Age dynamics of graphic reflection of social identity

Abstract

Social identity recently has become one of the actual subjects of scientific research in social psychology, social cognitive psychology. Social identity reflects conscious and unconscious feelings of a person’s belonging to certain communities, is the context for decision-making in situations of choice. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of little-conscious aspects of identity, namely the subjective significance of communities to which a person belongs by the fact of his birth or main activity, as well as subjective inclusion in such a community. The author has developed a procedure of graphic representation of social identity based on the techniques used in projective drawing methods. The test person is asked to draw himself and five communities (family, occupation group, locality and country of residence, all people of the world) with the help of circles. This experimental procedure was conducted in nine age groups, starting with 6-7 year olds and ending with working adults. A total of 282 people participated in the experiment. The data (21 indicators) were subjected to factor analysis by the method of principal components. The following results were obtained: for each age group the average sizes of images of self and proposed social communities were revealed, using Student’s t-criterion the conclusions about significant differences in the sizes of images of the country and territory of residence for age groups were obtained. Discussion of results and conclusions. Factor analysis by the principal component method revealed four factors of social identity, which were labeled as: multiple, hierarchical, egocentric, and diffuse social identity. The proposed types of social identity were described, their psychological interpretation was given, and criteria for identification by graphic representation were proposed. The results of the study can be used in pedagogical practice, practice of psychological and pedagogical counseling.