1.3.1 Subjective Quality of Life and Psychological Resistance to the Threats of the COVID-19 Pandemic: the Role of Personality Potential
Dmitry Leontiev
Project Leader
Project period
2020-2025
Context of Research Project within a Subject of Human Capital
Personality potential is the basis of life enhancement and self-realization, the basis of resistance and psychological immunity to stress and other challenges of the changing world, the person’s capacity to actively use one’s own resources and not only pursue goals, but also set them on the basis of self-determination and choice. It is important to consider the contribution of the individual to the human capital buildup.
The research project Subjective Quality of Life and Psychological Resistance to the Threats of the COVID-19 Pandemic: the Role of Personality Potential is aimed at combining the concepts of human potential and personality potential, developing a methodology for its measuring and conducting empirical studies of its impact on the success and subjective well-being of the individual.
Project Aim
Studying personality potential as a resource for maintaining objective and subjective quality of life against the background of uncontrolled changes and threats, including those related to the Covid-19 pandemic
Project Objectives:
- Implementing a three-year monitoring study of the impact of personality potential on the quality of life
- Developing a new multidimensional inventory for complex assessment of personality potential
- Studying causal mechanisms of the influence of personality potential on subjective well-being above and beyond objective factors of well-being
- Investigating personal goal setting and attainment, associated with personal autonomy and subjective well-being
Key Findings
2020
Data have been collected on two longitudinal empirical studies on personality predictors of attitudes to situations of uncertainty, in particular the coronavirus pandemic, and personality resources of coping with subjective uncertainty in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic
2021
The first wave of a sociological monitoring study of the relationship between personality potential and quality of life has been prepared and conducted
2022
The assumption has been verified that resilience and a sense of well-being in difficult times can be developed, including in the workplace with the help of online training. The effectiveness of SPARK Resilience (Situation, Perception, Affect, Reaction, Knowledge) has been studied in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been revealed that in order to increase psychological stability, it is important to consider the situation as a set of neutral facts, know your own peculiarities of troubles perception (for example, a tendency to catastrophize or ignore problems), notice and regulate automatic reactions resulting in destructive behavior. Usually such a conscious approach leads to a deeper understanding of the situation and your role in it and makes it possible to effectively manage what is happening.
The psychological reactions of a person to various crisis situations have been considered. It has been revealed that individual and personal characteristics, expressed in self–efficacy, tolerance to uncertainty, a sense of connectedness, subjective vitality, faith in freedom and resilience, represent positive personal resources that perform a buffer function when interacting with situations of uncertainty. Psychological resources provide a more successful adaptation to stressful factors, namely, contribute to a higher level of subjective certainty, a better orientation in a situation of unpredictability and a more positive emotional background.
Model SPARK Solutions
Publication
- Leontiev D., Mospan A., Osin E. N. (2022) Positive personality resources as buffers against psychological reactions to uncertainty //Current Psychology. – 2022. – С. 1-12. doi
- Boniwell I. et al. (2023) SPARK Resilience in the workplace: Effectiveness of a brief online resilience intervention during the COVID-19 lockdown //Plos one. – 2023. – Т. 18. – №. 3. – С. e0271753. doi
Conferences
Interuniversity Symposium Psychology of Pandemic Consciousness (RU) (Moscow, Russia, December 21, 2020)