Contextualism as an Important Facet of Individualism-Collectivism: Personhood Beliefs Across 37 National Groups. (January 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: 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; Çağ 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.; Lemos, Flávia Cristina Silveira; Fritsche, Immo; Möller, Bettina; Harb, Charles; Valk, Aune; Espinosa, Agustín; Jaafar, Jas Laile; Yuki, Masaki; Ferreira, M. Cristina; Chobthamkit, Phatthanakit; Fülöp, Márta; Chybicka, Aneta; Wang, Qian; Bond, Michael Harris; González, Roberto; Didier, Nicolas; Carrasco, Diego; Cadena, Maria Paz; Lay, Siugmin; Garðarsdóttir, Ragna B.; Nizharadze, George; Pyszczynski, Tom; Kesebir, Pelin; Herman, Ginette; de Sauvage, Isabelle; Courtois, Marie; Bourguignon, David; Özgen, Emre; Güner, Ülku E.; Yamakoğlu, Nil; Abuhamdeh, Sami; Mogaji, Andrew; Macapagal, Ma. Elizabeth J.; Koller, Silvia H.; Amponsah, Benjamin; Misra, Girishwar; Kapur, Preeti; Vargas Trujillo, Elvia; Balanta, Paola; Cendales Ayala, Boris; Schweiger Gallo, Inge; Prieto Gil, Paula; Clemares, Raquel Lorente; Campara, Gabriella; Jalal, Baland;
• Is Part Of: Journal of cross-cultural psychology. Volume 44:Number 1(2013)
• Page Start: 24
• Page End: 45
• Publication Date: 2013-01
• Subjects: individualism–collectivism -- personhood beliefs -- cross-cultural differences -- measurement invariance; Ethnopsychology -- Periodicals; 155.805
• DOI: 10.1177/0022022111430255
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-0221

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.