2013. vol. 10. No. 1

In this paper tThe author responds to criticism of modern methodology, in particular, accusations and claims to of normativism and expansion, technologism and the inability to study phenomena in their uniqueness. The author acknowledges that the greatest weakness of the methodology is its ambiguity and the opacity of its bases. Methodological programs are designed to explain how a methodologist understands, studies and constitutes thinking. However, according to the author, it is still not enough for the philosophical community that does not listen to the methodologists.

The author tries to show that an alternative methodology does not exist, and that the need for it one is increasing. The author considers a number of features of modern methodology: restructuring of unsatisfactory forms and ways of thinking and creation of new ways,; monitoring of methodological thinking,; reliance on thinking techniques and understanding of the nature of thinking,; a close relationship with the philosophy,; as well as and separation of general and specific methodology. According to the author, the methodology plays an important role in the construction of "thinking machines" (cases of prevailing thinking functioning) and creation of the conditions for "event thinking" (cases of formation of new thinking).

The author believes that the disintegration of thought into separate areas and the lack of criteria for the correctness of philosophical thought have now reached a critical level. In connection with the crisis of modern communication, the criteria to assess correctness of methodological work and thinking are discussed. According to the author, nowadays, methodology nowadays exists both in the form of various fully socialized seminars and directions of methodological work and in the works of some single methodologists, but always in opposition to other forms of thinking.

Despite the crucial significance of sexual satisfaction in marital relationships, this phenomenon is under-investigated. Scales or subscales of sexual satisfaction used in research and psychotherapeutic practice are primarily based on disorders of sexual relationships. The aim of this work is to develop a new scale of sexual satisfaction based on the concept of a healthy long-life relationship. In contrast to previous clinical and sexology scales and subscales, this scale is aimed not at the assessment of sexual disorders, but at the assessment of fully -fledged sexual marital relationships. After the verification of 126 statements describing sexual relationships derived from vocabularies and other scales, 16 positive statements were selected and modified. They were accompanied by a frequency “never – ever” frequency scale. The fFirst studies using this scale have shown its good construct validity and high internal reliability. FISS has strong positive correlations with “Love” subscales (“Intimacy” – 0.75, “Passion” – 0.73, “Commitment” – 0.69) and a weaker correlation with the “Jealousy” scale (0.45). Cronbach’s alpha for women is 0.928, for men – 0.943. The scale ensures the assessment of sexual satisfaction in long-term partnership relationships. The nNext stage of the FISS development should involve factor analysis and comparison of groups with different marital status.

This article examines the nature of statistical anxiety – a state that arises when learning statistics, undergoing assessment of statistics knowledge or discussion of statistical material. The vast majority of studies indicate a strong negative relationship between statistical anxiety and achievement in subjects of probabilistic and statistical cycle. The article reviews the history of research and approaches to “the attitude towards statistics” concept. The authors describe the experience of the Russian-language adaptation of a scale measuring the attitude towards statistics in social sciences students. The work was based on the SATS-36 scale (Schau, 2003). The adaptation process included several stages: 1) the primary translation from English into Russian; 2) 10 cognitive interviews with students to verify the translation; 3) expert assessment of the second version of the translation; 4) a pilot survey on a sample of 70 students of the Faculty of Applied Political Science and Sociology, HSE; 5) the main survey.

The study was conducted on a sample of 253 students of three HSE faculties: Applied Political Science (N=88), Psychology (N=69) and Sociology (N=96). The factor structure of the questionnaire was explored, which resulted in the removal of the two statements that did not satisfy the empirical data collected. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire were confirmed: relatively high values of Cronbach's alpha suggest that the questions within each scale are measuring the same construct; at the same time, correlations with related constructs were low enough to confirm the existence of a separate "statistical anxiety" or "attitude towards statistics" construct. The resulting factors were slightly different from the original English version; however, they were more relevant to the Russian-speaking educational environment.

An original psychometric instrument, the Multidimensional Inventory of Loneliness Experience (MILE-3), is presented, operationalizing an original theoretical model of personal attitudes towards loneliness. According to the model, acceptance of loneliness as an existential fact opens up a the possibility to of appreciatinge situations of solitude and to use their resources productively, in the process gaining a deeper self-awareness that promotes personal growth. Conversely, non-acceptance (or fear) of loneliness leads to an avoidance of solitude and to continuous search for social contacts, which results in avoidance of self-encounter and becomes an obstacle for personal growth. The MILE-3 contains 40 items (a short 24-item version is also available) grouped into 3 scales measuring the intensity of experienced loneliness and two opposite attitudes towards solitude and loneliness (positive solitude and dependence on communication). Three online samples were used (N=2298, N=144, and N=117). The structural validity of the instrument was established using structural equation modeling in the largest sample. The resulting scales were reliable (α in the .81-.90 range). Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity was provided by predictable associations with measures of subjective well-being (satisfaction with life, subjective happiness), life meaning, extraversion, affiliation motivation (need for acceptance and fear of rejection), and alienation. Using person-oriented approach methodology and cluster analysis, 4 distinct patterns of perceived loneliness were discovered and described.

The paper reviews the main issues and findings of coping research in psychology, paying particular attention to the problems of classification, effectiveness, and personality predictors of coping strategies. We present the results of 3 studies (combined sample N=590) aimed at the development of a new Russian-language adaptation of the COPE inventory (Carver, Scheier, Weintraub, 1989). The reliability of the scales is comparable to that of the original English version, and the structure is supported by confirmatory factor analysis. Gender and age differences in self-reported coping strategy use are presented: Russian females are more likely to rely on active emotional expression, social support, and mental disengagement. Coping strategies demonstrated predictable associations with subjective well-being (satisfaction with life, subjective vitality, dispositional optimism, meaning), as well as self-regulation and hardiness indicators. In a student sample (N=138), specific coping strategies were associated with academic performance improvement from the 1^st to the 4^th semester (planning, active coping, use of emotional social support, concentration on emotions, and suppression of competing activities; academic performance was negatively predicted by positive reinterpretation and humor). In two other samples (N=149 and N=151) we explored coping strategies associated with the effectiveness of self-regulation (setting goals and goal attainment), and differences in coping strategies predicting psychological well-being in disabled and non-disabled students. The results provide evidence of convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of the Russian version of the COPE inventory.

In the last 10 years, research educational paradigm has made its way from being a theoretical speculation to becoming a systematic factor of innovative development of society. Universities and research centers are building research- based networks, and; cognitive activity of students is consolidated in modern organizational forms tailored to the needs of high-tech businesses. All these are the signs of a new educational reality, which requires authentic models for its social construction.

The purpose of the studies included in this article was to analyze the social cognitive features, as well as the didactic and structural organization of the research- based training model, which was being formed in line with the movement towards a knowledge- productive society.

Thise article discusses the features of the cognitive attitude at the stage of social development, when science becomes a cultural dominant, defining economic and social structures. IOn the historical example of the Reformation, the author shows the origins of modern research- related attitude to cognition and the role of cultural context in the transformation of epistemic communities. The analysis of the educational program of ascetic Protestantism, which sought to empirically investigate the established laws of God, is provided.

Science, cognitive- based professions and economic structure are identified as paradigmatic motivators of the formation of modern cognition forms. A characteristic of a system of basic instrumental competencies of the new "cognitive" formation is provided. The author introduces the concept of dynamic competence, which relies on the ability to perceive the profound changes of paradigmatic type. The relationship is outlined between the overriding mechanism for social mobility and personal cognitive type, as well as the role place of cognitive role complexes in the new stratification of society. The author suggests a model of research training at a locus of research talent.

Institutionalization of epistemic (including educational) communities is not only a reproduction of cognitive traditions and cultural model of an established society. In today's dynamic society, the organization of correct forms of cognitive relationship is a strategic resource for both economic and spiritual changes.

This article is part of a series of the author’s publications devoted to the modeling of the opposition category in modern personality psychology. The subjects of the study are binary structures of the psychic life of the individual, the opposition and contradictions of individual life, dialectical cognition and self-identity, and the attitude of personality to their oppositions and contradictions. This article is dedicated to the principle of opposition as a personological method for studying personality, immanent to European thinking and conceptually grounded in philosophical dialectics, in-depth psychology and the theory of vital relationships of the personality by EB Starovoytenko. The aim of the work is to comprehend the principle of opposition in the context of general personology (VA Petrovsky, EB Starovoytenko) – to describe new ways of problematization in the study of personality, and justify the theoretical, hermeneutic and practical potential of the principle of opposition in personological study of the intuitive attitude of personality to life oppositions. The main research methods include theoretical and methodological modeling, cultural and psychological modeling, and psychological hermeneutics of texts.

The results of our work are: 1) We identified identify the potential of the principle of opposition in the formulation and development of new problems in personality research through various forms of theory, hermeneutics and practice of personology. 2) We reconstructed the ontological, epistemological and reflexive phenomenological "modes" of the existence of oppositions in individual life based on SL Rubinstein’s work. 3) We present the results of the hermeneutic study of the individual’s attitudes to life oppositions. Cultural and psychological models, reconstructed from European and Russian fairy tales, describe the intuitive methods of coping with oppositions. 4) We identify the issues of "I" as the subject of the attitudes to life oppositions.

The results obtained are important for the further theoretical development of the opposition category in psychology, for the development of the theory of vital relationships of the personality, and for the use of the principle of opposition in personality research. Cultural and psychological models of intuitive attitude to life oppositions can be used in the analysis and interpretation of individual attitudes to life oppositions and self-understanding in the context of self-positing of a personologist.

The purpose of thise article was to review the drama of holistic human subjectivity in the logic of the development of the world of actions in material production. Methodology of critical psychology was used, according to which a person is considered not as a completed reality, but as a process of becoming. The traditional psychological approach to the problem of the relation between individual and activity is thus opposed to the consistent activity approach, which, however, is implemented not in the usual logic of the phylogeny and ontogeny of the human psyche, but in the logic of its social genesis, involving consideration of the process of formation of the modern world of activities.

The authors discuss the contrast of static and dynamic (historical) analysis of the world of activities, which serves as one of the most important determinants of personal development. Throughe the results of the analysis: we identified are the characteristics of the main stages in the development of the world of professional activities - crafts, manufactures, machinery and automated production. It is shown that the evolution of material production is inextricably linked to the collapse of the holistic professional activity, the alienation of man from this activity, and the splitting of the holistic professional activity into work and leisure. The main trends in the world of activity are outlined; these are the genesis of labor and the displacement of people from this labor. Two different forms of the realization of these contradictory tendencies in the modern world are the alienation of labor and the destruction of labor; both serve as different psychological and sociological conditions of personal development.

A phenomenon of downshifting is used as an illustration of these trends in the modern world. The results obtained could be employed in sociology, political science, general psychology (psychology of activity and personality psychology) and applied psychology (work psychology). Conclusion: The future of the world of activities is in the decrease of working hours in material production, and in providing people with the opportunities for authentic self-actualization and integration of their holistic subjectivity in leisure time. The destruction of the labor is an existential and social solution to the "crisis" of confrontation between two ideological paradigms of the XX century: the "infinite dead end" of capitalism or the endless rebirth of "dead-end" socialism.