REFLECTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CHANGING SOCIETY

Citation
O. Berecka et J. Plichtova, REFLECTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CHANGING SOCIETY, Ceskoslovenska psychologie, 42(2), 1998, pp. 126-143
Citations number
28
Categorie Soggetti
Psychology
Journal title
ISSN journal
0009062X
Volume
42
Issue
2
Year of publication
1998
Pages
126 - 143
Database
ISI
SICI code
0009-062X(1998)42:2<126:RONIIC>2.0.ZU;2-6
Abstract
Essays of respondents written on the topic ''national identity'' were analysed in the framework of broader research project. The students we re asked to think about the following questions: (I) What does create the content of national identity in Slovakia today? (2) What does it m ean for them to be Slovak? (3) What did the independence of the countr y bring to Slovakia? Essays were written by students three times durin g different political contexts. The content analysis of three sets of essays revealed that the style of thinking about national identity was influenced mainly by conceptualization of national identity as obliga tion or as free choice. Obligatory-collectivistic understanding of nat ional identity is connected with ethnic nationalism (the state and nat ion should be the same) and ethnic understanding of nation. Further an alysis indicated that those respondents who considered national identi ty as free decision, did not estimate their national identity as the m ost important. They did not evaluate own nation without any criticism. individualistic understanding of national identity was connected with active involvement, whereas collectivistic understanding was related to its passive acceptance. Interesting was that in spite of the fact, that majority of respondents preferred liberal principles in the domai n of economics and politics, a nation and national identity was unders tood by majority in ethnic sense. Respondents were not successful in s olving the controversy between positive understanding of national iden tity in general and observed negative phenomena of nationalism in Slov akia. They solved this problem by separation of nationalism from natio nal identity.