Abstract Different attitudes of privacy is the basis of this study。 It is quite normal that people from different cultural backgrounds may understand privacy differently, which was influenced by different cultures, history, social norms and values。 The pergence sometimes becomes the obstacle in cross-cultural communication。 In order to avoid those embarrassing situation, the origin and development of privacy and the different cultural background among the countries are focused in this paper。 It also proceeds to explore different cultures of privacy in China and America, as well as the causes of these differences。 Certainly the meaning of privacy should be clarified during the comparison。 Additionally there are lots of standpoints considered and plenty of examples used in this thesis, including culture, history, society and family。 Besides that, it is also mentioned that people’s attitudes towards privacy have changed with time。 This thesis aims to arouse people’s awareness of privacy and put forward some reasonable suggestions。 As for English learners, it is useful for them to enlarge the cross-cultural background and develop their cross-cultural ability。75186

Keywords: privacy; difference; cultural background; communication

摘要本文基于对不同隐私观念的研究。由于受到不同文化、历史、社会规范和价值观的影响，对于隐私的理解和态度也因人而异。通常这些差异就是跨文化交际存在障碍的原因。为了避免这样的尴尬情况，本文着手于隐私的起源与发展，重点探索了中美隐私权文化的不同，以及产生这些不同的原因。本文阐明了隐私的定义并从多个角度举多例进行分析，包括文化、历史社会以及家庭等因素。此外，也提及隐私观念的变化。本文提出一些合理的建议希望能引起人们对隐私观念的认识并且能有助于扩大英语学习者的跨文化背景，从而提高其跨文化能力。

毕业论文关键词：隐私；差异性；文化背景；交际

Contents

1。 Introduction1

2。 Literature Review2

3。 The History of Privacy 。。。3

3。1 Privacy developed in America。4

3。2 Privacy developed in China 。。。。。。。。5

4。 Comparative Study of Privacy。6

4。1 Similarities6

4。2 Differences。。。6

5。 Conclusion。。9

Works Cited。。。12

1。 Introduction 

     With the development of economical globalization, it is more and more frequent that people from different cultural backgrounds contact with each other。 People are more often confronted with misunderstanding, collision, even conflicts during the process of inter-cultural communication, which inevitably leads to the failure of the communication。 It is known that many reasons can论文网 contribute to that, but the most important one is the difference of cultural values。 Speaking of that, privacy is one of the most common topics that can not be ignored。 Knowing the different privacy view between China and America has an important meaning for us to improve the ability to carry out communications between cultures and countries。 Nowadays we study and ask for privacy more and more frequently。 Under this circumstance, people learn to regulate privacy and use laws to protect it。 Privacy right means that every natural person has the right to enjoy private life and protect private information, guaranteeing not to be violated, known, collected, used and made known to public unlawfully。 What’s more, we all have the power to decide whether to show one’s private information or not, including the scope and extent（NPC,1982:38th)。 In this optimizing process, we all strive to match the achieved privacy (i。e。 the actual level of contact at a specific time) with the desired one。 At the optimum level of privacy, we can experience the desired solitude when we want to be alone or enjoy the desired social contact when we want to be with people。 However, if our actual level of privacy is greater than the desired one, we will feel lonely or isolated; on the other hand, if our actual level of privacy is smaller than the desired one, we will feel annoyed or crowded（Kaya and Weber，2003：301-309)。 According to social psychologist Irwin Altman, if we effectively make ourselves more or less available to others in response to our desire and the environment, we can function better in society than those who cannot。 In order to regulate our privacy (i。e。social interaction) successfully, we need to use a variety of behavioral mechanisms such as verbal, para-verbal and non-verbal behavior, environmental mechanisms of territoriality and personal space, etc（1977:66-84)。 By combining these behavioral mechanisms, we can effectively express our desired privacy level to others in order to achieve the optimum level of privacy。 According to Altman, privacy can be analyzed at two different levels。 One refers to an inpidual’s privacy; the other is a group’s privacy。 Usually, it is believed that “privacy” to western people is an inpidual’s privacy。 However, when it comes to Chinese people, it often means a group’s privacy。 Altman proposed privacy was a psychological process involved people’s interaction, their social world and environment。 In addition, privacy was culturally defined and the behavior was influenced by its context。 Privacy is necessary in establishing and maintaining friendly interpersonal relationship and facilitate social interactions, which means it plays an important role as a society lubricant in daily communication。 In this case, it is essential for foreign language learners to study the different attitudes of privacy among different countries in order to communicate and study more easily。文献综述 浅析中美隐私观的差异:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_86038.html