WAR IN THE IMAGINATION OF FINNISH SCHOOL CHILDREN

Author(s): Yrjö Engeström

Source: Current Research on Peace and Violence, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1978), pp. 91-103
Published by: Tampere Peace Research Institute, University of Tampere
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40724852
Accessed: 11-06-2016 10:40 UTC

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 Yrjö Engeström
Hei sinki , Fi ni and

WAR IN THE IMAGINATION OF FINNISH SCHOOL CHILDREN

Children's and young people's conceptions of war and peace have been a
continuous concern for western peace research since the 1960's. Cooper, Alvik,
Roseli, Haavelsrud and Mercer have published studies on this problem in the
1 2
Journal of Peace Research. In 1973, Tolley published Children and War in which
he reviews several older American studies, the earliest published in the late
1920's and early 1930's.

In the more recent studies, two central methodological problems seem to prevail.
The first is the problem of the classification of attitudes or conceptions into
broader, dominant types or patterns of thought. The second is the problem of the
relations between knowledge, attitudes and actual social behaviour.

1 . The problem of classification of attitudes in survey research

A common feature of the more recent studies is the use of rather conventional
survey techniques - questionnaires and attitude scales with their pre-formul ated
alternatives. A lot of data has been produced in this way, but mostly of a piece-
meal nature. The attitudes and views of different populations have been atomized,
split up into seemingly separate items. It is difficult to construct any dominant
patterns or comprehensive modes of thought out of these survey results. When such
patterns are constructed, they are bound to be more or less artificial combinations
of items originally selected and formulated by the investigator, not by the
respondent. Tolley himself points out this limitation and suggests "a comparative
study of alternative methodologies".

Survey results concerning attitudes toward and conceptions of war and peace
are most commonly classified along the dimension optimism - pessimism. Thus,
Haavelsrud found that school pupils between 10 and 17 years "become more pessi-
mistic about man's inherent nature with age".4 In Finland, Taipale and Vuori
found that the majority of teen-agers condemn war and welcome disarmament - but
at the same time the majority see war as an unavoidable evil that will never
disappear. This pessimism increases with age.

In the international project "Images of the World in the Year 2000" the
problem of optimism vs. pessimism was a central object of inquiry. Galtung
summarizes the findings stating that "in almost all nations there were more
people who were pessimistic about the possibility that the proposal they found
most likely to lead to peace would in fact lead to peace (by the year 2000) than
there were optimists".6 Wiberg found weak evidence of a decrease of pessimism
with age (from the age group 15-20 to the age group 33-40).

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 92

Within the above mentioned international project, some more sophisticated

classifications were also developed. Attempts were made to describe the dominant
'peace philosophies ' , i.e. views on the most effective and desirable ways to
achieve peace, among populations of different nations. Galtung found five clusters
of nations and their peace proposals which he further reduced and simplified into
the following three orientations: (1) world government, favoured by Japan,
(2) abolition of hunger and poverty, favoured by India, Norway and Spain,
(3) general and complete disarmament, favoured by Czechoslovakia, Finland, the
o

Netherlands, Poland and Yugoslavia. Arosalo went a step further and constructed
two opposite and exclusive 'peace ideologies ' out of the international survey
material. These were called the 'Leninist conception of peace' and the 'Dullesian
conception of peace'. The former stresses socialist internationalism and public
ownership, the latter stresses the importance of national armies, military alli-
ances and private ownership. Two in-between groups were constructed, namely the
Q
'united peace philosophy' and the 'pessimistic peace philosophy'.

In Finland, Kalela and Pietilä studied adult attitudes toward the developing
countries. They distinguished three types of 'ideologies of underdevelopment ' . The
first type saw underdevelopment as a structural problem of economic dominance. The
solution was seen in a socialist policy and international co-operation. The second
type saw underdevelopment as a result of a lack of production factors and of a
generally low standard of living. The solution was seen in a reformist policy, in
the increase of resources and education. The third type saw underdevelopment as a
result of natural circumstances and native characteristics of the population. The
solution was seen in a conservative policy and an increase of competition.

Classifications of this kind reflect the existing general political ideologies.

It is certainly an important deduction that "there is no independent peace philos-
ophy as such". However, from an educational point of view, this is not very
much. It does not help the peace educator to know that there are socialists,
reformists and conservatives even in questions of war and peace. The educator
needs a richer and more concrete picture of the different conceptions and views
prevalent among young people and children. He needs a classification that
describes the contents, the substance of these different conceptions through the
eyes of the young people and children themselves, not one forced into the frame
of ideologies given from above.

This does not mean that the conceptions of children and young people have no
Ideological relevance. Most probably they can be seen as useful or harmful from the
point of view of different ideologies. But the main sources of these conceptions
are most probably nor clearcut Ideologies or philosophies, but rather diffuse,
unsystematic and vague pieces of information and experience filtered through and
molded by the personal aspirations and motives of the children and youngsters. In
other words, these conceptions are formed on the level of everyday consciousness
and therefore they cannot be directly classified into categories belonging to the
level of Ideological, theoretical consciousness. It follows that terms like
•peace ideologies' or 'peace philosophies' are inappropriate here. Terms like
12
'images' and 'stereotypes' will be more appropriate and useful.

2. The problem of relations between knowledge, attitudes and behaviour

In the above mentioned study, Kalela and Pietilä found that the more factual
knowledge people have about the developing countries, the more willing they are

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 93

to increase aid to those countries. In other words, knowledge influenced the

attitudes in a positive direction.

On the other hand, Vesa found in his study that those who know more about inter-
national politics are more pessimistic in their attitudes toward peace. Those who
know less are more optimistic. It seems that here knowledge influences attitudes
14
in a negative direction.

However, there is a more plausible interpretation to this finding. We can

differentiate two categories of knowledge: firstly, empirical everyday knowledge
which is connected with specific events and objects - and secondly, theoretical or
scientific knowledge connected with the relations between phenomena, with their
reasons and structures. The first type reflects the outer, immediate surface of
phenomena while the second type generalizes their deeper essence, their inherent
laws and interdependencies. It is no wonder that a person who is well aware of
the outer, immediate surface of world events thinks that things are going to the
worse and that war is inevitable. This kind of person considers himself an informed
realist. On the other hand, a person who has scientific knowledge of the reasons
and forces behind contemporary wars may well be basically far more optimistic -
and indeed more realistic. But it seems that people of this kind are rare in the
western world of today, as is aptly pointed out by Galtung, Ornauer and Wiberg.
The same dilemma is well described by Takala in her study of Finnish school
children.17
Another question is the relation between attitudes and behaviour. Relying
1 fi
on Laulicht's and Alcock's findings , Vesa assumes that even though well informed
and well-to-do people are most pessimistic in their attitudes towards peace, they
are still likely to give most support to peace research. This kind of inconsis-
19
tency is not unusual in attitude research.

Milton Rokeach offers one model to clarify this issue. He distinguishes

different levels in the value system of the individual. The highest is the level
of terminal values, such as e.g. peace, equality, freedom etc. Next comes the
level of instrumental values, such as honesty, self-control, courage ets. After
these comes the level of attitudes toward more less specific objects (e.g.
nationalities, races). Rokeach argues - and presents experimental data for his
argument - that the terminal values are of decisive importance in the behaviour
of the individual, provided that the individual is conscious of them. Inconsis-
tency between attitudes and behaviour and between values and attitudes is entirely
conceivable when the individual is not aware of the contradiction - especially
when he is not aware of the full meaning of his terminal values, when the terminal
20
values are unclear and ambiguous.

3. Images and stereotypes of war

The study reported here was conducted as part of a larger project, financed by
the Board of the Tampere Peace Research Institute and led by professor Annika
Takala of Joensuu University. The part of the project dealt with here had as
21
starting points the two problems discussed above.

In order to avoid the problems inherent in conventional survey questionnaires

we decided to use more loosely structured material of a semi -projecti ve nature.
This material consisted of 1709 fantasy essays written by equally many pupils of
57 classes of the 5th, 7th and 9th grades of obligatory schools 1n 12 communes all

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 94

over Finland. Each pupil had 45 minutes to write a fantasy essay the title of
which« he could choose from several alternatives. Two titles were explicitly
related to war, namely "The fighters are coming!" and "Overrun by the war".
122 pupils - the sample of this particular study - wrote their essays on these
topics.

These fantasy essays were used in order to identify different types of war
images . By war images we mean over-all descriptions of war, produced not with the
conscious intent of description or definition but as organic 'by-products' of
stories written on themes interesting to the writers and closely related to war.
It is assumed that a war image of this kind is liable to reflect the pupil's
general idea of war, his 'implicit theory of war'. Furthermore, it was assumed that
these war images are strongly coloured by (a) the pupils' dominant motives (in the
manner of projective material used by McClelland and others) and (b) by more
23
direct cultural and environmental influences, such as the mass media.

The motivational contents of the essays were classified using a scale of

alternative main themes, described in detail elsewhere.2 The 122 war essays were
distributed into five motivational types as follows (table 1).

Table 1. The distribution of war fantasies into types

Type F %

A. War as an adventure 26 21.3

B. War as violence 10 8.2
C. War as heroism 30 24.6
D. War as a disaster 49 40.2

E. War as the elicitor empathy 7 5.7

TOTAL 122 100.0

The analysis of the relation between the type of the pupil's home commune and
the type of his war fantasy reveal an interesting pattern (table 2).

Table 2. Types of war fantasies in rural and urban communes

A. B. C. D. E.
War as an War as vio- War as War as a War as the War fan-
adventure lence heroism disaster elicitor of tasies
empathy total

münes I™' 22-2 ° u -} 63-9 2'8 10° N = 36

munes í™" 20-9 1K6 30'2 30'2 7'° 10° N = 86
t=2.128 t=2.234 t=3.464
ns P<.05 P<r.O5 P<:.001 ns

War as violence and war as heroism are significantly more common types among
pupils from towns. Correspondingly, war is seen as a disaster by a significantly
greater percentage of the pupils coming from rural areas. A possible explanation
of these findings is that commercial mass culture with its idealized image of war
has perhaps had a milder impact in rural areas than in towns. One can also
speculate that the reason could be found in the different material bases of living:
farmers may experience war as a more concrete threat and potential to their lands,
crops and cattle.

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 95

Another very clear difference was found between the sexes. Boys deal with war
as an adventure and heroism, girls see it as a disaster and the elicitor of
empathy (table 3).

Table 3. Types of war fantasies according to the pupil's sex

A. B. C. D. E.
War as an War as vio- War as War as a War as the War fan-
adventure lence heroism disaster elicitor of tasies
empathy total

Gi£1s 0 7.1 3.6 75.0 14.3 100 N=28

Bo^s 27.7 8.5 30.9 29.8 3.2 100 N = 94
t=3. 144 t=2.945 t=4.280 t=2.224
P«c.Ol ns P<.01 P<.001 P<.05

Also the pupil's school grade is strongly related to the occurrence of dif-
ferent types of war fantasy. The 5th graders (11 year olds) see war mainly as an
adventure, violence and heroisn - over two thirds of them fall into these cate-
gories. The oldest, the 9th graders (15 year olds) see war above all as a, disaster
(table 4).

Table 4. Types of war fantasies according to the pupil's school grade

A. B. C. D. E.
War as an War as vio- War as War as a War as the War fan-
adventure lence heroism disaster elicitor of tasies
empathy total

5th grade 32<? 6/| 3(K6 306 Q 100 N=49

7th grade 1(h8 135 324 324 10#8 100 Nss37

9th grade ]e? 56 83 61<1 8>3 100 N=36

The age trends in the occurrence of the different types of war fantasy suggest
a division of these fantasies into two broad groups: those reflecting a lower level
of the development of consciousness (types A, B and C) and those reflecting a
higher level of the development of consciousness (types D and E). This tentative
division is illustrated in table 5.

Table 5. Lower and higher war fantasies according to the pupil's grade

Lower war fantasies Higher war fantasies

(types A, B and C) (types D and E)

5th |rade 69.4 30.6 N«49

7th |rade 56.7 43.3 N=37
9th |rade 30.6 69.4 N*36

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 96

This finding could be interpreted as pointing toward two distinct broad types
of war fantasies. The lower type is characterized by motives like adventure, vio-
lence and heroism. The higher type is characterized by a sense of human disaster
and empathy.

The cultural contents of the war essays were analyzed with the aim of identi-
fying the pupils' dominant stereotypes. By stereotypes we mean not only simple,
prejudiced evaluation (such as "negroes are lazy" or "women are weak and passive")
but also more complex and comprehensive images, ideas and conceptions which are
clearly not results of active, conscious reasoning and information-seeking but
passively, unconsciously adopted reflections of the views and models represented
by parents, other adults, mass media, peer groups etc. Thus, a Stereotypie image
of war may be an adventure story copied from cartoons or also a seemingly factual
description without any straight-forward prejudiced evaluations - the description
follows in detail the accounts of personal war experiences commonly cherished and
mediated by many Finnish adults and implicitly conveys the same basic values and
judgements.

The essays classified into the category 'war as an adventure' have no single
uniform inner structure or pattern. They vary from individual and personal war
adventures to dramatic narratives in which nations, armies, cities and other such
large units play the main roles. Characteristically, war resembles a hockey match.
The excitement is often built around the question: who shall win, who is the
strongest, which side is better? The following example may illustrate this.
BOY, 5th grade: "The fighters are coming!"
January 13, 1944. Berlin. It's night, a low rumble comes nearer and gets
stronger all the time. Berlin is woken up by the rattle of anti-aircraft guns
and enemy planes. When bombs begin to fall from the enemy bombers, Berlin is
in a panic. Children run to the air raid shelters and so do all other civilians
but not the soldiers who are firing at the enemy planes. But when the enemy
turns homewards the rest of the German air force comes. The commander of the
German squadron was Karl Adolf, a tough pilot ace. Karl shot down one Lancaster
but then came the Mustangs. A hard struggle then began in the air. The German
Me 190 was a worse fighter plane and the outcome was clear, and it happened
that only one Me 190 got away. The fighters and the bombers returned to their
own bases to have their moments of rest.

This essay contains several typical features. The time of the events is the
Second World War. The main roles are played by the British and/or American and
German air forces. The essay contains elements of heroism ("Karl Adolf, a tough
pilot ace"). The writer is fascinated by war technology and mentions exact or
nearly exact names of different plane types. He also locates and dates the events
quite accurately. All these features are common in the essay categories 'war as an
adventure1 and 'war as heroism'. Obviously, they stem from certain widely available
and effectively distributed sources, especially from the popular cartoon magazines
dealing exclusively with World War II and also from similar war movies.

The essays classified into the category 'war as violence' are usually
"exaggerated" versions of 'war as an adventure' or 'war as heroism*. Violence
seems somehow to get out of hand when the writer elaborates his theme. One gets
the impression that these cases may partly reflect the personal problems of the
writers, partly an exceptionally strong effect of mass media on them.
BOY, 5th grade: "The fighters are coming!"
Once there was a Fouga Magister gang that finished off many countries. Once
the gang came to Australia. People got scared and ran to the bomb shelter and
this quartet, Tex, Rip, Steve, John made people tremble. They bombed Australia
and Australia. defended the fatherland and Rip's plane was hit and he said:
Now I'm at the end of my road, bye pals. And one could only hear a crash and
there was nothing left of Rip. Tex and his pals left for the Soviet Union. And
the Soviets shot at the fighters with pleasure. The Soviet planes took off and
started firing. Now John and Steve were hit and came down before even the
Soviet planes were in ashes. Now only Tex was left. Tex was down in the dumps
and went crazy. Tex flew head on Into a Soviet fortress and died. That was
their end.

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 97

These essays often end with the death of the central figures of the story.
Thus, for example an essay describing a war between Apache Indians and the US
cavalry ends this way:
BOY, 5th grade: "The fighters are coning!"
(...) The blue coats fire and the Apaches die and this is the end of
the fighters.

The essays classified into the category 'war as heroism' follow a clear and
uniform pattern with very few exceptions. The stereotype of the war hero has
easily identifiable characteristics. He is British or American and a pilot in
the air force.

BOY, 5th grade: "The fighters are coming.'"

The Second World War was in its hottest phase. Germany seemed to be the sure
winner despite the stubborn resistance of England and the USA. Poland had
been occupied with the exception of a few villages that still managed to resist
the invaders. The British air force had found out that the German air force
prepared the greatest air raid ever made. Because of this, captain Harold
Wimsey had to break his leave of absence quite abruptly. He was one of the best
pilots in the air force and his squadron was known to consist of the country's
foremost pilots, circus pilots etc. It was also the biggest squadron in the
air force, consisting of 75 pilots. These men were sent to throw back the
attack over London. It was a bright morning when the raid started. The squadron
was instantly up in the air amongst the other planes. They were prepared to
take off fast. Planes came down all the time as the air was filled with bullets.
Harold flew with ten other men around the enemy so that they fired at the
enemy right from the sun. (...) When the planes had landed and a cable was sent
to other cities it was heard that the attack had been thrown back completely.

Characteristic to the strong identification with the hero is that the writer
soften starts calling the hero by the first name as the story progresses. There are
also several essays in which the story is told in the first person from the
beginning.
BOY, 5th grade: "The fighters are coming!"
(...) After a couple of weeks I heard that war had begun. I fought a couple
of weeks and then the commander died. I was now the commander of the airfield.
Our slogan was 'the fighters are coming'. We took many attacks from the enemy.
Soon our squadron were the heroes of the air. During a flight I saw how
a Junkers Ju 88 attacked a helpless freighter, I dived immediately and took
direction toward the Junkers. When the Junkers was. in front of me I gave it
a couple of series from my machine guns. The Junkers started falling at once.
Soon I saw how five parachutes opened. (...)

In these stories, war is an exciting game, full of action and glory. In the
story cited above, there is a typical great haste to success: the main figure
becomes a commander in "a couple of weeks" and his squadron are "soon" heroes.
Hardships and deaths are only a necessary marginal element, if mentioned at all.
Human suffering and agony are not dealt with, much less the possible reasons of
the war.

The essays classified into the category 'war as a disaster' have also a re-
markably consistent pattern. War is seen fron the angle of an innocent civilian,
usually a child, whose family and surroundings are hit, maybe destroyed by the war.
Often there are bombings, air shelters, burning buildings, close relatives dying,
eventually also evacuation, hunger and other forms of human misery related to war.
GIRL, 5th grade: "Overrun by the war"
It was September, the days were cold. War had begun against the Soviet Union
in the northern part of Finland, people were evacuated from the north. They
had to leave their homes, it meant the destruction of home for all. The word
spread quickly around Finland, people were afraid because the war could
escalate to all parts of Finland. At that time I lived in Kuusamo, all people
were evacuated from there to the southern and central parts of Finland. We were
transferred to a school in southern Finland, there were a lot of people there,
all were scared and anxious whether they would ever see their homes again.
Depression had begun, one could get only limited amounts of sugar and other
food with coupons, Small children who stood in lines cried and were dirty,
they tried to steal more food but when they were caught they got nothing. When
children came back to the school and had nothing they were spanked. One
morning a bomb fell in southern Finland near the school in which we wer*. The
school tumbled down and people died because they were in the school. Those who
survived were transferred to central Finland. It was terribly dirty there and

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 98

all the people were quite shabby. One morning we got an announcement that
war was over. All the people rejoiced and left for their homes. We went to
Kuusamo but when we arrived at the place where we used to live there was nothing
left of our house.

In these stories, the setting is almost invariably the war between Finland and the
Soviet Union. Those who suffer and are attacked are equally invariably inhabitants of
Finland. The details of the stories and their emotional tone reveal the source of

this comprehensive stereotype. The parents, grandparents, other relatives and second-
hand informers have undoubtedly given the pupils a lasting, if also subjective and
narrow impression of war experiences. It's hard to avoid the impression that this
has also strongly influenced the pupils' picture of the most potential enemy of the
fatherland ("Feindbild").

Another disturbing feature of this type of war images is the inherent notion of
war as a "natural force" that "begins" or "breaks out" like a storm, beyond the
control or rational influence of human beings. War breaks out, destroys and ceases
25
equally mysteriously.

In spite of their Stereotypie character, the essays of this category differ

favourably from the three types described above. In several essays of this type,
the writer explicitly expresses his or her moral indignation towards war. In some
cases the writer rises above the Stereotypie formula showing a genuinely personal
concern for the disastrous effects of war. However, even in these cases the reasons
for war are not touched.

* The essays classified into the category 'war as the elicitor of empathy' follow
no uniform pattern. Among them, there are a few rather naive stories which are in
fact just more intensive or individually coloured versions of the type 'war as a
disaster'. On the other hand, there are a few very original stories that penetrate
deeply Into the social realities and preconditions of war. A common feature in
these essays is that they contain either pathetically open or more subtle moral
reflection.

BOY, 7th grade: "Overrun by the war"

I woke up. I looked at my watch. It was half past eight. I listened to it.
It had stopped. I don't know how long I had slept. It was April 1940.
A week ago the Germans came to Paris. I wanted to fight them. But I couldn't
because the whole of Paris surrendered.

Actually it's stupid that million of people are forced to kill each other
because of the quarrels of some heads of state. And millions of innocent people
die, people who have done nothing evil. The heads of state should fight each
other.

I go to see whether breakfast is ready. I go into the kitchen. There is nobody

there. Usually mother makes breakfast and father reads the paper there. After
the German occupation, no paper has been delivered, of course.
I looked through the whole apartment. I found nobody. Where had they gone?
They didn't usually go away without leaving a message, especially not in the
morning.
I rushed to the hall and opened the door. The janitor was in the corridor.
I asked whether he knew anything about father and mother. He went pale. He
said he had seen that the Germans had taken them during the night.
I realized what had happened. This was too much. I rushed to my father's closet
and took out his rifle. I was not allowed to touch it but now that meant
nothing. (...)

The picture is completed by art unusually original and humorous, subtle but no
less morally oriented essay.
BOY, 7th grade: "Overrun by the war"
There he came, the sturdy General A. Anger. He was armed with clattering army
sweat boots and big feet. I, cesspool -digger Johnny Jones was quiet as a mouse
for he was a big, robust and certainly frightening man. He stood there, in
front of my cesspool with his fiery eyes pointed at me. "Well", he roared,
"the cesspool should be ready". I tried to get even deeper into the earth than
I was but still his eyes burned me. Then he roared: "Our troops have exercise
here at six o'clock and you must get out of here before that." Then he turned
on his heels and marched away. I had only twenty minutes left and the cesspool

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 99

wasn't even half finished. Suddenly I found a change: if I went into hiding,
the general would think I had finished. I pondered on my plan when I began to
hear marching and other noise from inside. I was startled and collected my
things, threw them into the cesspool and went after them myself. I slammed the
cover shut and started waiting. Soon I began to hear loud commands and soldiers1
boots with their iron nails stamped over my cesspool. I was literally overrun
by the war.

Notable in both these essays is the attempt to seek for the reasons and forces
behind wars. The first writer describes fascist actions and poses questions con-
cerning the "heads of state" and "millions of innocent people". The latter writer
has created an ironical description of militarism with which he confronts the
ingeniuity of the common, little man.

We can partially summarize the analysis of the contents of the essays by

stressing some important common features.

Fi rstly, the great majority of the writers see war in terms of the Second
World War. Even though that war has been the greatest and most disastrous in human
history, it is still disturbing that not a single pupil has written about such more
recent events as e.g. the Vietnam war, the Middle East wars or the liberation wars
in Africa. A few pupils have written about a future third world war, a few have
handled abstract wars that cannot be identified in time, and a couple have described
wars more distant in history (such as the Indian warfare in the USA). The fact that
the last 30 years of world history have been left virtually untouched seems to
reflect a seriously lopsided historical consciousness.

Secondly, England, Germany, the USA and France dominate the concrete locations
and names mentioned in the essays. There is, however, also another concrete area
of action, namely that of Finland and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is
pictured exclusively as the enemy of Finland. Its decisive role in defeating
fascist Germany is neglected in the essays. The struggle against Germany and thus
the decisive role in the Second World War is pictured as belonging to the western
powers alone. It would be interesting to know to what extent the pupils can differ-
entiate between fascist Germany and the socialist Soviet Union. How many of them
think, for example, that these two were "on the same side" in the war?

Thirdly, the great majority of the writers portray war either as a natural
disaster beyond human control or as an exciting adventure or game. In other words;
there are two broad groups of war images and war stereotypes. The first group
consists of 'action images' and 'action stereotypes' of war. The second group
consists of 'disaster images' and 'disaster stereotypes' of war. Correspondingly,
one has two basic alternatives in one's personal relation to war. One can either
try to flee and hide from war (evacuation, shelter) or one can participate in war
actively, trying to get the best out of it (glory, heroism, excitement).

At its worst, the 'action image1 is a breeding-ground for militarism, admiration

of brutal force and superior armaments. At its best, the 'action image1 may serve
as a ground for developing a conscious desire to accomplish heroic deeds for
humane purposes. Correspondingly, the 'disaster image' at its worst condemns man
to eternal uncontrollable warfare and suffering combined with a more or less
conscious definition of the Soviet Union as the potential threat. At its best,
the 'disaster image' contains seeds of anti -mi 1 i tari sm and a real desire to get rid
of wars.

Thus, the results here can be interpreted as a challenge to the educators. One
of their preliminary tasks is certainly to combat dominant stereotypes with know-
ledge.27

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 100

4. War fantasies and behaviour

Besides the essays, we collected some data concerning the behaviour of the
pupils. Each pupil was asked to write down the names of three most unfriendly
or bullying pupils in his or her class. By counting the sum total of these
nominations in each class, we were able to identify in our sample the sub-group
of 'unfriendly or bullying1 pupils, consisting of the three most often nominated
pupils from each class.

Our theoretical assumption was that the level of the development of

consciousness is related with behaviour in such manner that a person consciously
striving for clear moral ideals or theoretically formulated ideological goals is
less prone to act according to situational stimuli and thus also less prone to such
28
)iery weakly goal-directed, 'drifting ' behaviour as bullying amongst school pupils
most often is. This functions also the other way around: "There is a connection
between a morbid social mentality and an overall ideological crisis or 'vacuum'
since general ideological programmes envisaging the construction of a better and
more humane society are a critical factor in the moral and psychological health of
the individual.1'29
By levels of the development of consciousness we refer to a theoretical model
initiated by Vygotski, Lihachev and others. This model can be graphically pres-
ented as follows:

In this model, the three levels

THEORETICAL CONSCIOUSNESS are not exclusive and they do not

function independently of each
System of theoretical, scientific
concepts, world view, ideological other. In a grown-up person,
convictions.
elements of all three levels can
Evaluations based on the dimension
true/untrue. normally be found. The question
is: Which level is dominant and
MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS
most active? In the development
System of moral concepts, beliefs,
norms, ideals and models. of a child, moral ideas and ideals
Evaluations based on the dimension
right/wrong, good/evil. gain more importance with age, and
it is quite possible that young
SITUATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
people in their late teens develop
Immediate experiences and motives,
automatic models of behaviour. a systematic world view and
Evaluations based on the dimensions lasting convictions based on
pleasant/unpleasant, fun/boring etc.
scientific knowledge. In this case,
situational consciousness becomes

more or less penetrated and molded by the higher levels.

In our material, we made the very rough and approximate classification mentioned
already in connection with table 5. The first three types of war fantasies (A, B
and C) were assumed to represent the dominance of situational consciousness In the
pupils in question. In those essays, evaluations of phenomena were based on
immediate emotional reactions of the type fun/boring, »exciting/dull or Stereo-
typie outer characteristics such as strong/weak, fast/slow, tough/soft. The last
two types of war fantasies (D and E) were assumed to represent mainly the domi-
nance or awakening of moral consciousness in the pupils in question. In those
essays, phenomena are often evaluated with criteria such as good/evil, right/wrong,
just/unjust.

We assumed that among the pupils whose essays were on the higher level of the
development of consciousness there would be significantly fewer pupils who belong

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 101

to the sub-group 'unfriendly or bullying1 in our sample. We found that 17.9 %

of the pupils who produced higher level essays belonged to this sub-group, while
21.2 % of the pupils who produced lower level essays belonged to this sub-group.
The difference is not statistically significant though it is in the expected
direction.

One explanatory factor is that there was an exceptionally high percentage of

'unfriendly or bul lying '^pupi 1 s among the writers of war essays in general. 19.7 %
of ¿he writers of war essays belonged to this sub-group while the percentage was
only 11.2 among all the 1709 pupils studies in our project. This difference is
statistically significant (t = 2.824, df = 1829, P<.01). This may mean that the yery
choice of a war title for the essay is in itself so strongly related with the
occurrence of 'unfriendliness and bullying' that it blurs the difference between
the writers of substantially different war essays in this respect. This inter-
pretation is supported by the fact that in the total material of our project
(N=1709), the writers of essays classified into the motivational type 'moral'
belonged significantly more seldom to the above mentioned sub-group than other
pupils. In fact, only 2.7 % of the writers of 'moral' essays were identified as
'unfriendly or bullying1, compared with the 11.2 % of all the pupils studied.

5. Conclusions

In the study reported above, two methodological problems served as points of

departure: the problem of classification of attitudes or conceptions concerning
war and peace; and the problem of relations between knowledge, attitudes and
behavi our.

We approached the first problem by giving up conventional survey methods and

universal typologies of ideological schools or directions. We attempted to identify
the pupils' dominant images and stereotypes of war as genuinely as possible
- through the pupils' own eyes, as it were. We found two broad, dominant types of
images and stereotypes which we called the 'action images' and the 'disaster
images' of war. This finding may be peculiar to the Finnish conditions - but it
could also reflect more generally the situation in cultures somewhat similar to
ours. As a complementary method of investigating and classifying children's and
young people's conceptions of war and peace, we think our approach can be useful
even in the future.

We approached the second problem from the theoretical idea of different levels
of the development of consciousness. Here our measures and classifications were
obviously only tentative and approximate. It is certainly too simplified to equate
for example the motivational type 'war as a disaster1 with the dominance or awakening
of the moral level of consciousness. However, even as such preliminary probings,
our findings do not justify giving up the approach we adopted. To the contrary,
it seems necessary to develop the theory and techniques further based on the idea of
the levels of consciousness as related to social behaviour.

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 102

Notes

1. P. Cooper, The Development of the Concept of War, Journal of Peace Research,

1, 1965, pp. 1-17.
T. Âlvik, The Development of Views on Conflict, War and Peace Among School
Children, Journal of Peace Research, 2, 1968, pp. 171-195.
L. Roseli, Children's Views on War and Peace, Journal of Peace Research, 3,
1968, pp. 268-276.
M. Haavelsrud, Views on War and Peace Among Students in West Berlin Public
Schools, Journal of Peace Research, 7, 1970, pp. 99-120.
G. Mercer, Adolescent Views of War and Peace - Another Look, Journal of Peace
Research, 11, 1974, pp. 247-249.

2. H. Tolley, Children and War, New York - London, 1973.

3. Tolley, op. cit., p. 133.

4. Haavelsrud, op. cit., p. 113.

5. H. Taipale and L. Vuori , Valtakunnal linen nuorisotutkimus : Sel vi ty s nuorison

ryhmänmuodostuksesta, elämänsisäl löstä ja suhtautumisesta el inymparistöönsä ,
Helsinki , 1969, p. 51 .

6. J. Galtung, The Future: A Forgotten Dimension, in H. Ornauer, H. Wiberg,

A. Siciñsky and J. Galtung (ed.), Images of the World in the Year 2000,
Atlantic Highlands - The Hague, Ì976, p. 117.

7. H. Wiberg, Age Groups and the Future, in H. Ornauer et al., op. cit.,
pp. 301-302.

8. Galtung, op. cit., pp. 109-111.

9. U. Arosalo, Social Structure and Ideologies of Peace, in H. Ornauer, et al.,

op. cit. , pp. 503-527.

10. A. Kalela and K. Pietilä, Kehi tysyhteistyön tiedotustutkimus , osa 1, Tampereen

yliopiston tutkimusl aitos , 1974, p. 106.

11. Arosalo, op. cit., p. 524.

12. For a thorough discussion on the relations between ideology and everyday
consciousness, see A. K. Uledow, Die Struktur des gesellschaftlichen
Bewusstseins, Berlin, 1972.

13. A. Kalela and K. Pietilä, Kehi tysyhteistyön tiedotustutkimus, osa 2,

Tampereen yliopiston tutkimusl ai tos , 1974, p. 140.

14. U. Vesa, Who Believes in Peace Research, in Eino Hosia (ed.) Future Prospects
of the Youth, Tampere, 1970, pp. 18-21.

15. This distinction is closely related to that between "spontaneous concepts" and
"scientific concepts" as defined in L. S. Vygotski , Thought and Language ,
Cambridge, Mass., 1962. For further elaboration of the distinction between
empirical and theoretical knowledge, see W. W. Dawydow, Arten der Verallge-
meinerung im Unterricht, Berlin, 1977.

16. J. Galtung, H. Ornauer and H. Wiberg, The Future: Forgotten, and to Be

Discovered, in H. Ornauer, et al. op. cit., p. 580.

17. A. Takala, Arvokasvatuksen lähtökohtia: Maailmankatsomuksen muodostumisesta

ja katsomuksel lisesta kasvatuksesta, Joensuun korkeakoulun kasvatustieteiden
osasto, 1976, pp. 51-52.

18. J. Laulicht and N. Z. Alcock, The Support of Peace Research, The Journal of
Confi 1 et Resol uti on , 2, 1966.

19. See for example M. Fishbein, Attitude and the Prediction of Behaviour, in
T. Kerry (ed.), Attitudes and Behaviour, London, 1971. See also A. Uutela,
Asenteet ja ulkoinen käyttäytyminen , Heisingin yliopiston sosiaaiipsykolo-
gian laitos, 1976.

20. M. Rokeach, The Nature of Human Values, New York - London, 1973.

21. The project is more comprehensively described in Y. Engeström, Koululaisten

mielikuvitus ja käyttäytyminen, Heisingin yliopiston kasvatustieteen laitos
(pro gradu) , 1978.

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 103

22. See for example D. C. McClelland, Methods of Measuring Human Motivation, in

J. W. Atkinson (ed.). Motives in Fantasy, Action and Society, Princeton, 1958,
pp. 7-42.

23. The distinction between motivational and cultural contents resembles the
distinction between "psychological themes" and "environmental themes",
used in P. M. Symonds, Adolescent Fantasy, New York, 1949.

24. See Engeström, op. cit., pp. 114-118.

25. This is yery clearly what Anatol Rapoport calls the cataclysmic view of conflict.
See Anatol Rapoport, Two Views on Conflict: The Cataclysmic and the Strategic
Models, in Preceedings of the International Peace Research Association
Inaugural Conference, Assen 1956, pp. 78-99.

26. For an informative discussion on historical consciousness, see Bo Szacka,

Historical Consciousness. Conclusions Drawn From Empirical Studies', The
Polish Sociological Bulletin, 3, 1976, pp. 19-30.

27. The question of combating stereotypes in teaching is elaborated for example

in M. Domnitz, Educational Techniques for Combating Prejudice and Discrim-
ination and forTFomoting Better Intergroup Understanding , Hamburg, 1965.
28. This kind of behaviour can be described as follows: "tough, fearless students
whose leisure time swings between periods of just hanging around with the
gang doing nothing and periods of intense excitement and thri 1 1 -seeking. .."
See B. Foy, Classroom Aggression, International Review of Education, 1,
1977, p. 99.

29. Y. A. Zamoshkin, Problems of the Social Orientation of the Youth, in

V. N. Stoletov et al., Society and Youth, Moscow, 1975, p. 56.

30. See L. S. Vygotski , op. cit., and B. Likhachev, Formation of Moral

Consciousness, Social Sciences, 3, 1975, pp. 37-52. The graphic model is
naturally a gross simplification of the rather complicated relations analyzed
and described by the above mentioned authors.

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