Theoretical studies

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. L.S. Vygotsky’s vision of teaching and learning, which enables child development, remains useful for problems face by the modern-day school. Today, one of the central duties of education is, from the beginning of schooling, to lay the foundations for obtaining the ability to learn. Ability to learn is demonstrated when a person is faced with meaningful task, understands what is needed to solve it and knows how to compensate for their own limitations. Ability to learn is one of the aspects of human agency i.e., the ability to have and the self-perception of the ownership over one’s behaviour. This ability is manifested in children at a very early age and education can both strengthen and weaken, or even totally preclude its development. Agency in learning, which is the basis for future ability to learn, can enter the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as early as primary school age, but only in certain educational environments.

Objective. The current research is focused on the relationship between the teaching, learning, and development of the child as a subject of learning activity in the scientific school of D.B. El’konin and V.V. Davydov, who advanced the culturalhistorical theory.

Methods. Clinical studies of setting and solving learning tasks in primary and secondary schools.

Results. This article describes the most significant characteristics of the educational environment, through which the ability to learn can be developed for the majority of students: the content and form of learning activity in the strict, original meaning of this concept, which does not correspond to its everyday use. We highlight the discrepancies between the scientific and everyday meanings of the concepts “learning activity” and “learning task” and clarify the relationship between the structure of the learning task and the structure of the ability to learn. We also describe the characteristic actions of an adult at the stage of designing the learning task and then at the stage of interpsychological interaction with children when setting a learning task and searching for the means to solve it.

Conclusion. Children’s initiative in constructing general methods of action and sensitivity to conceptual contradictions manifest themselves systematically, as an age-related tendency, only when students set and solve learning tasks aimed at discovering and mastering theoretical concepts. Education that provides readymade answers to unasked questions minimizes the opportunity for students to become self-learning agents.

Practical application of the results. The identified discrepancies between the scientific and everyday meanings of the concepts “learning activity” and “learning task” can protect these fruitful concepts from profanation and save their creative potential.

Background. The problem of translating scientific articles into other languages affects not only translators but also psychologists, since the accuracy of translation determines the adequacy of understanding and transferring of scientific concepts.

Objectives. The article focuses on the critical discussion of different variants in translating some concepts of L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory into Portuguese.

Study Materials. This article discusses the concepts of the “zona blijaichego razvitia”, “learning”, and “speech”.

Results. The paper considers variations in the translations of L.S. Vygotsky’s concept of the cultural-historical theory into Portuguese. Insufficient attention of translators to the theoretical and methodological foundations of the original scientific text, which generates substantive errors in translation and distorts (simplifies) the content of the original approach, is critically discussed.

Conclusions. Both literary and scientific translation should be understood as an unfinished process that requires constant revision and improvement. The philosophical, ethical and historical ideas of the translated author should be the basis for this. Only in this case will translation contribute to the communication and connection of people speaking different languages.

Background. L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach toward children’s psychological development was first developed around one hundred years ago. It now requires re-evaluation in light of new experimental studies that have shown complexity and diversity of the innate psychological abilities of new-borns and infants, as well as other theoretical approaches towards understanding the role of culture and learning in cognitive development. Such a re-evaluation aims to draw our attention to those aspects of human psychology that L.S. Vygotsky, due to the limited empirical knowledge available to him and his early death, was unable or did not have time to illuminate.

Objectives. The aim is to consider L.S. Vygotsky’s concept of natural psychological functions in a new perspective, as a forerunner of the ‘heart’ of human psychology — the living consciousness.

Methods. The research method is a comparative and logical analysis of concepts, illustrated by the results of the author’s and his colleagues’ long-term experimental research.

Results. A distinction between living consciousness, which includes subjective experiences (for example, perceptions, emotions, and creative thinking) and functions according to the laws of magic, and objectified consciousness, into which living consciousness is transformed for consumption by society and culture (for example, scientific concepts, logical thinking, and human artifacts) and which conforms to the laws of nature and formal logic, is proposed. It has been hypothesized that both living consciousness and higher mental functions are genetically related to natural mental functions. Differences between the structure, functions and methods of studying living and objectified consciousness are considered.

Conclusions. Natural mental functions are the psychological basis for two relatively independent but interconnected branches of mental development: living consciousness and higher mental functions. Living consciousness does not obey the laws of formal logic and is the primary source of creative ideas and truly selfless morality.

Background. The study of L.S. Vygotsky’s scientific heritage enables the clarification of the theoretical basis for the role of the social environment in children’s mental development and the key regularities of children’s mental development at varying ages and stages of development in the context of transitivity and the social uncertainty of modern society.

Objectives. The currently article analyses the significance of the social situation of development as an alternative to the understanding of the environment as a factor of development in L.S. Vygotsky’s doctrine of the structure and dynamics of psychological age.

Results. Experience is the indivisible “unit” of the social situation of development as a dynamic unity of personality and environment in the form of age-specific attitude. The experience acts as an integration of affective and intellectual components and acquires features of awareness and meaningfulness as the child’s thinking develops. The social environment contains ideal forms as a standard of historically developed human properties and abilities, determining the greatest originality of the child’s developmental path — the future is already represented in the present and sets the vector for development. The ideal form embodies the age-specific normative content of the developmental potential of higher mental functions at each age stage, being appropriated in the course of cooperation. Experience determines the individual trajectory and the result of development. A comparative analysis of the crises of three and seven years convincingly proves the change in the type of experience: from the child’s singling out of relations and himself as the subject of these relations to the singling out of experiences, their differentiation and realisation of the attitude to Self. The social situation of development determines the boundaries for the zone of the child’s proximal development (ZPD).

Conclusions. Experience realises the child’s active position in relation to the world through the prism of age characteristics. Transformation of the social situation of development, according to L.S. Vygotsky, occurs in the form of changes in the types and methods of experiencing in connection with the development of the motivation and need during the period of age-related developmental crises.

Background. The cultural-historical theory of the development of higher mental functions by L.S. Vygotsky remains relevant and continues to be discussed by specialists from various countries. Its usefulness is largely due to its employment of the dialectical method, the analysis of which is the focus of this article.

Objectives. The aim is to reveal the essence of the dialectical method which allowed L.S. Vygotsky to analyse mental development processes. The first task was to define units of analysis as well as to describe their role when applied to a method. The second task was to show two types of analysis: substantive and structural.

Methods. The dialectical method of analysis was applied in the process of solving theoretical problems. The current article systematically raises questions about the characteristics of the method, the requirements for units of analysis and their properties. Several difficulties with analysing units were summarized.

Results. Dialectical analysis as a method of cognition, as applied by L.S. Vygotsky, was based on an invariant structural representation of the processes of mental development. At the same time, the task of meaningful interpretation of the development of the child’s psyche remained. The solution to this problem was based on the search for units of content analysis that simultaneously had two possibilities: to be invariant to any content and to be included into any content. An analysis of the works of L.S. Vygotsky showed that he considered the relations of opposition as such units.

Conclusions. The use of dialectical analysis by L.S. Vygotsky was associated with the consideration of the studied material on two levels: structural and substantive, as well as in transitions from one level to another. To make such transitions, L.S. Vygotsky identified opposites in the content that interested him. Opposites had both substantive properties and represented formal invariant units independent of specific content, which made it possible to carry out transformations at the invariant (structural) level before returning to the substantive level. As soon as the content of the problem under study was transmitted into a structural plan, it was subjected to dialectical transformations, through the sequential implementation of various operations using opposites. These operations corresponded to the elementary dialectical structures, characteristic of both mental transformations and the processes of various entities in development. Content analysis, which included operating with opposites, allowed L.S. Vygotsky to describe the processes of development of complex structural systems of human consciousness.

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. A number of well-known and leading theories of psychotherapy developed in the works of S. Freud, A. Adler, K. Jung, E. Fromm, K. Rogers, and V. Frankl unites a common theoretical provision that the most important prerequisites for many problems of psychotherapy clients who seek for help from a psychologist are the characteristics of their personality. However, all these authors lack a common understanding of what these personal prerequisites are, as well as they lack a common understanding of the purpose of psychotherapy.

Objectives. In this first of the four articles planned for publication, based on the works of E. Fromm, we are going to formulate the basic theoretical provisions that constitute the basis for integrative approach to understanding the personal prerequisites of the problems of clients of psychotherapy and its purpose. This would allow us to consider the different points of view on these issues of all these authors from a unified, common position.

Results. The analysis of the theory of humanistic psychoanalysis by E. Fromm made it possible to identify its main provisions characterizing human nature, productive and unproductive personality.

Conclusions. Based on these results, we have formulated three basic theoretical positions that form the basis of an integrative approach to understanding the personal prerequisites of the problems in psychotherapy and its purpose. The first of them characterizes the objective property of human life inherent in its very nature; the second refers to the typical personal prerequisites for the problems of clients of psychotherapy; the third describes the purpose of psychotherapy. In the next three publications, it will be shown that different ideas about the personal prerequisites of the problems of clients in psychotherapy and its purpose contained in the psychotherapeutic theories of Z. Freud, A. Adler, K. Jung, K. Rogers, and V. Frankl allow for considering them from a unified, common position set by these three basic provisions.

Background. The relevance of the study is due to the need for investigating the professional development of senior schoolchildren and students under the conditions of increasing influence of stress factors.

Objectives. The study set the purpose to review and analyze modern scientific ideas on the problem of psychological resources of professional self-determination in students under stress.

Methods. Search for and analysis of recent theoretical and empirical research publications was carried out. Abstraction, and generalization of obtained data relevant to the topic of the article were applied. Methods also included identification of theoretical foundations and promising directions for research into the problem of psychological resources of professional self-determination of students under stress.

Results. Analysis of the recent publications allowed to reveal conceptual differences in understanding the phenomenon of professional self-determination of the individual. It identified a variety of approaches to the study of human professional behaviour. The authors highlighted and characterized the main directions of modern research on the topic discussed, indicating the demand for studying human professional behaviour in the changing conditions of life. The study systematized theoretical foundations and empirical data on the psychological resources for students’ professional self-determination and for overcoming life stress.

Conclusions. The study revealed the potential of a resource-based approach to the study of the stress influence on the professional self-determination of students and substantiated the role of conscious self-regulation resources in choosing and mastering a profession.

Background. The phenomenon of revenge has been widely studied in psychology since the beginning of the 20th century. Acts of revenge are considered in psychoanalysis, social, family, criminal, legal and other areas of psychology. Nowadays behaviour based on the motive of revenge is found in virtual environment. There is an ambivalent attitude towards revenge. On the one hand, a person who does not get revenge seems weak. On the other hand, seeking for revenge can be perceived as an unconstructive way of behaving. Despite the prevalence of revenge, there is no generally accepted opinion in psychological science regarding the definition of revenge.

Objectives. The aim of this work is to analyze various ideas about revenge and to highlight the components of vengeful behaviour, based on which the form of reciprocal aggression can be classified as revenge. The problem of distinguishing between the concepts of “revenge”, “retribution”, “resentment” and “punishment” is considered.

Results. Revenge has a significant difference from other forms of aggressive behaviour. Revenge is always a reaction to previous aggression. The motivational component includes two aspects: the desire to take revenge (revenge seeking) and he desire to maintain a comfortable level of self-esteem. Society has a dual function in relation to revenge: as an initial motive influencing the choice of response to resentment, and as a deterrent factor. The willingness to forgive is determined by moral development, a number of personal characteristics and changes in the motivational sphere.

Conclusions. In psychological science, the phenomenon of revenge is subjected to a thorough theoretical analysis. Due to the fact that revenge is an intrapersonal phenomenon, the development of methodological tools, including psychodiagnostic techniques, is necessary for the development of revenge research.

Background. Postcovid syndrome or Long COVID is a new term introduced into medical practice by WHO after the COVID -19 pandemic. Long COVID affects patients who have recovered from COVID -19.

Objectives. The purpose of this work is to understand cognitive deficits caused by COVID-19 from the point of view of neuropsychology and pathophysiology.

Data Sources. Literature search was conducted in the following electronic databases: Pubmed, Google.scholar and Scopus databases. 63 articles were selected. Keywords for the literature review included “neuropsychiatry/neuropsychology”, “pathophysiology”, “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”.

Methods. Review and analysis of COVID-19 studies in terms of its relation to the appearance of cognitive deficits in patients.

Results. The SARS-CoV-2 virus enters the human body and affects the structures of the brain. Some of the symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, problems with concentration and memory, loss or change of taste and smell, pain in muscles and joints as well as sleep disorders are preserved in post-COVID period and may be explained by the peculiarity of the virus interaction with central nervous system. Neuropsychological analysis of observed disorders based on the theory of three functional blocks of the brain by A. R. Luria helps to identify the affected zones of the functional systems of higher mental functions (HMF). Neuropsychological assessment makes it possible to plan rehabilitation programme or cognitive training, and help doctor in choosing an adequate drug therapy to compensate for cognitive impairment.

Conclusions. SARS-CoV-2 causes damage to brain structures such as the brainstem, limbic system, prefrontal cortex and olfactory tract, which explains the observed symptoms. Neuropsychological diagnostics makes it possible to identify the impaired component of the HMF in patients with post-COVID syndrome, to plan an adequate rehabilitation programme, as well as to choose drug therapy.

Background. The relevance of gender issues is associated with discussions outside the scientific field, while in the science itself, the popularity of gender studies is increasing every year.

Objectives. The present article aims at the application of the conceptual mechanism of the cultural-historical approach to gender issues.

Methods. Abstraction, analysis and synthesis of literary data, comparison of theoretical models, and generalization were used.

Results. Sex as a biological entity is divided into an innate “natural” category and a gender as a culturological one. A number of examples demonstrate the non-identity of sex and gender as well as variants of their combination and interaction. It is proposed to disidentify gender and gender identity as a psychological category. The latter is understood as an analogue of the higher mental function which forms intravitally under specific social conditions, it is mediated by gender signs (appearance, manners, norms, preferences, values, taboos, etc.) and is possible to self-regulate. In the meantime, the limitations in mastering one’s own behaviour are emphasized, since the origin of the gender identity is connected to the biological parameters of sex, inconsistency of gender norms and their wide field of influence. Here the field of cultural pathology in the sphere of gender identity and intersex interaction reveals itself.

Conclusions. The cultural-historical approach is seen to be heuristic in the multifactorial understanding of gender issues which include biological, cultural, psychological, and ontogenetic aspects.

Editorial Board of the scientific journal "Bulletin of Moscow University. Series 14. Psychology" expresses its gratitude to all expert reviewers who assisted in the analysis, evaluation and selection of the publication of manuscripts received in 2020.

Relevance. Professional reliability is a complex multidimensional construct that is used to predict the professional success of specialists working in extreme conditions. Such forecasting is possible in large-scale studies using complex multi-stage modeling, but the forecast will be abstract, not applicable to individual cases. An alternative is to predict certain aspects of success. At the same time, the components of “personal reliability” have the greatest predictive value, since with the development of civilization and changes in the “man-machine” relationship, the internal content of professional reliability shifted from a predominantly functional component to motivational, moral and socio-psychological, including the phenomenon of self-regulation. 

The purpose of the research is to study the components of personal reliability as possible predictors of certain aspects of professional success of rescuers. 

Sample:31 specialists (men), rescuers of one of the Subdivision Ministry of Emergency Situations AQUASPASS, aged 24 to 45 years. 

Research methods: expert assessment of professional success; self-assessment of the level of professionalism; case method; test questionnaire A.V. Zverkova and E.V. Eydman “Research of volitional self-regulation”; “11 personality factors”; test “Motivational Profile” by Ritchie S., Martin P.; Rosenzweig frustration test; “Express methodology” for studying the social and psychological climate in a team (OS Mikhalyuk and A.Yu. Shalyto); diagnostics of the attractiveness of labor (V.M. Snetkov). 

Conclusions (briefly): a) it is possible to use the indicator of success in a training situation as a predictor of professional success; b) the influence of each of the components of personal reliability on different aspects of professional success is differentiated, therefore, forecasting is more optimal also in differentiated options; c) the effectiveness of socio-psychological interaction makes an important contribution to professional success, and the components of the socio-psychological climate play different roles in this. 

Acknowledgments: The study was carried out with funding from grant 19-013-00799 A “Predictive model of adaptability and reliability of professionals in extreme working conditions”.

Relevance. Timely comprehensive diagnostics of psycho-social factors involved in the formation of cerebral palsy in children, their influence on the formation of child-parent relationships is relevant and practically significant. Inharmonious upbringing, emotional disorders and personal characteristics of the parent can affect the child's mental development, contribute to violations of psycho-social adaptation. 

Objective of the study: to reveal the psychological characteristics of children with cerebral palsy and those of their mothers, to determine the characteristics of upbringing and parent-child relationships, to conduct clinical and psychological support of children with this disabling disease and their parents with elements of cognitive-behavioral correction of the identified disorders. 

Methods of research. Clinical conversation and experimental psychological method including: “Assembling Figures” method according to the 4th Wechsler subtest; method of drawing associations by S. Rosenzweig (children's version) modified by N.V. Tarabrina(1978); René Gilles method, 1950; test “SMOL” ( V.P. Zaitsev, 1981); “PARI” method by E.S. Schaefer and R.K. Bell, adapted by T. V. Neshcheret (1984). Methods of statistical analysis were used as well. 

The sample consisted of: Group1 (n1) – 37 pre-school children with cerebral palsy aged 5–6 years (17 girls and 20 boys) and their mothers in the MCU of Samara RC “Zhuravushka”; Group 2 (n2) – 37 conditionally healthy children of the same age and gender in the SBU SAMARA city children's polyclinic No. 9. 

Research results. It was found that in children with cerebral palsy, emotional response in a situation of frustration is accompanied by high self-accusatory reactions, low socio-psychological adaptation and low self-esteem. Child-parent relationships are in the suboptimal emotional range. An effective program of clinical and psychological cognitive-behavioral psychological correction of emotional and behavioral cerebral palsy disorders in the parent-child group was carried out. 

Conclusions. Psychosocial factors affecting the adaptation processes of preschool children with cerebral palsy were identified. Families with children with chronic disabling diseases such as cerebral palsy, need to organize training and education, including psycho-corrective and correction-developmental classes. 

Relevance. Categorization, being one of the main cognitive processes, is involved in the perception and comprehension of objects with meaning, depending on the personal significance. Exceptional subjectivity of bodily experience makes it important to explore its structuring and mediating with sign through the analysis of bodily sensations categorisation in patients with complaints of pathological bodily sensations. 

Objective: description of specific characteristic features of categorization of bodily sensations in patients with excoriation disorder with impulsive actions.

Methods and Sample. 15 patients with excoriation disorder with impulsive actions (mean age 47±17 years) and 50 patients with depression with somatic symptoms (mean age 42±13 years) took part in the study. They were asked to perform psychosemantic test “Choice of intraceptive sensations descriptors” for describing all bodily sensations and health-related bodily sensations. 

Results. Patients with excoriation disorder with impulsive actions, when categorizing all bodily sensations and health-related bodily sensations, chose descriptors of actions with the skin and descriptors of negative emotional states. Significant differences were found in the choice of descriptors of emotional states. Their number was less in patients with excoriation disorder with impulsive actions in comparison with patients with depression with somatic symptoms who demonstrated a variety of choices of descriptors of different classes in response to both instructions of the test.

Conclusion. Bodily sensations categorisation study allowed to discuss the features of bodily experience in general and health-related bodily experience. In excoriation disorder with impulsive actions the bodily sensations categorisation was characterized by an attribution of actions with skin and emotions to bodily experience. The characteristics of bodily sensations choices in patients from different groups allowed to associate features of bodily sensations categorisation with clinical symptoms of these mental disorders. 

Relevance. Development and improvement of methodological tools to solve scientific and practical problems is an important issue in modern neuropsychology. This study examines consonant-vowel (СV) syllable test and word test, considers their different functional orientation and shows relevance of the dichotic listening task development. For the first time in Russian neuropsychology the authors developed the dichotic listening consonant-vowel syllables test taking into account the phonetic features of the Russian language.

Objective. Comparison of the equivalence of two dichotic listening tests: the word test that was first tested by B. S. Kotik and the two CV-syllable dichotic listening tests. 

Method. Two groups of respondents participated in the study. The first group of the participants (N = 88; M = 21.08; SD = 2.32) performed the word test and the first CV-syllable test. Participants of the second group (N = 44; M = 24.52; SD = 1.86) were presented with the word test and the second version of CV-syllable dichotic listening test. 

Results. The results confirmed the differences between the word test and the two CV-syllable dichotic listening tests. The differences and nonequivalence of the word test and the CV-syllable tests in laterality index (LI) and productivity coefficients (general productivity, right- and left-ear accuracy scores) are amplified as the stimulus material of CV-syllable dichotic listening is improved and modified. The increase of the load on working memory enhances right ear advantage (LI) and reduces performancewith an increase in the influence of working memory on the results of dichotic listening.

Conclusion. The study shows nonequivalence of the word test and the CV-syllable tests and their different functional orientation for the estimation of hemispheric specialization in audio-verbal domain.

The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the variety of research approaches and data obtained make it difficult to form a holistic picture of motherhood as a phenomenon of a woman's inner world. Scientific ideas about motherhood present a necessary basis for the formation of the demographic policy of the state, for the strengthening of family values in society and for the education of young people. 

The purpose of the article is to analyze and summarize modern studies concerning various aspects of the subjective picture of motherhood, to identify its main components, to comparatively analyze the determinants of the formation of a picture of motherhood, to describe the diversity in the ideas of motherhood.

 As a result of the analysis of Russian and foreign studies, the similarities and differences in the interpretations of many aspects of motherhood and the conditionality of the subjective picture of motherhood by a number of socio-cultural factors are described. The leading factors of readiness for motherhood, connection with childhood experiences, social ideas about motherhood, cultural and historical context of family life are reviewed. The article describes the woman's ideas about herself as a future mother, emphasizes the influence of relationships and emotional atmosphere in the parental family, the importance of identification with her own mother and her position in child-parent relationships. The peculiarities of accepting the role of the mother, the reasons for the deviations from the main role and conflicts of a woman as a result of the discrepancy between her behavior and the established (by society, others, family members, herself) role models are highlighted. Attention is payed to the results of empirical studies showing the possibility of harmonious coordination of a woman's maternal self-realization with other forms of self-realization. 

It is concluded that cultural traditions, the dominant value orientations in society, ideas about personal success, career, well-being have a significant impact on the subjective picture of motherhood but interpersonal relationships in a close social environment are of predominant importance. The subjective picture of motherhood can be viewed as part of a woman's attitude and worldview. It changes under the influence of life plans and circumstances, numerous external and internal factors. 

Acknowgements: The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 19-113-50583.

Relevance. The problem of homosexuality is constantly in the spotlight of the mass media, social media and politicians. Psychological studies of this phenomenon are easier to find in foreign rather than in Russian research. At the same time the cultural and national specificity of attitudes towards the phenomenon of homosexuality seems obvious as well as a significant polarization of opinions within society itself. This polarization can be gender, urban, class, and intergenerational, as evidenced by numerous sociological polls. With significant attention to this issue at the level of social strata, there are not many attempts to analyze the concept of homosexuality in line with the socio-psychological tradition.In a number of previous studies it was revealed that the modern Z Gen is distinguished by greater tolerance and freedom of views in terms of attitude towards traditionally segregated social groups. 

The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions of homosexuality among different generations of modern Russians. Homosexuality has been singled out among other sexual orientations (LGBT) as the most discussed in public discourse. The subject of the research is social perceptions of homosexuality, particularly among representatives of different generations. 

Methods. The methodological basis of the research was the study of the structure of social perceptions (metho P. Vergesse method). The research methods were the author's questionnaire aimed at identifying perceptions of homosexuality as well as a modified version of the RAHI questionnaire (Gulevich et al., 2016). The study sample consisted of 444 people (residents of the Russian Federation,16 to 65 years old). 

Results and Conclusions. The hypotheses of the study were confirmed: an inverse relationship between age (belonging to a generational cohort) and perceptions of homosexuality as normative was revealed. A significant difference was shown in the Z Gen perceptions in terms of tolerance of homosexuality. The so-called double standards were identified in terms of attitudes towards male and female homosexuality. The rooted concept of homosexuality as a relationship based on a sexual rather than a romantic-spiritual level, was stated. 

Relevance. Historically formed scientific traditions, approaches, concepts (including those called the “competency-based approach” – the K-approach) are formed in certain social conditions to solve certain social problems, beyond them they discover their limitations. Identification of the possibilities and limitations of the K-approach contributes to both its development and the refinement of the conditions under which its implementation will be more constructive and effective. 

Methods: historical and theoretical analysis. 

Results. “Open questions” of the problem are highlighted: inconsistencies in the judgments of specialists in listing the qualities that determine the success of the subject; the number of competencies “necessary and sufficient”; non-realization of holistic, integrated approach; the place of competencies in the structure of professionalism, their role in career success and professional longevity of people; the issue of “universal” / “specific competencies”; the question about the place of the phenomenon of “competence” and the K-approach in the system of psychological knowledge; the question about the validity of the methods and the measure of the predictive value of the estimates. 

Conclusions. The interpretation of competencies and the K-approach proposed by specialists are unsatisfactory and poorly coordinated with each other. The K-approach and the established earlier approach of professionally important qualities (PVC-approach) are historically transient scientific concepts (falling into the scale of “small theories”). Both approaches have their own limitations as well as opportunities for development and integration with others. The PVC approach is characterized by an initial extremely broad statement of tasks; the K-approach – by the pragmatism of the original goals and objectives, empiricism in assessing the qualities of the subject. It is possible and necessary to search and find areas of their mutual complementarity, taking into account their ultimate goals and conditions of formation. Ignoring the merits and limitations of any scientific approach is not the best solution. The transition to an open discussion of all complex issues is in demand.