Individual style of activity: Correlation of subjective and objective factors in the professional activity of a practicing educational psychologist

Abstract

The article demonstrates the range of psychological issues studied in the context of the psychology of individuality and the psychology of professional activity. We analyze the individual style of activity in the system of such concepts as the subject of activity, the subject’s individual characteristics (subjective conditions) and profession, and its requirements for the subject’s professionally important qualities (objective conditions). The list of professionally important qualities is based on a corresponding set of individual and personal qualities, among which of particular importance are intellectual and communication abilities, professional knowledge, abilities, and skills. Special sets of abilities that contribute to the development of professional activity are also presented. In general, the list of professionally important qualities of a specialization represents a certain standard of necessary requirements for the specialist’s qualifications. The article considers the subject’s adaptation to the requirements of professional activity as well as their mutual adaptation, where the individual style of activity serves as the point of contact. We regard individual style of activity as a fundamental factor that forms the system of individuality. This position is supported by the results of the existing Russian research on the fundamentals of professional activity and individual style of activity. The article explores the development of an individual style of activity and the related concepts of professional suitability and effectiveness. Both objective and subjective factors that influence the development of stylistic features of the professional activities of educational psychologists are presented in the article. By stylistic features of professional activity we understand both the dominance or juxtaposition of professional actions relative to each other and a unique combination of professional actions, in other words, a certain disposition of groups of professional actions. The article presents an original scheme for observing the stylistic features of the professional activity of an educational psychologist, which contributes to solving the issues of activity individualization, namely the development of an individual style of professional activity. The study participants included 74 people (N=74). The results of the observation of the style features of the professional activity of an educational psychologist made it possible to discover the advantages and disadvantages of the developed scheme.