PSYCHOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OF TOLERANCE OF UKRAINIAN AND POLISH STUDENTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

The research reported here presents the theoretical aspects of the concept of tolerance of the academic youth, which is considered as a component of intercultural competence. The attitude of the students towards the people from other cultures and the level of their readiness to accept them are characterized. The influence of the surrounding socio-cultural environment on the development of ethnical and social tolerance is analysed. Moreover, the tolerance is viewed as a feature of the students' character. It was found out that a low level of ethnic tolerance prevails in 30.0% of the Ukrainian students, which means that they demonstrate considerably lower tolerance towards other ethnic groups than Polish students. The indicators of moderate and high level of Polish students comprise 93.3% that means that they are far more willing to interact with other ethnic groups and the representatives of the socio-cultural environment if compared to the Ukrainian students (63.3%), although the indicators of high and moderate level of the ethnic tolerance of Ukrainians are fairly high. The comparative results of the empirical research of ethnical, social tolerance and the tolerance as a feature of character of the Polish and Ukrainian students are specified. The important role of a higher educational establishment in the development of tolerance as a value in the modern multicultural and multi-ethnic societies is emphasized.