STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE REGULATORY FUNCTION OF A SUBJECT WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERSONAL HELPLESSNESS

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1 International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) Volume 9, Issue 11, November 2018, pp , Article ID: IJCIET_09_11_178 Available online at ISSN Print: and ISSN Online: IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE REGULATORY FUNCTION OF A SUBJECT WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERSONAL HELPLESSNESS Irina V. Ponomareva Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia Yana N. Sizova Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia Diana A. Tsiring Professor, Department of Psychology, Chelyabinsk State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia ABSTRACT Self-regulation (behavior control) acts as an integrative characteristic of a subject allowing a person to cope with his behavior in the context of uncertainty, complexity and diversity of the technological world. Control of behavior is mediated by the personal content of a subject, which can be personal helplessness. The research is aimed at studying the specific structural organization of behavior control of the subjects with personal helplessness of different types. The organizational peculiarity of the structure of behavior control is verified on the material of the study of adolescents with personal helplessness of a certain type. Calculating the indicators of behavior control functioning of a subject with different type of personal helplessness testify to heterogeneity of behavior regulation systems. Key words: Subject, Personality, Behavior Regulation, Behavior Control, Personal Cite this Article: Irina V. Ponomareva, Yana N. Sizova, Diana A. Tsiring, Structural Organization of the Regulatory Function of a Subject with Different Types of Personal, International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) 9(11), 2018, pp editor@iaeme.com

2 Structural Organization of the Regulatory Function of a Subject with Different Types of Personal 1. INTRODUCTION The ability of the individual to meet the challenges of uncertainty, complexity and diversity of the modern technological world is directly related to the quality of the individual's coping with his behavior. Self-regulation (self-control) acts as an integrative characteristic of a subject. Its effectiveness is associated with the implementation of mental resources for solving life problems. For a more holistic and deep understanding of the processes of behavior self-regulation requires a systematic view of human as an internal (personal) content bearer on the one hand, and a subject implementing activities in the outside world, on the other hand. The purpose of the research is to study the features of the regulatory function implementation of a subject (behavior control) depending on the internal content of the personality, that is, with different types of personal helplessness. Achieving the goal will allow us to improve the knowledge of the determinants of subject regulation, in particular the behavior control, to obtain data on the manifestation of personal helplessness in the behavior of a subject. The data obtained will allow to frame the concept of personal helplessness within the context of the systemicsubjective approach and to create a theoretical basis for solving applied problems of prevention and correction of personal helplessness. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Within the framework of the subject-activity approach, personal helplessness is defined as "the quality of a subject, which is the unity of certain personal characteristics arising as a result of the interaction of internal conditions with external ones, which determines the low level of subjectivity, that is, the low ability of a person to transform reality, shape the events of his own life, set and achieve goals, overcoming various difficulties" (Tsiring, 2010) [11]. The formation of personal helplessness is attributed to a number of factors, the main ones are environmental - disturbance of family relationships (Ponomareva, 2014) [6]. Many researchers consider family as the reason of various psychological problems of a person. The individual, being in a disadvantaged environment for the development, makes his own line of behavior, adapting to these conditions. The research by D.A. Tsiring (2010) [11] points out that personal helplessness is formed in the following disharmonious family relationships: hyperprotection, increased moral responsibility, abuse, controversial upbringing. Each of these styles of education involves different kinds of parental influences that form an unfavorable environment for the development of independence among children. Personal helplessness, as a kind of useful adaptive result, allows a person to preserve his integrity and find balance (Ponomareva, 2014) [6]. The research aimed at confirming the allocation of different types of personal helplessness was conducted By I. V. Ponomareva (2014) [6]. The author establishes connection between specific violations of the style of family education and the types of personal helplessness manipulative, protective and adaptive. Under the influence of certain violations of family education, the subject with personal helplessness of a particular type acquires qualitatively new characteristics that allow constructing the world adequately to the resources available to this person. Personal helplessness representing a systemic quality that combines the peculiarities of the cognitive, motivational, emotional and volitional spheres of personality is associated with the characteristics of individual resources on the basis of which the subjective regulation of behavior is implemented editor@iaeme.com

3 Irina V. Ponomareva, Yana N. Sizova, Diana A. Tsiring The problem of self-regulation holds one of the leading roles in modern psychology and is studied by many foreign and domestic psychologists (Morosanova, 1995) [5]. This is due to the conditions of life in modern society rapid changes, accelerating pace of life make the research issue of studying the ability of a person to regulate their behavior and to solve life problems relevant. The lack of self-control is the basis of human behavior problems manifested in a variety of spheres: from basic human functions to interaction with other people, professional activities and economic behavior. Unlike many modern researchers who study only certain aspects of subjective regulation of behavior, Ye. A. Sergienko (2008, 2011) [7, 8] made an attempt to integrate individual human resources and levels of organization, which form the basis of the ability to control their own behavior, in the construct of behavior control. Behavior control is considered by Ye. A. Sergienko (Sergienko et al., 2010) [9] as a psychological level of regulation implementing the individual resources of the mental organization of a person, providing the ratio of internal capabilities and external goals, and being the basis of self-control. Individual characteristics and the level of development of this integrative characteristic are determined by the level of human development as a subject, which reflects the degree of integration of all its mental properties. Considering that subject regulation is mediated by the inner world of a person, there is a need to balance the control of behavior and types of personal helplessness, the study of the peculiarities of the regulatory function among adolescents with personal helplessness of various types. The following provides an analysis of the relationship of psychological characteristics of adolescents to personal helplessness of different types with the components of behavior control. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The leading methodological principles of the research are the principles of determinism and development. According to the principle of determinism, the environment determines mental phenomena, refracting through the personal properties of the subject. The principle of development acts as a general scientific principle, according to which the nature and essence of any phenomena of objective reality should be studied in their origin and formation, in their development. The thesis of the formation of types of personal helplessness is based on the provisions of this principle. The study of the regulatory function of the subject and the types of personal helplessness is based on systemic and subjective approaches. These approaches are integrated into the systemic-subjective approach (variant of Ye. A. Sergienko), the contours of which provide the methodological design of this empirical study. The systemic mental organization is presented in the systemic-subjective approach by two levels: subject and personality (Tolstykh and Prikhozhan, 2016) [10]. In order to achieve this purpose, an empirical research was organized and conducted. The research sample consisted of 98 adolescents aged from 13 to 16. The empirical research was conducted in Personal helplessness was diagnosed with the use of the questionnaire by M. O. Klimova (Klimova et al., 2017) [4] and D. A. Tsiring (2010; Tsiring and Ponomareva, 2015) [11, 12]. Also the psychodiagnostics scale of types of personal helplessness by Ponomareva I. V., Sizova Ya. N. (Klimova et al., 2017) [4] was used. Behavior control was diagnosed with the following methods: the emotional component was studied by the method "Emotional Intelligence" by N. Schutte translated by V. Sadakova; the research of the cognitive control was carried out using the questionnaire "Style of Behavior Self-Regulation 98" by V. I. Morosanova (1995) [5] and "The Scale of Control over the Action" by J. Kuhl for the assessment of the level of volitional control. Methods of editor@iaeme.com

4 Structural Organization of the Regulatory Function of a Subject with Different Types of Personal descriptive statistics, single-factor analysis of variance, and correlation analysis were used as the methods of mathematical analysis of data. In addition, the analysis of a coherent structure of the control behavior of adolescents with different type of personal helplessness was conducted according to the method by A. V. Karpov (2004) [3]. 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION We started the study of behavior control among the subjects with different types of personal helplessness with the diagnosis of personal helplessness and its types. As a result, we had 69 subjects with signs of personal helplessness. 25 of them have an adaptive type, 25 have a protective type and 19 have a manipulative type. The study of behavior control included the study of emotional control (expression, regulation, the use of emotions in problem solving); volitional control (the control over the planning of the action, control over the implementation of the action, control of the action at failure); cognitive control (planning, modeling, programming, evaluation of results, flexibility, independence and the general level of self-regulation). In earlier research, data were obtained that the indicators of behavior control among subjects with personal helplessness are at a lower level, in contrast to subjects whose personal helplessness is not diagnosed (Klimova et al., 2017) [4]. Therefore, when interpreting the structure of the regulatory function of subjects with personal helplessness, we will refer to the above conclusions. The provision that at various types of disturbance of family relationships a certain type of personal helplessness is formed is verified in research by Ponomareva I. V. (2014). Figure 1 Structure of behavior control among adolescents with adaptive personal helplessness Source: Authors Conditions of increased moral responsibility and abuse are the main factors of adaptive personal helplessness, which is characterized by self-doubt, conformity and, at the same time, meticulousness, commitment, strict adherence to the requirements and rules (Ponomareva, 2014) [6]. An adolescent being raised in an environment of high moral responsibility seek to meet the expectations of parents, to "deserve" their love. Adolescents with personal helplessness of the adaptive type are forced to plan their own actions in order to predict the possible reactions of parents: approval or censure. Action planning helps to reduce anxiety of an adolescent and to relieve emotional stress. In order to effectively adapt to family editor@iaeme.com

5 Irina V. Ponomareva, Yana N. Sizova, Diana A. Tsiring disturbance an adolescent suppresses his own emotional reactions, remain silent about personal interests, desires and intentions. The consequence of the increased moral responsibility and abuse by parents is the emotional instability of an adolescent (Karabanova, 2005; Tolstykh and Prikhozhan, 2016) [2, 10]. To study the specifics of the structural organization of the regulatory function among adolescents with adaptive personal helplessness, the correlation analysis was carried out (Figure 1). When analyzing the resulting structural relationships, it can be observed that there is a limited set of interconnections within the components. Thus, the emotional component of behavior control is characterized by a single internal connection "emotion regulation" and "the use of emotions in problem solving " (p 0.01). Volitional component is characterized by the connection "control of the action at failure" and "the control over the planning of the action" And cognitive component of the regulatory function has a number of connections: general level of self-regulation is related to modeling, flexibility and programming (p 0.01); modeling - with programming and flexibility (p 0.01); evaluation of results correlates positively with independence (p 0.01), and negatively with planning (p 0.01). The absence of connections between the regulatory links within the components indicates an unformed style of regulation. The inter-component connections of cognitive and emotional control explain the orientation of adolescents with personal helplessness of the adaptive type on the opinion of others about their successes and failures, on how others assessed their actions. Low rates of the indicators of action control (control of the action at failure (M=3.9); the control over the planning of the action (M=6.7); control over the implementation of the action (M=5.5)) suggest that in the process of implementing the planned these adolescents are more focused on state than active actions, they are often in states of excessive reflexivity and are more worried about achieving the goal than actually pursuing it. Adolescents with adaptive personal helplessness are not able to give an adequate assessment of the results of their actions with expressed goal-setting and planning skills (M=7.3), as evidenced by the negative correlation between these indicators of cognitive control (p 0.05). These features of the structural organization of behavior control among adolescents with adaptive personal helplessness are due to disturbance of family relationships (Klimova et al., 2017) [4]. Considering the above-described personal characteristics of adolescents with adaptive helplessness and particular features of their education, we can suppose that cognitive and emotional control and in particular the ability to plan are involved in the regulation of behavior of these adolescents. Establishing an action plan helps an adolescent to design his own behavior and predict parental reactions in order to effectively adapt to family conditions. Contradictory style of education characterized by multidirectional effects of parents on the child: from hyperprotection to abuse, is the main factor in the formation of protective personal helplessness. This type of helplessness is characterized by the expressed mechanisms of psychological protection - substitution and regression (Tsiring and Ponomareva, 2015) [12]. The substitution characteristic for such adolescents is manifested in irritability, temper, impulsiveness and rudeness (Granovskaya, 2010) [1]. Substitution manifested in the form of an offensive, hostile reaction, an aggressive response to an external and more accessible object helps an adolescent to reduce emotional discomfort and feel better. Also, regressive forms of behavior are typical for such subjects. These forms are characterized by the need for consolation and dependence on others and their opinions. It can be manifested in crying, resentment, suggestibility and rapid change of interests. In the light of the foregoing, the reduction of anxiety and the elimination of the psychological discomfort occurs among adolescents with protective helplessness, in particular, due to the infantile response to the difficulties. Figure 2 shows the results of the interrelationships between the behavioral control components editor@iaeme.com

6 Structural Organization of the Regulatory Function of a Subject with Different Types of Personal Figure 2 Structure of behavior control among adolescents with protective personal helplessness Source: Authors Behavior control among adolescents with protective personal helplessness is characterized by a lack of connections within the emotional component, a single connection in the volitional one, and in the cognitive one the connections are better represented. This indicates the subject's absence of a systemic style of regulation and that the basic element of the structure is the cognitive component, which has the largest number of positive connections and the weight of the elements of the structure. Among these subjects, the cognitive component of behavior control is characterized by an average level of the ability to plan (M=5.8), their plans are less realistic, the goal may not be achieved, and plans may change. The modeling processes are formed to a lesser extent (M=3.2), they assess the importance of external and internal conditions of activity less adequately, they are more prone to fantasizing, their attitude to the development of the situation and the consequences of their actions is changeable, their formulated programmes of action are not always adequate to the situation. Thus, the leading role in the regulation of behavior of adolescents with protective personal helplessness belongs to cognitive control. Manipulative personal helplessness is formed mainly in the conditions of dominant hyperprotection, when a child, as a rule, does not have an opportunity to be active, initiative, to declare his own autonomy and gain experience of independence (Tsiring and Ponomareva, 2015) [12]. In such an environment, parents tend to underestimate the real abilities and capabilities of an adolescent, they strive for maximum control of the child's actions. An adolescent does not face the need to reckon with the opinion of others, in difficult situations he is inclined to involve other people in the process of achieving his own goals and meeting his personal needs. Figure 3 shows a correlation pleiad demonstrating the structural organization of behavior control among adolescents with manipulative personal helplessness editor@iaeme.com

7 Irina V. Ponomareva, Yana N. Sizova, Diana A. Tsiring Figure 3 Structure of behavior control among adolescents with manipulative personal helplessness Source: Authors Behavior control of a subject with manipulative personal helplessness is characterized by single indicators of connections within the components, except for the emotional component, where there is a complete range of connections (p 0.01). As for the volitional and cognitive components, they have almost no connections, and therefore, in general, there is no single style of regulation. The basic element of the structure is the emotional component, on which the key tendencies of the structure functioning depend. The subject with personal helplessness of the manipulative type has the formed ability to control emotional outbursts consciously, to control his own emotions and emotions of other people, to consciously attract emotions that create a favorable background for the implementation of activities, or to be distracted from emotions in the opposite case. The results conform to the previously described understanding of the manipulative type of personal helplessness: they are characterized by emotional coolness, lack of empathy, inability to build trusting relationship, emotional alienation, focus on themselves or on tasks, etc. (Ponomareva, 2014) [6]. Negative connections between the cognitive and emotional components (emotion regulation, modeling (p 0.01), emotion regulation and planning (p 0.05), indicate that the ability to consciously control emotional outbursts, control their own emotions and the emotions of other people is associated with the inability to formulate meaningful conditions for the implementation of activities both in the existing situation and in planning, therefore the programmes of action and the results do not correspond to the stated goals. The volitional component also has negative correlations with the cognitive component. The control over the planning of the action is interrelated with programming (p 0.05) and the general level of selfregulation (p 0.05). This fact indicates that when planning and deciding on action, adolescents are not able to consciously program their actions, they do not plan their behavior and means of action to achieve their goals. Positive connections between the emotional and the volitional component were discovered. The emotion regulation is connected with the ability to consciously control emotional outbursts, control one's own emotions and the emotions of others, consciously attract emotions that create a favorable background for the activity (p 0.01). Subjects with manipulative helplessness regulate actions in a situation of risk when the parameters of the editor@iaeme.com

8 Structural Organization of the Regulatory Function of a Subject with Different Types of Personal situation are not sufficiently "transparent" and failure is possible. The regulation of their emotions and the recognition of the emotions of others allows them to build a manipulative strategy of interaction in the situation of possible failure. Evaluation and expression of emotions correlates with the control over the planning of the action. When recognizing their own feelings and the feelings of other people, such subjects, express their emotions adequately to the existing conditions and circumstances. Therefore, a subject with manipulative personal helplessness is able to assess the consistency of his own goal and the results, adapting, if necessary, for the changing conditions. In addition, these adolescents are distinguished by the ability to recognize the emotions of other people, which helps to engage others in meeting the personal needs. The research continued with the analysis of the peculiarities of the structure of behavior control according to the method by A.V. Karpov (2004) [3]. The results are presented in Table 1 (source-authors). Table 1 Indicators of the analysis of the integral structure of behavior control among adolescents with different types of personal helplessness Source: Authors Manipulative type Adaptive type Protective type Coherence index Divergence index Organization index Homogeneity/heterogeneity R= , p=0.622; R=0.443, p=0.233; R=0.860, p= The analysis of the indicators of behavior control functioning of the subject with a varying type of personal helplessness showed that the index of coherence and organization of the structure of behavior control of the manipulative type is lower than that of the adaptive and protective type. The coherence of the structure should be understood as the degree of correlation (consistency) of the variables in the correlation matrix. This indicates that the construct of behavior control of the subjects with manipulative personal helplessness is the least holistic, internally consistent system. Conversely, the divergence index of the subjects with manipulative personal helplessness is higher than that of the other two types. We understand the differentiation of the structure as the degree of differences between the elements of the structure in their impact on the structure functioning. This indicates the degree of incoherence of interconnections in the correlation matrix of behavior control among the subjects with personal helplessness of the manipulative type. The analysis of homogeneity / heterogeneity of the structures of behavior control indicates the heterogeneity of structures. The differences in the structures of behavior control in the selected groups of adolescents are not only quantitative, but also qualitative in nature the structures differ in the number of internal connections and in the degree of influence of individual elements of the structure on its functioning. Therefore, the analysis of the structural organization of behavior control among the subjects with personal helplessness of various types revealed specific features of the organization and functioning. This conclusion is consistent with the provision of I. I. Vetrova (2008) [13] that the lack of control of one component should naturally be combined with the compensatory development of other components editor@iaeme.com

9 Irina V. Ponomareva, Yana N. Sizova, Diana A. Tsiring 5. CONCLUSIONS The analysis of the structural organization of behavior control as a regulatory function of a subject with a varying type of personal helplessness showed the specific differences in the structure of behavior control. It was determined that subjects with adaptive personal helplessness in the regulation of behavior perform cognitive and emotional control, while subjects with protective helplessness cognitive control, and subjects with the manipulative type emotional one. In addition, the data indicating the heterogeneity of behavior regulation systems among subjects with various personal helplessness were obtained. The data obtained in the course of the research expand the understanding of personal helplessness, its types, the implementation of personal helplessness in behavior. Specific features of the structural organization and functional connections of behavior control in different types of personal helplessness were also detected: each type has its individual specificity. The significance of the research results is justified both by solving a number of theoretical issues and by creating a basis for solving applied problems. The research will allow studying the types of personal helplessness in greater depth, to trace the connection between the personal characteristics of a subject and the implementation of his regulatory function. This research introduces new knowledge about the organization of human subjectivity and personality in the context of the psychology of a subject. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The study was supported by the Russian Fundamental Research Fund (project No ). REFERENCES [1] Granovskaya, R. M. Psychological Protection. St. Petersburg : Rech, [2] Karabanova, O. A. Psychology of Family Relations and the Basics of Family Counseling. Moscow : Gardariki, [3] Karpov, A. V. Metasystemic Organization of Level Structures of the Psyche. Moscow : Publishing House of the "Psychological Institute of RAS", [4] Klimova, M., Ponomareva, I. and Sizova, Y. Regulative Function of a Subject with Personal : a Theoretical Model of Research. Eurasian Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 12(7B), 2017, pp [5] Morosanova, V. I. Individual Style of Self-Regulation in Arbitrary Human Activity. Psychological Journal, 16(4), 1995, pp [6] Ponomareva, I. V. Personal of Adolescents from Families with Disturbed Relationships. Chelyabinsk : Pechatniy Dvor, [7] Sergienko, Ye. A. Subject Regulation of Coping Behavior. In: Zhuravlev, A. L., Kryukova, T. L. and Sergienko, Ye. A., eds., Coping Behavior: Current State and Prospects. Moscow : Publishing House of the "Psychological Institute of RAS", 2008, pp [8] Sergienko, Ye. A. Systematic-Subjective Approach: Rationale and Perspective. Psychological Journal, 32(1), 2011, pp editor@iaeme.com

10 Structural Organization of the Regulatory Function of a Subject with Different Types of Personal [9] Sergienko, Ye. A., Vilenskaya, G. A. and Kovaleva, Yu. V. Behavior Control as Subject Regulation. Moscow : RAS Psychological Institute, [10] Tolstykh, N. N. and Prikhozhan, A. M. Psychology of Adolescence. Moscow : Yurayt, [11] Tsiring, D. A. Psychology of Personal : the Study of Subjectivity Levels. Moscow : Academy, [12] Tsiring, D. and Ponomareva, I. Characteristics of Teenager-to-Parent Relationships and Their Inputs into the Formation of Juvenile Personality. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 214, 2015, pp [13] Vetrova, I. I. Connection of Coping Behavior with Behavior Control and Psychological Protection in the System of Self-Regulation. In: Zhuravlev, A. L., Kryukova, T. L. and Sergienko, Ye. A., eds., Coping Behavior. Current State and Prospects. Moscow : Publishing House of the "Psychological Institute of RAS" editor@iaeme.com