The Asian culture is interesting because they appear to understand what it takes to be highly successful in school, and in life and possibly in everything that they do. In the Asian culture regardless of their economic status, students do well in school. A wide variety of societies, religions and ethnicities shape the culture of Asia. The Asian culture is a combination of varying customs, traditions and social values that form the Asian society. The cultures of the continent of Asia are the most diverse of world cultures.
Cultures are typically divided into two categories: collectivist and individualist. Individualist cultures, like the United States and Western Europe, focus on personal achievement regardless of the expense of group goals, which results in a strong sense of competition. Collectivist cultures, like China, Korea, and Japan, emphasize family and work group goals above individual needs or desires.
The Asian culture is a collectivist culture, meaning “it stands for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty (Rudenstam, 2012, p.260)”. Rudenstam defines individualism as: giving priority to one’s own goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes, and collectivism: giving priority to the goals of one’s groups and defining one’s identity in terms of group attributes (Rudenstam, p.1).
The disadvantages of a collectivist culture are that people can have a strong fear of rejection. In Chinese society, collectivism has a long tradition based on Confucianism, where being a 'community man' or someone with a 'social personality' is valued. Confucianism is a system ...
... middle of paper ...
...of exposure to each other’s cultures and traditions.
Couples often meet through religious institutions, work, school, or friends. "Dating services," services that are geared to assist people in finding partners, are popular both on and offline. The trend over the past few decades has been for more and more couples deciding to live together before, or instead of, getting married. The 2000 Census reported 9.7 million different-sex partners living together and about 1.3 million same-sex partners living together. Marriage laws are established by individual state. Same-sex marriage is currently legal only in Massachusetts. Two other states, Connecticut and Vermont, allow same-sex couples access to state-level marriage benefits with civil unions. In many states, it is illegal to cross state lines to get a marriage that would be illegal in the home state. (Brislin, 1990)
I never even thought about this word “individualism” before I came to America. Instead of collective, normal is the way I considered as my culture, and for American culture, I would say they are selfish and unkindly sometimes back then. However, after my 2-year study here and all the research I’ve been read for this paper, now I say that neither individualism nor collectivism is purely bad or good.
Collectivism is any philosophic, political, religious, economic, or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human. Collectivism is a basic cultural element that exists as the reverse of individualism in human nature (in the same way high context culture exists as the reverse of low cont...
The word collectivism often makes people cringe. Overall, there is a general fear of not being able to make personal decisions in America. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, collectivism can be defined as; emphasis on collective rather than individual action or identity (“Collectivism”). In Anthem, Ayn Rand describes an extreme collectivist society. Although Anthem’s society seems extremely surreal, aspects of its collectivist society closely mirror today’s society.
This article provides me a detailed research on a group of American and Chinese adults with plenty of data and analysis. They provided a lot of real and objective opinion on the comparison between individualism and collectivism. The fact of the whole respondents are students gives me an advantage on finding better ways to understand and use this research in my
A culture’s tendency to be individualistic or collectivistic can be found at the root of
Keep in mind that this is a very general overview. There are many different cultures within Asia and they are all different. Asian students are very culturally diverse, and an effort should be made to learn about their individual characteristics and cultural background.
Individualism and collectivism are conflicting beliefs with the nature of humans, society, and the relationships between them, however, these ideologies are not diametrically opposing since both are essential towards balancing beliefs from becoming extremes. The first source represents the idea of collectivism and suggests that the society must focus on moving their viewpoint from ‘me’ into ‘we’ in the interest of survival and progression. This perspective presents the idea that the individual’s advantage belongs not only to the person, but to the group or society of which he or she is a part of, and that the individual’s values and goals are for the group’s “greater good.” Likewise, Karl Marx’s principle of communism emphasizes in the elimination
According to (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010) described that the culture can be defined as it is made up of “thinking, feeling, and potential acting” that all people carry within themselves, which he terms as “mental programs.” Likewise, after did a large number of research, Hofstede decided to divide cultural differences into five dimensions, they are power distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity vs. Femininity and long-term vs. short-term orientation respectively. Putting more details into these five
Kobayashi, E., Kerbo, H. R., & Sharp, S. F. (2010). Differences in individualistic and collectivistic tendencies among college students in Japan and the United States. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 51(1-2), 59-84.
“Individualistic cultures, in the western-hemisphere, [such as the United States,] emphasize… personal identity and self-determination. Conformity is far less pervasive in individualistic societies because democratic choices and laissez-faire viewpoints are somewhat considered.”
The next communication gap concerns with the individualism- collectivism dimension, which is the degree an individual is integrated into groups in a society (Hofstede, 2001). Individualistic cultures like the U.S put a strong emphasis on individual autonomy and independence, whereas collectivist cultures like Vietnam believe in belonging, obligation
Hofstede has identified five different cultural dimensions. These dimensions include power-distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and lastly long term orientation. According to Hofstede, power distance is the first dimension which translates to how all individuals in a society aren't equal and there is a decent amount of inequality when it comes to the division of power. The second dimension involves the theme of individualism which translates to the degree of interdependence as well as how we identify ourselves in terms of "I" or "We". Additionally, Hofstede states that in individualist societies we tend to look only after ourselves and our blood family, however, in collectivistic societies individuals identify themselves as part of groups and take care of each other in exchange for loyalty. The third dimension would be masculinity/ femininity. A high score would translate to a masculine culture which demonstrates a culture driven by competition, achievement and success. On the other hand, a low score which demonstrates a feminine culture shows that the dominant traits involves caring for others and quality of life. The fourth dimension involves uncertainty avoidance which translates to how a society deals with not knowing how the future is going to turn out. This amount of vagueness brings about anxiety and different cultures deal with this issue differently. The fifth and final cultural dimension according to Hofstede is long term orientat...
In the diverse world in which we live, each country has its own identity and culture. In fact, a culture has its own languages, traditions, customs and social particularities. We can therefore assume that the relationships between individuals change from culture to culture because of cultural distinctions such as impressionism and individualism. Indeed, in a collectivist culture, individuals see themselves as a part of a group, while in an individualist culture individuals are independents from the community. Therefore explaining the differences between a collectivist and an individualist culture with the examples of the United States and the Ivory Coast can help any sociology class student to understand how
This dimension describes the relationship between the individual and the collectivism that prevails in a given society. Individualism means mostly caring of oneself and one’s immediate family. In contrast, collectivism relates to caring for both oneself and other groups.
In the end, what we learn from this article is very realistic and logical. Furthermore, it is supported with real-life examples. Culture is ordinary, each individual has it, and it is both individual and common. It’s a result of both traditional values and an individual effort. Therefore, trying to fit it into certain sharp-edged models would be wrong.