Chinese and Westerners have different psychological characteristics due to different geographical environments, climates, and cultures. What are the main psychological differences between Chinese and Western cultures?
Human nature is inherently evil VS Human nature is good
Western culture advocates Human nature is inherently evil , so the Western system proposes to limit people's power and control people to do evil based on the nature of human nature.
For example, the legislative, executive, and judicial powers are separated . The legislative power is controlled by the Congress, the executive power belongs to the president, and the judicial power belongs to the Federal Supreme Court.
Example: In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for a sex scandal, authorizing the Judiciary Committee to conduct a formal impeachment investigation .
Accounting system , those who manage the accounts do not care about the money; those who manage the money do not care about the accounts;
Judge system : The jury determines whether the person is guilty or not; the judge determines the number of years; and the jury is random, so it is difficult to bribe.
Picture: Gao Yunxiang’s sexual assault case in Australia was delayed for two years because the jury disagreed on whether he was guilty.
Therefore, under the premise that human nature is inherently evil, containing and restricting power is an indispensable part of the management mechanism.
The premise of Chinese culture is "In the beginning, human nature is inherently good ", and there are less strict rules that limit the power to do evil. Traditional culture places its hope on finding upright officials. For example, includes Qingtian and Hairui .
picture: Chinese culture hopes to find honest officials like Hai Rui. But Hai Rui is a paranoid personality. The judgment of is seriously unfair and biased. favors the weak, whoever is weak wins. There is no spirit of rule of law and no fairness at all.
The Jumen academic system believes that human nature is dualistic, has both an altruistic side and a selfish side. The vast majority of people are more selfish than altruistic, and a few people are excessively altruistic.
Different views on equality
Westerners have a strong view of equality . Everyone is God’s people, so they are all brothers and sisters, so they are equal;
The Chinese people are deeply influenced by the Confucian culture, and have a hierarchical view, that is, what kind of people should do what they should do, and what they should look like. There is seniority and order. The king is benevolent and the minister is loyal, the father is kind and the son is filial, he is law-abiding and self-disciplined.
Individualism and collectivism
Westerners have strong individualism, while Chinese people have strong collectivism . Confucianism unifies ideological education and suppresses individuality and innovation.
Democracy is different
The concept of democracy in Europe and the United States is:
For public rights, the rule of law emphasizes that the government can do whatever the law allows the government to do.
As far as private rights are concerned, the law does not prohibit people from doing anything, and people can do whatever they want .
European and American democracy: The government is a property management company, and people pay taxes to authorize it to manage.
Chinese democracy and legal thought comes from Legalism :
As for private rights, people can only do what the law allows people to do.
As far as public power is concerned, there is nothing prohibited by law and the government can do anything.
Chinese Democracy: The government is a big parent. You can only do what the government allows you to do.
Interpersonal support system
Interpersonal relationships in the West are relatively indifferent, and they mainly rely on social pension and unemployment relief system protection;
Chinese people have strong mutual help in family relationships, family relationships, and acquaintance relationships.In China, when a child goes to college, even if his parents have no money to support him, his relatives will chip in to help.
People will feel more secure if their interpersonal support system is strong. Even in the era when the social security system was not established and there was no enough food to eat, Chinese society did not collapse. The interpersonal support system played the role of a stabilizer.
Personality characteristics
Chinese people have more controlling personalities and accusatory personalities than those in Europe and the United States, they have a strong fighting spirit .
Because I experienced the Cultural Revolution, I have a very strong impression of the character of people who grew up in that era. About 30% of people who grew up during the Cultural Revolution have accusatory personalities. Therefore, the overall proportion of Chinese people with controlling personality or strong desire to control, accusatory personality or strong accusing personality is higher than that of people who grew up in general culture.
West: When family members have communication difficulties, they say "Shall we talk?" (Can we talk?)
China: When family members have communication problems, they say "I am doing this for your own good!"
Chinese parents pay a lot for their children, but they also control their children very seriously. They not only interfere with food and clothing, study, hobbies, and friends, but they even interfere with majors, career choices, and marriage and love when they grow up.
Because of their different psychological characteristics, Chinese people are very different from Westerners in terms of culture, innovation, education, psychological measurement, and psychological intervention. Western psychology has been developing for many years and is relatively mature. However, psychological assessment, educational psychology, consumer psychology, management psychology, psychological counseling, and psychotherapy developed based on the characteristics of Western psychology may not necessarily apply to Chinese people. Therefore, it is a very important prerequisite to understand yourself first.
