Kondratyuk, N.G.

Background. Modern research on the professional development of university students is difficult to imagine without considering the influence of conscious self-regulation and stress. Though the cross-regional aspect of this problem is gaining researchers’ attention, it still remains under elaborated.

Objective. The goal is to examine the features of professional development of students from regions with different stress loads depending on the development of conscious self-regulation, psychological well-being, future orientation, and the level of chronic stress.

Study Participants. The study sample (N = 445) consisted of 279 students from Moscow City Pedagogical University and Kaluga State University (central regions of Russia) and 166 students from Donetsk State University (Donbas).

Methods. The study implemented “Acute and Chronic Stress Scale” (ACSS), Self-Regulation Profile Questionnaire by Morosanova (SRPQM-2020), Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS), the short version of the Stanford Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI-15), and the Well-Being Manifestations Measurement Scale (WBMMS). Correlation analysis, group comparisons, and structural equation modeling (JASP, R) were applied for the data processing.

Results. A model of psychological resources for students’ professional development under stress was developed and empirically verified. The findings confirmed that conscious self-regulation, psychological well-being, and orientation for future act as psychological resources for students’ professional development. Furthermore, conscious self-regulation contributes both directly and indirectly to students’ professional development by supporting psychological well-being and future orientation. Negative effects of chronic stress on professional development are entirely mediated through a chain of connections with psychological resources. The regional specificity was revealed: under conditions of a highly stressful environment, as seen in Donbas students, the relationship between psychological well-being and future orientation weakens, whereas the contribution of conscious self-regulation to maintaining these resources and directly to professional development increases.

Conclusions. The structure of relationships among psychological resources, professional development, and the impact of chronic stress is invariant with respect to students’ residing in the regions with varying stress load. The identified differences in the strength of particular relationships suggest regional specificity reflecting different degrees of integration of resources into students’ professional development under stress.

Background. The relevance of the study is due to the need for investigating the professional development of senior schoolchildren and students under the conditions of increasing influence of stress factors.

Objectives. The study set the purpose to review and analyze modern scientific ideas on the problem of psychological resources of professional self-determination in students under stress.

Methods. Search for and analysis of recent theoretical and empirical research publications was carried out. Abstraction, and generalization of obtained data relevant to the topic of the article were applied. Methods also included identification of theoretical foundations and promising directions for research into the problem of psychological resources of professional self-determination of students under stress.

Results. Analysis of the recent publications allowed to reveal conceptual differences in understanding the phenomenon of professional self-determination of the individual. It identified a variety of approaches to the study of human professional behaviour. The authors highlighted and characterized the main directions of modern research on the topic discussed, indicating the demand for studying human professional behaviour in the changing conditions of life. The study systematized theoretical foundations and empirical data on the psychological resources for students’ professional self-determination and for overcoming life stress.

Conclusions. The study revealed the potential of a resource-based approach to the study of the stress influence on the professional self-determination of students and substantiated the role of conscious self-regulation resources in choosing and mastering a profession.

Relevance. In occupations with high demands for resistance to stress, the reliability of conscious self-regulation is considered an important factor ensuring personnel reliability. This interdisciplinary study takes place at the intersection of general psychology, psychology of self-regulation, labor psychology, professional psychology, and extreme psychology.

Objective. To study the reliability of self-regulation as a universal and special resource for achieving goals under stressful conditions in high-risk occupations.

Methodology. Representatives of high-risk occupations – sailors (N = 139), pilots (N = 33), rescuers (N = 123) – and low-risk professions (teachers, N = 154) took part in the study. Individual differences in self-regulation and its reliability under stress were assessed by means of the Self-Regulation Profile Questionnaire (V.I. Morosanova & N.G. Kondratyuk, 2011).

Results. Self-regulation and its reliability in stressful conditions were found to be significantly greater among the high-risk professions than the low-risk ones. There were no significant differences in self-regulation reliability between the different groups of high-risk professionals.Using one-way ANOVA and Cohen’s effect size measures, differences in self-regulation variables were found between experts and novices for different professional groups. Among sailors and pilots, significant differences were found between experts and novices only for one variable:  reliability of self-regulation. Quite the opposite result was obtained for the teachers: Experts differ significantly from novices in all self-regulation parameters except for  reliability of self-regulation.

Conclusion. The study substantiated the view that reliability of self-regulation is a universal and special regulatory resource for professional goal achievement. The research results allow us to conclude that in high-risk occupations, reliability of self-regulation may serve as a professional resource ensuring efficiency, faultless operation, and safety.