SELF-REALIZATION AS INTERPRETED BY RUSSIAN STUDENTS

This study has aimed to find out principal meanings of the word «self-realization» in the language of today's-day Russian students. It was a survey among first- and fourth-year students majoring in various professional fields at five institutions of higher education and five offsite branches of higher education institutions in various parts of Russia. The sentence completion method was used. Initially, the responses were divided them into groups each of which brought together definitions of self-realization that were based on the same general interpretation of it. An analysis of the responses showed that the single largest proportion of modern Russian bachelor's degree students interpret self-realization as realization of one's abilities and talents and fruitful use of one's knowledge and skills. A much smaller proportion see self-realization as materialization of an image of the personal future one wants for oneself. Fewer students interpret self-realization as the activity of implementation by oneself of the image of a future that one desires for oneself. And very few attach any importance to potential public impacts of self-realization.