Personal Safety Concept as a Psychological and Criminological Factor of Self-Defense

The paper examines the problem of justifiable subjective actions in the criminally relevant situations of self-defense from a new angle. The authors introduce an understanding of self-defense as a sequence of actions aimed at counteracting the source of threat to vitally important interests of the subject. The authors claim that an adequate understanding of behavioral characteristics of the subject of self-defense requires a thorough examination of all aspects of the corresponding counteraction, including its psychological component. It is stated that the leading psychological determinant of counteracting external aggression is the concept of personal safely as an element of I-concept of the person regulating the activity of the subject in special situations that threaten its security and development potential. The functional role of the concept in self-defense is described on the basis of the analysis of it mobilization, stimulation and guidance functions. The authors highlight the substantive content of its cognitive, affective and conative component. The concept of personal safety contains the content that is universal, meaningful for all threatening situations and specialized. This factor makes it possible to use the explanatory potential accumulated within the framework of the psychology of safety, but requires extra research that would describe the specific features of psychological phenomena in the conditions of self-defense. In order to bridge the gaps in this sphere, the paper presents the results of an empirically revealed connection between the components of personal safety concept and the readiness to build the practice of self-defense. The expert analysis of the activity’s products makes it possible to reveal and describe the components of personal safety in the situation of self-defense, which are denoted as «self-feeling», «evaluation of the subject of aggression» and «situation». The use of the subjective scaling method allowed the authors to determine a statistically relevant link between the choice of methods of repelling an attack, self-feeling and the assessment of the subject of aggression, as well as a connection between the choice of target boundaries of counteraction, the assessment of the subject of aggression and the perception of the situation. Empirical data formed the basis for recommendations on developing psychological competence in young people as a method of increasing reasonableness of their actions in self-defense.