THE HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE OF COLLECTIVISM

The existence of at least three interrelated, yet clearly distinguisha ble, subtypes of collectivism focused on relations with family (Famili sm), peers (Companionship), and society (Patriotism) was demonstrated. It was shown that various criterion groups (inhabitants of an isolate d island, housewives with many children, servicemen, old members of so rorities, etc.) have remarkably different patterns of collectivism: on e group can be highly collectivistic in one domain of social relations and on the average level in some other domain. The different types of collectivism were also selectively associated with the results of the ''I am...'' Test and the Schwartz values questionnaire. Both hierarch ical and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that these three suffic iently distinct types of collectivism share a common core which is sup erordinate to these particular forms of collectivism. This general, hi gher-order collectivism factor that likely affects all types of collec tivism is related to two of the Big Five personality domains, Openness and Agreeableness, measured by the NEO Personality Inventory. Agreeab le persons, who are also closed to experience, are comparatively more predisposed to absorb collectivistic elements from the culture into th eir own cognitive schemes. About one-third of the total variance of th e measures of collectivism can be predicted from the measures of perso nality. This large proportion suggests that different collectivistic o rientations have a common root in the relatively stable personality tr aits. (C) 1997 Academic Press.