Individualism, Autonomy and Self-expression: the Human Development Syndrome

Basic cultural orientations such as Individualism and Collectivism are not static attributes of given societies, but reflect socioeconomic change. Economic development facilitates a shift toward some of the cultural syndromes associated with individualism and away from some of the cultural syndromes associated with collectivism, resulting in increased emphasis on individual freedom-focused values and reduced focus on traditional hierarchies; these cultural shifts are conducive of the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions. Data from scores of countries demonstrates that Individualism and Collectivism (as measured by Hofstede and Triandis), Autonomy-Embeddness (as measured by Schwartz), and Survival/Self-expression values (as measured by Inglehart) tap a similar underlying construct which reflects the extent to which people give top priority to individual choice, over survival needs. The high correlation between these measures allows for time series analyses of societal change in cultural syndrome by focusing on change over twenty years in the Inglehart measure. Analyses show that at high levels of economic development, Survival/Self-expression values have increased across generations. We propose one important way that culture changes is under the impact of economic development. Experiencing prosperity minimizes survival concerns, making social values associated with survival less important and allowing for increased focus on social values associated with self-expression and personal choice. to appear in H. Vinken, J. Soeters, and P. Ester (Eds.), Comparing Cultures, Dimensions of Culture in a Comparative Perspective. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.