Description
Like the GCV scales, the COS measures both the normative (societal practices) and the evaluative aspects of
collectivism vs. individualism separately. According to Bierbrauer et al. (1994) , the normative aspects consist of
perceived cultural norms, which refer to ‘widely shared standards of conduct that are suitable for controlling
behavior of members and society’ (p. 191). The evaluative aspects consist of the evaluation of these norms or
values, which are defined as ‘desirable standards of orientation in a person’s life’ ( Bierbrauer et al., 1994 , p. 191).
Like the HVIC Scale, the COS is designed to measure variations of values between societies, as well as individual
differences within a society.
The COS items consists of 13 pairs of items. For each item pair, a practice in the domains of family, friends or
politics is presented (e.g., ‘Teenagers in your native country listen to their parents’ advice on dating’). The norma-
tive item in each pair asks how frequently this practice occurs in the participant’s native country, and the evalua-
tive item assesses the extent to which the respondent agrees with the practice. A 7-point Likert-type response
scale is used for the two subscales. The anchors of the normative items are ‘not at all’ (1) and ‘always’ (7). The
anchors of the evaluative items are ‘very bad’ (1) and ‘very good’ (7). Higher scores indicate stronger endorse-
ment of collectivism.
Samples
The original validation sample ( Bierbrauer et al., 1994 ) consisted of students from Germany and Korea. The
Germans (mean 53.86, SD50.32 for the 26-item COS; 3.81, SD5.32 for the normative subscale, and 3.92,
SD50.47 for the evaluative scale) are less collectivistic than the Koreans (mean 54.77, SD50.49 for the 26-item
COS; 4.75, SD50.48 for the normative subscale, and 4.79, SD50.65 for the evaluative subscale). In another vali-
dation study ( Cialdini, Wosinska, Barrett, Butner, & Gornik-Durose, 1999 ), the sample consisted of 235 American
college students and 270 college students from Poland.
Reliability
Internal Consistency
In the original validation study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was .70 for the Korean sample, and .56 for the
German sample ( Bierbrauer et al., 1994 ).
Test/C0Retest
Test/C0retest reliability coefficients are not currently available for the COS.
Validity
Convergent/Concurrent
The COS total score significantly predicted the tendency to consider peer information in response to a request
(r5.13). Participants who were more collectivistic (had higher COS total scores) were more inclined to comply
with a request from a representative from a soft drink company to participate in a marketing survey if all their
peers agreed to participate ( Cialdini et al., 1999 ).
Divergent/Discriminant
Subsequent reanalysis of the data from the Cialdini et al. (1999) study showed that compared with Americans,
the Poles scored more highly on the COS normative subscale only ( MPolish53.56, SD50.43 vs. MAmerican 53.16,
SD50.52). F(1, 503)593.75, p,.001. In contrast, the two cultural samples did not differ in personal collectivism
(MPolish53.81, SD50.59 vs. MAmerican 53.90, SD50.69), F(1, 503)52.70, ns(Zou et al., 2009 ).
In addition, peer information had a greater impact on the Poles’ inclination to comply with a request.
Furthermore, only the COS normative subscale mediated the cultural difference in compliance behaviors (Sobel’s
z52.09, p,.05) ( Zou et al., 2009 ). These results provide evidence for the distinction between the normative and
evaluative aspects of collectivism and attests to the importance of measuring the normative aspects of cultural
values.
Construct/Factor Analytic
Evidence for the construct and factor analytic validity of the COS is not available.640 22. MEASURES OF CROSS-CULTURAL VALUES, PERSONALITY AND BELIEFS
VI. SOCIOCULTURAL INTERACTION AND CONFLICT