The Effect of Cultural Orientation and Language Priming on the Relationship Standards of Chinese Australians

The current study investigated the effect of orientation to Western culture and language priming on the relationship standards of Chinese Australians with respect to demonstrating love, self-expression, and relational harmony. Chinese Australian participants (N = 126, 89 women and 37 men) completed an online questionnaire containing measures of cultural orientation and relationship standards. Participants were randomly assigned to complete the questionnaire in either Chinese (N = 52) or English (N = 74) as a prime to Chinese or Western culture. It was hypothesised that higher Western orientation and completing the questionnaire in English, particularly for those more orientated to Western culture, would predict higher endorsement of demonstrating love and self-expression but lower endorsement of relational harmony. Data supported the cultural orientation hypotheses for demonstrating love and self-expression but not relational harmony. Data did not support priming effect hypotheses. These findings suggest changes in cultural orientation are associated with changes in relationship standards. The implications for intercultural couple counselling are discussed