Article “The concept of the definition of “personality” by foreign and domestic psychologists”

While the concept of "man" emphasizes his biosocial origins, "personality" is concerned primarily with his social and psychological aspects. These include self-esteem, self-esteem, value orientations, beliefs, principles by which a person lives, his moral, aesthetic, socio-political and other social positions, his beliefs and ideals. And also the character, features of his intellect, the style and independence of his thinking, the specifics of his emotional composition, willpower, way of thinking and feeling, social status. The concept of “personality” in the history of philosophy has been considered from a variety of points of view.

Definition

The concept of personality in philosophy, psychology and sociology is one of the key ones. The term itself comes from the Latin word persona, meaning mask. Personality is the patterned set of habits, traits, attitudes and ideas of an individual. Because they are organized externally into roles and statuses and internally related to motivation, goals, and various aspects of the self.

If we briefly introduce the concept of personality in philosophy, we can say that this is its essence, meaning and purpose in the world.

According to Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, it is the sum and organization of those traits that define her role in the group. For other psychologists, this concept covers an organized set of psychological processes and statuses related to a person. It is also everything that a person has experienced and experienced, since all of this can be understood as unity. In addition, this concept refers to the habits, attitudes and other social traits that characterize the behavior of a given person. According to Jung, personality is the totality of an individual’s behavior with a given system of tendencies that interacts with a series of situations.

Basic principles of personalism

1. Personalism in its classical form is a continuation of the anthropological and personalistic ideas of Christian philosophy. Personalism is a theistic system
2. Man is an active cognitive being.
3. Personality is the highest value and the primary type of reality.
4. Personality is an ontological category and is characterized from three sides: on the one hand, it has an exterior orientation outward, towards the surrounding world, on the other hand, it is interior, has a tendency to introspection. The third side of the personality is its striving for the knowledge of transcendental existence. The personality correlates itself with the existence of God and with the system of moral imperatives (good, meaning of life, truth, etc.).

Different points of view

Based on these definitions, we can say that, in addition to the philosophical, there are two more main approaches to the study of personality:

• psychological;
• sociological.

The psychological approach considers personality as a certain style characteristic of it. This style is determined by the characteristic organization of mental tendencies, complexes, emotions and moods. The psychological approach allows us to understand the phenomena of personality disorganization and the role of desires, mental conflict, repression and sublimation in its growth. The sociological approach considers personality from the point of view of the status of the individual, her understanding of her role in the group of which she is a member. What others think of us plays a big role in shaping our personality.

Essence

Thus, personality is the sum of a person’s ideas, attitudes and values ​​that determine his role in society and form an integral part of his character. It is acquired as a result of his participation in group life. As a member of a group, he learns certain systems of behavior and symbolic skills that determine his ideas, attitudes and social values. These ideas, attitudes and values ​​are the constituent elements. When considering the main definition, it should be taken into account that the concepts of “man”, “individual”, “individuality” and “personality” in philosophy are of the same order, but not identical.

The concept of personality in philosophy

The concept of personality in philosophy has always attracted great attention. Within the framework of philosophy, there is a distinction between the concepts of individuality and personality

Individuality is a description of the characteristics inherent in the human race as a whole.

Within the framework of philosophy, there is a distinction between the concepts of individuality and personality. Individuality is a description of the characteristics inherent in the human race as a whole.

Personality, generalizing the philosophical interpretations of different schools and directions, represents, in addition to identifying the general nature of a person, a simultaneous unity of spiritual and physical characteristics, which determines the line of human behavior in life. Personality is the basis for human development throughout his life, because... includes the resolution of ideological (what is the meaning of life), value (what is good and how to behave), aesthetic (what is beauty) and other issues.

Note 1

Personality determines the inner life of a person, determines the concept of the inner “I” and thinking. In addition, personality is the basis for social communication between people.

A person’s full entry into society is associated with the final formation of the individual.

In the tradition of European thought there is personalism, which is precisely formed on the concept of personality. Personalistic tendencies are present in the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Leibniz.

At the end of the $19th and $20th centuries, the direction of personalistic philosophy was formed as an independent phenomenon of thought. The following philosophers are considered to be part of this tradition: N.A. Berdyaev, E. Mounier and others.

Meaning

Briefly examining the concept of personality in philosophy, it should be noted that it is a product of social interaction in group life. In society, every person has different features such as skin, color, height and weight. People have different personality types because they are different from each other. It refers to the habits, attitudes as well as the physical qualities of a person, they are similar but differ from group to group and from society to society. According to this approach, everyone has a personality, which can be good or bad, impressive or unimpressive. It develops in the process of socialization in the culture of a particular group or society. It is impossible to define it individually because it varies from culture to culture and from time to time. For example, a murderer is considered a criminal in peacetime and a hero in war. A person's feelings and actions during interactions shape personality. It is the sum of a person's overall behavior and covers both overt and covert behavior, interests, psyche and intelligence. This is the sum of physical and mental abilities and skills.

It is impossible to imagine personality as something separate from a person or even from his outer and general physical appearance. This is the face we face. When people undergo plastic surgery and facelifts, they change their appearance, which, as psychological observations have shown, also changes something in their psyche. Everything in a person is interconnected and affects the personality as a whole. What a person is like is the outer expression of his inner world.

Biological and social in individual human development.

A person is born with certain hereditary inclinations. Most of them are multi-valued: on their basis, various personality traits can be formed. In this case, the educational process plays a decisive role. However, the possibilities of education are also related to the hereditary characteristics of the individual. The hereditary basis of the human body determines its anatomical and physiological characteristics, the basic qualities of the nervous system, and the dynamics of nervous processes.

The biological organization of man, his nature, contains the possibilities of his future mental development.

The genotype* of an individual determines the pattern of his individual development.

The problem of interaction between the biological and the social has given rise to various theories of mental development in the history of psychology. One of them, the theory of biological maturation, argued that human mental functions are hereditarily determined, that they do not depend on the external environment, and develop as the body matures biologically. Moreover, the development of an individual repeats the development of the entire human race (biogenetic law).

Another theory - the theory of the leading role of the environment - argued that the environment is a decisive factor in the mental development of a person. The followers of this theory did not see qualitative age-related changes in mental development and reduced it to the accumulation of knowledge, skills and abilities.

Modern scientific data indicate that certain biological factors can act as conditions that complicate or facilitate the formation of certain mental qualities of a person. As is known, the nucleus of a human biological cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, with the same distribution of both X and Y chromosomes. But there are people with chromosomal abnormalities (with a frequency of 1: 500), who have not 46, but 47 chromosomes in the cell nucleus. Individuals with an extra X chromosome are characterized by emotional instability and increased aggressiveness. An extra Y chromosome causes a decrease in the level of will and intelligence. Of course, a chromosomal abnormality cannot be interpreted as the presence of “crime genes” in certain people. A favorable education system that takes into account the biological characteristics of a given individual neutralizes the negative aspects of a chromosomal abnormality. Each developing individual has its own hereditary and environmental limitations. The environment can stimulate the expression (manifestation) of genetic potential.

based on three different criteria: genetic, neurohumoral and congenital characteristics of the type of higher nervous activity (neurotype).

According to neurohumoral characteristics, according to the characteristics of the response of the sympathetic-adrenal system (SAS) to environmental influences, three behavioral types are distinguished: 1) A-type (adrenal), 2) NA-type (noradrenal), 3) A + NA-type (mixed) .

Representatives of the A-type are characterized by anxiety, increased responsibility, self-criticism, have difficulty with nervous overload, and are susceptible to cardiovascular disease. (Among men, the share of A-type is more than 30%, among women - 30%.) Representatives of the NA-type are characterized by constant increased tension. These are serious, reserved, taciturn, hidden and domineering people. They are purposeful and active, capable of overcoming difficulties, but have a hard time experiencing failures and are prone to nervous breakdowns. (HA type among men is 17%, among women – 26%)

Representatives of the A + HA type (mixed) are distinguished by extreme increased emotionality, sudden changes in mood, and emotional instability. These are people of the hysterical type - they are artistic and love to be the center of attention.

Connection with philosophy

A person is considered a socially developed person, one who is part of a specific historical and natural context, a particular social group, a person who has a relatively stable system of socially significant personal qualities and performs corresponding social roles. The intellectual framework of a person is formed by his needs, interests, belief system, characteristics of temperament, emotions, willpower, motivation, value orientations, independence of thinking, consciousness and self-awareness. The central personality trait is worldview. A person cannot become an individual without developing what is known as a worldview, which includes his philosophical view of the world.

Knowledge of philosophy is an integral attribute of higher education and human culture. Since worldview is the privilege of the modern individual, and its core is philosophy, everyone must know philosophy in order to understand themselves and those around them. Even those who deny and ridicule philosophy have it. Only the animal has no worldview. It does not evaluate things in the world, the meaning of life and other problems. Worldview is the privilege of the individual, that is, of a person elevated by culture.

The concept of criminal personality in criminology

Psychology plays a huge role in criminology. People involved in investigations must have knowledge in the field of psychology, they must be able to analyze the situation from different angles, explore all possible options for the development of events and at the same time the nature of the criminals who committed the crime.

The concept and structure of the personality of a criminal is the main subject of research by criminal psychologists. By conducting observations and research on criminals, it is possible to create a personal portrait of a potential criminal, this in turn will make it possible to prevent further crimes. In this case, the person is examined comprehensively - his psychological characteristics (temperament, accentuations, inclinations, abilities, level of anxiety, self-esteem), material well-being, his childhood, relationships with people, presence of family and close friends, place of work and other aspects are studied. To understand the essence of such a person, it is not enough to conduct psychodiagnostics with him; he can skillfully hide his nature, but when in front of his eyes there is a whole map of human life, one can trace the connections and find the prerequisites for a person becoming a criminal.

If in psychology they speak of personality as a unit, that is, a characteristic of an individual, then in criminology it is rather an abstract concept that is not given to an individual criminal, but creates his general image, consisting of certain properties.

A person falls under the characteristic of a “criminal personality” from the moment he committed his ill-fated act. Although some are inclined to believe that even earlier, long before the crime itself was committed, that is, when an idea was born in a person and he began to nurture it. It’s more difficult to say when a person stops being like that. If a person has realized his guilt and sincerely repents of what he has done, and sincerely regrets what happened and its inevitability, he has already gone beyond the concept of a criminal personality, but the fact remains a fact, and the person will be punished. He may also realize that he made a mistake while serving his sentence. I may never understand. There are people who will never give up the fact that they committed an ill-fated act, even if they suffer painful punishment, they will not repent. Or there are also repeat offenders who, after serving one sentence, are released, commit a crime again, and so can wander back and forth for the rest of their lives. These are pure criminal natures, they resemble one another and fall under the general description of a criminal.

The personality structure of a criminal is a system of socially significant characteristics, negative properties, which, together with the situation prevailing at that moment, influence the commission of offenses. Along with the negative qualities, the criminal also has positive qualities, but they could be deformed in the process of life.

The concept and personality structure of the criminal must be clearly clear to criminologists in order to be able to protect citizens from the threat in the first place.

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Social basis of personality

Both historically and ontogenetically, a person becomes a person to the extent that he assimilates culture and contributes to its creation. Our distant ancestor, in the conditions of the primitive horde and the initial stages of the formation of society, was not yet a person, although he was already a man. A child, especially in his early years, is, of course, a person, but not yet a person. He has yet to become one in the process of his development, education and upbringing.

Thus, the concept of “personality” in philosophy implies a principle that unites the biological and social into a single whole. And also all the psychological processes, qualities and states that regulate behavior, giving it a certain consistency and stability in relation to the rest of the world, other people and oneself. Personality is a socio-historical, naturally conditioned and individually expressed being. A person is a personality because he consciously distinguishes himself from everything that surrounds him, and his attitude to the world exists in his mind as a certain point of view in life. A personality is a person who has self-awareness and a worldview and has achieved an understanding of his social functions, his place in the world, who has realized himself as a subject of historical creativity, the creator of history.

Essence and structure of personality

For centuries, the question of what “man” or “personality” is has been thought about and answered by philosophers, theologians, anthropologists, doctors, psychologists, and sociologists. The philosophical understanding of personality began with the conceptual developments of Greek thinkers. The exceptional position of man in the world was especially emphasized by Protagoras in the famous saying “man is the measure of all things,” which Socrates supplemented as follows: “man, as a thinker, is the measure of all things.”

Personality is the object of study in a number of humanities, primarily philosophy, psychology and sociology. Philosophy considers personality from the point of view of its position in the world as a subject of life, cognition and creativity. Psychology studies personality as a stable integrity of mental processes, properties and relationships: temperament, character, abilities, volitional qualities, etc.

Sciences (and individual scientists) “capture” only certain aspects of this human nature. Therefore, the variety of points of view on personality and the many theories describing it are explained by the original complexity of man and his nature.

Even from the ancient Greeks comes the idea of ​​man as a microcosm. They believed that there was a big world (the universe, the macrocosm) and a small world (man, the microcosm). The big world is complex, appearing before us with its different sides, but man is also complex, appearing before us with different sides of his nature.

The peculiarity of the sociological approach to the study of personality is that sociology does not consider personality in all its diversity, i.e. as a product of nature; the goal and specificity of the sociological approach is the study of personality as a set of social relations, i.e. as a product of society.

The sociological approach identifies what is socially typical in a person. The main problems of the sociological theory of personality are the formation of personality and the development of its needs, patterns of relationship between the individual and society, the individual and the group, regulation and self-regulation of the social behavior of the individual, etc.

And in order to answer the question of what a personality is, it is necessary to distinguish between such concepts as “person”, “individual”, “personality”.

“Man” is only a difference in a biological species. The concept of a person is used to characterize the universal qualities and characteristics inherent in all people. This concept emphasizes the presence in the world of such a special historically developing community as the human race (homo sapiens).

An “individual” is a single representative of the human race, a specific bearer of all the social and psychological traits of humanity: reason, will, needs, interests, etc. The concept of “individual” usually denotes a person as a single representative of a particular community. Individuality is that specific thing that distinguishes one person from others, including both biological and social characteristics, inherited or acquired.

“Personality” is a specific expression of the essence of a person, the integration in an individual of his socially significant traits and psychobiological basis implemented in a certain way. One is not born a person, but one becomes one. A child who has just been born is a person, but not yet a person, although the real possibility of subsequent transformation into a person is already embedded in him, programmed.

The specificity of biological and psychological characteristics is determined largely by what social “properties” this or that individual acquires. Thus, the concept of “personality” is applied to each person, since he individually expresses the socially significant features of a given society, a particular social group, or community. Therefore, a criminal is also a person (an antisocial person), which students sometimes doubt. But as for the mentally ill, this may be the case when a personality disintegration occurs (in one person there is both Napoleon and Ivan Ivanovich).

The sociology of personality focuses on three main problems:

— the study of personality as a social system, an element of social communities and social institutions;

— the study of the individual as an object of social relations (the impact of society on the individual, including in the process of its formation, socialization, etc., i.e., the impact both through the general social conditions of the macrosphere and through the specific social conditions represented by the microsphere) ;

— consideration of the individual as a subject of social relations, including highlighting the social activity and activity of the individual. The individual acts on the basis of socially determined interests; developed self-awareness allows one to go beyond strict role requirements. The personality as a subject of social relations is characterized by a certain autonomy and independence from society.

The relationship between the social and the biological in personality is the subject of many years of discussion in the sociological and philosophical literature. Even Spencer in his time, insisting on the primacy of the biological, wrote about the illusory nature of hopes that the shortcomings of humanity can be corrected by good institutions. “Whatever the social system, the imperfect nature of the citizens will be manifested in their bad actions. There is no such political alchemy with which one could turn the tin of instincts into the gold of actions.”

Meanwhile, the facts are well known that children who found themselves in the den of the beast at an early age, upon returning to human society, were never able to adapt to normal human life (master speech, walk upright, eat with a spoon, etc.). Therefore, without a social environment and training, a human being will not develop into a personality. But, on the other hand, without any doubt, it is impossible to raise Tolstoy or Tchaikovsky under any educational system if nature has not laid this “divine gift” in the individual.

The structure and properties of human nature have not yet been fully elucidated, but several obvious assumptions can be made: first of all, man is a living natural being, secondly, man is a social being, thirdly, he is a spiritual being.

Thus, most scientists agree that personality is an integrative integrity of biogenic, psychogenic and social elements. If contradictions arise between these “three brothers,” disintegration of the individual occurs. For example, when a cultural ideal, generally accepted norms require the suppression of strong biological impulses. This can lead to a psychological breakdown and a disease of the nervous system. Social reasons include: participation in several social groups that impose contradictory value systems and patterns of behavior on the individual. For example, contradictions between the value system in a family and a youth group, between lovers and family, etc.

Conflicts may arise between bio- and psychological elements and the demands of social roles. For example, when a timid and timid person is forced to take on a role that requires great responsibility, initiative and bold decisions, then the inability to adapt to the role ends in personality disintegration and a nervous breakdown.

Contradictory collisions may also arise in the personality structure. Ambivalence ( from Latin ambo - both and valentia - strength) - contradictory, dual. This term hides the coexistence in the deep structure of the personality of opposite, mutually exclusive emotional attitudes, for example, love and hatred towards an object or person. Moreover, one of these emotional attitudes turns out to be repressed into the area of ​​the subconscious and has an effect that is not even realized by the individual.

In medical practice, S. Freud dealt with this problem. And in fiction, a similar state is described and brilliantly analyzed by F.M. Dostoevsky. A sociological interpretation of ambivalence is given in the works of R. Merton, who interpreted this phenomenon using the concepts: social role, status, role conflict (see the topic “The Social Structure of Society” for more details). And, according to J. Mead, the same subject in real life performs many roles, which sometimes contradict each other. For example, an excellent worker and a bad family man.

Nowadays, ambivalence can be noted among many people in the field of socio-political values ​​and orientations. The personality structure simultaneously contains old values ​​that are essentially mutually exclusive and new ones associated with market relations.

6.2. Sociological concepts of personality

In sociology, there are several concepts of personality, these include: the theory of the mirror “I”, role theory, certain forms of behaviorism in sociology, the theory of the reference group, attitudes, etc.

The concept of the mirror “I” is one of the first sociological and socio-psychological concepts of personality, based not on the internal characteristics of a person, but on the recognition of the decisive role of interaction between individuals. Thus, personality is interpreted as an objective quality acquired by a person in the process of social life. The core of personality, its self-awareness, is nothing more than the result of social interaction in which the individual learns to look at himself as an object through the eyes of other people. A person has as many social “I”s as there are individuals and groups whose opinions he is concerned about.

The author of the theory of the “mirror self,” or as it is also called the “Theory of the Social Mirror,” C. Cooley considered the main sign of a truly social being to be the ability to separate oneself from a group and realize one’s “I.” A prerequisite for this is communication with other people and assimilation of their opinions about oneself. There is no sense of “I” without a corresponding sense of “We” and “They”. Other people are the mirrors in which the image of a person’s “I” is formed; personality is the totality of a person’s mental reactions to the opinions of others about him. According to the “mirror self” theory, the reflection of the “I” is made up of three elements.

1. Determining how others see us, an idea of ​​how I appear to another person.

2. The idea of ​​how they evaluate our appearance, understood very broadly, covering our behavior and activities, i.e. the idea of ​​“how this other evaluates my image.”

3. Reaction to these presented assessments in the form of reflection, surprise or shame, pride, or humiliation. All this adds up to a person’s “sense of personal certainty” - the “mirror “I”.

It should be noted that the reflected “I” often does not coincide with the subjective “I”. The subjective “I” is usually a complex of positive ideas about oneself, often contrasted with unfavorable assessments of the environment. Tolstoy compared a person to a fraction, where the numerator is an opinion about oneself, and the denominator is the assessment of others. It’s not for nothing that there is a proverb: “We notice a speck in someone else’s eye, but we don’t see a log in our own.”

Role theory of personality . The role theory of personality was actively developed by J. Mead, T. Parsons, R. Merton and others. The role theory of personality describes its behavior using two main concepts: social status and social role. The totality of roles performed constitutes a role set (see the topic “Social structure of personality” for more details). Thus, personality is a function of the totality of social roles that an individual performs in society.

The social role is the point where society and the individual come into contact, social roles are transformed into individual behavior, and individual qualities are tested for compliance with the requirements of norms. Having taken a certain position in society or in the system of interpersonal connections, a person must change, sometimes to the point of radical transformation of personality. The most famous example of such a transformation is the story of the street flower girl Eliza Doolittle in B. Shaw's play Pygmalion. As a result of her assimilation of the role of a noble lady, external to her, she changed so much as a person that a return to her previous social role became impossible. (In reality, such transformations are hardly possible or very rare).

Having adopted a new social position, a person is forced to adapt to the requirements of the role, otherwise he will have to either leave this role or experience significant sanctions and reproaches of his own conscientiousness. So, having got a dog, its owner, who has considered himself a “night owl” all his life, discovers the ability to get up early in order to have time to walk his pet before work.

The general idea that personality is the result of teaching a person the rules of life and behavior in society (“the social state of a person”) was most fully and consistently expressed in behaviorism, which interpreted personality as a simple set of socially acceptable responses to a set of social stimuli.

In the theory of social attitudes, personality is viewed as the result of those sometimes unconscious attitudes that society forms through the very fact of constant everyday influence, “pressure” on the individual. By accumulating diverse attitudes, a person gets used to being an individual. He develops a fundamental attitude towards being an individual.

Psychoanalytic personality theory of S. Freud. Developing a theory of personality from a psychological perspective, S. Freud believed that the individual is always in a state of conflict with society, because biogenic impulses contradict cultural norms.

In the structure of personality, Freud identified three main psychological components: Id (“It”), Ego (“I”) and Superego (super “I”).

The id is a source of energy that fuels the desire for pleasure (sexual, satisfying the need for food, etc.). The id or “It” is a component dominated by unconscious instincts associated with the need to satisfy biological needs.

The subconscious is ruled by the pleasure principle. Freud believed that in every person there is, as it were, a being that says: I will only do what I like. But since the individual often likes what biological nature dictates to him, and above all, desires and drives condemned by society, the individual has to fight this, pushing them into the realm of the unconscious.”

The ego (“I”) is a kind of “censor” component, something like a semaphore on the paths of communication between the individual and the outside world. For example, if the Id signals hunger, the Ego blocks attempts to eat spare food or poisonous mushrooms. The sphere of consciousness, i.e. The ego (“I”) is governed by the reality principle. If at the beginning of his life’s journey, just after being born, a person demands immediate satisfaction of his biological needs, then consciousness, or “I,” is gradually formed, striving to curb the unconscious and direct it into the mainstream of socially approved behavior.

Superego (super - “I”) is an idealized parent who performs moral evaluative functions. These are socially significant norms and commandments transplanted into a person’s head, social prohibitions, behavioral stereotypes, etc. If the Ego is external taboos, then the Superego is those norms that have already been internalized by the individual and have become internal determinants of his behavior.

According to Freud, the superego (super - “I”) is an internal “supervisor”, “critic”, a source of moral self-restraint of the individual. We can say that the center of the Superego is conscience with all the demands a person makes on himself, with the help of which a person observes and analyzes his behavior.

E. Fromm's concept of personality . An original, clearly dialectical concept of personality was developed by E. Fromm. This dialectic is organically woven into the fabric of his reasoning about a man of the 20th century, whose life is full of contradictions. Biological and social, egoism and altruism, technocratism and humanism, suppression and freedom, passivity and activity - these are the dichotomous pairs in which the original contradiction “to have” or “to be” is embodied. Fromm associated with the categories “to have” or “to be” two different value structures, the predominance of which in an individual determines the type of personality, as well as all his thoughts, feelings and actions.

Answering this essentially Hamletian question, to possess or to be (in the sense of self-realization according to one’s inclinations and talents), Fromm argues that without a new person a new society is impossible. The basis of a future society can only be a person who is able to integrate within himself love for people and the willingness to renounce all forms of possession for the sake of true being, understood as the ability to live without idolatry, who knows how to feel his unity with all life on Earth.

Theories of personal development

Socialization of personality

Socialization is the process of assimilation by an individual throughout his life of social norms and cultural values ​​of the society to which he belongs; it is the process of integration of an individual into various types of social communities (group, social institution, social organization) through his assimilation of elements of culture, social norms and values , on the basis of which socially significant personality traits are formed.

It can be said that socialization means the process by which an individual entering life becomes a sociocultural personality, i.e. according to R. Kenning’s definition, “is experiencing a second sociocultural birth” through the formation of cognitive, motivational, emotional-affective, lexical, practical and behavioral characteristics of the individual.

Parsons presented an extensive sociological theory describing the integration of the individual into the social system through the internationalization of generally accepted norms. According to his views, the individual “absorbs” common values ​​in the process of communicating with “significant others”, as a result of which adherence to generally valid normative standards becomes part of his motivational structure and his need.

Parsons considers the family to be the main lever of primary socialization, where, in his opinion, the fundamental motivational attitudes of the individual lie. It is no coincidence that empirical research convincingly confirms the dependence of deviant behavior on early socialization. The percentage of people with deviant behavior is higher in cases where socialization took place in conditions of family conflicts or in fatherless families.

Socialization is influenced by class differences, religious, racial, cultural (traditions). In general, the formation of personality can be influenced by forces that are different in nature: physical characteristics (beautiful, ugly, a sense of inferiority leaves an imprint on a person’s perception of the world), the surrounding social environment (a rich mansion or slums), individual experience (the death of loved ones can cause a long-term feeling of anxiety , uncertainty), culture (influence of parents, teachers, etc.). The emerging personality is at the intersection of many influences and factors.

In sociology, a number of stages (stages) of socialization are distinguished:

· primary, which takes place mainly within the family;

· secondary – this is the process of assimilating social values ​​and norms of non-family upbringing (within a school, technical school, institute, peer groups, etc.);

· the third stage, according to L. Kiesler, lasts throughout life.

Socialization as an integral phenomenon can have the character of a spontaneous or conscious process (education and self-education). People and institutions through which the socialization of an individual is carried out are called agents of socialization . Agents of primary socialization are people with whom the individual has close personal relationships (parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives), in other words, this is the family.

In cultures around the world, family is perhaps the single most important agent of socialization that stays with us throughout life. It is during the period of primary socialization that 70% of the human personality is formed.

Agents of secondary socialization are those who are connected with the individual through formal business relations (for example, representatives of the administration of a school, university, technical school, etc.). A special place should be given to the media, the influence of which on the process of socialization is extremely great.

Since throughout life an individual has to master not one, but many value-normative systems, the process of socialization continues throughout his life. Until a very old age, a person changes his views on life, habits, tastes, roles, rules of behavior, etc. Each time, moving to a new step, entering a new life cycle, a person has to retrain.

Analysis of factors and mechanisms of socialization allows us to distinguish two phases in this process: social adaptation and internalization . The first means the individual’s adaptation to socio-economic conditions, to role functions, social norms and communities, to social institutions and organizations.

The second phase - interiorization - is the process of incorporating social norms and values ​​into a person’s inner world, when these values ​​and norms become the main determinants of individual behavior. Interiorization is the process of translating elements of the external environment into the internal “I”.

Resocialization in sociology is understood as mastering new values ​​and roles to replace previously insufficiently acquired ones or those that do not correspond to the new situation, new circumstances (from foreign language classes based on one’s institute baggage to professional retraining) .

In transitional societies, resocialization is often associated with a radical change in the social environment, which necessitates a complete restructuring of views on society and a reassessment of one’s life. All this is connected with the destruction of the old worldview, the need to develop a new one; there is a break with traditional cultural values, one has to take on an unusual social role, etc.

Psychotherapy can also be classified as resocialization. Foreign sociologists in resocialization highlight the problems of old people who experience significant psychological difficulties (loneliness), citing Japan as an example, where traditionally old people are objects of respect and veneration.

Along with the concept of “resocialization,” “desocialization” is also found in the scientific literature. This term denotes the process of personality development in early or adulthood associated with deviant behavior, with its participation in groups leading an antisocial lifestyle (criminals, drunkards, drug addicts, etc.).

So, the structure of the process of personal socialization includes such aspects as stages (stages), subjects (agents), mechanisms of socialization.

Stages of personality development

Answering the question, what are the first pages of socialization when individuality appears, sociologists believe that individuality begins to emerge when a child has the ability to think about himself in the same way as about other people, i.e. think of yourself in the third person.

The process of individuality formation, according to the concept of W. Moore, for example, occurs in three stages.

1. Imitation (the child simply imitates adults, the one-year-old son tries to knock with a stick like a hammer, looking at his father).

2. Game stage or stage of role-playing games (playing daughters and mothers, school, doctor, store, etc.).

3. Stage of collective games (football team of yard boys, etc.).

L. Kolberg devoted a lot of attention to the moral development of children. He developed eight stages of moral development in a strict sequence similar to the cognitive stages (that is, the stages of the process of learning to think). At the last stages, according to Kohlberg, people are capable of moral behavior, regardless of generally accepted values; people standing in the sixth phase of development have their own ethics, i.e. universal and unchanging moral principles (Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King).

Since the process of socialization is endless, E. Erikson was one of the first to propose a theory of personality development throughout life. The life cycle, according to the theory, consists of eight stages: the first five stages a person goes through in childhood, and the last three correspond to different periods of adult life:

Properties and mechanisms

Consideration of the concept of the problem of personality in philosophy and sociology necessitates a deeper study of its essence. It lies not in physical nature, but in socio-psychological properties and the mechanism of mental life and behavior. In fact, it is an individual concentration or expression of social relations and functions, a subject of knowledge and transformation of the world, rights and responsibilities, ethical, aesthetic and all other social standards. When we talk about the concept of personality in philosophy and other sciences, we mean its social, moral, psychological and aesthetic qualities, crystallized in the intellectual world of man.

Functions

In each of his basic relationships a person acts in a special capacity. Here we are talking about a specific social function, as a subject of material or spiritual production, as a means of certain production relations, as a member of a certain social group, class, representative, of a certain nation, as a husband or wife, father or mother, as the creator of family relations.

The social functions that a person must perform in society are numerous and varied, but personality cannot be reduced to these functions, even if we consider them as a single whole. The fact is that personality is what belongs to a given person and distinguishes him from others. In a certain sense, one can agree with the opinion of those who find it difficult to draw a line between what a person calls himself and what is his. Personality is the sum of all that a person can call his own. This is not only his physical and intellectual qualities, but also his clothes, a roof over his head, spouses and children, ancestors and friends, social status and reputation, first and last name. The structure of the personality also includes what has been given to it, as well as the forces that have been embodied in it. It is a personal manifestation of embodied labor.

Borders

The concept of personality in philosophy defines its limits much wider than the limits of the human body and its internal intellectual world. These limits can be compared to circles spreading on water: the closest ones are the fruit of creative activity, then there are circles of family, personal property and friendship. Distant circles merge with the seas and oceans of all social life, its history and prospects. Here, the way philosophy considers the concepts of “individual,” “individuality,” and “personality” comes to the fore.

The completeness of the latter is expressed in its uniqueness, in its uniqueness. This is what is called individuality. Personality as a whole is an abstraction that is concretized in real people, in individual, rational beings with all the unique properties of their psyche and physique, the color of their skin, hair, eyes, and so on. She is a unique representative of the human race, always special and unlike any other person in the fullness of spiritual and material, physical life: each “ego” is unique.

Individuality as a defining quality

In this case, some special characteristics are considered. In essence, a person is an individual rational being. What else can you add? Based on the concept of personality and individual in philosophy, we can say that in a broader sense, the latter term is synonymous with a separate concrete being. This also relates to the concept of “individuality”. Which includes the spiritual characteristics of a person, as well as its physical characteristics.

There is nothing more individual in the world than a person, nothing in creativity is as diverse as people. At the human level, diversity is at its peak; there are as many individuals as there are people in the world. This is due solely to the complexity of human organization, the dynamics of which seem to have no boundaries. Taken together, all this is based on the concepts of “man,” “individual,” and “personality” in philosophy. Characteristic features are determined by the presence of different opinions, abilities, level of knowledge, experience, degree of competence, temperament and character. A person is individual to the extent that he is independent in his judgments, beliefs and views, that is, when the brain is not “stereotypical” and has unique “patterns”. Each person, regardless of the general structure of his individuality, has his own characteristics of contemplation, observation, attention, different types of memory, orientation, and more. The level of thinking varies, for example, from the heights of genius to the worst cases of mental retardation.

The concept of personality in religion

Christianity

In Christianity (Orthodoxy) the following are considered persons:

1. Three Persons of the Holy Trinity
2. Angels and demons (fallen angels)
3. Humans (as created in the image of God)

Each person is incomprehensibly a full-fledged person immediately at the moment of his conception in the womb. However, having appeared by the will of God, a person’s personality is eternally revealed, developed, enriched, and improved. All people (like all angels) are considered free and unique (inimitable, created in the image of God) individuals, including: human embryos, infants, children and others.

A person can be capable and brilliant, or he can be mediocre and gray (inexpressive), attractive and disgusting, selfless, heroic and selfish and suspicious, good-natured, loving, honest and criminal, evil, manic, cunning.

As for domestic animals and wild animals (and, even more so, plants), they are not considered individuals, but only individuals who do not have (unlike people) universal self-awareness, abstract (impartial) judgment, the desire to know the essence of things, infinite self-improvement - becoming like God, various revelations of one’s personality and creativity. That is why Christianity categorically prohibits abortion (the killing of unborn children), but is very tolerant of killing animals and eating their meat.

Buddhism

Buddhists considered the word “personality” to be equivalent to the word “soul” (Sanskrit atman) and used the word “pudgala” to denote personality. According to Anatmavada or the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of "no soul", Buddhism denies the existence of a and personality. The teachings of Buddhism conventionally define personality as an ordered set of five groups of elements (skandha dharmas). The five groups include the physical group (body and material, designated as rupa) and four “soul” groups: 1) the sense of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral (vedana), 2) the ability to make distinctions and form concepts (sanjna), 3) will and activities leading to the formation of karma (sanskar) and 4) consciousness (vijnana). These groups of elements are not proof of the existence of personality as something independent, but show the conditionality of personality, which, based on the “highest reality,” is unreal.

The first truth of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism states that the five skandhas from which personality is formed are directly related to suffering, the prominent forms of which are birth, death, separation from the pleasant and encounter with the unpleasant. The remaining noble truths indicate the cause of suffering, the way to end it, and the path leading to the complete cessation of suffering. Belief in personality in Buddhism gives rise to an erroneous state of consciousness associated with delusion and ignorance.

Other religions

There are religions (Hinduism) where it is strictly forbidden to kill any living beings, since they are potential individuals and in one of their next lives they can become a person, that is, an individual. In addition, each person can become one with God (go to nirvana, dissolve in the abstract divine nature, stop suffering).

Classification

Based on the concept of personality in philosophy and sociology, people can be divided into different types - depending on the predominance of certain elements in the structure. A person may be prone to practical or theoretical thinking, a rational or intuitive understanding of reality, working with sensory images, or have an analytical mind. There are people who are largely guided by their emotions. For example, sensual types have an exceptionally developed perception of reality. For them, sensation is a concrete expression of the fullness of their life.

Representatives of various types

Science, based on the concept of personality in philosophy and other disciplines, offers the following division. A person of the intellectual-intuitive type constantly strives for new opportunities. He cannot be satisfied with adherence to generally accepted values; he is always looking for new ideas. People of this type are the driving force of culture, the initiators and inspirers of new enterprises. Personality types can also be classified according to behavioral orientation. A person can be classified as an extrovert or an introvert. Depending on whether he is focused on objective reality or on his inner world. Introverts are often quiet and rarely or have difficulty opening their hearts to others. Typically, their temperament is melancholic and they rarely stand out or come to the fore. Outwardly calm, even indifferent, they never try to force anyone else to do anything. Their true motives usually remain hidden.

Personal qualities

In psychology and sociology, a person is usually characterized by his individual characteristics. They identify qualities associated with a certain way of perceiving or judging, as well as with the way a person influences the environment. Attention is focused on originality, on the characteristics that distinguish an individual in society, on the functions he performs, on the degree of influence he exerts, or on the impression he makes on other people: “aggressive”, “submissive”, “heavy” and so on. Independence, willpower, determination, intelligence and wisdom are considered very important.

The concept of personality in psychology

A personality in psychology is an individual who manifests himself in objective activities and social relationships. He shows his vision of the world, which expresses his individual characteristics. It also becomes important what kind of relationships a person builds with others.

A person’s attitude towards a certain subject is expressed through the experience that he already has and the knowledge that the individual has. They form the reaction that a person manifests in relation to a given subject.

Depending on a person’s attitude towards certain things, his motivation is formed. Its level depends directly on how important a person considers a particular subject to be.

There are two factors that a person forgets to take into account when living his life, making vital decisions, choosing one or another partner for marriage or work. Man is truly the master of his own destiny. Even if he does not realize this, he submits to someone else’s will, he is dependent on the opinions of the people around him, he tries to please someone, he is still responsible for the kind of life he lives. It was his choice to become a weak-willed and submissive person, even if he does not remember the moment when he made this decision.

There are two factors that a person misses in solving any issue:

1. He is responsible for his life. This means that if he does not like the path he is following and does nothing to take a different path, this also lies on his conscience.
2. He is responsible for whether he is a person or not. It is difficult to call a person an individual when he depends on someone, succumbs to the influence of others, does not think with his own head and constantly needs help. Of course, all people are individuals. But such a person can be called an “empty personality,” that is, absent, sleepy, underdeveloped.

You live your life. Understand that no one can live your life. You are the one who is sick, you feel it, you go through all the events. No one will live through all this instead of you. Accordingly, you have more control over your life. You may be influenced, intimidated, suppressed, etc. But only you can decide how to react to this. There are many ways to solve the same issue. And the decision you make affects your future destiny.

Go your own way and be your own person. Undoubtedly, you live in a society where there are rules and laws that you must obey. But this does not stop you from deciding your own destiny and being the person who would be worthy of your own respect.