PECULIARITIES OF THE SANDPLAY THERAPY APPLICATION IN DEALING WITH AGGRESSION IN TEENAGE YEARS

Abstract

The actuality of the research is connected with the necessity of studying psychological peculiarities of aggression manifestation in teenage years, which is not studied sufficiently enough and requires a more thorough research, namely, the development of the program aimed at decreasing the level of the aggression manifestation with the use of methods of the sandplay therapy. The article presents the theoretical analysis of the contemporary methods in psychology for investigating aggression in the teenage years. Furthermore, the types of aggression, factors contributing to the occurrence the teenage aggression have been defined. The study of aggression is one of the main courses of the research, diagnostic and treatment, and prophylactic work. Nowadays psychologists implement plenty of various techniques in the work with the aggressive behavior in teenagers, but the most effective, as we see it, is the sandplay therapy. Through the use of methods of the sandplay therapy teenagers can master the skills of self-control and self-regulation, foster the positive personality traits, ease the psychological tension, relieve of the unpleasant experiences and the negative life situation due to its projecting on playing with the sand and symbolic reliving. The results of the empiric research, which targets the diagnostics of the level of the severity of aggression, determination of the integral forms of the communicative aggression and the tendency to the suicidal risk, are reviewed. The correction program has been tested on the experimental group of teenagers, who had the high indices of aggression levels, low self-esteem, the high level of anxiety, difficulties in communication, and detected signs of self-aggression. The courses of work of the psychological training aimed at coping with aggression in teenagers are: directing the decrease of the level of aggression; boosting the level of self-esteem; easing emotional tension; development of initiative and activity; development of the social skills. The peculiarities of development and approbation of the correction program aimed on decreasing the manifestation of aggression in the teenage years have been revealed. The conducted approbation of the training has demonstrated that in teenagers of the experimental group there has been a boost of self-esteem, decrease of the level of anxiety, fears, also their negativism and indirect aggression have been lowered, and the emotional state has improved.