Ethnic Identity And Adaptive Behavior Of Ethnic Minorities In The Ethnic Area Of Southwest China

Ethnic identity carries great significance for multi-ethnic nations in that it influences individuals' mental health and personality development, and the local and national stability as well. The area of Southwest China is a natural ethnic museum with a diversity of ethnic groups, a tridimensional cultural ecological area with multiple cultures, and also an assembly of cultural exchanges. Ethnic groups' unity and social stability compose a harmonious society, so it is especially important and necessary to conduct ethnic identity and policy counseling researches.Based on the definition and construct of ethnic identity, this research attempts to combine theories and empirical researches, local situation and western methodology to systematically explore the ethnic identity of ethnic minorities in Southwest China and its functional relationship with behavioral adaptation from multiple perspectives, applying different methodologies as questionnaire, projective technique, field work, and statistical methods as correlation, structural equation, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis.This dissertation consists of four chapters and nine researches.Researches One (involved 221 subjects) and Two (involved 2190 subjects) center on the dimensions of ethnic identity and the development of the questionnaire. Based on the literature review, ethnic identity here is defined as a harmony between ethnic members' identification of their ethnic membership and that of their national membership. The findings of literature review and open questionnaire analysis indicate that ethnic identity is composed of two levels and three components. The two levels are original ethnic group identity and national identity, and the three components are sense of belonging, cultural identity and social identity, on the basis of which a general ethnic identity questionnaire for ethnic minorities is developed, and it is proved to consist with the original definition, and show good reliability and validity.Researches Three, Four and Five are conducted with 2190 subjects. Research Three explores the characteristics of ethnic minorities in Southwest China through multivariate analysis. Research Four investigates the adaptive behavior and the relationship between ethnic identity and adaptive behavior through cluster analysis and structural equation model. And research Five conducts a demographic analysis on the model of ethnic identity and adaptive behavior (behavioral inclination) formulated in Research Four.Researches Six and Seven, with a sample of 2088, including ethnic minorities' social attitude towards the distance between ethnic groups and han people (specifically involving the subjective judgment, awareness and attribution of the distance) in the structural equation model of Research Four, investigate the relationship among ethnic identity, the social attitude toward the distance between ethnic groups and han majority, and adaptive behavior (behavioral inclination), and conduct a demographic analysis as well.Research Nine further explores the ethnic identity and adaptive behavior of ethnic minorities in Southwest China through projective technique and field work on about 90 ethnic minorities.On the basis of the above nine researches, the major conclusions are made as follow:1. The general ethnic identity questionnaire including two sub-questionnaires, original ethnic identity and Chinese national identity, fits psychometric requirements with good reliability and validity.2. The ethnic minorities in Southwest China exhibit positive identity on the whole, with both stronger original ethnic identity and national identity; there exists positive correlation between ethnic identity and national identity, and the latter is higher than the former; also there are demographic differences in ethnic identity.3. The ethnic minorities in Southwest China behaviorally adapt well to the social problem of the conflict between han majority and ethnic minorities.4. The structural equation model of ethnic identity and behavioral inclination, and that of ethnic identity, the social attitude toward the distance between ethnic groups and han majority, and behavioral inclination are constituted with good fit index. And the models exhibit demographic differences in path significance and parameters.5. A discriminant function of behavior in the situation of conflict between han majority and ethnic minorities, and a social alarming index of ethnic college students' incidents of ethnic conflicts are established.6. The notable problems of the development of southwest ethnic areas and ethnic cultural maintenance and succession require more attention and more powerful measures from sections at all levels.