The Features of Value Orientations and Attitudes to Actions in Conflict Situations of Students Assigned to Different Medical Groups for Physical Education Classes

Фотографии: 

ˑ: 

O.G. Rumba, professor, Dr.Hab.
A.A. Gorelov, professor, Dr.Hab.
St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg
M.V. Kuleshova, candidate
State College (technical college) of Olympic reserve, Samara

Key words: students, basic medical group, special medical group, physical education, socialization, value orientations​​, conflict-handling modes of behavior.

Relevance. Positive socialization of its members is extremely important for any society. A.V. Mudrik determines socialization (lat. socialis – social) as "human development and self-transformation during culture assimilation and reproduction that occurs in the interaction of man with natural, relatively guided and purposefully created conditions of life at all age levels" [4, P. 15]. In other words, the essence of socialization is "the combination of adaptation and isolation of human beings within a specific society". Most scientists (Andreeva G.M., Feldstein D.I., Mudrik A.V. et al) consider socialization as a continuous process and suggest correlating its stages with age periodization of the human life. In this sense, the youth period (16-21 years) is one of the most complex and significant (including all future life). Graduation and entry into adulthood, which for most young people begins with admission to a university, is, perhaps, the turning point in this period.

In social terms, the beginning of university studies is characterized by the fact that an individual accepts the new social role of student, which is associated with a number of difficulties, among which S.V. Bashirova [1] marks the following: establishment of interpersonal relationships in view of new socio-educational conditions; activities on acquiring new experience; acquiring life skills in the adult society; formation of value life orientations; professional development; etc. The major features of the "new educational environment" are: prolonged intense mental activity, mental stress, physical inactivity, work-rest regime disturbance, bad habits of abuse. All this against the background of the new social self-identification often leads to health disturbances. According to the World Health Organization (1975), health is a "state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, but not merely the absence of diseases or physical handicaps."

According to the above, two problems are relevant for many students and often developing simultaneously during university studies which are: the problem of socialization and the problem of health improvement. And if the second problem is solved using quite a variety of resources of the discipline "Physical Education", then how do we solve the first one? We believe, that to solve it one can take advantage of physical culture. Thus, as far back as P.F. Lesgaft, distinguishing active games between individual (where the player pursues only his objectives, without regard to interests of other people) and team (where each team member strives to support the interests of the whole team), in fact, thought about the guided socialization of a growing man [2]. In this regard, we consider promising the scientific justification of approaches to the organization of physical education of students to develop interpersonal and mixed (in terms of age) interaction in the course of motor activity that will generate social experience and facilitate the learning process at the university.

However, whilst solving this problem one is to consider that teaching the discipline "Physical Education" in higher school is differentiated based on the presence of at least two academic departments - basic and special, that suggests that the features of socialization of students assigned to various medical groups should be studied in detail.

The purpose of the study was to determine the features of value orientations and conflict-handling behavioral modes of students assigned to different medical groups for physical education classes.

Materials and methods. Socialization of students from various medical groups was studied using the Schwartz’s Values Survey, aimed at identifying the features of value orientations, and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument that evaluates preferable conflict-handling modes of behavior [3]. The Schwartz’s questionnaire is a scale designed to measure the priority of 10 basic values​​, and consists of a list of words describing 58 values. The scale includes the values from "-1" (value opposed to life principles) to "7" (values of supreme importance​​). Thomas-Kilmann conflict test includes 30 pairs of statements (the respondent must choose either A or B item), reflecting different conflict-handling modes. The study was conducted in October 2013 at the Physical Education Department of FSAEI HPE "Belgorod State National Research University" and involved 100 1-2 year students attributed to the basic (BMG) and special (SMG) medical groups (50 persons each).

Results and discussion. According to the generalization of the students’ testing results using the Schwartz’s questionnaire, the value orientations of students of the BMG and the SMG were generally the same. Thus, among ten value types students of the BMG considered benevolence, stimulation and self-direction of supreme importance; while for students of the SMG these were security, benevolence and self-direction. Tradition and power were the least important values ​​for students of both groups (Table 1). As you can see, the difference was evident only in one of five listed items, and its main idea was that healthy students appreciated more such values​​ as "exciting life", "varied life", "daring" (all together - stimulation); students with health impairments - ​​such values as "social order", "national security", "reciprocation of favors", "family security", "cleanliness" (all together - security).

Table 1. Indices of ten personal value scales for students of the BMG and the SMG (based on the Schwartz’s questionnaire)

Values

Mean score

(calculated using the scoring key for the Schwartz’s questionnaire)

Rank

BMG (n=50)

SMG (n=50)

BMG (n=50)

SMG (n=50)

conformity

5,06

4,90

5

7

tradition

4,25

3,98

9

9

benevolence

5,44

5,33

1

2

universalism

4,86

4,84

7

8

self-direction

5,19

5,31

3

3

stimulation

5,20

5,05

2

5

hedonism

4,68

4,97

8

6

achievement

5,05

5,06

6

4

power

3,00

3,80

10

10

security

5,17

5,37

4

1


However, a more detailed analysis of the test results revealed a number of other differences between students of the BMG and the SMG. 10 most important and 5 least important values for the respondents ​​(of 58 offered) are shown in Table 2. This classification of results showed that students of both groups rated high such values ​​as "family security" (first place in both groups), "true friendship", "mature love", "freedom", "world at peace", "varied life", "intelligence"; and rated low such values ​​as "authority", "social power", "influential". In other words, we can talk about matching of ten items out of fifteen considered.

In the meantime, the observed differences give food for thought. Thus, "health" was the second important value for students of the BMG and only the sixteenth - for students of the SMG. But students of the SMG had certain health impairments, and it seems that there should have been an opposite situation. "Enjoying life" and "honesty" were more important for students of the BMG and "devout" and "inner harmony" - for students of the SMG. The latter was on the twentieth place for students of the BMG.

Table 2. The most and the least important value orientations for students of the BMG and the SMG (based on the Schwartz’s questionnaire)

rank

(10 first and 5 last out of 58)

BMG (n=50)

SMG (n=50)

values

point

values

point

1st rank

FAMILY SECURITY

security of our loved ones

6,66

FAMILY SECURITY

security of our loved ones

6,80

2nd rank

HEALTH

physical and mental health

6,10

TRUE FRIENDSHIP

close, reliable friends

6,16

3rd rank

TRUE FRIENDSHIP

close, reliable friends

6,08

FREEDOM

freedom of action and thought

6,06

4th rank

VARIED LIFE

interesting, full life

6,05

DEVOUT

faithfulness to friends, group

5,90

5th rank

ENJOYING LIFE

ability to celebrate life

5,95

WORLD AT PEACE

no wars and conflicts

MATURE LOVE

deep emotional and spiritual bond

5,86

6th rank

FREEDOM

freedom of action and thought

MATURE LOVE

deep emotional and spiritual bond

5,90

7th rank

VARIED LIFE

interesting, full life

AMBITIOUSNESS

commitment to success

5,72

8th rank

HONESTY

sincerity, openness

INTELLIGENCE

consistency, ability to think

5,82

9th rank

INTELLIGENCE

consistency, ability to think

5,70

10th rank

WORLD AT PEACE

no wars and conflicts

5,81

INNER HARMONY

inner peace

5,66

…….

54th rank

PLEASURE

self-indulgence

3,64

SPIRITUAL LIFE

compliance with religious beliefs and views

3,56

55th rank

WEALTH

property, belongings, money

3,35

INFLUENTIAL

affecting people and events

3,52

56th rank

INFLUENTIAL

affecting people and events

3,18

UNITY WITH NATURE

nature involvement, harmony with nature

3,42

57th rank

AUTHORITY

right to handle, order people

2,39

AUTHORITY

right to handle, order people

3,26

58th rank

SOCIAL POWER

domination over other people

1,27

SOCIAL POWER

domination over other people

3,02


Students of the BMG rated as the least important such values as "pleasure" and "wealth"; students of the SMG - "spiritual life" and "unity with nature". It is interesting that students of the SMG rated the generally selfish value such as "pleasure, self-indulgence" at 4,26 points on average and put it on the 46th place (BMG – 3,64 points and the 54th place), and the material value such as "wealth" was estimated at 3,94 points on average and was on the 51st place (BMG – 3,35 points and the 55th place).

All in all, we can talk about the general matching of students' value orientations in both groups, characterized, first of all, by the priority of benevolence and self-direction and the relatively low value of power and tradition. Differences showed up mainly in underestimating of the "health" value and some selfishness of students of the SMG, as well as an obvious striving of students of the BMG for full and varied life.

According to the results of students’ testing using the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, the compromising mode was the predominant conflict-handling behavioral style for students of both of the researched groups. Also, they often resorted to the accommodating and collaborating modes (Table 3). However, it should be noted that respondents used the collaborating mode, which is an ideal behavioral style, twice less rarely than the compromising one; and students of the SMG used the least effective way of behavior such as competing more often than students of the BMG.

Table 3. Priority conflict-handling behavioral styles for students of the BMG and the SMG (based on the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Test)

Conflict-handling behavioral styles

Number of times the respondents chose one style

(using the scoring key for the TKI)

BMG (n=50)

SMG (n=50)

Collaborating

(ideal almost always)

6

5

Compromising

(quite appropriate in some cases)

10

11

Avoiding

(in case of conflicts not provoked by the partner)

6

4

Accommodating

(possible in cases when the partner is really right)

7

7

Competing

(the least effective conflict-handling mode)

1

3

 

Conclusions. The study of the socialization of students of the basic and special medical groups in terms of value orientations and conflict-handling behavioral modes resulted in the following conclusions:

  • value orientations of students of both groups do not differ significantly: benevolence and self-direction are the most important personal values ​​for them, while power and traditions are the least important;
  • students of both groups rate high such values ​​as "family security", "true friendship", "mature love", "freedom", "world in peace", "varied life", "intelligence"; and low ​​such values as "authority", "social power", "influential";
  • students of SMG value “health” less than the ones from the BMG;
  • the compromising mode is primary for students of the BMG and the SMG in conflict situations;
  • students of the SMG resort to collaborating in conflict situations more often than those of the BMG.

We believe that generalizations and conclusions made can be applied to optimize the process of physical education of students of different medical groups by adding the aim to resolve the tasks of socialization during motor activity.

References

  1. Bashirova, S.V. Socialization of students in institutions of higher education: Ph.D. thesis / S.V. Bashirova. – Moscow, 2007. – 197 P. (In Russian)
  2. Gorelov, A.A. Outdoor and sports games as a type of activity and means of socialization of a growing person / A.A. Gorelov, O.G. Rumba // Uchenye zapiski universiteta im. P.F. Lesgafta. – St. Petersburg, 2013, Iss. 6 (100). – P. 41–47. (In Russian)
  3. Grigorovich, L.A. The problem of moral development of a teenager / L.A. Grigorovich. – Moscow: MPSU, 2014. – 240 P. (In Russian)
  4. Mudrik, A.V. Socialization - past and present / A.V. Mudrik. – Moscow: Moscow Psychological and Social Institute, 2006. – 432 P. (In Russian)

Corresponding author: RumbaOlga@yandex.ru