Tesis doctoral de Moises Esteban Guitart
Introduction nowadays identity can be considered as a crucial issue because human mobility and globalization are worldwide phenomena. In an increasingly ethnically diverse society, it is very important to study how the different cultural groups that live in the same territory can develop a positive identity. That is to say, how the adolescents from different cultural groups can live between cultures and negotiate their own identity in such a way that they maintain their links with their family and society in order to accept the diversity that exists everywhere in the world. this study explores the narrative construction of personal and social identity among adolescents from the intercultural university of chiapas. The general aim is to show and illustrate a theoretical model that tries to explain two functions of the identity in adolescent developmental period and the psychosocial mechanisms that are involved. For us the identity is the whole of perceptions, descriptions, knowledge#s, and beliefs about ourselves (the way that we see or define ourselves). That is to say, it is the answer to the question #who am i?# In that request we can get two kinds of answers. We can say the features that make one unique as an individual and different from the others (#i am extrovert, i would like to be a doctor#), this is our life project; and we can say that the set of categories by which an individual is recognized as a member of a group (#i am indigenous#), this is our social identity. The first one, the personal identity, has the function of regulating our life. And the second one, the social identity, has the function of fighting for the recognition of the rights of our social groups. Scholars suggest that social identity is much more salient for cultural minority adolescents than for adolescents who belong to of the ethnic majority. So our general hypothesis is that adolescents who are members of the ethnic minority group (indigenous) will score significantly higher on social identity than adolescents who are members of the ethnic majority group (mestizos). methodology the methodology process that we followed was the triangulation one. That is to say, it is an approach for data analysis that synthesizes data from multiple sources. Specifically, we examined information collected by different methods or different instruments (quantitative and qualitative tests). We used four measures: the identity functions and group perceptions questionnaire (if-gp), the multigroup ethnic identity measure (meim), both quantitative, the life story interview (lsi) and the self picture (sp), both qualitative. in the quantitative study participants were 331 adolescents (144 mestizos and 187 indigenous) from the intercultural university of chiapas. The average was 21.7 years (sd = 2.65; range: 17-40). There were more girls (51.1%) than boys. In the qualitative study participants were 12 students from the intercultural university of chiapas (6 indigenous and 6 mestizos). some results the results supported our general hypothesis. We conducted an analysis of variance (anova), showing significant differences among the studied groups. For instance, the indigenous group shows high scores on ethnic identity (evaluated by meim) and social categories in self concept (evaluated by fi-gp) than mestizos. Moreover, in the indigenous life stories, there is more social identity information than in the mestizos life stories. discussion and conclusion our findings suggest one general conclusion. There are identity differences between mestizos and indigenous from intercultural university of chiapas. More specifically, the mestizo students show more categories and psychosocial mechanisms of the personal identity and its function than indigenous. Opposite, the indigenous students show more presence of social categories in their self concepts. However, the presence of social categories is important in both groups. It will be important for futures studies to explore the personal and social identity (evaluated with the same measures as in our study) in another sample, for instance in adolescents that study in another university, without intercultural educative model.
Datos académicos de la tesis doctoral «La construcción de identidades en una muestra de adolescentes de la universidad intercultural de chiapas. funciones de la identidad y mecanismos psicosociales implicados«
- Título de la tesis: La construcción de identidades en una muestra de adolescentes de la universidad intercultural de chiapas. funciones de la identidad y mecanismos psicosociales implicados
- Autor: Moises Esteban Guitart
- Universidad: Girona
- Fecha de lectura de la tesis: 19/09/2008
Dirección y tribunal
- Director de la tesis
- José María Nadal Farreras
- Tribunal
- Presidente del tribunal: José Luis Linaza iglesias
- avel·lina Suñer gratacós (vocal)
- pablo del Rio pereda (vocal)
- amelia Alvarez rodriguez (vocal)