Theodore M. Singelis

Horizontal and Vertical Dimensions of Individualism and Collectivism: A Theoretical and Measurement Refinement

In developing a new scale, this article makes theoretical and measurement distinctions between vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism. Vertical collectivism includes perceiving the selfas a part (or an aspect) of a collective and accepting inequalities within the collective. Horizontal collectivism includes perceiving the self as a part of the collective, but seeing all members of the collective as the same; thus equality is stressed. Vertical individualism includes the conception of an autonomous individual and acceptance of inequality. Horizontal individualism includes the conception of an autonomous individual and emphasis on equality. Measurement of these constructs is preferable theoretically and empirically (better internal consistency) to either of the more general constructs of individualism and collectivism or the constituent elements of these constructs, such as self-reliance, hedonism, family integrity, and so on. The usefulness of these theoretical distinctions is demonstrated and their implications are discussed.

Pancultural explanations for life satisfaction: Adding relationship harmony to self-esteem

The first part of the study confirmed an additive effect of the newly proposed construct of relationship harmony to self-esteem in predicting life satisfaction across student samples from the United States and Hong Kong. As predicted from the dynamics of cultural collectivism, the relative importance of relationship harmony to self-esteem was greater in Hong Kong than in the United States. In the second part of the study, the independent and interdependent self-construals (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991) and the 5 factors of personality (P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) were advanced to be the culture-general determinants of life satisfaction, acting through the mediating variables of self-esteem and relationship harmony. Both self-construals and the 5 factors of personality were shown to influence life satisfaction through the mediating agency of self-esteem and relationship harmony in equivalent ways across these 2 cultural groups.

Social Axioms: The Search for Universal Dimensions of General Beliefs about How the World Functions

To broaden our conceptual framework for understanding cultural differences, the present article reports two studies that examined whether pancultural dimensions based on general beliefs, or social axioms, can be identified in persons from five cultures. A Social Axioms Survey was constructed, based on both previous psychological research primarily in Europe and North America on beliefs and qualitative research conducted in Hong Kong and Venezuela. Factor analyses of these beliefs from student as well as adult samples revealed a pancultural, five-factor structure, with dimensions labeled as: cynicism, social complexity, reward for application, spirituality, and fate control. In the second study, this five-factor structure, with the possible exception of fate control, was replicated with college students from Japan, the United States, and Germany. The potential implications of a universal, five-factor structure of individual social beliefs were discussed, along with the relation of this structure to indigenous belief systems and to culture-level analyses.

Culture-Level Dimensions of Social Axioms and Their Correlates across 41 Cultures

Leung and colleagues have revealed a five-dimensional structure of social axioms across individuals from five cultural groups. The present research was designed to reveal the culture level factor structure of social axioms and its correlates across 41 nations. An ecological factor analysis on the 60 items of the Social Axioms Survey extracted two factors: Dynamic Externality correlates with value measures tapping collectivism, hierarchy, and conservatism and with national indices indicative of lower social development. Societal Cynicism is less strongly and broadly correlated with previous values measures or other national indices and seems to define a novel cultural syndrome. Its national correlates suggest that it taps the cognitive component of a cultural constellation labeled maleficence, a cultural syndrome associated with a general mistrust of social systems and other people. Discussion focused on the meaning of these national level factors of beliefs and on their relationships with individual level factors of belief derived from the same data set.

Unpackaging Culture’s Influence on Self-Esteem and Embarrassability The Role of Self-Construals

A growing body of research supports the notion that individuals simultaneously hold two views of self. Members of collective cultures have stronger interdependent images of self, but less strong independent images, than do individualist groups. University students in Hong Kong (n = 271), Hawaii (n = 146), and mainland United States (n = 232) completed the Self-Construal Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Modigliani Embarrassability Scale. As expected, levels of independence and interdependence were related to ethnocultural group (Euro-American, Asian American, and Hong Kong Chinese). Independence and interdependence accounted for most of the variance in embarrassability attributable to ethnocultural group. Contrary to predictions based on terror management theory, there was no difference in the relation between self-construal and self-esteem across the three ethnocultural groups. Across all groups, a more independent and less interdependent self-construal predicted higher levels of self-esteem. It is concluded that similar psychological processes contribute to self-esteem and embarrassability across the ethnocultural groups in the study.

Culture, Self-Construal, and Embarrassability

This study investigates individual and cultural differences in embarrassability (i.e., susceptibility to embarrassment). Three hypotheses are formulated. First, the strength of the independent self-construal (the image of self as separate from others) is negatively correlated with embarrassability. Second, the strength of the interdependent self-construal (the image of self as connected with others) is positively associated with embarrassability. Third, Asian Americans are more susceptible to embarrassment than are Euro-Americans. A total of 503 Euro-American and Asian American -university students completed the Self-Construal Scale and the Embarrassability Scale. Results strongly supported all hypotheses. Further, individual differences in self-construal accounted for cultural differences in embarrassability. Many prior studies have associated embarrassability with social deficiencies; the authors propose that embarrassability be viewed in abroader cultural context that considers its functions as an adaptive mechanism.

The relationship between individuals' self-construals and perceived importance of interactive constraints

Abstract Focusing on three interactive constraints, this paper aims to extend the findings of Kim reported in 1992 by comparing the ways in which interactive constraints are perceived across individuals with individualistic and collectivistic orientations. We hypothesized that interdependent self-construals would correlate positively with concern for others feelings and concern for avoiding devaluation by the hearer and that independent self-construals would correlate positively with concern for clarity. Participants included individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds (a total of 308 undergraduates) studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. After being presented with four conversational situations, participants rated the perceived importance of each constraint in relation to each situation. They then completed the Ego-Task Analysis scale to measure the independent and interdependent dimensions of their self-construals. The results indicate that the degree of independent and interdependent construals of self systematically affect the perceived importance of interactive constraints.

Convergent validation of the Social Axioms Survey

Social axioms are generalized statement beliefs about oneself, the social and physical environment, or the spiritual world. A recently developed measure of social axioms was validated in a sample of female college students (N=182) from the USA. Five established measures were used to demonstrate convergent validity for the Social Axioms Survey (SAS). The five dimensions of the survey (Control by Fate, Reward for Application, Social Cynicism, Spirituality, and Social Flexibility) were predictably related to the established measures. In addition, a number of self-reported behaviors were also significantly correlated with the social axioms dimensions. While the USA data lend support to the validity of the SAS, validation in other cultures is needed. In addition, the emic aspects of social beliefs in individual cultures should be explored.

Training to recognize individual differences in collectivism and individualism within culture

Abstract This article describes a self-administered questionnaire that allows individuals to determine their own tendencies toward individualism and collectivism. This approach enables trainers to (a) introduce novices to the constructs, (b) clarify that demographic factors and individual experiences, over and above cultural background, shift a persons position on these cultural syndromes, (c) provide training on how to place individuals more accurately in the context of the individualism and collectivism constructs. We also report the convergent validity of the new measures, and indicate which of the constituent elements of each measure are most central to the convergence with other measures of individualism and collectivism.

Some Thoughts on the Future of Cross-Cultural Social Psychology

This article presents some predictions for the future of cross-cultural social psychology. It begins with the argument that all social psychology is cultural and that there is ever-growing acceptance of this fact. The results of this acceptance will be an increase in the pervasiveness of culture as a variable, a growth in multicultural research teams, and a recentering of research in social psychology. The introduction of non-Western constructs and theories, such as the interdependent self and relationship harmony, will increase in the future and bring with them a focus on research on interpersonal interactions and relationships. Finally, a model is presented that it is hoped will lead to studies that include both group-level and individual-level variables. It is concluded that an increase in complexity of studies and the incorporation of interdisciplinary research will lead to greater understanding of the mutual effects of culture and social behavior.