Russian College Students Research Articles

Comparing undergraduates' life in China and Russia

With the end of the COVID-19 epidemic in China, the long-suspended student exchange program between Chinese and Russian Universities has also been restored. Through the exchange period, students can strengthen cultural and educational links between universities in the two countries. At the same time, students can experience the differences in culture and education methods. There are big differences in the teaching methods and student’s extracurricular life in higher education between Russia and China. Exchange students may suffer from cultural incompatibility, and even psychological and physical discomfort. This paper focuses on the life differences between Chinese and Russian college students and provides experience for students who decide to participate in Sino-Russian exchange programs in the future.

Perfectionism, the Impostor Phenomenon, Self-Esteem, and Personality Traits among Russian College Students.

Perfectionism and the Impostor Phenomenon (IP) have mainly been studied in American samples, as have the associations of Perfectionism and the Impostor Phenomenon with Self-Esteem and the Big Five personality traits. However, previous studies showed that results might depend on cultural background. There is a critical lack of such research in the Russian context which might limit generalization of the previous findings to a narrow range of cultures. In this study, the authors investigated how Perfectionism and the Impostor Phenomenon are related to the 5-factor model of personality, and examined the mediating role of Self-esteem between the dimensions of Perfectionism and the Impostor Phenomenon, using a Russian sample. The study sample comprised 372 undergraduate students age 18-23 (M = 19.07, SD = 1.05). The Impostor Phenomenon, Personality Traits, and Self-Esteem were measured by relevant questionnaires. The results indicated that Adaptive Perfectionism had a strong positive correlation with Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness. Maladaptive Perfectionism had a strong relation to Conscientiousness and Neuroticism. Neuroticism demonstrated a strong positive correlation with impostor tendencies and was the main predictor. Self-esteem partially mediated the link between Maladaptive Perfectionism and the Impostor Phenomenon, intensifying negative feelings and Impostorism. These results generally replicated the pattern from previous studies of the relationship between Perfectionism, the Big Five personality traits, Self-esteem, and the Impostor Phenomenon. Thus, it could be possible to conclude that the studied relationships might be regarded as universal for the Russian students in terms of culture.

Family Perfectionism among Russian College Students

Research documenting the consequences of perfectionism on psychopathology and academic achievement across diverse cultures proliferates. This paper situates the multidimensional model of perfectionism and the role of family perfectionism within a Russian context. The main purposes are to investigate the psychometric properties of the Family Almost Perfect Scale (FAPS) among Russian college students and to explore whether the different types of perfectionistic families found in past studies are replicated in the sample. The impact of both personal and family aspects of perfectionism on psychological and academic outcomes is investigated. The psychometric properties of a Russian family perfectionism measure were examined using 169 students (50 men, 119 women), recruited at a national university in Perm, Russia. Their overall average age was 19.60 (SD = 0.63), ranging from 18 to 23 (Men: M = 19.72, SD = 0.76; Women: M = 19.55, SD = 0.56). Results indicated that the adjusted 15-item Russian Family Almost Perfect Scale (FAPS) yielded adequate factor structure, construct validity, and internal consistency reliability. The distinctively adaptive and maladaptive natures of the Family Standards and Family Discrepancy subscales were supported through correlations with psychological distress measures, as well as the three different types of perfectionistic families that were replicated through cluster analyses. The adaptive, maladaptive, and non-perfectionistic families mirrored the groups found in past studies. In comparing individuals of various family types, those from maladaptive perfectionistic families reported higher levels of depressive mood and anxiety than those from adaptive perfectionistic families. Findings implicate the relevancy of this construct to college students' psychological well-being. The Russian FAPS could be used in future research to further explore perceived family perfectionism among Russian-speaking populations.

Imposter syndrome among Russian students: The link between perfectionism and psychological distress

Imposter syndrome is feeling incompetent despite evidence of competence. It is characterized by the inability to internalize one's status and success, which causes much emotional distress. People with imposter syndrome fear that others will eventually find out that they are frauds and thus feel that they do not belong in their academic or working environment despite objective qualifications, achievements, and accomplishments. Perfectionism has been linked to imposter syndrome due to a tendency to focus on one's inadequacies. In this study, participants were 169 Russian college students. Mediating and moderating effects of imposter syndrome on the link between perfectionism and psychological distress were examined. Results indicated that imposter syndrome fully mediated the link between perfectionism and anxiety, whereas it served as a partial mediator between perfectionism and depression. A significant moderation effect of imposter syndrome was found between the link of perfectionism and depressive mood. In sum, it appears that if a person does not fall into the imposter mindset, the positive link between perfectionistic discrepancy and depression no longer exists. Results of this study identify imposter syndrome as a point of intervention to prevent depression caused by perfectionism.

Trust in universities as a factor for overcoming educational inefficiency

Modern higher education’s central issue – educational inefficiency among a considerable portion of students – is examined in close conjunction with developing relationships of trust within universities. The main goal of this article is to reveal the issue of educational inefficiency among Russian college students and to present trust within universities as a vital resource for solving the issue. The article interprets the basic concepts of trust within universities and students’ educational inefficiency. Trust within universities is shown to be a predictor for developing stable motivation in education, as well as students’ professional inclinations, which ultimately define success in education and human capital quality. Sociological analysis revealed the source of students’ educational inefficiency, as well as how it transfers through all levels of education – from preschool to university. Determined are the risks associated with an increase in the magnitude of students’ educational inefficiency and with an emergence of imitational strategies in universities, which serve to conceal this phenomenon. Brought forth is the issue of educational inefficiency being concentrated among students attending provincial universities. The authors maintain that “two-way” trust could become a factor in overcoming such inefficiency in universities – both on behalf of students towards other educational collectives, primarily the scientific-pedagogical community and administrative personnel, and coming from these university collectives towards students. This article reveals the main characteristics of such mutual trust, which can act as a resource for overcoming students’ inefficiency. Illustrated is the purpose for developing and fortifying trust within universities, based on the economic and socio-cultural necessity to transform those students who are experiencing trouble in the academic field into professionally and socially successful actors. The dominant idea in their life after university should be pursuing an aptitude for achievement in vital fields of activity.

Perfectionism as a Predictor of Anxiety in Foreign Language Classrooms among Russian College Students

This study examined perfectionism as a multidimensional personality factor which influences foreign language learning and classroom anxiety. Hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that the two dimensions of perfectionism, adaptive and maladaptive, relate to Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) differently. After controlling for the effects of general anxiety, perceptions of academic performance, and self-reported English fluency, perfectionistic discrepancy (maladaptive aspect) was a significant predictor of FLCA; perfectionistic standards (adaptive aspect) was not. Measures indicated that this multidimensional nature of perfectionism affects Russian students in the context of foreign language classroom anxiety. Implications regarding the prevention and intervention of maladaptive perfectionism among students are discussed, as well as directions for future studies. These findings are important for teachers, students, and experts who may interact with FLCA and perfectionism as well as those who may personally experience it. The possible strategies to reduce anxiety could include discussing unrealistic beliefs and expectations with reference to foreign language learning, accepting mistakes as an integral part of foreign language learning as well as coaching.

Interference in Working Memory is not Displacement nor Competition - It is Limited Destruction

Free recall of 499 Russian college students was measured using the Tarnow Unchunkable Test (Tarnow, 2014) consisting of sets of 3 and 4 double digit items. Most students can remember 3 items but not 4 items and when the 4th item is added the total recall decreases (Ershova & Tarnow, 2016a). Here we describe the interference that results when adding the fourth item. First, we find that interference affects the items differently, evidence that working memory does not consist of identical “slots”; primacy is found to be an important stabilizer. We model the four item experiment as a superposition of the three item result and a perfectly recalled 1st or 4th item and find that the 4th position is affected 2.5 times as much as is the 1st position. Second, contrary to the displacement/competition theory, recall correlations of the added item with the old items (apparently reported for the first time in a free recall experiment) are typically positive. Third these correlations decay exponentially with item-item presentation distance and are symmetric with respect to time reversal. Small negative recall correlations only appear for subjects with the smallest working memory capacities. Third, also contrary to displacement/competition theory, the fourth item is the least likely to be recalled, thus there is not much need for it to displace the other items. This creates a paradox: while displaying the N+1 item decreases the probability of recall of the N items, actually recalling the N+1 item is positively correlated with recalling the other N items: the N+1 item destroys some of the underlying memory system and then functions as a gauge of its own destruction.

Semantic alignment across whole-number arithmetic and rational numbers: evidence from a Russian perspective

ABSTRACTSolutions to word problems are moderated by the semantic alignment of real-world relations with mathematical operations. Categorical relations between entities (tulips, roses) are aligned with addition, whereas certain functional relations between entities (tulips, vases) are aligned with division. Similarly, discreteness vs. continuity of quantities (marbles, water) is aligned with different formats for rational numbers (fractions and decimals, respectively). These alignments have been found both in textbooks and in the performance of college students in the USA and in South Korea. The current study examined evidence for alignments in Russia. Textbook analyses revealed semantic alignments for arithmetic word problems, but not for rational numbers. Nonetheless, Russian college students showed semantic alignments both for arithmetic operations and for rational numbers. Since Russian students exhibit semantic alignments for rational numbers in the absence of exposure to examples in school, such alignments likely reflect intuitive understanding of mathematical representations of real-world situations.

Образ М.В. Ломоносова в исторической памяти современной молодежи

This article demonstrates the general line of formation for the emergence of M.V. Lomonosov as a “place of memory” or a “figure of recollection” that bears significance when it comes to Russian historical identity. A survey was conducted at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 among tourists at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The results of said survey allow assessing what modern youths know about the great scientist and how much his persona interests today’s visitor of the museum. Despite their being some “hero de-idolization” attempts in the press, and despite the fact that these students did not show an exemplary knowledge of history, M.V. Lomonosov still remains an important figure for Russian college students and school pupils. They are especially interested in his inventions and discoveries. Youths tended to express less interest than expected when it came to matters concerning Lomonosov’s personal life or amusing incidents which occurred during his lifetime.

WORKING MEMORY STRUCTURE REVEALED IN ANALYSIS OF RECALL ERRORS

We analyzed working memory errors stemming from 193 Russian college students taking the Tarnow Unchunkable Test utilizing double digit items on a visual display.In three-item trials with at most one error per trial, single incorrect tens and ones digits (“singlets”) were overrepresented and made up the majority of errors, indicating a base 10 organization.These errors indicate that there are separate memory maps for each position and that there are pointers that can move primarily within these maps. Several pointers make up a pointer collection. The number of pointer collections possible is the working memory capacity limit. A model for self-organizing maps is constructed in which the organization is created by turning common pointer collections into maps thereby replacing a pointer collection with a single pointer.The factors 5 and 11 were underrepresented in the errors, presumably because base 10 properties beyond positional order were used for error correction, perhaps reflecting the existence of additional maps of integers divisible by 5 and integers divisible by 11.

The Cross-Cultural Invariance of Creative Cognition: A Case Study of Creative Writing in U.S. and Russian College Students.

Unlike intelligence, creativity has rarely been investigated from the standpoint of cross-cultural invariance of the structure of the instruments used to measure it. In the study reported in this article, we investigated the cross-cultural invariance of expert ratings of creative stories written by undergraduate students from the Russian Federation and the United States. Analyses of differential rater and item functioning using Many-Facet Rasch Measurement and multiple levels of invariance using confirmatory factor analyses suggested partial measurement invariance of creative ability estimates obtained using this method in two cultures. Russian and U.S. students demonstrated similar overall levels of creativity; however, U.S. students received higher emotionality ratings than Russian students did. The findings are discussed in the context of viewing creativity as at least a partially culturally invariant trait whose manifestation is moderated by culture-specific semantic knowledge and patterns of linguistic behavior.

Assessing perfectionism in Russia: Classifying perfectionists with the Short Almost Perfect Scale

This study examines perfectionism among a sample of 183 Russian college students. Psychometric properties of the Russian version of the Short Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) were examined. Confirmatory factor analysis results supported the Russian SAPS factor structure. Results also indicated adequate reliability and validity of the SAPS in this Russian sample. Participants were further classified into different types of perfectionists—adaptive, maladaptive, and non-perfectionists—using latent profile analysis. As expected, maladaptive perfectionists reported higher levels of both anxiety and depressive mood compared to adaptive perfectionists; however the stress level between these two types of perfectionists was not significantly different. Cultural contexts, practical implications, and future directions were also discussed.

Осознанное внимание и сочувствие к себе как предикторы стилей юмора

Mindfulness and self-compassion are increasingly coming into mainstream psychological research in the Western world as they correlate with and predict various aspects of mental health and positivity. However, little is known about their relationship to another construct that is also associated with well-being, that is, humor. The unique contribution of the present study is in exploring whether mindfulness and self-compas- sion would predict the use of adaptive and maladaptive humor styles and whether this prediction will be the same across cultures. 90 U.S. and 106 Russian college students responded to a survey consisting of three measures: Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003), Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF; Raes, Pommier, Neff, & Van Gucht, 2011), and Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003). Our findings suggest that mind- fulness and self-compassion can serve as predictors of humor styles, that is, more mind- ful and self-compassionate participants tended to use more adaptive humor styles and less maladaptive styles. However, the contribution of these two variables to the vari- ance in humor styles depended on the culture.

The Distribution of Russian College Students by Forms of Enrollment

During the past two decades, the proportion of students in higher education in Russia who are studying through correspondence, or distance learning, programs has increased to about half of all enrolled students. This trend has occurred in both state and private universities in Russia.

The Impact of Culture on the Creative Potential of American, Russian, and Iranian College Students

This study presents evidence for the impact of sociocultural environment on creative potential. The divergent thinking performance of American, Russian, and Iranian college students was compared on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. The study revealed that, compared to the Iranians, Americans and Russians have superior abilities to consider a problem from different perspectives and to generate original solutions to a problem. The performance differences on the originality measure of the representatives of the Western and Eastern countries calls for the possible revisions of the traditional definition of creativity as a construct emphasizing originality in thinking. Although originality and innovation are inherent properties of creative behavior in the Western thought, it might have lesser value in the East.

Internet Use and Attitudes Towards Illicit Internet Use Behavior in a Sample of Russian College Students

This study assessed Internet use and attitudes toward illicit use of the Internet in a sample of Russian college students. A sample comprised of 198 students was recruited from a university in Moscow. Each participant completed a survey assessing demographic characteristics, Internet use, and attitudes towards engaging in illicit behaviors over the Internet. About half of the students reported that they used the Internet at least several times a year, with 8% reporting daily use of the Internet. Among Internet users, most reported having Internet access either at home or at a friends' home, and 16 % reported having Internet access from work, school, or a computer center. Among Internet users, the main purpose was for school-related activities (60%), followed by e-mail (55%), entertainment (50%), chatting (24%), and searching for pornography (6%). Although most students thought it was inappropriate to read someone else's e-mail, use someone else's password or credit card information without their permission, or break into someone's computer, many students did endorse those illicit behaviors. Over a fifth of the students reported that they knew hackers. Forty three percent of students agreed that people make too much fuss about watching videos, movies or downloading music on the Internet without paying. Males were more likely than females to report using the Internet for entertainment purposes (p = 0.006) and were more likely to agree that it was okay to break into someone's computer (p = 0.04). The results of this study suggest that these Russian college students predominately use the Internet to help with their schoolwork, to communicate with others, and for entertainment. These results also suggest that interventions may be useful to change attitudes endorsing illicit uses of the Internet.

Internet Use and Attitudes Towards Illicit Internet Use Behavior in a Sample of Russian College Students

This study assessed Internet use and attitudes toward illicit use of the Internet in a sample of Russian college students. A sample comprised of 198 students was recruited from a university in Moscow. Each participant completed a survey assessing demographic characteristics, Internet use, and attitudes towards engaging in illicit behaviors over the Internet. About half of the students reported that they used the Internet at least several times a year, with 8% reporting daily use of the Internet. Among Internet users, most reported having Internet access either at home or at a friends' home, and 16 % reported having Internet access from work, school, or a computer center. Among Internet users, the main purpose was for school-related activities (60%), followed by e-mail (55%), entertainment (50%), chatting (24%), and searching for pornography (6%). Although most students thought it was inappropriate to read someone else's e-mail, use someone else's password or credit card information without their permission, or break into someone's computer, many students did endorse those illicit behaviors. Over a fifth of the students reported that they knew hackers. Forty three percent of students agreed that people make too much fuss about watching videos, movies or downloading music on the Internet without paying. Males were more likely than females to report using the Internet for entertainment purposes (p = 0.006) and were more likely to agree that it was okay to break into someone's computer (p = 0.04). The results of this study suggest that these Russian college students predominately use the Internet to help with their schoolwork, to communicate with others, and for entertainment. These results also suggest that interventions may be useful to change attitudes endorsing illicit uses of the Internet.

Relationship between child abuse history, trauma, and dissociation in Russian college students

Objective: The research was conducted to determine the relationship between violent trauma, child abuse history, and dissociative symptoms in a Russian population. Method: Three hundred and one undergraduate students from Moscow State Linguistics University participated in the study and completed the Dissociation Continuum Scale, the Violence History Questionnaire, the Traumatic Events Survey (TES), and a demographic measure. Results: Scores on dissociation and its subfactors were significantly higher in the Russian sample compared to the normative US group. The best predictors for dissociation were experiencing a violent trauma, child abuse history, and/or the experience of a fearful event. Those participants with a prior child abuse history were more symptomatic after adult trauma than those with no such history. Conclusions: The relationship between trauma/abuse and dissociation is unlikely to be a result of suggestion by therapists or media exposure, since the correlation appears in a Russian population who are relatively unexposed to these suggestive sources. The validity, reliability, and structure of the dissociation measure were relatively similar in American and Russian samples.

Russian and American college students' attitudes, perceptions and tendencies towards cheating

The literature reports that cheating is endemic throughout the USA. However, lacking are international comparative studies that have researched cheating differences at the post-secondary business education level.This study investigates the differences between Russian and American business college students concerning their attitudes, perceptions and tendencies towards academic dishonesty. The study found significant differences between Russian and American college students' behaviours and beliefs about cheating. These findings are important for business educators called to teach abroad or in classes that are increasingly multinational in composition.