Approaches to the study of human individuality. Approaches in modern psychology. Typological model of K.G. cabin boy
Main directions of studying Personality in foreign psychology
In foreign psychology, various approaches to studying Personalities:
1. Biogenetic approach puts the biological maturation of the organism as the basis for the development of Personality. Biologism appears especially clearly in Freud’s interpretation of Personality. According to his teaching, all behavior of a Personality is determined by biological drives, instincts and, first of all, sexual desires (Adler also spoke about this: the development of a child’s Personality is carried out through his identification with his parents. This makes him socialized and moral). The developing child has a constant conflict between unconscious drives and socially learned norms. Therefore, the developing Personality is potentially pathological: neurotic and complex. Freud's Personality Structure has the following levels (components):
IT– the unconscious part of the psyche, a “seething cauldron” of biological, instinctive drives: aggressive and sexual;
I- consciousness. The ego is influenced by three forces: “IT”, “Super-ego” and society makes its demands on a person. The "I" tries to establish harmony;
"Super-ego"– conscience serves as the bearer of moral standards.
To escape the conflict between “IT” and the “Super-Ego,” the “I” uses means of psychological defense: projection, rationalization, repression, etc.
2. Sociogenetic approach– a person, being born as a biological individual, becomes a Personality due to the influence of social conditions of life. Decisive importance is given to communication and psychological mutual understanding, while the economic and political relations of people and their influence on Personalities are not taken into account (Durkheim).
Another concept in this series is the so-called learning theory. The life of a Personality, its relationships are the result of reinforced learning, the assimilation of sums and skills (E. Thorndike, B. Skinner).
Very popular in foreign psychology role theory. It proceeds from the fact that every person in life plays some role intended for him alone. Depending on the role played, the nature of the Personality’s behavior and its relationship with others are determined (E. Berne). As a result, each of these theories explains the social behavior of a person, not the closed-in properties of the environment, to which a person is forced to somehow adapt, while The objective social and historical conditions of man are completely ignored.
3. Psychogenetic approach does not deny either biology or the environment, but brings to the fore the development of mental processes themselves. There are 3 currents in it:
the main part of the structure of the Personality is the conscious part of the Ego;
development occurs through life crises;
the process of Personality formation is the process of forming Ego-identity.
Concepts reflecting preference for the development of the cognitive aspects of intelligence (J. Piaget, J. Kelpie). Cognitive theories of Personality are based on the understanding of a person as “understanding, analyzing,” since a person is in information that needs to be understood, evaluated, and used.
Concepts that focus on the development of Personality in personological theory (K. Büller): development of the psyche - instinct - skill - intellect. Interpretation of the principle of integrity in the life of humans and animals; need for self-actualization.
Concepts that explain the behavior of the Personality mainly through drives and other non-rational components of the psyche - psychodynamic concept (E. Erikson):
Existential humanistic theory of Personality, where Personality acts as a unique, integral system, which represents the possibility of self-actualization. The main thing in Personality is aspiration to the future, in the realization of creative potentials, strengthening self-confidence and the possibility of achieving the “ideal self” (Rogers, Frankl - meaning is the true beginning of human behavior) + personological theories of Kretschmer, Cattell, Eysenck (factor theories).
Psychoanalysis.
Behaviorism.
Humanistic theory of Personality.
Gestalt psychology.
Personology.
Psychoanalysis– arose at the beginning of the twentieth century. Founder S. Freud. The successors of this direction were: Jung (analytical psychology), Adler (individual psychology), Horney (sociocultural theory), Fromm, Reich, etc.
The neurotic Personality, desires, actions and words that diverge from each other were studied. Those. contradictory, not integral Personality The main disadvantage of Freudianism can be considered a strong exaggeration of the role of the sexual sphere in human life and psychology. He understood man as a biological sexual being who is in a state of continuous secret struggle with a society that forces him to suppress sexual desires. Personality Structure: I (Ego), It, Super-Ego.
Behaviorism arose at the beginning of the twentieth century. Founder: John Watson. Psychology should study behavior. The personality in this case acts as an organized and relatively stable system of skills. A person is understood as, first of all, a reacting, acting, learning being, programmed for certain reactions. By changing incentives and reinforcements, you can program a person to the required behavior.
Tolman, Bandura
Behaviorism has biologized humans too much.
Humanistic Psychology of Personality– studies healthy, harmonious, self-actualized Personalities. But such Personalities make up 1–4% of the entire population.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Rogers - all behavior is regulated by a unifying motive - tendencies towards actualization (phenomenological approach..)
Gestalt psychology originated in Germany. Koehler, Levin. They put forward a program for studying the psyche from the point of view of holistic structures (Gestalt). Developed a systematic approach to mental phenomena.
Levin: it is possible to explain the behavior of a Personality in its physical and social environment by determining that short-term integral situation for each mental phenomenon (emotion, experience, action, etc.).
Those. The psyche is a whole and is not derived from elements (as in behaviorism) that exist separately and are then linked together, but, on the contrary, a separate part of the whole depends on the structural laws of this whole.
In psychological science, there are various approaches to the study of personality. Three theories are most widespread, namely: biogenetic, sociogenetic, psychogenetic (scheme No. 3).
Biogenetic theory puts the biological processes of maturation of the body as the basis for personality development.
The American psychologist of the early 20th century, S. Hall, considered the main law of development to be the biogenetic “law of recapitulation,” according to which individual development, ontogenesis, repeats the main stages of phylogenesis.
In the typological classifications developed in the 20th century by E. Kretschmer (1925), W. Sheldon (1954), an attempt was made to connect a person’s character with his physical constitution.
Biologism appears especially clearly in S. Freud’s interpretation of personality. According to his teaching, all personal behavior is determined by unconscious biological drives or instincts. Personal development occurs due to the adaptation of biological nature to life in society, the development of protective mechanisms and ways of satisfying needs agreed with the “Super-I”.
Sociogenetic theories explain personality characteristics based on the structure of society, methods of socialization, relationships with environment.
Yes, according to socialization theories, a person, being born as a biological individual, becomes an individual only due to the influence of social conditions of life. According to behaviorists (E. Thorndike, B. Skinner), personality is rather the result of a person’s interactions with the environment, leading to reward or punishment.
According to social learning theories, personality is formed in the process of interpersonal interaction.
More popular in the West is role theory. It proceeds from the fact that society offers each person a set of stable modes of behavior (roles), determined by his status. These roles leave an imprint on the nature of the individual’s behavior and his relationships with other people.
Psychogenetic approach does not deny the importance of either biology or the environment, but brings to the fore the development of mental processes themselves. Three currents can be distinguished in it.
Concepts that explain individual behavior mainly through emotions, drives and other non-rational components of the psyche are called psychodynamic(E. Erickson et al.).
Concepts that give preference to the development of the cognitive aspects of intelligence are called cognitivist(J. Piaget, J. Kelly). Cognitive approach strive to show that the formation of personality is determined by the role it assigns to control over them when perceiving external events.
Concepts that focus on the development of the individual as a whole are called personological(E. Spranger, A. Maslow). They emphasize that the basis of human nature is the tendency towards self-realization or the desire for self-expression throughout life through the choices he makes.
Domestic psychology of studying personality is based on the cultural-historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky and the theory of activity of A.N. Leontyev.
L.S. Vygotsky explains personality from the point of view of the cultural and historical development of humanity: “Personality is a social concept; it embraces the natural, historical in man. It is not born, but arises as a result of cultural development, therefore personality is a historical concept.”
The emergence of personality as a systemic quality is due to the fact that the individual, in joint activities with others, changes the world and through these changes transforms himself (A.N. Leontyev, S.L. Rubinstein). Personality is considered in the unity of the individual and the conditions of the social environment (B.G. Ananyev, A.N. Leontiev).
Personality is a relatively late product of human socio-historical and ontogenetic development. The real basis of personality is the totality of social relations to the world, those relationships that are realized in activity, or more precisely, in the totality of diverse activities. The formation of personality is the formation of a unified system of personal meanings.
The personality as a subject of interpersonal relations is considered in the unity of three sides:
1) as a relatively stable set of intra-individual qualities: individuality, motives, orientation (L.I. Bozhovich), character structure, temperamental characteristics, abilities (B.M. Teplov, V.D. Nebylitsin, V.S. Merlin);
2) as the inclusion of an individual in the space of interindividual connections, where interactions and relationships that arise in a group are perceived through a specific participant, that is, the individual as the bearer of these relationships. The personal acts as a group, as a personal one (V.A. Petrovsky);
3) as the “ideal representation” of a personality in the life activity of other people, including outside their actual interaction, as a result of the semantic transformations of the intellectual and affective-need spheres of the personality of other people actively carried out by it (V.A. Petrovsky).
Considering personality in the system of subjective relations, A. V. Petrovsky identifies 3 aspects of the interpretation of personality (3 types of attribution - attribution, endowment), three components of the personality structure:
1) intra-individual (or intra-individual) personal attribution (substructure)- personality is interpreted as a property inherent in the subject himself; the personal is interpreted as an internal property of the individual.
This is the organization of a person’s individuality, represented by the structure of temperament, character, and abilities.
At the same time, personality cannot be considered as something located only in the closed space of the individual’s body. It finds itself in the sphere of inter-individual relations, in the space of interpersonal interactions. Hence the second substructure of personality.
interindividual personal attribution- the sphere of personality definition becomes the “space of interindividual connections.”
meta-individual personal attribution- here attention is drawn to the impact that an individual has through his activities (individual and joint) on other people. In this case, personal characteristics turn out to be determined not only by the qualities of the individual, but also by the characteristics of other people.
Modern psychology believes that personality is biosocial. Biological prerequisites (type nervous system, sexual characteristics, inclinations, etc.) determine the predisposition of human development. The environment, upbringing and education of the child, and methods of socialization have a huge impact on the personality. The activity of the individual himself, which ensures interaction with the outside world and stimulates the individual’s participation in activities, is important. Thus, personality is not just a result of biological maturation or an imprint of specific living conditions, but also a subject of active interaction with the environment, during which the individual acquires personal traits.
conclusions
1. Personality is a person in the system of his stable socially conditioned psychological characteristics, which manifest themselves in social connections and relationships, determine his moral actions and social value.
2. In the psychological structure of a personality, it is customary to distinguish: orientation, abilities, temperament, character and self-awareness.
3. Personal self-awareness is the ability to distinguish oneself from the environment, to determine the attitude towards it and towards oneself.
4. Self-esteem – a person’s assessment of himself, his capabilities, qualities and place among other people.
5. In foreign psychology, the following theories have become widespread in the study of personality: biogenetic (puts the biological processes of maturation of the body as the basis for personality development), sociogenetic (explains personality characteristics based on the structure of society, methods of socialization, relationships with the environment), psychogenetic (does not deny meaning neither biology nor the environment, but the development of mental processes themselves is brought to the fore).
6. In Russian psychology, the study of personality is based on the cultural-historical concept of L.S. Vygotsky and the theory of activity of A.N. Leontyev.
Phylogeny (from the Greek phylos - tribe, race and geneticos - related to birth) is the historical development of organisms. In biology, phylogeny examines the development of a biological species over time.
Phylogenesis (from the Greek phyle - genus, tribe and genesis - birth, origin) is a concept introduced by E. Haeckel in 1866 to designate changes in the process of evolution of various forms of the organic world, i.e. species.
Questions
1. What is personality?
2. What is the whole in the personality structure, and what acts as elements?
3. How was knowledge about personality structure created?
4. What qualities are included in each substructure? What is the method of their formation?
5. What is the relationship between biological and social factors for the traits of each substructure? Why is that?
6. Why is it correct to call the personality structure dynamic?
The section "PERSONALITY" refers to the most interesting part of psychology. This section links general psychology and applied areas of psychology into a single system of knowledge. It is hardly possible to successfully engage in applied, for example, clinical or engineering psychology, without knowing the personality and its individual characteristics
. At the same time herself general psychology studying attention, memory, etc., does not make much sense if it studies only an abstract “person”, without taking into account the personal factor, without taking into account individual psychological differences. Each of us spontaneously, before opening a psychology textbook, has some everyday ideas about personality
In modern psychology, there are seven main approaches to the study of personality. Each approach has its own theory, its own ideas about the properties and structure of personality, and its own methods for measuring them. That is why in personality psychology there is still no unified understanding of personality. We can only offer some schematic definition of personality: Personality is a multidimensional and multi-level system of psychological characteristics that provide individual originality, temporary and situational stability of human behavior. Personality theory is a set of hypotheses or assumptions about the nature and mechanisms of personality development. Personality theory attempts to not only explain but also predict human behavior (Kjell and Eagler, 1997).
The main questions that personality theory must answer are the following: 1) are the main sources of personality development innate or acquired? 2) what age period is the most decisive for a person? 3) what processes are dominant in the personality structure - conscious (rational) or unconscious (irrational)? 4) does a person have free will, and to what extent does a person exercise control over his behavior, or is his behavior completely determined by factors that are beyond his consciousness? 5) is a person’s personal (inner) world subjective, or is the inner world objective and can be identified using objective methods? There are five different answers to the first of these questions.
The main source of personality development are: 1) innate biological factors - instincts, innate tendencies; 2) innate psychological factors (ideas, archetypes); 3) environmental, social factors (upbringing, teaching); 4) interaction of congenital and acquired factors; 5) subject-object interaction (activity factors).
To the second question, scientific psychologists give three different answers. The most decisive age period in personality development is: 1) the period of childhood; 2) the period of childhood and adolescence; 3) personality formation and personal changes occur throughout a person’s life.
There are also three answers to the third question. The personality structure is dominated by: 1) the unconscious; 2) conscious; 3) both processes can dominate depending on the type of behavior. On the question of free will, the opinions of psychologists are divided into three categories, namely, the individual has: 1) complete free will; 2) limited free will: 3) personal processes are completely determined.
And finally, on the fifth question, psychologists are also divided into three camps. In their opinion, the inner world of a person is: 1) completely subjective; 2) partly subjective and partly objective; 3) completely objective. Each psychological scientist adheres to certain answers to the questions posed above. Each answer represents an assumption, a hypothesis about the nature of personality. Theoretically, any combination of answers can be imagined, however, in the real science of personality, seven modern fairly stable combinations of answers have emerged, which are called approaches or theories of personality. Let's look at each approach in more detail. At the end of the presentation of each theory, we will try to give a more detailed definition of personality within the framework of each approach and give a description of the structures that make up personality, as well as theoretically answer the same Security Question, for example, why some people are more aggressive than others. You could ask about “kindness”, and about “sociability”, etc. But try to answer these questions yourself.
So, personality is a multidimensional system of properties. Usually there are three levels of analysis of personality as a psychological formation: 1) properties of individual “elements” of personality; 2) components, “blocks” of personality; 3) properties of a holistic personality. The relationship between personality traits and blocks of all three levels is called “PERSONALITY STRUCTURE”. Some theories, and sometimes different authors within the same theory, pay attention not to all levels, but mainly to one of them. The names of personality elements and blocks vary greatly from author to author. Individual properties are often called: characteristics, traits, dispositions, character traits, qualities, dimensions, factors, personality scales. Blocks – components, spheres, instances, aspects, substructures. Each theory allows you to build one or more structural models of personality. Most models are still purely speculative, and only a few, mostly dispositional, are built using modern mathematical methods.
The founder of this approach is the Austrian scientist S. Freud (1856 -1939). This approach is also known under another name: “classical psychoanalysis.” Sources of development. The main source of personality development, according to S. Freud, is innate biological factors-instincts, or more precisely, general biological energy - “LIBIDO”. Libido literally means "desires". What does a person want? Firstly, to prolong the birth (sexual drives) and, secondly, to destroy the life of oneself and others – aggressive drives (Freud, 1989). Decisive age period. According to S. Freud, personality is formed during the first six years of life. Conscious-unconscious in personality. According to S. Freud, the “unconscious” dominates the personality structure. Sexual and aggressive drives, which make up the main part of libido, are never realized by a person.
Free will. S. Freud argued that the individual does not have free will. Human behavior is completely determined by his sexual and aggressive motives, which he called “IT”. IT is something dark, biological, ignorant of laws, requiring immediate discharge of psychic energy produced by sexual and aggressive impulses. To more fully satisfy deep-seated motives, a person develops special personality structures: “EGO” and “SUPEREGO”, designed to reflect the current requirements of the physical and social environment. The EGO is the part of consciousness that seeks to express and satisfy the desires of the IT in accordance with the restrictions imposed by the external world.
SUPEREGO is an acquired system of values and norms accepted in the social environment specific person. IT, EGO and SUPEREGO are in constant conflict due to the limited amount of libidinal energy. To relieve (temporary) conflicts, the individual develops special defense mechanisms. Strong conflicts can lead a person to psychological problems and diseases.
Subjective-objective. The world of personality within this approach is completely subjective. A person is captive of his own inner world; the true content of the motive is hidden behind the “façade” of behavior. And only slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, dreams, as well as special methods can provide more or less accurate information about a person’s personality. Within the framework of psychodynamic theory, there is no clear boundary between elemental, block and holistic personality properties.
Elemental properties of personality. The basic elemental psychological properties of a personality are often called CHARACTER traits (Freud, 1989). These properties are formed in a person in early childhood. For example, in the first, so-called “ORAL” phase of development (from 0 to 1.5 years), a sharp and rude refusal of the mother to breastfeed the child forms in the child such psychological properties as “mistrust”, “over-independence” and “over-activity”, conversely, long-term feeding (more than 1.5 years) can lead to the formation of a “trusting”, “passive” and “dependent” personality. In the second (from 1.5 to 3 years), “ANAL” phase, rough punishment of a child in the process of learning toilet skills gives rise to “anal” character traits - “greed,” “cleanliness,” “punctuality.” The permissive attitude of parents towards the child's toilet problems can lead to the formation of an “unpunctual”, “generous” and even “creative” personality.
At the third, “PHALLIC”, most important stage of child development (from 3 to 6 years), the formation of the “ODIPUS COMPLEX” in boys and the “ELECTRA COMPLEX” in girls occurs. The Oedipus complex is expressed in the fact that the boy hates his father because he interrupts his first erotic desires for opposite sex(to mother). Hence the aggressive properties, law-abiding behavior associated with rejection of family and social norms, which the father symbolizes. The Electra complex (craving for the father and rejection of the mother), according to S. Freud, creates alienation in girls in the relationship between daughter and mother.
Block personality properties. Z. Freud identifies three main conceptual blocks, or levels of personality. 1) “IT” is the main structure of the personality, consisting of a set of unconscious (sexual and aggressive) impulses. IT functions according to the pleasure principle. 2) “EGO” is a set of cognitive and executive functions of the psyche that are predominantly conscious by a person, representing in a broad sense all our knowledge about real world. EGO is a structure that is designed to serve IT. Functions in accordance with the reality principle. This structure regulates the process of interaction between IT and SUPEREGO and acts as an arena of incessant struggle between them. 3) “SUPEREGO” – a structure containing social norms, attitudes, and moral values of the society in which a person lives.
The structures of IT, EGO and SUPEREGO are, according to S. Freud, in a constant struggle for psychic energy. To relieve the tension of this struggle, the EGO AND SUPEREGO develop special integral “DEFENSE MECHANISMS” that function unconsciously and hide the true content of the motives of behavior. Holistic personality traits. Defense mechanisms are integral properties of the individual. There are more than 10 defense mechanisms, which protect a person from anxiety that threatens him. Here are some of them.
1. REPLACEMENT - “throwing out” into the subconscious thoughts and feelings that cause suffering. Z. Freud believed that this defense mechanism leads a person to various forms of neurotic behavior and psychosomatic diseases. 2. PROJECTION - the process by which a person attributes his own unacceptable thoughts and feelings to other people, thus placing blame on them for his own shortcomings or failures. A clear protective manifestation of this mechanism is racial or ethnic prejudice.
3. SUBSTITUTION – redirecting aggression from a more threatening object to a less threatening one. For example, a wife, returning from work, yells at her husband (or children) for no reason. What's the matter? It turns out that her boss yelled at her at work. She cannot answer him in kind or constructively resolve this conflict. She relieves the resulting emotional tension (frustration aggression) at home, shifting the object of her aggression to any neutral object that accidentally gets in her way (in in this case, husband or children).
4. REACTIVE EDUCATION – suppression of unacceptable impulses and replacing them in behavior with opposite impulses. Who among us has not met “flattering” people? How nice it is to listen to them sometimes. But what is really happening? In fact, the person hates you and is aggressive towards you. And in order to hide this, so that you would never guess about it, he unconsciously resorts to flattery.
5. SUBLIMATION - replacement of unacceptable impulses (sexual, aggressive) in order to adapt to socially acceptable forms of behavior. According to Z. Freud, all great achievements in science, culture, and sports are the result of sublimation. Each has its own mechanisms, a set of human protective mechanisms formed during childhood. Consequently, within the framework of psychodynamic theory, personality structure is an individually different ratio of individual properties, individual blocks (instances) and defense mechanisms.
Thus, within the framework of this theory, personality is a system of sexual and aggressive motives, on the one hand, and defense mechanisms, on the other. The control question we posed above, why some people are more aggressive than others, within the framework of the theory of classical psychoanalysis, can be answered as follows: because human nature itself (in its libido) contains aggressive drives, and the structures of the EGO and SUPEREGO are not sufficiently developed to resist them.
The psychoanalytic approach is close to the psychodynamic approach discussed above and has many similarities with it. common roots. Many representatives of this approach were students of S. Freud. However, it would be wrong to consider that this approach is some new, more advanced stage in the development of classical psychoanalysis by S. Freud. Ego is a qualitatively different approach and is based on a number of new theoretical positions. The most prominent representative of this approach is the Swiss researcher K. Jung (1875 -1961).
Sources of development. K. Jung considered innate psychological factors to be the main source of development. A person inherits from his parents ready-made primary ideas - “ARCHETYPES”. Some archetypes are universal, for example, the ideas of God, good and evil, and are common to all peoples. But there are culturally and individually specific archetypes. C. Jung suggested that archetypes are reflected in dreams, fantasies and are often found in the form of symbols used in art, literature, architecture and religion (Jung, 1994). According to K. Jung, the meaning of each person’s life is to fill the innate ARCHETYPES with specific content. Decisive age period. According to K. Jung, personality is formed throughout life. He did not single out any special period in personality development.
Conscious-unconscious. According to K. Jung, the structure of personality is dominated by the “unconscious”, the main part of which is the “COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS”, the totality of all innate archetypes. In the process of interaction of a person with the social environment, the “INDIVIDUALS CONSCIOUS” is formed, where thoughts, feelings, memories and sensations function, thanks to which we are aware of ourselves. "COMPLEXES", or emotionally charged thoughts and feelings, repressed from consciousness constitute the "INDIVIDUALIZED UNCONSCIOUS". In case of violation of internal harmony between the collective unconscious, individual unconscious and individual conscious, psychological disorders may occur
Free will. K. Jung believed that the individual has limited free will. Human behavior is actually subject to his innate archetypes, or collective unconscious. Subjective-objective. The inner world of a person, within the framework of this theory, is completely subjective. A person is capable of revealing his world only through his dreams and relationships with symbols of culture and art. The true content of personality is hidden from an outside observer. In the psychoanalytic approach, there is also no clear boundary between elemental, block and holistic personality properties.
Elemental properties of personality. The main elements of personality are the psychological properties of the individual realized “ARCHETYPES” of a given person. These properties are also often called character traits. For example, the properties of the “PERSONA” archetype (mask) are all our psychological characteristics, the roles that we flaunt to other people. The properties of the SHADOW archetype are our true psychological feelings that we hide from people (Jung, 1994). But the psychological properties associated with the archetypes "ANIMUS" - "ANIMA" (Spirit - Soul). Animus – properties of male behavior. This is what properties a man should have in society. Be courageous, firm, brave. Protect, guard, hunt, etc. Anima is the properties of a man’s inner world, which is opposite to the external psychological appearance of a man.
If on the surface a man shows cruelty, hardness, and aggressiveness, then inside himself a man is gentle, soft, and caring. For women it’s the other way around. Anima (kindness, tenderness) is on the surface, and Animus (cruelty, aggressiveness) is inside. Block personality properties. The analytical model distinguishes three main conceptual blocks, or areas of personality. 1) “COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS” – the basic structure of personality, in which the entire cultural and historical experience of humanity is concentrated, presented in the human psyche in the form of inherited archetypes.
2) “INDIVIDUALS UNCONSCIOUS” – a set of “COMPLEXES”, or emotionally charged thoughts and feelings, repressed from consciousness. An example of a “complex” is the “power complex,” when a person spends all his mental energy on activities directly or indirectly related to the desire for power, without realizing it. 3) “INDIVIDUALS CONSCIOUS” – a structure that serves as the basis of self-awareness and includes those thoughts, feelings, memories and sensations through which we become aware of ourselves and regulate our conscious activity.
Holistic personality traits. The integrity of the individual is achieved through the action of the archetype - “SELF”. The main goal of this archetype is the “INDIVIDUATION” of a person, or the exit from the collective unconscious. This is achieved due to the fact that the Self organizes, coordinates, integrates all the structures of the human psyche into a single whole and creates the uniqueness of the life of each individual person. The Self has two ways, two settings for such integration. "EXTRAVERSION" is an attitude that consists in filling innate archetypes with external information (object orientation). The whole life of such a person is aimed at the outside world. Another, opposite attitude - "INTROVERSION" - is an orientation towards the inner world, towards one's own experiences (the subject).
If you avoid people and enjoy reading a book by yourself, then you are more of an INTROVERT. In reality, in every person, according to C. Jung, there is both an extrovert and an introvert at the same time. However, the degree of their severity can be completely different for each person. Moreover, C. Jung identified four more subtypes of information processing: mental, sensual, sensing and intuitive, the dominance of one of which gives originality to a person’s extroverted or introverted attitude. Thus, in K. Jung’s typology, eight personality subtypes can be distinguished. As an example, here are the characteristics of two personality types: 1. Extroverted thinker - focused on studying the outside world, practical, interested in obtaining facts, logical, a good scientist. 2. Introverted thinker - interested in understanding his own ideas, reasonable, struggles philosophical problems, seeks the meaning of his own life, keeps his distance from people.
Consequently, according to analytical theory, personality structure is the individual uniqueness of the relationship between individual properties of archetypes, individual blocks of the “unconscious” and “conscious,” as well as extroverted or introverted personality attitudes. Thus, according to the psychoanalytic approach, personality is a set of innate and realized archetypes. The answer to our test question, why some people are more aggressive than others, can be theoretically formulated as follows: because they were born with the appropriate archetypes (warrior, criminal, etc.) and the social environment allowed them to “fill” these archetypes.
There are two main directions in the humanistic approach. The first – “clinical” (focused primarily on the clinic) is presented in the views of the American psychologist C. Rogers (1902 -1987). The founder of the second - “motivational” direction is the American researcher A. Maslow (1908 -1970). Despite some differences between these two areas, they have much in common. Sources of development. Representatives of humanistic psychology consider innate tendencies towards “SELF-ACTUALIZATION” to be the main source of development. Personal development is the “unfolding” of these innate tendencies. According to K. Rogers, there are two innate tendencies in the human psyche. The first, which he called “SELF-ACTUALIZING TENDENCY,” initially contains in a “collapsed” form the future properties of a person’s personality.
The second - "ORGANISM TRACKING PROCESS" - is a mechanism for monitoring the development of personality. Based on these tendencies, in the process of development a person develops a special personal “STRUCTURE OF THE SELF”, which includes the “IDEAL SELF” and the “REAL SELF”. These substructures of the “structure of the self” are in complex relationships - from complete harmony (congruence) to complete disharmony (Rogers, 1994). The goal of life, according to K. Rogers, is to realize your full innate potential, to be a “FULLY FUNCTIONING PERSON,” that is, to be a person who uses all his abilities and talents, realizes his potential and moves towards full knowledge of himself, his experiences, following its true nature. A. Maslow identified two types of needs that underlie personal development: “DEFICITY NEEDS,” which cease after their satisfaction, and “GROWTH NEEDS,” which, on the contrary, only intensify after their implementation.
There are also needs that are intermediate in content - “NEEDS FOR BELONGING”, associated with the need for other people. A. Maslow formulated the law of progressive development of motivation, according to which a person’s motivation develops progressively: movement to more high level occurs when lower-level needs are (mostly) satisfied. In other words, if a person is hungry (first level of needs) and does not have a roof over his head (second level of needs), then it is difficult for this person to start a family (third level of needs), much less have self-respect (fourth level) or engage in creativity ( fifth level).
The most important needs for a person are the needs of the fifth level - the needs for self-actualization. Self-actualization is not the final state of human perfection. No person becomes so self-actualized that he gives up all motives. Each person always has talents for further development. A person who has reached the fifth level is called a “PSYCHOLOGICALLY HEALTHY PERSONALITY” (Maslow, 1999). Decisive age period. According to humanists, personality is formed and develops throughout life. The tendency towards self-actualization is the process of a person realizing his potential throughout his life. The early periods of life (childhood and adolescence), however, play a special role for humanists.
. At birth, both substructures of the “STRUCTURE OF I” are completely congruent (coincide), and therefore the person is initially kind and happy. Subsequently, the “structure of the self” becomes more complex due to interaction with the environment. Discrepancies between the “real self” and the “ideal self” in a child can lead to a distorted perception of the reality of “SUBSCEPTION”, in the terminology of K. Rogers. With strong and prolonged discrepancies between the “real self” and the “ideal self,” psychological problems may arise. Conscious-unconscious in personality. According to humanists, rational processes dominate in personality, where the “unconscious” arises only temporarily, when for one reason or another the process of self-actualization is blocked.
Free will. Humanists believe that the individual has complete free will. A person is aware of himself, aware of his actions, makes plans, searches for the meaning of life. Man is the creator of his own personality, the creator of his own happiness. Subjective-objective. The inner world of a person, his thoughts, feelings and emotions for humanists is not a direct reflection of the world of reality. Each person interprets reality in accordance with his subjective perception. The inner world of a person is fully accessible only to himself. The basis of human actions is subjective perception and subjective experiences. Only subjective experience is the key to understanding the behavior of a particular person. In the humanistic approach to the study of personality, identifying structural levels is even more difficult. The “elements” and “blocks” of personality actually coincide here. The main emphasis is on describing the holistic properties of a person.
Elemental and block properties of personality. The main conceptual “units” of personality are: 1. “REAL SELF” – the totality of thoughts, feelings and experiences “here and now” (Rogers, 1994). 2. “IDEAL SELF” – a set of thoughts, feelings and experiences that a person would like to have in order to realize his personal potential. 3. “SELF-ACTUALIZATION NEEDS” – innate needs that determine the growth and development of the individual (Maslow, 1997).
Although the “Real Self” and the “Ideal Self” are rather vague concepts, nevertheless, there is a way to measure their conjugacy, or CONGRUENCE. A high congruence rate indicates a relatively high harmony of the “Real Self” and the “Ideal Self” (high “SELF-ESTEEM,” etc.). With low values of congruence (low self-esteem), a high level of anxiety and signs of depression are noted. Students with high self-esteem, in case of failure (for example, failure in an exam), try to establish contact with the teacher and retake the subject again. With repeated attempts, their performance only improves. Students with a low level of self-esteem refuse further attempts to overeat the exam, exaggerate their difficulties, avoid situations where they could express themselves, and more often suffer from loneliness.
The levels of human needs also act as personality blocks in this theory. In A. Maslow’s well-known 5-level pyramid of motivation, needs are arranged as follows: l-th level- “physiological” (needs for food, sleep); Level 2 - “security needs” (need for an apartment, work). The needs of these two levels are considered “scarce”; Level 3 – intermediate (“needs for belonging”), which reflect the needs of one person in another person, for example, in starting a family. They are followed by “growth” needs: level 4 – level of self-esteem (need for self-esteem, competence, dignity); Level 5 - needs for “self-actualization” (“meta-needs” for creativity, beauty, integrity, etc.).
Holistic personality traits. Personal integrity is achieved when the congruence between the “Real Self” and the “ideal Self” approaches one. The integrity of the individual is the main condition for the existence of a “FULLY FUNCTIONING PERSON”. The meaning of education and personality correction is the development of a holistic personality. A holistic personality: 1) STRIVES TO ESTABLISH GOOD PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTACT WITH HIS FRIENDS AND RELATIVES, TO DISCOVER THEIR HIDDEN EMOTIONS AND SECRETS; 2) KNOWS CLEARLY WHO SHE REALLY IS (REAL SELF) AND WHO SHE WOULD LIKE TO BE (IDEAL SELF); 3) IS OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCES AS MAXIMUM AND ACCEPTS LIFE AS IT IS “HERE AND NOW”; 4) PRACTICES "UNCONDITIONAL TREATMENT" TO ALL PEOPLE; 5) TRAINS “EMPATHY” FOR OTHER PEOPLE IN HIMSELF, i.e. TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE INNER WORLD OF ANOTHER PERSON AND LOOK AT THE OTHER PERSON WITH HIS EYES.
According to A. Maslow, only that personality becomes holistic, which has reached the top of the motivational pyramid, that is, self-actualized. A holistic personality received from A. Maslow the name “PSYCHOLOGICALLY HEALTHY PERSONALITY”, which is characterized by: 1) EFFECTIVE PERCEPTION OF REALITY; 2) SPONTANEOUSNESS, SIMPLICITY AND NATURAL BEHAVIOR; 3) ORIENTATION TO SOLVING THE PROBLEM, TO THE BUSINESS; 4) CONSTANT "CHILDHOOD" OF PERCEPTION; 5) FREQUENT EXPERIENCES OF “PEAK” FEELINGS, ECSTASY; 6) SINCERE DESIRE TO HELP ALL HUMANITY; 7) DEEP INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS; 8) HIGH MORAL STANDARDS.
Consequently, according to humanistic theory, personality structure is the individual relationship between the “Real Self” and the “Ideal Self,” as well as the individual level of development of self-actualization needs. Within the framework of the humanistic approach, personality is the inner world of the human “I” as a result of self-actualization. Answering the control question posed above, why some people are more aggressive than others, humanists answer as follows: because, due to certain circumstances, a temporary block arose in the path of their growth and development (a sharp discrepancy between the “real self” and the “ideal self” , stuck at lower levels of needs), by removing which they can return to normal (non-aggressive) behavior again.
The cognitive (from the Latin “cognatio” - I think, I think) approach to the study of personality is close to the humanistic one. However, it has a number of significant differences. The founder of this approach is the American psychologist J. Kelly (1905 -1967). According to this author, the only thing a person wants to know in this life is what happened to him and what will happen to him in the future. Sources of development. The main source of personality development, according to J. Kelly, is the environment, the social environment. Cognitive theory of personality emphasizes the influence of intellectual processes on human behavior. In this theory, any person is compared to a scientist who tests hypotheses about the nature of things and makes predictions about future events. Any event for any person is open to multiple interpretations.
The main concept in this direction is “CONSTRUCTION” (from the English “construct” - to build). This concept includes the features of all known cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking and speech). Thanks to these constructs, a person not only understands the world, but also, according to J. Kelly, establishes interpersonal relationships. The constructs that underlie these relationships are called personality constructs (Francella & Bannister, 1987). J. Kelly discovered and described the basic mechanisms of the functioning of personal constructs. He formulated one basic postulate and 11 consequences. The main postulate states that personal processes are psychologically canalized in such a way as to provide a person with maximum prediction of events. All other corollaries clarify this basic postulate.
. Let's look at some of them. For example, a consequence called “interpretation” specifies how a person predicts events. According to J. Kelly, a person updates the construct that was most often used in the past in a similar situation to make a decision. Imagine that an unknown person walks into your classroom. Five minutes later he left without saying a word to anyone. Ask a friend what each of you would say about this person. One of you will claim that he is probably an athlete (the stranger was wearing sportswear). Another will say that he is a musician (he has long fingers). And the third will insist that the stranger is an intellectual (he has unusual glasses), etc. Thus, everyone looked at the stranger “with their own eyes” and saw what was important in similar situations in the past.
From the point of view of J. Kelly, each of us builds and tests hypotheses, in a word, solves the problem of whether a given person is athletic or non-athletic, musical or non-musical, intelligent or non-intelligent, etc., using the appropriate construct (classifier). Each construct has a “dichotomy” (two poles): in this case, “sports-non-sports”, “musical-non-musical”. A person arbitrarily chooses that pole of a dichotomous construct, that outcome that better describes the event, i.e., has the best prognosis. Some constructs are suitable for describing only a narrow range of events, while others have a wide range of applicability. For example, the construct “smart-stupid” is hardly suitable for describing the weather, but the construct “good-bad” is suitable for virtually all occasions
According to J. Kelly, to the extent that one person uses construct subsystems that are similar to the construct subsystems of another person, to the same extent that person has similar personality processes. This means that friendship, love and generally normal relationships between people are possible only when people have similar constructs. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a situation where two people communicate successfully, one of whom is dominated by the “decent-dishonest” construct, and the other has no such construct at all.
Decisive age period. According to J. Kelly, personality is formed and develops throughout life. The constructive system is not a static formation, but is in constant change under the influence of experience. Conscious-unconscious in personality. According to cognitive scientists, personality is predominantly dominated by the “conscious”. The “unconscious” can only refer to distant (subordinate) constructs that a person rarely uses when interpreting perceived events.
Free will. J. Kelly believed that a person has limited free will. The constructive system that a person has developed over the course of his life contains certain limitations. However, he did not believe that human life is determined and fatal. In any situation, a person is able to construct alternative predictions. The outside world is neither evil nor good, but the way we construct it in our heads. Ultimately, according to cognitive scientists, a person’s fate is in his hands.
Subjective-objective. The inner world of a person is subjective and, according to cognitivists, is his own creation. Each person perceives and interprets external reality through his own inner world. The cognitive approach to the study of personality focuses on describing the elements of personality. Block and whole properties are essentially merged.
Elemental properties of personality. The main conceptual element is the personal “construct”. A construct is a kind of classifier-template for our perception of other people and ourselves (smart-stupid, strong-weak, good-bad, etc.). People differ not only in the number of constructs (some have ten, like the “cannibal” Ellochka, while others have several thousand), but also in their location. Those constructs that are actualized in consciousness faster are called “superordinate”, and those that are slower are called “subordinate”. For example, if, having met a person, you immediately evaluate him in terms of whether he is “smart” or “stupid”, and only then - “kind” or “evil”, then your construct “smartstupid” is "superordinate", the construct "good-evil" - "subordinate".
Block personality properties. Each person has his own own system personal constructs, which is divided into two levels (blocks). 1. The block of “nuclear” constructs is approximately 50 basic constructs that are at the top of the construct system, i.e., in the constant focus of operational consciousness. A person uses these constructs most often when interacting with other people. 2. The block of peripheral constructs is all other constructs. The number of these constructs is purely individual and can vary from hundreds to several thousand.
Holistic personality traits. These properties act as a result of the joint functioning of both blocks, all constructs. There are two types of holistic personality: 1) COGNITIVELY COMPLEX PERSONALITY - this is a personality that has a large number of constructs. 2) COGNITIVELY SIMPLE PERSONALITY is a personality with a small set of constructs. A cognitively complex person, compared to a cognitively simple person, has: 1) BETTER MENTAL HEALTH; 2) COPES STRESS BETTER; 3) HAS A HIGHER LEVEL OF SELF-ESTEEM; 4) MORE ADAPTABLE TO NEW SITUATIONS.
There are special methods for assessing personal constructs (their quality and quantity). The most famous of them is the “REPERTORY GRID TEST” (Francella, Bannister, 1987). The subject simultaneously compares triads with each other (three people, the list and sequence of triads is compiled in advance from people who play an important role in the past or present life of this subject) in order to identify such psychological characteristics that two have (from the data of the three people being compared), but missing from the third person. For example, you have to compare the teacher you love, your wife (or husband) and yourself. You think, for example, that you and your teacher have a common psychological quality - sociability, but your spouse does not have such a quality. Consequently, in your constructive system there is such a construct - “sociality-unsociability”.
Next, you have to compare three other people, etc. Thus, by comparing yourself and other people with each other, you reveal the system of your own personal constructs. People who have a large number of identical constructs, that is, those who perceive and interpret the world in a similar way, are much faster at establishing closer friendships or family relationships. Thus, if you are looking for a close friend, try to compare your construct system with the construct system of your friends. Groups of people (teams, and a family is also a collective) that have similar structural systems, when performing joint activities, have fewer conflicts and work more efficiently. Consequently, according to the cognitive theory of personality, personality structure is an individually unique hierarchy of constructs.
Thus, within the framework of this approach, personality is a system of organized personal constructs in which a person’s personal experience is processed (perceived and interpreted). To our control question, why some people are more aggressive than others, cognitive scientists answer this way: because aggressive people have a special constructive personality system. They perceive and interpret the world differently, in particular, they better remember events associated with aggressive behavior.
This approach also has other names - “behaviourist” or “scientific”, since the main thesis of this approach states that our personality is a product of lifetime learning. There are two main directions in the behavioral approach to the study of personality - “reflex” and “social”. The reflex direction is represented by the works of famous American behaviorists (from English behavior - behavior) - J. Watson (1878 -1958) and B. Skinner (1904 -1990). The founders of the second direction are American researchers: A. Bandura (born 1925) and J. Rotter (born 1916).
Sources of development. The main source of personality development, according to this approach, regardless of direction, is the environment in the broadest sense of the word. Personality has nothing of genetic or psychological inheritance. Personality is a product of learning, and its properties are generalized behavioral “REFLEXES” and “SOCIAL SKILLS”. From the point of view of behaviorists, it is possible, to order, to form any type of personality - a worker or a bandit, a poet or a merchant. For example, according to J. Watson, all emotional properties of a person (fear, anxiety, joy, anger, etc.) are the result of the development of “CLASSICAL CONDITIONED REFLEXES.”
J. Watson did not make any distinction between the development of the salivary reflex in a dog (remember the work of I.P. Pavlov) and the development of emotional reactions in humans. The second representative of the “reflex” direction, B. Skinner, argued. that personality is a set of social skills formed as a result of “OPERANT” learning. Operant Skinner called any change in the environment as a result of any motor act of a person. A person tends to perform those operants that will be followed by reinforcement, and avoids performing those operants that will be followed by punishment. Thus, as a result of a certain system of reinforcements and punishments, a person acquires new social skills, and, accordingly, new personality traits - kindness or honesty, aggressiveness or altruism (Godefroy, 1992; Skinner, 1978).
According to representatives of the second direction, an important role in the development of personality is played not so much by external as by internal factors, for example, expectation, goal, significance, etc. A. Bandura called human behavior determined by internal factors “SELF-REGULATION”. The main task of self-regulation is to ensure “SELF-EFFICACY”, i.e. to perform only those forms of behavior that a person can implement, relying on internal factors in this moment. Internal factors operate according to their own “internal” laws, although they arose from past experience as a result of learning through imitation (Hjell and Ziegler, 1997).
The second representative of the “social-scientific” direction, J. Rotter, is an even greater “cognitivist” than A. Bandura. To explain human behavior, J. Rotter introduces a special concept “BEHAVIORAL POTENTIAL”, which means a measure of the likelihood of what behavior a person will perform in a given situation. According to J. Rotter, the potential of behavior consists of two components: the “SUBJECTIVE SIGNIFICANCE” of the reinforcement of a given behavior (i.e., how valuable and significant the upcoming reinforcement is for a person) and the “AVAILABILITY” of a given reinforcement (i.e., how much the upcoming reinforcement is in a given situation can be implemented).
Decisive age period. According to behaviorists, personality is formed and develops throughout life as it is socialized, raised and taught. However, they view the early years of a person's life as more important. The basis of any knowledge and abilities, including creative and spiritual ones, in their opinion, is laid in childhood. Behavioral theory states that any person can be taught any behavior and, accordingly, can be weaned from any unwanted reactions, including painful ones.
Conscious-unconscious in personality. According to behaviorists, rational and irrational processes are represented equally in personality. Their opposition makes no sense. It all depends on the type and complexity of the behavior. In some cases, a person can clearly understand his actions and behavior, in others he cannot. Free will. According to behavioral theory, a person is almost completely deprived of free will. Our behavior is determined by external circumstances. We often behave like puppets and are not aware of the consequences of our behavior, since the social skills we have learned and the reflexes from long-term use have long been automated.
Subjective-objective. The inner world of a person is objective. Everything about him is from the environment. Personality is completely objectified in behavioral manifestations. There is no “façade”. Our behavior is our personality. Behavioral traits of personality are amenable to operationalization and objective measurement. In the behavioral approach, there are three levels of properties, however, as in the case of the approaches described above, clear boundary missing between levels. Elemental properties of personality. The elements of personality here are “REFLEXES” or “SOCIAL SKILLS”. It is postulated that the list of social skills (i.e., properties, characteristics, personality traits) inherent in a particular person is determined by his social experience (learning). Personality properties and the requirements of a person’s social environment coincide. If you were raised in a kind, calm family, and were encouraged to be kind and calm, then you will have the characteristics of a kind and calm person.
And if you are sad and sad, or are characterized by increased vulnerability, then this is not your “fault”, you are a product of society, a product of upbringing. Well, if you like poetry, then here too, there is no merit in this. Family, street, school, etc. developed your love for this type of art. Your profession - present or future - is also a consequence of your upbringing, which included a certain system of reinforcements and punishments. It is important to emphasize that the problem of reinforcement among behaviorists is not limited to food. Representatives of this school of thought argue that humans have their own ecologically valid hierarchy of reinforcements.
For a child, the most powerful reinforcement, after food, is “active” reinforcement (watch TV, video), then “manipulative” (play with a toy, draw), followed by “possessive” (from the English word possess) reinforcement (sit on father’s chair, put on mother’s skirt), and finally, social reinforcement - praise, hug, encourage the child, etc. If, within the framework of the “reflex” direction of behavioral theory, the existence of certain personality blocks is actually denied, then representatives of the “social-scientific” direction believe isolating such blocks is quite possible.
Block personality properties. In the behavioral model, there are three main conceptual blocks of personality. The main block of personality, according to A. Bandura, is “SELF-EFFICACY”. Self-efficacy is a kind of cognitive construct “I can - I can’t.” A. Bandura himself defined this structure as “faith,” “belief,” or “expectation” of receiving future reinforcement. This block determines the success of performing a certain behavior, or the success of mastering new social skills. If a person makes a decision “I can,” then he begins to perform a certain behavior, but if a person makes a verdict “I can’t,” he refuses to perform this action, or to learn it. For example, if you decide that you cannot learn Chinese, then no force will force you to do it. And if you decide that you can do it, then sooner or later you will learn it
According to A. Bandura, there are four main conditions that determine the formation of a person’s confidence that he “can” or “cannot” do something: 1) past experience (knowledge, skills); for example, if I could before, then apparently I can now; 2) self-instruction; for example, I can do it!; 3) increased emotional mood (alcohol, music, love); 4) and, finally, the most important condition - observation, modeling (imitation) of the behavior of other people (observation of real life, watching movies, reading books, etc.); for example, if others can do it, then I can too!
According to J. Rotter, there are two main internal blocks of personality: 1) “SUBJECTIVE SIGNIFICANCE” - a structure that evaluates the value of upcoming reinforcement. 2) “AVAILABILITY” - a structure associated with the expectation (probability) of receiving reinforcement based on past experience. These blocks do not function independently, but form a more general block called the “BEHAVIORAL POTENTIAL” or “COGNITIVE MOTIVATION” block (Kjell and Ziegler, 1997).
The holistic properties of a personality are manifested in the unity of action of blocks of subjective significance and accessibility. People who do not see a connection (or see a weak connection) between their behavior (their efforts, their actions) and their results (reinforcements), according to J. Rotter, have an external, or external “LOCUS OF CONTROL”. “EXTERNALS” are people who do not control the situation and hope for “maybe” in their lives. Externals usually reason like this: “maybe you’ll get lucky.” People who see a clear connection between their behavior (their efforts, their actions) and the results of their behavior have an internal, or internal locus of control.
“INTERNALS” are people who manage the situation, control it, it is available to them. Internal: 1) PREPARES DEFINITELY FOR CLASSES; 2) BELIEVES THAT IF HE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN HIS LIFE, IT IS BECAUSE HE WORKED HARD FOR IT; 3) MAKES A PLAN FOR FUTURE ACTIVITIES; 4) CAN LEARN ALMOST EVERYTHING IF HE WANTS IT; 5) DOES NOT SET HIMSELF IMPOSSIBLE GOALS; 6) HAS HIGHER SELF-ESTEEM; 7) LESS SUPPOSED TO DEPRESSIVE MOODS.
Consequently, according to behavioral theory, personality structure is a complexly organized hierarchy of reflexes or social skills, in which the leading role is played by the internal blocks of self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility. Thus, within the framework of this approach, personality is a system of conditioned social skills and reflexes, on the one hand, and a system of internal factors: self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility, on the other. The answer to our control question, why some people are more aggressive than others, within the framework of this theory is formulated as follows: because in the process of upbringing these people were rewarded for aggressive behavior, their environment (family, etc.) consisted of aggressive people , but aggressive behavior itself is subjectively significant and accessible for them.
This approach is most widespread in Russian psychology. Among the researchers who made the greatest contribution to its development, one should name, first of all, A. N. Leontiev (1903 -1979), S. L. Rubinstein (1889-1960), K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya and A. V. Brushlinsky and etc. This approach has a number of common features with the behavioral approach to the study of personality, especially with its “social scientific” direction, as well as with humanistic and cognitive theories of personality. Sources of development. This approach denies the biological and, especially, psychological inheritance of personal properties. The main source of personality development, according to this theory, is “ACTIVITY”. Activity is understood as a complex dynamic system of interactions between the “SUBJECT” (an active person) and the world (with society), in the process of which personality properties are formed (Leontyev, 1975).
The formed personality (“internal”) in the future” becomes a mediating link through which the “external” influences a person (Rubinstein, 1997). The fundamental difference between activity theory and behavioral theory is that the means of learning here is not a reflex, but a special mechanism "INTERIORIZATION", thanks to which the assimilation of socio-historical experience occurs. The main characteristics of activity are "SUBJECTIVENESS" and "SUBJECTIVENESS". The specificity of objectivity is that the objects of the external world do not influence the subject directly, but only after being transformed in the process of the activity itself.
. Objectivity is a characteristic that is inherent only in human activity and manifests itself, first of all, in the concepts of language, social roles, and values. Unlike A. N. Leontiev, S. L. Rubinstein and his followers emphasize that the activity of the individual (and the personality itself) is understood not as a special type of mental activity, but as real, objectively observable practical (and not symbolic), creative, independent activity of a particular person (Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, 1980; Brushlinsky, 1994). Subjectivity means that a person himself is the bearer of his activity, his own source of transformation of the external world, reality. Subjectivity is expressed in intentions, needs, motives, attitudes, relationships, goals that determine the “DIRECTION” and selectivity of activity, in “PERSONAL MEANING,” i.e., the meaning of the activity for the person himself.
Decisive age period. Representatives of the activity approach believe that personality is formed and develops throughout life to the extent that a person continues to play a social role and be included in social activities. A person is not a passive observer, he is an active participant in social transformations, an active subject of education and training. Childhood and adolescence, however, are considered in this theory as more important for the formation of personality. Representatives of this theory believe in positive changes human personality as social progress progresses.
Conscious-unconscious in personality. According to representatives of this approach, the “conscious” occupies the main place in personality, and the structures of consciousness are not given to a person initially, but are formed in early childhood in the process of communication and activity. The unconscious occurs only in the case of automated operations. The consciousness of an individual completely depends on social existence, its activities, on social relations and the specific conditions in which it is included. Free will. According to this theory, a person has limited free will. Freedom is a recognized necessity. A person has free will only to the extent that socially acquired properties of consciousness allow it, for example, REFLECTION, internal DIALOGISM.
Elemental properties of personality. The elements of personality are individual properties, or personality traits. Within the framework of this approach, it is generally accepted that personality properties are formed as a result of ACTIVITY, which is always carried out in a specific socio-historical context (Leontyev, 1975). In this regard, personality traits are considered socially (normatively) determined. For example, such a property as “persistence” is formed in such types of activities as the subject of independence, where he shows independence. A persistent person acts boldly, actively, defends his rights to independence and demands that others show it. The property of “decency” is formed in such types of activities in which the subject showed a sense of responsibility, commitment, conscientiousness, stability of moral principles and stability of moral assessments. The list of personality properties is virtually limitless and is determined by the variety of activities in which a person is included as a SUBJECT (Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, 1980).
Block personality properties. The number of personality blocks and their content largely depends on the theoretical views of the author. Some authors, for example, L.I. Bozhovich (Bozhovich, 1997), distinguishes only one central block in the personality - the MOTIVATIONAL SPHERE OF THE PERSONALITY. Other authors include in the personality structure those properties that are usually considered within the framework of other approaches, for example, behavioral or dispositional. Thus, K.K. Platonov (Platonov, 1986) includes in the personality structure such blocks as “knowledge, skills” acquired through experience, through training (this substructure is typical for the behavioral approach), as well as the “temperament” block, which is considered as one of the most important blocks of personality within the dispositional approach.
The most popular structural model is a 4-component model of personality: 1) “DIRECTION” is a system of stable preferences and motives (interests, ideals, attitudes) of an individual, orienting the dynamics of its development, setting the main tendencies of behavior. A person with a pronounced focus is hardworking and purposeful. 2) “ABILITIES” are individual psychological properties that ensure the success of activities. There are general and special (musical, mathematical, etc.) abilities. Abilities are interconnected. One of the abilities is leading, while the others play a supporting role. People differ not only in the level of general abilities, but also in the combination of special abilities. For example, a good musician can be a bad mathematician and vice versa.
3) “CHARACTER” is a set of moral and volitional properties of a person. Moral qualities include: sensitivity or callousness in relationships with people, responsibility in relation to public duties, modesty. Moral and moral properties reflect the individual’s ideas about the basic “normative” actions of a person, enshrined in habits, customs and traditions. Volitional qualities include: determination, perseverance, courage and self-control, which provide a certain style of behavior and a way of solving practical problems.
Based on the severity of a person’s moral and volitional properties, the following types of character are distinguished: a) moral-volitional. A person with this character is socially active, constantly observes social norms and makes volitional efforts to comply with them. They say about such a person that he is decisive, persistent, courageous, honest; b) immoral-volitional. A person with such a character does not recognize social norms, and directs all his volitional efforts to satisfy his own goals; c) moral-abulic (abulia – lack of will). People with such a character recognize the usefulness and importance of social norms, however, being weak-willed, they often, unwillingly, commit antisocial acts due to circumstances.
d) immoral-abulic. People with this type of character are indifferent to social norms and make no effort to comply with them; 4) and finally, the “SELF-CONTROL” block. The self-control block is a set of self-regulation properties associated with the individual’s self-awareness. This block is built on top of all other blocks and exercises control over them: strengthening or weakening of activity, correction of actions and behavior, anticipation and planning of activity, etc. (Kovalev, 1965).
Holistic personality traits. All of the above personality blocks act interconnectedly and form systemic, holistic properties. Among them, the main place belongs to EXISTENTIAL-EXISTENTIAL properties of personality. These properties are associated with a person’s holistic idea of himself (self-relation), about his “I”, about the meaning of being, about responsibility, about purpose in this world. Holistic properties make a person intelligent and purposeful. A person with pronounced existential-existential properties is: 1) SPIRITUALLY RICH; 2) WHOLE: 3) WISE.
Consequently, within the framework of the subject-activity approach, the personality structure is a complexly organized hierarchy of individual properties, blocks (direction, abilities, character, self-control) and systemic existential-being integral properties of the personality. Within the framework of this approach, a person is a conscious subject who occupies a certain position in society and performs a socially useful public role (the role of a student, director, worker, etc.). To the control question posed above, why some people are more aggressive than others, the followers of this theory could answer in the following way: because these people, in the course of their activities (educational, work, etc.) in a certain social environment deliberately conscious intentions to cause physical or mental harm to other people were formed, and self-control mechanisms turned out to be underdeveloped.
The dispositional (from the English word “disposition” - predisposition) approach has three main directions: “hard”, “soft” and intermediate “formal-dynamic”. Sources of development. The main source of personality development, according to this approach, is the factors of gene-environment interaction, with some directions emphasizing primarily influences from genetics, while others - from the environment. The “hard” direction tries to establish a strict correspondence between “hard” certain biological structures of a person: the properties of the physique, nervous system, or brain, on the one hand, and certain personal properties, on the other. At the same time, it is argued that both the “hard” biological structures, and the personal formations associated with them, depend on common genetic factors.
Thus, the German researcher E. Kretschmer (1888 -1964) established a connection between the bodily “CONSTITUTION” and the type of “CHARACTER”, on the one hand, as well as between physique and a tendency to a certain mental illness, on the other (Kretschmer, 1924). For example, people of the “ASTHENIC BODY TYPE” (thin, long limbs, sunken chest) are somewhat more likely than representatives of other body types to have a “SCHIZOID” character (closed, unsociable) and develop “SCHIZOPHRENIA.” Persons of the “PIKNIC BODY TYPE” (abundant fat deposits, bulging belly) are somewhat more likely than other people to have a “CYCLOTHYMIC” character (sharp mood swings - from exalted to sad) and are also slightly more likely to develop “MANIC-DEPRESSIVE PSYCHOSIS”.
The English researcher G. Eysenck (1916 -1997) suggested that such a personality trait as “INTROVERSION-EXTRAVERSION” (closedness and sociability) is due to the peculiarities of the functioning of a special structure of the brain - the RETICULAR FORMATION. In “INTROVERTS” (closed people), the reticular formation provides them with a higher tone of the cortex, and therefore they avoid contact with the outside world - they do not need excessive sensory stimulation. “EXTROVERTS” (social people), on the contrary, are drawn to external sensory stimulation (to people, spicy food, etc.) because they have reduced cortical tone - their reticular formation does not provide the cortical structures of the brain with the necessary level of cortical ACTIVATION
The “soft” direction of the dispositional theory of personality asserts that personal characteristics certainly depend on the biological properties of the human body, however, which ones and to what extent are not included in the scope of their research tasks. Among the researchers of this direction, the most famous is G. Allport (1897 -1967) - the founder of the "TRAIT" theory. A trait is a person's predisposition to behave in a similar way at different times and in different situations. For example, about a person who is constantly talkative both at home and at work, we can say that he has such trait as sociability.The constancy of the trait is due, according to G. Allport, to a certain set of psychophysiological characteristics of a person.
A unique combination of traits makes up a person's personality. In addition to traits, G. Allport also identified a special “transpersonal” structure in a person - “PROPRIUM” (from the Latin word “proprium” - “myself”). The concept of proprium is close to the concept of “I” in humanistic psychology. It includes: the highest goals, meanings, and moral principles of a person. In the development of the proprium, G. Allport assigned the main role to society, although he believed that traits could have an indirect impact on the process of formation of certain features of the proprium. A person with a developed proprium was called by G. Allport a “MATURE PERSONALITY” (Allport, 1998). The FORMAL-DYNAMIC direction is represented mainly by the works of domestic psychologists B. M. Teplov (1886 -1965) and V. D. Nebylitsyn (1930 -1972).
The main distinctive feature of this direction is the statement that in a person’s personality there are two levels, two different aspects of personal properties - “FORMAL-DYNAMIC” and “CONTENT”. It is postulated that only the formal dynamic properties of a person are influenced by biological factors, in particular, from the properties of the nervous system. Formal dynamic properties include not only the characteristics of traits (according to G. Allport), they are involuntary and spontaneous, reflect the energy-dynamic aspect of behavior (duration, frequency, intensity and readiness), are stable over time and in various situations, but also have a number of new properties.
They are present in all spheres of behavior: intellectual, psychomotor and communicative, do not depend on the goal and purpose of current behavior, are “vital” manifestations of the properties of the nervous system, and are genetically determined (Rusalov, 1979, 1986). “Substantive” properties of personality are close to the concept of proprium. They are a product of upbringing, teaching, activity and cover not only knowledge, abilities, skills, but also the entire wealth of a person’s inner world: intelligence, character, meanings, attitudes, goals, etc. d.
Decisive age period. According to dispositionalists, personality develops throughout life. However, the early years of life, including a person's puberty, are seen as more important. This theory assumes that people, despite constant changes in the structure of their behavior, generally possess certain stable internal qualities (TEMPERAMENT, TRAITS). Conscious-unconscious in personality. Dispositionalists believe that personality consists of both the conscious and the unconscious. At the same time, rational processes are more typical for the higher structures of the personality - the proprium, and irrational processes for the lower ones - the temperament.
Free will. According to dispositional theory, humans have limited free will. Human behavior is to a certain extent determined by evolutionary and genetic factors, as well as by temperament and traits. Subjective-objective. Part of a person's inner world, in particular, temperament and traits, is predominantly objective and can be recorded by objective methods. Any physiological manifestations, including an electroencephalogram, speech reactions, etc., indicate certain properties of temperament and traits. This circumstance served as the basis for the creation of a special scientific direction - differential psychophysiology, which studies the biological foundations of personality and individual psychological differences (Teplov, 1990; Nebylitsyn, 1990; Rusalov, 1979). Within the dispositional approach, there are a number of structural models of personality. Some of them were built using modern mathematical methods, in particular, factor analysis.
Elemental properties of personality. Among the “hard” structural models, the most famous is the personality model built by G. Eysenck, who identified personal properties with the properties of TEMPERAMENT. His model presents three fundamental properties, or personality dimensions: 1) INTROVERSION-EXTRAVERSION. Introversion is isolation, the turning of a person’s consciousness towards himself, absorption in his own problems and experiences. Extraversion is sociability, the orientation of a person’s consciousness to the outside world.
2) NEUROTICISM – emotional instability. Neuroticism is a personality trait associated with high irritability and excitability. Neurotics (persons with high levels of neuroticism) easily panic, are excitable, and restless. Emotionally stable people are balanced and calm. 3) PSYCHOTISM is a personality trait that reflects the degree of indifference, indifference to other people, and rejection of social norms. Among representatives of the “soft” direction, in particular, G. Allport, the main unit of personality is “TRAIT”. A trait is a predisposition to behave in a similar way across a wide range of situations.
There are three types of traits: 1. A cardinal trait is inherent only to one person and does not allow comparisons of this person with other people. The cardinal trait “permeates” a person so much that almost all of his actions can be derived from this trait. Few people have cardinal traits. For example, Mother Teresa had this trait - she was merciful, compassionate towards other people. 2. Common traits are common to most people within a given culture. Among the common traits they usually name: punctuality, sociability, conscientiousness, etc. According to G. Allport, a person has no more than ten such traits. 3. Secondary traits are less stable than general ones. These are preferences in food, clothing, etc.
The followers of G. Allport, using various mathematical techniques, in particular, factor analysis, tried to identify the number of common traits a person has. For example, R. Cattell identified 16 personality factors (traits) in the American population, which, however, were not fully reproduced in other populations. Numerous studies have shown that only the following five personality factors (the Big Five) are universal for many peoples: 1) EXTRAVERSION; 2) NEUROTISM; 3) OPENNESS (to new experiences; culture); 4) FRIENDLY; 5) CONSCIENCE (consciousness).
There is another, purely empirical way of identifying personality traits, based on clinical data. For example, the Minnesota Multidimensional Personality Inventory (MMPI) identifies ten personality traits that correspond to various forms of psychiatric disorders (SCHIZOIDITY, HYSTERIA, etc.). The question of the correspondence of traits identified on the basis of clinical data and traits obtained in the norm using factor analysis is the subject of special scientific research(Melnikov, Yampolsky, 1985). Representatives of the “formal-dynamic” direction highlight “FORMAL-DYNAMIC” and “CONTENT” personality traits as the main element of personality (Rusalov, 1979).
There are four main formal-dynamic personality properties: 1) ERGICITY - level of mental tension, endurance; 2) PLASTICITY – ease of switching from one behavior program to another; 3) SPEED – individual pace of behavior; 4) EMOTIONAL THRESHOLD – sensitivity to feedback, to the discrepancy between real and planned behavior.
Each of these properties can be distinguished in three areas of human behavior: psychomotor, intellectual and communicative. Each person has a total of 12 formal-dynamic properties. CONTENT properties within this direction do not have their own specificity and coincide with the properties that are highlighted within the activity approach (knowledge, abilities, skills, character, meanings, attitudes, goals, etc.). Block personality properties. The main block of personality in the dispositional approach is “TEMPERAMENT”. As mentioned above, some authors, for example, G. Eysenck, identify temperament with personality. Certain relationships of temperament properties make up types of temperament.
Here are the main characteristics of temperament types according to Eysenck: 1) CHOLERICK - emotionally unstable extrovert, irritable, restless, aggressive, excitable, changeable, impulsive, optimistic, active; 2) MELANCHOLIC – emotionally unstable introvert. Changeable in mood, rigid, sober, pessimistic, silent, non-contact, calm; 3) SANGUINE – an emotionally stable extrovert. Carefree, lively, easy-going, talkative, sociable. 4) PHLEGMATIC – emotionally stable introvert. Serene, balanced, reliable, self-controlled, peaceful, thoughtful, caring, passive.
However, there are other points of view according to which temperament is not a component of personality. For example, V.S. Merlin believed that temperament represents a special independent “psychodynamic” level in the structure of integral individuality, which differs significantly from personality. Temperament covers only those characteristics of mental properties that represent a certain “dynamic system” (Merlin, 1986). G. Allport also did not include temperament in the personality structure. He argued that temperament is not the “primary material” from which personality is built, but at the same time he pointed out the importance of temperament, which, being a genetically hereditary structure, influences the development of personality traits. Formal-dynamic personality properties are temperament in the narrow, true sense of the word, since they represent generalized innate properties of functional systems of human behavior (Rusalov, 1999).
According to V.D. Nebylitsyn, temperament, from a formal dynamic point of view, represents two interrelated substructures: “ACTIVITY” and “EMOTIONALITY” (Nebylitsyn, 1990). Activity is a measure of energy-dynamic tension in the process of human interaction with the environment, which includes ergicity, plasticity and speed of human behavior. Emotionality is a characteristic of a person in terms of sensitivity (reactivity, vulnerability) to failures. Certain relationships between activity and emotionality form formal-dynamic types of temperament. It should be noted that within the framework of the dispositional approach, such an important personal formation as “CHARACTER” is actually absent, as an independent one. This concept often identified with general concept personality, especially in the clinic, or with the concept of character adopted in the activity approach, which reduces character to the moral-volitional sphere of a person. According to G. Allport, character is a social assessment of the individual, and not an independent structure within the individual.
Holistic personality traits. To describe the holistic behavior of a person, G. Allport introduced the special concept PROPRIUM (from the Latin word “proprium” - “actually I myself”). The concept of proprium is close to the concept of “I” in humanistic psychology and to the concept of existential-being properties in the activity model of personality. PROPRIUM covers all aspects of a person’s life as a whole and determines the uniqueness of human life (Kjell and Ziegler, 1997). A person with a developed PROPRIUM is called a “MATURE PERSONALITY”.
A mature personality: 1) HAS WIDE BORDERS OF “I”, CAN LOOK AT HIMSELF FROM THE SIDE; 2) CAPABLE OF WARM, cordial, FRIENDLY RELATIONSHIPS; 3) HAS A POSITIVE IMAGE ABOUT HERSELF AND IS ABLE TO TOLERATE PHENOMENA THAT IRRITATE HER, AS WELL AS HER OWN DISADVANTAGES; 4) ADEQUATELY PERCEIVES REALITY, HAS QUALIFICATIONS AND KNOWLEDGE IN HIS FIELD OF ACTIVITY, HAS A TASK TO PERFORM; 5) IS CAPABLE OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE, HAS A CLEAR IDEA ABOUT HIS OWN STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES; 6) HAS AN INTEGRATED LIFE PHILOSOPHY.
Consequently, within the framework of the dispositional approach, the personality structure is an organized hierarchy of individual biologically determined properties that are included in certain relationships and form certain types of temperament and traits, as well as a set of meaningful properties that make up the PROPRIUM of a person. Within the framework of the dispositional approach, the following definition of personality can be given: personality is a complex system of formally dynamic properties, traits and socially determined properties of the proprium. The answer to our control question, why some people are more aggressive than others, will be this: these people have certain biological prerequisites, certain traits and properties of temperament, and their content properties of PROPRIUM are not mature enough.
In Russian psychology, approaches to understanding personality and its development are associated with the names of scientists who dealt with this problem.
B.G. Ananyev considers a person, a personality in the unity of four sides: as a biological species, as an individual in ontogenesis, as a personality, as a part of humanity.
From point of view K.A. Abulkhanova personality is a subject of life's path and a subject of activity. The formation of personality is based on the development of such qualities as activity, the ability to organize time, and social thinking.
According to the approach A.N. Leontyev And A.V. Petrovsky personality acts as an integral system of internal conditions through which all external influences are refracted, due to which components of different degrees of community and stability can be distinguished in personality.
V.V. Myasishchev considers the core of personality as a system of its relations to the outside world and to itself, which is formed under the influence of the reflection of the surrounding reality by a person’s consciousness, being one of the forms of reflection.
The essence of the approach K.K. Platonov is that personality has a dynamic functional structure, the elements of which are orientation, experience, characteristics of mental processes, and biopsychic properties.
D.N. Uznadze believes that personality is a holistic and spiritual formation. The motives and actions of an individual can also be unconscious.
According to the approach DI. Feldshtein In ontogenesis, personality develops level by level, passing through various stages of social maturity.
Personality structure
One of the problems in studying personality is understanding its psychological structure.
In the second half of the last century, the idea of personality as the epicenter of the individual and social developed in Russian psychology. More and more Russian psychologists were inclined to think that the individual is the node of social relations, which means that the nature of the individual is concretely historical; personality is a measure of individual activity, self-expression, self-actualization, self-affirmation, creativity; personality is a subject of history, existing in social integrity. Activity is recognized as the main determinant of personality development in Russian psychology. Activity is always subjective. The condition for its implementation and its main product is a person who always relates quite definitely to the world around him. His consciousness is determined by the structure of the activity itself, aimed at satisfying needs. What a person receives as a result of labor must first exist in his mind. The idea contains what determines the structure of his personality.
Psychological structure of personality is a holistic systemic formation, a set of socially significant properties, qualities, positions, relationships, algorithms of actions and deeds of a person that have developed during his lifetime and determine his behavior and activities.
The psychological structure of a personality consists of its mental properties (direction, character, temperament, abilities), life experience, characteristic mental states, individual characteristics of mental processes, self-awareness, etc. The structure of personality develops gradually in the process of its social development and is a product of this development, the effect of a person’s entire life path. The functioning of such education is possible only through the interaction of personal properties, which are components of the personality structure
In modern psychology there are different points of view on internal structure personality (Table 4).
Table 4.
Personality structure as presented
domestic psychologists
| Author | Components of personality structure |
| S.L. Rubinstein | Focus Knowledge, abilities, skills Individual typological characteristics |
| V.N. Myasishchev | Orientation Level of development Dynamics of neuropsychic reactivity (temperament) Motivation Attitude and personality tendencies |
| A.G. Kovalev | Focus Character Capabilities Exercise system |
| B.G. Ananyev | A certain set of correlated properties of an individual Dynamics of psychophysiological functions and the structure of organic needs Status and social functions-roles Motivation of behavior and value orientations Structure and dynamics of relationships |
| A.N. Leontyev | According to the author, the personality structure is a relatively stable configuration of the main hierarchized motivational lines within itself. The internal relations of the main motivational lines form, as it were, a general “psychological” profile of the individual. All this allows A.N. Leontiev identified three main parameters of personality: · the breadth of a person’s connections with the world (through his activities) · the degree of hierarchization of these connections, transformed into a hierarchy of meaning-forming motives (motives-goals) · the general structure of these connections, more precisely, motives-goals The process of personality formation according to A.N. Leontiev is the process of “formation of a coherent system of personal meanings” |
The most famous is the dynamic functional psychological structure of the personality of K.K. Platonov (Fig. 3). Its concept is convenient in practical application(for example, when compiling characteristics of persons selected for law enforcement agencies).
Rice. 3. Hierarchical structure of personality (K.K. Platonov)
Directionality. The personality traits included in this substructure do not have directly innate inclinations, but reflect an individually refracted group public consciousness. This substructure is formed through education and includes beliefs, worldviews, aspirations, interests, ideals, desires. In these forms of personality orientation, relationships, moral qualities of the individual, and different kinds needs. In this case, one of the orientation components dominates and has a leading role, while the others play a supporting role. The dominant orientation determines all mental activity of the individual.
The substructure of personality orientation is closely related to legal consciousness, especially in the part that determines the subject’s attitude to compliance with the rules of law (moral principles, value orientations, worldview). Studying the orientation of an individual’s personality makes it possible to determine his social views, way of thinking, leading motives, the level of his moral development and, in many ways, predict his behavior and actions.
Social experience. This substructure combines knowledge, skills, abilities, habits acquired on the basis personal experience through learning, but with a noticeable influence on both biologically and even genetically determined personality properties (for example, the ability to quickly remember, physical data underlying the formation of motor skills, etc.). This substructure is sometimes called individual culture, or preparedness, but it is better briefly called experience.
Through the substructure of experience, personality is most clearly manifested in its development, in the choice of leading forms of activity, in the achievement of certain results. On the one hand, the success of mastering knowledge and skills is largely determined by a person’s inclinations and abilities; on the other hand, the orientation of the individual and his motives play a huge role in the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Individual characteristics of mental processes. This substructure combines the individual characteristics of individual mental processes, or mental functions: memory, sensations, perception, thinking, emotions, feelings, will, which are formed in the process of social life. Cognitive mental processes and other forms of reflection of reality, together with the knowledge and experience acquired by a person, largely determine such a complex integrative personality formation as intelligence, which is positively correlated with mental development. The process of formation and development of individual characteristics of mental processes is carried out through exercises.
Biopsychic properties. This biologically determined substructure combines the typological properties of the personality, its gender, age characteristics and pathological changes, which largely depend on the physiological and morphological characteristics of the brain. The activity of this substructure is determined by the force nervous processes, and it is studied at the psychophysiological, and sometimes at the neuro-psychological, down to the molecular level. The process of forming this substructure is carried out through training.
The various personality traits and properties included in all of the named substructures form the two most general substructures: character and abilities, understood as general integrative qualities of the personality (Fig. 4).
| Character |
| Capabilities |
Rice. 4. Personality structure (K.K. Platonov)
Character, or a person’s style of behavior in a social environment, is a complex synthetic formation where the content and form of a person’s spiritual life are manifested in unity. Although character does not express the personality as a whole, it nevertheless represents a complex system of its properties, orientation and will, intellectual and emotional qualities, and typological characteristics manifested in temperament. In the character system, one can also identify leading properties, which include primarily moral and volitional ones, which form its basis.
Capabilities ensure the success of the activity; they are interconnected and interact with each other. As a rule, some of the abilities dominate, others are subordinate to them. The subordinate ability strengthens the main, leading ability.
All these structures are closely related to each other and appear as a single whole, expressing such a complex integrative concept as personality. Not only does each of these four substructures, considered as a whole, in turn have its own substructures, but each personality trait also has its own structure.
By applying knowledge about personality structure in practice, a lawyer masters an invaluable psychological “tool” of analysis in assessing a person, necessary for the correct choice of methods and techniques for relationships with different categories of citizens and ways of self-improvement.
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There are a great many theories of personality. Among them, two most common approaches can be distinguished: socio-psychological and functional.
S. Freud is considered the founder of the socio-psychological direction in the study of personality. Freud was convinced that the individual is constantly in a state of conflict with society. According to his theory, biological urges (especially sexual) are contrary to cultural norms and socialization is the process of curbing these urges. He distinguished three levels in the personality psyche - It, I, Super-I.
“It” is a source of energy aimed at obtaining pleasure. When energy is released, tension is relieved and the person experiences a feeling of pleasure. “It” encourages a person to eat, have sex, and fulfill the natural needs of the body.
“I” helps the “It” to navigate by regulating the choice of a suitable object to overcome the tension associated with the “It”. Operates on the principle of reality. For example, “It” feels hungry, “I” forbids it to eat ballpoint pens, paper, rags, etc.
The “super-ego” is an idealized parent who regulates the behavior of the individual and strives to improve it in accordance with the standards of the social group and the whole society.
According to Freud, the formation of the structure of the individual’s psyche occurs gradually. Thus, a newborn child is “It”, unable to determine its needs and satisfy them. Whether he wants to eat, drink, whether he feels discomfort - everything is indicated the same way - by screaming. With its development, under the guidance of parents, the “I” is formed - based on the principle of reality with the limitation of “It”, a sense of responsibility for actions, etc. During childhood, parents act as the “Super-I”, punishing or encouraging the child for his behavior . As a person grows up, the “Super-I” level takes shape in his psyche, which guides him for the rest of his life.
According to Freud's theory, the process of personality formation goes through four stages. Each of these stages is associated with a specific area of the body - the erogenous zone. At each stage, a conflict arises between the desire for pleasure and the restrictions set first by the parents and then by the superego. The first is called the oral stage: the baby's mouth is the main erogenous zone. All the baby’s energy is aimed at obtaining satisfaction through the processes of eating and sucking. Freud called the second stage anal. At this time, children strive for independence, and parents try to teach them to ask to use the potty. During this period, the ability to control excretion processes becomes important. The third stage is called phallic. At this stage, the baby's main source of pleasure is the penis or clitoris. It was during this period that differences between boys and girls begin to appear, the Oedipus complex in the former and the inferiority complex in the latter. The fourth stage is genital (adolescence). The main source of pleasure during this period is sexual intercourse with a representative of the opposite sex.
The concept of S. Freud, along with the ideas of M. Weber, formed the basis of the interactionist theory of personality of Charles Cooley, the so-called theory of the “Mirror Self”.
C. Cooley believed that personality is formed on the basis of many interactions between people and the world around them. He represented a personality structure of 3 elements:
1. From how we think others perceive us;
2. From how we think others react to what they see in us;
3. From how we respond to the reactions we perceive from others.
An example from life: You are walking down the street, and all the passers-by you meet are looking at you intently. Your response - Do you decipher this attention as condemnation and ridicule and run to the first mirror you come across to check what is wrong with you - clothes, hairstyle or appearance?
The process of mirroring one's own self is a subjective process and does not necessarily correspond to objective reality. Nor does this process imply that our self-image changes radically every time we encounter a new person and a new situation. In this case, relatively short-term internal self-images are formed - self-images. Along with them, in consciousness there is an idea of oneself - a timeless sense of oneself - the “true Self”, which self-images, accumulating over time, can only correct.
George Mead, the founder of symbolic interactionism, also believed that the "I" - the self - is a social product. At the beginning, as small children, we are not able to explain to ourselves the motives for the behavior of others. Having learned to comprehend their behavior by imitating or playing like adults, children begin to increasingly take into account the opinions and actions of other people. D. Mead argued that we acquire “I-Self” (according to Mead - I) - this is the individual’s reaction to the influences of other people and society as a whole, in other words, a subject-observer. “I-Me” (according to Mead - Me) is a person’s awareness of himself from the point of view of other people significant to him - relatives, friends. “I-Me” - object - observable. For example, I - “I-Myself” was brought up in the principles of careful attitude towards money (“a penny saves the ruble”), but the people around me consider stinginess a vice, and in my relationships with them (“I-Me”) I try to be generous and magnanimous .
A sense of individuality when we approach ourselves as a whole with the same standard as we approach other people. This means that internally we are simultaneously a subject-observer and an object-observed. Mead structured personality as follows:
According to Mead, the process of personality formation includes three stages. The first is imitation. At this stage, children copy their parents' behavior without understanding it. A baby, for example, can wet a rag and move it across the floor, imitating his mother washing the floors in the room. He seems to be trying on a model of her behavior. For him, according to Mead, his mother is a “significant other.” The next stage is the gaming stage. Children understand behavior as the performance of certain roles: mother and daughter, doctor and patient, seller and buyer, etc. The transition from one role to another develops in children the ability to give their thoughts and actions the meaning that is given to them by “significant others” - other members of society. By exchanging roles during the game, children gradually develop their “I - me”. Every time they look at themselves from someone else's point of view, they learn to perceive impressions of themselves. In the third stage, children realize that they belong to a larger community of people and that this community holds very specific views about what is normal behavior and what is deviant. Social group, giving the individual awareness of the integrity of his own personality, is called the “generalized other.” With its help, we absorb the organized belief system of our society within our own personalities so that social control is transformed into self-control.
The functional approach contributed to the development of the status-role theory of personality. From the perspective of studying social functions performed by an individual, it is defined as a set of social statuses and social roles characteristic of a given society.
Social status is the relative position of an individual in society, determined by functions, responsibilities and rights. The status of a teacher makes sense only in relation to the positions of the student and the school director, and the latter - in connection with the position of the Minister of Education, the head of the city education department, etc.