KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

“A problem is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it can be a source of progress or an important precondition for development,” Dmitry Leontiev, Professor at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, said in Yerevan during the international conference “Psychological Issues: Characteristics, Classification and Diagnosis Principles.”

Ruben Mirzakhanyan, Rector of Armenian State Pedagogical University, welcomed the participants of the conference, wishing everyone productive work. He stressed the importance of discussions and reports of famous specialists on a topic which is of great scientific and social importance. The rector expressed hope that they would enable to differentiate psychological problems, analyze the circumstances and find possible ways to detect and classify psychological problems. Once again emphasizing the importance of the conference, Mr. Mirzakhanyan especially stressed the fact that it was attended by well-known psychologists. He expressed hope that the event would promote integration among specialists of the sphere.
“A psychological problem is not an illness, but if it is not attended in time, it will become an illness over time and affect the quality of a person’s life,” said Professor Samvel Khudoyan, Head of the Chair of Applied Psychology at ASPU. He said it’s important to classify the psychological problems and develop strategies and methods in that context. The professor stressed that one of the key objectives of the conference is to justify the need for the creation of a classification system of psychological problems.

In his report, Professor Dmitry Leontiev touched upon the possible options for revealing psychological problems, focusing on the well-spread opinion. “If something goes wrong, people believe there is a problem. In case we take a wrong approach, we won’t be able to solve the problem, rather it will be transformed into another problem,” he stressed. Speaking about the questions raised in Karl Popper’s book “All Life is Problem Solving”, Dmitry Leontiev touched upon the four key cases of classification of problems singled out as a result of studying psychological problems of different spheres.

In his report, Vladimir Mendelevich, Director of Mental Health Research Institute of Kazan, referred to the correlation between a psychological phenomenon and psychopathological symptom and their differentiation. He says it’s important to develop algorithms for psychotherapeutic interventions, which will be used when dealing with various psychological phenomena. Mendelevich thinks first of all it’s necessary to create an explanatory dictionary of psychological phenomena and to develop a system of pathological criteria for their differentiation. He also referred to the ontology-based alarm as a model of psychological-psychiatric problem, psychological phenomenon, as well as the peculiarities of psychological aid.
The participants of the international conference also discussed the contemporary approaches to the diagnosis of psychological problems, perspectives, diagnostic and classification issues, solutions, levels, methods and types of psychological problems.