The dissertation is an independent, holistic and complete study, which contains new scientifically sound theoretical and practical results. The dissertation presents a theoretical generalization and a new solution to the scientific problem of the influence of value orientations on an individual’s lifestyle. It is shown that the problems of formation and functioning of an individual’s lifestyle, as well as of the role of psychological factors in this process, are becoming increasingly important as the most topical in the field of modern general psychology.
The current state of the research problem of the influence of value orientations on an individual’s lifestyle is highlighted, in particular the notions of lifestyle and value orientations within the general psychology approach are conceptualized, the role of the self-concept and the image of a significant other as mediating factors of influence of value orientations on an individual’s lifestyle is demonstrated.
Lifestyle is defined as a characteristic of life activity of an individual that manifests itself in regular behaviour patterns at various levels of this activity, such as general interaction of an individual with the world; life strategies and tactics; self-presentation style. Value orientations are defined as subjective images of values, which are aligned with a person’s life experience, and express the meaningful attitude to social reality, determining behaviour, motivation, having a significant impact on all aspects of a person’s activity.
Based on a thorough theoretical analysis, the complex model of the influence of value orientations on an individual’s lifestyle is developed. The model presents the self-concept and the role of a significant other as the mediating factors of the influence of value orientations on an individual’s lifestyle. According to the model, the system of value orientations being interrelated with and mediated by the self-concept and the image of a significant other, defines the peculiarities of life practices organization, structures general relations of an individual with the world, determines the implementation of individual personal strategies of interaction with the environment, facilitates the process of establishing and implementing individual life strategies and tactics, and determines the peculiarities of self-presentations.
Twelve components that describe individual lifestyles were yielded as a result of the principal component analysis: "Tradition", "Hedonism", "Benevolence", "Universalism", "Independence-Security", "Self-development", "Power", "Independence", "Relocation", "Achievement", "Hedonism-Power", "Universalism-Tradition". The structure of components demonstrated a significant similarity with Sh. Schwartz’s value matrix, basis which the substantiating role of value orientations in the organization and functioning of individual lifestyles was confirmed.
The existence of the influence of value orientations on an individual’s lifestyle is proven. It is important that almost the full set of values by Sh. Schwartz has an impact on a particular level of an individual’s lifestyle. The power of its influence is defined as weak or moderate. It was defined that the most significant influence of value orientations on an individual’s lifestyle takes place at life strategies and tactics level, while the style self-presentation level is least related to value orientations.
The complex model of the influence of value orientations on the lifestyle of an individual is empirically substantiated and proven to be functional. The existence of the influence of value orientations on the lifestyle of an individual, the influence of self-concept and image of a significant other on the lifestyle of an individual as well the relationships between value orientations, self-concept and image of a significant other are proven. It is stated that self-concept and significant other play a more significant role in structuring the lifestyle for teenage subjects rather than for adolescents and adults. It is demonstrated that the self-concept and the significant person have a significant influence on the features of style self-presentation of adolescents, while for the older category of the studied this influence is less prominent.
The differences in functioning of the model depending on age categories are revealed. It is defined that the stability and functionality of the model may depend on the age characteristics of the subjects, tending to consolidate and demonstrate stronger links between its elements with age.
Key words: lifestyle, value orientations, self-concept, significant other, relationship with the world, life strategies, life tactics, stylistic self-presentation.
