Personality’s Perceptions of Other People in Connection with the “World Image” and the “World Picture”

Abstract

Introduction. This article presents a study that is devoted to the problem of relationship of a subject’s perceptions of other people and the phenomenon of the “world image” of a personality. This problem is relevant for humanities scholars in different countries of the world in conditions of exacerbation of intercultural and interethnic conflicts. Materials and Methods. An empirical study was carried out with the purpose of a comparative analysis of the features of the “world image” in people who differ in metaphorical perceptions of “friends” and “foes”. The subject of the research was the metaphors of “friend” and “foe”, the basic beliefs of the person and the types of the “world image” presented in narratives. The following methods were applied: metaphor content analysis, testing, narrative analysis, methods of mathematical statistics (quartiles, Kruskal – Wallis H-test, regression analysis). Results. The scientific novelty of the conducted study is the original development of parameters for the analysis of narrative “world images” of the personality. For the first time, interconnections of different types of metaphors of “friends” and “foes” as partners in communication and various parameters of the narrative “world image” of the subject are revealed. It is concluded that the attribution of positive or negative and ambivalent socio-psychological metaphorical characteristics for “friends” and “foes” is associated with a positive or ambivalent “world image” of the “conceptual” or “perceptual” type. Conclusion. The results of the study generally indicate that the subject’s metaphorical ideas about “friends” and “foes” affect the subject’s “world image”.