Anticipatory-Prognostic Mechanism Of Socio-Psychological Adaptation In Disruptive Behavior

Abstract

The study examines such complex social and socio-psychological problem in teaching and education as disruptive behavior. Today the problem is challenged by the growing tendencies in prevalence, reduced age limits of their manifestation, and also differentiation (increase in the types of disruptive behavior) in both addictive and delinquent behavior. The aim of the study is to justify the anticipatory-prognostic mechanism of socio-psychological adaptation in disruptive behavior. The Anticipatory-prognostic mechanism ensures goal setting, planning and programming of behavioral patterns. It is included in the decision-making processes and in communicative acts. Anticipatory-prognostic processes play one of the main roles in behavior regulation. The anticipatory-prognostic mechanism ensures the direction of planning of the behavioral transformation based on the evaluation of external conditions. Studying this issue and taking into account the specificity of the anticipatory-prognostic mechanism of socio-psychological adaptation will allow optimization of the prevention processes of disruptive behavior at all levels of social functioning..

Keywords: Anticipatory-prognostic mechanismsocio-psychological adaptationdisruptive behavior

Introduction

To solve the tasks of reintegration into society in case of the both addictive (treatment and rehabilitation of patients with addiction) and delinquent (release of prisoners serving sentences in penitentiary system institutions) types of behavior, it is necessary to find the ways of socio-psychological adaptation and the mechanisms for its regulation, where anticipation-prognostic processes can determine tendencies of behavioral transformation based on the assessment of external conditions. Returning to a ‘healthy’ social environment from a pathological one puts new demands on behavior and social functioning of the individual. Anticipatory-prognostic processes play the main role in the behavior regulation (regulatory function). It is anticipation that helps to set goals, plan behavioral patterns and related actions and activities. It is included in the processes of decision-making, monitoring and in communicative acts. We should, nevertheless, point at the contradictions between the general tendency for reducing cases of delinquent and criminal behavior in the Russian Federation in the last decade, on the one hand, and the general unfavorable tendency for an increasing frequency of repeated offences and the number of repeated convictions, on the other hand. There is also the tendency of increasing effectiveness of the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with addiction, on the one hand, and an increasing differentiation of the age of manifestation, which is decreasing, on the other hand. The need to resolve these contradictions at the social and socio-psychological levels leads to the need to study the anticipatory-prognostic mechanism of socio-psychological adaptation in disruptive behavior. Evaluation of the anticipatory-prognostic mechanism of social and psychological adaptation in the range of norm-pathology at the social level allows predicting manifestations of disruptive behavior both on the scale of the society as a whole and on the scale of individual social groups. At the socio-psychological level, it allows analyzing the adaptive resources of an individual in the context of changes in the social situation with the aim of planning and predicting interpersonal interaction strategies.

The diversity of the empirical body of research, as well as various theoretical approaches in studying the problem of the socio-psychological adaptation mechanisms in disruptive behavior, requires integration and systematization of the existing research and development of a single theoretical and methodological basis that will ensure transition from an empirical level of analysis to a theoretical one. The systematic nature of the social and psychological adaptation phenomenon can be fully revealed through the development of a holistic socio-psychological concept of socio-psychological adaptation as a system for restructuring behavior in accordance with the changes in the external requirements imposed on the individual, based on the paradigmatic positions of the meta-systemic approach.

Problem Statement

Implementation of the methodological provisions of the metasystemic approach allows to fully and constructively examine the phenomenon of socio-psychological adaptation as a system of the epistemological plan in the five main aspects: metasystemic, structural, functional, genetic, and integrative. Acting as a methodological basis, this approach explores the object of the research (socio-psychological adaptation) in its main essential aspects.

The category of adaptation is studied within the framework of the natural science paradigm and has substantially expanded the boundaries of its semantic content, including sociological, psychological, socio-psychological, economic, and cultural aspects, which made it possible for it to acquire the status of an interdisciplinary category. At the same time, adaptation is a complex systemic category that includes process-result, structural, functional, genetic aspects, which makes it difficult (almost impossible) to study the specifics of this phenomenon within the framework of the existing concepts of socio-psychological adaptation. A more detailed, systematic study of socio-psychological adaptation in the context of its mechanisms is needed because of the contradictions of the phenomenological approach which dominates in the study of socio-psychological adaptation phenomenon.

Scholars have studied socio-psychological adaptation in the following main psychological schools: behavioral school (Watson, 2010), psychoanalytic school (Freud, 2010; Erickson, 1996; Zmanovskaya, 2007, 2011); cognitive school (Piaget, 1978); interactionist school (Philips, 1968), humanistic school (Rogers, 2002; Maslow, 2008), the subject-activity approach (Parygin, 2001; Platonov, 1972; Nalchadjian, 2010; Rean, 2013), the system approach (Lingart, 1970; Dikaya, 2002).

Representatives of the behavioral school consider adaptation in a broader sense as a process of satisfying the needs of an individual in accordance with the requirements of the environment, leading to changes in the behavior of an individual, thereby emphasizing the processual (adaptation as a process) and the resulting (adaptation as a state) aspects of the adaptation category. There is, therefore, an identification of the concepts of adaptation and adjustability.

The concept of personality adaptation within the psychoanalytic school regards adaptation as a state of homeostasis between the personality and the environment. Just like representatives of the behavioral school, representatives of psychoanalysis identify the content of ‘adaptation’ and ‘adjustability’ categories.

Representatives of the cognitive school suggested special terms, assimilation and accommodation, to describe the process of personality adaptation. These two processes occur simultaneously and constitute the content of the adaptation process.

According to the interactionist approach, the analysis of the adaptation category makes it possible to distinguish the following aspects. Firstly, considering adaptation as a condition when a person meets the minimum requirements and expectations of society, the social orientation is emphasized. Secondly, characterizing adaptive behavior by successful decision-making, initiative and a clear image of one's own future, the idea of ​​personal activity, as well as transforming nature of one’s social activity is reflected. Thirdly, there is a distinction between the concepts of ‘adaptation’ and ‘adjustability’. Adaptation is regarded as an organized way of coping with typical problem situations, which is formed by a series of adjustments. Adjustability is considered only as a component of adaptation, which manifests itself when faced with a particular problem situation.

Within the humanistic school, adaptation is considered as a dynamic optimal state, which points at the process and result aspects of this category.

Russian psychological school focuses on the subject-activity approach. Its representatives Parygin (2001), Platonov (1972), Nalchadjian (2010), Rean (2013) define adaptation as the process of adjustment of an individual to changing environmental conditions, as well as the results of this process. The following specific features of adaptation are singled out: active conscious participation; a person's impact on the environment; a person’s active change of the adaptation results in accordance with social conditions. Nalchajyan (2010) and Parygin (2001) distinguish between the concepts of ‘adaptation’ and ‘adjustability’, considering adaptation as a process, and adjustability as a state formed as the result of this process.

In complicated problem situations, processes of adaptation occur with the assistance of adaptive complexes, which Nalchadjian (2010) defines as substructures of the personality character, which are formed and consolidated in the structure of the personality when they are actualized and used in similar social situations. Rean (2013) views the phenomenon of personal adaptation in terms of three main aspects: adaptation as a result is characterized by the degree of final adjustability; as a process – by its spatial-temporal mechanisms; as a source of innovation – a complex of actively formed qualities. Adaptation implies self-development and development of new personal qualities.

Within the framework of the systemic approach, the adaptation process is considered in the following systems: the system ‘professional environment – activity – personality’; the system ‘social environment – professional environment – internal environment’ of a person. The content of the adaptation process is actively formed (consciously or unconsciously) by the subject of strategies and through the ways of mastering the situation at different levels of regulation of behavior, activity, state (Dikaya, 2002; Zhuravlev, 2005).

Historical and perspective contexts of analysis allow us to conclude the following: firstly, adaptation is considered as a process characterizing the passive-adaptive and active-transforming interrelationships of an individual and the environment; secondly, the processes of adaptation are accompanied by the processes of mutual adaptation of the individual and the environment, and the development of the personality in the changed conditions; thirdly, the process of adaptation can be triggered by a change in external conditions that violate the state of internal equilibrium, the aim of which is to restore the state of equilibrium, i.e. achieve the state of adjustment.

The analysis of the meaningful aspects of the category ‘adaptation’ showed that it is based not only on passively adjustable, but also on actively transforming human connections with the environment, representing an inseparable unity of these and other forms of communication. Adaptation is understood as the process and results, expressed by the ability to adjust to environmental factors (Sventsitsky, 2004).

For the purposes of this research we used the logic of the systemic approach as a methodological basis in the study of the socio-psychological adaptation phenomenon and as a methodological way of studying social and psychological adaptation. The theoretical scheme of the study of socio-psychological adaptation as a systemic phenomenon was developed by integrating the conceptual foundations of the systemic approach (Lingart, 1970; Karpov, Nikishina & Petrash, 2017) and the substantive concepts of socio-psychological adaptation (Parygin, 2001; Sventsitsky, 2004; Nalchadjian, 2010; Rean, 2013) according to the principles of the metasystemic approach, which is the basic methodological approach of the current research.

Adaptation is a process of an external active adjustment of an individual to new environmental conditions that leads to internal changes (Parygin, 2001). Adjustability is considered as a result of the adaptation process, that is, as a state of adaptation (Nalchadjian, 2010). The success of adaptation largely depends on a number of personal characteristics, which together make up individual adaptive potential. Adaptability also applies to the properties of the personality that prompts in the process of adaptation. Adaptability is considered as a property, the ability of a person to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Maklakov, 2001).

Considering socio-psychological adaptation as a process of an active adjustment of an individual under conditions of changes resulting in a reorganization of behavior in accordance with the altered requirements of the external social environment, an essential condition for success of this process is the analysis and assessment of these changes. Anticipatory-prognostic mechanism allows predicting new events, which, in turn, manifest themselves in the form of initial reactions to future events in behavior and life activities, which allows timely restructuring of behavior in accordance with new requirements.

The research tradition in the study of the anticipation phenomenon was originally developed in the 50s in the context of perceptual processes. Then from the 60s in the 20th century anticipation began to be considered in the structure of the personality and the structure of activity (cognitive activity, research activity). The latest studies have considered the phenomenon of anticipation in an interdisciplinary approach (Mendelevich, 2002; Nadin, 2015; Sergienko, 1988). The most promising theory in the study of anticipation developed by Russian scholars is the systemic approach, according to which the anticipation acts as a universal function of the brain: the study of anticipation manifestations at any level requires considering the basic and, therefore, general characteristics of anticipation as the function of the brain. Lingart (1970) distinguished the anticipatory reactions of the following types: preparatory (preliminary stage of anticipation); reactions with a time advance; target idea; activity planning. The distinguished types of reactions and their differences at various evolutionary stages are consistent with the hypothesis of anticipatory processes (Lingart, 1970; Lomov & Surkov, 1980), according to which anticipation is seen as a prediction of events and manifests itself in the form of initial reactions to future events.

We suggest that self-affirmation prior to an imagined threat is an effective intervention for reducing bias in affective forecasting, particularly if the threat could potentially happen in the future (Pauketat, Moons & Chen, 2016).

The study of the psychological mechanisms of anticipation and prediction is associated with the need to determine the ontogenetic regularities of their implementation, which implies the study of the norms of anticipatory activity at different age stages (adolescence, youth, adulthood), as well as the study of the basic neuropsychological and mental levels of anticipation and prediction functioning.

Research Questions

Can the anticipatory-prognostic mechanism be effectively used for socio-psychological adaptation in disruptive behaviour?

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the study is to justify the anticipatory-prognostic mechanism of socio-psychological adaptation in disruptive behavior.

Research Methods

• The concept of socio-psychological adaptation of an individual, considering socio-psychological adaptation as a process of restructuring the system of personal behavior under the influence of the requirements imposed by environmental conditions, with the aim of coping with specific tasks (Parygin, 2001; Nalchadjian, 2010; Rean, 2013);

• The theory of ‘advanced reflection’, according to which forecasting of results makes the activity purposeful and self-regulatory. Comparison of the parameters of the predicted results and changes in the environmental conditions with the information coming through the feedback channels allows correcting the process of activity, eliminating disruptive behavior (Anohin, 1975, 1978);

• The cultural historical theory, according to which the system of anticipation-prognostic processes is fully formed in adolescence. The forecasting processes are based on the probabilistic structure of past experience and information about the actual situation, which in turn serves as the basis to hypothesize future (Vygotsky, 2005);

• The concept of a psychological mechanism regarded as a constantly acting or situationally emerging holistic psychological system that ensures performance of certain regulatory functions (Leontiev, 1997).

Findings

Author’s Artwork

Anticipation-prognostic system is represented by two levels of organization: the neuropsychological level and the psychic level of regulation. According to the up to date scientific research, the neuropsychological level of the analysis of the studied phenomenon is realized through evaluation of the functional localization of mental functions. The psychological level assesses the actual manifestations and quality of the psychic phenomenon (Carter, 2015; Frith, 2012).

The neuropsychological level of regulation is represented by the features of the functional brain organization of anticipation and prediction processes, as well as by associative mechanisms that ensure the link to the previous experience (which is the basis of the anticipation process) and the forecasting functions. The mental level of regulation of the anticipation and prediction relationship is realized through the mechanisms of involuntary (dissociative mechanisms) and spontaneous (conscious self-regulation of behavior) regulation. Dissociative mechanisms provide differentiation of the past experience and anticipation-prognostic processes. The system of conscious self-regulation of behavior is a systemic, multilevel process of a person's mental activity in setting goals and managing their achievement; it includes the operational level (setting goals, modeling conditions, programming, adjusting the activity and its results) and the regulatory-personal level (independence, flexibility) (Morosanova, 2010). The processes of conscious self-regulation of behavior provide a spontaneous level of regulation of forecasting processes (Figure 1 ).

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Conclusion

Anticipatory-prognostic mechanism ensures goal setting, planning and programming of behavioral patterns. It is included in the decision-making processes and in communicative acts. Anticipatory-prognostic processes play one of the main roles in behavior regulation. The anticipatory-prognostic mechanism ensures the direction of planning of the behavioral transformation based on the evaluation of external conditions. Studying and taking into account the specificity of the anticipatory-prognostic mechanism of socio-psychological adaptation will allow optimization of the prevention processes of disruptive behavior at all levels of social functioning.

Acknowledgments

The work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University.

The research was carried out with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan within the framework of the research project № 17-16-16004 ‘Prognostic competence of younger schoolchildren with disabilities in the prevention of deviations’.

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