Personal determinants of extreme phenomena mental positioning

Abstract

Relevance. The relevance of the study is justified by the demand to identify personal determinants of individual perception of extreme manifestations in order to improve the efficiency of response.The objective is to establish the determining parameters based on a set of psychological characteristics, reflecting the subject’s mental positioning in the security setting of what they consider major extreme phenomena.Methods. The respondents included 112 students aged 19 to 21 years studying in Moscow and regional universities. Research methods included associative experiment, individual scaling, and HEXACO-PI-R-60 questionnaire testing. Empirical data was processed by calculation of mean values, percentage distribution, ranking, as well as methods of correlation, factor and regression analysis, and the Pearson’s chi-squared test.Results and analysis. From the individual perspective, extreme scenarios are associated with specific phenomena that differ in stereotyping and objectivity (danger, threat, risk/riskiness, complexity, fear, strangeness, extreme, catastrophe, extreme, horror/ awful, threshold, implausibility, maximalism / maximality, ingenuity, extraordinary, murder, excessive demand, fire, flood, cold, accident, snowfall, heat). Considering the differences in the assessments on danger/safety scale, the structure of extreme phenomena includes such components as “catastrophe”, “emergency”, “threat”, and “risk”. The respondents’ mind positions the structural components of extreme scenarios by the degree of danger/safety, thus producing the following sequence: disaster – threat – emergency – risk, ranging them from “highly dangerous and unsafe” to “safe”. Individual characteristics of high reliability level contribute differently to individual assessment of the structural components constituting extreme phenomena in terms of the degree of danger/safety. Regression models were used to analyze the students’ danger/safety assessment of the structural components based on particular personality traits. The result showed that emotions, awareness, and preparedness to acquire experience contributed most significantly to the assessment of extreme phenomena in terms of danger/safety.Conclusion. It is well known, that emotions play a key role in an individual’s ability to assess the level of danger/safety with regard to various extreme phenomena. This evidence makes it a critical imperative to develop individual emotional self-regulation abilities. In particular, nurturing the necessary ability in the promising representatives of extreme professions requires specific focus.