St Petersburg University holds a conference of young psychologists
The 26th International Scientific Conference of Young Scientists ‘Psychology of the 21st Century. Psychology in an Unpredictable World: Terms and Opportunities’ has been held at St Petersburg University in an online format. This annual conference, as usual, has assembled young psychologists from across the country and the world. For several days, participants discussed topical issues of modern psychology.
At the plenary session, the speakers addressed the topic of ethical principles and challenges in psychological practice in the modern-day digital space. According to Professor Alla Shaboltas, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Head of the Department of Behaviour and Behavioural Deviations at St Petersburg University, ethical violations in the Internet era are among the most common problems in practical psychology today. Personal data published online by a therapist or a patient may affect the public perception of the person affected, and can also be used for personal gain by one or the other party.
No doubt, the Internet offers its advantages in the context of providing psychological assistance. Digital services of the worldwide network enable taking notes during a therapy session, ensuring flexibility and elasticity of communication with the patient. However, it is not infrequent that nonchalant attitude to sharing personal details on social networking sites result in cases of falsification of data, gross violations of personal privacy, both on the part of the patient and therapist.
Professor Alla Shaboltas, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at St Petersburg University
The participants also discussed some noticeable effects of modern technologies on cognitive processes and memory. In the digital environment, mindset and thinking patterns undergo transformation: people memorise much less information; attention management methods change; new types of cognitive distortions appear — related to the topic of the pandemic, vaccination, or others. Hence, classical tasks in psychology require new perspectives to address the topics on the current agenda.
The speakers also discussed the issues of relevance of the scientific method employed in psychology in the context of present-day realities and future trends. Following the discussion, the conference participants reached a unanimous agreement that while scientific knowledge does need constant updating, it makes no sense to completely abandon the existing paradigm.
The conference has brought together undergraduate and graduate students and young professionals from Russia and abroad who wished to share the results of their theoretical and practical research. In total, 17 thematic areas have been presented at the conference: Critical and Major Incident Psychology; the Psychology of Physical Culture and Sports; Clinical Psychodiagnostics and Psychotherapy; and the Psychology of Behavioural Deviations to name just a few.
‘If, in terms of scientific research, we seek a deeper understanding of reality, then the need to come to a new perception of reality becomes vital,’ stressed Mikhail Bril, Associate Professor in the Department of Crisis Management and Emergency Psychology at St Petersburg University.
The conference proceedings will be published with indexing in the national citation database RSCI and hosted on the Scientific Electronic Library platform.