Basic theories of personality in Russian psychology

Pavlov's school.

The doctrine of conditioned reflexes is a temporary connection between an external agent and the activity of the body.
Unconditioned reflexes are carried out under any conditions. Signaling systems. 1st signaling system - irritation on external receptors and on the cerebral hemispheres, common in humans and animals; The 2nd signal system is the word. Laws of GNI: law of irrationation, law of concentration. He studied experimental neuroses. Orbeli L.D. the doctrine of the 2nd signal system, the problem of labor and inspiration. Anokhin P.K. theory of functional systems, universal model of the brain (afferent synthesis), biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex. Lomov B.F. special developments of instinctive psychology, occupational psychology, psychophysics, mathematics. psychology. Davydov V.V. the phenomenon of interiorization.

The concept of personality of A.V. Petrovsky

Leontiev’s approach to understanding personality found its further development in the works of Russian psychologists - representatives of the Moscow school, including A.N. Petrova. V. Petrovsky. In the textbook “General Psychology,” written under his editorship, there is the following definition of personality: “In psychology, personality is a systemic social quality that an individual acquires in objective activity and communication and which characterizes the level and quality of representation of social relations in an individual.”

A.V. Petrovsky in his developments proceeds from the fact that the concepts of “individual” and “personality” are not identical. Personality is a special characteristic that an individual initially acquires in society in the process of his entry into social relations. In order to understand on what basis certain personality characteristics are formed, it is necessary to consider a person’s life in society. The inclusion of an individual in the system of social relations determines the content and nature of his activities, the scope and methods of communication with other people, that is, the specifics of his social essence, his way of life. But the way of life of individual people, certain communities of people, as well as society as a whole, is determined by the historically developing system of social relations. This means that personality can be understood or studied only in the context of certain social conditions, a certain historical era. In addition, it should be noted that society is not only the external environment for the individual. The individual is constantly involved in a system of social relations mediated by many factors.

Petrovsky believes that the personality of a particular person can continue to live in other people and does not completely die with the death of the person himself. And in the words “he lives in us even after death” there is no mysticism or pure metaphor; this is a statement of the fact of the ideal representation of a person after his material disappearance.

Considering further the views of representatives of the Moscow psychological school on the problem of personality, it should be noted that by the concept of personality, in most cases, the authors meant certain qualities belonging to the individual, and precisely those qualities that determine the uniqueness of a person, his individuality. However, the concepts of “individual”, “personality” and “individuality” are not identical in content - each of them reveals a certain aspect of a person’s essence. Personality can be understood only in a system of stable interpersonal relationships, mediated by the content, values, and meaning of the joint activities of each of the participants. These interpersonal connections are real, but supersensual in nature. They manifest themselves in specific individual characteristics and actions of people included in the team, but are not limited to them.

Just as the terms “individual” and “personality” are not identical, personality and individuality, in turn, form a unity, but not an identity.

If personality traits are not represented in the system of interpersonal relations, they turn out to be of little significance for assessing personality and do not receive conditions for development, just as only those personality traits that are most “involved” in leading activities for a given social community act as personality traits. Therefore, according to representatives of the Moscow psychological school, individuality is only one aspect of a person’s personality.

Thus, there are two main points in the position of representatives of the Moscow psychological school. Firstly, personality and its characteristics are compared with the level of social manifestation of a person’s qualities and characteristics. Secondly, personality is considered as a social product that is in no way connected with biological determinants, and therefore we can conclude that the social influences the mental development of the individual to a greater extent.

School of Teplov, Nebylitsyn.

Basic properties and systems according to Pavlov and Nebylitsyn. Blank methods for diagnosing the basic properties of the nervous system and their psychological characteristics.

Properties:

• The strength of nervous processes – irritable and inhibitory.
• Equilibrium of these processes.
• Their mobility.
• Highest plasticity.

Unusual, extraordinary events, irritations of great strength appear in the environment, and, naturally, the need often arises to suppress, delay the effects of these irritations at the request of other, equally or even more powerful external conditions. And nerve cells must endure these extreme stresses of their activity. This also implies the importance of balance, the equality of strength of both nervous processes. Both processes must, so to speak, keep pace with environmental fluctuations, i.e. must have high mobility, the ability to quickly, as required by external conditions, give way, give preference to one irritation over another, irritation before inhibition and vice versa.

The concept of personality of A.N. Leontyev

In the late 1970s, in addition to the focus on the structural approach to personality, the concept of a systems approach began to develop. In this context, the ideas of A.N. are of particular interest. Leontyev.

According to A.V. Averin, Leontiev’s concept of personality is characterized by a high degree of abstraction. Despite all its differences from others, it has a common premise with them. Its essence is that, according to A. N. Leontyev, “a person’s personality is “produced” - created through social relationships.” Thus, it is obvious that the basis of the ideas of Russian psychologists about personality is the Marxist postulate about personality as a set of social relations.

Let us briefly characterize the features of Leontief’s understanding of personality. In his opinion, personality is a special type of psychological formation that is formed as a result of a person’s life in society. The subordination of various types of activity forms the basis of personality, which is formed in the process of social development (ontogenesis).

Leontyev did not include in the concept of “personality” the genotypically determined characteristics of a person - physical constitution, type of nervous system, temperament, biological needs, performance, natural inclinations, as well as knowledge, skills and abilities acquired during life, including professional ones. In his opinion, the listed categories represent the characteristics of a person. According to Leontiev, the term “individual” reflects, firstly, the integrity and indivisibility of a particular person as a separate individual of a certain biological species, and secondly, the characteristics of a particular representative of the species that distinguish him from other representatives of this species. Why did Leontiev divide these characteristics into two groups: individual and personal? According to him, individual traits, even genotypically determined, can change in many ways throughout life. But this does not make them personal, because personality is not an individual enriched by past experience. An individual's characteristics do not translate into personality characteristics. Even transformed, they remain individual characteristics that do not define the emerging personality, but are only prerequisites and conditions for its formation.

Personality development appears to us as a process of interaction between several types of activities that enter into hierarchical relationships with each other. Personality acts as a set of hierarchical relations of activity. Their peculiarity, according to A.N. Leontyev, is that they are “connected” with the states of the body. “These hierarchies of activity arise as a result of their own development, they form the core of personality,” says the author. But the question arises about the psychological expression of this hierarchy of activity.

A.N. Leontiev uses the terms "need", "motive", "emotion", "meaning" and "sense" for the psychological interpretation of "hierarchies of activity". Note that the actual content of the activity approach changes the traditional contexts and meaning of some of these terms. The simple motive is being replaced by the so-called goal motive - a concept introduced by A.N. Leontiev as a structural element of the future personality framework.

Thus, there are incentive motives, that is, incentive motives that are sometimes acutely emotional, but do not have a meaning-forming function, and sense-forming motives or goal motives, which also encourage activity, but give it personal meaning. The hierarchy of these motives forms the motivational sphere of the personality, which is central in the structure of A.N.’s personality. Leontiev, since the hierarchy of activity is carried out through an adequate hierarchy of meaning-forming motives. According to him, “personality structure is a relatively stable configuration of “basic, internally hierarchical, motivational lines.” The internal connections of the main motivational lines... form a kind of general “psychological” profile of the individual.”

All this allows A.N. Leontiev identified three main personality parameters:

• the breadth of a person’s connections with the world (through his activities); the degree of hierarchization of these connections, transformed into a hierarchy of significant motives (goal motives);

• The general structure of these connections, or, more precisely, motives-goals.

According to A.N. Leontyev, the process of personality formation is the process of “forming an integral system of personal meanings.”

Leontiev School.

Works on the problem of activity. This theory is most widespread in Russian psychology. Among the researchers who made the greatest contribution to its development, we should name, first of all, S. L. Rubinshtein, A. N. Leontyev, K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya and A. V. Brushlinsky. This theory has a number of common features with the behavioral theory of personality, especially with its social-scientific direction, as well as with humanistic and cognitive theories.

This approach denies the biological and, especially, the psychological inheritance of personal properties. The main source of personality development, according to this theory, is activity. Activity is understood as a complex dynamic system of interactions of the subject (active person) with the world (with society), in the process of which personality properties are formed (Leontyev A. N., 1975). The formed personality (internal) subsequently becomes a mediating link through which the external influences a person (Rubinstein S.L., 1997).

The fundamental difference between activity theory and behavioral theory is that the means of learning here is not a reflex, but a special internalization mechanism, thanks to which socio-historical experience is assimilated. The main characteristics of activity are objectivity and subjectivity.

Objectivity is a characteristic that is inherent only in human activity and manifests itself primarily in the concepts of language, social roles, and values. Unlike A. N. Leontiev, S. L. Rubinstein and his followers emphasize that the activity of the individual (and the personality itself) is understood not as a special type of mental activity, but as real, objectively observable practical (and not symbolic), creative, independent activity of a particular person (Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K. A., 1980; Brushlinsky A. V., 1994).

Subjectivity means that a person himself is the bearer of his activity, his own source of transformation of the external world, reality. Subjectivity is expressed in intentions, needs, motives, attitudes, relationships, goals that determine the direction and selectivity of activity, in a personal sense, i.e., the meaning of activity for the person himself.

According to representatives of this approach, consciousness occupies the main place in personality, and the structures of consciousness are not given to a person initially, but are formed in early childhood in the process of communication and activity. The unconscious occurs only in the case of automated operations.

Within the framework of the activity approach, individual properties or personality traits act as elements of personality; It is generally accepted that personality traits are formed as a result of activities that are always carried out in a specific socio-historical context - LeontyevA. N., 1975). In this regard, personality traits are considered socially (normatively) determined. For example, perseverance is formed in activities where the subject shows autonomy and independence. A persistent person acts boldly, actively, defends his rights to independence and demands that others recognize this. The list of personality properties is virtually limitless and is determined by the variety of activities in which a person is included as a subject (Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K. A., 1980).

In the activity approach, the most popular is the four-component model of personality, which includes orientation, abilities, character and self-control as the main structural blocks.

Orientation is a system of stable preferences and motives (interests, ideals, attitudes) of an individual, which sets the main tendencies of an individual’s behavior. A person with a strong focus is hardworking and goal-oriented

Abilities are individual psychological properties that ensure the success of activities. There are general and special (musical, mathematical, etc.) abilities. Abilities are interconnected.

Character is a set of moral and volitional properties of a person. Moral qualities include sensitivity or callousness in relationships with people, responsibility in relation to public duties, modesty

Self-control is a set of properties of self-regulation associated with an individual’s awareness of himself. This block is built on top of all other blocks and exercises control over them: strengthening or weakening of activity, correction of actions and deeds, anticipation and planning of activities, etc. (Kovalev A. G., 1965).

Thus, within the framework of the activity approach, a person is a conscious subject who occupies a certain position in society and performs a socially useful public role. Personality structure is a complexly organized hierarchy of individual properties, blocks (direction, abilities, character, self-control) and systemic existential-being integral properties of the personality.

DOMESTIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

DOMESTIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

General ideas about personality in Russian psychology

Differences from Western ones:

Western authors wrote for the general public. Domestic theories were intended for specialists.

Not all authors were practitioners; mostly theories were developed, often without planned empirical application.

Main questions,

which were solved in domestic theories of personality:

1. What is personality?

2. What is included in personality? And what is not included in it?

3. Personality structure.

4. The relationship between the biological and the social in a person – the relationship between the concepts of “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”.

5. Personal development (how many times a personality is born, what stages of development it goes through).

6. Factors influencing the formation and development of personality.

7. Personality typology.

Personality –

this is a social individual, object and subject of the historical process (Ananyev B.G.);

those. as an object, a person is influenced by various factors, and as a subject, he himself influences them, although to a lesser extent (see figure).

The formation and development of personality is determined by the totality of the conditions of social existence in a given historical era.

B.G. Ananyev considered personality in the unity of four sides:

1) humans as a biological species;

2) ontogenesis and life path of a person as an individual;

3) a person as an individual;

4) a person as a part of humanity.

Personality

– is an organ of individual integration, conscious self-government and the formation of an active life position (Stolin, Petukhov, etc.)

Hence the three “births” of personality

:

1. Custom integration

- the child realizes himself as an individual, as a separate “I” and speaks about it (approx. 3 years).

2. Conscious self-determination

— crisis of adolescence: “who am I?”, “what am I?”, “why am I?” etc.

3. Formation of an active life position

- can occur at any age, but does not necessarily develop in every person.

K.K. Platonov notes that during the period from 1917 to the 70s in Soviet psychology, four dominant theories of personality can be distinguished:

1917–1936 – personality as a profile of mental traits;

1936-1950 - personality as human experience;

1950-1962 - personality as temperament and age;

1962-1970 - personality as a set of relationships manifested in direction.

Since the mid-60s, attempts have been made to clarify the general structure of personality.

By the end of the 70s. orientation towards a structural approach to the problem of personality is replaced by a tendency to use a systematic approach, which requires the identification of system-forming characteristics

personality.

In psychological science, the category of personality is one of the basic categories. It is not purely psychological and is studied essentially by all social sciences.

In this regard, the question arises about the specifics of the study of personality by psychology: all mental phenomena are formed and developed in activity and communication, but they belong not to these processes, but to their subject - the social individual, the personality. Along with other principles, a personal principle has been formulated in psychology, which requires the study of mental processes and personality states

(B.G. Ananyev, S.L. Rubinstein, K.K. Platonov).

the structural one still dominates.

, and subsequently the system-structural approach that replaced it. The concepts of personality became most famous in the schools of S.L. Rubinshteina, L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontyeva, K.K. Platonova (Moscow); V.N. Myasishcheva, B.G. Ananyeva (St. Petersburg), D.I. Uznadze (Georgia).

A. N. Leontyev (1903-1979)

Personality concept

According to A.N. Leontiev “a person’s personality is produced - created by social relations.”

Considered the relationship between the concepts of “individual” and “personality”.

Individual

– the biological basis of man, this is the integrity and indivisibility of an individual of a given biological species, and secondly, the characteristics of a particular subject that distinguishes him from other representatives of this species.

This is a genotypic formation, but it also includes properties that develop during ontogenesis (i.e., changes in the physical characteristics of a person during life).

A.N. Leontyev did not include primarily genotypically determined human characteristics as a personality: physical constitution, type of nervous system, temperament, affectivity, natural inclinations, as well as acquired skills, knowledge and abilities, including professional ones, during life. All of the above constitutes the individual properties of a person.

The concept of “personality” can only be applied to a person starting from a certain moment in his development.

The properties of an individual do not transform into personality properties; they remain individual properties, not defining the emerging personality, but constituting the prerequisites and conditions for its formation.

Personality -

This is a holistic formation of a special kind, not genotypically determined, not given by someone or something, but produced, created as a result of many objective
activities
.

Personal development is a process of interactions of many activities

, which enter into hierarchical relationships with each other. Those. personality is formed, develops and changes in activity.

Myasishchev V.N. (1892-1973)

Relationship theory

Personality

viewed as a set of relationships.

Relationship

– a system of human connections with various aspects of reality:

· attitude towards oneself

· attitude towards people

· attitude towards the surrounding world as a whole.

“The attitude of the individual is an active, conscious, integral, selective, experience-based connection of the individual with various aspects of reality. This is a system-forming element of personality, which appears as a system of relationships. The personal relationships themselves are formed under the influence of social relations by which the individual is connected with the world around him as a whole” (Myasishchev V.N.).

The essence of a personality is determined on the basis of social conditioning and the significance of its relationships (“Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are”).

It is the attitude that is the integrator of all the psychological characteristics of the individual, which ensures the integrity, stability, depth and consistency of the individual’s behavior.

Psychological modalities

relations:

· Positive/negative relationships.

· Passive/active relationships.

· Contradictory/harmonious relationships.

Views (sides)

relationships (correlated with three spheres of the psyche - motivational, cognitive, activity)

1.Evaluative relationships (emotional component - contributes to the formation of the individual’s emotional attitude towards environmental objects, people and himself)

2. Interest, as a special intellectual attitude (cognitive (evaluative) component - contributes to the perception and evaluation (awareness, understanding, explanation) of environmental objects, people and oneself)

3. Attitude to activity (behavioral component - contributes to the choice of strategy and tactics of individual behavior in relation to significant (valuable) objects of the environment, people and oneself).

Each side of the relationship is determined by the nature of the individual’s life interaction with the environment and people.

Each object from the external world is evaluated according to two relational criteria:

Example:

I like my colleague’s laptop, I want to have it (emotional attitude), but at the same time I realize that it is someone else’s thing and cannot be taken (moral and legal attitude).

If an object is assessed equally by both criteria, then we are talking about internal harmony.

If the assessment on different scales does not coincide, there is a situation of potential internal conflict.

For personal growth, it is necessary that in a conflict, the moral and legal attitude wins.

Character

– the unity of relationships and ways of their implementation in a person’s experiences and actions.

Character is determined and manifested (formed) only at the level of active relationships.

Those. It is impossible to give a person any characteristic until he has entered into a relationship with the environment.

The certainty and stability of character is determined by the certainty and stability of relationships.

Personality development process

determined by the course of development of her relations.

· A 2-3 year old child develops a pronounced selectivity of attitude - towards parents, teachers, peers.

· At school age, the number of relationships increases, extra-family responsibilities arise, educational work, and the need to voluntarily control one’s behavior.

· At senior school age, principles, beliefs, and ideals are formed.

Personal growth

– transformation of personal relationships into principled ones (the ability to make decisions and act not because someone wants it, but based on one’s own ideals and beliefs).

Rubinstein SL. (1889-1960)

Personality concept

He considered how personality develops and is formed in activity.

To understand the psychology of personality, from the point of view of S. L. Rubinstein, the following points become important:

1) the mental properties of a person in her behavior, in the actions and deeds that she performs, are simultaneously manifested and formed,

2) the mental appearance of a personality in all the diversity of its properties is determined by real life, way of life and is formed in specific activities;

3) the process of studying the mental appearance of a person involves solving three questions (personality structure) :

· what does the individual want?

What is attractive to him, what does he strive for? This is a question about direction, attitudes and tendencies, needs, interests and ideals (values, personality orientation);

· what can a person do?

This is a question about a person’s abilities, about his gifts, about his giftedness,

· that there is a personality

what of his tendencies and attitudes became part of her flesh and blood and became entrenched as the core characteristics of her personality. This is a question about character (which of the above is fixed in his character).

Introduced the concept of directionality.

Direction is a set of conscious life aspirations and ways of expressing them (a set of leading motives).

Personality as an open system.

A person is the subject of his life path, he himself organizes and structures his life, regulates its course, chooses and implements his choice.

All actions and behavior of a person are fixed through the mechanisms of generalization in his character.

The character of a person, on the one hand, is determined by the circumstances of his life path, and on the other hand, these circumstances themselves are created and changed as a result of the person’s actions.

Platonov K.K.

Based on the criterion of the relationship between social and biological in personality qualities in its structure, K.K. Platonov identified four hierarchically related substructures:

1) direction,

2) experience,

3) features of mental processes,

4) biological properties.

Table 1. Hierarchical structure of personality (K.K. Platonov)

Uznadze D.I.

Attitude theory

Attitude is the willingness to act in a certain way.

Integral education that unites all other components of the personality.

According to Uznadze’s concept, in the case of “the presence of any need and the situation of its satisfaction, a specific state arises in the subject, which can be characterized as an attitude - an inclination, orientation, readiness to perform a certain activity aimed at satisfying the current need.” Thus, the attitude expresses a person’s readiness for activity, determines his direction and selectivity of behavior. Attitude as a dynamic state includes both a moment of motivation and a moment of direction.

According to D. N. Uznadze, attitude regulates behavior at two levels of regulation of mental activity:

· unconscious

· conscious.

Behavior on the unconscious

or impulsive level is carried out on the basis of an impulsive (momentary) setting of practical behavior of the individual’s holistic state, which arises under the influence of the situation, on the one hand, and the impulses of an actualized need, on the other. The conditions for such behavior are the presence of a need and the situation of its implementation.

On the conscious

level, the current situation becomes the subject of cognition of the subject.

Uznadze called this process objectification.

Objectification is awareness of reality as it exists objectively, regardless of needs. Subjective ability to be guided by the logic of an object.

The need for it arises when there is a delay in satisfying an actual need due to a changed situation, as a result of which the subject is faced with the question of a further program of behavior. The leading role in this case moves from the attitude to “thinking activated on the basis of objectification.”

In other words, a problematic situation that has arisen in front of an individual requires from him the need to cognition (objectification) of it. The result of objectification is an attitude.

The process of learning to objectify begins in early childhood. First, using the example of concrete objects, then using the example of abstract concepts and goal setting.

Vygotsky L.S.

The concept is called the cultural-historical theory of the human psyche. Sometimes it is called the theory of the socio-historical origin of higher mental functions of man.

Personality has a narrower meaning than in ordinary usage.

“We do not include in this concept all the signs of individuality that distinguish it from a number of other individuals, that constitute its originality, or that relate it to one or another specific type. We tend to equate the child’s personality with his cultural development.”

Personality, therefore, is a social concept; it embraces the supernatural, historical in man.

It is not innate, but arises as a result of cultural development; personality is therefore a historical concept. It embraces the unity of behavior, which is distinguished by the sign of mastery.

The personality develops as a whole. Only when a person masters one or another form of behavior, only then does he raise it to the highest level.

In the concept of L. S. Vygotsky, three large logical parts can be distinguished.

1. The first part may be entitled: “Man and Nature.” It refers to the general philosophical premises of the theory. This part contains two main provisions.

1. The first position is based on the idea repeatedly expressed by the classics of Marxism that during the transition from animals to humans, a fundamental change occurred in the relationship of the subject with the environment.

Throughout the existence of the animal world, the environment acted on the animal and modified it; the animal adapted to its environment, and this determined the biological evolution of the animal world. With the advent of man, the process of opposite meaning began. Man marked his appearance by beginning to act on nature and modify it.

So, man turned out to be capable of mastering nature. This is the first fundamental point.

2. Second. Man managed to do this, that is, to put the “seal of his will” on nature, thanks to the use of tools, and generally speaking, thanks to the development of material production. It is easy to understand that this is indeed the case if we imagine that it was material production that led to the evolution of means of influencing nature: from rough stone or a stick-spear to modern machine tools and atomic engines.

So, L. S. Vygotsky emphasizes the changed relationship between man and nature, firstly, and the mechanism of this change through the use of tools, secondly.

II. The second part may be entitled: “Man and his own psyche.” It also contains two provisions that not only sound like exact analogues of both provisions of the first part, but also have an internal connection with them.

1. First. The ability to master nature did not pass without a trace for man in one very important respect: he also learned to master his own psyche. Voluntary forms of activity, or higher mental functions, appeared.

The lowest floor in the structure of activity is occupied by psychophysiological functions: sensory function, motor, mnemonic, etc. L. S. Vygotsky calls them lower, or natural, mental functions. Animals also have them.

A person develops arbitrary forms of such functions, which L. S. Vygotsky calls higher: a person can force himself to remember some material, pay attention to some object, organize his mental activity.

So, mastering nature and mastering one’s own behavior are parallel processes that are deeply interconnected.

2. Second position. Just as a person masters nature with the help of tools, he masters his own behavior also with the help of tools, but only tools of a special kind - psychological. These are signs.

So, the person himself introduces an additional stimulus, which has no organic connection with the situation and therefore represents an artificial means-sign; with the help of this sign he masters behavior - remembers, makes choices, etc.

III. The third part of L. S. Vygotsky’s concept can be entitled “Genetic aspects”.

The cultural and historical development of man and ontogenesis (child development) have fundamental similarities.

So, the ability to order oneself was born in the process of human cultural development from external relations of order and subordination. At first, the functions of the orderer and the executor were separated and the whole process, in the words of L. S. Vygotsky, was interpsychological, that is, interpersonal. Then these same relationships turned into relationships with oneself, that is, intrapsychological ones.

Vygotsky called the transformation of interpsychological relationships into intrapsychological ones a process of internalization. In the course of it, external means-signs (notches, claws, lots, a loudly spoken word) are transformed into internal ones (an image, an element of inner speech, etc.).

In ontogeny, essentially the same thing is observed. L. S. Vygotsky identifies here the following stages of interiorization.

· First: an adult uses a word to influence a child, encouraging him to do something.

· Second: the child adopts the adult’s method of address and begins to influence the adult with words.

· And third: the child begins to influence himself with words.

So, higher mental functions are based on the use of internal, mainly verbal, means, which are initially worked out in communication.

Let us summarize the main provisions of L. S. Vygotsky’s theory of the development of higher mental functions.

1. The fundamental difference between man and animals is that he mastered nature with the help of tools. This left an imprint on his psyche: he learned to master his own mental functions. To do this, he also uses tools, but special, psychological tools. Such tools are signs or symbolic means. They have cultural origins. The most typical and universal system of signs is speech.

2. Initially - in phylo- and ontogenesis - psychological. tools appear in external, material form and are used in communication as a means of influencing another person. Over time, a person begins to turn them on himself, his own psyche. Inter-individual relationships turn into intra-individual acts of self-government. In this case, psychological tools move from an external form to an internal one, that is, they become mental means.

3. Thus, the highest mental functions of a person differ from the lower, or natural, mental functions of animals in their properties, structure, origin: they are arbitrary, mediated, social.

I.S. Kon:

In general, the image of “I” was understood as an attitudinal system; installations have three components:

1. cognitive,

2. affective

3. derived from the first two behavioral (readiness to act in relation to an object).

The lower level of the “I” image “consists of unconscious, presented only in experience attitudes

, traditionally associated in psychology with
“well-being” and emotional attitude towards oneself;
awareness and self-esteem of individual properties are located higher

and qualities; then these private self-evaluations are combined into a relatively holistic image;

finally, this image of “I” itself fits into the general system of value orientations of the individual,

associated with her awareness of the goals of her life and the means necessary to achieve these goals.”

To solve the problem of identifying levels, it is necessary, first of all, to resolve the issue of the specifics of forms of human activity, the forms of his life. Such a solution is possible by analyzing those specific qualities and those forms of relationships with reality that a person possesses as an organism, as a social individual, as a person.

V.V. Stolin: the units of a person’s self-awareness are not images themselves, and not self-esteem in cognitive or emotional form, and not images + self-esteem.

The unit of a person’s self-awareness is the conflicting meaning of “I,” reflecting the collision of various life relationships of the subject, the collision of his motives and activities.

This collision is carried out through actions, which, therefore, are the starting point for the formation of a contradictory attitude towards oneself. In turn, the meaning of “I” triggers further work of self-awareness, taking place in the cognitive and emotional spheres.

Thus, the unit of self-consciousness (the conflicting meaning of “I”) is not just part of the content of self-consciousness, it is a process, internal movement, internal work.

Stages of development of self-awareness

The stages of the formation of self-awareness coincide with the stages of a child’s mental development - the formation of his intellectual and personal spheres, which unfold from birth to adolescence inclusive.

The first stage is associated with the formation of a body diagram in the baby - a subjective image of the relative position of the state of movement of body parts in space. This image is formed on the basis of information about the position of the body and its parts in space (proprioceptive information and the state of movement of organs (kinesthetic information). The body diagram extends beyond the physical body and may include objects that have been in touch with it for a long time (clothing) The sensations that arise in a child on the basis of proprioceptive and kinesthetic information create in him an emotionally charged impression of comfort or discomfort, i.e., what can be called the body’s well-being.Thus, the body diagram is initially the first component in the structure of self-awareness.

The next step in the formation of self-awareness is the beginning of walking. At the same time, it is not so much the technique of mastery that is important, but rather the changes in the child’s relationships with the people around him. The relative autonomy of the child in his movement gives rise to some independence of the child in relation to other people. The child’s first idea of ​​his “I” is associated with the awareness of this objective fact. S. L. Rubinstein emphasized that there is no “I” outside of relations with “YOU”.

The next stage in the development of self-awareness is associated with the gender-role identity that is emerging in the child, i.e., identifying oneself as a gender and awareness of the content of the gender role. The leading mechanism for acquiring a gender role is identification, i.e., likening oneself in the form of experiences and actions to another person.

An important stage in the development of self-awareness is the child’s mastery of speech. The emergence of speech changes the nature of the relationship between a child and an adult. By mastering speech, the child gains the opportunity to direct the actions of other people at will, that is, from the state of an object of influence from others, he moves into the state of a subject of his influence on them.

DOMESTIC THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Luria School, School of Neuropsychology.

The role of speech in the development of voluntary mental processes.

According to Luria's theory, the brain is a highly differentiated system, the parts of which are responsible for different aspects of the whole: separate areas of the cerebral cortex interact with each other to produce thoughts and actions of many different kinds. Luria assumed that the brain contains three main blocks:

1. The brainstem and midbrain structures responsible for the long-term preservation of traces of excitation.
2. Incoming sensory functions - receiving, processing and storing information.
3. The frontal cortex is responsible for organizing, planning, and monitoring the successful execution of programs.

Views of S.L. Rubinstein on personality structure

The first thing that S.L. directly points out. Rubinstein's characterization of personality is the dependence of mental processes on personality. According to the author, this principle is expressed, firstly, in individual differences between people. Different people, depending on their individual, i.e. personal characteristics, different ways of perception, memory, attention, styles of mental activity.

Secondly, the personal dependence of mental processes is expressed in the fact that the course of development of mental processes depends on the general development of the individual. The change of life epochs through which each personality passes and develops leads not only to a change in life attitudes, interests, value orientations, but also to a change in feelings and volitional life. Changes in personality during its development lead to changes in mental processes (cognitive, affective, volitional).

Thirdly, the dependence of mental processes on personality is expressed in the fact that these processes themselves do not remain independently developing processes, but become consciously regulated operations, i.e. mental processes become mental functions of the individual. Thus, attention in its specifically human form turns out to be voluntary, and thinking is a set of operations consciously controlled by a person to solve problems. Based on this context, all human psychology is the psychology of personality.

The next important point for the psychological concept of personality is that any external influence acts on the individual through internal conditions formed in him earlier, even under the influence of external influences. Regarding this provision, S.L. Rubinstein, “we rise - from inorganic to organic nature, from living organisms to man - the more complex the internal nature of phenomena becomes and the greater the specific weight internal conditions acquire in relation to external ones.” It is this methodological position, borrowed from S.L. Rubinstein, makes clear the well-known formula: “One is not born a person, one becomes one.” The mental qualities of a person are not innate; they are formed and developed in the process of activity.

So, to understand personality psychology from the point of view of S.L. Rubinstein, the following statements become important:

1. mental characteristics of a person in her behavior, in the actions and deeds that she performs, manifest themselves and are formed simultaneously,”
2. the mental appearance of a personality in all the diversity of its properties is determined by real existence, lifestyle and is formed in certain activities;
3. The process of studying the mental image of an individual involves solving three questions: What does the individual want, what is attractive to her, what does she strive for? It is a matter of orientation, attitudes and inclinations, needs, interests and ideals;

1. What can a person do? This is a question about a person's abilities, about his gifts, about his endowment,

1. What the personality is, what its tendencies and attitudes are, have become flesh and blood and have become established as the central characteristics of the individual. It's a question of character.

Having highlighted these aspects of the individual’s psyche, S. L. Rubinstein emphasized that they are interconnected and interdependent, that in a given activity they are intertwined into a single whole. The orientation of the personality, its attitudes, which in homogeneous situations give rise to certain actions, then turn into character and are fixed in it in the form of traits. The presence of interest in a certain field of activity stimulates the development of abilities in this direction, and the presence of abilities that determine successful work stimulates interest in it.

Ability and character are also closely related. The presence of abilities gives rise to self-confidence, strength and determination in a person or, conversely, vanity and recklessness. In the same way, character traits cause the development of abilities, since abilities develop through their implementation, and this, in turn, depends on character traits - determination, perseverance, etc. Thus, in real life, all sides, aspects of the mental appearance of a person, merging with each other, form an inextricable whole.

Georgian school. Uznadze.

Uznadze, installation theory, founder of Tbilisi University. Uznadze’s concept of personality is based on the concept (attitude), which he considered the main psychological formation. Attitude is considered the main regulatory mechanism of human behavior, determining its direction and selective activity. However, the essence of personality is not reduced to the functioning of the attitude, but is determined by the presence of such fundamental manifestations as consciousness and the ability to objectify. A characteristic feature of the personality is the implementation of distant motivation, the commission of actions and deeds, the purpose of which is to satisfy the needs intended for the future life. Higher needs - intellectual, moral and aesthetic - correspond to the self-concept of a person. The attitude is manifested in the present time, although it is a certain form of anticipation.

Depending on a person’s ability to objectify, Uznadze describes three types of personalities:

1. dynamic - a person who has a developed ability for objectification and is willing to easily switch in the direction of objectified goals;
2. static - a person who exhibits hyper-objectification, which consists of constantly delaying the impulses of his attitudes and choosing appropriate types of activity only on the basis of volitional efforts;
3. variable - a person who has sufficient ease of objectification, but does not have sufficient volitional abilities to implement it.

One of the most important characteristics of personality in Attitude Theory is responsibility, thanks to which a person can rise above his needs, acting as a subject of will. The meaning of motivation is to find an activity that corresponds to the basic personality attitude fixed in the process of life. The period of goal preparation is divided into two stages:

1. a choice that is recognized as an intellectual act and is carried out on the basis of personal values ​​of behavior for a given subject;
2. motivation recognized as a volitional process. Volitional behavior is the ability of an individual to subordinate his activity not only to personal values, but also to objective necessity.

Concept of personality by A.F. Lazursky

The importance of this concept lies in the fact that for the first time a position was made about personal relationships that constitute the core of personality. Its special significance also lies in the fact that the idea of ​​personality relationships became the starting point for many Russian psychologists, especially for representatives of the Leningrad-Petersburg school.

Views of A.F. Lazursky’s views on the nature and structure of personality were formed under the direct influence of the ideas of V.M. Bekhterev while working under his leadership at the Psychoneurological Institute.

According to A.F. Lazursky, the main task of the individual is adaptation (adaptation) to the environment, understood in the broadest sense (nature, things, people, human relationships, ideas, aesthetic, moral, religious values, etc.). The measure (degree) of activity of a person’s adaptation to the environment can be different, which is reflected in three mental levels - lower, middle and higher. In fact, these levels reflect the process of human mental development.

According to A.F. Lazursky, personality is the unity of man. F. Lazursky represents the unity of two psychological mechanisms. Firstly, this is the endopsyche - the internal mechanism of the human psyche. The endopsyche manifests itself in basic mental functions such as attention, memory, imagination, reasoning, willpower, emotionality, impulsiveness, that is, in temperament, mental abilities and, finally, in character. According to AF Azure, endocrites are mostly innate.

Another significant aspect of personality is the exopsyche, the content of which is determined by the individual’s attitude to external objects and the environment. Exopsychic manifestations always reflect the external conditions surrounding a person. These two parts are interconnected and influence each other. For example, a well-developed imagination and the ability to create, high sensitivity and excitability - all this presupposes the ability to engage in art. The same applies to the exocomplex of traits, when external living conditions dictate, so to speak, appropriate behavior.

The process of personality adaptation can be more or less successful. A.F. In connection with this principle, Lazursky identifies three psychological levels.

The lowest level is characterized by the maximum influence of the external environment on the human psyche. The environment seems to subjugate such a person to itself, without taking into account his characteristics. Thus, there is a contradiction between human abilities and acquired professional skills. The middle stage presupposes a greater ability to adapt to the environment and find one’s place in it. People who are more conscientious, have greater efficiency and initiative, choose professions that suit their inclinations and talents. At the highest stage of mental development, the adaptation process is complicated by the fact that significant stress, the intensity of mental life, forces not only to adapt to the environment, but also creates a desire to change it, modify it in accordance with one’s own desires and needs. In other words, here we are faced more with the process of creation.

Thus, the lower level produces people who are maladaptive or poorly adapted, the middle level produces people who are adapted, and the highest level produces people who are adaptive.

At the highest mental level, the exopsyche reaches the highest level of development thanks to spiritual wealth, consciousness, and coordination of mental experience, while the endopsyche forms its natural substrate. Therefore, classification is made according to exopsychic categories, more precisely, according to the main universal ideals and their characteristic varieties. The most important among them, according to A.F. Lazursky are: altruism, knowledge, beauty, religion, society, external activity, system and power.

Ananyev B. G. (1907-1972) - Russian psychologist.

The structure of man as an individual, personality and subject of activity. Characteristics of a person as an individual. There are grounds for identifying 2 main classes of individual properties: age-sex and individual-typical. The first includes age properties and sexual dimorphism. The second includes constitutional features; neurodynamic properties of the brain, features of the functional geometry of the cerebral hemispheres. All these properties are primary and exist at all levels including cellular and molecular. The interaction of age-sex and individual-typical properties determines the dynamics of psychophysiological functions and the structure of organic needs - these properties can be called secondary. The highest integration of all these properties is represented in temperament, on the one hand, and inclinations, on the other. Characteristics of a person as L. The starting point of the structural-dynamic properties of L is its status in society. On the basis of status and in constant interrelation with it, systems of social functions of roles and goals and value orientations are built. Role status and value orientations form the primary class of personal properties integrated by a certain structure L. These personal characteristics determine the characteristics of behavioral motivation, the structure of social behavior, constituting the 2nd row of personal properties. The highest integrated effect of the interaction of primary and secondary personal properties is a person’s character on the one hand and abilities on the other.

Basic characteristics of a person as a subject of activity. The initial characteristics are: consciousness and activity. As a theoretical subject. human activity is characterized by knowledge and skills. The highest integration of subjective properties is creativity, and the most social effects are abilities and talent.

Introduction

The relevance of the topic of this work is determined by the fact that in psychological science the category “personality” is one of the basic concepts.

In the traditions of Russian psychology, personality is the totality of relationships to the world of a given specific subject (B.G. Ananyev, A.N. Leontiev, S.L. Rubinstein, L.I. Bozhovich, A.G. Kovalev, V.S. Merlin , K.K. Platonov, etc.) The only embodied expression of the relationship can only be the activity of the individual, realized in his activities.

The variety of personality theories that emerged in Western psychological science during the twentieth century also determines the variety of views on the definition of the concept of “personality,” its functioning and structure. L. Hjell and D. Ziegler in their famous monograph identify at least nine areas of personality theory. This is psychodynamic (3. Freud) and a version of this direction, revised by A. Adler and C. Jung, dispositional (G. Allport, R. Cattell), behaviorist (B. Skinner), social-cognitive (A. Bandura), cognitive ( A.B. Bardura). Bandura), cognitive (J. Kelly), humanistic (A. Maslow), phenomenological (K. Rogers) and ego psychology, represented by the names of E. Erikson, E. Fromm and K. Horney.

As L. Hjell and D. Ziegler note, the cornerstones of personality theory are rooted in their authors' basic beliefs about human nature.

The purpose of this article is to consider the basic principles and provisions of some psychological theories of personality. This goal is achieved by solving the following tasks:

1. description of the personality theories of the classics of Russian psychological science (A.F. Lazursky, S.L. Rubinstein, A.N. Leontiev, A.V. Petrovsky);
2. description of the concept of “personality” in accordance with the main foreign theoretical approaches (psychodynamic direction, humanistic direction, cognitive direction and structural theory of personality traits).

Based on the literature data, we can conclude that today in Russian psychology the concept of a person as an individual, personality and subject of activity is widespread, but there is no more or less generally accepted concept of personality. Let's look at some authors' concepts of personality one by one.

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