Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
This study aims to investigate social skills adopted by Japanese people in Indonesia relevant to developing satisfactory interpersonal relationships with Indonesian Muslims. Twenty-seven Japanese people living in Indonesia were questioned on coping strategies used to overcome interpersonal difficulties (Nakano & Tanaka, 2016, July) and behaviors used to form satisfactory relationships. The results indicated that the subjects used two coping strategies: (1) cognitive, which involves understanding and tolerating cultural and religious characteristics or differences; and (2) behavioral, which involves accommodating one’s behavior to characteristics and differences, observation, and mimicry. It was also revealed that three specific skills are needed: a) Religious consideration, b) Frank self-expression, and c) Well-mannered behaviors and common sense. The narratives of informants showed that these skills are used to resolve the stress and problems in interpersonal relationships with Indonesian Muslims and to have comfortable relationships. This study was able to identify specific social skills that proved effective in maintaining interpersonal relationships with Indonesian Muslims. In future research, it is necessary to examine these behaviors among native Indonesian Muslims and to enhance the credibility of the skill list.
ScholarWorks Citation
Nakano, S., & Tanaka, T. (2018). The implications of social skills on the formation of relationships between Indonesian Muslims and Japanese. In M. Karasawa, M. Yuki, K. Ishii, Y. Uchida, K. Sato, & W. Friedlmeier (Eds.), Venture into cross-cultural psychology: Proceedings from the 23rd Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. https://doi.org/10.4087/TSYI1904
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by KAKENHI (Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research NO. 15H0345617, representative Tomoko TANAKA).