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

Owe, Ellinor and Vignoles, Vivian L. and Becker, Maja and Brown, Rupert and Smith, Peter B. and Lee, Spike W. S. and Easterbrook, Matt and Gadre, Tanuja and Zhang, Xiao and Gheorghiu, Mirona and Baguma, Peter and Tatarko, Alexander and Aldhafri, Said and Zinkeng, Martina and Schwartz, Seth J. and Des Rosiers, Sabrina E. and Villamar, Juan and Mekonnen, Kassahun Habtamu and Regalia, Camillo and Manzi, Claudia and Brambilla, Maria and Kusdil, Ersin and Çaglar, Selinay and Gavreliuc, Alin and Martin, Mariana and Jianxin, Zhang and Lv, Shaobo and Fischer, Ronald and Milfont, Taciano L. and Torres, Ana and Camino, Leoncio and Kreuzbauer, Robert and Gausel, Nicolay and Buitendach, Joey and Lemos, Flávia Cristina Silveira and Fritsche, Immo and Möller, Bettina and Harb, Charles and Valk, Aune and Espinosa, Agustín and Jaafar, Jas Laile and Yuki, Masaki and Ferreira, M. Cristina and Chobthamkit, Phatthanakit and Fülöp, Márta and Chybicka, Aneta and Wang, Qian and Bond, Michael Harris and González, Roberto and Didier, Nicolas and Carrasco, Diego and Paz Cadena, Maria and Lay, Siugmin and Garðarsdóttir, Ragna B. and Nizharadze, George and Pyszczynski, Tom and Kesebir, Pelin and Herman, Ginette and Sauvage, Isabelle de and Courtois, Marie and Bourguignon, David and Özgen, Emre and Güner, Ülku E. and Yamakoglu, Nil and Abuhamdeh, Sami and Mogaji, Andrew and Macapagal, Ma. Elizabeth J. and Koller, Silvia H. and Amponsah, Benjamin and Misra, Girishwar and Kapur, Preeti and Vargas Trujillo, Elvia and Balanta, Paola and Ayala, Boris Cendales and Schweiger Gallo, Inge and Prieto Gil, Paula and Clemares, Raquel Lorente and Campara, Gabriella and Jalal, Baland (2013) Contextualism as an Important Facet of Individualism-Collectivism: Personhood Beliefs Across 37 National Groups. JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY, 44 (1). pp. 24-45. ISSN 0022-0221

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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 selfrepresentations and contributes to a wider understanding of cultural processes.

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