What is mentality in simple words? Differences from mentality

This article was developed under the heading: Psychology.

Section: Society.

Quite often you can hear the phrase “You are like this because you all have such a mentality.” The peculiarities of mentality are revealed in various works, art, and literature. Many writers write about that very generally accepted mentality of the Russian people. But what does “mentality” mean? Can it affect the human psyche? How does this affect our personality? This is exactly what our article is about today.

Let's look together at what human mentality and mentality are.

What is human mentality

In the scientific literature, the term “mentality” is described in different ways. Some people view this phenomenon as a special worldview. Others define mentality as a concept of the cultural (collective) psyche.

Mentality comes from the Latin word "mens", which means "soul". Mentality is a warehouse of character, ideas, worldview, mental ideas about the world that are characteristic of a particular culture, nation, people.

In this definition, it is important to focus on the fact that the mentality is specific to a people or nationality. What does it mean?

Now there is a large percentage of migration in the world, so countries are mostly multinational. Moreover, at the present stage of history, cultures are mixed, taking on new forms and ideas. Therefore, it is impossible to talk about the original preservation of the “national mentality”. If you look at Russia, you will see how many different nationalities inhabit it. Each such nation or people has its own historical cultural goals and vision of the world. But despite his nationality, a person who has lived in Russia acquires common and characteristic features for all.

Thus, mentality is the characteristics of behavior and outlook on life of a particular nationality or population.

Culturology. Dictionary-reference book

mentality
Mentality (Latin mens - mind, way of thinking, mindset) attitude, worldview, formed at the deep mental level of individual or collective consciousness, arises in the depths of culture, traditions, social institutions, human environment and is a set of psychological and behavioral attitudes individual or social group. a set of specific ways of thinking and feelings, value orientations and attitudes, ideas about the world and oneself, beliefs, opinions, prejudices inherent in an individual or a certain social community. Mentality forms the appropriate cultural picture of the world and largely determines the way of life, human behavior and the form of relationships between people.

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Examples

You've probably already heard about specific examples. But let's look at a few specific and fairly familiar examples to everyone.

Russian

Of course, what the Russian mentality is is different in the perceptions of Russian residents and foreigners. But here’s what can characterize the mentality in Russia:

1. Lack of value for personal boundaries and privacy. This is not only common on social media, where most people try to find out about the personal lives of others. But also in ordinary neighborly relations. For example, neighbors may be annoying, not paying attention to the fact that you may have personal matters. Although, of course, every year this trait becomes less and less characteristic;
2. The desire to isolate yourself from strangers. Although this contradicts the previous point, a Russian person strives to simultaneously learn about others, but at the same time protect himself from prying eyes. An example is high fences on private plots. In Europe and America, fences are generally not common. But in Russia, everyone strives to build a high and dense fence on their site;
3. Broad soul. A Russian man with a truly broad soul. Which is also common in other CIS countries, for example, Belarus;
4. "Sad Russian look." Although this is a kind of joke on the Internet, it really characterizes a Russian person. On the streets everyone is gloomy, sad, everyone is in their own thoughts. And these thoughts are most often negative.

Mentality is, in simple words, how people see the surrounding reality

In Germany

For comparison, let's look at how German residents behave. They, unlike Russian people, respect their own and other people’s space. They are more conservative and secretive in their emotional and spiritual manifestations. The Germans are also more careful.

Natural-geographical factors of influence

The dependence of national characteristics on natural and geographical conditions is called geographical determinism. The natural environment affects the mentality of the people through its influence on the way of life (steppe or forests, cold or hot climate), as well as through images of native nature imprinted in the mentality (for example, the love of freedom of the Mongolian peoples was influenced by the lack of physical boundaries of their territory).

Also, three factors such as geographical location, vastness of territory, and climate are separately identified and explained using the example of a Russian person. The first Russian factor is breadth of soul, the second is hospitality and some melancholy, the third (namely long winters) is contemplation and dreaminess.

Main types

Special models of mentality are also identified, which are referred to as “types of mentality.” Let's take a closer look at these types of mentalities.

Personality mentality

Personal mentality is those value guidelines formed in a person that are characteristic only of him, his family, relatives, as well as people who live nearby. It is formed in the process of life and takes into account the characteristics of life itself. These features include climatic, cultural, geographical and political factors.

Public

Social mentality is the mentality that is characteristic of a particular social group. Here we are talking not only about the national mentality, but also about the professional one, for example.

The public mentality is formed historically. Of course, it is influenced by similar factors and reasons for its formation. Some examples of public mentality can be identified:

1. Teachers' mentality. For example, there are specific standards of conduct for teachers. You have probably noticed more than once how similar all our school teachers are. Sometimes they even say the same phrases;
2. English mentality. It is characteristic of the peoples of England. They are so independent from others that a person living in England can be recognized immediately.

In simple words, mentality as a term has become broader, including various professions and social groups

Levels

National mentality is a two-level phenomenon. The first level is genetic. For example, in the course of numerous studies it was found that the genetic peculiarity of the Russian person is a priority in the thinking of the right hemisphere. This kind of thinking is characterized by creativity and sensuality. It is not for nothing that the Russian language is considered one of the richest and most beautiful languages.

The second level of national mentality is the acquired (or individual) mentality. The learning process, upbringing, personal self-realization, choosing one’s own role, assimilation of culture, self-identification, etc., are all the formation of the second level. Here it is important to take into account the individual psychological characteristics of a person. He can accept the national characteristics of his ethnic group, or, on the contrary, he can develop a critical attitude towards them.

General typology of mentalities

The typology of mentalities differs from the concept of “types” in that these mentalities are characteristic of absolutely all peoples and nationalities. The only difference is in what historical period preceded the formation of this mentality. We can say that this relates by analogy to the historical “formations” through which each state passes. Let's look at these types of mentality and the periods in which they were formed.

Barbaric

As the name suggests, barbarian mentality is characteristic of a wide variety of civilizations. Every civilization known today has lived through this mentality.

Here's what characterizes this type:

1. Praise of physical strength;
2. Lack of self-preservation instinct, fear of death;
3. Religiosity (polytheism);
4. Nomadism.

Feudal

Feudal means the next stage in the formation of human society and the state. It is also called the aristocratic mentality. At this stage, society is stratified into classes. Poorer and richer people appear. Because of this, there is a division of society, which also affects culture, science, education and the development of the individual as a whole. Transition to monotheistic religions. Mental abilities also develop. The so-called aristocracy of society appears.

Bourgeois

Bourgeois replaces feudal and is characterized by the following features:

1. Spread of education;
2. Increasing the value of every human life;
3. The stratification of society continues, it becomes more complex;
4. Openness of society and culture;
5. Development of science and education;
6. People strive for development.

Modern or post-industrial

This is the mentality that characterizes humanity today. Of course, if we do not take into account some countries that are at different stages of state and social development. Today, tolerance, tolerance, acceptance of everyone, community, openness not only of individuals, but also of states as a whole are widespread.

Each state and society went through certain stages in the formation of mentality

Socio-historical factors of influence

The socio-historical factors in the formation of mentality are numerous and varied. Therefore, let’s look at the most frequently mentioned among them. For example, the mixing of different peoples, as a result of which hybrid mentalities appear. Frankly speaking, all currently existing mentalities in society are hybrid, so it is simply impossible to find a genetically pure people. For example, researchers talk about the influence of the Tatar-Mongols on the formation of some Russian traits. For example, after the Tatar invasion, the Russian people developed a tendency towards robbery and rebellion, and disrespect for private property. But, on the other hand, such positive qualities as resilience and the ability to endure the difficult hardships of life have developed. In general, we can distinguish three main mechanisms of influence of interaction between peoples on their mentalities:

• unification of gene pools;
• borrowing cultural practices;
• the formation of national character traits necessary to counter foreign invasions and adapt to their results.

How mentality affects development

The main question is “Does mentality affect us as individuals?” The answer is clear - yes, mentality influences who we are. Here's what contributes to this:

1. Where we grew up, in what family, under what conditions always affects our character, level of psychological health, abilities for social connections and interactions;
2. The level of education indicates how we think and how broadly;
3. Culture. The cultural characteristics of a particular place of residence allow us to say what ideas we have about life.

Thus, mentality is a component of our personality. If a person from Russia was born and raised in a completely different country, a different culture, then most likely he would become a different person.

Religious influences

National mentality is largely the influence of religion. In sociology, it is believed that Islam, Western and Eastern Christianity and Judaism influenced the formation of four major mentalities. For example, for Jews even in our time, the Jewish mentality with special, dogmatically determined and fixed by thousands of years of national tradition attitudes of faith, thinking and will is important. Social and political ideas, values, identity, systems of relationships and characteristic types of behavior largely determine the worldview of the Jewish nation. There is an opinion that religion has been adapted to the mentality. But it was not formed on its basis. Since our society, due to its great diversity, does not have a clear answer to this question, it will remain the subject of long future debates.

How to change your mentality

But can it be changed? For the most part, it is impossible to fundamentally change this. Since we grew up in this psychological environment. What we absorb in childhood remains with a person for life. Of course, if you radically change your place of residence or religion, your views may change. But the original mentality will still be preserved.

It is important to note that in life there are still deviant individuals whose mentality is rather vague. They are weakly influenced by external factors in the form of social beliefs and principles. They attach little importance to it or ignore it altogether. An important role for deviants is played by their subjective understanding of the world.

Target

historian of everyday life - studying people's worldview from the point of view of their own perception. However, a modern historian has to use for this purpose the conceptual apparatus, theoretical schemes and models that have developed by now, and constantly compare the differences in the content of established and only seemingly unchangeable concepts. The constant comparison of the “external” point of view, determined by the modern system of knowledge, with the “internal” point of view inherent in the people of the era under study, creates a situation of a new vision of history, the so-called. “stereoscopic vision” (A.Ya. Gurevich). This allows us to preserve the principle of historicism and avoid transferring modern ideas into the era being studied.

To sources

, reflecting hidden mental structures and complexes of collective ideas (unconscious, unreflected) - can be attributed to “everything created by man and retaining the spiritual essence of its creator” (P. Dinzelbacher). Therefore, almost all types and types of sources, both written and folklore, ethnographic, archaeological, numismatic, etc. may be involved in the research. However, materials of personal origin are of greater importance - wills, diaries, letters, memoirs, autobiographies, works of art that reflect the worldview of their authors. For researchers of mentalities of the recent past, “oral history” (which also formed a separate direction in the 1960s) is of great importance - interviews of all types (narrative, semi-structured, biographical, leitmotif, focused, etc.). “Oral histories” collected by a historian of mentalities, from a collection of facts common in traditional research, are transformed into a new type of empirical material, structured according to themes and chronology of the so-called. "secondary source".

How is it different from mentality?

Often these concepts are confused and used for other purposes. Although in reality they are quite similar.

Mentality

A vision of the world, peculiarities of perception and value systems characteristic of a large group of people. Mentality manifests itself in a specific group of people.

Mentality

It may be characteristic of society as a whole. This is how we perceive our surroundings through emotions. The mentality can be the same for completely different mentalities.

Concept

National mentality is a certain style of life and culture inherent in a particular ethnic group of people, as well as a national system of values, views and worldview of a nation, and general character traits.

Stability, immutability, constancy, conservatism are the characteristic properties of the mentality of a nation. It is difficult to influence it through ideological, administrative, legal or management measures.

Study methods

mentalities are very diverse. Since mentality is “something inexpressible that cannot be written out from the source text and that can only be revealed by the researcher from the opinions and judgments expressed by the author of the text under study” (F. Graus) - the historian is forced to use not only historical, but also many other techniques and methods – psychological, ethnological.

Since ordinary people of the distant past practically did not leave any ego-documents (personal sources - letters, diaries, memoirs), the historian has to analyze the entire range of sources that could reflect their way of thinking and value system. He has to ask the sources who recorded the statements or assessments of these ordinary people the questions that ethnologists working with living respondents usually ask. This method was called “historical-ethnographic”.

The history of mentalities borrowed a number of analytical techniques from semiotics, which developed ways of understanding foreign culture by searching and analyzing symbolic (semiotic) forms - words, images, institutions, actions, through which people in certain circumstances represented themselves and other people. A researcher of mentalities has to interpret the meanings and symbols associated with the objective world and the world of phenomena through the world of reality close to the experience of people of the past - the world of everyday life, ordinary speech, habitual actions (Yu.M. Lotman). Recently, one of the ways of researching the history of mentalities has become the analysis of discursive practices (primarily dominant discourses), which are understood as “practices of speech behavior” (M. Foucault) - that is, methods, rules, logic of discussing something verbally and nonverbally ( language of actions and gestures) by.

Signs of a mental disorder

Human life is filled with unexpected difficulties and negative phenomena that can be difficult to cope with.

It’s good when a person has flexible thinking, is able to adapt to circumstances, without focusing on his suffering due to failures. But often in such situations there are simply not enough internal resources: then homeostasis in the body (what is that?) is disrupted, which is a mental disorder.

Mental illnesses are disorders at the mental level, manifesting themselves in the form of neurotic symptoms (we are talking about initially mentally healthy people).

When a person is faced with force majeure circumstances that he cannot bypass, like water bypassing stones, the following happens: conscious or unconscious disagreement with the situation is resistance. And as we know from physics lessons, any resistance gives rise to tension, which grows every day.

Excessive stress is a large amount of mental energy that requires release.

And she finds it in the form of the following symptoms of mental disorder:

a person feels causeless anxiety - anxiety; he either cries or laughs - his mood changes very often during the day; either you constantly want to sleep, or it is not possible to fall asleep; attacks of aggression are replaced by depression; reactions become inadequate: irritability over trifles, excessive sensitivity, vulnerability; a person may experience a feeling of shame, guilt - reproach himself for his condition, but not know how to change it; mild anxiety, which was initially, takes the form of panic attacks and various phobias (fear of open space, knives, loneliness, etc.); emotional outbursts lead to the body becoming depleted: a feeling of chronic fatigue appears; mental functions suffer - attention, thinking, memory, logic, etc.; gradually the circle of contacts with society narrows (the individual is embarrassed to appear “like this” in public - in case they take him for a crazy person), only family members remain nearby.