Personal Statement
Back in 1975, I was living in Sacramento, California, USA. I was an instructor in Aerospace Physiology in the US Air Force. It was the early period of the New Age movement in the US--chanelling was becoming popular, out-of-body experiences, occult investigations, and other fields of parapsychology were making inroads to the popular culture and infiltrating bookstores. I recall this time vividly as it was when I began studying psychology at California State University, Sacramento. The first course was 'abnormal psychology' where I learned and listened to interviews with folks in mental institutions. One such person was claiming that her father was 'Satan' and he was responsible for the building of the Great Wall of China. It was during this time that I was meeting people who were experienceing all sorts of paranormal phenomena and it seemed to me at the time, 'losing touch with reality.' I became fascinated with psychology and it was the works of Carl Jung that attracted my attention back then.
I continued to study Jung's works, though only peripherally. When I got out of the USAF and moved to Oregon on Jan. 1, 1977, my interest in psychology continued and took new twists. I studied many fields of psychology and spiritual philosophy, seeking to understand domains of human experience and scientific thought. These many years later, I still continue to study these areas and write about them...driven by a personal desire to understand spirituality and science as it relates to psychological development.
When I think of writing a "personal statement," it becomes obvious to me that this cannot be accomplished without considering family members. When I lived in the USA, where I was born, I knew I had a family, but did not describe myself in relation to family. Research in cross-cultural psychology indicates that this is common for persons growing up in individualistic countries, as the USA is considered.
Current cross-cultural research focuses on individualism and collectivism in societies, while research within cultures focuses on the dimensions of idiocentrism and allocentrism (Triandis, et. al., 1985), and the influence of these dimensions on personality (Triandis 2001). Idiocentrics stress uniqueness, self-reliance, independence, competition and emotional distance from in-groups while allocentrics stress sociability, family integrity, interdependence and in-group needs and wishes (Triandis and Suh 2002; Cross et. al. 2000). Idiocentrics and allocentrics are found within both individualist and collectivist cultures, and are assumed to compose 60% of the population, respectively—that is, idiocentrics compose 60% of individualist cultures and 60% are assumed to be allocentrics in collectivist cultures. It is vital to realize that there is not a distinct dichotomy of cultural modes and these patterns “can coexist and are simply emphasized more or less in each culture, depending on situation” (Triandis 1993, p.162). This is also expressed in the image below, with the image on the left indicating interdependent self-identity, the right representing independent self-identity.
After coming to China in 1998 and living here ever since, I do not describe myself without also considering my family relations. My brothers and sisters as well as our parents, though we live in different countries half a world apart, are closer in many ways now that when we were younger. Perhaps this is just my perception of this, and this is what makes psychlogy so intriguing to me still--how we each co-create our reality. Some people define and think of self as independent, others as interdependent. This difference demarcates a very important distinction between Asian and Western views of self. While this is nothing new, it is something that has been studied much in recent years and written about by cross-cultural psychologists, sociologists and social psychologists, as mentioned above. The term for 'self' or 'individual' did not come into Chinese lexicon until the late 1800's.
The pictures at the top of this website are of my family and myself. Our son, Dominic, helped me create this website (he taught me how to create it and did much of the work on it) so that I could work to develop a counseling practice in Dalian. I have a few clients now, and have done counseling in other cities we've lived in, in China, but I wish to extend this service to others who may need help coping with life's challenges and problems. Besides word of mouth, internet technology is an integral component of contemporary business. However, some views of therapy and counseling hold that using the internet or such technology may not be beneficial for potential and actual clients. Some therapists refuse to use mobile phone messaging thinking it is too impersonal. Others embrace this technology as ordinary components of life, to be used in conjunction with personal contact. It is the personal element I wish to stress by having pictures of our family on the banner.
In contemporary China, under the influence of Westernization, many young Chinese are adapting styles of relationships that are much more independent than has been possible here before. This is creating family conflicts, inter-generational communication challenges, and advertising which is supporting individualism more than collectivism. Social change brings changes in self-identity and self-expression. It is my bounty, I feel, to live here and observe and assist this change for the students I work with at Dongbei University of Finance & Economics, in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China as well as those Chinese I do counseling with and the many friends I have here and learn from.
REFERENCES
--Cross SE, Bacon P, & Morris M. (2000). The relational-interdependent self-construal and relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 78:791-98
--Triandis, H. C. & Suh, E. A. (2002). Cultural influences on personality. Annual Review of Psychology. 53: 133-160
--Triandis, H. C. (2001). Individualism-Collectivism and Personality. Journal of Personality, 69(6): 907-924
--Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press
--Triandis, H. C. (1993). Collectivism and individualism as cultural syndromes. Cross-Cultural Research, 27:155–180
--Triandis HC, Leung K, Villareal M, Clack FL. (1985). Allocentric versus idiocentric tendencies: convergent and discriminant validation. Journal of Research on Personality. 19:395-415