Generational perceptions of the Identitity by Kermanshahs’ Graguates

The primary goal of this paper is the qualitative analysis of two educated generations’ perceptions of kermanshah’s people about their identity. The conceptual framework of the research is referd to the theories of some classical and contemporary sociologists and social psychologists such as Jorge Herbert Mead, Charles Horton Cooley, Anthony Giddens and Stuart Hall about identity. The research is quantitative one and based on purposeful and theoretical sampling methods, 15 professors and MA students of the faculty of social sciences in Razi University are selected as a sample. The criterion for determining the sample size was theoretical saturation. The datas are collected via open-ended questionnaire and in-depth individual interview tools und analyzed by the technique of thematic AnalysisThe results indicated that from the perspective of tow educated generations the identity of Kermanshah’s people is composed of two elements, namely individual and collective identities. As for the individual identity, there are common perceptions in terms of concepts like hospitality, cheerfulness, wholeheartedness, prodigality, luxuriousness and messiness in doying tasks and perceptional differences in concepts like heroism, sense of belonging to home, aggressiveness, laziness and self-indulgence.In regard of the collective identity, the two generations’ perception is that the people of Kermanshah can be recognized with such common collective properties as cultural diversity, ritualism, ethnocentrism, convergence, divergence, superstition and patriarchy. However, the new generation’s perception is that superstition is not just specific to Kermanshah and that patriarchy was related to the past and it is now being very weakly practiced.