2017. vol. 14. No. 3

The article deals with the dramatic opposition of psychologism and antipsychologism. Due to the evident success of classical branches of mathematical logic in the XX century psychologism was completely eliminated as a methodological basis for logical and mathematical knowledge for its conceptual insolvency, as an outdated and technically inefficient trend towards anthropologization of scientific theories. However, non-classical logic’s and recent neuroscience’s (especially socio-cultural neuroscience) vigorous development has again brought psychologism to the proscenium of science and logico-mathematical thought. We are making attempt to analyze the reasons for the revival of psychologism and vistas to preserve its position as one of the modern cognitive science leading conceptions. We ponder over the ontogenetic foundations of the socio-cultural activity of man and the reverse effect of this activity on the formation, as well as the dynamics of activity of neural structures and their architectonics. They are the important factors related to the deep foundations of the psychological organization and cognitive potential of personality, as well as of epistemological communities due to active interaction of elements within the integral system “brain-society-culture”. A classification of approaches to the interpretation of psychologism is proposed; the boundaries of the deanthropologization of scientific knowledge are under scrutiny. We show that psychologism has solid ontogenetic background and, consequently, an absolute deanthropologization of scientific knowledge, actually presupposed by antipsychologism, in the general case turns out to be too categorical and unattainable. The manifestation of the Baldwin effect in the evolution of living and social systems is discussed, when a change in the behavior of a social system and/or group can lead to a change in the natural selection factors and, consequently, to new directions of its development. We judge that in accordance with the Baldwin effect, each component of the chain “genes - structures - functions – experience” is in a state of at least bi-directional interaction: the activity and composition of the genes that set the psychological landscape depend on the nature of the environment (culture included). The environment changes as result of the activity and psychological attitudes of the increasing mass of carriers of the activity of a given set of genes.

The article is about the content and the role of the outdoor pastimes in socialization of children and teenagers from different generations. The results of the content-analysis of the survey are presented, which was composed by the two specially developed questionnaires, filled in by 251 respondents of various ages. The main activities are considered that constitute children’s outdoor pastimes. Five main categories are identified: games (with rules, sport games, role plays etc.); exploration of environment (experiments, searches, gathering, construction etc.); risk (various risky episodes); communication with peers; culturally mediated activity (visits to museums, skating rings, etc.). The main constituents of each of five categories and their representation among answers of the adult and adolescent samples are described. The dynamics of the children’s outdoor pastime is characterized by the social tendencies of the XX and XXI centuries, such as the increase of social tension and uncertainty, urbanization, overpopulation, etc. The differences in the outdoor pastimes between generations are shown, which lie in the chronology of mastery of the outdoor space and the content of children’s outdoor pastimes. The role of the outdoor pastimes in socialization of children and teenagers is discussed. The areas of the main types of children’s outdoor activity are characterized, as well as the degree of awareness and control by parents over the children’s activities, versions of parental rules and restrictions on children’s moves and activities. The way how the idea of the world that is appealing and encourages knowledge changes into the idea of its dangerousness, is viewed. The perspectives of the further psychological research in this area are described. 

The objective of the present research was the search of the relationships between various types of trust and acculturation expectations of the host population (according to J. Berry). The theoretical basis of the work was: the conception of social-psychological capital of personality, the theory of social capital and the theory of acculturation by J. Berry. The sample consisted of 111 Russians, 43.3% of which were males, 57.7% were females. Age median was 21 y.o. The participants of the study were asked to fill in questionnaires. The questionnaires allowed to measure three types of trust (generalized, social, institutional), as well as four acculturation expectations (“integration”, “assimilation”, “segregation” and “exclusion”). The empirical data were processed with multiple regression analysis. The results of the study showed that any of the three types of trust were connected to acculturation expectations “assimilation”. With “integration” only social trust was positively connected, while institutional and generalized were not (the hypothesis H1 was supported partially). We didn’t find any negative connections of various types of trust with acculturation expectations “segregation” and “exclusion”. But we found positive links of institutional trust with acculturation expectations, though initially we supposed that these links would be negative. The acquired results are discussed in the article, and the explanation is given to the nature of these interactions, which initially we were not supposed to receive.

Entitativity is a key construct for understanding group perception. But the question of understanding this construct is troublesome. There are three theoretical approaches to understanding group entitativity (essence-based entitativity, agency-based entitativity and unity-based entitativity) and at least two different empirical strategies for measuring the entitativity (operationalization in one of the theoretical approaches and entitativity as a set of characteristics from different approaches that work as a common scale). This paper aims to answer the question whether there are any differences in the various understanding of entitativity. In our studies entitativity is described as involving three components: “essence” (the group members’ similarity), “agency” (the goals and the interaction between group members) and “unity” (the cohesion of a group and the degree of the group importance). In Study 1 a series of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the three-component model of entitativity fitted the data well for different groups (ingroup, outgroup, intimacy groups and social categories) and demonstrated a better fit compared to the alternative model (entitativity as a common construct). The results of the study suggest that the components of entitativity are interrelated, but not identical to each other. Study 2 demonstrated that the use of different ways of understanding entitativity (such as “essence”, “agency”, and “unity” components or the common entitativity scale) doesn’t lead to differences related to blatant prejudice, subtle prejudice, and identification. Our results demonstrate that there are no substantial differences between the measurements of entitativity. The implications of the obtained results for future research are discussed.

In the following paper we discuss the resource approach to coping behavior. We emphasize that parameters of the home environment (home attachment, functionality and relevance of the home environment) can be considered major resources of a personality’s coping in youth (along with different resources of coping behaviour – personal, cognitive, social, cultural and others). They are the underlying parameters forming a home environment image. The sample consisted of 344 participants (267 females and 77 males), students of different faculties of the Higher School of Economics. We used the Functionality of the Home Environment Questionnaire, the Relevance of the Home Environment Questionnaire, the Home Attachment Questionnaire, and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. The results of the factor analysis allowed us to select a positive image of the home environment based on the parameters of functionality and the relevance of the home environment, as well as home attachment. These parameters are an important resource for coping behaviour in youth. The results of the correlation analysis showed that a positive image of the home environment is correlated with efficient strategies of self-control, seeking social support, planned problem solving, and positive reappraisal, and also with an inefficient strategy of confrontive coping. The study’s results can be used in psychological counseling to form individual profiles of the home environment preferences. They can be helpful in modeling or altering home spaces in accordance with a person’s needs and expectations and therefore, use the home environment as one of the main resources for coping behaviour and psychological well-being.