Individual variability of higher mental functions depends on the family environment. An appropriate psychological environment is able to harmonize individual development while the ontogenetic individuality of human psychology depends on many systemic factors. This empirical study focused on the socio-demographic characteristics of the family, namely the income and background of the parents. Different socio-cultural family environment caused uneven development of higher mental functions and differences in the main information processing strategy in preschoolers. The financial status of the family and the level of education of the parents proved to be the most significant factors responsible for the individual differences in the development of higher mental functions in preschoolers. The sociocultural environment of the family affected the long-term individual variability of functions connected with block III of the brain, as well as those provided by the left hemisphere.

The psychology of thinking needs to expand its subject area in order to match the psychology of human existence. The processual and complicated life world of a person is an integral ontological space of thinking, in the context of which problematization and mental search unfold. The author believes that life relations and existential mood should be regarded as operational, dynamic, subject-thematic, and stylistic aspects of thinking. Acts and events of thought of a holistically understood personality cannot be separated from their active thinking relationship with the Self and the world. The great dynamics of thinking includes transtemporal and chronotopic aspects of the ongoing mental experience and the topology of cognitive identity. New promising directions for further theoretical and experimental research in the psychology of thinking can be implemented in line with systemic anthropological psychology.

K. V. Petrides and A. Furnham’s emotional intelligence model is extremely popular nowadays. Foreign specialists often use this diagnostic method to measure emotional intelligence. Standardization of diagnostic methods for the Russian-speaking teenagers could expand the capabilities of teen psychology and help specialists who work with adolescents. The article presents a psychometric analysis of the Russian-language version of the short emotional intelligence questionnaire TEIQue-ASF for teenagers developed by K. V. Petrides and A. Furnham. The questionnaire measures emotional intelligence in adolescents in the context of a model of personality traits. The research involved teenagers aged 13–17 from Novosibirsk (N = 347): 199 boys (57.3%) and 148 girls (42.7%). Later, 171 of them were re-examined to study the retest reliability. The validation procedure involved the following questionnaires: D. V. Lyusin’s EmIn Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire; The BFI-5 Questionnaire adapted by S. A. Shchebetenko; The SWLS Life Satisfaction Scale Questionnaire by E. Diner adapted by E. N. Osin and D. A. Leontiev; An analogue of The PANAS – SHPANA Scale of Positive and Negative Affect in E. N. Osin’s development; The STAI Questionnaire of Personal and Situational Anxiety by Ch. Spielberg in Y. L. Khanin’s adaptation. The obtained data made it possible to standardize the Russian-language version of the TEIQue-ASF questionnaire. The test showed a high internal consistency (Cronbach's mark = 0.901) and a convergent validity that corresponded to the original, as well as a good predictability of indicators of subjective well-being. The TEIQue-ASF test correlated with its adult version in A. A. Pankratova’s adaptation. The assessment revealed no statistically significant features in relation to the gender and age. The TEIQue-ASF test proved suitable for measuring emotional intelligence in Russian-speaking adolescents aged 13–17.

The authors used the psychosemiotic content analysis, projective method, personal differential, and factor analysis to study the semantics of a movie character preferred by teenagers. An incomplete-sentence test and a blog analysis revealed eight categories and nineteen corresponding analysis units based on the occurrence / non-occurrence of selected units in the text and their frequency. Osgood’s matrices revealed the measure of the random coincidence of classification units (≥ 70 %) with other categories. The integrative semantic structure of the favored movie hero was determined by such categories and content units as a) gender (male); b) appearance (look); c) intellect (mental abilities); d) interaction (relations with other people); e) character traits (moral and volitional qualities, attitude to others, attitude to work); f) actions (struggle for justice, readiness to do something for others); g) attitude to the family (willingness to sacrifice with something for the family).

Life strategies depend on value orientations. This study featured the life strategies typical of men imprisoned for major crimes. The research relied on E. E. Sapogova’s Modes of Life Questionnaire, M. Rokeach’s Value Orientations, the procedure developed by R. Inglehart and modified by M. S. Yanitskiy, D. A. Leontiev’s Meaningful Life Orientation Test, etc. The empirical part of the research involved 52 inmates who were serving their sentences in a colony-settlement. Most respondents proved to be focused on the values of socialization. However, the research revealed differences in their life modes and value orientations. Those convicted for serious crimes demonstrated false heroism and focused on external success. They had a much lower sense of life purpose, while their choice of values depended on socially approved behavior, e.g., a well-paid job, family values, responsibility, diligence, etc. The data obtained can be used to develop re-socialization programs for ex-prisoners.

The article features the theoretical and methodological approaches to aggressiveness, which can be divided into aggression, hostility, and anger. Aggression is a normal manifestation of life, coming-of-age, and social adaptation. Aggressive behavior can be constructive, instrumental, and destructive. It depends on both personality and group standards. Aggressive behavior is often legitimized as part of adaptation to the norms and rituals of a particular social group. Alcohol is responsible for many cases of aggressive behavior inside a community. Young people drink alcohol to achieve a desirable social status, improve their mood, raise confidence, and blend in. Drinking often legitimizes aggressive behavior. Particular predictors of group drinking can be used for sampling. Subjects with pronounced hostility demonstrate poor prospects for control of activity and emotions; they tend to violate social norms and are likely to develop addiction. Young people with a high level of general aggressiveness are guided by ataractic and hedonistic motivation for alcohol consumption.

The article discusses self-regulatory resources that can be used when working with clients of a psychological support service. The present study sought to examine the characteristics of self-regulatory resources in clients of an online psychological support service (Tomsk State University). The sample was collected using online measures from the clients who at that moment were solving their problems or had already solved them. To analyze self-regulatory resources we diagnosed the style of self-regulation, coping behavior, tolerance for uncertainty, basic assumptions of an individual and studied text messages from the clients. The correlation and cluster analysis revealed numerous correlations of self- regulation and other resources. It allowed us to identify groups of clients with dominant typological relationships between the self-regulatory features, strategies for coping with stress, ambiguity tolerance, and primary assumptions. We discussed the results, taking into account the current level of self-regulatory activity and personal resources.

This article introduces an empirical study of the way teachers express emotions during digital communication, both in typing and in video conferencing. The study involved 170 female and 20 male members of school and university teaching staff (mean age = 43.78 y.o). It relied on an authentic multiple-choice questionnaire, grid questions, and case tasks. The participants knew special online means of expressing emotions but seldom used them with students. At video conferences, they referred to the same methods of transmitting emotions as in real communication. The women and the school teachers were more emotional in the digital environment than the rest. The research revealed emotionally limited digital communication between teachers and students, which needs further research on how to develop the lacking competencies.

Virtualization and digitalization affect such aspects of human personality as self-identification, self-actualization, and self-presentation. They also change the mechanisms of categorization and interpretation of individual experience while transforming the system of personal meanings. However, the degree and scope of the impact of virtual space on human personality needs further research. This research tested a new method for assessing the virtualization of Internet user personality. The author reviewed domestic and foreign publications to describe virtual space as a unique environment for life and interaction. The new diagnostic psychometric method proved reliable and valid. It demonstrated the level of personality virtualization as a number of cognitive characteristics. Three virtualization indicators served to define the direction of personality virtualization: immersion, involvement, and inclusion.

The article describes the problem of trust in interethnic relations. The phenomenon of trust is one of the most important aspects of interethnic interaction in the modern multicultural environment. The trust of ethnophors to ethnocontact groups usually depend on the attitude of trust / distrust towards the world, other people, and oneself, as well as on the type of ethnic identity and personal characteristics. The study involved 280 young people from the North-Caucasian regions of Russia: 80 Ossetians, 80 Chechens, 40 Kabardians, 40 Russians, and 40 Georgians. The data collection relied on the Saks-Levy method of Incomplete Sentences, which was modified by the authors, the Assessment of Trust / Distrust to the World, Others, and Oneself developed by A. B. Kupreychenko, and R. B. Kettell’s 16-Factor Personality Questionnaire. The authors designed their own scale to measure the level of trust in ethno-contact groups. Other research tools included the method developed by N. M. Lebedeva and A. N. Tatarko that assesses the valence and definiteness of ethnic identity, the degree of civic identity, and interethnic attitudes. The respondents, regardless of nationality, believed that trusting interethnic relations are based on accepting foreign national values, customs, and culture, as well as on the certainty that a representative of a different ethnicity will provide help and support in a difficult situation. Those with a low level of interethnic trust demonstrated a much lower all-Russian identity and a much greater anxiety connected with interethnic interaction, compared with the respondents who had a high level of interethnic trust. The latter also had a positive attitude towards other ethnic groups and were ready to interact with other nationalities in various social situations. The respondents with low trust levels were less emotionally stable, more restrained, suspicious, anxious, conservative, and tense.

The article presents the results of a pilot study conducted as part of the Fulbright Visiting Scholars academic exchange program in 2021–2022. The research objective was to describe the development of learned helplessness in students that majored in humanities in Russia and the USA. The Russian sample was represented by students that followed the Clinical Psychology program at the Krasnoyarsk State Medical University while the American students studied Student Affairs at the University of South Florida. The students fulfilled an open-type Questionnaire on Subjective Assessment of Learned Helplessness, which was designed, translated, and adapted by the author. The research methodology relied on the learned helplessness theory introduced by M. Seligman (USA), the concept of the cultural and historical development of the human psyche by L. Vygotsky (USSR), and the transspective method developed by V. E. Klochko (Russia). The pilot study revealed several socio-cultural peculiarities of learned helplessness. The American students were likely to develop learned helplessness as teenagers whereas the Russian participants manifested it later in adolescence but demonstrated its first signs as early as between senior preschool and primary school. The American students were quite optimistic about the primary and secondary school but associated their early teenage years with a severe life crisis and separation. The Russians saw school as the genesis of learned helplessness while the Americans regarded it as a psychological separation and a change in the child-parent pattern. The author believes that a school system oriented towards approval and support prevents the development of learned helplessness, which is associated with traumatic experience and attachment disorder.

The study featured two models of language anxiety. The authors identified the psychological nature of this phenomenon by analyzing its relationships with ambiguity tolerance. The study involved the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by E. K. Horwitz, M. B. Horwitz, and J. Cope, improved by Z. Na, and translated by the authors, as well as E. N. Osin’s General Tolerance for Ambiguity Scale. The study involved 102 students majoring in linguistics. For statistical processing, the authors employed such methods as internal consistency assessment (Cronbach's alpha), descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test, Student's t-criterion, Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal- Wallis H-test, Pearson's coefficient, and Spearman's coefficient. The students demonstrated statistically significant gender differences in individual components of language anxiety and ambiguity tolerance. The attitudes to complex tasks and uncertain situations proved to be the most significant parameters of ambiguity tolerance in the context of understanding the psychological nature of language anxiety.

In the 21st century, many universities seek to internationalize their educational activities. The number of foreign students is one of the indicators of the university’s success in the market of global educational services. The success of education, in its turn, depends on the students’ socio-cultural adaptation in the host country. In this study, we used cultural distance as a predictor of socio-cultural adaptation for students from Arab countries. When cultural distance is high, immigrants find it more difficult to adapt to the new environment. We conducted a socio-psychological survey among first-, second-, and third-year students from Morocco, Syria, and Egypt receiving education at the universities of Perm, Moscow, Astrakhan, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and St. Petersburg. Our study showed that cultural distance affects socio-cultural adaptation. It was the differences between Russian and Arab cultures in values, traditions, and appearance that affected the adaptation of Arab students in the Russian cultural environment. Our results can contribute to further research into the predictors of adaptation for foreign students. They can also be used to develop adaptation programs for Arab students studying not only in Russian universities, but worldwide.