Solving verbal tasks in a situation of personal meaning initiation
The paper is devoted to investigation of the psychological characteristics of solving verbal tasks in a situation of personal meaning initiation. The study involved 149 people aged 18 to 25 years. Indicators of the characteristics of thinking, reflection, motivation and semantic sphere were measured by methods of psychological diagnostics. The results of psychological diagnosis were processed using cluster analysis. Selected research participants were visually presented with 5 open-type experimental tasks (without an unambiguous answer or solution), designed to model the situation of the initiation of personal meanings. The results of the cluster analysis, analysis of experimental protocols and data from the post-test interview allowed the authors to identify two sense-creation strategies: 1) reflexive strategy -the answer builds up with a systemic comprehension of personal experience and one's self; understanding and operating with the meaning of information is based on the type of analysis of experience and selection of the answer that reflects the most deeply the meaning; and 2) associative strategy - the solution to the task occurs spontaneously, based on the current state by associating internal experiences with an abstract objects with the help of imagination.