Abstract

Korean society has a historical background of valuing groups or communities over individuals for a long time. However, there are currently various discussions regarding this trend. In addition to the Hofstede’s conventional view of individualism and collectivism, and Triandis and Gelfand’s(1998) vertical collectivism-horizontal collectivism, Brewer and Chen(2007) divided collectivism into relational-collectivism and collective-collectivism by culturally subdividing it. This study attempted to explain the Korean culture by combining the vertical-horizontal division of Triandis and Gelfand(1998) and the concept of collective-relational collectivism of Brewer and Chen(2007) in order to analyze Korean culture in depth from a cultural psychological perspective. Through this, it was intended to provide a basic understanding of the relationship culture of the Korean society and to explain the social phenomenon of conflict and coexistence between generations currently arising in Korean society. Accordingly, the culture in Korean society was presented from the perspective of the vertical-relational culture and horizontal-relational culture. Finally, the necessity and possibility of empirical research in the future were presented for this proposal.