Personal self-care: Possibilities for constructing a psychological typology
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The introduction substantiates the relevance of studying care as a dominant feature of human existence, giving it authenticity and meaning, and self-care, which implies not only a conscious and responsible attitude to one’s own physical, emotional and psychological well-being, actualization of self-esteem, acquisition of inner strength and freedom, spiritual development, but also care for the Other. Theoretical analysis allows us to define the subject of self-care in the context of the trinity: I-World, I-Other, I-Myself and to highlight the basic structure of self-care, represented by self-knowledge, self-improvement, self-regulation and self-transformation. Empirical analysis. The purpose of the empirical study is to construct a psychological typology of an individual’s self-care as a practice of reproducing subjectivity. Research hypothesis: it is assumed that there are different types of self-care determined by the configuration of dominant personality traits in the context of the trinity: Self-World, Self-Other, Self-Myself. The study involved 94 respondents, 24 men and 70 women (N = 94; average age = 32,5 ± 12 years, median=32 years). Methods: psychological testing using methods for diagnosing the severity of self-care, a stress resistance test, a short Big Five questionnaire, as well as methods of mathematical and statistical data processing (JASP 0.19.2 package). Conclusion. Self-care is viewed as everyday spiritual work of an individual on his or her own life project, associated with the transformation of existing opportunities into active resources, associated with difficulties, risks and conscious efforts, conditioned by personal and socio-psychological characteristics, including as an obligatory component the individual’s care for the Other. Three types of self-care with high explanatory potential are identified, two of which imply a medium degree of self-care, and one – a high degree of self-care. It is established that each of the constructed types has its own advantages and limitations. The applied aspect of the study is that the results can serve as a basis for developing diagnostic tools for assessing the degree of an individual’s self-care, as well as technologies for facilitating its subjectivity.
Author: Elena V. Ryaguzova
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409170768