Individualism–collectivism and depressive sensitivity to life events:

Abstract

In addressing the mental health of international students, individualism-collectivism is treated as a dimension of cultural distance that produces differential sensitivity to life events. A collectivist cultural orientation is hypothesized to promote depressive dysphoria in response to negative social events and to increase the inhibitory effect of positive social events. An individualist cultural orientation is hypothesized to promote depressive dysphoria in response to negative achievement-related events and to increase the inhibitory effect of positive achievement-related events. A prospective study comparing Malaysian and British students at the same university confirmed the predicted cultural differences in sensitivity to social events. Predicted differences for achievement-related events were partially confirmed. Malaysian students were also considerably more dysphoric than their British counterparts, as expected.

Introduction

Increased cross-national mobility and the liberalization of tertiary education over the last half-century has produced a dramatic rise in the numbers of students choosing to pursue academic degrees in countries other than their own. The resulting prominence of international students on Western campuses has expanded opportunities for cross-cultural contact, cooperation, and mutual enrichment within the academic community. The accommodation of migrant students has not, however, been without challenge. Adaptation to life in an unfamiliar setting is often marked by confusion, self-doubt, loneliness, and considerable distress. Accordingly, international students often suffer greater psychological disturbance than do their native peers (Furnham, 1988). Adverse reaction to cultural transplantation, or “culture shock” (Oberg, 1960), is so common as to be considered a normal aspect of adjustment. The intensity of culture shock has been found to vary in proportion to the “cultural distance” between the sojourner and the host community (Babiker, Cox, & Miller, 1980; Furnham & Bochner, 1986; Hull, 1978; Ward & Searle, 1991). There is little consensus, however, on how specific forms of psychological disturbance are promoted by distinct dimensions of distance, owing to a paucity of relevant research (Stening, 1979). One approach to redressing this gap in understanding is focusing on cultural constructs with known nomological relations. Such constructs can be used to generate informed predictions about the nature of adjustment difficulties experienced by different groups of international students. By examining the significance of a cultural dimension for interaction with the host environment, specific hypotheses can be derived concerning mental health. We adopt this approach here, focusing on the construct of individualism–collectivism (I–C) and its relevance for how social feedback is experienced. Hypotheses are derived concerning vulnerability to depressive dysphoria. These hypotheses are then tested by examining a sample of Malaysians studying in Britain.

Best conceptualized as a cultural “syndrome” (Markus & Kitayama (1994), Triandis (1995)), I–C incorporates a number of valuative and behavioral dimensions that define self-other relations. Some of these dimensions are bipolar in relation to I–C; others are aspects of either individualism or collectivism. Some appear to be transcultural, others culture-specific. Many of the dimensions interpreted as etic by researchers are based upon basic relational differences in collectivist vs. individualist self-construal.

The self in collectivist cultures has been characterized as enmeshed, ensembled, interdependent, and contextualized, emphasizing its socially contingent nature. In contrast, the self in individualist cultures has been described as self-contained, isolated, independent, and clearly bounded (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Sampson, 1989; Shweder & Bourne, 1984), suggesting a greater degree of social separation and autonomy. The primacy of social identity for collectivist self-understanding entails a commitment to fulfilling ingroup expectations. Self-acceptance is largely a reflection of social acceptance, and is therefore heavily dependent on fidelity to normative prescriptions and proscriptions for personal behavior. Accordingly, collectivist enculturation promotes enhanced sensitivity to social evaluation (Okazaki, 1997). Heightened evaluative sensitivity enables the collectivist to be responsive to shifting social demands and to rapidly correct for any inadvertent deviations or transgressions that threaten to produce discord and friction (Kitayama, Markus, & Lieberman, 1995; Kitayama, Markus, Matsumoto, & Norasakkunkit, 1997). The ability to accurately perceive even implicit or muted valuative signals is further necessitated by normative constraints on overt criticism or rejection of those with whom one is interacting. The importance of decorum and avoiding ingroup conflict in collectivist societies demands sensitivity to the subtlest expressions of negativity, as such signs may betoken intense disapproval.

The emphasis on independence and confident self-assertion in individualist, especially Western, cultures promotes a somewhat different approach to social relations. Acute sensitivity to social feedback is taken as a reflection of weakness, neuroticism, and dependency. It is therefore inhibited through socialization beginning in middle to late childhood. Similarly, habitual adjustment of personal behavior to fit the expectations or wishes of others conveys an undesirable conformity and is seen as undermining stable self-identity. Individualist self-acceptance requires the preservation of autonomy. Whereas maintaining a self-chosen course of action in the face of public censure is viewed harshly by the collectivist, it becomes a celebrated virtue for the individualist. Likewise, principled criticism and frank argument during encounters with ingroup members are more often taken to reflect forthrightness and integrity than social immaturity. The relative lack of cultural constraint on face-to-face expressions of disapproval engenders a considerable amount of negative social feedback with which to contend. In response, a broad repertoire of deflective, attributional, and compensatory defences develops to reduce injury to self-esteem. Thus, whereas the collectivist responds to criticism by sympathetically modifying behavior, the individualist is more likely to ignore, dismiss, or offset its self-relevance.

The starkness of the above cultural contrast is intended for explanatory clarity only. In reality, all cultures have both individualist and collectivist elements and therefore fall somewhere between the two extremes described. Nonetheless, the foregoing provides a theoretical basis for predicting the reactions of those from collectivist cultures studying in individualist, Western countries. To begin with, we assume that these sojourners will have more undisguised disapproval directed at them in social interaction than encountered in their home countries. The increase would be due to marked normative differences in the expression of criticism across cultures. Compounding factors would include racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice experienced during their stay and derision targeting their lack of facility with the host culture and language. The resulting interpersonal stress may have considerable impact on the mental health of collectivist sojourners, as suggested by examining the significance of I–C for depressive sensitivity.

Stressful negative life events are known to increase the likelihood of suffering depression (Brown & Harris, 1986; Cui & Vaillant, 1996; Klocek, Oliver, & Ross, 1997; Monroe & Depue, 1991). Though less is known about the significance of positive life events for the onset of depression, evidence that they ameliorate symptoms during morbidity (e.g., Greene, 1989; Johnson, Crofton, & Feinstein, 1996; Needles & Abramson, 1990) hints at a likely preventative role. Generally, both positive and negative experiences influence how sojourners and immigrants adapt to their new environments (Berry, Kim, & Boski, 1988; Church, 1982; Furnham, 1988). The specific relevance of life events for depressive disturbance in international students, however, is expected to vary as a function of cultural background. This follows from evidence pointing to cultural differences in the syndromic expression of depression and its precipitating factors (Jenkins, Kleinman, & Good, 1991; Manson, 1995; Marsella, 1980). Given the collectivist emphasis on maintaining social harmony, it is unsurprising that life events that threaten this harmony figure prominently as precursors of psychiatric disorder in these cultures (Leong, Tseng, & Wu, 1985). Extending from this, we suggest that collectivist sojourners are especially vulnerable to depressive dysphoria in response to negative social events. Their vulnerability stems from a tendency to amplify the diagnosticity of negative interpersonal feedback and its implications for social regulation (Yamaguchi, Kuhlman, & Sugimori, 1995). Such a tendency is not a liability in itself, but becomes one when combined with limited social and communicative competence in the host culture. The inability to successfully dissolve conflicts and problems that arise during social interaction, thus fulfilling the collectivist imperative of surface complaisance, would over time leave these sojourners prone to distress and increased depressive dysphoria. A symmetric sensitivity to positive social events is also expected. Insofar as positive life events are inversely related to depression, collectivists should benefit most from experiences that convey social acceptance, approval, and fitting in with others.

Individualists, much more than collectivists, are invested in maximizing self-determination, primary control, and personal attainment. Self-worth and self-identity are contingent upon individual, often competitive, performance. As regards depressive sensitivity, then, individualists should be especially prone to depressive dysphoria in response to negative achievement-related events, especially those involving failure to reach a desired personal goal. Similarly, positive achievement-related events should best serve individualists in protecting against depressive disturbance.

Specific hypotheses concerning the comparative adjustment of collectivists studying at Western universities can now be stated. First, because of increased exposure to overt social criticism, and a tendency to internalize such criticism, these sojourners will be more depressed than are native (individualist) students at the same institution. Second, social experiences should be more strongly associated with depression for collectivist sojourners than for native students, with negative events predicting greater increase and positive events less increase. Third, achievement-related experiences should be more strongly associated with depression for native students than for collectivist sojourners, with negative and positive events oppositely related as before.

Psychosocial aspects of cultural orientation are held to be responsible for the hypothesized differences in sensitivity to life events. Alternatively, the challenges and vulnerabilities associated with sojourner status, irrespective of cultural origin, may themselves result in differential sensitivity. Any such “stranger in a strange land” account, however, cannot easily accommodate the prediction that collectivist sojourners should be less sensitive than native students to achievement-related experiences. The confounding of sojourner status and cultural orientation is therefore not especially problematic in the present context.

We sought to confirm the predictions in a prospective study of depressive dysphoria in Malaysian sojourners and home students at Cardiff University in Britain. As Malaysia represents a collectivist culture (Bochner, 1994; Burns & Brady, 1992) and Britain an individualist one (Tafarodi, Lang, & Smith (1984), Hofstede (1991)), the study provided appropriate comparative tests of the hypotheses. Supporting the validity of the cultural comparison at the individual level of measurement, past research has confirmed Malaysian sojourners at Cardiff University to be clearly higher in collectivism than their British counterparts (Tafarodi, Lang, & Smith, 1999).