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This article stresses the social importance of the problem of giftedness and in this connection the necessity to clarify this concept scientifically. The history of this problem reveals the origins of reduction of the concept and the wide-spread notion of giftedness as "intelligence level above average. "There are two reasons of it: 1) Galton's components of giftedness were put into a complex; 2) there were no measuring techniques of this complex. The unit of the analysis of giftedness was formed after Galton's notion of giftedness as comprised of components was supplemented with the method of measurement -"systematic observation"- and understood as an ability to generate activity at one's own initiative. Then it became possible to realize Galton's concept of giftedness as a manifestation of mind and character.

The article presents basic trends and prospects of development of neurosciences which study the problems of brain dysfunctions, thinking, memory, perception, and data processing It considers the questions raised by the research of brain elasticity of an adult person, the problem of individual consciousness, decoding of mechanisms of thinking, new trends in cross-cultural of studies.. The attention is focused on the important interdisciplinary researches in the field of studying stress / distress and various mental and psychosomatic frustrations which are caused by them.

In Vygotsky's words, Marxist psychology proceeds along the path of American behaviorism only to a certain point (1926). I suppose Vygotsky was mistaken. Behaviorism of his time was as immature as Marxist psychology, and much water has flowed under the bridge since then. Contemporary behaviorology is compatible with dialectical materialism. Here I will particularly examine three aspects. Firstly, materialistic interpretation of causality is crucial for both of them. Secondly, cause and consequence are dialectically related in selection by consequences, so it is in fact a dialectical model of behavior determination. Thirdly, laws of dialectics are applicable to behaviorology.

The following article aims to explain why including a new principle - a meta-sys-tem approach principle - in methodological principles of psychological research is of crucial importance. In developing main points of system methodology this approach simultaneously appears to be a more general one, because it permits to overcome a number of limitations and, first of all, to incorporate a qualitatively unique class of systems - systems with an "embedded" meta-system level - in the sphere of research. Besides, the article covers main issues and methodological sources for applying the meta-system approach to psychological studies. It is the purpose of this article to demonstrate efficiency of the approach in understanding basic structural principles and content of the highest psychical level - the meta-system level.

The present study is aimed to examine the role of the concept of social situation of development, suggested by L.S. Vygotsky, to define determinants of psychological development of a child in modern developmental psychology. Its heuristic character is exposed by the fact that further elaboration of fundamental and applied as­pects of developmental psychology does not make the concept less urgent New studies still enrich its content, opening perspectives for further research.

Cultural-historical theory of LS. Vygotsky is viewed in the paper through the prism of tendencies of psychology development, which are revealed by the trans-spective analysis understood as a tool of cognition of regularities of emergence of open self-developing systems to which science can be attributed. It is argued that cultural-historical psychology can be placed among the theories of post non-classical level; i.e. having declared itself at the age of emergence of non-classical psychology, the theory left its time behind. This fact significantly hindered (and is still hindering) comprehension of the multidimensional logic applied by LS. Vy­gotsky. It is shown that today this logic is becoming much more accessible for comprehension as science has started to embrace the ideals of post non-classical rationality. System anthropological psychology is considered as a modern version of cultural-historical psychology development, which has retained the original multidimensional logic applied by LS. Vygotsky.

Authors discuss notable philosophical and psychological aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as different features of meditation techniques in their relations to psychological study of consciousness.

The basic directions of modern theoretical and practical research in the area of qualitative methodology in Russia are discussed in the article. The complexity of research is considered from three points of view: the development of methodology of qualitative analysis, qualitative methods, and verbal and nonverbal projective techniques. The authors present an integrative model of the qualitative analysis, the research on specificity of the use of discourse-analysis method and projective techniques of expressive drawing, and also the influence of communicative com­petence of respondents on efficiency of focus groups. In conclusion prospects of integration of qualitative methodology are considered.

The paper introduces virtual reality systems as a new methodolology of carrying out both traditional and originally designed experimental studies in psychology and in a broader context - in neuroscience. This methodology, often differing from classical approaches toward planning and performing a study in cognitive, social, educational, organizational and numerous other disciplines within psychology, is placed in the context of genuine Russian and at the same time of world-wide psychological theories, conceptions and traditions. Advantages, currently available results, challenges and perspectives of the virtual paradigm in experimental psychology, psychotherapy and psychological rehabilitation are thoroughly described and analyzed. The ideas of immersive virtuality are also shown to play a profound role at diverse levels of innovative learning and teaching, including special, extracurricular, and college education. Besides, applied virtual reality sys­tems are presented as being of serious importance for the university students' training: it is expected that new generations of professional psychologists will use these systems extensively. The multifaceted theoretical activities and applied work of the staff and students affiliated with the Psychology Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, aimed at development and usage of immersive virtual reality systems are fully presented in the paper.

This article describes research on visual semantics, different forms of metaphor used in rhetoric and philology (tropes: metonymy, hyperbole, litotes, oxymoron, and others), and images, which are metaphorical also. The research was carried out using paintings. The authors state that the function of metaphor is to transform the sense of the image from a psychological point of view.

In this article, we briefl y survey studies of the nature of expertise, and we present the results of research directed at evidence of the complicated nature of expertise, which is most eff ectively seen in experts’ use of a transfer mechanism. The phenomenon of the transfer of verbalized operational senses (VOS) is analyzed and is investigated on the basis of the sense theory of thinking, as proposed by Tikhomirov (1969, 1984).

It is shown that VOS transfer manifests itself in diverse forms. It seems to be dependent on the factors of chess position and the age and skill level of the player. Diverse forms of transferring are associated with a change in separate indices of VOS volume, structure, depth, and degree of consciousness in a connected position. VOS transfer is found more in skilled than in unskilled chess players; skilled players demonstrate selectivity of search in a connected position. VOS transfer is associated not simply with the repetition and copying of some forecasts, which give the direction of search, but also with using and transforming the results of previous verbal searches.

This article describes the temporal characteristics of silent counting as used during a competition by the Russian youth team of synchronized swimmers. The athletes listened to the music that accompanied their performance at the competition. Diff erent indices of silent counting were defi ned, such as the beginning and cessation of diff erent periods of counting, counting frequency, the stability of the temporal structure of silent counting, the degree of synchronization of silent counting at diff erent moments during the sports program. We studied the relationship of these characteristics of counting with expert estimates of the athletes’ sense of tempo, coordination of movements, and choreographic abilities.

This article analyzes the use of iconic and symbolic tools by young athletes in the development of concrete motor skills. The study involved 22 young athletes, aged 5–6 years, attending a soccer school in Moscow, Russia. The methodological procedure included using specifi cally designed mini-movies, which were short video clips employing different sign and symbolic tools for mastering alternate dribbling using the inner and outer side of the foot and the subsequent kick of the ball toward the net. The results showed the eff ectiveness of these tools when working with young soccer players. Those athletes who used metaphors as one of the tools for mastering motor skills exhibited better movement development than did the athletes who used sign tools.

This article discusses the role that psychological culture of class teacher plays in the establishment and maintenance of psychological safety in a modern schoolchild. The problem of protection against psychological abuse within the educational environment of a school is particularly important in the current socio-cultural realm. The article analyzes many pedagogical and psychological studies regarding the problem of psychological education of teachers. It discusses contradiction between the objective need to create a psychologically safe learning environment and the unwillingness of teachers to work on it due to low own level of psychological culture. The author introduced the original structural model of psychological culture of a class teacher, representing the integration of the three main components: the culture of pedagogical refl ection, emotional culture and culture of pedagogical infl uence.

The article presents the results of theoretical and experimental research on emotional states, in particular, on fears that worry young school-aged children. The approach used to study this phenomenon comprises quantitatively-qualitative, frequency-intensive, existential, micro- and macro surrounding, moral and selfregulation dimensions. Substantial characteristics of children’s fears, self-control of young school-aged children, and ways of coping with fears in various conditions of social situations of development are considered. The studied spectrum of emotions young school-aged children experience in everyday situations (at home, at school, during their leisure time) is described. Study on verbal and nonverbal patterns of fears of young school-aged children is presented. The original structural questionnaire developed by the author and the picturesque test composed the research apparatus. In a majority of drawings children tend to “counterbalance” the image of their fear with some additional images containing positive elements (positive plot). This finding confirms the assumption previously made by the author of the immanent nature of self-regulating processes that regulate coping with fear.

350 7 to 14-year-old students of a special school for children with severe speech and language disorders (SLD) were tested through psychological, neurolinguistic and clinical methods. It was a longitudinal study. During 4-5 years of studying at the special school, the majority of speech and language impairments reduce and communicative skills grow up. But the other students demonstrate regress of adaptation skills, intellectual efficiency and increase in restlessness, aggressive behavior, mood disorders, and neurotic disorders. We recognize it as the state of exacerbation. Comparative statistical analysis reveals that this state occurs mostly between 9.5 and 11.5 years of life. 50% of the decompensation cases observed occurs in this age range. The data obtained gave us an incentive to develop a prevention program. The target group included a population aged 9.5-10 with PSU (PPMI-program). The 2-year experience of incorporating the risk subgroup of SLIC into the PPMI-program gave a positive return. The amount of decompensations reduced significantly. Intensity of psychopatological disorders decreased.

The main research objective was to study characteristics of children community`s mutual activities that infl uence the eff ectiveness of implementing security in the children`s community. In the process of training course taught using diff erent programs followed by comparison of the resulted actions in an emergency situation of three school classes (N=527) the following conclusion was made: the class that had an integrated basic safety course and at the same time attended practical classes and psychological trainings, coped with an emergency situation more effectively, quicker and with fewer personal injuries.

The article presents a study of moral judgments shared by children and teenagers. Its results form a foundation for further enquiry into sources and conditions developing young people’s normative control system, the flexibility of this system, and the “limits” of its development defined by a particular culture. It goes on to pose questions on research methodology at the levels of either hypothetical explanatory models or the means of diagnostics. J. Piaget's investigation of children's moral judgments was prototypical for this research. The technical equipment rendered possible a more subtle analysis of the children's judgments, which, in its turn, enabled us not only to define the general tendency of development, but also to determine a number of factors of how the normative regulation of children of different ages is functioning.

A system genetics approach has been employed to study students’ mental development. Ability development is considered in terms of mastering of intellectual operations. The study endeavors to identify the components of certain abilities consciously acquired by a student in the process of learning. The study was arranged in two directions: the teaching of students to master intellectual operations and use them in their work with training materials, and psychological testing of control and experimental student groups before and after training tests to diagnose the level of intellectual development. The study involved teachers and students of primary and secondary school.

We describe preliminary data from two studies aimed at investigating the psychometric properties and validity of newly developed measures of morphological knowledge and skills in Russian, namely, the Word Structure subtest, and the Test of Morphological Awareness, in two samples of young Russian-speaking children. Overall, both instruments demonstrated good psychometric properties when analyzed using both classical test theory and a Rasch-modeling IRT approach, and were positively associated with the criterion measures (i.e., the number of grammatical errors in elicited speech samples, spelling, and reading comprehension).