What is idiocentrism and allocentrism?

Discusses allocentrism as the personality attributes found in collectivist cultures and idiocentrism as the personality attribute that is found among those who believe, feel, and act as people do in individualistic cultures and discusses their impact on the social processes. (

What is idiocentrism?

Idiocentrism refers to a set of personality traits indicating an individualistic orientation. Idiocentric people define themselves as relatively autonomous and self-reliant. In social relations, they pursue their own goals and are generally motivated by their own preferences, rather than group goals and social norms.

What is collectivist culture?

Verywell / Joshua Seong. Collectivist cultures emphasize the needs and goals of the group as a whole over the needs and desires of each individual. In such cultures, relationships with other members of the group and the interconnectedness between people play a central role in each person’s identity.

How do allocentric cultures differ from Idiocentric cultures?

Those who were allocentric reported receiving more social support and a better quality of social support; those who were idiocentric were higher in achievement motivation, alienation, anomie, and reported greater loneliness.

Which is the opposite of idiocentrism and allocentrism?

Allocentrism is usually conceptualized as an end point of a continuum, with idiocentrism as the opposite construct. The individual levels of the allocentric and idiocentric tendencies correspond to the cultural dimensions of collectivism and individualism.

Why are allocentrics more social than idiocentrics?

Allocentrics tend to receive higher quality and more social support than idiocentrics; they tend to be more social, interdependent with others, and pay a lot of attention to their in-group and family. This could possibly be because some of the important values of allocentrics are cooperation, honesty, and equality.

What does it mean to be an allocentric person?

Allocentric people appear to see themselves as an extension of their in-group and allow their own goals to be subsumed by the in-group’s goals. Additionally, allocentrism has been defined as giving priority to the collective self over the private self, particularly if these two selves happen to come into conflict.

When to use centrism and idiocentrism in a sentence?

The word centrism refers to adopting the middle position between two extreme viewpoints. The combination of these words, idiocentrism, should be used when measuring individual-level orientations reflecting individualistic cultures. Individualistic cultures are common in countries in North America and Western and Northern Europe, and the […]