Dialecticism in romantic relationships: An examination in Chinese and American cultural contexts

The cultural theory of naïve dialecticism, denoting Chinese lay beliefs about expectation of change and tolerance of contradiction, was employed to examine Chinese and European Americans' representation and evaluation of their romantic partners and relationships across three studies. We found that Chinese were more likely than Euro-Americans to spontaneously describe their partners with contradictory attributes (Study 1). While Chinese and Euro-Americans organized their evaluative partner knowledge in equally compartmentalized ways, Chinese were more likely to hold complex knowledge structures and to value both positive and negative partner knowledge (Study 2). Moreover, Chinese were more likely than Euro-Americans to simultaneously hold positive and negative attitudes toward their partner and relationship (i.e., being ambivalent), both implicitly and explicitly (Study 3). These findings illuminate theories and research on contradictions in intimate relationships from a cultural perspective.