2021. vol. 18. No. 3

Within the framework of a transdisciplinary approach and based on years of empirical research, a socio-cognitive concept of digital socialization has been developed, reflecting the process of adaptation of a changing person to the opportunities and risks of a dynamic socio-technological environment. The key element of the concept of digital socialization is a hyperconnected, technologically upgraded digital personality as a part of a real personality; the concept reflects the current stage of the social and cognitive evolution of the human mind, when the developing consciousness actually merges with external tools (gadgets) and semiotic reality (the Internet). Digital technologies are being integrated into our cognitive and social system, determining the digital expansion (upgrade) of a person. Key dimensions of digital socialization are Internet hyperconnectivity, mixed reality, augmented personality, and digital sociality. Being hyperconnected to the Internet in mixed reality means not only the basic and defining characteristics of digital socialization for both adults and children, but also the main basis for the changes that are taking place with a person today. The extended self — a constantly developing cultural tool — is formed in its socio-technological embodiment, and it modifies the human ecosystem. The emerging and transforming personality expands and absorbs a technosystem as a significant element that promotes the implementation of psychological mechanisms of externalization and includes digital devices and computer programs along with methods of their application. A new anthropological type of digital man — Man Connected and Upgraded — lives in multiple realities and already interacts with inanimate systems (chat bots, household robots, etc.), so a paradigm change, an update of theoretical and methodological models is required. All this determines the cumulative nature of the theoretical and methodological approach, based mainly on the Lev Vygotsky’s (and his followers’) cultural psychology, which has absorbed classical and modern humanitarian and natural-scientific concepts. This approach is a promising basis for studying the specifics of digital reality, capable of withstanding the challenges of the “new normality”.

The paper presents the results of the research on the psychological factors of trust in popular video bloggers among modern youth. The study of trust in video blogs is of considerable interest, since despite the importance of this form of virtual communication, the number of domestic theoretical and empirical studies on this problem is still small. The author's questionnaire, the method "Personal differential", the method "Faith in people" by M. Rosenberg, the reflexive questionnaire of the level of self-confidence, the modified method of interpersonal trust by R. Levitsky, M. Stevenson, B. Bunker, the method of assessing trust in information in electronic media were used as methodological tools of the study. The sample consisted of 70 students from Russian universities. The article discusses the results of descriptive, correlation and factor analysis. It was found that most of the respondents tend to trust the opinion of video bloggers. Among the components of trust, the striving to establish an identity with a preferred video blogger stands out most clearly. A new result was the identification of the relationship between the self-estimation of an interest and one’s own competence in relation to the topics discussed in video blogs with a general level of trust in the video blogger. It is shown that the factor structure of trust includes one independent and two correlated factors. The independent factor covers the parameters of self-rated competence in life areas discussed in video blogs, self-estimation of an interest, as well as an integral assessment of self-confidence. The interrelated factors reflect the predominance of the cognitive aspects of the vlogger's perception, rational expectation of an equivalent exchange and calculation of utility, or an affectively colored attitude towards the vlogger based on a common belief in people, the desire to establish identity with him, and identification.

Celebrities are famous people who often belong to entertainment industry. They are known to have a strong influence on people’s behavior. In the digital age this impact has expanded to include the online arena. Celebrities increasingly utilize Instagram, an online social network, to promote commercial products. It is important to learn to what extent people are influenced by this type of promotion and what sort of people are likely to be swayed by it. Research has demonstrated that people’s personalities have a strong impact on their behaviors online. However, until now, these investigations have not included the relationship between personality and the degree of celebrity influence through social networks. This study examines how much the personality of a user is related to the degree to which he or she is influenced by these Celebrity Instagram messages. Participants comprised 121 students (34 males, 87 females). They answered questionnaires which focused on their personality and were asked about the degree of influence celebrities exerted upon them through Instagram. Results showed that people who are characterized as being open and having an internal locus of control are more resistant to such celebrity influences. This paper demonstrates that the personality of a recipient is likely to influence the degree of impact that a celebrity endorsement is likely to produce. The implications of these results are discussed.

The study aimed to adapt Nick Yee’s Motivations of Play in MMORPGs Inventory into Russian. The sample included 538 participants (72.5% male) aged 12–40 years. We used Gaming Motivation Scale (GAMS) and the flow experience in group role-playing games questionnaire to assess the external validity of the adapted inventory scales. The final version of the questionnaire reproduced the original factor structure, but contained 24 items out of 39. The indicators of the final model fit (CFI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.042) demonstrated good agreement between the model and the empirical data. Cronbach`s alphas varied between 0.619–0.906, suggesting moderate to good reliability. The correlations between Yee`s Inventory scales, GAMS scales, and the flow experience questionnaire confirmed its construct validity. Intrinsic motivation, integrated and introjected regulation (GAMS) mostly correlated with the factors of the Immersion scale. Identified and external regulation mainly correlated with social and achievement motivation factors. There were no significant correlations for GAMS amotivation scale. All scales of Yee`s Inventory correlated with the flow experience; multiple correlations were also found between achievement and social motivation factors and focus on communication and thoughtfulness-spontaneity factors of the flow experience questionnaire. Male and female gamers scored differently in Yee’s Inventory: men had a significantly higher interest in mechanics (achievement scale). Women had higher escapism and customization motivations (immersion scale). We consider the adapted version of Yee’s Inventory a reliable and valid tool to evaluate online gaming motivation.

The article is devoted to the problematization of the virtual life in the aspect of embodiment in the context of the total digitalization of social and personal relationships. These problems have become especially noticeable due to isolation during the COVID-19 epidemic. The category of the Virtual Other proposed in the work. It is the result of the personality's activity in virtuality and the specific object of its relations at the same time. The virtual and subject-figurative spaces of a person's life are proposed as additions in the development of the Life topology model (E.B. Starovoytenko). A special problematic of the person's life activity is revealed in these coordinates. An analysis of articles and reflective notes that appeared in the wake of the global self-isolation of 2020, as well as a number of other sources on the current topic of digitalization, allows us to focus the formulated problems within three spheres of personal activity: communication, activity and personal relationships. Possible causes of Zoom fatigue are discussed. We analyze psychological distortions as a result of unnatural communication in Zoom — everyone is simultaneously looking at me (or not?), And I continuously see myself among others. The psychological consequences of "washing out" the body from the virtualized activity are considered: the activity becomes exhausting, dissatisfaction with the work done appears, the sensitivity to one's own psychological boundaries is lost. Realization of relations in virtual space makes communication with the Other disembodied and continuous and excludes the most important pauses in which an internal dialogue with the Other develops. Along with the real, bodily Other and the reduced “inner Other”, the “virtual Other” develops, which should become the subject of psychological research. Virtuality is a new, little-developed space of individual life. So far, it is limitless, invasive and excluding corporeality. At the moment in culture there are no formed ways of personal development of the virtual space and the resolution of contradictions generated by personal activity in it.

The research shows that one of the key determinants of consumer satisfaction is disconfirmation, which refers to the perceived differences between product performance and pre-purchase expectations. In this case, positive disconfirmation (when performance exceeds expectations) leads to high, and negative (when it concedes to expectations) to low satisfaction. The present study examined the role of involvement in the occurrence of assimilation effects (a decrease in disconfirmation scores and a shift in satisfaction scores towards expectations) and contrast effects (an increase in disconfirmation scores and a shift in satisfaction scores in the opposite direction), as well as the processes leading to contrast effects. And two hypotheses have been formulated that involvement will produce contrast effects and that such effects will result from the activation of cognitive processes leading to increased perceived differences between product performance and expectations. The hypotheses were tested in a laboratory experiment that manipulated product performance (a screen cleaner quality), expectations and participant involvement levels, and explored two types of assimilation/contrast effects, negative and positive, resulting from high and low expectations for the product. The experiment showed that involvement did produce negative and positive contrast effects in the disconfirmation and satisfaction scores with one exception: involvement did not produce positive contrast effect in the satisfaction scores. The article discusses the possible reasons for this result. The experiment also supported the existence of a chain of processes leading to contrast effects, in which involvement increases the activation levels in subjects, activation stimulates cognitive activity, cognitive activity increases judgment accuracy in product evaluations, and judgment accuracy enhances perceived differences between product performance and expectations. Limitations, questions for future research and implications for manufacturers and retailers from assimilation/contrast effects are discussed.

In a wide range of psychological approaches, a situational approach, which has received theoretical justification in domestic studies, is promising. The central concept of “situation” is defined as an indirect element between the conditions of the environment and the individual personality characteristics of the subject in the context of problems of double determination of activity. Definitions of the situation are mostly limited to the idea of a subjective image of external conditions, the adequacy of which is interpreted as a manifestation of the environmental determination of activity, while its variability is understood as the manifestation of personal determination of activity. The partiality of the image of external conditions is one of the manifestations of personal determination of the cognitive component, which does not rule out the problem of determination of activity. The purpose of the work is to justify limitation of the concept of "situation" to the subjective sphere and to interpret it as the result of integration of the determinants. The notions of the environment are clarified; the need for assessments of the interpreted image of conditions, of subject’s own resources and their balance, as well as of the "room" for appraisals and integration of the determinants, are rationalized. The situation is defined as a reflexive appraisal "model" of the relationship between the interpreted image of objective conditions and the internal state, within the limits of actual motivation, actual experience and personal preferences. The functions of the situation are the organization of activity (actual-genesis) and its regulation at the stage of execution, ensuring its stability and expediency. Possible systematization of situations based on the typology of conditions and options for their subjective assessment, the subject's possibilities and their assessment, is presented. Particular attention is paid to the situations of uncertainty, decision-making and risk; their features, psychological mechanisms and personal determinants are described. The situational approach enhances the possibilities of explaining the variability of activity in identical conditions, its sustainability in changing conditions, as well as explaining the causes of errors caused by the uniqueness of the assessments in a reflexive model of reality.

The article raises the question of the applicability of the methodological principles of Soviet psychology to solve the actual issues of current science. The complexity of the issue is amplified by the fact that the methodological principles in the Russian psychology are generally poorly reflected, allow for different interpretations, relate to different methodological levels, and have different areas of application. This article presents a content analysis of one of the main principles of the Russian psychology of the Soviet period — the principle of ascent from the abstract to the concrete. Three main interpretations of the method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete in psychology, proposed by L.S. Vygotsky, S.L. Rubinstein and A.N. Leontiev are considered. Vygotsky's emphasis was on the analytical component of the method and the search for a "cell" of psychology while preserving the "old" empirical understanding of the general ("the abstract-general") as the same for everyone. The ascent to the concrete — the explanation of the diversity of mental phenomena in their interrelation — did not work here. Rubinstein uses the method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete twice: as a psychologist and as a philosopher. He reconstructs the internal logic of the development of mental processes and formations from the original contradiction of the subjective and the objective, inherent in the nature of mental reflection, and then begins to explain the structure of human existence and the main ways of human relations to the world. Leontiev essentially completely "derives" the psyche from activity, defining it as a "functional organ" of activity. Thus, formally, the same method appears in Vygotsky as analytical, in Rubinstein — as analytical-synthetic, in Leontiev — as a method of "deduction". At the same time, the experience of Russian psychologists demonstrates the great methodological potential of this method, including for solving integrative problems of modern psychology.

The focus of the present article is on the phenomenon of “ethno-hearing” in the context of the search for categories of instrumental research in musical-psychological anthropology. Musical-psychological anthropology as a field of knowledge integrates a complex psychological and cultural methodology for the study of human interaction with created forms and styles of musical art. The series of investigations in the article is based on the methodology of the cross-cultural study of the peculiarities of perception of “native” and “alien” music by groups of Russian and Chinese recipients. All the subjects were student musicians of Moscow universities (N = 53). The procedures, methods and results of the studies of music perception of different ethnic styles are presented: a) using bipolar scales of the emotional content assessment; b) by means of electroencephalographic measurements of the alpha-activity of the brain. It has been shown both in the psychosemantic and EEG study that there are no differences between the groups in the perception of classical music, but there are significant differences between Russian and Chinese musicians in the perception of traditional Russian and Chinese music. It may be concluded that the perception of the emotional context of “native” and “alien” music is associated with the internal picture of a world view formed by national culture and traditions.

The article aims to summarize results of existing empirical research revealing psychological effects of human interaction with different kinds of visual environment found in modern cities. Analysis of research carried out in the field of Environmental Psychology over the past 50 years allows us to make a number of generalizations. Firstly, a large number of comparative studies reveal more favorable influence of nature perception compared to the built environment perception. Such influence is manifested in the cognitive, affective, personal and interpersonal domains. Secondly, the evidence is summarized that different types of built environment can also cause different psychological effects: buildings with elements of ornamentation and detailing, low-rise, imitating nature, evoking historical semantic connotations, can have a favorable effect on the emotional and cognitive domain of the perceiver. Thirdly, a large number of studies are aimed at identifying the restorative potential of different environments: environmental factors of attentional, affective restoration and stress-recovery are studied. Positive effects of visual environment beyond restoration are less studied. Fourth, most modern research is focused on identifying bottom-up factors of the environment perception – objective physical qualities of environment (detailing, number of floors, fractal structure, complexity, openness, etc.). At the same time, the role of top-down influences — semantic characteristics of the perceived environment, the attitudes of the observer and his initial state, which can have a significant impact on the effects of environment perception, is often overlooked. The importance of taking into account the joint action of bottom-up and top-down factors in understanding the true causes of the detected effects of environment perception is indicated. The analysis made it possible to systematize a wide range of influences of the visual environment of the city on psychological characteristics of a person. It is proposed to classify all the facts under consideration on several bases: objective (physical characteristics of the environment: natural and built environment), subjective (specifics of the subject's perception of environment: bottom-up and top-down processes) and methodological (objective and subjective methods of obtaining the data). Possible ways of improving visual environment of the city in the direction of its more favorable impact on psychological functioning of the individual are outlined.

The article analyzes and discusses the current state of the issue of abilities and giftedness in psychology. It is shown that over a long period of development of Russian psychology (1935-2018), there is a rather low interest of psychologists in it. Analysis of the content and number of publications in leading Russian and foreign journals over the past five years suggests a continuing decline in the interest of psychologists in the development of issues of abilities and giftedness. Nevertheless, the published works can be classified on a number of grounds: type of research (theoretical, empirical, complex), subject (kind and type of learned abilities), method (qualitative, quantitative, complex analysis), basis for addressing the issue (high achievements, school performance and etc.). The analysis allows us to assert that the leading reason for the unsatisfactory state of the problem is the absence in modern psychology of the theory of abilities and giftedness, which satisfactorily solves the problem of the structure of abilities, their interconnection, development not only in different age periods, but also in conditions of different kinds and types of activity, the interconnection of abilities with giftedness. Positively assessing the role of B.M. Teplov concept of abilities, we note that over the past decades, a lot of data has been accumulated that require updating both theoretical, methodological, and specifically applied foundations of the general theory of abilities. The article argues that the theory of abilities and giftedness by V.D. Shadrikov makes it possible to overcome the unsatisfactory state of this area of psychological knowledge, theoretically substantiate many applied works, not limiting itself to exceptionally high achievements in understanding the result of the functioning of the subject's abilities, etc. The results presented in the article will be useful not only in terms of theoretical and methodological study of the issue of abilities and giftedness, but also in the process of planning and organizing empirical research on abilities and giftedness.

The literature review examines different points of view on the processes of interaction of neural networks of the brain in selection of information and decision-making on the basis of insight or a critical analysis of the ideas generated during creativity testing. The BVSR (Blind Variation and Selective Retention) and “GENEPLORE” (Generate and Explore) models have been proposed to study the combination of different cognitive operations in creativity. The analysis of the insight in experimental studies was performed using tasks on heuristic thinking, perception of dual figures, the tests of remote associations (RAT) or compound remote associations (CRA). The information on the most stable EEG correlate of insight is given, which is the synchronization of alpha biopotentials and changes in the intensity and regional specificity of this effect, due to the characteristics of the creative task. The results of tomographic studies revealed the key importance of specific patterns of “pre-setting” of neural networks at rest: default and executive systems and the dynamics of the interaction of the frontal and parietal regions of the brain, reflecting different indicators of creativity. The role of a critical analysis in the solution of a problem and the importance of inhibitory functions in the selection of relevant information are modulating the creative process. Due to the inclusion of opposing processes in the search for an original solution to the problem - of convergent or divergent thinking, directed or defocused and internal or external attention - there is a temporary and structural reorganization of activation or inhibition in the neural systems of the brain. The brain structures required for switching between different strategies of information selection and for selecting an answer when solving experimental creative tasks depending on their complexity and content are the prefrontal and cingular cortical areas, and the hippocampus.

This is the second part of research on functional fixedness, a phenomenon of inhibition of creative thinking. Numerous methods to loosen functional fixedness are analyzed. The core principle of these methods is the enrichment of associative space serving as a source for creative ideas and solutions. Some ways to loosen functional fixedness are based on theories and methods presented in scientific literature (e.g., forgetting fixation theory (Smith, 1994), opportunistic assimilation hypothesis (Seifert et al., 1994), etc.). Methods aimed at reducing functional fixedness differ from each other by the degree of generalization. Some of them are based on general recommendation of how to improve creative thinking, other methods are more specific providing detailed instruction what to do. Different parameters of these instructions and ways of their presentation are analyzed. We also examine the role of categorization, past experience, and switching to another activity as factors affecting functional fixedness. Additionally, other approaches are considered, which based on the assumption that this phenomenon is not an unambiguous antagonist of creative thinking, but can help to increase its effectiveness. It takes place if a subject is aware of the influence of past experience on creative thinking and deeply understands the structure of the problem to be solved. In research on functional fixedness, there is a tendency to identify and examine its specific components. This can lead to the development of new targeted methods to loosen functional fixedness.