Methodical Aspects of Measuring Military Identity

Abstract

The paper presents backgrounding of sociological methodology for measuring the military identity of veterans. There are three types of military identity – stable, situational and unformed – which are compared on the following grounds: identification orientation, commitment to military experience, strength of connection with and rejection from the army, loyalty to military masculine culture, military practices execution, perception of the army as a family or as a professional organization, emotional attachment to the army, a motivational rationale for joining the army, an existential assessment of military service. The stable type of military identity manifests itself in veterans’ commitment to military experience/culture after returning from the army. The situational type of military identity is characterized by “mixed” identification both with the army and with various civilian groups. The unformed type of veterans’ military identity is characterized by a weak form of adherence to military experience and a strong identification with various civilian groups. The peculiarities of psychological methods of measuring military identity are considered, such as the “Warrior Identity Scale” by S. Lancaster, S. Kinchle and S. Castro, and the method of measuring four modifications of military identity (professional, idealistic, warriorism and individualistic) by R. Johansen, D. Laberg and M. Martinusen. It is concluded that in a sociological study, it is necessary to take into account the influence of demographic and social factors on formation of military identity, such as gender, time spent in the army, education level, age of conscription, place of residence, motivation to join the army, marital status and the presence/ absence of traumatic combat experience.

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