The present article contains the results of ascertaining study, aimed at identification of the psychological characteristics of students engaged in groups of exercise therapy. It has been established that students with poor health differ greatly in psychometric characteristics from the group of students who do not have any problems with their health. These differences are most pronounced in the findings obtained by means of questionnaires of constructive thinking and level of subjective control. Students who train in the groups of exercise therapy, need special forms of organization of the educational process involving psychological methods

Balanev, D. Yu.

Guseva, N. L.

Shilko, T. A.

Shilko, V. G.

English

Tomsk State University Repository

STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STATUS OF TSU STUDENTS FROM EXERCISE THERAPYGROUPDr.Med. T.A. Shil’ko1Ph.D. D.Yu. Balanev1Professor, Dr.Hab. V.G. Shil’ko1Ph.D. N.L. Guseva11National Research Tomsk State University, TomskThe article  contains  the results  obtained in  2015 in the course of the project  8.2.35.2015, within  theframework of the program «Science Foundation of Tomsk State University named after D.I. Mendeleev».  Keywords: physical  education,  psychological  status,  exercise  therapy,  viability,  locus  of  control,constructive thinking. Introduction. In  recent  decades,  Russia  has  seen  a  steady increase  in  the  number  of  studentssuffering from serious health conditions. According to E.Yu. D’yakova et al., analysis of medical recordsof first-year students of TGU revealed that only 27% of students were declared absolutely healthy andassigned to a main medical group, all the others have poor health [2]. Emotional stress caused by disease, decreasing efficiency, reduced intellectual functions are largelyaggravated by deficit of motor activity. In case of a chronic disease long exposure to adverse psychologicaleffects of it can with a high degree of probability be manifested on a personal level [4].The ascertaining research we carried out is a part of the experiment, the main hypothesis of which isthe assumption that changes in the personality sphere of students with serious health conditions can beleveled with the help of specific forms of exercise therapy. At the same time the fact of restoration ofpersonal health can be used as a criterion of effectiveness of exercise therapy methods. The  differences  in  the  intensity  and  nature  of  exercises  in  this  case  were  estimated  as  anindependent variable,  and the indicators  of personal characteristics of students related to the sphere ofmental health - as an independent variable. Taking into account the possibility of dependence of psychological health indicators on the specificsof the disease, we introduced yet another independent variable which was designated as «specificity of asomatic disease».Objective  of  the  research  was  to  identify  psychological  characteristics  of  students  engaged  ingroups of exercise therapy.  Research method and organization.  The research was conducted at the premises of Tomsk StateUniversity in two stages. The sample included first-year students. Two groups were formed. The referencegroup consisted of students from different  departments  exercising in compliance with the conditioningprogram  (n1=216  persons),  the  study  one  -  of  students  engaged  in  exercise  therapy  classes  (n2=90persons).  In  terms  of  somatic  diseases  the  group  was  a  mixed  one  (musculoskeletal  disabilities,cardiovascular diseases, eye diseases, asthma, digestive diseases).The first stage involved identification of differences in personality indicators of the reference andstudy groups. It was planned to assess the extent of dependence of the student's psychological status on thetype of illness during the second stage. For this purpose the study group was divided into three subgroups.The first subgroup consisted of students with musculoskeletal diseases (40 persons), the second - of thosewith cardiovascular  diseases (17 persons),  the third -  of students with digestive  diseases,  eye,  kidney,respiratory diseases, etc (33 persons). The method of psychological testing using the following psycho-diagnostic tools was employed inorder to identify personal indicators of psychological health: constructive thinking inventory [3], viabilitytest [5], «The level of subjective control» questionnaire [1].The constructive thinking inventory (CTI) determines the level of constructive thinking in line withthe theory of Seymour Epstein of the connection between well-developed constructive thinking and stressresilience.  Good constructive thinking is defined as thinking that facilitates solving problems in life inaccordance with the principle of achieving maximum results with minimum costs. Constructive thinkingdisorder presupposes its automation that helps achieve certain results dealing with routine issues at the costof higher risk for stress for the subject and distress for others.The constructive thinking inventory is represented by six main factors: emotional coping; behavioralcoping; categorical thinking; esoteric thinking; naive optimism; and personal superstitious thinking. Wealso used the integral characteristic of the "global scale" (Global Constructive Thinking). The viability  test  is  D.A. Leontiev's  adaptation  of the Hardiness  Survey developed by SalvatoreMaddi,  an  American  psychologist.  Viability  is  a  system  of  beliefs  about  oneself,  the  world,  one’srelationship with it, that enables a person to withstand and effectively cope with stressful situations. In thesame situation a person with high viability is less exposed to stress and copes with it better. Viabilityincludes three relatively independent components: involvement, control and risk-taking.   The  «Level  of  subjective  control»  (LSC)  questionnaire  is  aimed  at  identification  of  thecharacteristics of subjective control over basic life situations. The inclination of man to find the reasons ofhis actions in external circumstances or his own efforts is called locus of control and has two modalities -external  and internal.  For us this  approach is  important  not only because it  gives basis  for the simplecategorization of the sample - «externals» and «internals» and ensures the possibility to use a large volumeof factual material relating to the sphere of assessment of human health [8], also in terms of overcomingconsequences of a disease [6]. In addition, we focused on the studies of the connection between subjectivecontrol and successful adaptation of university students [7].Research results and discussion. The first stage of the research revealed that a number of personalindicators of students suffering from somatic diseases differ from those demonstrated by their peers fromthe reference group.  Differences in psychological tests results were identified using the Student t-test for comparison ofthe  mean  values  of  two independent  samples.  At  the  same time  the  hypothesis  about  the  equality  ofvariances was performed based on the Fisher’s variance ratio test (Table 1).Table 1. Results of verifying the hypothesis about the differences of mean values of CTI, LSC andviability test (n1 = 216, n2 = 90)Scale / meaningMean 1Mean 2T pStd.dev 1Std.dev 2F-var p-varCTI/ global scale 94.25 100.3 -3.51 0.01 13.30 14.91 1.26 0.19CTI/esoteric thinking 36.77 33.1 3.61 0.01 7.58 9.03 1.42 0.04CTI/ behavioral coping 42.41 37.1 6.43 0.01 6.23 7.44 1.42 0.04CTI/ categorical thinking41.85 39.6 2.42 0.02 7.29 7.82 1.15 0.41CTI/ naive optimism 42.02 40.2 2.14 0.03 7.05 6.78 1.08 0.68CTI/ personal superstitious thinking12.47 11.6 2.12 0.03 3.23 3.23 1.00 0.98LSC/ general internality18.94 26.2 -2.96 0.01 19.09 20.61 1.17 0.37LSC/ success internality 5.99 8.6 -2.78 0.01 7.42 7.29 1.04 0.87LSC/ failure internality3.08 5.0 -2.07 0.04 7.02 8.31 1.41 0.05LSC/ internality of  working relations 3.34 7.6 -6.01 0.01 5.29 6.39 1.46 0.03Viability - Risk-Taking Scale14.53 16.5 -3.12 0.01 4.81 5.17 1.16 0.40Note. Mean 1 – arithmetic mean for the first group (reference group); Mean 2 –  arithmetic mean for thesecond group; T – t-test value; p – T significance level; Std.dev 1 – standard deviation for the first group(reference  group);  Std.dev 2 – standard deviation  for the second group;  F-var – the value  of  Fisher’svariance ratio for establishing equality of variances; p-var - significance level of F-var.The table does not contain the values of the scales of validity, defensiveness and social desirabilityof CTI, as they are designed to assess the psychometric properties of the test itself.  The hypothesis ofequality  of  variances  was  not  confirmed  in  the  case  of  the  validity  scale.  The  same  applies  to  the«emotional coping», «esoteric thinking» and «behavioral coping» scales of the CTI technique as well as thescales « failure internality» and «internality of working relations» of the LSC technique and the controlscale in the viability test. In terms of these scales it was proved incorrect to use the t-test, so the differences were assessedusing the Mann-Whitney U-test (Table 2). For most of the scales of the constructive thinking inventory and the level of subjective controlthere is a significant difference between the indicators of the exercise therapy group and the referencegroup. The trend of the differences indicates a greater probability of coping with internal problems by thesubjects in the exercise therapy group. This is confirmed by the test results of the LSC questionnaire.  Especially surprising is the lack of differences in the most interesting for us scale of this technique -«internality  in  health  and disease».  This  may indicate  the  presence  of  protective  mechanisms  biasingdifferences into other areas where their appearance may be more productive - «internality in success andfailure».   Table 2. Assessment of inter-group differences using the Mann-Whitney U-test (n1 = 216, n2 = 90)Scale / meaning U pCTI/esoteric thinking 7489 <0.002CTI/behavioral coping 5660 <0.001LSC / failure internality 6738 <0.001LSC / internality of working relations 7946 <0.012Note. U  – value of the Mann-Whitney test; p – significance level.As mentioned above, in terms of diagnosis, the study group (n2) is not homogeneous. Therefore,during the second stage we assessed the probability of differences caused by specifics of diseases.The following differences were revealed when comparing the indicators of the psychological statusof  the  exercise  therapy  subgroup  subjects:  a  reduction  in  the  CTI  scale  «naive  optimism»  (t=-2.35;p<0.022)  and  an  increase  in  the  scale  «  health  and disease  internality»  (t=2.14;  p<0.035)  in  the  firstsubgroup in comparison with those of the third subgroup.  Analysis of the viability test results revealed differences in the risk-taking scale only. Positive modalityof this difference indicates a higher probability that students engaged in exercise therapy groups tend to makedecisions that have ambiguous consequences. However, the ability to learn from overcoming failures proves tobe a more valuable asset than avoiding risks. Conclusions The most significant result of the study is the possibility to note a significant number of differences inpsychometric characteristics between the students of the reference group and that of exercise therapy.For example, significant differences were noted in the characteristics measured by the CTI scales andthe questionnaire of the level of subjective control. No significant differences were noted within the exercise therapy group in terms of the categorizingvariable «somatic disease specifics».   Psychognostic  techniques  can  be  used  not  only  to  assess  the  severity  of  psychological  issuesassociated with the presence of a disease, but also to assess personal potential of the exercise therapygroup students in terms of resources to overcome the consequences of chronic diseases. ReferencesBazhin E.V. Metod issledovaniya urovnya sub’ektivnogo kontrolya (Subjective control research method) /E.V. Bazhin, E.A. Golykina, A.M. 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Psikhologicheskie zashchitnye mekhanizmy lichnosti i uroven’ sub’ektivnogo kontrolyau bol’nykh pervichnoy fibromialgiey (Defensiveness and subjective control level in patients with primaryfibromyalgia) / G.P. Suleymanova // Sovremennye problemy nauki i obrazovaniya. – 2014. – № 5. – P. 445.AbstractThe article  contains  the  results  of  the  ascertaining  study,  aimed  at  identification  of  the  psychologicalcharacteristics of students engaged in groups of exercise therapy. It has been established that students with poor health differ greatly in psychometric characteristics from thegroup of students who do not have any problems with their health. These differences are most pronouncedin the findings obtained by means of constructive thinking survey and level of subjective control tests.Exercise therapy group students need the educational process to be organized in a special form involvingpsychological methods. Corresponding author: vshilko@mail.ru

Study of psychological status of tsu students from exercise therapy group

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Study of psychological status of tsu students from exercise therapy group

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