MECHANISMS OF ADOPTING GENDER PATTERNS IN ADOLESCENCE: SOCIO-CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEW ON THE PROBLEM

Abstract

The study of mechanisms of adopting gender patterns in conditions of gender diversity legitimized by postmodernism is particularly important. There are different approaches, which prove the role of various factors influencing the psychological sex. These are inter alia socio-biological, socio-cultural and gender approaches. It is advisable to investigate gender self-determination of adolescents in modern conditions within the gender approach that allows to describe multiple strategies of recognizing gender groups’ marginality. The socio-constructivist approach creates methodological basis for studying mechanisms of adopting gender patterns in modern conditions. Gender patterns recorded in culture texts are conceptualized, legitimized by various institutions of socialization directing the process of constructing human gender experience. The aim of the article is to explain the mechanisms of adopting gender patterns in adolescence on the basis of socio-constructivism methodology. Adolescence can be characterized as a liminal period in constructing the gender «Ego» when a child explores various gender options, models before making a choice. Gender patterns are gradually structured and accepted by an individual in adolescence. Adopting gender patterns proceeds through interpretation by means of semiotization, reflection mechanisms, which provide the appearance of the own gender behavior models. These own patterns are constructed on the basis of ready-made or synthesized adopted samples.