The Relationship of Neuropsychic Stability and Propensity to Deviant Behaviour in Contract Military Servicemen

Introduction. Consideration of the issues of preserving and maintaining a high level of neuropsychic stability of contract military servicemen is a very urgent task of modern general and military psychology, upon which the success of the professional activities of military servicemen in extreme conditions largely depends. Real combat is a powerful stress factor that subsequently provokes various forms of psychogenic disturbances and deviant behaviour. The purpose of the research was to determine the differences in characteristics of neuropsychic stability and propensity to deviant behaviour in contract military servicemen who participated in combat activities and those who did not, as well as to reveal the peculiarities of the relationship between the propensity to deviant behaviour and neuropsychic stability. Materials and Methods. The paper presents the data of an empirical study conducted on a sample (n = 60) of contract military servicemen who participated (group 1, n1 = 30) and did not participate (group 2, n2 = 30) in combat activities. The authors employed the methods of mathematical statistics (U-Mann-Whitney and Spearman’s ρ). Results and Discussion. Peculiarities of manifestation of neuropsychic stability of military servicemen were established, the most typical forms of deviant behaviour of military servicemen who participated in combat activities were shown. Conclusions. There are differences in the characteristics of neuropsychic stability and a propensity to deviant behavior and various configurations of their relationships in contract military servicemen according to the presence / absence of combat experience. It is revealed that the lower the level of neuropsychic stability is, the higher the tendency to various mental disorders and deviant behavior is. A high level of neuropsychic stability is a preventive measure of mental disorders and deviant behaviour.