Determinants of personality stress resistance

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Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University, Vinnytsia

Psychology Department

Determinants of personality stress resistance

Overchuk V.A., dr ec.,

c. psychol. sc., professor

Kuznietsova O.V., master's student

Vinnytsia

Abstract

The article is devoted to topical issues of formation of personality stress resistance in conditions of instability, uncertainty, poor predictability of social processes. These issues are of particular relevance in the context of the armed aggression of the terrorist state on the territory of Ukraine, when the mental load on a person increases for a long time, when constant stress puts new demands on the mind and body. The author considers stress not just as a stimulus-response reaction, but also as an interaction between the individual and the environment, including subjective perception and evaluation of stressors, which is a very personalized process. The sequence of coping strategies used by the personality to confront stressful situations is analysed by the author, regardless of situational factors and in connection with constant personality traits and temperament, such as neuroticism, extroversion, sense of humour, perseverance, fatalism, conscientiousness and openness to life experience, etc. The author singled out a number of factors on which personality stability depends: type of temperament, or neuropsychic stability, emotional balance, anxiety, self-esteem, locus of control; style of thinking; personal reference, degree of conflict, motivation to succeed, experience of social communication, and moral normativity of the personality. Particular attention is paid to one of the central categories of the stress model and the psychological condition for the development of personality stress resistance - coping, the effort by which people mobilize resources and forces inside and outside themselves that will make them feel that their problems are within their power. It was emphasized that in the process of psychological adaptation coping strategies play a compensatory function, and psychological defense mechanisms - decompensation, but they give time to the psyche to develop more effective coping methods. It is noted that each person has its own unique combination of adaptation resources. This combination includes six basic characteristics or features that form the core of an individual fighting style: Beliefs and Values - B; Affect and Emotion - A; Social - S; Imagination and Creativity - I; Cognition and Thought - C; Physiological and Activities - Ph. This model is called "BASIC Ph". The combination of all six signs makes up an individual style of dealing with stress. Identifying such concepts as stress resistance and psychological elasticity, it should be noted that the process of its development is purely individual and depends on the absence of negative self-images and devastating self-criticism; the ability of a person to consciously manage his own behaviour in each situation; the ability to cope with grief and overcome various psychological obstacles, the desire to achieve physical health and optimism. The development of stress resistance depends not only on the external situation and on the current state of a person, but also on socially acquired qualities, skills and abilities.

Key words: stress resistance, personality, coping, individual personality traits, and the core of individual fighting style.

Анотація

Детермінанти стресостійкості особистості

Оверчук В.А., д.е.н., к. психол. н., професор, завідувач кафедри психології; Кузнєцова О.В., магістр 2-го року навчання, спеціальності психологія, Донецький національний університет імені Василя Стуса, м. Вінниця

Стаття присвячена актуальним питанням формування стресостійкості особистості в умовах нестабільності, невизначеності, поганої передбачуваності соціальних процесів, коли тривалий час зростає психічне навантаження на людину, коли постійний стрес ставить перед нею нові вимоги до розуму і тіла. Автор розглядає стрес не просто як реакцію «стимул-реакція», а як взаємодію між особистістю і навколишнім середовищем, що включає суб'єктивне сприйняття та оцінку стресорів, що є дуже персоналізованим процесом. Аналізується послідовність стратегій подолання, які використовує особистість для протистояння стресовим ситуаціям, незалежно від ситуаційних факторів і у зв'язку з постійними рисами особистості та темпераменту, такими як невротизм, екстраверсія, почуття гумору, наполегливість, фаталізм, сумлінність і відкритість до отримання життєвого досвіду, тощо. Автором виокремлені низка чинників, від яких залежить стійкість особистості: тип темпераменту, або нервово-психічна стійкість, емоційна врівноваженість, тривожність, самооцінка особистості, локус-контролю; стиль мислення; особистісна референтність, ступінь конфліктності, мотивація досягнення успіху, досвід соціального спілкування, моральна нормативність особистості. Особливу увагу приділено одній з центральних категорій моделі стресу та психологічній умові розвитку стресостійкості особистості - копінгу, зусиллю, за допомогою якого люди мобілізують всередині і зовні самих себе ресурси і сили, які дадуть їм відчути, що їхні проблеми їм під силу. Підкреслено, що в процесі психологічної адаптації копінг-стратегії відіграють компенсаторну функцію, а психологічні захисні механізми - декомпенсації, проте вони дають час психіці на вироблення більш ефективних методів подоланя. Зазначено, що у кожної особи є своя власна унікальна комбінація ресурсів адаптації. Ця комбінація включає шість основних характеристик або параметрів, що складають ядро індивідуального стилю боротьби: Beliefs and Values - B (переконання та моральні цінності); Affect and Emotion - A (емоції); Social - S (соціальна сфера); Imagination and creativity - I (уява і творчість); Cognition and Thought - C (пізнання і думка); Physiological and Activities - Ph (фізична активність). Дана модель має назву «BASIC Ph». Комбінація всіх шести параметрів і складає індивідуальний стиль боротьби зі стресом. Ототожнюючи такі поняття, як стресостійкість та психологічна еластичність, слід зазначити, що процес її розвитку є суто індивідуальним та залежить від відсутності негативних Я-образів та нищівної самокритики, здатності людини свідомо керувати власною поведінкою у кожній ситуації, вміння справлятися із горем та долати різні психологічні перешкоди, спрямованості до досягнення фізичного здоров'я та оптимізму. Розвиток стресостійкості залежить не лише від зовнішньої ситуації та стану людини на теперішній час, але і від соціально набутих якостей, вмінь та навичок.

Ключові слова: стресостійкість, особистість, копінг, індивідуальних особливостей особистості, ядро індивідуального стилю боротьби.

Formulation of the problem

A characteristic widespread feature of modern everyday life is stress, which is a kind of retribution for the achievement of scientific and technological progress, for the search for the meaning of life and survival in extremely difficult situations. In a situation of instability, uncertainty, poor predictability of social processes, the mental load on a person increase, constant stress puts new demands on the mind and body of a person. The most negative effect is caused by daily, perhaps even insignificant in our opinion, but chronic stressful events (stressors), the so-called everyday stress, to which we are so accustomed that we stop noticing. People get so used to "unpleasant" events that they cease to realize the impact of many stress factors, but at the subconscious level, the body perceives them and automatically reacts to them. The negative effects of everyday stress accumulate, in the body, cause destructive effects on mental and somatic health, and disrupt human adaptation. Constant exposure to stress factors stimulates the development and formation of personality stress resistance.

The fight against stress is one of the urgent needs of society and gives grounds to study the patterns of development and formation of stress resistance of the modern personality.

Analysis of the latest research. A large number of scientific researches are devoted to the study of the problem of personality stress resistance, namely: the structure of the concept of "personality stress resistance" at different stages was studied by H. Hartman, S. Kobeis, R. Lazarus, S. Maddi, H. Selie, S. Folkman and others. This was H. Hartman, studying constructive ways to overcome stress, who first introduced the term "stress resistance". R. Lazarus considered stress resistance as a "coping strategy" to regulate relations with the environment. A number of studies of domestic and foreign scientists are devoted to typical profiles of stress-resistant persons (V. Krainiuk); stress resistance of employees in the conditions of organizational change (R. Valieiev, L. Karamushka, V. Fursa); adaptation of personality to the conditions of crisis environment (M. Contreras, A. Mariela de Leon and others). S. Kobeisi, S. Madli considered the concept of stress resistance of the personality in view of its vitality, A. Sokur studied personal resources of stress overcoming, L. Tsarenko studied the peculiarities of responding to a stressful situation. The study of methods of overcoming stress is devoted to the works of O. Strelnikov, L. Nauholnik, I. Prykhodko, A. Chernikov and others.

Presentation of the main material

Stress is a complex defense mechanism that represents the end of numerous dynamic and interrelated factors of biological, psychological and social nature; it is not just a stimulus-response reaction, but also the interaction between the individual and the environment, including the subjective perception and assessment of stressors, which is a highly personalized process. Specific inherited characteristics, accumulated life experience and certain learned cognitive tendencies of the individual influence the degree of vulnerability to stressors. Resilience and vulnerability to stressors, as well as the intensity of the reaction to stress, largely depend on age, gender, intelligence, and numerous personality characteristics, such as endurance, locus of control, self-efficacy, selfesteem, optimism, hostility, negative emotionality and social bias, etc.

The relationship between individual personality traits and stress is manifested in the following aspects:

• choosing or avoiding environments that are associated with specific stressors,

• a way of interpreting a stressful situation and assessing one's own abilities and capacities for proactive behaviour to cope with stress;

• the intensity of the individual's reaction to the stressor;

• coping strategies used by a person facing a stressful situation.

Studies of a large number of scientists [1] have recorded a significant sequence of coping strategies used by the individual to cope with stressful situations, regardless of situational factors and in connection with constant personality traits and temperament, such as neuroticism, extraversion, and sense of humour, perseverance, fatalism, conscientiousness and openness to life experience.

The positive impact of stress on the personality is associated with reframing (positive reassessment of stressful situations), purposeful problem solving, using spiritual or religious beliefs to find comfort, and making sense of ordinary events of everyday life to get a psychological pause in traumatic life events.

Stress resistance of a personality is a system-integrative property of a personality that ensures the predictability of psychobiological reactions to stress; optimization of socio-cultural and organizational-behavioural strategies for overcoming complex and emergency situations; determination of value-semantic transformations of post-stress consequences [2]. Scientific researches of L. Vyhotskyi, E. Klimov, O. Leontiev, B. Lomov, S. Rubinshtein allowed to identify the determinants of personality stress resistance based on the principles of the subject-activity approach. They studied the determinants of personality stress resistance by analysing the relationship between the characteristics of stress factors, psychological states and personality traits. Taking into account the understanding of determinism of human behaviour, formulated by S. Rubinshtein, stress factors act only through the influence on psychological states and personality properties. Psychological states and personality traits are decisive in the development and formation of personality stress resistance.

Today in science there are many variants of the list of psychological properties of the personality that determine its resistance to stress. Conventionally, they can be divided into individual psychological qualities, features of personal communication style and specifics of interpersonal interaction. One of the first attempts to identify personal qualities that significantly affect stress resistance and are able to change attitudes to stressful events was a study by J. Ormel, R. Sanderman and R. Stewart, who identified three main personality variables on which human stress resistance depends, namely neuroticism, self-esteem and locus of control. These variables, according to researchers, are also able to change the human reaction to a certain adverse circumstance [3].

A number of researchers extend this list and identify the following factors on which personality resilience depends:

• type of temperament, or neuro-psychic stability,

• emotional balance,

• anxiety,

• self-esteem of the individual,

• locus of control;

• style of thinking;

• personal referentiality,

• the degree of conflict,

• motivation to achieve success,

• experience of social communication,

• moral normativity of the individual.

The type of temperament is one of the main indicators of stress resistance due to the strength and dynamics of nervous processes under the influence of stress factors. stress resistance coping strategy psychological adaptation

According to the overwhelming majority of scientists, representatives of a weak nervous system, under the influence of high levels of stress, rapidly deteriorate their performance (despite the fact that at an average voltage level they are quite productive) and the level of their stress resistance is sharply reduced. For example, melancholic type of temperament is the least stress-resistant, phlegmatic - the most resistant to stress, choleric with their tendency to short emotional outbursts are not subject to severe stress [5]. Representatives of a strong type of nervous system in such conditions, on the contrary, mobilize their own psychological resources, which significantly increases the level of stress resistance and productivity.

The impact of anxiety on stress resistance depends on its intensity, the lower the level of personal anxiety; the higher the level of stress resistance of the individual, the more actively regulated the activity of the individual. People with anxiety as a character trait are more exposed to stress than people who experience anxiety due to traumatic, dangerous situations.

Self-esteem is the core of self-regulation and determines the degree of adequacy of the conditions perception of the individual's activity and his own capabilities. Inadequately high as well as inadequately low self-esteem do not contribute to the development of stress resistance. People with low self-esteem have a higher level of anxiety under threat than people with positive self-esteem; they avoid difficulties because they are convinced that they cannot cope with them. An adequately high level of self-esteem plays an important role in the organization of a person's own appropriate behaviour, activities and relationships with other people, as it determines the criticality and demandingness to oneself, the attitude to one's own successes and failures [6]. Thus, since adequately high self-esteem has a positive effect on the level of stress resistance, it is one of the main psychological conditions for the development of stress resistance.

The influence of locus control on stress resistance depends on the main types of personal control: behavioural, which is responsible for the direction of the individual's actions; cognitive, which reflects the personal interpretation of situations; determination control, which determines the choice of the way of activity of the individual. Each of the three types of control is related to stress in a complex way, either increasing its strength, reducing it, or not affecting it at all. The inability of a person to control a stressful situation turns its effect into distress, and largely in "internals" than in "externals". The internal locus of control provides responsibility in decision-making, social activity, emotional stability, moral normativity, pronounced cognitive activity, awareness of professional and educational aspirations and prospects for the future [6].

The style of thinking is of great importance for a person's stress resistance. We cannot talk only about optimistic or pessimistic style of thinking, because they do not exist in their pure form. The style of thinking of a person depends on a specific situation, life experience and personal qualities of a person and has both advantages and disadvantages. Pessimists have the advantage that they prepare in advance for unfavourable developments and thus prevent severe stress. Optimists believe that there are no hopeless situations, that every situation has a positive side. This confidence that increases their level of stress resistance and motivates them to find new solutions to the situation. In our opinion, the tendency to an optimistic style of thinking reduces the level of personal anxiety, which is associated with the fear of not coping with difficult life situations, and this, in turn, contributes to the development of stress resistance.

There is a certain correlation between the personality conflict and its stress resistance, which is that the ability to resolve successfully conflicts leads to improved interpersonal relationships, and this, in turn, reduces the number of stressors and anxiety level, increases self-esteem, which are the main indicators of stress resistance. The low level of conflict of the personality contributes to the development of its stress resistance due to the fact that it does not provoke additional stressful situations associated with misunderstandings with other people; that it is able to cooperate constructively with other people in difficult situations, to provide and receive social support if necessary, which positively affects the productivity of its activities. Also, personal conflicts of a person, which unfold on the basis of contradictions between generally accepted moral norms and their own vision, have a negative impact on the formation of stress resistance, which leads to an increase in internal tension.

In the 60s of the last century, L. Marfi used the term, which later became one of the central categories of the stress model and a psychological condition for the development of personality stress resistance - coping, which in English means mastering or overcoming.

Coping is an attempt to overcome the difficulties of life by restoring power and control over them. It is an effort by which people mobilize resources and forces inside and outside themselves that will make them feel that their problems can be solved. Under stress, human psychological adaptation occurs mainly through coping strategies and psychological defense mechanisms. The same life events can have different stress load depending on their subjective assessment or on what norms of response adults transmit to children.

The coping response is triggered when a person identifies a situation as one that exceeds daily energy expenditure and requires additional effort. But when the demands of the situation are assessed by a person as unbearable, then overcoming can take place in the form of psychological protection. In the process of psychological adaptation, coping strategies play a compensatory function, and psychological defense mechanisms - decompensation, but they give the psyche time to develop more effective coping methods.

Coping (eng. "cope" - to withstand, to cope) is a stabilizing factor that helps the individual to maintain psychosocial adaptation during the period of stress. Coping strategies are an adaptive form of behaviour that maintains psychological balance in a problematic situation; these are ways of psychological activity and behaviour, which are developed consciously and aimed at overcoming a stressful situation. During the observation and interviewing of people under stress, it was found that everyone has their own unique combination of adaptation resources. This combination includes six basic characteristics or signs that make up the core of an individual fighting style:

• Beliefs and Values - B;

• Affect and Emotion - A;

• Social - S;

• Imagination and creativity - I;

• Cognition and Thought - C;

• Physiological and Activities - Ph.

This model is called "BASIC Ph". The combination of all six signs is an individual style of stress management. It is important to note that everyone has his or her own preferred methods of overcoming the crisis in different periods of life. In their use, these methods are developing and improving, and some remain undeveloped due to various circumstances of our lives. It is important to focus on successful cases of using internal resources. Many people turn to faith and moral values to overcome stress and crisis. It includes not only religious beliefs, but also political beliefs, a sense of hope and philosophical "meaning", a sense of mission and purpose, the need to find their own identity and express their own belonging to his nation. Others adhere to the emotional or affective modality; they use the expression of their own emotions (crying, laughing, talking about their experiences), or nonverbal methods - drawing, reading, sewing, writing. Some people choose a social resource, drawing support in their belonging to a group, organization or profession, in solving a problem, in performing a social role. Sometimes people turn to imagination, they try to distract themselves with the help of creative imagination, inventing unrealistic solutions to the problem based on improvisation and positive thinking. Some people use the cognitive-behavioural method of copying. Cognitive strategies include factual information research, problem solving, analysis and realistic forecasting, internal support language, favourite activities. “Ph” type people react and fight with physical, bodily movement. Their methods include relaxation, desensitization, meditation, physical exercise and activity. Energy expenditure is an important aspect of many types of internal struggle. These include eating, sleeping, sex, etc.

Conclusions

The specialists' task of any profile is to help a person to adapt to a new place and return to normal life as quickly as possible. However, the disruption of the continuous course of usual activity forms (work, school, household chores, shopping, family rules) that leads to the deepening of the crisis and requires more costs to overcome stress. By identifying such concepts as stress resistance and psychological elasticity, it should be noted that the process of its development is purely individual and depends on the absence of negative self-images and crushing self-criticism; the ability of a person to consciously manage his/her own behaviour in each situation, the ability to cope with grief and overcome various psychological obstacles, the desire to achieve physical health and optimism. The development of stress resistance depends on not only the external situation and the current state of a person, but also on socially acquired qualities, skills and abilities [4]. The resources available provide stress resistance to a person, which are manifested and interact at different levels: individual, social, cultural. When some event (stressor) threatens a person's status, economic stability, close people, property, that is, some resources, then, as a result, stress occurs. Therefore, psychological support and assistance will be effective only when they are multilevel and take into account both the influence of the social environment and individual factors affecting the personality. Thus, increasing the stress resistance of the individual can be considered as an increase in its individual resource potential and the ability of the immediate environment to help protect the person from the impact of adverse factors.

References

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Література

1. Lecic-Tosevski D, Vukovic O, Stepanovic J. Stress and personality. Psychiatriki. 2011 Oct-Dec;22(4):290-7.

2. Когут, О.О.(2021). Психологія стресостійкості особистості: Монографія. Кривий Ріг: Видавець Р.А. Козлов.

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