Robert Oliver has said, Mankind is separated less by language barriers (grievous though they are) than it is by cultural differences. One effect of this separation can be denial of the rich experiences available through expansion of cultural perspectives. More serious effects in a thermo-nuclear world can be repeated conflict, war, even annihilation. Hence, it is in the interest of all to find a way to co-exist. The means for doing this begins with understanding the cultures of others through communication.
The first step in intercultural communication is acceptance of the worth of other systems. There are barriers, however, to this action. One such barrier is a tendency to evaluate other cultures by one\u27s own set of beliefs, attitudes and values. This study was an attempt to reduce the impact of this barrier by identifying and comparing value preferences in an intercultural setting.
The Modified Rokeach Value Preference Survey (VPS) was administered to 72 American university students and to 62 Chinese (Taiwan) students studying in midwestern American universities. The data were then tabulated and rank orders compiled for each part of the VPS, instrumental values and terminal values. Comparative rankings were prepared for Americans vs Chinese students as ethnic groups, for American vs. Chinese males, and for American vs Chinese females. The composite data were then statistically analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U Test of the Statistical Program in Social Sciences (SPSS). Significant differences were measured for each of the thirty-six values with p\u3c.05 established as a requirement for significance.
The null hypothesis, that there would be no significant difference between value rankings of American and Chinese students, was rejected on the basis of significance found for twenty-one of thirty-six values. The null hypothesis, that there would be no significant difference between value rankings of American and Chinese male students, was rejected on the basis of significance found for fourteen of the thirty-six values. The null hypothesis, that there would be no significant difference between the value rankings of American and Chinese female students, was rejected on the basis of significance found for nineteen of the thirty-six values.
It is concluded that there are considerable differences in basic value orientations between this population of American and Chinese students and that these differences are apparently a result of ethnic culture
