Page 27 - Сигурност и отбрана - брой 2 - 2023

Security & Defense, Issue 2, 2023 Scientific journal

to social phenomena, and it is precisely how the interaction between person
and social group is expressed (Nikova, 2010).
The way in which members of a group fulfil their role in the group, the
character, functions, and specificity of each member’s role, determine the
prestige and authority of a person among other members. Thus, the person
also strengthens his/her sense of belonging to this group. A sense of
belonging is the individual’s awareness of how he or she is positioned as part
of one or more groups or communities. Everyone takes as reference or role
models those human groups that directly influence their characteristics and
perception of oneself. Depending on how many traits one shares with
members of a particular group, they are more likely to identify with it seeing
those characteristics as evidence that they are part of something larger.
Group size does not matter. A sense of belonging can be formed in any
group, and what really matters is the traits an individual shares with its
members. The best example is the family, with which, however small,
everyone shares both physical and behavioural traits in addition to the
common existence and emotional and economic dependence. Family is the
first group with which we establish contact, ant it is key to our survival and
cultural development; therefore, it is the first community with which we
develop a sense of belonging. As we grow up, we are exposed to contacts
with different groups, such as neighbours on the same street, classmates,
other children with similar interests, and all kinds of different social groups
that shape our identity and could awaken feelings of belonging.
Any social group can give us a sense of belonging as long as we identify
with it and share some characteristic. This feeling is as complex a
phenomenon as the social groups and identities that can emerge from them.
Our sense of belonging is not limited to the family, city, or country we were
born in, but also to other types of social groups related to culture,
socioeconomic class, sports teams, race, religion, profession, hobbies, and
more. There are many different social groups that can build a sense of
belonging to a greater or lesser degree, such as:
• cultural, e.g. Catalan, Basque, Scottish, Spanish;
• sports team, e.g. Arsenal, Napoli, Levski, CSKA;
• singer/band fan: Belieber, AC/DC;
• religion: Christians, Jews, Muslims;
• political ideology: communist, socialist, liberal, etc.
The type of group projects a certain opinion, for example, if the group,
to which we feel a sense of belonging, is small, we tend to say that we were
lucky to be part of a select and exclusive group, while if the group is large,
we tend to be thankful that we are in such an important community.

Therefore, when someone comments on the limitation of the group we
belong to, we become defensive instead of being convinced.

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