Psychological characteristics of mythical fears in young people belonging to the traditional Islamic confession

This paper examines how young men and girls, who belong to the Islamic confession, experience mythological fears associated with the so-called “demonic possession”. The young people having a high level of mythological fears are at risk of the influence of non-traditional branches of Islam. The paper presents the empirical study of the correlation between the representations of demonic possession (“a jinn's entering the body of a person”) in representatives of the Muslim confession and their personal traits. For studying the representations of demonic possession the authors developed a special questionnaire consisting of 5 scales. The techniques for studying the respondents' personal traits included the following: H. Eysenk's technique for temperament assessing, Rotter's locus of control scale, G. Shmishek's questionnaire for assessing character accentuation, and J. Taylor's anxiety questionnaire. The study involved 200 students of three universities of the Chechen Republic (100 young men and 100 girls). The empirical data of the study demonstrated the degree of the respondents' religiosity, the level of their mythological fears, and the correlation with individual-psychological traits of the student's personality. According to the research findings, the individual-psychological traits of personality influenced the level of mythological fears in adolescence. There was a correlation between the individual-psychological traits of personality and the degree of its susceptibility to the excessive mythologization of the religious content. The findings of the study of the youth sample showed psychological features of the perception of the phenomenon of “possession with a jinn”. The results of the study enabled to develop a comprehensive program of psychological and pedagogical support of students of higher educational institutions, secondary technical educational institutions, and specialized secondary schools. The program consisted of 4 modules and aimed at the educational and correctional work with students with a high level of mythological fears, as well as prevention of young people's involvement in extremist and terrorist activities.