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The paper is devoted to the analysis of spiritual determination of character development in adolescence. On the basis of the experimental research of spiritual sphere and the degree of a character harmony of today’s students, the author allocates the psychological laws of influencing the spiritual orientation for the process of character developments in adolescents. The experimental research has shown that spiritual orientation and character harmony are mutually influenced. However, the spiritual potential does not always positively correlate with character harmony as because the process of character harmonization does not appear linear, but cyclic with of rise and fall periods. The fall periods are accompanied by expressed disharmony of character and promotes social psychological personality maladjustment. Conditioned by steady spiritual orientation, spiritual self-development promotes character harmonization through overcoming personal spiritual crises. Continuous moral struggle against imperfection conditioned, the personality faces gradual character harmonization according to the spiritual ideal.

Spiritually and creative activity promotes activation of psychological mechanisms of character harmonization in adolescents. The basic directions of optimization of the education system is creating psychological conditions of spirituality and moral improvement, saturation of teaching and educational programs by spiritual and creative contents.

The paper includes results of the research, where influence of main parenting styles on developing children’s personality and appearing child-parent problems were considered. It covers client families of psychological advice (with overprotection and over exactingness). It is indicated that the key factor emerging child-parent problems in this families is the abnormality of the parent personality identified through so-called existential criterion, which is displayed in their parenting styles. The parenting styles contribute to shaping child abnormal personality types, also identified through existential criteria are designated as “directed at external assistance”, “directed at complying with the requirements of other people” and “directed at protesting against compliance with the requirements of other people”. Children of such personality types have problems communicating with others as communication is addressed to children with normal personal development and is not relevant for abnormal personal abilities. As the problems mentioned above are connected with maladjustment to social environment requirements they can be classified as problems of social adaptation.

There is a connection of a personality type “directed at complying with the requirements of other people” with abnormal personality predisposed to various life problems and mental disorders mentioned in the works of E. Fromm, S. Freud, A. Adler, С. Jung, C. Rogers, and V. Frankl. It suggests the understanding of the personality of this type to be regarded as a classical type of personality which the authors mentioned above were dealing with in their psychotherapeutic practice at different times.

The paper discusses traditional and modern approaches to the study of the separation-individuation process in late adolescence, which is considered as the central developmental task (R. Havighurst) of this developmental stage. Within the family psychology the process of separation-individuation in late adolescence is recognized as normative family crisis. The results of mother and father roles research in the development of boys and girls individuation are described using the Russian and Ossetian culture conditions. Gender and culture characteristics of individuation are presented. Russian adolescents are more successful in individuation, compared with Ossetian adolescents. Russian students have more difficulties in individuation in mother relationship as compared with the father relation. In contrast, Ossetian students have more difficulties in individuation with father than with mother. The complementarity of father and mother roles for successful individuation of a child during adolescence is shown. The results presented basic and intermediate types of culture that reflects the dynamic development of contemporary Russian culture (the transition from one type of culture to another). Russian students are characterized as representatives of the modern culture type while Ossetian students are characterized as representatives of traditional culture type. The adolescent individuation features of the representatives of different culture type of presented. Summing up, there is connection between the type of culture (by J. Townsend) and individuation characteristics in adolescence: the modern culture type is combined with a more harmonious process of boy’s and girl’s individuation.

Moral choice in adolescents is determined by the interaction of cognitive, emotional and personal factors that prescribe the orientation on the justice principle, or the principle of care, exercised in certain social psychological and situational conditions. Some features of the of moral dilemmas solution in L. Kohlberg’s concept of moral development and N. Eisenberg’s theory of prosocial behaviour are considered. The following types of moral choice dilemmas are identified: personal choice and decision-making within uncertain moral norms as a behaviour regulating tool; moral choice within competitive moral norms; the dilemma ofalter altruism.

Conditions and factors of solving moral dilemmas in adolescents are identified and described: the social psychological conditions (culture, socioeconomic status, family, school); individual features (moral values, moral feelings and emotions, e.g. guilt, sympathy, empathy and distress, presence of socio-cognitive conflicts in past experiences, the proximity to the victim and identifying oneself as a victim, age, sex); level of cognitive development and attribute processes (regarding prosocial behaviour of other people as «good» and identifying oneself as «good»; being aware of altruistic motives of one’s behaviour and the nature of one’s behaviour as showing care for welfare of others; adequately assessing the needs of another person for further assistance and identifying its objective necessity); situational factors and structural and content limitations of the moral dilemmas (according to the degree of involvement, either personal or social, according to the extent of meeting social expectations, i.e. antisocial, prosocial dilemmas and social pressures).

The paper presents the analysis of interventions for language development for English-speaking preschoolers. Two types of interventions are analyzed in the article: those conducted by academic communities and those designed by education practitioners. There are several factors which explain the existence of such a large number of interventions: significant growth of migration flows with developing multicultural and multinational communities; large number of children with speech, language and communication needs and specific language impairments; as well as evidence suggesting the influence of level of language development on subsequent educational difficulties. Interventions designed by research groups aim to address specific aspects of language development. Interventions implemented as part of research projects are based on the evidence for mechanisms and conditions of language development and principles of language interventions. Such interventions are mainly aimed at receiving evidence concerning mechanisms and conditions of language development, and also its subsequent performance in designing effective interventions. Interventions conducted by education practitioners are based on language difficulties in children and are aimed to solving specific problems in children in the shortest period of time. The interventions are implemented by state and private preschool centers, as well as by charities.

The paper presents a theoretical analysis of the role of identification with «father figure» on a par with its symbolic functions in the development and formation of child self-identity. Particular attention is paid to the potential application of cultural historical psychology and modern psychotherapeutic approach in studying the processes of internalization and identification. The empirical study was conducted in 3-4 and 4-5 years children using Children’s Apperception Test (CAT) by S. Bellak and L. Bellak. the Methods of phenomenological analysis were used, elements of content analysis were applied to the results of perception, projective comments and stories of children after the third CAT table by S. Bellak and L. Bellak was produced to them, and also qualitative analysis of child behaviour are presented. The results have revealed the change of «father figure» perception, which is an external marker of identification deeper processes. Particular material gives basis to discuss qualitative transformation of «father figure» identification taking into account age-related categories, and also the mechanism of identifying and assigning the appropriate emotional experience. By identifying the «father figure» as prior aggressive category the child affirmation receives a meaningful and socially accepted form of manifestation that marks an important stage in the development of self-identity.

Background. In connection with the crisis noted by researchers in the system of training scientific and pedagogical personnel for higher and postgraduate education (one of the indicators of which is the low percentage of postgraduate students defending a PhD thesis), it is extremely important to study the problems of scientific leadership of postgraduate students.

Objective. The study of the features of interaction of postgraduate students with their scientific supervisors, depending on the influence of socio-stratification factors, motivation for admission to graduate school and self-assessment of their capabilities in the successful defense of a dissertation research.

Design. The article is based on the materials of a monitoring questionnaire survey of 803 postgraduate students of organizations engaged in the training of postgraduate students in the field of education sciences. The study involved students of postgraduate research organizations engaged in the training of postgraduate students in the field of education sciences, as well as pedagogical universities in Moscow and the regions of the Russian Federation. In this paper, the influence of socio-demographic and socio-stratification factors on the relationship between scientific supervisors and postgraduate students is considered. The empirical data were processed using the methods of mathematical statistics (statistical software packages SPSS and StatSoft Statistica).

Results. The study showed the influence of socio-demographic and socio-stratification factors on the assessment of the features of interaction with the supervisor by postgraduate students. A special correlation analysis of the motives for admission to graduate school showed that there is a connection between the motivation of postgraduate students and the character of interaction with the supervisor. The connection between the features of interaction of graduate students with the supervisor and the availability of obtaining his advice with the confidence of postgraduate students in the successful defense of the candidate’s thesis is shown.

Conclusion. The study allowed us to characterize a number of significant aspects concerning the socio-psychological features of the relationship between postgraduate students and their scientific supervisors. These include: the importance of the experience of working with the supervisor of the dissertation at the stage of writing the graduate work at university, as a special mechanism for recruiting in the field of science; the influence of socio-stratification factors on building relationships with the supervisor about the dissertation research; the influence of the graduate student’s involvement in the scientific activities of the supervisor on the motivation of training in graduate school; the influence of the availability of professional contacts with the supervisor on the confidence of the postgraduate student in the successful defense of his dissertation. In general, the research materials allow us to conclude that the relationship with the supervisor is an important indicator of the “social capital” that a graduate student acquires during his postgraduate studies

The paper presents the research results that deal with the dependence of individual adolescent autonomy on the characteristics of the social situation of development, i.e. the nature of parent-child relationships and relationships with peers from the perspective of the developmental approach (L.Vygotsky). Non-linear nature of the development and heterochronic components of adolescent autonomy are shown. The highest rates are identified for the evaluative and cognitive components of autonomy, while the lowest ones are identified for emotional components at a fairly low level of behavioural autonomy. Individual autonomy develops functional unity of all the components that form its value-affective and operational-technical component. Advanced development of cognitive autonomy due to the transition to the education and career with elements of self-education is the basis of the formation of behavioural and value autonomy. The latter determines the vector of motivation and sense of identity and consequently also creates conditions for achieving emotional autonomy by adopting self-worth and self-sufficiency. Features of relations with parents and peers in five groups of adolescents, whose individual autonomy level and structure vary, are identified and described.

A relation of autonomy level and its individual components to the nature of the adolescent relationship with parents and peers is identified. The most important parameters for autonomy development are as follows: parent-child relationship as parental control, freedom and autonomy in parent-child relations, cooperation. Relationships with parents and peers play different roles in developing adolescent autonomy. In relations with parents, adolescents get aware of the need for autonomy and motivation. In relationships with peers, the need for autonomy, approbation, role experiments with value choice and decision-making, their behaviour and activities become subjective.

The paper is an analytical overview of the results of foreign scientific researches of parental factors’ psychotherapy of children and adolescents. The fundamental differences between child / adolescent psychotherapy and adult psychotherapy are shown: characteristics of the client, sources of information and the influence of the social environment. We identified five groups of psychotherapy efficiency of children and adolescents: procedural factors, “children/adolescent” factors, parental factors, family factors and psychotherapist factors.

Parental factors that have a positive impact on the process of psychotherapy of children and adolescents are as follows: 1) parental self-efficacy which is associated with father’s and mother’s beliefs about their own parental competence; 2) parental involvement in the process of psychotherapy which provides cooperation with the child psychotherapist/psychologist; 3) parental adherence to psychotherapy which allows to adjust and modify their educational tactics and strategy; 4) adequate parental expectations which correlate with the duration of child/adolescent psychotherapy. It is shown that adverse prognostic factors for the process of children and adolescents psychotherapy are as follows: 1) psychopathological status of parents which restrict the positive changes of the child/adolescent; 2) high levels of parental stress that does not change the particular nature of parent-child relationship; 3) inadequate level of hostility and criticism of parents in relation to the child who is not able receive new social and emotional experience.

The paper emphasizes that the underestimating or neglecting psychotherapy efficacy of children and adolescents is associated with the particular features of their parents, so it can result in early psychotherapy ceasing and reducing the achieved positive results.

This paper discusses diverse theoretical approaches to the study of adolescent personal autonomy, including psychoanalytic approach (A. Freud, M. Mahler, P. Blos), attachment theory (J. Bowlby, Ainsworth, M. P. Crittenden), self-determination theory (E. Deci and R. Ryan), activity approach (A.N. Leontiev, D.A. Leontiev) and developmental approach (El’konin, T.V. Dragunova, L.I. Bozhovich, G.A. Zuckerman, G.V. Burmenskaya). Analysis of the adolescent personal autonomy has demonstrated the diversity of theoretical approaches and empirical research to explain the phenomenology, mechanisms and conditions of developing the complex personality constructs. The study of modern foreign and Russian research has allowed to analyze the main ways of separating from parents and the role of social context in shaping adolescent autonomy.

The paper describes the structure of adolescent personal autonomy construct. During its operationalization, the necessity of including the moral autonomy as part of the value autonomy in the four-tier personal autonomy is emphasized. The significance of parent-child relationship for developing adolescent personal autonomy is outlined. On the one hand, autonomy is represented as a characteristic of the relationship, i.e. social background, and on the other hand, it is the I-image used by a teenager as pattern in relationships with adults and peers. The paper highlights the benefits of the developmental approach in the research of the personal autonomy and presents how to use the concept of social situation development. The developmental approach that considers the social situation of development as a hierarchy of social contexts that determine the vector and development of the key age-dependent features, opens the opportunity of studying the orienting activity in the system of social and interpersonal relations in the development of personal autonomy.