Emotional Intelligence of Employees of Risky Professions: Theoretical and Empirical Discourse of the Research

Abstract

A professional, working in dangerous conditions, requires a high level of steadfastness to stress, caution, and responsibility. The goal of the research is aimed at theoretical and empirical disclosing of the essence of emotional intelligence in employees of risky professions. Emotional intelligence is seen as a leading personal competence and ability. The structural components of emotional intelligence are analyzed in detail from the points of view of well-known foreign and domestic psychologists. The integrative indicators of emotional intelligence have been empirically revealed in rescue workers and patrol officers. In our study participated 1000 respondents with the same length of service in 4 years, in particular: firefighters (n = 500); patrol officers (n = 500). The psycho-diagnostic tools included: Hall test, Russian version of the test of emotional intelligence of J. Meyer, P. Salovey, D.Caruso MSCEIT-V2.0 in the adapted version of O. Sergiienko, I. Vetrova and the method of studying the professional identity of L. Schneider. The respondents showed a low level of development of emotional intelligence. However, the differences were also revealed, in particular, it is more clearly for firefighters to understand their own emotions, but for law enforcement officers the practical use of emotions is in priority. At the same time, the common problem is inability to manage own emotional experiences.