An Examination on Implicit View of Collectivism

The study attempted to explore the implicit view of collectivism and the meaning of collective. In the first research,40 participants were interviewed. The results showed that the concept of collectivism consisted of five dimensions. The meaning of collectivereferred to an unspecified group and relational group. The degree of collectivism changed with situations. In the second research,102 subjects were surveyed. The cluster analysis showed that ten kinds of others can be classified into three types: the intimate group which consists of mother,sibling( s),spouse,( good) friend( s); the general relationship group which consists of acquaintance( s),relatives,coworker( s),neighbor( s); the distant relationship group which consists of stranger( s) who live( s) in the same place / geographical location as person,stranger( s) who live( s) in another country. Taken the data together,it can be concluded that there are five dimensions of collectivism: collective identity,collective priority,bind belief,responsibility and obligation,occurrence conditions. The meaning of collectivemainly refers to the unspecified group,intimate group and general relationship group.