The Perception of Beauty and the Concept “Beauty” in Russian-Speaking Students of Psychology

Abstract

In positive psychology, seeing and experiencing beauty is one of the character strengths that indicates the presence of positive mental health and subjective well-being. The article presents the results of a study of the relationship between susceptibility to beauty and the concept of «beauty» among Russian-speaking psychology students, and also built a preliminary field structure of the concept “beauty”. The sample consisted of 62 subjects aged 18 to 54 years (15 men and 47 women). The study used the Method of Free Association and the Engagement with Beauty Scale. The positive relationship was confirmed between the level of susceptibility to inner beauty and the number of associations to the word “beauty” associated with inner beauty. Additionally, positive relationships were found between the level of general susceptibility to beauty and the number of associations per word «beauty» associated with inner beauty, as well as between the level of susceptibility to the beauty of ideas and the number of associations per word “beauty” associated with inner beauty. Additionally, results related to differences between men and women were obtained. Women are more receptive to the beauty of nature and to the inner beauty of a person, while they give more associations for inner beauty than men. In the field structure of the concept «beauty», the core is the association word nature (31); near periphery of the association words love (25), eyes (19), aesthetics (14), art (14), smile (13), life (12), happiness (11), music (11), woman (11), flowers (10), soul (10), harmony (10), kindness (10).