Normative Type of Personality and Mental Matrix of Social Behavior in Russian Society

Abstract

Objectives: In modern Russia there is a necessity to articulate, within a framework of national development, the “responses” to the “challenges” of globalization. Methods: New opportunities for studying normative personality in Russia are suggested by conceptual thinking focused on the comprehensive perception of social reality and on “grasping” senses in the most difficult cases of its comprehension. Mental matrix of “political man” in Russian society is verified through the results of modern sociological reviews of the population, particularly, through the answers of those respondents who abide by the conservative model of social behavior. Findings: Interdisciplinary scientific investigations provide a comprehensive idea about the normative type of personality in Russia making use of the concept of “political man” (“homo politicus”). Specific features of “political man” as a normative type of personality are represented by the fact that in his mental matrix such basic values as state, power, order, authority, “following the crowd”, justice represent the modalities which precondition the specifics of social behavior in Russian society. Within the mental program that stipulates peculiar features of social behavior of individuals in the community it is possible to distinguish cognitive, axiological and connotative structures of reflexive and diversifying and of non-reflexive and stable nature. Applications/Improvements: The study reconstructs the comprehensive image of normative personality in Russia and analyzes the specifics of its mental matrix. This would facilitate understanding social behavior and help developing control mechanisms.