The Chinese Cultural Values, Positive and Negative Social Interactions and Their Influences on Happiness

Setting against the background of profound social change and growing cultural pluralism, the present study explored relationships among self-construals (indepen-dent vs. interdependent self-construals), inter-personal beliefs (control vs. harmony), feelings derived from social interactions (positive, negative, harmonious, conflict), and happiness. This study further investigated potential within culture variations of these constructs and their relationship patterns.

Adopting purposive and convenience sampling, 550 community residents aged between 15-60 years old were surveyed with structured questionnaires. Results showed that self-construals affected interpersonal beliefs, both, in turn, affected feelings from social interactions, and all of above affected happiness. In terms of within culture variations, generation differentials were the most meaningful.