Depression. The main theoretical approaches to the study of personality

Psychological approaches

2.3.1. Onset and maintenance of panic disorder

AT recent times Many psychological models have been proposed to explain panic disorder. Clark (Clark, 1986) already in 1986 emphasized the role of catastrophic assessments of physical sensations in panic attacks. According to this model, a panic attack occurs due to the fact that internal or external stimuli - on the basis of determinants not described in this model - are perceived primarily as threatening. To this threatening perception the individual reacts with fear and physical changes which are themselves ultimately judged as dangerous and life threatening. The interpretation of physical sensations as signs of a physical catastrophe produces, in turn, other physical symptoms, which are again evaluated as an indication of a physical threat, etc. If this process will continue to grow, a panic attack will occur. According to Barlow's complex explanatory model (Barlow, 1988), panic disorder begins to develop after the occurrence of a false alarm to stress. At the same time, a false alarm signal - in contrast to phylogenetic meaningful alarm signals - contains elements of a dysfunctional avoidance reaction. As a result of the association of this false alarm with internal stimuli, later internal stimuli themselves can cause an already learned alarm or panic response. According to Barlow (Barlow, 1988), clinical panic disorder develops when an individual has anxious expectations of new panic reactions. These anxious expectations explain vigilance and sensitivity to internal stimuli, which lowers the threshold for further alarms or panic.

The psychophysiological model of Ehlers and Margraf (Ehlers & Margraf, 1989, see also Margraf & Schneider, 1996), which also emphasizes the role of internal stimuli for the occurrence of a panic attack, is especially well substantiated (Fig. 37.2.2).

Rice. 37.2.2. Psychophysiological model of panic disorder according to Ehlers and Margraf (Ehlers & Margraf, 1989)

As a result of various possible triggers (excitation, caffeine, fever), a panic attack usually begins with physiological (eg, palpitations, dizziness) or mental (eg, fast-paced thoughts, difficulty concentrating) changes. If the individual perceives these changes and associates them with immediate excessive danger and threat, then he reacts to this with anxiety, which, in turn, causes other physical and cognitive changes. And if this escalation of symptoms is again perceived by the patient and associated with danger, then this leads to an increase in anxiety. This feedback between change, perception, association with danger, and anxiety response can occur repeatedly and result in an escalation process. This feedback eventually leads to a panic attack. Ehlers and Margraf (1989) called this process the ʼʼpsychophysiological vicious circleʼʼ; in fig. 37.2.2 shows the interior of this model. Οʜᴎ believe (Ehlers & Margraf, 1989) that it is extremely important to separate internal stimuli from their perception, since there is no direct correspondence between them. So, an individual, being at rest, for example, lying in bed, can feel an accelerated heartbeat only because in this position of the body, heart beats are perceived more clearly. In this case, positive feedback will not begin with a change in heartbeat, but with its perception. Such perception can be associated with danger, and the processes of interoceptive conditioning and conscious interpretation are involved in associative connections.

According to the psychophysiological model, panic attacks can stop (decrease in anxiety) in two cases: a) due to the awareness of the possibilities of overcoming them and b) due to automatically turning on the processes of negative feedback. An example of a negative feedback process is habituation, fatigue, or respiratory reflexes during hyperventilation. Short-term, anxiety-reducing coping options include, for example, avoidance and help-seeking behaviors. Other behaviors that could lead to a reduction in anxiety are a change in breathing, distraction from external stimuli, or reattribution of physical sensations. If the attempt to overcome failed, then this can lead to a re-growth of anxiety.

A modifying influence on these feedback processes can have big number factors. On fig. 37.2.2 these factors are shown outside the central part of the model. So, the feedback processes leading to an increase in anxiety can be briefly reflected in current mental and physical conditions (for example, the general level of anxiety, acute affective state, physical exhaustion, hormonal fluctuations), as well as current situational factors (for example, experiencing anxiety during physical activity, excessive consumption of nicotine or caffeine, drugs and certain medications). Situational factors (for example, long-term difficult life situations) and individual dispositions of a person can have a long-term impact. As individual dispositions, Ehlers and Margraf (Ehlers & Margraf, 1989) cite heightened attention to dangerous stimuli, good ability perceive physical sensations and learned tendencies to interpret symptoms (for example, cognitive styles / schemes about the meaning of internal stimuli). Worrying that a panic attack might recur can also lead to increased levels of anxiety and arousal.

It should be noted that the psychophysiological model is supported by a large amount of evidence (Margraf & Schneider, 1996). So, for example, it was found that panic attacks often begin with the perception of certain physical sensations and patients with panic disorder tend to associate these sensations with danger. It was further shown that patients with panic disorder compared with healthy controls or individuals with other anxiety disorders consider it more likely that physiological reactions can cause them great harm. It has also been confirmed that patients with panic disorder show selective attention to stimuli that may indicate physical danger. Also, the existence of a positive feedback between perceived physical symptoms and anxiety responses has been proven with heart rate misfeedback. However, this model cannot answer one significant question, namely why the very first panic attack occurs at all. Whether specific genetic inheritance plays a role here cannot be deduced with sufficient conviction from the accumulation of symptoms discussed above in the family. It is possible that only non-specific vulnerability is transmitted in this way, while the formation of a specific disorder is most likely influenced by factors external environment(Andrews, Stewart, Allen & Henderson, 1990; Kendler, Neale, Kessler, Heath & Eaves, 1992). Ehlers (1993) and Schneider (1995) provide insight into how the psychological transmission of panic disorder may occur. Without going into details, it can be said that the empirical evidence points to great importance for the occurrence of panic disorder specific experiences ͵ received by patients in childhood and adolescence. An important environmental factor for the onset of panic disorder must be the response of the parents to panic-relevant symptoms. From point of view modern science, learning from models is of great importance for transmission.

Another important theory that has received a wide response in scientific circles is the theory of hyperventilation (Ley, 1987). This theory suggests that hyperventilation is the cause of panic disorder. However, the main hypotheses have not received empirical confirmation. Neither chronic nor topical hyperventilation occurs regularly in panic attacks. On the contrary, it was noticed that cognitive factors play a more significant role. So, with hyperventilation, subjective and physiological anxiety reactions are caused or eliminated with the help of appropriate instructions. Margraf and Schneider (1996) point out that today hyperventilation has significance not so much as an etiological theory, but as a therapeutic approach. Hyperventilation can be used to provoke frightening physical symptoms in individuals with panic disorder in order to process them through reattribution.

Other authors, such as Beck and Emery (1985), in the framework of similar hypotheses, on the contrary, consider cognitive factors as decisive for the onset and development of panic disorder (cognitive learning theories). According to this concept, non-dangerous situations are inadequately interpreted by patients as dangerous. As a special factor for agoraphobic avoidance behavior, it is customary to name a hidden fear of situations that may actually be dangerous (for example, a cramped, enclosed space, a store crowded with customers, certain social situations, etc.). Under situational stress, it is often difficult for people with panic disorder to adjust their emotional reactions to the situation and to check the content of the emerging (excessive) fears.

2.3.2. Approaches to explaining agoraphobia

As part of psychological theories learning is the most influential among theoretical approaches to explaining phobic disorders, incl. and agoraphobia, uses, first of all, the so-called ʼʼtheory of two factorsʼʼ (Zwei-Faktoren-Theorie). Even today, this theory is used as the basis for determining indications for the treatment of agoraphobic avoidance behavior. The two-factor theory (Mowrer, 1960) suggests that in phobias, an initially neutral stimulus that arose as a result of a traumatic event is associated with the main anxiety-motivated state (classical conditioning) and the subsequent avoidance of such - already aversive - stimulus is reinforced by the disappearance of this unpleasant anxiety state(operant conditioning). However, despite the fact that this is in good agreement with the data obtained as a result of animal experiments, this theory was not sufficient to explain clinical phobias and agoraphobia. First of all, many patients with phobias do not remember having had traumatic events prior to the onset of the disorder, and secondly, people have not been able to develop the corresponding phobia (cf.
Hosted on ref.rf
the impossibility of repeating the experiment with little Albert from: Watson & Rayner, 1920).

In their revised version of this theory of the origin of agoraphobia, Goldstein and Chambless (1978) concluded that two forms of agoraphobia should be distinguished: 1) simple agoraphobia associated with traumatic events, and 2) a significantly more common complex agoraphobia, which is most often defined as ʼʼfear of fearʼʼ. The tendency observed in this case to evaluate physical sensations as an indication of danger and disease and to respond with fear is described by the concept of ʼʼfear sensitivityʼʼ (Reiss & McNally, 1985). However, Goldstein and Chambles emphasized the role of interoceptive conditioning. Physical sensations, such as a rapid heartbeat, become conditioned stimuli for panic attacks, which are again linked to the external situation through higher conditioning. Although many aspects of this approach have been well empirically tested, the hypothesis of specific predisposition and trigger factors remains controversial. Factors such as increased anxiety, self-doubt, dependence, and failure to adequately identify the trigger unpleasant emotions are quite capable of exerting a dispositional effect, but still, in the vast majority of patients, this diagnosis is not found. There is also no empirical support for the assumption that panic disorder are caused mainly in conflict interpersonal situations. Although not all components of the model have been empirically validated, the revised two-factor theory is still of great value for the treatment of agoraphobia because it provides a simple, patient-centered explanatory model that provides evidence for the use of confrontational techniques (see Margraf & Schneider, 1996).

Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, the original neurobiological hypothesis that initial unexpected panic attacks have a decisive causal significance for the development of agoraphobia remains the most important hypothesis, consistent with neither cognitive learning theories nor epidemiological evidence (Wittchen & Vossen, 1996).

Psychological approaches - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Psychological approaches" 2017, 2018.

The psychological approach is aimed at highlighting a person in politics, at his interests, needs, motives, emotions. Psychological direction as an independent one develops by the beginning of the twentieth century. Understanding the importance of studying a person as an "engine" of politics was facilitated by such factors as a significant increase in the mass of people taking part in the political and social movements of the twentieth century, the complication political processes in many countries of the world, increasing the role of the individual and the price of his action in the political sphere.

political science a relatively small range of areas of psychology is close: behaviorism and neobehaviorism (or "the theory of incentives - responses"); Freudianism and its sociologized versions.

Behaviorism (from English behavior - behavior) is a direction in American psychology. Its most famous representatives are J. Watson, K. Lashley, E. Thorndike. Behaviorism arose at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. under the influence of the study of the psyche of animals (the study of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes). Behaviorism is based on the analysis of the psyche through the study of behavior. Behavior is understood as reactions - responses (R) to environmental stimuli (S). The main method of behaviorism is the observation and experimental study of the reactions of the organism in response to the influence of the external environment. Behaviorists were looking for laws describing the interaction between S and R. Representatives of political behaviorism (J. Dollard, R. Lane, B. Skinner, R. Walters) proposed to conduct research according to the scheme: socio-political conditions give rise to certain political behavior. The weakness of this concept is that it is difficult to assess the impact of specific political conditions, abstracting from the individual qualities of the individual. Based on this concept, a person was presented as an object of manipulation by politicians.

As a reaction to the shortcomings of behaviorism, in the 30s of the twentieth century. neobehaviorism emerged in the United States. Its representatives E. Tolman, K. Hullexpanded the traditional "stimulus-response" formula, introducing the concept of "intermediate variables" between them. The result was the formula S - O - R. Intermediate variables are factors that serve as a mediating link between S and R, these are observable, motivational components of behavior.

Psychological behaviorism in political science is not very common because of the inability to explain the richness of human behavior. One of the most famous scholars who has explored political participation using behavioral methodology is Lester Milbrath. He proceeded from the fact that large quantity incentives a person receives, the higher the likelihood of his participation in politics. However, it is impossible to understand from this what the predisposition to participate in politics still depends on. Therefore, many political scientists use other areas of psychology to explain the behavior of people from internal factors. One of these areas is psychoanalysis.

The theory of psychoanalysis was developed by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and is one of the most influential trends in the humanities of the twentieth century. Initially, psychoanalysis arose as a medical and biological doctrine. However, with the approval in science of ideas about the separation and interaction of unconscious and conscious levels of the psyche, psychoanalysis also becomes a socio-political doctrine. Freudian and neo-Freudian concepts that are widespread today explore the role of the unconscious in political behavior.

The structure of personality, according to Freud, has three components: "It", "I", "Super-I". "It" is a product of human biological experience inherited from animals. "I" is a person's self-consciousness, his perception and assessment of his own personality and behavior. "Super-I" is the result of the impact of society on the consciousness and subconscious of a person, his acceptance of norms and values public morality. The super-ego is the powerful representative of society in the personality.

There is nothing random in the psyche. In addition to conscious processes, it also has unconscious ones. Unconscious processes are due to "primary drives" (primarily libido - sexual desires). These drives try to penetrate the consciousness, but are suppressed and forced out by it, since the consciousness has absorbed the dominant social norms and prohibitions. In an effort to get rid of unpleasant mental states, a person with the help of "I" develops defense mechanisms: rejection of criticism addressed to oneself, suppression of thoughts and desires that are contrary to accepted norms, an excuse for not being able to do something.

In the works "Totem and Taboo" (1913), "Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Human "I" (1921) and others, Freudis explores the socio-political structure of society. His scheme social structure is: the leader - the elite - the masses. Man, according to Freud, is an isolated atom. The need to connect with other people forces a person to restrain his natural aspirations. The masses are always looking for a leader, they worship him and yearn for the rejection of independent responsibility. At the heart of the bonds that unite the mass is the identification of the child with the father. The identification of the leader with his father comes from family relationships.

Thus, Freudianism is characterized by the reduction social organization to a patriarchal family. This concept works only in cases where the politicization of the masses occurs, when perfect image leader is projected onto the created idol.

Neo-Freudians are trying to overcome the biologism of classical Freudianism and introduce a socio-political context into some of its provisions. The center of gravity of psychoanalysis shifts from intrapsychic processes to interpersonal relationships. So, Erich Fromm believed that the human psyche is socially conditioned. The character of a person is created by society, the circumstances of his life. Where the freedom of the individual is suppressed, pathological manifestations arise: sadism, masochism, a tendency to destruction. In the work "Escape from Freedom" Frommis proceeds from the fact that in a capitalist society a person stands out from the social environment. He is left to himself, isolated and free. Some people tend to take advantage of opportunities to individual development while others seek to escape from freedom. Escape from freedom is characteristic of an authoritarian personality who simultaneously seeks both submission and domination. Fromm called this phenomenon sado-masochism. Masochism is manifested in the enjoyment of submission to a strong despotic power. Sadism is the desire to dominate others. common feature in masochism and sadism, the fusion of the individual "I" with other "I". The formation of an authoritarian personality occurs under the influence of social conditions: economic and political instability, falling living standards.

On the basis of psychoanalysis, the genre of psychoanalytic portrait has been developed. For the first time this genre was applied in the joint work of Z. Freud and the American diplomat W. Bullitt. They created a portrait of American President Woodrow Wilson. G. Lasswell used this method in the work "Psychopathology and Politics", where he concluded that the style politician directly related to his psychological characteristics. Lasswell identified three types of politicians: agitator, administrator, theorist. L. Milbrath, having analyzed the psyche of American President R. Nixon, managed to explain his resignation.

Many researchers criticize supporters of psychoanalysis for incorrect analogies of individual and group behavior, for a simplistic approach to describing behavior. Others, on the contrary, consider psychoanalysis a very productive method of research in political science.

End of work -

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All topics in this section:

The Emergence of Political Science
Political science occupies a prominent place in modern social science. This is explained by the primary role of politics in the life of society. Since ancient times, politics has stood out as one of the important areas of

Political science as an independent discipline
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Political science in the USSR and the CIS
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The concept and essence of politics
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Political science subject
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The structure of political science
The subject of political science determines its structure as a science and academic discipline. In accordance with the issues under study, the following sections are distinguished in the structure of political science: 1) theory and method

Patterns and categories of political science
Political science as a science has as its goal the knowledge of objective laws operating in the field of politics. The patterns of political science reflect objectively existing, recurring connections and relationships.

The relationship of political science with other social sciences
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Functions of political science
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Systemic and structural-functional approaches
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The psychological approach is aimed at highlighting a person in politics, at his interests, needs, motives, emotions. The psychological direction as an independent one develops by the beginning of the 20th century. Understanding the importance of studying a person as a "engine" of politics was facilitated by such factors as a significant increase in the mass of people taking part in the political and social movements of the twentieth century, the complication of political processes in many countries of the world, and the increasing role of the individual and the price of his action in the political sphere.

Political science is close to a relatively small range of areas of psychology: behaviorism and neobehaviorism (or "the theory of incentives - responses"); Freudianism and its sociologized versions.

Psychological behaviorism in political science is not very common because of the inability to explain the richness of human behavior. One of the most famous scholars who has explored political participation using behavioral methodology is Lester Milbrath. He proceeded from the fact that the more incentives a person receives, the higher the likelihood of his participation in politics. However, it is impossible to understand from this what the predisposition to participate in politics still depends on. Therefore, many political scientists use other areas of psychology that explain people's behavior from internal factors. One of these areas is psychoanalysis.

The structure of personality, according to Freud, has three components: "It", "I", "Super-I". "It" is a product of human biological experience inherited from animals. "I" is a person's self-consciousness, his perception and assessment of his own personality and behavior. "Super-I" is the result of the influence of society on the consciousness and subconsciousness of a person, his acceptance of the norms and values of public morality. The super-ego is the powerful representative of society in the personality.

There is nothing random in the psyche. In addition to conscious processes, it also has unconscious ones. Unconscious processes are caused by "primary drives" (primarily libido - sexual drives). These drives try to penetrate consciousness, but are suppressed and forced out by it, since consciousness has absorbed the prevailing social norms and prohibitions. In an effort to get rid of unpleasant mental states, a person with the help of the "I" develops protective mechanisms: rejection of criticism addressed to him, suppression of thoughts and desires that are contrary to accepted norms, justification of the inability to do something.

In the works "Totem and Taboo" (1913), "Mass psychology and analysis of the human "I" (1921), etc. Freudis studies the socio-political structure of society. His scheme of social structure is as follows: leader - elite - masses. Man in Freud's understanding - it is an isolated atom. The need to unite with other people forces a person to restrain his natural aspirations. The masses are always looking for a leader, worship him and crave the rejection of self-responsibility. The basis of the bonds that unite the mass is the identification of the child with the father. The identification of the leader with the father comes from family relationships.

Thus, Freudianism is characterized by the reduction of social organization to the patriarchal family. This concept works only in those cases when the masses are politicized, when the ideal image of the leader is projected onto the created idol.

Neo-Freudians are trying to overcome the biologism of classical Freudianism and introduce a socio-political context into some of its provisions. The center of gravity of psychoanalysis shifts from intrapsychic processes to interpersonal relationships. So, Erich Fromm believed that the human psyche is socially conditioned. The character of a person is created by society, the circumstances of his life. Where the freedom of the individual is suppressed, pathological manifestations arise: sadism, masochism, a tendency to destruction. In the work "Escape from Freedom" Frommis proceeds from the fact that in a capitalist society a person stands out from the social environment. He is left to himself, isolated and free. Some people seek to seize opportunities for individual development, while others seek to escape from freedom. Escape from freedom is characteristic of an authoritarian personality who simultaneously seeks both submission and domination. Fromm called this phenomenon sado-masochism. Masochism is manifested in the enjoyment of submission to a strong despotic power. Sadism is the desire to dominate others. A common feature in masochism and sadism is the merging of the individual "I" with other "I". The formation of an authoritarian personality occurs under the influence of social conditions: economic and political instability, falling living standards.

On the basis of psychoanalysis, the genre of psychoanalytic portrait has been developed. For the first time this genre was applied in the joint work of Z. Freud and the American diplomat W. Bullitt. They created a portrait of American President Woodrow Wilson. G. Lasswell used this method in his work "Psychopathology and Politics", where he concluded that the style of a politician is directly related to his psychological characteristics. Lasswell identified three types of politicians: agitator, administrator, theorist. L. Milbrath, having analyzed the psyche of American President R. Nixon, managed to explain his resignation.

Having become acquainted with historical grounds psychology, we can take a closer look at some of the main modern psychological approaches. What is the approach? Generally speaking, an approach is a certain point of view, a way of considering a topic under study. The study of any topic related to the field of psychology can be approached from different positions. In fact, this is true of any action taken by an individual. Let's say you're crossing the street. From the point of view of the biological approach given event can be described as an act involving the transfer nerve impulses, activating the muscles that control the movement of your legs. From the point of view of the behavioral approach, this act can be described without referring to anything that happens within your organism; instead, the green traffic light will be seen as a stimulus to which you responded by crossing the street. You can also consider street crossing from a cognitive point of view, focusing on the mental processes involved in this form of behavior. From a cognitive point of view, your actions can be explained in terms of your goals and plans: your goal is to visit a friend, and crossing the street is part of your plan to achieve this goal.

Although there are many different ways of describing any mental act, the five approaches discussed in this section, are the main approaches in modern psychology (see Figure 1.5). Since these five approaches will be discussed throughout the book, here we provide only a brief description of the main distinguishing features of each of them. It is also important to remember that these approaches are not mutually exclusive; rather, they focus on various aspects the same complex phenomena.

Rice. 1.5.

The analysis of psychic phenomena can be approached from several angles, or seen from different perspectives. Each approach explains in some way why a person acts the way they do, and each of them can contribute in some way to our conception of the person as a whole. Greek letter"psi" (?) is sometimes used as a shorthand for psychology.

Biological approach

The human brain is made up of over 10 billion nerve cells and an infinite number relationships between them. Perhaps this is the most complex structure in the Universe. In principle, all mental events in one way or another correspond to the activity of the brain and nervous system. The biological approach to the study of humans and other animal species attempts to establish the relationship between external manifestations behavior and electrical and chemical processes occurring within the body, particularly in the brain and nervous system. Proponents of this approach seek to determine what neurobiological processes underlie behavior and mental activity. In the case of depression, for example, they try to present this disease in the form of pathological changes in the concentration of neurotransmitters (chemicals produced in the brain and ensuring communication between neurons, or nerve cells).

The biological approach can be illustrated by the problems we have described above. A study of facial recognition in patients with brain damage has shown that a specific part of the brain is responsible for this function. The human brain is divided into left and right hemisphere, and areas specializing in face recognition are located predominantly in the right hemisphere. It turns out that the hemispheres of the human brain are highly specialized; for example, most right-handers left hemisphere is responsible for understanding speech, and the right one is for interpreting spatial relationships. The biological approach has also been successful in the study of memory. Particular attention in this approach is given to certain brain structures, including the hippocampus, which is involved in the consolidation of memory traces. It is possible that childhood amnesia is partly due to the immaturity of the hippocampus, since this brain structure does not fully develop until the end of the first or second year of life.

Behavioral approach

As discussed in our brief overview of the history of psychology, the behaviorist approach focuses on observable stimuli and responses. In particular, a C-R analysis of your social life may focus on what kind of people you interact with (i.e., social incentives), and what reactions you show towards them (positive - rewards, negative - punishments, or neutral), what reactions they, in turn, respond to you (rewards, punishments or neutral), and also how these rewards contribute to the continuation or termination of your interactions.

To illustrate this approach, we will again use our sample of problems. Thus, in the case of obesity, some people can overeat (a specific response) only when there is a certain stimulus, and many weight management programs teach people to avoid such stimuli. In the case of aggression, children are more likely to exhibit aggressive reactions, such as hitting other children, when such reactions are reinforced (other children retreat) than when they are punished (others hit back).

The strict behaviorist approach does not take into account the mental processes of the individual. Non-behavioral psychologists often record what a person says about their conscious experience (verbal reporting) and draw conclusions about mental activity this person. But generally speaking, behaviorists have simply chosen not to guess what mental processes take place between stimulus and response (Skinner, 1981). [Throughout the book you will find references to the author and year of publication, which describe in more detail the provisions of this book. A bibliography of these studies is provided at the end of the book. - Approx. author.] Today, few psychologists consider themselves a "pure" behaviorist. Nevertheless, many modern developments in the field of psychology have come from the work of behaviorists.

cognitive approach

The modern cognitive approach is partly a return to the cognitive roots of psychology, and partly a reaction to the narrowness of behaviorism and the "stimulus-response" position (since the last two ignored complex types human activities such as reasoning, planning, decision making, and communication). As in the 19th century, modern cognitive research focuses on mental processes such as perception, memory, thinking, problem solving, and decision making. But unlike the 19th century version, modern cognitivism is no longer based on introspection and proceeds from the following main provisions: a) only by studying mental processes can we fully understand what organisms do; b) one can objectively study mental processes using the example of specific types of behavior (as, in fact, the behaviorists did), but explaining it in terms of the mental processes underlying it.

In interpreting behavior, cognitive psychologists often use the analogy between the mind and the computer. Information received by a person is processed different ways: it is selected, compared with what is already in memory, somehow combined with it, transformed, organized differently, etc. For example, when a girlfriend calls you and says “Hi!”, then in order to simply to recognize her voice, one must (unconsciously) compare it with other voices stored in long-term memory.

Let us use the problems already familiar to us to illustrate the cognitive approach (from now on, we will only talk about its modern version). Let's start with fundamental error attribution. When interpreting someone's behavior, we engage in some form of reasoning (for example, about what caused it), just as when we think about why this or that mechanism works the way it does. And here it turns out that our thinking is biased in the sense that we prefer to choose personal qualities (generosity, for example) as a reason, rather than the pressure of the situation.

The phenomenon of childhood amnesia also lends itself to cognitive analysis. It is possible that the events of the first years of life cannot be remembered due to the fact that in the process of development the very way of organizing memory and the experience stored in it changes dramatically. At about 3 years of age, these changes may be most significant, as this is when fast development speech abilities, and speech allows you to organize the contents of memory in a new way.

Psychoanalytic approach

The psychoanalytic concept of human behavior was created by Sigmund Freud around the same time that behaviorism was developing in the United States. Freud was a doctor by training, but he was also interested in cognitive development- then this direction was developed in Europe. In some respects, his psychoanalysis was a mixture of cognitive science and physiology in their 19th-century version. In particular, Freud connected the then existing cognitive ideas about consciousness, perception and memory with ideas about the biological basis of instincts, creating a bold new theory of human behavior.

According to the basic tenet of Freud's theory, much of human behavior arises from unconscious processes, by which Freud meant beliefs, fears and desires that are not conscious of a person and nevertheless influence his behavior. He believed that many of those impulses that are forbidden to us by adults, society and punished in childhood actually come from innate instincts. Since we are all born with these urges, they have a pervasive effect on us that we have to deal with. Their inhibition only takes them from consciousness to the unconscious, where they continue to influence dreams, slips of speech, mannerisms, and eventually manifest themselves in emotional conflicts, symptoms of mental illness, or, on the other hand, in socially acceptable behavior, such as artistic or literary creation. For example, if you feel a strong dislike for a person whom you can isolate from yourself, your anger may become unconscious and possibly indirectly affect the content of a dream about this person.

Freud believed that all our actions have a reason, but this reason is most often an unconscious motive, and not a rational basis that we assume. In particular, Freud believed that our behavior is guided by the same basic instincts as those of animals (primarily sexuality and aggressiveness), and that we constantly struggle with society, forcing us to regulate these impulses. Although most psychologists do not fully share the Freudian view of the unconscious, they seem to agree that people are completely unaware of some important traits of their personality and that these traits develop in early childhood in interactions with families.

The psychoanalytic approach allows us to take a fresh look at familiar problems. According to Freud (Freud, 1905), childhood amnesia occurs because certain emotional experiences in the first few years of life are so traumatic that if they are allowed to enter consciousness (i.e., remember them) in more later years, then the individual would enter a state of extreme anxiety. In the case of obesity, some people are known to overeat when they are anxious. From a psychoanalytic point of view, these people react in this way to a situation that causes anxiety: they do what always brings them into a state of comfort, namely, eat. And, of course, psychoanalysis has a lot to say about aggressiveness. Freud attributed aggressiveness to instincts, from which it follows that it is an expression of an innate need. This position is by no means accepted by all psychologists who study humans, but it is consistent with the views of some psychologists and biologists who study aggressiveness in animals.

Phenomenological approach

Unlike the other approaches we have considered, the phenomenological one is almost entirely focused on subjective experience. Here the phenomenology of the individual is studied - how a person personally experiences events. This approach arose in part as a reaction to other schools of thought that phenomenologists considered too mechanistic. Thus, the phenomenologist is inclined to disagree that behavior is controlled by external stimuli (behaviorism), sequential processing of information in the processes of perception and memory ( cognitive psychology) or unconscious impulses (psychoanalytic theories). In addition, phenomenologists set themselves different tasks compared to psychologists in other areas: they are more interested in describing inner life and human experience rather than developing theories and predicting behavior.

Some of the phenomenological theories are called humanistic because they emphasize the qualities that distinguish man from animals. For example, according to humanistic theories, the main motivating force of the individual is the tendency to development and self-actualization. All people have a basic need to reach their fullest potential, to go beyond where they are now. Although we may be hindered by environmental and social circumstances, our natural tendency is to actualize our potential. For example, a woman who is in a traditional marriage and has been raising her children for ten years may suddenly feel a strong desire to make a career in some kind of extra-family field, say, to begin to develop her long-dormant scientific interest which she feels the need to update.

Phenomenological or humanistic psychology focuses more on literature and the humanities than on science. For this reason, it is difficult for us to describe in detail what proponents of this trend would say about the issues we raised, such as facial recognition or childhood amnesia; they are simply not the kind of problems that phenomenologists study. In fact, some humanists reject scientific psychology as a whole, claiming that its methods add nothing to the understanding of human nature. Such a position is incompatible with our understanding of psychology and seems too extreme. A valuable point of the humanistic view is to remind psychologists of the need to address more often problems that are essential to human well-being, and not just the study of those disparate fragments of behavior that, as isolated cases, are more amenable to scientific analysis However, it is wrong and unacceptable to believe that the problems of mind and behavior can be solved by discarding everything that has been learned through scientific methods of research.

Relationship between psychological and biological approaches

Behaviorism, cognitive approach, psychoanalysis and phenomenology - all these approaches are on the same level: they are based on purely psychological laws and concepts ("reinforcement", "perception", "unconscious", "self-actualization"). Although these approaches sometimes compete, explaining the same phenomenon in different ways, they all agree that the explanation should be based on psychological level. This state of affairs contrasts sharply with the biological approach, which is partly on a different level. In addition to psychological concepts and laws, it also uses concepts and laws borrowed from physiology and other biological disciplines (the concepts of "neuron", "neurotransmitter" and "hormone").

Reductionism. There is, however, a way in which the biological approach comes into direct contact with psychological approaches. Biologically oriented scientists try to explain the concepts and laws of psychology in terms of their biological counterparts. For example, the usual ability to recognize faces can be explained solely in terms of neurons and their interconnections in certain area brain. Since such an attempt means reducing psychological concepts to biological ones, explanations of this kind are called reductionism. In this book, you will find several examples of successful reductionism, i.e. situations where what was once explained only on a psychological level is now explained by at least partially, on biological level. But if reductionism can be successful, why bother with psychological interpretations at all? Or, in other words: maybe psychology is needed only until the moment when biologists can say their word? The answer is a resounding "no".

First of all, there are many laws that can only be formulated on a psychological level. To illustrate, consider the law of human memory, according to which the meaning of the message is stored in memory, and not the symbols that were actually used to convey this meaning. So, in a couple of minutes after reading this paragraph, you will no longer be able to remember which exact words were used, although you can easily remember the meaning of the text. This principle applies whether you read the message or heard it. But some part of the biological brain processes that take place in this case will be different for cases of reading and listening. When reading, the part of the brain responsible for vision works first, and when listening, the auditory part of the brain works first; therefore, any attempt to reduce this psychological law to the biological will end with two different sub-laws, one for reading and one for listening. And the unified embracing principle will be lost. There are many such examples, and they prove the need for a psychological level of explanation, as opposed to a biological one (Fodor, 1981).

The psychological level of explanation is also needed because psychological concepts and laws can be used to guide the work of biologists. Given that the brain contains billions of nerve cells with countless connections between them, biopsychologists cannot hope to find anything interesting by randomly selecting brain cells to study. They must have some way to direct their research to certain groups of brain cells. And psychological data can point them in this direction. For example, if it follows from psychological research that our ability to distinguish between spoken words (i.e., to speak when they are different) is subject to different principles than the ability to distinguish between different positions in space, then biopsychologists should probably look in different parts of the brain for a neurological basis. these two discrimination abilities (for distinguishing words - in the left hemisphere, and for distinguishing spatial position - in the right). One more example. If psychological studies show that learning a motor skill is slow, and the skill itself is destroyed with with great difficulty, then biopsychologists can look at processes in the brain that are relatively slow but constantly change connections between neurons (Churchland & Sejnowsky, 1989).

Secondly, our biological nature always acts in accordance with our past experience and the world around us. this moment environment. So, obesity can be the result of both a genetic predisposition to weight gain ( biological factor), and the acquisition of the habit of an unhealthy type of diet ( psychological factor). The biologist may seek to study the first of these factors, but it is the task of the psychologist to investigate and explain the peculiarities of previous experience and current circumstances that influence an individual's eating habits.

Despite all the above considerations, the reductionist impulse to recode psychological explanations into biological ones does not fade away and even intensifies. As a result (this applies to many branches of psychology), we have not only a psychological explanation of the phenomenon under study, but also some knowledge of how the corresponding psychological concepts are realized by the brain (for example, which parts of the brain are involved in this and how they are interconnected). Of such kind biological knowledge usually does not reach total reductionism, but it is still extremely important. In memory research, traditionally, a distinction has been made between short-term and long-term memory(these are psychological concepts), but now something is already known about how the coding of these two types of memory in the brain differs. Therefore, in considering many of the topics covered in this book, we will refer to both what is known on the psychological level and what is known on the biological level.

Indeed, if this book (and modern psychology in general) has a leitmotif, it is the idea of considering psychological phenomena both at the psychological and biological levels, when biological analysis allows us to find out how psychological concepts are realized in the brain. Obviously, both levels of analysis are needed (although in some issues, including primarily social interaction, only psychological analysis has great potential).

Having become acquainted with the historical foundations of psychology, we can consider in detail some of the main modern psychological approaches. What is the approach? Generally speaking, an approach is a certain point of view, a way of considering a topic under study. The study of any topic related to the field of psychology can be approached from different positions. In fact, this is true of any action taken by an individual. Let's say you're crossing the street. From a biological point of view, this event can be described as an act involving the transmission of nerve impulses that activate the muscles that control the movement of your legs. From the point of view of the behavioral approach, this act can be described without referring to anything that happens within your organism; instead, the green traffic light will be seen as a stimulus to which you responded by crossing the street. You can also consider street crossing from a cognitive point of view, focusing on the mental processes involved in this form of behavior. From a cognitive point of view, your actions can be explained in terms of your goals and plans: your goal is to visit a friend, and crossing the street is part of your plan to achieve this goal.

Although there are many different ways of describing any mental act, the five approaches discussed in this section are the main approaches in modern psychology (see Figure 1.5). Since these five approaches will be discussed throughout the book, here we provide only a brief description of the main distinguishing features of each of them. It is also important to remember that these approaches are not mutually exclusive; rather, they focus on different aspects of the same complex phenomena.

Rice. 1.5. Scientific approaches in psychology. The analysis of psychic phenomena can be approached from several angles, or seen from different perspectives. Each approach in some way explains why a person acts the way they do, and each of them can contribute in some way to our conception of the person as a whole. The Greek letter psi (ψ) is sometimes used as a shorthand for psychology.

Biological approach

The human brain consists of more than 10 billion nerve cells and an almost infinite number of interconnections between them. Possibly the most complex structure in the universe. In principle, all mental events in one way or another correspond to the activity of the brain and nervous system. The biological approach to the study of man and other animal species attempts to establish a relationship between the external manifestations of behavior and electrical and chemical processes occurring inside the body, in particular in the brain and nervous system. Proponents of this approach seek to determine what neurobiological processes underlie behavior and mental activity. In the case of depression, for example, they try to present this disease in the form of pathological changes in the concentration of neurotransmitters (chemicals produced in the brain and ensuring communication between neurons, or nerve cells).

The biological approach can be illustrated by the problems we have described above. A study of facial recognition in patients with brain damage has shown that a specific part of the brain is responsible for this function. The human brain is divided into left and right hemispheres, and areas specialized in face recognition are located predominantly in the right hemisphere. It turns out that the hemispheres of the human brain are highly specialized; for example, in most right-handed people, the left hemisphere is responsible for understanding speech, while the right hemisphere is responsible for interpreting spatial relationships. The biological approach has also been successful in the study of memory. Particular attention in this approach is given to certain brain structures, including the hippocampus, which is involved in the consolidation of memory traces. It is possible that childhood amnesia is partly due to the immaturity of the hippocampus, since this brain structure does not fully develop until the end of the first or second year of life.

< Рис. Изучая активность мозга у животных, исследователи больше узнают о мозге человека. В этом эксперименте с одноклеточной регистрацией при помощи микроэлектрода, имплантированного в visual system monkey, the electrical activity of a single neuron is monitored.>

Behavioral approach

As discussed in our brief overview of the history of psychology, the behaviorist approach focuses on observable stimuli and responses. In particular, a C-R analysis of your social life can focus on what kind of people you interact with (i.e., social incentives) and what kind of reactions you show towards them (positive - rewards, negative - punishments). , or neutral), what reactions they, in turn, respond to you (rewards, punishments or neutral), as well as how these rewards contribute to the continuation or termination of your interactions.

< Рис. Если агрессивный ребенок добьется своего и другой уступит ему качели, это выступит в качестве вознаграждения агрессивного поведения, и ребенок будет более склонен проявлять aggressive behavior in the future.>

The strict behaviorist approach does not take into account the mental processes of the individual. Non-behavioral psychologists often record what a person says about their conscious experiences (a verbal report), and on the basis of these objective data draw conclusions about the mental activity of this person. But generally speaking, behaviorists simply chose not to guess what mental processes take place between stimulus and response.(Skinner, 1981). [ Throughout the book, you will find references to the author and year of publication, which describe in more detail the provisions of this book. A bibliography of these studies is provided at the end of the book. - Note. author.] Few psychologists today consider themselves a "pure" behaviorist. Nevertheless, many modern developments in the field of psychology have come from the work of behaviorists.

cognitive approach

The modern cognitive approach is partly a return to the cognitive roots of psychology, and partly a reaction to the narrowness of behaviorism and the stimulus-response position (because the latter two ignored complex human activities such as reasoning, planning, decision-making, and communication). As in XIX century, modern cognitive research has focused on mental processes such as perception, memory, thinking, problem solving, and decision making. But unlike the alternative XIX century, modern cognitivism is no longer based on introspection and proceeds from the following main provisions: a) only by studying mental processes can we fully understand what organisms do; b) one can objectively study mental processes using the example of specific types of behavior (as, in fact, the behaviorists did), but explaining it in terms of the mental processes underlying it.

In interpreting behavior, cognitive psychologists often use the analogy between the mind and the computer. The information that comes to a person is processed in various ways: it is selected, compared with what is already in memory, somehow combined with it, transformed, organized differently, etc. For example, when a girlfriend calls you and says “Hi! ”, then in order to simply recognize her voice, you need to (unconsciously) compare it with other voices stored in long-term memory.

Let us use the problems already familiar to us to illustrate the cognitive approach (from now on, we will only talk about its modern version). Let's start with the fundamental attribution error. When interpreting someone's behavior, we engage in some form of reasoning (for example, about what caused it), just as when we think about why this or that mechanism works the way it does. And here it turns out that our thinking is biased in the sense that we prefer to choose personal qualities (generosity, for example) as a reason, rather than the pressure of the situation.

The phenomenon of childhood amnesia also lends itself to cognitive analysis. It is possible that the events of the first years of life cannot be remembered due to the fact that in the process of development the very way of organizing memory and the experience stored in it changes dramatically. Around the age of 3, these changes may be most significant, since it is at this time that the rapid development of speech abilities takes place, and speech allows you to organize the contents of memory in a new way.

< Рис. События самого early period lives are usually forgotten. This little girl probably won't be able to remember the events surrounding her little brother's birth.>

Psychoanalytic approach

The psychoanalytic concept of human behavior was created by Sigmund Freud around the same time that behaviorism was developing in the United States. Freud was a doctor by training, but he was also interested in cognitive development - then this direction was being developed in Europe. In some respects, his psychoanalysis was a mixture of cognitive science and physiology in their version. XIX century. In particular, Freud connected the then existing cognitive ideas about consciousness, perception and memory with ideas about the biological basis of instincts, creating a bold new theory of human behavior.

According to the basic tenet of Freud's theory, much of human behavior arises from unconscious processes, by which Freud meant beliefs, fears and desires that are not conscious of a person and nevertheless influence his behavior. He believed that many of those impulses that are forbidden to us by adults, society and punished in childhood actually come from innate instincts. Since we are all born with these urges, they have a pervasive effect on us that we have to deal with. Their prohibition only takes them from consciousness to the unconscious, where they continue to influence dreams, slips of speech, manners, and eventually manifest themselves in emotional conflicts, symptoms of mental illness, or, on the other hand, in socially acceptable behavior, for example, in artistic or literary creation. . For example, if you feel a strong dislike for a person whom you can isolate from yourself, your anger may become unconscious and possibly indirectly affect the content of a dream about this person.

Freud believed that all our actions have a reason, but this reason is most often an unconscious motive, and not a rational basis that we assume. In particular, Freud believed that our behavior is guided by the same basic instincts as those of animals (primarily sexuality and aggressiveness), and that we constantly struggle with society, forcing us to regulate these impulses. Although most psychologists do not fully share Freud's view of the unconscious, they seem to agree that people are completely unaware of some important traits of their personality and that these traits develop in early childhood through interactions with the family.

The psychoanalytic approach allows us to take a fresh look at familiar problems. According to Freud(Freud, 1905), childhood amnesia occurs because some of the emotional experiences of the first few years of life are so traumatic that if allowed to enter consciousness (i.e., remember them) in later years, the individual would enter a state of extreme anxiety. In the case of obesity, some people are known to overeat when they are anxious. From a psychoanalytic point of view, these people react in this way to a situation that causes anxiety: they do what always brings them into a state of comfort, namely, eat. And, of course, psychoanalysis has a lot to say about aggressiveness. Freud attributed aggressiveness to instincts, from which it follows that it is an expression of an innate need. This position is by no means accepted by all psychologists who study humans, but it is consistent with the views of some psychologists and biologists who study aggressiveness in animals.

Phenomenological approach

Unlike the other approaches we have considered, the phenomenological one is almost entirely focused on subjective experience. Here the phenomenology of the individual is studied - how a person personally experiences events. This approach arose in part as a reaction to other schools of thought that phenomenologists considered too mechanistic. Thus, the phenomenologist is inclined to disagree that behavior is controlled by external stimuli (behaviorism), sequential processing of information in the processes of perception and memory (cognitive psychology) or unconscious impulses (psychoanalytic theories). In addition, phenomenologists set themselves different tasks than other psychologists: they are more interested in describing the inner life and experiences of a person than in developing theories and predicting behavior.

Some of the phenomenological theories are called humanistic because they emphasize the qualities that distinguish man from animals. For example, according to humanistic theories, the main motivating force of an individual is the tendency to development and self-actualization. All people have a basic need to reach their fullest potential, to go beyond where they are now. Although we may be hindered by environmental and social circumstances, our natural tendency is to actualize our potential. For example, a woman who is in a traditional marriage and has been raising her children for ten years may suddenly feel a strong desire to make a career in some field outside the family, say, to begin to develop her long-dormant scientific interest, which she feels the need to actualize.

Phenomenological or humanistic psychology focuses more on literature and the humanities than on science. For this reason, it is difficult for us to describe in detail what proponents of this trend would say about the issues we raised, such as facial recognition or childhood amnesia; they are simply not the kind of problems that phenomenologists study. In fact, some humanists reject scientific psychology as a whole, claiming that its methods add nothing to the understanding of human nature. Such a position is incompatible with our understanding of psychology and seems too extreme. A valuable point of the humanistic view is to remind psychologists of the need to turn more often to problems essential to human well-being, and not only to the study of those disparate fragments of behavior that, as isolated cases, are more easily amenable to scientific analysis. However, it is wrong and unacceptable to believe that problems of mind and behavior can be solved if we discard everything that has been learned through scientific methods of research.

Relationship between psychological and biological approaches

Behaviorism, cognitive approach, psychoanalysis and phenomenology - all these approaches are on the same level: they are based on purely psychological laws and concepts ("reinforcement", "perception", "unconscious", "self-actualization"). Although these approaches sometimes compete, explaining the same phenomenon in different ways, they all agree that the explanation must be at the psychological level. This state of affairs contrasts sharply with the biological approach, which is partly on a different level. In addition to psychological concepts and laws, it also uses concepts and laws borrowed from physiology and other biological disciplines (the concepts of "neuron", "neurotransmitter" and "hormone").

Reductionism.There is, however, a way in which the biological approach comes into direct contact with psychological approaches. Biologically oriented scientists try to explain the concepts and laws of psychology in terms of their biological counterparts. For example, the usual ability to recognize faces can be explained solely in terms of neurons and their interconnections in a particular area of the brain. Since such an attempt means reducing psychological concepts to biological ones, explanations of this kind are called reductionism. In this book, you will find several examples of successful reductionism, that is, situations where what was once explained only on a psychological level is now explained, at least in part, on a biological level. But if reductionism can be successful, why bother with psychological interpretations at all? Or, in other words: maybe psychology is needed only until the moment when biologists can say their word? The answer is a resounding "no".

First of all, there are many laws that can only be formulated on a psychological level. To illustrate, consider the law of human memory, according to which the meaning of the message is stored in memory, and not the symbols that were actually used to convey this meaning. So, in a couple of minutes after reading this paragraph, you will no longer be able to remember which exact words were used, although you can easily remember the meaning of the text. This principle applies whether you read the message or heard it. But some part of the biological brain processes that take place in this case will be different for cases of reading and listening. When reading, the part of the brain responsible for vision works first, and when listening, the auditory part of the brain works first; consequently, any attempt to reduce this psychological law to a biological one will end up by putting forward two different sub-laws, one for reading and the other for listening. And the unified embracing principle will be lost. There are many such examples, and they prove the need for a psychological level of explanation, as opposed to a biological one.(Fodor, 1981).

The psychological level of explanation is also needed because psychological concepts and laws can be used to guide the work of biologists. Given that the brain contains billions of nerve cells with countless connections between them, biopsychologists cannot hope to find anything interesting by randomly selecting brain cells to study. They must have some way to direct their research to certain groups of brain cells. And psychological data can point them in this direction. For example, if it follows from psychological research that our ability to distinguish between spoken words (i.e., to speak when they are different) is subject to different principles than the ability to distinguish between different positions in space, then biopsychologists should probably look in different parts of the brain for a neurological basis. these two discrimination abilities (for distinguishing words - in the left hemisphere, and for distinguishing spatial position - in the right). One more example. If psychological research shows that learning a motor skill is slow, and the skill itself is destroyed with great difficulty, then biopsychologists can pay attention to processes in the brain that proceed relatively slowly, but constantly change the connections between neurons.(Churchland & Sejnowsky, 1989).

Secondly, our biological nature always acts in accordance with our past experience and the environment around us at the moment. Thus, obesity can be the result of both a genetic predisposition to weight gain (biological factor) and the acquisition of unhealthy eating habits (psychological factor). The biologist may seek to study the first of these factors, but it is the task of the psychologist to investigate and explain the peculiarities of previous experience and current circumstances that influence an individual's eating habits.

Despite all the above considerations, the reductionist impulse to recode psychological explanations into biological ones does not fade away and even intensifies. As a result (this applies to many branches of psychology), we have not only a psychological explanation of the phenomenon under study, but also some knowledge of how the corresponding psychological concepts are realized by the brain (for example, which parts of the brain are involved in this and how they are interconnected). This kind of biological knowledge usually does not amount to total reductionism, but it is still extremely important. Memory research has traditionally distinguished between short-term and long-term memory (these are psychological concepts), but something is now known about how the encoding of these two types of memory differs in the brain. Therefore, in considering many of the topics covered in this book, we will refer to both what is known on the psychological level and what is known on the biological level.

Indeed, if this book (and modern psychology in general) has a leitmotif, it is the idea of considering psychological phenomena both at the psychological and biological levels, when biological analysis allows us to find out how psychological concepts are realized in the brain. Obviously, both levels of analysis are needed (although in some areas, including primarily issues of social interaction, only psychological analysis is more powerful).

Portal for the student. Self-training

After the fundamental methodological foundations, the book deals with the problems of the essence and structure of political processes

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