Individualisation of Value Consciousness of Ukrainians: Methods of Empirical Measurement And Results of Their Application

Abstract

The article analyses the tendencies of individualization of the value consciousness of the population of Ukraine and the processes of active value shifts in the minds of Ukrainians under the influence of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into the territory of Ukraine. The theoretical foundations of the study of this issue (in particular, Z. Bauman’s theory of individualized society and W. Beck’s concept of individualization) are considered. The conceptualization and operationalization of individualization as a value process are provided, individualized practices characteristic of modern Ukrainians in various spheres of their life, which are precisely value-based, are studied. The author’s own system of indicators of individualization developed on the basis of the World Values Survey tools is proposed, the main of which are such indicators as the value of independence, distrust of people, support for the thesis that income depends on individual efforts and the thesis that supports responsibility for one’s own security. The attention is focused on such sources of sociological information on the process of individualization of value consciousness as the results of the analysis of one-dimensional distributions by individual indicators, the results of the filter construction method, data obtained through the analysis of bivariate distributions and cluster analysis). It is noted that the cluster analysis made it possible to distinguish three groups of Ukrainians with different levels of individualization of value consciousness. It is emphasized that the analysis of the World Values Survey data allows recording only some manifestations of the process of individualization of Ukrainians’ value consciousness, since the questionnaire does not contain the questions that would help to form a more comprehensive view of this process. Possible prospects for further individualization of the value consciousness of Ukrainians are considered. The author formulates a hypothesis that, despite the need to engage in collective practices caused by the current Russian-Ukrainian war, the trends of individualization of the value consciousness of Ukrainian citizens can be further actualized.