Vol 19, No 2 (2022): Digital Society as a Cultural and Historical Context of Personality Development

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The problems of artificial intelligence from the very beginning of this applied area of science in the mid-20th century have closely intersected with psychological problems, primarily with the psychology of thinking. As experience shows, not only real developments in artificial intelligence but also the discussed prospects for building its working models largely depend on technological progress in the field of computers and software. The paper discusses the changes in representations of heuristics understood as creative thinking and as techniques or rules that are useful for finding solutions to problems. The following issues are specifically considered: the psychological side of the problems of heuristic programming, the similarities and differences between human and computer heuristics, the probability and possible consequences of the singularity phenomenon (understood as the superiority of artificial intelligence over natural one), including the example of the functioning of the community of professional chess players. It is concluded that the progress of computer models and artificial intelligence systems are promising for the positive transformation of the human psyche.

Social media addiction (SMA) is one of the most widespread non-medical addictions. Previous research has found positive associations between SMA and depression, anxiety, stress, and other symptoms and signs of mental ill-being. The purpose of this study is to identify and compare the associations with specific manifestations of psychological distress (e.g., impulsivity, narcissism, vulnerability to manipulation, low assertiveness, smartphone addiction and its factors) in groups of Belarusian and Ukrainian university students. The study was conducted using the following diagnostic tools: SMA-15 Questionnaire by V.P. Sheinov & A.S. Dziavitsyn; a short version of the SAS-16 questionnaire Smartphone Addiction Scale by V.P. Sheinov; Assessment of the Degree of Vulnerability of an Individual from Manipulative Influences by V.P. Sheinov; Questionnaire for Diagnosing the Potential of Communicative Impulsivity by V.A. Losenkov; and Narcissistic Questionnaire by E. Kot. The sample consisted of 604 university students, including 403 residents of Belarus (77% females) and 201 residents of Ukraine (53% females). The mean age of the participants was 21.5 years (SD = 5.17). The results of the study revealed: (1) positive associations of SMA with impulsivity, smartphone addiction and its factors (‘loss of control,’ ‘fear of rejection’ and user’s ‘euphoria’), common for the Belarusian and Ukrainian students; (2) positive associations of SMA with narcissism for the Belarusian male and female students as well as for the Ukrainian male students; and (3) a negative association of SMA with assertiveness for the Ukrainian male and female students and for the Belarusian female students (for the latter, a negative association with vulnerability to manipulation was also found). In practical terms, the revealed associations between SMA and a number of symptoms and signs of psychological distress provide material for explanatory work with students about the dangers of excessive involvement in social media.

The problems of the game have long been relevant for many researchers and are considered from the perspective of various disciplines. In the modern era of digitalization, computer games have become widespread; they attract the attention and interest of both users and researchers. At the same time, “ordinary” board games in modern psychology are studied much less frequently and, mainly, on the example of chess. The purpose of this study is to identify changes in emotional states during and as a result of two board games that involve cooperative and competitive actions ( Imaginarium and Monopoly respectively) as well as to describe the nature of experiences of students in gaming activities, in particular, taking into account their personal characteristics. The study involved 62 students of higher educational institutions in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). To diagnose the emotional state of the respondents, we used the Method for Measuring Emotional Experience in Activity by D.A. Leontiev, and the Russian-language version of the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) by O.V. Mitina et al. To measure personality traits, we used the Russian versions of the six-factor HEXACO-PI-R personality questionnaire by M.S. Egorova et al. and of the Dark Triad personality trait diagnostic technique by T.V. Kornilova et al. The results of the study, in general, demonstrate positive changes in the emotional state after gaming, regardless of the result and process. Both board games, in spite of their specificity, well increased the positive emotional background of the respondents. At the same time, it was found that the nature of the experience is related to the content of the gaming activity: the respondents more often experienced meaningfulness in the cooperative game Imaginarium and emptiness in the competitive game Monopoly .

The new digital environment and the COVID-19 crisis, having drastically increased the amount of teleworking and e-commerce, seem to have benefited GAFAM and digital platforms. Under the current conditions, SMEs and traditional businesses are forced to look for adaptive strategies. Some researchers (e.g. A. Carmeli and G.D. Markman) argue that they SMEs and traditional businesses need to build entrepreneurial and organizational resilience . And it is in this respect, in particular, that psychology can be usefully mobilized to analyze new forms of economic competition. On these grounds, the authors of the paper defend the idea that the SMEs and traditional businesses will be able to exist and assert themselves against their new competitors. In this new interconnected, turbulent and uncertain environment, this self-assertion passes through a strategic and organizational reconfiguration, but also and above all, through entrepreneurial action in its effectual logic which can lead to resilience and, moreover, to antifragility .

The article is focused on the problem of inducing students to develop the non-linear, probabilistic style of thinking in the context of the digitalization of modern education. The purpose of the study is to create effective scientific and methodological tools for organizing the process of teaching mathematics in schools and universities in order to achieve high pedagogical, socially demanded results and, on the basis of these tools, to create an improved didactic model with the effect of developing the probabilistic style of thinking, flexibility, creativity and criticality in students so as to enable them to actively participate in social life. The model of teaching mathematics is constructed in the unity of the target, theoretical and methodological, content, technological, diagnostic and effective components. The structure-forming factor is an information-intensive educational environment for teaching mathematics as a set of digital information and educational content that contributes to the effective development of probabilistic style of thinking. The content component of the model is implemented in the selection and structuring of educational material based on the fractal approach, in the methodological update of a complex of foundation spirals equipped with banks of applied and research tasks, taking into account the depth of the fractal representation of educational elements. To obtain guaranteed learning outcomes while solving technological problems of implementing the model, an adaptive learning system was used as a tool for developing probabilistic style of thinking in students and creating an objective means of management. The results of introducing the model into teaching practice with subsequent statistical verification based on the descriptive statistics methods and Student’s t -test showed positive dynamics for all the structural components of the model with a confidence level of 95%. The prospect of the research is further intellectualization of the technological component of the model based on the hybridization of artificial intelligence methods to ensure the effective development of the probabilistic style of thinking with rapid changes in parameter values according to the set feedbacks.

Game technologies (including computer-based ones) applied for teaching English have long occupied an important and permanent place in the structure of the lesson. They are very helpful in developing intercultural communicative competences as well as increasing motivation and self-organization. The purpose of this study is to objectively show how game methods of work and gamification techniques are actually implemented by modern teachers in English classes in both full-time and distance education. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the analysis of empirical psychological and pedagogical research on the problems of teaching English by both domestic and foreign scientists, on the basis of which the authors have compiled a questionnaire to summarize the experience of English teachers, classify electronic games and gamification techniques in the classroom. The study sample consisted of 48 English teachers with teaching experience from 1 to 13 years, the age range of their students being from 3 to 60 years old. The teachers used the questionnaire to analyze their experience in using gamification techniques and game technologies both in face-to-face and online lessons. All the teachers used game methods of work and gamification techniques in their classes regardless of the students’ age. The games that the teachers included in their lessons could be conveniently classified into didactic games (used by two-thirds of the teachers), multiplayer cooperation games (included by every fifth teacher) and hidden object games with a non-linear plot (used in class by a quarter of the teachers in the sample). Most of the teachers who used the gamification techniques noted a steady increase in students’ motivation in the classroom. The practical significance of the research results lies in the possibility of building an individual trajectory of self-education and professional development of English language teachers both in basic and in supplementary education. The generalized practical experience of the teachers who participated in the study can be used as the basis for methodological and pedagogical recommendations for improving informational and communicational competences and pedagogical skills of English language teachers.

Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was a Canadian philosopher, philologist, literary scholar and media expert. Andy Warhol famously said that in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. As for McLuhan’s fame, it stretched over decades. His ideas that technology can influence and shape society have been widely discussed up to this day. McLuhan’s work is regarded as an important conceptual contribution to media theory, and his term ‘global village’ is widely used by students and scholars, practitioners and theorists in the field of communication. The authors of this article attempt to analyze the contribution of McLuhan, as a communication expert and influential technodeterminist, to understanding the media of the 21st century. It is concluded that, despite the abundant criticism regarding the naivety and “unscientific” nature of his approach, the lack of empirical evidence for the theory he put forward, his passion for technology, as well as his belief in the decisive role of the media in the development of culture and society, McLuhan’s ideas still inspire researchers. The concept of ‘global village’ in the modern information world has not only retained its relevance - it describes the laws of the functioning of the digital society in the best possible way. The Internet and social networks have confirmed Marshall’s postulate that communication technologies enable people to become increasingly involved in one another’s lives.

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In 2022, the Psychology Coalition at the United Nations (PCUN) marked its tenth year, with a mission to apply psychological science to global issues at the UN. Since March of 2020, PCUN activities have not declined, but have increased despite disruptive global COVID lockdowns. This two-part report offers a concise overview of: (a) the dramatic growth of PCUN activities since 2020, and (b) PCUN’s 15th annual Psychology Day at the UN on April 21, 2022, which focused on “Building Hope: Psychological Contributions to a Roadmap for Climate Action.”