RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGGRESSIVENESS AND ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY BEHAVIOUR IN ADOLESCENCE

Abstract

The article studies the problem of the psychological characteristics of the relationship between aggressiveness and addictive behaviour of a person in adolescence. The concept of addictive behaviour is defined on the basis of the consideration of scientific concepts of researchers. It was found that this behaviour manifests itself as a person’s attempt to escape from reality by using various substances or by focusing attention on certain types of activities. An important feature of addictive behaviour is the possibility of an easy transition from one form of addiction to another. Based on the theoretical analysis of this problem, it was also found that addictive behaviour can be associated with the aggressiveness of the personality. Aggressiveness is a dynamic characteristic of a person’s activity and adaptability. However, in certain cases, the level of aggressiveness can be increased and expressed in destructive actions of the individual. It is important to establish the type of aggression depending on the object to which it is directed. Autoaggression and heteroaggression are distinguished. The tendency to form addictive behaviour is often associated with autoaggression. An empirical research of the relationship between aggressiveness and addictive behaviour in adolescence was carried out with subsequent statistical processing of data (Pearson correlation coefficient). The following methods of diagnosing aggressiveness and predisposition to various types of addictions were selected: Bass-Darka method of determining aggressiveness; V.Yu. Zavyalova questionnaire for identifying the tendency to addictive behaviour; V.D. Mendelevych method of diagnosing the tendency to addictive behaviour. Summarising the results of the methods, it was determined that the level of aggressiveness in most of the studied students does not exceed the norm. It is also noticeable that the level of tendency to addictive behaviour in the majority of adolescents is within the norm. No tendency to addictive behaviour, namely alcohol and drug abuse, was detected among the students of this sample. Using statistical data processing, namely correlation analysis, the relationship between the indicators of the methods was established. The results of the correlation analysis indicate a statistically significant relationship between the studied phenomena. Students with a high level of aggressiveness are more prone to manifestations of addictive behaviour, in particular drug and alcohol addiction, than students with a low level of aggressiveness.