05-6

Certain phrases one commonly hears among Americans capture their devotion to individualism: “Do you own thing.” “I did it my way.” “You’ll have to decide that for yourself.” “You made your bed, now (S1) lie in it.” “if you don’t look out for yourself, no one else will.” “Look out for number one.”

Closely (S2) associated with the value they place on individualism is the importance Americans (S3) assign to privacy. Americans assume that people need some time to themselves or some time alone to think about things or recover their (S4) spent psychological energy.

Americans have great (S5) difficulty understanding foreigners who always want to be with another person who dislike being alone.

If the parents can (S6) afford it, each child will have his or her own bedroom, even as an (S7) infant, fixes in a person the notion that…