Empirical Study of an Individual’s Basic Beliefs in the Context of Overcoming Life Crises

Abstract

The article deals with the theoretical and practical approaches in the study of
the basic beliefs of the individual in the context of overcoming life crises. The
concept of «basic beliefs» is analyzed from the cognitive, social, existential
position. It is noted that a traumatic stressful event is an experience of acute
and sudden collision of human beliefs with reality, and the course of the crisis
will depend on an individual’s vitality, on the level of violation of semantic con-
nections in the structure of the individual’s life world, which is the basis of loss
within the meaning.
The concept of R. Jano0­xFB00Bulman’s basic beliefs is analyzed, which ex-
plains how the individual constructs his ideas about the world and the self. 

Basic beliefs are necessary internal support in a changing reality, which pro-
motes the mental stability of a man and his success in life, and is also an im-
portant condition for personal development. But the basic beliefs are changed
under the in0xFB02uence of mental trauma, because extreme negative experience
is sharply contrary to the described life concept.
A set of methods and techniques was used to determine the level and
content of autobiographical stress: the method of structured diagnostic in-
terviews («Signi0xFB01cant life events») to obtain a general picture of the positive
and negative autobiographical events, the closed questionnaire «The list of
stressful events» with an assessment of the signi0xFB01cance of their impact on
emotional, cognitive, and behavioral levels and the World Assumptions Scale
(R. Jano0­xFB00Bulman).
The level of biographical stress in the life of modern Ukrainians is de-
termined, which is represented by a wide range of crisis situations, including
the most di0xFB03cult ones. The representation of stressful events of all­embracing
nature is high. They are natural and technical disasters, repeated economic
crises, socio­political upheavals and military con0xFB02ict.
A correlation analysis has been conducted proving that the more human
life is saturated with stressful events, the lower a human being evaluates the
signi0xFB01cance of their in0xFB02uence on his emotions, cognition and behavior, and
to a lesser degree he demonstrates the ability to overcome crises by personal
growth. It is concluded that the saturation of life with crisis events negatively
a0exFB00cts the basic beliefs about the benevolence of the world and people and,
at the same time, positively correlates with the conviction of controllability of
the world.