Lecture 18: The American Value of Individualism

America Calling - Preparing to Study in the US Section 3: Understanding The American Context - Why do Americans do what they do?
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Transcript

Americans are one of the most individualistic cultures in the world, which is reflected in some of our Proverbs. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Learn to stand on your own two feet. Speak for yourself. Be true to yourself. From the time we're born, we encourage our children to be independent.

A baby is put in their own crib as soon as they come home from the hospital. Children are encouraged to feed themselves. And American mother living in an Indian joint family was teaching her seven month old son to sit in the highchair and to feed himself. She would put small pieces of food on the highchair tray. Her sister in law said that's the way you feed a dog. In India, mothers show their love to the children by feeding them and Taking care of them.

In the US. We show children love through helping them become fully independent. We ask small children to make decisions as to what do you want to wear today? We celebrate every achievement saying things like, that's great you tied your own shoe. We asked our children, what do you want to be when you grow up, assuming that they will make that decision on their own, with some guidelines of course, but the choice is firmly theirs to make. We want our children to develop their talents and creativity, self reliance and a certain level of assertiveness is valued.

Assertiveness is seen as an alternative to anger which comes from bottling up our feelings and giving in to others ideas rather than expressing our own. Follow your dream We applaud people who follow a dream or a goal and are passionate about something. Sometimes following a dream means that we take risk and go against our families. The story of Romeo and Juliet celebrates two individuals that love each other against the wishes of their families. And although their deaths are tragic, their choice to follow their hearts in love is considered a noble choice. Avoid obligation or indebtedness.

We do care about our families and friends. But each person is free to choose what is best for themselves. And again, we stress self reliance, individual growth and making one's own decisions, responsibility for self and so we shouldn't depend upon others. If an American gets the The idea that you are depending upon them too much, they may withdraw. Feeling that the relationship is not healthy, we're more likely to depend upon government programs for help. Unemployment Insurance is very important for us belong to various groups.

Members of individualistic cultures tend to belong to many groups. But the groups are chosen often for personal growth or benefit. We engage and disengage from groups without feeling that we're breaking any relational bond. So we may have many acquaintances, but an acquaintance does not mean the same level of commitment as a friend. We stress being true to yourself. People are expected to live according to their personality and values.

There's a lot of individualism expressed in this, people say things like, I just can't get up before 8am I'm not a morning person, or I just have to go out on Friday nights. After a long week of study, I need a break. And in this sense, Americans are not very adaptable. And sometimes the understanding of AI is a cop out for not wanting to do what they should. It's okay to be alone. closely linked to individualism is privacy.

Americans don't mind being alone. We sometimes say, I need my space, I need time for myself. So we may not want to be interrupted by a visit from someone that we're not expecting. Generally, we call first, we plan ahead and are not likely to drop in on people unexpectedly international Students in California were sent out during an orientation program to find a place to sit and just watch what watch what was happening in American culture. Watch what was different. The most common comment was, I saw so many people who are by themselves.

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