(2016) Science and education, 2-3, 169-173. Odessa.

Vitalii Popov,
post-graduate student, Department of Extreme Psychology,
National University of Civil Protection of Ukraine,
94, Chernyshevska Str., Kharkiv, Ukraine 

EMOTIONAL COMPONENT OF ACQUIRED HELPLESSNESS AMONG EMPLOYEES OF STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE 

 The extreme nature of the professional activity of rescuers has a negative impact on the psyche of a wide range of negative factors, which often cause mental breakdowns, reduction of professional capacity, maladjustment, which leads to the formation of professional destruction. Helplessness leads to a change in the structure of individual activities, a negative impact on productivity and interaction with colleagues. Acquired helplessness is a psychological phenomenon, which is formed as a result of prolonged traumatic experience on the basis of subjective awareness of the lack of control of events under the influence of destructive environmental factors and intrapersonal factors. Learned helplessness is a tendency to generalize to other areas of activity, manifested in two forms – situational and personal. The article deals with the issue of acquired helplessness of employees of State Emergency Service of Ukraine. Basing on the review of the psychological literature there has been allocated a four-component structure of the phenomenon of acquired helplessness, including cognitive, emotional, motivational and volitional components. The article is aimed at studying the emotional component of acquired helplessness. In domestic psychological sources the issue of acquired helplessness formation and manifestation among the rescuers is still understudied. The lack of control over the actions of causes emotional deficit, which leads to depression. Lack of control makes helplessness affect behavior in other situations. Depressive people know from experience that they cannot control the negative complex situations, as they consider themselves to be helpless. Helplessness destroys and complicates social communication and interpersonal contacts. The carried out research has shown that employees with personal helplessness consider themselves to be passive and indifferent. It has been determined that employees with situational helplessness tend to be indecisive, nervous, unconfident and strained. It has been found that employees with personal and situational helplessness are characterized by insufficient responsibility. The employees with a high level of situational anxiety tend to perceive a threat to their self-esteem and life in a vast range of situations and respond with the expressed condition of anxiety. The study does not cover all aspects of the issue of the acquired helplessness formation and development. The above theoretical and empirical analysis of this problem enriches knowledge on the phenomenon of acquired helplessness and can be useful for the development of programs for psycho-correction of rescuers’ acquired helplessness.

 acquired helplessness, emotional component, anxiety, depression, employees of State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

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