Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method, and Applications (Cross Cultural Research and Methodology)

Individualism and collectivism has become one of the major means of comparison between societies in cross-cultural psychology and other comparative disciplines. Scholars seek to explain why some societies, largely non-Western Asian ones, focus on the collective nature of social obligation while traditional Western psychology focuses on the primacy of the individual. In this volume, experts from a variety of disciplines, perspectives, and nationalities address the individualism/collectivism issue, examining its theoretical underpinnings and current trends, the state of the art in current research on this topic, and the social and practical implications of our understanding of this dimension of human activity. A foreword by Geert Hofstede, who conducted the original research on this topic, provides a context for the other contributions. Individualism and Collectivism will be of interest to scholars and advanced students in cross-cultural psychology, psychological anthropology, and related cross-cultural disciplines.