ETHNOCULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE CRISIS OF PERSONAL IDENTITY

Abstract

The article considers ethnocultural features of the identity crisis manifestations as a psychosocial phenomenon of modern society. Unstable sociocultural environment, rapidly changing living conditions and identity problems associated with these changes determine the relevance of this work. The article discusses various approaches to the study of the phenomenon of identity. The goal of this work is comprehensive examination of ethnocultural identity, which is a structural element of the social identity of a person, a psychological category that characterizes a person’s awareness of his / her belonging to a certain ethnic and cultural community. Its main functions - orienting and defensive - are crucial in the era of globalization transformations, helping the individual to maintain integrity and sociocultural uniqueness. In most cases, ethnic identity does not dominate among other components of personality identity, but at the same time, it allows a person to feel and determine his / her uniqueness, subjectivity, originality, find the answer to the questions “Who am I?” in this world and determine the attitude to his/her and other ethnic communities. The feeling of belonging to an ethnic group gives an answer to the question “Who are we?”, and belonging to a cultural community makes it possible to understand “What are we?” Values, acting as a guiding function, show what is important in life of a person and society, and determine the motivation and goals of the desired changes. The work also raises the question of the causes of the ethnocultural identity crisis. Deformation of the value system is considered as one of the main determinants of the identity crisis. Practical application of this work can be found in the area of dialogue of cultures to carry out a multicultural policy in modern context.