The Interplay between Religiosity and Horizontal and Vertical Individualism-Collectivism among Polish Catholic Students

Abstract

Individualism-collectivism has emerged as one of the most important constructs to depict cultural differences and similarities. It is typical to examine individualism and collectivism through comparison between the cultures of the West and those of the East or comparison between various religious traditions, e.g. Christianity has been seen as the source of Western individualistic understanding whilst Buddhism as the source of Eastern collectivist understanding. The research presented in this paper explored the connections between individualism-collectivism and religiosity in Polish Catholic culture. Although Poland is an orthodox Catholic environment, gradually intensified secularization processes have been observed there. In two separate studies we examined relationships between individualism-collectivism and religiosity defined in a traditional (study 1) and secularized context (study 2).

Centrality of Religiosity Scale in Polish Research: A Curvilinear Mechanism that Explains the Categories of Centrality of Religiosity

“…Among women, neither mother's nor father's parenting styles correlated with centrality (Krupa 2015;Żurek 2015). Of social orientations, collectivism-both vertical and horizontal-was confirmed as a positive correlate of centrality and all its dimensions (Tychmanowicz et al 2018;Zarzycka et al 2016). Individualism was confirmed as a negative correlate of centrality (Zarzycka et al 2016).…”

“…Of social orientations, collectivism-both vertical and horizontal-was confirmed as a positive correlate of centrality and all its dimensions (Tychmanowicz et al 2018;Zarzycka et al 2016). Individualism was confirmed as a negative correlate of centrality (Zarzycka et al 2016). Furthermore, centrality positively predicted supportive, overprotective, cooperative, and submissive styles of social functioning and negatively predicted authoritative leadership and rebelliously suspicious and competitively narcissistic styles (Händel 2017).…”

Extravert individualists or introvert collectivists? Personality traits and individualism and collectivism in students in Poland and Ukraine

“…Vertical individualism stresses the individual's autonomy and inequality of group members. Horizontal individualism also highlights the individual's autonomy, but it assumes equality of group members (Singelis et al 1995;Triandis 1995Triandis , 2018Brewer and Chen 2007;Zarzycka et al 2016).…”

Centrality of Religiosity, Post-Critical Beliefs and Openness to International Career Among Students

“…Z jednej strony Polska to kraj, w którym około 95% dorosłych obywateli deklaruje się jako osoby wierzące -katolicy (Zarzycka 2009), a polski katolicyzm jest charakteryzowany jako tradycyjny tak w zakresie przejawów religii, jak i w obszarze aksjologicznym (Zarzycka 2009). Z drugiej strony od kilkunastu lat obserwuje się w Polsce postępujące procesy sekularyzacyjne, którym towarzyszy wzrost subiektywności w interpretacji i akceptacji twierdzeń religii w kontekście zachodzących zmian społeczno-kulturowych (Mariański 2011;Zarzycka, Tychmanowicz, Goździewicz-Rostankowska 2016). Taki obraz uzasadnia konieczność poszukiwania koncepcji pozwalających na wielowymiarowe ujmowanie zjawisk religijnych.…”