Features of the Relationship of Malevolent Creativity and Understanding of One’s Own Emotions

As part of the reduction of psychological violence and destruction in interpersonal relationships, the study of the manifestation of malevolent creativity (MC) in behavior becomes an urgent problem for the internal affairs bodies (ATS) of the Russian Federation. The article provides an analysis of the results obtained in several studies on samples of different ages: convicts, cadets, cadets and active police officers (N=281, of which 45% are women). The questionnaires of aggression BRAQ-24, emotional intelligence (EmIn), an abbreviated version of the questionnaire “NEO PI-R”, “Behavioral features of malevolent creativity” were used. Hypotheses were tested: 1. The realization of malevolent creativity in interpersonal interaction is mediated by a low understanding of one’s own emotions (PSE), low agreeableness and high hostility, with hostility playing a predominant role; 2. the combination of high values of cooperation and PSE mediates a decrease in MC; 3. there are gender differences in the components of MC and its relationship with cooperation and PSE. The results showed that hostility is a complete mediator in the negative relationship of PSE and MC. At the same time, the contribution of self-esteem to understanding one’s own emotions is not modest in the implementation of MC in behavior that harms other people. It has been shown that in highly hostile people with a developed trait of cooperation, high PSE can regulate MC. The combination of high hostility and high PSE mediates MC and can contribute to its implementation in deviant behavior in the case of low values of the Cooperation trait. Gender features were identified: in women, the decrease in the realization of MC in harming is mediated by a combination of highly developed PSE and the traits of the big five Cooperation. The conclusion is made about the important contribution of self-assessment of understanding one’s own emotions as a component of emotional intelligence to malevolent creativity and deviant behavior in interpersonal interaction.

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