Th e belief in the freedom of the individual i s p r obably the most basic and most s t rongly held of all Am er ican beliefs. The most important thing to understand Americans is p rob ably their devotion (深爱) to ‘ individualism ’ . They have been trained since very early in t heir lives to consider themselves as separate individual s who are responsible for their own situations in life and their own destiny. Americans view themselves as high ly individualistic in the ir thoughts and actions. They resist being thought of as representatives of any homogeneous (由同类组成的)group. When they do join groups, they believe they are special, just a little di ff erent from other members of the same group. Closely associated with the value t hey place on ind i viduali sm is the impor t ance Americans assign privacy. Americans assume p eo p le ‘ n eed some time to themselves’ or ‘ some time alone ’ to think about things or t heir spent psychological ene r gy. Ameri cans have great difficul ty understanding foreigner s who always want to be with anoth er person and wh o disli ke being alone.