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Professor Klimov has turned 80!

Background. The issue of emotional burnout in medical professionals is sufficiently represented in modern psychology - first of all, due to the prevalence of the phenomenon, as well as the influence of the emotional state of a professional on his/her efficiency and the possibility of constructive interaction with a patient. However, the study of the factors of emotional burnout syndrome in oncologists is far from being exhausted. We believe that one of them is the peculiarities of attitude to death, which may have cross-cultural differences.

Objective. Comparative analysis of the relationship between the dominant type of attitude to death and the severity of emotional burnout in Uzbek and German medics.

Study Participants. The study involved 190 medical specialists from oncological institutions in Uzbekistan and Germany (M_age = 37.1; SD = 9.6; 73 women and 117 men), including 139 Uzbek doctors and 51 German doctors.

Methods. Two questionnaires adapted in Russian and German were used: the method of diagnosing professional burnout and the attitude to death questionnaire, as well as questionnaires to collect data on socio-demographic, professional, worldview (religiosity and specific religion) characteristics of the respondents.

Results. The majority of oncologists in both countries are experiencing symptoms of emotional burnout, with the highest rates observed in subscales of reduced professional achievement and emotional exhaustion. The level of emotional burnout among older doctors is lower in comparison with younger colleagues, regardless of the country. A high level of professionals' satisfaction with wages is accompanied by a decrease in the level of emotional burnout, regardless of the country. Uzbek doctors have a more pronounced burnout syndrome. Experts from both countries most often have a positive attitude towards death: approaching acceptance in Uzbekistan and neutral acceptance in Germany. A significant positive association of emotional burnout is observed with almost all types of attitudes towards death in a sample of doctors from Uzbekistan, while among doctors from Germany it is observed only with its approaching acceptance. Only neutral acceptance of death is associated with a low level of emotional burnout, and this is characteristic of medical oncologists in Uzbekistan, but not in Germany.

Conclusions. The type of attitude towards death can be considered one of the factors of emotional burnout of oncologists. A low level of emotional burnout is most likely determined by a neutral acceptance of death. The relationship between attitudes towards death and emotional burnout has cross-cultural differences that need further study.

Background. Nuclear medicine is one of the innovative areas of healthcare. This area is associated mainly with the diagnosis and treatment of oncological diseases, though its application is much wider. The use of nuclear medicine methods is promising, including in such areas as neurology and cardiology. The development of nuclear medicine requires not only the creation of a modern infrastructure in combination with expert-class equipment, but also the timely training of doctors whose competencies meet the requirements of the industry. At the same time, the duration and high cost of training for specialists in the field of nuclear medicine raises the issue of maintaining the professional health of the current staff and identifying conditions that prevent the development of burnout. One of the assumptions explaining susceptibility to professional deformations is the presence of a connection between the development of burnout symptoms and the personal characteristics of a specialist.

Objective. An empirical study is aimed at defining the role of personality factors that provoke the development of burnout or protect nuclear medicine physicians.

Study Participants. The study involved 122 employees of radiation diagnostics and radiation therapy departments of 23 institutions of the Russian Federation. A total of 122 respondents: 40 radiologists (33%), 19 radiologists (15%), 63 radiation therapists (52%), of which 35 were men (28.7%), and 87 were women (71.3%).

Methods. Autobiographical questionnaire, "Diagnostics of professional burnout" by K. Maslach, S. Jackson, adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova, E.S. Starchenkova, "Short portrait questionnaire of the Big Five" (B5-10) adapted by M.S. Egorova, O.V. Parshchikova, "Short questionnaire of the Dark Triad" adapted by M.S. Egorova, M.A. Sitnikova, O.V. Parshchikova.

Results. High friendliness and conscientiousness of doctors, their emotional stability are personal traits that protect them from burnout, while neuroticism, Machiavellianism, low benevolence and conscientiousness can be predictors of burnout. In addition, the expression of the "Extroversion" factor in physician-managers distinguishes them from ordinary doctors, while the reduction of personal achievements in the latter is significantly higher.

Conclusions. Timely monitoring of burnout symptoms among staff will allow identifying risk groups for the development of professional deformations, and information about the personal profiles of doctors will help preventively respond to negative symptoms and create a targeted program of psychological assistance to doctors.

Background. AI algorithms have rapidly entered everyday life in the last few years, which caused the appearance of a large number of both texts and images generated by neural networks. Nevertheless, the perception of artificially generated images has not yet been studied. The relevance of the study is to observe the possibility of using artificially generated images to plan experiments in psychology of perception.

Objective. The study investigated the differences in visual search for various stimuli types: photographs and AI-generated images.

Study Participants. Thirty participants (21 females) between 18 and 43 years old (M = 21.29, SD = 5.18) took part in the study.

Methods. The study had an experimental design with two factors and two dependent variables. The subjects' task was to find the target stimulus among distractors; the stimulus material included images of objects generated using a neural network and photographs. The number of objects on the screen also varied. The accuracy of the subjects' responses and reaction time were measured.

Results. No differences in detection accuracy were found between photorealistic and AI-generated stimuli, nor were there any differences in reaction times.

Conclusions. It was shown that the type of stimulus (AI-generated or photorealistic) does not affect the speed and accuracy of finding them. The perspectives of this study are related to the possibilities of using artificially generated stimuli for planning experiments in cognitive psychology.

Background. Applied for defensive justification of immoral actions, the mechanisms of moral disengagement (MD), on the one hand, provoke unethical behaviour, and on the other hand, prevent its direct correction. Thus, the study of the factors underlying these mechanisms is relevant from both theoretical and practical points of view.

Objective. The aim of the study is to identify cognitive and personal factors in the choice of MD strategies (loci).

Study Participants. The study involved 618 respondents aged 17 to 52 years (M = 23.08, SD = 6.32), including 450 women; 410 are students from various universities and specialties, 208 are employees of enterprises and organizations of various profiles.

Methods. Data were collected using valid questionnaires: Short Scale of Moral Disengagement, Dark Tetrad Short Questionnaire, Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy, and Short Form of the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire.

Results. It was found that the most preferred MD strategy is the locus of victim, and the least preferred one is the disregard (or distortion) of the behaviour consequences locus. The main personality predictors of MD are high values of psychopathy and Machiavellianism, as well as low empathy and a weak ability to recognize one’s own feelings. The contribution of personality traits is most significant for the integrative indicator of MD and its behavioral locus, and the least significant for the actor locus (situational justification of immoral acts). Distortion of the victim image is better predicted by the "dark" traits—psychopathy and Machiavellianism—than by low empathy and emotional intelligence. On the contrary, the distortion of the behaviour consequences is better predicted by cognitive empathy and worse by the expression of "dark" traits.

Conclusions. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that moral disengagement most often manifests itself through the defense mechanism of victim blaming, which is likely due to the greater cognitive ease of its formation. The contributions of personality traits, empathy, and emotional intelligence to different loci of MD vary in strength and quality. Thus, the behaviour locus is determined to a greater extent by personality characteristics, the actor locus by cognitive qualities, and the victim locus is determined by both personality and cognitive peculiarities. The discovered patterns can be useful in practical work with beliefs that justify immoral behaviour.