Individualism and Collectivism Parenting Methods

Introduction

Child’s growth and socialization heavily rely on the individuals with whom they relate, where they spend most of their time, and the roles they play in society. Adults give tasks to some children while leaving others based on age, gender, or their upbringing. Parents have different methods of raising their children, and there are set expectations that their children should acquire specific characteristics such as a way of thinking, walking, or talking at specific ages. Research indicates that despite differences in an individual’s upbringing, there exist specific cultural patterns in those demands (Eric, & David, 2017).

This discussion entails how different parents raise their kids according to their expectations, as well as what different cultural practices expect their children to be raised. Collectivism is described as a social model where individuals are considered to be in a closed relationship where they associate themselves as dependent members of a collectivistic unite. Individualism, on the other hand, is described as a state of individual independence and personal autonomy (Eric & David, 2017). Individualism goes further to associate independence and individual achievement, and heads in the direction of using an education that is more focused on higher warmth and lower control. Collectivist parents are usually authoritative, and they expect their children to meet strict expectations, punishment, and behavior control in this type of upbringing use authoritative methods to keep their children in line with their expectations.

Collectivism is not the only factor that contributes to parents being authoritative. The other factors include; educational traditions, illiteracy, and social instability. For example, in Russia, teenagers see their teachers be more authoritative than teachers and parents from the United States (Sawitri, Creed, & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2014).

Individualistic parents, on the other hand, are not strict with their children and they believe that it is the responsibility of them to learn by themselves and do what is right since they are responsible for their own lives. In such an upbringing, children brought up in this kind of set-up grow to do their individual works even in school, and at their places of work, they tend to value personal practice more than the group or collaborative work. They give credit themselves in case of success, while this is different from in collectivism type of parenting where group work is varied, and giving credit to an individual might be considered as an insult since success is accorded to the entire group or community (Karapetyan, & Vardanyan 2016).

Both parents of collectivism and individualism could differ in what their children are expected to perform, and the same case children might find it challenging to adapt in a different upbringing other than the one they were brought up. For example, a study conducted on American Mexican, Whites, and Mexican indicated that white parents were less authoritative than Mexican American parents.  If an individualism child is exposed to a collectivism parenting, they might be considered to be selfish since their upbringing was based on individual work while in collectivism individuals are brought up knowing that their lives belong to society or a group, and they should sacrifice their goals and values for the sake of the community or the group they are in (Craid, 2012).  Both parents will want to change the child to follow what they believe in, and conflicts might occur because the children might resist changing.

In families where collectivism is their order of parenting, grandparents still play a significant role and are respected, especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin American societies. In these communities, living in groups and culture is very crucial since they believe in teamwork and long-term relationship are also important. In collectivism, grandparents will expect their grandchildren to follow expectations of the society as well as those of their parents, and they are respected while in individualism, grandparents are not equally respected, and they are disrespected because of their age (Dannielle, 2017).

If grandparents are swapped, the individualistic children will find it tough since the role of grandparents is to give wise decisions and be respected in collectivism. The conflict that would happen are; strains between the two different cultures and cultural lifestyles. On the other hand, collectivist children will expect to be given guidelines by their grandparents, and in return, they should be respectful to them, but they might find it hand to make their own decision or when individual children disrespect them. Also, they might not take it kindly when individualistic children fail to collaborate in a group. In the end, everyone will have learned something, and it will end by the individuals respecting the cultural practices of every group. To parents, they will try to accommodate both cultures so as to raise their children to adapt and live in both situations, and in so doing, they will not face difficulties to interact with different cultural practices (Ziarat, Giovanna & David 2018).

Changing cultural values can be a challenge, and at the same time, it would help to interact with other individuals. Knowing different culture can very crucial in situations where one is expected to know the specific culture so as to enter another country or past test of intelligence which are based in a particular lifestyle. Changing cultural value can also be helpful at the place of work within a specific society, for example, an individualism working in a collectivist working environment should learn to work in groups so as to be on the same page with other employees. The same case applies to collectivist individuals working in an individualistic environment. For them to relate well with other employees, they should learn and adapt to working individually instead of working in groups (Jackson, 2011).

 

References

Craig B. (2012). Individualism vs. Collectivism: Our Future, Our Choice. Retrieved from: https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/2012/02/individualism-collectivism/

Dannielle, B. (2017). Collectivist and Individualist Cultures. Retrieved from: https://psychologydictionary.org/article/collectivist-individualist-cultures/

Eric B. & David A. (2017). Cross-cultural Psychology: Critical thinking and contemporary applications. (6^th ed).

Jackson, T. (2011). From cultural values to cross‐cultural interfaces: Hofstede goes to Africa. Journal of Organizational Change Management.

Karapetyan, L., & Vardanyan, K. (2016). ETHNIC-CULTURAL STUDY OF RELATION OF INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM TO DISTRESS RESPONSES. In Интернаука (pp. 28-34).

Sawitri, D. R., Creed, P. A., & Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J. (2014). Parental influences and adolescent career behaviours in a collectivist cultural setting. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 14(2), 161-180.

Ziarat H., Giovanna E. & David W. S. (2018) Grandparents’ social identities in cultural context, Contemporary Social Science, 13:2, 275-287, DOI: