A brief biographical sketch about Evgenia Davydovna Chomsky (07.08.1929—06.03.2004)

The article presents the overview of the basic approaches, concepts and directions in studying personality in neuropsychology. Neuropsychiatric approach is based on phenomenological description of personality disorders in patients with various brain damages. Neuropsychological studies of personality held in A.R. Luria school that are mainly present in works under E.D. Homskaya guidance, in order to experimentally study brain organization of personality suggest using structural-functional model that includes emotional, motivational and executive processes and self-awareness. Aphasiology postulates, that personality disorders are secondary to communication disabilities that occur in speech pathology. Finally, neuropsychoanalysis focuses on cerebral mechanisms of unconscious processes and personality functioning in different pathological models. The paper presents the results of the study held. With the use of neuropsychological syndrome analysis method 50 young adult male patients have been studied with pathocharacterological spectrum disorders divided in two groups: schizoid personality disorder (30 patients) and schizotypal personality disorder (20 patients). It has been established that both groups have specific cognitive disturbances that indicate frontal-parietal-thalamic connections. Lateral differences are revealed: neuropsychological symptoms that are associated with left hemisphere dysfunction are specific for schizotypal personality disorder; neurocognitive deficit that is associated with right hemisphere is specific for patients with schizoid personality disorder. Perspectives of personality neuropsychology are discussed.

The results of complex neuropsychological examination of the subjects with various pathologies of the corpus callosum (CC) conducted by the author are analyzed in the article. In the survey were used method for the study of the formation of fixed installation in haptic sphere and perceptive priming method. The goal of the study was development of one of neuropsychological factors of hemispheric interaction. Split Brain Syndrome characterized as a neuropsychological syndrome and the symptoms of higher mental functions violations in patients with various pathologies of the CC are described. The author describes the primary symptoms of hemispheric interaction violations caused by commissure pathology. Second part of the paper discusses the point of view of domestic and foreign researchers on the functional role of cerebral hemispheres, their front and rear parts in the human psyche and behavior. In the third part of the article the author describes neuropsychological factor interhemispheric interaction associated with the CC activity. This factor is a syndrome-forming with the CC pathology of various origins. It is integrative as the result of cooperation of two associative brain areas. It could be determined as the factor of formation and reproduction of behavioral acts or psyche selfdetermination factor.

An established link between the intellectual attention and the activity of frontal lobes in studies of E.D. Homskaya brings forward the application of special experimental psychological procedures. The latter are characterized by sensitized cognitive load and address both attention and memory. A modified version of the Stroop Task (Shilko R.S.) was employed in the present study of intellectual attention. 50 men ranging in age from 18 to 24 years with higher or incomplete higher education took part in the study. Among the participants there were 20 healthy subjects and 30 patients with schizophrenia in a paroxysmal form, developed in adolescence. The patients were under medical treatment in the Mental Health Research Center of RAMS. Comparison of intergroup results, based on the analysis of errors that were made by subjects in both groups, revealed the features of memory and attention, specific for the cohort of patients. Unlike the healthy subjects, schizophrenia patients revealed the types of errors which in accordance with the system of neuropsychological qualification of errors are typical for disturbances of functions of control and selectivity on different stages of activity and levels of attention regulation (A.R. Luria’s qualitative assessment scheme). There was ascertained a high sensitivity of the technique to study of the dysfunctions of the frontal lobes and identification of various parameters of intellectual attention.

The paper presents results of the neuropsychological assessment of processes involved in the maintenance of activation (Luria’s Unit I functions) in 64 firstgraders who demonstrated various levels of academic success. On the basis of this assessment, the children were divided into three groups: (i) the children without any deficit in the Unit I functions (CONTROL children), (ii) those predominantly showing slowness/fatigue (SLOW children), and (iii) those who can be considered as predominantly hyperactive-impulsive (HYPERACTIVE children). It is shown that, relative to controls, both SLOW and HYPERACTIVE children show reduced academic scores and the decrease of most indices that characterize functions of the Units II and III. The weakness of executive and visuo-spatial functions are predominantly observed in HYPERACTIVE children, whereas SLOW children usually show some deficit in processing of kinesthetic (proprioceptive) and audio-verbal information. Children with functional weakness of the Unit I functions show an overall reduction in performance and its speed in the computerized versions of the “DOTS” and “SCHULTE—GORBOV tables” tests. In HYPERACTIVE children, deficits are observed in the most difficult tasks (those probing mostly into planning and control functions), and their performance is the most unstable. In SLOW children, the performance rate is noticeably decreased for the moderate-to-difficult tasks. Overall, the data reported contribute to the understanding of the diversity of Unit I functions deficits and their relation to the learning difficulties experienced by children in the primary school.

The data is analyzed in the article about structural and neurochemical brain hemispheric asymmetry, which, together with results of neuropsychological investigations, allow considering in a new way the problem of realization of psychic events. Modern investigations of cellar and molecular processes in neural system show, that the endogenous neural activity and the ways of neural self-organization are in many respects defined by the composition of extracellar environment. The complication of brain during phylogenies was accompanied by increasing asymmetry of neural system at the same time the biological prerequisites for differentiation of general “meanings” and one’s personal “sense” of the acquired experience were forming. The asymmetric mediation of psychic events by cellar and neurohumoral components of brain processing provided the opportunity for appearing language and distinct subjective experiences in human.

In the article the contemporary state of the problem of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of human activity is analyzed. The impact of Russian psychologists in its solving as well as the self-determination theory approach (E. Deci & R.Ryan) to different types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is discussed. A new model of intrinsic and different types of extrinsic motivation is proposed; it is based upon notion of basic psychological needs and allows characterizing main types of motivation of human activity, which differ in their content and origin. The intrinsic motivation is described as based on basic human needs in achievement, self-development and cognition (on the material of intrinsic motivation of learning activity) which are characterized by unsaturability. The functioning of extrinsic motivation depends upon satisfaction or frustration of autonomy, respect and acceptance needs. Two main subtypes of extrinsic motivation are distinguished — autonomous and controlled, which differ in terms of its content (orientation), relations with performance, persistence and subjective well-being. Autonomous extrinsic motivation does nоt impede academic attainments, professional achievements and subjective well-being. The studies conducted by the author and other psychologists show that the dominance of controlled motivation in motivational profile is related to lowered subjective well-being and does not promote academic and professional achievements. The practical implications of the model are provided.

The paper presents an ontological conceptualization of the phenomenon of extremity, which is considered in the context of personality transformation in the trans-ordinary world. Methodological principles and scientific logic of conceptualization are proposed and specified in the following concepts: the experience of being and non-being, personality work, meaning and behavioral personality work, positive and negative extremity, the meaning of life and the meaning of death, the nature of the construction of psychological effects of extremity — psychic trauma and personal transformation.

This article presents the results of an empirical study on the role of hostility in the etiopathogenesis of mental illness such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective and affective disorders. The relationship of the general level of hostility and enmity with the qualitative aspects of the objective characteristics of mental illness (duration and nosology) is described in the following article. The sample consists of 161 people, of which the clinical group consisted of 81 patients who are hospitalized in the 4th department of the clinic affective pathology. Comparison was made with a control group of healthy persons, which included 80 men who do not suffer from mental and neurological disorders. The study used the following methods: semantic differential (modification by Ohmatovskaya A.V.), World assumptions scale, Constructive Thinking Index (CTI), Cook-Medley Hostility scale, Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Wechsler memory scale, Wagner’s “Hand-test” (modification by A.V. Gerasimov). It was found that mentally ill patients were showing significantly higher quantitative measures of hostility, compared with the norm. Psychopathological marked qualitative specificity of hostility expressed in suspicion, ambivalence, extrapunitive and generalized hostility. According to the results, hostility has not direct connection with the nosology specific of the mental disorders, and does not depend on the patient’s age and duration of disease.

The article discusses the relationship of the general psychological theory of activity and work-psychology. The achievements of labor psychology as a scientific and technical discipline that combines concrete scientific concepts and theories focused on the problem of social practice. These concepts include: approaches and methods of psychological study of professional activities, research projects psychological classification of occupations; theory of work motivation; research problems of intra-individual variability of human performance under the influence of workload, theory of functional states of the subject of work, including the correction of adverse varieties; the theory of differential and developmental psychology used in professional selection and career counseling; options for teaching about the psychology of erroneous actions used in quality management and safety; complementing studies of individual forms of labor; psychosemantic professional approach to the study of consciousness and self- work experience in the psychological study of foreign object activity as the basis of analysis of the mental processes and properties of the subject of work. As a result, the analysis concluded that the general psychological theory of activity performs in relation to the role of labor psychology philosophical and methodological framework and general scientific theory in understanding the psyche of the human subject of labor. It has the status of concrete scientific theory as applied to problems of professional development and training. Psychology of work, beyond training and development, require the development of specific scientific concepts and theories that complement general psychological theory of activity.

In the memory of Galina Mikhaylovna Andreeva.

In the memory of Evgeny Alexandrovich Klimov.