Political Psychology of Individualism and Collectivism

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review the previous works of political culture and cross-cultural psychology in order to establish why we need to introduce such cultural constructs as individualism and collectivism in the scientific study of cultural influences on citizens’ political preference and behavior. First, this article will advance that the empirical investigation into the implications of political culture for the individual level has been largely missing. Second, it will examine previous works about individualism and collectivism in order to make a case for how we can enrich the study of political culture by taking advantage of interdisciplinary efforts. Third, this paper will propose some of the solutions for the political psychological study of individualism and collectivism.