The title picture comes from: IC Photo, this article comes from WeChat public account: cultural aspect (ID: whzh_21bcr) , published in the “cultural aspect” 2019 No. 6, author: “Chinese college students’ social psychology of the” Task Force
There are about 38.33 million college students in China. Understanding the social mentality of college students is important to grasp the evolution of contemporary social concepts. The research team of “Chinese University Students’ Social Psychology” lasted three years, and the survey found that:
72.1% of the respondents think that their future is full of hope, 4.9% of the respondents are pessimistic about the future development trend; 85.1% of the respondents think that most of their personal achievements are achieved through hard work, 7.2 % Of the respondents opposed this view.
The proportion of the Internet as the main information channel for college students is surprisingly high. The main source of information for about 91.5% of college students is the Internet.
The overall level of online political participation of college students is relatively low. “Never” or “rarely” college students who participate in the discussion of political and policy matters on the Internet account for 72.1% of the total, while college students who participate “often” only 3.4 %.
A considerable proportion of college students with (32.2%) do not think that the social interest is higher than the personal interest under any circumstances.
More than half of college students have TCM. (87.8%) , Euthanasia (67.0%) , cohabitation before marriage (65.8%) , gay (56.2%) Controversial topics like acceptance.
A Survey Report on the Social Psychology of Contemporary College Students
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Education in 2019, there are currently about 38.33 million college students, and they are showing a year-on-year growth trend. Understanding the social mentality of college students will help us grasp the current status of contemporary Chinese social ideology, and it is also the key to our understanding of future changes in Chinese social ideology.
The Social Governance Research Center of Fudan University and Shanghai Open University’s Information Security and Social Management Innovation Lab jointly launched a social mentality survey of Chinese college students. The survey was conducted twice in 2015 and 2017. “Students” three-stage random sampling method, selected 6351 and 6759 college students from Chinese universities covering seven major regions of China and different school levels, respectively. The questionnaire survey method was used for nearly three years. , Collected a follow-up survey data, trying to three-dimensionally present the overall mentality and values of the college student group with “90s” as the main body.
The questionnaire designed attitudes to national development and foreign relations, attitudes to social life and economic development, public attitudes and public discussions, social cognition, social evaluation, science and belief, The attitudes of Hong Kong and Taiwan, and attitudes to controversial social issues include more than 200 indicators. The research team conducted statistical analysis on some related indicators, and based on the above statistical analysis, summarized and refined the problems.
The overall picture of the social mentality of college students
From the survey results, the ideological values of contemporary college students can be summarized in five key words: “confidence”, “identity”, “individual”, “material-based spiritual pursuit”, and “Internet aboriginal people.”
(a) confidence
The first aspect is confidence in the future of the individual. 72.1% of the respondents believe that their future is full of hope and are confident that the future will develop in a good direction. Only 4.9% of the respondents are pessimistic about the future development trend. 60.5% of the respondents expect that they will have a satisfactory economic income in the future, and only 6.5% of the respondents are pessimistic about their future income expectations.
The second aspect is confidence in the opportunities that society gives individuals. 57.7% of the respondents believed that the social environment provided good conditions for their dreams to be realized, and only 9.5% of the respondents expressed pessimism about this.
The third aspect is full confidence in China. Over 80% of college students are optimistic about China ’s future economic and political trends. Over 70% of college students believe that the future of China ’s political and social changes will still follow a gradual gradual trajectory. Over 60% of college students are in the current social distribution system, competition mechanism and operating mechanism. Be positive.
This confidence is a characteristic of the youth of our time. It is not only the product of the times, but also marks the times and changes the times.
(II) Agree
The blueprint of the ideal society for college students presents a certain order preference. The country has a high degree of overall recognition and a strong recognition of China’s development path. Contemporary college students show a more pragmatic social pursuit of an ideal society, and emphasize the characteristics of social stability, civilization, and security. The first three characteristics of the ideal society of college students are, in order, stable (16.1%) , civilization (15.9%) and security (10.7%) , choose free (7.4%) and democracy (6.1%) The proportion of college students as a social ideal is relatively small. Elements of order are still the preferred preferences of the social ideals of college students.
Respondents also have a very positive attitude towards the role of the central government, traditional culture, revolutionary traditions, and the state. At the same time, 90.3% of college students believe that traditional culture should be promoted. 78.1% of college students believe that the revolutionary tradition should be carried forward, 71.3% of college students believe that following government policies is important to the development of the country, and 82.5% of college students believe that China’s prosperity will bring about improvement in people’s living standards. In addition, it is worth mentioning that 59.9% of college students believe that the Chinese government should adopt a more rigid attitude in handling foreign affairs.
University students have a high approval attitude towards China’s current politics, economy, and history. Respondents who acknowledged that “reform and opening up are the root cause of China’s prosperity today” accounted for 50.8% of the total, and nearly 70% of the respondents’ views on history were basically consistent with history textbooks.
From a cultural perspective, the TV dramas most impressed by college students are different from the American and Korean dramas of previous years. The proportion of domestic dramas is as high as 80%. 》, Etc. are in the forefront, which reflects from the side that college students have a certain degree of recognition of Chinese cultural products.
(three) individuals
Individualized consciousness and “living for oneself” have become the starting point for some contemporary college students to define their relationship with society. Their thinking is often driven by personal interests and self-needs, oriented by personal interests and personal development, and firmly believes that personal efforts are closely related to personal development.
A certain percentage of college students begin to show individualistic tendencies, that is, life is centered on the individual rather than the environment in which the individual is located, and oneself defines his own life. 51.4% of the respondents think that they can completely choose and control their own lives, and only 11.7% think that they cannot fully choose and control their own lives.
In addition, the questionnaire also designed an indicator to measure the individualistic tendencies of college students: “Life is personal and I should live exactly as I think”, and the options are divided into “Agree”, “Unclear”, and There are three types of “disagree”, and college students who agree with this statement can be considered to have an individualistic tendency, and college students who disagree with this statement can be considered to have a non-individualistic tendency. The survey shows that individualists account for 25.5% of college students and non-individualists account for 29.3%. It can be seen that a considerable proportion of college students are eager to live according to their own ideas, and “live for themselves” has gradually become a consensus.
College students respect individual struggles and believe that individual efforts are vital to success. 85.1% of the respondents believe that most of their personal achievements are achieved through hard work, and only 7.2% of the respondents oppose this view; 80% of the respondents believe that most of their personal achievements are based on grasp Opportunity, only 6.5% of respondents oppose this view; 76.5% of respondents believe that hard work usually leads to a better life, and only 4.8% of respondents oppose this view.
In general, the living conditions of contemporary college students are more individualized, and their thinking styles are more individualistic. Thinking problems are often centered on self-needs, and personal development and self-realization are the goals. On the one hand, this individualization is brought about by technological progress and social division of labor. The “post-90s” began to “move” all their clothing, food, and shelter to the Internet, which made them no longer need to rely on communication and cooperation with others. You can also meet your own life needs. On the other hand, this individualization also comes from changes in understanding of the relationship between individuals and society. The “post-90s” gradually de-embedded from the community norms, and more emphasis was placed on independent individual life. value.
(4) Material-based spiritual pursuit
As a “richer generation” who grew up under relatively rich material conditions, contemporary college students value both material and material things. Certain material conditions are regarded as essential foundations of life, and material requirements are gradually being met. At the same time, it showed a higher spiritual pursuit, and the thinking of “use for me” replaced the thinking of “use for me”. In addition, the reckless “non-material achievement view” rises in the concept system of college students and presents the characteristics of a post-materialist transition.
The survey shows that only 7.2% of college students value money and power as their value pursuit, and 50.7% of them pursue value as a sense of achievement, a good family and social status. It can be seen that, unlike the traditional outlook on life that pursues money and power, contemporary college students focus more on the goal of their struggles on the realization of their own values, and their understanding of a successful life has apparently shifted from an external and material to an internal experience. of. Different from the former “post-70s” and “post-80s” college students, most of the “post-90s” college students enjoy the fruits of the rapid development of the country’s economy. Their material richness and affluence make their pursuit of spiritual life higher.
Their values are based on ample food and clothing. They no longer think that talking about material is vulgar and ill-mannered. They directly portray and struggle for a comfortable, safe, and prosperous life. From the perspective of contemporary college students, matter is an indispensable and important means, but matter is only the premise for realizing their values and goals in life, not the purpose itself.
The values of contemporary college students present a characteristic of a “post-materialist transition” that pays less and less attention to economic orientation. In the questionnaire, a recognized indicator of post-measurement materialism was designed. According to this indicator, the survey shows that the values of contemporary college students are mainly mixed (62.7%) , followed by post-materialists (18.7%) , materialist (15.5%) .
This shows that college students who grew up in the age of material abundance are less and less paying attention to economically oriented material values, and post-materialist values have gradually become popular among college student groups. Then the most important feature of materialists is that they significantly enhance self-expression and the realization of self-worth. The material accumulation since the reform and opening up has made it impossible for college students in the “90s” to invest too much personal energy in basic material security. It is also these solid material foundations that allow them to pursue spiritual pursuits, self-release, and publicity Exploration is feasible.
(V) Indigenous people on the Internet
Contemporary college students are a generation that has grown up with the Internet. If the Internet was an information platform for previous generations, then the Internet is their way of life for the “post-90s” generation. The Internet has influenced and shaped their ideas, cognitive models and behaviors.
The Internet is extremely important to college students. With newspapers, television, radioCompared with broadcasting and other information channels, the proportion of the Internet as the main information channel for college students is alarmingly high. About 91.5% of the most important information sources for college students in the past year have been the Internet. 2.4%.
The overall level of online political participation of college students is low. The survey shows that “never” or “rarely” college students who participated in discussions of political and policy matters on the Internet accounted for 72.1% of the total, while “regular” college students participated in only 3.4%; “never” or “rarely” 69.2% of the total reposted political content on social media; 75.7% “never” or “rarely” expressed political opinions on social media; “never” or “rarely” was controversial on the internet Affairs, mass incidents, and online protests accounted for 68.4%; “never” or “rarely” participated in online petitions or voting on public issues accounting for 73.4%.
Interestingly, college students attach great importance to network security, privacy protection and online freedom. 75.3% of the respondents are very concerned about the security of personal network information; 80.5% of the respondents are very concerned about personal privacy information > Security; 54.1% of respondents are opposed to the disclosure of personal information for the convenience of Internet use, only 24.9% of respondents believe that to facilitate the acceptance of personal information leakage, 72.2% of the respondents are opposed to the employment of online marines And other ways to influence Internet public opinion.
What kind of interaction may occur between the above-mentioned social mentality reflected by contemporary college students and mainstream values? Regarding these issues, from the survey results, we believe that:
On the one hand, there is a coupling relationship between the college students ’social mentality and mainstream values, and the possible objective consequences are that they coincide with the final orientation of mainstream values, and even pass by in some areas; p>
On the other hand, the social mentality of college students has its own characteristics and its own laws, and there is also tension between it and mainstream values.
Coupling relationship between college students’ social mentality and mainstream values
Whether it is the self-confidence and pride shown by contemporary college students, or the strong sense of identity, are closely linked to the choice of stability, order, country, nation, and China, especially the national identity and ethnic identity of college students. Have reached a very high level.
The most important coupling point between college students’ social mentality and mainstream values lies in their support for the country and the existing order. In this sense, the undergraduate group in mainland China is currently unlikely to take actions that affect social stability on a large scale. As the mainstay of the future society, college students are highly identifiable to the country as a whole, have a “future outlook” for social perception, and maintain a self-adjusting psychology of overall positive interaction with life perception. After experience, they can carry the heavy responsibility given by the country and society.
First of all, it was mentioned in the previous article that contemporary college students have a good overall evaluation of China’s politics, economy, culture, and history. Most students have confidence in China’s future, which shows that college students highly recognize the country and nation.
Secondly, college students generally believe that their personal development and social prospects are “expectable in the future”, showing a strong sense of development effectiveness. The survey shows that the level of development efficiency of contemporary college students is generally high, and the average value of each indicator exceeds 3.5 points (total score is 5 points) , It shows that most college students believe that the external environment can provide a good development condition for themselves. The college student group’s imagination of their own development is a picture that is full of confidence and continues to sculpt their own closer to the social environment.
This strong sense of development effectiveness is not found in young people in most countries and regions where development is stagnant. It can promote young people to self-attribute to personal development and social circumstances instead of external attribution. It can connect personal development with personal struggle and personal efforts, and it is not easy to blame the problem on the external environment , And finally embarked on the road of rebellion against the existing system.
Again, college students’ perception of society tends to be positive, showing overall a high sense of social fairness, general social security and high social trust. 33.8% of college students think “the current society is fair”In the middle, 41.2% and unfairness account for 25%. On the whole, the perception of the fairness of society is in a relatively stable state. They do have dissatisfaction with some of the inequalities in society, but they still belong to an acceptable range. College students who believe that the current society is safe account for 66.0% of the total, 26.7% who think that it is general, and only 7.3% who think that it is not safe; the proportion of college students who trust members of the general society is 58.6%, and the trust relationship between people 33.5% were cautious and 7.8% were uncertain. As a whole, contemporary college students are full of hope for social perception and future development. This is not only their true feelings about society, but also their basic expectations for social development. Although there are still dissatisfactions in fairness and trust, they are all acceptable and acceptable. Improvements.
Finally, as a generation enjoying the benefits of China’s rapid economic development, contemporary college students have shown a special adjustment mechanism. Under the pressure of study, life, employment, emotion, and other uncertain futures, college students show a benign self-adjusted social mentality. On the one hand, contemporary college students have produced a self-deprecating expression with cathartic nature, which has produced methods of deconstructing pressure and self-relieving, such as “mourning,” “decaying,” “salted fish,” “Buddha,” and “spouting groups.” , Contemporary college students have also produced a positive and positive “little fortunate” (a small but definite happiness) mentality, emerging Active attempts to actively seek psychological support and self-regulation, such as “power”, “like”, “call”, “Kwakwa group”. This makes college students maintain a self-adapted psychology of overall benign interaction, and is not prone to psychological imbalances and grief-sorrowful thoughts due to social pressure. It is highly inclusive and reduces the negative social emotions from online to offline. Transform and take action.
The tension between college students’ social mentality and mainstream values
There may also be some tension between the characteristics of college students’ social mentality and mainstream values. For example, although the Internet provides a space for college students to express their patriotism and express their youthful enthusiasm, in the online world, the representative of a truly large-scale, long-standing online carnival is not a nationalist event similar to “Emperor’s Expedition”, but It is similar to “rice circle” network activities that require strong organizational power and mental energy input. For another example, even the current full confidence of college students in themselves, society, and the country can actually be regarded as a subjective mapping of their past experiences, but in the future, it will not rule out various personal development and social situations. The ups and downs.
inUnder such circumstances, young people’s thinking mode may change from internal attribution to external attribution, the factors of personal efforts and struggles will be relatively ignored, and the responsibilities of society will be strengthened, which will make them vulnerable to specific trends of thought. Impact, there is a radicalization trend.
The tension between college students ’social mentality and mainstream values is more likely to come from the“ individual ”and“ material-based spiritual pursuits ”that are currently manifested by college students.
Individual traits emphasize personal value and niche, which is not completely compatible with the external objectivity and internal unity of mainstream values. First, although college students’ thinking has a side that coincides with mainstream values, they are more about looking at the world from an individual perspective and from their own experiences and experiences, rather than instilling or inculcating external objective value systems. the result of. The individual’s experience of observing the world can finally be confirmed by himself as the yardstick, and cannot be forcibly judged by an external authority. Second, individualization means retaining the individual’s own characteristics and owning his own unique ideas. This affirmation of the uniqueness of an individual is both for himself and for others. Extending from this is necessarily pluralism, inclusiveness and openness, and it is difficult to fully coordinate with a unified value system.
Material-based spiritual pursuits have two requirements: one is to have basic material conditions, and the other is to emphasize a free and transcendent spiritual experience. This is related to the growth background of college students as a “rich generation” youth group: they are a generation who grew up in a “greenhouse”, have relatively abundant material conditions, have a secure life, and are not wronged by being divided into foreign objects; they consider problems and actions The choice does not need to start from survival and life pressure, but from personal interests and development. However, this material-based spiritual pursuit may also cause problems in two aspects:
First, the pursuit of a free and detached spiritual experience may lead them to overemphasize their own interests and development, and be disconnected from the requirements of the external environment and the responsibilities that society expects them to assume.
Second, they cannot leave a certain level of material living conditions. They may have enthusiasm and insufficient endurance in difficult circumstances. They naturally enjoy the advantages brought about by material abundance, and most of the setbacks they experienced are academics and families, and they have forgotten their lives in the war years, the entrepreneurial difficulties in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the courage to reform and open up Waiting for the first time can’t empathize, and there is still room for improvement in cultivating hardships, tenaciousness, tenacity, indomitable qualities and style.
Under the influence of various factors, we can see that although the social mentality of college students may bringThe observational consequences are consistent with the final orientation of mainstream values, but the ideological core behind them and the perception of mainstream values in specific means and implementation paths are not exactly the same. The manner and form of expression, the degree of expression and the scope of practice may Beyond the bounds of mainstream values. Here are a few examples:
First, behind a high degree of identification is a complex and subtle ideological picture. The identity of college students starts from a specific dimension, and from other perspectives it may seem a bit paradoxical.
For another example, although in many incidents, many young people used the nationality as a banner to form a collective voice, and required personal obedience in the name of the nationality as a whole, there is still a considerable proportion “label =” Remarks “> (32.2%) College students do not believe that social interests are higher than personal interests in any case, or do not support this view and do not object to (31.5%) .
At the same time, accompanied by the current sentiment of trying to send a strong voice to some western countries, 65.5% of the respondents advocated that they should actively learn from the West, while those opposed to learning from the West only accounted for all. 9%. As far as the understanding of the relationship between the individual and the country is concerned, when praising “My Country” and emphasizing that the individual pays for the country, college students also hope that the country bears the corresponding responsibility for supporting and supporting the weak. Most (70%) College students believe that the state should take more responsibility to protect everyone’s life, only 10.6% disagree.
Another example is the rising nationalism of youth groups in recent years, and college students’ attitudes towards patriotism and national sovereignty have tended to be tough. The survey shows that compared with 2015, the proportion of college students who expressed strong support for nationalist-related variables in 2017 is on the rise. This changing trend stems from the self-confidence and pride brought by China’s development achievementsIt is also related to the stress response to external pressure. However, the rise of youth nationalism and the hardening of attitudes will develop into compulsive “statements” and “stand-ins” with clear positions on a large number of issues.
Another example, the survey results show that some college students show a certain populist tendency, and they tend to adopt a low-level perspective to look at the problem. Some college students from low-income families who have entered elite colleges have a stronger desire to move upwards and believe in the power of profession and knowledge, but they often easily turn into a complete distrust and unacceptability after experiencing realistic setbacks and blows. . They may attribute their situation to external structural factors. This mode of thinking often makes them oppose the establishment, the power structure behind the system, and the elites who represent and incarnate this power structure.
At the same time, because they are unable to integrate or become elites, they are opposed to themselves, which makes them tend to take a black and white perspective. This perspective persists in the distinction and judgment of right and wrong, which makes it easier for them to fall into a set of value judgments before fact judgments, whether they look at social issues or their own life opportunities.
Third, although there is consistency with some external expressions of mainstream values, the starting point of logical thinking of contemporary college students has its own characteristics, and it is not completely in line with the mainstream values. The group of college students emphasizes focusing on the world based on individual feelings and their own experiences. Whether it is discussing grand narratives or telling personal experiences, their attitudes reflect the tendency of authority, niche, and strong self-awareness. Whether in the online world or in the real world, most young people’s expressions are more fragmented, and the expression codes are relatively shallow. This can be understood as their direct mapping of real life feelings, but this expression is at a distance from the grand narrative system with a core cognitive framework.
The youth culture of contemporary college students shows the characteristics of minority differentiation and pluralistic integration:
Niche differentiation refers to a small number of college students based on certain common characteristics, and a large number of small circles coexist.化 traits. Taking station B as an example, this seems to have become the default option in the subconscious of contemporary college students. As a cultural community, station B’s cultural atmosphere is all-encompassing and gathers a large number of in-depth fans. College students please themselves in the circles of hip-hop, hip-hop, robots, electronic music, national wind, and national man, and attract similar people, gradually forming their own niche culture ring.
The pluralistic integration refers to the open-mindedness and “harmonious but different” mentality of foreign students. On the one hand, the open-mindedness of university students’ thinking. The survey shows that more than half of the university students have a sense of Chinese medicine. (87.8%) , euthanasia (67.0%) , cohabitation before marriage = “text-remarks” label = “Remarks”> (65.8%) , gay (56.2%) and other controversial topics Accept, this reflects that college students have an open and tolerant attitude towards different groups, different opinions and multiculturalism; on the other hand, the pursuit of fashion and innovation, easy to accept popular culture, such as the consumer culture driven by Internet celebrities, presents The coexistence of multiculturalism, such as mainstream culture and secondary culture, is not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Therefore, it is not yet possible to determine that young college students as a whole have formed or accepted the existing systematic cognitive framework of society. For most young people, their current positions and attitudes are brought about by their true feelings of social prosperity for a decade or two, but this does not mean that they have formed a fixed “metacognitive framework” “. Most people will intentionally or unconsciously adjust their positions and attitudes according to the changes they feel in order to produce a psychological and ideological adaptation to the current environment.
Three core relationships that need to be addressed in the construction of mainstream value systems
A perspective on the important characteristics of contemporary college students’ social mentality and their relationship with mainstream values, we will find that there are three core relationships that need to be dealt with in the process of constructing the mainstream value system.
The first relationship is the relationship between identity and openness. When constructing an effective mainstream value system to integrate, command, and guide youth values, attention needs to be paid to maintaining the openness and development of the youth group’s value system. Society has a certain constructive nature.In the domain, ideas may construct reality: on the one hand, individual actors make specific choices and actions under the influence of ideas, and gradually build an objective world that meets their goals; on the other hand, existing between different actors has Consensus consensus may become the objective social fact itself under the influence of cognition. In this way, the overly strong internal identity and overly closed consciousness of internal and external isolation may in fact exacerbate the cracks of different ethnic groups, and eventually establish a true differentiation and separation, and different social and cultural communities separated from each other. On the contrary, a value system that is flexible, open, and inclusive may eventually lead to social integration.
The second relationship is the relationship between the individual and society. The process of constructing and disseminating the mainstream value system should be a process in which individuals and society, individuals and collectives can find a suitable position in the mainstream value system, and live in harmony and complement each other. A key consequence of China’s 40 years of transformation and change in the social sphere is the gradual de-embedding of individuals from the community. This de-embedding is at the level of both social structure and ideology and behavior.
As a change of the past centrally-oriented economic and social structure and excessive emphasis on collectivist ideology, the awakening of the personal consciousness of youth groups is essentially a positive result of reform and opening up. However, if this kind of personal consciousness is enlarged too much, some problems will inevitably arise. We need to consider how to cultivate and develop an individual consciousness that will not be reduced to thorough individualism and integrated with the overall development of society. We need to give full respect to individual consciousness and individual values. At the same time, we need to construct a more effective mainstream value system to integrate, direct, and guide youth values. This mainstream value system, while emphasizing the leading role of core values, should also endeavor to respect and protect the individual’s pursuit of diversity, and thereby form a consensus and leading open value system.
The third relationship is the relationship between spiritual pursuit and material foundation. The spiritual pursuit of transcendence is not attached to material, but in most cases it is based on material. Young people are able to let go of their interest and show their individuality because their parents have laid a solid material foundation for these spiritual pursuits. However, Chinese society is actually a society that is not rich enough, and per capita conditions will become thinner. Chinese society is also a society with unevenly distributed economic resources. Any economic resource will be seen from a specific group and region. Seems scarce.
For the “post-90s” and “post-00s”, China’s material foundation needs to be further consolidated, and the spirit of diligence and thrift should be further maintained. At the same time, they also need to use down-to-earth strength to transform their transcendental spiritual pursuit into innovation and creativity that are conducive to the national economy and people’s livelihood., And thus become a source of increasing material wealth.
(The final authors of this article are Gui Yong, Hu Jiafeng, and Hou Yixun. The members of the research team also include Li Xiumei, Huang Ronggui, Xing Tingting, Zheng Wen, and Du Xiaoqin , Li Chengyun, Li Xue, Fu Yu, Wang Yingying, Wang Huaxian, Yi Xin, Shu Dongni, Wu Qianfeng, Wu Chenghan, Shi Yingjie, Zhou Lin, Aymila Akmu, Cheng Haoran, etc. This article received the National Social Science Fund of 2019 Support for the major project “Research on the Development Law and Guidance Strategies of the Network Society Psychology Driven by Big Data”