Stereotypes During the Decline and Fall of Communism (International Series in Social Psychology)

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Unique among the satellites of the Soviet Union, Hungary has data from a series of fourteen substantial surveys from the mid-1960s through to 1994. How do Hungarians think about themselves, their history, their society and other countries and their peoples? Hunyady provides an excellent summary of investigations examining these questions, analysing them against the background of the social psychology literature of stereotypes.

Stereotypes During the Decline and Fall of Communism (International Series in Social Psychology) Review

With his book entitled "Stereotypes During the Decline and Fall of Communism," Gy�rgy Hunyady of the E tv�s Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary has provided us with a rare glimpse into the psychological dynamics that accompany grand-scale sweeping historical changes of the kind that we have witnessed in Eastern Europe over the past decade. This is a particularly valuable contribution to those of us in English-speaking countries who have not had access to the primary research on which this book is based. In short, what Hunyady has produced is an extremely useful and impressive piece of work.Hunyady's book proceeds from a theoretical assumption that serves to unite social psychology and political science, namely that "ideologies live in the form of stereotypes in public thinking" (p. 19). Thus, he catalogues for us, over a thirty-year period, the stereotypical beliefs that Hungarians have held about a vast number of politically relevant target groups, including all of the following: Russians, Germans, Americans, Romanians, Poles, French, British, Chinese, Serbs, Slovaks, Gypsies, Jews, workers, intellectuals, peasants, capitalists, clerical workers, students, bankers, teachers, soldiers, and on and on. What Hunyady has left us, for the historical record, is nothing less than a complete description, over time, of the full range and contents of social categories used by Hungarians before, during, and after one of the most consequential periods of world history in the 20th century. Following qualitative methods advocated by William J. McGuire (1973, 1983; McGuire & McGuire, 1991), Hunyady has also recorded the mental associations that children and adults have to such fundamental political concepts as: nation, country, patriotism, immigration, social class, occupational status, social development, and historical change. Here again, the usefulness of these descriptions cannot be over-stated. I know of no other work in social psychology that provides us with such a historically-situated, politically relevant data base with which to examine the contents, structures, and functions of attitudes, beliefs, representations, and thought systems concerning the social and political world.Hunyady offers deeply insightful historical analyses, in an almost offhand way: "It was the strength and weakness of the socialism of the communists that it was simultaneously a system of ideas and a political movement, then a political system and even a world power. The two roles both strengthen and fetter each other. It must be a remarkable system of ideas if it can grip the masses and transform the world, but it is bound to lose its idealistic purity as it collects the historical deposits of wrong-doing, troubles, and failure. It is high-quality politics if it expresses its aims and principles through the promise of philosophical depth ripened by historical experience, but it will lose its reason and efficiency if it tries to do violence to real social relationships by clinging to outdated abstractions" (p. 28). The subtlety of Hunyady's thought draws out, dialectically, the paradoxical potency and impotency of ideology, the ways in which only the development of a shared reality can inspire us to shift political contours en masse and how quickly that shared belief system becomes pass and a magnet for cynicism, disappointment, and ridicule.Despite Hunyady's reticence to make causal claims, there are at least three important sets of findings that provide those of us with a more speculative bent the opportunity to theorize. These have to do with: (a) the psychological transfer of allegiance from communism to capitalism, (b) the tendency to believe that poorer peoples and countries are happier and friendlier, and (c) the desire to view historical developments in terms of progress and improvement. Hunyady has inspired me to think some about each of these (see my review in "Contemporary Psychology").Those of us in social psychology who share Gy rgy Hunyady's love of history, politics, and culture should be grateful to him for providing us with such fascinating portrait of Hungarian national consciousness. The book provides valuable stimulus material as we strive to understand further the individual's experience of social and historical change all around us. Although the book is focused on the Hungarian context, as well it should be to preserve historical specificity and cultural embeddedness, the themes he raises concerning psychology and politics are universal and transcendent. What the future holds, no one knows. But one thing is sure: we will adapt. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews� Was this review helpful to you?�Yes No Report abuse | PermalinkComment�Comment

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