ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an overview of the defining characteristics and some of the specific cultural manifestations of individualism and collectivism, known as cultural syndromes. Personal and communal goals are closely aligned in collectivism and not at all aligned in individualism. Cognitions that focus on norms, obligations, and duties guide much of social behavior in collectivist cultures. Those that focus on attitudes, personal needs, rights, and contracts guide social behavior in individualistic cultures. Members of collectivist cultures tend to be very tight. Turkish immigrants to Western Europe, especially if they are of lower-social-class background, are especially tight because they are trying to preserve their culture. In all societies, the upper social classes are likely to be relatively more individualistic than the lower social classes. In collectivist cultures, the collective is responsible for the wrongdoing of one of its members; in individualist cultures, it is solely the individual who is responsible.