Moscow University Psychology Bulletin, 2020, 1, 160 p.

The study performed a comprehensive examination of interrelationships among intelligence, motivation, and personality traits in problem solving that requires a combination of prognostic activity and following logical rules.

Objective. To determine the role of motivation, personality traits, and intelligence in predicting choice of strategies and the effectiveness of problem solving (using the Wason selection task). 

Method. Seventy-five undergraduate and graduate students from Moscow and Saint Petersburg participated in the study (age M = 21.2, SD = 2.6) and were asked to perform a problem-solving task on a computer. They also received a set of questionnaires: the Ten Item Personality Inventory (Big Five), Personal Preferences Schedule (motivation), two subtests aimed at measuring verbal crystallized intelligence (Mill-Hill and Verbal Analogies) and fluid intelligence (Three-Dimensional Rotation, Matrix Reasoning).

Results. Fluid intelligence showed a positive correlation with extraversion, while verbal intelligence showed a negative correlation with agreeableness and conscientiousness. These three personality traits were also related to problem-solving effectiveness. Fluid intelligence showed a negative correlation with guilt, while verbal intelligence showed a positive correlation with achievement motivation. Intelligence scores were not related to the success of problem solving in the Wason selection task, and neither were emotional stability and openness to experience. 

Effectiveness and the duration of decision making in different attempts to perform the task were correlated with motivation of autonomy, guilt, aggression, and, at the statistical trend level, with motivation of achievement and intraception.

Conclusion. The data largely supported the general hypothesis regarding the role of non-specific motivational tendencies in solving the Wason selection task. For this deterministic problem, we found positive correlations of decision making with motivation of autonomy and endurance, whereas negative correlations were obtained for motivation of aggression.

Relevance. The study of the "pole" of a group as an object is important for a more complete understanding of the patterns of the group’s development. Information about the incompleteness and impermanence of the subjective manifestation of a group has not yet been considered from the standpoint of different forms of its function as an object. Understanding of the essence of groups that have not developed subjective potential is limited.

Objective. To develop an appropriate system-subject approach to the theoretical foundations of the study of the group as an object.

Method. Theoretical analysis of the group as an object from the standpoint of a system-subject approach.

Results. The article describes the features of the group as an object, reflecting not only internal but also external connections, the underdevelopment of various forms of activity, and moral and psychological damage to the community and its social environment. External and intra-group factors of the group as an object were considered, showing the effect of the protective mechanisms of its development. The forms of the group as an object were identified, taking into account the coverage of group life, the stability of its manifestation, and the stage of group functioning.

Conclusion. A comprehensive analysis of intra- and inter-group factors and attributes of the group as an object allows us to test whether its manifestations are signs of its immaturity or of its destruction. The stability of “objectness” as a variant of immaturity or of destruction of the group is a promising direction of study.

Relevance. Research into the factors determining attraction between people is the most generally accepted paradigm in modern social psychology. The principal innovation of this study is its differentiation of the factor of the similarity of attitudes (both positive and negative), which was not introduced in previous works, either theoretical or empirical. At the same time, it seems apparent that “similarity of attitudes” is too global a characterization and requires further discrimination. Distinguishing between positive and negative attitudes makes obvious empirical sense: To what extent is similarity in some negative attitudes more important than in positive ones?

Objective. To determine the impact of coinciding negative and positive attitudes on attraction to strangers in women.

Methods. The study involved two stages. The sample at the first stage comprised 162 women, at the second there were 47; the average age of the participants was 19 years. The main methodological technique was a modified version of D. Byrne’s “fake stranger”. Statistical processing of the data included one-way analysis of variance and subsequent assessment of the significance of the differences in the dynamics of the attraction obtained by introducing additional information in the form of positive and negative attitudes corresponding to respondents' own attitudes.

Results. The introduction of additional information about attitudes that coincide with those of the respondent had a significant impact on attraction. The differences between the coincidence of the so-called positive and negative attitudes were analyzed. The authors propose a number of interpretations of the results in line with concepts relevant to modern socio-psychological science, relating to various theoretical orientations (psychoanalysis, cognitivism, interactionism, etc.).

Conclusion. In the case of coinciding negative attitudes, the increase of the resulting attraction to the object is more significant than in the case of coinciding positive attitudes.

Relevance. Studies of Quality of Life (QOL) are among the most topical concerns for both psychological and medical research. Although there are many studies abroad, very few have been done in Russia, and with regard to QOL in relation to vision problems they are practically non-existent.

Objectives:

1. To develop a Russian-language questionnaire for QOL in relation to vision disorders and the results of their treatment.

2. To measure the relationship among a priori subjective estimations of visual function, expectations of treatment results, and estimations of treatment effects.

Method. A pilot investigation was conducted using a questionnaire that we devised for QOL in relation to vision impairment. It included three informational blocks: The first was devoted to a priori estimations of visual problems; the second integrated the patient’s expectations concerning different effects of treatment, and the last estimated the treatment results.  Nineteen patients with keratoconus took part in the research.

Results.The diagnostic value of the method we developed was empirically confirmed. Ways to fine-tune it to the level of a standardized questionnaire were identified. The comparisons among a priori subjective estimations of visual function, expectations of treatment results, and estimations of treatment effects make it possible to describe the dynamics of QOL. It was shown that subjective estimations of vision are nor related to the objective quality of vision and are probably determined by personality characteristics. Respondents’ treatment results expectations were found to be quite generalized. There are some differences between expectations and estimations of treatment effects: The respondents usually a priori overvalued the instrumental results of the treatment and underestimated the personality-oriented ones.

Conclusions.

1. The questionnaire could be used for QOL investigations. This method could be widely used after appropriate standardization procedures are introduced. 

2. Subjective estimations of visual function are not related to the objective quality of vision and are probably determined by personality characteristics.

3. Among the most significant effects of treatment, even though underestimated a priori by the patients, concerned the following aspects of QOL: a positive future-time perspective, life planning, emotional status, and self-conception.
   

Relevance. In occupations with high demands for resistance to stress, the reliability of conscious self-regulation is considered an important factor ensuring personnel reliability. This interdisciplinary study takes place at the intersection of general psychology, psychology of self-regulation, labor psychology, professional psychology, and extreme psychology.

Objective. To study the reliability of self-regulation as a universal and special resource for achieving goals under stressful conditions in high-risk occupations.

Methodology. Representatives of high-risk occupations – sailors (N = 139), pilots (N = 33), rescuers (N = 123) – and low-risk professions (teachers, N = 154) took part in the study. Individual differences in self-regulation and its reliability under stress were assessed by means of the Self-Regulation Profile Questionnaire (V.I. Morosanova & N.G. Kondratyuk, 2011).

Results. Self-regulation and its reliability in stressful conditions were found to be significantly greater among the high-risk professions than the low-risk ones. There were no significant differences in self-regulation reliability between the different groups of high-risk professionals.Using one-way ANOVA and Cohen’s effect size measures, differences in self-regulation variables were found between experts and novices for different professional groups. Among sailors and pilots, significant differences were found between experts and novices only for one variable:  reliability of self-regulation. Quite the opposite result was obtained for the teachers: Experts differ significantly from novices in all self-regulation parameters except for  reliability of self-regulation.

Conclusion. The study substantiated the view that reliability of self-regulation is a universal and special regulatory resource for professional goal achievement. The research results allow us to conclude that in high-risk occupations, reliability of self-regulation may serve as a professional resource ensuring efficiency, faultless operation, and safety.

Relevance. The article discusses the relationship between the development of joint (shared) attention of a child with an adult, and the social and cognitive development of the child. Based on previous studies of typically developing children that demonstrate their participation and responsiveness to fundamental social characteristics, it is significant to identify manifestations of atypical joint attention when a child does not register which object (event) or which aspects of this object (event) are the focus of an interlocutor's attention. The question of which aspects of joint attention are related to the normative development of the child makes this relevant for comparing groups with different forms of atypical development. For the study, the main indicator of understanding the intentions of the other in the direction of view was used, as one of the aspects of joint attention.

Objective. To compare the development of social cognition and joint attention among typically developing children and children with various forms of atypical development in order to identify the correlation between the theory of mind and cognitive lesion.

Methods. In a sample of preschool children with typical development and of those with mental retardation, hearing impairment, speech impairment, or visual impairment (N = 90), the following methods were used to evaluate the children's understanding of the intentions, desires, and interests of others by their behavioral manifestations: “Test for Erroneous Opinion”, “Sally-Ann”; the “What does Charlie want?” task, and others. The task was also used to assess the child’s ability to use the direction of a character’s gaze in a picture to determine the person’s intentions.

Results. We identified the “primary psychological” characteristics of the atypical development of the child, which prioritize violations of social communication. Several variations of the violation of joint attention were singled out by determining a person’s intentions by the direction of their gaze. It was shown that determining intentions by the direction of gaze is associated with the normative age formation of the child. Symptoms of deficiency in this skill vary depending on the specifics of the child’s atypical development.

Conclusions. Secondary deviations in the development of social cognition are specific to a particular primary defect. The limited inflow of information in the event of a violation of the analyzer creates unusual conditions in the children’s accumulation of the experience of social interaction that is necessary to form a mental model.

Background. According to modern empirical data, unconsciously processed information can have a significant impact on human behavior in all spheres of activity. Information about the unconscious information processing is fragmented and often contradictory. For the study of implicit learning different approaches are traditionally used, but none of them are effective for the clear results about the consciousness and abstractness degree of the knowledge obtained. We could more carefully inquire into the matter of unconscious knowledge and its influence on the cognitive problems solving with information about implicit learning of simple rules. This methodology makes it possible to apply more strong criteria for explicit knowledge and assumes purer experimental effects of implicit learning.

Objective. To consider and analyze the experience of use experimental techniques with simple regularities acquisition in the studies of implicit learning.

Methods. Review and analysis of studies using simple regularities in the field of implicit learning.

Results. In the article researches within the experimental paradigms "invariant learning" and "hidden covariation detection" are considered. The most significant experiments, their results and the criticism has led to an improvement of experimental procedures are presented. The problems of using different types of tasks in the training and test stages are described. The main possibilities and limitations of using these paradigms for revealing the effect of implicit learning are outlined. Further perspectives for the application of these techniques are considered. But one needs for a more rigorous approach to measuring the level of awareness. 

Conclusion.Experimental paradigms with simple regularities acquisition may be promising for the study of implicit association learning mechanisms.

Relevance. It is traditional for socio-psychological research to study a large social group as a subject of social representations, rather than experiences — in other words, in existing studies, attention is paid mainly to the cognitive component of the “group response” to certain social events. T.G. Stefanenko argued that the socio-psychological approach to the study of changes in society should include an analysis of not only the processes of social cognition regarding newly emerged or transformed social objects, but also emotional reactions, unconscious expectations, and fears caused by changes, general feelings and experiences. This position involves the inclusion of new categories in the conceptual apparatus of psychological knowledge, as well as clarifying the content of existing categories. In this case, we are talking about such a category as collective experiences.

Objective. Description of the theoretical and empirical problems that T.G. Stefanenko was directly involved with in the research project “Perezhivanie (experiencing) Social Problems with Representatives of Various Social Groups of Modern Russian Society” (Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation, 2012-2014).

Methods. Review and analysis of research on the study of perezhivanie, collective perezhivanie,and social emotions.

Results. The basic approaches to the study of perezhivanie, collective perezhivanie,and social emotions in Russian and Western psychological literature are considered. The concept of “collective perezhivanie” is compared with the category of “perezhivanie” developed in Russian general psychology, as well as the construct “collective (social) emotions” developed in Western social psychology. The results of an international cross-cultural study of social emotions (guilt, shame, regret, embarrassment, etc.) in which T.G. Stefanenko took part are briefly described.

Conclusion. Despite methodological difficulties and the lack of unity in the conceptualization of collective perezhivanie,the study of social perezhivanieand emotions seems to be a fruitful approach to empirical socio-psychological studies of the characteristics of perception and interpretation of various social processes at the level of everyday consciousness