Identity Crisis as a Resource for Society Modernisation: Exploring Social Institutions of Russian Society as Perceived by Three Categories of Russians

This research carried out within the framework of psychosocial theory of development focuses on the perception and assessment of basic social institutions of Russian society in representatives of the following three social and age categories: students, middle class, and elderly people. The massive data obtained in the research indicate that there is a deep crisis in psychosocial development of the modern Russian society, which manifests itself not only on the individual, interpersonal and intergroup levels, but also on the level of social structure of the society, the latter being distinctly ambiguous due to the unsolved contradiction between innovative and conservative developmental patterns. However, this identity crisis in the society can possibly create conditions for improving the social system in such a way that it would fulfill the demands of innovative development. Furthermore, the Russian middle class in its present-day form is the foundation of human capital crucial for such evolutionary, yet dynamic improvements.

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