THE PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY OF A PSYCHOLOGIST AS A STRUCTURAL-PERSONAL NEOFORMATION

The professional identity of a psychologist is formed in the situation of constant changes of the educational standards and in the context of the variety of occupational standards and psychological associations that specify different requirements regarding necessary knowledge and competencies.

The paper presents the results of the theoretical and empirical study of the professional identity of practicing psychologists and students of the bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Clinical Psychology. The aim of the work is the study of the professional identity of a psychologist as a structural-personal neoformation containing self-concept, the concept of personal and professional qualities and competencies. The main methodological approach to the research is the structural-genetic theory of L.S. Vygotsky and his key term of neoformation.

The author used the semi-structured interviews as the method of getting empirical data and carried out 44 interviews: 27 interviews with the students of bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Clinical Psychology of universities of Volgograd and 17 interviews with practicing psychologists. The respondents answered several questions about the activity of a psychologist, the qualities and abilities necessary to work as a practicing psychologist. The interview questions concerned as well the readiness of psychologists to start their career and to develop it as a part of their professional activity. The author processed texts using the method of data qualitative analysis (network analysis) when the answers are distributed according to the topics and then grouped regarding their generalization level.

The empirical research shows that the identity of psychologists as their self-concept, the concept of their personal and professional qualities and competencies depends largely on the experience of professional activity. Formed professional identity allows seeing the prospects and opportunities of career development. The existence of clear concepts of the future, the desired career of a psychologist turned out to be closely related to the satisfaction with the profession. The data obtained confirm the practical significance of the study: modern education system needs the creation of additional conditions for the successful formation of the professional identity of a psychologist.