Chapter 22

Summary

The concept of personality orientation and activity motivation. The main forms of orientation: attraction, desire, aspiration, interests, ideals, beliefs. The concept of motive. The problem of motivation of human activity. The concept of need. The purpose of the activity. The main characteristics of the motivational sphere of a person: breadth, flexibility, hierarchization.

Psychological theories of motivation. The problem of motivation in the works of ancient philosophers. Irrationalism. Automaton theory. The role of Ch. Darwin's evolutionary theory in the development of the problem of human behavior motivation. Theories of instincts. Theory of human biological needs. Behavioral theory of motivation and theory of higher nervous activity. Classification of human needs but A. Maslow. Motivational concepts of the second half of the 20th century. The theory of the activity origin of the motivational sphere of a person A. N. Leonteva.

The main patterns of development of the motivational sphere. Mechanisms for the development of motives according to A. N. Leontiev. The main stages in the formation of the motivational sphere in children. Features of the first interests of children. Features of the formation of the motivational sphere in preschool and school age. The role of the game in the formation of the motivational sphere.

Motivated behavior as a characteristic of personality. Achievement and avoidance motivation. The level of claims and self-esteem. Peculiarities of manifestation of the motives of affiliation and power. Rejection motive. prosocial behavior. Aggression and the motive of aggressiveness. Types of aggressive actions according to A. Bandura. Tendencies towards aggression and tendencies towards suppression of aggression.

22.1. The concept of personality orientation and activity motivation

In domestic psychology, there are various approaches to the study of personality. However, despite the differences in interpretations of personality, in all approaches, personality is distinguished as its leading characteristic. orientation. There are different definitions of this concept, for example, “dynamic tendency” (S. L. Rubinshtein), “sense-forming motive” (A. N. Leontiev), “dominant attitude” (V. N. Myasishchev), “main life orientation” (B . G. Ananiev), "the dynamic organization of the essential forces of man" (A. S. Prangishvnli).

Most often in the scientific literature, directionality is understood as a set of stable motives that guide the activity of the individual and are relatively independent of the current situation.

It should be noted that the orientation of the individual is always socially conditioned and is formed in the process of education. Orientation is installations, which have become personality traits and manifested in such forms as attraction, desire, aspiration, interest, inclination, ideal, worldview, conviction. Moreover, the motives of activity lie at the basis of all forms of personality orientation.

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Let us briefly characterize each of the selected forms of orientation in the order of their hierarchy. First of all, one should focus on in treatment. It is generally accepted that attraction is the most primitive, essentially biological form of orientation. From a psychological point of view, this is a mental state that expresses an undifferentiated, unconscious or insufficiently conscious need. As a rule, attraction is a transient phenomenon, since the need represented in it either fades away or is realized, turning into desire.

Wish - it is a conscious need and attraction to something quite definite. It should be noted that desire, being sufficiently conscious, has a motivating force. It sharpens the awareness of the purpose of the future action and the construction of its plan. This form of orientation is characterized by awareness not only of one's need, but also of possible ways to satisfy it.

The next form of directionality is pursuit. Aspiration arises when the volitional component is included in the structure of desire. Therefore, the desire is often considered as a well-defined motivation for activity.

most clearly characterize the orientation of the personality of her interests. Interest is a specific form of manifestation of a cognitive need, which ensures the orientation of the individual to the realization of the goals of activity and thereby contributes to the orientation of the individual in the surrounding reality. Subjectively, interest is found in the emotional tone that accompanies the process of cognition or attention to a particular object. One of the most significant characteristics of interest is that when it is satisfied, it does not fade away, but, on the contrary, it evokes new interests corresponding to a higher level of cognitive activity.

Interests are the most important motivating force to the knowledge of the surrounding reality. Distinguish between direct interest caused by the attractiveness of the object, and indirect interest in the object as a means of achieving the goals of the activity. An indirect characteristic of the awareness of needs reflected in interests is the stability of interests, which is expressed in the duration of their preservation and in their intensity. It should also be emphasized that the breadth and content of interests can serve as one of the most striking characteristics of a person.

Interest in the dynamics of its development can turn into inclination. This happens when the volitional component is included in the interest. Propensity characterizes the orientation of the individual to a particular activity. The basis of the inclination is the deep, stable need of the individual for this or that activity, i.e., interest in a particular activity. The basis of the propensity can also be the desire to improve the skills associated with this need. It is generally accepted that the emerging inclination can be considered as a prerequisite for the development of certain abilities.

The next form of manifestation of personality orientation is ideal. The ideal is the objective goal of the inclination of the individual, concretized in the image or representation, that is, what he strives for, what he focuses on. Human ideals

can act as one of the most significant characteristics of a person’s worldview, that is, his system of views on the objective world, on a person’s place in it, on a person’s attitude to the reality around him and to himself. The worldview reflects not only ideals, but also the value orientations of people, their principles of cognition and activity, their beliefs.

Belief - the highest form of orientation is a system of motives of the individual, prompting him to act in accordance with his views, principles, worldview. Beliefs are based on conscious needs that encourage a person to act, form her motivation for activity.

Since we have approached the problem of motivation, it should be noted that there are two functionally interrelated aspects in human behavior: incentive and regulatory. The mental processes and states considered by us earlier provide mainly the regulation of behavior. As for its stimulation, or motives that provide activation and direction of behavior, they are associated with motives and motivation.

A motive is a motive for activity associated with the satisfaction of the needs of the subject. The motive is also often understood as the reason underlying the choice of actions and deeds, the totality of external and internal conditions that cause the activity of the subject.

The term "motivation" is a broader concept than the term "motive". The word "motivation" is used in modern psychology in a double sense: as a system of factors that determine behavior (this includes, in particular, needs, motives, goals, intentions, aspirations, and much more), and as a characteristic of a process that stimulates and supports behavioral activity at a certain level. Most often, in the scientific literature, motivation is considered as a set of psychological causes that explain human behavior, its beginning, direction and activity.

The question of the motivation of activity arises every time when it is necessary to explain the reasons for a person's actions. Moreover, any form of behavior can be explained by both internal and external causes. In the first case, the psychological properties of the subject of behavior act as the starting and ending points of the explanation, and in the second, the external conditions and circumstances of his activity. In the first case, they talk about motives, needs, goals, intentions, desires, interests, etc., and in the second - about incentives coming from the current situation. Sometimes all psychological factors that, as it were, from the inside, from a person determine his behavior, are called personal dispositions. Then, respectively, one speaks of dispositional and situational motivations as analogues of internal and external determination of behavior.

Internal (dispositional) and external (situational) motivation are interconnected. Dispositions can be updated under the influence of a certain situation, and the activation of certain dispositions (motives, needs) leads to a change in the subject's perception of the situation. In this case, his attention becomes selective, and the subject perceives and evaluates the situation in a biased way, based on current interests and needs. Therefore, any human action is considered as doubly determined: dispositionally and situationally.

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Need to know Antisocial personality Considering the problem of personality orientation, we cannot but consider a special group of people who are usually called "asocial personalities." Such people have little to no sense of responsibility, morality, or interest in others. Their behavior is almost entirely determined by their own needs. In other words, they have no conscience. If the average person imagines at an early age that behavior has certain limits and that pleasure must sometimes be given up for the sake of other people's interests, antisocial persons rarely take into account the desires of anyone but their own. They behave impulsively, strive for immediate satisfaction of their needs and do not tolerate frustration. It should be noted that the term “asocial personality” itself does not refer to the majority of people who commit antisocial acts. Antisocial behavior has a number of causes, including membership in a criminal gang or criminal subculture, a need for attention and elevated status, a loss of contact with reality, and an inability to control impulses. Most teenage criminals and adult criminals have a certain interest in other people (family or gang members) and a certain moral code (for example, don't betray a friend). In contrast, the antisocial person has no feelings for anyone but himself, and does not feel guilt or remorse, no matter how much suffering he has caused people. Other characteristics of an antisocial personality (sociopath) include an unusual ease with lying, a need to disturb oneself or lead to excitement and inability to change their behavior as a result of punishment. Such individuals are often perceived as attractive, intelligent, charming people who easily come into contact with other people. Their competent and sincere appearance allows them to get a promising job, but they have little chance of holding on to it. Restlessness and impulsiveness soon lead them to failure, revealing their true nature; they accumulate debts, abandon their families or commit crimes. Once caught, they speak of their remorse so convincingly that they often have their punishments revoked. But the antisocial person rarely lives up to his claims; in such people, what is said has nothing to do with their deeds and feelings. Two characteristics of an asocial personality are considered especially revealing; firstly, a lack of empathy and interest in others and, secondly, a lack of shame or guilt, an inability to repent of one's actions, no matter how reprehensible they were. Modern researchers distinguish three groups of factors contributing to the development of an antisocial personality: biological determinants, features of the relationship between parents and the child, and style of thinking. The conducted studies testify to the genetic causes of antisocial behavior, especially criminal. Thus, in identical twins, the concordance value for criminal behavior is twice as high as in related ones, from which it is clear that such behavior is partially inherited. Adoption studies show that the crimes of adopted boys are similar to those of their biological fathers.

a person's momentary behavior should not be seen as a reaction to certain internal or external stimuli, but as the result of the continuous interaction of his dispositions with the situation. Thus, human motivation can be represented as a cyclic process of continuous mutual influence and transformation, in which the subject of action and the situation mutually influence each other and the result of which is really observable behavior. From this point of view, motivation is a process of continuous choice and decision-making based on the weighing of behavioral alternatives.

In turn, a motive, in contrast to motivation, is something that belongs to the subject of behavior itself, is its stable personal property, due to

Need to know In addition, it is noted that antisocial individuals have low excitability, which is why they, with the help of impulsive and dangerous actions, seek to receive stimulation that causes appropriate sensations. Some researchers say that what The quality of parental care received by a child who is prone to hyperactivity and behavioral problems determines to a large extent whether or not he will develop into a full-blown antisocial personality. One of the best indicators of children's behavioral problems is the level of parental supervision: children who are often left unsupervised or poorly supervised for a long time are much more likely to develop a pattern of criminal behavior. A closely related variable is parental indifference; children whose parents are not involved in their daily lives are more likely to become asocial. Biological and familial factors contributing to behavioral problems often overlap. Children with behavioral problems often have neuropsychological problems resulting from maternal drug use, poor intrauterine nutrition, pre- and post-natal toxicity, abuse, birth complications, and low birth weight. Such children are more likely to be irritable, impulsive, awkward, hyperactive, inattentive, and learn material more slowly than their peers. This makes parental care more difficult for them, and they are at increased risk of abuse and neglect by their parents. In turn, the parents of these children most likely have psychological problems themselves that contribute to ineffective or rude, ineffective parenting. Therefore, in addition to having a biological predisposition to antisocial behavior, these children experience the treatment of their parents, which contributes to such behavior. The third group of factors that determine the development of an antisocial personality is the individual psychological characteristics of children. Children with behavioral disorders process information about social interactions in such a way that they develop aggressive reactions to these interactions. They expect other children to be aggressive towards them, and interpret their actions based on this assumption, instead of relying on signs of a real situation. In addition, children with behavioral disorders tend to consider any negative action of their peers directed at them not as accidental, but as deliberate. When deciding what action to take in response to a perceived peer provocation, a child with a behavioral disorder will choose from a very limited set of responses, usually including aggression. If such a child is forced to choose something other than aggression, he performs chaotic and ineffective actions and considers everything except aggression to be useless and unattractive. Children who think of social interaction in this way tend to exhibit aggressive behavior towards others. Retribution may await them: other children beat them, parents and teachers punish them, and they are perceived negatively by others. These responses, in turn, reinforce their belief that the world is against them and cause them to misinterpret the future actions of those around them. This can create a vicious circle of interactions that support and inspire the child's aggressive and antisocial behavior.

internally motivate to perform certain actions. Motives may be conscious or unconscious. The main role in shaping the orientation of the personality belongs to conscious motives. It should be noted that the motives themselves are formed from needs person. A need is a state of need of a person in certain conditions of life and activity or material objects. A need, like any state of a person, is always associated with a person's feeling of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. All living beings have needs, and this distinguishes living nature from non-living. Its other difference, also related to needs, is the selectivity of the response of the living to what constitutes subject of needs

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i.e., what the body lacks at a given moment in time. The need activates the body, stimulates its behavior, aimed at finding what is required.

The quantity and quality of needs that living beings have depends on the level of their organization, on the way and conditions of life, on the place occupied by the corresponding organism on the evolutionary ladder. Plants that need only certain biochemical and physical conditions of existence have the least needs. A person has the most diverse needs, who, in addition to physical and organic needs, also has spiritual and social needs. Social needs are expressed in the desire of a person to live in society, to interact with other people.

The main characteristics of human needs - strength, frequency and way of satisfaction. An additional, but very significant characteristic, especially when it comes to personality, is subject content needs, i.e., the totality of those objects of material and spiritual culture with the help of which this need can be satisfied.

The motivating factor is goal. The goal is a perceived result, the achievement of which is currently directed by the action associated with the activity that satisfies the actualized need. If we imagine the entire sphere of conscious behavior as a kind of arena in which a colorful and multifaceted spectacle of human life unfolds, and assume that at the moment it is most brightly illuminated in the place that should attract the most attention of the viewer (the subject himself), then this will be the goal. Psychologically, the goal is that motivational-impelling content of consciousness, which is perceived by a person as an immediate and immediate expected result of his activity.

The goal is the main object of attention, which occupies a certain amount of short-term and operative memory; it is connected with the thought process unfolding at a given moment in time and most of all possible emotional experiences.

It is customary to distinguish purpose of activity and life purpose. This is due to the fact that a person has to perform many different activities during his life, in each of which a specific goal is realized. But the goal of any individual activity reveals only one side of the orientation of the personality, which is manifested in this activity. The life goal acts as a generalizing factor of all private goals associated with individual activities. At the same time, the realization of each of the goals of activity is a partial realization of the general life goal of the individual. The level of achievements of the individual is associated with life goals. In the life goals of the individual, the “concept of his own future” conscious of it finds expression. A person's awareness of not only the goal, but also the reality of its implementation is considered as a perspective of the individual.

The state of frustration, depression, characteristic of a person who is aware of the impossibility of realizing the prospect is called frustration. This state occurs when a person, on the way to achieving a goal, encounters really insurmountable obstacles, barriers, or when they are perceived as such.

The motivational sphere of a person, in terms of its development, can be assessed by the following parameters: breadth, flexibility and Hebrewization. The breadth of the motivational sphere is understood as a qualitative variety of motivational factors - dispositions (motives), needs and goals. The more diverse motives, needs and goals a person has, the more developed his motivational sphere is.

The flexibility of the motivational sphere is expressed in the fact that in order to satisfy a motivational impulse of a more general nature (higher level) can be used more diverse lower-level motivational stimuli. For example, the motivational sphere of a person is more flexible, which, depending on the circumstances of satisfying one and the same same motive can use more variety of means than the other person. Say, for one individual, the need for knowledge can only be satisfied with the help of television, radio and cinema, and for another her satisfaction also are a variety of books, periodicals, communication with people. In the latter, the motivational sphere, by definition, will be more flexible.

It should be noted that breadth and flexibility characterize the motivational sphere of a person in different ways. Breadth is the variety of the potential range of objects that can serve for a given person as a means of satisfying an actual need, and flexibility is the mobility of the connections that exist between different levels of the hierarchical organization of the motivational sphere: between motives and needs, motives and goals, needs and goals.

The next characteristic of the motivational sphere is the hierarchization of motives. Some motives and goals are stronger than others and occur more often; others are weaker and updated less frequently. The greater the differences in the strength and frequency of actualization of motivational formations of a certain level, the higher the hierarchization of the motivational sphere.

It should be noted that the problem of studying motivation has always attracted the attention of researchers. Therefore, there are many different concepts and theories devoted to the motives, motivation and orientation of the individual. Let's take a look at some of them in general terms.

22.2. Psychological theories of motivation

The problem of human behavior motivation has attracted the attention of scientists since time immemorial. Numerous theories of motivation began to appear in the works of ancient philosophers, and at present there are already several dozen such theories. The point of view on the origin of human motivation in the process of development of mankind and science has repeatedly changed. However, most scientific approaches have always been located between two philosophical currents: rationalism and irrationalism. According to the rationalist position, and it was especially pronounced in the works of philosophers and theologians until the middle of the 19th century, man is a unique being of a special nature.

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kind that has nothing to do with animals. It was believed that only a person is endowed with reason, thinking and consciousness, has the will and freedom of choice in action, and the motivational source of human behavior was seen exclusively in the mind, consciousness and will of a person.

Irrationalism as a doctrine mainly considered the behavior of animals. Supporters of this doctrine proceeded from the assertion that the behavior of an animal, unlike a person, is not free, unreasonable, controlled by dark, unconscious forces that have their origins in organic needs. Schematically, the history of the study of the problem of motivation is presented in fig. 22.1. The scheme depicted on it was proposed by the American scientist D. Atkinson and partially modified by R. S. Nemov.

The first actually psychological theories of motivation are considered to have arisen in Hoop-Hoop! centuries decision theory, explaining human behavior on a rational basis, and automaton theory, explaining on an irrational basis the behavior of an animal. The first was related to the use of mathematical knowledge in explaining human behavior. She considered the problems of human choice in the economy. Subsequently, the main provisions of this theory were transferred to the understanding of human actions in general.

The emergence and development of the automaton theory was caused by the successes of mechanics in the 17th-18th centuries. One of the central points of this theory was the doctrine of the reflex. Moreover, within the framework of this theory, the reflex was considered as a mechanical, or automatic, innate response of a living organism to external influences. The separate, independent existence of two motivational theories (one for humans, the other for animals) continued until the end of the 19th century.

Rice. 22.1. History of the study of the problem of motivation

(from: Nemov R. S., 1998)

In the second half of the XIX century. with the advent evolutionary theory Ch. Darwin, the prerequisites arose to reconsider some views on the mechanisms of human behavior. The theory developed by Darwin made it possible to overcome the antagonisms that divided the views on the nature of man and animals as two phenomena of reality that are incompatible in anatomical, physiological and psychological terms. Moreover, Darwin was one of the first who drew attention to the fact that humans and animals have many common needs and behaviors, in particular emotionally expressive expressions and instincts.

Under the influence of this theory, an intensive study of rational forms of behavior in animals (W. Köhler, E. Thorndike) and instincts in humans (Z. Freud, W. MacDougall, IP Pavlov, and others) began in psychology. In the course of these studies, the perception of needs has changed. If earlier researchers, as a rule, tried to connect needs with the needs of the body and therefore used the concept of “need” most often to explain the behavior of animals, then in the process of transformation and development of scientific views, this concept began to be used to explain human behavior. It should be noted that the use of the concept of "need" in relation to a person has led to the expansion of this concept. They began to single out not only biological, but also some social needs. However, the main feature of research into the motivation of human behavior at this stage was that, unlike the previous stage, at which human and animal behavior was opposed, they tried to minimize these fundamental differences between humans and animals. As motivational factors, humans began to be attributed the same organic needs that were previously assigned only to animals.

One of the first manifestations of such an extreme, essentially biologizing, point of view on human behavior was theories of instincts 3. Freud and W. MacDougall, proposed at the end of the 19th century. and gained the greatest popularity at the beginning of the 20th century. Trying to explain human social behavior by analogy with the behavior of animals, Freud and MacDougall reduced all forms of human behavior to innate instincts. So, in Freud's theory there were three such instincts: the instinct of life, the instinct of death and the instinct of aggressiveness. McDougall proposed a set of ten instincts: the instinct of invention, the instinct of construction, the instinct of curiosity, the instinct of flight, the herd instinct, the instinct of pugnacity, the reproductive (parental) instinct, the instinct of disgust, the instinct of self-humiliation, the instinct of self-affirmation. In later writings, McDougall added eight more instincts to those listed, mostly related to organic needs.

The developed theories of instincts still could not answer many questions and did not allow solving a number of very significant problems. For example, how can one prove the existence of these instincts in a person, and to what extent can those forms of behavior that a person acquires during his lifetime under the influence of experience and social conditions be reduced to instincts or derived from them? And also how to separate in these forms of behavior what is actually instinctive and what is acquired as a result of learning?

Disputes around the theory of instincts could not give a scientifically sound answer to any of the questions posed. As a result, all discussions ended with the fact that

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the very concept of "instinct" in relation to a person began to be used< реже. Появились новые понятия для описания поведения человека, такие как потребность, рефлекс, влечение и другие.

In the 20s. 20th century the theory of instincts was replaced by a concept in which all human behavior was explained by the presence of biological needs in him. In accordance with this concept, it was assumed that humans and animals have common organic needs that have the same effect on behavior. Periodically emerging organic needs cause a state of excitement and tension in the body, and satisfaction of the need leads to a decrease in tension. In this concept, there were no fundamental differences between the concepts of "instinct" and "need", with the exception of the fact that instincts are innate, but needs can! acquired and changed throughout life, especially in humans.

It should be noted that the use of the concepts of "instinct" and "need for this concept" had one significant drawback: their use eliminated the need to take into account cognitive behavior in explaining human behavior. psychological characteristics associated with consciousness and subjective states of the body. Therefore, these concepts were subsequently replaced by the concept of attraction, or drive. Moreover, attraction was understood as the body's desire for some end result, subjectively presented in the form of some goal, expectation or intention against the background of the corresponding emotional experience.

In addition to theories of human biological needs, instincts and drives at the beginning of the 20th century. two new directions have emerged. Their emergence was largely due to the discoveries of IP Pavlov. This is behavioral (behavioristic) theory of motivation and theory of higher nervous activity The behavioral concept of motivation in its essence was a logical continuation of the ideas of the founder of behaviorism D. Watson. The most famous representatives of this trend are E. Tolman K. Hull and B. Skinner. All of them tried to explain behavior within the framework of the original scheme of behaviorism: "stimulus-response".

Another theory - the theory of higher nervous activity - was developed;

IP Pavlov, and its development was continued by his students and followers, among whom were the following: N. A. Bernshtein - the author of the theory of psychophysiological regulation of movements; P. K. Anokhin, who proposed a model of a functional system that describes and explains the dynamics of a behavioral act at the modern level; E. N. Sokolov, who discovered and studied the orienting reflex, which is of great importance for psychophysiological understanding;

mechanisms of perception, attention and motivation, and also proposed a model of the conceptual reflex arc.

One of the theories that emerged at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. and continuing to be developed now, is theory of organic needs of animals. It arose and developed under the influence of former irrationalistic traditions in understanding the behavior of animals. Its modern representatives see their task in explaining the behavior of animals from the standpoint of physiology and biology.

Names

McDougall William (1871-1938) - Anglo-American psychologist, founder of "hormic psychology", according to which the instinctive desire for a goal was originally inherent in the nature of the living. MacDougall announced himself as an original thinker in 1908, when one of his most important works, "Basic Problems of Social Psychology", was published, where he formulated the basic principles of human social behavior. This work formed the basis of his "hormic psychology" as a part of dynamic psychology, which emphasizes the modifications of mental processes and their energy basis.

Skill, according to McDougall, in itself is not the driving force behind behavior and does not orient it. As the main driving forces of human behavior, he considered irrational, instinctive urges. Behavior is based on interest, due to an innate instinctive attraction, which only finds its manifestation in a habit and is served by one or another behavioral mechanism. Every organic body from birth is endowed with a certain vital energy, the reserves and forms of distribution (discharge) of which are rigidly predetermined by the repertoire of instincts. As soon as the primary impulses are defined in the form of impulses directed to certain goals, they receive their expression in the corresponding bodily adaptations.

Initially, McDougall identified 12 types of instincts: flight (fear), rejection (disgust), curiosity (surprise), aggressiveness (anger), self-abasement (embarrassment), self-affirmation (enthusiasm), parental instinct (tenderness), procreation instinct, food instinct, herd instinct, instinct of acquisition, instinct of creation. In his opinion, the basic instincts are directly related to the corresponding emotions, since the inner expression of the instincts are emotions.

Concepts and theories of motivation that apply only to a person began to appear in psychological science since the 1930s. 20th century The first of these was the theory of motivation proposed by K. Levin. Following her, the works of representatives of humanistic psychology were published - G. Murray, A. Maslow, G. Allport, K. Rogers and others. Consider some of them.

G. Murray's motivational concept has become quite widely known. Along with the list of organic, or primary, needs identified by W. McDougall, identical to the basic instincts, Murray proposed a list of secondary (psychogenic) needs that arise on the basis of instinct-like drives as a result of education and training. These are the needs to achieve success, affiliation, aggression, the need for independence, opposition, respect, humiliation, protection, dominance, attracting attention, avoiding harmful influences, avoiding failure, patronage, order, play. rejection, understanding, sexual relations, help, mutual understanding. Subsequently, in addition to these twenty needs, the author attributed six more to a person: acquisition, rejection of accusations, knowledge, creation, explanation, recognition and thrift.

Another, even more well-known concept of the motivation of human behavior, belongs to A. Maslow. Most often, when they talk about this concept, they mean the existence of a hierarchy of human needs and their classification proposed by Maslow. According to this concept, seven classes of needs consistently appear in a person from birth and accompany his growing up.

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Rice. 22.2. The structure of needs according to A. Maslow

(Fig. 22.2): physiological (organic) needs, security needs, belonging and love needs, respect (reverence) needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, self-actualization needs. Moreover, according to the author, this motivational pyramid is based on physiological needs, and higher needs, such as aesthetic and the need for self-actualization, form its top.

In the second half of the XX century. theories of human needs were supplemented by a number of motivational concepts presented in the works of D. McClelland, D. Atkinson, G. Hekhausen, G. Kelly, J. Rotter, and others. To a certain extent, they are close to each other and have a number of common provisions.

First, most of these theories denied the fundamental possibility of creating a unified universal theory of motivation that would equally successfully explain both the behavior of animals and humans.

Secondly, it was emphasized that the desire to relieve tension as the main motivational source of purposeful behavior at the level of a person does not work, in any case, is not the main motivational principle for him.

Thirdly, in most of these theories it was stated that a person is not reactive, but is initially active. Therefore, the principle of stress reduction is unacceptable for explaining human behavior, and the sources of his activity should be sought in himself, in his psychology.

Fourthly, these theories recognized, along with the role of the unconscious, the essential role of human consciousness in shaping his behavior. Furthermore, on According to most authors, conscious regulation for a person is the leading mechanism for the formation of behavior.

Fifth, most of the theories of this group were characterized by the desire to introduce into scientific circulation specific concepts that reflect the characteristics of human motivation, for example, “social needs, motives” (D. McClelland, D. Atkinson, G. Heckhausen), “life goals ”(K. Rogers, R. May), “cognitive factors” (Yu. Rotter, G. Kelly and others).

Sixth, the authors of the theories of this group were unanimous in their opinion that methods for studying the causes of behavior in animals are unacceptable for the study of human motivation. Therefore, they made an attempt to find special methods for studying motivation, suitable only for humans.

In domestic psychology, attempts were also made to solve the problems of human motivation. However, until the mid-1960s psychological research has focused on the study of cognitive processes. The main scientific development of domestic psychologists in the field of motivation problems is theory of the activity origin of the human motivational sphere, created by A. N. Leontiev.

You are already familiar with Leontiev's psychological theory of activity. According to his concept, the motivational sphere of a person, like his other psychological features, has its own sources in practice. In particular, between the structure of activity and the structure of the motivational sphere of a person, there are relations of isomorphism, that is, mutual correspondence, and at the basis of the dynamic changes that occur with the motivational sphere of a person,

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lies the development of a system of activities that obeys objective social laws.

Thus, this concept explains the origin and dynamics of the human motivational sphere. It shows how the system of activities can change, how its hierarchization is transformed, how certain types of activities and operations arise and disappear, what modifications occur with actions. In accordance with the laws of development of activities, laws can be derived that describe changes in the motivational sphere of a person, the acquisition of new needs, motives and goals by him.

All the considered theories have their advantages and at the same time their disadvantages. Their main drawback is that they are able to explain only some of the phenomena of motivation, to answer only a small part of the questions that arise in this area of ​​psychological research. Therefore, the study of the motivational sphere of a person continues to this day.

22.3. The main patterns of development of the motivational sphere

In domestic psychology, the formation and development of the motivational sphere in a person is considered within the framework of the psychological theory of activity proposed by A. N. Leontiev. The question of the formation of new motives and the development of the motivational system is one of the most complex and has not been fully studied. Leontiev described only one mechanism for the formation of motives, which was called the mechanism of shifting a motive to a goal (another version of the name of this mechanism is the mechanism for turning a goal into a motive). The essence of this mechanism lies in the fact that in the process of activity, the goal, which, for certain reasons, a person aspired to, eventually becomes an independent motivating force, i.e., a motive.

The central point of this theory is that the motive, because of which we strive to achieve the goal, is associated with the satisfaction of certain needs. But over time, the goal we were striving to achieve can turn into an urgent need. For example, often parents, in order to stimulate a child's interest in reading books, promise him to buy some kind of toy if he reads a book. However, in the process of reading, the child develops an interest in the book itself, and gradually reading books can become one of his main needs. This example explains the mechanism of development of a person's motivational sphere by expanding the number of needs. At the same time, the most significant thing is that the expansion of the number of needs, that is, the expansion of the list of what a person needs, occurs in the process of his activity, in the process of his contact with the environment.

Historically, in Russian psychology, the formation of a person's motivational sphere in the process of his ontogenesis is considered within the framework of the formation of a person's interests as the main reasons that motivate him

to development and activity. As you remember, interests primarily reflect the cognitive needs of a person. Therefore, in domestic psychology, the development of the motivational sphere, as a rule, is considered in unity with the general development of the human psyche, especially its cognitive sphere.

Conducted scientific studies have shown that the first manifestations of interest are observed in children already in the first year of life, as soon as the child begins to navigate in the world around him. At this stage of development, the child is most often interested in bright, colorful objects, unfamiliar things, sounds made by objects. The child not only experiences pleasure in perceiving all this, but also demands that he be shown the object that interested him again and again, again allowed to hear the sounds that aroused his interest. He cries and resents if he is deprived of the opportunity to continue to perceive what has aroused interest.

A characteristic feature of the first interests of the child is their extreme instability and attachment to present perception. The child is interested in what he perceives at the moment. He gets angry and cries if something that interested him has disappeared from his field of vision. It is not difficult to calm the child in these cases - it is enough to draw his attention to something else, as the interest in what he perceived before is extinguished and replaced by a new one.

As the motor activity in the child is more and more interested in independent performance of actions, which he gradually masters. Already in the first year of life, the child discovers, for example, a tendency to repeatedly throw things in his hand on the floor - throwing the thing he has taken, he demands that it be picked up and given to him, but then he throws it again, again demands its return to himself. , throws again, etc. Mastering more complex actions, he also shows interest in performing them repeatedly and can, for example, put one thing into another for a long time and take it out again.

With the development of speech and communication with others, as well as with the expansion of the range of objects and actions that the child gets acquainted with, his cognitive interests. A vivid expression of them is the most diverse questions asked by children to adults, starting with the question: “What is this?” and ending with questions related to explaining what is perceived by the child: “Why does the cow have horns?”, “Why does the moon not fall to the earth?”, “Why is the grass green?”, “Where does the milk go when we drink it?”, “Where does the wind come from?”, “Why do birds sing?” - all these questions, and many similar ones, are of keen interest to the child, and at the age of three to five years, he “falls asleep” with them to an adult so much that this entire period of his life is rightly called the period of questions.

The end of pre-preschool and the beginning of pre-school age are characterized by the appearance interest in the game more and more expanding throughout preschool childhood. The game is the leading activity of the child at this age, in it various aspects of his mental life develop, many of the most important psychological qualities of his personality are formed. However, a game - This activities that attract the child the most captivating him. She stands at the center of his interests, interests him herself and, in her own

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turn, reflects all other interests of the child. Everything that interests children in the world around them, in the life unfolding around them, usually finds some reflection in their games.

It should be noted that the cognitive interests of preschoolers, aimed at the knowledge of reality, are very broad. A preschool child watches for a long time what attracted his attention from the world around him, asks a lot about what he notices around him. However, just like at an earlier age, he is interested in everything bright, colorful, sonorous. He is especially keenly interested in everything that is dynamic, moving, acting, revealing noticeable, clearly expressed and especially unexpected changes. With great interest, he follows the changes in nature, willingly observes the growth of plants in the "living corner", the changes associated with the change of seasons, with the change of weather. Animals are of considerable interest to him, especially those with which he can play (kittens, puppies) or whose behavior he can observe for a long time (fish in an aquarium, chickens fussing near a hen, etc.) .

Being widely interested in reality, preschool children show great interest in fantastic stories, especially in fairy tales. Preschool children are ready to listen to the same fairy tale many times.

The end of the preschool period and the beginning of school age are usually characterized by the emergence of new interests in the child - interest in learning and school. As a rule, he is interested in the learning process itself, the possibility of a new activity that he has to do, new rules for school life, new responsibilities, new comrades and school teachers. But this initial interest in the school is still undifferentiated. A novice student is attracted to all types of work at school: he equally willingly writes, reads, counts, and carries out assignments. Even the different marks that he receives often cause him to have the same attitude towards himself in the first days. For example, it is known that some children who first come to school are initially interested not so much in what mark they received, but in their number.

Over time, interest in the school is more and more differentiated. Initially stand out as more interesting, separate subjects. So, some schoolchildren are more attracted to reading or writing, others are more attracted to mathematics, etc. Along with educational interests, some new ones arise at this age. extracurricular interests. For example, mastering literacy creates the preconditions for the emergence of interest in extracurricular reading, so for the first time the child's reading interests appear. At primary school age, there is a significant interest in "everyday" literature, in stories from the lives of children. Fairy tales more and more lose their charm for the child. Often a primary school student already refuses them, emphasizing that he wants to read about what was “really”. Towards the end of this period, more and more travel and adventure literature comes to the fore, which in adolescence arouses the greatest interest, especially among boys.

In the course of growing up, interest in games undergoes significant changes. In the life of a schoolchild, play no longer occupies a leading place; it gives way to learning, which becomes for a long time the leading activity of the child.

But interest in the game still remains, this is especially true for primary school age. At the same time, the content of the games changes significantly. The “role-playing games” of the preschooler fade into the background and disappear altogether. Most of all, the student is attracted, on the one hand, by the so-called "board" games, and on the other hand, by outdoor games, in which, over time, the moment of competition and the nascent, especially among boys, interest in sports games are more and more involved. As an interest characteristic of the end of primary school age, which remains in subsequent years, one can point to the collection of certain items, in particular postage stamps.

During adolescence, further changes take place in the interests of schoolchildren. Significantly expand and deepen primarily interests of the socio-political plan. The child begins to be interested not only in current events, but also to show interest in his future, in what position he will take in society. This phenomenon is accompanied by an expansion cognitive interests teenager. The circle of what interests a teenager and what he wants to know is getting wider and wider. Moreover, often the cognitive interests of a teenager are due to his plans for future activities.

Adolescents, of course, differ in their cognitive interests, which at this age become more and more differentiated.

Adolescence is characterized by the further development of interests, and above all cognitive ones. High school students begin to be interested in already defined areas of scientific knowledge, strive for deeper and more systematic knowledge in the area of ​​interest to them.

In the process of further development and activity, the formation of interests, as a rule, does not stop. With age, a person also has the emergence of new interests. However, this process is largely conscious or even planned, since these interests are largely related to the improvement of professional skills, the development of family relationships, as well as those hobbies that, for one reason or another, were not realized in adolescence.

It should be especially emphasized that the formation and development of the interests and motives of the child's behavior should not take place spontaneously, outside the control of parents or teachers. The spontaneous development of a child's interests in most cases makes it possible for him to develop negative and even pernicious interests and habits, such as an interest in alcohol or drugs. Quite reasonably, the question arises of how to avoid the formation of these negative interests in the child. Of course, there is no single “recipe” for how to avoid this. In each case, you should look for a unique option. Nevertheless, one general pattern can be traced, which allows us to speak about the validity of the theoretical views that have developed in Russian psychology on the problem of the development of a person's motivational sphere. This pattern lies in the fact that motives and interests do not arise from nowhere or from nothing. The likelihood of a child's interests or motives arising is determined by the activities in which he is involved, as well as by the responsibilities that he has at home or at school.

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It is necessary to pay attention to one more point in the problem of the formation and development of the motivational sphere. The goals a person strives for can eventually become his motives. And having become motives, they, in turn, can be transformed into personal characteristics and properties.

22.4. Motivated behavior as a personality characteristic

In the process of growing up, many of the leading motives of behavior eventually become so characteristic of a person that they turn into traits of his personality. To their this number should include achievement motivation, or the motivation to avoid failure, the motive of power, the motive of helping other people (altruism), aggressive motives of behavior, etc. Dominant motives become one of the main characteristics of the personality, which is reflected in the characteristics of other personality traits. For example, it has been found that success-oriented people are more likely to be dominated by realistic, while individuals oriented to avoiding failures are unrealistic, overestimated or underestimated. self-esteem. From what does self-esteem depend on? The level of self-esteem is largely related to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of a person with himself, his activities, resulting from success or failure. The combination of successes and failures in life, the predominance of one over the other constantly form the self-esteem of the individual. In turn, the features of a person's self-esteem are expressed in the goals and general direction of a person's activity, since in practical activities he, as a rule, strives to achieve results that are consistent with his self-esteem, contribute to its strengthening.

Closely related to self-esteem level of claims. The level of claims means the result that the subject expects to achieve in the course of his activities. It should be noted that significant changes in self-esteem occur when the successes or failures themselves are associated by the subject of activity with the presence or absence of the necessary abilities.

motives affiliations(motive of desire to communicate) and authorities actualized and satisfied only in the communication of people. The motive of affiliation usually manifests itself as a desire of a person to establish good, emotionally positive relationships with people. Internally, or psychologically, it acts as a feeling of affection, fidelity, and externally - in sociability, in an effort to cooperate with other people, to be constantly with them. It should be emphasized that relationships between people built on the basis of affiliation are, as a rule, mutual. Communication partners with such motives do not consider each other as a means of satisfying personal needs, do not seek to dominate each other, but rely on equal cooperation. As a result of satisfying the affiliation motive

Chapter 22. Orientation and motives of personality 529

between people there are trusting, open relationships based on sympathy and mutual assistance.

The opposite of the affiliation motive is rejection motive, manifested in the fear of being rejected, rejected by people significant to the individual. The dominance of the motive of affiliation in a person gives rise to a style of communication with people, characterized by confidence, ease, openness and courage. On the contrary, the predominance of the rejection motive leads to uncertainty, constraint, awkwardness, and tension. The predominance of this motive creates obstacles in the way of interpersonal communication. Such people cause distrust in themselves, they are lonely, they have poorly developed skills and communication skills.

Another very significant motive for the activity of the individual is power motive. It is defined as a person's persistent and distinct desire to have power over other people. G. Murray gave the following definition to this motive: the motive of power is the tendency to control the social environment, including people, to influence the behavior of other people in a variety of ways, including persuasion, coercion, suggestion, restraint, prohibition, etc.

The motive of power is manifested in encouraging others to act in accordance with their interests and needs, seeking their location, cooperation, proving their case, defending their own point of view, influencing, directing, organizing, leading, supervising, ruling, subjugating, ruling, dictating conditions, judge, establish laws, determine the norms and rules of behavior, make decisions for others that oblige them to act in a certain way, persuade, dissuade, punish, charm, attract attention, have followers.

Another researcher of power motivation, D. Veroff, tried to determine the psychological content of the power motive. He believes that the motivation of power is understood as the desire and ability to receive satisfaction from control over other people. In his opinion, signs of a person having a motive, or motivation, of power are pronounced emotional experiences associated with the retention or loss of psychological or behavioral control over other people. Another sign that a person has a power motive is satisfaction from defeating another person in any activity or grief about failure, as well as an unwillingness to obey others.

It is generally accepted that people who seek power over other people have a particularly pronounced power motive. In its origin, it is probably associated with a person's desire for superiority over other people. The first to pay attention to this motive were peofreudians. The motive of power was declared one of the main motives of human social behavior. For example, A. Adler believed that the desire for superiority, perfection and social power compensates for the natural shortcomings of people experiencing the so-called inferiority complex.

A similar point of view, but theoretically developed in a different context, was held by another representative of neo-Freudianism, E. Fromm. He found that psychologically, the power of one person over other people is reinforced in several ways. First, the ability to reward and punish

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It is interesting Aggressive behavior Emotions are one of the most interesting phenomena of the psyche. Emotions can cause not only some sensations or general reactions, but also specific actions. For example, we laugh when we are happy, we start when we are frightened, etc. One of these actions is especially seriously studied by psychologists. This action is aggression. By aggression, we mean behavior that deliberately harms another person (physically or verbally) or destroys their property. The key concept of this definition is intention. If a person accidentally pushed you and immediately apologizes, his behavior cannot be regarded as aggressive; but if someone comes up to you and defiantly steps on your foot, then you will have no doubt that this is an aggressive act. The emphasis on aggression is her social significance. Many people often have aggressive thoughts and impulses, and how they deal with these thoughts affects not only their health and interpersonal relationships, but also the well-being of others. Today there are theories that differently consider the problem of aggression and aggressiveness of a person. For example, Freud's psychoanalytic theory considers aggression as an innate need, and social learning theory as a reaction acquired in learning. According to Freud's early psychoanalytic theory, many of our actions are determined by instincts, in particular, by sexual attraction. When the realization of these drives is suppressed (frustrated), there is a need for aggression. Later, representatives of the psychoanalytic direction began to interpret the manifestation of aggression as follows: whenever a person’s efforts to achieve a goal are blocked, an aggressive impulse arises that motivates behavior to harm the obstacle that caused frustration. There are two main points to this assumption: first, the usual cause of aggression is frustration; secondly, aggression is an innate reaction, and also has the properties of an organic need and persists until the goal is achieved. In this interpretation of aggression, it is precisely that aspect of the hypothesis that is associated with the consideration of aggression as an organic need that causes the greatest controversy. If aggression is indeed an organic need, then other mammalian species should be expected to display aggressive patterns similar to ours. Long-term studies have allowed to accumulate the most diverse data on this issue. In the 60s. 20th century it has been suggested that the main difference between humans and other species is that animals have evolved mechanisms to control their aggressive instincts while humans have not. Subsequent work in the 1970s and 1980s, however, showed that animals can be just as aggressive as we are. It has been shown that cases of murder, rape and destruction of cubs among animals are much more common than believed in the 60s. For example, one type of killing of chimpanzees is related to the border wars they wage. So, in the Gombi Stream National Park in Tanzania, a group of five male chimpanzees guarded their territory from any outside male that wandered there. If this group met another group of two or more males, then their reaction was sharp, but not fatal; but if they came across only one intruder, then one member of the group held his hand, another by the leg, and the third beat him to death. Or a couple of group members dragged the intruder over the rocks until he died. In another chimpanzee frontier war in the 1970s, a tribe of about 15 chimpanzees wiped out a neighboring group, methodically killing its male members one at a time. In connection with the data obtained, it is logical to assume that aggression has a biological basis. Thus, a number of studies have shown that moderate electrical stimulation of a certain area of ​​the hypothalamus causes aggressive, even deadly behavior in animals. When the cat's hypothalamus is stimulated through the implanted electrodes, it hisses, her the fur bristles, the pupils dilate, and the cat attacks

It is interesting rat or other objects placed in her cell. Stimulation of a different part of the hypothalamus causes a completely different behavior; instead of showing any violent reactions, the cat calmly sneaks up and kills the rat. Aggressive behavior was induced in rats using a similar method. A lab-raised rat that has never killed mice or seen wild rats kill them can live happily in the same cage as a mouse. But if its hypothalamus is stimulated, the rat will lunge at its cagemate and kill it, exhibiting the same reactions as the wild rat (a bite to the neck that tears the spinal cord). The stimulation appears to trigger an innate kill response that had previously been dormant. Similarly, if a neurochemical blocker is injected into the part of the brain of rats that causes them to spontaneously kill a mouse that catches their eye, they temporarily become peaceful. In the above cases, aggression acquires the properties of an organic need, since it is directed by innate reactions. In higher animals, such instinctive patterns of aggression are controlled by the cerebral cortex, therefore, they are more influenced by experience. Monkeys living in groups establish a dominance hierarchy, with one or two males becoming leaders, while others occupy various subordinate levels. When the hypothalamus of a dominant monkey is electrically stimulated, it will attack the subordinate males, but not the females. When a low-ranking monkey is stimulated in the same way, it shrinks and behaves submissively. Thus, aggressive behavior in the monkey is not automatically induced by stimulation of the hypothalamus, but also depends on its environment and past experience. Probably, in humans, the physiological reactions associated with aggression proceed in a similar way. Although we are equipped with neural mechanisms of aggression, their activation is usually under the control of the cortex (except in cases of brain damage). In most individuals, the frequency of aggressive behavior, the forms it takes, and the situations in which it occurs are largely determined by experience and social influence. Social learning theory emphasizes the importance of vicarious learning, or learning by observation. Many patterns of behavior are acquired by observing the actions of others and the consequences that these actions have on them. A child watching the painful expression on the face of an older brother sitting in a chair at the dentist will be afraid when it comes time for him to visit the dentist for the first time. Social learning theory emphasizes the role of models in the transmission of both specific behaviors and emotional responses. Within the framework of this theory, the concept of aggression as a need generated by frustration is rejected. Aggression is treated like any other learned response. Aggressiveness can be acquired by observation or imitation, and the more often it is reinforced, the more likely it is to occur. A person who is frustrated about not being able to achieve a goal, or who is worried about some event, experiences an unpleasant emotion. What reaction this emotion evokes depends on what reactions that individual has learned in order to cope with stressful situations. A person in a state of frustration may seek help from others, show aggression, try to overcome an obstacle, give up everything, or drown himself with drugs and alcohol. The response that has most successfully alleviated frustration in the past will be chosen. According to this view, frustration provokes aggression mainly in those people who have learned to respond to hostile situations with aggressive behavior. Thus, we "got acquainted with two opposing points of view on the problem of aggression. Which one should be preferred? Probably, the second point of view is closer to us: human aggression has a social nature. However, we cannot yet say that this point of view is absolutely correct. Further purposeful studies of this complex and urgent problem for humanity are needed. By; Agkinsrn R. L., Atkinson R. S., Smith E. E. et al. Introduction to psychology: A textbook for universities / Per. from English. under. ed. V. P. Zinchenko. - M.: Trivola, 1999

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of people. Secondly, the ability to force them to commit certain actions, including with the help of a system of legal and moral norms that give some the right to rule, and others oblige to obey the authority that one person has in the eyes of another.

A special place is occupied by studies of the so-called prosocial motives and related prosocial behavior. Such behavior is understood as any altruistic actions of a person aimed at the well-being of other people, helping them. These forms of behavior are diverse in their characteristics and range from simple courtesy to serious charitable assistance provided by a person to other people, and sometimes with great damage to himself, at the cost of self-sacrifice. Some psychologists believe that a special motive lies behind such behavior, and call it the motive of altruism (the motive of helping, the motive of caring for other people).

Altruistic, or prosocial, behavior is most often characterized as being done for the benefit of another person and with no hope of reward. Altruistically motivated behavior more leads to the well-being of other people than to the well-being of the one who implements it. With altruistic behavior, acts of concern for other people are carried out according to the person’s own conviction, without any calculation or pressure from the outside. In terms of meaning, this behavior is diametrically opposed to aggression.

Aggression is seen as a phenomenon inherently opposite to altruism. In the course of studying aggressive behavior, it was suggested that behind this form of behavior lies a special kind of motive, called ^ the motive of aggressiveness. It is customary to call aggressive actions that cause any damage to a person: moral, material or physical. Aggression is always associated with the intentional harm to another person.

Separate psychological studies have shown that in children between 3 and 11 years of age, manifestations of aggressiveness towards peers can be observed. At this time, many children have a desire to fight with each other. Moreover, aggressive responses as a reaction to the actions of peers in boys are more common than in girls. In the psychological literature, this phenomenon is interpreted in different ways. Some authors see biological reasons in this, including gender. Others believe that the manifestation of aggressiveness in children is associated with belonging to a certain socio-cultural group and the peculiarities of family upbringing.

For example, it has been found that fathers of children who are characterized by increased aggressiveness often do not tolerate manifestations of aggression at home, but outside it they allow and even encourage such actions of their children, provoke and reinforce such behavior. The role models for aggressive behavior are very often the parents themselves. A child who has been repeatedly punished eventually becomes aggressive himself.

The psychological difficulty of eliminating aggressive actions lies, in particular, in the fact that a person who behaves in this way usually easily finds many reasonable justifications for his behavior, completely or partially exonerating himself of guilt. A well-known researcher of aggressive behavior A. Bandura identified the following typical ways of justifying their actions by the aggressors themselves.

Chapter 22. Orientation and motives of personality activity 533

Bandura Albert(1925-1968) - American psychologist, author of the theory of social learning. In 1949 he graduated from the University of British Columbia, after which he received a master's degree from the University of Iowa (in 1951). PhD from the University of Iowa. Later he worked at Stanford University as a professor of psychology, and since 1973 - a professor of social sciences in psychology. He came to the conclusion that the “stimulus-response” model of behavior is not fully applicable to human behavior, and proposed his own model, which, in his opinion, better explains the observed behavior. Based on numerous studies, he gave a new formulation of instrumental conditioning, placing a central place in it on learning by observing a sample. At the same time, he considered reinforcement not as the only determinant of learning, but only as a contributing factor. The main determinant of human learning is the observation of patterns of behavior of other people and the consequences of this behavior: one or another form of behavior becomes motivating due to the anticipation of the consequences of these actions. Such consequences may include not only reinforcement from other people, but also self-reinforcement, due to the assessment of compliance with internally binding standards of behavior. The speed of learning depends on the psychological availability of the object of imitation and on the effectiveness of verbal coding of the observed behavior. Based on his research, Bandura came to the conclusion that anger, as a manifestation of general arousal that promotes aggression, will manifest itself only when, under the conditions of a given situation, patterns of angry reactions are socially acceptable.

Firstly, comparing one's own aggressive act with the personality flaws or actions of a person who has become a victim of aggression in order to prove that the actions committed against him do not seem as terrible as they seem at first glance.

Secondly, the justification of aggression against another person by some ideological, religious or other considerations, for example, by the fact that it is committed from "noble" goals.

Thirdly, the denial of one's personal responsibility for the committed aggressive act.

Fourthly, the removal of part of the responsibility for aggression by referring to external circumstances or the fact that this action was committed jointly with other people, under their pressure or under the influence of circumstances, for example, the need to fulfill someone's order.

Fifthly, the “dehumanization” of the victim by “proving” that he allegedly deserves such treatment.

Sixth, the aggressor's gradual mitigation of his guilt by finding new arguments and explanations that justify his actions.

A person has two different motivational tendencies associated with aggressive behavior: the tendency to aggression and its inhibition. The tendency to aggression is the tendency of an individual to evaluate many situations and actions of people as threatening him and the desire to respond to them with his own aggressive actions. The tendency to suppress aggression is defined as an individual predisposition to evaluate their own aggressive actions as undesirable and unpleasant, causing regret and remorse. This

534 Part IV. Mental properties of personality

a tendency at the level of behavior leads to suppression, avoidance or condemnation of aggressive actions.

Thus, the motives formed in the process of life and activity, which have become habitual, or basic, are reflected in the general impression that a person makes on others, that is, they characterize the personality as a whole.

test questions

1. Tell us about the main forms of orientation - inclinations, desire, aspiration, interests, ideals, beliefs.

2. Explain the essence of the concept of "motive".

3. What do you know about the motivation of human activity?

4. Explain the essence of the concept of "need".

5. Expand the main characteristics of the motivational sphere of a person.

6. How was the problem of motivation considered in the works of ancient philosophers?

7. Expand the essence of irrationalism and automaton theory.

8. Expand the role of Ch. Darwin's evolutionary theory in the development of the problem of human behavior motivation.

9. Tell us about the theory of instincts 3. Freud and W. McDougall.

10. What do you know about the theory of human biological needs?

11. Tell us about the classification of the hierarchy of human needs by A. Maslow.

12. What are the motivational concepts of the second half of the XX century. you know?

13. Expand the essence of the theory of the activity origin of the motivational spheres of man A. N. Leontiev.

14. Describe the mechanisms of development of motives according to A. N. Leontiev.

15. Name the main stages in the formation of the motivational sphere in children.

16. What is the role of the game in the formation of the motivational sphere?

17. How does the motivational sphere characterize a person? What are the main motives for human behavior?

1. Ananiev B. G. O problems of modern human knowledge / Academy of Sciences THE USSR, Institute of Psychology. - M.: Nauka, 1977.

2. Bratus B.S. Psychological aspects of the moral development of personality. - M. Knowledge, 1977 .

3. Gippenreiter Yu. B. Introduction to General Psychology: Lecture Course: Textbook

for universities. - M.: CheRo, 1997.

4. Ilyin E.P. Motivation and motives. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2000.

5. Mute R.S. Psychology: Textbook for students. higher under. textbook institutions: In 3 books. Book. 1: General foundations of psychology. - 2nd ed. - M.: Vlados, 1998.

6. Leontiev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - 2nd ed. - M.: Politizdat, 1977.

7. Rubinstein S. L. Fundamentals of General Psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 1999.

8. Warm B. M. Selected works: in 2 vols. T. 1. - M .: Pedagogy, 1985.

General concept of Motive

motive (according to the dictionary) -1) Incitement to activity related to the satisfaction of needs, a set of internal and external conditions that cause the activity of the subject and determine its direction (motivation)

An object, material or ideal, that motivates or determines the choice of the direction of activity, for the sake of which it is carried out.

Perceived reason underlying the choice of activity.

In foreign psychology a number of features of the nature and functions of motives in the regulation of the behavior of the subject are identified: the motivating and guiding function of the motive, the determination of human behavior by unconscious motives, the hierarchy of motives, the desire for balance and tension as mechanisms of the dynamics of motives (psychoanalysis, behaviorism). consciousness.

In domestic psychology as a general mechanism for the emergence of motives, the realization of needs in the course of search activity and, thereby, the transformation of its objects into motives - objects of needs is considered. Hence the central pattern - the development of the motive occurs through a change and expansion of the range of activities that transform objective activity. In man, the source of the development of motives is the boundless process of the spiritual production of material and spiritual values. Values, interests and ideals of a person can acquire motivating force and become real motives. These motives acquire the function of meaning formation - they give the reflected reality into consciousness a personal meaning. The function of meaning formation is connected with controlling the direction of the personality's activity. . The function of control is carried out not directly, but through the mechanism of emotions, emotions evaluate the meaning of ongoing events, if this meaning does not correspond, motives change the general direction of the personality's activity. The study of the motivational-semantic sphere is the central problem of personality psychology.

A motive is born in the act of objectifying a need and is defined as an object of need, or an objectified need. Following the objectification of activity, the type of behavior also changes, it becomes purposeful. A typical sign of a motive is a set of actions around one motive (object). Very often it happens vice versa, one action is motivated by many motives. .According to their role, motives can be:

main, leading . is the main motive in the case of field motivation.

Secondary (motives - incentives ) - additionally stimulate activity in case of field motivation.

Perceived motives - they have big goals guiding activity over long periods of life. These are motives - goals, a mature personality has them. These include interests, desires, beliefs.

unconscious motives. – there are more of them than conscious ones. They appear in consciousness in the form of emotions and personal meanings. These include: attraction, hypnotic suggestion, attitudes, frustration states. Suggestion is an unconscious need, it is a stage in the formation of behavioral motives. Installation - readiness to perceive others from a certain angle without objective analysis.

Motives form a hierarchical structure: it can be in the form of a pyramid with one or more peaks and with a narrow or wide foundation. This structure defines and characterizes personality.

The main criteria for the concept of motive in human activity.

1. Motives are formed in the process of individual development as relatively stable evaluative dispositions.

2 People differ in individual manifestations (character and strength) of certain motives. Different people may have different hierarchies of motives.

3. A person's behavior at a certain point in time is motivated not by any or all of his possible motives, but by that of the highest motives in the hierarchy (i.e., the strongest), which, under given conditions, is most closely related to the prospect of achieving the corresponding target state or, on the contrary, the achievement of which is called into question. Such a motive is activated, becomes effective. (At the same time, other motives subordinate to it or in conflict with it can be activated.

4. The motive remains effective, i.e., participates in the motivation of behavior, until either the target state of the corresponding “individual-environment” relationship is reached, or the individual does not get closer to it, as far as the conditions of the situation allow, or the target state ceases to exist. move away threateningly, or the changed conditions of the situation will not make another motive more urgent, as a result of which the latter is activated and becomes dominant. The action, like the motive, is often interrupted before reaching the desired state or breaks up into parts scattered in time; in the latter case, it usually resumes after a certain time.

5.: motivation explains the purposefulness of action..

6 Motivation is certainly not a single process, uniformly penetrating a behavioral act from beginning to end. Rather, it consists of heterogeneous processes that perform the function of self-regulation at individual phases of a behavioral act, primarily before and after the action is performed.

7. The activity is motivated, that is, it is aimed at achieving the goal of the motive, but it should not be confused with motivation. Activity consists of separate functional components - perception, thinking, learning, reproduction of knowledge, speech or motor activity, and they have their own stock of opportunities (skills, skills, knowledge) accumulated during life, which the psychology of motivation does not deal with, taking them as given. Motivation determines how and in what direction various functional abilities will be used. Motivation also explains the choice between different possible actions, between different perceptions and possible contents of thinking, in addition, it explains the intensity and perseverance in the implementation of the chosen action and the achievement of its results.

The motive of human activity is naturally connected with the goal. But the motive can separate from the goal and move6 1) to the activity itself, for example, a person does something out of love for art .. 2) to one of the results of the activity, that is, a side result becomes the goal of the activity.

Motives (according to Leoniev)

The change and development of needs occurs through the change and development of objects that correspond to them and in which they are "objectified" and concretized. The presence of a need is a necessary prerequisite for any activity, but the need itself is not yet able to give activity certain orientation. That which is the only motivator directed activity is not a need in itself, but an object that meets this need. The object of need - material or ideal, sensually perceived or given only in the representation, in the mental plane - we call motive for activity.(...)

From the point of view of the doctrine of objectivity motives of human activity from the category of motives, first of all, subjective experiences, which are a reflection of those "supraorganic" needs that are correlative to motives, should be excluded. These experiences (desires, desires, aspirations) are not motives for the same reasons that they are not feelings of hunger or thirst: by themselves they are not capable of causing directed activity. However, one can speak of subject desires, aspirations, etc., a special place is occupied by hedonistic concepts, according to which human activity is subject to the principle of "maximizing positive and minimizing negative emotions", i.e., aimed at achieving experiences, pleasure, enjoyment and avoiding experiences of suffering ...

Emotions act as internal signals. They are internal in the sense that they themselves do not carry information about external objects, about their connections and relationships, about those objective situations in which the subject's activity takes place. The peculiarity of emotions is that they directly reflect the relationship between motives and the implementation of activities that correspond to these motives. Figuratively speaking, emotions follow behind updating the motive and before rational assessment of the adequacy of the subject's activity.

Thus, in its most general form, the function of emotion can be characterized as an indication, plus or minus, of the authorization of an activity that has been carried out, is being carried out, or is to come.

Like all ideational phenomena, emotions can be generalized and communicated; a person has not only an individual emotional experience, but also an emotional experience that he has learned in the processes of communication of emotions.

The most important feature of emotions is that they are relevant activities, and not its constituent processes, for example, individual acts, actions. Therefore, the same action, passing from one activity to another, can, as you know, acquire a different and even opposite emotional coloring in its sign. And this means that the function of positive or negative authorization inherent in emotions does not refer to the implementation of individual acts, but to the ratio of the achieved effects with the direction that is given to the activity by its motive. In itself, the successful performance of an action does not necessarily lead to a positive emotion; it can also give rise to a difficult emotional experience, which sharply signals that, from the side of the motivational sphere of a person, the success achieved turns into a defeat.

Unlike goals, which are always, of course, conscious, motives, as a rule, are not actually recognized by the subject: when we perform certain actions - external, practical or verbal, mental - we usually do not realize the motives, which encourage them. Motives, however, are not "separated" from consciousness. Even when the motives are not recognized by the subject, that is, when he is not aware of what prompts him to carry out this or that activity, they, figuratively speaking, enter his consciousness, but only in a special way. They give the conscious reflection a subjective coloring, which expresses the meaning of the reflected for the subject himself, his, as we say, personal meaning.

Thus, in addition to its main function - the function motives, motives also have a second function-function meaning formation. (...).

The situation is different with the awareness of the motives of actions, for the sake of which they are performed. Motives carry subject content, which must be perceived by the subject in one way or another. At the level of a person, this content is reflected, i.e., it is recognized. The object that encourages action, and the object that acts in the same situation, for example, as an obstacle, are "equal" in terms of the possibilities of their reflection, cognition. What they differ from each other is not the degree of distinctness and completeness of their perception or the level of their generalization, but their functions and place in the structure of activity. . The goal that arises before me is perceived by me in its objective meaning, i.e. I understand its conditionality, I imagine the means to achieve it and the long-term results to which it leads; at the same time, I feel a desire, a desire to act in the direction of a given goal, or, conversely, negative experiences that prevent this. In both cases they act as internal signals, through which the regulation of the dynamics of activity occurs.

Function examples:

Meaningful- forms an attitude to the subject Example: the book is heavy and you need to give it to a classmate, but the person does not want to go to college, and will go to give the book. Or I'm thirsty and I'll go far for water

Signal.- coincidence of motive and motivation, example: I want a chocolate bar and I get it. At the same time, the signaling function, through pleasure, correctly indicates the subject of need, helps to make the right choice, to understand what exactly you want.

Encouraging: encourages activity. Example: I want to eat, I have to go to the refrigerator.

20. Motivational sphere of a person. General characteristics and structure.

Motivation (according to the dictionary) - it consists of motives that cause human activity and determine its direction. Conscious and unconscious factors that induce an individual to commit certain actions and determine its direction and goals.

Motivating factors in their manifestation can be divided into 3 groups:

1 manifestation of needs and instincts as sources of human activity

2. the direction of activity, i.e. the manifestation of motives as the reasons determining the choice of the direction of activity.

3. manifestation of emotions, experiences, attitudes. as sources regulating the dynamics of behavior

There are the following types of motivation:

External and internal .: The internal one prompts a person to act in order to improve his state of confidence and independence, as opposed to an external goal in relation to him.

achievement motivation . - associated with the individual's need to enjoy and avoid displeasure. Investigated by McClelland. Achievement motivation is aimed at a certain end result obtained due to a person's own abilities, namely: to achieve success or avoid failure. Achievement motivation is thus inherently goal-oriented. It pushes a person towards the "natural" result of a series of related actions. It assumes a clear sequence of a series of actions performed one after another. The following motivational variables were introduced that influence the formation of achievement motivation: 1. Evaluation of the subjective probability of success..2. the attractiveness of self-esteem, the attractiveness of success or failure in a given activity. 3. Individual preference - assigning responsibility for success or failure to oneself, another, or situation. Studies have shown that the main forms of behavior aimed at achieving or not success are laid down from 3-13 years old under the influence of parents or the environment.

Motivation - a rational explanation by the subject of the reasons for the action by pointing to socially acceptable circumstances that prompted the choice of this action. Sometimes motivation appears as an excuse, and sometimes real motives are masked by it.

Motivational sphere of personality.

B.F. Lomov under the motivational sphere of personality understands "the totality of her motives, which are formed and developed during her life." In general, this system is dynamic and changes depending on many circumstances. Motives differ in varying degrees of stability, some - dominant, pivotal - are firmly preserved for a long time, sometimes for a lifetime, it is in them, according to B.F. Lomov, the orientation of the personality is manifested. Their change occurs with significant changes in the living conditions of the individual, his relationship with society. Other motives are less stable, more variable, episodic, changeable, more dependent on the situation.

The development of the motivational sphere of the personality in the process of its formation is differentiation, integration, transformation, suppression, struggle of conflicting motives, mutual strengthening or weakening of motives. Dominant and subordinate motives can change places.

The motivational sphere of the personality is closely connected with the relationship of the personality with other people. It depends not only on the direct contacts of a person with specific people, but also on indirect ones, as well as on the spheres of social life related to public consciousness. B.F. Lomov emphasizes the huge role in the formation and development of the motivational sphere of the individual: the system of education, propaganda, etc. The motivational sphere of social institutions of the individual is not only a reflection of his own individual needs, the objective basis for the struggle of motives experienced by the individual is the real contradictions that arise in society. "

The close connection of the value orientations of the personality with its motivational sphere is noted by the researchers of this problem. According to B.F. Porshnev, the basis of personality lies in the function of choice. Choice presupposes preference for one motive over all others. But there must be grounds for this, and value is such a ground, "for value is the only measure of the comparison of motives." In addition, value has the ability to generate emotions, for example, in the case when a particular choice contradicts it. And this means, according to F.E. Vasilyuk that value should be subsumed under the category of motive.

L.S. Kravchenko tries to trace the evolution in the course of personality development, which consists in their change not only in content, but also in their motivating function, in place and role in the structure of life. At first, values ​​exist only in the form of emotional consequences of their behavioral violation or, on the contrary, affirmation (the first feelings of guilt and pride). Then the values ​​take the form of "known" motives, then the motives that form meaning and actually act. At the same time, the value at each new stage of its development is enriched with a new motivational quality, without losing the previous ones.

A value can perform the functions of a motive, that is, it can create meaning, direct and induce real behavior, but it does not follow from this that, within the framework of psychology, value can be reduced to the category of motive. The motive - as a direct reason for committing an act - is more situational, individual and diverse in comparison with value orientations. The existing system of value orientations is the highest level of regulation in relation to the needs, interests and motives of behavior.

The motivational sphere of a personality is not a simple hierarchy of needs and motives, but a hierarchy of activities implemented by a person, their motives and conditions, goals and means, plans and results, norms of control and evaluation. According to a number of scientists, self-actualization as a process of self-development of the personality, the constant internal movement of the subject in the subject of his activity, originates in the lower levels of the incentive hierarchy. As the goals become more complex, the means of objective development become more complex and improved, the nature of the inclusion of the subject in the system of social interactions, outside of which this movement is impossible, becomes more complex and expands. This is the main productive line of personality development. At the same time, a subordinate line of maintaining the life and social existence of the individual develops; it is defined as a consumer line. This includes: meeting the needs of life support and self-preservation, obtaining the necessary conditions of comfort and security guarantees, moments of self-esteem, status and influence, as the basis for the existence and development of the individual in society. At the same time, the motives of life support, comfort, and social status correspond to the first levels of the hierarchy, and the motives of general activity, creative activity, and social usefulness form the basis of a series of self-actualization. Thus, these groups of motives form the most generalized motivational formations - functional trends, one of which can be defined as a tendency to maintain the life and social existence of a person - a consumer tendency. So, the motivational structure of a person is represented in the cerebral cortex by a separate nerve formation. It has a complex structure and a dual nature. On the one hand, they distinguish biological needs, on the other - social ones. The combination of these two levels constitutes, in fact, the motivational sphere of a person. The structure of human motivation has a complex system, which is characterized by hierarchical subordination, polymotivated nature, polyvalence of motives in relation to needs and interchangeability. It develops under the influence of both internal and external factors. And in general, the motivational sphere of the individual determines the general orientation of the personality.

Motivation and activity.

In modern psychology, there are several theories of the connection between motivation and activity:

1) Theory of causal attribution: it is understood as the interpretation by the subject of interpersonal perception of the causes and motives of the behavior of other people and the development on this basis of the ability to predict future behavior. Experimental studies have shown that a) a person explains his behavior differently than he explains the behavior of other people. b) a person is inclined to explain the unsuccessful results of his activity by external factors, and successful ones - by internal ones.

2) theory of achieving success and avoiding failure. The quality of work is best at an average level of motivation, and usually deteriorates when it is too low or high. This theory consists of a) the motive of avoiding failure. b) the motive for achieving success. c) locus of control. d) self-esteem. D) the level of claims.

Personality and motivation

Personality is characterized by such motivational formations: a) the need for communication. (affiliation) The desire to be in a society of people b) the motive of power .. The desire to have power over other people. c) the motive of helping other people (altruism), the antipode of this motive is selfishness. d) aggression. Intention to harm a person.

Psychological theories of motivation.

Thus, according to the theory Freud, human motivation is entirely based on the energy of excitation produced by bodily needs. According to him, the main amount of mental energy produced by the body is directed to mental activity, which allows you to reduce the level of excitement caused by need. According to Freud, mental images of bodily needs, expressed in the form of desires, are called instincts. The instincts manifest innate states of excitation at the level of the organism, requiring an exit and discharge. Although the number of instincts can be unlimited, Freud recognized the existence of two main groups: life and death instincts. The first group (under the general name of Eros) includes all the forces that serve the purpose of maintaining vital processes and ensuring the reproduction of the species. The energy of sexual instincts is called libido(from Latin - to want or desire), or libido energy - a term used in the meaning of the energy of life instincts in general. Libido is a certain amount of psychic energy that finds discharge exclusively in sexual behavior.

Freud believed that there is not one sexual instinct, but several. Each of them is associated with a specific part of the body, called the erogenous zone. The second group - the death instincts, called Thanatos - underlies all manifestations of cruelty, aggression, suicide and murder.

Maslow defines neurosis and psychological disability as "diseases of deprivation", that is, he believes that they are caused by the deprivation of the satisfaction of certain fundamental needs. Examples of fundamental needs are physiological needs such as hunger, thirst, or the need to sleep. Failure to satisfy these needs definitely leads, in the end, to a disease that can only be cured by their satisfaction. Fundamental needs are inherent in all individuals. The extent and manner of satisfying them varies from society to society, but fundamental needs can never be completely ignored. To maintain health, certain psychological needs must also be met. Maslow lists the following fundamental

Physiological needs (organic)

security needs.

Needs for belonging and love.

Respect (respect) needs.

cognitive needs.

aesthetic needs.

The need for self-actualization.

According to the concept A.N. Leontieva, the motivational sphere of a person, like his other psychological characteristics, has its sources in practical activities. In the activity itself, one can find those components that correspond to the elements of the motivational sphere, are functionally and genetically related to them. Behavior in general, for example, corresponds to a person's needs; in the system of activities of which it is composed, there is a variety of motives; set of actions, forming activities - an ordered set of goals. Thus, there is an isomorphism relation between the structure of activity and the structure of the motivational sphere of a person, i.e. mutual correspondence.

L .Festinger. The main postulate of his theory of cognitive dissonance is the assertion that the system of human knowledge about the world and about oneself tends to harmonize. When a mismatch or imbalance occurs, the individual seeks to remove or reduce it, and such a desire in itself can become a strong motive for his behavior. Together with attempts to reduce the imbalance that has already arisen, the subject actively avoids situations that can give rise to it.

American scientist D .Atkinson one of the first to propose a general theory of motivation that explains human behavior aimed at achieving a specific goal. His theory reflects the moments of initiation, orientation and support of human behavioral activity at a certain level. The same theory was one of the first examples of the symbolic representation of motivation.

21. Definition of emotions. Classification of emotional phenomena. Conditions for the emergence and function of emotions.

The emotional sphere of a person.

Emotions (affects, emotional disturbances) are such states as fear, anger, longing, joy, love, hope, sadness, disgust, pride, etc. and. Bleuler (1929) combined feelings and emotions under the heading "efficiency".

The variety of emotional life is divided into affects, emotions, feelings, mood, stress.

Emotions ( according to the dictionary) mental reflection in the form of direct experience of the meaning of a life phenomenon or situation. With the help of emotions, you can understand unconscious motives. The simplest form of emotion is the tone of emotional sensations. - immediate experience. Emotions by origin represent a form of species experience.

Emotions manifest themselves in certain mental experiences, known to everyone from their own experience, and in bodily phenomena. Like sensation, emotions have positive and negative sensory tones and are associated with feelings of pleasure or displeasure. When intensified, emotions turn into affect.

On the basis of bodily experiences, Kant divided emotions into sthenic (joy, enthusiasm, anger) - exciting, increasing muscle tone, strength, and asthenic (fear, longing, sadness) - weakening.

Affect.- a strong, and stormy and short-term experience., completely captivating the human psyche. The development of affect obeys the following law: the stronger the initial motivational stimulus, the more effort had to be expended and the smaller the result, the greater the affect. Affects usually interfere with the normal organization of behavior. They are able to leave deep traces in long-term memory. Affects Arise at the end of the action and reflect the final assessment of the situation.

Feelings.- the highest product of the cultural and emotional development of a person. They are associated with certain cultural objects, activities and people. Depending on the direction, feelings are divided into moral (a person's experience of a relationship with other people. Intellectual (feelings associated with cognitive activity. Aesthetic (feelings of beauty, phenomena of art and nature.) Practical (associated with human activity. The manifestation of a strong feeling is called passion.

Moods. Long lasting emotions are called moods. Mood is a complex complex, which is partly associated with external experiences, partly based on the general disposition of the body to certain emotional states, partly dependent on sensations emanating from the organs of the body.

With.L. Rubenshtein believes that three spheres can be distinguished in the emotional manifestations of a person: a) her organic life b) her material interests c) spiritual and moral needs. To affective - emotional sensitivity, in his opinion, include elementary pleasures and displeasures, mainly associated with the satisfaction of organic needs. Object feelings are associated with the possession of objects and engaging in certain activities. These feelings are respectively subdivided into moral, intellectual and aesthetic. Worldview feelings are connected with the attitude of a person to the world.

The emergence and development of emotions.

Emotions, Darwin argued, arose in the process of evolution as a means by which living beings establish the significance of certain conditions in order to satisfy their urgent needs. Emotional phenomena in the process of evolution have become fixed as a peculiar way of maintaining the life process within its optimal boundaries and warning about the collapsing nature of the lack or excess of any factors. The oldest emotion is pleasure and displeasure. Human emotions are a product of socio-historical development. They refer to the processes of internal regulation of behavior. They precede activities to satisfy them by stimulating and directing them. Feelings are the highest product of the development of emotions. The development of emotions in ontogenesis is expressed in 1) in the differentiation of the qualities of emotions 2) in the complication of objects that cause an emotional response. 3) in the development of the ability to regulate emotions and their external expression. Emotional experience changes and develops in the course of personality development, as a result of empathy, with the perception of art and media.

The structure of a person's emotional life.

The mental side of emotions is manifested not only in the experience of the emotion itself. Anger, love, etc. affect intellectual processes: ideas, thoughts, direction of attention, as well as will, actions and deeds, all behavior.

Explosive affective reactions associated with loss of self-control are called primitive reactions. Emotions can arise without any impact on the psyche, under the influence of purely chemical and medicinal influences. It is known that wine "rejoices the heart of a person", wine can "fill in melancholy", thanks to wine, fear disappears - "a drunken sea is knee-deep".

In many diseases, fear or joy appear without the direct objects of these emotions: the patient is afraid, without knowing why, or happy for no reason.

Emotions are expressed by facial expressions, tongue movements, exclamations and sounds.

The attitude towards reflected phenomena as the main property of emotions is represented: 1) in their qualitative characteristics: how they are treated. a) sign - positive, negative, b) modality. - surprise, joy, anxiety, sadness. 2) in dynamics: the flow of emotions themselves - duration, intensity. 3) in the dynamics of external expression - speech, pantomime, facial expressions. There are 4 levels of emotions 1) behavioral (facial expressions, gestures) 2) speech (change in intonation 0 3) physiological (tremor of the limbs, change in body tension) 4) Vegetative (change in breathing rhythm ..)

Basic functions of feelings and emotions.

Our emotions perform the following functions6

partiality b - reflects the attitude to reality. Man evaluates everything for himself.

Estimating function.

Anticipatory function . - individual experience is contained in individual emotional memory

Synthesizing - provides a single emotional basis for generalization.

Signal function feelings is expressed in the fact that experiences arise and change in connection with the ongoing changes in the environment or in the human body.

Regulating function feelings is expressed in the fact that persistent experiences direct our behavior, support it, force us to overcome obstacles encountered on the way or interfere with the flow of activity, block it.

Sometimes emotions that have reached extreme tension are transformed into "harmless" processes, such as the secretion of lacrimal fluid, contraction of facial and respiratory muscles.

In the distant past, in animals - the ancestors of man, - Darwin pointed out, expressive movements were expedient manifestations, they helped to survive in the fierce struggle for existence. In the process of the historical development of mankind, the forms of relationships between people and the outside world have changed, and the expressive movements accompanying emotions and feelings have lost their former meaning. In a modern person, expressive movements fulfill a new purpose - they are one of the forms of communication. From them we learn about the feelings experienced. The human psyche is so complex that it is not always possible to definitely judge experiences by expressive movements. Already in adolescence, there is a discrepancy between emotions and their forms of expression. The older a person is and the thinner, richer his experiences, the more complex and peculiar are the forms of their expression. Accumulating life experience, a person very skillfully learns to control his experiences and manifestations.

Emotions act as regulators of communication, influencing the choice of a partner, determining the ways and means of interaction.

In humans, the main function of emotions is that, thanks to emotions, we better understand each other, we can, without using speech, judge each other's states and better tune in to joint activities and communication. Remarkable, for example, is the fact that people belonging to different cultures are able to accurately perceive and evaluate the expressions of a human face, to determine from it such emotional states as joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise. This, in particular, applies to those peoples who have never been in contact with each other at all.

Emotionally expressive movements of a person - facial expressions, gestures, pantomimes - perform the function of communication, i.e. informing a person of information about the state of the speaker and his attitude to what is currently happening, as well as the function of influence - exerting a certain influence on that who is the subject of perception of emotional and expressive movements. The interpretation of such movements by the perceiving person occurs on the basis of the correlation of the movement with the context in which the communication takes place.

Emotions and feelings are personal formations. They characterize a person socio-psychologically. Emphasizing the actual personal significance of emotional processes, V. K. Viliunas writes: "An emotional event can cause the formation of new emotional relationships to various circumstances ... Everything that is known by the subject as a cause of pleasure or displeasure becomes the object of love-hate"".

Emotions usually follow the actualization of the motive and up to a rational assessment of the adequacy of the subject's activity to it. They are a direct reflection, an experience of existing relationships, and not their reflection. Emotions are able to anticipate situations and events that have not actually occurred yet, and arise in connection with ideas about previously experienced or imagined situations, while Feelings are of an objective nature, associated with a representation or idea of ​​some object.

Feelings are a product of the cultural and historical development of man. They are associated with certain objects, activities and people surrounding a person.

Feelings play a motivating role in the life and activities of a person, in his communication with other people. In relation to the world around him, a person seeks to act in such a way as to reinforce and strengthen Affects - these are especially pronounced emotional states, accompanied by visible changes in the behavior of the person who experiences them. Affect does not precede behavior, but is, as it were, shifted to its end. This is a reaction that arises as a result of an already completed action or deed and expresses its subjective emotional coloring in terms of the extent to which, as a result of the commission of this act, it was possible to achieve the goal, to satisfy the need that stimulated it.

One of the most common types of affects today is stress. It is a state of excessively strong and prolonged psychological stress that occurs in a person when his nervous system gets emotional overload. Stress disorganizes human activity, disrupts the normal course of his behavior. Passion is another type of complex, qualitatively peculiar and found only in humans emotional states. Passion is a fusion of emotions, motives and feelings centered around a particular activity or subject. A person can become an object of passion. S. L. Rubinshtein wrote that "passion is always expressed in concentration, concentration of thoughts and forces, their focus on a single goal ... Passion means impulse, passion, orientation of all aspirations and forces of the individual in a single direction, focusing them on a single goal" ".

In his discussions about emotions, W. Wundt did not limit himself only to an attempt to classify them in accordance with the above scheme, but also proposed some hypothetical curves that, in his opinion, express the typical dynamics of changes in emotional states for each of these dimensions.

If, in accordance with these curves, we consider different types of emotional processes, then they will differ greatly from each other in both dimensions. The smallest amplitude of vertical fluctuations of these curves will probably be associated with moods, and the largest - with affects. On the horizontal line, the ratios will be reversed: moods will last the longest, and affects will last the least.

Basic qualities of emotions and feelings. The flow of feelings is characterized by dynamics, phase. First of all, it appears in tension and replacing it resolution..

Any qualitatively diverse feelings and emotions (love, anger, fear, pity, affection, hatred, etc.) can be considered as positive, negative or uncertain(indicative).

An indefinite (tentative) emotional experience arises in a new, unfamiliar situation, in the absence of experience in relations with the new surrounding world or when getting acquainted with the objects of activity.

It is necessary to single out one more specific property of emotions and feelings - their polarity. Polarity is the dual (or ambivalent) emotional attitude, the unity of conflicting feelings (joy-sadness, love-hate, charm-disgust).

Physiological basis of feelings and emotions. Special studies show that emotional experiences are caused by nervous excitement. subcortical centers and physiological processes that take place in vegetative nervous system.

The meaning of emotions and feelings. The brightness and variety of emotional relationships make a person more interesting. He responds to the most diverse phenomena of reality: he is excited by music and poetry, the launch of a satellite and the latest advances in technology. The wealth of a person's own experiences helps her to understand what is happening more deeply, to penetrate more subtly into people's experiences, their relationships with each other.

Feelings and emotions contribute to a deeper knowledge of a person himself. Thanks to experiences, a person learns his capabilities, abilities, advantages and disadvantages. A person's experiences in a new environment often reveal something new in himself, in people, in the world of surrounding objects and phenomena.

Emotions and feelings give words, deeds, all behavior a certain flavor. Positive experiences inspire a person in his creative search and bold daring. Emphasizing the importance of experiences, V. I. Lenin said that without human emotions there has never been, is not and cannot be a human search for truth.

Classification of emotional phenomena.

DISGUST

The expression "disgust" in its first simplest sense refers to food and means something that tastes disgusting ("turning away" is a negative reaction to food).

EXPRESSION OF FUN AND JOY

A cheerful mood is expressed in laughter, aimless movements, general excitement (exclamations, clapping, etc.). The expression of a cheerful mood can arise as an unconditioned reflex - due to bodily and organic sensations. Children and young people often laugh without any reason, one must think, due to the positive tone of organic sensations, which speak of the well-being of the body. In young, healthy people, a pleasant or odor often causes a slight smile as well.

PAIN. The effect of pain on the psyche is similar to the effect of drives. If a dominant arises that suppresses all other excitations, then the desire to get rid of pain becomes stronger than all drives. Pain, having received a dominant character, forcibly determines a person's behavior.

FEAR. One of the most characteristic symptoms of fear is the trembling of all the muscles of the body, often it first of all manifests itself on the lips. When fear rises to the agony of terror, we get a new picture of emotional reactions. The heart beats completely erratically, stops, and fainting occurs; the face is covered with deathly pallor; breathing becomes difficult; the gaze rushes to the object of fear, etc. In most cases, fear arises on the basis of life experience. Only after experiencing pain under different conditions, he begins to be afraid of what can cause pain.

What is called the "sense of self-preservation" is only partially innate, but mainly develops during life on the basis of experienced pain.

Adrenaline is obviously involved in fear reactions. It gives strength to motor reactions, and it can also be thought to be involved in the immobilization reflex ("imaginary death reflex"). It is possible that in one amount adrenaline is a source of strength, in another it contributes to muscle stiffness.

A person with a strong fright or horror is observed: numbness, panic desire to run away, diffuse chaotic muscle excitation. The numbness that occurs when frightened, as a rule, passes quickly and can be replaced by motor excitation. Fear, if it does not reach the force that slows down the psyche, can completely put thinking at its service. Thought chained to one goal: to find a way out of a frightening situation. And fear can be experienced in such a weak degree that a person does his usual work, the usual course of associations takes place, and fear lies somewhere in the background, in the back of consciousness.

Fear is a passive defensive reaction. It indicates the danger of something from someone stronger, a danger that must be avoided, from which it must be eliminated.

In the state of fear and after the transfer of it, a series of vegetative reactions occurs.

ANGER. Anger in a person is expressed in the fact that the face turns red or purple, the veins on the forehead and neck swell, sometimes the face becomes pale or blue. EMOTION, GENERATED BY THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Public opinion evaluates the personal qualities of a person: smart, stupid, cunning, handsome, etc.; determines the attitude of society towards his personality: respected, not respected, pleasant, unpleasant, etc., gives an assessment of his financial situation.

This includes such emotions as pride, vanity, self-esteem, resentment, etc.

ABOUT PRIDE. Pride (arrogance) in the mouths of the Russian people was a negative quality and found complete condemnation, which also affected the religious view of this feeling.

Pride, arrogance, swagger, according to the popular idea, are characteristic of the ruling and the rich, oppressors, rapists and offenders.

Under the influence of the conditions of existence in human society, two series of reactions developed. A person can be proud of superiority over others in the most diverse areas of life, he can be proud of success in the field of art and science, in all kinds of creative work.

ABOUT VANITY. A person strives to appear to others in a favorable light and avoids a position in which he could make a repulsive impression. Thus, to some extent, "two-facedness" is created: one person for strangers, the other for his own. The difference between these faces can reach such a degree that the true face that appears in domestic life does not at all resemble the "official" face, the face for others. With a deceitful, selfish concealment of one's true properties, one will get what is called hypocrisy. Pride and vanity go hand in hand. Proud, as a rule, at the same time extremely sensitive to the opinions of others. The increased development of vanity, as well as pride, in different classes and strata of society stands in connection with the life situation in a given class at a certain moment.

ABOUT FLATTER

Flattery and intrigue have always been the strongest means in the struggle for the mercy of the crowned and other high persons. Flattery found fertile ground in the self-deception associated with great power.

The success of flattery grows on the soil of vanity, and it is clear that vain people succumb to it most easily.

resentment

When a sense of self-worth is hurt, when a person realizes that he is being humiliated in his personal opinion or in the opinion of society, the emotion of resentment arises. Insults and grievances cause an acute affect, which often leads to a reciprocal "insult by action" or to more serious consequences.

22. Development of ideas about emotions in the history of psychology. Basic theories of emotion.

Development of ideas about emotions.

For the first time, expressive movements became the subject of Ch. Darwin's study. On the basis of comparative studies of the emotional movements of mammals, Darwin created the biological concept of emotions, according to which expressive emotional movements were considered as a vestige of expedient instinctive actions that retain their biological meaning to some extent and, at the same time, act as biologically significant signals for individuals not only of their own, but also another kind. Darwin (Darwin, 1872) noticed that attention can gradually change, turning into surprise, and surprise - "into a chilling amazement", reminiscent of fear. Similarly, Tomkins (1962) showed that the gradients of stimulation for interest, fear, and terror present a hierarchy, with the gradient required for interest being the smallest and for terror being the largest. For example, a new sound interests a child. If at the first presentation an unfamiliar sound is loud enough, it can scare. If the sound is very loud and unexpected, it can cause terror. Another characteristic of emotions that enters into their organization as a system is the apparent polarity between certain pairs of emotions. Researchers from Darwin (Darwin, 1872) to Plutchik (Plutchik, 1962) observed polarity and provided evidence in favor of its existence. Joy and sadness, anger and fear are often seen as opposites. Other possible polar emotions are interest and disgust, shame and contempt. Like the concepts of positive and negative emotions, the concept of polarity should not be seen as rigidly defining the relationship between emotions. Wund proposed to evaluate the emotional sphere of consciousness by such quantitative measures as pleasure and displeasure, relaxation - tension, calmness and tension - these elementary feelings and sensations constitute consciousness. The result of deep theoretical thought is the biological theory of emotions by P.K. Anokhin. This theory views emotions as a product of evolution. as an adaptive factor in the life of the animal world. Emotion acts as a kind of tool that optimizes the life process, and thus contributes to the preservation of both an individual and a separate species. Positive emotions arise when the real result of a perfect behavioral act coincides with or exceeds the expected useful result. , and vice versa, the lack of a real result, a discrepancy with the expected one, leads to negative emotions. Repeated satisfaction of needs, colored with positive emotion, contributes to the learning of the corresponding activity, and repeated failures cause inhibition of inefficient activity. This provision was the starting point of Simonov's information theory. Emotion is a reflection by the brain of higher animals and humans of the magnitude of the need and the probability of its satisfaction at the moment. He proved that emotions arise when there is a mismatch between a vital need and the possibility of its realization.

THE THEORY OF JAMES-LANGE

Lange (1890), James (1892) put forward the theory that emotions are the perception of sensations caused by changes in the body due to external stimulation. External irritation, which is the cause of affect, causes reflex changes in the activity of the heart, respiration, blood circulation, muscle tone. That is, emotions are the sum of organic sensations. As a result, different sensations are experienced in the whole body during emotions, from which the experience of emotions is composed.

Usually they say: we have lost a loved one, upset, crying; we met a bear, got scared, trembling; we are offended, enraged, we strike. And according to the James-Lange theory, the order of events is formulated as follows: we are saddened because we cry; we are afraid because we tremble; enraged because the volume. If bodily manifestations did not immediately follow perception, then, in their opinion, there would be no emotion. They independently created a peripheral theory of emotions, according to which emotion is a secondary phenomenon - the awareness of signals coming to the brain about changes in muscles, blood vessels and organs at the time of the implementation of a behavioral act. Their theory played a positive role by linking an external stimulus, a behavioral act and an emotional experience.

Arnold's theory.

According to this concept, an intuitive assessment of the situation causes a tendency to act, being expressed in various bodily sensations, experienced as an emotion. That is, we are afraid because we think that we are threatened.

THE THEORY OF ALFRED ADLER

According to Adler, the driving force of the psyche is the desire for superiority, arising from a sense of self-preservation.

Izard's theory of differential emotions

This theory is based on five key assumptions:

The nine fundamental emotions form the basic motivational system of human existence.

Each fundamental emotion has unique motivational and phenomenological properties.

Fundamental emotions such as joy, sadness, anger and shame lead to different inner experiences and different outer expressions of those experiences.

Emotions interact with each other - one emotion can activate. strengthen or weaken the other.

Emotional processes interact with and influence urges and homeostatic, perceptual, cognitive and motor processes.

Emotions as the main motivational system.

The theory of differential emotions recognizes the functions of determinants of behavior in the widest range for emotions. Emotions are considered not only as the main motivating system, but also as personal processes that give meaning and meaning to human existence.

Emotions and the emotional system.

An important assumption of the theory of differential emotions is the recognition of the special role of individual emotions in human life.

Definition of emotion.

The theory of differential emotions defines emotion as a complex process that has neurophysiological, neuromuscular and phenomenological aspects. The experience of emotion can create a process in consciousness that is completely independent of cognitive processes. Phenomenologically positive emotions have innate characteristics that tend to enhance, maintain, and encourage feelings of well-being. They facilitate interaction with people, as well as understanding situations and relationships between objects. Negative emotions are felt as harmful and difficult to bear and do not promote interaction. Emotions as a system. The theory of differential emotion presents emotional elements as a system, since they are interconnected in both dynamic and relatively stable ways. Definitions of some terms in the theory of differential emotions. As a conclusion and vocabulary of differential emotion theory, the following are definitions of some key terms. Emotion (fundamental, separate) is a complex phenomenon that includes neurophysiological and motor-expressive components and subjective experience. The interaction of these components in the intra-individual process forms an emotion, which is an evolutionary-biogenetic phenomenon; in humans, the expression and experience of emotion is innate, common cultural and universal.

Emotional complexes are a combination of two or more fundamental emotions that, under certain conditions, tend to appear simultaneously or in the same sequence and which interact in such a way that all emotions in the complex have some motivational effect on the individual and his behavior.

Motivation is a motivational state caused by changes in body tissues. Examples of urges are hunger, thirst, fatigue, etc. The motivational intensity of all urges, except for pain, is cyclical in nature. The two urges, pain and sex, share some of the characteristics of emotions.

Affect is a general non-specific term that includes all of the above motivational states and processes. Thus, the affective sphere consists of fundamental emotions, complexes of emotions, impulses and their interaction. The affective sphere also covers states or processes in which one of the affects (for example, emotion) is interconnected with the cognitive process.

Interaction of emotions - expansion, weakening or suppression of one emotion by another. Interaction of emotion and urge - a motivational state characterized by the strengthening, weakening or suppression of urge by emotion or emotion by urge. 23. The concept of will, volitional action and volitional regulation.

THE CONCEPT OF WILL

Will is the side of consciousness, its active and regulating principle, designed to create an effort and keep it for as long as necessary. Thanks to it, a person can, on his own initiative, based on his own need, perform an action in a pre-planned direction and with a pre-foreseen force. So the will directs or restrains a person, and also organizes mental activity, based on the existing tasks and requirements. Initially, the concept of will was introduced to explain the motives for actions carried out according to a person’s own decisions, but not in accordance with his decisions, but not in accordance with his desires. Will as a characteristic of consciousness arose along with the emergence of society, labor activity. Will is needed when choosing a goal, making a decision, when carrying out an action, when overcoming obstacles. Will manifests itself as a person's confidence in his abilities, as the determination to perform the act that the person himself considers expedient.

Main functions of the will distinguish: 1) the choice of motives and goals. 2) regulation of motivation for actions with insufficient or excessive motivation, 3) organization of mental processes into a system adequate to the activity performed by a person. 4) mobilization of physical and mental capabilities in overcoming obstacles in achieving the set goals. The presence of will explains the manifestation of such qualities in a person: perseverance, determination, endurance, courage.

Volitional qualities may not be formed if:

the child is spoiled.

The child is overwhelmed by the hard will and instructions of adults.

According to Vasilyuk : Depending on the difficulties of the outer world and the complexity of the inner world, 4 variants of the manifestation of the will can be distinguished:

in an easy world, (infantile) where any desire is feasible, the will is practically not required

in a difficult world, a move of will is required to overcome obstacles, but the person himself is inwardly calm, since his inner world is simple.

In a light outer and complex inner world, efforts of the will are required to overcome internal disagreements, contradictions, doubts, there is a struggle of motives and goals, a person suffers when making decisions.

In a difficult internal and external world, intense volitional obstacles are required to overcome internal doubts, in conditions of objective obstacles and difficulties.

Yes, in American behavioral psychology instead of the concept of will, they began to use the concept of "stability of behavior" - the perseverance of a person in the implementation of initiated behavioral acts, in overcoming obstacles that arise in their path. This perseverance, in turn, was explained by such personality characteristics as purposefulness, patience, perseverance, perseverance, consistency, etc.

W. James in the USA and S. L. Rubinstein in Russia (during the years of general distraction from the problems of the will, they continued to deal with it), will is a very real phenomenon that has its own specific, easily detected and described features in scientific language. Even Aristotle introduced the concept of will into the system of categories of the science of the soul in order to explain how human behavior is realized in accordance with knowledge, which in itself is devoid of motivating power. The will of Aristotle acted as a factor, along with the desire, capable of changing the course of behavior: to initiate it, stop it, change direction and pace.

One of the essential features of an act of will is that it is always associated with effort, decision making and implementation. Will presupposes a struggle of motives. By this essential feature, volitional action can always be separated from the rest. A volitional decision is usually made under the conditions of competing, multidirectional drives, none of which is able to finally win without making a volitional decision.

Will presupposes self-restraint, the restraint of some fairly strong drives, the conscious subordination of them to other, more significant and important goals, the ability to suppress the desires and impulses that directly arise in a given situation. At the highest levels of its manifestation, the will involves reliance on spiritual goals and moral

values, beliefs and ideals. As a socially new formation of the psyche, the will can be represented as a special internal action. including internal and external means. The participation of thinking, imagination, emotions, motives, in volitional regulation has led in the history of psychology to an exaggerated assessment of either intellectual processes (intellectual will theory) or affective (emotional will theory). Theories of will also appeared, which considered it as the primary ability of the soul (voluntarism)

Volitional action.

Another sign of the volitional nature of an action or activity regulated by the will is the presence of a well-thought-out plan for their "^ existence. An action that does not have a plan or is not carried out according to a predetermined plan cannot be considered volitional. "Volitional action is ... a conscious, purposeful action by which a person realizes his goal, subordinating his impulses to conscious control and changing the surrounding reality in accordance with his plan."

The essential features of volitional action are increased attention to such an action and the lack of immediate pleasure received in the process and as a result of its implementation. This means that a volitional action is usually accompanied by a lack of emotional rather than moral satisfaction. On the contrary, the successful performance of an act of will is usually associated with moral satisfaction from the fact that it was possible to perform it. Often, the efforts of the will are directed by a person not so much towards conquering and mastering circumstances, but rather towards overcome yourself. This is especially characteristic of people of the impulsive type, unbalanced and emotionally excitable. Not a single more or less complex life problem of a person can be solved without the participation of the will. No one on Earth has ever achieved outstanding success without possessing outstanding willpower. Man, first of all, differs from all other living beings in that, in addition to consciousness and intellect, he also has a will, without which abilities would remain an empty phrase.

Volitional action happens 6

A) simple are those in which a person without hesitation goes to the intended goal, it is clear to him what and in what way he will achieve.

B) complex volitional action. It consists of 7 stages: 1. awareness of the goal and the desire to achieve it This e. 2. awareness of a number of opportunities to achieve the goal. 3. manifestation of motives that affirm or refute the achievement of the goal. . This stage is associated with the discussion of a specific path in accordance with the value system. 4. fight motive and goals. 5. accepting one of the possibilities as a solution. 6. implementation of the decision. 7. overcoming external obstacles. When implementing the decision. .

Every volitional act

Volitional regulation.

For the emergence of volitional regulation, certain conditions are necessary - the presence of barriers and obstacles. Will then appears when difficulties appear on the way to the goal: external obstacles: time, space, people's opposition, the physical properties of things, internal obstacles: relationships and attitudes, etc. The variety of situations that require urgent volitional regulation - overcoming obstacles, conflict of motives, direction of action in the future, etc. - all this can be reduced to 3 realities. 1) the fulfillment of the deficit motivation for action in the absence of sufficient motivation. 2) the choice of motives. 3) arbitrary regulation of external and internal actions and mental processes. Volitional regulation of behavior and actions is an arbitrary regulation of human activity. It develops and is formed under the influence of control over his behavior by society, and then self-control of the individual. Volitional regulation manifests itself as a personal level of arbitrary regulation, which differs in that the decision about it comes from the individual. One of such means of personal regulation is a change in the meaning of actions. A deliberate change in the meaning of an action can be achieved by: 1) reassessing the significance of a motive; 2) attracting additional motives; 3) foreseeing and experiencing the consequences of an activity; 4) updating motives through an imaginary situation. The development of volitional regulation is primarily associated with the formation of: 1) a rich sphere of motivational and semantic. 2) persistent worldview and belief 3) ability to strong-willed efforts. It is also associated with the transition from external ways of changing the meaning of an action to internal /

The main qualities of the will.

Purposefulness and adherence to principles are the basis of a strong will. An important volitional quality is initiative, (effective activity), the ability to bring the matter to the end. , determination, self-control. endurance and perseverance, while from perseverance one must be able to distinguish stubbornness, which is a thoughtless, unjustified manifestation of will, stubbornness is a manifestation of not strength, but weakness of will. A manifestation of lack of will is conformism, its essence is that a person has his own opinion, but obeys the group. Studies have shown conformal people are characterized by rigidity of mental processes, poverty of ideas, reduced possibility of self-control, superficial self-image, they lack self-confidence. All qualities of the will develop in the process of life and activity. Weak-willed people do not finish what they started, they are not able to restrain their desires, control their emotional states. The state of painful lack of will is called abulia. Lack of will is due to many reasons. In some cases, its cause is organic or functional disorders of the activity of the cerebral cortex, its frontal areas. To such a state. Various diseases are given: alcoholism, drug addiction.

General scheme of will.

The article deals with the formation of the concept of motive in the theory of A.N. Leontiev in correlation with the ideas of K. Levin, as well as with the distinction between external and internal motivation and the concept of the continuum of regulation in the modern theory of self-determination by E. Deci and R. Ryan. The separation of extrinsic motivation based on reward and punishment and "natural teleology" in the works of K. Levin and (external) motive and interest in the early texts of A.N. Leontiev. The ratio of motive, purpose and meaning in the structure of motivation and regulation of activity is considered in detail. The concept of the quality of motivation is introduced as a measure of the consistency of motivation with deep needs and the personality as a whole, and the complementarity of the approaches of the theory of activity and the theory of self-determination to the problem of the quality of motivation is shown.

The relevance and vitality of any scientific theory, including the psychological theory of activity, is determined by the extent to which its content allows us to get answers to the questions that confront us today. Any theory was relevant at the time when it was created, giving an answer to the questions that were at that time, but not every theory retained this relevance for a long time. Theories that apply to the living are able to provide answers to today's questions. Therefore, it is important to correlate any theory with the issues of today.

The subject of this article is the concept of motive. On the one hand, this is a very specific concept, on the other hand, it occupies a central place in the works of not only A.N. Leontiev, but also many of his followers who develop the activity theory. Earlier, we have repeatedly addressed the analysis of the views of A.N. Leontiev on motivation (Leontiev D.A., 1992, 1993, 1999), focusing on such individual aspects as the nature of needs, polymotivation of activity and motive functions. Here, briefly dwelling on the content of previous publications, we will continue this analysis, paying attention, first of all, to the origins of the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation found in the activity theory. We will also consider the relationship between motive, purpose and meaning and correlate the views of A.N. Leontiev with modern approaches, primarily with the theory of self-determination by E. Deci and R. Ryan.

The main provisions of the activity theory of motivation

Our earlier analysis was aimed at eliminating contradictions in the traditionally cited texts by A.N. Leontiev, due to the fact that the concept of "motive" in them carried an excessively large load, including many different aspects. In the 1940s, when it was only introduced as an explanatory term, this extensibility could hardly have been avoided; the further development of this construct led to its inevitable differentiation, the emergence of new concepts and the narrowing of the semantic field of the concept of “motive” due to them.

The starting point for our understanding of the general structure of motivation is the scheme of A.G. Asmolov (1985), who singled out three groups of variables and structures that are responsible for this area. The first is the general sources and driving forces of activity; E.Yu. Patyaeva (1983) aptly called them "motivational constants". The second group is the factors of choosing the direction of activity in a particular situation here and now. The third group is the secondary processes of “situational development of motivation” (Vilyunas, 1983; Patyaeva, 1983), which make it possible to understand why people complete what they have begun to do, and do not switch each time to more and more new temptations (for more details, see .: Leontiev D.A., 2004). Thus, the main question of the psychology of motivation is “Why do people do what they do?” (Deci, Flaste, 1995) breaks down into three more specific questions corresponding to these three areas: “Why do people do anything at all?”, “Why do people currently do what they do, and not something else? » and “Why do people, when they start doing something, usually finish it?” The concept of motive is most often used to answer the second question.

Let's start with the main provisions of the theory of motivation by A.N. Leontiev, discussed in more detail in other publications.

1. Needs are the source of human motivation. A need is an objective need of an organism for something external - an object of need. Before meeting with the object, the need generates only non-directional search activity (see: Leontiev D.A., 1992).
2. An encounter with an object - the objectification of a need - turns this object into a motive for purposeful activity. Needs develop through the development of their subjects. It is due to the fact that the objects of human needs are objects created and transformed by man that all human needs are qualitatively different from the sometimes similar needs of animals.
3. The motive is “the result, that is, the subject for which the activity is carried out” (Leontiev A.N., 2000, p. 432). It acts as “... something objective, in which this need (more precisely, the system of needs. - D.L.) is concretized in these conditions and what the activity is directed to as encouraging it” (Leontiev A.N., 1972, p. 292). A motive is a systemic quality acquired by an object, manifested in its ability to induce and direct activity (Asmolov, 1982).

4. Human activity is polymotivated. This does not mean that one activity has several motives, but that, as a rule, several needs are objectified in one motive to varying degrees. Due to this, the meaning of the motive is complex and is set by its connections with different needs (for more details, see: Leontiev D.A., 1993, 1999).

5. Motives perform the function of motivation and direction of activity, as well as meaning formation - giving personal meaning to the activity itself and its components. In one place A.N. Leontiev (2000, p. 448) directly identifies the guiding and meaning-forming functions. On this basis, he distinguishes two categories of motives - meaning-forming motives that carry out both motivation and meaning formation, and “stimulus motives”, which only encourage, but lack a meaning-forming function (Leontiev A.N., 1977, pp. 202-203).

Statement of the problem of qualitative differences in the motivation of activity: K. Levin and A.N. Leontiev

The distinction between “sense-forming motives” and “stimulus motives” is in many respects similar to the distinction, rooted in modern psychology, of two qualitatively different types of motivation based on different mechanisms - internal motivation, due to the process of activity itself, as it is, and external motivation, due to benefit, which the subject can receive from the use of the alienated products of this activity (money, marks, offsets and many other options). This breeding was introduced in the early 1970s. Edward Deci; The relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation began to be actively studied in the 1970s and 1980s. and remains relevant today (Gordeeva, 2006). Deci was able to articulate this dilution most clearly and illustrate the consequences of this distinction in a number of beautiful experiments (Deci and Flaste, 1995; Deci et al., 1999).

Kurt Lewin was the first to raise the question of qualitative motivational differences between natural interest and external pressures in 1931 in his monograph “The Psychological Situation of Reward and Punishment” (Levin, 2001, pp. 165-205). He examined in detail the question of the mechanisms of the motivational action of external pressures that force the child to “perform an action or demonstrate behavior different from the one to which he is directly drawn at the moment” (Ibid., p. 165), and about the motivational action of the opposite “situation” in which the child's behavior is governed by a primary or derivative interest in the matter itself” (Ibid., p. 166). The subject of Levin's immediate interest is the structure of the field and the direction of the vectors of conflicting forces in these situations. In a situation of direct interest, the resulting vector is always directed towards the goal, which Levin calls "natural teleology" (Ibid., p. 169). The promise of a reward or the threat of punishment create conflicts of varying intensity and inevitability in the field.

A comparative analysis of reward and punishment leads Levin to the conclusion that both methods of influence are not very effective. “Along with punishment and reward, there is also a third possibility to cause the desired behavior - namely, to arouse interest and cause a tendency to this behavior” (Ibid., p. 202). When we try to force a child or an adult to do something on the basis of a carrot and a stick, the main vector of his movement turns out to be directed to the side. The more a person strives to get closer to an undesirable but reinforced object and start doing what is required of him, the more the forces that push in the opposite direction grow. Levin sees a cardinal solution to the problem of education in only one thing - in changing the motivation of objects through changing the contexts in which the action is included. “Inclusion of a task in another psychological area (for example, transferring an action from the area of ​​“school assignments” to the area of ​​“actions aimed at achieving a practical goal”) can radically change the meaning and, consequently, the motivation of this action itself” (Ibid., p. 204).

One can see a direct continuity with this work of Levin, which took shape in the 1940s. ideas of A.N. Leontiev about the meaning of actions given by the integral activity in which this action is included (Leontiev A.N., 2009). Even earlier, in 1936-1937, based on research materials in Kharkov, an article was written "Psychological study of children's interests in the Palace of Pioneers and Octobrists", published for the first time in 2009 (Ibid., pp. 46-100), where in the most detailed way not only the ratio of what we call today internal and external motivation, but also their interrelation and mutual transitions is investigated. This work turned out to be the missing evolutionary link in the development of A.N. Leontiev on motivation; it allows us to see the origins of the concept of motive in the activity theory.

The subject of the study itself is formulated as the child's relationship to the environment and activity, in which an attitude to work and other people arises. The term “personal meaning” is not yet here, but in fact it is precisely this term that is the main subject of study. The theoretical task of the study concerns the factors of formation and dynamics of children's interests, and the behavioral signs of involvement or non-involvement in a particular activity act as interest criteria. We are talking about Octobrists, junior schoolchildren, specifically, second-graders. It is characteristic that the task of the work is not to form certain, given interests, but to find common means and patterns that make it possible to stimulate the natural process of generating an active, involved attitude to different types of activity. Phenomenological analysis shows that interest in certain activities is due to their inclusion in the structure of relationships that are significant for the child, both subject-instrumental and social. It is shown that the attitude towards things changes in the process of activity and is associated with the place of this thing in the structure of activity, i.e. with the nature of its connection with the goal.

It was there that A.N. Leontiev is the first to use the concept of "motive", and in a very unexpected way, opposing motive to interest. At the same time, he also states the discrepancy between the motive and the goal, showing that the child's actions with the object are given stability and involvement by something other than interest in the very content of the actions. By motive, he understands only what is now called "external motive", as opposed to internal. This is “external to the activity itself (i.e., to the goals and means included in the activity) the driving cause of the activity” (Leontiev A.N., 2009, p. 83). Younger schoolchildren (second graders) are engaged in activities that are interesting in themselves (its goal lies in the process itself). But sometimes they engage in activities without interest in the process itself, when they have another motive. External motives do not necessarily come down to alienated stimuli like grades and demands from adults. This also includes, for example, making a gift for mom, which in itself is not a very exciting activity (Ibid., p. 84).

Further A.N. Leontiev analyzes motives as a transitional stage to the emergence of a genuine interest in the activity itself as one is involved in it due to external motives. The reason for the gradual emergence of interest in activities that had not previously caused it, A.N. Leontiev considers the establishment of a connection of the means-end type between this activity and what is obviously interesting to the child (Ibid., pp. 87-88). In fact, we are talking about the fact that in the later works of A.N. Leontiev was called personal meaning. At the end of the article A.N. Leontiev speaks of the meaning and involvement in meaningful activity as a condition for changing the point of view on the thing, the attitude towards it (Ibid., p. 96).

In this article, for the first time, the idea of ​​meaning appears, directly related to the motive, which distinguishes this approach from other interpretations of meaning and brings it closer to Kurt Lewin's field theory (Leontiev D.A., 1999). In the completed version, we find these ideas formulated several years later in the posthumously published works “Basic Processes of Mental Life” and “Methodological Notebooks” (Leontiev A.N., 1994), as well as in articles of the early 1940s, such as “ Theory of the development of the child's psyche, etc. (Leontiev A.N., 2009). Here, a detailed structure of activity already appears, as well as the idea of ​​a motive, covering both external and internal motivation: “The subject of activity is at the same time what prompts this activity, i.e. her motive. …Responding to one or another need, the motive of activity is experienced by the subject in the form of desire, wanting, etc. (or, conversely, in the form of experiencing disgust, etc.). These forms of experience are forms of reflection of the relationship of the subject to the motive, forms of experience of the meaning of activity” (Leontiev A.N., 1994, pp. 48-49). And further: “(It is the discrepancy between the object and the motive that is the criterion for distinguishing action from activity; if the motive of a given process lies in itself, this is activity, but if it lies outside this process itself, this is action.) This is a conscious relation of the object of action to his motive is the meaning of the action; the form of experience (consciousness) of the meaning of an action is the consciousness of its purpose. (Therefore, an object that has meaning for me is an object that acts as an object of a possible purposeful action; an action that has meaning for me is, accordingly, an action that is possible in relation to this or that goal.) A change in the meaning of an action is always a change in its motivation ”( Ibid., p. 49).

It was from the initial distinction between motive and interest that the later breeding of A.N. Leontiev, motives-stimuli that only stimulate genuine interest, but are not related to it, and sense-forming motives that have a personal meaning for the subject and, in turn, give meaning to the action. At the same time, the opposition of these two varieties of motives turned out to be excessively pointed. A special analysis of motivational functions (Leontiev D.A., 1993, 1999) led to the conclusion that the incentive and meaning-forming functions of the motive are inseparable and that motivation is provided solely through the mechanism of meaning formation. "Incentive motives" are not devoid of meaning and sense-forming power, but their specificity lies in the fact that they are associated with needs by artificial, alienated connections. The rupture of these bonds also leads to the disappearance of motivation.

Nevertheless, one can see distinct parallels between the distinction between the two classes of motives in the theory of activity and in the theory of self-determination. It is interesting that the authors of the theory of self-determination gradually came to realize the inadequacy of the binary opposition of internal and external motivation and to the introduction of a motivational continuum model that describes the spectrum of different qualitative forms of motivation for the same behavior - from internal motivation based on organic interest, "natural teleology" , to extrinsic controlled motivation based on “carrot and stick” and amotivation (Gordeeva, 2010; Deci and Ryan, 2008).

In the theory of activity, as in the theory of self-determination, there are motives of activity (behavior) that are organically related to the nature of the activity itself, the process of which arouses interest and other positive emotions (sense-forming, or internal, motives), and motives that stimulate activity only in the strength of their acquired connections with something directly significant for the subject (motives-stimuli, or external motives). Any activity can be carried out not for its own sake, and any motive can enter into submission to other, extraneous needs. “A student may study in order to win the favor of his parents, but he may also fight for their favor in order to be allowed to study. Thus, we have before us two different relations of ends and means, and not two fundamentally different types of motivation” (Nuttin, 1984, p. 71). The difference lies in the nature of the connection between the activity of the subject and his real needs. When this connection is artificial, external, motives are perceived as incentives, and activity is perceived as devoid of independent meaning, having it only thanks to the stimulus motive. In its pure form, however, this is relatively rare. The general meaning of a particular activity is an alloy of its partial, partial meanings, each of which reflects its relation to any one of the needs of the subject, directly or indirectly related to this activity, in a necessary way, situationally, associatively, or in any other way. Therefore, activity prompted entirely by "external" motives is just as rare a case as activity in which they are completely absent.

It is expedient to describe these differences in terms of the quality of motivation. The quality of activity motivation is a characteristic of the extent to which this motivation is consistent with deep needs and the personality as a whole. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes directly from them. External motivation is a motivation that is not originally associated with them; its connection with them is established by building a certain structure of activity, in which motives and goals acquire an indirect, sometimes alienated meaning. This connection can, as the personality develops, internalize and give rise to fairly deep formed personal values, coordinated with the needs and structure of the personality - in this case we will deal with autonomous motivation (in terms of the theory of self-determination), or with interest (in terms of the early works of A. N. Leontieva). Activity theory and self-determination theory differ in how they describe and explain these differences. In the theory of self-determination, a much clearer description of the qualitative continuum of forms of motivation is proposed, and in the theory of activity, the theoretical explanation of motivational dynamics is better developed. In particular, the key concept in the theory of A.N. Leontiev, explaining the qualitative differences in motivation, is the concept of meaning, which is absent in the theory of self-determination. In the next section, we will consider in more detail the place of the concepts of meaning and semantic connections in the activity model of motivation.

Motive, purpose and meaning: semantic connections as the basis of motivation mechanisms

The motive “starts” human activity, determining what exactly the subject needs at the moment, but he cannot give it a specific direction except through the formation or acceptance of a goal, which determines the direction of actions leading to the realization of the motive. “The goal is a result presented in advance, to which my action aspires” (Leontiev A.N., 2000, p. 434). The motive “determines the zone of goals” (Ibid., p. 441), and within this zone a specific goal is set, which is obviously associated with the motive.

Motive and goal are two different qualities that the object of purposeful activity can acquire. They are often confused, because in simple cases they often coincide: in this case, the end result of the activity coincides with its object, being both its motive and goal, but for different reasons. It is a motive, because needs are objectified in it, and a goal - because it is in it that we see the final desired result of our activity, which serves as a criterion for assessing whether we are moving correctly or not, approaching the goal or deviating from it.

A motive is what gives rise to this activity, without which it will not exist, and it may not be realized or realized distortedly. The goal is the end result of actions anticipated in a subjective way. The goal is always present in the mind. It sets the direction of action accepted and sanctioned by the person, regardless of how deeply motivated it is, whether it is associated with internal or external, deep or surface motives. Moreover, the goal can be offered to the subject as a possibility, considered and rejected; this cannot happen with a motive. Marx's statement is well-known: "The worst architect differs from the best bee from the very beginning in that, before building a cell out of wax, he has already built it in his head" (Marx, 1960, p. 189). Although the bee builds very perfect structures, it has no purpose, no image.

And vice versa, behind any acting goal, a motive of activity is revealed, which explains why the subject accepted this goal for execution, whether it is a goal created by him or given from outside. The motive connects this particular action with needs and personal values. The question of the goal is the question of what exactly the subject wants to achieve, the question of the motive is the question of "why?".

The subject can act straightforwardly, doing only what he wants directly, directly realizing his desires. In this situation (and, in fact, all animals are in it), the question of the goal does not arise at all. Where I do what I immediately need, from which I directly enjoy and for what, in fact, I do it, the goal simply coincides with the motive. The problem of purpose, which is different from motive, arises when the subject does something that is not directly aimed at satisfying his needs, but will ultimately lead to a useful result. The goal always directs us to the future, and goal orientation, as opposed to impulsive desires, is impossible without consciousness, without the ability to imagine the future, without time. O th perspective. Realizing the goal, the future result, we are also aware of the connection of this result with what we need in the future: any goal makes sense.

Teleology, i.e. goal orientation, qualitatively transforms human activity in comparison with the causal behavior of animals. Although causality persists and occupies a large place in human activity, it is not the only and universal causal explanation. Human life can be of two kinds: unconscious and conscious. By the former, I mean life governed by causes; by the latter, life governed by purpose. A life governed by causes may rightly be called unconscious; this is because, although consciousness here participates in human activity, it is only as an aid: it does not determine where this activity can be directed, and also what it should be in terms of its qualities. Causes external to man and independent of him are responsible for the determination of all this. Within the boundaries already established by these reasons, consciousness fulfills its service role: it indicates the methods of this or that activity, its easiest ways, possible and impossible to perform from what the reasons force a person to do. A life governed by a goal can rightly be called conscious, because consciousness is here the dominant, determining principle. It belongs to him to choose where the complex chain of human actions should go; and in the same way - the arrangement of all of them according to the plan that best meets what has been achieved ... ”(Rozanov, 1994, p. 21).

Purpose and motive are not identical, but they can be the same. When what the subject consciously seeks to achieve (goal) is what really motivates him (motive), they coincide, overlap each other. But the motive may not coincide with the goal, with the content of the activity. For example, study is often motivated not by cognitive motives, but by completely different ones - career, conformist, self-affirmation, etc. As a rule, different motives are combined in different proportions, and it is precisely a certain combination of them that turns out to be optimal.

The discrepancy between the goal and the motive arises in those cases when the subject does not do what he wants right now, but he cannot get it directly, but does something auxiliary in order to eventually get what he wants. Human activity is built that way, whether we like it or not. The purpose of the action, as a rule, is at odds with what satisfies the need. As a result of the formation of a jointly distributed activity, as well as specialization and division of labor, a complex chain of semantic connections arises. K. Marx gave an exact psychological description of this: “For himself, the worker produces not the silk that he weaves, not the gold that he extracts from the mine, not the palace that he builds. For himself, he produces wages ... The meaning of twelve hours of work for him is not that he weaves, spins, drills, etc., but that this is a way of earning money that gives him the opportunity to eat, go to a tavern sleep” (Marx, Engels, 1957, p. 432). Marx describes, of course, an alienated meaning, but if this semantic connection did not exist, i.e. connection of the goal with motivation, then the person would not work. Even an alienated semantic connection connects in a certain way what a person does with what he needs.

The above is well illustrated by a parable often retold in philosophical and psychological literature. A wanderer was walking along the road past a large construction site. He stopped a worker who was pulling a wheelbarrow full of bricks and asked him, "What are you doing?" "I'm bringing bricks," the worker replied. He stopped the second one, who was pulling the same wheelbarrow, and asked him: “What are you doing?” “I feed my family,” the second answered. He stopped a third and asked, "What are you doing?" “I am building a cathedral,” answered the third. If at the level of behavior, as the behaviorists would say, all three people did exactly the same thing, then they had a different semantic context in which they entered their actions, meaning, motivation, and the activity itself were different. The meaning of labor operations was determined for each of them by the breadth of the context in which they perceived their own actions. For the first there was no context, he did only what he was doing now, the meaning of his actions did not go beyond this particular situation. "I carry bricks" - this is what I do. A person does not think about the wider context of their actions. His actions are not correlated not only with the actions of other people, but also with other fragments of his own life. For the second, the context is connected with his family, for the third - with a certain cultural task, in which he was aware of his involvement.

The classical definition characterizes the meaning as expressing “the relationship of the motive of activity to the immediate goal of the action” (Leontiev A.N., 1977, p. 278). This definition needs two clarifications. First, meaning is not just expresses this attitude, he and eat this attitude. Secondly, in this formulation we are not talking about any sense, but about the specific sense of action, or the sense of purpose. Speaking about the meaning of an action, we ask about its motive, i.e. about why it is being done. The relation of the means to the end is the meaning of the means. And the meaning of a motive, or, what is the same, the meaning of activity as a whole, is the relation of a motive to something that is larger and more stable than a motive, to a need or personal value. Meaning always associates the lesser with the b O Lshim, private with the general. Speaking about the meaning of life, we correlate life with something that is greater than individual life, with something that will not end with its completion.

Conclusion: the quality of motivation in the approaches of the theory of activity and the theory of self-determination

This article traces the line of development in the theory of activity of ideas about the qualitative differentiation of forms of activity motivation, depending on the extent to which this motivation is consistent with deep needs and with the personality as a whole. The origins of this differentiation are found in some works of K. Levin and in the works of A.N. Leontiev in the 1930s Its full version is presented in the later ideas of A.N. Leontiev about the types and functions of motives.

Another theoretical understanding of the qualitative differences in motivation is presented in the theory of self-determination by E. Desi and R. Ryan, in terms of the internalization of motivational regulation and the motivational continuum, in which the dynamics of “growing” inside motives, initially rooted in external requirements, irrelevant to the needs of the subject, can be traced. In the theory of self-determination, a much clearer description of the qualitative continuum of forms of motivation is proposed, and in the theory of activity, the theoretical explanation of motivational dynamics is better developed. The key is the concept of personal meaning, which connects goals with motives and motives with needs and personal values. The quality of motivation seems to be an urgent scientific and applied problem, in relation to which a productive interaction between the theory of activity and leading foreign approaches is possible.

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To cite an article:

Leontiev D.A. The concept of motive in A.N. Leontiev and the problem of the quality of motivation. // Bulletin of Moscow University. Series 14. Psychology. - 2016.- №2 - p.3-18

Leontiev A.N.
Needs, motives and emotions."
M., 1971. S. 1, 13-20, 23-28, 35-39.

I. Needs

The first premise of any activity is a subject possessing needs. The presence of the subject's needs is the same fundamental condition of his existence as the metabolism. Actually, these are different expressions of the same thing.
In its primary biological forms, need is a state of the organism that expresses its objective need for a complement that lies outside of it. After all, life is a disjointed existence: no living system as a separate entity can maintain its internal dynamic balance and is not able to develop if it is excluded from the interaction that forms a wider system, which also includes elements external to this living system, separated from her.
From the foregoing follows the main characteristic of needs - their objectivity. Actually, a need is a need for something that lies outside the body; the latter is its subject. As for the so-called functional needs (for example, the need for movement), then they constitute a special class of states that either correspond to the conditions that develop in, so to speak, the "internal economy" of organisms (the need for rest after increased activity, etc.), or are water, arising in the process of realizing objective needs (for example, the need to complete an act). (…)

II. motives

The change and development of needs occurs through the change and development of objects that correspond to them and in which they are "objectified" and concretized. The presence of a need is a necessary prerequisite for any activity, but the need itself is not yet able to give activity certain orientation. The presence in a person of a need for music creates a corresponding selectivity in him, but still does not say anything about what a person will do to satisfy this need. Maybe he will remember the announced concert and this will direct his actions, or maybe the sounds of the music being broadcast will reach him and he will simply remain at the radio or TV. But it may also happen that the object of the need is not presented to the subject in any way: neither in the field of his perception, nor in the mental plane, in the representation, then no directed activity that meets this need can arise for him. That which is the only motivator directed activity is not a need in itself, but an object that meets this need. The object of need - material or ideal, sensually perceived or given only in the representation, in the mental plane - we call motive for activity.(…)
So, the psychological analysis of needs must be transformed into an analysis of motives. This transformation, however, encounters a serious difficulty: it requires a resolute rejection of subjectivist conceptions of motivation and of that confusion of concepts relating to different levels and different "mechanisms" of regulating activity, which is so often allowed in the doctrine of motives. (…)
From the point of view of the doctrine of objectivity motives of human activity, first of all, subjective experiences should be excluded from the category of motives, which are a reflection of those “supraorganic” needs that are correlative to motives. These experiences (desires, desires, aspirations) are not motives for the same reasons that they are not feelings of hunger or thirst: by themselves they are not capable of causing directed activity. However, one can speak of subject desires, aspirations, etc., but by this we only postpone the analysis; for further disclosure of what the object of a given desire or striving consists in is nothing but an indication of the corresponding motive. The refusal to regard subjective experiences of this kind as motives for activity, of course, does not at all mean a denial of their real function in the regulation of activity. They perform the same function of subjective needs and their dynamics that interoceptive sensations perform at elementary psychological levels, the function of selective activation of systems that implement the subject's activity. (…)
A special place is occupied by hedonistic concepts, according to which human activity is subject to the principle of “maximizing positive and minimizing negative emotions”, that is, it is aimed at achieving experiences, pleasure, enjoyment and avoiding experiences of suffering ... For these concepts, emotions are the motives of activity. Sometimes emotions are given decisive importance, but more often they are included, along with other factors, among the so-called “motivational variables”.
Analysis and criticism of hedonistic concepts of motivation are perhaps the greatest difficulties. After all, a person really strives to live in happiness and avoid suffering. Therefore, the task is not to deny it, but to correctly understand what it means. And for this it is necessary to turn to the nature of emotional experiences themselves, to consider their place and their function in human activity.
The sphere of affective, in the broad sense of the word, processes covers various types of internal regulation of activity, differing from each other both in the level of their course, and in the conditions that cause them, and in the role they play. Here we will have in mind only those transient, "situational" affective states, which are usually called emotions proper (in contrast, on the one hand, from affects, and on the other hand, from objective feelings).
Emotions act as internal signals. They are internal in the sense that they themselves do not carry information about external objects, about their connections and relationships, about those objective situations in which the subject's activity takes place. The peculiarity of emotions is that they directly reflect the relationship between motives and the implementation of activities that correspond to these motives. At the same time, we are not talking about the reflection of these relations, but about their direct reflection, about experiencing. Figuratively speaking, emotions follow behind updating the motive and before rational assessment of the adequacy of the subject's activity.
Thus, in its most general form, the function of emotion can be characterized as an indication, plus or minus, of the authorization of an activity that has been carried out, is being carried out, or is to come.
This idea in various forms was repeatedly expressed by researchers of emotions, in particular, very clearly by P. K. Anokhin. We, however, will not dwell on various hypotheses that in one way or another express the fact that emotions depend on the relationship (contradiction or agreement) between “being and obligation”. We only note that the difficulties that are revealed are mainly due to the fact that emotions are considered, firstly, without a sufficiently clear differentiation of them into various subclasses - (affects and passions, emotions and feelings proper), which differ from each other as genetically , and functionally, and, secondly, out of touch with the structure and level of the activity that they regulate.
      Unlike affects, emotions have an ideational character and, as Claparede noted, are “shifted to the beginning”, that is, they are able to regulate activity in accordance with anticipated circumstances. Like all ideational phenomena, emotions can be generalized and communicated; a person has not only an individual emotional experience, but also an emotional experience that he has learned in the processes of communication of emotions.
      The most important feature of emotions is that they are relevant activities, and not its constituent processes, for example, individual acts, actions. Therefore, the same action, passing from one activity to another, can, as you know, acquire a different and even opposite emotional coloring in its sign. And this means that the function of positive or negative authorization inherent in emotions does not refer to the implementation of individual acts, but to the ratio of the achieved effects with the direction that is given to the activity by its motive. In itself, the successful performance of an action does not necessarily lead to a positive emotion; it can also give rise to a difficult emotional experience, which sharply signals that, from the side of the motivational sphere of a person, the success achieved turns into a defeat.
      Mismatch, correction, sanctioning take place at any level of activity, in relation to any “units” forming it, starting with the simplest adaptive movements. Therefore, the main question is what exactly and how exactly is sanctioned: an executive act, individual actions, the direction of activity, and perhaps the direction of a person’s entire life.
      Emotions perform a very important function in motivating activity - and we will return to this issue - but emotions themselves are not motives. Once J.St. Mill spoke with great psychological insight about the "cunning strategy of happiness": in order to experience the emotions of pleasure, happiness, one must strive not to experience them, but to achieve the goals that give rise to these experiences.
      The subordination of activity to the search for pleasure is at best a psychological illusion. Human activity is by no means modeled on the behavior of rats with electrodes inserted into the brain "pleasure centers", which, if taught to turn on the current that irritates these centers, endlessly indulge in this activity, bringing (according to Olds) the frequency of this kind of "self-irritation" up to several thousand per hour. You can easily pick up similar behaviors in humans: masturbation, smoking opium, self-immersion in an autistic dream. However, they testify rather to the possibility of perverting activity than to the nature of motives—the motives of real, self-affirming human life; they come into conflict, into conflict with these real motives. (…)
      Unlike goals, which are always, of course, conscious, motives, as a rule, are not actually recognized by the subject: when we perform certain actions — external, practical or verbal, mental — we usually do not give account for the motives that motivate them. (…)
      Motives, however, are not "separated" from consciousness. Even when the motives are not recognized by the subject, that is, when he is not aware of what prompts him to carry out this or that activity, they, figuratively speaking, enter his consciousness, but only in a special way. They give the conscious reflection a subjective coloring, which expresses the meaning of the reflected for the subject himself, his, as we say, personal meaning.
      Thus, in addition to their main function - the function of motivation, motives also have a second function - the function of meaning formation. (…)
      As already mentioned, usually the motives of the activity are not actually recognized. This is a psychological fact. Acting under the influence of one impulse or another, a person is aware of the goals of his actions: at the moment when he acts, the goal is necessarily “present in his consciousness” and, according to the well-known expression of Marx, how the law determines his actions.
      The situation is different with the awareness of the motives of actions, for the sake of which they are performed. Motives carry subject content, which must be perceived by the subject in one way or another. At the human level, this content is reflected, refracted in the system of linguistic meanings, i.e., it is recognized. Nothing decisively distinguishes the reflection of this content from the reflection by a person of other objects of the world around him. The object that prompts to act, and the object that acts in the same situation, for example, as an obstacle, are "equal" in terms of the possibilities of their reflection, cognition. What they differ from each other is not the degree of distinctness and completeness of their perception or the level of their generalization, but their functions and place in the structure of activity.
      The latter is revealed first of all objectively - in the behavior itself, especially in conditions of alternative life situations. But there are also specific subjective forms in which objects are reflected precisely in terms of their motive. These are experiences that we describe in terms of desires, desires, aspirations, etc. However, in themselves they do not reflect any objective content; they only refer to this or that object, only subjectively “color” it. The goal that arises before me is perceived by me in its objective meaning, i.e. I understand its conditionality, I imagine the means of achieving it and the distant results to which it leads; at the same time, I feel a desire, a desire to act in the direction of a given goal, or, conversely, negative experiences that prevent this. In both cases, they play the role of internal signals through which the regulation of the dynamics of activity takes place. What, however, is hidden behind these signals, what do they reflect? Directly for the subject himself, they seem to only “mark” objects, and their awareness is only the awareness of their presence and not the awareness of what generates them. This creates the impression that they arise endogenously and that they are the forces driving behavior - its true motives. (…)
      A person's intense desire to achieve the goal that opens before him, which subjectively distinguishes it as a strong positive "field vector", in itself does not say anything about what the semantic motive that drives him is. It may be that this goal is the motive, but this is a special case; usually the motive does not coincide with the goal, lies behind it. Therefore, its discovery constitutes a special task: the task of understanding the motive.
      Since we are talking about understanding meaning-forming motives, this task can be described in another way, namely as the task of understanding the personal meaning (namely, personal meaning, and not objective meaning!), Which one or another of his actions has for a person, their goals.
      The tasks of understanding motives are generated by the need to find oneself in the system of life relations and therefore arise only at a certain stage of personality development, when true self-consciousness is formed. Therefore, for children, such a task simply does not exist.
      When a child has a desire to go to school, to become a schoolchild, he, of course, knows what they do at school and what they need to study for. But the leading motive behind this striving is hidden from him, although he does not find it difficult to explain-motivate, often simply repeating what he heard. This motive can be clarified only by special research. (…)
      Later, at the stage of the formation of the consciousness of one's "I", the work of identifying meaning-forming motives is performed by the subject himself. He has to follow the same path as objective research, with the difference, however, that he can do without analyzing his external reactions to certain events: the connection of events with motives, their personal meaning, is directly signaled by the emotional reactions that arise in him. experiences.
      A day with many actions successfully carried out by a person, which seemed adequate to him during the execution, nevertheless can leave him with an unpleasant, sometimes even heavy emotional aftertaste. Against the background of continuing life with its current tasks, this sediment barely stands out. But at the moment when a person, as it were, looks back at himself and mentally goes over the events of the day again, the growing emotional signal will unmistakably indicate to him which of them gave rise to this precipitate. And it may turn out, for example, that this is the success of his comrade in achieving a common goal, which he himself prepared - the goal for which, as he thought, he acted. It turned out that this was not entirely true, that perhaps the main thing for him was personal advancement, in a career ... This thought puts him face to face with the “task of meaning”, with the task of realizing his motives, more precisely, their actual internal correlation.
      A certain inner work is needed to solve this problem and maybe reject what has suddenly been exposed, because “it’s a disaster if you don’t protect yourself at first, you don’t sweep yourself and don’t stop at the right time.” Pirogov wrote this, Herzen spoke about it with insight, and the whole life of Leo Tolstoy is a great example of such inner work.

III. Emotional processes

      Emotional processes include a wide class of processes, internal regulation of activity. They perform this function, reflecting the meaning that objects and situations that affect the subject have. their significance for the fulfillment of his life. In humans, emotions give rise to experiences of pleasure, displeasure, fear, timidity, etc., which play the role of orienting subjective signals. The simplest emotional processes are expressed in organic, motor and secretory changes and belong to the number of innate reactions. However, in the course of development, emotions lose their direct instinctive basis, acquire a complexly conditioned character, differentiate and form diverse types of so-called higher emotional processes; social, intellectual and aesthetic, which for a person constitute the main content of his emotional life. According to their origin, ways of manifestation and forms of flow, emotions are characterized by a number of specific patterns.
      (...) Even the so-called lower emotions in humans are a product of socio-historical development, the result of the transformation of their instinctive, biological forms, on the one hand, and the formation of new types of emotions, on the other; this also applies to emotional-expressive, mimic, and pantomimic movements, which, being included in the process of communication between people, acquire to a large extent conditional, signal and. at the same time, the social character, which explains the noted cultural differences in facial expressions and emotional gestures. Thus, emotions: and emotional expressive movements of a person, are not rudimentary phenomena of his psyche, but a product of positive development and perform a necessary and important role in regulating his activity, including cognitive. In the course of their development, emotions are differentiated and form different types in a person. differing in their psychological characteristics and patterns of their course. Emotional, in the broadest sense, processes are now commonly referred to as affects, actually emotions and feelings.
      affects. Affects in modern psychology are called strong and relatively short-term emotional experiences, accompanied by pronounced motor and visceral manifestations, the content and nature of which, however, can change, in particular, under the influence of education and self-education. In man, affects are caused not only by factors affecting the maintenance of his physical existence, associated with his biological needs and instincts. They can also arise in emerging social relations, for example, as a result of social assessments and sanctions. One of the features of affects is that they arise in response to a situation that has actually occurred and, in this sense, are, as it were, shifted to the end of the event (Claparede); in this regard, their regulatory function consists in the formation of a specific experience - affective traces that determine the selectivity of subsequent behavior in relation to situations and their elements that previously caused affect. Such affective traces ("affective complexes") reveal a tendency to obsession and a tendency to inhibition. The action of these opposing tendencies is clearly revealed in the associative experiment (Jung): the first is manifested in the fact that even words-irritants relatively distant in meaning evoke elements of the affective complex by association: the second tendency is manifested in the fact that the actualization of the elements of the affective complex causes inhibition of speech reactions, as well as inhibition and violation of motor reactions associated with them (A.R. Luria); other symptoms also appear (changes in the galvanic skin response, vascular changes, etc.). This is the basis of the principle of operation of the so-called "light detector" - a device that serves to diagnose the involvement of the suspect in the crime under investigation. Under certain conditions, affective complexes can be completely inhibited, forced out of consciousness. Particular, exaggerated importance is attached to the latter, in particular, in psychoanalysis. Another property of affects is that the repetition of situations "causing one or another negative affective state leads to the accumulation of affect, which can be discharged in violent uncontrollable" affective behavior - "affective explosion". In connection with this property of accumulated affects, various methods have been proposed for educational and therapeutic purposes to get rid of affect, to “canalize” them.
Actually emotions. Unlike affects, emotions proper are longer states, sometimes only weakly manifested in external behavior. They have a clearly expressed situational character, that is, they express an evaluative personal attitude to emerging or possible situations, to their activities and their manifestations in them. Emotions proper are of a distinctly ideational character; this means that they are able to anticipate situations and events that have not actually occurred yet, and arise in connection with ideas about experienced or imagined situations. Their most important feature is their ability to generalize and communicate; therefore, the emotional experience of a person is much broader than the experience of his individual experiences: it is also formed as a result of emotional empathy that arises in communication with other people, and in particular, transmitted by means of art (B.M. Teplev). The very expression of emotions acquires the features of a socially formed historically changeable "emotional language", as evidenced by numerous ethnographic descriptions and such facts as, for example, a peculiar poverty of facial expressions in congenitally blind people. Emotions proper have a different relation to personality and consciousness than affects. The former are perceived by the subject as states of my "I", the latter as states occurring "in me". This difference stands out clearly in cases where emotions arise as a reaction to an affect; Thus, for example, the appearance of an emotion of fear of the appearance of an affect of fear or an emotion caused by an experienced affect, for example, the affect of acute anger, is possible. A special kind of emotions are aesthetic emotions that perform the most important function in the development of the semantic sphere of personality.
      Feelings. More conditional and less generally accepted is the allocation of feelings as a special subclass of emotional processes. The basis for their selection is their clearly expressed objective nature. arising from a specific generalization of emotions. associated with the idea or idea of ​​some object - concrete or generalized, abstract, for example, a feeling of love for a person, for the homeland, a feeling of hatred for an enemy, etc.). The emergence and development of objective feelings expresses the formation of stable emotional relationships, a kind of "emotional constants". The discrepancy between the actual emotions and feelings and the possibility of inconsistency between them served in psychology as the basis for the idea of ​​ambivalence as an allegedly inherent feature of emotions. However, cases of ambivalent experiences most often arise as a result of a mismatch between a stable emotional attitude towards an object and an emotional reaction to a current transitional situation (for example, a deeply loved person can in a certain situation cause a transient emotion of displeasure, even anger). Another feature of feelings is that they form a number of levels, ranging from direct feelings to a specific object and ending with the highest social feelings related to social values ​​and ideals. These different levels are also connected with various in their form - generalizations - the object of feelings: images or concepts that form the content of a person's moral consciousness. An essential role in the formation and development of higher human feelings is played by social institutions, in particular social symbols that support their stability (for example, the banner), some rituals and social acts (P. Janet). Like emotions themselves, feelings have their positive development in a person and, having natural prerequisites, are the product of his life in society, communication and education.

The change and development of needs occurs through the change and development of objects that correspond to them and in which they are "objectified" and concretized. The presence of a need is a necessary prerequisite for any activity, but the need itself is not yet able to give the activity a certain direction. The presence in a person of a need for music creates a corresponding selectivity in him, but still does not say anything about what a person will undertake to satisfy this need. Maybe he will remember the announced concert and this will direct his actions, or maybe he will hear the sounds of the music being broadcast - and he will simply remain at the radio or TV. But it may also happen that the object of need is not presented to the subject in any way: neither in the field of his perception, nor in the mental plane, in the representation; then no directed activities that meet this need, he can not arise. That which is the only stimulus for directed activity is not a need in itself, but an object that meets this need. The object of need - material or ideal, sensually perceived or given only in the representation, in the mental plane - we call motive of activity.

The motives of activity carry a real meaningful characteristic of needs. Nothing can be said about needs except in the language of motives. We can even judge their dynamics (the degree of their tension, the degree of saturation, extinction) only by the forces (“vectors” or “valences”) of motives. Kurt Lewin was the first to follow this path in the study of human needs and discovered in psychology the motivating power of objects.

So, psychological analysis of needs must be transformed into an analysis of motives. This transformation, however, encounters a serious difficulty: it requires a resolute rejection of subjectivist conceptions of motivation and of that confusion of concepts relating to different levels and different "mechanisms" of regulation of activity, which is so often allowed in the doctrine of motives.

Although the study of motives began relatively recently in psychology (the first special monograph "Motives and Behavior" by P. Young was published in 1936, and Mourer's first review was published only in 1952), at present there is a huge amount of work on the problem of motives. However, they are almost not amenable to systematization - the meanings in which the term "motive" is used in them are so different. It seems that now the concept of motive has turned into a big bag in which a wide variety of things are folded. Motives or motivating factors include, for example, appetite, drives, impulses, habits and skills, desires, emotions, interests, goals, or more specific motives such as electric shock, pleasure, ambition, salary, ideals.

From the point of view of the doctrine of objectivity motives of human activity, from the category of motives, first of all, subjective experiences should be excluded, which are a reflection of those “supraorganic” needs that are correlative to motives. These experiences (desires, desires, aspirations) are not motives for the same reasons that they are not feelings of hunger or thirst: by themselves they are not capable of causing directed activity. However, one can speak of subject desires, aspirations, etc., but by this we only postpone the analysis; for further disclosure of what the object of a given desire or striving consists in is nothing but an indication of the corresponding motive.

The refusal to regard subjective experiences of this kind as motives for activity, of course, does not at all mean a denial of their real function in the regulation of activity. They perform the same function of subjective needs and their dynamics, which interoceptive sensations perform at elementary psychological levels - the function of selective activation of systems that implement the subject's activity.

To an even lesser extent, factors such as the tendency to reproduce well-formed stereotypes of behavior, the tendency to complete the initiated action, etc. can be considered motives. In the mechanics, so to speak, of activity, there are, of course, many "dynamic forces", some of which , and part of the organs themselves arising due to the structure, through which the activity is implemented. However, these forces can be called motives with no more justification than, for example, the inertia of the movement of the body, the action of which leads to the fact that a running person collides with an obstacle that has unexpectedly appeared in his path.

A special place is occupied by hedonistic concepts, according to which human activity is subject to the principle of “maximizing positive and minimizing negative emotions”, that is, aimed at achieving experiences of pleasure, enjoyment and avoiding experiences of suffering. For these concepts, emotions are the motives of activity. Sometimes emotions are given decisive importance, but more often they are included, along with other factors, among the so-called “motivational variables”.

Analysis and criticism of hedonistic concepts of motivation is perhaps the greatest difficulty. After all, a person really strives to live in happiness and avoid suffering. Therefore, the task is not to deny it, but to correctly understand what it means. And for this it is necessary to turn to the nature of emotional experiences themselves, to consider their place and their function in human activity.

The sphere of affective, and in the broad sense of the word, processes covers various types of internal regulation of activity, which differ from each other both in the level of their course, and in the conditions that cause them, and in the role they play. Here we will have in mind only those transient, “situational” affective states that are usually called emotions proper (in contrast, on the one hand, from affects, and on the other hand, from objective feelings).

Emotions act as internal signals. They are internal in the sense that they themselves do not carry information about external objects, about their connections and relationships, about those objective situations in which the subject's activity takes place. The peculiarity of emotions is that they directly reflect the relationship between motives and the implementation of activities that correspond to these motives. At the same time, we are not talking about the reflection of these relations, but about their direct reflection, about experiencing. Figuratively speaking, emotions follow the actualization of the motive and up to a rational assessment of the adequacy of the subject's activity. Thus, in the most general form, the function of emotions can be characterized as an indication, plus or minus, of the sanctioning of an activity that has been carried out, is being carried out, or is to be carried out. This idea in various forms was repeatedly expressed by researchers of emotions, in particular, very clearly - P. K. Anokhin. We, however, will not dwell on various hypotheses that in one way or another express the fact that emotions depend on the relationship (contradiction or agreement) between “being and obligation”. We only note that the difficulties that are revealed are mainly due to the fact that emotions are considered, firstly, without a sufficiently clear differentiation of them into various subclasses (affects and passions, emotions and feelings proper), which differ from each other both genetically and and functionally, and, secondly, out of touch with the structure and level of the activity that they regulate.

In contrast to affects, emotions have an ideational character and, as Claparede noted, they are "shifted to the beginning," that is, they are able to regulate activity in accordance with anticipated circumstances. Like all ideational phenomena, emotions can be generalized and communicated; a person has not only an individual emotional experience, but also an emotional experience that he has learned in the processes of communication of emotions.

The most important feature of emotions lies in the fact that they are relevant specifically to the activity, and not to the processes included in it, for example, individual acts, actions. Therefore, the same action, passing from one activity to another, can, as you know, acquire a different and even opposite emotional coloring in its sign. And this means that the function of positive or negative authorization inherent in emotions does not refer to the implementation of individual acts, but to the ratio of the achieved effects with the direction that is given to the activity by the motive. In itself, the successful performance of an action does not necessarily lead to a positive emotion; it can also give rise to a difficult emotional experience, which sharply signals that from the side of the motivational sphere of a person, the success achieved turns into a defeat.

Mismatch, correction, sanctioning take place at any level of activity, in relation to any of its constituent units, starting with the simplest adaptive movements. Therefore, the main question is what exactly and how exactly the executive act, individual actions, the direction of activity, and perhaps the direction of a person’s entire life, is sanctioned.

Emotions perform a very important function in motivating activity - and we will return to this issue - but emotions themselves are not motives. Once J.St. Mill, with great psychological insight, spoke of a "cunning strategy for happiness": to experience emotions. pleasure, happiness, one must strive not to experience them, but to achieve such goals that give rise to these experiences.

The subordination of activity to the pursuit of pleasure is at best a psychological illusion. Human activity is by no means modeled on the behavior of rats with electrodes inserted into the brain "pleasure centers", which, if taught how to turn on the current that irritates these centers, indulge in this activity endlessly, increasing (according to Olds) the frequency of this kind of "self-stimulation" up to several thousand per hour. You can easily pick up similar behaviors in humans: masturbation, smoking opium, self-immersion in an autistic dream. However, they rather testify to the possibility of a perversion of activity than to the nature of motives - the motives of real, self-asserting human life, they come into conflict, conflict with these real motives.

Motivation of human activity is a very complex process that requires special psychological analysis. First of all, it is necessary to introduce some further distinctions. One of them is the distinction between motives and goals. Carrying out activities prompted and directed by a motive, a person sets goals for himself, the achievement of which leads to the satisfaction of a need that has received its subject content in the motive of this activity. Thus, blowing is distinguished from conscious goals and intentions; motives "stand behind the goals", encourage the achievement of goals. In the case when the goals are not directly given in the situation, then they encourage goal setting. They do not, however, give rise to ends, just as needs do not give rise to their objects. What at the level of adaptive activity appears in the form of selectivity in relation to influencing objects, at its higher levels is expressed in selectivity in relation to the foreseen results of possible actions, represented (consciously) by the subject, i.e. goals. In the event that goal formation is impossible in the existing objective conditions and not a single link in the activity of the subject, adequate to the motive, can be realized, then this motive remains potential - existing in the form of readiness, in the form of an attitude.

Genetically initial and characteristic of human activity is the discrepancy between motives and goals. On the contrary, their coincidence is a secondary phenomenon - either the result of the acquisition of an independent motive force by the goal, or the result of the awareness of motives, which turns them into motives-goals. Unlike goals, which are always, of course, conscious, motives, as a rule, are not actually recognized by the subject: when we perform certain actions - external, practical or verbal, mental, then we usually do not realize the motives that they are encouraged. True, we can always give them motivation; but motivation is an explanation of the reason for an action, which does not always contain an indication of its real motive. Widely known hypnotic experiments with delayed execution of an internal action can serve as a vivid demonstration of this: with complete amnesia for the fact of suggestion, the subject nevertheless explains his action - as he would explain a similar action if it were performed by another person.

Motives, however, are not "separated" from consciousness. Even when the motives are not recognized by the subject, that is, when he is not aware of what prompts him to carry out this or that activity, they, figuratively speaking, enter his consciousness, but only in a special way. They give the conscious reflection a subjective coloration, which expresses the meaning of what is reflected for the subject himself, his, as we say, personal meaning.

Thus, in addition to their main function - the function of motivation, motives also have a second function - the function meaning formation.

The identification of this second function of motives is decisively important for understanding the internal structure of individual consciousness and precisely as consciousness personalities; therefore, we still have to repeatedly return to its analysis. Here, having in mind only the task of characterizing the motives themselves, we will confine ourselves to a simple statement of the fact that both of these functions of motives are capable of being distributed among different motives of the same activity. This is possible due to the fact that human activity is polymotivated, that is, regulated simultaneously by two or even several motives. After all, a person in his activity objectively implements a whole system of relations: to the objective world, to the people around him, to society and, finally, to himself. Some of these relations appear to him also subjectively. For example, in his labor activity, a person not only enters into relation to the product of labor, to society, but also to specific people. His labor activity is socially motivated, but it is also controlled by such a motive as, say, material reward for the work performed. Both of these motives coexist, but do they act psychologically in the same way for the subject? It is well known that this is not so, that they lie, as it were, on different psychological planes. Under socialism, the meaning of labor for a person is created by social motives; as for the reward, this motive rather acts as an incentive, stimulation. Thus, some motives, inducing activity, at the same time give it a personal meaning; we will call them leading or meaning-forming. Other motives coexisting with them act as additional motivating factors - positive or negative - sometimes very powerful; we will call them motives-stimuli.

Such a distribution of the functions of meaning formation and motivation between the motives of one and the same activity has its basis in special relationships that generally characterize the motivational sphere of a person. This is the essence of relationship. hierarchy motives, which is by no means built on the scale of their motivation. It is these hierarchical relationships that are reproduced by the distribution of functions between meaning-forming motives and motives-stimuli of a single polymotivated activity. Thus, the distinction between both kinds of motives is relative. In one hierarchical structure, this motif can perform only a meaning-forming function, in another - the function of additional stimulation; at the same time, meaning-forming motives always occupy a relatively higher place in the general hierarchy of motives than incentive motives.

In her memoirs of imprisonment in the Shlisselburg Fortress, Vera Figner tells that the prison authorities introduced physical, but completely unproductive forced labor for political prisoners. Although coercive measures were, of course, a motive capable of inducing prisoners to carry it out, but due to the place that this motive occupied in the hierarchical structure of their motivational sphere, it could not fulfill the role of a meaning-forming motive; such work remained for them meaningless and therefore increasingly unbearable. The prisoners found a purely psychological way out: they included this senseless occupation in the context of the main motive - to continue the struggle against the autocracy. Now, the useless carrying of the earth has subjectively become for them a means of maintaining their physical and moral strength for this struggle.

The study of the motives of activity requires penetration into their hierarchy, into the internal structure of the motivational sphere of a person, because this determines their psychological "valence". Therefore, no classification of human motives abstracted from the structure of the motivational sphere is possible; it inevitably turns into a list that says nothing: political and moral ideals, interest in getting impressions from sports and entertainment, the desire for a household arrangement, the need for money, feelings of gratitude, love, etc., habits and traditions, imitation of fashion, manners or patterns of behaviour.

We have considered the problem of the relation of motives to needs and to activity; it remains for us to consider the last problem - the problem of awareness of motives. As already mentioned, it is necessary to be aware of the goals of their actions, a person may not be aware of their motives. This psychological fact needs first of all to eliminate its false interpretation.

The existence of unconscious motives does not at all require that they be referred to the "unconscious" as it is understood by psychoanalysts. They do not express any special beginning lurking in the depths of man, which interferes with the management of his activities. Unconscious motives have the same source and the same determination as any mental reflection: being, human activity in the real world.

The unconscious is not separated from the conscious, and they do not oppose each other; it's just different levels mental reflection inherent in man, which are present in any complex activity, which was understood by many objective researchers and was very clearly expressed by IP Pavlov. “We know perfectly well,” he wrote, “to what extent mental mental life is motley composed of the conscious and the unconscious.”

The absolutization of the unconscious is only the flip side of the absolutization of consciousness as supposedly the only psychological reality and the only subject of psychology, which, surprisingly, some authors still insist on. The rejection of this absolutization radically changes the approach to the problem: the starting point for solving it is not the question of what is the role of the unconscious in conscious life, but the question of the conditions that give rise to a person’s mental reflection in the form of consciousness, consciousness and the function of consciousness. From this point of view, the problem of awareness of the motives of activity should also be considered.

As already mentioned, usually the motives of the activity are not actually recognized. This is a psychological fact. Acting under the influence of one impulse or another, a person is aware of the goals of his actions; at the moment when he acts, the goal is necessarily "present in his mind" and, in the famous expression of Marx, how the law determines his actions.

The situation is different with the awareness of the motives of actions, for the sake of which they are performed. Motives carry subject content, which must be perceived by the subject in one way or another. At the human level, this content is reflected, refracted in the system of linguistic meanings, i.e., it is recognized. Nothing decisively distinguishes the reflection of this content from the reflection by a person of other objects of the world around him. The object that prompts to act, and the object that acts in the same situation, for example, as an obstacle, are “equal” in terms of the possibilities of their reflection, cognition. What they differ from each other is not the degree of distinctness and completeness of their perception or the level of their generalization, but their function and place in the structure of activity.

The latter is revealed primarily objectively - in the behavior itself, especially in conditions of alternative life situations. But there are also specific subjective forms in which objects are reflected precisely in terms of their motive. These are experiences that we describe in terms of desire, desire, striving, etc. However, in themselves they do not reflect any objective content; they only refer to this or that object, only subjectively “color” it. The goal that has arisen before me is perceived by me in its objective meaning, that is, I understand its conditionality, I imagine the means of achieving it and the more distant results to which it leads; at the same time, I feel a desire, a desire to act in the direction of a given goal, or, conversely, negative experiences that prevent this. In both cases, they play the role of internal signals through which the regulation of the Dynamics of activity takes place. What, however, is hidden behind these signals, what do they reflect? Directly, for the subject himself, they seem to only “mark” objects, and their awareness is only the awareness of their presence, and not at all the awareness of what generates them. This creates the impression that they arise endogenously and that they are the forces driving behavior - its true motives.

Even in the case when, in this description of the dynamic aspect of activity, such concepts as “the motivating force of things” or “field vectors” are used, this in itself does not at all exclude the recognition that the objects of the external world are only “manifestators” of internal mental forces, moving subject. The possibility arises of a simple reversal of terms, and this possibility cannot be avoided if one remains within the limits of analysis of the relation between the present object or present situation, on the one hand, and the present state of the subject, on the other. In fact, such a relation is always included in a wider system that defines it. This is a system of relations that are social in nature, in which a person enters to the world around him and which opens up to him in his activity not only as a world of material objects - natural and objects of material culture, but also as a world of ideal objects - objects of spiritual culture and is inseparable from this. - as the world of human relations. Penetration into this wide world, into its objective connections, gives rise to motives that impel a person to action.

A person’s experience of a keen desire to achieve the goal that opens before him, which subjectively distinguishes it as a strong positive “field vector”, in itself still does not say anything about what the meaning-forming motive that drives him lies. It may be that this goal is the motive, but this is a special case; usually the motive does not coincide with the goal, lies behind it. Therefore, its discovery constitutes a special task: the task of understanding the motive.

Since we are talking about the awareness of meaning-forming motives, this task can be described in another way, namely, as the task of understanding the personal meaning (namely, personal meaning, and not objective meaning!), Which one or another of his actions, their goals have for a person. .

The tasks of understanding motives are generated by the need to find oneself in the system of life relations and therefore arise only at a certain stage of personality development - when a true self-consciousness is formed. Therefore, for children, such a task simply does not exist.

When a child has a desire to go to school, to become a schoolchild, he, of course, knows what they do at school and why they need to study. But the leading motive behind this striving is hidden from him, although he does not find it difficult to explain-motivate, often simply repeating what he heard. This motive can be clarified only by special research. It is possible, for example, to study how older preschoolers play “to school”, taking advantage of the fact that role-playing reveals the meaning that the game actions performed by him have for the child. Another example of the study of the motives for learning in children who have already crossed the threshold of the school can serve as a study by L. I. Bozhovich, based on an analysis of the reactions of first graders to different types of classes, which can have either a “school” character or a game character, so to speak, preschool , for the prospect of lengthening the time of change, for the cancellation of the lesson, etc.

Later, at the stage of the formation of the consciousness of one's "I", the work of identifying meaning-forming motives is performed by the subject himself. He has to follow the same path as objective research, with the difference, however, that he can do without analyzing his external reactions to certain events: the connection of events with motives, their personal meaning is directly signaled by the emotional experiences.

A day with many actions successfully carried out by a person, which seemed adequate to him during the execution, nevertheless, can leave him with an unpleasant, sometimes even heavy emotional aftertaste. Against the background of continuing life with its current tasks, this sediment barely stands out. But at the moment when a person, as it were, looks back at himself and mentally goes over the events of the day again, the growing emotional signal will unmistakably indicate to him which of them gave rise to this precipitate. And it may turn out, for example, that this is the success of his comrade in achieving a common goal, which he himself had prepared - the goal for which, as he thought, he acted. It turned out that this was not entirely true, that perhaps the main thing for him was personal advancement, in a career. This thought puts him face to face with the "task of meaning", with the task of realizing his motives, more precisely, their actual internal correlation.

A certain inner work is needed in order to solve this problem and, perhaps, to reject what has suddenly been exposed, because “it’s a disaster if you don’t protect yourself at first, you don’t sweep yourself and don’t stop at the right time.” This was written by Pirogov, Herzen spoke about the same penetratingly, and the whole life of L. N. Tolstoy is a great example of such inner work.

It is in this connection that attempts have been made in psychology to measure, so to speak, the emotional balance of human life. Apparently, the oldest work in this direction, cited by Mechnikov, belongs to Kovalevsky, who even proposed a special unit for measuring pleasure, which he called “thickness”. Such attempts are being made by some modern psychologists. - Note. ed.