Legal and Psychological Principles of the Study of Professional Deformation of Officers of the National Police of Ukraine

Abstract

The article states that despite the variety of permanent attempts to investigate the phenomenon of professional deformation of police officers, and despite the considerable amount of scientific research devoted to the study of various manifestations of this phenomenon, there is no commonly accepted opinion among scientists about the determinants of its occurrence, therefore there are differences in the concept of this phenomenon itself.

It is defined that professional deformation signs begin to appear in the personality, and then they are displayed in the professional activity and communication with the closest people through the behavior.

The theoretical and practical analysis of manifestations of professional deformation of a person is carried out, legal and psychological, methodological and pragmatic approaches to studying the terminology concepts that describe the essential content of personal determinants of the development of professional deformation of a personality are synthesized and grounded. It is indicated that professional deformation is a completely different socio-psychological phenomenon — namely, the emergence of certain individual psychological changes that arise from professional activity and affect the quality of its fulfilment. The research of professional deformation of a personality is a sufficiently urgent problem, solution of which is of considerable interest, both in theoretical and applied senses. Professionalization of an individual in the period of performing the job duties is related to both the development of professionally important qualities, and the development of skills that adversely affect its activity. It is established that this phenomenon is a complex social, legal and psychological problem, for a thorough study of which it is necessary to use a systematic approach, which along with the general legal methods equally applies social and psychological and sociological methods of research.

It is stated and confirmed that the officers of the National Police of Ukraine in their daily professional activities usually are influenced with various negative phenomena such as unlawful behavior, communication with typical representatives of the criminal subculture of society, dealing with law offences of various types, usual confusion determined by misconceptions and mistakes in daily routines, negative social perception of their social role and their professional activities or tasks. It was underlined that in the professional-moral sphere the professional deformation of the police officers is manifested by the lowering of the level of an adequate indication of the social, psychological and moral content of their professional tasks, the formation of a negative perception of future professional growth, the devaluation of the importance of their profession in the officer’s consciousness, the growth of egocentrism and selfishness, which in turn leads to the formal fulfilment of professional tasks as well as to the use of their professional capabilities to satisfy their personal goals; in the intellectual sphere professional deformation manifests itself in the absence of independent decision-making and furthermore, — the lack of desire for further professional education and development; stereotypical predisposition to brutal action; lack of skills in production of non-standard decisions in extreme and risky situations; unreasonably high selfishness; development of a hypertrophied self-perception of their professional abilities; in the emotional sphere professional deformation manifests itself in the «general roughening of the individual», in the restriction and misery of the emotional and psychological sphere as well as in the reduction of self-control of person’s psycho-emotional state, that leads to the increase of the level of excitability and irritability, and sometimes determines conflicts that sometimes lead to depressive states. It has been stated that the prevention of professional deformation of the officers of the National Police of Ukraine should be based on the systematic consideration of the personal, microsystem, macrosystem determinants that cause this phenomenon. In the realms where the professional deformation of National Police officers is obviously a widespread phenomenon, considerable actions towards its prevention should be made according to the certain strategy that will include a number of measures to improve the following aspects: the profession-psychological training of the personality of a policeman in the terms of teaching the policemen of basic techniques and methods of psychological support for personal security in risky and extreme situations; development of the skills of psychological preparation, that are aimed to stop illegal actions; facilitation skills.