Socio-Psychological Factors of Economic Behavior under Crisis Conditions: Combination of Global and Local Processes

The basic goal of research is to analyze the psychological factors of economic behavior in a crisis situation. Economic behavior is divided into three kinds: distributive, production and consumer behavior. Distributive behavior is connected with distributing economic resources, it defines the standard and measure of control over property. Production behavior is realized in different forms of combining human resources to obtain assets and benefits and also in the specific character of labor activity. Consumer behavior is realized in the peculiarities of consumption justified by urgent needs. The current paper puts forward assumptions that the phenomena presenting the result of global and local processes of society development can be the subjective factors causing the current economic crisis in Russia. Global process is brought to life by the conflict of interest between the generations, which is realized in the peculiarities of distributive behavior. Local process reflects the contradictory dynamics of forming the social features, which is connected with transition from totalitarian to market economy. The arguments are based on the generation theory by N. Howe&W. Strauss and the social character model by E. Fromm. The materials of sociological and socio-psychological research for the period of 1990-2008 are given. Peculiarities of economic behavior of different generations under crisis conditions are revealed, the analysis is given for the socio-psychological mechanisms. Particular emphasis is placed on the dynamics of social and individual values having the function of regulators from the economic behavior