Life model as a construct for studying the life scenario of personality

Abstract

The article reveals the concept of “life model” as a construct, concretising the concept of a life scenario. Nowadays, the problems of a life path and a life scenario are unfolding on a new stage of its development, which is connected with the global changes of modern society, expanding opportunities for human life creation. One of the research tasks is the development of the constructs to specify the key concepts in this problem field. The analysis of the evolution of ideas about the life scenario allows to leave its interpretation as an unconscious structure determined by early experience and to view it as a multidimensional construct which integrates the different contexts of human existence. Modern methodological approaches to the study of the life scenario are presented in three aspects: the sociological (life schedule), the practiceoriented (experience and attitudes acquired in childhood), and the exploratory (through the description of the life path at the different age stages, life events series and personal history). Comparison of the methods used to study the life scenario allows identifying their advantages and limitations. Methodological diversity in the life scenario studies is manifested in the data obtained which are difficult to compare due to different theoretical positions and methodological approaches. The proposed concept of “life model” integrates different components of the life scenario and presents the part of life scenario realised by a person in a concrete life sphere. The professional sphere, the sphere of close relations, and the personal sphere are identified as the basic ones. Each of these spheres is described through the life model with its corresponding characteristics and parameters that are available for empirical study. The concretisation of the life scenario through the concept of the life model and the variant of its operationalisation presented in the article creates the conditions for studying the life scenario in different research perspectives.