Articles

Background. The inner work of the personality, which makes a decisive contribution to personality development and can lead to equally significant results in overcoming personality crises, as well as psychotherapy, remains practically unrevealed. In particular, the role of works of art in the facilitation of the inner work remains unstudied.

Objective. The goal is to identify the conditions under which a literary text becomes or does not become a facilitator of the inner work of the personality, as well as to describe the process of facilitation in a dramatic improvisation group.

Study Participants. Sixth-year psychology students who participated in a dramatic improvisation group (N = 11) or independently read an excerpt from J. Cabret's novel "I Confess" (N = 6) were involved in the study.

Methods. The method of dramatic improvisation based on works of art, the analysis of reflexive responses of participants in a dramatic improvisation group, the analysis of a literary text, as well as the theoretical analysis of scientific literature were applied.

Results. The literary text we chose turned out to be emotionally "difficult" for psychology students and did not become a facilitator of the personality inner work for the study participants who simply read it. However, this same text turned out to be a facilitator of the personality inner work for all the study participants who worked with it in the format of a dramatic improvisation group. At the same time, the path of inner work when encountering the text in the format of such a group includes five stages: at the first stage, resistance is overcome before the immersion into the "difficult" text, at the second stage, the readers live through their experiences with the characters of the work, at the third stage, universal meanings, experiences and questions are revealed in the work, at the fourth stage, improvisation occurs, allowing one to feel one's own position in the value-semantic world of the work, at the fifth stage, a person begins to "read" the personal experience with the help of the work.

Conclusions. The notion of the inner work of the personality in the concept of A.N. Leontiev is comparable with a number of concepts used in modern psychotherapy and philosophical practice. A literary text can act as a facilitator of the personality inner work if the readers manage to see universal meanings and problems behind the story of specific characters and "read" their own experience through this prism. In the case of emotionally "difficult" texts, the practice of dramatic improvisation based on literary works can help pave the way from the text to the inner world of the reader.

Background. The archetypal approach in literary studies contributes to understanding the symbolic structure of literary texts. The study of archetypes in European and American literature of the early 20th century allows us to study the connection between the individual and collective unconscious.

Objective. The goal of this research is to consider the features of the construction of the conflict in the plot of Booth Tarkington's novel "Gentle Julia" in light of the concept of archetypes by C.G. Jung.

Methods. The study analyzes the activities of the characters in the fictional text from the standpoint of analytical psychology and the concept of archetypes by C.G. Jung.

Results. Archetypal analysis of literary characters allows us to identify the origin and reasons for the formation of universal behavioral patterns in accordance with the family environment, personal experience, the uniqueness of the cultural context, the education system, and biological factors. The materials of the article can be used in preparing lecture courses on the "History of World Literature" and "Psychology of Artistic Creativity".

Conclusions. The application of the theory of archetypes developed by C.G. Jung and his followers to the study of texts created in the era of modernism opens up new perspectives for understanding the deep meanings and cultural context of the era. Archetypes are not static; they are subject to transformation under the influence of a particular culture and idiostyle.

Background. The image of a "small", "minor" actor is of little interest to the audience and culture. This article focuses on an actor who remains in the shadow of genius, who does not bear the image of greatness, who is helpless and doomed. This actor plays roles that are far from characteristic, expressive and the sacred awe of the crowd. However, this is a person with ambitions, demands, which first turn into vain hopes, then into crisis decisions, revealing the horror of the stage existence.

Objective. The study aims to examine the self-perception of the "small" actor within the context of the role of emotions in cognitive processes and creativity, as they are intertwined with the history of ideas and the empiricism of artistic existence.

Methods. The solution of the tasks set in the article required an integrated approach to the development of the research methodology. The comparative-historical method allowed us to identify the patterns of development and evolution of the phenomenon of interest to us; to trace the continuity of literary practices in the aspect of aesthetically and ideologically motivated ideas about the problem of the "small" actor. We also use the comparative-contrastive method in analyzing the specifics of the artistic presentation of everyday or historical phenomena.

Results. The study is connected with the expansion of ideas about theatrical art in one of its dramatic aspects, it becomes a kind of a warning for actors, debunks the established mythology of stage craft and demonstrates the physical and mental metamorphoses of an actor who has not achieved recognition. The materials of the article can be used in the preparation of lecture courses on "The History of Theater" and "Psychology of Artistic Creativity".

Conclusions. The literary plot of the "minor" actor clearly demonstrates that the real order of things — the stage biography of the literary image of the actor — destroys the formula of K.S. Stanislavsky, turning it into a model of the impossible. If we follow the concept of the great director, we find an accentuation on the rise of the actor from a microscopic role to a grandiose stage victory. The literary history of the "small" actor clearly demonstrates the utopian nature of the statement of the classic of the theater, his focus on myth-making. The preference for deviant behaviour by "small" actors becomes an act of protective ritual, an instrument of communication with a world that does not want to accept you.

Background. The problem of contemplation has only recently begun to be developed by psychologists. However, contemplation itself as a phenomenon of spiritual and practical order and as a subject of philosophical comprehension has always attracted attention. At the same time, the understanding of its place and role in the knowledge of the world has been fundamentally different.

Objective. The article attempts to describe the specifics of contemplation in art and to show its leading role in artistic creativity.

Methods. Analysis of psychological, philosophical, theological literature on the topic of the study, self-reports and statements of masters of art were used.

Results. The methodological reasons that make it difficult to study contemplation by the methods familiar to science are considered. It is shown that understanding of this phenomenon and recognition of its reliability is possible in the presence of one's own similar experience. The analysis of self-reports and statements of outstanding masters of different kinds of art has shown that contemplation requires the artist to overcome the boundaries of the previous experience and gives the experience of direct unity with the world, which is a necessary condition for the origin of creative idea. The specificity of "artistic" contemplation lies in its sensual and supersensual nature and in the special meaning that the directly perceived image of an object or the world as a whole has in art.

Conclusions. Contemplation and activity are necessary and interrelated sides of the creative process. In the absence of the contemplative component, activity becomes reproductive. This conclusion is significant for the artist's self-education, as well as should attract the attention of art pedagogy, which is focused almost exclusively on the activity component of mastering art professions.

Background. The syndromic analysis methodology allows to discover the mechanisms underlying a particular neuropsychological syndrome and helps to deter mine the means and methods to overcome difficulties.

Objectives. The objective of the present study was to carry out the neuropsychological diagnosis process for an adolescent with difficulties in school learning and epilepsy, with an assessment before and after the application of a neuropsychological intervention programme.

Study Participants. The case study refers to a Mexican 13-year-old male student, left-handed.

Methods. The type of study was a single case study based on the theoretical methodological assumptions of historical-cultural neuropsychology.

Results. The syndromic analysis methodology allowed us to identify symptomatology related in two aspects: a) difficulties in the planning, regulation and control mechanism of conscious activity, and b) primary motor difficulties with muscle tone impairment. The impact of the applied intervention programme was positive which is expressed not only in the improvement of the difficulties reported in the initial diagnosis (pre-intervention), but also in improvements in the performance of graphic-perceptual and school tasks such as reading, writing and mathematical operations.

Conclusions. The effectiveness of neuropsychological treatment is based on the development of a specific intervention programme, tailored to the case study, which contemplates the altered mechanisms, lying at the basis of the cognitive symptoms of a child or an adolescent.

Background. The excessive use of users’ personal data in advertising targeting gives rise to the paradox of personalization: on one hand, individuals desire to receive tailored offers, yet on the other hand, they experience discomfort from excessively personalized messages. The personalization paradox diminishes the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, thus necessitating the exploration of new solutions in advertising personalization.

Objective. The aim is to identify the correlation between the appeal of advertising on social networks and consumer personality traits.

Study Participants. The preliminary survey collected data from 159 respondents between the ages of 21 and 60. The average survey completion time was 8.5 minutes. During the main data collection phase, a survey was conducted involving 543 respondents. The average age of the sample was 26.5 years (ranging from 17 to 67 years), with 60% of the respondents being female. The average survey completion time during this phase was 5.5 minutes.

Methods. The study employed a survey-based data collection method. A novel approach was proposed for determining the relevance of advertising layouts to consumers. Euclidean distance and Chebyshev metrics were used as measures of similarity.

Results. The collected data enabled the authors to measure similarity between the characteristic profile of an individual and the attribute profile of an image, which were pre-assigned by independent raters. There was a consistent trend revealed: individuals with more pronounced traits of “agreeableness” and “conscientiousness” generally found the advertising layouts more appealing. Additionally, the obtained results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between the perceived attractiveness of an advertising layout and its personalization based on personality traits.

Conclusions. Personalization based on the Big Five can be used as a tool to make advertising more appealing to consumers. Based on the obtained results, recommendations that may be useful for marketers in designing advertising campaigns were developed. The study’s findings contribute to the discussion on the effectiveness of personalized advertising based on consumer personality traits.

Background. In psychological science, the concepts of subjects about the prospects of their life activity have not yet been sufficiently studied. There is also a lack of knowledge about the intra-system relationships of life goals, which can be established using correlation analysis. The obtained data on the subjective significance of the life goals in high school students will expand the understanding of the content of the worldview of modern youth.

Objective. The purpose of the study is to conduct a comparative empirical analysis of the significance of the subjective life goals in modern high school students.

Study Participants. 50 students of the 10th grade of secondary school (average age 16.1 years). Of these, 27 are boys (54%) and 23 are girls (46%).

Methods. Theoretical analysis of scientific literature on the problem of studying the life goals of high school students, an empirical study of the subjective significance of the life goals of high school students using the questionnaire “Life Goals” by E. Deasy, R. Ryan, adapted by N.V. Klyueva and V.I. Chirkovа.

Results. A theoretical analysis of the scientific literature made it possible to compare and describe the concepts of life goals and the worldview of a personality in the context of young people’s ideas about future life prospects. The high importance of the subjective goals of material success and the formation of good health among boys and girls is shown. There were no statistically significant differences when comparing the ranking indicators of life goals in the groups of boys and girls. A correlation analysis of the interrelationships of the subjective life goals in high school students found that the goals of achieving freedom and democracy had positive correlations with the subjects’ aspirations for autonomy, and negative correlations with the prospects for personal growth and attractiveness of their person. The goals of achieving safety and security positively correlated with the goals of achieving good health. The desire for attractiveness in high school students negatively correlates with the goal of achieving autonomy.

Conclusions. Boys and girls in high school declare similar life goals. Their life goals of high importance are material success and good health. The prospects of serving people and learning about spiritual and religious life are the least significant for high school students.

Background. In contemporary psychology, there are practically no diagnostic techniques that are sensitive to the severity of visual neglect as a function of the structure of the visual field and its loading with stimuli that take this structure into account.

Objectives. The aim is to develop and approve a methodology that will enable the severity of manifestations of the neglect syndrome in the visual field to be analyzed, depending on its being structured and loaded with stimuli.

Study Participants. The study involved 50 respondents aged 29 to 75 years (Mage = 58.5; SD = 18.82; 14 women), patients with neurological disorders of various etiologies of the right cerebral hemisphere, including 30 patients with neglect syndrome.

Methods. The study was conducted using a comprehensive neuropsychological examination according to the scheme of A.R. Luria. This included an assessment of higher mental functions, the implementation of quantitative methods to evaluate neglect syndrome, and the utilization of the “Red Shapes” test. The test consists of three series, presented sequentially on a portable tablet. The series include a set of red-coloured geometric figures. The number of stimuli presented in the right half of the screen differs from series to series.

Results. The “Red Shapes” test aimed at diagnosing the syndrome of neglect in the visual sphere has been developed. The psychometric properties of the test were evaluated. The scales demonstrated a satisfactory level of consistency with regard to the identified figures on the left and the time of search (Cronbach’s α scores vary from 0.716 to 0.881). All test scales exhibited a non-normal distribution according to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion (p < 0.001), with the exception of the time scale in series 3 (p = 0.2). The correlations and descriptive statistics of the scales are presented.

Conclusions. In order to investigate the syndrome of neglect in the visual sphere, a methodology is proposed which allows for the assessment of disorders in this sphere with varying degrees of structuredness and stimulus load in the visual field. The evidence obtained supports the reliability and validity of the methodology.

Background. The network principle of brain realization of cognitive phenomena assumes the self-organization of distributed neuronal elements into a network for processing information demanded by the organism at a given moment. Cerebral networks that are formed during rest and are associated with spontaneous associative flows are of particular interest. One of the key structures of resting-state networks is the hippocampus.

Objective. The aim of this research was to investigate spontaneous associative flows at rest in the context of left or right-sided compression of the hippocampal area.

Study Participants. The research involved 16 patients with benign meningiomas that mildly compress the medio-basal regions of the temporal lobe in the area of the hippocampus. The mean age was 47.5 years (SD = 8.3; 12 females; all participants were right-handed). One group comprised 9 patients diagnosed with left-sided tumor location (referred to as “grLS”), while the other group included 7 patients with right-sided tumor location (“grRS”). The groups were comparable in terms of morphometric characteristics of the tumors, degree of hemisphere compression, and socio-demographic factors.

Methods. The study consisted of two sessions at rest, each lasting 3 minutes. Prior to each session, the patient listened to a voice record of a modulating instruction. Immediately after the session, the patient gave a spontaneous narrative and a structured interview about spontaneous associations during rest. The entire conversation was recorded and subsequently transcribed into text format.

Results. Spontaneous associative flows had lateral specificity. In cases of left hemisphere compression, spontaneous thoughts, emotions, and memories were typically linked to the awareness of the moment of their formation, associated with specific events, and had a conscious border with fantasy plots. With right hemisphere compression, the flow was less controllable, associations were related to generalized memories, in which one’s own experience was mixed with information from any other sources and fantasy elements, and transitions had no boundaries. In the left hemisphere group (grLS), associations were predominantly visual and verbal in nature, whereas in the right hemisphere group (grRS), polymodal flows were recorded.

Conclusions. When the right hemisphere is compressed, the flow of associations is poorly controlled, transitions between real and fantasy elements have no boundaries, being combined in the same plot. When the left hemisphere is compressed, memories, as a rule, are tied to specific episodes of one’s own experience, the arbitrariness component is more pronounced in them, and the flow elements have conscious boundaries.

Background. Digital transformations have significantly changed the everyday life of modern man, which has determined the ever-increasing attention of society and researchers to the role of digital technologies in the psychological well-being of an individual, various groups, and entire generations, primarily young people — the most active Internet users.

Objectives. The paper examines the role of access to technology, user activity, attitudes towards technology, digital competence, self-management of digital tools and resilience in life satisfaction in the virtual and real worlds among young people.

Study Participants. The sample comprised 368 respondents aged between 18 and 39 years old (M = 23.6 ± 4.9 years), of whom 66.6% were female.

Methods. The following methods were used: Digital Competence Index (screening), Self-Management of Digital Everyday Life, Attitudes towards technology, Psychological Hardiness Scale (screening), Satisfaction with Life Scale and its modification for virtual life, as well as self-assessment of user activity and satisfaction with access to technology. Data were processed using ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, regression analysis, and mediation analysis.

Results. Satisfaction with life in the real world is strongly related to satisfaction with digital life. At the same time, satisfaction with life in both the real and virtual worlds is moderately associated with digital device management, satisfaction with access to technology, technophilia and techno-rationalism, and weakly associated with digital competence. Satisfaction with life in the real world is also weakly associated with technopessimism. Predictors of satisfaction with online life were digital device management, technopessimism and satisfaction with real life. Predictors of satisfaction with real life included digital life involvement and satisfaction, as well as user activity, satisfaction with access to digital technology and technopessimism. The results are refined based on mediation analysis.

Conclusions. Life satisfaction among young people in the virtual and real worlds are interrelated, providing further evidence of the convergence of these worlds within a single individual’s experience of a mixed online-offline reality. At the same time, the specificity of predictors of life satisfaction shows the need for a comprehensive analysis of psychological well-being in digital and real life spaces.

Background. The study of psychological resources for academic achievement and subjective well-being in students is a significant area in educational sciences. This article presents the results of an empirical study in which conscious self-regulation, teaching quality subjectively assessed by students, and school engagement are considered as such resources.

Objective. The goal of this study was to reveal the influence of these phenomena on the subjective well-being and academic achievement of students, and to establish indirect and mediating effects of this influence.

Study Participants. The study involved adolescent students (N = 559, 53% girls, average age 12.96, standard deviation 0.91).

Methods. The instruments included: Morosanova’s “Self-Regulation Profile of Learning Activity Questionnaire” (Morosanova, Bondarenko, 2017); E. Irving’s questionnaire for assessing teaching quality adapted by Lunkina et al. (2023); “Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale” (O.A. Sychev et al., 2018). Academic performance was assessed by the average grade in the main subjects for the previous academic term.

Results. It has been shown that teaching quality, school engagement, and conscious self-regulation are significantly associated with student well-being and academic success. School engagement is a significant predictor to both academic performance and satisfaction with school; psychological support and self-regulation make a significant direct contribution into students’ well-being. Application of the methods of structural modelling revealed that teacher’s psychological support more effectively influences student engagement when mediated by conscious selfregulation: the higher the development of mindful self-regulation, the greater the positive impact on academic performance, well-being, and school engagement. The contributions of self-regulation and perceived psychological support are roughly comparable, while the contribution of school engagement is more substantial. The age of the students is a significant moderating factor.

Conclusions. The results are discussed in the context of developing effective strategies to improve the quality of education, maintain the subjective well-being, and engage modern school students. Subjectively assessed psychological support from teachers acts as both a direct positive predictor of school subjective well-being and indirectly influences it through self-regulation and engagement. Results have been obtained substantiating the meta-resource role of mindful self-regulation in determining academic achievement and well-being of students.

Background. Professional career is an actively evolving socio-psychological phenomenon, which has been studied since the middle of the 20th century as a permanently relevant scientific and scientific-practical issue of high importance for an individual, organization, and state. In established scientific approaches, the phase of a person’s active career is often the subject of research. In the practice of career-oriented work with young people, active learning methods are widely used, though the socio-demographic characteristics of students, which are prerequisites for the formation of their career trajectories, are not taken into account.

Objective. The research is aimed at studying professional career as a phenomenon and the features of its conceptual explications as a subject of research.

Study Participants. 603 people aged 30–50 (61 private security guards, 142 nurses, 89 correspondence students of a technical university and 58 students of a humanitarian university, 36 university teachers, 121 civil servants, 96 teachers) took part in the research.

Methods. Historical and theoretical analysis, empirical research (author’s methodology — questionnaire “Dynamics of professional life style”) were applied.

Results. The analysis of the survey data showed the links between career success (“vertical career”) and a number of socio-demographic characteristics of people (their parents’ positions and education, place of birth and place of residence, birth and upbringing in a complete or incomplete family, self-realization in the family sphere: status and length of marriage, number of children, experience in management). Probably, the value orientations and motives for a person’s choice of different professional spheres (with “high” and “flat” hierarchy) and the career success are associated with the above characteristics.

Conclusions. The content of the life activity space-time in representatives of different professional spheres (the level of the position held and the education of parents, the position/education ratio, reflecting the social activity and managerial potential of parents; the relationship of the place of residence to the place of birth as the measure of geographical and social mobility; birth and upbringing in a complete or incomplete family; the completeness of a person’s self-realization in the family sphere; the ratio of age, length of service and length of management experience) shows the stability of the combination of socio-demographic and official characteristics for the subjects of each professional sample, probably determine their value orientations and motives for choosing a field of activity and success in it.

Background. The social and political world situation of recent years has reawakened mass interest in the topic of psychotrauma. Studying this phenomenon, researchers raise questions about the ways to cope with the consequences of a traumatic experience. Humor is recognized as one of the important coping strategies in this case. However, this issue evokes a discussion on the appropriateness and effectiveness of using different variations of humor in traumatic situations.

Objective. The study aimed to examine possible positive and negative effects of humor when processing a traumatic experience.

Methods. The research engages theoretical analysis and generalisation of research results described in modern relevant scientific literature.

Results. Research data suggest that humor can both be an effective mechanism of psychological defense in crisis, traumatic and extreme situations, and may as well prevent successful interpersonal interaction, reducing the necessary level of social support. In particular, the use of dark humor, as well as aggressive and self-defeating humor styles, in psychotrauma is controversial. Numerous studies confirm the special role of dark humor for professionals at “high-risk” jobs.

Conclusions. Humor is indeed an important coping mechanism but the variety of its functions, types and styles, as well as different contexts of its use, do not allow us to oversimplify and unambiguously consider its effects. There are both positive and negative effects of humor when processing traumatic experiences. The question of the coping potential of dark humor, as well as aggressive and self-defeating humor styles, remains open and promising for study. It is known that they play an important role for coping in extreme situations in “high-risk” professions, but they can also be an indicator of burnout in case of fixation.

Background. Very scarce works are devoted to the study of hockey players' brain activity, which is connected, among other things, with the large amount of motor activity in athletes and the complexity of EEG registration.

Objective. The aim of the study was to investigate electroencephalographic markers (in alpha, beta, and theta EEG bands) during a puck kicking task of varying difficulty under virtual reality conditions in ice hockey players compared to freestyle wrestlers.

Methods. The previously developed VR-PACE technology was used for the study, which allows practicing puck reflection skills in hockey in a virtual scene. In the study, pucks were presented in blocks (five blocks in total), the difficulty increased from block 1 to block 4, in block 5 the subjects only observed the pucks. EEG recordings were made using a wireless electroencephalograph BrainScanner V3.1 (research edition) by “NeuroDrive” throughout the entire task, analyzed by 20-second segments in each block and in each of the backgrounds (before and after). Twenty-two male subjects (average age=20, SD=2.4 years) participated in the study.

Results. The results showed significant differences between the groups, as well as significant within-group differences between the “before” and “after” conditions of the experiment in terms of the Individual Alpha Frequency (IAF), as well as the average and total power of theta, alpha, and beta rhythms. The overall trend in both groups is similar (after the experiment, there is a decrease in IAF, an increase in alpha rhythm power in central and parietal electrodes, and a decrease in occipital electrodes; a decrease in theta rhythm power in frontal and occipital electrodes; and a decrease in beta rhythm across all electrodes). However, the hockey group exhibits significantly more pronounced shifts in EEG, indicating greater alertness and attention (higher powers of theta, alpha, and beta rhythms both before and after the experiment), as well as greater relaxation (higher power of mu rhythm after the experiment).

Conclusions. The study examined the electroencephalographic correlates (IAF, power in the alpha, beta, and theta frequency bands of EEG) in hockey players and freestyle wrestlers while performing a task of deflecting a puck in virtual reality (VR). The dynamics of the EEG indicators indicate more efficient brain function in hockey players when performing the puck reflection task in a virtual reality setting, confirming the hypothesis of neural efficiency.

Background. The article discusses the current problem of the methodological foundations of psychological science. The article argues that the dangerous crisis for psychology, which was analysed by L.S. Vygotsky has not gone away, but moved from an acute form to a chronic one. “Methodological pluralism” in modern psychology is the triumph of blatant eclecticism. The authors see the main reason for the impasse which psychology has reached as the desire of this science to become like positive sciences from the field of natural science.

Objective. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the point of view according to which L.S. Vygotsky created the only possible scientific psychology of the future, which will rightfully be classical.

Method. The article discusses the fundamental principles and postulates of the cultural-historical approach, and outlines ways of research conceptualising the idea of a systemic and semantic structure of consciousness.

Results. The authors analysed the methodological and philosophical foundations of psychological science. Based on the analysis carried out, the article highlights the approach proposed by L.S. Vygotsky. Comparison of the scientific fate of Galileo with the scientific fate of L.S. Vygotsky allowed the authors to assert that neither one nor the other discoverer of a fundamentally new method of comprehending reality had like-minded people during their lifetime. Their theoretical and methodological bar was raised too high, which made their work inaccessible to understanding by their contemporaries. The article concludes that the legacy of L.S. Vygotsky is not the historical past of psychological science, but its only possible and most promising future.