The Journal of Social Psychology, 1975, 96, 305-306.
CROSS-CULTURAL INSIGHT AND EMPATHY AMONG CHINESE IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES*’ San Francisco State University
HENRYCLAYLINDGREN AND RAYMOND YIJ This study is concerned with measuring and identifying correlates of the cross-cultural sensitivity, insight, or empathy that Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco develop with respect to their host culture. The sample consisted of 52 females and 39 males, aged 17 to 66, who had been born overseas, had lived in the United States six months or more, and were attending special adult classes in English. The measure of crosscultural insight and empathy consisted of a Chinese-language version of the Intercultural Insight Questionnaire (ICIQ), a scale previously used in an English-language form to study Arab, Armenian, and American students in Beirut, Lebanon.2 The ICIQ consists of 24 pairs of American and British personality trait descriptions, arranged in forced-choice format, such as, “Shows need for friends-:-Shows respect for laws.” Subjects are instructed to identify the American trait in each of the pairs. For purposes of the present study, the ICIQ was translated into Chinese and revised after having been back-translated into English. The final Chinese version had a corrected split-half reliability of .60,and the scores of eight bilingual judges on both versions of the test correlated .70 (Pearson product moment). These re1iabiIities compare favorably with those obtained with the English-language version of the ICIQ: .74 for American university students, and .49 for Lebanese university students whose second language was English. Subjects who had been in the United States three years or longer had a mean ICIQ score of 13.76 (SD = 3.24), whereas those who had been residents a shorter time had a mean score of 12.39 (SD = 3.07) (9 < .05). Furthermore, subjects who had attended Chinese-language schools at the secondary level or higher in their homeland had a mean of 13.48 (SD = 3.04), in contrast to the mean of 11.38 (SD= 2.70) for those whose previous education had not exceeded the elementary level ( p < .OOl). There
*
Received in the Editorial Oflice, Provincetown, Massachusetts, on May, 7, 1974. Copyright, 1975, by The Journal Press. 1 An extended report of this research may be obtained from the senior author at the address shown at the end of this article. Copies of the English- and Chineselanguage versions of the ICIQ are also available on request. 2 Lindgren, H. C., & Marrash, J. A comparative study of intercultural insight and empathy. J . SOC.Psychol., 1970, 80, 135-141.
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were no significant relationships between ICIQ scores and sex, age, or level of competence in English. The ICIQ mean for the entire sample was 12.94 (SD = 2.92), which compares with English-language ICIQ means in the Beirut study of 12.55 (SD = 2.7) for Arabs, 14.0 (SD = 2.83) for Armenians, and 15.5 (SD = 3.28) for Americans2 Results from the present study are consistent with the commonsense idea that cultural understanding is likely to be enhanced by increased exposure to a host culture. The significantly higher ICIQ scores made by subjects who had more education in their homeland may indicate that increased amounts of schooling in whatever language produced a higher degree of social sophistication, as well as a sharpened awareness of and sensitivity to patterns of social behavior. The nonsignificant relationship between English competence and ICIQ suggests that competence in a host country’s language was not in itself sufficient for the development of cross-cultural insight and empathy. 120 Lansdale Avenue San Francisco, California 94127
CROSS-CULTURAL INSIGHT AND EMPATHY AMONG CHINESE IMMIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES*’ San Francisco State University
HENRYCLAYLINDGREN AND RAYMOND YIJ This study is concerned with measuring and identifying correlates of the cross-cultural sensitivity, insight, or empathy that Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco develop with respect to their host culture. The sample consisted of 52 females and 39 males, aged 17 to 66, who had been born overseas, had lived in the United States six months or more, and were attending special adult classes in English. The measure of crosscultural insight and empathy consisted of a Chinese-language version of the Intercultural Insight Questionnaire (ICIQ), a scale previously used in an English-language form to study Arab, Armenian, and American students in Beirut, Lebanon.2 The ICIQ consists of 24 pairs of American and British personality trait descriptions, arranged in forced-choice format, such as, “Shows need for friends-:-Shows respect for laws.” Subjects are instructed to identify the American trait in each of the pairs. For purposes of the present study, the ICIQ was translated into Chinese and revised after having been back-translated into English. The final Chinese version had a corrected split-half reliability of .60,and the scores of eight bilingual judges on both versions of the test correlated .70 (Pearson product moment). These re1iabiIities compare favorably with those obtained with the English-language version of the ICIQ: .74 for American university students, and .49 for Lebanese university students whose second language was English. Subjects who had been in the United States three years or longer had a mean ICIQ score of 13.76 (SD = 3.24), whereas those who had been residents a shorter time had a mean score of 12.39 (SD = 3.07) (9 < .05). Furthermore, subjects who had attended Chinese-language schools at the secondary level or higher in their homeland had a mean of 13.48 (SD = 3.04), in contrast to the mean of 11.38 (SD= 2.70) for those whose previous education had not exceeded the elementary level ( p < .OOl). There
*
Received in the Editorial Oflice, Provincetown, Massachusetts, on May, 7, 1974. Copyright, 1975, by The Journal Press. 1 An extended report of this research may be obtained from the senior author at the address shown at the end of this article. Copies of the English- and Chineselanguage versions of the ICIQ are also available on request. 2 Lindgren, H. C., & Marrash, J. A comparative study of intercultural insight and empathy. J . SOC.Psychol., 1970, 80, 135-141.
305
306
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
were no significant relationships between ICIQ scores and sex, age, or level of competence in English. The ICIQ mean for the entire sample was 12.94 (SD = 2.92), which compares with English-language ICIQ means in the Beirut study of 12.55 (SD = 2.7) for Arabs, 14.0 (SD = 2.83) for Armenians, and 15.5 (SD = 3.28) for Americans2 Results from the present study are consistent with the commonsense idea that cultural understanding is likely to be enhanced by increased exposure to a host culture. The significantly higher ICIQ scores made by subjects who had more education in their homeland may indicate that increased amounts of schooling in whatever language produced a higher degree of social sophistication, as well as a sharpened awareness of and sensitivity to patterns of social behavior. The nonsignificant relationship between English competence and ICIQ suggests that competence in a host country’s language was not in itself sufficient for the development of cross-cultural insight and empathy. 120 Lansdale Avenue San Francisco, California 94127
