Lecture 1. The role and importance of psychological science in the formation of the subject of the education system. Historical analysis of the subject of psychology

The history of psychology is a series of changing ideas that determine the development of psychology. ideas about the spiritual sphere of man, where initially it is focused on the study of the soul.

The first ideas about Soul as a defining psychology of a person studied for several centuries, before the development of scientific psychology. Based on its study through the methods of introspection (self-observation) and observation, a lot of scientific directions* astrology, palmistry, physiognomy and many other ideas about human psychology.

With the development of scientific views in the natural sciences, physiology, the teachings of Darwin, Pavlov, Sechenov, and others, new ideas are being formed related to the need to study consciousness as an inner vision that makes an overview of all processes. The subject of psychology is consciousness, as reflecting the world and the inside of a person. Due to this, great importance attached to mental processes (sensation, perception, memory, thinking, etc. The foundations of cognitive psychology arise. However, consciousness is only one of the areas of the mental, which does not always fully reflect the essence of a person, therefore, in the future, research becomes the subject of psychology unconscious founded by Freud. However, exploration of the unconscious through hypnosis and projective techniques is not always reliable.

In connection with this, there direction of behavioral psychology, which begins to strictly fix the behavioral responses caused by certain stimuli. Behavior is the only subject of psychology which can really be seen, measured and motivated to change it. The direction of behavioral psychology is currently one of the defining ones in the world, since it is more effective in producing changes in people. Behavior and perception of the world. However, any behavior has an internal rationale: cognitive maps, schemes that stimulate certain actions. Therefore, the subject of psychology should be cognitions, that is cognitive processes processing information related to the work of brain neurons – cognitive psychology

Lecture 2. The soul as a subject of psychology, features of diagnosis and study

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

One of the methodological problems of psychology is its scientific subject. At the same time, there is a natural tendency for psychological science as a whole to move from private descriptions of individual mental processes, phenomena, etc. to the definition of a system-forming human integrity that distinguishes psychology from other anthropological disciplines. The soul acts as such an entity. The currently prevailing natural science paradigm in Russian psychology rejects the consideration of the soul as a subject of scientific research. At the same time, scientific research often reduces the subject of psychology to the level of the applied field of anthropological sciences (physiology, sociology, etc.). In other words, the assimilation of psychology into other sciences is obvious. So, allocated in psychological research based on the natural science paradigm, psychological patterns and mechanisms are considered as derivatives of physiological patterns and mechanisms, and the functioning of the psyche is based on the laws of nature implemented through biochemical and biophysical processes occurring in the human body. As an organ of the psyche, the brain is considered, the work of which ensures the flow of mental processes, the emergence and manifestation of mental phenomena, properties and other phenomena.

The very concept of the psyche is considered as a function of highly organized matter, as the highest form of reflection of objective reality, which arose as a result of the evolution of living nature. Any idealistic approach to understanding the psychic encounters stiff resistance from the majority of modern domestic psychologists, referring it to an unscientific, that is, exclusively religious worldview. Only the materialistic worldview is accepted as scientific. Without setting the task of analyzing the reasons for the dominance of the materialistic approach in Russian psychology, but only stating the existence of such a fact, we note in this regard that considering psychology as a science about the soul seems unjustified only because the very concept of "soul" is interpreted as something ephemeral, unreal and unscientific. The so-called "mental" and "spiritual" are reduced to the inner subjective world, which arises as a result of the functioning nervous system, suggesting an organismic reflection of the external objective world of a person (or animals). In domestic psychology, which is built on the humanitarian paradigm, the definition of the subject of psychology is also problematic. Despite the fact that the human soul is interpreted as a subject area of ​​psychology, there are several approaches to determining the content psychological knowledge about the soul. So in Christian psychology, considering the emergence, essence and existence of man as a product of divine creativity, a number of scientific psychologists and theologians contrast scientific psychology with the teachings of the Church and the teachings of the Holy Fathers. In this case, the psychology presented in scientific psychological research and based on a materialistic worldview is referred to as "dead psychology", and the psychology presented in the teaching of the Church and the teaching of the Holy Fathers is referred to as "living psychology".

There is also an opinion about psychology as an applied field of Christian anthropology, soteriology, asceticism, etc. Still others define psychology as an independent scientific field of knowledge based on religious and idealistic philosophy. The concepts of "soul" and "psyche" in this case are identical and are treated as "timeless ideal substances". Such an understanding of the psyche is also characteristic of foreign humanitarian psychology (mainly Christian). The soul and spirit are often treated here inseparably as "active, timeless, immaterial, immortal substances" (V. Stern, E. Spranger, W. James, L. Lopatin, N. Grot, A. Galich and others). However, such an interpretation requires clarification of the essential characteristics of the spirit and soul from the point of view of psychology. This is first. Secondly, it is necessary to clarify the content composition subject area psychology, highlight the psychological aspect.

Comparing the natural science and humanitarian paradigms, we can conclude that the preservation of psychology as an independent science is possible only if its subject area is separated from other sciences. The study of the soul in humanitarian psychology solves just such a problem.

The development of humanitarian psychology is carried out in various worldview directions. One of them is Orthodox psychology. In its content and construction scientific research it implements all the above approaches of Christian psychology (1 - opposition of Orthodox psychology to scientific psychology; 2 - Orthodox psychology

Research: psychology as an applied area of ​​Christian anthropology, soteriology, asceticism, etc.; 3 - Orthodox psychology as an independent scientific discipline). In our opinion, the most promising approach in determining the specifics of the content of psychological knowledge can only be recognized as the approach that considers Orthodox psychology as an independent science. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that Christian philosophy, along with Holy Scripture, the teaching of the Holy Fathers, should act as the methodological basis of Orthodox psychology. It should also be borne in mind that, despite the meaningful relationship of Orthodox psychology with Christian anthropology, soteriology, asceticism, its categorical composition, methods and procedures for constructing research, the choice of evidence base differs significantly from these sciences.

The tasks that Orthodox psychology solves in this case are related to the psychological interpretation of the facts presented in the Holy Scriptures, the leading doctrines and concepts that take place in the teachings of the holy fathers. Orthodox Church, categories and main provisions of Christian anthropology, soteriology, asceticism, philosophy. For example, explain with psychological point view of the essential changes that occurred in a person as a result of his fall into sin, to determine the psychological content of the personality, comparing it with the concept of personality in the patristic teaching, Christian anthropology, soteriology, asceticism, to reveal anthropological categories through psychological concepts and etc.

The solution of these problems is impossible without relying on the achievements of psychological science based on the natural science paradigm. In this regard, attention should be paid to scientific developments in the field of psychology of the unconscious and consciousness (A. Adler, A. N. Leontiev, P. V. Simonov, D. N. Uznadze, Z. Freud, E. Fromm, E. Erickson, C. G. Jung and others); the psychology of creativity (D. B. Bogoyavlenskaya, Ya. A. Ponomarev, V. N. Druzhinin, A. Tannenbaum, D. Veksler, E. De Bono, and others); psychology of the semantic sphere (A. G. Asmolov, E. Z. Basina, B. S. Bratus,

V. K. Vilyunas, A. V. Zaporozhets, A. A. Leontiev, A. N. Leontiev, D. A. Leontiev, V. V. Stolin and others); psychology of intelligence (H. Eysenck, A. V. Brushlinsky, A. Bandura, D. Veksler, L. A. Wenger, J. Kelly, R. B. Cattell, B. F. Skinner, M. A. Kholodnaya, A Binet, J. Gilfrod, J. Bruner, J. Piaget, J. Rotter, C. Spearman, A. Staats, R. Sternberg, L. Thurstone, D. B. Watson, etc.).

However, all theoretical positions, conceptual positions, concepts, etc., cited in these developments, must be correlated with the patristic teaching, the conceptual apparatus of Christian anthropology, soteriology, and asceticism.

One of the leading methodological problems currently facing humanitarian psychology in general and Orthodox psychology in particular is the definition of the concept ≪ souls" as a base psychological category revealing the scientific subject of psychology.

Ideas about the soul occupy one of the leading places in the patristic teaching and religious philosophy. For example, Blessed Augustine wrote that the understanding of the soul is directly related to the knowledge of God: “Two questions form the subject of… research: one about the soul, the other about God. The first leads us to the knowledge of ourselves, the other to the knowledge of our origin. The Monk Ambrose the Elder of Optina wrote: “How precious is the human soul! It is dearer than the whole world with all its treasures and blessings. But it is terrible to think how little we understand the dignity of our immortal soul. In the traditions of the patristic teaching, the soul is interpreted in many aspects and is thought of as a “substance self-contained and incorporeal”, “same in essence with the spirit”, etc. It is noted that the soul is a “reasonable, nameless, unknowable, verbal, animating and composing body”. This essence is subtle, immaterial, without O figurative, but the image and type of God. The most complete idea of ​​the Holy Fathers about the soul was expressed by St. John of Damascus: “The soul is a living, simple, incorporeal being, by bodily eyes by its nature, invisible, immortal, gifted with reason and mind, formless, acting through an organic body and giving it life, growth, feeling and the power of birth, having a mind, not as something different from it, but as the purest part of itself. The soul is a free being, endowed with the ability to want and act, changeable and precisely changeable in the will, as a created being.” The definition of the soul in the patristic teaching goes either through its relationship to the body or through its relationship to the spirit. Thus, for example, Blessed Augustine wrote that "the soul is a kind of substance that has a part in the mind and is adapted to control the body." According to Meletius the Monk, "the soul is the subject of the body." The understanding of the soul as a manifestation of the spiritual can be traced in the interpretation of Macarius of Egypt: “The soul is truly a great, wonderful, Divine creation. God, creating her, did not put evil into her nature, but endowed her with all the perfections inherent in the spirit. He included in it the laws of virtues, the faculty of discernment, knowledge, wisdom, faith, love…≫. Such a division in understanding the essence of the soul is very conditional.

The human soul is conceived as an ideal, metaphysical substance that integrates the spiritual and natural in man. Being invisible, it manifests itself through the visible body8. In this regard, the understanding of its essence is not possible outside the consideration of the Divine creation of the world.

The idea of ​​the Divine creation of the world is most holistically reflected in Christian metaphysics. In this idea, the concepts of absolute and relative being correlate with each other. Since the world has no "roots in itself" and is the result of Divine creativity, it is relative. In God there is absolute being. Man, created in the image and likeness of God, combines relative and absolute being. He is both a creature (a creature) and an image of God. At the same time, absolute being in man is united with the created sphere and is united in such a way that all the qualities inherent in the created sphere retain their strength. In other words, in man the "idea of ​​creation" has its continuation, which is expressed in the likeness of man to God. And, at the same time, man is a creation of God, and in this respect he belongs to the world.

Ultimately, two substantive foundations can be distinguished in a person - spiritual and natural. If in the spiritual a person carries the image of God in himself, then in the natural he is represented, first of all, bodily. Thus, according to Christian metaphysics, the spiritual and natural in man are presented in such a way that the former is reflected in the latter. The result of such a reflection is the emergence of some essential integrative, which forms a relatively autonomous human substance - the soul.

In other words, the soul is the essential human wholeness, arising from the reflection of the spiritual in the bodily, and representing the animating energy system. At its core, the soul, like the spirit, is ideal (metaphysical), but the results of its manifestation can be observed in human life.

Speaking about the soul, it is necessary to highlight the essential differences between man and animal. How vital beginning Animals also have souls. However, according to the perfectly fair assertion of St. Gregory Palamas, the soul of an animal is the life of the body, its animate and having this life not in essence, but in action. This soul can do nothing but the action of the body, and when the body decomposes, it disintegrates along with it. The soul of man and the soul of an animal are qualitatively different phenomena and are therefore incomparable. The human soul is spiritualized, the image of God is manifested in it, while the soul of an animal is only an energy potential, placed by the Creator in an animal to revive the body of an animal.

Proceeding from the idea of ​​the Divine creation of the world, it can be assumed that the spiritual and natural in a person is predetermined from the very beginning. These substances, for the most part, do not have a qualitative development, they only change quantitatively (volume, content, etc.) in ontogeny. The emergence of qualitative neoplasms takes place in the human soul. At the same time, spiritual and natural contents determine mental development in the form of the development of human inclinations and predispositions. Thus, it makes sense to talk about the ontogenetic development of the spiritual and natural in relation to the development of the human soul. It is in the human soul that spiritual and natural inclinations and predispositions become abilities, various mental properties, processes, qualities, etc.

Comparing with each other the levels of existence of the psyche, considered in modern psychology and in the field of the existence of the soul, presented in Christian anthropology, soteriology and patristic teaching as the main levels of mental existence, we can distinguish conscious, superconscious and unconscious. These levels form the main areas of the human psyche.

From the standpoint of the anthropological approach implemented in Russian psychology, consciousness is “an integrative way of being a person, manifested in the ability of a person to realize the conditions and forms of his life, relate to them and make them the subject of practical transformation...≫. In this regard, the derivation of consciousness from the statement of G.W.F. is typical. Hegel that the Absolute Idea, seeking to know itself, generates its own opposite - matter. Developing and becoming more complex, matter ascends to man, in whom the Absolute Idea finds an instrument of cognition.

Taking into account the above, and relying on a comprehensive analysis of philosophical and psychological literature (L. S. Vygotsky, A. V. Zaporozhets, V. V. Zenkovsky, A. N. Leontiev, Yu. V. Linnik, B. F. Lomov , V. I. Slobodchikov, Yu. M. Shilkov and others), we can state that:

1. The consciousness of any person is unique. On the one hand, it is determined by social influences external to it, and on the other hand, it has a metaphysical meaning, which is expressed in the personalization of spiritual being. The uniqueness of consciousness lies in the fact that it has infinite degrees of freedom, expressed in the diversity of human abilities and the possibilities for their improvement.

2. Consciousness has a feature, which is expressed in the fact that psychological phenomena appear before a person to the extent that they are realized.

3. Consciousness is not localized in outer space. It cannot be dissected in time.

Also important are the ideas of I. Kant that consciousness has stable invariant structures superimposed on a continuously changing flow of information coming from outside13, and G. Hegel about the socio-cultural nature of consciousness.

Consciousness in its essence, it is an exclusively mental formation associated with the emergence of reflection. Reflection is primarily realized through the ability of a person to detect varying degrees and depths of awareness of his own self. It expresses the functionality of consciousness to follow certain symbols, the meanings of which can be revealed in the "terms" of human life. With this understanding, consciousness can be interpreted as a "connecting" link between the unconscious and the superconscious.

Unconscious is a naturally determined area of ​​the psyche. It has a spiritual focus on the bodily existence of a person or existence associated with the existence of a group as an integral social organism. In a broad (descriptive) sense, the unconscious, according to Z. Freud, is “those contents of mental life, the presence of which a person either does not suspect at the moment, or does not know about them for a long time, or never knew at all ...” . The unconscious has two levels: the deep unconscious and the subconscious. In the first case we are talking about the psychic content open to the somatic, absorbing instinctive needs from there, which find their psychic expression in it ... maintaining the pleasure principle...≫. In the second case, we mean mental properties that prescribe certain norms of behavior to a person, despite the difficulties on the part of "instincts" and the outside world, and "punish him in case of disobedience with a tense sense of inferiority and guilt." According to P. V. Simonov, the sphere of the subconscious includes social norms deeply assimilated by a person, “the regulatory function of which is experienced as “the voice of conscience”, “the call of the heart”, “the command of duty”≫. At the same time, it is emphasized that "the internalization of social norms external in origin gives imperativeness, which they did not possess before the moment of internalization."

superconscious also a spiritually determined area of ​​the psyche. Here one can observe the spiritual orientation of a person to spiritual self-existence. Superconsciousness is connected, first of all, with the realization of the spiritual freedom of man. In this case, “the ability of the mind to “understand” the situation and think over plans, the ability of the soul to be ignited by certain feelings and, finally, the ability to make decisions and implement them” is manifested. According to this, the spiritual orientation of a person towards God or in the “opposite direction” is realized in the superconsciousness. In the first case, a person experiences the highest feelings - compassion, tolerance, self-sacrifice, virtue (abstinence, chastity, non-covetousness, meekness, humility, etc.). All this ensures the achievement of the pinnacle of spiritual existence - the state love God and people. In the second case, a person experiences deep feelings - fear, envy, hostility, pride, hostility, etc. As a result, hatred as a state of rejection, fight against God, selfishness, etc., which is characteristic of spiritual decline, the sinful self-existence of a person.

Spiritual freedom in the superconsciousness of a person characterizes his ability to be creative. According to N. A. Berdyaev, creativity is an emanation of spiritual freedom. In creativity, a person demonstrates the ability to create something new, previously non-existent.

Considering creativity in relation to the superconscious area of ​​the psyche, it is necessary to note its connection with human consciousness. This is indicated by representatives of various psychological schools (G. S. Batishchev, S. O. Gruzenberg, V. N. Druzhinin, V. V. Zenkovsky, Ch. Lombroso, Ya. L. Ponomarev, P. V. Simonov and others. ). So, for example, P. V. Simonov points out that: “the functions of superconsciousness and consciousness in the process of creativity are comparable to the functions of variability and selection in the process of “creativity of nature” - biological, and then cultural evolution. Let us immediately note that superconsciousness is not reduced to the mere generation of "psychic mutations", that is, to a purely random recombination of traces stored in the memory. According to laws unknown to us, the superconsciousness makes an initial selection of emerging recombinations and presents to consciousness only those of them that have a known probability of their correspondence to reality. That is why even the most "crazy ideas" of a scientist are fundamentally different from the pathological madness of the mentally ill and the phantasmagoria of dreams.

Orthodox psychologists (V. V. Zenkovsky, B. P. Vysheslavtsev, and others) note a special connection between superconsciousness and consciousness in human creativity. They considered creativity as an attribute of the spiritual sphere, thanks to which a person becomes like God. Having its origins in the human superconsciousness, the creative act at the level of consciousness is expressed in the generation of new ideas. Superconsciousness and the unconscious in the human soul form the basis of two given psychological integrity: individuality and the individual. In the first of them spiritual human substance is realized, in the second - natural. Based on Christian metaphysics as the root cause of individuality, one should consider spiritual intentions as the meanings of Divine creativity, realized in a single person, in his spiritual dissimilarity to other people. This is the “idea” of a person, embodied in the uniqueness of his spiritual world, the features life path. Such an understanding of individuality is in some way consistent with its interpretation in the anthropological approach of V. I. Slobodchikov and E. I. Isaev. Considering individuality as one of the images of subjective reality that determines the spiritual existence of a person, they interpret it through uniqueness, originality, realization in free creative activity, manifestation in self-determination, “self-sufficiency” and “self-improvement”25. Based on Christian metaphysics, all these manifestations of individuality should be considered in relation to the metaphysical substance of a person and their basis should be sought in the spiritual intentions (plans) of Divine creativity realized in a particular person.

An individual in psychology is usually interpreted as a single representative of the human race, a single person, regardless of his sociality. It is presented in natural, biological features as human body. According to A. N. Leontiev, an individual is characterized by the integrity and indivisibility of a person. In this regard, A. N. Leontiev wrote: “An individual is, first of all, a genotypic formation ... The concept of an “individual” expresses the indivisibility, integrity and characteristics of a particular subject that arise already at the early stages of life development. An individual as a whole is a product of biological evolution, during which there is a process of not only differentiation of organs and functions, but also their integration, their mutual “coordination”≫26. Thus, the individual contains a generic community, represented in a single person.

The ontogenetic development of a person presupposes the influence of the social environment on the individual and the individual. The result of such influence are mental neoplasms that arise as a result of the formation of new properties, processes, states, qualities of the soul. It is in these soul formations that the spiritual and natural development person. If the spiritual and natural act as given basic substances and are realized in the objective being of a person, then the mental formations that arise in his ontogenetic development characterize the subjective being of a person. In these mental formations, the subjectivity of a person is manifested. In modern domestic psychology, subjectivity is often understood as a “social, activity-transforming way of being a person; as selfhood - subjectness is an obvious and directly given form of human self-existence.

Proceeding from the fact that individuality and the individual are given psychological integrity of a person, subjectness can be defined as a product of the socialization of these integrity. In this case, the result of the socialization of individuality is a personality, and an individual is a social individual.

Personality can be defined as a spiritual and social phenomenon represented in conscious existence, that is, personality is that area of ​​subjective reality in which the spiritual world of a person is realized through social being. Here a person is aware of himself as a subject different from others. Thus, the criterion of personality is consciousness, by the presence or absence of which one speaks of the presence or absence of a personality, and by the degree of development, the level of development of the personality is determined28.

The social individual is a sociobiological phenomenon. This phenomenon is characterized by unconscious sociality, its properties allow a person to identify himself with a certain social aggregate or society as a whole. The process of becoming a social individual is largely determined by the individual properties of a person, among which typical properties occupy one of the leading places. It should be said that if individuality is a characteristic of a person, then the typical is characteristic of a social individual. At the same time, the typification of the social individual is carried out on the basis of the relationship between the typical features of the individual and his social activity. In other words, we are talking about the typical features of the subjects of behavior, communication, etc.29

Based on the teachings of the Holy Fathers, Christian anthropology and soteriology, one can say that the personality and the social individual find their realization in three main forms of self-existence: “vegetative”, “sensual”, and “reasonable”30. This is represented by three forces, parts of the soul: 1) sentient; 2) desirable; 3) reasonable. In this regard, St. Theophan the Recluse notes that "the soul is ever-moving and cannot stand on one thing", all the actions of the soul can be divided into three categories - "thoughts, desires and feelings, calling each a special side of the soul - the thinking, desire and feeling"31.

The mental side of the soul, according to St. Theophan the Recluse, includes imagination, memory, perception, "reason"; the desirable side of the soul consists of will, "jealousy", needs, desires; the sensual side of the soul is considered as the "center of life", it is "a matter of the heart", expressed in the "state of the soul and body" experienced as a result of various impressions "from the surrounding and encountered objects, from the external situation and in general from the course of life, forcing and forcing a person to give him pleasure in all this and to turn away unpleasant things.

At the level of self-existence of the individual and the social individual, these aspects of the soul are filled with a certain psychological content. The mental side of the soul is most holistically represented by the human intellect. Intelligence is one of the philosophical and psychological categories that determine the essence of man. Using various grounds, researchers view the nature of the intellect, its forms, etc. in different ways. It should be noted that in most psychological theories and concepts of the intellect, its structure is mainly considered as a "folding" of properties or manifestations, while the intellect itself, as a phenomenon, a psychological quality, left out of consideration. In this regard, the theory of intelligence by M.A. Cold. To date, this is perhaps the only psychological theory that provides for some kind of metaphysical structure of the intellect and, in addition, gives an idea of ​​the intellect as a special mental reality. In this case, intelligence is defined as "a special form of organizing individual mental (mental) experience in the form of available mental structures, the mental space of reflection generated by them, and the mental representations of what is happening are built within this space…". At the same time, mental experience is understood as "a system of available mental formations and mental states initiated by them, which underlie a person's cognitive attitude to the world and serve the specific properties of his intellectual activity."

Thus, within the framework of this theory, given experience is presented in the form of mental structures, mental space and mental representations. Mental structures are a system of psychic formations, which "under conditions of cognitive contact with reality provide the possibility of receiving information about ongoing events and its transformation, as well as managing the processes of information processing and selectivity of intellectual reflection"35. Mental space is a special dynamic form of the state mental experience, which is promptly updated in the conditions of the implementation of certain intellectual acts by the subject≫36. Mental representation characterizes "the actual mental image of a particular event (that is, the subjective form of "seeing" what is happening)". Within the framework of human subjectness, the selected forms of mental experience determine "from the inside" the behavioral features of the individual and the social individual.

A special place here belongs to mental structures, since they lie at the "foundation" of the hierarchy of mental experience. In other words, mental structures are "peculiar mental mechanisms, in which the available intellectual resources of the subject are presented in a "folded" form and which can "deploy" in a collision with any external influence a specially organized mental space38, the latter allows one to proceed to "mental representations" ≫39, which are expressed in three levels of mental experience - cognitive, metacognitive, intentional. The first of them ensures the storage, ordering and transformation of the available and incoming information, thereby contributing to the reproduction in the psyche of the cognizing subject of stable, regular aspects of his environment. The second allows for involuntary regulation of the information processing process and arbitrary, conscious organization of one's own intellectual activity. The third contains individual intellectual inclinations, the main purpose of which is to predetermine the subjective criteria for choosing a particular subject area, the direction of the search for a solution, sources of information, subjective means of its presentation, etc.40. These levels determine the properties of the individual intellect of a person, which manifests itself through intellectual abilities realized in the superconscious, conscious, unconscious areas of the psyche. The desirable side of the soul is most holistically represented by the value-oriented sphere of the personality and the social individual. Values ​​are, first of all, specifically social definitions

objects of the surrounding world, revealing their positive or negative value for a person and society, that is, it is a system of criteria that characterize what is happening with a person and around him. Thus, human needs are always the basis of values ​​(K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, A. N. Leontiev, Sh. A. Nadirashvili, K. K. Platonov, S. L. Rubinshtein, etc.). In psychology, there is no common understanding that there is such a need. There are more than ten definitions of needs. In each of them, a look at the individual properties of this psychological phenomenon is fixed. One way or another, needs determine a person's motivations, they give the initial impetus to any human activity (activity, behavior, communication, knowledge). In needs, the deployment of human activity to the object of satisfaction is always manifested. In this regard, all needs can be classified into ≪biological≫, ≪social≫, ≪spiritual≫. In each of the classes, the spiritual orientation of a person is manifested. So, "biological" and "social" needs are connected with natural existence, "spiritual" ones are aimed at the spiritual being of man. Taking this into account, needs can be represented either as unconscious or as superconscious mental formations. At the same time, considering the needs regarding the mental organization of a person, their qualitative occurrence should be attributed to the socialization of a person, that is, presented as a result of the influence of the environment on the development of impulse impulses of spiritual and natural substances. According to what has been said, a need can be defined as a mental property characterized by the experience of a state of experiencing “need”, a lack of something for which there is a desire.

Determining moral and moral values, needs determine the specifics of a person's social activity. At the same time, moral values ​​characterize the spiritual potential of a person and determine the personality. Moral values, on the other hand, perform a socially adaptive function, are inherent in both the personality and the social individual and are determined by the generalized socially expressed needs of the majority of members of the social aggregate. In other words, these values ​​reflect the generalized vital needs of the social environment to which a person belongs. They find their expression in the norms of "conscious" and "unconscious" morality. "Conscious" morality is characteristic of the individual, while "unconscious" morality is characteristic of the social individual.

In "unconscious" morality, the leading role is played by the values ​​of the social environment in which the social individual of a person (family, etc.) was originally formed. The initial social groups often become a model for a person, guided by which he builds his life. Therefore, a person living in a certain social environment, turns its values ​​into its own and experiences success depending on the achievements that correspond to these values, aspirations. At the same time, each person, joining the life of a new social group, introduces into it a previously learned system of values, which can lead to a conflict of individual needs.

As a result of conflict resolution, only those needs that are characteristic of the majority of members remain. new group. They form the group's need profile and define conventional values. Most often, the values ​​of a social individual are reflected in social attitudes. According to the latter, human behavior arises and proceeds at the intersection of the needs of the individual and the impact of the current situation41. Thus, the behavior of a social individual is of an attitudinal nature. It is largely manifested in the reactions of its members to various situations, characteristic of a certain society.

"Conscious morality" is determined by the objectification of social attitudes, which gives rise to a system of human relations to various social objects (family, homeland, culture, etc.)42. Acting in the form of social attitudes, they give expediency to the installation behavior, rationalize the actions of a person and establish the relationship between "I want" - "it should be" - "everything I do is reasonable". Social attitudes constitute the individual morality of the individual. The content of moral values ​​is determined by the spiritual needs of a person. Forming the individual morality of the individual, these values ​​have their own expression in the form of moral and semantic constructs. Being a kind of personal constructs, moral and semantic ones act as criteria that characterize the individual world of a person, determine the motivation of a person in a specific behavioral situation, and represent categorical scales that serve to evaluate the objects of reality by a person according to significant parameters45. Moral and semantic constructs, characterizing the moral orientation of a person, have a dichotomy, thus setting the boundaries of a person's spirituality, realized through social life. Depending on these constructs, a system of individual moral principles norms and rules of human life.

Speaking about the desirable side of the soul, it becomes necessary to touch upon the definition of the will as a component of this side. In Christian anthropology, the concept of "will" is considered in conjunction with the concepts of "desire", "attraction", "passion".

In modern psychology, the concepts of "will", "desire", "motivation" are also not clearly separated. Often the will will change or be identified with motivation, while the concepts of “desire”, “aspiration”, “desire”, “motive”, as a rule, intersect and differ only mainly in the degree of awareness. The will is also considered as a need to overcome obstacles. Such an approach to understanding the will can hardly be considered legitimate, if we consider the human essence both from the standpoint of Christian metaphysics, and in general from the standpoint of Holy Scripture. Will, like freedom, is an attribute of the spirit, and in this case the human will is an emanation of the Divine will. The image of God is manifested in the human will. Therefore, to reduce the will to motivation and still more to need is a delusion. The will, of course, has its presence in the human soul, but it goes beyond the boundaries of some separate side of the soul, the will enters into all spiritualized mental formations. In the desirable side of the soul, the will is naturally connected with the spiritual needs of man and thus determines the corresponding motivation. The sensual side of the soul reveals the content of the sensual-emotional sphere of a person. In Christian anthropology and the teaching of the Holy Fathers, this side is associated with the heart and acts as the spiritual center of a person's entire life. The holy fathers point out that the heart is capable of thinking and it is a receptacle of feelings, it has joy, sorrow, fear, etc. As St. Theophan the Recluse wrote, “the heart of the body is a muscular heart - meat, but it feels not meat, but the soul , for the feeling of which the meaty heart serves only as an instrument, as the brain for the mind. The Holy Fathers note that love is hidden in the depths of the heart. In it, God reveals himself to man.

Thus, the sensual side is the system-forming side of the soul; it acts as the basis for the mental and desirable sides. “While with the mind a person wants to collect everything in himself, and with his will - to express himself outside, the heart remains in itself and rotates inside without proceeding. It can be seen that it lies deeper than those active forces and constitutes for them, as it were, a lining or foundation,” wrote St. Theophan the Recluse.

The psychological content of the sensual side of the soul is the emotions and feelings of a person. In emotions, there is a spiritual orientation to the natural substantial basis of a person. They are mental states determined by the "benefit" or "threat" for a person of internal or external objective reality. In such states, either energy resources are mobilized in situations associated with the danger of a person's physical or social existence, or they are demobilized in situations of rest.

Emotions are always reflected in the appearance of a person through facial expressions, gestures, sight, smell, etc. They are usually associated with human sensations. Basically, emotions characterize the reactivity of the behavior of a social individual. Feelings characterize the spiritual orientation to the spiritual substance of a person. They display low or high experiences associated with the spiritual existence of the individual. In base feelings, there is an egomania of personal self-existence. This is an experience of pride, envy, vindictiveness, hostility, alienation, vanity, etc. They are associated with a person’s value orientation towards bodily and social existence, in many ways they are the result of “seduction by the benefits of the visible physical world” (charms). Such feelings determine the sinfulness of personal identity and, ultimately, lead to hatred as an integrative state of the human soul. In the highest feelings of a person, semantic aspirations to God are realized. They involve experiences of dispassion, humility, repentance, gratitude and reverence for God, non-possession, tolerance, compassion, meekness. They implement Christian morality, focus on observance of the laws of God. These feelings determine the state of the human soul, its highest spiritualization is love. Signs of love are joy, inner enlightenment, inspiration, common feelings. “Spiritual love does not depend on external conditions: it comes in a mysterious way from God and draws the heart of a person to its Primary Source. Therefore, a person feels a greater and greater thirst for communion with God. Love is most holistically represented in faith as a backbone integrative soul formation that guides human activity, behavior, communication, and knowledge of God. The considered aspects of the human soul in a certain way reveal the content of the superconscious, conscious, unconscious areas of the psyche. In this regard, their study defines the human soul as a scientific category and allows it to be considered as a scientific subject of psychology.

A) Structural psychology of consciousness. Psychology is the science of direct experience. 1879 - opening of an experimental psychological laboratory (Germany, Leipzig) W. Wundt. He studied consciousness with a manometer (how many individual impressions a manometer can hold). There is a single experience, but we can study it in different ways. Every experience is divided into two factors: the content given to us and our perception of this content. The first of these factors is the object of cognition, the second is the cognizing subject. The objects of knowledge are studied by natural science, while psychology studies all the contents of our experience in its relation to the subject and in the properties directly introduced into this experience by the latter. Method - experiment + introspection. But not the whole psyche lends itself to experimental research (only the simplest mental processes - sensations, ideas, reaction time, the simplest associations and feelings). HMF study and mental development requires other methods. The subject of psychology is direct experience. The object is consciousness.

Reasons:

The consciousness directly reflects the causal relationship of mental phenomena (he raised his hand - the reason: he decided to raise his hand). Those. the cause is given directly (originally).

Introspection delivers psychological facts in their pure form, without distortion.

The three goals of the Wundt program are:

Objective (coming from outside, from the object) - simple impressions, sensations and ideas. They have properties: quality, intensity, (Titchener also added extension in time, extension in space).

Subjective (associated with the subject, his inner experiences) - feelings, emotions. 3 parameters: pleasure-displeasure; arousal-sedation; voltage-discharge. These elements make up more complex feelings. Feelings provide a connection between the elements, a synthesis of the elements of consciousness.

Representations (traces of sensations).

Find out how these elements are related. The laws of connection of elements:

1) The principle of gradation of elements (simple feelings in more complex formations) - a whole feeling, partial, simple.

2) The principle of integrity (a whole feeling is perceived as a single whole, indecomposable into parts, not a sum).

3. On this basis, formulate the general laws of mental life:

The law of mental relations - all elements of consciousness are connected with each other and depend on each other.

The law of contrast - if these relations are relations of contrast, then they are perceived clearly.

The law of creative synthesis - complex mental formations are irreducible to their parts.

Heterogony (heterogeneity) of goals - an intermediate goal can acquire the status of a main one

Properties of consciousness:

1) Limited (it accommodates a limited number of simple impressions). Measurement of the volume of consciousness - the volume of attention -7 + -2 elements, the volume of consciousness - 16-40 elements.

2) Heterogeneity: two areas: the area of ​​vague consciousness and clear consciousness and the point of fixation, which is located in the center of the area of ​​clear consciousness (this is the area of ​​the brightest consciousness).

3) Rhythm. Separate elements of consciousness tend to form groups of elements interconnected. This may be involuntary or controlled by attention. Due to the grouping, the volume of attention and consciousness can increase.

The phenomena of attention and the phenomena of consciousness as a whole seemed to W. Wundt to be homogeneous. To distinguish, he used the metaphor of the visual field: the most clearly perceived content in the visual field lies in its fixation point, the less distinct content is distributed in the ordinary field of vision.

Basic processes of consciousness:

Perception is the process of entering some content into the field of consciousness (perception in a larger volume of consciousness).

Apperception (perception falling into the fixation point of attention) is the concentration of consciousness (attention) on some content, i.e. content falls into the realm of clear consciousness. Organization unit more high order- an act of apperception (letters - into words, words - into phrases, etc., i.e. combining small units of consciousness into large ones).

B) Dynamic psychology of consciousness. W. James: it is necessary to study not the sensations, but the act of this sensation, not the visual image, the act of sight – funutsionalism. Consciousness is not a structure, but a process. The stream of consciousness is a continuously changing process. The fact of inner experience is that some conscious processes take place, the states of consciousness are replaced in it one by another.

Stream of consciousness properties:

Every state of consciousness tends to be part of a personal consciousness (every thought is connected to all thoughts, consciousness belongs to someone).

Within the boundaries of personal consciousness, its states are changeable (not once a past state of consciousness can arise again and literally repeat itself; the object perceived by us is identical, and not our sensations).

Every personal consciousness represents a continuous sequence of sensations - a stream.

Example: The awareness of thunder merges with the awareness of the previous silence, which continues: we hear not just a rumble, but a rumble that suddenly breaks the silence and contrasts with it. Our sensation of a rumble under such conditions is quite different from the impression produced by the same rumble in a continuous series of other similar noises.

Selectivity or directionality of the flow. It perceives some objects willingly, rejects others, makes a choice between them - this is the process of attention. In the stream of consciousness, impressions are not equal in importance. The contents of consciousness are associated with interests, hobbies, habits and intentions. And those that are more significant direct the flow as a whole.

C) E. Titchener (USA, student of Wundt). An attempt to combine the theories of Wundt and James. Soul - a set of mental processes experienced by a person throughout his life. Consciousness is a set of mental processes occurring in the soul at a given moment in time.

D) Z. Freud: consciousness is a small part of the mind, it includes what we are aware of every moment.

E) The human psyche presupposes the coexistence of different levels of mental reflection, the highest is the level of consciousness. A.N. Leontiev: consciousness does not arise at once, but is formed gradually as social relations become more complex. Consciousness is a reflection of reality, its objective properties independent of the subjective state. A stable picture of the world is being formed. Impartiality of consciousness is a reflection of the world "in itself", regardless of the need state of the subject.

A prerequisite for the formation of consciousness are:

Labor activity - in it, attention is directed to meeting social needs, i.e. activity of the whole society. Man's activity becomes his conscious activity.

Language is the true bearer of consciousness. The term consciousness itself includes two components: consciousness - knowledge, i.e. joint, public, universal knowledge for all. The word of the language carries a generalized objective meaning. (When pronouncing a word, people must be sure that they mean the same thing and understand each other).

Three-aspect structure of consciousness: sensory fabric, meaning, personal meaning

Sensual fabric of consciousness

Sensual impressions, sensual images.

The main function of the sensory fabric of consciousness is to create a "sense of reality" of the external world. Thanks to it, the world appears to the subject as existing outside of consciousness. Example: A.N. Leontiev while working in a hospital during the Great Patriotic War with wounded miners who lost their hands and eyesight, he noticed that, having lost the visual and tactile imagery of the outside world, they experienced a strange state - “loss of connection with reality”.

Sensual tissue is a necessary but secondary constituent of consciousness. Example: blind people (there is no visual component of the sensual fabric of consciousness), as well as sighted people, have consciousness.

Meaning

Not only the meanings of the words of the language, but also the meanings of events, states, etc.

In universal meanings, in a collapsed form, the entire experience of culture is presented, important for all people (“public”) properties of objects.

If cultural experiences do not coincide, there may be different meanings for different people.

Meanings do not exist in isolation, but are combined into complex systems. Due to the position in the system of individual meanings, words acquire connotations (additional meanings) that are not recorded in dictionaries. Example: the word "German" for the inhabitants of the USSR was closely associated with the concepts of "enemy" long after the end of World War II.

personal meaning

Fixing what this or that event means for a person personally, as it relates to his system of motives. Example: to talk about the growth of crime and agree that it is necessary to take measures to eradicate it, and become a victim of a street robbery - it immediately acquires a different personal meaning.

Gives partiality to consciousness and makes it "mine", because. personal meanings reflect the experience of individual activity.

Thus, “consciousness appears before us as a movement that connects the most difficult moments: the reality of the world, represented in the sensual fabric, the experience of mankind, reflected in the meaning, and the partiality of the existence of each of us, which consists in gaining personal meaning- Significance for individual life.

S.L. Rubinstein identifies the following properties of consciousness:

Relationship building;

Cognition;

Experience.

Properties of consciousness as a functional organ:

Reactivity;

Sensitivity;

Dialogism;

polyphony;

Spontaneous development;

Reflexivity.

The main functions of consciousness include the following:

reflective;

Generating (creative, or creative);

Regulatory and evaluation;

reflective;

31. Consciousness as a subject of scientific psychology. Phenomena and properties of consciousness according to V. Wundt. Stream of consciousness (v.James).

Now consciousness is no longer a separate subject of study. Consciousness is within the framework of thinking, cognition.

Consciousness as a subject of scientific psychology.

The human psyche involves the coexistence of various levels of mental reflection, the highest - level of consciousness. A.N. Leontiev: consciousness does not arise at once, but is formed gradually as social relations become more complex. Consciousness- this is such a reflection of reality, its objective properties independent of the subjective state. A stable picture of the world is being formed. The impartiality of consciousness is a reflection of the world "in itself", regardless of the need state of the subject.

According to A.N. Leontiev , the main prerequisites emergence of consciousness

joint work, including the division of labor functions. Example: primitive tribes. Part of the members of the tribe should stay at home and continue to do their job - run a household, make weapons - expecting that the hunters will share their prey with them as a reward for maintaining the fire and a new batch of weapons. Hunters, in turn, should remember those who stayed at home and bring them trophies, and not eat everything on the spot. And both consciousness is needed , otherwise they will simply run wild and return to the animal form of existence. "Action" according to Leontiev occurs when the object (making a spear) and the motive (satisfying hunger) do not coincide. The action is not directed directly to the motive that prompted its activity, but to a goal that is different from the motive. It is important that the activity is socially “divided”, this requires an understanding of the goals of the actions and the motives of other people - participants in the joint activity. WITH the emergence of purposeful action Thus, there is an objective necessity and possibility of consciousness.

language. Human language is the true bearer of consciousness. The term consciousness itself includes two components: consciousness - knowledge, i.e. joint, public, universal knowledge for all. The word of the language bears generalized subject meaning. (When pronouncing a word, people must be sure that they mean the same thing and understand each other).

Thus, “consciousness owes its emergence to the selection of actions that occur in labor, the cognitive results of which are abstracted from the living integrity of human activity and idealized in the form of linguistic meanings,” writes A.N. Leontiev. Developing and improving, consciousness reaches the form self-awareness, in which a person realizes himself, his qualities and properties, needs, goals and values.

Three-aspect structure of consciousness: sensory fabric, meaning, personal meaning (Leontiev)

3 Consciousness constituents, different in their functional meaning.

sensory fabric of consciousness

Sensual impressions, sensual images.

The main function of the sensory fabric of consciousness is to create a "sense of reality" of the external world. Thanks to it, the world appears to the subject as existing outside of consciousness. Example: A.N. Leontiev, while working in a hospital during the Great Patriotic War with wounded miners who lost their hands and eyesight, noticed that they, having lost the visual and tactile imagery of the outside world, experienced a strange state - "loss of connection with reality."

Sensual tissue is a necessary but secondary constituent of consciousness. Example: blind people (there is no visual component of the sensual tissue of consciousness), just like sighted people, have consciousness.

Meaning

Not only the meanings of the words of the language, but also the meanings of events, states, etc.

In universal meanings, in a collapsed form, the entire experience of culture is presented, important for all people (“public”) properties of objects.

When cultural experiences do not match, there may be different meanings for different people.

Meanings do not exist in isolation, but are combined into complex systems. Due to the position in the system of individual meanings, words acquire connotations (additional meanings) that are not recorded in dictionaries. Example: the word "German" for the inhabitants of the USSR was closely associated with the concepts of "enemy" long after the end of World War II.

(The genesis, structure and functioning of specific systems of meanings are studied by psychosemantics. Using the method of constructing subjective semantic spaces, specialists in this field find out what is the picture of the world in individual people or members of certain social groups).

personal meaning

Fixing what this or that event means for a person personally, as it relates to his system of motives. Example: to talk about the growth of crime and agree that it is necessary to take measures to eradicate it, and become a victim of a street robbery - it immediately acquires a different personal meaning.

Gives partiality to consciousness and makes it "mine", because. personal meanings reflect the experience of individual activity.

Thus, as A.N. Leontiev: "Consciousness appears before us as a movement that connects the most difficult moments: the reality of the world, represented in the sensual fabric, the experience of mankind, reflected in the meaning, and the partiality of the existence of each of us, which consists in gaining personal meaning - meaning for individual life."

Phenomena and properties of consciousness W. Wundt.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920):

Studied sensations and muscle movements

Faced with the influence of mental factors on the physiological processes

He proposed to study psychology by experimental methods and set the task of experimentally revealing the structure of consciousness

In 1879, in Leipzig, he created the first experimental psychological laboratory in Europe, which soon became the International Center for Psychological Research.

He proclaimed apperception - a certain center of the entire sphere of consciousness, located in the frontal lobes of the brain - as a universal explanatory principle of psychology.

Structural elements of consciousness according to Wundt - sensations, feelings and sensorimotor reactions who unite by will .

properties of consciousness

1) Limited (it accommodates a limited number of simple impressions). Measurement of the volume of consciousness - the volume of attention -7 + -2 elements, the volume of consciousness - 16-40 elements.

2) Heterogeneity: two areas: the area of ​​vague consciousness and clear consciousness and the point of fixation, which is located in the center of the area of ​​clear consciousness (this is the area of ​​the brightest consciousness). This is the field of attention and the periphery.

3) Rhythm. Separate elements of consciousness tend to form groups of elements interconnected. This might be involuntarily or controlled by attention. Due to grouping, the amount of attention and consciousness can increase

According to Nurkova, more

The phenomena of attention and the phenomena of consciousness as a whole seemed to W. Wundt to be homogeneous. To differentiate, he used visual field metaphor : the most distinctly perceived content in the visual field lies in its fixation pointke, less distinct content is distributed in the normal field of view. Thus, attention is "a mental process that occurs with a clearer perception of the field of contents, limited in comparison with the entire field of consciousness." Attention, according to W. Wundt, is one of the characteristics of consciousness, or rather, a property of a part of consciousness (focus).

In his experiments on the study of consciousness, Wundt established:

The scope of consciousness is about 6 associated objects

Quantitative measure of consciousness V (in experiments) - a melodic series, including a different number of measures

Himself esperim-t: Wundt gave the subjects to listen to a series consisting of 1,2,3, etc. cycles. The bars could be two-part (tick-tock), three-part (waltz - one-two-three), etc. It was forbidden to specifically count the measures. After presenting one row, another was immediately given. Subject d.b. to say whether there is a feeling of equality of the rows or not. Correct answers were given at 8 two-part, 6 three-part, 5 four-part cycles. But the beat perceived at the moment was the most distinct, the following ones are less distinct, and so on. up to the complete disappearance of sensation. (If the blow was already so long ago, then the “impression” of it disappears, i.e. it plunged below the threshold of consciousness. In the reverse process - the impression rose above the threshold of consciousness. That. conditions for unification of a whole consisting of various parts: unification is possible as long as not a single component part has sunk under the threshold of consciousness.)

Conclusion: in the focus of consciousness is only the beat that is perceived at the moment, the rest were kept due to the associative connection with the focus.

Measuring V of a narrow zone of the field of consciousness (this is attention according to Wundt), he presented matrices with a random set of letters or isolated sounds that could not be combined into beats. In this case, the subjects could clearly distinguish only 6 elements =>

constant V of consciousness is 6 integral complex elements, associatively interconnected

V attention - 6 isolated elements

A visual demonstration of the action of attention - multi-letter words. Ex, sight. Its length is 21 letters, but we can instantly realize it. According to Wundt, attention does not cover the whole word at once, but only 6 letters in each unit of time - that is, a limited part of the whole, but from which the mental cohesion of elements passes to "peripheral" areas of consciousness. (the associative connection of focus (attention) and the periphery gives us the opportunity to realize the whole.)

Wundt used Leibniz's terms to describe the focus and periphery of consciousness.

Perception- entry of content into consciousness . Apperception- the entry of this content into the focus of consciousness (focusing on this content).

He also noted:

Our ability to realize is not constant, but depends on the nature of the perceived material.

If a set of unrelated elements is perceived, the volumes of attention and consciousness coincide

If there are many interconnected elements, then consciousness “expands”: the apperceptible (what is in focus) and the perceived (outside attention, periphery) merge.

More about the visual field:

The most clearly perceived content is in fixation point of consciousness(blickpunkt), the rest - in the visual field of consciousness(blickfeld).

The visual field can be imagined as the area surrounding the fixation point, which is continuously dimming towards the periphery. Until it touches the threshold of consciousness.

Point of fixation of consciousness- the ideal concentration of the central region within which many impressions can be clearly and distinctly perceived. For the central part of the visual field of consciousness, adjacent to the internal fixation point, the term is accepted - focus of attention- Impressions and other contents, which at a given moment differ from other contents in a special clarity.

W. James.

Amer. Psychologist and philosopher (1842 - 1910)

He spoke about the integrity and dynamism of consciousness, rejecting Wundt's division into sensation, image, feeling.

That's why I coined the term "stream of consciousness"

1875 - he created the first American psychological laboratory

According to Nurkova:

He was interested in the problem fluctuations in attention. He believed that voluntary attention could not last more than a few seconds. A good illustration is the drawing Wife or Mother-in-law (Nurkov, Fig. 6):

If you just look - the images will change to each other, "wink"

If you start counting the wrinkles of the “mother-in-law” or the eyelashes of the “wife”, for example, you can steadily keep your attention on one of the objects - that is, develop your object of attention all the time, look at it from a new perspective

It was with the last remark that Wundt associated genius - a genius is never bored with his occupation, he always perceives it differently.

James spoke about the phenomenon preperception: mental expectation of an upcoming phenomenon. According to James, preperception is half of perception. The readiness of the psyche to selectively perceive one type of information and reject another - then it was developed in cognitive psychology.

James proposed a classification of attention. He identified 6 types according to the criteria:

Arbitrariness

Directions (to the external or internal world of the subject)

The method of linking the act of attention with the current motivational state (directly or through an associative connection - indirectly)

- Sensual Attention:

- intellectual attention,(Also)

Involuntary mediated

involuntary immediate

Arbitrary indirect

Examples:

A man hurrying to work suddenly freezes at a shop window, seeing on the cover of one of the magazines a photograph of a girl who looks like a classmate with whom he was once in love. - - sensual involuntary mediated attention.

A graduate of the institute mentally thinks over the order of a conversation with a potential employer, on the success of which his future career prospects depend - - intellectual voluntary mediated attention.

Stream of consciousness properties:

1. Each state of consciousness strives to be a part of personal consciousness (every thought is connected with all thoughts)

2. Within the boundaries of personal consciousness, its states are changeable (Not once a past state of consciousness can arise again and literally repeat itself; the object perceived by us is identical, and not our sensations).

3. Every personal consciousness represents a continuous sequence of sensations - flow.

Example: The awareness of thunder merges with the awareness of the previous silence, which continues: we do not hear just a rumble, but a roar that suddenly breaks the silence and contrasts with it. Our sensation of a rumble under such conditions is quite different from the impression produced by the same rumble in a continuous series of other similar noises. It is hardly possible to find in the concrete real consciousness of a person a sensation so limited to the present that there would not be the slightest hint of what preceded it.

4. Selectivity or flow direction. It perceives some objects willingly, rejects others, makes a choice between them - this is the process of attention. In the stream of consciousness, impressions are not equal in importance. There are more, there are less significant. The contents of consciousness are associated with interests, hobbies, habits and intentions. And those that are more significant direct the flow as a whole. (associated with preperception)

Basic metaphors and properties of consciousness

Prerequisites. Descartes: the criterion of the mental is consciousness (identification of the psyche and consciousness). The first thing that a person discovers in himself is his own consciousness. But consciousness is one, integral, and therefore cannot study itself, there is no consciousness as a subject of science. Locke introduced the concept of reflection as an internal activity of the mind, the ability to reflect one's mental experience. Reflection can be used to study consciousness.

Psychology of consciousness

The psychology of consciousness is the science of the properties of consciousness, its elements, the connections between them and the laws to which they obey. The method is introspection.

Features of scientific psychology in the period of its formation: “-” a sharp narrowing of the subject, “+” the properties of the subject are defined in terms that are supported by methodological procedures - the possibility of introducing statistics.

A) Structural psychology of consciousness. Psychology is the science of direct experience. 1879 - opening of the Institute of Psychology (Germany, Leipzig), W. Wundt. Experience with a metronome - a description of the properties of consciousness (impressions). Consciousness is a structure, and this structure consists of elements organized in a certain way.

properties of consciousness

1) Limited (it accommodates a limited number of simple impressions). Measurement of the volume of consciousness - the volume of attention -7 + -2 elements, the volume of consciousness - 16-40 elements.

2) Heterogeneity: two areas: the area of ​​vague consciousness and clear consciousness and the point of fixation, which is located in the center of the area of ​​clear consciousness (this is the area of ​​the brightest consciousness). This is the field of attention and the periphery.

3) Rhythm. Separate elements of consciousness tend to form groups of elements interconnected. This might be involuntarily or controlled by attention. Due to the grouping, the volume of attention and consciousness can increase.

Basic processes of consciousness.

Perception is the process of entering some content into the field of consciousness.

Apperception (associated with the area of ​​clear vision) is the concentration of consciousness (attention) on any content, i.e. content falls into the realm of clear consciousness. The organization of a unit of a higher order is an act of apperception (letters - into words, words - into phrases, etc., i.e., the unification of small units of consciousness into large ones).

3 goals of the Wundt program:

Find out what relationships these elements have.

On this basis, formulate the general laws of mental life.

1. Elements of consciousness:

Objective (coming from outside, from the object) - simple impressions, sensations and ideas. They have properties: quality, intensity, (Titchener also added extension in time, extension in space).

Subjective (associated with the subject, his inner experiences) - feelings, emotions. 3 parameters: pleasure-displeasure; arousal-sedation; voltage-discharge. These elements make up more complex feelings. Feelings provide a connection between the elements, a synthesis of the elements of consciousness.

2. The laws of connection of these elements.

1) The principle of gradation of elements (simple feelings in more complex formations)

C C - whole

H H H - partial

P P P P P P P P P - simple

2) The principle of integrity (a whole feeling is perceived as a single whole, indecomposable into parts, not a sum, emotional value is added).

Relationship:

The principle of associations (Hume: by resemblance, by contiguity in space and time, causality); (Herbart: fusion of similar ideas, assimilation, dissimilation, complication - the combination of individual sensations without loss in quality into some holistic formation.

3. Laws of mental life:

The law of mental relations - all elements of consciousness are connected with each other and depend on each other.

The law of contrast - if these relations are relations of contrast, then they are perceived clearly.

The law of creative synthesis - complex mental formations are irreducible to their parts.

Heterogony (heterogeneity) of goals - an intermediate goal can acquire the status of a main one.

In some areas of psychology (physiological psychology), Wundt's theory still works.

B) Dynamic psychology of consciousness. W. James: Consciousness is not a structure, but a process (a dynamic whole). He singled out 2 types of states of consciousness: stable and changeable (a metaphor for the flight of a bird). Properties of the stream of consciousness: continuity, variability, the impossibility of "entering the same river."

The stream of consciousness is a continuously changing process. The fact of inner experience is that some conscious processes are taking place. The states of consciousness are replaced in it by one another.

Stream of consciousness properties:

Every state of consciousness tends to be a part of personal consciousness (consciousness belongs to someone).

Within the boundaries of personal consciousness, its states are changeable (the states of consciousness are unique, because both the subject and the object have changed, objects are identical, not sensations).

Every personal consciousness is a continuous succession of sensations

(a) we are aware of the mental states that precede and follow the gap as parts of the same person (Peter and Paul: everyone has their own past);

b) changes in the qualitative content of thought are never abrupt (thunder and silence: thunder breaks the silence - the consciousness that silence has ceased at that moment)) Consciousness is indivisible into elements.

Selectivity or directionality of the flow. It perceives some objects willingly, rejects others, makes a choice between them - this is the process of attention. In the stream of consciousness, impressions are not equal in importance. There are more, there are less significant. The contents of consciousness are associated with interests, hobbies, habits and intentions. And those that are more significant direct the flow as a whole.

Human life is purposeful. It is a continuous problem setting and solution. The human psyche is functional, it serves to solve these problems.

C) E. Titchener (USA, student of Wundt). An attempt to combine the theories of Wundt and James. Soul - a set of mental processes experienced by a person throughout his life. Consciousness is a set of mental processes occurring in the soul at a given moment in time. Consciousness is a cross section of the soul. There is a level of clear consciousness and a level of vague consciousness. Metaphor - a wave of attention. Clarity, sensory intensity - degree of attention, wave height.

characteristics of attention.

Attention intensity

Duration in time

3. Features of the “psychology of consciousness”:

1) precise definition subject and method;

2) T. Kuhn (USA) signs of normal science for his time: theoretical presentation of the subject, highlighting its properties, a number of explanatory concepts;

3) a statement about its specificity in relation to the natural (subject - consciousness) and humanitarian (subject - individual consciousness) sciences.

When consciousness manifests an effort, it acts as a structure. If you do not make any special efforts, impressions involuntarily rush through the mind by themselves.

In the XVIII century. the place of the soul was taken by the phenomena of consciousness, that is, phenomena that a person actually observes, finds in himself, turning to his “inner mental activity”. These are thoughts, desires, feelings, memories known to everyone from personal experience. The basis of this understanding can be considered John Locke who believed that, unlike the soul, the phenomena of consciousness are not something supposed, but actually given.

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

In the middle of the XVIII V. developed the first scientific form of psychology English empirical associationist psychology (D. Hartley). Associative psychology reached its peak in the middle of the 19th century. By this time, the work of J. St. Mill, A. Bain, G. Spencer.

J. St. Mill considers consciousness through the prism of an associationist scheme, but points to its dependence in concrete psychological functioning on logic. According to J. St. Mill, there are laws of the mind, different from the laws of matter, but similar to them in terms of uniformity, repetition, the need to follow one phenomenon after another. These phenomena can be discovered with the help of experimental methods - observation and experiment. The main method is introspection.

Alexander Ben shifts the emphasis from the internal states of consciousness to the motor, objectively observed activity of the organism. The principle of selecting motor responses that are adequate to external conditions becomes in A. Bain the general explanatory principle of all mental phenomena. The construction of adequate responses is carried out using the mechanism of “constructive association” based on trial and error.

For G. Spencer, the subject of psychology is the interaction of the organism with the environment. Introspection remains the priority research method.

The core of the associationist concept waslaw of frequency , who said that the strengthening of the connection is a function of its repetition. This largely determined the views of I. P. Pavlov, I. M. Sechenov, E. Thorndike, W. James.

Direct experience as a subject of psychology

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

Intentional acts of consciousness as a subject of psychology

F. Brentano bases his teaching on such qualities of consciousness as activity and objectivity. Psychology should study not sensations and representations per se, but those acts (“actions”) that the subject performs (acts of representation, judgment and emotional evaluation) when he turns nothing into an object of awareness. Outside the act, the object does not exist. The act, in turn, necessarily presupposes a “direction to” intention. Brentano stood at the origins of the direction later called functionalism.