Quite often today you can hear the words "mentality" and "mentality". They are used not only in scientific literature, but also in everyday everyday speech. They are becoming popular and fashionable. In various sources, you can find references to the post-Soviet, Russian, European mentality. To clarify the concept, the authors use ambiguous descriptions. However, from frequent use, their meaning becomes less and less specific, thereby allowing it to be interpreted quite broadly.
The word "mentality" comes from the Greek - thinking, mind, prudence. It denotes a set of psychological factors, a vision of the world around and people who belong to different social groups.
Mentality changes over time, but it happens over time. This way of thinking can be attributed to psychological reactions that have been formed over decades. Also, the perception of the surrounding world can be called mentality. It depends on whether from the point of view of whom this definition is viewed: a psychologist or a social historian.
Mentality is a way of thinking about the world in which thought is not directly separated from emotions (experience and joy). Thus, the reaction of human behavior to a change in the external and internal world in each cultural environment has its own characteristics.
There are many types of mentality. Basically, it depends on the society in which the person lives, on upbringing and other factors. As an example, one can cite the fact that in Russia children help each other to cheat in lessons and tests, and in Europe and America, the guys who saw that their classmates cheat immediately tell the teacher about it. Therefore, the mentality, even at the children's level, is completely different among the populations of different countries.
Mentality begins to form during upbringing, when a person receives the first life experience. Therefore, people who have acquired examples of behavior in different cultures may have a completely opposite way of thinking. Also, the concept of "mentality" means not only the intellectual and emotional characteristics of a person, but also his relationship to the past and present.
A number of studies of Japanese behavior after World War II can be cited as an example. There was a global contradiction - at the same time they had a sense of beauty and, at the same time, there was a fanatical loyalty to the authorities. Another example is the mentality of the Swedes. They are very competent people, in every sense of the word. Swedes are shy, they understand both the pros and cons of their character, honest and independent.
