Development of psychological culture as a condition for effective personal self-actualization

¹ Nizhny Novgorod State Linguistic University named after N. A. Dobrolyubov, Department of Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, Pedagogy and Psychology, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
² The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Management - Branch RANEPA, Department of Philosophy, Sociology and Management Psychology, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

^* Corresponding author: galsors@mail.ru

Abstract

The article examines the problem of personal self-actualization through the lens of psychological culture, approaches to the definition of psychological culture are presented, and the struсture of psychological culture and ways of its development are considered. The article reviews the methods that go beyond the activities of educational institutions: volunteer work, social and psychological training, methods of expressive psychotherapy (art therapy, movement and dance therapy, music therapy, and neuroacoustics – sound therapy), etc. Based on the ecopsychological approach, psychological culture is suggested to be defined as a set of actions to create optimal internal conditions for the development and self-modification of the personality, to cultivate a subject of activity capable of taking action, coordinating its activity with the natural, social, spiritual. and moral (value and meaning) foundations of interaction with the surrounding world and oneself. The article analyses the results of the study of the effect of psychological culture on the development of self-actualization of teachers in refresher courses. At the ascertaining and control stages, the level of self-actualization of teachers in the control and experimental groups was assessed using the Self-Actualization Test (SAT). At the formative stage, teachers of the experimental group participated in a program for the development of psychological culture. The ecopsychological approach with principles developed on its basis and the stage-by-stage nature of the development of new mental functions serves as a basis for constructing the technology for implementing the program for the development of psychological culture in specialists. The reliability of the test results and differences in the mean values are assessed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The formative program shows the effective influence of psychological culture development on personal self-actualization.