Semantic Differential of a Life Situation

The article presents the results of the development of the Semantic Differential of Life Situation (SDLS), implemented in the framework of psycho-semantic approach. The proposed method is aimed at assessing cognitive and emotional components of the subjective perception of life situation. As its main semantic axes, the following factors were identified: situation handling, emotional experience of the situation, positive expectations, ordinary and daily occurrence, resolvability, personal involvement and a belief that the situation is surmountable, energy, level of understanding. The approbation sample consists of adults who are in a conventionally normal (105 people) and difficult life situation (35 people). The results of the psychometric testing showed significant differences in their perceptive-cognitive image of the life situation, confirmed the criteria validity of the method, and discovered how some of the situation’s objective characteristics influenced the perception of the situation to a degree. The article presents the results of the development of the Semantic Differential of Life Situation (SDLS), implemented in the framework of psycho-semantic approach. The proposed method is aimed at assessing cognitive and emotional components of the subjective perception of life situation. As its main semantic axes, the following factors were identified: situation handling, emotional experience of the situation, positive expectations, ordinary and daily occurrence, resolvability, personal involvement and a belief that the situation is surmountable, energy, level of understanding. The approbation sample consists of adults who are in a conventionally normal (105 people) and difficult life situation (35 people). The results of the psychometric testing showed significant differences in their perceptive-cognitive image of the life situation, confirmed the criteria validity of the method, and discovered how some of the situation’s objective characteristics influenced the perception of the situation to a degree.

1. Aleksandrova O.V. Differentsial’no-psikhologicheskie faktory perezhivaniya i koping-povedeniya vzroslykh v trudnoi zhiznennoi situatsii: Avtoref. dis. ... kand. psikhol. nauk. [Differential-psychological factors of emotional experience and coping behaviour of adults in a difficult life situation. PhD (Psychology) Thesis]. Saint Petersburg, 2017. 27 p.
2. Argyle M. Osnovnye kharakteristiki situatsii [The main characteristics of situations]. In N.V. Grishina (ed.). Psikhologiya sotsial’nykh situatsii: Khrestomatiya [Psychology of social situations]. Saint Petersburg: Piter, 2001, pp. 178—188. (In Russ.).
3. Bizyuk A.P., Wasserman L.I., Iovlev B.V. Primenenie integrativnogo testa trevozhnosti (ITT): metodicheskie rekomendatsii [The Application of the Integrative Test of Anxiety: Methodic Recommendations]. Saint Petersburg: SPb NIPNI im. V.M. Bekhtereva Publ., 2005. 23 p.
4. Wasserman L.I. Trifonova E.A., Chervinskaya K.R. Semanticheskii differentsial vremeni: ekspertnaya i psikhodiagnosticheskaya sistema v meditsinskoi psikhologii. Posobie dlya vrachei i meditsinskikh psikhologov [Semantic Differential of time: expert psycho-diagnostic system of medical psychology: A manual for physicians and medical psychologists]. Saint Petersburg: SPb NIPNI im. V.M. Bekhtereva Publ., 2009. 44 p.
5. Zhukovskaya L.V., Troshikhina E.G. Shkala psikhologicheskogo blagopoluchiya K. Riff [Scale of psychological well-being by K. Riff]. Psikhologicheskii zhurnal, 2011. Vol. 32 (2), pp. 82—93.
6. Kotel’nikova Yu.A. Zhiznennye stremleniya kak lichnostnyi konstrukt. Metodika diagnostiki [Elektronnyi resurs] [Life aspirations as constructs of the personal. Diagnostic technique]. Available at: http://www.b17.ru/article/14186/ (Accessed 01.07.2016).
7. Kurganskii N.A., Nemchin T.A. Otsenka psikhicheskoi aktivatsii, interesa, emotsional’nogo tonusa, napryazheniya i komfortnosti [Technique of diagnostics of mental activation, interest, emotional tone voltage and comfort]. In Krylova A.A., Manicheva S.A. (eds.). Praktikum po obshchei, eksperimental’noi i prikladnoi psikhologii: 2-e izd., dop. i pererab. [Workshop on general, experimental and applied psychology: 2nd ed., revised and expanded]. Saint Petersburg: Piter, 2003, pp. 303—309.
8. Magnusson D. Situatsionnyi analiz: empiricheskie issledovaniya sootnoshenii vykhodov i situatsii [Situational analysis: Empirical studies of correlations outputs of the situations]. Psikhologicheskii zhurnal, 1983, no. 2, pp. 29—54.
9. Osin E.N., Leont’ev D.A. Aprobatsiya russkoyazychnykh versii dvukh shkal ekspress-otsenki sub”ektivnogo blagopoluchiya [Validation of Russian versions of two brief subjective well-being scales]. Sbornik Materialov Tret’ego Vserossiiskogo sotsiologicheskogo kongressa [Proceedings of the Third Russian Sociological Congress]. Moscow: Institut sotsiologii RAN, Rossiiskoe obshchestvo sotsiologov, 2008, p. 17.
10. Parfenova N.B. O podkhodakh k klassifikatsii i diagnostike zhiznennykh situatsii [About approaches to the classification and diagnosis of life situations]. Vestnik Pskovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Sotsial’no-gumanitarnye i psikhologo-pedagogicheskie nauki [Pskov State University Bulletin. Socio-psychological and pedagogical sciences], 2009, no. 9, pp. 109—117.