Donald W. Klopf

Argumentativeness: Japanese and American tendencies to approach and avoid conflict

The Japanese allegedly are disinclined to argue. This study supports that allegation. Japanese university students were compared to American students using the Infante/ Rancer Argumentativeness Scale. The scale measures tendencies to approach arguments and to avoid them. Additionally it indicates the general argumentativeness trait of respondents. The Japanese were significantly less inclined to approach argument situations and had a significantly weaker argumentativeness trait than the Americans. No significant difference appeared for avoiding arguments.

Japanese and Americans Compared on the Affect Orientation Construct

162 Japanese and 202 American university students completed the affect orientation scale on which American men scored higher than Japanese men and American women higher than Japanese women. The American women also scored higher than American men. Other comparisons were statistically nonsignificant.

Japanese communication practices: Recent comparative research

Recent research affords adscititious knowledge concerning Japanese oral communication practices. Seven studies are collocated with the substance and principal findings of each chronicled. The studies cover affect orientation, argumentativeness, immediacy, loneliness, verbal predispositions, social style, and verbal aggressiveness. Combined with previously known attributes of Japanese speaking and with socio‐cultural backgrounds regarding Japanese communication practices, the seven comparative studies provide a characterization of the typical Japanese communicator.

Affect orientation: Japanese compared to Americans

This investigation compared 162 Japanese and 202 American university students whom completed the affect orientation scale. American males scored higher than Japanese males, and American females scored higher than Japanese females on affect orientation. American females also scored higher than American males. Other comparisons were statistically nonsignificant.

An analysis of social style among disparate cultures

Using the Assertiveness‐Responsiveness Measure, scores of Finnish, Japanese, Korean, and American university students were compared. The American scores indicated that they were significantly more assertive than were the participants from the other cultures. The Korean men scored as more responsive than the other men, the American men more assertive, and the American women as more responsive than any of the men and women.

A comparison of social style between Japanese and Americans

Social style is investigated in terms of its two dimensions—assertiveness and responsiveness. Using the Assertiveness‐Responsiveness Scale, populations in Japan and the United States are compared t...

Verbal aggression among Japanese and American students.

Aggression assumes a variety of forms, from firing guns to screamed insults and rapier thrusts of wit. Some aggression is physical, some verbal. Verbal aggression, the concern here, denotes attacking an individuals self-concept causing the individual to feel less favorable about self (3). I t is, thus, the threat or infliction of psychological damage or pain. Differences in verbal aggressiveness appear becween males and females. Males are expected to be more aggressive than females (1). Roloff and Greenberg (4) found men relying more on antisocial modes of conflict resolution like verbal aggression, women more prosocial forms. To study verbal ~ggressiveness, Infante and Wigley (3) developed the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale which tested rehable and valid. The scale was used to study verbal aggressiveness in rwo disparate cultures, Japan and the United Srates. The Japanese sample from three Tokyo univenities included 163 students of the same ages and class levels as the 145 West Virginia students in the American sample. Analysis of variance computations showed no significant difference (F,,,,, = 6.54, p < .01, R = .06) between the Japanese (M = 41.32, SD = 6.01) and the Americans (M = 42.12, SD = 8.51), between the Japanese women (M = 40.51, SD = 5.53) and the American women (M = 39.64, SD = 6.98), and between the Japanese men (M = 42.12, SD = 6.49) and the American men (M=44.59, SD = 10.04). The Japanese and American men were compared with all the women. A significant difference (t = 2.59, p < .01) was noted between the men (M = 43.36, SD = 8.27) and women (M = 40.08, SD = 6.26) on the Verbal Aggression Scale. The results indicate that the Japanese and Americans differ little, if at all, in verbal aggressiveness. The mean scores for the groups are similar also to those of the American population used in the original research (3), so the Japanese are neither more nor less aggressive than their American peers. The combined group of men, the results show, are more aggressive chan the combined group of women, a difference in keeping with the general stereotypes held of men and women. Men, the stereotypes infer, are more active, adventurous, ambitious, competitive, dominant, and aggressive than women, who, on the other hand, are sensitive to feelings, gentle, neat, quiet, tactful, talkative, and religious the stereotypes imply (2). Research (2) indicates men score higher than women on aggressive types of talk.

Perceptions of world view among Japanese and American university students: A cross‐cultural comparison

The Gilgen & Cho (1979a) Questionnaire to Measure Eastern and Western Thought was administered to 240 Japanese and 163 American respondents. Results indicate that significant differences exist between the two cultures. The Japanese reflect an Eastern thought mode while the Americans favor a Western one. Also, results indicate gender differences between cultures and within the American culture. American females are more Eastern thought inclined than are the males.