Event-related determinants of Russian students’ and post-graduates’ professional planning and their readiness to scientific activity

Abstract

Events are not only a part of a subject’s personal professional plans but they can be applied as items of professional path analysis. Although events play an important role in constructing a subject’s professional plans, due attention hasn’t been given to this issue in psychology. The aim of the investigation is to reveal event-related determinants of professional path planning and in readiness to scientific activity of students and postgraduates of Russian universities. 1026 students and postgraduates from 10 Russian universities, operating in 7 Russian regions, took part in the research. A questionnaire, in which the respondents specified the events that influenced their professional plans and key characteristics of those events, was used. Data processing was carried out by means of content-analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson criterion c2 . In this investigation an event of professional path is considered as a phenomenon that is taking place in time and space and is impact forming the trajectory and process of a subject’s professional path for a relatively long period. The events of a professional path are classified on quantitative and qualitative grounds. For planning the professional path of students and post-graduates both subjective and objective events are important. The key role in planning the professional path by students and postgraduates of Russian universities are subjective events which are connected with their principal activity that is studying at school or university. The late and current events that touch upon various spheres of life and scientific and technological inventions are among objective determinants of professional path. Subjective and objective events (excluding scientific and technological), which respondents experienced in the last decade, are determinants of students’ and postgraduates' professional plans. The average time period of planned scientific and technological events, influencing respondents’ professional plans, cover over forty years. The students and post-graduates who are ready to devote their lives to science, singled out the group of scientific and technological event-related as determinants for their professional plans more often, than those who don’t strive to have a science as their only career.