Original scientific paper
The Perception of »Ethnic Ancestry« and »Life Aims« as Determinants of Ethnic Identity
Siniša Malešević
; Institut za razvoj i međunarodne odnose, Zagreb
Abstract
The article presents an attempt of operationalisation and application of some segments of Peter Weinreich's concept of »structural identity analysis« (primarily his definition of ethnic identity) applied on a representative sample of students from University of Zagreb (N=298). The ethnic identity is defined as a part of the individual’s self-construct which is based on two dimensions — construct of »ethnic ancestry« and future aspirations. The »ethnic ancestry« is operationalised in the form of an instrument »attitudes towards ethnic ancestry «, and aspirations are »emphasized« and examined as »life aims«. Four concepts of »attitudes towards ethnic ancestry« and six modalities of »life aims« have resulted from factor analysis. The relation between these two explored areas was identified by using analysis of canonical dimensions. The analysis has extracted just one canonical relation, which has proved the existence of high positive correlation between the concepts of »strong ethnic identification« and of »altruism as a main life aim«. The author believes that this altruism is only declarative one, and that results testify in favour of situationist explanation of function and meaning of ethnic identification.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
154920
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1993.
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