POSSIBILITIES OF EMPIRICAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF DEMANDING LIFE SITUATIONS

The present study is aimed to analyze empirical research regarding cla ssification of demanding life situations. On the basis of respondents' free descriptions, a list of 64 situations was constructed. In select ion of situations we systematically altered 8 variants of context (i.e . different content topics) and 4 types of subjects (i.e, different ac tors of events). 106 respondents provided the similarity ratings of de scribed situations (data for MDS and cluster analysis). Then they rate d the degree of demandingness of situations by utilizing a bipolar sca le and the Q-Sort technique. The results strongly support relevancy of both, context and subject frameworks for attempts of classification o f demanding life situations. The findings also indicate some sex diffe rences in this area.