People cannot live together successfully unless there is some basic agreement about the fundamentals of life that can be relied on to give predictability and order. In the reality of daily living, a tension exists between the needs and wants of individuals, groups of individuals, and the needs and wants of the larger society. Every social grouping has a set of understandings, often tacit, which everyone in the group subscribes to. These understandings must, in some way, define for all members of the group how they can expect to be treated and how they are expected to treat others. Content Reconciling Individuality with Interdependence Individuals and the contributions they can make to society vary from person to person.
Society also prizes certain kind of contributions more than it does other contributions.
Traditionally it has been the custom to reward people with different levels of power, privilege, and wealth. The ability to make decisions and carry them out is critical to the well being of individuals within society. Without this ability people often find that they their needs and concerns are disregarded often to their detriment. Consequently there has been a great deal of competition within society to control and use power. These sources of power must be used in some way in order to carry out a decision.