Factors affecting students’ professional identity

кандидат психологічних наук, кафедра психології, Державний університет Баку, 38, З. Халілов, Аз 1148, м. Баку, Азербайджан

ФАКТОРИ ВПЛИВУ НА ПРОФЕСІЙНУ ІДЕНТИЧНІСТЬ СТУДЕНТІВ

У статті викладені результати дослідження, спрямованого на виявлення професійної ідентичності, в якому взяли участь 200 студентів вищих навчальних закладів. Аналіз наукової літератури та результати експерименту показують, що розвиток у студентів інтересу та любові до обраної професії досягається шляхом формування правильного уявлення про її зміст та соціальну значимість. Крім того, пасивне ставлення студентів до професії призводить до відсутності інтересу до неї та формування негативного ставлення. Дослідження показало, що існує пряма кореляція між позитивним та активним ставленням студента до професії (збільшення одного з них супроводжується підйомом іншого). Існує протилежне співвідношення між відсутністю позитивного ставлення до професії та інтересу до неї (збільшення першого супроводжується зниженням другого). З експерименту стає зрозумілим, що якщо студент має пасивне ставлення до професії, це призводить до меншої зацікавленості обраної неї та більш негативного ставлення. Існує позитивна кореляція між пасивним ставленням до професії та відсутністю інтересу до професії та високим рівнем негативного ставлення. На основі емпіричного дослідження можна зробити висновок, що розвиток інтересу до професії може позитивно вплинути на розвиток професійної ідентичності та формування майбутніх фахівців. Професійну ідентичність, у свою чергу, можна розвинути за допомогою спеціально організованої навчальної діяльності.

Ключові слова: студенти, професійна ідентичність, активність, позитивні та негативні емоції, інтерес до професії, професії, навички.

Introduction

student professional identity psychological

The study of psychological features of specialists training in globalization and integration conditions has become one of today's urgent issues. There is a decrease in educational motivation, as well as, problems in understanding professional identity in the background of reduction in increase in professional area of students. As well, the inadequacy of professional identity has negative impacts of the self-actualization which is essential. Experiments carried out by R. Jabbarov with the students studying in different specialties show that the level of selfrealization motive and educational motive is low in students who do not approach professional field as the object of self-realization (Jabbarov R., 2017). In addition, professional identity in psychology is analyzed as “a difficult integrative psychological phenomenon, and also development in the path of a person's professional achievement” (Schneider L.B., 2003, 2005). It acts as an important stage of professional activity within selfrealization and self-development.

Profession is also characterized as a system of knowledge, skills and habits characteristic for a certain person. From this point of view, the study of those components is of special importance during the professional choice at higher educational institutions. The issues related to the professional training in any specialty are firstly reviewed in the aspect of the formation of professional choice (Mishenko T.B., 2005, Povarenko Y.P., 2003). A number of researchers review the choice of profession as a choice of activity (Grealish L., Trevitt J., 2005). At this point, professional self-determination is regarded as a process of the subject's development. Several authors note that the choice of profession is a special part of social self-determination, i.e. the choice of profession is a social phenomenon and is determined by social characteristics of the profession (E. Lebedeva, D. Shchipanova, M. Konovalova and A. Kutin, 2016). tasks of higher education, and the fulfillment of this task is a requirement of the time.

Research Aim

The research suggests that, in addition to a number of factors in the formation of professional identity in students, it depends largely on the level of attitudes and interest in the profession.

Research Methods

A Professional Identity Survey was used to determine the experimental-practical aspect of the research. Modern mathematical statistical methods were used in the processing and analysis of the data obtained as a result of data analysis for the solution of the tasks set in the research work, and the preliminary statistics (average price, dispersion) were calculated.

The division of the received data was normal, an error of representativeness was calculated, therefore, Student's t-test was used for the comparative analysis of independent choices. The correlation coefficient was calculated using the Pearson's chi-squared test.

Empirical research data was processed applying SPSS computer software for data processing.

The experimental psychological study involved 200 students studying in different specialties at Baku State University. Among these students, 50 were 1st-year students, 50 were 2nd-year students, 50 were 3rd-year students and 50 were 4th-year students.

Research Results

It is known that the concept of identity was brought to science by E. Erikson (Erikson, 1996). Identity expresses self-consciousness, the acceptance of the image, and self-realization a person chooses in the relationships with the world. However, identity in an individual plan reflects the perception of a person's individual concept as a reality characterized over time. Past, present and future exist at the same time in identity. At this point, a personal level is related to the individual's sense of uniqueness and identification. However, the social level reflects the consensus with group norms, values and views. Change in the individual components of the identity can lead to a certain status change (Marcia, 1986).

Unlike the personality identity, professional identity is a type of social identification and is the sense of oneness individuals have with a profession and a degree to which individuals define themselves as profession members. Professional identity consists of the individual's alignment of roles, responsibilities, values, and ethical standards to be consistent with practices accepted by their specific profession (12).

Professional identity identifies itself as one of the leading criteria for acquiring professional skills. P. A. Saiver, the researcher in this area, notes that the process of self-realization in the choice of profession in a wide area shows itself more clearly when the subject realizes himself / herself. Training an interest and love in the profession chosen by a student is achieved by forming the right imaginations about the content and the importance

It is known that the leading factor in the learning process of higher education institutions is that students must have adequate insights about their professions. Such imaginations are of great importance in the development of professional plans and determining directions of life.

Successful development of profession identity is first of all an attempt by the student to fulfill the professional requirements and self-identification with his / her profession, and being ready for it. In this case, the formation of professional identity in students is one of the primary of the work in this field of activity and its development methods.

According to a prominent researcher, Schneider, self-understanding of students reflects a number of components. We can group them as follows:

- having standard knowledge about one's own responsibility;

- degree of the development of personality;

- strong motivation;

- self-realization in training;

- integration of profession-related features into the society;

- self-understanding within any group;

- seeing yourself in any job in the future and a perfect formation of self-image (Schneider L.B., 2003).

A number of researchers distinguish the following aspects in the formation of professional identity:

I. Professional identity is one of the leading criteria for obtaining a profession. At this point, three main aspects are identified within the formation of identity.

The first one is the main trend in the acquisition of profession and serves as a key indicator in the professional development of a personality.

The second one is primarily related to the emotional state. It causes anxiety of the personality at various stages in the acquisition of profession. It manifests in the attitude towards professional activity and professionalism as a part of society.

The third one acts as the structure of the personality in the way of acquiring this profession. This, in turn, is realized in the formation of functional systems and is the initial stage of achieving professional identity (Mischenko T.B., 2005, Povarenko Y.P., 2003).

The analysis of the researches carried out in this direction clearly shows that professional identity is a product of the development for long-term acquisition of a profession by a personality. This, in turn, emerges at high stages of professional career. E.R. Ermolayeva who analyzed this issue notes that professional identity is reflected in the achievement of the highest level of professionalism as a key element of the subject's professional acquisition. However, some authors note that professional identity is a social phenomenon and determined by social features of the profession, that is, as a special part of social selfdetermination. Among all the approaches, the more productive is the approach that specifies the professional choice as an important event of the whole life of the person (Schneider L.B., 2003). Analysis of the researches carried out in this direction shows that internal and external determinants can be distinguished in the process of students' professional identity formation. The external determinants of professional identity are the requirements for the professional activity of a person.

J.Lamote and N. Engels who studied the professional identity in students show that practical experience with classroom teaching again caused a shift: students focused less on the subject matter, on maintaining order inthe classroom, on the long-term educational qualification targets, and self-efficacy decreased. Students with work placement experience developed a more `realistic' view of learning and teaching compared to the students without this experience. A final important difference in professional identity is based on students' gender: while male students tend to attach more importance to discipline in the classroom, their female counterparts focus more on student involvement (Carl Lamote & Nadine Engels, 2010 ).

The analysis of researches dedicated to the study of the issue shows that the professional identity of students ranges from sexual differences to national - ethnic factors. From this point of view, we have tried to investigate factors affecting professional identity of students. In this study, we also tried to determine the level of professional identity of students by applying a professional identity survey. Here is a statistical analysis of the respondents' emotions (negative and positive) on the profession, attitudes towards the profession (active and passive) and interest in the profession, and it is presented in a comparative form for courses. At the same time, a link between the relationship (negative and positive) to different variables, as well as variables for profession and emotion, attitudes to specialty and interest in profession and “course” variable (Table 1).-

Table 1 Correlation of Negative Attitude Towards the Profession for Courses

As seen in Table 1, the attitudes towards the professions selected by the students at the 1 and 2 years of study are negative. And senior students have the opposite results. That is, the negative attitude to profession is gradually replaced by a positive one. This is primarily explained by the fact that the knowledge and skills gained by the students related to the specialty are increasing and they have a clearer understanding.

As it is seen from Table 1, there is a negative correlation between the negative attitude towards the profession and a high level of interest in it (p = -0.619) and there is a positive correlation between the negative attitude towards the profession and lack of interest (p = 0.882). The observed relation is quite high (P = 0.000).

Table 2 Correlation Between Interest in Profession and Negative Attitude with a Passive Attitude of Students Towards the Profession

Passive attitude of students towards the profession cause them to have no interest in it. It turns out that the more passive attitude towards the profession is shown by the students, the less they are interested in the profession chosen, and the more negative attitude they have. This undoubtedly has a significant negative impact on their academic success.

As seen in Table 2, there is a positive correlation between the passive attitude towards the profession and the lack of interest in it (p = 0.866) and the high level of a negative attitude (p = 0.528). There is a positive corelation between the positive attitude towards the profession and the active attitude towards the specialty (increase in one of them is accompanied by the rise of the other). There is an opposite relation between the absence of positive attitude towards the profession and the lack of interest in it (the increase of the first one is accompanied by the decline of the second). It becomes clear that if a student has a negative attitude towards the profession he / she chooses, this will reduce his / her interest in it.

Table 3 Correlation Between Interest in the Profession and a Positive Attitude With the Active Attitude of Students Towards the Specialty

**. Correlation is significant at the p=0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 4 Correlation Between a Negative Attitude Towards the Specialty and a Passive Attitude Towards the Specialty

**. Correlation is significant at the p= 0.01 level (2-tailed).

As can be seen from Table 4, there is a direct correlation between the students' negative attitude towards the profession and the passive attitude towards the specialty (p = 0.528). This, first of all, indicates that the more a student has a negative attitude toward the profession, the more this leads to a passive position against the profession he / she chooses.

Table 5 clearly shows that there is a significant difference between the groups on each of the six signs. This difference is mainly related to the negative attitude towards the profession and passive approaches of I and II years III, especially, IV years. This is primarily due to the fact that the students' specialty-related imaginations are not properly formed.

Table 5 Correlation on Each of Six Signs among Student Groups (ANOVA)

However, imaginations of the students on their specialties change over time when they acquire specialty- related knowledge in the learning process. Based on this, their attitude towards the specialty chosen changes. A more positive and active attitude towards their specialties is formed. The above mentioned are reflected in the following table.

Table 6 Total Points Achieved by all Respondents according to Six Factors

Conclusion