Developing Introspection Skills, Coping with Stress Versus Anxiety Level and a Sense of Self-efficacy in Officers of the Prison Service Intervention Groups

The article discusses the problems of the Prison Service intervention groups responsible for the preventionand elimination of threats in conditions of prison isolation. The position of the intervention groups is characterised accordingto the structure of the prison security department, its tasks and the method of training the guards. The goal of the research wasto establish the relations between the implementation of the activities affecting the ability to introspectively analyse their stateof mind and reduce stress and anxiety and the level of subjective belief in their own efficacy in difficult situations. Research carriedout during the training of intervention groups were based on standardized psychological tests, the measurement of which wasmade twice; at the beginning and end of the programme. The authors present a study, whose aim was to establish a relationshipbetween the organisation of courses reinforcing the ability to introspectively analyse one’s own state of mind and stress reductionversus anxiety level, and the subjective sense of self-efficacy in difficult situations. The research was carried out during the trainingof intervention groups on the basis of standardised psychological tests. The survey was made twice — at the beginning and the endof the training. The study involved 113 officers (58 in an experimental group and 55 in a control group). An independent variableintroduced in the experimental group was the training reinforcing introspective analyses of one’s own state of mind and reductionof stress, while the control group was deprived of such training.