Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Idiocentrism

The word idio means own, personal, private, peculiar, and distinct. The word centrism refers to adopting the middle position between two extreme viewpoints. The combination of these words, idiocentrism, should be used when measuring individual-level orientations reflecting individualistic cultures. Individualistic cultures are common in countries in North America and Western and Northern Europe, and the term individualism represents general attributes of such cultures. Individualistic cultures often are described in contrast to collectivistic cultures, which are more common in Asia and Africa. The term allocentrism should be used when measuring individual-level orientation in collectivistic cultures. Separating the terms idiocentrism from individualism, and allocentrism from collectivism, helps eliminate confusion concerning across-versus within-culture analyses. However, the term individualism continues to be used as a substitute for idiocentrism in the literature.

Idiocentrism is reflected in attitudes, beliefs, norms, roles, and values. Several personality characteristics, such as competition, emotional distance from ingroups, self-reliance, and hedonism, are associated with idiocentrism. Further, idiocentrism is a situation-specific disposition that can be measured along a normal distribution and, as such, allows for examination of idio-centric dispositions in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Thus, individuals vary in the degree they value individualism, and a person can be more or less idiocentric within either an individualistic or a collectivistic culture. Idiocentrics in a collectivistic culture will tend to strive for their individual goals and may feel repressed by the culture and desire to break away from it. Allocentrics in individualistic cultures will seek for something communal to belong to, such as organizations, gangs, and other types of groups.

Characteristics of Idiocentrism

Harry C. Triandis proposed that there are four main elements of difference between individualism and collectivism: (1) the self (independent vs. interdependent), (2) goals (goal priority based on self vs. group), (3) relationships (rationality vs. relatedness); and (4) social behaviors (determined by attitudes vs. norms). In individualistic cultures, the self is viewed as stable and internally located, and the surrounding environment is changeable. For allocentrics, the environment is stable and the self is changeable, adjusting to the environment.

Idiocentrics focus on individual ability, unique characteristics, personal freedom, expression, independence, self-enhancement, and actualization; the self is the vehicle for such enhancement and actualization. Being achievement oriented, idiocentrics tend to have higher levels of academic motivation and place more importance on social competition and recognition than do allocentrics. Further, idiocentrics' personal likes and dislikes determine their behavior, and they are likely to attribute events or behaviors to internal dispositional factors. Their communication style is associated with content rather than context, focusing on what is said rather than how it is said.

Similarly to allocentrics, idiocentrics have ingroups (e.g., family, tribe, and nation), but their ingroups are often small, for example, consisting of first-degree relatives or a few friends. In addition, idiocentrics do not behave differently toward their ingroups compared with other groups (outgroups), which is a pattern of allocentrics. Idiocentrics also tend to be emotionally disconnected from larger ingroups and value their own personal goals over the goals of their ingroups. For example, when there is a conflict between idiocentrics and their ingroups, the goal or need of the individual is given priority over that of the group. Basically, idiocentrics' social experiences are structured and arranged in relation to the self. Allocentrics, on the other hand, have internalized the values of their ingroups, and following these values and expectations becomes a normal and expected activity.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution