Intentional Worlds and Global Citizenship

Abstract

We examine the influence of students' understanding of intentional worlds on antecedents, identification, and outcomes of global citizenship. The intentional worlds scale contains four dimensions (cultural grounding of psychological experience, culture as socially constructed, dynamic construction of culture, subjective experience of reality) that load on a higher-order latent construct representing a belief in intentional worlds. The belief in intentional worlds predicts antecedents (normative environment, global awareness), antecedents predict global citizenship identification, and identification with global citizens predicts prosocial outcomes (intergroup empathy, valuing diversity, social justice, environmental sustainability, intergroup helping, responsibility to act). Overall, the results show that a greater understanding of culture as fluid and dynamic leads to greater global citizenship identification.