PSYCHOLOGY (from the Greek language “psyche” and “logos”, that is, “soul” and “word, knowledge”) is a science about the laws of development and functioning of the psyche that studies the processes of active reflection of objective reality by humans and animals.

PSYCHOLOGY as a special branch of knowledge has existed since ancient times.

PSYCHOLOGY as an independent science, psychology was formed only at the end of the 19th century.

The object is man and the psyche.

The subject is the laws of the functioning and development of the psyche.

The psyche is a property of highly organized living matter (the brain), which consists in the active reflection by the subject of the objective world, as well as the regulation of its behavior and activity.

Mentality is possessed not only by humans, but also by animals.

Characteristics of the psyche: reflection and regulation.

Consciousness is the highest form of the psyche, has its characteristics, but of a higher level.

That it was the first subject of scientific psychology.

Consciousness is the ability to give a subjective account of oneself, one’s thoughts and experiences.

In 1879, the German scientist Wilhelm Wundt, using the method of introspection, studied the phenomenon of consciousness. Introspection (self-observation) is the first scientific method of psychology.

In world psychological science, consciousness is a multi-valued term, but in Russian psychology, consciousness is considered to be inherent only to man.

Consciousness is necessary for the regulation of joint activities of people.

Usually, the founder of psychology is considered Aristotle, who wrote the first systematic treatise on the soul.

But “knowledge of the soul” (psychology) has long been attributed to the field of philosophy, religion or medicine.

The basic concepts of general psychology characterize mental processes, states and properties.

Mental processes cover:

1) cognitive processes - sensations and perceptions, memory, imagination and thinking;

2) volitional processes - motives, aspirations, desires, decision making;

3) emotional processes - feelings, emotions.

Mental states include manifestations of mental processes - cognitive (for example, doubt), volitional (confidence), emotional (moods, affects).

Psychic properties include the qualities of the mind (ability), the stable characteristics of the volitional sphere (character), the entrenched qualities of feelings (temperament).

In addition to problems related to the psyche as a whole, more specific ones related to specific mental processes, conditions and properties are considered.

First of all, issues related to personality, activity, communication, cognitive processes are discussed; they are studied theoretically and experimentally.

The subject of psychology has changed over time.

    Soul (all researchers until the beginning of the XVIII century)

    Immediate subject experience (structuralism-Wilhelm Wundt)

    Behavior (behaviorism-John Watson)

    Unconscious (psychoanalysis-Sigmund Freud)

2. Tasks and methods of psychology

The main task of psychology is to study the laws of mental activity in its development.

It covers the processes, conditions and properties of a person - from elementary sensations, mental properties of a person to the struggle of personal motives.

1. The study of the qualitative (structural) features of mental processes as reflections of objective reality.

2. Analysis of the formation and development of mental phenomena in connection with the conditioning of the psyche by the objective conditions of life and human activity.

3. The study of the physiological mechanisms that underlie mental processes, since without knowledge of the mechanisms of higher nervous activity one can neither correctly understand the essence of mental processes nor master the practical means of their formation and development.

Research methods in psychology.

Methods are the ways in which the subject of science is known.

In domestic psychology, four groups of methods are distinguished:

    empirical

    organizational methods

    correction method

    data processing methods.

Empirical methods   - observation and self-observation;

External observation is a way of collecting data on the psychology and behavior of a person by directly observing him from the outside.

Internal surveillance or self-observation.

Experimental methods - laboratory, natural, formative experiment; psychodiagnostic tests, psychological surveys, interviews, questionnaires.

Poll is a method by which a person answers a series of questions asked him.

Oral surveyused in cases where it is desirable to monitor the behavior and reactions of a person answering questions.

Written survey allows you to reach more people.

The most common form is the questionnaire.

Free survey - A type of oral or written survey in which the list of questions asked and possible answers to them is not limited in advance to a certain framework.

Tests are specialized methods of psychodiagnostic examination, using which you can get the exact quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the phenomenon under study.

In experiment purposefully and thoughtfully created an artificial situation in which the studied property is highlighted and evaluated best.

Modeling how the method is applied when the study of the phenomenon of interest by simple observation, questioning or experiment is difficult or impossible due to complexity or inaccessibility. Then they resort to the creation of an artificial model of the studied phenomenon, repeating the main parameters and proposed properties.

On this model, this phenomenon is studied in detail and conclusions are drawn about its nature.

Organizational methods include

Comparative method (comparison of different species groups according to psychological indicators);

The method of cross sections (comparison of selected the same psychological indicators in different groups of subjects);

The longitudinal method is the method of longitudinal sections (multiple examinations of the same individuals over a long time).

Correction method   - autogenic training (development of the ability to completely relax the muscles of the body, the use of the active role of sensory images; the regulating and programming role of a word made aloud or to oneself.); group training (group games and discussions); methods of therapeutic effect.

Methods data processing   - the study of documents, drawings, diaries, handwriting, children's art products.

This method of analysis of product activities includes quantitative and qualitative analysis.

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Lecture notes

Discipline: "Fundamentals of General Psychology"

Topic: “General characteristics of psychology as a science. The main branches of psychology "

In scientific research, the spiritual qualities of a person are called mental, and the science that studies them is called psychology. The question naturally arises of how this science got its name. The term “psychology” came from two Greek words: “psyche” - soul and “logos” - teaching. Thus, psychology is the science of the soul. However, the term “soul” is rarely used in scientific psychology. But it is widely used in everyday life. Assessing a person, people, first of all, talk about his soul: a bright soul, an honest soul, a good soul, a dark soul, a low soul.

Psychology owes its name and first definition to Greek mythology. Eros, son of Aphrodite, fell in love with a very beautiful girl Psyche. Aphrodite was unhappy with her son's choice and did her best to separate the lovers. However, Eros and Psyche overcame all obstacles, their love won. For the Greeks, this myth was an example of the truth of love, the highest realization of the human soul. Psyche has become a symbol of the soul, seeking its ideal.

The very word “psychology”, although it was found in literature in the X century, was introduced as a symbol of the science of the soul by the German philosopher H. Wolf only in the XVIII century (in the books “Rational Psychology” and “Empirical Psychology”). Psychology is a young branch of knowledge that has emerged as an independent science in the middle of the 19th century. It is dynamic and promising, since it answers the demands of modern social and economic progress, which involves the improvement of people and their psyche. Instead of the term “soul” in modern scientific psychology, the term “psyche” is used.

Psychology   - The science of the laws of occurrence, development and functioning of the psyche and human consciousness.

In its turn, psyche   - This is a property of the brain that provides humans and animals with the ability to reflect the effects of objects and phenomena of the real world. Consciousness- the highest form of the human psyche, a product of socio-historical development.

Consider the main features of psychology as a science.

FirstlyPsychology is the science of the most complex that is known to mankind. It deals with a property of highly organized matter called the psyche.

Secondly, the tasks of psychology are more complicated than the tasks of any other sciences, since only in it the thought, as it were, makes a turn on itself (in psychology the object and subject of cognition merge (the person studies himself).

ThirdlyPsychology is one of the youngest sciences. Conventionally, its scientific design is associated with 1879 when, when the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig created the world's first Laboratory of Experimental Psychology.

FourthPsychology has a unique practical value for any person. It allows you to:

· Deeper know yourself, and therefore change yourself;

· Learn to control their mental functions, actions and all their behavior;

· Better understand other people and interact with them.

The subject of study of modern psychology - mental processes, mental statesand   mental properties   personalities.

Mental processes   represent dynamic formations of the psyche, which are characterized by great mobility, intensity and instability. Mental processes include three main aspects of mental life: cognition, feelings and will. Cognitive processes include: sensations, perception, attention, memory, imagination, thinking; with their help we comprehend the world and ourselves. Feelings, emotions reflect a person’s experience of attitude to the phenomena of the world, the events of his life. Will provides regulation of behavior.

Mental states   - holistic manifestations of personality, reflecting the general internal mood, characterizing the level of its activity. These include, for example: curiosity, composure, distraction, passivity, confidence, etc.

Mental properties   are not only stable, difficult to change formations, but also characterized by a more complex structure than other mental phenomena. These include: orientation, motivation, temperament, character and ability.

There is an inextricable link between all the structural elements of the psyche. The basis of mental activity are mental processes that reflect both the external and internal worlds of man. On their basis, subjective, internal states arise that fill the spiritual world of a person. Mental properties arise on the basis of mental processes and conditions, which are fixed and have a steady, constant character, characteristic of a particular person.

The form of existence of psychic phenomena can also be varied. It can be: impressions, images, ideas, thoughts, views, experiences, dreams and ideals.

The human psyche provides internal regulation of its activity, expressed in behavior and activity.

therefore the main tasks of modern psychology   are:

· The study of qualitative (structural) features of mental phenomena and processes:

· Analysis of the formation and development of mental phenomena in activities and in living conditions in general;

· The study of the physiological mechanisms underlying psychic phenomena;

· Assistance in the systematic implementation of psychological knowledge in the practice of people's lives and activities.

The inclusion of psychological science in solving practical problems significantly changes the features of the development of its theory. Tasks, the solution of which requires psychological competence, arise in all spheres of human life, determined by the increasing role of the so-called human factor, taking into account a wide range of socio-psychological, psychological and psychophysiological properties of a person, manifested in his life.

Psychology, like any other science, has come a certain way of development. Well-known psychologist of the late XIX - early XX century. G. Ebbinghaus managed to say very briefly and precisely about psychology - psychology has a huge background and a very short history. By history we mean the period in the study of the psyche, which was marked by a departure from philosophy, a rapprochement with the natural sciences and the emergence of our own experimental methods. This happened in the second half of the 19th century, but the origins of psychology are lost in the depths of centuries.

From the point of view of changing the person’s ideas about mental phenomena in the process of historical development and changing the subject of research in psychological science in the history of psychology, four stages can be conditionally distinguished. In the first stage, psychology existed as a science of the soul, in the second as a science of consciousness, in the third as a science of behavior, and in the fourth as a science of the psyche. Let us consider in more detail each of them.

A feature of psychology as a scientific discipline is that a person has been confronted with manifestations of the psyche since he began to realize himself as a person. However, mental phenomena for a long time remained an incomprehensible mystery to him. For example, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe soul as a special substance separate from the body is deeply rooted in the people. This opinion was formed in people because of the fear of death, since even a primitive man knew that people and animals were dying. At the same time, the human mind was not able to explain what happens to a person when he dies. At the same time, primitive people already knew that when a person sleeps, that is, does not come into contact with the outside world, he sees dreams - incomprehensible images of non-existent reality. Probably, the desire to explain the relationship between life and death, the interaction of the body and a certain unknown intangible world led to the belief that a person consists of two parts: a tangible, i.e., body, and intangible, i.e., soul. From this point of view, life and death could be explained by the state of unity of soul and body. While a person is alive, his soul is in the body, and when it leaves the body, the person dies. When a person is sleeping, the soul leaves the body for a while and is transferred to some other place. Thus, long before mental processes, properties, conditions became the subject of scientific analysis, a person tried to explain their origin and content in an accessible form.

It is likely that the desire of a person to understand himself led to the formation of one of the first sciences - philosophy. It was within the framework of this science that the question of the nature of the soul was considered. Therefore, it is no coincidence that one of the central questions of any philosophical direction is connected with the problem of the origin of man and his spirituality. Namely, what is primary: the soul, spirit, i.e., ideal, or body, matter. The second, no less significant, question of philosophy is the question of whether it is possible to know the reality surrounding us and man himself.

Depending on how philosophers answered these basic questions, and all can be attributed to certain philosophical schools and directions. It is customary to distinguish two main areas in philosophy: idealistic and materialistic.

The study and explanation of the soul is the first step in the formation of psychology. But to answer the question of what the soul was, it was not so simple. Representatives of idealistic philosophy regard the psyche as something primary, existing independently, independently of matter. They see in mental activity a manifestation of an immaterial, ethereal and immortal soul, and interpret all material things and processes either as our sensations and ideas, or as some mysterious manifestation of “absolute spirit”, “world will”, “idea”. Such views are understandable, because idealism arose when people, having virtually no idea about the structure and functions of the body, thought that psychic phenomena are the activities of a special, supernatural being - the soul and spirit, which inspires a person at the moment of birth and leaves him at the time of sleep and death. Initially, the soul was presented in the form of a special subtle body or creature living in different organs. With the development of religious beliefs, the soul began to be understood as a kind of double of the body, as an incorporeal and immortal spiritual being connected with the “other world”, where it lives forever, leaving a person.

The materialistic understanding of the psyche differs from idealistic views in that, from this point of view, the psyche is a secondary phenomenon derived from matter. However, the first representatives of materialism were very far in their interpretations of the soul from modern ideas about the psyche. So, Heraclitus   (530-470 BC) speaks of the material nature of psychic phenomena and the unity of soul and body. According to him, all things are modifications of fire. Everything that exists, including body and soul, is constantly changing. In the microcosm of the body, the general rhythm of fire transformations on the scale of the entire cosmos is repeated, and the fiery principle in the body is the soul - psyche. The soul, according to Heraclitus, is born by evaporation from moisture and, returning to a wet state, dies. The drier the soul, the wiser it is.

We meet the idea of \u200b\u200bfire as the basis of the existing world in the works of another famous ancient Greek thinker Democritus (460-370 BC), who developed the atomistic model of the world. According to him, the soul is a material substance that consists of fire atoms, spherical, light and very mobile. Democritus tried to explain all mental phenomena with physical and even mechanical causes. So, in his opinion, human sensations arise because the atoms of the soul are set in motion by atoms of the air or by atoms that “flow” directly from objects.

We encounter much more complex concepts about the soul in our views. Aristaboutbody   (384-322 gg. BC.). His treatise "On the Soul" is the first specially psychological composition that for a long time remained the main guide to psychology, and Aristotle himself can rightfully be considered the founder of psychology. He denied looking at the soul as a substance. At the same time, he did not consider it possible to consider the soul in isolation from matter (living bodies), as idealistic philosophers did. The soul, according to Aristotle, is a reasonably functioning organic system. The main essence of the soul, according to Aristotle, is the realization of the biological existence of the organism.

The most vividly ethical aspects of the soul were first revealed by the student Socrates   (470-399 BC) - Plato   (427-347 gg. BC.). Plato's works set forth a view of the soul as an independent substance. In his opinion, the soul exists along with the body and independently of it. The soul is the beginning of the invisible, exalted, divine, eternal. The body is a visible, low-lying, transitory, perishable beginning. Soul and body are in a complex relationship. By its divine origin, the soul is called to control the body. However, sometimes the body, torn by various desires and passions, prevails over the soul. In these views of Plato, his idealism is pronounced. From their idea of \u200b\u200bthe soul, Plato and Socrates draw ethical conclusions. .   The soul is the highest that a person has, so he must take care of her health much more than the health of the body. At death, the soul partes with the body, and depending on what lifestyle a person led, a different fate awaits his soul: either it will wander near the earth, weighed down by earthly elements, or fly off from the earth into an ideal world.

The next major stage in the development of psychology is associated with the name of the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650). Descartes is considered the founder of rationalist philosophy. According to his ideas, knowledge should be based on directly obvious data, on direct intuition. From it they must be derived by logical reasoning.

Based on his point of view, Descartes believed that a person from childhood absorbs a lot of errors, taking on faith various statements and ideas. Therefore, in order to find the truth, in his opinion, you first need to question everything, including the reliability of the information received by the senses. In such a denial, one can reach the point that the Earth does not exist. What then remains? Our doubt remains - a sure sign that we are thinking. Hence the well-known expression belonging to Descartes, "Thinking - means, I exist." Further, answering the question “What is thought?”, He says that thinking is “all that is happening in us,” all that we “perceive directly by ourselves.” These judgments are the main postulate of psychology of the second half of the XIX century. - the postulate that the first thing that a person discovers in himself is his consciousbutnie.

Around this time, a new understanding of the subject of psychology arises. The ability to think, feel, desire began to be called consciousness. Thus, the psyche was equated with consciousness. The psychology of the soul has replaced the psychology of consciousness. However, consciousness has long been considered separately from all other natural processes. Philosophers interpreted conscious life in different ways, considering it a manifestation of the divine mind or the result of subjective sensations. But all idealistic philosophers were united by a common conviction that psychic life is a manifestation of a special subjective world, cognizable only in self-observation and inaccessible neither to objective scientific analysis, nor to causal explanation. This understanding was very widespread, and the approach became known as the introspective interpretation of consciousness. psychology process human behavior

For a long time, the method of introspection was not just the main, but the only method of psychology. It is based on two statements developed by representatives of introspective psychology: firstly, the processes of consciousness are “closed” to external observation, but, secondly, the processes of consciousness are able to open to the subject. From these statements it follows that the processes of consciousness of a particular person can be studied only by himself and by no one else.

The ideologist of the introspection method was the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), who developed Descartes' thesis about the direct comprehension of thoughts. J. Locke claimed that there are two sources of all knowledge: objects of the external world and the activities of our own mind. A person directs his external feelings to objects of the external world and as a result receives impressions of external things, and the basis of the mind’s activity is a special internal feeling - reflection.Locke defined it as "the observation to which the mind exposes its activities." At the same time, by the activity of the mind Locke understood thinking, doubt, faith, reasoning, cognition, desire.

In parallel with the teachings of J. Locke, science began to develop associative direction.   The emergence and formation of associative psychology was associated with the names of D. Hume and D. Gartley.

The English doctor D. Gartley (1705-1757), contrasting himself with the materialists, nevertheless, laid the foundations of a materialistic associative theory in his spirit. He saw the cause of psychic phenomena in the vibration that occurs in the brain and nerves. In his opinion, the nervous system is a system subject to physical laws. Accordingly, the products of her activities were included in a strictly causal series, no different from the same in the external, physical world. This causal series covers the behavior of the whole organism: both the perception of vibrations in the external environment (ether), and vibrations of nerves and brain matter, and muscle vibrations.

It should be noted that by the middle of the XIX century. associative psychology was the mainstream. And it was in the framework of this direction at the end of the XIX century. Introspection has become very widely used. Passion for introspection was rampant. It was believed that the cause-effect relationship of psychic phenomena is directly reflected in consciousness. It was believed that introspection, in contrast to our sense organs, which distort the information obtained by studying external objects, supplies psychological facts, so to speak, in a pure form.

However, over time, the widespread use of the introspection method did not lead to the development of psychology, but, on the contrary, to a certain crisis. From the perspective of introspective psychology, the psychic is identified with consciousness. As a result of this understanding, consciousness became isolated in itself, and, therefore, a separation of the psychic from objective being and the subject itself was observed. Moreover, since it was argued that the psychologist can study himself, the psychological knowledge identified in the process of such a study did not find its practical application. Therefore, in practice, public interest in psychology has fallen. Only professional psychologists were interested in psychology.

Thus, the impotence of the “psychology of consciousness” in front of many practical tasks caused by the development of industrial production, which required the development of tools to control human behavior, led to the fact that in the second decade of the XX century. a new direction of psychology arose, the representatives of which also announced a new subject of psychological science - it was not the psyche, not consciousness, but behavior, understood as a set of external observable, mainly motor reactions of a person. This direction is called "behaviorism" (from the English. behavior - « behavior") and was the third stage in the development of ideas about the subject of psychology.

The founder of behaviorism J. Watson saw the task of psychology in the study of the behavior of a living creature that adapts to its environment. Moreover, the solution to practical problems arising from social and economic development is put in the first place in conducting research in this area. Therefore, in just one decade, behaviorism has spread throughout the world and has become one of the most influential areas of psychological science.

In psychology, behavior is understood as the external manifestations of a person’s mental activity. And in this regard, behavior is opposed to consciousness as a set of internal, subjectively experienced processes, and thus the facts of behavior in behaviorism and the facts of consciousness in introspective psychology are bred by the method of their identification. Some are detected through external observation, while others are detected through self-observation.

Watson believed that the most important thing in a person for the people around him is the actions and behavior of this person. And he was right, because, ultimately, our experiences, the characteristics of our consciousness and thinking, that is, our mental personality, are reflected in our actions and behavior as an external manifestation. But what cannot be agreed with Watson is that, in proving the need to study behavior, he denied the need to study consciousness. Thus, Watson divided the psychic and its external manifestation - behavior.

According to Watson, psychology should become a natural science discipline and introduce an objective scientific method. The desire to make psychology an objective and natural-science discipline led to the rapid development of the experiment, based on principles different from the introspective methodology, which brought practical results in the form of economic interest in the development of psychological science.

As you already understood, the basic idea of \u200b\u200bbehaviorism was based on the statement of the significance of behavior and the complete denial of the existence of consciousness and the need to study it.

A special place in the development of psychological thought in Russia is occupied by the works of M.V. Lomonosov. In his works on rhetoric and physics, Lomonosov develops a materialistic understanding of sensations and ideas, talks about the primacy of matter. According to Lomonosov, it is necessary to distinguish between cognitive (mental) processes and mental qualities of a person. The latter arise from the ratio of mental abilities and passions. In turn, he considers the source of passions the actions and sufferings of man. Thus, already in the middle of the XVIII century. the materialistic foundations of Russian psychology were laid.

The formation of Russian psychology took place under the influence of the French enlightenment and materialists of the XVIII century. This influence is clearly noticeable in the works of Y. P. Kozelsky and the psychological concept of A. N. Radishchev. Speaking about the scientific works of Radishchev, it is necessary to emphasize that in his works he establishes the leading role of speech for the entire mental development of man.

In our country, psychology as an independent spider began to develop in the XIX century. The great role in its development on this ethane was played by the works of A. I. Herzen, who spoke of “action” as an essential factor in the spiritual development of man. It should be noted that the psychological views of domestic scientists in the second half of the XIX century. to a large extent contradicted the religious point of view on psychic phenomena. One of the most striking works of that time was the work of I. M. Sechenov, "Reflexes of the brain." This work made a significant contribution to the development of psychophysiology, neuropsychology, physiology of higher nervous activity.

At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. in Russia such psychological directions are developing as general psychology, zoopsychology, child psychology. Psychological knowledge began to be actively used in the clinic by S. S. Korsakov, I. R. Tarkhanov, V. M. Bekhterev. Psychology began to penetrate the pedagogical process. In particular, the works of P. F. Lesgaft on the typology of children were widely known.

A particularly prominent role in the history of Russian pre-revolutionary psychology was played by G. I. Chelpanov, who was the founder of the first and oldest in our country Psychological Institute. Preaching the position of idealism in psychology, Chelpanov could not engage in scientific research after the October Revolution. However, the founders of Russian psychological science were replaced by new talented scientists. These are S. L. Rubinstein, L. S. Vygotsky, A. R. Luria, who not only continued the research of their predecessors, but also raised the no less famous generation of scientists. These include B. G. Ananyev, A. N. Leontyev, P. Ya. Halperin, A. V. Zaporozhets, D. B. Elkonip. The main works of this group of scientists relate to the period of the 30-60s of the XX century.

During this period, several scientific schools and directions arose. So, in Georgia, the famous psychological school of D. N. Uznadze was formed. Representatives of this area adopted the concept of attitude and widely used it to analyze many psychological phenomena.

Another scientific direction is associated with the name of L. S. Vygotsky, the creator of the cultural-historical theory of the development of the human psyche. This direction mainly included scientists working at Moscow State University. The scope of their scientific interests was matters of general and educational psychology.

The third school was created by S. L. Rubinstein, who at one time led scientific research at the Department of Psychology at Moscow State University and at the Institute of General and Educational Psychology. S. L. Rubinstein is credited with writing the first in our country fundamental psychological work, "Fundamentals of General Psychology."

Such well-known psychologists as B. M. Teplov and A. A. Smirnov lived and worked at the same time. The latter is known for his work in the psychology of memory, and B. M. Teplov laid the scientific foundations for the study of temperament and the psychology of creative activity.

In later years, the main modern psychological schools were formed. These are the schools of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) State University and Moscow State University. The creation of the first school is connected with the name of B. G. Ananiev, who not only formulated the principles of human study and defined from these positions the main directions of development of psychology, but also created the faculty of psychology of Leningrad State University, from which a galaxy of famous scientists emerged.

A similar organizational role in the creation of the Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University was played by A. N. Leontiev, the author of the psychological theory of activity. In addition, Leontief's merit was the development of many problems in the field of perception, memory, consciousness, personality and development of the psyche.

A. V. Zaporozhets together with D. B. Elkonin laid the foundations of child psychology. The main scientific interests of Zaporozhets — the organizer and long-term leader of the Institute for Preschool Education of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences — included questions of age-related development and parenting. Elkonin is known as the author of a textbook on child psychology, the theory of children's games, the concept of periodization of age development.

Significant contribution to the development of educational psychology P. Ya. Halperin, the creator of the theory of the planned (phased) formation of mental actions.

Thanks to the research of A.R. Luria, domestic psychology has made significant progress in the field of neurophysiological foundations of memory and thinking. The works of Luria laid the scientific and psychological basis for modern medical psychology. The results of his research are still widely used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in medical practice.

The work of the psychophysiologist E. N. Sokolov, who together with the staff created the modern theory of color vision, gained world fame; a theory explaining a person’s perception of the shape of objects; neurophysiological theory of memory, etc.

No less well-known psychologists work in our country and at the present time, continuing the research and affairs of their predecessors. Their works make a worthy contribution to the development of modern psychological science.

Concluding this topic, it should be noted that psychology has come a long way. Probably, we will not be mistaken if we say that the first psychological views appeared together with humanity itself. Throughout the development of psychological science, it simultaneously developed idealistic and materialistic trends. Teachings based on materialistic views primarily contributed to the development of a natural-science understanding of the nature of psychic phenomena and the establishment of experimental psychology. In turn, the teachings, based on idealistic philosophical views, introduced ethical aspects of the psychic into psychology. Thanks to this, in modern psychology such problems as personal values, ideals, morality are considered.

Modern psychology is a highly ramified science with many branches. The branches of psychology are relatively independently developing areas of scientific psychological research. Moreover, due to the rapid development of psychological science, new directions appear every four to five years.

The emergence of the branches of psychology is due, firstly, to the widespread introduction of psychology in all spheres of scientific and practical activity, and secondly, the emergence of new psychological knowledge. Some branches of psychology differ from others primarily in the complex of problems and tasks that this or that scientific direction solves. At the same time, all branches of psychology can conditionally be divided into fundamental (general) and applied (special) ones.

Fundamental   (they are also called basic) branches of psychological science are of general importance for understanding and explaining various mental phenomena, including human behavior, regardless of what activity they are engaged in. Fundamental knowledge is necessary for everyone involved in the problems of psychology and human behavior. Fundamental knowledge is the basis that not only unites all branches of psychological spiders, but also serves as the basis for their development. Therefore, fundamental knowledge, as a rule, is united by the term “general psychology”.

The following branches of fundamental psychology are distinguished:

· general psychology- a branch of psychological science that combines fundamental psychological knowledge and solves problems for the study of an individual - a specific representative of the form Homo sapiens. It includes theoretical and experimental studies, revealing the most common psychological laws, theoretical principles and methods of psychology, its basic concepts and categorical structure. The basic concepts of general psychology are mental processes (cognitive, volitional, emotional), mental properties (temperament, character, ability, orientation) and mental states.

· age-related psychologystudying the laws of the stages of mental development and personality formation from birth to old age. Having emerged as a child psychology, developmental psychology in the process of its development began to solve the tasks of a holistic analysis of ontogenetic processes. Currently, the main sections of developmental psychology are: childhood psychology, youth psychology, mature psychology, gerontopsychology. Age psychology studies the age dynamics of mental processes, which is impossible without taking into account the impact on the individual development of a person's cultural, historical, ethnic and socio-economic conditions. In addition, differential psychological differences are of great importance for developmental psychology, which include age and sex and typological properties, which is why studies in developmental psychology are often carried out using differential psychology techniques.

· differential psychology   - a branch of psychological science that studies the differences between individuals and between groups, as well as the causes and consequences of these differences.

· social Psychology, studying the patterns of behavior and activities of people, due to the fact of their inclusion in groups, as well as the psychological characteristics of the groups themselves. Modern social psychology as an independent science includes the following main sections: patterns of communication and interaction of people (here we study, in particular, the role of communication in the system of social and interpersonal relations); psychological characteristics of social groups, both large (classes, nations), and small (where such phenomena as cohesion, leadership, etc.) are studied; personality psychology (this includes problems of social orientation, socialization, etc.).

Appliedcalled branches of science, the achievements of which are used in practice. In most cases, applied branches of psychological science solve specific problems within the framework of their direction. However, in some cases, the achievements or scientific discoveries of applied industries can be fundamental, which determines the need to use newly acquired knowledge in all industries and directions.

Branches of applied psychology:

· pedagogical psychology   - A branch of psychology that studies the psychological problems of training and education. Pedagogical psychology explores the issues of purposeful formation of cognitive activity and socially significant personality traits, and also studies the conditions that ensure the optimal learning effect. No less significant for educational psychology are the issues of taking into account the individual characteristics of the student in the construction of the educational process and the relationship of the student and teacher, as well as relationships within the teaching staff. In the areas of application, pedagogical psychology can be divided into the psychology of preschool education, the psychology of education and upbringing at school age with the division into primary, secondary and senior school age, the psychology of vocational education, and the psychology of higher education.

· political psychology   - this is a branch of psychology that studies the psychological components of the political life and activities of people, their moods, opinions, feelings, value orientations, etc. These psychological phenomena are formed and manifest themselves at the level of political consciousness of nations, classes, social groups, governments, individuals, and are realized in their specific political actions.

· psychology of art   - a branch of psychological science, the subject of which is the properties and conditions of an individual or group of persons, determining the creation and perception of artistic values, as well as the influence of these values \u200b\u200bon the life of an individual and society as a whole.

· medical psychologystudying the psychological aspects of hygiene, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, examination and rehabilitation of patients. The field of medical psychology research includes a wide range of issues related to the occurrence, development and course of a disease, the influence of various diseases on the human psyche, and, conversely, the influence of the psyche on a disease. The structure of medical psychology includes the following sections: clinical psychology, including pathopsychology, neuropsychology, somatopsychology; general medical psychology; psychoprophylaxis and psychohygiene; psychocorrection.

· engineering psychology   - A branch of psychology that studies the processes and means of interaction between man and machine. The main problems solved by engineering psychology are: analysis of human tasks in control systems, distribution of functions between a person and automatic devices; research of joint activities of operators, information interaction between them and communication processes; analysis of the psychological structure of operators; the study of factors affecting the efficiency, quality and reliability of operators: the study of the processes by which a person receives information; analysis of the processes of information processing by a person, its storage and decision making; development of methods for the psychodiagnostics of human abilities in the interests of solving the tasks of professional psychological selection and professional orientation; analysis of processes for optimizing operator training.

It should also be emphasized that in most cases the applied branches of psychology are not isolated from each other. Most often, in a particular branch of psychology, the knowledge or methodology of its other branches is used. For example, space psychology - a branch of psychological science that deals with the problems of psychological support for human activities in space - includes engineering psychology, medical psychology, pedagogical psychology, etc. Therefore, the applied fields of psychology can be conditionally divided into syntheticesky   (combining knowledge of other areas) and primary (which are relatively narrow and specific areas of the applied industry). For example, medical psychology includes general medical psychology, clinical psychology, pathopsychology, psychohygiene and psychoprophylaxis, psychocorrection, etc. Similarly in engineering psychology, the following sections can be distinguished: ergonomics, labor psychology, management, etc.

In conclusion, it should be noted that we met only a small number of branches of psychological science. In addition to the above, there are other branches of psychology that are no less interesting for scientific research and no less significant for a person’s practical activities, including sports psychology, legal psychology, aviation and space psychology, military psychology, computerization psychology, experimental psychology. However, all these branches of psychology are not only independent directions, but also elements of a single integrated science - psychology - and use unified approaches to solving their specific problems. Thus, in order to receive specialization in a specific field of psychological science, it is necessary, first of all, to familiarize yourself with its fundamental principles.

1. Vygotsky L.S. Psychology. - M .: April-Press: Eksmo-Press, 2002.

2. Halperin P.Ya. Introduction to Psychology. 3rd ed. - M.: University, 2000.

3. Hippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology. - M .: AST, Astrel, 2008

4. Enikeev M.I. General Psychology: Textbook for universities. - M .: Prior, 2002.

5. Ivannikov V. A. Branches of psychology // Reader on the course “Introduction to Psychology” / Ed. E.E.Sokolova. - M., 1999.

6. Klimov EA Fundamentals of Psychology: Textbook for universities. - M .: Unity, 2003.

7. Leontiev A.N. Lectures on general psychology. - M.: Sense, Academy, 2007.

8. Nemov R.S. Psychology. Textbook. - M .: Higher education, 2008.

9. Psychology: A textbook for humane. Universities / Ed. V.N. Druzhinina. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002.

10. Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2000.

11. Stankin M.I. General psychology: Functional phenomena of the human psyche: educational-methodical manual. - M .: MPSI; Voronezh: MODEK, 2001.

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For many millennia, people have understood obscure mental phenomena by the collective concept of "soul." The subjectivity, intimate and personal specificity of mental manifestations made them mysterious and incomprehensible. There was a belief that man consists of flesh (body) and an ethereal soul. The death of a person was associated with the fact that the soul leaves his body. But gradually accumulated knowledge about the human psyche - first empirical, and then scientific.

Psychology as a doctrine of the soul arose more than two thousand years ago as an integral part of the philosophical teachings of ancient Greek and ancient Eastern thinkers. (The term "psychology" was introduced only in the XVII century.)

The first systematization of knowledge about the psyche was carried out by the outstanding ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) in the treatise On the Soul. According to Aristotle, the soul is not a disembodied entity, but a way of organizing a living body and its behavior. "The soul moves a living being with decision and thought." This statement is one of the main achievements of the scientific thought of Ancient Greece. So a breakthrough was made in the animalistic interpretation of the soul as a special creature living in the human body.

Aristotle was the first to proclaim the functional relationship of the soul (psyche) and the body (organism). “The soul manifests itself in various abilities for activity: nourishing, feeling, moving, rational,” Aristotle claimed. His doctrine of a plant, animal, and rational soul affirmed the principle of the development of the psyche from lower to higher forms.

The psychological views of Aristotle were based on a natural science basis (in his younger years he studied medicine.) Aristotle laid the psychological direction in philosophy. They were given the first classification of mental phenomena. Having integrated the achievements of ancient thought about the psyche, Aristotle, through his works for many centuries, determined the development of psychology. In addition to the treatise On the Soul, Aristotle's psychological views are contained in many of his other works - Ethics, Rhetoric, Metaphysics, and The History of Animals.

The ancient Greeks understood soul as the driving principle of all things. They own the doctrine of the universal animation of matter - hylozoism (from the Greek. Hyle - substance and zoe - life): the whole world - the universe, space - originally alive, endowed with the ability to feel, remember and act. The boundaries between the living, nonliving and the psychic were not drawn. Everything was considered as a product of a single primary matter (forematter). So, according to the ancient Greek sage Thales, a magnet attracts metal, a woman attracts a man, because a magnet, like a woman, has a soul. Hiloism first "put" the soul (psyche) under the general laws of nature. This teaching affirmed the immutable and modern science postulate of the initial involvement of psychic phenomena in the circuit of nature. The principle of monism was the basis of hylozoism.

The further development of hiloism is associated with the name of Heraclitus, who considered the universe (cosmos) as an ever-changing (living) fire, and the soul as its spark. ("Our bodies and souls flow like streams"). He was the first to express the idea of \u200b\u200ba possible change, and consequently, the logical development of all things, including the soul. The development of the soul, according to Heraclitus, occurs through oneself: "Know thyself"). The philosopher taught: "No matter what roads you walk, you will not find the boundaries of the soul, so deep is its Logos."

The idea of \u200b\u200bdevelopment in the teachings of Heraclitus "passed" into the idea of \u200b\u200bcausality of Democritus. According to Democritus, the soul, body and macrocosm are composed of fire atoms; only those events seem to be random to us, the cause of which we do not know; according to the Logos there are no causeless phenomena, all of them are the inevitable result of the collision of atoms. Subsequently, the causality principle was called determinism.

The principle of causality allowed Hippocrates, who was friends with Democritus, to build a doctrine of temperament. Hippocrates correlated health impairment with the imbalance of various "juices" present in the body. The ratio of these proportions Hippocrates called temperament. The names of the four temperaments have survived to this day: sanguine (blood predominates), choleric (yellow bile predominates), melancholic (black bile predominates), phlegmatic (mucus predominates). So the hypothesis was framed, according to which countless differences between people fit into several general patterns of behavior. Thus, Hippocrates laid the foundation for a scientific typology, without which modern teachings on individual differences between people would not have arisen. Hippocrates sought the source and cause of the differences within the body. Mental qualities were made dependent on bodily ones.

The idea of \u200b\u200borganizing (systematic) Anaxagoras, the idea of \u200b\u200bcausality of Democritus and the idea of \u200b\u200bthe laws of Heraclitus, discovered two and a half thousand years ago, have for all times become the basis for the knowledge of spiritual phenomena.

The turn from nature to man was accomplished by a group of philosophers called sophists ("teachers of wisdom"). They were interested not in nature with its laws independent of man, but in man himself, whom they called the "measure of all things." In the history of psychological cognition, a new object of the relationship between people was discovered using means proving any position, regardless of its reliability. In this regard, methods of logical reasoning, the structure of speech, the nature of the relationship between the word, thought and perceived objects were subjected to detailed discussion. Speech and thinking came to the fore as means of manipulating people. From the concept of the soul, the signs of its subordination to strict laws and inevitable reasons acting in the physical nature disappeared, since language and thought are devoid of such inevitability. They are full of conventions depending on human interests and passions.

“Socrates was a master of oral communication, a pioneer of analysis, the purpose of which is to use the word to expose what is hidden behind the veil of consciousness. Selecting certain questions, Socrates helped the interlocutor to open these covers. The creation of a dialogue technique was later called the Socratic method. His methodology contained ideas that played a key role in the psychological studies of thinking over many centuries. ”

First, the work of thought was originally a dialogue. Secondly, it was made dependent on tasks creating an obstacle in its usual course. It was with such tasks that questions were posed, forcing the interlocutor to turn to the work of his own mind. Both signs - dialogueism, which assumes that cognition is initially social, and the determining trend created by the task - became the basis of experimental thinking psychology in the 20th century.

The work on constructing the subject of psychology belonged to Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher and natural scientist who lived in the 4th century BC, who opened a new era in understanding the soul as an object of psychological knowledge. Not physical bodies and not incorporeal ideas became a source of knowledge for him, but an organism, where bodily and spiritual form an inseparable integrity. The soul, according to Aristotle, is not an independent entity, but a form, a way of organizing a living body. "Those who think correctly," said Aristotle, "seem to anyone that the soul cannot exist without a body and is not a body." The psychological doctrine of Aristotle was based on a generalization of biomedical facts. But this generalization led to the transformation of the main principles of psychology: organization (systemicity), development and causality.

According to Aristotle, the very word “organism” should already be considered in connection with the related word “organization”, which has the meaning of “thoughtful device”, which subordinates its parts to solve a problem; the device of this whole and its work (function) are inseparable; the soul of an organism is its function, activity. Treating the body as a system, Aristotle singled out various levels of activity ability in it. This made it possible to subdivide the body's capabilities (the psychological resources inherent in it) and their actual implementation. At the same time, a hierarchy of abilities - functions of the soul:

  • a) vegetative (available in animals, plants and humans);
  • b) sensory-motor (present in animals and humans);
  • c) reasonable (inherent only to man).

The functions of the soul are the levels of its development, where a function of a higher level arises from the lower and on its basis: after the vegetative, the ability to feel is formed, from which the ability to think develops. In an individual person, when he turns from a baby into a mature creature, those steps that the whole organic world has gone through in its history are repeated. Subsequently, it was called biogenetic law.

Explaining the laws of character development, Aristotle argued that a person becomes what he is, committing certain actions. The idea of \u200b\u200bcharacter formation in real actions, which people always assume a moral attitude towards them, put a person’s mental development in a causal, logical dependence on his activity.

Revealing the principle of causality, Aristotle showed that "nature does nothing in vain"; "you need to see what the action is for." He argued that the end result of a process (goal) affects its course in advance; mental life at the moment depends not only on the past, but also on the desired future.

Aristotle should rightfully be considered the father of psychology as a science. His work "On the Soul" is the first course in general psychology, where he outlined the history of the issue, the opinions of his predecessors, explained the attitude towards them, and then, using their achievements and miscalculations, offered his solutions.

The psychological characteristic of a person implies a fairly wide range of criteria, from which one can talk about the characteristics of a person. There are no two people around the world who will be similar in all respects - each one is unique to us and different from all the others.

General characteristics of personality

The characterization of personality in psychology covers all variants of essential features that appear regularly. So, for example, each person can accidentally forget the necessary information, but not everyone is characterized by forgetfulness in general. Isolated situations do not indicate a trait. The characterization of conflicting personalities will contain traits such as temper and irritability, but this does not mean that every person who is able to get angry with another will be a conflict person.

It is worth noting that a person receives all the properties with the accumulation of life experience. They can change throughout life, and are not a constant. Abilities, interests, character - all this can change over the course of life. As long as the personality exists, it develops and changes. It is believed that none of the personality traits can be innate - they are all acquired throughout life. At birth, a person is endowed only with physiological characteristics, which include the work of the senses, nervous system and brain, and their characteristics are the makings of character development.

Characteristics of a creative person: interests and inclinations

Any person is more or less creative, but for some it is more pronounced, for others it is weaker. Depending on the area in which the interests of the person lie, the general orientation of the individual can be called.

Interest is the desire to pay attention to an object regularly, the tendency and desire to familiarize yourself with information regarding it. For example, a person who is interested in cinema will tend to visit the cinema more often, to know the names of popular actors, and even in conversations not about cinema, such a person will allocate information for himself that falls within his area of \u200b\u200binterest.

Addiction is the desire to engage in certain activities. For example, a person who is interested in guitar will listen to great guitarists, watch concerts, etc. And a person who has a penchant for guitar will himself learn to play, master the instrument. It is important to note that interest can exist separately from addiction, but sometimes they can combine.

Psychological characteristics of personality: abilities and giftedness

In psychology, abilities are called mental properties, thanks to which a person is able to successfully perform a specific type of activity (or several). For example, visual memory is an important ability for the artist, and emotional memory is for the poet's work.

If a person has a set of inclinations that are necessary for the development of ability, this is called giftedness.

Psychological characteristic of personality: temperament

It is customary to distinguish 4 main types of temperament: melancholic, sanguine, choleric and phlegmatic:

  1. Choleric   - a person quick, quick-tempered, emotional.
  2. Sanguine   - a person is fast, but his feelings are not so strong and change quickly.
  3. Melancholic   - a person who is very worried about each event, but does not seek to express.
  4. Phlegmatic person   - a person is slow, calm, balanced, it is complex and almost impossible to piss off.

In countless combinations of these and other characteristics, the individuality of each person living on Earth is determined.

The study of personality involved in many psychologists both foreign and domestic; the results of their work formed the basis of pedagogical techniques and developments relating to any branches of knowledge.

It is worth highlighting several fundamental concepts that are necessary in understanding the individual approach to the study of personality.

A personality is a conscious individual who occupies a certain position in society and performs a certain social role.

Individuality is a personality in its originality. It manifests itself in the intellectual, emotional, volitional sphere.

An individual is a specific person, with all his inherent features.

The difference between the individual and the individual. The individual is characterized by the uniqueness that a person receives from birth (skin, hair, eyes, facial features, physique). According to this, all people are individuals: an unconscious newborn, an aboriginal of a primitive tribe, and a mentally ill person.

A personality, unlike an individual, is not a biological, but a socio-psychological concept. An individual becomes a person in the process of growing up, learning, development, communication.

Personality Attributes:

1) socialization - a person can only be in the promotion or opposition to society

2) maturity - personality traits begin to develop with a certain degree of psyche maturity

3) self-awareness - a person develops only when a person realizes the need for this

5) privilege - the stronger the personality, the more it manifests itself, the higher its privileges in society.

Another important personality trait that is distinct from the individual is the need for recognition by society. The main motive that determines the activity of an individual is interest. The process of cognition in this case depends on the desire or unwillingness of a person to know the properties of an object, to understand it. The personality is often guided by beliefs, which are the basis of the principles and worldview of a person.

Key personality characteristics.The main characteristics of a person are: activity (desire to expand the scope of their activities), orientation (system of motives, needs, interests, beliefs), joint activities of social groups, collectives.

Activity is the most important general property of a personality, and it manifests itself in activity, in the process of interaction with the environment. But what exactly induces a person to act in a certain way, to set certain goals and achieve them? Such incentives are needs.

Need is an impulse to an activity that is realized and experienced by a person as a need for something, a lack of something, dissatisfaction with something. The activity of the individual is directed towards the satisfaction of needs.


Human needs are diverse. First of all, they highlight the needs of the natural (natural), which directly ensure the existence of man: the need for food, rest and sleep, clothing and housing. Basically, these are biological needs, but in essence they are fundamentally different from the corresponding needs of animals: the way to satisfy human needs is social in nature, that is, it depends on society, upbringing, and the surrounding social environment.

The most important characteristic of a personality is its orientation, which determines the goals that a person sets for himself, the aspirations that are peculiar to him, the motives in accordance with which he acts.

When analyzing a particular action, a specific action, a specific human activity (and they are always extremely diverse), one needs to know the motives or motivational causes of these actions, actions or specific activities. Motives may be specific manifestations of needs or motivations of a different kind.

The cognitive need of a person manifests itself in interests. Interests - this is an active cognitive orientation of a person to a particular subject, phenomenon or activity associated with a positive emotional attitude towards them.

An important motive for behavior is belief. Beliefs - certain provisions, judgments, opinions, knowledge about nature and society, the truth of which a person does not doubt, considers them undeniably convincing, strives to be guided by them in life. If beliefs form a certain system, they become a person's worldview.

A person does not act on his own, but in a collective and is formed as a person under the influence of the collective. In the team and under its influence, the lines of direction and will of a person are formed, his activities and behavior are organized, conditions are created for the development of his abilities.

The relationships of individual members in groups and collectives are very complex and diverse - here are both business and personal relationships (such as likes and dislikes, friendships or enmities - the so-called interpersonal). A person takes a certain place in the system of relations, enjoys an equal degree of authority, popularity, and affects other members to varying degrees. Of great importance is the self-esteem of a group member, collective, the level of its claims (i.e., what role the individual claims in the group, collective based on self-esteem).

In cases of divergence of self-esteem and assessment on the part of other members of the group, the team often a conflict arises. Conflicts are also possible if the level of claims of a member of a group, collective is too high and does not correspond to its objective position in the collective (then this member of the collective feels infringed, believes that it is underestimated).

The problem of the study of personality was posed by L.S. Vygotsky in the framework of the cultural-historical concept, according to which the development of the human psyche is determined by the socio-cultural conditions of life, Vygotsky put forward a number of basic ideas:

1) On a holistic approach to the study of personality. This means that in the process of development of the human psyche, not individual functions, mental processes develop, but the psychological systems of these functions and processes. Vygotsky believed that at every age a system of psychological functions was formed, which is characteristic of this age and determines the development of personality.

2) On the development of higher mental functions. He showed that a person has a special kind of mental functions, which he called the highest - they are completely absent in animals, make up the highest level of the human psyche and are formed in the course of social interactions.

Unlike natural or natural, which are inherent in animals sensory functions: smell, etc. HFF - higher mental functions have their own structure and property of origin, they are also arbitrary, social, and mediated.

Personality (according to Bazhovich) is the highest integrative system, indissoluble integrity. It proceeds from the fact that the development of personality occurs in the process of assimilation by a person of social experience, certain norms and patterns, but the essence of this process is not reduced to the knowledge and understanding of these norms and rules. Such assimilation is necessary. In which norms and patterns become the motives of behavior and activity. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to study the inner world of a person, that “psychological ground” on which the educational impact falls. To study the correlation of “external” and “internal”, objective and subjective, Bazhovich introduced a new concept that reflects the essence of this concept. Introduced the concept of "internal position of the child."

The internal position is a reflection of that objective position. Which is occupied by the child in the system of public relations accessible to him. It is formed in the process of life and education. The internal position reflects simply the object of a positive person.

The psychodynamic direction was presented in foreign psychology. It is revealed by the theory of individual study of personality.

Unconscious psychological conflicts are believed to control human behavior. His psychoanalytic theory.

Theory of Z. Freud:

The personality includes the structure of the components: id, ego, super ego.

ID - from the Latin word "it." According to Z. Freud, it means exclusively primitive, instinctive and hostile aspects of personality. ID uses reflexive reactions to instantly satisfy instinctual urges.

Ego - from the Latin "I". It is a rational part of the personality:

The principle of reality. Its task is to share for a person his own action plan in order to satisfy the requirements of the ID in the framework of an organized society.

Personality orientation is a system of motivations, specifically selective relationships, and human activity. Since ancient times, man has tried to determine the sources of personality activity, the meaning of life.

Some considered the desire for satisfaction, the main motive for human actions, others found that the performance of duty is the main motivation and meaning of human life. Still others tried to deduce personality behavior from biological (sexual motives) and social aspirations (domination or submission).

A person enters into diverse social relations and carries out activities in various fields of practice, guided by different motives and motives.

Motive is a conscious motivation for activity or behavior. In some cases, a person is guided by the consciousness of public duty, in others - by personal needs or interests, and in others - on the basis of feelings.

When analyzing the behavior of their activities, it is necessary to take into account not only the main aspirations, but also to find out the moral and psychological foundations of the personality. Which determine her position in life, her attitude to various aspects of reality.

Motives should be distinguished from motives as conscious impulses (these are unconscious internal awakenings or external stimuli), i.e. the person does not weigh the social significance of these drives, does not take into account the consequences of actions. Studying human motives is essential to