ATC: A Snapshot of a Generation May Come Out Blurry
Trying to pin down the character of a generation is a controversial and, some say, presumptuous exercise. Who’s to say whether 50 million Americans should be called the Me Generation, or the Greatest? Who’s to decide exactly when Gen X ends and Gen Y begins?
Never let it be said that psychological researchers duck a challenge. In recent years some have sketched a portrait of the current crop of twenty- and thirty-somethings that is low on greatness and high on traits like entitlement and narcissism. The Millennials, also known as Generation Y, may be a little callous, too: At a psychology conference in May, researchers presented data suggesting that college students today had significantly less “empathetic concern” than students of the 1980s.
Social scientists have been surveying young people for decades, looking for trends in thinking and behavior that might be attributable to shifts in the broader culture. Tracking behaviors and attitudes is relatively straightforward. Compared with previous generations, for instance, the Millennials are more tolerant of people of other races and different sexual orientations, research suggests. They appear to be more likely than previous generations to do volunteer work. Hundreds of thousands of them have signed on to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan
But assessing their motives, their traits — their collective personality — is a far more slippery territory. Thus the debate over the Generation Y character, and whether generations even have distinct characters.
It revolves around a recent finding that, on personality questionnaires, people born after 1970 are more likely than previous generations to see themselves as “an important person,” to say they’re confident and rate their self-esteem higher. “The research converges on this: that individualism is increasing, that it’s more acceptable in the culture to focus on oneself, and not to worry so much about social rules,” said Jean M. Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University, who in a 2006 book, “Generation Me,” described the trend and its possible upside (more opportunities for those who have lacked confidence) and downside (increased levels of anxiety, depression).
But a recent issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science aired a backlash against this argument, in which psychologists bickered over methodology and offered alternative interpretations of survey data.
In one report, two psychologists analyzed a large survey of high school seniors that spanned decades and concluded that there was “little evidence of meaningful change” in questions related to self-esteem, individualism, or life satisfaction. “I think as a profession we need to be careful that we don’t stereotype or label a vast number of people unless the evidence is very strong,” said M. Brent Donnellan, of Michigan State University , who co-authored the paper with Kali H. Trzesniewski, of the University of Western Ontario
In another critique, researchers at the University of Illinois
Dr. Twenge and others have shot back, point by point, and the standoff is not likely to be resolved soon. For one thing, personality tests are themselves suspect. “We should keep in mind that personality tests are themselves cultural documents, idiosyncratic products of particular individuals that say more about their creators than about the people who take them,” said Annie Murphy Paul, author of “The Cult of Personality Testing” (Free Press, 2004)…
Vocabulary: Match the word with the correct definition
| Pin down Presumptuous Entitlement Narcissism Slippery territory Backlash Spanned Standoff Idiosyncratic | 1. a kind of characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the like, that is peculiar to an individual 2. a dangerous area where it is difficult to maintain any one opinion 3. to define clearly 4. the feeling of deserving something 5. a strong or violent reaction, as to some social or political change 6. unwarrantedly or impertinently bold; forward 7. to be extended over or across 8. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. 9. a situation where neither party takes action or gains an advantage |
Discussion/Comprehension
1. What is the author saying about the character of different generations?
2. What kind of science is used to determine these kinds of characters?
3. According to the article has any definitive answer been reached? Why or why not?
4. Why do you think people believe in generational character?
5. What do you think about generations having a specific character?
6. Do you feel the so called ‘generation gap’ sometimes? If so when and where? If not why not?
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