I. general characteristics extreme situations.

The whole character professional activity police officers includes constant negative impact of stress factors (irregular working hours, constant contact with offenders, the need for full dedication of mental and physical strength when performing official duties) , which leads to a decrease in the effectiveness of the professional activities of police officers in everyday situations of professional activity.

Extreme situations quite frequent. Thousands of people die in them, and even more suffer various injuries. They cause enormous material damage. Extreme situations arise in the life of almost every person. They are associated with experiences and tensions, and are fraught with serious consequences in life. They arise, as a rule, suddenly and develop rapidly in a dangerous direction for a person, often taking him by surprise against his will.

Extreme situations are those that confront a person with great objective and psychological difficulties, oblige him to exert his full strength and make the best use of his personal capabilities to achieve success and ensure safety.

Extreme situations associated with crimes and criminal activity are of particular importance for society. Several million crimes are committed in our country every year; of which tens of thousands of murders, intentional harm to the health of citizens and rapes, robberies and robberies, more than one million thefts, 200 thousand hooliganism and fraud, etc. New types of crimes such as corruption, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom and the revival of the medieval slave trade in some regions, terrorism, counterfeiting, hostage-taking, attacks on protected objects in order to seize weapons and valuables.

It should be noted that the operational and official activities of police officers in extreme conditions are characterized by increased moral, psychological and physical stress. In most cases, such activity occurs under high psychological stress. Service tasks are performed by personnel continuously, under any conditions. At night, the operational situation causes a number of additional difficulties in the activities of police officers, negatively affecting their psyche.

Operational and service tasks are often carried out in isolation from places of permanent deployment. Police officers often find themselves in conditions of limited mobility, monotony and monotony of impressions from the surrounding area and protected objects. The lack of sensations and perceptions has a depressing effect on them, as a result of which performance decreases, memory and attention deteriorate, and psychological readiness for activity in extreme conditions decreases.

The rhythms of life during this period are disrupted; they are determined not by natural needs, but by the needs of the service. Sanitary and hygienic conditions, organization of life and food also differ significantly from the usual.

A number of habitual ways of satisfying the needs of leisure and communication are changing among police officers, and the possibilities of psychological compensation for negative operating conditions are limited.

The most important factors influencing the activities of police officers when performing combat service tasks in areas of emergency, in armed conflicts, are the presence of contacts with offenders, the contradictory attitude of the local population towards employees, and the need to act against the hostile part of the citizens of their own state. All this causes a natural internal psychological contradiction, a moral conflict with one’s own beliefs. This process is usually accompanied by negative emotional experiences.

Department of Internal Affairs officers have to participate in such actions as conducting “cleansing operations” to identify armed militants in populated areas and beyond, checking passport regimes and confiscating weapons from the population, releasing military and police detachments surrounded by armed bandits, serving at checkpoints, participating in reconnaissance and search activities in populated areas, on the ground, etc.

In such conditions, police officers are required to be able to detect and record traces of crimes committed by bandits, and maintain the ability to respond to the possibility of bandits’ actions using underground communications, sniper nests, etc.

Official work in such conditions requires police officers to ensure utmost composure, mobilization, vigilance, active thought, confidence in success, and a state of emotional balance. The weaker the professional training, the greater the impact of stress factors on people, the more attention should be paid to the psychological readiness of police officers for operational work in extreme situations. It is necessary to overcome both underestimation and overestimation of the forces and capabilities of the opposing side, therefore it is unacceptable to relax until there is complete confidence in security. What is needed is reasonable caution, diligence, the ability to unravel the enemy’s actions, the ability to surpass him in solving professional problems, which is what police officers must constantly teach.

Studying the activities of police departments in a difficult, life-threatening environment allows us to conclude that an employee feels confident if a possible situation is familiar to him from previous experience or training, if he has sufficiently complete information about what is happening, where his combat troops are located comrades and what neighboring units are doing. The psychological significance of such awareness is enormous, especially when operating at night, in populated areas, or in mountainous conditions. Lack of information and inadequate perception of it lead to a misunderstanding of the situation, and this is an additional source of gross errors in the activities of commanders and their subordinates (shooting at friendly forces, causing panic).

To summarize, we can cite the main psychological factors that influence the activities of police officers when performing service and combat missions in extreme conditions.

1. Danger factor. Danger should be understood as a perceived threat to life, health or well-being. In addition, a feeling of danger can arise not only in relation to one’s own life, but also in relation to subordinates or interacting people. An employee may be in danger of the reality of losing weapons or military equipment, without which it is impossible to perform a military mission. The danger factor is the main (or primary) one that determines the psychological specifics of a service-combat situation.

When performing service and combat missions danger is perceived as an objectively existing combination of circumstances or objects that threaten life and health. Moreover, it can be real or imaginary.

The perception of danger depends on the individual psychological characteristics of employees: some tend to exaggerate the degree of danger, others tend to underestimate. Both are equally unacceptable when performing service and combat missions, since in extreme conditions the danger is almost always real.

Its immediate perception must be adequate. To do this, danger should not surprise you or cause a feeling of fear. Accordingly, during psychological training it is necessary to develop in employees the ability to realistically assess danger.

Inadequate perception of danger leads to professional errors, increased psychological tension, panic and, ultimately, disruption of activities.

2. Factor of surprise. Suddenness is an unexpected change in the situation for an employee during the performance of a service-combat mission.

Let's consider psychological mechanism influence of this factor. Before doing anything to achieve a goal, a person imagines the sequence of his actions, actions, the dynamics of external conditions, and creates a certain program of personal behavior. In this case, automated actions are excluded. After all, a person perceives external conditions from the point of view of the possibility of achieving the desired goal, and makes his own adjustments. However, in the process of professional activity, conditions can change so dramatically that it will be necessary to set a different goal and, accordingly, a different program of behavior. The employee must anticipate changes in the situation and must be prepared for the need to change the program of his activities.

It is a completely different matter if the employee did not even foresee the possibility of conditions arising that would lead to the need to change the purpose of the action. It is this situation that is perceived as sudden.

Employees react differently to a sudden change in the conditions for carrying out service and combat missions. Conditionally we can distinguish three types of behavior when exposed to this factor:

A. The employee quickly switches, defines a goal and implements a new program (positive type).

B. The employee, despite external changes in the situation, stubbornly continues to carry out the old program. As a rule, in this case the activity ends in failure.

C. The employee stops the old program, but does not define a new goal and a new program. He is practically inactive, falling into a state similar to a psychological stupor. The duration of this condition may vary. Taking into account the fact that the situation in extreme conditions of activity changes very quickly, in this case, service-combat activities, as a rule, end in failure.

3. Uncertainty factor. By uncertainty we mean
absence, deficiency or inconsistency of information about the content or
conditions for performing service and combat missions, about the enemy (criminal, organized criminal group) and the nature of his actions.

They say there is nothing worse than waiting and catching up. And in the first (situation
expectations) and in the second (“chase” situation) cases there is a significant element of uncertainty.

The intensity of the impact of the uncertainty factor varies and depends on many conditions. The situations in which it arises are also varied.

In a service-combat situation, this factor is always present.

The negative impact of uncertainty can be reduced if employees are aware psychological techniques control of emotional tension.

4. The factor of novelty of means and methods of implementing activities in extreme conditions. Novelty is determined by the employee’s experience and knowledge.

Negative influence the factor of novelty in service and combat conditions can be partially reduced if, in the process of psychological training, employees study the real experience of the actions of others in similar situations. Such classes should not be “constructed” in the abstract, but have the form of a detailed analysis and psychological analysis service-combat situation, mistakes made by one or another specialist, possible options development of the situation and the necessary actions of employees. Such events are especially important for managers at all levels.

5.Momentum factor. It should be understood as the employee’s ability to complete the assigned (or emerging) task using previously developed skills and abilities. This factor is realized if the time required to complete the actions necessary to achieve the goal is sharply reduced. Such situations arise very often in a service-combat situation. And then success in this case will be determined by the psychological readiness, speed and coherence of actions of both the individual employee and the department as a whole.

6.Time pressure factor. This factor arises in conditions under which the successful fulfillment of service and combat missions is impossible with an increase in the tempo of actions, and a rapid change in the very psychological structure of the activity is necessary. In this case, we are talking not just about increasing the pace of the actions performed, but, first of all, about changing their sequence.

The influence of unfavorable factors, with the complete or partial inability of employees to deal with them, contributes to the emergence of neurotic disorders, psychosomatic diseases, professional deformation and ultimately prevents the effective implementation of assigned tasks.

Forming psychological stability among police officers is a complex socio-psychological process. The psychological stability (stress resistance) of a police officer depends on his natural inclinations, on the social environment, as well as on vocational training and operational experience. Will a police officer be able to act at the right time instantly, actively, correctly and effectively? In practice, in the event of sudden aggressive actions on the part of offenders, police officers are psychologically unprepared to counteract: they are late, show confusion, sluggishness, and make unforgivable and seemingly inexplicable mistakes.

_INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL "SYMBOL OF SCIENCE" No. 10/2015 ISSN 2410-700Х_

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Gefele Olga Fridrikhovna

Ph.D. Philosopher Sciences, Associate Professor TvSTU, Tver, RF E-mail: [email protected]

INFLUENCE OF EXTREME SITUATION ON CHANGES IN MENTAL STATE

PERSONALITY

annotation

This article gives a brief description of extreme situations. Various mental states of a person that may arise at the time of exposure to an extreme situation are considered. To prevent personal changes that arise as a result of exposure to an extreme situation, medical, psychological and psychiatric assistance is required.

Keywords

Extreme situations, mental states, anxiety, stress, frustration, crisis, aggressive

Currently, people are increasingly faced with extreme situations of various origins: natural or man-made disasters, natural disasters, hostage-taking, terrorist attacks, etc. Moreover, the extreme situation itself can have an impact on changing the mental state of people.

By their nature, extreme situations are numerous and varied. They differ in difficulty, degree and nature of threats, dangers, and possible consequences. As a rule, extreme situations occur suddenly and have different time durations.

The impact of such situations becomes catastrophic, especially when they lead to great destruction, cause death, injury and suffering of a large number of people, as a result of which the human psyche suffers and various mental pathologies can develop, which require a comprehensive comprehensive study.

The reaction to an extreme situation changes the mental state, increasing a person’s neuropsychic stress, which can contribute to both the mobilization of activity and the disorganization of activity.

Under the influence of extreme situations, such mental phenomena as anxiety, stress, frustration, crisis, crying, aggressive reactions, anger are most pronounced.

Unlike anxiety, anxiety is defined as a personal formation, a personality trait, a personality trait, a personal disposition. In extreme situations it can manifest itself as adequate anxiety, inadequate anxiety, or actual anxiety and inadequate calm. In this case, the nature of the developing anxiety will depend on the person’s assessment of his own capabilities to overcome the difficulties that have arisen, such as his nervous system and certain personal characteristics.

During an extreme situation, the state of anxiety can be transformed into other emotional states that have a negative modality: fear, horror, panic, apathy, etc.

IN Lately There is increasing interest in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which can occur in disaster victims of various nature, i.e. in those people who have suffered severe stress or exposure to other extreme human factors. Moreover, PTSD can develop in catastrophic circumstances in almost every person, even in the absence of a clear personal predisposition.

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL “SYMBOL OF SCIENCE” No. 10/2015 ISSN 2410-700Х_

Also, very often in an extreme situation, a frustration state develops as a special psycho-emotional state. The main types of frustration include motor agitation (purposeless and disordered reactions), apathy, aggression and destruction, stereotypy (the tendency to blindly repeat fixed behavior), and regression.

It is also necessary to highlight the most common condition as a personality crisis. On the one hand, a crisis can be considered as an acute emotional state that occurs when a person’s purposeful life activity is blocked. On the other hand, it can be considered as a discrete moment in personality development or as a special state into which a person finds himself, for example, a crisis associated with loss loved one during an extreme situation, or the development of somatomorphic changes associated with an extreme situation, or moving to another place or to another country (emigration problems). At the same time, a protracted, chronic crisis can lead to the development of various disorders leading to social maladjustment, neurotic and psychosomatic disorders.

Crying allows you to react, to throw out the accumulated pain and despair. Crying as a component element can be part of a hysterical reaction. The main difference between hysteria and crying is that the first proceeds much more violently and can be accompanied by screams, threats towards oneself or towards others. As a rule, hysteria is a demonstrative reaction and after the completion of this reaction a breakdown occurs.

An aggressive reaction is also a manifestation of a person’s mental state in an extreme situation, and is quite common in real life after recovering from a state of shock. An aggressive reaction is a behavior or action aimed at causing physical or mental harm, or even destruction. It serves as a form of response to physical and mental discomfort, stress, and frustration. An aggressive reaction is generated by involuntary emotional expression caused by an extreme situation.

An aggressive reaction may be accompanied by an emotional state such as anger. At the same time, anger as an emotional state does not directly “trigger” an aggressive reaction, but usually only accompanies it. An aggressive reaction is “triggered” by internal stimulation, which is different from emotional experience. Some manifestations of an aggressive reaction may be a sign of developing pathopsychological personality changes.

Summarizing the above, it can be noted that extreme situations can contribute to changes in mental states, which under unfavorable conditions can develop into mental disorders.

Assessing the traumatic impact of various unfavorable factors of an extreme situation on a person’s mental activity, it is necessary to provide timely psychological assistance in order to prevent the pathological development of personality, which at the social level can lead to a general disintegration of personality and personal catastrophe. In this case, people who do experience personality changes require medical, psychological and psychiatric help, which will be aimed at identifying and eliminating the leading pathological change.

List of used literature:

1. Gefele O.F. Personality in a situation of risk: Socio-philosophical analysis: Author's abstract. dis. Ph.D. Philosopher Sciences [Text] / O.F. Gefele. - Moscow, 2004. - 27 p.

2. Gefele O.F. Psychological characteristics human reactions in extreme situations of various directions [Text] / O.F. Gefele // Bulletin of Tver State technical university. 2012. No. 21. P.58-61.

Under the general editorship. candidate of psychology n. Yu.S. Shoigu

UDC 159.9:614.8.084(078) BBK 88.4ya7 P 863

Gurenkova T.N., Ph.D. (Ch. 2,3,5), Eliseeva I.N. (Ch. 11, 12), Kuznetsova T.Yu. (chapter 4), Makarova O.L. (chapter 1), Matafonova T.Yu. (chapter 9), Pavlova M.V. (Ch. 8, 9, 10), Shoigu Yu.S., Ph.D. (Introduction, chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, Conclusion).

Reviewers:

Zinchenko Yu.P., Doctor of Psychology. Sciences, Professor Karayani A.G., Doctor of Psychology. sciences, professor

P 863 Psychology of extreme situations for rescuers and firefighters /

Under the general editorship. Yu.S. Shoigu. M.: Smysl, 2007. - 319 p.

Tutorial, revealing the psychological basis of the state and behavior of people in emergency situations, written by a team of specialists from the Emergency Center psychological assistance Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation and is based on both foreign and domestic experience. The material presented in the book is devoted to the problems of the psychology of extreme situations, stress, the provision of emergency psychological assistance, as well as issues of professional health of specialists working in extreme conditions.

First of all, the manual is aimed at future rescuers and firefighters; it may be of interest to students and graduate students of psychological faculties, psychologists and psychotherapists working in the field of psychology of extreme situations.

UDC 159.9:614.8.084(078) BBK 88.4ya7

ISBN 978-5-89357-253-7 © CEPP EMERCOM of the Russian Federation, 2007

INTRODUCTION

In this book, we consider it necessary to highlight the range of psychological issues that arise in conditions of work in emergency situations, problems associated with the psychology of emergency situations or the psychology of disasters.

What happens to people caught in a disaster zone? Why do people behave differently in seemingly identical conditions? What happens to people during and after an emergency? These are the questions that interest specialists.

Highly qualified specialists, working in emergency situations, are exposed to a huge number of stress factors. The cost of error in such cases is extremely high. The need to quickly make decisions on which people's lives may depend, working in non-standard conditions with irregular work hours and a lack of information are specific to the work of an extreme specialist.

In an emergency zone, the state of specialists is subject to the general laws of adaptation to stressful situation. A specialist’s susceptibility to stress factors is determined by individual psychophysiological characteristics, level of stress resistance, and work experience. It’s good if a specialist knows what can await him (although there are no identical situations - each is special in its own way). An emergency always disrupts plans and pulls you out of your daily rhythm. For specialists who have experience working in emergency situations, this circumstance is not traumatic, while for a young specialist it is one of the stressful factors. Knowledge of the patterns of mental response to a stressful situation increases the body's tolerance to the effects of stress. “Forewarned is forearmed,” the ancients said.

It is known that an emergency situation can be the starting point of future changes in beliefs, lifestyle, the cause of changes in states and feelings, or the launch of a mechanism for the dynamics of the existing experience of traumatic experiences of people who find themselves at the epicenter of events. This applies not only to the victims, but also to the specialists who provide assistance to them. Typically, people working in emergency situations do not think about the impact their work has left on them, although it does not go unnoticed for them that they see the grief and suffering of other people. It is obvious that without sufficient knowledge about the nature of the psychological consequences of emergency situations and mental self-regulation skills, extreme specialists are more susceptible to deterioration in health in the future. Specialists develop defensive styles of behavior that create the appearance that nothing special is happening in their lives. Among them there are those that help constructively protect the psyche from the effects of traumatic factors in emergency situations, and there are those that lead to illness and deterioration of the condition. After finishing work, traumatic reactions may occur: sleep disturbances (insomnia, restless sleep); predominance of a background of low mood (predominance of emotions of sadness, depression). Normally, reactions may continue for a short time after returning. During this time, the body gradually recovers.

In the professional baggage of a psychologist working in emergency situations, there are constructive styles of protective behavior, they have certain skills, there is an opportunity to “work through,” comprehend, and “experience” the emotional impressions of working in an emergency situation. This same knowledge can also help rescuers and firefighters.

Extreme specialists, just like others, go through the stages of adaptation to the profession, professional development, professional burnout, and transition to the next stage of professional development. We considered all this important to describe in this book.

The book is structured according to a systematic principle and consists of four sections. The first section, “Introduction to the psychology of extreme situations,” defines the basic concepts: disaster, extreme situation, emergency, crisis, and also classifies the main types of situations and gives the relationship between these concepts.

The second section, “Normal Stress,” reveals the concept of “stress” and its effect on the human body, describes the physiological dynamics of the stress reaction, the dynamics of the body’s adaptation to a stressful situation, behavioral response patterns, and protective mechanisms of the psyche.

In the third section “Emergency psychological assistance. Traumatic Stress” describes the psychological aspects of emergency situations and their consequences. The picture of the work of rescue and fire department specialists involved in rescuing victims in emergency situations would be incomplete without the work of psychologists. This section describes the work of psychologists in an emergency situation, methods of emergency psychological assistance to people, the conditions for their use, the organization of the work of psychologists, the stages of carrying out activities for psychological support of emergency rescue and other emergency work. Next, deferred psychological consequences emergency situations. The concepts of “traumatic stress”, “mental trauma”, the conditions of their occurrence, the dynamics of experiencing a traumatic situation, recovery from it, constructive behavioral patterns of coping, pathological forms of response, the dynamics of reactions of a grieving person are described.

The fourth section, “Chronic stress and professional health of a specialist,” deals with the conditions for the accumulation of chronic stress associated with the working conditions of extreme specialists, and with professional deformation that can arise at a certain stage. Along with this, the ways and conditions for maintaining one’s professional health, stages professional development, formation, meaning-forming components of professional activity.

Section I.

Introduction to the psychology of extreme situations

Chapter 1. DISASTER, EXTREME SITUATION, EMERGENCY, CRISIS: DEFINITION, CLASSIFICATION, RELATIONSHIP OF CONCEPTS

Issues covered in the chapter:

Definitions of extreme, emergency, crisis.

The relationship between these concepts.

The subject of studying the psychology of extreme situations. The influence of an extreme situation on a person.

Catastrophe - how often we hear this word from acquaintances, friends, from television screens, it has firmly entered our lives, language, and worldview. What is a disaster?

In the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” by D.N. Ushakov gives the following definitions of disaster:

1. An unexpected misfortune, disaster, event leading to tragic consequences.

2. Major shock tragic nature, causing a sharp change in personal or public life.

There have always been disasters and emergencies: earthquakes, floods, epidemics and other disasters have accompanied humanity throughout the history of its development. For example, there are three colossal plague pandemics (epidemics) known in history. The first, leaving Egypt, devastated almost all the countries of the Mediterranean and lasted for about 60 years. At the height of the epidemic in 542, thousands of people died every day in Constantinople alone. The second and most ominous in the history of Western Europe is the “Black Death” of the mid-14th century. The Black Death, which came from Asia, killed a third of Europe's population. In 1346-48. V Western Europe The bubonic plague raged, killing 25 million people. In the preface to the Decameron, Boccaccio left a description of its horrors. The third is the plague pandemic, which began in 1892 in India (where more than 6 million people died) and spread into the 20th century. to the Azores, South America.

Another major disaster in human history is the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy, which occurred in 79 AD. Then powerful lava flows mixed with rock wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Thousands of people died.

Man has always tried to protect himself from various disasters, using all the methods available to him: healers and shamans, turning to the forces of nature; sacrifices to appease the gods; military detachments defending their own and capturing new - less dangerous and richer territories. All these are the first attempts to ensure our own safety.

The development of medicine, military affairs, science and technology has allowed humanity to live more comfortably and be more protected - on the one hand. On the other side, technical means themselves become a source of increased danger. Technological progress leads to an increase in the number and scale of disasters. The development of the media determines the involvement of a huge number of people in experiencing an extreme situation. The beginning of the era of man-made disasters was marked by the death of the Titanic, a symbol of its era, a luxurious transatlantic liner. Humanity has never seen such a huge ship. The largest, most powerful, most reliable, absolutely, as the designers claimed, unsinkable, it received the appropriate name - “Titanic”. Launched from Britain's Royal Dockyards, the Titanic set out on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic - and never returned. A catastrophe unprecedented at the dawn of the industrial age, which claimed hundreds of lives, shocked the world.

On April 26, 1986, the destruction of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located on the territory of Ukraine (at that time - the Ukrainian SSR). The destruction was explosive, the reactor was completely destroyed, and it was released into the environment a large number of radioactive substances. The accident is regarded as the largest of its kind in the entire history of nuclear energy, both in terms of the estimated number of people killed and affected by its consequences, and in terms of economic damage.

The radioactive cloud from the accident passed over the European part of the USSR, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Great Britain and the eastern part of the USA. Approximately 60% of the radioactive fallout fell on the territory of Belarus. About 200,000 people were evacuated from contaminated areas. The untimeliness, incompleteness and mutual contradictions of official information about the disaster gave rise to many independent interpretations. The victims of the tragedy can be considered not only the citizens who died immediately after the accident, but also the residents of the adjacent regions who went to the May Day demonstration, not knowing about the danger. With this calculation, the Chernobyl disaster significantly exceeds the number of victims atomic bombing Hiroshima.

There is also an opposite point of view, according to which 29 people died from radiation sickness in Chernobyl - station employees and firefighters who took the first blow. Outside the industrial site of the nuclear power plant, no one had radiation sickness. Thus, estimates of the number of victims of the disaster range from tens of people to millions.

The range in official estimates is smaller, although the number of victims Chernobyl accident can only be determined approximately. In addition to the dead nuclear power plant workers and firefighters, these should include sick military personnel and civilians involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident, and residents of areas exposed to radioactive contamination. Determining what proportion of diseases was a consequence of the accident is a very difficult task for medicine and statistics; various organizations estimates are given that differ tenfold. It is believed that most of deaths associated with exposure to radiation have been or will be caused by cancer. Many local residents had to leave their homes and lost some of their property. The problems associated with this and fear for their health caused people severe stress, which also led to various diseases.

If previously the main concern was the consequences of extreme situations, such as the number of deaths, physical illnesses, injuries, now experts are also concerned about the consequences for the psychosocial and mental health of the population. Experts working with people who have survived a disaster have drawn attention to the fact that the mental consequences of disasters can be no less severe than the somatic ones, and lead to serious illnesses and social problems, both for an individual and for groups of people and society as a whole. .

Even during the First World War, psychiatrists noticed next phenomenon: Soldiers who were not physically injured, injured or suffered minor injuries during combat, showed symptoms of some kind of disease, the cause of which could not be determined. The soldiers had a depressed state, weakness, exhaustion, sleep disturbances, appetite disturbances, and outbreaks. unmotivated aggression. Later it was found out that the cause of this disease is a mental experience (trauma) received during combat operations.

It is important to note that natural and man-made disasters, local armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, etc. affect the psyche and contribute to the emergence of delayed and protracted reactions not only among direct participants in the events, but also among outside observers, who, as already mentioned, thanks to the media information (media) become indirect participants in these events. Since the media realistically reflect current events, people are forced to immerse themselves in them, as if they were direct eyewitnesses.

One of the most striking global examples of this phenomenon is the death of Princess Diana, when hundreds of thousands of people, not being her relatives, acquaintances or in any way involved in her death, deeply (even to the point of psychotic manifestations) mourned the death of Diana for a long time. It was enough to simply observe people's reactions to understand that it went beyond the usual empathy and sympathy in these cases for ordinary people. This and similar situations, in fact, are a manifestation of modern reality, in which not only a way of life is imposed on a person, but also a form of mental experiences.

However, not only disasters and military conflicts have a negative impact on the human psyche. Development technical progress and the emergence of new types of professional activities that pose a high risk, requiring increased responsibility and concentration, also affect people’s mental health.

Until some time, it was believed that only miners and astronauts worked in extreme working conditions. Changes in the life of society over the past 10-15 years have led to an increase in the number of professions whose representatives work in extreme conditions. Thus, the professions of firefighter, rescuer, air traffic controller, cash collector, and road patrol officer have elements of extremes.

In the activities of workers in “hazardous professions,” there are two types of conditions under which work becomes extreme:

1) everyday stressful activity in which danger is presented as a potential event (air traffic controllers, cash collectors);

2) so-called critical incidents, in which workers are faced with human casualties and material losses, with a real danger to their life, health or value system, as well as a threat to the life, health, and well-being of others (rescuers, firefighters).

The need to study the influence of extreme factors on the human psyche has led to the emergence and active development of a new field of psychological science and practice - extreme psychology.

Extreme psychology (EP) is a branch of psychological science that studies the general psychological patterns of human life and activity in changed (unusual) conditions of existence. Research in the field of extreme psychology has as its goal the improvement of psychological selection and psychological preparation for work in unusual living conditions, as well as the development of measures to protect against the traumatic effects of psychogenic factors (Psychology. Dictionary, 1990).

The subject of study of EP is the psyche exposed to extreme factors, the mechanisms of influence of extreme factors on a person, patterns of reaction and experience, possible consequences and methods of their correction.

CONCEPTS OF EMERGENCY, EXTREME AND CRISIS SITUATIONS

The concepts of emergency, extreme and crisis situations have not yet received comprehensive definitions. In the context of further study of the subject, we suggest using the following definitions.

An emergency situation (ES) is a situation in a certain territory that has arisen as a result of an accident, a dangerous natural phenomenon, catastrophe, natural or other disaster that may result in human casualties, damage to human health or environment, significant material losses and disruption of people’s living conditions (“Law on the protection of the population and territories from natural and man-made emergencies of December 21, 1994 No. 68-FZ (NWRF 94-35)”).

An extreme situation (from Latin extremus - extreme, critical) is a sudden situation that is threatening or subjectively perceived by a person as life-threatening, health, personal integrity, well-being.

A crisis situation (from the Greek krisis - decision, turning point, outcome) is a situation that requires a person to significantly change his ideas about the world and himself in a short period of time. These changes can be both positive and negative.

Let's take a closer look at each of the above situations.

Emergency

These are objectively existing conditions. The catastrophe has already happened.

There are a number of classifications of emergency situations according to various criteria

	Regional	Emergencies that resulted in more than 50, but not more than 500, people being injured, or the living conditions of more than 500, but not more than 1,000 people being disrupted, or material damage exceeding 0.5 million, but not more than 5 million, minimum wage on the day the emergency occurred and the emergency zone covers the territory of two subjects Russian Federation
	Federal	Emergency situations that resulted in more than 500 casualties, or disrupted the living conditions of more than 1,000 people, or material damage exceeding 5 million minimum wages on the day of the emergency and the emergency zone extends beyond the boundaries of more than two constituent entities of the Russian Federation
	Cross-border	Emergency, damaging factors which extend beyond the borders of the Russian Federation, or emergencies occurred abroad and their damaging factors cover the territory of the Russian Federation
By source of origin	Man-made emergency	Transport accidents and catastrophes, fires, unprovoked explosions or their threat, accidents with releases (threat of releases) of dangerous chemical, radioactive, biological substances, sudden destruction of structures and buildings, accidents on utility networks, etc.

	Natural emergencies, natural disasters	Hazardous geological, meteorological, hydrological marine and freshwater phenomena, soil or subsoil degradation, natural fires, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, landslides, landslides, avalanches, mudflows, hurricanes, tornadoes, tornadoes, forest fires, rainstorms, snowfalls, drought and other phenomena caused by natural causes.
	Emergency of ecological and biological nature	Mass disease people by infectious diseases (epidemics), farm animals, mass destruction of agricultural plants by diseases or pests, changes in the state of water resources and the biosphere, subsidence, landslides, avalanches, soil degradation, depletion of non-renewable natural resources, destruction of the ozone layer of the atmosphere, depletion of water resources, extinction of species animals, plants, etc. as a result of human activity
	Emergencies of a sociogenic nature	Terrorism, hostage taking, riots, hostilities

Extreme situation

A well-known wisdom says: “Life consists of 10% of what happens to us, and 90% of what we think about it.”

By extreme we mean situations that go beyond the limits of ordinary, “normal” human experience. In other words, the extremity of the situation is determined by factors to which a person has not yet adapted and is not ready to act in their conditions. The degree of extremeness of the situation is determined by the strength, duration, novelty, and unusualness of the manifestation of these factors.

However, what makes a situation extreme is not only the real, objectively existing threat to life for oneself or significant loved ones, but also our attitude to what is happening. The perception of the same situation by each specific person is individual, and therefore the criterion of “extreme” is, rather, in the internal, psychological plane of the individual.

The following can be considered as factors determining extremeness:

1. Various emotional influences due to danger, difficulty, novelty, and responsibility of the situation.

2. Lack of necessary information or a clear excess of conflicting information.

3. Excessive mental, physical, emotional stress.

4. Exposure to unfavorable climatic conditions: heat, cold, oxygen deficiency, etc.

5. Presence of hunger, thirst.

Extreme situations (threat of loss of health or life) significantly violate a person’s basic sense of security, the belief that life is organized in accordance with a certain order and can be controlled, and can lead to the development of painful conditions - traumatic and post-traumatic stress, other neurotic and mental disorders .

Crisis situation. A crisis

Crisis is one of the inevitable and necessary moments of life, one of driving forces development of both the individual and the group, society, humanity as a whole.

A crisis occurs in situations where previously learned patterns of behavior are not enough to cope with circumstances. The crisis situation requires the development of new ways of behavior and finding new meanings in life.

A crisis is always a moment of choice from several possible alternatives, a moment of decision making.

A crisis can arise as a result of external circumstances, some traumatic event (extreme situation). The consequences of an external crisis can be conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, shock trauma.

An intrapersonal crisis is the moment when a person transitions to new level development (psychospiritual, existential, age). Internal crises are inevitable and, unlike external ones, necessary and desirable. Humanity has always known this fact, which is brilliantly encoded in the fairy tales of absolutely all nations - this is the well-known situation of a knight at a crossroads. The choice of a further path is easily given to the hero only in fairy tales, but it is important that avoiding the choice is impossible, unnecessary and even dangerous. Thus, a crisis is always a choice between regressive and progressive further development personality. The entire subsequent life of a person depends on what choice is made. The understanding of crisis and crisis situation in psychology was developed within the framework of personality psychology and developmental psychology.

There is no such thing as an entirely unnoticed experience of an internal crisis. However, the depth and strength of feelings different people differ significantly and depend on the following factors:

The level of development of personality (consciousness) - the higher, the more painful the crisis;

Sociocultural characteristics;

Personal and characterological characteristics;

The type of crisis experienced by a person;

Socio-psychological characteristics, social status.

Internal crises that have existential significance are usually associated with certain age stages in a person’s life. Therefore, when communicating with a person exhibiting “crisis” symptoms, it is important to take into account his age. The main crisis periods of life are the following:

Puberty (13-15 years). Associated with a teenager’s awareness of his identity and uniqueness. Reflects a person’s entry into the world of adults. Can be expressed by the phrase: “I am looking for meaning.”

Crisis of self-determination (29-33 years). Can be expressed by the phrase: “I change the meaning.”

Crisis of the second half of life (45-55 years). A person is in doubt about the fact that he was unable to self-actualize, achieve what he wanted, or become what he wanted in life. The most acutely experienced problem is the finitude of life, which can be aggravated during this period by the loss of parents (an attitude arises: “There is no one between me and death”). This crisis can be expressed by the phrase: “I am losing meaning.”

Some researchers also describe a crisis in the elderly. As the experience of helplines shows, older people are often subscribers of psychological assistance services. Their experiences are associated with the loss of the meaning of life, the loss of family, friends, health, profession, a feeling of uselessness and helplessness. The problem of loneliness becomes most acute for them.

Thus, the crisis may not be associated with global and large-scale disasters and be considered as a process, a state characteristic of critical periods in the natural course of human life (for example, the teenage crisis - “transitional age”). The crisis has a cause-and-effect relationship with the previous one life experience person, but cannot be overcome by methods known to him from past experience.

For example, unrequited love, loss of a job, loss of a loved one, or feelings of guilt can lead to the intention to commit suicide. A striking example crisis as a reaction to the death of a loved one is the behavior of Jeanne Hebuterne, a friend of the famous Italian artist Amadeo Modigliani. She devotedly looked after the sick Amadeo. Almost every night this courageous woman, who was preparing to become a mother, ran all over Paris in search of her husband, a passionate gambler.

The day after Modigliani's death, Jeanne, who did not shed a single tear, jumped out of a 6th floor window.

For Zhanna, her love was the core of her life, and even the child she was expecting could not make up for the loss of the meaning of her existence.

A crisis is a certain turning point in human destiny, in which the foundations collapse previous life, but the new one does not exist yet. Fortunately, most people can cope with a crisis on their own, and this is also true for victims of traumatic events.

The influence of extreme situations on humans

In the human mind, extreme and emergency situations sharply divide life into “before” and “after”. It is difficult to draw an unambiguous conclusion about which type of emergency has the greatest impact severe consequences on the mental state of people, and which are more easily experienced - natural or anthropogenic.

There is an opinion that people usually experience natural emergencies much easier than anthropogenic ones. Such natural disasters as earthquakes, floods, etc. are regarded by victims as “ God's will“or the action of faceless nature - nothing can be changed here.

But extreme situations of a man-made nature, like the tragedy in Beslan, have such a destructive effect on cash that they not only disorganize a person’s behavior, but also “explode” the basic structures of his entire personal organization - the image of the world. A person’s habitual picture of the world is destroyed, and with it the entire system of life coordinates.

According to UNESCO, earthquakes rank first among natural disasters in terms of destructive effect, damage caused and number of victims. Earthquakes destroy artificial structures, houses, and buildings erected by humans. In addition, during earthquakes, mountain falls, landslides, and fires can occur, causing great destruction and posing a threat to human life.

Specific consequences of the earthquake associated with the mental state of people include the development of maladjustment reactions, the emergence of phobic disorders associated with the fear of being in buildings (for example, a 9-year-old girl who survived the Koryakin earthquake in the spring of 2006 refused to enter the school building where her family was temporarily housed, crying, struggling, running into the street); fear of repeated tremors (people who have survived an earthquake often experience disturbed sleep, as their condition is characterized by anxiety and anticipation of repeated tremors); fears for the lives of their loved ones. The severity of the consequences of natural disasters in each case must be assessed individually. For one person, an earthquake, the destruction of a house, evacuation, or a change of place of residence can be the collapse of everything, causing acute feelings and severe delayed consequences; for another, it can only become an opportunity to start a new life.

Among man-made emergencies, according to a number of researchers, the most psychotraumatic is a hostage situation. This is due to the existence of a real prospect of death for the hostages, the experience of a feeling of paralyzing fear, the inability to counter terrorists in the current circumstances, and the denial of the intrinsic value of life and the personality of the hostage. Such situations give rise, both among the victims themselves and in society in general, to a large number of aggressive reactions, anxiety, and phobic disorders.

Thus, it is impossible to clearly divide emergency situations by severity. Each situation has its own specifics and characteristics, its own mental consequences for participants and witnesses, and is experienced by each person individually. In many ways, the depth of this experience depends on the personality of the person himself, his internal resources, and coping mechanisms.

graduate work

1.3 The influence of extreme situations on the psyche and actions of law enforcement officials

Finding yourself in extreme conditions, every law enforcement officer experiences heavy and sometimes extreme stress, observing everything that is happening and performing the necessary professional actions. He thinks a lot and intensely, evaluates, draws conclusions for himself, makes decisions, thinks through ways of behavior and action, mobilizes own strength and opportunities, overcomes internal difficulties and hesitations, subordinates his behavior to duty, solving assigned tasks, etc. What happens in his psyche inevitably affects the quality of his professional actions, and not unambiguously.

It has been proven by experiments and in practice that extreme psychological factors have a positive impact on the psyche of a law enforcement professional if he is well prepared morally and professionally psychologically. His mental activity in extreme situations is characterized by:

* a heightened sense of duty, responsibility and determination, combined with the desire to decide unconditionally and efficiently challenges ahead;

* complete self-mobilization, manifestation of all strengths and capabilities in the process of solving problems;

* combat excitement (within the limits of usefulness), increased energy and activity, greater persistence and perseverance in achieving goals;

* active maximalism, expressed in a passionate desire to achieve results, the highest and most unconditional,

* increased vigilance, attentiveness, observation, fast and clear work of thought;

* composure and constant readiness for any surprises, for quick reactions to changes in the situation and the emergence of danger;

* resistance to temporary failures, etc.

Their actions are therefore distinguished by high quality, increased clarity, shooting accuracy, and effectiveness. Many of these workers experience professional excitement and pleasure in extreme conditions.

Positive changes are not only individual, but also group in nature. Thus, in combat groups, detachments, units, units, distinguished by high preparedness, a strengthening of the moral and psychological climate, healthy public opinion and an optimistic mood are observed, relationships are subordinated to combat and service interests, interaction, mutual understanding, mutual assistance, manifestations of camaraderie, solidarity, mutual support, following professional and military traditions, etc.

However, for workers who are poorly prepared professionally, morally, volitionally and psychologically, extreme situations and their inherent factors have a negative impact. Their mental activity is dominated by:

* transition of the intensity of mental stress beyond the limits of usefulness;

* anxiety, confusion, indecision, slow reactions;

* fear of failure, fear of responsibility, subordination of one’s behavior to the motive of avoiding failure at all costs (instead of striving for the greatest possible success);

* deterioration in intelligence, observation, assessment of the situation, manifestations of memory loss and illusions of perception (“Fear has big eyes”, “The frightened crow is afraid of the bush”);

* decreased activity, persistence, perseverance, resourcefulness and ingenuity in achieving goals, increased tendency to search for excuses (“Who wants, looks for ways, who doesn’t want, looks for reasons”);

* constant feeling weakness, fatigue, powerlessness, inability to mobilize;

* exacerbation of the sense of self-preservation, which sometimes captures the entire consciousness and becomes the only motivating force of behavior;

* increased irritability, loss of self-control, etc.

These negative manifestations in mental activity are adequately reflected in actions and deeds. When passing through the utility limit of tension and the appearance of overstrain (distress), they are initially lost. creativity, adequate understanding of what is happening; actions become formulaic and do not fully correspond to the situation. With a further increase in the intensity of mental stress, under the influence of emerging negative psychological phenomena, errors begin to appear even in well-practiced skills, their number gradually increases, and they themselves become more crude; efficiency is rapidly decreasing. When extreme stress occurs, gross errors appear (for example, the driver of a car presses the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal, and then, if he remains alive, cannot explain why he did this); all sorts of instructions and recommendations “fly out of your head”; manifestations of outright cowardice, refusal to carry out risky assignments, deception, dishonesty, lack of will, etc. arise.

If the overvoltage continues to increase and further passes the critical point TO, extreme tension sets in and a breakdown in mental activity occurs - loss of the ability to understand the environment and be aware of one’s behavior. A breakdown can be expressed in an inhibitory form (stupor, psychological shock, numbness, indifference, complete passivity and indifference, loss of consciousness, etc.) or hysterical (panic, senseless, chaotic behavior).

Negative phenomena also arise in poorly prepared groups: unhealthy and pessimistic moods, rumors, dissatisfaction, negative opinions, weakening of discipline, violations of statutory and official standards of behavior, a tendency to immoderate drinking, conflicts in relationships, panic.

In the process of adaptation to extreme conditions, it is customary to distinguish the following stages, characterized by a change in emotional states and the appearance of unusual mental phenomena: preparatory, starting mental stress, acute mental reactions of entry, mental readaptation, final mental stress, acute mental reactions of exit and readaptation. In the genesis of unusual mental states, anticipation in a situation of information uncertainty is clearly traced (the stage of initial mental stress and the final stage); breakdown of the functional systems of analyzers formed during ontogenesis or a long stay in extreme conditions, disruption of the flow of mental processes and changes in the system of relations and relationships (the stage of acute mental reactions of entry and exit), active work individuals to develop protective (compensatory) reactions in response to the influence of psychogenic factors (readaptation stage) or restore previous response stereotypes (readaptation stage).

Practical experience allows us to assert that with high-quality emotional-volitional and professional-psychological preparation, with serious personal work employee above himself, all possible negative influences of extreme conditions on him and his actions can be successfully neutralized.

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