A Collective Fear of the Collective: Implications for Selves and Theories of Selves

Abstract

Drawing on recent analyses of the self in many cultures, the authors suggest that the cultural ideal of independence of the self from the collective has dominated European-American social psychological theorizing. As a consequence, the existence of considerable interdependence between the self and the collective has been relatively neglected in current conceptual analysis. The authors (a) argue that a group's cultural ideal of the relation between the self and the collective is pervasive because it is rooted in institutions, practices, and scripts, not just in ideas and values; (b) show how a given cultural ideal whether it is independence or interdependence, can shape the individual's experience and expression of the self; and (c) discuss how a comparative approach may enrich and expand current theory and research on the interdependence between the self and the collective.