Study of the Relationship Between the Predictive Abilities of Student Air Traffic Controllers and Their Behaviour in a Conflict

The objective of the research is to study the relationship between the predictive abilities of student air traffic controllers and their behaviour in a conflict. These personal characteristics were chosen due to their high professional significance in the field of air traffic control. The article substantiates the relevance of studying the relationship between the intellectual and communication abilities of air traffic controllers, the need to develop these abilities when obtaining higher professional education. The results identify the relationship between the manifestation of the basic properties of thinking of air traffic controllers, characterising their ability to predict the situation, and the strategies of their behaviour in a conflict. The main research methods included theoretical analysis of literature, generalisation, testing, analysis, and statistical methods. The provided study involved 64 second-year students at Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Institute, studying within the speciality profile «Air Traffic Control». Testing using the Thomas-Kilmann instrument (adapted by N.V. Grishina), aimed at identifying the behaviour strategies of respondents in a conflict situation, as well as testing using the «Forecasting Ability» testing method developed by L. A. Regush were used as empirical research methods. The diagnostics allowed to measure the following properties of thinking characterising the prognostic abilities of students: analytical thinking, consciousness, flexibility, perspective and evidence-based thinking. Analysis of the test results allowed building a diagram of the group average manifestation of five main strategies of behaviour of respondents in a conflict, as well as a diagram of manifestation of five main components (according to L. A. Regush) of the predictive abilities of student air traffic controllers and considering the relationship between them. The analysis of the results obtained was carried out from the point of view of the requirements regarding the future occupation of the respondents. To determine the degree of consistency of the series of values of behaviour strategies in conflict and the properties of predictive thinking in the group of respondents, the Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson R) was used as a method of statistical data analysis.