Image of the Future Psychology: Peculiarities of the Students’ Ideas Youth

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the content of the concept of «image». The image is defined as an image that consists of external and internal indicators and is formed purposefully for influencing the environment in order to form the general impression that the person wants to demonstrate.

The conclusion is made of the insufficient formation of the professional qualities of the would-be psychologists, because the development of the outlined main characteristics – communicability, stress resistance, empathy – is not appropriate for the specialist psychologist. It proves that it is of utmost importance to work on the image of the would-be psychologists and purposefully shape it.The basic theoretical approaches to the identification of the components of the image of the would-be psychologist are analysed. Three basic components of the image of the would-be psychologist are identified: the professionally important qualities, the external-behavioural and individual characteristics. The indicators of the professional qualities include: the professional competence, communication skills, observation, stress tolerance, empathy, benevolence, respon­sibility, creativity, self-observation, erudition, tactic and delicacy. The external-behavioural cha­rac­teristics of the would-be psychologist include the physical and social appearance. The indicators of the individual characteristics of the would-be psychologist are communicability, stress resistance and empathy.

The results of the empirical research into the students’ ideas about the image of the would-be psychologist, which is formed during the studying process, are revealed. In particular, it is specified, what indicators the interviewers consider to be the main components of the image, which professionally important qualities and external-behavioural characteristics the psychologist should possess, what determines the social design of the appearance of the psychologist and which communicative features the specialist psychologist should possess.

The prospects of the further empirical research with the use of the correlation analysis for the purpose of establishing causal relationships between the studied components, as well as for the deeper understanding of the problem, are outlined.