ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2025, Vol. 57 ›› Issue (8): 1468-1481.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2025.1468 cstr: 32110.14.2025.1468

• 研究报告 • 上一篇    下一篇

生活选择的重与轻:现代化如何预测中国个体主义的多重变迁

刘盼1, 邱林2,3,4, 谢天5,6, 任孝鹏7,8()   

  1. 1.湖南大学公共管理学院, 长沙 410082
    2.香港中文大学心理系, 香港
    3.香港中文大学新闻与传播学院, 香港
    4.香港中文大学政务与政策科学学院, 香港
    5.武汉大学新闻与传播学院, 武汉 430072
    6.武汉大学跨文化传播研究中心, 武汉 430072
    7.中国科学院心理研究所认知科学与心理健康全国重点实验室, 北京 100101
    8.中国科学院大学心理学系, 北京 100049
  • 收稿日期:2022-09-01 发布日期:2025-05-22 出版日期:2025-08-25
  • 通讯作者: 任孝鹏, E-mail: renxp@psych.ac.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家社科基金项目(20BSH142)

High- vs. low-stake choices in life: How does modernization predict the multidimensional shifts of individualism in China

LIU Pan1, QIU Lin2,3,4, XIE Tian5,6, REN Xiaopeng7,8()   

  1. 1. School of Public Administration, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
    2. Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
    3. School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
    4. School of Governance and Policy Science, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
    5. School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
    6. Research Center for Intercultural Communication, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
    7. State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    8. Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2022-09-01 Online:2025-05-22 Published:2025-08-25

摘要: 个体主义的变迁一直广受学界关注。然而, 现有文献中关于中国个体主义变迁的研究出现了矛盾的结果。本文指出, 这可能是由于不同研究采用的个体主义测量指标不同所致。进一步, 本文认为可将人们在日常生活中的个体主义实践分为两类:个体主义重选择(high-stake choices, 涉及高机会成本)和个体主义轻选择(low-stake choices, 涉及低机会成本), 并认为现代化对个体主义重选择的影响大于对个体主义轻选择的影响。研究1通过一项问卷调查(N = 312)检验中国民众对不同生活选择重大性的主观感知。结果发现, 是否结婚、是否离婚、是否要孩子、是否与父母分开住等4项选择与给新生儿(男、女)取名等两项选择存在显著差异, 显示出前者属于个体主义重选择, 后者为个体主义轻选择。研究2通过分析中国26省30年的面板数据发现:1)中国各省的个体主义, 包括重选择和轻选择, 总体呈现上升趋势, 且现代化显著正向预测两类个体主义; 2)但相较于个体主义轻选择, 现代化对个体主义重选择的预测力更强, 预测趋势的省际差异更小。本研究通过将个体主义的测量分类, 为重新审视中国内部乃至全球的个体主义变迁研究提供了一个新的理论视角。

关键词: 个体主义, 多重变迁, 现代化, 生活选择视角, 中国省级层面

Abstract:

The shifts of individualism have long been a topic of academic attention. However, existing research on the shifts of individualism in China has yielded conflicting results.

The present article suggests that such discrepancies may arise from the use of different measurement indicators for individualism across studies, and it is proposed that the practical manifestations of individualism can be categorised into two types based on daily life choices: individualistic high-stake choices (HSC, involving high opportunity costs) and individualistic low-stake choices (LSC, involving low opportunity costs), with modernization having a stronger impact on individualistic HSC than on individualistic LSC.

Study 1, through a questionnaire survey (N = 312), examined the Chinese participants’ perception of the significance of various life choices. The results revealed that life choices such as marriage, divorce, having children, and living apart from parents were significantly different from life choices of naming a newborn (male or female), showing that the former were individualistic high-stake choices whereas the latter represented individualistic low-stake choices.

Study 2, through analyzing 30 years of panel data from 26 provinces in China, demonstrated: 1) Individualism (including HSC and LSC) at the provincial level in China generally showed an upward trend, and modernization significantly positively predicted both types of individualism; 2) Compared to individualistic LSC, modernization showed stronger predictive power for individualistic HSC, along with smaller interprovincial differences in the prediction trend.

Taken together, by categorizing the measurement of individualism from the perspective of life choices, this study offers a new theoretical perspective for re-examining the shifts of individualism both within China and around the globe.

Key words: individualism, multidimensional shift, modernization, the perspective of life choices, the provincial level in China

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