The main psychological aspects of resourceful attitude to other

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The article:

The main psychological aspects of resourceful attitude to other

Shtepa O.S. Ivan Franko National University of Lviv

The article analyses the problem of factors of a resourceful person's attitude towards others. On the theoretical level, the problem is localized as overcoming individualism. Empirically, it is established that resourceful attitude is formed according to the type of interpersonal relations «kind-heartedness» on the basis of experience of supporting others and ability to trust them. Resourceful attitude to others differs from affiliation, altruism, helping others, care, attachment by being formed on the basis of personal experience of supporting others. Resourceful relations presuppose analytical and simultaneously kind-hearted attitude to others, respect of the actor of such relations to oneself and their certainty of own luck and that there is more good in the world than evil. With the age a resourceful person relies less on others but their ability to support them increases.

Keywords: individualism, psychological resourcefulness, support, trust, resourceful attitude.

The problem

Mutual understanding in communication has always been one of topical directions in researching social psychology of a personality. Modern scientific paradigm of postmodern suggests interpreting relations from the position of social constructionism, which states that the way of a person's understanding the world is not given, but rather results from their relationships [4, p. 64]. Simultaneously, postmodern person values the feeling of privacy as autonomy and independence of social context of life, which is proved by philosophical and sociological research of individualism [16, p. 6-7].

Psychologism of the idea of construing personality in relationships is based on the concept of discourse or dialogue. Hence, the person who is a participant of the discourse of the model of the world may determine the ways and forms of construing the picture of life. That is why, in our opinion, it is necessary to analyze more attentively the substantial qualities of a person participating in construing the discourse of life.

Literature review

According to M. Yatsyno, modern world is developing in the culture of individualism, in which modal personality is characterized by narcissism, seeing success as a criterion of self-creation, fear of losing ego, consumer's attitude towards others [16, p. 182-188]. The main problem of a person of individualistic culture is relationships with others. M. Yatsyno states that the «creation» of the culture of individualism should be asocial and egotistic individual. <...> their connections with other people are fragile and temporary and they hope for getting rid of them, since there is no basis to influence their stability and strengthening [16, p. 236]. Therefore, attitude towards others becomes a determining condition for a person's self-determination in life discourse. This conclusion is also proved by B. S. Bratus who sees the «way» a person treats others as his/her central sense-building quality, the indicator of essential, spiritual «normality». The scholar defined two «ways» of a person's attitude to the Other: 1) attitude to the Other as self-worth, or 2) depreciation of the Other (B. Bratus as cited by Kalashnikova [6, p. 38]). Attitude to the Other is seen as one of the vectors determining the orientation of the personality, that is, the integral quality. So, in the model of personal orientation a «healthy position» of cooperation is determined by a person's accepting himself/herself and others, positive attitude of a person to oneself and others characterizes this person as capable of moderate optimal attachment, when a person feels comfortable both in close relationships and alone [7].

Most scholars consider the solution to the problem of a person's relationships with the others to be in making a dialogue between the parties of interaction, and regard dialogism to be the main feature of helping behavior [10, p.119]. Another precondition for a dialogue is a person's trust in oneself and others. E. tends to think that a person's trust in oneself characterizes a human-actualizer with the high level of selfworth (E. Shostrom as cited by Skripkina [15, p. 34]). Thus, a dialogue may be seen as one of the forms of discourse held by a postmodern personality. However, in our view, characteristics of an individualist by M. Yatsyno questions the ability of such person to make a dialogue with the others, since narcissism of a person belongs to a «dark triad of a personality» together with psychopathy and machiavellism [3]. In our view, a modern personality inclined to individualism will hold dialogues with others with conflicts, making emphases on polar qualities; self-determination of such personality will by hindered by the necessity to support one of the viewpoints. In its turn, the situation of conflict convinces an individualist in potential threat of relationships with others.

The ability of construing life discourse without conflicts, in our view, was offered by personologists. For example, P. Ricoeur thinks that the main problem of relationships is negated if the middle of the continuum «give-get» is friendship, «spontaneous benevolence» generated by resource of kindness. This resource equals a human's contribution in relationships with the gift of these relationships [11, p. 226-227]. This allows presupposing that the participation in discourse of the model of the world is possible for a person possessing resources, that is, a person characterised as resourceful.

Potential abilities of a human [resources - in aut. opinion] are strengthened by support from the others [9, p. 332]. K. Rogers thinks that the way of release, actualization of potential forces of a personality gets the form of the experience of being accepted: «if I am able to listen to <...>, accept <...>, understand <...>, feel <...>, then I release potential forces which lead him/her [a human] to change» [12, p. 394]. Simultaneously, accepting the Other requires considerable courage from a human, since the experience of acceptance changes not only another person, but also the person who risked to see the world with the eyes of the other [12, p. 395]. In order to find such courage, a human should overcome fear of possible anxiety which will come instead of usual peaceful life; learn to give, not only exchange; ignore the fear of being disclosed, and thus vulnerable; learn to respect oneself, and giving the best of oneself to the others, inspire and support them [1, p. 276-279]. In K. Rogers' view, such courage in self-disclosure of a person in communication becomes possible after he/ she makes an existential choice in favour of congruity [12, p. 408]. Existential choice transfers a person in dimensions of authentic life in which they can exist in accordance with own principles, find independent solution to life dilemmas [9, p. 335]. In individual being, a person losing self-identity goes beyond boundaries of individualism and acquires the ability to project own potential abilities in action, becomes what he/she does [9, p. 336]. Accordingly, the choice of self-disclosure, which results from actualizing the resource of kindheartedness, determines the role of a personality which may be presented as devoting oneself to the others. Paradoxically, the choice is possible only from the position of an individualist. This is so because non-individualist either acts in a conforming way, or has a vocation.

It may be considered that the main feature of a person participating in construing discourse of the model of the world is resourcefulness. It is resourcefulness, which is the opposite of a «dark triad of a personality» (narcissism, psychopathy, machiavel- lism), that determines the ability of a person to overcome individualism and choose the position of «pos- sible possibilities» in life discourse which opens the perspectives of authentic life. Probably, a resourceful person builds «resourceful relationships» characterized mainly by trust in others, ability to respect oneself and others, the readiness to accept the Other.

Usually psychological sources characterize resourceful relationships by warmth, richness, stability. Warmth is expressed in tenderness of feelings and the ability to verbalise own emotions and express them non-verbally. Richness is manifested in the saturation of the time spent together. Sufficient measures of stability of warm relations, loyalty of people to relationships, confidence in the partner, and common plans for the future determine the stability of social relations which may be considered resourceful [2]. Т. Koloshyna and А. Trus defined the correlation between the levels of resourcefulness of people during their interaction as a criterion of complexity of the interactive situation. They think that a person will choose the strategy of dictating own conditions if his/her resources are greater than those of an interlocutor; if they are lower, a person will tend to manipulate [5].

Human resources are most often defined as personal qualities and abilities which are valuable for a human and help to adapt to stressful situations and overcome them (self-respect, professional skills, self-control, life values) (S. Hobfoll as cited by McPad- den [17]). Simultaneously, resource is defined as a state characterized by feeling happy and self-confident, which is necessary for solving problems and also the feeling of freedom [8, p. 15-16, 246]. When defining resource as ability and means, the following kinds are distinguished: life experience, support of close people, wisdom [14, p. 198-205]. Scholars tend to define resource as inner forces necessary for a person's constructive overcoming of life crises; hence the attributes of resourcefulness are initiative, responsibility, and striving for sense [13].

We became interested in the possibility to predict the style of relationship of a resourceful personality with others, which determines the aim of the research: to empirically distinguish peculiarities of personalities with high level of psychological resourcefulness in their attitude to others.

Main material

interpersonal relation attitude resourceful

The respondents were aged 1876 (students, school teachers, University teachers, private entrepreneurs, medical workers, managers, pensioners). Psychological sample consisting of 144 persons (76% female and 24% male respondents) was formed by the criterion «general level of psychological resourcefulness». Diagnostic tools of the research included methods of multi-aspect quantification of interpersonal relations by Т. Leary (adapted by А. Rean), method of evaluation and predicting psychological development of situations of interpersonal interaction by А. Bondarenko (for the purposes of the research we have changed the instruction in method: the task of the respondent was to evaluate in points the quality of his/her relationships with other people), methods of evaluating trust/distrust of personality in other people by А. Kupreychenko (for the purposes of the research, basing on the data of the method, we have added a scale of «ambivalence of attitude towards others» grounded on the difference between the general level of a person's trust in oneself and the general level of a person's trust in others. Dispersion analysis allowed establishing standard deviation by this scale, the mean of which was taken as optimum of ambivalence; the questionnaire of resources by S. Hobfoll (adapted by N. Vodopyanova, М. Shtein), description of moral-ethical attitude to the Other by Yu. Alexandrova (using 22 concepts of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other distinguished by Yu. Alexandrova we have formulated the following task for the respondents: analyze how your attitude towards others changed with life experience and characterize these changes with the help of 7 concepts from the suggested list; indicate the beginning of your attitude and its condition at present by marks 1 to 7 (each feature may be marked only once), the scale of basic beliefs by R. Yanov-Bulman, author's questionnaire of psychological resourcefulness of a personality. Psychological resourcefulness is interpreted as the ability of a person to actualize own personal-existential resources and operate them.

Hypotheses of the research: 1) there exist certain peculiarities of «resourceful relationships» which distinguish them from affiliation, altruism, helping others, care, attachment; 2) psychologically resourceful people are characterized by the strategy of moral-ethical attitude towards others which may be named «strategy of serving others»; 3) certain peculiarities of people's interaction with others result in the high level of psychological resourcefulness; in the same way certain attitude towards others is a consequence of a formed psychological resourcefulness of a person. Theoretical hypotheses were specified in empirical hypotheses and verified with the help of the following methods of mathematical-statistical analysis: multi-factor hierarchical analysis, stepwise regression analysis, correlation analysis, Student's t-test.

In order to verify the hypothesis about the connection between the general level of psychological resourcefulness and types of interpersonal relationships, subjective evaluation of the quality of relationships, trust in others, ambivalence in attitude towards others, peculiarities of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other, social personal resources, basic beliefs of a person we have applied correlation analysis. It has shown (p<0,05) that the main correlates of psychological resourcefulness are kindheartedness, support and reliability (Figure 1).

The principal components of psychological resourcefulness - helping others and belief in good - are connected with aspects of experience of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other and types of interpersonal relationships; the scales of operating the resources - knowledge, ability to renovate and use the resources - with the components of subjective evaluation of the quality of relationships with others.

Hierarchical multi-factor analysis (p>0,7) has been used to verify the hypothesis that the type of interpersonal relationships, subjective evaluation of the quality of relationships with others, trust in others, ambivalence in attitude towards others, peculiarities of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other, social personal resources, and basic beliefs are factors of psychological resourcefulness. The analysis has shown that psychological resourcefulness is caused by firstly, sense acquisition and feelings that are being experienced (component subjective evaluation of quality of relationships with others), and reliability (component trusting in others); secondly, belief in worth of own I (basic belief); thirdly, absence of despair and authoritarianism (moral-ethical attitude towards the Other); fourthly, optimum of ambivalence in attitude towards others; fifthly, courage (aspect of experience of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other) and critical approach (adaptive level of the type of interpersonal relationships «skepticism - negativism», subscale of suspiciousness).

The hypothesis has been supported partially. Social personal resources are not a factor of psychological resourcefulness.

Fig. 1

The hypothesis about the principal components of psychological resourcefulness being trust in others and components of subjective evaluation of the quality of relationships with others has been verified applying stepwise regression analysis. It has shown that the structure of psychological resourcefulness includes: 1) kindheartedness (adaptive level of the type of interpersonal relationships «kind- heartedness - excessive conformism», subscale of friendliness) 2) support (aspect of experience of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other), 3) reliability (component of trusting others), 4) belief that there is more good in the world than evil (basic belief), 5) feelings that are being experienced (component of subjective evaluation of the quality of relationships with others), 6) critical approach (adaptive level of the type of interpersonal relationships «skepticism - negativism», subscale of suspiciousness). The hypothesis has been partially supported.

The attention should be paid to the fact that support, reliability, critical approach, feelings that are being experienced (of positive valence) are simultaneously the factors and principal components of psychological resourcefulness.

Student's t-test has shown that women are characterized by a higher level of psychological resourcefulness and its principal components. In experience of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other women are characterized by prevalence of altruism, while men - by the ability to forgive. Women value the feelings which are experienced in relationships more. With the age, the level of reliability and the component of trust in others lower, while the level of kindheartedness as a type of building interpersonal relationships and support as the experience of moral-ethical attitude towards the Other increase.

The findings of the research allow stating that resourceful attitude towards others is different from affiliation, altruism, helping others, care, attachment by its being built exclusively on the person's experience of supporting others. The level of support is connected with kindheartedness in relationships and the ability of a person to trust in others. It is important that with the age, a resourceful person relies less on the others, but his/her ability to support others increases. This «inner source of forces» is caused by the property, immanent to resourcefulness, of balancing a person's contribution in relationships and benefits received from them. In other words, resources of a person are renovated exactly during their application for supporting others.

Resourceful relationships presuppose analytical and simultaneously kindhearted attitude towards others, respect of the actor of this relationship to himself/herself and their belief in own luck and that there is more good in the world than evil.

Conclusions

The problem of factors of the attitude of psychologically resourceful person towards others has been analyzed. On the theoretical level the problem has been localized as overcoming individualism. Empirically, it has been established that resourceful attitude is build by the type of interpersonal relationships «kindheartedness» on the basis of the experience of supporting others. Balancing a person's contribution in relationship and benefits received from it is an immanent property of resourcefulness. Supporting the Other is a substantial quality of a resourceful attitude. The perspective directions of future research may include the development of psychological methods of forming the skills of building resourceful relationships.

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Анотація

У статті проаналізовано проблему чинників ставлення ресурсної особистості до інших. На теоретичному рівні проблему локалізовано як долання індивідуалізму. Емпірично встановлено, що ресурсне ставлення будується за типом міжособистісних взаємин «добросердність» на основі досвіду підтримки інших та здатності їм довіряти. Ресурсне ставлення до Іншого відрізняється від афіліації, альтруїзму, допомоги іншим, турботи, прив'язаності тим, що вибудовується лише на основі прожитого людиною досвіду підтримки інших. Ресурсні взаємини передбачають аналітичне і водночас добросердне ставлення до інших, повагу актора цих стосунків до себе та його переконаність у власному везінні та тому, що у світі добра більше, ніж зла. З віком ресурсна людина меншою мірою покладається на інших, але її здатність підтримувати їх зростає.

Ключові слова: індивідуалізм, психологічна ресурсність, підтримка, довіра, ресурсне ставлення.

Аннотация

В статье проанализирована проблема детерминант отношения ресурсной личности к другим. На теоретическом уровне проблему локализировано как преодоления индивидуализма. Эмпирически установлено, что ресурсное отношение строится по типу межличностных отношений «добросердечность» на основе опыта поддержки других и способности доверять им. Ресурсное отношение к Другому отличается от аффилиации, альтруизма, помощи другим, заботы, привязанности тем, что основывается только на основе прожитого человеком опыта поддержки других. Ресурсные отношения предполагают аналитическое и в то же время добросердечное отношение к другим, уважение бктора этих отношений к себе, его убежденность в собственном везении и том, что в мире больше добра, чем зла. С возрастом ресурсный человек в меньшей степени полагается на других, но его способность поддерживать их возрастает. Ключевые слова: индивидуализм, психологическая ресурсность, поддержка, доверие, ресурсное отношение.

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