Keyword: «polycultural personality»

In the context of the polycultural advancement of the world, scientists of theoretic and of applied fields face the problem of psychological and educational technologies development for research and understanding of other cultures. Field practice involves perceiving the culture of a different person in which the very perceiver (the researcher) acts as the perception instrument. Analysis of literature, that explores researcher preparation, shows that visual material and the methodological toolkit generally suffice, which cannot be said about the underdeveloped program of a field researcher’s psychological profile conditioning. Both Russian and foreign scientists acknowledge the difficulties that arise in the process of gathering and interpreting data that concern traditional culture and its bearers as well as those dealing with the gatherer’s personality. Meanwhile, the aforementioned psychological profile conditioning and preparation of field researchers has never before been the subject of special examination by itself. The goals of this work are as follows: determining the boundaries of the subject field associated with field researcher preparation and describing the first attempt at applying this theory – developing the perceiver as a perception instrument. The article contains a plan of an educational program aimed at cultivating the affective component of the field researcher’s personality through traditional music of peoples of the world. The psychological and educational methods considered are: musical improvisation on ethnic instruments performed collectively with subsequent sessions of reflecting and discussing the experience; structured parameter-oriented observation; free-form observation; listening sessions of traditional music of studied region with subsequent interviews and self-evaluation reports; sound walk; keeping an introspective diary; stimulating exercises. The theoretical scientific value of the article can be found in bringing up the issue of psychological conditioning of field researchers, providing reasoning for approaching the perceiver (the researcher) as a perception instrument and assembling psychological and pedagogical tools for the affective personality component development through traditional music of peoples of the world. The practical significance of this work involves the possibility of its use in educational preparation of field researchers of different scientific interests: anthropology, psychology, ethnography, culture studies, musicology and folkloristics.