Conscious Self-Regulation As A Predictor Of Sociocultural Security Of A Student'S Personalit

Abstract

Correlation analysis is the basis for the presented study of the structure of the relationship between the components of perceived sociocultural security and self-regulation of university students. Sociocultural safety was assessed according to the following scales of the methodology: ethnicity, accessibility of ethnic resources, subjectivity, lateral aggression, and cultural competence of university employees. Conscious self-regulation is evaluated according to the method by V.I. Morosanova. This technique includes the following assessment scales: planning, modeling, programming, evaluating results, flexibility, independence. Mathematical and statistical data processing is carried out using the correlation coefficient of the ranks of Ch.E. It has been proved that the universal predictors of the perception of the sociocultural safety of the university environment for international students are self-regulation skills, for which knowledge of the characteristics of local culture is least necessary. The subjectivity of students is determined by the flexibility of their regulatory processes, the ability to plan, and for international students a proper orientation in their new educational, cultural, and social environment. The growth of organizational skills, mainly such as modeling and evaluation of results, helps to reduce perceived lateral aggression. For local students, the connection between the availability of ethnic resources and the components of sociocultural security comes down to planning and evaluating the results. Students with low accessibility of ethnic resources are pragmatic; they are focused on assessing current and expected results, while students with high availability of ethnic resources are freer to choose action algorithms and less rigidly attached to the expected results.

Keywords: Sociocultural unmenaceself-regulationinternational students

Introduction

Conscious self-regulation is an invariable companion of personality, both in phylogenesis and in ontogenesis, from the moment a person realizes the need to regulate his behavior and condition. In most cases, such conscious self-regulation develops spontaneously and situationally, forming individual and stylistic features of regulatory practice (Morosanova & Kondratyuk, 2017). From scientific knowledge, both systemic and additive approaches require isolating the different components of conscious self-regulation, studying their relationship, and role in shaping the target behavior and result that self-regulation is aimed at (Zinchenko, 2011). So conscious self-regulation only makes sense in the presence of the purpose of the activity, subject, and motive of self-regulation, which are its semantic components.

The ultimate goal and system-forming factor in the interaction of students among themselves, with the administration and university teachers, is successful learning. An essential condition for successful learning is formed cultural competencies, security at the level of interaction with other students (Wilson et al., 2017) and guard, in a broader sense, understood as sociocultural security (Sokolovsky, 2018). The learning environment in this context can be subjectively assessed as bearing some threats or limitations that must be overcome (Molokoedov et al., 2017), and developed copings can help solve academic problems (Gonçalves et al., 2018).

Problem Statement

The modern student environment reflects all the contradictions observed in the contemporary world, such as:

• Globalization and the desire to develop and preserve ethnocultural diversity;

• The need to maintain their own culture and its development,

• The need to uphold regional and ethnic interests.

These trends actualize the need to study the specifics of student self-regulation, taking into account its cultural and ethnic affiliation. It is necessary to apply new methods and approaches to the study of sociocultural and psychological safety and students' adaptation to the new sociocultural environment (De, Wissink, 2013). For solving this problem, two complementary approaches are used:

• The problem-centered approach associated with overcoming specific threats of psychological or sociocultural orientation. In particular, this approach is implemented in the concepts of conscious self-regulation (Morosanova & Fomina, 2018) and vitality (Ungar, 2011).

• A human development-oriented approach for human development is not necessarily a course that takes place in the face of overcoming apparent threats to personal or sociocultural security (UN, 2017).

Both approaches are united by the concept of subjectivity, which is necessary both for successfully overcoming difficulties and for human development itself (Bond, 2019).

Research Questions

The object of the study is the sociocultural safety of students. The article aimed to identify the connection of conscious self-regulation with the perception of the components of the university's sociocultural security.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to determine how the students' regulatory development processes are associated with the perception of the sociocultural safety of the university educational environment and to identify the ethnocultural features of this relationship.

Research Methods

We conducted a correlation study of the effect of conscious self-regulation on the components of sociocultural security of students' personality for four cultural and ethnic groups: representatives of the Arab culture – 72, African culture – 120 representatives, Central Asian culture – 127 representatives and European culture, mainly Russians – 125 representatives.

For the diagnosing of the sociocultural safety of the student's personality, the SKB-27 technique was used. This technique has been developed at the Scientific and Educational Center for Psychological Support of Personal and Professional Development of SKFU. According to this technique, the study is conducted on five scales (Sokolovsky, 2018):

• Ethnicity, or ethnocultural attitude, allowing assessing the subject's adherence to ethnic values α-Kronbach = 0.85)

• The availability of ethnic resources (α-Kronbach = 0.82)

• Subjectivity, as the ability to achieve students' goals both in interaction with other people and acting independently (α-Cronbach = 0.74)

• Lateral interactions, or lateral aggression, characterizes the safety of interaction with other students. In the case of lateral aggression, interaction with approximately equal horizontal horizons is taken into account, while the culturally competent environment scale characterizes vertical interactions (α-Cronbach = 0.74)

• A culturally competent environment characterizes the interaction of students with university employees based on the business culture of communication between university employees (α-Kronbach = 0.82)

To diagnose conscious self-regulation, we used the questionnaire Style of self-regulation of behavior, which allows evaluating the general level of self-regulation and its components using six subscales (Morosanova & Bondarenko, 2015).

Mathematical and statistical data processing was carried out using the rank correlation coefficient.

Findings

The cultural specificity of the relationship between the scales of conscious self-regulation and sociocultural security is revealed (Table 1 ).

The development of long-term planning ability and flexibility are universal predictors of the perception of the educational environment of a university as safe by both Russian and international students. At the same time, the sociocultural security of the university is ensured by the whole spectrum of sociocultural security components for European (local) cultural affiliation students. However, this range of components does not include "independence." Apparently, for international students coping is not related to knowledge of local cultural characteristics, that is, long-term planning and flexibility. At the same time, it is sufficient to carry out short-term planning (programming activities), mentally simulate possible learning and social situations. However, it is difficult to assess possible results for international students due to poor orientation in the new socio-cultural conditions. This circumstance causes a difference in the structure of relations for local and international students.

The structure of the relationships component of socio-cultural security with the scales of conscious self-regulation of the Style of self-regulation of behavior is analyzed.

The planning ability is the ethnocultural identity formation predictor for each ethnocultural group (Table 2 ). A lesser relationship between planning and the ethnocultural identity of African students (r = 0.17; p <0.1) can be caused by more radical acculturation stress. This stress can be caused by studying at Russian universities, due to the more significant differences in cultures, as well as demographic reasons. For example, in Angola, the average age of the population is about 18 years, and long-term planning may be less ethnocultural.

For the scale of “accessibility of ethnic resources,” statistically significant relationships are revealed only for representatives of European culture, mainly Russians (Table 3 ), which may be due to the objective greater availability of ethnic resources for local students.

The availability of ethnic resources is part of the availability of resources as such. It is enough for local students to have a clear plan (planning) and evaluate the result (assessment of results) to obtain resources.

At the same time, for mixed samples of foreigners (representatives of other ethnocultural), the availability of ethnic resources does not depend on the development of regulatory processes in them.

For Arab girls, despite a small sample (5 girls for 67 Arab boys), a statistically significant relationship was found with a general level of self-regulation (r = 0.90) and the availability of ethnic resources. This circumstance may be connected with the significant role of the conscious self-regulation of Arab girls in obtaining the precious opportunity to study at a university as such and to access any resources, not only ethnic ones.

For Central Asian youths, the availability of ethnic resources is negatively related to the assessment of results (r = –0.22; p = 0.03). Therefore, students with a low level of resource availability can compensate for the lack of resources with a more pragmatic approach to assessing tasks and possible results.

Subjectivity is a system-forming factor in the successful formation of the personality of a professional. For all ethnocultural groups studied, subjectivity expectedly depends on the of the student's general self-regulation level (Banshchikova et al., 2017). For a mixed sample, a positive relationship of subjectivity with all components of conscious self-regulation was obtained. At the same time, cultural and ethnic specificity is also observed (Table 4 ).

The only universal predictor of subjectivity was such an indicator of self-regulation as flexibility (significant positive correlations for all samples). The data indicate the social nature of subjectivity, the importance of promoting one's ideas and achieving one's own goals in the context of interaction with other subjects of the educational environment.

Both planning and programming are positively related to subjectivity for most samples, which is conceptually justified. It is essential to think about an action plan in the future to achieve students' goals (subjectivity).

The differences are that "planning" in the implementation of subjectivity falls out almost completely for the Russian sample (r = 0.04), and programming for the Central Asian (r = 0.08). This data means that in the implementation of their subjectivity, Russian students hardly think in the long term - they get a higher education, and then it will be seen. Moreover, in Russian girls this is manifested to a greater extent (r = –0.09) than in boys (r = 0.14).

Central Asian students with developed subjectivity, on the contrary, clearly imagine their long-term plans, and soon they prefer to act according to the situation.

Modeling as a process of a comprehensive analysis of the situation does not help international students in the implementation of subjectivity and works well for the Russian sample (Table 5 ). This data means that most international students are not sufficiently adapted to the educational environment of the university. This situation is associated with template thinking. International students cannot understand the specifics of interaction with subjects of the educational process, as well as many significant aspects in achieving their own educational goals. This circumstance testifies to the importance of work on adapting international students individually to the educational process of a Russian university and everyday Russian reality.

Evaluation of results is an indicator not related to the subjectivity of Arab and Central Asian students. In practice, subjectivity in their minds is focused on the process of interaction with other people. For them achieving a result is not so much important. Moreover, in this process, they feel entirely independent.

Particularly noteworthy is the assessment of the correlation of the scales of "independence" of the SSMP methodology and "subjectivity." For two closely related concepts, the correlation was surprisingly low, except for a sample of Arab students. A substantive analysis showed that "independence" is "the development of regulatory autonomy," that is, the desire and ability to act independently of others. In contrast to independence, "subjectivity" is the ability to achieve goals, including those with a developed social component.

The significant positive relationship between "subjectivity" and "independence" for Arab students shows that many of them prefer to achieve their goals "independently," that is, relatively independently of other people, which potentially narrows the scope of their educational initiatives.

The mutual influence of these two variables from revealing the cause-effect patterns of the relationship between lateral aggression and conscious self-regulation seems quite probable. Nevertheless, the development of the components of conscious self-regulation may well be a predictor of possible manifestations of lateral aggression.

The specifics of the perception of lateral aggression in the educational process is essential for the study. Students in a situation of intercultural communication often find a distorted perception of the actions of representatives of another culture. In many cases, one can talk more about perceived lateral aggression than about real one.

At the same time, analysis of conflict situations and their consequences reduces the likelihood of their occurrence. This pattern is fully reflected in the relationship between the scale of "lateral aggression" and the scales of conscious self-regulation "modeling" and "assessment of results." Moreover, the development of the "modeling" skill, that is, the actual analysis of situations, is more effective for foreign students since it helps to understand interaction with representatives of another culture better.

It is noteworthy that for Africans, the evaluation of the results (possible consequences of the conflict) will not play such a restraining role in lateral aggression as for representatives of other cultures. In addition to a comprehensive analysis of the situation (modeling), the development of regulatory flexibility (r = –0.28 and r = –0.25, Table 5 ) is more suitable for them, as for representatives of Central Asia.

The tendency of Arab students to independence, as an ethnic component of their self-esteem, maybe inadequately perceived by representatives of other cultures and lead to conflict situations (r = 0.27, Table 5 ). Furthermore, vice versa, it cannot be ruled out that perceived lateral aggression can actualize the ability of Arab students to independently plan activities and behavior, organize work to achieve an advanced goal, and monitor its progress.

The contribution of conscious self-regulation to the students' perception of the cultural competence of university employees is insignificant (Table 6 ). Nevertheless, students with more developed self-regulation more positively perceive the cultural component of the employees' activities (r = 0.17 for a mixed sample). This tendency is manifested to a greater extent for students inclined to plan and programming (r = 0.12). More likely to evaluate the results of Arab students, many of whom have experience in studying in foreign universities, in general, are more critical of the actions of university employees.

For a more tolerant perception by students from Central Asia of the actions of university employees, step-by-step instruction is required. This need is evidenced by the positive relationship between the "programming" and the perception of the university employees' cultural competence.

Conclusion

An empirical analysis of the role of conscious self-regulation as a predictor of the sociocultural safety of a student's personality allows coming to the following conclusions:

• Universal predictors of the university's educational environment as safe, for international students, are the development of regulatory planning ability and regulatory flexibility.

• The connection between the ethnic resources availability and the components of sociocultural security is ethnoculturally determined. For representatives of European, mainly Russian, culture, it is positive and comes down to planning and evaluating the results. Students with low availability of ethnic resources are pragmatic, focused on assessing current and expected results, while students with high availability of ethnic resources are freer to choose action algorithms and less rigidly attached to expected results.

• The students' subjectivity is determined by the flexibility of their regulatory processes, their ability to plan in the short and long term, and for international students as well as a proper orientation in their new educational, cultural, and social environment.

• Initially, students don’t not want to be involved in any situations of lateral aggression. Therefore, the relationship between the scales "planning" and "lateral aggression" was not revealed. The growth of managerial abilities, mainly such as modeling and evaluation of results, helps to reduce lateral aggression, which allows recommending preventive work in the form of a comprehensive analysis of possible conflict situations and their consequences.

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Russian Federal Property Fund, project No. 18-013-00832, "The Impact of Acculturation Attitudes on the Socio-Cultural Safety of Students."

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