Scientific activity is carried out in the system of three main coordinates: cognitive, social And personal. Therefore, we can say that scientific activity as an integral system has three aspects.
The cognitive apparatus is expressed in the internal cognitive resources of science. Since science is the production of new knowledge, they have changed and improved. These means form intellectual structures, which can be called a system of thinking. The change from one mode of thinking to another occurs naturally. Therefore, they talk about the organic growth of knowledge, that its history is subject to a certain logic. No other discipline, except the history of psychology, studies this logic, this regularity.
So, in the XVII century. there was an idea of the body as a kind of machine that works like a pump that pumps fluid. Previously, it was believed that the actions of the body are controlled by the soul - an invisible incorporeal force. The appeal to the incorporeal forces ruling the body was in scientific sense hopeless.
The progress of scientific knowledge consisted in the search and discovery of real causes, accessible to verification by experience and logical analysis. scientific knowledge- this is the knowledge of the causes of phenomena, the factors (determinants) that give rise to them, which applies to all sciences, including psychology. If we return to the mentioned scientific revolution, when the body was freed from the influence of the soul and began to be explained in the image and likeness of a working machine, then this made a revolution in thinking. The result was the discoveries on which modern science is based. Yes, the French thinker R. Descartes discovered the reflex mechanism.
Causal analysis of phenomena is called deterministic(from lat. "determino" - I determine). The determinism of Descartes and his followers was mechanistic. The reaction of the pupil to light, the withdrawal of the hand from a hot object, and other reactions of the body, which were previously made dependent on the soul, were now explained by the influence of an external impulse on nervous system and her response. The same scheme explained the simplest feelings (depending on the state of the body), the simplest associations(connections between various impressions) and other functions of the body, classified as mental.
This way of thinking prevailed until the middle of the 19th century. During this period, new revolutionary shifts took place in the development of scientific thought. Doctrine Darwin fundamentally changed the explanation of the life of the organism. It proved the dependence of all functions (including mental) on heredity, variability and adaptation (adaptation) to the external environment. It was biological determinism that replaced the mechanistic one.
Major changes in the structure of thinking about mental phenomena occurred under the influence of sociology (K. Marx, E. Durkheim). The study of the dependence of these phenomena on social life and public consciousness significantly enriched psychology. In the middle of the XX century. new ideas and discoveries led to a style of thinking that can be conditionally called information-cybernetic (since it reflected the influence of a new scientific direction cybernetics with its concepts of information, self-regulation of system behavior, feedback, programming).
The task that the history of psychology is called upon to solve is to reveal the relationship of psychology with other sciences. Physicist Max Planck wrote that science is an internally integrated whole; its division into separate branches is due not so much to the nature of things as to the limited capacity of human knowledge.
Studies by many scientists have shown that the development of psychology as a science is influenced by several factors. The leading one is the logic of the development of psychological knowledge - associated with a change in its subject, the influence of sciences related to psychology, with the development of the principles and categorical structure of psychology. Already out of this short description it becomes clear that this factor is sufficiently objective and amenable to scientific study. The other two factors are more subjective, it is impossible to study them as rigorously and get unambiguous answers. This - social situation of science development And personality traits of a particular scientist.
The influence of the social situation lies in the fact that social, historical conditions, cultural and political environment affect both the content of scientific concepts and their dissemination, help the development of scientific schools and trends or hinder it. Naturally, this influence is carried out indirectly, through social perception, i.e. through the peculiarities of perception and understanding of these socio-cultural conditions by scientists, the scientific community as a whole.
The social situation can influence the development of science in several ways. First, it creates the conditions for the emergence of a particular concept. For example, the implementation of reforms in the 60s of the XIX century. in Russia, the rise of national consciousness contributed to the emergence of the first psychological concepts of mentality, or, as they were then called, the concepts of "psychology of national character". The fact that these concepts arose not only in Russia, but also in Germany (the theories of Lazarus, Steinthal, Wundt) is also evidence of the influence of the social situation, for this was a period of growth of national self-consciousness not only in Russia, but also in Germany, which ended your association.
The appearance in the 18th century is largely connected with the social situation. the first developed theory of abilities, analyzing the role of biological and social factors in their origin and development. The concept of abilities, formulated by Helvetius, owes its appearance to the dominant ideas of the Enlightenment: all people are born equal, and the difference in their social status and real achievements in life is associated with different training, different levels of education. It is not surprising that against this background, a psychological theory appears, which, practically identifying abilities with the level of performance of a particular activity, proves that there are no innate abilities, and their formation occurs in the learning process.
As mentioned above, the social situation also affects the acceptance (or rejection) of a particular theory. The consonance of scientific concepts with the expectations of society contributes not only to their dissemination, but also to attracting the most capable, purposeful young researchers to work on these theories. Thus, it is in line with a certain approach that the most valuable discoveries occur, finds that give it even greater significance. So, in the middle of the XIX century. in Russia, the expectation of early changes in the ideals and value system of both society as a whole and a particular person led to the fact that of the two approaches to the construction of psychology, the one proposed by I.M. Sechenov was chosen, and not by K.D. Kavelin. This happened because it was Sechenov's theory, first described by him in his work "Reflexes of the Brain", that connected psychology with the then popular and promising physiology, while Kavelin based it on a philosophy that did not have objective methods of research. No less important was Sechenov's conviction that the formation of personality occurs during a person's lifetime, that his ideals, aspirations, values are laid down in the process of education, and therefore, with proper education, the new generation will become completely different, better. Kavelin, on the contrary, linking the morality and ideals of a person with the way, culture, language of the society in which he lives, did not predict rapid changes. That is why his position was not approved and was forgotten. But the same views, based on the fact that in the first place it is necessary to consider not behavior, but the spiritual properties, aspirations and moral values of a person, expressed almost 20 years later by V.S. Solovyov in a different social situation, found understanding and support from society .
In the same way, after the First World War, which showed how anti-rational and cruel a person can be, Freud's views, which until that time had been considered mainly in line with clinical psychology, became more widespread.
No less important is another factor - the personality of the scientist, the creator of a particular psychological theory, his value orientations, cognitive style, volitional qualities, features of communication with colleagues, belonging to a certain scientific school etc. Belonging to a scientific school can help a scientist, especially at the beginning of his career. creative way, because it provides necessary information, and room for discussion, opposition, and some protection from criticism. However, the opinion of colleagues, the approach to solving problems developed by common efforts can also become a brake on the path of scientific progress, fettering creative activity either out of fear of conflicting with colleagues, or because of a dogmatic predilection for an opinion expressed once.
The same obstacle to the creation new theory there may also be a lack of perseverance or self-confidence, especially if the new concept is met with opposition or misunderstanding. Thus, the authoritarianism and even some intolerance of 3. Freud were the cause of his conflict with his followers, the departure from him and his theory, even close students. But at the same time, it was precisely these qualities that largely enabled him to create this theory and continue its development in a situation of sharp criticism and rejection by many psychologists.
An analysis of the personality of a scientist, his biography makes it possible to understand how the choice of scientific tasks takes place, how he fights for his beliefs with the ignorance or alienation of others, whether he can resist public opinion and just everyday troubles. Thus, this factor reveals the inner vicissitudes of the creative activity, and sometimes the spiritual drama of the scientist. In this regard, it may be interesting to analyze a life “rich in vivid facts of active scientific struggle, such as the life of G. Bruno, and life in a struggle that does not take the form of expressed activity, but all the more intense thought, like the life of R. Descartes or O. Kont, or even measured life, even poor in terms of activity, but interesting in terms of premeditation, the completeness of its plan and the tension in its implementation, like the life of G. Spencer ”(G. G. Shpet).
However, despite the importance of the social situation and the personality of the scientist, the logic of development is still the leading factor. psychological science. This factor is closely connected with the development of the principles of psychology, changes in its subject matter and methods of research into the psyche.
In addition to changing the subject, as mentioned above, the basic principles of psychology and its connection with other sciences also changed. Starting from the 7th-6th centuries. BC. it was focused primarily on philosophy, and the level of development of philosophical knowledge mainly influenced psychology and the problems that confronted it. So, in the III century. BC. there was a change in philosophical interests, due to the fact that the center of knowledge was not the general laws of nature or society, but a person, although considered in the general picture of the world, but fundamentally different from other living beings. This led to the emergence of new problems in psychology, the emergence of questions about the nature of the features of the human psyche, the content of his soul - to the fact that for a long time the main question was not so much about the psyche in general, but about the human psyche.
At that time, much connected psychology with mathematics, biology, medicine and pedagogy. Already Pythagoras showed the importance of mathematics for psychology. Plato argued that without mathematics, especially geometry, it is impossible to engage in either philosophy or psychology. In the future, the influence of mathematics on psychology somewhat weakened, however, in modern times, almost all scientists again emphasized its importance, and Leibniz even sought to reveal the primary elements of the psyche, the “monads”, into which the world soul is decomposed and then combined into a whole, by analogy with the one invented by him differential and integral calculus.
Since that time, mathematics has played an invariably large role in psychology, becoming one of the most important factors in its transformation into an objective science (the possibility of mathematical processing of the material obtained), and sometimes a significant parameter of mental development as such (for example, the development of logical thinking).
Hippocrates, a famous Greek physician, and Aristotle, who was a biologist and physician by training, were among the first to link psychology with natural science. This connection was strengthened during the Hellenistic period in the works of Galen, and in the medieval period in the studies of many Arab thinkers, who were not only philosophers and psychologists, but also doctors - Ibn Sina, Ibn al-Khaytham and others.
In the 19th century, after the discoveries of Charles Darwin, his development evolutionary theory, which had a huge impact on psychology, the connection between these two sciences became even stronger. The works of G. Fechner, G. Helmholtz, F. Donders and other scientists not only provided the most important material for psychological research, but also served as the basis for the formation of many areas of psychology - psychometry, differential psychology, psychophysiology, clinical psychology. Thus, since the middle of the last century, psychology for more than a hundred years has been primarily focused on the biological, natural sciences, and not on philosophy.
In the same way, the connection with pedagogy, which arose even in antiquity, remained rather weak until the Enlightenment. Since that time, the problems of pedagogy, the requirements of pedagogical practice have become one of the leading factors influencing psychological problems.
The change in the subject of psychology and its connections with other sciences led to essentially fruitless questions about whether it is a natural science or a humanitarian one and what should be its methodology - biology or philosophy. An analysis of the development of psychology shows that its uniqueness and value as a science lies precisely in its interdisciplinary character, in the fact that it is built and how natural Science(objective and experimental), and as a humanitarian one, since its problems include issues of moral development, the formation of a worldview, value orientations person. We can say that psychology borrows the experimental basis, the approach to the material and its processing from natural science, while the approach to interpreting the material obtained, the methodological principles - from philosophy.
There are three most important methodological principles of psychology: determinism, consistency And development.
Principle of determinism implies that all mental phenomena are connected by causal relationships, i.e. everything that happens in our soul has some cause that can be identified and studied and which explains why this and not another effect has arisen. These connections can be explained by different reasons, and in the history of psychology there are several approaches to explaining them.
In antiquity, there was already an understanding that all processes in the psyche are interconnected. Anaxagoras and Heraclitus for the first time spoke about determinism, that there is a universal law, the Logos, which determines what should happen to man, to nature as a whole. Heraclitus wrote: “Even the sun cannot break the Logos...” Thus, everything that happens in nature and in the human soul is due to a certain reason, although we cannot always find this reason. Democritus, who developed the extended concept of determinism, wrote that "people invented the idea of chance to cover up ignorance of the matter and inability to manage."
Plato and Aristotle changed the original concept of determinism, denying its universal character, in particular its influence on the rational part of the soul, on the process of human moral development. In doing so, they introduced the concept target determinism, considering that the soul strives for a certain goal, which Plato connected with ideas or general concept reflecting the essence of the thing. Aristotle, while agreeing that the cause of everything that happens in the psyche is the goal towards which the soul aspires, denied that this goal is given from outside. He believed that the purpose is immanent in a thing and is associated with its form, which reflects its purpose.
Later, in the 17th century, Descartes introduced the concept mechanistic determinism, proving that all processes in the psyche can be explained on the basis of the laws of mechanics. This is how the idea arose of a mechanical explanation of human behavior, which obeys the law of reflex. Mechanistic determinism lasted almost 200 years. Its influence can be seen, for example, in the theoretical positions of the founder of associationist psychology, D. Gartley, who believed that associations both in small (psyche) and large (behavior) circles are formed and developed according to the laws of Newtonian mechanics. Echoes of mechanistic determinism can be found even in the psychology of the early 20th century, for example, in the theory of energyism, which was shared by many famous psychologists, as well as in some postulates of behaviorism, for example, in the idea that positive reinforcement strengthens the reaction, and negative reinforcement weakens it.
But he had an even greater influence on the development of psychology. biological determinism, which arose with the advent of the theory of evolution. Within the framework of this theory, the development of the psyche is determined by adaptation to the environment, that is, everything that happens in the psyche is aimed at ensuring that a living being adapts as best as possible to the conditions in which it lives. This law extended to the human psyche, and almost all psychological directions took this kind of determinism as an axiom.
The last kind of determinism that can be called psychological, based on the idea that the development of the psyche is explained and directed by a specific goal. However, unlike the understanding of the goal in antiquity, when it was somehow external to the psyche (idea or form), in this case the goal is inherent in the very content of the soul, the psyche of a particular living being and determines its desire for self-expression and self-realization - in communication, cognition , creative activity. Psychological determinism also proceeds from the fact that the environment is not just a condition, a zone of human habitation, but a culture that carries the most important knowledge, experiences, which largely change the process of becoming a person. Thus, culture becomes one of the most significant factors influencing the development of the psyche, helping to realize oneself as a bearer of unique spiritual values, qualities and as a member of society. Psychological determinism also suggests that the processes taking place in the soul can be directed not only to adapt to the environment, but also to resist it, if the environment interferes with the disclosure of the potential abilities of a given person.
The principle of consistency describes and explains the main types of communication between different aspects of the psyche, areas of the mental. He assumes that individual mental phenomena are internally interconnected, forming integrity and acquiring new properties due to this. However, as in the study of determinism, the study of these relationships and their properties has a long history in psychology.
The first researchers of those connections that exist between mental phenomena represented the psyche as a sensory mosaic, which consists of sensations, ideas and feelings. According to certain laws, primarily the laws of associations, these elements are interconnected. This type of connection is called elementarism.
functional approach, the name of which is due to the fact that the psyche was represented as a set of separate functions aimed at the implementation of various mental acts and processes (vision, learning, etc.), appeared, like biological determinism, in connection with the theory of evolution. Biological studies have shown that there is a relationship between morphology and function, including mental function. Thus, it was proved that mental processes (memory, perception, etc.) and acts of behavior can be represented as functional blocks. Depending on the type of determination, these blocks could act both according to the laws of mechanics (as separate parts of a complex machine) and according to the laws of biological adaptation, linking the organism and the environment into a single whole. However, this principle did not explain how, in the event of a defect in some function, its compensation occurs, i.e. how shortcomings in the work of some departments can be compensated by the normal work of others, for example, poor hearing - the development of tactile or vibrational sensations.
This is what explains the principle of consistency, which represents the psyche as complex system, the individual blocks (functions) of which are interconnected. Thus, the systemic nature of the psyche presupposes its activity, since only in this case are self-regulation and compensation possible, which are inherent in the mental even on lower levels development of the psyche. Consistency in the understanding of the psyche does not contradict the awareness of its integrity, the idea of "holism" (integrity), since each mental system (first of all, of course, the human psyche) is unique and integral.
Finally, principle of development argues that the psyche develops, therefore the most adequate way to study it is to study the patterns of this genesis, its types and stages. No wonder one of the most common psychological methods is genetic.
According to this principle, which determines what types of development are inherent in the mental, there are two types of development of the psyche - phylogenetic And ontogenetic, that is, the development of the psyche in the process of the formation of the human race and in the process of a child's life. Studies have shown that these two types of development have certain similarities. The American psychologist S. Hall explains this by the fact that the stages of development of the psyche are fixed in nerve cells and are inherited by the child, and therefore no changes in the rate of development and in the sequence of stages are possible. The theory that established a rigid connection between phylogenesis and ontogenesis was called the theory of recapitulation, that is, a brief repetition in ontogenesis of the main stages of phylogenetic development.
Subsequent work proved that such a rigid connection does not exist, development can both accelerate and slow down depending on the social situation, and some stages may disappear altogether. Thus, the process of mental development is non-linear and depends on the social environment, environment and upbringing of the child. At the same time, it is impossible to ignore the well-known analogy that actually exists in the comparative analysis of processes cognitive development, the formation of self-esteem, self-awareness, etc. in young children and primitive peoples.
Therefore, many psychologists (E. Claparede, P. P. Blonsky, etc.), who studied the genesis of the psyche of children, came to the conclusion that this logical correspondence is explained by the same logic of the formation of the self-unfolding of the psyche during the development of the human race and during the development of an individual person.
Also highlighted are various parties mental development: personality development, intelligence development, social development, which have their own stages and patterns, which have become the subject of research by many famous psychologists - V. Stern, J. Piaget, L. S. Vygotsky, P. P. Blonsky and others.
In addition to principles, the development of psychology as a science is influenced by the formation of its categorical order, i.e. those permanent problems (invariant), which constitute the subject and content of psychology.
Currently, there are several categories that have been the basis of psychological science throughout almost its entire history. This motive, image, activity, personality, communication, experience. In different periods of the development of psychology and in different schools, these categories had different meanings, but they were always present in one way or another in psychological concepts.
One of the first in psychology was the category image, which became the leading one in the study of cognition. Already in antiquity, scientists studied how the image of the world is formed in a person, later the image of oneself, the self-consciousness of a person, its content and structure became the center of attention of psychologists. If in the first psychological theories self image considered mainly as one of the areas of consciousness, then in modern science"I-image" has become one of the leading concepts of personality psychology.
Many scientists considered the image of an object as a signal, on the basis of which a reflex, human behavior, is born and begins to function. The image as a sensory basis of thought was considered an unshakable postulate by scientists who considered the psyche as a sensory mosaic consisting of sensations and ideas. The ugly nature of thinking became at the beginning of the 20th century. one of the most important discoveries of the Würzburg school. The image as the basis of perception, its holistic and systemic nature has become the leading category in Gestalt psychology.
Considering the development of the image, psychologists came to the conclusion about the relationship between sensory and mental images. The study of this connection, as well as the combination of mental image and word, was and remains one of the critical issues for psychology. Suffice it to say that such great scientists as A. A. Potebnya, L. S. Vygotsky, G. G. Shpet, J. Piaget, D. Bruner and others devoted their most significant works to the study of this problem.
Sensual and mental images are the content of consciousness, so the totality of images can be considered as a certain analogue of this philosophical category. However, for psychology great importance there is also the question of the degree of awareness of images, since the unconscious and supraconscious play no less important role than consciousness.
In psychology, the category motive. Already in the first psychological theories, scientists considered the source of activity, tried to find the reason that prompts a person to move, that is, they sought to understand the motives that underlie our behavior. There were attempts to find a material explanation for these motives, and the motives were associated with moving atoms, and with "animal spirits"; there were also theories that talked about their intangibility. So, Plato spoke about passionate and lustful souls, which serve as carriers of the motive, and Leibniz believed that activity, the impulse to action is a property of the soul-monad. However, regardless of the interpretation of the nature of the motive, as a rule, it was associated with emotions and was one of the main problems for all psychologists. Therefore, it is natural that in modern psychology the concept of motive (needs, drives, aspirations) has become the leading category of almost all psychological schools.
Another category is closely related to the motive - experience, emotional response of a person to the phenomena of the external world, his actions and thoughts. Even Epicurus argued that it is experiences that direct and regulate behavior, and as such they are considered and modern psychologists. Despite the fact that the problem of the nature and dynamics of emotional processes has not yet received an unambiguous solution in psychology, the very fact of the importance of emotions and experiences not only in the regulation of activity, but also in the appropriation of knowledge, identification with the outside world, including important people, is beyond doubt.
Speaking of category activity, it must be remembered that in psychology both external (behavior) and internal, primarily mental, activity are considered. At the first stages of the development of psychology, scientists did not question the idea that behavior is the same psychological concept as thinking. However, over time, psychologists, as mentioned above, began to identify the psyche only with consciousness, and all external manifestations of activity thus went beyond the framework of the mental proper. Therefore, the share of psychological research accounted for the study of only internal, mental activity. This hindered the development of objective methods for studying the psyche and stopped the development of experimental psychology. In the middle of the last century, the English psychologist G. Spencer first said that the subject of psychology is the association between the internal and external, i.e. between consciousness and behavior. Thus, the unique position of psychology was not only fixed, but also the place of external activity as a psychological category was legitimized.
In modern psychology, there are several schools for which the category of activity is the leading one; this is both behaviorism and domestic psychology, in which the theory of activity occupies one of the central places. At the same time, the study of internal and external activities, their interrelationships and mutual transitions is one of the central problems of developmental psychology and many other psychological trends and branches.
The idea that man is a social being, that is, cannot exist outside communication with others, was expressed by Aristotle. Over time, psychology received more and more data about the crucial role of other people in the development of the psyche, the formation of ideas about oneself and the world. In developmental psychology, the huge role of the adult and the adult-child relationship is one of the axioms, indicating that the full-fledged mental development of the child cannot be carried out in isolation. With the advent social psychology began a serious study of adult communication with each other, with special attention paid to the communication of people belonging to different nations, cultures, as well as mass communications. Research has identified different sides communication (communicative, perceptual, interactive), its structure and dynamics. Analysis of the direction of development of psychology shows that the importance of this category, as well as the proportion of studies devoted to various problems of communication, will continue to grow.
Unlike other categories personality appeared in psychology relatively recently, although questions about the essence of man, the development of his idea of himself and self-assessment were raised in antiquity. However, at that time the concepts personality And human considered as identical, there were no modern concepts personality, individual And individuality. For a long time, as already noted, the leading subject of psychology was cognition, and the categories of the image and internal, mental activity remained leading. It was not for nothing that the famous scientist W. Wundt spoke about the dictates of "intellectualism" in psychology, opposing his voluntaristic psychology to the former one, which mainly studies "a man who knows", and not who feels. Only with the advent of the school depth psychology it is the personality that has become one of the leading categories and remains so in modern psychological science, although at present different schools (humanistic, depth, domestic psychology) consider the structure, genesis and driving forces of personality development in different ways.
Big influence The development of psychology was influenced by the transition to solving the key problems of psychology, which study the nature of the mental, the relationship between the mental and the physical, the corporeal and the spiritual in the psyche. At the same time, either general problems (the ratio of mental and physical), or more specific ones related to the study of the connection of the organism, body with the psyche, soul, came to the fore. Accordingly, in the first case, this problem sounded like a psychophysical one, and in the second one, like a psychophysiological one.
The very formulation of the problem and approaches to its solution were associated with questions about the role and place of man in the world. In ancient psychology, scientists considered a person as one of the links in the chain of universal patterns. From this point of view, a person obeyed the same laws as everything living and inanimate in nature, and mental laws were a reflection of physical ones, i.e. variations on the basic laws of nature. The study of these laws led scientists to the idea that there is a certain fundamental principle that constitutes the essence of both mental and physical. This answer to the psychophysical problem is called monism (common, single fundamental principle, substance). Depending on whether this substance is ideal or material, monism can be idealistic or materialistic. Some scientists rejected the existence of a single substance, proving, for example, R. Descartes, that there are two principles, two different substances: for the soul and for the body. This approach has been called dualism. Since the processes that occur in the soul and body were considered as parallel and independent of each other, the concept of psychophysical parallelism , emphasizing the independence and purely external correspondence of these phenomena.
Over time, the interest of scientists to the human psyche has intensified. At the same time, already in the studies of Plato, qualitative differences between the human psyche and the psyche of other living beings were postulated. Thus, the laws that govern the human psyche are unique and cannot be considered by analogy with the laws of nature. Such an anthropological approach, in which everything is considered only from the point of view of a person, was characteristic of many not only psychological, but also philosophical schools. However, both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages there was still not enough data to translate a psychophysical problem into a psychophysiological one, more precisely, for a scientific solution of this problem.
Since the middle of the last century, with the development of biology and medicine, psychology has received quite important objective material, which made it possible to approach the solution of a psychophysiological problem in a new way. The works of I.M. Sechenov, I.P. Pavlov, A.A. Ukhtomsky, W. Kennon and other scientists made it possible not only to better understand the biological nature of the psyche, but also to more accurately distinguish between areas biological basis psyche and the psyche itself. Nevertheless, there are still many questions that have to be solved by the joint efforts of psychologists, philosophers, physiologists, physicians and other scientists in order to give more complete answers to psychophysical and psychophysiological problems.
test questions
1. Name the main stages in the development of psychology.
2. How did the subject of psychology change?
3. What is the reason for the change in the subject and methods of psychology?
4. What is the reason for the methodological crisis in psychology?
5. How has the relationship between psychology and other sciences changed?
6. What factors influence the development of psychology?
7. What is the manifestation of subjectivity and uncertainty in the nature of the development of psychology?
8. How are the social situation of the development of science and the personality of a scientist related?
9. How did the principles of consistency and determinism develop?
10. What types of development exist in psychology?
12. Describe the psychophysical and psychophysiological problems.
Sample Topics abstracts
1. Methodological problems of the history of psychology.
2. The main differences between the historical psychology of science, psychohistory and the history of science.
3. The main stages in the development of psychology as a science.
4. Coordinates that determine the development of psychology.
History and theory of psychology. - Rostov n / a, 1996.-T. 1.2.
Petrovsky A. V., Yaroshevsky M. G. Basics theoretical psychology. -M., 1997.
Yaroshevsky M. G. Historical psychology of science. - SPb., 1994.
Hegel: The meaning and content of a concept are revealed only through the history of its origin and development, because all natural, historical and spiritual world he presented in the form of a process, i.e. in continuous movement, change, transformation and development, and made an attempt to reveal the inner connection of this movement and development. The development of the concept is determined by logical contradictions. The concept is the logic of scientific problems. The concepts of science are formed, destroyed, reconstructed and built on top of each other over long millennia. The end product of these processes - the subject of science - turns out to be a multi-layered and complex formation. Davydov V.V. used the concept of monism in his writings, and applied it to define the concepts and subjects of psychology, including. If Hegel considered the concept only through its history, that is, through a holistic process, then Davydov believed that the system of psychological knowledge should grow from one single cellular concept, he considered activity to be such. Mythology, philosophy, theology at all times brought to the fore the problem of a single, "undeveloped beginning of a developed whole", the view of which also determined the general vision of the problem of the plural. Hegel introduced a strong concept - the "new universal", into which, under certain conditions, some special can turn, thereby breaking the closed cycle of development. This means that development is not just a process of generating a concrete variety of phenomena from an abstract universal "cell". Theoretical analysis is called upon to recreate the most essential and intimate: the genesis of the most universal in concrete material, because it is not given, but only given in it. And this creates an additional difficulty: after all, as E.V. Ilyenkov wrote in his book "Dialectical Logic" (M., 1974) - one of board books VV Davydov - any universal at first appears as a kind of "anomaly", "deviation from the rule", before it personally reveals its natural character. He said it about activity, however given point vision applies to all other concepts. As Davydov believed: a meaningful generalization, a theoretical concept is, first of all, imagination. According to Ilyenkov, it is not so easy to form a concept, first you need to highlight the particular features that those objects for which we want to form a concept have, and then highlight such a common feature for them that will be present only for them, and based on this, form concept.
In the development of psychology, the concepts themselves changed and were restructured, and this is due not only to the fact that the views of the scientists themselves on the problem under study changed, but the problem itself changed, the psyche changed in the process of development. So the concept of the psyche in the history of psychology can be interpreted in two ways from the point of view of the subject and instrumental approaches. The subject approach is characterized by the attitude to the psyche as an object, the psyche here is a substance. The instrumental psyche is a means or a way of salvation.
The logic of the functioning of psychology in common process human culture.
Reasons for the formation of psychological ideas in the history of psychology.
The theoretical explanation of the psyche from the very beginning was prompted not only by the fact of the existence of the psyche and its perception, but by certain tensions of thought. These tensions arose during the first unsuccessful attempts of thinkers to construct any image of the psyche. Usually, when perceiving scientific concepts, we do not think too much about the fact that at the beginning of the process of understanding there are always the nodes of misunderstanding of phenomena that determine this process.
Determining the nature of mental images, P.Ya. Galperin wrote that an image is a hidden "reserve field" for testing and orienting one's actions. This "reserve field" arises only in those situations where there are no ready-made possibilities for satisfying needs, where there is variability and mobility of surrounding situations. In these situations, it is impossible to apply ready-made actions once and for all, each action requires restructuring and individual organization in accordance with the new situation. Adapting actions to changing situations is for the most part risky and cannot be based on actually trying out these actions in a real situation. That is why the process of testing and constructing actions based on a copy of the situation or a reflected situation is deployed, i.e. based on her mental image.
The construction of any mental images is awakened, therefore, by the instability of surrounding situations, the disappearance of habitual conditions, for adaptation to which it was enough to have automated and typified actions. The mental image of the world becomes a substitute for this world, more reliable for testing and building actions than the changing world itself. This functional characteristic of mental images allows us to understand not only the cause of their occurrence, but also the dependence of the content of images on those for which these images arise. The subject (human or animal) does not need to always and completely reflect the whole world, all objects or the effects of surrounding situations. All this must be done only as the stability of these situations is disturbed and these situations become out of alignment with the usual ways of acting.
All of the above is also relevant to the construction of theoretical images and concepts of psychology, including the image of the psyche itself. If we try to understand the emergence of such complex forms of consciousness as philosophy, science, religion and art, then here too we can see that new images of the world are unfolding in them, which were not previously used by people in organizing their lives. And although here we are talking not about individual, but about collective, social images of the world, the mechanism of their emergence is basically the same. When such systems of images as philosophy or science arise, one should also assume a violation of stable social situations and the order of life to which human activity has been adapted for thousands of years.
In the twentieth century, psychologists have already done a lot to solve both the problem of determining fate and the problem of the nature of the soul. These problems are solved in different schools with the help of different concepts. In Hegelian and Marxist psychology and philosophy, the concept of activity has become synonymous with the concept of “determinant of fate”. Activity in the philosophical and psychological interpretation is not the current hustle and bustle of the day and not a set of actions like this.
usually presented to everyday consciousness, but something much more significant, comparable to the idea of fate, and in a sense even to the idea of God. After Hegel and Marx in philosophy and psychology, “activity” began to be seen as a superpersonal process of the formation of a person, his character, mental abilities, etc.
The premises of such an idea of an external, invisible force that organizes the fate and actions of a person can also be found in the ancient philosophers. These ideas, necessary for the creation of theoretical psychology, developed in philosophy that claims to build a holistic picture of the world, for example, in the teachings of B. Spinoza and G.W.F. Hegel, who represented the human psyche as a natural component of a single world spiritual and cosmic process.
But scientific psychology did not accept or implement any of these concepts, although Soviet psychology sometimes made efforts to break through to a unified theory of development, to constructing the concept of a unified psychosocial space. But, having received an attitude to separate mental and social processes from biospheric and cosmic ones, Marxist psychology could no longer restore the lost connection of the human soul with the Universe that gave birth to it. And in Western European and American psychology the situation is even worse. In the scientifically oriented psychology of the 18th - 20th centuries, instead of including a person in a single Logos of the Universe, they began to split him into separate mental elements.
4. Spiritual and material integrity of nature in the concept of Brahmanism.
The basis of Indian philosophy is the sum of the oldest texts and their traditional interpretations - Vedanta. Each of the Vedas includes several levels. The first of these are mantras and brahmanas. Mantras are hymns, formulas and incantations. Brahmanas are later texts containing ritual prescriptions and explanations of some mythological plots presented in mantras. The next levels are the Aranyakas and the Upanishads, where a more detailed interpretation of the provisions of the Vedanta is given.
The main logic of this philosophy is expressed not in texts, but in the organization of a person's life path. The logic and essence of representations is comprehended by their practical development, real live action. It is a culture of fixed rules of life and structured relationships between groups of people. Main the content of Eastern culture, its meanings and concepts are fixed and transmitted in organized action, in daily activities, in direct communication with the bearers of culture.
The 4 levels of organization of the Vedic texts correspond to the 4 stages of the life path of the brahmins - representatives of the higher class groups of Indian society. 1st stage: training, during the cat. a young brahmin memorizes the mantras of the Vedas. 2nd stage: he marries and becomes a householder; organizes the life of the family, obeying the ritual prescriptions of the brahmanas (texts). 3rd stage: begins after the growing up of children and the birth of the first grandchildren; the brahmin retires to the forest and studies the aranyakas. 4th stage: the former vanaprastha (living in the forest) becomes a lonely wandering ascetic, comprehending at this time the meaning of the Upanishads. The texts of the Vedas accompany the brahman throughout his life, being included in the rituals and ensuring first the inclusion of a person in this life, and then a consistent departure from it.
It is in the logic of the inclusion of a person in life and the organized departure from it that the ideas of the ancient Indians about the soul unfold. These representations are distinguished by a deep fusion of a person and his life with common cycles. natural phenomena. Success, health, family or wealth - all this depends on the participation of numerous gods.
The main principle of the early Vedic worldview was the deification of nature as a whole, equally uniting the forces of space and earth, gods and people. The pantheon of Indian gods is complex and fundamentally undifferentiated. The number of gods included in it is indefinite.
In Vedic ideas, there is no clear boundary between gods and people. The images of the gods themselves are weakly individualized and blurred in such a way that it is sometimes impossible to determine whether we are talking about the same god, or about something derived from him, or about a group of similar gods. Thanks to this, an idea is formed about the continuum of the living, covering both earthly living beings and the cosmos full of gods. The gods are functionally oriented forces.
Over the whole world, over all the gods, the law rules, only within the framework of the cat. everyone can take action. This is rita, the great principle of order, overcoming chaos and disorder. The gods act as guardians of the rita. The impersonal cosmic principle of rta dominates the entire world. Rita's support is also seen as the main goal of people.
In the Aranyakas and Upanishads, two concepts are presented that are most important for understanding the soul in Brahmanism: Brahman is the support of the universe, the sacred power that extends to the whole world, the omnipotence of the world and its fundamental principle; the brahmin appears before the gods and demonstrates to them their impotence and insignificance before his power. Atman - the essence of a living org-ma; this is the body of a person in its integrity and vitality, everything that generates and supports it. The Upanishads repeatedly confirm the unity and identity of Atman and Brahman.
5. Crisis of the VI century. BC. in ancient Indian philosophy. "Bhagavad Gita".
As socio-psychological tension grows in Indian society, contradictions in philosophy and religion are growing. New schools are being formed where the problems of psychology are exacerbated and solved in a different way than in classical Vedanta. The crisis of Brahminism in the 7th - 5th centuries. expressed in the development of various heresies and new religious and philosophical trends. In opposition to Brahmanism, several schools are formed simultaneously, the most famous of which are Ajavikas, Buddhism and Jainism. At the same time, on the basis of the Brahminism of the era of the Vedas and the Upanishads, a new religion of India, Hinduism, was being formed.
In the VII-VI centuries. BC. in India, differences in the interpretation of classical texts grew, preachers appeared who expounded views that were different from Brahmanism. At the same time, a cult of personality of the creators and preachers of religions was formed. Vedanta and Brahminism, which did not worship the creators of their ideas, are being replaced by religions that raise their prophets to the level of gods. However, these new religions focus much deeper on the problems of the individual.
Period VI-V centuries. BC. was unique in the brightness and grandeur of the philosophical and religious trends that arose at that time around the world. Classical philosophical and religious schools are formed at the transition from the 6th to the 5th century BC. The destabilization of the former mythological and religious consciousness, which gave rise to new concepts of the world, takes place simultaneously in different countries across the broad front of Eurasia. Virtually the same historical time in India, China, Greece, Persia, new philosophical ideas are formed, the significance of the cat. proven over the next few millennia.
The Bhgavad Gita is one of the greatest poems in terms of philosophical significance. ancient india. In it, the god Bhagavat appears in the human form of the royal charioteer Krishna. Krishna, first on behalf of the god Vishnu, and then on behalf of the god Bhagavata, explains to King Arjuna a number of philosophical and religious provisions of the ancient Indian religion.
In the Bhagavad Gita, only the great and impersonal Absolute, Brahman, is real. The soul is real and is a manifestation of the great Atman. Atman is the energy of the spirit, the great impersonal ruler of the universe, linking man to Brahman. Birth, destiny and new incarnations in a person are determined by the law of karma, as in Brahmanism. However, in the Bhagava-gita, the kshatriyas are the carriers of higher knowledge. The goal of the soul is to merge with the great Absolute, the dissolution of the soul in the world spirit.
Krishna denies the possibility of destroying the soul, and, consequently, the reality of killing people. Atman cannot be destroyed, and the soul of a person either merges with Brahman, or is reborn in another form. Where there is no real death, there is no real responsibility for it.
Passionate fulfillment of one's religious duty does not liberate the human soul, but, on the contrary, binds it to the earthly world. A disinterested act does not give rise to negative karmic consequences.
The Bhagavad Gita unfolds the idea of the personality of God and the presence of divine power in people. Har-r the relationship of the Bhagavata with the followers of his ideas acquires human features. Bhagavat appears in the poem as Brahman and the highest Atman.
The idea of sin as a delusion in faith arises. Faith in the position of the old Vedas is now such a delusion. The Vedas do not lead to the wisdom of liberation, but only bind people to worldly life.
One can compare the relationship between the Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta with the analogous relationship between the New and Old Testaments in Christianity. A visual image of God appears. The dogmas of the old religion are partly recognized and partly denied. The personality and humanity of God is growing. The vector nature of religion is growing, taking the soul of a person away from the material world.
6. Jainism and Buddhism as new ideas about the soul in ancient Indian philosophy of the 6th century. BC.
Jainism developed in parallel with Vedanta, appearing and disappearing for a while as a religious movement. A stable branch of Jainism is formed only in the 5th century. BC. and originates from the activities of the last 24th tirthankara - Mahavira. Jainism manifested itself as an opposition to Brahminism, reinforced by the amazing lifestyle of ascetic preachers. The Jains wore almost no clothes, patiently endured the heat, the cat. sometimes reached an extremely dangerous degree in India.
The followers of Jayanism were divided into monks and laymen. For the laity, only certain requirements were obligatory (temperance, honesty, etc.). The monks, on the other hand, indulged in cruel fasts, killing their flesh. They were not supposed to live in one place and wandered around the country, either wearing very simple clothes or doing without it at all. The hair on the head was torn out by the roots. The greatest sin was harming animals.
The Jains denied the idea of a personal god, arguing with those who believed in a god-creator or creator of the world, capable of somehow influencing the world. The impersonal law of karma rules the world. The Jains recognized only deities who were subject to the law of karma and, in fact, equal in this to people.
Unlike the Buddhists, the Jains claimed the real presence of the soul, non-material and opposed to the material world. The soul is qualitatively different from the material world, in its usual state it is subject to the bonds of matter and the law of karma, which realizes itself through a special “karmic matter”. Karma manifests itself harshly in the rebirth and transmigration of souls. But the soul seeks to break this dependence and free itself from the law of karma. The ideal aspirations of people yavl. Moksha is the liberation of the soul from the chain of karmic rebirths.
The desire of the individual soul to break out of the rigid logic of its determination is the formation of the subjectivity of a person.
The Jains divided the world into living - jiva (soul) and inanimate - ajiva (non-soul). The non-living is the matter consisting of atoms; matter is tangible, has a taste, smell, sound/color. All living things are identified with the animate. The earth is also alive and animated. But there are different levels of animation. Earth, water, air, fire and plants have only the sense of touch. And people, animals and birds have all five kinds of senses. Jiva (soul) is eternal, but it breaks up into many souls clothed in material shells. These materialized private souls pass from one body to another. This endless circle of motion is called samsara. But, in fact, in all living things there is one single soul. And separation, the final liberation of the soul from the body, overcoming samsara - this is moksha - basic. goal.
All jivas, with the exception of those who have already freed themselves from karma, have some amount of energy, which makes it possible for them to release energy and create magical bodies. Jivas can manifest themselves in 3 types of bodies: food, karmic and fiery. The liberated jivas - siddhas - live in highest point universe, in the celestial abode of Siddhakshetra.
Buddhism became another form of the anti-Brahmin religious trend in India. He expressed in his concepts the opposition of the individual and the state to the former tribal systems of India. Buddhism arose in the second half of the 6th century. BC. Its creator is Siddhartha. An essential factor in the development of Buddhism was the process of increasing the subjectivity of the individual.
Buddhism put in the first place not the Brahmins, but the Kshatriyas. Like Jainism, Buddhism does not recognize the authority of the Vedas, but, like Brahminism, Buddhism recognizes the law of rebirth and karma.
Buddhism denied the reality of the soul. Any life is suffering, in the chain of births there cannot be a happy life. Buddhism considers the individual existence of a person to be illusory. The Buddha adopted from Brahmanism the idea of a gradual accumulation of spiritual merit passing through a series of progressive states - lives. Not an integral substance of the soul passed through the chain of births, but only a collection of individual states, a cat. constituted samsara.
The goal of being in Buddhism is nirvana - liberation from one's own Self, overcoming worldly ties and addictions.
The danger of recognizing the absolute determinism of events and fatalism, proclaimed by some currents competing with Buddhism, prompted the Buddha not only to avoid reasoning about the soul or the nature of the world, but generally tend to deny their reality. Buddhism denies the reality of being: there is only becoming, hence the soul is only a stream of consciousness, constant becoming and changing at every single moment. The idea of the soul as a stable reality, as a substance, is a dangerous illusion that binds a person to the world of suffering, to samsara.
Buddhism denies the unity of the individual, and therefore denies the individual itself. The individual I of a person is only one of the moments of perception of life.
Introduces the concept of anatman (non-soul). There is nothing lasting and permanent: no matter, no god, no soul.
Buddhism reduces the individual self to a stream of impressions. Personality is a constantly changing state of changing elements - dharmas. Dharmas are peculiar bursts of psychic energy, eternal elements of the life process. What in other concepts was called the soul, Buddhism called. santana - flow or sequence.
Death is the inevitable cessation of santana, when the old connections created by the power of prapti are torn and the flow breaks up into elements. With the recognition of the mortality of the soul, samsara also ceases to be a true reality and is a combination mental states. A new combination of states of the soul in a new birth is determined by the previous combination of states - according to the law of moral responsibility. The actions committed by a person in one of the lives transfer energy to another life. Death ends the individual state, but the deeds of the person affect new existences. This is what ensures the law of karma, when each new existence is the result of previous flows of events.
7. Ideas about the soul in ancient Greek philosophy.
In the initial motive of psychological knowledge lay the uncertainty about the guarantee of happiness, the desire to learn how to live happily. The inconsistency of the usual concepts forced to analyze the logic and nature of thinking, the nature of the soul.
Ideas about the soul of a person, expressed in poems Homer, can be divided into 3 types: the soul itself is the psyche (the psyche is a likeness of the body devoid of density, its special double and image); tyumos - what in modern psychology can be attributed to the emotional-volitional part of the psyche; noos is the mind of man and the gods. Psyche and tyumos are inherent not only to people and gods, but also to animals. Only gods and humans have minds.
The explanation of the nature of the psyche through its correlation with the gods or with the world of spirits was logically built in the form of doubling the invisible. People used to explain the nature of the psyche those images of the invisible, the cat. before that they themselves arose from the observation of facts, were built by analogy with the soul as an invisible engine and organizer of the visible movement of the body. To explain the nature of the psyche isp. already understandable and familiar images of gods or spirits, a cat. were created by analogy with the psyche as images of the organizers of the movement of the world invisible to the eye.
The idea of the unity and inseparability of the soul and the external world developed in the 6th century. BC. Greek philosophers of the Miletus school. Thales at the basis of both the soul and nature, he saw the fiery principle. He considered all matter to be animated.
Heraclitus developed the idea of the unity of the nature of the soul and the physical world. He saw the beginning of everything that exists in fire. Fire is the genetic substance of the world. The fire of the world is eternal and divine. Space is not eternal. Cosmos burns and burns a world fire. The world conflagration will also become a great world court. Fire is a living and intelligent force, the original spirit. Fire is endowed with a logos, a cat. represents the law of motion of the universe. That which appears to the human being as fire, is revealed to the mind as the logos.
The material analogue of the soul yavl. steam. The world arose from fire. Fire and logos are also inherent in the soul of a person. The soul evaporated from the moisture, and the moisture came from the unified nature of the Earth.
The soul of a person has two planes: dry fiery and wet. In the material-material plane, the soul is one of the manifestations of fire. The soul combines the moist and fiery principles. Souls are born by evaporating from moisture under the influence of fire. In the transformation from wetness to fieryness, the soul fills with energy like hot and dry steam, but if it becomes damp and heavy, it returns to a damp state and dies. The soul, when it dies, turns back into water.
The dry fiery component of the soul is its logos. This is the psychic or intelligent plane of the soul. The more fire in the soul, the better. Being fiery, the soul has a logos, a cat. increases in its development. The logos of the soul is as boundless as the logos that governs the cosmos. A dry soul is the wisest and best. A wet soul is a bad soul. Such a soul is found in drunkards, in sick people, or in people who indulge in pleasures. For the soul, any pleasure is dangerous because it makes it wet, and thereby brings it closer to death.
Ideas about the soul developed in 2 mystical schools of Greece: the schools of the Orphics and the schools of the Pythagoreans.
Studies by many scientists have shown that the development of psychology as a science is influenced by several factors. The leading of them - the logic of the development of psychological knowledge - is associated with a change in its subject, the influence of sciences adjacent to psychology, the development of the principles and categorical structure of psychology.
The subject matter of psychology is common definition- the psyche of living beings in all its diversity of manifestations. But this answer cannot be satisfied.
The idea of the psyche has not remained the same at all times. For many centuries, the phenomena united by this concept were denoted by the word “soul”. And even today this word often sounds when it comes to the mental qualities of a person, and not only when, emphasizing it positive traits talking about his sincerity. In the history of psychology scientific progress was reached when the term "soul" gave way to the term "consciousness". This turned out to be not a simple replacement of words, but a real revolution in understanding the subject of psychology. Along with this, the concept of the unconscious psyche appeared. For a long time it remained in the shadows, but at the end of the century before last, acquiring power over the minds, it overturned the usual views on the entire structure of the personality and on the motives that drive its behavior. But the idea of the sphere studied by psychology as a science different from others was not limited to this either. It has radically changed due to the inclusion in the circle of phenomena subject to its management, that form of life, which was given the name "behavior". With this, a revolution again took place in the study of the subject of psychology. This in itself speaks of the profound changes that the views on the subject of psychology have undergone in the attempts of scientific thought to master it, to display it in concepts adequate to the nature of the psyche, to find methods for mastering this nature.
1. period - the study of the soul - up to 5 AD
Mythological picture of the world + philosophical teachings: Psychology as rational knowledge of the human soul originated in antiquity in the depths of philosophy based on the geocentric picture of the world, placing man at the center of the universe. Ancient philosophy adopted the concept of the soul from previous mythology. Almost all ancient philosophers tried to express with the help of the concept of the soul the most important essential principle of living nature, considering it as the cause of life and knowledge - Socrates, Plato (the doctrine of the immortal soul, inner speech, the structure of the soul from three components, the highest part - the rational principle, the middle - volitional beginning and the lower part of the soul - the sensual beginning), Aristotle (the concept of the soul as functions of a living organism three kinds of soul: vegetable, animal And reasonable).
2 period - the Middle Ages - the study of the soul on the basis of medical knowledge and religion - theocentric picture of the world, psychology as part of religious anthropology, the soul - microcosm.
The 3rd period - the Renaissance and the 4th period - began to develop quite actively and made a significant step forward in the natural, biological and medical sciences. A movement began in the direction of forming psychological knowledge into an independent science. A huge influence on the psychological thought of the XVII-XVIII centuries. provided by mechanics, which became the leader of the natural sciences. Mechanical picture of nature led to a new era in the development of European psychology. R. Descartes and his body model. the soul was defined by him according to a single sign - the direct awareness of its phenomena. Spinoza is the principle of determinism. Leibniz - ideas psychophysiological parallelism, introduced the concept "unconscious" into the psychological thought of the New Age, designating unconscious perceptions as “small perceptions”. Awareness of perceptions becomes possible due to the fact that a special mental act is added to a simple perception (perception) - apperception, which includes memory and attention. T. Hobbes proclaimed reason the product of association and introduced empiricism. identified two sources: feeling And reflection, by which he understood the internal perception of the activity of our mind. concept reflections firmly established in psychology. The name of Locke is associated with such a method of psychological knowledge as introspection, i.e. internal self-observation of ideas, images, representations, feelings, as they are to the “internal gaze” of the subject observing him.
Starting with J. Locke, phenomena become the subject of psychology consciousness, which generate two experiences - external emanating from the sense organs, and interior accumulated by the individual's own mind. Under the sign of this picture of consciousness, the psychological concepts of subsequent decades were formed.
The concept of psychology - H. Wolf
5th period and 6th period - mid-19th century - 60s of the 19th century until the end of the 19th century psychophysical problem - At the beginning of the 19th century. new approaches to the psyche began to be developed, based not on mechanics, but on physiology, which turned the organism into an object experimental study. W. Wundt decided to study the content and structure of consciousness on a scientific basis by highlighting the simplest structures in the internal experience, initiating structuralist approach to consciousness. Consciousness was divided into mental elements(sensations, images), which became the subject of study. But the idea of decomposing the psyche into the simplest elements turned out to be false, it was impossible to assemble from simple elements complex states of consciousness. Therefore, by the 20s. 20th century this psychology of consciousness has practically ceased to exist. The American psychologist W. James proposed to study the functions of consciousness and its role in human survival. The formation of the experiment. Psychophysics and psychometry.
The subject-historical approach to intellectual structures represents a special direction of logical analysis. Conventionally, it can be called the logic of the development of science. Main blocks research apparatus psychology changed its composition and structure with each transition of scientific thought to a new stage. It is in these transitions that the logic of the development of cognition appears as a natural change of its phases. Once in line with one of them, the exploratory mind moves along its inherent categorical circuit with an inevitability similar to fulfilling the prescriptions of grammar or logic. With regard to psychological knowledge, we first of all encounter efforts to explain what is the place of mental (mental) phenomena in the material world, how they relate to the processes in the body, how knowledge about surrounding things is acquired through them, what determines the position of a person among other people and etc. By tracing the history of these questions and countless attempts to answer them, we can extract something stable from the variety of options. This gives grounds to “typologize” questions, reduce them to several eternal ones, such as, for example, a psychophysical problem (what is the place of the mental in the material world), a psychophysiological problem (how do somatic - nervous, humoral - processes and processes at the level of the unconscious correlate with each other? and conscious psyche), psychognostic (from the Greek "gnosis" - knowledge), requiring an explanation of the nature and mechanism of the dependences of perceptions, ideas, intellectual images on the real properties and relations of things reproduced in these mental products.
In order to rationally interpret these relationships and dependencies, it is necessary to use certain explanatory principles. Among them, the core of scientific thinking stands out - the principle of determinism, that is, the dependence of any phenomenon on the facts that produce it. Determinism is not identical to causality, but includes it as a core idea. It acquired various forms, passed, like other principles, a number of stages in its development, but invariably retained a priority position among all the regulators of scientific knowledge.
Other regulators include the principles of consistency and development. The explanation of the phenomenon, based on the properties of an integral, organic system, one of the components of which they serve, characterizes the approach designated as a system approach. When explaining a phenomenon on the basis of the transformations it regularly undergoes, the principle of development serves as a support. The application of these principles to problems allows one to accumulate their meaningful solutions from the angles of view given by these principles.
