Sections

Longitudinal study is focused on inter- and intra-subject factors that define the dynamics of social formation during maturity, i.e. the period from the primary school age to the age of early adulthood. Inter-subject factors are considered to be the conditions of educational environment created in the course of the pedagogical experiment. Features of human mental representation of him/herself and the world are defined in the study as intra-subject factors. The longitudinal study, which continued for 18 years, has been conducted in several directions: the comparison of the two phases of the study; intra-individual analysis of the dynamics of participants’ social development; defining the stability a person’s self-representation in a long-term perspective.

The first part of the study represents the typical age group «points» of social development, the development of one’s identification with humanity («I - person») in particular. It is typical for a 7-9 year old to experience the lack of “I-person” identity; during adolescence there are two coexisting images in the mental self-representation: «I» and «Person»; by the age of 25 the «I - person» identity is formed by approximately 40% young people. It has been discovered that specially organized pedagogical conditions contribute to the actualization of identification with the human community; moreover, under certain conditions the «I - person» identity of can be actualized at the primary school age. The age of 7-8 years is considered to be the sensitive period for the formation of social identity. Once formed the identity appears to be stable, and retains for the coming decades.

The second part represents the analysis of the specificity of mental self-representation’s effect on the subsequent social and psychological development of a person. This approach allows to distinguish the directions of social maturity development and to describe empirical intra-subject ways to form social maturity between 7-25 years.

The results have theoretical significance for the developmental psychology and educational psychology. They aim is to create the periodization of person’s social development; define sensitive periods of social identity in the mental representation that contributes to social and personal maturity, and also psychological health. Identified patterns can be used in social development of elementary school, which should be based on inter-subject factors of social maturity.

The paper describes the results of the study of the relationship a successful career and a romantic relationship. The general structure of the relationship between the successful career and romantic relationships between men and women obtained as a result of in-depth interviews is given. It is shown that the respondents’ representations are as follows: romantic relationships affect the career much more than a career to a romantic relationship. the positive aspects of this influence are highlighted, they are expressed in moral support, inspiration, confidence, etc. and negative aspects - lack of time, attention and energy resources. The differences in assessing the stediness of the relationship between a successful career and romantic relationships between men and women are shown. The features of perception and evaluation of the career success for people who are in relationships and those who do not have a romantic partner are given a distinct account. The relationship between a successful career and attitude of the respondent to the partner’s career is estblished. Additional results regarding the factors romantic relationships, which can contribute to a more successful career, are also obtained.

The paper is an attempt to present a new approach to anxiety research, namely to describe social psychological determinants of anxiety in adolescents, and also to present teachers’, parents’ and students’ views on “anxiety-causing” situations in adolescents are compared.

The article presents a brief description of the main concepts related to the subject of anxiety: the interpretation of the phenomenon of anxiety, differences between the concepts of anxiety and fear, causes described by various authors. The author also pays attention to various types of anxiety: situational vs personal, adequate vs inadequate anxiety, anxiety in various fields of human life, and in particular at school.

The paper describes the results of the empirical study devoted to the communicative situations in which adolescents experience anxiety and the estimation of these situations by teachers and parents are presented.

The research is qualitative and consisted of several stages: focused interviews with teachers and then with the adolescents’ parents, focus groups of adolescents (the questionnaire is presented in respective part of the article). The study involved 6 teachers, 6 parents, 15 adolescents aged from 12 to 14 years. Based on the research results the set of situations that cause anxiety in adolescents is identified and the perception of these situations by parents and teachers is analyzed. The article also presents the similarities and differences of the perception of adolescents’ communicative anxiety in the three categories of respondents.

The results of the study show that the interactional situations causing anxiety among adolescents primarily involve social estimation of an adolescent both by peers and adults.