Flexibility and sensibility in the system of professional’s personality properties

The article presents the results of a study on the relationship between flexibility and sensibility as stable characteristics of a person's decisiveness. The role of the components of decisiveness in making decisions by a person in the system «man – profession – society» is shown. The author considers scientists' views on the problem of personality's flexibility and sensibility, their structure, mechanisms and role in the formation and development of professional's personality, in the development of skills and abilities of professional activity. Sensibility is confirmed to be included in the structure of the cognitive block of decisiveness and is a stable characteristic of a decision-maker. It is proved that there are certain interrelationships of flexibility, sensibility, cognitive components of decisiveness and personality traits, herewith, manifested sensibility can maintain decisiveness in an active state and ensure the implementation of decision-making functions. It can be claimed that person's sensibility is not only a predictor of choice, a cognitive factor of decisiveness, but also one of the psychological resources, a quality that ensures the optimization of decision-making, increases efficiency and productivity by activating the flexibility and cognitive characteristics of the individual. For the empirical study, an original psychodiagnostic set of methods was used, including: the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, the Personal Decision Making Factors questionnaire, the Decisiveness Differential Diagnosis method, the Personality Type Indicator, etc. Statistical data processing was carried out using computer program IBM Statistics SPSS 23.0. Quantitative (correlation) and qualitative data analyses (method of «aces» and method of «profiles») were employed. Statistically significant relationships between indicators of flexibility, sensibility, foresight and reasonableness of decisiveness were revealed. The paper presents a description of the psychological characteristics of decisiveness in persons with high and low levels of sensibility and flexibility in decision-making. A comparison of the characteristics of decisiveness in the groups of the examined showed that pronounced sensibility in the analysis and assessment of the parameters of the situation, intolerance to changes in the conditions of choice, foresight in assessing the consequences of choice options, the search for a rational way to achieve the ultimate goal, are largely inherent in persons who are prone to sensible decisions. It is proved that the cognitive component in the structure of “decisiveness” is formed by the properties of reasonableness, foresight and sensibility, in general, they provide an analysis of the situation, an assessment of the effectiveness of the individual's efforts for solving the problem that has arisen, and a foresight of the consequences of choice and decision-making. The sensibility of decisiveness is manifested in the analysis of the development paths of the decision-making situation, in the search and evaluation of the use of an effective strategy for achieving the goal, in the thoroughness, scrupulousness, pragmatism and rationality of the choice. Flexibility, when realizing the complexity of achieving the goal of the decision, activates the manifestation of the cognitive components of decisiveness, determines their specificity, thereby fulfilling the resource function of choice. It is shown that people with a high level of flexibility are distinguished by risk-taking, tolerance, swiftness, perseverance, and a high level of goal achievement motivation.