TRAMES 1, 2, 1998
Anu Realo. Collectivism in an individualist culture: The case of Estonia
Department of Psychology, University of Tartu
Abstract
In this article the position of Estonia on the map of individualism-collectivism,
is examined. Since Schwartz’s (1994) worldwide study of human values, covering
more than 40 cultural groups in 38 nations, Estonia has occupied a firm
position among the collectivistic countries in cross-cultural literature.
The Estonians themselves, however, seem to have quite a contrary opinion
on that matter: being labeled as "collectivists" is in sharp contrast with
the Estonians’ own national myth about their extreme individualism. In
addition to the Estonians’ autostereotype, several other factors speak
against the Estonians’ excessive collectivism – a number of recent cross-cultural
studies has shown that at least the Estonian students do not differ significantly
from their Finnish and North American counterparts in individualistic-collectivistic
attitudes. It is concluded that the dissonance between the results of various
empirical studies, on the one hand, and between the public opinion of the
community of cross-cultural researchers and the Estonians’ autostereotype,
on the other hand, is most likely due to the all-embracing definition of
the individualism-collectivism constructs that holds and tolerates a wide
range of miscellaneous opinions.
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