Dissertation for obtaining the scientific degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in specialty 053 "Psychology" (field of knowledge 05 "Social and behavioral sciences"). - National Defense University of Ukraine named after Ivan Chernyakhovskyi, Kyiv, 2023.
The scientific work is devoted to the study of psychological mechanisms of behavior regulation of prisoners of war by means of symbolic mimicry. During the analysis of views on the nature of military captivity, there were investigated the adaptive strategies of prisoners at the five main stages of military captivity. As a result of the processing of the entire mass of information, the features and characteristics of the behavior of the person in the captivity were singled out, which made it possible for them to survive in the aggressive environment of enemy captivity. The analysis of the specified information allowed us to recreate the figure of a prisoner who survived his captivity with dignity.
Based on the identification of a number of important components of symbolic mimicry, we established that a prisoner of war has: 1) to be attentive and sensitive to changes in the environment that are significant for him; 2) to distinguish in objects and phenomena inconspicuous, but essential for their decoding signs, qualities and connections; 3) to be able to quickly memorize visual and auditory information with the possibility of its further imaginative reproduction and analysis; 4) to be able to accurately perceive the inner world of another person (sworn brother or guardian) in all its feelings, emotional and semantic nuances and to create such feelings on the other side according to his own design; 5) to be able to show sensitivity and compassion to others, readiness to help for the further formation of constructive interpersonal relations; 6) to be able to recognize and decode the facial expressions of the interlocutor, correctly interpret such manifestations and reproduce them flawlessly; 7) to understand and predict the behavior of people in difficult life situations, to recognize a person's intentions and feelings, taking into account non-verbal and verbal (psychomotor) signals; 8) to be able to behave rationally in conflict situations; 9) to be able to direct his own aggression in a constructive direction, that is, to express one's own aggression in a socially acceptable form with an expected socially acceptable result; 10) to be able to hide his thoughts and intentions in order to avoid isolating himself from the community with similar views; 11) to have a balanced nervous system; 12) to have a sufficient level of resistance to the destructive factors of captivity, which suppress the mental and behavioral functions of the personality of the prisoner of war; 13) to be able to adapt to a new role, respond flexibly to changes in the situation, decode and predict the impression he makes on others.
In order to establish the presence of the described features and the degree of their expression, it was selected a battery of 20 valid methods, including 2 author's.
The dissertation research summarizes the theoretical and empirical results of the study of the psychological mechanisms of regulating the behavior of the prisoners of war by means of symbolic mimicry at various stages of the military captivity, which made it possible to reach the following conclusions:
1. Domestic psychological science considers the symbol as a mandatory referent of research discourse, and understanding the symbol is the key to unraveling the psychological, social, political, religious, and cultural aspects of human life. The creation of symbols is an immanent ability of a person determined by the nature of his consciousness. Since the behavior of the individual is included in the broad system of social regulation, its functions are formation, evaluation, support, regulation, protection and reproduction of the norms, rules, principles, mechanisms, and means, which ensure the existence of interaction, the transmission of a message, the activity of an individual as a member of society and survival in special conditions.
2. One of the most used in historical retrospect methods of adaptive behavior of an individual in life-threatening conditions is symbolic mimicry as a conscious, cunning, imitative (deceptive) behavior or activity of people when they, resorting to double morality and ambivalence of personal value-normative systems, embody in social life such a masking role that corresponds to social expectations, conventional norms and standards, which, however, is not practiced by them. The ability to symbolic mimicry is not genetically programmed, but formed under the influence of the time and space social features in which the serviceman conducts his activities. Mimic behavior has a conscious and pragmatic character. Symbolic mimicry is the activity of a serviceman aimed to consciously rationalize his own behavior using psychomotor symbols and language.
