Semantic closeness of the image of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk according to the characteristics of socio-psychological attractiveness

Abstract

The goal of this research consists in determination of structural-substantive characteristics of socio-psychological attractiveness of the image of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. The authors examine the relevant problem of attractiveness of image of the city and its values defined by a set of characteristics: material and non-material wealth, uniqueness, adaptivity of urban environment, etc. The subject of this study is image of the city among the students of professional direction “Human – Human” (discipline “Psychology”, 25 persons) and “Human – Artistic Image” (discipline “Graphic Design, 25 persons). The goal is set to reveal distinctive characteristics of socio-psychological attractiveness of the image of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in perception of students of two specialties. Experimental psychosemantics became a methodical framework for comprehensive study of structural-substantive characteristics and attractiveness of the image of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. The research applies the method of group associative experiment that allowed reconstructing and describing the image of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk by calculating the semantic closeness. The authors reveal and delineate the peculiarities of structural-substantive characteristics of socio-psychological attractiveness of the image of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. It is established that some of such characteristics reflect the key assessment criteria of the environment: economic, climatic, ecological, architectural, cultural, political, evaluative and other, which presence within structure of the image is confirmed by both, theoretical and empirical data. The authors determine that students of the disciplines “Graphic Design” and “Psychology” have similar structural-substantive characteristics that allow not only reconstructing the image, but also outlining the attributes of socio-psychological attractiveness of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. This is the first study of representations on urbanized environment and its psychological attractiveness in the Russian Far East.