How does belonging to an individualistic or collectivist culture influence your personality - Research Paper Example

For instance, giving high self esteem, self respect, and opportunities to define and achieve personal goals. Keywords: individualistic, collectivist, emotional instability, personal goals, self esteem. Influence of individualistic society on personality “Because the self develops in accordance with cultural patterns, you would expect different forms of the self to develop in different societies.” (Millon & Grossman, 2004, p. 334) High motivation and dedication drive the ambitious persons in an individualistic society to achieve whatever they want in their personal and professional lives.

Human personalities undergo gradual, yet massive changes while they live and adapt themselves to their respective surroundings. The cultural or societal influences are very strong and shape the way we behave, think, react, respond and handle our relationships and professions. Being a part of an individualistic society has exerted great influence on my personality. The basic ideologies of both societies are different; therefore, individuals living in either society behave differently and their basic approach to life, business and relationships are also entirely different.

People in collectivist cultures, compared to people in individualist cultures, are likely to define themselves as aspects of groups, to give priority to in-group goals, to focus on context more than the content in making attributions and in communicating, to pay less attention to internal than to external processes as determinants of social behaviour, to define most relationships with in-group members as communal, to make more situational attributions, and tend to be self-effacing. (Triandis, 2001, pp. 907-924) The influence of an individualistic society is stronger if one is born and brought up in such society as compared to someone who is new to such culture.

As individualism is reflected in almost all areas of individualistic societies, therefore it is impossible to adopt any other way of living. Thus, I have learnt to think about myself and my personal interests, dreams, ambitions, goals and fulfilment only. This is how I believe success can be achieved. In pursuit of my personal goals and dreams, I may be overriding others- but that is not important to me. Fulfilment of personal goals have become the sole object of my life- whether it is related to my personal happiness, professional or academic growth, or relationship with my family and friends.

This is not to say that I have become selfish or eccentric- this is just to make sure that I don’t have to compromise, or suffer or sacrifice myself for the sake or benefit of others. Sometimes, things may go wrong, if one makes a wrong choice by being emotional. Being a part of an individualistic society, I have been trained to be rational, reasonable, calculative, mature, and think about the long term effects of any decision. Though I feel isolated and alienated at times by making such choices that are based solely on my personal interests, yet the modern technology and means of communication have made it easier for me to be a part of those social networks/ groups/ individuals that interest me.

I am not bound to the people or their issues or problems of the physical society I live in- I am free to be part of the numerous individualistic