Barabanshchikova, V.V.

Background. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being actively implemented in various fields: scientific, industrial, military, and others. At the same time, the need for training personnel and ensuring the effectiveness of UAV operators’ professional performance is exponentially increasing. When applying engineering psychology approaches, it is common to describe the operator’s activity by assessing, among other things, the structure of its conceptual model. By studying the structure of the conceptual model — that is, describing the relationships and contributions of individual components within the conceptual model — it is possible to determine the level of an operator’s readiness to perform tasks independently. At the same time, by considering the specifics of how the conceptual model components are formed, effective operator training programmes can be developed in a short timeframe.

Objective. The study is focused on the analysis of UAV operators’ professional activities, taking into account the need to develop and use conceptual models to successfully solve professional tasks.

Study Participants. 10 operators — heads of unmanned aerial vehicle units.

Methods. A series of interviews was conducted to analyse the external aspects of activity. Elaboration of a professiogram and analysis of theoretical approaches to understanding the conceptual model were involved.

Results. A professiogram was developed, describing the tasks, work process, and equipment used by the UAV operators, confirming the classification of this new type of work as operator work. Based on the analysis of theoretical approaches to understanding the conceptual model and taking into account the multi-level components necessary for a detailed description of its structure for UAV operators, a comprehensive definition is proposed in which the identified components are hierarchically organised. The analysis of individual components of the conceptual model and proposed methods for its experimental study are also presented.

Conclusions. An approach for a qualitative analysis of the professional performance of UAV operators is presented. It includes studying the external (creating a professiogram) and internal (conceptual models) aspects of their work. Using a professiogram, it is possible to take into account the characteristics of operators of various UAV types, and studying the conceptual model will allow us to assess the process of developing and shaping professionalism in UAV operators.

Background. The necessity of studying perceptions of creativity in psychology cadets is conditioned by the fact that the “soft” skill of creativity is associated with the ability to go beyond the given conditions and to act effectively in uncertain situations, and also by the fact that the successful adaptation of a young specialist to work depends on whether his perceptions of his activity coincide with its real content.

Objectives. The research is meant to identify the peculiarities of representations of creativity in psychology cadets at the adept stage.

Study Participants. A total of 201 people (122 men and 79 women) participated in the study, including representatives of different professions: working professionals and trainees, students and cadets. The average age of the sample was 31 years.

Methods. Psychosemantic methods were used in the study: group associative experiment and card sorting method. They allow to construct a subjective semantic space reflecting the peculiarities of perceptions of creativity.

Results. As a result of the associative experiment, a list of 86 frequent words describing professional activity was obtained. Sorting of the obtained 86 words by cadet psychologists, psychology students, and psychologists of the scientific platoon revealed significant differences in the content and structure of representations of creativity. Comparison of the semantics of creativity in psychologists at the adept stage shows that university students have a more complex structure of representations in comparison with cadets, connected with the allocation of a separate cluster “hobby, interest, development” and at the same time similar in content to the representations of working psychologists on the proximity of “labor, work” with creativity. At the same time, the similarity of clusters in the description of creativity by students and cadets indicates that the ideas about it are laid down at the early stages of professional training.

Conclusions. Reconstruction of subjective semantics of creativity by the method of semantic spaces in psychology cadets is a promising qualitative description method for specific characteristics of professional activity.

Relevance. Professional reliability is a complex multidimensional construct that is used to predict the professional success of specialists working in extreme conditions. Such forecasting is possible in large-scale studies using complex multi-stage modeling, but the forecast will be abstract, not applicable to individual cases. An alternative is to predict certain aspects of success. At the same time, the components of “personal reliability” have the greatest predictive value, since with the development of civilization and changes in the “man-machine” relationship, the internal content of professional reliability shifted from a predominantly functional component to motivational, moral and socio-psychological, including the phenomenon of self-regulation. 

The purpose of the research is to study the components of personal reliability as possible predictors of certain aspects of professional success of rescuers. 

Sample:31 specialists (men), rescuers of one of the Subdivision Ministry of Emergency Situations AQUASPASS, aged 24 to 45 years. 

Research methods: expert assessment of professional success; self-assessment of the level of professionalism; case method; test questionnaire A.V. Zverkova and E.V. Eydman “Research of volitional self-regulation”; “11 personality factors”; test “Motivational Profile” by Ritchie S., Martin P.; Rosenzweig frustration test; “Express methodology” for studying the social and psychological climate in a team (OS Mikhalyuk and A.Yu. Shalyto); diagnostics of the attractiveness of labor (V.M. Snetkov). 

Conclusions (briefly): a) it is possible to use the indicator of success in a training situation as a predictor of professional success; b) the influence of each of the components of personal reliability on different aspects of professional success is differentiated, therefore, forecasting is more optimal also in differentiated options; c) the effectiveness of socio-psychological interaction makes an important contribution to professional success, and the components of the socio-psychological climate play different roles in this. 

Acknowledgments: The study was carried out with funding from grant 19-013-00799 A “Predictive model of adaptability and reliability of professionals in extreme working conditions”.

Relevance of the research is based on the development of modern technological innovative organizations, dynamic organizational environment and job stressors connected with inaction of human adoptive processes which provoke professional deformations in employees.

Objective. To provide theoretical, methodological and empirical base of professional deformations’ research in innovative sphere professions as the situation of development of destructive or adoptive job performance mechanisms.

Methodology. 927 subjects, innovative sphere professionals, took part in the study. To obtain data were used: Managerial Stress Survey (Leonova, 2006); means to assess the modality specific professional deformations as a base of self-management programs; psychological self-regulation methods.

Results. It was found the job conditions and job content in innovative sphere professions that predicted the risk group of professional deformations’ development. Chronic professional stress manifestations (anxiety, exhaustion, aggressive and depressive behavior tendencies) were found as predictors professional deformations in innovative sphere employees. The mechanisms of modality specific professional deformations were analyzed; the effectiveness of different integrative image based psychological self-regulation methods is connected with adoptive modality specific professional deformations in innovative sphere employees.

Conclusions. The principle of professional deformations’ development in innovative sphere employees is based on cumulative effect of acute job stress and chronic job stress syndrome. Destructive professional deformations and adoptive modality specific professional deformations in employees develop on the influence of job demands in innovative sphere professions.