Abstract:

Cultural construct of individualism/collectivism is particularly relevant cultural dimension. The value orientations of individualism and collectivism are poles apart. Individualism focuses on the self-distinctiveness, while collectivism focuses on the interpersonal relationships. So far many new theories have been proposed in order to explain the factors that influenced individualism/collectivism. There are four representative theories among those: modernization theory, pathogen prevalence theory, rice theory and climate - economic theory. The latter three theories are relatively new theories put forward in recent years, and they discuss the causes of individualism/collectivism from the perspective of distal factor. They provide a new way of thinking for researchers investigating the origins of individualism/collectivism. Future research should integrate different approaches to measure individualism/collectivism and/ or explore the influence factors of individualism/collectivism from the gene’s perspective.

Key words: Key Words, individualism/collectivism, modernization theory, pathogen prevalence theory, rice theory, climate-economic theory