Karelin P. Specifics of psychological boundaries of personality in different communication contexts

This work contains the results of our research in which we studied the specifics of how psychological boundaries are configured by a person in different communication contexts. We defined psychological boundaries of a person as a mental formation that fulfils a critical-demarcation, transitionary and signaling function on an intrapersonal level, and normative-regulatory function on an interpersonal level in communication. Within the framework of the situational approach, we describe the modi of interpersonal relations (domination, submission, distancing and closeness) as communication contexts. We propose a theoretical model of dispositional-situational configuration of psychological boundaries of a person in dyadic communication. We substantiate the application of the person-x-environment scheme for the empirical study of the specifics of configuring own psychological boundaries by a person in different communication contexts. We developed a contextually variable and interpersonal-oriented multiscale questionnaire "Configuring the psychological boundaries of personality". We discovered the specifics of establishing and regulating of psychological boundaries by a person depending on Field dependence/independence and communication contexts of domination, submission, distancing and closeness. We described the following typical configurations of psychological boundaries of a person – active-expansive, passive-recipient, passive-resistant, active-congruent; as well as their interpersonal functions. Key words: psychological boundary, psychological space, configuring psychological boundaries, social situation, dyadic communication, communication context.