چکیده:
University of Tehran
Journal of Social Science
No. 22, Corresponding to Vol, 11, No. 2
ESSN 1010-2809
Active and Passive Aspects of Student Alienation in Iran’
This paper probes the different adjustment patterns of Iranian university
students to the contemporary social and political scene and the degree to which
they accept or reject the dominant cultural mores, traditional values, and the
institutionalized authority of the society. Two patterns of adjustment are
distinguished: the alienated activist who is politically and socially active, and
the passive retreatist who is not likely to participate in social and political
activities. The paper further examines two groups of active and passive students
to highlight their differences and similarities. A total of 243 subjects have been
drawn from university students in Tehran through a disproportionately stratified
sampling. Using structured interviews and focused group discussions, detailed
information about social, economic, and demographic backgrounds as well as
information on the attitudes, ideations and behaviors of respondents has been
collected. In order to measure different psychosocial dimensions of the
subjects” behaviors and attitudes related to alienation and activism, 24 scales
are utilized. Two-tailed Student's t-Test for continuous variables and chi-square
analysis for categorical variables are used to compare the two groups. Results
indicate that the two groups do not differ by age, marital status, level of
education, and the degree of social and political alienation. However, the
groups significantly differ in terms of several background variables and some
attitudinal and behavioral characteristics. The activists and passive retreatist
differed by gender. socioeconomic status, residency. field of study, employment
rate, grade point average, membership in organizations, degree of exposure to
mass media, and group size. The difference between the two groups was also
statistically significant in terms of political ideology, family structure, seif-
efficacy, need to achievement, self-estrangement, reformism, rebelliousness,
altruism, egoism, optimism, pessimism, value isolation, conventional
religiosity, moral values, intellectualism, romanticism, and humanitarianism.