The Problems With Individualist Societies

In the Sociological Mindfulness article by Schwalbe, we learn there are various reasons why people aren't particulary aware of how the social world operates. One reason being American individualism. Our culture teaches us to be independent and only look at for ourselves. So basically we should do what we want, when we want if it benefits us and we should not really worry about others. But there's one problem with that. As sociology teaches us, we are all interconnected and each of our indivual actions affect one another, even if it's unintentional. So as it happens, we discussed the differences in behavior in collectivist vs. individualist societies in my AP Psychology class the same day we discussed this article. I learned that the invidividualist societies tend to make the Fundamental Attribution Error far more frequently than people in collectivist societies. This means individualists attribute someone's behavior to their personality rather than considering their circumstances. For example, I come to school late, forget my homework and don't really seem to make an effort that day. Most people in the class will write me off as a lazy person and don't even think that maybe I was up all night dealing with a family emergency and then my car wouldn't start this morning or something like that. In collectivist culture, it's not this way. I thought this could easily relate to the topic of sociological mindfulness because this is just another example of how we are not mindful of why the people around us behave like they do, we just assume the worst. But this comparison did leave me wondering. If the Fundamental Attribution Error is not made as much in collectivist societies does that mean other cultures are more sociologically mindful?

About Me

Hi, I'm Allison. I'm 17 years old and a senior in high school. I was born in Wichita, Kansas, but I moved to Dallas, TX when I was 10 months old and I finally ended up here in Long Grove when I was 15. My main extracurricular activity is swimming and I'm on the team at school. I'm also a manager for the boys' swim team and I lifeguard in the summer. So yeah I really like water! Other than that, I'm a member of National Honor Society and play a few intramural sports, not well I might add. As you can see by my blog title and picture, I really love cats. I have 3 - Maverick, Star and Buster. The rest of my family consists of my parents, Marcia and Tim and my 22-year old brother, David who just graduated from The University of Maryland and now is living in Austin, TX. My family is probably one of the biggest influences in my life because I spend a lot of time with them and I really respect their opinions and ideas. After high school, I plan to go to college next fall. I don't know where yet, but I know I definitely want it to be somewhere warm. I want to study Biology and eventually become a genetic counselor. Well that's pretty much me!