Psychological Foundations of Psychological and Pedagogical Prevention of Extremism and Protest Behavior among Young People

The work is aimed at clarifying the status of the concepts of “extremism”, “protest behavior” among young people from a psychological point of view and identifying their predictors. Analytical materials concerning the tendencies of extremism development at the present time, factors, types, causes, mechanisms, signs of the formation of extremist attitudes in the mind of a young person are presented. The scheme of the influence of extremist ideology on a young person is substantiated, reflecting the stages of development of extremist behavior in him. As predictors of the development of extremist attitudes and protest behavior, which make it possible to predict and timely prevent these negative manifestations, the following are highlighted: 1) age-psychological, psychophysiological features of young people due to the natural processes of their development, as well as socio-personal, determined by the social environment and upbringing; 2) knowledge of the reasons that determine the individual susceptibility of young people to the influence of extremist ideology; 3) socio-personal resource of subjects of educational relations. The author’s model of psychological and pedagogical prevention of youth extremism through the development of social and personal resources of subjects of educational relations, as well as empirical data of its approbation in practice, is described. The main directions of psychological and pedagogical prevention of extremism in the youth environment are work on a low level of external stimulation and overcoming the deficit of internal self-regulation, work on the development of subjectivity, self-activity of the individual, internal motivation of positive self-realization in socially significant activities. Technologies for their implementation are proposed for each of the directions.