Empirical verification of the questionnaire “Attributive styles of the activity of a transport police officer”

Introduction. The issue of ensuring the safety of citizens, including at transport infrastructure facilities, is becoming increasingly important. Modern types of risks and threats, in particular, of terrorist character, require a comprehensive, systematic approach to the protection of citizens and transport infrastructure facilities from acts of illegal interference. Taking into account the increasing requirements to the competencies of transport police officers, as well as the current lack of training programmes for specialists of this profile, the author undertakes an attempt to develop attributive technologies of cognition of dangerous phenomena at transport infrastructure facilities, based on the concept of multi-level interpretation of the style of employees' activity. The aim of the research is to develop a questionnaire to verify the model of the attributive style of the activity of a transport police officer as an invariant subject's characteristic that determines the quality of mastering the attributive technologies of cognition of dangerous phenomena at transport infrastructure facilities and preventing their escalation into acts of illegal interventions. Methodology, methods and techniques. The theories of attribution, locus of control, cognitive dissonance, attitude phenomenon (G. Kelly, D. N. Uznadze, etc.), categorisation of perception and communication, phenomenology of a lie and information distortion (Yu. M. Volynski-Basmanov, M. I. Maryin, D. Navarro, P. Ekman), as well as profiling technology are the methodological basis for the development and testing of the questionnaire. The empirical analysis is aimed at validating the theoretical model of the attributive style of the activity of a transport police officer, development and verification of the questionnaire focused on identifying and assessing the style preference of an employee in recognising dangerous phenomena and preventing their escalation into acts of illegal interference. The method of data collection is the questionnaire ‘’Attributive styles of the activity of transport police officers‘’, which structurally corresponds to the theoretical model of attributive styles, including 50 questions grouped into ten scales. Method of processing: descriptive statistics, correlation, one-factor variance, confirmatory analyses. Study sample: 207 participants divided into sub-samples of employees with up to one year of service and more, as well as with distribution according to the criterion of performance efficiency. The research resulted in the structuring of the theoretical model of attributive styles of the activity of transport police officers. It was determined that the 10-factor model has the best structural characteristics (χ2=2025, df=985, p<0.001, RMSEA=0.101 (RMSEACI 90% = 0.090-0.108), CFI=0.57, TLI=0.65). The model consists of five blocks (socio-perceptual, cognitive, motivational, activity, managerial ones) including 10 scales of the theoretical model (“Susceptibility”, “Emotional response”, “Communication”, “Situation control”, “Activity evaluation”, “Vigilance”, “Competition”, “Information exchange”, “Information processing”, “Readiness to act”). Scientific novelty of the research consists in the creation and approbation of the concept of attribution, as well as the relevant psychological tools for diagnostics and evaluation of the effectiveness of the activity of transport police officers in recognising dangerous phenomena and preventing their escalation into acts of illegal interference on the basis of personal, attribute-style preferences. The practical significance of the research lies in the creation of a diagnostic tool that makes it possible to determine the level of mastering the attributive style of professional activity and to assess the professionalism of a transport police officer, the reliability of the functioning of his professional psyche in situations of recognising dangerous phenomena and preventing their escalation into acts of illegal interference.