Varased rahvuslikku iseloomu käsitlevad eestikeelsed psühholoogia-alased kirjutised
Date
2012-03-14, 2012
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Tartu Ülikool
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The aim of the current seminar paper was to explore the views of early
Estonian writings from the end of the 19th century to the early 20th century in the field
of psychology concerning national character and to find out the possible sources of
these beliefs. Thereby one of the aims of this paper was also to characterize the
Estonian population’s scientific understanding of psychology related to the collective
character phenomenon.
The seminar paper is primarily descriptive and explanatory, using as its
method the qualitative content analysis of writings. The analyzed writings comprised
the period of 1880-1917 and for identifying sources the research relied on an earlier
seminar paper by Terje Kurismann (Kurismann, 2007).
The analysis revealed that in the studied period beliefs of the national
character as a collective characteristic of a cultural-ethnic group that can be affected
by all in-group individuals were quite far-spread. The collective self-image of
Estonians was mainly negative, although some positive features that remained clearly
outnumbered were also presented. Taking into consideration the socio-historical
context on the analysis of writings, it can be concluded that the attitudes were quite
strongly influenced by political and social issues, socio-cultural context, value
judgements and also by the development of science. The latter may have affected
public understandings of the ethnic character as a collective social-psychological
construction towards the rejection of former stereotypes.
Description
Keywords
rahvuslik iseloom, psühholoogia ajalugu, 19. saj. lõpp, 20. saj. algus