Psychology in Quest for Identity: Methodological and Theoretical Studies

The article presents basic trends and prospects of development of neurosciences which study the problems of brain dysfunctions, thinking, memory, perception, and data processing It considers the questions raised by the research of brain elasticity of an adult person, the problem of individual consciousness, decoding of mechanisms of thinking, new trends in cross-cultural of studies.. The attention is focused on the important interdisciplinary researches in the field of studying stress / distress and various mental and psychosomatic frustrations which are caused by them.

In Vygotsky's words, Marxist psychology proceeds along the path of American behaviorism only to a certain point (1926). I suppose Vygotsky was mistaken. Behaviorism of his time was as immature as Marxist psychology, and much water has flowed under the bridge since then. Contemporary behaviorology is compatible with dialectical materialism. Here I will particularly examine three aspects. Firstly, materialistic interpretation of causality is crucial for both of them. Secondly, cause and consequence are dialectically related in selection by consequences, so it is in fact a dialectical model of behavior determination. Thirdly, laws of dialectics are applicable to behaviorology.

The following article aims to explain why including a new principle - a meta-sys-tem approach principle - in methodological principles of psychological research is of crucial importance. In developing main points of system methodology this approach simultaneously appears to be a more general one, because it permits to overcome a number of limitations and, first of all, to incorporate a qualitatively unique class of systems - systems with an "embedded" meta-system level - in the sphere of research. Besides, the article covers main issues and methodological sources for applying the meta-system approach to psychological studies. It is the purpose of this article to demonstrate efficiency of the approach in understanding basic structural principles and content of the highest psychical level - the meta-system level.

The present study is aimed to examine the role of the concept of social situation of development, suggested by L.S. Vygotsky, to define determinants of psychological development of a child in modern developmental psychology. Its heuristic character is exposed by the fact that further elaboration of fundamental and applied as­pects of developmental psychology does not make the concept less urgent New studies still enrich its content, opening perspectives for further research.

Cultural-historical theory of LS. Vygotsky is viewed in the paper through the prism of tendencies of psychology development, which are revealed by the trans-spective analysis understood as a tool of cognition of regularities of emergence of open self-developing systems to which science can be attributed. It is argued that cultural-historical psychology can be placed among the theories of post non-classical level; i.e. having declared itself at the age of emergence of non-classical psychology, the theory left its time behind. This fact significantly hindered (and is still hindering) comprehension of the multidimensional logic applied by LS. Vy­gotsky. It is shown that today this logic is becoming much more accessible for comprehension as science has started to embrace the ideals of post non-classical rationality. System anthropological psychology is considered as a modern version of cultural-historical psychology development, which has retained the original multidimensional logic applied by LS. Vygotsky.

Authors discuss notable philosophical and psychological aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as different features of meditation techniques in their relations to psychological study of consciousness.

The basic directions of modern theoretical and practical research in the area of qualitative methodology in Russia are discussed in the article. The complexity of research is considered from three points of view: the development of methodology of qualitative analysis, qualitative methods, and verbal and nonverbal projective techniques. The authors present an integrative model of the qualitative analysis, the research on specificity of the use of discourse-analysis method and projective techniques of expressive drawing, and also the influence of communicative com­petence of respondents on efficiency of focus groups. In conclusion prospects of integration of qualitative methodology are considered.

The paper introduces virtual reality systems as a new methodolology of carrying out both traditional and originally designed experimental studies in psychology and in a broader context - in neuroscience. This methodology, often differing from classical approaches toward planning and performing a study in cognitive, social, educational, organizational and numerous other disciplines within psychology, is placed in the context of genuine Russian and at the same time of world-wide psychological theories, conceptions and traditions. Advantages, currently available results, challenges and perspectives of the virtual paradigm in experimental psychology, psychotherapy and psychological rehabilitation are thoroughly described and analyzed. The ideas of immersive virtuality are also shown to play a profound role at diverse levels of innovative learning and teaching, including special, extracurricular, and college education. Besides, applied virtual reality sys­tems are presented as being of serious importance for the university students' training: it is expected that new generations of professional psychologists will use these systems extensively. The multifaceted theoretical activities and applied work of the staff and students affiliated with the Psychology Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, aimed at development and usage of immersive virtual reality systems are fully presented in the paper.