Introduction

This volume contains articles of Russian psychologists and is dedicated to the 11th European Congress of Psychology, which is held in July 2009, in Oslo, Norway. The main purpose of this edition is to introduce Russian contemporary psychology to international psychological community. The team of contributors occurred to be rather accidental. Most of them are psychologists who decided to participate in the Congress in Oslo and received travel grants from one of the national academic foundations: the Russian Foundation of Basic Research and the Russian Foundation for Humanities. A wish to participate in the European Congress, the financial support of the academic foundations and a manuscript in English, – these were the conditions of membership in this project. Such an occasional cast has both positive and negative aspects.

This third issue of the yearbook Psychology in Russia: State of the Art is timed for the XXVIIth International Congress of Applied Psychology (11th-16th July 2010, Melbourne, Australia). The aim of the issue is to acquaint foreign colleagues with a broad spectrum of theoretical and applied research conducted by Russian psychologists in the last few years. Russian psychology is developing intensively today. To a very large extent this is determined by the great interest Russian society shows for psychology in general and for the possibilities of its practical application. An ever increasing number of organizations employ professional psychologists in Russia, and there is an ever increasing demand for scientifically sound innovations in management, production, education, and entertainment. In the last years, the quantity of popular psychology books has been steadily increasing, which is an unequivocal evidence for a rising concern of the Russian population with psychological issues. Although Russian psychology always was interested in solving applied problems, the dominance of applied research can today be regarded as one of its most characteristic features.

The year which passed since the last issue of this yearbook was published was marked by a considerable amount of activity by the professional community of Russian psychologists. This clearly reflects the growing role psychology as a discipline and a profession plays in the life of Russian society. Today, psychology has become very visible in Russia. It has made a miraculous transformation from a rather exotic – if not marginal – academic discipline to almost a mass occupation. The need for all sorts of psychological services (be it psychological help, consulting, or applied research) surely still exceeds the capabilities of the professional community of Russian psychologists. This imbalance creates many pressures for professional psychologists to weaken quality standards they follow in their day-to-day work and to trade scientifically sound psychological theories for ad-hoc invented explanations and questionable hypotheses. It is with content that the Russian Psychological Society (RPS) observes a re-orientation of psychologists in universities and in practice towards an increasing sensitivity to the use of scientifically validated methods and procedures. More importantly, Russian consumers of psychological services today oft en ask not for a quick remedy of a single problem, but are interested in a thorough analysis of the problem at hand in order to develop an integrated solution with a predictable chance of success.

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...

Since the publication of its first issue in 2008, Psychology in Russia: State of the Art had served as a flagship journal for the Russian Psychological Society and has played an important and unique role for the field of psychology in Russia. And with the psychological science rapidly becoming increasingly international, integrated and multidisciplinary, the journal today enjoys a wide international readership and is becoming a source of scholarship in psychology worldwide.

This year marks the transition of Psychology in Russia: State of the Art from annual to quarterly publication to encourage exploration, development and validation of new scholarly discoveries in the field. This required our editorial team to streamline the journal’s review and publication processes to meet the challenge and see our journal evolve as it continues to grow in size and influence.