Clinical psychology

Background. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) refer to a semantic field of negative childhood events that, in conjunction with insufficient personal, family, or contextual coping resources, have the potential of becoming traumatic.

Objective. To assess the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their association with sociodemographic variables and physical and mental illnesses in a Mexican sample.

  Design. A cross-sectional design was used. The sample included 917 Mexican adults who responded to the Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ). Most of the participants were female (79.3%) with an average age of 37 years, a monthly income between 500 and 2,500 USD (59.2%), had completed university education (45.6%) and were married or in a common-law marriage (53.1%). Data was collected through Google Forms, and the link to the form was shared through electronic social networks.

  Results. A total of 48.3% of the participants presented seven to nine types of ACEs. Among their responses, the most prevalent categories were emotional neglect (95.1%), family violence (83.3%), and emotional abuse (78.6%). A significant association was found between the number of ACEs and the mental illness diagnosis (x²(20) = 15.16; p < .001). Women were found to report more experiences of sexual abuse (z = -6.62, p < .001), whereas men reported more experiences of community violence (z = -4.27, p < .001) and collective violence (z = -3.94, p < .001).

  Conclusions. The prevalence of ACEs in the Mexican population is high. However, men and women reported differences in certain types of ACEs. It was found that people with a diagnosis and family history of mental illnesses presented a higher number of ACE categories.

Background. COVID-19 has adversely affected economies and individuals globally. To this day, countries are facing the economic effects of the pandemic directly, and individuals’ mental health is in danger as they are still indirectly dealing with the pandemic. It is imperative to understand how pandemic-related anxiety affected individuals’ mental health so that all stakeholders can take essential remedial steps.

Objective. The current research aimed to investigate the relationship between Perceived Infectability, Coronavirus Anxiety, and Psychological Well-being. It also sought to explore the role of coronavirus anxiety in mediating between perceived infectability and psychological well-being.

Design. A cross-sectional correlational study design and non-probability convenience sampling technique were used to collect the data. The data were collected from 321 Pakistani adults, who filled out Google forms on the Perceived Infectability subscale of the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale; the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale; and the Psychological Well-being Scale.

Results. Correlation analysis indicated that both perceived infectability and coronavirus anxiety were negatively related to psychological well-being. However, a significant positive relationship was observed between perceived infectability and coronavirus anxiety. Our findings further proved the mediating role of coronavirus anxiety between perceived infectability and the psychological well-being of adults.

Conclusion. Understanding perceived infectability and its association with COVID-19 anxiety and psychological well-being is pertinent in this post-pandemic period in both developing and developed nations. The post-pandemic world is still being jolted with the aftereffects of the pandemic. An in-depth understanding of how individuals coped with the pandemic, might help in designing better intervention and community health programs after the pandemic, and it could also help in preparing for the crises attending future pandemics (if any). 

Background. The Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) is one of the most frequently used instruments to measure medically unexplained symptoms in the general population as well as in groups of patients with mental and physical health problems.

Objective. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the PHQ-15 in assessing a Russian community sample.

Design. A total of 1153 Russian adults age 18 or older participated in this cross-sectional study. They completed the Russian versions of the PHQ-15 and Symptom Check List-90-Revised, SCL-90-R (SCL-90-R). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the factor structure of the Russian PHQ-15, and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were used to test measurement invariance across sex and age. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients and Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the internal reliability and convergent validity of the Russian PHQ-15.

Results. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution highlighting pain-fatigue, gastrointestinal, and cardiopulmonary symptoms. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a bifactor structure for the Russian PHQ-15 merging general and specific somatic symptoms. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed partial invariance across sex and age. The Russian PHQ-15 demonstrated acceptable Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.72 to 0.75 for specific factors and a good Cronbach’s alpha for the total score (α = 0.85), proving the questionnaire’s internal reliability. Finally, positive correlations between the PHQ-15 and SCL-90-R dimensions, and positive intercorrelations between PHQ-15 specific factors, suggested convergent validity.

Conclusion. The Russian PHQ-15 is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing medically unexplained symptoms in the general population. This instrument can be used in diagnostic and counseling settings.

Background. The diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer are considered highly stressful and potentially traumatic events that can generate post-traumatic stress symptoms and distress among patients.

Objective. This study assessed levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms, distress, and optimism, as well as differences between these conditions relative to sociodemographic and medical variables, in Mexican patients with colorectal cancer.

Design. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was employed, in which 192 colorectal cancer patients over the age of 18 years participated. They filled out the following questionnaires in person: a sociodemographic and medical data questionnaire; the Event Impact Scale-Revised (EIE-R); the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); and the Life Orientation Test (LOT-R).

Results. The results showed that 32.3% of the patients reported post-traumatic stress symptomatology, and 21.4% reported distress. Post-traumatic stress symptoms and distress varied according to age and monthly income. Significant differences between the sexes were also observed in the levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms and distress. Post-traumatic stress was positively and significantly related to distress, and negatively and significantly to optimism.

Conclusion. Based on these data, we concluded that a significant percentage of colorectal cancer patients present high levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms as well as distress, and that these levels may vary according to sociodemographic and medical characteristics.

Background. Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) represent 1% of all gastrointestinal tumors and are included in the list of rare diseases.

Objective. 1. to evaluate levels of psychological distress, fatigue, and quality of life. 2. To identify the variables that most influence distress among Mexican patients with GIST.

Design. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a consecutive sample of 100 patients with GIST, who completed the following questionnaires online: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as a measure of distress, Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI), and Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ C30).

Results. Distress was present in 31% of patients. No association was found between distress and sociodemographic/clinical variables. The patients with distress demonstrated higher scores in all fatigue dimensions and, regarding quality of life, had more symptoms and were lower functioning. Distress was positively associated with all fatigue dimensions and with QLQ C30 symptoms. Negative associations were found between distress and QLQ C30 functioning dimensions. The predictors of psychological distress were general fatigue, reduced motivation, and emotional functioning.

Conclusion. The percentage of patients with distress was akin to the levels found in patients with the most common types of cancer. Fatigue in patients with GIST should be evaluated and managed to improve distress levels.

Background. Initial psychological papers on COVID-19, mental health and well-being mostly focus on the aftermath lockdown-related stress and stress related to the disease itself. Still, we presume that personal well-being can be resistant to stressors depending on the way the person is settled in their life.

Objective. We seek to reconsider the contribution of lockdown-related stressors to existential well-being, to assess existential well-being during the outbreak and to compare the contribution of living conditions and COVID-19-related factors on well-being.

Design. An online survey was conducted during the peak of the outbreak in Moscow (April-May 2020) (N=880). The data was obtained using the “Test of Existential Motivations” questionnaire and a series of questions addressing (1) living conditions — mental and physical health, employment, and social distancing; (2) COVID-19-related stressors — non-chronic illness, financial losses, and unavailability of goods or services; (3) sociodemographic indicators — age, gender, and income. Data analysis included hierarchical multiple regression, one-sample t-test, and analysis of variance.

Results. Surprisingly, the existential well-being of Moscow citizens during the research period was moderate. Each of the three groups of factors predicted a similar proportion of the variance of well-being (3-3,9%). The strongest predictors of well-being were long-term mental health status and financial stability. The effect of COVID-19-related stressors was most pronounced when they co-occur.

Conclusion. The negative association between lockdown-related stressors and poor well-being is not universal. It is necessary to study the effect of COVID-19-related stressors in combination with individual living conditions and region-specific factors and to focus on the prevention of the occurrence of stressors.

Background. Patients with Celiac Disease (CD) experience psychological disorders and emotion-regulation disruptions. Although following a gluten-free diet alleviates their symptoms, these patients report social relationship problems.

Objective. The first aim of this study was to analyze the level of FFMQ mindfulness (describing emotions, acting with awareness, observing, non-judging of inner experience, and non-reactivity to inner experience) and harmony in life (HiL) in patients with CD. The second goal was to examine the relationship between the FFMQ and HiL scales in patients with CD. The third was to detect the effects of the duration of the illness, education level, and employment status on FFMQ-measured mindfulness and HiL.

Design. The study involved 111 Turkish patients with CD (N Females = 75, 67.6%) living in Turkey. The patients filled out the FFMQ and HiL questionnaires via a google form survey. The duration of their diagnosis, age, employment status, and education level were nominal variables. A Pearsons’ correlation test, independent ttest, multiple linear regression, and one-way ANO VA were implemented.

Results. The results showed that patients with CD had a low level of HiL. The total FFMQ score was positively related to the HiL scale. Education and duration of diagnosis had a significant impact on the FFMQ and HiL scores. Age affected the level of describing emotions, and employment status had a strong effect on acting with awareness. However, gender affected neither the FFMQ nor HiL levels.

Conclusion. The results showed that patients with CD expressed a low level of HiL. Non-reactivity to inner experience, observing, and acting with awareness were positive predictors of the HiL scores. Moreover, since the HiL and FFMQ scales showed high internal consistency, the FFMQ and HiL questionnaires can be used in further studies of patients with CD.

Background. The most significant features for clinical diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) are cognitive-perceptual and disorganized symptoms. Experimental study of visual perceptual processes is important to elucidate the psychological mechanisms of cognitive-perceptual impairment in SPD.

Objective. To research the performance of visual perceptual tasks in SPD.

Design. Series I and II presented the subjects with visual perceptual tasks with different types of instructions (vague, verbal, or visual perceptual cues). The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R) was also administered. The participants were 39 SPD patients, 36 obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) patients (F.21.8, F.60.5 in ICD-10, respectively), and 102 healthy controls.

Results. SPD patients had a significantly lower number of correct answers in conditions of vague instruction and verbal cues in Series I of a visual-perceptual task in comparison with healthy subjects (р ≤ 0.01). With visual perceptual cues in Series II, patients with SPD had the same number of correct answers as controls, whereas OCPD patients had the same number of correct answers as controls with verbal cues in Series I. SPD patients had significantly lower scores in most verbal and nonverbal WAIS-R subtests in comparison with controls. SPD patients differed from OCPD patients in that they had lower scores in the “Information” (p ≤ 0.05) and “Comprehension” (p ≤ 0.05) subtests.

Conclusion. With visual-perceptual cues, SPD patients were able to achieve normative results in the performance of visual-perceptual tasks, whereas patients with OCPD demonstrated lower productivity. In SPD patients, the basic impairments were associated with difficulties in inhibition of peculiar responses, stability of a subjective manner of performance and inability to revise it, low orientation to the model, and slipping into subjective associations with the stimuli.

Background. People with alcohol-addicted parents are at risk of psychoactive addictions, co-dependency, and suicidal behavior. Most studies of these people are aimed at confirming the inevitability of the impact of negative childhood experiences on their lives, and thus do not seek to identify resource factors which would allow them to overcome the negative emotions they experienced. 

Objective. The purpose of this study was to create a model of resource factors which would allow people with alcohol-addicted parents to overcome the negative emotions they experienced. 

Design. The participants were 58 healthy individuals (17 men and 41 women; M=25.2; SD=4.4) whose parents were alcohol addicts (they were participants in the 12-step recovery program "Adult Children of Alcoholics"), and 50 healthy individuals (15 men and 35 women, M=24.2; SD=3.7) whose parents were not alcohol addicts. The participants completed the questionnaires "Interpersonal Guilt," "Family Emotional Communication," and "Coping Strategies," and were interviewed on the resource factors which allowed them to overcome negative emotions. We used the content analysis of the interviews and latent variable modeling to analyze the questionnaires.

Results. The model of resource factors (CFI=0.895, RMSEA=0.064) showed that the rules set by the parental dysfunctional family (the taboo on the expressing emotions, and external well-being) were associated with being unable to recognize current negative emotions and with avoiding problems. The ability to recognize negative emotions was connected with the participant’s willingness to accept responsibility for his/her life. The resource factors which allowed these subjects to overcome their negative emotions included: communication with relatives and friends; keeping a diary of emotions; and participating in recovery programs.

Conclusion. Our model of resource factors explains the mechanism connecting dysfunctional family rules with the resource factors and negative emotions experienced by people with alcohol-addicted parents. 

Background. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) has demonstrated good psychometric properties among different populations, but there is no known data on its validity among Russian-speaking medical students. The CBI-Student Survey focuses only on fatigue, but measures exhaustion in four different life domains: Personal Burnout (PB), Studies-Related Burnout (SRB), Colleague-Related Burnout (CRB), and Teacher-Related Burnout (TRB).

Objective. To investigate the psychometric properties of the Russian version of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory–Student Survey (R-CBI-S).

Design. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 771 medical students at Astana Medical University (Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan). Statistical analyses included test-retest reliability, internal consistency, item analysis, convergent and concurrent validity, and confirmatory factor analysis. Concurrent validity was evaluated by bivariate correlations of R-CBI-S with anxiety, depression, and satisfaction with the study.

Results. Test-retest reliability showed an ICC of 0.81. All item-total correlations for the total scale were positive (range 0.31–0.76). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.94 (0.896 for PB, 0.884 for SRB, 0.874 for CRB, and 0.926 for TRB). The Barlett’s sphericity test result was significant (p < 0.001), and the KMO measure of sampling adequacy exceeded 0.947. Convergent validity analysis results: PB (AVE = 0.52, CR = 0.87), SRB (AVE = 0.50, CR = 0.87), CRB (AVE = 0.51, CR = 0.86), TRB (AVE = 0.56, CR = 0.88). The R-CBI-S achieved good levels of goodness-of-fit indices (RMSEA = 0.0611; CFI = 0.940; TLI = 0.933).

Conclusion. The test results indicated that the R-CBI-S scale appears to be a reliable and valid instrument. The R-CBI-S may be a useful tool in future research to identify burnout factors based on specific life domains for developing effective prevention measures among medical students.

Background. Dissociation is a generally recognized phenomenon in psychology and psychiatry; however, questions are still not fully resolved about the difference between pathological and normal dissociation, as well as the role of dissociation, depending on its aetiology, in the formation of clinical manifestations of mental disorders.

Objective. To complement the existing data about the significance of dissociation in non-psychotic mental disorders.

Design. Using the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES), we screened 62 patients (13 male and 49 female) from the Non-Psychotic Conditions Inpatient Department of the Udmurt Republican Clinical Psychiatric Hospital (Izhevsk, Russia). Nineteen of the patients had mental disorders of organic aetiology and 43 patients had mental disorders of psychogenic aetiology.

Results. Dissociation at the pathological level was detected in 12.9% of the patients, all of them female. Among patients with psychogenic disorders, the proportion of patients with pathological dissociation was more than three times that of patients with organic disorders. Among the particular dissociative phenomena, absorption had the highest average severity, both in the general sample and in each aetiological group of patients, while dissociative amnesia had the lowest average severity. The highest levels of dissociation were found in young female patients who had never been married. In patients with psychogenic disorders, the average dissociation severity was significantly higher than in the general population, while in patients with organic disorders it was significantly lower.

Conclusion. The dissociation phenomenon may play a significant symptom-forming role in young women suffering from non-psychotic mental disorders of psychogenic aetiology. In the case of organic mental disorders, the severity of dissociative manifestations decreases even below the conditionally normal level, which may indirectly indicate the destruction of dissociative physiological mechanisms by an organic brain process.

Background. Fatigue is the most common complaint by children both during and after cancer treatment, but in Russia, there is no reliable method for assessing fatigue. 

Objective. To develop a Russian version of the Turkish Scale for the Assessment of Fatigue in Pediatric Oncology Patients Ages 7-18.

Design. Our first step was to translate all the items of the Turkish questionnaire into Russian. Then, through discussion, we created a single proposition for each item. The next step was obtaining expert opinions to assess the validity. Once the expert estimates agreed, a pilot version of the questionnaire was formed. The next step was to collect a large sample of patients to study the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. 

Results. As a result of factor analysis, three factors were identified. The first factor was "fatigue associated with actions;" the second was "fatigue as feeling;" and the third was "fatigue associated with sleep difficulties." The children's and parents’ versions had the same factor structure. 

Conclusion. This study showed the possibility of using the questionnaire in a Russian sample. That’s why it is necessary to continue collecting and analyzing data in this direction. The reliability of the test was also assessed. The reliability of the parent version scored a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.91. The reliability of the children’s version showed a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93.

Background. In European countries, postpartum depression (PPD) occurs in 13–19% of women. The statistics indicate that postpartum depressive disorders affect up to 300,000 women in Russia annually. There is still an extremely acute lack of psychological comfort provided to women during labor in Russia. 

Objective. To our knowledge, ours is the first study that examines the association between childbirth experience and the risk of PPD in Russia.

Design. We collected data from 190 Russian-speaking mothers, ages 19 to 46, (M = 32 +4.3) two months after their delivery. 

Results. Birth satisfaction and physical well-being two months after delivery were significantly inversely associated with PPD. Birth satisfaction negatively correlated with the perceived severity and unpredictability of labor, and positively correlated with physical well-being two months after delivery. The presence of a partner and a personal midwife or doula at birth was associated with higher birth satisfaction. 

Conclusion. Our results emphasize the significance of childbirth satisfaction in the context of PPD and suggest the importance of individual professional support during labor.

Background. At the beginning of 20^thcentury, the phenomenon of oddity began to be studied. It was defined as a set of characteristics responsible for an individual giving the impression of being unusual, odd, and peculiar. Later, psychiatrists integrated oddity into the concept of schizotypy. Yet, while considered a part of the schizotypy construct, oddity has remained singular  and maintained its status as an independent dimension.

Objective.The present article discusses oddity as a set of particular clinical traits that can be evaluated both by self-report measures and clinical assessment. We  set out to investigate the oddity phenomena as manifested in a clinical sample, in order to delineate key features that constitute this concept.

Design. Seventy-one patients were selected according to a specific set of criteria and subjected to a set of self-report measures (the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire and the Adult Personality Traits Questionnaire), a clinical interview, and a pathopsychological experiment. A number of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional characteristics were analyzed. An intra-group comparison was carried out in order to clarify the potential differences between the self-reported and clinically assessed phenomenon of oddity.

Results. The study’s first finding was that the SPQ-74 does not identify odd personalities in the general population, as reflected in the fact that the sample’s average scores proved to be low. Secondly, restricted emotionality and a deficit in social interactions proved to be the prevalent characteristics of the sample of “odd” individuals. Furthermore, a set of certain speech peculiarities (word coinage, bizarrerie, etc.) and thinking impairments of various types (distortion of abstraction level and motivational deficit) emerged as prominent characteristics in the majority of subjects. Finally, it was determined that clinical assessment allows for a more comprehensive evaluation of the psychology of odd personalities than self-report measures, due to a number of the personality, temperamental, and cognitive characteristics that the latter tend to exhibit.

Conclusion. “Odd” individuals can be characterized by a number of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral features independent of social perception and relevant to clinical practice; they can be captured more successfully by the application of qualitative methods. Further research is needed to elaborate this set of traits and test this hypothesis on new samples.

Background. This article is devoted to the problem of excessively rigid behavior, which the author has named “fixed forms of behavior” (FFB). This term was suggested to me by the concepts of P. Janet (idéefixe), S. Freud (Fixierung), and D. Uznadze (fiksirovanaya ustanovka– fixed set/attitude). By FFB, the author understands a broad spectrum of behaviors of a person or a group of people, which, according to the cultural norms of a given society for persons of a certain age, gender, and status,have become inappropriate, yet are repeated in situations objectively requiring that they change; the degree of realization and acceptance of the need for this change can vary.

Results. Through literature analysis and the collection of experimental data over many years of research, in which over 1,150 persons took part – 550 healthy subjects and 600 mental patients from a broad spectrum – and on the basis of a biopsychosocionoetic model of the nature of man and his health, and a system-network approach, it has become possible to distinguish the following models to explain the nature of fixed forms of behavior: neurodynamic, energy-economic, phylogenetic, person-environment relationship, dispositional, stressogenic, pathogenic, psychodynamic, learning (behavioral-cognitive), system (an excessively rigid system and structural relations between levels of action).

Background. It is known that the earlier a child is diagnosed with developmental delay (DD), the more promising his/her cognitive development can be. Various screenings are used worldwide for early detection of developmental problems. However, timely diagnosis of DD is not sufficiently carried out in Russia at present.

Objective. Elaboration of screening scales to quickly monitor the mental development of five- to six-year-old Russian children was the objective of this study. The scales we developed involved the use of modern information technologies to obtain reliable results.

Design. This study was carried out with a sample of 1,860 children. The formal procedure for multilateral monitoring of child development was used for data collection, involving a much more extensive set of tasks than in traditional tests of abilities; this allowed for a wider variation of the factor structure. For the five-year-olds, 349 tasks were used, and 292 for the six-year-olds. To construct scales for each age group (six–seven items in each), which would most accurately predict the diagnosis (Norm or DD), factor and discriminant analysis were carried out. To verify the prediction model, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used.

Results. As a result of the study, we developed scales which had similar types of variables for each age group (simpler for the five-year-olds and more complex for the six-year-olds). The common variables were logical reasoning, motor skills, and general awareness; two other scales were added for the six-year-olds: sustained attention and counting. According to the SEM, these scales are indicators of the general ability factor, and the latter one (general awareness) is the main predictor of the diagnosis.
Conclusions. Short scales for rapid identification of DD in Russian preschoolers were constructed, which allow the use of computer technology to uncover the risk group among five- and six-year-olds in a timely fashion, and have high sensitivity and specificity of the forecast (not lower than 94%).

Background. The cognitive model of personality disorders has differentiated 10 patterns of dysfunctional beliefs that lead to specific deficient and highly developed coping strategies. The Personality Belief Questionnaire (PBQ) is a self-report instrument based on this model, which differentiates patients with avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive, narcissistic, paranoid, histrionic, passive-aggressive, antisocial, and borderline disorders from each other and from patients with other mental illnesses.

Objective. To validate the Russian version of the PBQ in clinical and control samples.

Design. The PBQ was translated and back-translated. 591 adults without mental illnesses and 200 in patients with different mental illnesses (predominantly affective disorders, personality disorders, schizotypal disorder, and schizophrenia) filled out the Russian version of the PBQ. 178 participants from the control sample and all 200 patients also filled out the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised. 78 participants from the control sample and 58 patients filled out the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – III. 54 participants from the control sample filled out the PBQ again after three weeks to check for test-retest reliability.

Results. The Russian version of the PBQ demonstrated good consistency (Cronbach’s alphas .74 – .88) in both samples and test-retest stability (r = .54 – .76) in the control sample. In line with previous findings, there were high correlations between the scales. Higher scores for avoidant, dependent, passive-aggressive, paranoid, and borderline beliefs and probably histrionic beliefs are typical for patients with different mental illnesses compared to the control sample and especially for patients with schizotypal disorder. The convergent and discriminant validity of the PBQ are supported by specific correlations with clinical personality patterns both in the controls and the clinical sample. Any dysfunctional beliefs are related to more general psychopathological complaints.

Conclusion. The data support the validity and reliability of the Russian version of the PBQ. Both in the control and clinical samples, dysfunctional beliefs have a mixed structure and are related to general psychopathology.

Background. Children undergoing cancer treatment face a number of emotional, physical, and other problems leading to distress that need to be identified in a timely fashion. Regular assessment of patients’ and their caregivers’ psychosocial health care needs during the patients’ hospital stays has become the standard of psychological care.

Objective. This study was conducted to determine the validity of the Distress Rating Scale (DRS) on a Russian pediatric sample. The DRS appeared to be a reliable pediatric measure of patients’ distress level. 

Design. One hundred fifty-nine (159) children of ages 7-17 with cancer and blood disorders, 153 caregivers, and 51 physicians were included in our study. Forty-five families were re-assessed as a test-retest group after a four-week interval. The DRS was validated through the use of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) by M. Kovacs and by the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL 4.0). 

Results. The convergent validity of the DRS's Russian version was shown by the reasonable agreement between the children's distress level and standardized measure scores. The criterion validity was demonstrated by significant correlations between the children’s DRS self-reports, and those of their parents and physicians. The robustness and consistency of the results in the primary and repeated assessments between the DRS, the CDI, and the PedsQL, proved the reliability of the scale. Age-specific cut-off scores were determined.

Conclusion. The Russian version of the DRS is a valid tool for rapid and reliable assessment of children’s emotional distress in order to identify their needs for psychological assistance in a timely manner.

Background. The need to evaluate the emotional changes women experience during the diagnostic stage of breast cancer creates the need for easily applicable short screening tools; thus, evaluations which rely on a single question and visual analogical scales are widely used in hospital environments.

Objective. This study aimed to determine the optimal cut-off points for anxiety, depression, and stress emotional thermometers measured against the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale anxiety and depression sub-scales (HADS-A and HADS-D), and the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale-14, respectively; in addition, the study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of these changes in women scheduled for breast biopsies.

Design. The study included 221 women who were scheduled for breast biopsies; their agesranged between28 and80 years old. They were individually evaluated using the Emotional Thermometers, the HADS-A, theHADS-D, and the PSS-14 before undergoingtheir biopsies. Data from 203 participants were analyzed.

Results. The following optimal cut-off points were obtained: 3 for the anxiety emotional thermometer (ET) (sensitivity 0.71, specificity 0.25); 3 for the depression ET (sensitivity 0.87, specificity 0.34); and 4 for the stress ET(sensitivity 0.80, specificity 0.43). According to these cut-off points, 56% of the patients exhibited anxiety, 40% exhibited depression, and 55% exhibited stress. 

Conclusion. Using emotional thermometers to screen anxiety, depression, and stress is therefore recommended in the context of breast biopsies.

Background. Aging is associated with decline in various cognitive functions, including task switching – the ability to shift quickly between tasks and mindsets. Previous research has shown that older adults exhibit less efficient task switching. Mathematical modeling of cognitive processes involved in switching between tasks may shed light on the sources of switching inefficiency in normal and pathological cognitive aging.

Objective. To investigate possible sources of task-switching decline in normal and pathological (mild cognitive impairment, MCI) cognitive aging using the Diffusion Model (DM). 

Design. 57 young adults, 34 healthy older participants, and 5 MCI-diagnosed older participants performed the commonly used Number-Letter switching task. Reaction times (RT) and accuracy were measured and Diffusion Models were fitted to individual reaction time distribution to obtain parameters characterizing processes involved in task switching: active, controlled task-set reconfiguration; passive, automatic task-set inertia; and response caution. 

Results. Older age and MCI-pathology-related effects on switching efficiency were found for RT and, partly, for accuracy. After controlling for possible age differences between the two older groups, active processes of task-set reconfiguration had a clear MCI-related deficit, while passive, automatic task-set inertia components only exhibited a general effect of aging (pathological or not). Response caution was only related to older age, with no MCI effect.

Conclusion. Effortful task-set reconfiguration is sensitive to both age and MCI pathology, while passive processes of task-set inertia dissipation is only subject to age changes. The results support the idea of different dynamics of controlled and automatic cognitive processes in normal and pathological (MCI) aging.

Background. Rape myths are usually described as a widely-accepted set of false beliefs and attitudes about victims and perpetrators of sexual assault. These beliefs serve to deny, downplay, or justify sexual violence that men commit against women.The Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression (AMMSA) scale assesses those stereotypical beliefs about sexual aggression in a more subtle way than traditional measurements of rape myths, which often use rather blatant wording.

Objective. To develop a Russian version of the sixteen-item AMMSA scale.

Design. Non-experimental design. Participants were recruited online. In total, data of 270 Russian female participants and 131 German female participants were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Convergent and discriminant validity were assessed using correlational analyses with other constructs that are believed to be related to AMMSA to different degrees (hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, traditional gender role preferences, and impression management).

Results. It was found that the Russian AMMSA, just like the German AMMSA, was unidimensional, normally distributed, had high internal consistency, and showed good construct validity. 

Conclusion. The validation of a Russian version of the AMMSA forms an important first step for studying beliefs about sexual aggression in Russian society. The Russian AMMSA scale is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring modern myths about sexual aggression. Future studies are needed to test whether there are gender differences in the Russian population. 

Background. This survey article reviews research and academic writings analyzing cognitive features of patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Objective. To review the academic literature on the feasibility of psychological rehabilitation of cardiovascular patients by correcting cognitive impairment.

Method. Analysis and compilation of academic writings by Russian and foreign researchers.

Results. The cognitive dimension of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients has a number of features linked to the effect of their disease, and to their cognitive and psychological status. The article presents diagnostic techniques used to assess the patient’s cognitive state. The experimental data demonstrates the effectiveness of cognitive training with cardiovascular patients. The article also describes recommendations for cognitive rehabilitation of coronary heart disease patients, for choosing the right “target” of remedial psychological intervention, and for assessment of the recovery process.

Conclusion. Rehabilitation programs are promising for patients with coronary heart disease and other somatic diseases.

Background. Studies have shown that teaching children and youths chess can contribute to their academic achievements and improve their cognitive abilities. Recent studies further indicate the transfer of chess skills to subjects such as mathematics. However, the literature does not address the possible benefits of chess to link between inhibition and ADHD, a disorder in the operational executive functioning system, whenwith chess ias a game that requires various cognitive abilities, and is considered dependent on executive operational functioning abilities and especially inhibition. 

Objective. To investigate whether chess experience relates to inhibitory control in teenagers with and without ADHD. 

Design. Participants completed a visual-spatial task designed for the pur- pose of the study, comprising two conditions: In the “free” condition, par- ticipants were allowed to test different solutions before choosing the answer, whereas in the “touch-move” condition they were asked to choose the answer without any physical attempts. Participants also completed “Go/No-go” tasks. 

Results. The new task was found to be partially effective as only the “touch- move” condition produced group differences, with chess players performing better than non-chess players, regardless of diagnosis. The No-go task perfor- mance analysis also showed a significant main effect for chess training, and a significant interaction among chess, ADHD, and medicine use. 

Conclusion. Although not establishing causality, these results indicate that chess players were less impulsive than non-chess players, regardless of diagnosis. 

Background. Parents have a significant impact on the formation of their children’s attitude toward health. A detailed study of this effect will allow us to devise strategies for interaction with children and directions of psychological correction of maladaptive behaviors in health issues.

Objective. To study the relationship between attitude toward healthin primary-school-age children and their parents and styles of childrearing.

Design. The study comprised 69 primary-school-aged children and their parents. The method of “Unfinished Sentences About Health” and the questionnaire “Analysis of Family Relationships” were used.Components of attitude toward healthsuch as health self-esteem, assessment of healthy people, diseases, health promotion actions, health promotion factors (causes), and the value of health were considered. 

Results. [1]The findings showed that the parents’ components of attitude toward healthare interrelated with those in children’s at all levels (from behavioral to semantic and axiological) and are connected with the style of childrearing.

Conclusion. Data analysis showed the impact of the style of childrearing and the interrelation of certain parental attitude toward healthcomponents with attitude toward health in primary-school-age children. This problem requires detailed study due to its theoretical significance and the obvious social challenges it presents.

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1. These are not Results, but part of the Design.

Background. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong pervasive developmental disorder affecting subjects’ emotions, will, and cognition, and inhibiting their social adaptation.

Objective. To define directions and methods for psychological assistance to autistic people that would let them achieve higher self-actualization and independence, and avoid social maladaptation.

Design. The following methods were used: analysis of the life histories and catamneses of autistic individuals; participant observation of their behavior; analysis of materials (text summaries) of psychological consulting with families who have autistic members; analysis of materials from remedial sessions with people with autism and developmental disorders.

Research participants were autistic individuals age 12 years or more at the beginning and up to 38–40 years at the end.

Results. The long-term manifestations of autistic development in emotions, will, and cognition are described. These manifestations affect subjects’ adaptation and independence negatively, even in cases of remarkable progress.

Two important aspects of psychological assistance are: a) mastering of skills; b) improving comprehension of social relationships, one’s own psychological world, and other people’s minds. The author proposes some methods of psychological remedial work and insists that rules for social interaction should not be learned mechanically.

Conclusions. The general principles of psychological assistance to autistic individuals are: (a) encouraging their long-term activity jointly with others; (b) providing a well-organized and thoughtful social environment where the activity takes place. Autistic persons often need special assistance to become successfully engaged in a more active and more complex social environment. The present work may be useful for professionals working with people with special needs.

Background: Cancer incidence and mortality in young Latin American women has increased over the last few decades. In Mexico, breast self-examination (BSE) is recommended from 20 years of age to create awareness of breast cancer and detect body changes. The health belief model (HBM) allows us to identify young women’s beliefs about cancer and BSE, which could help us to design more appropriate strategies to promote BSE in the fight against breast cancer.

Objective: To assess the knowledge, practice, and beliefs about cancer and BSE in female college students; examine the differences between those who practice BSE and those who do not; and determine the most influential variable for performing BSE. 

Design: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used; the Health Belief Model scale for BSE was applied to 949 female college students from a public university.

Results: Major health study field suffered benign breast disease and having a family history of breast cancer was associated with BSE performance; also the dimensions of the health beliefs model such as barriers, benefits, self-efficacy and health motivation were different between women who perform an BSE in. The predicting variables for BSE practice were self-efficacy, the barriers perceived, benign breast disease, and the major subject of  study.

Conclusion: Reports of BSE practice in female students from Latin American countries are similar; however, the predictive variables differ from those found in the general population. Perceived barriers and self-efficacy are factors capable of  modification, and must be addressed by BSE promotion strategies aimed at female college students.

Background. Contemporary rehabilitation of memory impairments relies on the use of external compensatory strategies. In Russian neuropsychological tradition, rehabilitation is understood as a transformation of a higher mental function, based on intact elements of that function and on use of external and internal means. Such a restructuration approach may be applied to memory. 

Objective. This article describes the basic principles underlying memory rehabilitation and gives an example of their successful implementation in a clinical case. 

Design. A 62-year-old patient was admitted 6 months after severe traumatic brain injury with primary damage to his le frontal and temporal lobes. He faced difficulties in social living and activities of daily life, mainly due to memory impairment. Neuropsychological assessment revealed moderate impairment of different memory types: modal nonspecific impairment with mild but persistent impairments in autobiographic and semantic memories. During a 3-week rehabilitation program, an algorithm involving the use of text was developed in consideration of the structure of memory impairment (impaired selectiveness, excessive inhibition and pathologic inertness of memory traces). 

Results. After multiple trials and modifications, the resulting algorithm (written retelling with the use of keywords, self-correction with writing correct variants instead of errors), allowed reproduction of the presented text with 100% recall of significant information and no false memories. The use of the developed memorization technique in everyday life allowed the patient to effectively memorize relevant information.

Conclusion. The described approach—restructuration of memory on the basis of preserved chains—is a feasible strategy of memory rehabilitation. 

Background. Special features of communicative development in children with Down Syndrome are reported to correlate with intellectual disability, while their mothers’ communication with them is considered to be a reaction to difficulties in building rapport with the child. The cultural-historical approach to human psychological and mental development (Vygotsky, 1982) supports research into the contribution of maternal behavior to the development of communication in children with Down Syndrome. 

Objective. To analyze the relationship between the development of responsive and initiative communicative actions in children with Down Syndrome and features of maternal communicative behavior. 

Design. The subjects were 15 pairs of mothers and their children diagnosed with “trisomy 21, Down Syndrome, full (or complete) type of trisomy” and 18 pairs of mothers and their typically developing children. The children in the experimental group are from 18 to 36 months old, the age of mothers is from 24 to 41 years. e children in the control group are from 18 to 36 months old; the mothers’ age is from 20 to 44 years. The research included collection of video data and expert video recording analysis. Communication was recorded of mothers and their children without a toy, and then with a toy. Videos were made three times, every 1.5 or 2 weeks, and each session lasted 20 minutes; two videos were analyzed, excluding the first one. The analysis was performed by three experts — researchers at the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution “Institute of Special Education of the Russian Academy of Education” — calculating the frequency of the children’s responsive and initiative communicative actions. A qualitative analysis of the mothers’ communicative behavior was conducted: Repeated patterns of the mothers’ communicative behavior in both groups were identified, and the number of mothers with these communicative actions was calculated. 

Results. Mothers’ actions that correlated with the development of responsive and initiative communicative actions in typically developing children were identified, including: the adult caregiver addresses her child directly and personally; she pays attention to the child’s actions and supports them; she plays with the child as with an equal. The communicative behavior of mothers of children with Down Syndrome did not differ from that of the mothers of typically developing children in terms of the behavioral characteristics listed above. Thedevelopment of responsive and initiative communicative actions in children with Down Syndrome correlates with a greater number of characteristics of maternal communicative behavior, such as: continuing the communication despite approximate, uncertain, or contradictory signals from the child; creating vivid and positive emotional support for interactions; and keeping in mind the child’s language and motor limitations. 

Conclusion. Our research suggests that for the development of communication in children with Down Syndrome, maternal communicative actions that correlate with the development of communication in typically developing children are not sufficient. 

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), also known as domestic violence, spousal abuse, and relationship violence, among other names, is becoming a widely recognized social and public health problem. Theory and practice suggest it is vital that the issue be addressed comprehensively in both the healthcare and socio-legal contexts. The theoretical perspectives underlying inquiries into the nature and etiology of the IPV phenomenon are of fundamental importance in promoting our understanding of how to prevent, reduce, or eliminate the problem. In order to integrate various aspects of knowledge about the phenomenon, it is important to consider and evaluate the approaches to IPV currently prevalent in the field. 

Objectives: The present article aims to provide a critical overview of the existing theories, methodological frameworks, typologies, and definitions of Intimate Partner Violence. 

Design: The present paper reviews the international literature on the conceptual frameworks and definitions of IPV. First, it draws on the conceptual frameworks of violence; it then reviews relevant theories and definitions of IPV considered from sociocultural, individual, and integrative perspectives. The disparities, limitations, and explanatory powers of these theories, as well as their clinical and research applications, are discussed in an attempt to bring more clarity into the current state of understanding in the field. 

Results and Conclusions: Our review suggests that there is no universally accepted definition of IPV, nor a conceptual framework that would encompass the complexity of the phenomenon. Some of the theoretical frameworks for studying IPV appear to provide potential advantages over others, but their empirical viability has yet to be determined. We argue that, due to the complex multifaceted nature of IPV, a narrow theoretical stance might exclude a variety of exploratory factors and limit understanding of the phenomenon. 

Background. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative illness, which occurs with increasing frequency as people age. While progressive memory impairment is the upfront element associated with the disease, other neurocognitive troubles are also associated with it, such as language impairment which can degenerate into aphasia. Language disorders interfere and worsen the functioning of memory. 

Aim of the study. To evaluate semantic and textual impairment in AD patients. 

Methods. The current study involved 151 AD patients undergong consultation at Brest University Hospital. Certain socio-demographic data (sex, age, cultural levels) were collected, as well as results from the following neuropsychological tests: Folstein (MMSE); Dubois’s 5-word test; Dubois’s frontal assessment test battery (fluencies); Cornell’s scale for depression; and Barbizet’s test ( “The Lion’s tale”). All were subject to textual analysis. Our sample of demented patients included 102 females and 49 males of average age 80.3 ± 6.91. 

Results. All the tests, including the number of items recalled much later in the Barbizet’s test, showed impairment, all the more by Folstein’s test being altered. The demented patients’ formal fluency was less impaired than their semantical lexical fluency (scored respectively 5.74 ± 1.09 versus 4.41 ± 2.19; t = 5.60, p < 0.01). The demented cohort exhibited more intrusions (n = 36) than inversions in the delayed recollection of the Lion’s Tale, both for items and the episodes in which they occurred (n = 19). The regressive PLS analysis showed that, to explain the overall scores relating to “ e Lion’s Tale”, calculated later, only attainment of lexical fluency had any notable influence (Regression coefficient CR=0.224) or, more accessorily, the cultural level (CR = 0.12). 

Conclusion. AD patients’ proficiency in tests of category fluency and their cultural levels have effects on narrativity.

Background. Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been one of the most performed surgical procedures for more than 30 years. Recent research has shown severe cognitive disorders accompanying cardiac surgery. However, mild cognitive dysfunction, which is more amenable to prevention and correction, has been less studied because of difficulties in diagnosing it. 

Objective. For this reason, we set out to analyze the dynamics of cognitive functioning in CHD patients undergoing CABG. Our study focuses on the main indicators of cognitive functioning and on comparing cognitive functioning with normative data, as well as on the emotional state which accompanies cardiac surgery. 

Methods. The present study enrolled 70 patients (of average age 59.71 ± 7.32 years) who underwent CABG with the standard cardiopulmonary bypass technique. Our examination used a pathopsychological test battery (including the WAIS, TMT, Stroop test, TAS, Benton test, etc.), and was performed in three stages: two days before, and both 12–14 days and three months after the surgery. 

Results. The results obtained suggest that the majority of cognitive complaints are connected with memory decline after CABG. Patients with CHD experience significant postoperative cognitive decline mostly in verbal memory and attention. A significant cognitive improvement three months after the operation occurred in the following cognitive domains: visual memory, logical memory, and spatial thinking. An analysis of the patients’ trait anxiety leads to the conclusion that the highest intensity of anxiety was observed in relation to the following indicators: “emotional discomfort,” “asthenic component,” and “anxious assessment of the future.” 

Conclusion. Our research demonstrates negative changes in both short- and longterm memory. Possible reasons for postoperative cognitive decline include the conditions and consequences of the surgery, normal aging, brain injury at the time of coronary surgery, and the emotional state of the patients. A positive trend was discovered in the visual and logical memory, active attention, and thinking activity.

Background. Throughout the ontogenic development period and life journey, everyone faces numerous threats and challenges. Certain of these challenges are beyond the individual’s control and are caused by social and environmental factors, but others, conversely, are provoked by the individual’s own lifestyle and mental and/or physical health condition. This paper considers how the social adaptation of children with intellectual developmental disorders affects the development of various forms of socially dangerous behavior. 

Objective. The primary goal of the study described in the article is to identify and analyze the potential risk factors related to antisocial behavior among teenagers with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) based on a survey of teachers in special (correctional) schools. 

The methodological basis of our research uses the provisions of Lev Vygotsky’s theory of socialization among children with intellectual disabilities. This article shows the importance of implementing Lev Vygotsky’s doctrine of correction and compensation of disturbed psychological, emotional and social development of schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities. 

Design. To achieve this purpose, the following methods were used: interviews, questionnaires, and factor analysis. In the first stage of the study, interviews were conducted with teachers working in special (correctional) schools (teachers, child and youth counselors, school psychologists, developmental pediatricians) — of 108 teachers from 10 schools. Analysis of the interviews revealed a list of risk factors related to antisocial behavior among teenagers with intellectual disabilities (only 35 points). The collected data formed the basis for a questionnaire, “Social Safety for Children with Intellectual Disabilities”. In the second stage, 83 teachers working in the special (correctional) schools were surveyed. The survey was completed by teachers of children (12-13 years old) who had a diagnosis of F70 (Mild mental retardation) or F71 (Moderate mental retardation). To determine the significance of risk factors, the respondents were asked to assess children’s exposure to risk factors on a 5-point scale. In the third stage, the results of the risk factor assessment conducted in relation to socially dangerous behavior of adolescents with intellectual disabilities were processed using the factor analysis. 

Results. From the factor analysis of the data collected, as well as an analysis of the relevant theoretical and methodological materials, the following risk factors (with load factors) of socially dangerous behavior among teenagers with intellectual disabilities were identified: antisocial behavior (violation of generally accepted societal norms) (48.7 %); asociality (the lack of motivation to engage in social interaction) (7.96 %); infantilism (5.9 %); social mistrust in the world (4.86 %); propensity for victimizing behavior (4.18 %); virtual addiction (3.98 %); and high self-concept discrepancies (3.14 %). 

Conclusions. The results of our research may be used to prevent antisocial behavior in teenagers with intellectual disabilities through the implementation of psychological and pedagogical follow-up programs aimed at preventing antisocial and asocial behavior, overcoming infantilism and victimization, forming adequate self-esteem, and forming personality-trusting relationships with significant adults and peers.

Background. Cancer is a chronic disease that significantly affects the quality of life of patients who suffer from it, because they must face stressful situations, including their diagnosis, surgical procedures, and the adverse effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. 

Objective. To evaluate the effects of hypnotherapy on breast cancer patients’ quality of life during chemotherapy. 

Design. A quasi-experimental design was used with a convenience sample. Method. Two groups of patients with early breast cancer diagnoses were assigned to either a control group that received standard medical care (n = 20), or a hypnotherapy group (n = 20) that received 12 intensive sessions over the course of 1 month, and 12 additional sessions over the course of 6 months. The patients’ quality of life was evaluated using the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30). 

Results. The hypnotherapy group showed a statistically significant improvement and a large effect size on the cognitive functioning and social functioning scales compared to the control group. The physical functioning, role functioning, and quality of life scales showed improvement with a medium effect size, but the changes were not statistically significant. 

Conclusion. The improvement observed in the cognitive functioning and social functioning scales allows us to suggest that hypnotherapy improves the quality of life of breast cancer patients during chemotherapy.

In this article the features of social-relationship systems are analyzed based on the data from a sociopsychological empirical study conducted in two stages (2002 and 2014) on a large sample with the help of g. Kelly’s Repertory grid Technique. A. V. Petrovsky’s three-factor interpersonal-relationships model as interpreted for closed groups by M. Yu. Kondratev and the concept of the closed society as described by Karl Popper provide the foundation for the theoretical hypothesis we tested. The empirical data obtained in 2002 came from 391 participants of different ages who were living in provincial towns in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The elderly respondents (232 people) had lived almost all their lives under the Soviet regime; the middle-aged respondents (159 people) got their education and started their careers in the USSR. Soviet society is considered to be closed because of its authoritarian and collectivist nature, static social structure, and dogmatic ideology. It is argued that both closed societies and closed groups are characterized by a rigid hierarchical social structure, isolation from other systems, and depersonalization of social relations. We have proved that members of a closed group and citizens of a closed society have similar social-relationship matrices. 

Biobanking is an emerging medical, research, and social institution that has many im- plications for psychological science and practice. The bibliographic study of abstracts and full text articles retrieved from major databases (PsycInfo, PubMed, EBSCO, SAgE) indicates that the role of psychology in the establishment and functioning of biobanks is not well articulated. Two promising directions of biobank-based studies are concerned with studies of risk factors for various disorders and with genetic and epigenetic mecha- nisms of psychological and behavioral trait development, and are closely tied to a devel- oping model of a new “personalized” medicine. It is important to carefully select the psy- chological variables and measurements, with consideration of their suitability for genetic studies, possibilities for networking and sharing of results, economic limitations, and biobank purposes. Of special importance is a systemic foundation of mental functions that requires not only the assessment of efficacy, but also the search for simple, natural, and objectively observable components. Applied tasks of professional psychologists in the field of biobanking can be defined, such as donor selection and management of ethi- cal issues. As a new technology, biobanking poses several challenges to society and the individual that need to be studied in order to prevent misuse and to earn the public trust. The hidden dangers of eugenics-like ideas, of consumer practices with genetic products, and of over-emphasis on human enhancement are particularly stressed. We conclude that while biobanks represent a promising and fertile ground for psychological research and applications, there is a need for a comprehensive psychology of biobanking to make them fruitful. 

Immunization is one of the most significant achievements of public health over the last 100 years. Recently, however, people have been increasingly refusing to vaccinate. There are a large number of separate studies on how pervasive this behavior is and what fac- tors influence it, but no systematic review has been undertaken so far that looked at these studies as a whole. To conduct an analysis of studies that examine vaccine refusal and negative attitudes towards vaccination, focusing on the methodological approaches to the study of these problems and evaluation of their quality. A systematic review of English-language studies published between 1980 and 2015, using the Web of ScienceTM Core Collection database. The final review dealt with 31 papers. The studies in question were mainly conducted in North America and Western Europe. They were published three years after conclusion, on average. We have identified five different approaches to the study of these problems: 1) studies of parents’ attitudes and behavior; 2) analysis of vaccination records; 3) studies of attitudes and behavior among the general population; 4) studies of medical professionals’ attitudes, behavior, and experience; and 5) others. We found that theoretical models were not commonly used at the planning stage, while the studies also lacked a common approach to the operationalization of vaccine refusal, as well as of negative attitudes towards vaccination. Several promising directions have been identified for future studies on vaccine refusal and negative attitudes towards vac- cination. 

This article deals with vital questions of the health and safety of children with intellectual disability (mental disability and mixed specific disorders). Theoretical analysis has demonstrated insufficient study of the problem, both in national and foreign psychological and pedagogical studies, although a number of approaches exist. Researchers agree that development of these children is an important condition for the existence of both individual and society at large. At the contemporary stage of development of our society, the safety of the children is all the more relevant since the degree of their development is an important condition of socialization and normal interaction with the environment. Diagnostic tools to estimate the comprehension and recognition of unsafe situations by children with these disorders are still insufficiently developed.

This paper describes the application of a technique called “Recognition of Unsafe Situations”, which was designed to study the ability of children with intellectual disability to recognize potentially life-threatening situations (handling household appliances, electricity, medicine, hot or sharp objects, behavior at heights and with stray animals) and to predict the consequences of their actions in such situations. The results of this study allow us to determine the differences in recognizing unsafe situations by children with mental disability and children with mixed specific developmental disorders. We show that children with mixed specific developmental disorders have a certain ability to identify potentially unsafe situations, and with support provided by adults, they are able to predict the consequences of their actions. Children with mental disability, however, have insufficient knowledge of safe behavior; but special activities that take into account these children’s ability to compensate enable them to develop the essential skills for behavior in potentially life-threatening situations.

Low birth weight has a negative impact on psychomotor development, specifically on motor and perceptual functions. In order to prevent this effect, neurodevelopmental diagnosis should be supplemented by an effective therapeutic system. The aim of this work was to test a program for psychomotor development based on A.R. Luria’s concept of three functional brain units or blocks and the necessity of stimulation of the first functional unit in early childhood. Stimulation of subcortical systems associated with psychomotor and cognitive regulation may help to set the basis for positive functioning of the cerebral cortex in the coming years. Vestibular exercises and proprioceptive stimulation were used. All exercises included significant communicative activity as described by Vygotsky and Lisina, which provided positive direct emotional contact between adult and child. Twenty-five babies with low birth weight were included in the study, along with their parents. After 250 days in the program, all the underweight children presented positive functional development. We conclude that positive effects of these programs for correction and psychological development may be achieved during the first year of life. The methods for sensitive diagnosis and correction should be considered by all specialists involved in topics of early development.

Guided by the principle that scientific knowledge should serve to transform reality and create suitable conditions of life for all, the Portuguese Association for Relational-Historical Psychology (APPRH) founded a school named RITA LEAL (RLS), with a therapeutic purpose based on new perspectives for treating autism — perspectives quite different from instrumental and behavioral learning programs. The Rita Leal School (Leal, 1975/2004, 1997, 2005, 2010) is rooted in the theory that mental development is based on a mutually contingent emotional relationship, while it underwrites Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Mediation (1930/2004, 1934/2009). Learning to read is a complex process which individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) master slowly and with difficulty. We analyzed the process of learning to read of two ASD children accompanied by peers without special educational needs, aiming to pinpoint distinct aspects of their progress. We used the Observer Software Program to collect and analyze observations of their performance, which were understood as data to be classified according to previously specified codes. We believed we could demonstrate that, especially in the case of ASD children, learning is dependent on contingent responses and adequate levels of mediation. The technical team at the RLS has continuous clinical supervision. That is because we believe this supervision is what permits the team to undergo a process of de-centering, becoming more empathic and accessible to the autists. This makes the team’s intervention more efficient, because it becomes more aware of each autist’s individual characteristics, and therefore more available to respond to the autist’s needs.

From a Relational-Historical theoretical framework applied to clinical psychological practice, this study examines the data set underlying the personality attributes of different groups of children with behavior problems as demonstrated on the Rorschach Inkblot Test. To define the groups, categories were established from parents’ descriptions of their own children. This procedure allowed for the formation of three major psychological profiles: hyperkinetic, oppositional defiant, and antisocial (Saraiva & Ferreira, 2016). The major goal of this study is data exploration in a clinical setting, in order to investigate whether and in what ways groups of hyperkinetic, oppositional defiant, and antisocial children differ. These profile characteristics are important issues embraced by both psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy. The participants for this study were 39 Portuguese children, who were private clinic clients; there were 24 boys and 15 girls between the ages of 6 and 14. Their personality attributes were measured using the Rorschach Inkblot Test (Rorschach, 1994), and the Comprehensive System developed by Exner (1991, 1993, 2000) was applied, with the support of the clinical interpretation provided by Quintino-Aires (1999; 2009; 2012; 2014). Comparison of the three profiles showed four common aspects of personality structure: a deficit in cognitive perceptual skills, lack of self-control, limited relational skills, and low self-esteem. Differences in the three profiles revealed factors related to the functional characteristics of specific behavior patterns. Children with the hyperkinetic psychological profile show factors of difficulty in controlling their activity, impulsivity, and overlapping emotions about conscious action. Those with the oppositional defiant profile revealed factors of low self-confidence, low trust in others, high pessimism, loneliness, and structural stress. Finally, those with the antisocial profile had factors of a deficit in coping skills, lack of verbalization of affects and emotions, and egotism.

This work is dedicated to the development of L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas in clinical psychology and the clarification of some basic points of the cultural-historical concept. The paper presents a thesis about the development of man in ontogeny as the result of his interaction with the cultural environment, which transforms natural mental functions into higher mental functions. This process can be attended by a whole range of psychopathologies. The issues discussed include voluntary regulation of higher mental functions, determination of the involuntariness and “post-voluntariness” of functions, the internalization of actions, the differentiation of affect and emotion (including as higher mental functions), the “cultural” socialization of non-mental functions (sex, sleep, excretion), and the discord between natural and “cultural” entities in a person. The basis for the ontological development of man is the genesis of “subjectness”, like all the forms of higher activity that emerge when encountering cultural restrictions and requirements causing specific mental disorders. The supposition is made that there are no significant restrictions to explaining either mental or non-mental functions with the cultural-historical approach. Recommendations for further research are suggested.

The vocational activities of doctors and their social status do not ensure their health. And, falling ill, doctors don’t identify themselves with ordinary patients as they have a deep knowledge of medicine. Thus, the internal picture of a doctor’s illness is both a research and a practical problem: the problem of the psychoprevention of doctors’ illnesses at all stages of their professionalization. The purpose of the research was to study the phenomenological features of the internal picture of doctors’ illnesses using the structural approach. The total number of participants was 132. The experimental group consisted of 66 sick doctors, differentiated according to their stage of professionalization: vocational training (students), professional adaptation (interns), full professionalization (doctors). The control group consisted of 66 people who did not have any medical education. All the control subjects were hospitalized with chronic diseases during the study period. The organization of the research was carried out with the use of clinical-psychological and diagnostic methods, the methods of descriptive statistics, and comparative, multidimensional, and structural analysis. The research revealed the following phenomenological features of the internal picture of doctors’ illnesses: the prevalence of some anxiety in the doctors and high awareness of their health; the doctors’ altruistic orientation; their willingness to work despite difficulties; and their ability to achieve high results in different activities. The structural features of the doctors’ image of their own diseases on the cognitive level were the following: qualitative heterogeneity during in-service activities; a high degree of image integration during in-service activities; and stereotyped perceptions of the disease. The emotional level revealed the emotional distance between doctors and their patients, and the behavioral level revealed doctors’ disregard for the symptoms of the disease. The structural-phenomenological features of the formation of the internal picture of doctors’ illnesses are specific to the circumstances of their origin. For the purpose of the psychoprevention of doctors’ own diseases it is necessary to include these features in the special courses on medical psychology at the stages of vocational training (students) and professional adaptation (interns), as well as in the “psychology in practical medicine” project for doctors.

Fear of disease progression is one of the most common sources of psychological distress in patients suffering from chronic diseases. Fear of disease progression is a situationspecific and fully discernible (reportable) emotion based on personal experience of a life-threatening disease. This article presents the results of a study of cancer patients’ coping behavior according to the levels of fear of disease progression experienced. The presence of pronounced fear of disease progression reflects a negative cognitive-affective response to one’s expectations for one’s own future; this response is related to a decrease in adaptive capacity. To determine the particular characteristics of coping strategies and coping resources in women with reproductive-system cancers according to the level of fear of disease progression. A total of 177 women with reproductive-system cancers were examined, among them 59 with breast cancer and 118 with gynecological cancers. Women with reproductive-system cancers have varying sets of coping strategies and coping resources according to their level of fear of disease progression. For each of the differentiated groups, specific characteristics of the strategies of coping with difficult life situations are described, along with cognitive self-regulation strategies specific to the illness and to coping resources. The women exhibiting moderate fear of disease progression significantly more often adhered to problem-oriented strategies of coping with difficult life situations and illness and had an internal locus of control regarding treatment. Patients with a low level of fear of disease progression tended to use strategies of positive reinterpretation of difficult life situations and illness; an external locus of control regarding treatment prevailed in this group. Patients found to have a dysfunctional level of fear of disease progression displayed significantly higher rates of using cognitive-regulation strategies focused on negative aspects of illness, as well as strategies for avoiding difficult life situations. Fear of disease progression is a psychological problem in women with reproductive-system cancers. Higher levels of fear of disease progression are associated with a decrease in the psychosocial adaptation of women suffering from reproductivesystem cancers.

Today in Russia and all over the world significant efforts are invested in building biobanks—specialized facilities for storing biological materials for research and medical purposes. The successful functioning of biobanks depends directly on people’s willingness to donate their biological materials. No previous studies of people’s attitudes toward donations to biobanks have been undertaken in Russia. The goal of this study was to measure attitudes toward biobank donation among young Russians and to evaluate potential sociodemographic and personality factors that play a role in a person’s readiness to become a donor. Data from 542 students at Saint Petersburg State University were collected from group-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaires. Only one-fifth of the students knew about the existence of biobanks, while roughly the same number believed they might have heard something about them but were not absolutely certain. However, the students indicated a relatively high level of readiness to become biobank donors (74%). Willingness to be a biobank donor was correlated significantly with studying biology and was just modestly correlated with students’ values. In addition, we found gender-specific differences in the biobank characteristics that students felt were important in making a decision about whether to donate. The study demonstrated that today the attitudes of the general population (at least, those of the subgroup studied, students) do not pose a problem for the further development of biobanking in Russia.

The study described in this article investigated contemporary young people’s perceptions of drugs and psychoactive substances (PAS). In the course of the research the following hypothesis was tested: in young people’s perceptions about drugs and PAS there are differences in emotional coloring, coherence, and tolerance. J.-C. Abric’s structural approach was used as the basic methodology. The free-associations method provided the bulk of the empirical material. The results obtained were processed via prototypic analysis (by P. Vergès’s method), indexing of emotional associations (by E.E. Pronina’s method), and frequency and content analysis. 

As a result the core and the periphery of the perceptions of youth about drugs and PAS were described, and generalized notional categories that synthesize the structural elements of the perceptions were identified. The study revealed that the perceptions of young people about drugs and PAS do differ in coherence, tolerance, and emotional coloring. Perceptions of drugs are firm, consistent, and negative, while perceptions of PAS are less coherent but dynamic and have an ambivalent emotional coloration. The results are of prognostic importance for understanding young people’s attitudes toward drugs and PAS and can be used to design programs and measures directed to the prevention of PAS and drug abuse.

This study investigated the level of conceptual and metacognitive abilities and their interaction in adolescents with different forms of dysontogenesis. The total sample (N= 173) included four groups of young adolescents (11-12 years old): with normal development, with infantile cerebral palsy (CP), with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and with delayed intellectual development (DID). We measured the adolescents’ performance on tests of conceptual abilities (the use of categories at different grades of generalization, the discovery of abstract meaning and implicit connections between concepts) and metacognitive abilities (attention selectivity, as measured by Mtinsterberg’s test and the understanding of hidden pictures, and attention organization, as measured by indices of cognitive styles). The results showed, first, that in comparison with normal adolescents, the adolescents with CP and ADHD had a deficit of metacognitive abilities, but they did not differ in rates of conceptual abilities. As for adolescents with DID, even though they had lower rates of conceptual abilities and attention selectivity, they did not differ from the “norm” group on some indices of attention organization. Second, a tendency for the disintegration of conceptual and metacognitive abilities (as measured by correlation and factor analysis) was most clearly seen in the adolescents with ADHD and DID. The adolescents with CP and ADHD had conceptual (categorial and generative) abilities as a mental resource, and the adolescents with DID had metacognitive abilities as a mental resource. The resource function of conceptual and metacognitive abilities was determined not only by their level but also by the extent of their interaction (integration).    

Fear of childbirth (FOC) is an important psychological problem that is studied worldwide because it affects the well-being of pregnant women. However, in Russia, this problem does not receive adequate attention among researchers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the conditionality of fear of childbirth (FOC) in pregnant women by external and internal factors, which we assumed were the reasons for this fear. As external factors, we considered socio-demographic indicators (e.g., age, marital status, level of education, housing, and the attitude of relatives towards pregnancy) as well as indicators of gynecological history (e.g., the term of pregnancy, the outcome of previous pregnancies, and pregnancy complications). As internal (psychological) factors of the fear of childbirth, we considered personal anxiety as well as general inclination towards and negative consequences of different fears (20 types of fears and phobias were examined). The study was conducted with a Russian sample of 76 women at different stages of pregnancy and with different socio-demographic indicators and gynecological histories. The analysis of the results showed the absence of significant differences between women who were pregnant with FOC and those without this fear in terms of the external factors considered in this study. According to the study’s data, a general inclination of women to fear is associated with fear of childbirth. However, the findings for the women with FOC did not indicate significant positive correlations between the level of this fear and exposure to any of the 20 types of fear and phobias measured in the study. Furthermore, the results did not detect relationships between the FOC level and women’s personal anxiety. The results allow us to conclude that FOC is a separate phenomenon that is not dependent on other phobias and fears. Fear of childbirth has a subjective and highly individual genesis. It is not a direct consequence of objective factors, and it cannot be predicted based on women’s personal characteristics (in particular, anxiety). For further study of this problem, we suggest that researchers identify different types of FOC and describe their content as a way to help develop practical methods of providing psychological assistance for women during pregnancy.

This article presents research on the most effective measures in rehabilitation programs for people with chemical addictions and research on the personal characteristics that influence the complete cessation of drug and alcohol consumption. Building a model of an effective rehabilitation process is one of the most significant problems in organizing aid for drug and alcohol addicts. Analysis of the results of previous research revealed a number of factors that influence the stability of remission: individual biological factors (general state of health, presence of co-existing diseases); individual psychological factors (coping strategies, shifting of attention, self-control, aggressiveness); rehabilitation program factors (duration of programs, rehabilitation measures, form of rehabilitation, conditions for admission to a rehabilitation center); social factors (family support, rehabilitation with children, availability of communities with no drug addictions); spiritual factors (call to a divine power for help). We have researched the most effective measures of rehabilitation programs for people with chemical addictions, as well as personal characteristics that influence the full cease in drug and alcohol consumption.

In our research we studied people undergoing rehabilitation in different programs (nonstate 12-step, confessional, and state). Five groups of respondents participated in the research; the total number of respondents was 945.

The purpose of our research was to investigate the factors of stable remission for drug addicts in different rehabilitation programs. Our conclusion is that there are outer (social) and inner (personal) factors of stable remission.

Our research revealed that during positive remission (abstinence from taking drugs) addicts had fewer social and psychological problems, and their social and psychological personal characteristics improved; it also revealed those measures that furthered the development of remission. Respondents considered the following the most effective measures: small groups, lectures on addiction, written tasks connected with the analysis of feelings (diaries, self-analysis etc.), individual and group psychological classes, sport, introduction to faith, prayer, labour, communication with graduates of rehabilitation programs. The received data demonstrates the necessity of complex approach to rehabilitation, with regards to biological, psychological, social and spiritual components of addiction.

A major risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s type dementia (DAT) is the carriage of the ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene. Identifying cognitive deficits in healthy ApoE-ε4 carriers is valuable in order to develop interventions to prevent them from developing DAT. Existing evidence about cognitive deficits in the domains of episodic memory and cognitive control specific to ApoE-ε4 is contradictory.

The objective of our research was to assess episodic memory and cognitive control in healthy ApoE-ε4 carriers.

Cognitively healthy ApoE-ε4 carriers (13 ε4/ε4 heterozygotes) and noncarriers (22 ε3/ε3 homozygotes), who were matched on age and family history of DAT, were compared on episodic-memory and cognitive-control tasks. Episodic-memory tasks were verbal and visual recognition tasks with a systematic variation of distractor-to-target similarity. Executive functions were assessed by a task for updating working memory, an inhibition task, and a switching task. Working-memory capacity was also assessed.

The results showed that executive functions were generally not impaired in the carriers, but carriers showed a specific increase in accuracy-related switch costs. Workingmemory capacity was not reduced in the carriers. In the domain of episodic memory, the carriers were found to make more errors with phonetic distractors in the verbal episodicmemory task. They also tended to make more errors with visually dissimilar distractors in the visual episodic-memory task.

The results are indicative of an episodic-memory deficit specific to the carriage of ApoE-ε4. This deficit may be driven either by deficits in storage or by deficits in the encoding of the to-be-remembered material. Contradictory results concerning the presence of an episodic-memory deficit obtained in previous studies may stem from small effect sizes, the use of specific materials, and the employment of attention-intensive encoding strategies. The carriers also showed a switching deficit that possibly is related to difficulty in retrieving task rules from episodic memory. Existing empirical contradictions concerning the presence of an executive deficit in carriers may in part depend on the extent to which tasks used to assess an executive deficit draw on the switching function. In this study, there was no general executive deficit in the carriers of ApoE-ε4.

An in vitro fertilization (IVF) pregnancy is stressful both financially and emotionally. Patients undergoing an IVF procedure often have already had infertility and reproductive losses. Pregnancy through IVF involves the increased risk of various medical complications. Experts around the world are actively engaged in studying the specifics of the mental state of participants in IVF programs during pregnancy. Of critical importance is the issue of providing psychological support for couples who are preparing for and who have received an IVF pregnancy. 

The aim of our research was to investigate the mental state of women participating in an IVF program. The study involved 224 pregnant women in the second and third trimesters: 62 women with an IVF pregnancy and 162 women who conceived naturally. The study took place at the Kulakov Scientific Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Perinatology in Moscow, Russia. All the study participants had encountered medical complications during their pregnancy. No significant differences were identified in mental well-being in the two groups; this finding suggests that somatic complications during pregnancy are a general source of anxiety regardless of the reason for their occurrence. The second and third trimesters of pregnancy register increased anxiety levels associated with experiences of reproductive loss and the presence of physical problems. The main resources of a woman’s personality that contribute to her self-confidence and mental stability are her professional employment and flexible behavior.

The study aimed to investigate the basic aspects of quality of life and relation to disease in patients with malignant or premalignant bone tumors. Study participants (N=82) were aged 18 to 67 years (average age 34 ± 2 years). They were separated into three groups depending on diagnosis: patients with osteosarcoma, patients with giant cell tumor and patients with chondrosarcoma. The SF-36 Health Status Survey and the Quality of Life Questionnaire - Core 30 with Bone Metastasis (BM22) Module were used to assess patient quality of life. The type of relation to disease method (TOBOL) was used to determine the relation to disease of the patients.

According to the results of the quality of life study, patients with giant cell tumor exhibited the highest degree of limiting physical activity and reduced social functioning, the greatest financial difficulties and more pain sites than either patients with osteosarcoma or patients with chondrosarcoma. The study of relation to disease revealed that all studied groups of patients were susceptible to ergopathic and sensitive types of relation to disease. Moreover, patients with giant cell tumor experienced increased levels of tension and irritability with respect to relation to disease and treatment, while patients with chondrosarcoma were more susceptible to anxiety and hypochondria with respect to relation to disease.

Patients with different types of bone tumors have different experiences with respect to their physical and mental health, their social functioning and their general health. The results of the study may be useful in developing individualized psychological aid programs for patients with malignant and premalignant bone tumors.

Any psychological paradigm needs a psychopathological system that helps professionals to describe and explain the behavioral expressions that deviate from “normal” (whether this term is used with the semantic property of statistical or ideal adaptations). In this work, I seek to present the system that I have been developing since 1998 among the psychologists at the Instituto Vegotsky de Lisboa (Vygotsky Institute of Lisbon), Portugal, to understand psychopathology with regard to the vygotskian approach. It was conceived and designed according to the work of Rita Mendes Leal and her contribution to socioemotional development theory, AR Luria’s systemic and dynamic theory of the human brain, the theory of Activity (dyatel’nost) of AN Leont’ev, and the psychopathological German school of E Kraepelin, presented and disseminated in Portugal in the early twentieth century by Professor Sobral Cid. It is intended to be a proposal to colleagues who are interested in postnonclassical psychology and a request for arguments.

Oncologic disease should be considered one of modern society’s dominant pathologies because of its chronicity. Estimates of a patient’s adaptation to chronicity shapes the information given to the patient, which is a powerful strategy for changing the patient’s social representation from a mere clinical case to a psychosocial being. In this article, the patient’s persona, when captured in the social processes and relations involved in therapeutic acts, is conceptualized as the main actor on the stages and sets of hospitals. The informative act, in which information is given to a patient in a hospital, allows identification of the psychosocial profile inherent in the patient’s role; this profile describes some relevant categories, among which the “informed patient” and the “uninformed patient” stand out.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the dynamics of the psychological features and clinical symptoms in mitral valve prolapse (MVP) patients receiving long-term integrative psychotherapy for anxiety disorders (AD) and to investigate the psychological factors of their improvement in mental health as a result of psychotherapy. Thirty-two MVP patients with AD attended long-term integrative psychotherapy. Psychological and clinical examinations of the patients were made before and after the therapy courses and in a follow-up study after 2, 5, and 10 years. Data from the study show that 78.1% of the patients who attended psychotherapy sessions demonstrated valid improvements in self-rated psychological well-being and a reduction in their anxiety levels. Analysis of emotion-regulation strategies showed that psychotherapy encouraged the use of strategies effective for solving adaptive tasks. Positive dynamics in the development of personality reflection, the recognition of one’s emotional experiences, improved skills of self-regulation, and growing awareness of actual needs, individual purposes, and personality resources—all were associated with the reduction of MVP clinical symptoms. The psychiatrist who interviewed the patients reported that most of them were in sustained remission.

Aging can be viewed as a continuation of development and an active interaction with the environment during which regressive changes are combined with progressive new formations. It is believed that the self-determining nature of subjectivity in the elderly mediates self-awareness and favors self-acceptance as an active agent that determines the outcomes of one’s own life at this age as an autonomous self-regulating subject of one’s own activity. A formative experience proved the efficiency of using art therapy as a method for mobilizing personal resources during aging.

According to Lev Vygotsky’s theory, every bodily deficiency not only changes a person’s attitude to the world but also entails social consequences, which makes its social and psychological rehabilitation so important. The way in which problems of deformity compensation and supercompensation are solved, is largely determined by a patient`s motivation. The paper deals with stuttering (logoneurosis) as an extreme form of broken communication; it analyses the peculiarities of stutteres and their families, and the specific features of treating this defect; it also dwells on issues involving family co-participation in social rehabilitation. The multilayered system of family group logo psychotherapy - treatment of stuttering children, teenagers and adults - is based on Yu.B. Nekrasova’s method of group logopsychotherapy. It also employs non-traditional techniques: Nekrasova’s dynamic psycho-therapeutic diagnostics and biblio-, kinesi-, symbol-, video- and cinema therapies.

This system may serve as a model for forming motivational involvement and intragenic activity by patients and their relatives in social rehabilitation processes. The paper describes the levels and psychological structure of motivational involvement and mechanisms of its formation in logopsychotherapeutic processes. Motivational involvement is understood as a source of a subject’s intragenic (inner) activity, the paper maps out strategies to form intragenic activity. The family group logopsychotherapeutic techniques may also help optimize communication between parent and child, doctor and patient, teacher and pupil, professor and student.

Based on the analysis of psychosocial models of alcoholism and depression the general and specific factors of occurrence and course of illness are identified in the present study. The authors put forward hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of activation of psychological addiction to alcohol as an ineffective coping strategy. The necessity of empirical research needed to refine the techniques and targets of patient care within the psychiatric and psychological care is justified. The results of the pilot study show that depressed patients who are subject to alcohol dependence feature marked distress in interpersonal relations, coupled with hostility and aim at gaining profit and pleasure by manipulating other people. These patients are hostile to others, while in interpersonal relationships personal safety is important to them, so they may be more likely to resort to manipulation. In their attitudes with respect to health the communication of these patients is characterized by hedonistic tendencies and histrionic traits in interpersonal contacts.

The psychological aspect of treating HIV-infected substance users entails changing their behaviour, as their behaviour is what leads to the risk of them transmitting and spreading HIV. Psychological treatment must facilitate their adaptation so that they may be otherwise treated for substance abuse and HIV. We propose establishing the psychological objective of helping patients overcome substance addiction by addressing their internal representation of the disease (IRD), value-sense and motivational sphere, as well as their relationships with their physician, as this is the main person who interacts with the patient in the clinic. An IRD study of patients with an opioid dependency, complicated with infectious diseases, showed that the IPD emotional level of opioid patients, as interconditional for other levels, can be an indicator of the status and impact of the main objective. A comparative study of substance users who received psychotherapy with those not receiving psychotherapy showed that the value-sense and motivational sphere is also an important target for preventive action. A study of the physician’s image of drug treatment clinics’ patients revealed that increases in the communicative competence of drug treatment facilities’ personnel represents a third course of preventing the transmission of HIV among substance dependent patients.

Statistical data about Internet users indicates that Russia ranks first in Europe in terms of its number of Internet users. Young people prevail among Russia’s Internet users. Internet dependence behaviour is given a definition. The behavioural peculiarities of Internet addicts are considered. Time perception is a background for psychical processes. The time focus of the human psyche reveals itself in the speed and duration of perception, impression, memory, thought and emotions peculiar to people with a certain temperament and of a certain age, sex and group. Time perception is an integral part of our mental processes. A human being is inclined to consider all events and processes taking place around him as a process which takes time. The time perception of every person is always specific, and it is reflected in his or her thought and behaviour. The results of studying higher mental functions and time perception in internet-addicted teenagers are given. The obtained results have revealed distraction at the end of the study due to the high exhaustiveness of the neuro-dynamic component of mental activity, as well as the poorer ability of Internet addicts to be conscious of themselves in time. Given the absence of a clear pattern of their roles in real life, Internet addicts may often find that their addiction results in mental conflicts and self-aggression. In turn, it may result in impulsion, confusion, certain problems with explaining personal actions, wishes and motives. Internetaddicted teenagers have a more pessimistic attitude towards their time and life activity. When running into hardship, their behavioural performance and incentives to overcome barriers may be limited.

The article presents an empirical study of sense of humor disorders in patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders. Several parameters of analysis are distinguished: humor recognition, humor preferences and the level of laughing activity. It is showed that patients with schizophrenia are characterized by inability to recognize humor. As soon as patients with schizotypal disorder do recognize humor, this may be used as a diagnostic criterion in clinical practice. Sense of humor in patients with schizophrenia and affective disorders acquires peculiarities which are defined here as preferences of certain cognitive mechanisms and topics of jokes.

The official statistics reveal a steady growth of drug use in Russia and epidemiological estimations indicate that the real prevalence of intravenous drug users may be 4-5 times higher than the official figure. This fact highlights the importance of effective preventive programmes for young people. Each preventive programme in the field of public health should be based on the results of socio-psychological studies on a given problem (Gurvich, 1999). In this paper, we discuss the results of a two-stage study based on the ideas presented by social representations theory (Moscovici, 1961). Our purpose was to analyze the lay thinking about drugs among different groups of young Russians. A total of 257 respondents (162 males and 95 females) aged 16 to 35 participated in the study (the median age was 24 years). At the first stage, the ‘map’ of shared common views about drugs was revealed. At the second stage, different social positions (as a function of different experience with drugs) on this ‘map’ were analyzed. The reported results give support to our predictions.

Although heart surgery is one of the most effective methods in treating cardiovascular diseases, more than 50% of patients have problems in personal, social, professional adaptation after surgery (Pogosova, 1996).

According to recent studies, psychological factors contribute significantly to negative outcomes of coronary surgery. The main factors are: depression, anxiety, personal factors and character traits, social isolation, and chronic life stress (Blumental, 2003; Connerney, 2010; Contrada, 2008; Cserep, 2010, Gallagher, 2007; Hoyer, 2008; Pigney-Demaria, 2003; Rozancki, 1999; Rymaszewska, 2003; Viars, 2009, Zaitsev, 1997).

The aim of the article is to describe the association between psychological factors and the outcomes of coronary surgery. We have studied how the patient’s attitude towards forthcoming open heart surgery is associated with the outcomes.

We have picked out four types of attitude towards forthcoming heart surgery: 1) pessimistic (no belief in recovery, surgery is threatening, damaging), 2) indifferent (no belief in recovery, surgery will not change anything), 3) optimistic but not realistic (exaggerated expectations, belief in full recovery), 4) optimistic and realistic (adequate expectations, belief in improvement).

The study has shown that patients with optimistic-realistic attitudes towards forthcoming heart surgery have better outcomes, better emotional status, and shorter stays in hospital.

Moral emotions play a significant role in human behavior, and yet scholars are not unanimous in defining, differentiating, and measuring the basic moral experiences: shame and guilt. Because of this problem, the theory goes far beyond the empirical research on these emotions.

In this article we analyze the most widely accepted points of view on the difference between guilt and shame; those who espouse each point of view suggest their own assessment tools. Thus, one of the often-used methods, the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 (TOSCA-3) (Tangney, Dearing, Wagner, & Gramzow, 2000), is based on a theory that differentiates shame and guilt according to where the negative evaluation of the misbehavior is aimed (at one’s actions or at one’s self). Another widely used questionnaire, the Dimensions of Conscience Questionnaire (DCQ) (Johnson et al., 1987), differentiates these emotions on the basis of whether the event causing them is public or personal.

The latest studies have shown that those methods are not contradictory. In addition, both the TOSCA-3 and the DCQ have their disadvantages; for example, they do not differentiate between emotional and behavioral aspects of guilt and shame. Thus, there is a need to develop a new assessment scale that overcomes these disadvantages. One such scale is the Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (GASP) (Cohen, Wolf, Panter, & Insko, 2011). The research conducted by its authors has established its reliability and validity, which allow us to consider the GASP as a progressive tool in assessing moral emotions, one that has great theoretical and practical value.

This work discusses certain cultural-historical concepts relating to late adoption. This term is used for the adoption of children over 2 years old. Unfortunately most people do not wish to adopt children over 2 years old. Generally they seek newborn babies, which are a rare population, probably because of birth control campaigns. The children who are available in orphanages are older children who are unwanted. This paper tries to deal with this issue emphasizing that relationships are built within a family, transforming those involved. It lays out principles for a successful adoption and illustrates this matter with a case study. Relationships should be provided so that people can interact. This interaction will lead to the transformation of all of those involved within the established relationship, which constitute the human being. We intend to demystify the difficult matter of late adoption, which is one of the key aspects concerning the return of the child to an orphanage. The adaptation of late adopted children is said to be more difficult, but when we believe that human beings can change and be modified through the relationships they establish, we see a promising possibility for late adoption. Late adoption can be successful when we view it from a relational point of view, stressing that relationships transform all the individuals involved within the group.

The main purpose of the present study was to assess the role of motivation in the effective cognitive activity of elderly hypertension (HTN) patients provided with antihypertensive treatment; 25 patients with HTN took part in the study, stage 1-2; their mean age was 67.6±6.1. The psychological examination program embraced a quantitative measurement of intelligence quotient (IQ) with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and an investigation into the qualitative features of their cognitive processes, applying a pathopsychological study procedure (Zeigarnik, 1962, 1972) and the principles of psychological syndrome analysis (Vygotsky-Luria-Zeigarnik school). The results showed that within the psychological syndrome structure of cognitive disorders in HTN patients, the leading part is played by two syndrome-generating factors: a neurodynamic factor and a motivational factor. The patients with reduced motivation would achieve poor general test results, if compared with the group of highly motivated participants. A correlation analysis of the data revealed the interconnection between frequency disturbances in motivation and the frequency in occurrence of various signs of cognitive decline, such as low efficiency in memorization and delayed recall, as well as lower IQ test results. The data provide a strong argument to support the hypothesis that motivation is of particular importance as a factor in the generation of cognitive disorders in HTN patients.

In the study, psychological and physiological features were assessed during an experimentally designed stressful situation in 85 subjects with hypertension (HTN) in the workplace, 85 patients with essential HTN, and 82 healthy individuals.

It was showed, that patients with HTN in the experimental situation were characterized by a complex of physiological and psychological features, which distinguish them from healthy participants. A reliably greater increase In systolic blood pressure (BP) was recorded in these patients in comparison with healthy individuals (on average by 14 and 3 mmHg respectively). The aspiration level (AL) of these patients was characterized by a reliably greater height, inadequacy, and instability; as for nonverbal behavior, it revealed a reliably greater amount of gestures, and frequent changes in voice tone against similar features of healthy individuals.

The group of patients with HTN at work, when compared with essential HTN patients, was characterized by a reliably greater increase of systolic BP (on the average by 16 and 4 mmHg respectively) as a reaction to emotional stress. The systolic BP increase in this group was revealed in combination with an initially reliably lower catecholamines’ level (CA), a gradual decrease of CA level in urine, and renin and angiotensin-1 in blood plasma during the experiment. This combination is an indicator of chronic stress and psychophysiological exhaustion. The patients did not manifest any increase of anxiety during the experiment; they were characterized, however, by a greater frequency of AL inadequacy and instability. The behavior of patients with HTN at work during the experiment was marked by a limited repertory of poses and gestures, but more vigorous facial expressions, and frequent pitch jumps. Obtained results lead us to confirm that the repression of emotions comes as a significant pathogenetic factor in the genesis of psychosomatic syndrome among patients with HTN at work, as opposed to patients with essential HTN.

The article analyzes certain socio-cultural and personal predispositions, which determine the modern diversity of subjective uncertainty and ambiguity manifestations. It stresses that for the creation of ‘realistic’ clinical psychology (in terms of A.R. Luria) one needs to retrace the relations between the resourceful and the psychopathological aspects of the ambiguity phenomenon and the cultural environment with its destructive ideals and mythologems, manipulative media-technologies and all-pervading idea of ‘deconstruction’. Methods for modeling the experiences of ambiguity in experimental settings, in pathopsychological examination and in projective psychological diagnostics are put in comparison. The arguments are adduced for the interpretation of deficient manifestations of subjective uncertainty as a criterion for diagnostics of the severity of personality disorder.

The article aims to demonstrate a high efficiency of the methodological means suggested by psychological syndrome analysis approach (Vygotsky-Luria school) for solving theoretical and applied issues in contemporary person-centered medicine. 

This is achieved through an example of empirical study meant to construct a psychosomatic syndrome for 290 patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP). Analysis of all collected data was based on psychological syndrome analysis concept (Vygotsky–Luria school) and A.R. Luria’s principles for psychological factors (causes) selection, which determine the logic and structure of a neuropsychological syndrome. It demonstrated the association between characteristics of emotional experiences and clinical symptoms manifested in MVP patients. This correlation was statistically verified. The results proved that the most important syndrome-establishment factor (radical) is a specific emotionality and dysfunction of emotion regulation and emotional control in MVP patients (excessive emotional repression with insufficient reflection of emotional experiences). Features of the motivation sphere of MVP patients appear as a second psychological syndrome-establishment factor: these are domination of the motive of failure avoidance and unsatisfied self-approval need. 

We argue that psychological syndrome analysis can be used as a means to approach not only diagnostic but also prognostic tasks both in clinical psychology and medicine, as well as for the development and implementation of the person-centered integrative diagnosis model. 

We maintained that this approach, applied in theoretical and practical fields of clinical psychology and mental health care is highly efficient at the current stage of the science evolution due to prospects revealed by s new methodological context of postnonclassical model of rationality and a comprehensive character of the cultural-historical concept regarding an individual and his mind as a self-developing open systems.

The article has discussed the Leningrad Siege (1941-1944), focusing on the individual and collective memories of survivors who had lived through that trauma during their childhood. Thus far there has been no psychological investigation of the feelings of extreme deprivation caused by that Siege, despite the reams of material published on Leningrad under siege. To deal with this shortfall, the critique has considered the effect of that experience on the future lives of the people concerned. The basic methodology, the paper maintains, combined quantitative and qualitative approaches and involved a comparison of two equal-sized groups: the experimental group, comprising 60 war survivors who lived through the Siege; and the control group, comprising 60 war survivors who were evacuated from Leningrad during the Siege and consequently did not experience the trauma. The review related that the groups were matched by age and by gender distribution. Data for the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis-based qualitative analysis (QA) were collected according to psychometric measures (containing scales for depression, general satisfaction with life, and stress) applied in semi-structured interviews. The QA, for its part, used methods such as correlation, factor- and cluster-analysis to measure data segments. The nature of the suffering and the persistence of the human threat (past and present) were reconstructed within the framework of the psychological experiences (under extreme conditions) faced by the experimental group. The report, in conclusion, has stated that these experiences were evaluated via psychoanalytic tools dealing with child development, mourning and symbolization of traumatic events. These enabled it to identify psychological phenomena such as child grief and the impact of trauma on the adult life of the former Siege victims.

This article considers the potential for applying contemporary philosophical theories (which distinguish classical, nonclassical, and postnonclassical types of scientific rationality) to the specification of theoretical methodological principles in the study of clinical psychology. We prove that psychological syndrome analysis (developed by the Vygotsky–Luria–Zeigarnik school), taken as a system of principles for organizing research as well as for interpreting its results, conforms to the epistemological complexity of the object of study in clinical psychology, which is understood in the postnonclassical scientific view as a self-developing system. We present an example of the formation of a psychosomatic syndrome in 290 patients with mitral-valve prolapse, applying methods of qualitative and statistical data analysis in a longitudinal clinical-psychological study. We prove that the syndrome is system-defined and has a multilevel character, and that its structure is determined by several factors: the motivational factor (with the domination of the failure-avoidance motive and the unsatisfied self-approval need); the factor of the emotional-regulation disorders, represented by both excessive emotional repression and lack of emotional control; and a psychophysiological factor. We argue that a psychosomatic syndrome can be used as a means for approaching not only diagnostic but also prognostic tasks both in clinical psychology and in medicine. We conclude that the results of our empirical study, conducted within the framework of postnonclassical philosophy and using the methods of psychological syndrome analysis, not only expand the scientific background on the nature of a particular disease (mitral-valve prolapse) but also pose further questions whose investigation will broaden our view of the psychological mechanisms of psychosomatic- syndrome genesis.

The theoretical model of the establishment of the syndrome of early infantile autism is elaborated including all the stages of this establishment. According to Vygotsky and his ideas about the hierarchical organization of pathological syndromes, there is the definition of the difference between the structure and the function of the primary (biological) and secondary (sociological) phenomena of the syndrome of early infantile autism.

The psychology of corporeality is a new and intensively elaborated branch of science. The theoretical foundations of its subject differ significantly from those of medical psychosomatics. In a given article some new concepts of this approaching discipline are introduced and the role of symbolic mediation in genesis of different psychosomatic diseases is discussed.

The author analyzes in brief the historical development of psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy in Soviet Union and pots-Soviet Russia. He expresses his view on modern state of affairs between state and private practice and gives a detailed account of the formation of modern Russian psychoanalytic community and its entry into the international community.

Basing on the theoretical analysis and personal longstanding research, the author offers general characteristics of narcissism, delineates the relations between the disturbances of identity structure, regulatory mechanisms, cognitive styles and modes of interpersonal cognition, which allows predicting a wide range of psychic and behavioral disorders. It is shown that the phenomenon of narcissism has a bio-psycho-social causation, and that the contemporary technological glut as well as the expansion of consumerist values give new stimuli for the development of narcissistic and perfectionist personality trends.

The author discusses the controversial issues of formation and functioning of psychological defense mechanisms in ontogenesis and in personality disorders as they are represented in classical and contemporary psychoanalysis, in cognitivism and communication theory. The paper emphasizes the role of cognitive organization (style), sign-symbolic mediation, representative system of object relations and attachments in individual typological variability of the level organization of defense mechanisms, in efficiency of personal and social adaptation, in maturity and mental health of personality.

The purpose of the research was to study the patterns of using proactive coping and adherences to it’s different types in patients with chronic non-specific lung diseases. Participants of the study (N=180) were 30 to 60 years old. The Proactive Coping Inventory was used to assess the patients’ psychological status. According to the results of the study patients with chronic non-specific lung diseases use different types of proactive coping behavior while solving problematic and stressful situations. The research revealed that patients with bronchial asthma don’t have the skills of independent decision making, definition of objectives, considering of options in solving conflicts or other inconvenient situations sufficiently developed. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are less satisfied with the emotional support that they receive from their relatives and closest people, it’s harder for them to reveal their feelings and emotions than for those who suffer from bronchial asthma and healthy ones. The results of the study may be useful in developing educational systems of proactive coping behavior skills for patients with chronic non-specific lung diseases for their health and well-being support.

The Influence of genetic and environmental factors on liability to depression in Russian teenage sample was investigated. 196 twin pairs aged 13 to 17 (M=15,2) from Moscow, Izhevsk and Bishkek took part in the survey. We have found out that genetic factors had an effect on individual difference in depressiveness among Russian teenagers: more than 50% of variance was explained by additive genetic factors which correspond to international results. The biggest genetic influence was obtained for such scales as negative emotions, negative self esteem and externalization which are the most replicable factor scales in CDI structure worldwide.

Suicide is a controversial phenomenon that people of different cultures and even of different epochs have had difficulty naming. It used to be an enduring theme of many medical, psychological, philosophical, and moralistic discussions. It is a paradoxical act of ultimate self-destruction, a flight from life to death. To commit suicide is to overcome the fear of personal death and to make a step into nothingness. Such a desperately brave deed requires an abandonment of one's sense of immortality, which we all have, a change of values and worldviews. But if one's suicide attempt proves unsuccessful, the question becomes how to explain to oneself and others one's recent act of self-violence. To discover these explanations, we conducted a study of 319 people, ranging in age from 18 to 25; they were all either students (n = 156) or patients in an emergency toxicology ward (people who had attempted to poison themselves, n = 163). This article summarizes theories of suicidal behavior and of the fear of death together with the ideas of cultural anthropologist E. Becker on these matters and puts suicide into the terror-management perspective. The suicidal act is viewed as a mortality salience, and the hypothesis is that people who deny their recent suicide attempt (n = 33) and who have one (n = 95) or several (n = 35) suicide attempts in their personal history exhibit different terror-management patterns in comparison with each other and with the control group. They fall back on different resources with various degrees of effectiveness. Implications of these results for understanding suicidal and postsuicidal behavior are discussed and suggestions for rehabilitation are made.

The article describes the development of an integrative bio-psycho-social model of personality disorders. This model is based on the interconnection of intellect, self-regulation, self-identity, and social relationships. The prognostic value of the category of “affective-cognitive style” is estimated on the grounds of a meta-analysis of various empirical studies and theoretical models. The article discusses the results of clinical and experimental studies that specify the functions of cognitive differentiation and integrity and of symbolic mediation and reflection in the regulation of the content, emotional valence, temporal stability, and spatial organization of intrapsychic representations of self and interpersonal relationships, as well as the systemic organization of defense and coping operations.

Modern approaches to the psychological diagnostics of children are based on need analysis and the systematization of existing trends in domestic and foreign children’s neuropsychological diagnoses. This article highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, as well as identifying possible areas of integration. One of the most acute problems is the development of experimental psychological methods to determine the quantitative and expressed characteristics of the mental development of children by flexibly combining qualitative and quantitative approaches, with a view to putting into practice foreign neuroscience principles and standards of evidence. An analysis of contemporary publications on neuropsychological diagnosis reveals the need to consider the standardization of neuropsychological research in the context of current approaches, requirements, and psychodiagnostic criteria. In the domestic neuropsychological literature, these issues are need attention: standardized procedures for presenting stimuli are not, as a rule, described; basic psychometric assessment of the results of the tests is lacking; no investigation of their clinical and psychometric validity is carried out. An analysis was made of the nature of the psychometric approach in foreign child neuropsychology, which relies on mathematical procedures of processing qualitative (ordinal) data converted into quantitative indicators. We examined separately the mathematical software for clinical trials (based on the principles of «evidencebased medicine»), which relies on the «abnormal» nature of the distribution of clinical phenomena.

The quality of a pregnant woman’s life in Russia is usually much lower than in any European country. Because of this situation it is most important to look for psychological resources that could enable pregnant women to have a higher quality of life. My empirical research showed that pregnant women who are not officially married feel fear and anxiety during their pregnancy more often than those who are married. There are statistically relevant differences between the control group (the group of officially married pregnant women) and unmarried pregnant women in their level of comfort during pregnancy. Unmarried pregnant women also feel such emotions as guilt, remorse, shame, and shyness more often (these data were obtained by means of C.E. Izard’s method). Data obtained through a clinical interview showed that pregnant women who are not married often feel that they are not being protected by society, have financial problems, and experience pain during the delivery of the child. They also feel guilt when they think of bringing up their children (“I won’t be able to give my child all those things that I could possibly give him or her if I were married”); and they are quite often ashamed of their pregnancy when they communicate with their parents and other relatives and with their friends, acquaintances, and doctors. The research showed no direct influence of such factors as the material wealth of a pregnant woman’s family on her emotional state. The number of children that women expect to have depends on their level of education but not on the level of the material wealth of their families.

We describe preliminary data from two studies aimed at investigating the psychometric properties and validity of newly developed measures of morphological knowledge and skills in Russian, namely, the Word Structure subtest, and the Test of Morphological Awareness, in two samples of young Russian-speaking children. Overall, both instruments demonstrated good psychometric properties when analyzed using both classical test theory and a Rasch-modeling IRT approach, and were positively associated with the criterion measures (i.e., the number of grammatical errors in elicited speech samples, spelling, and reading comprehension).

350 7 to 14-year-old students of a special school for children with severe speech and language disorders (SLD) were tested through psychological, neurolinguistic and clinical methods. It was a longitudinal study. During 4-5 years of studying at the special school, the majority of speech and language impairments reduce and communicative skills grow up. But the other students demonstrate regress of adaptation skills, intellectual efficiency and increase in restlessness, aggressive behavior, mood disorders, and neurotic disorders. We recognize it as the state of exacerbation. Comparative statistical analysis reveals that this state occurs mostly between 9.5 and 11.5 years of life. 50% of the decompensation cases observed occurs in this age range. The data obtained gave us an incentive to develop a prevention program. The target group included a population aged 9.5-10 with PSU (PPMI-program). The 2-year experience of incorporating the risk subgroup of SLIC into the PPMI-program gave a positive return. The amount of decompensations reduced significantly. Intensity of psychopatological disorders decreased.

The work presents historiographic and theoretical methodological study of establishment of fundamental theses of L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical concept within the field of clinical psychology.

We prove potency in application of contemporary philosophical concepts, which help distinguish between the types of scientific rationality (classical, nonclassical, and postnonclassical), for scientific reflection over the development of psychology and designation of paradigmatic status of cultural-historic concept suggested by L.S. Vygotsky and Vygotsky-Luria syndrome approach at the contemporary stage of science.

Present study of scientific works of L.S. Vygotsky and his followers demonstrated that fundamentals of cultural-historic conception suggested by L.S. Vygotsky and further developed in methodology of Vygotsky-Luria syndrome approach, these fundamentals presented the origins of not only non-classical, but as well post-nonclassical model of scientific rationality. They are characterized by post-nonclassical understanding of the object and method of psychological study and post-nonclassical mode of thinking of the scientists.

As it was showed, in works of L.S. Vygotsky there formulated general methodological requirements to organization of mental studies, which, on the whole, go in tune with the requirements introduced for study of complex self-developing systems. There were produced arguments to prove that the concept of Vygotsky-Luria syndrome approach describes mental syndromes as dynamic structures, which display the features of self-organization, self-determination and adaptive rationality. Hence, they can be regarded as open self-developing systems.

We assume and verify the hypothesis that the syndrome analysis, due to the features of post-nonclassic modeling of scientific rationality it reveals, may be regarded as theoretically productive methodological approach at the modern stage of science.

The author discusses sources for, problems in, and ways of forming a hierarchical model of the development of whole affective behavioral complexes, not just mechanisms of emotional regulation, as was done in the original level-based model elaborated by Victor Lebedinsky. The author describes specific traits of affective behavioral complexes and types of links between them on different levels. Primitive affective behavioral complexes, either isolated or rigidly linked, dominate on the lower three levels. On the fourth level attachment behavior plays a “star” role, mediating and regulating all vital behaviors. On the fifth level symbolic activity permanently rebuilds the experience obtained on the lower levels. The author discusses links between affective behavioral complexes and nuclear personality formations.

Research was carried out to explore coping strategies in cancer patients. In all, 70 women with breast cancer were studied: 35 of them had visible postsurgery deformity, and 35 did not have visible postsurgery deformity. The purpose of the research was to uncover their preferences for using various strategies and resources to cope with their illness. The results showed that both groups of women had a special set of strategies for coping with stress. The women with visible postsurgery deformity made significantly less use of resources for coping with their illness than did the subgroup of women without visible postsurgery deformity.

Over the last decade, the problem of young people's health has been among the most important and complicated ones for Russian society; these problems affect not only young children but also students in higher education institutions. The low level of physical and psychological health of young people has become an alarming characteristic of the demographic situation in modern Russia.

This study was carried out at the State University of St. Petersburg, which is one of the largest higher education institutions in Russia. The university consists of many academic departments, and thus it is possible to study the health-related behavior of students with different professional backgrounds.

The results show that drug use among students in Russia still remains relatively rare and episodic; in most cases, students use "light" drugs and thus have both slow rates of developing an addiction and an alternative but successful socialization in modern youth subculture. Such drugs are also not generally associated with significant health risks.

The article aims to demonstrate advances in methodological means suggested by Vygotsky’s cultural-historical concept in association with a theoretical model of a Person-centered diagnosis and practical use of the construct for clinical psychology and medicine. This, to a greater extent, arises from the fact that the cultural-historical concept (due to its humanistic nature and epistemological content) is closely related to the person-centered integrative approach. But for all that the concept corresponds to the ideals of postnonclassical model of scientific rationality with a number of ‘key’ features. Above all it manifests its “methodological maturity” to cope with open self-developing systems, which is most essential at the modern stage of scientific knowledge.

The work gives consideration to ‘defining pillars’ of Person-centered approach in modern medicine, to humanistic traditions of the Russian clinical school, and high prospects in diagnostics of such mental constructs as “subjective pattern of disease” and “social situation of personal development in disease” - within the context of person-centered integrative diagnosis.

This article discusses the need for implementation a cross-cultural study of subjective pattern of disease and its correlation with a particular “social situation of personality development under disease conditions”. It aims at development and substantiation of the model of person-centered integrative approach, enhancement of its diagnostic scope and, consequently, improvement of the model of person-centered care in modern psychiatry and medicine.