Self-Assessment Of Personal Civic Identity In Adolescents

The psychological nature of personal civic identity remains underinvestigated. Issues related to its motivation, the mechanisms of its formation, its implementation, etc. remain unsolved. The paper presents a theoretical review of modern approaches to the investigation of personal civic identity. It deals with psychological aspects of personal identity as a psychological phenomenon. The author employs her own methodology of investigating self-assessment of personal civic identity in adolescents. The research involves 208 humanitarian students of Ryazan State University named for S. A. Yesenin (Ryazan, Russia). The research indicates that there are only a few people showing high-level personal civic identity. Students of this category are characterized by a formed axiological sphere, which presupposes deep understanding of their civic stand, independence in their life choices, willingness to develop into members of civic society. People with low-level civic identity are characterized by extreme egocentricity and self-oriented motivation, underdeveloped self-regulatory functions, rigid thinking, stereotyped behavior patterns. Due to these features, their life is aimed at achieving self-important goals with no desire to perform socially significant activities. All this hinders the development of their civic stand and civic identity. Adolescents with mid-level civic identity experience an existential crisis caused by indefinite social roles, underdeveloped motivational, cognitive, volitional, and moral aspects of their personality, as well as an external locus of control leading to low personal activity and civic stand.