Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, Moscow: Russian Psychological Society, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2011, 519 p.

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 special status of the theme of consciousness in modern science is caused by a number of circumstances: considerable growth of scientific papers in the last quarter of XX and the beginning of XXI centuries, transition of modern society from the postindustrial phase to the informative, and also by the newest philosophy, new scientific ideology, ideas of postmodernism, etc.; there appeared such new integrated fields of knowledge as neuroscience, cognitive science, science of consciousness.

This essay is aimed at considering the possibility itself of “metacomprehension” of the mental reality so cherished by Lev Vygotsky from the positions of cultural and activity psychology. It is demonstrated that the program Vygostky outlined for creating the new “general psychology” involves the use of dialectical logic (as opposed to the contemporary projects of “integrative psychology” based on the “and – and” logic). Applied in a creative way to the problem of nature of mental reality, the dialectical logic let the adherents of Alexei Leontiev school draw the conclusion that activity can be regarded as a substance of mind and that, consequently, the mind can be regarded as a “functional organ” of activity. Such an interpretation of the mental reality makes it possible to resolve a number of theoretical and practical psychological problems anew.

This paper reports on the results of the 40-year longitudinal studies based on the author’s conception of creativity as generation of activity at one’s own initiative and pursued by the method Creative Field, which has been developed by the author purposely to explore this particular phenomenon. The method allows dividing people with high abilities into those who attain proficiency and those who push the boundaries and move to the level of art even in science, which characterizes the higher forms of creativity. The universality of the method as a diagnostic instrument proves the possibility to identify creative abilities on samples of seemingly alternative professions: in exact sciences and in art. The validity of this method is confi rmed by the absolute coincidence of the diagnostic findings and the life course of the subjects in the given samples. Moreover, the diagnostic findings in children of school age have been sustained for a period of over 40 years, which speaks for the apparent prognostics of the method.

The article is devoted to the history of development of military psychology from psychological and philosophical positions. The transition stage in development of military psychology from classical to postclassical type of rationality is focused. Analysis of combat activity as self-regulation system is presented. The latest technologies in solving key problems of military science are discussed.

Psychological effects of climate change constitute one of the subjects of study of ecological psychology. Ecological psychology is formed and developed at the junction of ecology, different directions of psychology, psychotherapy, pedagogy, philosophy and other disciplines. The article is devoted to review those areas of psychological research, which consider the human psyche in the logic of interaction with the environment. As a result, we hope to answer the fundamental question of whether ecological psychology may be regarded as an independent area of psychological research, which has its object and methods that distinguish it from other areas of psychological theory and practice.

Stating the main principles of Buddhist philosophy and psychology is usually going with help of ancient categories and metaphors, which had been developed since the fifth century B.C. till the tenth century A.C. That means they were worked out by quite different kind of mentality (culture, language, traditions…). That makes those categories and metaphors almost untranslatable on European languages properly and unequivocally. In its turn, that situation makes difficult any kind of modern scientific research of the phenomena, discovered inside Buddhism, as well as ideas, developed in it. In this article we set a question of possibility to select such basic concepts of modern natural science, which can effectively translate main oriental ideas about Reality into modern scientific paradigm and discover the meaning of psychological phenomena from the transpersonal psychology sphere of interest. We take a look on some comparisons between pictures of Reality in modern physics and in Buddhist paradigm, allocating two sides of Reality, called Nirvana and Samsara.

The article is devoted to individual differences in psychological characteristics, the influence of genotype and environment on individual differences in evoked potential of brain related to the execution of motor action, the role of genetic and environmental factors in individual characteristics of the parameters of sensorimotor activity, genetic and environmental factors in development of psychological traits.

The article is devoted to the problem of using a new experimental technology of “virtual reality” (VR) in psychological research. Methods of virtual reality actively become embedded in tooling of up-to-date experimental psychology. Next in turn there is a task of embedding of VR technologies in various areas of applied psychology like sport psychology. Application of modern computer methods discovers new perspectives for sport psychology.

This article is devoted to Lev Vygotsky’s and Alexander Luria’s contribution to the theory and methods of neuropsychology, and particularly, developmental neuropsychology. The first part of the article covers the principle foundations of neuropsychology as elaborated by Vygotsky and Luria. The goal of the second part is to show what interpretation of learning disabilities can be derived from it.

The present work suggests an analysis of B.W. Zeigarnik’s contribution into development of pathopsychology as a branch of clinical psychology. There are considered the main theoretical and methodological problems of pathopsychology which were elaborated in B.W. Zeigarnik’s works. The problems of coordination between pathopsychology, general psychology and psychiatry, formulated by B.W. Zeigarnik, as well as specific features of the subject matter of pathopsychology are also discussed.

The article considers the role of personal and social values in the regulation of human behaviour. These values could be unconscious and hiding behind habits and rules, patterns of behaviour and thinking, but they can be realized by both an individual and social community and eventually their choice in this case which arises an opportunity to make them manageable. Consideration of the spiritual component of public health has led the author of this article to discuss the concepts of “spiritual well-being” and “spiritual diseases”. The article contains data of empirical research of deviant behaviour as a consequence of spiritual distress.

The author discusses the controversial issues of formation and functioning of psychological defense mechanisms in ontogenesis and in personality disorders as they are represented in classical and contemporary psychoanalysis, in cognitivism and communication theory. The paper emphasizes the role of cognitive organization (style), sign-symbolic mediation, representative system of object relations and attachments in individual typological variability of the level organization of defense mechanisms, in efficiency of personal and social adaptation, in maturity and mental health of personality.

This paper is an invitation for professionals to discuss modifi cations of free associations technique and the position of therapist in analytic situation. Let me briefl y formulate these ideas.

The article is focused on history and logic of the evolution of projective techniques, as well as methodological problems concerning the arrangement of a study based on application of projective methods, and the analysis of the data obtained. A critical review is undertaken of the “classical” habit of thought regarding projective methods, and a new, “non-classical” approach is suggested. To lay a foundation for the suggested new approach there has been undertaken a research into peculiarities of a projective study implementation (with the CAT1 method being employed) with further consideration of the results on the material of a child development.

Neuropsychological evaluation is a necessary step that precedes neurorehabilitation. It implies both qualitative and quantitative assessment of patient’s possible cognitive deficit. Qualitative approach aims to define the structure of the cognitive deficit while quantitative procedures give estimate of the magnitude of the deficit. Complex pathology affects multiple brain regions and reveals in a series of neuropsychological syndromes associated with these brain areas. Metasyndrome analysis is proposed as an approach to understanding the complex cognitive impairments. A new concept of metasyndrome is introduced in order to describe these repetitive patterns of observed cognitive deficits. Quantitative estimate allows to determine the degree of cognitive disorder and the dynamics of its change.

The paper defines remediating education, its peculiarities against trasitional education, main tasks and principles, based upon the cultural-historical theory of L.S. Vygotsky. Base functional systems formed during remediation are discussed. Peculiarities of individual, group and dyadic methods of remediation are described with regard to its potential for mediating child’s activity.

Split Brain Syndrome as it is described in neuropsychology includes impairments of perceptual and motor activity, more specifically the impairments in coordination of motor responses in bimanual tasks as well as in perception, speech and space impairments. There’s little evidence about the specification of memory processes impairments in the corpus callosum (cc) pathology. The conducted experiment demonstrated that cc performs the function of distribution of energy between the brain hemispheres and suppress the subdominant in the present activity, forcing the interhemispherical asymmetry, suppressing the identical process in the subdominant hemisphere. CC also significantly influences the process of selectivity in involuntary memory and learning.

The purpose of the research was to study the patterns of using proactive coping and adherences to it’s different types in patients with chronic non-specific lung diseases. Participants of the study (N=180) were 30 to 60 years old. The Proactive Coping Inventory was used to assess the patients’ psychological status. According to the results of the study patients with chronic non-specific lung diseases use different types of proactive coping behavior while solving problematic and stressful situations. The research revealed that patients with bronchial asthma don’t have the skills of independent decision making, definition of objectives, considering of options in solving conflicts or other inconvenient situations sufficiently developed. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are less satisfied with the emotional support that they receive from their relatives and closest people, it’s harder for them to reveal their feelings and emotions than for those who suffer from bronchial asthma and healthy ones. The results of the study may be useful in developing educational systems of proactive coping behavior skills for patients with chronic non-specific lung diseases for their health and well-being support.

Security psychology is considered through social systemic search for reciprocal contiguity and mutual completion of existing advances of psychology and conceptual security understanding. The ability of systemic vision of security and its cognitive and practical specifics are demonstrated. The possibility to investigate safety psychology as social theoretical construct is suggested. Multi-aspect approach to security is substantiated. Methodological challenges of psychological security are discussed.

The main directions of safety formation in communication strategies are connected with their adaptation to the conditions of social and psychological variability. Building up a communicative strategy is a versatile process, in which it is necessary to consider a wide spectrum of social and psychological parameters, especially topical in the modern period of social development. Forms of social interactions in schematic formats of contemporary social and economic revolution are reduced, social and functional potentials are depleted, mass society is further differentiating, the pace of historic changes is growing, all this determines the necessity to prepare changes in personality structures to the dynamics of social and psychological fluidity.

Displacement reaction is a universal behavioral reaction for stressful situation. Displacement behavior becomes more probable under uncontrollable stress. Very often human displacement behavior is revealed in different forms of risk behaviors. Many forms of risk behavior are deviant and asocial. The essay reviews the significance of uncontrollable social stress management in humans. Importance of studies on uncontrollable stress for prevention of displacement and risk behaviors is discussed.

The article gives an account of the empirical study results aimed at analyzing the degree of need for safety’s satisfaction. The findings demonstrate that the degree of need for safety as a basic personality want strongly depends on gender, agerelated and professional distinctions.

Forming-up of the corporate identity is based on cognitive, affective and conative elements of corporate culture. The group as an entity choosing goals and values ensures a certain response to standards and values of corporate culture within the parameters of its social responsibility. Corporate security as security of community and cooperation acts as a form of organizational and ethical approach to developing socially responsible attitude of government and business.

Organizational culture presents an interest for research and practice of social psychology. This article is intended to discuss the problem of managing the organizational structure on two levels that contain most topical problems: general methodological level and technological level. Organizational culture is a system with its distinct features that consists of units and sub-systems with their specific features. An organizational-culture system comprises several levels: leader’s personality level (as well as the personality level in general), level of executive team (as well as of a small group in general), level of organization in general (level of a large group).

In the article main parameters of any emergency situation that influence the psychological stress intensity are described. The most frequent consequences of emergency situations are discussed. The characteristic of psychological and psychosomatic reactions of the rescuers and secret service agents is provided. Professional and personal training of emergency service workers involved in work with victims of terrorist attacks and emergency situations is described. Attention is drawn to the the problem of interaction between emergency service workers and victims.

The article is devoted to a number of urgent problems of mental and physical health of people who live in the global community. How we understand what is the world around us, what kind of society we live in and what are behavioural patterns and developmental features in the contemporary situation, and what the requirements of this society are. Changes in the modern child are influenced by an intense evolutionary self-development of modern man. Special attention should be paid to the development of science on the whole and psychological, psychophysiological, psychological and didactic branches in particular whose basis are stipulated in the textbooks and manuals of a qualitatively new generation.

An important direction of human cognitive development is the development of abilities at activities in complex dynamical environments containing multiple interacting structures (Dorner, Frensch & Funke, Spector, Voss). Cognition of the interacting structures by experimentation is the main function of causal-experimental thought (Demetriou). Usually preoperational children are not considered to have well-expressed abilities for causal-experimental thought. In the paper I describe heuristic rules for design of didactic multivariable objects stimulating preschoolers’ combinatorial experimentation and causal-experimental thought, the objects designed, and several studies of the children’s cognitive activity (exploratory learning) aimed at the objects and revealing their abilities to combinatorial experimentation. Participants: 623 children of 3-7 years old. It has been shown that the children successfully explore the objects containing hidden mechanical, logical and mathematical relationships by using strategies of combinatorial experimentation of various levels of complexity.

Psychophysiological research into achromatic vision in humans and vertebrates displays that light intensity is coded by a two-dimensional “excitation vector”. The components of that vector are responses of brightness and darkness neurons (or, according to another classification, on- and off -neurons). It means that a current sensation of brightness is determined by a corresponding interrelation between activities of those two systems responding in opponent way to light onset and off set. The present research is devoted to testing of a hypothesis asserting that two-module organization of achromatic vision is a universal principle of brightness coding in a wide raw of animals including invertebrates. The paper represents certain results of registration and analysis of electroretinogram and total activity of the optical nerve in snail Helix lucorum to diffuse light fl ashes of different intensities. The obtained experimental data, along with the already existing reference data, allow us to assume that on- and off -systems may constitute the neural basis for brightness coding in the invertebrates. The peculiarity of on- and off -systems in vertebrates is that they are formed already at the photoreceptor level.

The problem of lie detection has a long history. Main achievements in this field are concerned with registration of peripheral nervous system indicators. Our experiment provides possibility for development of a new lie detection technology, based on neurophysiologic correlates of cognitive processes diagnostics that underlie deception. The experiments were conducted by “Audio-Visual Slider” software (by Medicom MTD), which performed synchronized stimuli presentation and electrophysiological recording.

Achievement motivation is a psychological category which implies a desire to achieve significant (powerful) results in certain sphere. According to the results of psychophysiological research people who are motivated for success are very active before they are instructed by the researcher which proves that they aimed at the perception of the referent situation and the intense level of expectations. One of the vital issues today is a problem how genes influence human behaviour. Thus on the basis of contemporary researches we can conclude that such influence is regulated by brain processes.

This article describes a categorical structure of perception of still-life painting. Analysis is done on the system of visual opposition elements in still-life. A still-life is considered a “perceptual statement about the world”, and a “visual aphorism”. The research is based on such methods as: semantic spaces constructing and their transformation at introduction of additional elements in still-lifes. It also gives full analysis of an interpretation of complex images and understanding of types of still-life as a visual hermeneutics.

This article describes the connection between the use of types of mental imagery by athletes and the level of their imagination. Taking the model of imagery use suggested by K. Martin, S. Moritz and C. Hall, the authors used a Russian version of “The Sport Imagery Questionnaire” (SIQ) with soccer players 8, 10 and 14 years old. The data shows that subjects with a higher level of imagination are more inclined to use mental imagery in their practice. Age differences in types of imagery usage are shown. The results indicated that mental-imagery training can result in enhanced performance among junior athletes.