Uloga profesionalne socijalizacije u oblikovanju političkih vrijednosti
Authors:   , Čavar Ivana 
Published: March 2024

This thesis explores the correlations between early professional socialization, professional identity it constructs, and political values. The research focuses on establishing the extent of professional identification of freshmen and seniors in selected fields of study (medicine, law, mechanical engineering, and language studies), determining the differences in their professional identities, and examining the extent of its influence on the persistence, strengthening or change of political values. In this way, the thesis makes three scientific contributions: conceptual, methodological, and empirical. The first relates to the theoretical elaboration of the concepts of professional socialization and professional identity, but also to the effort to provide a systematic review of political values. The methodological contribution of the dissertation lies in the operationalization and construction of instruments for measuring professional identity and political values, while the results of the conducted research on students' professional socialization and political values constitute its empirical contribution. Since previous research on professional socialization and identity has mainly focused on specific professions and occupations, defining and conceptualizing them in a narrow and profession-specific way, rarely using sociological, psychological or even social-psychological approaches, the conceptual contribution of this dissertation lies primarily in defining and developing a general concept of professional identity, i.e. one that can be universally applied to any profession. This has been done through an integrated approach of two theoretical perspectives: the social-psychological social identity theory, which is based on the theory of social categorization and sees the basis of identification in the group, and the microsociological identity theory, which is based on symbolic interactionism and sees the role as the basis of identification. The former, therefore, sees the process of identification as one where individuals merge themselves with a certain group by adopting the behaviors and attitudes characteristic to that group, while the latter sees it as the merging of the individual with a certain role and the assumption of the meanings and expectations associated with it. The resulting conceptual model, made by synthesizing the two approaches, enables a twofold insight. Firstly, it gives insight into the totality of dimensions that make up an individual's identification with a professional group. Secondly, it shows how the interaction of the way in which individuals’ commitment to the role of one identity in relation to other identities and their self-definition in the context of a particular group directs their actions and attitudes. The application of this process of identification led to the expectation that professional identity will influence political values, whose definition and taxonomic overview constitutes the second conceptual contribution of this thesis. Through review of previous domestic and international political science, sociological, and social-psychological research and through comparison of the scope and content of the political values that have emerged from it, a “list” of six fundamental values has been constructed and conceptually elaborated. Those values included economic liberalism, egalitarianism, political authoritarianism, national exclusivism, moral traditionalism, and gender conservatism. The methodological contribution of this dissertation was achieved by operationalizing the developed concepts of professional identity and political values and constructing instruments designed to measure them. From a review of 14 studies of different identities based on social identity theory or identity theory eight dimensions of professional identity emerged, measured by a total of 31 items: self-categorization (three items), salience (four items), prominence (two items), commitment (seven items), behavior (one item), recognition and expectations of others (two items), satisfaction and group perception (six items) and extrinsic rewards (six items). Similarly, a review of 10 studies of value orientations resulted in six scales of political values, which were measured with a total of 29 items. Scales of economic liberalism, egalitarianism, national exclusivism and gender conservatism measured with four items each, the political authoritarianism scale with six items, and the moral traditionalism scale with seven items. The constructed scales of professional identity and political values were used in a study conducted on freshmen and senior students at four faculties of the University of Zagreb (Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture). Before the analysis of students results, the validation of scales was carried out by principal component analysis and reliability testing. A notable difference regarding the two mentioned instruments lies in the assumption of interconnectedness of its dimensions in case of the first one, and the absence of such a theoretical-conceptual premise in the second instrument. That led to the principal component analysis being carried out on all the items at once when testing the professional identity instrument, and separately (analyzing each scale individually) when testing the political values instrument. The factor analysis conducted on the instrument designed to measure professional identity resulted in four latent dimensions with satisfactory metric characteristics comprised by a total of 20 items. Considering the elimination of 11 items, some theoretical-conceptual dimensions were grouped, some separated, and some removed. The final instrument of professional identity consists of the dimensions of satisfaction and affective commitment (eight items), extrinsic rewards (five items), self-categorization (four items) and interactional commitment (three items). A principal component analysis of the political identity scales revealed five scales with satisfactory metric characteristics, while one, that of political authoritarianism, due to its low reliability, proved not to be a valid instrument for measuring that construct. The final instrument of political values consists of 18 items distributed across the scales of economic liberalism (three items), egalitarianism (three items), national exclusivism (four items), moral traditionalism (four items) and gender conservatism (four items). The empirical contribution of this dissertation arises from the study conducted on freshmen and senior students of four programs itself. The analyses of its results included t-tests, analysis of variance, and multiple linear regressions, with year and type of program, as well as sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and those related to their early professional and political socialization, set as independent variables, and additive variables constructed from the retained latent dimensions of professional identity and scales of political values as dependent variables. While focusing on the findings related to the professional identity of students, it can be concluded that it is generally developed and present, with its most pronounced aspect being the satisfaction and affective commitment, followed by extrinsic rewards, somewhat less the interactional commitment, and self-categorization being the least pronounced. This suggests that students generally express the greatest pride and satisfaction with their chosen study course and future profession, positively evaluate its members and future colleagues, but also believe that they are achieving their goals at their college, see it as useful for the future, and express willingness and desire to continue their professional education and improvement. In addition, students see their future professions as prestigious and influential in society, and associate them with financial rewards and well-paying jobs. Since they express somewhat less interactional commitment, it can be concluded that surveyed students generally spend the same amount of time with their friends at the college and outside of it, and feel the same level of closeness to them. Finally, students identify themselves as members of their profession to the least extent and also emphasize the importance of being seen as such by people close to them the least. The study also found differences in the expression of professional identity among students depending on the year and course of study they are attending. Thus, freshmen of all faculties express greater satisfaction and affective commitment to the future profession, as well as the perception of extrinsic rewards obtained by belonging to that profession, while the seniors express a higher level of self-categorization as members of their profession and greater interactional commitment. As for the differences between courses of study, it can be concluded that medical students show the greatest satisfaction and affective commitment, perception of extrinsic rewards, and interactional commitment, but also the lowest level of selfcategorization, followed by students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture. The greatest tendency for self-categorization is expressed by students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, who also show the lowest expectations of extrinsic rewards associated with the future profession, followed by the law students, who in turn express lowest levels of satisfaction and affective and interactional commitment. Regarding the students’ political values, it can be concluded that they generally express a greater inclination towards more liberal and left-wing views. Thus, they show the greatest tendency towards egalitarianism, are neutral on the issue of economic liberalism, and are generally opposed to national exclusivism, moral traditionalism, and gender conservatism, with the latter gaining their least support. This suggests that most students believe that it is the task of the government and society to ensure equal quality-of-life and economic opportunities for everyone by reducing wage gaps. They are undecided on the need for state interventionism and progress based on private companies operating in the free market, while they express somewhat milder disagreement with statements related to the ban on an official use of minority languages, the promotion of greater rights for Croats over minorities, and the emphasis on the preservation of national identity as a main governmental goal. They express somewhat greater disagreement with the rejection of people of different lifestyles and sexual orientation, and the emphasis on the importance of traditional family patterns and respect for parental authority, while they express the least support for traditional gender divisions of labor in both the labor market and households and for the patriarchal view of the man as the sole provider for the family. Differences in the acceptance of political values among students were also found depending on the course, but not the year of study. Although the political values of students are generally liberal and do not differ between the first and last year of the same studies, they differ between the faculties themselves. Thus, students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, who express the greatest tendency towards egalitarianism, and the least towards economic liberalism, national exclusivism, moral traditionalism, and gender conservatism, are the most liberal. Students of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture were, on the other hand, the least liberal since their support for the latter values is the greatest, and that of egalitarianism is the lowest. Law students are closer to those of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in all political values, except for moral traditionalism, while medicine students are close to them in terms of their inclinations towards economic liberalism and national exclusivism. In the case of egalitarianism and moral traditionalism values they are, however, closer to students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture. Finally, focusing on the research questions and hypotheses, this study found that college is indeed a factor in professional socialization during which the strengthening of professional identity is established, more specifically self-categorization and interactional commitment to the profession and its members. The expression of professional identity itself and its dimensions differs between faculties and professions. Although professional socialization during college does occur, it does not affect the homogenization of political values of members of the same course of study, nor the heterogenization of those of different ones. Differences in political values among students of the same faculty do not decrease over the years, and those of different faculties do not increase. In addition, the influence of professional identity itself on students' political values is far weaker than that of the course of study and gender, while the influence of students’ sociodemographic and early socialization background doesn’t diminish during their studies. Although greater heterogeneity among seniors of different faculties was not found compared to freshmen students on any political values, it is certainly generally present, which confirms the existence of differences in political values between different professions. The expected outcome of the study, namely to establish different professional identity construction on different studies, was achieved. However, the expected subsequent convergence of students' political values to those of the expected professional role and professional group was not confirmed. Although it can be argued that professional identity strengthens during early professional socialization experienced in college, it is also clear that it is already developed when entering professional education. In addition to their already developed aspects of professional identity during college enrolment, students also enter higher education with already formed political values and attitudes, according to which they choose their study and profession. Therefore, this study provides more support for the theory of selfselection than the theory of socialization. Finally, the study confirmed the findings on the liberal worldview of the highly educated, but also proven the existence of differences within that group based on different professional and disciplinary orientations.