ROLE OF EMPATHY IN THE PROCESS OF STUDENTS' SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION TO HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION ENVIRONMENT
The article presents the results of empirical study of emotional and moral factors of students' social-psychological adaptation to higher educational institution environment. The objective of the study is to determine meaningful interconnections between social-psycholog-ical adaptation and empathy in relation to representatives of dif-ferent age and social groups of first-year students. In order to do it the authors used correlation analysis method. Utilization of psy-chodiagnostic methods (T. V. Snegireva's adaptation of Rogers and Dymond's scale of social psychological adjustment; I. M. Yusupov's express diagnostics of empathy) on the sample of 60 first-year stu-dents aged 17-19 allowed to obtain significant positive connections between self-perception and empathy with strangers; self-percep-tion and empathy with fiction characters. Significant negative statis-tical connections were discovered between self-rejection and em-pathy with children; external control expectation and empathy with children. It was found out that in the group of students the highest average point belongs to “empathy with parents” scale; half of the significant interconnections between the markers of social-psycho-logical adaptation account for empathy with children; 25% accounts for empathy with strangers, which is conditioned by students' (that are future teachers and psychologists) orientation towards work with children and adults. Authors of the study come to the conclusion that the level of social-psychological adaptation and empathy are interconnected.