集体主义与个人主义及其在中美家庭生活中的表现_英语论文

Collectivism and Individualism and Their Reflection on Chinese and American Family Lives

摘要

由于集体主义和个人主义的影响，中美家庭生活是有很大不同的。中国家庭无论从家庭结构、家庭成员关系、家庭活动、家庭教育还是婚姻观来说，都很重视集体利益，他们也愿意为了集体而牺牲一些个人愿望；而美国人则更注重个性，在家庭生活的各个方面他们更重视独立品质、个人的感受与利益。从文化差异的角度写这篇论文来比较中美家庭的差异是为了汲取不同家庭生活的优点，并为世界交流做出一点贡献。

关键词：集体主义；个人主义；中国家庭；美国家庭；文化差异

Abstract

Chinese and American family lives are quite different from each other because of the effects of collectivism and individualism. Chinese family lives pay much attention to collective benefits and the Chineses tend to sacrifice a lot of personal desires for the collectivity no matter in family structures, family membership, family activities, the education of children or their outlook on marriage. Americans concentrate on personality. They put more emphasis on the quality of independence, personal feelings and individual bebefits in every aspect of family lives. This paper is written from the perspective of cultural differences to compare Chinese family lives with American ones in order to absorb the virtues of different family lives and make contributions to the world communication.

Key words: collectivism; individualism; Chinese family; American family; cultural differences

Contents

1.Introduction 1

2.Literature Review 1

3.A Brief Understanding of Collectivism and Individualism 2

3.1 Collectivism and Chinese culture 2

3.2 Individualism and American culture 3

4.Chinese Family Lives Under Collectivism 3

4.1 Chinese family structures 3

4.2 Chinese family membership 4

4.3 Chinese family activities 5

4.4 Chinese family education 5

4.5 Chinese outlook on marriage 7

5.American Family Lives Under Individualism 8

5.1 American family structures 8

5.2 American family membership 8

5.3 American family activities 9

5.4 American family education 10

5.5 American outlook on marriage 11

6.Conclusion 12

Works Cited 13