Vladimir S. Sobkin

Background. This study discusses one of the last L.S. Vygotsky’s works — the fourth chapter in «Fascism in Psychoneurology» bulletin (1934). Motivation of the author to write this text is analyzed in the broad context of sociopolitical and personal aspects of his life: general growth of sociopsychological tension, repressions that touched L.S. Vygotsky’s family in 1930s, personally significant Jewish question and antisemitism in nazi Germany. In addition, joint letter from R.N. Vygodskaya and L.S. Vygotsky to D.I. Vygodsky published for the first time. This letter mentioned the arrest of Vygotsky’s cousin L.I. Vygodsky.

Objective. The aim of the study was to reconstruct personal meanings and circumstances of L.S. Vygotsky in writing a chapter for «Fascism in Psychoneurology» bulletin.

Methods. Elements of source analysis, search and analysis of archival documents, theoretical analysis of literature on L.S. Vygotsky’s biography.

Results. The analysis showed that L.S. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria’s criticism of Fascism in psychology is built around several topics: criticism of the basic anthro-pological idea of the Third Reich about the predestination of human development depending on «blood and race»; an analysis of the process of politicization and ideologization of science, exemplified by the concept of «Integrationstypologie» introduced by E.R. Jaensch, which L.S. Vygotsky criticizes; political self-defense of Soviet scientists against possible persecution; the issue of national self-determination of Soviet Jewish scientists.

Conclusion. Authors of this article suggested that this work may be seen not only as a scientific criticism and assertion of humanistic values in psychology but also as an act of political self-defense from sanctions and persecution that took place during the second half of the 1930s.

Background. Media performs an important role in the social construction of an image of a disability. In its turn, that image influences the reader`s generated value orientation and behavioral attitudes towards the disabled persons. One of the main problems is that in most media articles disabled persons are not differentiated by sex. This raises the question of whether there is a description of the disabled persons` gender features in articles where their sex is specified.

Objective. To conduct a content-analysis of the news articles in order to reveal gender-specific features of the social construction of a disabled person`s image in aspects of behavior, social interaction and personality characteristics.

Sample. 107 media articles published during the period from December 2020 to August 2021 in the RBC, RIA Novosti, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, TASS, Izvestia.

Methods. The media article texts were analyzed using content-analysis. For this purpose, the authors selected 27 categories in a coordinated expert assessment. These categories are related to three parameters: disabled person's actions, interaction with a disabled person and personality characteristics. Contingency tables were constructed and frequency analysis of the categories used in the descriptions of the disabled men and women were conducted based on obtained data.

Results and conclusion. The frequency distribution of the categories used in media articles shows that description of disabled persons corresponds to gender social role stereotypes. At the same time, the ways of social interaction of disabled men and women are different. Disabled men are focused on communication with a principal-agent, while disabled women address those involved in some situation. When disabled women are described there are violations of the readers` expectations regarding their greater vulnerability. In other words disabled women are presented as more persistent compared to disabled men. 

The relevance of the study of the socio-psychological well-being of graduate students (including such an indicator of social well-being as their assessment of the significance of various life fears and threats) is associated with the intensive changes taking place with the Institute of postgraduate studies in connection with the transition to the “economy of knowledge”, as well as with the socio-economic and socio-cultural processes that are transforming Russian society.

Objectives. The study of socio-psychological features of life fears of graduate students depending on the influence of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors.

Methods and selection. The article is based on the materials of an anonymous monitoring questionnaire conducted in 2019 by employees of the Information and analytical center of Russian Academy of education. The study involved students of post-graduate research organizations that train post-graduate students in the field of education Sciences, as well as pedagogical universities in Moscow and the regions of the Russian Federation. Empirical data were processed using mathematical statistics methods (statistical software packages SPSS and StatSoft Statistica).

Results. The paper analyzes the influence of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors on the assessment of life fears and threats by graduate students. The relationship between the assessment of life fears by postgraduate students and the assessment of their life prospects, material and family status, the level of education of parents, and the presence of emigration plans is shown. The correlation analysis revealed a stable, age-independent structure of fears and threats for graduate students.

Conclusions. Graduate students' assessment of the importance of life fears is determined by the influence of a number of socio-demographic, socio-stratification and socio-psychological factors. The conducted special correlation analysis showed that the basis of the structure of graduate students 'fears is a complex complex that includes six interrelated “centers”: “risk of losing health”, “economic failure”, “lack of professional prospects”, “lack of social protection”, “unemployment”, “tightening of the regime in the country”.