A Cultural Profile of Korean Society : From Vertical Collectivism to Horizontal Individualism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A scale, developed by Triandis (1995), of classifying people into four categories (Individualism/Collectivism X Horizontal/Vertical) was administered to sample of the adult population in Korea. Among 848 people, 46% were HI, 28% HC, 21% VC, and 5% were VI. The proportion of Individualists was as high as that of Collectivists. Individualists were the majority among young people and among the highly educated. In all segments of the sample, horizontals were the majority. The shift from Collectivism to Individualism was apparent but the shift from Verticalism to Horizontalism was more apparent. Korea people's belief in traditional value systems (familism and Confucianism) is in general not strong; it was weakest among the HI. Two issues were discussed from the results; the cultural transition and the measurement of cultural pro file.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Theory of Individualism/Collectivism
• Vertical/Horizontal Dimension
• The Present Study
• Methods
• Respondents
• Questionnaire Construction
• Results
• Reliability of the Scales
• Response Pattern in General
• Respondents' types and their background
• Differences in Traditional Values
• Discussion
• Changes in Value
• Traditional Values among Four types
• Assessing Cultural Characteristics