Psychology (from the Greek. psyche- soul, logos- doctrine, science) - the science of the laws of development and functioning psyche(as a special form of life) and mental phenomena.

Currently, the subject of study of psychology is psycheand mental phenomena. Let us dwell in more detail on what these concepts include.

Psyche- This is a property of highly organized living matter, which consists in the active reflection by the subject of the objective world, in the construction by the subject of a picture of this world that is inalienable from him and regulation on this basis of behavior and activity.

From this definition follows a number of fundamental judgments about the nature and mechanisms of manifestation of the psyche. First, not just living matter possesses the psyche, but only that which has specific organs that determine the possibility of the existence of the psyche (i.e., the nervous system, nerve nodes, etc.).

Secondly, the main feature of the psyche is the ability to reflect the objective world: highly organized living matter, which has a psyche, has the ability to receive information about the world around it. At the same time, obtaining information is associated with the creation of a certain mental image by this highly organized matter, which, with a certain measure of accuracy, is a copy of material objects of the real world.

Thirdly, the information about the surrounding world received by a living creature serves as the basis for the regulation of the internal environment of a living organism and the formation of its behavior, which in general determines the possibility of a relatively long existence of this organism in constantly changing environmental conditions.

The laws of the psyche are manifested in various real-life mental phenomena.

It should be noted that there are different points of view on the structure of mental phenomena. However, the most common division of mental phenomena into three main classes: mental processes,mental states and mental properties of a person(fig. 1).

Figure: 1.The structure of mental phenomena

Mental processes act as primary regulators of human behavior. AND the main distinguishing feature of mental processes(in comparison with other mental phenomena) is that they have start,flowand end, that is, they have dynamic characteristics, which primarily include parameters that determine the duration and stability of the mental process. In turn, mental processes can be divided into three groups: cognitive, emotional and volitional.

TO cognitive mental processesinclude mental processes associated with the perception and processing of information. These include sensation, perception, representation, memory, imagination, thinking, speech and attention. Thanks to these processes, a person receives information about the world around him and about himself.

Along with cognitive mental processes, they distinguish emotional mental processes.

Within the framework of this group of mental processes, such mental phenomena as affects, emotions, feelings, moods and emotional stress are considered.

Volitional mental processesthey are most clearly manifested in situations related to decision-making, overcoming difficulties, managing their behavior, etc.

Sometimes another group of mental processes is distinguished as an independent one - unconscious processes... It includes those processes that proceed or are carried out outside the control of consciousness. However, it is probably more appropriate to classify this group as independent mental phenomena rather than processes, since they include not only dynamic, but also static phenomena.

Mental states characterize the state of the psyche as a whole. They, like mental processes, have their own dynamics, which is characterized by duration, focus, stability and intensity. In turn, mental states affect the course and result of mental processes and can promote activity or inhibit it. Mental states include such phenomena as recovery, depression, fear, cheerfulness, despondency.

The next class of mental phenomena is mental properties of personality- characterized by greater stability and greater constancy. Under the mental properties of a person, it is customary to understand the most significant personality traits that provide a certain quantitative and qualitative level of human activity and behavior. Mental properties include focus, temperament, abilities and character. The level of development of these properties, as well as the characteristics of the development of mental processes and the prevailing (most characteristic for a person) mental states determine the uniqueness of a person, his individuality.

The phenomena studied by psychology are associated not only with a specific person, but also with groups. Mental phenomena associated with the life of groups and collectives are studied in detail within the framework of social psychology.

All group mental phenomenacan also be divided into mental processes, mental states and mental properties. In contrast to individual mental phenomena, mental phenomena of groups and collectives have a clearer division into internal and external.

The collective mental processes that act as the primary factor in the regulation of the existence of a collective or group include communication, interpersonal perception, interpersonal relations, the formation of group norms, intergroup relationships, etc. The mental states of a group include conflict, cohesion, psychological climate, openness or closeness of the group , panic, etc. Among the most significant mental properties of the group include organization, style of leadership, efficiency.

Thus, the subject of psychology is both the psyche and mental phenomena of one particular person, and mental phenomena observed in groups and collectives.

In turn, the main task of psychology is the study of mental phenomena.

The object of study in psychology is a person (a group of people), as well as animals with a psyche - as carriers of the psyche.

Psychology, like any other science, has its own methods. Scientific research methods are techniques and means by which they obtain the information necessary for making practical recommendations and building scientific theories. The development of any science depends on how perfect the methods it uses, how much they reliableand valid.

Reliabilitymethod is a characteristic of a method that shows the stability, consistency of the results obtained with its help.

Validitymethod - the most important criterion of the good quality of the method, characterizing the accuracy of measuring the investigated property; assessment of the adequacy of the method to the problem under study.

All methods currently used in psychology can be divided into two large groups (Fig. 2): objective and subjective methods. Subjective methods, unlike objective ones, are based either on the self-assessment of the subjects, or on the point of view of a research psychologist on a particular problem.

Subjective methods include: observation, survey and tests (questionnaire test and test task). Objective - experiment and tests (objective and projective). It is necessary to dwell in more detail on what these methods are.

Observation methodis one of the oldest methods used in science in general. It represents a method passiveand direct researchreality. The objectivity of the results obtained with its help depends primarily on the researcher himself, on his ability and skill to observe, to notice essential, significant details.

Figure: 2.Basic methods of psychological research

Currently, there are up to 14 different types of observation. The most common are: self-observation (eg diary entries); external (the observer is not a member of the studied group, and the subjects perceive him as an outsider); included (the observer is a member of the group being researched, the subjects perceive him as a colleague); free (there are no strict requirements for the organization, the observation procedure, as well as the data registration procedure); standard (there is a strict plan for the observation), etc.

Interviewis a method based on obtaining the necessary information from the subjects themselves by means of questions and answers. There are several options for conducting a survey. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. There are three main types of survey: oral, written and free.

Oral survey, as a rule, is used in cases where it is necessary to monitor the reactions and behavior of the subject.

This type of survey allows you to penetrate deeper into human psychology than a written one, since the questions asked by the researcher can be adjusted during the research process depending on the characteristics of the behavior and reactions of the subject. However, this version of the survey requires more time to conduct it, as well as the presence of special training from the researcher. One of the types of oral questioning is conversation.

A written survey allows you to reach a large number of people in a relatively short time. The most common form of this survey is a questionnaire. But its disadvantage is that it is impossible to foresee the reaction of the subjects to its questions and change its content in the course of research.

Free poll- a kind of written or oral survey, in which the list of questions asked is not determined in advance.

Testis the most widely used method in psychology today. Its popularity is due to the ability to obtain an accurate and high-quality characteristics of a psychological phenomenon, as well as the ability to compare research results, which is primarily necessary for solving practical problems. Tests differ from other methods in that they have a clear procedure for collecting and processing data, as well as a clear procedure for the psychological interpretation of the results.

It is customary to single out several test options: questionnaire tests, task tests, projective tests.

Test questionnaireas a method based on the analysis of the respondents' answers to questions that allow obtaining reliable and reliable information about the presence or severity of a certain psychological characteristic.

Test taskinvolves obtaining information about the psychological characteristics of a person based on the analysis of the success of certain tasks.

Projective tests.This category of tests is considered the most objective, since it does not use self-reports of the subjects. They imply a free interpretation by the researcher of the tasks performed by the subject. For example, according to the choice of color cards, the most preferable for the subject, the psychologist determines his emotional state. However, tests of the projective type place increased demands on the level of professional training and practical experience of a psychologist, and also require a sufficiently high level of intellectual development in the subject.

Objective data can be obtained using experiment- a method based on the creation of an artificial situation in which the studied property is distinguished, manifested and evaluated best. There are two main types of experiment: laboratory and natural. They differ from each other in the conditions of the experiment.

A laboratory experiment, in contrast to a natural one, involves the creation of an artificial situation in which the studied property can be best evaluated.

Another group of methods of psychological science is formed by methods modeling... They are used when other methods are difficult to use. Their feature is that, on the one hand, they rely on certain information about a particular mental phenomenon, and on the other hand, when using them, as a rule, the participation of the subjects or taking into account the real situation is not required. Therefore, it can be very difficult to classify various modeling techniques as objective or subjective methods. Models can be technical, logical, mathematical, cybernetic, etc.

However, it should be borne in mind that the most effective study of mental phenomena is carried out with the complex application of various methods.

Psychology subject. Methods of scientific and psychological research.

Definition of psychology as a science.

Word "psychology", formed from the Greek words "psyche" (soul) and "logos" (doctrine, science), first appeared in the 17th century in the work of the German philosopher Christian Wolff.

Today psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and internal mental processes and the practical application of the knowledge gained. Psychology studies the world of subjective (mental) phenomena, processes and states, realized or unconscious by the person himself.

Why study psychology? We all live among people and, by the will of circumstances, must understand and take into account the psychology of people, as well as the individual characteristics of the psyche and personality. We are all psychologists to one degree or another. But our everyday psychology will only benefit and will be enriched if we supplement it with scientific psychological knowledge.

It is important for everyone to understand what they want, what the people around us can do, how to navigate in personality traits, motives of behavior, memory and thinking, character and temperament. Without such reference points in complex processes interpersonal interaction and communication, one often has to go blindly, making mistakes, sometimes committing tactlessness, acquiring enemies where friends could be. It is equally important to understand your capabilities, advantages and disadvantages, in other words, be able to psychologically reliably describe oneself as a person... The system of knowledge called psychology is precisely responsible for these tasks. It is useful simply for a person, so to speak, for personal use, in order to understand the state of your soul, and, if necessary, consciously make changes to it. (auto-training, meditation, neurolinguistic programming); she is needed parents and educatorsto know what is happening in the souls of children, to provide them with first psychological aid, to correct them mental development; she is simply necessary business person in order to make responsible decisions, taking into account the psychological state of partners, to skillfully influence their likes and dislikes, beliefs and tastes; you also can't do without it engineer, which solves the problem of operators' reliability. (L. D. Stolyarenko "Fundamentals of Psychology")

Subject and object of psychology.

What makes thing scientific study in psychology? This is primarily concrete facts of mental life, characterized qualitatively and quantitatively... Thus, examining the process of human perception of the objects around him, psychology has established that the image of the object retains even under changing conditions of perception. For example, a textbook page in different lighting conditions (white). In this case, we have qualitative characteristic psychological fact. An example quantitative characteristics a psychological fact can be the speed of a given person's reaction to an influencing stimulus. For example, pressing a button in response to a light bulb flashing (faster or slower). Individual differences in reaction rates observed in the experiment are psychological facts established in scientific research. They make it possible to quantitatively characterize some of the features of the psyche of various subjects.

However, scientific psychology cannot limit itself to describing a psychological fact. Scientific knowledge requires transition from describing phenomena to explaining them... The latter presupposes the disclosure of the laws that govern these phenomena. therefore subjectstudies in psychology together with psychological facts become psychological laws... (A. V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky "Psychology")

All of the above allows us to assume with a fair degree of confidence that the subject of psychology is the study of the structure and laws of the emergence, development and functioning of the psyche in its various forms, including consciousness as the highest form of mental reflection.

Considering that "psychology is in a special position because the object and the subject of cognition seem to merge in it," and also imagining the relationship in which the object and the subject of scientific cognition are usually found, under the object of psychology, we will further understand the unity of the three elements .

FEATURES OF PSYCHOLOGY
AS A SCIENCE

Main questions:

1. The subject, tasks of psychological science and the essence of the phenomena that it studies.
2. Psychology and other sciences.
3. Stages and features of the development of psychological science.

1. The subject, tasks of psychological science and the essence of the phenomena that it studies

Any science always has its own object and subject, its tasks. Its object, as a rule, are the carriers of the phenomena and processes that it studies, and subject - the specificity of the formation, development and manifestation of these phenomena. The tasks of a particular science are the main directions of its research and development, as well as the goals that it sets for itself to achieve certain results.

Subjectpsychology is the study of the human psyche. However, the psyche is inherent not only in humans, it is also in animals. Hence, objectpsychology is not only a person. It always takes into account the common psyche of animals and humans.

Since the psyche is diverse in its forms and manifestations, for this reason psychology, firstly, studies everything conscious in a person, i.e. his sensations and perceptions, attention and memory, ideas, imagination and thinking, feelings and experiences, communication and behavior, motives and intentions - everything that makes up his subjective and completely controlled inner world, which manifests itself in actions and deeds, in relationships and interacting with other people. In general, human consciousness is the highest stage of development

psyche and the product of the socio-historical development of people, the result of their all-round improvement in the labor process.

Secondly, psychology studies phenomena such as the unconscious, personality, activity and behavior. The unconscious is a form of reflection of reality, during which a person is not aware of its sources, and the reflected reality merges with his experiences. At the same time, psychological science considers each person as an independent personality, which has certain individual and socio-psychological characteristics and who is engaged in specific activities. The latter is a set of human actions aimed at satisfying his needs and interests. In turn, behavior is the external manifestation of a person's mental activity, his immediate actions and actions.

The main taskpsychology as a science is the study of the characteristics of the formation, development and manifestation of mental phenomena and processes. At the same time, she sets herself and a number of other tasks:

• 1) study the qualitative and structural originality of mental phenomena and processes, which is not only theoretical, but also of great practical importance;
• 2) analyze the functioning of mental phenomena and processes in connection with their determination by the objective conditions of life and activities of people;
• 3) to investigate the physiological mechanisms underlying mental phenomena, since without their knowledge it is impossible to correctly master the practical means of their formation and development;
• 4) to promote the systematic introduction of scientific knowledge and ideas of psychological science into the practice of life and activities of people, their interaction and mutual understanding (development of scientific and practical methods of teaching and education, rationalization of the labor process in various types of people's activities).

In its most general form psycheis a subjective image of the objective world that arises in the process of human interaction with the environment and other people. It exists due to the ability of the human brain and

animals to reflect the impact of objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality.

1. Mental processes- these are elementary mental phenomena that provide a person's primary reflection and awareness of the effects of the surrounding reality, lasting from a fraction of a second to tens of minutes or more. As a rule, they have a clear beginning, a definite course and a pronounced end.

On the whole, the mental exists as a living, extremely plastic, continuous, forming and developing process that generates certain results (for example, feelings, images, mental operations, etc.).

Mental processes are always included in more complex types of mental activity and are subdivided into:

• cognitive (sensation, perception, attention, representation, memory, imagination, thinking, speech);
• emotional (emotions and feelings);
• strong-willed (will).

2. Mental states longer in comparison with mental processes (can last for several hours, days or even weeks) and more complex in structure and education. They determine the level of performance and the quality of the functioning of the human psyche, characteristic of him at any given time. These include, for example, a state of activity or passivity, cheerfulness or depression, working capacity or fatigue, irritability, absent-mindedness, good or bad mood.

3. Mental education- this is what becomes the result of the work of the human psyche, its development and self-development; these are mental phenomena that are formed in the process of acquiring life and professional experience by a person. They should include the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities, habits, attitudes, views, beliefs, etc.

4. Mental properties- these are the most stable and constantly manifested personality traits that provide a certain qualitative and quantitative level of behavior and activity, typical for a given person. These include focus (what does a person want?), Temperament and character (how does a person manifest?) And abilities (what can a person do?). They are inherent in humans, if not throughout life, then at least for a fairly long period of time.

5. Socio-psychological phenomena- these are psychological phenomena caused by the interaction, communication and mutual influence of people on each other and their belonging to certain social communities (classes, ethnic groups, small and large groups, religious confessions, etc.).

Mental processes, states, properties and education of a person and socio-psychological phenomena are allocated only for the purpose of study. In reality, however, they all appear as a single whole and mutually pass into each other. So, for example, a condition that often manifests itself can become an addiction, a habit, or even a character trait. The states of vigor and activity exacerbate attention and sensations, while depression and passivity lead to distraction, superficial perception and even cause premature fatigue.

Ideas about psychological phenomena and processes can be of a different nature. On the one hand, a person, as a conscious being, reflects and perceives the effects of the surrounding reality and other people, he thinks, feels and experiences, communicates with other people and influences them, and therefore in the process of his life and work he constantly accumulates mental experience and psychological knowledge. All this everyday psychology - psychological knowledge gleaned by people from everyday life, from direct interaction with the real world and other people. It usually has the following main distinguishing characteristics:

• concreteness,those. attachment to real situations, specific people, specific tasks of human activity;
• intuitiveness,indicating a lack of awareness of their origin and patterns of functioning;

• limitation,characterized by weak ideas of a person about the specifics and spheres of functioning of specific psychological phenomena;
• reliance on observation and reflection,meaning that everyday psychological knowledge is not subject to scientific comprehension;
• limited materials,testifying that a person who possesses certain everyday psychological observations cannot compare them with similar ones in other people.

On the other hand, a person seeks to systematize his ideas about the psyche from a scientific standpoint. This is already scientific psychology,those. stable psychological knowledge obtained in the process of theoretical and experimental study of the psyche of people and animals. They have their own characteristics: " generalization,those. the meaningfulness of a specific psychological phenomenon based on the specifics of its manifestation in many people, in many conditions, in relation to many tasks of human activity;

• rationalism,testifying that scientific psychological knowledge has been studied and realized as much as possible;
• unlimited,those. they can be used by many people and;
• reliance on experiment,when scientific psychological knowledge is investigated in different conditions;
• weak limitationin materials, which means that scientific psychological knowledge has been studied on the basis of numerous experiments and often in unique (specially created or specially observed) conditions.

Everyday and scientific psychology are interconnected, they perform one function - to improve the understanding of the human psyche. However, they play a different role. Everyday psychology only develops psychological ideas, while scientific psychology systematizes them.

Psychological science uses various methodsresearch, which is usually referred to: observation, experiment, method of generalization of independent characteristics, surveys and tests.

Observation - The most common method by which psychological phenomena are studied in various conditions without interfering with their course. Observation happens

everyday and scientific, included and not included. Everyday observation is limited to the registration of facts, is of a random, unorganized nature. Scientific observation is organized, involves a clear plan, fixing the results in a special diary. Participatory observation involves the participation of the researcher in the activity he is studying. This is not required in non-enabled surveillance. Observation must be carried out in compliance with certain rules developed by psychological science. It is carried out repeatedly, systematically and unnoticed by the observed.

Experiment - a method involving the active intervention of the researcher in the activity of the subject in order to create the best conditions for the study of specific psychological phenomena. An experiment can be laboratory, when it takes place in specially organized conditions, and the actions of the subject are determined by the instruction; natural, when the research is carried out in natural conditions and direct contacts are not established with the people under study; ascertaining, when only necessary psychological phenomena are studied; formative, in the process of which certain qualities of the subjects develop.

Method of generalization of independent characteristics involves the identification and analysis of opinions about certain psychological phenomena and processes received from various people. It can also involve collecting and then summarizing the oral or written characteristics of various individuals about the people being studied.

Analysis of performance results- a method of indirect study of psychological phenomena based on practical results and objects of labor, which embody the creative forces and abilities of people. Usually, in this case, the researcher analyzes how people perform the practical tasks assigned to them, how they relate to the assigned work, what results they achieve depending on certain conditions of their activity. All received data are recorded and then summarized.

Interview - a method involving the answers of the subjects to specific questions of the researcher. It can be written (questionnaire), when questions are asked on paper, or oral (conversation), when questions are posed orally, or in the form of an interview,

during which personal contact with the subject is established. Questionnaires and questionnaires, as a rule, are designed to describe and evaluate a person himself. The conversation differs from ordinary communication by the presence of planning, purpose, selectivity and is carried out on an individual basis in order to avoid the side effects of those present.

Testing- a method in which the subjects perform certain actions on the instructions of the researcher. Distinguish between projective testing, which studies various manifestations of the psyche of individuals (usually it uses constitutive, interpretive, cathartic, impressive, expressive and additive techniques), and psychocorrectional testing (usually involving the use of methods of behavioral and cognitive correction, psychoanalysis, gestalt- and body-oriented therapy, psychodrama, psychosynthesis and transpersonal approach).

First of all, the psyche of humans and animals, which includes many subjective phenomena. With the help of some, such as sensation and perception, attention and memory, imagination, thinking and speech, a person learns the world. Therefore, they are often called cognitive processes. Other phenomena regulate his communication with people, directly control his actions and deeds. They are called mental properties and states of personality, include in their number needs, motives, goals, interests, will, feelings and emotions, inclinations and abilities, knowledge and consciousness. In addition, psychology studies human communication and behavior, their dependence on mental phenomena and, in turn, the dependence of the formation and development of mental phenomena on them.

A person does not just penetrate the world with the help of his cognitive processes. He lives and acts in this world, creating it for himself in order to satisfy his material, spiritual and other needs, and performs certain actions. In order to understand and explain human actions, we turn to such a concept as personality.

In turn, mental processes, states and properties of a person, especially in their highest manifestations, can hardly be fully comprehended, if they are not considered depending on the conditions of a person's life, on how his interaction with nature and society is organized (activities and communication). Communication and activity are therefore also the subject of modern psychological research.

Mental processes, properties and states of a person, his communication and activity are separated and studied separately, although in reality they are closely related to each other and constitute a single whole, called human life.

Studying the psychology and behavior of people, scientists are looking for their explanation, on the one hand, in the biological nature of man, on the other, in his individual experience, and on the third, in laws, on the basis. which is built and according to which society functions. In the latter case, the dependence of the psyche and behavior of a person on the place he occupies in society, on the existing social system, structure, methods of teaching and upbringing, the specific relations that a given person has with the people around him, on the social role he plays in society, is investigated. from the types of activities in which he is directly involved.

In addition to individual psychology of behavior, the range of phenomena studied by psychology also includes relations between people in various human associations - large and small groups, collectives.

Psychology Is a science that studies the psyche in its development and manifestation in various activities.

• qualitative study of mental phenomena;
• analysis of the formation and development of mental phenomena;
• study of the physiological mechanisms of the psyche;
• assistance in the systematic introduction of psychological knowledge into the practice of life and work of people.

Subject and object of psychology

The subject and object of psychology are defined as follows.

Psychology subject - this is psyche as the highest form of interconnection of living beings with the objective world, expressed in their ability to realize their motives and act on the basis of information about it.

At the human level, the psyche acquires a qualitatively new character due to the fact that its biological nature is transformed by socio-cultural factors. From the point of view of modern science, the psyche is a kind of mediator between the subjective and the objective, it realizes the historically formed ideas about the coexistence of the external and the internal, the physical and the mental.

Psychology object - this is laws of the psyche as a special form of human life and animal behavior. This form of life, due to its versatility, can be studied in a wide variety of aspects, which are studied by various branches of psychological science.

They have as their object:

• norms and pathology in the human psyche;
• types of specific activities, the development of the psyche of humans and animals;
• human attitude to nature and society, etc.

The scale of the subject of psychology and the possibility of distinguishing various objects of research in its composition has led to the fact that at present, within the framework of psychological science, general psychological theories... guided by different scientific ideals, and psychological practice, which develops special psychotechnics for influencing consciousness and controlling it.

The presence of disparate psychological theories also gives rise to the problem of differences between the subject and the object of psychology... For the behaviorist, the object of study is behavior, for the Christian psychologist - a living knowledge of sinful passions and the pastoral art of healing them. for the psychoanalyst, the unconscious, etc.

The question naturally arises: is it possible to speak of psychology as a single science having a common subject and object of study, or should we recognize the presence of a plurality of psychology?

Today psychologists believe that psychological science is a unified science, which, like any other, has its own special subject and object. Psychology as a science deals with the study of the facts of mental life, as well as the disclosure of the laws that govern mental phenomena. And no matter how difficult paths psychological thought has advanced over the centuries, changing its object of research and thereby penetrating deeper into its large-scale subject, no matter how much knowledge about it changes and enriches, no matter what terms they are designated, the main blocks of concepts can be distinguished , which characterize the actual object of psychology, which distinguishes it from other sciences.

The most important result of the development of any science is the creation of its own categorical apparatus. This set of concepts constitutes, as it were, the skeleton, the skeleton of any branch of scientific knowledge. Categories are forms of thinking, basic, generic, initial concepts; these are the key moments, nodes, steps in the process of cognition of a particular sphere of reality.

Each science has its own complex, a set of categories, and psychological science has its own categorical apparatus. It includes the following four blocks of basic concepts:

• mental processes - this concept means that modern psychology considers mental phenomena not as something initially given in a finished form, but as something forming, developing, as a dynamic process that generates certain results in the form of images, feelings, thoughts, etc .;
• - cheerfulness or depression, efficiency or fatigue, calmness or irritability, etc.;
• mental properties of personality - its general focus on certain goals in life, temperament, character, abilities. inherent in a person over a long period of his life, for example, hard work, sociability, etc.;
• mental neoplasms - knowledge, skills and abilities acquired during life, which are the result of the individual's activity.

Of course, these mental phenomena do not exist separately, not in isolation. They are closely interconnected and influence each other. For example, a state of cheerfulness sharpens the process of attention, and a state of depression leads to a deterioration in the process of perception.

A brief historical sketch of the development of psychology

Since ancient times, the needs of social life forced a person to distinguish and take into account the peculiarities of the mental makeup of people. In the philosophical teachings of antiquity, some psychological aspects were already touched upon, of which they were solved either in terms of idealism or in terms of plan. Thus, the materialistic philosophers of antiquity, Democrat, Lucretius, Epicurus understood the human soul as a kind of matter, as a bodily formation formed from spherical, small and most mobile atoms.

Plato

The founder of idealism was (a large slave owner). is he divided all people according to their advantageous qualities — mind (in the head) courage (in the chest) lust (in the abdominal cavity). All governing bodies - have the intelligence of war - courage, slaves - lust. Plato is the founder not only of idealism, but also of dualism. But the idealist philosopher Plato understood the human soul as something divine, different from the body. Before entering the human body, the soul exists separately in the upper world, where it cognizes ideas - eternal and unchanging essences. Once in the body, the soul begins to remember what it saw before birth. The idealistic theory of Plato, which interprets the body and psyche as two independent and antagonistic principles, laid the foundation for all subsequent idealistic theories.

Aristotle

He was the successor of Plato's work. He not only overcame dualism (a direction that recognizes two independent principles at the basis of the world - matter and spirit), but also is the ancestor of materialism (the direction affirming the primacy of matter and the secondary nature of consciousness, the materiality of the world, the independence of its existence from the consciousness of people and its cognizability). Aristotle tried to put psychology on the basis of medicine. But Aristotle could not fully explain human behavior only through medicine. The great philosopher Aristotle in his treatise On the Soul singled out psychology as a kind of area of \u200b\u200bknowledge and for the first time put forward the idea of \u200b\u200bthe indivisibility of the soul and the living body.

The works of Aristotle, Plato and other philosophers formed the basis for the works of philosophers of the Middle Ages in the 17th century. - this is the starting point from the materialism of philosophy.

History of psychology as experimental science starts in 1879 in the world's first experimental psychological laboratory, founded by the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig. Soon, in 1885, V.M.Bekhterev organized a similar laboratory in Russia.

A well-known psychologist of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. G. Ebbinghaus was able to say about psychology very briefly and accurately - psychology has a huge background and a very short history. History means that period in the study of the psyche, which was marked by a departure from philosophy, a rapprochement with the natural sciences and the organization of their own experimental method. This happened in the last quarter of the 19th century, but the origins of psychology are lost in the mists of time.

Rene de Carte is a biologist, physician, philosopher. He opened the coordinate system, put forward the idea of \u200b\u200breflex, the idea of \u200b\u200breflexive behavior. But I could not fully explain the behavior of the organism and therefore remained in the position of dualism. It was very difficult to separate the inner world of a person from his internal organs. The prerequisites for idealism were created.

There was another approach to understanding the psyche in the history of psychology, developed by Russian psychologists in line with the philosophy of dialectical materialism in the Soviet historical period. The essence of this understanding of the psyche can be seen in four words, the formal authorship of which belongs to V.I.Lenin (1870-1924). The psyche is a subjective image of the objective world.

General understanding of the subject of psychology

Each science has its own subject of research. Here is a brief description of the approaches associated with a fundamental change in the outlook on the subject of psychology.

Stages of development of psychology

Stage I - psychology as the science of the soul... This definition of psychology was given over two thousand years ago. They tried to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena in human life by the presence of a soul. This long stage, called pre-scientific in the literature, is determined from the 5th-4th centuries. BC. before the beginning of the XVIII century.

II stage - psychology as science about... It arises in the 17th century in connection with the development of natural sciences. The ability to think, feel, desire was called consciousness. The main method of study was considered a person's observation of himself and the description of facts. According to the new approach, a person always sees something, hears, touches, feels, remembers. It is these phenomena that psychology should study, since, unlike the soul, they can be experimentally investigated, measured, scientifically generalized, and cause-and-effect relationships and relationships established in them.

Stage III - psychology as behavioral science... Behaviorism took shape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. in the USA. “Behavior” in English is “behavior”. The task of psychology is to set up experiments and observe what can be directly seen, namely the behavior, actions, reactions of a person (the motives that cause actions were not taken into account).

At the same time, many “traditional” psychologists have expressed serious objections to some of the original components of the behaviorist approach. Behavior and psyche are, although connected, but by no means identical reality. So, when exposed to one and the same stimulus, it is possible that there is not one reaction, but a certain set of them, and, conversely, the same response is sometimes obtained in the presence of different stimuli. In psychology, it is recognized, for example, that a person often looks at one thing, but sees another, thinks about one thing, experiences another, says a third, does a fourth.

Stage IV - psychology as a science that studies objective laws, manifestations and mechanisms of the psyche.

Psychology methods

To solve a complex of problems in science, there is a developed system of means, directions, ways, methods.

Method - this is the path of scientific knowledge. The way by which the subject of science is cognized.

Methodology - this is a variant, a particular implementation of the method in specific conditions: organizational, social, historical.

The set or system of methods and techniques of any science is not random, arbitrary. They take shape historically, change, develop, obeying certain laws, methodological rules.

Methodology Is not only a teaching about methods, the rules for their choice or use. It is a systematic description of the very philosophy, ideology, strategy and tactics of scientific research. The methodology specifies what exactly, how and why we study, how we interpret the results obtained, how we implement them in practice.

Subject, principles and tasks of psychology

Many years ago, in the forests of Aveyron, in the south of France, hunters found a boy, apparently fed by some animal and completely feral. Later, in the jungles of India, two girls were found, abducted, as it turned out, by a she-wolf and fed by her. Dozens of such tragic cases are known to science. What is the tragedy of these incidents, because the children found were alive and physically quite healthy? Ike these children, who spent their early childhood among animals, did not have a single human quality. Even physically, they resembled animals: they moved on all fours, ate the same way as animals, tearing pieces of meat with their teeth and holding them with two front limbs, growling and biting everyone who came close to them. Their sense of smell and hearing were very developed, they caught the slightest changes in the forest environment. Making inarticulate sounds, they hurried to hide from people.

Scientists examined these children and tried to teach them human behavior, teach them to speak and understand human speech. But. as a rule, such attempts were unsuccessful: the time for the intensive formation of basic human qualities had already been irretrievably lost. A human being is formed as a human only in human society... And many human qualities are formed only in early childhood.

According to his biological organization, man is the result of an evolutionary process. The anatomical and physiological structure of his body is in many ways similar to that of the higher primates. But man is qualitatively different from all living beings. His life activity, needs and ways of meeting these needs are different from the life activity of animals. socio-cultural conditioning.

Man is a social being.

The natural features of a person have changed in the process of his social and historical development. The human world is a field of socially developed meanings, meanings, symbols. He lives in the world of social culture, which forms his so-called second nature, defines his essence. All human activities from birth to the end of his life are governed by the institutions, social norms, customs and traditions accepted in this society. The individual formed in society becomes socialized person - a person included in the system of general social, cultural and historical achievements of mankind, his life activity is realized in certain social conditions. Each individual becomes a human being to the extent that he masters the common human culture. He perceives the whole world as the world of humanly significant objects, interacts with them on the basis of socially developed concepts. “Man is the measure of all things,” the ancient philosopher Prota Mountains deeply noted. A person correlates everything in the world with his inner spiritual world: he experiences emotional excitement when contemplating distant stars, admires the beauty of forests, mountains and seas, appreciates the harmony of colors, forms and sounds, the integrity of personal relationships and the sublime manifestations of the human spirit. Man actively interacts with the world - he seeks to know and purposefully transform reality.

The behavior of animals is predetermined by an innate, instinctive program of life. Human behavior is conditioned by his mental, socially formed world, in which strategic and tactical planning of his life activity is carried out, the joys and griefs of his human life are experienced. A person is able to measure the present with the past and the future, think about the meaning of life, reflect - reflect not only the world around him, but also himself.

A person is endowed with such a socially formed mental regulator as conscience - the ability to control his command with the help of general social measures, to evaluate his own I through the eyes of other people. The socialized individual is a social and spiritual being. The spirituality of a person is manifested in his ability to rise above everything base, primitive down to earth, to maintain an unchanging commitment to his human dignity and duty.

Man is a complex and multifaceted creature. It is studied by many sciences - biology, anthropology, history, cultural studies, sociology, etc. The study of the inner world of man, the general laws of his interaction with the outside world is carried out by a special science - psychology.

The subject of psychology is a person as a subject of activity, the systemic qualities of his self-regulation; the laws of the formation and functioning of the human psyche: its ability to reflect the world, cognize it and regulate its interaction with it.

Psychology studies the emergence and development of the psyche; neurophysiological foundations of mental activity; human consciousness as the highest form of the psyche; patterns of transition of the external to the internal; the conditionality of the functioning of the psyche by socio-historical factors; patterns of formation of mental images of the world and the embodiment of these images in external, practical human activity; the unity of biological and social factors in a person's mental self-regulation; the structure of the psyche; reflective and regulatory essence of cognitive, volitional and emotional processes, individual psychological characteristics of a person; psychological characteristics of human behavior in a social environment; psychology of specific types of human activity; and etc.

Every educated person should master the basics of general psychological knowledge. Knowing yourself is no less important than knowing the various aspects of the surrounding reality. Psychological knowledge is necessary for a person for the correct organization of his relationships with other people, the effective organization of his activities, self-analysis and personal self-improvement. It is no coincidence that the main commandment of ancient thinkers reads: "Man, know yourself."

The practical need for the application of psychological knowledge in various fields of human activity has caused intensive development along with general psychology and its applied branches: pedagogical, medical, legal, engineering, aviation, space, psychology of art, labor, military affairs, sports, management, marketing, etc. Moreover, the study of applied branches of psychology is possible only on the basis of general psychological knowledge.

Psychological knowledge is needed wherever there is a need for the scientific organization of labor and the effective use of the resources of the human psyche. Psychologists work fruitfully in schools and clinics, in production, in cosmonaut training centers and management structures, the law enforcement system and analytical centers for social development.

Psychology tasks

The main task of psychology is the cognition of the psychic through the disclosure of those object connections from which psychic phenomena first arose and began to be defined as objective facts. Therefore, psychological cognition is understood today as mediated cognition of the psychic through the disclosure of its essential connections with the surrounding world.

With such an understanding of the essence of the psychic, it becomes obvious that of all the sciences about man, the most practical is psychology... After studying it. you can find a lot in the world around you and in yourself and in other people.

The growing interest in the inner spiritual world of people is also associated with the fact that the modern era is increasingly revealing as lead the trend towards the integration of all aspects of the life of modern society: economic, political and spiritual. This integrative tendency, a line to strengthen the integrity of social development is also manifested in the fact that today the traditional, very narrow, technocratic understanding of the tasks of economic activity is being replaced by modernized concepts that highlight not technological tasks in economic activity, but humanitarian and psychological problems.

Workers engaged in modern production are increasingly aware of their activities not only as the use of high technologies, but also as an area in which participation requires from workers employed in it. managing oneself, other people, their communities.

This attitude has now become an elementary truth for specialists, entrepreneurs, managers of developed countries, both in the West and in the East.

The head of one of the largest American automobile companies, Li Ya Kokka, believes that “all business operations can ultimately be summarized in three words: people, product, profit. People come first. "

Akio Morita - the head of a famous Japanese electrical engineering company - claims that "Only people can make an enterprise successful".

Thus, in order to be successful, a modern worker, businessman, manager, any specialist must provide a solution with his activities dual task:

• achieving an economic result;
• impact on the people creating this result.

Therefore, in modern conditions for a domestic entrepreneur, manager, highly qualified specialist of any profile, as well as for each person, the most urgent task is the psychological recovery of labor groups, production teams, and with them the whole society. A modern leader, specialist, and any thinking person should know and take into account psychological factors activities of people and on this basis to ensure the growth of labor and social activity.