A Study Of Firefighter's Psychological Adaptability Based On Life Space And Group Dynamics

This study is trying to explore the firefighters' psychological health status based in the concept of "life space". It have been noticed that most of the psychological health level of firefighters is lower than the normal adults, but why this result turns out to be in the group of firefighters, and how this happens has not yet been carefully studied. Not every single firefighter is suffering from the psychological problem, what interest the researcher is why they show different adapting ability in the same group and what are the main factors influencing the psychological health of firemen.However, because most of the fire departments are located in cities, the fire department in China who belongs to armed police is under the management of both China army and the police. And this double-management system has showed important influences in fireman group. The study reveals that the difficulty for a person to adapt this management system brings on psychological compressive stress in the level of both person and group. The strict rules in the fire department, the confined living and acting space lead great mental pressure of firemen. And insufficient communication inner the group, the competition between the members also reflects on the status of firefighters' psychological health. But people in different managing style and different group atmosphere present different situation. At the meanwhile, firefighter is not taken as a career in China, people who become firemen have their own stories before they get into the fire department. The individual characteristics involve in the group lead to different level of psychological health.Case study was used in this paper. 72 firefighters were interviewed and the life process of them was carefully examined and analyzed. Group dynamic as the technique of group evaluating is applied in this research. This study digs out the diversity of psychological health status in the fire group and shows the main factors affecting in the firemen' psychology adapting process.