Topic 12. Abilities

Capabilities- individual personality traits that ensure success in activities and ease of mastering it.

Talent- the highest degree of a person's abilities for a certain activity.

Makings- some genetically determined anatomical and physiological features of the nervous system, which are an individual natural prerequisite for the formation and development of abilities.

General giftedness - the unity of the general abilities of a person, which determines the range of his intellectual capabilities, the level and originality of his activity.

Genius- the highest degree of creative manifestations of personality.

The speed, depth, ease and strength of the process of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities depend on abilities, but they themselves are not reduced to them.

Research has established that abilities are lifetime formations, that their development takes place in the process of individual life, that the environment and upbringing actively shape them.

Abilities are a dynamic concept, their formation in a certain way occurs in the process of organized activity.

A deep analysis of the problem of abilities was given by B.M. Thermal. In his opinion, the concept of “abilities” contains the following: “Firstly, abilities are understood as individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another ... Secondly, not all individual characteristics are called abilities, but only those that are related to success in performing any activity or many activities ... Thirdly, the concept of "ability" is not limited to the knowledge, skills or abilities that have already been developed by a given person.

Characteristic of inclinations is that they themselves are not yet directed to anything. The inclinations influence, but not decisively, the process of formation and development of abilities that are formed in vivo in the process of activity and education.

The main components of natural differences in abilities can be attributed to: certain properties of the nervous system, cognitive activity and self-regulation, structural features of analyzers. The makings are ambiguous, they determine:

different ways of developing abilities,

affect the level of achievement, the speed of development.

A number of conditions affect the formation of abilities. This is theoretical and practical experience, knowledge; physical and mental activity associated with the fulfillment of specific goals and involvement in various types of games, studies, labor; observation, good memory, vividness of imagination.

Abilities, B.M. Teplov, are in constant development. Abilities that are not developed in practice fade away over time. Only by constantly improving in music, drawing, technical creativity, mathematics, it is possible to maintain and develop abilities in the relevant activities.

Abilities are characterized by interchangeability, large compensatory possibilities.

In this regard, they usually distinguish between:

general abilities(such individual personality traits that provide relative ease and productivity in mastering knowledge and performing various activities);

special abilities(a system of personality traits that help achieve high results in any field of activity). Special abilities are organically connected with general ones. Special abilities: literary, mathematical, pedagogical, artistic.

The same ability can be different in degree of development.

Talent - a high level of ability development, providing outstanding success in a particular type of activity. Genius - the highest level of development of abilities, making him an outstanding personality in the relevant field of activity.

Belonging to one of the three human types: "artistic", "thinking" and "intermediate" (in the terminology of I.P. Pavlov) - determines to a large extent the features of their abilities.

The relative predominance of the first signal system in a person's mental activity characterizes the artistic type, the relative predominance of the second signal system - the mental hype, their approximately equal representation - the average type of people. These differences in modern science are associated with the functions of the left (verbal-logical) and right (figurative) hemispheres of the brain.

For the artistic type, the brightness of images is characteristic, for the mental type - the predominance of abstractions, logical constructions.

The same person may have different abilities, but one of them may be more significant than others. On the other hand, different people have the same abilities, but differ in their level of development.

1) General characteristics of human abilities

Abilities are understood as such individual characteristics that are the conditions for the successful implementation of any one or more activities.

If we summarize the currently existing approaches to the study of abilities, then they can be reduced to three main types. In the first case, abilities are understood as the totality of various mental processes and states. This is the broadest and oldest interpretation of the term "ability". From the point of view of the second approach, abilities are understood as a high level of development of general and special knowledge, skills and abilities that ensure the successful performance of various types of activities by a person. This definition appeared and was adopted in the psychology of the XVII-XIX centuries. and is fairly common today. The third approach is based on the assertion that abilities are not limited to knowledge, skills and abilities, but ensure their rapid acquisition, consolidation and effective use in practice.

In domestic psychology, experimental studies of abilities are most often built on the basis of the latter approach. The greatest contribution to its development was made by the well-known domestic scientist B. M. Teplov. He singled out the following three main features of the concept of “ability”.

First, abilities are understood as individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another; no one will talk about abilities where we are talking about properties in respect of which all people are equal.

Secondly, abilities are not called any individual characteristics in general, but only those that are related to the success of performing an activity or many activities.

Thirdly, the concept of "ability" is not limited to the knowledge, skills or abilities that a given person has already developed.

In everyday practice, the concepts of "abilities" and "skills" are often equated, which leads to erroneous conclusions, especially in pedagogical practice. (A classic example of this kind is the unsuccessful attempt of V.I. Surikov, who later became a famous artist, to enter the Academy of Arts. Although Surikov’s outstanding abilities appeared quite early, he did not yet have the necessary skills and abilities in drawing. Academic teachers refused Surikov Moreover, the inspector of the academy, having looked at the drawings submitted by Surikov, said: “For such drawings, you should not even walk past the academy.” Surikov proved their mistake by deed, having mastered the necessary skills within three months, as a result of which the same teachers considered him worthy of enrolling in the academy this time).

Despite the fact that abilities are not limited to knowledge, skills and abilities, this does not mean that they are in no way related to knowledge and skills. Ease and speed of acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities depend on abilities. The acquisition of this knowledge and skills, in turn, contributes to the further development of abilities, while the lack of appropriate skills and knowledge is a brake on the development of abilities.

Abilities, B. M. Teplov believed, cannot exist except in a constant process of development. An ability that does not develop, which a person ceases to use in practice, is lost over time. Only through constant exercises associated with the systematic pursuit of such complex human activities as music, technical and artistic creativity, mathematics, sports, etc., do we maintain and develop the corresponding abilities in ourselves.

It should be noted that the success of any activity does not depend on any one, but on a combination of different abilities, and this combination, which gives the same result, can be provided in various ways. In the absence of the necessary inclinations for the development of some abilities, their deficiency can be made up for by a higher development of others. “One of the most important features of the human psyche,” wrote B. M. Teplov, “is the possibility of an extremely wide compensation of some properties by others, as a result of which the relative weakness of any one ability does not at all exclude the possibility of successfully performing even such an activity that is most closely related to this ability. The missing ability can be compensated within a very wide range by others highly developed in a given person.

Psychology studies not only the general laws and patterns of mental processes and states. We are all different, unique and inimitable, therefore, knowledge of the individual psychological characteristics of a person is no less important than the mechanisms and processes of the psyche that are characteristic of all people. The branch of psychology that studies this area is called differential psychology, or the psychology of individual differences.

There is a saying: "An alien soul is darkness." This is true only for those who do not know psychology at all. And this science is quite accurate, and it claims that there are unshakable general principles that govern the mental processes of any person. Not only the similarity of the physiological structure, but also the commonality of the features of the mental sphere makes it possible to attribute all people to one species of Homo sapiens. Even the stages of our development, we go through similar ones and we all experience the same difficulties of growing up.

In psychology, there is a concept of the norm, albeit rather shaky. Too much deviation from the mental norm is considered a pathology, recognized as a mental illness and requires the intervention of a psychotherapist or psychiatrist.

However, people are still different, and this is noticeable, one might say, with the naked eye, even to a person inexperienced in psychology. We behave differently in similar situations, we manifest differently. There are differences in the flow, and in the level, and in, and in motor skills.

These features are manifested within the framework of general patterns, but they play an important role in creating a unique image of a person. And at the same time, they help to understand her desires, to predict behavior. That is, the individual is manifested in general, and not only through the features of behavior, external, but also at the internal level of consciousness.

Despite the diversity of manifestations of our psyche, when they talk about individual psychological characteristics, they primarily mean three areas:, and. And if, for example, in cognitive processes, the individual is only a superstructure, an addition to general patterns, then temperament, character and abilities can be considered as a manifestation of the unique uniqueness of each person.

Temperament

The natural prerequisite for individual differences are the characteristics of the nervous system and, first of all, temperament. This term itself, translated from Latin, means "a mixture of elements." Indeed, temperament is a complex of human qualities. Their various combinations give rise to a variety of mental activity of people, which manifests itself in four main types of temperament.

Types of temperament according to Hippocrates

For the first time, different types of temperament were described by the ancient Greek physician and thinker Hippocrates. He believed that the difference in the behavior of people is due to the fluid prevailing in their body.

• Sangva - blood gives a person strength, activity, perseverance in achieving a goal, sociability and qualities of a warrior and.
• Phlegm (mucus) manifests itself in calmness, slowness and equanimity.
• Holi (bile) makes a person mobile, even fussy, prone to frequent mood swings and sociable to the point of obsession.
• Melan holi (black bile) gives rise to gloominess, a mood of decline and indecision; people in whom this fluid predominates are gloomy losers.

The types of temperament described by the ancient Greek scientist (sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric) are still the most popular, although, of course, adjustments have been made to their characteristics. And now no one connects the features of temperament with the liquid prevailing in the body.

Temperament in modern psychology

In fact, temperament is a dynamic characteristic of the psyche, and the difference in its types is associated with the mobility and strength of the two main nervous processes - excitation and inhibition. This connection was discovered and described by the Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlov. He proposed his own classification of temperaments, which basically coincides with the Hippocratic one.

The sanguine person is characterized by a high speed and strength of nervous processes, as well as a balance of excitation and inhibition. This makes sanguine people active, but without fussiness. They have a high working capacity and a stable mood with quite bright and strong emotions. They are sociable, but picky in the choice of friends and pragmatic. The cause is above all for them.

A phlegmatic person with strength of both excitation and inhibition is characterized by a low speed of nervous processes with a predominance of inhibition, that is, inertia. This is, in the truest sense of the word, a brake type. Phlegmatic people do not like changing activities, they are unemotional and unsociable. These are slow-witted, but stubborn workers.

Cholerics are characterized by high speed and strength of nervous processes, but their excessive mobility and instability. These are very active people with a changeable mood, they have many friends, but they themselves are fickle and cannot do one thing for a long time.

Melancholics are distinguished by the weakness of both the processes of excitation and inhibition, so their mood swings are not expressed, and it seems that they are constantly in a state of despondency.

Temperament Properties

In its pure form, these types are not found, because temperament is a complex combination of properties and qualities, and it affects all areas of the psyche. For the convenience of studying individual psychological characteristics, several of the most important characteristics that make up temperament are distinguished.

• Sensitivity is the sensitivity of the nervous system to stimuli.
• Activity - the degree of performance and the ability to maintain a state of excitation.
• The rate of reactions or the speed of mental processes is manifested in the speed of changes in mood, speech, thinking, etc.
• - the level of sociability, communicative openness or isolation.
• Plasticity - the ease of changing activities and quick adaptation to changing conditions.
• Rigidity - resistance to change, loyalty to habits, stubbornness.

Temperament is largely due to innate factors and practically does not change during life. True, some of the most striking features in youth can be smoothed out with age, masked and adapted to the situation.

Temperament is the biological basis of another individual-personal property - character.

Character as a biosocial warehouse of personality

As a member of society, a person from the moment of birth interacts with other people, learns behavior, absorbs culture and traditions. As a result, each personality is a unique fusion of biological and social, and the formation of character takes place in the interaction of these two principles. Therefore, in the same environment, people develop different characters. They differ even in twins, who have a very similar biological basis.

It's all about experience. From the moment of birth, we find ourselves in situations to which we react differently, not only depending on the traits of temperament, but also on external circumstances. As a result, we accumulate a diverse, but absolutely unique experience that affects the formation of character no less, but most likely more than the properties of physiology and the nervous system.

Character is a set of features and personality traits that manifest themselves in all spheres of life and leave an imprint on communication with other people, interests, nature of activity, etc. No wonder the term “character” from ancient Greek can be translated as a distinctive feature, seal, sign.

Character traits are quite stable, they are laid down in childhood and are a kind of hallmark of a person. But still, this property of a person is more variable than temperament, since life experience affects its content. And often, having met a person after several years of separation, we are surprised to notice changes in his character.

Character is a complex formation that has a complex structure. Therefore, there are many typologies or sets of its main features, which are described by different psychologists.

trait theory

The English psychologist G. Allport, one of the authors of the theory of traits, believed that each person is a unique and inimitable combination of individual character traits or dispositions (traits). By disposition, he understood a stable feature of behavior, the readiness of an individual to behave in a certain way in a given situation. That is, character is always manifested in behavior or activity, and in order to recognize a person, one must interact with him, see what he is like in business.

There are central dispositions or traits that determine the entire mental makeup of a person, and they immediately catch the eye. Someone is a clear workaholic, while the other seeks to avoid hard work. One is a cheerful, cheerful joker, and the other is always dissatisfied with everything and complains about everything. Some are bold to the point of recklessness, while others are cautious and indecisive. These are all the central dispositions that we name first when we are asked to characterize a person.

Along with the central ones, there are many secondary traits. They are not immediately noticeable and require more time to recognize. Secondary, for example, include interests, hobbies, clothing preferences, tastes, etc.

Allport also highlights common and individual features. Being a part of society, a person from birth acquires the qualities inherent in most people from his environment, for example, what we call a national character. Italians and Latin Americans are easily excitable and emotional, Norwegians and Swedes, on the contrary, are very calm, reasonable and slow, while the Japanese are characterized by contemplation and restraint.

Individual character traits are what distinguishes a person from other people. The more strongly they are expressed, the brighter individuality is the subject. However, if individual traits contradict the general ones, then society can apply social sanctions to such a person, express censure, for example.

On the basis of the theory of traits by G. Allport, methods of psychological diagnosis of personality were created, for example, factor analysis, tests by G. Eysenck, R. Cattell, etc.

character structure

Due to the complexity of this property and the variety of its manifestations, there are many different classifications of character traits. So, depending on the sphere of the psyche, which plays an important role in human behavior, the following are distinguished:

• Emotional, associated with the peculiarities of the sphere of emotions and feelings: cheerfulness or gloom, emotional excitability or coldness, etc.
• Volitional: decisiveness and indecision, perseverance, perseverance, independence, independence, etc.
• Moral: honesty or deceit, kindness and cruelty, responsiveness, courage, etc.
• Intellectual: curiosity, resourcefulness, quick wits, thoughtfulness, etc.

You can often hear such an expression as "weak person." What's this? Features of a person's character are manifested not only in a combination of traits, but also in the strength of their severity. There are people who, because of the weakness of the nervous system or because of the problems of education, have an unstable character. Some of its features are poorly expressed, especially problems are observed in the volitional sphere. Such people are called weak-willed.

Capabilities

Important personality traits are abilities that determine the individual style of activity and are the basis of its success. There are also qualities that provide the ability to interact with other people and are necessary to gain respect and authority from others.

Abilities and inclinations

Abilities are a complex system of qualities and properties of a person. Their biological basis is inclinations, that is, innate physical and mental characteristics, including the properties of temperament. But not only. Often the inclinations are associated with the psychophysiological characteristics of the body, they are given to a person from birth and are necessary for success in a particular activity. But they don't guarantee it.

For example, a musical ear is required for a musician, and a high sensitivity of the visual analyzer is required for an artist. But this alone is not enough to master the activity, especially to achieve success. For this, it is necessary to develop abilities, and this is possible only in activity and requires the investment of labor and strong-willed efforts. Mastery is not a gift given by nature or God, but, above all, hard work and perseverance.

Is it possible to develop abilities in the absence of natural inclinations? This is a very difficult question, and there is no clear answer to it. Undoubtedly, in the absence of the necessary qualities, it will be more difficult to master the activity, it will require more effort and, perhaps, the achievements will not be so impressive. But recently, more and more psychologists support the idea that a stubborn and persistent person can learn everything. The main thing is to give him the right teaching methods. That is, to teach anyone to draw, you just need to know how to teach correctly.

Ability types

All the diversity of human abilities is usually divided into two types: general and special.

Special qualities include those qualities that are required for mastering a specific activity, such as ear for playing musical instruments or phonetic ear for learning foreign languages. To play sports, you need endurance and mobility, and to work with children, you need a feeling.

General abilities are no less diverse, because they are needed in a variety of fields of activity. First of all, these include mental abilities or the level of intelligence. Although intelligence is considered an innate characteristic of a person, mental abilities require their development, including quality, as well as the volitional sphere and.

Sometimes a high level of mental ability, combined with learning ability, is called giftedness. This quality of a person can compensate for the lack of some special abilities and allow him to succeed in many activities.

No matter how valuable abilities are, they are only a potential, an opportunity for further development and improvement of a person. The same can be said about other individual psychological characteristics. Each individual has the opportunity to become a unique, extraordinary, talented person, but for this you need to know your psychological characteristics, your strengths and weaknesses and actively engage in self-development.

PLAN

Individual psychological characteristics of personality………………… 3

1. Temperament………………………………………………………………...3

2. Character……………………………………………………………………..5

3. Abilities………………………………………………………………………7

4. Feelings and emotions…………………………………………………………………9

5. Will………………………………………………………………………….10

References………………………………………………………………13

Individual psychological characteristics of personality.

Individual psychological characteristics are the peculiar properties of the mental activity of a person, which are expressed in temperament, character, abilities, feelings and emotions, as well as the manifestation of will. They are formed as a result of a systemic generalization of individual biological and socially acquired properties involved in the functioning of a person's behavioral system, as well as his activity and communication. They are associated with all mental processes: motivational-need, cognitive, emotional-volitional. It is believed that temperament and character denote dynamic and meaningful aspects of behavior, emotional and volitional stability of a person are an integral part of a person’s character, and abilities are such personality traits that are a condition for performing one or another productive activity.

1. Temperament

The history of the emergence of the doctrine of temperaments dates back to the 5th century. BC, when the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates put forward the idea that human life and health depend on the four main juices of the body: blood, lymph, bile and black bile. Based on these ideas, the ancient Roman physician Galen (2nd century AD) formulated a humoral theory, according to which the different ratio of these fluids affects not only health, but also determines the mental state and behavior of a person. Galen proposed the first classification of types of temperament. Depending on the predominance of one or another fluid in the body, people, according to his theory, differ from each other in strength, speed, pace, rhythm of movements, expressiveness of the expression of feelings. From here came the names of four types of temperament: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic.

Behavior depends not only on social conditions, but also on the characteristics of the natural organization of the individual. Temperament is precisely due to the biological organization of the individual, and therefore it is detected quite early and clearly in children in the game, classes, and communication.

Consider the characteristics of four types of temperament.

Choleric. Representatives of this type are characterized by increased excitability, and as a result, unbalanced behavior. Choleric is quick-tempered, aggressive, straightforward in relationships, energetic in activities. Cholerics are characterized by cyclical work. They with all passion give themselves to the cause, get carried away by it. But then the forces were exhausted, faith in their abilities fell, a depressed mood set in, and they do nothing. Such cyclicity is one of the consequences of the imbalance of their nervous activity.

sanguine. A person with a strong, balanced, mobile nervous system. He has a fast reaction rate, his actions are deliberate. The sanguine person is cheerful, thanks to which he is characterized by a high resistance to the difficulties of life. He is a productive figure, but only when there are many interesting things for him. Otherwise, he becomes lethargic, boring, distracted.

Phlegmatic person. He is solid, does not waste his strength: having calculated them, he brings the matter to the end. He is even in relationships, moderately sociable, does not like to chat in vain. The disadvantages of the phlegmatic are its inertia, inactivity. He needs time to build up, to focus attention, to switch it to another object, etc.

Melancholic. A person with a weak nervous system, with increased sensitivity to even weak stimuli. He is often sad, depressed, insecure, anxious; he may develop neurotic disorders.

Such properties as impressionability, emotionality, impulsiveness and anxiety depend on temperament.

In its pure form, these four types of temperament are extremely rare, since the various properties of the human nervous system in their various combinations determine a large number of intermediate types. Thus, when analyzing the individual psychological characteristics of a person, it is required to establish the degree of predominance of certain characteristics of the traditionally distinguished four types of temperament.

2. Character

Character is a set of stable individual psychological properties that are manifested in the life activity, behavior of a person in the form of his attitude to other people, to himself, to business, to other various circumstances of being. Character is formed, as a rule, gradually in the process of cognition and practical activity.

Character is manifested in activity, communication, in the manner of human behavior. It expresses the attitude of the subject to the phenomena of social, labor, personal life in various situations in which the subject manifests himself as a whole as a person. These relationships form an individual style of behavior.

Character, unlike temperament, is determined not only by the properties of the nervous system, hereditary factors, but it is also formed under conditions of active influence of the socio-cultural environment on a person, depends on education, social, interpersonal relations in which he is involved and in which he actively participates.

There are various approaches to the description, classification of properties, character traits. Conditionally they can be grouped as follows.

Features that reflect a person's attitude towards other people (to relatives, friends, acquaintances and strangers, to persons of the opposite sex, to people who treat him well or are hostile).

Features in which a person's attitude towards himself is manifested (to his social status, his appearance, his own health, etc.). They are closely intertwined with character traits that manifest themselves in relationships with people.

Features expressing attitude to business, work, service, professional activity (hard work, conscientiousness, accuracy, laziness, irresponsibility, etc.). These character traits affect the authority, social prestige of a person. Among them, it is also necessary to highlight character traits that express the attitude to discipline, the rule of law: diligence, punctuality.

Traits that reflect the attitude to things, material well-being (generosity, greed, self-interest, thrift, and some others).

Most researchers single out two sides in the structure of the existing character: content and form. They are inseparable from each other and constitute an organic unity. The content of the character is the life orientation of the individual, i.e. its material and spiritual needs, interests, ideals and social attitudes. The content of the character is manifested in the form of certain individual-peculiar relations that speak of the selective activity of a person. In different forms of character, various ways of manifesting relationships, temperament, and fixed emotional-volitional characteristics of behavior are expressed.

3. Capabilities

In the most general form, abilities are individual psychological characteristics of a person that ensure success in activities, in communication and ease of mastering them. Abilities cannot be reduced to the knowledge, skills and abilities that a person has, but abilities ensure their rapid acquisition, fixation and effective practical application. Success in activity and communication is determined not by one, but by a system of different abilities, while they can be mutually compensated. There are a number of classifications of abilities. We reproduce one of them, the most significant:

1) natural (or natural abilities are basically biologically determined, associated with innate inclinations, formed on their basis, in the presence of elementary life experience through learning mechanisms such as conditioned reflex connections);

2) specific human abilities that have a socio-historical origin and ensure life and development in a social environment (general and special higher intellectual abilities, based on the use of speech, logic, theoretical and practical, educational and creative). Specific human abilities, in turn, are divided into:

a) general, which determine the success of a person in a wide variety of activities and communication (mental abilities, accuracy and subtlety of hand movements, etc.), and special, which determine a person’s success in certain types of activity and communication, where a special kind of inclinations is needed and their development (mathematical, technical, artistic and creative abilities, sports, etc.).

b) theoretical, which determine a person's inclination to abstract-logical thinking, and practical, which underlie the inclination to concretely practical actions. The combination of these abilities is characteristic only of versatile gifted people;

c) educational, which affect the success of pedagogical influence, the assimilation of knowledge, skills, the formation of personality traits by a person, and creative, associated with success in creating works of material and spiritual culture, new ideas, discoveries, inventions. The highest degree of creative manifestations of a person is called genius, and the highest degree of a person's abilities in a certain activity (communication) is called talent;

d) the ability to communicate, interact with people, namely, human speech as a means of communication, the ability to perceive and evaluate people, social and psychological adaptability to different situations, getting into contact with various people, liking them, etc.

Abilities are not static, but dynamic formations, their formation and development takes place in the process of organized activity and communication in a certain way. The development of abilities occurs in stages. An important point in the development of abilities in children is the complexity of the simultaneous improvement of several complementary abilities. The following levels of abilities are distinguished: reproductive, which provides a high ability to assimilate ready-made knowledge, master the existing patterns of activity and communication, and creative, which ensures the creation of a new, original one. But it should be borne in mind that the reproductive level includes elements of the creative, and vice versa.

4. Feelings and emotions

A person's experience of his attitude to what he does or learns, to other people, to himself, is called feelings and emotions.

Feelings and emotions are interrelated, but different phenomena of the emotional sphere of a person. Emotions are considered to be a simpler, immediate experience at the moment, associated with the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of needs. Manifested as reactions to environmental objects, emotions are associated with initial impressions. The first impression of something is purely emotional in nature, it is a direct reaction (fear, anger, joy) to some external features.

A feeling is more complex than emotions, a constant, well-established attitude of a person to what she knows and does, to the object of her needs. The feeling is characterized by stability and duration, measured in months and years of the life of their subject. Feelings are usually classified by content. It is customary to distinguish the following types of feelings: moral, intellectual and aesthetic.

Moral, or moral, feelings are feelings in which a person’s attitude to people’s behavior and his own is manifested. They are experienced by people in connection with the fulfillment or violation of the moral principles accepted in a given society, which determine what is tedious to consider good and bad, fair and unfair in human relationships.

Intellectual feelings arise in the process of mental activity and are associated with cognitive processes. They reflect and express the attitude of a person to his thoughts, to the process of cognition, its success and failure, to the results of intellectual activity. Intellectual feelings include curiosity, curiosity, surprise, confidence, uncertainty, doubt, bewilderment, a sense of the new.

Aesthetic feelings are experienced in connection with the perception of objects, phenomena and relations of the surrounding world and reflect the attitude of the subject to various facts of life and their reflection in art. In aesthetic feelings, a person experiences beauty and harmony (or, conversely, disharmony) in nature, in works of art, in relations between people.

4. Will

Will - a person's conscious regulation of his behavior (activity and communication), associated with overcoming internal and external obstacles. This is the ability of a person, which manifests itself in self-determination and self-regulation of his behavior and mental phenomena.

The main features of an act of will:

a) the application of efforts to perform an act of will;

b) the presence of a well-thought-out plan for the implementation of a behavioral act;

c) increased attention to such a behavioral act and the lack of direct pleasure received in the process and as a result of its execution;

d) often the efforts of the will are directed not only to victory over circumstances, but to overcoming oneself.

Volitional regulation of behavior is characterized by the state of optimal mobilization of the individual, the required mode of activity, and the concentration of this activity in the required direction.

The main psychological function of the will is to increase motivation and improve the regulation of actions on this basis. In this, volitional actions differ from impulsive ones, that is, actions performed involuntarily and insufficiently controlled by consciousness. At the level of the individual, the manifestation of the will finds its expression in such properties as willpower (the degree of necessary volitional effort to achieve the goal), perseverance (the ability of a person to mobilize his capabilities for a long overcoming of difficulties), endurance (the ability to slow down actions, feelings, thoughts that interfere with the implementation of the accepted decisions), energy, etc. These are the primary (basic) volitional personal qualities that determine most behavioral acts.

There are also secondary, developing in ontogenesis later than the primary, volitional qualities: decisiveness (the ability to make and implement quick, reasonable and firm decisions), courage (the ability to overcome fear and take justified risks in order to achieve a goal, despite the dangers for personal well-being), self-control (the ability to control the sensual side of one’s psyche and subordinate one’s behavior to the solution of consciously set tasks), self-confidence. These qualities should be considered not only as volitional, but also as characterological.

The tertiary ones include volitional qualities that are closely related to moral ones: responsibility (a quality that characterizes a person from the point of view of fulfilling her moral requirements), discipline (conscious submission of one’s behavior), adherence to principles (loyalty to a certain idea in beliefs and consistent implementation of this idea in behavior). ), commitment (the ability to voluntarily assume duties and fulfill them). This group also includes the qualities of the will associated with a person’s attitude to work: efficiency, initiative, organization, diligence, etc. The tertiary qualities of the will are usually formed only by adolescence, that is, the moment when there is already experience of volitional actions.

Volitional actions can be divided into simple and complex. In a simple volitional act, the impulse to action (motive) passes into the action itself almost automatically. In a complex volitional act, an action is preceded by taking into account its consequences, awareness of motives, decision-making, the emergence of an intention to carry it out, drawing up a plan for its implementation, etc.

The development of the will in a person is connected with:

a) with the transformation of involuntary mental processes into arbitrary ones;

b) with the acquisition by a person of control over his behavior;

c) with the development of volitional qualities of the individual;

d) with the fact that a person consciously sets himself more and more difficult tasks and pursues more and more distant goals that require significant volitional efforts for a long time.

The formation of volitional qualities of a personality can be viewed as a movement from primary to secondary and further to tertiary qualities. A person who wants to control himself and circumstances, who wants to defeat destructive emotions and qualities, can, through training, strengthen his will and increase the range of his capabilities.

Bibliography.

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1.1. Will

Realizing the need to act and making an appropriate decision, a person does not always proceed to its implementation. It is impossible to explain this transition by motivation alone, just as it is impossible to explain why people sometimes do nothing really to implement their plans, decisions, and sometimes satisfy even the most emotional interests. When people who have equal knowledge and skills, who adhere to similar beliefs and views on life, with varying degrees of determination and intensity, begin to solve the problem facing them, this is associated with the manifestation of their will.

Will - a person's conscious regulation of his behavior and activities, expressed in the ability to overcome internal and external difficulties in the performance of purposeful actions and deeds. The will correlates with the entire consciousness of a person as one of the forms of reflection of reality, the function of which is the conscious self-regulation of its activity in difficult conditions of life. This self-regulation is based on the interaction of the processes of excitation and inhibition of the nervous system. In accordance with this, psychologists single out two others as a specification of the above general function - activating and inhibitory. Sometimes the first function is denoted by the term incentive or stimulating.

Volitional and voluntary actions develop on the basis of involuntary movements and actions. The simplest of the involuntary movements are reflex ones, such as constriction and expansion of the pupil, blinking, swallowing, sneezing, etc.

A specific feature of volitional behavior is in the experience of the state “I must”, and not “I want”, although, of course, one should take into account the possibility of coincidence of volitional and impulsive behavior (“I want to do my duty”). Therefore, figuratively speaking, our life is a constant struggle of strong-willed and habitual, everyday behavior. In contrast to involuntary, conscious actions, more characteristic of human behavior, are aimed at achieving the goal. It is the conscious purposefulness of actions that characterizes volitional behavior.

Another important sign of volitional behavior is considered to be its connection with overcoming obstacles, internal or external. Internal, subjective obstacles are caused by the behavior of a person, a subject of volitional action, and can be caused by fatigue, a desire to have fun, fear, shame, false pride, inertia, just laziness, etc.

The most important role in overcoming difficulties on the way to achieving the goal is played by the awareness of its significance, and at the same time the awareness of one's duty. The more significant the goal for a person, the more obstacles he overcomes. In some cases, achieving the goal turns out to be more expensive than life, and then volitional actions can lead to the death of the subject. This statement can be confirmed by examples of the death of fighters during torture or deaths in sports fights.

The materialistic understanding of the nature of the will does not imply the recognition of the fact that the causes of actions and deeds lie in the surrounding material and social environment. Will, along with other aspects of the psyche, has a material basis in the form of nervous brain processes.

On the whole, will has a conditioned reflex nature. The received information about the actions is compared with the already existing program. If the received information does not correspond to the program created in the cerebral cortex, then either the activity itself or the program changes.

Thus, volitional behavior is the result of the interaction of many very complex physiological processes of the brain with the influences of the external environment.

Volitional actions vary in their complexity. In the case when the goal is clearly visible in the motivation, directly turning into action and not going beyond the existing situation, one speaks of a simple volitional act. A complex volitional action presupposes wedging between the stimulating impulse and the direct action of additional links. The essential moments or phases of the volitional process are: the emergence of motivation and goal setting; stage of discussion and struggle of motives; decision-making; execution.

The main content of the first stage in the development of volitional action is the emergence of motivation and awareness of the goal. Not every impulse is conscious. Depending on how much this or that need is realized, they are divided into attraction and desire. If an individual is aware only of the dissatisfaction of the current situation, and at the same time the need itself is not realized clearly enough, and, consequently, the ways and means to achieve the goal are not realized, then the motive of reality is attraction. Attraction is vague, unclear: a person realizes that he is missing something or that he needs something, but what exactly, he does not understand.

However, wishing does not mean acting. Desire is rather the knowledge of what prompts action. Before a desire turns into a direct motive of behavior, and then into a goal, it is evaluated by a person who weighs all the conditions that help and hinder its implementation. Having a motivating force, desire sharpens the awareness of the goal of the future action and the construction of its plan, while also realizing the possible ways and means to achieve the goal.

As a result of a change in the meaning of various needs, a struggle of motives may arise in a person. The struggle of motives includes a broad mental discussion by a person of those grounds that speak of all the pros and cons of actions in one direction or another, a discussion of how exactly one should act. The struggle of motives is often accompanied by significant internal tension and is an experience of a deep internal conflict between the arguments of reason and feelings, personal motives and public interests, between “I want” and “must”, etc.

Making a decision is the final moment of the struggle of motives; a person decides to act in a certain direction, preferring some goals and motives and rejecting others. When making a decision, a person feels that the further course of events depends on him, and this gives rise to a sense of responsibility specific to an act of will.

The decision-making process is quite complicated, and the internal tension that accompanies it is progressively increasing. But after the decision is made, the person experiences a certain relief, as the internal tension decreases.

However, making a decision does not mean carrying it out. Sometimes the intention may not be realized and the work begun is not brought to the end. The essence of volitional action lies not in the struggle of motives and not in making a decision, but in its execution. Only one who knows how to carry out his decisions can be considered a person with a sufficiently strong will.

The executive stage of volitional action has a complex internal structure. Actually execution of the decision is usually connected with this or that time - term. If the execution of the decision is delayed for a long time, then they say about the intention. However, intention alone is not enough to carry out a volitional action. As in any other action, here we can single out the stage of planning ways to achieve the task. Planning is a complex mental activity, the search for the most rational ways and means of implementing the decision.

A planned action is not realized automatically: in order for the decision to turn into action, a conscious volitional effort is necessary. Volitional effort is experienced as a conscious tension that finds relaxation in volitional action. Currently, volitional effort is understood as a form of emotional stress that mobilizes a person’s internal resources and creates additional motives for action to achieve a goal. Volitional effort permeates all links of the volitional act, starting from the realization of the goal and ending with the execution of the decision.

One of the integral characteristics of the will is its strength. Willpower is manifested at all stages of a volitional act, but most clearly in what obstacles are overcome with the help of volitional efforts. Willpower is also manifested in what temptations and temptations a person refuses, how he knows how to restrain his feelings, to prevent impulsive actions.

At the stage of inciting volitional action, it is impossible not to note such a quality of will as endurance. Exposure allows you to slow down actions, feelings, thoughts, inadequate situations. In fact, endurance is a manifestation of the inhibitory function of the will.

1.2. The senses

Everything that a person encounters in his life causes him this or that attitude, these or those feelings. Feelings are very different. Certain personal relationships of a person are manifested even to individual qualities and properties of surrounding objects - a person may or may not like the color of an object, the timbre of his voice, the taste of food, etc. A more complex attitude to oneself is caused by life facts and situations. The sphere of feelings includes annoyance and patriotism, joy and fear, delight and grief.

Feelings are the attitudes of a person to objects and phenomena of reality experienced in various forms.

Considering the specific features of a person's feelings, it should first of all be noted that feelings are personal in nature: they reflect the significance of objects and phenomena for a given person in a particular situation. So, food offered to a full and hungry person will cause them different feelings.

Feelings not only reflect a person's attitude to objects, but also carry some information about them. In this sense, the reflection of the object is the cognitive component of emotions, and the reflection of the state of the person at that moment is its subjective component. Feelings are closely related to the needs of the individual. According to their relationship and specific functions in satisfying the needs of the subject, feelings can be divided into two fundamental groups. The first consists of experiences that color the very objects of needs and thereby turn them into motives. For the emergence of these experiences, it is enough to exacerbate a certain need and the presence of an object that meets it.

The second group of emotional phenomena includes those that arise in the presence of a leading impulse, i.e. activity (internal and external), and express a certain attitude of the subject to certain conditions that favor or hinder its implementation (fear, anger), to specific achievements in it (joy, chagrin), to existing or possible situations, etc.

Thus, feelings are dually conditioned: on the one hand, by the needs of a person, which determine his attitude to the object of emotions, and on the other hand, by his ability to reflect and understand certain properties of this object. The relationship between the objective and the subjective explains why, along with a rational assessment of the object, a person takes his personal position in relation to it, including emotional experience.

The distinguishing characteristic of feelings is their polarity. This is reflected both in the simplest experiences: pleasure or displeasure, and in more complex feelings: love - hate, joy - grief, fun - sadness, etc.

The decisive feature of feelings is their integrality, i.e. exclusivity in relation to other states and other reactions. Feelings cover the whole organism, they give a certain type of experience to the human condition.

Another important feature of the senses is their connection with the vital activity of the organism. Under the influence of feelings, the activity of the internal organs of a person changes: the organs of blood circulation, respiration, digestion, glands of internal and external secretion. Excessive intensity and duration of experiences can cause disturbances in the body. So, M.I. Astvatsaturov believed that the heart is more often affected by fear, the liver by anger, and the stomach by apathy and depression.

The leading role in the flow of feelings is played by the cerebral cortex. IP Pavlov showed that it is the cortex that regulates the flow and expression of emotions, keeps under its control all the phenomena occurring in the body, has an inhibitory effect on the subcortical centers, controls them.

Animals with remote large hemispheres show a pattern of unusually strong and constant emotional excitement at the slightest provocation.

According to the form of flow, all emotional states are divided into sensual tone, mood, emotions, affect, stress, frustration, passion and higher feelings. The simplest form of emotional experience is the so-called sensual or emotional tone. Under the sensual tone understand the emotional coloring, a kind of qualitative shade of the mental process, prompting the subject to preserve or eliminate them. It is well known that certain colors, sounds, smells can by themselves, regardless of their meaning, memories and thoughts associated with them, cause us a pleasant or unpleasant feeling.

Mood is understood as a general emotional state that colors the entire behavior of an individual for a long time. The mood significantly depends on the general state of health, on the work of the endocrine glands, especially on the tone of the nervous system.

Emotions are the immediate, temporary experience of some feeling. An example of emotions is the pleasure, admiration that a fan experiences, experiences, watching a good game of high-class athletes.

Traditionally, the following types of emotions are distinguished: joy, surprise, suffering, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame.

The most powerful emotional reaction is affect. Affect in translation from Latin means "spiritual excitement", "passion". This is a strong and relatively short-term emotional state associated with a sharp change in important life circumstances for the subject and accompanied by pronounced motor manifestations and a change in the functions of internal organs. Any feeling can be experienced in an affective form. Sometimes the affect is manifested in the intense stiffness of movements, posture, speech. The affect arises sharply, suddenly in the form of a flash, a rush. Affects have a negative impact on human activity, sharply reducing the level of its organization. In an affect, a person, as it were, loses his head, his actions are unreasonable, performed without regard to the situation.

Another vast area of ​​human states is united by the concept of stress. Under stress (from English - "pressure", "tension") understand the emotional state that occurs in response to a variety of extreme impacts.

Close in its manifestation to stress is the state of frustration. Frustration (from the Latin “frustratio” - “deceit”, “disorder”, “destruction of plans”) is a human condition caused by insurmountable difficulties that arise on the way to achieving the goal. Frustration is accompanied by a whole range of negative emotions that can disorganize consciousness and activity. In a state of frustration, a person can show anger, depression, external and internal aggression.

Passion is a special form of emotional experience. In terms of intensity of emotional excitement, passion approaches affect, and in terms of duration and stability, it resembles mood. What is the specificity of passion? Passion is a strong, persistent, all-encompassing feeling that determines the direction of a person’s thoughts and actions. The reasons for the formation of passion are quite diverse - they can be determined by conscious beliefs (for example, the passion of a scientist in science), they can

come from bodily desires or have a pathological origin.

A special form of experience is represented by higher feelings, which contain all the richness of truly human relationships. Depending on the subject area to which they relate, feelings are divided into moral, aesthetic, intellectual.

Moral (moral) are the feelings experienced by people when they perceive the phenomena of reality and compare these phenomena with the norms developed by society.

Moral feelings include a sense of duty, humanity, benevolence, love, friendship, patriotism, sympathy, etc.

Intellectual feelings are called experiences that arise in the process of human cognitive activity. The most typical situation that generates intellectual feelings is a problem situation.

Aesthetic feelings are the emotional attitude of a person to beauty in nature, in people's lives, in art.

It should be noted that the considered division of feelings is rather conditional. Usually, the feelings experienced by a person are so complex and multifaceted that it is difficult to attribute them to any one category.

1.3. Temperament

The problem that will be discussed has been dealt with by mankind for more than 25 centuries. Interest in it is associated with the evidence of individual differences between people. The psyche of each person is unique, its originality is associated both with the characteristics of the biological and physiological structure and development of the organism, and with the unique composition of social ties and contacts. The biologically determined substructures of personality include, first of all, temperament. When they talk about temperament, they mean many mental differences between people - differences in depth, intensity, stability of emotions, emotional impressionability, pace, energy of actions and other dynamic, individually stable features of mental life, behavior and activity. Nevertheless, temperament remains a largely controversial and unresolved issue today. However, with all the diversity of approaches to the problem, scientists and practitioners recognize that temperament is the biological foundation on which a person is formed as a social being.

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (5th century BC) is considered to be the creator of the doctrine of temperaments. He argued that people differ in the ratio of the four main "juices of the body" - blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, which are part of it. Based on this teaching, the most famous doctor of antiquity after Hippocrates, Claudius Galen (II century BC), developed the first typology of temperaments. According to his teaching, the type of temperament depends on the predominance of one of the juices in the body. They identified temperaments that are still widely known today: sanguine (from the Latin sanguis - blood), phlegmatic (from the Greek phlegma - phlegm), choleric (from the Greek chole - bile) and melancholic (from the Greek melas chole - black bile). ). This fantastic concept has had a huge impact on scientists for many centuries.

So, temperament is an individually peculiar, naturally conditioned set of dynamic manifestations of the psyche, which are equally manifested in a variety of activities, regardless of its content, goals, motives, remain constant in adulthood and in their mutual connection characterize the type of temperament.

At present, science has enough facts to give a complete psychological description of all types of temperament according to a certain harmonious program. However, to compile the psychological characteristics of the traditional four types, the following basic properties of temperament are usually distinguished.

Sensitivity is determined by what is the smallest force of external influences for the occurrence of any mental reaction of a person and what is the rate of occurrence of this reaction.

Reactivity is characterized by the degree of involuntary reactions to external and internal influences of the same strength (a critical remark, an offensive word, a sharp tone, even a sound).

Activity indicates how intensely (energetically) a person influences the outside world and overcomes obstacles in achieving goals (perseverance, focus, concentration).

The ratio of reactivity and activity determines what human activity depends on to a greater extent: on random external or internal circumstances (moods, random events) or on goals, intentions, beliefs.

Plasticity and rigidity indicate how easily and flexibly a person adapts to external influences (plasticity) or how inert and inert his behavior is.

The rate of reactions characterizes the speed of various mental reactions and processes, the rate of speech, the dynamics of gestures, the speed of the mind.

Extraversion, introversion determines what the reactions and activities of a person mainly depend on - from external impressions that arise at the moment (extrovert), or from images, ideas and thoughts related to the past and future (introvert).

Emotional excitability is characterized by how weak the impact is necessary for the occurrence of an emotional reaction and at what speed it occurs.

Given the listed properties, the following psychological characteristics are given to the main types of temperament:

A sanguine person is a person with noticeable mental activity, quickly responding to surrounding events, striving for a frequent change of impressions, experiencing failures and troubles relatively easily, lively, mobile, with expressive facial expressions and movements, an extrovert.

A phlegmatic person is an imperturbable person, with stable aspirations and mood, with constancy and depth of feelings, with uniformity of actions and speech, with a weak external expression of mental states. As a rule, he finds it difficult to meet new people, weakly responds to external impressions, an introvert.

Choleric is a very energetic person, able to devote himself to business with particular passion, fast and impulsive, prone to violent emotional outbursts and sudden mood swings, with rapid movements. Difficulties in switching attention are possible, he is rather an extrovert.

A melancholic is an impressionable person, with deep feelings, easily injured, but outwardly weakly responsive to the environment, with restrained movements and muffled speech. Most melancholics are introverts.

1.4. Character

Translated from Greek, “character” means “chasing”, “sign”. Indeed, character is the special signs that a person acquires while living in society. Just as the individuality of a person manifests itself in the features of the course of mental processes (good memory, rich imagination, quick wits, etc.) and in temperament traits, it also reveals itself in character traits.

Character is a set of stable individual characteristics of a person, which develops and manifests itself in activity and communication, causing behavior typical for an individual.

A person's personality is characterized not only by what he does, but also by how he does it. Acting on the basis of common interests and beliefs shared by all, striving for common goals in life, people can discover in their social behavior, in their actions and deeds, not the same, sometimes opposite, individual characteristics.

The individual features that form the character of a person relate primarily to the will (for example, decisiveness or uncertainty, fearfulness) and feelings (for example, cheerfulness or depression), but to a certain extent also to the mind (for example, frivolity or thoughtfulness). However, manifestations of character are complex formations and in some cases practically cannot be classified into categories of volitional, emotional and intellectual processes (for example, suspicion, generosity, generosity, vindictiveness, etc.).

The most important moment in the formation of character is how a person relates to the environment and to himself - as to another. These relationships are the basis for the classification of the most important character traits.

The character of a person is manifested, firstly, in the way he treats other people: relatives and friends, work and study comrades, acquaintances, etc. Steady and unstable affection, adherence to principles and unscrupulousness, truthfulness and deceit, tact and rudeness reveal a person's attitude towards other people.

Secondly, the attitude of a person towards himself is indicative of the character: self-esteem and self-esteem, or humiliation, or self-doubt. For some people, selfishness and egocentrism (putting oneself in the center of events) come to the fore, for others - selflessness in the struggle for a common cause.

Thirdly, character is revealed in a person's attitude to work. So, among the most valuable character traits are conscientiousness and diligence, seriousness, enthusiasm, responsibility for the task entrusted and concern for its results.

Fourthly, character is manifested in a person’s attitude to things: not only attitude to property in general, but also careful or careless handling of one’s things, clothes, shoes, books and teaching aids, etc.

The activity of a person, his behavior is primarily determined by the goals that he sets for himself, and the main determinant of his behavior and activity always remains the direction of his personality - the totality of his interests, ideals and beliefs. However, two people who have a lot in common in the direction of their personality and whose goals coincide can differ significantly in the methods they use to achieve these goals. Behind these differences are personality traits. In the character of a person, as it were, there is a program of his typical behavior in typical circumstances. Character traits, therefore, have a certain motivating, motivating power, which is most pronounced in stressful situations, when it is necessary to make a choice of actions, to overcome significant difficulties.

Character, like temperament, reveals a dependence on the physiological characteristics of a person, and above all on the type of nervous system. The properties of temperament leave their mark on the manifestations of character, determining the dynamic features of their occurrence and course. Ultimately, the traits of temperament and character form an almost indivisible alloy that determines the general appearance of a person, a characteristic of his personality.

Features of temperament can counteract or contribute to the development of certain aspects of character. It is more difficult for a phlegmatic person than for a choleric or sanguine person to form initiative and determination in himself. For a melancholic, a serious problem is overcoming shyness and anxiety. Character formation, carried out in a group of a high level of development, creates favorable conditions for the development of greater restraint and self-criticism in choleric people, perseverance in sanguine people, and activity in phlegmatic people.

The emergence of character properties, its nature, the possibility or impossibility of change are the subject of long-standing discussions of psychologists and often the reason for categorical judgments inherent in everyday consciousness.

An individual achieves social maturity by possessing a system of established character traits.

How can one explain that life "mints" a person's personality even in similar conditions according to different patterns? First of all, it must be recognized that the “source material” is indeed not the same for different people.

A person is born with different features of the functioning of the brain, the endocrine system. These features determine the conditions in which the personality psyche will develop. These differences in physiological conditions are only the first cause of differences in the characters of people.

It must also be borne in mind that “similar living conditions” (even in the same family) is a very, very relative concept. The mere fact that an older brother is accustomed to considering himself older and in some way superior to his younger brother creates far different circumstances that promote and hinder the formation of such character traits as arrogance or caring, responsibility or indifference, selflessness or envy.

However, there are many other conditions that are not identical. Character is largely the result of self-education. A person's habits accumulate in character. Character is manifested in the activities of people, but it is also formed in it. Character is not given to man by nature. There is no character that cannot be corrected. References to the fact that “I have such a character, and I can’t do anything with myself” are psychologically completely untenable. Each person is responsible for the manifestations of his character and is able to engage in self-education.

So, character is a lifetime acquisition of a person who is included in the system of social relations, in joint activities and communication with other people, and thereby gaining his own individuality.

Leaving an imprint on a person's appearance, the character receives its most vivid expression in his actions, behavior, and activities. The character should be judged primarily on the basis of the actions of people, in which their essence is most fully reflected.

An Eastern proverb is known: "Sow an act - you reap a habit, sow a habit - you reap a character, sow a character - you reap a destiny." The system of habitual actions and deeds is the foundation of a person's character. From the analysis of actions to their synthesis in character, in the psychological makeup of the personality, and from the understood character to already foreseen and expected actions - such is the path of penetration into the essence of individual character.

Man is essentially active. Movements and actions, the implementation of which becomes a need for a person under certain conditions, as you know, are called habits. The most successful portrait does not give as much information about the character of a person as his usual actions and movements.

And yet, objective and irrefutable data about a person's character are not given by these arbitrary actions and movements of a person and not by the features of his external appearance, but by his conscious and deliberate actions and deeds. It is by actions that we judge what a person is.

Thus, character has a social nature, i.e. depends on the worldview of a person, the content and nature of his activities, on the social group in which he lives and acts, on active interaction with other people.

1.5. Capabilities

Two students answer in the lesson in approximately the same way. However, the teacher has a different attitude to their answers: one praises, the other is dissatisfied. “They have different abilities,” he explains. “The second student could answer incomparably better.” Two go to college. One passes the exams, the other fails. Does this indicate that one of them has more ability? This question cannot be answered until it is clarified how much time each of the applicants spent on preparation. One factor of success - the acquisition of knowledge - abilities are not determined.

Abilities are such psychological characteristics of a person on which the success of acquiring knowledge, skills, skills depends, but which themselves cannot be reduced to the presence of this knowledge, skills, skills.

Abilities and knowledge, abilities and skills, abilities and skills are not identical to each other. In relation to skills, abilities and knowledge, human abilities act as some kind of opportunity.

Abilities are an opportunity, and the required level of skill in a particular business is a reality. The musical abilities revealed in a child are by no means a guarantee that the child will be a musician. Abilities are found only in activities that cannot be carried out without the presence of these abilities. It is impossible to talk about a person's ability to draw if they did not try to teach him to draw, if he did not acquire any skills necessary for fine art.

Speaking about abilities, it is necessary to characterize their qualitative and quantitative features. It is equally important for the teacher to know what the student’s abilities are, and therefore, what individual characteristics of his personality are involved in the process of activity as a prerequisite for his success (qualitative characteristic of abilities), and to what extent the student is able to fulfill the requirements imposed by the activity, how much faster, easier and more thoroughly he masters skills, abilities and knowledge compared to others (quantitative characteristics of abilities).

Abilities are a set of mental qualities that have a complex structure. General abilities or general qualities of a person are quite specific psychological manifestations, which psychologists have already begun to study. Among such general qualities of a person, which in the conditions of a particular activity can act as abilities, are individual psychological qualities that characterize belonging to one of the three types of people.

The artistic type is characterized by the brightness of images that arise as a result of direct impact, live impressions, and emotions. For the mental type - the predominance of abstractions, logical constructions, theorizing. The fact that a person belongs to an artistic type can in no way indicate that he is fatally destined for the activity of an artist. Something else is obvious - it is easier for a representative of this type than for another to master activities that require impressionability, an emotional attitude to events, imagery and liveliness of fantasy.

So, the structure of each specific ability as a person's readiness for this activity is notable for its considerable complexity, it includes a complex of qualities, among which there are leading and auxiliary, general and special.

The highest level of development of abilities is called talent. Talent is a combination of abilities that gives a person the opportunity to successfully, independently and originally perform any complex labor activity. Like abilities, talent is only an opportunity to acquire high skill and significant success in creativity. Ultimately, creative achievements depend on the socio-historical conditions of people's existence.

Talent is a combination of abilities, their totality. A single isolated ability cannot be an analogue of talent, even if it has reached a very high level of development and is pronounced.

The structure of talent is ultimately determined by the nature of the requirements that a given activity places on the individual. Therefore, the abilities that make up talent will be far from identical, if we compare, for example, a talented composer and a talented aircraft designer.

As a result of studying a number of gifted children, it was possible to identify some essential abilities that together form the structure of mental giftedness. The first personality trait that can be singled out in this way is attentiveness, composure, constant readiness for hard work. The second feature of the personality of a highly gifted child, inextricably linked with the first, is that readiness for work develops in him into a propensity for work, into industriousness, into an irrepressible need to work. The third group of features is directly related to intellectual activity: these are the features of thinking, the speed of thought processes, the systematic nature of the mind, increased possibilities for analysis and generalization, and high productivity of mental activity.

These abilities, which on the whole form the structure of mental giftedness, according to numerous psychological observations of gifted children, are manifested in the vast majority of such children and differ only in the degree of expression of each of these abilities, taken separately.

Like all individual mental characteristics of a personality, abilities are not acquired by a person in a finished form, as something given to him by nature, innate, but are formed in life and activity. A person is born without mental properties, but only with the possibility of acquiring them. In this sense, one should understand the position accepted in psychology that abilities are not innate.

The denial of innate abilities is not absolute. While not recognizing the innate abilities, psychology does not deny the innateness of the differential features contained in the structure of the brain, which may be the conditions for the successful performance of any activity. These morphological and functional features of the structure of the brain, sensory organs and movement, which act as natural prerequisites for the development of abilities, are called inclinations.

Consider the relationship between abilities and inclinations on a specific example. So, among the innate inclinations is an unusually subtle sense of smell - a particularly high sensitivity of the olfactory analyzer. Is it some kind of ability? No, because any ability is the ability to something, to any human activity. Otherwise, the very word “ability” becomes meaningless. Therefore, such a feature of the neuropsychic organization of a person remains a faceless deposit. The structure of the brain does not provide for what specialties and professions associated with sophisticated olfactory sensations will historically develop in human society.

An essential factor in the development of a person's abilities is stable special interests. Special interests are interests in the content of a certain area of ​​human activity, which develop into a propensity to professionally engage in this type of activity. It is noted that the emergence of interest in a particular labor or educational activity is closely related to the awakening of the ability to it and serves as the starting point for their development. "Our desires, - according to Goethe, - are premonitions of abilities hidden in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish."

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Capabilities- these are individual psychological characteristics of a person that ensure success in activities, in communication and ease of mastering them.

They cannot be reduced to the knowledge, skills and abilities that a person has, however, they ensure their rapid acquisition, fixation and effective practical application.

Abilities can be classified as follows:

1. Natural (or natural). Basically, they are biologically conditioned, associated with innate inclinations, formed on their basis in the presence of elementary life experience through learning mechanisms - such as conditioned reflex connections.
2. specific human. They have a socio-historical origin and provide life and development in the social environment.

The latter, in turn, are divided into:

1. General: they determine the success of a person in a variety of activities and communication (mental abilities, developed memory and speech, accuracy and subtlety of hand movements, etc.). Special: they are associated with the success of the individual in certain types of activities and communication, where a special kind of inclinations is needed - mathematical, technical, literary, linguistic, artistic, sports and other abilities.
2. Theoretical: determine a person's propensity for abstract-logical thinking, and practical - underlie the propensity for concrete-practical actions. Their combination is peculiar only to versatile gifted people.
3. Educational: affect the success of pedagogical influence, the assimilation of knowledge, skills, skills, the formation of personality traits by a person. Creative: associated with success in creating works of material and spiritual culture, new ideas, discoveries, inventions. The highest degree of creative manifestations of a person is called genius, and the highest degree of a person's abilities in a certain activity (communication) is called talent.
4. Ability to communicate, interact with people and subject-activity abilities, associated with the interaction of people with nature, technology, symbolic information, artistic images, etc.

A person who is disposed to many and various types of activity and communication has a general giftedness, i.e., the unity of general abilities, which determines the range of his intellectual capabilities, the level and originality of activity and communication.

Thus, abilities are the individual psychological characteristics of a person, manifested in his activity and are a condition for the success of its implementation. The speed, depth, ease and strength of the process of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities depend on them, but the abilities themselves are not limited to knowledge and skills. Research has established that they develop in the process of individual life and actively shape their environment and upbringing.

A deep analysis of the problem of abilities was given by B. M. Teplov. According to the concept developed by him, anatomical, physiological and functional features of a person can be innate, creating certain prerequisites for the development of abilities, called inclinations.

• Makings- these are some genetically determined (innate) anatomical and physiological features of the nervous system, which constitute the individual natural basis (prerequisite) for the formation and development of abilities.
• Capabilities- not static, but dynamic formations; their formation and development occur in the process of organized activity and communication in a certain way. The development of abilities occurs in stages.

Inclinations are ambiguous, they are just prerequisites for the development of abilities that are not predetermined by them. By themselves, the makings are not aimed at anything. They influence, but not decisively, the formation of such, causing different ways of their formation. Abilities develop in the process of activity and education. Inclinations only affect the level of achievement, the speed of development.

Each ability has its own structure, which distinguishes between leading and auxiliary properties. For example, the leading properties of literary abilities are the features of creative imagination and thinking, vivid, visual images of memory, a sense of language, and the development of aesthetic feelings. Similar properties of mathematical abilities are the ability to generalize, the flexibility of thought processes. For pedagogical abilities, the leading ones are pedagogical tact, observation, love for children, the need to transfer knowledge.

There are such levels of abilities: reproductive, which provides a high ability to assimilate ready-made knowledge, master the existing patterns of activity and communication, and creative, contributing to the creation of a new, original one. But it should be borne in mind that the reproductive level includes elements of the creative, and vice versa.

The same person may have different abilities, but one of them turns out to be more significant than others. At the same time, different people have the same abilities, although they are not the same in terms of development. Since the beginning of the XX century. repeated attempts were made to measure them (foreign psychologists G. Eysenck, J. Cattell, C. Spearman, A. Binet, and others). For this, tests were used. However, a more accurate way of determining is to identify the dynamics of success in the process of activity. The success of any action is determined not by some individual abilities on their own, but only by a combination of those, unique to each person. Success can be achieved in various ways. Thus, the insufficient development of a particular ability is compensated by others, on which the successful performance of the same activity also depends.

Components of pedagogical abilities- constructive, organizational, communicative. The former are manifested in the desire and ability to develop the personality of the student, to select and compositionally build educational material in relation to the age and individual characteristics of children. Organizational factors affect the ability to include students in various activities and skillfully influence the personality of the child. Communication is associated with the ability to establish the right relationship with children, to feel the mood of the whole team, to understand each student.

Studies of various types of special abilities are carried out mainly when they are engaged in vocational guidance and vocational selection.

The whole variety of professions was proposed to be divided into five main types depending on the object to which they are directed (E. A. Klimov):

• P - nature (plants, animals);
• G- equipment (machines, materials);
• H- person, groups of people;
• Z- sign information (books, languages, codes, models);
• X- artistic images (art).

When solving the problems of vocational guidance, it is advisable to determine, first of all, the inclination of a young person to the listed types of professions.

The teacher not only transfers certain knowledge and skills to the student, but also forms, develops his abilities, helps him navigate the world of professions in order to choose the most suitable one according to the individual inclinations and abilities of this person.

The development of a person's general abilities involves the development of his cognitive processes, memory, perception, thinking, and imagination.

An important point is the complexity - the simultaneous improvement of several complementary abilities.

The individual characteristics of a person determine the unique style of activity (E. A. Klimov). It is characterized by:

1. a stable system of techniques and methods of activity;
2. conditionality of this system by certain individual qualities;
3. by the fact that this system is a means of effective adaptation to objective requirements;
4. the fact that the features of the style of activity are due to the typological properties of the human nervous system.