Psychological pecularities of the personality of civil servants depending on the specific of their professional activity

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Psychological pecularities of the personality of civil servants depending on the specific of their professional activity

Arshava Iryna Fedorivna,

Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor,

Professor at the Department of Music Studies, Composition and Creative Mastery Dnipropetrovsk Academy of Music named after M. Glinka

Baratynska Anastasiia Volodymyrivna, Master of Psychology

The events of February 2022 made adjustments to the historical development of the independent and sovereign state of Ukraine and completely changed the life of Ukrainian society. The syndrome of emotional burnout (and its individual symptoms), as known, is characterized for representatives of socionomic professions in connection with their professional activities, now becoming more and more common among different levels of the population of Ukraine, which is connected with the traumatic experience of the war events. Representatives of law enforcement agencies, who ensure peace and order in the cities of Ukraine, constitute a risk group, as the performance of their professional duties is characterized by an incredible level of tension and responsibility.

This article is devoted to the problem of studying the psychological characteristics of the personality of civil servants (on the example of law enforcement officers), which are characteristic of the manifestation of emotional burnout syndrome, objectively related to the content and specific of their professional activity. It is important to note that most of the subjects were diagnosed with symptoms ofprofessional burnout syndrome of the I-III degrees ("Tension" phase are currently forming, or already being generated, among 10% of the subjects; "Resistance" phase is formed or in the stage of formation among 30% of the respondents, respectively, and the last phase of burnout syndrome - "Exhaustion", among 18% of the subjects).

While analyzing the results of the study of psychological peculiarities of law enforcement officer personality, it has been found that neuroticism, spontaneous aggressiveness, irritability, reactive aggressiveness, shyness and openness are characteristic of law enforcement officers who have developing or already developed burnout syndrome. And such qualities as sociability, serenity, emotional lability are characteristic of police officers without manifestation of emotional burnout syndrome. It has been found, that at "Tension" phase of burnout syndrome there is manifestation of anxious type of accentuation among law enforcement officers, and at the phase of "Exhaustion" - excitable type of accentuation, accordingly.

Key words: emotional burnout, civil servants, character accentuation, psychological peculiarities, specifics ofprofessional activity, police officers.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ОСОБИСТОСТІ ДЕРЖАВНИХ СЛУЖБОВЦІВ В ЗАЛЕЖНОСТІ ВІД СПЕЦИФІКИ ПРОФЕСІЙНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ

Події лютого 2022 року внесли корективи в історичний розвиток незалежної та суверенної держави України та повністю змінили життяукраїнського суспільства. Синдром емоційного вигорання (та його окремі симптоми), як відомо, притаманний представникам соціономічних професій у зв'язку з їх професійною діяльністю, стає все більш поширеним серед різних верств населення України, що пов'язано з травмуючим досвідом переживань подій війни. Працівники правоохоронних органів, які є представниками державної служби Украіїни, та забезпечують спокій та правопорядок в містах, складають особу групу ризику, оскільки виконання їх професійних обов'язків характеризується неймовірним рівнем напруженості та відповідальності. Дана стаття присвячена проблемі вивчення психологічних особливостей особистості державних службовців (на прикладі працівників правоохоронних органів), які є характерними для прояву синдрому емоційного вигорання, що об'єктивно пов'язано зі змістом та специфікою їх професійної діяльності. Важливо зазначити, що у більшості досліджуваних діагностовано прояви синдрому професійного вигорання I-III ступенів (фаза напруження є характерною для 10% досліджуваних; фаза резистенції сформована або у стадії формування у 30% респондентів, відповідно, та фаза виснаження - у 18% досліджуваних).

При аналізі результатів дослідження психологічних особливостей особистості працівників правоохоронних органів виявлено, що невротичність, спонтанна агресивність, дратівливість, реактивна агресивність, сором'язливість та відкритість притаманні співробітникам правоохоронних органів,у яких формується, або вже сформований синдром вигорання. А такі якості, як товариськість,врівноваженість,емоційна лабільність характерні для поліціантів без прояву синдрому емоційного вигорання. Встановлено, що на фазі напруження у співробітників правоохоронних органів загострюються прояви тривожного типу акцентуації,а на фазі виснаження - збудливого.

Ключові слова: емоційне вигорання,державні службовці, акцентуація характеру, психологічні особливості, специфіка професійної діяльності, поліцейські.

Problem identification

psychological personality civil servant

Professional burnout syndrome has a long history of research (C. Maslach, 1993; 2012; 2014; W. Schaufeli, 1993; 2014; M. Leiter 2001; V. Boyko, 1996; and others) [1; 2] and has been widely studied among the representatives of different professions: health workers, teachers, air traffic controllers, managers etc. (S. Cordes, T Dougherty, M. Blum, 1997; C. Cherniss, 1998; E. Demerouti, A. Bakker, F. Nachreiner, W. Schaufeli, 2000; E. Greenglass, R. Burke, 2001; I. Arshava, 2002; G. Keinan, A. Maslach - Pines, 2007; I. Friedman, 2003; Y. Demirel, 2005; C. Hayes , B. Weathington, 2007; E. Nosenko, N. Grisenko, 2010; M. Griffin, N. Hogan, E. Lambert, 2012; Y.-W. Lin; 2013) [3; 4; 5; 6].

However, despite the mentioned facts, the relevance of actual problem research remains constant and even increases each year. It can be explained by several reasons. First of all, the nature of emotional burnout is very complex. Secondly, burnout syndrome, despite the long history of its study, remains a common phenomenon among representatives of many socionomic professions almost all over the world. Thirdly, if earlier burnout was considered as a syndrome that occurs after a rather long period of professional duties, now there are many studies that claim that burnout can occur among young professionals (or even among students whose experience is limited to pedagogical practice).

In particular, importance of problem solution becoming especially urgent when it comes to law enforcement officials whose activity is connected with considerable stress and excessive emotional tension in the frame of specifics of their professional duty.

Ever increasing number of studies dedicated to professional burnout among law enforcement officers, especially during the last decade (O. Timchenko, 2003; E. Potapchuk, 2004; G. Keinan, A. Maslach- Pines, 2007; D. Kurtz, 2008; R. Cieslak, J. Korczynska, J. Strelau, M. Kaczmarek, 2008; I. Arshava, A. Baratynska, 2014, 2017) [1; 4; 6; 7; 9] demonstrates the need for more detailed research and definition of personality determinants that promote stress resistance; to identify the particular qualities of burnout symptoms; and the most important issue is to determine the predictors to prevent the emergence and progress of this occupational disorder among police personnel.

The objective of the article is to analyze the psychological features of the personality of civil servants on the example of law enforcement officers during the manifestation of emotional burnout syndrome, which is related to the specifics of their professional activity.

The empirical hypotheses of the study consisted in the assumption that:

1. The majority of police officers are diagnosed with symptoms of emotional burnout syndrome 1-3 phases;

2. At each phase of burnout syndrome, specific psychological features of law enforcement officers are manifested;

3. A statistically significant correlation is observed between the phase of emotional burnout and the presence of decompensation of certain types of accentuation of the character of employees of the above-mentioned profession;

4. A statistically significant correlation is observed between the phase of emotional burnout and some positive values of the civil servants.

Presentation of the main material

For the current research, volunteers were selected from the police personnel of Dnipro and its area, representing different departments - on-duty officers, investigators, inspectors, detectives, operators, drivers etc. Total number of testees includes 180 participants (male and female), aged 23 to 45, work experience from 2 to 15 years.

To answer the research questions the following data tools were used: 1. "Diagnosis of emotional burnout” method (V.V. Boyko, 1996) assess the formation of all the three burnout phases: “Tension”, “Resistance”, “Exhaustion”;

2. “Freiburg personality inventory” ("FPI") (Jochen Fahrenberg, Rainer Hampel, Herbert Selg, 1978) is a multifactor personality questionnaire designed to diagnose the personality conditions and traits important for social adaptation and behavior regulation process; adapted by A.O. Krylov, T.I. Ronginskiy (FPI, Form B).

3. "Accentuation test” by K. Leonhard - G. Shmishek - this questionnaire is designed to identify ten types of accentuated personalities;

4. "Values in action" (VIA) (K. Peterson, M. Seligman, 2004) adapted by E. Nosenko, L. Baysara (2008), designed to diagnose 6 positive values and 24 "strong" generic personality traits.

According to results of our research, burnout phase I ("Tension") symptoms are currently forming, or already being generated, among 10% of participants (n = 20 police officers)

It is important to note that among the law enforcement officers with formed (or already generated) burnout syndrome, more than 30% of participants (n = 65 police officers) were diagnosed with "Resistance" phase.

The third burnout phase ("Exhaustion") symptoms are forming, or already generated, among 18% of participants (n = 24 police officers).

Analysis of psychological peculiarities of civil servants on each stage of emotional burnout syndrome is possible due to the results of the "Diagnosis of emotional burnout" (V.V. Boyko) inventory and Freiburg personality questionnaire "FPI" (Jochen Fahrenberg, Rainer Hampel , Herbert Selg).

It is known, that the first phase of burnout syndrome - "Tension", includes such symptoms as stressful circumstances experiencing, self dissatisfaction, feelings of "being cornered", anxiety and depression and characterized by the feeling of hopelessness, emotional and intellectual stagnation, dissatisfaction by one's self and occupation chosen, inability to solve problems constructively.

Table 1

Analysis results of correlation between indicators of law enforcement officers accentuations and "Tension" (I) burnout phase (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient)

Table 2

Analysis results of correlation between indicators of law enforcement officers accentuations and "Exhaustion" (III) burnout phase (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient)

Note: * - statistically significant differences at р < 0,01 Total number of participants -72 law enforcement officers

Analysis results of correlation between indicators of police officers personal traits and "Tension" burnout phase (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient; n = 180) display that the first burnout phase is characterized by such symptoms as neurosity (0,159, р < 0,05), shyness (0,189, р < 0,05), depression (0,228, р < 0,01) and emotional lability (0,232, р < 0,01). It means that law enforcement officers are exposed to stress reactions to routine situations, being somewhat constrained and diffident; it may emerge as one of the possible causes of problems in further customization of social contacts. There is a significant threat of depressive and neurotic syndrome of asthenic type. High points by "emotional lability" scale indicate the instability of police officers emotional state, frequent mood swings, irritability, low level of self-regulation etc.

Thus, typical symptoms for police officers with "Exhaustion" phase (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient; n = 180) are neurosity (0,315, р < 0,01), spontaneous aggression (0,278, р < 0,01), depression (0,251, р < 0,01), irritability (0,320, р < 0,01), reactive aggression (0,217, р < 0,01), shyness (0,263, р < 0,01), openness (0,294, р < 0,01) and emotional lability (0,215, р < 0,01).

The results of calculating the correlations between the phases of burnout and the types of character accentuations of law enforcement officers are presented in the tables 1 and table 2 (according to the methods of "Accentuation of character" by K. Leonhard - S. Shmishek and the "Diagnosis of emotional burnout" (V.V. Boyko) inventory".

Table 1 shows that anxious type of accentuation is characterized for "Tension" phase of burnout syndrome. It means that the employees of law enforcement authorities can have a stressful response to a normal situation, they are somewhat constrained, insecure, and low contact with others can be observed.

It is important to note that no statistically significant correlation data were obtained between the presence of one or another character accentuation among police officers and "Resistance" phase of emotional burnout.

From Table 2, we can see that in the last phase of emotional burnout, "Exhaustion", there is an aggravation of the manifestation of excitable type of accentuation among the testees.

It means that on this phase of emotional burnout police officers have difficult controllability of their own emotions, control of their actions, impulsivity. It may provoke conflicts, law enforcement officers consider themselves right, differ intolerance, easily fall into anger. They are also characterized by impulsive behavior, low self-control, irritability, rudeness and desire to dominate.

Analyzing the results by "VIA" and "Diagnosis of emotional burnout" inventories we discovered the statistically significant differences between the presence of certain individual values and professional burnout phases (using the r-linear Pearson correlation coefficient, n= 40) - among burnout phase "Tension" and personal value humanity ( -0,498, р < 0,01); among burnout phase "Exhaustion" and such values in action as wisdom (-0,384, р < 0,05), courage (-0,391, р < 0,05) and humanity (-0,370, р < 0,05). It means that law enforcement officials begin to lose the ability of friendly attitude to others; they feel difficulties in adjustment of relations, low level of social intelligence is evident, police officers become more rude and impatient both at work and in everyday life; lose the aspiring for knowledge, creativity, curiosity, courage, honesty, persistence in professionally important issues [10;11].

Conclusion