Individualism and Collectivism

Book excerpt: Individualism and collectivism has become one of the major issues in comparisons between societies in cross-cultural psychology. Scholars seek to explain why some societies focus on the collective nature of social obligation while traditional Western psychology focuses on the primacy of the individual. In this volume, contributors address the individualism//collectivism issue from a variety of perspectives, examining its theoretical underpinnings and current trends, the latest research on this topic, and the social and practice 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.