Social and psychological determination of resonal sense of ownership formation in ontogenesis

Abstract

The paper deals with the phenomenon of sense of ownership as a socially determined entity, which appears on the basis of an instinctive need for ownership. Sense of ownership is defined as an emotional state of an individual, reflecting subjective evaluative attitudes towards real or abstract ownership targets. Sense of ownership has a number of levels, ranging from feelings to a particular object to more advanced social forms related to social values, ideals and personal attitudes. Sense of ownership is formed, actualized or deactivated during a human life under the influence of various social and psychological factors. The peculiarities of manifestation and stages of sense of ownership formation at different age periods are described in the article. Sociopsychological and political and psychological determinants of formation, actualization or deactivation, leveling or weakening of sense of ownership in ontogenesis are determined. They are motivation of psychological appropriation, group attitude towards ownership, group social and economic identity, development of value-semantic sphere of personality, as well as group values and meanings, collective emotional states, feeling of domination or dependence, intergroup and ingroup comparison, threat of loss of ownership, self-investing, psychological legitimization of ownership possession, and social competition. Sense of ownership can vary phenomenologically depending on the impact of various social and psychological factors, and can play both stimulating and hindering roles in individual identity formation. It can have different modalities, intensity, duration, depth, level of awareness, complexity, substantive content, and various conditions of occurrence, functions performed depending on the situation, different influence on a person, forms and conditions of its development. These determinants can operate in different ways and cause sense of ownership actualization or deactivation depending on the circumstances and stage of life, individual psychological features and his/her social environment. The influence of social and political conflicts on sense of ownership actualization/deactivation is analyzed using the example of internally displaced persons.

Key words: sense of ownership, psychological ownership, social and psychological determination, sense of ownership formation, ontogenesis.