Identity Threats in the System of Attitudes to Personal Security

Abstract

The study made an attempt to approach the problem of identity threats from the perspective of modern security psychology, which studies psychological attitude to personal security as a systemic phenomenon. Threats to one’s personal security in the subject's view were analyzed in terms of threats to one’s identity. The representative sample (n=50, age=22) underwent a correlation analysis to identify the relationships between the assessments of individual threats to personal security and elements of identity, i.e. subjective evaluations of positive and negative personal qualities. Negative elements of identity appeared to be the most vulnerable, e.g. "depressed". The same was true for positive elements that are more dependent on external conditions and assessments, e.g. "happy", "generous", etc. As for self-reliant and assessments, e.g. "hardworking", "disciplined", they proved more secured. The subject’s perceptions of oneself and one’s security threats were in complex mutual determinations. Threats to personal security became threats to identity if implementation of these threats led to a deterioration in the subject's self-image.

Keywords

• perceptions of threats
• safe behavior
• security psychology
• personal identity
• anxiety
• fear