RISK PROPENSITY AS A PERSONAL CHARACTERISTIC OF MILITARY PERSONNEL (RELIGIOUS ASPECT)

Abstract

Objective. To carry out a theoretical and methodological analysis of the problem of the relationship between risk propensity and religious beliefs of military personnel, empirically verify the presence of individual differences in indicators of the degree of an individual risk propensity tendency depending on their religious views and characterize the peculiarities of the manifestation of risk propensity tendencies of military personnel on the basis of religion. Research methods: theoretical (theoretical, methodological and comparative analysis); empirical (personal risk propensity scale to “RSK”, “Motivation to succeed” and “Motivation to avoid failure” by T. Ehlers, suicide risk questionnaire); methods of mathematical statistics (Student’s t-test, Mann Whitney U-test. and Pearson’s test). Results. It was found that among the military personnel of “atheists”, “Christians” and “pagans”, “atheists” are the most prone to risky behavior, “pagans” are the least prone. A similar trend is observed with regard to the motivation to avoid failure. In addition, the following issue was discovered: military personnel with atheist beliefs are the most motivated to achieve the set goals and at the same time, compared to their religious colleagues, have the most pronounced measure of suicidal behavioral manifestations. a similar comparison of indicators among religious servicemen proved the presence of a lower level of success motivation among “Christians” than among “pagans”, but the situation is the opposite with regard to motivation to avoid failure or a tendency to risky behavior; however, the level of motivational focus on achieving success is higher among military Christians than among military atheists. Conclusions. Risk propensity of military personnel is their individual difference and depends on religious beliefs. Belonging to a religious movement, namely the nature of religious beliefs, contributes to the adoption of more moderate decisions. In this way, religion acts as an additional element of external control, which contributes to a critical review of one’s actions and, accordingly, increases the chances of the military to survive in critical situations on the battlefield.