2008. vol. 5. No. 3

Modern empirical psychology is a sensory experience and the mind outside this experience; it is a new relationship between empiricism and rationalism, between perception and understanding, between empirical and theoretical studies. The article makes an attempt to demonstrate and interpret achievements, to a first approximation, of empirical psychology, to outline the role and position of thinking (theorizing) in it from the philosophical point of view. Empirical psychology is analyzed in the opposition to the «a priori» psychology and in the context of the dichotomy between the empirical and the «a priori» sciences. The possibility and necessity of assigning the empirical psychology to a separate scientific domain is shown.

The article proposes application of the level approach to attention research. Four basic principles of level-based architecture of attention are derived from theoretical premises of the level approach to cognition and the psychology of attention as well as from empirical data. The author offers a variant of empirical research program which is based on the logic of the level approach. Finally the 5-level model of attention processes organization is proposed on the basis on experimental data. The article also contains examples of author's empirical studies which are interpreted in the level approach framework. The first study demonstrates the functioning of the redundancy principle (which is one the basic principles stated in study) in the visual inspection tasks. The second study shows the differences in the efficiency of memorizing the same material and the differences in experiencing of subjective confidence in mnemonic judgments depending on the leading level of attention in task solving.

The article presents the main milestones of the life and work of a prominent American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970).

The article analyses the notion of metapathology introduced in the late works of A. Maslow. It characterizes personality disorders as a sequence of a decrease in humaneness, as a manifestation of social shortcomings. The article justifies that «Metapathological» variants which are not optimal for personality development can be regarded as dilemmas.

The article is devoted to an attempt to develop and assess a measure of honesty as a personality trait. An approach to description of honesty in the framework of ethics is described as well the views on honesty and the related concepts in Russian and foreign psychology and psychodiagnostics. Since this phenomenon is not thoroughly investigated, the author has made an attempt to describe this trait through experimental identification of criteria of honesty and dishonesty (that is those characteristics and traits which are inherent to honest and dishonest individuals). The contents of the measure for assessment of personal readiness to honest or dishonest behavior are developed on the basis on the revealed criteria. Two parts of the measure that represent projective stimulus material were tested (choice of aphorisms and choice of proverbs). The results prove the existence of their significant relations with validation scales.

The article analyzes the interrelations between emotional intelligence, an appointment to a leader's position, leadership efficiency and leadership styles. The description of an experiment which was called «We are building together» and its results obtained from the students' sample are provided. The author obtained the data on the interrelations between emotional intelligence, an appointment to a leader's position, leadership efficiency and business leadership styles.

In the framework of signal detection theory using a multi-reference data of observations' description, the formulae for the calculation of correct responses probability in each trial were obtained. They explain the phenomenon of participant's confidence in his decisions. As a result of simplification of these formulae the heuristic model of decision making and confidence in it was elaborated. The model simulates subject's behavior more precisely then the previous ones.