PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF UKRAINIAN NATIONAL POLICE OFFICERS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES

The article presents an analysis of psychological characteristics of adaptability of police officers by means of assessing leading personal factors that affect professional adaptation for the conditions of law enforcement activities. Proceeding from the fact that adaptability acts as a system-forming component that involves all constituents of both the structure of the personality itself and the leading spheres of activity, the leading relationships of the individual-psychological characteristics that determine its effectiveness have been analyzed. This provides an opportunity to identify individual psychological mechanisms for the development of professional adaptation of police officers, since it represents a complex integrative quality, which is formed on the basis of specific features of law enforcement officers' psychological profile. The study is based on the following research methods: Adaptability Test by A. Maklakov, The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) by Raymond B. Cattell, Eysenck's Personality Inventory (EPI), Questionnaire by A. Kokosharova, Aggression Test by A. Bass, “Prognosis” method for determining psychic stability, and Self-Attitude Scale by S. Pantyleiev. The survey involved 318 police officers having working experience of more than three years. On the basis of interpretation of the results of mathematical and statistical analysis of the leading correlations of adaptability and other indicators of techniques, individual-psychological qualities have been identified which directly determine the effectiveness of professional adaptation. Such an approach to the personality of the policeman provided an opportunity to study qualitative changes in its structure, forms and trends of the development, the causes of its transformation in the specifics of the activity itself, through the prism of psychological characteristics, which serve as a potential for its professional adaptability. Therefore, by examining the corresponding set of features in the structure of the police officer, one can predict the dynamics of his professional adaptation, which results in the emergence of a new quality – professional adaptability