2009. vol. 6. No. 4

The situation in Russian contemporary psychology is analyzed in the form of virtual dialogue between a psychologist and a philosopher. The outcomes of approaches and programs proposed by leading psychologists in XXth centaury are discussed. Why does the psychology fail to implement the true experiment? Why is the influence of Leontev's theory decreasing? Why is Vygotsky's cultural-historical conception «hung up» and the psychological practice — ineffective. It is argued that psychology is approaching a new phase of its development. Its distinctive features are following several different ideals of the scientific cognition at the same time, undertaking a general shift of the research towards the ideals of humanities, and developing new psychological practices. Some research programs have exhausted themselves, others are emerging. In all cases contemporary psychological knowledge should be philosophically equipped, open to a dialogue, sensitive to current issues, helpful in personal growth and self-understanding.

We described the experiments aimed at testing the hypothesis that the influence of some genes on personality traits is due to their influence on neurocognitive differences. For instance, it was proposed that MAOA and DBH genes affect the individual differences in Consciousness because of their influence on executive functions. However, the results showed that DBH gene is associated only with the variability of executive functions and that MAOA gene - with personality traits linked to Agreeableness. Moreover, the executive functions can mediate the influence of MAOA on these traits. We proposed that one of the possible psychological mechanisms, which mediates the influence of MAOA on Agreeableness, is disposition to reinforce socially encouraged forms of behaviors.

Since the middle of XXth century the scientific psychology is associated with empirical studies and statistical analysis of data. The criticism of testing the statistical significance (i. e. p-value calculation and its interpretation) began simultaneously with popularization of this procedure in psychology. Reduction of scientific inference to interpretation of p-value which is often incorrect is one of the serious obstacles to the development of psychology. The article discusses some wrong beliefs of researchers with respect to testing of statistical significance and mentions some alternatives discussed in the literature.

We have studied the implementation of social representations in the process of decision making. The method was developed which allowed organizing a net-like (but not hierarchical) search space for strategy identification (behavioral scripts choosing) during the decision making concerning social objects. We used 8 female faces as social objects. In preliminary study the implicit constructs of these objects were revealed. We used two-step classification to extract three categories which discriminate sufficiently the implicit constructs («appearance», «literature preferences», «temperament»). On the basis of these constructs the verbal portraits of social objects were composed. Subjects had to find social object using the quest procedure. It is shown that during the social categorization subjects are guided by social representations.

We discuss the negative attitude towards representatives of an outgroup depending on situational and dispositional factors. The situational factor is the status of ethnic minority which characterizes Russians living in Estonia. The dispositional factor is the level of basic beliefs. The results show that there are no significant differences in the level of hostility towards Estonians between Russians living in Russia and Russians living in Estonia. There are significant differences in the basic beliefs between people with different hostility levels towards Estonians.

The article reviews main theoretical and empirical approaches to intergroup emotions. Intergroup Emotions Theory and the Theory of Subjective Essentialism are discussed, as well as the results of research on intergroup emotions and prejudice, intergroup fear, guilt, anger and gloating. The question is raised about the discussion areas in studying the intergroup emotions.

The Russian cultural roots of Soviet psychology of creativity are analyzed for the first time. The main developmental stages of this research area in XIX-XXI are described with the emphasis on the interdisciplinary interaction with the other humanities. The role of interaction between scientific schools in the development of psychology of creativity and self-reflection is described.