individualism.

1. A social, political or cultural view that gives priority to individual autonomy, judgment or interests relative to collective control or shared arrangements.

2. An explanatory approach that analyzes social phenomena through individuals’ actions, choices and interactions.

3. An independent or distinctive personal orientation or manner of self-expression.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• political individualism
• cultural individualism

On the page

Political individualism in the argument emphasized limits on collective authority.

Cultural individualism was discussed without assuming that people lacked cooperative relationships.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: social explanation, distributional analysis, population description, concept distinction. Disciplines: social science, economics, public policy. Commonness: moderately common.