argumentative essay about independence and individuality

Essay on Independence And Individuality

Students are often asked to write an essay on Independence And Individuality in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Independence And Individuality

Understanding independence.

Independence means making choices for yourself without others telling you what to do. Like a bird flying alone, it’s about being free to live your life. When you pick your clothes or decide on a game to play, that’s you being independent. It’s important because it helps you grow and learn to trust yourself.

What is Individuality?

Individuality is what makes you special and different from others. It’s your own style and thoughts. Imagine everyone wearing the same hat; it would be boring. Your unique ideas and choices, like a rare hat, make you stand out and be you.

The Power of Being You

When you mix independence with individuality, you become strong and confident. You’re like a superhero with your own powers. By choosing your path and being true to yourself, you can achieve great things. Remember, being independent and individual is about celebrating who you are.

250 Words Essay on Independence And Individuality

What is independence.

Independence means being able to do things on your own, without needing help from others. It’s like when you learn to tie your shoes by yourself. You feel proud and capable because you don’t have to wait for someone to do it for you. Being independent is important because it helps you grow and make your own choices.

Individuality is what makes you special and different from everyone else. It’s your unique mix of likes, dislikes, and talents. Imagine if all your friends liked only one kind of ice cream. It would be boring, right? Your individuality is like having your favorite flavor that’s just yours. It adds variety to the world.

Why Independence Is Important

Being independent helps you become stronger. You learn to solve problems, like figuring out a difficult homework question on your own. It also gives you the freedom to choose what you want to do, whether it’s picking a game to play or deciding what to eat for lunch.

Why Individuality Matters

Your individuality lets you express who you are. It could be through the clothes you wear, the music you enjoy, or the way you decorate your room. When you share your own ideas and style, you make the world more interesting.

Bringing Them Together

Independence and individuality go hand in hand. When you’re independent, you can make choices that reflect your individuality. Both are keys to being happy with who you are and living a life that’s true to yourself. Remember, being different is good, and being able to stand on your own makes you strong.

500 Words Essay on Independence And Individuality

Independence means being able to make choices for yourself and do things without needing help from others. It is like when you learn to tie your shoes by yourself or make a sandwich without anyone’s help. For grown-ups, it means they can make bigger decisions, like where to work or live, without asking for permission or waiting for someone else to tell them what to do.

Understanding Individuality

Individuality is what makes you unique from everyone else. It is the special mix of qualities, likes, and dislikes that makes you, well, you! Just like no two snowflakes are the same, no two people are exactly alike. Your individuality is like your personal fingerprint on the world—it shows who you are and what you stand for.

Independence Helps Individuality Grow

When you have independence, you have the freedom to express your individuality. Imagine you want to paint your room. If you can decide the color without anyone else choosing for you, that choice shows a bit of who you are. When people are free to make their own choices, they can show their true colors, like artists painting on a big, blank canvas.

The Balance Between Getting Help and Being Independent

It’s important to remember that even though independence is good, asking for help is okay too. Everyone needs a little help sometimes, and it doesn’t mean you’re not independent. It’s like when you’re learning to ride a bike. At first, you might need training wheels or someone to hold on, but eventually, you learn to ride on your own. Getting help is part of the journey to doing things by yourself.

Why Individuality is Important

Your individuality is important because it is all about what makes you special. It’s like having your own superpower that nobody else has. When you are true to yourself and show your unique qualities, you add something special to the world that wasn’t there before. It’s like adding a new color to a painting that makes it even more beautiful.

How to Respect Others’ Independence and Individuality

Just as you like to make your own choices and be yourself, it’s important to let others do the same. This means not making fun of someone because they are different or telling them they have to like what you like. When you respect others, you let them be who they are, and that’s a great way to make friends and learn new things.

In the end, independence and individuality are like two peas in a pod. They go together perfectly. Independence lets you be the boss of yourself, and individuality is your secret sauce that makes you stand out. Remember, being independent doesn’t mean you never need help, and being individual doesn’t mean you can’t fit in with others. Both are super important for everyone, and respecting them makes the world a happier place for all of us.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Teaching Text Rhetorically

Integrating Reading and Writing Instruction by John R. Edlund

argumentative essay about independence and individuality

The Declaration of Independence as an Argumentative Essay

The first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence (hereafter called the “Declaration”) is the hook that announces to the reader what the document will do. It argues that “when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,” responsible people will explain why. This is an interesting way to establish ethos at the very beginning, as the writers have been called “the ringleaders of the American revolt” and “a few ambitious, interested, and designing men,” and worse, by such figures as George Campbell , who also called their supporters “deluded fellow subjects.” If responsible people who have “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind” should explain their causes, and they are explaining their causes, they must be responsible people. It is only logical.

It is the second paragraph, however, that is most famous, and deservedly so. It introduces what Aristotle would call an “enthymeme” with five tightly linked assumed premises. However, while assumed premises are often tacit and hidden, in this case the assumptions are overtly and boldly admitted with the phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” simultaneously acknowledging that they are not going to try to prove these claims, but also challenging the reader to dispute them. These assumptions are

that all men are created equal
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government

These are pretty grand assumptions. If we accept them, it follows that what they have to do is show that the British government is destroying the unalienable rights of the colonists to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And this is exactly what they try to do, in 29 paragraphs that read like the whereas clauses of a committee resolution. Though most of the disagreement is with the British parliament, the writers and signers of the Declaration choose to focus their anger on the king, George III. They document a multitude of grievances, including

refusing to pass necessary laws
dissolving legislative bodies that don’t agree with him, or causing them to meet in difficult, inaccessible places
preventing population increase by obstructing the naturalization of foreigners
appointing judges and other officers that work for him instead of the people
keeping a standing army in the colonies in peacetime and making the colonists provide food and lodging for soldiers
preventing the colonies from trading with whomever they want to
taxing the colonies without their consent
depriving the colonists of jury trials and sending them to England for trial on false charges
forcibly recruiting American sailors into the Royal Navy

Blaming George III for all this is clearly a rhetorical move. The king becomes a convenient scapegoat for all this misery, whereas parliament is a more diverse and complex foe. Another reason is that the American revolution pits Enlightenment values against feudal monarchy. In Britain, the parliament provides aspects of democratic rule, but the system still includes the House of Lords and a monarch. The Enlightenment and feudal trappings coexist. The Americans, however, are declaring themselves no longer to be subjects of the king, as well as declaring that “all men are equal,” denying nobility as a concept. This is a big deal.

Having made these arguments, the Declaration concludes that the united colonies are absolved of any allegiance to the British crown and henceforth have all the rights and responsibilities of free and independent states.

Strictly speaking, the argument is perhaps proven, but the initial premises are not. Of course, Englishmen immediately asked how men who owned slaves could believe that all men were created equal. However, charging hypocrisy is not the same as arguing against the premise. One can also argue in favor of tradition and preserving the monarchy, but even at the time, that sounds like arguing against progress and history. Stating that the premises are “self-evident,” which initially looks like an argumentative weakness, turns out to be a rhetorical trap and a brilliant move. It is a very interesting document.

Update: Here is a much more detailed rhetorical analysis of the Declaration with lots of historical context:

The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence by Stephen E. Lucas

Not All Forms of Independence Are Created Equal: Only Being Independent the “Right Way” Is Associated With Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction

Daniela moza.

1 Department of Psychology, West University of Timişoara, Timișoara, Romania

Smaranda Ioana Lawrie

2 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States

Laurențiu P. Maricuțoiu

Alin gavreliuc, heejung s. kim, associated data.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Past research has found a strong and positive association between the independent self-construal and life satisfaction, mediated through self-esteem, in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. In Study 1, we collected data from four countries (the United States, Japan, Romania, and Hungary; N = 736) and replicated these findings in cultures which have received little attention in past research. In Study 2, we treated independence as a multifaceted construct and further examined its relationship with self-esteem and life satisfaction using samples from the United States and Romania ( N = 370). Different ways of being independent are associated with self-esteem and life satisfaction in the two cultures, suggesting that it is not independence as a global concept that predicts self-esteem and life satisfaction, but rather, feeling independent in culturally appropriate ways is a signal that one’s way of being fits in and is valued in one’s context.

Introduction

“The most incredible beauty and the most satisfying way of life come from affirming your own uniqueness.”

Jane Fonda, American actress

“What makes me happy? The fact that I carry my cross by myself.”

Ionut Caragea, Romanian author

A strong and positive association between the independent self-construal and life satisfaction, mediated by self-esteem, has been termed “a pancultural explanation for life satisfaction” ( Kwan et al., 1997 , p. 1038), because it held true in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures ( Kwan et al., 1997 ; Chang et al., 2011 ; Duan et al., 2013 ; Zhang, 2013 ; Yu et al., 2016 ). Life satisfaction, self-esteem, and self-construal are individually linked to a wide array of factors, but the idea of researching this particular “pancultural explanation” originated in the findings of an extensive cross-cultural study ( Diener and Diener, 1995 ), which showed a much stronger correlation between self-esteem and life satisfaction in individualistic cultures compared to collectivistic cultures. Subsequent studies established that the independent self-construal is a crucial, individual-level, cultural ingredient that seems to foster self-esteem universally in individuals ( Singelis et al., 1999 ) with further positive implications for life satisfaction across cultures ( Kwan et al., 1997 ). The independent self-construal (or independence) represents the tendency of individuals to define themselves by their unique configuration of internal attributes and to focus on discovering and expressing their distinct potential ( Markus and Kitayama, 1991 ). Independence is more strongly encouraged in individualistic cultures, whereas in collectivistic cultures, interdependence is more strongly encouraged ( Markus and Kitayama, 1991 ); however, members of both types of cultures have both types of self-construals ( Singelis, 1994 ), but only independence is associated with a stronger sense of self-worth and greater life satisfaction in both cultural settings ( Kwan et al., 1997 ). Based on such pancultural findings, independence has been conceptualized and measured as a unidimensional construct and assumed to be experienced and expressed in the same way across all cultures ( Singelis, 1994 ; Gudykunst et al., 1996 ). Recent approaches to the study of culture find, however, that both independence and interdependence, along with the related cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism, are more varied than previously assumed and that different cultures favor different ways of being independent or interdependent (see Kusserow, 1999 ; Vignoles et al., 2016 ; Campos and Kim, 2017 ; Kim and Lawrie, 2019 ).

These new findings raise the question of whether or not there is any cultural diversity in the association between independence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. If different shades of independence are valued, experienced, and expressed across cultures, it is possible that being independent in ways that are prescribed and valued by one’s culture is associated with increased self-esteem and thus further promotes life satisfaction, but being independent in ways that are not valued by one’s culture is not associated with increased self-esteem. The present research is an attempt to test explicitly whether or not different ways of being independent are more or less linked to self-esteem and, indirectly, to life satisfaction in different cultures.

The Independence — Life Satisfaction Link

There are two possible theoretical perspectives that can explain the association between independence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. The first perspective is that independence as a unidimensional construct contributes to self-esteem and life satisfaction across different cultures. This has been the dominant assumption in previous research ( Heine et al., 1999 ). Empirical evidence showed that independence entails the selection of internal (as opposed to social) information in life-satisfaction judgments ( Suh et al., 2008 ), specifically information that promotes and enhances the self ( Heine et al., 1999 ; Lee et al., 2000 ; Rosopa et al., 2016 ) and fosters the agentic pursuit ( Wojciszke and Bialobrzeska, 2014 ) of independent hedonic goals ( Oishi and Diener, 2001 ). The self-esteem of highly independent individuals will therefore reflect their perceived success at achieving their independent, agentic, self-promoting, hedonic goals, and consequently, they would be more satisfied with life.

The second theoretical perspective is in line with research findings suggesting that people ascribe higher value to options (e.g., an object or an activity) that are compatible with their goal orientation because they feel “right” due to a high regulatory fit ( Higgins et al., 2003 ; Higgins, 2005 ). Similarly, fitting in with one’s culture, or experiencing a culture-person fit, has positive implications for self-esteem and well-being (e.g., Leary and Baumeister, 2000 ; De Leersnyder et al., 2015 ; Cho et al., 2018 ). According to this view, even if the overall link between the independent self and life satisfaction is robust across cultures, there may be cultural differences in the “right” way of being independent that lead to increased self-esteem. That is, if different ways of being independent are highlighted and emphasized in different cultures, then being independent in culturally appropriate ways should have positive implications for self-esteem and, indirectly, for life satisfaction. However, being independent in ways that are less emphasized in one’s culture (culturally inappropriate ways) should have few positive implications and possibly even some negative implications for self-esteem and, indirectly, for life satisfaction ( Pedrotti and Edwards, 2009 ; Ryder et al., 2011 ; De Leersnyder et al., 2014 , but see also Ward et al., 2004 ). Although arguing for the universal importance of cultural fit for self-esteem and life satisfaction, this perspective also allows room for cultural differences in the specific content and definition of independence that can bring about a sense of cultural fit.

Independence as a Multidimensional Concept

There are different ways to experience and exercise independence, and different cultures may emphasize different ways of being independent. For example, one may feel good about oneself when one stands out and experiences oneself as unique and different; alternatively, one may feel good about oneself when one does not have to rely on anyone else and can take care of oneself.

The classification of cultures based on the individualism-collectivism cultural dimensions ( Hofstede et al., 2010 ) and the independent-interdependent self-construal ( Markus and Kitayama, 1991 ) has provided the theoretical framework for a tremendous amount of research which, in the past several decades, has revealed that psychological processes, including emotions, motivations, and cognitions, are profoundly influenced by culture. Despite the great empirical utility of dividing cultures according to these binary cultural dimensions, this approach has also reduced the complexity and diversity of cultures to an oversimplified contrast between individualistic and collectivistic, independent and interdependent, and East and West. One way that this simple dichotomy between “independence” and “interdependence” has been maintained has been through the widespread use of the Singelis’s self-construal scale (1994), which measures the two dimensions as sperate and distinct constructs. This binary approach has remained the de-facto approach despite noteworthy efforts by several researchers to develop more nuanced cultural models of self, such as Gabriel and Gardner (1999) , Kashima and Hardie (2000) and Harb and Smith (2008) . However, interestingly, most of these models nuanced only interdependence and kept independence as a unitary dimension. A few models did acknowledge different aspects of the autonomy implied by independence (e.g., Singelis et al., 1995 ; Triandis and Gelfand, 1998 ; Kagitcibasi, 2005 ), but, in general, independence has been viewed as a monolithic concept in contrast to a more diversified view of interdependence. At the same time, research conducted looking at the different forms of interdependence demonstrates the value of finer-grained approaches to cultural constructs. Campos and Kim (2017) , for example, compared the types of collectivism found in East Asian and Latin American cultures. Although both cultural regions encourage an interdependent view of the self, how interdependence is maintained in relationships is quite different. Similarly, Vignoles et al. (2016) deconstructed both independence and interdependence into their constituent facets and developed a model that distinguishes between different ways of being independent and interdependent across seven different dimensions of functioning (e.g., making decisions, looking after oneself, and communicating with others). The seven dimensions are bipolar in nature, each having an independent pole and an interdependent pole. Initial application of the survey in over 30 countries showed that the seven dimensions did not cluster together into a higher-order dimension of independence and interdependence. Therefore, the conceptualization promoted by Singelis’s measure does not accurately and sufficiently characterize cultural variation in self-construal. Instead, as research by Vignoles et al. (2016) and others suggests, different ways of being independent and interdependent are valued in different cultures. In the current set of studies, we build and expand on this work, testing not only if there are different ways of being independent in different cultures but also if there are psychological implications associated with being or not being independent in ways prescribed by one’s culture.

Whereas previous studies have linked independence, as a unidimensional single factor construct, to self-esteem and life satisfaction, in the current studies, we examine the notion of independence to determine if different aspects of independence are associated with self-esteem and life satisfaction in different cultures. Previous studies found a pancultural explanation, but using a more nuanced approach, we predicted that more cultural differences would emerge. We suggest that it is not independence as a large global concept that predicts self-esteem and, indirectly, life satisfaction, but rather, feeling independent in culturally appropriate ways is a signal that one’s way of being oneself fits in and is valued in one’s context.

Overview of the Current Research

The current research is made up of two studies. In Study 1, we sought to confirm that the previously found relationship between the single-factor measure of independent self-construal typically used in the literature (i.e., Singelis, 1994 ), self-esteem, and life satisfaction would hold true in multiple cultures, even cultures that have previously received scant attention in empirical research.

In Study 2, we used Vignoles et al. (2016) model of self-construal to explore further the relationship between independence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. Using samples from two cultures (the United States and Romania), we examined whether treating independence as a multifaceted construct would reveal considerable variability in the meaning of independence across cultures as well as the implications of different ways of being independent on psychological outcomes such as life satisfaction.

Study 1: The Relationship Between Unidimensional Independence, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction in Four Cultures

The aim of Study 1 was to test the replicability of previous findings on the link between independence and life satisfaction, mediated by increased self-esteem ( Kwan et al., 1997 ) in cultures that have previously received little empirical attention. To this end, we collected data from three continents and four countries varying on the individualism vs. collectivism index ( Hofstede et al., 2010 ): the United States, 91; Hungary, 80; Japan, 46; and Romania, 30. In addition to the Western individualistic culture (the United States) and the East-Asian collectivistic culture, which have received considerable attention in previous culture research, we therefore included in our study two understudied Eastern European culture – one individualistic (Hungary) and one collectivistic (Romania). Both Hungary and Romania are ex-socialist countries and the socialist regimes strongly promoted collectivism. However, in Hungary, “individualism which was suppressed or kept under control surfaced itself with ‘double strength’ after the political changes when celebrating individualism became the norm ( Fülöp et al., 2019 , p. 86).” The research reviewed and conducted by Fülöp et al. (2019) suggests that Hungarians, both adults and adolescents, are characterized by high levels of independence. In Romania, instead, the struggle to shake off the legacies of the past regime lead to what Gavreliuc (2011) has termed “autarchic individualism,” a rather ambivalent culture, at the same time individualistic and collectivistic. Mixed results were obtained in various studies using measures of independence, some showing high levels of independence, others low or medium level of independence, irrespective of age ( Gavreliuc, 2012 ; see also David, 2015 ; Moza, 2018 for reviews). However, David (2015) concluded that a consistent tendency toward independence can be seen among the young and educated (i.e., students). Irrespective of actual levels of independence, independences still has a positive relationship with self-esteem and well-being as has been documented in previous literature. Therefore, we predicted that the relationship between independence and life satisfaction, mediated through self-esteem, would be culturally invariant.

Materials and Methods

Participants and procedure.

Participants were 736 undergraduate students, recruited via convenience sampling, from universities in the United States, Romania, Japan, and Hungary. They took part in the study for course credit. The sample consisted of 164 United States (72.6% females; M age = 20.17, SD age = 3.58), 199 Hungarian (86.4% females; M age = 23.83, SD age = 7.47), 277 Romanian (79.8% females; M age = 21.83, SD age = 4.80), and 96 Japanese (44.8% females; M age = 18.97, SD age = 1.03) students.

Independent and interdependent self-construals were measured with the popular Singelis (1994) self-construal scale. Fifteen items were used to measure the independent self-construal (e.g., I enjoy being unique and different from others in many respects) and 15 items were used to measure the interdependent self-construal (e.g., “I feel good when I cooperate with others”). Participants rated each item on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicated higher levels of independent self-construal ( α = 0.74 for the United States sample; α = 0.72 for the Hungarian sample; α = 0.74 for the Romanian sample, and α = 0.78 for the Japanese sample) and of interdependent self-construal ( α = 0.72 the United States sample; α = 0.88 for the Hungarian sample; α = 0.86 for the Romanian sample, and α = 0.71 for the Japanese sample).

Self-esteem was measured with the Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale. The scale consists of 10 items (e.g., “I feel that I have a number of good qualities”). Participants rated each item on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicated higher self-esteem ( α = 0.91 for the United States sample; α = 0.72 for the Hungarian sample; α = 0.86 for the Romanian sample, and α = 0.85 for the Japanese sample).

Life satisfaction was measured with the Satisfaction with Life Scale ( Diener et al., 1985 ). The scale consists of five items (e.g., I am satisfied with my life). Participants rated each item on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicated higher life satisfaction ( α = 0.90 for the United States sample; α = 0.82 for the Hungarian sample; α = 0.79 for the Romanian sample, and α = 0.85 for the Japanese sample).

Demographic information was obtained on age and gender. Subjective socioeconomic status was measured with the MacArthur pictorial scale ( Adler et al., 2000 ). Participants marked their rung in society compared to others in their environment.

Analytic Approach

Data analysis comprised of four distinct stages: (a) computing descriptive statistics, conducting correlation and ANOVA analyses; (b) performing multi-group SEM to test the mediation model shown in Figure 1 ; (c) performing bootstrap procedures to test the indirect effects in the mediation model; and (d) testing the invariance of the mediation model as well as post-hoc slope comparisons to determine the paths that were significantly different in the four samples.

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The path model of the relationships between independent and interdependent self-construal, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in all four cultures. In this figure, the values shown are standardized path coefficients; the statistically significant coefficients are shown in bold. Continuous lines represent significant paths in at least one sample ( p < 0.05), whereas the interrupted line represents non-significant path ( p > 0.05). US, United States sample; HU, Hungarian sample; RO, Romanian sample; JP, Japanese sample.

Main analyses were performed using SEM in Amos 20 ( Arbuckle, 2011 ) and the maximum likelihood estimation method. Gender, age, and subjective socioeconomic status were included as covariates. All variables were identified as observed variables. We decided to include subjective socioeconomic status as a control variable due to its high correlations with both self-esteem (e.g., Twenge and Campbell, 2002 ) and life satisfaction (e.g., Anderson et al., 2012 ).

Structural models were evaluated using a constellation of goodness-of-fit indices as recommended by Hu and Bentler (1999) , namely the model chi-square, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI – values above 0.95 indicate good fit), the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA – values below 0.06 indicate good fit), and the Standardized Root Mean-square Residual (SRMR – values below 0.08 indicate good fit).

To test the hypothesized mediating effects of self-esteem in the link between self-construals and life satisfaction in a SEM framework, we analyzed the indirect effects of self-construals on life satisfaction using bootstrap functions with 5,000 bootstrap samples and 95% confidence intervals. We used Zhao et al. (2010) mediation typology to distinguish between: (a) complimentary mediation where both the mediated and direct effect exist and point in the same direction, (b) competitive mediation where both mediated and direct effect exist but point in opposite directions, (c) indirect-only mediation where mediation exists but there is no direct effect (d) direct-only non-mediation where only a direct effect exists, and (e) no-effect non-mediation where neither direct nor indirect effect exist.

To test the invariance of the model within the multigroup modeling framework, we constrained the paths of the model to be equal across the four groups and compared this restricted model to a model in which the paths were freely estimated. We examined the change in χ 2 index when cross-group constraints were imposed on the model. In addition, we used ΔCFI as a comparative index, because Δ χ 2 can be affected by sample size ( Cheung and Rensvold, 2002 ). A significant Δ χ 2 and/or a value of ΔCFI smaller than or equal to −0.01 indicates that the fit of the restricted model was significantly worse than the fit of the nonrestricted model, in which case the paths of the model differ significantly across the four groups ( Cheung and Rensvold, 2002 ). The test of the differences between the four groups was performed by using the “Group Differences” tool within the “Stats Tools Package” ( Gaskin, 2016 ). A significant z -score indicated significant differences between the groups.

Measurement Invariance

Measurement invariance was tested in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Specifically, we tested and established configural, metric, and scalar invariance of each of the three scales. We used the criteria suggested by Chen (2007) to evaluate model fit: ΔCFI smaller than −0.01, ΔRMSEA smaller than 0.015, and ΔSRMR smaller than 0.030. Initial confirmatory analyses yielded small values in the case of discrepancy indices (i.e., CFI and TLI), while fit indices based on residuals (i.e., RMSEA and SRMR) indicated good fit. Based on the conclusions formulated by Kenny et al. (2015) , we computed the RMSEA of the null model (i.e., nullRMSEA index) to investigate whether discrepancy indices are adequate for our confirmatory models. Kenny et al. (2015) concluded that discrepancy indices are not valid indicators of fit when the nullRMSEA index is too small (i.e., values below 0.158). The results of the tests of measurement invariance for the three scales in Study 1 are presented in Table 1 .

Tests of measurement invariance for the scales in Study 1.

N = 736; United States sample n = 164; Hungarian sample n = 199; Romanian sample n = 277; Japanese sample n = 96; ⱡ not valid indicators of fit when the nullRMSEA index is too small (i.e., values below 0.158, Kenny et al., 2015 ).

Descriptive statistics and the results of one-way ANOVA with post-hoc comparisons between the four cultural samples for the variables in the study are presented in Table 2 .

Results of one-way ANOVA with post-hoc comparisons between the four cultural groups for the variables in the Study 1 model.

IND SC, independent self-construal; INTER SC, interdependent self-construal; SE, self-esteem; LS, life satisfaction; US, American sample; HU, Hungarian sample; RO, Romanian sample; JP, Japanese sample; M, mean; SD, standard deviation; p , p value of the post hoc comparisons using the Hochberg’s GT2 test for independent self-construal and Games-Howell test for the other three. Levene’s test of homogeneity of variance for independent self-construal was not statistically significant; we therefore used so Hochberg’s GT2 test for post-hoc comparisons, because we had unequal groups and equal variances on this variable. For the other three variables, Levene’s test of homogeneity of variance was statistically significant; we considered them as having unequal variances and therefore used the Games-Howell test for post-hoc comparisons.

Table 3 presents the bivariate correlations between the variables in each cultural group.

Bivariate correlations between all variables in the study in all four cultural samples in Study 1.

SSES, subjective socio-economic status.

Based on the results of the preliminary analyses, we initially tested the model presented in Figure 1 without a path from interdependence to life satisfaction because the relationship was not statistically significant in any of the four cultures. The fit indices of this initial model were modest [ χ 2 (40) = 72.51, p = 0.001; CFI = 0.931; SRMR = 0.073, RMSEA = 0.033]. Next, we added an additional path from interdependence to life satisfaction in a second model based on both previous empirical findings (e.g., Kwan et al., 1997 ; Singelis et al., 1999 ) and on methodological recommendations ( Kline, 2016 ). This model (see Figure 1 ) showed improved fit over the initial model [ χ 2 (40) = 54.07, p = 0.068; CFI = 0.970; SRMR = 0.067, RMSEA = 0.022].

The model was not the same across our four cultures. The results of slope comparisons are shown in Table 4 .

Differences in the paths of the model between the four cultural samples in Study 1.

IND SC, independent self-construal; INTER SC, interdependent self-construal; SE, self-esteem; LS, life satisfaction; US, United States sample; HU, Hungarian sample; RO, Romanian sample; JP, Japanese sample; Epc, estimate path coefficient.

The relationship between self-esteem and life satisfaction was significantly stronger in the United States and Hungarian samples compared to the Romanian and Japanese samples. We found evidence for an indirect-only mediation between independent self-construal, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in all four samples. In other words, independent self-construal has no direct relationship with life satisfaction but only a relationship mediated by self-esteem. In addition, we found evidence for direct-only nonmediation in our United States sample, competitive mediation in our Hungarian sample, indirect-only mediation in our Romanian sample, and no-effect nonmediation in our Japanese sample. The direct, indirect, and total effects of independent and interdependent self-construals on life satisfaction in the four cultural samples are presented in Table 5 .

Direct, indirect, and total effects of independent and interdependent self-construals on life satisfaction in all four cultural samples in Study 1.

IND SC, independent self-construal; INTER SC, interdependent self-construal; B(SE) and β (SE) represent unstandardized (B) and standardized ( β ) coefficients followed by standard errors; C.I. are presented in square brackets and represent 95% bias corrected bootstrap confidence intervals; statistical significance (i.e., a bootstrap approximation obtained by constructing two-sided bias-corrected confidence intervals) is indicated by superscripts.

Study 1 results replicated previous findings ( Kwan et al., 1997 ; Chang et al., 2011 ; Duan et al., 2013 ; Yu et al., 2016 ), showing that unidimensional independence and life satisfaction are positively and indirectly related, by self-esteem mediating the relationship. A potential explanation of this mediation mechanism is provided by Markus and Kitayama (1991) , who argued that individuals’ own evaluation of their self-worth, which is strongly connected with their life satisfaction, is dependent on the cultural standards encompassed in their self-construal. Our results confirmed the invariance of this mediated relationship in individualistic and collectivistic cultures that have received little attention in past empirical research, such as Hungary and Romania, in addition to well-studied cultures such as the United States and Japan.

Study 2: Dissecting Independence—An Analysis of Aspects of Independence Associated With Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction in the United States and Romania

In Study 2, we focused more in depth on two of the countries from Study 1 – the United States and Romania. In Study 1, we established that in both of these cultures, unidimensional independence predicts life satisfaction, and this is partially mediated through self-esteem. Our intent for Study 2 was to see if taking a more nuanced approach and using a new multidimensional measure of independence would illuminate differences between the two cultures.

Previous ethnographic research conducted with European-American parents in different socioeconomic stratums of New York City found that all of the American parents, regardless of family income, embraced an independent view of the self ( Kusserow, 1999 ), but independence meant something very different for lower- and higher-class families. For families of lower SES that had more daily struggle, independence was associated with being tough and self-reliant, but for families of higher SES, independence was associated with developing a unique sense of self. We expected these same types of results at the country level. Indeed, consistent with this theorizing, previous research has shown that in American culture, there is a strong emphasis on self-expression and personal uniqueness ( Kim and Markus, 1999 ; Kim and Sherman, 2007 ) to the extent that American individualism has been called “expressive individualism” ( Bellah et al., 1985 ). In Romanian culture, although uniqueness is also valued, other characteristics of hard independence, such as self-reliance, consistency, and self-direction are equally valued as uniqueness ( Gavreliuc and Ciobotă, 2013 ). Thus, we predicted that in Romania, a country that is poorer and has dealt with much more upheaval and uncertainty in its recent past (including the collapse of communism and a tumultuous transition to a democracy), aspects of independence that would be valued and associated with self-esteem and life satisfaction would be related to being tough and self-reliant. On the other hand, we expected that in the United States, a relatively wealthier and more stable environment, aspects of independence associated with being unique and standing out would be associated with self-esteem and life satisfaction.

Data was collected from a convenience sample of 370 participants. They were 203 Romanian and 167 undergraduate psychology students in the United States who received course credit or extra credit for participating in the study. In the Romanian sample, the mean age was 19.80 years ( SD = 1.41), 66.5% were females. In the United States sample, 11 participants were excluded from the analyses because they were not fully enculturated in the United States culture (i.e., they were born in another country and immigrated in the United States after they were 5 years old). The mean age of the remaining 156 participants included in the analyses was 18.71 years ( SD = 1.27), and 64.7% were females.

Independent and interdependent self-construals were measured with the 62-item version of the seven-factor self-construal scale recently developed by Vignoles et al. (2016) . Participants indicated the extent to which each of 62 items described them on a nine-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 9 (exactly). The scale includes seven sub-scales reflecting ways of viewing the self as independent of others or interdependent with others with respect to different domains of functioning. Specifically, (1) self-containment vs. connectedness to others with respect to experiencing the self (e.g., “Your happiness is independent from the happiness of your family”; α = 0.70 for the United States sample; α = 0.75 for the Romanian sample), (2) self-direction vs. receptiveness to influence with respect to making decisions (e.g., “You usually decide on your own actions, rather than follow others’ expectations”; α = 0.77 for the United States sample; α = 0.76 for the Romanian sample), (3) difference vs. similarity reflects the ways of viewing the self as independent vs. interdependent with respect to defining the self (e.g., “You see yourself as different from most people”; α = 0.83 for the United States sample; α = 0.76 the Romanian sample), (4) self-reliance vs. dependence on others with respect to looking after oneself (e.g., “You prefer to rely completely on yourself rather than depend on others”; α = 0.79 for the United States sample; α = 0.76 the Romanian sample), (5) consistency vs. variability with respect to moving between contexts (e.g., “You behave the same way at home and in public”; α = 0.89 for the United States sample; α = 0.81 for the Romanian sample), (6) self-expression vs. harmony with respect to communicating with others (e.g., “You prefer to say what you are thinking, even if it is inappropriate for the situation”; α = 0.78 for the United States sample; α = 0.74 for the Romanian sample), and (7) self-interest vs. commitment to others with respect to dealing with conflicting interests (e.g., “Your own success is very important to you, even if it disrupts your friendships”; α = 0.70 for the United States sample; α = 0.76 for the Romanian sample). Each sub-scale is composed of a certain number of items tapping the independent way of viewing the self and a number of items tapping the interdependent way. Items for both the independent pole and for the interdependent pole of each sub-scale were positively phrased, but conceptual reversals of each other (e.g., consistency: “You behave the same way at home and in public” vs. variability: “You see yourself differently in different social environments”). Items tapping the interdependent self-views were reverse coded. Higher scores on each dimension indicate a higher independent view of the self and lower scores a higher interdependent self-view.

As in Study 1, self-esteem was measured with Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale ( α = 0.90 for the United States sample; α = 0.88 for the Romanian sample) and life satisfaction was measured with the Satisfaction with Life Scale ( Diener et al., 1985 ; α = 0.88 for the United States sample; α = 0.89 for the Romanian sample). Also, as in Study 1, we collected data on age, gender, and subjective socio-economic status.

The analytic approach was similar to the approach used in Study 1, except for the fact that the model we tested is based on seven-dimensional self-construal and includes only two samples.

Measurement invariance was tested in the same way as for the scales in Study 1. The results of the tests of measurement invariance for the three scales in Study 2 are presented in Table 6 . Both metric and scalar measurement invariance was achieved, allowing for cross-cultural comparisons using these measures.

Tests of measurement invariance for the scales in Study 2.

N = 359; United States sample n = 156; Romanian sample n = 203; ⱡ not valid indicators of fit when the nullRMSEA index is too small (i.e., values below 0.158, Kenny et al., 2015 ).

Descriptive statistics and the results of t -tests for differences between the United States and Romanian samples for the variables in the study are presented in Table 7 .

Means, SD, and t -tests for differences between the United States and Romanian samples for the variables in the Study 2.

US, American sample; RO, Romanian sample.

Table 8 presents the bivariate correlations between the variables in each sample.

Bivariate correlations between all variables in Study 2 by each culture.

The correlation coefficients of United States sample are presented on the top-right side of the diagonal; the correlation coefficients of Romanian sample are shown on the down-left side of the diagonal; Diff_Sim, Difference vs. Similarity; Cont_Conn, Self-containment vs. Connection to others; Dir_Rec, Self-direction vs. Receptiveness to influence; Rel_Dep, Self-reliance vs. Dependence on others; Exp_Har, Self-expression vs. Harmony; Int_Comm, Self-interest vs. Commitment to others; Cons_Var, Consistency vs. Variability; SSES, Subjective Socio-economic Status; Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the United States sample are presented on the left side and for the Romanian sample, on the right side.

We initially built a path model, which included all the paths from the self-construal dimensions to self-esteem and to life satisfaction for which the correlations were statistically significant in at least one sample. This initial model also included all the significant correlations between the different self-construal dimensions. The model showed an excellent fit [ χ 2 = 30.74, df = 22, p = 101; CFI = 0.990; SRMR = 0.041; RMSEA = 0.033 CI 10% (0.000, 0.059)]; however, the direct paths from the self-construal dimensions of self-direction vs. receptiveness to influence and self-interest vs. commitment to others and self-esteem, and between the self-construal dimension of difference vs. similarity and life satisfaction were non-significant in both cultural groups and were thus removed in the subsequent model. The modified model ( Figure 2 ) had an excellent fit, slightly improved over the initial model [ χ 2 = 39.52, df = 32, p = 0.169; CFI = 0.991; SRMR = 0.040; RMSEA = 0.026 CI 10% (0.000, 0.049)]. As predicted, the model was different across cultures.

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Object name is fpsyg-11-606354-g002.jpg

Path model of the relationships between self-construal dimensions, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. In this figure, the values shown are standardized path coefficients. The paths that were not statistically significant in at least one sample are not showed; the statistically significant coefficients are shown in bold; US, United States sample; RO, Romanian sample.

The differences in the paths of the model between the two cultural samples are shown in Figure 2 (see also Table 9 ).

Differences in the paths of the model between the two cultural samples in Study 2.

Epc, estimate path coefficient; z , the Z (Fisher) test.

Next, we tested the indirect effects of the self-construal dimensions on life satisfaction through self-esteem (indirect-only mediation, where mediation exists but there is no direct effect, Zhao et al., 2010 ). In the United States sample, two self-construal dimensions had statistically significant positive indirect effects on life satisfaction, namely difference vs. similarity [ B = 0.15(0.049), 95% CI (0.06, 0.25), p < 0.01; β = 0.15(0.049), 95% CI (0.06, 0.25), p < 0.01] and consistency vs. variability ( B = 0.10(0.039), 95% CI [0.03, 0.18], p < 0.01; β = 0.13(0.049), 95% CI [0.04, 0.33], p < 0.01). In the Romanian sample, there were three self-construal dimensions that had positive indirect effects on life satisfaction, namely self-reliance vs. dependence on others ( B = 0.09(0.039), 95% CI [0.01, 0.17], p < 0.05; β = 0.09(0.040), 95% CI [0.01, 0.17], p < 0.05), consistency vs. variability ( B = 0.14 (0.037), 95% CI [0.07, 0.22], p < 0.001; β = 0.16(0.042), 95% CI [0.09, 0.25], p < 0.001), and self-expression vs. harmony ( B = 0.09 (0.041), 95% CI [0.00, 0.17], p < 0.05; β = 0.09(0.041), 95% CI [0.00, 0.17], p < 0.05).

We then tested direct-only nonmediation, where only a direct effect exists between self-construal dimensions and life satisfaction, in each cultural sample. As shown in Figure 2 , four self-construal dimensions predicted life satisfaction directly. Only one of these dimensions predicted life satisfaction positively, and only in the United States sample, and that is self-expression vs. harmony [ B = 0.13(0.057), 95% CI (0.01, 0.24), p < 0.05; β = 0.13(0.058), 95% CI (0.01, 0.24), p < 0.05]. The other predictors were negative. This means that a higher level of the independent pole of a self-construal dimension was associated with lower life satisfaction, whereas a higher level of the interdependent pole of the same dimension was associated with higher life satisfaction. There was only one dimension that predicted life satisfaction similarly, and negatively, in both cultures, namely self-containment vs. connectedness to others [the United States sample: B = −0.16 (0.082), 95% CI (−0.32, −0.01), p < 0.05; β = −0.13(0.069), 95% CI (−0.27, −0.00), p < 0.05; Romanian sample: B = −0.14 (0.076), 95% CI (−0.30, −0.00), p < 0.05; β = −0.12(0.062), 95% CI [−0.24, −0.00], p < 0.05). The dimension self-direction vs. receptiveness to influence predicted life satisfaction negatively only in the United States sample [ B = −0.17 (0.067), 95% CI (−0.30, −0.03), p < 0.05; β = −0.16(0.063), 95% CI (−0.28, −0.03), p < 0.05]. The dimension self-interest vs. commitment to others predicted life satisfaction negatively only in the Romanian sample [ B = −0.21 (0.056), 95% CI (−0.31, −0.09), p = 0.001; β = −0.22(0.059), 95% CI (−0.32, −0.09), p = 0.001].

Study 2 provides initial evidence suggesting that there is more cultural diversity in the link between independence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction than previously thought. Interestingly, although the commonly used unidimensional measure of independence (i.e., Singelis, 1994 ) was a positive predictor of self-esteem and, indirectly, of life satisfaction in both Romania and the United States in Study 1, when using a more nuanced approach in Study 2, we found two sets of significant differences between the two cultural samples in the specific ways of being independent that are associated with self-esteem and life satisfaction. First, in the relationship between self-construal and self-esteem, there were significant differences at the level of two self-construal dimensions. The self-construal dimension linked to self-esteem in the United States sample, but not in the Romanian sample was difference vs. similarity, whereas the dimension linked to self-esteem in the Romanian sample, but not in the United States sample was self-reliance vs. dependence on others. These results are in line with previous research showing that for Americans, discovering and expressing personal uniqueness is a normative cultural task ( Kim and Markus, 1999 ; Kim and Sherman, 2007 ). For Romanians, instead, being self-reliant is normative, especially among young and educated adults ( Gavreliuc and Ciobotă, 2013 ) who increasingly tend to take their fate into their own hands in order to create a better life for themselves compared to their parents. For instance, Sandu (2010) has argued that the participation of Romanians in the massive wave of migration for better work opportunities has led to increased self-esteem among those who have managed to be self-reliant and improve their standards of living.

Second, in the relationship between self-construal and life satisfaction, there were differences at the level of two other self-construal dimensions. Specifically, the self-construal dimension linked to life satisfaction in the United States sample, but not in the Romanian sample was self-direction vs. receptiveness to influence, whereas the dimension linked to life satisfaction in the Romanian sample, but not in the United States sample, was self-interest vs. commitment to others. These relationships were negative, meaning that high self-direction in the United States and high self-interest in Romania were related to lower life satisfaction, whereas high receptiveness to influence in the United States and high commitment to others in Romania were related to higher life satisfaction. These were rather unexpected findings and not in line with previous findings for either American or Romanian cultures. However, previous research using the unidimensional model of self-construal found direct positive relationships between the interdependent self-construal and life satisfaction in both collectivistic and individualistic cultures (e.g., Hong Kong – Kwan et al., 1997 ; United States – Ross and Murdock, 2014 ). Our results suggest that in the same way that different ways of being independent are related to life satisfaction indirectly, through increased self-esteem, different ways of being interdependent can also be related directly to life satisfaction in different cultures.

General Discussion

Previous empirical work has found a positive association between the independent self-construal and life satisfaction, mediated through self-esteem in many different cultures. Based on this research, the assumption in the literature has long been that the relationship between independence and life satisfaction is mediated by self-esteem and is universally the same and cross-culturally invariant. Employing a commonly used unidimensional measure of independence (i.e., Singelis, 1994 ) in Study 1, we tested this assumption and replicated the findings in four different cultures, including Romania and Hungary, which have received scant attention in past research. In Study 2, however, using a more nuanced approach including Vignoles et al. (2016) newly developed seven-dimension self-construal model, we expected to find much more cultural variability in the association between independence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. The results were in line with these expectations. In contrast with the culturally invariant model in Study 1, the model in Study 2 showed significant cultural differences in the relationship between two self-construal dimensions (i.e., difference vs. similarity – significant only in the United States sample; self-reliance vs. dependence on others – significant only in the Romanian sample) and self-esteem and in the relationship between two other self-construal dimensions and life satisfaction (i.e., self-direction vs. receptiveness to influence – significant only in the United States sample; self-interest vs. commitment to others – significant only in the Romanian sample).

Our two studies yielded three main sets of relevant findings. First, when measured unidimensionally, independence is linked to life satisfaction through self-esteem in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. This finding suggests that there is a universal mechanism by which independence promotes life satisfaction by enhancing individuals’ sense of self-esteem. The second set of findings form out research, however, suggest that there are both common (e.g., consistency vs. variability in both the United States and Romania) and distinct ways of being independent that are valued across different cultures and associated with self-esteem and life satisfaction (e.g., difference vs. similarity in United States and self-reliance vs. dependence on others in Romania). A potential explanation for the relationships between self-construal dimensions and self-esteem that are common among different cultures is that they might be based on universal human motivations. For example, the finding that individuals who tend to behave in accordance with their self-concept and strive to keep their self-views intact (i.e., increased consistency) also have better evaluations of their self-worth (i.e., increased self-esteem) might be a universal rather than a culturally-specific association, because it underlies a basic human motivation ( Elliott, 1986 ; Suh, 2002 ). For instance, Church et al. (2014) found that consistency was positively related to well-being in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Another potential explanation is the existence of common cultural values and norms regarding appropriate ways of being independent ( Suh et al., 2008 ) in the cultures in which the same relationships between ways of being independent and self-esteem hold true. As a consequence, individuals possessing culturally appropriate ways of being independent would experience higher cultural fit, with positive effects on their sense of self-worth and, indirectly, on their life satisfaction ( Suh et al., 2008 ; Pedrotti and Edwards, 2009 ; Ryder et al., 2011 ; De Leersnyder et al., 2014 ). This same explanation can be applied to the findings that showed cultural differences in the relationship between self-construal and self-esteem, such as the positive relationship between difference vs. similarity and self-esteem in our United States sample and between self-reliance vs. dependence on others in our Romanian sample. Americans who view themselves as unique and different from others would experience a higher cultural fit and their sense of self-worth would be higher compared to Americans who view themselves as more similar to others. Similarly, Romanians who view themselves as more self-reliant would experience a higher cultural fit and would have a higher self-esteem compared to Romanians who view themselves as dependent on others. These findings are in line with research by Becker et al. (2014) which found that individuals across 20 cultural groups derived self-esteem mostly on the basis of values consistent with the priorities of their culture and less based on values they endorsed personally.

Finally, the third set of findings showed that in addition to the indirect relationship between independence and life satisfaction, mediated through self-esteem, there are also direct, mainly negative, relationships between ways of being independent and life satisfaction. These direct relationships may also be different in different cultures (e.g., self-direction in the United States and self-interest in Romania). A potential explanation for these findings is that each culture has relationship norms ( Suh et al., 2008 ; Kim and Lawrie, 2019 ) that individuals have to follow in order to act in culturally appropriate ways (e.g., being receptive to the influence of others or being committed to others). Individuals who act according to inner motivations that are contrary to these cultural norms for good relationships with others would be rejected by others and experience a diminished sense of belonging with detrimental consequences on life satisfaction ( Baumeister and Leary, 1995 ).

In addition to the main findings which were the result of testing the proposed mediation models in the two studies, there were also some unexpected findings resulting from the comparison of the specific cultural samples included in the current studies. For example, the Romanian sample scored higher on life satisfaction compared to the other four cultural samples under investigation. This was surprising given that Romania typically has some of the lowest subjective well-being scores on international surveys [e.g., Eurofound (2013) reported that Romania lies second from the bottom out of 27 EU countries on overall well-being]. However, our results are in line with those obtained by Krys et al. (2020) , where the scores of the Romanian sample were exceeded only by four of the 50 cultures included in the study. One explanation for these striking results could be that in both our sample, and the sample included in the Krys et al. (2020) study, were composed of university students, whereas the national samples include participants of all ages. Recent research by Lawrie et al. (2020) showed a negative relationship between age and life satisfaction in Romania. Therefore, it is possible that younger samples might experience a reference effect such that they are comparing themselves to considerably unhappier older individuals. Another surprising and unexpected finding was that the American sample in Study 1 had the highest interdependence scores among our four cultural samples. Similarly, the United States sample in Study 2 scored higher on the interdependent poles of six of the seven dimensions of self-construal. A potential explanation is offered by Markus (2017) , who suggests that high interdependence can be found in Americans who are working-class and/or people of color. Our American student samples were mixed in terms of both race/ethnicity and social class so it is possible that their high scores on interdependence are due to the specific characteristics of the sample under investigation.

Overall, our findings suggest that by conceptualizing independence as a broad global concept, much of the subtle ways in which culture impacts psychological processes may be ignored. It appears that being independent in the ways prescribed by one’s culture, that is, being independent the right way, signals that one belongs and fits in with one’s cultural group, and this cultural fit may be one of the keys to self-esteem and life satisfaction. The current studies are the first to show not only that independence varies across the two cultures under investigation (i.e., the United States and Romania), but that there are also different psychological implications associated with being independent in different ways.

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

There are some limitations in the current studies that could be addressed in future research. First, both studies relied on student samples from a limited number of cultures. Yet different ways of being independent are likely to be associated with self-esteem and life satisfaction in different non-student samples. As previous research suggested, generations are specific types of cultures ( Moss and Martins, 2014 ); therefore, our results might not be the generalized to samples of older adults. Building on the findings of this research regarding the cultural variability in these associations, future studies might therefore test them in both student and nonstudent samples from a wider array of cultural regions. Second, the current research is cross-sectional in nature and, although the mediation models we tested suggest a specific direction of the associations (i.e., from self-construal dimensions to self-esteem and, further, to life satisfaction), only longitudinal designs such as the one employed by Moza et al. (2019) could inform correctly on their directionality. Moreover, future studies might test experimentally the causality of the relationships in the model, informing potential interventions to boost life satisfaction in people from various cultures.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by ethics committees of West University of Timișoara and of University of California, Santa Barbara, respectively. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

DM and SL share equal first authorship of this article. All authors jointly developed the ideas presented in this article. DM, SL, AG, and HK designed the studies and collected the data. Data were analyzed by DM, SL, and LM. DM, SL, HK, and LM drafted the article. All authors provided critical revisions, and all authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Funding. The work carried out for this paper by DM received financial support from “Entrepreneurial Education and Professional Counseling for Social and Human Sciences PhD and Postdoctoral Researchers to ensure knowledge transfer” (ATRiUM) Project, co-financed from European Social Fund through Human Capital Programme 2014–2020, POCU/380/6/13/123343.

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Background Essay: The Declaration of Independence

Background Essay: Declaration of Independence

Guiding Question: What were the philosophical bases and practical purposes of the Declaration of Independence?

I can explain the major events that led the American colonists to question British rule.
I can explain how the concepts of natural rights and self-government influenced the Founders and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence.

Essential Vocabulary

Directions: As you read the essay, highlight the events from the graphic organizer in Handout B in one color. Think about how each of these events led the American colonists further down the road to declaring independence. Highlight the impacts of those events in another color.

In 1825, Thomas Jefferson reflected on the meaning and principles of the Declaration of Independence. In a letter to a friend, Jefferson explained that the document was an “expression of the American mind.” He meant that it reflected the common sentiments shared by American colonists during the resistance against British taxes in the 1760s and 1770s The Road to Independence

After the conclusion of the French and Indian War, the British sought to increase taxes on their American colonies and passed the Stamp Act (1765) and Townshend Acts (1767). American colonists viewed the acts as British oppression that violated their traditional rights as English subjects as well as their inalienable natural rights. The colonists mostly complained of “taxation without representation,” meaning that Parliament taxed them without their consent. During this period, most colonists simply wanted to restore their rights and liberties within the British Empire. They wanted reconciliation, not independence. But they were also developing an American identity as a distinctive people, which added to the anger over their lack of representation in Parliament and self-government.

After the Boston Tea Party (1773), Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (1774), punishing Massachusetts by closing Boston Harbor and stripping away the right to self-government. As a result, the Continental Congress met in 1774 to consider a unified colonial response. The Congress issued a declaration of rights stating, “That they are entitled to life, liberty, & property, and they have never ceded [given] to any sovereign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.” Military clashes with British forces at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill in Massachusetts showed that American colonists were willing to resort to force to vindicate their claim to their rights and liberties.

In January 1776, Thomas Paine wrote the best-selling pamphlet Common Sense which was a forceful expression of the growing desire of many colonists for independence. Paine wrote that a republican government that followed the rule of law would protect liberties better than a monarchy. The rule of law means that government and citizens all abide by the same laws regardless of political power.

The Second Continental Congress debated the question of independence that spring. On May 10, it adopted a resolution that seemed to support independence. It called on colonial assemblies and popular conventions to “adopt such government as shall, in the opinion of the representatives of the people, best conduce [lead] to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular and America in general.”

Five days later, John Adams added his own even more radical preamble calling for independence: “It is necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority under the said Crown should be totally suppressed [brought to an end].” This bold declaration was essentially a break from the British.

“Free and Independent States”

On June 7, Richard Henry Lee rose in Congress and offered a formal resolution for independence: “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved [set free] from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.” Congress appointed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence, while states wrote constitutions and declarations of rights with similar republican and natural rights principles.

On June 12, for example, the Virginia Convention issued the Virginia Declaration of Rights , a document drafted in 1776 to proclaim the natural rights that all people are entitled to. The document was based upon the ideas of Enlightenment thinker John Locke about natural rights and republican government. It read: “That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights … they cannot by any compact, deprive or divest [take away] their posterity [future generations]; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

The Continental Congress’s drafting committee selected Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence because he was well-known for his writing ability. He knew the ideas of John Locke well and had a copy of the Virginia Declaration of Rights when he wrote the Declaration. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were also members of the committee and edited the document before sending it to Congress.

Still, the desire for independence was not unanimous. John Dickinson and others still wished for reconciliation. On July 1, Dickinson and Adams and their respective allies debated whether America should declare independence. The next day, Congress voted for independence by passing Lee’s resolution. Over the next two days, Congress made several edits to the document, making it a collective effort of the Congress. It adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The document expressed the natural rights principles of the independent American republic.

The Declaration opened by stating that the Americans were explaining the causes for separating from Great Britain and becoming an independent nation. It stated that they were entitled to the rights of the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”

The Declaration then asserted its universal ideals, which were closely related to the ideas of John Locke. It claimed that all human beings were created equal as a self-evident truth. They were equally “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So whatever inequality that might exist in society (such as wealth, power, or status) does not justify one person or group getting more natural rights than anyone else. One way in which humans are equal is in possession of certain natural rights.

The equality of human beings also meant that they were equal in giving consent to their representatives to govern under a republican form of government. All authority flowed from the sovereign people equally. The purpose of that government was to protect the rights of the people. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The people had the right to overthrow a government that violated their rights in a long series of abuses.

The Declaration claimed the reign of King George III had been a “history of repeated injuries and usurpations ” [illegal taking] of the colonists’ rights. The king exercised political tyranny against the American colonies. For example, he taxed them without their consent and dissolved [closed down] colonial legislatures and charters. Acts of economic tyranny included cutting off colonial trade. The colonists were denied equal justice when they lost their traditional right to a trial by jury in special courts. Acts of military tyranny included quartering , or forcing citizens to house, troops without consent; keeping standing armies in the colonies; waging war against the colonists; and hiring mercenaries , or paid foreign soldiers, to fight them. Repeated attempts by the colonists to petition king and Parliament to address their grievances were ignored or treated with disdain, so the time had come for independence.

In the final paragraph, the representatives appealed to the authority given to them by the people to declare that the united colonies were now free and independent. The new nation had the powers of a sovereign nation and could levy war, make treaties and alliances, and engage in foreign trade. The Declaration ends with the promise that “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Americans had asserted their natural rights, right to self-government, and reasons for splitting from Great Britain. They now faced a long and difficult fight against the most powerful empire in the world to preserve that liberty and independence.

The Declaration of Independence Answer Key

The Declaration of Independence

America's Founders looked to the lessons of human nature and history to determine how best to structure a government that would promote liberty. They started with the principle of consent of the governed: the only legitimate government is one which the people themselves have authorized. But the Founders also guarded against the tendency of those in power to abuse their authority, and structured a government whose power is limited and divided in complex ways to prevent a concentration of power. They counted on citizens to live out virtues like justice, honesty, respect, humility, and responsibility.

Background Essay Graphic Organizer and Questions: The Declaration of Independence

Declaration Preamble and Grievances Organizer: Versions A and B

Thomas Jefferson Looks Back on the Declaration of Independence

United States Declaration of Independence Definition Essay

Declaration of Independence is a document that is most treasured in United State since it announced independence to American colonies which were at war with Great Britain. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson back in July 1776 and contained formal explanation of the reason why the Congress had declared independence from Great Britain.

Therefore, the document marked the independence of the thirteen colonies of America, a condition which had caused revolutionary war. America celebrates its day of independence on 4 th July, the day when the congress approved the Declaration for Independence (Becker, 2008). With that background in mind, this essay shall give an analysis of the key issues closely linked to the United States Declaration of Independence.

As highlighted in the introductory part, there was the revolutionary war in the thirteen American colonies before the declaration for independence that had been going on for about a year. Immediately after the end of the Seven Years War, the relationship between American colonies and their mother country started to deteriorate. In addition, some acts which were established in order to increase tax revenue from the colonies ended up creating a tax dispute between the colonies and the Government (Fradin, 2006).

The main reason why the Declaration for Independence was written was to declare the convictions of Americans especially towards their rights. The main aim was to declare the necessity for independence especially to the colonist as well as to state their view and position on the purpose of the government. In addition, apart from making their grievances known to King George III, they also wanted to influence other foreigners like the France to support them in their struggle towards independence.

Most authors and historians believe that the main influence of Jefferson was the English Declaration of Rights that marked the end King James II Reign. As much as the influence of John Locke who was a political theorist from England is questioned, it is clear that he influenced the American Revolution a great deal. Although most historians criticize the Jefferson’s influence by some authors like Charles Hutcheson, it is clear that the philosophical content of the Declaration emanates from other philosophical writings.

The self evident truths in the Declaration for Independence is that all men are created equal and do also have some rights which ought not to be with held at all costs. In addition, the document also illustrated that government is formed for the sole purpose of protecting those rights as it is formed by the people who it governs. Finally, if the government losses the consent, it then qualifies to be either replaced or abolished. Such truths are not only mandatory but they do not require any further emphasis.

Therefore, being self evident means that each truth speaks on its own behalf and should not be denied at whichever circumstances (Zuckert, 1987). The main reason why they were named as self evident was to influence the colonists to see the reality in the whole issue. Jefferson based his argument from on the theory of natural rights as illustrated by John Locke who argued that people have got rights which are not influenced by laws in the society (Tuckness, 2010).

One of the truths in the Declaration for Independence is the inalienable rights which are either individual or collective. Such rights are inclusive of right to liberty, life and pursuit of happiness. Unalienable rights means rights which cannot be denied since they are given by God. In addition, such rights cannot even be sold or lost at whichever circumstance. Apart from individual rights, there are also collective rights like the right of people to chose the right government and also to abolish it incase it fails achieve its main goal.

The inalienable goals are based on the law of nature as well as on the nature’s God as illustrated in the John Locke’s philosophy. It is upon the government to recognize that individuals are entitled to unalienable rights which are bestowed by God. Although the rights are not established by the civil government, it has a great role to ensure that people are able to express such laws in the constitution (Morgan, 2010).

Explaining the purpose of the government was the major intent of the Declaration for Independent. The document explains explicitly that the main purpose is not only to secure but also to protect the rights of the people from individual and life events that threaten them. However, it is important to note that the government gets its power from the people it rules or governs.

The purpose of the government of protecting the God given rights of the people impacts the decision making process in several ways. To begin with, the government has to consider the views of the people before making major decisions failure to which it may be considered unworthy and be replaced. Therefore, the decision making process becomes quite complex as several positions must be taken in to consideration.

The declaration identifies clearly the conditions under which the government can be abolished or replaced. For example, studies of Revolutionary War and Beyond, states that “any form of government becomes destructive of these ends; it is the right of the people, to alter or abolish it and institute a new government” (par. 62010). Therefore, document illustrated that the colonists were justified to reject or abolish the British rule.

The declaration was very significant especially due to the fact that it illustrated explicitly the conditions which were present in America by the time it was being made. For example, one of the key grievances of the thirteen colonies was concerning the issue of slave trade. The issue of abolishing slavery was put in the first draft of the declaration for independent although it was scrapped off later since the southern states were against the abolishment of slave trade.

Another issue which was illustrated in the declaration was the fact that the king denied the colonists the power to elect their representatives in the legislatures. While the colonists believed that they had the right to choose the government to govern them, in the British government, it was the duty of the King to do so.

Attaining land and migrating to America was the right of colonists to liberty and since the King had made it extremely difficult for the colonists to do so; the Declaration was very significant in addressing such grievances. There are many more problems that were present that were addressed by the Declaration as it was its purpose to do so.

Becker, C. L. (2008). The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas. Illinois: BiblioBazaar, LLC .

Fradin, D. B. (2006). The Declaration of Independence. New York : Marshall Cavendish.

Morgan, K. L. (2010). The Declaration of Independence, Equality and Unalienable Rights . Web.

Revolutionary War and Beyond. (2010). The Purpose of the Declaration of Independence . Web.

Tuckness, A. (2010). Locke’s Political Philosophy . Web.

Zuckert, M. P. (1987). Self-Evident Truth and the Declaration of Independence. The Review of Politics , 49 (3), 319-339.

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IvyPanda. (2019, July 16). United States Declaration of Independence. https://ivypanda.com/essays/declaration-of-independence/

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "United States Declaration of Independence." July 16, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/declaration-of-independence/.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Fahrenheit 451 — Conformity vs Individuality in “Fahrenheit 451”

Conformity Vs Individuality in "Fahrenheit 451"

Categories: Fahrenheit 451

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Published: Aug 24, 2023

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The conformity dilemma, the quest for individuality, symbolism of books, freedom and consequences, contemporary relevance, conclusion: the balance between conformity and individuality.

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Middle East Crisis U.N. Lowers Count of Women and Children Killed, Citing Incomplete Information

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Palestinians search for survivors inside a destroyed building in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. Reuters
Palestinian citizens of Israel marching near Haifa, Israel, to mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, when roughly 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in what became the state of Israel, during the wars surrounding its creation. Ammar Awad/Reuters
Near the site of a strike in Nuseirat. Ramadan Abed/Reuters
A march in the southern Israel city of Sderot calling for Israel to reoccupy the Gaza Strip once the war is over. Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press
Displaced Palestinians clean rubble from a damaged school in Khan Younis to use as shelter. Associated Press
Employees of UNRWA inspect a destroyed United Nations school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza. Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock
Watching the recovery effort from a balcony in Nuseirat. Ramadan Abed/Reuters
Searching for casualties at the site of the strike in Nuseirat. Ramadan Abed/Reuters
An Israeli military helicopter firing toward Gaza. Amir Levy/Getty Images
Israeli police arrest an Ultra-Orthodox Jew during a protest against Israel's Independence Day in Jerusalem. Atef Safadi/EPA, via Shutterstock
Palestinians wait to receive food rations in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. -/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

How many of Gaza’s dead are women and children? For 10,000, the data is incomplete.

The United Nations has begun citing a much lower death toll for women and children in Gaza, acknowledging that it has incomplete information about many of the people killed during Israel’s military offensive in the territory.

As recently as May 6, the U.N’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its regularly updated online report that at least 9,500 women and 14,500 children were among the dead, out of an overall death toll of 34,735.

Two days later, the U.N. said in another online update that 4,959 women, 7,797 children and 10,006 men had been killed. While the total number of deaths remained roughly the same, a U.N. official said that it was awaiting more identifying information from officials in Gaza for about 10,000 of the dead, so they were not included in the new breakdown of women, men and children.

The change in the U.N.’s numbers — and the confusion over the discrepancy — has added fuel to a debate over the credibility of the Gazan authorities’ tallies of fatalities in the war. The deaths of women and children are seen as an important, if incomplete, indication of how many civilians have been killed, a question that lies at the heart of the criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war.

The change came because the United Nations switched to citing a more conservative source for its numbers — the Gazan Ministry of Health — rather than using Gaza’s Government Media Office, as it had in recent weeks. Both offices are part of the Hamas-run government in the enclave.

Many international officials and experts familiar with the way the health ministry verifies deaths in Gaza — drawing from morgues and hospitals across the territory — say its numbers are generally reliable.

The health ministry says its count of women and children killed is based on the total number of people whose identities it can fully verify — 24,840 individuals in all as of May 13.

More than 10,000 other people have also been killed, the health ministry says, but it does not have their full names, official ID numbers or other information it needs to be certain of their identities. That is why they are not included in the breakdown of women and children killed that is now being cited by the U.N., officials said.

“There’s about another 10,000-plus bodies who still have to be fully identified,” Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the U.N., said on Monday. He added: “The details of those — which of those are children, which of those are women — that will be reestablished once the full identification process is complete.”

Mr. Haq said the United Nations was relying on the data coming out of the health ministry, as it has “in all previous conflicts.”

He added that the U.N. had started using figures from Gaza’s media office because there had been a pause in reporting from the health ministry. But now that the ministry’s casualty reporting was back on line, he said, the U.N. had returned to using its information.

What do Israel and other critics say?

Israeli officials say they are suspicious of the Gazan health ministry’s count. A spokesman for the Israeli military, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, noted that the health ministry does not distinguish in its numbers between combatants and civilians. He also said that Israel sees every civilian death as a tragedy.

After the United Nations issued a lower documented death toll for women and children, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, called the new numbers “the miraculous resurrection of the dead in Gaza,” saying the United Nations had relied on “fake data from a terrorist organization.”

Elliott Abrams, a veteran American conservative, said in an article for the Council on Foreign Relations on Sunday that it has become “increasingly clear that these numbers represent Hamas propaganda.”

But figures cited by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are not drastically different from those used by the United Nations. He said last week that Israeli forces had killed about 14,000 Hamas combatants and 16,000 civilians, for a total of around 30,000, without elaborating on the source for those numbers.

Are the new casualty numbers viewed as credible?

In a sign that the U.S. government views casualty figures supplied by the Gaza health authorities as reliable, President Biden cited their overall death toll in his State of the Union speech in March. The United Nations publishes the health ministry’s figures on a website and U.N. leaders refer to them frequently.

A few weeks ago, the health ministry released its latest list detailing the identities of the dead that it had fully documented. It has also released a series of detailed reports explaining how it compiles casualty figures.

Early in the war, when its figures were called into question, the health ministry released a list of names, ages and identification numbers of the dead. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analyzed that data, in a report published in November in The Lancet , and found “no obvious reason to doubt the validity of the data.”

Airwars, a British organization that assesses claims of civilian harm in conflicts, has matched the names of those reported killed with lists of names released by the health ministry. The vast majority of names match up, said Emily Tripp, the group’s director. Airwars also analyzed a ministry of health list of names issued earlier in the conflict and found that the proportion of children, women and men reported by the ministry roughly aligned with its own data collection, she said.

Neta Crawford, a professor of political science at Oxford University and the founder of the Costs of War project, which examines the consequences of the post 9/11 wars, argued that the figures appeared to have been produced to professional standards.

How are casualty numbers compiled?

International experts who have worked with health officials in Gaza during this and other wars say that hospitals and morgues in the enclave gather and report the names, ID numbers and other details of people who have been killed in the territory.

The detailed count excludes thousands of people reported at hospitals as missing but believed to be buried under rubble ; they are counted as dead only when their bodies are found.

The Gaza media office has consistently provided an overall death toll similar to the one given by the ministry of health, but different and often higher figures for the number of women and children killed.

Ismail Al Thawabateh, the office’s director general, said in an interview that the health ministry listed and categorized an individual as dead only when all of their details had been documented and verified by a next of kin. He did not explain why his office used a breakdown of women and children based on the overall death toll.

“The remaining 10,000 are bodies that have entered the hospitals but until this moment, the next of kin have not been reached yet to verify how they were martyred and completing their information,” he said.

When reached, Ashraf al-Qudra, the Gaza health ministry’s spokesman referred questions to the Ministry of Health’s latest report from May 13.

Patrick Kingsley and Ameera Harouda contributed reporting.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg , Lauren Leatherby and Abu Bakr Bashir

Key Developments

Qatar says cease-fire talks are nearing an impasse, and other news.

Negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza are at “almost a stalemate,” and the talks have been set back by Israel’s military offensive in Rafah , Qatar’s prime minister said Tuesday. The prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, was asked about the state of the talks at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. Qatar and Egypt have been acting as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas.

The International Court of Justice said it would hold hearings on Thursday and Friday on South Africa’s request for additional emergency measures to constrain Israel’s operation in Rafah. Last week, South Africa, which has filed a case at the court in The Hague accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, asked the judges to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah , calling it “the last refuge” for Palestinians in the territory. Israel has strongly denied South Africa’s accusations at the court, which has no means of enforcing its orders.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that gunfire that hit the back of a U.N.-marked car in Rafah on Monday and killed a U.N. staff member came from a tank . A U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, said that the United Nations has yet to determine who was responsible, though he added that the Israeli military is the only force known to have deployed tanks in Gaza. The staff member who was killed was Col. Waibhav Anil Kale, an Indian citizen who worked for the U.N. Department of Safety and Security, Mr. Haq said. A Jordanian woman who worked for the same agency was wounded and is recovering in a hospital, he said.

Thousands of Israelis attended a far-right Independence Day march on Tuesday in the southern city of Sderot, where Israeli lawmakers, including the country’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country’s communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, called for the resettlement of Gaza by Israelis.

Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron, said attacks on aid trucks bound for Gaza were “appalling” and called for Israel to hold perpetrators to account. His statement on social media Tuesday came a day after a convoy of relief trucks was blocked and vandalized for hours, according to a right-wing Israeli group that planned the blockage. The Israeli police said that suspects had been arrested and that they were investigating.

Israel strikes on a home and a school building kill dozens of people, as fighting rages across Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes overnight killed dozens of people at a family home and a school in the central Gaza Strip, local residents and a hospital spokesman said on Tuesday, as fighting intensified across the territory, with Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battling in the south, while Israeli jets and tanks pounded the north and center.

Witnesses said an Israeli bomb on Monday night destroyed the home of the Karaja family in the town of Nuseirat, where workers spent hours digging through rubble, pulling out both survivors and the dead. Dr. Khalil Degran, a spokesman for Aqsa hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, said in an interview that 30 people were killed at the house; a rescue worker, Hazem Abu Takyia, told the Reuters news agency that he knew of 15 deaths.

The Israeli military declined to comment on that attack, but confirmed that it had struck a school building early Tuesday in Nuseirat, killing 15 militants, including 10 Hamas fighters, some of whom it accused of participating in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. In a statement, the military said the school had been used to plan attacks on Israeli soldiers in Gaza, and that some of those killed in the strike were from Hamas’s highly trained Nukhba brigade.

Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the primary U.N. aid agency in Gaza, said it could not confirm Israel’s claims.

Dr. Degran, the Aqsa hospital spokesman, said that 12 people were killed at the school and that he did not know their backgrounds.

Reuters and The Associated Press reported that the building, like many of Gaza’s schools, was being used as a shelter for displaced civilians.

In a video report on Tuesday, a U.N. employee, Abu Abdullah Zuhair Abu Rahma, told Reuters that people “came to the school to be safe.”

“The school was hit without any warning,” he said.

Classes were canceled across Gaza when the war broke out, and many schools became shelters for displaced Gazans fleeing from the fighting. A recent study by the Education Cluster, a research group that works with the United Nations, based on satellite imagery, found that well over 80 percent of the schools across the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or severely damaged since the war began, including all of its universities. More than 200 schools have suffered direct hits from missiles, bombs or artillery.

Last November , an Israeli strike on a U.N. school sheltering displaced people killed 24.

Over the weekend, Israel said its forces would return to areas of northern Gaza where it had routed Hamas months ago, because of “intelligence information regarding attempts by Hamas to reassemble.” The scale of the fighting on Tuesday suggests how far those efforts to regroup may have gone.

The Israeli military said its troops were carrying out operations in Jabaliya and Zeitoun in the north, both communities where Israel had claimed to have defeated Hamas earlier in the war.

The Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday that 82 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours.

Fighting also continued in Rafah, a southern city that Israeli forces entered last week, and where more than one million Palestinians had sought safety from months of Israeli bombardment in other parts of the enclave. The United Nations said Tuesday that in a little over a week, about 450,000 people had fled Rafah.

Israel said its forces killed members of “several armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters” near the Rafah crossing with Egypt, a vital entry point for humanitarian aid, which has been closed since Israeli forces seized control of it last week. Israeli and Egyptian officials have blamed each other for the closure.

On Tuesday, Hamas said it destroyed an Israeli troop carrier in eastern Rafah, killing and injuring several soldiers who were evacuated by helicopter. The Israeli military declined to comment specifically on this attack.

— Liam Stack and Nader Ibrahim Liam Stack reported from Tel Aviv and Nader Ibrahim reported from London.

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