Between Collectivism and Individualism – Analysis of Changes in Value Systems of Students in the Period of 15 Years

Abstract

Introduction

The publication deals with the description of selected aspect of young people’s mentality, ie their systems of values. The research was conducted four times: in 2003 (325 respondents), in 2008 (379 respondents), in 2013 (368 respondents), and in 2018 (371 respondents) on students of the Bialystok universities. An attempt was made to establish if in the period of the fifteen years between the first survey and the last surveys one could observe changes in the mentality in the desired direction – from the point of view of political transformations – from “collectivism” to “individualism”. The way of understanding values was adopted from Rokeach’s theory.

Methods

The Rokeach Value Survey was used to study the system of values.

Results

The comparative analysis of the value preferences indices across all surveys (survey by survey) has not confirmed proposed hypothesis. It has been shown that the value system has changed towards individualism over fifteen years (when comparing surveys from year 2003 and 2018). Contradictory to the expectations, the most individualistic system of values was presented in survey group in 2008, and not in 2018.

Conclusion

There was no increase in rates of preference for individualistic values “from study to study”. The trajectories of changes in value systems turned out to be much more complex (and thus more difficult to describe).

Keywords:

• values of youths
• Rokeach’s value theory
• collectivism-individualism
• political transformations

Declaration by Authors of the Nature of Research – Ethical Issues

The study was non-interventional in nature and did not require permission from the Ethics Committee. The research does not fall within the field of clinical psychology. Neither is it of a clinical nature. The well-being of the research participants could not be compromised in any way. The ranking of values may have prompted participants to reflect ethically. In Polish conditions for this kind of survey research the opinion of Ethics Committee is not required. The survey was conducted in accordance with Polish standards. This type of research does not in any way threaten the well-being of the people involved. The respondents were informed in advance that the research concerns beliefs about themselves. The respondents gave verbal consent in the presence of witnesses. They could resign from participation at any time. The survey was conducted during a 0.5-hour meeting (groups of 20–25 people). The respondents ordered values included in the questionnaires by assigning them appropriate ranks. The survey was anonymous and the participation in it was voluntary. The survey was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The results of the study are stored at the Faculty of Engineering Management, Bialystok University of Technology. Data analyses are stored on a protected disk.

Acknowledgments

1. This research is supported by Bialystok University of Technology and financed from a subsidy provided by the Minister of Science and Higer Education; 2. The publication has recived funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 8195330)

Author Contributions

The mentality of Central and Eastern European societies has become an interesting subject of research due to the radical transformations of the political and economic system. This article is a part of this area of interest. In the four-stage research (5-year cycle) we tried to answer the question whether the strengthening of liberal democracy and free market economy in Poland is accompanied by changes in the mentality towards individualism. On a more general level of consideration, the following question can be formulated: whether the triad “liberal democracy – free market economy – individualism”, which characterizes Western societies, is becoming a more distinct attribute of the young generation of Poles with the passage of time (the research covered a period of 15 years). The study focused on value systems, which are considered to be the key determinant of mentality. Diagnosing the value systems several times was a time-consuming task (and therefore sporadically documented in scientific publications), but it allowed us to grasp the direction and scope of their changes. The study has practical significance: whether people will function effectively in a given political and economic system depends on their mentality, and especially on their value systems. As Le Bon¹²⁴ aptly observed in the late 19th century, a political system is a costume stuffed with the “spirit of the people”. It must correspond with what the people are like, what they want and what they aspire to.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.