Where do I belong? Who am I? I have learned many concepts of belonging and categorization throughout this course and other past courses. If I think about it, there is a label for everything. People belong to a group of gender, political party, religion affiliation, age, social class, race, ethnicity, and nationality among many others. It is really interesting and I think many times all these categories overlap. Although it is not always so clear, people certainly develop a sense of belonging as they grow older, the result is a unique identity, a unique set of characteristic that makes every person special.
Two concepts of cultural diversity and categorization that caught my attention are individualism and collectivism. According to Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, an individualistic person focusses on himself and does not give much importance to the opinion of others while a person with a collectivistic orientation focusses on the group and the family, even when it does not conform to personal interests (2005, p. 326). Schneider et al., ask several questions about family and friends to define these concepts. Based on my answers to these questions, I identified myself within the collectivistic orientation which led me to think about my identity as in individual, as a Latina and as a Puerto Rican.
I wonder, is it possible to have characteristics from both collectivism and individualism orientations? I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island. I definitely see myself as Hispanic, but Puerto Ricans are also United States citizens. Puerto Rico is a good example of what integration is. I actually live in the United States since 2012. In fact, I have lived in Japan and I am a military wife. There, I have even more categories to which I belong to. So, are individualism and collectivism definite or loose terms? Am I, as a Puerto Rican, an idiocentric (individualism) or allocentric (collectivism)?
Schneider and colleagues gave me the first insight to the topic. United States is considered an individualistic society while Japan is considered a collectivistic society (2005, p. 326). This interests me as I am probably able to understand from experience some differences of culture values and preferences between the two countries. One interest fact that answers my questions is that within the United States, an individualistic society, there are actually areas in which collectivism is predominant like the South and West of the country, according to Vandello and Cohen (as cited in Schneider et al., 2005, p. 327). It really makes sense, in my opinion, these terms cannot be exclusive, there is too much diversity.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Community Programs, Hispanics come from a collectivistic culture where group activities are important, responsibility is shared and there is an emphasis on group harmony and cooperation (Building Our Understanding: Hispanic/Latinos, (n.d.). I can really see how I have a collectivistic orientation, especially when it comes to family. These tendencies are so strong that even in the distance, my family is in Puerto Rico, I still hold such powerful bonds with them. I have constant communication, their opinion is essential for our family and life decisions, I turn to my family for pretty much everything and the family as a group is very important. However, I can also recognize some individualistic characteristics. After all, I have been exposed and influenced by other cultures.
An article by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET), explains that the concepts of individualism and collectivism are characteristics that fall along a continuum (n.d.). A continuum, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is “something that changes in character gradually or in very slight stages without any clear dividing points”. Any culture can have characteristics from both individualism and collectivism (NCSET, n.d.). Collectivism and individualism can then be experienced and displayed in different levels and points of the continuum. More importantly, it also depends on the importance that the elements have to an individual or a culture.
I understand now that the concepts of individualism and collectivism are terms that describe predominant cultural tendencies but they many times overlap. This is apparent in myself as an individual and in my island as a culture. I believe I am probably predominantly collectivistic but I also recognize some individualistic elements in my identity. I like the diversity that I and my country display.
References:
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications
Building Our Understanding: Culture Insights Communicating with Hispanic/Latinos. (n.d.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dch/programs/healthycommunitiesprogram/tools/pdf/hispanic_latinos_insight.pdf
Part III- Continuum of “Individualistic” and “Collectivistic” Values. (n.d.). National Center on Secondary Education and Transition. Retrieved from http://www.ncset.org/publications/essentialtools/diversity/partIII.asp
Continuum. Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/continuum
I really enjoyed reading your perspective on the way individualism and collectivism are both represented in your cultural identity. People like to find neat labels to categorize individuals or cultures: while that is necessary for meaningful discourse, often when we talk about such concepts on large scales we neglect to acknowledge the nuances of various aspects of those categories.
That being said, I read an interesting study a few years ago positing that the development of a culture towards individualism or collectivism could be partially explained by historical agricultural differences in said cultures. Since that time, more research has been done on the topic, and I found a study that analyzed the collectivist Southern China, which depends on rice growing agriculture, and the more individualistic Northern China, which depends historically on wheat growing culture (Talhem, et al., 2014). The correlation is potentially due to the nature of the two types of agriculture: growing wheat can be done mostly by oneself, whereas growing rice involves multiple members of the community collaborating to make sure the process goes as planned. Thus, the latter cultures emphasize interdependence and community, whereas the former cultures value individualism and independence.
I’m sure there are a lot of other factors that contribute to cultural development towards one end of the spectrum or the other, but I find it fascinating the way environment and seemingly unrelated practices can affect culture and psychology.
References:
Talhem, T., Zhang, X., Oishi, S., Shimin, C., Duan, D., Lan, X., & Kitayama, S. (2014). Large-Scale Psychological Differences Within China Explained by Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture. Science, 603-608. doi:10.1126/science.1246850