Professional stress of police officers: an associative experiment

Yakimova Zoya Vladimirovna PhD in Psychology Associate professor, Department of Humanities, Vladivostok branch of Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia 690087, Russia, Primorskii krai, g. Vladivostok, ul. Kotel'nikova, 21 yakimovazoya@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction. The professional activity of an employee of the internal affairs bodies can be classified as one of the most dangerous and stressful for a number of reasons. Even in peacetime, the work of police officers is associated with a certain degree of risk, constant expectation of danger and professional stress.

Undoubtedly, the specifics of stress factors in professional activity will be determined by the specific direction of activity. So, in particular, working, it would seem, for the common goal of protecting the life, health, rights and freedoms of citizens, combating crime, protecting public order, property and ensuring public safety – representatives of each of the directions (investigators, operatives, precinct officers, juvenile inspectors, patrol officers, employees state road safety inspectorate, migration service staff, escort service staff, etc.)   - they will perform their highly specific professional tasks and be exposed to specific stress factors.

However, along with specific stress factors due to the specifics of professional activity, there are also general stress factors that will be universal for all areas of professional activity of police officers, for example, the need to communicate with various categories of citizens, including offenders and criminal contingent; strict legal regulation of activities and high personal responsibility for the decisions made; efficiency and responsiveness with a lack of time and multitasking; a tense rhythm and mode of work; a failure in the mode of work and rest – all this can provoke an imbalance in the spheres of life and lead an employee of the internal affairs bodies to professional deformations, psycho-emotional burnout and early retirement from the profession.

In addition, it should be noted that the general population of active police officers is represented by students of educational organizations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (mainly aged 17-25 years) and employees of various departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (mainly aged 25-55 years, with very rare exceptions up to 60-65 years of senior management and doctors of sciences).

This fact suggests that, in fact, we are dealing with representatives of different generations. At the same time, it is important to note that all service teams are represented by employees of different ages who jointly perform common tasks. This fact is particularly relevant due to the fact that big bets are being placed on the younger generation, since in the near future the current cadets and trainees must fill the labor shortage observed in the field of law enforcement. However, the younger generation differs significantly from older generations in its attitude to life, to work, a specific arrangement of goals, values and ambitions, as well as peculiarities of thinking. Accordingly, the peculiarities of the perception of occupational stress, ways of responding, as well as ways of preventing stress among representatives of different generations may differ not only due to age and professional experience, but also due to the peculiarities of the mentality inherent in a particular generation.

Relevance and scientific novelty. The relevance of studying the concept of "professional stress" in the minds of police officers is due to the fact that at the heart of any stressful situation there is always a certain stressor (stress factor), which can be objective (not subject to influence), and can be subjective - completely subject to the influence of a person, with his awareness and conscious change of his mental attitudes, relationships, modes of action. In addition, there are stressors that a person turns into his own problems. This category includes, firstly, all events and phenomena that have already happened in fact and cannot be changed, but a person constantly thinks about past events and situations, feels guilt or shame, and again and again mentally lives the entire spectrum of negative experiences associated with this event. Secondly, this category includes events that have not yet occurred, but a person is already worried in advance and predicts an unfavorable outcome of the situation, and also imagines all the adverse consequences of the upcoming event in colors, while experiencing stress.

Undoubtedly, a number of objective (uncontrollable) stress factors (for example, the crime rate in the country) cannot be radically affected by each individual, however, most subjective stress factors can be successfully eliminated or minimized if they are conscious due to: revision of the goals of activity; more effective organization of work, changes in their attitude to what is happening; changes in emotional and behavioral response; changes in mental attitudes; changes in non-constructive habits, as well as through conscious actions to eliminate or minimize identified and conscious stress factors.

Of particular importance is the prevention and control of subjective stress factors for the younger generation of police officers, who, not yet having a sufficient level of stress tolerance and/or sufficient personal experience of successfully overcoming stressful situations, may decide to leave the profession, faced with even minor difficulties in the learning process, or in the first year of service after completing training at the university, as well as under the influence of the perception of distorted information about "heavy police everyday life" received from the media and from already professionally deformed and emotionally burned out colleagues of the older generation, without their own critical reflection.

That is why clarifying the concept of "professional stress" in the minds of police officers, studying the semantic field of professional stress, as well as understanding the essence of the psychological mechanism of the impact of professional stress is one of the first steps towards combating subjective (personally significant) stress factors and preventing professional burnout in both the younger generation and the older generation of police officers.

In other words, in order to eliminate the negative impact of subjective aspects of professional stress, or minimize them as much as possible, it is necessary, first of all, to realize and verbalize them, and then correlate your thoughts /experiences / well-being with specific stressful situations and stress factors, understand the mechanisms of influence and be active in changing your attitude, mental attitudes, emotional and behavioral reactions. In some cases, a global revision of their goals, methods of action, habits and work organization in general may be required. But awareness through clarification is the very first and most important step.

The object of the study is professional stress in the activities of Russian police officers.

The subject of the study is the clarification of the concept of "professional stress" in the minds of police officers through an associative experiment.

The purpose of the study: a comparative analysis of the severity of the categories of analysis of the concept of "professional stress" in Russian police officers of different generations.

Research methods and empirical sampling - an expert method for identifying categories of analysis of the concept of "professional stress; an associative experiment on the incentive phrase "Professional stress", conducted on a sample of 140 Russian police officers (70 people - cadets of 3-4 courses and students of the 5th year of the educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and 70 people acting police officers with work experience in internal affairs bodies for more than 5 years).

Literature review. The topic of professional stress in law enforcement is quite relevant and in demand both in foreign and domestic studies. However, the key problem of the study of occupational stress, in our opinion, is that most authors investigate private, applied aspects, without going into details of the psychological mechanism of the phenomenon under consideration.

It should be noted that foreign authors prefer to conduct detailed empirical studies, testing a number of particular hypotheses and the influence of individual stress factors. So, as an example, we can cite the studies of A.M. Sandvik, E. Gjevestad, E. Aabrekk, who studied the influence of physical fitness and psychological endurance in the context of stress resistance of Norwegian police officers ^[18]. N. Ermasova, A.D. Cross, E. Ermasova conducted a comparative analysis of the results of an empirical study of stress and ways of coping with stress in patrolmen and unpatrolled American police officers ^[14]. V. Viegas, J. Henriques investigated the impact of stress and conflict between work and family on job satisfaction of Indian police officers ^[23]. W.C. Wallace conducted a study of deterrent and motivating factors for entering the police service in Jamaica ^[24]. S. Liu investigated scenarios of behavior of Chinese police officers in stressful situations when confronted with the behavior of citizens provoking the use of force ^[16]. T. Vadvilavi?ius, E. Varnagiryt?, G. Jara?i?nait?-Fedosejeva conducted a systematic literary review to identify factors of effectiveness of stress reduction of police officers based on awareness of interventions ^[22]. L.N. Sorensen, K.H. Olesen, C.D. Midtgaard conducted a systematic review of the literature on identification of the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder after major catastrophes and critical incidents among police officers ^[21]. N. Krishan, L.M.B. Steen, M. Lewis conducted a systematic review of the literature on the identification of risk factors associated with suicide of police officers ^[15]. N. Ondrejkov?, J. Halamov? pay special attention to the consideration of such a factor of police professional activity, as "compassion fatigue" ^[17]. 

Domestic researchers consider the topic of occupational stress mainly in a theoretical aspect, analyzing the causes, stages of occurrence, consequences of manifestation and methods of prevention. For example, Z.R. Tanaeva, E.G. Chernikova, S.S. Chernikova analyze the factors of development of professional stress of law enforcement officers ^{[11, 12]}. O.A. Zhidkova, E.V. Zhukina conducted an analytical review of the problems of professional stress and stress-overcoming behavior of police officers ^{[2, 3]}. I.Y. Kobzev considers the issues of psychoprophylaxis and correction of professional stress of police officers ^[6]. L.Yu. Nezhkina offers psychophysical training as a means of preventing professional stress of law enforcement officers ^[10]. A.V. Lavrenko notes that law enforcement officers are more likely than others to encounter a complex of negative psycho-emotional manifestations: deceased people and the grief of loved ones; injuries, cruelty and violence, including in relation to children; severe consequences of road accidents, natural and man-made emergencies; aggression against one's own address, an attempt on the life and health of police officers and their loved ones; an increased flow of public negativism and criticism of police officers distributed on the Internet and other media. ^{[8, with 339]}.

As a result of the literature review, we come to understand that professional stress in the activities of police officers is a very common, but extremely complex and multidimensional phenomenon.

Going from the general to the particular, in our opinion, before proceeding to understanding the essence of psychological stress in the activities of police officers, it is necessary to determine the very concept of "Professional stress".

In the most general terms, occupational stress is understood as the result of the interaction of people and the work they do, and is characterized by the fact that certain changes occur with people that do not allow them to function normally.

S.V. Baburin defines professional stress as a multidimensional phenomenon expressed in physiological and psychological reactions to a difficult work situation ^{[1, p.8]}. At the same time, S.V. Baburin suggests combining all the variety of approaches to understanding professional stress into three groups:

– an ecological approach, in which professional stress is considered as an imbalance between the available resources of an employee and the requirements imposed on him by the environment. Depletion of resources leads to the formation of negative manifestations in the human psyche and, as a result, a decrease in the effectiveness of activities;

– a transactional approach that defines professional stress as the development of individual forms of adaptation of an employee's personality to the conditions of activity, as a result of which internal means of overcoming difficulties are developed;

 – a regulatory approach that considers stress as a special class of conditions that arise in response to changes in the mechanisms of regulation of behavior and activity under the influence of stress factors.

Each approach analyzes its own aspect of professional stress.

A.N. Zankovsky sees the main problem of the study of occupational stress in the integration of psychophysiological and cognitive aspects with functional states ^{[4, p. 236]}. In this regard, psychophysiological and cognitive approaches are distinguished.

Within the framework of the psychophysiological approach, J. Sharit and G. Salvendy define occupational stress as a multidimensional phenomenon expressed (or reflected) in physiological and psychological reactions to a certain work situation ^[20].

In the context of the cognitive approach, the G.R. Hockey model of occupational stress and the W.Schonpflug model are of particular interest ^[19].

So, in particular, occupational stress is considered as a mismatch between requirements and cognitive resources. It is this misalignment that triggers one of the three variants of the strategy (control circuits) that reduce misalignment, i.e., leading the body to the initial state of balance.

 The first strategy, called "direct cognitive control", is associated with an attempt to actively adapt by strengthening cognitive resources, such as: "work harder" and "acquiring new skills". As a result of the application of this strategy, the efficiency of activity is maintained at the proper level at the cost of increased effort and physiological activity.

The second strategy, called "cognitive reassessment", is focused on removing inconsistency by changing the assessment of the level of requirements and/or changing the purpose of the activity. As a result of the application of this strategy, the effectiveness of the activity is significantly reduced, but the stability of the individual's mental state remains intact.

The third strategy, called "indirect cognitive control", is focused on removing misalignment by managing external working conditions. As a result of the application of this strategy, the effectiveness of activities can be maintained without the use of additional psychophysiological efforts due to more effective planning or better organization of work.   

 A more detailed consideration of occupational stress as a problem situation is based on two components: orientation (the process of identifying the problem, the process of forming strategies for solving the problem) and control (the implementation of activities to solve the problem and the acquisition of new adaptive skills).

Thus, in the context of the presented study, occupational stress is understood as a particular variant of the general adaptation syndrome, which is a functional state caused by the performance of professional activities and expressed in mental and physical reactions to stressful situations arising from the influence of emotionally negative occupational stress factors.

It is important to take into account that the concept of "professional stress" in psychological terms is a mental model reflecting an individual's ideas about the causes and development of stress associated with the performance of professional activities and its manifestations ^{[5, p. 113]}. In this regard, the difficulties of synthesizing psychophysiological and cognitive approaches can be partially eliminated, in our opinion, in the study of occupational stress with the help of an associative experiment that allows you to reflect not only the cognitive component (understanding the causes, stress factors), but also the psychophysiological component (description of well-being, experiences, states in a stress situation).  In addition, the analysis of the results of the associative experiment on a representative sample allows us to identify both psychological mechanisms: orientation and control (management).

In Russian psycholinguistics, an associative experiment is considered as a way of studying linguistic consciousness. The associative experiment makes it possible to detect a semantic field (associative-verbal field) that is represented by a word.

A. A. Leontiev justified the use of associative experiment as an effective method of studying the lexical meaning of a word ^{[9, p. 192]}.

The basis of the concept of the cognitive-discursive nature of the associative field studied in the associative experiment is the theory of the word as a means of access to a single perceptual, cognitive and affective information base of a person, developed by A.A. Zalevskaya. A.I. Khlopova, following A. A. Zalevskaya, believes that the associative field as an interpretive construct reflects internal and external connections and relations of a word as a unit of language ^{[13, p. 282]}.

The unit of analysis in an associative experiment is an associate – a word that appears in the respondent's mind in response to the presented lexical unit.

The typology of the associative experiment can be represented by three options:

A free associative experiment is a method of free associations, which consists in the fact that the respondent needs to give a verbal reaction to a given stimulus word (answer with the first word or phrase that comes to mind), while neither the number of associations nor the time is regulated.

Directed associative experiment – in the instructions, the respondent is asked to give associations of a certain grammatical or semantic class, for example, to list three nouns, three adjectives and three verbs per stimulus.

Chain/chain associative experiment – the respondent is asked to respond to a stimulus with several associations in a set unit of time.  At the same time, the main task of the researcher is to determine the length of the associative series generated unconsciously over a certain period of time, as well as the number and size of semantic nests, since on this basis a conclusion is made about the specifics of the personal psychological characteristics of the subject, for example, about the presence of zones of individual mental tension.

In the context of the cognitive-discursive approach, according to the concept of N.I. Kurganova, the identification of a word in the conditions of natural semiosis presupposes the comprehension of a word in accordance with the image of the world (information base) of an individual and is carried out as a translation of meanings into meanings and meanings into meanings, which allows us to distinguish the following stages in the course of natural semiosis: actualization of the image of the individual's world and the formation of the idea; the allocation of meanings; the construction (programming) of the utterance and speech implementation.

This means that the process of word identification proceeds as a multi-stage and multilevel.

The primary differentiation of semantic processes begins at the metacognitive level, which is responsible for the choice of the general strategy. This is the level of actualization of the image of the world in the minds of native speakers.

At the cognitive level, the direction of identification of meanings is clarified; this is the level of schemes and propositions.

The semantic level is the level of semantic–syntactic structures at which semantic features are formed and cognitive operations receive their certainty.

The level of speech realization (discursive) presupposes the choice of means and methods of verbalization of semantic communication.

Thus, the cognitive-discursive approach to the analysis of the associative field allows us to identify the functional supports of the processes and results of word identification at the metacognitive, cognitive, semantic and speech (discursive) levels of the semantic field of the word ^{[7, pp. 28-29]}.

Research methods. To identify the mental representation of occupational stress in the study, we used a free associative experiment. In accordance with the instructions, respondents had to write as many associations as possible corresponding to the phrase "professional stress". The time for completing tasks was not limited and averaged no more than 5 minutes.

The processing of associative series consisted in identifying the content characteristics of the concept, the measure of differentiation of the concept and the number of associations (the length of the series).

The analysis of the results of the associative experiment was carried out according to the following algorithm:

1. The entire available array of associations received from respondents was ranked on two samples (students of the educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and active police officers with more than 5 years of experience), taking into account the frequency of respondents' responses.

2. The core of the semantic field (the nuclear layer) was revealed in the format of the most common (according to the ranking results) high-frequency associates, and the peripheral layer in the format of the remaining less frequent associations, but having overcome the 5% frequency barrier. At the same time, it should be noted that associates who occupied the same positions (having the same rank) in the ranking were taken into account in the study as units included in the semantic field. Associations that did not overcome the 5% frequency barrier were considered as single elements of subjective experience and were not taken into account in further analysis. Such associations may be useful and interesting in identifying individual characteristics of the respondent, for example, in personal work, but they are not appropriate for identifying general trends.

3. The categorization of all associations that have overcome the 5% barrier of the frequency of the semantic field in accordance with the type of semantic connection and the allocation on this basis using the expert method of seven categories of analysis: causes, causes/consequences, consequences, states, experiences, management method, awareness.

4. A comparative analysis of the selected categories was carried out in the context of two samples of respondents (students of the educational organization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and active police officers).

An expert method was used to determine the categories of analysis of the concept of "Professional stress". Namely, the expert design method, which is a set of expert collaboration procedures designed to solve a creative problem (in our case, for categorization). At the output of the procedure, the desired object (category) is obtained, and not its evaluation. Three certified psychologists (candidates of psychological sciences, including two of the three experts are active police officers) acted as experts.

As a result of expert analysis of the associates received from respondents, 7 categories were designed (highlighted): causes, causes/consequences, consequences, states, experiences, management method, awareness.

The further work of the experts consisted in correlating each of the obtained associates with one or another selected category, i.e., within the framework of the expert method, the expert evaluation method was applied. This method allows us to evaluate the phenomenon under study in the form of a generalized opinion of specialists (experts) on the issue under study. Each of the experts was asked to evaluate each associate obtained as a result of the associative experiment according to the degree of compliance with the selected categories. The assessment of associates was carried out separately based on the results of a sample of students and separately based on the results of a sample of active police officers. The evaluation of the associates obtained as a result of the associative experiment was carried out on a scale in which:

0 – complete non-compliance with the specified category,

1 – weak compliance with the specified category,

2 – average compliance with the specified category,

3 – strong compliance with the specified category,

4 – full compliance with the specified category.

The objectivity of the assessment of expert opinion (the degree of consistency of expert opinion) was tested using the Kendall concordance coefficient (W) separately for the results of a sample of students and separately for the results of a sample of active police officers.

The Kendall concordance coefficient was calculated using formula (1) in Excel.

                                                                          ,                                               (1)                   

where m is the number of experts,

         n is the number of objects of expertise,

         S is the sum of the squares of the deviations of all ratings of the ranks of each object of expertise from the average value.

As you know, the concordance coefficient can take values ranging from 0 to 1 (0 < W < 1). With full agreement of expert opinions, the concordance coefficient is equal to one, with complete disagreement – zero. The most real is the case of partial consistency of expert opinions. At the same time, we can say approximately that the indicator W > 0.8 is considered a very high level of consistency of expert opinion, and the indicator W < 0.2 is a very low level of consistency of expert opinion. If the indicator W exceeds the value of 0.4, then the quality of the assessment is satisfactory (average), and if W is in the range of 0.70-0.80 — the level of consistency of expert opinion is considered high.

 In our case, the degree of consistency of expert opinions for the results of the associative experiment on the sample of students was W= 0.72, and on the sample of active police officers W= 0.74. In both cases, the obtained values of the concordance coefficient correspond to a high indicator of the consistency of expert opinion.

Thus, the use of the expert method in the context of the study made it possible to solve the problem of "categorization" (the expert design method) and the problem of correlating the associates obtained as a result of the associative experiment with the categories identified by experts (the expert evaluation method). 

Empirical sampling.

The sample of respondents consisted of 140 police officers, including: 70 people - 3-4-year cadets and 5th-year full-time students studying in the specialties: 40.05.01 "Legal support of national security", 40.05.02 "Law enforcement; 70 people are active police officers with more than 5 years of experience, who at the time of the study are studying by correspondence in the specialty 40.05.02 "Law Enforcement", training direction 40.03.01 "Jurisprudence" on the basis of the Vladivostok Branch of the Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

The distribution of the sample by gender and age is as follows: among full-time students, 30 girls (42.86%) and 40 boys (57.14%), the age range is 20-22 years; among part-time students, 15 women (21.43%) and 55 men (78.57%), the age range is 26-48 years.

The survey was conducted anonymously, in a blank format, on a voluntary basis.

The results of the study. In a free associative experiment on a sample of 140 respondents, 541 associations were obtained (251 from students and 290 from active police officers). From 2 to 8 reactions were received from each respondent. The age aspect was taken into account in the context of two samples (full-time students and current employees with more than 5 years of experience).

The gender aspect was not taken into account in the analysis of the results of the associative experiment in this study, but allowed us to identify a general trend that among the younger generation, the ratio of female (42.86%) and male (57.14%) students is almost equal, compared with the ratio of female (21.43%) and male (78.57%) sex in more adult generations of active police officers.

When analyzing the results of the associative experiment, all the associations obtained were grouped into semantic modules (categories) in accordance with the content characteristics of the concept of "Professional stress": "causes", "causes/consequences", "consequences", "states", "experiences", "management method", "awareness". Morphological forms of one word, as well as associates close in meaning, are taken out as separate reactions, but when summarizing the results of the study, they are indicated by fractions, for example alcohol/ alcoholism, outfit / duty. A comparative analysis of the results of the distribution of associations by category is presented in Figure 1.

Fig. 1 Comparative analysis of the results of the distribution of associations of the concept of "Professional stress" by category

For a meaningful analysis of associations, words and phrases that overcame the 5% frequency barrier in each of the two samples separately were used. A comparative analysis was conducted between a sample of cadets and full-time students (20-22 years) n= 70 (hereinafter students) and a sample of active police officers studying for the period of the study by correspondence (26-48 years) n= 70 (hereinafter active police officers).

Analysis of the features of the organization of the concept of "professional stress" revealed that students wrote mainly short associative series (3-5 words and phrases). Active police officers wrote mostly longer associative rows (4-7 or more words and phrases).

The category of "causes" is represented by associations that explain the causes of occupational stress in the mental representation of respondents. It was revealed that students named 24.6% more causes of stress compared to current police officers. At the same time, cadets and students focused their attention primarily on such reasons as: work / service; study/ sessions / exams; time; outfit / duty; lack of money; lack of rest; unpleasant /talkative people; bad team; public transport; a lot of responsibility; unusual; new circumstances.

Current police officers identified among the causes of professional stress: a large amount of work; excessive demands; irregular working hours; lack of time; inability to switch; injustice; debts /expenses/losses; stupidity of the boss; stupidity of people; traffic jams /waiting; checks.

The category "cause / effect" is represented by associations, which in the mental representation of respondents may in some cases be the cause of professional stress (stress factor), and in other cases - a consequence of the action of another stress factor, i.e. a vicious circle of stress is created when the cause becomes a consequence, and the consequence causes a new stress.

It was revealed that students named 62.8% more causes/consequences of stress compared to current police officers. At the same time, the students named mainly such associations as: loneliness / lack of relationships; conflict / quarrel; problems in the family; problems at work; bad mood; poor health; lateness; reprimand.

Current police officers called such associations as: bureaucracy; lack of time; multitasking; quarrels/scandals; spoiled relationships; stupidity; vanity.

The category "consequences" is represented by associations that, in the mental representation of respondents, reflect the results of stress exposure. The trainees named 13.9% fewer associations concerning the effects of stress than the current police officers. Among the consequences of professional stress, students mainly called smoking/ cigarettes; alcohol/ alcoholism; hair loss; headache; tears; afabazol/valerian/tenoten; starvation/constantly hungry / lack of appetite; weight loss/weight gain; skin rash; shaking hands; loss of strength; sleepy / insomnia; nervous breakdown/nervous exhaustion.

In their associations regarding the effects of occupational stress, the current police officers were as close as possible to the associations of students and also called cigarettes; alcohol; weight loss/overeating; hair loss; nervous breakdown / nervous exhaustion. However, if the trainees talked mainly about sedatives (afabazole, valerian, tenoten), then the current employees mentioned antidepressants in their associations. In addition, pain, pressure, frustration, burnout, unwillingness to do work, loss of meaning, withdrawal and melancholy appeared in the associations of active employees. Thus, if students see the consequences of professional stress mainly in terms of psychophysiological changes and the appearance of bad habits. Then existing employees also have existential aspects added to this list (loss of meaning, burnout, unwillingness to do work, etc.).

The category of "states" is represented by associations that, in the mental representation of respondents, reflect mental states experienced under the influence of professional stress. The trainees named 36.61% fewer associations concerning mental states related to stress than the current police officers.

Among the listed associations, students were dominated by such conditions as: fatigue/fatigue; tension /overexertion; irritability/nervousness; aggression; apathy.  Separately, it is worth noting the conditions associated with sleep and wakefulness disorders. Respondents note a state of total drowsiness during the day and insomnia at night. In isolated cases, a state of cheerfulness was noted (stress invigorates, keeps you in good shape and does not allow you to relax), but such a decoding of "cheerfulness" rather indicates a state of tension than a real activation of energy and resources.

The current police officers in their associations have also left the leading positions of mental states associated with stress behind tension/overstrain/tension; nervousness; fatigue; irritation. Unlike students of active police officers, aggression is not noted in associations, but apathy and depression are quite common.  Mental states such as anxiety/ anxiety; lethargy/exhaustion; "squeezed like a lemon"; loss of strength; emptiness; indifference; detachment; laziness appeared in employee associations. Conditions of sleep and wakefulness disorders, such as drowsiness and insomnia, were supplemented by a state of chronic lack of sleep, as well as states of malaise and soreness. In addition, it is worth noting that employees note the state of affect, which is not observed in student associations. 

The category of "experiences" is represented by associations that, in the mental representation of respondents, reflect emotions and feelings experienced under the influence of professional stress. The students named 13.73% fewer associations concerning emotions and experiences related to stress than the current police officers.

Rating indicators of associations associated with the experience of professional stress in students are associated with anxiety / anxiety, anger, rage, as well as feelings of despair, excitement and confusion. The emotional range of active police officers turned out to be wider and included such experiences as: excitement, sadness, resentment, anxiety, fear, grief, anger, fright, despair, sadness. It is particularly worth noting the presence of panic attacks, which are very painfully experienced by police officers.

The category "management method" is represented by associations that, in the mental representation of respondents, reflect management methods / ways of dealing with professional stress. The students named 16.67% fewer associations than the current police officers. Students noted such ways of coping with stress as: sleep, friendship, love, motivation, music, sports.  To the methods listed above, the current police officers added: constructive solutions, mobilization of all resources, awareness of what is happening and emotional discharge through laughter and crying.

The associations identified in active police officers related to awareness of what is happening as a way of managing stress allowed us to identify an additional category that is present in active police officers, but absent in students – this category of "awareness" is represented by associations that, in the mental representation of respondents, reflect an understanding of the true essence of what is happening. This category was represented by only two types of associations – this is "the inability to change/change anything" and "unrealization", which correlates with the previously identified existential aspects of the manifestation of professional stress in active police officers.

Conclusions and conclusion. The conducted research demonstrated the complexity and multidimensional nature of the concept of "Professional stress", which are reflected in the verbalized associations of the Russian sample of respondents who are representatives of the professional activities of law enforcement officers (police officers).

As a result of a free associative experiment on the phrase-stimulus "Professional stress", 541 associations were obtained.

As a result of the expert method (expert design), 7 categories of analysis were identified that form the structure of the semantic field of the concept under study. With the help of expert evaluation, a procedure was carried out to correlate the obtained associates and the selected categories of analysis. The consistency of experts' opinions was verified using the Kendall concordance coefficient separately for a sample of students (W=0.72) and separately for a sample of active police officers (W=0.72), which in both cases indicates a high degree of conformity of experts' opinions.   

In accordance with the stated purpose of the study, a comparative analysis of the severity of each of the categories of the analysis of the concept of "Professional stress" was carried out in a sample of the younger generation of police officers (full-time students at the university of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia) and in a sample of the older generation of active police officers with more than 5 years of experience.

The results of the comparative analysis showed that the younger generation has a less differentiated semantic field of the concept of "professional stress", gives shorter associative series (3-5 associates), focuses mainly on the cognitive aspect (identification of the causes and consequences of professional stress). The older generation has a widely differentiated semantic field, gives longer associative series (4-7 or more associates), focuses mainly on the psychophysiological aspect (states and experiences of professional stress).

Methods of control (management) of occupational stress are generally identical among representatives of different age groups, but the older generation has in its arsenal a wider range of ways / means of stress management, including: constructive solutions, mobilization of all resources, awareness of what is happening and emotional release through laughter and crying.

The most significant differences were revealed regarding the existential component of professional stress – it practically does not occur among young people, the older generation of active employees, on the contrary, associates professional stress with loss of meaning, "burnout" due to numerous obstacles (ranging from bureaucracy and ending with a lack of time when multitasking), unwillingness to do meaningless work. Which eventually leads to the appearance of two types of associates among active police officers, not identified among young people and generalized in the category of "awareness" under "impossibility of change" and "unrealization". In other words, the current police officers, being in a state of professional stress, are aware of their helplessness regarding the prospects of changing something / changing and feel their unrealization regarding the available talents and personal potential.

In addition, it should be noted that in the semantic field of the concept of "professional stress", non-organizational aspects have been identified that are not directly related to work, but ultimately affect the increase in professional stress and reduce work efficiency (for example, loneliness, lack of relationships, conflicts /problems in the family, lack of money, financial problems, poor health /health problems, exhausting road / traffic jams, etc.). All this implies the need to include in the structure of professional stress as aspects related to the individual nature of the response to stressful situations; aspects related to work in the organization and organizational interaction, as well as aspects related to non-organizational factors.

 Thus, the conducted associative experiment made it possible to identify the features of the semantic field of the concept of "professional stress" among representatives of different generations of police officers. Further prospects of the research are seen in a detailed study of the topic of stressors (stress factors) of professional stress in the activities of police officers not only in different areas of activity, but also in different generations; description of the manifestation of symptoms of professional stress and substantiation of psychological mechanisms of action of strategies for overcoming professional stress by reducing the level of mismatch between the requirements of the professional environment and the resource capabilities of the individual.

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