Are Cultures Becoming Individualistic? A Cross-Temporal Comparison of Individualism–Collectivism in the United States and Japan

Abstract

Individualism-collectivism is one of the best researched dimensions of culture in psychology. One frequently asked but underexamined question regards its cross-temporal changes: Are cultures becoming individualistic? One influential theory of cultural change, modernization theory, predicts the rise of individualism as a consequence of economic growth. Findings from past research are generally consistent with this theory, but there is also a body of evidence suggesting its limitations. To examine these issues, cross-temporal analyses of individualism-collectivism in the United States and Japan were conducted. Diverging patterns of cultural changes were found across indices: In both countries, some of the obtained indices showed rising individualism over the past several decades, supporting the modernization theory. However, other indices showed patterns that are best understood within the frameworks of a shifting focus of social relationships and a persisting cultural heritage. A comprehensive theory of cultural change requires considerations of these factors in addition to the modernization effect.

Consistent individual differences in human social learning strategies

“…The expression of social learning strategies may be strongly affected by the environmental conditions during individual development. When parents and their offspring grow up in different environments, their orientations towards individualism/collectivism can differ substantially 54 , and the same could be the case for social learning strategies. Such plasticity is possible even in case of a strong genetic basis, provided that the expressed learning strategy reflects a heritable norm of reaction (where the genotype determines how a trait is expressed in response to the environment 41,55 ).…”

Conceptualizing psychological processes in response to globalization: Components, antecedents, and consequences of global orientations.

“…Modernization is a transitional process of developing from a traditional to modern society, with changes in social structures and adoption of new technologies. Westernization refers to adopting Western culture in various domains, such as industry, technology, politics, value, and lifestyle, whileAmericanization focuses on the impact of American culture on other cultures.Other than the spread of Western culture through multinational corporations and the popularization of consumerism through advertisements and mass media, cultural homogeneity is evident in the increase of interconnectedness among cultures worldwide and the growth of individualism in many collectivistic cultures such as Japan (Hamamura, 2012;Heine, 2012). These phenomena co-occur with transnationalism, that is, activities (especially economic) which break the geographical border; nevertheless, multinational corporations still adapt their products and services to let global and local cultural elements coexist, as in glocalization (e.g., Roudometof, 2005).…”

“…Other than the spread of Western culture through multinational corporations and the popularization of consumerism through advertisements and mass media, cultural homogeneity is evident in the increase of interconnectedness among cultures worldwide and the growth of individualism in many collectivistic cultures such as Japan (Hamamura, 2012;Heine, 2012). These phenomena co-occur with transnationalism, that is, activities (especially economic) which break the geographical border; nevertheless, multinational corporations still adapt their products and services to let global and local cultural elements coexist, as in glocalization (e.g., Roudometof, 2005).…”

Generational Shifts in Managerial Values and the Coming of a Unified Business Culture: A Cross-National Analysis Using European Social Survey Data

“…We opted for using Schwartz's framework as it builds on Rokeach's pioneering work and has become the main values framework in psychology. We should note, though, that both Rokeach's framework and Schwartz's framework have been proven to be insightful for business ethics research (see, for example, Graf et al 2011, 2012and Weber 2015a. Similarly, we should note that, though often hailed as the superior framework (e.g., Brett and Okumura 1998), Schwartz's framework has also been criticized, not least for lacking empirical applications testifying to the framework's validity (Steenkamp 2001).…”