Abstract：Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to personal privacy. People have to keep a watchful eye on the personal cultural custom of other countries so that they can avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. This study tries to focus on the personal privacy culture in America, analyzes the cultural phenomena of personal privacy, and explores the causes.
This thesis first offers the definitions of personal privacy to lay a theoretical foundation for the following elaborations. the major causes of American personal privacy culture will be presented, including individualism, domain concept and privacy taboo. This research is supposed to alert the readers that they should pay more attention to cultural diversity when they communicate with foreigners, not only the Americans, but also the people from other cultures so that they can effectively reduce cross-cultural misunderstandings.
Key Words: personal privacy; cultural diversity; individualism; domain concept; privacy taboo
摘要：现今社会，人们越来越注重个人隐私了。人们不得不关注其他国家的个人文化习惯，以在文化交流中减少以致避免不必要的误会。因此，本研究试图以美国个人隐私文化为中心，分析个人隐私文化现象，并探讨其根源。
在本次研究中，首先会描述认识个人隐私的定义为下文的详述打下理论基础。然后会选取个别典型案例，依其探讨个人隐私类型中的心理超脱隐私，隔离隐私以及独处隐私。并依照案例总结美国个人隐私文化的主要根源为美国个人主义、领域观念以及禁忌语。我希望本研究能使读者产生警惕，在与美国及其他文化交流中要注意文化差异，以有效减少跨文化的误会。
关键词: 个人隐私；文化差异；个人主义；领域观念；禁忌语
From the cases analyzed in the thesis, we can draw a conclusion that individualism, domain concept, privacy taboo are the major causes of the American personal privacy culture. Americans emphasize the importance of individual privacy. They learn to protect their own privacy from the very early age. Partly, individualism due to American society becomes an “I” society. Everybody stresses on the things they can do by themselves, and seldom asks for help from others. They see their own time, space, activity area as possession because of the domain concept. Privacy taboo language has many touchy topics. If one does not want others think he interfere them, he should know about the privacy taboo of their culture. Understanding the causes of the American personal privacy culture can make us not only have a better picture of American culture, but also avoid some misapprehension in communicating with them.
In order to have the better picture of American personal privacy, people should make the comparison of privacy culture between America and other countries. After people know more about the difference, they will pay more attention to other’s privacy when they communicate with foreigners.
