The
Ingroup and Its Relevance to Individual Behaviour: A Study of Collectivism
and Individualism
J. Verma |
Individualism
(the individual giving more importance to own goals than to group
goals) vs. collectivism (the individual giving more importance to
ingroup goals than to own goals) was investigated by asking subjects
from India and U.S. to respond to a grid (Triandis, 1983) one side
of which consisted of a list of ten behaviours / decisions, and the
other side consisted of people/groups who influenced these behaviours/decisions.
The 100 cells of the grid required 100 responses. It was expected
that the more collectivist Indians would place more symbols of agreement
in such a grid than the individualist Americans. However, this was
not the case. By distinguishing between ingroups that one is born
with (e.g., family) from ingroups that one can choose (e.g., friends),
it was found that almost all the ingroups identified by the Indians
were of the no-choice type. Because the meaning of the ingroups is
quite different in the two kinds of societies, the grid does not
appear to be a very suitable method for the study of collectivism.
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