Mental health and communication risks: socio-psychological support of the individual in the process of adaptation to peaceful life
Tetiana Larina
Institute for Social and Political Psychology, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Abstract. To maintain human mental health in modern conditions of life, it is necessary to pay attention to the restoration of natural stabilization socio-psychological practices, as well as increasing the level of personal control over communicative risks. The purpose of our study is to uncover the possibilities of socio-psychological support for people who have suffered from communicative risks. We set ourselves the task of determining what helps people achieve stabilization of their mental state after experiencing communicative failure. The methodology of our research is based on theoretical methods of scientific knowledge. We analyzed the factors of violation of the socio-psychological adaptation of a person and the deterioration of his mental health in a situation of communicative failure. The model of the program of socio-psychological support should include the following main blocks: organization of trusting relationships in the family; the introduction of health-preserving forms of social activity in everyday life; prevention of pathogenic communication and correction of communicative personality attitudes. The biggest limitation of this study is the lack of empirical data on the effects of communicative risks at different stages of personality development. Among the positive aspects, it should be noted the prospect of studying the impact of communicative practices on the state of mental health. As a result, when working with people who have become victims of communicative risks, we propose to rely on the rehabilitation potential of psycho-emotional self-regulation and self-help of a person, for example, an objection to collaborativeness, empathy and trust in the world.
Introduction. Prompt informatization of society, activation of information wars in the territory of Ukraine, development of computer technologies make a significant impact on the transformation of the communicative, thinking, motivational and emotional sphere of man and forms a new environment for the development and functioning of mental processes. In particular, overloading on an individual's adaptive resources, coupled with a major restructuring of the structure and dynamics of human activity and forms of human interaction in general, can cause great harm to mental health. As a consequence, attempts to stabilize one's own mental state are increasingly characterized by unmanageability and chaos, and is manifested in non-constructive communication. Therefore, in order to preserve the mental health of the individual in today's life conditions, it is necessary to revive natural stabilizing socio-psychological practices. It should also help to increase the level of conscious control of the individual over communicative risks.
Purpose. The purpose of this study is to uncover the potential of social and psychological support for victims of communicative risks to stabilize their mental state.
Design/Methodology/Approach. The methodology of our study is based on theoretical methods of investigating the factors of impairment of human adaptation, deterioration of his mental health when interacting with communicative risks. Our in-depth analysis of the facts studied is aimed at constructing hypotheses on theoretical models regarding the organization of social and psychological support of the victims of communicative risks.
Results. Communicative risks increase the information insecurity of a person. When a person consumes products of modern communication technologies, uses media forms of creation and transmission of information in interpersonal communication, there is a risk of losing critical attitude to the reliability of information. Today, anyone who is an active user of social networks can easily fall prey to fake information, fake news and fake pages that spread lies or manipulate truth. Cultivating the instinct of consuming communication attributes, updating the chain of unconscious psychological response to the pursuit of prosperity (Baudrillard, 2006) makes one virtually defenseless against destructive media information and manipulative technologies of influence
The imbalance of the information space, the combination of incompatible in content and form of communication characteristics increases the risk of destabilization of mental states of the individual. The ambiguity of communicative strategies, the inability to clearly distinguish between monologic and dialogic rules of communication provokes in the person spontaneous mental manifestations and decapitated psychological states. The palette of these manifestations often lies in the communicative plane from uncontrolled verbal aggression to bouts of deep sensuality and genuine compassion.
When designing a model of social and psychological support for those affected by communicative risks, we have taken into account the positive effects of the use of technology to restore psychological health after a war-related trauma (Tytarenko, 2018), technologies to restore individual vitality (Larina, 2019) and mobile applications for preventing the devastating effects of psychotraumatisation during the hybrid war (Dvornyk, 2018). Thus, to ensure that communicative risks do not reduce the mental and psychological resources of the individual to a critical adaptive level, the focus of socio-psychological support programs should be: control over maintaining trust in the family; initiation of health-saving forms of social activity in everyday life; prevention of pathogenic communication and correction of communication attitudes of the individual. All these psychological support activities help the individual to maintain a stable mental state and maintain their own psychological health.
Limitations and strengths of the study. The biggest limitation of this study is the lack of empirical data on the effects of communicative risks at different stages of personality development. In spite of this, we see a rather poor prospect of studying the impact of communicative practices on one's mental health.
Practical/Social value. The social and practical value of the steps to organize the social and psychological support of the victims of communicative risks is to stabilize the psycho-emotional states of the individual and to strengthen their mental health.
Originality/Conclusions. We suggested that when organizing social and psychological support, we should rely on the rehabilitation potential of self-healing and restoration of the natural tendency to cooperate, empathize and renew basic trust in the world. An indicator of the effectiveness of psycho-interventions is the unlocking of socio-psychological resources of the transition from reactive coping strategies for minimization communicative risks to proactive coping strategies.
References.
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Dvornyk, M.S. (2018). Mobilnyy zastosunok u systemi sotsialno-psykholohichnoyi reabilitatsiyi travmovanoyi osobystosti [Mobile application in the system of socio-psychological rehabilitation of traumatized personality]. Naukovi studiyi iz sotsialʹnoyi ta politychnoyi psykholohiyi 41(44), 192-201. [in Ukrainian].
Larina, T.O., & Tytarenko, T.M., Hundertailo,Yu.D., Dvornyk, M.S., Klymchuk, V. O., Lazorenko, B.P., et al. (2019). Tekhnologiyi vidnovlennya socialno-psykhologichnykh resursiv zhyttyezdatnosti osobystosti, shho perezhyvaye naslidky travmatychnykh podij [Technologies of restoration of social and psychological resources of vitality of the person experiencing the consequences of traumatic events]. Sotsialno-psykhologichni tekhnologiyi vidnovlennya osobystosti pislya travmatychnykh podi: praktychnyj posibnyk - Socio-psychological technologies of personal recovery after traumatic events: practical guide, (pp. 95-112). Kropyvnytskyi: Imeks-LTD sotsialʹno-psykholohichna reabilitatsiya osobystosti: etapy, tekhnolohiyi, tekhniky. [in Ukrainian].
Tytarenko, T.M. (2018). Sotsialno-psykholohichna reabilitatsiya osobystosti: etapy, tekhnolohiyi, tekhniky [Socio-psychological rehabilitation of personality: stages, technologies, techniques.in Ukrainian]. Naukovi studiyi iz sotsialʹnoyi ta politychnoyi psykholohiyi 41(44), 157-167. [in Ukrainian].
1. Keywords: mental health, communication risks, socio-psychological support, coping strategies
