Semantic structures of world image as internal factors in the self-destructive behavior of today’s teenagers

• Published in: Psychology in Russia : state of the art Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 125 - 156
• Main Authors: Alekhin, Anatoly N., Koroleva, Natalya N., Ostasheva, Eugeniya I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Russian Psychological Society 01.01.2015; M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
• Subjects: Adaptation; adolescence; Child development; Consciousness; genesis of vandal behavior; Morality; Pedagogy; Personality; personality and environmental factors in the development of vandal behavior; preschool age; primary school age; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Semantics; Socialization; Society; Sociology; Teenagers; Values; vandalism; youth; Russia
• ISSN: 2074-6857; 2307-2202
• DOI: 10.11621/pir.2015.0111

This article presents the results of a theoretical and methodological analysis and empirical study of semantic formations in the structure of a world image as factors in teenagers' self-destructive behavior in contemporary Russian society. During the teenage years the value-semantic bases of a world image are being formed. A world image is the integral, multilevel representation of the subject, which consists of social reality and himself/herself; it exists in the mind as a unity of sensual fabrications, significations, and personalized meanings. Transformations of semantic components of a world image that are inadequate for the environment or that are externally and internally rigid can serve as preconditions for disadaptation and for one of its extreme forms--self-destructive behavior. The purpose of our empirical research was to determine the main characteristics of basic conceptual formations in the structure of a world image--that is, attitudes, intentions, motives, and values-- that serve as predictors of disadaptation in modern teenagers. The teenagers in the study were born in different generations with a ten-year interval (1990-1991 and 2000-2001). Our empirical research of the semantic world-image structures that serve as bases for the self-destructive behavior of modern teenagers consisted of two phases. The first phase provided a comparative analysis of the relationships, value preferences, and basic conceptual intentions that raise the possibility of disadaptation and self-destructive behavior among teenagers. In order to perform this analysis, we analyzed data from the Character-Pathological Diagnostic Poll (PDP) of A. E. Lichko. During the second phase, a comparative analysis was carried out of the basic semantic components of teenagers' images of the world and self-destructive and normative behavior. The main conceptual world-image structures were defined with the help of projective methods: the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the modification for teenagers and youth (TAT-Y), which was developed by A. N. Alekhin and others. The main changes in the value-semantic orientations and personality dispositions of Russian teenagers in the late 20th to early 21st centuries were defined. The features of the semantic organization of these teenagers' world image as a precondition for disadaptive behavior were uncovered, and the personality preconditions for their self-destructive behavior were identified: their world image is fragmentary and self-contradictory; their personality features include cognitive distortions, a negative emotional state, ambivalence of motives and disposition, and disharmony with world-image semantic structures. The indicator for social disadaptation and behavioral deviation in modern Russian teenagers is evident deformation of personal relationships as the basic cognitive structure of their world image.