Socially psychological essence of extremism and its peculiarities in the Russian youth

The authors reveal the concept and essence of extremism, examine diverse visions of this phenomenon, study peculiarities of extremism in youth. The emphasis is given to the socially psychological context of the mentioned phenomenon. Extremism is considered to be a type of deviant behaviour, socially psychological determinants of emergence and development of extremist manifestations in personal and group mind and behvaiour being in the focus. It is supposed that studying extremism as a socially psychological phenomenon gives new opportunities to conduct empirical research in prevention and socially psychological correction of extremist manifestations in various social groups. The factors determining extremist manifestations in youth such as nihilism, aggressiveness, intolerance and xenophobia are revealed, however, the authors consider evil and violence to be the main ones. The study of theoretical and practical investigations of extremism found in the modern scientific texts resulted in the authors' own comprehension of extremism as a socially psychological phenomenon, a form of violence revealed in deliberate aggressive behaviour (verbal or physical) towards other people or social groups connected with broken trust and motivated by the ideas of personal superiority, intolerance and xenophobia to the object of violence.