«Vestnik» — main scientific publication by psychologists of Moscow University.

From editorial board.

Professional psychologies — for the future of Russia.

Some actual problems and new research approaches in modern psychophysiology are discussed. The materials of the last XIII World Congress of Psychophysiology (Istanbul, Turkey, August 28 — September 2, 2006) are used as the basic issue. The analysis of concrete reports at the congress is accomplished by a common discussion concerning both psychophysiology itself and intricate relations between psychology and natural sciences as a whole.

The psychological model of insomnia based on cognitive model of insomnia and cultural approach in psychosomatics is discussed in this article. There are emphasized perpetuating factors of insomnia and different kind of behavior as insomnia consequences. Social psychological factors triggering and increasing anxiety and attentions to sleep are supposed: personality and culturally specific beliefs about sleep and insomnia (beliefs about sleep hygiene, sleep control, attitude to insomnia in the society). Different patients’ reactions to the insomnia — psychological dependence on medicine, sleep “ritual”, self-restrictive behavior, and active changes in life — influence on the development and treatment outcomes in a different manner.

Behavioral genetic studies of development address two problems: age changes of heritability and environmental influences, and contribution of genetic and environmental influences to developmental change. Experimental studies of the sources of individual differences combine longitudinal design and behavioral genetic methods, demanding participation in the study of genetically related individuals. The results of the studies allow disentangling genetic and environmental influences on developmental trajectories, change, continuity and covariance of psychological features.

The paper is devoted to consideration of the main research domains on the problems of human reliability and stress management that recently developed in the Laboratory of work psychology (Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University). There are discussed a new paradigm for the structural analysis of worker’s functional states and a hierarchical model of occupational stress elaborated in the framework of Leontiev’s activity theory. The appropriate set of criteria and methods for evaluation of personnel mental health and efficiency of organizational interactions were produced as a basis for creating goal-oriented stress management technologies, i.e. «Personal diagnostic and prevention of stress», «Assessment of the individual level of stress-resistance», «Self-regulation training and restoration program». They were carried out as the complex systems that provide a support in the work of psychologists in practice and demonstrate an efficient way of integrating the new conceptual approaches to the modern issues in the field of work, organizational and health psychology.

Intellectual abilities and personality traits of students were considered as predictors of academic success. R. Amthauer’s intelligence structure test, A. Edwards’ personal preferences questionnaire, C. Dweck’s questionnaire modified version, LFR questionnaire and new method of group estimation of mind (GEM) were used. Results of this study of MSU students sample (N=177) allowed to conclude, that: 1. Group estimation of mind acts as significant prognostic variable of students’ exam passing success. Psychometric intelligence variables concede to it. 2. “Self-esteem of mind” correlates with “self-esteem of academic success” and with academic progress, but doesn’t act as it’s significant predictor. 3. A set of motivation variables appears to predict effectiveness of learning better, than intellectual abilities.

This research is about defining specific character of quantitative, structural and functional characteristics of psychological adaptation. As a result of it was found that it typical for opium (heroine) addicted patients not to understand the connection between behavior and consequences. This leads to making mistakes of psychosocial character and creating of conflict relations with people around. The reason for this is undeveloped social intellect of such patients. Moreover, the factor of psychosocial adaptation like empathy is lower in drug addicted patients. Communicate competence, presenting itself the sum of knowledge and skills about partners they communicate with and about the communicative process as a whole, is closely related to the factor mentioned above.

A comparison between image of psychology in contemporary public opinion and the actual state of affairs in psychological science is made. The discrepancy between rate of development of applied fields of psychology and its support from fundamental research are revealed. The meaning and significance of general psychology (and of works by members of General psychology department, in particular) in overcoming this discrepancy is shown.

The essence of a prejudice that determines the practice of so called specialized education at schools is that it is considered that a choice of professional specialization made during adolescence period guarantees further professional development in the defined direction. In fact, as we see in biographies of successful professionals, professional development is a nonlinear process, which specifically takes place in an effort to overcome situations of uncertainty, and is characterized as an intermittent (“start-stop”) process.

The article considers problems in zoopsychology and comparative psychology teaching that Russian universities are facing nowadays. The teaching of this discipline by lacking special interdisciplinary qualifications lecturers often leads to misapprehension of the subject by students. The problem is also aggravated by growing opposition between two major paradigms in treatment of the human nature (socio-cultural and biological approaches) and increased biologization tendencies in human behavior interpretations manifesting themselves in direct analogies with behavior models of animals belonging to various taxons.

To the 80th anniversary of Viktor Vasilievich Lebedinsky.

To the 75th anniversary of Diana Borisovna Bogoyavlenskaya.