Psychological Defenses of Students in the Process of Experience of Time

Abstract

Experiences of person reveal his/her real-life relationships. Process of change of problematic relationship of students through psychological defenses is also experienced. Objective: distinguish characteristic time experiences of students due to systematic use of psychological defenses in the organization of life. Hypothesis: for student’s systematic use of psychological defenses for solving problems with high probability is associated with expressed experiences of violation of the integrity and disintegration of duration of the performed processes of vital activity. Methods. 139 randomly selected students were subjects (aged: Me=19.00; min=17.00; max=26.00). The following standardized methodologies were used to collect empirical data: questionnaire “Life Style Index” (R.Plutchik, G.Kellerman); Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI, Form В); scale of subjective control of R.Baumeister; scale “competence in time” from text of self-actualization (E.Shostrom); methodology “Scale of time experience” (A.A.Kronik, E.I.Golovaha). Results: Completeness of experience by the subjects of the current moment implies a high stability of their personal organization and is associated with experiences in the current time of speed, limitation, diversity, and is also associated with the psychological defenses of substitution and regression. For subjects with reduced stability of personal organization there is a higher tendency to use such psychological defenses: substitution; regression; compensation; denial of reality. The defensive mechanisms of substitution and regression are associated with the experience of time as spasmodic and intermittent, in addition, substitution is associated with the unpleasant experience of time, and regression with its organization and fragmentation. Conclusions. Use of students of psychological defenses of replacement and regression, which limit and distort perceived information, is accompanied by experience of time as a fractioned, fragmented sequence of actual changes in a meaningful process.