The study examined whether adolescents' tendency to employ informational, or normative identity-processing style predicts their perceived effectiveness of different political activities. Data were taken from the broader longitudinal study conducted in the Czech Republic, and included reports from 179 participants (Time 1 = age 17; Time 2 = age 19). Path analyses suggested that adolescents who sought information tended to perceive non-traditional political activity (e.g., in civic organizations) as effective, while participants' normative conformism predicted disbelief in direct activity (e.g., petitions). Perceived effectiveness of traditional activity (e.g., voting) reflected adolescents' actual political trust rather than their identity-processing styles. These results complement previous findings on the correlates of identity-processing styles and adolescents' political thinking.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AltemeyerB. (1996). The authoritarian specter.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
BerzonskyM. D. (1989). Identity style: Conceptualization and measurement.Journal of Adolescent Research, 4, 268–282. DOI: 10.1177/074355488943002.
4.
BerzonskyM. D.CieciuchJ.DuriezB.SoenensB. (2011). The how and what of identity formation: Associations between identity styles and value orientations. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, 295–299. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2010.10.007.
5.
BerzonskyM. D.FerrariJ. R. (1996). Identity orientation and decisional strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 597–606. DOI: 10.1016/0191-8869(96)00001-3.
6.
BerzonskyM. D.SoenensB.SmitsI.LuyckxK.GoossensL. (2007). Identity Style Inventory (ISI4): Draft Version. Unpublished measure, Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Cortland, NY.
7.
BerzonskyM. D.SullivanC. (1992). Social-cognitive aspects of identity style: Need for cognition, experiential openness, and introspection. Journal of Adolescent Research, 7, 140–155. DOI: 10.1177/074355489272002.
8.
BynnerJ. M.RomneyD. M.EmlerN. P. (2003). Dimensions of political and related facets of identity in late adolescence. Journal of Youth Studies, 6, 319–335. DOI: 10.1080/1367626032000138282.
9.
DunkelC. S.PapiniD. R.BerzonskyM. D. (2008). Explaining differences in identity styles: Possible roles of personality and family functioning. Identity, 8, 349–363. DOI: 10.1080/15283480802365338.
10.
DuriezB.SoenensB. (2006). Personality, identity styles and authoritarianism: An integrative study among late adolescents. European Journal of Personality, 20, 397–417. DOI: 10.1002/per.589.
11.
DuriezB.SoenensB.BeyersW. (2004). Personality, identity styles, and religiosity: An integrative study among late adolescents in Flanders (Belgium). Journal of Personality, 72, 877–910. DOI: 10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00284.x.
12.
EriksonE. H. (1968). Identity youth and crisis.New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
13.
GamsonW. A. (1968). Power and discontent.Homewood: Dorsey Press.
14.
JezekS.LacinovaL.SirucekJ.MichalcakovaR. (2008). The psychological branch of the ELSPAC study: A survey of 15-year-old respondents. InLacinovaL.JezekS. (Ed.), Fifteen-year-olds in Brno: A slice of longitudinal self-reports (pp. 7–11). Brno, Czech Republic: Masaryk University. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://is.muni.cz/repo/806682/chapter01Intro.pdf/publication/806682.
15.
KlandermansB. (1997). The social psychology of protest.Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
16.
MondakJ. J.HalperinK. D. (2008). A framework for the study of personality and political behaviour. British Journal of Political Science, 38, 335–362. DOI: 10.1017/S0007123408000173.
17.
NorrisP. (2003, November). Young people & political activism: From the politics of loyalties to the politics of choice? Report presented at the Council of Europe Symposium ‘Young people and democratic institutions: From disillusionment to participation’, Strasbourg. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Acrobat/COE%20Young%20People%20and%20Political%20Activism.pdf.
18.
NorrisP.WalgraveS.AelstP. V. (2005). Who demonstrates? Antistate rebels, conventional participants, or everyone?Comparative Politics, 37, 189–205.
19.
SerekJ.MacekP. (2010). Proc se politicky (ne)angazovat: obsah a struktura presvedceni u adolescentu [Why (not) to become politically engaged: Content and structure of beliefs in adolescence]. Ceskoslovenska psychologie, 54, 160–174.
20.
SoenensB.DuriezB.GoossensL. (2005). Social-psychological profiles of identity styles: Attitudinal and social-cognitive correlates in late adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 28, 107–125. DOI:10.1016/j.adolescence.2004.07.001.
21.
ZukinC.KeeterS.AndolinaM.JenkinsK.Delli-CarpiniM. X. (2006). A new engagement? Political participation, civic life, and the changing American citizen.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
