Structural and Level Features of Mental Regulation of Psychological States in Students’ Educational Activities

Background. This article presents the results of a study examining the structural and level-based organisation of the mental regulation of psychological states in different situations of students’ educational activities. The work identifies integral stable regulatory functional complexes that perform control function during self-regulation of psychological states by a human. The findings are based on the proposed structural and functional model of mental regulation of psychological states, which includes mental experience, reflection, semantic structures, emotional experiences, mental representations, the self-system, and target characteristics. Objective. During the validation of this concept, the objective was to identify functional mental complexes that perform a control function in the process of psychological states self-regulation. Study Participants. 63 student-psychologists of both sexes participated in the study. The average age was 19.4 years, 68% were girls and 32% were boys. Methods. The study was conducted three times in three different learning activities: a lecture, a seminar, and a written exam. The following methods were used: a technique for studying individual mental states, a questionnaire for assessing self-regulation methods, a questionnaire for assessing the subjective effectiveness of self-regulation, and a technique for studying the severity of mental structures (reflection, semantic structures, self-attitude, and experience). The SPSS 23.0 statistical program was used for mathematical calculations. Results. During lectures, changes in the characteristics of mental states are determined by indicators of mental structures and the overall effectiveness of self-regulation. During seminars, changes are associated with the higher values of the determination coefficients between mental states, regulatory actions, and mental structures. During exams, mental states are determined by the regulatory methods used. the self-attitude indicator, as well as regulation methods associated with social interaction (active communication, discrete communication) demonstrate the greatest involvement in interaction with the indicators of mental states. Conclusions. The study established that the level characteristics of mental structures determine the degree of interaction between indicators of consciousness structures and self-regulation methods, with the greatest integration between them observed at high levels of mental component expression.