In the article the author describes the technology of civil society involvement into solving the problem of finding families for children without parental care. The author names the main directions of work on developing the volunteer movement (on the example of Vologda region). The article reveals a number of problems the volunteers face in modern society. The described technology is an additional resource for solving this problem which does not require any additional government financing and is based on a person’s abilities to help his fellow creatures.

The article is devoted to the psychological aspect of studying envy. The present domestic and foreign definitions and descriptions of the phenomenon of envy are given. The author enumerates the types of envy and defines the symptoms of this feeling. Phenomenological analysis of envy manifestations is described: possible variants of envy and its components are analyzed. The article presents the summarized list of possible psychological defenses which mask envy in a person’s character.

The article is devoted to the study of the way different social groups come through social tension in the society. The study is complicated by the fact that social tension has dual nature: it is objective, as it is generated by objectively existing premises and finds expression in observable behavior; and it is subjective, as it is based on an individual interpretation of objective conditions. Consequently, social stress is a phenomenon of social consciousness and perception, including the perception of “the generalized other”. The results of studying three social groups show that 40% of respondents experience social tension as a relevant mental state. The respondents who work take it the hardest, while students and the unemployed the least. Those, who work, are more often in need of changes and it promotes the decrease of social tension. The unemployed have the least necessity of changes. Social tension is experienced both by men and women. Women have a bit greater need of changes than men. Among the respondents, who were most obviously affected by social tension, there was a significant percentage of people, who were both self-centered and open for changes, as well as people who were both oriented on others and open for changes. That means that the respondents, who have distinct feeling of social tension, are the group most open for changes

The article deals with the problem of junior schoolchildren’s moral self-appraisal. It is shown that primary school age is a sensitive period for forming a person’s moral and spiritual sphere. Moral self-appraisal is the aggregate of children’s cognitive and sensory moral ideas about their own physical, personal and social properties that show up in moral behavior and their critical perception. The analysis of empiric material allowed to detect motivators (situations) that induce children to the moral self-appraisal. As a result of the research performed it is concluded that motivators of moral self-appraisal are relevant and predetermine the formation of the motivational and meaningful system of evaluation.

The article is devoted to the problems of psychological maintenance of educational process at a higher educational institution. The author considers the creation of practical psychology service for education as a factor of humanization of the whole system of education promoting the transition from the pedagogics of “knowledge, abilities and skills” to the pedagogics of development, reorientation of education to individual development and self-development of a personality. This approach, according to the author of the article, is the guarantor of future professional success and competitiveness of present day students.

The article deals with the problem of psychological and pedagogical support of adaptation of gifted children of primary school age and its applied aspects in the format of modern psychological approaches to the identification and evaluation of children’s cleverness. The results of theoretical and experimental study of the features of cleverness and of primary pupils’ personal adaptation, non-adaptation and deadaptation are shown. The program of psychological and pedagogical support of adaptation of gifted children of primary school age is presented, its problems, measures and conditions are determined.

The article is devoted to the study of teachers’ social perception of school directors’ activities. Typical perception of functions, as well as of the problems in the work of a school director is given. The authors compared the characteristics of teachers’ activities with the characteristics of school directors’ activities, the way they are understood by teachers. The study resulted in the conclusion that teachers have a vague understanding of school directors’ professional activities. Besides, teachers are greatly influenced by public opinion stereotypes.

The article is devoted to the foreign experience of standardization of professional activities of specialists working with families. The authors represent in the historical context the essential differences, social, economic and political factors of influence on the state and the prospects for the practice of social work with the family in the USA and the European countries. The characteristics of the basic directions of the professional activities of specialists working with families are given on the basis of Social Work Professional Standards, which are the basis for the development of the national models of professional l activities. The interdependence between the needs of the labor market and the changes in the professional standards is revealed.

The paper analyses the specifics of a person’s intellectual activity phenomenon, demonstrates the essentials of its nature, gives the evaluation criteria, determines its structure and analyses the interdependence of the structural components. The theoretical model of intellectual activity of an individual is described. The model includes the following components of a person’s intellectual activity: cognitive, motivational, emotional, regulatory, and efficacious components. This model helps disclose the specific character of its components interconnection. The author reveals the dynamics of parameters of the intellectual activity structural components through the gender differences context.

The article is devoted to a particular view of anxiety and depression, the most common mental disorder of modern society. Constant feeling of fear among the people and its behavior based on fear, leads to a way of life that gives rise to hopelessness, despair and hopelessness. In the view of human life and consciousness seems to be a disappointment, and their coping with stress-it’s the only thing left in life. The short duration of positive points, such as spiritual quest, travel arrangements, making more money and acquiring material goods, to achieve its objectives, the feeling of love or other changes in mood, only reinforce the longing for happiness and form the idea of what not to expect from a life of happiness, satisfaction or fulfillment. These are used by many commercial companies that use a common yearning for happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment in order to sell their products.

The article focuses on the dynamics of the image of a professional as a system of requirements to specialists, the construction of a triune analytic space of a professional activity features, individual and personal characteristics of the staff and special features of a professional group. The author stresses an increasing necessity in constructing an acmeologic epistemology based on the new approach to the elaboration of specific acmeologic methods for assessing a mature person, the subject of the activity, as a manifestation of the assessment dynamics of the interconnected development of a person and a profession. The author analyses the extensive professiography material obtained by a survey of managers of public institutions, enterprises of housing and communal services, and students - future HR-managers. The dynamics of professiography data is being studied. The author formulates a hypothesis about the necessity of systematic renovation of the requirements in order to make the personal and professional examination of the staff more adequate. The representational studies, based on three independent samples, ascertain the presence of deformation of the image of a profession, as well as the change of professional requirements to specialists, and the manifestation of the dynamics of individual and personal characteristics of the staff, which presumes their systemic assessment.

The article studies the process of forming university students’ psychological readiness for future professional activities. External and internal environment for forming psychological readiness at the stage “applicant-student” are analyzed. The author presents young people’s motivation and personal abilities promoting optimum studying, adaptation and further development in the process of entering future professional activities. Assessment of government employees’ psychological readiness for professional activities is given.

The article considers the problem of prevention of professional and personal destructions of a teacher. The authors analyze the sources of self-destruction of a personality, as well as the factors determining the development of teachers’ professional and personal destruction. The peculiarities of teachers’ destruction development are given. The article presents a psychological and pedagogical preventive program, consisting of three parts: theoretical, diagnostic and practical. The program contains modern scientific approaches in the study of teachers’ professional and personal destructions and their specific manifestations, as well as the information about the prevention strategies of professional and personal destructions.