The Prevalence of Individualistic Societies

Natadecha-Sponsel, Poranee. “Individualism as an American Cultural Value.” One World Many Cultures. 7th ed. Eds. Stuart Hirschberg and Terry Hirschberg. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009.

People are complex. Our various characteristics, including but not limited to, behaviors, ideals, perspectives, attitudes, and physical attributes make us who we are as individuals and society as a whole. The macrocosm of society, by default of the people within it, is supremely complex. As we would expect, society is evolutionary and as such, there are numerous theoretical approaches to its study. The three major theoretical approaches are examined here.

I can help students identify cultures as either individualistic or collectivistic by having them think “about there own culture and identity their cultural characteristics (94). Students will first think about what they most value. I will have students form a list. On the top of the paper, they will write-What and who I value. In a numerical order, they will start with number one as the most important and finish with number ten-the least important. They will then look at the white board where, I will have a chart, which is similar to page

It is amazing to note that humans are a type of species that can smartly organize and form a community. Several of these communities create their cultural norms and beliefs that make their society a place to live. Willis, K. and Elmer, S. (2007, p3), defines society as the identifying pattern of behaviour, meanings and beliefs in order to uncover the links between individual lives and social forces.

In contrast, Individualists people feel free to leave their homes, jobs, and churches in search of better opportunities. As adolescents, individualists struggle to separate from their parents and define their personal sense of self for themselves. Pakistani people are also Collectivists who may have less number of relationships however they are strong and longer lasting. It has been observed that in collectivist cultures the relations between employee-employers are associated with mutual loyalty, by giving value to social solidarity, and people try to maintain harmony among them by respecting each other (Kahneman, Diener, E & Schwarz, A,

In today’s world with the rapid growth in population the societies are facing some of the major issues like obesity, health problems, early deaths and abnormal psychological and physical behavior. These concerns lead scientist to perform test to study the changes around the globe. http://cip.cornell.edu/dns.gfs/1200428197

Millions of people in the United States read socialist newspapers. They elected socialist members of Congress and socialist members of state legislatures (Goodman, 2009). Howard Zinn was extremely opinionated about Obama in this article bringing awareness to what so many people already had in the back of their mind.

collectivism. Individualistic cultures place the majority of their value on personal independence, while collectivistic cultures, according to Neuliep, “groups bind and mutually obligate individuals,” (Neuliep, 2015, p. 51). Individualist cultures tend to value the self-made man and value standing out from the crowd as an individual. Having the ability to make up there own mind is heavily valued and a key characteristic. Collectivists are oriented to believe that the group comes first and everything that is accomplished is done so for the good of the group. Typically family is a heavy influence in collectivist cultures. Direct confrontation is heavily avoided as well. The goal of collectivist cultures is to promote and achieve harmony throughout the

The majority of people living in the industrialized societies of the West believe family living to be the most important part of their lives (Bernardes 1). Despite this belief, family life has gone through a dramatic change in the concluding decades of the 20th century. A wide range of family patterns have surfaced disentangling the traditional ones. The contemporary processes of industrialization, specialism, isolation, urbanization etc. have been influential in modifying the forms of contemporary modern and post-modern society. The social importance of the religious institutions, activities and mindset is lost. Individualization has made an individual more free and independent. The individual has not only gained independence from the religion and social institutions (Hal 1).

The first dimension of defining a culture, immediately gives us an insight into the norms of different societies as well as how much they can vary from one to another. An individualist culture, such as the majority in the United States, or a collectivist culture like the

Every individual ideologies is considered to be different as it based on their own beliefs and experiences that enables them to determine and regulate their behaviour. Ideologies are a guiding tool used by humans to measure long and short term gratification. Even

I chose the United States and China as my two countries to study. I will start off the Psychological anthropology study of Chinese people. I will discuss their customs and beliefs from childhood to adulthood. I will then discuss the study of Americans and their customs and beliefs. I will discuss both Chinese and American traditions and the varies life cycles of both cultures. I will do this view from both the male and female aspects. I will then summarize in conclusion the differences and likes of the two groups.

A very clear difference has emerged between different societies. This goes beyond the varying dress, food, and laws that are in difference cultures. It also penetrates the mindset of the people. In some cultures, such as China, there is a different brain pattern known as collectivism. In a study done by Zhu and Others (2007), participants used a different part of the brain to think about their mothers (Meyers ___, 42). Simply put, collectivism is a society where family or a society comes before any individual. Naturally, how one values him or herself, or self-esteem, is directly related to the group that person belongs to (Meyers ____, 43). On the other hand, individualism is where one person thinks of him or herself before others

Individualism means that they are solely depending on that individual person (Ayn, 1). There is no “we” in the way that an individualist person would think (Culturematters.com).

Although religions originated for a common goal, each civilization has developed its’ own unique interpretation of religion, which impacts how each civilization fosters hospitality or hostility. Religions establish morals, such as collectivism, that is used to unite and maintain civilization. Civilizations develop unique interpretations of religion to organize unification based on a shared purpose, having concern for community. This diversity allows people to distinguish the relationship between religion and civilization of unification and structure based on beliefs. The relationship not only within, but also between civilizations are visible through religions influence on hospitality and hostility. Throughout history, religions have played a significant role in both the formation and cooperation of civilizations in various ways including, civilizations forming based on common principles, the unique perception of religion in various civilizations, and the fostering of hospitality and hostility through religion in civilizations.