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Noogenic psychological characteristics and adjustment
Robert Masten
Full text (pdf) | Views: 18 | Written in Slovene. | Published: February 2, 2005
Abstract: The present article is concerned with noogenic personality characteristics of adolescents involved in military training in relation to psychic and psychosomatic symptoms. A selected sample of 107 conscripts was questioned regarding their psychical and psychosomatic symptoms in the first and in the sixth month of their military training. They were also questioned regarding personal meaning of life, as well as regarding their values and attitudes toward the army. Individuals maintaining their personal meaning of life, have less psychical and psychosomatic symptoms after coming to army than the others. The findings do not support the hypothesis that after five months of military training the number of symptoms decreases. In most participants the symptoms mostly remained at the same level after five months of training, for one third of respondents the number of symptoms increased significantly. In 9 % of military recruits number of symptoms decreased. The evaluation of differences in the number of symptoms between two assessments showed, that personal meaning, values and attitudes toward army discriminate the groups with different levels of adjustment to military service. Participants with the same level of symptoms after five months are less hedonistic, have more positive attitudes toward army and higher rates on meaning scales. The data are interpreted in the context of theory that adjustment to stressing life events is mediated by noogenic personality characteristics.
Keywords: symptoms, mental disorders, noogene personality traits, adjustment
