I believe we can begin to temper this excess individualism first and foremost by acknowledging and nourishing the ways in which our collective and community institutions and resources can work together to create successful and rich lives for all of our citizens. To this end, I will mention some recent and timely research in my own field that raises some important and potentially disturbing questions about our current national direction. The largest increase took place in the 1980s. They also found that at the same time, high school students' trust in other people declined precipitously. These two are not unrelated.
Exaggerated materialism tends to erode social trust.
The impersonal transactions of the marketplace tend not to enhance the interpersonal bonds that create social and political trust. Dr. Eric Riedel, who received his Ph.D. from our program last spring, worked on a civic education project with Professor Patricia Avery, who is in the College of Education, Professor Marti Gonzales, who is in the Psychology Department, and a larger research team. This civic socialization tends to create an extreme individualism and to reduce the focus on the larger community. In his thesis research, Dr. Riedel found that this individualistic tendency can be mitigated by participation in high school community service programs, but only if they include an explicitly political component. Other types of service, such as charity or mentoring work did not broaden students' views of citizenship.