IRRATIONAL BELIEFS, INDIVIDUALISM-COLLECTIVISM, AND ADJUSTMENT

Ellis (1994) has argued that a failure to actualize both personal indi vidualism and social collectivism is irrational and leads to maladjust ment. In a test of these assumptions, two measures of irrational belie fs-the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB) and the Belief Scale-were corr elated with indices of individualism, collectivism, and psychosocial a djustment. Both individualism and collectivism had positive and negati ve mental health implications. Values associated with each covaried di rectly. The validity of several SPB subscales was challenged, but data for especially the Belief Scale confirmed that individualistic and so cially oriented forms of actualization can be part of a balanced funct ioning of personality. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.