Questions of formation professional thinking among psychologists

Introduction. The problem of improving the quality of training of psychologists at the university is discussed. It is emphasized that the initial condition for its solution is the analysis of the professional activity of a psychologist. Professional training of psychologists should be aimed at the formation of the most common and universal competencies and personal formations. Psychological culture can serve as such a universal tool that is necessary for solving any professional tasks. It includes scientific knowledges, psychological thinking, a system of practical skills and spiritual and moral qualities. The tasks of the professional training of psychologists are to form these structural components of the psychological culture. This article deals with the problem of the formation of psychological thinking and scientific concepts. The literature review presents a critical analysis of the traditional methods of professional training of psychologists, one of the shortcomings of which is the neglect of the students’ personal psychological experience. The features of psychological thinking (specificity of the object, increased complexity, deep connection with the personality, etc.) and its types: scientific and everyday are highlighted. Materials and methods. The technique of forming psychological thinking and the system of scientific concepts is considered. It consists of a theoretical part and a practical work. The workshop is based on five types of educational tasks that go through all the topics of the course of psychology (either in full or in a somewhat limited composition): tasks for updating mental phenomena, tasks for recognizing mental phenomena, tasks for predicting the behavior and state of a person, tasks for developing psychological recommendations on how to deal with a person and tasks for the actualization of personal subjective picture of mental phenomena. Results. A detailed description of the methodology for the formation of mental actions and scientific concepts is presented. To solve this problem, educational tasks are used to develop specific life situations in which actualization of a certain mental phenomenon takes place. Subsequently, students come to a generalized understanding of the essence of such situations. This is a criterion for the assimilation of relevant psychological concepts. The research results show that the traditional teaching method does not give such an effect. Discussion and Conclusion. For the formation of scientific thinking in psychologists, the organization of a psychological workshop is necessary. However, the formation of the cognitive component of psychological culture is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for the quality of training of psychologists. No less important tasks are the formation of practical skills and the spiritual and moral component of psychological culture.