Abstract:

Modern world is eager to express polarized views and positions all the time (i.e. sometimes we can hear such extreme things even from the presidents). The level of political tension is also high in the world. The article covers the social psychological and political mindsets of the youth, a part of society known by its high political and social mobility.

In this article under the term 'extremism' we understand the fact of someone having beliefs that most people think are unreasonable and unacceptable; 'extremist attitude' is the belief that only violence can fix intolerable situations or critical position.

The research on extremism and extremist attitudes of the youth is being viewed from different points of view: sociological (definition of possible social groups that are more intent to the extreme actions), psychological (analysis of personal characteristics of people who expressed the extremist mindsets), cultural-linguistic (assessment of speech used to make someone commit an offence).

Such interdisciplinary analysis will let us evaluate the attitudes of the university students and to suggest effective measures to prevent the extreme activity.

The research was conducted amid the students who study in politics and linguistics (50 people in each group, under the age of 20, of both genders).

The experiment include the showing of 4 video fragments from the news (3-5 mins length) in either Russian or English. These fragments, devoted to the political events in Ukraine, have polarized interpretation of the events. After watching the videos the students express their opinions in a written form giving the answers to the questions which might be provocative.

The analysis discovered the following attitudes:
-the ultra | extreme ideas;
-unacceptability and the absence of the wish to analyze the viewpoint of the other side;
-suggestion of violent and aggressive measures, a wish to take part in such actions
During the experiment we also:
-Analised the profiles;
-Talked to the participants to specify the answers;
-Find out the locus of control;
-Analysed the sociometrical position of the student in a group of peers;
-Analysed the social network accounts (activity, political views, etc.)
-Analysed the progress in studies and the level of their grades.
-As a result among the students there were found the following categories of mindsets: bright extremist mindsets, mild extremist mindsets, and no extremist mindsets.

The participants with the high level of extremist mindsets showed the following features:
1) connection to the locus of control (tendency to take no responsibility), low sociometrical status;
unstable financial situation, factor of a single-parent family;
the use of abstract or aggressive avatars in social network accounts;
2) low level of their grades, fragmented knowledge perception (the progress on separate subjects or topics in a separate subjects).

High level of extremist attitudes is connected to the general social ill-being, the feeling of financial unprotectedness; In psychological plan the extremist attitudes is connected to the low responsibility for their own lives, the absence of active life position, group rejection (being an outcast among the groupmates), low grades.

The articles suggests preventive service of the extremist phenomenon that are connected to the organization of studying and educational work.

Keywords:

Extremism, students, youth, judiciary, attitude, political awareness, social networks.