In order to indicate the significant features of Confucian ethics for ordinary people which have been constructed in accordance with the current approach for attaining the epistemology goal of indigenous psychology, this chapter reviewed a series of theoretical models constructed by previous social scientists for describing Chinese social behaviors, including Fei’s (Peasant life in China. London: Routledge & Kegan, 1948a, Rural China (in Chinese). Shanghai: Observer, 1948a) differential order, Hsu’s (The Self in cross-cultural perspective. In A. J. Marsella, G. DeVos, & Hsu, F. L. K. (Eds.), Culture and self: Asian and western perspectives (pp. 24–55). New York: Tavistock, 1985) psychosociogram, Ho’s (Relational orientation in Asian social psychology. In U. Kim & J. W. Berry (Eds.), Indigenous ­psychologies: Research and experience in cultural context (pp. 240–259). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1993, Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 1–16, 1998) ­relational orientation and methodological relationalism. It showed that the major propositions in the scientific micro-world of Confucian relationalism constructed in terms of the social exchange theory can be translated into the main ideas of previous models, but the reverse is not true. The advantage of the current approach was manifested in its heuristic function for stimulating a series of empirical research on the cognitive structure of role relationship; social norms for allocating resources to coworking partners of different guanxi; intergenerational exchange; accepting or rejecting favor requests in consideration of relational context; and even the use of modest language to express one’s respect to other parties of different relationships in Japan and Taiwan.

Confucian Relationalism and Social Exchange

A Postdisciplinary History of Disciplines: Two Recent Publications in the History of Sociology: Donald Levine's Visions of the Sociological Tradition and Johan Heilbron's The Rise of Social Theory

H. Joas

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A Postdisciplinary History of Disciplines: Two Recent Publications in the History of Sociology: Donald Levine's Visions of the Sociological Tradition and Johan Heilbron's The Rise of Social Theory