EMPIRICAL RESEARCH OF STUDENTS’ HARDINESS

Abstract

Purpose. The goal of the article consists in theoretical grounding and experimental study of students’ hardiness in the conditions of socio-economic crisis. The article deals with the psychological analysis of the basic scientific approaches to understanding the phenomenon of hardiness in domestic and foreign psychology. As a result of theoretical analysis, it is found out that hardiness is considered as both a personality trait and as an adaptation potential of a person in overcoming difficult life situations. It has been determined that hardiness studies tend to focus less on the personal aspect, where the concept of s hardiness would be viewed in relation to the values and meanings of the individual.

Methods. We have selected and used the following diagnostic tools to fulfill our research goals: the “Meaning-of-Life Orientations Test” (D. Leontiev); the “The Hardiness Scale” (S. Maddie, in adaptation by (D. Leontiev, O. Raskazova); the “Self-efficacy scale” (R. Schwartzer, M. Jerusalem, in adaptation by V. Romek). Мethods of processing empirical data were descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, Student’s t-test, correlation analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient).

Results. 120 students from Ukrainian universities participated in the study. It is proved that the level of hardiness has a statistically significant correlation with the level of life-meaning orientations and level of self-efficancy.

It is find out that the structure and quality of the relationship of life-meaning orientations differ significantly among students with different indicators of hardiness. It has been found that those with high levels of hardiness are distinguished by higher levels of productivity, more emotionally and with greater interest in life, purposeful, able to control their lives and to make decisions freely. When comparing the mean values between men and women, there was a statistically significant difference on the scale of “control”, indicating that men are more willing to influence the events of their lives. However, no statistically significant difference was found between groups of students 1 and 4 in any of the variables.

Conclusions. It has been found that individuals with high levels of hardiness have more advanced sense of life orientations and higher self-efficacy rates, and vice versa, students with low levels of hardiness have a reduced sense of life-orientation. The prospect of further research will be the development of a program of psychological support for students, which is aimed at increasing the level of hardiness for people with low levels of life-meaning orientations and reduced overall hardiness.