The article analyzes the psychological characteristics of the Ukrainian people in the works of the representative of the Ukrainian diaspora of the 20th century V. Yaniv. The scientist believes that the people is a long-term structure created in certain temporal and spatial frameworks. To understand the psyche of the Ukrainian people, it is necessary to approach a balanced, comprehensive application of modern psychological methodology, which will avoid subjectivity. Individualism can be considered as a positive characteristic of the personality, and excessive individualism as negative, which will lead to behavior that rejects any authority, traditions, common values. Emphasis is placed on both positive and negative psychological characteristics: developed individualism and the desire to avoid submission to others; not the ability to organize around an idea and defend it for a long time; advantage of own interests over common ones; emotional over cognitive; getting stuck on the secondary, not the main; sentimentality, passivity; frivolous perception of time; striving not to criticism, but to criticism. Personal egoism is a consequence of long-term bondage, since the Ukrainian people, not having their own state, were deprived of the skills for long-term unification, joint protection around state ideology. Ukrainians are inherent in the Western opinion, which manifests itself in the personal «I» of consciousness, in contrast to the collectivism of the Russians. For Ukrainians, the organization served as a voluntary association, which everyone could leave at their discretion. A person is independent and independent in the choice of his behavior and the establishment of relations with a particular community. Two approaches to the study of the psyche of the Ukrainians are considered: in a negative way - the works of D. Dontsov, V. Lipinsky, D. Vikonskaya and a positive one - N. Kostomarov, Y. Lipy, I. Mirchuk. V. Yaniv belongs to the second cohort of scientists who direct their work to constructive criticism in order to overcome the psychology of Ukrainians of characteristics that hinder the realization of the idea of the state. It was stated that each individual, as well as Ukrainian society as a whole, should work on overcoming Ukrainian slave psychology and inferiority in order to consolidate together towards a truly independent, sovereign, democratic Ukraine.