Psychological predictors of motivational saturation within professional life at the stage of professional education

Introduction. The main problem of this research is the insufficiency of psychological concepts about motivational saturation as a mechanism regulating relevant behavior for constructing and maintaining a subjective picture of a person's professional life at the stage of professional education. The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate and empirically identify differences in psychological factors that affect the overall motivational saturation of the subjective picture of a person's professional life, as well as the motivational saturation of the professional future of university students. Materials and Methods. The research methodology is based on the ideas and principles of synergetic, system-activity and causometric approaches, within the framework of which motivational saturation is interpreted as filling professional life with causal and target connections between significant events, and the image of the professional future is considered as an ‘attractor’ of professional development. 188 students of the Russian State Professional Pedagogical University took part in the survey. The empirical data were collected using the following methods: the method of studying the subjective picture of the life path "Causometry" (A.A. Kronik, E.I. Golovakha, R.A. Akhmerov), a version adapted for studying the subjective picture of the professional life of an individual); the questionnaire of time perspective (ZTPI, F. Zimbardo); the method "Ability to forecast" (L.A. Regush); the method "Diagnostics of the level of development of reflexivity" (A.V. Karpova); the questionnaire "Diagnostics of the features of self-organization" (A.D. Ishkov). In order to process the obtained results, the methods of mathematical statistics in the IBM SPSS Statistics 22 programme were used. Results. In the course of theoretical analysis, it was revealed that the key psychological factors that have an effect on motivational saturation, and accordingly the desire to realize the subjective picture of life according to a certain scenario, are time perspective, prognostic and reflexive abilities, as well as self-organization indicators. It was suggested that, despite the commonality of factors for motivational saturation in general and motivational saturation of the future, they are built on different components of these factors. Indeed, as a result of the regression analysis, it was found that the predictors of motivational saturation of the professional life of university students are the characteristics of time orientation ("Fatalism in the present", "Hedonism in the present") and self-control, which correlates with the psycho-age portrait of a university student. In turn, the image of the professional future is determined by such variables of the presented factors as "Goal setting", "Correction" and "Volitional efforts", which creates a vector in the direction of the mode of the future. These results can be used in the system of psychological support of universities to improve professional choice based on the construction of a personal professional perspective and correction of the subjective image of professional life. Conclusions. The conducted mathematical and statistical analysis confirms the importance of self-organization components in building the image of the future and professional and life trajectory. The obtained results can be used in the development of measures for psychological and teaching support of professional self-determination of young people in the process of revision and correction of their professional choice.