needed to be corrected

Differences between collectivistic and Individualistic Societies Collectivistic and individualistic societies are two different dimensions which cast different effects on the individuals who are living in these different societies. Hofstede was the first researcher who had discriminated between these two types of cultures and had defined them fully. According to him, the individualistic cultures are those cultures in which the ties between different individuals are quite loose. Expectations from such individuals are that they are responsible for taking care of themselves and their immediate family if necessary. On the other hand, collectivistic societies are those societies in which there is more integration and cohesiveness. They need to look after each others in larger groups and people keep o doing it lifetime with questioning the loyalty of other individuals (Uicol. Kim). Still, there are contradictions in the literature about which of the cultural system is more appropriate (Lynch). Research shows that people in individualistic society have personal motivations in life whereas; people from collectivistic societies show a shared sense of experience while achieving their goals (Banani and Vryonis). Usually the literature calls the individualism an American style of leading the life where every individual is responsible for what he/she does (Kallen). In addition to that, it has been said that there may be lesser chances of responsibility of motherhood in individualistic societies as compared to collectivistic societies. There are various differences in the individuals who are living in these two different types of societies that is; people from collectivistic society consider them responsible for what is going on in their groups and their success and failure are associated with success and failure of their related group. On the other hand, the feeling of success and failure in people of individualistic societies are related to their personal pursuits contradictorily (U. Kim). Not only, both of the cultures types are different in their attributes but they are also different when they are seeking help. The matter becomes more complex when an individual needs to seek out help for some psychological issue. It has been observed that people from Asian countries are more reluctant when it comes to seeking help for their psychological problems. The reason is that a stigma is attached to psychological problems in collectivistic societies where the individual is integrated into the larger group and may contaminate the larger art of the society. On the other hand, no such stigmatization is attached to psychological problems in collectivistic societies where people are on their own (Papadopoulos). Another study conducted in Korea also revealed that people from collectivistic societies are more defending when they are stigmatized for their help seeking behaviors as compared to people from collectivistic societies(Yoo). Literature also reveals that there are differences in the social comparisons as well as the self esteem of the individuals who are living in individualistic and collectivistic societies. Results of one study indicated that the individuals from collectivistic societies tend to make more social comparisons because they are tied into such ties where they feel integrated and they cannot without comparing themselves to others. This attribute increases with the scores of collectivism. Such people tend to make upward comparison more as compared to downward comparisons. On the other hand, those people compare themselves less with others who got higher scores on individualism. Addition to this finding, research also revealed that self esteem is associated with the feeling that an individual can strive for an upward position in collectivistic society whereas; this self esteem is related to personal success in individualistic societies (Chung and Mallery). Being a member of the collectivistic and individualistic society also affects the memory of the individuals for the events which can be categorized as the individualistic or collectivistic events. In order to evaluate this idea, the researchers had conducted research in which college students were asked to memorized events from their past and categorize them as individualistic or collectivistic events. After some days, their confidence about accuracy of their memories had been evaluated. It had been observed that individualistic or collectivistic backgrounds of the college students made them to be more confident about their memories which were individualistic or collectivistic respectively (Zahle and Collin). References Individualism Vs Grouping : Leisure Intelligence, May 2009. London: Mintel, 2009. Print. Banani, Amin, and Speros Vryonis. Individualism and Conformity in Classical Islam. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1977. Print. Chung, Tyson, and Paul Mallery. "Social Comparison, Individualism-Collectivism, and Self-Esteem in China and the United States." Current Psychology 18.4 (1999): 340-52. Print. Kallen, Horace Meyer. Individualism; an American Way of Life. New York,: Liveright, 1933. Print. Kim, Uichol. Individualism and Collectivism : A Psychological, Cultural and Ecological Analysis. Copenhagen: NIAS Publications, 1995. Print. Kim, Uichol. Individualism and Collectivism. Copenhagen NIAS 1995. Print. Lynch, Pat. The Unresolved Tension : Individualism or Community? London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997. Print. Papadopoulos, Chris. "Stigma Towards People with Mental Health Problems [Electronic Resource] : An Individualism-Collectivism Cross-Cultural Comparison." Middlesex University 2009. Web. Yoo, Sung-Kyung. Individualism-Collectivism and Tolerance of Stigma Associated with Help-Seeking among Koreans. S.l.: Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 2000. Print. Zahle, Julie editor, and Finn editor Collin. Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate : Essays in the Philosophy of Social Science. Print.