THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON STRESS COPING STYLES

Abstract

Problem statement. The article presents the theoretical and empirical research of three stress coping styles: adaptive, relatively adaptive, maladaptive. The special attention is paid to the empirical study on each style components: personal reactions to stress, psychological defence, endurance under aggressive work conditions and threats to life, fast resources recovery after stress, ability to build partnerships, responsibility and determination, a set of adequate reactions to stress. Objective. To carry out an empirical research of police patrol officers’ stress coping styles. Research Methods. The diagnostic base included the following methods: E. Heim’s method examining coping strategies, “Don’t let a person fall” express-diagnostics of A. Smirnova (projective technique), “Assessment of nervous and mental tension” of T. Nemchin, “A person under rain” (projective technique) of A. Romanova and T. Sitko, the inquirer of the social-psychological adaptation of C.Rogers and R.Diamond, “Transactional analysis of communication” of E. Ilyin. Research results. Most respondents with adaptive style of stress overcoming in extreme conditions apply successful coping strategies (66%), they quickly recover lost resources, are prone to partner communication, responsible, show leadership qualities, find a way out of situations and are able to lead others, feel protected in a stressful situation, are able to perform duties under aggressive working conditions, rarely get into critical situations because they always carefully calculate all possible variants of events and try to foresee everything that can happen, in a critical situation they are not confused and can do everything necessary to correct what has happened. Patrol officers with the maladaptive style are unable to work in extreme working conditions, feel unprotected in aggressive conditions, and react to stress naively and timidly.