The constructive and destructive forms of reflection

Abstract

The purpose of the article is the identifying criteria of the constructiveness of personal reflection (as a factor of the mental health, the personality`s optimal functioning), the describing the constructive and destructive reflective styles that determine the success of overcoming problem-conflict situations, the determining the relationship between the destructive style and the features of adaptation and behavior. On the results of correlation analysis were determined that students with a pronounced destructive reflective style rarely use sense-making operations, but they use the strategy of retread from the environment`s contact and flooding in the inner world that activates their metacognitive activity. The author suggested that constructiveness-destructiveness could be considered as phases of microcycle that composes the process of formation and development of the personality's reflective capacity, the character of which depends on the level of the formation of reflective practices. The author considers that the formation of the constructive style of overcoming problem-conflict situations through the phase of «destructiveness» is a factor of stable mental health and personal well-being.