Interaction of ethnic tolerance and certain personality traits

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Drohobych Ivan Franko state pedagogical university

Department of general pedagogy and preschool education

Department of history of education and comparative pedagogy

Interaction of ethnic tolerance and certain personality traits

Czepil M., D.P.S., Professor

Revt A., C.P.S., Associate Professor

Lublin, Poland

Annotation

The article studies the relationship between ethnic tolerance and certain personality traits. It stresses the importance of ethnic tolerance in the system of modern education specifying the problems that prevent and hinder its formation in the students. Especially today, the problem of tolerance and ethnic tolerance has become one of the central problems of both global and national character. Therefore, the relevance of this problem is determined by the strengthening of multicultural contacts between the students and the need for their harmonization, insufficient study of this issue in psychology in general, and the fragmentation of the study of ethnic tolerance in pedagogical and developmental psychology, in particular. An important condition for studying the mechanisms of harmonious multicultural communication is defining clear boundaries between ethnic tolerance as recognition of other cultures and values and ethnic identity as a clear awareness of belonging to an ethnic group. University students are especially sensitive to the issue of ethnic tolerance. In the process of learning, the student acquires the initial skills of professional and also social communication, assimilates both documented and unwritten rules and rules that are adopted in a particular professional community, that is, mastering the fundamentals of a culture of tolerant behavior, tolerant personality. The results of the study of the relationship between ethnic tolerance and personality characteristics testify to significant indicators of positive correlation between levels of ethnic tolerance and the motivation to achieve success, communicative, conceptual thinking and positively-formed communicative guidance; significant indicators of negative correlations are established between levels of ethnic tolerance and depression, shyness, motivation to avoid failures. The author identifies practical ways and gives recommendations for the formation of the students' ethnic tolerance. A key aspect of studying ethnic tolerance is its interrelation with positive ethnic identity. Therefore, the normalized awareness of the personality as a member of a particular ethnic group leads to a respectful attitude to others. Despite the fact that, to a large extent, ethnic tolerance is conditioned by the personal characteristics of the student's image, the conditions of social macro- and microenvironment, which regulate the tolerant attitude to others, are of great significance. In our opinion, among such conditions, the legal regulation of ethnic tolerance, which is enshrined in the laws of this country, plays an essential role.

Key words: ethnic tolerance; tolerance; student; ethnic identity; ethnic group.

Анотація

Взаємозв'язок етнічної толерантності та деяких властивостей особистості

Чепіль М., д.п.н., професор, Ревть А. к.п.н., кафедра загальної педагогіки та дошкільної освіти, кафедри історії виховання та порівняльної педагогіки Дрогобицький державний педагогічний університет імені Івана Франка, Університет Марії Кюрі-Склодовської, Люблін, Польща

У статті розглянуто взаємозв'язок етнічної толерантності та певних рис особистості. Констатовано важливість формування етнічної толерантності студента у системі сучасної освіти. Вказано на проблеми, що перешкоджають формуванню етнічної толерантності та гальмують цей процес. Зазначено, що проблема толерантності та етнічної толерантності, зокрема, сьогодні - одна з центральних проблем як глобального, так і національного порядку. Відтак посилення полікультурних контактів між студентами та необхідність їх гармонізації, а також недостатня вивченість цього питання у психології загалом і фрагментарність вивчення етнічної толерантності у педагогічній та віковій психології зокрема, зумовлює актуальність дослідження означеної проблеми. Важливою умовою вивчення механізмів гармонійного полікультурного спілкування є визначення чітких меж між етнічною толерантністю як визнанням інших культур і цінностей та етнічною ідентичністю як чітким усвідомленням своєї приналежності до етнічної групи. Особливо чутливою до питання етнічної толерантності є студентська молодь. У процесі навчання студент набуває початкові навички не тільки професійного, але й соціального спілкування, засвоює як документально закріплені, так і неписані норми та правила, прийняті у тому чи тому професійному співтоваристві, тобто оволодіває основами культури толерантної поведінки, толерантної особистості. Результати дослідження взаємозв'язку етнічної толерантності і особистісних характеристик свідчать про значущі показники додатних кореляційних зв'язків між рівнями етнічної толерантності та мотивації досягнення успіху, комунікабельністю, поняттєвого мислення і позитивно сформованої комунікативної настанови; значущі показники від'ємних кореляційних зв'язків встановлено між рівнями етнічної толерантності і депресивністю, сором'язливістю, мотивацією уникнення невдач. Окреслено практичні шляхи та надано рекомендації щодо формування етнічної толерантності студентів. Важливим аспектом вивчення етнічної толерантності є її взаємозв'язок з позитивною етнічною ідентичністю, відтак унормоване усвідомлення особистістю себе як члена певної етнічної групи зумовлює поважне ставлення до інших. Попри те, що значною мірою етнічна толерантність зумовлюється особистісними характеристиками постаті студента, важливого значення набувають умови соціального макро- і мікросередовища, які регулюють толерантне ставлення до інших. Серед таких умов важливу роль, на наш погляд відіграє правове регулювання етнічної толерантності, закріплене законами нашої країни.

Ключові слова: етнічна толерантність; толерантність; студент; етнічна ідентичність; етнічна група.

Introduction

In the XXI century the awareness of people of their ethnicity, identity with their own ethnic community (ethnic identity) has intensified globally. Further existence of a civilized multicultural space becomes increasingly impossible without establishing in the public consciousness of the mindset of tolerant interaction and interdependence between individuals and social groups. Especially today, the problem of tolerance and ethnic tolerance has become one of the central problems of both global and national character.

The process of Ukraine's integration into the European community is inevitably accompanied by difficulties in the interaction of citizens who are carriers of different national-cultural spaces. In addition, this is reinforced by the existence of the still insurmountable socio-psychological stereotypes of the totalitarian period in the mass consciousness of a significant part of the population of the post-Soviet countries, which is reflected in manifestations of intolerant attitude towards people who speak a different language, have other religious views or other socio-democratic values. As a result, interethnic contacts in the historical perspective exist in the forms such as genocide, assimilation, segregation and integration. It is the integration process that involves such compatibility of representatives of different ethnic groups, which are based on the principle of tolerance. An important condition for studying the mechanisms of harmonious multicultural communication is the definition of clear boundaries between ethnic tolerance as recognition of other cultures and values and ethnic identity as a clear awareness of their belonging to a particular ethnic group.

Analysis of recent research and publications

The results of the analysis of the basic theoretical knowledge and data of experimental research on the problem of tolerance in general and ethnic tolerance in particular are highlighted in the scientific works of many scholars. Tolerance as a stable personality trait and quality, in particular the communicative and political culture of man, is highlighted in the writings of O. Asmolov (2000). According to Schwadel & Garneau (2017), the ethnic community at a certain stage of politicization can create such unity, which is based on the desire for political self-determination and sovereignty, constitution through the institutions of the state.

In her writings, O. Kholodova (2003) characterizes tolerance as an attitude to the personality in a professional, educational, psycho-correctional activity. The author believes that the formation of this quality should be given special attention in the process of professional training of students of a higher education institution, which should form the idea of tolerance in general, ethnic tolerance as one of its components with the idea of equality of cultures and religions, traditions and customs of different ethnic groups being the core of knowledge.

A. Boiko (2002) points out that among the most effective factors and directions of structuring and streamlining a post-Soviet era person's worldview is the formation and confirmation of the ideology of non-violence as the only possible means for solving acute social problems, tolerant attitude to «others», awareness of one's own responsibility and its redistribution from social institutions to individuals, the priority expansion of educational opportunities.

It is within the framework of the educational sphere that the students' worldview can be influenced the most. In the author's concept, S. Savchenko (2003) substantiates the point that in all the diversity of the students' social environment a university, as an institution of socialization, has a stronger socialization potential, but the latter can only be realized if it is adequately perceived by the students' social environment.

Therefore, intensification of multicultural contacts between students and the need for their harmonization, as well as insufficient study of this issue in psychology in general, and the fragmentation of the study of ethnic tolerance in pedagogical and developmental psychology, in particular, substantiates the relevance of our study.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the interrelation of ethnic tolerance of the individual with some features of the personality character in order to outline the ways of its formation in university students.

University students are especially sensitive to the issue of ethnic tolerance. In particular, integration into the European educational space, expansion of international contacts and international agreements in the field of education gradually lead to an increase in the number of foreign students studying at domestic higher education institutions, which, in turn, makes topical the issue of tolerance among students in relation to representatives of other ethnic groups.

The essence, structure and specific nature of ethnic tolerance

Ethnic tolerance is the ability of a person to have patience to an unfamiliar way of life of representatives of other ethnic communities, their behavior, national traditions, customs, feelings, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, etc. External manifestation of ethnic tolerance is reflected in endurance, self-control, ability of an individual to tolerate unusual influences of another's culture without reducing its adaptive capacity. Rapp & Freitag (2015) argue that ethnic tolerance is manifested in various critical situations of interpersonal and internal personal choices, accompanied by psychological tension. It has a degree of expression, depending on the presence of a person's experience communicating with representatives of a particular ethnic community.

Ethnic tolerance manifests itself in actions, but is formed in the sphere of consciousness and is closely related to such a socio-psychological factor as ethnic identity. The latter, like identity in general, is formed in the process of socialization. There are several levels of personal identity. The first level - personal-psychological - is awareness of a person who is «I». It consists in the extent of participation in various social groups. This level of identity is associated with the perceptions of oneself as a member of a group, as well as with the emotions that arise from the assessment of this belonging. The second level is socio-psychological, when the self-image is formed as a derivative of the awareness by a person of his/her own involvement in a particular social group. It is true for a person to compare his group with others and behave in such a way as to present his group in a favorable light. A variety of socio-psychological identity is ethnic identity - a person's awareness of belonging to a particular ethnic group (Lokke, 1988, p. 306).

The analysis of the concepts of «tolerance» and «ethnic tolerance» allows us to conclude that these terms have a number of common and different characteristics. The specificity of the concept of «ethnic tolerance» lies in the fact that, firstly, it is understood as a form of tolerance, based on the adoption of «another» person due his/her belonging to a different ethnic group. Secondly, tolerance can be regarded as a personality trait that characterizes the spectrum of personality manifestations, whereas ethnic tolerance is understood as a set of guideposts in relation to other ethnic group/groups.

According to C. Macleod (2010) tolerance as a personality trait is a more stable characteristic whereas ethnic tolerance/intolerance, caused both by internal and external factors, is more easily subjected to change. In this paper, ethnic tolerance/intolerance refers to the socio-psychological characteristics that manifest themselves in the degree of acceptance/non-acceptance of representatives of other ethnic groups. Considering ethnic tolerance as a set of guideposts, G. Soldatova (2006, p. 7) highlights the following components in its structure:

1. Cognitive (the concept of other ethnic groups, their culture, interethnic relations, knowledge about the phenomenon of tolerance, the rights of people irrespective of ethnicity).

2. Emotional (relation to other ethnic groups).

3. Behavioral (specific acts of tolerant/intolerant response, which manifests itself in the desire to communicate/distance/show aggression towards representatives of other ethnic groups).

Analysis of the results of the study

The results of the theoretical study of the problem have led us to understand that the boundary between ethnic identity and ethnic bias of the individual is very shaky and disappears when the awareness of belonging to an ethnic group is transformed into a clear organized disposition that expresses a negative attitude to others through realization of own majority by acknowledging lesser worth of others. Ethnic bias differs from personality bias in that the negative attitude is not stipulated by personality traits of the individual, but his/her belonging to a particular ethnic group.

For the purpose of a thorough empirical study of the relationship between tolerance and identity, we have used the methodology of G. Soldatova's «Tolerance Index» as well as the methodology of G. Soldatova and S. Ryzhov «Types of Ethnic Identity» (Soldatova, 2008). The latter, according to its authors, allows diagnosing the ethnic identity of the person and its transformation in the conditions of interethnic tension. In March - May 2018 300 students of the pedagogical specialties of the Lviv Oblast Universities were interviewed.

Before conducting a correlation analysis of such variables as indicators of ethnic tolerance, ethno-nihilism, ethnic indifference, norms, ethno-egoism, ethno- isolationism, ethno-fanaticism by means of Pearson correlation coefficient, we defined the degree of normal distribution of values according to the normality test of Kol- mogorov-Smirnov. The calculation was made using the computer version of the SPSS program. The distribution of the values corresponds to the normal form, provided that the asymmetry value is (Asymp.Sig.)> 0.05. In the indicated values, the distribution differs from the normal in the indicators of ethno-nihilism, so this variable was removed from the further study. Indicators of the correlation between the ethnic tolerance index and the types of ethnic identity are given in Table 1.

Table 1