SOCIAL EXPERIENCES OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PANDEMIC AND POST-PANDEMIC COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS INFECTION. SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES

The article presents results of a research in social experiences of young men and women studying at pedagogical universities in Russia and China during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic (N = 163). The authors demonstrated and empirically substantiated sociocultural differences in empathic response, as well as emotional sensitivity to social phenomena and aesthetic standards as signs for the formation of social experiences in adolescence. Russian young men and women demonstrate a higher level of empathic response (the difference values according to the Mann–Whitney U test are statistically significant), while Chinese students are characterized by a pronounced emotional involvement and a differentiated emotional assessment of socio-psychological phenomena (the difference values according to the Pearson chi-squared test are statistically significant). It is stated that relevant categories connected with self-image and understandings of sociopsychological phenomena become the emotional personality representations of Russian and Chinese student youth. That is most clearly expressed in emotionally sensitive periods of social upheavals, crises, and pandemics.