Editorial

Zinchenko, Yu. P. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Federal Scientific Center of Psychological and Interdisciplinary Research, Moscow, Russia

This issue of “Psychology in Russia: State of the Art” is focused on the topic of psychology and education. It also introduces a new section on psychology and bioethics, and we hope to start a meaningful discussion in this proliferating field of research.

The special section “Psychology and education” is not limited to research with schoolchildren: their teachers’ professional and personal development is studied as well. Leonid S. Ilushin and Anastasia A. Azbel performed pilot research using semi-structured interview for studying awareness in Russian teachers. Mergalyas M. Kashapov, Irina V. Serafimovich and Yulia V. Poshekhonova elaborated the concept of “supra-situational pedagogical thinking” and investigated its determinants, the components of metacognition and metacognitive properties of forecasting in teachers. Further development of metacognition concept is given in the paper by Alexander A. Karpov and colleagues who investigated the interconnection of learning ability and the organization of metacognitive processes and traits of personality on a large sample of university students. Finally, Mansoor A. Channa and colleagues outlined teachers’ perceptions toward strategies in reading, also referring to the notion of metacognition and to some ideas of L.S. Vygotsky that are interesting to find in a Pakistani context.

Papers on schoolchildren’s learning process are focused on certain activities. Elvira A. Baranova and Evgeni L. Nikolaev deepen the understanding of questionasking behavior as a form of cognitive activity in primary school children. Tatiana N. Tikhomirova and colleagues provide a definition of mathematical fluency and illustrate its relevance by presenting their own empirical research as well as an overview of studies examining mathematical fluency development in high school students.

The article by Nina V. Bordovskaia and Elena A. Koshkina gives a historical outlook of the influence of psychology on Russian didactic terminology in early 18th century — first half of 20th century.

In the “Social psychology” section two articles deal with scientific reflections on “generation gap” at macro social levels of the Russian society. Vera A. Fedotova outlined age-related differences in values and economic attitudes among Russians. Nadezhda K. Radina and Mariia V. Koskina investigated power, attraction, and reference in macrolevel social relations: an analysis of closed groups and closed societies based on the psychology of the “Soviet person” and the “post-Soviet person”. Olga S. Deyneka and Elena R. Isaeva performed a comparative analysis of adaptation resources in subjects with social and psychosomatic disadaptation. Contrasting, such adaptive state as work engagement can be assessed using psychometric properties of the Russian version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9) provided by Andrey V. Lovakov, Elena R. Agadullina and Wilmar B. Schaufeli.

In the “Psychology and bioethics” section Elena V. Bryzgalina and colleagues considered the potential of biobanking as a new environment for psychological research and application. Ksenia Y. Eritsyan, Natalia A. Antonova and Larisa A. Tsvetkova provided a systematic review of methods for investigating the opposite mindset of mistrust to medical science, namely anti-vaccination behavior and attitudes.

The content of the “Theory and methodology” section is close to the topics already addressed in the “Psychology and education” section. Vladimir A. Mazilov and Artem A. Kostrigin A.A. provide another historical research dedicated to the work of Veniamin Snegirev, a 19th century Russian psychologist and theologian. Vladimir D. Shadrikov and Sergey S. Kurginyan put forward some methodological propositions toward a development of psychological theory of thought, continuing the dialog on (meta)cognition.