rather than Koreans.

The paper analyzes the group interaction patterns of Malaysian and British students on a British undergraduate program in order to investigate how the way knowledge is constructed by the British and the Malaysian students in various group discussion tasks reflects the various philosophical and cultural views of knowledge into which they might have been socialized by their previous socio-cultural and educational experiences. The results show that the presence of the British students has an effect on the Malaysian students’ use of reactive framing. The Malaysian students in bi-national tasks do not react as much as they do when they are on their own. The interaction patterns in divergent tasks indicate that while the British students add and react alternately as individuals, the Malaysian students add together and react together as a group. Two different types of intolerance are also seen at play in convergent tasks: intolerance of accuracy (certainty about truth) vs. intolerance of task completion. While the British students have a higher degree of intolerance concerning the accuracy and certainty of knowledge than Malaysians, Malaysians have a higher degree of intolerance concerning the completion of the task.