Features of Youth Period: Age and Social Historical Context

The paper illuminates psychological features of the period of youth in various social historical contexts. It compares the individual youth experiences of two different eras: 1925—1927 and 2011—2012. The study employed the autobiographical notes method, an open-ended questionnaire for identifying retrospective youth experiences that was used by M.M. Rubinstein in his sample in 1925—1927. The total number of participants equaled 129 subjects, 67 women and 62 men, with the average age of 22 years. The outcomes of the study revealed both similar characteristics in the two samples (such as increased interest in one's own inner life; reflection; longing for independence; protest against adults; need for affiliation; romantic aspirations, and oth- ers) and differing ones, because interests, aspirations, experiences, displays of personality, and role models have changed indeed. While the most essential features of the youth period remain constant regardless of historical time and social contexts, there is a certain qualitative aspect of the revealed features that reflects the changes in the "cultural content of the environment".

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