Nanyang Technological University, Division of Psychology, Singapore.
Int J Psychol. 2009 Dec;44(6):401-9. doi: 10.1080/00207590802512765.
The collectivist preference for nonconfrontational conflict styles is usually attributed to the influences of the Confucian value of harmony, which promotes tolerance of interpersonal transgression. Harmony has two distinct motives in collectivistic Asian societies (Leung, 1997 ): harmony enhancement is affective in nature and represents a genuine concern for relationship harmony, while disintegration avoidance is instrumental in nature and sees harmony maintenance as a means to other ends. Hence, as predicted, harmony enhancement is positively related to the use of integrating and compromising, while disintegration avoidance is positively related to the use of avoiding and obliging and is negatively related to the use of integrating during a conflict with a peer in a collectivistic society, Singapore. Besides examining this from a motivational perspective, the study also examines the role of implicit beliefs of personality on one's choice of conflict styles. The two implicit theories of personality refer to the two different assumptions the lay person has about the mutability of personal attributes; an entity theorist believes that personal attributes are fixed and nonmalleable qualities, while an incremental theorist sees personal attributes as qualities that can be developed and changed. Results reveal that incrementalist implicit beliefs also significantly predicted the use of integrating. Harmony enhancement represents a genuine concern for relationship harmony and involves feelings of closeness, unity, and trust. The finding that integrating is predicted by a harmony enhancement motivation suggests the importance of fostering collectivist values of interdependence and feelings of unity and trust so as to encourage the use of integrating to discuss the opposing views openly and constructively. The present study also underscores the benefit of learning an incremental theory to be open to the positive changes in others and work toward improving the relationship and the situation during a conflict.
集体主义者倾向于采用非对抗性的冲突处理方式，通常归因于儒家和谐价值观的影响，这种价值观促进了对人际越轨行为的容忍。在集体主义的亚洲社会中，和谐有两种截然不同的动机（Leung，1997）：和谐增强具有情感性，代表了对关系和谐的真正关注，而避免不和谐则具有工具性，将维护和谐视为实现其他目的的手段。因此，正如预测的那样，和谐增强与采用整合和妥协的方式呈正相关，而避免不和谐与采用回避和迁就的方式呈正相关，与采用整合的方式呈负相关在与同龄人发生冲突时，在集体主义社会新加坡。除了从动机的角度来检验这一点外，该研究还检验了人格隐含信念对冲突处理方式选择的作用。人格的两种隐含理论是指一般人对个人属性可变性的两种不同假设；实体理论家认为个人属性是固定的、不可改变的特质，而增量理论家则认为个人属性是可以发展和改变的特质。研究结果表明，增量论隐含信念也显著预测了整合的使用。和谐增强代表了对关系和谐的真正关注，涉及亲密、团结和信任的感觉。整合由和谐增强动机预测的发现表明，培养相互依存的集体主义价值观以及团结和信任的感觉非常重要，以鼓励使用整合来公开和建设性地讨论对立观点。本研究还强调了学习增量理论的好处，即要对他人的积极变化持开放态度，并努力在冲突期间改善关系和情况。
