Context and relevance. Authenticity is associated with well-being and is one of the conditions for the full functioning of the personality. However, maintaining authenticity may be associated with social risks. Shame, as a self-conscious emotion directed at the self and associated with the fear of social isolation, may restrict the expression of authenticity. The challenges of searching for the self and the consequences of shame-proneness are especially important in emerging adulthood, when decisions taken can critically affect life. Objective. To identify the presence and specific features of the relationship between personal authenticity and shame-proneness in emerging adulthood. Hypothesis. The level of personal authenticity is interconnected with shame experience, while the relationships of such experience with the various components of authenticity will be ambiguous. Methods and materials. The study involved 133 young people aged 18 to 29 (M = 23,8, SD = 2,9, 41,4% male). Authenticity, shame-proneness and the expression of traits in emerging adulthood were assessed using a battery of questionnaires (Moscow Authenticity Scale, Authenticity Scale, TOSCA-3, GASP, Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood). Results. Divergent relations of moderate strength were identified between shame-proneness and the components of authenticity, taking into account the traits of emerging adulthood. Shame-proneness is positively associated with self-alienation and accepting external influence, and is negatively related to authentic living. For authenticity measured with the Moscow Authenticity Scale, a negative relation was found between shame-proneness and the aspects of authenticity related to knowing and accepting oneself. Conclusions. The identified connections are weak or moderate in strength, which suggests that the consequences of a tendency to experience shame can be offset by an authentic person's ability to accept their imperfections and their high capacity to follow their purpose and accept life's circumstances.
Context and relevance. The relevance of a longitudinal analysis of cause-and-effect relationships between verbal-logical thinking and the acquisition of reading skills stems from the need to address a fundamental problem in psychology—the relationship between mental development and learning. In practical psychology, this research is associated with the search for early individual psychological markers of potential learning difficulties. The processes of mental development and learning to read are closely interrelated throughout general education, but the direction and strength of these causal relationships may change during the transition from preschool to the initial stage of general education. Objective. This study examines the interplay between verbal-logical thinking and reading skills during the transition from kindergarten to the first grade of primary school. Methods and materials. A total of 260 children (50,1% female) participated in the study at two time points: during their preschool preparatory groups (Mage = 6,82, SD = 0,3) and one year later, following the completion of their first year of primary education (Mage = 7,83, SD = 0,3). Verbal-logical thinking was assessed using a mental development test measuring abstraction, classification and generalization, and analogical reasoning. Reading proficiency was evaluated according to reading method, ranging from non-reading to reading in whole words. Data were analyzed using cross-lagged panel structural equation modeling. Results. The analysis of cross-lagged relationships revealed a bidirectional nature of the relationship between verbal-logical thinking and reading proficiency during the transition from preschool to primary school. The most pronounced direct proportional effect was observed in the direction where the level of reading proficiency achieved by the end of the preschool period influences the subsequent development of cognitive operations—abstraction, classification and generalization, and analogical reasoning—at the onset of formal schooling. Conclusions. The specific nature of the causal relationship between the development of verbal-logical thinking and reading acquisition was identified and interpreted within the framework of cultural-historical psychology.
Context and relevance. In contemporary digital culture, AI assistants and recommender systems increasingly mediate access to information, communication, and cultural models, making it necessary to examine them as new agents of socialization. Objective. The article offers a theoretical and methodological analysis of AI assistants and recommender systems as mediators involved in the shaping of cognitive practices, communicative experience, value orientations, and identity. Hypothesis. Algorithmic systems are assumed to operate not only as technical tools, but also as distinctive mediators of cultural experience that influence the internalization of social norms, patterns of social comparison, and forms of self-presentation. Methods and materials. The study is based on a theoretical-analytical review of the literature. The methodological framework includes conceptual analysis, comparative theoretical analysis, thematic synthesis, and interpretive integration of scholarship in the psychology of socialization, cultural-historical psychology, human—AI interaction, digital ethics, and platform studies. Results. The analysis shows that AI assistants acquire a quasi-social status, shaping communicative expectations, trust, and cognitive habits, while recommender systems participate in constructing social reality, normative understandings, and algorithmically mediated identities. On this basis, the concept of algorithmic socialization is theoretically elaborated. Conclusions. AI should be conceptualized not simply as a tool, but as a new socializing infrastructure and a specific semiotic-technical means that mediates personality development, the formation of higher mental functions, and the internalization of norms in digital culture.
Context and relevance. The main challenge posed by the digitalization of education, which involves the use of neural networks and artificial intelligence, is the need to restore the student’s own subject agency when solving educational tasks. Subject agency in activity is the most important condition for organizing the processes of developing the intellectual abilities of students and teachers. Objective. Determine the conditions under which AI is used by students as a means of solving tasks that ensure the initiation of subject agency in educational and project‑based activities. Hypothesis. The initiation of students' subject agency will be brought about by a special reconstruction of the digital systems used by master's students — search engines, AI systems — in order to transform them into a means of organizing their own activity for solving specially posed tasks. Such tasks, implemented in the process of students' learning, will make it impossible for master's students to directly handle digital system. Results The authors associate the solution of the research tasks formulated by them with a change in the forms of teaching in their specific work with master's students based on the creation of special educational tasks. The most important type of task is the task that initiates subject agency in educational work. Conclusions. The most important condition for restoring students' subject agency when using AI is the use of tasks in which students themselves identify the limitations of the answers offered by AI systems. In this case, the student is faced with the need to justify their new solution, which does not coincide with the answers offered by the AI.
Context and relevance. The year 2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the renowned Russian psychologist, philologist, and educator Alexei Alekseevich Leontiev (1936-2004). In keeping with established scientific tradition, events dedicated to this anniversary celebrate the scientist's ideas through the lens of the current state of science and practice. Publications aimed at drawing attention to the scientist's legacy occupy a prominent place among these scientific events. This article discusses the collection of scientific papers “Psychology of Communication” (Moscow: Smysl, 2026), published for the anniversary and addressed to a wide range of readers in the humanities. Objective is to briefly introduce the works of A.A. Leontiev included in this collection, as well as to explore the rationale for collecting these works under one cover and presenting them as a coherent whole. Hypothesis. An analysis of A.A. Leontiev's scientific legacy in the field of communication studies provides grounds for considering the results of his research from various perspectives—linguistic, psychological, and pedagogical—as reflected in relevant publications. Methods and materials. The method used was a historical and methodological analysis of A.A. Leontiev's works based on the publications included in the publication under review. Results. The evolution of communication research is demonstrated, and the logic of the author's scientific research is traced, beginning with works in the field of psycholinguistics and ending with general publications on the psychology of communication, which suggest the possibility of applying an activity-based approach to communication processes. Conclusions. An analysis of A.A. Leontiev's research on communication issues demonstrates the development of an original, interdisciplinary approach to the study of communication.
