Collectivism in Modern Korean Society

Responses of an incidental sample of Korean married adults(n=600) on the 32 items related to the collectivism-individualism continuum, which were formed part of a questionnaire originally administered in 1979 for a study on "the personality and consciousness of the Korean people" (Cha, 1980), were analyzed. Factor analysis of the 32 items in each age group (20's, 50's or older) separately produced 3 orthogonal factors (acceptance of collective obligation, in-group favoritism, and family-centeredness). For the older group, 2 factors (in-group favoritism, family-centeredness) emerged. The results showed that Koreans in 1979 were individualistic in terms of rejecting in-group favoritism and dependence between parents and children while they were collectivistic in terms of accepting collective obligations. The subgroups exposed to the greatest modernization pressure(living in Seoul and/or college educated) turned out to be least collectivistic, especially in acceptance of collective obligations.

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Article Contents

Vol.7 No.1

Collectivism in Modern Korean Society

Abstract

Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology