Showing papers by "Gadjah Mada University published in 1960"

Choice of models among javanese adolescents

Abstract: Previous studies have indicated that in Europe and the U. S. the ideal personalities chosen by adolescents are largely taken from the immediate, private sphere of experience, while public and historic figures occupy a relatively minor role in this respect (4, 5 ) . If this is related to a culturally determined attitude of what Allport and Gillespie (1) have called privatism, then one might expect adolescents from societies with marked collectivistic traditions to show a different trend. Javanese society has such strong traditions (3, 6 ) . The ideal personalities chosen by 537 Javanese high school students from both urban and rural areas were categorized into personalities drawn from the private world of the adolescent (family, friends, school) and personalities drawn from public life (national leaders past and present and community leaders). Of the personalities chosen 35% fell into the former category and 65% into the latter category. There were no marked age changes from 14 to 19 years, except for a tendency for past national leaders to become more frequently chosen than present national leaders. When Ss were divided according to family income, it became clear that the highest income group, consisting largely of the children of higher officials, showed a different pattern as compared with all the other income groups. In their case the proportion choosing ideal personalities from private Iife rose to 5796, while those choosing from public life fell to 43%. In other words, this group was closer to the Western pattern than the other groups. This finding may be related to the marked class differences in child training which have been reported by the author ( 2 ) ; the highest income group tending to make demands on the child as an independent individual, and the other groups treating it rather as a part of the collectivity. The generality of these cultural patterns remains to be established.