2007. vol. 4. No. 2

Tendencies in the development of philosophical reflections on psychological science are being analyzed. It is claimed that philosophy of psychology depends on the historical context. The integrative philosophy is considered as a general methodology i.e. a non-controversial conception, which discusses the problems of object, method, fact, explanation and theory in their interrelation. Approaches towards elaboration of integrative methodology are being proposed.

«Intermediate phenotype» (endophenotype) is an important term when studying the mechanisms which are involved in the genotype's influence on the psychometric intelligence. It has been demonstrated that parameters of evoked potentials (EP) as correlates of functioning of brain systems involved into visual information processing may serve as intermediate phenotypes of intelligence. Analysis of genetic correlations indicates the special role of parameters of the EP of the frontal lobes during semantic information perception. Parameters of the EP in primary school age and adolescence may be used for prediction of intelligence in maturity. The effectiveness of prognosis reveals the dependence on a parameter of the EP, type of a stimulus, registration area and subjects' age. The presence of genetic correlations between EP parameters and intelligence indices proves the existence of joint genetic factors included in formation of interage inter-level phenotypic connections between different indices of individual's cognitive functions.

Lots of «stock phrases» are used in the professional language of psychologists. They may give rise to associations and ideas that lead to an inadequate understanding of a subject. Although such stock phrases are usually clear to psychologists, they may mislead representatives of other scientific areas. The author gives a number of examples of such «ambiguous» terminology and calls the professional community to discuss the issue of its possible withdrawal from usage and replacing it with more pithy statements.

The thesis of Christian psychology is expressed in the article according to which psychology is impossible without a spiritually-oriented approach towards human being with a subject including not only psyche, a godlike personality of a human, but also soul, spirit and spiritualized corporeality. The article discusses the issue of reviving of the term «soul» in psychology and acceptance of a personality as «unreferred» to nature, free and not cognizable by analytical objective methods of ontological basis of a human.

This article addresses to controversial questions which concern the interrelationship of content of properly scientific and religious viewing and also interpretation of reality which surrounds us. In this case planes of scientific and religious consideration are parallel, i.e. non-overlapping. Besides the answer to the question whether science can be religious and a religion ­ scientific, a significant part of the article is dedicated to the assessment of the religious approach attempts to penetrate into education and scientific knowledge. Such a boundary conflict is considered as mainly the result of an aggressive position and activity of so-called «Christian psychologists». Stating the former, the author expresses his exclusively personal opinion on the issue.

The position of the priest Andrey Lorgus is discussed. On the one hand, he criticizes the traditional psychology, and on the other hand, the priest calls for renovation of psychology on the path of Christian theology and anthropology. The author of the article adduces the arguments to support the rational way of solving these problems. He observes the problem of demarcation between science and religion on the example of Emanuel Swedenborg's life. At the same time he shows that nowadays religion has another sense (it becomes more and more a special type of sociality) and that many people contrive to live in two different worlds (religious and ordinary) simultaneously. In the article two different contexts are distinguished and discussed: how psychology and religion serve the existing ways of human's life and how they create the conditions which contribute to the formation of a new human being. It is concluded that psychology and Christianity should turn to each other and start a not easy dialogue.

The article discusses the issue of the prerequisites and conditions in the making of Christianity oriented psychology as a specific direction in psychological anthropology. These conditions are observed in relation to the stages of development of psychological knowledge: classical (scientific) stage, non-classical (cultural-activity approach) stage, post-non-classical (anthropological) stage.

Justice is one of the criteria which people rely on in evaluation of events taking place around them. For this purpose they use a number of norms which regulate reward distribution, the process of decision making and relations between participants. If an event meets a norm then it is evaluated as fair. The respect/violation of such norms influences self-appraisal. The given research has demonstrated that people who recalled their own unfair acts appraised themselves higher in comparison with those who recalled their fair acts. Justice violation in interpersonal relations had a greater influence on self-appraisal then in business and educational settings. And finally, the violation of different norms of justice was differently connected with self-appraisal.

The paper focuses on personal determinants (self-esteem, coping strategies, locus of control) of subjective economic well­being. On the first stage of research the most effective subjective economy-related predictors of satisfaction with life and happiness were found. Future changes expectations turned out to be the best subjective economy-related predictor of happiness, while satisfaction with standard of living explained the biggest percent of variance in satisfaction with life. On the second stage psychological correlates of subjective economic well-being' components were determined. The study also contributes to investigation of the problem of distinction between the cognitive and affective aspects of subjective quality of life.