Article
Преодоление в зарубежной психологии традиционных факторных подходов к детерминации поведения
The chapter presents a theoretical analysis of applications of the concept of meaning in the psychology of motivation. The history of this concept in psychology and especially psychology of motivation is traced with special emphasis on the two most elaborated general theories of motivation where the concept of meaning is central: J. Nuttin’s relational theory of human conduct and A.N. Leontiev’s activity theory approach. In the present-day context, the relevance of the meaning concept for attributional theories of motivation and action regulation is discussed. Personal meaning may fulfill the role of common denominator for many special models of motivation linking them together as well as with more general theoretical contexts and other problem fields.
Psychology of motivation is a very special field of psychological inquiry – highly, and even intimately important for everyone and still very fragmented and obscure, despite its centennial history. It was not always made a separate field during this history. A period of much theoretical interest in motivation directly connected with the fascination of the riddle of human nature through the first half of the 20th century was followed after the Second World War by decades of disappointment in general theory, narrow specialization of research and straightforward methodological rigorism. The field of motivation was occupied by cognitive revolutionaries, split into pieces and largely dissolved in other problems, such as learning, personnel management, psychotherapy, etc. In the last couple of decades this field seems to “reemerge” (Ryan, 2007). Among the factors of this reemergence R. Ryan mentioned a renewed interest to human nature, the rapid growth of cross-cultural psychology, new positive emphasis in research agenda, attention to profound existential issues, the discovery of sophisticated brain mechanisms of higher regulations, etc. Due to all these developments the psychology of motivation is now less than totally bound with old Manichean dichotomies like cognition vs. affect, conscious vs. unconscious, internal vs. external, etc. that now seem strongly delimiting if not misleading. It is less concerned with distinguishing easily measurable stable (that is, static) dispositional variables and attempts to get a better idea of the involved processes, relationships and complex systems.
This chapter consists of two parts. The first one presents a summary of the selfdetermination theory account of people’s good living and optimal functioning. It highlights three motivational components identified by this theory: psychological needs (needs for autonomy competence and relatedness), aspirations and life strivings, and the continuum of motivational regulation. All these components are considered in relation to people’s eudaimonic happiness and optimal, healthy functioning. The main conclusion of this section is that in order to be happy, people need to regularly and in a balanced way gratify their needs, have strong intrinsic strivings relative to extrinsic aspirations, and be relatively self-determined in their main domains of living and functioning. The second part addresses in more detail the controversial question of the nature of human autonomy as a fundamental condition for people’s thriving and flourishing. It provides a conceptual analysis of this construct, uncovers the mechanisms of its beneficial performance, and addresses a highly discussed question of relationships of autonomy and culture. This section ends with a conclusion on the fundamental importance of human autonomy for people, communities and societies to survive and thrive.
The distractive effects on attentional task performance in different paradigms are analyzed in this paper. I demonstrate how distractors may negatively affect (interference effect), positively (redundancy effect) or neutrally (null effect). Distractor effects described in literature are classified in accordance with their hypothetical source. The general rule of the theory is also introduced. It contains the formal prediction of the particular distractor effect, based on entropy and redundancy measures from the mathematical theory of communication (Shannon, 1948). Single- vs dual-process frameworks are considered for hypothetical mechanisms which underpin the distractor effects. Distractor profiles (DPs) are also introduced for the formalization and simple visualization of experimental data concerning the distractor effects. Typical shapes of DPs and their interpretations are discussed with examples from three frequently cited experiments. Finally, the paper introduces hierarchical hypothesis that states the level-fashion modulating interrelations between distractor effects of different classes.
This article describes the expierence of studying factors influencing the social well-being of educational migrants as mesured by means of a psychological well-being scale (A. Perrudet-Badoux, G.A. Mendelsohn, J.Chiche, 1988) previously adapted for Russian by M.V. Sokolova. A statistical analysis of the scale's reliability is performed. Trends in dynamics of subjective well-being are indentified on the basis the correlations analysis between the condbtbions of adaptation and its success rate, and potential mechanisms for developing subjective well-being among student migrants living in student hostels are described. Particular attention is paid to commuting as a factor of adaptation.