Consciousness as the highest stage of development. Psychological vzlyad (PsyVision) - quizzes, educational materials, catalog of psychologists. Main characteristics of consciousness

Consciousness is the highest form of a generalized reflection of the objective stable properties and patterns of the surrounding world, characteristic of a person, the formation of an internal model of the external world in a person, as a result of which knowledge and transformation of the surrounding reality is achieved. The function of consciousness consists in the formation of the goals of activity, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and the prediction of their results, which ensures a reasonable regulation of human behavior and activity. Human consciousness has a certain attitude towards environment, to other people. The following properties of consciousness are distinguished: building relationships, cognition and experience. This directly implies the inclusion of thinking and emotions in the processes of consciousness. Indeed, the main function of thinking is to identify objective relationships between the phenomena of the external world, and the main function of emotion is the formation of a subjective attitude of a person to objects, phenomena, people. These forms and types of relations are synthesized in the structures of consciousness, and they determine both the organization of behavior and the deep processes of self-esteem and self-consciousness. Really existing in a single stream of consciousness, an image and a thought can, being colored by emotions, become an experience. Consciousness develops in a person only in social contacts. In phylogeny, human consciousness has developed and becomes possible only under conditions of active influence on nature, in conditions of labor activity. Consciousness is possible only under the conditions of the existence of language, speech, which arises simultaneously with consciousness in the process of labor. And the primary act of consciousness is the act of identification with the symbols of culture, organizing human consciousness, making a person a person. The isolation of the meaning, symbol and identification with it is followed by the implementation, the active activity of the child in reproducing patterns of human behavior, speech, thinking, consciousness, the active activity of the child in reflecting the world around him and regulating his behavior. There are two layers of consciousness (V.P. Zinchenko). I. Existential consciousness (consciousness for being), which includes: 1) biodynamic properties of movements, experience of actions; 2) sensual images. II. Reflective consciousness (consciousness for consciousness), including: 1) meaning; 2) meaning. Meaning is the content of social consciousness, assimilated by a person. These can be operational meanings, objective, verbal meanings, worldly and scientific meanings - concepts. Meaning is a subjective understanding and attitude to the situation, information. Misunderstanding is associated with difficulties in understanding meanings. The processes of mutual transformation of meanings and meanings (comprehension of meanings and meaning of meanings) act as a means of dialogue and mutual understanding. On the existential layer of consciousness, very complex tasks are solved, since for effective behavior in a given situation, it is necessary to actualize the image that is needed at the moment and the necessary motor program, i.e. the mode of action must fit into the image of the world. The world of ideas, concepts, everyday and scientific knowledge correlates with meaning (of reflective consciousness). The world of industrial, subject-practical activity correlates with the biodynamic fabric of movement and action (the existential layer of consciousness). The world of representations, imaginations, cultural symbols and signs correlates with the sensual fabric (existential consciousness). Consciousness is born and is present in all these worlds. The epicenter of consciousness is the consciousness of one's own "I". Consciousness: 1) is born in being, 2) reflects being, 3) creates being. Functions of consciousness: 1. reflective, 2. generative (creative-creative), 3. regulatory-evaluative, 4. reflective function - the main function that characterizes the essence of consciousness. The object of reflection can be: 1. reflection of the world, 2. thinking about it, 3. ways of regulating a person's behavior, 4. the processes of reflection themselves, 5. their personal consciousness. The existential layer contains the origins and beginnings of the reflective layer, since the meanings and meanings are born in the existential layer. The meaning expressed in the word contains: 1) image, 2) operational and objective meaning, 3) meaningful and objective action. Words, language do not exist only as language, they objectify forms of thinking that we master through the use of language.

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

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

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

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

There are two layers of consciousness (V.P. Zinchenko).

I. Existential consciousness(consciousness for being), which includes: 1) biodynamic properties of movements, experience of actions; 2) sensual images.

II. Reflective Consciousness(consciousness for consciousness), including: 1) meaning; 2) meaning.

Meaning- the content of social consciousness, assimilated by man. These can be operational meanings, objective, verbal meanings, worldly and scientific meanings - concepts.

Meaning- subjective understanding and attitude to the situation, information. Misunderstanding is associated with difficulties in understanding meanings. The processes of mutual transformation of meanings and meanings (comprehension of meanings and meaning of meanings) act as a means of dialogue and mutual understanding.

On the existential layer of consciousness, very complex tasks are solved, since for effective behavior in a given situation, it is necessary to actualize the image that is needed at the moment and the necessary motor program, i.e. the mode of action must fit into the image of the world. The world of ideas, concepts, worldly and scientific knowledge correlates with the meaning (of reflective consciousness).

Consciousness: 1) is born in being, 2) reflects being, 3) creates being.

Functions of Consciousness:

1. reflective,

2. generative (creative-creative),

3. regulatory and evaluation,

4. reflexive function - the main function, characterizes the essence of consciousness.
The object of reflection can be:

1. reflection of the world,

2. thinking about it,

3. ways a person regulates his behavior,

4. the processes of reflection themselves,

5. your personal consciousness.

The existential layer contains the origins and beginnings of the reflective layer, since the meanings and meanings are born in the existential layer. The meaning expressed in the word contains: 1) image, 2) operational and objective meaning, 3) meaningful and objective action. Words, language do not exist only as language, they objectify forms of thinking that we master through the use of language.

End of work -

This topic belongs to:

100 Psychology Exam Answers

On the website, read: "100 Psychology Exam Answers"

If you need additional material on this topic, or you did not find what you were looking for, we recommend using the search in our database of works:

What will we do with the received material:

If this material turned out to be useful for you, you can save it to your page on social networks:

All topics in this section:

The emergence of psychology as a science
Since ancient times, the needs of social life have forced a person to distinguish and take into account the peculiarities of the mental make-up of people. In the philosophical teachings of antiquity, some psycho

Branches of psychology
Modern psychology is a widely developed field of knowledge, including a number of separate disciplines and scientific directions. So, the features of the psyche of animals are studied by zoopsychology. Psychos

Tasks and place of psychology in the system of sciences
The tasks of psychology are mainly reduced to the following: · to learn to understand the essence of mental phenomena and their patterns; Learn to manage them ・Use more

The main historical stages in the development of psychological science
The first ideas about the psyche were associated with animism (lat. anima - spirit, soul) - the most ancient views, according to which everything that exists in the world has a soul. The soul was understood as

Fundamentals of the function of the psyche. Features of mental reflection
Etymologically, the word "psyche" (Greek soul) has a dual meaning. One value carries the semantic load of the essence of any thing. The psyche is an entity where out of field

The main stages in the development of the psyche
The development of the psyche in animals goes through a series of stages

The structure of the human psyche
The psyche is complex and diverse in its manifestations. Usually, three large groups of mental phenomena are distinguished, namely: 1) mental processes, 2) mental states, 3) mental

The psyche and structural features of the brain
The individuality of a person is largely determined by the specifics of the interaction of individual hemispheres of the brain. For the first time these relations were experimentally studied in the 60s of our century by a professor of psychology.

Activity
Activity is the active interaction of a person with the environment, in which he achieves a consciously set goal that has arisen as a result of the appearance of a certain need, motive.

Speech functions
The most important achievement of man, which allowed him to use universal human experience, both past and present, was speech communication, which developed on the basis of labor activity. Speech

Types of speech activity and their features
In psychology, there are two main types of speech: external and internal. External speech includes oral (dialogical and monologue) and written. Dialogue is not

Methods of psychology
The main methods of obtaining facts in psychology are observation, conversation and experiment. Each of these common methods has a number of modifications that clarify, but do not change their essence.

The concept of sensation and its physiological basis
Sensation, perception, thinking serve as inseparable parts of a single process of reflecting reality. Sensual visual knowledge of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world is the initial one. However, I feel

Main characteristics of analyzers
The main characteristics of the analyzers: 1. The lower threshold of sensations is the minimum value of the stimulus that causes a barely noticeable sensation (denoted by Jo). Signals

Types of sensations
The following grounds for classifying sensations are distinguished: I) by the presence or absence of direct contact with the stimulus that causes the sensation; 2) at the location of the receptors; 3) by time

The concept of perception
If, as a result of sensation, a person receives knowledge about individual properties, qualities of objects (something hot burned, something bright flashed ahead, etc.), then perception gives a holistic image of

Basic properties of perception
People perceive the same information differently, subjectively, depending on their interests, needs, abilities, etc. Dependence of perception on the content of a person’s mental life

Perceptual disturbance
With a sharp physical or emotional overwork, sometimes there is an increase in susceptibility to ordinary external stimuli. Daylight suddenly blinds, the color of surrounding objects becomes

General characteristics of attention
The most important feature of the course of mental processes is their selective, directed nature. This selective, directed nature of mental activity is associated with such a property.

Attention Properties
When they talk about the development, education of attention, they mean the improvement of the properties of attention. There are the following properties of attention: volume, concentration (concentration), distribution

General concepts of memory
Memory is a form of mental reflection, which consists in fixing, preserving and subsequent reproduction of past experience, making it possible to reuse it in action.

Types of memory
Consider the main types of memory. Involuntary memory (information is remembered by itself without special memorization, but in the course of performing activities, in the course of working on

Forgetting
Forgetting is a natural process. Like retention and memorization, it is selective. The physiological basis of forgetting is the inhibition of temporary connections. Forgotten pre

Development of thinking in personogenesis
The development of the child's thinking occurs gradually. At first, it is largely determined by the development of manipulating objects. Manipulation, which at first does not make sense, then begins

Types of thinking
Consider the main types of thinking. Visual-effective thinking is a type of thinking based on the direct perception of objects, real transformation in the process of

Thinking process
When solving a complex problem, a solution path is usually outlined, which is recognized as a hypothesis. Awareness of the hypothesis generates the need for verification. Criticality - pr

Qualities of thinking and the structure of intelligence
The breadth of thinking is the ability to cover the whole issue without losing at the same time the particulars necessary for the case. The depth of thinking is expressed in

Intelligence score
The most popular is the so-called "intelligence quotient", abbreviated as IQ, which allows you to correlate the level of intellectual abilities

Ways to activate thinking
To activate thinking, you can use special forms of organization of the thought process, for example, "brainstorming" or brainstorming - a method of

Thinking disorders
Psychologists are quite good at determining the forms and levels of thought disorders, the degree of its deviation from the standards, "norms". With euphoria, high spirits, enthusiasm (in some

General characteristics of the imagination
Along with perception, memory and thinking, imagination plays an important role in human activity. In the process of reflecting the surrounding world, a person, along with the perception of what affects him in yes

Types of imagination
There are several types of imagination, among which the main ones are passive and active. The passive, in turn, is divided into arbitrary (dreaming, daydreaming).

thought experiment
One of the most obvious forms of manifestation of the activity of the imagination in science is a thought experiment. Aristotle also turned to a thought experiment, proving the impossibility of emptiness in space.

The interaction of consciousness and subconsciousness
In the zone of clear consciousness, a small part of those simultaneously coming from the external and internal environment body signals. Signals that fall into the zone of clear consciousness are used by a person

Mental states of a person
Mental states are integral characteristics of mental activity for a certain period of time. Changing, they accompany the life of a person in his relations with people, society.

States of consciousness. The role of sleep
Traditionally, psychology recognizes two states of consciousness inherent in all people: 1) sleep, considered as a period of rest, 2) the state of wakefulness, or an active state of consciousness, which corresponds to

Types of emotional processes and states
Emotions are a special class of subjective psychological states that reflect in the form of direct experiences of a pleasant process and results of practical activity aimed at

Theories of emotion
For the first time, emotional-expressive movements became the subject of study by Charles Darwin. Based on comparative studies of the emotional movements of mammals, Darwin created the biological concept of emotions.

Physiological mechanisms of stress
Suppose there was a quarrel or some kind of unpleasant event: a person is excited, cannot find a place for himself, he is gnawed by resentment, annoyance due to the fact that he could not behave correctly, he could not find words. He

stress and frustration
One of the most common types of affects today is stress. It is a state of excessively strong and prolonged psychological stress, which

Will as a characteristic of consciousness
All human actions can be divided into two categories: involuntary and arbitrary. Involuntary actions are performed as a result of the emergence of unconscious or

Volitional structure
Volitional activity always consists of certain volitional actions, which contain all the signs and qualities of the will. Volitional actions are simple and complex. To simple

Motivation
A motive is an impulse to perform a behavioral act, generated by a system of human needs and with varying degrees conscious or not conscious at all. Owl in progress

Social environment and personality
Socio-psychological phenomena arise in the interaction of the social environment, the individual and the group. Let's clarify these concepts. The social environment is everything that surrounds a person in his social

Personality socialization
Personal socialization is the process of personality formation in certain social conditions, the process of assimilation of social experience by a person, during which a person transforms social

Periodization of personality development
There is a particular style of parenting in each socio-culture, it is determined by what society expects from a child. At each stage of his development, the child either integrates with society, or

Typology of wrong parenting
There are several types wrong upbringing: Neglect, lack of control occurs when parents are too busy with their own affairs and do not pay

Differences between the socialization of children and adults. Resocialization
The process of socialization never ends. The most intensive socialization is carried out in childhood and adolescence, but personality development continues in middle and old age. Dr. Orville G. Brim (

life crises
Based on Freud's ideas about human psychosexual development, Erikson (Erikson, 1950) developed a theory that emphasizes the social aspects of this development. It is regarded as

self-awareness
IN social psychology There are three spheres in which the formation and formation of personality is carried out: activity, communication, self-consciousness. In the course of socialization, they expand

social role
Each person living in a society is included in many different social groups (family, study group, friendly company, etc.). In each of these groups, he occupies a certain position.

social status. Systematization of social roles
Each person in the social system occupies several positions. Each of these positions, which implies certain rights and obligations, is called a status. A person can have multiple statuses.

Role and intrapersonal conflicts
A person performs many different roles, and each time he needs to be somehow different in order to receive approval and recognition. However, these roles should not be contradictory, incompatible. If one

Freud's personality structure
Not a single direction has gained such loud fame outside of psychology as Freudianism, his ideas influenced art, literature, medicine and other areas of science related to man. H

Theory of sexual development 3. Freud
Features of sexual development in childhood determine the character, personality of an adult, his pathologies, neuroses, life problems and difficulties. Freud formulated the theory of sexual

Defense mechanisms (according to Freud)
Protective behavior allows a person to protect himself from those problems that he cannot solve yet, allows you to relieve anxiety from threatening events (loss of a loved one, favorite toy, loss of a loved one).

Behaviorism
Behaviorism defined the face of American psychology in the 20th century. Its founder John Watson (1878-1958) formulated the creed of behaviorism: "The subject of psychology is behavior." From here and

Behavioral concept of B. Skinner
The behavioral concept considers personality as a system of reactions to various stimuli (B. Skinner, J. Homans and others). A separate line in the development of behaviorism is represented by the system

Typology of behavior according to McGuire
According to the concept of the American psychologist McGuire, the classification of human behavior and actions should be carried out depending on the goals, needs, situation. A need is an experience

Cognitive theories of personality
The word "cognitive" comes from the Latin verb cognoscere - "to know". Psychologists who have rallied around this approach argue that a person is not a machine.

A. Maslow's hierarchy of needs
If Freudianism studies a neurotic personality whose desires, actions and words diverge from each other, judgments about oneself and about other people are often diametrically opposed ("Usually people

Personal self-actualization
A "self-actualizing personality" has the following features: 1. complete acceptance of reality and a comfortable attitude towards it (not hiding from life, but knowing, understanding

Transpersonal psychology. Views of K. Jung
Although transpersonal psychology did not take shape as a separate discipline until the late 1960s, transpersonal trends in psychology have existed for several decades. The most prominent

Transpersonal realm
According to S. Grof, transpersonal phenomena reveal a connection between a person and the cosmos - a relationship that is currently incomprehensible. It can be assumed in this regard that

The Genetic Approach of Champion Teutsch
To a certain extent, the approach of Dr. Champion Kurt Teutsch is close to transpersonal psychology. His concept that genetic code before the birth of a person determines most of the prospects

Psychological structure of personality
Elements psychological structure personality are its psychological properties and characteristics, commonly referred to as "personality traits". There are a lot of them. But all this elusive number of St.

Capabilities
Abilities are individual psychological characteristics of a person that ensure success in activities, in communication and ease of mastering them. Abilities cannot be reduced to knowledge, skills and

The concept of temperament and its physiological foundations
Temperament - these are those innate characteristics of a person that determine the dynamic characteristics of the intensity and speed of response, the degree of emotional excitability and

Types of temperament and their psychological characteristics
Psychological characteristic types of temperament is determined by the following properties: sensitivity, reactivity, the ratio of reactivity and activity, the rate of reactions, plasticity - rigidity

Accounting for temperament in activities
Since each activity imposes certain requirements on the human psyche and its dynamic features, there are no temperaments that are ideally suited for all types of activities. R

Constitutional and clinical typologies
The constitutional typology of personality was proposed by Kretschmer on the basis of the allocation of four main types of physique constitution (congenital features of a person's physique are predetermined by the dynamics of the internal

Clinical personality typologies
Based on the analysis of clinical material, the following types of pathological character variants are distinguished, from the characteristics of which the person himself or those around him suffers. Schizoid type

Character
Character is the framework of the personality, which includes only the most pronounced and closely interconnected personality traits that are clearly manifested in various activities. All character traits

Character accentuations
According to the famous German psychiatrist K. Leonhard, in 20-50% of people, some character traits are so pointed (accentuated) that this, under certain circumstances, leads to the same type of conflict.

Neurosis. Types of neuroses
Neurosis is an acquired functional disease of the nervous system, in which there is a "breakdown" of brain activity without any signs of its anatomical

Autotraining
One of the most powerful means of restoring emotional balance is auto-training - a special technique of self-hypnosis against the background of maximum muscle relaxation. Suggested t

Psychosociotypes
The thinking type is characterized by the desire to understand, explain the essential features, patterns of events, life. For the emotional type - the main expression of attitude to the event, evaluation of the event, &q

Sensory typology
It can be seen that people think differently, and the differences correspond to the three main areas of sensory experience - visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. visual type. All

Psychogeometric typology
Psychogeometry as a system developed in the USA. The author of this system, Susan Dellinger, is a specialist in the socio-psychological training of managerial personnel. Psychogeometry - system

Inferiority complex and lifestyle (according to Adler)
The term "inferiority complex" was introduced by psychologist A. Adler. He believed that all children experience a sense of inferiority, which is an inevitable consequence of their physical size.

Psychological growth (according to Adler)
Psychological growth is, first of all, a movement from self-centeredness and the goals of personal superiority to the tasks of constructive mastery of the environment and socially useful development.

Life scenarios in the fate of a person
Every person in childhood, most often unconsciously, thinks about his future life, as if scrolling through his life scenarios in his head. The script is a progressively unfolding

Human adaptability and fundamental typology of individuality
Adaptation - the level of actual adaptation of a person, the level of his social status and self-awareness - satisfaction or dissatisfaction with himself and his life. Che

Functions and structure of communication
Communication is a specific form of human interaction with other people as members of society; in communication are implemented social relations of people. In communication, there are three mutual

Types of communication
There are the following types of communication: 1. "Contact masks" - formal communication, when there is no desire to understand and take into account the personality of the interlocutor, use

Transactional analysis of communication
Transactional analysis of communication identifies three main positions: Child, Parent, Adult, which can repeatedly replace one another during the day, or one of them can prevail in behavior.

Verbal and non-verbal means of communication
Communication, being a complex socio-psychological process of mutual understanding between people, is carried out through the following main channels: speech (verbal - Latin words "oral, verbal

Communication as people's perception of each other
The process of perception by one person of another acts as a mandatory component communication and constitutes what is called perception. Since a person always enters into communication as a person,

Methods of psychological influence
Reception of influence - a set of means and an algorithm for their use. Methods of influence - a set of techniques that implement the impact on: 1) needs, interests

Groups and collectives
Communication, interaction of people occurs in various groups. A group is a collection of elements that have something in common. There are several types of groups: 1) conditional and

sociometric technique
The word "sociometry" literally means "social dimension". The technique was developed by the American psychologist J. Moreno and is designed to assess interpersonal relationships.

Leadership
In any group, there is a leader, a leader. He may be appointed officially, or may not occupy any official position, but in fact lead the team by virtue of his organizational

Management styles
The following management styles are distinguished. Authoritarian (or directive, or dictatorial) - it is characterized by a rigid sole decision-making by the head of all decisions ("

Leadership Effectiveness
The probabilistic model of leadership effectiveness (F. Fiedler) is mediated by the degree of control the leader has over the situation in which he acts. The situation depends on the parameters: 1) the degree of well-being

Psychological requirements for a manager
The manager is a professionally trained leader. However, managers differ in the effectiveness of their leadership. What does it depend on? Outstanding Managers Survey USA, Euro

35. Consciousness as the highest stage of development of the psyche

There are two layers of consciousness (V.P. Zinchenko).

I. Existential consciousness(consciousness for being), which includes: 1) biodynamic properties of movements, experience of actions; 2) sensual images.

II. Reflective Consciousness(consciousness for consciousness), including: 1) meaning; 2) meaning.

Meaning- the content of social consciousness, assimilated by man. These can be operational meanings, objective, verbal meanings, worldly and scientific meanings - concepts.

Consciousness: 1) is born in being, 2) reflects being, 3) creates being.

Functions of Consciousness:

reflective,
generative (creative-creative),
regulatory assessment,
reflexive function - the main function, characterizes the essence of consciousness.
The object of reflection can be:
1. reflection of the world
2. thinking about him
3. how people regulate their behavior
4. the processes of reflection
5. your personal consciousness.

36. Interaction of consciousness and subconsciousness

In the zone of clear consciousness, a small part of the signals simultaneously coming from the external and internal environment of the body is reflected. Signals that have fallen into the zone of clear consciousness are used by a person to consciously control their behavior. The rest of the signals are also used by the body to regulate certain processes, but at a subconscious level. Awareness of the circumstances that impede the regulation or solution of the problem helps to find a new mode of regulation or a new way of solving, but as soon as they are found, control is again transferred to the subconscious, and consciousness is freed to resolve newly emerging difficulties. This continuous transfer of control, which provides a person with the opportunity to solve ever new tasks, is based on harmonious interaction of consciousness and subconsciousness. Consciousness is attracted to this object only for a short period of time and ensures the development of hypotheses at critical moments of lack of information.

Most of the processes taking place in the inner world of a person are not realized by him, but in principle each of them can become conscious. To do this, you need to express it in words - verbalize. Allocate:

subconscious- those ideas, desires, actions, aspirations that are now out of consciousness, but can later come to consciousness;
proper unconscious- such a psychic that under no circumstances becomes conscious.

Freud believed that the unconscious is not so much the processes to which attention is not directed, but the experiences suppressed by consciousness, those against which consciousness erects powerful barriers.

A person can come into conflict with numerous social prohibitions, in the event of a conflict, internal tension grows in him and isolated foci of excitation appear in the cerebral cortex. In order to remove excitement, one must first of all realize the conflict itself and its causes, but awareness is impossible without difficult experiences, and a person prevents awareness, these difficult experiences are forced out of the field of consciousness.

To exclude such a disease-causing influence, it is necessary to recognize the traumatic factor and re-evaluate it, introduce it into the structure of other factors and assessments of the inner world, and thereby defuse the focus of excitation and normalize the mental state of a person. Only such a consciousness eliminates the traumatic effect of an "unacceptable" idea or desire. Freud's merit lies in the fact that he formulated this dependence and included it in the basis of the therapeutic practice of "psychoanalysis".

Psychoanalysis includes the search for hidden foci in the cerebral cortex that arise when unacceptable desires are repressed, and careful assistance to a person in consciousness and reassessment of disturbing experiences. Psychoanalysis includes the search for the focus (remembering it), opening it (translating information into verbal form), reassessing (changing the system of attitudes, relationships) experiences in accordance with the new significance, eliminating the focus of excitation, normalizing the mental state of a person.

Only by translating unconscious impulses into consciousness can one achieve control over them, acquiring greater power over one's actions and increasing self-confidence.

So, consciousness as an internal model that reflects the external environment of a person and his own world in their stable properties and dynamic relationships helps a person to act effectively in real life.

37. Mental states of a person

Mental states are integral characteristics of mental activity for a certain period of time. Changing, they accompany the life of a person in his relations with people, society, etc. In any mental state, three general dimensions can be distinguished: motivational-incentive, emotional-evaluative and activation-energetic (the first dimension is decisive).

Along with the mental states of an individual, there are also "mass-like" states, i.e. mental states of certain communities of people (micro- and macrogroups, peoples, societies). In the sociological and socio-psychological literature, two types of such states are specifically considered - public opinion and public sentiment.

The mental states of a person are characterized by integrity, mobility and relative stability, interconnection with mental processes and personality traits, individual originality and typicality, extreme diversity, and polarity.

Integrity mental states is manifested in the fact that they characterize in a certain period of time all mental activity as a whole, express the specific relationship of all components of the psyche.

Mobility mental states lies in their variability, in the presence of stages of flow (beginning, certain dynamics and end).

Mental states have relative stability, their dynamics is less pronounced than that of mental processes (cognitive, volitional, emotional). At the same time, mental processes, states and properties, personalities are closely interconnected. Mental states affect mental processes, being the background of their course. At the same time, they act as "building material" for the formation of personality traits, primarily character traits. For example, the state of concentration mobilizes the processes of attention, perception, memory, thinking, will and emotions of a person. In turn, this state, repeatedly repeated, can become a quality of personality - concentration.

Mental states are characterized by extreme diversity and polarity. The latter concept means that each mental state of a person corresponds to the opposite state (confidence - uncertainty, activity - passivity, frustration - tolerance, etc.).

Mental states of a person can be classified on the following grounds:

depending on the role of the individual and the situation in the occurrence of mental states - personal and situational;
depending on the dominant (leading) components (if any clearly appear) - intellectual, strong-willed, emotional, etc.;
depending on the degree of depth, the states are (more or less) deep or superficial;
depending on the run time short-term, long-term, long-term etc.;
depending on the impact on the personality - positive and negative, sthenic, vitality-enhancing, and asthenic;
depending on the level of awareness more or less conscious states;
depending on the reasons causing them; 8) depending on the degree of adequacy of the objective situation that caused them.

It is possible to single out typical positive and negative mental states that are characteristic of most people both in everyday life (love, happiness, grief, etc.) and in professional activity associated with extreme (extreme, unusual) conditions. This should include mental states professional suitability, awareness of the importance of one's profession, a state of joy from success in work, a state of volitional activity, etc.

Mental health is of great importance for the effectiveness of labor activity. state of professional interest.

The state of professional interest is characterized by: awareness of the importance of professional activity; the desire to learn more about it and to be active in its field; concentration of attention on the range of objects associated with a given area, and at the same time these objects begin to occupy a dominant position in the mind of a specialist.

The diversity and creative nature of professional activity make it possible for an employee to develop mental states that are similar in content and structure to state of creative inspiration characteristic of scientists, writers, artists, actors, musicians. It is expressed in a creative upsurge; sharpening of perception; increasing the ability to reproduce previously captured; increasing power of imagination; the emergence of a number of combinations of original impressions, etc.

Important for the effectiveness of professional activity is mental state of readiness to it as a whole and to its individual elements in particular.

Along with positive (sthenic) states in a person in the process of his life activity (activity, communication), negative (asthenic) mental states can also occur. For example, indecision as a mental state can arise not only when a person lacks independence, self-confidence, but also due to the novelty, ambiguity, confusion of a particular life situation in extreme (extreme) conditions. Such conditions give rise to states of mental tension.

It is possible and necessary to talk about the state of operating room(operator, "business") tension, i.e. tension that arises as a result of the complexity of the activity performed (difficulties in sensory discrimination, vigilance, the complexity of visual-motor coordination, intellectual load, etc.) and emotional tension caused by emotional extreme conditions (working with people, including patients, offenders, etc.).

38. States of consciousness. The role of sleep

Traditionally, psychology recognizes two states of consciousness inherent in all people: 1) sleep, considered as a period of rest, 2) the state of wakefulness, or an active state of consciousness, which corresponds to the activation of the whole organism, allowing it to capture, analyze signals from the outside world, send some of them to memory or respond to them with adequate or inadequate behavior, depending on previous experience and skills. Thus, wakefulness is a state in which we can adjust to the outside world.

On average, our body functions with alternation: 16 hours of wakefulness and 8 hours of sleep. This 24-hour cycle is controlled by an internal control mechanism called the biological clock, which is responsible for activating the sleep center located in the brainstem and the wakefulness center that serves as the reticular formation of the brain. For a long time, it was believed that sleep is just a complete rest of the body, allowing it to restore the forces expended during the wakefulness period. So, lack of sleep significantly affects behavior: mental and labor activity worsens or even is disturbed, some people literally fall asleep standing up, hallucinate or begin to rave after 2-3 days of sleep deprivation. It is now known that sleep is not just a recovery period for the body, but includes various stages and performs various functions. There are "slow-wave sleep" and "rapid, paradoxical sleep" depending on the characteristics of brain activity.

According to the hypothesis of Hartman (1978), disconnecting a person from the external environment during sleep is necessary for meaningful processing of the information accumulated during the day.

Dreams reflect the motivation, desires of a person, these motivations seem to emerge during sleep, when the cells of the reticular formation send exciting impulses to the centers responsible for desires and instincts. Dreams seem to serve symbolic realization of unfulfilled human desires, discharge the centers of excitation that have arisen due to unfinished business and disturbing thoughts. According to Freud, dreams provide psychological comfort, reducing the emotional tension that has arisen during the day and causing? this feeling of satisfaction and relief. Fowlks's (1971) study showed that dreams, the intense work of the brain during sleep, have as their goal help man solve his problems during sleep either weaken or even eliminate a disturbing desire, experience.

According to French and Fromm's hypothesis, the mechanisms of imaginative thinking are used in dreams. to resolve motivational conflicts, which cannot be solved using logical analysis during wakefulness, i.e. dreams are a mechanism of psychological protection and stabilization of a person, thanks to which a person draws the energy necessary to solve his problems. Dreams are a kind of "window" into the unconscious of a person and a kind of "channel" of information exchange between the unconscious and consciousness when a more information-rich "unconscious" is able to symbolically or explicitly convey important information for consciousness (for example, prophetic dreams about future possible events, emerging diseases, internal emotional pain points, etc.).

39. Types of emotional processes and states

Emotions- a special class of subjective psychological states, reflecting in the form of direct experiences of a pleasant process and the results of practical activities aimed at satisfying its actual needs. Since everything that a person does ultimately serves the purpose of satisfying his various needs, any manifestations of human activity are accompanied by emotional experiences.

Emotions, Charles Darwin argued, arose in the process of evolution as a means by which living beings establish the significance of certain conditions to meet their urgent needs.

Emotional sensations are biologically fixed in the process of evolution as a kind of way to maintain the life process within its optimal boundaries and warn of the destructive nature of a lack or excess of any factors.

The oldest in origin, the simplest and most common form of emotional experience among living beings is pleasure received from the satisfaction of organic needs, and the displeasure associated with the inability to do this when the corresponding need is exacerbated.

The main emotional states that a person experiences are divided into emotions proper, feelings and affects. Emotions and feelings anticipate the process aimed at meeting the needs, have an ideational character and are, as it were, at the beginning of it. Emotions and feelings express the meaning of the situation for a person from the point of view of the current need at the moment, the significance of the upcoming action or activity for its satisfaction. Emotions can be triggered by both real and imagined situations. They, like feelings, are perceived by a person as his own inner experiences, communicate, i.e. transferred to other people, empathize.

The senses- the highest product of the cultural and emotional development of man. They are associated with certain cultural 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 his positive feelings. They are always connected with the work of consciousness, they can be arbitrarily regulated. The manifestation of a strong and stable positive feeling for something or someone is called passion. Sustained feelings of moderate or weak strength, acting for a long time, are called moods.

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.

The development of affect is subject to the following law: the stronger the initial motivational stimulus of behavior and the more effort had to be expended to implement it; the smaller the total resulting from all this, the stronger the resulting affect. In contrast to emotions and feelings, affects proceed violently, quickly, and are accompanied by pronounced organic changes and motor reactions.

Affects, as a rule, interfere with the normal organization of behavior, its rationality. They are able to leave strong and lasting traces in long-term memory. In contrast to affects, the work of emotions and feelings is associated primarily with short-term and short-term memory. Emotional tension accumulated as a result of the occurrence of affective situations can accumulate and, if it is not given timely release, lead to a strong and violent emotional discharge, which, relieving the tension that has arisen, is often accompanied by a feeling of fatigue, depression, and depression.

Passion- another type of complex, qualitatively unique and found only in humans emotional states. Passion is an alloy of emotions, motives and feelings, concentrated around a certain type of activity or object (person).

S.L. Rubinshtein believed that in the emotional manifestations of personality can be identified three spheres: her organic life, her interests of the material order and her spiritual, moral needs. He designated them respectively as organic (affective-emotional) sensitivity, objective feelings and generalized ideological feelings. TO affective-emotional sensitivity include, in his opinion, elementary pleasures and displeasures, mainly associated with the satisfaction of organic needs. Object feelings associated with the possession of certain objects and occupations by certain types of activity. These feelings, according to their objects, are divided into material, intellectual and aesthetic. They manifest themselves in admiration for some objects, people and activities and in disgust for others. worldview feelings associated with morality and human relations to the world, social events, moral categories and values.

40. Theories of emotions

For the first time, emotional-expressive movements became the subject of study by Charles Darwin. 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 their own, but also other types.

The result of deep theoretical thought is the biological theory of emotions by P.K. Anokhin. This theory considers 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 thereby contributes to the preservation of both an individual and the entire species.

Repeated satisfaction of needs, colored with positive emotion, contributes to the learning of the corresponding activity, and repeated failures in obtaining the programmed result cause inhibition of inefficient activity and the search for new, more successful ways to achieve the goal.

Although the presence of a need is a necessary condition for the emergence of an emotion, it is hardly the only and sufficient one. This position was the starting point for the construction of P. V. Simonov information theory of emotions. According to Simonov, 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 given moment.

P.V. Simonov formulated the rule according to which the relationship between emotion (E), need (P), information that is predictively necessary for organizing actions to satisfy this need (N), and available information that can be used for purposeful behavior (S ), is expressed by the formula: E \u003d P (N - C).

It follows from this formula that: 1) emotion does not arise if the need is absent or satisfied, and if there is a need, if the system is fully informed; 2) with a shortage of available information, a negative emotion appears, reaching a maximum in the case of a complete absence of information; 3) a positive emotion occurs when the available information exceeds the information that is predictively necessary to satisfy a given need. Thus, the formula of emotions reflects the quantitative dependence of the intensity of an emotional reaction on the strength of the need and the size of the deficit or increase in pragmatic information necessary to achieve the goal (satisfy the need).

James and, independently of him, Lange proposed a "peripheral" theory of emotions, according to which emotion is a secondary phenomenon - awareness of signals coming to the brain about changes in muscles, blood vessels and internal organs at the time of the implementation of a behavioral act caused by an emotiogenic stimulus. In other words, an emotiogenic signal, acting on the brain, turns on a certain behavior, and the reverse somatosensory and viscerosensory afferentation causes an emotion. James expressed the essence of his theory with a paradox: "We feel sad because we cry, we are afraid because we tremble."

In this aspect, Arnold's concept is of interest, according to which an intuitive assessment of a situation (for example, a threat) causes a tendency to act, which, being expressed in various bodily changes, is experienced as an emotion and can lead to action. If James said: "We are afraid because we tremble," then Arnold's concept implies that we are afraid because we think we are being threatened.

The James-Lange theory played a positive role, pointing to the connection of three events: an external stimulus, a behavioral act, and an emotional experience. Its weak point is the reduction of emotions only to the awareness of sensations that arise as a result of peripheral reactions. Sensation appears here as a primary phenomenon in relation to emotion, which is considered as its direct derivative.

Dalibor Bindra, after a critical analysis of existing theories of emotions, came to the conclusion that it is impossible to draw a strict distinction between emotion and motivation, between the corresponding typical-species actions. There is no evidence that emotions are caused only by stimuli of the external environment, and motivation - only by changes in the internal environment of the body. There is no reason to recognize the existence of any single specific cerebral process as an "emotional process" postulated by a number of theories. Emotion does not exist either as a single process or as a separate class of behavioral reactions, and it cannot be completely separated from other phenomena - sensations, perceptions, motivations, etc. It is also not an "intermediate variable" linking the individual components of a behavioral response into a holistic act.

Bindra puts forward his own concept of the "central motivational state" - a complex of nervous processes resulting from the action of a combination of incentive stimuli of a certain type. The development of a "central motivational state" creates selective attention to a certain class of incentive stimuli and a reactive inclination in favor of a certain class of type-typical actions.

41. Physiological mechanisms of stress

Suppose there was a quarrel or some kind of unpleasant event: a person is excited, cannot find a place for himself, he is gnawed by resentment, annoyance due to the fact that he could not behave correctly, he could not find words. He would be glad to be distracted from these thoughts, but again and again scenes of what happened appear before his eyes; and again a wave of resentment and indignation rolls over. Three can be distinguished physiological mechanism similar stress.

Firstly, an intense persistent focus of excitation, the so-called dominant, has formed in the cerebral cortex, which subjugates all the activity of the body, all the actions and thoughts of a person. This means that in order to calm down, it is necessary to eliminate, defuse this dominant, or create a new, competing one. All distractions (reading an exciting novel, watching a movie, switching to doing what you love) are actually aimed at creating a competing dominant. The more exciting the business that an upset person is trying to switch to, the easier it is for him to create a competing dominant. That's why it doesn't hurt for each of us to have some kind of hobby that opens the way to positive emotions.

Secondly, after the appearance of the dominant, a special chain reaction develops - one of the deep structures of the brain, the hypothalamus, is excited, which causes the nearby special gland - the pituitary gland - to secrete a large portion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) into the blood. Under the influence of ACTH, the adrenal glands secrete adrenaline and other physiologically active substances (stress hormones), which cause a multilateral effect: the heart begins to contract more often and stronger (remember how it "pops" out of the chest with fear, excitement, anger), blood pressure rises (here why a headache can occur, a heart attack occurs, breathing becomes more frequent). In this phase, conditions are prepared for intense muscle load. But a modern person, unlike a primitive one, usually does not use the accumulated muscle energy after stress, so biologically active substances circulate in his blood for a long time, which do not allow either the nervous system or internal organs to calm down. It is necessary to neutralize stress hormones, and the best assistant here is physical education, intense muscle load.

Thirdly, due to the fact that the stressful situation remains relevant (after all, the conflict was not resolved successfully and some need remained unsatisfied, otherwise there would be no negative emotions), impulses are sent to the cerebral cortex again and again, supporting activity of the dominant, and stress hormones continue to be released into the blood. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the significance of this unfulfilled desire for oneself, or else to find a way for its realization. The best way to get rid of protracted stress is to completely resolve the conflict, resolve differences, and make peace. If this is not possible, you should logically reassess the significance of the conflict, for example, look for excuses for your offender. There are various ways to reduce the significance of the conflict. The first of them can be characterized by the word "but". Its essence is to be able to benefit, something positive even from failure. The second method of reassurance is to prove to yourself that "it could have been worse." Comparison of one's own hardships with someone else's even greater grief ("and the other is much worse"), allows you to steadfastly and calmly respond to failure. An interesting way to calm down like "green grapes": like a fox from a fable, tell yourself that "what you just unsuccessfully strived for is not as good as it seemed, and therefore I do not need it."

One of better ways soothing is communication with a loved one, when you can, firstly, as they say, "pour out your soul", i.e. defuse the focus of excitation; secondly, switch to an interesting topic; thirdly, to jointly find a way to a successful resolution of the conflict, or at least to reduce its significance.

42. Stress and frustration

One of the most common types of affect today is stress. It is a state of excessively strong and prolonged psychological stress that occurs in a person when his nervous system receives an emotional overload. Stress disorganizes human activity, disrupts the normal course of his behavior. Stress, especially if it is frequent and prolonged, has a negative impact not only on the psychological state, but also on the physical health of a person. They are the main "risk factors" in the manifestation and exacerbation of diseases such as cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases.

Translated from English, stress is pressure, pressure, tension, and distress is grief, unhappiness, malaise, need. According to G. Selye, stress is non-specific(i.e. the same for different impacts) body's response to any demand placed on it which helps him to adapt to the difficulty that has arisen, to cope with it. Any surprise that disrupts the usual course of life can be a cause of stress. At the same time, as G. Selye notes, it does not matter whether the situation we are faced with is pleasant or unpleasant. Has the meaning only the intensity of the need for restructuring or in adaptation. As an example, the scientist cites an exciting situation: a mother who was informed of the death of her only son in battle experiences a terrible mental shock. If many years later it turns out that the message was false and the son suddenly enters the room unharmed, she will feel the greatest joy.

The specific results of the two events—grief and joy—are quite different, even opposite, but their stressful effect—the nonspecific requirement of adaptation to a new situation—can be the same.

Stress-related activities can be pleasant or unpleasant. Any event, fact or message can cause stress, i.e. become stressor. At the same time, whether this or that situation will cause stress or not depends not only on the situation itself, but also on the person, her experience, expectations, self-confidence, etc. Especially great importance has, of course, the assessment of the threat, the expectation of dangerous consequences, which the situation contains.

This means that the very occurrence and experience of stress depends not so much on objective as on subjective factors, on the characteristics of the person himself: his assessment of the situation, comparing his strengths and abilities with what is required of him, etc.

Close to the concept and state of stress is the concept "frustration". The term itself, translated from Latin, means - deceit, vain expectation. Frustration is experienced as tension, anxiety, despair, anger, which cover a person when, on the way to achieving a goal, he encounters unexpected obstacles that interfere with the satisfaction of a need.

Frustration thus creates, along with the original motivation, a new, protective motivation aimed at overcoming the obstacle that has arisen. The old and new motivation are realized in emotional reactions.

The most common reaction to frustration is the emergence of generalized aggressiveness, most often directed at obstacles. The proper response to an obstacle is to overcome or bypass it if possible; aggressiveness, quickly turning into anger, manifests itself in violent and inadequate reactions: insult, physical attacks on a person (pinch, beat, push) or an object (break it).

Retreat and departure. In some cases, the subject responds to the frustration by leaving (for example, leaving the room), accompanied by aggressiveness that is not overtly shown.

Frustration entails emotional disturbances only when there is an obstacle to strong motivation. If a child who has begun to drink is taken away from the nipple, he reacts with anger, but at the end of sucking, there are no emotional manifestations.

43. Will as a characteristic of consciousness

All human actions can be divided into two categories: involuntary and arbitrary.

involuntary actions are committed as a result of the emergence of unconscious or insufficiently clearly perceived motives (inclinations, attitudes, etc.). They are impulsive and lack a clear plan. An example of involuntary actions is the actions of people in a state of passion (amazement, fear, delight, anger).

Arbitrary actions involve awareness of the goal, a preliminary presentation of those operations that can ensure its achievement, their sequence. All actions performed, performed consciously and having a purpose, are named so because they are derived from the will of man.

Will is a person's conscious regulation of his behavior and activities, associated with overcoming internal and external obstacles. Will as a characteristic of consciousness and activity appeared along with the emergence of society, labor activity. Will is an important component of the human psyche, inextricably linked with cognitive motives and emotional processes.

Volitional actions are simple and complex. Simple volitional actions include those in which a person goes to the intended goal without hesitation, it is clear to him what / in what way he will achieve, i.e. the urge to act passes into the action itself almost automatically.

For complex Volitional action is characterized by the following stages:

struggle of motives and choice;
implementation decision;
overcoming external obstacles, objective difficulties of the business itself, all kinds of obstacles until the decision made and the goal set are achieved, realized.

Will is needed when choosing a goal, making a decision, when carrying out an action, overcoming obstacles. Overcoming obstacles requires volitional effort- a special state of neuropsychic tension that mobilizes the physical, intellectual and moral forces of a person. Will manifests itself as a person's confidence in his abilities, as the determination to perform the act that the person himself considers appropriate and necessary in a particular situation. "Free will means the ability to make informed decisions."

The need for a strong will increases in the presence of: 1) difficult situations of the "difficult world" and 2) a complex, contradictory inner world in the person himself.

Performing various activities, while overcoming external and internal obstacles, a person develops volitional qualities in himself: purposefulness, determination, independence, initiative, perseverance, endurance, discipline, courage. But the will and volitional qualities may not be formed in a person if the conditions of life and upbringing in childhood were unfavorable: 1) the child is spoiled, all his desires were unquestioningly realized (easy peace - no will is required), 2) the child is suppressed by the harsh will and instructions of adults, unable to make decisions on his own. Parents seeking to nurture the will of a child must observe the following rules: 1) not to do for the child what he needs to learn, but only to provide conditions for the success of his activity; 2) to intensify the independent activity of the child, to arouse in him a sense of joy from what has been achieved, to increase the child's faith in his ability to overcome difficulties; 3) it is useful even for a small child to explain what is the expediency of those requirements, orders, decisions that adults present to the child, and gradually teach the child to make reasonable decisions on his own. Do not decide anything for the child school age, but only lead him to rational decisions and seek from him the inexorable implementation of the decisions made.

Volitional actions, like all mental activity, are associated with the functioning of the brain. An important role in the implementation of volitional actions is played by the frontal lobes of the brain, in which, as studies have shown, the result achieved each time is compared with a previously compiled goal program. Damage to the frontal lobes leads to abulia- Painful weakness.

44. Structure of volitional action

Volitional activity always consists of certain volitional actions, which contain all the signs and qualities of the will. Volitional actions are simple and complex.

To simple include 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. For a simple volitional action, it is characteristic that the choice of a goal, the decision to perform an action in a certain way, is carried out without a struggle of motives.

In complex volitional action distinguish the following stages:

awareness of the goal and the desire to achieve it;
awareness of a number of opportunities to achieve the goal;
the appearance of motives that affirm or deny these possibilities;
struggle of motives and choice;
accepting one of the possibilities as a solution;
implementation of the decision.

The stage of "awareness of the goal and the desire to achieve it" is not always accompanied by a struggle of motives in a complex action. If the goal is set from the outside and its achievement is obligatory for the performer, then it remains only to cognize it, having formed in oneself a certain image of the future result of the action. The struggle of motives arises at this stage when a person has the opportunity to choose goals, at least the order of their achievement. The struggle of motives that arises when goals are realized is not structural component willful action, but rather certain stage volitional activity, of which action is a part. Each of the motives, before becoming a goal, goes through the stage of desire (in the case when the goal is chosen independently). A wish- these are the ideally existing (in the human head) content needs. To wish for something is, first of all, to know the content of the stimulus.

Since a person at any moment has various significant desires, the simultaneous satisfaction of which is objectively excluded, then there is a clash of opposing, non-coinciding motives, between which a choice has to be made. This situation is called struggle of motives. At the stage of understanding the goal and striving to achieve it, the struggle of motives is resolved by choosing the goal of the action, after which the tension caused by the struggle of motives at this stage weakens.

The stage "realization of a number of possibilities for achieving the goal" is actually a mental action, which is part of a volitional action, the result of which is the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships between the ways of performing a volitional action under existing conditions and possible results.

At the next stage, possible ways and means of achieving the goal are correlated with the person's system of values, including beliefs, feelings, norms of behavior, leading needs. Here, each of the possible paths is discussed in the aspect of correspondence. specific way the person's value system.

The stage of the struggle between motives and choice turns out to be central in a complex volitional action. Here, as in the stage of choosing a goal, it is possible conflict situation associated with the fact that a person accepts the possibility of an easy way to achieve the goal (this understanding is one of the results of the second stage), but at the same time, due to his moral feelings or principles, he cannot accept it. Other ways are less economical (and this is also understood by a person), but following them is more in line with a person's value system.

The result of resolving this situation is the next stage - the adoption of one of the possibilities as a solution. It is characterized by a voltage drop, since it is allowed internal conflict. Here the means, methods, sequence of their use are specified, i.e. detailed planning is being carried out. After that, the implementation of the decision planned at the implementation stage begins.

The stage of implementation of the decision, however, does not relieve a person from the need to make strong-willed efforts, and sometimes no less significant than when choosing the goal of an action or methods for its implementation, since the practical implementation of the intended goal is again associated with overcoming obstacles.

The results of any volitional action have two consequences for a person: the first is the achievement of a specific goal; the second is connected with the fact that a person evaluates his actions and draws appropriate lessons for the future regarding the ways to achieve the goal, the efforts expended.

45. Motivation

motive- this is an impulse to commit a behavioral act, generated by the system of human needs and, to varying degrees, realized or not realized by him at all. In the process of performing behavioral acts, motives, being dynamic formations, can be transformed (changed), which is possible at all phases of an act, and a behavioral act often ends not according to the original, but according to the transformed motivation.

The term "motivation" in modern psychology refers to at least two mental phenomena: 1) a set of motives that cause the activity of the individual and determine its activity, i.e. a system of factors that determine behavior; 2) the process of education, the formation of motives, the characteristics of the process that stimulates and maintains behavioral activity at a certain level.

In modern psychological literature, there are several concepts of the relationship between the motivation of activity (communication, behavior). One of them - causal attribution theory.

Under causal attribution is understood 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 their future behavior. Experimental studies of causal attribution have shown the following: a) a person explains his behavior differently than he explains the behavior of other people; b) the processes of causal attribution are not subject to logical norms; c) a person is inclined to explain the unsuccessful results of his activity by external factors, and the successful ones - by internal factors.

The theory of motivation to achieve success and avoid failure in various activities. The relationship between motivation and achievement of success in activities is not linear, which is especially pronounced in the connection between motivation for achieving success and the quality of work. This quality is best at an average level of motivation and, as a rule, worsens at too low or too high.

Motivational phenomena, repeated many times, eventually become traits of a person's personality. These features include, first of all, the motive for achieving success and the motive for avoiding failure, as well as a certain locus of control, self-esteem, and the level of claims.

Motivation for success- the desire of a person to achieve success in various activities and communication. Motivation to avoid failure- a relatively stable desire of a person to avoid failures in life situations related to the assessment by other people of the results of his activities and communication. Locus of control- a characteristic of the localization of reasons, on the basis of which a person explains his behavior and responsibility, as well as the behavior and responsibility of other people observed by him. Internal(internal) locus of control - the search for the causes of behavior and responsibility in the person himself, in himself; external(external) locus of control - the localization of such causes and responsibilities outside the person, in his environment, fate. Self-esteem- assessment by the individual of himself, his capabilities, qualities, advantages and disadvantages, his place among other people. Claim level(in our case) - the desired level of self-esteem of the individual (the level of "I"), the maximum success in one or another type of activity (communication), which a person expects to achieve.

Personality is also characterized by such motivational formations as the need for communication (affiliation), the motive of power, the motive of helping people (altruism) and aggressiveness. These are motives of great social significance, since they determine the attitude of the individual towards people. Affiliation- the desire of a person to be in the company of other people, to establish emotionally positive good relationships with them. The antipode of the affiliation motive is rejection motive, which manifests itself in the fear of being rejected, not accepted personally by familiar people. Power motive- the desire of a person to have power over other people, to dominate, manage and dispose of them. Altruism- the desire of a person to selflessly help people, the opposite - selfishness as the desire to satisfy selfish personal needs and interests, regardless of the needs and interests of other people and social groups. Aggressiveness- the desire of a person to cause physical, moral or property harm to other people, to cause them trouble. Along with the tendency of aggressiveness, a person also has a tendency to inhibit it, a motive for inhibiting aggressive actions, associated with the assessment of one's own such actions as undesirable and unpleasant, causing regret and remorse.

The concept of consciousness is one of the central ones in psychology, philosophy and in all anthropological sciences. As a result, the problem of consciousness and its interaction with the unconscious gives rise to a variety of approaches to it, a great variety of views on its personal aspects. This is reflected in the numerous psychological, psychiatric, cybernetic, physiological and other literature published both in our country and in many foreign countries. Through the history of development psychological science research is being carried out in the field of this problem by such foreign psychologists as Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Fechner, Wundt, James and others. Particular attention was paid to the problems depth psychology 3. Freud, K. Jung, A. Adler. Domestic psychologists Vygotsky, Leontiev, Zinchenko, Uznadze and many others also put forward scientific theories about the problems of consciousness and the unconscious.

K. Jung in the book "Consciousness and the Unconscious" considers the relationship between the "ego" and the unconscious, the concept of the collective unconscious, instinct.

In the book by A.G. Spirkina "Consciousness and Self-Consciousness" analyzes the problem of the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious in the process of creativity, the structure of the unconscious, it turns out why it is not at the level of the subconscious that new ideas are often born, original associations of images arise.

S.L. Rubinstein in his book Being and Consciousness writes that “consciousness, that is, awareness of objective reality, begins where an image appears in its own epistemological sense, that is, education, through which the objective content of the object appears before the subject.”

To the question "What is consciousness?" it is hardly possible to give an answer with the precision of a mathematical formula. Too complicated and peculiar object. However, it is a mistake to assume that there are no regularities in the field of the phenomena of consciousness and that it is unknowable. Like the concept of the psyche, the concept of consciousness has gone through a difficult path of development, received different interpretations from different authors, in different philosophical systems and schools of psychology, up to the present time it is used in very different meanings, between which sometimes there is almost nothing in common. Here is one of the definitions of consciousness given by the Soviet psychologist G. Spirkin: “Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to man and associated with speech, which consists in a generalized, evaluative and purposeful reflection and constructive and creative transformation of reality, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and anticipation of their results, in the reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior.

The psyche is inherent in both humans and animals, and is characterized by different levels.

The highest level of the psyche inherent in man is consciousness. In animals, the psyche is based on reflexes.

Consciousness- the highest level of reflection of reality, manifested by the ability of a person to be aware of the surroundings, about the present and past time, make decisions and, in accordance with the situation, manage their behavior.

human consciousness is a body of knowledge about the surrounding world, it is the ability to think.

Outside the social environment, outside society, there is no personality, no consciousness. Without a clear consciousness, as a certain state of the brain, mental activity is impossible.

Consciousness has an active character and is inextricably linked with activity, speech.

An important role among the various properties of consciousness is played by its orienting quality. A mentally healthy person is able to navigate in place, time, environment, his own personality. In pathology, this property of consciousness is violated.

At present, the list of empirical signs of consciousness is more or less established and coincides with different authors. If we try to single out the common features that are most often indicated as features of consciousness, then they can be represented as follows:

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

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

3. Is able to see himself in a certain system of relations with

other people.

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

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

6. Knows the features of his individuality and personality.

7. Able to plan his actions, to anticipate their results

and evaluate their consequences, i.e. able to implement

intentional voluntary actions.

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

A prerequisite for the formation and manifestation of all the above specific qualities of consciousness is language. In the process of speech activity, knowledge is accumulated. “Language is a special objective system in which socio-historical experience or public consciousness is imprinted,” as A.V. Petrovsky - Being mastered by a specific person, language in a certain sense becomes a real consciousness. The most important functions and properties should be derived from the structure.

Let's translate this principle to the question under consideration. Let us turn to the structure of consciousness. One of the first ideas about the structure of consciousness was introduced by 3. Freud. Its hierarchical structure is as follows; subconscious-conscious-superconscious, and she, apparently, has already exhausted her explanatory material. But more acceptable paths to the analysis of consciousness are needed, and the subconscious and the unconscious are not at all necessary as a means in the study of consciousness. More productive is the old idea of L. Feuerbach about the existence of consciousness for consciousness and consciousness for being, developed by L.S. Vygodsky. It can be assumed that this is a single consciousness, in which there are two layers: existential and reflex. What is included in these layers? A.N. Leontiev identified three main constituents of consciousness: the sensual fabric of the image, meaning and meaning. And already N.A. Bernstein introduced the concept of living movement and its biodynamic fabric. Thus, when adding this component, we get a two-layer structure of consciousness. The existential layer is formed by the biodynamic fabric of living movement and action and the sensual fabric of the image. The reflex layer forms meaning and meaning. All components of the proposed structure are already objects of scientific research (see Fig.).

Meaning- the content of social consciousness, assimilated by a person - these can be operational meanings, subject, verbal meanings, everyday and scientific meanings-concepts.

Meaning- subjective understanding and attitude to the situation, information. Misunderstanding is associated with difficulties in understanding meanings. The processes of comprehension of meanings and meaning of meanings act as means of dialogue and mutual understanding.

On the existential layer of consciousness, very complex tasks are solved, since for effective behavior in a certain situation, the actualization of the desired image and motor program is necessary, that is, the mode of action must fit into the image of the world. On the reflective layer, there is a correlation between the world of ideas, concepts, worldly and scientific knowledge with meaning, and the world of human values, experiences, knowledge with meaning.

Biodynamic fabric and meaning is available to the outside observer and some form of registration and analysis. Sensual fabric and meaning are only partially accessible to self-observation. An outside observer can draw conclusions about them based on indirect data, such as behavior, products of activity, deeds, reports of self-observation.

Functions of consciousness:

Cognition;

Experience;

Attitude towards the world, people:

Regulation of behavior, activity.

The main characteristics of consciousness:

1. self-awareness, or individual consciousness, is the consciousness of a particular person, with the help of which he explores himself, realizes his own the world, makes a self-assessment of his actions and himself as a whole, is aware of his own position in the system of social and industrial relations.

2. public consciousness - it is a reflection of social life. It includes political, philosophical, legal views, moral norms, scientific knowledge, interpersonal relationships, attitudes towards people around. Social consciousness influences the individual, its development.

3. lowest level consciousness- unconscious. This is a set of mental processes, acts, states when a person does not give himself an account. Orientation in time, place is lost, speech regulation of behavior is disturbed. This psychological phenomenon can be in a dream. Unconscious processes in the body: the work of the kidneys, liver, heart, digestive processes.

4. Automated Skills - movements that were conscious in the past, but due to repetition have become automated (and therefore become unconscious).

Examples: the process of working operations, walking, running, cycling.

There are the following parameters of consciousness: center, periphery, field (volume), threshold and flow continuity.

Center of consciousness- a set of elements of objective reality that are most clearly perceived.

Periphery constitutes what is realized less distinctly, vaguely. Together forms the volume, or field, of consciousness. Threshold of consciousness he serves him functional level, below which the phenomena objective reality are not recognized. Continuity of the stream of consciousness means that the present in consciousness results from the conscious experience of the past.

In clinical practice, the criterion of clarity of consciousness is used (correct orientation in place, time and own difference).

According to Jaspers, the signs of an obscure (clouded) consciousness are:

1) detachment from the real world (indistinctness or inability to perceive the environment);

2) disorientation in place, time, situation, self;

3) violation of thought processes (incoherence or impossibility of judgments);

4) partial or complete amnesia.

The preservation of consciousness and its development are determined by the integrative activity of the brain with the leading role of the cerebral cortex and the second signaling system.

The physiological basis of the center of consciousness of I.P. Pavlov considered the optimal focus of excitation in the cerebral cortex, constantly changing in shape, size and localization. At present, the role of subcortical formations and the reticular formation in maintaining the tone of consciousness has been proven.

In the process of ontogenesis, stages of the formation of consciousness are distinguished, reflecting the level of maturation of brain structures, psychophysiological functions of a person, his social and social relations.

In children under one year old, there is an “awake” consciousness, reflecting the level of activity and the formation of perception and reactions to the environment. At the age of 2-3 years, "objective" consciousness is noted, providing for direct knowledge, mastery, manipulation with objects and objects. However, at this time the child does not yet distinguish himself from the environment, he begins to use the pronoun "I", to recognize himself in the mirror and in the photograph. A little later, gender identification is noted, i.e. awareness and attribution of oneself to a certain gender.

In pre - and pubertal age, autopsychic orientation, awareness and knowledge of one's mental "I" occur, and collective consciousness begins to form.

At the age of 16-22, a public, higher social consciousness is formed.

Disturbance of consciousness

Consciousness enables a person to correctly reflect the existing, navigate in it, foresee the future and, on this basis, through practical activity, influence the world.

The causes of impaired consciousness can be: brain injury, intoxication, oxygen starvation, impaired cerebral circulation, infectious, somatic diseases.

In clinical practice, two groups of pronounced pathological conditions are distinguished: cloudiness and loss of consciousness.

Clouding of consciousness - complete or partial forgetting of the period of clouded consciousness - disorientation in place, time, surrounding persons (possibly in one's own personality), partial or other degree of incoherence of thinking, difficulty or impossibility of perception. (Delirium, oneiroid, amentia, twilight clouding of consciousness, ambulatory automatism)	Partial or complete shutdown of consciousness, the difficulty (impossibility) to perceive external stimuli, is not accompanied by psychopathological phenomena such as hallucinations, delirium, automatism. ( Obnubilation, somnolence, stunning, stupor, coma, fainting)
Delirium (delirious syndrome) is manifested by visual, often dream-like hallucinations and numerous, in some cases, fantastic illusions, pronounced motor excitation with preserved consciousness (catches someone, defends himself, tries to escape). The facial expression is constantly changing. Talkativeness is noted. The mood is changeable. The memory of delirium is incomplete. Occupational delirium (motor excitation in the form of some habitual repetitive actions, in some cases professional.)	Obnubilation - mild impairment of consciousness. Consciousness for a few seconds or minutes seems to be clouded, covered with a light cloud. Orientation in the environment and one's own personality is not disturbed, amnesia does not occur after a painful disorder
Oneiroid(oneiroid syndrome) - a dreamy, fantastically delusional stupefaction. With this disorder, an influx of involuntarily arising bright and fantastic ideas (dreams) appears, which either completely take over the patient, and he does not notice the environment, or are bizarrely combined with the individual pictures of the environment he perceives. Catatonic disorders are constant, sometimes with lethargy, sometimes (less often) with excitement. Patients are usually silent, inactive, almost motionless, with a frozen expression, and only a look in which there is alternately delight, detachment, fear, or introspection of amazement indicates that in this state of immobility they were actors various fantastic events: they made dangerous, adventurous journeys to other continents or planets, witnessed an atomic war, the death of the world, etc. In some cases, these stories are fragmentary, in others they represent a consistent narrative. Often, after delirium and oneiroid, patients remain firmly convinced that everything that happened to them during the period of disorder of consciousness was in reality (residual delirium). More often, residual delirium disappears after days, weeks, months; less common, such as in epilepsy, may persist for long periods	Somnolence (drowsiness). This is a longer (hours, less often days) state, reminiscent of a nap. Orientation is not violated. It often occurs against the background of intoxication (alcohol poisoning, sleeping pills, etc.). Stunning of consciousness - increasing the threshold of sensitivity for all external stimuli. Perception and processing of information is difficult, patients are indifferent to the environment, usually immobile. Stunning can be of varying severity and is observed with lobar pneumonia, peritonitis, neuroinfections, anemia, typhoid, etc.
Amentia (amental syndrome) is manifested by confusion, incoherence of thinking, speech. Patients are disoriented in place, time, environment and self. Memories of the period of amentia are not preserved, and therefore patients may not attract attention to themselves (the so-called simple form). If in this state the patient makes an involuntary wandering (sometimes long, changing transport several times), they speak of ambulatory automatism.	Sopor (soporous insensitivity). This is a deep degree of stun. The patient is immobilized, he fails to evoke responses with the exception of pain, the reaction of the pupils to light, conjunctival and corneal reflexes. It is observed in severe infections, intoxications, severe cardiovascular decompensation.
Twilight clouding of consciousness A combination of deep disorientation in the environment with the preservation of interrelated actions and deeds, accompanied by hallucinations. The patient gives the impression of a person deeply immersed in his thoughts and fenced off from the environment. Sometimes hallucinatory-delusional states may develop, the patient runs in fear or attacks imaginary enemies, and with a strong affect of fear, anger, longing, there is a desire for aggressive actions.	Coma (complete loss of consciousness). Deep degree of disorder of consciousness. Patients do not react to the environment, even to painful stimuli, the pupils are dilated, there is no reaction to light, pathological reflexes often appear.
State of ambulatory automatism This includes somnambulism, sleepwalking And transdisturbances of consciousness, in which the patient can perform targeted actions, travel by transport in the daytime, leave for another area. The state of ambulatory automatism breaks off just as suddenly as it suddenly and unexpectedly appeared. If, when leaving it, the patient finds himself in an unfamiliar environment, then he cannot give himself an account of what happened.	Fainting is a sudden loss of consciousness (spasm of cerebral vessels).

STRUCTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

1. Consciousness as the highest level mental development

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

The function of consciousness consists in the formation of the goals of activity, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and the prediction of their results, which ensures a reasonable regulation of human behavior and activity. A certain relation to the environment, to other people is included in the human consciousness: “My attitude to my environment is my consciousness” (Marx).

The following properties of consciousness are distinguished: relationship building, learning And experience. This directly implies the inclusion of thinking and emotions in the processes of consciousness. Indeed, the main function of thinking is to identify objective relationships between the phenomena of the external world, and the main function of emotion is the formation of a person's subjective attitude to objects, phenomena, people. These forms and types of relations are synthesized in the structures of consciousness, and they determine both the organization of behavior and the deep processes of self-esteem and self-consciousness. Really existing in a single stream of consciousness, an image and a thought can, being colored by emotions, become an experience. “Awareness of experience is always the establishment of its objective relation to the causes that cause it, to the objects to which it is directed, to the actions by which it can be realized” (S. L. Rubinshtein).

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

In ontogenesis, the child's consciousness develops in a complex, mediated way. The psyche of a child, an infant, generally speaking, cannot be regarded as an isolated, independent psyche. From the very beginning, there is a stable connection between the psyche of the child and the psyche of the mother. In the prenatal and postnatal period, this connection can be called a psychic (sensory) connection. But the child is at first only a passive element of this connection, a perceiving substance, and the mother, being the bearer of the psyche, shaped by consciousness, already in the state of such a connection, apparently transmits to the psyche of the child not just psychophysical, but human information shaped by consciousness. The second point is the actual activity of the mother. The child's primary organic needs for warmth, psychological comfort, etc., are organized and satisfied from the outside by the mother's loving attitude towards her child. The mother with a loving look "catch" and evaluates everything valuable, from her point of view, in the initially disordered reactivity of the child's organism and smoothly, gradually, with a loving action cuts off everything that deviates from social norm. It is also important here that the norms of development already exist in some particular form in human society, including the norms of motherhood. Thus, by love for the child, the mother, as it were, pulls the child out of organic reactivity, unconsciousness and brings it out, draws it into human culture, into human consciousness. Freud noted that "the mother teaches to love the child", she really puts her love (attitude) into the child's psyche, since the mother (her image) is the real center of all acts, all blessings and troubles for the child's feelings and perception.

Then comes the next act of development, which can be called primary act of consciousness- is the identification of the child with the mother, that is, the child tries to put himself in the place of his mother, to imitate her, to liken himself to her. This identification of the child with the mother seems to be the primary human relationship. In this sense, the primary is not an objective relation, but a relation of consciousness, a primary identification with a cultural symbol. Mother here gives, first of all, a cultural model social behavior, and we, concrete people, only follow these patterns. What is important is the fulfillment, the active activity of the child in reproducing patterns of human behavior, speech, thinking, consciousness, the active activity of the child in reflecting the world around him and regulating his behavior.

Rice. 4.2. Development of consciousness

But the fulfillment of the meaning of a cultural symbol, a model, entails a layer of consciousness rationalized by it, which can develop relatively independently through the mechanism of reflection, analysis (thinking activity). In a sense, awareness is the opposite of reflection. If awareness is the comprehension of the integrity of the situation, gives a picture of the whole, then reflection, on the contrary, divides this whole, for example, looks for the cause of difficulties, analyzes the situation in the light of the purpose of the activity. Thus, awareness is a condition for reflection, but, in turn, reflection is a condition for a higher, deeper and true awareness, understanding of the situation as a whole. Our consciousness in its development experiences many identifications, but not all of them are fulfilled, realized. These unrealized potentialities of our consciousness constitute what we usually designate by the term "soul", which is for the most part an unconscious part of our consciousness. Although, to be precise, it must be said that a symbol as an infinite content of consciousness is in principle unrealizable to the end, and this is a condition for the periodic return of consciousness to itself. From here follows the third fundamental act of consciousness (“development of consciousness”) - awareness of one's unfulfilled desire. Thus the circle of development closes and everything returns to its beginning.

There are two layers of consciousness (V.P. Zinchenko).

I. Being consciousness (consciousness for being), including:

1) biodynamic properties of movements, experience of actions;

2) sensual images.

P. Reflective consciousness(consciousness for consciousness), including: 1) meaning -

Meaning- the content of social consciousness, assimilated by man; it can be operational meanings, objective, verbal meanings, worldly and scientific meanings - concepts.

Very complex tasks are solved on the existential layer of consciousness, because for effective behavior in a given situation, it is necessary to actualize the image that is needed at the moment and the necessary motor program, i.e., the image of action must fit into the image of the world. The world of ideas, concepts, worldly and scientific knowledge correlates with the meaning (of reflective consciousness). The world of human values, experiences, emotions correlates with the meaning (of reflective consciousness).

The epicenter of consciousness is the consciousness of one's own "I". Consciousness:

1) is born in being,

2) reflects being,

3) creates being.

Functions of consciousness:

1) reflective,

2) generative (creative-creative),

3) regulatory and evaluation,

4) reflexive - the main function, characterizes the essence of consciousness. The object of reflection can be:

1) reflection of the world,

2) thinking about it,

3) ways a person regulates his behavior,

4) the processes of reflection themselves

5) your personal consciousness.

Rice. 4.3. Structure of consciousness

The existential layer contains the origins and beginnings of the reflective layer, since the meanings and meanings are born in the existential layer. The meaning expressed in the word contains: 1) image, 2) operational and objective meaning, 3) meaningful and objective action. The word, the language, does not exist only as a language; forms of thinking are objectified in it, and they take possession of us through the use of language.

The function of the organization of consciousness (its task and meaning) is to release the mental energy of consciousness, to expand the horizons of consciousness and, most importantly, to create optimal and necessary conditions for a new cycle of development.

Since consciousness, considered from the outside, is objectively a certain sign structure and the structure of objectified thinking, it can be studied and described quite objectively. But the external structure somehow points to the internal one, implicates it, so a transition to understanding the internal contents of consciousness is possible.

The crown of the development of consciousness is the formation of self-consciousness, which allows a person not only to reflect external world, but, having singled out oneself in this world, to know one's inner world, experience it and relate to oneself in a certain way. The measure for a person in his attitude towards himself is, first of all, other people. Each new social contact changes a person's idea of himself, makes him more multifaceted. Conscious behavior is not so much a manifestation of what a person really is, but the result of a person's ideas about himself, formed on the basis of communication with others around him.

Awareness of oneself as a stable object presupposes internal integrity, constancy of the personality, which, regardless of changing situations, is able to remain itself. A person's feeling of his uniqueness is supported by the continuity of his experiences in time: he remembers the past, experiences the present, has hopes for the future. The continuity of such experiences gives a person the opportunity to integrate himself into a single whole. The main function of self-consciousness is to make available to a person the motives and results of his actions and make it possible to understand what he really is, to evaluate himself; if the assessment turns out to be unsatisfactory, then a person can either engage in self-improvement, self-development, or, by turning on protective mechanisms, displace this unpleasant information, avoiding the traumatic influence of an internal conflict.

Only through awareness of one's individuality does a special function arise - a protective one: the desire to protect one's individuality from the threat of its leveling.

For self-consciousness, it is most significant to become oneself (to form oneself as a person), to remain oneself (regardless of interfering influences) and to be able to support oneself in difficult conditions. In order to self-actualize, to become yourself, the best of what you are capable of becoming, you must: dare to completely immerse yourself in something without a trace, forgetting your postures, overcoming the desire for protection and your shyness, and experience this something without self-criticism; decide to make choices, make decisions and take responsibility, listen to yourself, give the opportunity to manifest your individuality; continuously develop their mental capacity, to realize their full potential at any given moment.

2. Self-awareness

In social psychology, there are three areas in which becoming, personality formation:

- activity,

- communication,

Self-awareness.

At the entrance of socialization, the connections of a person’s communication with people, groups, society as a whole are expanding and deepening, the image of his “I” is becoming in a person. The image of "I", or self-consciousness (self-image), does not arise in a person immediately, but develops gradually throughout his life under the influence of numerous social influences and includes 4 components (according to V. S. Merlin):

Consciousness of distinguishing oneself from the rest of the world;

Consciousness of "I" as the active principle of the subject of activity;

Consciousness of one's mental properties, emotional self-assessments;

Socio-moral self-esteem, self-respect, which is formed on the basis of the accumulated experience of communication and activity.

In modern science, there are different points of view on the genesis of self-consciousness. It is traditional to understand self-consciousness as the initial genetically primary form of human consciousness, based on self-perception, self-perception of a person, when a child forms a holistic idea of his physical body, of distinguishing himself from the rest of the world in early childhood. Proceeding from the concept of "primacy", it is indicated that the ability for self-experience turns out to be a special universal side of self-consciousness, which generates it.

There is also an opposite point of view (L. L. Rubinshtein), according to which self-consciousness is the highest kind of consciousness that arose as a result of the development of consciousness. It is not consciousness that is born from self-knowledge, from the “I”, but self-consciousness arises in the course of the development of the consciousness of the individual.

The third direction of psychological science proceeds from the fact that awareness of the external world and self-consciousness arose and developed simultaneously, uniformly and interdependently. As the “objective” sensations are combined, a person’s idea of the external world is formed, and as a result of the synthesis of self-perceptions, of himself. In the ontogenesis of self-consciousness, two main stages can be distinguished: at the first stage, a scheme of one's own body is formed and a “sense of I” is formed. Then, with the improvement of intellectual capabilities and the formation of conceptual thinking, self-consciousness reaches a reflexive level, thanks to which a person can comprehend his difference in a conceptual form. Therefore, the reflective level of individual self-consciousness always remains internally connected with affective self-experience (V.P. Zinchenko). Studies have shown that the sense of self is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, and the reflexive mechanisms of self-awareness are controlled by the left hemisphere.

Self-awareness criteria:

1) isolation of oneself from the environment, consciousness of oneself as a subject autonomous from the environment (physical environment, social environment);

2) awareness of one's activity - "I control myself";

3) awareness of oneself “through another” (“What I see in others, this may be my quality”);

4) moral assessment of oneself, the presence of reflection - awareness of one's inner experience.

A person's feeling of his uniqueness is supported by the continuity of his experiences in time: he remembers the past, experiences the present, has hopes for the future. The continuity of such experiences gives a person the opportunity to integrate himself into a single whole.

When analyzing the dynamic structure of self-consciousness, two concepts are used: “current I” and “personal I”. "Current Self" refers to specific forms of self-awareness in the current present, that is, the direct processes of the activity of self-consciousness. "Personal Self" is a stable structural scheme of self-relationship, the core of the synthesis of "current I". In each act of self-consciousness, elements of self-knowledge and self-experience are simultaneously expressed.

Since all processes of consciousness are self-reflecting, a person can not only be aware, evaluate and regulate his own mental activity, but also be aware of himself as conscious, self-evaluating.

In the structure of self-consciousness, one can distinguish:

1) awareness of near and far goals, motives his "I" ("I as an acting subject");

2) awareness their real and desired qualities("Real Self" and "Ideal Self");

3) cognitive, cognitive ideas about oneself (“I am as an observed object”);

4) emotional, sensual self-image.

Thus, self-awareness includes:

Self-knowledge (intellectual aspect of self-knowledge);

Self-attitude (emotional attitude towards oneself).

The most famous model of the structure of self-consciousness in modern science was proposed by C. Jung and is based on the opposition of conscious and unconscious elements of the human psyche. Jung identifies two levels of self-image. The first is the subject of the entire human psyche - the "self", which personifies both conscious and unconscious processes, and therefore is the total personality. The second level is a form of extension of the "self" on the surface of consciousness, a conscious subject, a conscious "I".

Humanistic psychologists consider the self as the focus of the whole personality on the realization of the maximum potential of the individual.

The measure for a person in his relation to himself is, first of all, other people. Each new social contact changes a person's idea of himself, makes him more multifaceted. Conscious behavior is not so much a manifestation of what a person really is, but the result of a person's ideas about himself, formed on the basis of communication with others around him.

In the structure of self-consciousness, 4 levels can be distinguished:

At the directly-sensory level - self-perception, self-experience of psychosomatic processes in the body and one's own desires, experiences, states of the psyche, as a result, the simplest self-identification of a person is achieved;

In a holistic-figurative, personal level - awareness of oneself as an active principle, manifests itself as self-experience, self-actualization, negative and positive identification and maintenance of the auto-identity of one's "I";

Reflective, intellectual-analytical level - awareness by the individual of the content of his own thought processes of the individual, as a result, self-observation, self-understanding, introspection, self-reflection are possible;

The purposeful-active level is a kind of synthesis of the three considered levels, as a result, regulatory-behavioral and motivational functions are performed through numerous forms of self-control, self-organization, self-regulation, self-education, self-improvement, self-esteem, self-criticism, self-knowledge, self-expression.

The information content of the structures of self-consciousness is associated with two mechanisms of its activity: likening, identifying oneself with someone or something ("self-identification") and intellectual analysis of one's "I" (reflection and self-reflection).

In general, three layers of human consciousness can be distinguished:

attitude towards oneself;

Attitude towards other people;

Similar information.

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

Function of consciousness consists in the formation of the goals of activity, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and the prediction of their results, which ensures a reasonable regulation of human behavior and activity. A certain relation to the environment, to other people is included in the human consciousness: “My attitude to my environment is my consciousness” (Marx).

The following properties of consciousness are distinguished: building relationships, cognition and experience. This directly implies the inclusion of thinking and emotions in the processes of consciousness. Indeed, the main function of thinking is to identify objective relationships between the phenomena of the external world, and the main function of emotion is the formation of a person's subjective attitude to objects, phenomena, people. These forms and types of relations are synthesized in the structures of consciousness, and they determine both the organization of behavior and the deep processes of self-esteem and self-consciousness. Really existing in a single stream of consciousness, an image and a thought can, being colored by emotions, become an experience. “Awareness of experience is always the establishment of its objective relation to the causes that cause it, to the objects to which it is directed, to the actions by which it can be realized” (S. L. Rubinshtein).

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

In ontogenesis, the child's consciousness develops in a complex, mediated way. The psyche of a child, an infant, generally speaking, cannot be regarded as an isolated, independent psyche. From the very beginning, there is a stable connection between the psyche of the child and the psyche of the mother. In the prenatal and postnatal period, this connection can be called a psychic (sensory) connection. But the child is at first only a passive element of this connection, a perceiving substance, and the mother, being the bearer of the psyche, formed by consciousness, already in the state of such a connection, apparently transmits to the child's psyche not only psychophysical, but also human information formed by consciousness. The second point is the actual activity of the mother. The child's primary organic needs for warmth, psychological comfort, etc., are organized and satisfied from the outside by the mother's loving attitude towards her child. The mother with a loving look "catch" and evaluates everything valuable, from her point of view, in the initially disordered reactivity of the child's body and smoothly, gradually, with a loving action cuts off everything that deviates from the social norm. It is also important here that the norms of development already always exist in some particular form in human society, including the norms of motherhood. Thus, by love for the child, the mother, as it were, pulls the child out of organic reactivity, unconsciousness and brings it out, draws it into human culture, into human consciousness. Freud noted that "the mother teaches to love the child", she really puts her love (attitude) into the child's psyche, since the mother (her image) is the real center of all acts, all blessings and troubles for the child's feelings and perception.

Then comes the next act of development, which can be called the primary act of consciousness - this is the identification of the child with the mother, i.e. the child tries to put himself in the place of the mother, imitate her, liken herself to her. This identification of the child with the mother seems to be the primary human relationship. In this sense, the primary is not an objective relation, but a relation of consciousness, a primary identification with a cultural symbol. The mother here gives, first of all, a cultural model of social behavior, and we, concrete people, only follow these models. What is important is the fulfillment, the active activity of the child in reproducing patterns of human behavior, speech, thinking, consciousness, the active activity of the child in reflecting the world around him and regulating his behavior.

There are two layers of consciousness (V.P. Zinchenko).

I. Existential consciousness (consciousness for being), including:

1) biodynamic properties of movements, experience of actions;

2) sensual images.

II. Reflective consciousness (consciousness for consciousness), including:

I) meaning;

Meaning - the content of social consciousness, assimilated by man; it can be operational meanings, objective, verbal meanings, worldly and scientific meanings - concepts.

Sense - subjective understanding and attitude to the situation, information. Misunderstanding is associated with difficulties in understanding meanings. The processes of mutual transformation of meanings and meanings (comprehension of meanings and meaning of meanings) act as a means of dialogue and mutual understanding. On the existential layer of consciousness, very complex tasks are solved, since for effective behavior in a given situation, it is necessary to actualize the image that is needed at the moment and the necessary motor program, i.e. the mode of action must fit into the image of the world. The world of ideas, concepts, worldly and scientific knowledge correlates with the meaning (of reflective consciousness). The world of human values, experiences, emotions correlates with the meaning (of reflective consciousness).

The world of industrial, subject-practical activity correlates with the biodynamic fabric of movement and action (the existential layer of consciousness). The world of representations, imaginations, cultural symbols and signs correlates with the sensual fabric (existential consciousness). Consciousness is born and is present in all these worlds. The epicenter of consciousness is the consciousness of one's own "I". Consciousness: 1) is born in being, 2) reflects being, 3) creates being. Functions of consciousness: 1) reflective, 2) generative (creative-creative), 3) regulatory-evaluative, 4) reflective - the main function that characterizes the essence of consciousness. The object of reflection can be: 1) a reflection of the world, 2) thinking about it, 3) ways a person regulates his behavior, 4) the processes of reflection themselves, and 5) his personal consciousness.

The existential layer contains the origins and beginnings of the reflective layer, since the meanings and meanings are born in the existential layer. The meaning expressed in the word contains: 1) image, 2) operational and objective meaning, 3) meaningful and objective action. The word, the language, does not exist only as a language; forms of thinking are objectified in it, and they take possession of us through the use of language.

The crown of the development of consciousness is the formation of self-consciousness, which allows a person not only to reflect the external world, but, having distinguished himself in this world, to know his inner world, experience it and relate to himself in a certain way. The measure for a person in his attitude towards himself is, first of all, other people. Each new social contact changes a person's idea of himself, makes him more multifaceted. Conscious behavior is not so much a manifestation of what a person really is, but the result of a person's ideas about himself, formed on the basis of communication with others around him.

Only through awareness of one's individuality does a special function arise - a protective one: the desire to protect one's individuality from the threat of its leveling.

For self-consciousness, it is most significant to become oneself (to form oneself as a person), to remain oneself (regardless of interfering influences) and to be able to support oneself in difficult conditions. In order to self-actualize, to become yourself, the best of what you are capable of becoming, you must: dare to completely immerse yourself in something without a trace, forgetting your postures, overcoming the desire for protection and your shyness, and experience this something without self-criticism; decide to make choices, make decisions and take responsibility, listen to yourself, give the opportunity to manifest your individuality; continuously develop their mental abilities, to realize their full potential at every given moment.