FEATURES OF EMPATHY AND REFLECTION IN FUTURE PSYCHOLOGISTS

The article is devoted to the theoretical analysis of the understanding of the phenomena of empathy and reflection in psychology and the empirical study of the peculiarities of their relationship and correlation with the personal characteristics of students of future psychologists. The understanding of the concept of reflection in psychology is generalized in its interpretation as a metacognitive process, which involves a serious self-analysis of human content of hi\her own inner space: from all cognitive processes; thoughts, experiences, decisions, plans, motives and actions, to his\her place in life and the way of being in it. Empathy is interpreted as an impartial, accurate entry into the inner world of another person, a temporary "dissolution" in the interlocutor, being with him/her to accurately feel his/her experiences and their significance for him/her as he/she experiences it. It is noted that, understanding empathy as a complex integrative formation, it is much more logical to distinguish not individual types of empathy, in fact, dividing it into parts, but consider them part of a holistic phenomenon of empathy, each of which tends to be stronger than others in an appropriate situation. Whereas the highest level of empathy is being with another person, which involves understanding all the nuances of the inner world. It is stated that our theoretical analysis of the problem of empathy and reflection in psychology shows that the holistic theory of empathy, as well as the theory of reflection, are currently at the stage of formation, development and further research as there is complete diversity both in the scientific definition of these concepts and in understanding their structure and components and the selection of their types and determining the levels of their manifestation. It is concluded that the empirical study and analysis of its results confirmed the hypothesis of the existence of a relationship (correlated, statistically significant) between the phenomena of empathy and reflection (often individual components / types of reflection with individual indicators of empathy), as well as each of these processes with dispositional characteristics of the individual (which in particular are expressed in relation to other people). The hidden factors of such connections are also revealed, which allow to make assumptions that the levels of empathy and reflection development in the studied samples are insufficient for the helping profession (psychologist) and are explained by these internal causes / factors.