1

Enemy Images,
Ingroup-Outgroup Attitudes
and National Identification
in Turkish Cypriot Children
12th European Conference of Psychology
Istanbul
July 04-08, 2011
Biran MERTAN
Eastern Mediterranean University
biran.mertan@emu.edu.tr
SUMMARY
The island of Cyprus, due to its intractable conflict, presents an opportunity to
investigate national identity and related issues. Cypriots grow up in social and
historical milieu where they learn to think that others are opposites with
whom they have nothing in common. The sociopolitical environment in Cyprus
encourages conditions shaping national identities that place large distances
and enmities between the self and the other. The current study explores
the conceptual development of enemy images, national identification, and
ingroup-outgroup attitudes in 7 to 11- year old Turkish Cypriot school
children. Seventy-one Turkish Cypriot school children responded to the
National Identification Scale and Enemy Images Questions, indicated their
preference for ingroup and outgroup targets, and provided trait descriptions
for those targets. In order to provide bases for comparisons between the
ingroup (Turkish Cypriots) and the enemy outgroup (Greek Cypriots), two
neutral outgroups (Ireland and the Netherlands) were also used. Results are
discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications.
OVERVIEW
Studies on childrens
concept of national identity,
attitudes towards members of the ingroup and
outgroup and,
Understanding of enemy and the presence of
enemy images.
There has recently been a special issue
from EJDP (2011) presenting several (12
national groups) reserach studies on
National Identity and in-group/out-group
attitudes in children taking into account the
role of socio-historical settings.
No violence and war
England
The Netherlands
Armed conflict and intergroup violence
Bosnia (Bosnia & Serbian)
Northern Ireland (Catholic & Protestant)
Cyprus (Greek Cypriot & Turkish Cypriot)
The Basque C ountry (Basque & Spanish)
Israel (Jewish & Arab)
OUTCOMES
INGROUP-OUTGROUP
Tajfel & Turner, 1986
Aboud, 1988
Doyle, Beaudet & Aboud, 1988
Barrett, Lyons & Del Valle, 2004
...
The national identification relates to positive affect toward the
ingroup...existence of ingroup favoritism
OUTCOMES
NATIONAL IDENTITY
Nesdale, Maass Griffiths & Durkin, 2003
Barrett, Wilson & Lyons, 2003
Barrett, 2007
...
Preference for and identification with the ingroup increases
with age
OUTCOMES
UNDERSTANDING OF ENEMY AND ENEMY
IMAGES
Oppeinheimer (2005;2006;2011)
Children perceive and evaluate enemies in a more
differentiated way as they grow older. Older children
assign more positive characteristics to enemies than
younger children do.
State of affairs in Cyprus since
1960s
9
Multi
language/religous/ethnic
Environment
1960
1963
1964
1974
1975
1981
1983
1990
2003
2004
2011
?
Opening of Ganjelli (cancello)
Referendum-EU membership
Extreme
ethnocentrism/
hostile
Environment
c
o
n
f
u
s

o
n
Bi-communal meetings!...
Green Line
Attila Line
Missing Persons Committee
10
Multi language/religous/ethnic
Environment
Tolerance to others
Music/poem/novel/artistic
endeavors
Churchbells/Muezin calls for prayer
1960
1963
1964
1974
1975
1983
1990
2003
2004
2011
?
Opening of Ganjelli (cancello)
Referendum-EU membership
Extreme
ethnocentrism/hostile
Environment
Nationalistic
Music/poem/novel/artistic
endeavors
c
o
n
f
u
s

o
n
Bi-communal meetings!...
Green Line
Attila Line
Political/psychological
adaptation of language!???
GAVUR
An example of distancing
the other from the self
Enemy, non-Muslim,
Christian, infidel, unbeliever,
merciless, cruel, heartless or
obstinate
Popular adjective to
designate the others,
i.e., Greek Cypriots,
Armenians, Latinos, and
Maronites.
13
14
NORTH CYPRUS
Political instability
Turkishness
Cypriotness
Turkish-Cypriotness
Muslimness
Vibrant and unresolved political and
historical milieu
TURKISH-CYPRIOT CHILDREN
RAISED IN A SETTING OF
Overexaggerated ethnocentric historical
narratives and historical events
strenthening ethnic identity
Symbols and emblems
Etnocentric curricula involving outgroup
deregotion and national pride
And hostility against the other (gavur)
AIMS OF THE PRESENT RESEARCH
To examine the role of socio-historical settings
in the development of national identity,
ingroup-outgroup attitudes and
understanding of enemy images in children
To examine the impact of recurring shifts in
political identity
PARTICIPANTS
71 TurkishCypriot children (38 boys and 33
girls) aged 7-11
Materials
Turkish version of Barretts NI Scale (2005)
List of adjectives
Free association task
Drawing task
Pre-structured questionnaire
The data were collected in 2006, two years
after Cyprus became an EU member
SCORING CATEGORIES OF ENEMY
IMAGES
FREE
ASSOCIATION
1. War
2. Physical
violence
3. Verbal
violence
4. Armed
5. Human
being
6. Not human
DRAWING
1. War
2. Physical
violence
3. Verbal
violence
4. Armed
5. Human
being
6. Not human
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q1
1. Soldier
2. Scary/
angry
3. Armed
4. Human
being
5. Not human
6. Other *
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q 3
1. Physical
violence
2. Verbal
violence
3. Criminal
behavior
4. Quality of
character
5. Waging war
6. Other*
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q 5
1. Fear/afraid
2. Angry
3. Not
pleasant
4. Urge to
flee
5. Other*
* Such as behavioral and personality characteritics
RESULTS
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: NI
Turkish-Cypriot childrens NI perceptions were
very strong. Indeed, the very high scores for the
positive internalization, affect toward NI, national
pride are indicative of a strong need to stick to
national values and identities in expressing and
describing self.
No age differences were found.
Girls scored higher than boys.
Turkish-Cypriot children demonstrated a strong
ingroup favoritism toward their national group.
Mean scores for the dimensions of national
identification for each age and gender
Age
7-years (n=39) 11-years (n=32)
Male Female Total Male Female Total
Degree 4.05 4.29 4.18 4.35 5.00 4.62
Affect 4.61 4.70 4.65 4.21 4.67 4.38
Neg. Internalization 4.17 3.95 4.05 4.20 4.58 4.34
Pos. Internalization 4.67 4.38 4.51 4.65 4.83 4.72
Importance 3.88 4.72 4.33 4.11 4.41 4.23
Pride 4.24 4.71 4.48 4.20 4.65 4.36
Trait attributions according to domain
and target group
Domain
Target group Positive trait Negative trait
Ingroup 3.16 0.51
Enemy outgroup 1.14 1.67
Neutral outgroup 1 1.60 0.78
Neutral outgroup 2 1.73 0.66
Correlation Coefficients among identity
components and liking for ingroup and
outgroups
Identitfication
dimensions Ingroup
Enemy
Outgroup
Neutral
Outgroup 1
Neutral
Outgroup 2
Degree .26** .20 -.01 -.04
Affect .38** .02 -.30* -.24*
Neg.Int. .02 .05 -.16 -.11
Pos.Int. .03 -.15 -.34** -.36**
Importance .39** .13 -.05 .02
Pride .36 .12 .00 -.03
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: Enemy
11-years ( n= 32)
Boy Girl Total Boy Girl Total p
Free Association 1.06 1.24 1.15 1.30 1.75 1.47 P < 0.01
SD .23 .53 .43 .57 .96 .76
Drawings 1.89 1.90 1.90 2.30 2.50 2.38 NS
SD .83 .94 .88 1.12 1.08 1.10
Q E Look Like 1.28 1.24 1.26 1.35 2.00 1.56 P < 0.05
SD .57 .76 .67 .93 1.20 1.07
Q does E do 1.39 1.24 1.31 1.60 2.25 1.84 P < 0.001
SD .69 .43 .56 .82 .96 .92
Q E make you feel .94 .95 .95 1.15 1.42 1.25 P < 0.009
SD .41 .49 .45 .48 .66 .56
Mund 1.20 1.14 1.17 1.36 1.88 1.56 P < 0.001
SD .44 .42 .43 .56 .71 .66
A comparison between age groups on
childrens conception of an enemy
Older TC children associate more categories to describe what the word enemy
evokes in comparison to younger children. For example, most of the older children
express an enemy as having an evil character.
Older TC children used more categories to illustrate what an enemy does than
younger children. For example, all the children drew pictures of enemies which
included more physical violence and arms and weapons.
The mean scores of Q1, Q3 and Q5 were combined to offer an index of the
complexity by which an enemy is described or understood.
A significant difference was found between age and depictions of what an enemy looks
like (Q1), F (1, 70) = 3.94, p< .05), wherein older children more so than younger children
conceptualized enemies as having an evil character.
As children grow older their understanding of what an enemy does increases (Q3) F
(1,70) = 12.05, p< .001).
There were also significant differences between age how children felt about an enemy
(Q5), F (1, 70) = 7.32, p< .009), older children in comparison to younger children
expressed that an enemy made them feel terrible.
A comparison between gender on
childrens conception of an enemy
The understanding of an enemy concepts
showed no gender differences except for the
free association dimension (F (1, 70) = 4.88, p<
.03). Girls used more concepts to express the
word enemy than boys.
The results have shown that young children
perceive an enemy as being a male rather
than female. However as children grow older
the perceptions of an enemy shift to including
both males and females. It is interesting to
note that neither young or older children
perceive an enemy to only be a woman
(X (1)= 19.58, p<.001).
Overall these results are in line with Oppenheimers (2005)
findings which have shown that the way children describe
enemies becomes more differentiated as they grow older.
While the current findings have shown that older children
associate more negative aspects with an enemy such as an
evil character, the older children assign more positive
characteristics to enemies for example that enemies can be
friendly and may become friends. With regard to whether an
enemy can be friendly or become friends the current findings
have shown that as Turkish Cypriot children grow older their
belief that an enemy can be a friend decreases. These results
are opposite to Oppenheimers findings.
Correlation Coefficients among identity
components,liking for ingroup, and enemy images
Identitfication
Dimensions
Ingroup Drawing
Q3
What does an
enemy do?
Q5 How does
an enemy
make you feel
Degree .26** -.09 .34** .26*
Affect .38** -.02 .09 .06
Neg. Int. .02 .24* .14 .21
Pos. Int. .03 -.02 .25* .06
Importance .39** -.02 .10 -.05
* p<.05
** p<.001
As the strength of childrens NI increases TC
children express more desciptives such as that
an enemy will kill, harm and be involved in
war and will make them feel more terrible.
The more TC children internalize negative NI,
the greater the drawings include of armed
weapons.
In the present study, clear ingroup favoritism was observed
with the Turkish-Cypriot children. Of interest here is that
while children positively relate to their own national identity
by being Turkish Cypriot, the strength of their national
identification is negatively related to their affect towards
Greek Cypriots (i.e., the traditional enemy).
These findings are consistent with social identity theory, in
which it is predicted that childrens intergroup attitudes will
be affected by knowledge of the prevailing structure of
intergroup relations within which their own group is
embedded.
DRAWING EXAMPLES
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION