Soviet and American Youth in a Changing World *

Abstract

This study explores some relationships between culture, adolescent personality styles, and psychopathology in the USA and the USSR. The broader macrosocial level includes characteristics of the epoch. The more restricted macrosocial level includes one sociopolitical system and cultural features. In Soviet society, the conformist type of personality is prevalent; in the United States, “Protean man” is common. Soviet and American youth diverge in their attitudes toward technology and achievement.

These personality styles are related to the restricted macrosocial level, while the broader epochal level is related to prevailing types of psychopathology. In the USSR, the distinction between normality and psychopathology is sharper than it is in the USA.

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