“GOOD” AND “BAD” PERSON: SPECIFICS OF A CATEGORIZATION OF A PERSON BY ADULT INTERNET USERS

Abstract

Scientific problem and relevance. The novelty and active introduction of digital technologies make psychological studies of the Internet impact on users of different age groups relevant. The study covers adult and senior age groups, whose psychological formation finished during the pre-digital era.
Aim. The paper aims to reveal the specifics of a categorical structure of adult web-users’ consciousness regarding social perception.
Methods. The results of an empirical research carried out in the tradition of the cognitive approach are as follows. The study involved 600 respondents. All the respondents were representatives of the intellectual labor and are from 35 to 60 years. Using an open-ended questionnaire, the respondents were divided into two contrasting groups: “the reading subjects” and “the active Internet users” (n=100 each). Modeling of the categorical structure of the respondents’ consciousness was carried out through the factor analysis. As the incentive material, the assessments of the features of a “good” and “bad” person were used. The leading criterion of the complexity of consciousness is the quantity of the categories that form the concept.
Main results. The main conclusions are that the reading subjects have a more complex cognitive structure in the categorization of a personality. There are two parameters that indicate this complexity: the quantity of the categories that form the concept, and the quantity of the categories with a bipolar internal organization (p=0.05).
Sphere of application. The data can state the rationale of online activity restrictions of adult Internet users.
Conclusion. A simplification of a categorical structure in social cognition among the active Internet users can be a kind of deformation because of Internet impact.