Culturally Speaking: Individualism-Collectivism

A conceptual discussion of Individualism and Collectivism in different cultures with particular attention to how these cultural orientations might affect intercultural communication. Photographs from several different countries including India, Chile and Guatemala are used as backdrop..

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Individualism
• Collectivism
• culture
• Intercultural
• Communication
• concept
• Sunsilvercat

[DrThri11]

You put many pictures of the same person in different contexts during the explanation of Individualism, but the pictures during the explanation of Collectivism show nothing but buildings, shrines and stores. Why are there no pictures of people in that section?

[Sunsilvercat]

That's a fair question. I'd never really thought about the fact that there were no visible people in the collectivism section. Quite honestly, I had a limited number of photos to work with so my reasoning was that there were groups of people in the houses. And the cities/house photos were take in largely collectivistic places.

[lastnymleft]

I acknowledge the fact that you are talking *cultures* here, but when discussing individualism versus collectivism, more relevant are discussions involving degrees of involvement of the *State*. There is not a direct correlation between collectivist cultures and collectivist governments. If anything, it's an inverse relationship, that is actually proportional to developmental level. Though that is a generalization far to broad to be used with confidence. View video series from user StopAndLook

[Sunsilvercat]

Culture is separate from government. I am glad you acknowledge that. The video is not about politics. Its about how ppl relate to other ppl in different societies. This is often very far removed from what the political leader is doing (ie I think the current Pres of the US is an idiot, but that doesn't affect how I relate to my fmily and neighbors. Individualism and its corollary values does a really good job of explaining which values you can see play out in people's lived experience.

[Sunsilvercat]

Culture is not an issue of "better than." It just is. This is just a bit of help in understanding "is."

[ExtraGarlicNow]

WHAT ABOUT a merging of rather than compromise between the two? By nature, we are each radically individual and radically social. feedback please -- is this ideal workable? why or why not?

[Sunsilvercat]

Well, you are right. No culture exists at either end of the continuum. Every society offers its version of the that dialectic, so the examples you seek are everywhere you look.

[sheepball]

that helped me understand alot about individualism and collectivism.

thnx alot!!!

[UniversalVision]

Thumbs up if you are taking Intercultural Communication (>_o)-b

LOL. Anyways, it is interesting to think of these things concerning your identity. But have you ever considered being a "little" deviant? It is nice to try new things in the path of self-discovery, but regardless each of us should have a balance of individualistic and collectivistic attributes.

I want everlasting friends while pursuing what I want to do, rather than have temporary friends and pursue what does not make me happy.

[Rockyzach88]

@Achilles9924 They more have the the illusion of individualism through the freedom to consume crap and adopt ideas and values that are presented to them rather than coming up with their own ideas and values.

[covertcovenant]

@Sunsilvercat I really appreciated your example of the former idiot US President. :)

[69punkchicki69]

I think its a great presentation. I wish I saw yours before I wrote mine....I feel retarded now. lol jk. Good JOB!!

[Dipstikk]

Oh, and thank you so much for putting this video up. It's imbedded in my online textbook, and I'm a visual person, so seeing it explained to me rather than just hearing it helps me to grasp the concept.

[Dipstikk]

How are individualistic people treated in a collectivist culture, and vice versa?

I'm writing a comic and trying to develop a culture for the main character loosely based on the pre-colonial Hawaiians, who seemed to be a collectivist culture from what I've read, and after learning about this from my Sociology class, I'm trying to define their culture as collectivist becoming individualistic, so I'm really interested in how they would act and react, because I'm not from a collectivist culture.

[brokenbulbs]

I would argue that the Chinese are individualists. Read "Trust" by Francis Fukuyama. Also, it's useful to think of groups as being as small as two people. So, we have the indidvidual, pairs and the larger "group." Nice video!

[Achilles9924]

@NimbleNoddy False assumption: "everybody becomes happy when they do what they makes them happy." Believe me when I say this, most hedonistic individualistic societies have not been very successful. When talking about United States, nationalism is a part of collectivist culture. US inclines towards individualism but still has collectivist traditions. Plus, people in a collectivist culture find joy in "good of the society" and would still be happy.

[chapugt]

hi how are you sunsilvercat i am from guatemala and i saw you videos and i saw chuarrancho and i am from chuarrancho and where you from

[NimbleNoddy]

Well if everyone in a society was individualist, everyone would make themselves happy by doing what they want. So the group as a whole, would in fact be happy. But in collectivism, everyone must do many things they do not like for the "welfare of the group", so then no one is happy, and not even the group as a whole will be happy. Because no one gets what they want.