American Individualism Reconsidered

  • Mount C
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Abstract

Individualism is not a coherent single trait on which specific demographic groups hold a unitary position (that is located consistently at the same position on all dimensions). Rather, it can be construed as encompassing 3 dimensions - autonomy, self-reliance, limited gov - on which various groups are positioned differently (see esp. 427). positions on these dimensions are also not related unitarily to policy attitudes. thus, high autonomy is strongly related to position on civil liberties but high autonomy is not related to positions on social welfare or racial issues. Marginal distributions of Americans on the various individualism dimensions indicate that American do not cluster at the high individualist end. They are communitarian in certain respects: better than 2 to one: mandatory pledge of alleigance 8 out of ten: setting aside time for prayer but 80% endorsed: "it is better to be true to one's own standards that it is "to fit in withe people around you"" (426) [note this isn't directly about a generalized societal morality but rathe about proximate peer groups]

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APA

Mount, C. E. (1981). American Individualism Reconsidered. Review of Religious Research, 22(4), 362. https://doi.org/10.2307/3509768

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