Differences in Individualistic and Collectivistic Tendencies among College Students in Japan and the United States

Abstract

It is a worldwide stereotype that Japanese, compared to Americans, are oriented more toward collectivism. But this stereotypical notion of more collectivism among Japanese, which typically stems from a view that individualism and collectivism stand at opposite ends of a continuum, has been filled with dashed empirical findings, especially in a sample of college students. In the current study, following the view that individualism and collectivism are two separate concepts rather than one with two extremes, we test and compare both individualistic and collectivistic tendencies among college students in Japan and the United States. A review of theories and research on this dimension of cultural variability across the two diverse cultures and the literature on societal pressure of collectivity and on parents as primary socialization agents of culturally expected values lead to two hypotheses: 1) Japanese college students tend less toward individualism than do Americans, and 2) Japanese college students tend less toward collectivism than do Americans. Analysis of identical survey data from college students in Japan and in the United States provides strong support for both hypotheses.Despite modernization, the old images of Japan held by Westerners, and even among Japanese themselves, persist. One of the most important of these images is that Japanese people are more collectivistic than Westerners, and especially more so than Americans -a stereotype based primarily on an abundance of qualitative studies on stronger 'group-orientation' among

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“…The Mexican and Venezuelan samples averaged higher than the Americans and Australians in independent self-construals, which is inconsistent with the traditional view of Mexico and Venezuela as collectivistic, but consistent with previous findings in Mexican samples (Church et al, 2003(Church et al, , 2006Morling & Lamoreaux, 2008;Schwartz, 2002). Also consistent with other studies, the Japanese averaged low on both independent and interdependent self-construals (Kim, Hunter, Miyahara, Horvath, Bresnahan, & Yoon, 1996;Kobayashi, Kerbo, & Sharp, 2010). Finally, there were few and only modest cultural differences in relational self-construals.…”

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“…The relatively low collectivism mean for the Japanese is also inconsistent with the traditional view, but replicates the results of other researchers who have found that Japanese average low on both independent and interdependent self-construals (Kim, Hunter, Miyahara, Horvath, Bresnahan, & Yoon, 1996;Kobayashi, Kerbo, & Sharp, 2010). In summary, the results for the dialecticism and tightness measures largely conformed to expectations, while some of the selfconstrual results departed from the traditional view of these cultures, but replicated previous results.…”

“…Some of the cultural mean differences with the self-construal scales-for example, the low collectivism of the Japanese-failed to conform to traditional expectations, although they replicated some previous findings (Kim et al, 1996;Kobayashi et al, 2010). Unfortunately, this is a fairly common finding in research with measures of individualism-collectivism and self-construals (Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002), reducing their usefulness as mediator variables (Heine, Lehman, Peng, & Greenholtz, 2002).…”

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“…Besides, the on-going eminence of Hofstede's bipolar single dimension approach within parts of the management discipline (Green et al 2005;Oyserman et al 2002), various studies have revealed the benefits for research of a typology based on separate consideration and combination of individualist and collectivist dimensions (e.g. Green et al 2005;Kobayashi et al 2010;Oyserman et al 2002;Schwartz 1990;Triandis 1995). For example, in their 20-nation study, Green et al (2005) analysed how self-reliance, interdependence and competitiveness were distributed on the individual level and found that individuals endorsed different combinations of individualist and collectivist dimensions within and across national contexts.…”

“…The expected coexistence of individualism and collectivism results in four conceptually possible combinations with simultaneous variations upon the two dimensions and may look similar to the foursquare describing the relationships between individualism and collectivism in Oyserman et al's (2002, p. 23) study. The coexistence may be explained for example through different influence factors such as socialization for culturally expected themes and education (Kobayashi et al 2010; but see also Green et al 2005). A simultaneously high scoring on I/C could indicate a high degree of engagement with one's work, as a consequence of both individual and collective accomplishment.…”