Section 6 - Components and Representation (2 October 2009)

A bit late this week. Liked the term ‘uncertainty avoidance’, although I was very confused initially about whether a greater degree of uncertainty avoidance meant a correspondingly greater degree of willingness to face changes and uncertainty, or if there was an inverse relationship. Guess it’s a question of semantics. ‘Uncertainty tolerance’ would probably have been a bit clearer. The part about ‘individualism’ and ‘collectivism’ also struck a personal chord with me, as I would like to pursue graduate studies overseas soon, one of the main reasons for that being the relative stifling of individuality here. To be fair, I don’t really feel too much pressure to meld my identity with that of any larger group or collective (my parents are quite liberal, though I do get the ‘vibes’ of collectivism from some older relatives), but neither do I feel that my identity is my own to create. On the other hand, I also suffer from high (or is that low?) uncertainty avoidance, so breaking away from the comforts of home and a relatively stable, ordered, crime-and-graffiti-free life would probably be a step too far at present...