Jean-Claude Deschamps

Variation of Individualism and Collectivism within and between 20 Countries: A Typological Analysis

With data from a 20-nation study (N = 2,533), the authors investigated how individual patterns of endorsement of individualist and collectivist attitudes are distributed within and across national contexts. A cluster analysis performed on individual scores of self-reliance (individualist dimension), group-oriented interdependence (collectivist dimension), and competitiveness (individualist or collectivist dimension) yielded a typology of four constrained combinations of these dimensions. Despite the prevalence of a typology group within a given country, variability was observed in all countries. Self-reliant non-competitors and interdependent non-competitors were prevalent among participants from Western nations, whereas self-reliant competitors and interdependent competitors were more common in non-Western countries. These findings emphasize the benefits for cross-cultural research of a typological approach based on combinations of individualist and collectivist dimensions.

Social identity : international perspectives

PART ONE: REPRESENTATIONS OF SELF AND GROUP Regarding the Relationship between Social Identity and Personal Identity - Jean-Claude Deschamps and Thierry Devos Social Representations in Personal Identity - Willem Doise The Personal-Social Interplay - Carmencita Serino Social-Cognitive Prospects on Identity and Self-Others Comparison Self-We-Others Schemata and Social Identifications - Maria Jarymowicz PART TWO: ESTABLISHING GROUP IDENTITY A Developmental View of the Search for Group Identity - Stephen Worchel The Role of Prototypicality in Group Influence and Cohesion - Penelope Oakes, S Alexander Haslam and John C Turner Contextual Variation in the Graded Structure of Social Categories Group Beliefs as an Expression of Social Identity - Daniel Bar-Tal Social Identity and National Identity - Jos[ac]e Miguel Salazar PART THREE: IDENTITY AND GROUP/INTERGROUP PROCESS Social Identity and Intragroup Differentiation as Subjective Social Control - Jos[ac]e M Marques, Dar[ac]io P[ac]aez and Dominic Abrams Categorization and Social Influence - Juan Antonio P[ac]erez and Gabriel Mugny Social Identity and Interpersonal Relationships - Miguel Moya Social Identity and Aspects of Social Creativity - Steve Hinkle et al Shifting to New Dimensions of Intergroup Comparison Mere Categorization and Competition - Stephen M Drigotas, Chester Insko and John Schopler A Closer Look at Social Identity Theory and the Discontinuity Effect PART FOUR: THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON IDENTITY AND CATEGORIZATION Discrimination and Beliefs on Discrimination in Individualists and Collectivists - J Francisco Morales, Mercedes L[ac]opez-S[ac]aez and Laura Vega Constructing Social Identity - Dar[ac]io P[ac]aez et al The Role of Status, Collective Values, Collective Self-Esteem, Perception and Social Behaviour

Cross-Cultural Variations in Attitudes Toward Love

Using the Love Attitude Scale, the first objective of this study was to examine the extent to which Lee’s six-factor colors of love model was able to account for data gathered across a large number of countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the structure postulated by Lee could be applied across multiple cultures. The second objective was to study possible cross-cultural variations in attitudes related to love. The hypotheses were that (a) factors involving strong personal feelings, such as mania, Eros, and agape, would be largely free of cultural influences and (b) factors involving strict social rules, and consequently low affects, such as Pragma, Storge, and Ludus, would be dependent on cultural influences. Each of these hypotheses was well supported by the data.

Asymmetries in Judgements of Ingroup and Outgroup Variability

It is common to observe an asymmetry in judgements of intragroup variability: sometimes the outgroup is perceived as being more homogeneous than the ingroup, while the opposite is true at other times. A review of the literature on this theme is presented, including information on the techniques used to measure perceived variability within groups. The empirical research is briefly discussed. The explanatory principles posited in this particular field of research are described. Among these principles, a distinction is made between cognitive and motivational approaches. Several approaches which integrate both cognitive and motivational factors are also examined. Finally, the need to take account of different levels of analysis is emphasized.

Etudes entre groupes 'dominants' et 'dominés': Importance de la présence du hors-groupe dans les discriminations évaluatives et comportementales:

Les travaux sur les relations inter-groupes se situent, pour une bonne part d’entre eux, dans la problematique de la categorisation sociale. L’origine des travaux sur la categorisation sociale est certainement a rechercher dans l’introduction par Bruner et Goodman, Bruner et Postman (1947, 1949) et par Bruner (1957, 1958) du concept de categorie dans leur theorie de la perception. Pour Bruner, toute perception comporte un acte de categorisation. La perception ‘depend de la construction d’un syst~me de categories en fonction desquelles on classe les stimuli, (on) leur donne une identite et une signification plus compliquee que dans une classification’, et de tels systemes de categories sont ’construits sur l’inférence de l’identite a partir d’indices ou de signes’ (Bruner, 1958, p. 42). En fait, un stimulus perceptif sera place par un in-

Social insertions and representations of oneself and young people: Apprentices and high school students

What does the category or the term “young people” evoke for teenagers who identify themselves in terms of their social group memberships? On the basis of two studies we were able to demonstrate that whereas for apprentices (positioned between school and the world of work) youth is defined in terms of various activities — one is young by virtue of what one is doing, for those pursuing studies in senior high school (the “lycéens”), one is young by virtue of how one thinks. In addition, while apprentices tend to value the group, high school students value the individual above all else.

Similar or Different? Young Immigrants in the Genevan Educational Context

The principal aim of this study, which was carried out in Geneva with 625 pupils aged 15–16, was to compare the social representations of the indigenous population and those of pupils of foreign origin in the areas of school, the future, national and language group membership, and different aspects of social identity. Although on the whole the immigrants approach these various areas in the same way as pupils of Swiss origins, they nonetheless display a more specific approach in the area of attitudes concerned with language.

A socio-cognitive perspective on ordinary explanation: A response to Michael☆

First, I would like to point out that I agree substantially with Mike Michael’s analyses and criticisms. Yet there are divergences between us concerning the proposed solutions. But first of all, let us see what the base of his argumentation is. I shall call attention to some elements that seem central to me, hopefully being excused for taking the liberty of reformulating them, and even of inflecting the sense of them. At the beginning, the task is to know what is the nature of the bond between activities and cognitions, between behaviors and beliefs? Does knowledge precede actions, those being undertaken on the base of cognitions acquired thanks to specific processes that are the object of cognitive sciences? When do individuals model their ideas so that they adjust themselves to actions actually accomplished? Does a knowledge-subject precede and inform an actionsubject, as suggested by Beauvois (1984a), or would it not be the subject of action that precedes the subject of knowledge? Beyond this contemporary dressing, of course, we recognize the ancestral dispute between idealism and empiricism. This dispute seems endless and, therefore, it appeared that Marx would bring a decisive contribution in making of consciousness the product of the social conditions of life. However, we know that the theory of the subject underlying the cognitivism that dominates social psychology, especially after Heider, tends to establish the primacy of knowledge over action. This trend in research carries a conception of action as dependent upon knowledge. This rational action is then oriented toward mastery and control over objects, even people. In these conditions, the behavior is “highly individualistic. Explanations and the behavior that they putatively generate, are supposed to serve the individual.*’ However, we should not forget too quickly another cognitive perspective, inaugurated in social psychology by Festinger’s work on cognitive dissonance, according to which we see that knowledge appears like the rationalization of actions rather than preliminary to and founding behaviors (Beauvois dc Joule, 1981). In this case, the knowledge-subject is the descendent of the action-subject. Here is a conception of knowledge that the dominant cognitivism cannot assimilate. When behaviors involve us as social actors, they suffer from