Dynamics of the value and motivational structure indicators of personality in convicts obtaining higher education
In this article, we review and analyze the characteristics of values and meanings formation of a convicted person during his educational and work activities. We characterize values and meanings of studying and nonstudying convicts. The aim of the study was to investigate the dynamics of values and meanings of a convicted person during educational and professional activities. The hypothesis of the study was the assumption that the direction of indicators of values and meanings of convicts in the educational activity, is characterized by their approach to that of a lawabiding person. A longitudinal study was conducted on the basis of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation in the Ulyanovsk region in the Federal State Institution “Penal Colony № 2”, Novoulyanovsk. The sample consisted of 50 male prisoners aged 25 to 35 years, 25 of them obtaining higher professional education (EP) and 25 – not (NoEP). The empirical research program included several stages: Stage 1 – a study of values and meanings before joining the Modern Humanitarian Academy (2008): Stage 2 – a study of values and meanings at the end of the first year of education (2009): Stage 3 – a study of values and meanings at the end of the second year (2010), Stage 4 – a study of values and meanings at the end of the third (last) year of education (2011). The study revealed that convicted students showed dynamics of the values and meanings sphere (in particular, in such its components as the individual values of personality, system of beliefs, aptitudes, interests, social norms, motives and personal meanings) in the direction of their approach to normal indicators. Those non-studying showed no dynamics. The conclusion is that in the process of educational and professional activities, dynamics of values and meanings in convicted students occurs, both at the level of normative ideals, and at the level of individual priorities.