Subject of general psychology. Mental phenomena. Mental processes, mental properties, mental states

At the moment, the concept refers to general methodological categories. It is currently in demand in many areas of human activity. It is also necessary to take into account the psychological state at a professional level when training representatives of many specialties. Including astronauts, athletes, law enforcement officers, specialists in the field of labor and teaching activities. It underlies the formation of universal human norms and rules of behavior. This category has been closely studied since the mid-twentieth century. The initial reason for its study was the formation of accounting in the formation of labor standards. This concept currently defines the uniqueness of the specific activity of a particular individual.

Types of psychological states

Currently, the following types of psychological states are distinguished:

• Defined by the source of formation as personal and situational.
• Separated into a separate type according to the level of severity as superficial and deep.
• They may differ in duration; in such a situation, short-term, long-term, and medium-duration are distinguished.
• Differing in degree of awareness as unconscious and conscious.
• Characterized by emotional characteristics as neutral, positive and negative.
• Sorted according to the degree of influence: depressing (asthenic), activating (sthenic), negative and positive.
• The manifestations are divided according to the level of psychological, physiological and psychophysiological.

If we simplify all these types as much as possible, then all psychological states are divided into three leading groups: positive, negative and specific.

• The list of positive ones includes love, kindness, interest in learning, happiness and other positive factors. They are characterized by an increased level of social activity, positive mood, and a high degree of performance.
• Negative ones include anger, envy, fear, anger and other manifestations of states that are completely opposed to positive types; accordingly, they lead to a decrease in the level of performance and a positive perception of life.
• The list of specific states includes wakefulness, sleep, a state of altered consciousness and similar states.

In most cases, a person is able to determine his condition independently and assess the cause of its occurrence. Violation of self-determination indicates the presence of psychological disorders. At the moment, psychological states are just beginning to be closely studied as a separate area. Many criteria have not yet been clearly identified.

Categorization criteria

It is customary to divide psychological experiences into independent categories according to such basic characteristics as:

• the source of their occurrence (they are born internally under the influence of a person’s thoughts or are formed as a result of the influence of external factors);
• degree of awareness (formed in the unconscious layer, in the preconscious or in the conscious layer of the psyche);
• duration (short-term, medium-term or long-term);
• degree of severity (barely noticeable, medium severity, pronounced);
• emotional background (positive or negative);
• area of ​​manifestation (behavior, work activity, mood, will, motivation).

Diagnosis of psychological conditions

At the moment, in specialized practice there are three main methods for the diagnostic determination of psychological states:

• Subjective-evaluative, based on the study of accompanying foundations characteristic of psychological states. Determined by the patient independently. What is taken into account is what the observed is able to describe. As a rule, specialized graphic scales are used. Including “Scale-graph of emotional state”, SAN, ACC, “Relief of psychological state”.
• The study of unconscious psychological states, carried out on the basis of data from specially developed questionnaires. The patient independently evaluates how each principle given in the questionnaire corresponds to his self-perception. For example, the “Reactive and Personal Anxiety Assessment Scale” developed by C.D. is used. Spielberg and Yu.D. Khanin.
• Study of the expressive (behavioral) component.

When conducting research, data from the Relaxation Activation Test (RAT) are taken into account. Parameters of autonomic functions are taken into account, such as heart rate, breathing rate, brain encephalogram, GSR, ECG and other studies.

Physiological studies make it possible to objectively describe immediate changes in the patient’s psycho-emotional state. Often this type of research is recognized by experts as the most reliable and revealing. The study analyzes the actions of several people placed in similar conditions.

Conducting reliable tests is recommended only after reaching adulthood. Indicators in childhood and adolescence do not differ in high indicators.

Assessment of psychological state

Currently, mental status assessment is carried out by allowing the patient to undergo certain tests. They examine indicators of human health. It is proposed to evaluate the level of cardiac activity, the presence of pain, for example, headaches or in the stomach. The patient needs to evaluate from his own point of view the condition and color of the skin, the body’s thermoregulation.

After processing the results obtained, the doctor must conduct an individual conversation with each patient. In its course, both the direct answers given by the person undergoing the study and the personal observations of the specialist are equally taken into account. The doctor evaluates the interlocutor’s behavior, his level of self-confidence, and his readiness to make contact with a specialist.

A comparison of the results obtained allows us to give the most objective assessment. The specialist also receives data confirming or refuting violations of the psychological state and psychological health in general. Conducting research is necessary in order to gain the most complete understanding of human mental activity.

Properties

All mental states have special properties:

1. Integrity is the interconnection and interdependence of all components of the psyche. This property influences the efficiency of human activity.
2. Sustainability. All types of human mental states are more permanent than momentary emotions.
3. Mobility is the property of mental states to change their functions following a change in the situation.
4. Polarity – this property expresses the pairing of emotional experiences. For every positive experience, you can select a diametrically opposite (negative) emotional experience.

Problems of psychological states

The problems of psychological states are just beginning to be studied closely. The occurrence of disorders is often associated with external symptoms. But they can become the basis for discomfort and a feeling of psychological distress.

The occurrence of mental health problems leads to a sharp decrease in the quality of life. Patients feel general dissatisfaction. Psychological problems can become the basis for the formation of psychosomatic diseases. At the level of general dissatisfaction with life, patients often experience asymptomatic headaches or pain in the gastrointestinal tract. Insomnia often occurs. Psychosomatic conditions can manifest themselves in the form of dizziness and fainting, and lead to eating disorders. The most common violation is a decrease in the level of performance and readiness for social adaptation in the team.

My recommendations

Clients often come to me with complaints of chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, and lack of desire to do anything. They do not understand what is happening to them, they report that they have been to many doctors, have undergone a bunch of tests, but the cause of the decrease in performance and apathy has not been established. "What happened with me?" - they ask me. My answer that these symptoms relate to anomalies in the mental state of the individual usually surprises them. However, my initial assumptions are confirmed by the results of psychological tests. At the next stage of working with the client, I tell him about what types of mental states are distinguished in modern psychology, since often, having familiarized themselves with the diagnostic results, they say: “Indicate what refers to the mental states of the individual.”

In most cases, 5-10 sessions with a psychologist are enough to correct the psychological state that occurs when you are in a low mood. I give recommendations on developing reflection skills and teach relaxation techniques. The main method in my work is art therapy. In my opinion, this method is the key to the inner world of the individual. Through art therapeutic exercises, a person finds harmony with himself and learns to manage his emotional field.

Psychological states of the individual

At the moment, there are several main types of psychological states of the individual. Until the mid-twentieth century, this factor was not assessed and was not clearly defined for the formation of a psychosomatic portrait of an individual. Although these indicators are often ready to become decisive in determining many of the leading factors in the formation of a person’s comfortable daily lifestyle and his readiness to engage in various types of activities.

Moral and psychological state

It is determined on the basis of a comparison of the interaction of the surrounding reality with mental experiences generated at the level of the individual’s psyche. In such a situation, an important factor that needs to be taken into account when forming a psychological portrait is the correspondence between internal experiences and the state of the environment.

A large role is given to including the individual’s psychotype and personal characteristics into the characteristics under consideration. Often, a major role in an adequate assessment of the moral and psychological state is the willingness to take into account the natural makeup of character. A sanguine person's assessment of what is happening will always differ from the choleric person's view of a similar situation.

Psychological states of a person

The analysis examines the structural organization of all mental components of a particular person. It is determined taking into account the positions of personal and orientational attitudes. Such an analysis helps to compare the personal state with the state of the environment capable of satisfying personal needs, subjective realities in relation to specific needs. Personal attitudes and beliefs play the main role in such a situation. It is analyzed with the use of which components a person reaches the optimal level of satisfaction of needs and whether the environment around him is capable of providing the opportunity to form the necessary indicators.

Psychological state of the child

Until late adolescence, it is quite difficult to objectively assess the psychological state of a child. An incompletely formed psyche is prone to sudden changes in mood and perception of the surrounding reality.

At the same time, analyzing the psychological state of a minor becomes an adequate way to assess the psychological state of his environment. The psychological state of the child suffers and this is clearly noticeable to the specialist in the event of a breakdown in contact with adult relatives and peers. Negative tendencies can lead to significant cognitive impairment. The readiness to perceive knowledge decreases, well-being worsens, and self-esteem falls. All these indicators can negatively affect adult life.

Social psychological state

The socio-psychological state can have a significant impact on the positive or negative perception of life in general. In this situation, experts consider all the relationships into which an individual enters to varying degrees, and how confident he feels in them. Is the environment capable of generating support for an individual’s actions or does it become a provocateur for the formation of violations.

A negative socio-psychological state can become the basis for the formation of psychosomatic disorders.

Mental health is an important part of human health.
This is primarily due to the fact that the human body, in which all elements are interconnected and influence each other, is largely under the control of the nervous system, therefore the mental state affects the work of each of the functional systems, and the state of the latter, in in turn, affects the psyche. Mental health should be characterized by:

• Absence of mental or psychosomatic diseases;
• Normal age-related development of the psyche;
• Favorable (normal) functional state.

A favorable mental state is considered as a complex of characteristics and functions that correspond to the age norm and ensure the effective performance by a person of the tasks facing him in various spheres of life.

The human psyche, especially the developing one (in a child), is characterized by a connection between a changing genetic program with a plastic environment (especially social). Therefore, the norm of mental health is determined very difficult, mostly qualitatively, and the boundary between illness and health is blurred in some cases. This is why borderline states are much more typical for the nervous system than for other organs and systems. This is especially significant when performing a particular job accompanied by mental stress. This tension is the physiological “price” that the body pays for carrying out activities. The same level of performance in different people is achieved at the cost of unequal efforts, which is especially noticeable in children.

Determining the norm of health in the intellectual and mental sphere is a rather complex task, which is due to the great flexibility of the functional characteristics of the nervous system and the complex dynamics of the brain-environment relationship. In practice, the problem can be resolved through a complex medical-biological and psychological examination, and the final conclusion can only be made by a specialist, and in the field of mental health - a comparison of the opinions of several expert specialists in the field of neurology, psychiatry, psychoneurology, psychology, psychoanalysis. But for an ongoing assessment of mental health and self-monitoring of their condition, each person can use some simple techniques that do not require special equipment or special knowledge.

An undoubted criterion of mental health is the fullness of sleep as an important component of human life.

One of the leading indicators of the functional state of the psyche is mental performance, which integrates the main characteristics of the psyche - perception, attention, memory, etc. Its high level is one of the main indicators of mental health and the functional state of the body as a whole. A decrease in mental performance is an important sign of deteriorating mental health. It is accompanied by an increase in the number of errors (decreased attention), difficulty concentrating on a task (decrease in concentration), lethargy, apathy, and loss of interest in work and study. If a decrease in performance is combined with vegetative changes (increased or decreased heart rate, increased sweating, etc.), headaches, psychosomatic disorders (pain and discomfort in various areas of the body, in the stomach, not related to food, in the heart, etc. .), depressed state, unreasonable fears, etc., then this may indicate fatigue or overwork.

Mental health and learning Promoting mental health is a task for the whole society and for each individual. Solving this problem is impossible without deep knowledge of the essence of the human psyche, the individual characteristics of its organization, and an understanding of the value of each individuality and its uniqueness. This needs to be taught and, on the basis of relevant knowledge, to develop skills in managing one’s mental state, promoting health, and unlocking a person’s reserve capabilities.

The human psyche is an unusually plastic phenomenon. Knowing the individual characteristics of the psyche of a given person, it is possible to structure the educational and educational processes in such a way as to not only ensure a high level of mental health, but also enable a person to exercise healthy and purposefully organized control over his psyche, develop it in the right, most interesting direction, and achieve this basis of outstanding achievements. However, the use of certain means and methods of training and organizing the psyche should be based solely on an individual approach, a comprehensive and in-depth study of all psychological and socio-psychological characteristics of a person. Therefore, special attention of the family, educational institution and the person himself should be directed to understanding these characteristics, their age dynamics, gender characteristics, dominant congenital and acquired needs. Only on this basis can we organize an appropriate educational environment and create a truly healthy lifestyle. There is no doubt that this will help the person himself to know himself better and organize his lifestyle in an optimal way, based on a strong psychological attitude.

Education about the basics of mental health should be carried out throughout all age stages.

The family can and should play a huge role in the formation of a healthy psyche. The child's psyche begins to develop in the womb. The formation of the child’s psyche depends on the psychological situation around the expectant mother and her emotional state. And in the future, after the birth of a child, not only the individual characteristics of the child depend on how he is treated in the family, whether he feels comfortable and protected, but also how fully he will be able to self-realize in the process of his development, how much he will develop genetic prerequisites inherent in it by nature. Each person's genotype is unique in its own way. His future and his mental health largely depend on how adequate the environment and upbringing are to a person’s natural characteristics.

It is especially important to understand the individual typological characteristics of the psyche in organizing a student’s educational activities. Unfortunately, most often, directly in the implementation of the educational process, the teacher uses generally accepted approaches that are focused on the “average” student, and average in academic performance, and not in characterological characteristics, a significant part of which is genetically determined and does not change throughout a person’s life (although can be corrected to some extent by targeted education and training). A typical example is completing a test in exact disciplines, when the condition for obtaining a high grade is completing as many tasks as possible. However, this does not take into account that the speed of inclusion in work and switching to other types of work in children with different types of temperament is not the same: under such conditions, a choleric person feels like a fish in water, but in a limited time frame it is difficult for a phlegmatic person. As a result, the first person comes to the conclusion that in order to receive a high mark there is no need for purposeful daily work, and the phlegmatic person, who, other things being equal, is characterized by an extremely responsible attitude to the assigned work, concludes that all his efforts are in vain. The existence of school standards and physical education gives the same result - a student who has genetically determined short stature and an unfavorable body constitution is initially doomed to fail certain types of them, and a student who has inherited high growth is convinced that he does not have to deal with his physical development, because he already has it will work out. That is, in the end, both come to the conclusion that the role of their own responsibility in learning is small.

It seems that the weak consideration in teaching methods of the sexual specifics of mental activity is of no less negative significance. It is known that the female psyche is more characterized by stability and certainty, therefore girls prefer to master ready-made material, they better perceive space-time connections and master languages. A boy, a man, needs constant self-affirmation, proof of his exclusivity; he is better versed in mechanical relations and mathematical reasoning, but memorizing truths seems like hard work to him. However, the teaching methodology does not take into account these gender characteristics, and the tasks presented to students are of a general nature.

It should also be noted that already in the junior level of school education, children of the same passport age have a different biological age (and this indicator is largely related to health, performance, intellectual potential, thinking characteristics, etc.), according to official statistics, by 1.5 - 2.5 years, and by adolescence this difference manifests itself to an even greater extent.

Comparison (not for the better) with other students according to the principle: if they can do it, then you should too, has undoubted traumatic consequences for the child’s psyche. But he is not like them, he is the result of a unique combination of geno- and phenotynic circumstances, and there has never been and never will be another person like him in the world! This is why a “weak” student develops an inferiority complex, embodied in the lack of desire to learn (it won’t work out anyway), and a “strong” student develops a superiority complex (let fools learn, I can do it anyway) with the same lack of desire to learn.

The ideal (although quite achievable) option would be one in which each student would not be adjusted to an assessment standard, and the latter would be based on one premise - if he himself has become better today than he was yesterday, then his assessment should be high , because this means that he worked on himself! Without a doubt, such an approach would make the student interested in achieving a result that is completely accessible to him.

Unfortunately, children are practically not taught the organization of educational work that would take into account the characteristics of their memory, temperament, motivation, etc. There is no doubt that already at the stage of primary education, the student should be familiarized with the following issues:

Your daily routine. Here you should pay attention to the clear alternation of various types of activities of the student, consistency of sleep patterns, taking care of your health, participation in family life, etc.

Features of memory. There are many types of memory, and it is very important for each person to determine the type that prevails in him so that the development of new educational material is based primarily on its use. At the same time, you should pay attention to training lagging types of memory.

Student's workplace at home.
Improper organization of a student’s workspace at home often turns doing homework into a hassle, into a loss of significant time searching for the necessary items, into extreme strain on the visual system, etc. - everything that ultimately affects the child’s health. When and how to prepare homework. To effectively complete homework, you must follow the following rules:

• tasks should be completed, if possible, at the same time of day; the time for their completion and breaks must be determined in advance;
• before doing homework, you need to recover well from schoolwork;
• the room where the student does homework should be well ventilated, and the air temperature should, if possible, be between 18 - 20°C;
• all extraneous irritants that would distract attention from productive work should be eliminated;
• a hearty lunch should be served no later than 2 - 2.5 hours before starting homework (a light meal can be 1 - 1.5 hours before); but it is unacceptable to sit down to do homework and feel hungry;
• performing active physical exercises is permissible no later than 2 - 2.5 hours before doing homework;
• homework should not be delayed until bedtime - this makes it difficult to fall asleep and makes sleep incomplete;
• You should take into account your own characteristics when mastering educational material.

In what order should you do your homework? Each person has his own individual characteristics in mastering educational material. It is advisable for each student, by observing his own performance, to establish his own schedule for completing tasks. If he is “easy-going”, gets into work easily and works with enthusiasm at first, more productively than at the end of classes, but gets tired relatively quickly (choleric), then he should start preparing homework with the most difficult subject. If a student gets involved in work slowly, spends a lot of time “building up”, work productivity increases gradually, but work capacity lasts longer, and fatigue appears later (phlegmatic), then such a student should start with tasks of average difficulty and gradually move on to more complex ones. . If a student generally has difficulty starting homework, if any failure in completing it makes him nervous (melancholic), then it is better to start with the simplest ones, success in which brings him satisfaction and a desire to achieve new positive results.

Every schoolchild has his favorite subjects and teachers, and there are also academic disciplines that are difficult for him or are simply uninteresting. Therefore, you should set your own scale of subject difficulty and stick to it when doing your homework.

Sometimes the order of preparing assignments in subjects has to be changed. For example, if, when doing homework, a student encounters difficulties in solving complex problems (mathematics, physics), this task must be moved to the last priority (and completed after the last break), otherwise the significant time spent on solving it will not allow for a good preparation of tasks for others. educational subjects.

How to restore mental performance and prevent the development of severe fatigue. To do this, you need to take pre-planned breaks every 45-50 minutes of class. During the first four to five minutes of an 8-10 minute break, you can, for example, recommend doing homework in physical education, for girls - dancing to rhythmic music, jumping rope, for boys - strength exercises, etc. It is advisable at this time to perform a set of exercises aimed at improving cerebral circulation, restoring attention, eliminating possible adverse changes in posture, blood circulation and breathing associated with prolonged forced posture, preventing excessive mental stress and visual impairment. It is better if, with each subsequent break in preparing homework, the set of 6 - 8 exercises changes. You just need to remember that at this time you cannot use such muscle loads that can lead to physical fatigue.

Having completed physical exercises for 4 - 5 minutes, during the remaining break time you can walk freely or fill it with other types of vigorous activity: perform the necessary housework, hygiene procedures, etc., but you cannot devote it to working with new information (watching TV programs , working on a computer, etc.).

Weekend. These days should not be interrupted by additional time for academic work, but should be a time when a person would fully restore his physical and mental reserves, which were used up to one degree or another during the work week. Therefore, weekends must be active: country walks, meetings with friends, excursions, doing what you love - everything that should bring pleasure. It won’t hurt to do those household chores that you “didn’t get around to” in the routine of everyday life. After such active days off, a person enters a new work week with a feeling of joyful anticipation and high performance.

For schoolchildren, all educational activities take place under strictly determined circumstances: schedules, teacher dictates, poor consideration in teaching of the individual characteristics of each student, etc. All this forms his psychological attitudes, which to one degree or another affect his health. The younger the child, the more susceptible he is to the formation of attitudes on an unconscious level, the more important it is for him to have positive role models for the development of healthy motivations. In children of older age groups and in adults, consciousness and understanding of the importance and necessity of valeological measures play a more important role. That is why the low level of motivation for a healthy lifestyle (especially in healthy people in the clinical sense of the word) must be countered by the formation of motivation for self-improvement. The latter, depending on age and gender, level of culture and social affiliation, the presence of their own priority settings, etc., can be focused on physical and mental improvement, improving communication capabilities, the desire to master a particular profession, achieving a certain social status and etc.

Levels of psychological state

When analyzing the psychological state of an individual, various levels of psychological state are taken into account. At the moment, experts identify several parameters that form the basis of this characteristic:

• Socio-psychological, when determining which indicators of personality, activity, and interpersonal relationships are taken into account.
• Psychological, on which the formation of psychological functions and changes in mood directly depend.
• Psychophysiological, on which the autonomic reactions of the body, possible changes occurring in sensory and psychomotor function depend.
• Physiological, showing neurophysiological characteristics, changes in physiological functions, morphological and biochemical changes in the body.

When studying the influence of levels of psychological state, the basic characteristic is the state of the individual in a good mood, at the moment when he is completely satisfied with the fulfillment of his physiological and moral needs. When considering the situation in each specific case, it is necessary to take into account the parameters “variability-constancy” and “long-term-situationalism”. Such an analysis makes it possible to determine the levels and parameters of the psychological state by comparing stable personality traits and character and mental processes. The readiness of a short-term parameter to move into the stage of a stable indicator is assessed.

If a long-term disturbance in levels is detected at any stage, it may be recommended to consult a psychotherapist to correct the perception of the surrounding reality and identify the possible presence of psychological diseases.

General ideas about the psyche

The psyche is a multifaceted construct that determines a person’s personality. There are several links in it:

• Mental processes. These are dynamic indicators that are criteria for understanding the world, help to take and analyze information from everything that surrounds a person, form his emotions in a specific episode of life, his behavior, goals and motives, and also regulate communication, depending on the situation, changing gestures and posture, volume and tone of voice, facial expressions. In the process of personality development, they constantly vary.
• Mental properties. Properties include:

1. temperament, which is established at birth;
2. character, which, when studying personality, also turned out to be largely dependent on the hereditary factor and only 10% on the external one;
3. abilities that are both inherent in nature and formed during the development of the individual.

Properties are a static concept, but are subject to relative variation when exposed to a prolonged irritating factor.

• Mental states. Determines exactly which processes and properties of a person will manifest themselves in a given situation and which of them will prevail over others.

Factors of psychological states

The leading factor in a person’s psychological state is, first and foremost, the state of his health. The parameters are determined by taking into account the level of stressful environment on daily life activities.

In addition to health, such factors include satisfaction with personal life, interpersonal relationships, financial situation and other points that show the degree of satisfaction with the surrounding reality.

The combination of several negative factors or the long-term negative impact of one of them leads to a deterioration in the psychological state. In cases where such perception of what is happening lasts for a long period or is excessively exciting, it is recommended to contact a specialist.

During individual or group sessions of psychotherapy, psychotraining, psychologists and, if necessary, psychiatrists, form readiness to overcome the level of influence of unfavorable conditions, provide assistance in activating the necessary volitional qualities that allow one to overcome difficult periods and eliminate problems with minimal psychological disturbances of the condition. Formed:

• focus of control;
• adequate high self-esteem;
• psychological activity;
• dominance of positive emotions without agitation.

People with high nervous system strength endure the inevitable difficulties of life more easily than people with a weak will.

Characteristics of psychological state

Used to assess the mental activity of a particular individual. It is usually considered over a certain period of time. Preference is given to a long duration of the study, taking at least several days.

The results of short-term analysis can be overly influenced by temporary factors. Including minor troubles, simply feeling unwell, and uncertainty about carrying out a new activity. Long-term observation makes it possible to assess an individual’s tendency to joy or sadness, apathy and activity. In this situation, it is easier to take into account the mandatory combination of a person’s individual characteristics and environmental factors that surround him. An accurate determination is only possible with an adequate comparison of these factors.

After a thorough analysis, the prevailing characteristics of the psychological state are determined. Changes that involve psychological, emotional and physical parameters are taken into account. A long period of observation allows us to determine the main characteristics characteristic of a particular individual. For example, the predominance of the tendency to dominate and the intensity of positive and negative emotions, sadness or joy.

Due to this, the psychotype of a particular character can be formed. This can be used when the presence or suspicion of the presence of certain psychological diseases in developing a course of therapy. Also, the psychotype can be taken into account when determining suitability for a particular professional activity, character compliance with the requirements for the position held. This is especially important for military personnel, teachers, doctors, and social service employees.