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30 Best universities for Psychology in Moscow, Russia

Updated: February 29, 2024

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Below is a list of best universities in Moscow ranked based on their research performance in Psychology. A graph of 406K citations received by 66.7K academic papers made by 30 universities in Moscow was used to calculate publications' ratings, which then were adjusted for release dates and added to final scores.

We don't distinguish between undergraduate and graduate programs nor do we adjust for current majors offered. You can find information about granted degrees on a university page but always double-check with the university website.

1. Moscow State University

For Psychology

2. National Research University Higher School of Economics

3. Moscow Medical Academy

4. Russian National Research Medical University

5. RUDN University

6. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

7. National Research Nuclear University MEPI

8. Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration

9. Moscow State Pedagogical University

10. Finance Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation

11. Bauman Moscow State Technical University

12. Moscow State Institute of International Relations

13. N.R.U. Moscow Power Engineering Institute

14. Moscow Aviation Institute

15. Plekhanov Russian University of Economics

16. Russian State University for the Humanities

17. State University of Management

18. Russian State Social University

19. National University of Science and Technology "MISIS"

20. Moscow State Linguistic University

21. New Economic School

22. Russian State University of Oil and Gas

23. mendeleev university of chemical technology of russia.

24. Moscow Polytech

25. Moscow State University of Railway Engineering

26. National Research University of Electronic Technology

27. Moscow State Technological University "Stankin"

28. Pushkin State Russian Language Institute

29. Russian State Agricultural University

30. Moscow International University

Universities for Psychology near Moscow

Psychology subfields in moscow.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Students interested in conducting research under the direction of psychology faculty may enroll in Research Participation (Psych 498 or 499).

• Check the bulletin board for listings. It is located on the 2nd floor of Johnson Tower or contact Psychology research faculty via email.
• Go to Johnson Tower 233 to pick up a “Psych 497, 498, 499” form.
• Take the form to the person you will be working with and ask him/her about the work. If you agree to work with him/her, the Mentor’s signature is required on the form.
• The cumulative maximum credit hours for Psych 498 is (8). You may take (4) credits of Psych 499 per semester and it may be repeated for an unlimited number of credits.
• Remember, one credit is equivalent to 3 hours of work per week.
• Be sure to register for Psych 498 or 499 along with your other courses.

Undergraduate Research Grants

To develop and showcase outstanding undergraduate research in psychology, the Department of Psychology awards research grants each fall and spring semester to undergraduates conducting independent research projects under the direction of psychology faculty.

To be eligible for a research grant, the student project must fulfill the following criteria:

• It must be developed in collaboration with a mentor on the psychology faculty.
• It must have scientific merit.
• It must include an original contribution by the student. That is to say, the scientific question and the written proposal should be as student-driven as possible.

In addition, applicants should have some previous research experience before they apply (e.g., Psych 498 credits) and they must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.

Research grants of up to $750.00 will be awarded to defray costs associated with conducting the project. Applicants may request any amount of money up to, but not exceeding, $750.00. In their proposals, applicants should outline why the funds are needed to complete the project and provide a budget that specifies how the funds will be used. Grant recipients will be selected and announced annually in March and November. All recipients will present the results of their projects at the Department of Psychology’s Undergraduate Research Symposium , held each year in April. For this reason, projects funded in November must be completed by April of the following year. Those funded in March must be completed by April of the following year.

Applications for research grants are available in the Department of Psychology main office (Johnson Tower 233). Proposals are reviewed each fall and spring semester by the selection committee. Deadlines for submission vary from semester to semester, but typically occur in late Oct each fall semester and mid-March each spring semester. Students interested in applying for a research grant are encouraged to talk to their faculty research mentors about this opportunity.

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Initiated in 2002, the Undergraduate Research Initiative is designed to recognize and reward outstanding undergraduate research within the Department of Psychology. Each year, undergraduate students are invited to submit proposals for original research projects. Students design these projects with the assistance of psychology faculty. These projects reflect the diverse interests of our students and faculty, and include both basic and applied research. Each spring, the results of these projects are presented at Department of Psychology Undergraduate Research Symposium, an event open to the entire university and Pullman/Moscow community. Joining the grant recipients are other undergraduate presenters who are conducting psychological research under the direction of faculty mentors. This event has steady grown in size since 2002.

In conjunction with the symposium’s poster session, a guest speaker gives an invited presentation on his/her research within the field of psychology. Past guest speakers have included:

• 2003: Dr. Robert Horner (WSU alumnus; Department of Psychology, University of Oregon) “Conducting Behavioral Science to Improve Our Schools and Communities”
• 2004: Dr. Carl Swander (WSU alumnus; co-owner of Ergometrics and Applied Personnel Research, Inc.) “The Future of Hiring: Research Drives Exciting Advances in Job Simulation”
• 2005: Dr. Gregory Belenky (research professor and director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center at WSU Spokane) “Sleep and Human Performance.”
• 2006: Dr. Rand Walker (Clinical Services Director of the Center on Disabilities and Human Development) “The Real Scoop on the Role of Research in Clinical Psychology”
• 2007: Dr. Timothy Smith (Department of Psychology; University of Utah) “Marriage and the Heart: Behavior During Marital Conflict Predicts Coronary Artery Disease”
• 2008: Dr. G. Alan Marlatt (Department of Psychology; University of Washington) “Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors”
• 2009: Dr. David Strayer (Department of Psychology, University of Utah) “Multi-Tasking in the Automobile: Are We Being Driven to Distraction?”
• 2010: Dr. Maureen Schmitter-Edgecomb (Department of Psychology, Washington State University) “Aging and Dementia: Memory, Everyday Activities and Intervention”
• 2011: Dr. Brady Duchaine (Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College) “Exploring Human Social Perception via Deficits and Disruptions.”
• 2012: Dr. Scott Lilienfeld (Department of Psychology, Emory University) “Public Skepticism of Psychology: Why Many People Perceive the Study of Human Behavior as Unscientific.”

The following are quotes from past grant recipients about their experience conducting research as an undergraduate:

“My experience in research goes onto my resume as well as my transcript. I feel that it gives me an edge over other applications and shows my responsibility and determination to potential employers and graduate programs.” (Kristie-Lea Kelley, ’04 Zoology BS) “This experience strengthened my knowledge about psychology and I hope that the knowledge and experience gained will benefit my future goal of graduate school. I hope this experience, along with my previous experience with neuroscience research, makes me a first choice candidate.” (Summer Sweet, ’04 Psych BS & Neuroscience BS) “Being encouraged to produce and develop research proposals at the undergraduate level is very motivating and inspiring. It gives a student the chance to test out areas of interest in research and further helps to decide post-graduation plans.” (Kelby L. Holtfreter, ’05 Psych BS & Neuroscience BS) “My experiences involving research will aid me in my future goals of becoming a valued researcher in the field of behavior analysis. The opportunity to perform my own research will contribute to better performance and acclimation in any type of scientific environment. It promotes flexibility in problem-solving and critical analysis of theoretical concepts.” (Shea Colleen Bower, ’04 Psych BS) “I now feel that medicine without understanding the foundations of research is rather pointless. I hope to combine my knowledge of medicine and clinical psychology.” (James Bales, ’04 Psych BS & Neuroscience BS) “[Research] helped me to improve many skills such as time management, verbal and written communication and collaborative skills. Although my current research is not directly related to the field [I eventually hope to enter], it taught me many skills that will enable me to pursue my goals. Graduate school and Ph.D. programs require a lot of research and with this background, completing such projects should be a lot easier.” (Emily Verbon, ’04 Psych BS) “The best part about doing research is the extended interactions I have had with people I work with, both professors and graduate students.” (Jeremiah Brown, ’03 Psych BS) “The best part about undergraduate research is the chance to gain practical experience in your chosen field (or a related one) that can help you determine if you actually enjoy doing that type of work. It is also a great opportunity to make contact with researchers in the field and expand your knowledge of career possibilities.” (Victoria Cussen, ’03 Psych BS)

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Impact of Films: Changes in Young People’s Attitudes after Watching a Movie

Nowadays films occupy a significant portion of the media products consumed by people. In Russia, cinema is being considered as a means of individual and social transformation, which makes a contribution to the formation of the Russian audience’s outlook, including their attitudes towards topical social issues. At the same time, the question of the effectiveness of films’ impact remains an open question in psychological science. According to the empirical orientation of our approach to the study of mass media influence, our goal was to obtain new data on the positive impact of films based on specific experimental research. The task was to identify changes in the attitudes of young people, as the most active viewers, towards topical social issues after watching a specifically selected film. Using a psychosemantic technique that included 25 scales designed to identify attitudes towards elderly people, respondents evaluated their various characteristics before and after watching the film. Using a number of characteristics related to the motivational, emotional and cognitive spheres, significant changes were revealed. At the same time, significant differences were found in assessments of the elderly between undergraduate students and postgraduate students. After watching the film, postgraduate students’ attitudes towards elderly people changed in a positive way, while undergraduate students’ negative assessments only worsened. The revealed opposite trends can be explained by individual differences of respondents, which include age, educational status as an indicator of individual psychological characteristics, the experience of interaction with elderly people and, as a result, attitudes towards elderly people at the time before watching the movie. The finding that previous attitudes mediate the impact of the film complements the ideas of the contribution of individual differences to media effects. Most of the changes detected immediately after watching the movie did not remain over time. A single movie viewing did not have a lasting effect on viewers’ attitudes, and it suggests the further task of identifying mechanisms of the sustainability of changes.

1. Introduction

With the development of information technology, a person’s immersion in the field of mass media is steadily increasing. A significant portion of consumed media products is occupied by cinema. According to sociological surveys, going to the cinema is the most popular way of spending leisure time in Russia today ( http://www.fond-kino.ru/news/kto-ty-rossijskij-kinozritel/ ); the audiences of cinemas are growing, the core of which are 18-24 years olds, as well as the frequency of visits—every tenth Russian goes to the cinema several times a month ( https://wciom.ru/index.php?id=236&uid=1785 ; https://wciom.ru/fileadmin/file/reports_conferences/2018/2018-04-03_kino.pdf ; http://www.fond-kino.ru/news/portret-kinoauditorii-rezultaty-monitoringa-za-i-kvartal-2019-goda/ ), the opportunities and frequency of Internet viewings is expanding, while interest in TV shows is also increasing. The importance of the role that cinema plays in Russia is also confirmed by the close attention currently being paid to the development of the cinema industry: the priority topics of state financing are defined (e.g., “Law and order: the heroes of modern society in the fight against crime terror, extremism and corruption”, “On the continuity of military generations, on the successors of military traditions”, "Images, patterns of behavior and creative motivation of our contemporary—a man of labor, in the military or a scientist"), while state programs are being launched to open new cinema theatres in small towns. Сinema becomes a “tool for broadcasting state ideology to the masses” (according to S. Zizek [ 1 ]), and is also being considered as a “means of individual and social transformation” (according to T. Kashani [ 2 ]) [ 3 ]. As a result, films are expected to form beliefs, influence opinions and change attitudes, including towards topical social issues.

However, the question of the efficiency of films remains open in psychology. In general, this is a key issue for mass communication research: how much emotion, cognition and behavior are changed under the influence of mass media [ 4 , 5 ]. There are various concepts about this: from “theories of a minimal effect” to “theories of a strong effect” [ 6 ]. Thus, for example, cultivation theory considers that mass communication contributes to the assimilation of commonly accepted values, norms and forms of behavior [ 7 ]; and a meta-analysis of studies leads to the conclusion that there is a relationship between the broadcast mass media image of reality and people’s attitudes towards it [ 8 , 9 ]. Despite criticisms, cultivation theory is currently being developed [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. On the other hand, supporters of the opposite viewpoint point out the weak effects of mass communication, caused, for example, by the fact that people are becoming more and more subject of their mass media activity as a result of a wider variety of sources of information now and expanding their choices [ 14 , 15 ].

It seems difficult to identify a single mechanism of mass media impact on the human psyche and behavior and to obtain an unambiguous answer to the question about its efficiency [ 6 ]. This is due to the interconnection of various factors that mediate the influence of mass media (personal experience, realistic content, depth of identification with heroes, personality traits, etc.) [ 16 , 17 , 18 ], as well as those factors that constantly impact persons besides those in the media. Therefore, our thoughts and ideas about this issue are largely based on empirical research data, and are not limited to one theory [ 19 ].

When referring to research of cinema, we can find data on the diverse effects of film exposure. It should be noted that the effectiveness of the impact is determined by what it is directed at: it is more difficult to change human behavior than to influence opinions or attitudes [ 4 , 6 ]. In this regard, there is still a debatable problem on the influence of the media on the aggressive behavior of people [ 20 ]. This research focuses on the potential of pro-social, "humanistic" impact of films and their effectiveness in solving topical social issues. The studies reveal the influence of films on people’s beliefs and opinions, stereotypes and attitudes. Movies can have a significant impact on gender and ethnic stereotypes [ 21 , 22 ], change attitudes towards certain groups of people and cause newly formed opinions on various issues. For example, HIV films contributed to sympathy to people living with HIV [ 4 ], TV series with transgender characters contributed to positive attitudes towards transgender persons [ 23 ]; the portrayal of mental disorders in movies had an effect on people’s knowledge about and attitudes toward the mentally ill [ 24 , 25 ]. Also, viewing an empathy-arousing film about immigrants induced more positive attitudes toward them [ 26 ], and watching a movie offering a positive depiction of gay men reduced homophobia [ 27 ]. Other films influenced people’s attitude towards smoking and their intentions to quit [ 28 , 29 ], while a series with a positive donation message helped viewers to make decisions about their own donation [ 30 ]. It has been shown that emotional involvement in viewing, evaluated using surveys drawing on theories of social learning and social representations, increases the effectiveness of influence [ 30 ]; immersion in narrative, that correlates with the need for cognition, and is characterized by a shift of focus from the real world to the depicted one, explains the power of impact within the framework of transportation theory [ 31 , 32 ].

Cinema can change people’s opinions on specific issues without affecting more stable constructs: for example, the film “JFK” dedicated to the Kennedy assassination influenced judgments about the causes of this crime, but generally did not change the political beliefs of the audience [ 33 ]; at the same time, the movies “Argo” and “Zero Dark Thirty” changed viewers’ opinions about the U.S. government that reflected in an improvement in sentiments about this government and its institutions [ 34 ]. Movies create images of other countries and stimulate interest in them. For example, European films shaped young viewers’ ideas about other European countries—such results were obtained in a study of the role of films and series in the daily life of young Germans through interviews and focus groups [ 35 ]. Another study showed that whether the movies were violent, scary or happy, the more the viewers were immersed in the stories, the more favorable impressions they had of the places featured in them [ 36 ].

Various positive effects of films on children and adolescents were revealed. Dramatic films taught teenagers about social interaction with the opposite sex and adults [ 37 ], had a positive impact on their self-concept [ 38 ], and, as shown by experiments, increased ethnic tolerance [ 39 ]; humanistically oriented movies improved skills of children in communicating with peers, increased their desire to help and understand others [ 40 , 41 ].

One of the prime examples of positive impact is Cli-fi movies, which clearly show what we can expect in the near future, and offers ways to think about what can be done to avoid the darkest predictions. Thus, after watching the film “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004), viewers recognized their responsibility for the Earth’s ecology and the need to change consumer attitudes towards nature [ 42 ]. In general, the screening of films on climate issues increases the number of online requests and media discussions on these issues [ 43 ].

It should be noted that when analyzing the impact of films, conclusions about their effectiveness are the result of different methodological approaches, which have varying advantages and limitations. Content analysis reveals the images, attitudes, stereotypes broadcast by films (e.g., stereotypical portrayals of India [ 44 ], or images of scientists and current scientific ideas [ 45 ]) on large data sets; however, questions remain about effectiveness, strength and sustainability of the impact on the audience. The influence of films can be investigated through a survey of viewers; based on this, conclusions are drawn about the links between a person’s attitudes and his/her viewer experience, such as in the study of gender attitudes and their correlations with teen movie-viewing habits [ 21 ]. In experimental studies, exposure effects are detected using pre- and post-film questionnaires; however, the time interval between testing and a film screening, such as a few weeks before viewing the film or a several days after [ 26 , 27 , 29 ], can lead to distortion of the results that are caused by the influence on the viewers’ attitudes of other factors besides the film; moreover, usually it is not investigated whether new attitudes are retained over time. Often the effects of films are analyzed in experimental conditions where participants watch only short cut scenes from existing films [ 24 ], which limits the extrapolation of the results.

According to the empirical orientation of our approach, the goal was to obtain new data on the positive impact of films based on a specific experimental study. The task was to identify changes in young people’s attitudes towards topical social issues after watching a specifically selected film. Participants had to watch the full version of an existing fiction film. They were tested just before and immediately after watching the movie in order to avoid the influence of other variables on viewers’ attitudes. Repeated testing (two weeks after the first viewing) was intended to reveal the sustainability of the changes caused by the film.

In the process of developing the design of the work, it was specified what attitudes would be studied. The choice was determined, first of all, by the social relevance of the topic, but outside the focus of the media in order to reduce the impact of other media sources, and on the other hand, by the availability of a suitable film. Important topics as ethnic stereotypes, attitudes toward people with disabilities, etc. were considered. However, the choice of the topics had to be restricted for various reasons. For example, identifying attitudes toward certain professions (e.g., engineer), whose prestige has significantly declined in Russia in recent decades, was difficult due to the lack of relevant films popularizing them. At the same time, despite the availability of humanistically oriented films dedicated to people with disabilities, the identification of changes in attitudes to them was complicated by the need to take into account additional factors caused by increased attention to the topic and active discussion in various media, which could distort the influence of a film.

Given the limitations and opportunities for the implementation of research tasks, the subject of this study the attitudes towards elderly people. At present, attention to the topic concerning elderly people is growing in Russia, but there is still a prevalence of negative stereotypes [ 46 ]. A characteristic manifestation of age discrimination against the elderly—ageism—is a biased attitude towards them, especially among young people, as well as a low assessment of their intellectual abilities, activity and "usefulness" for society.

Studies show that the mass media have a significant impact on negative attitudes towards the elderly [ 47 ]: children have already demonstrated the same stereotypes of the elderly that were depicted in the media [ 48 ], while young people at large viewed the elderly in general as ineffective, dependent, lonely, poor, angry and disabled, which corresponded to the negative representations of elderly people in the most popular teen movies that cultivated their stereotypes [ 49 ]. Research of TV films from the 1980s–1990s revealed the stereotypes of elderly people as being social outsiders [ 50 ], but at the same time a display of positive prejudice contributed to an increase in tolerance towards them within society.

Improving the attitudes of young people towards elderly people is an important social and educational task, the solution of which involves the use of diverse opportunities. Various social projects can be implemented for this purpose, for example, "friendly visitor" types of programs in which young people visit the elderly [ 51 , 52 ], but also mass media, including films, which have a high potential for impact [ 53 , 54 ]. It was found that watching documentary films had a positive effect on both knowledge about aging and attitudes towards the elderly [ 55 ]; these films significantly improved empathy towards elderly people among university students [ 56 ].

We suggested that fiction movies, popular especially among young people, could contribute to changing existing biased attitudes towards elderly people. Based on this, the hypothesis states that there is a connection between watching a positive film about the elderly and changes in young people’s attitudes towards them in a positive way.

2.1. Participants

A total of 70 individuals participated in this study. Group one contained 40 students of The State Academic University for Humanities (25% male and 75% female). The average age was 19 (M = 19, standard deviation SD = 2.4). Group two consisted of 30 postgraduate students from Russian Academy of Sciences (47% male and 53 % female). The average age was 24 (M = 24, standard deviation SD = 1.6).

All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the local ethics committee (Review Board).

2.2. Materials

2.2.1. film.

The film—“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (2011), the main characters of which were elderly people, was chosen to be shown to the respondents ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1412386/ ). Prior to this, a qualitative analysis of empirical material revealed the impact of this film on the attitudes towards elderly people among Russian viewers of different ages. Their reviews on the film, taken from Internet resources devoted to cinema, indicated cognitive effects, expressed in positive changes of ideas about the elderly; the film was perceived quite optimistically and gave hope [ 19 ]. It was supposed that the movie that humorously shows various situations happening to the elderly heroes would also affect the opinion of young people about elderly people, as it allowed to look at them from new viewpoints, to see that age is not an obstacle to having a full life, and even, conversely, open up new prospects.

2.2.2. Measures

To achieve the goal of the study, a psychosemantic approach is used, which is the most appropriate for studying a person’s attitudes towards various objects of reality by reconstructing individual meanings [ 57 ]. This approach allows us to determine the differences in evaluations of the same object (caused by mass media as well), made by different groups of respondents at different times. For example, changes in the stereotypes of viewers were revealed in relation to representatives of another nation (Russians about the Japanese) during viewing of a TV show [ 57 ]. In this work, the psychosemantic technique was used, developed specifically to identify attitudes towards the elderly (based on the Kelly’s Repertoire lattice method) [ 46 ]. The technique included 25 7-point scales, according to which respondents rated elderly people. For comparative analysis, the modern youth were evaluated by participants with the same scales.

The respondents also noted the frequency of watching movies ("every day"/"several times a week"/"several times a month"/"several times a year and less"), and evaluated the level of enjoying the film shown ("did not like"/"rather did not like than liked"/"rather liked than disliked"/"liked").

2.3. Procedure

The study was conducted in three stages: the respondents filled out the psychosemantic test before watching the film, then immediately after viewing and again in 2 weeks. During stage 3, only group one participated in the study.

The respondents did not see the film before participating in the study.

2.4. Statistical Methods

In accordance with the data characteristics, non-parametric comparative methods were used. To determine the differences in the assessments before and after watching the movie, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used. To determine the differences in the assessments between different groups of respondents, the Mann-Whitney U test was used. The IBM SPSS Statistics 20 statistical software package was used for data processing.

3. Results and Discussion

As a result of the preliminary data analysis of the group one (students), significant differences were obtained in the assessments given by them to the elderly before and immediately after watching the movie (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.05). However, the analysis of the combined sample (students and postgraduate students) did not reveal such significant differences. Therefore, it was decided to compare the assessments of these two groups of respondents. It appeared that the evaluation of elderly people differed among students and postgraduate students before the film was shown (18 of 25 scales, Mann—Whitney test, p < 0.05). This result could be explained by the individual differences of the participants (students and postgraduates), which led to the necessity to correct the hypothesis and form additional research tasks, including the comparison of groups. Further analysis was carried out separately for each group of respondents, but not for the united group.

Significant differences shown by respondents of the group one before and immediately after watching the film (students) were found in 12 out of the 25 scales ( Table 1 ).

Changes in assessments of the elderly people after watching the film (students).

Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Only the significant differences are represented: b—based on negative ranks, c—based on positive ranks. * inversive scales: a higher rating means a more negative attitude

The group of students revealed changes associated with ideas about activities. The respondents saw the elderly as having less initiative, and being purposeless and weak. Moreover, they defined elderly people’s way of life as more passive, having no desire for knowledge or for living a full life. The results immediately after watching the film demonstrated that the audience perceived the elderly as being those who strived less to learn new things and perceived them to be less positive and more limited in their interests. Also, the changes of assessments related to the emotional sphere were discovered. The elderly were characterized as even more unrestrained and conflict-prone with a tendency towards depression and showing no emotions.

Comparative analysis of assessments of elderly people before and after watching the film, given by respondents of the group two (postgraduate students), showed significant differences on 14 of the 25 scales ( Table 2 ). Postgraduate students evaluated the elderly, unlike students, more positively after watching the film. Changes on 9 common scales (purposeless - purposeful, cheerful - prone to depression, passive - initiative, conflict - peaceful, traditional - modern, etc.) for students and postgraduate students turned out to be of different directions. After watching the film, the elderly seemed to be more purposeful, active and successful, responsible and with a good sense of humor. There were changes in assessments of the emotional sphere (more cheerful, peaceful) and cognitive (more intelligent) in references to novelty and life in general (the strive to learn new things, the desire for a full life).

Changes in assessments of elderly people after watching the film (postgraduates).

Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The significant differences are only represented: b—based on positive ranks, c—based on negative ranks. * inversive scales: higher rating means more negative attitude.

Thus, the data revealed changes in attitude towards the elderly people after watching the film. According to a number of their characteristics related to motivational aspects—regulatory, emotional and cognitive spheres—significant changes were revealed, but the tendency of these changes was unexpected. After group one (students) watched the film, a tendency of worsening assessments was found. It was also determined that before the film, students described the elderly more negatively as being less intelligent and interesting, more conflict prone, angry and aggressive than young people (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.01). This generally negative attitude can be explained by a special view of quite young people on the "old age". But why, despite the attempt of the filmmakers to make the image of the elderly positive enough, did the film fail to change students’ attitude? Instead, it made the image of elderly persons even less attractive. Meanwhile, there was an opposite trend in group two (postgraduate students). Their assessments of elderly people after watching the film changed for the better. The postgraduate students, unlike undergraduate students, had already demonstrated a more "adequate" view on the elderly before watching the film. Despite a number of negative assessments, the elderly were seen by them as smart and striving for a full life, sociable and interesting.

Comparison of the two groups of respondents confirmed significant differences between students and postgraduate students in the evaluation of the elderly after watching the film ( Table 3 ). The assessments given by undergraduate students and postgraduates differed significantly on 21 out of 25 scales.

Comparison of groups of undergraduate students and postgraduates by assessments after watching the film.

Mann-Whitney U test. The significant differences are only represented.

The opposite tendencies found in assessments after watching the film could be explained by differences in individual characteristics of respondents, which were not initially considered in our study as factors mediating the impact of the film: age of respondents (more subtle differentiation), educational status, as an indicator of individual psychological characteristics and experiences of interactions with elderly people. The suggestion of differences between students and postgraduates by personality is consistent with the results of other studies [ 58 ], and is indirectly confirmed by the fact that only about 1 out of 40 students become postgraduate students (data for Russia). In our study, differences between students and postgraduate students already manifested in differences in their attitudes towards the elderly before watching the film.

Then the film, which showed some negative aspects of life for elderly people (loneliness, needlessness, diseases, fears, physical limitations “comic” behavior), despite the optimistic ending, could strengthen the negative attitudes of very young people (students) towards the elderly, whose images might not yet be fully formed. On the other hand, postgraduate students might have a more complex view on elderly people, because of age and more diverse interactions with the elderly, for example, in scientific work. In this case, their perceptions of the film could be focused on its positive ideas, strengthening their previously formed positive image of an elderly person. In addition, postgraduate students, who have chosen the scientific career path, most likely have a high level of analytical skills that contributed to more complex perceptions of the world and a deep assessment of the phenomena that could affect their attitudes towards the older generation and the interpretation of their images in the movies. At the same time, the characteristics of the film itself, as well as the cultural differences between its creators and viewers, might cause additional negative impacts on students’ perceptions. Comedy, as a genre, could have an opposite effect. Younger people perceived the desire of older characters to give their lives new meanings in their own way and they saw a futility in these attempts. Respondents with more experience could be more tolerant to the specifics of the genre, and their perception of the film was more complicated and implemented in a broader context.

Thus, comparison of the results of the analysis for both groups of respondents suggests that the different changes in viewers’ attitudes towards objects of reality that occur after watching a movie can be explained by differences in the attitudes before watching the film. This effect can also be explained by the degree of identification with the characters [ 31 , 59 , 60 ], which is influenced by the previous attitudes of the viewers. For example, a study of the impact of films on attitudes towards migrants showed that greater identification with the characters induced more positive attitudes toward immigration, but only when previous prejudice was low or moderate [ 26 ]. In this regard, the various effects of the film on students and postgraduate students could be caused by the different degrees of their identification with the characters of the film, despite the fact that a large difference in age with the characters could complicate this process for all participants in the study. The conclusion that previous attitudes mediate the impact of the film complements the ideas of the contribution of individual differences to media effects [ 61 ]. In addition, this conclusion has practical value: in order to achieve the desired impact of films, it is necessary to identify the viewers’ individual attitudes before a screening.

At the third stage of the study, it was examined whether changes remained over time. Two weeks after watching the movie, respondents (group one) re-took the test.

Significant differences were found only on 4 scales (strives to a full life - lost the meaning of life, craving for spirituality - limited interests, quickly tired – high in stamina, traditional - modern) ( Table 4 ). The continuing changes in the characteristics related to the inferiority and limitations of elderly people’s lives may indicate the most striking and memorable moments in the film that had the greatest impact on viewers. The assessments of the other characteristics did not differ significantly from those that were identified before watching the film. That leads to the conclusion that a single movie viewing, in general, did not have a lasting effect on the viewers’ attitudes toward the elderly. Most of the changes discovered immediately after watching the movie did not remain over time. Studying the mechanisms of the formation of sustainable changes is a task for future research. One of the directions of such research could be to investigate the influence of additional cognitive processing (e.g., discussion after watching the movie) on the viewers’ attitudes towards objects and the sustainability of changes over time.

Changes in assessments of the elderly people 2 weeks after watching the film (students).

Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Only the significant differences are represented: b—based on negative ranks, c—based on positive ranks. * inversive scales: a higher rating means a more negative attitude.

The correlation between the gender of the respondents and changes in attitudes after watching the film was determined by comparing the assessments separately for males and females in each group. As a result, in group one, women were found to have significant differences in ratings on 13 scales, and men in three, two of which were common (no desire to learn anything - the desire to learn new skills, traditional - modern, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.05). The data showed greater changes in the attitudes among women than among men after watching the film. At the same time, a comparison of the male and female participants in the group two did not reveal such results. The analysis found an equal number of significant differences in assessments (on 10 scales) before and after watching the film (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.05). Thus, it can be assumed that gender had a lower impact on changes in attitudes after watching a film than other individual characteristics of respondents.

The data on the frequency of watching movies was obtained: 56% of respondents watch movies several times a week and more often, 44%—several times a month and less often. However, there were no differences between these viewers in the assessments before and after watching the film (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.05). The degree of general interest in cinema did not affect the change of viewers’ attitudes after watching the film.

It was not possible to determine the connection between liking the film and the changes in attitudes, since the differentiation of respondents by this factor was not found. Only six young people noted they did not like the film, while the others gave it a positive evaluation.

The study has limitations caused due to an assumption of no significant differences between students and postgraduates in the effectiveness of the film’s impact on them. The revealed differences between undergraduate students and postgraduate students led to the initial sample of young people being divided into two samples with smaller sizes already used during the research. In addition, for the same reason, some variables that could more accurately demonstrate the differences between students and postgraduate students and explain the effects of the film were not considered. The respondents’ attitudes before watching the film were taken into account, as well as additional factors on the impact effectiveness, such as the degree of general interest in cinema and liking of the viewed film, which could presumably increase its impacts. But a deeper study, for example, of the processes of identifying viewers with the film characters, probably linked to the viewers’ attitudes before watching, could reinforce these findings.

4. Conclusions

As a result of the study, changes in the viewers’ attitudes after watching the film were identified. Young people changed their assessments of regulatory, cognitive and emotional characteristics of the elderly people after watching a film about the elderly. At the same time, significant differences were found between students and postgraduate students in their assessments of the elderly. After watching the film, students’ negative attitudes towards elderly people got worse, while postgraduate students’ assessments, on the contrary, changed for the better. The revealed opposite trends can be explained by individual differences between the respondents, which include age, educational status as an indicator of individual psychological characteristics, experience of interaction with elderly people and, as a result, attitudes towards elderly people at the time before watching the film. Most of the changes in the viewers’ attitudes detected immediately after watching the movie did not remain over time.

In general, the study confirms the potential for a positive impact, as in the case of improving the postgraduates’ attitudes, but at the same time demonstrates the need to take into account the individual differences of viewers to achieve desired results. In particular, differences in attitudes before watching a movie are probably causes of differences in the effectiveness of the film’s impact. The initially negative attitude towards elderly people among students could contribute to the negative influence of the film on them. The obtained results form the basis of further research and pose the important questions: clarifying the contribution of individual differences to the effectiveness of the impact, forecasting the positive influence of movies on different groups of people and determining the mechanisms of the sustainability of changes.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the engagement and involvement of the research participants.

The research was carried out within a state assignment of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, project №0159-2019-0005.

Conflicts of Interest

There is no conflict of interest.

Maria Falikman

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Teaching professor of psychology

B.sc., m.sc., ph.d., lomonosov moscow state university, russia; dr. habil..

[email protected]

Maria Falikman earned a Ph.D. at Lomonosov Moscow State University and started her research and teaching career there. Most recently, Dr. Falikman has been Professor of Psychology at HSE University in Moscow, Russia, where she also served as Head of the School of Psychology. Under her leadership, the international reputation of the School of Psychology increased significantly. 

During her early years of teaching, Dr. Falikman developed and taught the first Introduction to Cognitive Science course in Russia, and launched the first Cognitive Science Seminar series there as well. She has recorded approximately thirty popular web lectures for the Postnauka/Serious Science project, including a Cognitive Psychology course, and has been featured in two documentaries, one about the evolution of the human brain and the other about cognitive robotics. She is author of the Psychology of Attention handbook and co-editor of four Readers in Psychology in Russian—Cognitive Psychology: History and State of the Art; Horizons of Cognitive Psychology; Psychology of Thinking; Psychology of Motivation and Emotion.

Dr. Falikman was among a select number of Russian and Buddhist scholars invited to engage with the Dalai Lama on issues of consciousness and attention in a series of presentations and conversations in 2017, She has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and an Erasmus+ Guest Scholar at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Dr. Falikman has twice been awarded the Russian National Psychological Award—in 2013 for the above-mentioned Reader in Cognitive Psychology, and in 2020 for a public workshop on anticipation and predictive coding. She was honored with the HSE University’s Best Teacher Award in 2019, 2020, and 2021. 

A cognitive psychologist with broad interests, Dr. Falikman’s research topics include visual attention and top-down influences upon visual information processing, joint attention, cultural evolution and digital transformations of the human mind from a cultural-historical perspective, and the mind-body problem.

Dr. Falikman is also a member of PEN International and an award-winning literary and poetry translator. She has translated a number of British and American authors and also published two poetry collections.

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How to Get Started on Your First Psychology Experiment

Acquiring even a little expertise in advance makes science research easier..

Updated May 16, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

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• Students often struggle at the beginning of research projects—knowing how to begin.
• Research projects can sometimes be inspired by everyday life or personal concerns.
• Becoming something of an "expert" on a topic in advance makes designing a study go more smoothly.

One of the most rewarding and frustrating parts of my long career as a psychology professor at a small liberal arts college has been guiding students through the senior capstone research experience required near the end of their college years. Each psychology major must conduct an independent experiment in which they collect data to test a hypothesis, analyze the data, write a research paper, and present their results at a college poster session or at a professional conference.

The rewarding part of the process is clear: The students' pride at seeing their poster on display and maybe even getting their name on an article in a professional journal allows us professors to get a glimpse of students being happy and excited—for a change. I also derive great satisfaction from watching a student discover that he or she has an aptitude for research and perhaps start shifting their career plans accordingly.

The frustrating part comes at the beginning of the research process when students are attempting to find a topic to work on. There is a lot of floundering around as students get stuck by doing something that seems to make sense: They begin by trying to “think up a study.”

The problem is that even if the student's research interest is driven by some very personal topic that is deeply relevant to their own life, they simply do not yet know enough to know where to begin. They do not know what has already been done by others, nor do they know how researchers typically attack that topic.

Students also tend to think in terms of mission statements (I want to cure eating disorders) rather than in terms of research questions (Why are people of some ages or genders more susceptible to eating disorders than others?).

Needless to say, attempting to solve a serious, long-standing societal problem in a few weeks while conducting one’s first psychology experiment can be a showstopper.

Even a Little Bit of Expertise Can Go a Long Way

My usual approach to helping students get past this floundering stage is to tell them to try to avoid thinking up a study altogether. Instead, I tell them to conceive of their mission as becoming an “expert” on some topic that they find interesting. They begin by reading journal articles, writing summaries of these articles, and talking to me about them. As the student learns more about the topic, our conversations become more sophisticated and interesting. Researchable questions begin to emerge, and soon, the student is ready to start writing a literature review that will sharpen the focus of their research question.

In short, even a little bit of expertise on a subject makes it infinitely easier to craft an experiment on that topic because the research done by others provides a framework into which the student can fit his or her own work.

This was a lesson I learned early in my career when I was working on my own undergraduate capstone experience. Faced with the necessity of coming up with a research topic and lacking any urgent personal issues that I was trying to resolve, I fell back on what little psychological expertise I had already accumulated.

In a previous psychology course, I had written a literature review on why some information fails to move from short-term memory into long-term memory. The journal articles that I had read for this paper relied primarily on laboratory studies with mice, and the debate that was going on between researchers who had produced different results in their labs revolved around subtle differences in the way that mice were released into the experimental apparatus in the studies.

Because I already had done some homework on this, I had a ready-made research question available: What if the experimental task was set up so that the researcher had no influence on how the mouse entered the apparatus at all? I was able to design a simple animal memory experiment that fit very nicely into the psychological literature that was already out there, and this prevented a lot of angst.

Please note that my undergraduate research project was guided by the “expertise” that I had already acquired rather than by a burning desire to solve some sort of personal or social problem. I guarantee that I had not been walking around as an undergraduate student worrying about why mice forget things, but I was nonetheless able to complete a fun and interesting study.

My first experiment may not have changed the world, but it successfully launched my research career, and I fondly remember it as I work with my students 50 years later.

Frank McAndrew, Ph.D., is the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College.

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Study abroad in Moscow, Russia : Most popular universities for Psychology .

Are you thinking of studying Psychology, abroad? Below you can find the most popular universities and programmes to study Psychology in Moscow, Russia. This list is based on visitors on the Studyportals websites, listing more than 150,000 English-taught Bachelor's and Master's programmes world-wide.

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National Research University - Higher School of Economics (HSE)

Sechenov university, most popular psychology programmes for international students in moscow.

These are the most popular programmes among international students who are looking for a Psychology degree in Moscow.

Applied Social Psychology

Psycholinguistics of intercultural communication, study abroad in english.

To apply at one of these universities, you may need a proof of English proficiency. There are several standardised English tests that you can take to proof your English level, such as the PTE (Pearson Test of English), TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), CAE (Cambridge Advanced English) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System), offered by British Council and IDP. IELTS is the most popular of these tests, with British Council offering more than 1000 test locations and being accepted by more than 9,000 organisations world-wide.

About Psychology

Psychology degrees teach students about all aspects of how the human mind and psyche work. Psychology degrees offered by top universities and colleges deal with the understanding of individuals and their behaviour within society, considering the human stages of development. Graduates pf Psychology studies find careers in Counselling, Psychotherapy, Organisational Psychology, Special Education, Advertising, and more.

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Lev Vygotsky (Psychologist Biography)

Lev Semionovich Vygotsky was a Jewish-Russian psychologist who developed the Cultural-Historical Theory (also known as the Sociocultural Theory or the Social Development Theory). He believed community, culture, and social interaction play key roles in how children think and learn. Vygotsky also held the view that learning may differ from one culture to another. However, many of his theories are incomplete as he died when he was only 37 years old.

Lev Vygotsky's Childhood

Lev Vygotsky was born on November 17, 1896, in Orsha, Belarus. He was the second child in a family of eight children. His father, Simkha Vygodskii, worked as a banker and was known to have a stern personality. His mother, Cecelia Moiseievna, was a licensed teacher who devoted herself to her family and schooled her children at home.

During the time Vygotsky was born, Belarus was considered a part of the Russian Empire. When he was one year old, his family moved from Orsha to a nearby town called Gomel. Vygotsky was raised in a middle-class, nonreligious, Jewish family. His original family name is often rendered “Vygodskii” or “Vygodskaya.”

Vygotsky’s parents were fluent in a number of languages and they were very keen on giving him a good education. His father was very successful in banking and served as a model for Vygotsky to follow. Simkha Vygodskii often read philosophy and eventually introduced Lev to the works of Kant and Hegel. Vygotsky’s mother, Cecelia, introduced him to the German language, poetry, literature, and drama.

Simkha was very involved in the cultural activities in Gomel. He and his wife also founded a local public library. The collection of books they amassed had a positive effect on their large family. It helped to satisfy their children’s incredible love for reading.

Cecelia taught Lev to care for his younger siblings. She also ensured all the young ones shared in the household chores. In the evenings, Simkha and Cecelia held cultural sessions in their dining room and provided an intellectually stimulating environment for their children. The family frequently discussed topics related to literature, history, art, and theatre.

Vygotsky’s Educational Background

Vygotsky was homeschooled until he was fourteen years old. In addition to learning from his parents, he also had a private tutor named Solomon Ashpiz who taught him mathematics. In 1911, he enrolled at a private Jewish Gimnasium where he received a gold medal after completing his coursework. This distinction granted him the opportunity to attend a university in Russia.

In 1913, Vygotsky was selected to be a part of the 3% Jewish quota allowed for universities in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. He wanted to be trained as a teacher. However, Jewish teachers were not accepted at Government-sponsored schools in Russia before the revolution. To appease his parents, he eventually applied to the Moscow University medical school.

Higher Education

Although Vygotsky began his tertiary-level education studying medicine, his passion for the humanities and social sciences soon took over. He transferred to the Moscow University Law School before the end of his first semester. While studying law, he started attending classes at Shanyavsky People's University. Although this Jewish institution did not grant formal degrees, it gave him the opportunity to study linguistics, Jewish culture, philosophy, psychology, and literature.

Vygotsky completed his master’s degree in law in 1917. However, his formal studies at Moscow University were interrupted by the Moscow Bolshevik Uprising that began in October 1917. By the time Vygotsky left school, he was fluent in German and French, and able to read Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and English. In 1917, he returned to Gomel to teach as well as continue his reading on psychology and education. However, it did not take long for civil war and famine to affect his hometown.

Vygotsky spent seven years as a schoolteacher in Gomel. While he worked as the head of the psychology lab at the Teachers Training Institute, he also gathered the information he needed for his doctoral thesis. In 1924, he participated in the Second All-Russian Psychoneurological Congress in Petrograd (later renamed Leningrad). At the congress, he presented the paper “Methodology of Reflexological and Psychological Research.”

Vygotsky’s youthful age and bold choice of topic impressed several influential people at the congress. He was later invited to become a research fellow at the Institute of Experimental Psychology in Moscow. In 1925, he earned his doctoral degree after completing his thesis titled “The Psychology of Art.” Vygotsky spent ten years conducting research at the Institute.

Cultural-Historical Theory of Development

Vygotsky believed in a dynamic relationship between humans and society. He thought society could impact people, and people could impact society. Vygotsky claimed this interaction allowed children to learn slowly and continuously from more experienced people such as their parents or teachers. However, as different people live in different cultures, he believed the learning process may vary from one culture to another.

According to Vygotsky, babies are born with the basic mental functions they need for intellectual growth. These basic functions include attention, sensation, perception, and memory. He thought of infants as being naturally curious and actively involved in their own learning. He also believed culture and language greatly influence how young children think and what they think about.

Vygotsky and Memory

To better understand how culture may affect a child’s cognitive development, it may help if you consider the concept of human memory. Memory is a basic mental function that a typical infant is born with. At the most basic level, memory is primarily dependent on biological factors such as eating healthy food and having a healthy brain. However, the addition of culture can extend this natural ability.

Throughout human history many children have used memory aids to improve their memory and boost learning. They may carry pebbles, tie knots in a piece of rope, take notes on a piece of paper, repeat facts orally, or use another strategy. Each of these strategies offers cognitive benefits to children. However, the specific memory strategy a child uses is largely determined by the culture in which he or she is raised.

Language Development in Children

Vygotsky also believed children learn language from their social interactions. He viewed language as a vital tool for communicating with the external world. Vygotsky theorized that language plays two important functions in cognitive growth:

• It helps adults to give information to children
• It helps children to develop intellectually
• During his research, Vygotsky identified three different forms of language:
• Social speech - This form of language starts at about age 2 and is used to communicate with other people.
• Private speech - This form of language starts at about age 3 and involves audible speech directed to the self. It is used to improve self-regulation and spark intellectual growth. The child learns to work with himself or herself in the same way he or she would work with an adult tutor.
• Inner speech - This form of language starts at about age 7 and occurs when private speech becomes completely internalized.

According to Vygotsky, language and thinking ability are separate processes when a child is born. He believed these two processes begin to merge when the child is about three years old. He also claimed that the merger of language and thought eventually leads to the development of inner speech. For Vygotsky, this internalization of language is essential for further cognitive development later in life.

Although Vygotsky believed children are curious by nature, he clearly recognized that adults play a crucial role in maximizing learning. Children may imitate the actions of adults around them, receive guidance from parents, or work along with older teachers to improve their performance. Two key principles that underpin Vygotsky’s theories on cognitive growth are the “More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)” and the “Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).” Both principles are explained below.

More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

Vygotsky asserted that children learn best when they have social interactions with a more knowledgeable other (MKO). He defined the more knowledgeable other as the person who understands a topic or task better than the learner. The MKO may provide demonstrations or verbal instructions for the child to follow. The child then tries to understand the information, process it internally, and use it to guide his or her future performance.

In many cases, the more knowledgeable other is older and more experienced than the learner. However, there are situations where the MKO may be younger than the learner. For example, a teenager may be more knowledgeable than an elderly person at playing a particular video game or operating a new electronic device. The MKO and learner may also be the same age, which usually happens when children learn from their peers.

It is also possible for the more knowledgeable other to not be human. Just think about a book, a computer, or another device that is programmed with more information about a particular subject than the learner currently has. The learner may interact with the device and receive valuable instructions or explanations. As long as the instruction is provided within the zone of proximal development (ZPD), the learner can gain additional knowledge or skills.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky states that the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.” To put it simply, the ZPD is the gap between what the learner knows right now, and what he or she could know if helped by a more knowledgeable other (MKO). By working with an MKO, the learner may acquire the skills needed to access knowledge that is currently out of reach.

In Vygotsky’s day, there were three popular views about the relationship between a child’s cognitive development and learning:

• Cognitive Development must happen before a child can learn
• Learning and cognitive development are inseparable and always happen at the same time
• Cognitive development and learning are separate but interactive

Vygotsky disagreed with all three assumptions. In his opinion, learning should always occur before cognitive development. With the help of a skilled tutor, Vygotsky believed a child may learn skills that go far beyond their actual developmental level.

Scaffolding

This concept of using a tutor to improve learning is called scaffolding. Just as a literal scaffolding gives construction workers support and helps them to access new heights, Vygotsky scaffolding helps learners to gradually access new intellectual heights within their ZPD that are hard to get to on their own.

Vygotsky viewed the zone of proximal development as the area where the most crucial guidance should be given to help children develop higher mental functions. If the task is too easy (that is, below the lower boundary of the ZPD) then the child is not being helped to grow intellectually. If the task is too hard (that is, above the upper boundary of the ZPD) it will be impossible for the child to perform the task and he or she may become discouraged. Studies show that children learn best when they are encouraged to solve difficult tasks that are still within their zone of proximal development.

Applications of Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Theory

Vygotsky’s theories have brought a number of benefits to the classroom. For example, teachers are encouraged to determine the zone of proximal development for each student so that they can assign tasks that promote mental growth. When a new topic is introduced, some teachers choose to do a short discussion or a short quiz before diving into the material. This strategy helps teachers to find the baseline knowledge of each student so they can tailor the course work for the best results.

The concept of scaffolding can also be used to great effect by teachers. Rather than sitting passively at their desks, teachers can promote intellectual growth by walking around the classroom and provide guidance as their students work. The principle can also be applied when assigning group work. By ensuring each group is composed of students with different levels of intellectual ability, stronger students can help weaker students to reach a higher level within their own ZPD.

Criticisms and Limitations of Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Theory

Vygotsky’s early death meant he did not have the opportunity to complete many of his theories. Additionally, he did not provide any specific hypotheses to test. This makes it difficult to refute any of his theories. Also, many of Vygotsky’s writings are only available in Russian so they have not received the same level of academic scrutiny as the work of other prominent psychologists.

The biggest criticism of Vygotsky’s work is possibly his assumption that his theories are applicable to all cultures. Some critics have noted that the concept of scaffolding is very dependent on verbal communication, so it may not be effective for all types of learning in all cultures.

Books, Awards, and Accomplishments

Vygotsky was a very active researcher and writer throughout his professional career. His primary interests included child development, education, language development, and cognition. He wrote many papers and essays and had extensive notes on his research findings. However, he died from tuberculosis before he could publish his first book.

Roughly six months after he died, Vygotsky’s close friends and associates took up the task of compiling, editing, and publishing his notes for him. His first book, “Myshlenie i rech” (translated in English as Thinking and Speech) was published in December 1934. The English translation was released in 1962. The book highlights Vygotsky’s view that oral language, inner speech, and the ability to think are all closely connected.

Since 1934, a number of books have been published that make reference to Vygotsky’s work and credit him posthumously. Some of these books include:

• Psychology of Art (1971)
• Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes (1980)
• Vygotsky Reader (1994)
• The Collected Works of L.S. Vygotsky (2011)
• The Essential Vygotsky (2013)

Vygotsky’s Personal Life

In the early 1920s, Vygotsky informally changed his Jewish-sounding birth name “Lev Símkhovich Výgodskii” to “Lev Semiónovich Vygótskii.” In 1924, he got married to Roza Smekhova and had two daughters (one was born in 1925 and the other in 1930). Vygotsky’s relatives and his daughters kept their original family name “Výgodskii.” In English texts, Lev’s surname is often spelled as “Vygotsky.”

Vygotsky’s professional career lasted only ten years. During this time, he had to fight several bouts of tuberculosis. The first attack occurred in 1920 when he was 23 years old. His family had a history of tuberculosis, so he became very concerned with death. Vygotsky gave his research and literary works to his mentor—Yuly Aykhenvald—in case he died from the disease.

Vygotsky often collaborated with fellow psychologists Alexander Luria and Alexi N. Leont'ev. Over time, they developed an approach to psychology based on Marxism that highlighted just how important social interaction is to human development.

On June 11, 1934, Lev Vygotsky died from tuberculosis. He was 37 years old. During the final days of his life, he was busy dictating the concluding chapter of his book “Thinking and Speech.” The last entry in his private notebook gives the impression that Vygotsky wished he could have contributed more to the field of psychology. He stated, “This is the final thing I have done in psychology – and I will like Moses die at the summit, having glimpsed the promised land but without setting foot on it. Farewell, dear creations. The rest is silence.”

Although Vygotsky lived and worked in the same era as Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, B.F. Skinner, and Ivan Pavlov, he did not receive the same acclaim they did during his lifetime. This is because much of Vygotsky’s work was suppressed while he was still alive. The Communist Party believed Vygotsky’s ideas were a threat to Stalinism. The political opposition he faced as well as his early death both contributed to his lack of recognition in the 1930s.

Although Vygotsky’s work was banned in Russia, his popularity increased soon after his death. Immediately after his passing, he was publicly recognized as one of the prominent psychologists in the country. When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, the ban on Vygotsky’s work was lifted. This allowed Vygotsky’s writings to become more accessible to other Russian psychologists. By the 1970s, Vygotsky’s work was having a major impact on researchers around the world.

Today, Vygotsky is considered to be one of the most respected psychologists to ever live. His writings continue to influence the fields of developmental and educational psychology, despite the fact that some academics believe there have been numerous distortions or mistranslations of his work. Perhaps more benefits can be gained by studying accurate translations of his writings or even his original notes. Vygotsky is sometimes referred to as the “Mozart of psychology” for the many brilliant theories he developed over just a short period of time.

Related posts:

• Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development (Definition + Examples)
• The Psychology of Long Distance Relationships
• Concrete Operational Stage (3rd Cognitive Development)
• Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI Test)
• Operant Conditioning (Examples + Research)

Reference this article:

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Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, Moscow: Russian Psychological Society, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 2009, 640 p.

Zinchenko Yu.P., Petrenko V.F. (2009). Introduction. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 6-8

This volume contains articles of Russian psychologists and is dedicated to the 11th European Congress of Psychology, which is held in July 2009, in Oslo, Norway. The main purpose of this edition is to introduce Russian contemporary psychology to international psychological community. The team of contributors occurred to be rather accidental. Most of them are psychologists who decided to participate in the Congress in Oslo and received travel grants from one of the national academic foundations: the Russian Foundation of Basic Research and the Russian Foundation for Humanities. A wish to participate in the European Congress, the financial support of the academic foundations and a manuscript in English, – these were the conditions of membership in this project. Such an occasional cast has both positive and negative aspects.

Keywords: Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 2009, history of psychology

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0000

Theory, History, and Methodology of Psychology

Andreeva G.M. (2009). The Difficult Way of Social Psychology in Russia. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 11-24

The article describes the main stages and directions of the development of social psychology in USSR and Russia. The comparison of theoretical approaches of Russian and Western social psychology is carried out. Special emphasis is made on the problem of social cognition and coping, which are important in the conditions of changing reality. New professional tasks of social psychology are discussed. The necessity of finding a new paradigm in social psychological investigations in conditions of cardinal transformations and ambiguity is stated as well as vectors and tendencies of its elaboration.

Keywords: social psychology in USSR, social psychology in Russia, theoretical and methodological background, social changes, new paradigm.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0001

Zinchenko Yu.P. (2009). Les Aspects Methodologiques des Rapports entre Concepts du Signe et du Symbole dans la Theorie Historico-Culturelle de L.S. Vygotski. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 25-34

Dans le texte, il s’agit de sources de la compréhension des concepts du signe et du symbole dans la théorie historico-culturelle ainsi que de leur rôle dans le développement de l’enfant et dans le processus de la médiation. On y parle aussi de limites de l’approche historico-culturelle en ce qui concerne la compréhension du signe et du symbole et d’autres concepts liés avec eux.

Keywords: Vygotski, théorie historico-culturelle, signe, symbole, signification, instrument, médiation.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0002

Yurevich A. V., Ushakov D. V. (2009). Quantitative Estimate of the Macropsychological State of Modern Russian Society. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 35-56

The authors give the quantitative estimation of the macropsychological state of modern Russian society based on its political, social and economic characteristics. For these purposes the composite index of the macropsychological state of society is developed. It combines two secondary indexes such as a societal psychological stability index and a societal socio-psychological well-being index.

Keywords: economic determinism, macropsychology, psychological state of society, composite index, social well-being, social optimism, reforms.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0003

Indina T.A., Morosanova V.I. (2009). Personality and Self-regulation as Determinants of Rational Decision Making in a Political Voting Situation. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 57-71

The association of self-regulation and personality factors with rational decision making was investigated using an experimental model of political voting. The results revealed different sets of personality characteristics for rational and emotional voters. A self-regulation/personality typology of decision making was then constructed, and traits representing self-regulation, cognition, and personality were examined as predispositions toward rational decision making. As a result, specific connections among these variables were uncovered, through which the primary role of the conscious self-regulation system in the management of rational decision making in a political voting context was established.

Keywords: decision making, choice, rationality, emotionality, self-regulation, personality traits, psychological determinants, typology.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0004

Nazaretyan A.P. (2009). On the Mechanisms of Moral Development in Evolutionary Historical Psychology. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 72-100

Rough calculations demonstrate that while demographic densities and the technical capacity for mutual destruction have increased throughout the millennia, the violent death rate – the average number of deliberate killings per capita per time unit – has been decreasing. The resulting downward trend appears highly nonlinear and mediated by man-made crises and catastrophes, but still, in the long term, consecutive. Meanwhile, there is no direct evidence of falling aggressiveness of the humans in the course of history – natural aggressive impulses were rather growing up with population concentration. Obviously, some perfecting cultural and psychological mechanisms of aggression-retention have compensated for technological and demographic growth. This issue is explored using the pattern of techno-humanitarian balance.

Keywords: Aggression, violence, non-violence, self-organization, technological might, mental regulation, Bloodshed Ratio, techno-humanitarian balance, internal sustainability, external sustainability, anthropogenic crisis, Homo praecrisimos syndrome, psychological fitting, phylogenesis, historical| development, cultural revolutions.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0005

Asmolov A.G., Asmolov G.A. (2009). From We-Media to I-Media: Identity Transformations in the Virtual World. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 101-123

The blogs as the platform for a virtual personality construction are considered in the article on the assumption of the positions of Lev S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach. Internet journalism practices are considered as the example for the processes of virtual “I” formation. The authors affirm that the appearance of consecutive and stable “I-representation” in Internet is the necessary condition for a change in dynamics of social nets development from motives which are out of Internet in physical space towards situation when a virtual personality is enough full-fledged to be a motive for new social interactions creation not leaving Internet. As a result a virtual personality turns into a net-creating factor and Internet loses its unoriginality in relation to physical space. Using Lev Vygotsky’s “internal speech” concept, the article suggests to consider this interaction as a dairy discourse – “A dialog of internal voices”, which turns a virtual personality from the product of self representation into the product of social interaction. The authors affirm that the ability to construct a virtual personality is the integral part for personality formation in the new information society and propose to regard journalism practices as one of the methods of effective self representation in Internet.

Keywords: virtual personality, cultural-historical psychology, blogs, Internet journalism, social nets, social media.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0006

Allakhverdov V.M. (2009). The Role of Consciousness in Human Cognitive Activity. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 124-140

The problem of consciousness is examined in the article. It is argued that all the existing approaches to consciousness do not explain the role consciousness plays in human life. An attempt of revealing and describing the principles of the mind’s work is made. Experimental phenomena observed by the author and his followers, particularly, the tendency of previously non-realized ideas not to be realized subsequently, are reviewed. The discussion of these phenomena allows to formulate a novel view on the nature of consciousness.

Keywords: consciousness, cognition, awareness, adequacy, emotions.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0007

Alexandrov Yu.l., Sams M.E. (2009). Emotion and Consciousness: Ends of a Continuum. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 141-186

We suggest a united concept of consciousness and emotion, based on the systemic cognitive neuroscience perspective regarding organisms as active and goaldirected. We criticize the idea that consciousness and emotion are psychological phenomena having quite different neurophysiological mechanisms. We argue that both characterize a unified systemic organization of behavior, but at different levels. All systems act to achieve intended behavioral results in interaction with their environment. Differentiation of this interaction increases during individual development. Any behavioral act is a simultaneous realization of systems ranking from the least to the most differentiated. We argue that consciousness and emotion are dynamic systemic characteristics that are prominent at the most and least differentiated systemic levels, correspondingly. These levels are created during development. Our theory is based on both theoretical and empirical research and provides a solid framework for experimental work.

Keywords: cognition, brain, learning, development, neuron, system.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0008

Podolskiy A.I. (2009). On Scientific Status and Practical Significance of One Psychological Theory. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 187-209

Since the late 1950s, a significant number of authors tried to use Galperin’s approach (which is well-known as the “Theory of planned stage-by-stage formation of mental actions”, or the PSFMA Theory) to improve schooling processes and results. Looking back at the more than fifty‑year history of Galperin’s approach, one may note that the 1960s and the early 1970s were the periods of the great optimism concerning effectiveness and efficiency of its practical application. It seemed possible to transform radically the way and the traditional results of learning/teaching process. To compare the 60s-70s and the 80s-90s publications one could easily discover a significant decrease of a wave of optimism concerning the PSFMA’s application. Besides the obvious social‑economic and social‑psychological reasons there exists a methodological reason concerning the ways and means of the Galperin’s approach use. Historically, the substantial pedagogical results of planned stage‑by‑stage formation of mental actions first came to the fore. However, the proponents’ enthusiasm about really unusual and hopeful results had a reverse side: it led to the serious misunderstanding of the status of Galperin’s approach and transformed the last to some absolute knowledge like a sort of “philosophers’ stone”. The successful application of the statements of PSFMA does not mean a literal reproduction of some abstract general procedure, but a creative design of a system of necessary and sufficient psychological conditions adapted to a concrete schooling situation. The elaboration of such a procedure occupies an intermediate position between the fundamental psychological knowledge and the real process of schooling. The three-model system is considered to bridge a gap between the fundamental knowledge introduced by Galperin and the real circumstances of learning/teaching situation.

Keywords: internalization, stage-by-stage formation of mental actions, human action properties, psychological, psychological‑pedagogical, and technological models of the instruction situation, formation of attentiveness.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0009

Klochko V. Y., Galazhinsky E. V. (2009). Innovative Potential of Personality: Systemic Anthropological Context. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 210-224

Conceptual grounds of the system anthropological psychology, that allow to represent the innovative potential of a personality in the context of understanding the mechanisms of self-development of a person as an open self-organizing system, are discussed in the article.

Keywords: innovative potential of a personality, innovative behaviour, system anthropological psychology.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0010

Mironenko I.A. (2009). "Great Ideas" in Russian Psychology: Personality Impact on Psychophysiological Functions and Causal Approach to Self-determination. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 225-238

Russian psychology has brought into the world science at least two great ideas: the conditioned reflex (Pavlov) and the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky). These concepts were formulated before “iron curtain” fell. Since then Russian science dropped out from the view of western colleagues for decades. Now it is challenged to re-join international mainstream. Are we in a position to contribute? A key concept for Russian psychology is personality impact on psycho-physiological functions and causal approach to self-determination. The concept of selfdetermination appeared in Western theories in 1980-es and since then it has been developed in the context of teleological humanitarian approach. In Russian science the concept of self-determination dates back to 1934, when it was defined by Rubinstein as “sub’ekt”. Self-determination of ontogenesis of psychophysiological functions resulting from confluence of ontogenesis and social development was explicated by Russian scientists whose theoretical reasoning and empirical results are compared to Western counterparts.

Keywords: self-determinatio; causal and teleological approaches; personality impact on psycho physiological processes; psychology in Russia.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0011

Kozlov V.V. (2009). Integrative Psychology: the Return to the Subject of Psychology. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 239-261

The article analyzes the basic paradigms of psychology and put forward the thesis of the expansion of the subject area of psychology in the course of historical development, and describes the main features of integrative psychology. Highlighted in the article the new paradigm of psychology (transpersonal, communicative, integrative), make it possible to trace a vector of development of modern psychology as a multidimensional communicative environment that has intention to make a perusal of psychic reality.

Keywords: physiological, psychoanalytical, behavioral and existential-humanistic, transpersonal, communicative, integrative paradigm of psychology, subject of psychology.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0012

Suprun A.P. (2009). Relativist Psychology: a New Concept of Psychological Measurement. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 262-288

The article demonstrates the inadequacy in the traditional approach of psychology to the description of products of mental representation of perception. The principles of objective representation of subjective experience (principles of “mental map” construction) contain a whole range of contradictions. We propose a consistent mathematical description of the “mental map” based on psychosemiotic principles. Instead of the classical space of characteristics/properties we introduce semantic space that opens the way to a truly adequate representation of psychic reality. The article discusses metrics of the mental map, as well as substantiates the possibility of applying conservation laws to psychology. It is shown that it is possible to reach an adequate representation of research object in the humanities, equivalent to that of natural sciences in terms of accuracy. To verify a new approach, we make use of our theoretical deductions in the explanation of experimental data widely known in psychophysics and inconsistent with Stevens law.

Keywords: relativist psychology, mental representation, mental map, psychosemiotic, semantic space, psychophysic.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0013

Nazarov A.I. (2009). From Reflectory Ring to Multivariable System. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 289-306

Some special features of feedback functioning in live movement control are discussed. Taking into account the multicoupling nerve structure of movement apparatus we inevitable are faced with a question about principles based in clousing of chanals’ central endings ensemble, which afferentiates movement, on effector centres ensemble which controls muscle periphery. When we speak about movement skill development such afferent-efferent connections (reciphering, as N.A.Bernstein named them) which would be adequate to perform given motor task do not exist in advance and they must to be developed during performing that task. The main role here play human perception of the information resulted from movement performance on the level of motor-sensory transition, when multidimensional vector of muscle dynamics transforms into dynamics of outer object environment. On the basis of selection of perseptual data new feedback structure is created which ensures steady functioning of the effectory patterns finded durng practice.

Keywords: reflectory ring, feedback, multicoupling (multilink), motor skill.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0014

Problems of Education, Development, and Clinical Practice

Kornilova T.V. (2009). Academic Achievement in College: the Predictive Value of Subjective Evaluations of Intelligence and Academic Self-concept. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 309-326

The study examined the relationship between self-, peer- and test-estimated intelligence, academic self-concept and academic achievement. Subjective evaluations of intelligence and academic self-concept had incremental predictive value over conventional intelligence when predicting achievement accounting for more than 40% of its variance. The obtained pattern of results is presented via SEM-model which accounts for 75% variance in the latent factor of academic achievement. Author suggests the importance of further studying complex sets of achievement predictors from ability, personality and mediating domains.

Keywords: subjective evaluations, intelligence, self-estimated intelligence, academic self-concept, academic achievement

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0015

Sergienko E.A. (2009). Revolution in the Cognitive Psychology of Development. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 327-343

The recent revolutionary changes in the cognitive psychology of development, touching upon the basic conceptions of psychology, are generalized in this article. The problem of theoretical changes connected with systemic evolutionary approach, dynamic nonlinear system theory, and connectionism, is discussed. The author analyses four basic theses of revolutionary changes: from sensory-motor infant to representative one; from the leading role of activity to the unity of perception and action; about the continuity of the subject formation, instead of axiom of subjectivity of the adult, mature person; about the continuance of genetic and environmental instead of social primacy in the mental development of a person. There are key arguments of new conceptions, obtained by the author and other researchers.

Keywords: revolutionary changes, cognitive development, early ontogenesis, representative infant, perception and action, ontogenesis of subjectivity, theory of mind, theories of mental formation.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0016

Poddiakov A.N. (2009). 'Trojan Horse" Teaching. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 344-360

An advanced strategic behavior, which we term, “Trojan horse” teaching (THT), is described. In this type of counteractive behavior, a “teacher”, ostensibly helping his or her rival to learn something, really teaches the rival useless or disadvantageous things. This interaction is an object of interdisciplinary research related to the theory of human capital, the theory of agency, knowledge management, the theory of conflict, and to social and educational psychology. Examples of THT in real life, and results of experiential studies, including the administration of a survey concerning people’s beliefs about teaching “with evil intent”, and a set of experiments with participation of adults and children, have been described. Possible directions of artificial intelligence systems development related to THT are described. General relations between: (a) counteraction to learning, and (b) development in spite of the counteraction are discussed.

Keywords: teaching, learning, competition, conflict, deceiving, Trojan horse teaching.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0017

Malykh S.B., Gindina E.D., Nadyseva V.V. (2009). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Temperament in Adolescence. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 361-384

This study, which is a part of a Moscow longitudinal twin project, aims to explore genetic and environmental contributions to inter-individual variability of temperamental traits in adolescence on the basis of a Russian sample. 85 monozygotic (MZ) and 64 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs aged 12 – 14 years completed the children version of Rusalov Structure of Temperament Questionnaire (C-STQ). The results of model-fitting analyses indicate considerable hereditary determination of individual differences in 3 out of the 8 C-STQ dimensions - social tempo, objectrelated emotional sensitivity, and social emotional sensitivity. Non-shared environmental effects explained the rest of the total variance in these dimensions. Individual differences in the other STQ dimensions were due to environmental factors.

Keywords: monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, adolescents, individual differences, temperament, genotype, environment.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0018

Burmenskaya G.V. (2009). Child's Attachment to Mother as the Basis of Mental Development Typology. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 385-403

The article shows the role of the attachment system (child-mother interactions) in development of a wide spectrum of individual personality characteristics. Emotional attachment of the child to mother is considered as a complicated system of internal regulation and a basis of typology of mental development. Results of a series of empirical studies show the connection between the type of attachment, formed at the early stages of child development, and characteristics of his/her autonomy, consciousness (self-concept and self-esteem) and empathy in preschool and middle childhood.

Keywords: attachment, typology of mental development, autonomy, self-concept, self-esteem, empathy, preschool and middle childhood.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0019

Lebedinsky V.V (2009). Autism as a Model of Abnormal Emotional Development. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 404-412

The theoretical model of the establishment of the syndrome of early infantile autism is elaborated including all the stages of this establishment. According to Vygotsky and his ideas about the hierarchical organization of pathological syndromes, there is the definition of the difference between the structure and the function of the primary (biological) and secondary (sociological) phenomena of the syndrome of early infantile autism.

Keywords: autistic syndrome, autistic syndrome model, affective disorders.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0020

Sokolova E.T. Burlakova N.S. (2009). Reconstructin of Inner Dialogue in the Psychotherapeutic Process (A Case Study). Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 413-440

Basing on Vygotsky’s cultural-historical methodology, Bakhtin’s conception of inner dialogue, and some ideas of object relations theory, the authors propose an integrative approach to self-awareness in psychotherapy. Serious attention is paid to the predictors of borderline personality disorders and comorbid illnesses: pathogenic family conditions of personality development and, in consequence of them, splitting and structural distortions of self-awareness. The descriptive-analytic, semiotic and dialogical procedures of analysis of verbal communications between patient and psychotherapist were elaborated and approbated.

Keywords: case study, inner dialogue, transference-countertransference, dynamics of Self-Other representations, borderline personality structure.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0021

Nikolaeva V.V., Arina G.A. (2009). Clinical Psychology of Corporeality: Principles of Cultural-Historical Subject Analysis. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 441-456

The psychology of corporeality is a new and intensively elaborated branch of science. The theoretical foundations of its subject differ significantly from those of medical psychosomatics. In a given article some new concepts of this approaching discipline are introduced and the role of symbolic mediation in genesis of different psychosomatic diseases is discussed.

Keywords: Nikolaeva V.V., Arina G.A. (2009). Clinical Psychology of Corporeality: Principles of Cultural-Historical Subject Analysis.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0022

Applied Psychological Research

Zinchenko Yu. P. (2009). Mass media as an Effective Tool for Prevention of Socio-psychological Factors in the Development of Terrorism. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 459-476

Recently mass media play crucial role in social counterterrorism activity. The article is devoted to analysis of possibilities of mass media in prevention of the development of terrorism. Socio-psychological factors of development of terrorism, including concept of “contributing events” as well as hypothesis “frustration-aggression” are studied. The psychological component of terrorism in three major attitudes is considered in the article: psychology of terrorism, psychology of counteraction to terrorism, and using mass media for prevention the development of terrorism. Specific features and the external factors promoting involving into terrorism are analysed. Role of mass media in covering the information about terrorism events is analysed from point of view related to prevention of development of terrorism. Some key recommendations on counterterrorism activity using mass media means are formulated.

Keywords: psychology of terrorism, prevention of terrorism, socio-psychological factors of terrorism, psychology of mass media.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0023

Tkhostov A.Sh., Surnov K.G. (2009). Needs of Terrorist. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 477-491

This article reveals the motives of the terrorist activity. It analyzes psychological mechanisms of basic human needs that are implemented at different stages of involvement in terrorist organizations. The authors also discuss the causes of psychological attractiveness / desirability of terrorism in the context of influence of modern technologies on the dynamics of norm and pathology standards.

Keywords: psychology of terrorism, modern technologies, culture and pathology, personal psychology, motivation, basic needs.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0024

Petrenko V.F., Sapsoleva O.N. (2009). Psychosemantic Approach to Art (on a Material of Cinema). Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 492-516

This article discusses an application of psychosemantic methods for the analysis of viewer understanding. As an example, the movie “Sibirskiy Tsiryulnik” (“The Barber of Siberia”, directed by a famous politician N. M ikhalkov) is taken, where Russian and American mentalities are juxtaposed. Basing on the works by M. Bakhtin and G. Kelly the concept of “art construct” is introduced. For the construction of semantic spaces of film perception the method of attribution of motives to film characters’ deeds was elaborated and used with the G. Kelly’s triadic method, followed by factor analysis.

Keywords: Art psychology, psychosemantics, film perception, personal and art constructs, understanding, deed, semantic space, factor analysis.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0025

Leonova A.B. (2009). The Concept of Human Functional State in Russian Applied Psychology. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 517-538

The concept of human functional states (HFS) is considered in the framework of activity regulation approach developed in Russian applied psychology. Aimed at the analysis of changes in regulatory mechanisms of on-going activity, structural methods for multilevel assessment of workers’ states are discussed. Three different strategies of data integration are proposed regarding the types of essential practical problems. Their usability is exemplified with the help of two empirical studies concerned with reliability of fire-fighters’ work in the Chernobyl Zone and effects of interruptions in computerized office environment. A general framework for applied HFS research is proposed in order to develop new ecologically valid psychodiagnostic procedures that can help to create efficient stress-management programs for enhancing human reliability and performance in complex job environment.

Keywords: activity regulation, job analysis, microstructure of cognitive processes, human functional state, workability, fatigue, mental effort, stress, interruption effects, computerized work

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0026

Velichkovsky B.B. (2009). Primary and Secondary Appraisals in Measuring Resilience to Stress. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 539-563

Measuring resilience to stress (or stress resistance) validly and reliably is an important theoretical and practical problem. Process-oriented stress theories assume that primary and secondary appraisals play an important role in determining the level of resilience. In the present study, a model of resilience based on the analysis of the interplay between primary and secondary appraisal processes is developed. Resilience is high if benign primary appraisals of taxing situations are accompanied by secondary appraisals of coping resources as being sufficient for controlling stressors. In an implementation of the model, the quality of primary appraisals is assessed through the assessment of anxiety, anger and depression, which characterize the most typical cognitive-emotional reactions to demanding situations. The assessment of secondary appraisals is restricted to the analysis of psychophysiological (functional) resources, which are involved in all forms of coping activities. The implementation of the model gives rise to a measure of resilience, which is shown to successfully predict the outcome of the stress process in a sample of Russian police officers.

Keywords: resilience, stress process, situation appraisal, psychophysiological resources, assessment, validity.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0027

Voiskounsky A.E. (2009). Web Plagiarism: Empirical Study. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 564-584

A questionnaire measuring web plagiarism (or academic cheating), worked out by Underwood and Szabo (2003) has been adapted and applied to the population of undergraduate science students in Russia. The students at four technical universities are questioned (N=292). The study shows the students perform webplagiarizing, i.e. take materials from the Internet and hand these materials in as their own assignments. Russian students are reportedly competent in the use of the Internet; they report to have rather few moral barriers towards plagiarizing; they believe most of their mates do the same; they are not sure their tutors are able and willing to recognize cheating; finally, they are competent enough in English and are hypothetically able to plagiarize in two languages.

Keywords: plagiarism, cyberethics, moral development, science students, gender, academic year

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0028

Kashapov M.M., Leybina A. V. (2009). Motivation of Professional Creative Thinking. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 585-602

The aim of this study was to reveal correlation between motivation and creative professional thinking. Four hundred and seventy-one Russians of different trades participated in the study. It was supposed that motivational structure and level of creative professional thinking were interrelated. The connection between motivational components and professional thinking was revealed. Tendencies of transition form situational level of thinking to oversituational one were determined. It was found out that motivational structure of workers with situational thinking was much more consistent than that of workers with oversituational thinking.

Keywords: creative professional thinking, motivation, values, motivation structure.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0029

Veraksa A.N., Leonov S. V. (2009). Cognitive Aspects of Athlete Activity. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 603-618

Article is devoted to the issues of symbolic mediation and diagnostic of time perception in sport. Distinction between iconic and symbolic mediation is discussed. Evidences of effective implementation of symbolic mediation in sport are examined. Means of optimization of sportsmen and sportswomen training by the instrumentality of symbol are considered. The results of time perception diagnostic of Russian synchronized swimmers are described. It was shown that sportswomen are greatly varied in accuracy and stability of reproduction of long (2–5 sec) and estimation of short (less than 250 ms) time intervals, which were filled with different contents – ticks of metronome, persistent sound, pressuring the button and etc. The improvement of individual characteristics of time perception is an important psychological resource of sports achievements increase.

Keywords: sport psychology, symbol, icon, image, situation of uncertainty, synchronized swimming, time perception.

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0030

Shmeleva I.A. (2009). The Methodology of Psychological Research of Ecological Consciousness. Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 619-636

The paper examines the methodological principles of the psychological study of ecological consciousness as one of the urgent interdisciplinary problems of XX–XXI century, caused by the aggravation of global ecological problems and the need for the realization of the “sustainable development”ideas. Ecological consciousness is considered as multilayered, dynamic, reflexive element of human consciousness, incorporating multivariate, holistic aspects of interaction of the human being as the H.S. and the Humanity representative with the environment and the Planet. The possibility of the more active introduction of Russian psychology in the process is argued for in connection with the existing conceptual approaches, which compose the methodological basis for ecological consciousness research. Among these approaches are considered: the principles of holistic study of the human being by B. Ananyev, the methodology of system psychological description by V. Gansen and G. Sukhodolsky, the idea of reflexivity of consciousness by S. Rubinstein, the humanitarian- ecological imperative of the development of consciousness by V. Zinchenko, the theory of relations by V. Myasishev, consideration of ecological consciousness as relation to nature by S. Deryabo and V. Yasvin, theories of consciousness by V. Petrenko, V. Allakhverdov and other Russian psychologists. The value component of ecological consciousness is distinguished as the most significant. The possibility of applying the Values’ theory of the by S. Schwartz for studying the ecological values is discussed along with the prognostic potential of the universalism value.

Keywords: Ecological consciousness, sustainable development, holistic study of human being, system psychological description of consciousness, reflection, values, ecological values, universalism

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0031

The Presidium of the Russian Psychological Society (RPS). Psychology in Russia: State of the Art, 2, 637-639

Keywords: RPS, history of psychology

DOI: 10.11621/pir.2009.0032

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Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport terminal project nears completion

The Palouse’s new air travel hub is nearing completion and set to open to the public later this month.

The Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport’s new 47,000 square foot terminal is opening May 22 after two years of construction . The $92 million project includes a brand new terminal nearly six times larger than the existing structure, as well as an additional 4,500 square foot expansion debuting later this summer.

Airport officials hosted a pre-opening tour of the new facility for Palouse-area media on Tuesday.

The new terminal includes capacity for three ticket counters, two TSA screening lanes and three rental car counters. Private charter security screenings will also be available in August with the completion of the western expansion. Passengers arriving into Pullman will no longer have to brave the weather conditions outside, and will instead pass through a modern security gate inside the terminal building.

In spite of the changes, Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport Board Chair and Pullman Mayor Francis Benjamin said the security experience is still likely to be the fastest passengers have experienced with air travel.

References to the Palouse and its institutions of higher education will be evident throughout the new airport. Artistic depictions of the Palouse punctuate each ticket counter, while Washington State University and University of Idaho iconography will be visible throughout the site. Glenn Johnson, longtime Pullman mayor and voice of the Cougs , welcomes visitors to the terminal and provides pre-boarding instructions.

WSU and UI, both heavy users of the airport, provided a joint $1 million in support for the project in 2021, with the cities of Pullman and Moscow contributing a further $2 million each.

Art Bettge, vice-chair of the airport board, noted during a tour of the facility that between the new terminal and the runway project completed in 2022, the Palouse has seen $250 million in investments for a local cost of about $18 million. The lion’s share of the two project’s funding has come from federal sources.

Unlike most airports, summer represents a slowdown for the airport, giving staff time to adjust to the new facilities before the number of flights is expected to pick up in the fall. The airport currently offers two flights to Seattle daily through Aug. 15, with that number rising to five or six thereafter with the addition of a daily flight to Boise. Additional destinations are also being considered.

The new terminal includes seating for upwards of 160 people, an outdoor seating area, a service animal relief area, and space for concessions both pre- and post-security screening. Approximately 70 people work at the airport, with additional staffing needs likely once the new terminal is fully online.

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Latest Research: China Supplies Russia's War Economy with Microelectronics

A fter appointing economist Andrei Belousov as the new Minister of Defense, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to claims in a new American study, since 2023, China has become the most important supplier of microelectronics and machinery used for Russian weaponry.

Putin is showing his intention to further shape the Russian industry into a wartime economy. As early as the end of 2023, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) calculated in one analysis that in the worst-case scenario, the Western military alliance only had five more years to maintain its deterrence potential against a possible Russian attack on a NATO country.

The author of that study, Christian Melling, head of the Center for Security and Defense at DGAP, has now updated his analysis focusing on the strengthening of the Russian military in the war against Ukraine. "Putin is only living through this war," claims the German expert in an interview with DW .

"He needs the war because he has summoned so many spirits that may not be able to accept peace at all." Therefore, NATO's rearmament is directly linked to supplying weapons to those 50 nations, led by the United States, supporting Ukraine.

The American Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) concluded in its study published in April that "Putin's ongoing and comprehensive military reforms" in the war against Ukraine indicate that "Russia may be preparing for conflict with NATO within the next two decades, including conventional warfare on a large scale." CSIS, based in Washington, reportedly close to the US arms industry, has investigated for the second time since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine how the Russian arms industry is supplied with goods from abroad and how it avoids Western sanctions.

This study was published under the title "State of the Russian Defense Industry after Two Years of War."

Russia circumvents Western sanctions

To do this, researchers analyzed publicly available data on the movement of goods into Russia, particularly microelectronics needed for missiles and so-called "gliding bombs." CSIS also tracked the trade of so-called CNC machines, or computer-controlled metalworking machines used for making artillery shells and other ammunition.

"The Russian defense industry has found ways to obtain what it needs to increase weapon production," concludes the analysis by American CSIS. "The Kremlin continues to rely on components imported through a complex network of intermediaries.

This has proven crucial for supplying the Russian military in Ukraine," the study assesses. According to these estimates, China became Russia's most important supplier as of spring 2023: "Almost all leading exporters of microelectronics are based in China and Hong Kong, with one company based in Turkey," the study notes.

Chinese exports of microelectronics to Russia sharply increased in March 2023.

At that time, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. "Russian imports of CNC machines from Chinese firms used for precise production of parts for various weapon systems, from ammunition to aircraft, also sharply increased in the months following the meeting between Xi and Putin in March 2023," CSIS notes.

The American think tank also published several graphs showing that between March and July 2023, companies from China and Hong Kong supplied Russia with electronics between 200,000 and 300,000 times each month.

Many drones for Moscow, few for Kiev

A particularly striking comparison is the delivered unmanned aerial vehicles: "Russia received unmanned aerial vehicles directly from Chinese trading companies worth at least $14.5 million, while Ukraine received only Chinese-made drones and components worth around $200,000, mostly from European intermediaries," the CSIS report states.

Some of the companies from China and Hong Kong that supply Russia also do business with Ukraine. And if these firms are under EU or US sanctions, then that creates a problem because trade restrictions can eventually affect Ukraine too.

Finally, American researchers concluded that "the Russian industrial sector has become entirely dependent on China when it comes to machines and components essential for weapons production." This is confirmed by investigations conducted in Ukraine, where Russian missiles, gliding bombs, and drones intercepted by Ukrainian air defense are dismantled into parts.

Since last year, the Ukrainian military has been finding Chinese electronics in Russian weapons, primarily, reports sanctions expert Vladislav Vlasijuk, working in the administration of the President of Ukraine. Unlike before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia is increasingly producing types of ammunition and weapons where Western high-tech components are entirely replaceable.

Primarily, this concerns gliding bombs and combat drones Shahid, which originally come from Iran. In this way, since the beginning of 2024, the Russian Air Force has been more successfully overcoming Ukrainian air defense, which, on the other hand, lacks Western missiles for defense, reports Deutsche Welle .

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