Psychohermeneutics of graffiti: external and internal loci of control

Abstract

The article examines the features of the expression of psycho-emotional conflict within a person within the framework of external and internal loci of control through the creation of graphic art objects. The authors argue that communicative strategies for resolving problems in stressful situations and seeking social support are associated with the question of the individual's ability to independently solve emerging problem situations and find internal resources to overcome them by releasing psychoemotional stress, based on the structure of the cognitive sphere of a person, the characteristics of his perception and thinking. Typical external semantics of graffiti consists in an attempt to convince others of the hopelessness of being. The internal locus of control is associated with the conceptual sphere of social activity and is embodied in a wide variety of imperative forms, including a call, order, request, advice, and so on. In other words, the psycho-hermeneutics of graffiti is conditioned, on the one hand, by communicative and pragmatic strategies of social empathy (internal locus of control), and, on the other hand, by the conflict of the individual with society and the desire for spiritual and moral escapism, escape from reality to self-isolation and loneliness (external locus of control). The study proposes a classification of graphic art objects, which is based on the form of public expression of the individual's inner world, which is associated with the implementation of the compensatory-pragmatic function of graffiti as a universal code of modern urban communication.