ASSESSMENT OF VIABILITY UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS

In the present-time turbulent world, people involved in extreme types of activities are perpetually challenged by their professional duties. Many promising studied address safeguarding of mental conditions and of professional longevity and prevention of destructive professional factors. Searching for coping mechanisms that operate due to the internal mental resources was instrumental for developing the concept of viability. This concept becomes increasingly demanded in Russian psychology in both theoretical and practical terms. It is most important to study viability of specialists in the extreme types of professions that deal with catastrophes of different origins where it is necessary to not only master an extreme situation and fulfil the assigned task, but also to stay viable, in the professional terms, too. The present paper describes a highly informative and, at the same time, simple and understandable approach to assessing the viability of professional in hard jobs. The approach may be used for psychological professional selection and for correction and prevention of mental problems. The negative components of viability index were found, based on empirical and statistical data, to include skeptical attitudes to interpersonal relationships, dysthymia, anxiety, and paranoid traits.