What helps buffering the psychological effects of the economic crisis?

1. What helps buffering the psychological effects of the economic crisis? Tatiana Ivanova& Dmitry Leontiev Tatiana.Y.Ivanova@gmail.comdleon@smysl.ru THE MAIN RESULTS The factor analysis of the T1 data revealed 4 main factors (accounting for 54% of variance) that seem to be associated with varied strategies of handling stressful situations. THE PROBLEM Recent global economic crisis produced much stress thus providing an opportunity for a study on the ways different people cope with this challenge. We supposed that the impact of the perceived influence of the economic crisis on people’s life and its quality is moderated by their personality strengths and resources. Those lacking the resources of this kind will suffer from the unfavorable economic and psychological effects of the crisis, including distress, anxiety, decrease of vitality, satisfaction with life and purpose in life. Those better psychologically equipped would experience eustress rather than distress and would not suffer from the crisis. THE AIM To identify particular personality structures that would buffer the unfavorable impact of the experienced economic crisis on the quality of life.. Seeking harmony with life Purpose in life, satisfaction with life, lack of alienation, social support seeking, belief in reasonable and peaceful world. • Rationalisation • Self-control & planning coping styles. Active accepting the challenge Hardiness, vitality, optimism, purpose in life, tolerance to ambiguity, self-efficacy, positive appraisal coping, high self-esteem, belief in controllability and success Rigid coping responses Intolerance to ambiguity. Coping styles: distancing, confrontation, problem avoidance, accepting the blame, social support seeking. Personal Resources The stressful event Satisfaction with life • Basing on the personality variables indicative of personality strength that made the first factor, we calculated the Integrated Personal Potential Index (IPPI). • All the respondents were divided by their IPPI into 2 roughly equal groups. The respondents were also divided into 2 groups by their answer whether they were affected by the economic crisis (70% - "yes”, 30% - “no”). • Then we used ANOVA for checking the differences between the level of satisfaction with life depending on both IPPI and crisis perception. • PARTICIPANTS • 127 Moscow residents, of varied age, gender and social class were initially asked to respond to a set of direct self-report questions and psychological inventories in May 2009 (T1). A modified battery was sent to all of them in October 2010 (T2); 86 were returned completed. The third section is planned for October 2011. Of the 2 groups with high IPPI, (both affected and unaffected by the crisis) the level of satisfaction with life did not differ, whereas the respondents with low IPPI affected by the crisis revealed a lower satisfaction with life that those unaffected by the crisis. IPPI thus seem to moderate the self-reported influence of economic crisis on satisfaction with life. • METHODS • We offered a set of direct questions on the appraised influence of the economic crisis and corresponding changes in life (losing a job, income decrease etc.) and a set of Russian versions of psychological inventories, measuring 3 groups of variables: (1) quality of life measures; (2) personal potential measures (personal resources of self-regulation); (3) coping styles (stereotyped responses to minor challenges), in particular: • - Hardiness Survey (Maddi / Russian version by Leontiev & Rasskazova), • - Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale (McLain / Lukovitskaya) • - Life Orientation Test (Carver & Scheier / Osin & Gordeeva) • - Noetic Orientations Test (Leontiev) • - Alienation Test (Maddia.o. / Osin) • - General Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem / Romek) • Satisfaction With Life Scale (Dienera.o. / Leontiev & Osin) • Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) Lasarus & Folkman / Vassermana.o.) • Subjective Vitality Scale (Ryan & Frederick / Aleksandrova & Leontiev)- • Basic Assumptions Questionnaire (Janoff-Bulman / Padun & Kotelnikova). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The reported results present only a piece of a large longitudinal study. They give an important insight of the personality resources (strengths) that moderate the influence of stressful obstacles like global economic crisis on quality of life and help individuals buffering the impact of the crisis. Many important data stayed outside this poster. In particular, cluster analysis by participants proves that there are truly different individual types exemplifying varied individual strategies of dealing with the experience of the global crisis based on different groups of personal resources. The aggregate of personality variables indicative of personality strength (hardiness, optimism, purpose in life, tolerance for ambiguity, self-efficacy), labeled here Personal Potential, seems especially interesting. It moderates the influence of self-reported impact of economic crisis upon satisfaction with life. The data on the dynamics of satisfaction with life between T1 and T2, not presented here, indicate that the higher level of personal potential makes a person less vulnerable and the lower level of personal potential more vulnerable to the adverse effects of crisis throughout a 18-month interval. These data are in good correspondence with the predictions of Personal Potential theory (Leontiev, 2006, 2011)