Abstract
The article addresses an acute problem of contemporary psychology - theoretical and empirical study of authenticity development in students - future psychologists. Understanding of the authenticity of psychologists as a professionally important integral personal characteristic is described based on a theoretical analysis of existing approaches in Ukrainian and foreign psychology. This construct manifests itself in respectful attention and fair treatment of oneself and own feelings, recognition of own value which makes clients feel that they are understood and accepted. This helps clients understand and accept their own feelings, learn to trust themselves, find strength to realize their own uniqueness, and acquire the ability for self-development. The Authenticity Scale methodology by Alex M. Wood, P. Alex Linley, J. Maltby, M. Baliousis and S. Joseph was used in an empirical research of the authenticity development features in future psychologist – graduates of the bachelor's degree (adaptation of S. Nartova-Bochaver, V. Bardadimova). The basis for this methodology is personality focused understanding of authenticity, which has three levels: self-alienation, authenticity of self-expression and acceptance of external influence. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the obtained results show that most students – future psychologists – have high level of awareness about their authenticity. At the same time, a majority of students show dependence from thoughts, evaluations and expectations of their environment, as well as insufficient level of understanding of themselves and their inner world, which, in turn, can lead to self-alienation. There is also correlation between the empirical indicators on the Autheticity Scale and the age of the respondents. It has been established that with age the level of awareness of own authenticity, the ability to uphold own beliefs and live in accordance with own values gradually decrease.
Highlights
The most important task of any psychologist is to create such favorable psychological conditions, under which a client feels understood and accepted, understands and accepts own feelings, learns to trust oneself, finds strength to realize own uniqueness, and acquires an ability for selfdevelopment
Based on the theoretical analysis we came to a conclusion that authenticity of a psychologist is an integral personality characteristic, which manifests itself in respectful attention and fair treatment of oneself and own feelings, and recognition of own personal value
Our theoretical analysis implies that authenticity is one of the most important qualities of modern psychologists
Summary
The most important task of any psychologist is to create such favorable psychological conditions, under which a client feels understood and accepted, understands and accepts own feelings, learns to trust oneself, finds strength to realize own uniqueness, and acquires an ability for selfdevelopment. Personality changes are possible only if a therapist acts in accordance to how he/she is, i.e. a therapist is honest in the relationship with a client and does not hide behind an artificial "facade", but shows true feelings. The feelings that a psychologist understands and experiences and that he/she is able to pass on to clients is called authenticity (congruency). The more sincere and authentic a psychotherapist is in their relationship, the more likely a client is to experience personality changes (Rogers, 2001)
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