Psychological aspects
As far as individualism and collectivism affect the psychology of human being, interior architecture is much stronger. These terms are being used in wide range by people and have been given different elaborations. Collectivism is the social patterns comprising of individuals who have been closely attached. These individual have a feeling that they belong to one or more collectives like a nation, family, tribe and workmates. Those people get motivation from the duties and socio-cultural norms that have been implemented by the significant collectives. They usually have the interest of giving priority to the goals of the given collectives than their own. It emphasizes much on their connections with other people who are members of the collectives. On the other hand, the term individualism has been defined as a social pattern that is comprised of individuals attached together with links which are loose. These individuals are much concerned with their needs than those of the collectivity. They emphasize on the benefits and shortcomings of associations. This paper shows that there are other dimensions that strongly affect the human beings psychologically. Human psychology is not only affected by individualism and collectivity but there are also dimensions which are much stronger.
The previous studies show that individualism and collectivism are considered to be equal with relational versus separate self perception, communal versus assistant and interdependent versus independent. However, there is a perspective of evolution of culture that these concepts do not necessarily characterize gender and culture differences (Binder, 2018). In the society, an aspect like division of labor may lead to differences in terms of gender but cannot give an explanation on differences in terms of culture. There are also several cultural aspects that are not affected by individualism or collectivism. These include; the language, environment, economics, believes, institutions, recreation and art. In every culture there is a given factor that influence the way of living of the people. For example, both men and women have adopted the culture of covering their heads to minimize the amount of heat reaching them in the Middle East. This is because the desert nature of the area. In every culture, there are a set of beliefs that are perceived to be real. These can the religion, moral values or customs. There is a means of communication in every culture. This can be through spoken words or by use of symbols. There are institutional orders in every culture like church, school or family. In every culture, there is economical structure through which the resources are distributed for example trade, transportation, forms of currency and communication. Every society has got narratives and artifacts which try to explain about the origin and development of the existing culture and lastly every society has holidays and ways of entertainment meant as recreation (Binder, 2018).There had been a study conducted in five different cultures, namely; Korea, Australia, Hawaii, United States and Japan. From the study, it has been possible to see clearly that the cultural differences between the listed cultures are based mostly by the scope at which people feel like they are independent creatures while differences in gender have been captured by the range that people feel that they are related emotionally with significant others.
From previous literature, there has been the usage of parallel terms. These include; curiosity, egocentric, autonomous, self-individualism and self-contained (Triandis, 2018). There had been also use of interdependent construal of an individual as being holistic, geocentric, relational, collectiveness and ensemble. Other researchers like Kolb and Guold view individualism as someone having the urge to cultivate self after realizing whom they are not being much interested in personal pressure. There had been reports given by San Antonio and Gudykunst. The report had been saying that Japanese preferred group-oriented aspects rather than collectively. This is because collectivism had been encouraging dictatorship in the society. In their report there had been inclusion of some terms like inter-individualism. They brought out an argument that individualism is a dimension that had been encouraging selfishness in Japan hence had been viewing it as negative aspect in the society. This shows that this dimension is in one way or another favoring some individuals in the society by encouraging selfishness. Therefore, interior architecture dimension is far much better as much as human psychology is concerned. An individual here is much interested in other people needs in order to satisfy them. There is no interesting self benefit too much as seen in the individualism and collectivity dimension. An individual in architecture is interested in constructing houses in the environment in order to satisfy the needs of the occupants
Individualism and collectivism affects the behavior of an individual. The way someone behaves is much determined by the fact that the society is a collectivist or an individualistic. It is true that depending on the nature of the society, an individual can be able to assume a certain behavior. It is easy for an individual from collectivistic society to give much in charity work because they tend to think that people in their culture are expecting them to do so (Triandis, 2018). It is also possible to get an individual from individualistic society being in the position of giving much to help others because they tend to believe that they are expected to show high levels of generosity and responsibility. Basing this dimension, there are studies that have shown that several psychologists have been trying to estimate the tendencies in the individualism and collectivism. They have been able to come with complexity of which it should be an inclusion in the constructs. The psychologists also had been able to emerge with several theoretical studies explaining why the individuals behave in individualism and collective manner as well as the effects of the behavior. Through the theoretical studies, the psychologists have been able to get the knowledge that people are both collectivists and individualistic. These tendencies have been linked with the health of the society and the state of the individual at optimum level. However, in interior architecture is very important as the difference in experience, psychological and physical states of individuals determines the manner in which one receives and perceives things generally. (Durante, Rivers, Beane & Chau, 2017) Shaping of one’s’ needs is determined by socioeconomic class, gender, different ambitions, culture, age, physical status and education level. One might feel like something is guided by oneself. It is not necessarily that an individual acts according to the requirements or expectations of the society. Here an individual is not driven by the societal; norms, beliefs or religion. There is the issue of self-drive. If someone meets a situation, there is no need to think about how the society will perceive their reaction or basing the actions strictly on the laws of the society. One has the freedom to do things so long as they feel they are substantial and not harmful to both self and the society. This dimension gives individuals freedom to act in the manner they feel to be pleasant. This appears to be better than individualism and collectivism because it gives people the freedom of action. On the other side, one is bound by the norms of the society and there is restriction to carry out some activities regardless of they being helpful. The act of giving also comes from within and not basing the cultural guidelines. The characteristics of an individual and the approach of interior architecture design engages the interaction between the condition of someone psychologically and the interior architecture. This argument therefore shows that interior architecture is far much significant as long as human psychology is concerned.
According to individualism and collectivism, people are either independent or interdependent. This is a very important assumption in the culture. Culture involves the activities that happened in the past. It tries to bring knowledge to the lives of people concerning what had been happening in the past years. It sometimes enables people to compare the present activities with past. Through the information gotten from the cultural aspects, one is able to come up with new ideas which are utilized for betterment of tomorrow. For example, a tool inventor might narrate about the invention to their kids. Some other people may utilize the already existing ideas and put them into practice (Triandis, H. C. (2018). Memory is one of the tools that have been in use by the societies. Tools are an addition to culture considering other elements of culture like roles, norms, beliefs, values and attitudes. The presence of the assumption that people are linked together as interdependent into tight strong groups is elementary to collectivism. Elementary to individualism is the assumption that people are independent agents and are not too much close to the significant collectives. In most of the times, it happens that there is organization of the features of subjective culture.
Basing individualism, there is a theme of cultural syndrome whereby there is the idea of human beings being autonomous and at the same time being viewed as analytical units. In terms of collectivism, the theme expounds that analytical units are the groups where human beings are joined together. Triandis have been relying on the meaning of individualism explained by Gould and Kolb to bring an argument that collectivism entails; common shared believes in the group, emphasis on goals, needs and views of the group instead of personal ones, emphasis on the way individuals behave as judged by the duties and norms instead of personal gain or pleasure. There is also the willing power to unite with other group members. This dimension shows that it is not necessarily for the needs of every individual to be met. Individualism is trying to show that one is interested in personal needs and less concerned with the others. This encourages selfishness as the individual do not mind about the welfare of the rest of the people. One is motivated to ensure that personal needs are met in order to have a satisfactory life. However, interior architecture deals with programming where it tries to figure out the needs, come out a draft proposal and suggestion of a favorable site according to the needs and the location of the building. Behavioral science leans on determining how the living and the non-living things are being utilized depending on the societal needs (Durante, Rivers, Beane & Chau, 2017). Since some years back until today, there has been consideration of the architectural frames effects on psychological and mental state of humanity. Physical space basing on the traits of people’s behaviors is important so long as their reactions take place in given spaces. The architecture has a role in providing environments consisting of buildings in order to meet the needs of occupants psychologically. This dimension implies that one is much interested in meeting the needs of the society in general. This is particularly through organizing on the favorable sites to construct the buildings. These buildings are important to all the people as there is no discrimination of any manner hence anyone is the position of acquiring shelter. From the above argument, it is therefore clear that interior architecture is more important than individualism and collectivism.
Binder, C. C. (2018). Redistribution and the Individualism–Collectivism Dimension of Culture. Social Indicators Research, 1-18.
Durante, A., Rivers, E., Beane, G., & Chau, R. (2017, July). Understanding the Effect of Architectural and Environmental Features on Human Behavior. In International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 521-531). Springer, cham.
Triandis, H. C. (2018). Individualism and collectivism. Routledge.
