Help-seeking attitudes in Chinese: the role of personal self-esteem, collective self-esteem and loss of face

The study examine the role of agentic (personal self-esteem) and communal (collective self-esteem, loss of face) needs in predicting help-seeking attitudes in U.S.-born and mainland-born Chinese. One-hundred and sixty participants, of which 81 (60.6%) reported being born in the U.S. and 79 (49.4%) reported being born in mainland China filled out a set of questionnaires. Path analysis revealed the relationships between agentic and communal needs and help-seeking attitudes differ as a function of socializing context (i.e., birth place). However, agentic and communal needs were not expressed in a manner that was consistent with the socialization context in the hypothesized way. Specifically, collective self-esteem and face influenced the attitude of U.S.-born Chinese while personal self-esteem as well as collective self-esteem mattered to the mainland-born Chinese. Overall, there is not a straightforward single pattern that accounted for help-seeking attitudes for U.S.-born Chinese and Mainland-born Chinese. Implications of these findings on Chinese individual’s help-seeking attitudes are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Zhenni

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hunter, Carla D.

• Chinese college students
• interpersonal paradigm
• self-esteem
• loss of face
• help-seeking

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Zhenni Wang

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/46713

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/46713