Anna B. Leonova

This article presents research results regarding the determinants and individual predictors of professional distortions in the medical personnel, teachers, and psychologists who were involved in long-term programs of human relief assistance after a catastrophic accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. The research aim was to analyze the factors influencing the increase in and the accumulation of occupational stress in the groups investigated. The stress studied was caused by strong emotional tension in 3 months of intensive work after the accident. The extraordinary situation served as a challenge, a kind of “strength test” for individual adaptation, which led to the manifestation of extreme adaptation options (destructive and constructive forms) and allowed us to clarify the factors that contributed to their development. The research showed that, in this situation, psychological (in particular, emotional) resources and individual coping characteristics played a determinative role in professional adaptation.

The paper is devoted to consideration of self-regulation training that can be used in order to prevent a development of negative human functional states (HFS) in work environment. According to the well-developed in Russian work and organizational psychology traditions the effects of practical implementation of various self-regulation methods on job efficiency and worker's well-being are analyzed. The positive patterns of changes in HFS syndromes taken place as a result of prolonged courses of self-regulation training are described. It is shown that a successful acquisition of self-regulation skills strongly depends on (1) specificity of job content and (2) individual sensitivity to various relaxation techniques. These findings are useful for enhancing the quality of work-site stress management and health promotion programs.

The concept of human functional states (HFS) is considered in the framework of activity regulation approach developed in Russian applied psychology. Aimed at the analysis of changes in regulatory mechanisms of on-going activity, structural methods for multilevel assessment of workers’ states are discussed. Three different strategies of data integration are proposed regarding the types of essential practical problems. Their usability is exemplified with the help of two empirical studies concerned with reliability of fire-fighters’ work in the Chernobyl Zone and effects of interruptions in computerized office environment. A general framework for applied HFS research is proposed in order to develop new ecologically valid psychodiagnostic procedures that can help to create efficient stress-management programs for enhancing human reliability and performance in complex job environment.