Belinskaya, E.P.

Background. The relevance of the stated topic is determined by two circumstances: the need to determine the main directions of the theoretical and methodological reflection of modern social psychology and the task of explaining the socio-psychological aspects of cultural-historical theory.

Objective. Consideration of the relationship between the main ideas of the cultural-historical theory of L.S. Vygotsky and the subject field of social psychology.

Methods. The article uses methods of deductive (axiomatic and hypothetico-deductive) and comparative analyses.

Results. The main theses of cultural-historical theory set the development and instantiation of the subject field of social psychology, starting with the well-known discussions of the 1920s. The main provisions can be identified as follows: the idea of the internalisation of social relations as a constructive mechanism of human socialisation; understanding the process of communication as instrumentally mediated by a system of signs which act as a means for a social subject to master his social behaviour; approval of the idea of human activity in interaction, the finite task of which is the formation of a common system of meanings. Using the example of similarities and differences in the historical views of L.S. Vygotsky and J.G. Mead, the authors analyse the possible range of understandings of interaction contextuality. It was the attention of cultural-historical theory to the analysis of interaction that largely determined the further interest of social psychology in the problem of “personality and/or situation”, the solution to which is still debatable.

Conclusions. The determining role of L.S. Vygotsky’s position for universal social psychology as well as for Russian is associated with the unremitting attention of researchers to one of the fundamental problems in the analysis of man and society, namely, to the problem of human interaction with the surrounding socio-cultural environment. The requirement to consider the social context as a methodological imperative of modern social psychology sets the main direction for the further development of theoretical and methodological reflection. This main direction is the analysis of possible relationships between the social context and social changes, leading to the need for empirical development of two problems: the individual psychological foundations of social choice and a person’s ability to resist the power of the situation.

Background. Psychological well-being of a modern person is largely connected with his adaptation to the risks of the digital world. A review of modern studies into psychological consequences of everyday digitalization suggests that the latter affects all areas of the personality: motivational, cognitive, and affective ones, as well as the features of self-awareness.

Objective. The task of the pilot study was to determine the possible relationships between the level of psychological well-being and the content of personal dispositions related to it (hardiness and dispositional optimism) with the features of adaptation to digital everyday life.

Sample. The study was conducted on a youth sample of 131 people. The average age of respondents was 22.8 years (median age = 21), 118 females, 13 male respondents).

Methods. The paper uses standardized scales of psychological well-being, resilience, dispositional optimism and a questionnaire specially designed for the purposes of the study aimed at identifying the level of psychological adaptation to digitalization, which included the scales of digital anxiety, behavioral, communicative and normative adaptation.

Results. The check of reliability of the scales in the questionnaire of psychological adaptation to digitalization gave acceptable results. Indicators of digital anxiety are negatively associated with indicators of psychological well-being, resilience and dispositional optimism. Behavioral and normative adaptation to the risks of digital world are not associated with psychological well-being and dispositional optimism, though they do positively correlate with resilience. Indicators of communicative adaptation were not associated with any of the methods used.

Conclusion. Modern youth have a developed repertoire of skills to ensure their own digital security and to organize a conscious information search, though at the same time they follow certain norms of virtual interaction that are consonant with social norms. However, this does not increase confidence in the ability to protect oneself and influence one’s own digital everyday life, which explains the generally weak correlation of indicators of digital adaptation with psychological well-being, general resilience and dispositional optimism.

The article deals with two of the first social-psychological conceptions, addressing the analysis of human behavior in a large social group; the socio-cultural and intellectual context of their occurrence is defined; a comparative analysis of the main provisions of these conceptions is carried out. The role of these concepts in the development of subject fields of social psychology is evaluated. Notes the importance of “subjective method” N.K. Michailovskiy for the future of methodological search within social constructionism. 

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.