2014

This article examines the theoretical and methodological justifications for studying students’ research potential. It presents proof of the isomorphic nature of human research activity and research potential as well as of the fluid nature of its development: from research-like behavior to science-based research activity. It defines three functional components (motivational, cognitive, and behavioral) that form the structure of research potential. It further presents the results of empirically studying the cognitive features of master’s students possessing different levels of research potential. It provides data on the dynamics of research-potential components at different educational levels (bachelor’s and master’s programs). Special attention is given to a comparative analysis of evaluations by research tutors regarding their students’ research potential and of the indicators obtained using psychodiagnostic methods.

Questions connected to the correlation of such notions as “image of the world” (A. N. Leontiev) and “invariant image of the world” (A. A. Leontiev) are considered. The proposition that professional activity is one of the bases for distinguishing invariant images of the world is substantiated. Based on the analysis of the professional activity of lecturers in medical institute clinical faculties, the notion “professional view of the world,” which reflects professional activity in an invariant image of the world, is introduced. The necessity for specifying the notion “professional view of the world” and introducing the notion “professional world,” describing professional measurement of the living space of medical institute lecturers, is also shown; the structure-forming components of this notion are singled out. It is also shown that the systems of relations by which the professional world is determined are by nature meaning relations (D. A. Leontiev).

This article describes the results of four empirical research studies of teachers’ notions about effective conduct in various pedagogical situations and about communicative competencies, which can help in resolving difficult pedagogical problems. The findings indicate that teachers’ ideas concerning their professional conduct and communicative competencies are rather positive. The majority of teachers identify their conduct in difficult pedagogical situations with that of an “ideal” teacher. At the same time, the results received when the semantic differential was used revealed the ambiguous character of teachers’ assessments of their own communicative competencies. Psychological training focused on deepening teachers’ notions about communicative culture was carried out. As a result of the training, teachers’ notions about their own communicative competencies changed.

The author of the article argues that multimedia content can be used not only for entertainment purposes, but also may help achieve various psychological effects on the audience. The paper provides a brief overview of the psychological research performed in the field of multimedia perception and describes the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. The article analyses two phenomena that may be regarded as prerequisites for the emergence of multimedia as a new technology: multimodality of human perception and so-called polyphony of reality. Multimedia content affects various sensory systems and thus imitates the real world, which is full of stimuli from various modalities. The author also highlights a range of psychological effects that may accompany the usage of multimedia content in the mass media.

The development of modern information technologies is causing changes in the structure of the human psyche, bringing about a new psychotype. The transition to a new level of evolution is accompanied by the growing manifestation of the psyche’s ontological features — nonlocality and self-determination. From a sample of more than 300 people, it was demonstrated that active Internet users are significantly different in a number of parameters from those who mostly use traditional media. This article examines the resources of media psychology as a new paradigm in the study of mass communication phenomena and the laws of the development of psyche.

In this paper, we developed a psychological model of digital competence including four components (knowledge, skills, motivation and responsibility) and four spheres (work with online content, communication, technical activity and consumption). The Digital Competence Index (DCI) is a 52-item instrument assessing an index and an entire profile of digital competence. In the Russian population study (1203 adolescents 12-17 years old and 1209 parents), acceptable reliability (.72-.90 for all of the scales, except motivation) of DCI was demonstrated. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the superiority of the four-component structure with the second-order index. Mean DCI was 34% of the maximally possible level in adolescents and 31% in parents, indicating the necessity for the educational programs in Russia. The motivation component was both the lowest and the least homogeneous factor, indicating that important special efforts to improve motivation to learn in Russian adolescents are needed.

Childhood obesity is one of the most dangerous pathologies; it can lead to serious illness in the absence of medical support. In this article we give an overview of the use of videogames for reducing and normalizing the weight of overweight and obese children. We discuss the categorization of the existing games and their limits, and we outline the perspectives of psychopedagogical research in the domain of game design for treating obese and overweight children. The role of long-term motivation in the treatment of obesity is one of the crucial questions we discuss. We try to understand how videogames can help children and parents maintain motivation during weight-loss treatment. The role of parents is undeniable in ensuring the success of weight-loss programs for overweight or obese children. Perhaps videogames can be the instrument for families’ lifestyle changes.

The structure of their future presidents’ images among Russian and American students was studied. The general tendencies and specific features of the perception of a future president among Russian and American students were revealed. For respondents of both groups, the significant factors influencing their choice of whom to vote for were the program of the candidate, his strategic thinking, the reliability of his team, a high degree of professionalism and competence, leadership skills, the ability to speak and convince, and personal qualities. In regard to specific features, Russian students paid more attention to the business qualities of a future president than did American students; Russian students were optimistic and considered elections capable of effecting changes in the country. American students showed less interest in political events, along with the professional qualities of the leader; they paid attention to his appearance and believed that elections can affect the private life of people.

The development of contemporary society, the mass media, and new technologies improves living standards on the one hand and, on the other, enhances the risk of large-scale catastrophes, accidents, and natural disasters (Yanitsky, 2004). From year to year the number of people who survive natural disasters and human-caused accidents and catastrophes is growing, as is the number of professionals involved in disaster-relief operations, such as rescuers, medical professionals, and psychologists. The 1990s saw the intensive development of new work for psychologists: rendering psychological aid to people affected by emergencies. During that time, because of a shift in the political system and the democratization of society, these issues gained a public dimension.

A museum is valued according to its collections, communication and knowledge exchange with visitors (Primo, 1999). Museums should be in dialogue with the public, contributing to their development (Skramstad, 2004) and collective memory (Wertsch, 2004). Social interactions and working in participants’ zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1934/1962) play an important role in non-formal learning opportunities that take place at museums. The National Museum of Natural History and Science (Lisbon University) offers weekly holiday programmes for children and teenagers, aiming at developing scientific literacy in intercultural and inclusive spaces and times, facilitating knowledge appropriation and social participation. We studied these programmes, assuming an interpretive approach (Denzin, 2002) and developing an intrinsic case study (Stake, 1995). The main participants were these children and teenagers, their parents, and museum educational agents. Data collecting instruments included observation, interviews, questionnaires, children and teenagers’ protocols and tasks inspired in projective techniques. Data treatment and analysis was based on a narrative content analysis (Clandinin & Connelly, 1998) from which inductive categories emerged (Hamido & César, 2009). Some examples illuminate participants’ expectancies, their engagement in activities, and the contributions of social interactions and non-formal education to the development of scientific literacy.

We investigated whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activation in a group of 21 healthy adult subjects during perception, imagination and remembering of two dynamic visual scenarios. Activation of the posterior parts of the cortex prevailed when watching videos. The cognitive tasks of imagination and remembering were accompanied by a predominant activity in the anterior parts of the cortex. An independent component analysis identified seven large-scale cortical networks with relatively invariant spatial distributions across all experimental conditions. The time course of their activation over experimental sessions was task-dependent. These detected networks can be interpreted as a recombination of resting state networks. Both central and peripheral networks were identified within the primary visual cortex. The central network around the caudal pole of BA17 and centers of other visual areas was activated only by direct visual stimulation, while the peripheral network responded to the presentation of visual information as well as to the cognitive tasks of imagination and remembering. The latter result explains the particular susceptibility of peripheral and twilight vision to cognitive top-down influences that often result in false-alarm detections.

The present issue of Psychology in Russia: State of the Art addresses a wide range of problems that prompt current research efforts of Russian psychologists. It opens with an impressive psychophysiological study in human visual cognition that provides insights from an extensive analysis of imagination performed by Vitaly M. Verkhlyutov, Vadim L. Ushakov, Pavel A. Sokolov and Boris M. Velichkovsky B.M.

This study aims to fill a gap in the current research on the personality organization of frequent videogame users. The scientific literature in this area refers only to the existence of risk factors that increase the likelihood of abusing videogames and their negative consequences on the mental health of users (Gentile et al., 2011; Lemmens, Valkenburg, & Peter, 2011; Rehbein & Baier, 2013). In this study, a sample of patients who reported spending an excessive amount of their time playing videogames were recruited from Instituto Quintino Aires–Lisbon/Oporto and took the Rorschach Personality Test (Exner, 1993, 1995). Two other samples—one consisting of patients who reported not playing videogames, and the other of patients who were discharged from the institution after psychotherapy—also took part in the study. The patients in the first sample revealed less exposure to the relational sources of stress that are necessary for socioemotional development and less interest in others than did patients in the other samples. Other results regarding the personality structure of the subjects in the three samples are compared and discussed in light of cultural-historical psychology.

The 21st century has been characterized by tremendous changes in mass-media systems. The rapid growth of the Internet, inspired by the progress of communication technologies and digitalization, has resulted in the rise of new interactive media. Developments contributing to the scope and speed of media production and distribution have drawn particular attention to the information security of audiences – in particular, to protecting children from content that might be harmful and not appropriate for their age. Unlike adults, who are accustomed to living in an information-rich society, children cannot understand and filter content. Digital media, with their profound effects on a young audience, definitely affect children’s psychology and emotions.

Recognizing this development, the most economically advanced countries have elaborated specific media policies to ensure that children receive the advantages of new media and simultaneously are kept safe from harmful content. These policies, aimed at traditional media (press and analogue broadcasting), have been based on legal approaches, but in digital reality laws do not always produce the same desired effects because the law-making process often does not keep up with technological change. Governments, therefore, have to share their responsibilities with the nongovernmental – private business and civil– sectors. Even countries with strong government influence over public life, such as Singapore, are working toward a co-regulated and self-regulated mass-media industry. Many foreign countries, including those in Western Europe, North America, and Asia, already have experience with these policies.

The article reviews practices in the field of media aimed at guaranteeing children’s information security and at opposing harmful content. It points to key aspects of the regulation of market-driven media content in different countries.

Based on psycholinguistics and L. Vygotsky’s (2007) theories on sign, meaning and sense categories, as later discussed by A. Leontiev (2004, 2009), we present a case study that focuses on the intricacies of a love relationship for a woman who remained in a painful marriage. Interview material is presented in a Relational-Historical Psychology theoretical framework to provide central categories of meaning and sense. This is understood as a privileged method for apprehending the uniqueness of a human being. To segment the qualitative material, we used the “Analysis of the Nuclei of Meanings for the Apprehension of the Constitution of Sense,” by Aguiar and Ozella (2006, 2013). This approach seeks to discriminate the meanings and senses that constitute the content of a speech sample.

This article illustrates the process of reaching conversation in the case of Anna, a 10- year-old girl, in a countryside Portuguese primary school, through neuropsychological habilitation and psychotherapy. This case identifies the theoretical and methodological concepts from Vygotsky’s cultural historical conceptualization in psychotherapy practice. Vygotsky introduced a new form of thinking in psychology, the concept of play, as a cultural and relational tool on a child’s (consciousness) development. During psychotherapy, Anna progressed through the following stages: 1) not playing (deploying the toys, with no relations between them or awareness of social rules); 2) worldplay (building worlds using wooden blocks and other toys, establishing relations between the characters and their possessions); and 3) imaginary situation (with no toys). At the end of this process, she was able to talk about her issues, communicating in a more adaptive way, especially in a schooled society. When she reached conversation, Anna’s activity was also changed. Therefore, there was a qualitative change regarding her needs, motives and ways of acting and reacting to herself, others, and cultural tools or events.

Collaborative project work facilitates social interactions among peers and between them and their teachers. It allows students to work in their zone of proximal development (ZPD), promoting their knowledge appropriation. It empowers adult students, allowing them to express their voices and their cultures. Inter-empowerment mechanisms are part of this process, facilitating the internalization of intra-empowerment mechanisms. Both of them shape students’ life trajectories of participation (César, 2013a). This work is part of the Interaction and Knowledge (IK) project. During 12 years (1994/1995–2005/2006) we studied and promoted social interactions in formal educational scenarios. We assumed an interpretative paradigm and developed an action-research project (three-year alternative curriculum, 7th–9th grades) and a 10-year follow up. The participants were the seven students who completed this course, their teachers, and other educational and social agents. Data collecting instruments included observation, interviews, informal conversations, tasks inspired by projective techniques, students’ protocols, and documents. Data treatment and analysis were based on a narrative content analysis. The results are mainly focused on one student: Ernesto. His legitimate participation in this course facilitated his inclusion in school and in society. It promoted his socio-cognitive and emotional development and allowed him to internalize intra-empowerment mechanisms. This enabled him to improve his life trajectory of participation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jean Piaget’s so-called biological perspective is often paired with the viewpoint of Lev Vygotsky when we speak of learning in humans. Both authors acknowledged the active role of children in the construction of knowledge. However, they differ in that, unlike Piaget, Vygotsky believed that the assimilation of new information does not have to wait for an appropriate level of development but must, on the contrary, produce that development through instruction; thus, cooperation between teacher and student promotes the development of higher psychological functions. The present research presents proof that school instruction is instrumental in this process. Samples of adults who had acquired distinct levels of schooling (from illiterates to university students) are differentiated experimentally through the use of four Piagetian cognitive problem-solving tasks created for adolescents and adults. The present research suggests that instructional level is the distinctive factor in the development of those problem-solving capacities that implicate higher psychological functions.

Lev Vygotsky’s statement on the development of the higher psychological functions— from the interpsychological form to the intrapsychological form—is discussed in the article. I describe the changing of Vygotsky’s interest from nonverbal to verbal communication and his emphasis on verbal communication as an only kind of interpsychological function. I then analyze works that show the importance of nonverbal communication in this process. I raise the questions of what an interpsychological function is and who is its “owner.” I argue that immediate response to the behavior (verbal and nonverbal) of another person is a basis for the psychological functions of a child, and this basis continues to influence processes in later stages of human development, including adulthood. Thus, interpsychological function in the development of the child is inevitably connected with some kind of passivity in reactions to social stimulation.

One of the most important and sharply discussed aspects of scientific knowledge is the problem of the possibility for practical applications and results. The application of psychological knowledge in different types of schooling, training, and instruction is a representative illustration of that problem’s current state. The aims of this paper are (1) to consider the possibilities and difficulties of such an application, (2) to analyze the reasons for both success and failure, and (3) to try to work out a path toward the construction of an applied theory to bridge the gap between psychological theory (in particular, learning and developmental psychology) and instructional practice. Specifically, this article considers practical applications of the fundamental psychological theory of Planned, Stage-by-Stage Formation of Mental Actions, or the PSFMA theory, by P. Galperin as the target case.

This special issue is dedicated to the 3rd Estoril Vigotsky Conference — the biannual international scientific event held in Estoril, Portugal on 16-18 June 2014. The organizing committee honored the wide impact of Lev Vygotsky’s works on contemporary psychology and included Vigotskyan League of Portuguese Language and the Institute Quintino Aires, in collaboration with the Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Russian University of Humanities (Russia, Moscow), IPAF — Instituto Vigotsky (São Paulo, Brazil) and Andricard (Luanda, Angola). The editorial board of our journal is very grateful to Professor Quintino-Aires for organization of this outstanding conference and to Professor Margarida César for contribution to this special issue.

The aim of the study is to consider technology-related changes in psychological needs and boundaries that affect one’s personal adaptation to the info-communication society, as well as how they relate to problematic or excessive technology use. Based on the psychological model of the consequences of technology use, we’ve picked two forms of technology use (one related to mobile phones and the other related to the Internet) from a revised version of our Technology-Related Psychological Consequences Questionnaire. The new version includes nine questions: two assessing the excessive use of technology (the inability to resist using technology and subjective dependence), four assessing changes in psychological boundaries (boundaries extension and violation, easiness-related and opportunity-related preference for technology) and the other three measuring technology-related needs (functionality, convenience and image making). In the normative sample (N=132), appropriate reliability, factor validity and convergent validity were demonstrated in comparisons to the picture measure of the technology-related boundaries change. Based on hierarchical regression and moderator analysis, it was shown that changes in psychological boundaries affect the excessive use of technology (explaining an additional 17-27% of the variance) after adjusting for frequency of use and age group. The extension of boundaries and ease-of-use-related preference for mobile phones versus the Internet predicted satisfaction with life after adjusting for frequency of use, age group, inability to resist and subjective dependency respectively; however, the figures were not statistically significant. Thus, our data supports the hypothesis that there are different kinds of technology-related changes in psychological boundaries that manifest themselves in the subjective feeling of dependence on technology and the feeling that it is impossible to do without technology, which might in some cases be important for personal satisfaction with life.

The study of motherhood is a promising and relevant field of psychology. This article represents the results of a study in which a socio-psychological analysis of reproductive attitudes and demographic behaviour was conducted. The study also shows the relationship between attitudes related to motherhood and women’s cultural affiliations.

The factors that contribute to the nature of attitudes towards motherhood and the interaction between these factors were studied. According to the results of this study, we distinguished the most significant characteristics of the attitudes to motherhood that influence the nature of the relationship between a mother and her unborn child.

The model of the development of attitudes to motherhood proposed by R. V. Ovcharova was detailed. We considered the influence of factors on the nature of attitudes to motherhood as well as the influence of factors on each other.

The results of this study allow us to describe the psychological portraits of women with different attitudes to motherhood.

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.

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.

Experimental data was obtained from a dichotic listening test by patients with unilateral brain lesions and corpus callosum pathology (agenesis, cysts, degenerative changes, etc). Efficiency index analysis shows that interhemispheric interaction in the audioverbal sphere depends to a greater extent on the right hemisphere state. The dichotic listening technique is not an informative means of studying hemispheric interaction, since it does not allow a clear distinction between hemispheric symptoms and symptoms of pathology of the corpus callosum. Thus, violations of hemispheric relations caused by disorders of the corpus callosum and cerebral hemispheres change worth more right hemisphere activity.

Human error is commonly differentiated into three different types. These are: errors in perception, errors in decision and errors in sensation. This analysis is based on classical psychophysics (Fechner, 1860) and describes the errors of detection and perception. Decision- making errors are evaluated in terms of the theory of signal detection (McNicholson, 1974), and errors of sensation or sensitivity are evaluated in terms of proprioceptive information (van Beers, 2001).

Each of these stages developed its own method of evaluation that has influenced the development of ergonomics in the event of errors in perception and the verbal assessment of personality (stress, impulsiveness, burnout, etc.) in decision-making errors. Here we represent the method we have developed, the Proprioceptive Diagnosis of Temperament and Character (DP- TC) test, for the specific assessment of errors of perception or expressivity which are based on fine motor precision performance.

Each of the described errors types are interdependent of each other in such a manner that observable stress in behaviour may be caused due to: the inadequate performance of a task due to the perception of the person (i.e. from right to left for a right-handed person); performing a task that requires attentive decision-making to be performed too hastily; undertaking a task that does not correspond to the prevailing disposition of the person.

This study looks at how well students majoring in educational sciences and psychology were able to use spontaneously metacognitive strategies for reading comprehension. Students majoring in education have demonstrated ineffective learning goals and strategies. The results of the study show that only 7 percent of education majors sought to establish logical connections between the text fragments in multiple-choice assessment by contrast with 48 percent of psychology majors. The study showed that the number of education and psychology majors with metacognitive strategy of systematization has increased in the situation of self-formulated answer.

The motivation system in adolescent high school pupilsstudents of was studied (9^th and 11^th grade students) on the basis of a complex approach and a comparative analysis of emotional attitudes and a deliberate preference of values (general and educational). It was shown that the significance and accessibility of analyzed groups of values are, to a considerable extent, determined by a dominant motivation. Also, a tendency was found towards the contra-positioning of conscious and emotional attitudes with values — values which are highly attractive on the motivation-and-emotional level, but on the level of conscience, are underestimated compared with other ones. This also determines the further trend of development of a personality in the direction of acceptance of sociallyapproved general and educational values, and leads to the convergence of personality development of schoolchildren at that stage of their life. Also revealed were certain gender- related features of value orientations, which were relatinged to the more advanced development of girls when compared to boys of the same age.

The article discloses the main potential aspects of cooperation between psychology and culturology, which are connected through their mutual determination of the psyche (psychic reality) and culture. The paper acknowledges the key importance of the cultural-historical traditions initiated by Lev Vygotsky and his successors as well as the idea that their potential has yet to be realized by contemporary psychology. A new vision of culture is given to culturology (in comparison with traditional cultural studies) and its significance in conducting modern psychological research: a novel problematization of psychology’s subject matter and its methodological support. Different aspects of the psyche’s cultural determination, the experience with cultural psychology (historical psychology) in researching historical mental types (“Annals school”) are reviewed alongside with the role of culture knowledge in analyzing the psychological results of this determination. The consistency of culture and its components represented and internalized by mental structures is announced as a fundamental cultural basis of psychological research. The return influence of psychological phenomena on culture’s various aspects, as well as related cultural and psychological problems, are determined by the fundamental place and role of the psyche in any given cultural system as well as the contradictions that exist between a culture and the psyche. All this requires further examination. One of the most vital contemporary challenges facing psychology is the problem of the mental peculiarities of the consciousness, which can be principally explained in terms of a consistent culturological approach. Interrelationships between the psyche’s properties and conscious cultural functions are shown through example of aesthetic attitude.

Contemporary Russian psychology faces an uphill battle in joining the international mainstream after decades of isolation. Among Russian psychologists today, we can see traces of the “globalist” (integrative) and “counter-globalist” (isolationist) tendencies that first manifested during the Soviet period. At that time, Russian psychology was shaped as a mono-methodological trend; it addressed fundamental theoretical problems, was based on Marxist philosophy and was oriented to reflect the standards of the natural sciences. In the post-Soviet period, fundamental social changes shifted the development of psychology as a science and different standards were adopted. Contemporary Russian psychology is substantially diversified. When searching for “the optimum level of integration” with global peers, it is necessary to take into account the theoretical and methodological orientations of the scientists, as their motives and constraints with respect to integration can be substantially different. Here we explain in detail how the different theoretical understandings and predilections of Russian psychologists determine their interests, ideals and constraints with respect to integration with the mainstream.

The first issue of 2014 opens with the special section “The Second Russian-Japanese Forum of Social Sciences and Humanities”. This forum was welcomed by Lomonosov Moscow State University in Ooctober 2013 and included a seminar on psychology. A team of researchers from the Graduate School of Arts and Letters of Tohoku University led by Dr. Tsuneyuki Abe, the head of Psychology Chair, and the Lomonosov Moscow State University Faculty of Psychology professors discussed current advances in psychological science in Russia and Japan with an emphasis on psychophysiology and social psychology. The corresponding section of the journal presents articles based on the seminar papers.

Tsuneyuki Abe, Juthatip Wiwattanapantuwong and Akio Honda explore the experience of a survivor in a great natural disaster. In the article “Dark, cold, and hungry, but full of mutual trust: Manners among the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake victims” they deconstruct simplified “urban legends” about extremely high levels of helpfulness among Japanese earthquake victims, and present valuable insights into actual resources promoting solidarity and support.

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.

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.

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.

This article describes techniques and procedures that are used to research the changeblindness phenomenon. The role of stimulus parameters in completing a visual task (detecting changes) was investigated. The following parameters of visual stimuli varied in a chronometric experiment: the number of objects, their location in the stimulus space, and the shape of the objects (including a new object that attracts attention as well as various changes of single objects, such as appearance/disappearance, location shifts, changes of color and shape). The results of this study indicate that change blindness can have a different intensity (the time of detecting changes in flickering images) depending on the number of objects, their location in the stimulus space (structured or randomized), and the type of change (the most complicated one was a change of color):

1. The number of objects has considerable influence on the intensity of change blindness and is the most powerful parameter. 
2. The shape of the objects within the image is not crucial for change-detection time.
3. The spatial organization of the objects is important for the successful detection of changes. The changes are detected quicker in images with regular rather than random organization. 
4. A distraction (in this case, a word that was substituted for an object) doesn’t have any considerable influence on change detection. 
5. Change-detection time increases as the interstimulus interval increases from 200 to 400 ms.
6. The detection of shifts and of appearance/disappearance is quicker than the detection of color change.
   

These results let us create stimulus patterns for change-blindness experiments that differ in complexity, and thus we could examine a wide range of hypotheses about the function of the psychological mechanisms of spatial attention that are used to explain this phenomenon.

In our research we made a substantial psychometric analysis of the scales of F. B. Berezin’s version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the MMIL, which is widely used in various spheres of psychological practice. Since the mid-1990s in Russia there have been many essential transformations in thinking and values that have been caused by changes in social and economic reality. For this reason, we need to continue our work on specifying the meaning of the MMIL tasks and, then, on updating the test norms and keys. Such psychometric updating is necessary for maintaining the efficiency of the method. For our update, we constructed linear norms for the test; we tested the questionnaire for the normality of the distribution of points; and we checked the validity (including external validity), the reliability coherence of the scales, and the variability of the points. The necessity of readapting the MMIL was thus demonstrated. Questions that display low variability and that are not significantly correlated with the scale they belong to, which reduces their differentiating potential, may be excluded from the test or reformulated.

The aim of the work was to develop and prove a Russian version of the Empathy Quotient, a new tool to measure empathy. A sample of 221 volunteers from the general population filled this questionnaire, the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy and the Quotient of Empathic Abilities. The coefficients of test-retest reliability, internal consistency and validity were high. In a factor analysis three factors were found that correspond to cognitive, emotional and social skills subscales. A short version with seven questions in each subscale was elaborated and it had acceptable psychometric properties as well.

The paper examines the differences in the social representations of happiness among optimists and pessimists in the group of socially active, educated young members of the international youth organization Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales . To assess the degree of optimism and pessimism we used the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) developed by E. Diener, while social representation, divided into the nucleus and peripheral zones, were examined using Verges’ technique within the framework of the concept of social mindsets offered by S. Moskovichi.

It has been shown that, irrespective of the optimism or pessimism of the participants, the nucleus of their representations of happiness contains such a value as love. However, only in optimists’ representations is this value combined in the nucleus with the values of family and friendship. In the pessimists’ nucleus zone of the representation of happiness, love is presented as an independent value, primarily associated with striking emotional experiences, which has aspects of psychological addiction. Considerable differences between optimists and pessimists have also been found in the peripheral zone of the representation of happiness. Only optimists have such associations as “knowledge”, “children”, and “faith” in their peripheral area. In our opinion, the major scale of differences between optimists and pessimists is formed by the factor of sociocentricity and egocentricity.

Results of research on social anxiety in orphaned children are presented in this article. The goal of this study was to identify the relationship between depressive states, anxiety states, characteristics of the situation at school, and fear of social evaluation in orphaned children. The differences in these parameters between orphaned children and children living with their families were also studied. The sample consisted of 123 teenagers. The main group comprised 57 orphans from an orphanage near the Moscow region, aged 10 to 16 years old. The control group comprised 66 students from a general school, aged 10 to 15 years old, and all living with their families. Differences were found in the parameters studied. The orphans were characterized by higher levels of social and general anxiety. On the one hand, they strove for the attention and approval of adults, but, on the other hand, they were more worried than their peers who lived with their families about the impression they made on others. They were afraid of receiving a negative evaluation.

This article examines the psychological peculiarities of children who are not accepted by their peers in the course of play. Problems in peer communication are analyzed in respect to the violation of “I” psychological boundaries. The phenomenology of the psychological boundaries of “I” and their violation in the course of play are investigated. New data are provided on the peculiarities of play (mainly its subject matter, including also specific plots, roles, and the organization of play space) in children who are not accepted by their peers; differences between children with low sociometric status and children from a control group were ascertained. Projective methods and observations of children’s play and communicative behavior in different situations were used. The sample included 140 children from 5 to 6 years old, 70 of whom were not accepted by their peers. Additionally 80 mothers (40 of them mothers of children who were not accepted by their peers) participated in the research. The link between the peculiarities of the children’s play, their peer relations, and violations of the psychological boundaries of “I” is described. The work provides elaboration of the notions of play developed within the framework of L. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach.

This article deals with the role of security in shaping an individual’s standpoints, opinions, attitudes, and unique world picture. It is argued that security/insecurity is a subjective notion of individuals about the absence/presence of threats to their existence. The results of a study of the security notions maintained by Russians are described. The data obtained give grounds to suggest that the following characteristics exist in the ordinary consciousness of Russians: security is perceived as a state associated with inactivity; security is seen as the basis of harmonious interpersonal relations; security is considered a kind of “ideal world” and is understood as powerful. A typology of Russians based on the specifics of these security notions is presented.

Human communities are based on a certain set of everyday attitudes, on the coordination of the actions of “the self ” in a group, and on the regulation of social practices. The results of this study show that a number of factors act as determinants of trust/ distrust ambivalence: the multidimensionality and the dynamics of interactions among people; the high level of subjectivity in evaluating risks resulting from openness and from confidence in partners involved in an interaction; and a subject’s contradictory attitude toward the personal traits of an interacting partner (power, activity, honesty, trustworthiness). Japanese scholars have proved the necessity of taking into account quality of life (QOL) as one of the determinants of the development of interpersonal confidence. The study demonstrates that people try to bring trust into their daily routines as a way of organizing conscientious, emotionally open interactions that take into account the interests of all parties. Mistrust blocks access to the emotional, intellectual, and activity-related resources supporting life and undermines faith in the possibility of virtue and morality. Yet a supplementary study (using instant diagnostics) indicates that in practice respondents did not demonstrate a high level of confidence (in two cities it was 0%; in one city, it was 4.6%). In spite of emotionally positive views regarding trust, as well as constructive estimates of its moral/behavioral potential, a considerable number of respondents were not open and oriented to the interests of others. A tendency toward caution, inwardness, and constrained sincerity leads to nonconformity in one’s actions in a group and to changes in the vector of social practices from socio-partner regulation to disorganized interaction.

Terrorism has become a highly important problem for humanity, and psychology tries to make its contribution to the study of this complex phenomenon. In the current work we analyze not a typical terrorist case, but an unusual one: the sarin attack which took place in Japan in 1995. The current study combines the cultural-historic approach of L.S. Vygotsky, and research on Japanese mentality and collectivistic psychology. The results show the importance of several key factors that led a religious sect to become a terrorist organization. In spite of the uniqueness of the Japanese psychology, in the Aum Shinrikyo case we can see some common aspects of terrorist motivation and behavior.

Extremism is seen as a complex, multilevel, and multicomponent phenomenon. The problems of modern science in understanding extremism are revealed. The following bases of extremism as a system phenomenon are singled out: social factors, latent extremism, and extremist acts. It is demonstrated that a system approach makes it possible to shape a notion of a subject as a system, to identify patterns of the manifestations of the given phenomenon, and to translate them into concrete practices.

In this article, eating behavior is discussed from the point of view of various areas of psychology. First, tasting food and the perception of food palatability are discussed from the viewpoints of sensory and perceptual psychology and of physiological psychology. Second, the phenomenology of some social-psychological effects on eating behavior are introduced – for example, communication at the table, sociocultural variations in food liking/disliking, and emotional changes after eating. Third, these topics are integrated and are applied to food businesses. Two conclusions can be drawn: (1) understanding human eating behavior leads one to understand human beings themselves; (2) a psychological understanding of eating behavior not only gives one broad knowledge of psychology but also provides businesses and governments with hints for improving quality of life.

It was reported with praise by the worldwide media that victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami disaster endured the aftermath in a civil manner. We analyzed official crime statistics and investigated data that were collected from residents in disaster-stricken areas. Official statistics showed that crime decreased during the disaster period. Collected data suggest that criminal and deviant behavior were extremely rare, and that the victims helped each other, apparently altruistically. Further research on actual behavior in post-disaster environments is necessary in order to sufficiently prepare for future disasters.

The first issue of 2014 opens with the special section “The Second Russian-Japanese Forum of Social Sciences and Humanities”. This forum was welcomed by Lomonosov Moscow State University in Ooctober 2013 and included a seminar on psychology. A team of researchers from the Graduate School of Arts and Letters of Tohoku University led by Dr. Tsuneyuki Abe, the head of Psychology Chair, and the Lomonosov Moscow State University Faculty of Psychology professors discussed current advances in psychological science in Russia and Japan with an emphasis on psychophysiology and social psychology. The corresponding section of the journal presents articles based on the seminar papers.

Tsuneyuki Abe, Juthatip Wiwattanapantuwong and Akio Honda explore the experience of a survivor in a great natural disaster. In the article “Dark, cold, and hungry, but full of mutual trust: Manners among the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake victims” they deconstruct simplified “urban legends” about extremely high levels of helpfulness among Japanese earthquake victims, and present valuable insights into actual resources promoting solidarity and support.