mentality of different nations. Sketches along the way

Since the end of the 80s of the XX century, the concepts of mentality, mentality have become quite widespread in domestic scientific and journalistic literature, the media, and have become an integral part of the vocabulary of the modern Russian language. It should be noted that practically none of the scientists distinguished between the concepts of mentality and mentality, using such words from Western European languages ​​as mentality (English), mentalete (French), mentalitat (German). A similar situation is observed in modern domestic and foreign humanities.

The concept of mentality, which has rapidly entered everyday and scientific speech, gravitates towards various branches of the humanities. At the same time, in the literature one can find the use of synonyms for the categories of mentality and mentality (which is quite acceptable given the insufficient philosophical and methodological development of the problem).

“Mentality is a system of views, tasks and their solutions, implicit attitudes, value orientations, conclusions, behavioral patterns, which is entrenched in the public mind, in cultural stereotypes; mentality is what distinguishes some communities from others.

In the dictionary of the Russian language S.I. Ozhegova and N.Yu. The Swedish mentality is assessed as the concept of "bookish" and is defined as "comprehension of the world, primarily with the help of images, colored with emotional and value orientations, closely related to traditions, mood, feeling" . Thus, it is not so much about the systemic nature of the mentality, but rather about a certain set of various phenomena of spiritual life included in this concept.

The term mentality is defined quite peculiarly in English dictionaries. So, for example, the well-known Webster dictionary defines mentality as mental capacity, that is, as mental ability, or as mental power, as mental strength, power, as mental outlook, that is, a mental look, mental perspective, which can also be understood as a worldview. The meaning of this term is also given as a state of mind - a state of mind.

We find a similar definition in S.G. Ter-Minasova: “the concept of mentality includes a mindset, attitude, worldview, psychology. In other words, mentality is the mental and spiritual mood of both an individual and society as a whole. Mentality - (degree of) intellectual power; mind, disposition, character (mentality - the level of intellectual capabilities, mindset, mood, character) ".

We list the properties of the mentality that we have identified from various sources:

1. Mentality includes thinking.

2. Mentality means something in common that underlies the conscious and unconscious, logical and emotional, i.e. a deep and therefore difficult to fix source of thinking, ideology and faith, feelings and emotions.

3. One of the sides of the mentality are the norms of behavior.

Mentality is not a fashionable concept, but a scientific category that reflects a certain phenomenon rooted in the depths of folk life. In an effort to clarify the concept, many authors use very ambiguous or even metaphorical descriptions, referring them either to mentality or to mentality.

It should be noted that with all the diversity and variety of definitions of what mentality is and what it is not, the following remark has not lost its relevance: when they want to explain something inexplicable, as if hovering in the air, but objectively existing, they say: “This is our mentality"; when they don’t want to explain something, they also find an excuse in the mentality.

As for the unambiguous interpretation of the concept, for each field of knowledge it opens up a new, invisible facet. Indeed, even the question of the priority of introducing the term mentality into scientific circulation turns out to be problematic. The literature does not reveal a clear distinction between the concepts of mentality and mentality. It's just that some authors use the first concept, others - the second. So, postulating the difference between concepts, we define what mentality and mentality are.

It is known from the history of science that the concept of mentality was proposed by Levy-Bruhl, who used it to describe the special thinking of savages. Lucien Febvre and Mark Blok, borrowing this concept from Levy-Bruhl, applied it to refer to the general frame of mind, mindset, collective psychology, mental tools, psychological equipment of people belonging to the same culture, members of the same society. The common mentality enables them to perceive and realize their natural and social environment and themselves in their own way.

This approach allows us to give a very broad interpretation of the category of mentality and use it to denote any more or less stable set of ideas about the world. However, it is precisely the picture of the world, which includes ideas about the individual and his attitude to society, about freedom, equality, honor, good and evil, about law and labor, about family and sexual relations, about the course of history and the value of time, about the relationship between new and old, about death and the soul (the picture of the world is in principle inexhaustible), it is this picture of the world, inherited from previous generations and certainly changing in the process of social practice, that underlies human behavior.

In a certain sense, the category of mentality can be identified with the category of subconscious spirituality. Acting as the core of the semantic sphere of the individual, the mentality is at the same time "a system of interconnected universals embedded in the foundation of culture, which are forms of storage and transmission of fundamental ideas about the world and the social experience of life in this world" .

By mentality, we also understand "the historically established long-term intelligible unity of the most stable ideas, stereotypes and archetypes, manifested at the conscious and unconscious levels in the form of a special way of thinking, attitude and worldview, and having axiological, emotional and behavioral embodiment" .

The elements that make up the mentality exist not just in their heterogeneity, but merge into a kind of spiritual alloy. “The mentality embodies the common that underlies the conscious and unconscious, rational and emotional, social and individual, thinking and behavior, faith and lifestyle. The mentality is manifested in positions, value orientations, worldview and behavioral stereotypes, historical traditions, the image and way of life of people, in language.

On the one hand, the mentality determines our preferences (behavioral, value, normative), on the other hand, it acts as the basis for repelling a person from everything that is alien to him, the basis for rejecting certain standards of behavior, ideas. It can be said that the mentality is a kind of vertical section of our spiritual and spiritual world, the study of which is the search for an answer to the question “why am I like this?”.

In Russian reference publications of recent years on the socio-political sciences, there is no scientific definition of the concept of mentality. Meanwhile, this word is becoming more and more widespread, actively gaining its place in sociology, political science, social anthropology, journalism and computer science, that is, it is used in various areas of human knowledge. In some cases, the concept of mentality is used, in others mentality.

The difference between these terms, according to some authors, is that the mentality has a universal human meaning, and the mentality can refer to different social spheres and historical times.

The philosophical way of interpretation predetermines mentality not only as "a type of device of consciousness, worldview, understanding, as a way of worldview", but also as "rationally practical capacity, resulting in cultural phenomena" .

The philosophically significant essence of the mentality is manifested in its deep content as a way of thinking, cognition, understanding, on the basis of which a certain socio-cultural creative activity is built.

The definition of mentality from the standpoint of historical psychology is as follows: "mentality is the totality of all the characteristics that distinguish the mind, the way of thinking of one person from another." According to the followers of this trend, the image or style of thinking of different nations is not the same. Each nation has its own ideas about the individual and his attitude to society, about freedom, about equality, honor, good and evil, about the course of history, etc.

The sociocultural approach interprets the mentality as "a set of ideas, views, feelings of community of people of a certain era, geographical area and social environment that influence historical and sociocultural processes" . In other words, mentality is a certain cumulative characteristic of people living in a separate culture, which allows us to describe the originality of these people's vision of the world around us and explain the specifics of their response to it.

In modern Russian theoretical studies of mentality problems, there are quite interesting paradoxes. So, for example, having devoted a whole section of a textbook on cultural studies to “mentality as a type of culture”, P.S. Gurevich does not even try to consider in detail the meaning of this concept, making only some references to other researchers. As a result of this approach, the very problem of mentality as a type of culture remains virtually undisclosed.

One of the most important aspects of the term mentality is “the designation of a certain quality of the mind, the characteristics of actively manifested thinking” . It is the intense differences in the ability to think, understand and express one's understanding that are inherent in mentality as a characteristic of human thinking and activity.

From special studies centered on the mentality, we note the work of V.V. Kolesov "Language and mentality" (2004), which offers the following interpretation of the concept of mentality: "mentality in its features is a naively holistic picture of the world in its value orientations, existing for a long time, regardless of specific economic and political conditions, based on ethnic predispositions and historical traditions; the mentality is manifested in the feeling, mind and will of each individual member of society on the basis of a common language and upbringing and is part of the folk spiritual culture that creates the ethno-mental space of the people in the given territory of its existence.

A specialist in the field of cultural linguistics A.K. Mikhalskaya, considers the terms mentality, mentality and soul of the people as synonyms and believes that their meaning is “the way of thinking of an individual or a social group, their inherent spirituality, mindset, worldview” .

For the ethnologist A.P. Sadokhin's mentality seems to be also identical to the national character (the soul of the people), and also to the mental make-up of the ethnic group. At the same time, the mentality for him is also "a relatively integral set of thoughts, beliefs that created a picture of the world and fasten the unity of a cultural tradition or any community" .

Let us turn to the concept of national mentality. The national mentality is usually understood as “a way of thinking, a psychological mindset, peculiarities of thinking”, as well as “a historically established, stable specific form of manifestation and functioning of social consciousness in the life of a certain national community of people” . Since an essential element of the national mentality is the reflection of the real conditions of life, the practice of communication with other nations, the level of use of their social, moral and intellectual experience, it is clear that the concept of mentality intersects and mixes with such concepts as national psychology and national character.

Being developed historically and genetically, the mentality forms that spiritual and behavioral specificity that makes the representatives of one people different from the representatives of other peoples, and because of this it becomes an important factor in the self-identification of a particular community.

The mentality of the people always bears the stamp of the national, being associated with such concepts as national consciousness, national character, national spirit, etc. It is an expression of the specifics of national identity. A full acquaintance with any culture involves not only the study of the material components of this culture, not only knowledge of its historical, geographical and economic determinants, but also an attempt to penetrate into the way of thinking of the nation, an attempt to look at the world through the eyes of native speakers of this culture. The national mentality declares itself in habits, customs, passed down from generation to generation, in the norms of behavior.

The mentality is determined by the national, cultural, civilizational, geographical and socio-political characteristics of people's life and activities. Therefore, its study obliges to take into account the influence of environmental conditions, life, climate, traditions and other circumstances on people's behavior.

According to E. Husserl, “no matter how hostile the European nations are towards each other, they still have an inner kinship of spirit that permeates them and overcomes national differences” .

The common brings peoples together, allows you to see and understand the uniqueness of culture, traditions, predetermines a respectful attitude towards the state and its people.

Human culture, social behavior and thinking, as you know, are not able to exist without language and outside of language. Thinking and mental reactions contain both evaluative relations embedded in them and the semantic orientations of activity corresponding to them.

“The mentality is hidden in behavior, assessments, manner of thinking and speaking. It cannot be learned and faked, it can only be “absorbed” along with the language that contains the worldview and codes of a given culture.

Being a means of human communication and therefore social and national in nature, the language cannot but bear the imprint of the worldview, ethical and cultural values, as well as the norms of behavior characteristic of a given linguistic community. Each national culture is the result of the manifested activity of the national mentality, since the national culture does not exist outside the national mentality. All this is reflected in the vocabulary of the language, which is discussed a lot and often. The mentality we understand is part of folk culture.

Since the features of the mentality include features of the national character, a certain ethnic model of the surrounding reality, attitude and worldview, the specific behavior of representatives of the studied linguocultural community, that is why we use such a category as national character to reveal the spiritual structure of society. S. M. Arutyunyan defines it as “a peculiar national flavor of feelings and emotions, ways of thinking and actions, stable and national features of habits and traditions, formed under the influence of the conditions of material life, the features of the historical development of a given nation and manifested in the specifics of its national culture” . A fairly common opinion is about the national character, according to which it is not a set of specific, peculiar features inherent only to a given people, but a peculiar set of universal universal human features. At the level of everyday consciousness, the existence of a national character in every people is beyond doubt, it is, as it were, an axiom. Especially often this thought arises during a stay, even the shortest one, in a foreign ethnic environment. It strengthens the conviction that the people of this community are in many respects very different from ours: this is evidenced by the features of their life and way of life, sometimes even the appearance of people, their behavior, etc. The national character turns out to be, as it were, the key to explaining the life of the people, and even his stories.

“When it comes to the Russian national character, the first and immediate association is the soul, which is usually accompanied by a constant epithet: enigmatic. The Russian soul seems mysterious to foreigners, who talk and write a lot about it - sometimes with admiration, sometimes with mockery. The Russian word soul is much more common than the English word soul and plays a huge role in the spiritual life of the Russian people. For the Russian people, whose national system of values ​​in the first place is spirituality, the soul, most importantly, the core concept that prevails over reason, mind, common sense. The English-speaking world, on the contrary, put His Majesty Common Sense as the basis of its existence.

Thus, speaking about the mentality of a particular nation, people, we touch upon a complex, multi-layered set of mechanisms and methods of action that are closely related to the centuries-old culture of the people, its acquired and fixed ways of responding to changes in the outside world that determine the behavior of the nation.

In general, the concept of mentality includes the following substantive components:

way of life as a relatively independent system of the main forms of life of a person, social group, society, associated with the national way of life, style, rituals, way of life, etc.;

the spiritual foundations of folk life, taken in a broad historical framework (origins in the form of historical memory, historical heritage as a spiritual and moral potential, manifested in historical identification);

national psychology (national character).

We come to the following conclusions: firstly, the mentality is a holistic picture of the world in its value orientations, existing for a long time, regardless of specific economic and political conditions, based on ethnic predispositions and historical traditions; the mentality is manifested in the feeling, mind and will of each individual member of society on the basis of a common language and upbringing and is part of the folk spiritual culture that creates the ethno-mental space of the people in the given territory of its existence; secondly, the national mentality is a way of thinking, a psychological mindset, features of thinking; thirdly, the national mentality is inextricably linked with the national character, which is understood not only as a set of specific, unique features inherent only to a given people, but also as a peculiar set of universal universal human features.

mentality- a stable set of mental, intellectual, emotional and cultural characteristics inherent in a certain ethnic group, nation, nationality.

The mentality plays one of the key roles in shaping the worldview, worldview of a person.

mentality- unconsciously and automatically adopted attitudes, collective ideas, values ​​contained in the mind, motives and behavior patterns, stereotypes of reactions, common to the era and the social group as a whole and underlying rationally constructed and reflected forms of social consciousness.

The mentality is included in the structure of the individual psyche of a person in the process of his familiarization with a given culture and social environment. The process begins in early childhood with the acquisition of the national language, the adaptation of everyday and social conditions of life.

The mentality reflects a peculiar way of thinking that has developed among people throughout history as part of the social phenomenon of sociocultural reality.

Mental attitudes are usually perceived by a person as something unquestionable and natural, and he does not realize why he thinks and acts this way and not otherwise.

Another, much more fundamental constant that determines the thinking, character and worldview of a person is his innate vector set, which does not depend on belonging to one or another ethno-cultural environment.

Formation of mentality

The mentality is formed over generations, and it is advisable to consider its device as consisting of a stable structure - the "core" and a more variable "periphery".

The core is formed under the influence of the geo-environment, landscape and climate.

The more variable structures of the periphery include language, traditions, religions, upbringing, and way of life.

Geopolitical factors can also have a great influence on the formation of the mental prerequisites of the people.

In an effort to survive and come into a balanced state with the environment, the selection of certain vector properties and abilities that are most in demand for the survival and adaptation of people in given environmental conditions occurs naturally.

All the features, abilities and talents of a person are laid down and, in the course of development, manifest themselves in accordance with his vector set. Accordingly, mentalities are made up of the values ​​of those vectors that largely determine the survival of this social group in the landscape.

Types of mentality

In total there are four types of mentalities formed in certain natural conditions. Examples include the skin mentality in Western Europe and the United States, the anal mentality in Arab countries, the muscular mentality in Southeast Asia, and the unique dual urethral-muscular mentality in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Features of the place of development and the territorial distribution of mentalities are closely related to natural factors. The skin mentality is formed in territories with favorable climatic and geographical conditions for survival. Anal - in the mountains, muscular - in the forests, urethral - in the steppes.

The formation of mentality should be considered in a historical perspective.

The habitat of an ethnos at the present time is often very different from the territories on which this ethnos was formed and its mental characteristics. The habitats of the ethnic group change historically. Thus, the Russian ethnos, which inhabited the territories of the western and southern parts of the East European Plain, is characterized by almost continuous expansion.

Skin mentality

A striking example of the skin mentality are the countries of Western Europe. The climate of these territories is mild and favorable for agriculture, which contributes to high yields. The European landscape is rich in a variety of surface forms, the territories are limited by winding coastlines. The landscape persistently imposes on the people inhabiting these territories a sense of boundary, limit, precise certainty, distinctness and the every minute, ubiquitous presence of man with impressive signs of his hard and long work.

The favorable climate and high yield stimulate the invention of new technologies for harvesting. Surplus crops form in a person the instinct of a private owner, and also need protection from plunder. The skin mentality tends to regulate relations with the help of general laws, which are based on the postulate “mine is mine, yours is yours”. Equal law for all acts as a protector and guarantor of the safety of private property, and its implementation is controlled by the relevant bodies for the protection of public order. Income tax is charged as payment for protection.

Today, the national character of a European tends to live according to rules and laws that provide clear legal and personal freedoms. The value is to live in abundance, prosperity and comfort. Skin mentality is striving to build a consumer society. The undeniable significance of the unique human life and the highest value of the interests of the individual person are included in the structure of the skin mentality.

anal mentality

The mountain environment is specific in that the people living in it were actually deprived of the opportunity to change the landscape around them. As a result, the peoples inhabiting these territories were naturally at a lower stage of technological development and were more dependent on the natural environment. Often mountains are a serious obstacle to the penetration of other peoples through them and innovations along with them. Therefore, the bearers of the mountain mentality are inherently conservative in relation to any kind of socio-cultural innovations.

The local population is, as a rule, a small, scattered group of peoples. There are very few habitable territories in the mountains, which forced the proud mountaineers to be in constant readiness to repulse the invaders. For the same reason, mountaineers tend to feel a strong attachment to their land and "their" people. The conditions of isolation and isolation, in which the mountain peoples were formed, were the reason for their hostility to everything alien and intolerance, both to undesirable neighbors and to their culture.

The process of self-identification among mountaineers occurs “by blood”: mountaineers attach exceptional importance to family ties, treat parents and elders with great respect.

Conservatism, adherence to traditions, the value of the family, the feeling of consanguinity - these are the values ​​of an exclusively anal vector.

muscle mentality

Muscular mentality develops mainly in the forests. It includes the values ​​of the muscle vector: physical strength, endurance, diligence and the ability to endure the difficulties that determine survival in the harsh conditions of the wilderness of the forest.

For example, in Russia, the basis for survival was the land liberated from the forest. Slash-and-burn agriculture of forest areas required hard work and a large number of workers and was beyond the power of one peasant family. There was practically no surplus crop, so market relations developed extremely slowly (there was nothing to trade). Primitive farming in the forests and harsh climatic conditions made it very difficult to run an individual economy, forcing the peasants to gather in communities, and contributed to the formation of collectivist principles.

The community principle of survival is the basic association of a group of people based on the basic needs of the body - to eat, drink, breathe, sleep. Thus, people live in poverty, starving, but in the extreme cohesion necessary for survival.

A muscular person gets satisfaction from long hard physical labor and by nature has no ambitions and special claims beyond providing basic desires (eat, drink, breathe, sleep). In the muscle vector there is no feeling of being a separate unit from everyone, i.e. there is no feeling of separateness of one's "I" to the extent that it exists in other vectors. Instead of "I" there is a feeling of being part of a collective "we".

Urethral mentality

The urethral mentality is formed among the steppe, nomadic peoples. Particularly relevant in this context is the geographical zone of the Great Eurasian Steppe, located in the climatic zone of temperate latitudes. This is the only continuous strip of grassy deserts and steppes in the world, convenient for nomadic pastoralists.

Tatars, Mongols, Huns, Scythians, Polovtsy can serve as an example of peoples with a urethral mental superstructure.

The steppe is a special landscape, boundless, wide, divided lands. The steppe for a person symbolizes the will and freedom not limited by any prohibitions. However, it is also a dangerous space full of nomadic thugs and thieves. They say about the steppe: to feel the vastness of the steppe, you need to ride on it on a frisky horse.

Mental urethral values ​​are also reflected in their complementary image of an ideal horseman-warrior, fearless, light and fast, courageous, desperately brave in battle. Among the nomadic peoples, the cult of the rider was widespread, which in turn was associated with the cults of the horse, sun, fire and sky. The military history of the equestrian nomadic peoples is notable for the greatest political and military results. These are people of the greatest military prowess, conquerors.

In the New World, a nomadic culture in the exact sense of the word could not be created due to the absence of horses there before the arrival of Europeans. Horses were brought to America in the 16th century, to Australia in the 18th century.

The urethral leader is a bunch of energy, the owner of hot blood and a four-dimensional libido. The urethra is a manifestation of animal altruism in nature. He is a tactician who ensures the expansion of living space through the development of new lands and horizons. He is passion and fire.

Each nation is unique and unrepeatable. And isn't this one of the reasons why we love to travel so much? We like to get new experience ourselves, to see everything with our own eyes, and not just read on the Internet or a magazine. And each country has its own mentality and national character. Quite often we hear these two phrases, but few people know how they differ in essence. Let's figure it out together.

General concept of mentality

In a general sense, mentality is a combination of various features (mental, emotional, cultural, as well as value orientations and attitudes) that characterize a particular group, nation, people or nationality. This term appears in history, but at the moment other sciences also use it, for example, such as psychology and sociology.

The totality of views, assessments, values, norms of behavior and morality, mentality, religious affiliation, etc. - all this is the characteristics of a particular group of people. Mentality is a collective trait, not an individual one.

concept

National mentality is a certain style of life and culture inherent in a particular ethnic group of people, as well as a national system of values, views and worldview of the nation, common character traits.

Stability, immutability, constancy, conservatism - these are the characteristic features of the mentality of the nation. It is difficult to influence it with the help of ideological, administrative, legal or managerial measures.

Levels

The national mentality is a two-level phenomenon. The first level is genetic. For example, in the course of numerous studies, it was found that the genetic feature of a Russian person is a priority in the thinking of the right hemisphere. Such thinking is characterized by creativity, sensuality. No wonder the Russian language is considered one of the richest and most beautiful languages.

The second level of the national mentality is the acquired (or individual) mentality. The process of learning, upbringing, self-realization of the individual, the choice of one's own role, assimilation, etc. - this is all the formation of the second level. It is important to take into account the individual psychological characteristics of a person. He can accept the national characteristics of his ethnic group, or, on the contrary, develop a critical attitude towards them.

Mentality and national character - identical concepts?

Quite often, these two phenomena are equated with each other. But this is wrong, since there are certain differences between them. First of all, the mentality is associated with mental abilities, forces and potential, as well as worldview. There is no place for emotions here.

The national character, in turn, includes a certain color of feelings and emotions, the way of life of a particular ethnic group, features of the perception of the world, motives for actions and moral norms. The difference between national mentality and national character may not seem obvious at first, but it exists.

Let's see in practice

There is no such person who would not have a stereotyped opinion about any nation. The Germans are cheerful and kind, the British are modest and stiff, the Americans are open and patriotic.

The Russian national mentality also has its own specific features:

1. Thanks to the period of the USSR for the public and collectivity of the Russian people. The general often prevails over the personal. Everyone has come across the fact that the grandmother near the entrance considers it important to tell how you are dressed and what she thinks of you, although no one asked her about it. But, on the other hand, caring for others is expressed in pleasant little things, for example, you will always be warned that there is a traffic police patrol further down the road.
2. Feelings prevail over reason. Russian people often help a friend without thinking about their own benefit, but simply act from the heart. Greed and selfishness in a general sense are not inherent
3. personal negativity. A large number of Russian people notice more shortcomings in themselves than virtues. Our people do not always react calmly if someone accidentally steps on their feet (we are talking about cases when the perpetrator apologized). On the street, people rarely smile at each other and just don’t talk like that.
4. Smiling is not considered a sign of politeness. If a Westerner smiles at you, it does not always mean that he likes you. You can be as nasty as possible to him, but he will smile, as it is polite. Russian people smile sincerely and only to those who are truly pleasant to them. A polite smile, on the contrary, causes rejection.
5. Disputes are our everything. Russian people are very fond of arguing on a variety of issues, from cars and canned food to politics and philosophy. At the same time, this form of communication finds its place not because, but as a result of lively and very emotional communication.
6. Russian people believe too strongly in goodness. Also common among people is the idea that the state is the main thing. It can give, or it can take. And from this follows the following national features.
7. The principle of "live and not stick out." Democracy is a young phenomenon for Russia, so many people are not yet used to the fact that they can really change something in the state in which they live.
8. Tolerance for theft and deceit. Often, due to the kindness of a Russian person, small local violations are forgiven, but it is precisely because of such forgiveness that large offenses appear that are already scandalous throughout the country.
9. Freebie and love for her. There is no need to say much here. Our Russian people love what they get simply and for free.
10. Dual attitudes towards health. A Russian person often does not take care of himself, does not go to the hospital until he is absolutely impatient, but he can help the disabled and care for the sick. It's easy to go to work unhealthy. Pity also occupies a large place in the Russian mentality - we feel sorry for dogs, cats, children, old people. But at the same time, we do not feel sorry for middle-aged people who can also find themselves in difficult life situations.

How are things abroad?

The national mentality is insanely interesting. Learning about other nations and their special features, one involuntarily wonders how it is possible to live like this, because some moments can be completely contrary to your own convictions.

The British, for example, have their own national mentality. Examples: They are very heavy on their feet and have a great respect for privacy. It is even elevated into a kind of cult. The British know how to control themselves, coldly polite and proud. Joy happens or grief, equanimity will be reflected on the face. The British do not like ostentation, they prefer comfort and order. However, they are very friendly and always ready to help. Another British trait is the ability to allocate one's own resource to work, family, friends and oneself. What is the national mentality of the British in addition to the above? Vanity is something that cannot be taken away from them. This is how it has historically developed, and nothing can be done about it. They believe that the best is in the UK.

Several groups of factors influence the formation of the national mentality. Let's consider each of them in more detail.

Natural and geographical factors of influence

The dependence of national characteristics on natural and geographical conditions is called geographical determinism. The natural environment affects the mentality of the people through its influence on (steppe or forests, cold or hot climate), as well as through images of native nature, imprinted in the mentality (for example, the love of freedom of the Mongolian peoples developed under the influence of the lack of physical boundaries of their territory).

Also, three factors such as geographical location, vastness of territory, and climate are separately identified and explained using the example of a Russian person. The first factor of the Russian is the breadth of the soul, the second is hospitality and some melancholy, the third (namely, long winters) is contemplation and daydreaming.

Religious influences

The national mentality is largely the influence of religion. In sociology, Islam, Western and Eastern Christianity and Judaism are considered to have influenced the formation of four major mentalities. For example, for Jews in our time, the Jewish mentality is important with special, dogmatically determined and fixed for thousands of years of national tradition, the attitudes of faith, thinking and will. Social and political ideas, values, identity, system of relations and a characteristic type of behavior largely determine the worldview of the Jewish nation. There is an opinion that religion was adapted to the mentality. And he did not develop on its basis. Since in our society, due to its great diversity, there is no clear answer to this question, it will remain the subject of long future disputes.

Socio-historical factors of influence

Socio-historical factors in the formation of mentality are numerous and varied. Therefore, consider the most frequently mentioned among them. For example, a mixture of different peoples, as a result of which hybrid mentalities appear. To be frank, all currently existing mentalities in society are hybrid, so it is simply impossible to find a genetically pure people. For example, researchers talk about the influence of the Tatar-Mongols on the formation of some Russian traits. For example, after the Tatar invasion, the Russian people developed a tendency to robbery and rebellion, disrespect for private property. But, on the other hand, such positive qualities as fortitude, the ability to endure the difficult hardships of life, have developed. In general, there are three main mechanisms for the influence of interaction between peoples on their mentalities:

• pooling of gene pools;
• borrowing cultural practices;
• the formation of national character traits necessary to counteract foreign invasions and adapt to their results.

Language as a manifestation of the nation

Language and national mentality are not in vain connected with each other. The content of the surrounding world is expressed through the quantitative meaning of words in the language, and the thinking of the people is expressed through the grammatical structure. The emotionality of speech, the predominance of nouns or verbs, the frequent use of expression enhancers - all this developed historically. Different languages ​​have a different composition of grammatical categories, which has undergone a long historical selection. Grammatical - static and little subject to changes in its structure. It has been created over centuries and millennia, and simply cannot but reflect the national mentality.

Conclusion

The national mentality is inherent in every ethnic group. Distinctive features, characters of people, traditions and customs, language - all this creates the uniqueness and self-expression of each people. In the course of the worldwide processes of globalization and integration, cultural exchange is increasingly taking place. And it is very important not to lose ethnic value and self-identification in its course. Because the main wealth of our world is its numerous peoples. And the wealth of the people is the experience of their ancestors, accumulated traditions, customs and history.

The most important concepts in connection with the analysis collective language personality at the nation level are mentality, national spirit, national character, concept sphere, language picture of the world, type (archetype) and stereotype . Modern researchers are trying to define the Humboldtian concept of the national spirit through the terms "collective memory", "mentality", "picture of the world", "linguoculture".

Collective memory , imprinted in the language and spiritual culture, acts as a means of storing and accumulating information, requiring the maintenance of sign systems, a certain method of ordering, organizing information according to its value and content. Collective memory correlates with the concept of "shared knowledge", on the basis of which new content is built in the process of communication - a product of joint creativity of communicants.

It is necessary to distinguish between national mentality and national character. Distinction of the national mentality from national character is as follows: the mentality is associated mainly with the logical, conceptual, cognitive activity of consciousness, and the national character - with the emotional and psychological sphere. national character - these are the established emotional and psychological norms of human behavior in society. In other words, national character – These are psychological stereotypes of people's behavior.

Mentality is understood as a way of thinking, a psychological mindset, features of thinking, and much more. But, given that mentality is a concept that characterizes not only the nation as a whole - various social groups of people also have a specific mentality, we can say that mentality is a specific way of perceiving and understanding reality, determined by a set of cognitive stereotypes of consciousness characteristic of a particular group of people.

The main feature of the concept of "mentality" is its belonging to a particular social or cultural group. Thus, it initially has the potential to be opposed to the mentality of another group. The parameters of opposition can be cognitive and mental schemes and models, images and value orientations.

You can talk about the mentality of the individual, group and people (ethnos). The mentality of a particular person is determined by the national, group mentality, as well as factors of a person's personal development - his individual education, culture, experience of perception and interpretation of reality. These are personal mental mechanisms of perception and understanding of reality.

Group mentality is the peculiarities of the perception of reality by certain social, age, professional, gender groups of people. It is well known that the same facts of reality, the same events can be perceived and interpreted differently in different groups of people. Thus, it is known that the players of the losing team tend to attribute the defeat to the influence of objective factors (bad field, biased refereeing, etc.), while observers tend to explain the defeat by subjective factors (did not show the will, did not try, lacked speed, etc.). ). There is a children's, male, female "logic". There is a national mentality - a national way of perceiving and understanding reality, determined by a set of cognitive stereotypes of the nation. Different national mentality can perceive the same subject situations differently. The national mentality, as it were, makes a person see one thing and not notice the other.

The Russian mentality, for example, invariably fixes the submissiveness of Asian women and does not notice the increased activity of their own, while Asians primarily fix the activity and even aggressiveness of Russian women, not noticing the submissiveness and passivity of their own.

Understanding the perceived is also largely determined by the mentality. For example, an American at the sight of a wealthy person thinks: “rich means smart.” The Russian, in this case, usually thinks “rich means a thief.” The concept of "new" is perceived by an American as "improved, better", by a Russian - as "unverified". Russian students understand the teacher's repeated explanation of the same material as a desire to achieve a better understanding of this material by them, to help the student, and the Finns often think of such a teacher: "He considers us for fools."

The mentality is mainly associated with the evaluative sphere, the value aspect of consciousness. He evaluates what is perceived as good or bad, as being of value, in line with values ​​or not in line with them. For example, the concept White crow is assessed negatively by the Russian mentality, since there is a value - conciliarity, collectivism.

The national mentality is a national way of perceiving and understanding reality on the basis of stereotypes present in the national consciousness, ready-made thoughts, schemes for explaining phenomena and events, and causal attribution mechanisms. These are stereotypes thinking. Following G. Malecke, S. Dahl singles out the following factors influencing the paradigm of thinking: logic of thinking; development of inductive and deductive, abstract and concrete thinking. There is an opinion that Western thinking, built on Aristotelian logic, is analytical, linear, rational, while Eastern cultures are characterized by holistic, associative, affective logic. In Western thinking, the inductive principle prevails, and in the Eastern, the deductive principle. Although Dahl notes the similar ability of Russians and Americans to think in the abstract, Americans tend to be more concrete forms of thinking than Russians.

Social, physical and communicative behavior is determined by the mentality. Moreover, the national mentality directs the dynamics of the formation and development of concepts. A number of studies confirm that there is a close relationship between mentality and language.

An individual linguistic personality is realized at the level idiolect, which is a "personal" linguistic system of a particular communicant, with variations at the phonological, grammatical and lexical levels. Each idiolect is as unique as an individual's fingerprints. His character is influenced by many factors: gender, age, social status, place of residence, psychotype, physiological characteristics, etc., which together form what is called individuality.

Idiolect differences are manifested in the subtlest nuances of pronunciation and intonation, specific to a given individual, selection of lexical means, syntax features, etc. Even minimal units (sounds, letters and numbers) can acquire individual symbolic meanings and associations. So, for example, Kafka admitted that he finds the letter To "offensive, even nauseating", despite the fact that this is "his" letter.

Due to cultural differences, the idiolectal "mosaic" differs from one culture to another. The complex interweaving of the collective and the individual in language and speech causes additional difficulties in MI. The fact is that it is often difficult to determine what in the communicative behavior of an individual belongs to him personally, and what is a reflection of the national-specific features of the entire linguistic community. As a result, when communicating with representatives of different cultures, idiolect personality traits can be generalized and erroneously elevated to the rank of nationally specific ones. This is precisely what stereotyping mechanism . On the other hand, national-cultural behavioral traits can be ignored on the grounds that a representative of another culture does not identify them as generalized, but considers them to be inherent only to a particular individual.

The word mentality comes from the French Mentalité, which means the direction of thoughts. The formation of certain mental features depends on the living conditions of the society, which determine both its general priorities in thinking and common values.

Word mentality comes from french Mentalite, what does it mean in translation direction of thought. It can also be said that this is a collective way of thinking of some communities of people (not necessarily peoples) and their group features derived from this thinking: cultural, social, worldview, domestic and others.

There are different theories of the origin of mentalities, but the idea of ​​the determining influence of climate and other natural conditions on their formation is still generally accepted. What actually imposes differences on the mentality of different peoples?

The system-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan, having the ability to accurately differentiate various properties and manifestations of the human psyche, introduces its own amendments into these theories.

Indeed, the formation of certain mental features depends on the living conditions of the society, which determine both its general priorities in thinking and common values. It is around these values ​​that the natural unification of large groups of people takes place, which then takes the form of a people, a state.

Interesting in this regard are the attempts of some governments to artificially form a state from people of different mental values. As we understand systematically, such attempts are always doomed to failure. And it's understandable why. It is impossible for a long time to unite large masses of people under the banner of life guidelines that are not characteristic of them. Such a formation will not be viable, because the glue that holds it does not penetrate deep into the psyche of each individual unit in this association. Such gluing is superficial and breaks at the first blow.

System-vector psychology shows that the unification of people at the level of ethnic groups, peoples, states occurs on the basis of properties that form the basis of the human psyche and come from our additional desires. Additional desires form eight groups, which are called vectors in system-vector psychology. Basic desires (eat, drink, breathe, sleep), the task of surviving at all costs and continuing in time, plus additional desires (each vector has its own) - this is the human psyche, his life. In addition, for us, by and large, there is nothing and, relying on this, we interact with each other at all levels: in a couple, group, society. Proceeding from the same properties of the mental, ethnic groups, states, the mentality of different nationalities are formed.

• The vectors are divided into upper and lower.
• Upper: sight, sound, orality, smell.
• Lower: urethra, anus, muscularity, skin.

In the context of mentalities, we are primarily interested in the lower vectors. The four lower vectors correspond to the four "output" erogenous zones - these are, and vectors. This is libido, life, survival, the components of which are divided into two quadrels: the space quarter is the preservation masses and forms living matter, survival at the moment (hunters and miners in the primitive savannah, skin and muscle people), and a quarter of time - the continuation of living matter in future(leader of the pack) and conservation of the past experience (teacher) - urethral and anal people.

People are not born without lower vectors, because such a person would not be viable. Any property, desire in the upper vectors draws strength for its development and realization below. A large social organism is not capable of long-term preservation of its integrity if it does not unite around one of these “lower” groups of desires, properties (and hence values, priorities), and does not form common neural connections based on it. Thus, we are dealing with four kinds of mentalities: urethral, ​​anal, skin and muscular.

• The muscular mentality provides an increase in "mass", a large increase in population (China).

• Anal mentality, focused on the preservation of the traditional way of life (Arab countries).

• Skin mentality, focused on accelerated innovative development, building a consumer society (Western countries).

• Urethral mentality focused on ensuring the future, a breakthrough into the unknown (Russia and partly the post-Soviet space).

In a single mentality, other value systems can develop, which are only an addition to the main ones. For example, the value systems of the anal vector complementary to it (decency, respect for traditions, history) manifest themselves more often. Skin value systems are alien to us, we despise them, because the urethral vector is counter to the skin one (the best example is our attitude towards greed, which in the West is called "reasonable economy"). In the Western skin mentality, until recently, anal value systems were weak, but still present, but with the lightning-fast development of the consumer society, they are a thing of the past.

On the basis of different mentalities, social institutions created by one or another society acquire different development and direction. top vectors. So, for example, on the basis of the urethral mentality, an elite visual culture and sound spirituality develop. On the basis of the skin mentality, olfactory finances and a standardized mass culture flourish.

In addition, in system-vector psychology there is a concept "mental superstructure". Being born in a given country with a given mentality, a person, no matter what vector set he is, absorbs the values ​​of the society in which he lives. This is called the mental superstructure.

For example, any person born in Russia has a urethral mental superstructure. The famous breadth of the Russian soul, generosity and hope for a fair trial and the father of the tsar - all this is in the blood of a Russian person.

From the great Genghis Xana to the mysterious Russian soul:

There are many more details that complete this picture, but in any case, the understanding of certain mental features of different social formations is based on a primary understanding of eight vectors and an understanding of the patterns of their interaction with each other at different levels (person, couple, group, society). Based on this understanding, a completely new understanding of the geopolitical picture of the world and the main trends in the development of mankind is being built.

You can learn more about vectors, their essence and influence on a person at the free online lectures on system-vector psychology by Yuri Burlan.