Abstract
Introduction. Numerous multidisciplinary studies examine non-physical types of immunity in recent years. By analogy with physical immunity, psychological immunity provides the comprehensive protection of the human psyche in extreme stressful situations and also in everyday activities. Psychological immunity can potentially become the phenomenon that may combine disparate views of defense mechanisms of the human psyche. Therefore, it seems reasonable to introduce and develop this concept.
Theoretical Basis. The concept of psychological immunity was first introduced by A. Olah. He defined it as a mental phenomenon that brings together all the adaptive resources of an individual. Previous research has demonstrated that psychological immunity is a widely accepted concept with clear conceptual and theoretical grounds and practical tools for diagnosis, development, and correction. The development of the concept of psychological immunity aroused our interest in Russian researches in this field.
Results. Russian researchers agree that psychological immunity is a personality trait that contributes to the preservation of an individual’s adaptive state when exposed to adverse factors through the use of resources. These resources are not only psychological defenses and coping strategies, but also self-regulation, reflection, consciousness, meaningfulness, coherence, etc. Very few but diverse previous studies of psychological immunity have outlined its content-related, structural, and functional concept.
Discussion. Psychological immunity is a mental phenomenon that helps to maintain the state of psychological well-being and psychological safety. The functions of psychological immunity are identical to those of physical immunity and include monitoring the functional state, memorizing the impact, reducing the intensity of re-experiencing, maintaining the state of psychological well-being, and facilitating negative experience. Aversion (as a reaction to potentially unpleasant phenomena) and anxiety (as a reaction to potentially dangerous phenomena) are the mechanisms that trigger a psychoimmune response.
References
Anuashvili, A. N. (2008). Objective psychology based on the wave model of the brain. Moscow: Econ-Inform. (in Russ.).
Babloyan, N. V., & Vasilenko, M. A. (2018). Social immunity and the ways to overcome social inequality. Engineering Journal of Don, 2. Retrieved from http://www.ivdon.ru/ru/magazine/archive/N2y2018/4875 (in Russ.).
Bhardwaj, A. K. & Agrawal, G. (2015). Concept and application of psycho-immunity (defense against mental illness): importance in mental health scenario. Online Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches (OJMR), 1(3), 6–15. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/17940185/Concept_and_Applications_of_Psycho-Immunity_Defense_Against_Mental_Illness_Importance_in_Mental_Health_Scenario
Bliznetsova, O. I. (2013). The formation of socio-psychological immunity towards the ideology of terrorism among students. Proceedings of the international conference. Activity-related understanding of culture as a type of human being. Nizhnevartovsk: Nizhnevartovsk Humanitarian University. (in Russ.).
Brurson, H. (2015). Thought viruses: How not to poison your life with malicious thoughts. Moscow: Al'pina Publisher. (in Russ.).
Ferencz, E. (2008). A pszichológiai immunerendszer vizsgálata, a koragyermekkori emlékek individuálpszichológiai értelmezésén keresztül. Retrieved from https://dea.lib.unideb.hu/dea/bitstream/handle/2437/5776/Szelesne_Ferencz_Edit_ertekezes.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y
Garkavi, L. Kh., Kvakina, E. B. & Ukolova, M. A. (1990). Adaptive reactions and resistance of the organism. Rostov-on-Don: Rostov University. (in Russ.).
Gilbert, D. (2017). Stumbling on happiness. Moscow: Al'pina Publisher. (in Russ.).
Gilbert, D. T., Pinel, E. C., Wilson, T. D., Blumberg, S. J., & Wheatley T. (1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617–638.
Gil'meeva, R. Kh. (2015). The formation of spiritual and moral immunity in youth as a condition for the prevention of extremism in the safe educational environment. Kazanskii pedagogicheskii zhurnal = Kazan Pedagogical Journal, 6, 56–61. (in Russ.).
Grachev, G. V. (2003). Personality and society: Informational and psychological safety and psychological protection. Moscow: PER SE. (in Russ.).
Kagan, H. (2006). The Psychological Immune System. A New Look at Protection and Survival. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse.
Kanevskaya, T. M. (2012). Overcoming the inclination to addictive behaviours at the stage of higher education as a condition for the formation of competencies in a future specialist. Proceedings of the all-Russian conference. Evaluating the quality of training in educational institutions. Yekaterinburg: USPU. (in Russ.).
Kenrick, D. T. (2010). The Psychological Immune System: why seeing me sneeze makes you healthier. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/sex-murder-and-the-meaning-life/201004/the-psychological-immune-system
Khramtsova, F. I. (2015). Social immunity of youth as a factor of national security of the Republic of Belarus. Sociological Almanac, 6. Retrieved form https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsialnyy-immunitet-molodezhi-kak-faktor-natsionalnoy-bezopasnosti-respubliki-belarus (in Russ.).
Kireichev, A. V. (2015). Psychological immunity as a factor in the development of a mature person. Proceedings of the LIV international conference: Vol. 7(53). Personality, family and society: Issues of pedagogy and psychology (pp. 6–9). Novosibirsk: SibAK. (in Russ.).
Kolpakova, L. M. (2015). Psychological adaptability as a necessary attribute of life activity. In V. N. Skvortsov, L. M. Kobrin (Eds.), XIX Tsarskosel'skie readings (pp. 352–355). St. Petersburg: Leningrad State University. (in Russ.).
Krasnyanskaya, T. M. & Tylets, V. G. (2015). Psychological resources of personal safety with various experiences of extremeness. Mediko-biologicheskie i sotsial'no-psikhologicheskie problemy bezopasnosti v chrezvychainykh situatsiyakh = Medico-Biological and Socio-Psychological Problems of Safety in Emergency Situations, 2, 100–107. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.25016/2541-7487-2015-0-2-100-107 (in Russ.).
Kuznetsova, E. S. (2017). Psychological well-being: Theoretical approaches. Psychological newspaper. Retrieved from https://psy.su/feed/6510/ (in Russ.).
Luchinkina, A. I. (2015). Personality in the information space. Uchenye zapiski Krymskogo inzhenerno-pedagogicheskogo universiteta. Seriya: Pedagogika. Psikhologiya = Scientific notes of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University. Series: Pedagogy. Psychology, 2, 13–18. (in Russ.).
Mikheeva, A. V. (2010). Stress tolerance: Towards definitions. Vestnik Rossiiskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Voprosy obrazovaniya: yazyki i spetsial'nost' = Bulletin of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. Series: Educational Issues: Languages and Specialty, 2, 82–87. (in Russ.).
Mortensen, C. R., Becker, D. V., Ackerman, J. M., Neuberg, S. L., & Kenrick, D. T. (2010). Infection Breeds Reticence: The effects of disease salience on self-perceptions of personality and behavioral avoidance tendencies. Psychological Science, 21, 440–447.
Moskalenko, G. V. (2018). Phenomenology of psychological immunity. Proceedings of all-Russian conference. Security Service in Russia: Experience, problems, prospects for the formation of life safety: Priority problems and solutions (pp. 271–275). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University of State Fire Service of EMERCOM of Russia. (in Russ.).
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2015). The Behavioral Immune System: Implications for Social Cognition, Social Interaction, and Social Influence. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 75–129.
Olah, A. (2009). Psychological immunity: A new concept of coping and resilience. PsycheVisual. Retrieved from https://www.psychevisual.com/Video_by_Attila_Olah_on_Psychological_immunity_A_new_concept_of_coping_and_resilience.html#lectures
Rashitova, E. U. (2016). The psychological model of informational-psychological immunity in higher school teachers. Vestnik obrazovatel'nogo konsortsiuma Srednerusskiy universitet. Seriya: Gumanitarnye nauki = Bulletin of Educational Consortium Middle Russian University. Series: Humanities, 8, 37–38. (in Russ.).
Semenov, D. S. (2017). Consciousness as a meta-predictor of professional and psychological health. In O. M. Krasnoryadtseva (Ed.), Integrated human research: Psychology: Proceedings of the VII Siberian psychological forum: Part 2: Human health in the post-information society (pp. 131–135). Tomsk: Tomsk State University. (in Russ.).
Sidorov, P. I. (2015a). Mental immunity as a biopsychosocial spiritual matrix of identity and the basis for the safety of individuals and society. Ekologiya cheloveka = Human Ecology, 12, 42–52. (in Russ.).
Sidorov, P. I. (2015b). Acquired mental immunodeficiency syndrome. Meditsinskii akademicheskii zhurnal = Medical Academic Journal, 15(14), 82–95. (in Russ.).
Stroev, N. N., Lagun, A. V., & Stroev, A. N. (2018). Psychological aspects of anti-corruption activities through the prism of informational immunity. Uchenye zapiski Sankt-Peterburgskogo imeni V. B. Bobkova filiala Rossiiskoi tamozhennoi akademii = Scientific Notes of the Bobkov St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Customs Academy, 4(68), 65–69. (in Russ.).
Szy, A. (2016). Bridging the Generation Gap: The Interrelations of Personality Traits and Psychological Well-being Among People Between 50 and 75 and In Generation Y. A Pilot Study. Psychologia Hungarica, 3(2), 33–55.
Vardanyan, Yu. V., & Artamonova, M. Yu. (2017). Studying psychological immunity towards addictive behavior in adolescents. Proceedings of the international conference. Pedagogical and psychological sciences: Current issues of theory and practice. Kazan: Otkrytoe znanie. (in Russ.).
Vedzhatova, L. N., & Menaeva, Z. S. (2016). Informational and psychological immunity as a psychological phenomenon. Uchenye zapiski Krymskogo inzhenerno-pedagogicheskogo universiteta. Seriya: Pedagogika. Psikhologiya = Scientific notes of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University. Series: Pedagogy. Psychology, 3(5), 36–39. (in Russ.).
Vygotskii, L. S. (2019). Thinking and speech: Psychological research. Moscow: Natsional'noe obrazovanie. (in Russ.).
Zhapuev, Z. A. (2013). Social immunity as a subject of scientific discourse. The Bulletin of the Adyghe State University. Series 1: Region Studies: Philosophy, History, Sociology, Jurisprudence, Political Sciences and Cultural Studies, 1(113). Retrieved from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsialnyy-immunitet-kak-predmet-nauchnogo-diskursa (in Russ.).
Babloyan, N. V., & Vasilenko, M. A. (2018). Social immunity and the ways to overcome social inequality. Engineering Journal of Don, 2. Retrieved from http://www.ivdon.ru/ru/magazine/archive/N2y2018/4875 (in Russ.).
Bhardwaj, A. K. & Agrawal, G. (2015). Concept and application of psycho-immunity (defense against mental illness): importance in mental health scenario. Online Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches (OJMR), 1(3), 6–15. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/17940185/Concept_and_Applications_of_Psycho-Immunity_Defense_Against_Mental_Illness_Importance_in_Mental_Health_Scenario
Bliznetsova, O. I. (2013). The formation of socio-psychological immunity towards the ideology of terrorism among students. Proceedings of the international conference. Activity-related understanding of culture as a type of human being. Nizhnevartovsk: Nizhnevartovsk Humanitarian University. (in Russ.).
Brurson, H. (2015). Thought viruses: How not to poison your life with malicious thoughts. Moscow: Al'pina Publisher. (in Russ.).
Ferencz, E. (2008). A pszichológiai immunerendszer vizsgálata, a koragyermekkori emlékek individuálpszichológiai értelmezésén keresztül. Retrieved from https://dea.lib.unideb.hu/dea/bitstream/handle/2437/5776/Szelesne_Ferencz_Edit_ertekezes.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y
Garkavi, L. Kh., Kvakina, E. B. & Ukolova, M. A. (1990). Adaptive reactions and resistance of the organism. Rostov-on-Don: Rostov University. (in Russ.).
Gilbert, D. (2017). Stumbling on happiness. Moscow: Al'pina Publisher. (in Russ.).
Gilbert, D. T., Pinel, E. C., Wilson, T. D., Blumberg, S. J., & Wheatley T. (1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617–638.
Gil'meeva, R. Kh. (2015). The formation of spiritual and moral immunity in youth as a condition for the prevention of extremism in the safe educational environment. Kazanskii pedagogicheskii zhurnal = Kazan Pedagogical Journal, 6, 56–61. (in Russ.).
Grachev, G. V. (2003). Personality and society: Informational and psychological safety and psychological protection. Moscow: PER SE. (in Russ.).
Kagan, H. (2006). The Psychological Immune System. A New Look at Protection and Survival. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse.
Kanevskaya, T. M. (2012). Overcoming the inclination to addictive behaviours at the stage of higher education as a condition for the formation of competencies in a future specialist. Proceedings of the all-Russian conference. Evaluating the quality of training in educational institutions. Yekaterinburg: USPU. (in Russ.).
Kenrick, D. T. (2010). The Psychological Immune System: why seeing me sneeze makes you healthier. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/sex-murder-and-the-meaning-life/201004/the-psychological-immune-system
Khramtsova, F. I. (2015). Social immunity of youth as a factor of national security of the Republic of Belarus. Sociological Almanac, 6. Retrieved form https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsialnyy-immunitet-molodezhi-kak-faktor-natsionalnoy-bezopasnosti-respubliki-belarus (in Russ.).
Kireichev, A. V. (2015). Psychological immunity as a factor in the development of a mature person. Proceedings of the LIV international conference: Vol. 7(53). Personality, family and society: Issues of pedagogy and psychology (pp. 6–9). Novosibirsk: SibAK. (in Russ.).
Kolpakova, L. M. (2015). Psychological adaptability as a necessary attribute of life activity. In V. N. Skvortsov, L. M. Kobrin (Eds.), XIX Tsarskosel'skie readings (pp. 352–355). St. Petersburg: Leningrad State University. (in Russ.).
Krasnyanskaya, T. M. & Tylets, V. G. (2015). Psychological resources of personal safety with various experiences of extremeness. Mediko-biologicheskie i sotsial'no-psikhologicheskie problemy bezopasnosti v chrezvychainykh situatsiyakh = Medico-Biological and Socio-Psychological Problems of Safety in Emergency Situations, 2, 100–107. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.25016/2541-7487-2015-0-2-100-107 (in Russ.).
Kuznetsova, E. S. (2017). Psychological well-being: Theoretical approaches. Psychological newspaper. Retrieved from https://psy.su/feed/6510/ (in Russ.).
Luchinkina, A. I. (2015). Personality in the information space. Uchenye zapiski Krymskogo inzhenerno-pedagogicheskogo universiteta. Seriya: Pedagogika. Psikhologiya = Scientific notes of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University. Series: Pedagogy. Psychology, 2, 13–18. (in Russ.).
Mikheeva, A. V. (2010). Stress tolerance: Towards definitions. Vestnik Rossiiskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Voprosy obrazovaniya: yazyki i spetsial'nost' = Bulletin of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. Series: Educational Issues: Languages and Specialty, 2, 82–87. (in Russ.).
Mortensen, C. R., Becker, D. V., Ackerman, J. M., Neuberg, S. L., & Kenrick, D. T. (2010). Infection Breeds Reticence: The effects of disease salience on self-perceptions of personality and behavioral avoidance tendencies. Psychological Science, 21, 440–447.
Moskalenko, G. V. (2018). Phenomenology of psychological immunity. Proceedings of all-Russian conference. Security Service in Russia: Experience, problems, prospects for the formation of life safety: Priority problems and solutions (pp. 271–275). St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University of State Fire Service of EMERCOM of Russia. (in Russ.).
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2015). The Behavioral Immune System: Implications for Social Cognition, Social Interaction, and Social Influence. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 75–129.
Olah, A. (2009). Psychological immunity: A new concept of coping and resilience. PsycheVisual. Retrieved from https://www.psychevisual.com/Video_by_Attila_Olah_on_Psychological_immunity_A_new_concept_of_coping_and_resilience.html#lectures
Rashitova, E. U. (2016). The psychological model of informational-psychological immunity in higher school teachers. Vestnik obrazovatel'nogo konsortsiuma Srednerusskiy universitet. Seriya: Gumanitarnye nauki = Bulletin of Educational Consortium Middle Russian University. Series: Humanities, 8, 37–38. (in Russ.).
Semenov, D. S. (2017). Consciousness as a meta-predictor of professional and psychological health. In O. M. Krasnoryadtseva (Ed.), Integrated human research: Psychology: Proceedings of the VII Siberian psychological forum: Part 2: Human health in the post-information society (pp. 131–135). Tomsk: Tomsk State University. (in Russ.).
Sidorov, P. I. (2015a). Mental immunity as a biopsychosocial spiritual matrix of identity and the basis for the safety of individuals and society. Ekologiya cheloveka = Human Ecology, 12, 42–52. (in Russ.).
Sidorov, P. I. (2015b). Acquired mental immunodeficiency syndrome. Meditsinskii akademicheskii zhurnal = Medical Academic Journal, 15(14), 82–95. (in Russ.).
Stroev, N. N., Lagun, A. V., & Stroev, A. N. (2018). Psychological aspects of anti-corruption activities through the prism of informational immunity. Uchenye zapiski Sankt-Peterburgskogo imeni V. B. Bobkova filiala Rossiiskoi tamozhennoi akademii = Scientific Notes of the Bobkov St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Customs Academy, 4(68), 65–69. (in Russ.).
Szy, A. (2016). Bridging the Generation Gap: The Interrelations of Personality Traits and Psychological Well-being Among People Between 50 and 75 and In Generation Y. A Pilot Study. Psychologia Hungarica, 3(2), 33–55.
Vardanyan, Yu. V., & Artamonova, M. Yu. (2017). Studying psychological immunity towards addictive behavior in adolescents. Proceedings of the international conference. Pedagogical and psychological sciences: Current issues of theory and practice. Kazan: Otkrytoe znanie. (in Russ.).
Vedzhatova, L. N., & Menaeva, Z. S. (2016). Informational and psychological immunity as a psychological phenomenon. Uchenye zapiski Krymskogo inzhenerno-pedagogicheskogo universiteta. Seriya: Pedagogika. Psikhologiya = Scientific notes of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University. Series: Pedagogy. Psychology, 3(5), 36–39. (in Russ.).
Vygotskii, L. S. (2019). Thinking and speech: Psychological research. Moscow: Natsional'noe obrazovanie. (in Russ.).
Zhapuev, Z. A. (2013). Social immunity as a subject of scientific discourse. The Bulletin of the Adyghe State University. Series 1: Region Studies: Philosophy, History, Sociology, Jurisprudence, Political Sciences and Cultural Studies, 1(113). Retrieved from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sotsialnyy-immunitet-kak-predmet-nauchnogo-diskursa (in Russ.).