Psychological profiles of students prone to coercion (manipulation), non-violence and non-intervention (original) (raw)

The capacity for non-violent interaction acts as the most important professional competence of specialists in the socionomic (helping) sphere. In accordance with this, the problem of studying the factors determining future specialists’ propensity for coercion, manipulate, non-violence, and non-intervention becomes especially urgent. The objective of the work is to identify the psychological profile of the students that in the process of interaction tend to give preference to the methods of coercion or manipulation, non-violence and non-interference. The study involved 407 students of Moscow Humanitarian and Cherepovets State Universities. Of these, 338 were females (83.05%), 69 (16.95%) were males, and the average age was 22 years. The study was conducted during 2018 and in the first half of 2019. The author’s questionnaires were used as the diagnostic tools to identify students’ interaction positions, irritability towards people, human sensitivity (interest, empathy, understanding, and help), danger and safety needs, sensitivity to threats, the ways of response in situations of danger, as well as tests and questionnaires used in psychology to identify the level of self-confidence, egocentrism, motivation to achieve success and avoid failure, risk appetite. The results were processed using the methods of mathematical statistics (t-Student criterion). It was established that students who were inclined to use coercion (manipulation) were generally able to trust themselves, were moderately egocentric, irritable, they were not characterized by high sensitivity to people, the motivation for success achievement prevailed over the motivation for avoiding failures, they were capable of risk, they had a greater degree of the need for experiencing a sense of danger than the representatives of other groups, they were hardly sensitive to threats, and often neglected the danger. Students who were inclined to use non-violent means could also generally trust themselves, were not self-centered, not irritable, they had a high sensitivity to a person, especially the empathy and a willingness to help, the motivation for achieving success prevailed, they were able to take reasonable risks, the need for security dominated in them, they were sensitive to threats, and they preferred adequate methods of response in situations of danger. Students who were prone to nonintervention more often did not trust themselves, were self-centered, irritable, had a poor understanding of people, motivation to avoid failure prevails, along with the need for security, the need for experiencing a sense of security dominates, they were not sensitive to threats, therefore, they were ready to exaggerate the value of any danger. The results can be used in the process of educational work arrangement at a university, as well as in the process of elaboration of special programs for developing the ability of non-violent interaction in future socionomic specialists.