The thesis describes the features of civil confrontation as a particular political and psychological phenomenon. It reveals the features of the functioning of discourses in social media, and the role of group polarization as the basic process of civil confrontation buildup. The continuum describing the evolution of the processes of socio-political conflicts defines the civil confrontation as a transitive phase between social tension and social conflict characterized by the crystallization of value conflicts between the parties to a conflict. To this purpose, the comparison of "civil confrontation" with such phenomena as "social tension", "social conflict", "civil conflict" and "civil war" was conducted. This allows improving the categorical apparatus of political psychology and explaining that civil confrontation takes place primarily in the communicative sphere in the form of the struggle of competing discourses. The overview of the group polarization as the basic process of civil confrontation is presented. It is determined that with the help of group polarization, the interest groups that initiate and reproduce the discourse are able to influence the society in order to execute their interests. Group polarization takes place in public arenas under conditions of intense competition of discourses, and it is expressed as the embodiment of the heterogeneous views of the participants in the discussion to the mutually exclusive positions. Since the group polarization makes the group decision more extreme, the 18 positions of the participants of communication during this process are distancing from the average and the compromise between them is becoming less possible. Thus, group polarization decreases the potential of groups' cooperation with each other and leads to the growth of competition and identities’ clash. The main factors that influence the reproduction of civil confrontation in the discursive domain in Ukraine are determined, such as the widespread contradistinction of the ethnic and civic identity of a Ukrainian, impact of external groups of interests, dehumanization of opponents within the country, semantic uncertainty of the concepts, and the proactive functioning of state bodies. The procedural features of the political discourses’ functioning in the social media are described, such as maintaining the focus of communication, supporting the illusion of participation in dialogue, personalization of the communicator, and the effects of the "information basket" or "information bubble". The analytical model of research for political discourses in social media was developed. It is based on the critical discourse analysis method by N. Fairclough (analysis of the text, discourse practice and social practice) and involves the study of communicative cases selected on several criteria: the linguistic saturation of the texts, the intensity of discourses’ struggle in the virtual environment and the intensity of the discourses’ struggle outside the virtual environment. The model for researching the structure of psychological practice in social media as a routine action is proposed, and includes the definition of the goal of practice (expected result from the standpoint of the communicator), the parties to the interaction (whom it influences, which groups compete for attention, etc.) and the instruments (technical and psychological). With to the application of the above described model, the psychological practices of civil confrontation in the social media are determined and systematized. These practices include the segregation of community members, activation of the gray zone, mobilization of the opponent, personalization of the communicator, definition of permitted boundaries, discourse discreditation, construction of the accused communicator, and the initiation of reaction. These practices can be used by interest groups to fulfill deliberate effects on target audiences and thus exacerbate the civil confrontation or to expand the scope of its participants. Further analysis of the data describes the psychological effects for society from the production of mass discourses of civil confrontation in the social media and the application of psychological practices such as monotony, ambivalence, desensitization and alertness. These effects can be used to distract the attention of society, reduce its protest potential, push the masses to impulsive actions, impose contradictory ideas, and stimulate society to rethink values and to enhance social mobilization. They can be utilized by the interest groups to design an agenda and establish the domination of their own discourse in public arenas. Key words: civil confrontation, social media, group polarization, psychological practices, critical discourse analysis.
