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The term individualistic culture was founded by Geert Hofstede in 1980. According to Hofstede, Individualistic culture refers to a sociological and not a psychological dimension. In a detailed analysis of 40 national cultures, he stated that cultures can be identified as individualistic or collectivistic. Collectivistic cultures value the whole group or community rather than the individual. This idea, however, just defines and characterizes different societies and is not a description of different personalities. Knowing what cultures values are helps sociologist understand the human behavior of people from different cultures. There has been a global increase in individualism in the recent years and individualistic culture is on the raise in many countries around the world.

Communication among people of different cultural groups can sometimes be challenging, as they might have practices and social cues that maybe be different from your own. This can often lead to miscommunication. The concept of low context communication was first introduced by anthropologist Edward T Hall. Hall's concepts of low context and high context communication explains differences in communication and culture in which context is needed to achieve understanding and avoid miscommunication.

Marriage and Family Dynamics
In 1994 Ruth Chao, argued that “parenting styles developed on North American samples cannot be simply translated to other cultures, but instead must reflect their sociocultural contexts”. Many cultures have different styles of parenting and the dynamics those families are also different. People from individualistic cultures usually look out for themselves and their immediate family only. While people from collectivistic cultures look out for their community or group, as well as their family. Harald Wallbott and Klaus Scherer suggest that in cultures that are collectivist and high in power parents use real shame in their parenting styles. Whereas in individualistic cultures that are low in power, and are uncertainty-avoidance, shame more closely resembles guilt in their parent style. For example, in Asian collectivistic cultures shame is a highly valued emotional response. So much so, that in Japan, which is considered to be a collectivistic culture, many people commit suicide after dishonoring or bringing shame to their family or community.

Work-Family Balance
One’s cultural style can also interfere with work-family relationship dynamics between different cultures. In Shan Xu research he found that, employees from more individualistic cultures are more sensitive to how their work interferes with their family life. These employees are more concerned about their own individual family dynamics and structure. While people from more collectivistic cultures are more concerned about how their work provides material, social, and cognitive resources such as intelligence and experience which will help their families. These employees are more focused on the overall and harmony of all those little factors and how they affect their families.

Collectivism
Individualistic cultures focus on the “I” consciousness while the collectivistic cultures have a greater emphasis on the “We” consciousness. According to the Key Concepts in Developmental Psychology individualism and collectivism have multiply factors which contribute to whether a culture is considered individualistic or collectivistic. Things such as the national wealth of the county, indices of modernity, the freedom of press, and even the frequency of traffic deaths. All of these play a roll in whether a county identifies as individualistic or collectivistic.