ВЗАИМОСВЯЗЬ ТОЛЕРАНТНОСТИ И ЭТНИЧЕСКОЙ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ АРМЯНСКОЙ МОЛОДЕЖИ В УСЛОВИЯХ РАЗЛИЧНОЙ СОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНОЙ СРЕДЫ

Abstract

The article looks into two multifaceted phenomena – tolerance and ethnic identity – and identifies different approaches to their study. The author claims that the level of tolerance largely reflects the moral development of an individual, their civility, as well as many of their personal qualities. Ultimately, tolerance plays a crucial role in a person’s attitude towards other people and the world at large. The author believes that the development of ethnic identity is associated with being aware of one’s belonging to a particular ethnic group and is an integral part of self-identification. The author points out that identity is a complex phenomenon that involves different levels of consciousness, individual and collective, ontogenetic and socio-genetic essential factors and knowledge about oneself; it can also be a feeling. Drawing on such understanding of tolerance and ethnic identity, the author aims to identify the relationship between tolerance and ethnic identity among Armenian youth in different socio-cultural environments. In doing so, the author suggests a working hypothesis according to which, firstly, there is a correlation between tolerance and different types of ethnic identity and, secondly, the tolerance of representatives of mono-ethnic and polyethnic environments is different. The hypothesis is tested through empirical research, which partly confirms the initial assumptions that representatives of a polyethnic environment are somewhat more tolerant than representatives of a mono-ethnic environment, as well as the existence of a correlation between ethnic tolerance and such types of ethnic hyperidentity as ethno-egoism, ethnic indifference and ethnophanatism. However, the study shows that the correlation between ethnic tolerance and positive ethnic identity is very weak.