Articles

Pediatric cancer poses an increased risk of cognitive deficits: the planning function may decrease. As a result, in children who survived cancer, the planning function is reduced in comparison with the control group. Medical factors did not act as predictors of planning development; age and gender were significant predictors.

The results of the study of the relationship between the accuracy of the estimation of quantities, expressed in symbolic and non-symbolic form, with the success of completing tasks in mathematics, including in the format of state exams, at different stages of schooling, are presented. A study with the participation of 493 schoolchildren in grades 4, 9 and 11 shows the specificity of the ratio of the accuracy of symbolic and non-symbolic representation of quantity at the primary, basic and complete levels of general education. A conclusion is made about the dependence of the relationship between the accuracy of symbolic and non-symbolic representation of quantity and the success of state examinations on the level of school education and, accordingly, the type of examination or test work.

Background: An estimated 3 to 60% of mothers worldwide suffer from depression that often goes undiagnosed and untreated. Meanwhile, a growing body of research confirms adverse effects of maternal depression on child executive functioning. Due to the fact that impairments become less easily reversible as a child grows older, we need to understand the mechanisms of the negative impact of maternal depression on the child executive functioning outcomes, in order to determine periods when interventions will be most critical and effective.

Objective: To review foreign studies on the mechanisms of the negative impact of prenatal, postpartum and chronic maternal depression on child executive functioning outcomes.

Methods: We searched for articles in PubMed, Research Gate, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect using the following keywords: “maternal depression”, “postpartum depression”, “prenatal depression”, “antental depression” in combination with “child executive functions”. The review includes all relevant articles that were published in English to 2008 and contain these keywords.

Results. Maternal depression during pregnancy is associated with changes in the fetal prefrontal cortex and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The main pathways for postpartum and chronic maternal depression to affect the development of child executive functions is via stressful and chaotic environment, decreased maternal sensitivity, more reliance on coercive parenting methods, and harsh-intrusive pattern of mother-child interaction. Moreover, children of depressed mothers exhibit more psychiatric disorders and often adopt an avoidant social style, both of which may also hinder their cognitive development. Most researchers emphasize the role of intensity and chronicity of maternal depression rather than the timing of onset (prenatally or postpartum).

Conclusions: The results of our review underscore the importance of timely diagnosis and treatment of maternal depression, as well as interventions aimed at improving mother-child interaction.

Background. Illness representations determine a patient's successful adaptation in the context of chronic somatic illness.

Objective. The study had its purpose to investigate and compare the illness representations in the patients with acute leukemia and lymphoma.

Study Participants. The study involved 109 respondents: 51 patients with acute leukemia aged 18 to 64 years (Mage = 35.12; SD = 12.90; 28 women) and 58 patients with lymphoma aged 19 to 64 years (Mage = 42.22; SD = 11.17; 41 women).

Methods. The study implemented the following methods: “Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised” (IPQ-R), “Health Anxiety Inventory” (HAI), “Cognitions About Body and Health Questionnaire” (CABAH), and the “Scale of Assessment of Illness Behavior” (SAIB). Descriptive statistics and group comparison methods (Student's t-test) were used to process quantitative data.

Results. A comparative analysis of the data obtained showed that patients with acute leukemia have more difficulty in identifying the disease, were more certain about the negative impact of the disease and its unstable course, were more likely to overestimate symptom severity, and paid more attention to implementing treatment- and medication-related behaviors compared to patients with lymphomas.

Conclusions. The main targets of psychological work with patients with acute leukemia are their ideas about the disease identity, its unstable course and negative consequences, their tendency to overestimate the symptom severity and underestimate the importance of preventive behavior associated with treatment and medication. Common targets of psychological work with patients with acute leukemia and lymphoma are their ideas about the short-term course of the disease and negative emotional experiences about their disease.

Background. The relevance of the study is due to the changes currently taking place in society, which leave an imprint on the activity of a person as a subject of activity, which pose the task of studying his psychological resources in a rapidly changing world. The resource approach is practically in demand when accompanying the educational process in modern conditions.

Objective. To identify the relationship of innovative personality qualities with meta-values, self-organization and life satisfaction among university students.

Study Participants. The study involved 226 female university students of Tomsk, (average age 20.18 years, CD = 1.17 years).

Methods. The following methods were used in the study: Scale of self-assessment of innovative personality qualities (SIPQ) by N. Lebedeva, A. Tatarko; Portrait Values Questionnaire-Revised — PVQ-R by Sh. Shvartz; Scale “Regularity” of the Questionnaire of Activity Self-organization (QSA) by E.Y. Mandrikova; “Life Satisfaction Scale” by E. Diener. The results were processed using the Statistica 10.0 program. Descriptive statistics, regression and cluster analysis were used in the study.

Results. Correlation analysis showed that “Innovation Index” is most closely related to the meta-value “Openness to change” and also has positive relationships with “Planning” and “Life satisfaction”. There is no significant correlation between the “Innovation Index” and the meta-value “Preservation”. Cluster analysis made it possible to identify 4 groups of students. The greatest differences between them were identified in “Planning”, “Life Satisfaction”, and “Innovation Index”. No significant differences in values were found among female students.

Conclusion. The innovative personality traits revealed among female university students have significant relationships with their openness to change, self-organization and life satisfaction. The most significant differences between the identified typological groups of female students are observed in the level of self-organization and planning, as well as life satisfaction. The described typological characteristics of students in selected groups will make it possible to organize assistance to students in the development of psychological qualities necessary for mastering a new social role and profession. The results of the study contribute to the development of the resource approach to the study of personality characteristics of university students.

Background. In Russian psychology, there is a shortage of psychodiagnostic tools for measuring the university students’ attitudes towards digital educational technologies (DETs), which is important for the optimal digitalization of educational process.

Objective. The study had its purpose to define the concept of “attitude towards DETs”, develop the scale for diagnostics of attitudes towards DETs among university students, and reveal gender differences in their attitudes towards DETs.

Study Participants. The study involved 317 Russian university students (157 male and 160 female) aged 17 to 35 years.

Methods. Review of scientific literature on the research problem; the “Attitudes towards DETs Scale for University Students” (ATDETS-US) developed by the authors; survey to identify socio-demographic characteristics and opinions of respondents; methods of mathematical and statistical data processing (Cronbach's Alpha and McDonald's Omega coefficients, confirmatory factor analysis, Mann — Whitney U test, Shapiro — Wilk test).

Results. The concept of “attitude towards DETs” was defined based on the integration of the main provisions of Myasishchev’s Personality Attitudes Theory and the Tripartite Model of Attitude “ACB”. The authors have developed and validated the “Scale for diagnostics of university students’ attitudes towards DETs” including emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The data obtained by means of the developed Scale allowed to establish a predominance of positive attitudes towards DETs among the majority of students in the study, which was more pronounced among girls than among boys.

Conclusions. The scale developed in the study for diagnostics of the university students’ attitudes towards DETs is based on the theoretical concepts of attitudes that consist of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components. The scale has a three-factor structure, exhibits good reliability and is suitable for implementation in the research and practical developments to enhance the unavoidable processes of digitalization in higher education. Gender differences revealed female students to have a more favorable attitude towards digital technologies in education.

Background. Attitudes towards new technologies are interconnected with various psychological factors, including the personal value profile. One of these technologies is a robot equipped with artificial intelligence, which can sometimes be perceived as a source of threat, including psychological safety. Meanwhile, the problem of the relationship between the value profile, security needs satisfaction and the attitude towards robots among representatives of different generations remains insufficiently studied.

Objective. To conduct a pilot study on the relationships of the value orientations and security needs satisfaction with the attitude towards robots among people of three generations of Russian people: X, Y, Z.

Study Participants. The study sample consisted of 102 people aged 18 to 55 years (residents of Moscow and Moscow region), generation X — 29 people (born in 1968–1981), generation Y — 38 people (born in 1982–2000), generation Z — 35 people (born since 2001 and later).

Methods. “Portrait Value Questionnaire” (PVQ-21) by S. Schwartz, questionnaire “Assessment of security need satisfaction” by O. Zotova, “Attitude towards technology” questionnaire by G. Soldatova et al., “Negative Attitude towards Robots Scale” (NARS) adapted by V. Akmayev.

Results. The study has identified significant differences in the value profile, security need satisfaction, and attitudes to technology among representatives of generations X, Y, and Z. The data analysis showed partial shift in the system of values and security satisfaction degree from generation X to generation Z. Thus, the older generation X is characterized by a desire for traditional things, as well as a lower level of security need satisfaction, which correlates with a more negative attitude towards robots. Whereas the younger generation Z, being more risk-averse, has a more positive attitude towards robots. The regression analysis has identified the predictors of negative attitudes towards robots.

Conclusion. The study highlights the existing relationships between a person’s attitude towards robots, security need satisfaction and the value profile, which has characteristic differences in certain age groups. A high degree of security need satisfaction is a predictor of positive attitudes towards robots. New technologies can contribute to a sense of insecurity which is consistent with a lack of accepting them. Thus, the study revealed certain differences in attitudes towards robots among representatives of different generations. There is a need for maintaining an optimal level of psychological safety in order to form a positive attitude towards new technologies including artificial intelligence.

Background. TThe study of mental representations of the human body has more than a century history. Although quite a lot of knowledge and research results have already been accumulated, there is still no common understanding of the body schema and body image. Despite the importance of the internal representation system for the formation and implementation of body movements, in the Russian-language literature very few works are devoted to this issue.

Objective. The study had its purpose to systematize and analyze data on the body schema and body image as systems of internal representation of human movements.

Results. The literature analysis showed that most researchers agree that body schema and body image are different non-identical phenomena and that body schema, or at least its parts, is innate. In the course of life, body schema plays a crucial role in the implementation of body movements, including through feedback, integration of sensorimotor experience and multimodal sensations. At the same time, the body image cannot be considered in isolation from the body schema. It is formed mainly on the basis of integration of various types of stimulation (tactile, vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, etc.). In the context of studying movement formation, proprioception and vestibular reception also play a critical role. Thus, in case of the proprioception loss, the body image suffers first of all, which leads to impossibility of automatic performance of even simple movements. However, there is still a possibility to realize the motor function on the basis of the body schema.

Conclusions. Body schema, being initially innate, is a relatively independent phenomenon, which is gradually adjusted, refined and perfected in the course of life, growth, and accumulation of individual experience (motor, sensory, vestibular, proprioceptive, etc.). Body image is predominantly formed during one’s life on the basis of integration of information from proprioception, multimodal receptors, sensorimotor stimulation, and feedback.

Background. The pronounced world trend of population aging determines the relevance of studying the essential psychological characteristics of a person in the later periods of his life cycle, the relevance of searching for psychological resources to preserve and maintain a person’s agency across the whole life span.

Objectives. The study had its purpose to determine the empirical parameters of the agency characteristics and analyze their specific manifestations in the later stages of a person’s life cycle.

Study Participants. 190 pensioners participated in the study. The main sample included 96 military pensioners. The control sample included 94 civil pensioners.

Methods. The study implemented the following psychodiagnostics methods: “Brief scale for measuring self-actualization” (Jones & Crandall, 1986); Dembo — Rubinstein self-esteem assessment tool including “Self in the past”, “Self in the present”, “Self in the future” (Sidorov, 2013). Statistical analysis of empirical data was carried out using parametric statistics methods (M ( ), Student's t-test, Pearson's r-linear correlation coefficient) and cluster analysis procedures (hierarchical clustering).

Results. The level of self-actualization and the level of self-esteem in the past, present and future are substantiated as empirical — parameters of the subjectivity of an individual at retirement age. The majority of respondents — military pensioners — have an average level of self-actualization, with the highest self-esteem level referred to the past, and the lowest self-esteem level related to the future. The analysis has statistically confirmed a lower level of self-esteem at all periods of life among military pensioners compared to civilians. Hierarchical clustering allowed to identify three types of agency in the military pensioners, differing in the characteristic combination of the agency parameters and socio-demographic specifics: “lost agency” presented among non-working male military pensioners; “agency oriented to the past” — characteristic of female military pensioners and military pensioners of older age categories (60+); “preserved agency” typical for the working male military pensioners.

Conclusions. The authors theoretically substantiated and empirically confirmed the heuristic nature of the agency related approach to the interpretation of the psychological characteristics of pensioners, specified in the context of studying the late period of the personality age cycle. The study results emphasized the importance of considering the retirement period as determined by the characteristics of the previous life stages. This is due to what place a person occupied in the social structure and what social regulations he observed across the life span. In particular, this concerns the differentiation of military and civilian pensioners who live their lives in different niches of social life with their specific structures and regulations. Three types of agency identified in the military pensioners determine different routes to manifest their agency and various mechanisms for its implementation. At the same time, the absence of significant differences between military and civilian pensioners in terms of self-actualization indicates similarities in the manifestations of activity, initiative, and self-regulation, which ensure that a person retains the “authorship of his life” even at retirement age.