PERSONALITY AS AN EXPLANATORY BASIS IN THE ANALYSIS OF VICTIM BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The article examines the problem of explaining the phenomenon of victim behavior through the prism of the personality approach. The authors substantiate the thesis that victim behavior cannot be explained solely by situational factors, since its prerequisites are rooted in the system of individual psychological traits of a person. It is shown that the long-standing "person-situation" debate in psychological science has not only methodological but also conceptual significance: the discovery of the fundamental attribution error does not negate the existence of stable dispositions that determine consistent behavioral patterns across various life contexts. The victim personality is viewed as an integral, hierarchically organized self-regulating system that integrates psychodynamic, socially conditioned, and reflexive-semantic (self-concept) components. Such a systemic structure ensures the stability and recurrence of behavioral reactions that, in critical situations, may manifest as victim-like. It is established that personal characteristics emotional vulnerability, low self-regulation, distorted self-perception, and inadequate situation assessment are key factors contributing to the formation of victim tendencies, while situational factors serve as catalysts that activate existing personality dispositions. The article analyzes major theoretical approaches to the study of personality as well as positions of domestic psychological schools that interpret personality as an active subject of activity, a system of attitudes, or a socio-historically determined integrity. Generalization of these approaches allowed the authors to define personality as a dynamic self-regulating system that ensures behavioral consistency and stability and forms cognitive-emotional prerequisites for victim activity. The feasibility of the systemic approach in studying the phenomenon of the victim personality is substantiated, as it enables the integration of the micro-level of psychodynamic processes with the macro-level of sociobehavioral structures. The authors emphasize that adequate understanding of the victim’s personality is possible only when it is analyzed as an integral system in which traits, states, attitudes, values, and self-regulation mechanisms are interrelated.