Moscow University Psychology Bulletin, 2021, 3, 320 p.

Relevance. Multitasking gets defined socially and dominating with the development of information technologies. It becomes the system of requirements and possibilities for combining, switching and alternating activities of different forms and contents within one complex activity. As a consequence of the technological development of the information society and a result of worldview transformations within the framework of the paradigm of multiplicity of the postmodern culture, the phenomenon of multitasking as a complex form of the activity in the technologized society becomes one of relevant objects of research in psychology and other sciences of man.

Purpose. The theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of multitasking as a reflection of a multifaceted nature and variability of the postmodern culture and a result of the entry of digital technologies of the information society into the daily life in the context of the concepts of multiplicity and complexity.

Method. The logic and methodology of the study is based on the cultural-historical and activity-based and semantic paradigm. The theoretical and comparative analyses and the method of generalization are employed to achieve the defined goals.

Results. The philosophical analysis of socio-cultural, worldview and technological factors that determine the nature of multitasking is carried out. It shows the role of certain philosophical constructs of the postmodern worldview, particular technologies of the information society in developing the basis for the emergence of the phenomenon of multitasking and also its technological embodiment — mediamultitasking.

Conclusions. At present, multitasking is the practice imposed by the specific nature of the information-communication activity under the technologization and complexity of the modern realities. Regardless of the attitude to this phenomenon, multitasking is an objective fact of the culture of the information society and, as a result, is one of the prerequisites for an efficient activity under its conditions.

Acknowledgements: the present study is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project 19-29-14181 “Multitasking in the Structure of the Digital Socialization: Cognitive and Personal Factors of Efficiency in the Context of the Digitalization of General Education”.

Background. Current investigations shows substantial effect of personal experience on danger perception. During COVID-19 pandemic many people reported about psychological discomfort, anxiety, fear, comes from infection itself and collateral effects of pandemic. Investigations in psychology of risk indicate personal experience as one of components of risk perception. In the same time there are no clearance of the effect of experience of particular danger on wide spectrum of hazards.

Objective. Our aim was to clarify the effect of pandemic experience on perception of dangers of external world, to assess quantitative and quantitative differences in danger perception on different stages of coronavirus spread and restrictions rate in Russian sample.

Design. The research uses original diagnostic complex designed for danger perception assessment: Photo-test “Danger estimate test based on photos”, modified Drawn Apperceptive Test, DAT (itself a modification of Thematic Apperceptive Test), “unfinished sentences” test (original set). The research had two stages. The first stage was held before coronavirus start spreading in Russia (February 2020) and before restrictions were imposed. The second stage of research was held in the period of pandemic acceleration and hard restrictions (March-April 2020). The research was held online

Sample size: 57 undergraduates aged 18–24 years.

Results. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed. In Photo-test integral score of perceived danger is higher on second stage (p ≤ 0.05) as well as anthropogenic score (p ≤ 0.01). Natural and social scores shows no significant differences. There are mentions of coronavirus are found in answers to unfinished sentences on the second stage of research.

Conclusion. Experience of danger situation substantially increases perceived risk score concerning actual hazard. Projective methods shows an actualization of the hazard theme. Experience of pandemic danger don’t effect on assessment of interpersonal relationships risks.

Relevance. One of the negative consequences of the pandemic may be an increase in somatization. The analysis of statements about the pandemic makes it possible to identify peculiarities of attitude to the situation by people with different psychological problems.

The aim of the study was the identification of implicit characteristics of texts indicating the peculiarities of the opinion about the situation by people with a high level of somatization.

Materials and methods. The material was obtained in the online survey (03/23/2020 — 01/29/2021, 1188 people). The survey included an assessment of respondents’ condition, it was offered to express an opinion about what was happening in a free form. Used: SCL-90-R, COPE, Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI).

The statements about the pandemic were divided into the two text arrays — “high somatization” and “low somatization”. The frequency of occurrence of vocabulary in these text arrays was estimated.

Results. The analysis showed an increase in somatization as the pandemic developed. The relationship between somatization and anxiety, sleep disturbances, and depression was revealed. Higher rates of somatization are associated with a decrease in emotional coping, an increase in categorical thinking and personal superstitious thinking. The connection between somatization and a number of non-constructive copings is shown. Lexical analysis showed a number of features of texts associated with high somatization, among them the number of pronouns of the first person, a decrease in the tonality of words, a vocabulary of suffering, negative, a decrease in the vocabulary of motivation and resistance, a decrease in vocabulary associated with the body.

Conclusions. The lexical features of statements, typical for respondents with a high level of somatization, were revealed. The connection between somatization and high emotional distress, which manifests itself in negative emotional vocabulary and is associated with a low level of emotional coping, is shown. In the group with high somatization, a contradiction was revealed in the needs and methods of their implementation — the need for help from others is combined with concentration on the self. The "representation" of the pandemic, presented in the text, is "divorced" from somatic manifestations, fear of illness and death. With this “splitting” of mental and somatic functioning, the somatization can perform the function of emotional coping.

Relevance. The present study examines attitudes to health supporting and medical prophylactic measures in students before and after the first stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methodology and sample. The study was conducted using an online questionnaire with two stages, each involving more than 150 students.

Results. Students adhere to rational attitudes of health supporting and medical prophylactic, but their severity is insufficient. Hygiene rules are observed, a gentle regime for diseases is observed, health is monitored at home, contacts are limited. They are worried about their own health. Active forms of health supporting and medical prophylactic are insufficiently expressed. Vaccination, hardening, and medical examinations are particularly unpopular.

Attitudes before and after the first stage of the pandemic did not differ significantly. The trends towards an active lifestyle, hygiene rules and adequate behavior in the event of an illness have increased. The popularity of vaccinations has decreased. Egocentric motivation for the use of preventive measures prevails.

Key findings. 1. The commitment of the surveyed students to health supporting and medical prophylactic is assessed as insufficiently high, primarily in relation to active methods. Concerns about health, fears of getting sick are observed. However, these experiences do not activate, rather strengthen the restrictive attitudes.

The impact of the first stage of the pandemic on the attitude of students to health supporting and medical prophylactic was insignificant. There is an increase in skepticism about vaccination.

The motive for applying security measures is to reduce personal risk, social components are less significant. Among the reasons for refusing preventive measures are skepticism about efficiency, unwillingness to support “business on problems”. The reason for the refusal of vaccination is indicated by uncertainty in safety. 

Relevance and purpose. In the context of modern social life and its reflection by science, the phenomenon of freedom is one of the fundamental theoretical and practical problems. Understanding the true causes of the formation of an asocial personality, far from extreme science paradigms, is one of the pressing problems of modern psychology. The purpose of this article is to analyze and consider the issues of freedom and aggressive behavior of adolescents in the modes of responsibility, negativism and care.

Research methods. Theoretical analysis and synthesis of relevant literature.

Research results. Aspects of freedom in connection with external and internal restrictions are considered, constructive and destructive types of freedom are distinguished. The problem of differentiating the desire for freedom and the risks of negativism are noted, active negativity and passive negativity are described. Aspects of hostile attribution bias as structural-motivational element of deviant and delinquent behavior are revealed. Egalitarian and traditional concepts of parenting and their connection with the development of autonomous, independent personality are considered. The conditions in association with the values of freedom, independence and care act as predictors of the subjective feeling of happiness in adolescents are noted.

Conclusions. Freedom is a prerequisite condition for the development of responsibility, personality with an internal locus of control. Freedom should be coupled аwith responsibility, parental supervision and providing of freedom for a teen to make a significant contribution to the socialization of freedom and responsibility. The phenomenon of emancipation in adolescence can be associated with the risks of negativism as a form of aggression. High partial self esteem (leadership ability and self esteem of one's “physical self”) correlate with negativism. One of the essential mechanisms for the formation and functioning of negativism is the hostile attribution bias, the tendency to which is associated with high risks of delinquent behavior. Children from families with freedom parenting style are characterized by deprivation of care, they are more often less satisfied with “family” childhood. At the same time, controlling parents can also play a negative role, increasing the risks of aggression.

Relevance. Neuropsychological rehabilitation and assessment are the priority tasks in practice of a clinical psychologist. The modern rehabilitation system can be considered as a partnership between patients, their families and different specialists participating in the rehabilitation process. The existing approaches to neurorehabilitation are aimed at the earliest possible intervention. It`s of particular importance for patients with disorders of consciousness, whose number has been increasing in connection with the development of medicine in recent decades. This leads to the need to develop tools for specialized neuropsychological assessment and methods of neuropsychological rehabilitation of patients in the early stages of recovery of consciousness.

Objective. To summarize neuropsychological diagnostic and rehabilitation experience of working with patients with disorders of consciousness after brain lesions.

Methods. We analyze practical guidelines, applied research and our own hands-on experience of working with patients with disorders of consciousness after brain lesions.

Results. Based on the analysis, the recommended diagnostic tools are formulated that can be used to identify the current level of consciousness and to assess various parameters of psychic activity of patients with disorders of consciousness. In addition, the main directions and neuropsychological methods of rehabilitation work recommended for recovery of consciousness and continuing to be developed now are highlighted.

Conclusion. A new diagnostic and rehabilitation material is presented, which is recommended for use in neuropsychological practice by practicing clinical psychologists with patients with disorders of consciousness after brain lesions.

Acknowledgments: we would like to express our great appreciation to Professor Galina Ivanova, also Valentina Bykova and Olga Maksakova for comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

Relevance. Studies of the psychological characteristics of migrant students in varying degrees of adaptation to the culture of a Russian university make it possible to establish factors affecting the level of adaptation to develop strategies that reduce the level of cumulative stress and, as a result, increase the level of students' knowledge assimilation and preserve the physical and psychological health of the student.

Goal. To study the level of stress and the factors that form it, among migrant students in varying degrees of adaptation to the culture of a Russian university.

Techniques and samples. The study included a group of 109 migrant students of 1–3 courses of study in adolescence from 17 to 20 years old (17.45±0.84), of which 76 (69.72%) men, 33 (30.28%) women; ethnic composition: 45 (41.28%) — Tajiks, 38 (34.86%) — Kyrgyz and 26 (23.86%) representatives of the Kazakh ethnic group. At the research stage, a questionnaire was applied to determine the level of acceptance of Russian culture and the following methods were used: a scale of perceived stress-10, a questionnaire of everyday stressors, a methodology “Life style index” and a questionnaire “Coping strategies” by Lazarus.

Results. The level of stress in migrant students is higher than the norm, and in the process of adaptation it increases, forming accumulative stress. The hierarchization of migrant students according to the criterion of awareness of Russian culture entails a different level of application of coping strategies adapted to the Russian society. Empirically, the dominance of such coping strategies as “planning a solution to the problem”, “taking responsibility” and “positive reappraisal” was revealed in the sample of more adapted migrant students.

Findings. The data obtained indicate that adaptation by the type of integration leads to the implementation of additional resources and an increase in the level of perceived stress.

Acknowledgments: The authors express their gratitude to the management of the federal state budgetary educational institution of higher education “Novosibirsk State Agrarian University” for their assistance in carrying out this study.

Relevance. The article discusses the actualization of the concept of “regional identity” for psychological science. In many ways, for the first time there is a comparison of the categorical structure of ideas about the country and about its own region.

Objective. Comparison of the image of Russia and the images of their own regions among young people living in various regions of the country.

Methods. Semantic scaling technique with further factorization of the obtained data. The study involved 318 respondents from 8 different macro-regions of the country.

Results. A 6-factor structure of representations of the image of Russia and the image of its own region was obtained. These structures have their own significant differences, both in the structure of factors itself, and in the degree of importance of the hierarchy of factors. The regional identity of youth, to a certain extent, determines the modality of the adoption of civic identity.

Conclusions. According to the results of the study, it can be argued that for those young people who developed a positive image of their own region, a positive image of the country as a whole was formed.

Acknowledgments. The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project number 19-313-90069.

Special gratitude for help in organizing data collection Anastasia Zvezdina, head of the department of the Center for Youth Projects, ANO DPO “Corporate University of Russian Railways”.

Actuality. In the light of the changes taking place in the Russian education system, the transition to the competence paradigm, the study of resources and potentials as components of the educational capital is of particular importance. This question has not yet been sufficiently investigated empirically.

Objective. To study the individual-intellectual integrations of students of humanities in 3 time periods: in the present, in the future, in the future as an updated present — both separately and together.

Methods. The research is based on the ideas of the cross-theoretical integration of the theory of integral individuality by V.S. Merlin (1986) and the structural-dynamic theory of intelligence by D.V. Ushakov (2011). The study involved 252 university students from Perm, including 190 girls and 62 boys aged 17 to 22 years. Structural modeling was in use to test the hypotheses. Four models tested individual-intellectual integrations based on the time criterion. In 3 models, they were studied separately in the present, in the future, and in the future as an updated present. In the 4th, mediation model of individual-intellectual integrations, the present, the future, and the future as the updated present entered together.

Results. Individual-intellectual integrations occurred in each time period separately. Results in the present led to the assumption that they reveal the resources, in the future as the background of realized potentials, in the future as an updated present as the source of updated resources. Taken together in all time periods, individual-intellectual integrations have also been found. They allowed to expand the idea of the “development spiral” based on the previous interpretation (Dorfman, Kalugin, 2020 a) and consider it according to the scheme “present — future — realized future (updated present)”.

Conclusions. The results of the study indicate that individual-intellectual integrations presented in three time periods (in the present, in the future, in the future as an updated present), both separately and jointly, evidence in favor of they are a basis of resources and potentials.

Acknowledgements: The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project number 19-29-07046.

Relevance. The increasing complexity of technical devices used by humans and the high rate of emergence of new devices and their functions lead to the emergence of various practices and habits of working with them. It is possible to see a specific representation of what a personal computer (PC) consists of and how it works for each of these practices. This representation has developed in the process of working with a PC as its mental model. However, the task of reconstructing these models and comparing different respondents with each other according to the specifics of their understanding of the PC does not have the necessary methodological support. It is necessary to get representations of PC in a comparable form to effectively compare the different people`s/group`s representations of PC with each other and study their mental models, preserving the qualitative specifics of these “images of PC”.

The purpose of this work is to empirically approbate the technology of reconstructing the representations of PC users about the computer itself as a multidimensional psychological space of descriptions of its work.

Methods. Methods of group interviews and card sorting were used to collect descriptions of “how PC works”, multidimensional scaling methods were used to reconstruct representations of PC among groups of study participants.

Results. We have reconstructed and described the representations about the work of the PC of three groups of users — schoolchildren (N = 22), programmers (N = 22) and ordinary adults without special education (N = 21) as multidimensional spaces of descriptions of the work of the PC. We identified the bases of classification of PC operation descriptions for each group of users and develop a technology for analyzing the results of studying their representations about PC as latent characteristics that form the basis of classification of PC operation descriptions.

The relevance of the study of the socio-psychological well-being of graduate students (including such an indicator of social well-being as their assessment of the significance of various life fears and threats) is associated with the intensive changes taking place with the Institute of postgraduate studies in connection with the transition to the “economy of knowledge”, as well as with the socio-economic and socio-cultural processes that are transforming Russian society.

Objectives. The study of socio-psychological features of life fears of graduate students depending on the influence of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors.

Methods and selection. The article is based on the materials of an anonymous monitoring questionnaire conducted in 2019 by employees of the Information and analytical center of Russian Academy of education. The study involved students of post-graduate research organizations that train post-graduate students in the field of education Sciences, as well as pedagogical universities in Moscow and the regions of the Russian Federation. Empirical data were processed using mathematical statistics methods (statistical software packages SPSS and StatSoft Statistica).

Results. The paper analyzes the influence of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors on the assessment of life fears and threats by graduate students. The relationship between the assessment of life fears by postgraduate students and the assessment of their life prospects, material and family status, the level of education of parents, and the presence of emigration plans is shown. The correlation analysis revealed a stable, age-independent structure of fears and threats for graduate students.

Conclusions. Graduate students' assessment of the importance of life fears is determined by the influence of a number of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors. The conducted special correlation analysis showed that the basis of the structure of graduate students 'fears is a complex complex that includes six interrelated “centers”: “risk of losing health”, “economic failure”, “lack of professional prospects”, “lack of social protection”, “unemployment”, “tightening of the regime in the country”.

The relevance of the paper — discussing an area of modern cognitive psychology, namely, conceptual change approach. It examines the origins of this approach: 1) the transition from «naïve» to «scientific» thinking in children as an applied task of primary and secondary school education; 2) the basic concepts and theoretical principles of this approach, such as «domain specificity» and «misconception».

The goal. The study emphasizes the problems of implementation and theoretical analysis of the transition from one type of thinking to another, which the representatives of conceptual change approach/theory are faced with.

Methods. The analysis of the «naive» concepts as integral systems («everyday theories») allows us to highlight the fundamental difference between the two strategies of analyzing the transition to scientific concepts described by L.Vygotsky.

Results and conclusions. According to the first strategy, the scientific concepts supplant the everyday ones; the forms of everyday thinking (such as game) can be used to maintain weak original forms of scientific concepts. The opposite strategy, especially emphathized by L.Vygotsky, regards the process as not just a substitution, but a specific transformation of everyday theory. The closest approach to such transformation understanding is Elkonin-Davydov developmental education theory, which, nevertheless, implements this logic in a contradictory manner.

Relevance. Both speech and the affect are critically important for the development of the child, his academic achievements. The interrelation of these mental functions shows opportunities for the development of preschoolers.

Objective. Analytical review of classical and modern studies of Russian and foreign scientists on the types of relationship between speech and emotional development in preschool children.

Methods. Critical analysis of the literature on the emotional and speech development and their relationship.

Results. On the basis of the analyzed works, a conclusion is made about the close connection and interaction of the emotional and linguistic functions of the child in the process of ontogenesis. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the emotional competence of the child (the ability to recognize and name emotions) and the level of development of the lexical aspect, especially the knowledge of words associated with the affect. Another significant area of intersection of language and emotions is the communication, which is the more successful for a child, the better his speech and emotions are developed. As an interpretation, several approaches are proposed — as well-established within the framework of the cultural-historical approach of L.S. Vygotsky and modern cognitive models.

Conclusions. This analysis allows to both get acquainted with the latest domestic and foreign works in the field of the relationship between speech and emotions of children, and to see the possibilities for the practical application of the approaches revised. In particular, to assess the contribution of speech functions to emotional regulation and self-regulation of the child, as well as to improve the development of the emotional vocabulary of children.

Introduction. Within the framework of the actual problem of the ability to learn for a modern school the peculiarities of children's reading comprehension of edu-cational texts were studied. The analysis showed that the problem of reading com-prehension is not sufficiently developed from the standpoint of Cultural Activity Approach, since in existing studies (I.I. Ilyasov, I.V. Usacheva, O.E., Malskaya, etc.), the activity aspect is expressed only in a detailed description of the actions that provide reading comprehension and their structure, but these works do not “grasp” the general meaning of these actions related to the students' understanding of the indicative purpose of educational texts — that it is from their content that the indicative basis of the subject actions performed should be ex-tracted. The most clearly indicative purpose of a special type of educational text — the definition of a concept — is justified in studies of the formation of the recogni-tion action (RA) (P.Ya. Galperin, N.F. Talyzina, L.F. Obukhova, etc.), where the “understanding” of the definition is the ability to recognize the objects that are described by it. The goal: to study the ability of students to perceive educational texts (ordinary educational texts and definitions of concepts) as tools for completing of specific tasks. Methods and sample. A sample of students in grades 4–8 (N = 280) was conducted: 1) assessment of the formation of the ability to work with definitions of concepts (concept’ recognition tasks, developed on the basis of the principles of diagnostics by N.F. Talyzina), 2) assessment of the ability to highlight the main thing in the text (the method of O.E. Malskaya and A.A. Sidelnikova “Selection of main sentences” for grades 4–8), 3) assessment of the ability to structure the text (the task of selecting paragraphs and their heading), 4) two GIT subtests (“Execution of rules” and “Numerical series”). Results and conclusions. It was shown that the understanding of definitions significantly and positively correlates with the understanding of educational texts. It was also revealed that the level of formation of both the ability to work with definitions and the ability to work with texts does not significantly increase after the 4th grade and up to the 8th grade there is a “failure” in these parameters, despite the smooth positive dynamics in some intellectual abilities.

Acknowledgements:

The study was supported by the RFBR grant No. 19-013-00717 “Orientation to a given knowledge as an indicator of the ability to learn from schoolchildren”