Baliuta V. Social-and-Psychological Factors of Radicalization of Youth Political Behaviour

Thesis for a Candidate Degree in Psychological Studies. – Speciality 19.00.11. – Political Psychology. – Institute for Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine. – Kyiv, 2018. The thesis considers the scientific substantiation of social-and-psychological factors of radicalization of youth political behaviour. It has been determined that political behaviour is a complex poly-motivated combination of internal reactions and outwardly observed actions or inactivity of a person or a group of people in social-and-political life. It embodies an attitude towards political system through supporting or opposing it. Political behaviour is a dynamic phenomenon that is closely linked to political activity, political participation and political engagement. Radical political behaviour is a form of a protest political behaviour which includes violation of legal and moral-ethical norms determined by the desire to achieve social-and-political changes in a very short period. Political radicalism is considered as a specific social-and-cultural phenomenon, which is conditioned by specific features of the society development and its actual state, in particular the state of social tension, which enhances the stress state of a person and indices protest forms of one’s political behaviour. The psychological basis for radicalization of individual's political behaviour and thus the increase of its factors influence lies in accumulation of relative deprivation, which is treated as perceived discrepancy between expectations and actual capabilities. In other words, this is the tension between one’s actual state, and what one feels (s)he should be able to achieve. The first thing that reflects political radicalism is one’s political values and forms of political behaviour, the main motivation of which lies in a very quick changes achieving. The main social-and-psychological factors that render radical impact on the youth political behaviour are referential-and-communicative factors (the effect of mutual reinforcement, group thinking, the absence of group pressure on group members) and the factors of the information field displaying (simultaneous influence of an informational message on emotional and rational spheres, and combination of persuasion with the proposal in it as two conditions necessary for such message to become influential on political behaviour). The radicalizing influence of referential-and-communicative factors lies in the specific features of group polarization, which in turn becomes the main condition for the emergence of group thinking. In fact, group thinking is treated as the basis for the emergence and increase of cognitive mistakes of young people, the main features of which are increasing level of conformity and low level of critical thinking, which does not meet the condition to consider and analyse alternative ideas and variants of behaviour. The above-mentioned factors of referential-and-communicative influence and factors of the information field displaying affect emotional sphere of a young person and cause one’s mood worsen and the increase of activity. Young people adopt patterns of political behaviour, which were elaborated jointly with other group members (reference-and-communicative factors) and/or were described in the information message (factors of the information field displaying). Social-and-psychological factors of radicalization of young people's political behaviour increase the stress state of a young person accompanied by psychological discomfort, which stimulates him/her to seek opportunities for its reduction. The manifestation of radical political behaviour in such conditions becomes a way of stress relieving and psychological abreaction. The use of a prophylactic social-and-psychological training programme aimed at preventing radicalization of youth political behaviour proved to be an effective tool for the emergence and spread of such behaviour in the youth environment. It became possible on the basis of the social-and-political competence of young people rising. The change of the patterns of youth political behaviour can be achieved through the influence on verbal-communicative and cognitive components of political activity, which makes it possible to shape political behaviour eventually. The social-and-psychological programme that we implemented helps to neutralize the influence of social-and-psychological factors of radicalization of youth political behaviour. Being a participant of such programme, young people increase their knowledge on social significance of their political activity, strengthen their skills of political behaviour of the convention type manifestations, and expand social contacts in order to achieve their goals.