The Value System in the Consciousness of the Young Generation

Abstract

Value is understood here .as an object or a state of affairs which is the goal of an individual's aspirations and which satisfies his needs. This is, then, a psychosociological definition of value, the one found most frequently in the empirical studies which are at the base of analyses of the value systems of the young in the 1970s. The present paper only deals with values in the sphere of consciousness and with declared behaviours, which may or may not agree with actual behaviours.

The young value most affiliation values and stabilizing values such as love, friendship, happy marriage, respect of others, acceptance, feeling of security. In comparison with the youth of the 1960s, there is increased respect for affiliation values and a more intensive need for security and emotional satisfaction. This results in a stronger tendency to form small informal groups united by interpersonal ties. What the young seek in them is an antidote to the growing institutionalization and formalization of social, economic, political, cultural and religious life. At the same time, however, the groups are an escape from the public into the private world; general problems are abandoned in favour of personal ones.

The desire for affiliation values does not cause the young to become retired to their own small groups but induces them also to maintain links with the broader group, viz. nation and motherland. Our investigation does not make it possible to determine the specific content of our subjects’ notion of „motherland”, but it reveals their strongly patriotic attitudes expressed in their readiness for sacrifice, including the sacrifice of one’s life, in defence of the motherland. The young find sense in fight for national liberation even if there is little or no chance of victory. On the other hand, the concept of society is not so close or so intelligible to the young. Their attitude towards society is therefore less active than their attitude towards the native land.

An important group of desired values consists of: a „decent” social status and „decent” material position; furthermore, quiet and regular life, free of upheavals and surprises. However, these materialistic desires are not extravagant. In comparison with those of the 1960s they are weaker and more moderate.

The desire for material wellbeing and stabilization is to be fulfilled through education and work. Most subjects have an instrumental view of these values, although for some they are autotelic.