The worldviews of international and domestic New Zealand tertiary students : analysis through national groupings versus analysis based on individual attitude measures.

• Main Author: Holthouse, Stephen Mark
• Language: en
• Published: University of Canterbury. Psychology 2009
• Subjects: views; attitudes; Koltko-Rivera; Hui; acceptance; empathy; multiculturalism; individualism; collectivism; collective; social psychology; helping; groups; similarities; worldviews
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10092/2696

The present study investigated the construct of characterising societies as being either individualistic or collectivist as topics of research in the field of cross cultural tolerance. Using scenarios to describe behaviours typically encountered in New Zealand society, participants from individualist and collectivist cultures were asked to rate behaviours as to how much they understood and accepted the actions described. The participants’ responses were also analysed using attitude measures to seek if similarity in attitudes was a more informative approach to determine why one individual does or does not accept certain behaviours. The study found that although there were general cultural differences between the two groups, individual attitudes went further in explaining possible reasons why acceptance and tolerance of other's behaviours may occur. The findings were then discussed in terms of how they were relevant to both biculturalism and multiculturalism in New Zealand.