PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE EMERGENCE AND MANIFESTATION OF FEAR IN MILITARY PERSONNEL

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the fears of servicemen who have returned from war and are undergoing rehabilitation. The article provides an overview of modern research on fear, its adaptive and maladaptive functions, as well as mechanisms of overcoming fear in the military. The main factors influencing the formation of fear in military personnel are considered: threat to life, fear of being injured or captured, psycho-emotional stress, the need to make complex moral decisions. The level of psychogenic losses among the Ukrainian military is analysed: 80 %, of which 30-40 % are irreversible losses, when psychological problems turn into psychiatric ones, which are influenced by various factors: fear of death, capture, injury and disability, psycho-emotional stress, death of comrades-in-arms, the need to kill a person, albeit the enemy, alcohol or drug abuse, suffering caused by various conditions of stay in the combat zone.

The article presents empirical data on the prevalence of fears among military personnel at different stages of combat experience: before combat, during combat, and after returning to civilian life. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of fears related to the social adaptation of veterans after demobilisation.

The empirical study was conducted on the basis of the Veteran Development Centre, established at the Faculty of Social and Psychological Education of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. The experiment involved 15 servicemen who are undergoing rehabilitation after demobilisation. A set of psychodiagnostic techniques was used to diagnose the level of fear: Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). On the basis of the data obtained, a system of training exercises aimed at correcting fears and restoring the psychological stability of military personnel was developed. The results of the study demonstrate the effectiveness of the applied methods in reducing fear and improving the adaptation of veterans to civilian life.