The origins of psychological knowledge lie in ancient philosophy.

Stages of development of psychology as a science:

1) until the beginning of the 18th century, psychology developed as a science of the soul within the framework of ancient philosophy. (Democritus, Plato, Aristotle)

2) psychology, as a science of consciousness, belongs to the "epoch of modern times" (mid-XVII - mid-XIX centuries).

At this time, the work of Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650) had a great influence on the formation of Western psychological thought.

3) the formation of psychology as an independent experimental science, refers to the 60-70s of the XIX century.

The founder of experimental psychology is Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920).

2. The subject and tasks of general psychology. Principles and structure.

Psychology is a science that studies objective patterns, manifestations and mechanisms of the psyche.

Tasks of psychology:

Qualitative study of mental phenomena;

Analysis of the formation and development of mental phenomena;

The study of the physiological mechanisms of mental phenomena;

Assistance in the systematic introduction of mental knowledge into the life and activities of people.

Principles:

Determinism;

Unity of consciousness and activity;

The development of the psyche.

Structure:

Socio-psychological;

Age-related psychology;

Psychology of management;

Engineering psychology (man and technology);

Psychology of work;

Conflictology.

3. The concept of the psyche and consciousness. The structure of consciousness.

The psyche, a special property of highly organized matter, is a form of reflection by the subject of objective reality.

The highest form of psychic reflection is inherent only in man - this is consciousness.

Main functions:

Reflection;

Management and regulation of behavior and activities.

Mental phenomena are divided into: 1) mental state and 2) mental properties (temperament, character, abilities).

Mental processes are divided into: 1) emotional; 2) cognitive (memory, thinking, imagination); 3) strong-willed.

4. Methods of research in modern psychology.

There are four groups of methods of cognition of psychological phenomena:

Organizational methods: 1) comparative method (dividing into groups by age, form of activity, etc.); 2) longitudinal method (examination of the same persons for a long time); 3) a complex method (representatives of different sciences participate in the study of the object).

Empirical methods: 1) observation and self-observation; 2) experimental methods; 3) psychodiagnostic methods (tests, questionnaires, questionnaires, sociometry, interviews, conversation); 4) analysis of products of activity; 5) biographical methods.

Data processing methods: 1) quantitative (statistical); 2) qualitative (analysis).

Interpretive methods: 1) genetic method (analysis of development with the allocation of individual phases, stages, critical moments); 2) structural method (establishment of structural links between all personality characteristics).

Basic methods of psychology. observation. The method scientifically explains the causes of a psychological phenomenon, and is carried out in a natural situation according to a program that lists the expected actions and reactions of the observed, fixing the frequency of their occurrence.

Experiment - the intervention of a researcher in the activities of the subject in order to create conditions in which this or that psychological fact is revealed.

The emergence and development of psychology as a science. The main stages in the development of psychology as a science.

The formation of psychology as a science was closely connected with the development of philosophy and the natural sciences. The first ideas about the psyche developed in primitive society. Even in ancient times, people paid attention to the fact that there are material phenomena, material (objects, nature, people) and non-material (images of people and objects, memories, experiences) - mysterious, but existing independently, regardless of the surrounding world.

The greatest philosopher of antiquity Democritus (V-IV centuries BC) states that the soul also consists of atoms, with the death of the body, the soul also dies. The soul is the driving principle, it is material. A different idea of ​​the essence of the soul develops Plato (428-348 BC). Plato argues that the basis of everything is ideas that exist in themselves. Ideas form their own world, it is opposed by the world of matter. Between them as an intermediary - the world soul. According to Plato, a person does not so much learn as remember what the soul already knew. The soul is immortal, Plato believed. The first work on the soul was written Aristotle (384-322 BC). His treatise "On the Soul" is considered the first psychological work.

By the beginning of the XVII century, the formation of psychological views in this period is associated with the activities of a number of scientists: Rene Descartes (1595-1650), B. Spinoza (1632-1677), D. Locke (1632-1704) and others.

The evolutionary teachings of Ch. Darwin (1809-1882) played an important role in this regard. There is a number of fundamental studies devoted to the general patterns of development of sensitivity and specifically to the work of various sense organs (I. Müller, E. Weber, G. Helmholtz, and others). Of particular importance for the development of experimental psychology were the works of Weber, devoted to the relationship between the increase in irritation and sensation. These studies were then continued, generalized and subjected to mathematical processing by G. Fechner. Thus the foundations of experimental psychophysical research were laid. The experiment begins very quickly to be introduced into the study of central psychological problems. In 1879, the first psychological experimental laboratory was opened in Germany (W. Wund), in Russia (V. Bekhterev).

1879 is the conditional date of the origin of psychology as a science (system).

W. Wolf - the founder of psychology.

First stage. The times of antiquity - the subject of psychology is the soul. During this period, there are two main directions in understanding the nature of the soul: idealistic and materialistic. The founders of the idealistic direction were Socrates and Plato (the soul is the beginning of the immortal). The materialistic direction in the understanding of the soul was developed by Democritus, Anaxagoras, Anaximenes. Aristotle is considered the founder of psychology, who in his work “On the Soul” summarized the knowledge of the soul available at that time, understanding by this the method of organizing the living body, he distinguished three types of soul: the plant soul, the animal soul and the rational soul.

The second stage of the XVII - XIX centuries. - the subject of psychology becomes consciousness. Consciousness was understood as the ability of a person to feel, remember, and think. In the 17th century, the works of R. Descartes played an important role in changing the subject of psychology. He first identified the psychophysical problem, i.e. relationship between soul and body. He introduced the concept of consciousness and reflex.

19th century - Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt is considered the founder of experimental psychology. Wundt and colleagues identified 3 main components of consciousness: sensations, images and feelings.

The third stage 1910-1920 - USA - behaviorism arises. J. Watson is considered the founder of behaviorism. Behavior becomes the subject of psychology. Classical behaviorism denied the role of consciousness in behavior. It was believed that consciousness does not play any role in the formation of behavioral skills, and skills are formed by mechanical repetition of the same action. Classical behaviorism does not deny the existence of consciousness.

The fourth stage 1910 - 1920 - Europe. The subject of psychology is the psyche. There are various psychological trends and schools.

Basic concepts in foreign psychology: behaviorism, depth psychology, Gestalt psychology, humanistic psychology, cognitive psychology, genetic psychology.

Behaviorism(eng. behavior - behavior) - one of the directions in foreign psychology, the program of which was proclaimed in 1913 by the American researcher John Watson, who believed that the subject of study should not be consciousness, but behavior. By studying the direct connections between stimuli and reactions (reflexes), behaviorism drew the attention of psychologists to the study of skills, learning, and experience; opposed associationism, psychoanalysis. Behaviorists used two main directions for the study of behavior - conducting experiments in laboratory, artificially created and controlled conditions, and observing subjects in their natural habitat.

Depth psychology (Freudian)- this is a group of directions in modern foreign psychology, focused mainly on unconscious mechanisms psyche.

Gestalt psychology- direction in foreign psychology, proceeding from the integrity of the human psyche, not reducible to the simplest forms. Gestalt psychology explores the mental activity of the subject, based on the perception of the surrounding world in the form of gestalts. Gestalt (German Gestalt - form, image, structure) is a spatially visual form of perceived objects. One of the clearest examples of this, according to Keller, is a melody that is recognizable even if it is transposed to other elements. When we hear a melody for the second time, we recognize it through memory. But if the composition of its elements changes, we still recognize the melody as the same one.

cognitive psychology- a branch of psychology that studies cognitive, i.e., cognitive, processes of human consciousness. Research in this area is usually related to issues of memory, attention, feelings, presentation of information, logical thinking, imagination, decision-making ability.

Humanistic psychology- a number of directions in modern psychology, which are focused primarily on the study of the semantic structures of a person. In humanistic psychology, the main subjects of analysis are: the highest values, self-actualization of the individual, creativity, love, freedom, responsibility, autonomy, mental health, interpersonal communication. Humanistic psychology emerged as an independent trend in the early 60s of the XX century as a protest against the dominance of behaviorism and psychoanalysis in the United States, called the third force.

genetic psychology–. The subject of her research is the development and origin of the intellect, the formation of concepts: time, space, object, etc. Genetic psychology studies children's logic, the characteristics of a child's thinking, the mechanisms of cognitive activity, the transition of forms of thinking from simple to complex. The founder of genetic psychology, the Swiss psychologist J. Piaget (1896-1980), is one of the most famous scientists whose work constituted an important stage in the development of psychology.

Domestic psychology. Cultural-historical concept of the development of the psyche of L.S. Vygotsky. Subject-activity approach of S.L. Rubinshtein. Development by A.N. Leontiev of the theory of activity. An Integrative Approach to Human Cognition BG Ananyeva.

Vygotsky and his concept . He showed that man has a special kind of mental functions that are completely absent in animals. Vygotsky argued that the higher mental functions of man, or consciousness, are of a social nature. At the same time, the higher mental functions are understood as: arbitrary memory, arbitrary attention, logical thinking, etc.

First part of the concept - "Human and nature". Its main content can be formulated in the form of two theses. The first is the thesis that during the transition from animals to humans, a fundamental change in the relationship of the subject with the environment took place. Throughout the existence of the animal world, the environment acted on the animal, modifying it and forcing it to adapt to itself. With the advent of man, the opposite process is observed: man acts on nature and modifies it. The second thesis explains the existence of mechanisms for changing nature on the part of man. This mechanism consists in the creation of tools of labor, in the development of material production.

The second part of the concept- Man and his own psyche. It also contains two provisions. The mastery of nature did not pass without a trace for a person, he learned to master his own psyche, he acquired higher mental functions, expressed in the forms of voluntary activity. Under the higher mental functions of L.S. Vygotsky understood the ability of a person to force himself to remember some material, to pay attention to some object, to organize his mental activity. A person mastered his behavior, like nature, with the help of tools, but special tools - psychological ones. These psychological tools he called signs.

The third part of the concept- "Genetic aspects". This part of the concept answers the question "Where do the sign funds come from?" Vygotsky proceeded from the fact that labor created man. In the process of joint labor, communication took place between its participants with the help of special signs that determined what each of the participants in the labor process should do. Man has learned to control his behavior. Consequently, the ability to command oneself was born in the process of human cultural development.

The subject of psychology Rubinstein is "the psyche in activity." Psychology studies the mind through activity. Rubinstein introduces the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity, which essentially means the unity of the subjective and the objective. Consciousness is formed in activity and manifests itself in it.

The psyche, personality, consciousness are formed and manifested in activity.

The psyche is known in activity, but it is experienced directly.

The psyche already exists in the prenatal period and forms the basis for further activity, and activity is a condition for the development of the psyche.

. Development by A.N. Leontiev of the theory of activity . According to A.N. Leontiev, “the personality of a person is “produced” - created by social relations into which the individual enters in his objective activity”. Personality first appears in society. A person enters history as an individual, endowed with natural properties and abilities, and he becomes a person only as a subject of social relations. Thus, the category of the subject's activity comes to the fore, since “it is the activity of the subject that is the initial unit of the psychological analysis of the personality, and not actions, operations or blocks of these functions; the latter characterize activity, not personality.

An Integrative Approach to Human Cognition BG Ananyeva. Ananiev considers a person in the unity of four aspects: 1) as a biological species; 2) in ontogenesis, the process of the life path of a person as an individual; 3) as a person; 4) as part of humanity.

Personality is a “conscious individual” (B.G. Ananiev), i.e. a person capable of conscious organization and self-regulation of his activities on the basis of the assimilation of social norms of morality and legal behavior. B.G. Ananiev suggested anthropological approach to the study of man , which was implemented through systematic and long-term genetic research. In these studies, he shows that individual development is an internally contradictory process. Development, according to Ananiev, is an increasing integration, a synthesis of psychophysiological functions. B.G. Ananiev in practice began to study a person as a holistic phenomenon. He singled out important interrelated features in it, which we call macro-characteristics, such as the individual, the subject of activity, personality and individuality. The scientist studied these macrocharacteristics in a real environment - in the aggregate of interrelated natural, social and spiritual factors.

4.Modern psychology, its tasks and place in the system of sciences .

In recent years, there has been a rapid development of psychological science, due to the variety of theoretical and practical problems that confront it. In our country, interest in psychology is especially indicative - it is finally beginning to receive the attention it deserves, and in almost all areas of modern education and business.

The main task of psychology is to study the laws of mental activity in its development. Tasks: 1) learn to understand the essence of phenomena and their patterns; 2) learn to manage them; 3) use the acquired knowledge in the education system, in management, in production in order to improve the efficiency of various branches of practice; 4) to be the theoretical basis for the activities of the psychological service.

Over the past decades, the range and directions of psychological research have significantly expanded, and new scientific disciplines have emerged. The conceptual apparatus of psychological science has changed, new hypotheses and concepts are put forward, psychology is continuously enriched with new empirical data. Thus, B. F. Lomov, in his book Methodological and Theoretical Problems of Psychology, characterizing the current state of science, noted that at present "there is a sharp increase in the need for further (and deeper) development of the methodological problems of psychological science and its general theory."

The field of phenomena studied by psychology is enormous. It covers the processes, states and properties of a person, which have varying degrees of complexity - from the elementary distinction of individual features of an object that affects the senses, to the struggle of personality motives. Some of these phenomena have already been studied quite well, while the description of others is reduced to a simple recording of observations.

For many decades, psychology was predominantly a theoretical (ideological) discipline. At present, her role in public life has changed significantly. It is increasingly becoming an area of ​​special professional practice in the education system, industry, public administration, medicine, culture, sports, etc. The inclusion of psychological science in solving practical problems significantly changes the conditions for the development of its theory. Tasks, the solution of which requires psychological competence, arise in one form or another in all spheres of society, determined by the growing role of the so-called human factor. The "human factor" refers to a wide range of socio-psychological, psychological and psycho-physiological properties that people possess and which are manifested in one way or another in their specific activities.

Understanding the possibilities of using psychological data in other sciences largely depends on the place given to psychology in the system of sciences. At present, the non-linear classification proposed by academician B. M. Kedrov is considered the most generally accepted. It reflects the diversity of connections between the sciences, due to their subject closeness. The proposed scheme has the shape of a triangle, the vertices of which represent the natural, social and philosophical sciences. This situation is due to the real proximity of the subject and method of each of these main groups of sciences with the subject and method of psychology, oriented depending on the task in hand. side of one of the vertices of the triangle.

Psychology as a science

Society science philos. The science

Ways of obtaining psychological knowledge. Worldly psychological knowledge about oneself and other people. Sources of scientific psychological knowledge. The main differences between everyday and scientific psychological knowledge.

Ways to obtain psychological knowledge . As the Russian philosopher and psychologist Chelpanov Georgy Ivanovich (1862-1936) once said: “Not from observing only oneself, but from observations of all living beings in general, the psychologist seeks to build the laws of mental life". Psychology draws these observations from a number of other sciences. We can depict the material that a psychologist needs to build a system of psychology in the following form. A psychologist needs three groups of data: 1) Data comparative psychology:. this includes the so-called "psychology of peoples" (ethnography, anthropology), as well as history, works of art, etc.; animal psychology; child psychology. 2) abnormal phenomena ( mental illness; hypnotic phenomena, sleep, dreams; mental life of the blind, deaf and dumb, etc.). 3) Experimental data.

So, we see that for a modern psychologist, first of all, it is necessary to have data from comparative psychology. This includes the "psychology of peoples", which includes the history and development of religious ideas, the history of myths, mores, customs, language, the history of arts, crafts, etc. among uncultured peoples. History, describing the past life of peoples, also describes such moments in their lives as popular movements, etc., this provides rich material for the so-called psychology of the masses. The study of the development of language also provides very important material for psychology. Language is the embodiment of human thought. If we follow the development of language, then we can also trace the development of human ideas. Works of art also provide very important material for psychology: for example, to study such a passion as "stinginess", we should turn to its depiction in Pushkin, Gogol and Moliere.

Animal psychology is important because in the psychic life of animals the same "faculties" which in man appear in an obscure form arise in a simple, elementary form, as a result of which they are accessible to easier study; for example, instinct in animals appears in a much clearer form than in man.

The psychology of the child is important because, thanks to it, we can see how higher abilities develop from elementary ones. For example, the development of the ability to speak could be traced in a child from its most rudimentary form.

The study of abnormal phenomena, which include mental illness, the so-called hypnotic phenomena, and likewise sleep and dreams, is also necessary for the psychologist. What is vaguely expressed in a normal person is expressed extremely clearly in a mentally ill person. For example, the phenomenon of memory loss is also noticed in a normal person, but it appears especially clearly in mentally ill people.

If, further, we take people with various physical defects who lack, for example, the organ of sight, hearing, etc., then observations on them can provide extremely important material for psychology. A blind person does not have an organ of vision, but has a conception of space, which, of course, differs from the conception of space in a sighted person. The study of the peculiarities of the idea of ​​the space of a blind person gives us the opportunity to determine the nature of the idea of ​​space in general.

Experimental data obtained empirically in the course of observing individual psychic facts give us the opportunity to classify the phenomena of psychic reality, to establish a regular connection between them that can be verified by experience. The most effective method for obtaining these data is a laboratory experiment.

Here is the numerous material on the basis of which the system of psychology is built.

Worldly psychological knowledge about oneself and other people. Everyday psychology is psychological knowledge that is accumulated and used by a person in everyday life. They are usually specific and are formed in a person in the course of his individual life as a result of observations, self-observations and reflections. People differ in terms of psychological vigilance and worldly wisdom. Some are very perceptive, capable of easily capturing the mood, intentions or character traits of a person by the expression of their eyes, face, gestures, posture, movements, habits. Others do not have such abilities, are less sensitive to understanding the behavior, the internal state of another person. The source of everyday psychology is not only a person's own experience, but also the people with whom he directly comes into contact.

The content of everyday psychology is embodied in folk rituals, traditions, beliefs, in proverbs and sayings, in aphorisms of folk wisdom, in fairy tales and songs. This knowledge is passed from mouth to mouth, recorded, reflecting centuries of everyday experience. Many proverbs and sayings have a direct or indirect psychological content: “There are devils in a still pool”, “Softly spreads, but hard to sleep”, “A frightened crow and a bush is afraid”, “Praise, honor and glory and a fool loves”, “Seven times measure - cut once", "Repetition is the mother of learning". Rich psychological experience is accumulated in fairy tales.

The main criterion for the truth of the knowledge of everyday psychology is their plausibility and obvious usefulness in everyday life situations. The peculiarities of this knowledge are concreteness and practicality. They always characterize the behavior, thoughts and feelings of people in specific, albeit typical, situations. In knowledge of this type, the inaccuracy of the concepts used is manifested. Everyday terms are usually vague and ambiguous. Our language contains a large number of words denoting psychic facts and phenomena. By the way, many of these words are similar to similar terms of scientific psychology, but are less accurate in use.

Data processing methods.

· methods of quantitative analysis, here we mean a very extensive group of methods of mathematical data processing and methods of statistics in application to the problems of psychological research.

· methods of qualitative analysis: differentiation of factual material into groups, description of typical and exceptional cases.

Interpretation methods.

It must be clearly understood that the actual data itself still means little. The researcher receives results in the process of interpreting the actual data, so a lot depends on this or that interpretation.

· The genetic (phylo - and ontogenetic) method allows interpreting all the factual material in terms of development, highlighting phases, stages of development, as well as critical moments in the formation of mental functions. As a result, “vertical” links are established between the levels of development.

· The structural method establishes "horizontal" links between various elements of the psyche, while the usual methods of studying all kinds of structures are used, in particular, classification and typology.

Advantages:

The richness of the collected information (provides both the analysis of verbal information and actions, movements, deeds)

The naturalness of the working conditions is preserved

Allows the use of a variety of tools

it is not necessary to obtain the prior consent of the subject

Efficiency of obtaining information

Relative cheapness of the method

Ensures high accuracy of results

Repeated studies under similar conditions are possible

almost complete control over all variables

limitations:

Subjectivity (results largely depend on experience, scientific views, qualifications, preferences)

2. it is impossible to control the situation, to interfere in the course of events without distorting them

3. due to the passivity of the observer, they require a significant investment of time

the conditions of the activity of the subjects do not correspond to reality

2. The subjects are aware that they are the subjects of the study.

The structure of the psyche

Emotional-volitional processes

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Emotional-volitional processes.

feelings - the highest manifestation of the human psyche, reflecting the inner world and the ability to perceive other people; the highest feelings are love, - - friendship, patriotism, etc.;

Emotions - the ability to experience and convey significant situations;

Motivation is the process of managing human activities, stimulating action;

Will is an element of consciousness, which consists in the ability to act in accordance with the decision made, often in spite of circumstances.

Phylogeny is a historical development that covers millions of years of evolution (the history of the development of various types of organisms).

I stage. A.N. Leontiev in his book "Problems of the Development of the Psyche" showed that the first stage in the development of the psyche is the stage of the elementary sensory psyche. Thus, for animals with an elementary sensory psyche, instinctive behavior is characteristic. Instinct is such actions of a living being that do not require training. The animal “seems to know” from birth what to do. As applied to a person, instinct is an action that a person performs as if automatically, without even thinking about it (removing his hand from the flame of a fire, waving his hands when he gets into the water).

II stage evolution of the psyche - the stage of the perceptive psyche (perceiving). Animals that are at this stage reflect the world around them no longer in the form of individual elementary sensations, but in the form of images of integral objects and their relationships with each other. This level of development of the psyche requires a new stage in the development of the nervous system - the central nervous system. Together with the instincts in the behavior of such animals, the skills acquired in the course of life by each individual creature begin to play the main role. Skill - the development in the process of life experience of their individual for each animal forms of behavior based on conditioned reflexes.

Stage III development of the psyche - the stage of intelligence (the highest level of behavior). Features of the "reasonable" behavior of the animal:

- the absence of lengthy trial and error, the correct action occurs immediately;

- the whole operation takes place as a holistic continuous act;

- the correct solution found will always be used by the animal in similar situations;

- the use by animals of other objects to achieve the goal.

Thus, in the psyche of animals, we find many existing prerequisites, on the basis of which human consciousness arose under special conditions.

10. The concept of consciousness. The structure of consciousness. Conscious and unconscious as the main form of reflection of the external world .

Consciousness is the highest form of a generalized reflection of the objective stable properties and patterns of the surrounding world, characteristic of a person, the formation of an internal model of the external world in a person, as a result of which knowledge and transformation of the surrounding reality is achieved.

The function of consciousness consists in the formation of the goals of activity, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and the prediction of their results, which ensures a reasonable regulation of human behavior and activity. Human consciousness includes a certain attitude towards the environment, towards other people.

The following properties of consciousness are distinguished: building relationships, cognition and experience. This directly implies the inclusion of thinking and emotions in the processes of consciousness. Indeed, the main function of thinking is to identify objective relationships between the phenomena of the external world, and the main function of emotion is the formation of a subjective attitude of a person to objects, phenomena, people. These forms and types of relations are synthesized in the structures of consciousness, and they determine both the organization of behavior and the deep processes of self-esteem and self-consciousness. Really existing in a single stream of consciousness, an image and a thought can, being colored by emotions, become an experience.

Consciousness develops in a person only in social contacts. In phylogenesis, human consciousness has developed and becomes possible only under conditions of active influence on nature, in conditions of labor activity. Consciousness is possible only under the conditions of the existence of language, speech, which arises simultaneously with consciousness in the process of labor.

And the primary act of consciousness is the act of identification with the symbols of culture, organizing human consciousness, making a person a person. The isolation of the meaning, symbol and identification with it is followed by the implementation, the active activity of the child in reproducing patterns of human behavior, speech, thinking, consciousness, the active activity of the child in reflecting the world around him and regulating his behavior.

The division of the psyche into conscious and unconscious is the basic premise of psychoanalysis, gives it the opportunity to understand and subject to scientific research important pathological processes in mental life.

Consciousness- it is primarily a body of knowledge about the world. It is no coincidence that it is closely related to knowledge. If cognition is consciousness in its active direction outward, toward an object, then consciousness itself is, in turn, the result of cognition. Dialectics is revealed here: the more we know, the higher our cognitive potentials and vice versa - the more we know the world, the richer our consciousness. The next important element of consciousness is attention, the ability of consciousness to concentrate on certain types of cognitive and any other activity, to keep them in focus. Next, apparently, we should name memory, the ability of consciousness to accumulate information, store, and, if necessary, reproduce it, as well as use previously acquired knowledge in activities. But we not only know something and remember something. Consciousness is inseparable from the expression of a certain attitude to the objects of cognition, activity and communication in the form of emotions. The emotional sphere of consciousness includes feelings proper - joy, pleasure, grief, as well as moods and affects, or, as they were called in the old days, passions - anger, rage, horror, despair, etc. To those mentioned earlier, one should add such an essential component of consciousness as the will, which is a meaningful aspiration of a person to a specific goal and directs his behavior or action.

1. A person with consciousness distinguishes himself from the surrounding world, separates himself, his “I” from external things, and the properties of things from themselves.

2. Is able to see himself in a certain system of relations with other people.

3. Able to see himself as being in a certain place in space and at a certain point in the time axis that links the present, past and future.

4. Able to establish adequate causal relationships between the phenomena of the external world and between them and their own actions.

5. Gives an account of his feelings, thoughts, experiences, intentions and desires.

6. Knows the features of his individuality and personality.

7. Able to plan his actions, anticipate their results and evaluate their consequences, i.e. capable of performing intentional voluntary actions.

All these signs are opposed to the opposite features of unconscious and unconscious mental processes and impulsive, automatic or reflex actions.

The totality of mental phenomena, states and actions that are not represented in the mind of a person, lying outside the sphere of his mind, unaccountable and not amenable, at least at the moment, to control, is covered by the concept unconscious . The unconscious appears sometimes as an attitude, instinct, attraction, sometimes as sensation, perception, representation and thinking, sometimes as intuition, sometimes as a hypnotic state or dream, a state of passion or insanity. The unconscious phenomena include both imitation and creative inspiration, accompanied by a sudden “enlightenment” with a new idea, born, as it were, from some kind of push from within, cases of instantaneous solution of problems that have not succumbed to conscious efforts for a long time, involuntary memories of what seemed to be firmly forgotten, and other

The game is a special kind of activity, the result of which is not the production of any material or ideal product. The game does not create a socially significant product. The formation of a person as a subject of activity begins in the game, and this is its great, enduring significance.

The chronology of psychology as an official science begins only from 1875-1879, when the first experimental psychological laboratory was organized by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig. However, psychology as such existed long before that; its history spans about 2.5 millennia.
It is natural for a person, as a being with a unique gift - consciousness, to ask questions and look for answers to them, to try to understand and explain the world around him, himself in it, his difference from animals and other people, etc. The so-called "pre-scientific psychology" developed in disputes and reflections, psychological knowledge was accumulated and improved through the contribution of various people - philosophers, physicians, geographers, mathematicians, etc., which made possible the birth of psychology as a science proper. The main stages in the development of psychology can be represented as the following diagram (Fig. 7).
The first period is psychology as the science of the soul. Psychology, like many other modern sciences, takes its origins in ancient philosophy. The name "ancient philosophy" refers to the ideas and teachings of ancient Greek and Roman thinkers from the 7th century. BC. by 6th c. AD It was then that the first philosophical schools appeared, which tried to comprehend and present in a single concept the structure of the surrounding world and the person in it. It was these ideas and teachings that became the first type of philosophizing and conceptual thinking in history in general. The teachings of Plato (idealistic) and Aristotle (materialistic) are the two most famous philosophical concepts of that time. An important problem for psychology, which for the first time then became the subject of controversy and reflection, was the so-called "psychophysical problem" (the question of the place of the mental in the material world, from the Greek psyche - soul, physis - nature), which was solved in three ways - monistically (from the Greek monos - one), dualistically (from lat. dualis - dual) and pluralistically (from lat. pluralis - plural).
The next major historical stage - the era of the Middle Ages (traditionally dated to the 5th-15th centuries) - is associated with the dominance of the Christian dogma and intolerance towards other points of view. Despite the fact that during this period the education system is developing, its content is censored, the works of the so-called "fathers" and "church teachers" are recognized. The ideas of ancient philosophy at that time were specifically developing in Arabic-speaking countries. For psychology, this period is associated mainly with works on ethics, education, and the moral development of man (Avrelius Augustine the Blessed, Ibn-Sina, Ibn-Roshd, and others).

This era, which lasted a whole millennium, ended with a transitional stage, which was called the "Renaissance" (or Renaissance, 14-16 centuries), associated with the names of such thinkers as Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, Francois Rabelais, Johannes Kepler, Martin Luther and others. At this time, the first scientific revolution in the history of mankind is taking place, associated with the creation of the heliocentric system of the world by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, and after it the second, the beginning of which is associated with the name of Galileo Galilei, who confirmed the heliocentric concept and laid the foundations of a new mechanistic natural science . The main result of this period for science as a whole was the transition from the passive and contemplative to the active attitude of the cognizing mind, and for psychology - the transition to "humanism", which brought to the fore the ideal of human activity as the creator of his earthly existence, able to comprehend and turn himself into the benefit of all the wealth of the surrounding world.
The second period is psychology as the science of consciousness. This period covers the so-called "epoch of the New Age" (17-19 centuries). The work of Isaac Newton is considered the "crown", completing the second scientific revolution, which covered such areas of knowledge as astronomy, mechanics, geography, geometry and many others.
In 17th century philosophy Against the backdrop of rapidly developing natural science, one of the most striking figures was Rene Descartes, who with his works predetermined the development, in particular, of psychology for the next three centuries. According to his teaching, the human body (organism) obeys the same laws of physics as any other natural phenomena, while the mind (consciousness, thinking, mind) is what distinguishes a person from everything else, including animals; it is a spiritual entity that operates independently of the body, although they are one. Only with the help of the mind can true knowledge be obtained, only the mind can be trusted, only it should be guided. R. Descartes discovered a new field of research - consciousness (thinking) and developed a method of its analysis (self-observation, reflection - from Latin reflexio - reversal, i.e. the focus of human thinking on comprehending and understanding its own forms and premises).
Subsequently, the works of many scientists and philosophers were devoted to the study of the work of consciousness, the influence of emotions on it, its connection with sensations, perception, memory, etc. (Benedict Spinoza, John Locke, Gottfried W. Leibniz and others).
Many works were also devoted to human consciousness by the German scientist, philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose works in the middle of the 18th century. marked the beginning of the third scientific revolution, since he was able to create an evolving "picture of the world." The ideas of evolution covered a wide variety of areas of knowledge, stimulated many studies and discoveries.
By the middle of the 19th century, when the evolutionary theory of Charles R. Darwin became known, experimental studies of physiology had already contributed to such significant advances in the field of psychology that the latter was placed on a par with such sciences as physics, biology, etc. The dominant trend in psychology during the period under review was "associationism" (from Latin associatio - association, connection). The association was considered as the basic principle and law of the organization of mental activity and human behavior. It was believed that complex mental phenomena are formed from elementary ones (sensations, thoughts, experiences) by mechanistic linking with each other (David Hartley, Johann F. Herbart, James Mill, etc.).
After the organization of the first experimental psychological laboratory, the so-called “physiological psychology” appeared (together with W. Wundt, Herman L. F. Helmholtz, widely known as a physicist, was its founder), which sought to rely on the natural sciences in the study of mental phenomena. Sensations and perception were the first to be experimentally studied.
By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. in psychology, several relatively independent areas took shape that began to develop rapidly: developmental psychology (the study of the characteristics of the child's psyche), differential psychology (the study of individual differences between people using specially developed methods, tests), zoopsychology (comparison of the stages of psychological development in the evolutionary series) and other.
The third period is psychology as a science of behavior. At the beginning of the 20th century psychology as a science was experiencing a kind of crisis: with the increase in more and more accurate and effective studies of mental phenomena, a complete picture of the psyche was not obtained. The reason for this was a large number of scientific directions and schools, each of which deeply investigated only one mental phenomenon, but most importantly, in its explanation, it proceeded from its own theoretical positions, which often contradicted the ideas of scientists from other schools.
The study of objectively observable behavior has become a kind of reaction to this state of affairs. Psychology as a science of behavior can be conditionally represented as two different branches - Russian and American.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev, the author of the idea of ​​the reflex nature of the psyche and the reflex regulation of activity, in 1885 became the founder of the first experimental psychological laboratory in Russia, and in 1907 - the Psychoneurological Institute in St. Petersburg. Georgy Ivanovich Chelpanov founded in 1912 in Moscow and became director of the country's first Institute of Experimental Psychology. Russian scientists studied the properties of the nervous system. The teachings of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov about the types of the nervous system and the theory of "conditioned reflexes" (automatic reactions that are formed in vivo as a result of learning - in contrast to innate "unconditioned" reflexes, including instincts) radically changed the entire world psychology.
At the same time, John B. Watson in the United States became the founder of "behaviorism" (from the English behavior - behavior) - the direction of psychology, according to which the "stimulus - reaction" scheme is sufficient to study the relationship between environmental influences and human reactions. Behaviorism found many supporters, was dominant in America for a long time, and is still popular today.
In a certain sense, the ideas of all these scientists were simplified - for some, the entire psyche was reduced to reflexes, for others - only to external manifestations. However, this period had a huge impact on the entire subsequent development of psychology: for example, thanks to the works of Russian scientists, the patterns of the course and the physiological foundations of many mental phenomena were subsequently studied, thanks to the contribution of American psychologists, “training” programs were developed (from the English train - to teach, educate) , practical techniques for psychological correction, etc.
The fourth period - psychology as a science that studies the facts, patterns and mechanisms of the psyche. Most of the 20th century psychology developed differently in the USSR and abroad (in Europe and the USA) due to political and ideological reasons. If at the beginning of the existence of the new system in Russia, the exchange of opinions between scientists from different countries was quite intense, then since 1936, by decree of the government, works in psychology were banned that did not correspond to the ideology of "Marxism-Leninism".
The basis of the theory of reflection, which is discussed in the above scheme, developed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, is that all matter has a property that is essentially akin to sensation - the property of reflection. In the USSR, there were three large psychological centers that differed in the areas of research - in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi. Despite ideological restrictions, and in many ways - and thanks to them, the research and discoveries of Soviet scientists were thoroughly theoretically substantiated, based on experimental data, which favorably differed from many beautiful, but unprovable concepts of foreign colleagues.
The international psychological community has recognized the merits of a number of Soviet psychologists, but the works of such outstanding scientists as Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, Sergei Leonidovich Rubinshtein, and Alexei Nikolaevich Leontiev have received the greatest fame.
Only in the late 50s - early 60s. 20th century In the USSR, former bans began to be lifted, contacts with foreign colleagues were resumed. Up to the 80s. in Russia they "assimilated" (from the Latin assimilatio - assimilation, assimilation, adaptation) the experience accumulated in the psychology of other countries.
In foreign psychology, during the period under review, four major major psychological trends have developed:
. behaviorism and neobehaviorism (John B. Watson, Edward C. Tolman, Clark L. Hull, Burres F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, and others);
. psychoanalysis and neopsychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud, Carl G. Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Erik Erikson, and others);
. humanistic psychology (Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, etc.);
. cognitive psychology (Fritz Haider, Leon Festinger, Julian Rotter, George Kelly and others).
At present, psychology is becoming more and more synthetic, i.e. modern psychologists do not confine themselves within the framework of a separate scientific school (as was done before), but, in accordance with the problems under study, use mutually complementary knowledge obtained by representatives of different schools. A systematic approach to the human psyche has become widespread.
In various classification schemes of modern psychology, about 40 of its branches are distinguished, some of which have acquired a relatively independent status: age, social, pedagogical, medical psychology, personality psychology, labor psychology, professional (including military, naval, etc.) psychology, etc. .d. Modern means of communication, including the Internet, allow almost instantaneous exchange of experience, learning about new discoveries, which makes the development of psychology more uniform and accessible to all.

Last update: 20/03/2015

Origin of psychology. Development of psychology over time

While modern psychology reflects a rich and eventful history of this discipline, the true history differs significantly from modern ideas about its origin.

In order to have a complete understanding of psychology, you will have to spend some time studying its history. How did psychology come about? When did she appear? Who were these people, thanks to whom psychology developed as an independent science?

Why do you need to know the history of psychology?

Modern psychology covers many areas of study, including human behavior and mental processes from the physiological level to the cultural level. Psychologists study human problems that begin to develop even before the birth of the person himself and haunt him until his death. Knowing the history of psychology will give you a much better idea of ​​how this study takes place and what psychologists know today.

Questions concerning psychology

Since its inception, psychology has been confronted with a number of different questions. The main question concerning the very definition of psychology helped lay the foundation for the development of psychology as an independent science, separating it from physiology and philosophy. There are other questions that psychologists have faced throughout history:

• What topics and problems should psychology deal with?
• What research methods should be used in the study of psychology?
• Should psychologists use their scientific research to influence public policy, education, and other aspects of human life?
• Is psychology really a science?
• Should psychologists focus more on external behavior, or on the internal mental processes that take place in a person?

Forerunners of psychology: philosophy and physiology

Philosophers such as René Descartes have played an important role in the history of psychology.

Until the late 1800s, psychology was not a discipline in its own right; its early history can be traced back to the time of the ancient Greeks. In the 17th century, the French philosopher René Descartes introduced the concept of dualism, stating that the mind and body are two separate entities interacting to form the human experience. Many other issues discussed by psychologists to this day, such as the relative contribution of nature to nurture, are based on these early philosophical traditions.

So what makes psychology different from philosophy? While early philosophers relied on methods such as observation and logic, modern psychologists use scientific methodologies to study the human mind and behavior.

Physiology also contributed to the development of psychology as a scientific discipline. Early physiological research on the brain and behavior had a huge impact on psychology, eventually facilitating the application of these scientific methodologies to the psychological study of human thought and behavior.

The formation of psychology as an independent discipline

In the mid-1800s, the German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt used research methods to study reaction times. His book Principles of Physiological Psychology, published in 1874, described many of the major connections between the science of physiology and the study of the human mind and behavior. Later in 1879, Wundt opened the world's first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig. This event, in general, is considered the official beginning of the formation of psychology as an independent and separate scientific discipline.

How did Wundt view psychology? He perceived it as the study of human consciousness and sought to apply experimental methods to the study of internal mental processes. Although the method used by Wundt, known as introspection, is regarded today as unreliable and unscientific, his early work in psychology helped pave the way for future experimental methods.

Approximately 17,000 students attended Wundt's lectures in psychology, and several hundred more pursued a degree in psychology and studied in his laboratory. Although the frequency of application of Wundt's methods has decreased over the years, his influence on psychology is still undeniable.

Structuralism - the first school of psychology

Edward B. Titchner, one of Wundt's most famous students, founded the first major school of psychology. According to structuralists, human consciousness can be broken down into smaller components.

Although structuralism was notable for its emphasis on scientific research, yet its methods were unreliable, limited and subjective. When Titchner died in 1927, structuralism essentially died with him.

Functionalism by William James

Psychology flourished in America from the mid to late 1800s. William James became one of the most important American psychologists during this period, and the publication of his classic textbook Fundamentals of Psychology established him as the father of American psychology. The text of his book soon became the standard in psychology, and his ideas eventually served as the basis for a new school of psychology known as functionalism.

The focus of functionalism was the question of how a person's behavior actually works to help him exist in his environment. The functionalists used the method of direct observation. While the structuralists sought to break down mental processes into small pieces, the functionalists believed that consciousness exists as a continuous and changing process.

Psychoanalysis. Psychology of Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (front left) was asked to give a series of lectures on psychoanalytic theory at Clark University in 1909.

The Austrian physician Sigmund Freud changed the face of psychology in a dramatic way by proposing a theory of personality that emphasized the importance of the subconscious. Freud's clinical work with patients suffering from hysteria and other illnesses led him to believe that early childhood experiences and unconscious impulses can influence the development of a person's personality and behavior.

In his book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Freud detailed how these unconscious impulses are often expressed through slips of the tongue (known as "Freudian slips") and daydreams. According to Freud, mental disorders are the result of these unconscious conflicts becoming unbalanced. The psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud had a huge impact on the psychology of the 20th century.

The rise of behaviorism. Psychology of Pavlov, Watson and Skinner

Physiologist Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning.

Psychology changed dramatically in the early 20th century with the emergence of the behavioral school. Behaviorism was very different from previous theories because it did not focus on the study of the conscious and the unconscious. Instead, behaviorism sought to make psychology more of a scientific discipline by focusing solely on the study of outward behavior.

Behaviorism got its start through the work of the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. His research on the digestive system of dogs led to his discovery of the well-known classical conditioning, which demonstrated the possibility of studying behavior with the help of conditional connections. Pavlov showed that this method can be used to create a connection between external and internal stimuli.

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HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY - The first scientific ideas about psyche arose in the ancient world (India, China, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Georgia) in the depths of philosophy as opposed to the religious dogma of soul as a special entity externally and randomly associated with the body. The development of these ideas was stimulated by the demands of social practice, treatment and education. Ancient doctors established that the organ of the psyche is brain, and developed the doctrine of temperaments. This natural science direction was closely connected with the view of the human soul as a material (fiery, airy, etc.) particle of the cosmos, moving according to its own eternal and inevitable laws. In idealistic concepts, the soul was opposed to the body and recognized as immortal. The pinnacle of psychology in antiquity was the doctrine Aristotle(treatises "On the Soul", "On the Origin of Animals", etc.), in which the soul is interpreted as a form of organization of a material body capable of life (and not as a substance or incorporeal essence). He outlined the first system of psychological concepts developed on the basis of objective and genetic methods. In the Hellenistic period, from the principle of life as a whole, the soul becomes the principle of only its certain manifestations: the mental is separated from the general biological. In the feudal era, the development of positive knowledge about the psyche slowed down sharply, but did not stop. Progressive doctors and thinkers of the Arabic-speaking world (Ibn Sina, Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Roshd and others) prepared with their ideas the subsequent flourishing of natural science psychology in Western Europe, where, with the birth of capitalism, the desire to investigate a person empirically as a natural being is strengthened, the behavior of which is subordinated. natural laws (Leonardo da Vinci, X. L. Vives, X. Huarte and others). In the era of bourgeois revolutions and the triumph of a new materialistic worldview, a fundamentally new approach to mental activity is taking shape, which is now explained and studied from the standpoint of the strictest determinism. Socio-economic transformations led to the progress of psychological thinking, which was enriched in the 17th century. a number of fundamental categories. R. Descartes reveals the reflex nature of behavior (cf. Reflex), and transforms the concept of the soul into a non-theological concept of consciousness as direct knowledge of the subject about his own mental acts. In the same era, a number of important psychological doctrines were formed: associations as a natural connection of mental phenomena, determined by the connection of bodily phenomena (R. Descartes, T. Hobbes), about affects (B. Spinoza), about apperception and the unconscious (G. V. Leibniz), about the origin of knowledge from individual sensory experience (J. Locke). The specific scientific development of the association principle by the English physician D. Hartley made this principle the main explanatory concept of psychology for a century and a half. Psychological ideas develop in line with the materialistic worldview D. Diderot, M. V. Lomonosov, A. N. Radishcheva and other progressive thinkers. In the 19th century in the depths of physiology, experimental methods for studying mental functions appeared and the first attempts were made to introduce quantitative estimates into the analysis of these functions. (E. G. Weber, G. T. Fechner, G. Helmholtz and etc.). Darwinism showed the need to study mental functions as a real factor in the development of biological systems. In the 70s and 80s. 19th century psychology becomes an independent field of knowledge (different from philosophy and physiology). The main centers of this development are special experimental laboratories
torii. The first one was organized W. Wundt(Leipzig, 1879). Following its model, similar institutions arise in Russia, England, the USA, France and other countries. A consistent program for the development of psychology based on an objective method was put forward by I. M. Sechenov, whose ideas fertilized experimental psychological work in Russia (V. M. Bekhterev, A. A. Tokarsky, N. N. Lange etc.), and later through the works of V. M. Bekhterev and I. P. Pavlova influenced the development of objective methods in world psychological science. Main themes experimental psychology were at first Feel and reaction time(F. Donders), and then - associations (G. Ebbinghaus), attention (J. Cattell), emotional states (cf. Emotions) (W. James, T. A. Ribot), thinking and will [Würzburg School, A. Binet). Along with the search for general patterns of psychological processes, a differential psychology, the task of a cut is to determine, using measuring methods, individual differences between people (F. Galton, A. Binet, A. F. Lazursky, V. Stern and etc.). On the. at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. in psychology, a crisis is brewing due to the breaking of old concepts. The idea of ​​consciousness as a set of phenomena directly experienced by the subject is failing. The emphasis is shifted to the orientation of a person in the environment, to the factors of behavior regulation hidden from consciousness. The main trend in American psychology is behaviorism, according to Krom, psychology should not go beyond externally observed bodily reactions to external incentives. The dynamics of these reactions was conceived as a blind search, accidentally leading to a successful action, reinforced by repetition. (trial and error method). Program installations of this direction expressed J. B. Watson(1913). Another influential school was Gestalt psychology, the experimental object of the cut was the holistic and structural nature of mental formations. At the beginning of the century there was also psychoanalysis 3. Freud, according to Krom, the decisive role in the organization of the human psyche belongs to unconscious motives (primarily sexual). New directions have enriched the empirical and concrete methodological base of psychology, contributed to the development of its categorical apparatus (categories action, image, motive). However, inadequate philosophical interpretation of these achievements led to erroneous and one-sided conclusions. Attempts to understand from an idealistic position the dependence of the human psyche on the world of history and culture, on social life inevitably led to dualism, to the concept of "two psychologies" (W. Wundt, W. Dilthey, G. Rickert), according to which psychology cannot be a single science, since the supposedly natural-scientific, experimental explanatory approach to the psyche is in principle incompatible with the cultural-historical one. Psychologists who brought to the fore the role of social factors in the regulation of human behavior (J. M. Baldwin, J. Dewey, J. G. Meade etc.), also failed to develop a productive approach to sociogenesis personality and its mental functions, since sociality itself was interpreted as "pure" communication outside of objective activity.
Marxism became the methodological basis for concrete psychological research after the October socialist revolution. With Marxism, new principles entered scientific psychology, radically changing its theoretical appearance. The idea of ​​restructuring psychology on a Marxist basis was actively defended by K. N. Kornilov, P. P. Blonsky, M. I. bass etc. Marxist
The historical principle of historicism became decisive for the studies of L. S. Vygotsky and his students. The development of Soviet psychology proceeded in close collaboration with the development of psychophysiological research in the works I. P. Pavlov, V. M. Bekhterev, A. A. Ukhtomsky, L. A. Orbeli, S. V. Kravkov, N. A. Bernshnein etc. Overcoming idealistic and mechanistic (reactology, reflexology) influence, Soviet scientists asserted in psychology the Marxist doctrine of activities and its socio-historical determination, the ideas of Lenin's theory reflections. The theoretical and experimental study of the main problems of psychology was embodied in the works A. R. Luria, A. N. Leontieva, B. M. Teplova, A. A. Smirnova, S. L. Rubinstein, B. G. Ananiev, N. F. Dobrynina, A. V. Zaporozhets, LA Shvartsa and others. Within the framework of Marxist methodology, Soviet psychologists are successfully developing topical problems of psychology in close connection with the theoretical and practical tasks of improving a developed socialist society.
The development of psychology in the capitalist countries in the 30-40s. 20th century characterized by the collapse of the main schools. In behavioral theories, the concept of "intermediate variables", i.e. about the factors mediating the motor response (dependent variable) to stimulus(independent variable) . The logic of the development of science and the requirements of practice directed psychology to the study of the "central processes" that unfold between the sensory "input" and the motor "output" of the body system. The approval of this trend in the 50-60s. contributed to the experience of programming on electronic machines. Such branches of psychology as engineering, social and medical have been developed. The work of the Swiss psychologist had a great influence on the interpretation of mental processes. J. Piaget, who studied the transformation of the internal structure of mental activity in the course of ontogeny. The view on the role of neurophysiological mechanisms is also changing. They are no longer ignored, but are considered as an integral component of the overall structure of behavior (Hebb, K. Pribram). In the depths of psychoanalysis arises neo-Freudianism - current that connected the unconscious psychic mechanics (cf. Unconscious) with the action of socio-cultural factors (C. Horney, G. S. Sullivan, E. Fromm) and rearranged accordingly psychotherapy. Along with new variants of behaviorism and Freudianism, the so-called existential, humanistic psychology, asserting that the study of scientific concepts and objective methods leads to the dehumanization of the personality and its disintegration, hinders its desire for self-development. This direction comes to frank irrationalism.