THE REPRESENTATIONS OF MODERN ADOLESCENTS’ ATTITUDES TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD THROUGH THE PRISM OF ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract

The proposed scientific work represents the main research results concerning the development of a person’s environmental consciousness at adolescence in the context of the studied system of adolescents’ attitudes to the World. Ecological consciousness is considered as a subjective reflection of the personal, social and natural environment, as a single indivisible human World, which manifests itself in ecologically directed (eco-centric) human behaviour. An individual’s attitudes are understood as active, conscious, integral, selective and based on experience relations of the individual with different aspects of reality, which exist in the form of a single system.The World basic elements are revealed through the development of environmental consciousness at the level of the personal, social and natural spheres of a personality and reflect the system of relations, respectively, to oneself, to others and to the nature. Moreover, the World itself is indivisible and united.Environmental consciousness is described as a complex system, having two subsystems: the structural components of ecological consciousness and an individual’s attitudes to the World. The main structural components of environmental consciousness are cognitive, emotive, value-semantic, consumer-motivational and conative. The elements of an adolescent’s single indivisible World are its personal, social and natural spheres. Within the framework of the personal world, environmental consciousness is determined as attitudes towards oneself, social consciousness means attitudes towards others, and natural consciousness means attitudes towards the nature.Adolescents’ personal sphere is determined by their attitudes to Self, to thoughts, emotions, values ​​and needs, formed in their families and internalized into their inner picture of the World. The development of the environmental consciousness components at the level of the personal sphere is based on the development of reflection, critical thinking, as well as a reassessment of values.Adolescents’ social sphere is expressed through a system of relations and interpersonal interactions. The development of the environmental consciousness components at the social level is based on the formation of their sense of maturity and self-affirmation in a group of peers. Adolescents’ natural sphere of the World is determined by the pragmatism of relations to the animate and inanimate nature, and the development of the environmental consciousness components is based on socially significant activities in relation to the nature.The empirical study of adolescents’ attitudes to people, the nature and themselves has revealed the declining hierarchical sequence of adolescents’ attitudes to the World. In particular, the social world — the world of others and interactions with them — is the most significant for adolescents. The least significant for adolescents is the nature. Adolescents’ attitudes to themselves – their personal world – create intermediate link of the significance hierarchy.