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PsychologicalReports, 2005,97,205-212.

Psychological Reports 2005

COMPETITIVENESS AMONG JAPANESE, CHINESE, AND

AMERICAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

JOHN M. HOUSTON, PAUL B. HARRIS,

ROBERT MOORE,

AND

REBECCA BRUMMETT

Rollins College

HIDEKI KAMETANI

Saitama Institute of Technology

Summay.-Although

research indicates that competitiveness, defined as the de-

sire to win in interpersonal situations, is an important individual difference that influ-

ences a range of social interactions, little research has focused on competitiveness in

cultures outside the United States. This study investigated competitiveness in three cul-

tures by comparing Chinese (n

61), Japanese

( n

232), and American (n

161) un-

dergraduate college students. Nationality and sex were compared on two scales of the

revised Competitiveness Index. Analysis indicated that American students scored high-

er on Enjoyment of Competitiveness than Chinese and Japanese students, but no dif-

ference was found on Contentiousness. Men scored higher than women on Enjoyment

of Competition but not on Contentiousness. The findings indicate that sex and cul-

tural patterns influence some but not all aspects of competitiveness.

Competitiveness is an important individual difference variable that influ-

ences social interaction across a broad range of situations. Although research-

ers have examined competitiveness in a variety of samples from the United

States, including trial lawyers and nurses (Houston, Farese,

LaDu, 1992),

airline reservation representatives (Helrnreich, Sawin,

Carsrud, 1986), pro-

fessional tennis players (Houston, Carter,

Smither

1997), collegiate ath-

letes (Gill

Dzewaltowski, 19881, and undergraduate college students (Mar-

tin

Larsen, 1976; Griffin-Pierson, 1990; Smither

Houston, 1992), sur-

prisingly little research has focused on samples from cultures outside of the

United States (for an exception, see Lynn, 1991).

Competitiveness

Research on competitiveness dates back to the origins of experimental

social psychology and the pioneering work of Triplett (1897) who investi-

gated such concepts as competitive instincts, mental attitudes during perfor-

mance, and "the desire to beat7' (p. 528). Over fifty years later, Deutsch

'The authors thank Ruri Yokoyama and Nicholas Williams for their he1 in the back-transla-

tion process and Rumi Mizuma, Kim Kochurka, and Elgin Mellown for tKeir help in the com-

let ion

of this project. Address enquiries to John M. Houston, Department of Ps chology,

Rollins College, 1000 Holt Ave., Winter Park,

12789 or e-mail (jhouston@rollins.e&.

206

HOUSTON,

AL.

(1949) initiated a new phase in the study of competitiveness by examining

winning from the perspective of goal relationships as opposed to the instinc-

tual concepts proposed by Triplett (1897). According to Deutsch, context

and reward structure play key roles in the expression of competitive behav-

ior by defining the way valued rewards are distributed within group settings.

In his model, competition is highest under "winner take all" conditions in

which only one group member receives all the available rewards. Although

the reward distribution approach has produced a number of insights into

behavior in competitive and cooperative situations, it overlooks competitive-

ness as an individual difference variable.

More recent approaches (e.g., Gill

Deeter, 1988; Griffin-Pierson,

1990; Houston, Harris, McIntire,

Francis, 2002) conceptualize competi-

tiveness as a personality characteristic that influences behavior across a wide

variety of social domains including work, sports, and interpersonal relation-

ships. Based on the conceptual framework provided by achievement motiva-

tion research, competitiveness is generally defined as "the desire to win in

interpersonal situations'' (Helmreich

Spence, 1978, p. 4). Unlike Need for

Achievement which relies on an internalized standard of excellence (Smither

Houston, 1992)) competitiveness requires the perceived presence of a ri-

val or group of competitors who serve as performance standards for the in-

dividual.

Few researchers have examined the relationship between competitive-

ness and culture. One exception is a study of work attitudes and rates of eco-

nomic growth in 43 countries by Lynn (1991) which found that competitive-

ness is positively related to economic growth. In a reanalysis of these data,

Furnham, Kirkcaldy, and Lynn (1994) found that Asian and Eastern coun-

tries, e.g., China, India, Israel, and Japan, scored higher on competitiveness

than countries from the Americas, e.g., Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and the

United States. While these findings underscore the significant role competi-

tiveness plays in economic development around the world, the grouping of

countries by geographical region may mask significant cultural differences.

Individualism

and

Collectivism

Although China, Japan and the United States differ along a number of

sociocultural dimensions, the individualism-collectivism dialectic provides a

particularly useful conceptual framework for investigating competitiveness in

these three cultures. Triandis, McCusker, and Hui (1990) maintained that

individualistic cultures tend to place priority on achieving one's own goals

over group goals and define identity in terms of personal attributes. Collec-

tivistic cultures generally give priority to the goals of the group and define

identity in terms of the group. Research by Hofstede (1980, 1991, 2001) in-

dicates that individualism is particularly high in the United States while col-

COMPETITIVENESS IN THREE CULTURES

207

lectivism is very high in China and moderately high in Japan. In a review of

the literature on individualism and collectivism Triandis (1995) found that

American individualists link self-reliance with competition, Japanese collec-

tivists tend to emphasize in-group harmony, and East Asian collectivists, e.g.,

Chinese, try to avoid confrontation that would cause anyone to lose face.

Sex

Dgferences in Competitiveness

Research suggests that men score higher on competitiveness than wom-

en in the U.S. and in many other nations (Helmreich,

al.,

1986; Gill, 1988;

Houston,

al., 1997). Lynn (1991, 1993) reported that men scored signifi-

cantly higher than women in 20 countries, including China, Japan, and Tai-

wan. Conversely, women scored higher in only one country (Iraq).

Although the factors contributing to sex differences in competitiveness

remain a matter of debate, two metatheories of sex differences, evolutionary

psychology and social structure theory, suggest that sex differences in com-

petitiveness should generalize across cultures. Evolutionary psychologists

(e.g., Buss, 1995) argued that sex differences in many psychological disposi-

tions evolved through male competition for sexual access to females and

through female choice of mates. Since intrasexual competition was critical in

obtaining access to women, men evolved dispositions favoring competition,

aggression, and risk-taking. In contrast, women evolved dispositions favoring

nurturing and a preference for long-term mates who could provide resources

to support a family. Because these sex differences are proposed to be the re-

sult of adaptive mechanisms that evolved in primeval environments, they are

believed to be universal or near-universal in contemporary cultures.

Social structuralists (e.g., Eagly

Wood, 1999) propose a very different

explanation, attributing sex differences in competitiveness to differences in

power, status, and control of resources between men and women in many

societies around the world. Thus, while men's accommodation to roles with

higher power and status leads to more dominant behavior, women's accom-

modation to roles with lower power and status leads to more subordinate

behavior (Ridgeway

Diekema, 1992). Since greater power and status tends

to be associated with male-dominated roles across cultures, corresponding

sex differences in competitiveness should also be found across cultures.

Drawing on the theoretical framework of collectivism and individualism

outlined by Triandis,

al. (1990), it was hypothesized that American under-

graduates would have higher competitiveness scores than Chinese and Japa-

nese undergraduates.

Based on predictions from both evolutionary psychology and social

structure theory, it was hypothesized that men should score higher on com-

petitiveness than women in China, Japan, and the United States.

208

HOUSTON,

AL.

Participants

A total of 454 undergraduates (61 Chinese, 232 Japanese, and 161

American) ranging in age from 18 to 28 years participated. To ensure mean-

ingful comparisons could be made between similar groups of undergradu-

ates, this study focused on four undergraduate institutions with culturally

and ethnically homogeneous student populations and enrollments under

4000. Participants in the Chinese sample (30 women and 31 men) had a

mean age of 20.9 yr. (SD= 1.4) and attended a selective residential university

located within metropolitan Beijing. The Japanese participants (102 women

and 130 men) attended one of two selective residential colleges, one in Fuku-

oka and the other in Saitama, and had a mean age of 20.4 yr. (SD

1.0). The

American participants (95 women and 66 men) had a mean age of 20.0 yr.

(SD

1.7) and attended a selective residential college located within metro-

politan Orlando, FL. American participants were primarily Euro-American

students of middle to high socioeconomic status.

Measurement

All participants completed the revised Competitiveness Index (Hous-

ton, Harris, McIntire,

Francis, 2002), a 14-item self-report measure design-

ed to assess the desire to win in interpersonal situations. The Index uses a

5 -

point Likert-type response format anchored by 1: strongly disagree and

strongly agree. Examples of scale items include

enjoy competing against

an opponent," and

often remain quiet rather than risk hurting another

person." Houston,

et al.

(2002) reported that the scale has high internal

consistency

( a

3 7 )

and contains two reliable subscales, labeled Enjoyment

of Competition (9 items,

.90) and Contentiousness (5 items,

.74).

While the Chinese and American participants completed the Index in En-

glish, the Japanese participants complete a translated version of the scale in

Japanese.

The accuracy of the Japanese translation was tested using a back-trans-

lation procedure in which two bilingual researchers translated the measure

into Japanese. After the two researchers resolved minor discrepancies to form

a single translation, an undergraduate with professional experience as a trans-

lator then translated the Japanese version back into English. The back trans-

lation was then compared to the original English version by an English Pro-

fessor and judged highly consistent across all 14 items.

To assess further the equivalence of the measure across the three sam-

ples, a series of principal component analyses using a varimax rotation and

reliability analyses were conducted on the entire data set from each sample.

For the Chinese sample,

out of 9 items in the Enjoyment of Competition

scale loaded on the same factor with the 9 scale items having a Cronbach al-

COMPETITIVENESS IN THREE CULTURES

209

pha of

a =

.87. The 5 items of the Contentiousness scale also formed an inter-

nally consistent scale ( a

.77) with

of the 5 items loading on the same fac-

tor. In the Japanese sample, 6 of the 9 items in the Enjoyment of Competi-

tion loaded on the same factor and yielded an internally consistent scale

(a=

based on the 9 scale items. While

of the

items in the Conten-

.82)

tiousness scale loaded on the same factor, the scale items had a somewhat

low internal consistency

.60). Although item loadings showed some vari-

ability across samples, the original scale construction was administered to

each sample.

RESULTS

Initial analyses indicated that there were significant age differences

among groups in the sample. Specifically, there was a significant main effect

for nationality

(F,,,,,2

10.33,

.001, eta2

.045) and a significant interaction

(F,,,,,

16.14,

.001, eta2

.068).

Post

hoc

tests, using Tukey's

HSD,

indi-

cating that the Chinese sample was older than the Japanese sample, and the

Japanese sample was older than the American sample (for means and stan-

dard deviations see Table

1).The

interaction showed that men were signifi-

cantly older than women in the American sample, while women were signifi-

cantly older than men in the Japanese sample. Given these differences, age

was included as a covariate in subsequent analyses.

TABLE 1

MEANS STANDARD

AND

DEVIATIONS AGE

AND

COMPETITIVENESS

FOR

SCORES

Measure

China

Japan

United States

Total

Age,

yr.

Women

21.2

1.8

Men

20.8

0.8

Total

21.0

1.4

Enjoyment of Competition

Women

29.3

7.1

Men

30.8

8.1

Total

30.1

7.6

Contentiousness

14.4

4.4

Women

Men

15.6

4.1

Total

15.0

4.2

Competitiveness data were analyzed using two 2

analyses of covari-

ance with sex and nationality (China, Japan and United States) as between

subjects factors and age as a covariate (for means and standard deviations

see Table 1). Analysis of the Enjoyment of Competition Scale indicated a sig-

nificant main effect for nationality

(F,,,,

=24.09,

.001, eta2

.098).

Post

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