Environmental and emotional predictors of cognitive styles of air traffic controllers

Abstract

The article describes the theoretical and empirical study of cognitive styles of air traffic controllers as a guarantee of their professional success. The aim of the article was to present the results of the study, which were to establish the emotional predictors of cognitive styles of future air traffic controllers. The following methods were used for the study: “Gottschaldt’s figures”, “Comparison of similar drawings” by J. Kagan, “Free sorting of objects” by R. Gardner in the modification of V. Kolga, “Four-modal emotional questionnaire” by L.A. Rabinovych, “EmIn Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire” by D.V Lyusin, “Self-assessment of mental states” by G. Eisenk. The specifics of the manifestation of the following cognitive-stylistic parameters of air traffic controllers are analyzed: social field dependence-field independence, impulsivity-reflexivity, analyticity-syntheticity. Based on the analysis of the results of the study, it was found that the vast majority of respondents have the following cognitive styles: field-independent (77.7%), reflexive (74.4%), and slightly less synthetic (53.5%). Emotional intelligence at the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels of air traffic controllers is characterized by high rates in only half of the sample. Among emotions, almost half of the respondents are dominated by “joy” at a high level, “anger”, “fear” at a low level and “sadness” at a medium level. It was also found that two thirds of air traffic controllers are dominated by low levels of anxiety and frustration. Regression analysis revealed the influence of emotional characteristics on cognitive styles of future air traffic controllers: “aggression” is a predictor of “field dependence”, and “rigidity” and “joy” are predictors of analytical cognitive style.