Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures
The thoughts and behaviors of individuals depend on the cultures that people practice. One of the most common divisions of culture is those of individualists and collectivists. Psychologists are specifically interested in assessing the differences and similarities between individualist and collectivist cultures. Individualistic cultures pay attention to the interests of individuals at the expense of groups. In individualistic cultures, individuals are seen as independent and autonomous. Individual attitudes and preferences are well-defined in individualistic cultures. On the other hand, collectivistic cultures pay attention to the goals and needs of a group at the expense of individuals. The identity of an individual in a collectivistic culture is determined from the relationships held with other people. Generally, psychologists believe in five personal traits that include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The personality traits of individuals differ significantly for individuals in individualistic and collectivistic cultures.
The main interest of psychologists in the cultural aspect is the comparison and contrast between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Conscientiousness differs between individualistic and collectivistic cultures on the issue of minding the welfare of other people. The individualistic culture differs from the collectivistic culture in that the attention in the collectivistic culture is on the benefits of a group (Hsu, Tien, Lin & Chang, 2015). On the other hand, individualism rewards uniqueness, independence, self-sufficiency, and autonomy. Besides, the argument behind individualistic cultures is that an individual should go through their problems on their own. Also, the reliance on the help from other people is viewed as parasitic in the individualistic cultures. Generally, collectivistic cultures believe that individuals should play as a team in overcoming challenges. Therefore, the individualistic cultures argue that each individual should pull themselves up when setbacks are encountered. Generally, individuals from collectivistic cultures have high levels of conscientiousness.
Another difference between an individualistic and collectivistic culture is based on extroversion. Extroversion explains the extent to which an individual value the idea of socializing with other people. Individualistic people have a lover level of extroversion. The level of extroversion explains why individuals in individualistic cultures tend to be interested in personal interests and fail to consider the needs of other people. For example, workers in an individualistic culture do not pay attention to the well-being of the whole group. On the other side, collectivistic cultures bring out individuals who can sacrifice personal happiness for the benefit of other people. Also, their behaviors change between people in both cultures. For example, the career choices between people in both cultures vary significantly with people with the individuals choosing careers depending on the sacrifice needed. Generally, stress-sharing happens differently between individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures.
Agreeableness affects the contact of an individual around other people. Individuals from individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures have different methods of defining personal practices. Individuals in individualistic cultures have a unique way of describing their traits. Generally, the description of individuals in the individualistic cultures is based on independence at the expense of interdependence. Moreover, people from individualist cultures always describe themselves using unique traits and characters. Generally, the difference appears in the way people in collectivistic cultures define themselves in terms of the roles they play in teams. On the other hand, individuals from individualistic cultures use personal traits, such as being sarcastic and analytical. Also, competitiveness tends to be high among people from individualistic cultures. Therefore, agreeableness is lower in individualistic cultures compared to collectivistic cultures.
People from individualistic and collectivistic cultures have different ways of making new relationships. The openness trait impacts the way people get to interact with new people and coming up with new relationships. Generally, people with high openness do have difficulties meeting new people. Individuals from collectivistic cultures have low relational mobility. Low relational mobility implies that relationships are durable and long-lasting in collectivistic cultures (Yuki & Schug, 2019). Also, low relation mobility means that individuals from collectivistic cultures do not easily fall in new relationships. The most common forms of relationships are families, and coming up with new relationships is difficult. On the other side, people from individualistic cultures do not have difficulties creating new relationships. Ideally, strangers continue being treated as strangers in a collectivistic culture. Therefore, openness is high in individualistic cultures compared to collectivistic cultures.
On the other hand, strangers are easily absorbed into the individualistic culture to form new relationships. Moreover, relationships in a collectivistic culture are created based on family or even geographical settings. Personal choice is not considered in a collectivistic culture.
Cultural differences are dealt with differently both in the individualistic and collectivistic setting. In an individualistic culture, individuals will make decisions without consideration on the impact to the public. Most individuals believe that the opinions of other people do not affect the decision that an individual should make (Yaakobi & Williams, 2016). On the other side, collectivistic cultures bring out individuals who make decisions based on their opinions. For example, people in collectivistic cultures will make less preferred choices to avoid creating differences. Generally, individuals from collectivistic cultures prefer developing interpersonal harmony to making choices based on preference. Also, less offensive behaviors are common in collectivistic cultural settings. Moreover, the communication patterns of people from individualistic and collectivistic cultures are different.
The communication patterns of people differ depending on the cultural settings within which they grow. Neuroticism comes in play due to the difference in communication between individuals in both cultures. For example, individuals from individualistic cultures, for example, prefer using direct communication. Therefore, the level of neuroticism is low since individualistic cultures do not limit individuals from expressing their emotions. On the other side, individuals from collectivistic cultures prefer indirect communication. Communication comes in handy, especially were differences may occur. In the case of a disagreement, people from individualistic cultures face the situation directly while their counterparts from collectivistic cultures use indirect communication methods. Besides, the form of preferred communication depends on the position of the individuals on the respect for other people’s opinions. The use of communication is based on the control that an individual has concerning personal choices. Generally, collectivism may encourage high neuroticism trying to care for the welfare of other people.
Personal choices are affected by the culture within which an individual grows up. Individuals from collectivistic cultures are brought up to believe that the opinions of other people influence their own opinions. On the other side, individualistic cultures bring up individuals who choose their preference before making other people happy. Therefore, collectivistic people prefer indirect communication because it considers the welfare of other people. Moreover, indirect communication does away with the requirements of having control over one’s decision-making ability. Generally, indirect communication allows for opinions to affect the final decision that an individual settles in. Besides, collectivists should seek acceptance from other people before settling for an opinion. Therefore, indirect communication remains the best option for people from collectivistic cultures. Generally, the message in indirect communication is separated from the intended meaning, and third parties play the most significant role in passing the message. People from individualistic cultures use direct communication because individualists are in a position to control their relationships.
Individualists have control over their relationships. Collectivists, on the other side, create relationships out of situations. Therefore, individualists are confident and can use direct communication without worrying about the outcome of the communication. Generally, direct communication has the risk of creating a negative impression. However, the risk is not high in individualistic cultures as in collectivistic societies. Besides, the risks associated with direct communication explains the strong need for individualists to keep relations that they create with different people. Also, direct communication offers a chance for two-way communication. Therefore, the message from direct communication is given on the spot; hence, the form becomes a low-context method of communication. The question of whether personality traits differ between cultures is answered by the ideologies that define the cultures in question.
The idea behind an individualistic culture is that everyone lives for themselves. Individualism is built on the belief that the judgment of an individual is independent of other people’s opinions. Generally, an individual should do what they think fits their standards. Also, an individual is deemed to have a right of pursuing the product of their choice. For example, an individual may independently decide to vie in a political contest without having to consider the opinions of their relatives. Ideally, individualism places the sovereignty of decision-making on the individual. Also, the fundamental unit of moral standards is the individual, and thus decisions should emanate from an individual’s point of view. Individualism generally leads to issues such as advocacy for liberty and freedom. Collectivistic cultures are based on the belief that the interests of a group come before those of an individual.
Collectiveness overlooks the right of an individual to have full responsibility for their lives. The life of an individual is believed to belong to a particular group in the collectivistic setting. Generally, collectivistic cultures require that individuals sacrifice their goals and interests on behalf of society (Kim, 2017). Unlike in the individualistic setting, the collectivistic cultures take society as the basic unit of moral responsibility. An individual growing up in a collectivistic society is not given a right to develop their ideas. Instead, society is given the mandate of developing a benchmark for allowing permissions. Therefore, people in collectivistic cultures grow up trying to impress the community at the expense of becoming unique. However, choosing between individualism and collectivism depends on the goals that an individual hold. Cultures differ considerably, and every culture is right according to the people who have lived by the culture. Therefore, the best way of avoiding cultural differences is to allow for interaction between people with different cultures. Personal traits are different between individualistic and collectivistic cultures.
In sum, the personality traits of individuals differ significantly for individuals in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. The main interest of psychologists in the cultural aspect is the comparison and contrast between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. The individualistic culture differs from the collectivistic culture in that the attention in the collectivistic culture is on the benefit of a group. Also, the communication patterns of people differ depending on the cultural settings within which they grow. Ideally, individualism is built on the belief that the judgment of an individual is independent of other people’s opinions. Collectiveness overlooks the right of an individual to have full responsibility for their lives. Generally, the personal traits of individuals living by individualistic and collectivistic cultures are significantly different.
References
Hsu, M. H., Tien, S. W., Lin, H. C., & Chang, C. M. (2015). Understanding the roles of cultural differences and socio-economic status in social media continuance intention. Information Technology & People, 28(1), 224-241.
Kim, M. S. (2017). Culture‐Based Conversational Constraints Theory. The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, 1-10.
Triandis, H. C. (2018). Individualism and collectivism. Routledge.
Yaakobi, E., & Williams, K. D. (2016). Ostracism and attachment orientation: Avoidants are less affected in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. British Journal of Social Psychology, 55(1), 162-181.
Yuki, M., & Schug, J. (2019). Psychological Consequences of Relational Mobility. Current opinion in psychology.