Collectivism and Individualism

Abstract

Individualism fist came about as a construct from a factor analysis performed by Hofstede in 1980. Since then, many researchers have been intrigued by this concept as a way to categorize cultures and attitudes. The constructs are very broad, and authors have defined and operationalized them differently. Moreover, there has been differing results. One big example of the flaws of the existing research lies in the common view that the United States is the most individualist culture, and that Japan is extremely collectivist. New research indicates that this is not true. Researchers have theorized about the implications of collectivism and individualism. An important theory has come from Markus and Kitayama (1991), who propose a conception of the self as independent in individualist cultures and an interdependent conception of the self in collectivist cultures. Triandis (1995) made an interesting proposition that cultures can be both highly individualistic and collectivistic at the same time with a system where cultures are rated on both collectivism and individualism. It is clear that there is a need for consensus on how to define the broad constructs of collectivism and individualism and to specify in detail aspects within the broad constructs that can be more definitively operationalized.