Value and Meaning Attitudes as a Factor of Forming Tolerant Ethnic Consciousness in the Multicultural Milieu of a Higher Education Institution

Abstract

This article is directed to the study of value and meaning attitudes as a factor of forming
students’ tolerant ethnic consciousness in the multicultural milieu of a higher education
institution. The leading approach to research into this problem is the theoretical and
methodological approach. The results of the theoretical analysis of tolerance as a social
and psychological category are presented in the article. Personal values have been
considered which are viewed as internal carriers of social regulation having rooted in
the personality structure and they are genetic derivatives from the values of social
groups and communities of various sizes. The conclusions have been drawn that
tolerance is a complicated and multifaceted phenomenon comprising an attitude to
the unification of different points of view for the purpose of attaining concord and
which testifies to personal maturity that manifests itself in an orientation to the
personal self-realization and preference for constructive strategies of coming out of
stressful situations. Fostering tolerance should be viewed as an urgent, important task
of forming a full-fledged person, needed and useful for society. Tolerance as a
personality quality which is set against stereotypes and authoritarianism is considered
to be required for successful adaptation to new intercultural, interreligious, interethnic
conditions. Besides, it has been proved that personal values serving as internal carriers
of social regulation rooted in the personality structure are genetic derivatives from the
values of social groups and communities of a different scale. Selection, adoption and
assimilation by an individual of social values are mediated by his social identity and
values of small contact groups significant for him which can serve both as a catalyst
and a barrier to the adoption of big social groups’ values and also universal human
values. The materials of the article are of practical value to psychologists-practitioners
as well as staff members of educational institutions.