Individualism: What Does It Consist Of?

What is individualism? Can you be an individualist and at the same time think about others ? According to the RAE, individualism is defined as a ‘tendency to think and act independently of others, without being subject to general norms’. Thus, when we imagine someone individualistic, we usually think of someone who “goes his own way”, who only looks after their interests or who does not think about what others need.

Actually, it is a concept with two faces, the good and the bad, although socially (and increasingly) it is approached as a negative aspect. It is said a lot that society is increasingly individualistic. But why has this boom occurred? In this article we analyze it through a study they did in this regard, led by researcher Igor Grossmann.

Individualism: what does it consist of?

Individualism can be defined as ‘ the tendency of a person to act according to their own will, without counting on the opinion of other individuals who belong to the same group and without attending to the behavioral norms that regulate their relationships’. In psychology its meaning goes further, and when we speak of individualism we are also referring to a personality trait or a way of being.

A phenomenon on the rise?

A good part of Western societies seem to have taken a turn towards individualism in recent years, and it is that, as they say, it seems that “society is increasingly individualistic.” This is directly related to the phenomenon of the ” cult of the self “, which implies always putting our interests before the interests of others. Furthermore, with the heyday of individualism there has also been a notable increase in narcissism.

In a narcissistic person, the self overshadows the vital environment so much that it is very difficult for the person to end up caring for interests that are beyond their own. Thus, it is true that narcissistic people are characterized, among other traits, by that tendency to put themselves ahead of others at all times, always seeking the admiration of others, approval, and always placing themselves in the center of everything. We see this, too, in another personality disorder: the histrionic.

Individualism: the two sides of the coin

Individualism has two faces (or can be understood in two ways): the good side and the bad side. Being individualistic can bring personal benefits, but it can also have negative consequences. For example, we refer to someone individualistic when he is focused solely on achieving his own personal success, without caring too much about others.

Thus, there are individualistic people who border on selfishness. However, it is also true that individualism can be seen from the positive prism, when we think of someone who fights for their personal goals and who does not care too much what others think.

The interpretation of this phenomenon, in a positive or negative sense, will depend on some more variable variables : other personal characteristics the person has, if their actions benefit or harm others, how their behavior interferes with the freedom of others, if that individualism entails also selfishness or not, etc.

Investigating individualism

What do the experts say about individualism? In this sense, we find an interesting investigation from 2015 (Grossmann and Varnum), carried out by a group of researchers from the University of Waterloo (Canada) and the Arizona State University (USA). The researchers set out to analyze the phenomenon of individualism (specifically, its great boom).

Through the study, led by Igor Grossmann, they reached the following conclusion: the most probable cause of the great rise of individualism is “office jobs”. Why? Because they leave behind all those other jobs more of a collective or cooperative type (typical of the working class), for example.

The rise of individualism and office work

But how did they come to this conclusion? To understand it, we must know that the researchers in their study analyzed 6 cultural factors related to individualism:

• Infectious diseases.
• Natural disasters.
• Climate.
• Religiosity.
• Urbanization of inhabited areas.
• Socio-economic structure.

On the other hand, they also analyzed three more variables: vocabulary used in books (individualistic, collective words …), cultural practices (unique vs. compound names) and interpersonal structure (marriage, divorce, living alone, etc. ). What did they get after analyzing all these variables? What were the potential markers of an increase in individualism?

Well, it was social class (socioeconomic structure) that was directly related to office jobs. Specifically, they found that this was the only marking that preceded the changes in individualism throughout this century. Thus, office jobs left behind jobs of a more cooperative or collective type (more characteristic of the working class).

Final thoughts

It is true that there are different ways of understanding individualism, but it is no less true that in the collective ideology it is not well considered. In addition, it is important to differentiate here the autonomous person -with a low degree of dependence-, with their own goals and interests, from the individualistic person (who takes care of their interests regardless of what that means for the interests of others) .

Be that as it may, many people manifest this tendency, and perhaps what the aforementioned study reveals is partly correct: variables such as the type of work prevalent in society (an “office job”) could be at the base (among other factors ) of the growing individualism in which it seems to be, we live immersed.