Study of Cultural Values and Identities
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Individualism-collectivism is a dimension of cultural variability that contributes to the content of cultural identities and explains differences and similarities across national cultures. The U.S. national culture embraces individualism, as opposed to collectivism, and promotes individualistic values, such as independence and self-reliance. Although individualistic tendencies might characterize the U.S. national culture as a whole, at the individual level U.S. Americans may not strongly identify with individualistic tendencies that are typical of their national culture. The study herein presented examines the individualism-collectivism dimension at the individual level by identifying respondents’ cultural values that are categorized to determine the respondents’ individualistic and collectivistic tendencies. Data representing results of the study were gathered by interviewing a sample of American college students and are not meant to make generalizations about the U.S. national culture. Rather the study emphasizes that cross-cultural comparisons should take into consideration individualistic and collectivistic tendencies at the individual level to find out how strongly individuals identify with their national culture. |