Horizontal and vertical individualism and achievement values: A multimethod examination of Denmark and the United States

The horizontal and vertical distinction within individualism and collectivism was used as a theoretical framework to predict differences in achievement values across two national cultures: Denmark and the United States. As expected, across multiple methods and informant groups, the United States was found to be more vertically oriented than Denmark and Denmark more horizontally oriented than the United States. These differences in cultural orientations also corresponded to differences in the importance placed on achievement and the display of success. In open-ended responses and quantitative ratings, U.S. individuals discussed the importance of achieving goals more frequently and evaluated achievement values more highly than Danes did. Implications for understanding the cultural antecedents of achievement values are discussed.