Introduction

Petrenko, V.F. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

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

The present volume collects some examples of scientific work done by contemporary Russian psychologists, both empirical and theoretical, in different directions of research. Russian psychology in its development has undergone various times, some of them could be characterized as significant intensity of research, some could be described as essential decrease in volume of the leaded development. Those changes were mostly determined by the external reasons: political revolutions of the beginning and the end of the twentieth century, two World wars, which have influenced all areas of Russian life, economic and political shocks of the first half and the end of the same century, ideological restrictions (during the Soviet period) that were imposed on studied problems and treatment of the results of those studies, and also in the form of significant reduction of communication between the Russian and world psychology, etc.

Anyhow, psychology in Russia has survived even during the periods of the most severe shocks and different sorts of oppression, and it may be proud of many achievements. The names of Russian scientists who made a significant contribution to psychology, such as B.G. Ananiev, RK. Anokhin, M.Y. Basov, M.M. Bakhtin, N.A. Bernstein, V.M. Bekhterev, L.M. Vekker, L.S. Vygotsky, RY. Galperin, K.M. Gurevich, V.V. Davydov, B.V. Zeigar-nik, N.N. LadyginaKots, A.N. Leontiev, A.R. Luria, V.S. Merlin, V.N. Myasishchev, LP. Pavlov, K.K. Platonov, A.V Petrovsky, S.L. Rubin¬stein, I.M. Sechenov, B.M. Teplov, D.N. Uznadze, A.A. Ukhtomsky, G.I. Chelpanov, G.G. Shpet, I.N. Shpilrein, D.B. Elkonin, M.G. Yaroshevsky, are world famous. Although, there are even more researchers who are less internationally known, but who have made significant scientific achievements. And it would take more than one page only to list their names. These important traditions of scientific research are proceeded by disciples, and also by disciples of disciples of those scientists.

In the beginning of twentieth century and during the first period of Soviet history philosophical and introspective psychology, psychotechnics, pedology, reflexology, reactology, psychoanalysis, psychophysiology of work, social and others branches of psychology (some of these directions now ceased to exits) were intensively developing in Russia. During the later period in Soviet psychology various areas have emerged, such as: aviation, military, developmental, differential, animal psychology, history of psychology, counseling, space, medicine, musical, general psychology, clinical psychology, educational, behavioral genetics, psychological testing, psycholinguistics, psychological anthropology, psychology of art, psychology of science, sports psychology, psychology of creativity, industrial psychology, psychology of management, psychometrics, psychosemantics, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, psychophysiology, social, comparative, ecological, ethnopsychology, ergonomics, and other branches. In each of these areas Russian psychology has some significant achievements.

After the disintegration of USSR and formation of Russian Federation as a state in 1991, ideological restrictions and scheduled regulation in education were removed. This has led to the boisterous growth of the humanities and psychology, in particular. Hundreds of new state and private universities, which offered various educational programs in psychology, have been opened. Nowadays more than ten thousands of students receive their diplomas of psychologist in Russia annually. New areas of Russian psychology have been born, such as political psychology, psychology of advertising and marketing, organizational psychology and psychology of business, psychology of mass communications, forensic psychology, psychology of religion and transpersonal psychology, and psychology of terrorism. New phenomena and problems are studied: tolerance and intolerance, processes on negotiations, social expectations, and the phenomenon of trust. There was a significant shift of interest from the experimentally-driven theoretical psychology to its practical realization. Thousands of psychologists work in business concerns, in the consulting companies, in human resources departments and personnel administration agencies, are having private practice in counseling and psychotherapy and carry out different other kinds of psychological busyness activities. Nevertheless, academic psychological science continues to exist, and this collection presents a partial reflection of it.

This volume was specially prepared to be presented at XXIX International Congress of Psychology (Berlin, Germany). It collects fundamental studies on philosophy and methodology of psychology, cognitive, social, political, ethnic, clinical psychology, psychosemantics, behavioral genetics, industrial psychology, decision-making, psychology of creativity, psychophysiology and history of psychology. We hope that this work will be of interest for the international community of psychologists.