The article presents the results of a study of gender identity as a cognitive component of the gender consciousness of Kazakhstan youth. The pilot study is aimed at exploring the possibilities of applying a psychosemantic approach based on the modified semantic differential method to study gender identity. This approach is considered as an addition to traditional questionnaires and projective methods. The described stages, rules and procedure of psychosemantic research show those aspects of it that make up the potential for its further application. In particular, the method makes it possible to study in depth the implicit structures of consciousness, poorly reflected by the subjects themselves, and to increase the validity of the results, reducing motivational distortions and the influence of culture and mentality.

The authors present data from the study of the group consciousness of boys and girls, the reconstruction of the categorical model of their consciousness by constructing semantic spaces - systems of structured personal qualities in a certain way that describe the "I". The semantic spaces of the “Self” are formed by factors identified on the basis of factor analysis by the method of principal components with the rotation of Varimax, as well as the meanings that the subjects endow with personal qualities. As a result of the psychosemantic study, the typology of the gender identity of modern Kazakhstani youth was determined, differences in the psychological content of the androgynous, masculine and feminine types of gender identity among girls and boys were identified, differences in trends in gender self-identification were established in terms of traditionality and egalitarianism.