Sexual differentiation as a determinant of the cognitive sphere of programmers in professional activity and at the stage of university training

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the work is due to the rapid changes in the field of education associated with widespread digitalization. In this regard, the training of specialists whose activities are aimed at working with digital means is especially significant. The aim of the work was to study the problem of explaining the specifics of programmers’ activity according to the criterion of sexual differentiation, both at the stage of university training and at the stage of professionalization, which is relevant in theoretical and practical terms. Within its framework, a comprehensive study of the basic cognitive determinants of this activity at the level of their structural organization was carried out for the first time. Materials and methods of research. R. Amthauer's test was used to diagnose the main parameters of the cognitive subsystem, as well as to determine its overall potential. Methods of mathematical and statistical processing were also used (multivariate correlation analysis, the method of structural analysis of intercorrelation matrices, etc.) and methods based on the methodology of structural psychological analysis. The study involved 284 people (of which 178 students of specialized specialties of the Yaroslavl University named after P.G. Demidov, Yaroslavl and 106 IT specialists). The results of the study. For the first time, it was established that differences in the content of cognitive support for programmers’ activity between men and women take place mainly at the structural level of the organization of the cognitive subsystem of the psyche that is in terms of the content and structure of the organization of basic cognitive qualities. This is manifested in the qualitative heterogeneity of such structures according to the criterion of sexual differentiation. So the coherence index in men significantly exceeds that of women (ICSm=33 and 34 students and specialists, respectively, ICSf =21 and 29 students and specialists), All the revealed differences are found, first of all, at the stage of professional training, whereas in relation to the stage of the actual professional activity they become significantly less pronounced. Therefore, the differences themselves in the structural organization of the cognitive sphere and the specifics of their manifestations in the activity of programmers are more determined by the factors of sexual differentiation. Their role, however, becomes less pronounced with professionalization, and it is replaced by an increasing degree of activity determination proper. Conclusion. A number of new data have been obtained that reveal and explain the general pattern, which consists in the fact that differences in the cognitive support of programmers’ activity between men and women are determined mainly by structural features and patterns, that is, localized at the structural, and not at the analytical level of their organization. They consist in varying degrees of severity of integrative means and mechanisms in men and women. In turn, the implementation of these tools is based on the mechanism of generating system qualities and generating, as a result, new functionality of the integrated components: individual cognitive processes and qualities. Thus, there is an increase in the functional capabilities of their totality and the expansion of the overall functional resource of the cognitive subsystem, which is most important for the implementation of complex and cognitively saturated types of activity, especially programming.