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Family Obligation And Family Values Essay

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Family obligation is strongly related to how much one values their families’ opinions and the degree to which family values are respected and complied with. This degree of familial obligation varies across cultures, in part, due to the different schemas that are represented across cultures. There are two separate classifications for these schemas, collectivistic and individualistic (Triandis, 1988). The majority of people who belong to individualistic cultures have an independent schema while people who are culturally collectivistic have a interdependent schema (Greenfield, 2003). East Asians are generally considered to be interdependent while European American hold a more independent self-schema (Heine, 2001). These distinct cultural types have many distinguishing characteristics that separate individualistic cultures from collectivistic cultures. These different culturally bound norms impact how they view different scenarios and problems and how they respond (Triandis, 2002). People who are more independent value their personal opinions, while people who are more interdependent value their in-group relationships and opinions (Oyersman, 2002). This directly relates to family obligation and how parenting is implemented in East Asian families versus European American families. European American parents encourage independence and autonomy in their children including attributes such as personal choice, intrinsic motivation, self-esteem and self maximization (Tamis-Lemonda et

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