Comparison and contrast in academic analysis

Individualism vs. Collectivism

One of the distinguishing factors in describing a culture, society, community, or groups is whether its members and the individuals in that organization adopt an individualistic or collectivist with regards to their roles and functions and their relationship with the other members of an organization. These two concepts, that is, individualistic and collectivist groups are important to discuss because they help other people understand an individual or a group about their culture and values as a group/organization. Individualism and collectivism are often included in discussions about particular cultures and societies, and this paper will discuss the concept and nature of an individualist or collectivist culture or society, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of adopting one of these culture values to individuals and other people.

Individualistic culture is defined as "a culture in which people view their primary responsibility as being to themselves" (Rosenfeld 1998 423). Collectivist culture, meanwhile, is defined to be "a culture whose members feel loyalties and obligations to an in-group, such as family, community, or... organization..." (Rosenfeld 1998 420). Through the definitions given, it is evident that individualist cultures tend to be self-dependent, while collectivist ones are group-dependent. These two culture dichotomies affects a wide range of activities and interactions among people, such as family relations and social interactions, education and work, and personal achievement. These elements will be used to compare these two cultures, and determine what culture is best suited and has the optimum positive result to these elements.

The first element that is affected by these cultures is the family institution and social interactions of an individual. A person cultivated under an individualist culture will be more self-sufficient and will interact with other people based on shared interests and activities, while an individual who grew up in a collectivist society will be the opposite of the individualist person, since as a collectivist, an individual will give more importance to creating a harmonious relationship with the members of his/her in-group, and will forego self-sufficiency for the welfare of other people, which can be a step towards a harmonious relationship. It doesn't mean that since individualists are more self-sufficient and self-focused, they'll establish less strong relationships than the collectivists. On the contrary, the collectivists experience greater stress in establishing relationships because the need to make harmonious relations become an obligation and an imperative thing to do in most collectivist cultures, resulting to 'unnatural' and an uncertain relationship with other people. Individualists are free of this responsibility, since they are not expected to maintain strong relations with other people, especially in the group one might belong to.

In education and work, individualists are often identified as high achievers and are more competitive than collectivists. Studying is viewed as an activity wherein achievement is an essential, especially in academics and performance skills. Also, in the work environment, individualists are more competitive, aiming for excellent works output and an improvement of skills and additional knowledge.

Collectivists are less competitive, but are more cooperative in the education and work environment. These traits are important if the primary aim is to prevent any tensions among other people, which is of primary importance to collectivist cultures. Although individualist and collectivist cultures are different from each other, performance and achievement between these two cultures tend to balance out because being a high achiever (an individualist trait) or a cooperative (a collectivist trait) individual helps in the positive achievement of an activity and goal.

In terms of self-achievement and progress, individualist and collectivist cultures have the same goal, although they are achieved through different means. In individualist cultures, like the Western countries, such as United States, Germany, and Great Britain, the ultimate goal of an individual is to achieve optimum self-fulfillment. Success in life is measure through economic and material prosperity and power and influence, while personal satisfaction through social relationships is measured by strong ties with focus on specific relationships (which, if compared to collectivist cultures, are lesser in number).

Collectivist cultures achieve self-fulfillment and progress in terms of social and good personal and family relations. As opposed to the individualist approach to success, which is materialistic in nature, collectivist cultures subsist to abstract concepts such as faith, love, unity, and trust as the key to success. In can be said therefore that individualist people are materialistic, while collectivist ones are humanistic in their perspective of and approach to success.