Evaluation of psychical state of the engine room crew members of a long period of service at sea.

The work was made to find the traits of personality in the engine room crew members of a long occupational experience, which alleviate or aggravate their process of adaptation to the conditions of work at sea. The goal of investigation was to answer the question whether and if so then to what extent neurotic and psychopathic disturbances are negatively select in the scope of their occupational adaptation. 270 seafarers were subjected to examinations performed by means of the following tests: MMPI, Behaviour Examination Patterns, Social Readjustment Rating Scale, Scale of Psychical Load with work. The research resulted in conclusions: neurotic disturbances do not select negatively members of the engine room crew as to their occupational adaptation. Neurotic disturbances are getting more intense with the age and the employment period. In spite of this the seafarers affected are objectively regarded good workers. Disturbances of behaviour and personality reveal decreasing tendency with the age and the length of service, most probably it is the mechanism of natural selection that should be accounted for. In this group 6.5% of persons show tendency to fall in alcohol dependency. Seamen aged 40-50 years constitute a group that such deviated types are most frequent, therefore they should be given a special medical attendance.