Effects of taking conflict personally on conflict management styles across cultures

The concept of taking conflict personally is largely underexplored by dominant conflict literature. The purpose of this study was to test the cross-cultural predictions of the associations between self-construal, the tendency to personalize conflict, and subsequent outcome variables such as negative feelings of being criticized and motivation to improve. The participants were 457 undergraduates, of which 185 were studying in Japan, and 272 were studying in the United States. The results indicated the significant negative relation between independent self-construal and taking conflict personally. On the contrary, interdependent self and taking conflict personally showed positive relation. In turn, taking conflict personally indicated positive relation with participants' conflict management style, such as motivation to improve one's own behaviors. Discussion of these results and their implications is provided.