Innovativeness, Regulation of Vital Activity and Value Orientations of Young Men and Women: The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction. The pandemic was a challenge to our contemporaries and focused the attention of researchers on psychological resources that facilitate its overcoming. Empirical studies of the psychological regulation system of the personality’s vital activity during this period, reflected in the special aspects of the innovative, value and regulatory characteristics of representatives of various social groups, are quite limited, which led to the relevance and novelty of this study. Methods. The scale “Self-Assessment of Personality’s Innovative Qualities” by N. M. Lebedeva and A. N. Tatarko was used, which allows for studying the psychological components that determine innovative human behaviour. Regulatory characteristics were studied using the “Personal Readiness for Activity (PRA)” scale by S. A. Bogomaz, I. V. Atamanova and I. A. Filenko. Value orientations were determined using the Schwartz’s questionnaire “Portrait Value Questionnaire-Revised (PVQ-R)”, modified by K. V. Sugonyaev. To evaluate the studied variables concerning the pandemic influence, the authors used such criteria as a test of differences and network analysis of partial correlations using the EBICglasso regularization method. Results. The results of the study showed significant changes in several innovative, value and regulatory characteristics in the conditions of the pandemic, most of which were associated with the gender factor. The restructuring of the network structure of psychological indicators during the pandemic is going in opposite directions in groups of young men and women. The female sample shows attenuation of moderate and strong network relationships during the transition from 2019 to 2020, which means the network structure becomes more amorphous. For the male sample group, the opposite trend is observed – in 2020, initially, the amorphous network structure becomes multi-connected, structured, and clearly expressed. Discussion. The non-specific and specific effects of the pandemic on the psychological characteristics that ensure the regulation of vital activity in young men and women aged 17 to 28 years are discussed.

Keywords

• innovativeness
• creativity
• risk for the sake of success
• value orientations
• readiness for activity
• regulation of vital activity
• student youth
• gender differences
• pandemic
• network analysis