SEMANTICS OF “SOCIAL DISTANCING” PHENOMENON IN PANDEMIC SITUATION

Abstract

The article presents the results of a theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of "social distancing" and an empirical study of its psychosemantic content. A substantive analysis of the concept of "social distancing" was conducted in various social and scientific contexts – i.e. medical-epidemiological, sociological, socio-psychological and applied proxemic. It is stated that this phenomenon is considered a social attitude, a psychosocial determinant of stress, a possible reason for declining trust, as well as a coping strategy. In the context of the 2020 pandemic, social distancing presents itself as a type of social isolation of individuals, which, under certain conditions, can take the form of alienation. Public fears in the pandemic situation are an example of duality: a fear of proximity (the possibility of contracting COVID-19) and a fear of withdrawal (the possibility of losing social contacts). The empirical study was carried out in Ukraine in June-July 2020, during the quarantine. The results of subjective assessment of the concept of “social distancing” by the public were obtained using the method of semantic differential. Semantization of the category and subsequent application of factor analysis were carried out to identify factors that reveal semantic content of the category in the minds of subjects. Society perceives social distancing ambivalently: with positive subjective assessment, awareness of importance, usefulness and magnitude of this phenomenon, in parallel with undesirability and unpleasant tension that it is associated with. The resulting three-factor structure of the concept testifies to the mass-driven character of ideas about social distancing, its low internal differentiation, which is normal, given the novelty of the concept for the mass consciousness of citizens. It is concluded that these signs of predominantly positive perception of the concept of social distancing are a good socio-psychological indicator of the state of mass consciousness. Such an assessment allows for an optimistic forecast in the present state of pandemic in Ukraine, since it indicates positive attitudes of people - both to themselves, and to their surroundings within the conditions of deep social uncertainty