THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF ADAPTATION IN FIRST-YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Background. The article deals with the psychological features of adaptation in first-year university students. The main criteria indicating successful or failed adaptation are highlighted. The study was based on the concept describing human adaptation to changing environmental conditions as a dynamic process, as well as on psychological approaches that reveal the specific aspects of adaptation within the system of complex social relations of a new type. Aim. The article aims to study the features of adaptation in first-year university students through psychodiagnostics for the possibility of compensating negative trends in adaptation to new living conditions. Material and methods. The specificity of the response to educational conditions and students’ adaptation was determined by means of psychodiagnostics of subjective well-being, communicative tolerance, motivation for studying at University, moral normativity of behavior and neuropsychic stability. The sample consisted of students of technical and humanitarian specialties (n =284) aged from 17 to 21 years. Results. A number of important regularities have been established, the main of which are high communicative tolerance, orientation to compliance with the rules, intermediate type of motivation for studying, as well as differences in the severity of the studied characteristics in students, males and females. Conclusion. Adaptation to the components of university environment by first-year students is possible with the activation of all adaptation mechanisms. The nature of adaptation can be assessed through observation of students’ behavior in the team, as well as through the diagnosis of emotional experience, nervous tension, subjective well-being and communicative characteristics, which creates the basis for psychological and pedagogical support of young professionals.