Stages and levels of development of the psyche and behavior
Stages and levels of development of the psyche and behavior of animals (according to A.N. Leontiev and K.E. Fabry)
| Stages and level of mental reflection, its characteristics | Features of behavior associated with a given stage and level | Types of living beings that have reached this level of development |
| 1. Stage of the elementary sensory psyche A. The lowest level. Primitive elements of sensitivity. Developed irritability. | A. Clear reactions to biologically significant properties of the environment through a change in the speed and direction of movement. Elementary forms of movements. Weak plasticity of behavior. Unformed ability to respond to biologically neutral properties of the environment, devoid of vital significance. Weak, non-purposeful physical activity. | A. The simplest. Many lower multicellular organisms living in the aquatic environment. |
| B. Top level. The presence of feelings. The appearance of the most important organ of manipulation - the jaws. Ability to form elementary conditioned reflexes. | B. Clear reactions to biologically neutral stimuli. Developed physical activity (crawling, digging in the ground, swimming out of the water to land). The ability to avoid adverse environmental conditions, move away from them, actively search for positive stimuli. Individual experience and learning play little role. Rigid innate programs are of primary importance in behavior. | B. Higher (annelid) worms, gastropods (snails), some other invertebrates. |
| II. The stage of the perceptual psyche. A. Low level. Reflection of external reality in the form of images of objects. Integration, unification of influencing properties into a holistic image of a thing. The main organ of manipulation is the jaw. | A. Formation of motor skills. Rigid, genetically programmed components predominate. Motor abilities are very complex and varied (diving, crawling, walking, running, jumping, climbing, flying, etc.). Active search for positive stimuli, avoidance of negative (harmful), developed protective behavior. | A. Fish and other lower vertebrates, as well as (in part) some higher invertebrates (arthropods and cephalopods). Insects. |
| B. Top level. Elementary forms of thinking (problem solving). The formation of a certain "picture of the world". B. The highest level. Allocation in practical activity of a special, tentative-research, preparatory phase. The ability to solve the same problem in different ways. Transferring the once found principle of solving the problem to new conditions. Creation and use of primitive tools in activities. The ability to cognize the surrounding reality, regardless of the existing biological needs. Direct discretion and consideration of causal relationships between phenomena in practical actions (insight). | B. Highly developed instinctive forms of behavior. Ability to learn. C. Allocation of specialized organs of manipulation: paws and hands. Development of research forms of behavior with a wide use of previously acquired knowledge, skills and abilities. | B. Higher vertebrates (birds and some mammals). B. Monkeys, some other higher vertebrates (dogs, dolphin |
A.N. Leontiev singled out three stages in the development of the psyche of animals: the stage of the elementary sensory psyche, the stage of the perceptual psyche, and the stage of intellect.
Animals with elementary sensory psyche are able to reflect only certain properties of external influences. The beings whose psyche is at the lowest level of this stage, i.e., exists only in embryo, include many protozoa. They are capable of fairly complex movements in space. Their movements are made towards favorable environmental conditions (positive taxises) or away from unfavorable conditions (negative taxises). The simplest are capable of elementary forms of learning, i.e., the formation of conditioned reactions. In a number of experiments, the vessel containing the ciliates of the shoe was divided into two parts. One part was illuminated, and the other was not, while the light was combined with "punishment" (high temperature, electric shock). As a result, the animals, previously indifferent to the nature of the illumination, began to prefer the safe part of the vessel even in the absence of negative reinforcement, focusing only on its illumination. As the level of phylogenetic development increases, behavior becomes more complex. In worms and mollusks, whole chains of congenital taxis appear.
Animals with perceptual psyche reflect external reality in the form of integral images of things. At this stage is the psyche of vertebrates, almost all arthropods, including insects, as well as cephalopods. The basis of all forms of animal behavior are instincts, that is, genetically fixed, inherited forms of behavior. Like morphological characters, they are reproduced in each individual of a given species in a relatively unchanged form. According to V.A. Wagner instincts are the result of natural selection, which has determined the high adaptability of instinctive behavior in all spheres of an animal's life: in obtaining food, protection, reproduction, caring for offspring, etc.
The predominance of innate instinctive forms of behavior at a given stage in the development of the psyche does not mean the absence of the possibility of learning. Many instinctive acts are finally formed in the individual experience of the animal, which ensures the adaptation of the instinctive action to environmental conditions. Of course, the plasticity of instinctive action is limited in this case and is determined by genetically given variability. In essence, any action of animals is a complex interweaving of species-typical and acquired elements of behavior. According to K.E. Fabry, at the stage of the perceptual psyche, each behavioral act is formed in ontogenesis through the implementation of genetically fixed components of species experience in the process of individual learning. Individually acquired and fixed in the exercises, the ways of animal behavior are called skills. The formation of skills depends on the level of development of the nervous system and the psyche of the animal: the higher the animal is on the phylogenetic ladder, the more complex the skills and the easier it is to develop them.
The next stage in the development of the animal psyche is intelligence stage- is characterized by an even more complex reflection of reality, which lies in the ability not only to reflect individual objects in their entirety, but also to establish relationships between objects. The higher animals are able to establish enough complicated relationship(such as more - less, shorter - longer, less often - more often), as well as distinguish the shape of geometric shapes.
The intellectual form of behavior differs significantly from simple learning, i.e., the formation of skills.
1. At a lower stage of development, finding a solution to a problem situation occurs slowly, through numerous trials, during which successful operations are gradually consolidated, and unsuccessful ones are also slowly slowed down and die off. At the stage of intellect, animals first make many attempts that do not lead to a solution to the problem, and then a sudden understanding of the relationships and structure of the problem situation is achieved - insight, which almost immediately leads to success.
2. When repeating the experiment, the solution found is reproduced without preliminary trials.
3. The solution is easily transferred to conditions similar to those in which it was found for the first time.
intellectual development higher apes shows that human thinking has real premises in the animal world. This reflects the fact of natural continuity in the development of the psyche of humans and animals. However, one should not exaggerate the similarity between man and animal, deriving the laws of human existence from those laws that regulate the life of animals. Intellectual behavior, characteristic of higher mammals and reaching a particularly high level of development in anthropoid apes, represents the upper limit of development, beyond which the history of the development of the psyche of a completely different, qualitatively new type begins - human consciousness.
Until now, it is not known exactly when the psyche appeared in the evolution of living beings. According to the evolutionary theory of Ch. Darwin, in phylogeny the psyche has gone from the level of the simplest irritability to consciousness. Irritability is a property of all living things to respond to the influence of the external environment.
1. Taxis- this is an elementary form of irritability, observed even in plants (tropism). It aims to find a favorable environment. Characteristic of single-celled living beings.
2. Sensitivity- the ability of the body to perceive irritations emanating from the environment or from its own tissues and organs. Reflection by the body of such influences that are not directly biologically significant (for example, due to their energy weakness), but may signal the presence (change) of other environmental conditions that are vital (necessary or dangerous). Sensitivity requires special organs ( receptors), which respond to biologically insignificant influences. A signal form of irritability that allows one to navigate in a more complex environment (the pike "attacks" crucian carp, focusing on its movement and brilliance).
3. Behavior – interaction inherent in living beings with the environment, mediated by their external (motor) and internal (mental) activity. It is characterized by a complex set of reactions to the influence of the environment.
instincts. Instincts are the complex innate actions of animals by which animals satisfy their needs. Physiologically, instincts are complex chains of unconditioned reflexes, and the end of one reflex is the causative agent of the next reflex, and so on.
You don't need to learn instincts. They are given to the animal in a ready-made form already at its birth or naturally manifest themselves at a certain stage of the development of the organism (as reproductive instincts). An expressive example: shortly before the chicks emerge from the egg, they make an audible squeak. By imitating the cry of a kite, you can achieve a complete fading of the squeak. By imitating the clucking of a chicken, on the contrary, you can achieve a very lively vocal reaction of chickens. It is clear that a creature that has not yet been born cannot have any idea either about the danger posed by the kite or about its mother, the chicken.
Instincts have developed in the course of natural selection as a result of selection and consolidation in a number of generations of biologically expedient actions. Examples of instinctive actions are the seasonal flights of birds, the construction of nests by birds and burrows by animals, the storage of food for the winter, etc.
Sometimes instincts are very complex activities. So, with amazing accuracy, bees build regular hexagonal cells from wax, and practically solve a difficult task even for civil engineers - to create rooms of maximum capacity at the lowest cost of building material.
Beavers build their dwellings from several rooms, and from carefully cleaned branches they make a ceiling, which, with the art of a plasterer, is plastered with silt taken from the bottom of the river.
To regulate the water level, beavers build dams (sometimes more than 100 m long, up to 2-3 m high and 1-2 m wide), and trees for dams are gnawed upstream in order to “fuse” them through the water to the construction site. The body of the dam is built by beavers from large stakes, stuck at one end into the bottom of the river; these stakes are intertwined with branches, the gaps between which are carefully covered with clay.
Ants are especially striking in their complex instinctive behavior. In special rooms in the anthill, they store the grains they have collected, in a way that is still incomprehensible to humans, they protect these grains from germination. Ants breed mushrooms - in special rooms they store finely cut pieces of leaves mixed with the ground, on which mushrooms grow - a tasty dish of these insects. Ants breed aphids, which are used as dairy cows; irritating the abdomen of aphids with their antennae, the ants force them to secrete a sugary liquid, which they feast on. In autumn, ants carry aphids to places protected from the cold.
However, despite all its complexity, instinctive behavior is carried out automatically, without any sign of reason, thinking. This is confirmed by observations showing that under changed conditions instinctive actions often turn from very expedient into biologically meaningless and even harmful. For example, beavers even try to build dams in zoos, although there is no need for this. A bee fills a honeycomb cell with honey, even if a hole is made there, through which the honey will flow out, and then seal the empty cell. If, during her absence, the eggs are shifted somewhat aside from the nest of the auk, replacing them with rounded stones, she, having returned, sits down in her former place and continues to incubate the stones, not at all caring about the eggs that lie in her field of vision.
Instincts that are primarily characteristic of the behavior of lower animals are also present in higher animals and even in humans (in the form of innate unconditioned reflexes - food, defensive self-preservation instinct, procreation instinct, etc.). In human behavior, instincts are of a completely different nature, obeying consciousness, the social nature of man.
Instincts are a very rigidly fixed form of behavior. But they do not remain completely unchanged. The environment is constantly and, as a rule, slowly, gradually changing. Accordingly, very slowly, over the course of many, many generations, instinctive forms of behavior are also rebuilt, and those that have ceased to be biologically expedient at all gradually die off in the course of natural selection and cease to be inherited. For example, domestic birds (chickens, ducks, turkeys) have almost completely lost the instinct to fly, which has become completely unnecessary for them.
Animal skills. So, animals cannot successfully adapt to a changing environment, relying only on innate forms of behavior - instincts. As life becomes more complex leading value begins to acquire a new, more perfect type of behavior, allowing the animal to adapt relatively easily to changes in the environment. This type of behavior is a habit.
Skill is a way of behavior acquired in individual life and fixed as a result of exercises. The skill is based on a system of conditioned reflexes. Skills appear at a higher level of development of the animal world. This is a more perfect adaptive mechanism, since the animal gets the opportunity, in accordance with changes in the environment, to develop relatively quickly more and more conditioned reflexes. If the need for this or that conditioned reflex has passed, then it fades away.
Skill compared to instinct is not always a more complex form of behavior (in some cases, instincts are much more complex forms of behavior - remember the examples above), but more flexible, plastic and, as a result, a more perfect form of behavior.
As for the mind, thinking, they do not appear in the skills of animals. Habit is a conditioned reflex and nothing more. The dog had developed a skill - to press the lock of the cage with his paw, to unlock it to receive food. The cage was then rotated 180°. The dog did not approach the door, but to its former place (i.e., focused on the spatial position) and made senseless movements with its paw, as if pressing on the lock, which was now on the opposite side.
Intellectual behavior of animals. In the process of adaptation of animals to the environment, it often becomes necessary to solve a certain problem associated with overcoming obstacles, to find the optimal behavior in a new situation. Neither instincts nor skills make it possible to cope with this task. The animal must find a new form of behavior, which at it was not in the experience. In these cases, higher animals (primarily apes and dolphins) are capable of the so-called intellectual behavior - the simplest forms of mental activity based on establishing links between objects. Monkeys, for example, in order to get the bait, can build a tower with steps out of boxes, use sticks of various lengths and thicknesses, fill fire with water, open various locks, selecting sticks of a certain size and section for this. Experiments have shown that a chimpanzee can single out one property of a thing, abstracting (distracting) from others (for example, selecting figures based on color, abstracting from their shape and size, or according to their shape, abstracting from color and size). What is very important, the new found way of solving is immediately remembered by the animal, becomes its lasting property. It follows from this that intellectual behavior is the highest and most perfect form of behavior in the animal world, providing the most flexible adaptation of the animal to changing environmental conditions.
It should be emphasized the limited and primitive mental activity of higher animals. A monkey, for example, when building pyramids from boxes, often puts large boxes on top of small ones, sometimes tries to “glue” the box to the side wall of the room, tries to put the ladder without a stop, in the middle of the cage. From several ribbons, the monkey chooses the one for which it is possible to pull up a cup of food, but does not realize that in some cases it is necessary to pull both ends of the ribbon at once (Fig. 3).
The monkey, trained to draw water from a river to water itself on a hot summer day, moved to another raft to draw water from a tank and put out the fire that prevented it from reaching the fruit. Why didn't she draw water from the river for this purpose? The thing is that the monkey learned to water himself with water from the river, and to put out the fire with water from the tank. For her, the water in the river and the water in the tank are different things, different irritants. A person has a general idea about water and its properties. She knows that any water extinguishes fire, and acts on the basis of these general concepts.
Thus, we can only talk about the rudiments of thinking in higher animals, about their "elementary rationality" (I.P. Pavlov). According to many scientists, their mental abilities can be equated with the mental abilities of a child of 3-4 years of age.
Each person is the owner of a psychic reality: we all experience emotions, see surrounding objects, smell smells - all these phenomena belong to our psyche, and not to external reality. Psychic reality is given to us directly. What is the psyche for? In order to combine and interpret information about the world, to relate it to our needs and to regulate behavior in the process of adaptation - adaptation to reality.
The main function of the psyche is the regulation of individual behavior based on the reflection of external reality and its correlation with human needs.
In order to understand the nature of the psyche in general and the specifics of the human psyche, it is necessary to find an objective criterion of the psyche (externally observed, recorded).
Panpsychism is the attribution of the soul to all nature, incl. inanimate.
Biopsychism - all living things, including plants, have a psyche.
Anthropopsychism is only a human psyche, and animals, like plants, are living automata.
Neuropsychism - the psyche only in creatures with a nervous system.
The psyche was attributed not because the creature exhibited certain properties of behavior, but because it belonged to a certain class.
A.N. Leontiev. An objective external criterion is the ability of living organisms to respond to biologically neutral influences. They are associated with biologically significant objects and are their potential signals.
The psyche has an adaptive, adaptive and regulatory character - it arises as a tool for adaptation and regulation. It is necessary to adapt a particular subject to specific circumstances. Due to adaptation, sensations stop, in order to perceive movement is required (earrings in the ears - shake your head, stimulation will change, new receptors are excited, a sensation arises).
Properties:
Activity - if motor reactions end - mental display ends.
Subjectivity - a mental image is built in connection with the actual tasks of the subject. Leontiev - belongs specifically to the subject.
Historicity is psychic. the image bears the imprint of the history of its creation, mental processes as a whole develop in the process of life and learning. There is not a single system of the psyche that would arise immediately, would not undergo development. Example: after eye surgery (cataract), a long learning process is required to relate tactile impressions to visual impressions.
Adequacy - the mental image is designed to regulate behavior in reality, the image must reflect this reality to some extent (if you try to go through the wall, the image will not allow me, reality will stop me). There is never a question of complete compliance, but there is a fundamental correspondence.
Psychic reflection is not mirror, not passive, it is associated with a search, a choice, which is a necessary side of human activity.
Mental reflection is characterized by a number of features:
it makes it possible to correctly reflect the surrounding Activities;
is performed in the process of active Activity;
deepens and improves;
refracted through individuality;
has a leading character;
mental reflection ensures the expediency of behavior and activity. At the same time, the mental image itself is formed in the process of objective Activity.
5. Theory of consciousness and the unconscious. Psychology of consciousness, structure and functions. The problem of the unconscious in domestic and foreign psychology.
The highest level of the psyche, characteristic of man, forms consciousness. Consciousness can also be represented as an internal model of the external environment and a person's own world in their stable properties and dynamic relationships. This model helps a person to act effectively in real life. Consciousness is the result of learning, communication and labor activity of a person in social environment. In this sense, consciousness is "public product" Consciousness It is primarily a body of knowledge. “The way in which consciousness exists and how something exists for it is knowledge” (K. Marx). Therefore, the structure of consciousness includes cognitive processes: sensation, perception, memory, thinking, imagination. Violation, disorder, not to mention the complete disintegration of any of these cognitive mental processes, inevitably becomes a disorder of consciousness. The second characteristic of consciousness is the distinction between subject and object, that is, what belongs to the “I” of a person and his “not-I”. Man is the only one among living beings who is able to realize self-knowledge, that is, to direct mental activity to the study of himself. A person can consciously evaluate his actions and himself as a whole. Animals, even higher ones, cannot separate themselves from the surrounding world. The separation of “I” from “not-I” is a difficult path that every person goes through in childhood. The third characteristic of consciousness is the goal-setting activity of a person. The functions of consciousness include the formation of goals of activity. It is this function of consciousness that provides reasonable regulation of human behavior and activity. Human consciousness provides a preliminary mental construction of a scheme of actions and the prediction of their results. Goal-setting activity is directly carried out due to the presence of a person's will. The fourth psychological characteristic is the inclusion of a certain attitude in the composition of consciousness. “My attitude to my environment is my consciousness,” – this is how K. Marx defined this characteristic of consciousness. Human consciousness includes a certain attitude towards the environment, towards other people. This is a rich world of feelings, emotions, which reflect the complex objective and subjective relationships in which each person is involved.
The importance of speech for the formation and manifestation of all these functions and properties of consciousness should be especially emphasized. Only through the mastery of speech does it become possible for a person to acquire knowledge, a system of relations, his will and ability for goal-setting activity are formed, and it becomes possible to separate the object and the subject.
Thus, all psychological characteristics of human consciousness are determined by the development of speech.
The totality of mental phenomena that are not realized by the subject is called unconscious.
The following mental phenomena are usually attributed to the unconscious: - dreams; - responses that are caused by imperceptible, but really affecting stimuli (“subsensory”, or “subceptive”, reactions); - movements that in the past were conscious, but due to frequent repetition were automated and therefore became unconscious; - some incentives for activities in which there is no awareness of the goal;
- some pathological phenomena that occur in the psyche of a sick person: delirium, hallucinations, etc.
In addition to the concept of the unconscious, the term "subconscious" is widely used - these are those ideas, desires, actions, aspirations, influences that have left consciousness, but can potentially be realized again. Freud believed that the unconscious is something that is suppressed by consciousness, something against which the human consciousness erects powerful barriers. It is impossible to equate the unconscious in the human psyche with the psyche of the animal. The unconscious is the same exclusively human manifestation as consciousness, it is determined by the social conditions of human existence. It is customary to distinguish the following structural elements of consciousness: mental processes and mental states, mental properties.
These constituent parts of consciousness are based on the temporal principle of separation.
mental process- this is a short-term mental phenomenon that has a beginning and an end: sensation, perception, memory, thinking, imagination.
The mental state occupies an intermediate position between a short-term mental process and a long-term, little-changing mental property, or personality property. Mental states are quite long, although they can change rapidly with changing conditions or as a result of adaptation (for example, such a state as mood).
concept mental state is used for conditional allocation in the psyche of an individual of a relatively static beginning, in contrast to the concept of "mental process", which emphasizes the dynamism of the psyche, and the concept of "mental property", indicating stable manifestations of the individual's psyche in the personality structure. Mental properties, or personality traits, differ from mental processes and mental states in their greater stability, constancy, although they can be formed in the process of education and re-education. These include character, temperament, abilities, personality traits. The psyche exists primarily as a process - continuous, never completely set from the beginning, constantly developing and forming, generating certain products or results: mental states, mental images, concepts, feelings, decisions, etc. (S.L. Rubinshtein). This concept reveals the unity of consciousness and activity, since the psyche of people is manifested and formed in activity.
UDC 15.0 (075.8) LBC 88.3 i 73-1 V-686
Reviewers: . Dr. Psychol. sciences, prof. (NSGTU)
V.G. Leontiev cand. psychol. Sciences, Assoc. (SSGA)
D. X. Khasanbayeva
cand. psychol. Sciences, Assoc. (Sib AGS) IV. Doronina
Arkhipova I.V., Voloshina T.V. IN - 686 Introduction to General Psychology:Tutorial.
Novosibirsk: Ed. NGPU, 2000. - 115p.
ISBN 5-85921-189-9
The textbook outlines the course of general psychology - a discipline studied by students of pedagogical universities. This basic course will allow you to get acquainted with the main achievements of psychological science. It is intended to give a theoretical understanding of the nature of the psychiatry of consciousness, the driving forces of personality development, and is also focused on gaining practical skills in understanding and purposefully influencing the psychological manifestations of a person.
Designed for university students, teachers and psychologists in the system of higher and secondary education.
Foreword................................................................................... 3
Topic 1. Introduction to psychology .............................................. 4
Topic 2. Development of the psyche and consciousness .............................. 10
Theme 3. Personality .................................................................. 20
T e m a 4. Cognitive processes .............................................. 38
Topic a5. Emotional-volitional sphere of personality......66
Topic 6. Individual psychological
personality traits ....................................................... 78
Subject?. Communication and activities .............................................. 107
Bibliographic list .............................................................. 114
UDC 15.0 (075.8) BBK 88.3 i 73 -1 V-686
ISBN 5-85921- 189 - 9
© I.V. Arkhipova, T.V. Voloshin, 2000
FOREWORD
In the conditions of socio-economic instability of society, the problem of forming an active, well-integrated personality, able to manage himself, adapt to a rapidly changing social situation, is one of the most urgent.
Psychological education plays an important role in the system of vocational training in pedagogical universities. Its effectiveness is determined not only by the level of lectures given, but also in many respects by the organization of self-educational activities of students.
In the process of training in pedagogical universities, students must not only master the system of psychological knowledge, patterns mental development, but also learn how to actively influence him, taking into account the potential of a particular person, his individual psychological characteristics, using the most appropriate, psychologically sound methods of influence. Based on this, the target settings of this tutorial are determined:
Give scientific presentation about basic psychology
human manifestations;
Familiarize yourself with the methods of studying mental pro
processes, personality traits and interpersonal relationships;
To teach how to apply the acquired knowledge in character
teristics and understanding of another person, as well as in the
lyah self-knowledge.
This textbook will help students of pedagogical universities to study the main sections of the course "General Psychology". It contains a thesis presentation of theoretical material, literature sources are presented, and questions for self-preparation are given.
Topic I INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
1. Definition of psychology as a science.
2. Brief history of the development of psychology.
3. The structure of modern psychology.
4. Basic methods of psychology.
Psychology is the science of the laws of development and functioning of the psyche as a special form of life (from the Greek psyche - soul, logos - teaching).
She owes her name and first definition to Greek mythology, according to which the celestial Eros, the son of Aphrodite, fell in love with the earthly woman Psyche. Mother made every effort to separate the lovers, forced Psyche to pass various tests. For such a strong love, the desire to be with her beloved, no matter what, Zeus rewarded Psyche with immortality. Therefore, Psyche - a mortal who has gained immortality - has become a symbol of the soul seeking its ideal.
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in his treatise "On the Soul" singled out psychology as a kind of field of knowledge. IN scientific language the term "psychology" was introduced in his writings by the German philosopher H. Wolf.
The subject of psychology is the psyche. The psyche is a systemic property of highly organized matter, which consists in the active reflection of the surrounding world by the subject. Highly organized matter refers to the work of the brain.
The psyche can also be defined as the basis for organizing interaction with the environment, including
teasing: getting information; information processing; data storage; organizing a response.
The tasks of psychology are directly related to the subject of study of this science. The main tasks of modern psychology include the following: the study of the mechanisms and patterns of the functioning of the psyche; the formation of the mental characteristics of the human personality as a conscious subject of activity.
In the development of psychology, two main stages can be distinguished: pre-scientific and scientific.
The first ideas about human nature characterize rituals. For example, the burial ritual, which took into account the fact that after the death of a person, his soul needs certain "comfort". In ancient China, human skulls were found with a hole in the back of the head, necessary "for the release of the spirit."
Ancient people explained their fate and the events taking place with them by the intervention of the gods, which was expressed in pagan culture.
In ancient philosophy, in addition to the "extraneous" influence (deity), the existence of an internal substance was assumed - the soul, which influences human behavior. Aristotle put forward the idea that the soul is a function of the body, an engine that allows a living being to exist, to realize itself. His treatise "On the Soul" is considered the first psychological work. Some psychological aspects were also considered in the philosophical teachings of Plato, Democritus, Lucretius and others.
Thus, the first stage in the development of psychology is philosophical. Psychology was defined as the science of the soul. This understanding of psychology was given more than two thousand years ago. It was the presence of the soul that philosophers of antiquity tried to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena in human life.
In the 17th century, various natural sciences began to separate from philosophy, which made it possible to move on to the study of conscious activity, which is a real indicator of the psyche, and not conjectural. The theories put forward began to be subjected to experiment. In 1879, an event occurred in Germany (Leipzig University) that served as the beginning of the development of psychology as a science. W. Wundt created the first psychological laboratory. In it, researchers tried to study the structure of consciousness, to find out its simplest components (sensations, images, feelings). The main method of study was introspection (self-observation).
So, the 2nd stage in the development of psychology begins in the 17th century in connection with the development of the natural sciences. The subject of the study of psychology was consciousness, which in this period was understood as the ability to think, feel, desire.
The beginning of the 20th century was a new, third stage of its development for psychology. The subject of psychology research at that time was behavior, and the main task was experimental observation of human behavior, actions, and reactions. This approach to the study of man was called behaviorism (behavioral). The main drawback of this scientific direction was that the motives were not taken into account.
(motives) that cause actions and behavior of a person as a whole.
In the second half of the 20th century, psychology entered a new round of its development. The 4th, modern, stage in the development of psychological science began. Psychology has become a science that studies all objective patterns, manifestations and mechanisms of the psyche (both consciousness, and behavior, and motives, and the unconscious environment, etc.). At present, psychology is developed both in scientific and in practical terms research area. More fundamental (basic) are such industries as general, social, age psychology. Specific, special psychological areas include: management psychology, pedagogical, medical, legal, sports, engineering, etc. All psychological branches, both basic and special, are interconnected.
In psychology, there are methods by which essential facts, patterns and mechanisms of the psyche are revealed.
The main methods of psychology are:
1, Surveillance- one of the main methods, consisting in a deliberate, systematic and purposeful perception of mental phenomena in order to study their specific changes under certain conditions. There are the following types of observation:
External and self-observation;
Free and standardized (hard plan);
Included and not included (from the side).
2.Poll - a method in which a person answers a series of questions asked of him. Distinguish:
Written survey (questionnaire);
Oral survey (conversation, interview).
Z. Tests - a method in which an accurate quantitative or qualitative characteristic of the phenomenon under study is obtained. Distinguish:
Test - questionnaire;
Test - task;
Projective test.
4. Experiment- a method that allows targeted
but to create situations in which the studied properties
are distinguished, manifested and appreciated in the best way.
Experiments are laboratory and natural, in
depending on the conditions under which it is being studied.
a different phenomenon.
5. Modeling- creation of an artificial model
the phenomenon being studied when direct study is not available
or difficult. The model should repeat the main
parameters and expected properties of the studied pre
meta or phenomena. Modeling is mathematical
kim, logical, technical, cybernetic.
Questions For self-study
1.
Definition of psychology. Main views on
the subject of psychology.
2.
The practical significance of psychology in life
human ness.
3. Psychology on present stage, her relationship with others
sciences.
4. Traditional and non-traditional methods of psychology
logical research.
Vygotsky L.S. Collected Works.: In 6 volumes - M., 1983. Godefroy J. What is psychology. -M., 1992. -T.1. James W. Psychology. - M., 1991. Lange N.N. Psychic world. - M., 1996. Nemov R.S. Psychology. - M., 1995.- T. 1. Psychology: Dictionary. - M., 1990. Rubinshtein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology: V 2 t - M 1989.
Stolyarenko L.D. Fundamentals of psychology. - Rostov-on-Don, 1997.
Yaroshevsky M.G. History of psychology. - M, 1985.
Topic 2. DEVELOPMENT OF PSYCHE AND CONSCIOUSNESS
1. Brain and consciousness
2. The development of the psyche in the animal world.
3. The origin of consciousness in human society.
4. Consciousness and self-consciousness as the highest form of psi
chemical reflection.
According to the reflection theory, mental activity is a function of the brain. The psyche is a systemic quality that manifests itself in an ideal (objective) reflection of the surrounding world. Based on this understanding of the psyche, two functions of the psyche are distinguished - reflective and regulatory. One can speak of psychic reflection when the world surrounding a person appears before him as a world perceived by him. Mental regulation is the establishment of relations between the bearer of the psyche and the surrounding reality, which acts in the form of a response to a reflected stimulus.
| Yu |
Domestic physiologist I.M. Sechenov explained the functioning of the psyche by the reflex activity of the brain, drawing a conclusion about the reflex nature of the psyche as a whole. He believed that the basis of the work of the brain (i.e., the psyche) is a reflex (lat. "reflection"), which is a naturally occurring response of the body to stimuli coming from the external environment and internal organs. "All the facts of conscious and unconscious life, according to the way of origin, are reflexes" (I.M. Sechenov). Thus, mental activity is the result of the transformation of signals from external
her and internal environment taking place in the brain.
Domestic psychologist A.R. Luria, based on his research, proposed a theory of vertical regulation of the brain, which explains the features of the functioning of the psyche. He singled out three blocks of the brain. The first of these is called an energy block, or tone block. It is located deep in the brain, within the upper sections of the brain stem, and also covers such sections as the midbrain, hindbrain, hypothalamus, thalamus, and the reticular formation. The processes occurring in the nerve cells of this block provide excitation flows, which leads to a state of wakefulness of the body. If the influx of excitatory impulses disappears, the person falls into a half-asleep state, and then into sleep. So, the first block provides energy supply to the brain and the body as a whole.
The second block of the human brain is located in the posterior regions hemispheres(occipital region, parietal and temporal regions). This is a block for receiving, processing and storing information that reaches a person from the outside world. Different parts of the brain perform certain functions here. The occipital region is responsible for visual work, the parietal region is responsible for tactile-motor activity, and the temporal region is responsible for hearing-bular activity.
The third block of the brain is located in its anterior sections, includes the frontal lobes. This is a block of programming, regulation and control of human activity. The work of this block enables a person to form and maintain his intentions, create
action programs, monitor and regulate their progress, and monitor their implementation.
For the first time, the role of the frontal lobes was noted by scientists after the incident with the senior foreman of the brigade of road builders Fenias Gage. He received a head injury from a crowbar that went through his left cheek and exited near the crown of the head. The frontal lobes were damaged. For an hour, Gage was in a stunned state, after which he was taken to the surgeon, where he was treated. After recovering from his injury, Gage lived for another 12 years. All this time he remained a capable person. However, he experienced personality changes. Before the accident, he was a tactful, balanced person, after him he became unrestrained, rude, stubborn and indecisive. In this regard, most researchers believe that the most visible consequences of damage to the frontal lobes is a change in personality.
The functional organization of the human brain differs in some features. We are talking about the fact that the right and left hemispheres of a person perform different functions. This was revealed in 1960. in the laboratory of Roger Sperry, in which an operation called "brain splitting" was carried out, which consists in separating the fibers of the corpus callosum that connects the two hemispheres. As a result, the so-called functional asymmetry of the brain was discovered, which makes it possible to find out what functions the left and right hemispheres perform separately.
In laboratory clinical conditions, experiments were carried out in which patients for one half
electrodes were applied to the head, which led to the inhibition of the brain activity of one of the hemispheres. As a result, man existed with only one awake hemisphere. Thus, researchers have the opportunity to understand what mental functions each hemisphere is responsible for. The main functions of the left hemisphere of the brain are speech, reading, counting. The functions of the right hemisphere are operating with images, orientation in space, distinguishing musical tones, melodies and recognizing complex objects (human faces), producing dreams.
Thus, the left hemisphere of the brain is the base of logical thinking, and the right hemisphere is the base of figurative, intuitive thinking. Most people show hemispheric dominance, when the activity of one of the hemispheres is leading and determines the thinking and behavior of a person. The level of manifestation of hemispheric dominance can be different - from hidden to explicit. Significant differences are observed in the functional organization of the human and animal brains. While in humans one of the hemispheres is dominant, in animals both hemispheres are equal.
In order to understand the specifics of the human psyche, it is necessary to answer the following questions: when and why did the psyche arise in the course of biological evolution? How did the psyche develop and become more complex?
In the history of natural science, there have been various attempts to explain the emergence of the psyche in nature. Among them can be called the theory of "panpsychism", according to
but with which all nature is endowed with a soul, including inanimate (for example, stones). The theory of "biopsychism" attributed a psyche to all living things, including plants. On the contrary, the theory of "anthropopsychism" greatly narrowed the circle of owners of the psyche. According to her, the psyche exists. only in humans, and animals, like plants, are "only living automata." The theory of "neuropsychism" referred the psyche only to beings with a nervous system. All of these points of view are rather debatable hypotheses than well-developed theories.
However, among the many hypotheses, there is one that has received the greatest development and recognition. This is the hypothesis of A.N. Leontiev on the origin of the psyche. According to it, the criterion for the appearance of the psyche in living organisms is the presence of sensitivity - the ability to respond to vitally insignificant environmental stimuli (sound, smell, etc.), which signal vital stimuli (food, danger, etc.). The criterion of sensitivity is the ability to form conditioned reflexes. Based on the fact that this ability is observed in almost all animals and is absent in plants, A.N. Leontiev speaks of the presence of the psyche precisely in the animal world.
During the experimental verification of his hypothesis, A.N. Leontiev came to the conclusion that the development of the psyche in animals goes through a number of stages (Fig. 1).
First the stage of development of the psyche in the animal world is called sensory or the stage of elementary sensitivity. At this stage, animals react only to individual properties of objects in the external world, and their
Instinyus - congenital forms
Skills are forms of behavior,
purchased individually
animal experience
Intelligent Behavior -
complex forms of behavior reflecting interdisciplinary connections
Rice. 1. The main stages in the development of the psyche and forms of behavior in the animal world
behavior is determined by innate instincts (nutrition, reproduction, self-preservation, etc.). Such animals include many protozoa (for example, ciliate shoe, green euglena, annelids, etc.).
Second the stage of development of the psyche in animals is called the stage of perceptual psyche or object perception. Representatives of this stage reflect external reality no longer in the form of individual sensations, but in the form of integral images of objects, they have the ability to learn, and demonstrate individually acquired behavioral skills. At this stage are such animals as vertebrates, arthropods.
Third the stage was designated by A.N. Leontiev as the stage of intellect. This stage is characterized by the ability of animals to reflect interdisciplinary connections, the situation as a whole. As a result, such animals are able, for example, to bypass obstacles, find ways to solve problems that require preliminary preparatory actions. The actions of many predators are of an intellectual nature, but in particular - great apes and dolphins. And yet the intellectual behavior of animals does not come out
outside the framework of biological need, acts only within the visual situation.
Thus, according to A.N. Leontiev, the psyche arises and develops in animals precisely because otherwise they could not orient themselves in the environment and
exist.
The human psyche is a higher level than the psyche of animals (Homo sapiens is a reasonable person). Features of the human psyche arose in the process of anthropogenesis and the cultural history of mankind and were directly related to the transition of man from the biological to the social (social) path of development. The main event in the course of this process was the emergence of consciousness. The leading factors in the emergence of consciousness were labor and language. This provision received the greatest concrete psychological development in the works of such domestic psychologists as L.S. Vygotsky, S.Ya. Rubinshtein, A.N. Leontiev and others.
AN Leontiev owns the hypothesis of the origin of consciousness. According to the definition, consciousness is such a reflection of objective reality, in which its "objective stable properties are distinguished, regardless of the relationship of the subject to it." This definition emphasizes the idea that in humans, unlike animals, with the advent of consciousness, the world begins to be reflected independently of biological motives. How did this become possible? According to A.N. Leontiev, the emergence of a new form of activity - collective labor - served as an impetus for the emergence of consciousness. In the course of joint labor activities,
The first elements of human speech appeared. Perhaps the first words indicated certain actions, tools, objects, these were also "orders" addressed to a partner in joint actions. The results of cognition began to be fixed in words. A unique feature of the human language is its ability to accumulate knowledge acquired by generations of people. Thanks to her, the language became the bearer of social consciousness. Each person in the course of individual development through the acquisition of language is attached to "joint knowledge" and thanks to this, his own consciousness is formed.
Thus, according to A.N. Leontiev, a person’s mastery of the semantic meanings of a language, along with collective labor, played a major role in the formation of human consciousness.
L.S. Vygotsky, exploring the mechanisms of formation of higher mental functions (thinking, consciousness, self-consciousness), noted that the development of consciousness in human society was carried out in the course of social interaction between people. L.S. Vygotsky outlined the scientific solution to the problem of the development of the human psyche in a concept that he called the cultural-historical theory of the human psyche. In this theory, he analyzes the reasons for the fundamental difference between the human psyche and animals. In his opinion, it consists in the fact that man has learned to master nature with the help of tools. This left a significant imprint on the development of the human psyche: he learned to master his own mental functions, to control himself. For this, he also used tools, but special, psi-
chological. Such tools are signs or symbolic means that have a cultural origin. The most typical sign system is human speech. Thus, considering the problem of the formation of consciousness in human society, L.S. Vygotsky notes that the decisive role belongs to the word.
So, consciousness is a feature of the human psyche, associated with the cognitive activity of the hand as an organ of labor, and speech, which develops on the basis of labor. It is activity and communication that determine the structure of consciousness. In psychological terms, consciousness acts primarily as a process of awareness by a person of the world around him and himself. Consciousness and self-consciousness are inherent only in man, but far from being in every state: it is absent in a newborn, in some categories of the mentally ill, and, as a rule, in sleeping people. Consciousness and self-consciousness are an active, active, transformative force that gives a person the ability to arbitrarily control his behavior. With the help of consciousness, a person not only passively reflects the surrounding reality, but also changes the world.
Questions for self-study
1. The adaptive role of the psyche in the evolution of animals.
2. The main features of the psyche of animals.
3. Hypotheses about the origin of consciousness.
4. Qualitative features of the human psyche.
5. The main characteristics of the phenomenon of "consciousness".
Vygotsky L.S. Collected works.: In 6 volumes. -M., 1983.
Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology. -M 1996.
Leontiev A.N. Selected psychological works 2 vol. - M., 1983.
Luria A.R. The human brain and mental processes: In 2 vol.-M, 1970.
Nemov R.S. Psychology.- M., 1995.- Vol. 1.
Petrovsky A.V. Introduction to psychology. - M, 1995.
Petrovsky A.V., Yaroshevsky M.G. History of psychology. - M, 1994.
Psychology: Dictionary / Under the general editorship. A.V. Petrovsky. -M., 1990.
Rubinshtein S.L. Problems of general psychology. M, 1973.
Sechenov I.M. Selected philosophical and psychological works. - M., 1947.
Slobodchikov V.I., Isaev E.I. Fundamentals of psychological anthropology. Human psychology. Introduction to the psychology of subjectivity: Textbook for universities. -M.: School-Press, 1995.
Topic 3 PERSONALITY
1. General concept about personality.
2. Basic theories of personality development.
3. Formation of personality in the process of socialization.
4. Self-esteem and its role for the formation of self-awareness
personality. Claim level.
The category "personality" is the object of a comprehensive study of psychological science. The reality that is defined by the term "personality" is already manifested in the etymology of this word. Word personality(translated from English "persona") originally referred to the actor's masks, which were worn during stage performances. So, in the Roman theater, the actor's mask was called a "mask" - a face facing the audience. Then this word began to denote the actor himself and his role. Among the Romans, the word "persona" was necessarily used with an indication of a certain social function, role (personality of the father, personality of the king, judge, etc.). Consequently, personality in its original meaning is a certain social role or function of a person.
Modern psychological science considers personality in a slightly different way. So, in domestic psychology, this term means: 1) a person as a subject of relations and conscious activity; 2) a stable system of socially significant features that characterize an individual as a person of a particular society or community. In other words, a person is a person taken in the system of such psychological characteristics that
which are socially conditioned, are manifested in social connections and relations by nature, are stable, determine the moral actions of a person that are of significant importance for himself and those around him.
The concept of "personality" is used both in a broad and narrow sense. In a broad sense, the concept of "personality" represents a socio-systemic quality that is formed only in the process of activity and communication. Personality as a system of socially conditioned qualities appears only with the emergence of consciousness and self-awareness. In a narrow, specific sense, a person is a person, as noted by S.L. Rubinshtein, who has his own position, independence of thinking, non-banality of feelings, willpower, inner passion. Therefore, a person in whom a personality is felt is rarely treated indifferently by others.
In psychology, along with the concept of "personality", the terms "man", "individual", "individuality" are used. In terms of content, they are closely intertwined. Therefore, the analysis of each of these concepts, their correlation with the concept of "personality" allows us to more fully reveal the latter.
Man is a generic concept that indicates the belonging of a creature to the human race, homo sapiens.
An individual is a single representative of the species Homo sapiens. Every person is an individual from the moment of birth.
Individuality is the unity of the unique personal properties of a particular person. This is the most
A holistic understanding of personality is impossible without studying its structure. Currently, various concepts of the psychological structure of personality are considered in the psychological literature. K.K. Platonov offers a model of personality structure, which consists of four blocks:
^ orientation of the individual (beliefs, worldviews, ideals, inclinations, interests, desires, motives, etc.);
2) social experience (habits, knowledge, abilities, skills);
3) psychological processes (sensations, perception,
memory, thinking, imagination, attention, will, feeling
feelings, emotions, etc.);
4) biological properties (gender, age, type of higher
nervous activity, temperament).
According to S.L. Rubinshtein, the personality structure includes the following substructures:
Orientation (what a person aspires to);
Abilities (what a person can do);
Temperament and character (what it is);
Self-consciousness as an internal regulation of behavior.
Thus, the study of the psychological appearance of a person includes three main areas: a) what he (a) wants (interests, needs, desires, etc.); b) what he (a) can (abilities); c) what he (a) is (character).
The psychological structure of personality is internally contradictory. Personal development is an interweaving of biological and social principles in the behavior
man's denia. A person is born as an individual, has characteristics determined by nature - the genotype. A person becomes a personality only as a subject of social relations. The essence of a person as a personality is manifested not in its uniqueness, but in its social quality.
The study of personality is one of the most difficult problems in psychological science. What forms a personality, why do individual differences exist, how does personality develop and what are the reasons for its changes throughout a person's life? The authors of various approaches and theories of personality are trying to find answers to these and other questions. These include: depth psychology, behavioral theory, Gestalt psychological, humanistic, transpersonal, etc.
Proponents of depth psychology put forward the idea that the human psyche cannot be reduced to consciousness and tried to explore the unconscious part of the psyche. Depth classical psychology includes theories such as the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, the individual psychology of Alfred Adler, and the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung.
The main provisions of the theory of depth psychologists are as follows:
* The leading role in human behavior belongs to the unconscious sphere of the psyche. The unconscious sphere of the psyche contains innate instincts. According to Freud, there are two such instincts: sexual ("eros", or libido) and aggression, the desire for destruction. According to Adler, the basic human instinct is the desire for superiority, perfection, overcoming inferiority.
In addition to instincts, the content of the unconscious includes desires that are forced out of consciousness due to their cultural unacceptability or emotional trauma, undesirability for a person. The unconscious part of the human psyche is energetically charged. Instincts and desires, banished from consciousness, seek satisfaction. Their energy is the driving force behind human behavior.
The desire of the unconscious is contrary to social
nym and cultural norms. So, 3. Freud believed that
human instincts are inherently antisocial,
base and selfish. social, moral,
cultural norms that a person has learned in the process
upbringing, are a deterrent to pro
phenomena of unconscious desires and instincts.
The psychological development of a person is carried out
through establishing a balance between instincts and
cultural norms. In other words, in the process
development of the inner "I" (ego) of a person is forced to
yanno to seek a compromise between the bursting out energy
gy of the unconscious and what is allowed by the general
property. This leads to mental, psychological
balance.
Possibility of establishing mental balance
this is achieved through the action of protective fur
nisms of the psyche. Thus, psychological protection
it is a mechanism aimed at pre
prevention of behavioral disorders within the conf
between the conscious and the unconscious.
Consider some of the psychological defense mechanisms:
- forgetting How psychological mechanism protection
Prevents traumatic thoughts from entering
knowledge;
- negation - information that worries
can lead to intrapersonal conflict, not reproduced
accepted, resulting in a distortion
perception of reality;
- crowding out - is an active switch
chenie from the consciousness of unpleasant information;
- projection - transfer, attribution of own
feelings, desires, in which a person does not want to be consciously
vatsya, to another person. For example, if a person himself
aggressive, he considers others as such;
- identification- the transfer of feelings or qualities to oneself,
inherent in another person, but inaccessible, although
nouns for themselves;
- rationalization - a pseudo-reasonable explanation by a person of his desires, actions, in fact caused by reasons, the recognition of which would threaten the loss of self-respect. For example, not having reached the desired goal, a person convinces himself that it is not very significant for him;
- catharsis(inclusion) - if a person observes and
experiencing the dramatic situations of other people, more
more painful and traumatic than those that disturb
reaps his own, he begins to look at his troubles
to another. Thus, empathizing, helping others,
a person thereby strengthens his psyche;
- substitution- translation of real activity into the world of fan
tasia, the transfer of action aimed at the inaccessible
object, to act on the available object. For example,
Introduction
The development of the psyche and the emergence of consciousness
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
Man is the highest stage of life on Earth. He is endowed with consciousness as the highest form of mental reflection.
For many centuries, people have argued whether man is fundamentally different from all other representatives of the animal world or is he the product of billions of years of evolution? There is still no single answer to this question.
Most modern scientists accept Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory of the origin of species and believe that man originated, separated from animals.
In psychology, this problem is considered in the aspect of the emergence and development of the psyche in phylogeny. The term "phylogenesis" comes from the Greek. phyle (genus, tribe) and genesis (origin) and means a gradual change in various forms of the organic world in the process of evolution, and in relation to the psyche - its study as a product of evolution.
The development of the psyche and the emergence of consciousness
The emergence of the psyche
With the advent of living matter, the nature of the interaction of the organism with the environment has changed. Interaction in the form of metabolism has become a necessary condition for the preservation of life. In the process of evolution, living organisms have developed the ability to isolate the necessary substances from the environment and react to them, which made the body active in the process of metabolism. Activity is manifested in a special property of living organisms - irritability. Irritability is a prepsychic form of reflection of the external environment, manifested in response to substances necessary to maintain the existence of the organism.
The conditions of life at the stage of prepsychic reflection are such that the organism does not need a special orienting search activity, and, consequently, no need for a special organ that provides orientation. He has developed the ability to reflect only a narrow circle of external influences - those on which his existence depends. Such influences are called biotic. The response also occurs only to biotic stimuli. Prepsychic reflection takes place in plants and some elementary forms of life intermediate between the plant and animal worlds.
At the stage of prepsychic life, organisms are only capable of a specific type of movement, which are called tropisms. Tropisms- these are movements in a certain direction under the influence of biologically significant stimuli. Examples of tropisms are: the movement of plants towards the sun (phytotropism); movement of roots deep into the soil, where there is moisture and substances necessary for life (geotropism); movement towards warmth (thermotropism). Tropisms can be positive - movements towards the conditions necessary for life, or negative - movements away from conditions harmful to the body.
Organisms with irritability live in a strictly defined environment, where there are all the conditions necessary for life. But in the environment there are constantly changes that violate the established ways of interaction between the organism and the environment. If a particular species begins to lack the conditions necessary for metabolism, it will either die out or change the form of interaction with the environment. The evolution of the psyche and behavior is a series of such changes.
The complication of living conditions (exit from the aquatic environment to land, lack of food resources, etc.) required the improvement of forms of adaptive behavior, the expansion of reflective functions and the transition from elementary tropisms to more complex behavioral acts that could provide search essential conditions for life. Organisms begin to respond not only to biotic stimuli, but also to those that in themselves are indifferent, abiotic, but can signal the appearance of biologically significant agents. They perform signaling and orienting functions in the life of organisms. The new form of reflection is called sensitivity. Living organisms acquired the ability to sense as a reflection of various environmental influences in their objective properties and relationships with other things. Thus, a new property of organic matter arose - mental reflection characteristic of the animal form of life. arose psyche as a special property, which consists in the active reflection of objective reality and self-regulation on this basis of one's behavior. The world of objects that the organism turned out to be able to perceive expanded significantly, which increased the adequacy of its orientation in the environment. A new type of behavior also arises - an active search for a biologically significant object, which is signaled by an abiotic stimulus. Gradually, living organisms acquire the ability to consolidate connections between neutral and significant influences, and subsequently to change them and form new connections.
The appearance of sensitivity determined a higher, qualitatively new level of reflection of objective reality and acts as an objective criterion for the emergence of the psyche. The variety of external conditions of life, their constant change became the reason for the further development of the psyche, the emergence of its new, more advanced forms.
Stages of development of the psyche
There are three main stages in the development of the psyche in animals - the elementary sensory psyche and intelligence according to the following criteria: the form of mental reflection, the leading type of behavior and the structure of the nervous system.
Stage of elementary sensory psyche. The mental reflection of animals at this stage has the form of sensitivity only to individual properties of the environment, i.e. form of elemental sensations. Accordingly, the behavior of animals corresponds to one or another individual property.
Taking into account the evolution within the stage, the lower and higher levels are distinguished in it. At the lowest level, there are organisms that stand on the verge of the plant and animal world, for example, flagellates. Representatives of the lower level are also sponges, protozoa, coelenterates, lower worms. At the highest level there is a large number of multicellular invertebrates and some species of vertebrates. They are characterized by a rather complex structure of the nervous system, a complex and highly differentiated organization of the motor apparatus. Their forms of behavior are more complex and varied. However, they also reflect the individual properties of the environment, rather than holistic things.
In the process of evolutionary development of animals at the stage of elementary sensory psyche, many of them developed a rather complex form of behavior - instinct. Instinct- this is behavior that corresponds to hereditarily programmed, stereotyped forms of actions through which an animal adapts to environmental conditions without special training.
Stage of perceptual psyche characterized by the ability to reflect external reality no longer in the form of individual elementary sensations caused by individual properties of the environment, but in the form of a reflection of a set of qualities, things. At this stage, the lowest and highest levels are also distinguished. Most of the currently existing vertebrates are at different levels of the stage of the perceptual psyche. At the highest level are all mammals.
In animals at the stage of the perceptual psyche, more complex type plastic individual behavior, the mechanism of which is the analysis and synthesis of environmental conditions, carried out on the basis of a more developed form of mental reflection. The material substrate of a new form of reflection and a new type of behavior was the complication of the structure and functions of the central nervous system and, above all, the development of the cerebral cortex. Significant changes also occurred in the development of the sense organs, primarily vision. At the same time, the organs of movement also developed.
At the stage of the perceptual psyche, the animal also retains instinctive behavior, but it becomes much more plastic and adapts to the specific conditions of the individual's life.
stage of intellect. At this stage there is a small number of species of the most highly organized mammals - anthropoid apes. The distinctive ability of animal intelligence lies in the fact that, in addition to reflecting individual things, they have a reflection of holistic situations and relationships between objects. In the behavior of animals, an even more complex form arises - problem solving.
The complication of the forms of mental reflection and the behavior of animals at the stage of intellect is interconnected with the complication of the structure of the brain, the development of cortical structures. The most radical anatomical and physiological transformations took place in the frontal lobes of the brain, which regulate intellectual behavior.
The stage of intelligence of great apes represents the upper limit of the development of the psyche of animals. Then a qualitatively new stage in the history of the development of the psyche begins - a complex and lengthy process of the historical and evolutionary development of Homo sapiens, or "House of Reason".
Human consciousness arose and developed during the social period of its existence, and the history of the formation of consciousness does not go beyond the limits of those several tens of thousands of years that we attribute to the history of human society. The main condition for the emergence and development of human consciousness is joint productive speech-mediated instrumental activity of people. This is an activity that requires cooperation, communication and interaction of people with each other. It involves the creation of a product that is recognized by all participants in joint activities as the goal of their cooperation.
Of particular importance for the development of human consciousness is the productive, creative nature of human activity. Consciousness involves a person's awareness of not only the external world, but also himself, his sensations, images, ideas and feelings.
10 Types and structure of reflection
20 The development of the psyche in the animal world and the formation of human consciousness
30 Basic functions of the psyche
40 Form of manifestation of the human psyche
Types and structure of reflection
Psyche- this is a property of living highly organized matter, which consists in the ability to reflect the surrounding objective world, its connections and relations with its states.
Psychic reflection- this is an active reflection of the world in connection with some kind of necessity, need. It is also a subjective selective reflection of the objective world.
Mechanisms of manifestation of the psyche
10 Psyche is a property of only highly organized living matter.
20 main feature psyche - the ability to reflect the objective world.
30 Living matter with a psyche is able to respond to changes in the external environment or to the impact of environmental objects.
Irritability- the simplest form of biological reflection, it is possessed by all animal organisms at all stages of the evolution of plant and animal forms. External irritability is expressed in the manifestation of the forced activity of a living organism. The higher the level of development of the organism, the more complex the manifestation of its activity in the event of a change in environmental conditions. Taxis(in plants) - the very first level of irritability.
A more complex form of response - sensitivity- as a rudimentary form of mental reflection, it arises in the course of the development of simple irritability inherent in any viable body. This is the ability to respond to neutral, biologically insignificant stimuli, provided that they signal the appearance of vital events (impacts).
Behavior is a complex set of reactions of a living organism to the influence of the external environment.
The development of the psyche in the animal world and the formation of human consciousness
| Stage | neoplasm | Examples | |
| Elementary sensitivity (sensory psyche) | Simple unconditioned reflexes | The simplest multicellular; annelids, snails, some invertebrates | |
| Stage of object perception (perceptual psyche) | Complex unconditioned reflexes (instincts) | Fish and other vertebrates (defensive behavior develops); birds and some mammals (learning ability, instinct- a set of innate elements of behavior, imprinting- a specific form of learning in higher vertebrates, in which features objects of some innate behavioral acts of parental individuals as carriers of a species trait, deep attachment to a moving object after birth) | |
| Stage of intellect (intellectual psyche) | Skill- a complex individual dynamic program of behavior that is formed in the body in the course of its relationship with the outside world | Monkeys, other higher vertebrates (dogs, dolphins, etc.) | |
| Stage of Consciousness | The highest stage of development of the psyche | Man (speech appears, the ability to arbitrarily regulate mental processes, knowledge of the general and essential in reality, abstract thinking) | |
Basic functions of the psyche
The psyche performs a number of important functions:
10 Reflection of the influences of the surrounding reality. The psyche is a property of the brain, its specific function. The function has the character of reflection. Reflection is a process that is constantly developing, improving, creating and overcoming its contradictions. In the mental reflection of objective reality, any external influence is always refracted through the previously established features of the psyche and specific states of a person. The same impact can be reflected differently by different people and even by the same person. Psychic reflection- correct, true reflection of reality.
20 Regulation of behavior and activities. The psyche and consciousness of a person, on the one hand, reflect the impact of the external environment and adapt to it, and on the other hand, regulate this process; constitute the internal content of activity and behavior.
30 Man's awareness of his place in the world around him. This function of the psyche ensures the correct adaptation and orientation of a person in the objective world, guaranteeing him the correct understanding of all the realities of this world and an adequate attitude towards them. In addition, it creates a person as a person endowed with individual and socio-psychological characteristics as a representative of a particular society, different from other people.
Forms of manifestation of the human psyche
| personality property- the most stable and constantly manifesting personality traits that provide certain qualitative and quantitative levels of behavior; activities typical of the person | mental processes- mental phenomena that provide primary reflections and human awareness of the impact of the environment. They have a clear beginning, a definite course and a pronounced end, manifested in the form of a reaction. | ||||||||||||
| Expression of feelings | Orientation | Cognitive (sensations, perception, thinking, speech, memory, attention, imagination) | |||||||||||
| Manifestations of attention | Temperament | Emotional-volitional (feelings, will) | |||||||||||
| Manifestations of composure | Character | ||||||||||||
| Manifestations of the imagination | Capabilities | ||||||||||||
| Sustained interest, etc. | |||||||||||||
Next lecture: personality, its structure and manifestation
Personality and its manifestation.
General ideas about personality
Contemporary theories of personality
Approaches to the study of personality in domestic psychology
Personality structure
Needs as a source of personality activity
Personal orientation
Man as a species- this is a representative of a certain biological species, which differs from other creatures in specific specific features and the level of mental, physiological development, endowed with consciousness, capable of thinking, speaking and making decisions; control your actions, emotions and feelings.
Individual- a holistic, unique representative of the genus with its psychophysiological properties.
Individuality- the originality of the psyche and personality of the individual, its uniqueness, temperament, character, EVS (emotional-volitional sphere), etc.
Personality- a certain person of a certain social group with a certain type of activity and endowed with individual psychological characteristics.
Man as a person characterized by developing self-awareness, independence in judgments and actions, focused primarily on self-knowledge; the desire to go beyond their capabilities, role prescriptions, expand the scope of activities.
Personal orientation is a stable system of motives (needs, ideals, beliefs).
Abilities, properties and qualities.
Character - it is a set of stable individual properties of a person, which determine his typical ways of behavior and emotional response.
| Types of personality theory | |||||||||||
| Way to explain behavior | Psychodynamic (describe the personality and explain its behavior based on its psychological or subjective characteristics), sociodynamic (external situations where no significant importance is attached to the internal properties of the personality), interactionist (internal and external factors) | ||||||||||
| Personality angle | Structural (the main problem is to clarify the structure of the personality and the system of concepts with which the personality should be described), dynamic (personality development) | ||||||||||
| Method of obtaining personal data | Experimental (based on observations, experience, experimental) |
The main approaches to the study of personality in foreign psychology
sociokinetic approach - personality traits are explained based on the structure of society, ways of socialization, relationships with other people: socialization theory (according to this theory, a person becomes a person due to his development in society), learning theory (according to it, personality is the result of learning, mastering knowledge and skills), role theory (according to it, society offers each person a set of stable ways of human behavior: a status that leaves an imprint on the nature of the behavior of the individual, her relationship with other people).
Biokinetic approach - the main role is assigned to the biological maturation of the organism.
Psychogenetic approach - does not deny either biology or the environment, but in the foreground the development of one's own mental processes: orientations (psychodynamic - explains the behavior of the individual through emotions, hobbies and other irrational components of the psyche, cognitivist - prefers the development of the intellectual and cognitive sphere of the personality, personological - focuses on the development of the personality as a whole).
Eat, drink, go to the toilet, sleep, I want a scarf.
Learn, do interesting things, travel.