The article describes the methodological analysis of three tendencies of the psychological cognition development for last three decades. Firstly, the author analyzes the psychological studies of the information processing during the human thought, sometimes based on intuitive experience or logical knowledge. It is shown that a person has two different but interacting systems for the information processing according to the dual-process theories of human thinking.

One system is focused on the heuristics, producing intuitive responses and the other one is based on analytical processing. Their descriptions correspond to the psychologists’ ideas of the Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) by S. Epstein and two cognition styles — rational and intuitive ones. Such scientific ideas are indissolubly linked with the existence of the integrated continuum of the methods for the world understanding: from paradigmatic to narrative and then to thesaurus. Secondly, it is proved that a modern person lives in the multidimensional world, consisting of the empirical, socio-cultural and existential realities. The events and situations in these realities are understood by people after the types “understanding-knowledge”, “understandinginterpretation” and “understanding-comprehension”. Thirdly, it is reasoned that a subject does not cognize the existential reality but comprehend. Therefore, the existential experience of a subject naturally includes not only unconscious knowledge and experiences, but also incomprehensible and mysterious things. It is proved that the incomprehensibility of the reality is one of the attributes of the being. The incomprehensibility does not mean the essential impossibility of understanding. Comprehension represents such type of understanding which is focused on the phenomena and the objects of the world, requiring extraordinary efforts to be understood. Comprehension is such apprehending of the whole thing, the parts of which a subject cannot cognize and describe in details for any reasons. Mystery was analyzed as a scientific and psychological but not mystical and fantastic phenomenon. Mystery is defined on the basis of psychology of thought in which a problem situation and a problem differ.

The article analyzes the concepts of “Ability”, “Professional suitability”, “Professional psychological selection”, in the development and understanding of which a significant contribution was made by E.A. Klimov. Professional psychological selection is considered as a system, the systemforming factor of which is the professional suitability of a person who chooses a specific profession. The content of the concept of ability includes the motivation and experience (knowledge, skills, and abilities) of the individual, by analogy with the dynamic functional structure of personality developed by K.K. Platonov. Its own definition of the term “Abilities” is presented.

In article three realities in which their lives the person — empirical, sociocultural and existential are analyzed. Each matched the reality of social knowledge domains with which they are described — the moral, conventional, and personal. It is proved that realities are understood by people on types of understanding-knowledge, understanding-interpretation and understanding-comprehension. It is shown that the person at the same time exists in different realities, understands them on the unequal psychological bases and uses various types of social knowledge for the description. 

In article influence of personal meanings theory of thinking of O.K. Tikhomirov on studies of consciousness and selfunderstanding is discussed. Proves, that processes of become aware of himself are indissolubly connected with formation of operational senses. The sense is considered as cognitive a phenomenon caused by knowledge the person receives during thinking. At the same time the sense is also such generation of existential experience of the subject which is based on comprehension of limitation by it cognitive rational schemes of knowledge of the world. Affirms, that the most perspective direction of psychological research of a problem of selfunderstanding is the combination cognitive and existential ways of the analysis of generation of sense.