Articles

The article discusses the relationship of the general psychological theory of activity and work-psychology. The achievements of labor psychology as a scientific and technical discipline that combines concrete scientific concepts and theories focused on the problem of social practice. These concepts include: approaches and methods of psychological study of professional activities, research projects psychological classification of occupations; theory of work motivation; research problems of intra-individual variability of human performance under the influence of workload, theory of functional states of the subject of work, including the correction of adverse varieties; the theory of differential and developmental psychology used in professional selection and career counseling; options for teaching about the psychology of erroneous actions used in quality management and safety; complementing studies of individual forms of labor; psychosemantic professional approach to the study of consciousness and self- work experience in the psychological study of foreign object activity as the basis of analysis of the mental processes and properties of the subject of work. As a result, the analysis concluded that the general psychological theory of activity performs in relation to the role of labor psychology philosophical and methodological framework and general scientific theory in understanding the psyche of the human subject of labor. It has the status of concrete scientific theory as applied to problems of professional development and training. Psychology of work, beyond training and development, require the development of specific scientific concepts and theories that complement general psychological theory of activity.

This article presents the results of an empirical study on the role of hostility in the etiopathogenesis of mental illness such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective and affective disorders. The relationship of the general level of hostility and enmity with the qualitative aspects of the objective characteristics of mental illness (duration and nosology) is described in the following article. The sample consists of 161 people, of which the clinical group consisted of 81 patients who are hospitalized in the 4th department of the clinic affective pathology. Comparison was made with a control group of healthy persons, which included 80 men who do not suffer from mental and neurological disorders. The study used the following methods: semantic differential (modification by Ohmatovskaya A.V.), World assumptions scale, Constructive Thinking Index (CTI), Cook-Medley Hostility scale, Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Wechsler memory scale, Wagner’s “Hand-test” (modification by A.V. Gerasimov). It was found that mentally ill patients were showing significantly higher quantitative measures of hostility, compared with the norm. Psychopathological marked qualitative specificity of hostility expressed in suspicion, ambivalence, extrapunitive and generalized hostility. According to the results, hostility has not direct connection with the nosology specific of the mental disorders, and does not depend on the patient’s age and duration of disease.

The paper presents an ontological conceptualization of the phenomenon of extremity, which is considered in the context of personality transformation in the trans-ordinary world. Methodological principles and scientific logic of conceptualization are proposed and specified in the following concepts: the experience of being and non-being, personality work, meaning and behavioral personality work, positive and negative extremity, the meaning of life and the meaning of death, the nature of the construction of psychological effects of extremity — psychic trauma and personal transformation.

In the article the contemporary state of the problem of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of human activity is analyzed. The impact of Russian psychologists in its solving as well as the self-determination theory approach (E. Deci & R.Ryan) to different types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is discussed. A new model of intrinsic and different types of extrinsic motivation is proposed; it is based upon notion of basic psychological needs and allows characterizing main types of motivation of human activity, which differ in their content and origin. The intrinsic motivation is described as based on basic human needs in achievement, self-development and cognition (on the material of intrinsic motivation of learning activity) which are characterized by unsaturability. The functioning of extrinsic motivation depends upon satisfaction or frustration of autonomy, respect and acceptance needs. Two main subtypes of extrinsic motivation are distinguished — autonomous and controlled, which differ in terms of its content (orientation), relations with performance, persistence and subjective well-being. Autonomous extrinsic motivation does nоt impede academic attainments, professional achievements and subjective well-being. The studies conducted by the author and other psychologists show that the dominance of controlled motivation in motivational profile is related to lowered subjective well-being and does not promote academic and professional achievements. The practical implications of the model are provided.

To the 80th anniversary of Antonina Nikolayevna Zhdan.

To the 90th anniversary of Galina Mikhaylovna Andreyeva.

The paper presents the specificity of the verbal memory impairments in pediatric patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy depending on the localization of the epileptogenic lesion. 81 children (age 7—17) performed comprehensive neuropsychological assessment including verbal and spatial memory tests. Scores in memory tests were associated with operational, motivational and neurodynamic components of memory function. The neuropsychological qualitative analysis shows the specificity of verbal memory disorders in pediatric patients with drug-resistant focal (temporal and frontal lobe) symptomatic epilepsy depending on the localization of epileptogenic lesion. Children with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy demonstrate the decrease in volume of auditory perception and immediate recall. Children with refractory frontal lobe epilepsy demonstrate lower performance in almost all scores of verbal memory that emphasize deterioration of motivational and neurodynamic components of memory function.

The manuscript described the basis issues of Roger’s diffusion of innovations theory, the variety of empirical data on applying this theoretical approach in promotion of protective health behaviors and prevention of health risk behaviors. Also author presents the main results of longitudinal research conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of group behavioral intervention for popular opinion leaders as part of international research project to prevent HIV/STD among students living in dormitories in St. Petersburg, Russia. The study was funded by National Institute of Mental Health (USA) — NIMH Collaborative HIV/STD Prevention Trial.

Psychological studies in social perception (named also person perception, or interpersonal cognition) are reviewed in the paper. Special interest is given to social perception in electronic — computer and Internet mediated- interaction, first of all in social networking. Construction of self-presentations is listed among the main psychological mechanisms of social perception management. It is shown that networkers often develop multiple and alternative self-presentations which include verbal as well as visual and audio materials. Self-presentations form the basis for network identities, or virtual identities; networkers often experiment (play, in their own words) with their identities by changing elements of self-presentations. The paper proceeds to empirical exposure of differences between real-life and electronic identities.

This article describes the nature of the relationship of quantitative and qualitative aspects of aggressiveness with nosology, duration and severity of depression. The study involved 87 patients with a depressive disorder (31 women and 56 men) aged 17 to 46 years. Depressive disorder occurs as an independent disease, or combined with other mental illnesses. The diagnosis was recorded as a psychiatrist in the history of the disease. The study used the following methodology: Zung’s method, Beck scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Wagner’s “Hand-test” (A.V. Gerasimov’s modification), Buss—Durkey Inventory, The Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study (N.V. Tarabrina’s modification), computer psychophysiological method “Operator”. The quantitative and qualitative character of aggressiveness in patients with mental disorders as compared with healthy subjects is shown. In depressed patients compared to healthy subjects are more pronounced aggression, suspicion, resentment and hostility. Intensity of these parameters increases with worsening depression and with increasing duration of disease severity decreased aggressiveness. Level of physical aggression is higher at depressive disorder within psychopathy. In the group of female patients with depression increased aggressiveness, in the group of male patients with depression increased general and physical aggression. In depressive disorders worsens assess and recognize the emotional state of others and their own.

Whenever the reverse order of delayed execution of sequence of movements set by a visual template is required, the question arises as to how the sequence representation is stored in working memory (WM). One option is to first reverse the order of movements and then retain the result in WM. The other option is to retain the original order of elements and change it immediately before or during the sequence execution. In order to verify which of the two options takes place we conducted an experiment in which 14 adult (20—30 years old) subjects were asked to memorize the route of visual cursor moving along the invisible polygonal chains and after a given delay to reproduce the motion with a graphical tablet in either direct or reverse order. The analyses of latency and timing for the sequences produced in either direct or reverse order showed that the order reversal does not affect the latency but results in some increase of the time spent (pause) in the vertices of piecewise trajectories. It also shown that the order reversal effect neither spatial characteristics of the reproduced sequences nor the frequency of the erroneous reproduction. The reported results suggest that the reversal of the order of elements in a sequence of movements occurs during the sequence execution

This paper presents empirical study supporting the hypothesis that autobiographical memory may serve as a compensation resource for destructive transformation of self-identity in terms of intrapersonal conflict in alcoholism. 51 non-amnestic alcoholics abstinent from alcohol participated in the study.Participants got a standard piece of paper with a horizontal arrow line on it with instruction to consider this line as it was representing the entire lives (Life Line), to locate the most important and memorable events around the timeline, to date the events and to indicate valance and intensity of emotion associated with each recalled event by distance from the arrow top (positive) to its bottom (negative). Three findings relevant to the goal of achievement an acceptable level of self-confidence by transformation of autobiographical memory were identified. First, there was 30% increase number of events on Life Line in comparison to healthy controls (n=92). We explained the result as compensatory mechanism balancing negative experiences of being alcoholic by positive memories to maintain positivity index close to controls. Second, there was a shift of memories to the left part of Life Line. That means that alcoholics both started and finished their Life Lines from earlier memories than controls. We refer this finding to attempt to keep a normal subjective duration of event filled part of past. Third, we found that in alcoholics there was no reminiscence bump in time distribution of memories. In our opinion, it reflects the fact of incomplete acquisition of cultural life script structure.

The article presents an empirical study of the conditions for actualization of intuition in creative problem solving. Intuition is considered (in the context of the theory of problem situations) as a special form of a preliminary understanding of sense of the problem situation (creative problem), providing opportunities for further prognosis of solution. The special material of this study — fragments of artistic films of different genres. Subjects were required after viewing a short fragment of the film to guess the finish of the film as a whole. The study shows that significant conditions for actualization of intuition in solving this type of problem tasks are: the stability of interest to the solution, the type of prompt (genre, accidental prompt), intellectual and personal possibilities of the subject (“depth” of thinking; “semantic potential” — similar to the problem an emotional experience).

The empirical study is targeted to estimate the subjective value of rest and to analyze rest as an activity for efficient recovery. The study was conducted in employees of different industrial and service organizations. The results showed that mostly by all respondents rest is accepted as an important instrumental value for workability maintenance. At the same time, high rating positions of rest in the life values list does not always transform rest value into the intention to arrange recreation purposively. The type of attitudes to rest determines different approaches to rest arrangement: proactive (based on anticipative rest planning) or reactive (which manifest itself in acceptance of rest as necessary recreation combined with no special rest arrangements). The extraction of indirect rest attributes seems to be possible on the base of psychosemantic analysis of the notions form work and rest domains. The semantic distance evaluation of the work and rest notions allows revealing different meanings of recreation: as a forced necessity because of work and for work, or as a possibility for recovery.

The article provides the analysis of 766 dissertations on specialization 19.00.04 “Medical psychology” submitted to dissertational councils in the Russian Federation and 23 807 foreign doctoral theses in the field of clinical psychology presented in ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database in 1990–2011. Compared to the international flow, the Russian array of theses includes less research (p<0.001) in history and methodology of medical psychology, psychological interventions, psychological aspects of medical treatment, psychological hygiene and prevention, social rehabilitation and improvement of patients’ quality of life and more research (p<0.001) in pathopsychology, neuropsychology, psychosomatics and somatic psychology, psychology of developmental impairments and deviant behavior. Quantitative and dynamic characteristics of dissertation flow on specialization 19.00.04 “Medical psychology” revealed strong links with macroeconomic development, indicator of scientific potential and innovative researchers’ activity in the field of medical (clinical) psychology in Russia.