The nature of the relationship between the group and the individual has been at the core of social and cultural psychology. Decades of research on this and other related topics have produced a massive body of literature, indicating that individuals’ worldviews regarding the person-group relationship (i.e., individualism vs. collectivism) affect how they think and behave in social settings.

In his recent theorization of individualism-collectivism (IND-COL), Professor Hoon-Seok CHOI argues that much of the previous work has been descriptive in nature. Thus, a new theoretical framework is needed to gain insights into the prescriptive role of cultural worldviews in the era of globalization and cultural convergences.

He further argues that researchers need to go beyond the existing approach to IND-COL and develop instead a more nuanced theory to fully capture the cultural dynamics within and between groups.

Along these lines, he has proposed a synergy model of collectivistic values and independent self-views, and tested this new model in the context of team creativity. His research, published in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, found that teams were indeed most creative when they combined collectivistic values and independent selfhood.

Professor CHOI has applied this synergy model to various group settings, including work motivation in teams, loyalty, the psychology of ‘Li’(義) in groups, reconciliation and peace-making between groups, multiculturalism, and individual well-being of organizational members.