Strategies for overcoming life difficulties in convicts, serving the long sentences of imprisonment

The paper presents an empirical analysis of the basic behavioral, cognitive and emotional strategies for overcoming life difficulties by convicts serving long sentences of imprisonment. Adaptive behavioral strategies and coping resources of the personality of convicts are considered as the main mental structures that ensure the success of overcoming difficult life situations. The most frequently used conscious and automatic coping strategies used by convicts are analyzed. Correlations between the copying used and the mechanisms of psychological defense have been revealed. The study compared groups of convicts who had served different periods of long imprisonment. The selected methodological toolkit allowed to implement a comprehensive approach to the study of the phenomenon, to reveal its structural components and the interrelations between them. On the basis of the data obtained recommendations were made to the staff of penal institutions on the organization of psychological and pedagogical support for the category of convicts in order to decriminalize the environment of convicts and reduce the level of crime in places of imprisonment. In particular, attention is focused on the need to create the necessary conditions for the manifestation of prosocial activity of the individual, the objective conditions of life, the «helping» social environment, as well as providing prisoners with appropriate resources, including to ensure the safety of their psychological well-being.

Keywords: coping behavior; convicts with long sentence of imprisonment; psychological protection; experience; psychological well-being.