Article

Tarasova A.А., Shoigu Yu.S. (2020). Significant job skills of the Russian EMERCOM SISSV experts. National Psychological Journal, [Natsional’nyy psikhologicheskiy zhurnal], (13)1, 94–106.

Abstract

Background. The paper is based on specifics of the professional activity of specialists of the State Inspectorate of Small Size Vessels of Russian EMERCOM (SISSV) is a highly demanding job that requires specific individual psychological features to successfully fulfill their duties. Such individual psychological features are important for experts, and also for candidates to the positions in the GIMS used as recruitment criteria.

The Objective. of the study is to identify job skills that determine the professional effectiveness of SISSV experts, to identify the relationship between job skills and career success and to determine psychological indicators strongly associated with success.

Design. An expert survey (N = 40) was conducted to determine psychological indicators that contribute to professional success of SISSV experts. We carried out psychological assessment of acting SISSV experts (N = 275) to determine the presence and the level of necessary skills. Based on expert assessments, the inspectors were assigned to either successful or unsuccessful groups. The resulting polar groups were compared using Mann-Whitney criterion. Correlation analysis (Spearman) was used to access the strength of association between professional success and job skills. We also used factor and regression analyses to model the structure of job skills associated with professional success of acting SISSV specialists and job applicants.

Results. allowed to establish reliable differences between the polar groups on following characteristics (p ≤ 0.05): intelligence, abstract and operative thinking, intellectual liability, attention characteristics (volume, concentration, selection, distribution). They were defined as job skills for SISSV experts. The results of correlation analysis (p = 0.01, p = 0.05) showed that the specialists professional success depended on the presence and level of formation of job skills. We determined the structure of job skills associated with professional success.

Conclusion. The obtained results may be used to optimize the processes of psychological monitoring and psychological selection of the acting specialists of SISSV of Russian EMERCOM and applicant for the position.

Sections: Professional identity of the person;

Received: 02/25/2020
Accepted: 03/06/2020
Pages: 94-106
DOI: 10.11621/npj.2020.0109

Keywords: professional activity; sociability; professionally important qualities; activity effectiveness; expert;

Available Online 31.03.2020

Table 1. Job skills required for career success in SISSV EMERCOM of Russia (expert survey, N = 40)

Job Skills	Level
1. Basic intelligence	Above average
2. Flexibility of thinking, mobility and speed of switching of thought processes	Above average
3. Volume of attention	Above average
4. Concentration of attention	Above average
5. Attention distribution	Average and above average
6. Attention switching	Average and above average
7. Attention span	Average and above average
8. Selective Attention	Average and above average
9. Short-term memory	Above average
10. Long-term memory	Above average
11. Random access memory	Above average
12. Realistic thinking	Availability is important
13. Synthetic thinking	Availability is important
14. Analytical thinking	Availability is important
15. Pragmatic thinking	Availability is important
16. Idealistic thinking	Availability possible but not required
17. Communicative skills	Above average
18. Organizational skills	Average and above average
19. Neuropsychic resistance	High
20. Personal anxiety	Low
21. Internal locus of control	Availability possible but not required
22. Leadership in collaboration	Average and above average
23. Achievement motivation	Availability possible but not required

Table 2. Psychodiagnostic tools used in the examination of SISSV experts EMERCOM of Russia

Method	Index	Contents
1	2	3
Test of increasing difficulty by J. Raven [22, pp. 74–89]	Basic intelligence	Level of basic intelligence
Intellectual lability [2, pp. 120–123]	Intellectual lability	Switching speed and flexibility of thought processes
Thinking [1]	S	Synthetical
	I	Idealistic
	P	Pragmatic
	А	Analytical
	R	Realistic
Landolt Ring [13, pp.141–142]	VA	Attention volume
	CA	Concentration of attention
	SA	Selective Attention
	AS	Attention span
Number square [7, p. 217]	VA	Volume of attention
Number square [7, p. 217]	AD	Attention distribution
Munsterberg test [7, p. 216]	VA	Volume of attention
Munsterberg test [7, p. 216]	SA	Selective Attention
Random access memory [7, p. 212]	RAM	Storing, saving and reproducing information in the process of performing certain actions
10 words memorization [2, pp. 92–94]	STM 1	Short-term memory -1 repetition
	STM 2	Short-term memory - 2 repetition
	STM 3	Short-term memory - 3 repetition
	STM4	Short-term memory - 4 repetition
	LTM	Long-term memory
Assessment of communicative and organizational skills [26, p. 581–583]	CS	Communicative skills
	ОS	Organizational skills
Assessment of subjective control [21, p. 186–188]	SC	Subjective control
Forecast [8, p. 124–125]	NpR	Neuropsychic resistance
Personal and reactive anxiety by C. Spielberger & Y. Khanin [26, p. 59– 63]	PA	Personal anxiety
Indicative profile [21, p. 171–175]	SO	Self-oriented
	GO	Goal-oriented
	CO	Collaboration-oriented
Leadership Self Assessment [18, p. 245–246 ]	LP	Leadership potential
Schwarzlander Motor Test [29, p. 12–14]	LC	Level of claims
16-PFpersonality Cattell Questionnaire (Form A) [26, p. 192–239]	F.А	Schizotymia-affectotymia
	FВ	abstract thinking - high learning ability
	FС	Emotional immaturity-emotional maturity
	FЕ	Conformity-dominance
	FF	Impulsiveness-restraint
	FG	Moral control of behaviour
	FН	Timidity-determination
	FI	Hardness-softness
	FL	Gullibility-suspicion
	FМ	Practicality-dreaming
	FN	Naivety-shrewdness
	FО	Current level of anxiety
	FQ1	Conservatism-radicalism
	FQ2	Dependency-independence
	FQ3	Strong-willed self-control of behaviour
	FQ4	Frustration anxiety
Method of multilateral personality research by F.B. Berezin (MPR) [3]	L	Social Desirability Scale
	F	Confidence scale
	К	Correction scale
	1	Anxiety somatization scale
	2	Scale of anxiety and depressive tendencies
	3	Anxiety Displacement Scale
	4	Impulsiveness scale
	5	Male and female character traits
	6	Affect rigidity scale
	7	Anxiety and Restrictive Behaviour Scale
	8	Autization scale
	9	Scale of negation of anxiety and hypomania
	0	Scale of social contacts / social activity (extraversion)

Table 3. Differences in indicators between effective and ineffective SISSV experts EMERCOM of Russia

Index	Mean		Mann- Whitney U test	Statistical significance (р)
Index	Effective (N = 57)	Ineffective (N = 70)	Mann- Whitney U test	Statistical significance (р)
Basic Intelligence	93.0	81.0	1578.0	0.014
Intellectual lability	9.9	12.7	1429.0	0.002
CA	77.0	65.6	1640.0	0.042
VA Number Square	32.5	29.2	1356.5	0.000
DA Number Square	10.3	8.8	1315.5	0.000
VA Munsterberg test	394.5	354.1	1597.0	0.017
SA Munsterberg test	18.7	15.9	1318.5	0.000
STM 1	7.4	6.7	1562.0	0.009
STM	9.3	8.7	1449.0	0.001
LTM	9.1	8.2	1497.5	0.003
FВ abstract thinking - high learning ability	6.0	5.0	1606.5	0.019
SC Level of subjective control	30.4	28.0	1471.0	0.003
Мf	44.0	39.0	1235.5	0.045
Si	43.0	50.0	1209.5	0.031

Table 4. Verified significant differences between clusters in the indicators

Index	Mean		Significance level	Index	Mean		Significance level
Index	1 Cluster	3 Cluster	Significance level	Index	1 Cluster	3 Cluster	Significance level
Basic Intelligence	82.9	94.8	0.005	STM3	8.8	9.3	0.002
Intellectual lability (mistakes)	12.4	9.3	0.000	STM4	8.9	9.4	0.005
Intelligence	54.8	56.3	0.042	LTM	8.3	9.1	0.002
CA Landolt Ring	68.6	77.1	0.044	SC Level of subjective control	28.5	31.0	0.004
SA Landolt Ring	84.6	88.8	0.041	LP Leadership potential	6.7	7.3	0.014
VA Number Square	29.7	33.0	0.004	ОS	14.6	15.3	0.050
DA Number Square	8.8	10.2	0.001	NpR	12.8	11.3	0.047
VA Munsterberg test	352.8	385.0	0.049	PA Personal Anxiety	38.0	36.5	0.048
SA Munsterberg test	16.3	18.5	0.001	F А	9.9	11.0	0.017
RAM Random access memory	29.5	31.9	0.048	F В	6.6	7.8	0.003
STM1	6.8	7.5	0.006	Mf	18.7	20.3	0.044
STM 2	8.4	8.8	0.037	Si	23.9	21.3	0.013

Table 5. Number and contents of the obtained factors

Factor	Factor content and factor load
1 Factor “Storage and reproduction of information” (27.7% variance)	1. Short-term memory -1 repetition (0.64); 2. Short-term memory - 2 repetition (0.76); 3. Short-term memory -3 repetition (0.79); 4. Short-term memory - 4 repetition (0.73); 5. Long-term memory (0.73).
2 Factor "Focused attention" (12.5% variance)	1. Concentration of attention (0.97); 2. Selective Attention - Landolt Ring (0.97).
3 Factor “Volume and focus of attention” (11.8% variance)	1. Volume of attention - Munsterberg test (0.92); 2. Selective Attention - Munsterberg test (0.88).
4 Factor “Operational thinking and information processing” (8.3% of the variance)	1. Basic intelligence (0.71); 2. Intellectual lability (-0.78); 3. Random access memory (0.67).
5 Factor “Coverage and retention of objects” (7.6% variance)	1. Volume of attention - Number Square (0.81); 2. Attention distribution - Number Square (0.75).
6 Factor “Regulation of actions and behavior” (31.1% of the variance)	1. Level of Subjective control (-0.50); 2. Neuropsychic resistance (0.82); 3. Personal anxiety(0.83).
7 Factor “Implementation of management decisions” (14.8% variance)	1. Leadership self-assessment (0.75); 2. Organizational skills (0.72); 3. Emotional Extraversion / Introversion (0.70).
8 Factor – “Problem solving and behavior change” (10.9% variance)	1. Abstract and operational thinking (0.59); 2. Conformity, empathy (0.63).

Fig. 1. Correlation analysis of the impact of the studied indicators on the expert assessment (Cf )

For citing this article:

Tarasova A.А., Shoigu Yu.S. (2020). Significant job skills of the Russian EMERCOM SISSV experts. National Psychological Journal, [Natsional’nyy psikhologicheskiy zhurnal], (13)1, 94–106.