Background: Gender stereotypes are still a social problem. They display themselves in the process of perception by activating a gender schema as well as androcentrism and gender polarization lenses.
Objective: This paper addresses the dependence of perception on social stereotypes and schemas. e research aimed at understanding how a gender-neutral image of a cat is perceived, and checking such factors as gender schema, gender-stereotyped context, the animal’s weight, the identification of participants with an animal on basis of their own gender.
Design: A Female Cat or Male Cat Test, consisting of 12 pictures, was constructed for this research. We also used the Masculinity, Femininity and Gender Type of Personality Inventory, the Russian version of the Male Attitude Norms Inventory. Tests were conducted on 197 students in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow.
Results: A cat was perceived as male 6.4 times more often than as a female, when each case of perception was counted. It was seen as male 7.2 times more often than as a female when we analyzed how the cat was seen in general by each participant. A gender-stereotyped context influenced perception for some participants. There was no influence of the animal’s weight or identification of participants with an animal on basis of their own gender.
Conclusions: The research supports the hypotheses that perception of a picture of a gender-neutral animal can be explained mainly by gender schema and the interplay between “lenses” of gender polarization and androcentrism. When the last one was activated, the cat was seen as male. Most of cases when the animal was seen as a female can be explained by the influence of polarization lenses (through gender-stereotyped context in the pictures).
Solovieva Yu., Quintanar L. (2018). Rehabilitation of semantic aphasia in spanish speaking patient. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 11 (1), 137-150.
Background. Aphasia is defined as a language disorder resulting from brain damage. The establishment of the relationship between the assessment and the procedures for rehabilitation is one of fundamental aspects of clinical neuropsychology.
Objective. The objective of this study is to describe the case of a Spanish-speaking patient with semantic aphasia, along with the strategies used in her neuropsychological assessment, and the procedures and results of her rehabilitation.
Design. The study method consisted of a clinical “Case Study” through qualitative neuropsychological syndrome analysis during pre- and post-assessment. The program for rehabilitation was designed especially for this case, and applied in individual therapeutic sessions with the patient. The inclusion of different kinds of material, perceptual, and verbal tasks permitted the patient to follow the levels of formation of actions with spatial orientation, starting from the most concrete level, and passing on to a more general, abstract level. The process of rehabilitation was carried out as a joint activity, taking into account the patient’s motivation and personality.
Results. Important positive changes were obtained by the time of the final assessment. The patient became able to understand complex grammatical structures in sentences and texts, in order to fulfill construction tasks and to express herself correctly both orally and in writing.
Conclusion. The authors conclude that an effective assessment leads directly to the effectiveness of the whole process of elaborating and realizing rehabilitation. Semantic aphasia can be studied in Spanish-speaking patients by using the qualitative methodology of neuropsychological assessment proposed in the works of A.R. Luria.
Background. When Vygotsky suggested the term rudimentary functions for psychological phenomena, he drew a parallel with organismic rudiments that existed and continue to exist in a number of biological species. These rudiments used to play an important role in the life of an organism and allow us to study that life in the process of its development. Vygotsky originally gave three explicit examples of psychological rudimentary functions: 1) attributing an important decision to the result of a solitaire card game, 2) tying a knot in a handkerchief in order to remember and do something later, and 3) counting on one’s fingers.
Objective. The purpose of this article is to offer a contemporary overview and paths for development of L.S. Vygotsky’s notion of rudimentary function.
Design. This paper, in the genre of a theoretical article, drew on existing research and theoretical literature to advance a theory. I analyzed Vygotsky’s original example of a solitaire game and similar actions (for example, flipping a coin), arguing that these actions represent key events mediating choice and exercising human will over affect. I then focused on three more psychological functions that fit Vygotsky’s definition of rudiments: 1) photographic memory and déjà vu as instances of historically primitive eidetic memory, 2) talking to one-self aloud as a rudiment of a key event forming the self-regulatory mechanism of inner speech in childhood, and 3) fantasizing, which could remind us of our young age, when imagination readily created what was lacking in external world.
Results. This analysis allowed me to vividly illustrate the historical and relational focus of Vygotsky’s theories.
Conclusions. Rudimentary functions, often perceived as mysterious, in their simplicity can be powerful reminders that historically primitive functions do not disappear, but enter complex relationships with other psychological functions, and that many relationships are possible within different cultural-historical formations, with Western civilization being just one example.
