COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON FEATURES OF SOCIAL IDENTITY AMONG DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF STUDENTS OF HIGHER INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

This article investigates the characteristics of meaningful social identity of an individual in terms of higher education; reveals its structure and analyzes the functional blocks which are basic, personal and professional one. The research explains that various functional blocks of social identity are activated at different levels and forms of education according to the age characteristics of students. The full-time students demonstrate activating of the basic block; the students of correspondence courses and PhD-students demonstrate activating of professional and personal ones. The author specifies the dominant professional types of the students trained in higher institutions. The research is significant due to applying of the research results in politics, education, business and management. In particular, they can be applied in social and psychological forecasting, development of psychotherapeutic practice, increasing effectiveness of training professionals in new social-economic conditions. The data represented can be applied in the educational process, as they supplement and specify the sections of social, educational and aged psychology.