Individualism and Christianity.

Comments on E. Sampson's (see record 2001-16333-002) linking individualism and collectivism to religious origins. The author comments on Sampson's overgeneralization of Protestant individualism to all branches of Christianity, and describes similarities between Roman Catholicism and rabbinic Judaism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religion's influence on culture and psychology.

Comments on E. Sampson's (see record 2001-16333-002) linking individualism and collectivism to religious origins. The author provides examples of cultures which are both Christian and collectivist, in contrast to what is predicted by Sampson's theory. The author draws upon comments made by L. S. Vygotsky on the culture of precommunist Russia to highlight the difficulty with abstracting the influence of religion on individualism and collectivism from the traditional East-West framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sampson at last and applied.

Comments on E. Sampson's (see record 2001-16333-002) linking individualism and collectivism to religious origins. The author provides a framework for applications of Sampson's theory to the practice of professional psychology, especially as to how the other is represented, imagined, understood, and experienced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Let's not ignore individuality.

Responds to E. E. Sampson's (see record 1989-32595-001) distinction between individualism and globalism by citing several important aspects of individualism. Individuals often react quite differently to group teachings and pressure, they are affected both negatively and positively by socialization, and they develop neurosis or emotional disturbance from both social groups and their own dogmatic thinking. Philosophies to help people retain their individuality and to remember their sociality are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comment on Sampson's "Psychology and the American ideal."

E. E. Sampson's (see record 1979-28675-001) thesis concerning self-contained individualism is examined from a dialectical perspective. It is suggested that his analysis is incomplete because he does not consider the possibility that symbiosis–dependence may be masked by apparent interdependence or individualism. Moreover, his critical discussion of androgyny appears to be a one-sided interpretation that ignores the probability that interdependence may follow from independence, rather than the reverse. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identity politics and the Tower of Babel.

Comments on E. E. Sampson's (see record 1994-17460-001) argument that the theories, methods, and conclusions of psychology come swathed in dead/descended White European male (DWEM) biases and traditions. Kuhlmam asserts that Sampson's article is oxymoronic to his position in that he had both thought and written it in a DWEM language. Also, the loose coalition of identity groups to which Sampson's article refers has organized itself in a manner associated with DWEM political parties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Identity politics" close to home.

Comments that E. E. Sampson's (see record 1994-17460-001) article on identity politics provides a useful analytic framework for people from collective movements who are trying to work as change agents within existing social structures. It is also relevant to people diagnosed with serious mental illness who form a collective movement that has rarely received the kind of scholarly analysis applied in Sampson's article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reinterpreting individualism and collectivism: Their religious roots and monologic versus dialogic person–other relationship.

Examining the religious roots of individualism and collectivism and seeing them as defining alternative conceptions of the person–other relationship reveal a close link between Christianity and the former and between rabbinic Judaism and the latter. Comparisons between these 2 religious formations in the Western world expose a relationship between Christian individualism and an instrumental and monologic understanding of the person–other relationship and a contrasting rabbinic view that offers a formative and dialogic understanding of that relationship. Because the Christian view has been dominant, its understandings have framed the debates on individualism–collectivism and defined the options available for the person–other relationship, providing a somewhat distorted picture of the possibilities for humankind. The dialogic and formative perspective of the rabbinic tradition introduces an alternative portrait of human nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extenders or modifiers: A discussion of Weiss and Sampson's control-mastery theory.

Asserts that J. Weiss (see record 1990-17877-001) and H. Sampson (see record 1990-17862-001) are engaged in shaping a theory regarding motivation of unconscious wishes that is linked to Freud's later ego and super-ego theory. This linkage obscures their unique contributions. Six themes from Weiss and Sampson's work are considered innovative departures from Freud: (1) the ego as a motivator of behavior or Weiss and Sampson's object relations perspective, (2) the link between ego motives and attachment research, (3) the nature of the object relational tie, (4) psychic reality and actuality, (5) some clinical implications, and (6) a philosophical assumption about people that underlies their work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To be (objective) or not to be.

Comments that the power and the danger of E. E. Sampson's (see record 1994-17460-001) argument on identity politics are suggested by research on the psychology of women and the work done by R. K. White (1966) and by R. R. Holt and B. Silverstein (see record 1990-01052-001) on enemy images. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reification in Sampson's paper.

Comments on E. E. Sampson's (see record 1982-04617-001) use of the term reification and questions his use of the phrase "objective reality" in a paper that speaks clearly about the dangers of reification. The author agrees that fresh approaches to research can result from questioning the value assumptions of one's theorizing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive psychology and social change.

E. E. Sampson's (see record 1982-04617-001) charges that the cognitive perspective denies reality, depicts mental acrobatics as substituting for effective action, and necessarily serves the existing social order can only be made by selectively ignoring the contributions of the Gestalt psychologists and of other prominent proponents of the cognitive perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Critique of Sampson.

Evaluates E. E. Sampson's recommendation (see record 1982-04617-001) that cognitive psychologists become more aware of their value bias and develop a new line of work, one that is designed to change society and increase human welfare and freedom. The author suggests that human welfare and freedom are not harmonious goals, and one may be obtained only at the expense of the other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture and psychology in Hong Kong.

Comments on a discussion of clinical psychology in Hong Kong by D. Ho (see record 1986-15498-001). It is argued that Ho's otherwise admirable article is marred by the misidentification of Maslow and Rogers as "modern prophets of individualism," as both would have accepted Ho's synthesis of Western individualism and Chinese collectivism. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The origins of symbolic racism.

The theory of symbolic racism places its origins in a blend of anti-Black affect and conservative values, particularly individualism. We clarify that hypothesis, test it directly, and report several findings consistent with it. Study 1 shows that racial prejudice and general political conservatism fall into 2 separate factors, with symbolic racism loading about equally on both. Study 2 found that the anti-Black affect and individualism significantly explain symbolic racism. The best-fitting model both fuses those 2 elements into a single construct (Black individualism) and includes them separately. The effects of Black individualism on racial policy preferences are mostly mediated by symbolic racism. Study 3 shows that Black individualism is distinctively racial, with effects distinctly different from either an analogous gender individualism or race-neutral individualism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using individualism and collectivism to compare cultures--A critique of the validity and measurement of the constructs: Comment on Oyserman et al. (2002).

Analyzing national and ethnic differences in individualism and collectivism, D. Oyserman, H. M. Coon, and M. Kemmelmeier (2002) (see record 2002-00183-001) showed that small differences in scales or samples produce markedly divergent results, challenging the validity of these constructs. The author examines the following limitations of research on individualism and collectivism: It treats nations as cultures and culture as a continuous quantitative variable; conflates all kinds of social relations and distinct types of autonomy; ignores contextual specificity in norms and values; measures culture as the personal preferences and behavior reports of individuals; rarely establishes the external validity of the measures used; assumes cultural invariance in the meaning of self-reports and anchoring and interpretation of scales; and reduces culture to explicit, abstract verbal knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in culture, changes in personality: The influence of individualism in a longitudinal study of women.

The influence of increasing individualism in U.S. culture on personality development was investigated with an index recently developed by H. Gough (1991) that traces changes in individualism from 1950 to 1985. Seventy-seven women followed from 1958 to 1989 (assessed at ages 21, 27, 43, and 52) showed increases on the index of individualism that paralleled changes in large cross-sectional samples over the same period. Increases on the individualism index were associated with increases in self-focus (narcissism) and decreases in norm adherence. Increases over the long middle period (1963–1964 to 1981), when the largest change occurred, were predicted by college-age measures of ego strength and adjustment and showed a positive relation to psychosocial and physical health at age 43. Increases in individualism may have helped women respond to radical changes in women's roles during the late 1960s and 1970s. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bringing culture to basic psychological theory--Beyond individualism and collectivism: Comment on Oyserman et al. (2002).

D. Oyserman, H. M. Coon, and M. Kemmelmeier (2002) (see record 2002-00183-001) offered a comprehensive literature review on individualism and collectivism that forwards valuable suggestions for ways to enhance future research conducted within this framework. The author argues that although their criticisms of much contemporary social psychological research on individualism and collectivism are valid, even more fundamental problems need to be recognized as characterizing work within this tradition, such as the insufficiently subtle nature of the views held of culture, the limited attention given to meanings, and the downplaying of contextual variation. The author suggests adopting more nuanced and process-oriented conceptions of culture and more contextually grounded views of its impact on psychological functioning as a way of realizing the promise of cultural psychology to broaden and provide insight into basic psychological theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement American style: The rewards and costs of individualism.

Suggests that the US is a success-oriented society whose attitudes toward achievement can be traced to the Protestant heritage and its emphasis on individualism and the work ethic. Although they are implied to have universal significance, it is contended that contemporary theories of achievement and achievement motivation are rooted in individualism and may have validity primarily for American and similar cultures. Concerns about the erosion of the work ethic and the destructive aspects of individualism are discussed. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Apparent sex differences in cooperation–competition: A function of individualism.

Of the studies investigating sex differences among Anglo-American children, some have found boys more competitive than girls, whereas others have found the opposite or no differences. Analysis of previous cooperation–competition (C-C) studies, however, reveals that in many studies either the cooperative or the competitive alternative has been confounded with individualism (i.e., offers own-gain maximization) and that the sex differences in observed C-C vary systematically as a function of individualism. To test the hypothesis that sex differences in individualism can account for the apparently contradictory finding regarding sex differences in C-C, 80 3rd–5th graders (42 girls, 38 boys) made 24 choices on 4 choice cards that systematically varied with respect to individualism. As predicted, girls were more individualistic than boys and appeared more cooperative in situations in which individualism and cooperation were confounded, but girls were more competitive than boys when individualism and competition were confounded. Results point to the conclusion that the apparent contradictions found in studies of sex differences in C-C among children are due to the confounding effects of individualism. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)