Jose Valencia’s research while affiliated with University of the Basque Country and other places

This study investigated the development of national identification in children growing up in the Basque Country. The sample consisted of 246 children aged 6, 9, 12 and 15 years old who belonged to three linguistic subgroups: children who spoke only Basque with their parents in their home, children who spoke only Spanish in their home, and children who spoke both Basque and Spanish in their home. It was found that national identifications differed in the three linguistic subgroups. Furthermore, the three subgroups exhibited different evaluations of, and feelings towards, the national ingroup and a number of national outgroups. The positive and affective distinctiveness ascribed to the Basque and Spanish national groups was correlated with the strength of identification with the Basque and Spanish groups respectively. The attitudes towards national outgroups which were exhibited by these children did not show any changes as a function of age. It is argued that the cognitive-developmental account of the development of national attitudes is unable to explain the patterns of findings which were obtained, but that social identity theory can explain the correlation between the strength of national identification and the positive and affective distinctiveness which was ascribed to the ingroup.

The study of the use of language as a system of social integration vs. differentiation in contexts of intergroup conflict has been underdeveloped in social psychology. Usually the use of language has been considered as a system of expression of "ethnic identity ". This perspective has, at least, three problems: 1) language has been taken as a direct expression of an identity, fixed and taken for granted. 2) language has been considered as a simplistic conception of the processes of identification, without taking into account the complexity of the social psychological factors that characterise "ethnic" intergroup conflicts. 3) an individualistic view of language and of the social conditions in which it circulates has been given to the speaker's position. The coexistence of two languages in socio-political contexts where nationalism plays an important role means that because of the symbolic nature of conflicts, non-univocal strategies of social differentiation are developed. The aim of the present study is to analyse such a process of integration or differentiation within the framework of the Theory of Social Representations (TSR), more specifically with the use of the three-phase model of Doise et al (1993), where SR are considered as organising principles of symbolic relationships between individuals and groups. In this sense, we first analysed the shared conceptions of self-categorisations and identities related to the in-group (Region) and the out-group (Nation). This study also aims to analyse how the use of language interacts with the origin of the parents of children in order to develop 18 strategies of identification. Those strategies of identification are understood as a tactical positioning that allow actors to express their positions towards a conflict of objectified realities, socially defined as "ethnic". Three main strategies of identification are possible: assimilation, integration and separation (Berry 1990). Summing up, these strategies of identification seem to be interesting tactical positioning tools (Elejabarrieta 1994) that allow young social actors to express their positions towards the conflict between regions with high levels of self-consciousness of "being a nation" and nations. While Assimilation strategies lead to the actors to refuse in-group members and ignore them, Separation ones drive children and adolescents towards both the recognition of the in-group and the awareness of them, whereas Integration strategies lead to the actors to recognise both in-group and out-group in evaluation and information.

Ikerketa honetan testuinguru soziolinguistiko ezberdinetan hazten ari diren euskal haurrengan identitate nazionala nola garatzen den aztertzen da. Emaitzek adierazten dute identifikazio nazionala, endotalde zein exotalde nazionalen inguruko ebaluaketa eta sentimenduak, eta endotaldearekiko des- berdintze positiboa eta afektiboa hizkuntza-taldearen arabera aldatzen direla. Hizkuntza-taldearekin erlazionatutako ezberdintasunekin alderaturik, adina- ren araberako ezberdintasun gutxi aurkitzen da. Ondorio gisa planteatzen da teoria kognitibo-ebolutibo tradizionalak ez direla gai ikerketa honetan identitate nazionalaren garapenean aurkitu den aldakortasun soziokulturala azaltzeko. Zentzu horretan, teoria sozio-psikologikoak eta, batez ere Irudikapen Sozialei eta Identitate Sozialari buruzkoak egokiagoak lirateke haurrek eremu honetan duten garapena azaltzeko. This study investigated the development of national identity in Basque children who are growing up in different sociolinguistic contexts. It was found that both national identification, evaluations of, and feelings towards, national in-groups and out-groups and positive and affective distinctiveness ascribed to the in-group differed in the three linguistic subgroups. Compared with the range of differences which occurred as a function of linguistic group, there were relatively few differences which occurred as a function of the children's ages. It is concluded that traditional cognitive-developmental theories are unable to explain the socio-cultural variability that is exhibited in the development of national identity, and that SRT and SIT may provide more useful conceptual frameworks for understanding children's development in this domain. PSIKOLOGIA