Проблеми сучасної психології (May 2019)
Empirical Study of an Individual’s Basic Beliefs in the Context of Overcoming Life Crises
Abstract
The article deals with the theoretical and practical approaches in the study of the basic beliefs of the individual in the context of overcoming life crises. The concept of «basic beliefs» is analyzed from the cognitive, social, existential position. It is noted that a traumatic stressful event is an experience of acute and sudden collision of human beliefs with reality, and the course of the crisis will depend on an individual’s vitality, on the level of violation of semantic connections in the structure of the individual’s life world, which is the basis of loss within the meaning. The concept of R. Janoffplains how the individual constructs his ideas about the world and the self. Basic beliefs are necessary internal support in a changing reality, which promotes the mental stability of a man and his success in life, and is also an important condition for personal development. But the basic beliefs are changed under the influence of mental trauma, because extreme negative experience is sharply contrary to the described life concept. A set of methods and techniques was used to determine the level and content of autobiographical stress: the method of structured diagnostic interviews («Significant life events») to obtain a general picture of the positive and negative autobiographical events, the closed questionnaire «The list of stressful events» with an assessment of the significance of their impact on emotional, cognitive, and behavioral levels and the World Assumptions Scale (R. Janoff-Bulman). The level of biographical stress in the life of modern Ukrainians is determined, which is represented by a wide range of crisis situations, including the most difficult ones. The representation of stressful events of all-embracing nature is high. They are natural and technical disasters, repeated economic crises, socio-political upheavals and military conflict. A correlation analysis has been conducted proving that the more human life is saturated with stressful events, the lower a human being evaluates the significance of their influence on his emotions, cognition and behavior, and to a lesser degree he demonstrates the ability to overcome crises by personal growth. It is concluded that the saturation of life with crisis events negatively affects the basic beliefs about the benevolence of the world and people and, at the same time, positively correlates with the conviction of controllability of the world.
Keywords
