AUTO-AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR AS AN INDICATOR OF REDUCED HARDINESS

Abstract

Elena V. Kamneva, Anzhela V. Romanova, Olga V. Mizonova, Bogdan S. Vasyakin, Mikhail N. Mikhaylovsky

Purpose of the study: The problem of auto-aggressive behavior has recently become one of the most topical issues in psychology and psychiatry. Hetero-aggression and auto-aggression have common pathogenetic mechanisms, and the resulting aggressive behavior can be directed either at others or at oneself. That is why auto-aggressive behavior is considered not only as actions aimed at doing any harm to one’s somatic or mental health, but also as a variant of aggressive behavior in which the subject and object of aggression coincide. Our empirical study, first of all, is focused on studying the problem of changes that take place in the content of the meaning of human life in crisis situations, as a result of which hardiness decreases and, on the contrary, suicidal risk increases.
Methodology: This paper presents the results of the empirical research into the characteristics of the value and meaning sphere of a person who has chosen a self-destructive way to overcome the psychological crisis. The study sample consisted of patients from the toxicological department of the Medical Hospital in the city of Moscow who committed a suicide attempt (incomplete suicide) by drug poisoning. The study sample consisted of 150 people (respectively, 75 subjects in the control and experimental groups). As a psycho-diagnostic instrument in the study, the “Life meaning Orientations” technique (hereinafter referred to as the LMO) was used. Along with the testing, such methods as conversation, including with elements of a clinical interview, and psychological counseling were actively used. The combination of these methods allowed us to study the features of the life meaning orientations of a person in a crisis life situation and who chose a suicidal way out of this crisis.
Results: Auto-destructive behavior is considered as an indicator of a decrease in psychological hardiness of a person in difficult life situations. It is proved that the “internal” causes and factors that determine the choice of auto-aggressive forms of behavior, as a way of resolving a crisis life situation, often take root in the characteristics of the value and meaning sphere of an individual’s personality. Acutely experienced dissatisfaction with self-realization and the process of life in the present, often accompanied by a lack of perceived life prospects and goals, causes a person to have low meaning of his life. In this case, the person has underestimation, a simplified perception of life, man, death, the past and present. Usually a sense of certain doom is recognized, the need for human existence, and life itself is not perceived as complete (filled with interesting things and plans, the presence of which gives life interest and richness). The lack or weak awareness of real goals, desires and aspirations is expressed in the absence of everyday intentions - to possess something, to acquire something in the near future, thereby reflecting a low value of the “efficiency in business”, the presence of which could give the meaning of life at least in the short term.Applications of this study: The results obtained allowed us to develop practical recommendations aimed at forming and developing hardiness in people in the situation of an acute psychological crisis. To this end, it was recommended to carry out activities aimed at: forming ideas about perceived life prospects and goals; correcting the value and meaning sphere of the individual’s personality; increasing the adaptive capabilities of the individual.Novelty/Originality of this study: The results of the study allow us to draw important conclusions that contribute to the construction of a kind of explanatory model of auto-aggressive behavior.