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The world we live in is vast. Our plant is home to approximately 7.7 billion individuals.1 While humans as a species share general traits, people belonging to different cultures and nationalities differ from one to the next. Beliefs and customs differ. Fairy tales are told differently depending on how your parents told you them as a child, and how their parents told them these same stories. It is hard to imagine that every one of us is unique from one another. I differ from my parents, despite them raising me, and I differ from my brother, despite him being raised by the same parents within the same home under the same rules. Each experiences and perceives a different world. These experiences lend to the creation of self-concept, which by design, is composed of an individual’s collection of self-belief and their unique self-evaluation. It is through the use of our self-concept that we can guide our decisions and actions to reflect what we feel to be the best given each situation.
Three levels can be used to examine self-concept. These levels are individual, relational, and collective. How do you see yourself in terms of your personality? What makes you who you are? These are the types of questions one would ask at the individual level. How are your friendships? Are you close with your parents? Do you get along with your coworkers and work well as part of a team? These are the types of questions one would ask at the relational level. Are you a member of a gym or sports team? Or perhaps you a crochet fanatic and part of a club. These are the types of questions one would ask at the collective level.
Beyond these levels, we can further dissect self-concept into three characteristics. These characteristics are complexity, consistency, and clarity. As we learn and grow, develop new skills, acquire knowledge, engage in more extracurricular activities, and take on new hobbies, we become increasingly more complex. Consistency describes how harmoniously one's many selves correlate with one another. Sometimes, your many selves complement one another, for example, you may enjoy tasting and eating new foods, and also be a chef which means there is a high level of consistency within your self-concept. There are other times your many selves may clash, such as the sedentary secretary who runs 10km a day and competes in marathons regularly. These two aspects of one person conflict and therefore indicate a low level of consistency. High consistency generally lends to higher levels of clarity within our self-concept as well. It would be easier to define yourself as a food-lover if you enjoyed eating as well as cooking. This is a higher level of clarity. The secretary who runs long distances in her spare time would have a harder time providing clarity into their self-concept because these two aspects of herself require very differing energy levels.
It is important also to consider that our self-concept can be divided further. Our identity signifies our feelings about our traits, what we value, what special abilities we feel we have, or the accomplishments we are proud of. Our identity encourages individuality, allowing us to build our uniqueness and stand out from those around us. Our social identity denotes our strong affiliations with other groups. It could be related to nationality, employer, or social groups like your soccer team, church, or book club. Our social identity lends to the social identity theory that we very much wish to belong to a collective, in whatever forms matter most to us. But what if that collective is a nation as a whole? How does that nation and its values and cultures help to design your self-concept? And what would that mean for me in particular?
Geert Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist, pioneered the creation of what he calls the “6-D model of national culture” in an attempt to gain an understanding of the elementary issues different societies face and how we can best gain some control over these issues to create some organization within a culture. On a global scale culture differs between nations as it is an accumulation of customs and traditions, arts, achievements, and social constructs within a society. Geert was able to immerse himself into the study of cultural patterns and differences by using these six dimensions and applying them to all nations by rating the general culture on a scale from zero to one hundred against his definitions of each dimension. The six dimensions are individualism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence. In time, other dimensions may be discovered and become part of this societal mapping.
Before cross-examining my self-concept with Hofstede’s 6-D model of national culture, it is important to first explain the six dimensions. Without understanding the dimensions, it would be impossible for me to describe their effects on my nurturing and the manifestations of the dimensions in my self-concept.
Individualism refers to how strongly the people of a nation feel as one independent or autonomous person versus how strongly the people of a nation feel they are part of a collective or larger group.2 An excellent example of this is shown throughout the franchise series Star Trek when comparing the Humans from Earth to that of the Borg. Humans appreciate and encourage the individualism of each member of their crew and hope to capitalize on the unique perspectives and experiences of each crew member to enhance their knowledge and create new ways of accomplishing their tasks. The Borg, however, is an extreme version of collectivism sharing what is referred to as a “hive mind” through which all members can hear thoughts that are shared through neurological implants. There is no concept of individuality and each Borg drone is expected to carry the tasks given to them and respect the hierarchy within the Borg systems. There is no use of the word “I” in the Borg language only the term “we”.
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