Articles

The concept of “competitiveness” has been most thoroughly developed in the framework of modern economics and management. Apart from economic factors, this concept also embraces social and psychological factors, but economic models do not reveal the psychological essence of the concept of “competitive personality.”

Analytical review of the psychological and educational case studies of the competitive- personality problem has brought to light the ambiguity in this concept along with a multitude of models that distinguish individual aspects of a competitive personality. Most creators of the various models emphasize the quality of the conditions necessary for forming and developing a competitive personality. In economics, competition is an essential, inherent feature of various types of activity where conflicts of interest occur. However, the established economic model of competitive personality reduces and replaces the psychological content of the concept.

Theoretically and experimentally the authors of this article substantiate their disclosure of the competitive-personality concept via its creative potential. Results of an in-depth study confirm that the ability to achieve success through one’s own initiative, anticipating the demands of competition, appears to be the backbone for competitiveness of personality.

The author states that the problem of morality should be one of the main topics of psychological science though modern Russian psychology avoids it for some reasons. The Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences develops the qualitative approach to this problem based on the index combining several statistic indicators. Applying it to modern Russian society provides the opportunity qualitative estimate of its state and dynamics. Using the qualitative data the author demonstrates the dramatic moral situation in modern Russia, describes its main causes and directions of improving.

In the current study, self-assessed intelligence (SAI) is presented as a multidimensional construct related both to personality and to psychometric intelligence. On the basis of data obtained from a Russian student sample (N = 496), the authors validate a structural model in which SAI acts as a mediating variable between latent variables of measured IQ and the trait of acceptance of uncertainty. Evidence for signifi cant gender diff erences in SAI in favor of men is also given.

This paper summarizes the organizational and scientific outcomes of the 5th Congress of the Russian Psychological Society. It shows the RPS's dynamics of development since its establishment to the present day, and presents a report on the Congress's major events, and the statistics in comparison with the other events of international scientific life. Scientific sections of the Congress are grouped that allowed to showing the main trends in modern psychology. The new directions of psychological research debuted on the Congress are shown, the most important domains of the psychological science are highlighted, and possible reasons for some of them not having succeeded are given. The new subjects and objects of psychological studies new to psychologists are identified. Based on the historical view of the contemporary psychology, were analyzed the future directions of its development.

The release of this year's volume of Psychology in Russia: State of the Art is timed to the 30th International Congress of Psychology, that is hosted by South African Cape Town on July 22 this year, as the Russian Psychological Society as an official member of the European Federation of Psychological Associations, as well as the International Union of Psychological Science under UNESCO pays great attention to the current state of the psychological science around the world. It is precisely with this spirit of openness and shared knowledge that the society regularly publishes scientific research and participates in various forums, conferences and round-table discussions...