Subjective representations of success in life among Russian respondents
Authors: Deeva Natalya A. 
Published: August 2022

Background. Ve modern world requires to search for a new rationality and move away from one-line models of development. Ve phenomenon of a “complex society” emerges, imposing that a person needs to determine his own value-semantic coordinates of success in life and build a life project, taking into account diXculties and possible changes. Ve importance of understanding success, presented as a value and a unifying principle in the development of modern society, and its models is growing. In this regard, the study of subjective ideas about success in life as an important component of an individual’s ideas about himself and the world is of particular relevance. Objective. Ve study aims to identify the most stable components of subjective representations about success in life of a russian respondents. Sample. Empirical study was conducted on a sample of 705 respondents from various regions of the Russian Federation. Veir age ranged from 18 to 60 years. Respondents presented diWerent social status, gender and professional aXliations. Methods. Ve study used the author’s questionnaire “Success in Life”, which required an expanded answers to Ynish incomplete statements on their ideas about success in life (Deeva, 2020). Information was collected in person and remotely (using Google Forms). Ve empirical data obtained were summarized and processed with a content-structuring analysis based on inductive category extraction. Descriptive statistics was applied to identify the most generalized categories, including subjective ideas about success in life, characteristic of the entire sample. Results. Ve generalized categories of subjective representations about life success are revealed: signiYcant values; a process that is realized through the orientation of a personality “on oneself ”, “on business”, “on others”; set of achievements (results); conditional complexity/unilaterality. A meaningful description of each identiYed category is given with the provision of quantitative data on the frequency of their occurrence. Ve predominance of the orientation “on oneself ” manifested in the designation of self-realization processes and life enjoyment is revealed. It was found that in the “result” category, the tendency to “have” beneYts is most pronounced as compared to the tendencies to “be” and “achieve” goals accompanied by a partial representation of the result. Almost half of the respondents showed unilateral representations about life success, namely, including them in the description of ideas in one category. Along with this, constructive characteristics of representations about life success were revealed: the traditional nature of the most signiYcant values (family, work, material well-being, health). Some of respondents have an orientation “to others” and a tendency “to be”. Conclusion. Ve results obtained made it possible to compile a generalized picture of the subjective representations about the life success of a modern personality (using the example of Russians), which outlines the common features as well as reveals the most acute problems. Ve identiYed diXculties can signiYcantly complicate the lives of respondents in the modern world of uncertainty and variability, while the constructive moments are the basis for the most conscious subjective ideas about success in life.