Peculiarities of professional identity of law enforcement officials with different personal characteristics

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Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Peculiarities of professional identity of law enforcement officials with different personal characteristics

N. Тkachenko

Анотація

Розглянуто основні напрями дослідження феномену професійної ідентичності як психологічного конструкту у вітчизняній та психологічній літературі. Представлено результати емпіричного дослідження особливостей професійної ідентичності працівників правоохоронних органів з різними особистісними характеристиками. Встановлено, що працівники правоохоронних органів мають високі показники за такою шкалою ціннісних орієнтацій як «Стабільність місця роботи» та високі показники екстернального локус контролю. Виявлено такі статуси професійної ідентичності як «Досягнута», «Псевдоідентичність», «Передчасна», «Мораторій» «Дифузна».

Ключові слова: ідентичність, професійна ідентичність, статуси, особистісні характеристики, працівники правоохоронних органів.

Аннотация

Представлены результаты исследования особенностей профессиональной идентичности работников правоохранительных органов с разными личностными характеристиками. Установлено, что работники правохранительных органов имеют высокие показатели по шкале ценностных ориентаций «Стабильность места работы» и высокие показатели экстернального локус контроля. Проанализированы личностные характеристики работников правоохранительных органов в зависимости от их статусов профессиональной идентичности.

Ключевые слова: идентичность, профессиональная идентичность, статусы, личностные характеристики, работники правоохранительных органов.

Introduction

The relevance of the research is due to the fact that professional identity acts as an internal source of professional development and personal growth of any person, and the question of the professional identity formation is included in the scope of the general problem how to become a professional. Professional identity is an integrational concept, in which the interrelation of personal characteristics is expressed that provide orientation in the world of professions, which allows to realize the personal potential in professional activity more fully.

Significant changes that have recently taken place in all spheres of social life in Ukrainian society actualize the study of the problem of the development of law enforcement officials' professional identity. The implementation of the strategy of the state personnel policy requires the proper theoretical and methodological support of the professional development processes, especially the law enforcement officials, which stipulates the need to increase the professional level of the law enforcement officials, the creation of a concept for the professionalization of the law enforcement officials in Ukraine. Consequently, the professional identity of law enforcement officials acts as an important condition for effective professional activity.

Problem statement. The fundamental and dynamic changes that are taking place in a society today cause an increase in the scientists' interest in the problem of the individual's professionalization. Scientists whose scientific researches are devoted to the problem of professional and personal identity highlight several scientific approaches that consider the structure, genesis and peculiarities of the triad formation and development of the professional identity, which, in this case, have their own subject area of the analysis. Giving a very brief description of these areas we can define the following: a psychoanalytic approach, which includes: E. Erickson's psychoanalytic concept, J. Marcia's status approach, A. Waterman's value-willed approach; behavioral (E. Hoffman, J. Mead, R. Fogelson, J. Habermas); cognitive (G. Bruewell, J. Turner, G. Tejfel); existential-humanistic (D. Bjugenthal, K. Jaspers); structural and dynamic approach (V. Ageev, N. Antonova, P. Gnatenko, V. Pavlenko, P. Lushin, V. Stolin, L. Shneider, V. Yadov), which indicate the personal growth of law enforcement officials, investigating a specialist's professional potential and the features of his communicative sphere (M. Heidegger, K. Jaspers, M. Foucault, D. Bell, M. Castells, N. Wiener, C. Shannon). It is important to focus on motivational readiness for professional activity (E. Ilyin, A. Leontiev, B. Meshcheryakov, K. Zamfira, V. Zinchenko, T. Hekhauzena, T. Yatsenko), which we consider as the process of mental regulation of a particular activity (M. Magomed-Eminov); the process of the motive, the mechanism determining the origin, the direction and the ways to implement the specific forms of activity (I. Dzhydaryan); an aggregate system of the processes which are responsible for impulse and activity (V. Viulyunas).

The study applied directions find out the peculiarities of professional selfactualization of any specialists, outlining the boundaries for researchers- practitioners. The features of professional self-realization are considered within the framework of humanistic psychology through: positive I-concepts (Yu. Hilbukh, A. Rean, L. Potapchuk); professional consciousness, thinking, reflection (A. Adler, A. Waterman, R. Jenkins, E. Erickson, J. Marcia, J. Mead, S. Muscovites); the specifics of the student's age as an important stage in personal development (B. Ananiev, P. Babochkin, M. Dvoryashin); identification of the essence, stages and factors that determine the process of becoming a professional and an individual (K. Abulkhanova-Slavsk, E. Kuzmin, A. Markov); optimization of professional training and conditions for the successful professional activity (B. Ananiev, A. Zer, E. Klimov, T. Kudryavtsev, B. Lomov, V. Merlin). At the same time, the modern stage of our country development is characterized by the transformation of social, cultural and professional spheres, which changes the requirements for the system of qualified specialists training. So, L.B. Schneider considers identity as a synthesis of all human characteristics into a unique structure that is defined and varied as a result of orientation in a constantly changing social environment.

The purpose of the work is theoretical substantiation and empirical study of the peculiarities of the professional identity of law enforcement officials with different personal characteristics.

The conceptual hypothesis is that there are certain features of the professional identity of law enforcement officials with different personality characteristics.

Empirical hypotheses:

- law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identity, have a high level of extraversion, self-control and practicality, as opposed to law enforcement officials with the status of "pseudo-identity";

- law enforcement officials with such a professional status as "moratorium" have a high level of introversion and impulsivity, as opposed to law enforcement officials with the status of "achieved" professional identity, who have a high level of introversion;

- law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identity have a high level of internal and cognitive motives, as opposed to law enforcement officials with "diffuse" professional identity who have a high level of potential assessment;

- law enforcement officials with a "diffuse" professional identity have a high level of avoidance motive, unlike law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identity who have a high level of cognitive motivation;

- law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identity have a high level of internal locus control, unlike law enforcement officials with a "pseudoidentity" status that have a high level of extraversion;

- law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identity have a high level of professional competence, as opposed to law enforcement officials with a "diffuse" professional identity that has a high level of "Challenge" scale.

Material and methods. In order to confirm the hypothesis, an empirical study was conducted. 60 people were selected as studied, including 34 men (ages 26-54) and 26 women (29-52). The experience of work in law enforcement agencies (prosecutor's office) is from 2 to 22 years.

As a research method, we used a survey that was implemented with the help of psychodiagnostic techniques such as: the "Five-factor Personality Questionnaire of the Big Five" (R. McCrae and P. Costa); method of "Locus Control" (J. Rotter); methodology of "Assessment of the claims level" (V.K. Gerbachevsky); "Methodology for the Study of Professional Identity" (L. B. Schneider); "Methodology for the diagnosis of value orientations" or "Anchor Career" (E. Shein); "Methodology of professional activity" (K. Zamfira in the modification of A. Reana); methodology "Orientation styles of professional communication" (S.A. Druzhilova). The processing of the results of the study was carried out using mathematical and statistical methods: the results were verified on the normality of the data distribution using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion and the differences were established using the t-Student test, followed by a qualitative interpretation and content compilation of data.

Results and discussion

In the course of our study, we performed a cluster analysis. According to L.B. Schneider's methodology for the professional identity research, our sample was divided into five clusters, each of which corresponds to a certain status of identity. The first cluster included the subjects who had the status of "achieved" professional identity (n = 30). The second cluster included the subjects who have the status of professional "pseudo-identity" (n = 9). The third cluster included subjects with "premature" professional identity (n = 9). The fourth cluster included investigators who have the status of a "moratorium" (n = 7). To the fifth cluster, we assigned the subjects who have the status of "diffuse" professional identity (n = 5). Using t-Student criterion we compared the results of each method for each cluster. The results obtained are shown in Tables 1 - 15 for greater visibility.

Table 1 shows that the t- Student criterion is t = 5.2488, such data are statistically significant and give us reason to assert that law enforcement officials with an "achieved" professional identity have a high level of practicality different from law enforcement officials with the status of "pseudo-identity".

Table 1 Results of cluster analysis using the "Five-factor Personality Questionnaire" method (R. McCrae and P. Costa)

Such indicators characterize law enforcement officials as: realists; well adapted in everyday life; soberly and realistically looking at life; they believe in material values more than abstract ideas; also, they are worried about their material problems; work hard and show perseverance, realizing their plans; such people do not like sudden changes in their lives; prefer sustainability and reliability in everything that surrounds them; they are difficult to remove from equilibrium and influence their choice, they seek rational explanations and practical benefits.

Table 2 Results of cluster analysis using the "Five-factor Personality Questionnaire" method (R. McCrae and P. Costa)

Table 2 shows that the t- Student criterion is t = 6.864043, that is, such data are statistically significant and give us reason to assert that law enforcement officials with an "achieved" professional identity have a high level of practicality, which is different from law enforcement officials with the status of a "premature" professional identity. This gives grounds for confirming our first hypothesis about the high level of practicality among law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identity. law enforcement professional identity

In Table 3 we can observe that t- Student criterion is t = 2.00249, which is statistically significant and indicates that law enforcement officials with a status of professional “pseudo-identity” have a higher level of emotional stability than law enforcement officials with the status of "premature" professional identity.

Table 3 Results of cluster analysis using the "Five-factor Personality Questionnaire" method (R. McCrae and P. Costa)

The next statistically significant indicator t = 0,8822529, which means that law enforcement officials with a "pseudo-identity" have a higher level of practicality than law enforcement officials with "premature" professional identity.

Table 4 Results of cluster analysis using the "Five-factor Personality Questionnaire" method (R. McCrae and P. Costa

In Table 4, we can observe that the t- Student criterion is t = 2.401697, which is statistically significant and gives us reason to assert that law enforcement officials with "pseudo-identity" have a higher level of emotional stability than law enforcement officials with the status of "moratorium". That is, it can be noted that the first empirical hypothesis of our study was confirmed, as evidenced by statistically significant indicators recorded by us in the average values according to tables 1-4.

In Table 5 we can see that the indicators on the "Management", "Stability of Work", and "Challenge" scales are statistically significant (t = 1,4999; t = 1,17925; t = -2,1098) and indicate the following: law enforcement officials with a "diffuse" professional identity have higher scores on the "Challenge" scale than those with the status of "moratorium"; law enforcement officials with a professional status "moratorium" have a higher level of "Stability of the work place" scale than employees with a "diffuse" professional identity; law enforcement officials with the status of "moratorium" have statistically higher indicators on the scale "Management" than those with "diffuse" identity.

Table 5 Results of cluster analysis using the "Diagnostics of value orientations" Method

These results make it possible to characterize law enforcement officials with "diffuse" professional identities as being "challenged" people. For some people, the challenge is hard work, for others, it is competition and interpersonal relationships. They are oriented towards the solution of consciously complex tasks, overcoming obstacles for the victory in a competitive struggle, feel prosperous only when they are constantly involved in solving difficult problems or in a situation of competition. Law enforcement officials with the "moratorium" status have an orientation to integrate the efforts of other people in their professional activities. According to the results of value orientations diagnostics, law enforcement officials with "diffuse" professional identity and "moratorium" have high rates on the "Stability of work" scale, that is, they are in need of security and protection, also they are inclined to predict their professional activities and seek a permanent place of work with the minimum dismissal probability. It is precisely this need for security and stability that limits the choice of career choices. Such circumstances can be considered through the prism of an unstable situation in the extreme, especially by relying on a series of political reforms that fall into the hands of employees of state-political institutions.

Table 6 Results of cluster analysis using the "Diagnostics of value orientations" Method

In Table 6 we can see that a statistically significant indicator on the scale "Autonomy" was received. The value of t-Student criterion is t=1,122296. It means that law enforcement officials with an "achieved" professional identity have a higher level of autonomy than employees with a professional "pseudo identity" status. The following trend is also observed: law enforcement officials with "achieved" identity and "pseudo-identity" have high rates on the "Professional competence" scale. We can say that law enforcement officials are professionally competent in their work, due to the availability of skills and talents in their activity. They are especially happy when they are successful in the professional field, seeking recognition of their talents, which must be expressed in the status of corresponding skills. Consequently, our sixth hypothesis, which says that law enforcement officials with an "achieved" professional identity have a high level of professional competence, in contrast to law enforcement officials with a "diffuse" professional identity, who have a high level on the scale of "Challenge ", finds its mathematical and statistical justification (see tables 5-7).

Table 7 Results of cluster analysis by the "Locus control" method (J. Rotter)

Table 7 clearly shows that law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identities have higher indicators of the internal locus control than law enforcement officials with the status of "pseudo-identity". Such an indicator is not statistically significant, which is why we can conclude that the law enforcement officials with "pseudo-identical" and "achieved" professional identity have an external locus control. Such indicators suggest that our empirical hypothesis: law enforcement officials with "achieved" professional identity have a high level of internal locus control, unlike law enforcement officials with a "pseudo-identity" status that have a high level of extraversion, was not confirmed. It indicates that any situation of law enforcement officers who are externals is desirable as externally-stimulated, and in case of success, the demonstration of their personal abilities is taking place.

Table 8 Results of cluster analysis by the "Locus control" method (J. Rotter)