Fears and hopes of the Russian students: possibilities of empirical fixation

The article presents the major formats of conceptualization and empirical interpretation of such concepts, as ‘value orientations’ and ‘fears’. Basing upon the results of the survey conducted in the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia the authors propose to measure fears by the following sets of questions: students’ life priorities; the repertoire of fears of a young person; the general level of anxiety and strategies of overcoming uncomfortable situations, etc. The distribution of answers to the questions in each set can be analyzed in the context of socio-demographic and other differences.