Türkiye’den Bir Örneklemde Cinsiyet, Irk ve Dile Dayalı Esasçı Düşüncenin Gelişimi

Gelişimsel çalışmalar çocukların sosyal kategorilere dayalı esasçı bir düşünce tarzı benimsediklerine ve sosyal kategori üyeliğini doğal ve kalıcı olarak gördüklerine işaret etmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı Türkiye’den 6-10 yaş aralığındaki çocukların oluşturduğu bir örneklemde cinsiyet, ırk ve dile dayalı esasçı düşüncenin gelişiminin incelenmesidir. Bu sosyal kategorilerin hepsi algısal olarak ayırt edilebilir kategoriler olup, bir yandan da toplumdaki vurguları açısından farklılıklar göstermektedir. Bu kategorilere ek olarak referans oluşturması için ayrıca futbol takımı taraftarlığına dayalı sosyal kategorilere dair esasçı görüşler de incelenmiştir. Bu kapsamda esasçı düşüncenin biyoloji, değişim ve çevre gibi farklı boyutlarını kapsayan ve daha önce benzer yaş aralığındaki çocuklar ile aynı kültürel bağlamda farklı sosyal kategorileri incelemek için kullanılmış olan bir ölçüm kullanılmıştır. Çalışmanın sonuçları, altı yaşındaki çocuklarda farklı sosyal kategorilere dayalı esasçı çıkarımların birbirinden ayrışmadığını, ancak yaşla birlikte çocukların bu katego-rileri giderek daha fazla ayrıştırdıklarını göstermiştir. Türkiye bağlamında beklenen kültürel geçerliliklerindeki farklara rağmen, cinsiyet ve ırka dayalı esasçı çıkarımlar hem genel olarak hem de esasçı çıkarımların farklı boyutları açısından yaşla birlikte oldukça benzer bir eğilim göstermiş ve bu iki kategoriye dayalı esasçı düşüncede yaşla birlikte önemli oranda değişiklik gözlenmemiştir. Dile dayalı esasçı çıkarımlar da genel anlamda yaşla birlikte değişmezken, bir kişinin dile dayalı grup üyeliğinin değişiminin mümkün olup olmadığına dair esasçı görüşün yaşla birlikte önemli derecede azaldığı gözlenmiştir. Son olarak, takım taraftarlığına dayalı esasçı düşüncenin yaşla birlikte azaldığı gözlenmiştir. Bu sonuçlar, benzer sosyal kategorilere dayalı esasçı düşüncenin gelişimini bu kategorilerin kültürel öneminin farklılaştığı bağlamlarda inceleyen önceki çalışmalar ışığında tartışılarak sosyal kategorilere dayalı esasçı düşüncenin gelişiminde rol oynayan mekanizmaların daha iyi anlaşılması amaçlanmıştır

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Sosyal biliş, sosyal esasçılık, sosyal grup

The Development of Essentialist Reasoning Based on Gender, Race and Language in a Sample from Turkey

Developmental studies suggest that children think in essentialist terms about social categories and view social category membership as natural and stable. This study aims to examine 6-to-10-year-old children’s essentialist views about gender, race, and language in a sample from Turkey. These are all categories with underlying perceptual markers, but they are likely to differ in terms of their cultural relevance within this context. In addition to these categories, essentialist beliefs about sports team fans were also examined as a reference category. A measure that captures different aspects of essentialist thinking including biology, change, and environment, and was previously used to study essentialist beliefs about different social categories in the same cultural context with a similar age group, was used. The results showed that around the age of 6 years, children did not distinguish among various social categories in their essentialist reasoning; however, with age, they gradually distinguished among some categories. Despite the differences in their cultural relevance within the context of Turkey, gender and race showed very similar patterns in how they were essentialized over age, both overall, and also with respect to different individual dimensions related to essentialist thinking. Essentialist thinking about both of these categories remained relatively stable across age. In terms of language, while overall essentialism scores remained stable across age, a substantial decrease in beliefs about capacity for changing one’s group membership was observed across age, when membership is based on language. Finally, children’s essentialist thinking about sports team fans decreased considerably with age. These findings are discussed in light of previous studies focusing on these categories in contexts, where the cultural saliency of the categories likely differ, in an attempt to offer a better understanding of the mechanisms contributing to the development of social essentialism

Keywords:

Social cognition, social essentialism, social groups,

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