Will in psychology

Let's introduce the main psychological characteristics will in Figure 2. Let us next consider volitional action - the basis of will.

Figure 2. “Will”

Volitional action

All human actions can be divided into two groups:

1. arbitrary,
2. involuntary.

Voluntary actions are carried out under the control of consciousness; accordingly, involuntary actions are subordinated to the unconscious.

Let us analyze the structure of volitional action.

1. Inducement to action. Usually this action is poorly understood by a person. The urge to action is associated with those emotional states that manifest themselves as a result of the emergence of a certain need.
2. Anticipating the goal of a planned action. The main characteristic of a volitional action is the receipt of a result after its completion.
3. Finding means to achieve a goal.
4. Intention to carry out an action. Without this intention, the implementation of the activity will not occur, which is why the result will not be achieved.
5. Decision to take action. There are three main types of solutions:

• habitual decisions (characteristic of simple volitional actions, these are the so-called everyday “template” decisions);
• decisions without sufficient reason (emotional hasty decisions, decisions on an unconscious basis);
• conscious decisions (decisions that are typical for volitional actions, since they are conscious).

• objective difficulties caused by characteristic features the objects and phenomena themselves; for example, physical work that requires great muscle effort: a complex algebraic problem that requires great mental effort to solve; gymnastic exercise, requiring the performer to have outstanding dexterity and coordination of movements, etc.;
• subjective difficulties caused by the characteristics of the subject himself, his existing relationships with the surrounding reality; for example, fear of doing a given physical exercise(for example, jumping into water from a height of one meter), although objectively it is not difficult; lack of love for this academic subject(for example, history), although objectively lessons on this subject do not present any particular difficulty; laziness developed in connection with certain living conditions, the habit of not bothering oneself with overcoming certain difficulties on one’s own, lack of the habit of systematic and hard work, etc.

Human behavior and activity are stimulated and regulated not only by emotions and feelings, but also by will. Will makes it possible to consciously control one’s internal mental and external physical actions in the most complex life situations. A person resorts to volitional regulation only when he needs to overcome difficulties that arise on the way to achieving his goal. In all other cases, regulation may not be volitional, but deliberate, not requiring any effort from the individual. You can perform a wide variety of complex actions, but they will not be volitional until a person forces himself to carry them out.

Volitional actions, like all conscious actions, have the same general structure. Any conscious action is stimulated by a certain motive (need). Then a goal is set, aimed at the object through which the need will be satisfied. Since several motives can arise simultaneously and they can be satisfied through different objects, there is a need to make a decision - which motive should be satisfied first of all and which object should the goal be directed towards. Next comes planning the action and choosing the means by which the goal will be achieved. The next step is to implement the action and obtain results. The action ends with an assessment of the result obtained and an understanding of whether the goal has been achieved or not.

According to this scheme, any conscious, purposeful or, as it is called, intentional action is carried out, which does not require volitional regulation. How then does a volitional action differ from an intentional one and what additional elements, in addition to those indicated above, take place in its structure?

First of all, volitional action, in contrast to intentional action, is stimulated, carried out and regulated with the participation of the will. What is will? It is difficult to answer this question. Therefore, in the latest textbooks, neither R.S. Nemov, nor V.I. Slobodchikova and E.I. There is no definition of will by Isaev. There is a definition of will only in textbook “General psychology!” 1986

“Will is a person’s conscious organization and self-regulation of his activities and behavior, aimed at overcoming difficulties in achieving his goals.” 1

This definition is too general and needs to be clarified to be used to explain volitional behavior. First of all, it is not clear what the will is as a mental phenomenon. Is it a mental process or a mental state or a personality property. Some psychologists believe that will is a mental process, others that it is a subjective state, and others that it is a mental property of the individual.

Based on the function of the will, it should be considered as a special intense subjective state of the individual that arose in extreme conditions. This tense mental state allows a person to mobilize all mental and physical resources to overcome the difficulties that arise on the way to achieving their goals. The state of mental tension manifests itself in the form of those volitional efforts that a person makes when carrying out volitional behavior.

Will is an intense mental state of the individual, mobilizing all human resources to overcome difficulties encountered on the way to achieving set goals. What changes must occur in a deliberate action for it to become volitional?

First of all, the motivational sphere changes. A motive that arises from desire is no longer enough. An additional motive is needed, which arises when it is necessary to act not as “I” want, but as “necessary”.

In this regard, the semantic assessment of the motive changes. It no longer has only a narrowly egoistic meaning, but also acquires a moral, socially significant orientation. Now a person must be guided in his behavior not by personal desires and intentions, but by a sense of duty and responsibility to other people. But it is one thing to understand that you must act accordingly, and another thing to put it into practice. This is where the will is needed to make an effort and force yourself to do as you should.

This, in turn, leads to the complexity of the second link in intentional behavior. Now the goal of the action must be related to the formulation of the problem “how to act” and what means should be used to achieve it. Sometimes a goal can be achieved very quickly if a person is guided by the principle: “All means are good to achieve the goal.” Here you also need to show a strong-willed effort in order to abandon unseemly means and take a more difficult path to achieve the goal.

Finally, the most difficult volitional efforts must be demonstrated when implementing volitional behavior, when internal and external obstacles arise during its implementation. Here, most often, it is necessary to show will in order to mobilize all mental and physical resources to overcome them.

Internal obstacles are subjective. They are associated with ingrained bad habits and negative personality traits. In order to overcome them, you need to mobilize all your strength and make a whole series of volitional efforts. For example, a student decided to improve his performance in all subjects in order to finish school well and go to college. But to achieve this goal, he needs to show a number of strong-willed efforts. First of all, he needs to overcome bad habits and inclinations: to prepare lessons haphazardly and at random, to spend time having fun, to do extraneous things during lessons, to avoid difficult tasks, not to complete them, etc.

The most important place in the problem of will is occupied by the concept of a volitional act, which has a certain structure and content. The most important parts of a volitional act—decision making and execution—often cause special emotional condition, which is described as a volitional effort.

Volitional effort is a form emotional stress, mobilizing a person’s internal resources (memory, thinking, imagination, etc.), creating additional motives for action that are absent or insufficient, and experienced as a state of significant tension. The components of a volitional act are the following main stages:
1) the presence of a goal of action and its awareness;
2) the presence of several motives and also their awareness with the formation of certain priorities between motives according to their intensity and significance. As a result of volitional effort, it is possible to slow down the action of some motives and extremely enhance the action of other motives;
3) “struggle of motives” as a clash in the process of choosing one or another action of conflicting tendencies, desires, and motivations. It becomes stronger the more weighty the opposing motives are, the more equal they are in their strength and significance. Taking a “chronic form,” the struggle of motives can give rise to personal quality indecision; in situational terms, it provokes the experience of internal conflict;
4) making a decision regarding the choice of one or another behavior option is a kind of “resolution” phase of the struggle of motives. At this stage, there is either a feeling of relief associated with resolving the situation and relieving tension (in this case they speak of “victory over oneself”), or a state of anxiety associated with uncertainty about the correctness of the decision made;
5) implementation of the decision made, embodiment of one or another course of action in one’s behavior (activity).

In most cases, decision-making and volitional behavior in general are associated with great internal tension, often acquiring a stressful nature.

The domestic classic of psychology A. N. Leontiev reveals an important component of the volitional act. He believes that volitional action is the process of victory over openly social and ideal motives in the individual system of the hierarchy of motives over object-objective ones. This means that in the struggle of motives in a fairly mature person, social motives most often win, taking precedence over biological ones. Thus, a person can force himself to eat dinner (biological action) if he knows that his wife will be pleased with this action (social motive - relationship with his wife). This effect A. N. Leontiev calls “the primacy of openly social motivation.” The same is true in relation to “ideal in form” motives, which take precedence over visual and object-based motives, according to A. N. Leontyev.

An act of will is a complex, multi-stage process, including a need (desire) that determines the motivation of behavior, awareness of the need, struggle of motives, choice of method of implementation, launch of implementation, control of implementation.

Desire, desire, will are states of consciousness that are well known to everyone, but cannot be defined in any way. We want to experience, have, do all sorts of things that we are not currently experiencing, having, or doing. If with the desire for something we are associated with the awareness that the object of our desires is unattainable, then we simply desire; if we are sure that the goal of our desires is achievable, then we want it to come true, and it comes true either immediately or after we take some preliminary actions.

The only goals of our desires that we realize immediately, directly, are the movement of our body. Whatever feelings we wish to experience, whatever possessions we strive for, we can achieve them only by making several preliminary movements for our goal. This fact is too obvious and therefore does not need examples: therefore, we can take as the starting point of our study of the will the proposition that the only immediate external manifestations are bodily movements. We now have to consider the mechanism by which volitional movements are made.

Volitional acts are voluntary functions of our body. The movements that we have considered so far belonged to the type of automatic, or reflex, acts, and, moreover, acts, the meaning of which is not foreseen by the person performing them (at least by the person performing them for the first time in his life). The movements which we now begin to study, being deliberate and knowingly constituting an object of desire, are, of course, performed with full awareness of what they should be. It follows that volitional movements represent a derivative, and not a primary function of the body. This is the first point that should be kept in mind to understand the psychology of the will. And reflex, and instinctive movement, and emotional are primary functions. The nerve centers are so constructed that certain stimuli cause their discharge in certain parts, and a being experiencing such a discharge for the first time experiences a completely new phenomenon of experience.

The main features of a volitional act:

1) applying effort to perform an act of will;

2) the presence of a well-thought-out plan for implementing a behavioral act;

3) increased attention to such a behavioral act and the lack of direct pleasure received in the process and as a result of its execution;

4) often the efforts of the will are aimed not so much at defeating circumstances, but at overcoming oneself.

Functions of the will

The will ensures the fulfillment of two interrelated functions - incentive and inhibitory - and manifests itself in them.

The incentive function is provided by human activity, which generates action due to the specific internal states of the subject, revealed at the moment of the action itself (for example: a person in need of obtaining the necessary information calls out to a friend, experiencing a state of irritation, allows himself to be rude to others, etc.).

In contrast to volitional behavior, which is characterized by unintentionality, activity is characterized by volitionality, i.e. conditioning of action by a consciously set goal. Activity may not be caused by the requirements of the momentary situation, the desire to adapt to it, to act within the boundaries of the given. It is characterized by supra-situationalism, i.e. going beyond the initial goals, the ability of a person to rise above the level of the requirements of the situation, to set goals that are redundant in relation to the original task (such as “risk for the sake of risk”, creative impulse, etc.).

According to V.A. Vannikov, the main psychological function of the will is to strengthen motivation and improve, on this basis, the conscious regulation of actions. The real mechanism for generating an additional incentive to action is a conscious change in the meaning of the action by the person performing it. The meaning of an action is usually associated with a struggle of motives and changes with certain, deliberate mental efforts.

The need for volitional action arises when an obstacle appears in the path of motivated activity. An act of will is associated with overcoming it. First, however, it is necessary to understand and comprehend the essence of the problem that has arisen.

Volitional action is always associated with the consciousness of the purpose of the activity, its significance, and the subordination of the actions performed to this purpose. Sometimes there is a need to give a special meaning to a goal, and in this case the participation of the will in the regulation of activity comes down to finding the appropriate meaning, the increased value of this activity. Otherwise, it is necessary to find additional incentives to carry out, to complete an already started activity, and then the volitional meaning-forming function is associated with the process of performing the activity. In the third case, the goal may be to teach something, and actions associated with learning acquire a volitional character.

The energy and source of volitional actions is always, in one way or another, connected with the actual needs of a person. Relying on them, a person gives conscious meaning to his voluntary actions. In this regard, volitional actions are no less determined than any others, only they are associated with consciousness, hard work of thinking and overcoming difficulties.

Volitional regulation can be included in activity at any of the stages of its implementation: initiation of activity, choice of means and methods of its implementation, adherence to the intended plan or deviation from it, control of execution. The peculiarity of the inclusion of volitional regulation at the initial moment of activity is that a person, consciously abandoning some drives, motives and goals, prefers others and implements them contrary to momentary, immediate impulses. Will in choosing an action is manifested in the fact that, having consciously abandoned the usual way of solving a problem, the individual chooses another, sometimes more difficult, and tries not to deviate from it. Finally, volitional regulation of control over the execution of an action consists in the fact that a person consciously forces himself to carefully check the correctness of the actions performed when there is almost no strength and desire left to do this. Particular difficulties in terms of volitional regulation are presented for a person by such activities where problems of volitional control arise throughout the entire path of the activity, from the very beginning to the end.

A typical case of the inclusion of will in the management of activity is a situation associated with the struggle of difficultly compatible motives, each of which requires the performance of different actions at the same moment in time. Then the consciousness and thinking of a person, being included in the volitional regulation of his behavior, look for additional incentives in order to make one of the drives stronger, to give it greater meaning in the current situation. Psychologically, this means an active search for connections between the goal and the activity being carried out with the highest spiritual values ​​of a person, consciously giving them much greater significance than they had at the beginning.

The following characteristic features of will can be distinguished:

Endurance and perseverance of will, which are characterized by the fact that energetic activity covers long periods of a person’s life striving to achieve a goal.

Fundamental consistency and constancy of will, as opposed to fickleness and inconsistency. The fundamental consistency is that all a person’s actions flow from a single guiding principle of his life, to which a person subordinates everything incidental and secondary

Criticality of the will, contrasting its easy suggestibility and tendency to act rashly. This feature lies in deep thoughtfulness and self-critical assessment of all one’s actions. Such a person can be persuaded to change his line of behavior only through well-founded argumentation.

Decisiveness, which consists in the absence of unnecessary hesitation in the conflict of motives, in quickly making decisions and boldly implementing them.

Will is characterized by the ability to subordinate one’s personal, individual aspirations to the will of the collective, the will of the class to which the person belongs.

Will

Will is a person’s conscious regulation of his behavior and activities, associated with overcoming internal and external obstacles

Will is a human ability, manifested in self-determination and self-regulation of its activities and various mental processes. Thanks to the will, a person can, on his own initiative, based on perceived need, perform actions in a pre-planned direction and with a pre-determined force. Moreover, he can organize and direct his mental activity accordingly. With an effort of will, you can restrain the external manifestation of emotions or even show the completely opposite.

The will directs or restrains a person’s activity, organizes mental activity, based on the existing tasks and requirements of both the problem situation and the specific social requirements of a particular situation. social group. Initially, the concept of will was introduced to explain motives and actions carried out by own decisions person, but not meeting his desires. Then it began to be used to explain the possibility of free choice when there is a conflict of human desires associated with the formulation of problems of free will.

main functions of the will: 1) choice of motives and goals; 2) regulation of the impulse to action in case of insufficient or excessive motivation; 3) organization of mental processes into a system adequate to the activity performed by a person; 4) mobilization of physical and mental capabilities when overcoming obstacles in achieving the goal .

For the emergence of volitional regulation, certain conditions are necessary - the presence of obstacles and obstacles. Will manifests itself when difficulties appear on the way to the goal: external obstacles - time, space, people’s opposition, physical properties objects, etc.; internal obstacles - relationships and attitudes, painful conditions, fatigue, etc. All these obstacles, reflected in consciousness, cause volitional effort, which creates the necessary tone to overcome difficulties.

Volitional act and its structure

Volitional action can be realized in simple and complex forms

In a simple act of will, the impulse to action is directed towards a more or less conscious goal and can directly turn into action. A simple act of will has two phases: 1) the emergence of an impulse and awareness of the goal; 2) achieving the goal.

A complex volitional action is characterized by an indirect conscious process: the action is preceded by taking into account its consequences, awareness of motives, and planning. Such an action requires significant effort, patience, perseverance, and the ability to organize oneself to carry out the action.

In complex volitional action, four phases are distinguished: 1) the emergence of motivation and preliminary goal setting; 2) the stage of thinking and the struggle of motives; 3) decision making; 4) execution.

1. The first, initial phase of the volitional act consists of the previous goal setting. A necessary condition for setting a goal is the emergence of a certain motive, motivation and associated aspiration. The aspiration experienced by a person can be perceived differently by her and influence her activities in different ways. Depending on the nature of his awareness, the desire can be expressed in the form of attraction, desire and desire.

The process of goal setting is associated with the emergence of a conscious effective desire or desires.

It should be noted, however, that in a complex act of will, the active desire that arises does not always immediately lead to corresponding actions and actions. This happens when a person simultaneously has several desires and motives that contradict each other. At the same time, conflicting desires may concern both the goal itself and the means of its implementation.

2. In such cases, a choice of goal and a choice of means to achieve it occurs, which is the content of the second phase of the act of will. When choosing a goal or means of influence, there is a need to discuss their acceptability, which involves weighing various arguments for and against the proposed goals or means of achieving them, requires an assessment of conflicting desires, an analysis of circumstances, reasoning, and hard work of thinking.

The choice of an accepted goal is often characterized by a pronounced struggle of motives. This struggle reflects the presence of internal obstacles in a person, conflicting motivations, desires, aspirations that collide and come into conflict with each other. For example, the desire to go for a walk with friends or stay to help your mother. . In the case where the goal is clear and acceptable, a struggle may arise between conflicting impulses about choosing one or another means of achieving the goal. For example, how to prepare for class - take notes on the question yourself or copy it.

Volitional qualities of personality and their formation

Carrying out different kinds activity, while overcoming external and internal obstacles, a person develops in himself volitional qualities that characterize him as a person and have great importance for study, work.

Strong-willed qualities include: purposefulness, determination, courage, courage, initiative, perseverance, independence, endurance, discipline.

Purposefulness is a volitional property of a person, manifested in a person’s subordination of his behavior to a sustainable life goal, readiness to devote all his strength and abilities to achieve it. This long-term goal determines private goals as necessary steps on the way to achieving the main goal; everything superfluous and unnecessary is discarded. It must be remembered, however, that for some people, determination takes an individualized direction. They also set clear goals, however, their content reflects only personal needs and interests.

Decisiveness is a strong-willed personality trait, which manifests itself in the quick and thoughtful choice of a goal and the determination of ways to achieve it. Determination is especially evident in difficult situations choices associated with risk. The opposite of this quality - indecision - can manifest itself in an endless struggle of motives, in constant revisions of an already made decision.

Courage is a person’s ability to overcome feelings of fear and confusion. Courage is manifested not only in actions when a person’s life is in danger; the brave will not be afraid of difficult work, great responsibility, and will not be afraid of failure. Courage requires a reasonable, healthy attitude to reality. True courage of a strong-willed person is overcoming fear and taking into account threatening dangers. A brave person is aware of his capabilities and thinks through his actions sufficiently.

Perseverance is a strong-willed personality trait that manifests itself in the ability to follow through decisions made, achieve your goal, overcoming any obstacles on the way to it. One should distinguish from persistence the negative quality of will—stubbornness. A stubborn person recognizes only his own opinion, his own arguments and strives to be guided by them in his actions and actions, although these arguments may be erroneous.

Self-control, or self-control, is a strong-willed personality trait that manifests itself in the ability to restrain mental and physical manifestations that interfere with achieving a goal. The opposite negative quality is impulsiveness, the tendency to act on the first impulse, hastily, without thinking about one’s actions.

Courage is a complex personality quality that presupposes not only courage, but also perseverance, endurance, self-confidence, and the rightness of one’s cause. Courage is manifested in a person’s ability to achieve a goal, despite the danger to life and personal well-being, overcoming adversity, suffering and deprivation.

Initiative is a strong-willed quality, thanks to which a person acts creatively. This is an active and bold flexibility of human actions and actions that meets the time and conditions.

Independence is a strong-willed personality trait, manifested in the ability to set goals on one’s own initiative, find ways to achieve them and practically implement decisions made. An independent person does not give in to attempts to persuade him to take actions that are not consistent with his beliefs. The opposite quality to independence is suggestibility. A suggestible person easily succumbs to the influence of others, he does not know how to think critically about other people's advice, resist them, he accepts any other people's advice, even obviously untenable ones.

Discipline is a volitional property of an individual, manifested in the conscious subordination of one’s behavior to social rules and norms. Conscious discipline is manifested in the fact that a person, without coercion, recognizes the obligation to follow labor rules, academic discipline, socialist society and fights for the implementation of them by others.

Volitional qualities, like other personality qualities, are developed in activity. What is meant here is not artificial exercises, but the training of volitional efforts in the process of performing everyday duties. An important role in the development of strong-willed qualities is played by the personal example of the leader and the requirements of the team.