In current cultural psychology, the classification of culture according to the community-individual dimension is still the most commonly used classification dimension. There are many definitions of this dimension, in which individualistic culture and community culture are often considered as two poles of the dimension, and the definition of one culture is often placed in a comparative relationship with the other culture. Here, we rely on the statistics of Oyserman, Coon and Kemmelmeier on 170 studies on the community-individual dimension to define and analyze the influence of these cultures on the cultural self [98]. Individualistic culture is often understood as a culture that values “personal” factors, such as personal goals, personal uniqueness, or personal control, and considers “social” as secondary. This worldview affects many psychological processes such as: ego concept, happiness, thinking and problem solving, etc. Particularly with ego concept, individual culture leads to the following characteristics of the ego: 1) The ego image is a positive ego image, creating and maintaining a positive ego is the top priority of each individual; 2) The ego is always associated with personal success, individual uniqueness or positive feelings about oneself; 3) The ego concept is defined based on general characteristics, regardless of circumstances or society. Communal culture is often understood as a culture that values the social nature of human existence, directing people towards the in-group (the group of which they are a member) and away from the out-group (the group of which they are not a member). Communal culture leads to the following characteristics of the communal self: 1) Membership is a central aspect of the communal self concept, that is, the self is defined based on the individual's membership in which social group; 2) The communal self values personality traits that reflect sacrifice for the common purpose of the group and the maintenance of harmonious relationships with close people.
Thus, based on the division of individual culture - community culture, there exists an individual cultural ego and a community cultural ego with distinct characteristics. However, there is no culture that is only individual or only community; just as there is rarely an individual with only an individual cultural ego.
individual without a communal cultural self. Statistics by Oyserman, Coon and Kemmelmeier on studies of individual-communal culture in 50 countries around the world show that no national culture is only one-dimensional, either individual or communal [98]. However, countries differ in which culture is more dominant, that is, whether the country is inclined towards individual culture or communal culture. Similarly, the parallel existence of two individual-communal cultural selves has also been pointed out by many authors, if there is any difference between individuals, it is in which cultural self is more dominant [102].
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Where does Vietnam stand in this cultural dimension? Does the Vietnamese cultural self lean towards the individual cultural self or the communal cultural self? Many domestic and foreign studies agree that Vietnamese culture is a highly communal culture [31]. However, to date, there has only been a single study by CF Rosen (1997) that directly compared Vietnamese students and Anglo-Saxon American students using a validated international scale of communality and individuality [102]. The results showed that Vietnamese students had higher communality scores and lower individuality scores than American students. This result reaffirms that compared to American culture, Vietnamese culture leans towards the communality, and in Vietnamese people the communal cultural self is also more prominent than the individual cultural self.
2.3. Cultural conflict
As analyzed in chapter 1, research on cultural conflict is divided into two main directions. The first direction of research considers cultural conflict as a form of conflict between cultural value systems that individuals have acquired. The second direction of research considers cultural conflict as a form of conflict between cultural egos that have formed in each individual. This thesis is interested in the second direction of research. That is, considering cultural conflict as a form of conflict between cultural egos.
The second approach is built on Baumeister's view of ego conflict. Some typical names in this approach include Ward, Leong, Lin, Phinney, Devich-Navarrro, etc. These researchers use names such as ego conflict, cultural-ethnic ego conflict to refer to the conflict.
only the concept of cultural conflict. Based on Baumeister's theoretical framework of ego conflict, later researchers have studied cultural ego conflict in depth such as: manifestations, scales and factors affecting cultural ego conflict, but they still use Baumeister's definition of ego conflict for cultural conflict research. Baumeister defines: "Ego conflict is a state in which the subject is simultaneously closely attached to two separate and incompatible selves." [57, p.408]
It can be seen that Baumeister's definition highlights the assertion that cultural conflicts arise based on the existence of many different, even opposing, selves, and that these selves must be closely attached to the subject.
If ego conflict is a problem that occurs when an individual has many different selves, then cultural conflict is a problem that occurs when an individual has many different cultural selves. These cultural selves orient the subject's value system, life goals, thoughts, attitudes and behaviors in different directions based on different cultural rules.
As stated above, each individual can have multiple cultural selves, namely the personal cultural selves and the communal cultural selves, but the level of attachment to these cultural selves is different for each person. In people who are closely attached to both the personal cultural selves and the communal cultural selves, cultural conflict can occur because these two cultural selves are contradictory in nature. The definition of internal conflict also indicates that two opposing psychological impulses must have equal intensity to give rise to internal conflict. Thus, cultural conflict will exist in people who are closely attached to both the personal cultural selves and the communal cultural selves, and this attachment to these two selves is at an equal level.
Based on the concept of inner conflict, cultural ego, and the psychological manifestations of cultural conflict as cognition, emotion and behavior, we can give the definition of cultural conflict used in this thesis as follows:
Cultural conflict is a recognizable contradiction between the individual cultural ego and the communal cultural ego coexisting in a subject, expressed through the subject's perception, emotions and behavior.
Baumeister identifies three components of cultural ego conflict: cognition, emotion, and behavior [57]. Cognitive processes (including perception, situation analysis, and decision making) are important processes in the formation and development of the ego, and are also the basis of cultural ego conflict. In people with cultural conflict, the cognitive aspect includes the awareness of opposing aspects of the egos. This awareness is accompanied by a feeling of being torn between different egos and behaviors that arise to resolve the cultural conflict.
2.4. Psychological aspects of cultural conflict in youth
2.4.1. Psychological aspects
In the Vietnamese dictionary, the concept of aspect is defined as follows: Aspect is "a part or side viewed separately from other parts or sides of an object or event" [52, p.481].
Human psychology is a very rich and complex issue. We can study it comprehensively, but we can also study some of its manifestations and aspects. When we study some of the manifestations of human psychology, we are talking about the human psychological aspect. In the thesis topic, the concept of psychological aspect is defined as follows:
The psychological aspect is considered the expressive side of human psychology.
2.4.2. Youth
Up to now, in our country, there has not been a unified concept of youth. According to the Vietnamese Dictionary: “Youth is a young person, in adulthood” [52, p.913]. This concept is very general, has not given a limit on the age of youth as well as pointed out the characteristics of youth.
In our country's legal documents, there is no consensus on the age of youth. In the Vietnam Youth Development Strategy to 2010 approved by the Prime Minister in 2003, youth include those in
The age range is from 15 to 30 years old [cited in 6]. In the Youth Law (2005), it is stated that youth is a citizen from 16 to 30 years old [cited in 6]. These two definitions of youth mainly refer to the age of youth, but even the exact age range is not similar. It can be seen that defining the concept of youth based on age is an important task but not the only criterion. In psychological research in particular and social science research in general, it would be more practical to define youth based on the physical and mental characteristics of this age group.
Raymond J. Corsini's Dictionary of Psychology defines: “Youth is the stage of a man or woman who has passed adolescence and has developed at a high level physically and mentally, moving towards independence from the family, towards career choice, and regular communication partners in their living space” [71].
D. Matsumoto's Dictionary of Psychology defines: “Adolescence is a transitional period between adolescence and adulthood, with characteristic physical, psychological, social, and cultural changes, including the maturation of the genitals and physiological characteristics, the formation of gender behaviors in accordance with cultural customs, the integration of gender into the concept of self, and changes in social roles” [95, p. 18].
The above concepts all aim to identify the outstanding psychological and physiological characteristics of adolescents. In this thesis, we believe that in the study of cultural conflicts in adolescents, the psychological and social characteristics of adolescents play a more important role than physiological characteristics. Research on developmental psychology shows that the psychological characteristics of adolescents are a much higher development of psychological abilities, especially intellectual abilities. Adolescents have the ability to perceive their own thinking processes, which gives them the ability to self-awareness and self-reflection [107]. Therefore, the process of ego development in adolescents is one of the important psychological processes of this age. The inability to identify one's ego is classified by Erikson as one of the serious crises of adolescence.
youth. In addition, youth also have the ability to think in many dimensions, looking at problems from many different angles [107].
The two psychological abilities above - the ability to think multidimensionally and the ability to self-awareness towards ego formation, combined with the desire to learn new things, creativity and independence - are important psychological characteristics that help young people easily access many cultures, easily develop diverse cultural selves, from which cultural conflicts arise.
Based on these psychological and social characteristics, we define the concept of youth used in this thesis as follows:
Adolescence is a transitional stage of development from adolescence to adulthood, characterized by highly developed physical and mental characteristics, of which the most prominent are thinking ability, self-awareness, creative independence and changes in social roles.
2.4.3. Cultural conflicts in youth
Based on the above concepts of "cultural conflict" and "youth", the concept of cultural conflict in youth can be given as follows:
Cultural conflict in youth is a recognizable contradiction between the individual cultural ego and the communal cultural ego that coexists in each youth, expressed through the youth's perception, emotions and behavior.
The above concept has pointed out some characteristics of cultural conflicts in youth as follows:
First, cultural conflict is considered from the individual perspective. Cultural conflict in youth is a form of internal conflict. More specifically, it is a form of ego conflict. The egos that form the conflict are specified as the individual cultural ego and the community cultural ego. The conflict between ego concepts leads to cognitive conflict, emotional ambiguity, and motivates conflict resolution behavior in youth.
Second, cultural conflict in youth arises when two cultural selves coexist in the subject and are closely linked by the subject - youth to a certain extent.
In other words, cultural conflict is a consequence of the process of cultural reception (if young people live in a culturally diverse environment) or the process of cultural adaptation (if young people live in a monocultural environment with the introduction of foreign cultures). Only when young people are exposed to both individual culture and community culture will they form a strong cultural ego. The strength of the two cultural egos must be equivalent for there to be a basis for cultural conflict to occur.
This is a strict condition, because to what extent must the cultural ego be strong enough to cause cultural conflict? Although no author has clearly quantified the strength of the cultural ego in cultural conflict, in reality, studies on cultural conflict in particular and psychological processes related to cultural adaptation in general are often conducted on bicultural people, people who have long-term contact with both cultures and are attached to both cultures. The phenomenon of biculturalism is not uncommon among Vietnamese youth. Vietnamese youth, especially those in urban areas, have the opportunity to be exposed to foreign cultures from a very early age. Foreign cultures exist in cuisine, language, literature, art, and in foreigners living and studying in Vietnam. From a young age, Vietnamese children have been taught foreign languages, especially English, exposed to foreign foods, participated in festivals originating from foreign countries (such as Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter), played with imported toys and listened to foreign fairy tales, watched foreign films, listened to foreign music, and interacted with foreigners (through foreign language centers, in daily life or through their parents' interactions). Foreign cultures become a natural part of children's lives, and later in the lives of young people. Therefore, the customs, habits, ways of thinking, behaviors, and value systems of foreign cultures gradually permeate Vietnamese youth over time. Moreover, young people, with their inherent agility and openness at their developmental age, are more receptive to foreign cultures to suit the demands of modern society. Therefore, it can be said that Vietnamese youth, especially urban youth,
Growing up in a diverse cultural environment, in which not only traditional Vietnamese culture but also many foreign cultures coexist. This is an important premise for the formation of diverse cultural identities in Vietnamese youth.
Studies on modern Vietnamese youth show that Vietnamese youth today have a very diverse system of cultural values. Pham Hong Tung 's survey on youth lifestyle shows that many traditional cultural values are still maintained and promoted by Vietnamese youth, but many values are also declining and being replaced by individual cultural values [48]. According to author Dang Canh Khanh , sociological surveys show that: except for the virtues of diligence, hard work, and the will to strive and practice, which are traditional cultural values of Vietnam that are still maintained and tend to increase, most other values are said to have declined [26]. The values that have changed the most are filial piety (48% of respondents said that this value is worse than before), the tradition of respecting teachers (66.6% said that it is worse than before), and the spirit of solidarity (40.5% said that it is worse than before). This change in values is more intense in cities than in rural areas. However, it cannot be said that rural youth are not affected to some extent by the process of cultural openness. Research by Do Ngoc Khanh and colleagues shows that in family relationships, although rural youth still value traditional values and family discipline, they have begun to learn "Western" and "modern" values such as independence and gender equality [28]. Today's rural youth still respect traditional family values, but they believe that it is not necessary to listen to all instructions and arrangements of parents to be a filial child, but it is important to try to study and take care of one's own life. Thus, the value system of Vietnamese youth in general is changing, not only traditional cultural values, but they are gradually absorbing foreign cultural values, especially individual culture.
Third, cultural conflicts are expressed through three psychological aspects: cognition, emotion and behavior of young people.
Fourth, cultural conflicts among Vietnamese youth have many different characteristics from cultural conflicts among youth in other countries due to the nature of the acculturation process.