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

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 selfmodification 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 selfactualization 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.


Introduction
Theoretical and practical studies highlight the stages of development of professional personality: • the first stage involves the formation of psychological readiness for career choice the main component of which is the formation of the motivational component of psychological readiness for career choice [1]; • the second stage refers to the formation of psychological readiness to master the profession in the process of theoretical education: mastering universal, general professional, and professional competencies, developing one's personal potential (intellectual, communicative, motivational, emotional and volitional, spiritual and moral) [2]; • the third stage comprises the formation of psychological readiness to realize oneself in the profession in the process of practice, writing a graduate qualification work, and research activity [3] and outside the educational activity in the process of passing psychological training and seminars [4]; • the fourth stage signifies the formation of complete psychological readiness for the profession: a combination of a high level of motivation, creativity, and professional selfactualization [5]. This analysis indicates that professional self-actualization is the most important component of the professional personality.

Literature review
The task of increasing the psychological culture of a person in modern society has been present for decades and has not yet lost its relevance in the space of scientific inquiry [6]. Numerous studies show that the improvement of psychological culture provides a person with the resource that serves as a basis for their self-actualization and self-realization in the profession.
It is important to note that foreign science does not define the concept of "psychological culture". In our study of foreign literature, we encountered such concepts as selfmanagement, self-efficacy [7], mental health [8], self-evaluation technologies [9], and health technologies [10] that are conceptually similar to and comprise the understanding of a person's psychological culture.
The psychological culture of a person has been considered in different approaches and in different areas of science which influenced the definition of its essential characteristics and, as a result, the selection of methods for its development. Psychological culture is most commonly defined as a complexly organized integrative personal formation as a component of a person's general culture (L.S. Komogorova, V.I. Panov, N.T. Selezneva, V.V. Semikin, etc.). The utilization of the ecopsychological approach allows us to consider psychological culture as "a systematically organized multifunctional mental formation of a person as one of the central factors of their transformation into the subject of self-development [11].
This definition implies the following: • firstly, the examined phenomenon presents a structural and functional unity of components; • secondly, their phenomenological characteristics correspond to the concept of human culture; • thirdly, their functional (activity) characteristics reflect the subjective activity of a person and, therefore, involve the set of ways and actions allowing to create optimal internal conditions for self-management, changing one's behavioral characteristics and professional actions aligning them with social and professional requirements, spiritual and moral values, and meanings of life and activity. This process of self-development begins with the process of personal self-actualization [12]. The relationship between self-actualization and psychological culture is phenomenologically apparent. Experimental verification of their correlation has been attempted earlier and is being attempted at present by Russian psychologists (Iu.M. Zabrodin, O.Iu. Timur, etc.) [13].
Professional self-actualization of a person as a psychological reality is built upon the basis of the formation and development of a person's psychological culture and demonstrates the effectiveness of this process. In this regard, professional self-actualization is secondary to a person's psychological culture. Otherwise, there will always be room for questions of an ethical and moral nature in addressing the challenges of personal self-actualization.

Methods
The main problem of our study is determined by the contradiction between the need of society for the formation of a person's psychological culture as a major condition of their professional self-actualization and the insufficient development of methods to meet this need.
The subject of the study is the methods for the development of psychological culture as an important condition for the professional self-actualization of an individual.
The article aims to study and test the effective methods of psychological culture development as an important condition of the professional self-actualization of a person.
The conducted empirical study examines the influence of psychological culture development on the development of teachers' self-actualization in professional development courses. The study involved 300 teachers enrolled in refresher courses in 2020: 150 of them made up the control group (CG) and 150 formed the experimental group (EG).
The conducted study consists of three stages. The ascertaining and control stages involved the assessment of the level of self-actualization in teachers of the EG and CG using a Self-Actualization Test -the SAMOAL questionnaire [14].
The deployed SAT is a Russian adaptation of Everett Shostrom's POI questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted by each of the scales corresponding to a certain property of a self-actualizing personality.
At the formative stage, teachers of the EG took part in a program for the development of psychological culture. The content of the program corresponds to the structural components of psychological culture [6].
The cognitive component was addressed by providing theoretical knowledge about the mental component of human activity through conversations, video lectures, watching and analyzing educational and popular science films and special films of psychological content; The procedural-activity (technological) component was addressed using the elements of training methods ("psychogymnastics", "brain gymnastics") and the methods of expressive psychotherapy (art therapy, motor-dance therapy, music therapy, and neuroacoustics) [4]; The communicative aspect of this component aimed at mastering basic communication skills, understanding the individual characteristics of people, and developing a tolerant attitude towards them was provided for through the use of the elements of social and psychological training of interaction with people and business communication; The emotional-evaluation component was met using the reflective assessment of the provided psychological knowledge, all of the completed assignments, test methods, and exercises with an emphasis on the principle of psychological differentiation [15]; The value and meaning (system-forming) component was addressed through creating the conditions for experiencing certain emotional states and understanding the meaning and value of the obtained psychological knowledge, for understanding and experiencing the value of people's individual differences, accepting their cultural and spiritual values, for understanding the meaning and value of the humanistic ways of interaction with people and the spiritual, moral, and ecological principles of interaction and life in society [6].
The system of work with teachers comprised not only the practices allowing to experience the feeling of the value of oneself and others but also the practices revealing the internal mechanisms of managing one's perception, attention, and state of consciousness. These practices include Kh. Aliev's "Key" psychotechnique; a relaxation practice with the elements of autogenic training, concentration, imagery visualization, and perception of emotion; brain gymnastics exercises; the elements of psychological training, etc. The eco-psychological approach with principles developed on its basis and the stage-by-stage nature of the development of new mental functions forms the basis for constructing the technology of implementing the program for the development of psychological culture in specialists [6,10].
The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess the reliability of test results and differences in mean data using the automated statistical package "SPSS Statistics 20".

Results and discussion
Comparative analysis of the results of the study of the level of self-actualization of teachers of the EG before and after the formative experiment using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test is presented in Table 1. Statistical analysis of data from before and after the program for the development of psychological culture shows that teachers of the experimental group demonstrate significant differences in value orientations (p<0.05), the flexibility of behavior (p<0.01), selfacceptance (p<0.05), self-esteem (p<0.05), and creativity (p<0.05).
No significant differences are found for the other factors. Thus, it can be considered proven that the factors of teachers' self-actualization have increased as a result of participation in the program for the development of psychological culture.

Conclusion
The program for the development of psychological culture implemented with teachers of the experimental group has shown effective influence on personal self-actualization.
The development of psychological culture occurs in the process of human interaction with the natural and socio-cultural environment, as well as in the process of self-knowledge, selfdevelopment, and self-realization of a person's "inborn" natural essence as the main resources and sources of potential opportunities for self-development. The process of conscious development of psychological culture begins with a person referring to themselves as an object of cognition. A special role in this process is attributed to the education system that directs the activity and energy of a person towards cultural (spiritual and moral) values.