Psychology has a relatively long and rather controversial history. Many psychological ideas formed the basis of applied technologies, especially in such types of practical activities as production and consumption, politics and people management, training and medicine, operation of technical equipment, IT management, business, marketing, advertising, etc.
One of the first who tried to analyze the psyche as a specific phenomenon was the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He outlined his thoughts in the famous treatise “On the Soul”, and this allows many historians to claim that psychology arose more than 2000 years ago. However, Aristotle did not master the basic method modern science- experimental method; him in the 17th century. entered into research activities Galileo Galilei. Aristotle was engaged in observations, introspection and philosophical reflections on the nature of the psyche. That is why, from the point of view of modern methodology, the ideas he expressed can hardly be considered scientific, even if historically he turned out to be right in some way. Philosophy and science are different types of intellectual activity.
Today it is generally accepted that experimental psychology arose in 1879 thanks to the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (Fig. 1.2), who in Germany at the University of Leipzig was the first in the world to create a laboratory for the experimental study of mental phenomena. However, many psychological studies using experimental methods were done long before this date. For example, the studies of E. Weber, G. Fechner, G. Helmholtz, G. Ebbinghaus, I. Müller, E. Mach and others were also carried out on the basis of experiments that were quite complex for those times. W. Wundt's system of theoretical views is called structuralism G Main task, which his followers set themselves, was to describe the structure of the psyche, its components, determine the connections between components (processes), and the influence of some components on others.
The so-called functionalism. The creator of this trend is considered to be the American psychologist, professor of psychology at Harvard University William James. He believed that psychology should
study not structural components or elements of the psyche, and consciousness as biological function, which arose in the process of evolution, like other body functions, say, digestion, because it was biologically “useful” for the evolving species. Although W. James was a religious person, he belonged to supporters of the philosophy of pragmatism, due to which the concept of “useful” was very important for him. That is why, judging by many of James's works, he viewed religion as one of the most powerful forms of social psychotherapy. It should be noted that in many respects structuralism and functionalism were similar, since they were based on methods experiment And introspection.
Rice. 1.2.
IN different eras Throughout the history of mankind, views on the nature of the psyche have varied significantly. For example, modern philosophers, in particular Francis Bacon, laid the foundations for empirical study consciousness. It was Bacon who proposed abandoning the study of Aristotle’s “soul” as a subject of research, which before him seemed obvious and therefore no one doubted. In turn, the philosopher Rene Descartes proposed separating mental phenomena from physiological ones. He reduced the mental to the concept of consciousness, rejected unconscious mental phenomena and defined the foundations of the concept dualism, in which the mental and physiological were considered as parallel entities. Descartes formulated psychophysical problem and thereby laid the foundations for the idea that the “spirit” exists separately from the “body”. Descartes' ideas were considered quite obvious until late XIX V.
Psychology reached its greatest flourishing in turn of the 19th century-XX centuries At this time it appears a whole series various psychological teachings that described the nature of the psyche in different ways and used different approaches to the empirical study of mental phenomena. According to the definition of science scientist Thomas Kuhn, psychology is multi-paradigm science, and therefore in modern psychology there are three global “world concepts”: psychoanalysis, behaviorism and cognitive psychology. These directions developed in parallel and in many ways but differently solved the problems of studying the psyche, its nature and structure, but they always had absolutely the same tasks, the main one of which was the knowledge of the psyche as a natural phenomenon. But if cognitive psychology was formed to study primarily consciousness, then psychoanalysis arose under the influence of ideas about the existence of the subconscious ( unconscious And unconscious) as the main component of the psyche, and behaviorism concentrated on the analysis of the behavior of humans and other living organisms as an external manifestation of the psyche.
It should be noted that to date, many areas of psychology have already fulfilled their historical mission and experienced a stage of global transformation. Today they are either not as widespread in the world as psychoanalysis, behaviorism and cognitive psychology, or they put forward other tasks, such as, for example, humanistic And positive psychology.
- The term “structuralism” was introduced into psychology by a student and follower of V. Wuidt by the Anglo-American scientist Edward Bradford Titchener, who created the first experimental psychological laboratory in the United States.
QUESTIONS TO PREPARATE FOR THE EXAM
Object, subject and tasks of psychology.
Subject of psychology - This psyche How highest form the relationship of living beings with the objective world, expressed in their ability to realize their motives and act on the basis of information about it.
The subject of psychology is a person as a subject of activity, the systemic qualities of his self-regulation; patterns of formation and functioning of the human psyche: his ability to reflect the world, cognize it and regulate his interaction with it.
The subject of psychology is understood differently throughout history and from the perspective various directions psychology.
· Soul (all researchers before the beginning of the 18th century)
· Phenomena of consciousness
· Direct experience of the subject
Adaptability
Origin of mental activities
· Behavior
· Unconscious
· Information processing processes and the results of these processes
· Personal experience of a person
Object of psychology - This patterns of the psyche as a special form of human life and animal behavior. This form of life activity, due to its versatility, can be studied in a wide variety of aspects, which are studied in various branches of psychological science.
They have as their object: norms and pathology in the human psyche; types of specific activities, development of the human and animal psyche; human attitude to nature and society, etc.
The main task of psychology as a science is to reveal the laws of origin, development and progression mental activity of a person, the formation of his mental properties, identifying the vital meaning of the psyche and thereby providing assistance in mastering it, its purposeful formation in accordance with the needs of society.
Specific tasks of psychology:
Clarification of the nature and essence of mental activity and its connection with the brain, the function of which is this activity, its relationship to the objective world.
Study of the emergence and development of mental activity in the process of biological evolution of animals and socio-historical development human life. Clarification of the common and different in the psyche of people and animals, the characteristics of human consciousness in various social conditions of life.
Studying the emergence and development of the child’s psyche, as well as identifying the progressive transformation of the child into a conscious person; identifying how his psychological characteristics are formed in the process of training and education.
Study of the structure of human mental activity, the main forms of its manifestation and their relationship.
Study of the occurrence of sensations, perception, attention and other reflections objective reality and how they regulate this reality.
Disclosure psychological foundations training and education, studying the qualities and characteristics of a teacher’s personality.
Identifying and studying psychological characteristics various types of production, technical, creative and other types of human activity.
Study of the characteristics of mental activity of adults and children with defects of the brain and sensory organs.
The concept of the psyche.
Psyche is a property of highly organized living matter, which consists in the subject’s active reflection of the objective world, in the subject’s construction of an inalienable picture of this world and the regulation of behavior and activity on this basis.
From this definition follows a number of fundamental judgments about the nature and mechanisms of manifestation of the psyche. Firstly, psyche is a property only of living matter. And not just living matter, but highly organized living matter. Consequently, not all living matter has this property, but only that which has specific organs that determine the possibility of the existence of the psyche.
Secondly, main feature psyche lies in the ability to reflect the objective world. What does this mean? Literally this means the following: highly organized living matter with a psyche has the ability to receive information about the world around it. At the same time, obtaining information is associated with the creation by this highly organized matter of a certain mental, i.e., subjective in nature and idealistic (immaterial) in essence image, which with a certain degree of accuracy is a copy of material objects of the real world.
Thirdly, the information about the surrounding world received by a living being serves as the basis for regulating the internal environment of a living organism and shaping its behavior, which generally determines the possibility of a relatively long existence of this organism in constantly changing environmental conditions. Consequently, living matter with a psyche is capable of responding to change external environment or on the impact of environmental objects.
The emergence of psychology as a science. History of the development of psychological knowledge.
Since ancient times, needs public life forced a person to distinguish and take into account the peculiarities of the mental makeup of people. The philosophical teachings of antiquity already touched upon some psychological aspects, which were resolved either in terms of idealism or in terms of materialism. Thus, the materialistic philosophers of antiquity Democritus, Lucretius, Epicurus understood the human soul as a type of matter, as a bodily formation formed from spherical, small and most mobile atoms. But the idealist philosopher Plato understood the human soul as something divine, different from the body. The soul, before entering the human body, exists separately in the higher world, where it cognizes ideas - eternal and unchanging essences. Once in the body, the soul begins to remember what it saw before birth. Plato's idealistic theory, which interprets the body and psyche as two independent and antagonistic principles, laid the foundation for all subsequent idealistic theories. Great philosopher Aristotle, in his treatise “On the Soul,” singled out psychology as a unique field of knowledge and for the first time put forward the idea of the inseparability of the soul and the living body. The soul, the psyche, manifests itself in various abilities for activity: nourishing, feeling, moving, rational; Higher abilities arise from and on the basis of lower ones. The primary cognitive ability of a person is sensation; it takes the forms of sensory objects without their matter, just as “wax takes the impression of a seal without iron and gold.” Sensations leave a trace in the form of ideas - images of those objects that previously acted on the senses. Aristotle showed that these images are connected in three directions: by similarity, by contiguity and contrast, thereby indicating the main types of connections - associations of mental phenomena. Thus, stage I is psychology as the science of the soul. This definition of psychology was given more than two thousand years ago. They tried to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena in human life by the presence of a soul. Stage II – psychology as the science of consciousness. It appears in the 17th century in connection with the development of natural sciences. The ability to think, feel, desire was called consciousness. The main method of study was a person's observation of himself and the description of facts. Stage III – psychology as a science of behavior. Appears in the 20th century: The task of psychology is to conduct experiments and observe what can be directly seen, namely: behavior, actions, human reactions (the motives causing actions were not taken into account). Stage IV – psychology as a science that studies objective patterns, manifestations and mechanisms of the psyche. The history of psychology as an experimental science begins in 1879 in the world's first experimental psychological laboratory, founded by the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig. Soon, in 1885, V. M. Bekhterev organized a similar laboratory in Russia.
The history of psychology is one of the few comprehensive disciplines that synthesize knowledge on individual areas and problems of psychology. The history of psychology allows us to understand the logic of the formation of psychology, the reasons for changes in its subject, and its leading issues. The history of psychology teaches not only factors, but also thinking, the ability to understand and adequately evaluate individual psychological phenomena and concepts. The logic of scientific knowledge, the analysis of the formation of new methods and approaches to the study of the psyche prove that the emergence of experimental psychology and the methodological apparatus of psychology were determined and reflected by scientists.
The history of psychology studies the patterns of formation and development of views on the psyche based on the analysis of various approaches to understanding its nature, functions, and genesis. Psychology is associated with various fields of science and culture. From its very inception, it was oriented toward philosophy and for several centuries was actually one of the sections of this science. The connection with philosophy was not interrupted throughout the entire period of the existence of psychology as a science, then weakened (as in early XIX century), then intensified again (as in the middle of the 20th century).
The development of natural science and medicine has had and is having no less influence on psychology. Also in the works of many scientists there is a connection with ethnography, sociology, cultural theory, art history, mathematics, logic, and linguistics.
In the history of psychology, the historical-genetic method is used, according to which the study of the impossible past is carried out without taking into account the general logic of the development of science in a certain historical period, and the historical-functional method, thanks to which the continuity of expressed ideas is analyzed. The biographical method is of great importance, allowing one to identify possible reasons and the conditions for the formation of the scientist’s scientific views, as well as the method of systematizing psychological statements.
The sources for the history of psychology are primarily the works of scientists, active materials, memoirs about their lives and activities, as well as the analysis of historical and sociological materials and even fiction that helps to recreate the spirit of a certain time.
Until the last quarter of the XIX For centuries, philosophers have studied human nature based on their own, very limited experience, through reflection, intuition and generalization. Change became possible when philosophers began to use tools that were already successfully used in biology and other natural sciences.
Plan.
1. The concept of psychology as a science. Psyche as a subject of psychology research.
2. The main stages in the development of psychology as a science.
3. The structure of modern psychology.
4. The place of psychology in the system of sciences.
Literature.
1. Atlas of general psychology. / Ed. M.V. Gamezo.- M., 2003.
2. Gurevich P.S. Psychology. Textbook. Publishing house "Urayt". - M., 2012.
3. Krysko V.G. General psychology in diagrams and comments. Tutorial. - St. Petersburg, 2008.
4. Nemov R.S. General psychology. Short course. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2008. -304 p.
5. Romanov K.M., Garanina Zh.G. Workshop on general psychology. - Voronezh - 2008
1. The concept of psychology as a science. Psyche as a subject of psychology research.
Psychology- this is the field of knowledge about the inner (mental) world of man.
The subject of psychology are the facts of mental life, the mechanisms and patterns of the human psyche and the formation of the psychological characteristics of his personality as a conscious subject of activity and an active figure in the socio-historical development of society.
The behavior of a person with a normal psyche is always determined by the influences of the objective world. Reflecting outside world, a person not only learns the laws of development of nature and society, but also has a certain influence on them in order to adapt the world around him to the best satisfaction of his material and spiritual needs.
In real human activity, his mental manifestations (processes and properties) do not arise spontaneously and in isolation from each other. They are closely interconnected in a single act of socially conditioned conscious activity of the individual. In the process of development and formation of a person as a member of society, as an individual, diverse mental manifestations, interacting with each other, gradually turn into relatively stable mental formations, consciously regulated actions that a person directs to resolve the life challenges facing them. important tasks. Consequently, all mental manifestations of man as a social being, as an individual, are determined by his life and activities.
Psychology as a science of the soul originated in ancient Greece. Psyche translated from Greek means “soul”. Thus, the ancient Greek natural philosophers Thales (VII-VI centuries BC), Anaximenes (V centuries BC) and Heraclitus (VI-V centuries BC) considered the soul as a form of an element that forms the beginning of the world (water, fire, air). Subsequently, atomists Democritus (5th century BC), Epicurus (IV-III centuries BC) and Lucretius (1st century BC) considered the soul as a material organ guided by reason and spirit . Spirit and soul were interpreted by them as material objects, consisting of atoms. In addition to materialistic views on the soul, there were idealistic views, one of the creators of which was Plato (428-347 BC).
He believed that the soul is an immaterial object, which, before infusing it into the human body, is in the sphere of the ideal, upper world. Having entered the body at birth, the soul remembers what it saw. Plato was the founder of dualism in philosophy, considering the material and spiritual as two opposing principles. Plato's student Aristotle (384-322 BC) created a materialistic doctrine of the soul, in which for the first time in history he put forward the idea of the inseparability of the soul and the living body. He believed that the mental is derived from the action of the physical body, and the soul manifests itself in activity. Aristotle put forward a theory about the formation of character in real activities.
The teachings of ancient Greek philosophers became the basis for the development of psychological ideas in the next era. Gradually, concepts of the soul began to be applied only to the psychic level of manifestation of life. The further development of biological and psychological sciences revolutionized views of the body and soul. So, in the 17th century. French scientist Descartes discovered the reflex nature of behavior. The concept of a reflex included the motor response of the body to an external influence. Descartes believed that mental phenomena are similar to mechanical ones and occur as a result of the reflection of external influences by the muscles of the body. But along with mechanistic views on the reflexive nature of behavior, Descartes considered the soul to be an ideal entity that exists separately from the body. His views were dualistic, that is, twofold.
Subsequently, the doctrine of reflexes was continued by the Russian scientist I.M. Sechenov (1829-1905). He considered mental phenomena not the properties of the soul as an incorporeal entity, but reflex processes, that is, he associated them with the work of the nervous system and brain. He assigned a large role in the origin of the psyche to movements and practical actions. The provisions about the reflex nature of the psyche were confirmed by I. P. Pavlov. He created the doctrine of higher nervous activity and discovered very important physiological mechanisms of mental activity.
Currently, there are many different areas of psychology both in our country and abroad. Each of them identifies certain individual aspects of the psyche and considers them the most important. One such movement is behaviorism. Within the framework of this approach, any organism is considered as a neutral-passive system, the behavior of which is entirely determined by the influence of the environment, that is, stimulation from the outside. It is based on the teaching of J. Watson that psychology studies not consciousness, but behavior, that is, what is accessible to objective observation.
Another direction, the founder of which was Z. Freud, was called psychoanalysis. Freud identified the sphere of the unconscious in the individual, which is the source of a person’s drives and desires, motivates him to action and plays a very important role in his mental life.
In connection with the latest developments in the field of science and technology, in particular cybernetics and programming, such a direction as cognitive psychology has developed. She considers a person’s cognition of the world around him as a process, a necessary component of which is special psychological means - cognitive schemes formed as a result of learning. They allow you to perceive, process and store information in a certain way. Within this direction, the psyche is viewed by analogy with a computer as an apparatus that receives and processes information.
Developed by Russian psychologists S. L. Rubinstein, V. S. Vygotsky and A. N. Leontiev activity approach considers the personality as an active activity being, the formation and development of consciousness of which occurs in the process of mastering various types of activity. It is realized in activity. The social environment plays a very important role in the development of consciousness.
IN recent years became widespread humanistic psychology. It emphasizes the special value of a person’s subjective experience and the uniqueness of each individual. They are the subject of the study. In the context of this direction it is given critical analysis traditional psychology as a natural science discipline.
Modern psychology considers psyche as a property of matter organized in a special way, as a subjective image of the objective world, as an ideal reflection of real reality, but they cannot be identified with the psyche, which always has a certain content, that is, what it reflects in the surrounding world. Therefore, the human psyche should be considered not only from the point of view of its constituent processes, but also from the point of view of their content.
The task of psychology as a science is to study the basic laws of mental life. Everyone needs to know these laws. to modern man. The task of any branch of psychological science is to facilitate and improve human work in the relevant types of work activity.
Studying psychology helps to better understand other people and take them into account mental states, see positive aspects, to find out how and why people experience certain individual characteristics, establish contacts with others.
The main stages in the development of psychology as a science.
The basis for the emergence of psychology as a science was the everyday empirical experience of people. Everyday knowledge arises spontaneously in a person. They are developed on the basis of individual experience of communicating with other people, introspection, reading fiction, watching films, and can also be adopted from others.
They are distinguished following features: low level of accuracy, subjectivism, excessive individualization, increased dependence on the mood of the subject and his relationship to the person being known, high emotional intensity, imagery, excessive specificity and situationality, low level of verbality (verbalization) and awareness, logical inconsistency, practical orientation, poor systematization , early origin, high stability.
This knowledge is not recorded anywhere and exists for each person only in a functional form. Most often, they are quite suitable for solving purely ordinary, simple psychological problems.
Scientific psychological knowledge is recorded in relevant books, textbooks and reference books. They are transmitted during the learning process and are acquired through educational activities. Such knowledge is characterized by more high level accuracy, objectivity, logical consistency, systematization, awareness, verbalization, generalization, abstractness.
They are more independent of the emotional-need sphere of a person. However, despite the obvious advantages scientific knowledge Compared to everyday ones, they still have some disadvantages, such as excessive abstraction, academicism, formality, isolation from the individual personal experience their carriers. Therefore, they sometimes make it difficult to understand other people and even oneself.
The most effective is psychological knowledge, which is a synthesis of scientific and everyday knowledge. The formation of such knowledge is one of the tasks of psychological training of specialists.
Psychology is 2400 years old. Psychology as a science of the soul arose in ancient Greece. Psyche translated from Greek means “soul”. Aristotle is considered the founder of psychology (the treatise “On the Soul”). Only to mid-19th century, psychology from disparate knowledge became an independent science. This does not mean at all that in previous eras, ideas about the psyche (soul, consciousness, behavior) were devoid of signs of scientific character. They emerged in the depths of natural science and philosophy, pedagogy and medicine, in various phenomena of social practice.
The year of birth of scientific psychology is considered to be 1879. This year, first a laboratory and then an institute were opened in Leipzig, the founder of which was W. Wundt (1832-1920). According to Wundt, the subject of psychology is consciousness, namely states of consciousness, connections and relationships between them, and the laws to which they obey. Wundt built psychology as an experimental science on the model of his contemporary natural sciences. scientific disciplines- physics, chemistry, biology. Soon, in 1885, V. M. Bekhterev organized a similar laboratory in Russia.
For centuries, problems were recognized, hypotheses were invented, and concepts were built that prepared the ground for modern science about the mental organization of man. In this eternal search, scientific and psychological thought outlined the boundaries of its subject.
The following stages are distinguished in the history of the development of psychological science:
Stage I - psychology as the science of the soul. This definition of psychology was given more than two thousand years ago. They tried to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena in human life by the presence of a soul.
Stage II - psychology as the science of consciousness. It appears in the 17th century in connection with the development of natural sciences. The ability to think, feel, desire was called consciousness. The main method of study was a person's observation of himself and the description of facts.
Stage III - psychology as a science of behavior. Appears in the 20th century: The task of psychology is to conduct experiments and observe what can be directly seen, namely: behavior, actions, human reactions (the motives causing actions were not taken into account).
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY - The first scientific ideas about psyche arose in ancient world(India, China, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Georgia) in the depths of philosophy, as opposed to the religious dogma of soul as a special entity, externally and randomly connected with the body. The development of these ideas was stimulated by the demands of social practice, treatment and education. Ancient doctors established that the organ of the psyche is brain, and developed a doctrine about temperaments. This natural science direction was closely connected with the view of the human soul as a material (fiery, airy, etc.) particle of the cosmos, moving according to its own eternal and inevitable laws. In idealistic concepts, the soul was opposed to the body and was recognized as immortal. The pinnacle of psychology in antiquity was the doctrine Aristotle(treatises “On the Soul”, “On the Origin of Animals”, etc.), in which the soul is interpreted as a form of organization of a material body capable of life (and not as a substance or incorporeal essence). He outlined the first system of psychological concepts developed on the basis of objective and genetic methods. In the Hellenistic period, from the principle of life as a whole, the soul becomes the principle of only certain of its manifestations: the mental is separated from the general biological. During the feudal era, the development of positive knowledge about the psyche slowed down sharply, but did not stop. Progressive doctors and thinkers of the Arabic-speaking world (Ibn Sina, Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Roshd and others) prepared with their ideas the subsequent flowering of natural science psychology in Western Europe, where with the emergence of capitalism the desire to study man empirically as a natural being, whose behavior is subordinated, is strengthened. natural laws (Leonardo da Vinci, X. L. Vives, X. Huarte, etc.). In the era bourgeois revolutions and the triumph of the new materialistic worldview, a fundamentally new approach to mental activity is emerging, now explained and studied from the standpoint of the strictest determinism. Socio-economic transformations determined the progress of psychological thinking, which was enriched in the 17th century. a number of fundamental categories. R. Descartes reveals the reflexive nature of behavior (see Reflex), and the concept of the soul transforms into a non-theological concept of consciousness as the subject’s direct knowledge of his own mental acts. In the same era, a number of the most important psychological teachings emerged: associations as a natural connection of mental phenomena, determined by the connection of bodily phenomena (R. Descartes, T. Hobbes), about affects (B. Spinoza), about apperception And unconscious (G.V. Leibniz), about the origin of knowledge from individual sensory experience (J. Locke). The concrete scientific development of the principle of association by the English physician D. Hartley made this principle the main explanatory concept of psychology for a century and a half. Psychological ideas are developing in line with the materialistic worldview D. Diderot, M. V. Lomonosova, A. N. Radishcheva and other progressive thinkers. In the 19th century appeared in the depths of physiology experimental methods studies of mental functions and the first attempts were made to introduce these functions into the analysis quantitative estimates (E. G. Weber, G. T. Fechner, G. Helmholtz etc.). Darwinism showed the need to study mental functions as a real factor in the development of biological systems. In the 70s and 80s. XIX century psychology turns into an independent field of knowledge (different from philosophy and physiology). The main centers of this development are special experimental laboratories.
torii. The first of them was organized V. Wundtom(Leipzig, 1879). Following its example, similar institutions are emerging in Russia, England, the USA, France and other countries. He put forward a consistent program for the development of psychology based on the objective method. I. M. Sechenov, whose ideas fertilized experimental psychological work in Russia (V. M. Bekhterev, A. A. Tokarsky, N. N. Lange etc.), and later through the works of V. M. Bekhterev and I. P. Pavlova influenced the development of objective methods in world psychological science. Main topics experimental psychology appeared at the beginning sensations And reaction time(F. Donders), and then - associations (G. Ebbinghaus), attention (J. Kettel), emotional states (see Emotions) (W. James, T. A. Ribot), thinking And will [Wurzburg school, A. Binet]. Along with the search for general patterns of psychological processes, differential psychology, The task of the cut is to determine individual differences between people using measurement methods (F. Galton, A. Binet, A. F. Lazursky, V. Stern etc.). On. at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A crisis is brewing in psychology due to the breakdown of old concepts. The idea of consciousness as a set of phenomena directly experienced by the subject collapses. The emphasis shifts to a person’s orientation in environment, on factors of behavior regulation hidden from consciousness. The main trend in American psychology is behaviorism, According to him, psychology should not go beyond the limits of externally observable bodily reactions to external incentives. The dynamics of these reactions were thought of as a blind search, accidentally leading to a successful action, reinforced by repetition (trial and error method). The program settings of this direction were expressed by J.B. Watson(1913). Another influential school was Gestalt psychology, The experimental object of the cut was the holistic and structural nature of mental formations. At the beginning of the century there also arose psychoanalysis 3. Freud, according to rom decisive role in the organization of the human psyche belongs to unconscious motives (primarily sexual). New directions have enriched the empirical and specific methodological base of psychology, contributed to the development of its categorical apparatus (categories action, image, motive). However, an inadequate philosophical interpretation of these achievements led to erroneous and one-sided conclusions. Attempts to understand from an idealistic position the dependence of the human psyche on the world of history and culture, on social life inevitably led to dualism, to the concept of “two psychologies” (V. Wundt, V. Dilthey, G. Rickert), according to which psychology cannot be a single science, since the natural science, experimental explanatory approach to the psyche is, in principle, incompatible with the cultural-historical one. Psychologists who have highlighted the role social factors in the regulation of human behavior (J.M. Baldwin, J. Dewey, J.G. Mead etc.), also failed to develop a productive approach to sociogenesis personality and its mental functions, since sociality itself was interpreted as “pure” communication outside of objective activity.
Marxism has become methodological basis specific psychological research after the October socialist revolution. With Marxism, new principles entered scientific psychology, radically changing its theoretical appearance. The idea of restructuring psychology on a Marxist basis was actively defended by K. N. Kornilov, P. P. Blonsky, M. I. Basov etc. Marxist
The Chinese principle of historicism became decisive for L.’s research. S. Vygotsky and his students. The development of Soviet psychology proceeded in close collaboration with the development of psychophysiological research in the works I. P. Pavlova, V. M. Bekhterev, A. A. Ukhtomsky, L. A. Or-beli, S. V. Kravkov, N. A. Bernshnein etc. Overcoming idealistic and mechanistic (reactology, reflexology) influence, Soviet scientists asserted in psychology the Marxist doctrine of activities and its socio-historical determination, the ideas of Lenin’s theory reflections. Theoretical and experimental study of the main problems of psychology is embodied in the works A. R. Luria, A. N. Leontyeva, B. M. Teplova, A. A. Smirnova, S. L. Rubinstein, B. G. Ananyev, N. F. Dobrynina, A. V. Zaporozhets, L. A. Schwartz and others. Within the framework of Marxist methodology, Soviet psychologists successfully develop current problems of psychology in close connection with the theoretical and practical tasks of improving a developed socialist society.
Development of psychology in capitalist countries in the 30-40s. XX century characterized by the collapse of the main schools. In behavioral theories, the concept of "intermediate variables" i.e., about the factors mediating the motor response (dependent variable) to stimulus(independent variable) . The logic of the development of science and the requirements of practice directed psychology to the study of the “central processes” unfolding between the sensory “input” and the motor “output” of the body system. The consolidation of this trend in the 50-60s. Experience in programming on electronic machines contributed. Branches of psychology such as engineering, social and medical have developed. The work of the Swiss psychologist had a great influence on the interpretation of mental processes J. Piaget, who studied the transformation of internal structure mental activity during ontogeny. The view on the role of neurophysiological mechanisms is also changing. They are no longer ignored, but are seen as an integral component general structure behavior (Hebb, K. Pribram). In the depths of psychoanalysis there arises neo-Freudianism - current that connected unconscious mental mechanics (see. Unconscious) with the influence of socio-cultural factors (K. Horney, G. S. Sullivan, E. Fromm) and accordingly rebuilt psychotherapy. Along with new variants of behaviorism and Freudianism, the so-called existential, humanistic psychology, asserting that the study of scientific concepts and objective methods leads to the dehumanization of the individual and its disintegration, and impedes its desire for self-development. This direction comes to outright irrationalism.
The origins of psychological knowledge lie in ancient philosophy.
Stages of development of psychology as a science:
1) until the beginning of the 18th century, psychology developed as a science of the soul within the framework of ancient philosophy (Democritus, Plato, Aristotle)
2) psychology as a science of consciousness belongs to the “era of the New Age” (mid-XVII – mid-XIX centuries).
At this time, the formation of Western psychological thought was greatly influenced by the works of Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650)
3) the formation of psychology as an independent experimental science dates back to the 60-70s of the 19th century.
The founder of experimental psychology is Wilhelm Wundt (1832 – 1920).
2. Subject and tasks of general psychology. Principles and structure.
Psychology is a science that studies objective patterns, manifestations and mechanisms of the psyche.
Tasks of psychology:
Qualitative study of mental phenomena;
Analysis of the formation and development of mental phenomena;
Study of physiological mechanisms of mental phenomena;
Promoting the systematic introduction of psychic knowledge into people’s lives and activities.
Principles:
Determinism;
Unity of consciousness and activity;
Development of the psyche.
Structure:
Social psychological;
Developmental psychology;
Psychology of Management;
Engineering psychology (man and technology);
Labor Psychology;
Conflictology.
3. The concept of the psyche and consciousness. Structure of consciousness.
Psyche, a special quality of highly organized matter, is a form of reflection by the subject of objective reality.
Only humans have the highest form of mental reflection—consciousness.
Main functions:
Reflection;
Management and regulation of behavior and activities.
Mental phenomena are divided into: 1) mental state and 2) mental properties (temperament, character, abilities).
Mental processes are divided into: 1) emotional; 2) cognitive (memory, thinking, imagination); 3) strong-willed.
4. Research methods in modern psychology.
There are four groups of methods for cognition of psychological phenomena:
Organizational methods: 1) comparative method (division into groups by age, form of activity, etc.); 2) longitudinal method (examination of the same individuals over a long period of time); 3) complex method (representatives of different sciences participate in the study of the object).
Empirical methods: 1) observation and introspection; 2) experimental methods; 3) psychodiagnostic methods (tests, questionnaires, questionnaires, sociometry, interviews, conversation); 4) analysis of activity products; 5) biographical methods.
Data processing methods: 1) quantitative (statistical); 2) qualitative (analysis).
Interpretive methods: 1) genetic method (analysis of development highlighting individual phases, stages, critical moments); 2) structural method (establishing structural connections between all personality characteristics).
Basic methods of psychology. Observation. The method scientifically explains the causes of a psychological phenomenon, and is carried out in a natural situation according to a program that lists the expected actions and reactions of those observed, recording the frequency of their occurrence.
An experiment is the intervention of a researcher in the activities of a subject in order to create conditions in which this or that psychological fact is revealed.