Perception of Personal Characteristic and Importance of the Identity of Students in the Republic of Macedonia: Factors and Consequences

Abstract

This paper comes out from more extensive research named “Real and virtual identities” realized by Institute for sociological, political and juridical research during year 2013. Its tendency was to explore how young people see themselves, which attributes they use in process of self definition, as well as to find out what are the factors and outcomes of self definition process. This part of the research is actually in the field of psychology of personality and identity and it is based on the circumflex model of interpersonal behavior. The main hypothesis in this segment of the study assumed that certain socio-demographic factors influenced the identity perception of young people and that it has an impact in several segments of their socio-political life. Research sample size was 707 respondents, male 256 and 451 female students from Skopje, Tetovo and Bitola. When the factors are in focus, the data show that male, with a greater intensity than women perceive themselves as dominant, calculating, cold-blooded and introverted, while women with more intensity than men perceive themselves as cooperative; Albanians, in comparison with the Macedonians, in the description of self stress more: dominance, accountability, coldblooded, introvert, while the Macedonians, stress more: cooperation and sociability; respondents living in the village to a greater extent describe themselves as introverted, less dominant, compared to those living in the city. Those who live in the city, compared with those who live in the village over perceived themselves as social. Speaking about the outcomes, openness to different social events is usually connected positively with dimensions as gregariousness, willingness to cooperate and domination, and negatively to introversion and inferiority.