Assignment: Collectivism and Individualism

The concepts of individualism and collectivism, introduced in Week 1, are important terms to keep in mind when studying human development and socialization. As a reminder, individualist cultures prioritize concern for self or immediate family. Collectivist cultures are more oriented to the larger community group and emphasize traditions. Both types of cultures have many more characteristics, and any given culture does not necessarily belong exclusively in one category.

As you might expect, parenting styles and expectations for family members in individualist cultures are often different from those in collectivist cultures. For this Assignment, you will analyze collectivism and individualism as it applies to parenting styles.

To prepare:

• Review Chapter 8 in your course text. Pay particular attention to the sections on norms, customs, and child care; parental values and expectations; and late adulthood.
• Review the concepts of individualism and collectivism from Chapter 1 of the course text. Also, review the Week 4 media piece in the Learning Resources.
• Consider this scenario: Imagine you are watching a reality television show in which two sets of parents trade places and take their same roles in the other family. Keep these details in mind:
• One family is characterized as coming from a collectivist culture,
• The other family is characterized as coming from an individualist culture.
• Each family has one 1-year-old, one 8-year-old, one 14-year-old, and two grandparents living in the household.
• In trading places, each set of parents must interact with the grandparents in the new household and parent the children in the new household.
• Consider what the outcomes would be in each household based on the differences between collectivist cultures and individualist cultures.

By Day 7

Submit a 2- to 3-page paper in which you do the following:

• Explain the differences in parenting style of “collectivist” and “individualist” parents.
• Describe how each couple would differ in their expectations of each of the children in their “new” household.
• In light of the differing styles and expectations, analyze points of conflict that would arise with the children when the parents swapped households and why (i.e., how the collectivist parents would respond to each of the individualist children, and how the individualist parents would react to each of the collectivist children).
• Compare the grandparents’ role in the collectivist family to the grandparents’ role in the individualist family.
• Analyze conflicts that the grandparents’ roles could cause when the parents swapped households and how the “new” mother and father might wish to change the existing roles.
• Describe how you think the show would end. Will anyone (i.e., parents, children, grandparents, or people watching the show) learn something from the experience?
• Is it possible to change cultural values? Explain your ideas and your reasoning.

Note: Support the responses within your Assignment with evidence from the assigned learning resources. Provide a reference list for resources you used for this Assignment.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 4 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 4 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.