Ideological basis
The ideological basis of USArch is the Jungianism or the analytical psychology as one of the psychodynamical directions of psychology. Its founder was the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung, who asserted that, in addition to the personal unconscious, there exists the collective unconscious, which contains the experience of the development of the whole humanity. The basis of the collective unconscious is the archetype (or a form without the own content, a reflection) that “organizes” and “guides” the psychical processes. The archetype can be compared with a dry bed or a river relief, which directs the psychical processes. It manifests itself in the form of a symbol: in the images of heroes, myths, folklore, rites, traditions, etc. There are a lot of archetypes, because it is the generalized experience of our ancestors. The principal archetypes are as follows: the archetype of myself (“I”); the archetype of mother as a composite image of woman; and the archetype of father, which defines the general attitude to a person.
C. G. Jung distinguishes between an archetype and a symbol. In particular, he considered that the archetype of the unconscious manifests itself in symbols, but each specific symbol cannot completely reflect an archetype. However, the more exact the reflection of the unconscious “organized” near the archetype, the stronger the emotionally loaded reaction of an individual to the archetype. In Jung’s opinion, in addition to symbols of the personal unconscious, there exist symbols that reflect the collective unconscious (cross, David’s hexagonal star, Buddhist “life wheel,” etc).
Applied orientation
The applied directedness of USArch is defined by the conclusions of the French psychologist S. Moscovici, which were formulated by the Russian psychologist A. Brushlinskii in his foreword to Moscovici’s book “La Machine a Faire des Dieux” (1988) (Russian edition – 1998). In particular, A. Brushlinskii emphasized that: 1) the psychical and the social cannot be separated, 2) the psychical (belief, adherence, etc.) underlies the social (public structures, product, institutions, etc.) more frequently than it is commonly accepted, and, therefore, sociology is based on psychology.
Instrumental potentialities
Instrumental potentialities of USArch are mainly ensured by three original psychodiagnostic methods.
First – the projective method of “Color preferences” (author: E. Afonin (1987)) is a test, which makes diagnostics of the general talent of a person and his/her individual-psychological properties. A version adapted to the mass polls is used for the determination of the culture code and for the monitoring of the dynamics of general system changes in Ukraine, Russia, and Byelorussia.
Second – personal inventory “BAD” (authors: L. Burlachuk, E. Afonin, O. Donchenko, 2000-2002) ensures the diagnostics of 6 psychosocial characteristics:
- 1) extraversion-introversion;
- 2) irrationality-rationality;
- 3) intuitiveness-sensority;
- 4) emotionality-pragmatism;
- 5) externality-internality (locus control);
- 6) executiveness-intentionality (gender).
It is an analog of the well-known method MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBTI). Two versions of the inventory are available: the extended (56 questions) one – for the social-psychological diagnostics of a person and the short (18 questions) version adapted to the mass polls.
In the system of monitoring studies of the Ukrainian school of archetypics (since 1992 till now), the BAD method supports the monitoring of the processes of identification in Ukraine (2002- ), Russia (2010), and Byelorussia (2010).
Third – method “Professionals of public administration” (author: E. Afonin (1987-2014)) ensures the diagnostics of a level of formation of the special skills of representatives of the sphere “Public administration.”