Value and meaning attitudes as a factor of forming tolerant ethnic consciousness in the multicultural milieu of a higher education institution

Abstract

This article is directed to the study of value and meaning attitudes as a factor of forming students' tolerant ethnic consciousness in the multicultural milieu of a higher education institution. The leading approach to research into this problem is the theoretical and methodological approach. The results of the theoretical analysis of tolerance as a social and psychological category are presented in the article. Personal values have been considered which are viewed as internal carriers of social regulation having rooted in the personality structure and they are genetic derivatives from the values of social groups and communities of various sizes. The conclusions have been drawn that tolerance is a complicated and multifaceted phenomenon comprising an attitude to the unification of different points of view for the purpose of attaining concord and which testifies to personal maturity that manifests itself in an orientation to the personal self-realization and preference for constructive strategies of coming out of stressful situations. Fostering tolerance should be viewed as an urgent, important task of forming a full-fledged person, needed and useful for society. Tolerance as a personality quality which is set against stereotypes and authoritarianism is considered to be required for successful adaptation to new intercultural, interreligious, interethnic conditions. Besides, it has been proved that personal values serving as internal carriers of social regulation rooted in the personality structure are genetic derivatives from the values of social groups and communities of a different scale. Selection, adoption and assimilation by an individual of social values are mediated by his social identity and values of small contact groups significant for him which can serve both as a catalyst and a barrier to the adoption of big social groups' values and also universal human values. The materials of the article are of practical value to psychologists-practitioners as well as staffmembers of educational institutions.