Self-Perception and Cognitive Features of Students with Different Sociometric Status

The article contains the results of an empirical study on self-perception and cognitive style of students. The issue of what psychological variables accompany the process of interpersonal interaction in small groups is considered from a viewpoint of cognitive structures of individual members that comprise such groups. The article also presents a theoretical and methodological analysis of personal and cognitive features of students with different sociometric status. The novelty of this work consists in studying self-perception of group members with different sociometric status, and personal and cognitive characteristics and features given to group members through a system of their opinions about each other. It was concluded from the results of the study that the subjects with different sociometric status are perceived differently by the group: leaders appear to be more aggressive and authoritarian than outsiders. The subjectsleaders when coming across the circumstances that subjectively experienced as unpleasant ones, are able to minimize negative experience and find positive moments in such situations. The outsiders are unable to see the positive aspects of situations they subjectively experience as unpleasant. The cognitive space of the subjects-leaders includes the binary opposition construct “optimistic – pessimistic” what can be determined as cognitive complexity. While the subjects-outsiders perceive the cognitive field of the construct as a one-sided structure, and in unpleasant situations they see the surrounding reality not from the positive side, but only from the negative one. The results presented in this article can be useful to optimize interpersonal relations in student groups, as well as to be a source of additional information to develop measures of a psychological impact.