The article analyzes the main trends in the media discourse on assisted reproductive technologies. Several types of interpreting the problems of ethical acceptability of assisted reproductive technologies in the field of sociology and demography, the Orthodox religion, medicine and journalism are found. Semantic methods of presenting information, which play an important role in constructing everyday representations of assisted reproductive technologies, are revealed. The content of social consciousness connected with the new reproductive technologies is shown as controversial and ambiguious.

The paper presents the results of empirical study where the relationship between readiness to develop age-temporal changes and social representations about psychological wellbeing of aged people (N-120: 47 male, 73 female; mean age - 24) is revealed. The research proves that the respondents have a poor understanding of the future psychological changes and are more concerned about the loss of visual appeal and social activity. They attribute responsibility for psychological wellbeing at an old age to personal characteristics of elderly people. Respondents usually depict rather idealized, unrealistic images in their drawings.

The article presents the results of the socio-psychological study of mothers upbringing children since an early age in the families with a wage worker (a baby-sitter). The hypothesis about certain types of mothers distinguishing in their understanding of themselves and their children is empirically tested. The differences concern mothers’ self-concept as a mother (performing a mother-function in taking care of a child), their family upbringing, their motivational level and preferable value orientation, as well as the reasons for hiring a baby-sitter. Four types of mothers are revealed in the result of the empirical study. The differences distinguished disclose the features of mothers’ psychological readiness to hire a baby-sitter, as well as the extent to which they are willing to delegate the functions of taking care and upbringing a child to a baby-sitter.

The current article focuses on the problem of technophobia as a social-psychological phenomenon. The antecedents of person’s attitude to computer technology and the Internet are considered. The results of the empirical study of Russian adults’ attitudes to the Internet are discussed. The study is based on the all-Russian representative sample (2013, N = 1209). The study showed differences in user activities and digital competencies among technophobes and technophiles. The empirical results suggest that there is certain interrelation between the attitudes to the Internet and collective reflection of users’ experience where the possibilities and risks of the Internet are modelled.

The study of perceptions of the psychological climate by the workers and business owners was carried out. It is shown that entrepreneurs estimate relationships in the team more positively compared with their employees. The staff of firms believe that the climate in the team depends on the behavior of its head. They pay more attention for those actions of managers that have a negative impact on the atmosphere in the team. The inconsistency of entrepreneurs’ attitude to the psychological climate in the group is revealed. It is shown that it is manifested in the fact that the entrepreneurs just emphasize the importance of psychological climate in the team without going into the root of the matter and analyze the real problems of their employees. Businessmen and employees share the same views on the methods the leadership can use to influence the climate in the team.

The article reveals the details of a new technology that prepares orphans and children with special healthcare needs to join foster families. The author’s technology covers the most significant aspects of such preparation, as well as the psychological characteristics of children with special healthcare needs. Stages of preparation necessary to be taken into consideration during the process of handing over the orphans into foster families are also mentioned. The technology described is effective as it promotes successful adaptation of both children and foster parents.

The article is devoted to the evaluation of the efficiency of work with preschool children within a new organizational form of “united myth-playing and educational space of an educational institution and a family in conditions of a mythologeme.” The results of the empirical research show that the innovative psychological and pedagogical impact of such space at an educational institution and in a family provides necessary development of a child. It is stated that composite index of effectiveness: motivational, objective, cognitive, creative and communicative should be taken into account.

The article is devoted to the first part of Q-method - research of concourse describing the factors of marital satisfaction and destabilizers of family system. Various sources are analyzed in order to localize the ideas of different aspects of family wellbeing and stability. In particular, the results of opinion poll about the most important components of a happy matrimony in Russia are compared with the published results of the research performed in various regions of Ukraine. The notion of external and internal reasons of divorce expressed by Russian people is discussed.

The article describes the results of the empirical research, devoted to studying steady (habitual) manifestation of volitional behaviour in different spheres of life and kinds of activity. The problem of «volitional traits» is shortly formulated. The necessity of studying them in different spheres of life is given reasons for. The existing distinctions in level and the structural organization of the so-called volitional traits are shown in different kinds of activity of a person (study, work, leisure, personal self-development, etc.). Features of interrelation between volitional regulation and various aspects of meaningful sphere and the tendency to action orientation or state orientation are established.

The article discusses the problems related to the formation of professional foster families. The new profession of a “foster parent” is analyzed from the standpoint of social labour psychology. The most developed approaches to the study of adoptive parenthood issues were emphasized. The article describes the complex of socio-demographic and psychological characteristics, which should be taken into account in the process of forming foster families. Levels of analysis for determining professional success of the candidates for foster parents were proposed. The construction of psychograms by specialists in the given area becomes possible due to them.