Background. In recent decades, the living conditions and development of children have changed significantly. The group of children that is open to the new and is sensitive  enough is the group of children of early and preschool age since they have been formed and developed in completely different conditions than previous generations. The new childhood is taking shape and exists in the material, information, communicative, etc. environment that adults shape.

The Objective is to consider some general trends of the information environment of modern childhood and to fix a number of its contradictions and paradoxes.

Design.The paper attempts to determine the characteristics of modern preschool childhood through analyzing child information environment. Based on the analysis of the market for modern toys, books and films, the author states some paradoxes of the current socio-cultural situation. One of them consists in the fact that a significant part of the extensive information products for children is not designed for the age characteristics of the target audience. Another paradox lies in the fact that the increased demand for the child mental development is  combined with an excessively careful attitude to their physical security and independence. Particular attention is paid to computer technology in early and preschool childhood.

Results.The identified features of modern children in connection with the characteristics of the child subculture are discussed. Among them there are the underdevelopment of large and small motor skills, impaired speech development, lack of imagination, communication difficulties, lack of independence and self-organization. Having a high level of awareness, mental development and technical literacy, children still remain passive, dependent on adults and external circumstances.

Findings.The author concludes that the attitudes of adults to early development, which is understood as “learning,” inhibits the development of the child’s personality and brings about lack of motivation. Attempting to accelerate intellectual development inepts and sometimes blocks the development of the child’s personality. With all the ambiguity of the concept of "personality", the key defining its characteristics are self-reliance, independence, and responsibility. It is these characteristics that are most affected in modern children.

Background. The issue of upbringing is becoming increasingly important due to the development and growing-up of modern children and adolescents in the so-called digital age. The characteristic features of child development in the kindergarten and in the primary and secondary school within the information society make pose a challenge to the psychological service.

Objective. The key to the situation can be found in the context of the priority directions of psychology of upbringing and education, and also by establishing scientific and practical support of the directions. The paper is to thoroughly consider psychologists’ and educators’ work in the education system in the current situation. The goals and objectives of their work are specified in regard with the significant changes that have been recently observed in the Information Society.

Design. The acute and sometimes contradictory issues of the upbringing have been severely paralyzed. The ever-lasting goals of educating children and developing their personality such as emotional and spiritual development, mastering the accumulated bag of cultural achievements, the development of moral feelings, abilities for full communication, etc. are singled out.

Research Results. Modern education reflects the needs of the information society and has to focus more on the issues of schoolchildren's progress, the development of their intellectual sphere, and the preparation for the passing of the State Exam. Much less attention is paid to education. Practical psychology being an important assistant of the educational system is much influenced by the latter and is not actually prepared solve the urgent task of educating children.

Conclusion. The solutions to the problems of education should not only be found at the level of highly professional interdisciplinary integration of the educational, psychological, social and other sciences and practices, but also at the level of the contemporary interaction of various sciences and forms of social consciousness , i.e. culture, art, media (television, radio, Internet), law, morality, religion.

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.

The paper analyses phenomenon of the exchange of emotions in human communication. It is emphasized that the exchange of emotions is one of the basic components of all kinds of human communication. It is proved that the exchange of emotions occurs at three levels: conscious level – by means of words, at extramental level – by means of nonverbal communication (looks, gestures, etc.), and at unconscious level – by means of the olfactory channel. We come out with the assumption of existence of emotionally olfactory language as the mechanism of an exchange of emotions at unconscious level. Transfer is deemed as unconscious as firstly the person does not understand the emotions transferred by means of smells, but they influence mood of the person. Secondly, the smells that contain the information on emotions are very weak, they are not perceived as aromas. Thirdly, such transfer does not occur on the level of consciousness. It is supposed that each of the basic emotions is connected with a specific base odour; when the person feels this emotion his/her physiological reactions are launched, these reactions are compatible with corresponding base odour. In turn, the base aroma which is separated from the human organism causes the same basic emotion in other people. Specific interrelations «emotion - a smell» are offered. We assert that the similar mechanism can cause such phenomena as a mass panic, etc. Complex feelings also can be made of a combination of basic emotions, and are then transferred by means of combinations of the basic smells to the interlocutor. Such phenomenon of human psyche as empathy can be based on this transfer.

Social and economic changes in modern society place create new demands from modern Russian psychological science and transform tasks of the psychologists. The article demonstrates the increasing importance of practical psychology, covering in details its functions and methods. The author outlines the ways of its further development and argues the need for improved training of practical psychologists and improved regulatory framework of psychologist activity.

The article examines the main indicators of the quality of education and outlines the anthropological approach to education, which the author regards as the basis for their development. The principles of design of anthropologically oriented school system are analyzed.

Of the many challenges of practical psychologists training the author singled out two and described them in his article. He reveals the importance of methodology in work of psychologists of all domains and specializations, and analyzes the system of preparing psychologists for training work. The author marks out weak practical training of psychologists in Russian colleges and universities and provides with recommendations on organization of psychologists-trainers postgraduate education.

Interview with Vitaly V. Rubtsov, Doctor of psychological sciences, Professor, Full Member of Russian Academy of Education, Rector of Moscow City PsychologicalPedagogical University, President of Federation of Psychologists of Formation of Russia.

One of the pressing problems of practical psychology at the present stage of development of education is to find ways to justify an individual approach to every child in the context of realization of resource of creativity in the educational institutions of various types and levels.

The problems of interconnection between mass media and the negative effects of terrorism are analyzed, as well as the media’s role in the process of their monitoring and reduction. It is shown that to counter terrorism effectively it is not enough to have knowledge only about the differentiation of terrorism and its purposes. It is needed to consider this type of crime in terms of its psychological and social consequences for individuals and society.

The article analyzes the attitude of parents of preschool children to the primary school education. Special attention is paid to a choice of the optimal age for children to enter school. Furthermore criteria on which parents rely in choosing a school for their children are also reviewed as well as the views of parents on the basic functions of school and their requirements for professional and personal qualities of a school teacher. The article continues a series of works on the sociology of preschool children, conducted by researchers of the Institute for Sociology of Education RAE and is based on the materials of a sociological poll of parents whose children attend Moscow kindergartens.

The problems of interconnection between mass media and the negative effects of terrorism are analyzed, as well as the media's role in the process of their monitoring and reduction. It is shown that to counter terrorism effectively it is not enough to have knowledge only about the differentiation of terrorism and its purposes. It is needed to consider this type of crime in terms of its psychological and social consequences for individuals and society.

The article contains historical and methodological analysis of Russian aviation psychology as a field of psychology. The logic of psychological science development and technical progress in aviation are understood as basic determinants of its formation, brings to a conclusion that contemporary tendencies of development of aviation psychology consist in prevalence of integration over differentiation, the further specialization for battle readiness and fighting capacity of military-air forces.