Designing a Life Path of a Person: Ethnic and Psychological Features

Abstract

The relevance of this research is affiliated with ethnic and psychologic features of the Ukrainian society, and they were formed for a long time without statehood and related to it domination of "patrimonial consciousness". The introjected programs limit personal possibilities that help design a life path, and thus this restriction actualizes the need to find strategies for personal self-determination.

The article focuses on illustrating ethnic and psychological conditions and stages of a life path design by a personality in a group, revealed in an empirical way. Based on the scientific sources analysis the author demonstrates that ethnic and psychological aspects of a life path design can manifest themselves in three main directions. Firstly, we are talking about structural and narrative features of a folk art, and secondly, about cultural mechanisms that function with the traumatic experience transfer between the generations, and about the role of the "ideal I'm" in projecting images of the desired future.

The empirical research applied to study patterns of a life path design of a personality in different types of groups have resulted in identifying the patterns forming up the space for tension and polarization between the groups where projective processes are unfold within. The article describes the stages of a life path projection in a group. These are: (1) identification with the leader and the group; (2) polarization between "strong" and "weak" poles within the group; (3) disintegration as a distance increase between the I’m-actual and the I’m-ideal; and (4) integration as an increase in group integrity and the personality in it.

The article identifies that strategies helping to get rid of traumatic experience are an important component of a life path design. These strategies are the repetition of life difficulties, coming back to the past; compensation of experienced "potential holes" with reaching a higher social status, material values; revenging upon others; "Living with a trauma", and its transfer between generations, concealments.

The perspectives of applying research results in practice involve their possible use in various domains of psychological practice, in particular when constructing psychological forecasts of an individual development or different types of groups, relations between the groups and personal changes dynamics.