Collectivistic Background Research Articles

Acculturation or Development? Autonomy Expectations Among Ethnic German Immigrant Adolescents and Their Native German Age‐Mates

This longitudinal study compared immigrant and native adolescents' expectations concerning the timing of conventional socially acceptable and oppositional less socially acceptable forms of autonomy. Based on normative development and a collectivist background among immigrants, both developmental and acculturative change was expected. The sample consisted of 523 ethnic German immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 475 native German adolescents, both groups divided into an early (age 12.5years) and a late (age 16years) adolescent group. Results revealed more developmental than acculturative change, as immigrants and natives mostly showed a similar rate of change in autonomy expectations. Acculturative change was found only for oppositional autonomy among late adolescent immigrants, whose later expectations approached those of their native age-mates over time.

Decision-making Styles of Individualist and Collectivist Automobile Consumers in Australia

This study investigates the relationship between individualism-collectivism and consumer decision-makingstyles applied to the purchase of automobiles. An adapted version of the widely used Consumer Styles Inventory(Sproles & Kendall, 1986) was used to measure consumer decision-making styles. Based on a sample of 202respondents from Australian individualist and collectivist backgrounds, exploratory and confirmatory factoranalysis were conducted on Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) CSI adapted for high involvement purchases. Meandifferences between the two cultural backgrounds were assessed via MANCOVA. Results indicated thatindividualists and collectivists significantly differed on ‘brand conscious’ and ‘confused by overchoice’ decisionmaking styles, with collectivists scoring significantly higher. There were no differences in the perfectionist, highquality conscious; price conscious and habitual/brand loyal decision-making styles. The paper also discusseshow automobile companies could develop suitable marketing strategies for individualist and collectivistconsumers in Australia.

Family models of independence/interdependence and their intergenerational similarity in Germany, Turkey, and India

Family change theory suggests three ideal-typical family models characterized by different combinations of emotional and material interdependencies in the family. Its major proposition is that in economically developing countries with a collectivistic background a family model of emotional interdependence emerges from a family model of complete interdependence. The current study aims to identify and compare patterns of family-related value orientations related to family change theory across three cultures and two generations. Overall, N = 919 dyads of mothers and their adolescent children from Germany, Turkey, and India participated in the study. Three clusters were identified representing the family models of independence, interdependence, and emotional interdependence, respectively. Especially the identification of an emotionally interdependent value pattern using a person-oriented approach is an important step in the empirical validation of family change theory. The preference for the three family mode...

The Utility of Prestige: Chinese and American Hedonic Ratings of Prestige Goods

ABSTRACT China is rapidly becoming the most important luxury market in the world (Lung, 2005). The reason for this is not simply due to the market size but also to the Chinese consumer's particular penchant for luxury goods. This study will investigate the differences between U.S. and Chinese consumers based on their hedonic and utilitarian ratings of luxury goods and the relationship that these ratings have with individual and cultural traits, with the expectation that a collectivist background will lead to a more utilitarian view of prestige goods. A sample of more than 600 Chinese and U.S. respondents was analyzed based on the ratings of three prestige goods. The results show that China is rapidly becoming a more individualistic nation and that the expected utilitarian use of prestige goods is confirmed through multiple statistical techniques.

Coping with Transitions in Asian Indian Families: Systemic Clinical Interventions with Immigrants

This article addresses the clinical issues of Asian Indians in the United States as they cope with transitions related to immigration. Many Indian families are multigenerational, uphold collectivist values, and might have hierarchical interactions based on age and gender. Immigration and cultural identity changes impacts these relationships between family members. Using clinical case examples, I illustrate and discuss how I conduct culturally sensitive therapy with Asian Indian clients in the U.S. The cases and the discussion highlight the importance of attending to gender, age, generational role, and cultural identity. I also offer recommendations to help clinicians in their work with their own clients of Asian Indian heritage, or those that come from a collectivistic background. These recommendations include weaving client worldviews in all interventions. Finally, I discuss the limitations of this paper and ideas for future studies, including considering all forms of diversity found in Asian Indian families, and collecting data from large samples. This article 1 will address how couple and family therapists can help Asian Indian families in the United States cope with cultural transitions. These transitions result from normative life cycle issues and immigration-related changes (McGoldrick, Giordano, & Garcia-Preto, 2005; Ramakrishna & Weiss, 1992). I discuss the intergenerational family structure, a collectivist value system, respect-based hierarchy, and the impact of modernization on Asian Indian families. South Asia consists of the countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. The people of this region are heterogeneous and culturally and ethnically diverse (Prathikanti, 1997). However, they

Perfectionism in Chinese university students from Taiwan: A study of psychological well-being and achievement motivation

The present study compared types of perfectionists on psychological well-being and achievement motivation among 273 Taiwanese college students. The factor structure and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R; Slaney, R. B., Mobley, M., Trippi, J., Ashby, J. S., & Johnson, D. (1996). Almost Perfect Scale-Revised, Unpublished scale, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.) were assessed. A cluster analysis located four groups; in addition to the adaptive perfectionists, maladaptive perfectionists, and nonperfectionists that were identified in past US studies, a group with low-High Standards/higher-Discrepancy scores emerged. This fourth group had the most participants but their scores on the High Standards scale suggested that they did not set high standards for themselves. Paradoxically, however, their scores on the Discrepancy scale were elevated. Analyses of variance were conducted to examine group differences on measures of achievement motivation, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Cultural explanations regarding a collectivistic background and parenting styles are suggested in explaining the elevated Discrepancy scores for the fourth group. Clinical implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.

Authoritarian parenting in individualist and collectivist groups: Associations with maternal emotion and cognition and children's self-esteem.

Mothers and children between the ages of 7 and 12, from individualist (Western European) and collectivist (Egyptian, Iranian, Indian, and Pakistani) backgrounds, completed assessments of children's self-esteem, maternal authoritarianism, and mothers' thoughts and feelings about their children. Collectivist mothers endorsed authoritarian parenting more than did individualist mothers but did not feel or think more negatively about their children, and collectivist children were not lower in self-esteem. Within both groups, maternal negative affect and cognition were associated with lower self-esteem in children. However, maternal authoritarianism was associated with maternal negative emotion and cognition only in the individualist group. The results suggest that maternal negative thoughts and feelings, associated with authoritarianism in individualist but not collectivist groups, may be more detrimental to children's self-esteem than is authoritarianism in and of itself.

Psychological Control, Maternal Emotion and Cognition, and Child Outcomes in Individualist and Collectivist Groups

SUMMARY This article presents data that explores the phenomenon of psychological control in a group of mothers from individualist backgrounds (West-European) and a group of mothers from collectivist backgrounds (Middle Eastern and South Asian). It is argued that measures of psychological control may reflect maladaptive processes in individualist groups, but they do not necessarily reflect maladaptive processes in collectivist groups. In this study, the collectivist group scored higher on psychological control than the individualist group. However, the collectivist group did not exhibit elevated levels of maladaptive maternal emotions and cognitions, or maladaptive child outcomes (school grades and self-esteem). Finally, psychological control was associated with maladaptive maternal cognitions in the individualist, but not the collectivist group.

Cultural Differences in Adolescents’ Explanations of Juvenile Delinquency

Lay explanations for juvenile delinquency given by Australian adolescents from either collectivist or individualist cultural backgrounds were examined. After controlling for socioeconomic and demographic variables, differences were found between the groups, with the individualistic group tending to emphasize more individual-oriented explanations. These results are consistent with previous work on culture and attributional style.

Reactions to Violation of Normative Standards: A Cross‐Cultural Analysis of Shame and Guilt

This study investigates the responses from individuals from three culture groups (Germans, Kurds, and Lebanese) following the violation of legal, religious, and traditional norms. The three samples formed two main groups with regard to their cultural orientation; the German sample showed an individualistic orientation whereas the other two samples (Kurds and Lebanese) showed a clear collectivistic orientation. As hypothesized by cross‐cultural researchers, it was expected that individuals from collectivistic cultures would respond to normative violations with more shame and individuals from individualistic orientations with more guilt. The findings show that subjects from collectivistic cultures respond with more shame and guilt than subjects from the individualistic culture. However, there was no distinction with regard to the degree of guilt between the two main culture groups. Since the three culture groups show a similar religious outlook in terms of monotheism (Christianity and Islam), it was suggested that this factor increases the degree of guilt even for subjects with a collectivistic background. Moreover, it was found that the Kurds and Lebanese showed a greater willingness to keep to the norms of religion and tradition, and less willingness to allow state laws to intervene in family and ingroup disputes.