World Views of Whbite American, Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and African Students

Abstract

Using an existential perspective, world views of White Americans, mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and Africans were investigated. Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and African international students differed from White American students in perceiving human relationships as lineal-hierarchical and collateral-mutual, human nature as evil, nature as controllable, and the doing modality as valuable. White Americans gave primacy to individual goals in interpersonal relationships and preferred the being modality. Some international students' world views were also different from traditional values of their respective cultures, reflecting possibly the changing perceptions of modernizing societies with changing political situations. Suggestions are made for a modernization model of world views across cultures. Implications for applied psychology are discussed.