Makarova, I. P. Relation Between Internal Fears and Life-Purpose Orientations of the Youth

Abstract: The author of the article touches upon the issues related to internal fears of young boys and girls during the two age periods: senior school students or ‘early youth’ and ‘late youth’. The author offers a definition of ‘fear’ and describes s a classification of fears given by Yu. Shcherbatykh. The author also views the hypothesis about the possible relation between internal fears and life-purpose orientations of young boys and girls at different stages of their age development. The subject under research is the fear experienced by youth boys and girls of different ages depending on their life-purpose orientation. The author describes the tests she uses in her research. These are: 1) the ‘Questionnaire of the Hierarchic Structure of Current Fears’ offered by Yu. Shcherbatykh and E. Ivleva. The questionnaire allows to define the intensity of different type of fears and the presence of phobias in general. 2) the Test of Life-Purpose Orientations offered by D. Leontiev allowing to analyze life-purpose orientations and values of young boys and girls of the senior school age and late youth. The empiric results obtained by using the Questionnaire were correlated in each group (3 groups of school students and 3 groups of students with different intensity of fear: high level of fear, middle level of fear and low level of fear) with the results of the Test using the Pearson criterion. Based on the research, the author has made particular conclusions proving the research hypothesis and allowing to speak of the dynamics of lifepurpose orientations depending on the intensity of personal fears.

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