Contextualism as an Important Facet of Individualism-Collectivism: Personhood Beliefs Across 37 National Groups

Owe, Ellinor; Vignoles, Vivian L.; Becker, Maja; Brown, Rupert; Smith, Peter B.; Lee, Spike W. S.; Easterbrook, Matt; Gadre, Tanuja; Zhang, Xiao; Gheorghiu, Mirona; Baguma, Peter; Tatarko, Alexander; Aldhafri, Said; Zinkeng, Martina; Schwartz, Seth J.; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E.; Villamar, Juan A.; Mekonnen, Kassahun Habtamu; Regalia, Camillo; Manzi, Claudia; Brambilla, Maria; Kusdil, Ersin; ?a? lar, Selinay; Gavreliuc, Alin; Martin, Mariana; Jianxin, Zhang; Lv, Shaobo; Fischer, Ronald; Milfont, Taciano L.; Torres, Ana; Camino, Leoncio; Kreuzbauer, Robert; Gausel, Nicolay; Buitendach, Johanna H.; Silveira Lemos, Fl?via Cristina; Fritsche, Immo; M?ller, Bettina; Harb, Charles; Valk, Aune; Espinosa, Agust?n; Jaafar, Jas Laile; Yuki, Masaki; Ferreira, M. Cristina; Chobthamkit, Phatthanakit; F?l?p, M?rta; Chybicka, Aneta; Wang, Qian; Bond, Michael Harris; Gonz?lez, Roberto; Didier, Nicolas; Carrasco, Diego; Cadena, Maria Paz; Lay, Siugmin; Gar?arsd?ttir, Ragna B.; Nizharadze, George; Pyszczy...

Abstract

Beliefs about personhood are understood to be a defining feature of individualism-collectivism (I-C), but they have been insufficiently explored, given the emphasis of research on values and self-construals. We propose the construct of contextualism, referring to beliefs about the importance of context in understanding people, as a facet of cultural collectivism. A brief measure was developed and refined across 19 nations (Study 1: N = 5,241), showing good psychometric properties for cross-cultural use and correlating well at the nation level with other supposed facets and indicators of I-C. In Study 2 (N = 8,652), nation-level contextualism predicted ingroup favoritism, corruption, and differential trust of ingroup and outgroup members, while controlling for other facets of I-C, across 35 nations. We conclude that contextualism is an important part of cultural collectivism. This highlights the importance of beliefs alongside values and self-representations and contributes to a wider understanding of cultural processes.

Citation

Owe, E., Vignoles, V. L., Becker, M., Brown, R., Smith, P. B., Lee, S. W. . S., Easterbrook, M., Gadre, T., Zhang, X., Gheorghiu, M., Baguma, P., Tatarko, A., Aldhafri, S., Zinkeng, M., Schwartz, S. J., Des Rosiers, S. E., Villamar, J. A., Mekonnen, K. H., Regalia, C., Manzi, C., …Jalal, B. (2012). Contextualism as an Important Facet of Individualism-Collectivism: Personhood Beliefs Across 37 National Groups. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44(1), 24-45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111430255

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 31, 2012
• Deposit Date: Aug 15, 2019
• Print ISSN: 0022-0221
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 24-45
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111430255
• Keywords: individualism–collectivism, personhood beliefs, cross-cultural differences, measurement invariance
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1128609