METHODOGICAL PROBLEMS OF STUDYING DEVIANT BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Scientists are faced with the question of human nature and its integrity. However, when analyzing various approaches to understanding and studying the phenomenon of “man”, we cannot say that today there is any universal theory that allows us to build the research itself objectively enough. Our current understanding of human nature and emotions lags far behind modern physical knowledge. Firstly, research aimed at understanding the causes of deviations (defects) is not yet deep enough compared to research in the physical world. Secondly, the evolution of the organization of the human community changes its properties (including the human psyche) faster, especially in the XX–XXI centuries, than scientists, especially psychologists, have time to study such changes. The problem of deviations from the norm, which are increasingly manifested in humans, is becoming a top priority in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and pedagogy. Based on the continuous increase in the number of social deviations around the world, some scientists have developed the idea that the general cause of such deviations is the progress of the human community. Of course, this idea is not new. We can agree that social disorganization is present in social development and has a significant impact on the emergence of deviant behavior, especially in adolescence. However, the very concept of «social change» and its possible impact on the formation of the individual’s psyche remains unexplored. The history of human society is the history of the development of science, technology, culture, art, ethics, and, to a greater extent, the history of human development as a person. Man changes the appearance of the planet, the planet’s ecology, and his mental organization. Over the past two centuries, science has accumulated sufficient material to demonstrate that the quality of such psychological and genetic programs is changing very rapidly from generation to generation.