ECOCENTRISM AS A PREREQUISITE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SOCIALLY MATURE PERSONALITY OF FUTURE SOCIONOMIC SPECIALISTS

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The article presents the study on future socionomic specialists’ ecocentrism, describes the structure of ecological consciousness and its psychological characteristics. Basing on the analyzed theoretical scientific sources, we have determined that environmental consciousness means a sphere of social and individual consciousness, associated with representations of the nature as a part of the whole existence. According to the obtained data, students with pronounced ecocentric attitudes towards environment are characterized by sociability (high social activity, needs and desires for communications), poise (high tolerance to stress, optimism, high activity, self-confidence), openness (the desire for trustful and open interactions with others, for communications, openness to new experience, high self-criticism), extraversion (sociability, openness, optimism, high activity, friendliness). We have found that the students with pronounced anthropocentric attitudes towards environment are characterized by irritability (unstable emotional states, a tendency to respond emotionally to life situations), reactive aggressiveness (the desire to dominate, impulsivity of behavior), emotional lability (instability of emotional states, imbalance, irritability, insufficient self-control, frequent and abrupt mood swings) and shyness (low stress resistance, insecurity, anxiety). The study results prove that the rank indicators of the examined criteria are different, and this demonstrates differences in psychological characteristics of the respondents with different attitudes towards environment. The differences between the majority of the examined criteria were statistically significant (p≤0.01, p≤0.001), which confirmed possible differentiation of students by of their attitudes to environment. We have proved that expressed different attitudes (ecocentric, apathy or anthropocentric) to environment are not influenced by such psychological characteristics as: orientation in time, neuroticism, spontaneous aggressiveness and depression (p≥0.10). These personal characteristics do not actually influence the formation or transformation of students’ ecological consciousness. Basing on the experimental study, we have determined correlations between the ecocentrism indicators and the characteristics of future socionomic specialists’ social maturity. Namely, the students with pronounced ecocentric attitudes towards environment showed in interpersonal relationships strong authority and the desire for leadership, acute independence and dominance, excessive straightforwardness, accompanied by criticism and distrust, the tendency to cooperate with pronounced altruism and hypersocial attitudes, high stress resistance, optimism, activity, self-confidence.