THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN THE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES OF POLICE OFFICERS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF PERSONALITY’S FULFILLMENTITY

Abstract

The article contains a theoretical overview and results of an empirical study of the problem of the emotional sphere of police officers. Psychological sources show that one of the most pressing problems in the law enforcement system is the issue of emotional states of police officers, which are an integral part of the regulation of activities aimed at achieving a common goal. It is emphasized that in science the emotions of police officers are mostly viewed through the prism of rationality or in the context of cognitive or behavioral processes, but such aspects as the psychological contribution of personality’s fulfillmentity to the emotional sphere of police officers have not yet been adequately covered in psychological research. The aim of the article is to develop the specifics of the emotional sphere of police officers with different levels of personality’s fulfillmentity (PF). The empirical study consisted of two stages. The content of the first stage was the distribution of the investigated police officers at different levels of personal performance on the basis of data obtained using the “Personal Activity Questionnaire” by O. Shtepa. The total sample consisted of 97 police officers from different police units, who were divided into three groups using cluster analysis with the k-means method. The first group with a low level of personality’s fulfillmentity included 25 persons, the second group with a high level of personality’s fulfillmentity had 29 subjects, the third group of medium level of personality’s fulfillmentity included 43 respondents. Respondents with a low level of personality’s fulfillmentity (first group) and a high level of personality’s fulfillmentity (second group) were involved in further research. The second stage of the study involved determining the specifics of emotional states, dominant needs and desired experiences in police officers with different levels of personality’s fulfillmentity. To achieve this goal, “Scale for Assessing the Significance of Emotions” by B. Dodonov was used. Quantitative processing of results was performed using Student’s t-test for independent samples. It is empirically proven that the desired experiences and emotions reveal significant differences in police officers with different levels of personality’s fulfillmentity. Unlike police officers with a high level of PF, police officers with a low level of PF are more likely to consider it desirable to experience positively colored emotions that cause feelings of joy, serenity, and so on. Police officers with a high level of PF prefer emotions that increase attention in situations of uncertainty, accompany the process of gaining new knowledge, gaining experience that gives such emotions a positive meaning in terms of personal development, as well as altruistic and aesthetic emotions, which are an important condition for the formation of moral qualities of the personality.