Качественные методы в изучении культурной детерминации совладания: проблемы и перспективы

Abstract

The article is devoted to the main methodological problems of qualitative research in the psychology of culture. Methods of ethnographic (field) observation were borrowed by psychology from social and cultural anthropologists in the first half of the twentieth century, and in modern research practices there is a special ethnographic direction that claims to analyze behavior and lifestyle in various subcultures and communities. According to the disciplinary structure proposed by T.G. Stefanenko, ethnopsychology includes the following areas: psychological anthropology, cross-cultural, cultural, and indigenous psychology. Qualitative methods are more typical for cultural and indigenous psychology, while quantitative and mixed methods are more typical for cross-cultural research. The prospects of a qualitative approach in ethnopsychology are discussed in the example of the study of the cultural determination of coping. The results of thematic analysis of narratives and free-form interviews of respondents from Moscow and Tashkent allow us to conclude that the key cross-cultural difference in coping behavior is the degree of its individualization: representatives of Uzbek culture are focused on receiving support and care from significant Others, and not on independent internal work (unlike Russian respondents). At the same time, they are not satisfied with the traditional prescriptions that come from the family environment, which forces them to “invent” coping practices that go beyond the boundaries of normative social (often religious) ideas. This can be interpreted from the point of view of the process of modernization of Uzbek culture, which is gradually becoming individualistic, and the latter circumstance requires the construction of flexible coping strategies in the situation of social and cultural changes.