Methodology and principles of psychology. Methods of psychology.

Definition 1

General psychology is a branch of science that studies the emergence and formation of cognitive processes, states and patterns of the human psyche, and generalizes various psychological research and knowledge.

The object of study of general psychology is the psyche of living beings, how they interact with the world around them, how they realize their desires and impulses. From the point of view of modern science, the psyche is a mediator between the subjective and the objective, and also provides knowledge about what is internal and external, bodily and mental.

The subject of psychology is man as a subject of activity, the systemic qualities of his self-regulation; patterns of formation and functioning of the human psyche, his ability to reflect the world, cognize it and regulate his interaction with it.

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The task of psychology is to systematize knowledge and present it in such a form that every educated person can independently study this discipline.

Representatives of different professions encounter this science - not only psychologists, but also sociologists, lawyers, and so on, since many need to know the patterns of development of the human psyche, the formation of internal processes, and personality traits.

General psychology pays attention to a person’s mental activity, his character, thinking, temperament, experienced emotions, perception, and memory abilities. These data are not considered in isolation, but in connection with human life and the world around him. What is important is what happens inside a person during mental and cognitive processes, and how a person’s relationships with people of different social groups occur.

Methodological principles of psychology

Methodology is a system based on the principles of theoretical and practical functioning. It is a set of rules, normative knowledge and ways of creating theory.

The methodology is divided into different levels. For example, general scientific methodology is considered a system built on standards and principles that unite all areas of knowledge. But, in order for it to become a manual for one of the special sciences, it needs to be specified in relation to this science. In this case, this will already be a specific scientific methodology.

The methodological principles of psychology, professing general scientific methods, practice the use of a dialectical approach, and for specific scientific methods - a system-activity approach.

The system-activity approach consists of the following basic principles:

1. Determinism.
2. Activities.
3. Consciousness and completion as one whole.
4. Systematicity.
5. Development.

Principles of the psychology of visual information perception

In the case when a person evaluates an image, only a conclusion is formed in his mind, but there is no process itself that determines his attitude towards what he saw. In this way, a person develops the ability to immediately determine his position on what he sees.

It should also be noted that acquaintance with any subject begins from its upper left corner. Next, the gaze moves towards the lower right corner. All people are guided by this principle, regardless of whether one of them is left-handed or right-handed.

Only after passing this stage does a person fully evaluate the image with its characteristic features. For example, initially preference was given to bright elements, then the transition was slowly made to details with a certain semantic load.

The principle of reflection in psychology

The principle of reflection in psychology gives the researcher guidance on the fact that acquaintance with an object is accompanied by a process that reflects its capabilities as a subject. The original reflection using an image is considered as a reflection. There is similarity between an image and the original if each individual element of the image corresponds (homomorphically) to the original element, and also the relations of the elements of the image correspond to the relations of the elements of the original.

From the homomorphic mapping it follows that this is only the first step towards the formation of a “subject-object” system in epistemological terms, since the shape of the object is approximately taken into account. Judging by the latter, we can say that what is visible is not the image of the original, but its prototype.

The next step in the development of an epistemological relationship is isomorphism. This level of display makes it possible to adequately represent the shape of an object. If in homomorphism one can see the relative copying of an image from the original object, then in isomorphism their complete similarity is asserted.

Isomorphism fixes the reflected form, but the question of the content of the object remains unresolved. The process of evolution of reflection moves from homomorphism, passes through the matter of isomorphism, irritability, psyche to consciousness. And consciousness already implies the highest form of reflection, with the help of which the formation of a sensual, and then a rational image occurs, in which reality is reflected in the forms of concepts, judgments and inferences.

Generalized brief interpretation

So, according to the explanatory dictionary, integrity is a general characteristic of objects or objects that have a complex internal structure. This concept is the personification of autonomy, self-sufficiency, as well as the integration of certain objects. Additionally, we can say that integrity is a characteristic of quality, uniqueness, originality that was formed in a certain environment and corresponds only to a specific object. In other words, the term indicates a combination of a certain number of components in one object, which develop and function together, thus forming a closed and complete system. Such a system can be any biological unit (both a cell and a person), a state or small society, software, etc.

Principles of developmental and age psychology

Developmental psychology refers to the field that studies the psychological changes in a person as he grows older. Because of this, developmental psychology is often called developmental psychology, or it is a methodological basis for it, containing a more expanded collection of information.

In developmental psychology there are the following subsections:

1. Prenatal and perinatal psychology, which studies the mental life of children who have not yet been born or have already been born.
2. Child psychology, which studies the psyche of child development.
3. Psychology of young and mature ages - the study of the mental characteristics of a person of young and mature ages.
4. A subfield of gerontopsychology is the study of the human psyche in old age.

Developmental psychology studies the human psyche and body during different age stages. And, like other independent sciences, developmental psychology has its own subject, object, tasks and functions.

Computer Science and Modern Technologies

Integrity is a concept that has recently become widely used in the field of scientific technology, programming and Internet activities. In particular, we are talking about the pristine and immutable source codes of programs and files. For example, let's take the most ordinary website, compiled by a programmer from a number of source codes. For each individual page, certain codes and combinations of symbols, numbers and signs were used. Together they formed a complete picture, which became the basis for the Internet resource. If the source code is handled incorrectly, the activity of the child product will be disrupted. The settings get lost, and as a result the overall picture disappears. It should be separately noted that in this situation it would be appropriate to check the integrity of the information. This can be done by performing a certain set of functions. You can also perform a system rollback to restore the original data.

The principle of determinism in psychology

The principle of determinism in psychology is a scientific method of understanding the world around us, and is used in tandem with many sciences. It begins with the philosophical doctrine that Democritus developed in his time and was later developed by the great Aristotle. The principle of determinism in psychology means phenomena that occur around us cannot be random, but arise as a result of some cause or cumulative causes.

According to the theory of determinism, nothing happens by chance; everything that happens is the result of external and internal logical connections. Therefore, a person cannot change anything through his efforts.

The extreme element of determinism is nothing more than fatalism, that is, a person stupidly believes in fate, or evil fate, or the subordination of fate to higher powers.

The concept of the psychology of determinism should be understood as the need to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between a mental phenomenon and the motivating circumstances that led to it. This theory can be applied equally not only to people, but also to animals.

Psychology

Using the example of the exact sciences, we have just looked at what integrity is. Now let's turn to psychologists and the terms they use most often. One of these is the “principle of personal integrity.” Human personality is a spiritual concept. It cannot be touched, inhaled or felt like, say, a person or water. But personality is built on the basis of components that form and improve it. Among these we will name life experience, mistakes, suffering, joys, friendship and betrayal, love, building a family, career growth, personal preferences and passions, interests and much more. Personality formation is an extremely individual process. In the history of mankind, there are people who became self-sufficient and independent at a very young age. And in some cases it happens that a mature person, who has spent more than half a century on Earth, has still not been able to make his spiritual personality holistic and self-sufficient.

Principles of the psychology of creativity

The principles of creativity psychology explore the following:

1. Imagination, intuition, thinking, activity, inspiration.
2. Individual psychological characteristics that manifest themselves during creative work - abilities, talent, genius, etc.
3. The influences exerted on a person when he joins the creative environment of his own kind.
4. Factors that stimulate creative activity - brainstorming, group discussion, psychopharmacological agents, etc.

The psychology of creativity consists of the following most important principles of the theory:

1. Any understanding can be defined as misunderstanding, since under the guise of this, further interpretation by the perceiving person is assumed.
2. It is impossible to convey a thought; it can only be aroused by words.
3. The meaning of life of any creative plot or object is that it is simply used.

Schools of general psychology

There are also many schools that adhere to the above principles and use research methods in their practice. These schools may include:

• psychoanalysis;
• structuralism;
• Freudianism
• transpersonal psychology;
• behaviorism;
• Gestalt psychology;
• individual psychology;
• cognitive psychology;
• functionalism;
• humanistic psychology;
• analytical psychology;
• domestic psychology.

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Principles of occupational psychology

When optimizing work activity, modern management often resorts to psychological analysis, which is a fundamental component in this matter. Scientific and practical support for labor at this stage of social development is the most painful issue of our time. Organizing attention, developing memory and thinking, will and professional skills is not a complete list of requirements for a modern worker. These and some other questions determine the study in the field of occupational psychology.

Labor psychology is a science that studies mental phenomena, mechanisms and other features that are activated in a person during the labor process. Individual characteristics of a person and methods that play a major role in the labor process and its organizational issues are also studied. Generalizing the concept of labor psychology, we can say that it refers to the branch of psychology that studies the psychological patterns of the human labor process.

Methods of general psychology

In order to translate existing principles into reality, some practical research methods are used. These include:

• observation;
• conversation;
• experiment;
• testing;
• auxiliary and intermediate research methods.

The observation process is divided into the following stages:

1. Setting goals and objectives.
2. Definition of the situation, object and subject.
3. Determination of methods that have the least impact on the object under study and provide the necessary knowledge.
4. Determining the method of data recording.
5. Processing of received data.

A conversation involves communication between the researcher and the subject with a discussion of problems and questions, the answers to which are needed by both the researcher and the subject.

An experiment involves artificially creating the necessary conditions for the subject and recording the results.

Testing is a process that involves answering short tasks that are similar for everyone, usually with ready-made answer options. Tests help determine the presence of certain mental qualities in a tested group of people or an individual. Some tests can make predictions about the development or degradation of the disease, as well as establish a diagnosis.

Principles of psychology as a science

Throughout adult life, humanity has shown a keen interest in the essence of man: for what reasons and patterns are his actions determined, what laws influence his behavior among his own kind, questions of the inner world. The intrigue was that the main task for understanding was the emergence of mental images, what is consciousness, the ability to think, create... And psychology, in tossing between beliefs, scientific arguments and art, tries to find answers not only to these questions, but also to others .

This science is about the most complex processes occurring in human life that have ever been known to him. In psychology, a person is destined for two simultaneous roles, both as an object and as a subject of cognition. Everyone becomes witnesses to a unique phenomenon: when scientific self-awareness emerges from a person’s scientific consciousness.

Psychological research is accompanied by a difficult and ambiguously solved problem of objectivity in scientific knowledge. Many scientists have not recognized psychology as an objective scientific discipline, putting forward arguments that it is impossible to objectively study the subjective inner world of an individual, which is accessible to knowledge by definition only to her.

Science and philosophy

Obviously, the word “integrity” is a derivative of “whole” or “one.” Often we use them to characterize something separate that has fully formed and become self-sufficient. The example provided above is the cell as a biological unit. It is framed by a special membrane through which the intercellular substance cannot leak, and inside it there are all those components that ensure the necessary metabolism within this system. All living organisms - people, animals, plants - are made of such cells. Cells are part of each internal organ, determining its integrity. Together, we get a full-fledged living organism, the work of which is coordinated and does not depend on others like it. But it depends on the environment - air, water, light. These components, consisting of molecules, are also self-sufficient and individual, but in combination with humans, animals and all other inhabitants of our planet they form biomass. In turn, biomass is also a single structure within which all living organisms function harmoniously.

Principles of personality psychology

The principles of personality psychology have been a central theme in psychology over the last century, the development of which has been facilitated by many advances in the study of personality structure as well as its characteristics. The development of effective methods for measuring personality was carried out, which are used in solving problems in psychodiagnostics, help to provide psychological assistance to a person, and are used in psychological counseling.

Today, in many areas, psychological science relates to humans in the following areas of application:

1. social psychology is used to study human behavior in society;
2. health psychology is used to study a healthy lifestyle;
3. Organizational psychology is used to study the human work process.

Thanks to the specific results of such work, a generalized theoretical understanding of human psychology is obtained, and practical and applied problems are solved.

The principle of potentiality.
If you pay attention to the peculiarities of the Russian mentality, you can note a special way of perceiving space. It is experienced as space, as something where you escape from captivity, as pure potentiality of being, will, freedom, full breathing, that is, spiritual life, not constrained by worldly sorrow.

Integrative methodology, based on a holistic vision of a person in the perspective of his material, social, spiritual growth, provides for psychosocial work with a client to reveal his potential, develop intuition, creativity, higher states of consciousness, and personal resources.
The principle of multidimensional truth.
Any theory, concept, therapeutic myth, teaching, idea, everyday judgment about mental reality, despite their apparent completeness and universality, are valid only under certain circumstances and with a certain degree of probability. It should be remembered that both the most ingenious psychological theories and the statements of some clients about the “evil eye” and “damage” are, first of all, an attempt to structure and broadcast their own internal experience.

General provisions on methods of psychological research

In psychology, as in other sciences, a certain set of research methods is used to obtain facts, process them and explain them.
All methods used in psychological research can be divided into four groups: 1) organizational methods; 2) empirical methods of obtaining scientific knowledge; 3) data processing techniques; 4) interpretive methods. Organizational methods
include comparative, longitudinal and complex methods operating throughout the study;
to empirical methods of obtaining scientific knowledge
- observational methods (observation and self-observation), experimental methods (laboratory, natural, formative or psychological-pedagogical experiments), psychodiagnostic methods (standardized tests and projective tests, questionnaires, sociometry, interviews, conversation), praxiometric, i.e. techniques for analyzing processes and products of activity (chronometry, cyclography, professional descriptions, evaluation of products and performance of work), biographical methods (analysis of facts, dates and events of a person’s life path, documentation, etc.);
Data processing techniques
include quantitative (mathematical-statistical) and qualitative analysis, including the compilation of psychological casuistry, i.e., a description of cases that both most fully express types and options, and those that are exceptions or violations of general rules;
to interpretive methods
- various variants of genetic (analysis of material in terms of development, highlighting individual phases, stages, critical moments, etc.) and structural (establishment of structural connections between all characteristics of the psyche) methods. Let us consider a number of organizational and empirical ways of obtaining scientific knowledge.

Organizational methods
The comparative method
(the “cross-section” method) consists of comparing different groups of people by age, education, activity and communication.
For example, two large groups of people identical in age and gender (students and workers) are studied using the same empirical methods of obtaining scientific data, and the data obtained are compared with each other. The longitudinal method (longitudinal section method)
consists of repeated examinations of the same individuals over a long period of time.
For example, multiple examinations of students throughout the entire period of study at the university. An integrated method
is a method of study in which representatives of various sciences participate in the study, which makes it possible to establish connections and dependencies between phenomena of various kinds, for example, physiological, mental and social development of the individual.

Empirical methods.
Observational methods Observation (external)
is a method consisting of deliberate, systematic, purposeful and recorded perception of external manifestations of the psyche.
Self-observation (introspection)
is a person’s observation of his own mental phenomena.

Experimental methods
An experiment
differs from observation by active intervention in the situation on the part of the researcher, carrying out systematic manipulation of certain factors and recording corresponding changes in the state and behavior of the person being studied.
A laboratory experiment
is carried out under artificial conditions, usually using special equipment, with strict control of all influencing factors.
A natural experiment
is a psychological experiment incorporated into an activity or interaction without the participant noticing.
A formative (educational) experiment
is a method of research and formation of a mental process, state or personality quality.

Psychodiagnostic methods
Test
is a system of tasks that allows you to measure the level of development of a certain quality (property) of a person.
Achievement tests
are one of the psychodiagnostic methods that allows you to identify the degree of proficiency of the test subject with specific knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Intelligence tests
are a psychodiagnostic technique for identifying an individual’s mental potential.
Creativity tests
are a set of methods for studying and assessing creative abilities.
Personality tests
are a psychodiagnostic technique for measuring various aspects of an individual’s personality.
Projective tests
are a set of methods for a holistic study of personality, based on psychological interpretation, i.e., the subject’s conscious or unconscious transfer of his own properties and states to external objects under the influence of dominant needs, meanings and values.
A questionnaire
is a methodological tool for obtaining primary socio-psychological information based on verbal (verbal) communication, representing a questionnaire for obtaining answers to a pre-compiled system of questions.
Sociometry
is a method of psychological study of interpersonal relationships in a group in order to determine the structure of relationships and psychological compatibility.
An interview
is a method of social psychology that involves collecting information obtained in the form of answers to questions, usually posed in advance.
Conversation
is a method involving direct or indirect obtaining of psychological information through verbal communication.
The effective use of an empirical method depends on whether it is valid
(corresponds to what it was originally intended to obtain and evaluate) and
reliable (allows one to obtain the same results over and over again). Literature GO TO TABLE OF CONTENTS TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE