Relationship between Values and Cross-Cultural Styles of Conflict Interaction of High School Students and Teachers

The paper reports the outcomes of an empirical study on the relationship between values and cross-cultural styles of conflict interaction within the educational context. The study proved that there is a correlation between high school students’ attitudes towards individualism and their perception of appropriateness of emotional expressiveness in conflicts with a teacher. Actually, personal values of power and hedonism increase students’ readiness for expressive behavior in conflicts with teachers, whereas values connected with caring for other people (conformity, universalism), on the contrary, reduce it. According to the data obtained in the study, students’ perceptions of emotional expressiveness/restraint in the conflict situations are basically related to the dynamic contradiction between values of self-transcendence and conservatism, on the one hand, and values of self-enhancement and openness to change, on the other.

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