What is mentality - the meaning of the word, factors that form the mentality. When is the mentality question raised?

The article provides the concept of mentality, its types, aspects of formation.

In connection with a noticeable increase in the world of migration processes and arising difficulties, you can increasingly hear about the difference in mentality.

What does the concept of mentality mean?

The mentality is a combination of cultural, emotional, spiritual, mental characteristics, a system of values \u200b\u200band moral principles inherent in a particular ethnic group, people or individual. This concept is more often used to describe national features of behavior, culture and moral landmarks of any social group.

The mentality is a multifaceted phenomenon, uniting a conscious and unconscious ability to make decisions and performing actions, features of the formation of mental activity, thinking and emotional reactions, the adoption of new ideas and the preservation of traditional cultural heritage.

• Based on the mentality, a picture of attitude and perception is formed. This is the norm of a person vision around the world around himself and his place in him.
• Separate ethnic groups, nations or nations have their own mentality. Understanding this phenomenon helps to accept the fact that in similar circumstances, representatives of various ethnic groups behave completely differently in accordance with the stable system of spiritual and intellectual values.
• The basis of the individual perception of reality is the genotype, which is formed by a geoistoric, natural and social environment, as well as the personal potential of a person. The personality will be endowed with what features will be endowed with - the manner of behavior, speech, mental abilities, spiritual qualities.

The components of the mentality:

• Uniqueness - thoughts, feelings, ideas, actions inherent in the individual representative of the group, but absent in others.
• Individuality is a combination of some basic features characteristic of society as a whole.

Factors forming mentality

The main factors affecting the formation of mentality include the following:

• natural-geographical
• socio-historical
• religious
• educational

Of course, these aspects cannot be considered separately from each other, since they have a constant mutual influence.

The picture of the understanding of the world affects the system of values \u200b\u200band the life goals of an individual person in the framework of a complex of beliefs inherent in it.

Among the main factors determining the formation of the mentality, the main ones are:

• physico and biological aspects
• social environment
• family education
• the influence of authorities - parents, teachers, coaches
• individual development

External distinctive features of any nationality, for example, the shape of the nose, eyes or color of the hair, do not belong to the national mentality. The mentality is determined by the internal features of an individual and the people as a whole.

The national mentality cannot have only positive or negative features. A worldview that distinguishes this or that nationality is formed throughout the history of its existence. Being essentially conservative, it is always associated with the current development (technological progress, culture, intellectual potential, integration processes). Therefore, worldview can change and enrich.

The mentality of society

The mentality of society can be defined as the level of public consciousness - an unchanging system of life principles. This is a kind of background of worldview, which determines the attitude of a person to all things, phenomena, surrounding society and dictates the nature of action.

The perception of reality in conjunction with consciousness creates a person’s idea of \u200b\u200bthe world on the basis of existing life attitudes.

• The mentality of society is not based on logical principles. It is based on certain images and patterns of behavior in a particular situation with some variety of reactions.
• Thus, it is possible to characterize the significance of cultural and moral heritage, commitment to traditions as the basis of the spiritual formation of personality.
• The mentality of society reflects the collective and individual level of society of society, the ability to preserve and transfer life values, the ability to develop based on the experience of past generations.
• The mentality of society is the laws of behavior adopted in the social environment, a system of views, moral foundations, and decisions templates. For example, love for loved ones, grief of loss, hatred of enemies - such feelings are inherent in all people. But moral and ethical norms of behavior in a stressful situation can be completely different. The acceptability of blood feud is the norm of the worldview of oriental ethnic groups, encouraged by religion and traditions.
• The mentality of one nationality or nation is heterogeneous. In any society, there is a gradation on social status, therefore, within the framework of one state, one can distinguish the mentality of the intellectual and spiritual elite, the mentality of the middle class and the mentality of political (ruling) circles. Each of these social groups plays a role in the formation of the mentality of the nation.

Is it possible to say that there is a “mentality of mankind”? Definitely, this concept is incorrect. The mentality has distinctive features and involves the presence of some significant differences between representatives of different social groups. Perhaps if extraterrestrial forms of reason are discovered, such a definition will acquire a meaning in comparison with the mentality of other civilizations.

When is the mentality question raised?

When in a familiar environment, among people of the same nation, religion and social affiliation, the problem of the difference in mentality practically does not rise.

Features of the mentality of people are most manifested under the influence of stressful factors when there is a “confrontation of goals”.

• Getting into a different situation, for example, when moving to another country or a sharp change in social status, a person almost immediately realizes his isolation from the usual life foundations.
• In such conditions, in addition to a possible language barrier, migrants have problems of perception of a different culture, values, norms of behavior and national traditions. This is especially difficult in cases where the acquired social environment has significant differences from the usual one - in matters of religion, education, lifestyle, and moral restrictions.
• Often a reaction to such a situation becomes a sharply negative attitude towards others - up to aggression and abandoning social contacts.

On the example of an individual, it becomes clear that mental differences are a great danger to the development of human civilization as a whole. The spiritual contradictions of large society threaten to turn into power confrontation. This is exactly what we are observing now in the modern world.

• To prevent collisions on the basis of differences in the mentality, a warning work is necessary to identify crisis points.
• The development of intercultural exchanges, tolerance, respect and adoption of traditions, the rejection of customs unacceptable in modern society, the development of similar systems of education and education of children and youth - these tasks performed at the state level will help humanity maintain peaceful coexistence.

Video: Features of the mentality of different countries