Representations of Penitentiary Psychologists about Specificities of Interpersonal Contact with a Convicted Juvenile

Abstract

The article presents the approaches of studying a nature of the interpersonal contact on domestic level of psychological science and the results of studying the reflections of penitentiary psychologists regarding the purpose, functions, stages, methods of establishing interpersonal contact with a convicted minor. The results presented in the article were obtained on the basis of a study of 50 prison psychologists of educational colonies of the Russian Federation. In order to identify the reflections of psychologists about an interpersonal contact, a method of unfinished sentences and a method of writing an essay were used. As a result of the study, it was found that a professional interpersonal contact in the penitentiary psychologist activity is one of the significant aspects in their profession and determines the adolescent's readiness for further psychological work, contributes to the formation of trust relationship, optimizing the adolescent’s emotional state, enables collecting necessary information for the psychologist, gives an opportunity to exert a positive influence on a minor convict in the process of his re-socialization.

Keywords

• interpersonal contact
• penitentiary psychology
• convicted juvenile
• psychological support
• penitentiary psychology effective action