Korostina, Mariya A.

The method “Fairy Semantic Differential”, during which a respondent should assess a number of fairy-tale characters according to a set of personal characteristics, is designed for the individual work of a psychologist with children 4—9 years old. Personality characteristics, according to which the characters are evaluated, are formulated in terms that parents, teachers use when dealing with children of this age. An analysis of the child's attitude to this or that fairy-tale character allows us to determine the specificity of his (her) moral-value sphere. The method also allows evaluating of real adults, who are significant for the child (parents, teachers, etc.) Comparison of fairy-tale characters' ratings with those of a significant adult makes it possible to reveal the specifics of the child's attitude to this adult. The article discusses quantitative indicators that can be calculated using the data of the answering the questionnaire. These indicators characterize the child’s personality, his (her) understanding of interpersonal relationships with surrounding people, dimension of categorical space of interpersonal perception, content of this categories and its hierarchy, the level of cognitive development in this area, the degree of socialization. The method allows measuring self-esteem indices. The results of an empirical study of Moscow primary schoolchildren using the method “Fairy Semantic Differential” are presented, during which a psychometric analysis of the indicators was conducted. It was shown that the cognitive complexity of interpersonal perception, determined by the method “Fairy Semantic Differential” is significantly higher among adults, does not correlate with intelligence tests. Socialization increases with age, is significantly higher among girls than among boys, partly correlates with known methods that measure the level of social adaptation of a child, the degree of differentiation of moral and conventional norms, verbal intellect. The analysis of self-esteem indices reveals significantly higher self-criticism among girls, than among boys.