Semantic Characteristics of the Internal Psychological Context as an Indicator of Student Personal Development

Introduction. Despite significant scholarly attention to factors and methods of student personal development, the interaction of external and internal contexts, and the semantic expression of a person’s psychological state, research identifying differences in internal psychological context based on the subjective semantics of a student’s speech act at different developmental stages is lacking. The aim of this study is to explore the dynamics of the internal psychological context as an indicator of student personal development at different stages of education, based on the analysis of semantic characteristics. Materials and Methods. The study involved first-year and third-year students from two universities in Yekaterinburg (conducted between 2022 and 2023). The semantic characteristics of the students’ internal psychological context were analyzed using Kelly’s repertory grid method. The significance of the differences in results between student groups was demonstrated using Pearson’s χ² test. The respondents’ repertory grids were analyzed using the co-therapeutic computer system “KELLI,” descriptive statistics, and mathematical statistics (Statistica v. 12). Results. The results revealed differences in the semantic characteristics of the internal psychological context in speech acts among students of different years of study. These differences are attributable to a unity of parameters: communication type, significant roles in the conjunction of real self/ideal self, and rigidly linked constructs. The identified characteristics demonstrate levels of personal development during different periods of study; these manifest in the specific lexical units used in closely related pairs of characteristics, the stylistic register of the lexicon, the focus of consciousness on others (presence/absence of ego-centrism in evaluating the actions of others), the degree of correspondence between the semantics of closely related pairs of characteristics and the national communicative cultural matrix, and the categorical/flexible nature of judgments and evaluations in interpersonal interaction. Discussion and Conclusion. This research advances the theory of contextual education and contributes to understanding the subjective semantics of speech acts, reflecting the characteristics of the internal psychological context at different stages of a student’s personal development within the context of a university’s educational environment.