other-directedness

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other-directedness A term coined by David Riesman (The Lonely Crowd, 1950), referring to a personality type which seeks approval and acceptance from others—as opposed to inner-directedness, acting independently, and according to a personal moral code. Other-directedness is said to result from a bureaucratic society geared to consumption. Subsequent volumes entitled Faces in the Crowd (1952) and Individualism Reconsidered (1954) further explored Riesman's thesis that the American character was moving from inner-directedness to other-directedness with the advance of industrialization and growth of population density.

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