The Influence of Compartmentalization and Integration on Psychological Adjustment
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Lin, Wei-Fang
Abstract
Modernization and globalization have brought together values and concepts of diverse cultural traditions and provided ample opportunities for simultaneous activation of seemly conflicting cultural representations. It remains unclear, however, how one could successfully resolve these potential multicultural conflicts. Yang (2003) proposed that compartmentalization and integration are two ways to resolve the multicultural conflicts. This article followed Showers’ (1992) card sorting task to measure individual differences in the degree of compartmentalization and integration and compared the effect of compartmentalization and integration on psychological adjustments. Moreover, Zhong-Yong thinking style was hypothesized to be the underlying mechanism that leads to successful integration. Study 1 compared the differential effect of compartmentalization and integration of traditional and modern values on psychological adjustments. The results, however, were unstable. It is possible that because the current college students tended to be significantly high on modernity and low on traditionality, contrasting traditional and modern values became insensitive to index cultural conflicts. Thus, In Study 2, progressive and humble adjectives were used as material to measure degree of compartmentalization and integration. Results showed that for those people who adopted both progressive and humble values, integration strategy significantly outperformed the compartmentalization strategy on its effect on psychological adjustments. Furthermore, the integration tendency significantly correlated with Zhong-Yong thinking style. That is, people who are able to integrate the seemly conflicting values also showed the tendency to think globally and behave flexibly. The hypothesis that Zhong-Yong thinking style is a key component to integration was supported. The implications for multi-cultural conflict resolution were discussed.
Subjects
multicultural phenomenon
compartmentalization
integration
psychological adjustment
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