2006. vol. 3. No. 4

In the article, different approaches to, and definitions of, conscience are considered. Conscience is stated to be the main factor influencing human behaviour. Penance as an act of moral reflection plays the core part in conscience moulding. Differential efficacy of conscience moulding in religious and secular environments is analysed.

The results of the theoretical and empirical investigations of the structure of social identity are analysed in the article. Until now there has been an absence of any effective model reflecting the hierarchy of the components peculiar to social identity, the characteristics of its content, and functioning. The author of the article attempts to overcome these difficulties by regarding the conception of social identity as a holistic phenomenon. An analysis of the structural components of social identity is being conducted which is founded on interconnections between the individual's cognitive and value-motivational attributes.

The most important milestones and events in the history of the university's psychological thinking are analysed, one major step having been the inauguration of the Department of Psychology. Data on the Department's structure, teaching style, scientific research directions, professors and lecturing staff are presented; the Department's profile within national psychological science is defined.

The contemporary Petersburg psychological school is historically connected with the psychological school of V.M. Bechterev developed at the beginning of XX century by the Institute of Psychoneurology and Institute of [the] Brain. In the second half of the XXth century, the Leningrad psychological school was consolidated under the guidance of B.G. Ananjev at the level of psychological division and the department of Leningrad State University. Many Leningrad psychologists graduated from LGU followed Ananjev's teaching programmes. His school continued the Bechterev tradition of the complex study of the psychological aspects of the human being. One can identify Bechterev, Ananjev and Post-Ananjev stages in the development of the Petersburg scientific school.

The author excoriates the existing tradition of attributing revolutions to political and economic causes. He argues that a complex explanation of revolutions is needed where social-psychological factors are taken into consideration. In the article, social-psychological factors, the several ways of explaining them, the situation in contemporary Russia, and existing «revolutionary points» are examined. The possibility of revolutions in the contemporary world in general and in Russia in particular is analysed.

The article raises the issue of how media can influence human sets and behaviour via the application of music. An experiment is reported in which music was shown to influence the efficiency of convincing discourse.