CULTURAL BASES OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN COMPLIANCE GAINING STRATEGIES : AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF MALAY/MUSLIM SINGAPORE

Abstract

Cultural values and personality were the two main independent variables investigated in this study. Values and personality were assumed to be products of cultural factors influenced mainly by childrearing behaviour and society's institutional arrangements. Differences in childrearing practices towards the sexes were perceived to influence values and personality profiles of males and females. A major objective of this academic exercise was to explore if cultural values and personality, in the case of the Malay/Muslim subculture in Singapore, were significant predictors of compliance gaining strategies. Analyses revealed that only values were significant determinants of compliance gaining strategies. The two personality variables -- Intolerance of Ambiguity (affective dimension) and Machiavellianism (behavioural dimension) -- did not predict compliance gaining strategies. Subsidiary analyses revealed that modernity correlates positively with level of formal education. Males and females were found not to be significantly different in their styles of gaining compliance. Results, however, suggested a strong preference for males and females to use remunerative strategies, with normative and coercive approaches ranked second and third respectively. It was speculated that the preference to employ remunerative approaches could be linked to certain cultural factors influenced by the cognitive dimensions of personality (which was not investigated in this study). This may have explained the lack of significant relationship found between personality and the preferred compliance strategies, since the two personality variables investigated are related to the affective and behavioural dimensions of personality.