Analysis Of The Psychosemantics Of Information Environment Among Representatives Of Different Age And Sex Groups
Abstract
The article on the basis of empirical material discusses the features of psychosemantics of information and cultural environment (periodic press, Internet, television, radio, advertising, books, magazines, banners, showcase, etc.) in the consciousness of representatives of different age and sexual groups. The study of the information and cultural environment allows us to determine what internal semantic space (system of meanings) is formed by the recipients in relation to this environment, and what motivating effect it has on them. The semantic differential "SDIKS", created earlier in the course of studies of addictive personality, was used as the main tool. As a result of data analysis, the authors come to the following conclusions. It is common for representatives of all groups, both men and women, that the information environment encourages idleness and consumption, is perceived as manipulating consciousness and creating permanent psychological tension and conflicts of various modalities. Men are characterized by rational evaluation of the information environment and passive, weak emotional involvement in it. Women are characterized by a more emotional assessment of the information and cultural environment, which is appear as more criminal for women, more misanthropic, calling for enrichment, systematically influences on the female consciousness and more affecting the female emotional-affective sphere. The smaller the age and the more uncertain the social status of the recipients, the more ambivalent and emotional the attitude is manifested in the perception of the information and cultural environment.
Keywords: Semantic spaceinformation environmentsocio-cultural environment
Introduction
As we have previously noted (Smirnov, 2014) in psychology, the information-cultural environment is understood as a set of random and purposeful effects on human consciousness, which is created by various information channels of information transmission. It is postulated that, plunging into the cultural-information environment, a person learns and forms a system of acceptance and understanding of the surrounding reality and attitude to it (Vasyagina, 2013). There are internal and external contexts of this system. The inner context can be defined as a context defined and dependent on Man’s individuality – a unique set of all the properties of a person as an individual and personality. The system of subject, social, sociocultural, space-temporal and other characteristics of the environment in which a person exists is considered as an external context (Vasyagina, 2013). At all levels of mental reflection, the internal and external contexts in their interaction perform the meaning-forming function of all human activity and, on the basis of the principle of unity of consciousness and activity, determine its behavior and activity (Nizovskikh, 2005; Serkin, 2008; Smirnov, 2014).
If we consider, that the subject of psychosemantics is the modeling of meanings systems as structures of representation of experience in consciousness (Maksimova, Valieva, Ruzhenceva, & Valiev, 2018; Serkin, 2004), the information-cultural environment can act as such a semantic space. As a result, the study of the information-cultural environment, allows us to determine what internal semantic space (system of meanings) is formed by the recipients in relation to this environment, and what motivating effect it has on them.
The concept of "Sense" acts generic to the concept of "Meaning". This is due to the fact that the relationship of man to the objects of the world, the deep structure of subjective experience presented to him, exactly, in the form of semantic relations. Each person evaluates the meaning of stimuli on the basis of their own individual subjective experience – determines the "meaning for themselves" – it is closer to the concept of "Sense". For group studies, by contrast, is made of the group description of the stimuli with the subsequent statistical selection of the generalized characteristics of the intersubjective evaluation of the stimulus - it is closer to the concept of "value". Thus, the concept of "Sense" is used in studies of individual subjective experience, and the concept of "Meaning" in group assessmentsю Since this paper presents the results of group studies (representatives of groups divided by age and gender), we operate with the concept of "Meaning". It is understood as a unit having denotative, operational and affective-motivational content, which allows to consider meaning as a unit of psychological analysis, able to regulate activity and behavior in accordance with certain goals and motives (Serkin, 2008).
Problem Statement
Determination of the modality of the influence of cultural and information environment on the orientation and social inclusion of the individual.
Research Questions
What are the content and structure of psychosemantic space of modern information-cultural environment in men and women representing different age groups -"Adolescent", "Early maturity" and "Maturity". There is or not the content uniformity of perception of cultural – information environment and the development of the corresponding semantic space in representatives of all groups are found.
Purpose of the Study
The first goal was to determine the psychosemantics (system of meanings) of modern information-cultural environment of the representatives of three age groups, divided according to the criterion of age on the basis of age periodization of Erickson (1996), "Adolescence" (17-20 years); "Early maturity" (21-25 years); "Maturity" and modelling system of meanings as a structure of representation of the experience in their minds. The second objective was to check the differences between men and women within each age group.
Background the third objective was to determine what prompting could have semantic stimulus, objectivating the needs, creating a dominant motive. Discovery of human "Mirror Neuron System" (Chernigovskaya, 2006; Gallese, Keysers, & Rizzolatti, 2004; Iacoboni et al., 2005; Rizzolatti, Fogassi, & Gallese, 2001) and the mechanisms of their work makes this even more obvious.
Research Methods
Selection of Participants and tool
The total number of participants in the study was 473 people, 247 of them women and 226 men aged 17 to 50 years, belonging to different social and professional strata.
The semantic differential "SDIKS" (Smirvov, 2012), created earlier in the course of studies of addictive individuality (Smirnov, 2014) was used as the main tool. As a result of selection several groups of test-subjects were formed. The group "Adolescent" consisted of 201 people aged 17-20 years, including 100 men and 101 women. The group "Early maturity" consisted of 153 people aged 21-25 years, 60 men and 93 women. The group of "Maturity" amounted to 119 people aged 26-50 years, of which 66 male and 53 female.
The semantic space of the information and cultural environment in the representatives of each group divided by the criterion of sex and age was determined by the method of quantile-percentile sorting and their cluster analysis, the differences were determined by the Mann-Whitney criterion, clustering was carried out by the methods of "Chebyshev distance" with the rotation of data Ward’s method, the interposition coefficient of variables within the selected clusters was determined by the R-Spearman criterion.
Content of the experiment
All participants of the study were offered to fill semantic differential - to choose the characteristics of the information-cultural environment that surrounds them in various forms (periodic press, Internet, television, radio, advertising, books, magazines, banners, showcases, etc.) and to assess degree of manifestation of these characteristics on a 7-point scale (Smirnov, 2012).
Stages of statistical processing material
Checking the normality of the distribution of primary data in each group, including groups separated on the criterion of sex, showed a lack of normality of distribution, which led to, in the future, the use of nonparametric statistical criteria. A test of sex differences in each age group showed that there were differences in each of the three main groups. Determination of the semantic space of the information-cultural environment in the representatives of each group, divided by the criterion of sex and age by the method of quantile-percentile sorting and their cluster analysis.
The differences were determined by the Mann-Whitney criterion. Clustering was performed with the use of the "Chebyshev distance" with the rotation of the data by Ward’s method. The interpositional coefficient of variables within the specify clusters was determined by the R - Spearman criterion.
Findings
Sex criterion differences within each age group
Checking the differences between men and women within each of the growth groups-"Adolescent", "Early maturity" and "Maturity" – showed that in the group "Adolescent" men perceive the information environment more negative (U=1017, Z=2.53, p<0.01), more annoying (U=1108.5, Z=1.37, p<0.05) and at the same time more humanistic (U=1033.5, Z=2.48, p<0.01), than women. That is, in the perception of the information environment by men there is a contradiction – the environment is perceived ambivalently – negatively and positively at the same time - causes conflicting and strong emotions.
In the group "Early maturity" the perception of the information environment by men is more unambiguous, but also not devoid of emotional coloring. So men, compared to women in their age group, perceive the environment as more negative (U=2234, Z=2.08, p<0.04), more pessimistic (U=2259, Z=2.74, p<0.006), more criminal (U=2078, Z=2.65, p<0.007), and to a greater extent causing fears (U=2056, Z=2.74, p<0.007), more agitating (U=2219, Z=2.14, p<0.04).
In the group of "Maturity" there are different regularities. First, the differences apply to women here. They are more likely than men to consider the broadcast information intrusive (U=229, Z=2.44, p<0.02) and accessible (U=193, Z=3.02, p<0.02). Secondly, in fact, their estimates are devoid of emotional coloring, are more rationality.
Thus, there is a regularity in the perception of the information environment – the smaller the age and uncertain social status, the more ambivalent and more emotional attitude is manifested in the perception of the information environment. The greater the age and stronger the social status, the more certainty, unambiguity and less emotionality is manifested in the perception of the information environment.
Semantic spaces of information-cultural environment in representatives of each group, divided by sex and age
In each age group "Adolescent", "Early maturity" and "Maturity" in men and women, the most differentiating semantic universalies were determined separately by the method of quantile-percentile rotation (Serkin V.P.). Then, they were subjected to clustering using methods that allow to detect internally consistent structure (“Chebyshev distance”, Ward clustering method) (see table.
Boys have the first cluster (see table.
Girls have the first cluster (see table.
Both boys and girls have the second cluster (see table.
In any case, the selected cluster structure contains conflict, promotes external and internal disorientation, facilitates the manipulation of consciousness of boys and girls through information channels, increases the dependence of the internal picture of the world and behavior on external information incentives. The structure also reflects the cultivation of hedonism and idleness, leading the younger generation from productive socially useful activities, contributing to social passivity and the formation of their consumer - parasitic lifestyle.
In men in the group "Early maturity" was allocated one cluster (see table.
Girls have the first cluster (see table.
The second cluster describes the intensity and regularity of informational influence on the mind. There is a direct impact of information on girls ' perception of reality and the inability to protect themselves from this impact. In addition, the cluster indicates that the information environment causes and supports their constant psychological stress and is a source of constant internal conflicts of different modalities.
If we take into account that these are women of childbearing age, the age of family creation, the tensions generated by the environment clearly do not contribute to either the creation of a family or the birth of children.
In men from the group "Maturity" singled out one cluster (see table.
Women from the group "Maturity" have two clusters (see table.
The second cluster reflects the hidden misanthropic content of the information environment, or rather, its perception by women as clearly misanthropic. For example, as quite reliable facts or artistic subjects supplied information about crime, scandals, Scam, fraud, disasters, accidents, terrorist acts and military actions, abandoned children, loss of population, the "werewolves in epaulets" and "the good Robbers – Robin Hoods", the corruptors and traitors and other such information, which is associated in consciousness with the so-called "human factor". A stable associative chain is formed in which all the negative things happening in the surrounding reality are connected with the human being and society, thereby directing to social opposition, individualism, social self-isolation (O’Donnell, Carter, Goodmon, & Smith, & Parisi, 2018). In addition, the variables of the second cluster indicate the process of devaluation in women of the group "Maturity" of the old-time norms and values and the adoption of new ones. What was banned and condemned yesterday is now allowed, recognized as a social norm and promoted as a norm. This mismatch of external information influence and religious in fact the traditional system of values is undoubtedly the cause of the conflict. The permanence of these conflicts and the accompanying psychological stress leads to psychological instability, suggestibility, to the formating of an external locus of control.
As an additional procedure of analysis, the search for quantitative differences in the variables that formed all the cluster structures in the representatives of all the considered age groups, compared with each other, including the criterion of sex, was carried out.
In men, the differences were found only between the representatives of the groups "Maturity" and "Early maturity", representatives of the group "Early maturity" perceive the information-cultural environment as more Intrusive compared to the representatives of the group "Maturity" (U=1565, Z=2.03, p<0.04). No other differences were found among men.
In women, differences were found only between the representatives of the groups "Early adulthood" and "Adolescent". Representatives of the group "Early maturity" perceive the information and cultural environment as more agitating (U=3677, Z=2.86, p<0.004), more ubiquitous (U=3451, Z=3.18, p<0.001). No other differences were found among women.
Thus, with the exception of some meaningfully insignificant differences, we can talk about the substantial uniformity of the perception of cultural-information environment and the development of the corresponding semantic space. It is common for representatives of all groups under observation, for both men and women, is an inducement to idleness and consumption, the manipulation of consciousness and the creation of a permanent psychological tension and conflict of various modalities. Men are characterized by rational evaluation of the information environment and passive, weak emotional involvement in it. For women, it acts as a more criminal, more misanthropic, calling for enrichment (Sama, 2019), systematically affecting the female consciousness and more affecting the female emotional sphere
Conclusion
The study allowed to determine the content and structure of psychosemantic space of modern information-cultural environment in men and women representing different age groups -"Adolescent", "Early maturity" and "Maturity".
The content uniformity of perception of cultural – information environment and the development of the corresponding semantic space in representatives of all groups are found.
It is common for representatives of all the groups under consideration, both men and women, that the information environment encourages idleness and consumption, is perceived as manipulating consciousness and creating permanent psychological tensions and conflicts of different modalities.
Men are characterized by rational evaluation of the information environment and passive, weak emotional involvement in it.
Women are characterized by a more emotional assessment of the information and cultural environment, which is more criminal for women, more misanthropic, calling for enrichment, systematically affecting the female consciousness and more touching the female emotional and affective sphere.
In the perception of the information environment can be traced and socio-age patterns.
The smaller the age and the more uncertain the social status of the recipients, the more ambivalent and emotional the attitude is manifested in the perception of the information and cultural environment.
Acknowledgments
All Ours Colleagues and Investigation Participants.
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14 July 2019
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Maksimova*, L. A., Smirnov, A. V., & Vasyagina, N. N. (2019). Analysis Of The Psychosemantics Of Information Environment Among Representatives Of Different Age And Sex Groups. In T. Martsinkovskaya, & V. R. Orestova (Eds.), Psychology of Subculture: Phenomenology and Contemporary Tendencies of Development, vol 64. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 334-342). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.07.43