Editorial

Zinchenko, Yu. P. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Federal Scientific Center of Psychological and Interdisciplinary Research, Moscow, Russia

The special issue of “Psychology in Russia: State of the Art” — “Multiculturalism and intercultural relations: Comparative analysis” — deals with urgent social issues facing contemporary society.

The choice of articles was guided by the need of more detailed and deeper understanding of multiculturalism as a demographic phenomenon, as well as an ideology reflecting individuals’ and groups’ views about their acceptance or rejection in their diversity, and as a matter of public policies and social programs. These features are studied in their close interrelation.

The Multiculturalism and intercultural relations: Regional cases section provides valuable data and conclusions about intercultural relations in different regions. Professor John Berry, the guest editor, performs comparative analysis of Canadian multiculturalism policy and the multiculturalism policies of other countries based on data from around the world.

A number of Russian regions becomes the focus of the authors’ analyses. Victoria N. Galyapina and Nadezhda M. Lebedeva study intercultural relations in North Ossetia-Alania, in their pursuit of finding out whether multiculturalism in Russia is possible. Zarina Kh. Lepshokova and Aleksandr N. Tatarko analyze intercultural relations in Kabardino-Balkaria through the perspective of people’s subjective well-being. Victoria V. Mikhailova and Valery B. Nadkin use the notion of complimentarity, elaborated by an outstanding Russian historian and anthropologist Lev Gumilyev, to investigate ethno-confessional identity in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Tatyana A. Ryabichenko and Nadezhda M. Lebedeva review similarities and differences between acculturation attitudes of migrants from Central Asia and Russians in Central Russia.

Furthermore, Nadezhda M. Lebedeva, Aleksand N. Tatarko and John Berry study intercultural relations in Russia and Latvia in the context of the relationship between contact with the other cultural groups and perceived cultural security. Tatyana S. Pilishvili and Eugénie Koyanongo perform a comparative analysis of the representation of love among Brazilians, Russians and people of Central Africa.

The Intercultural relationships in the students’ environment section provides with study of ethnopsychological peculiarities and social attitudes of contemporary Editorial 3 youth. Irina V. Abakumova, Victoria F. Boguslavskaya and Anastasiya V. Grishina investigate ethnoreligious attitudes of contemporary Russian students toward labor migrants as a social group. Ravil A. Valiev, Tatiana V. Valieva, Lyudmila A. Maksimova and Valentina G. Karimova describe and evaluate readiness for interaction with subjects, perceived as strangers by the students and teachers of titular ethnicity, as well as ethnic worldview in the students’ environment. Asya S. Berberyan and Hermine S. Berberyan study ethnopsychological aspects of life’s purpose and personality values among Armenian and Russian students.

The Multiculturalism in public and private spaces section is composed of works on personal attitudes and religious affiliations as well as impact of media on multiethnic society. Irina V. Abakumova, Pavel N. Ermakov and Karina Y. Kolesina analyze the empirical results of a research on life’s purpose orientations in adults of various ethnic identities and religious affiliations. Anna A. Gladkova and Ksenia A. Korobeynikova analyze the public’s exposure to reports about ethnic groups in mainstream Russian media. Olga G. Mokretcova with the group of collaborators investigate attitude as labor migrants’ social-psychological adaptation factor, taking labor migrants from Uzbekistan, the most voluminous migrants’ ethnic group in Russia, as an example.

The Book reviews section is the only part of the issue outside of its main topic. It provides an interesting review of Michael Matthews’s book Head Strong: How Psychology is Revolutionizing War by Aleksandr G. Karayani. Our hope is that advances in multiculturalism and intercultural relationships studies will become efficient tool for preventing civil and military conflicts in the world.