Psychological foundations of teamwork training

Abstract

The subject of this research is the individual psychological characteristics for learning teamwork skills. The relevance of the selected topic is defined by solving the tasks of teaching team interaction skills in the process of professional training of specialists, as well by insufficient empirical data on psychological mechanisms of pedagogical influence upon the effectiveness of tram-building process. The goal consists in comparing individual traits of the students and nature of their relationships, which determine the type of team interaction. For achieving the set goal and verification of the advanced hypothesis, the author surveyed teams of students (N=11) based on quasi-experimental plan. Along with the comparative design and correlation design, the author also applied the following psychodiagnostic methods: Eysenck's Personality Inventory (EPI), questionnaire for emotional intelligence by D. V. Lusin, “lifestyle index” method (adapted by L. I. Wasserman and others), characterological questionnaire by G. Shmishek, self-esteem model by A. Budassi; as well as statistical methods: Kruskal-Wallis criterion, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Based on the acquired results, the author empirically describes the types of team: “introverted”, “restless-intellectual”, “inconsistent”, “narcissistic”, and “aggressive-manipulative”. Comparability of the types of teams with characteristics of “dark triad-tetrad” is determined. The novelty of this work consists in the empirical substantiation of differential approach towards teaching teamwork skills, as well as in outlining the two key trends in pedagogical work with the students. The first is aimed at overcoming social insecurity by means of intellectual self-affirmation. The second implies the students’ desire to exercise control over emotions and the object of relations. The proposed recommendations for work with each type of team can be implemented in pedagogical practice of the higher school.