home Diets and weight loss Subject: psychology. Different ideas about the subject of psychology

Subject: psychology. Different ideas about the subject of psychology

The formation of the subject of psychology in European rationalism of the New Age. Subject of psychology – private projection of the psyche as a whole. Absolutization individual categories – the basis for the formation of trends and scientific schools in psychology

The formation of the subject of psychology in European rationalism of the New Age

It is necessary to fix one more feature of the relationship between everyday and scientific psychology - between them there is no genetic continuity. Pre-scientific psychology precedes scientific psychology, but the latter does not grow out of it. Scientific psychology originated in the bosom of philosophy, and researchers write about a special period in the development of psychology - philosophical psychology.

Characterizing the chronological connection between pre-scientific, philosophical and scientific psychology, S.L. Rubinstein wrote: “Psychology is both a very old and a very young science. It has a thousand-year past behind it, and yet it is all still in the future. Her existence as an independent scientific discipline is calculated only in decades; but its main problematic has occupied philosophical thought since philosophy has existed. Years of experimental research were preceded by centuries of philosophical reflection, on the one hand, and millennia of practical knowledge of human psychology, on the other.”

The symbiosis of philosophy and psychology was a necessary stage in the development of psychology, and it continued until social Sciences have not reached a certain stage of development. Philosophical psychology was characterized by the search for an explanatory principle for the mental and the desire to establish general laws of mental life.

Separation of psychology from philosophy, establishment of psychology as an independent science happened in the middle of the 19th century. The methodological prerequisite for the formation of psychology as an independent science were the ideas of European rationalism of the New Age, which had already proven their success in natural science. Rationalism is a philosophical movement that recognizes reason as the basis of human cognition and behavior.

Rationalism was based on the idea of natural order - an endless chain of cause-and-effect relationships that permeate the entire world. Rationalism considered mathematics and natural science to be the standard of scientific knowledge of the world. The knowledge acquired here met the criteria objectivity, universality and necessity.

The nascent scientific psychology also began to focus on natural scientific principles as the norm for a reasonable approach to the world. Separated from philosophy, psychology entered its history as a natural scientific discipline. Like biology, physiology, physics, chemistry and other sciences, psychology also accepted as reliability criteria knowledge objectivity, universality and necessity. This meant that human psychology began to be viewed in the logic of cause-and-effect relationships and explained by the laws of the natural world.

From natural science, psychology borrowed the experimental method, which essentially played decisive role in its design as an independent science. “Introduction of experiment into psychology,” wrote S.L. Rubinstein, not only armed her with a very powerful special method scientific research, but also generally raised the question of the methodology of psychological research in general differently, putting forward new requirements and criteria for the scientific nature of all types of experimental research in psychology.” Psychology has turned into an experimental, experimental science focused on accurate analysis mental phenomena, similar to analysis in natural science. Since that time, such categories as “soul”, “spirit”, “inner world of man”, “abilities of the soul”, “subjectivity” have been leaving psychology. The objects of psychology become “psyche”, “mental phenomena”, “mental properties”.

The subject of psychology is a particular projection of the psyche as a whole

Psychology dates back as an independent science to 1879, in which W. Wundt created experimental psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig. Two years later, the Institute of Experimental Psychology was created on the basis of this laboratory. In the same year, W. Wundt founded the first psychological journal. Many outstanding psychologists of the world studied and worked at the Institute of Psychology of Leipzig, including our compatriots - V.M. Bekhterev and G.I. Chelpanov.

The first program of psychology as an independent science was physiological psychology W. Wundt. The subject of psychology here was proclaimed to be processes that are simultaneously accessible to both external and internal observation, having both psychological and physiological components.

V. Wundt criticized previous ideas about the subject of psychology as speculative or mystical ideas about the soul and the inner world of man. Psychology as a science, according to V. Wundt, has a unique subject - direct experience person, represented in his mind. Therefore, the subject of psychology should be consciousness, or more precisely, states of consciousness, connections and relationships between these states, the laws to which they obey. W. Wundt believed that the main elements of consciousness, which have both a physiological and mental nature, are sensations, ideas and feelings.

Since direct experience, according to W. Wundt, is given to a person in his consciousness, the only and direct method of research is introspection , or self-observation. Psychologists specially trained in self-observation techniques took part in the laboratory experiments. The experiment was, as it were, an external stimulus for the internal work of introspection, for subsequent analysis, generalization and conclusions about its results.

Using the example of W. Wundt's scientific program, presented in the most general terms, one can show the general way of constructing psychological research, which will dominate science for decades.

The first feature of this method is reductionism. In relation to human psychology, reductionism means reducing a person’s rich spiritual experience, multifaceted spiritual life, meaningful inner world the subject to its individual aspects and prerequisites.

The second feature is atomism , or the desire to find the simplest elements, the fundamental principle, the “bricks” of the psyche, with the help of which one can build a holistic psychological structure.

The third feature of the first scientific and psychological research programs can be described as abstractness – fundamental isolation from life. Experimental studies of consciousness in the first psychological laboratory were so artificial that they deprived the results obtained during them of any possibility of explaining the real mental life of a person, or applying them to the practice of human activity. Psychological facts and identified features of consciousness had no significance outside of science itself.

This method of constructing the subject of psychology reveals a fundamental methodological feature: the psychic as a whole is completely reduced to its particular projection. This feature in the history of psychology will find its expression in a peculiar absolutization of certain categories, posited as an explanatory principle of the nature of the psyche, in the main directions of world psychology.

Absolutization of individual categories is the basis for the formation of trends and scientific schools in psychology

Scientific psychology strives to reflect the reality of the psyche in its essential properties and in a generalized form, i.e. concepts. Concepts form the framework of any science; together they form categorical system. A change in the scientific view of human psychology is associated with a change in categories and filling them with new content.

Psychology belongs to the humanities – the sciences that study man. A feature of the humanities that distinguishes them from the natural sciences is that different researchers put different content into the same concepts.

The complexity and versatility of a person’s inner world, the multidimensionality of its relationships with the outside world also explains another feature of psychology as a humanities science - the discrepancy between the set of categories in different areas of psychology. If we express this idea differently, we can say that, in fact, There is no single psychology, but there are different directions, trends, scientific schools. Moreover, according to the apt expression of A.N. Leontyev, modern psychology grows not into a trunk, but into a bush. The term “psychology”, as a rule, is used in conjunction or in conjunction with another word: psychology of consciousness, functional psychology, Gestalt psychology, depth psychology, European psychology, Soviet psychology, etc.

Scientific movements and schools in psychology should not be confused with its industries , reflecting the process of internal differentiation of science. Branches of psychology can be classified on various grounds: by areas and types of activity – labor psychology, political, economic, social, sports, medical, pedagogical, legal psychology, psychology of religion, art, aviation, engineering and others; according to the object and specifics of development – animal psychology (animal psychology), human psychology (anthropological psychology), child and developmental psychology, pathopsychology.

The differentiation of psychology responds primarily to the practical tasks facing science. Each branch of psychology has its own specific tasks. For example, the general purpose of educational psychology is the scientific and psychological substantiation pedagogical activity; developmental psychology aims to create a theory mental development human in ontogenesis.

The mechanism for the formation of trends and scientific schools in psychology is different. Scientific movements in psychology differ in their subject matter, problems studied, conceptual structure, and explanatory schemes. The psychological reality of a person appears in them from a certain angle, certain aspects of his mental life come to the fore and are studied thoroughly and in detail; others are either not studied at all or receive too narrow an interpretation.

Directions and scientific schools in psychology receive their specificity through the selection central category , through which the main manifestations of the psyche are explained. “...The fundamental concept... the primary abstraction underlying science determines not only the content, but also predetermines the nature of the unity of individual disciplines, and through this, the method of explaining facts, the main explanatory principle of science.” As a rule, over time, one or another category becomes absolutized, turns into an explanatory principle, subjugates all other categories and concepts, thereby forming a special scientific direction.

The tendency to absolutize certain categories most clearly manifested itself in psychology at the very first stage of its formation as an independent science, in the process of searching for its subject of research. W. Wundt declared consciousness as such an object. The category of consciousness became central to his psychological theory. But it must be emphasized that for V. Wundt the essence of human psychology was expressed in consciousness; he explored not just consciousness, but a person who has consciousness.

V. Wundt justified the right of psychology to exist as an independent science by its fundamental difference from other sciences. In psychology, a person is both subject , And object knowledge, since a person explores his consciousness with the help of consciousness. He believed that psychology has a certain advantage over other sciences: the objects of its research are given to it directly, revealed to the person himself in sensations, ideas and experiences. Therefore, psychology can study its subject directly, “on oneself,” in introspection, i.e., introspection.

W. Wundt’s views on the subject of psychology were shared by the American psychologist E. Titchener, the creator structural psychology . He also considered consciousness to be the subject of psychology, but as a set of subjective processes occurring throughout a person’s life. The task of psychology is to analyze the structure, morphology of consciousness, and to decompose it into elementary processes. Ultimately, sensations acted as elementary processes of consciousness for E. Titchener, and consciousness itself appeared as their totality, a “mosaic.” He also insisted on studying the “pure content of consciousness” by the method of analytical introspection.

The Austrian philosopher F. Brentano put forward a program for constructing psychology, at the center of which was the concept of an “intentional act of consciousness.” The subject of psychology was proclaimed not to be content, but an act of consciousness as an intention. Consciousness was understood as an active principle directed towards an object; it is always consciousness of something.

For Brentano's follower C. Stumpf, the concept came to the fore in explaining consciousness functions , with the help of which consciousness carries out its intentional act.

From the teachings about the intentional act and the function of consciousness in the United States, a special direction in psychology grew and took shape - functionalism. The forerunner of this trend was W. James. Remaining within the framework of the psychology of consciousness with its subjective method, he considered consciousness as a special biological function, as an instrument of human adaptation to the environment. In functionalism, the role of consciousness was reduced to assessing the degree of success of an individual’s actions to satisfy his needs.

To study human consciousness means to answer the question of how it allows a person to know. the world, through which operations it provides solutions to life’s problems. In functionalism, the mental serves to achieve practically useful human goals and performs adaptive functions. Consciousness is considered as an intermediate adaptive mechanism between the organism and the environment.

Thus, historically, the first projection of human psychological reality, the object of scientific psychology, was consciousness. The subject of psychology became various manifestations of consciousness. Various options for studying consciousness constituted the so-called subjective, or introspective, psychology.

The domestic scientist I.M. came up with a special program for building psychology. Sechenov. The main category that I.M. Sechenov laid the basis for the psychology he created, and the concept reflex. He developed reflex theory of mind, according to which mental processes (perception, memory, thinking, etc.), higher acts of consciousness and personality unfold according to the mechanism of a physiological reflex.

Teachings of I.M. Sechenov about the reflexes of the brain is an example of a natural scientific method of explaining mental acts, including consciousness.

Subject: psychology. Different ideas about the subject of psychology.

Soul(all researchers before the beginning of the 18th century)
Phenomena of consciousness (English empirical associationist psychology - D. Hartley, John Stuart Mill, A. Bahn, Herbert Spencer)
Direct experience of the subject (structuralism - Wilhelm Wundt)
Intentional acts of consciousness (functionalism - Franz Brentano)
Origin of mental activities (psychophysiology - Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov)
Behavior (behaviorism - John Watson)
Unconscious (psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud)
Information processing processes and the results of these processes (Gestalt psychology - Max Wertheimer)
Personal experience of a person (Humanistic psychology - Abraham Maslow, C. Rogers, Viktor Frankl, Rollo May)

Soul as a subject of study

Phenomena of consciousness as a subject of psychology

In the 18th century, the place of the soul was taken by phenomena of consciousness, that is, phenomena that a person actually observes and finds in “himself”, turning to his “inner mental activity.” These are thoughts, desires, feelings, memories known to everyone from personal experience. The founder of this understanding can be considered John Locke, who believed that, unlike the soul, the phenomena of consciousness are not something assumed, but actually given, and in this sense, the same indisputable facts of internal experience as the facts of external experience studied by other sciences

Direct experience as a subject of psychology

Intentional acts of consciousness as a subject of psychology

F. Brentano bases his teaching on such qualities of consciousness as activity and objectivity. Psychology should study not sensations and ideas themselves, but those acts of “action” that the subject produces when he turns nothing into an object of awareness. Outside the act, the object does not exist.

The origin of mental activities as a subject of psychology

Behavior as a subject of psychology

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the emergence and development of behaviorism as a reaction to unsuccessful experimental studies"physiological psychology". The subject of behaviorism, or “behavioral psychology,” is behavior. According to behaviorists, knowing the strength of the current stimuli and taking into account the past experience of the “subject”, it is possible to study the processes of learning, the formation of new forms of behavior, without delving into its physiological mechanisms.

The unconscious as a subject of psychology

According to the teachings of S. Freud, human actions are controlled by deep motivations that elude clear consciousness. These deep motivations should be the subject of psychological science. Freud created a method of psychoanalysis with which one can explore and control a person’s deepest motivations. The basis of the psychoanalytic method is the analysis of free associations, dreams, slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, etc. The roots of human behavior are in his childhood.

Information processing processes and the results of these processes as a subject of psychology

Theories of the cognitive direction focus on the fact that human knowledge is not reduced to a simple sum of information received by the brain from external environment or present in it from the moment of birth.

Personal experience of a person as a subject of psychology

Humanistic psychology departs from scientific psychology, taking away main role person's personal experience. A person, according to humanistic psychologists, is capable of self-esteem and can independently find a path to the development of his personality (self-actualization). The subjectivity of this approach makes it difficult to establish the difference between a person's opinion of himself and what he really is. The ideas of this approach turned out to be useful for psychological practice, but did not contribute anything to the theory of psychology. Moreover, the subject of research within this direction has almost disappeared.

As a result, we can consider that the subject of psychology is the mental processes, properties, states of a person and the patterns of his behavior. An essential point in this regard is the consideration of the generation of consciousness, its functioning, development and connection with behavior and activity.

2 Methods of psychology. Basic requirements for each method.

The main methods of obtaining facts in psychology are observation, conversation and experiment. Each of these general methods has a number of modifications that clarify but do not change their essence.

1. Observation - the oldest method of knowledge. Its primitive form - everyday observations - is used by every person in their daily practice. The general observation procedure consists of the following processes:

definition of the task and purpose (for what, for what purpose?);

choice of object, subject and situation (what to observe?);

choosing an observation method that has the least impact on the object under study and most ensures the collection of the necessary information (how to observe?);

choosing methods for recording what is observed (how to keep records?);

processing and interpretation of received information (what is the result?).

Observation is also an integral part of two other methods - conversation and experiment.

2. Conversation As a psychological method, it involves the direct or indirect, oral or written receipt from the subject of information about his activities, in which the psychological phenomena characteristic of him are objectified. Types of interviews: history taking, interviews, questionnaires and psychological questionnaires. Anamnesis (lat. from memory) is information about the past of the person being studied, obtained from him or her or, with an objective history, from people who know him well. An interview is a type of conversation in which the task is to obtain answers from the interviewee to certain (usually pre-prepared) questions. In this case, when questions and answers are presented in writing, a survey takes place.

3. Experiment is the main method of psychological research - this is the active intervention of the researcher in the activities of the subject in order to create conditions.

Observation as a method of psychological research.

Observation(in psychology) - a descriptive psychological research method consisting in the purposeful and organized perception and recording of the behavior of the object being studied. Observation is a purposeful, organized and recorded perception of the object being studied in a certain way. During observation, phenomena are studied directly under the conditions in which they occur in real life.

Where is it used?

Together with introspection, observation is considered the oldest psychological method. Scientific observation has become widely used since late XIX century, in areas where recording the characteristics of human behavior in various conditions is of particular importance - in clinical, social, educational psychology, developmental psychology, and since the beginning of the 20th century - in occupational psychology. Observation is used when it is either impossible or impermissible to interfere with the natural course of the process.

Types of surveillance

Observation, as a research method in psychology, can be very different. It can be conscious or not, external or internal, continuous or selective, systematic or not.

Features of the method

Observation is used where the intervention of the experimenter will disrupt the process of human interaction with the environment. This method is indispensable when it is necessary to obtain a holistic picture of what is happening and reflect the behavior of individuals in its entirety.

The main features of the observation method are:

· direct connection between the observer and the observed object;

· bias (emotional coloring) of observation;

· difficulty (sometimes impossibility) of repeated observation.

In natural sciences, the observer, as a rule, does not influence the process (phenomenon) being studied. In psychology there is a problem of interaction between the observer and the observed. If the subject knows that he is being observed, then the presence of the researcher influences his behavior. The limitations of the observation method gave rise to other, more “advanced” methods empirical research: experiment and measurement.

Subject of observation

The objects of observation are various features behavior. The objects of research can be: The object of observation can only be that which can be objectively recorded. Thus, the researcher does not observe the properties of the psyche; he registers only those manifestations of the object that are available for recording. And only based on the assumption that the psyche finds its manifestation in behavior, a psychologist can build hypotheses about mental properties based on data obtained during observation.

Experiment in psychology.

Psychological experiment- experience conducted under special conditions to obtain new scientific knowledge about psychology through the purposeful intervention of the researcher in the life activity of the subject.

The concept of “psychological experiment” is interpreted ambiguously by various authors; often, an experiment in psychology is considered to be a complex of different independent empirical methods ( the experiment itself, observation, survey, testing). However, traditionally in experimental psychology, experiment is considered an independent method.

Psychological experiment (within the framework of psychological counseling)- a specially created situation designed for a more holistic (in various modalities) experience by the client of his own experience.

Main activities.

Communication is the first type of activity that arises in the process of individual development of a person, followed by play, learning and work. All these types of activities are developmental in nature, i.e. When a child is included and actively participates in them, his intellectual and personal development occurs.

Communication is considered as a type of activity aimed at the exchange of information between communicating people. It also pursues the goals of establishing mutual understanding, good personal and business relations, providing mutual assistance and educational influence of people on each other. Communication can be direct and indirect, verbal and non-verbal.

A game is a type of activity that does not result in the production of any material or ideal product (with the exception of business and design games of adults and children). Games are often of an entertainment nature and serve the purpose of relaxation. Sometimes games serve as a means of symbolic release of tensions that have arisen under the influence of a person’s actual needs, which he is unable to relieve in any other way.

Tactile perception

Touch is a complex form of sensitivity, including both

elementary and complex components. The first include a feeling of cold,

warmth and pain, to the second - actual tactile sensations (touch and

pressure). The peripheral apparatus for sensing heat and cold are

“bulbs” scattered throughout the skin. The pain sensation apparatus is

free endings of thin nerve fibers that perceive pain signals,

peripheral apparatus of sensations of touch and pressure - peculiar

nerve formations known as Leissner's corpuscles, Vater-Paccini corpuscles,

also located deep in the skin. The receptors just listed

devices are distributed unevenly over the surface of the skin: the thinner

sensitivity is required from the work of one or another organ, especially

the corresponding receptor components are located on its surface and thus

lower thresholds for distinguishing those signals that reach them, otherwise

speaking, the higher their sensitivity. Fineness of sensitivity

various surfaces of the body is provided not only by the density of distribution

peripheral receptors in the corresponding areas of the skin, but also relative

the area of those areas of the postcentral parts of the cerebral cortex where

fibers come from the corresponding areas of the periphery. The thinner

the function is performed by one or another area of the skin, the larger the area it occupies

projection in the cerebral cortex. The most complex forms of tactile

sensitivity – sensation of touch localization, distinctive

sensitivity (feeling the distance between two touches to close

areas of the skin), sensation of the direction of skin tension (if the skin of the forearm

lead to or from the brush), the sensation of the form that is applied by touch

a tip that makes a circle shape or an image of a number on the skin. To complex forms

also includes deep sensitivity, allowing one to recognize in what

the position of the hand being passively bent or give the right hand then

a position that is passively given to the left hand. In the implementation of these types

sensitivity involves complex secondary zones of postcentral

sections of the cortex. For research various types sensitivity is used

different techniques, for example: Taber’s experiment, in which the researcher simultaneously

touches two symmetrical points on the chest or face. Defeat of one of

hemispheres is revealed in the fact that the patient, who is good at capturing each individual

touch, ignores one of the touches on symmetrical points if

both touches are given at the same time.

In this case, there is usually a sensation of touching the point opposite

affected hemisphere. Exploring the "two-dimensional sense"

is done as follows: the researcher draws a figure on the

the skin of the forearm and suggests determining which figure was drawn.

Failure to complete this task indicates damage to the secondary departments

parietal cortex of the opposite hemisphere (N8 p.55-56).

However, there are also more complex forms of tactile perception, in which

a person can determine the shape of an object by touch, and sometimes even recognize it himself

item. To move from the assessment of individual signs to tactile

perception of a whole object, it is necessary that the hand is in motion, then

there is passive tactile perception replaced by active feeling

subject. The most interesting thing in the tactile perception of an object is

the fact of gradual transformation of sequentially (successively) arriving

information about individual features of an object into its holistic (simultaneous)

For example, when we feel a key, we first get the impression that we

we are dealing with something cold, smooth and long. At this phase there is

the assumption that we are feeling a metal rod or tube; or

metal pencil. Then our hand feels the key ring; first group

assumptions are immediately discarded. The palpating continues, and the palpating

the finger moves to the key bit with its characteristic ruggedness. Here

the most information points are highlighted, all are combined

sequentially perceived signs, and the hypothesis arises “this is the key!”

(N8 p.74). It can be seen that the process of recognizing the image of an object, which in vision

occurs immediately, is of a detailed nature in the sense of touch, and occurs through

a sequential chain of samples, highlighting individual features, creating a series

alternatives and the formation of the final hypothesis. Process of tactility

perception was studied in detail by Soviet psychologists B.G. Ananyev, B.F.

Lomov, L.M. Wecker. Research by these authors showed a number of factors. Hand

The subject must actively feel the object. Passive holding of an object

by hand or hand by object, does not lead to the desired result. Active

Feeling an object is usually done with the participation of both hands. As

exercises, the process of palpation can gradually be reduced, and if at first

at its stages, for recognition it was necessary to merge many selected features,

then upon repeated palpation the number of signs necessary for identification

subject, is reduced, so that at the end of one of the most informative

the sign is sufficient for the object to be identified.

Methods for studying attention.

Types of memorization

Memorization can be conscious or unconscious.

Unconscious There are two types of memorization: imprinting and involuntary memorization.

Imprint- is the preservation in memory of events, images, sensations for a long time(often forever) with short contact with him. .

Involuntary memorization- storing events in memory as a result of random repetition.

Conscious memorization is the purposeful storage of the necessary material in memory.

Conscious memorization is also called voluntary. In humans, this is the main type of memorization.

Conscious memorization is the basis of study and learning. There are two types of voluntary memorization: mechanical memorization (learning) and semantic memorization (understanding).

Voluntary memorization

Rote memorization - memorization- This is a purposeful repetition of the same material.

Semantic memorization- this is the storage in memory not of the material itself - but of the relationship between the main blocks of material, the logic connecting these blocks.

Conditions for effective memorization:

It takes at least 30 minutes to install long-term memory. Typically, the duration of this memory is related to the number and intensity of repetitions of the memorized material. In addition, the emotional background plays an important role - sharply negative or positive emotions allow you to remember the material once and for all without any repetition. By the way, the desire, the desire to remember this or that information improves the memorization process.

The best option memorization is the elaboration of the material, breaking it down into blocks (no more than 7 blocks), logical analysis text, selection of associations, memorization in comparison with something, and so on - in this case, memory is retained for a longer period. There is a cool way to fix something in memory - this is the connection of theses with well-known visual images (this is what ancient Greek speakers did) - for example, there is a way home and there are theses that need to be remembered - and the first thesis, for example, is associated with an exit from the subway, the second with a tree , the third with a store sign, and so on. The most undesirable option is learning, memorizing. Usually it takes a long time to study and is quickly forgotten (all students know this - if you learn it and pass it, after three days it’s as if you had never studied it).

24 Conservation: types and conditions for effective conservation.

Preservation - the process of active processing, systematization, generalization
material, mastering it. Retention of what has been learned depends on the depth of understanding.
A number of factors contribute to the retention of information:

o depth of understanding;

o installation (significance of information);

o application of acquired knowledge;

o repetition (the degree to which the material is used in the individual’s activities).

Well-understood material is remembered better. Conservation also depends on the attitude of the individual. Personally significant material is not forgotten. Forgetting occurs unevenly: immediately after memorization, forgetting is stronger, then it occurs more slowly. That is why repetition cannot be delayed, it must be repeated soon
after memorization, until the material is forgotten.
Sometimes, when preserved, the phenomenon of reminiscence is observed. Its essence is that
reproduction delayed by 2 - 3 days is better than
immediately after memorization. Reminiscence manifests itself especially clearly
if the original reproduction was not meaningful enough. WITH
From a physiological point of view, reminiscence is explained by the fact that immediately after
learning, according to the law of negative induction, inhibition occurs, and then
it is removed. It has been established that conservation can be dynamic and
static.

Dynamic storage manifests itself in RAM, and
static – in the long-term. When dynamically saving material
changes little; when static, on the contrary, it is necessarily subjected to
reconstruction and certain processing.
Durability of retention is ensured by repetition, which serves as reinforcement.
and protects against forgetting, i.e., from the extinction of temporary connections in the cortex
brain. Repetition should be varied, carried out in different
forms: in the process of repetition, facts must be compared, contrasted,
must be brought into the system. With monotonous repetition there is no
mental activity, interest in learning decreases, and therefore does not
conditions are created for lasting preservation. More higher value For
conservation has the application of knowledge. When knowledge is applied it
are remembered involuntarily

Types of thinking

Visual-effective, visual-figurative, figurative-associative, script and conceptual thinking. It is also abstract (abstract) thinking.

Productive thinking and thinking as internal chatter.

Productive thinking is finding connections between objects and phenomena that solve a life problem. Internal chatter is relatively coherent, sometimes even logical, but inappropriate thinking that fills the emptiness of the soul and creates the illusion that life is filled with something.

Rational and irrational thinking

Rational thinking is thinking that has clear logic and goes towards the goal. The opposite of irrational and sometimes simply incoherent thinking, a flow of thoughts without logic or purpose.

Primitive and developed thinking

In its developed form, thinking is analysis, comparison, finding new connections and other operations with mental images in order to find productive, useful mental images.

Expanded (discursive) and collapsed thinking: intuition.

In expanded form, inner speech, internal actions, images and sensations are heard, seen and felt, in an automatic and minimized way - they flicker and disappear from the field of consciousness. Detailed thinking is called discursive thinking in science, and reflection in life. Condensed and instantaneous comprehension is more often called intuition, grasping, seeing the essence.

Template and independent thinking

Template thinking is not thinking that does not use templates: this seems to be impossible in principle, templates are used everywhere. Template thinking does not use anything but templates; it remains within the framework of templates only. Independent thinking goes beyond templates and ceases to be template thinking. Its main varieties are design and creative thinking.

Automatic and controlled thinking

Automatic thinking occurs on its own, being carried out like a program, starting and ending independently, without the will, knowledge and control of a person. It’s more pleasant when a person still controls his own thinking.

Free and creative thinking

Free thinking is thinking that is not constrained by limiting patterns. Free thinking person not necessarily someone who was not raised - it could also be someone who was raised in the format of internally free thinking. Creative thinking is thinking that generates a new, unknown - and valuable - result from known premises.

Functions of thinking

1. Solving problems indirectly, that is, in a way that uses a variety of auxiliary techniques and means designed to obtain the necessary knowledge. A person resorts to thinking when direct cognition is either impossible (people do not perceive ultrasound, infrared radiation, X-rays, chemical composition stars, the distance from the Earth to other planets, physiological processes in the cerebral cortex, etc.), or is possible in principle, but not in modern conditions(archaeology, paleontology, geology, etc.), or it is possible, but irrational. Solving a problem indirectly means solving it also with the help of mental operations. For example, when, waking up in the morning, a person goes to the window and sees that the roofs of the houses are wet and there are puddles on the ground, he makes a conclusion: it rained at night. Man did not directly perceive rain, but learned about it indirectly, through other facts. Other examples: the doctor learns about the presence of an inflammatory process in the patient’s body using additional means - a thermometer, test results, x-rays, etc.; the teacher can assess the degree of diligence of the student by his answer at the board; You can find out what the air temperature is outside in different ways: directly, by sticking your hand out the window, and indirectly, using a thermometer. Indirect cognition of objects and phenomena is carried out through the perception of other objects or phenomena that are naturally related to the first. These connections and relationships are usually hidden, they cannot be perceived directly, and mental operations are used to identify them.

2. Generalized reflection of reality. You can directly perceive only specific objects: this tree, this table, this book, this person. You can think about the subject in general (“Love books - the source of knowledge”; “Man descended from a monkey”). It is thought that makes it possible to capture similarities in different things and different things in similar things, and to discover natural connections between phenomena and events.

A person can foresee what will happen in a particular case because it reflects the general properties of objects and phenomena. But it is not enough to notice the connection between two facts; it is also necessary to realize that it has general character and is determined general properties things, i.e. properties related to a whole group of similar objects and phenomena. Such a generalized reflection makes it possible to predict the future, to present it in the form of images that do not actually exist.

3. Reflection of the most essential properties and connections of reality. In phenomena or objects, we highlight the general, without taking into account the unimportant, unimportant. So, any watch is a mechanism for determining time, and this is its main feature. Neither the shape, nor the size, nor the color, nor the material from which they are made are of significant importance.

4. The main feature of human thinking is that it is inextricably linked with speech: a word denotes what objects and phenomena have in common. Language, speech is the material shell of thought. Only in speech form does a person’s thought become accessible to other people. A person has no other ways of reflecting the corresponding connections outside world, except for those speech forms that are fixed in his native language. Thought can neither arise, nor flow, nor exist outside of language, outside of speech.

Speech is a tool of thinking. With the help of words a person thinks. But it does not follow from this that the process of thinking is reduced to speech, that thinking means speaking out loud or to oneself. The difference between the thought itself and its verbal expression is that the same thought can be expressed in different languages or using different words(“The coming summer is expected to be hot” – “The coming season between spring and autumn will be sultry”). The same thought has different speech forms, but without any speech form it does not exist.

“I know, but I can’t put it into words” is a state when a person cannot move from expressing a thought in internal speech to external speech, and finds it difficult to express it in a way understandable to other people.

28. Thinking as a process of problem solving. Problem situations and thinking.

Finding the problem and its formulation.

The process of solving a problem begins with the formulation of a question in a problem situation. This formulation of a question is one of the most difficult stages in the process of solving a problem. To formulate a question, you need to see the inconsistency of the problem situation and formulate these contradictions in one form or another.

In the process of formulating a question, one realizes what must be found,

defined. But at the same time, it is no less important to clearly identify in the problem

situations are initial, known data, i.e. something you can rely on,

transform, one way or another use to find the unknown.

Proposition and analysis of hypotheses. Both the success of solving a problem and the creation of favorable

conditions for the development of thinking depend on the variety of hypotheses put forward. Exactly

wide variability of hypotheses allows from different sides, in different systems

connections to consider the same object, find the most correct and economical

solution path. Proposing hypotheses, as it were, anticipates future activities

human, allows you to foresee solutions and possible results, and therefore

the experience a person acquires in putting forward hypotheses is essential for

development of the predictive function of thinking.

Solving a mental problem. Further testing of the remaining hypotheses is

the third stage of solving the problem. And at this stage sometimes there is a need

additional clarification of the problem conditions, obtaining some new information,

further clarification, reformulation of the question.

The solution can be based on the passive use of the algorithm, i.e. as a direct

fulfillment of an already known order. A more creative approach to solving a mental problem would be the active use of an algorithm, which can find its own

expression either in adapting it to the content of the task, or in transforming

Checking the solution to the problem. Here it is important to once again correlate the conditions of the problem, its question

and the results obtained. The solution verification process is also important because during

her man manages to rethink the task. This rethinking turns out to be

possible because here the main efforts of a person can be directed not at

how to solve a given problem, but on the meaning of its solution, on the consequences that

may arise as a result of solving a problem. During the verification process you can see

the same problem in another communication system, you can discover new ones that have not yet been solved

Problem situations in thinking:

In case of failure:

3.5. Despair, switching to another activity: “period of incubation rest” - “ripening of ideas”, insight, inspiration, insight, instant awareness of a solution to a certain problem (intuitive thinking). Factors contributing to "insight":

a. high passion for the problem;

b. belief in success, in the possibility of solving the problem;

c. high awareness of the problem, accumulated experience;

d. high associative activity of the brain (during sleep, at high temperature, fever, with emotionally positive stimulation).

2. Logical justification of the found solution idea, logical proof of the correctness of the solution.

3. Implementation of the solution.

4. Checking the solution found.

5. Correction (if necessary, return to stage 2). Mental activity is realized both at the level of consciousness and at the level of the unconscious, and is characterized by complex transitions and interactions of these levels. As a result of a successful (purposeful) action, a result is achieved that corresponds to a previously set goal, and a result that was not foreseen in the conscious goal is a by-product in relation to it (a by-product of the action). The problem of conscious and unconscious was concretized into the problem of the relationship between direct (conscious) and by-products (unconscious) of action. The by-product of the action is also reflected by the subject. This reflection may participate in the subsequent regulation of actions, but it is not presented in verbalized form, in the form of consciousness. The by-product “is formed under the influence of those specific properties of things and phenomena that are included in the action, but are not significant from the point of view of the goal.”

Basic forms

1. Concept - the unity of essential properties, connections and relationships of objects or phenomena reflected in thinking; a thought or system of thoughts that identifies and generalizes objects of a certain class according to certain general and generally specific characteristics for them;

2. Judgment is a form of thinking in which something is affirmed or denied about an object, its properties or relationships between objects. Types of judgments and relationships between them are studied in philosophical logic;

3. Inference - conclusion.

Methods for studying thinking.

Observation method. At first glance, this method has nothing to do with the study of thinking. However, it is not. By observing a person’s actions in various natural situations, his facial expressions and pantomimes in the process of solving a problem, and the peculiarities of his interaction with other people, you can learn a lot about thinking. For example, watching educational activities a student at home, you can record how regularly he solves the problems proposed to him, how much time he spends on solving them, and what are the results of his efforts. The results of this kind of observation can be the basis for judgments about the child’s attitude to learning, which influences the solution of specific problems, about the organization of his mental activity, and about the degree of formation of individual mental skills. Watching play activities preschooler, we can state what type of games the child uses and make an assumption about the degree of development of his imaginative thinking.

THE NEED FOR DISCUSSING THE SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Ideas about the subject of psychology are very vague. Often, psychologists simply point to mental processes (thinking, memory, feelings, etc.) as the subject of their study. In other cases, it is said about a person, about personality as a subject of psychology. But both the first and second approaches to the subject of psychology are clearly unsatisfactory, since all of the above is studied not only by psychology, but also by many other sciences. A clear criterion is needed to clearly distinguish between what is within the scope of psychology and what lies outside its scope. This will allow you to better understand the tasks that a psychologist can and should solve.

Without a clear understanding of the subject, experimental research becomes difficult. For successful practical work Psychologists also need an understanding of the subject of psychology. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand that psychologists do significantly different things compared to other specialists: doctors, teachers, etc.

The question of the subject is also important for studying the mechanisms of mental phenomena. Some researchers look for these mechanisms in brain physiology. Others study the laws that govern relationships between objects.

If we assume the correctness of this orientation psychological research, then this will mean that mental phenomena do not have actual psychological mechanisms and that psychology is limited to “phenomena” alone. But then the subject of psychology and its claims to an independent sphere of human knowledge disappears.

In view of the above, it seems extremely important to define the actual subject of psychology.

TRADITIONAL VIEWS ABOUT THE SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY

The first theories put forward to explain human behavior involved factors external to the person (for example, the “shadow” that lives in the body and leaves it after death, or the gods). Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, advanced the idea of the soul, which is in unity with the body and controls thoughts and feelings, which are based on the experiences accumulated throughout life.

In the history of psychology, various ideas about its subject have developed.

Soul as a subject of study

The soul as a subject of psychology was recognized by all researchers until the beginning of the 18th century, before the basic ideas and then the first system of psychology of the modern type were formed. The soul was considered the cause of all processes in the body, including the actual “mental movements.” Ideas about the soul were both idealistic and materialistic. The most interesting work of this direction is R. Descartes’ treatise “The Passions of the Soul”.

Phenomena of consciousness as a subject of psychology

In the 18th century, the place of the soul was taken by phenomena of consciousness, that is, phenomena that a person actually observes and finds in “himself”, turning to his “inner mental activity.” These are thoughts, desires, feelings, memories known to everyone from personal experience. The founder of this understanding can be considered John Locke, who believed that, unlike the soul, the phenomena of consciousness are not something assumed, but actually given, and in this sense, they are the same indisputable facts of internal experience as the facts of external experience studied by other sciences.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the entire mental life, first in the cognitive sphere, and then in the spheres of feelings and will, was presented as a process of formation and change (according to the laws of associations) of increasingly complex images and their combinations with actions.

In the middle of the 18th century, the first scientific form of psychology emerged - English empirical associationist psychology (D. Hartley).

Associative psychology reached its peak in the middle of the 19th century. The works of J. St. date back to this time. Mill, A. Ben, G. Spencer.

J. St. Mill views consciousness through the prism of the associationist scheme, but points out its dependence on logic in specific psychological functioning. According to J. St. Mill, there are laws of the mind that are different from the laws of matter, but similar to them in terms of monotony, repetition, and the need for one phenomenon to follow another. These phenomena can be discovered using experimental methods- observation and experiment. Thus, “psychic sequence” (phenomena of consciousness) must be studied in itself. The main method is introspection.

Alexander Ben shifts the emphasis from internal states of consciousness to the motor, objectively observable activity of the body. For Bain, the principle of selecting motor responses adequate to external conditions becomes the general explanatory principle of all mental phenomena. The construction of adequate answers is carried out using the mechanism of “constructive association” based on trial and error. Thus, the probabilistic principle of “trial and error”, established in biology, is used, and thereby the activity of consciousness comes closer to the activity of the organism.

For G. Spencer, the subject of psychology is the interaction of an organism with its environment. But at the same time, objective psychology must borrow its data from subjective psychology, the tool of which is “consciousness looking inside itself.” Introspection remains the priority research method.

The core of the associationist concept was the law of frequency, which stated that the strengthening of a connection is a function of its repetition. This largely determined the views of I. P. Pavlov, I. M. Sechenov, E. Thorndike, and W. James.

Direct experience as a subject of psychology

The greatest success in building psychology as an independent experimental science was initially the program developed by W. Wundt. The unique subject of psychology according to Wundt is the direct experience of the subject, comprehended through introspection and introspection. Wundt sought to streamline the process of introspection. He believed that physiological experience, that is, objective, makes it possible to dissect direct experience, that is, subjective, and thereby reconstruct the architectonics of the individual’s consciousness in scientific terms. This idea underlay his plan to create experimental (physiological) psychology. Wundt's ideas laid the foundation for the structural school in psychology.

Intentional acts of consciousness as a subject of psychology

F. Brentano bases his teaching on such qualities of consciousness as activity and objectivity. Psychology should study not sensations and ideas themselves, but those acts of “action” that the subject performs (acts of representation, judgment and emotional evaluation) when he turns nothing into an object of awareness. Outside the act, the object does not exist.

The act, in turn, necessarily presupposes “direction toward,” the so-called intention. Brentano stood at the origins of the movement later called functionalism.

The origin of mental activities as a subject of psychology

I.M. Sechenov accepted the postulate about the relatedness of the mental and physiological “according to the method of origin,” that is, according to the mechanism of completion. Sechenov considered the main idea to be the understanding of a mental act as a process, a movement that has a definite beginning, course and end. The subject of psychological research as such should be a process that unfolds not in consciousness (or in the sphere of the unconscious), but in an objective system of relations, the process of behavior.

Behavior as a subject of psychology

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the emergence and development of behaviorism as a reaction to unsuccessful experimental studies of “physiological psychology.” The subject of behaviorism, or “behavioral psychology,” is behavior. According to behaviorists, knowing the strength of the current stimuli and taking into account the past experience of the “subject”, it is possible to study the processes of learning, the formation of new forms of behavior, without delving into its physiological mechanisms.

American psychologist J. Watson, based on the research of I. P. Pavlov, concluded that consciousness does not play any role in learning. It has no place in psychology. New forms of behavior should be considered as conditioned reflexes. They are based on several innate, or unconditioned, reflexes. Watson and his associates proposed a theory of learning through trial and error. Subsequently, it became obvious that in the interval between the action of the stimulus and the behavioral reactions, some kind of active processing of incoming information occurs, that these are processes without taking into account which it is impossible to explain the reaction of an animal or a person to available stimuli. This is how neo-behaviorism arises with its most important concept of “additional, or intermediate, variables.”

The unconscious as a subject of psychology

Freud's student A. Adler believed that the basis of the behavior of each individual is not sexual desires, but very strong feeling inferiority that occurs in childhood, when the child’s dependence on his parents and environment is strong.

In the neo-Freudian concept of K. Horney, behavior is determined by the “basic anxiety” (or “basic anxiety”) inherent in each person, which underlies intrapersonal conflicts. Horney pays special attention to the contradiction between the needs of an individual and the possibilities of satisfying them in the existing culture.

C. G. Jung believed that the psyche is formed not only under the influence of conflicts in early childhood, but also inherits images of ancestors that came from time immemorial. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account the concept of the “collective unconscious” when studying the psyche.

Information processing processes and the results of these processes as a subject of psychology

Theories of the cognitive direction focus on the fact that human knowledge is not reduced to a simple sum of information received by the brain from the external environment or available to it from the moment of birth.

Gestalt psychology emphasizes the initial programming of certain internal structures and their influence on perceptual and cognitive processes.

Constructivists believe that hereditarily determined intellectual functions create the opportunity for the gradual construction of intelligence as a result of a person’s active influence on the environment.

Cognitive psychology itself is trying to figure out ways to improve thought processes and other information processing processes.

Personal experience of a person as a subject of psychology

Humanistic psychology departs from scientific psychology, assigning the main role to a person’s personal experience. A person, according to humanistic psychologists, is capable of self-esteem and can independently find a path to the development of his personality (self-actualization). The subjectivity of this approach makes it difficult to establish the difference between a person's opinion of himself and what he really is. The ideas of this approach turned out to be useful for psychological practice, but did not contribute anything to the theory of psychology. Moreover, the subject of research within this direction has almost disappeared.

Development of views on the subject of psychology of domestic authors

In the initial period of the formation of Soviet psychology, the question of its subject did not attract much attention. After the 1st All-Union Congress on the Study of Human Behavior (1930), Soviet psychology established an explanation of the subject of psychology in the form of an indication of “our sensations, feelings, ideas, thoughts” that are well known to every person from his own experience.

According to P. Ya. Galperin, the subject of psychology is orientation activity. Moreover, this concept includes not only cognitive forms of mental activity, but also needs, feelings, and will. “The subject of psychology must be strictly limited. Psychology cannot and should not study all mental activity and all aspects of each of its forms. Other sciences, no less than psychology, have the right to study them. The claims of psychology are justified only in the sense that the process of orientation constitutes the main aspect of every form of mental activity and all mental life as a whole: that it is this function that justifies all its other aspects, which are therefore practically subordinate to this function.”

K.K. Platonov considers mental phenomena to be the subject of psychology. This very general definition of the subject of psychology, when specified, does not contradict the above approach.

conclusions

Analyzing the development of views on the subject of psychology, we can draw the following conclusions:

1. In each of the emerging directions, one of the necessary aspects of the study was emphasized. Therefore, it can be argued that all schools and areas of psychology contributed to the formation of its subject.

2. At present, it seems appropriate to eclectically combine the “rational grains” contained in different theoretical directions and generalize them.

3. As a result, we can assume that the subject of psychology is the mental processes, properties, states of a person and the patterns of his behavior. An essential point in this regard is the consideration of the generation of consciousness, its functioning, development and connection with behavior and activity.

Literature:

1. Galperin P. Ya. Introduction to psychology. - M.: MSU, 1976.

2. Godefroy J. What is psychology.: In 2 volumes. - M.: Mir, 1992.

3. Leontyev A. N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - M.: MSU, 1975.

4. Platonov K.K. About the system of psychology. - M.: Mysl, 1972.

5. Robert M. A., Tilman F. Psychology of the individual and group. - M.: Progress, 1988.

7. Yaroshevsky M. G. History of psychology. - M.: Mysl, 1976.

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE PSYCHE

The main functions of the psyche are reflection and regulation.

These functions are interrelated and interdependent: reflection is regulated, and regulation is based on information obtained during the reflection process. “The unity of the psyche as a system is expressed in its general function: being a subjective reflection of objective reality, it performs the function of regulating behavior.”

The close interconnection of these functions ensures the integrity of the normal psyche, the unity of all mental manifestations, and the integration of all internal mental life. These same functions ensure continuous interaction, interconnection, integration of a person with environment. Human - active system, and there are also many active objects in the world around him. Therefore, one should distinguish between active and reactive reflection, active and reactive regulation.

Then the functional structure of the human psyche in general scientific categories looks like this:

Functional structure of the human psyche in general scientific categories

Functional structure of the human psyche in psychological concepts

Functional structure of the psyche (in psychological categories), presented in a radially circular coordinate system

The form of representing the functional structure of the psyche in a radially circular coordinate system has clear advantages. It has greater integrity, is better coordinated with the capabilities of the human reflective system, and here the relationships between the components of the psyche are much more clearly manifested.

The given diagrams of the structure of the psyche relate primarily to its conscious level. However, one should remember the presence of an unconscious level in the structure of the psyche. Both the processes of mental reflection and the processes of regulation can be unconscious. Different authors bring different meanings to the concept of the unconscious (for example, S. Freud, C. G. Jung, D. N. Uznadze, etc.) In accordance with this, the structure of the unconscious looks different. Freud's “Id” is a set of biological (primarily sexual) instincts, desires, and drives. Jung has a more complex structure of the unconscious. It includes the following elements:

Individual unconscious:

Shadow (analogous to Freud's "Id")

Anima and Animus

Self

Collective unconscious

From the point of view of D. N. Uznadze, the concept of the unconscious should be reduced or even replaced by the concept of mental attitude.

Literature:

1. Unconscious. Nature, functions, research methods: In 4 volumes - Tbilisi: Metsniereba, 1978.

2. Ganzen V. A. System descriptions in psychology. - L.: Leningrad State University, 1984.

3. Kuzmin V. P. Historical background and epistemological foundations of the systems approach. //Psychol. magazine - 1982, vol. 3.

4. Lomov B. F. O systematic approach in psychology. - M.: Mysl, 1972.

5. Platonov K.K. System of psychology and theory of reflection. - M.: Nauka, 1982.

6. Fadiman J., Frager R. Personality and personal growth. - Official translation.

METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

A detailed discussion of psychological methods is beyond the scope of this course. The manual provides one of the most successful modern classifications of methods of psychological research.

COGNITIVE PROCESSES, THEIR PLACE AND ROLE IN THE HUMAN PSYCHE

FEELING AS THE INITIAL STAGE OF COGNITION

Sensation is understood as a reflection of the properties of objects in the objective world during their direct impact on the senses. According to L.M. Wecker, the result of the sensation process is a “partial image of the world,” since individual properties or attributes of objects are reflected in sensation.

According to the concept of A. N. Leontiev, sensation is historically the first form of the psyche. The occurrence of sensation is associated with the development of irritability of the nervous tissue. At a certain stage of the evolutionary process in an organism, elementary irritability develops into sensitivity, that is, the ability to respond not only to vital stimuli, but also to stimuli that have signaling significance. This point of view is not the only possible one. Thus, K.K. Platonov tried to prove that the elementary and historically first form of the psyche is emotion.

Of fundamental importance for the development of the theory of sensations are studies devoted to the study of the participation of effector processes in the occurrence of sensation. The general conclusion of these studies: sensation as a mental phenomenon in the absence or inadequacy of a response is impossible; a motionless eye is as blind as a motionless hand is astereognostic (works by A. N. Leontyev, P. I. Zinchenko, V. P. Zinchenko, T. P. Zinchenko, etc.).

Investigating the mechanisms of sensation, A. N. Leontyev comes to the conclusion that the general fundamental mechanism is the mechanism of assimilation of processes in the sense organs to the properties of external influence.

There are various classifications of sensations.

A widespread classification is based on the modality of sensations (specificity of the sense organs) - this is the division of sensations into visual, auditory, vestibular, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, motor, visceral. There are intermodal sensations - synesthesia.

The well-known classification is by Ch. Sherrington, which distinguishes the following types sensations:

Exteroceptive sensations (arising from the influence of external stimuli on receptors located on the surface of the body, externally);

Proprioceptive (kinesthetic) sensations (reflecting the movement and relative position of body parts using receptors located in muscles, tendons, joint capsules);

Interoceptive (organic) sensations - arising from reflection metabolic processes in the body using specialized receptors.

Despite the variety of sensations that arise during the operation of the senses, one can find a number of fundamentally common features in their structure and functioning. In general, we can say that analyzers are a set of interacting formations of the peripheral and central nervous system that receive and analyze information about phenomena occurring both inside and outside the body.

General properties of analyzers

Extremely high sensitivity to adequate stimuli. A quantitative measure of sensitivity is the threshold intensity, that is, the lowest intensity of the stimulus, the impact of which gives sensation.

The presence of differential sensitivity (otherwise: discriminative, difference, contrast), that is, the ability to establish differences in intensity between stimuli.

Adaptation, that is, the ability of analyzers to adapt the level of their sensitivity to the intensity of the stimulus.

Trainability of analyzers, that is, increased sensitivity and acceleration of adaptation processes under the influence of sensory activity itself.

The ability of analyzers to retain sensation for some time after the cessation of the stimulus. This “inertia” of sensations is designated as a consequence, or sequential images.

Constant interaction of analyzers under normal operating conditions.

Sensitivity, according to B. M. Teplov and V. D. Nebylitsyn, is an indicator of the type of higher nervous activity of a person. See: Nebylitsyn V.D. Study of the relationship between sensitivity and strength of the nervous system. //Typological features in human nervous activity. - M.: Education, 1969.

A huge branch of psychology—psychophysics—is devoted to the study of sensations (from the point of view of their occurrence and differentiation).

For sensitivity thresholds, see:

1. Lomov B.F. Man and technology. - M.: Sov. radio, 1966.

2. Stevens S. S. Experimental psychology. - M., Ed. IL, 1963.

Considering sensation as a reflection, you need to remember about the other side - the regulatory one. The assessment of distance, the force of the hand on an object, the volume of the spoken word are regulated by the sensations that arise.

A pressing issue in the theory of sensations is sensitivity in the structure of personality. It was most fully developed by B. G. Ananyev in the doctrine of the sensory organization of personality. See: Ananyev B. G. Theory of sensations. - L.: Leningrad State University, 1961. P. 89 112.

On the development of sensitivity, see:

1. Ananyev B. G. Psychology of sensory cognition. - M.: Publishing house. APN RSFSR, 1960. P. 122 137.

2. Ananyev B. G. Theory of sensations. - L.: Leningrad State University, 1961.

3. Lyublinskaya A. A. Child psychology. - M., Education, 1971. P. 35 155.

PERCEPTION

Perception, like any other mental phenomenon, can be considered both a process and a result.

Perception makes possible a holistic reflection of the world, the creation of an integral picture of reality, in contrast to sensations that reflect individual qualities of reality.

The result of perception is an integral, holistic image of the surrounding world, arising from the direct impact of the stimulus on the subject’s sense organs.

Perceptual properties:

Constancy is the relative independence of the image from the conditions of perception, manifested in its vitality. Our perception, within certain limits, preserves objects’ size, shape, color, regardless of the conditions of perception (distance to the perceived object, lighting conditions, angle of perception, etc.). See: Ananyev B. G., Dvoryashina M. D., Kudryavtseva N. A. Individual human development and constancy of perception. - M.: Education, 1986. P. 9 39.

Objectivity - the object is perceived by us as separate in space and time physical body. This property is most clearly manifested in the mutual isolation of figure and background. See: Koffka K. Perception: an introduction to Gestalt psychology. // Reader on sensation and perception. /Ed. Yu. B. Gippenreiter, M. B. Mikhalevskoy. M.: MSU, 1975. P. 96 113.

Integrity is the internal organic relationship of parts and the whole in an image. Two aspects of this property should be considered: a) union different elements generally; b) independence of the formed whole from the quality of its constituent elements. See: Neisser U. Cognition and reality. - M., 1981. P. 281 295.

The principles of the organization of perception (properties of objectivity and integrity) are most deeply and vividly described and analyzed by representatives of Gestalt psychology (M. Wertheimer, C. Osgood, etc.).

Generalization is the attribution of each image to a certain class of objects that has a name.

The meaningfulness of perception is based on the connection between perception and thinking, with an understanding of the essence of the subject. See: Leeper R. Wife and Mother-in-Law. // Reader on sensation and perception. /Ed. Yu. B. Gippenreiter, M. B. Mikhalevskoy - M.: Moscow State University, 1975. P. 300 301.

The most important phenomenon of perception is the relation of an object image to the real world - the phenomenon of projection (for example, a person sees not an image of an object on the retina, but a real object in the real world). This phenomenon can be traced at all levels of personality organization.

Perception of space

The perception of space includes the perception of shape, size, and the distance to and between objects.

The perception of shape is determined by the participation of three main groups of factors:

The innate ability of primary cells of the cerebral cortex to selectively respond to image elements having a certain saturation, orientation, configuration and length;

The laws of distinguishing a figure from a background, described by Gestalt psychologists;

A person’s life experience, obtained through hand movements along the contour and surface of objects, movement of a person and parts of his body in space.

The perception of the size of objects depends on the parameters of their image on the retina. The muscles of the eyes and hands and a number of other parts of the body take part in the perception of the size of objects. (However, if a person is able to correctly estimate the distance to an object, then the law of constancy of perception comes into play).

Muscle movements are also involved in depth perception. In addition to them, the visual assessment of depth is facilitated by accommodation and convergence of the eyes.

Accommodation is a change in the curvature of the lens when adjusting the eye to clearly perceive close and distant objects or their details.

Convergence is the convergence or divergence of the axes of the eyes that occurs during the perception of respectively approaching or receding objects.

These processes “work” within limited limits: 5–6 meters for accommodation and up to 450 meters for convergence.

When assessing large distances, a person uses information about the relative position of objects on the retina of the right and left eyes.

Motion perception

The perception of movement is detected by neurons - motion or novelty detectors that are part of the neurophysiological apparatus of the orienting reaction.

Perception of time

The mechanism of time perception is often associated with the so-called “biological clock” - a certain sequence and rhythm of biological metabolic processes occurring in the human body.

The subjective length of time depends in part on what it is filled with.

To form an adequate perceptual image, the following conditions are necessary:

Active movement;

Feedback;

Maintaining a certain optimum of information entering the brain from the external and internal environment;

Maintaining the usual structure of information.

Illusions of perception

There are cases when our perception of the world is distorted. This happens when the objects themselves send conflicting signals or when we misinterpret the signals we receive.

Development of perception

Perception changes under the influence of living conditions, that is, it develops.

A.V. Zaporozhets believed that the formation of perceptual actions under the influence of learning goes through a number of stages:

Stage I - an adequate perspective image is built by the child through practical actions with material objects.

Stage II - sensory processes themselves transform into unique perceptual actions, which are performed using the own movements of the receptive apparatus. Children become familiar with the spatial properties of objects with the help of expanded, tentatively exploratory movements of the hands and eyes.

Stage III - the process of collapsing, reducing perceptual actions begins.

Stage IV - perceptual action turns into ideal. Children acquire the ability to quickly and without any external movements recognize certain properties of perceived objects and distinguish them from each other on the basis of these properties.

Basic approaches to perception analysis:

Stimulating. See: Gibson J. An ecological approach to visual perception. - M., 1988;

Neurophysiological. See: Gostev A. A. The imaginative sphere of man. - M., 1992; Marr D. Vision. - M., 1987;

Active. Cm.:

Zinchenko V. P., Virgiles N. Yu. Formation of visual images. - M., 1969;

Leontyev A. N. Psychology of image. //Bulletin of Moscow State University. Ser. 14, 1979. - N 2. P. 3 14;

Mitkin A. A. Systemic organization of visual functions. - M., 1988];

Subjective [Nadirashvili Sh. A. Psychological nature of perception. - Tbilisi, 1976; Uznadze D. N. Psychological research. - M.: Nauka, 1966. ];

Constructivist. See: Rock I. Introduction to visual perception.: In 2 vols. - M., 1980.;

Dynamic. Cm.:

Gibson J. An ecological approach to visual perception. - M., 1988;

Kolers P. Some psychological aspects of pattern recognition. //Pattern recognition. - M., 1970. P. 16 87;

Genetic. See: Lange N. N. Theory of volitional attention. // Reader on attention. /Ed. A. N. Leontyeva and others - M.: MSU, 1976;

Prognostic. Cm.:

Arnheim R. Image and thought. //Visual images. Phenomenology and experiment. - Dushanbe, 1971;

Bruner J. Psychology of cognition. - M., 1977;

Informational. Cm.:

Wekker L. M. Mental processes: In 3 volumes - T. I, L.: Leningrad State University, 1974 1981;

Lindsay P., Norman D. A. Information processing in humans. - M., 1974;

Neisser U. Cognition and reality. - M., 1981;

Cognitively structural. Cm.:

Marr D. Vision. - M., 1987;

Neisser U. Cognition and reality. - M., 1981.

PERFORMANCE

Representation is the process of reproducing past images. The results of the representation are secondary images, that is, “first signals” extracted from memory. Representations reproduce past primary images. These are images of objects that currently do not act on the receptor surface of the analyzer. Representations embody one of the types of memory (figurative memory), which determines them vital importance in the structure of mental processes. Representations are a necessary link between primary-signal mental processes (images of sensations and perceptions) and secondary-signal mental and speech processes. Representations accumulate signs of various individual images. Based on these features, a “portrait of a class of objects” is built, and thereby provides the possibility of a conceptually logical display of the structure of this class.

Views allow you to see not only the “face”, but also the “back” of objects during their absence. Moreover, objects not only once directly perceived, but also belonging to a generalized class of objects synthesized in representation.

The study of representations faces a number of difficulties.

Firstly, these difficulties are associated with the absence of a present, directly acting stimulus object with which the content of the representation could be compared. Secondly, due to the lack of direct influence of the represented object, the representation itself is a “volatile structure” that is difficult to fix.

Characteristics of Views

Panoramic - going beyond the perceptual field. See: Shemyakin F.N. Orientation in space. //Psychol. science in the USSR. - T. I, M., 1959.

Mutual isolation of figure from background. See: Lomov B.F. Man and technology. - M.: Sov. radio, 1966, ch. 4.

Loss of absolute values (non-preservation of the number of homogeneous elements; violation of the reproduction of absolute sizes). See: Sorokun P. A. Formation and development of spatial concepts in students: Author's abstract. doc. diss. - L., 1968.

Converting a geometric shape into a topological diagram; schematization of the image. Cm.:

Bernshtein N. A. Topology and metrics of movements. //Essays on the physiology of movements and physiology of activity. - M., 1966;

Lomov B.F. Man and technology. - M.: Sov. radio, 1966.

Transforming a sequential image into a simultaneous structure. Cm.:

Hadamard J. Study of the psychology of the invention process in the field of mathematics. - M., 1970;

Teplov B. M. Psychology of musical abilities. - M., 1947.

Shifts in duration reproduction. This property was generalized by S. L. Rubinstein in the form of the empirical law of the filled time interval. This law determines the pattern of deviation of the psychological time of memories of the past from objective time. See: Rubinstein S. L. Fundamentals of general psychology. - M., 1940. P. 218.

Greater strength in preserving the image of a time sequence compared to time duration.

In visual representations, image shifts occur towards the primary colors of the spectrum; some specific shades fall out.

Secondary images are less bright, more pale compared to primary images. This property of representations was already pointed out by G. Ebbinghaus. See: Ebbinghaus G. Fundamentals of Psychology. - St. Petersburg, 1890.

The instability of ideas is well known to everyone from their own experience. It is expressed in the fluctuation and fluidity of secondary images. We can call this property a deficiency of constancy of representations.

Fragmentation of representations is the lack of representation of individual aspects, features, parts of an object, the image of which is given in the representation (an expression of a lack of integrity compared to images of perception).

So, in the history of psychology, different ideas about its subject have developed.

1) The soul as a subject of study. The soul as a subject of psychology was recognized by all researchers until the beginning of the 18th century, before the basic ideas and then the first system of psychology of the modern type were formed. Ideas about the soul were both idealistic and materialistic.

2) Phenomena of consciousness as a subject of psychology. In the 18th century, the place of the soul was taken by phenomena of consciousness, that is, phenomena that a person actually observes and finds in “himself”, turning to his “inner mental activity.” These are thoughts, desires, feelings, memories known to everyone from personal experience. In the middle of the 18th century, the first scientific form of psychology emerged - English empirical associationist psychology, which reached its peak in the middle of the 19th century.

3) Direct experience as a subject of psychology. The greatest success in building psychology as an independent experimental science was initially the program developed by W. Wundt. The unique subject of psychology according to Wundt is the direct experience of the subject, comprehended through introspection and introspection. This idea underlay his plan to create experimental (physiological) psychology. Wundt's ideas laid the foundation for the structural school in psychology.

4) Intentional acts of consciousness as a subject of psychology. F. Brentano bases his teaching on such qualities of consciousness as activity and objectivity. Brentano stood at the origins of the movement later called functionalism.

5) The origin of mental activities as a subject of psychology. THEM. Sechenov accepted the postulate about the kinship of the mental and physiological “according to the method of origin,” that is, according to the mechanism of completion. The subject of psychological research as such should be a process that unfolds not in consciousness (or in the sphere of the unconscious), but in an objective system of relations, the process of behavior.

6) Behavior as a subject of psychology. The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the emergence and development of behaviorism as a reaction to unsuccessful experimental studies of “physiological psychology.” The subject of behaviorism, or “behavioral psychology,” is behavior. Watson and his associates proposed a theory of learning through trial and error. Subsequently, it became obvious that in the interval between the action of the stimulus and the behavioral reactions, some kind of active processing of incoming information occurs, that these are processes without taking into account which it is impossible to explain the reaction of an animal or a person to available stimuli. This is how neo-behaviorism arises with its most important concept of “additional, or intermediate, variables.”

7) The unconscious as a subject of psychology. According to the teachings of S. Freud, human actions are controlled by deep motivations that elude clear consciousness. These deep motivations should be the subject of psychological science. The roots of human behavior are in his childhood. A fundamental role in the process of human formation and development is given to sexual instincts and drives.

8) Information processing processes and the results of these processes as a subject of psychology. Theories of the cognitive direction focus on the fact that human knowledge is not reduced to a simple sum of information received by the brain from the external environment or available to it from the moment of birth. Gestalt psychology emphasizes the initial programming of certain internal structures and their influence on perceptual and cognitive processes.

9) Personal experience of a person as a subject of psychology. Humanistic psychology departs from scientific psychology, assigning the main role to a person’s personal experience. A person, according to humanistic psychologists, is capable of self-esteem and can independently find a path to the development of his personality (self-actualization). The subjectivity of this approach makes it difficult to establish the difference between a person's opinion of himself and what he really is. The ideas of this approach turned out to be useful for psychological practice, but did not contribute anything to the theory of psychology. Moreover, the subject of research within this direction has almost disappeared.

10) Development of views on the subject of psychology of domestic authors. According to P.Ya. Galperin, the subject of psychology is orientation activity. Moreover, this concept includes not only cognitive forms of mental activity, but also needs, feelings, and will. K.K. Platonov considers mental phenomena to be the subject of psychology. This very general definition of the subject of psychology, when specified, does not contradict the above approach.

Analyzing the development of views on the subject of psychology, we can draw the following conclusions:

1) In each of the emerging directions, one of the necessary aspects of the study was emphasized. Therefore, it can be argued that all schools and areas of psychology contributed to the formation of its subject;

2) At present, it seems appropriate to eclecticly combine the “rational grains” contained in different theoretical directions and generalize them;

An essential point in this regard is the consideration of the generation of consciousness, its functioning, development and connection with behavior and activity.

In the development of psychology, three main stages can be distinguished:

1) pre-scientific, or everyday, psychology;

2) philosophical psychology: psychology of ancient times; Psychology of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Modern times (VI century BC - early XIX V. AD);

3) scientific psychology (second half of the 19th century - our time).

So, no matter how complex the paths psychological thought advances, mastering its subject, no matter what terms it is meant (soul, consciousness, psyche, activity), it is possible to identify features that characterize the subject of psychology, distinguishing it from other sciences. The subject of psychology is the natural connections of the subject with the natural and sociocultural world, imprinted in the system of sensory and mental images of this world, motives prompting action, as well as in the actions themselves, experiences of their relationships to other people and to themselves, in the properties of the individual as the core of this system .

Thus, psychological knowledge form a kind of middle center, to which both knowledge about the nervous mechanisms of the psyche and knowledge about the external conditions determining its content and structure are concentrated. The synthesis of all this knowledge must necessarily occur and is already happening today before our eyes, and the central system-forming science here is psychology, and not any other specific science that studies the mental activity of the brain. In this sense, the subject of psychology should and will become increasingly closer to its object, and psychology itself will have to remain not only a specific private science, but become a vast area of complex systemic experimental and theoretical research. However, the basis of such psychology in a broad philosophical sense The word should always remain psychology as a specific science about one of the resulting manifestations of the functioning of the most complex object of nature and society - the mental activity of the brain. In the future, psychology will not be absorbed by neuroscience, sociology, or philosophy, but will assimilate all their discoveries and achievements. It may very well be that it is really destined to become one of the most important sciences in human society

Subject and methods of psychology

The need to discuss the subject of psychology

Without a clear understanding of the subject, experimental research becomes difficult. For successful practical work of psychologists, it is also necessary to understand the subject of psychology. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand that psychologists do something significantly different compared to other specialists: doctors, teachers, etc.

If we assume the correctness of this orientation of psychological research, then this will mean that mental phenomena do not have actual psychological mechanisms and that psychology is limited to “phenomena” alone. But then the subject of psychology and its claims to an independent sphere of human knowledge disappears.

In view of the above, it seems extremely important to define the actual subject of psychology.

Traditional ideas about the subject of psychology.

The first theories put forward to explain human behavior involved factors external to the person (for example, the “shadow” that lives in the body and leaves it after death, or the gods). Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, put forward the idea of the existence of a soul that is in unity with the body and controls thoughts and feelings, which are based on the experiences accumulated throughout life.

In the history of psychology, various ideas about its subject have developed.

The soul as a subject of study.

Phenomena of consciousness as a subject of psychology.

In the 18th century, the place of the soul was taken by phenomena of consciousness, that is, phenomena that a person actually observes, finds in “himself,” turning to his “inner mental activity.” These are thoughts, desires, feelings, memories, known to everyone from personal experience. The founder of this understanding can be considered John Locke, who believed that, unlike the soul, the phenomena of consciousness are not something assumed, but actually given, and in this sense, they are the same indisputable facts of internal experience as the facts of external experience studied by other sciences.

In the middle of the 18th century, the first scientific form of psychology emerged - English empirical associationist psychology (D. Hartley).

Associative psychology reached its peak in the middle of the 19th century. The works of J. St. date back to this time. Mill, A. Ben, G. Spencer.

According to P.Ya. Galperin, the subject of psychology is orientation activity. Moreover, this concept includes not only cognitive forms of mental activity, but also needs, feelings, and will. "The subject of psychology must be strictly limited. Psychology cannot and should not study all mental activity and all aspects of each of its forms. Other sciences, no less than psychology, have the right to study them. The claims of psychology are justified only in the sense that the process of orientation is the main side of each form of mental activity and all mental life as a whole: that it is this function that justifies all its other aspects, which are therefore practically subordinate to this function" .

K.K. Platonov considers mental phenomena to be the subject of psychology. This very general definition of the subject of psychology, when specified, does not contradict the above approach.

Conclusions.

Analyzing the development of views on the subject of psychology, we can draw the following conclusions:

Each of the emerging directions emphasized one of the necessary aspects of the study. Therefore, it can be argued that all schools and areas of psychology contributed to the formation of its subject.
At present, it seems appropriate to eclectically combine the “rational grains” contained in different theoretical directions and generalize them.
As a result, we can consider that the subject of psychology is the mental processes, properties, states of a person and the patterns of his behavior. An essential point in this regard is the consideration of the generation of consciousness, its functioning, development and connection with behavior and activity.

Diagnostics and diseases. Medicines from A to Z

Subject: psychology. Different ideas about the subject of psychology

THE NEED FOR DISCUSSING THE SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY

TRADITIONAL VIEWS ABOUT THE SUBJECT OF PSYCHOLOGY

Soul as a subject of study

Phenomena of consciousness as a subject of psychology

Direct experience as a subject of psychology

Intentional acts of consciousness as a subject of psychology

The origin of mental activities as a subject of psychology

Behavior as a subject of psychology

The unconscious as a subject of psychology

Information processing processes and the results of these processes as a subject of psychology

Personal experience of a person as a subject of psychology

Development of views on the subject of psychology of domestic authors

conclusions

Literature:

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE PSYCHE

Literature:

METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

COGNITIVE PROCESSES, THEIR PLACE AND ROLE IN THE HUMAN PSYCHE

FEELING AS THE INITIAL STAGE OF COGNITION

General properties of analyzers

For sensitivity thresholds, see:

On the development of sensitivity, see:

PERCEPTION

Perception of space

Motion perception

Perception of time

Illusions of perception

Development of perception

Basic approaches to perception analysis:

PERFORMANCE

Characteristics of Views

Subject and methods of psychology

The need to discuss the subject of psychology

Traditional ideas about the subject of psychology.

The soul as a subject of study.

Phenomena of consciousness as a subject of psychology.

Conclusions.