ABSTRACT
In recent years, sociopolitical changes have affected and still affect many parts of the world. From a Western perspective, the most extensive and important changes at the end of the 20th century have been the transitions in the Eastern and Central European countries toward democracy and a free market. Living in different macrosocial contexts provides subjects more or less individual degrees of freedom. These degrees of freedom can be used for the control of one’s life conditions and one’s development in personal, professional, and social respects. It may be expected that the political and economic changes-we call them macrosocial changes-in the Eastern and Central European countries have influenced, possibly enlarged, the individual degrees of freedom. Furthermore, it is expected that young people are especially responsive to these changes and correspondingly perceive more personal control.
