THE ROLE OF EGO AND NON-EGO BOUNDARIES IN THE DETERMINATION OF BEHAVIOR IN UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENT

This paper is the theoretical analysis of the issue of interrelations of ego and non-ego boundaries of a person and the determination of its behavior in the situation of subjective uncertainty. The goal of the research is the evaluation of the role of ego boundary in the determination of behavior of a person in the subjective uncertain environment. The analysis of behavior determination variants includes its self-determination, non-self-determination, and indetermination in the uncertainty of the future. It is shown, that the everyday behavior determination is a composition of self-determination and non-self-determination in their flexible individual proportions. The uncertainty situation as the bifurcation point determines the occurrence of a person borderline state when the habitual determination is out and the ego boundary system – dynamic (changing), open (in dialogical relations of a person with the world and oneself), functional (ego delimitation) – becomes tense. In this situation, the limitations are tested, ego and non-ego boundaries are recognized and reconstructed in a new environment. The author proves that the overcoming of actual boundaries and blocking of boundaries of new possibilities depend on the specificity of functioning of the boundaries that determines the causality locus as the orientation dominance within behavior and causal orientation as the dominant motivation (according to E. Deci and R. Ryan theory), the nature of behavior determination and the way of a person’s reaction to the uncertainty challenge. The result of the author’s analysis is the typology of behavior determination schemes with respect to the forms of experience of subjective uncertainty (positive, negative), ego delimitation variant (constructive, destructive, and deficient) and causal orientation (autonomic internal, controlled external, and impersonal amotivating). The author comes to the conclusion about the relations between the uncertainty experience and individual-typical compositions of behavior determination, which can change unexpectedly under the influence of uncertainty factor. Under these circumstances, the role of ego boundaries as a system is determined by their functions implementation that determines causal orientation, behavior determination nature, and the way of a person’s reaction to the uncertainty.