Vadim A. Emelin’s research while affiliated with A. N. Kosygin Moscow State Textile University and other places

Background. The present article addresses the criteria for choosing a profession and work among modern adolescents and young adults in the changing and transient world. It sets the ideals of professions that illusorily seem to be accessible, easy, well-paid, and interesting at the same time. Objective. The present study aims at identifying subjective criteria of the preference for occupation and work in senior adolescents and young adults and their relationship with personality traits, values, user activity, and subjective well-being. Study Participants. 172 subjects, 54 students of 8–11 grades at the age from 13 to 16 and 118 students of Moscow universities at the age from 17 to 23, including 103 males (59.9%) and 69 females (40.1%). Methods. The respondents fill in the scale of subjective criteria for job preference, the Ten Item Personality Measure, the Portrait Values Questionnaire and techniques for assessing subjective well-being and user activity. The answer the questions about the possibility and intention to combine several criteria of career and job choice. Results. The scale of the subjective criteria for job preference is a reliable, factor- and content-valid screening instrument assessing the importance of payment, interest, convenience, prospect, usefulness to others, ease, difficulty, and image in the work. In choosing a profession and job, both high school and college students focus on a wide range of criteria. Conscientiousness is associated with the preference for a well-paid, promising, and challenging work; openness to new experience is associated with the preference for interesting work. Orientation to the values of conformity and tradition is associated with the readiness to choose between different criteria, while the orientation to the values of achievement and power is associated with a wider range of subjective criteria, which the future job should correspond to. A higher level of positive emotions is associated with the preference for many criteria of job selection at the same time. A greater user activity is connected to the desire for easy work. Conclusions. In contemporary adolescents and young adults, a greater subjective well-being and the values of achievement and power are paradoxically associated with an unrealistically wide range of criteria of choosing a profession and job that are simultaneously important to them. This may further lead to some difficulties in searching for the job and disappointments in it.

Introduction Modern social discourse emphasizes an importance of health either as a limiting resource that needs to be “saved” and “restored”, or as a vulnerability that should be protected, or as a “natural gift” that needs support and recovery by natural methods including alternative medicine. Advertisement adds to the social discourse a meaning of health as a sign of success. Research demonstrated that beliefs in any of these meanings is associated with higher adherence to medical recommendations but also higher catastrophizing of bodily sensations, somatosensory amplification and belief in bodily weakness (Rasskazova et al., 2017). Objectives To reveal relationships of beliefs and thoughts in “hypochondriac discourse” with subjective importance of health self-care and health-oriented behavior. Methods 340 participants 17-77 years old filled “Hypochondriac” Discourse Questionnaire (Rasskazova et al., 2016) that includes four scales measuring beliefs and four scales measuring frequency of thoughts about each health meaning, and Health Self-Care Scale (Rasskazova et al., 2021) that differentiates subjective importance of different ways of self-care and activities (Cronbach’s alphas .66-.80). Results All beliefs in “hypochondriac discourse” except importance of alternative medicine are related to medical health monitoring and active styles of life (r=.23-.43) but unrelated to reported activities. Frequency of thoughts about “hypochondriac discourse” are related to adherence to health behavior (r=.31-.49). Conclusions Frequent thoughts about “hypochondriac discourse” could be protective factor helping to support active life styles but also could lead to over-protection in healthy people. Research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 22-28-01643 Disclosure Research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 22-28-01643

Introduction Increase in affective and somatic complaints during pandemic is considered as related to experienced stress (Wang et al., 2020, Roy et al., 2020, Robillard et al., 2020). Expression or suppression of emotions related to pandemic could affect the vulnerability of people to stressful situations (Gross, Thompson, 2007, Roberts et al., 2008). Objectives The aim was to reveal a role of suppression / expression emotions regarding pandemic in the changes in somatic and affective complaints in people without coronavirus during lockdown. Methods In May 2020 110 people 18-65 years old (61.2% females) without coronavirus appraised their strategy of dealing with different emotions regarding pandemic on the 1-5 scale from emotional expression to hiding and suppression (Cronbach’s alphas) and 26 somatic and emotional symptoms including sleep-related symptoms, daytime functioning, affective symptoms, general physical condition (Cronbach’s alphas .81-.90). In December 2020 they reappraised 26 complaints. Results There were no statistically significant changes in somatic and affective complaints during May-December 2020 (p>.20). Increase in sleep-related complaints (β=.23, p<.05, ΔR ² =5.0%) and complaints regarding general physical condition (β=.32, p<.05, ΔR ² =10.0%) were more pronounced in those reporting higher expression of emotions related to COVID. Conclusions People with higher emotional reactivity to pandemic situation tend to report increase in sleep-related problems and general worsening of their physical condition during lockdown. Research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 20-013-00799. Disclosure Research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 20-013-00799

Background. The concept of cyberchondria is proposed to describe a psychological phenomenon that manifests in the increase in health anxiety after excessive search for medical information. The structure of cyberchondria is quite heterogeneous. Features of actions (compulsive actions in search of information about health and diseases online) the relation of these actions to other human activities (excessive search), emotional (distress after the search) and behavioral (the search for confirmation) consequences of those actions, as well as mentalsetting (mistrust in medical experts) can be revealed in this structure. The question of the independence of cyberchondria, which is closely connected to obsessive-compulsive symptoms, health anxiety, hypochondriacal behavior and user activity, is also controversial. Objective. The article aims to detect the relationship between cyberchondria and signs of excessive Internet use , somatization, hypochondrization, and health anxiety. Design. The present study (before the coronavirus pandemic) involved 127 healthy respondents aged 18 to 70 years old and 33 active users of online medical websites. The respondents filled out the Cyberchondria Severity Scale, the scales of hypochondriacal behavior, beliefs about the body and health, health anxiety, Internet addiction and a number of checklists assessing their user activity and behavior related to health and illness. Results. In the structure of cyberchondria, it is possible to reliably distinguish closely related components of the search for confirmation, compulsive actions, excessive and repetitive search, and distress after the search. Excessive search for information is more often associated with viewing images of diseases, seeking the confirmation along with reading reviews (i.e., it more often complements an actual search for a medical care, or cross-checks the results). Compulsive actions and distress are most closely associated with searching for information on social networks. Mistrust in healthcare professionals is weakly associated with cyberchondria. It reveals itself in a rare inclination to seek for a formal medical opinion both online and offline. However, a greater propensity for seeking for the information about alternative medicine on the Internet is observed. Manifestations of cyberchondria (apart from the mistrust in medical professionals) are closely associated with an excessive user activity and the tendency for somatoform symptoms and hypochondriacal behavior. This supports the hypothesis that cyberchondria is a specific behavior that is based on other clinical-psychological phenomena.

Background. Th e present paper discusses the relevance of identifying oneself with a professionalism, the attitude to the profession and the role in the professional activity as an integral characteristic of the professional identity among representatives of diff erent positions. Objective. Th e identifi cation of the relationship between the professional identity and satisfaction with professional activities (work process, working conditions, organization, choice of profession, etc.) and well-being in the workplace among representatives of various positions. Sample. 11 558 employees (7,373 women, 63.8%, and 4,175 men, 36.2%) of a large energy company in the Russian Federation. Methods. Th e participants fi lled in the questionnaire on the components of job satisfaction, the scales of the work involvement, the boredom at the workplace, the emotional exhaustion and initiative. Results. Th e representatives of diff erent positions are most satisfi ed with the benefi ts of their work for people, with their choice of profession and the profession itself and the labour process but they are less satisfi ed with the working conditions, payment, management and professional prospect. As for representatives of all the positions, involvement in the work, a low level of boredom and emotional exhaustion and initiative depend on not only the satisfaction with working conditions, payment, management and the professional prospect but also on the satisfaction with the choice of profession, the profession itself, its content, the benefi t to people and the labour process. Conclusion. Regardless of the position and satisfaction with working conditions, the satisfaction with the choice of profession, its content and benefi ts for people and the labour itself predict the involvement in work, initiative, a low level of emotional exhaustion and the boredom at work.

The monograph contains studies by international scientists who carry out research on the psychological aspects of COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our lives. Special attention is given to the experience of providing psychological support in different regions of Russia and abroad. The book presents research-based recommendations for psychological guidance, as well as psychological training of medical workers and neuropsychological diagnosing and rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients. The monograph will be of interest to specialists in psychology and to everyone interested in managing the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic.

Relevance. The spread of coronavirus infection is accompanied by the dissemination of information messages in the form of radical beliefs affecting people’s behaviour. The aim of the study was to reveal the relationship between beliefs about coronavirus and its treatment, magical thinking, anxiety and the protective behaviour against to the pandemic. Methods. 402 adults aged 18–64 years old filled checklist including beliefs about causes, manifestations, consequences and control of the pandemic, Illness and Treatment Locus of Control Scale, Treatment Self-Efficacy Scale, Magical Ideation Scale as well as scales measuring anxiety and protective behaviour in pandemic and monitoring of information about coronavirus. Results. Factor analysis revealed three groups of radical beliefs about coronavirus: negligence as the cause of the occurrence and spread of coronavirus, a particular meaning of morbidity and negative consequences of the pandemic. Conclusion. Belief in the negligence as a cause of coronavirus was more typical for people with an intrinsic locus of causes of the causes of illness but extrinsic locus of control of treatment and for those who were prone to protective behaviour in the pandemic. Belief about the particular meaning of coronavirus was associated with the magical thinking, the intrinsic locus of control of the causes of illness, less anxiety about infection and poorer compliance with self-isolation. Radical beliefs about the consequences of the pandemic were related to more frequent monitoring of the information about the pandemic, extrinsic locus of control of treatment but intrinsic locus of control of causes of illness and a pronounced anxiety regarding future negative consequences of the pandemic.

Information technologies affect the most important problem of subjective boundaries and their privacy. Electronic gadgets are regularly used at night or in the late evening, which is associated with the complaints of sleep disturbances on the non-clinical level. The present study aims at clarifying the relationship between anxiety, depression and the use of electronic gadgets in the evening and night, and the complaints of sleep disturbances in adult respondents without any diagnosed sleep disorders. It is shown that the association between the use of gadgets at night and complaints of sleep dis¬turbances remains after controlling for the level of anxiety and depression. This means that their use in the evening and night induced by the nature of the information-com¬munication technology itself is a separate predictor of sleep disorders, metaphorically speaking, a new “acting” force in somnology. This effect manifests not only in anxiety, depression and other behavioral factors of sleep hygiene disturbances, but reveals itself more obviously in the situation of relative well-being at a low level of anxiety.