Kunashenko, M.I.

Background. Studying the types of perception of difficult life situations is a demanded task, since knowledge about the subject’s perception of ongoing events allows us to predict the characteristics of his interaction with the situation. The article presents a classification of the perception of difficult life tasks — situations that involve achieving a significant difficult goal. The basis for identifying types is the subject’s focus on approaching a difficult situation or avoiding it.

Objectives. Objective is an analysis of the desire for difficulty associated with the experience of drive, as a type of perception of difficult life task.

Study Participants. The study involved 611 respondents (M age = 25; SD = 5.8; 427 women), students and specialists of various professions. The type describing the desire for difficulty was identified in 11% of cases.

Methods. To collect data, we used the Structured Description of the Situation Technique (allowing us to obtain qualitative data) in combination with the “Types of Orientations in Difficult Situations” questionnaire (TODS). Based on the profile of the respondent on the questionnaire and the characteristics significant for the type, each description of the difficult life task was assigned to one of five types. The data processing procedure included content analysis and mathematical processing (Mann — Whitney U test, frequency analysis).

Results. The features of striving for difficulty as a type of perception of difficult life tasks are highlighted based on the analysis of categories characterizing the content of the situation, emotions, energy, appraisals of life tasks, coping, goals, possibilities and restrictions, worst-case scenario and best-case scenario. It is shown that this type involves the experience of positive emotions, fullness of energy and possibilities, the desire to achieve the best results, and goals of self-development. This is associated with a positive appraisal and reappraisal, approach coping, a sense of control over the situation. At the same time, a characteristic feature of the desire for difficulty is an ambivalent attitude towards a difficult task.

Conclusions. The study demonstrated a number of signs that reliably distinguish the desire for difficulty from other types of perception of difficult life tasks, which gives grounds to consider it a separate type.

Background. The problem of criteria for evaluating solution success is one of the most important for psychology of creative thinking. Evaluation of the solution by the subject during the process of thinking in the form of «confidence / doubt» can be criteria and basis for subject’s experiencing potential success or failure, which leads to continuation or stop in solving.

The objective. The study was to research the dynamics of intellectual confidence / doubt at different stages of problem-solving process.

Sample. The study involved 66 university students, specialists and non- specialists in relation to the content of the tasks.

Methods. The subjects solved 8 problematic tasks of scientific and artistic content with hints and estimate interest and confidence at different stages of solving with subjective scales. The following methods were used for intellectual characteristics “Raven’s Progressive Matrices”, “Complex Analogies”.

Results. 6 types of dynamics of intellectual confidence were identified, which correlated in various ways with the success of the solution. Successful solution of problematic scientific situations for specialists is associated with confidence at every stage, for non-specialists it is associated with doubts at the stages of understanding the problem and the formulation of solution. For problematic situations of artistic content solved by non-specialist, the following types of dynamics are associated with successful solution: «doubt — doubt — confidence», «confidence at all stages»; the latter was also observed with an unsuccessful solution. For this reason 2 types of confidence were identified: (1) reasonable, based on hints, leading to a successful solution, and (2) non- reasonable, without relying on a hint, not leading to a successful solution.

Conclusion. The procedural criteria to evaluate solution are the intellectual emotions of confidence or doubt that regulate the process of thinking. Depending on the stage of solution and the content of the task, intellectual confidence changes in different ways for specialists and non-specialists, performing the function of a preliminary assessment and regulation of solving process.