The article presents analytical review of theoretical phase of psychological techniques development – metaphorical association cards "Masc" to work with servicemen (combatants) of the Ukrainian armed forces. The main purpose of the tools abovementioned is to increase efficiency of psychological support of servicemen (combatants) of the Ukrainian armed forces (including those who take part in combat actions in the combat area). Metaphorical association cards provide arrangement of constructive dialog between a serviceman and a psychologist that makes possible to optimise time for getting into psychological contact. Metaphorical associational cards are helpful both in performing of psychognosis of servicemen (individually and in groups) promptly and enabling to resolve numerous problems (normalize negative emotional conditions, increase motivation for activity, contribute to resolve conflict situations inside of unit) etc. Use of these cards is more practical because of massive refusals of servicemen to perform tests' tasks with traditional methods of psychognosis, i.e. survey, blank test procedures, computer-based automated psychological procedures, etc. The following results were obtained from theoretical phase of research: 1) peculiarities of metaphorical associational cards were defined, they were recognised as an active psychological tool. Procedure for their employment was determined. Basic recommendations for their development were formed; 2) particularities and advantages of Masc therapy method were defined, and recommendations for it practical use were developed; 3) advantages of both methods combination – Masc therapy method and metaphorical associational cards (MAC) use were established. Creation of psychological tools MAC "Masc" was the result of this research, it is designed for psychological work with servicemen (combatants) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; 4) the basic list of problems was defined, that is the object to find solution for them by mean of abovementioned psychological tools. It is based on analytical description of part-time groups of psychological aid that accompany Ukrainian Armed Forces units in the battle area from the beginning of full-scale invasion; 5) the procedure for development of metaphorical association cards for psychological work with combatants of Ukrainian armed forces was created.

The authors of the article analyzed the guiding documents of the security forces of the security and defense sector of Ukraine regarding the conduct of professional and psychological selection of candidates for military service to protect the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine. The concept of professional and psychological selection and its components are defined. The problems of the peculiarities of professional and psychological selection in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (National Guard of Ukraine, National Police of Ukraine, State Border Service of Ukraine, and State Service for Emergency Situations), Security Service of Ukraine, and Armed Forces of Ukraine are considered. An analytical review of the features of the professional and psychological selection of Ukrainian citizens to the security forces of the security and defense sector of Ukraine made it possible to draw the following conclusions. Professional and psychological selection in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has both its general common features and a sufficient number of differences, borrowing at least some of them will make it possible to improve the quality of professional and psychological selection of candidates for service in these and other security forces. A feature of professional and psychological selection for the Security Service of Ukraine is the availability of methods aimed at diagnosing interpersonal relationships (the method for determining social intelligence, in other words, determining the ability to predict the consequences of the behavior of others, is worth paying attention to). Professional and psychological selection in the Armed Forces of Ukraine needs improvement, which is a difficult task, taking into account a large number of military accounting specialties, as well as large losses in units that need not only quick but also high-quality replenishment (taking into account the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine.

The authors of the article reveal the methodological features of the use of interactive teaching methods, which are the most popular among teachers when organizing and conducting training sessions with future military psychologists. The article states that the situation of a full-scale russion invasion of the territory of Ukraine requires the teachers of a higher military educational institution to use optimal ways of their militaryprofessional training during training of future psychologists. These are the ways of interactive teaching methods. Thus, the method of analyzing a specific situation is used in cases where it is necessary to analyze and professionally assess the difficult life situation of a serviceman by future military psychologist. Application of the business game method, which simulates the professional activity of future military psychologists, gives the latter the opportunity to feel like an active actor in a real military-professional situation. The article states that the teacher's use of the business game method in the educational process contributes to the transfer of accumulated long-term military psychological experience for future military psychologists. The authors draw the readers' attention to the fact that the active position of future military psychologists is actualized and reveals its behavioral manifestation in the business game. Describing the features of the use of "brainstorming" as an interactive method of training future military psychologists, the authors emphasize that this method allows the search for new ways of solving military psychological problems through the generation of non-standard ideas. The author's team emphasizes that "brainstorming" as an interactive learning method, contributes to the formation of future military psychologists' confidence in their professional knowledge. The round table method is aimed at developing the cognitive activity of future military psychologists. It is stated, that this method forms in future military psychologists the ability to argue their professional point of view.

The authors of this article show the peculiarities of the application of such sociological methods of collecting primary empirical information in military and pedagogical research as: opinion poll, sociological observation, sociological experiment, method of content analysis. The authors offer an overview of scientific developments of native researchers on the practical application of sociological methods in psychological and pedagogical research. This overview showed that it is mainly literature of an educational and methodological nature. The authors also suggested a list of scientific publications that highlight the results of research in which methods of opinion poll, observation, experiment and content analysis were used. The authors emphasize that despite the active use of these methods in research of military-pedagogical and military-psychological nature, there is a lack of publications that would highlight the peculiarities of the use of sociological tools in applied military-pedagogical research. The latter became the purpose of this publication. Moreover, the article provides a brief overview of such methods as: opinion poll, sociological observation, experiment and content analysis. The authors define methods, their varieties, describe the advantages and disadvantages of their application, briefly define the peculiarities of their application in military pedagogical research. Summing up, the authors outline the prospects for further scientific research. The next step is to conduct an empirical military-pedagogical study, the results of which and the peculiarities of the application of one of the sociological methods described in this article will be shown in the next joint publication.