What is representation in psychology definition. Different ideas about the subject of psychology

In our time, there has been a strong interest in the study of social representations. Consideration of the concept of "social representations" is logical to begin with an explanation of the concept of "representation", which is quite common in the field of general psychology.

Representations are a visual image of an object or phenomenon (event) that arises as a result of past experience (that is, given sensations, perceptions) due to its reproduction in memory or in the imagination. It is customary to distinguish between the representation of memory and the representation of imagination, which are considered a transitional step between perception and abstract-logical thinking. Representations can be considered images of objects, phenomena that previously affected the senses, but are not directly perceived at a specific, specific moment.

In the dictionary edited by Yaroshevsky M.G. and Petrovsky A.V., where representations are described as "images of objects, scenes and events that arise on the basis of their recall or productive imagination, which can be of a generalized nature" .

Thus, in the field of general psychology, representations are interpreted as a kind of image that exists in the mind of a person, which is based on past experience and which can be reproduced. In other words, "representation" is a certain step in the transition from perception to thinking.

Social psychology interprets the concept of "representation" in a social context. Representations are more in the form of meaningful knowledge, which in today's society is the equivalent of what is considered in traditional societies as myths and beliefs.

Durkheim interprets social representations as a special form of collective knowledge capable of being assimilated by individual individuals.

According to S. Moscovici, social representations are ways of interpreting and comprehending everyday reality; a certain form of social cognition, involving the cognitive activity of individuals, groups" .

According to Jodle D., social representations are special forms of common sense knowledge, and their content, functions, and reproduction are determined socially.

Shikhirev P.N. describes social representations in the broadest sense, they can be interpreted as properties of everyday thinking, aimed primarily at the development and understanding of the social, material and ideal environment" .

According to Andreeva G.M., social representation plays the role of a factor constructing reality both for an individual and for a group as a whole.

It can be concluded that social representations are a special form of cognition, they are able to reflect the representations (images) of not just an individual, but of some social community, group.

The main attention of researchers is concentrated on the problems of representations that are associated with different aspects of reality. And before turning to modern research, it is necessary to identify the concept of social representations in a historical context.

Nowadays, within the framework of foreign psychology, one can designate Moscovici S.'s approach as the main approach to understanding social representations. A valuable source of the modern concept of social representations is the theory of "collective representations" of the French sociological school (E. Durkheim, L. Levy-Bruhl). It is necessary to consider the main provisions of these theories.

E. Durkheim is the first who began to write about collective ideas. According to him, society is a system of connections between individuals. One of the most important objects of this system can be considered social facts or products of social interaction. Social facts can play the role of regulators of social interaction that force a person to a specific behavior that does not depend on individual choice. Norms, standards of behavior and evaluation act as social facts in Durkheim's theory. Central among them are collective representations. Social facts can be thought of as collective representations. The main function of collective representations, according to Durkheim, is the implementation of the uniformity of behavior and mental activity of all members of a certain group; these representations are mandatory and have a motivating power.

Levy-Bruhl L. also engaged in the study of collective representations. Thanks to his research, it was revealed that the diversity of ideas to the greatest extent depends more on the type of society than on the sphere of life. Levy-Bruhl also believed that through the analysis of collective ideas, there is an opportunity to study primitive and civilized thinking. Thus, the collective representations of the "primitive" society are representations that are immersed in the emotional environment, they are mystical, very closely connected with memory (the world of internal images noticeably prevails over the world of external and immediate ones). The collective representations of a "civilized" society are those based on pragmatic knowledge, which are able to provide freedom of speech, experience, and criticism of individuals.

Moreover, Lévy-Brüldahl is the characteristics that are inherent in social representations. He lists these features as:

Holisticity, which is any belief that involves the presence of a large number of others, with which it forms a representation.

They are spiritual thought constructs related to the collective emotions that accompany or are created by them.

They cover general beliefs and ideas that relate to practice, to reality, are not detailed.

They are of equal importance. Everything is unique and significant in relation to others.

Based on the ideas of the authors presented above, S. Moscovici developed his own concept of social representations.

According to S. Moscovici, statements, assessments and opinions of social phenomena are differently organized in different cultures, classes, and groups. Thus, these categories can be analyzed as characteristics of whole groups, rather than their individual members, because they form systems that have a special language and are based on the conditions of social life. Consequently, each society within the framework of its life creates its own theory, which affects completely different aspects of everyday consciousness. Thus, it is possible to single out representations that are social in nature. From the point of view of S. Moscovici, social representations are socially ordinary consciousness, within which interaction at the level of common sense is difficult, different beliefs, views, knowledge and, of course, science itself; representations reveal and to some extent constitute social reality. The social origin of these representations, the belief in their justice and their coercive nature for the individual is considered to be central. But science does not replace these ordinary beliefs. It can be said that, on the contrary, common sense and scientific ideas are to a certain extent mutually capable of passing into each other. Social representations can be considered as some universal form of everyday knowledge, which combines the components of knowledge (cognitive and affective), which allow a person to establish his position in relation to the world around him and, above all, to himself.

The theory of social representations mentions two of their most important properties: they are considered a group phenomenon, and they also have a complex structure.

It is generally accepted that social representations are formed and spread as a result of everyday communication through interpersonal and mass communication. They have a rather complex structure, the elements of which can be different in terms of the degree of centrality - the importance of each element for the system of social representations in general, as a whole. The central elements of this system are responsible for its stability and form its core. Moskovichi S. Notes only three dimensions of social representation:

1. information (is the sum of information about the object);

2. presentation field (contains all the diversity of its content, properties, organized in a hierarchical system);

3. a specific setting that determines actions and statements regarding a specific representation object.

The process of formation of social representations is connected, first of all, with the laws of social development and predetermines the general direction of the social and cultural life of the group that generates these representations; this process also includes a direct reflection of reality. Thus, the mechanism of formation of social representations includes the following stages:

1. "engagement" (in the beginning, any new idea must be fixed - something specific, which will allow it to be brought into a previously existing frame of concepts);

2. objectification (is an attempt to turn any new known image into the most visible, concrete). This stage has only two main forms: personalization (that is, an attempt to tie a new concept to a person) and figuration (a way to call for a certain formula);

3. naturalization (considered as the acceptance of the received "knowledge" as some kind of objective reaction).

It is generally accepted that social representations perform specific social functions, for example, the function of a tool of knowledge, thanks to which a person describes, classifies, tries to explain events. And also, social representations can play the role of a way of mediating behavior, contributing to the direction of communication in the group, the designation of values that regulate behavior. It can be said that any concepts that are part of the social representation can be subjected to "schematic visualization", and then they are included in the so-called "identification matrix". In the future, based on this matrix, new knowledge is able to be identified and ordered.

Social representations are considered as a group phenomenon, and their formation and distribution occurs in the process of everyday communication through the channels of interpersonal and mass communication, therefore, it can be argued that there is a connection between groups and social representations, about their impact on each other.

According to S. Moscovici, the group captures specific aspects of the perceived phenomenon (at the same time, the phenomenon is fixed not only by individual consciousness, but is prescribed by the group). The group is able to influence the acceptance or rejection of certain information, while establishing specific levels of trust in various sources of information, as well as determining sanctions for those who disagree and a measure of acceptable tolerance towards them. Moreover, the group has a huge impact on the frequency of use of a social representation, and specifically on the frequency of use of a certain representation in communication, and this is considered an indicator of the significance of this representation in group life.

Social representations, of course, also have a great influence on the group. Thanks to them, the group can vary the ways in which the facts of public life are manipulated or interpreted in such a way that it is in favor of the interests of the group when comparing specific interests with the interests of other groups. Moreover, social representations can play a role in the formation of social identity, that is, the formation of one's own "group" self-awareness, perceiving oneself as an element of a system that has a common worldview and a common view of the world.

Social representations, according to Moscovici S., exist in general in order to make communication in a group less problematic and reduce the ambiguity of concepts ("uncertainty") through a certain degree of agreement between its members. It is generally accepted that social representations cannot be obtained through the study of any belief or specific knowledge, or set by special reflection. Social representations come into being most rapidly through mutual influences, in the course of which individuals commit themselves to specific symbolic patterns, images, and shared values. By doing this, people acquire some common repertoire of interpretations, rules, procedures that can be applied in everyday life, and speech expressions accessible to absolutely everyone.

Within the framework of the concept of social representations, several different areas of analysis of social representations have developed:

1) At the level of an individual picture of the world, social representation is usually considered as a phenomenon that resolves the tension between familiar and new content, which adapts the latter to existing systems of representations thanks to "reinforcement patterns" and which turns the unusual into the banal.

2) At the level of a small group, social representation can act as a phenomenon of reflexive activity in intragroup interaction.

3) Within the framework of intergroup relations, based on premises that are close to the provisions of G. Teschfel's theory of social categorization, social representation is interpreted as an element of reflexive relations between groups, determined by general social factors and situational features of interaction.

4) At the level of large social groups, there is an approach to the study of the elements of ordinary consciousness. Nowadays, a number of systems of ideas about psychoanalysis (S. Moscovici), about the human body (D. Jodel), about the city (St. Milgram), about health and illness (K. Herzlish), about women and childhood (M. - F -Shombar de Love), etc.

It was the concept of social representations of S. Moscovici that became the starting point for the emergence and dissemination of new studies of representations. In many ways, the domestic theory of social representations was based on the concept of Moskovichi (K.I. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, T.P. Emelyanova, G.M. Andreeva, A.I. Dontsov, etc.).

I would like to dwell in more detail on the approach of K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, since this approach is the key to understanding social representations in Russian psychology.

K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya in her concept of the social thinking of the individual combines both personal and socio-psychological approaches. In her opinion, social representations should be considered as a mechanism of consciousness of the individual.

From the point of view of K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, the social thinking of the individual plays the role of a functional way of consciousness of the individual. And consciousness is a continuously renewed process of understanding the world, other people, oneself, that is, active thinking, which is associated with a number of problems of social reality. It is important to note that social thinking also includes social representations along with other thinking procedures.

You can also say the following: in order to most deeply understand that Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A. understands by social representations it is necessary to analyze in more detail what social thinking is.

Social thinking is interpreted as a generalization by a person of such a way of life, which she herself was able to achieve in certain social conditions. Here we mean the following: how actively the subject "uses" his thinking, "loads" it, how regular intellectual activities are.

The social thinking of an individual is usually considered as a mental, personal product, a functional "organ" of her life in a particular society.

The subject of a person's thinking is the entire social reality in conjunction with phenomenological and essential characteristics (social processes, events, situations, attitudes and behavior of people), as well as her own life. The thinking of an individual is capable of expressing his attitude to social reality in general, as well as to certain forms of this reality, into which the latter can be structured in this society in this era: moral, legal, political, and most importantly, the actual value (cultural, spiritual).

Thanks to social thinking, a person develops a whole system of views on the surrounding reality, carries out a specific theorization of the way of life both in his concept of life and in his inner world.

The peculiarity of individual consciousness and social thinking can be determined only through the assimilation of the way of its functioning, which is associated with the real life relations of the individual, depending on it, determining its consciousness independently of it. All conceptual, rational and everyday, everyday forms and mechanisms of consciousness, operations characteristic of it, are capable of forming a certain functional system when a person becomes a thinking subject. The most important function of the consciousness and thinking of the individual is, first of all, in determining its relationship with reality and its own way of life. Thus, some operations, mechanisms, stereotypes that are inherent in its social consciousness can become a stumbling block, while others can become a productive condition for determining and comprehending this relationship. The function of social thinking consists not only in generalization, but also in concretization, differentiation, and integration of a multitude of changeable and permanent relations and relationships that are important for a particular individual.

Thanks to social thinking, the consciousness of the individual brings concreteness to indefinite relationships, gives clarity to what can be contradictory, multifaceted. At the same time, it (thinking) itself "uses" any intellectual-spiritual both forms and methods: in some cases rational, conceptual, in others - irrational, intuitive, in some - collective, in others - individual.

The constituents of social thinking are, first of all, a set of procedures and social representations. The processes of social thinking include the following:

1. Problematization (thanks to this procedure, contradictions between the individual and reality in general, the individual and others in particular, are acceptable).

2. Interpretation (this refers something to the subject of experience, understanding).

3. Representation (is a fact of individual consciousness, a psychosocial phenomenon that includes the unity of the cognitive and emotional).

Thus, social representations are components of social thinking, and the following conclusion can be drawn: social representations are usually referred to as forms of individual cognition.

Bye. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, social representations are components of the individual consciousness of a person, in which representations of both others and oneself are already connected.

Stigmatization and perceptions of persons with mental retardation in Russian society

Stigma (Greek stigma - injection, spot) - means some flaw or defect that has a strong negative impact on the social acceptance of the affected individual. It is a certain attribute that discredits a person in the eyes of society, a quality that gives out the "shameful" property of an individual, his inferiority, an undesirable difference in contrast to the norm, gives the status of an inferior person, while causing his rejection or, in any case, the absence readiness to interact with him on an equal footing.

Stigmatization acts as a socio-psychological phenomenon, which consists in hanging negative labels that discredit the individual in the eyes of society and cause their persistent social isolation, as well as unwillingness and lack of readiness to interact with him on an equal footing.

Labels are capable of expressing more abstract and general information about a particular object and, according to G. Allport, labels "act like sirens that make us forget about absolutely all the most subtle differences."

Stigma is capable of persistently attracting attention to itself, forcing one to ignore information indicating the likelihood of full-fledged social contact with its carrier and the possession of the latter by any other characteristics. It is important to note that many shortcomings, "defects" are attributed to the bearer of stigma, which determine his perception as an inferior, specific, dangerous, special, abnormal, non-traditional, person of a "different nature". This is what makes it difficult and even capable of excluding the possibility of realizing interaction with the stigmatized on an equal footing.

Stigmatization is the act of labeling. The label contains a minimal amount of information; the label is always primarily based on the subjective opinion and prejudice of the labeler, and is often aimed at provoking a strong negative emotional reaction in the person. The label is accepted without clear proof and explanation, i.e. it doesn’t matter what the perceived person really is (as opposed to prejudice).

Symbolic interactionism is reflected in the following fundamental ideas: the individual and society are inseparable from each other; individuals are a reflective and interactive entity that has a self; individuals are able to respond to objects in the world in accordance with the meanings that they have for them (the meaning of the object is represented in the behavior that is directed towards it, and not in the object itself).

As a leading factor that determines the likely victim of stigmatization, Douglas highlights the visible, marked difference between a person and the majority. Originality, individuality are highly valued and are usually welcomed by others. But the difference, which could be acceptable in ordinary circumstances, when things were going well, was analyzed as useful, capable of quickly becoming frustrating, annoying, causing hostility, prejudice, hostility towards its carrier, especially if the group is in a transitional stage of its development when it is most vulnerable. A person who has become a victim of stigmatization is usually considered as preventing the further existence of the group, its development, the achievement of certain goals, especially if the individual takes little part in the affairs of the group, is incompetent. The difference can affect a wide variety of characteristics of a person, especially his behavior. The difference may be related to appearance, age, gender, race, nationality, religious and other beliefs, social status, and so on. Here, the prejudices of the stigmatizers play a rather important role.

As another prerequisite that determines the choice of a person for the role of a "scapegoat", Feldman and Wodarsky single out social impotence, which implies a very low significance of a person for stigmatizers, lack of influence, low status, incompetence, isolation, including the inability to repay, stand up for yourself, fight back. The role of "scapegoat" is sometimes chosen by strong members of the group who have power. A leader or manager can act as a stigmatized person. This type of decision is associated with a cultural model according to which if the group "performs badly" it is the leader's fault. Becoming "not like that", a person acquires value, significance for stigmatizers, as he is able to rid them of an unpleasant feeling of guilt, responsibility, vent insults, defuse tension, and so on. That is why in most cases there is an unconscious desire of stigmatizers to keep a person who has become a "scapegoat" nearby.

L. Gozman believes that the role of appearance is extremely important, and argues that quite often an "unsympathetic" child is regarded as "bad": "It is no coincidence that ugly or suffering from a certain physical disability children are often credited with bad thoughts and actions."

According to Goffman, an important prerequisite for stigmatization is the needs of the stigmatized, as they can contribute to the strengthening of the stigmatization process. For example, acquiring the role of a "scapegoat", a person satisfies the need for attention, which he could not satisfy in other ways. Here the following principle works: it is preferable to have such attention than a complete lack of attention.

There are 3 types of characteristics that are usually expressed in stigmas: physical defects; character flaws that are perceived as weakness of will; generic stigma (race, nationality, religion) that can be passed on from generation to generation.

Russia has come a long way in the formation of views and attitudes towards persons with disabilities. It is customary to distinguish several stages.

In our country, the beginning of the first stage is considered to be the 10th century, and the end only at the beginning of the 18th century. Conventionally, the lower boundary of the first period is the time of the Christianization of Russia and the emergence of the first monastic shelters. The upper limit is the decrees of Peter I, which forbade the killing of children with congenital developmental disabilities (1704); who ordered the creation of church shelters and hospitals to help handicapped people (1715).

An important feature of the domestic evolution of the attitude of the state and society towards persons with disabilities can be considered that Russia has not gone through all the stages of social reflections that are inherent in Western European civilization. Kievan Rus, one might say, received a system of monastic charity and charity in the 10th century, when it recognized Christianity as the official state religion. Prince Vladimir imputed the charity of the disabled to the church (996), and the Monk Theodosius was the first who founded the monastic hospital-almshouse, where, according to chronicles, they helped the crippled and the deaf and dumb. According to studies, the pagan Slavs of Kievan Rus did not show pronounced aggression and hostility towards people with disabilities, moreover, there is evidence that they treated the disabled with compassion. The princes of Kyiv got acquainted with the experience of Byzantium and easily adopted it, entrusting the function of charity to the church and transferring it to give income to charity. In the XI century. in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, the first experience of church charity of persons with disabilities was formed.

Thus, Kievan Rus in the X-XI centuries, after the adoption of Orthodoxy in the process of Christianization of the Slavic principalities, copied the Byzantine system of monastic charity. Unlike Europe, where monastic shelters began to appear in the 4th-7th centuries, this form of charity appeared in Russia much later (10th-11th centuries) and can be considered introduced.

Feudal civil strife (11th-15th centuries), centuries of yoke (13th-15th centuries), troubled times (beginning of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries) undoubtedly led to the impoverishment of the national tradition of a positive attitude towards people with defects. Church-Christian charity in Russia was significantly limited due to the weakening of the Orthodox Church, its subordination to the state, and the secularization of culture.

The secular charity system, as is commonly believed, will begin to develop with the beginning of the Europeanization of the country, which is associated with the reign of Peter I. The organization of secular charity in Russia, the first legislative acts that initiated the state policy of social assistance to people with disabilities, can be considered the result of the monarch's acquaintance with Western European experience. The first secular special institutions were created as part of the reform of all institutions of the state according to a foreign model. The basis of the new policy, which was built according to the Western European (Protestant) model, was not the Christian-humanistic idea of caring for the weak, but the interests of the authorities, the idea of the monarch about the "usefulness" of subjects to the state.

The relative regulation of the life of persons with disabilities was introduced by the Stoglavy Judicial Code (1551), which prescribed deaf-mutes, demon-possessed and deprived of reason, to be placed in monasteries so that they would not be a "scarecrow for the healthy", we can say that this legislative act was aimed at protection of the "full majority" from the "inferior minority", the isolation of the representatives of the latter was recommended. The law of 1676 prohibited the management of property by "deaf, blind, dumb, drunkards and stupid", so the state attitude towards them was fixed as incapacitated.

Thus, the first stage in the development of the reflection of the state and society towards persons with disabilities in Russia proceeded in other historical periods, while its beginning is the result of the adoption of Christianity and the borrowing of the Western system of monastic charity for people with developmental disabilities. The end of the period - the monarch's acquaintance with the Western European state system and his desire to reform the country according to a foreign standard, in the context of all this, the first precedent of state care for persons with disabilities arises.

The second stage, which took place in Europe for almost six hundred years, came to Russia five centuries later, and amounted to only one century, thus ending at the same time as in the West, with precedents for opening the first special schools for children with hearing impairment and vision (early nineteenth century). The first specialized educational institution in Russia (a school for 12 deaf and dumb people) was founded in October 1806 in the city of Pavlovsk by decree of Empress Maria Feodorovna by the French typhlopedagogue V. Hayuy, invited to the country by Alexander I. A striking distinguishing feature can be considered that in Europe state special schools appeared due to the cumulative results of political and economic reforms, the secularization of public life, lawmaking in the field of civil and property rights, the development of science (philosophy, medicine, pedagogy), the opening of universities, the growth of the total number of secular schools, book printing, the rethinking of the rights of people with sensory disabilities, accumulation of successful experience of their individual training. And the foundation of special schools in Russia occurred under the influence of the monarch's acquaintance with Western European experience. Thus, Russia has passed the stage of accumulation of experience in individual learning.

Under the conditions after Peter the Great's split of society into "civilization" and "soil", most of the population ("lower classes", "soil", people) continued to show compassion and mercy, while the authorities ("tops", "civilization", "enlightenment" "), led by the monarch, tried to develop an organized active, secular philanthropy. The rudimentary state of domestic science at that time, medicine, university and school education prevented the emergence of attempts at individual education of people with disabilities. Accidental acquaintance of Russian leaders with the effective experience of individual education of deaf and blind children abroad did not and could not lead to attempts to organize such education in Russia.

It can be said that, in comparison with Western Europe, Russia failed to develop all the necessary socio-cultural prerequisites for realizing the possibility and expediency of teaching children with disabilities, but at the same time, the model for organizing their education was adopted and a precedent for opening special schools was formed.

In Russia, in the third period, evolution was interrupted by two revolutions, which led to a radical reorganization of the state and society. The prerequisites for the formation of a national system of special education developed in one type of state - monarchical Russia, and ends in a state of a completely different type - socialist. From that moment on, the Russian system of special education is very different from the Western European one, since it is built in the logic of a socialist state on fundamentally different ideological, philosophical postulates, value orientations, and a different understanding of human rights and freedoms.

The opening of the first schools for the deaf and dumb (1806) and the blind (1807) can be considered the beginning of the stage. In Russia, similar to Europe, three main areas of assistance to children with disabilities are developing: Christian - charitable (orphanages, almshouses, care homes), medical and pedagogical (special departments at hospitals, sanatorium schools) and pedagogical (schools, kindergartens, colonies) . In 1861, serfdom was abolished, zemstvos were established, which contributed to the mass opening of institutions for the deaf and dumb in the original Russian territories. Institutions for the blind, like institutions for the deaf, were not financed from the state budget and existed solely on charitable funds.

Thanks to the introduction of legislative acts on universal compulsory primary education and universal military service, the inevitable reflection of the state and society on the presence in it of persons with special needs occurs. Both in the West and in Russia, these laws contributed to the organization of a network of institutions for intellectually different people. According to the data, by the beginning of the twentieth century. in Russia there is a significant number of special educational institutions for three categories of children: deaf, blind and mentally retarded. It is important to note that, unlike Western Europe, the domestic draft Law on Compulsory Primary Education (1908), which took 10 years to implement, was never implemented. It is fundamentally important that the law did not apply to children with disabilities, and, naturally, the development of the necessary legal framework that would regulate the functioning of special education as a system was not provided for. State budget funds were not intended to finance special institutions.

So, in pre-revolutionary Russia, a network of special educational institutions was formed, but there was no formalized system of special education.

After the revolution of 1917, the system of special education, which was built "in the struggle against the philanthropic principles of the upbringing and education of abnormal children," for the first time becomes part of the state educational system. In Western Europe, the formation of the system of special education took place in the course of the evolutionary development of society and the state, in Russia - at the time of a sharp change in the political system.

In this period of the formation of the Soviet special school, teachers and defectologists work: D.I. Azbukin, P.G. Belsky, P.P. Blonsky, A.V. Vladimirsky, L.S. Vygotsky, V.A. Gander, A.N. Graborov, E.K. Gracheva, A.S. Griboyedov, A.M. Elizarova-Ulyanova, V.P. Kashchenko, B.I. Kovalenko, A.A. Krogius, N.K. Krupskaya, N.M. Lagovsky and others.

Thus, the end of the third stage in Russia is considered to be 1926-1927. - the time of legislative registration of the system of special education for three categories of children: those with hearing, vision and intelligence impairments.

The fourth stage in the evolution of social relations in the USSR is characterized by the development of the classification of children with disabilities in mental and physical development, the improvement of horizontal and vertical structures, and the differentiation of the system of special education. The number of types of special schools in our country is increasing to 8, the number of types of special education reaches 15. Pre-school and post-school special educational institutions are being created. Special groups are being opened for people with hearing impairments in technical schools and universities. The system of special education is intensively developing and differentiating. After the 50s. the system is becoming more complex, it already combines five types of special schools (for the deaf-mute, hard of hearing, blind, visually impaired, mentally retarded), their number begins to increase rapidly.

It is important to note that in Russia a draft law on special education was developed, but it was not adopted. Education in special schools of that time was of a qualifying nature. A positive consequence of the qualification is the opportunity for graduates of special schools to continue their education and receive both secondary technical and higher education. Like every citizen of the country, they could get a job. The negative consequence of the qualification was the "crowding out" of the educational system of children with profound impairments of the intellect, the emotional sphere, and the complex structure of the defect.

The main difference between the Russian education system and the European one was that the Soviet one was absolutely closed from the media, its formation took place outside the dialogue with society and the parents of the people we were interested in. For many years, most of society did not know anything about significant achievements in the education of children with disabilities, about their current and potential opportunities, about the problems of these families in which such children were brought up.

Russia was in the 90s. during the transition phase from the fourth to the fifth stage. This can be evidenced by the ratification of the Russian Federation in 1991 of the relevant conventions and UN declarations (1971, 1975). However, in the USSR, this transition was not prepared, as in Western Europe. In our country, the transition had a spasmodic character, this was due to a sharp reorganization of the state and its completely new values. It is generally accepted that the fifth stage of evolution has not yet been completed.

Thus, after analyzing the literature on the topic of the study, we can conclude that Russia has come a long way in the formation of society's attitude towards persons with developmental disabilities, having gone through five periods, including aggression and intolerance, gaining the right to charity, gaining the right to special education (for people with hearing, vision and mental retardation), gaining the right for most children with disabilities to education, granting the right for people with disabilities to both special and integrated education. Undoubtedly, the attitude of society towards persons with disabilities has changed due to the differentiation of social perceptions.

The process of formation of social representations is connected, first of all, with the laws of social development and predetermines the general direction of the social and cultural life of the group that generates these representations. Social representations are a special form of cognition and are capable of reflecting representations (images) not of an individual, but of some social community, group. Social representations are considered as a group phenomenon, and their formation and distribution occurs in the process of everyday communication through the channels of interpersonal and mass communication, therefore, it can be argued that there is a connection between groups and social representations, about their impact on each other.

Social representations come into being most rapidly through mutual influences, in the course of which individuals commit themselves to specific symbolic patterns, images, and shared values. By doing this, people acquire some common repertoire of interpretations, rules, procedures that can be applied in everyday life, and speech expressions accessible to absolutely everyone. The social thinking of the individual plays the role of a functional way of consciousness of the individual, and consciousness is a continuously renewed process of understanding the world, other people, oneself, that is, active thinking, which is associated with a number of problems of social reality.

The transition of public consciousness, which traditionally stood out as an independent level, to the individual one takes place in the consciousness of the individual, who is capable of abstracting from the stereotypes of the first in order to achieve the constructiveness of the second. Therefore, it can be argued that public consciousness can and should be changed in order to get rid of attitudes that create barriers in the interaction of society with people who have special developmental characteristics.

Concept and representation

The concept and is connected with manifold mutual transitions with representation, and at the same time is essentially different from it. In psychological literature, they are usually identified, reducing the concept to a common representation, or outwardly opposed, separating the concept from the representation, or, finally, - at best - outwardly correlated with each other.

The first point of view is presented in the teaching of empirical associative-sensualistic psychology.

Even J. Locke formulated this view. F. Galton's collective photographs give him a special clarity, in which he took one picture on top of another on the same film; superimposing them on top of each other led to the fact that individual features were erased and only common features were preserved. A number of psychologists thought along this pattern, adhering to this conception of the nature of concepts and the process of their formation. The general concept, from their point of view, allegedly differs from a single visual image only as a collective Galton photograph from a portrait. But it is precisely this comparison that very clearly reveals the inconsistency of this theory.

The result of the mechanical superimposition of various visual images-representations, highlighting their common features, cannot in any way be identified with a genuine concept. In such a general idea, the essential is often not revealed and the individual and special are lost. Meanwhile, for the generality of a genuine concept, it is necessary that it take the general in unity with the special and the individual and reveal the essential in it. To do this, without breaking with the sensuous visualization of representation, it must go beyond its limits. The concept is flexible, but precise, while the general idea is vague and indefinite. The general idea formed by highlighting common features is only an external set of features, while the real concept takes them in interconnections and transitions.

The second point of view was especially sharply pursued by the Würzburg school and psychology, which was influenced by its ideas.

The third is implemented in various versions by psychologists of different schools.

In reality, the concept can neither be reduced to representation nor separated from it. They are not identical, but there is unity between them; they exclude each other as opposites, since the representation is figuratively visual, and the concept is not visual; reveals its essential aspects in their relationship. Nevertheless, concept and representation are interconnected and interpenetrate each other, phenomenon and essence, general and singular in reality itself. In the real process of thinking, representation and concept are therefore given in a certain unity. A visual image-representation in the process of thinking is usually more and more schematized and generalized. This schematization does not come down to impoverishment of the representation by features, to a simple loss of certain features, it usually turns into a kind of reconstruction of the visual image, as a result of which those visual features of the object that are objectively most characteristic and practically essential for it come to the fore in the image itself; insignificant features, as it were, are obscured and recede into the background.

As a result of the processing and transformation that the figurative content of representations inevitably undergoes, being included in mental activity, a whole stepped hierarchy of more and more generalized and schematized representations is formed, which, on the one hand, reproduce perceptions in their individualized singularity, and on the other hand, pass into concepts. Thus, the representation itself tends towards the concept, towards presenting the general in the individual, the essence in the phenomenon, the concept in the image.

On the other hand, thinking in concepts, which really takes place in the minds of people, is always associated with ideas. Experimental research has shown with complete clarity both that thinking in concepts is not reducible to a flow of ideas, and that thinking in concepts is really always connected with the ideas included in it. The representations in the process of thinking in concepts are given in too fragmentary, fragmentary form to be able to reduce the entire train of thought to them; at the same time, their presence is too natural for the process of thinking so that they can be considered a completely random phenomenon, not connected with the very nature of thinking, a phenomenon. At the same time, the concept and representations do not simply coexist and accompany each other; they are intrinsically related. Representation, a visual image express primarily the individual, the concept - the general. They reflect different, but necessary interrelated aspects of reality.

The interrelation of the concept with the representation comes out especially clearly in moments of difficulty. Encountering difficulties, the thought proceeding in concepts often turns to representations, feeling the need to "compare thought and things", to attract visual material on which one could directly trace the thought. The principle of visibility in teaching is not just an external didactic device; it has deep epistemological and psychological foundations in the nature of the thought process. A mature thought, especially in moments of difficulty, implements this principle of visualization in its course with internal regularity. It includes visual representations either so that the individual details given in the representation and lost in the abstract concept would, as it were, prompt the thought to solve the problem, indicate a way out of the difficulty, or in order to consolidate individual stages and make it easier for this consciousness to follow the complex the course of thought. Performing this dual function in the mental activity of the individual, representations are internally combined with concepts. 122 For all that, the concept remains essentially, qualitatively different from representation. The main difference between them lies ultimately in the fact that the representation is an image that arises in the individual consciousness, while the concept is a formation mediated by the word, a product of historical development.

The methodology for the experimental psychological study of thinking in concepts was largely determined by the general concept of the concept. In accordance with this, the main attention of a number of researchers was focused on the process of abstraction of common properties or features in a number of given objects.

Along with the methods of studying abstraction, a significant place in the study of concepts was occupied by the method of definitions: the nature of the concepts with which the subject operates should be revealed by the definition that they give to this concept. The main drawback of the method of definitions is that, taken by itself, it does not take into account the possible discrepancy between the verbal definition that the subject is able to give to the concept, and the very meaning that this concept actually acquires from the subject in the process of its use, especially in connections with visual context. You can have a relatively good command of the concept and experience difficulties in its verbal definition. On the other hand, one can assimilate a verbal concept and still not be able to operate with it. The method of definition, therefore, investigates only one, and, moreover, not effective, manifestation of the concept. This disadvantage only limits the significance, but does not exclude the possibility of using the method of determination.

Judgment is the basic act or form in which the thought process takes place. To think is first of all to judge. Every thought process is expressed in a judgment that formulates its more or less preliminary result. Judgment reflects in a specific form the stage of human cognition of objective reality in its properties, connections and relationships. The relation of a judgment to its object, i.e., the truth of a judgment, is a problem of logic.

In terms of psychological judgment - this is some action of the subject, which comes from certain goals and motives that prompt him to express or accept. It is the result of mental activity, leading to the establishment of a certain attitude of the thinking subject to the subject of his thought and to judgments about this subject that have been established in the environment of the individual. Judgment is fundamentally actionable and necessarily has a social aspect.

The social aspect of the judgment largely determines the structure of the judgment: its greater or lesser complexity is due, at least in part, to the attitude towards someone else's thought.

Judgment is first formed in action. Every action, in so far as it is selective, in so far as it accepts and affirms something and eliminates, rejects something, is essentially a practical judgment; it is judgment by action or judgment by action.

The judgment of a real subject is rarely only an intellectual act in the "pure" form in which it appears in the treatises of logic. Expressing the attitude of the subject to the object and other people, the judgment is usually saturated with emotionality to a greater or lesser extent. In the judgment, the personality, its attitude to what is happening, is manifested, as if its sentence. Judgment is at the same time an act of will, insofar as the subject affirms or rejects something in it; The "theoretical" acts of affirmation and negation also contain a practical relationship.

This relation to other people is established in a judgment on the basis of a cognitive attitude to objective reality. Therefore the proposition which is in the judgment is objectively true or not true; subjectively, as the subject's statement, it possesses certain certainty for him. It is purely psychologically true or false, depending on whether it adequately or inadequately expresses the subject's belief in the truth or untruth of this or that position; it is true or not true, depending on whether it adequately reflects its object.

Every judgment claims to be true. But no proposition is in itself an unconditional truth. Therefore, there is a need for criticism and verification, for the work of thinking on judgment. reasoning- this is the work of thought on the judgment, aimed at establishing and verifying its truth. Judgment is both the starting point and the final point of reasoning. In both cases, the judgment is extracted from isolation, in which its truth cannot be established, and is included in the system of judgments, i.e., in the system of knowledge. Reasoning is substantiation when, starting from a judgment, it reveals the premises that condition its truth and thus justify it. Reasoning takes shape conclusions when, proceeding from the premises, it reveals the system of judgments that follows from them.

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The realities of the modern world and the development of scientific and technological progress require original, non-standard solutions from a person, since the ability to operate with spatial images is considered as a professionally important quality necessary for the implementation of a wide variety of activities. The study of secondary images (representations) has become relevant for ergonomics, labor psychology, engineering psychology and is of great importance for solving theoretical and applied problems of psychological science.

To date, there is no unity among scientists in terminology on the problem of representation and is considered by a number of authors as a process (Teplov B.M., Lomov B.F.), as a product (Becker L.M., Ananiev B.G.), as the level of mental reflection (Becker L.M.), as a model (Richardson A., Gordon R.), which significantly complicates the study of representation in theoretical terms. It should be noted that there are also methodological difficulties in the study of representations, which are caused, firstly, due to the lack of an available, directly acting object of the stimulus, with which the actual content of the representation can be directly correlated, and secondly, due to the absence the direct impact of the represented object, which makes the representation a “volatile” structure that is difficult to fix.

In this regard, the study of secondary images incommensurably lags behind the study of primary images. L.M. Becker wrote the following on this subject: "There is very little 'established' empirical material here, and the available data are extremely fragmentary and scattered."

Thus, the study of representation is a topical and, at the same time, a completely unresolved problem.

The study of the problem of representation was carried out as domestic (B.G. Ananiev, A.N. Leontiev, I.S. Yakimanskaya, I.M. Sechenov, B.M. Teplov, B.M. Petukhov, A.A. Gostev and many others) and foreign scientists (R.N.Shepard, R.Gordon, F.Clix and others).

Considering theoretical approaches to the definition of representation, it should be noted that for a very long time in foreign psychology there was no clarity either about what a representation is, or about what mental formations the representation is associated with (memory, imagination, or thinking).

An analysis of the literature devoted to the study of the representation problem showed that there are different approaches to the definition of this concept.

Representation is considered as complex, "objective" mental images (W. Wundt), as a secondary objectifying image (O. Kulpe, N. Ah), as an element of memory (A. Vreschner), as a psychological mechanism of the thinking process (AVallon), as a secondary the image of an object and phenomenon (A.A. Gostev), as a mediator in the dialectical transition from sensation to thought (B.G. Ananiev, L.M. Vekker), as a structure, scheme (W. Naiser), etc.

According to B. G. Ananiev, V. A. Ganzen, A. A. Gostev, representations are a multidimensional, multi-level system, which emphasizes their multifunctionality. The multifunctionality of representations implies a close relationship between its various elements: memory representations, imagination representations, spatial representations and time representations, where the spatial component can be a system-forming factor that determines the features of the functioning of this structure.

The study of individual psychological characteristics of representations, in foreign psychology (A. Richardson, R. Gordon, Shian, D. Marx) as the main characteristics of representations, brightness-clearness and controllability are distinguished. In domestic psychology (S.L. Rubinshtein, L.M. Vekker, A.A. Gostev) - visibility, brightness, fragmentation, generalization, instability, dynamism. A modern view of this psychological phenomenon (B.M. Petukhov, I.N. Natalina) revealed the existence of three main individual psychological characteristics - brightness-clearness, liveliness, controllability.

Thus, our theoretical analysis made it possible to establish that representation is a psychological phenomenon - a complex, multi-level mental formation. We also came to the conclusion that there is no single approach to the interpretation of the concept of representation in a meaningful aspect, that representations can be considered from different points of view.

Next, we consider some of the results of our research on the problem of representation structure. The study was conducted on the basis of an innovative educational institution of the lyceum of the Institute of State University in Irkutsk and the secondary school No. 20 in the village of Linevoye - Ozero, Chita Region. The study involved 60 students aged 13 to 16 years.

A systematic analysis of students' ideas involved studying the structure of ideas and the relationship between its components. On the basis of a theoretical analysis, the components of the representation structure as a polyfunctional formation (mnemic, spatial, temporal and imaginative) were identified, and then, based on an empirical study, a correlation analysis of the relationships between these components. Table I reflects the relationships between the components in the presentation structure.

Structure components	imaginative component	Mnemic component	Time component	Spatial Component
Mnemic component	r =0.50	1	r = 0.25 р?0.05	r = 0.64 р?0.001
imaginative component	1	r = 0.50	r = 0.60	r = 0.57
Time component	r = 0.60	r = 0.25 р?0.05	1	r = 0.32 р?0.05
Spatial	r = 0.57	r = 0.64	r = 0.32	1
component	p?0.001	p?0.001	p?0.05	1

Analysis of the table allows, indicates the presence of a significant relationship:

between the mnemonic and imaginative components of the representation structure (C.50); adolescents who have good memory representation abilities are successful in creating imaginative representations.
between the mnemonic and spatial components of the representation structure (0.64); adolescents with good memory representation abilities have good spatial representation abilities.
between the mnemonic and temporal components of the representation structure (0.25); adolescents with good memory representation abilities have a good idea of time.
between the imaginative and spatial components of the representation structure (0.57); adolescents who have a high level of creating imagination representations have a high level of spatial representations.
between imaginative and temporal components of the representation structure (0.60); adolescents with a high level of imagination representation have a high level of time representation.
between the temporal and spatial components of the representation structure (0.32); adolescents who have a good level of understanding of time are successful in creating spatial representations.

Thus, with a given sample size, there are significant relationships between all components of the representation structure, so a change in one of the components of the structure leads to a consistent change in other components. So we can say that representation is a complex polyfunctional formation.

In our future work, we will study the relationship between the structure of representations and the self-concept in gifted adolescents.

Bronnikova A.Yu.

Literature

Ananiev B.G. Psychology of sensory knowledge. - M., Nauka, 2001. - 279 p.
Vecker L.M. Mental processes. - L: Leningrad State University, 1976.- T.2.S. 342.
Vecker L.M. Mind and reality: a unified theory of mental processes. - M.: Meaning, 2000. - 685 p.
Gostev A.A. Figurative sphere of man. - M: Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1992. - 194 p.
Gostev A.A. Actual problems of studying figurative thinking//Questions of psychology. - 1984.-№1.-S.114-1
KornilovK.N. Psychology. - 2nd ed. / Kornilov K.N., Teplov B.M., Schwartz L.M.-M., 1941.-172p.
Krylov A.A., Manicheva S.A. Workshop on general, experimental and applied psychology. / V.D. Balin, V.K. Gaida, V.K. Gerbachevsky and others - 2nd ed., add. and revised, - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007, - 560 p.
Peskov V.P. Features of the structure of representations and its formation in children of school age: Abstract of the thesis. dis. …cand. psycho, science - Irkutsk: IGPU, 2005.

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What is the subject of psychology is a very difficult question. Literally translated, psychology is the science of the soul. What is the soul (or psyche)? There is no answer to the question. The existence of the soul is certain for some and conditional for others, it is impossible to see, grasp, measure. And this is one of the specifics of psychology as a science. We have to look for other objects in order to draw conclusions about the psyche as such through their analysis. The choice of a “secondary object” (for example, behavior, activity) depends on what is considered the main thing that determines mental life, i.e. that explanatory principle, which one or another scientific school. To answer this question, it is necessary to trace how the subject of psychology has changed throughout the history of science.
The psyche is a property of highly organized matter, which consists in the subject's active reflection of the objective world, in the construction of a picture of this world inalienable from him and in the regulation of behavior and activity on this basis.
The pre-scientific stage of psychology includes: 1. Psychology as the doctrine of the soul, such a definition of psychology was given more than two thousand years ago; 2. Psychology as the science of consciousness (begins in the 17th century with the development of the natural sciences); 3. Associative psychology (founded by J. Locke in the 18th century in connection with the development of experimental psychology up to the 19th century inclusive).
1. Psychology as a doctrine of the soul: The first ideas about the soul were of an animistic nature, endowing every object with a soul
A. Primitive man, comprehending the phenomena of death, sleep, believed that the soul is a double of a person: its needs and habits are the same as those of living people. This gave rise to the original forms of religion.
B. Ideas about the material nature of the soul belonged to natural philosophers: Thales, Anaximenes, Heraclitus. The soul is the form of the element that animates people and animals, which forms the beginning of the world (water, air, fire); the universal animation of matter (hylozoism) is a peculiar form of materialism. Atomists developed this idea: Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius. The soul is an organ materially animating the body, also guided by the material principle - the spirit, the mind, which has the function of managing the entire process of life, they themselves are bodily and formed from atoms - a materialistic trend in psychology.
V. Plato introduced the concept of parts of the soul, highlighting: a) mind; b) courage; c) lust - and placed them in a) the head; b) chest; c) abdominal cavity. He is the founder of dualism in psychology - a doctrine that interprets the body and psyche (material and spiritual) as two independent and antagonistic principles - an idealistic trend in psychology.
G. Aristotle (4th century BC) - the treatise "On the Soul", the founder of psychology. He defended an experimental, objective method of studying mental activity, for the first time put forward the idea of the inseparability of the soul and the living body. He extended the concept of the mental to all organic processes, singled out the plant, animal and rational souls. He put forward a theory about the formation of character in real activity.
2. Psychology as a doctrine of consciousness: Within the very category of the mental, the concept of consciousness is born. A person is able not only to have perceptions and thoughts, but also to notice that they belong to him, not only to perform arbitrary actions, but also to know that they come from him. In the 15th century the methodological prerequisites for a scientific understanding of the psyche and consciousness were laid.
The main method of study is introspection (observation of oneself) and the description of facts.
A. Descartes - "The Passions of the Soul". An adherent of dualism is the recognition of two substances that are not reducible to each other and have independent properties. The body has the properties of extension; soul - the properties of thinking. He gave the basis for two different teachings. He believed that animals do not have a soul and their behavior is a reflex to external influences. A person has consciousness and in the process of thinking establishes the presence of an inner life. Soul = consciousness, consciousness is thinking.
B. Spinoza - was a "monist" - claimed the existence of a single substance; in his system such was nature, omnipresent and eternal. Man cognizes nature through its attributes (properties); there are many of them, but only two are available to man: thinking and extension. All things, all processes are the states of a substance or its modes. Man is a complex mode formed by the soul mode and the body mode. The soul is the mind, as a mode of thinking, and consists of mode-views. Part of the spirit is immortal, but the individual perishes with the body. He laid the foundation for the law of associations, i.e. specific connection between ideas.
3. Associative psychology: The term "association" was introduced by *J. Locke, for him association is one of the mechanisms of thinking, and the main one. According to Locke, knowledge is experience, its sources are sensations and reflection (perception and judgment); from these sources everything that is the object of human thought receives ideas. There are no innate ideas. There is nothing in the mind that does not pass through the senses. He put forward the principle of an atomistic analysis of consciousness, where sensations are indecomposable elements and, on their basis, more complex formations are formed through associations.
Principles of associationism: 1. The soul is consciousness, in its cognitive part; 2. At the heart of mental life are simple elements - sensations; 3. More complex formations arise as "addition" of simpler ones based on the principle of association. 4. The source of knowledge is self-observation. Associationism developed valuable ideas in the field of the psychology of memory and thinking, but did not explain all mental processes.
The scientific stage of psychology begins in 1867 with the opening of an experimental laboratory in Leipzig by Wund. Wund is considered the founder of psychology as an independent science. The beginning of experimental psychology, the psychology of consciousness, emphasized the study of consciousness from the point of view of structure. The end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century was a crisis in the psychology of consciousness, due, on the one hand, to the fact that, within the framework of the paradigm in which scientists worked, they did not answer the pressing questions of reality. There was a development of production, and knowledge of psychology in this area was necessary, especially in the USA. Almost simultaneously, three major currents of psychology arose, each of which considered its subject in its own way.
1. Behaviorism is a direction in psychology that denies consciousness as a subject of scientific research and reduces the psyche and personality to various forms of behavior, understood as a set of body reactions to environmental stimuli. Occurs in the 30s.
directions - the concept of personality formation, the idea of the need for creative self-realization, which means true mental health. In contrast to behaviorism, the unsuitability of animal research for human understanding is emphasized, and the individual is seen as an integrative whole. Interest is directed to a healthy personality, in contrast to psychoanalysis. The subject of psychology is the process of personal growth.
5. Transpersonal psychology - which appeared in the 60s of the 20th century, considers the limiting possibilities of the human psyche (“mystical experiences”, “cosmic consciousness”), i.e. forms of special spiritual experience that require an analysis of a person’s view from a non-traditional side. From the center - an altered state of consciousness, the experience of which can lead a person to spiritual rebirth and gaining integrity. Direction Leader * St. Grof, who developed the method of chlotropic breathing. The subject of psychology is an altered state of consciousness.
1. Domestic psychology was largely isolated for a long time, developed taking into account the ideology and political state of the country at that time. Many of the ideas of Marxism formed the basis of the work of domestic psychologists. * Leontiev, in particular, studied the problem of activity in psychology.
2. At the present stage, the subject of psychology is: mental phenomena. Psychic phenomena can be divided into 3 main classes:
- mental processes (cognitive, emotional and volitional);
- mental states (rise, depression, fear, cheerfulness, etc.);
- mental properties of the personality (temperament, character, abilities, orientation).

Freud's theory of motivation is based on the concept of instinct, defined as an innate state of arousal that seeks release. In the theory of psychoanalysis, two categories of instinct are distinguished: the instinct of life (Eros or Libido) - its essence is in the deployment of sexual instincts; death instinct (Thanatos or Mortido). The instinct has 4 main parameters: source, target, object and stimulus. Two opposite forces: sexual and aggressive (destructive) are always in confrontation. The desire for satisfaction is the energy basis of a person.
3. Gestalt psychology - (approximate translation from German - psychology of form) is another important direction of the period of "open crisis", associated with the names of * Wertheimer, Koffka and Koehler. The subject of psychology here turned out to be integral structures (gestalts). As opposed to the theory of associationists (the image is created through the synthesis of individual parts), the idea of a holistic image is put forward, the properties of which are not reducible to the sum of the properties of the elements (perception is not reduced to the sum of sensations). Classical is the fifinomen discovered by Wertheimer: the perception of movement is possible in the absence of movement itself. They showed that in our perception the space is structured, the elements are combined into figures on the basis of relationships that are not reduced to the elements themselves, and these mechanisms are innate. Gestalt psychologists tried to discover the laws according to which the figure stands out from the background, these laws include: the law of the proximity of elements, symmetry, similarity, isolation, etc. The laws of the figure and the background act in the consideration of dual images. A new way of psychological thinking was discovered. However, this direction in modern psychology is not represented in its pure form. A number of provisions of the theory influenced other directions.
* Kurt Lewin, for example, brought these ideas into "field theory". The concept of "field" is associated with a system of objects that stimulate human activity, existing "here and now" in its psychological, subjective space. The field is tense when there is an imbalance between the individual and the environment. The tension needs to be discharged (in the realization of intentions), after which the needs lose their motivating force.
4. Humanistic psychology is one of the leading areas of psychology abroad. Founder *A. Maslow - 60s 20th century. In the center
Behavior - (in behaviorism) a system of reactions in connection with the learning of the body in the process of adapting to the environment.
Adaptation to the conditions of a changing environment requires the body to constantly develop forms of behavior aimed at restoring the disturbed balance or at achieving certain goals. This continuous adaptation is carried out thanks to processes that have become more complex in the evolution of living things from reflexes to thinking. If reflexes and instincts cannot undergo significant changes, then acquired behavioral responses can change significantly and persistently. These behavioral changes result from learning.
Behaviorism is subdivided depending on the interpretation of the learning process itself: 1. classical conditioning (Pavlov, Wolpe, etc.); 2. instrumental or operant conditioning (Thorndike and Skinner); 3. cognitive concepts or cognitive theories of learning (Tolman and Bandura).
2. Psychoanalysis - the area of the mental is wider than the area of consciousness, these are those phenomena, techniques, properties and states that arise, but are not realized by a person. The development of the problem of the unconscious was associated with psychoanalysis. * Z. Freud developed the theory of psychoanalysis.
Freud singled out 3 levels of consciousness: consciousness, preconsciousness and the unconscious - in order to describe the degree of accessibility of mental processes to awareness. The most significant psychic events take place in the unconscious (which is instinctive in nature and separated from reality). According to Freud, a person's personality includes 3 structural components:
Id - represents the instinctive core of the personality, is primitive, impulsive and obeys the principle of pleasure. The id uses reflex reactions and primary representations in order to obtain immediate pleasure from instinctive urges.
The ego is the rational part of the personality and is governed by the reality principle. Its task is to develop for the individual an appropriate plan of action in order to meet the requirements of the Id within the limits of the social world and the consciousness of the individual.
Superego - is formed last in the process of personality development, represents its moral side. The superego consists of two structures: conscience and the ego-ideal.

Soul as a subject of psychology.

Ideas about the soul existed already in ancient times and preceded the first scientific views on its structure. These ideas arose in the system of primitive beliefs, in mythology, they were reflected in ancient poetry, art, fairy tales, and later developed in religion. The soul was considered something supernatural, something that makes a person act, be active. Ancient people sometimes imagined the soul in the form of an animal or a little man in a human body. They perceived sleep or trance as a temporary absence of the soul in the body, and death as the disappearance of the soul forever.
With the emergence of philosophy, psychological knowledge begins to develop scientifically. This happens in ancient China, ancient India, ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Psychological questions were part of philosophy. This knowledge differs from the pre-scientific ideas of primitive people in several important properties: they are aimed at explaining the soul and its functions, studying its structure - in contrast to mythological ideas that did not require explanation. Since in those days there was a constant interaction of peoples and different cultures, many ideas about the soul are consonant in the philosophical schools of Ancient Greece and the Ancient East.
Ancient psychology, which developed in the philosophical schools of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, largely influenced the further development of psychological knowledge and laid its foundations. During the period of antiquity, the main problems of psychology were formulated, which were then solved over the centuries.
The first ancient thinkers were looking for the fundamental principle of the world, and with the help of it they explained everything that exists, including the soul. For example, Thales (7-6 centuries BC) believed that the fundamental principle of the world is water, and the human soul consists of water. Anaximander (7th-6th centuries BC) also considered water to be the beginning of life. Heraclitus (6th-5th centuries BC) called fire the fundamental principle. The world in his teaching is "an ever-living fire", and the souls of people are "its sparks". Anaxagoras (5th century BC) believed that the world consists of homeomeria - various substances that are ordered by reason - "nus". The soul, in his opinion, is woven from the most subtle homeomers. Thus, the first ancient thinkers believed that the soul consists of the same as the whole world.
In classical antiquity, the following philosophers were the brightest and most important for the development of the subject of psychology: Democritus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
In the 4th-5th centuries BC. Democritus analyzed the views of philosophers and summarized them. He came to the conclusion that there are atoms that move according to immutable laws. The whole world is made up of atoms. The soul is the most mobile atoms - the atoms of fire. Democritus believed that the soul consists of parts that are located in different parts of the body: in the head (reasonable part), chest (masculine part), liver (lustful part) and in the senses. At the same time, in the sense organs, the atoms of the soul are very close to the surface of the body and can come into contact with microscopic copies of the surrounding objects (eidols) that are carried in the air. When an eidol enters the sense organ, a person receives a sensation (visual, auditory, tactile, etc.) of the object, of which this eidol was a copy. These copies are separated (expire) from all objects of the external world, and therefore this theory of knowledge is called the theory of outflows. In addition to sensations, according to Democritus, the human soul also has thinking. Thinking gives more knowledge than feeling. Thinking and feeling develop in parallel.
One of the most important philosophers of antiquity was Socrates (470-399 BC). Socrates understood by the soul, first of all, the mental qualities of a person, his conscience and striving for lofty goals. The soul, as Socrates believed, is not material and does not consist of elements of the fundamental principle of the world. A person should strive to know the truth, and the truth lies in abstract concepts. To know it, a person must think (with the help of his soul). Socrates invented a method that helps a person to know the truth, and used it when he taught his students. This method is a series of leading questions that push a person to solve a problem. Thus, Socrates connected the soul not with the physical activity of the body, as was done before him, but with the mind and the ability to think in abstract terms.
The next most important thinker of the ancient period is Plato (c. 428 - 347 BC). Plato continued the ideas of Socrates and connected the soul with the mind. According to Plato, there is a realm of ideas that is inaccessible to the senses, and it can be known only with the help of the thoughts of the soul. Ideas are eternal and are the perfect reflection of all things. The things that we can see and feel in the world around us are only darkened copies of real ideas. The soul is an idea, but transferred to the world of things and forgetting its own world. In addition, Plato did not represent the soul as a whole, but consisting of parts that are in constant conflict, these parts are lustful, passionate and reasonable.
Plato's student Aristotle (384-322 BC) rethought his theory and discovered a new understanding of the soul as a subject of psychology. According to Aristotle, the soul is not an independent thing, but a form, a way of organizing a living body. The soul cannot be material. The soul is the essence of the living body, just as sharpness is the essence of a knife. Aristotle proposed different types of soul, depending on the essence of which organism it is. So there is a vegetative soul, an animal soul, and a rational soul. The rational soul is inherent only in man.
Democritus, Plato and Aristotle had many followers. Atomists, the disciples and successors of Democritus, developed the idea of a world consisting of numerous atoms, elementary particles, and associated the soul with atoms. The followers of Plato - Platonists and Neoplatonists, developed their ideas in the period of late antiquity and in the Middle Ages. Their main idea was the idea of an ideal world of ideas that the soul can know. The disciples of Aristotle are the Peripatetics. Their school was very organized and actively developed. They were engaged in the study and teaching of many sciences, including natural science, history, ethics; commented on the works of Aristotle.
In addition to philosophy, the subject of psychology was considered in the era of antiquity within the framework of medicine of that time. The most famous medical scientists were Alcmaeon, Hippocrates and Galen.
Alcmaeon (6th century BC) is known for the first time in the history of knowledge that he put forward a position on the localization of thoughts in the brain. Hippocrates (460-377 BC) adhered to the ideas of Democritus and agreed with Alcmaeon that the brain corresponds to the manifestations of the soul, namely thinking, reason, ethical values and sensations. Hippocrates became famous thanks to his theory of temperaments. According to his teachings, people are divided into sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic. Galen (2nd century BC) made several discoveries about the structure and function of the brain and spinal cord. Galen developed the teachings of Hippocrates on temperaments and described 13 types of temperament, of which only one is the norm, and all the rest are deviations.
The end of the ancient period in the history of the subject of psychology is usually associated with Aurelius Augustine (354 - 430 AD), called "Blessed" in the Orthodox tradition. Augustine was a philosopher, preacher, known as a Christian theologian and politician. He studied Neoplatonism, continued the ideas of Plato and in his work connected them with the ideas of Christianity. Augustine is considered to be the founder of Christian philosophy. The main idea of Augustine, important for the development of the subject of psychology, is the doctrine of special knowledge. Augustine taught that knowledge should not be directed to the outside world, but inward, into one's soul. Plunging into himself, a person must overcome everything individual and find the truth. To get to this truth, a person needs will. Augustine considered her the core of the human soul.
The soul was the subject of psychology not only in antiquity, but also in the Middle Ages (5th - 13th centuries). This period of history is characterized by dominance over philosophy and other sciences of religion, the formation of a feudal society. Some scientists consider the Middle Ages a time of darkness and ignorance, but many great thinkers worked in this era, various teachings were created and famous discoveries were made. Psychology in the Middle Ages acquires an ethical-theological and mystical character. In Western countries, much attention is beginning to be paid to spiritual life, ethical problems; and although there is some slowdown in the study of the structure, functions of the soul and cognitive processes, these questions remain active in the psychology of the countries of the East. The most famous researchers of the medieval East are Avicenna, Alhazen, Averroes. They develop the teachings of antiquity along with an active study of human physiology and the relationship between the psychological and the biological.
Other branches of philosophy flourish in European science. Two important directions that were in a struggle with each other - realism and nominalism. Realism came from the ideas of Plato. According to this doctrine, there are communities, or universals, these are the ideas of all objects. What is important in the teaching of the realists is that they represented these communities as separately existing objects located in the world of ideas. The soul, as in the teachings of Plato, is engaged in their knowledge. The nominalists took the opposite position. They believed that generalities are names, abstract concepts, and they do not exist as separate objects. Nominalists believed that attention should be paid to the objects themselves, to study the sensory experience received from them. This dispute hides behind itself an important problem for psychological knowledge: does human knowledge come from sensations or from ideas, abstract concepts? In times of greatest influence on the science of religion, preference was given to the position in which ideas were primary - realism. However, later the role of religion decreases, this is facilitated by numerous discoveries in the natural sciences - in the study of nature, astronomy, and mathematics. Nominalism is becoming an increasingly influential trend.
In the midst of this dispute, the contradictory teachings of two famous thinkers, Thomas Aquinas and Roger Bacon, arise.
Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274). This is the most famous representative of scholasticism - a religious and philosophical trend that combined Christian teachings with the works of ancient thinkers, primarily Plato, Aristotle, Augustine. Thomas Aquinas taught that the soul has an existence separate from the human body, although it is located in the body. The soul has abilities, some of which need a body (these are vegetative and animal functions), and some are inherent only in the soul itself (mind, will). The soul is engaged in cognition, and cognition has two levels: the level of cognitive organs and the intellectual level. Thomas Aquinas considers the level of cognitive processes to be the lowest, and argues that the soul should be engaged in intellectual cognition. The intellect has the ability to find ever broader generalizations, the apex of which is God. God is the highest and ultimate goal of knowledge. To achieve this goal, the human soul has a number of innate concepts - mathematical axioms, logical principles of knowledge. This innate knowledge, according to Thomas Aquinas, is embedded in the human soul by God himself, therefore the most important activity belongs to the mind.
Roger Bacon (1214 - 1292) (not to be confused with Francis Bacon, an English philosopher of the 17th century!) took a completely different position. Roger Bacon argued with the scholastics and extolled the importance of experiments and observation in knowledge, in contrast to the pure activity of reason and intellect. He believed that it was impossible to ignore sensations, and that without them the intellect could not develop. To know the soul, as R. Bacon believed, experience is not enough, but it is necessary. The intellect, developed through experience, is capable of experiencing a kind of inner enlightenment, similar to illumination, through which the essence of the soul is revealed.
The Renaissance begins in the 14th century. Interest in psychology is growing against the backdrop of a return to the classical ideas of antiquity, the development of natural science research. Philosophy is gradually separating from religion, and many new teachings arise that have not arisen before, although it cannot be said that there was absolutely no religious influence in them. But nevertheless, there are more and more discoveries, and especially in medicine and physiology. Scientists learned more and more about the human body, which is known to contain the soul, and their ideas about the soul changed. Scientists refuse to describe general issues and move on to a specific study of the soul and its functions. One of the first explorers to make this transition was Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He began to explore the abilities of the soul, the processes that take place in it. F. Bacon divided the soul into divinely inspired (rational) and feeling. The abilities of the rational part of the soul, he called the mind, reason, imagination, memory, desire (or attraction), will. The abilities of the sentient soul include sensation, choice (striving for favorable circumstances and avoiding unfavorable ones), voluntary movements.
Francis Bacon paved the way for the development of the doctrine of consciousness, as he abandoned the study of the soul as a special subject and proposed the study of its functions. In addition, he did much to establish the experimental method in science, as opposed to relying on the senses alone. This was the beginning of the progressive development of the sciences, including psychological knowledge, which was attached to natural science research.

The modern understanding of the term "representation", in general, developed by the middle of the 20th century. At the same time, concretization, clarification, transfer, embedding of the fundamental ideas of the first half of the 20th century. into new theoretical contexts is actively ongoing until now. In my opinion, the most interesting in this sense are the works of E.V. Ilyenkova, B.M. Teplova, L.Yu. Tikhomirova, A.V. Basova, A.A. Gosteva, E.L. Agayeva, A.V. Brushlinsky, L.M. Gurova, Yu.B. Gippenreiter, R.S. Nemova, E.L. Porotskaya, V.P. Zinchenko, A.G. Ruzskaya, P.A. Rudika, E.A. Klimova, L.A. Venger, O.M. Dyachenko, L.F. Obukhova, A.V. Petrovsky.

In psychology, about 40 definitions of the content of the concept of "representation" are known. Let's take a few examples.

According to E.P. Ilyin, representations are subjective images of the objectively existing, recreated by memory (memory representations) or created by the imagination (creative images), arising when something material that gave rise to these images does not directly affect the subject's senses.

By definition, R.S. Nemov, representation is a mental process of reflecting objects or phenomena that are not currently perceived, but are recreated on the basis of our previous experience.

Representation is a visual image of an object, reproduced from memory in the imagination.

The images of representations, as a rule, are less vivid and less detailed than the images of perception, but they reflect the most characteristic of a given subject. At the same time, the degree of generalization of one or another representation may be different, in connection with which single and general representations are distinguished. By means of a language that introduces socially developed methods of logical operation of concepts into the representation, the representation is translated into an abstract concept.

S.L. Rubinstein identified several types of representations.

First, these are representations of memory, i.e., representations that have arisen on the basis of our direct perception in the past of an object or phenomenon.

Second, they are representations of the imagination. At first glance, this type of representation does not correspond to the definition of the concept of "representation", because in the imagination we display something that we have never seen, but this is only at first glance. Imagination representations are formed on the basis of the information received in past perceptions and its more or less creative processing. The richer the past experience, the brighter and fuller the corresponding representation can be.

Representations arise not by themselves, but as a result of our practical activity. At the same time, representations are of great importance not only for the processes of memory or imagination, they are extremely important for all mental processes that ensure human cognitive activity. The processes of perception, thinking, writing are always associated with representations, as well as memory, which stores information and through which representations are formed.

According to E.P. Ilyin, the main characteristics of representations are:

1. Visibility

Representations are sensuously visual images of reality, and this is their proximity to the images of perception. But perceptual images are a reflection of those objects of the material world that are perceived at the moment, while representations are reproduced and processed images of objects that were perceived in the past.

2. Fragmentation

Representations are full of gaps, certain parts and features are presented brightly, others are very vague, and still others are absent altogether.

3. Instability and inconstancy

Any evoked image, be it any object or someone else's image, will disappear from the field of consciousness. Ideas are very fluid and changeable. One or the other details of the reproduced image come to the fore in turn.

HER. Sapagov, they note that representations are not just visual images of reality, but always, to a certain extent, generalized images. This is their closeness to concepts. Generalization exists not only in those representations that relate to a whole group of similar objects (the representation of a chair in general, the representation of a cat in general, etc.), but also in the representations of specific objects.

Representation, like any other cognitive process, performs a number of functions in the mental regulation of human behavior. Most researchers identify three main functions:

1. Signal

The essence of the signal function of representations is to reflect in each specific case not only the image of an object that previously influenced our senses, but also diverse information about this object, which, under the influence of specific influences, is transformed into a system of signals that control behavior.

2. Regulatory

The regulatory function of representations is closely related to their signaling function and consists in the selection of the necessary information about an object or phenomenon that previously affected our senses. Moreover, this choice is made not abstractly, but taking into account the real conditions of the forthcoming activity.

3. Tuning

It manifests itself in the orientation of human activity depending on the nature of environmental influences. So, studying the physiological mechanisms of voluntary movements, I. P. Pavlov showed that the emerging motor image ensures the adjustment of the motor apparatus to perform the corresponding movements. The tuning function of representations provides a certain training effect of motor representations, which contributes to the formation of the algorithm of our activity.

4. Generalization

Our ideas are always the result of a generalization of individual images of perception. The degree of generalization contained in a representation can vary.

Representations can be classified according to the following criteria:

1) by their content; from this point of view, one can speak of mathematical, geographical, technical, musical, etc. representations;
2) according to the degree of generalization; from this point of view, we can talk about private and general representations (private representations are representations based on the observation of one object; general representations are representations that generally reflect the properties of a number of similar objects);
3) based on the classification of types of sensation and perception: visual, auditory, motor (kinesthetic), tactile, olfactory, gustatory, temperature and organic;
4) according to the degree of manifestation of volitional efforts: arbitrary and involuntary (involuntary representations are representations that arise spontaneously, without activating the will and memory of a person; arbitrary representations are representations that arise in a person as a result of volitional effort, in the interests of the goal set).

All the main types of our representations turn out to be related to each other to one degree or another, and the division into classes or types is very arbitrary.

Ideas about another person can be attributed to a separate group. General idea of a person E.P. Ilyin divided the research into two areas. He refers to the first direction of research all the individual characteristics of a person. To the second direction of research - a description of past and planned events, actions.

Thus, representation is a mental process of reflecting objects or phenomena that are not currently perceived, but are recreated on the basis of our previous experience. Representations play a very significant role in the mental regulation of human activity. The main characteristics of representations are: visibility, generalization, fragmentation, instability and inconstancy.

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