Contents
Application of the questionnaire «positions of perception» to assess the relationship between the level of education and positions of perception.
1. Introduction
One of the aspects of a person’s perception of a situation in practical psychology is described by the concept of «position of perception».
There are five main, classic positions:
0. Zero position
This position was historically added after the first ones (hence the number) and denotes their absence. The zero position consists in a stereotyped reaction, submission to external forces, requirements, standards, traditions, one’s own habits and social stereotypes.
1. First position
Orientation to own, personal interests, initiatives, needs, desires.
2. Second position
Understanding and taking into account the interests, needs and desires of the interlocutor, partner,
3. Third position
A detached look «from the outside», assessing the situation as objectively and impartially as possible.
4. Fourth position
Summarizing previous approaches, systemic view. This position, being synthetic, is rarely used in analysis.
In addition, we introduced two more:
5. Passive first position
Uncontrolled dependence on one’s own, personal interests, needs, desires, the psychological need to make them the first priority.
6. Passive second position
Uncontrolled dependence on the interests, needs and desires of the interlocutor, partner, exposure to external influence.
Thus, the resulting set of scales was divided into two triads:
Scales I, II and III as active, controlled skills, abilities, skills and
Scales O, n1 and n2 as uncontrolled passive dependencies.
2. Methods
The questionnaire «Positions of perception» (own development) was used for the study. The questionnaire was presented through a web interface using the Internet to 1456 respondents, aged 12 to 70 years, 1025 women and 431 men.
By education, the respondents were distributed as follows:
The results obtained were stenised in accordance with the methodology.
3. Results
Table 1. Average values of perceptual positions according to education.
Figure 1. Average values of perceptual positions according to education.
4. Discussion
When interpreting the results, it is useful to take into account that 2/3 of the sample were students, which made the results of this group closer to the average, due to the fact that the calculation of the stenosis limits was carried out on the basis of the data obtained. Therefore, it makes sense to consider only differences in numbers.
It should also be taken into account that incomplete secondary education means, with rare exceptions, an age of up to about 16 years, which means that the results of this group do not reflect educational, but rather age (natural, by the way) features. This also applies to the group with incomplete higher education.
It can be seen that, compared with higher education, secondary and specialized secondary education demonstrates a more developed “lower” triad, which is interpreted as a less active life position. It is interesting that secondary specialized education shows higher values of O and n2 than for secondary education, and lower values of n1 and III, which, apparently, indicates a more “dependent” position.
Unexpectedly, the scientific degree shows, instead of the expected low O and n2 and high III, almost opposite results. Particularly striking is n2, which is practically equal to the similar value for secondary specialized education. This leads to inappropriate thoughts here about the quality of professional certification in Russia. It would be interesting to see similar results for a foreign sample.