The common impact of the Eastern and Western culture is the word “inpidualism”, which comes from the Latin word “inpidualism”. It represents all personal and inpisible things. Later, inpidualism is chosen by anthropologists to designate some cultures’ basic orientations. What’s more, some scholars and dictionaries have made several explanations of inpidualism.

Daniel Goleman highlights the cultural features and characteristics that value inpidualism. People pay more attention to their personal goal rather than the team intentions. They seldom give their full loyalty to their teams or groups, or just one team. Sometimes, they prefer to play a role in several teams and easy to adjust their membership in each team.

English philosopher John Locke explains the meaning of inpidualism with his own thoughts. Inpidualism can be regarded as a doctrine that each inpidual or each unity is special and unique. It means that one is totally different from the other.

While Gould defined inpidualism that is a kind of faith which each person should be the end of a self. A person needs to recognize the real essence of self and learn to cultivate the judgment and choice by himself.

Except for these scholars, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary also gives the meaning and context of inpidualism. As it mentions, inpidualism means the inpidual political and economic independence and it also stresses inpidual initiative, behaviors as well as interest. And inpidual actions are all conducted by their belief. In their views, it is utterly legal for each inpidual to pursuit their rights. And the most important goal in their life is to realize themselves..源^自·优尔~文~论`文]网[www.youerw.com

Unlike in China, western people describe inpidualism as a word with wonderful and positive meaning. And in Europe, inpidualism has been regarded as the contrary to medieval sacred authority center and feudalism center, which push the development of capitalism greatly. American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson thought, the spirit of inpidualism was helpful to the progress of society, it can develop many aspects of human beings’ life. And it was also a symbol of affirmative human spirit. In American’s historical progress of development, inpidualism has played a certain role, which is a kind of cultural heritage of frontier. Therefore, it is always the belief of Americans and the values to dominate everything.

Nowadays, when talking about American inpidualism, more papers involve the origin and definitions of inpidualism, and the differences between American inpidualism and Chinese inpidualism. Many researchers and writers, especially in China, put their focuses on different attitudes towards inpidualism in different cultures as well as the differences between inpidualism and collectivism. Meanwhile, many western researchers and writers have studied not only inpidualism’s origins and definitions but also American inpidualism and its importance and influences on American life. What’s more, some papers have studied some movies such as The Pursuit of Happiness, Avatar which reflect American inpidualism to express their views.

This paper is going to talk about American inpidualism and its origins, definitions, values, as well as its embodiment in the TV show Friends which includes following three aspects: the self-independence in family, self-struggle, and self-selection in love and marriage.

Chapter One  America Inpidualism

1.1 The Understanding of America Inpidualism

Inpidualism has been regarded as one of the cores in American culture. Americans believe in equality, freedom and democracy, and they also stress the inpidual role in the social and political life. More Americans and foreign observers are keen to explore the social life of the American nation under the title of “inpidualism”. Some consider it as a remarkable achievement in the United States, while others argue that it is one of the root reasons of America's backwardness and the relative signs of its civilization. Despite the strengths and weaknesses of all accounts, inpidualism is still a typical representative for America as well as the dominant Americans slogan, which has become the 20th western capitalist ideology and core value. It can be said that both in American history and contemporary American society, inpidualism has embodied in every aspect of American life. Thus, learning and understanding American inpidualism will make and help more people better grasp the development context in American society, know the phenomenon and condition of American social life, and help both Chinese and American communicate and learn each others’ culture. 《老友记》美国文化个人主义(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_51914.html