Empirical research of contemporary social practices

The aim of the study is to consider technology-related changes in psychological needs and boundaries that affect one’s personal adaptation to the info-communication society, as well as how they relate to problematic or excessive technology use. Based on the psychological model of the consequences of technology use, we’ve picked two forms of technology use (one related to mobile phones and the other related to the Internet) from a revised version of our Technology-Related Psychological Consequences Questionnaire. The new version includes nine questions: two assessing the excessive use of technology (the inability to resist using technology and subjective dependence), four assessing changes in psychological boundaries (boundaries extension and violation, easiness-related and opportunity-related preference for technology) and the other three measuring technology-related needs (functionality, convenience and image making). In the normative sample (N=132), appropriate reliability, factor validity and convergent validity were demonstrated in comparisons to the picture measure of the technology-related boundaries change. Based on hierarchical regression and moderator analysis, it was shown that changes in psychological boundaries affect the excessive use of technology (explaining an additional 17-27% of the variance) after adjusting for frequency of use and age group. The extension of boundaries and ease-of-use-related preference for mobile phones versus the Internet predicted satisfaction with life after adjusting for frequency of use, age group, inability to resist and subjective dependency respectively; however, the figures were not statistically significant. Thus, our data supports the hypothesis that there are different kinds of technology-related changes in psychological boundaries that manifest themselves in the subjective feeling of dependence on technology and the feeling that it is impossible to do without technology, which might in some cases be important for personal satisfaction with life.

The study of motherhood is a promising and relevant field of psychology. This article represents the results of a study in which a socio-psychological analysis of reproductive attitudes and demographic behaviour was conducted. The study also shows the relationship between attitudes related to motherhood and women’s cultural affiliations.

The factors that contribute to the nature of attitudes towards motherhood and the interaction between these factors were studied. According to the results of this study, we distinguished the most significant characteristics of the attitudes to motherhood that influence the nature of the relationship between a mother and her unborn child.

The model of the development of attitudes to motherhood proposed by R. V. Ovcharova was detailed. We considered the influence of factors on the nature of attitudes to motherhood as well as the influence of factors on each other.

The results of this study allow us to describe the psychological portraits of women with different attitudes to motherhood.