Can a person build his own life strategy? Personal life strategies in the context of consumption processes

Existential psychology (from Lat. Existentia - existence) is one of the directions of "humanistic psychology", which studies:

1) problems of time, life and death;

2) problems of freedom, responsibility and choice;

3) problems of communication, love and loneliness;

4) the problem of finding the meaning of existence.

Existential psychology emphasizes the uniqueness of the irreducible to general schemes personal experience specific person. One of the goals of existential psychology is to solve the problem of restoring the authenticity of a person - the correspondence of her being in the world to her inner nature. In the practice of modern existential psychology, many of the achievements of psychoanalysis are used. The most prominent representatives of existential psychology are L. Binswanger, M. Boss, E. Minkowski, R. May, W. Frankl, J. Bugental.

In Russian psychology the problem of being personality developed on the basis of the subject-activity approach of S.L. Rubinstein. K.A.Abulkhanova-Slavskaya created the concept of life strategy, M.M. Bakhtin developed a life (moral) philosophy, V.A.Romenets devoted his work to the philosophical and psychological theory of action.

Domestic philosopher and psychologist Rubinstein Sergei Leonidovich (1889 - 1960) in his last work"Man and the World" recreates the picture of cultural-philosophical anthropology, in the center of which is man in the unity of his existence, development, activity, creativity, etc. The most important thing for Rubinstein is his appeal to man as the semantic center of the world, as the subject of life, as the subject of inter-human relations.

Personality does not dissolve in activity, but through it solves complex life problems and contradictions. Here, activity acts as behavior and actions. This is the quality of a person as a subject of life, who determines his values ​​and ways of their implementation in life, builds his relationships (and ways of communication in them), finds ways of self-realization in activity that are adequate to his personality. A person as a subject of life is considered from the point of view:

1) mental warehouse - individual characteristics mental processes and states;

2) personal warehouse - motivation, character and abilities, in which the driving forces of the personality, its life potential and resources are found;

3) lifestyle - the ability to use your mind and moral qualities in order to set and solve life tasks, activity, worldview and life experience.

From this point of view, Rubinstein defines the basic life formations of a person - these are activity, consciousness and ability to organize life time.

Rubinstein says that the path of life is a kind of integrity and at the same time consists of stages, each of which can become a turning point in the life of an individual. The life path for Rubinstein is not the sum of life events, individual actions, products of creativity. “The path of life is an integral, continuous phenomenon; each person has his own history and even becomes a person precisely because he has his own life history! " For Rubinstein, it is important not only to single out age stages, but to take into account how each stage prepares the next one and affects it. Each stage plays important role in the path of life, but does not define it with fatal inevitability. The central problem personal life- whether a person can become a subject of his own life. Personality as a subject of life is the idea of ​​an individually active person who builds the conditions of life and his attitude towards it. A person becomes the subject of his life by virtue of his ability to solve his problems, to be responsible for his actions, at the expense of responsibility and relations with other people. A person becomes a subject of life in the sense that he develops a way of solving life contradictions and realizes his responsibility to himself and to people for the consequences of such a decision.


Ksenia Alexandrovna Abulkhanova-Slavskaya (born in 1932), developing the ideas of S.L. Rubinstein, believes that resolving the contradictions of life contributes to the development of the individual. She sees the resolution of the contradictions of life in the ways people relate to each other. The way of solving life contradictions characterizes the socio-psychological and personal maturity of a person.

“Personal maturity is manifested in the ability to combine one's individual characteristics, their status, age opportunities, their own claims with the requirements of society, those around. We define the ability to make this connection as a life strategy. "

Abulkhanova-Slavskaya proposes to consider the life path of an individual in its integrity, and the strategy of life should be to disclose and resolve the true causes of contradictions, and not to escape from them through life changes.

! Life strategy is an individual organization, constant regulation of the course of life in accordance with the values ​​of a given personality and its individual orientation. Life strategy is the choice, definition and implementation of life values.

& Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, K.A. Life strategy / K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya. - M .: Mysl, 1991 .-- P. 67.

Personality psychology and lifestyle/ Acad. Sciences of the USSR, Institute of Psychology; otv. ed. E. V. Shorokhova. - Moscow: Nauka, 1987 .-- 219 p.

According to the concept of the deed, which is developed Vladimir Andreevich Romenets (1926 - 1998), the phenomenon of the meaning of life should be attributed to the aftereffect of an act. An act as an explanatory principle of psychology is recognized as more satisfactory than a reflex or an action precisely because it can be extended to complex phenomena of the semantic sphere of the individual without reducing the special content of the latter. V.A.Romenets, defending the dignity of the action mechanism as a logical and historical-psychological cell of the history of world psychology, showed that an action is a mediating link between the psyche and its objective correlate (the world, other people), between the psyche and the body, as well as between structural components of the mental. An act is a way of self-determination of human behavior based on self-knowledge and self-creation and is associated with the formation of the meaning of life. A person cognizes himself, carrying out an act and analyzing its consequences, creates himself, consolidating the meaning of life. Concrete attitudes that are embodied by a person in his actions can be considered as manifestations of the meaning of life. In the historical and psychological works of V.A. Romenets, the logical structure of the action mechanism is revealed, which is associated with its historical structure, the emphasis that each cultural epoch made on one of its elements.

The elements of the logical structure of an action are the situation, motivation, action and aftereffect. The formation of the meaning of a person's life occurs at the stage of aftereffect, which is a consequence of reflection on the action, and the latter, in turn, embodies the results of motivational processing of situational certainty.

The aftereffect is characterized by the actualization of self-knowledge based on the implementation of an act and self-creation of a person through the consolidation of the meaning of life. In a deed aftereffect, a special kind is carried out internal activities, which is characterized by the cognition and creation of new mental substructures, which can be defined as the process of searching for the meaning of life.

Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist Victor Emil Frankl (1905 - 1997)- the author of the concept of logotherapy, according to which the driving force of human behavior is the desire to find and realize the meaning of life existing in the external world. The person does not ask this question, but answers it with his real deeds... The role of meaning is played by values ​​- semantic universals that generalize the experience of mankind.

Frankl describes three classes of values ​​that help make human life meaningful: values ​​of creativity(primarily labor); value of experience(especially love) and relationship values(a consciously developed position in critical life circumstances that cannot be changed). Realizing the meaning, man thereby realizes himself; self-actualization is only a by-product of the realization of meaning. Conscience is an organ that helps a person determine which of the potential meanings inherent in a situation is true for him.

Frankl identified three ontological dimensions (level of existence) of a person: biological, psychological and spiritual... It is in the latter that the meanings and values ​​are localized, which play a determining role in relation to the lower levels in the determination of behavior. The person's self-determination is embodied in the following abilities: for self-transcendence, orientation outside oneself; to self-removal; to the adoption positions in relation to external situations and to oneself. Free will in Frankl's understanding is inextricably linked with responsibility for the choices made, without which it degenerates into arbitrariness.


! Task 5.3. Read the work of V. Frankl and determine the relationship between the categories of action and the meaning of life.

& Frankl, V. Man in search of meaning: trans. from English and it. / V. Frankl. - M .: Progress, 1990 .-- 368 p.

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Personal self-realization strategies and their reflection in early memories

1.2 Typology of life strategies

Many domestic and foreign scientists have devoted their work to the study and classification of life strategies. Let's take a closer look at their typology.

Domestic psychologists distinguish three main types of life strategies: well-being strategy, strategy life success and a strategy for self-realization. These types are based on more generalized ideas about what people tend to strive for in life. The content of these strategies is determined by the nature of the social activity of the individual. Thus, receptive ("consumer") activity is the basis of the life well-being strategy. The prerequisite for the strategy of success in life is, first of all, motivational ("achievement") activity, which is designed for public recognition. A striking example to that, according to the definition of the authors, is entrepreneurship. The strategy of self-realization is characterized by creative activity. Rather, there are mixed types in life: we all, but to varying degrees, strive for well-being, success and self-realization, for a different scale of implementation of these strategies.

K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya (1991) considers the concept of life strategy as an integral characteristic, including the search, substantiation and realization of one's personality in life by correlating life requirements (necessary) with personal activity, its values, a way of self-affirmation. On the basis of personal activity (internal factor) and the type of time organization (external factor), each person can build his life strategy as a strategy for taking into account his capabilities and / or a strategy for developing abilities for something. The concept of life strategy, in our opinion, reflects the philosophical aspect of personality self-determination. As you can see, K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya also recognizes the existence of two lines of self-determination.

E.P. Varlamov and S.Yu. Stepanov distinguishes types of life strategies according to the ratio of individual originality and creative activity of a person in the events of his life:

1. Creative uniqueness - reflects the creative attitude of a person to his own life, when his transforming initiative leads to a high uniqueness and extraordinary events in his life;

2. Passive individuality - is a spontaneous, random nature of the formation of a person, when his individual originality mainly depends not on his efforts, but is determined by external circumstances;

3. Active typicality - reflects the desire of a person "to be like everyone else" when his efforts are aimed at achieving generally accepted goals and values;

4. Passive typicality - characterizes a person's spontaneous adherence to social stereotypes, his blind obedience to social norms.

In his research A.E. Sozontov, based on E. Fromm's typology of life strategies, identifies the following main types of life strategies that are characteristic of Russian students in modern conditions:

The type of life strategies "to have" - ​​a representative of this type in the construction of his own life is mainly aimed at achieving social success, status, the possibility of unlimited acquisition and consumption. Among his most preferred values ​​are: success, social recognition, wealth, reputation, competence, pleasure, etc .;

The type of life strategies “not to have and not to be” - a representative of this type, constructing his own life, is mainly aimed at adapting to the existing socio-economic conditions. The priority for such a person is mainly the values ​​transmitted from generation to generation: family safety, health, social order;

The type of life strategies "to be" - a representative of this type in the construction of his own life is mainly aimed at creative self-realization, seeks to maintain the well-being of loved ones, significant people. Among his priority values ​​are: creativity, meaningfulness of life, cheerfulness, unity with nature, curiosity, etc .;

The type of life strategies "to have against to be" - a representative of this type in the construction of his own life is aimed at achieving social success, security, and the development of his own individuality. These two aspirations are in conflict for him, in connection with which the leading life goal remains largely uncertain. Such a person manifests a value crisis, which is expressed in a tendency to accept “all values” (except for socially disapproved ones), often without a choice between them;

The type of life strategies "to have to be" is a representative of this type in the construction of one's own life in the direction of achieving success, security, and creative self-realization. For him, these two aspirations do not contradict each other, he is actively looking for opportunities for their joint implementation in modern conditions. Among the priorities: creativity, cheerfulness, responsibility, open-mindedness, success, competence, wealth, etc.

American psychologists distinguish two groups of life strategies based on the predominance of internal and external aspirations. External aspirations, which depend on other people to be assessed, are based on values ​​such as material well-being, social acceptance, and physical attractiveness. Inner aspirations are based on values personal growth, health, love, affection, service to society. It is noted that the choice of strategy depends on the role of the parents in the upbringing of the child. Parental support for autonomy, emotional involvement and structured requirements for the child lead to the predominance of his internal aspirations and, as a rule, to mental health. The dependence of the level of mental health on the choice of one or another group of values ​​was found: the subjects oriented towards external values ​​to the detriment of internal ones have low indicators of mental health. The level of mental health was determined using the CAT method, methods of measuring the level of depression, vitality and life satisfaction.

E. Fromm argues that a market economy based on a competitive relationship adversely affects mental health and personality development: a person is faced with a choice - "to have" or "to be", i.e. either to have as much as possible (including material wealth), or to develop in oneself all the abilities and strengths inherent in nature, “to be many”. And often under pressure social norms people prefer to “have” to the detriment of the perspective of personal development. At the same time, their own interests and inclinations are ignored, which leads a person to false life choices.

K. Horney notes that in order to satisfy the aspirations sometimes imposed by social patterns, a growing person from childhood develops three main strategies, or personal orientations in relation to other people: 1) movement towards people: the only goal of people with such an orientation is love, and all other goals are subordinated to the desire to earn this love, 2) movement against people: the value system of people with such an orientation is built on the philosophy of the "jungle" - life is a struggle for existence, 3) movement from people: the need for independence and inviolability turns such people away from everyone manifestations of struggle. However, this is often expressed in the absence of a way to adapt to modern living conditions.

R. Pehunen considers the method of conflict resolution as one of the possible grounds for the classification of life strategies. Upon discovering the existence of a conflict, a person usually acts in one of three ways.

1. Termination of all attempts at struggle. Refusal is experienced as a feeling of helplessness. Departure from social contacts and classes;

2. A strategy of adaptation, which is characterized by the acceptance of a changed situation. The device can be run in different ways. Passive adaptation means that a person has resigned himself to his fate, and transfers the functions of controlling his life to external authorities. With active adaptation, a person is able to change his attitude to his studies and even accept new ways of acting;

3. Overcoming the conflict. Development strategies are characterized by the desire to expand the boundaries of existing life situations. With creative development, there is a search and development of new areas of life, which enriches the personality. With limited development, progress affects only one area, while others remain on the periphery of life.

In the works of Yu.M. Reznik, E.A. Smirnov, there are three directions for the development of life strategies. If the objective ideality is localized in culture, then the subjective permeates the individual consciousness and behavior of people, their past experience and goals as an anticipation of the future. Yu.M. Reznik also singles out the third, actually social dimension of life strategies, which arises at the intersection of objective and subjective ideality - in the sphere of so-called intersubjectivity, which is formed on the basis of the coordination of mutual ideas and expectations.

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Personal self-realization strategies and their reflection in early memories

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STUDY OF THE BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN LIFE STRATEGY

O.S. VASILIEVA, E. A. DEMCHENKO

The work is devoted to the definition of the main qualitative and quantitative characteristics of a person's life strategy and the study of their impact on life satisfaction and mental health. Life strategy is the art of leading your own life, the main goal of which is to find and fulfill your unique meaning. Important characteristics life strategies are the level of responsibility, the degree of meaningfulness of life, the system of values ​​and human attitudes.

The results of this study indicate that people with higher indicators of meaningfulness in life and a general level of subjective control, as a rule, choose and implement such a way of life, which is the basis of the life strategy of creativity, i.e. consciously or unconsciously, they take the position of an active creator of their life and rely on such values ​​as love, beauty, creativity, goodness, development. They are satisfied with their lives and have higher mental health scores.

Key words: life strategy, life satisfaction, level of responsibility, degree of meaningfulness of life, life strategy of creativity.

Live happily and live according to

with nature - the same thing.

Each of us at some point in his life thinks about what life is and what its meaning is. For most people, this question is primarily related to the way of existence: how to live life happily, with dignity, beautifully, joyfully, well? We strive for a good life, finding more and more new ways to achieve this goal. However, the consumer way of existence that people most often choose today begins to work against a person: irrational use natural resources makes his environment unbearable, possession of things, becoming an end in itself, significantly impoverishes his spiritual life and is the main reason interpersonal conflicts... This puts a person in front of the need to rethink his views on life, his attitude to each other, the world around him.

The aspirations of a modern person are sometimes built not on a true belief in their own capabilities, but on the desire to win over someone, including over their idealized self.

Most people, complaining about the current government, which, in their opinion, does not provide them with a "good" life, do not even think that the absence of "good" government is the result of people's lack of faith in their own capabilities. To feel his vitality, a person must take responsibility for his every action, feeling himself the master of his own life.

Thus, by the strategy of life, we mean such a way of being, a system of values ​​and goals, the implementation of which, according to a person's ideas, makes it possible to make his life most effective. In other words, it is the art of leading your own life,

the main goal of which is the search and implementation of its unique meaning.

The most important, in our opinion, characteristics of a life strategy are the level of responsibility, the degree of meaningfulness of life, the system of values ​​and human attitudes.

The main indicators of the effectiveness of a person's life strategy are his life satisfaction and mental health.

Since mental health is the goal of psychological practice, we believe that the study of the characteristics of a life strategy, their consistency will allow the closest approach to the causes of intrapersonal conflicts, including those associated with dissatisfaction with life.

Our work is devoted to the definition of the main qualitative and quantitative characteristics of life strategies and the study of their influence on life satisfaction and mental health of a person.

THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

In psychology, the concept of life strategy is considered within the framework of the general theory of personality. Let us dwell on some socio-psychological approaches to the study of life strategies. All these approaches, in one way or another, reflect a person's need to organize his life in such a way that it is most effective from the point of view of an individual person's idea of ​​the effectiveness of life.

In Russian psychology, the problem of life strategy was most widely considered by K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya. She identified three main features of a life strategy: choosing a way of life, resolving the "I want" contradiction and creating conditions for self-realization, creative search. In her opinion, a person can be called mature if she is able to establish her own "threshold" of satisfaction with material needs and begins to consider them as one of the conditions of life, directing her vitality for other purposes. "This ability of a person to switch his life aspirations from material values ​​to others is an indicator that she has begun to live a personal life."

Various typologies of life strategies can be found in socio-psychological theories, which, based on the social life of an individual, reveal different ways of life. Thus, E. Fromm argues that a market economy based on a competitive relationship adversely affects mental health and personality development: a person is faced with a choice - "to have" or "to be", i.e. either to have as much as possible (including material wealth), or to develop in oneself all the abilities and strengths inherent in nature, "to be many." And often, under the pressure of social norms, people prefer to "have" to the detriment of the perspective of personal development. At the same time, their own interests and inclinations are ignored, which leads a person to false life choices. The practice of competitive relations encourages many to choose the ideal of prosperity at any cost. K. Horney notes that in order to satisfy the aspirations sometimes imposed by social patterns, a growing person from childhood develops three main strategies, or personal orientations in relation to other people: 1) movement towards people: the only goal of people with such an orientation is love, and all other goals are subordinated to the desire to earn this love, 2) movement against people: the value system of people with such an orientation is built on the philosophy of the "jungle" - life is a struggle for existence, 3) movement from people: the need for independence and inviolability turns such people away from everyone

manifestations of struggle. However, this is often expressed in the absence of a way to adapt to modern living conditions.

A. Adler notes that the formation of life goals begins in childhood as compensation for feelings of inferiority, insecurity and helplessness in the adult world. The life goal is formed in early childhood under the influence of personal experience, values, and personality traits. It is in childhood, in his opinion, that a life style is formed - an integrated style of adaptation to life and interaction with it. Love, friendship and work A. Adler calls the main life tasks that a person faces, which are determined by the conditions of human existence and allow to maintain and develop life in the environment in which he finds himself. In the evolutionary process of constant adaptation to the environment, an innate desire for superiority or improvement is rooted, i.e. motivation to improve oneself, develop one's abilities. But the goal of excellence can be both positive and negative. If this aspiration includes social concerns and an interest in the well-being of others, then it will develop in a constructive and healthy direction.

Domestic psychologists distinguish three main types of life strategies: a well-being strategy, a life success strategy, and a self-realization strategy. These types are based on more generalized ideas about what people tend to strive for in life. The content of these strategies is determined by the nature of the social activity of the individual. Thus, receptive ("consumer") activity is the basis of the life-well-being strategy. The prerequisite for the strategy of success in life is, first of all, motivational ("achievement") activity, which is designed for public recognition. A striking example of this, according to the authors' definition, is entrepreneurship. The strategy of self-realization is characterized by creative activity. Rather, there are mixed types in life: we all, but to varying degrees, strive for well-being, success and self-realization, for a different scale of implementation of these strategies.

American psychologists distinguish two groups of life strategies based on the predominance of internal and external aspirations. External aspirations, which depend on other people to be assessed, are based on values ​​such as material well-being, social acceptance, and physical attractiveness. Internal aspirations are based on the values ​​of personal growth, health, love, affection, service to society. It is noted that the choice of strategy depends on the role of the parents in the upbringing of the child. Parental support for autonomy, emotional involvement and structured requirements for the child lead to the predominance of his internal aspirations and, as a rule, to mental health. The dependence of the level of mental health on the choice of one or another group of values ​​was found: the subjects oriented towards external values ​​to the detriment of internal ones have low indicators of mental health. The level of mental health was determined using the CAT method, methods of measuring the level of depression, vitality and life satisfaction.

Thus, life goals, being the features of the ideal image future life person, and the system of values ​​on the basis of which these goals are built can be attributed to quality characteristics life strategy, since they reflect its content - what a person aspires to. TO quantitative characteristics life strategy, we attribute responsibility and meaningfulness to life, since they can be different

level and, we believe, have an impact on life satisfaction, i.e. - how efficiently the realization of human life goals will proceed. All these characteristics begin to form in childhood under the influence of upbringing. In the process of the development of society and the change of social morality, a person can rethink his system of values, as a result of which his life goals are filled with a different content.

The problem of the strategy of life is closely related to the eternal problem of the meaning of life, and if the former answers the question of how to live, then the latter - for the sake of what to live for. For centuries, philosophers and writers have sought to solve the problem of the meaning of life. The Epicureans saw the meaning of life in the enjoyment of its benefits, in the achievement of happiness; supporters of asceticism advocated the suppression of carnal desires and feelings; the Stoics transferred the goal of life into the realm of logical constructions, divorced from the passions of life. The peculiarity of these interpretations was that a person either merged with nature, enjoying its benefits, or renounced these benefits. Only in the XIX - early XX centuries. the realization came that life should be correlated with the characteristics of the personality itself. With the emergence of the concept of private life, a person begins to realize himself as an active creator and master of his own life. Taking responsibility for every life choice allows a person to feel their vitality.

Many psychotherapists are convinced that in every person there are forces that direct him to the realization of all his possibilities, to harmony with the world, to comprehend the meaning of life. In most philosophical, psychological and sociological concepts, these aspirations are considered in the context of the creative activity of the individual, the disclosure of his creative potential. This approach was followed by N.A. Berdyaev, S.L. Rubinstein, E. Fromm, A. Adler, A. Maslow, K. Rogers and others.

So, S.L. Rubinstein called man the subject of his own life. A person actively builds the conditions of his life and his attitude towards it. The answer to the question of how dignified life was, is the realization of how responsible the life choice was.

A. Adler noted that a person actively seeks out some experiences and avoids others, selectively transforms and interprets experience, creating an individual scheme of apperception and forming various patterns in relation to the world. The processes of forming a life goal, lifestyle, ideas about oneself and about the world are essentially creative acts.

The formation of a creator occurs spontaneously in childhood. During life, this tendency may fade away. But later, as a rule, a mature person kind of remembers this and already consciously chooses the value of creative being. This ability of a person to go beyond social stereotypes, patterns and delusions allows him to transform his past experience and find a place in life.

K. Jung, defining the archetype of the child, wrote: "He embodies the vital forces that are outside the limited limits of our conscious mind ... He expresses the strongest and most indefinite aspiration of every creature, the desire for self-realization."

As A. Maslow wrote, a creative person combines the qualities of a mature and independent personality with childish simplicity, frankness and fresh interest in everything new. The values ​​of such a person are truth, goodness, beauty, justice, perfection. Self-realization for him is work, the purpose of which is to achieve perfection in what he is called to do. Such a person strives to be not just a specialist, but a good one.

a specialist, and therefore is always concerned with his own development.

K. Rogers saw creativity not only and not so much in the creation of something new outside, but above all in the creation of new facets of his own personality. The main motivation for creativity is the desire for development, expansion, improvement, maturity, and therefore health. K. Rogers believed that to the extent that an individual refuses to recognize (or suppresses) a significant part of his experience, his creations can be pathological or socially harmful. And then, when a person is open to all aspects of his experience and all the sensations of his body are available to his consciousness, the new products of his creativity will be more likely to be creative both for himself and for others.

The creativity strategy suggests a "here and now" way of life. For a person who feels himself the creator of his life and realizes that no one but himself can make him happy, the meaning of life is most often determined by the concept of freedom. The indissolubility of creativity, life and freedom was pointed out by N.A. Berdyaev, E. Fromm, V. Frankl, K. Horney. They believed that a person is always inherent in creative energy, free will, which is given to him for spiritual development... E. Fromm, V. Frankl and K. Horney developed the idea that a person is an active figure, capable of resisting the powerful pressure of unfavorable social forces.

Thus, the strategy of creativity is a way of being, in which a person consciously or unconsciously takes the position of an active creator of his life, relying on such values ​​as love, beauty, goodness, development, i.e. making a choice in favor of mental and spiritual health.

The main principles for the development of mental health are complexity, creativity, the principle of "internal observer", strengthening of positive attitudes. This means that health improvement should be carried out in a holistic manner, taking into account all the factors affecting the improvement of the level of health. A person, listening to himself, chooses or creates his own ways of healing, trusting himself and his sense of self. For this purpose, the most valuable are techniques aimed at expanding the sphere of awareness of one's Self, clarifying life goals and values, exercises such as "life goals", "search for existential foundations" are used here.

So, mental health is influenced by a huge number of factors. The main ones are taking responsibility for your life, self-knowledge as an analysis of yourself, self-understanding and acceptance of yourself as a process of internal integration, the ability to live in the present moment, the meaningfulness of being, the ability to empathic understanding, trust in the life process. The experimental part of our work is devoted to the study of the influence of these factors on life satisfaction.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

The aim of our study was to try to determine the main qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the life strategy. This goal was concretized in the following tasks:

1. Determine the severity of these characteristics in various experimental groups.

2. Determine the extent to which these characteristics affect life satisfaction.

Note that the concept of life strategy should be considered at the individual-personal level. We did not set ourselves the goal of identifying and describing a life strategy that would be most effective for a person's life, since the concept of efficiency

always associated with the historical and cultural context.

The subject of our research is the life-meaning orientations, the level of subjective control, the system of values ​​and human attitudes. The objects of the study were young people aged 18 to 32 years old with secondary vocational and higher education... Some of the respondents are native Muscovites (40 people), some are those who came to Moscow from various cities of Russia with the prospect of staying in the capital (23 people). All respondents represented various social groups and institutions. A total of 73 people took part in the study, including 44 women and 29 men.

The methodological toolkit was represented by the following methods: the test of life-meaning orientations (LSS), the test "The level of subjective control" Rokeach's orientations(AC), the method of unfinished sentences (NP), a questionnaire on the presentation of a life strategy, developed by the authors. These techniques not only have scientific significance for research, but also contribute to the clarification and awareness of the person's goals, values ​​and the meaning of his life.

During experimental research two groups of respondents were singled out according to the criterion of the meaningfulness of life (A and B) and two groups of respondents according to the socio-demographic criterion (C and D): group A - with a high level of the general indicator of meaningfulness of life; group B - with a low level of the general indicator of the meaningfulness of life; group B - young people who have changed their place of residence1; group D - the rest of the sample (Muscovites). And also traditional groups - men and women. Thus, the results of the obtained data were analyzed for pairs of groups (A and B, C and D, men and women).

Based on the results of the study, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated.

THE DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS

Experimental data show that the average values ​​for all indicators of the LSS test in men are slightly higher than the average values ​​for these indicators in women (Table 1).

However, according to the USK test, some differences are noticeable (Table 2). Thus, the indicators on the scales of general internality (Io) and internality in the field of industrial relations (Ip) in men exceed these values ​​in women. This suggests that men have a higher level of subjective

control over any significant situations in life, as well as in industrial relations than women. According to other scales - internality in the field of family relations (Is) and interpersonal relations (I), women, in comparison with men, control their informal relationships. The level of subjective control over health in women is also higher, they believe that maintaining health and recovery largely depends on their actions.

Continuing the unfinished sentence "The main thing for me is ...", women answered: "the well-being and health of my family," "happiness of loved ones," men, mostly - "have a good job," "stability."

Interestingly, in both groups on the scales of internality in the area of ​​achievement (ID) and internality in the area of ​​failure (In), there is a higher level of subjective control over emotionally positive events and situations. Both groups of respondents tend to believe that they achieved all the good things in life thanks to themselves, and when they fail, they refer to bad luck. Although, in general, the values ​​on both scales are quite high (more than 6), if we compare them with the average data of the primary statistical characteristics of the questionnaire - 5.5. In general, the differences in values ​​for all scales according to the USC test in men and women are insignificant.

The unfinished sentence "For me the meaning of life ... E" all respondents, as a rule, continued "in love," "in the well-being of my family," "in life itself." The sentence "I always wanted ..." usually continued to "be happy." This confirms the assumption that the meaning of life is not reduced to happiness, but can be defined as the ultimate goal of a person, consisting of a multitude of goals, the achievement of which is accompanied by a feeling of a certain resolution, satisfaction, i.e. happiness.

Some respondents defined the meaning of life in helping others. However, the happiness of others as a value occupied low ranks, perhaps because for a person, first of all, his relatives and friends are important, and then all of humanity.

The respondents who found it difficult to continue the sentence about the meaning of life or wrote "not yet defined", "in the fog", had low OB indicators, but a sufficiently high level of general internality. Higher ranks had such values ​​as knowledge, active active life, development. Perhaps, despite the low level of OB, they have a high motivation to seek meaningful life goals.

The results of the survey showed that the respondents associate the concept of life strategy, as a rule, with goals, planning, achievement, success, as well as with a number of personal characteristics, such as activity, purposefulness, foresight, perseverance, etc. Most of the respondents noted the presence of their own life strategy, which, in their view, is to achieve any significant goals, and the effectiveness of its implementation depends on the above personal qualities... Others found it difficult to answer these questions and, as it turned out, these respondents had lower scores on the LSS test, in particular, on the "Goals" scale, the average value of this sample was 27.8 points.

It is interesting that responsibility as a personal characteristic influencing the effectiveness of life strategy was rarely mentioned by the respondents. However, as the results of the USC test show (see Table 2), the average value of the level of subjective control for the entire sample was 6.4 points. (For comparison, the average value of the primary statistical characteristics of the questionnaire is 5.5 points.) Perhaps the concept of responsibility has a broader meaning, including such concepts as duty, activity, purposefulness, and is often an unconscious characteristic of life strategy.

Table 3 shows the values ​​of the most polar groups according to the criterion of the meaningfulness of life. Thus, group A was made up of respondents with the highest level of the general indicator of the meaningfulness of life (OP). These are those respondents who, according to the results obtained, have clear goals in life that give their life direction and time perspective. Their indicators on other scales of LSS, in contrast to group B, also have large values... Consequently, the respondents in group A are more inclined to perceive the process of life as interesting, emotionally rich and full of meaning. They are more satisfied with the passed segment of their lives (30.5) than the respondents in group B (20.0), and they also have a subjective idea of ​​themselves as strong personality, with sufficient freedom of choice to build her life in accordance with her goals and ideas about its meaning. Group B respondents, on the other hand, are inclined to believe that a person's life is not subject to their own control, that it makes no sense to think about anything for the future.

As you can see from the table. 4, all indicators of values ​​on the USC test scales in the respondents of group A are also significantly higher than in group B. This indicates that people who believe that the majority important events in their life was the result of their own

actions have a high level of responsibility.

The indicators for the NP and AC methods complement these results. Individual life values ​​(according to D.A.Leont'ev), such as love, health, and a happy family life, have higher ranks in both groups. However, for the rest of the values, there are some differences. Thus, the respondents in group A gave greater preference (compared to group B) such values ​​as creativity, development, the beauty of nature and art, the happiness of others. At the same time, they gave lower ranks to values ​​such as material well-being, entertainment and social recognition. Unfinished sentences "Sometimes I miss ..." the respondents of group B continued with the names of some objects, while the respondents of group A - with personal characteristics (activity, courage, etc.). There is also a dependence of the obtained data on the scale of internality in relation to health according to the methods of USC and NP. Group B respondents, as a rule, complained about the unsatisfactory state of their health or noted its direct dependence on the environment and other external factors; in group A, no such dependence was noted.

Thus, we can conclude that people who have a lower level of subjective control are not used to being responsible for their lives, they do not feel the strength to influence the course of their lives, they live according to the principle of "have" (according to E. Fromm) , in contrast to those who seek to "be" many.

Table 5 shows the average values ​​of the sample scales for the USC and SSS tests of groups B and G. responsibility and meaningfulness of life in group B indicate that they are more inclined to consider themselves the masters of their own lives and are confident in the independence of making life choices. Representatives of this group see the meaning of life, as a rule, in life itself. However, the results obtained using NP and AC methods indicate that the respondents of group B more often than others define their health as unsatisfactory and rank it as a value a lower rank than in group D. If for group B the priority values ​​of professional self-realization ( interesting job, productive life, creativity, active active life), then for group D - the values ​​of personal life (health, love, having friends, entertainment, happy family life).

Thus, the indigenous people of Moscow mainly strive for well-being.

personal life, newcomers - to professional growth. Perhaps the higher indicators of the level of responsibility and meaningfulness of the latter are explained by the fact that, being in conditions big city, they do not have sufficient support from other people (relatives, acquaintances), and therefore rely only on their own strength.

For a more accurate analysis, we present the results of the correlation dependence of these USC scales with the LSS questionnaire (Table 6).

As you can see from the table. 6, all indicators of the LSS scales quite strongly correlate with the general internality and internality in relation to health, and also moderately correlate with the internality in the field of interpersonal and industrial relations of the USC questionnaire.

This means that the higher the level of a person's responsibility for his life, the higher the degree of meaningfulness of his life (0.82), the more meaningfulness and direction his life goals acquire (0.76) and the more confidence he has in the ability to control his life. (0.73). This dependence is also found in relation to the degree of satisfaction with self-realization, the span of life passed (0.70), i.e. a person is more satisfied with the past if he felt responsible for every event in his life.

As a result of mathematical data processing, significant correlations of indicators of internality in relation to health and interpersonal relations with the manageability of life were found (0.65 and 0.66). So, if a person, in order to improve his health, carries out certain actions and receives the expected result, then his faith in his own capabilities is significantly strengthened and can be transferred to other life situations, including interpersonal relationships.

For other indicators of the USC methodology, moderate correlations with the ASS scales were noted.

Thus, in the course of the study, we found the interconnection of the characteristics of the life strategy and their influence on each other.

1. The main characteristics of a person's life strategy are taking responsibility for their lives, meaningfulness of life, the presence of a built system of values ​​and life goals. The results of the study showed that the presence of goals in life, built on the basis of a person's system of values ​​and attitudes, the acceptance of responsibility for the implementation of these goals and the process of life significantly affect life satisfaction and mental health of a person. The results of the study showed that respondents with a high level of meaningfulness in life, who take responsibility for the course of its events and consider themselves the masters of their lives, are more satisfied with self-realization and find their life interesting and emotionally rich than those who do not believe in the ability to influence their lives. Such people are often dissatisfied with their lives and hold the position that their life is controlled by circumstances and other people. Consequently, they are more susceptible to neuroses, interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts.

2. Life goals and the system of values ​​on the basis of which these goals are built can be attributed to the qualitative characteristics of a life strategy, since they reflect its content - what a person strives for. We attribute the level of responsibility and meaningfulness of life to the quantitative characteristics of the life strategy, since they can affect a person's satisfaction with life.

3. People with higher indices of the meaningfulness of life and a general level of subjective control, as a rule, choose and implement such a way of life, which is the basis of the life strategy of creativity, i.e. consciously or unconsciously, they take the position of an active creator of their life and rely on such values ​​as love, beauty, creativity, goodness, development.

4. Respondents who have low indicators of the general meaningfulness of life, but rather high in terms of the level of subjective control, are characterized by high motivation to search for meaningful goals in life. Such people may not think about the meaning of their life, but at the same time perceive the process of life itself as interesting and emotionally intense. This indicates that people have varying degrees of awareness of their life strategy, in particular, such characteristics as the meaningfulness of life.

5. The respondents who changed their place of residence in order to achieve the most effective (in their opinion) life in the conditions of a "big" city are distinguished by a greater focus on the values ​​of professional self-realization. The indigenous inhabitants of megalopolises are dominated by a focus on the values ​​of personal life.

In our opinion, further work on the study of the characteristics of a person's life strategy should be aimed at a deeper study of responsibility. As one of the main characteristics of a life strategy, responsibility has a great influence on the effectiveness of a person's realization of his life goals and, therefore, on life satisfaction and mental health.

Learning about the characteristics of a life strategy can help practical psychologist get closer to understanding the causes of intrapersonal conflicts

a person and on this basis outline practical steps in work to improve the level of human mental health. Formation of ideas about responsibility, common human values at an early age can contribute to the harmonious development of a young person and his effective adaptation in a crisis society.

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Received October 26, 2000

1 Note that the respondents included in group B have a fairly high level of education (university students, employees various structures engaged in intellectual activity), as well as a specific purpose to live and work in the capital. Therefore, these studies cannot be extended to all people who come to Moscow, including with the aim of obtaining temporary earnings.

source unknown

FORMATION OF EFFECTIVE LIFE STRATEGIES

DEVELOPING PERSONALITY

The formation of life strategies of a developing personality is now acquiring special importance, since the transformations taking place in various spheres of our society affect the values ​​that determine the choice of young people ways of constructing their own lives.

At the same time, Western-oriented living standards are taking root in the minds of young people, which form inflated, unjustified claims. The inability to implement them often leads to disappointment and the substitution of moral assessments and, of course, affects the choice of criteria for social success by students and their attitude to education.

The survey of young people in the Chelyabinsk region only confirms the modern model of success in life: the highest achievement is the maximum independence from society. Typical formulations to the question "What needs to be done now to be successful in life tomorrow?" become: "You need to have a good education and a well-paid job so that you don't depend on anyone." At the same time, public life and politics took the last places in the list of their interests and activities. Explaining their answers, the respondents more often pointed to the instability, uncertainty, unpredictability of Russian society, and this, in their opinion, "hinders the implementation of personal plans."

Thus, the "transforming society of Russia", which is taking shape in a difficult socio-economic and political situation. The typical life strategies of our parents are increasingly not in demand, and new types of life strategies that are adequate to the new socio-economic conditions have not yet been formed.

The term "life strategies" comes from social psychology.

Following the researchers K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, T.E. Reznik and Yu.M. Reznik, we are considering the concept of "life strategies" as a way of consciously constructing one's own life (a way of life self-determination and self-realization), based on the life-meaning and value orientations of a developing personality, its plans and predictions of self-fulfillment.

The concept of "personality's life strategy" can also be considered in the following aspects:

    it is a way of conscious planning and construction by a person of his own life through the gradual formation of its future.

    it is a system consisting of the following, interconnected and mutually influencing elements that can be reflected in two directions.

On the one hand, this is the content of the future life path. It is determined by the choice of a life position (generalization of subjective and objective personal achievements that open a particular perspective of life movement, a set of life values ​​of an individual, which allow one way or another to build an image of an ideal future) and life goals of an individual (characterizing the dominant sphere of a person's life and determining an ideal image of the future). human life).

On the other hand, we can talk about the organizational characteristics of a life strategy, which at the same time serve as criteria for its formation. This is the length of the time perspective (how far into the future a person plans his own life and how deeply he turns to the past for the necessary life experience), the direction of the time perspective (past-present-future), that is, psychological orientation in time and, accordingly, life plans, and, finally, the structuredness of the planned life path (how eventful are the various planned periods of a person's life, which stages of the life path are more structured, which are less).

Thus, the life strategy of a person is an internal formation of a person. We can characterize it as formed, provided that there are meaningful life goals, a system of value orientations and a certain life position. A person with a formed life strategy plans his life far into the future, the life path is developed in detail, each stage of it is full of anticipated events. The life goal is presented at each stage in the form of steps for its implementation.

A person analyzes the events of his life, their changes, influence on it, assesses his own capabilities and personal characteristics. He is able to go beyond his own "I" in the analysis of the situation and predicts further changes in his life. In accordance with this, the planning of the future takes place and the life strategy of the individual is built.

In modern Russian socio-psychological literature, two main approaches to the study of life strategies can be distinguished, differing in what is chosen as the basis for their typology.

The first approach (N.F. Naumova et al.) Is characterized by the fact that the type of social adaptation of a person is taken as the basis for the typology of life strategies. So, N.F. Naumova identifies three types of strategies, depending on the social and personal functions performed by a person in a society in transition:

    strategy for successful external adaptation;

    strategy of effective internal adaptation;

    survival strategy.

The strategy of successful external adaptation is focused on the present and near future, identification is aimed at primary (family, etc.) and professional groups. The strategy of effective internal adaptation is focused on the past and distant future, identification is aimed at large groups- country, people. And, finally, the third strategy - the strategy of survival - is characterized by a low status and a deteriorating financial position of an individual who identifies himself with groups of people with a similar fate.

The second approach (Yu.M. Reznik et al.), As the basis for typologizing life strategies, highlights the position that a person takes in relation to his own life and the activity associated with it. It is believed that a person can occupy three different, albeit interrelated, positions:

    “Have” (receptive activity);

    “Achieve” (motivational or “achievement” activity);

    "To be" (creative or "existential" activity).

The first type of human activity (receptive or "acquisitive") is the basis of the strategy of life well-being, the second type of activity is a prerequisite for the strategy of life success, and the third (creative, "existential") activity is characteristic of the strategy of personality self-realization.

With certain differences in approaches, it is possible to draw some analogies between life strategies in both cases and summarize them in a table.

Table 1.Typologies of life strategies.

If the first two analogies do not cause any special doubts, then in the third case a certain discrepancy between the terms “survival strategy” and “life well-being strategy” is striking. It is really difficult to reconcile well-being and survival. These types of life strategies are the most common and, perhaps, a better name for them would be - everyday or everyday strategies.

Depending on the choice of the basis for determining the type of life strategy, it can be assumed that there are different types of life strategies. Let's try to systematize various grounds on which to classify life strategies:

    according to the degree of awareness by the individual - conscious and unconscious;

    by the direction of changes occurring in the individual - progressive, regressive (constructive, destructive);

    by the nature of the individual's activity - active, reactive-adaptive, passive;

    by locus of control - external, internal (exogenous, endogenous);

    by the way of perception of living conditions - hedonistic and based on a sense of duty, responsibility;

    according to the degree of coincidence with the goals and objectives of society - prosocial, asocial and antisocial;

    according to the degree of implementation - effective (achieving goals), ineffective and ineffective;

    by the nature and method of self-realization - strategies of self-actualization and manipulation;

    by the nature of the ratio of emotionality and rationality - affective, cognitive;

    by priority in social exchange - appropriating, bestowing or balanced (harmonious);

    by the presence of an element of creativity - creative (constructive) and everyday (everyday) or survival strategies (the latter - according to N.F. Naumova);

    by the type of activity - success, well-being and self-realization (according to T.E. Reznik and Yu.M. Reznik);

    according to "basic tendencies" (S. Bueller) - strategies for meeting needs, adaptive self-restraint, creative expansion and the establishment of inner harmony;

    by ends and means (R. Merton) - subordination, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion;

    by the type of personal organization of time and attitude to it (Kovalev V.I.) - ordinary, functional-effective, contemplative-reflexive and creatively transforming strategies of a person's life;

    by the type of adaptation to a changing external social environment(according to Fedotova N.N.): two passive - reflexively retarded and moderately adaptive; three active - career, instrumental, criminal;

    according to the degree of affiliation - individual and collectivist.

The choice of life strategies depends on the socio-economic state of society, the level of development of its culture, is determined by the mode of production and property relations, the level and quality of life, belonging to a particular social stratum and cohort, the influence of traditions, ideals and values ​​that dominate in society at a given historical moment. time. It can be assumed that the choice of a person's life strategies also depends on gender, age, nationality, social status and other socially significant characteristics.

Thus, life strategies can be classified on various grounds, but in general they can be differentiated into several basic types: strategies for self-realization, strategies for achieving success and everyday (everyday) strategies. Life strategies can be thought of as a dynamic system of personal ideas about the future life, which is realized in everyday behavior by means of appropriate methods and resources.

Consider one of the technologies for defining and understanding our life strategy. Korablik technology:

Consider all the elements of this figure:

Arrow, conventionally denotes the wind, which urges the boat to move faster in the direction. The arrow will indicate our motives, that is, everything that motivates us to move faster, for example, time, interest, anticipation of the result;

Waves, they conventionally denote the resistance that the boat overcomes on its way. Waves are our fears, doubts, reflections, for example, the fear that I will not be like everyone else, they will not understand me, or will not accept, or not appreciate;

The food of the boat, conventionally denotes its foundation, its support, speaking of life strategies, food is our life values, this is what is inviolable for each of us, for example, family, friends, caring for loved ones, trust, understanding, help;

The flag of the ship is our goals, the achievement of which moves us in life, moves forward towards our main goal.

Exercise: draw your life strategy boat, define each component in it and describe it. You should have 7 points in each component, that is, 7 motives, 7 fears, 7 values ​​and 7 goals.

Domestic scientists have devoted many works to the analysis of the life problems of the individual. In the center of attention were the problems of meaning, life path, lifestyle and lifestyle, culture of life of the individual, his self-realization and life creation.

The concept of "strategy" means a way of rational attitude to life. In reference books, the term "strategy" is most often defined as "the art of planning leadership based on correct and far-reaching forecasts." It also designates a certain direction of the organization's activities related to the justification, development and implementation of concepts and decisions of an industrial and social nature. However, unlike other ways of life (life goals, plans, etc.), this is a way of conscious planning and construction by a person of his own life by gradually shaping its future. It concretizes the content of the concepts “ life world"And" life path ". Note that not all scientists consider strategy only as a rational formation, which is formed in a certain structure of a person's activity. Some of them believe that strategies are the essence of the phenomenon of brain activity. “The source material,” writes V.A. Goryanin and I.K. Masalkov, - strategies are used to decode subjective experience. A strategy is a sequence of representations and operations worked out by the brain leading to a specific goal, but at the same time, independent of the meaningful orientation of behavior. Each fragment of the strategy is a stage of the mental process (program), which is characterized by the use of one of the five senses (internal or external). "

Thus, there is still no logical clarity and clarity in the definition of the concept of "life strategy". It is interpreted either as a system of perspective ideas and personality orientations, or even more narrowly - as a system of goals, plans and value orientations... So, E.I. Golovakha prefers to use the concept of "life perspective" instead of the concept of "life strategy", justifying this by the fact that the latter does not so rigidly and formally fix the framework of the future life path. "... The life perspective," he emphasizes, "should be viewed as an integral picture of the future of a complex contradictory interconnection of programmed and expected events, with which a person associates social value and individual meaning of his life." In our opinion, the most theoretically justified is the point of view of Yu.M. Reznik, E.A. Smirnov, who in their works attribute not only the goals of life to the structural components of the life strategy, but also other components of activity that orient and direct the behavior of the individual in a certain perspective.

Studies of life strategies in domestic science were carried out by K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, N.F. Naumova, T.E. Reznik, Yu.M. Reznik, E.A. Smirnov, known for their works on the problems of sociology and psychology of personality.

According to K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, a person acts as an active subject of his life, capable of self-organization and self-regulation. She identified three main features of a life strategy: choosing a way of life, resolving the "want-have" contradiction and creating conditions for self-realization, creative search. The qualities of an individual as a subject of activity do not directly depend on the age stages or stages of the life path. Life strategy as a way of organizing life must also be distinguished from other ways - life position and life line. In contrast, strategy is an integrative characteristic of the life path. “The life strategy in its most general form is a constant alignment of the personality (its characteristics) and the character and way of life, building life first on the basis of one's individual capabilities and data, and then with those that are developed in life. The strategy of life consists in ways of changing, transforming conditions, situations of life in accordance with the values ​​of the individual ... ".

Strategy is an integral characteristic of the path of life. At the heart of its construction is the search for correspondence between the type of personality and the way of life. In other words, the construction of a life strategy should be carried out taking into account the typological differences in the individual trajectory of a person's life. Moreover, this process occurs only in the active state of the individual. Activity is a prerequisite for building a life strategy. It determines the degree of correspondence and balance between the desired and the necessary, personal and social. N.F. Naumova made an attempt to comprehend the strategy of human life in the conditions of a transitional society, as which she views Russia. "A society in a transitional period," she explains, "is a special, unstable system that does not combine its old and new states, but intensively and almost uncontrollably forms the latter." That is why, in her opinion, it is impossible to apply to the study of the consciousness of people living in a given society, structural-functional and similar approaches, which are effective only in the analysis of stable social systems.

According to N.F. Naumova, the theories of postmodernity cannot fully answer the question of what a person is today who is in a situation of uncertainty and strives to orientate in the future. Such essential characteristics of postmodern society as fear of the unknown, existential uncertainty, the role of solidarity and imaginary communities, pluralism of power and the exclusive role of choice, cannot express the main trends in the development of the transition period. Normativeism and the tendency to generalize lead the theory of postmodernism to a standstill. Therefore, it cannot serve as an explanatory scheme for the study of a transitional society.

“It seems,” N.F. Naumova, - that today the most promising approaches to the study of a transitional society and the life strategies that are formed in it are associated, firstly, with the application of the theory of complex, developing systems and, secondly, with the analysis, generalization of that huge primary empirical material that is collected in the framework of the sociology of disasters, the study of social stress and extreme situations, social problems and crises. "

In the works of Yu.M. Reznik, T.E. Reznik, E.A. Smirnov's strategies of life are viewed as symbolically mediated ideal formations that go beyond the limits of consciousness in terms of their influence, landmarks and priorities that are realized in human behavior. The ideality of the strategy manifests itself, on the one hand, subjectively as something containing unique and unrepeatable, situationally emerging and over-situational personal meanings and goals, on the other, objectively as something that includes culturally determined patterns, standards, norms and values ​​acquired by a person in the process of socialization. If the objective ideality is localized in culture, then the subjective permeates the individual consciousness and behavior of people, their past experience and goals as an anticipation of the future. Yu.M. Reznik also singles out the third, actually social dimension of life strategies, which arises at the intersection of objective and subjective ideality - in the sphere of so-called intersubjectivity, which is formed on the basis of the coordination of mutual ideas and expectations. The ideality of a strategy is closely related to its reality, i.e. strategic behavior, which is understood as an external, subject-sensory form of expression of life strategy.

In foreign science, many outstanding scientists were engaged in the problem of studying life strategies: A. Adler, A. Maslow, E. Fromm, K. Horney.

As A. Maslow wrote, a creative person combines the qualities of a mature and independent personality with childish innocence, frankness and fresh interest in everything new. The values ​​of such a person are truth, goodness, beauty, justice, perfection. Self-realization for him is work, the purpose of which is to achieve perfection in what he is called to do. Such a person strives to be not just a specialist, but a good specialist, and therefore is always concerned about his own development.

K. Rogers saw creativity not only and not so much in the creation of something new outside, but above all in the creation of new facets of his own personality. The main motivation for creativity is the desire for development, expansion, improvement, maturity, and therefore health. K. Rogers believed that to the extent that an individual refuses to recognize (or suppresses) a significant part of his experience, his creations can be pathological or socially harmful. And then, when a person is open to all aspects of his experience and all the sensations of his body are available to his consciousness, the new products of his creativity will be more likely to be creative both for himself and for others.

The creativity strategy assumes a “here and now” way of life. For a person who feels himself the creator of his life and realizes that no one but himself can make him happy, the meaning of life is most often determined by the concept of freedom. The indissolubility of creativity, life and freedom was pointed out by N.A. Berdyaev, E. Fromm, V. Frankl, K. Horney. They believed that a person is always inherent in creative energy, free will, which is given to him for spiritual development. E. Fromm, V. Frankl and K. Horney developed the idea that a person is an active figure, capable of resisting the powerful pressure of unfavorable social forces.

According to A. Adler, each person develops his own life goal, which serves as the concentration of his aspirations and achievements. Formation of life goals begins in childhood. Life goals are always somewhat unrealistic and can become neurotically exaggerated if feelings of inferiority are too strong. Life goals provide direction and objectives for human activities. For example, a person who strives for superiority, personal power, will develop certain character traits necessary to achieve this goal - ambition, envy, distrust, etc. Adler points out that these character traits are not innate, primary, these are "secondary factors imposed the secret goal of man. " A life style is a unique way chosen by each person to pursue his life goal; it is an integrated style of adapting to life and interacting with life in general. Seemingly isolated habits and behaviors gain their meaning in the full context of a person's life and goals, so that psychological and emotional problems cannot be considered in isolation - they are included in general style life. As part of their lifestyle, each person creates his own idea of ​​himself and the world. Adler calls this the Apperception Scheme. A person's perception of the world determines his behavior (if someone believes that the ring of rope in the corner is a snake, his fear can be as strong as if the snake was actually there). A person selectively transforms and interprets his experience, actively seeks out some experiences and avoids others, creating an individual scheme of apperception and forming various patterns in relation to the world. A person forms his personality.