Socio-psychological practices of the life competence of an individual

Abstract

The article deals with the study of socialization of an individual in the period of global social transformations. The importance of the study is determined by inconsistency of the new aims of education focused on the development of life competence of an individual with the predominantly “old” (traditional) technologies of transmitting the “necessary” ideas about the reality to the recipients in the modern educational environment. The author states that in the course of time these ideas may lose their anticipated credibility, and the process of “transmission” of knowledge itself prompts the communicators to accept (or reject) ready-made solutions rather than develop their own meaning creation ability, i. e. the ability to be aware of, to investigate and to overcome meaning contradictions. One of the reasons of the excessive adherence of the socialization agents to the traditional technologies of “knowledge transmission” is the difficulty of differentiating them from the technologies aiming at the “development of life competence of an individual”. The author defines the subject of the study, and determines the criteria for differentiation between practical technologies of the “vertical” and “horizontal” socialization models. The results of the comparative analysis of the technologies considered prove that the principal differences between them are in the specific features of interaction between the communicators. The findings of the theoretical analysis of the communicative conditions of the effectiveness of those kinds of socio-psychological practices enabled the author to determine three criteria for their differentiation: delegat-ing (or not delegating) the functions of determination of the personal objectives of the interaction to its participants; establishing the relations that promote transforming (or reproductive) activities of an individual; focusing joint activities on cooperation (or competition) with those who think differently. The identified criteria have been used as the basis for classification of the main kinds of socialization practices, which include active/passive practices, developing/forming practices and partner/competitor ones. The outcomes of the theoretical research support the need to keep balance between the communication practices oriented at the development of the “content” and “operational” components of the individual social cognition.