In every society, people make distinctions between other people and groups, learn to find a connection between these differences with each other's qualities or their relationship to a group.
In different cultures, there are certain differences in behavior, feelings during relationships between people. The essence of this difference lies in the individual role of each person in comparison with the role in the team.
A significant part of modern mankind lives in societies, where in most cases interest in the group as a whole dominates over the interest in each individual.
What is collectivism?
So collectivism is a type of worldview, according to which, in the formation of decisions, emphasis is placed on the importance of the collective. It means the interest of people in tightly united groups, communities.
Collectivism is classified as:
- Horizontal.
- Vertical.
In the horizontal one represents itself as consisting of an inner group. In it everyone has equal rights. The goals of society prevail over personal interests. But horizontal collectivism is characterized by a poorly developed group thinking with, inherent in this kind, the suppression of the manifestation of the personality by society.
An example of such subcultures are only a few countries (as today such countries do not exist at all). In the vertical, the personality refers itself to representatives of internal groups, characterized by hierarchical relations, status. For both these species, the principle of collectivism is characteristic, according to which the life of society, its interests over individual should be in the forefront of each person.
Education of the collectivism
The degree of his influence on the personality is determined by a benevolent, caring attitude to the inner world of the individual. So on the basis of this, the collectivist concept of pedagogical education developed. The purpose of which was to instill a sense of collectivism from childhood.
So from an early age, children were taught games that contributed to the acquisition of teamwork skills. In team games, children were taught to care not only about their personal results, but also about team tasks, the ability to rejoice in the achievements of other children, to assess tactfully, emphasizing, above all, dignity, not negative qualities.
That is, the essence of educating collectivism lies in the fact that a person should be puzzled, first of all, by the problems of society, the collective in which he is located, should strive to help solve any problems that arise here. Personality must learn to think not as a hotel individual, but as an inseparable part of the collective.
Individualism and collectivism
Individualism and collectivism are a kind of opposites in meaning concepts.
So individualism is a kind of worldview, the main principle of which is individual freedom. According to individualism, a person must adhere to the rule of "rely only on himself", should have his own personal independence. This kind of worldview opposes itself to the doctrines of suppression of the individual, in particular, if such suppression is produced by society or the state.
Individualism is the opposite of socialism, holism, fascism, etatism, collectivism, communism, social psychology and sociology, totalitarianism, which set as their main goal the subordination of man to society.
According to the poll on F. Trompenaarsu, the largest number of respondents who adhere to individualistic values, was:
- 89% are Israeli respondents.
- 74% - Nigeria.
- 71% - Canada.
- 69% - the USA.
In the last place is Egypt (only 30%).
It should be noted that collectivism is not characteristic of modern Western society, in comparison with individualism. This can be explained both by changing the world outlook of people, and by the development of various directions in psychology, philosophy, which supplanted the doctrine of collectivism.