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Seria wydawnicza EUKRASIA Vol. 5 Unemployment and Health Care |
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Beata Pawłowska, Agnieszka Kowalik Self – image of the unemployed Self-image is a collection of judgments and ideas concerning one’s appearance, intellect, aspirations, emotional maturity and relations with others acquired by a human being in the process of self study [4]. The self-mage, being the central element of the structure of personality, integrating and stabilizing personality, providing permanence and repetition of behaviors, plays an important role in human activities as a basis for self-development or auto destruction [4]. Self-image is not a static structure but changes under the influence of significant experiences, an example of which can be the fact of losing employment. A person who loses job is not only destitute but also lacks the feeling of safety, stabilization, perspectives for life, order in personal and family life [1]. The actions taken up by the unemployed in order to deal with a matter as difficult as loss of job will be marked out by the self-image. In this article the authors tried to answer the following questions: In terms of which features of the self-image do unemployed differ from working people? What are the differences in the self-image of unemployed men in comparison to working men? What are the differences in the self-image of unemployed women in comparison to working women? Subjects and methods In order to verify the above hypothesis a group of 120 unemployed (64 women and 56 men) and a group of 63 currently working persons (33 women and 30 men) were tested. All unemployed tested were registered in State Employment Agency in Zamość. The average age of the subjects (both unemployed and working) was 36. Among the unemployed 32% had primary education, 53% – secondary education and 15% – higher education. 76% of the unemployed remained without a job for 1 to 3 years, 17% from 4 to 7 years and 7% were unemployed from 8 to 10 years. 25% of the unemployed were single, 61% married and 14% were divorced or separated. The group of unemployed and working subjects was tested using the Personal Questionnaire (constructed by Agnieszka Kowalik) and the ACL Adjective Check List of Gough and Heilbrun’s [3], which the subjects filled out answering the question “what are you like?”. On the basis of the ACL Test the real self-images of the subjects have been determined. Results During the first stage of the experiment the results of the tests taken by unemployed and working subjects were compared using the t-Student test. Table I. Comparison of the real self-images of unemployed (N=120) and working (N=63) subjects
In comparison to working subjects, the unemployed received significantly higher scores in the range of deference (Def), and significantly lower scores in the following ranges: counseling readiness (Crs), feminine attributes (Fem). The unemployed more often adapt inferior roles in contacts with other people, they avoid conflicts and tend not to take risks and simultaneously they are defensive, contrary to working people who more eagerly take risks, are more competitive, independent and display greater ability to cooperate with others and are more empathic.The following table compares the results of the ACL test taken by unemployed and working men. Table II. Comparison of the real self-images of unemployed men (N=56) and working men (N=30)
Unemployed men received higher scores in the following scales: self confidence (Scf), and creative personality (Cps) and significantly lower scores in the scale counseling readiness (Crs) in comparison to working men. These results suggest that unemployed men, more often than working ones, have a tendency for creating good impressions of themselves, they want to be perceived as persons more self confident, enterprising and daring. Table III presents the results of the ACL test taken by unemployed and working women. Table III. Comparison of the real self-images of unemployed women (N=64) and working women (N=33)
Unemployed women had higher scores, when compared to those of working women, in the following scales: deference (Def) and self abasement (Aba), and significantly lower in the scale free child (Fc). These results confirm that unemployed women yield to the demands and wishes of their environment and try by all means to avoid conflicts. The feeling of guilt and self criticism are also theirs significant features. Working women, on the other hand, are characterized by a higher degree of self confidence, spontaneity, enterprisingness and competitiveness. The study allowed to put forward the following conclusions: Conclusions Unemployed, in comparison to working people, are more submissive, dependant and more often withdraw from interpersonal relations. Unemployed men perceive themselves as more bold, creative and self confident than working men. Unemployed women display a stronger tendency for submission and self abasement and more often react with a feeling of guilt when compared to working women. Discussion of the results The results of the study described in the article point out to the existence of statistically significant differences in the real self-images of unemployed in comparison to working people. Unemployed are characterized by a greater intensification of the need of submission, by a tendency for keeping others at a distance and by rejection of attempts to come into contact with other people. These results correspond with the opinion of Borowicz, Łapińska – Tyszka’s [2], who notices that the unemployed have a tendency for withdrawing from interpersonal relations and that they isolation aggravates the feelings of resignation and helplessness. The results of the studies carried out by Borowicz and Łapińska-Tyszka [2] , that emphasize the fact that the loss of employment causes lowering of self esteem and the opinion of Walczak’s [5],who shows that unemployed women have lower level of self acceptance, are less efficient , tend to shut off from the outer world and have problems dealing with stress, match well with the results received by the authors of this article. These results reveal that unemployed women are characterized by a greater intensification of the need of submission, self abasement, self criticism, the feelings of incompetence and guilt than working women. Unemployed men on the other hand, more often than working ones, want to create good impression of themselves and be perceived as more assertive decisive, enterprising and self confident. One may suppose that these features of the self-images of unemployed men can be related to the mechanism of compensation. These results suggest that it might be interesting to further study how unemployed men and women deal with difficult situations, depending on the features of their self-images. Moreover, the results of such studies might be helpful in preparation of help programs for unemployed. Reference [1] Bańka A.: Bezrobocie. Podręcznik pomocy psychologicznej, Print-B, Poznań 1992. – [2] Borowicz W., Łapińska-Tyszka K. (red): Syndrom bezrobocia, PAN, IRWiR, Warszawa 1993. – [3] Juros A., Oleś P.: Struktura czynnikowa i skupieniowa Testu Przymiotnikowego ACL H.G. Gougha i A.B. Heilbruna, W: J. Brzeziński, E. Hornowska (red.) Z psychometrycznych problemów diagnostyki psychologicznej. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu im. A. Mickiewicza, Poznań 1993, 171–201. – [4] Kozielecki J.: Psychologiczna teoria samowiedzy, PWN, Warszawa 1986. – [5] Walczak R.: Obraz siebie u kobiet długotrwale bezrobotnych, KUL, Lublin 2000.
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To cite this article: Pawłowska B., Kowalik A., Płotka A., Self-imagine of the unemployed, [in:] Niebrój L., Kosińska M., Unemployment and Health Care, Katowice: Wyd. SAM 2004, p. 57-63 |
