Possible ways of improving the reliability of professional psychological selection of air traffic controllers

Abstract

Aim. The paper examines one of the possible ways of improving the reliability of professional psychological selection of air traffic controllers using diagnostic methods based on not subjective, but rather objective principles. Methods. The research used the following: Tobii REX fixed eye tracker and a specialized computer product developed by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Radio Equipment and intended for the analysis of various aspects of eye movements in the process of exercise, as well as a range of psychodiagnostic methods: level of subjective control identification test, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, ММ-1 socionic test, H.J. Eysenck’s intelligence test, H.J. Eysenck’s personality inventory test, ММYa-1 general mode test, K. Thomas’ conflict mode questionnaire and the Prognoz questionnaire for neuropsychicstability evaluation of experimental subjects. Statistical processing of the findings was done using the Bravais-Pearson correlation coefficient and Pearson’s chi-squared test. Results. The experiment involved 48 third year students of the Saint Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation (SPBGU GA) majoring in Organization of Airspace Management. In terms of its psychological characteristics, the group is quite typical for this major of SPBGU GA. The results of psychodiagnostics do not correlate well with the results of this experiment, while among each other, in general, they match the theoretical assumption. The lower the neurotism which characterizes the balance of the nervous system, the better is the neuropsychicstability. The better is the neuropsychicstability, the higher the internality of any kind, especially general internality and internality for failure. People with good neuropsychicstability are also less inclined to aggressive behaviour, both in general as regards all of its kinds, and especially self-aggression. As expected, subjects with high levels of general internality turned out to be positively not inclined to such type of behaviour in conflict as “avoidance” that is the quintessence of irresponsibility. Also, people with high internality turned out to be not inclined to aggressive behaviour. The experiment exposed quite contradictory patterns of eye movement in the subjects. Conclusions. All the findings are of certain interest. Therefore, despite them being somewhat contradictory, it appears to be advisable to continue the research using the Tobii REX eye tracker. The identified shortcomings in the experiment organization allowed making corrections to the plan of further research based on the use of the Tobii REX eye tracker and aimed at improving the reliability of professional psychological selection.