Psychology is one of the human sciences that studies the patterns, mechanisms, conditions, factors and features of the development and functioning of the psyche.
The word psychology comes from the Greek psyche - soul and logos - teaching. Therefore, science received its first definition as “the study of the soul.” Modern scientific psychology includes all mental manifestations of a person, or psyche. The term “psychology” is preserved as a tribute to the contribution of ancient scientists to the development of ideas about human mental life.
Subject of psychology
The subject of psychology is the psyche or mental life of a person.
Psyche is the property of highly organized living matter to reflect and interact with objects of the surrounding reality. Currently, there are three groups of facts of mental life :
- mental processes;
- mental states;
- mental properties.
Mental processes (also mental functions)
are the primary regulators of human behavior.
These include: cognitive (cognitive) and emotional-volitional. Cognitive processes include: sensations, perception, memory, thinking, imagination. To the emotional-volitional – emotions, feelings, will.
Mental conditions
These are relatively stable mental formations.
Examples of mental states are vigor, anxiety, fatigue, depression, euphoria. Mental states are characterized by duration, direction, stability, intensity.
Mental properties
Subjective characteristics of a person that determine his activities and behavior.
These include: sociability, emotionality, perseverance, responsibility, etc.
Among all branches, the main place belongs to general psychology, since it acts as a theoretical and methodological basis for other branches. The subject is general patterns, trends, features of the development of the psyche in phylo- and ontogenesis, as well as theoretical methods and principles of psychology, its basic concepts and categorical apparatus. The tasks of general psychology include the development of problems in the methodology and history of psychology, theory and methods of studying the most general laws of the emergence, development and existence of mental phenomena. Based on the subject of general psychology, the subject of other branches of psychology is determined. For example, the subject of social psychology is the peculiarities of the manifestation of mental processes, properties and states in social conditions (for example, facilitation, conformism, etc.), the subject of medical (clinical) psychology is the manifestation of mental processes, properties and states of patients, etc.
The main tasks of modern psychology
Initially, psychology was philosophical, more ideological in nature. However, after its transformation into a full-fledged science, its goals changed. Now its main task is to study mental phenomena and identify their basic patterns.
Psychology also strives:
- learn to distinguish and understand the real essence of psychological processes;
- conduct a full-fledged study and management of mental phenomena;
- to the correct application of acquired knowledge in various fields other than medicine;
- to create a reliable theoretical base.
Based on these main tasks of modern psychology, interrelated tasks follow. They can be briefly formulated as follows:
- analysis of the formation and development of various mental phenomena depending on certain conditions and the type of human activity;
- the study of physiological mechanisms that become the basis for the emergence of mental processes.
It is worth considering that different areas of psychology may have different tasks. Now the following division is distinguished: fundamental and applied.
History of ideas about the subject of psychology
The history of psychology goes back more than two thousand years. In the historical development of psychology, there are 4 main periods that correspond to changes in ideas about its subject:
First. Psychology as the science of the soul. Originated in the ancient world. Ancient thinkers tried to explain certain phenomena in human life by the existence of the soul.
Second. Psychology as the science of consciousness. Appeared in the 17th century. The subject of psychology was considered to be the facts of consciousness, and the main method of research was introspection (self-observation).
Third. Psychology as a science of behavior. It arose at the beginning of the 20th century. The subject of psychology was considered to be facts of behavior, i.e. something that can be directly observed both under normal conditions and in laboratory experiments.
Fourth. Psychology as a science about facts, patterns and mechanisms of the psyche. This is a modern understanding of the subject of psychology and it was formed in the mid-late 20th century.
A widely accepted view is to divide the history of psychology into two main periods:
- The first period is from antiquity to the second half of the 19th century. This is the so-called “pre-experimental” period in the development of psychology, when psychology was considered a branch of philosophy, and its main method was the method of introspection (self-observation). The main subject of psychology was considered to be the facts of consciousness.
- The second period is from the second half of the 19th century to the present. The beginning of this period is considered to be 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig. Therefore, this period is also called “experimental”. Behavior began to be considered the main subject of psychology during this period.
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Chapter 1. Psychology as a science.
1.1 Subject and tasks of psychology.
1.1.1 Psychology is the science of the psyche
Literally translated, psychology is the science of the soul (psyche - soul, logos - concept, teaching), thus psychology is the science of the psyche and mental phenomena.
What is the psyche? Materialist scientists define it as a special form of reflection of the surrounding world, characteristic of highly organized matter.[1] It should be noted here that the psyche arises where there is a rather complexly organized nervous system, which means that mental phenomena are characteristic not only of humans, but also of animals. Moreover, science does not exclude the possibility that, over time, quite complex computer systems may be artificially created in which psychic phenomena may arise.
The peculiarity of psychology that determines its difficulties is the non-materiality of mental phenomena, as a result of which they are not accessible to direct study.
The psyche cannot be seen, heard, tasted or touched.
Neither a super-powerful microscope nor the most sensitive methods of chemical analysis will help in studying it. We can study the psyche only indirectly, drawing certain conclusions about mental phenomena only from the external, material signs of their manifestations. This is the complexity of psychology as a science, but this is what makes it fascinating.
Psychology is the science of the psyche and mental phenomena.
The psyche is a special form of reflection of the surrounding world, characteristic of highly organized matter (humans and animals). For a person who has the highest form of psyche - consciousness, another definition of psyche is given:
The human psyche is a subjective image of the objective world, which arises in the process of interaction of a person with his environment and other people.
1.1.2 Features of psychology as a science
1.1.3 Main directions of psychology
Freudianism and neo-Freudianism are the predominant role of the subconscious in human mental life.
Behaviorism – behavior as the main object of research and rejection of attempts to study the mechanisms of mental activity.
Gestalt psychology is an attempt to explain the phenomena of mental life based on the concept of a holistic image (gestalt), irreducible to the sum of individual elements of perception.
Humanistic psychology - perceives a person as an active, free, creative and autonomous subject with a desire for self-realization.
1.1.4 Subject of psychology
The subject of psychology changed during its formation as a separate science. At first, the subject of its study was the soul, then consciousness, then human behavior and his unconscious, etc., depending on the general approaches that psychologists adhered to at certain stages of the development of science.
Currently, there are two views on the subject of psychology. According to the first of them, the subject of study of psychology is mental processes, mental states and mental properties of the individual. According to the second, the subject of this science is the facts of mental life, psychological laws and mechanisms of mental activity.
Let's consider the first approach to the subject of psychology (Fig. 1.3):
Mental processes act as primary regulators of behavior; they have a beginning, course and end. Usually there are three types of them: cognitive, emotional and volitional.
In addition to the above, there is another classification of mental processes. According to it, mental processes are divided into individual and group, and then into internal and external (Fig. 1.4).
On the basis of mental processes, mental states can be formed that characterize the state of the psyche as a whole. These include, for example, a state of activity or passivity, vigor or depression, efficiency or fatigue, irritability, absent-mindedness, good or bad mood. Mental states influence the course of mental processes. They can be external and internal, individual and group.
For example, a group mental state such as panic is the cause of financial crises, defaults and bank failures. Another negative mental state is conflict, which can lead to the breakdown of business negotiations or the destruction of family relationships. Both of these states are intermediate in nature, since, on the one hand, they are an internal mental experience, and on the other hand, they have a pronounced external manifestation.
In addition to negative group psychological states, there are also positive ones, for example, the cohesion of the enterprise team or a favorable psychological climate within the organization.
The third group of mental phenomena are mental properties that are characterized by greater stability and constancy. They determine the uniqueness of a person and are the basis of his personality. When we call a person brave, hot-tempered, honest or gambling, then with these words we describe precisely the stable personality traits.
Some authors believe that within the framework of this classification, one more type of mental phenomena can be additionally distinguished: mental formations - what becomes the result of the development of the human psyche. Mental formations are formed in the process of a person acquiring life and professional experience. These include knowledge, skills, abilities, habits, attitudes, attitudes, beliefs, etc.
According to another approach to defining the subject of psychology, it is the facts of mental life, psychological laws and mechanisms of mental activity
The facts of mental life include the speed of the sensorimotor reaction, some processes of sensation and perception of reality (for example, optical illusions), facts of psychological defense of established beliefs, emotional reactions that arise when new information arrives, etc.
An example of a mental law is the Weber-Fechner law concerning relative thresholds of sensations: “the intensity of sensation is proportional to the logarithm of the strength of stimulation.”
Another example: the law of changes in the rate of development of a motor skill. The figure below shows the exponential nature of the change in the rate of development of a motor skill - the speed of working on the keyboard. At first the result grows very quickly, and then slows down
The mechanisms of mental phenomena are the most difficult to identify and study. To date, they have been little studied, but the progress of psychology is associated precisely with this direction. An example is the occurrence of a feeling of pleasure when the electrical activity of certain centers of the hypothalamus in the diencephalon increases.
1.1.5 Object and tasks of psychology
The main task of psychology as a science is to study the objective laws of the formation, development and manifestation of mental phenomena and processes.
Particular tasks of psychology are:
1) study of the mechanisms of mental phenomena and processes;
2) analysis of the patterns of development of mental phenomena and processes in the process of ontogenesis, social interaction of people and work activity;
3) to promote the introduction of knowledge of psychological science into the practice of people’s lives and activities.
As for the object of psychology , we encounter certain difficulties in defining it. It is usually believed that the objects of science are the carriers of the phenomena and processes that this science studies. Thus, the object of psychology must be recognized as a person. However, according to the ethical standards of Russian methodology, a person cannot be an object, since he is a subject of knowledge. To get out of this terminological contradiction, we can designate the object of general psychology as a process of interaction between a person and the surrounding world.
1.1.6 Cultural-historical paradigm
The cultural-historical paradigm (theory) was developed by the Soviet psychologist L.S. Vygotsky, and was further developed in the works of A.N. Leontyev. It was based on the ideas of the French sociological school: the idea of historicism and the social conditioning of the psyche. Before this, there was a natural science paradigm in psychology, the differences between which and the cultural-historical paradigm are shown in Fig. 1.9:
According to the views of L.S. Vygotsky and A.N. Leontiev, the social environment acts as a source of development of the child’s higher mental functions. Attitudes toward the environment change with age, and therefore the role of the environment in development also changes. The development of a child is subject to the action of socio-historical laws.
The driving force of mental development is learning (and development and learning are different processes). Education is an internally necessary moment in the process of development in a child of properties historically inherent in man. Learning is not identical to development: it creates a zone of proximal development, i.e. awakens and sets in motion the child’s internal developmental processes, which at first are possible for the child only in the sphere of relationships with adults and cooperation with peers.
1.1.7 Psychology as a science and as a system of everyday knowledge:
Please note that by the word “psychology” people understand not only science, but also a certain system of everyday knowledge. There are both similarities and differences between these areas of human culture. The similarity is that both of these areas study the same thing - the human psyche, but the differences between them are very significant (Table 1.2).
Nevertheless, there is a certain correspondence between everyday and scientific knowledge. Often everyday knowledge is manifested in folk proverbs and sayings.
1.2 Structure of psychology.
The modern structure of psychological science consists of a number of relatively independent scientific disciplines or branches: General psychology, Psychophysiology, Developmental psychology, Educational psychology, Medical psychology, Social psychology, Psychodiagnostics, Psychotherapy, etc.
There are also branches of psychology associated with certain areas of human activity: military psychology, sports psychology, engineering psychology, legal psychology, space psychology, etc.
1.3 Relationship between psychology and other sciences.
Philosophy. The greatest philosopher of antiquity, Aristotle, is considered the founder of psychology. Philosophy is a system of views on the world and man, and psychology is the study of man. Therefore, until recently, psychology was studied in philosophy departments of universities, and some of its sections (for example, general psychology, where definitions of the basic concepts of science are given) are closely intertwined with philosophy. However, psychology cannot be the “handmaiden of philosophy,” as was the case in the Soviet Union, where Marxist-Leninist philosophy strictly defined the basic postulates of psychology. These are two independent sciences that can mutually enrich and complement each other. At the intersection of philosophy and psychology there is such a branch of the latter as “General Psychology”.
Natural science is closely related to psychology. The development of theoretical and practical psychology in recent years would have been impossible without advances in biology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and medicine. Thanks to these sciences, psychologists better understand the structure and functioning of the human brain, which is the material basis of the psyche. “Psychophysiology” is located at the intersection of physiology and psychology.
Sociology as an independent science is closely related to social psychology, which is the bridge that connects the thoughts, feelings and attitudes of individuals with the phenomena of mass consciousness. In addition, sociology provides psychology with facts about the social activities of people, which are then used by psychology. The connection between psychology and sociology is provided by “Social Psychology”.
Technical sciences are also related to psychology, since they often have the problem of “docking” complex technical systems and humans. These issues are dealt with by “Engineering Psychology” and “Occupational Psychology”.
Story. Modern man is a product of historical development, during which the interaction of biological and mental factors took place - from the biological process of natural selection to the mental processes of speech, thinking and work. Historical psychology studies changes in the psyche of people in the process of historical development and the role of the psychological qualities of historical figures on the course of history.
Medicine helps psychology better understand the possible mechanisms of mental disorders in people and find ways to treat it (psychocorrection and psychotherapy). At the intersection of medicine and psychology there are such branches of psychology as “Medical Psychology” and “Psychotherapy”.
Pedagogy provides psychology with information about the main directions and patterns of training and education of people, which makes it possible to develop recommendations for the psychological support of these processes. The connection between these related sciences is provided by “Educational Psychology” and “Developmental Psychology”.
Rice. 1.10 Relationship between psychology and other sciences.
1.4 Development of ideas about the nature of psychological phenomena.
People have always been interested in the external world (“macrocosm”), but in order to achieve their goals in it, a person needed to understand the behavior of other people and himself. Therefore, people have long tried to study the inner world of man (“microcosm”).
Stage 1: General animation of nature.
Since primitive times, people have tried to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena in human life by the presence of a special substance - the soul. In those days, it was believed that the soul lives everywhere - in people, animals, plants, and natural phenomena. Since then, such expressions as “gentle sun”, “harsh wind”, “cruel frost” have taken root in our speech. This universal animation of nature is called animism.
Stage 2: Psychology as the science of the soul.
The development of this stage of psychology is associated with the works of ancient Greek philosophers. Democritus believed that the soul is a particle of nature and is subject to its laws. Hippocrates - developed the doctrine of temperaments. He believed that a person's temperament is associated with the predominance of some kind of liquid in his body. For example, the bilious and hot-tempered character of a choleric person is caused by an excess of bile (in Greek - “chole”), and the slow and calm character of a phlegmatic person is determined by the mucus that predominates among other body fluids. The mechanisms of the psyche were revealed incorrectly by Hippocrates, but phenomenology (description of phenomena) turned out to be so accurate that this taxonomy of temperaments (choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic) is still used today.
A representative of idealistic philosophy, Plato believed that the soul is immaterial and immortal. According to Plato, it consists of 3 parts: lust (located in the stomach), courage (in the heart) and reason (in the head). Some people are dominated by lust, others by reason, and others by courage. The first eke out a primitive semi-animal existence, the second become philosophers, and the third become warriors or heroes. Plato also developed the doctrine of “ideas” - eternal and unchanging essences that form the invisible higher world that lies beyond nature. According to Plato, real things are only faint shadows of ideas. Plato is considered the founder of “dualism” (a doctrine that considers the body and psyche as two independent, antagonistic principles).
Aristotle is the author of the first known work on psychology, On the Soul. He put forward the idea of the inseparability of soul and body. For the first time he introduced the concept of ideas, as images of objects that previously acted on the senses. He indicated the main types of associations (by similarity, contiguity, contrast).
Stage 3 – Psychology as the science of the divine and immortal soul
This stage coincides with the so-called “Middle Ages,” when the Christian Church dominated all sciences. This is a period of stagnation in psychology. At these times, the prevailing idea was the soul as a kind of incorporeal substance, which God puts into a person’s body at birth and takes back after his death. The body was declared mortal, and the soul immortal. The Christian Church emphasized the contradiction between the “divine soul” and the “sinful body,” which provoked the development of psychosomatic diseases.
Stage 4: Psychology as the science of consciousness (consciousness was the human ability to think and feel).
The basis of the method is introspection (self-observation). Rene Descartes introduced the concept of reflex - the body's response to irritation. At this time, there was a return to dualism - what could not be explained by reflexes was explained by the activity of the soul. Some scientists went further and abandoned the concept of the soul altogether, trying to reduce all types of human activity to mechanical movement. Similar views. In particular, it was propagated by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and then by Jules La Mettrie, who wrote the book “Man is a Machine.” In addition to the above essay, La Mettrie wrote two more works - “The Natural History of the Soul” and “Man is More than a Machine”, in which he defended a materialistic view of the psyche.
Another direction of scientific thought of that period was “empiricism,” which defended the priority of experience over pure reason. The representative is John Locke, who put forward the hypothesis of a “blank slate,” that is, an empty consciousness with which a person comes into this world, and which is gradually filled in the process of life experience.
The outstanding Russian natural scientist Ivan Mikhailovich Sechenov, in his book “Reflexes of the Brain,” tried to explain many mental phenomena from the standpoint of the reflex theory. He discovered the phenomenon of “central inhibition” in the nervous system and suggested the existence of reflexes arising from within the human body. He also owns the laws of muscle contraction, in particular the “law of active rest,” which states that the best rest is a change of activity.
Stage 5: Psychology as a science of behavior.
This stage begins at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the American psychologist John Watson pointed out the inconsistency of the Deccarto-Lockean concept of consciousness and stated that psychology should move away from the study of consciousness and should focus its attention only on what is observable, i.e. on behavior person. Within the framework of this concept, psychologists should study only the actions and reactions of humans and animals, without trying to penetrate the mechanisms of mental activity. One of the prominent representatives of this trend was B.F. Skinner, who showed that living beings are capable of effective learning through trial and error. This direction of psychology is called behaviorism. The main method of behaviorism is the creation of experimental situations, recording reactions to influence and observation. From the point of view of behaviorists, the psyche is an abstraction that cannot be studied scientifically.
Rice. 1.11 Behaviourists’ ideas about how the brain works
Behaviorists used the mechanism of conditioned reflexes to explain complex behavioral acts. They also discovered conditioned reflexes of the second kind (instrumental reflexes) - the basis for the transformation of the external environment - a transitional stage to conscious human activity.
Stage 6: Psychology as the science of the unconscious.
In parallel with the science of behavior, the science of the unconscious developed - that which is beyond the limits of human consciousness. The founder of this direction in psychology is considered to be Sigmund Freud, who put forward the concept of a three-level structure of the human psyche.
According to S. Freud, the psyche consists of three components: a huge dark unconscious, which will never be fully known by a person (“It”), a conscious, rational component (“I” or “Ego”) and a social censor (“Super- "I" or "Super Ego").
The unconscious (“It”) is the most ancient basis of the psyche, in which primary needs dominate. Instincts are localized here (primarily, according to Freud, sexual and aggressive). A person can make contact with this part of his psyche during sleep, meditation, hypnosis and some other forms of altered consciousness.
The second part of a person’s consciousness, the “Ego,” is more consistent with a person’s idea of himself, and performs two important functions: firstly, it manages contact with reality, and, secondly, it communicates with the unconscious.
Finally, the third component of our consciousness is the “Super Ego” - a person’s conscience, his internal guard, who exercises supervision as if from within consciousness. Freud believed that the “Super Ego” is a modified parental authority, a sublimation of the strict but fair Father, who in childhood watched over the child, controlled his actions and punished him for breaking the rules.
To identify these three components of the psyche, S. Freud developed a new method - psychoanalysis, which allows one to come into contact with the unconscious by weakening the control of consciousness, using the method of “free associations”.
Stage 7: Study of the mechanisms of mental functioning.
This stage began in the first third of the twentieth century, and is based on the achievements of biochemistry, physiology and medicine. A representative of this direction can be considered Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, who discovered a number of patterns of mental activity. His name is associated with experimental attempts to understand the mechanisms of brain function. He discovered and studied conditioned reflexes, which are the material basis of memory and associations.
Among the scientists representing this stage are James Olds, who first discovered the mechanisms of the emergence of emotions, Roger Sperry, who discovered interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain, Abraham Maslow, who created the concept of the “pyramid of actual needs,” and other researchers.
Thanks to the research of scientists in various specialties, psychologists have been able to better understand the structure and mechanisms of the human brain.
[1] Reflection is understood as the ability of material objects, in the process of interaction with other objects, to reproduce in their changes some features and traits of the phenomena affecting them.
Difference between basic and applied psychology
Fundamental psychology is known as general psychology. It focuses on studying and explaining the behavior of people, regardless of their type of activity. Thus, it becomes a universal area of cognition and can be useful in many other industries.
General psychology is faced with problems, the solution of which is necessary for all areas without exception.
Applied psychology concentrates on obtaining practical information. They can be used in pedagogy, politics, engineering and other areas that require the study of patterns of human behavior and reactions to various situations. Also, in this area there are differences in the tools used, such as the form for solving problems (psychotherapy, psychological support), or methods (NLP, psychoanalysis or psychodrama).
Recent decades have been marked by the tremendous introduction of psychology into human life. More and more people are becoming interested in this science, trying to understand their feelings and their true nature using effective scientific methods. In ancient times, the emerging psychology also tried to understand the human soul, but from a spiritual point of view.
Currently, faced with the challenges of modern psychology, many researchers may find themselves at a dead end. Science still has a number of problems. The main one is the need to gain knowledge from other areas. As a result, separate directions in psychology begin to emerge for better merging and systematization of acquired knowledge.
