Domestic academic psychological community: Socio-demographic and socio-psychological characteristics

Abstract

Relevance. There is a poor study of modern Ukrainian psychologists' socio-demographic and socio-psychological characteristics, particularly the level and factors of their psychological well-being (which is a significant factor in the effectiveness of professional activity).

The purpose of the article is to study the socio-demographic and socio-psychological parameters of the representatives of the domestic academic psychological community, particularly the level and factors of their personal and professional well-being.

Method and methodology. Through an online survey, 287 psychologists - teachers of higher education institutions and employees of research institutes of the psychological profile from different regions of Ukraine were investigated. The subjects were offered: 1) the author's questionnaire, which contained questions about their socio-demographic and professional characteristics, as well as tasks with elements of subjective scaling regarding the level and factors of professional well-being; 2) E. Dinner's subjective well-being scale (SWLS).

Results and conclusions. Reconstruction of the socio-demographic and socio-psychological "profile" of the average academic psychologist of Ukraine was carried out. She is a 47-48-year-old woman who has been working as a psychology teacher at a state institution of higher education (full-time) for about 20 years; she became interested in psychology at a young age (she studied the same specialty); she is a candidate of sciences (dissertation, rather, was on pedagogical and age psychology), associate professor; probably has a certificate (diploma) of additional psychological training in the field of practical psychology, which allows her sometimes to provide consultant services on a volunteer basis; assesses the level of his subjective well-being as average; she likes in the profession: the opportunity to communicate with other people, a convenient schedule and the intellectual orientation of the work, a sense of its social significance; she is not satisfied with the level of her salary, which is why she sometimes thinks about changing her place of work. The structure of the "reference group" for domestic academic psychologists reflects a certain polarization and variety of their professional consciousness (which is "somewhere between" Western, domestic and Soviet paradigms and, accordingly, authorities).

Prospects for further research are seen in the study of other demographic and socio-psychological characteristics of representatives of domestic academic (as well as practical) psychology, which, in particular, are related to the effectiveness of the professional activity.