| Abstract [eng] |
The study examines the links between ego identity and psychological well–being of 18-25 year-old individuals identifying with groups of either a subculture or non–subculture. Youth subcultures stand out from the public, and to study and compare them with the public can not only help to reveal common patterns, but also to better understand the features and thinking dominant in the subcultures by themselves (Ramanauskaitė, 2002). Studies of links between psychological well–being and ego identities of the subculture groups and their comparisons with the popular public can reveal whether identification with the youth subculture group leads to a greater satisfaction with life and self, or the subculture is only a medium where the identity of the young person is formed and how the psychological well–being and the identity of the ego differ in the intersubcultural groups. Assessment tools used for this study are: 1. L. Bennion and G. Adams, Personality Identity Assessment Methodology (EOMEIS–2); 2. Psychological well–being scale for youth of the Lithuanian population (LPGS–J) 3. Questions to find out the social and demographic characteristics of the subjects together with questions whether they identify themselves to the youth subculture and what subculture they identify to. Study data showed, that young people who do not identify with any subculture had less negative emotions and greater satisfaction with their interpersonal relationships, achieved their belief goals in the ideological and interpersonal relations despite larger diffusion. Youth identifying with subcultures were more used to pre-judge in various situations: prominently in ideological and interpersonal relations. A number of links between the psychological well–being estimates and ego identity states of the subculture study groups were found, and the relations between the corresponding to different groups were relatively the opposite. After analysing different youth subcultures, members of the skinhead subculture have been found to have greater control, greater satisfaction with their physical health, while the punks and the goths respectively had this value lower. Skinheads are more satisfied with their level of living and show overall psychological satisfaction, they also are in a pre–decision and moratorium identity state in the sphere of ideology, hipster subculture achieved more in the interpersonal relationships, while punk subculture achieved less. A finding is shown, that belonging to a subcultural group predicts greater negative emotion and a greater satisfaction with life and self, based on the regression principle. Not identifying with any youth subcultures predicts that the person will be less inclined to pre–decision and moratorium identity states in interpersonal relationships, they will show less diffusion in ideology, and a less achieve in identity realisation. |
