In plain language
Western cultures like Australia celebrate individualism: independence, self-reliance, and personal achievement. But scholars from Durkheim onwards have worried that excessive individualism erodes social bonds and may contribute to rising rates of depression and suicide. This study asked what happens to people who hold especially strong individualistic values ("idiocentrics") while living inside an already individualistic culture.
A total of 276 first-year students at an Australian university completed an anonymous survey measuring their individualism, social support, emotional competence, stress, hopelessness, depression, suicidal ideation, and their intentions to seek help from various sources if they had a personal or suicidal problem.
The results pointed to real social and psychological costs of strong individualism. Idiocentric students had smaller and less satisfying social support networks, were less skilled at managing their own and others' emotions, reported more hopelessness and suicidal ideation, and were less willing to turn to family, friends, or an intimate partner for help; indeed they were more likely to say they would refuse help from everyone. Mediation analyses suggested that much of the link between individualism and poor mental health ran through impoverished social support. The authors discuss implications for school and community health promotion programs, which may need to help highly individualistic people build social connectedness and emotional skills.
Key findings
- Idiocentrism (strong individualism) was significantly associated with smaller (r = -.30) and less satisfying (r = -.14) social support networks.
- Idiocentric students reported lower overall emotional competence, including less skill at managing their own emotions (r = -.18) and others' emotions (r = -.11).
- Idiocentrism was associated with higher hopelessness (r = .21) and higher suicidal ideation (r = .12), though not with depression or stress levels.
- Highly individualistic students had lower intentions to seek help from family and friends (r = -.29) and from an intimate partner (r = -.20), and higher intentions to refuse help from everybody (r = .29), for personal and suicidal problems.
- Mediation analyses showed the amount of social support fully mediated the links between idiocentrism and both hopelessness and suicidal ideation, suggesting individualism harms wellbeing partly by shrinking support networks.
- Even after controlling for social support, idiocentrism remained related to more hopelessness and lower willingness to seek help from family, friends, and intimate partners.
How to cite
APA
Scott, G., Ciarrochi, J., & Deane, F. P. (2004). Disadvantages of being an individualist in an individualistic culture: Idiocentrism, emotional competence, stress, and mental health. Australian Psychologist, 39(2), 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050060410001701861
BibTeX
@article{scott2004disadvantages,
author = {Scott, Greg and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Deane, Frank P.},
title = {Disadvantages of being an individualist in an individualistic culture: Idiocentrism, emotional competence, stress, and mental health},
journal = {Australian Psychologist},
year = {2004},
volume = {39},
number = {2},
pages = {143--154},
doi = {10.1080/00050060410001701861}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.