2015. vol. 12. No. 2

We offer to the reader Counterview — the special issue comprising various polemical articles, essays, and notes, in which the authors may express their views concerning the fundamental problems of psychology, and prospects of its development in the field of culture and social life. The materials of discussions have been placed in our journal before. But today, these publications seem to us particularly relevant as these days in favor of a “single” ideology (whether humanism, pragmatism or positivism) the diversity is increasingly sacrificed inherent in psychology as a science at all times, while controversy essential for the development is quietly leaving the pages of journals (it seems that political differences affect us far more than all the rest, including science). That is why we believe it appropriate to raise the status of discussions and debate (even if they may bring discomfort).

Where to begin? Possibly to make ourselves the target to open fire at, by starting with publishing materials challenging one of the areas previously supported the journal? Thus this issue contains an article in the editorial portfolio written by A.Orlov and N.Orlova. It is a criticism of the previously published paper by V.Petrovskiy and E.Starovoytenko Science of the Person: Four Projects of General Personology (2012). Unprecedented in its appraisal, the article by A.Orlov and N.Orlova sparked the interest of the editorial staff, in particular, as an excuse to maintain the current debate on the methodological problems of psychology. The criticism concerns the possibility of General Personology as a special section of the psychology of personality, combining academic, cultural, historical and practical-oriented developments.

We shall remind the reader that one of the columns of the journal and a special theme of the issue revealed the essence and specific research in this area. Where better than here, in the pages of the journal protecting the idea of the importance of personology as a special unity of methodology and theory, hermeneutics and counselling, should materials offering an alternative view be published? Moreover, general personology, as intended by those who are develop it, contains a call to debate giving researchers a space to correlate their values and attitudes.

At the suggestion of the editor in chief, we publish the polemical article by the two authors and a response to it without any substantive changes or cuts (as the saying goes, “uncut”). After all, one of the objects criticized is the editor in chief himself, whose ‘second job’ is as the author of the criticized developments.

The authors discuss "the personological project" of psychology development, proposed by Vadim Arturovich Petrovsky and Elena Borisovna Starovoytenko. Internal contradictions and weaknesses of the project are identified and explicated, the main ones are "non-systemic" (chaotic and syncretical conceptual apparatus) and "non-human" (the reduction of human being to the personality, and the personality to persona). The authors believe that personology is impossible as the integration of different paradigms, but it is possible as the integration of different concepts within any single paradigm that exists in modern psychology of personality (e.g. personology actually exists within  existential and person-centered approaches). Personology is impossible as well as the integration of different cultures, but it is possible as the integration of concepts within a single culture. In other words, the general personology as the original global project is impossible; the genesis of a general personology is possible on the basis of special personology, and such a natural ambition can be seen in each special personology (theory of personality), beginning from the psychoanalytic one. Moreover, only during the construction of the special personology (within a special scientific paradigm and a special culture) the creative integration of concepts can be real (and not just in words). Set for themselves the task of constructing a general personology before the building a special personology Vadim Arturovich Petrovsky and Elena Borisovna Starovoytenko inevitably become the hostages of the lists of diverse, contradictory concepts and strange, unfounded classifications. Neither the concept "persona," nor the concept "person,"(according to Langle) nor "personality," nor even the concept of "subject" are adequate (due to the narrowness of its denotations) for the ambitious plan of the authors of "personological project." There is only one concept commensurate to this project, and this concept is "person" (as a human being). The perspectives for the development of general personology are seen in the implementation of a holistic person-centered paradigm in relation to the fundamental, counseling and cultural psychology of personality. This area of psychology and psychological practice is positioned in the article as "the science of a person – about a person - for a person - for the sake of a person".

The article presents the author's theory of consciousness. The proposed theory allows describing unexplained yet psychological phenomenology. Ideal (psychic) and material (physical) is viewed as attributes of the substance-process of activity. Human is the subject of not one activity, but of the integral system of activities. Thus, individual consciousness is the attribute of individual system of activities and personal history of activities of the person. The difference between a system and a history of every man causes differences of consciousness (ideal attribute of system of activities) and corporeality (material attribute). Group differences of the systems of activities cause, accordingly, cultural, ethnic, regional, professional and other group differences of attributes of activity (of consciousness and corporeality). We change reality with our activity, i.e. reality is partly dependent on our activity. Thus, “objective reality, which is independent of our consciousness” and our acts, is non-existent, and taking into account consistency and interconnectedness of the Universe, this redefines the issue of responsibility of the subject of the conscious process. Various states of consciousness of man gather in one integral self-consciousness with the help of his continuous and developing system of activities. New states of consciousness (and new knowledge) are born not from the consciousness itself, but from the development of one’s activity. Joint activity causes joint consciousness (ideal attribute of joint activity) and joint corporeality (instrumentality material attribute). Inclusion of various subjects in common activity causes transpersonality (in its limit – noospherity) of consciousness. The unexplained yet by science, but stated parapsychological phenomenology is possible to study with the schemes of structures of individual and joint activity as processes and products of these activities, as results of processes of transpersonality and continuity (skandhas) of activities.

Ethnic prejudices is a crucial factor affecting the relationship between ethnic groups. To measure blatant ethnic prejudice questionnaires are used which include questions and statements that reflect different aspects of negative attitudes towards ethnic groups. Since most of these techniques were created in North America and Western Europe, they reflect the content of ethnic prejudices prevalent in these regions, and need cultural adaptation. The aim of this study is to adapt the scale of blatant and subtle prejudice by Pettigrew and Meertens (Pettigrew, Meertens, 1995) for a Russian sample. The study included a pilot phase and a main phase. Participants of the pilot phase (N = 354) filled out the original version of the questionnaire translated into Russian, evaluating migrants who arrived in Russia from Central Asia and the Caucasus. The results showed the low structural validity of the original version of the scale. Participants of the main phase of the study (N = 402) filled out a modified version of the questionnaire, which included 28 statements that form six scales. The results showed that the highest structural validity is exhibited by a five-factor model, which includes the following scales: the perceived economical threat, the perceived physical threat, the avoidance of close contact, the perceived problems in adaptation, the exaggeration of cultural differences. The results demonstrated that Russian prejudices against migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus are associated with relative deprivation, ethnic identity and the intensity of intergroup contact. The structure of the methodology is universal and the link between individual factors and variables depend on the group that serves as the object of prejudice. In particular, relative deprivation and the number of contacts are more tightly linked to prejudice against migrants form Central Asia than prejudice against migrants from the Caucasus.

The article offers a comprehensive framework for analyzing and diagnosing the roles played in the Karpman drama triangle by using analysis of the states, behaviors, secondary gains, payoffs and marker words. The framework considers and describes specific instruments to step out of the script and possibilities of using those instruments in counseling. The author substantiates the potential of Overcoming Self, which is a particular formation within the Adult Ego-state that leads the subject towards an autonomous, realistic and responsible attitude to life and overcoming difficult life situations. The article demonstrates that in the process of communication all three roles are simultaneously played: while one of the roles is on stage, the other two thereafter; the  main role gives way to one of the background roles. The foundation of the author’s models of entering and exiting dependent relationships is Berne's theory of Transactional Analysis and V. Petrovskiy's multisubject approach. Both those theories help to demonstrate that one of the most important objectives for the counseling therapist is to reinforce and strengthen the client’s Self through the client’s undertaking of responsibility, for himself in the first place and thereafter for the lives of others (family, business and those surrounding him). The research demonstrates that in order to break the Gordian knot of the drama triangle, the counseling therapist needs to create such an environment, in which the client can reveal the inanity of script patterns and move from being dependent to forming, maintaining and relying on one’s own self as an integral subject through strengthening of the Overcoming Self. Choosing a responsible attitude, the client takes over her behavior and gets the opportunity to see herself as the author of her life events.

Starting from the theory of W. James, the sense of bodily changes is seen as the source and the main content of the subjective feeling. There are known many common and scientific acknowledgements of this. But detection of a particular set of sensations of bodily changes, that characterize even the most fundamental emotions, encounters difficulties. In the range of empirical studies, shown in the article, the relationship between the subjective feeling and the bodily changes is placed in question. The separate issue is the role of the ability to detect one’s own feelings with the rise of emotional reaction, as many researchers (the data of their research are also given in the article) state that there is a direct linkage between this ability and emotionality. In this research the subjects were asked to estimate the intensity of joy, the quantity and the intensity of bodily sensations after watching two funny cartoons. While watching one of them they were allowed to express emotions freely, and during watching another one they were asked to withhold the smile. The order of the cartoons, the order of the instructions and the combination of each cartoon and each instruction were balanced. For the estimation of bodily sensations the subjects were offered an open list of sensations. The emotional intelligence and the level of alexithymia were also measured. We found out that the correlations between the subjective feeling, the quantity and the intensity of bodily sensations disappear when subjects withhold the expression of emotions. The contrast of means with and without the ban to express joy shows that the evaluation of the intensity of subjective feelings does not change under the influence of the ban, while the values of the intensity of bodily sensations grow significantly. As the ban to express joy did not lead to the proportionate change of the values of joy and the intensity of bodily sensations, but only to disappearance of correlations between these variables, the inference can be done that the sensation of bodily changes is only a correlate of subjective feeling that does not determine its content.

The research shows an attempt to explore the relationships of emotional intelligence and speed of emotional information processing. Following foreign researchers, who draw parallel between psychometric and emotional intelligence in relationship to speed of information processing, we assume that the basis of individual differences in emotional intelligence lies in speed of emotional information processing. 104 subjects took part in the research. For the measurement of emotional processing we used emotional Stroop task, task on emotional visual search and dot probe task. Emotional intelligence was measured with one self-report (questionnaire EmIn) and one test (videotest) method. Statistically significant correlations of emotional intelligence were found for emotional Stroop task (negative correlations with the scales “Management of emotions of others” and “Interpersonal emotional intelligence” and positive correlations with the scale “Sensitivity to orientation emotions”), as well as for the two measures of emotional visual search task (negative correlations of difference in response time in finding angry faces between joyful ones and anger against the background of neutral expression with the measures of videotest “Sensitivity to positive emotions with low activation”). By virtue of attained results, the automatic speed-up / slowdown of processing in threat detection, as well as relative velocity of identification and effectiveness of face recognition that express joy and anger may be viewed as the cognitive correlates of emotional intelligence. The lack of statistically significant relationships between emotional intelligence and other measurements is interpreted as the consequence of excessively difficult assumptions that lay in the basis of the used tasks, which hinder the revelation of the relationships in interest. 

One of the methods of study of covert mechanisms of the thinking process during the creative problem solving is the indirect evaluation of factors that facilitate or impede the solving. One of the most stable facilitating factors of creative problem solving and creativity is humor. The research also shows the link between productiveness of creative (insight) problem solving and humor. The processes that are at the basis of humor comprehension and production are in many characteristics alike with the processes of creative problem solving. The list of similarities includes not only affective, but also cognitive processes, which in our view are connected to the common nature of humor and insight. This paper describes and analyzes the approaches to study the influence of cognitive and affective processes on creative problem solving. The wide review and the theoretical analysis compare common and diverse mechanisms of humor comprehension and insight problem solving. On the descriptive, phenomenological level humor and insight are connected through the instantaneousness of understanding a problem and a joke. Both phenomena are essentially accompanied by positive emotions. The formal structure of verbal jokes has significant similarity with the structure of verbal insight problems through the availability of two contradictory scenarios. Substantively, humor and creative problem solving are connected with the overcoming and violation of prohibitions.Thus, the question of facilitation of creative problem solving with by humor may be studied from different positions: from the position of emotional arousal, from the position of cognitive adjustment of solving or from the position of constraint relaxation.