Considering the Pre-Examination Study Period as a Stressful Situation, that Determines the Students’ Personality Behaviour in the Process of Education

Introduction. The article presents the results of the study on school students of 9th and 11th grade and university first-year students in their pre-examination study period. Modern school and university students' well-being and behaviour negatively influenced by the exam situation itself and the pre-exam study period before them. Therefore, it justifies the need for an investigation into this matter. Adolescents and young people often cannot deal with the negative consequences of what they feel about their life situations. This provides harmful impact on psychosomatic state of the person, and leads to destructive (suicide) and deviant (victimization) forms of behaviour in the worst-case scenario.

Purpose. In our work, we will study students' (school and university) behaviour in the pre-examination period, assessed by them as a stressful satiation.

Materials and Methods. The study involved 260 school students and 193 university students from educational establishments in the Rostov region. For the investigation, we used the following methods: the «Exposure to Examination Stress» questionnaire by Yu. B. Gurevich, «Personality Stress Resistance Self-Test» by N. V. Kirsheva and N. V. Ryabchikova, the «Propensity to Victim Behaviour» questionnaire by O. O. Andronnikova, and the «Preparation for Exams» questionnaire by V. I. Mishchenko.

Results. We found that the pre-examination study period perceived by students as the situation, that determines their behaviour. In the stress situation both school and university students' behaviour is characterized by identical markers: demonstration of undiversified emotional, cognitive, and behavioural patterns, same levels of stress and anxiety. However, such behaviour factors differ and appear to depend on expected consequences of experienced situations, also on existing predictors, that influence the change in students' behaviour.

Discussion. Awareness of exactly what changes in the behaviour of adolescents and young people are caused by stressful situations in the educational process, as well as identifying specific behavioural characteristics of the person acting in stressful situations will allow one to develop effective programs of psychological support for students during the pre-examination study period.

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