Introduction. Without hope, there is no motivation, no desire to live, suffering becomes stronger, and there are less chances for recovery. Hope plays a major role in treating a patient both mentally and physically.

The Objective of the study is to find answers to the most important questions concerning the gist of the notion of "hope": What is hope? What can we do to help hope live?

Procedure. The author believes that hope is more than just a feeling; he regards it as an existential act. Our activity is in the fact that we remain active, we take a firm position that will not shatter when one is unhappy, miserable, suffering fron a disease, or being institutiolisedia, etc. The ontological approach shows that hope means something that has not happened yet cannot be to exclude, i.e. hope is not self-deception and not a defense mechanism, it gives a chance to whatever events to happen. The following issues are revealed: the connection of hope with the attitude to the values of life, hope as a meaningful concept and deals with transcendence, the opposite of hope resignation (rejecting value, giving the things the free rein, losing ties with the events happening) causes desperation and despair. The so-called “false hope” is also highlighted, its positive and negative sides are shown and tips how to treat it correctly are given.

Conclusion. Hope means treating something as valuable. Hope is realistic as the forthcoming future can never be predetermined entirely. Hope is paradoxical: it makes you do something where nothing can be done. Therefore, hope has great potential for resilience. False hope is regarded as a defense reaction of the human psyche, but since it performs a certain function in this way, you should not simply take it away from a person. Where there is hope, there is meaning, hopelessness means loss of meaning.

Background. Individuals who aim at changing their health behaviour do not always handle the issue immediately. This discrepancy is usually referred to as the intention behaviour gap. Implicit processes are one of the factors which mediate between intention and behaviour. Compared to cognitive and affective implicit processes, motivational implicit processes are given a very little account in the modern science. Currently it is not quite clear how implicit and explicit values are focused on within the health-related decision-making process.

Objective. The present study shows how implicit and explicit values and their congruency are focused on health-related decision-making process in dilemmas. The dilemmas were described as situations within which the subjects report on making a choice: either to avoid losses related to health, or to avoid losses related to other values. Choosing health, the participant avoids losses related to it, whereas they acquire losses related to other values, and vice versa.

Design. The participants participated in the Schwartz’s Value Survey (measuring explicit values), Implicit Association Tests (measuring implicit values) and solve three types of dilemmas (health vs benevolence, health vs self-direction, health vs achievement).

Research Results. The research shows that implicit and explicit values are not related to each other and are differently related to decision-making process in dilemmas. Namely, implicit values of achievement, benevolence and self-direction are related to decision-making in dilemmas with low potential losses. Many of these values turn to be significant to the participants, and some of the dilemmas are not solved in favour of health-related issues. Explicit values are related to decision-making process in dilemmas with high potential losses. Many of these values turn to be significant to the participants, and some of the dilemmas are not solved in favour of health-related issues. Finally, it was found that high correlation between explicit and implicit values is positively related to decision making in favor of health.

Conclusion. The research shows that explicit and implicit values are differently associated with health-related decision-making in the participants.

Background. The necessity of youth policy development is caused by negative social tendencies not only in Russia but all over the world. Control of social behavior may be one of the guidelines in its development and determining problem areas.

Objective. The objective of the paper is to study social representations about «the contemporary hero» in students of the psychology and teacher-training specialty. The main issue of the research is the difference of social representations about «the contemporary hero» in students of different specialties and different values.

Design. The methods include the author's questionnaire for revealing social representations that consists of incomplete sentences, open and associated questions, and also the technique for identifying Schwartz’s values. The sample consists of 96 students representing 4 careers (physical training, psychology, defectology, elementary education).

Research Results. The results of the study show that within the given groups insignificant statistical distinctions on values are revealed. However, character and discrepancy of values are different within the 4 groups under consideration. In the groups with inconsistent structure of values social representations are also inconsistent: the students have no example for identity, they cannot identify names of particular persons to the hero image, definition of the hero and the specified persons do not coincide. In contrast, within the group of harmonious structure of values specified persons, exemplary models for imitation coincide with that definition of “the contemporary hero”. The most harmonious structure of values and less inconsistent social representations about «the contemporary hero» are revealed in Physical Training students, whose most inconsistent values and social representations are revealed in the group of Psychology students.

Conclusion. Stereotypical interiorized social representations about “«the contemporary hero” are dominant in the student, which does not allow them to transfer that image to the future subordinates. The major part of the students do not see examples for imitation and for identification among celebrities. Researches on a more vast sample will allow to specify the data to develop recommendations for updating the youth policy in this field.

The paper draws attention to the large number of divorces in contemporary Russia. It is emphasized that much of them fall on the first years of marriage. However, most of the surveys conducted in recent years have shown that the family is one of the leading positions in the structure of adolescent value. On the basis of this juxtaposition, it is concluded that young people need to be specially trained for family life. Contemporary family and the school cannot cope with this task. We have carried out a large-scale empirical study in eight regions of different federal districts of Russia, the results of which are shown in the paper. Total sample amounted of more than 7,000 people. The sample included respondents from large and small cities in Russia, as well as from the villages of nuclear and one-parent families, families with 1-2 children and also large families.

The research has shown that in the structure of life values the family still occupies the first position. It was also found that the vast majority of respondents emphasize the need to be specially trained for building a family. However, only one third of respondents believe that this can be done by conducting special courses on the family and family life in schools. For the majority of the respondents, their parent family is not a guide or a pattern. The greatest impact on the youth in the process of growing up is produced by mother. Fathers, occupying the second position, prove to be outsiders with a large gap. It was revealed that a generalized portrait of the mother and the father are completely positive, i.e. they do not contain any negative characteristics. The top ten most popular qualities to describe father and mother are the following: kind, reliable, caring, responsible, family-making, smart. Other qualities of the top ten highest priorities differ.

Specific features of temporal perspective and value-semantic orientations (including consistency of relevant values and their availability) in high-school students depending on the type of dominant motivation was studied.

For all students, it is shown that time perspective of their aspirations and desires differs by depth, length and positive orientation to the future, but these representations are qualitative specifics depending on the type of dominant motivation. For the group of students with achievement motivation and learning and cognitive motivation, values of educational activity are well coordinated and are seen as a means of realizing long-term goals for adulthood.

For the group of students with affiliation motivation, prestige and competition, values of learning are often accompanied by internal conflicts and vacuums. In high school students with the prevailing cognitive motivation the near future is associated with the values of freedom, self-confidence, self-improvment, overcoming obstacles, friends.

Their aspirations in the distant future are related to self-development, self-improvement with achieving success and confidence. Students with competitive motivation are characterized by a large number of targets in the distant future, without reference to a specific time and implementation, i.e. their school-life motivation decreases.

Aspirations of students with self-reinforcing learning motivation in the near future are most often focused on studies, but they are associated with a desire to achieve quite definite exam results.

To their mind, distant future is associated with overcoming obstacles and status and competitive values. Students with affiliation motivation associate their distant future with career, and also with status and competitive values of «authority», «to be better than others». Their motivation associated with the present and the immediate future period of school life also decreases.