The relationship of leadership abilities with the aggressiveness of adolescents

Novikova Kseniya Vladimirovna PhD in Psychology Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Pacific National University 680000, Russia, g. Khabarovsk, ul. Karla Marksa, 68 kv_novikova@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Veshchikova Kseniya Olegovna BSc, Department of Psychology, Pacific State University 680000, Russia, Khabarovsk, Karl Marx str., 68, office 303 vs_ksusha@mail.ru

Adolescence is a difficult stage in the formation of a child's personality. And most often it is quite difficult, characterized as "transitional", "crisis". In this age period, a teenager is trying to attract the attention of society, gain recognition and influence, to some extent, his behavior can be characterized as selfish and not always constructive. The child faces new problems and tasks that he is already trying to solve without the help of adults. Thus, he learns to be first the "leader of his life", and only then the "leader of the group". However, the leader in the group can be formal, for example, appointed by the class teacher, and not formal, recognized by the group leader, who has a real impact on its members, significance and influence ^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}. We suggest that aggressiveness may contribute to the manifestation of leadership qualities in adolescents. After all, leading positions are not always engaged in a democratic way, sometimes the desire to achieve the goal takes over and a person even at a conscious age does everything just to achieve success and recognition.

The subject of the study is the relationship of leadership abilities with the aggressiveness of adolescents.

The aim of the study was to identify the relationship of leadership abilities with the aggressiveness of adolescents.

The object of the study is the leadership abilities and aggressiveness of adolescents.

The theoretical and methodological basis of the study were:

– views on aggressiveness as an innate instinctive tendency (Z. Freud, K. Lorenz); a feature of motivation or behavior characteristics (A.N. Bass, A. Bandura, S. Rosenzweig, L. Berkowitz, R. Baron); personality property (A. Levitov, E. Fromm, etc.).

– theoretical provisions on the causes of aggression in the adolescent environment (B.S. Bratus, A.Ya. Varga, E.M. Volkova, A.I. Zakharov, I.S. Kohn, E.A. Lichko, K. Lorenz, A.A. Rean, K. Horney, G.A. Zuckerman, etc.).

– theoretical provisions of the study of leadership qualities of adolescents (I.P. Volkov, V.D.Goncharov, A.L. Zhuravlev, E.A. Klimov, I.S. Kon, E.S. Kuzmin, V.N. Knyazev, L.I. Umansky, A.B. Petrovsky, P. Krichevsky).

– Theoretical aspects of leadership (E. Bogardus, G. Houmans, F. Fiedler, D. Goleman, A.V. Zaporozhets).

The scientific novelty of the research lies in the systematization of theoretical ideas on the problem of research and the identification of the relationship of leadership qualities with the aggressiveness of adolescents.

The problem of developing leadership abilities in adolescents is more relevant than ever in the modern world. Since the younger generation is our future. Their actions, life position, values, qualities directly affect the development of society. Therefore, an active life position and leadership qualities should be instilled in a child from childhood ^[5].

By leadership abilities we mean a set of character traits, talents, skills, abilities, thanks to which a person can set goals and consistently achieve them, as well as influence the views, thoughts and behavior of other people. A number of scientists believe that a person's leadership abilities are an innate sign, while others believe that they are acquired as a result of the formation of a person's personality. In any case, adolescence is the phase when a child steps into adulthood. What a teenager will absorb in the future will manifest itself both in adulthood and in old age ^[6].

When working with teenagers, it is necessary to take into account indicators that indicate the presence of leadership abilities:

1. Self–confidence - "healthy" self-confidence when a teenager is adequately able to assess his abilities and is able to defend and defend his opinion.

2. Initiative – ready to take responsibility in difficult situations, look for ways to solve problems.

3. Sociability – easily finds a common language with other people, influences them.

4. Responsibility – teenagers understand responsibility for their actions.  When making decisions, they think not only about themselves, they take into account the opinions of others.

5. Creativity – they see non-standard ways to solve problems, give out interesting and unusual ideas.

6. Emotional intelligence – emotional, while understanding the feelings and emotions of other people.

7. They know how to work in a team – they can achieve results by working together with other people, as well as perfectly manage the actions of people in a team.

8. The ability to manage time – they plan their time perfectly, so that they have time in their life not only for studying.

9. Sense of humor – humor helps a teenager to cope with a tense situation and create a favorable environment around himself.

10. Fortitude – teenage leaders do not give up during difficulties, do not abandon their goals, but try to find a way out and ways to achieve what they want ^[7].

Analyzing the concept of "aggressiveness" in the works of domestic and foreign researchers, it can be concluded that aggressiveness is understood as a stable, stable characteristic, a property reflecting a person's conscious or unconscious predisposition to sufficiently consistent aggressive behavior, the purpose of which is to cause physical or psychological harm to an object ^{[8, 9]}. Aggressiveness is also considered as behavior aimed at harming or harming other people, animals or the environment, as well as this behavior can be aimed at achieving and realizing their goals ^{[10, 11]}. Aggressiveness can have various forms, they were described in more detail by A. Bass and A. Darki. The reasons for aggressiveness can be different, including emotional, social, physiological and environmental ^{[12, 13]}.

Aggressiveness is a purposeful form of social behavior that includes negative interaction between people in order to cause physical and (or) moral harm for their own benefit. Signs of aggressive behavior can be: the use of profanity, malicious jokes, black humor, cruelty to animals, constant fights, irritability, suspicion, hostility, very low or excessively high self-esteem, inability to control their emotions. The main forms of aggression are verbal and physical.  There are also two types of aggression: benign – which is protective in nature and manifests itself at the moment of threat and danger; malignant – direct negative, cruel, human actions. Autoaggression is also distinguished – directed directly at oneself ^{[14, 15, 16]}.

The causes of aggressive behavior in adolescents can be: overwork, guilt, self-doubt, strict upbringing, conflicts in the family and in a peer group, poor performance in school, alcohol and narcotic substances, computer games with elements of violence, social networks, mass media, mental trauma, medications ^{[17, 18, 19, 20]}.

The empirical study was conducted on the basis of the Khabarovsk MAOU "Gymnasium No. 3 named after M.F. Pankov". The study involved 30 people, including 13 boys and 17 girls aged 13 to 16 years, students of grades 8-10.

The reliability of the research results is ensured by the correspondence of the empirical research design scheme, theoretical positions; the correspondence of methodological tools, research tasks; the sample size sufficient to obtain significant results; adequate tasks and material using mathematical statistics methods.

In order to study the psychological features of the relationship of leadership abilities with the aggressiveness of adolescents , the following psychodiagnostic methods were chosen:

1. Bibliographic method (analysis of scientific and methodological literature, specification of concepts, generalization and comparison of theoretical approaches to the problem).

2. Testing, including diagnostic techniques:

– Aggressiveness test (L.G. Pochebut's questionnaire).

–      Methodology "Diagnostics of leadership abilities" E.Zharikov, E.Krushelnitsky.

– Drawing test "Draw a story" (R. Silver, A.I. Kopytin).

3. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results and their graphical generalization.

4. Statistical data processing: Pearson correlation coefficient, Kolmogorov – Smirnov criterion.

The results of the methodology "Diagnostics of leadership abilities" (E.Zharikov, E.Krushelnitsky) and the aggressiveness test (Questionnaire L.G. Pochebut) are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

The results of the test "Diagnostics of leadership abilities" (E.Zharikov, E.Krushelnitsky) and the aggressiveness test (Questionnaire L.G. Pochebut).

* Verbal aggression (VA) — a person expresses his aggressive attitude towards another in words, uses insults, irony, ridicule.

Physical aggression (FA) — a person expresses his aggression towards another with the use of physical force.

Indirect aggression (KA) — a person breaks his aggression on the objects around him.

Emotional Aggression (EA) — a person experiences emotional alienation when communicating with other people, accompanied by suspicion, hostility, dislike or ill will towards them.

Self-aggression (SA) — a person is not in peace and harmony with himself; he has no or weakened psychological defense mechanisms, he finds himself defenseless in an aggressive environment, gets lost, falls down or harms himself ^{[21, 22]}.

Graphically, the results on the levels of aggressiveness and leadership abilities are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Levels of leadership abilities and aggressiveness in the studied sample of adolescents

Analyzing the obtained results of leadership abilities, it is clear that the average level of manifestation of leadership abilities prevails in the studied adolescents (53.4%). At the same time, it should be noted that a high level of leadership abilities is characteristic of 23.1% of boys and 23.5% of girls. Clearly, the distribution of levels of leadership abilities by gender is reflected in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Levels of leadership abilities in adolescent boys and girls

 A low level of leadership abilities was revealed in 15.4% of boys and 29.4% of girls. In general, we can say that leadership abilities are equally distributed among both boys and girls.

Graphically, the results on the levels of aggressiveness among adolescent boys and girls are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Levels of aggressiveness in adolescent boys and girls

In general, it can be said that the average level of aggressiveness prevails among adolescent boys, and high among girls. The studied adolescent girls are characterized by the manifestation of predominantly verbal aggression and indicators of self-aggression.

We consider the results obtained within the framework of this study to be very valuable according to the Silver R. "Draw a Story" method, which expanded the understanding of the aggressiveness features of the studied adolescents.

Comparing the data on the aggressiveness test (L.G. Pochebut Questionnaire) and the Silver R. "Draw a Story" method, we saw that their results converged by 80%. In adolescents with a low level of aggressiveness, the test also did not reveal this indicator. In general, we can say that the drawing test revealed and, following the standardized questionnaire, confirmed the presence or absence of aggressiveness in the adolescents studied.

Let 's present some drawings and the results of the studied adolescents using the Silver R. technique . "Draw a story" (fig. 4-14).

Figure 4. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender female

According to the results obtained in the study, the girl is characterized by a high level of leadership abilities and a high level of aggressiveness. The text of the story: "The snake was slaughtered for its venom, but it just crawled nearby, did not bite anyone. She was born with poison in her saliva, she didn't choose it, and she can't fix it. The snake is dying. It was cooked in an elite restaurant, as it turned out to be rare and delicious. People continue to kill innocents."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 1b – pronounced negative emotional content, the image of a helpless character and destructive interaction associated with murder. The image of "I": 1b – the subject is identified with a helpless and dead character. The drawing shows a knife as a weapon with which a character was killed, a dead character is depicted, strung on a knife with blood flowing down. The drawing itself is made with strong pressure, the lines are circled several times. The story describes the murder of an "innocent" snake and blaming people for their actions. It should be noted that the subject has a high level of self-aggression and verbal aggression.

Figure 5. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender female

The text of the story: "The girl was just a joyful and cheerful girl, but her two classmates didn't like it that she was constantly happy. They decided to get to her at night and kill her, took kitchen knives and killed her. They were caught and taken to a mental hospital because they were 14 years old and could not be arrested. They decided to die right in the mental hospital, the first strangled his friend, and the second found something sharp in his friend's pocket and stabbed himself. The girl's parents grieved for a very long time and could not let her go. The boys were buried next to the girl."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 1b – expressed negative emotional content, the image of destructive interaction between characters associated with murder. The image of "I": 1b – the subject is identified with the killed character. It should be noted that according to the questionnaire of L.G. Pochebut, the subject revealed a high level of aggressiveness. The presence of aggressiveness: there is a knife in the drawing – as a cold weapon, which, according to history, is a murder, the image of a dead person in blood, only blood is painted red. The story describes in detail three murders, two of them in the form of an attempt and one suicide – there is aggressiveness. 

Figure 6. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender female

 The text of the story: "Night. The girl goes home from work. There's not a soul on the street. She thinks about future success, about marriage, about life, but she does not yet know that the life that she values and loves so much will soon stop. She is not walking alone, she is being followed by a stalker who has decided to appropriate her life for himself. In a couple of hours, her lifeless body will be found near the road. The murderer will never be found, he will remain at large."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 1b – pronounced negative emotional content, the image of destructive interaction and death. The image of "I": 5b – the subject is identified with an active character who achieves his goals in a destructive way. The presence of aggressiveness: in the drawing there is an image of a knife as a means of killing, the maniac has an open mouth and sharp teeth are drawn – verbal aggression. In the story, the identified character is a maniac, he kills a girl and remains unpunished – there is aggressiveness. It should be noted that this subject according to the questionnaire Pochebut L.G. also revealed a high level of aggressiveness.

Figure 7. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender male

 The text of the story: "The spider is trying to cut his own web to get the drug V for superheroes and escape from the patriot villain mouse. Then the Bushlar spider will take a V and escape from the villain." 

Distribution of points on scales. Emotional content: 5b – expressed positive content, the image of a successful and active character. The image of "I": 5b – the subject is identified with an active character who achieves his goals. It should be noted that the subject revealed a high level of leadership abilities and an average level of aggressiveness. 

Figure 8. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender male

 The text of the story: "Cat and dog fight all the time. And then when they met, they fought again. In the end, they will scatter. Or one of them will die." This teenager is characterized by a high level of verbal aggression.

Distribution of points on scales. Emotional content: 1b – expressed negative emotional content, an image of destructive behavior associated with murder or a threat to life. The image of "I": 3b – the subject is identified with the narrator. The picture shows a disheveled cat, about two characters there is a kind of "cloud" denoting a tense situation between them. According to the story, the cat and the dog do not get along and constantly fight, there is a risk that one of the characters will die during the fight – there is aggressiveness. According to the results obtained in the study, the teenager is characterized by a high level of leadership abilities and a high level of aggressiveness.

Figure 9. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender female

  The text of the story: "There was a dog. And she had a master, Ilyin Maxim. He was very hungry. The dog stole food on the street and brought it to the owner."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 3b – neutral emotional content, relationships between characters with uncertain meaning. The image of "I": 5b – the subject is identified with an active character who achieves his goals in a destructive way. There are no signs of aggressiveness in the drawing, in the story the identified character achieves his goal in a destructive way (theft) – moderate aggressiveness. It should be noted that the subject revealed a high level of leadership abilities and an average level of aggressiveness.

 Figure 10. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject, male gender

 The text of the story: "20 years ago, one night a man went out into the street and saw a couple and killed them. And every night he killed a couple." 

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 1b – expressed negative emotional content, the image of destructive behavior associated with murder. The image of "I": 5b – the subject is identified with an active character who achieves his goals in a destructive way. The presence of signs of aggressiveness: there is a knife in the drawing – as a cold weapon, which, according to history, systematic murders occur, blood drops are depicted. In the story, an identifiable character kills couples every night.

Figure 11. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject, male gender

 The text of the story: "The metalhead, as usual, wanted to drink beer, but changed his mind and took soda from the refrigerator, not beer. In the future, he went to play guitar and drink soda."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 3b – neutral emotional content, an image of a character without a certain emotional meaning. The image of "I": 3b – the subject is identified with experiencing ambivalent feelings. The presence of aggressiveness: the picture shows a young guy with an angry expression on his face, the picture itself has a strong pressure in places. According to the described story, the identified character is fond of the rock-metal musical current, which is quite impulsive and aggressive in its style, the story also mentions the presence of alcoholic beverage in the character – there is moderate aggressiveness.

Figure 12. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender female

 The text of the story: "A cockroach came into his kitchen and saw another one eating his chips. He saw the knife and decided to kill the second cockroach. But he defended himself well and both died, and the owner got a pack of chips."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 1b – pronounced negative emotional content, characters interact destructively with each other, killing each other. The image of "I": 5b – the subject is identified with an active character who achieves his goals in a destructive way. The presence of signs of aggression in the drawing: the presence of blood in the drawing, a knife – a weapon for killing indicates direct aggression, there is also aggressive content in the story, a description of the struggle and death of two characters. It should be noted that this subject according to the questionnaire Pochebut L.G. revealed a high level of aggressiveness.

Figure 13. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject,

gender female

 The text of the story: "The dog really wanted to eat. Her food ran out, and the owners left. Then she decided to take food herself, the dog could not have human food, she was poisoned."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 2b – moderately negative emotional content, the image of an unhappy character. The image of "I": 3b – the subject is identified with the narrator. There are no signs of aggressiveness in the drawing, there is negative content about dog poisoning in the story. It should be noted that this subject revealed a low level of leadership abilities.

Figure 14. The result of the "Draw a story" technique (Silver R.) of the subject, male gender

The text of the story: "The dog was walking, and met a cat. The dog wanted to meet the cat. But the cat got scared and ran up a tree. The cat fell and died, and the dog couldn't stand it, and committed suicide."

Distribution of points according to the scales of the methodology. Emotional content: 1b – pronounced negative emotional content, there is a description of the death of the characters. The image of "I": 1b – the subject is identified with the character who has committed suicide. The story is characterized by negative content, both characters die, the main character committed suicide – we can talk about autoaggression. It should be noted that the average level of aggressiveness was revealed in the subject according to the questionnaire of Pochebut L.G..

Summarizing the results obtained by this method, we see that the drawings of teenagers with a low level of leadership abilities are characterized by passive content, they often depict an object as the main character who does not perform active actions. Drawings of teenagers with a high level of leadership abilities are more often characterized by aggressive tendencies, the main character with whom the teenager is identified in the story is characterized by activity, active manifestations, achieves the goal.

The use of the "Draw a Story" technique in the study (Silver R., Kopytin A.I.) made it possible to detect the actual emotional state of the studied adolescents, their creative abilities. Among adolescents, those who are behaviorally characterized by manifestations of verbal and physical aggression were identified. The technique also allowed to detect the attitude of the subjects to themselves (the image of "I") and other people (active /passive way of interaction), coping behavior strategies. Through the drawing and the history of adolescents, we have deduced the significant needs and experiences of the subjects, as well as disturbed relationships and intrapsychic conflicts.

For further calculations, we checked the obtained results for the normality of the distribution. Verification of compliance with the normal distribution was carried out using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion. Checking the empirical distribution for compliance with the normal distribution is necessary in order to be able to reasonably apply statistical criteria, since some criteria can only be applied if the empirical distribution corresponds to the normal one.

Table 2.

Checking the normality of the distribution (single sample)

 Thus, according to the data obtained, the distribution being tested is normal. Based on this, we calculated the correlation coefficient (r) for Pearson and Student.

Below we present the results of calculations of the relationship between leadership abilities and aggression of adolescents (Pearson correlation coefficient).

  – the arithmetic mean of the observed values of leadership abilities of adolescents .

 – the arithmetic mean of the observed values of aggressiveness of adolescents .

 – the arithmetic mean of the observed values of leadership abilities of adolescents squared.

 – the arithmetic mean of the observed values of aggressiveness of adolescents squared.

 – the product of the values and .

 – the average square deviation of the values of leadership abilities of adolescents .

 – the mean square deviation of the values of aggressiveness of adolescents .

 – correlation coefficient between leadership abilities and aggressiveness in adolescents.

 – the number of respondents surveyed.

 Table 3.

Qualitative assessment of indicators of tightness of communication

According to the Cheddock table, the r coefficient falls into the 0.7 – 0.9 segment, which means a high degree of closeness of the relationship between leadership abilities and aggressiveness of adolescents. The values of leadership abilities and aggressiveness of adolescents are related by a direct linear correlation. Correlation analysis (according to Pearson) showed that the value of the correlation coefficient (0.72) is significant at the level of 0.01, which reflects the relationship between leadership abilities and aggressiveness of adolescents, with an increase in the level of aggressiveness, the indicator of leadership abilities also increases.

  Thus, the results of theoretical analysis and empirical work to identify the psychological features of the relationship between leadership abilities and aggressiveness of adolescents allowed us to formulate the following conclusions:

The analysis of the concept of "leadership abilities" in the psychological and pedagogical literature allowed us to determine that these are personality traits that allow her to successfully perform activities; this is a set of personality traits that help a person to effectively lead other people and achieve common goals. Among them, the following stand out: strategic thinking; sociability and openness; determination and self-confidence; emotional intelligence and social competence; empathy and understanding of the needs of other people; organizational skills and ability to manage resources; ability to delegate authority and develop a team; creative approach to solving problems and finding new opportunities; willingness to take risks and set we have ambitious goals in front of us. The peculiarities of the manifestation of leadership abilities of adolescents are the desire to attract attention to themselves, to stand out among their peers, to achieve the desired goal, to gain recognition among peers and adults.

The analysis of the concept of "aggressiveness" in the works of domestic and foreign researchers allowed us to determine that there is no single point of view on the concept of "aggressiveness", which on the one hand significantly complicates the understanding of this problem, and on the other hand reflects the complexity and diversity of the phenomenon under study. Aggressiveness is understood as a stable, stable characteristic, a property reflecting a person's conscious or unconscious predisposition to sufficiently consistent aggressive behavior, the purpose of which is to cause physical or psychological harm to an object.

Signs of aggressive behavior may include: the use of profanity, malicious jokes, black humor, animal cruelty, constant fights, irritability, suspicion, hostility, very low or excessively high self-esteem, inability to control their emotions. Each personality has a certain degree of aggressiveness. Its absence leads to passivity, vedomosti, conformity, etc. Its excessive development begins to determine the whole appearance of the personality, which can become conflicted, incapable of conscious cooperation. Aggressiveness in itself does not make the subject consciously dangerous, since, on the one hand, the existing relationship between aggressiveness and aggression is not rigid, and, on the other, the act of aggression itself may not take consciously dangerous and disapproved forms. Aggressiveness can be not only cruel, but also a normal reaction of an individual during the struggle for survival. Aggressive actions can be weakened or directed into a socially acceptable framework with the help of positive reinforcement of non-aggressive behavior, orientation of a person to a positive model of behavior, changing the conditions conducive to the manifestation of aggression.

Psychological features of aggressive behavior in adolescence are as follows:

– Negative experience of family relations – conflicts with parents, lack of attention and affection on the part of parents.

– Transition period (adolescent crisis characterized by physical and mental changes).

–      Stress and depression caused by school pressure, learning problems, low self-esteem and feelings of insecurity.

–      Under the influence of bad company, teenagers may be exposed to group behavior, which can cause negative actions.

– Negative life situations that have a permanent impact on a teenager – parents' divorce, moving to another city, the death of a loved one, trauma.

– Negative examples in the environment (violence in the family, on the street, at school).

– Violation of social adaptation, which can manifest itself in a lack of trust in others, low self-esteem and hostility.

      conclusion

  Thus, the relationship of leadership abilities with the aggressiveness of adolescents has been empirically revealed: with high leadership abilities, adolescents have high indicators of verbal, objective aggression and self-aggression; with average indicators of leadership abilities, adolescents have a high indicator of verbal, emotional aggression and self-aggression; with low leadership abilities, adolescents have little pronounced indicators of high and average values aggressiveness, the indicator of low emotional aggression prevails. In general, the results of this study indicate a high degree of closeness of the relationship between leadership abilities, with an increase in the level of aggressiveness, the indicator of leadership abilities increases and vice versa. Based on the results obtained in the study, recommendations for parents and teachers on working with aggressive adolescents were developed and transmitted.