Abstract: Can we actually entrust our secrets to another person? Are we allowed to open up our inner world for everyone and tell everything about us? Or should be better follow the advice given by Shakespeare’s Polonius ‘Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be though familiar, but by no means vulgar’? If we base only on our internal experience and ignore the opinion of others, we can understand ourselves as we truly are. At the same time, if we keep our experience to ourselves and stay away from others, others can create the wrong image of us. However, the author notes, there is a certain period of life when we all are ready to open up and entrust our secrets to other people and to feel better sharing our sorrows or sins. Sometimes it happens to a criminal who was not convicted guilty but at some moment he is ready to tell everything himself. Sometimes such a desire to confess is typical for a person who is about to die. This is what happened to a French philosopher Walter for instance. Even though he was absolutely against religion all his life, before his death he declared his sins, adopted religion and acquired the spiritual comfort before his meeting with God. The author bases his research on different sources and refers to the memorials of different epochs. He uses the method of historical comparison. At the same time, he also uses the method of psychological reconstruction and psychological analysis. The author also appeals to introspection as the method of receiving knowledge about psychological phenomena. The novelty of the research is in the author’s an attempt to create the history of development of the confession literature and traces back particular common and different features in their development. Philosophy and fiction have the genre of confession. Confession is usually in demand during historical, social and cultural transformations and breakthroughs. However, confession always reflects a personal, spiritual catastrophe. Existential drama shows the life of the epoch or, on the contrary, peculiarities of personal existence that have not been taken into account. The confession genre is usually associated with philosophical and psychological literature.

Keywords: psychology, confession, confessionality, soul, passions, frankness, self-consciousness, dialectics of feelings, compassion, faith.

Abstract: The author of the article pays special attention at the importance of social and psychological research of youth people’s views on patriotism and patriots. The subject under review is the value orientations, basic belies and types of ethnic identity as psychological determinants of young people’s views on true patriotism. Theoretical grounds of research include works by Russian and foreign psychologists on the phenomenon of patriotism (A. Gostev, V. Koltsova, N. Sinyagina, V. Sosnin and others), social and personal views (S. Moskovichi, T. Emelianova, K Abulkhanova and others), value orientations (U. Bilski, V. Gritsenko, V. Karandashev, S. Shvartz and etc.), basic personality beliefs (R. Yanoff-Bulman, S. Epstein, O. Kravtsova, M. Padun and others) and ethnic identity (N. Lebedeva, G. Soldatova, T. Stephanenko and others). Methodological base of research is the complex and systems approach as they are introduce in Russian psychology. Research methods are analysis, synthesis, summary, survey, factor analysis, regression analysis and U-criterion offered by Manna-Whitney for comparing data. As a result of the empiric research that involved 314 respondents, the author describes the factor structure and psychological determinants of young people’s views on patriotism. The author proves that values, basic beliefs, types of ethnic identity and gender of respondents are significant determinants of young people’s views on true patriotism. The results of the research prove the importance of further social and psychological researches on the matter.

Keywords: youth, true patriotism, prevention of extremism, personal views, views on patriotism, factor analysis, psychological determinants, value orientations, personal beliefs, types of ethnic identity.

Abstract: The article is devoted to the causes and consequences of the actualization of the topic of pessimism, low mood and despair in French symbolism at the end of the XIXth century. The author also analyzes the reasons of development of the phenomenon of melancholy in the XXth century based on the artwork created by French symbolists and analyzed mostly in poetry, critical articles written by symbolists and analytical publications on art history, history, literary and philosophy devoted to the French symbolism and related to melancholy. The topic can be also described as low mood, sadness, despair, disappointment and the feeling of hopelessness typical for the creativity of symbolic and decadent poets. According to the author, that tendency was caused both by the general intellectual atmosphere of late XIX and goals of symbolism in art. Research methods include the descriptive, systems, comparative and cultural-historical approach. French symbolism is viewed from the phenomenological point of view. The importance of the topic is not only in studying particular examples of French symbolism but also the reflection of the eschatolic mood of those times.

Keywords: French symbolism, melancholy, low mood, S. Mallarme, S. Bodler, interiorisation, pessimism, phantasmagoria, fin de siècle.

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes the phenomena of fear and anxiety. The author tries to refuse from the naturalistic understanding of fear as a natural psychic process. The author shows that fear is caused, on one hand, by human activity and, on the other hand, by personality structure and orientation. The author offers his own theoretical explanation of fear and anxiety in terms of the author’s teaching about ‘psychic realities’ where he uses the terms ‘scheme (pattern)’, ‘immediate reality’, derivatives of reality’, pyramid of reality’ and ‘counter reality’. Somatic reactions and emotions associated with the phenomena under discussion are explained by the author as a result of blocked realities and the loss of management from the side of schemes. Speaking about the method, the author starts with psychoanalysis and then overcame it based on the methodology, semiotics, cultural studies and psychological teaching about personality. In addition, he applies such procedures as problematisation, comparative analysis and theoretical construction. Based on the analysis carried out, the author criticizes the naturalistic interpretation of fear and anxiety and provides his own explanation of the phenomena from the point of view of the psychotechnical approach. This allows to create a new understanding of fear and anxiety and show that these phenomena can be applied by human in a way he needs it.

Keywords: fear, anxiety, activity, life, scheme (pattern), reality, direct reality, blocking, management, life activity.

Abstract: The author of the article analyzes the relation between suffering and guilt in Nikolay Berdyaev’s philosophical legacy. The Russian philosopher viewed the feeling of guilt from different sides. He show that suffering was an inevitable ‘companion’ of human life. Therefore he studied the theory of suffering from the point of view of the philosophical understanding of human. At the same time, Berdyaev positioned himself as a philosopher. According to Berdyaev, personality is developed in a society. A person can struggle for independence and become free. At the same time, an individual can also remain a slave. The author of the present article also discusses the causes and reasons of suffering and methods of dealing with suffering. These topics have different interpretations in Stoicism, Buddhism and Christianity. The author of the article uses the historical method and carries out a comparative analysis of Berdyaev’s and modern interpretations of suffering. Noteworthy that the modern society denies suffering as a negative feeling. The novelty of the article is in studying the relation between guilt and suffering. The author notes that there is the feeling of guilt and the guilt complex. The suffering is also related to masochism and the author traces back the connection between sadism and masochism. The author also views the psychological paradox when an individual tries to aggravate his suffering in order to suffer less. Further the author talks about the feeling of guilt, disease of human existence, human mind and suffering of the innocent.

Keywords: Buddhism, Stoicism, Christianity, suffering, personality, philosophy, psychology, sadism, masochism, guilt.

Abstract: The author of the article describes a psychoanalytical view on the personality development and life style of women who experienced the divorce of their parents when they were children. The author proves that triad relations plays a very important role in a child’s development starting from the first year of life. A father is always present in a child’s life, either physically when he plays or talks to a child and by doing so, helps a child to adopt the model of interaction with an object which is different from a mother’s model, or mentally through a mother’s image of her husband when she is satisfied with her family relations and therefore can focus on a child’s care, or traumatized by her relations and therefore focus only on her emotional state and family problems. A father is the figure who helps a child to go through the stages of separation and individuation. He acts as a mediator when a child understands the emotional constant of an abject and a father also plays an important role in a successful completion of a girl’s process of identification. Grown-up girls of divorced parents often suffer from depression. They act anxiously in their interpersonal relations and have difficulty managing their feelings of guilt and aggression. They mistrust men and at the same time they tend to idealize the image of a true man and romantic relations. As a result, they get disappointed in their partner and have a divorce in their family, too. Analysis of theoretical sources on the matter has also shown a lack of Russian researches in this sphere.

Keywords: psychology, family, parents’ divorce, children of divorced parents, triad, objective relations, separation, individuation, depression, psychoanalysis.

Abstract: The article is devoted to social and psychological aspects of the professional culture of designing engineers. The author of the article provides the results of the research of social and psychological aspects of the professional culture of designing engineers and associated value orientations and professional stereotypes of designing engineers working at industrial enterprises. The author also describes the results of evaluating the level of satisfaction of engineers with their professional activity. The analysis of obtained results allows to define the degree of readiness of engineers for adaptation to new social conditions in the age of innovative transformations. The analysis of activities performed by designing engineers working at industrial enterprises has shown that the majority of designing engineers dislike innovations and have a very vague idea about innovation process in general while expressing a positive attitude to creativity in work. The research evidently shows the contradiction between traditional values and stereotypes that slow down the process of adopting new values. The results of the research of social and psychological aspects of the professional culture of engineers show that: there is a certain divergence between value orientations of designing engineers and their views on the need to transform elements of their professional culture in accordance with innovation changes; their professional values are realized only when an engineer seeks new knowledge to cover the gaps in his profession culture but at the same time an engineer tends to ignore associated professional skills and abilities; there is a also a contradiction between value orientations and their need to change their professional culture and the majority of designing engineers do not have the aim to adopt innovations.

Keywords: psychology, professional culture, social and psychological aspects, designing engineers, satisfaction, activity, value orientations, stereotypes, technology, consciousness.

Abstract: The author of the article underlines the need for development of tools of evaluating universal educational actions in the conditions of introduction new Federal State Education Standards in elementary education. The author provides a summary of diagnostic tools for evaluating educational activity that are usually applied in psychology and teaching. Results of development and standardization of a special method aimed at evaluating a style of educational activity of younger school students – QSEA (questionnaire of style of educational activity) with use of the correlation and factorial analysis are presented. The advantage of the aforesaid questionnaire is in its coherence with meta-disciplinary results of educational activity: cognitive, regulatory and communicative actions. The method passed standardization according to standard procedures. Psychometric test of QSEA proves that it is possible to use the questionnaire at public schools for the complex assessment of style of educational activity as an indicator of educational activity. The method allows elementary school teachers to conduct independent monitoring of formation of universal educational actions of school students and to use the results in correction of their educational activity.

Keywords: Federal State Education Standards, universal educational actions, educational activity, style of educational activity, standardization of a method, meta-discipline results, cognitive actions, regulatory actions, communication actions, QSEA.

Abstract: In their article the authors provide the results of theoretical analysis of the social and psychological theories of the ‘success’ phenomenon. The authors give an insight into the development of the psychology of success by describing the following levels of human life activity: • hedonistic (vital) level (the priority of material values over social values is observed here); • pragmatical (social) level (desire of wealth, power and glory as sources of social pleasures dominate over spiritual values); and • altruistic (existentional) level (‘internal’ or moral level when spiritual values dominate over material wealth). The authors also describe an integrated model of the reference image of success including synthesis and the general concept of all described types and forms of success. Theoretical and methodological bases of research include philosophical, ethical and psychological researches of existential problems and concepts describing peculiarities of success as a psychological category. For the first time in scientific literature the authors develop a theoretical model of success as a reference image consisting of the following three levels: 1 – individual success (‘for my own benefit’), 2.collective success (‘cooperation’); 3. success in service «for the benefit of others». The authors note that the process of achievement of success depends on purposes that are set by a person based on one of three options of the reference image of success.

Keywords: success, altruism, hedonism, American dream, cooperation, helping behavior, egoism, pro-social behavior, material wealth, reference image of success.

Abstract: The author of the article focuses on the problem of cognitive activity as a factor of personal professional development. The author also describes an important feature of professional psychodiagnostics, the dependence of efficiency of professional activity on intelligence as a dynamic system of personality. The author also studies features of psychological assessment of intellectual activity of a person who has reached maturity, the influence of stratification of intelligence in the course of personality maturing and analyze tools of diagnostics, schemes of experiments and correspondence of intellectual features with personality accentuations, age crises and regional and professional features of intellectual activity. As the main methodical approach, the author applies the longitudinal research plan that has been carried out for nine years. The research methods chosen by the author are quite diverse. They include both qualitative method such as observation, examination, opinion surveys and interview and test procedures. Scientific novelty of research is in application of longitudinal and cross empirical «cuts» on extensive real selection of civil servants in the course of their professional and personal development. Results of test measurements were compared to particular objective results of professional activity. Frequency of measurements and constant validation of research tools gave the chance to receive reliable results in many respects confirming results of foreign and Russian diagnostic projects. In conclusion the author emphasizes that the most important psychological characteristic of personal and professional development of the personnel is their cognitive activity.

Keywords: psychological accentuations, assessment of intellectual activity, efficiency of professional activity, professional diagnostics, cognitive activity of the personnel, diagnostic tools, regional features, professional features, age crises.

Abstract: The subject under review is the anticipation ability of teenager as a condition of preventing conflict situations. In his research article the author views anticipation as an ability to make decisions, to work with a certain temporary and spatial anticipation concerning expected and future events and to develop multiple-variant thinking. Considering the role of predictive abilities in the prevention of interpersonal conflicts among teenagers, the author focuses on personal, situational and temporary anticipation abilities. According to the author, development of teenagers’ ability to predict conflicts leads to the development of constructive and conflict-free communication and therefore is an important factor in formation of personality of a teenager. The researcher used the following psychodiagnostic methods in the course of his research: Thomas’s test on conflict strategies, test of anticipation ability (‘predictive competence’) offered by Vladimir Mendelevich and the developed method of ‘Forecasting of interpersonal conflicts’. As an experimental method the author uses the so-called anticipation training aimed at developing the ability to forecast interpersonal conflicts. Scientific novelty is characterized by the fact that for the first time in psychological science the anticipation ability is studied in terms of teenagers’ conflicts. The novelty of research is also in development of the program of anticipation training during which it has been observed that training of anticipation abilities of teenagers will promote development of their ability to predict interpersonal conflicts and to neutralize them at the formation stage. Modeling conflict situations, group work demonstrated the productivity in formation of multiple-variant thinking of teenagers and was confirmed with statistically valid data.

Keywords: anticipation, anticipation training, forecasting, prevention of conflicts, interpersonal conflict, anticipation ability, forecasting competence, teenager’s conflict, conflict-free communication.