Shaping of personality of Russian youngsters during the pre-perestroika and post-perestroika periods of development of society

Abstract

Introduction – socio-political and socio-economic changes in society largely define a developing personality. Goal – to conduct a psycho-diagnostic evaluation of the changes in basic personal characteristics of young students in the context of Russian society development. Results: the comparison of two groups of medical student (both groups are identical: the second course, the department of general medicine, Yaroslavl State Medical University). Testing of 1992 (n = 243) and 2016 (n = 197) using the 16-PF Questionnaire and the POI reveals two main tendencies. The first tendency is the increase of the general level of tension (the 16-PF scales: C, I, O, Q4 – all the quantitative indices have increased, p < 0.01, Student's t-test). The second tendency is a significant growth of the efficiency of personal characteristics providing self-regulation and voluntary behaviour (the 16-PF scales: E, G, H, Q3 are analogous to the first tendency; the SAV scale of the POI also reports a growth with high statistical values). Discussion: the respondents from the first group were born in 1972–1973. Prenatal maturation, babyhood, junior school, and early adolescent age took place in the epoch of a high degree of stability and succession in the development of society. The respondents from the second group were born in 1998–1999. The samples are separated by a generation. The second group (2016 testing) reports a high level of neuro-psychic tension during socio-psychological adaptation and, consequently, the growth of efforts in developing voluntary regulation of social behavior. Evidently, there is value of self-actualization in the new reality.