In a study done by Rita Chi-Ying Chung, Frank Walkey and Fred Bemak,  published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology  in July 1997, the researchers set out to “compare the educational and occupational aspirations and achievements of New Zealand-born Chinese students with those of their European counterparts, as well as the students’ perception of their parents aspirations and expectations for them”.   The researchers found that very few studies had been devoted to studying the academic habits of ethnic Chinese in New Zealand.

           First the researchers looked at what was known.  This conforms to Descartes’ first rule, not to accept anything which has not been proven by evidence.  The researchers knew through their own previous research and their review of literature that:

     1.  Ethnic Chinese were disproportionately represented in higher education and in higher status professions than other ethnic groups. (New Zealand Statistics Department 1991)

     2.  New Zealand born Chinese had higher  academic motivation and greater fear of parental reaction to failure than their European counterparts. (Chung & Walkey, 1989)

     3.  Chinese family values emphasize the need to succeed academically (Peterson, 1978) and specific cultural practices facilitate that academic achievement.(Sue & Okazaki, 1990)

           In order to proceed, the researchers took  the topic apart to best examine it.   First they limited the topic.   They did not look at all Asians or those born out of New Zealand.  Even though they believed that cultural influences guided the actions of the parents, the researchers did not look at specific cultural practices but rather just at the results of  the parental influence.  The researchers did not offer value judgments or personal reflections.   They examined the facts  not  the reasons behind them. In order to do this the researchers designed a very specific research questionnaire.  The researchers had three expectations which they  wanted to confirm:  a) the Chinese would attain higher marks than the Europeans on the standardized exam;  b) the Chinese students would have higher educational and professional aspirations than their European counterparts and c) that the Chinese parents would have higher educational and occupational goals for their children than the  parents of the European counterparts.

            The sample was chosen in a random way which assured the Europeans and Chinese subjects were the best match in gender, age, academic standing and socioeconomic status.  They were each given a questionnaire with three main issues.  The first part asked for  a list of the subjects that each would take the standardized exam in and how they thought they would perform.  The students also had to rate on a 7 point scale their perception of their ability as compared with their peers .  Then they were asked to provide information about their parent’s expectations for them on the tests and then their parent’s aspirations for them for the future, both academically and professionally.  Since this study was measuring the students’ perception of what their parents wanted for them, the questionnaire made sure to specifically ask what they thought their parents wanted for them.

           After the questionnaires were filled out and gathered, the researchers organized and analyzed the information to make conclusions.  The results of the questionnaire confirmed two of the research questions but showed no significant difference between the two groups studied in one.   The first finding showed that the two groups received similar grades on the standardized tests.  The researchers had anticipated that the ethnic Chinese students would perform better than their European counterparts.  When they didn’t, the researchers looked at the student sample again and found that all of the students performed above the national average in all of the standardized tests.   They concluded that “the Europeans in the study were more representative of top students than a reflection of the national average.” (p. 487)  But the other two hypotheses were confirmed by the results.  The Chinese students aspired to higher education and to higher prestige professions than their European counterparts.  Also, the Chinese parents had higher expectations for their children than the European parents.

            After the researchers examined the data and their findings, they  made sure that it all fit together and that there aren’t other explanations for the results.  Since the questionnaire was very direct and specific, there was little room for misinterpretation.  They had confirmed that Chinese students and parents had higher academic and occupational aspirations for their children than the children and parents of European descent who participated in their study.

          Observations and questions.  How valid would a study like this be in terms of generalizing results?  It is based on one sample group at one time period and one testing period.  Was there a follow-up?  When the researchers found that contrary to their anticipated result in the first part, the European students did as well as the Chinese students in the standardized testing, they explained the result by saying that the European sample was not representative of the national average.  Why didn’t they do this same study again and choose other European students?  Their results would have been more interesting to see whether the  Europeans in the second testing would test the same as the first.

          In their conclusions, the research team states that the results of their study correspond with other research done on Asian students in the United States.  Descartes would probably say that a generalization like that is too big a leap.  The research done in the US and cited in this article was done with Asian-Americans, but not specifically with Chinese-Americans.

           In the discussion which looks at the possibility of generalizing these results to the next  step of whether the pressure for high acheivement which the Chinese parents put on their children lead to a higher incidence of mental problems in Chinese students of the target age in the study, the researchers need to be very careful to examine  Chinese cultural characteristics.  In this study the researchers note that the parents seemed disatisfied with the test results even though their children performed above the national average.  But in the Chinese culture a parent would consider it very impolite to publically praise the performance of their child.  When analyzing the ‘why’ of the results, the researchers must be very careful to look at results from a cultural side as well as a statisical way in order not to infer ‘facts’ which aren’t there.

            This team of researchers seemed to be progressing on a rational continuum.  This article was the second part.  The first part was quoted in the beginning of the article and included in the information which was known. The  firststudy dealt with proving that the Chinese-born New Zealanders had high academic and occupational aspirations.  Then this study dealt with parental pressure to have and attain these academic and professional goals.  In the conclusion section of the article the researchers start to plant the question whether these high expectations from the parents lead to mental health problems among the Chinese students.  If they follow Descartes’ method as they have so far, that will  logically be their next research question.