The role of individual psychological characteristics in the professional choice of a psychologist

<jats:p>&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Context&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt; and relevance.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;The emergence of new professions, the evolution of old ones, and the lack of clarity of competencies for narrow specialties complicate the process of professional self-determination. Choosing a specific specialization becomes the most difficult stage of this process. Specialization concretizes not only the subject matter, but also the psychological content of work as an important part of a person&amp;rsquo;s social existence. Individual psychological characteristics of a personality play an important role here.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Objective.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt; To examine the relationship between students&amp;rsquo; self-determination within a chosen profession during professional training and their individual psychological characteristics. &lt;strong&gt;Hypothesis. &lt;/strong&gt;Preferences for specific professional activities are associated with temperament traits, self-esteem, and the level of personal aspirations. Methods. The study involved 102 university students and senior secondary-school students. Data were collected using a battery of psychological questionnaires and measures of preferences for professional activities. &lt;strong&gt;Results.&lt;/strong&gt; Preferences for particular professional activities were found to be related to previously formed activity orientations reflecting temperament characteristics. Deviations from this pattern were associated with self-esteem and the rigidity of aspiration levels. A relationship was identified between low self-liking, low self-confidence, and the degree of correspondence between the chosen type of professional activity and an individual&amp;rsquo;s psychological profile. &lt;strong&gt;Conclusions.&lt;/strong&gt; Progression toward professional specialization promotes the development of a detailed image of future socio-professional activity that is consistent with an individual&amp;rsquo;s psychological characteristics.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</jats:p>