It's no secret that psychology received the status of a science back in 1879, and since that moment it has grown stronger and developed as a scientific discipline. But at the same time, an everyday understanding of psychology lives very close to the scientific direction.

In this article, we will highlight the main differences between worldly and scientific psychology, and also consider what are the pros and cons of each of these areas. Indeed, many people do not even understand how these fundamentally different approaches to understanding a person and his psyche differ.

Knowledge about life

So, it is important to understand that everyday psychology is far from science, it is a kind of synthesis of people's knowledge about life, about themselves, the quintessence of experience, observations and experiences.. Of course, conclusions drawn from subjective experience can hardly be objective and acceptable to others.

Everyday psychology, its main features and characteristics:

1. Concreteness and earthiness. Everyday psychology tends to talk about specific people and the situations they find themselves in; it relies on the subjective experiences of specific people. Usually, you are given as an example stories that happened to some person who got into a certain situation and made certain conclusions for himself (of course, this conclusion will be relevant and useful for him, but it is not a fact that this knowledge can be widely applicable and used other people).

2. Intuitive nature of knowledge. The peculiarities of worldly psychology are that it relies on intuition, on subjective feelings, and usually no one seeks to check their feelings or try to think them over. This is most often the main limitation of intuitive knowledge - it is almost impossible to explain it to another person, "I just realized something."

3. Insufficient depth of knowledge. People draw conclusions superficially, without examining certain motives, emotions, or behaviors of other people. As a rule, the conclusion is made quickly, without checking its reliability (this is where fears, beliefs, proverbs, superstitions come from, when people try to follow certain rules just because someone said so; following fashion or relying on popular books or articles which do not carry any scientific knowledge).

4. The main method is observation. Most of us draw conclusions about something based only on periodic, short-term observation, which is not at all consistent with its scientific counterpart. As a result, this leads to a superficial perception of reality, since everything is checked only on personal experience, and, as you know, such a method is extremely subjective and limited.

5. Everyday psychology does not have a common terminology. The life experience of many people is associated with different times, epochs, states, therefore everyone is inclined to describe this or that state “in his own words”, in which he puts his own, only completely understandable meaning to him. Often this leads to misunderstanding and substitution of concepts.

Such knowledge can be presented in a very confident and open way, you can be convinced that a given method or point of view is correct because it is written in a magazine or because everyone does it. You can also be assured that this postulate has been verified by your own experience. For example, a person met the new year in a bad mood and the whole next year did not work out for him, after which he carries this knowledge to his acquaintances as a dogma.

It is important to understand that not every person has an inner instinct, insight, the ability to notice details and generate worldly psychological knowledge. Therefore, it is always worth remembering that not all other people's knowledge can be useful to you, but sometimes you can listen and communicate with different people in order to have an idea about a certain phenomenon or learn about someone else's experience, knowledge of which may be useful.

The view of science

To begin with, it is important to understand the definition of psychology as such. So, psychology is a complex science, it explores one of the most mysterious and complex mechanisms in nature - the human psyche. In this regard, this scientific discipline requires attention, depth of research, as well as special methods of work.

Throughout the 20th century, this science gained momentum, developed, found more and more new methods of human research. The professional view of many theorists has helped this science to become one of the most influential of our time. The theoretical aspect within its framework is extremely important, because the theory gives general ideas about the world and man, which exist in almost every science.

In the process of lengthy experiments, collection and analysis of theoretical and practical data, a scientific or academic psychology was formed, the main features of which are as follows:

1. Generalizations. This sign suggests that conclusions are drawn not on the basis of what one particular person experienced, but on the basis of many experiments and observations. And when a certain fact, a certain behavioral reaction manifests itself in similar circumstances in a larger number of samples, one can draw a certain conclusion based on detailed analysis and generalization.

2. Rationalization. Scientific psychology acquires knowledge through experiment and detailed consideration of its results. Data must be rationally explained, a causal relationship between phenomena must be traced.

3. No restrictions - this means that the data obtained during scientific experiments are applicable to a large number of people. For example, data on schoolchildren's fatigue, how attention functions, and what is the maximum number of objects we can hold in short-term memory - all this is the same for most of the general population.

4. Reliance on various methods. As you know, scientific psychology has a fairly large set of different methods - from content analysis to psychological experiment. When using various methods of studying the psyche and its mechanisms, the data are checked in order to identify the variables that affect the experiment and create the necessary conditions for the study.

• Observation is a long-term monitoring of the manifestation of certain signs in those observed in natural, and sometimes specially created conditions.
• A survey is the collection of information from a large number of people using questions, the answers to which are processed and grouped.
• Tests are a method of quantitative and qualitative assessment of a person's mental processes, his behavioral and emotional reactions. With the help of tests, you can evaluate both the mental and intellectual abilities of a person, and the level of his anxiety or creative abilities.
• Experiment - this method is aimed at the study of specific mental phenomena in certain, specially created and controlled conditions. Almost any experiment serves to confirm or refute a certain theory or hypothesis.

5. Systematization of knowledge is a theoretical approach. Everything that science receives in the course of research and experiments is systematized, analyzed, on the basis of which certain conclusions are drawn. And it must be said that it takes a lot of time, sometimes several years, to systematize any knowledge or come to a certain conclusion.

6. The main features of the scientific approach are the presence of a single glossary and the use of a single terminology. Psychology as a science has a clear system of terms that describe certain states and processes. And this, in turn, excludes discrepancies when one concept is replaced by another.

7. Using the methods of mathematical statistics for data processing. They allow you to avoid unreliability, subjectivity and conclusions "by eye".

The ratio of everyday and scientific psychology is obvious - one explores practice and accumulates experience, the other checks everything through an experiment. But you should never forget that everyday psychological knowledge is not scientific, which means that it may not always be applicable to this or that person and be effective.

If we recall all the stages of the formation of psychology as a science, we can say that this knowledge largely began with the use of the method of introspection, when the scientist observed himself and his subjective experiences. Based on this, many conclusions and conclusions were made.

Practice and more

As a result of research in everyday and scientific psychology, a need arose for a new direction, which is referred to as practical psychology. The main difficulty of scientific knowledge lies in the fact that it may not be in demand for a long time, because theorists often study what may be uninteresting and unimportant in everyday life.

Practical psychology, on the other hand, starts from the “social order”, it relies on what is now of interest to people, workers. Here are her areas of interest:

• It explores how groups of people affect a single person. And vice versa, how some individuals can influence the existing group of people.
• Explores communication between people and groups of people.
• It studies the individual manifestations of a person, his uniqueness and originality. What specifically this person will be different from the rest.
• A study of how specific people with specific problems can be helped, based on scientific psychology research.
• Practical psychology gives an understanding that, despite generalizations, each person is unique, each carries something unique in himself. Therefore, the experience used by one practitioner may not always “work” for another.
• In this direction, the personality of the researcher, psychologist, his experience, methods and forms of interaction with clients are important. Each practitioner will have their own approach, relationship and communication with the client.

Practical psychology can be considered a fairly new direction that combines various systems of knowledge. Here is a specific characteristic of a person, inherent in everyday psychology, and research through an experiment, as in scientific psychology, but at the same time this direction creates something of its own.

In itself, comparing worldly and scientific psychology is a meaningless process, but it is important to understand that not a single worldly psychologist can help you understand your problem. And a practicing specialist who is in the scientific mainstream will also not be able to help someone if he is out of touch with life. It is important that there be synergy, a synthesis of scientific knowledge and worldly psychology with its wisdom.

It is important to understand that each of these areas has its own difference and each of them brings something of its own, specific and important to the world. The main thing is not to concentrate only on one knowledge, but to give yourself the opportunity to explore different directions, then the picture of the world will be the most complete. Everyday and scientific psychology, as well as practical psychology, is the basis on which today's understanding of psychology is largely built. Author: Daria Potykan

In everyday life, we often use the words "psychology", "psychologist", "psychological", not always thinking about their meaning. "This person is a good psychologist," we say about someone who knows how to establish and maintain contacts with people. “He has such a psychology,” we explain the interests, inclinations and actions of a person or characterize the features of his personality. Sometimes you can hear a phrase like "Well, he's crazy!", Meaning the emotional characteristics of another person as inferior or sick.

Psychological knowledge accumulated and used by a person in everyday life is called worldly psychology. They are usually specific and are formed in a person in the course of his life as a result of observations, self-observations and reflections.

The reliability of worldly psychology is being tested on personal experience. A person applies this knowledge in interaction with other people. The need to coordinate one's actions with the actions of another, to understand not only the words, but also the context of the utterance, to "read" in the behavior and appearance of another person's intentions and moods, prompts one to single out and fix the multifaceted manifestations of one's inner life.

A person tries to explain this or that act of another by the peculiarities of his inner world. To do this, different actions of another person are compared and conclusions are drawn about the typical properties of his soul. Thus, everyday psychology moves from observation and an attempt to explain a specific act to a generalized understanding of a person. The desire to better understand the inner world of people encourages to compare their actions with each other and come to general conclusions. In essence, everyday psychology is a generalization of everyday psychological knowledge.

Of course, people differ in terms of psychological vigilance and worldly wisdom. Some are very perceptive, capable of easily capturing the mood, intentions or character traits of a person through the expression of the eyes, face, gestures, posture, movements, habits. Others do not have such abilities, are less sensitive to understanding the behavior, the internal state of another person. Moreover, life experience is far from being such an important factor here. It has been noticed that there is no strong relationship between psychological insight and a person's age: there are children who are well versed in the psychological qualities of other people, and there are adults who do not understand people's internal states well.

The source of everyday psychology is not only a person's own experience, but also the people with whom he directly comes into contact. The content of worldly psychology embodied in folk rituals, traditions, beliefs, proverbs and sayings, aphorisms of folk wisdom, fairy tales and songs. This knowledge is passed from mouth to mouth, recorded, reflecting centuries of everyday experience. Many proverbs and sayings have a direct or indirect psychological content: “There are devils in the still waters”, “Softly spreads, but hard to sleep”, “A frightened crow and a bush is afraid”, “Praise, honor and glory and a fool loves”, “Seven times measure - cut once", "Repetition is the mother of learning".

Rich psychological experience is accumulated in fairy tales. In many of them, the same heroes act: Ivan the Fool, Vasilisa the Beautiful, Baba Yaga, Kashchei the Immortal - in fairy tales; Bear, Wolf, Fox, Hare - in fairy tales about animals. Fairy-tale characters often characterize certain psychological types and characters of people encountered in life.

Many worldly observations collected by writers and reflected in works of art or in the genre of moral aphorisms. Widely known are the collections of aphorisms that M. Montaigne, F. La Rochefoucauld, J. La Bruyère compiled in their time.

Historical digression

Michel de Montaigne(1533-1592) - French writer, politician, philosopher. Among the most famous works is the book of essays "Experiments" (1580-1588). He lived in difficult times - St. Bartholomew's night, plague, religious wars. However, his philosophy is alive, real, clear and life-affirming.

François de La Rochefoucauld(1613-1680) - French writer and moralist. In an aphoristic form, he outlined philosophical observations on the nature of the human character. La Rochefoucauld wanted to help a person "know himself" and considered it the greatest feat of friendship to open a friend's eyes to his own shortcomings.

Jean de La Bruyère(1645-1696) French moralist. In 1688, the first edition of the book "Characters, or Morals of the Present Age" was published. During the life of the author, it was officially reprinted nine times (1889 - the first Russian translation).

Task for reflection

Explain in your own words what kind of psychological wisdom the following aphorisms of Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère express. Give examples of everyday observations or situations in which these aphorisms are confirmed.

• Cm.: Slobodchikov V.I., Isaev E.I. Fundamentals of Psychological Anthropology // Human Psychology: An Introduction to the Psychology of Subjectivity: textbook, manual for universities. M. : PI Cola-Press, 1995. S. 39.

Any science has as its basis some worldly, empirical experience of people. For example, physics is based on the knowledge we acquire in everyday life about the movement and fall of bodies, about friction and energy, about light, sound, heat, and much more.

Mathematics also proceeds from ideas about numbers, shapes, quantitative ratios, which begin to form already in preschool age.

But it is different with psychology. Each of us has a store of worldly psychological knowledge. There are even outstanding worldly psychologists. These, of course, are great writers, as well as some (though not all) representatives of professions that involve constant communication with people: teachers, doctors, clergy, etc. But, I repeat, the average person also has certain psychological knowledge. This can be judged by the fact that each person to some extent can understand another influence on his behavior predict his actions, take into account his individual characteristics, help him, etc.

Let's think about the question: what is the difference between everyday psychological knowledge and scientific knowledge? Let's name five such differences.

First: worldly psychological knowledge, specific; they are timed to specific situations, specific people, specific tasks. They say waiters and taxi drivers are also good psychologists. But in what sense, for what tasks? As we know, often - quite pragmatic. Also, the child solves specific pragmatic tasks by behaving in one way with his mother, in another way with his father, and again in a completely different way with his grandmother. In each case, he knows exactly how to behave in order to achieve the desired goal. But we can hardly expect from him the same insight in relation to other people's grandmothers or mothers. So, everyday psychological knowledge is characterized by concreteness, limitedness of tasks, situations and persons to which they apply.

Scientific psychology, like any other science, strives to generalizations. To do this, she uses scientific concepts. The development of concepts is one of the most important functions of science. Scientific concepts reflect the most essential properties of objects and phenomena, general connections and correlations. Scientific concepts are clearly defined, correlated with each other, linked into laws. For example, in physics, thanks to the introduction of the concept of force, I. Newton managed to describe thousands of different specific cases of motion and mechanical interaction of bodies using the three laws of mechanics. The same thing happens in psychology. You can describe a person for a very long time, listing in everyday terms his qualities, character traits, actions, relationships with other people. Scientific psychology, on the other hand, seeks and finds such generalizing concepts that not only economize descriptions, but also allow one to see the general tendencies and patterns of personality development and its individual characteristics behind a conglomerate of particulars. It is necessary to note one feature of scientific psychological concepts: they often coincide with everyday ones in their external form, that is, simply speaking, they are expressed in the same words. However, the inner content, the meanings of these words, as a rule, are different. Everyday terms are usually more vague and ambiguous.

Second the difference between worldly psychological knowledge is that they are intuitive character. This is due to the special way they are obtained: they are acquired through practical trials and adjustments.

This is especially true in children. I have already mentioned their good psychological intuition. And how is it achieved? Through daily and even hourly trials to which they subject adults and which the latter are not always aware of. And in the course of these tests, the children discover from whom they can “twist ropes” and from whom they cannot. Often, teachers and coaches find effective ways of educating, teaching, training, going the same way: experimenting and vigilantly noticing the slightest positive results, that is, in a certain sense, “walking by touch”. Often they turn to psychologists with a request to explain the psychological meaning of the techniques they have found.

In contrast, scientific psychological knowledge rational and quite conscious. The usual way is to put forward verbally formulated hypotheses and test the consequences logically arising from them.

Third the difference is ways transfer of knowledge and even in the transfer possibilities. In the field of practical psychology, this possibility is very limited. This follows directly from the two previous features of worldly psychological experience - its concrete and intuitive character. The deep psychologist F. M. Dostoevsky expressed his intuition in the works he wrote, we read them all - did we become equally insightful psychologists after that? Is life experience passed on from the older generation to the younger? As a rule, with great difficulty and to a very small extent. The eternal problem of “fathers and sons” is precisely that children cannot and do not even want to adopt the experience of their fathers. Each new generation, each young person has to "stuff his own bumps" in order to gain this experience.

At the same time, in science, knowledge is accumulated and transferred with a high, so to speak, efficiency. Someone long ago compared representatives of science with pygmies who stand on the shoulders of giants - outstanding scientists of the past. They may be much smaller, but they see farther than the giants, because they stand on their shoulders. The accumulation and transfer of scientific knowledge is possible due to the fact that this knowledge is crystallized in concepts and laws. They are recorded in the scientific literature and transmitted using verbal means, i.e., speech and language, which, in fact, we have begun to do today.

quadruple the difference lies in the methods of obtaining knowledge in the spheres of everyday and scientific psychology. In worldly psychology, we are forced to confine ourselves to observations and reflections. In scientific psychology, these methods are supplemented experiment.

The essence of the experimental method is that the researcher does not wait for a confluence of circumstances, as a result of which a phenomenon of interest arises, but causes this phenomenon himself, creating the appropriate conditions. Then he purposefully varies these conditions in order to reveal the patterns that this phenomenon obeys. With the introduction of the experimental method into psychology (the discovery of the first experimental laboratory at the end of the last century), psychology, as I have already said, took shape as an independent science.

Finally, fifth The difference, and at the same time the advantage, of scientific psychology lies in the fact that it has a vast, diverse and sometimes unique factual material, inaccessible in its entirety to any bearer of worldly psychology. This material is accumulated and comprehended, including in special branches of psychological science, such as developmental psychology, educational psychology, patho- and neuropsychology, labor and engineering psychology, social psychology, zoopsychology, etc. In these areas, dealing with various stages and levels of mental development of animals and humans, with defects and diseases of the psyche, with unusual working conditions - conditions of stress, information overload or, conversely, monotony and information hunger, etc. - the psychologist not only expands the range of his research tasks, but and encounters new unexpected phenomena. After all, consideration of the work of any mechanism in the conditions of development, breakdown or functional overload from different angles highlights its structure and organization.

So, summarizing, we can say that the development of special branches of psychology is the Method (method with a capital letter) of general psychology. Of course, worldly psychology lacks such a method.

Psychological phenomena, properties and states

The human psyche is complex and diverse in its manifestations. Usually, three large groups of mental phenomena are distinguished, namely:

1) mental processes, 2) mental states, 3) mental properties.

mental processes - dynamic reflection of reality in various forms of mental phenomena.

mental process - this is the course of a mental phenomenon that has a beginning, development and end, manifested in the form of a reaction. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the end of a mental process is closely connected with the beginning of a new process. Hence the continuity of mental activity in the waking state of a person.

Mental processes are caused by both external influences and irritations of the nervous system coming from the internal environment of the body.

All mental processes are divided into cognitive- these include sensations and perceptions, representations and memory, thinking and imagination; emotional- active and passive experiences; strong-willed- decision, execution, volitional effort; etc.

Mental processes provide the formation of knowledge and the primary regulation of human behavior and activities.

In a complex mental activity, various processes are connected and form a single stream of consciousness that provides an adequate reflection of reality and the implementation of various types of activity. Mental processes proceed with different speed and intensity depending on the characteristics of external influences and states of the individual.

Under mental state one should understand the relatively stable level of mental activity that has been determined at a given time, which manifests itself in increased or decreased activity of the individual.

Every person experiences different mental states on a daily basis. In one mental state, mental or physical work is easy and productive, in another it is difficult and inefficient.

Mental states are of a reflex nature: they arise under the influence of the situation, physiological factors, the course of work, time, and verbal influences (praise, censure, etc.).

The most studied are: 1) the general mental state, for example, attention, manifested at the level of active concentration or absent-mindedness, 2) emotional states, or moods (cheerful, enthusiastic, sad, sad, angry, irritable, etc.). There are interesting studies about a special, creative, state of the individual, which is called inspiration.

Personality properties are the highest and stable regulators of mental activity.

Under mental properties a person should be understood as stable formations that provide a certain qualitative-quantitative level of activity and behavior that is typical for a person.

Each mental property is formed gradually in the process of reflection and is fixed in practice. It is therefore the result of reflective and practical activity.

Personality properties are diverse, and they must be classified in accordance with the grouping of mental processes on the basis of which they are formed. So, it is possible to single out the properties of the intellectual, or cognitive, volitional and emotional activity of a person. For example, let's give some intellectual properties - observation, flexibility of the mind; strong-willed - determination, perseverance; emotional - sensitivity, tenderness, passion, affectivity, etc.

Mental properties do not exist together, they are synthesized and form complex structural formations of the personality, which include:

1) the life position of the individual (a system of needs, interests, beliefs that determines the selectivity and level of activity of a person); 2) temperament (a system of natural personality traits - mobility, balance of behavior and tone of activity, which characterizes the dynamic side of behavior); 3) abilities (a system of intellectual-volitional and emotional properties that determine the creative possibilities of the individual) and, finally, 4) character as a system of relationships and behaviors.

In addition to the 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.

Summing up what has been said, let us present in the form of a diagram the main types of phenomena that modern psychology studies (Fig. 2, Table 1).

On fig. 2 outlines the basic concepts through which the phenomena studied in psychology are defined. With the help of these concepts, the names of twelve classes of phenomena studied in psychology are formulated. They are listed on the left side of the table. 1. In its right part, examples of specific concepts are given that characterize the corresponding phenomena 1 .

Rice. 2. General concepts that describe the phenomena studied in psychology

At the heart of any science there is some everyday, empirical experience of people, because each person has his own store of vital psychological knowledge. There are also outstanding worldly psychologists - great writers, clergymen, doctors, teachers, i.e. representatives of those professions that constantly communicate with people. Ordinary people also have certain psychological knowledge, judging by the fact that each person is to some extent able to understand the other, influence his behavior, take into account individual characteristics and provide assistance.

Everyday or pre-scientific psychology

If we talk about psychology as a form of everyday knowledge, then it appeared along with human society. Worldview in everyday or pre-scientific psychology grew out of the daily practice and life experience of primitive man. Interacting with each other, people learned to distinguish mental qualities hidden in behavior. Behind the actions performed, the motives and characters of people were guessed.

Psychological knowledge arose in the process of understanding specific situations. The content of this knowledge was limited to the conclusions that could be drawn by analyzing simple events, and the reasons underlying them were easily traced. People recorded all the conclusions drawn in proverbs and sayings, for example, “repetition is the mother of learning”, “measure seven times - cut once”, “not knowing the ford - do not go into the water”, etc.

There is no doubt that pre-scientific psychology could not rise to a holistic assessment of being and limited itself only to a symbolic explanation of its individual fragments. The psychological knowledge of primitive people corresponded to a non-systemic, fragmented worldview that arose and existed in the conditions of underdevelopment of rational ways of mastering reality. It is called topocentric, because the content was limited to knowledge only of the place where the clan or tribe lived. Nevertheless, covering all spheres of the life of primitive man, this knowledge could be quite extensive.

Modern psychologists believe that the origin of this knowledge was caused by such obvious manifestations of the human psyche as:

• Dreams;
• Such mental states as joy, fear, sadness, etc.;
• Mental qualities - benevolence, hostility, cunning, all of them are manifested in the communication of people.

The phenomena that ancient people observed and, making attempts to explain them, led to the conclusion that the soul can leave the human body. At the time of death, she leaves the body forever. So in India, the most ancient and widespread teaching about the transmigration of the soul from one body to another appeared.

It does not mean at all that the ordinary forms of psychological knowledge, despite their simplicity, turned out to be false. Some of these ideas have retained their significance to this day and have entered the treasury of modern psychological science:

• Everything psychological exists within man;
• The soul remains to live forever and does not die with the person.

The immortality of the soul today is presented differently compared to the ancient Egyptians, who believed that the soul of a dead person turns into a bird and lives on his grave.

Eternity, the immortality of the soul, according to the ideas of modern man, is associated with good deeds performed by him during his life. Even Seraphim of Sarov (1754-1833) argued that if you save yourself, then thousands around you can be saved.

The idea that emerged from the primitive man about the eternity of the soul, thus, continues to live in the public mind today, albeit in a slightly different form.

Psychology had to begin with the idea of ​​the soul, considered the domestic psychologist L.S. Vygotsky. This idea became the first scientific hypothesis of ancient man and a huge conquest of thought.

Differences between everyday and scientific psychology

The presence of everyday psychology raises the question of its relationship with scientific psychology. In addition to academic interest, this question also has a practical meaning. Human life is permeated with psychological connections and relationships, so if there is everyday psychology in some specific forms, then people are its bearers. And if this is so, then it is quite possible to assume that, by assimilating the psychological lessons of everyday life, people become or do not become psychologists.

There are a number of differences between everyday psychological knowledge and scientific psychology:

• Knowledge of everyday psychology is specific, timed to a specific situation, specific people. For example, a child in a family, solving specific pragmatic tasks, knows exactly how to behave with one or another parent in order to achieve the desired goal.
• Scientific psychology strives for generalizations, like any science. To achieve the result, scientific concepts are used, and their development as the most important function of science. Scientific psychological concepts have one feature, which is their frequent coincidence with worldly concepts, i.e. expressed in the same words, but the inner content is still different;
• Everyday psychological knowledge is of an intuitive nature, which depends on the way it is obtained. The result is achieved mainly through practical trials. Children have a well-developed psychological intuition, acquired by the tests they subject adults to daily and hourly. As a result, it turns out that the children know very well from whom they can “twist the ropes”. Teachers and trainers can go in a similar way, finding effective ways of education and training;
• Scientific psychological knowledge is distinguished by its rationality and awareness. The scientific path consists in putting forward verbally formulated hypotheses and verifying the consequences arising from them;
• Ways and possibilities of knowledge transfer. Such a possibility is limited in the field of practical psychology, which follows from their concrete and intuitive nature of everyday psychological experience. The life experience of the older generation is passed on to the younger generation to a small extent and with great difficulty, so the problem of "fathers and sons" will be eternal. Each new generation, in order to acquire this experience, is forced to "stuff its bumps" on its own;
• Scientific psychological knowledge is accumulated and transmitted with great efficiency, because it crystallizes in concepts and laws, and is fixed in the scientific literature. Their transmission occurs with the help of verbal means - speech and language;
• The method of obtaining knowledge in worldly psychology is based on observation and reflection;
• An experiment is added to scientific methods in psychology, and the researcher no longer waits for a confluence of circumstances, but causes this phenomenon himself, creating appropriate conditions for it. The introduction of the experimental method allowed psychology to take shape as an independent science;
• The advantage of scientific psychology is that it has a diverse, extensive, and sometimes unique factual material, which cannot be said about the bearer of everyday psychology.

Conclusion

Thus, the development of special branches of psychology is a method of general psychology, everyday psychology does not have such a method, but nevertheless, scientific and everyday psychology are not antagonists, collaborating, they complement each other.

Comparative analysis of everyday and scientific psychology in a condensed version is shown in the table below.

It is necessary to distinguish between scientific psychology and worldly psychology.

Everyday psychology is not a science, but simply views, ideas, beliefs and knowledge about the psyche, generalizing the everyday experience of people, as well as the life experience of each individual person. There are people who understand very well, feel the psyche of other people, see the peculiarities of their mental states. Such people can be called worldly psychologists.

Scientific and everyday psychology are not antagonists, they cooperate and complement each other. This is expressed in the fact that

The worldly and scientific psychologist are often the same person,

Everyday knowledge often serves as a starting point, the basis for the formation of scientific concepts and ideas,

And, conversely, scientific knowledge penetrates life, contributing to the solution of many life psychological problems.

6. Typology of character. Character and behavior.

Attempts to construct a typology of characters have been repeatedly made throughout the history of psychology. One of the most famous and earliest of them was the one that, at the beginning of our century, was proposed by the German psychiatrist and psychologist E. Kretschmer. Somewhat later, a similar attempt was made by his American colleague W. Sheldon, and nowadays - E. Fromm, K. Leonhard, A.E. Lichko and a number of other scientists.

All typologies of human characters proceeded from a number of general ideas. The main ones are the following:

1. The character of a person is formed quite early in ontogeny and throughout the rest of his life manifests itself as more or less stable.

2. Those combinations of personality traits that are part of a person's character are not random. They form clearly distinguishable types that make it possible to identify and build a typology of characters.

Most of the people in accordance with this typology can be divided into groups.

E. Kretschmer identified and described the three most common types of body structure or human constitution: asthenic. athletic and picnic. He associated each of them with a special type of character (later it turned out that the author had no proper scientific grounds for this).

1. The asthenic type, according to Kretschmer, is characterized by a small thickness of the body in profile with an average or above average growth. Asthenik is usually a thin and thin person, who, due to his thinness, seems to be somewhat taller than he really is. The asthenic has thin skin of the face and body, narrow shoulders, thin arms, an elongated and flat chest with underdeveloped muscles and weak fat accumulations. This is basically the characteristic of asthenic men. Women of this type, in addition, are often small.

2. The athletic type is characterized by a highly developed skeleton and muscles. Such a person is usually medium or tall, with broad shoulders, a powerful chest. He has a thick, high head.

3. The picnic type is distinguished by highly developed internal cavities of the body (head, chest, abdomen), a tendency to obesity with underdeveloped muscles and the musculoskeletal system. Such a man of average height with a short neck sitting between his shoulders.

The classification of character accentuations in adolescents, which was proposed by A. E. Lichko, is as follows:

1. Hyperthymic type. Adolescents of this type are distinguished by mobility, sociability, and a tendency to mischief. They always make a lot of noise in the events taking place around them, they love the restless companies of their peers. With good general abilities, they show restlessness, lack of discipline, and study unevenly. Their mood is always good and upbeat. With adults - parents and teachers - they often have conflicts. Such teenagers have many different hobbies, but these hobbies, as a rule, are superficial and pass quickly. Adolescents of the hyperthymic type often overestimate their abilities, are too self-confident, strive to show themselves (boast, impress others.

2. Cycloid type. It is characterized by increased irritability and a tendency to apathy. Teenagers of this type prefer to be at home alone, instead of going somewhere with their peers. They are hard going through even minor troubles, they react extremely irritably to comments. Their mood periodically changes from elated to depressed (hence the name of this type) with periods of about two to three weeks.

3. Labile type. This type is extremely changeable in mood, and it is often unpredictable. Reasons for an unexpected change of mood can be the most insignificant, for example, someone accidentally dropped a word, someone's unfriendly look. All of them "are capable of sinking into despondency and a gloomy mood in the absence of any serious troubles and failures." The behavior of these teenagers largely depends on the momentary mood. The present and the future, according to the mood, can be colored either with iridescent or gloomy colors. Such teenagers, being in a depressed mood, are in dire need of help and support from those who can improve their mood, who can distract, cheer up and entertain. They well understand and feel the attitude towards them of the people around them.

4. Asthenoneurotic type. This type is characterized by increased suspiciousness and capriciousness, fatigue and irritability. Especially often fatigue manifests itself when performing difficult mental work.

5. Sensitive type. He is characterized by increased sensitivity to everything: to what pleases, and to what upsets or frightens. These teenagers do not like big companies, too gambling, active mischievous games. They are usually shy and timid in front of strangers and therefore often give the impression of isolation. They are open and sociable only with those who are familiar to them; they prefer communication with children and adults to communication with peers. They are distinguished by obedience and show great affection for their parents. In adolescence, such adolescents may have difficulty adapting to the circle of peers, as well as an "inferiority complex". At the same time, these adolescents develop a sense of duty quite early, and high moral demands are made on themselves and on those around them. What they lack in ability, they often make up for in challenging activities and increased diligence. These teenagers are choosy in finding friends and buddies for themselves, find great affection in friendship, adore friends who are older than them.

6. Psychasthenic type. Such adolescents are characterized by accelerated and early intellectual development, a tendency to reflection and reasoning, to introspection and evaluation of the behavior of other people. Such teenagers, however, are often stronger in words than in deeds. Their self-confidence is combined with indecision, and peremptory judgments are combined with hasty actions taken just at those moments when caution and prudence are required.

7. Schizoid type. The most essential feature of this type is isolation. These teenagers are not very attracted to their peers, they prefer to be alone, to be in the company of adults. They often demonstrate outward indifference to the people around them, lack of interest in them, they poorly understand the state of other people, their experiences, they do not know how to sympathize. Their inner world is often filled with various fantasies, some special hobbies. In the external manifestations of their feelings, they are quite restrained, not always understandable to others, especially to their peers, who, as a rule, do not like them very much.

8. Epileptoid type. These teenagers often cry, harass

surroundings, especially in early childhood. Such children, writes A. E. Lichko, love to torture animals, tease the younger ones, and mock the helpless. In children's companies, they behave like dictators. Their typical features are cruelty, dominance, selfishness. In the group of children they control, such adolescents establish their own rigid, almost terrorist orders, and their personal power in such groups rests mainly on the voluntary obedience of other children or on fear. In the conditions of a tough disciplinary regime, they often feel at their best, try to please their superiors, achieve certain advantages over their peers, gain power, establish their dictate over others.

9. Hysteroid type. The main feature of this type is egocentrism, a thirst for constant attention to one's own person. Adolescents of this type often have a tendency to theatricality, posturing, and panache. Such children with great difficulty endure when in their presence someone praises their own comrade, when others are given more attention than themselves. For them, an urgent need is the desire to attract the attention of others, to listen to admiration and praise in their address. These adolescents are characterized by claims to an exclusive position among their peers, and in order to influence others, to attract their attention, they often act in groups as instigators and ringleaders. At the same time, being unable to become real leaders and organizers of the business, to gain informal authority for themselves, they often and quickly fail.

10. Unstable type. He is sometimes incorrectly characterized as weak-willed, going with the flow. Adolescents of this type show an increased inclination and craving for entertainment, and indiscriminately, as well as for idleness and idleness. They do not have any serious, including professional, interests, they almost do not think about their future at all.

11. Conformal type. This type demonstrates thoughtless, and often simply opportunistic submission to any authorities, to the majority in the group. Such teenagers are usually prone to moralizing and conservatism, and their main credo in life is "to be like everyone else." This is a type of opportunist who, for the sake of his own interests, is ready to betray a comrade, to leave him in difficult times, but no matter what he does, he will always find a "moral" justification for his act, and often not even one.

Close to the classifications of A. E. Lichko is the typology of characters proposed by the German scientist K. Leonhard. This classification is based on an assessment of the style of communication of a person with other people and represents the following types of characters as independent:

1. Hyperthymic type. He is characterized by extreme contact, talkativeness, expressiveness of gestures, facial expressions, pantomimes. He often spontaneously deviates from the original topic of conversation. Such a person has episodic conflicts with people around him due to an insufficiently serious attitude to his official and family responsibilities. People of this type are often the initiators of conflicts themselves, but are upset if others make comments to them about this. Of the positive features that are attractive to communication partners, people of this type are characterized by vigor, a thirst for activity, optimism, and initiative. At the same time, they also have some repulsive features: frivolity, a tendency to immoral acts, increased irritability, projectionism, and an insufficiently serious attitude to their duties. They can hardly endure the conditions of strict discipline, monotonous activity, forced loneliness.

2. Disty type. He is characterized by low contact, taciturnity, and a dominant pessimistic mood. Such people are usually homebodies, burdened by a noisy society, rarely come into conflict with others, lead a secluded life. They highly value those who are friends with them, and are ready to obey them. They have the following personality traits that are attractive to communication partners: seriousness, conscientiousness, a heightened sense of justice. They also have repulsive features. This is passivity, slowness of thinking, slowness, individualism.

3. Cycloid type. He is characterized by fairly frequent periodic mood changes, as a result of which their manner of communicating with people around them also often changes. In a period of high mood, they are sociable, and in a period of depression, they are closed. During a spiritual upsurge, they behave like people with a hyperthymic character accentuation, and during a recession - with a distimic one.

4. Excitable type. This type is characterized by low contact in communication, slowness of verbal and non-verbal reactions. Often they are boring and gloomy, prone to rudeness and abuse, to conflicts in which they themselves are an active, provocative side. They are quarrelsome in the team, powerful in the family. In an emotionally calm state, people of this type are often conscientious, accurate, love animals and small children. However, in a state of emotional arousal, they are irritable, quick-tempered, and have poor control over their behavior.

5. Stuck type. He is characterized by moderate sociability, tediousness, a tendency to moralizing, and taciturnity. In conflicts, he usually acts as an initiator, an active party. He strives to achieve high performance in any business he undertakes, makes high demands on himself. Particularly sensitive to social justice, at the same time touchy, vulnerable, suspicious, vengeful. Sometimes overly arrogant, ambitious, jealous, makes exorbitant demands on relatives and subordinates at work.

6. Pedantic type. Rarely enters into conflicts, acting in them as a passive rather than an active side. In the service, he behaves like a bureaucrat, presenting many formal requirements to others. At the same time, he willingly concedes leadership to other people. Sometimes he harasses the household with excessive claims to accuracy. Its attractive features are: conscientiousness, accuracy, seriousness, reliability in business, and repulsive and conducive to the emergence of conflicts - formalism, tediousness, grumbling.

7. Alarm type. People of this type are characterized by low contact, timidity, self-doubt, and a minor mood. They rarely come into conflict with others, playing a mostly passive role in them, in conflict situations they seek support and support. Often they have the following attractive features: friendliness, self-criticism, diligence. Due to their defenselessness, they also often serve as "scapegoats", targets for jokes.

8. Emotive type. These people prefer communication in a narrow circle of the elite, with whom good contacts are established, whom they understand "perfectly". Rarely do they themselves enter into conflicts, playing a passive role in them. Grievances are in themselves, do not "splash out" outside. Attractive features: kindness, compassion, rejoicing in the successes of others, a heightened sense of duty, diligence. Repulsive features: excessive sensitivity, tearfulness.

9. Demonstrative type. This type of people is characterized by the ease of establishing contacts, the desire for leadership, the thirst for power and praise. He demonstrates high adaptability to people and at the same time a penchant for intrigue (with an outwardly soft manner of communication). Such people irritate those around them with self-confidence and high claims, systematically provoke conflicts themselves, but at the same time actively defend themselves. They have the following features that are attractive to communication partners: courtesy, artistry, the ability to captivate others, originality of thinking and actions. Their repulsive features: selfishness, hypocrisy, boasting, shirking work.

10. Exalted type. He is characterized by high contact, talkativeness, amorousness. Such people often argue, but do not bring matters to open conflicts. In conflict situations, they are both active and passive side. At the same time, they are attached and attentive to friends and relatives. They are altruistic, have a sense of compassion, good taste, show brightness and sincerity of feelings. Repulsive features: alarmism, susceptibility to momentary moods.

11. Extroverted type. It is distinguished by high contact, such people have a lot of friends, acquaintances, they are talkative to the point of talkativeness, open to any information. Rarely come into conflict with others and usually play a passive role in them. In communication with friends, at work and in the family, they often give up leadership to others, prefer to obey and be in the shadows. They have such attractive features as a willingness to listen carefully to another, to do what is asked, diligence. Repulsive features: susceptibility to influence, frivolity, thoughtlessness of actions, passion for entertainment, to participate in the spread of gossip and rumors.

12. Introverted type. It, unlike the previous one, is characterized by very low contact, isolation, isolation from reality, and a tendency to philosophize. Such people love loneliness, rarely come into conflict with others, only when trying to unceremoniously interfere in their personal lives. Often they are emotionally cold idealists, relatively weakly attached to people. They have such attractive features as restraint, strong convictions, adherence to principles. They also have repulsive features. This is stubbornness, rigidity of thinking, stubborn upholding of one's ideas. They all have their own point of view, which may turn out to be erroneous, sharply different from the opinions of other people, and yet they continue to defend it no matter what. This classification refers mainly to adults and represents the typology of characters mainly in terms of attitude towards people. Summarizing the observational data on the social behavior of various people, correlating them with the practice of working in the clinic (E. Fromm was a Freudian psychiatrist), the author of the presented typology of characters deduced the following main types:

1. "Masochist-sadist". This is the type of person who tends to see the causes of his life's successes and failures, as well as the causes of observed social events, not in the circumstances, but in people. In an effort to eliminate these causes, he directs his aggression towards the person who seems to him to be the cause of failure. If it is about himself, then his aggressive actions are directed at himself; if other people act as a cause, then they become victims of his aggressiveness. Such a person is engaged in self-education, self-improvement, "remaking" people "for the better" a lot. With his persistent actions, exorbitant demands and claims, he sometimes brings himself and those around him to a state of exhaustion. This type is especially dangerous for others when he gains power over them: he begins to terrorize them, based on "good intentions."

Describing such people as a psychiatrist, E. Fromm wrote: "The most frequently manifested masochistic tendencies are a feeling of inferiority, helplessness, insignificance." Masochist people tend to belittle and weaken themselves, revel in self-criticism and self-flagellation, build upon themselves vain accusations, in everything and above all they try to take the blame on themselves, even if they had nothing to do with what happened.

E. Fromm's observation is interesting, arguing that in this type of people, along with masochistic inclinations, sadistic tendencies are almost always revealed. They manifest themselves in the desire to make people dependent on themselves, to acquire complete and unlimited power over them, to exploit them, to inflict pain and suffering on them, to enjoy the vision of how they suffer. This type of person is called an authoritarian person. E. Fromm showed that such personal qualities were inherent in many well-known despots in history, and included Hitler, Stalin, and a number of other famous historical figures in their number.

2. "Destroyer". It is characterized by pronounced aggressiveness and active, striving to eliminate, destroy the object that caused frustration, the collapse of hopes in this person. "Destructiveness," writes Fromm, "is a means of getting rid of an unbearable feeling of impotence." Destructiveness as a means of resolving their life problems is usually addressed by people who experience a sense of anxiety and powerlessness, are limited in the realization of their intellectual and emotional capabilities. During periods of great social upheavals, revolutions, upheavals, they act as the main force that destroys the old, including culture.

3. "Conformist-machine". Such an individual, faced with intractable social and personal life problems, ceases to "be himself." He unquestioningly submits to circumstances, society of any type, the requirements of a social group, quickly assimilating the type of thinking and mode of behavior that is characteristic of most people in a given situation. Such a person almost never has either his own opinion or a pronounced social position. He actually loses his own "I", his individuality, and is so accustomed to experiencing exactly those feelings that are expected from him in certain situations, that only as an exception he could notice something "alien" in his feelings. Such a person is always ready to submit to any new authority, quickly and without problems changes his beliefs, if circumstances require it, without particularly thinking about the moral side of such behavior. This is a type of conscious or unconscious opportunist.

The typology developed by E. Fromm is real in the sense of the word that it really resembles the behavior of many people during social events taking place in our country now or in the past.