Anu Realo, born in Viljandi, Estonia, in 1971. Ph.D. from the University of Tartu. Senior Research Fellow in Personality Psychology at the University of Tartu.
Mellon Fellow (1 September 2005 – 31 January 2006)
ON THE NATURE OF INDIVIDUALISM AND COLLECTIVISM
During my stay five-month stay at NIAS, I concentrated on my work for a book on the nature of individualism and collectivism, but there were also several other projects and manuscripts which demanded my time and attention. All things considered, I believe I was able to make progress in accordance with my initial plans.
My time at NIAS made it possible for me to read extensively and to prepare the outline of the book which was provisionally entitled Reconsidering individualism and collectivism. Thanks to the excellent working conditions and stimulating atmosphere at NIAS, I was able to read and think about the issues related to culture and cultural diversity across a wide range of different disciplines. As a result, I realized that it is important to put the dimensions of individualism and collectivism into a larger context, in order to better understand and explain the essence of culture and cultural variation. Therefore, I slightly shifted the focus of my book from individualism-collectivism to the issue of cultural dimensions in general.
Individualism-collectivism, however, as one of the most important and relevant dimensions of culture, will remain the core subject of my book. During my stay at NIAS I was able to prepare the conceptual framework of the book and to write drafts of two chapters.
During my fellowship at NIAS, I also completed a revision of the manuscript which focuses on three factors: person, situation, and culture and how their interactions contribute to the experience and expression of anger. Together with my colleagues from Belgium and die United States I prepared two new manuscripts which will be submitted for publication in the coming months. In addition, I wrote a small contribution for the NIAS Newsletter and an article on well-being for an Estonian-language science magazine, Horisont. I also used my time at NIAS to continue my collaboration with researchers from several Dutch and Belgian universities. I gave a lecture on my research at the University of Utrecht, and I attended four seminars and research meetings both in Netherlands and abroad.
All in all, my stay at NIAS was very useful, inspiring, and enjoyable and I would like to thank everyone at NIAS for making all this possible for me.