Personal Determinants of Stress-Coping Behaviour Demonstrated by Employees of The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters

Abstract

This paper analyses individual, psychological, personal characteristics, tolerance to stress, resilience and coping behavior of specialists working in extreme environments. To identify personal determinants of stresscoping behavior demonstrated by male employees of Emergencies Ministry of Russia we interviewed 84 employees of the Moscow Regional Firefighting Service using the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) developed by R. Cattell and Hobfoll’s Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (SACS). The data were statistically processed by software program SPSS 16.0.2 and analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Study of stress-coping behavior showed that the majority of research subjects used a “healthy” coping strategy manifesting itself in relatively active, assertive behavior, readiness for social contact, seeking of social support combined with low indicators of aggressive and asocial behavior. Regressive analysis of active coping strategy set the multiple correlation coefficient and identified the following reliable determinants of active stress-coping behavior: intellectual (B factor), emotional (C, H factors) and regulatory (G factor) attributes, whereas determinants of passive coping strategy were communicative (L factor) and emotional (O factor) personality traits. Regressive analysis suggests that the choice of coping behavior strategy is determined by personal characteristics. The research findings can be used while recruiting employees of The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia) as well as taking preventive, remedial measures and providing psychological counselling to reinforce “healthy” coping strategies and if necessary to develop new behavioral patterns. Keywords— individual psychological characteristics, personal determinants, coping strategy, stress-coping behavior I. RATIONALE Recently numerous studies of Russian academics and practitioners (N.N. Simonova, Ya.A. Korneeva, N.Yu. Flotskaya, A.B. Bukhvostov, Ye.N. Ashanina, V.Yu. Rybnikov, A.A. Kuzmenko and others) have been dedicated to studying individual, psychological, personal characteristics, tolerance to stress, resilience and coping behaviour of specialists working in extreme environments. This is a topical issue for a number of reasons: firstly, hazardous occupations are gaining importance and becoming more dangerous; secondly, occupational hazards are defined by factors (physical and weather conditions, mechanical impact and chemical exposure, uncertainty, abruptness, tight deadlines and others) which can have a destructive effect on personality and mental state of these specialists [2]; thirdly, work in extreme environments is characterized by physical exertion, threat to life and health, continuous psychological stress, high responsibility while acting relatively independently; fourthly, coping behaviour in extreme conditions is one of the most important factors ensuring employees’ adaptability to extreme situations and mental health [5]. Effectiveness of coping effort depends on the type of stress, personality and circumstances. Coping reactions are partially controlled by the personality (personal characteristics) but they also depend on the social environment especially the nature of the stress environment [1]. Analysis of the relevant literature shows that it is important for specialists working in extreme environments to have the following individual psychological characteristics which are key to positive adaptive response and behaviour in extreme conditions: ability to make a cognitive appraisal of tragic events, a sense of purpose in life, ample experience of II International Scientific-Practical Conference "Psychology of Extreme Professions" (ISPCPEP 2019) Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 321