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

• •    

理性式微、功利扩张？近40年中国社会两种个人主义的变迁（社会变迁专栏）

吴胜涛1,王予灵2,3,彭凯平2   

  1. 1. 厦门大学
    2. 清华大学社会科学学院 3. 北京大学心理与认知科学学院
  • 收稿日期:2022-09-01 修回日期:2023-07-09 出版日期:2023-07-12 发布日期:2023-07-12
  • 通讯作者: 吴胜涛

More utilitarian, less rational? Social change and two types of individualism over the last 40 years in China

WU Michael Shengtao1, WANG Yuling2,3, PENG Kaiping2   

  1. (1 School of Sociology and Anthropology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China)
    (2 School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)
    (3 School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China)
  • Received:2022-09-01 Revised:2023-07-09 Online:2023-07-12 Published:2023-07-12
  • Contact: Michael Wu

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摘要： 随着全球范围内的现代化变迁，个人主义异常增长，但这一增长究竟是自我的功利扩张（如利益至上），还是理性提升（如人格独立），引发了众多学者的反思。预研究建立了理性个人主义（如独立、自主、开拓、进取）和功利个人主义（如利益、财富、快乐、享受）词典。进而对谷歌中文图书语料库（1980–2019）的词频分析显示，理性个人主义显著下降，功利个人主义显著增长（研究1）；词嵌入分析表明，自我靶词与理性（vs. 功利）个人主义属性词的相对语义关联也呈下降趋势（研究2）。总之，中国社会近几十年来的文化转型并非个人主义的简单增长，而是出现了功利个人主义增长、理性个人主义下降的趋势。这表明，理性、功利价值失衡是社会变迁的重要议题，其背后的多重自我结构、演化路径及社会精神动力的培育还有待未来深入研究。

关键词: 个人主义, 功利, 理性, 中国, 价值观

Abstract: Individualism appears to have increased along with modernization and globalization, yet it remains unclear whether such a cultural shift diverged into the value discrepancy between the independence-focused rational individualism and the interest-focused utilitarian individualism, especially in fast-changing societies like China.
Based on expert interviews, self-report surveys, and open-question analysis (pilot study), the pilot study established a reliable and valid dictionary of rational individualism (e.g., autonomy, industrious, etc.) and utilitarian individualism (e.g., property, happy, etc.), finding that rational (vs. utilitarian) individualism prevailed in responses to questions about rational individualism, and vice versa. Furthermore, based on word counting (Study 1) and word embedding (Study 2) analyses of the Chinese version of Google Books Ngram (1980~2019), the present research tested the possible effects of social change on rational individualism and utilitarian individualism. We hypothesized that (1) rational individualism decreased while utilitarian individualism increased from 1980 through 2019, and that (2) the semantic association between self and rational (vs. utilitarian) individualism decreased over the past 40 years. As expected, Study 1 revealed that the usage of words related to rational individualism decreased, while those related to utilitarian individualism increased over time; using the single-target Word Embedding Association Test (WEAT), Study 2 revealed that the semantic similarity between the target words about self (e.g., I, self, etc.) and attribute words about rational (vs. utilitarian) individualism decreased over time.
Taken together, the results demonstrate the cultural shift of increase in utilitarian individualism and of decrease in rational individualism over the past 40 years in China, although both rational enlightenment and utilitarian expansion appear to serve as psychological drives in the development of many modern societies. It was suggested that the value discrepancy between rational and utilitarian individualism should be considered in further research on multiple selves, cultural evolution, and psychological functioning of the two types of individualism.

Key words: rational individualism,  utilitarian individualism,  China,  cultural change