CULTURE, SELF, AND DEVELOPMENT - ARE CULTURAL TEMPLATES USEFUL OR STEREOTYPIC

In this paper it is asserted that dichotomous cultural templates such as independence and interdependence, as well as individualism and coll ectivism, do not accurately reflect the complexity of social life in W estern and non-Western cultures and often result in stereotypic, rathe r than actual, characterizations of the social orientations of individ uals and of cultures. Viewpoints that (a) promote the use of dichotomo us labels, (b) espouse dualities for some aspects, but not other aspec ts of cultures, and (c) critique the notion of broad templates used to describe cultures are discussed. In general, it is concluded that ack nowledging the limitations of cultural dichotomies is Incompatible wit h proposing the notion of an individualistic American self. (C) 1997 A cademic Press.