The thesis presents the theoretical and empirical solution of the scientific problem – the nature of the social capital as a psychological resource, which influences to the process of formation of the youth political culture. It has been determined that social capital as a psychological resource is the accumulated the possibilities of an interpersonal interaction environment, using which person can achieve his or her own goals and/or contribute to the achievement of the intentions of the group to which he or she belongs. There are such components of the social capital as a psychological resource: the effectiveness of the social interaction, the identification with the group, the social cohesion, the interpersonal trust, the readiness for mutual assistance. Within these components, the social capital of young people is characterized by the ease of establishing contacts, low trust in relationships, greater identification with the surrounding environment than with social institutions. There are such psychological origins of the formation of social capital as a psychological resource: the personality traits, professional and emotional resources of the social environment, the institutional contacts. The political culture of youth is a set of psychological constructs that characterize the viability of young people in the political environment and spread within the community through the social contacts. There are such components of the political culture of young people who are potentially sensitive to the influence of the Social capital: the ideas about politics, the political values, the motives for participating in the political interaction, the political symbols, and the political behavior. It has been found that young people are quite well aware of the political environment, their rights and duties, its small political shift to strict ideals, tolerance and trust in political institutions are reduced, and political behavior lacks experience. The psychological sources of the formation of political culture are revealed as the person's competence in politics, the status of interaction with political environments, and the civil activity. There are revealed the significant connections between components of social capital as a psychological resource and components of the political culture: the effective social interaction deepens the concept of politics and serves as a function of political communication; the identification with the group simplifies the political values, the performs the function of the socialization; the social cohesion diversifies the political values and the political behavior, fulfills the function of creating interests; the interpersonal trust narrows motives for the participating in the political interaction, serves as a function of the accumulation of interests. The possibilities of the activating of the components of social capital as a psychological resource of changes in the components of the political culture are proved as an activation of the effective social interaction at the individual and group levels broadens the perception of the politics, narrows the spectrum of political behavior, and at the same time in the group it permeates the political values; an activating of the identification with the group at the individual and group levels narrows the spectrum of political behavior, on an individual one it permeates the political values, and on the group one it simplifies them and deepens the notion of the politics; an activation of social cohesion at the individual and group levels blurs the motives for the participation in the political interaction in return for an individual one it impoverishes the notion of the politics and narrows the political values, whereas in the group level it enriches the ideas of the politics and clarifies the political values; an activation of the interpersonal trust at the individual and group levels blurs the motives for participation in political interaction, only on the group level it narrowing the ideas of the politics, but expanding the range of the political behavior. The differences between the individual and group variants of activating the psychological resource of the social capital in the process of formation of the youth's political culture are generalized as an activation at the group level deepens the ideas about politics and permeates the political values, but weakens the personal motivation of the political behavior; at the individual level, there are positive changes in the ideas about politics within the framework of the social interaction and the political values in the identifying with the group.
