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

Abstract

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.