Psychological stability as resistance. Diagnosis of psychological stability of the individual

There are people who seem impossible to piss off. We envy them and believe that they were born this way, they were just lucky. However, in fact, psychological stability is by no means innate to humans.

What is mental toughness?

The term psychological stability of a person in psychology itself means the ability to maintain optimal functioning of the psyche in changing circumstances, in an environment of stress. This personality trait is not transmitted genetically, but develops along with the formation of personality.

Psychological and emotional stability depends on the type of nervous system (which is innate), on a person’s life experience, on skills, level of professional training, ability to behave in society, type of activity, etc. That is, we can summarize that one (perhaps the decisive) factor is innate. This is a type of nervous activity. But everything else depends on ourselves. After all, a person who has known and overcome more than one misfortune will be much more resilient than one who grew up in “greenhouse conditions.” The same applies to the other side of the coin: if there has been too much in a person’s life, his nerves are simply shaken, and he reacts sharply to every little thing.

However, mental toughness does not guarantee resilience against everything. This is not stability, steadfastness of the nervous system, but flexibility. Main characteristics psychological resistance to stress is the mobility of the psyche when moving from one task to another.

How to increase psychological resilience?

If we cannot change the type of nervous activity, then we can influence everything else. We cannot change the world, we change our attitude to what is happening.

So, let's start developing psychological stability from the smallest things. For example, you were insulted, you feel shame, anger, humiliation, etc. You cannot change the fact of what happened, but you can change your reaction, which, in fact, unsettles you. Please note: you don't get annoyed every time a barking dog runs past, do you? The same can be done with insult. Just put it out of your head.

To increase psychological stability, you need, first of all, to create comfortable living conditions so as not to get irritated in vain and out of the blue. If you are slow by nature (and this is an innate type of nervous activity, nothing can be done), you need to build your life so that in it there was as little rush and fuss as possible.

Secondly, it is a rest for the nervous system. Being outside the city, in nature, helps a lot. If your nervous system is rested, it will be more resilient in the face of stress.

And thirdly, if stress arises due to a constant contradiction of desires (necessities) and principles, you need to either revise the principles in order to satisfy your desires, or the needs so that they do not contradict the principles. For example, if you need to do something at work that is against your morals, think about changing your type of activity.

The development of psychological stability of the individual is necessary to overcome difficult situations in life, the ability to calmly analyze and make decisions under any circumstances. Under equal living conditions, one person always remains calm and self-confident, while the other constantly worries and feels the effects of stress. What is the reason, what is psychological stability?

The structure of psychological stability of an individual includes the following components

1. Emotional balance - the ability to control your emotional state without leading to a nervous breakdown, a rational attitude to life.
2. Constancy of life values , perseverance - maintaining a positive attitude towards life, faith in the best, maintaining an inner core and confidence in any situation.
3. Rapid psychological recovery, resistance - the ability to preserve one’s self in stressful situation, quickly analyze the state of things, maintain freedom of choice.

Give the following definition

Psychological stability of the individual- this is a personality trait acquired over the course of life, which presupposes effective activity that does not depend on negative external influences and allows the use of the body’s reserve forces.

Let us take a closer look at the research of psychologists on the issue of psychological stability of the individual.

Study of psychological stability of the individual

The development of psychological stability of the individual has always been the subject of research by psychologists, since it is a necessary condition for successful self-development and existence in the surrounding reality.

Gestalt psychology (K. Levin, F. Hoppe)

Considers the stability of the individual from the point of view of constructing goals. Moreover, goal setting can be both situational and global - identifying the main life positions. The basic or ideal purpose of life determines the stability of the individual according to this teaching.

Thus, a person who has a clear direction and aspiration in life always moves forward confidently and does not waste strength and energy on the minor troubles of life.

Humanistic psychology (E. Berne, K. Rogers)

Considers psychological stability within the framework of his self-concept. In accordance with this theory, there is a real Self and an ideal Self. A person moves and develops as a result of the desire for his ideal image, acquiring new experience and knowledge.

Psychological stability largely depends on the success of the individual in his development and self-confidence. In addition, in the process of life, a complex of protective mechanisms and ways to overcome difficulties is formed, which allows you to get rid of internal discomfort and protect yourself from external influences. All this provides a person with the need for security.

Domestic psychology (V.M. Bekhterev, I.P. Pavlov)

She studied the issue of personality stability from the point of view of the activity of the nervous system and the physiological characteristics of each person. Unconscious and conscious manifestations of the nervous system were studied.

Psychologists have also identified the concept of emotional stability, which implies the ability of the human psyche to maintain high activity under various unfavorable factors. This property is especially evident in extreme situations.

Such situations can arise both in everyday life and in professional activities, and are especially common in medicine, military affairs, and organizational management.

An emotionally stable person is characterized by the following qualities:

• developed intelligence;
• high level of communication skills;
• professional skills, abilities;
• resistance to external changes;
• the ability to control behavior and emotions through willpower;
• self-organization of its activities.

Particular attention is paid to self-control of behavior, which manifests itself at several levels - goal setting and implementation, action analysis and evaluation.

We determined the behavior pattern of a psychologically stable person:

intensified search for a solution - independent decrease in emotional mood - normalization of the state.

For an unstable personality, the algorithm will be different at the final stage

Statement of the task - motivation to action - understanding of the difficulties encountered - negative attitude towards the situation - a way out is chaotically sought - an increase in perceived difficulties - an increase in worries, negativity - a decrease in activity - a decrease in motivation, a defensive reaction.

As we see, a person himself often worsens the situation, increases his negative emotional state, and slows down the process of decision-making and searching for a way out. It is important to be able to adequately assess the situation under stressful conditions and try to minimize the emotional overtones of events.

An important factor influencing the psychological stability of an individual is the level of optimism or pessimism. Attitudes to life and events directly depend on the general idea of ​​the world, the level of self-esteem and positive perception of one’s personality.

If a person believes that he is unlucky and life is pure suffering, then it is natural that he is surrounded by endless problems and difficulties. A stable, positive-minded person is ready for difficulties and perceives them as a challenge, striving to find the optimal solution.

The most essential property of a stable personality is search activity; a person is ready for the need to change plans and quickly acts to resolve the situation that has arisen. We come to the conclusion that the basis of psychological and emotional stability is the personal characteristics and characteristics of a person. How to determine and predict the presence of the necessary qualities in a certain person?

Diagnosis of psychological stability of the individual

The development of psychological stability of an individual begins with diagnosis.

In psychology, the following methods and tests are used to study psychological stability:

1. Vitality test S. Muddy- allows you to assess the level of resilience of an individual. This quality allows a person to realize himself in society, despite difficult conditions and the presence of alarming manifestations.
2. McLane's Uncertainty Tolerance Scale- determines the level of perception of the world, readiness for ambiguity and unpredictability of the external environment and circumstances.
3. Diagnosis of self-actualization of personality by A. V. Lazukin- aimed at creating a clear idea of ​​the level of the basic qualities of a self-actualized personality (values, cognitive activity, independence, creativity, desire for creativity, independence).
4. Methodology for studying personality self-esteem S.A. Budassi- this study is based on determining a person’s attitude and assessment of personal qualities and their competencies.
5. Psychological Well-Being Scale by K. Rieff- allows you to assess the level of psychological comfort, attitude to life, includes the following parameters: autonomy, a sense of your impact on the outside world, the desire for personal growth, goal setting).

The level of emotional comfort can be assessed using the following techniques

1. Methodology for studying anxiety T.D. Spielberger- determines the general level of anxiety that exists on an ongoing basis, situational anxiety.
2. Subjective Well-Being Scale by G. Perue-Badu is a tool for diagnosing the level of well-being of an individual and perception of one’s own life.

A person may feel that he is unable to cope calmly with life’s difficulties and often experiences psychological discomfort, insecurity and emotional weakness. In this case, it is necessary to take measures to increase emotional and mental stability.

Ways to develop psychological resilience

The formation of psychological stability of an individual occurs in the process of life and overcoming difficulties that arise along the way. You can consciously increase your level of resilience in the following ways:

1. When a difficult situation arises, try to calmly comprehend what is happening, maybe it's not so bad compared to global problems peace - wars, famine, find positive aspects - health, family, friends. All this is a rational attitude towards life. If it is difficult to think without emotions, then you can imagine that you are a psychologist and you need to help a friend with advice or be his lawyer, what would you say in this case?
2. Just think about issues of today. D. Carnegie and other psychologists advise living in a “one-day compartment.” This means that we can plan for our future, but worrying about what did not happen is pointless and harmful for a person and his body as a whole.

The past is already a turned page of life, it is “spilled milk” that cannot be collected.

The only thing our past life gives us is invaluable experience. Thus, there are only today and issues that need to be resolved on this moment time.

1. Need to learn accept the inevitable- the event has already happened, how can the situation be improved, can we influence it? If the situation is not in your control, it is only possible to change your attitude towards it, accept it as a given, and move on with your life. A person can get used to anything; even disabled people often lead active lives and know how to find their fulfillment.
2. In case of a stressful situation, feelings of despair, you should not allow negative thoughts to take over your consciousness, it is better direct energy to useful activities, any work distracts a person's mind. Experiences inhibit the thought process, work stimulates logical thinking. In such cases they say: “I’m very busy, I don’t have time to worry.”
3. Useful to use law of large numbers in matters of anxiety about the future. If you constantly think that an unpleasant event may occur, first of all, you need to understand what the probability of such an event is, and secondly, take measures to neutralize this issue.
4. Install loss limiter- this means that you should not allow any event to destroy a person’s life, all this is temporary, there are more important things. An internal scale of values ​​will help you look at life events soberly and calmly analyze them. We can place the limiter on negative emotions and worries in order to avoid worsening the situation and relationships with other people.
5. Master time management- proper distribution of time and effort will help you cope with tasks faster, avoid stress and unnecessary loads.

Stick to the basic rules

• solve issues in order of importance,
• do not put off solving simple issues until later to avoid their accumulation,
• distribute responsibilities correctly, learn to delegate if possible.

1. Philosophical attitude to life- everything is going as it should. Observing the Eastern sages, we are surprised at their calmness, reasonable thoughts and actions. Now psychologists are increasingly saying that in many ways the way of thinking shapes a person’s life. Without the opportunity to influence the events taking place, people have different attitudes towards them: some fall into despair, others observe, draw conclusions, and act.

Readiness for change is associated with the inner worldview, so you need to try to maintain a calm, or better yet, positive attitude towards life. A negative attitude leads to negative events in life; a person independently predicts failures.

Research has shown that self-hypnosis plays a big role, even at the level of physical condition. That is why athletes and politicians always get ready to perform and compete, filling themselves with confidence in success.

Faith and mental toughness

Many people wonder how faith and psychological resilience are related?

Observations show that people of different faiths have a stronger inner core and a calm attitude towards life.

The development of psychological stability of the individual is associated with inner peace and faith.

At the same time, faith is a very broad concept and is not always associated with religion. In psychology, the following concepts are distinguished:

• faith is an emotional phenomenon;
• faith is an intellectual phenomenon;
• faith is part of the human will.

Faith is necessary for a person to live and work.

Faith concerns life phenomena, events, people, social reality, and organizations. All these objects exist in the real world and receive a certain human assessment. We say that we trust this party, organization, person. Faith is partly related to trust, but it is a deeper feeling.

Worship (in religion) and perseverance, which manifests itself as stability, self-confidence, judgment, worldview, and values, are also considered synonyms of faith. Religion can give perseverance, since faith lives in a person, he recognizes the existence of forces that take care of him.

The same stability is given by the internal picture of the world, if a person is confident in his abilities and feels the support of loved ones. There is irrational faith - faith in God, absolute powers, world reason, and rational - faith in oneself, people in general. Rational faith is based on one’s own life experience, one’s own independent beliefs, and conclusions.

Irrational faith is considered an excellent mechanism for protecting a person from problems and anxieties; some psychoanalysts argue that most problems and diseases can be cured by acquiring a religious worldview. However, each person decides for himself how to believe and what.

The main thing is that faith is necessary to achieve inner peace; this is a very important personality attitude; it gives a person internal forces for successful activities and overcoming life's obstacles. Religion in a person’s life can be replaced by society, family, internal values, science and art.

Often, in times of despair, people begin to turn to God and higher powers, even those who previously did not believe.

Perhaps the inner attitude is triggered, shifting difficulties to other higher powers. Religion maintains "basic trust", a concept introduced by Erikson.

The development of psychological stability of the individual is necessary for successful social communication. An important role in in this case play on a person’s confidence and behavior. A self-confident person easily expresses thoughts and emotions, listens to the opinions of other people, and can approach issues rationally.

The opposite is an insecure, aggressive personality. Behavior - orders, manipulation, accusations, unwillingness to take responsibility. Aggression and passivity are often caused by a hostile attitude towards the outside world and increased anxiety. All this negatively affects the life of a person and the people around him.

To develop self-confidence, you need to focus on positive achievements, successes in life, and keep track of your victories. You should write down and remember your successes in difficult periods of life, before important tasks.

In addition, it is important to learn to maintain a balance between your own inner world and the environment. A person can influence the world, as well as vice versa, this balance is the necessary basis for a stable personality. The general attitude and attitude towards life shapes a person’s social well-being and its implementation in society.

Successful social well-being is associated with the development of self-confidence, a value system, priorities, and the ability to cope with various stressful situations.

Thus, the development of psychological stability of an individual is a set of activities related to faith, attitude, attitude to life and its events.

Calmness is a great power that allows you to look at life differently and find a way out in any situation!

Also I.P. Pavlov identified as the main principle of development the principle of unity of the organism and the environment, which manifests itself, in particular, in the balance between the organism and the environment: balance is constantly disrupted by fluctuations in the environment, and the body constantly strives to regain the lost balance.

The category “resilience” moved into psychology from the technical sciences. The main indicator of system stability in these sciences is the ability of the system to experience external influences without destruction, i.e. without a transition not to just another state, but to one where the system ceases to be itself. In A. Reber’s large psychological dictionary, stability is understood as “the characteristic of an individual whose behavior is reliable and consistent.” The antonym of the concept of “sustainability” is the concept of “instability”, which, in turn, is characterized by a) chaotic and unpredictable patterns of behavior and mood; b) demonstrating neurotic, psychotic and simply dangerous behavior patterns for others.

Let us specify the concept of “mental stability”. Traditionally, the concept of emotional stability has been studied in Russian psychology (L.M. Abolin, M.I. Dyachenko, L.A. Kitaev-Smyk, V.L. Marishchuk, V.A. Ponomarenko, etc.). The definition of emotional stability was based on the approach of K. K. Platonov, who believed that personality stability is determined by temperament, which, in turn, affects the individual characteristics of mental processes and manifests itself relatively independently of the content of the individual’s activity. So, M.I. Dyachenko and V.A. Ponomarenko write: “Emotional stability is largely determined by the dynamic (intensity, flexibility, lability) and meaningful (types of emotions and feelings) characteristics of the emotional process.”

Emotional stability in Russian psychology was studied by psychologists and physiologists who worked with pilots. The problem of emotional stability of flight personnel was studied quite actively by K.K. Platonov, E.I. Ivankov, F.P. Kosmolinsky, A.F. Kataev, V.L. Marishchuk, A.P. Popov et al. Based on these works, the concept of flight tension was developed as “a feature of the psychomotor reactions of a pilot (cadet), which manifests itself in an emotionally charged situation, making it difficult to develop the necessary skills or disorganizing those already developed.” Thus, in the interpretation of these authors, emotional stability is opposed to tension - a state characterized by a temporary decrease in the stability of mental and psychomotor processes, a drop in professional effectiveness in conditions of strong emotions.

As these authors found out, the main manifestations of flight tension are sharply conspicuous stiffness of movements, posture, and facial muscles; Sometimes grasping (haptic) reflexes appear. Movements become abrupt, disproportionate, uncoordinated, and often inappropriate. This often leads to jamming of the aircraft control stick, which creates an emergency situation. Sometimes a student or cadet may give up control of the aircraft and frantically cling to the sides of the aircraft cabin. Vegetative manifestations of tension are very significant: changes in facial coloring, hyperhidrosis, increased heart rate, breathing rhythm disturbances, tremor of the fingers. Intonation, articulation and timbre of speech change sharply. In addition, flight stress manifests itself in a variety of mental disorders: narrowing the scope of attention, insufficient attention distribution and difficulty switching (for example, “sticking to instruments”), forgetting the sequence of actions and the order of their implementation, inadequate assessment of the flight situation, slow decision-making and failure to implement decisions made.

Flight stress researchers point out that stress may not be detected until the flight takes off on its own. But before the first flight, an observant instructor will always notice “the boring, gloomy appearance of such a cadet, his stiffness and reluctance to enter into conversations with comrades and commanders.” Tension also manifests itself through autonomic-vascular reactions: pale skin and increased sweating.

F.P. Kosmolinsky cites one of the most reliable and accessible laboratory methods for studying emotional stability, named by K.K. Platonov’s “breakdown of falling from his knees.” The technique is as follows: a person stands with his hands crossed behind his back on his knees. The subject must fall onto a soft mattress placed underneath him with his head in the pillows. The test subject is given the task of falling forward, trying not to bend the body in the spine, not making any movements with the arms, and not lifting the toes off the floor. In other words, you need to fall without making any unnecessary movements. At the same time, you are allowed to slightly tilt your head back to soften the impact of your face on the pillows. Before the test, a practical demonstration of falling onto pillows was performed. In this case, the subject is convinced that the fall is safe and harmless. The test allows us to identify differences in the behavior of subjects under the influence of simple negative emotions associated with a passive defensive reflex. When carrying out the technique, the experimenter observes the behavior of the subject in preparation for the fall, at the moment of the fall itself, and his reaction to the experiment. Autonomic reactions (pallor, pulse rate, etc.) and behavioral reactions, expressed in peculiar facial expressions and pantomimes, are taken into account. In addition, this technique allows us to identify people with functional disorders (history of traumatic brain injury, loss of consciousness, etc.) that are not directly related to emotional tension.

Another way to study emotional stability may be proposed by M.A. Gerd and N.E. Panferova’s experiment, which is also presented in the work of F.P. Kosmolinsky. The degree of emotional stability is studied using special booms 4 cm wide and 2.5 m long, located at a height of 4, 40 and 70 cm from the floor. The subject must move along the booms to the sounds of a metronome at a speed of 2 steps per second (with a step width of 45-50 cm). The number of cases of loss of balance (swaying and jumping) is recorded. An electrocardiograph is used to record pulse and respiration rates. These authors proved that when performing a task, a significant increase in heart rate, holding one's breath, and a change in walking speed are signs that appear when the subject is afraid to walk along the boom. The state of emotional tension negatively affects the coordination of movements. Its deterioration, in turn, increases the feeling of tension and fear when moving along a narrow boom, and this increases even more the higher the boom is located.

L. M. Abolin analyzes in detail the main components and criteria of emotional stability, understanding it as “a property that characterizes an individual in the process of intense activity, the individual emotional processes of which, harmoniously interacting with each other, contribute to the successful achievement of the goal.” That is, emotional stability is a systemic quality acquired by a person and manifested in him in intense activity in the unity of rational, emotional and bodily components. The basis of unity is experience, and the criteria for this unity are the presence of invariants, high compatibility and conjugation of emotional, rational and bodily manifestations of the self-regulation process.

This author points out that the main criteria of emotional stability must be sought primarily in a person’s professional activity. Traditionally, in the psychological literature, such criteria included the success or effectiveness of activity, spatio-temporal parameters of motor actions (speed, accuracy, frequency, rhythm, etc.), the degree of optimality of emotional experiences, and the quality of emotions. Having given an exhaustive analysis of the proposed criteria, L. M. Abolin emphasizes that “since there are diverse and complex variations in the characteristics of emotional behavior and human actions that determine emotional stability, the criterion for their diagnosis should include all this variety of variations.” It is clear that such a process of identifying indicators of emotional stability takes a lot of time and effort. Therefore L.M. Abolin proposes an integrative criterion of emotional stability - the result of activity.

The ability to maintain professional performance under conditions of emotional influence has been analyzed for quite a long time within the framework of engineering psychology. In occupational psychology, emotional stability is understood as a person’s ability to maintain the stability of mental and psychomotor processes, to maintain professional effectiveness in conditions of strong psychogenic influences, in other words, reliability.

One of the first to pay attention to the problem of functional medical and psychological support for professional reliability was the famous aviation psychologist F.D. Gorbov. While researching the phenomenon of paroxysm (a sudden onset of functional disorder, which is accompanied by a weakening or temporary cessation of activity) among flight personnel, he formulated the concept of a pilot’s neuropsychic stability. In the work of F.D. Gorbov and V.I. Lebedev provides examples indicating that some subjects who showed very strong emotional reactions during the study under emotiogenic influences, but at the same time retained performance, stability of mental functions (concentration and distribution of attention, RAM etc.) and productivity, a few years later they were disqualified by medical commissions due to diseases of neurological origin.

Thus, the connection “stability - reliability” is ambiguous, since in its most general form reliability is usually defined as the probability of successfully completing a task. This definition focuses attention on the internal, potential capabilities and abilities of a person in ensuring activities, but does not fully reveal the specificity of this concept in terms of procedural (sustainability of functioning) and resulting (failure-free operation, error-free, etc.) characteristics.

L. M. Abolin analyzes the main conditions for the manifestation of emotional stability, highlighting the external and internal conditions of an individual’s activity. The external conditions for the emergence and course of emotional stability include extreme conditions, designated as “extreme irritants”, “stressors”, “frustrators”, “emotionogenic” or “conflict” situations. Such external stressful conditions may include the intensity of exposure to a particular stimulus or the complexity of the task, information overload, time shortage, sensory or social isolation, temporary uncertainty of events, overload, danger, unfavorable climate, etc. However, the author emphasizes that it is difficult to talk about one or another absolutely tense external condition, rather “we can say that any conditions can become tense if the mental, physiological or other characteristics of a person do not correspond to the requirements of the environment and activity.”

The internal conditions of emotional stability-instability, according to Abolin, include:
- emotional - physiological reactivity (excitability);
- properties of the human nervous system;
- emotional properties acquired by a person in the course of life.

An analysis of the internal conditions of emotional stability also provides the basis for L.M. Abolin point out the complex and ambiguous connections between physiological indicators and emotional experiences. Thus, the same emotional states, for example fear, may be accompanied by an increase in some people, and a decrease in the initial (background) values ​​of vegetative reactions in others. Psychological studies conducted under the leadership of this author, aimed at identifying the nature of the relationship between the quality of emotional experiences and the balance of biochemical reactions (Na and K), show that “regardless of the quality of emotional experiences, the decrease or increase in the intensity of each of them, biochemical indicators reveal one and the same nature of change.” This gives grounds to assert that “the qualitative characteristics of emotions cannot be described and measured using physiological data.” Each person has individual stereotypes of emotional response, which are not always typological.

The question of the mutual influence of the properties of the nervous system and emotional stability in Russian psychology was raised by K. M. Gurevich. This author conducted a pilot study in which 26 power system operators participated. They were divided into two groups: those who “coped” with their responsibilities in a complex, responsible situation (emergency situation) and those who “could not cope.” Previously, all subjects were tested to identify the properties of the nervous system: the strength of the excitation process, the balance of the excitation and inhibition processes. Next, psychologists observed the behavior of the subjects under emergency conditions. The results showed that the first group was characterized by higher rates of performance of job duties during accidents.

According to other authors, representatives of different sports have different combinations of typological features of nervous system types, which does not affect their performance. Therefore, the successful functioning of a person in rather stressful conditions of activity, characterized by high emotionality, depends on the opposite poles of the parameter of each property of the nervous system and can play both a positive and negative role in performance.

V.D. Nebylitsyn also connected the concept of mental stability with the properties of the nervous system and, operationalizing this concept, included long-term endurance, endurance to emergency overexertion, noise immunity, low level of spontaneous distractibility, adequate response to unexpected stimuli, switchability, and resistance to the effects of environmental factors. He believed that stability is directly related to the concept of human reliability and considered this personal property as the ability to operate reliably for a certain period of time under given conditions.

L.M. Abolin concludes that “numerous facts of ambiguous dependence of activity productivity on the properties of the nervous system” must be taken into account and abandon the study of particular properties of the nervous system, starting a search for the parameters of the nervous organization of the whole brain.

Speaking about the psychological characteristics of the individual as the third condition for the emotional stability of the individual, L.M. Abolin highlights anxiety, motivation to achieve success and avoid failure, worldview qualities, etc. However, citing the results of his own experimental studies, this author emphasizes that “the main results of the study indicated that there is no clear dependence of a high level of emotional stability on the identified psychological characteristics, age, experience and etc.".

Thus, understanding by emotional stability the severity and brightness of emotional reactions, which is more correctly called emotionality, and also highlighting the main criterion of this phenomenon - the effectiveness of activity, researchers of emotional stability came to the conclusion that “in the scientific literature the role of biological prerequisites in the formation of emotional stability and the role of socially determining factors is underestimated.”

Especially great importance the study of the phenomena of psychological stability has acquired in connection with the changed role and specific weight of the information factor. So, V.I. Medvedev considers the problem of sustainability through the prism of the problem of adaptation and adjustment to an increasing amount of information. This author focuses on the study of sustainability from the perspective of a level approach, highlighting three levels of the hierarchy of its mechanisms.
Level 1 - reflects stability through the mechanisms of neuro-humoral-hormonal regulation of the body's adaptation processes.
Level 2 - associated with the study of the nature and characteristics of physiological reactions mainly at the systemic and intersystem levels.
Level 3 - examines the cause-and-effect relationships that determine the strategy of adaptive reactions.

In the process of studying, factors are revealed that determine the content and structure of these reactions, their target orientation and severity.

B.S. Basarov also offers a level analysis of stability. At the first level, there is a relatively generalized form of personality stability, i.e. that dynamic and meaningful characteristic of a person’s actions and behavior that is observed in the most various types his activities. Knowing the generalized motives of a person’s behavior, it is possible with a high degree of probability to model the characteristics of the actions and behavior of a given individual in various situations. This level of stability corresponds to the concept of “character”.

The second, less generalized level of personality stability records the characteristics of a person’s behavior in a group. When a person acts in a group, his behavior contains special emotionally charged properties that arise as a result of individuals imitating each other. Due to such imitation and emotional contagion, a specific additional “social force” arises, which, in turn, imparts specific social stability to the individual.

The third level of personality stability is a feature of the actions and behavior of individuals, determined by situational motives of activity. Sometimes circumstances put forward demands that contradict the generalized structure of motivation for individual behavior. The response to these circumstances gives rise to a specific form of behavior in the individual, which does not disappear, but takes the form of personal stability. Another classic of Russian psychology, S. L. Rubinstein, noted: “A situationally determined motive or motivation for a particular action is a personal character trait in its genesis.”

The situational activity of an individual is determined by the conditions of activity and the needs of the subject due to the need to establish an adequate correspondence at a given moment in the “object - subject” system. Proceeding under the influence of current events, situational activity cannot but be influenced by generalized motivation. It is no coincidence that a person is recognized both in very large matters and in small things precisely due to the projection of his dominant motivational attitudes onto the situation.

In order to understand the real nature of the phenomenon of personality stability, it is necessary to consider it, on the one hand, in the context of the holistic behavior of the individual, and on the other, in the aspect of the relative independence of its components and levels. The dynamic and meaningful characteristics of these levels of behavior are the important poles under the influence of which the stability of the individual is formed as a unique form of human behavior. B.S. Basarov defines stability as follows: “This is the unity of the present and the future in psychological processes, states and personality traits, revealed in generalized motives and corresponding modes of behavior.”

Military psychologists made a great contribution to the development of the concept of “psychological stability.” So, V.V. Varvarov understands this phenomenon as “the ability to resist the negative influence of tension on the behavior and action” of a person. This author proposes to calculate psychological stability as follows: compare the results of a person who first performed a task under normal conditions, and then under the influence of factors causing mental stress.

A.P. Eliseev and P.A. Korchemny believe that mental stability is a holistic, integral quality of individuals and teams, manifested in the ability to optimally reflect reality in complex, including stressful emergency situations. In other words, psychological resilience is a person’s readiness to act in extreme and emergency situations. Therefore, from the position of these authors, it is necessary to develop a system of special measures related to the formation and development of readiness as a prerequisite for psychological stability. The main components of psychological stability and readiness to act in extreme situations include motor skills, will, intellectual abilities, cognitive processes, motivation, and the emotional sphere of the individual.

Despite the same content, the components of readiness and resilience occupy different ranking places. So, A.P. Eliseev and P.A. Korchemny cite data from their research into the readiness of rescuers to act in extreme situations. The data is given in table. 8. The table shows that in psychological stability the volitional component occupies 1st place due to the fact that will promotes determination, concentration, systematic and planned thinking, and the exclusion of everything that could weaken efforts. A lack of strong-willed qualities can lead to people setting easy life goals for themselves, showing lethargy in their activities, and instead of healthy self-criticism, engaging in inappropriate and fruitless self-flagellation.

Volitional stability is developed in the following areas:
- formation of individual physiological and psychological endurance of those who professionally participate in extreme situations, so that they are ready to overcome various difficulties; to activities in extreme conditions in a tense rhythm;
- increasing the level of sustainability of professional skills in the interests of quick and timely performance of duties;
- formation of psychological readiness for unexpected actions;
- development and consolidation of such qualities as unpretentiousness, unpretentiousness, moderation in desires and needs, which should replace the tendency towards comfort and inability to conduct emergency rescue operations in unfavorable natural and climatic conditions.

Another approach to sustainability is being developed by V.E. Chudnovsky, L.I. Antsyferova, B.F. Lomov, L.G. Wild. Here, sustainability is associated with the activity and success of self-realization of the individual and is considered as a result of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of the individual. This direction in the study of psychological stability is associated with the name of S.L. Rubinstein. This psychologist also addressed the problem of individual differential differences, but understood by them the types of perception and observation, memory, attention, in other words, the organization of mental cognitive processes. Analyzing the emotionality of the individual, S.L. Rubinstein pointed out that “a person’s feelings in one period or era of his life are not always a continuous continuation, more or less complicated, of his feelings in the previous period. The connection of feelings with a person’s present attitudes is more significant than their connection with past feelings.”

Addressing issues of phylogeny, representatives of this approach point out that the concept of stability is associated with the principle of invariance. This idea is as follows: despite the fact that the system as a whole undergoes changes, some of its properties (invariants) remain unchanged. Therefore, sustainability is variability rather than immutability. V.E. Chudnovsky writes that any system characterized by stability “has at its core two contradictory tendencies: a) adaptation to certain situations and standardization of appropriate modes of behavior and b) going beyond the limits of the situation, focusing on distant factors, the presence of a certain flexibility and dynamism.”

This author again addresses the problem of the influence of the type of nervous system on the formation of resistance in ontogenesis. Highlighting the indicator of inertia of the nervous system, Rubinstein points out that “the nature of the manifestations of typological properties in children, to a certain extent, affects the process of forming the stability of their personality.” Thus, it is precisely the inertia of nervous processes that explains the child’s low endurance, on the one hand, and fast recovery strength - on the other; quick distractibility, inability to wait and at the same time the ability to concentrate for a relatively long time; manifestation of emotional lability and quick forgetting of grievances, failures and disappointments. The author points out that the demands placed on the nervous system are in themselves impersonal, but they significantly influence the manifestation of some important behavioral features. It is very important “how a person uses these prerequisites in certain conditions of his life and activity.”

However, if the stability of the organism is mainly the result of changes in its nature, then the stability of the individual, as Chudnovsky emphasizes, “is characterized by a person’s ability to transform his own behavior in accordance with certain needs and intentions,” in other words, stability is inextricably linked with the integrity of the individual. The integrity of the individual depends on the meaningful side of the individual’s connection with other people, i.e. from the direction. Therefore, orientation is expressed through the dynamic tendencies of the personality.

S.L. Rubinstein, being one of the first researchers of the concept of “direction” in Russian psychology, distinguishes two components of direction: “a) subject content, since direction is always an orientation towards something, towards some more or less specific object, and b) the tension that arises." An important point in the concept of S.L. Rubinstein is to include in the characteristic the orientation of the personality’s attitude, i.e. “the position it takes, which consists in a certain attitude towards the goals and objectives at hand and is expressed in selective mobilization and readiness for activities aimed at their implementation.” Thus, the presence of a personal position, an attitude based on a hierarchy of motives, the implementation of a certain line of behavior are components of orientation, which, according to Chudnovsky, also characterize manifestations of personality stability.

The problem of sustainability was considered in the works of A.N. Leontyev. He pointed out that the main key question of personality formation turns into the question of how motives (drives), determined by certain circumstances, turn into something stable that characterizes a given personality. At the same time, the structure of “personality is a relatively stable configuration of the main, internally hierarchized, motivational lines.” Leontyev identifies three main parameters: the breadth of a person’s connections with the world, the degree of their hierarchization and general structure. As a result, this author formulated a fundamental position that corresponds to the situational approach. The essence of this provision is that any forms of activity of the subject intersect with each other and form the so-called “center of personality”, called “I,” which is “not in the individual, not behind the surface of his skin, but in his being.” Thus, the Self is included in the general system of relationships between a person and the environment. Therefore, a person’s actual behavior depends not only on his individual personal characteristics, but also on the situations in which he is involved.

In other words, a person in the process of self-realization can be the “master of the situation” and control the situation thanks to knowledge of his characteristics and capabilities, including typological ones. The stability of such a personality directly depends on the maximum use of the advantages of his mental organization and the neutralization of its shortcomings. Thus, a person comes to the result in different ways.

Undoubtedly, in conditions of a fairly stable state of the social system, when extreme and emergencies were rare, this concept worked very well. But how can one meet the definition of V.D. Nebylitsyn, for example, in the conditions of an accident at a nuclear power plant? Descriptions of the behavior of professionals on the first day of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are given by G.U. Medvedev: “The chief engineer sometimes lost his composure. Either he fell into a stupor, then he began to scream, cry, beat his fists and forehead on the table, then he developed violent, feverish activity. His sonorous baritone was saturated with extreme tension.”

Consequently, in a changed situation, when society experiences shock after shock almost every day, there is a need to develop a new concept of psychological stability, since it is stability that allows the functioning of the individual on a long-term basis, without leading to degradation processes. In “classical” Russian psychology, almost all authors relied on comparing the results of activity in difficult conditions with a complex of psychophysiological and mental data identified in a person. It is clear that with this approach there was a high probability of a discrepancy between the objective nature of the goals of activity and the genetically determined protective biological reactions of the body, expressed in states of fatigue, fear, panic, etc. In addition, the emotional reaction, by which it was proposed to measure the presence or absence of emotional stability, can be not expressed, performance is preserved, but reliability is reduced. It is also known that productivity is a function of mental stress (Yerkes-Dodson law), which inevitably accompanies complex activities.

Hence the interest in this concept in the concept of security as the protection of a person from internal and external influences that can have undesirable consequences for both the person and the environment. So, M.F. Sekach gives a new definition of psychological resilience: “This is the ability to foresee and prevent unpleasant life events, and if they occur, to get out of them without significant losses.”

Foreign psychologists consider psychological stability through indicators of endurance and resistance, thereby emphasizing the importance of the personal factor. American psychologists Kobaza and Pusetti describe endurance in three indicators:

Control (hardy people feel a sense of control over their lives, choosing a course of action in extreme circumstances, they believe that they can control events and influence them);
- involvement in activities, relationships with others and with oneself (these relationships reveal one’s own values, goals and life priorities, and therefore relate to the meaning of their existence);
- assessment of changes as a challenge rather than a threat (a stable person tests his flexibility, is persistent and knows where to find support).

From a new perspective, psychological stability can be considered as a special organization of the existence of an individual as a system that ensures the most effective functioning of a more complex “person-environment” system in a specific situation. Based on this definition, it is possible to set the boundaries of psychological stability, which boil down to a person’s potential capabilities and the objective requirements of a specific situation. In other words, this definition indicates the presence or absence of harmonious relationships in the “man-environment” system. Hence the main components of psychological stability, which include:

Dynamism, but not as a manifestation of temperamental (typological) characteristics, but as a certain mental component for overcoming mental tension;
- emotionality as a subjective form of expressing the needs of the individual;
- will;
- intellectual characteristics of the individual, including the totality of mental abilities, self-esteem;
- professional competence.

The new approach, it seems to us, allows us to consider psychological stability as a system in which, firstly, contradictions are possible, and secondly, in the process of resolving these contradictions, the individual and the environment do not go beyond the limits of acceptable risk, i.e. possible negative the consequences of a violation of stability are balanced by positive actions of both the individual and the environment.

Nidziy Alexander Olegovich

4th year student, department fire safety and protection in emergency situations VolgGASU, Russian Federation, Volgograd

Dashkova Sofya Vladimirovna

scientific supervisor, Ph.D. philosopher. Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology of Volga State University of Civil Engineering, Russian Federation, Volgograd

One of the central problems of personality research in extreme situations that place increased demands on a person is the problem of the formation and development of psychological stability. Psychological stability (to uncertainty, stress, crisis, conflict) determines a person’s mental and somatic health, protects him from disintegration and personality disorders, and creates the basis for internal harmony.

Psychological stability- this is a socio-psychological characteristic of an individual, which consists in the ability to endure the extraordinary nature of a situation without any damage to oneself and to overcome its consequences using methods that improve the personality, increasing the level of its adaptation and social maturity. In fact, this characteristic means the presence of an individual’s adaptive potential, which determines its ability to overcome difficult situations.

In modern psychological science, attempts are being made to holistically comprehend the personal characteristics responsible for successful adaptation and coping with difficult life situations. It should be noted that researchers do not have a consensus on the leading component of psychological stability. Some authors consider the cognitive component to be the leading one, others - the emotional and volitional (stress resistance, emotional-volitional stability) or motivational components. Some researchers propose to consider a set of qualities that ensure a person’s resistance to extreme factors. In our opinion, an integrative approach to considering this complex quality is the most promising.

For example, A.G. Maklakov introduced the concept of “personal adaptation potential,” which determines a person’s resistance to extreme factors. It includes the following characteristics: neuropsychic stability, the level of development of which ensures tolerance to stress; self-esteem of the individual, which determines the degree of adequacy of perception of the conditions of activity and one’s capabilities; feeling social support, which determines a sense of self-worth for others; level of personality conflict; experience of social communication. The author considers all of these characteristics to be significant in assessing and predicting the success of adaptation to difficult and extreme situations, as well as in assessing the speed of restoration of mental balance.

G.S. Nikiforov considers psychological stability as a complex personality quality, the level of which is manifested in its professional activities and in the reliability of the employee. Psychological stability, in his opinion, is a synthesis of individual qualities and abilities, which combines poise, resilience, stability and resistance.

Equilibrium - this is the ability to maintain the level of tension without going beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable (without leading to destructive stress). Durability implies the ability to withstand difficulties by maintaining faith in situations of frustration, and stability - constant level of mood. Resistance lies in the ability of an individual to maintain freedom of behavior and choice of lifestyle, as well as freedom from any type of addiction.

Various aspects of psychological stability are reflected in foreign science. For example, while studying the different effects of stressful life events on the illness of executives, S. Kobasa proposed the concept Hardiness - a personality trait, which in Russian literature is translated as endurance, stamina or vitality, courage, bravery, strength, audacity. Subsequently, the concept of Hardiness was further developed in the works of S. Maddi, where it is considered as an integrative personality quality, which is an indicator of a person’s mental health.

Cardiness consists of three components: commitment, control and the ability to take on a challenge.

Mandatory - this is the tendency to completely devote oneself to one’s work, whatever it may be, in other words, the semantic and goal orientation of a person. Inclusion is an important definition of oneself and the world around us, as well as the nature of their interaction. It gives strength, motivates a person to realize, lead, healthy image life and behavior, and also makes it possible to feel significant and valuable enough to be fully involved in solving problems, despite the presence of stressors and changes.

Control - this is the tendency to think and act as if there was a real opportunity to influence the course of events. This is a quality that motivates to find ways to influence the results of stressful changes and does not allow a person to fall into a state of helplessness and passivity. Having control, a person is confident that any difficult situation can be transformed so that it will be consistent with his life plans and will be useful to him in some way. By assessing even tragic events, a person reduces their significance and thereby reduces the psycho-traumatic effect.

Call (the ability to accept a challenge) means the perception of danger as a difficult task, marking the next turn in a changing life, encouraging a person to continuous growth. This is the ability to experience any event as a stimulus for the development of one’s own capabilities. This component of heartiness helps a person remain open to environment and society. It consists in the individual’s perception of a life event as a personal challenge and upcoming trials.

Thus, there is a whole complex of personal qualities that contribute to the adaptive, non-traumatic experience of extreme situations and ensure the success of overcoming their consequences, which can be characterized as an integrative personality characteristic - psychological resistance to extreme situations.

In modern foreign studies, Cardiness is considered important factor, leading to reliable and sustainable results of professional activity, especially for extreme specialists. For example, the results of a study of 405 fire communities in Madrid showed that moodiness may be a moderating factor between occupational stressors and burnout.

The activities of firefighters are characterized high level neuropsychic tension, which is associated with the presence of a real vital threat, with the influence of extreme factors of the situation, as well as the need to make decisions in conditions of novelty, uncertainty, lack of time and high responsibility.

As the complexity of the situation increases, the effectiveness of professional activity depends to a greater extent on the psychological stability of a specialist, which, along with professional skills, which presupposes knowledge, skills and behavior in extreme situations, determines the effectiveness and reliability of the activity of an extreme specialist.

Psychological stability, which is a generalized mode of functioning and includes cognitive, emotional and behavioral components, should be manifested at all stages of the professional task of firefighters, which can be divided into three: preparatory, main and final.

The preparatory stage includes signaling a fire and going to the scene of an emergency. A feature of the preparatory stage is the suddenness and uncertainty of information. The main task of the specialist at this stage is to prevent a state of anxiety and bring the level of neuropsychic stress to the optimal level - a state of combat readiness.

The main stage includes direct professional actions aimed at saving people and material objects. The features of this stage are: danger, uncertainty of the situation, severe time pressure. The conditions of the situation place increased demands on the cognitive abilities of a specialist, which is expressed in: an objective assessment and analysis of the situation, searching for unknown or contradictory information, and making decisions. In the behavioral sphere, psychological resilience at this stage is manifested in active actions aimed at changing the situation using non-specific forms of activity, i.e. actions that provide the most effective result in a specific emergency situation, flexibility and speed of transition from one task to another. Thus, the main task of specialists at this stage is to mobilize their resources to fulfill their professional duty.

On final stage An important task is to restore emotional balance using self-regulation techniques and constructive transformative coping strategies.

Thus, psychological stability is a quality of a specialist’s personality, which consists in the ability not to succumb to unfavorable circumstances of the tasks being solved, and not to reduce the quality of professional actions under their influence.

The level of psychological stability of a specialist, on the one hand, is manifested in the reliability of professional activity. On the other hand, successful professional activity for many is the basis for a full experience of self-realization and satisfaction with life in general, which in turn increases the level of psychological stability.

Bibliography:

1. Maklakov A.G. Personal adaptation potential: its mobilization and forecasting in extreme conditions // Psychological Journal. - 2001. - T. 22. - No. 1. - P. 16-24.
2. Health Psychology: Textbook for Universities / Ed. G.S. Nikiforova. St. Petersburg: Peter, 2003. - 607 p.
3. Jimenez B.M., Natera N.I.M., Munoz A.R., Benadero M.E.M. Hardy personality as a moderator variable of burnout syndrome in firefighters. // Psychothema. - 2006/8 - No. 18 (3). - P. 413-418.
4. Kobasa S.C. Stressful life events, personality, and health: An inquiry into hardiness. // Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 37(1), Jan 1979, - P. 1-11.
5. Maddi S.R., Khoshaba D.M. Hardiness and Mental Health // Journal of Personality Assessment. - 1994. - Vol. 63. - No. 2.

Test

Psychological stability

Introduction

Psychological resilience (terminology and factors)

Personal resilience as a factor of psychological stability

Diagnosis of psychological stability

Psychological stability in practical psychology

Conclusion

Introduction

Modern human life is filled with various events - these are normative life changes that occur with most people and emergency situations that are not predictable and most often undesirable for society and the individual. Along with this, the number of normative stressors in a person’s life is a relatively constant value, and is also determined by individual life situations. The number of external, unpredictable stresses associated with man-made, industrial, and natural disasters is constantly increasing.

Despite the type and source of origin, each of the above events causes stress in a person and has its own meaning on the “scale of harm” caused to the individual. For example, emergency situations of a man-made nature, in contrast to situations of a natural nature, are experienced more difficult by most people; Emergency situations experienced in childhood can cause psychological difficulties, physical and mental illnesses in the future. In this regard, it is the psychological stability of the individual that becomes a necessary condition for maintaining physical, mental and psychological health, regardless of the person’s gender and age.

In Russian psychology, the problem of psychological stability, difficult and extreme life situations is developed by such authors as Yu.V. Shcherbatykh, D.A. Leontyev, N.V. Grishina, K. Muzdybaev, T.L. Kryukova, L.V. Kulikov, I.P. Shkuratov and others.

Issues of psychological stability of the individual are of great practical importance, since stability protects the individual from disintegration and personality disorders, creates the basis for internal harmony, good mental health, and high performance.

The psychological stability of an individual directly determines his vitality, mental and physical health.

1. Psychological stability (terminology and factors)

The word "stable" in many languages ​​of the world means "stable, resistant, solid, durable, strong." The “Dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian Language” gives two synonyms for this word: “stability, balance.”

The term stability is translated as: 1) stability, stability, state of balance; 2) constancy, firmness; and mental stability - mental stability (stability).

In A. Reber’s dictionary, “stable” is understood as a characteristic of an individual whose behavior is relatively reliable and consistent. Its antonym is the term “unstable,” which has several meanings in psychology. The two main ones are: 1) “unstable” is an individual who exhibits erratic and unpredictable patterns of behavior and mood; 2) “unstable” is an individual who is prone to demonstrate neurotic, psychotic, or simply dangerous behavior patterns for others. In the second meaning, the term is used as a kind of informal psychiatric diagnosis.

Stability presupposes a set of adaptation processes, the integration of the individual in the sense of maintaining the consistency of the basic functions of the individual and the stability of their implementation.

Stability includes stability of functioning, reliability in professional activities. The level of psychological stability of an individual, one way or another, is manifested in his work activity, in the reliability of an employee, a professional. On the other hand, successful professional activity for many is the basis for a full-fledged experience of self-realization, which affects satisfaction with life in general, mood and psychological stability.

Reduced resilience leads to the fact that, once in a situation of risk (a situation of testing, a situation of loss, a situation of social deprivation, etc.), a person overcomes it with negative consequences for mental and somatic health, for personal development, for existing interpersonal relationships.

Psychological stability of an individual can be considered as a complex personality quality, a synthesis of individual qualities and abilities. How pronounced it is depends on many factors. This is a fairly large list of factors related to personal characteristics and the social environment.

Factors of psychological stability of the individual.

Social environmental factors: factors supporting self-esteem; conditions conducive to self-realization; conditions conducive to adaptation; psychological support from the social environment (emotional support from loved ones, friends, employees, their specific assistance in business, etc.).

Personal factors: Personal attitudes (including to oneself): optimistic, active attitude towards the life situation as a whole; philosophical (sometimes ironic) attitude towards difficult situations; confidence, independence in relationships with other people, lack of hostility, trust in others, open communication; tolerance, accepting others as they are; a sense of community (in Adler's sense), a sense of social belonging; satisfying status in the group and society, stable interpersonal roles that satisfy the subject; fairly high self-esteem; consistency of the perceived I and the desired I (the real I and the ideal I);

Personal consciousness: faith (in its various forms - faith in the achievability of set goals, religious faith, faith in common goals); existential certainty - understanding, a sense of the meaning of life, meaningfulness of activity and behavior; the attitude that you can control your life; awareness of social belonging to a certain group.

Emotions and feelings: dominance of sthenic positive emotions; experience of successful self-realization; emotional saturation from interpersonal interaction, experiencing a sense of cohesion, unity.

Cognition and experience: understanding the life situation and the ability to predict it; rational judgments in the interpretation of a life situation (absence of irrational judgments); adequate assessment of the load and your resources; structured experience of overcoming difficult situations.

Behavior and activity: activity in behavior and activity; using effective ways to overcome difficulties.

This list identifies the positive poles of the qualities and factors that influence psychological resilience. In the presence of these factors (positive poles of qualities), a dominant mental state and elevated mood, favorable for successful behavior, activity and personal development, remain. With an unfavorable influence, the dominant state becomes negative (apathy, despondency, depression, anxiety, etc.).

Thus, psychological stability is a personality quality, individual aspects of which are stamina, balance, and resistance. It allows an individual to withstand life’s difficulties, unfavorable pressure from circumstances, and maintain health and performance in various trials.

Personal resilience as a factor of psychological stability

One of the factors of psychological stability in modern psychological science is called “personal resilience.”

The concept of “resilience” was introduced by S. Maddi and S. Kobeis and was developed at the intersection of existential psychology, stress psychology and the psychology of coping behavior. YES. Leontyev, taking into account the interdisciplinary approach, believes that this personality trait characterizes the measure of an individual’s ability to withstand a stressful situation, maintaining internal balance and without reducing the success of activities.

It is necessary to identify the components that make up the concept of “resilience” - these are:

Involvement (commitment) is the confidence that even in unpleasant and difficult situations or relationships it is better to remain involved: to be aware of events, in contact with people around you, to devote maximum effort, time, attention to what is happening, to participate in what is happening.

Control is the belief that it is always possible and always more effective to try to influence the outcome of events. If the situation is fundamentally beyond any influence, then a person with a high control attitude will accept the situation as it is, that is, change his attitude towards it, reevaluate what is happening, etc.

Taking risks (challenge) is the belief that stress and change are a natural part of life, that any situation is at least a valuable experience that will help you develop yourself and deepen your understanding of life.

Research on the relationship between resilience and other personal components reveals a wide range of them: a sense of connectedness, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy, passion for activity; at the same time: low anxiety, significant inverse correlations with the likelihood of psychosomatic diseases, culture shock, post-traumatic disorders, depression, etc. .

The discovered relationships prove the significance of the phenomenon being studied not only as a diagnostic criterion for a person’s vital stability, but also make it possible to identify those personal components that need to be worked on in a psycho-consultative and psycho-correctional sense in order to achieve a person’s vitality.

Personal resilience is measurable. Currently, interested researchers are using the “Personal Vitality” test, developed by S. Maddi and S. Kobeis, translated into Russian by D. Leontiev.

Modern domestic science explores the vitality of the individual in connection with the professional activities of teachers and psychologists, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other law enforcement agencies. At the same time, the question of research and development of methods for increasing this important component of the personal structure of an ordinary person who is in a difficult life situation remains poorly studied.

psychological stability resilience

3. Diagnosis of psychological stability of the individual

The psychological stability of an individual can be measured using test methods (questionnaires, questionnaires). Diagnostic methods examine the psychophysiological and psychological components of resilience. A number of methods used in the daily work of practical psychologists are of particular interest.

Test “Psychological stability” L.V. Kulikova. The test is designed to initially identify signs of psychological stability, allows you to identify individual personality disorders, as well as assess the likelihood of their development and manifestation in human behavior and activity.

Test “Personal Vitality” When creating the vitality questionnaire, the authors selected 6 scales of different tests (S. Muddy’s Alienation Test, M. Khan’s California Test for Assessing Goals in Life, D. Jackson’s Personality Traits Test, J. Rotter’s Locus of Control Test), which correspond in content to components of involvement, control and risk taking. During testing, the most valid and reliable items were selected. The original English version of the Personal Views Survey III-R consists of 18 items, including direct and reverse questions, covering all three scales of the questionnaire (involvement, control, and risk taking). The third and final version of the questionnaire included the most valid and reliable items, and items were considered internally valid if they predicted the development of somatic diseases in a stressful situation within a year after measuring hardiness (Maddi, 1998 b). Research by S. Maddi and his colleagues (Maddi, Khoshaba, 2001) confirmed the reliability and consistency of the questionnaire.

Methodology for identifying a person’s neuropsychic stability

The technique allows a practical psychologist to comprehensively diagnose, predict and prevent neuropsychic instability of various categories of employees. It combines a “battery” of private techniques, including:

SSND technique (self-assessment scale for nervous depression);

"Forecast" technique;

SAN technique (well-being, activity, mood);

ShS technique (self-esteem scale (Speed6erger-Khanin);

LD technique (personal differential);

LSPT technique (personal scale of mental anxiety).

The technique makes it possible to measure the levels of anxiety, depression, self-esteem, self-satisfaction, determine the state of frustration, depression, personal discomfort and other types of asthenic emotional experiences of a person. The advantage of the technique is that in addition to direct diagnosis various types neuropsychic instability, it allows you to predict and prevent these undesirable phenomena during the hidden (latent) phase of their development. The special significance of the technique is that when the right approach it will help in prevention conflict situations associated with the phenomena of deviant behavior.

Methodology for determining the level of neuropsychic stability “Forecast” and “Forecast 2”. A questionnaire developed at the Leningrad Military Medical Academy in 1985 by V.Yu. Rybnikov and intended for the initial tentative identification of persons with signs of neuropsychic instability. The main goal of the technique is to determine the level of neuropsychic stability and the risk of maladjustment under stress. The questionnaire allows you to identify individual signs of personality disorders, as well as assess the likelihood of their development and manifestations in a person’s behavior and activities, especially when the external situation becomes more complicated. The technique is especially informative when selecting persons suitable for work or service in difficult, unpredictable conditions, where increased demands are placed on a person.

Methodology “Balance of the nervous system”. The technique allows, by analyzing responses to questionnaire questions, to determine the severity of the properties of the nervous system (balance).

Methodology “Questionnaire for assessing the neuropsychic stability of a teacher”

The technique was developed at LVMA named after. CM. Kirov and is intended for the initial identification of persons with signs of neuropsychic instability. It allows you to identify individual pre-morbid signs of personality disorders, as well as assess the likelihood of their development and manifestations in human behavior and activity. You must answer 84 yes or no questions within 30 minutes. Analysis of the answers can clarify individual biographical information, behavioral characteristics and states of mental activity in various situations.

Methodology “Characterological accentuations of personality and neuropsychological instability” Accentuations of character are understood as an extreme version of the mental norm. This technique considers the following diagnostic scales: extraversion-introversion, explosive form, psychosthenic form, schizoid form, hysterical form, orientation scale, reliability scale. Neuropsychic instability combines a number of partially pathological or prepathological personality manifestations; they can predispose to nervous breakdowns or mental breakdowns. This includes the Mental Imbalance Scale. The interpretation is based on an analysis of the results obtained on a 9-point scale. Combinations of scales with each other are also analyzed.

Thus, diagnostic methods that study personality stability are mainly versions of questionnaires and examine the subject’s conscious self-esteem of the quality being studied. At the same time, there is a shortage of projective research methods that would rely on data from unconscious parts of a person’s personality and perhaps provide more objective information.

Psychological stability in practical psychology

Any person at least once in his life needed to change his psychological state as soon as possible in order to maintain psychological stability. People strive to do this with the help of various simple means that help improve their condition. Someone, for example, indulges in memories of positive events that have happened in life, someone tries to breathe deeper and more slowly. Everyone is looking for their “own” way, and some find it on their own. As a rule, one method is not enough; it is better to have several available. After all, situations are different, and, accordingly, methods of self-help are different. If you applied “your” method in a certain situation, and it helped you, this does not mean that in another situation the same method will give the expected result.

There are people who have not yet found their “own” ways. No way has been found to help them gain psychological stability and calm down when they are nervous, or feel good when they are very tired.

Such a person’s inability to regulate his mood can negatively affect not only relationships with others, but also the quality of performance of professional duties.

Moreover, a long stay in the power of negative emotional states (a state of expectation, anxiety, uncertainty, guilt, dissatisfaction, anger, etc.), the inability to reduce the severity of the experience of adverse effects is also fraught with the fact that it has a destructive effect on the body, physical and mental condition .

Even in ancient times, a connection was noticed between a person’s emotions and his physical condition. It was believed, for example, that the need to constantly suppress emotions destroys the heart; envy and anger - affect the digestive organs; sadness, despondency, melancholy - accelerate aging. Long-term nervous stress can destroy the strongest organism, so it is extremely important for everyone to be able to timely track the impact of stress factors, quickly and effectively “discharge” the resulting mental tension, relieve a negative emotional state, and reduce pain.

There are classifications of methods for neutralizing stress that allow you to take a more psychologically stable position when faced with a difficult life situation. One of the most common classifications divides stress reduction methods as follows:

.Physical methods - exposure to high and low temperatures, light of various spectrums, etc.

.Biochemical methods - pharmacological preparations, medicinal plants, aromatherapy.

.Physiological methods - direct impact on physiological processes in the body, in particular on the cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular systems. They include massage, acupuncture, exercise, muscle relaxation, breathing techniques, biological feedback(BFB is a method of human self-regulation that allows you to directly observe your own physiological indicators and consciously influence them).

.Psychological methods - rational psychotherapy (the most common method of work based on a person’s rational beliefs), dissociation from stress (mental change of unpleasant events), visualization (use of positive images, ways of a positive way out of the situation, etc.), NLP (neurolinguistic programming - the formation of a conditioned reflex of the transition of a negative experience into a positive one through the use of speech and certain phrases), meditation as a method of reducing stress, training to increase communicative competence and improve behavioral skills, training in personal resilience (formation of resilient beliefs) and others.

At the same time, an integrated approach, including the use in a certain part of methods from all parts of the classification in working on the formation or maintenance of psychological stability of an individual, is the most desirable and effective.

It is important to note that work to maintain the psychological stability of an individual can be both emergency (in a situation of acute mental trauma) and preventive (prophylactic). Emergency psychological assistance in the event of large-scale mass disasters and catastrophes is provided by such emergency services as the Center for Emergency Psychological Assistance of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia and its branches throughout the country, emergency numbers trust (youth, children, etc.). Stationary city, regional and commercial psychotherapeutic and psychological centers and services provide this kind of psychological assistance at the individual request of a person.

Targeted preventive work to preserve and strengthen psychological stability is carried out by the law enforcement agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and others in relation to their own employees, where this work is mandatory, given the complex (stressful) and intense nature of professional activity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it should be noted that psychological stability is an extremely important part of a person’s personality structure. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics are formed, probably, starting from childhood, when a person goes through crises of growing up, which are normative stressors, and have a direct impact on the entire life activity of a person.

In the everyday life of each individual, situations occur that in everyday language are called: grief, misfortune, misfortune. A person does not always successfully live through them even in a situation of normative stress and has difficulty adapting or does not adapt at all to a new life situation.

At the same time, psychological stability, according to science, is a changeable factor that can be influenced by psychological methods (consulting, training, exercises, classes). Thus, targeted psychological work with people of different ages is necessary to develop and maintain psychological stability as an important adaptive mechanism of the individual.

The professionalism of a psychologist, to whom people who have problems with psychological stability turn for help, allows him to recognize the factors and causes of instability and select adequate and effective methods of assistance. At the same time, the psychologist’s tasks should include not only therapeutic (emergency) but also psychoprophylactic work, so that in the future his client becomes more psychologically stable and is able to cope with his condition while overcoming difficult life circumstances.

Bibliography

1. Korzhova E.Yu. Psychology of human life orientations. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University Publishing House, 2006. - 382 s.

Kulikov L.V. Personal psychohygiene: Issues of psychological stability and psychoprophylaxis: Textbook. St. Petersburg, 2004. p. 87-115.

Leontyev D.A., Rasskazova E.I. Vitality test. - M.: Smysl, 2006. - 63 p.

Malkina-Pykh I.G. Extreme situations. - M.: EKSMO Publishing House, 2005 - 960 p. - “Handbook for a practical psychologist.”

Nikoshkova E.V. English-Russian dictionary of psychology. M., 1998.

Psychological encyclopedia. 2nd ed. / Edited by R. Corsini, A. Auerbach. - St. Petersburg: Peter 2003. - 1096 pp.: ill.

Reber A. Large explanatory psychological dictionary. M., 2000.

Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language / Ed. L.A. Czech. - M., 1986.

Shcherbatykh Yu.V. Psychology of stress and correction methods. 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2012. - 256 p.

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