Many domestic and foreign observers have claimed that Russians have a unique constellation of personality traits that mirrors their distinctive historical and cultural experience. To examine the hypothesized uniqueness of Russian personality, members of the Russian Character and Personality Survey collected data from 39 samples in 33 administrative areas of the Russian Federation. Respondents ( N = 7,065) identified an ethnically Russian adult or college-aged man or woman whom they knew well and rated the target using the Russian observer-rating version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. The mean personality profile of Russians was very similar to the international average based on 50 different countries, debunking the myth of a unique Russian soul.The small variations from world norms did not converge with depictions of Russian national character in fiction and the scholarly literature. New items intended to capture distinctive, emic aspects of Russian personality provided no new information beyond the familiar Big Five dimensions. Religion, ethnicity, and beliefs about the uniqueness of the Russian character and the malleability of personality traits had little effect on personality ratings. Perceptions of the Russian soul do not seem to be based on the personality traits of Russians.
A Spatiotemporal ModelThis study adds content to the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). First, it enables differentiation of the level of children's actual development and, second, through application of the concept of an aggregate action, it expands the range of ZPD, including in it not only children's assimilation of the operational-technical aspect of an external action but also their comprehension of the meaning of the action as something directed at another person. In L.S. Vygotsky's classical theory, the ZPD is determined by adult help provided in small doses in the form of hints, leading questions, and so forth. This study demonstrates that help can take other forms. Children's own actualized activity can be realized through various adult positions (active adult, neutral adult, inept adult, etc.) in relation to the assimilation of a new external action (orientation on a diagram of the action, real and vicarious trial and error, various types of speech utterances, the speed and temporal features of the action). Such parameters of ZPD as the level of adult help, stages of the assimilation of the integral structure of an external action, and the level of children's actual development 26 JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN PSYCHOLOGYcomprise the main lines, the breadth and depth, along which ZPD can be analyzed and its content and structure can be represented.
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