Scientific journal The Pedagogical Process: Theory and Practice

Kochubeynyk O. PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTENT OF ANOMY: QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

Kochubeynyk Olga, Doctor Degree in Psychology, Senior Researcher of the Laboratory of Psychology of Political and Legal relations, Institute of Social and Political Psychology, NAPS Ukraine, 15 Andriivska Str., 04070 Kyiv, Ukraine, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

https://doi.org/10.28925/2078-1687.2017.1.714

Abstract

Anomie, as defined by sociologists, refers to a state of society characterized by deregulation and erosion of moral values. The author reviews the most important definitions and conceptualizations of anomie. It was French sociologist Emile Durkheim who began to explore anomie in the academic work, when he tackles the issue of social disorder and the changing context within European societies. E. Durkheim was primarily concerned with the coherence and integrity of modern societies and societies in transition. He proposes that anomie is a condition in which the coherence and integrity of society are at risk. Durkheim posits that anomie takes place when the moral standards and regulation of society break down. Since Durkheim’s time, slightly different conceptualizations of anomie have been proposed. For instance, the American sociologist Robert Merton adopts elements of Durkheim’s theory of anomie but focuses solely on the discrepancy between culturally important social values and the legitimate means an individual has at their disposal for achieving those social values and aspirations. It was in the twentieth century that a systematic theoretical analysis of anomie was developed. Anomie is mainly expressed in the alienation of individuals and groups, their non-involvement in the processes taking place in a society; it is also characterized by the abandonment of the sense of solidarity, which in turn leads to the destruction of cultural and ethical foundations of a society, loss of moral values, and marginalization of its members. As a result of such variability in the definition and conceptualization of anomie, the literature has arguably become rather complex and there are now multiple definitions and accounts of why and when anomie arises, and how people respond to it.

The main idea of the present article is bringing the concept of anomie under a psychological spotlight. The author analyses the conditions under which, anomie arises in Ukrainian society and develops a model outlining various responses of person to anomie. The author proposed four key dimensions that can describe a person's response to a social anomie, namely: 1) a high level of cynicism and moral relativism, 2) a person's inability to build long-term plans and achieve long-term goals, which correlates with the lack of a clear life strategy; 3) a sense of helplessness, derived from a person's inability to influence social life; 4) the gap between the desires and needs of individuals and socially acceptable resources to achieve them.

Keywords:  alienation;  helplessness;  meaninglessness;  powerlessness;  scale of anomie.

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