Dynamics of Mental Regulation of Psychological States in Various Conditions of Educational Activity of Students

Abstract

The article examines the dynamic features of the mental regulation of students’ psychological states in varying conditions of educational activity. The theoretical basis of the study is the concept of mental regulation of psychological states, according to which the mental regulatory system performs a control function in relation to the states of personality. As a result of an empirical study, shown the involvement specificity of the mental regulation indicators in the changes of psychological states’ characteristics at various stages of the three main forms of educational activity of students (lecture, seminar and exam). Established that indicator of mental regulation (self-attitude, life-meaning orientations, and reflection) cause on average 25% of the variation in the intensity of psychological states in the conditions of seminars and lectures. The greatest involvement and stability of correlations between psychological states and indicators of mental regulation observed at the beginning and the end of seminars and semester exams. As the intensity of the learning situation increases (from lectures to exams), the involvement of self-attitude indicators in the regulation of states increases. Self-attitude indicators come to the fore in the dynamics of mental regulation of psychological states; they are associated with the intensity of states at all stages of educational activity. In the context of seminar classes, the leading indicators in the relationships with psychological states are “self-leadership” and “reflected self-attitude” and in the situation of passing exams — “self-acceptance”. Teachers and educational psychologists who are developing technologies that increases the effectiveness of learning, which are based on the internal resources of students, including the ability to purposefully change their state in accordance with the dynamics of educational activity, can use the results of the study.