Tkhostov, A.Sh.

Background. The relevance of gender issues is associated with discussions outside the scientific field, while in the science itself, the popularity of gender studies is increasing every year.

Objectives. The present article aims at the application of the conceptual mechanism of the cultural-historical approach to gender issues.

Methods. Abstraction, analysis and synthesis of literary data, comparison of theoretical models, and generalization were used.

Results. Sex as a biological entity is divided into an innate “natural” category and a gender as a culturological one. A number of examples demonstrate the non-identity of sex and gender as well as variants of their combination and interaction. It is proposed to disidentify gender and gender identity as a psychological category. The latter is understood as an analogue of the higher mental function which forms intravitally under specific social conditions, it is mediated by gender signs (appearance, manners, norms, preferences, values, taboos, etc.) and is possible to self-regulate. In the meantime, the limitations in mastering one’s own behaviour are emphasized, since the origin of the gender identity is connected to the biological parameters of sex, inconsistency of gender norms and their wide field of influence. Here the field of cultural pathology in the sphere of gender identity and intersex interaction reveals itself.

Conclusions. The cultural-historical approach is seen to be heuristic in the multifactorial understanding of gender issues which include biological, cultural, psychological, and ontogenetic aspects.

Background. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented model for psychology to explore the factors of adherence to recommendations, vaccination and protective actions in a situation of uncertainty.

Objective. The aim of the study is to reveal the relationship between attitudes towards health and readiness for treatment with adherence to recommendations and protective actions during the pandemic.

Methods. In November-December 2020, 523 respondents aged 18 to 65 filled in scales to assess their tendency for monitoring information about the pandemic, level of anxiety caused by the pandemic, vaccination, and protective actions during the pandemic, their readiness for vaccination, illness-related locus of control, self-efficacy in relation to treatment, “hypochondriac discourse”, as well as readiness for treatment and ideas on the specifics of medication.

Results. Respondents were more willing to actively comply with safety recommendations if they (1) had external locus of control in treatment — this effect was both direct and indirect, which implied higher pandemic anxiety; (2) believed in alternative medicine methods; (3) declared readiness for treatment; and also (4) valued health care as a resource conservation, which influenced compliance indirectly — through the higher pandemic anxiety. Adherence to self-isolation was higher with health being more important as a means of protection against risk (both direct and indirect effects) and indirectly (because of greater pandemic anxiety) as well as with an external locus of control for treatment. Vaccination readiness depended on the internal locus of control for illness causes, lower internal and higher external locus of control for treatment, and also distrust toward the medical system. At the same time, mistrust in the medical system was characterized by two indirect effects in relation to lower readiness for vaccination: on the one hand, distrust was associated with greater anxiety about the pandemic and therefore greater readiness for vaccination, and on the other hand, with greater anxiety about vaccination and therefore less readiness for it. Respondents reported better lifestyle control in cases of more pronounced self-efficacy, confidence in the importance of taking care of health and resorting to the methods of alternative medicine, as well as declared readiness for treatment. Outdoor trips were associated with self-efficacy and confidence in the importance of treatment with alternative medicine. Both of these effects were not explained by pandemic anxiety and vaccination anxiety.

Conclusion. Active and passive adherence to recommendations, as well as other ways of caring for health, depend differently on attitudes towards health and readiness for treatment.

Background of the work is associated with the high significance of an accurate assessment of the adaptive potential of a transsexual sent for transgender transition. To date, psychological constructs that make it possible to predict this potential look unconvincing due to the blurriness of these constructs, as well as ways to evaluate them. The ability for adequate self-assessment is proposed as a relevant construct.

Objective is to state the self-esteem of transsexuals at different stages of transgender transition in comparison with non-transexuals.

Methods. The anonymous questionnaire includes the M. Kuhn — T. McPartland test «Who am I» modified by A. Thostov, E. Rasskazova, V. Emelin (2014); «Cognitive Beliefs Inconsistency Study Method» (Rasskazova, Thostov, Abramova, 2015); «Satisfaction with Life Scale» (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, Grin, 1985; adapted by E. Osin, D. Leontiev, 2008). ANOVA is used in the SPSS 23 program.

Sample. Control group: 120 cisgender people. Main group: 151 transsexuals: Male-to-Female (MtF), Female-to-Male (FtM).

Results. Well-being level of MtF in final stage of transgender transition is equal to that of cisgender people, and FtM's level is lower (F = 8.384; P < 0.01). FtM in all stages of transgender transition give higher marks of social recognition of their self-identifications than MtF
(F = 8.996; P < 0.01). FtM rate their masculinity from the point of friends' view higher than MtF (F = 3.413; P < 0.05). MtF transsexuals in all stages of transgender transition rate their self-identifications lower than FtM (F = 3.532; P < 0.05).

Conclusion. FtM have an overestimation of self-esteem in terms of masculinity, social recognition. It is associated with psychological compensation of a lower level of well-being than MtF. MtF more accurately rate reality in all stages of transgender transition and do not resort to compensatory mechanisms.

Relevance. The spread of coronavirus infection is accompanied by the dissemination of information messages in the form of radical beliefsaffecting people’s behaviour. 

The aim of the study was to reveal the relationship between beliefs about coronavirus and its treatment, magical thinking, anxiety and the protective behaviour against to the pandemic. Methods. 402 adults aged 18–64 years old filled checklist including beliefs about causes, manifestations, consequences and control of the pandemic, Illness and Treatment Locus of Control Scale, Treatment Self-Efficacy Scale, Magical Ideation Scale as well as scales measuring anxiety and protective behaviour in pandemic and monitoringof information about coronavirus. 

Results. Factor analysis revealed three groups of radical beliefs about coronavirus: negligence as the cause of the occurrence and spread of coronavirus, a particular meaning of morbidity and negative consequences of the pandemic. 

Conclusion. Belief inthe negligence as a cause of coronavirus was more typical for people with an intrinsic locus of causes of the causes of illness but extrinsic locus of control of treatment and for those who were prone to protective behaviour in the pandemic. Belief about the particular meaning of coronavirus was associated with the magical thinking, the intrinsic locus of control of the causes of illness, less anxiety about infection and poorer compliance with self-isolation. Radical beliefs about the consequences of the pandemic were related to more frequent monitoring of the information about the pandemic, extrinsic locus of control of treatment but intrinsic locus of control of causes of illness and a pronounced anxiety regarding future negative consequences of the pandemic.

This article considers the possibilities of bringing together of the two psychological scientific fields: pathopsychology and social psychology. The realization of that approach will enable to expand opportunities of analyzing the irrational and destructive forms of social behaviour and registering various forms of pathological adaptation described in pathopsychology quite clearly. As a possible variant, there are notions of modern psychoanalysis about different types of personality structure which form in the course of interpersonal relationships during individual ontogeny. Within the framework of the proposed hypothesis about the possibility of employing pathopsychological explanatory constructs in relation to social-psychological phenomena, psychoanalytical model is transferred onto social relations. It discusses the possibilities of making use of the pathological phenomena (delusional formations, psychological defenses, addictions) for the interpretation of inadequate relations between a subject and society. The principal structures of personality organization correspond to different variants of social relationships.

Within a framework of a psychoanalytical concept it is not easy to define a single psychological mechanism of a pathological gambling addiction origin and development. Some psychoanalysts state that said addiction is one of manifestations of the risk predisposition attitude. They propose several hypotheses on certain psychological structures, which are involved in forming a pathological behavior and describe mechanisms which these structures are based on. But, visible controversies aside, current theories are not mutually exclusive, they rather supplement, augment and broaden one another. According to researchers, a pathological gambler is unconsciously driven not to win, but to lose. It is a case of autoaggression, differences lie in an interpretation of the guilt feeling origins. Psychological masochism and erotisation of pain are being shown as principal sources for an unconscious anxiety of a gambler. 

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.

The article is denoted evaluation of possibility of using a concept of ordinary consciousness for the explanation of phenomenon of subjective beliefs about diseases. Revealed particularities (characteristics) ordinary consciousness on the example of beliefs about diseases and health. Described psychological conditions to actualizations of the irrational forms of thinking in the consciousness of adult, formed, psychic sound person. situation diseases are considered as answering these conditions.

Motives of the terrorist activity are revealed through the analysis of psychological mechanisms of realization of basic human needs at the stages of involvement in a terrorist organization and participation in them. Psychological appeal of terrorism in the context of the problem of the influence of modern technology on the dynamics of the boundaries of the norm and pathology is discussed.