2012. vol. 9. No. 1

The paper analyses the differences in the way young athletes who pursue different kinds of sports use different types of mental images. The hypothesis of association between the image types athletes use and the specific requirements of the sport they pursue was confirmed. Age differences in application of different types of images were found. The association between the athletes’ image application characteristics and their imagination development levels was established. The authors propose a complex programme of imagery application development for athletes and provide evidence of its effectiveness in highboard diver and football player samples.

The paper provides the basis and outline of the perspective development of general personology that emphasises the multidimensional relation of psychology to personality as its research object, its creator, its target, its goal, and its ideal. This approach to psychological theory and practice is positioned as a new science of personality that is interested in persons and created for persons. Four research projects are outlined aiming to create a personological synthesis between academic, counselling, and cultural psychologies of personality. The paper emphasises the need to create a synthesis of existing theories, models of counselling, and cultural experience, in order to unveil the potential of personality for self-construction, self-understanding, and authentic dialogue with others.

The paper starts with the discussion of one-way and two-way dyadic interaction between analyst and client. The issue of positional inequality and responsibility is raised, and the process-based distinction between positional and instrumental inequality is proposed. Weak and strong points of hierarchy in therapy are discussed, as well as the possibilities and necessary conditions for equal responsibility of therapists and client at the instrumental level of their relationship. A theoretical systematization of the therapeutic relationship is proposed, separating the structural and dynamic aspects, and relating those to different developmental stages. This scheme allows to propose new ways for research in analytical psychology and specific forms multifaceted approaches can take in practice.

Phenomenological method is analyzed in relation to therapeutic practice. The way of restoration and supporting the client’s process of experiencing by means of phenomenological following is presented in detail. Particular attention is paid to application of the Gestalt principle of pregnancy in therapy. Awareness is presented as a process that is inherent to the field of therapy and forms the basis for constructing therapeutic interventions.

The role of inner dialogue in personality development is discussed. Particular attention is given to the perceptual aspect of inner dialogue, which is the reflection of the subject in the system “Self – Another Self”. Based on an empirical study of the developmental function of inner dialogue, a recursive model is proposed of personality development, wherein the subject addresses the images of his/her “Another-Self”.

The paper presents a review of studies in behavioural economics looking into the relationship between economic agents’ behaviour in standard experimental settings (dictatorship games, ultimatum games, prisoner dilemma, etc.) and the ratio of their second (index) and fourth (ring) finger lengths that indicates the level of prenatal testosterone. The review shows that in a number of experiments the 2d:4d ratio exhibit significant associations with participants’ behavour and the outcomes of experimental games.

The results are presented of an empirical study looking into the association between the ideas that senior university students have of different aspects of their future professional activity and their approach to professional self-determination (vocational choice). Internal personality barriers are analyzed that prevent the students from being aware of all the range of possibilities they have.

In this article, a connectionism model of reading, developed for English, was modified and applied to Russian. The modification introduced a morphological component into the model. The modified model was verified in a sample of 171 pupils from 4, 6, and 8 classes. The analyses indicated that the proposed model explained 60% of the variance in the outcome and that the morphology component was highly instrumental and informative.

The paper looks into the association of average psychometric intelligence (national IQ) with three demographic indicators: birth rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy. This association is analysed in a sample of 129 countries that are representative of the whole world community, and in a sample of European countries. In the 129-country sample all the three demographic indicators are highly associated with national IQ, whereas in a sample of European countries the association of birth rate with national IQ is not significant.

The study looked into the association of efficacy and time spent solving emotional prosody perception task with self-reported components of emotional intelligence (EmIn questionnaire). The self-report data reflecting the cognitive components of emotional intelligence were associated with the characteristics of emotional prosody perception within different acoustic settings. The efficacy of emotional prosody perception demonstrated particularly strong positive associations with the “understanding emotions” scale and “understanding one’s own emotions” and “understanding others’ emotions” subscales of the EmIn questionnaire.

The paper looks into the association of the characteristics of implicit conceptions of atheist and believer with demographic and religious worldview variables. A study was done in a university student sample (N=216) using the “24 strengths” questionnaire based on the classification of personality strengths and virtues by C. Peterson and M. Seligman. Significant differences were found between the strengths students ascribed to a typical believer and a typical atheist. The characteristics of the implicit conceptions of believer and atheist were associated with the students’ gender and with the extent to which they tended to endorse statements consistent with religious worldview. The tendency to endorse religious worldview moderated the association of students’ implicit conceptions of believer and atheist with their self-rating and ideal in terms of the 24 strengths. The results suggest interdependence between endorsing certain types of worldview and the content of implicit conceptions of personalities who personify these.

The paper presents a review of Russian and foreign studies of sense of humour in talented people. A number of studies confirm the association of certain parameters of the sense of humour to creativity and intelligence. A conclusion is made that sense of humour can be used as an indicator of giftedness.

The paper summarises different views of identity in philosophy. The different traditions of understanding identity are analysed that view it as one’s intrinsic sameness, or as one’s correspondence to the cultural conditions. The development of these views within psychology is shown. The essence of the identity phenomenon can be captured by a number of proposed dichotomies: inner essence vs correspondence to social values, the union of consistency and change, the problem of integrity vs adaptation. Specific features of identity development associated with early and late stages in life are discussed.