What are the differences between individualist and collectivist cultures
1 个人主义者对集体（群体）主义者的群体认同会有什么样的看法？
2 集体（群体）主义者对个人主义者的自我身份会有什么样的看法？
Culture is a wide topic,different culture in different place,even in the same city,it must have the diversity of cultural in this city.
As far as the culture be concerned,because of the communication.It's undeniable that people need communication,need expression and need the understand of each other,so the diversity of culture is being more and more important.On a large scale,it's obvious that the diversity of culture is different from countries,such as cultural values,cultural dimensions,and something different insocial customs.Is it a complex culture?But how can we balance the diversity of culturel?
Firstly,talk about the cultural values.Differences between Chinese values and Western values are reflect clearly that culture diversity is impact of our communication.For instance,Chinese values and American values are different in conception of the self,the Chinese are collectivist,placing high value on group cooperation and individual modesty,but on the contrary,the Americans are individualist,placing high value on self-reliance and freedom from externally imposed constraints.It's a general phenomenon that so many Chinese are used to beginning their English conversation with "My English is poor."But at the beginning of a presentation,the American will say,"I believe that my presentation will be of great value to anybody present."This is a part of cultural diversity,just in conception of the self,it's obvious that we can't try to balance this phenomenon,but we can try to accommodate to each other,that's may be the first thing to balance the cultural diversity.
Secondly,talk about the cultural dimensions,it's sometimes amazing how different people in other cultures behave,as far as I know,cultural dimensions include power distance,masculinity and femininity,uncertainty avoidance and so on,as with the uncertainty avoidance,cultures of low uncertainty avoidance have less concern about ambiguity and uncertainty and have more tolerance for a variety of opinions,but in cultures with high uncertainty avoidance have low tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity,like in France,cultures are used strong uncertainty avoidance,in contrast to The United States,Canada and so on.It's the habit,not a really problem,but because of that,you may find there is so many different things in the world,in the colorful world,never mind their behaviour,it's unmodifiable cultural dimensions,that's the second thing to balance the cultural diversity.
Lastly,talk about the social customs,I wanna say an important thing about the social customs,that is punctuality.In topic of punctuality,Americans tend to place more emphasis on punctuality than people in many other places do,but in Spain or India,an hour later or even two hours later is common,nobody thinks anything of it.That's a deeply gap between Americans and Spanish.For instance,if someone invented you to a party by host in six o'clock,usually the person arrived in fifteen minutes is American,in one hour is Spanish,in two hours is Indian.Different people in different countries have different culture,we must treat with different ways.As an American want to meet an Indian in seven o'clock,he/she may asks this Indian arrived in half past five o'clock.
In general,cultural diversity may be a problem between countries,but accommodation with each other can boost the cultural integration,so many cultures in one world,so colorful world we live in.
Collectivism "stands for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive ingroups, which throughout people's lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty."
People in individualistic cultures emphasize their success/achievements in job or private wealth and aiming up to reach more and/or a better job position. Especially in the USA the fight about jobs and trying to climb up in the hierarchy ladder is something very common there. It just counts to get there less caring who will left behind one. In business they try to improve their connections and to gain more value out of them, not for establishing a good relationship but just to be involved in a calculative way. Employees are expected to defend their interests and to promote themselves when ever possible.
What distinguish individualist culture from collectivist culture lies in the way we deal with the relation between individual interests and communties' interests.In a collectivist culture, individuals are taught to put communities' interests on the top priority. That is to say, when there is a interest conflict between individuals and the collective, individuals are expected to sacrifice their own benefits for the sake of the collective wel-lbeing. In an individualist culture, individuals care for the personal interests first, then the collective interests. Well, in theory, that is the case. In reality, there is a subtle distinction between individualist culture and and collectivist culture. Additionally, in many cases, individual interests are closely associated with collective interests. We humans are a group of gregarious animals. Whether we live in a collectivist culture or a individualist culture, IMO, we can share the same credo:"Never do unto others what you would not expect them do unto you!".
