Psychology and Sociology/8. Pedagogical Psychology

Kuzmina I. P.

National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Ukraine

Factors of professional identification of future specialists of technical profile

 

Under modern conditions, the most topical type of identity is a professional identity, as a profession is one of the most important areas of social life in which people can identify and realize themselves. As a result, the concept of professional identity in psychology is extensively studied.

In general, the concept of identity is dual by nature. On the one part, it acts as a priori and absolute truth. On the other part, it requires constant corroboration. In this regard, the phenomenon of identity is intensively studied both in foreign (A. Waterman, W.James, J. Marcia, J. Turner, E. Erickson, etc.) and national psychology (A.Borysiuk, M. Ginsburg, A. Yermolayeva, S. Maksimenko, L. Schneider, etc.).

Thus, in western psychology, the solution of identity issue has been initially conducted mainly in the context of the concepts of “self-image” – “self-concept” (W.James, J. Habermas, M. Heidegger, K. Jung, E.Erickson, etc.).

In national psychology, idea of identity has traditionally developed within the research of self-consciousness, self-attitude, self-determination and socialization of a personality (M. Bakhtin, I. Kon, B. Ananiev, L.Vygotsky, S. Rubinstein, etc.) [2].

In our work, by professional identity, we mean awareness of belonging to a profession, professional community. It is not limited only to professionalism but is the result of professional self-determination, personalization and self-organization.

As a result of scientific analysis, we can assume that professional identity has different sources of formation. One of these sources is professional education, the content of which is determined by the normative state documents on education. Thus, having studied at some faculty and having obtained a diploma, specialists are perceived as professionally identical to their profession. In these cases, the basic conditions of professional identity formation are the educational and professional community of fate and professional awareness. On the other part, in the formation of professional identity a certain role is played by personality radical. Significant role in the development of professional identity is also played by subjective expectations and possibilities of social perspectives and recognizing by others as a professional that contributes to professional identity confirmation [4].

Professional identity is determined by professional communication and professional experience; it is represented by speech activity through self-description of “self-image” which consists of cognitive, affective and behavioural components. By this logic, the “self-image” is a means of expression of professional identity.

T. Berezina claims that the process of professional identification is influenced by three factors:

1) subjective, or personal, inner factors, which deal with value-sense sphere, self-consciousness, self-actualization, reflectivity, competence, abilities, pleasure, creativity;

2) objective, or outer factors, which deal with requirements of professional activity that is carried out in person-oriented paradigm, which is a regulating base of professional and personal self-determination;

3) objective-subjective factors, which deal with organisation of educational and professional spheres [1]

N. Mizina assumes that such psychological quality of a person like learning ability determines the efficiency of students’ learning at technical universities. This term refers to personal characteristics (adaptability, flexibility of personality, motivation intensity, etc.) and full intellectual potential of a person. The leading components in the structure of mental abilities of future specialists of technical profile is a high level of spatial representations and rate of quick-wittedness. In addition, they must have a high level of non-verbal intellect.

Studies have shown that during the study at the university, future engineers’ features, which characterize a positive attitude to socially accepted norms, develop; introversiveness of personality, which tends to intensify mental activity and increase its effectiveness, grows. However, future engineers are typical of narrowness of cognitive interests. So, their attention to the political life of the country is understated, even less they are interested in philosophical problems.

During training of students in technical universities, formation of cognitive and emotional components of professional identity takes place, i.e. students’ self-concept as a member of a professional group develops, which includes the idea of their professional positions and their possible professional behaviour, and acceptance or rejection of this membership takes place; different variants of students’ professional identity arise as well [3].

We can assume that formation of the components of professional identity of future specialists of technical profile is influenced by both the process of their professional self-determination during their training at the university and the content of training.

 

References:

1. Berezina T. S. Stanovlenie professionalnoy identichnosti pedagoga / T. S. Berezina // Pedagogicheskoe obrazovanie i nauka. – 2008. – ¹ 7. – P. 24 – 27.

2. Ermakova Z. V. Professionalnaya identichnost sotsialnogo pedagoga: dis. … kand. psichol. nauk: 19.00.03 ­/ Zoya Vladimirovna Ermakova; Moskovskiy gosudarstvennyiy universitet im. Admirala G. I. Nevelskogo. – Vladivostok, 2007. – P. 45 – 60.

3. Mizina N. N. Stanovlenie professionalnoy identichnosti buduschih inzhenerov vo vremya obucheniya v vuze / N. N. Mizina // Materialyi XXXIX nauchno-tehnicheskoy konferentsii po itogam rabotyi professorsko-prepodavatelskogo sostava SevKavGTU za 2009 god. – V. 3. (Obschestvennyie nauki). – Stavropol: SevKavGTU, 2010. – 131 p.

4. Schneider L. B. Professionalnaya identichnost (Struktura, genezis i usloviya stanovleniya): dis. … d-ra psihol. nauk: 19.00.13 / Lidia Berngardovna Schneider. – Ì., 2001. – P. 115 – 120.