The educational reform is Russia is in full swing, so the section of Psychology of
education and learning is the most widely presented in the current issue. The international
collective of authors Frédéric Yvon, Ludmila A. Chaiguerova and Denise
Shelley Newnham considers different interpretations of the works of Lev Vygotsky
— famous psychologist and methodologist. The authors suggest original ways
of incorporating Vygotsky’s ideas into the modern educational system. Dmitry A.
Podolskiy presents his study of value hierarchy among students and adolescence in
the article “Multimethod approach to measuring values in a school context: exploring
the association between Congruence — Discrepancy Index (CODI) and task
commitment”. In the article “The role of reflection and reflexivity in the development
of student’s abilities” Vladimir D. Shadrikov explores the role of reflection in
the educational process. The group of authors headed by Nikolay E. Veraksa state
that dialectical thinking is a specific line of cognitive development in children and
adults and proves this statement by the empirical data (“The structural dialectical
approach in psychology problematic and research results”).
Keywords:
Editorial volum #6, 2, 2013 Psychology in Russia: State of the Art
This article describes psychological challenges that executive leaders of companies face
nowadays. The study of the social context is based on changes that took place with the
development of information technologies. The analysis touches upon such phenomena
as virtualization, involvement in the external sociocommunicative environment, and the
emergence of multiple identity. It is suggested that in order to adapt to changing conditions
one should follow the path of self-development—in particular, to develop attention,
imagination, and willpower. In connection with the traits generally attributed to executive
leaders, the article emphasizes self-adjustment; common sense as an integral part
of intuition, emotions, and imagination; and the readiness to make choices in fifty-fifty
situations.
Keywords:
executive leader, virtualization, multiple identity, attention, imagination, will
DOI:
10.11621/pir.2013.0201
Tense situations and the significance of stability for psychological security
Present reality gives rise to contradictory trends: the combination of new threats, tense situations,
and destructive tendencies shapes awareness of the importance of identifying, assessing,
and managing emerging situations and of developing new scientific paradigms.
The polyfunctional interpretation of psychological security correlates with the perception
of stability as a specific arrangement of interactional processes and the relatedness of
stereotypes, standards, sociocultural attitudes, and social perceptions. A tense situation
clearly indicates the separation of the potential of the person and the group from the notion
of subject-action in security promotion and maintenance. The depersonification of
social institutions is accompanied by each person’s growing attention to himself/herself
and the increasing significance of this kind of attention in overcoming uncertainty and
tension.
The process of making decisions in a tense situation often includes the phenomenon of
the illusion of control over the situation, which can pose a threat to psychological security.
The social significance of the promotion of psychological security calls for consolidation
of efforts aimed at the stability of the society and the prevention of stress-producing
situations.
Keywords:
tense situations, subject of psychological security, dynamic stability, social perceptions, social and psychological consequences of the terrorist threat
DOI:
10.11621/pir.2013.0202
Psychology of Education and Learning
Structural dialectical approach in psychology: problems and research results
In this article dialectical thinking is regarded as one of the central cognitive processes. Because of this cognitive function we can analyze the development of processes and objects. It also determines the possibilities for the creative transformation of some content and for solving problems.
The article presents a description and the results of experimental studies. This evidence proves that dialectical thinking is a specific line of cognitive development in children and adults. This line can degrade during school time if the educational program follows formal logical principles, or it can become significantly stronger if the pedagogy is based on dialectical methodology.
Keywords:
structural-dialectical approach, dialectical thinking, dialectical tasks, strategy of mental handling of oppositions
DOI:
10.11621/pir.2013.0206
Vygotsky under debate: two points of view on school learning
Vygotsky’s name has never been so evoked as it is at the present time, yet the educational
scientific community faces an awkward situation. On the one hand, his works have been
used as the basis for certain socioconstructivist school reforms that he would surely have
completely disapproved of (Vygotsky, 1934/1987, p. 211). On the other hand, the recent
collection of his writings (Yvon & Zinchenko, 2012) and other works (Brossard, 1999,
2004; Schneuwly, 2008b) lead us to another interpretation, in which the internal evolution
of didactic content is at the forefront of Vygotsky’s precepts. Therefore, although it is
unpleasant, we are confronted by different points of view on Vygotsky’s work that need to
be investigated and exposed. This article sets out to achieve that objective.
Keywords:
child’s intellectual development, school learning, interpretations of Vygotsky’s work
DOI:
10.11621/pir.2013.0203
Multimethod approach to measuring values in a school context: exploring the association between Congruence — Discrepancy Index (CO DI) and task commitment
There are considerable differences among the value hierarchies revealed by different
methods of measurement. The quantitative measure of such a difference can be referred
as the Congruence-Discrepancy Index (CODI). The more congruent the results of different
methods are, the higher the CODI is. In the present study I compared value hierarchies
obtained by the Schwartz Value Survey and an original instrument based on the
constant-sum scale in two samples of adolescents (those in special schools for at-risk
adolescents and those in ordinary secondary schools). The results show that the CODI
for ordinary school students is significantly higher than that for adolescents recruited
from special schools. A significant correlation between the CODI and school engagement
was revealed for the ordinary school sample. The possibilities of using the CODI in
value research are discussed.
Keywords:
values, adolescents, measurement, value theory, ratings, rankings
DOI:
10.11621/pir.2013.0204
The role of reflection and reflexivity in the development of students’ abilities
This article analyzes different approaches to defining reflection and reflexivity. The mastery
of intellectual operations reveals the role of reflexivity in the development of abilities.
The operational aspect of reflection is emphasized in the article. The study is premised
on the expectation that the effective realization of intellectual activities and the development
of abilities determined by these activities are conditioned by adequate reflection on
conscious acts directed toward the performance of educational-cognitive tasks.
The data from the experiment show that reflexivity as a personality trait is highly developed
in students with high indexes of general intellectual operations. The research
findings indicate the role of reflexive mechanisms in students’ acquisition of intellectual
abilities. The implications of these findings are discussed.
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 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.
Keywords:
subjective uncertainty (ambiguity) phenomena, socio-cultural, personal and clinical predispositions, experimental modeling, projective paradigm, individual styles of ambiguity transformations, borderline personality organization and psychopathology.
DOI:
10.11621/pir.2013.0207
The siege of Leningrad (1941–1944): memories of the survivors who have lived through the trauma
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.
First, a disclaimer: the book I am about to review is written by my mentor. Call me
biased. I was fortunate enough to attend the lectures presented in this book. It was
35 years ago. I vividly remember how sought after was a good set of lecture notes
from these lectures. Now this call has been answered by the author himself. It’s been
a long wait, and the new generations of Russian-speaking psychology students —
and instructors alike — are so much better off for it...
Keywords:
A New Introduction to Psychological Thinking, Review of the book
DOI:
10.11621/pir.2013.0210
Review of the book by Janna M. Glozman “Developmental Neuropsychology”
Janna Glozman’s book provides a comprehensive information on both Russian and
Western developmental neuropsychology. The reader, especially form the West,
may find fist hand information on Vygotsky and Luria’s collaboration with emphasis
put on social aspects of child development. At the same time the reader
can learn about principles of Luria’s syndromological (qualitative) approach and
Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Two important notions that had a great
impact both on the neuropsychological and developmental studies...
Keywords:
Review of the book, Developmental Neuropsychology