Achievement motive and locus of control as motivation factors of European identity

Abstract

The research presented in this paper is a part of the project "Condition, Factors and Development of European Identity in Serbia and Montenegro" which is financed by the Ministry for Science and Protection of Environment of the Republic of Serbia. The goal of this research is to determine the relation between the achievement motive and locus of control on the one hand, and European identity on the other. These motivational factors were selected as the indicators of the active orientation of persons, which is a psychological prerequisite for the development of consciousness of the people and the society as a whole. The research was carried out during 2003 with the sample of 2635 subjects from four regions of Serbia and Montenegro, of both sexes, different levels of education, 18 to 43 years old. The scale EUROID2002 was applied to measure the European and national identity. The achievement motive was measured with the MOP2002 scale, and locus of control with LOKKON2002. All these instruments were created at the Department of Psychology in Novi Sad. The canonical correlation analysis was used to process the data. The results point to the existence of two statistically significant regularities in the relation between the achievement motive and European identity. The achievement of the goal, which is experienced as a source of pleasure and followed by the need to compete with others, was related to two factors of social identity, namely with the need to preserve national identity and with the exclusive national attachment. Thus, the results indicate that the persons for whom competition with others is a significant goal also express a higher degree of nationalism. Furthermore, the results indicate that the degree of nationalism is higher with the higher degree of persistence in the competition with others. In the relation between the locus of control and European identity, three statistically significant regularities were obtained. If the faith in the power of destiny is more pronounced, the need to preserve national identity and exclusive national attachment is also more pronounced. Stronger internal locus of control is related to greater openness for technological progress. Furthermore, the results indicate that those who in achievement situations attach great importance to the activities of other people also have a more pronounced pro-European orientation.