2005. vol. 2. No. 2

Traced back to Kant, the problem of the person's image of the world can be formulated in terms of the categories of consciousness, in which the knowing subject shapes his/her experience. It is a complex structure that includes cognition, emotions and values. The person's image of the world determines behaviour and it reflects on personal development and meaning acquisition. It can be viewed through the categories of the uncompleted being and destiny. The article discusses psychosemantic techniques of analysing the person's image of the world and describes experiments with hypnosis.

Speaking of professional self-identification, we usually refer to a secondary-school graduate choosing a job or education. In this article, professional self-identification is about choosing a job after graduating from an university or a high school — a stage of life which is no less important. The article presents results of an empirical study of female graduates from technical schools, teachers' colleges and universities, in Moscow as well as in the provinces. The author analyses their strategies of professional self-identification and implicit conceptions of professionalism.

The article describes life, work and personality of Viktor Frankl, one of the most important Twentieth-century psychologists and a founder of existential analysis and logotherapy. The article helps reassess Frankl's contribution to psychology and provides an insight into his unique personality.

In contrast with the majority of psychologists who base their theories on the division between the physical and the psychical, Frankl uses the division between the physical, psychical and the noetic. This is crucial for both psychological theory and practice (therapy and counselling). The article demonstrates in what way the key logotherapy techniques, paradoxical intention and de-reflection, are determined by Frankl's theoretical constructions. The authors argue that Frankl's contribution consists in developing a new philosophy of psychotherapy, and not only in elaborating new techniques. This philosophy accentuates the noetic dimension of a human being, the dimension of his or her essence and existence. A passage from the traditional therapy — linked exclusively to the psychophysical level of humanity — to the new one is a step towards a therapy which helps people experience themselves as noetic beings.

Existential Analysis, a psychotherapeutic approach derived from existential philosophy, intends a life with inner consent. This implies activating the authentic personal will (freedom) and responsibility. The method used for that purpose is «Personal Existential Analysis». It defines three steps which help to find the resources of the innermost (intimate) person and its individual way to expression in a defined situation. A practical application is shown in the verbal transcript of a therapeutic conversation supplemented by explanatory commentaries about the therapeutic process itself.

The article briefly describes theory and methodology of the contemporary existential analysis: the conception of four fundamental existential motivations, methods and techniques for counselling and therapy. Case examples and statistical data quoted show that existential analysis can be effectively used in working by phone with the wide range of cases, and its efficiency is comparable with that of face-to-face counselling.

The article deals with the mechanisms of suggestibility in connection with psychometric intelligence. The author hypothesises that the connection between intelligence and suggestibility is mediated by the structure of personal representations. In terms of cognitive theories, the person's representations of the world are a net or a space that includes numerous elements linked to each other in various ways. It can be expected that more intellectually gifted people would have a wider range of causal connections. If this is true, in the higher intelligence cases, altering one element of the representation system would cause changes in a more distant element of the system. On the opposite, in the cases of a relatively low intelligence, altering one element of the representation system would cause changes of closer elements. The study has been conducted to test this hypothesis.

The purpose of the research is to examine 1) the role of norms of fairness in distribution and procedure in assessing legal decisions and 2) the factors which influence the choice of norms. The results demonstrate that all the norms of fairness in both distribution and procedure, which were revealed by the studies in Western Europe and Noth America, are equally effective in evaluating the fairness of legal decision by Russian respondents. Yet ascribing to the norms of fairness in procedure appears more important than to the norms of fairness in distribution. The main factors influencing the choice of norms is the type of legal decision, the extend of its fairness and the presence of serious evidence of the suspect's guilt.

This is an experimental study of psychological mechanisms of solving the so-called regular — that is, well-defined, closed, and noninsight problems in algebra. The results show that the balanced grouping of operations (in terms of Jean Piaget), which is necessary for solving linear equations, cannot provide the needed mechanism of the regular problems solving. In the absence of this structure, this kind of problems cannot be successfully resolved. On the other hand, its presence does not yet guarantee success. This kind of grouping (as all similar psychological structures) is therefore a necessary but not sufficient condition of successful regular problems solving.