Российский психологический журнал (Mar 2022)

The motivation structure of young people and their social activity in the complicating conditions of society functioning

  • Алексей А. Шаров

DOI
https://doi.org/10.21702/rpj.2023.1.2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 1
pp. 20 – 32

Abstract

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Introduction. Today, the social activity of young people in the real and virtual environment is undergoing significant changes, as the conditions for the functioning of the social environment become more complicated. It is associated with several factors that affect social conditions, in particular the pandemic situation and the handling of a special military operation. The study aims to identify and describe the motivation structure and social activity of young people in the functioning complication of the social environment. The correlations between motives and types of activity were revealed for the first time, new forms of social activity were identified, and enlarged components of social activity for young people were presented. Methods. Two hundred Russian residents participated in the study. The average age was 19.8 years. To study the structure of social activity, a questionnaire was applied, which included 18 scale questions and four new author scales. The motivational structure was evaluated using seven question scales developed by the author and tested in previous scientific research. Results. The most pronounced among young people are the motives for learning new things, harmony with others, self-development, and self-realisation. The interrelations between the motives for learning new things, self-realisation and leisure, and Internet search activity, and between preventive activity and the motive of learning new things, post-pandemic activity, and the motives of confidence and success are revealed. The structure of social activity is represented by three enlarged components: civil and political activity, including a religious component; professional-educational and recreational activity; preventive and post-pandemic activity. Both traditional and new forms are highlighted in the structure of the social activity of young people. Discussion. The results obtained are quite understandable from the standpoint of the system-diachronic approach, according to which the activity of an individual and a group and its motivation are determined by the external state of the functioning of the social environment. These conditions lead to the emergence of new forms of social activity and approaches to the classification of the phenomenon under study.

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