Empirical Analysis of the Psychosemantic Space of Self-Determination

Background. With the current course for development on a national scale, the demand for an active, self-determining personality is growing. In this regard, the issue of self-determination becomes not only a theoretical construct of interdisciplinary discourse, but also represents a very clear practical interest from the standpoint of devising educational practices that ensure the development of subjectivity. Objective. This work aims at carrying out the primary empirical analysis of the psychosemantic space of self-determination. The main objective of the study is to identify and describe the factor structure of the psychosemantic space of perception of self-determination situations. Study Participants. At the stage of testing the semantic differential, 300 students in humanities and science of Tyumen universities participated, including 230 women (76.6%) and 70 men (23.4%). The average age is 24.8 years. Methods. A special version of the semantic differential with 25 unipolar evaluation features was used to assess self-determination situations. Results. Four factors were identified. The first factor includes a set of variables that allow us to characterize the perception of self-determination positively and experience positive emotions and feelings. The second factor includes variables that characterize self-determination situations from the standpoint of situational analysis and rationality. The third factor as a set of variables indicates management of activity content within a given framework. The fourth factor is bipolar, including two variables: indifference and activity. Conclusions. The identified factors can be interpreted within the context of V.A. Ganzen's system description principles. Moreover, the factor structure is comparable with the model of Ch. Osgood. Correlation with these models allows us to characterize the structural and functional aspects of self-determination.