Psychological features of attitudes towards unemployment as a social phenomenon: trends and perspectives of study

Abstract

The article notes that the current spread of coronavirus infection creates difficult conditions for the life of society, having a negative impact on many social spheres. It is shown that the labor crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic can increase global unemployment, and as a result, have a negative impact on the development of the economy as a whole, which increases the relevance of the research problem. The authors analyzed publications devoted to studies of unemployment in various branches of science, which made it possible to identify different social levels of its negative impact (global, national and regional). A separate group includes works on the socio-psychological problems of unemployment. It was revealed that the socio-economic or personal characteristics of the experience of unemployment in the context of the coronavirus pandemic have not yet become a significant subject of fundamental research. In particular, the scientific literature does not present facts that reflect the structure of user experiences. Analysis of messages from forums of the unemployed and from social networks allowed the authors to state a high level of reasoning related to unemployment as a social phenomenon, genuine regret about the high level of education of many of them and painful feelings about the low standard of living. Frequency and semantic analysis of messages also made it possible to demonstrate ideas about the factors causing unemployment, which are most often associated with the conditions of the social environment. The analysis of the emotional background of the messages carried out in the work showed the absence of neutral or positive assessments of unemployment (all assessments are negative). High emotional tension in assessing unemployment and its consequences indicates a pronounced decrease in the psychological well-being of users, which becomes the basis for negative judgments, including political content. In conclusion, it is noted that the study of “digital traces” seems to be a very promising direction in the study of macropsychological processes.