First, the characteristics of the maritime profession
In ancient times, human knowledge of geography was limited, and the other side was an unknown world. In order to explore the world, sailing came into being, so sailing is often endowed with mystery and is an adventure. Only a few people will take such an adventure. These people are called great navigators by later generations. Nowadays, sailing is not only an adventure, but also a profession, which is indispensable in modern society. People engaged in this profession are called sailors. Compared with other occupations, navigation is a special industry, with opportunities and challenges, which is characterized by foreign-related, practical, arduous, risky and teamwork.
(1) Foreign-related. Ocean-going ships are mobile land, and what seafarers do in foreign countries represents the image of the people of China. We should always pay attention to safeguarding the image and dignity of the motherland, and at the same time properly handle all aspects of relations with a modest attitude.
(2) practicality. Navigation is a highly practical profession, and international navigation talents should not only have solid professional knowledge of navigation, but also have strong hands-on ability to deal with emergencies in a timely and effective manner.
(3) hardness. The environment at sea is much worse than that on land. When a ship sails at sea and is isolated from the outside world, seafarers are far away from the land, take the ship as their home and drive the ship in a relatively closed environment, and their psychological and physical pressure is far greater than that of land workers.
(4) risk. The risk in navigation is social knowledge, and the risk comes from all aspects, including natural factors, such as stormy weather; There are also human factors, such as inexperienced drivers and negligence. In addition, the rampant piracy in recent years has also brought certain dangers to navigation. Every year, the heavy losses of people, environment and property caused by maritime accidents are quite serious.
(5) Teamwork. In the process of sailing, teamwork is particularly important. Ship navigation is a systematic work, which requires the cooperation of seafarers, especially the cooperation between deck department and engine department. Only by cooperating with each other can we complete the task.
Second, the current shipping situation and navigation environment
(1) The shipment situation is sluggish.
At present, the international shipping market is still in a downturn, the international dry bulk market is still deteriorating rapidly, and international container transportation, including oil products, continues to lose money. Demand growth in the shipping market slowed down. With the European debt crisis, the economic growth rate of developed economies, including the United States, has declined sharply, resulting in a decrease in demand in the international shipping market and saturation of existing transportation capacity. There is a serious overcapacity in the market. In recent years, a large number of new transport capacity has been put into the market, which has aggravated the imbalance between supply and demand in the shipping market. The cost of enterprises has risen sharply. At present, everything is rising except freight, such as fuel cost and financing cost. These costs have caused the direct operating costs of shipping enterprises to rise, while the freight rate is declining and the loss is greatly increased.
(2) The navigation environment is complex.
The current international situation has a rather grim side. Regional wars and violent conflicts break out one after another, local turmoil and tension intensify, and the problems facing peace and development are becoming more and more urgent. Indirectly affected the development environment of the whole world. The increase and intensification of regional conflicts and wars have complicated the interests of big countries and directly impacted the development of shipping economy.
In recent years, the number of pirate attacks in specific areas has increased sharply, which has seriously endangered the navigation safety of ships at sea and the development of international shipping, and impacted the international economic order and maritime security order. At present, the active areas of piracy are mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean, East Africa and West Africa, and Central and South America. Among them, the Gulf of Aden and the Somali waters in East Africa have become the main areas of piracy. Every year, incidents of hijacking merchant ships and violent injuries to crew members occur from time to time, posing a great threat to navigation. At the same time, it also caused some panic and burden to the crew.
Third, the common psychological problems of maritime students
(1) The study pressure is great.
Navigation students should not only complete the academic education courses offered by the school, including basic courses and professional courses, but also pass the seafarers' competency examination organized by the Maritime Safety Administration and obtain the seafarers' competency certificate, so as to successfully complete their studies. After entering the school, students need to receive professional training from many seafarers in addition to theoretical courses, and are required to pass the corresponding examinations and assessments. Such as familiarity and basic safety, familiarity with boats and rafts, familiarity with first aid, advanced fire fighting, electronic charts, GMDSS training, familiarity and security awareness training required by the latest Manila amendment of STCW Convention, and security responsibility training, only those who have obtained the above professional training certificates are eligible to take the seafarer's certificate of competency examination, and those who have obtained the certificate of competency must pass all the required examination subjects. According to the latest rules of competency examination and certification for seafarers, to apply for three kinds of competency certificates, you must complete and pass the examinations and corresponding assessments of five courses, namely, navigation (the merger of original navigation and navigation meteorology and oceanography), maritime English, ship duty and collision avoidance, ship freight (the merger of original ship structure and equipment with ship freight) and ship management. It can be said that students' learning tasks at school are very heavy, which objectively causes great learning pressure to students. In addition, after entering the university from high school, students change their learning attitude and think that they can not study as hard as high school and have more time to participate in extracurricular activities. Subjectively, the study thought is lax, and objectively, the study task is heavy, which leads to excessive study pressure. If students can't handle it correctly, they will have psychological problems such as weariness, anxiety and even depression.
(2) Emotional confusion
Due to the particularity of navigation major, most navigation colleges only recruit boys, and all the students in a class are boys, which is called "monk class". Students who step into the university campus are in their youth, with lofty ideals and heroic passion, and hope that their dreams will set sail from here. But people are emotional and thoughtful, eager to communicate with others, and especially need the support and encouragement of the opposite sex. However, limited by the special school environment, students' gender is single, which suppresses their emotional needs. In the long run, students will be emotionally confused and their psychology will be greatly affected.
(3) High anxiety
According to the survey, some students have no idea of the hardships and dangers of sailing, so they choose to major in sailing. After coming to school, they gradually know what kind of work navigation students will do after graduation through study and teacher's teaching. The working and living environment of seafarers is relatively hard, which has certain risks, such as wind and waves, ship bumps, seasickness, machine noise, time difference, pirate intrusion, information blockage, shipwreck and so on. After the information is transmitted to students, navigation students are prone to psychological tension, uncertainty, emotional excitement and instability. However, under the pressure of family and employment, it is inevitable to have anxiety if you want to go on.
(4) Serious inferiority complex.
Maritime students come from rural areas, towns and villages, and their family financial resources are at a general level, among which nearly half are poor or even difficult families. From this point of view, navigation students are mainly in rural areas and towns, and their family economic situation is mostly below the middle level. When asked about the reasons for learning to sail, most of the answers are surprisingly consistent. For example, "To find a well-paid job in the future". In school, these students who are born in poverty and have difficulties in life feel inferior compared with other students.
In recent years, great changes have taken place in the social honor and recognition of seafarers' profession. Before the reform and opening up, in the eyes of many people, it was a very beautiful thing to work on a ship. Because seafarers can go abroad, earn foreign exchange, earn high income, and enjoy preferential treatment of buying imported electrical appliances duty-free, it is an enviable hot occupation and enjoys a high professional reputation. Judging from the earlier seafarers in New China, there are many descendants of revolutionaries and princelings, including a large number of demobilized military cadres in the seamen's group, most of whom are proud of serving the motherland's ocean-going cause. With the deepening of reform and opening up, the income on the shore has mushroomed, while the income of seafarers has shrunk dramatically. Seafarers' professional advantages are gradually lost, but their professional disadvantages are increasingly prominent, their social status is greatly reduced, and their welfare and quality of life are not optimistic. More and more seafarers turn to work on land. Seafarers are classified as marginal occupations. This situation is undoubtedly a serious blow to contemporary maritime students. Their inferiority complex is getting worse and worse, and they are worried about their future career.
Fourthly, the cultivation of the psychological quality of navigation students.
(1) Carry out mental health education
Navigation schools should actively carry out psychological health education for seafarers. Mental health education enables students to understand themselves correctly, strengthen self-regulation, bear setbacks, adapt to the environment, promote the comprehensive and harmonious development of students' psychology, and is conducive to the physical and mental health of navigation students. Popularize mental health knowledge, guide students to treat life correctly, improve their personality, and help solve various psychological problems and problems encountered by students. In addition, it is necessary for maritime colleges to establish psychological health files for college students, understand the physical and mental health status of each student, grasp their inner dynamics, and provide them with corresponding consulting services. At the same time, early detection and prevention of psychological problems can truly understand students' ideological status and relieve psychological confusion. Some maritime colleges and universities in China have set up special service centers for students' psychological development to provide psychological consultation and ability development guidance, but the effect of mental health education is not optimistic, educational activities are not carried out enough, and the quality of mental health education teachers and mental health services can not adapt to the development of today's colleges and universities. For colleges and universities, mental health education should run through the whole process of higher education, so that college students can develop physically and mentally healthily.
(2) Strengthen student management.
In order to ensure the safety of the ship, the work on the ship has strict organizational discipline, the crew must have a strong sense of obedience, and the school should strengthen the management of students. For the management of maritime students, most universities in China adopt semi-military management. Strengthen patriotism, collectivism and dedication, and cultivate seafarers' special qualities to meet the requirements of maritime occupation. However, while adopting semi-military management, it is necessary to inject humanized factors, give students some free space, pay attention to their inner world, and manage according to the characteristics of emotional plasticity, tendency and stability, so as to stimulate students' enthusiasm for self-management, eliminate students' constrained emotions, and avoid students' rebellious psychology and even extreme behavior.
(3) Actively construct frustration education.
Navigation students will encounter setbacks in the face of the conflict between ideal and reality, the change of environment and life and other important stages. Navigation is a challenging occupation, and students' fears and worries also exist at the same time. Negative emotions have largely led to the change of their professional attitude. Therefore, it is particularly important to educate and guide students to treat setbacks correctly and make psychological adjustment and guidance in time in the face of setbacks. In teaching, teachers should give students the idea of frustration, make students fully prepared psychologically, and educate students to have the courage to face reality under any circumstances, come out smoothly in adversity and embrace life with passion. For some students with a strong sense of superiority, we should artificially set obstacles and create setbacks, so as to train them to bear adversity, so as to better adapt to life and not be helpless when frustrated. Navigation students need to receive frustration education, and at the same time, they need the society to create a lofty sense of honor for the navigation profession, so that more people are willing to engage in this work.