No 4 (2013)

The article discusses the methodological question traditional for the humanities and social sciences (and, above all, sociology), namely, the question about their world view status, functions and aims. According to the author, ‘sociological enlightenment’ provides a chance to justify the purport of scientific research on the theory and history of sociology (research that is culturally significant beyond the narrow professional frames of sociology). The most important component of this ‘enlightenment’ is the demonstration of ‘heuristic resources’ of classical and modern theoretical sociology as a means of scientific explanation and conceptualization of social problems at a level comprehensible to non-academic audiences.

The article identifies the possibilities and the necessity to analyze the nonverbal reactions in the focus groups studies. The authors analyze the key nonverbal expressions of the respondents in the focus group research, the possibilities of their interpretation, as well as the problems of their identification and evaluation. Thus, the authors focus on the group dynamics and gestures as specific features of the focus groups.

The national security of Russia is a priority sphere of social studies, with the problem of studying the mechanisms of counteracting the outside threats as the most urgent one. On the basis of the analysis of the existing ideas of outside threats to Russia, as described by different authors, the article classifies the notions, formed in sociology, social philosophy and political science, of the structure of the outside threats to Russia's national security and the ways to eliminate them.

The article presents the second part of the sociological study of fears, the first results of which were published in the previous issue of the journal. The authors briefly summarize the major formats of the conceptualization and empirical interpretation of the concepts ‘value orientations’ and ‘fears’, described in detail previously, and show how they can be used in representative sociological surveys to identify the fundamental values and behavioral patterns through the respondents’ fears and routinized optimal strategies to overcome socially and psychologically uncomfortable situations. On the results of the survey conducted in the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia the authors propose to ‘measure’ fears by the following sets of questions: students’ life priorities; the repertoire of fears of a young person; the general level of anxiety and strategies to overcome uncomfortable situations, etc. (and the distribution of answers to the questions in each set can be analyzed in the light of socio-demographic and other differences). The results of the study, in particular, showed that the students dominant fear is the fear to lose their loved ones due to the impressive number of social risks that are considered as actual threats. Almost every second respondent evaluates his emotional state as restless and anxious, but seldom follows a specific behavioral strategy to overcome an uncomfortable situation although in the case of a strong fear he would ask his closest people for advice and support.

The article presents the results of the analysis of the main scientific approaches to the study of students’ attitudes towards health and self-preservation behavior. The authors analyze the sociologically relevant theories and approaches to the formation of healthy lifestyles and self-preservation behavior. The paper states that the sociological approach to the self-preservation behavior is the most promising way to the promotion of healthy living. Despite the students diverse motivation for self-preservation behavior there are still serious problems in its formation due to both social and cultural factors.

Obtaining information on an employee’s emotional state may present a significant task for the manager in planning everyday organizational processes, because the emotional component affects business relations and, to a certain extent, the quality of the work done. The article focuses on determining the possibilities of applying the analysis of non-verbal information (compared to verbal methods), and on considering the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.