中美家庭价值观对比研究On_the_Differences_of_Family_Values_between_China_and_America.doc

1、四川师范大学文理学院本科毕业论文On the Differences of Family Values between China and America 试论中美文化家庭价值观的差异 学生姓名 潘 婷 院系名称 外国语学院 专业名称 英语（师范） 班 级 2010级 3班 学 号 201014015315 指导教师 覃红霞（讲 师） 答辩时间 试论中美家庭价值观的差异 学生：潘 婷 指导教师：覃 红 霞 ( 讲 师 )摘要：家庭是人类最基本的单位元素，反映了一个社会的道德观。家庭价值观是文化研究的核心，直接影响着家庭成员在社会中的言语和行为。也就是说整个社会的价值观很大程度上是由家庭价值观所

2、决定的。但是，由于地理、历史背景、传统文化、宗教信仰的不同，不同的民族有不同的家庭价值观。随着经济全球化的快速发展，中美跨文化交际变得越来越频繁和重要，然而，由于家庭价值观的不同，在跨文化交际中的误解时有发生，学习不同国家的家庭价值观是很有必要的。本文通过对中美两国家庭价值观的对比，使人们了解由于价值观的不同而产生的人们对婚姻，子女关系，家庭教育观念的不同看法，从而减少跨文化交际中因误解而产生的不必要的冲突。关键词：家庭价值观；子女关系；教育；婚姻；成因On the Differences of Family Values Between China and America Abstract：

3、Family is the most fundamental unit of human society, and it reflects the moral outlook of a society. Family value is the core in the research of cultural values, and it has a direct influence on peoples behaviour and thinking.That is to say ,the values of the society ,to a large extent, depends on

4、peoples Family values. However,because of the differences of geographical and historical background, traditional cultures, religious and belief, different nations have different family values. With the rapid development of economic globalization, cross-cultural communication between china and Americ

5、a is becoming more and more important and frequent. However, because of different family values, misunderstanding happens commonly in the cross-cultural communication.so it is necessary to know the different family values in different countries. This paper paper aims to help Chinese people and Ameri

6、can people to further understand each other by comparing the two counties family values and reduce unnecessary conflicts caused by misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication.Key words: family values; relations between parents and children; marriage; family education; reasonsContents Introducti

7、on1Chapter 1 Definitions of Family, Values and Family Values21.1 Definition of Family2 1.2 Definition of Family Values3 1.2.1 The decisive family value of China: collectivism31.2.2 The definitive family value of America: individualism4Chapter 2 Differences between Chinese and American Family Values5

8、2.1 the differences of relationship between parents and children52.1.1 Chinese relationship between parents and children52.1.2 Ameiricans relationship between parents and children62.2 The concept of Family Education62.2.1 Chinese concept of family education72.2.2 American concept of family education

9、82.3 The concept of Marriage92.3.1 Chinese concept of marriage92.3.2 American concept of marriage10Chapter 3 Reasons for the Differences between Chinese and American Family Values123.1 Geographic reason123.2 Historic reason123.3 religious reason13Conclusion.14Bibliography.15 Introduction with the ra

10、pid development of science and technology, cross-cultural communication is becoming more and more significant and frequent, and the world is becoming more and more small. It is common for people to travel, to study, to do business abroad. However, different nations have different family values, so t

11、here usually appears some conflicts in cross-cultural communication. For example, in China, if a child made a mistake, parents can punish their child, on the contrary, in America, it is illegal to punish child. Therefor, some prople think that the family values betweet China and America is totally d

12、iffetren. Actually, China and America share many family values, for instance, both the chinese people and the America people attch great importance to their family. Because of the differences of geographical and historical background, religious and belief, China and America have a different family v

13、alue. This paper aims to make a contrastive study on family values betweem Chinese and American cultures from four parts: the differences of relationship between parents and children, family education, marriage and the reasons for the differences between Chinese and American Family Values. With the

14、current development of econimic and cultural globlaztion, the research can undoubtely help chinese and american to know well each other and avoid unnecessary conflicts caused by misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication.Chapter1 Definitions of Family, Values and Family values1.1 Definiton of

15、Family Family is the cell of society, generally speaking, family should be defined as a group of people who lived together by bonds of blood, marriage or adoption, to form economicties, to fertilize and to bring up children. Also there is another explanation of family, it says in the word Family eac

16、h letter stands for a definite meaning, and that is the letter F means father, the letter A stands for and ,the letter M is regarded as mother, the letter I is I, the letter L is considered as love, and the last letter Y means you, so the whole meaning should be Father and mother I love you. We can

17、see that member in a family is made by three people, father, mother and their child in general. In a extended family, members may include father, mother, spouse, son daughter, aunt, uncle, cousin, nephew and grandparents.In ancient society, the family is the basic unit of production ,in modern socie

18、ty, family plays a very important role in distribution ,consumption, and property inheritance ,because different cultures create different family. To understand the historical development of chinese and american families, the basic modal, and the relationship among the family members will undoubtedl

19、y help those who are in cross-cultural communication.1.2 Definition of family values Family values are political and social beliefs, as the core of the value system, family values are regarded as the family members norm of behaviors, and the same time, it is also a standard of measuring the norm of

20、conducts. With family values permeate the daily life of each family, both parents and children in a family should comply with the family values. “We know that the most basic relationship in a family is marital relationship, kinship, affinity, and it also includes the affectional and economic relatio

21、nship generated from those basic relationships, so education, religion, faith and family financial burden-sharing are all included in the family values.” Family values mainly include marriage , relationship between parents and children and family education.Different countries have different family v

22、alues. Due to the influence of the cultural context ,the relationship among members in china and America are completely different.In a word, Chinese people uphold collectivism while Americans advocate individualism.1.2.1 The decisive family value of China: collectivism Collectivism is the dominant i

23、deology. Since the ancient times, Chinese people always adhere to the idea of unified or the idea of datong. Throughout history, from Qin dynasty to unify the whole country to strengthen centralized to Dong zhongshu burn books and bury Confucian scholars alive, all these show that the ruler want to

24、consolidate the rule of feudalism through a uniform system and thought. In the Socialist society, there is no exception. The difference is that the idea of unification of feudal society culture has changed into the socialist society collectivism. For example, we advocate a harmonious society today,

25、to build a harmonic society still embodies the cultural concept of unification, and the starting point is still the collective and society.(Jian,1999.05) Chinese people put great importance to the collective. They pay more attention to the interest of whole family or the whole group than Americans,

26、they emphasis the interests of the whole collective, in China, public interests are the interests of the individual; public wills are the wills of the individual ;and public values are the values of the individual. All the family members share food, property, and other material wealth, everyone is r

27、esponsible for the success and prosperity of the whole family, they Shared difficulties and pressure, they think if they do something wrong, it is likely for them to have a bad effect on other members and the whole group ; and if they win a honor, they will probably give the credit to the other memb

28、ers and the whole group.1.2.2 The definitive family value of America: individualism In contrast to Chinese collectivism,Western culture is diverse. Most westerners are more attention to the development of things and diversity, they emphasize pluralism.In terms of getting along with people, westerner

29、s self-centeredness and a strong sense of independence is very obvious.They attaches great importance to personal rights ,interests and freedom, and take the opportunity to play as much as possible their own uniqueness. And the same time ,They tend to be responsible for themselves, they should live

30、on themselves ,especially when they are 18, hand rely on their own ability to achieve success.Their way of survival and quality of life to a great extent, depends on their personal ability, So to some extent, this also promotes the development of their unique personality, which constitutes the diver

31、se elements of western culture .In addition, Americans firmly believe that they can control their owns destiny, and they pay more attention to their own freedom of activism than their relationships with other members of the family ,They deal with their own affairs by themselves . If they meet diffic

32、ulties, they try to get support from their colleagues or experts who work in the relevant field rather than ask for help from their parents and their family members just give suggestions to them. Chapter 2 Differences between Chinese and American Family Values 2.1 the differences of relationship bet

33、ween parents and children Whether Americans or Chinese people, families are particularly important for them.In a family, the most basic relationship is filial piety, marriage and family education. Any one family, if do not pay attention to this fundamental relationship, can not be seen as a complete

34、 family. Chinese families care more about seniority relation, and the interdependence between family members. Parents emphasis filial piety, the Chinese family believe that families with many children and grandchildren is happiness. On the contrary, in the United States, people pay more attention to

35、 individual equality, independence and individual rights, one of the most outstanding concepts are independence and equality. And the cultural differences between China and the United States resulted in the differences in family values, therefore, in order to reduce the misunderstanding in communica

36、tion between the two countries, and promote the friendly relations between the two countries, it is very necessary to do a comparative analysis between the two countries family values. Because on the concept of parents to educate their children between China and the United States is not the same, Am

37、erican parents focus on developing their childrens independence and consciousness and they respect the childs own choice. Chinese parents in their childrens education more reflect on spoiling their children, they always like to design their children everything in accordance with their own wishes.2.1

38、.1 Chinese relationship between parents and children Chinas family is usually composed of many people, there will be a lot of relatives in a family, family members are ranked according to seniority, the young should respect the elderly, the elderly care for the young. Respect for the old man is the

39、traditional virtue of China. In China, parents have the right to determine the childs everything, almost everything is determined by their parents, because many parents regard their children as their private property ,for example, what kind of friends they should make, what style of clothes they sho

40、uld wear, which university you should choose, which subject they should be major in at university , and where they should work after graduation, Chinese parents hope that their childrens work place can be closer to them, and even their marriage, parents hope that the couples coming from the families

41、 of equal status. Due to their high expectations for the children, When the childs performance gap with their demands, they complain or blame the child. They always want their children to be the best one in the class or even the whole school. In China, father is the head of the family, and is the ce

42、nter of a home, it is not because the feudal ideology that man is superior to woman but because what man has earned is the main source of familys incoming fathers income much more than the mothers income , in a family, man is usually stern than woman.and speech less than woman and seldom communicate

43、 with their children, when children met difficulties in life or learning will first tell their mother instead of father, woman is often responsible for housekeeping, laundry, cooking, cleaning, although most household affair are decided by the mother, the most important thing is still determined by

44、the father, with their children, so mother has a more close relationship with their children than their father2.1.2 American relationship between parents and children American parents focus on cultivating their kids independence, from their children start to speak, to express their will, the parents

45、 do not regard him as a baby. They think children should learn to be independent, and let them know that he is equal with their parents. And parents need to encourage and respect their children ,which are often missing in Asian.they think that their kids should have their own thoughts and their own

46、ideas, so American parents try to develop their children confidence and independence when their kids are eighteen-year-old they can leave home to create their own career, in America, a lot of kids in high school started to work and earn pocket money, parents do not give money to their children any m

47、ore, after the children grown up, they should leave their parents to live alone, they should rely on their own ability to buy a car, buy a house, or go to the bank to borrow money, and do not rely on their parents any more. In America, parents and children are friends, American families emphasize happiness and joy, at the same time ,they do not attach importance to filial pie