Attitude to Personal Security during Identity Formation in University Students

Abstract

The research featured the relationship between the indicators of identity and the characteristics of the attitude to personal security in university students. The study relied on M. Kuhn and T. McPartland’s Who am I questionnaire, M. Berzonski’s Questionnaire of Identity Styles adapted by E. P. Belinskaya et al., J. Chik and L. Tropp’s Aspects of Identity, A. A. Ozerina’s Professional Identity, and E. L. Soldatova’s Ego-Identity SEI-test. The attitude to personal safety was investigated by the methods developed by the author. The study involved 238 students of 1–5 year that were majoring in humanities. The cluster and regression analyses of the data obtained by the cross-sectional method identified the related characteristics of identity and attitudes to personal security, as well as their differences at different stages of training. The author revealed some general tendencies in the phenomena that occurred in students during the period of university study. Positive dynamics included the following trends. The professional position became more active (I as a subject of relations). The assessments of threat of losing one’s reputation and connections decreased. Senior students preferred a personal security strategy, i.e. they relied on themselves. Positive dynamics included the following trends. Superficial identity increased, while the autonomy in the awareness of one's own values and emotional component decreased. The assessment of psychological risks and that of criminal organizations increased, while common preventive efforts mostly decreased. Security strategies in terms of the macro environment also changed: senior students preferred adapting strategy (living in an authoritarian society) to individualizing (living in a humane and tolerant society). The article introduces some conclusions about the correlation of identity and attitude to personal security, as well as the complexity and multidirectional nature of their development in university students.

Keywords

• identity
• attitude to personal security
• perceptions of threats
• security psychology
• identity formation