Exploring Social and Pedagogical Competence in Social Services Specialists: Theoretical and Empirical Background

The paper presents results of a research on personality characteristics that shape the core of professionalism in social services specialists. The research was carried out within the paradigm of the systems approach. We discuss the structure and relationship between the components of social and pedagogical competence within the framework of Russian psychological concept of integral individuality. We emphasize that competency as a potential ability implies the specialist’s readiness for professional activity, and that the integration of several competencies in a multi-level system of his/her personality characteristics appears as the individual’s competence in professional activity. System interrelations between the components are regarded as outcomes of the specialist’s professional development. We describe the conceptual model of social and pedagogical competence and argue that one of the important factors in its development is the individual’s image of the future and the notion of time perspective as a feature of tolerance for uncertainty.