Thoms notes that "cultures such as Native American ones that honor their ancestors or have a cyclical conception of time may infer to outsiders that the culture is past oriented" (34). Thoms says that ideas about time orientation are based on cultural stereotypes more than on reality.
Based on the current examination, the time orientation of the Asian-American woman is high at 5.4, compared to my own at 3.8. The idea of an Asian orientation to the past is in keeping with these results. Also, the client's orientation is more toward the time taken for a process, while my own is more evenly divided and more attuned to taking the time necessary to achieve the goals. This could mean that the client would be more impatient to achieve results and less willing to take the time needed to develop the parameters of the issue.
The client and I have a very different balance between dichotomistic thinking and holistic thinking as well. The client is more given to dichotomistic thinking, which is counter-intuitive to the way Asians are normally viewed. Asians are thought of as more holistic, but the scores on this...
. . is a splitting that is logically complete as everything left must become either one kind of thing or the other. And it is a separation that is asymmetric. The two limit state outcomes are logically as different as they can be" (McCrone, 2007, para. 10).
There is also a major difference on the task orientation vs. person orientation grid, and the Asian woman is drawn more toward task orientation, in keeping with the emphasis on productivity over quality. Another big difference can be seen with crisis orientation vs. noncrisis orientation, and here the Asian shows a much larger crisis orientation, which might make her more willing to participate if she perceives that her problems are at a crisis level than if they are at a lower level and can be put aside for the time being.
References
McCrone. J. (2007). Dichotomistic. Logic, retrieved August 9, 2008 from http://www.dichotomistic.com/.
Thoms, P. (2004). Driven by time: Time orientation and leadership. New York: Praeger.
