PSYCHOSEMANTIC DIMENSIONS OF EXPERIENCING PSYCHO-EMOTIONAL STATES BY UKRAINIANS IN THE CONDITIONS OF WAR

Abstract

The article provides a general theoretical analysis of the problem of the impact of war as a stressful and traumatic factor on the psycho-emotional states of the personality. Particular attention is paid to a brief description of the psychological symptoms of people with the so-called “refugee syndrome (complex)” and their comparison with the population that remains on the territory of their own country under martial law. As an empirical tool in the study, the “Test of Self-Assessment of Functional State (SAM)” by V. Doskin and others was used. The sample consisted of 209 respondents from the Western and Eastern regions of Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian emigrants. The primary quantitative data obtained with the help of Google forms were subjected to the procedure of factor analysis separately for each subgroup of respondents. Based on the results of the factor analysis, the psychosemantic structures that underlie the self-assessment of psycho-emotional states have been identified and interpreted. There are 8 such structures in the Western Ukrainian subsample: “Optimistic cheerfulness”, “Passive inhibition”, “Enthusiastic diligence”, “Feeling of strength”, “Workable concentration”, “Healthy resilience” and “Relaxed calm”. In the Eastern Ukrainian (frontline) subsample, there are 5: “Optimistic and strong cheerfulness”, “Passive and weak inhibition”, “Enthusiastic diligence”, “Active health”, “Calm and fresh relaxation”. There are 8 in the emigrants subsample: “Pessimistic inhibition”, “Happy joy”, “Fresh diligence”, “Easy concentration”, “Tired gloom”, “Happy prospects”, “Stable working capacity”, “Feeling of strength”. In the context of the obtained and interpreted empirical results, a significant affinity in the psycho-emotional experience of life in the conditions of war by respondents from the western and eastern regions of Ukraine was stated. In both respective subgroups, “Optimistic cheerfulness” is singled out as the dominant psychosemantic basis for verbalization of one’s own states, which for Ukrainians from the frontline regions has a significant additional connotation of “strength”. In contrast to the related results in the first two subsamples, it was found that in the subgroup of forced Ukrainian emigrants, the psychosemantic structure of “Pessimistic inhibition” is dominant in this context, which requires further in-depth study and analysis.