Cadets’ professional motivation

Introduction. The paper describes the concept of professional motivation, its stricture and role in formation of future police officers. The objective of the research is to reveal empirically the state of professional motivation as well as its psychological features hindering the promotion of cadets’ cognitive activity in the course of studies. Маterials and Methods. The research covered sixty-one second-year cadets of different faculties from educational organizations of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. To study the peculiarities of motives to professional activity E. Shein diagnostical method and A. Mekhrabian diagnostics of motivation to achievement were employed; to reveal psychological features of cadets’ professionally-moral motives Ya. V. Podolyak method was used. Results and Discussion. Different aspects of cadets’ professional motivation were considered. Various theoretical approaches enabled the authors to empirically reveal the intensity of certain motives to their main activity, that is studying at a university, and professionally-moral motives, that is value attitudes, which make up one of the structural elements of professional motivation. Conclusions. Lack of striving to professional competency as a leading motive of professional work implies unfavourable prospects as to cadets’ relatively stable focus in the profession. The authors establish some psychological features which hinder the promotion of cadets’ cognitive activity in their learning process such as lack of interest to career development and administration, striving for independence from organizational rules and restrictions combined with the willingness to confront and compete.