INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COLLECTIVISM - A COMPARISON OF KENYAN AND AMERICAN SELF-CONCEPTS

We predicted that individuals from traditional, collectivist Kenyan cu ltures would have self-concepts with more social components than would those from individuated American culture and that the self-concepts o f urbanized and educated Kenyans would be less social than those of tr aditional Kenyans. Consistent with predictions, the proportion of soci al category responses to the Twenty Statements Test was 12% for Americ an college students, 17% for Kenyan university students in Nairobi, 58 % for Kenyans employed in Nairobi, 80% for Maasai Kenyans, and 84% for Samburu Kenyans. American and Kenyan university students responded pr imarily with nonsocial categories of psychological and interpersonal s tyle, whereas traditional Kenyans responded with social categories of occupational and kinship roles. Sociocultural factors of urbanization, education, and Westernization appear to correlate with individuated ( nonsocial) self-conceptions.