Lomonosov Psychology Journal, 2017, 4, 104.

A multicomponent model of multiculturalism by the Canadian cross-cultural psychologist John W. Berry is one of the most famous approaches designed to ensure the harmonization of intercultural relations in a plural society. Today including in Russia an applicability of this model has been widely investigating. However, in the light of social cognition, the model does not clearly define relations between the multicultural ideology and various principles of intergroup categorization; the existing empirical findings within the framework of the Berry’s model and within social cognition still to some extent consider intergroup relations somewhat isolated from each other. In this present exploratory study was examined the relationships between interethnic categorization (assimilation, colorblind, multicultural, polycultural) and multicultural ideology by Berry. A survey of ethnic Russians from the Central Federal District of Russia was conducted. The results showed that the multicultural ideology was positively associated with the colorblind, multicultural, and polycultural categorization and also negatively with the assimilation one. Although the colorblind categorization that purportedly rejects cultural diversity was positively associated with the multicultural ideology, this relation had small effect size. The findings of the study suggested that an acceptance and endorsement of cultural diversity and egalitarianism in Russia that according to Berry is a content core of the concept multiculturalism can be realized through polycultural, multicultural, and to a lesser extent through colorblind categorization.

Study objectives: to examine the severity of the personal social psychological attitudes of an individual in the need-motivational sphere, the Dark Triad traits, and the components of burnout, as well as the interrelationships between these features among physicians with different lengths of professional experience. 

Participants: 124 people between the ages of 20 and 62; 4 groups of respondents, differing in the length of their professional experience (student, less than 10 years, 11-20 years and over 20 years of work experience).

Materials: O.F. Potemkina’s “Social psychological attitudes in the need-motivational sphere of the person diagnostics test”, “The Dark Triad inventory” adapted by M.S. Egorova and M.A. Sitnikova and the “Maslach Burnout Inventory” adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova. 

Methods of data analysis: Cronbach’s alpha, descriptive statistics, crosstabulation (chi-squared test), one-way analysis of variance (with Tukey post-hoc test), one-sample Student t-test, Spearman’s correlation, comparison of correlations using Fisher’s z-transformation. 

Results: The altruistic attitude of practicing doctors is higher than that of students, but does not depend on the length of experience. A greater intention towards work is observed for participants with the medical work experience over 10 years. There is no established connection between work experience and the intensity of burnout in the respondents. Physicians with the average experience expressed weaker non-clinical narcissism and a psychopathy than students. The structure of the interrelationships between social psychological attitudes, the Dark Triad traits, and the components of burnout has specificity on the samples with various lengths of professional experience. We suggest interpretations for differences found in the severity and patterns of the connections between the indicators; they are summarized in the psychological portrait of a physician with a certain amount of experience.

The article analyzes various factors of life satisfaction of people of elderly and senile age. At the theoretical level, the assumption is that the integrating condition of satisfaction with life at this age is the central life idea (purpose, meaning). A generalized model of life satisfaction, based on the coordinates determining the common life idea (altruistic or egoistic) and the position of personality activity (creative or passive) is proposed. In the psychological space formed by these coordinates, one can identify the aspirations of the person himself (his “I want”), his real capabilities (“I can”), as well as expectations on the part of people relevant to him both in relation to “I want” and in relation to “I can”. The model allows reflecting the contradictions between the “I want” and “I can” of this person, as well as the contradictions between his intentions, self-esteem and expectations on the part of people relevant to him. When different elements of satisfaction do not coincide, problems arise and crises in the development of the elderly and old man. More concrete models of self-determination at the considered age in relation to their past, to the real present and prospective future are presented. The models of life satisfaction are proposed for further analysis: a creative model (search for new goals and opportunities for development), a model of “right” life (passive realization of the stereotypes of a pensioner's life), a “paternalistic” model (caring for others), a model of “ignoring” old age, the model of protection of their rights (in the conditions of imperfection of pension systems), the models of struggle for survival (in the conditions of sharp deterioration of health), the model of preparation for death, the model of self-assertion and the model of comprehension of the lived. Promising hypotheses of further research are formulated, reflecting possible options for complementarity and conflict of different models.

The text of P.Ya. Galperin at the All-Union Conference on Psychology, held at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR in 1953. In this report, for the first time in a holistic form, the foundations of his world-famous method for the systematic, step-by-step formation of mental actions and concepts are presented. The author states that the question of mental actions, i.e. about what our ability to solve “in the mind” different tasks is part of the broader problem of the activity of human consciousness, taken not in philosophical or socio-historical, but in specifically its psychological content. The way of formation of mental actions that make up a significant part of what is taught in school is described as a successive transition from mastering actions with objects through action in terms of audible speech to transferring an action to the mental plane. The stages of this process are singled out: 1) drawing up a preliminary view of the assignment; 2) mastering the action with objects; 3) mastering the action in terms of audible speech; 4) transferring an action to the mental plane; 5) the final formation of mental action. A detailed description of each stage is given. The author emphasizes that the step-by-step formation of mental actions remains the actual content of the learning process of new skills, regardless of the individual or collective nature of instruction, and the scale of the main parameters retains value for evaluating the learned action regardless of the actual content and quality of this training. In conclusion, the author expresses the hope that the knowledge of the process of step-by-step formation of mental actions and their other parameters will serve as a theoretical basis for the management of full-fledged training.

Ideas of the school students having experience of participation in the educational project and research activity (PRA) about educational researches and projects are considered that is relevant due to the need of formation, since high school, experts of research type. 

Objective: to reveal the attitude of school students towards various aspects of project and research activity. 

Methods: “Unfinished sentences”; questioning on the questions connected with participation in PRA; nonverbal method “Emoticons”. Sample included 84 school students of the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth grades. 

Results: The unfinished sentences method identified seven categories of definitions that school students give to educational researches and projects. Questioning has shown that school students prefer voluntary participation in educational project and research activity; concerning preference of educational researches or projects there are differences in verbal and nonverbal answers, however in ninth grade both methods found that students preferred educational researches to projects; the readiness for implementation of educational projects on all studied subjects from a third to a half of school students has been estimated by low points; the desire in future professional activity to carry out projects and researches has been estimated, mainly, by average points. 

Conclusions: The revealed general tendency reflects the positive attitude towards the above-named educational technology; however, there are both significant individual differences, and the differences between grades in ideas of school students of project and research activity and the attitude towards it demanding profound studying for the purpose of further improvement of this educational technology.

In this paper was studied the attention properties of students aged 12—17 who are living in different climatic regions: the city of Surgut in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District and in rural areas of the middle Russia (Samara Region). The students of the first group live in the extreme climatic conditions of the North, aggravated by the adverse social and environmental factors of urbanization. The students of the second group live in a climatically and environmentally friendly area, with minimal impact of man-made pollution. The method used to estimate the attention of Bourdon, in the modification proposed by the Soviet psychologist P.A. Rudik. A comparative statistical analysis of the results obtained the attention properties of different groups of students are carried out. The dynamics of changes in the K, E, A indices during the test was estimated, the coefficients for the whole test and for each minute of the experiment were calculated too. Specific features of the development of student’s attention: identified according age, gender differences, differences in the development of indicators of attention of students in two different schools. Significant differences (P<0.001) in the distribution and productivity of attention were revealed, the coefficient of productivity of attention of students in Surgut was 1.15 times lower than that of their peers in the Samara region. According to new theory of chaos-selforganization it was calculated the quasiattractors volume V for three coordinates Zi (coefficient of attention concentration, attention quality, attention production). It was demonstrated the maximum volume V of quasiattractor for 14—15 year old pupils of Surgut. Very small volume V demonstrates pupils of 16—17 year of Samara district. Reducing the size of quasi-tractors demonstrates a decrease in variation range and represents a greater consolidation of the group in terms of studied parameters (large volumes of quasi-tractors in Surgut population can indicate a large variation in parameters of attention and performance).

Full list of the articles, published in Moscow University Psychology Bulletin. Series 14.Psychology, 2017