T.E. CHERCHES

THE BASES

DIFFERENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Study guide

as a teaching aid

Department of Psychology (Protocol No. 9 dated 05. 2012)

and the scientific and methodological council of the BIP

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, BIP

T.E. Cherches

Reviewers:

Associate Professor of the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, Belarusian State University

culture and arts

PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor

G.L. Speranskaya

Professor of the Department of Psychology, ChUO "BIP - Institute of Law"

PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor

A.A. Amelkov

Cherches, T.E. Fundamentals of Differential Psychology : study. - method. manual / T.E. Cherches - Minsk: BIP-S Plus, 2012 .-- p.

The proposed edition is a teaching aid on the discipline "Differential psychology" for students of all forms of education. It is written in accordance with the new educational standard for the training of psychologists.

The manual provides the most important information that students need to productively master the course. Along with theoretical material, it contains questions for independent work and recommended literature, with the help of which students will be able to deepen and systematize their knowledge on the problems of the formation and development of differential psychology, to form the professional position of future psychologists.

BBK ISBN © Cherches T.E., 2012

INTRODUCTION

The educational-methodical manual "Fundamentals of Differential Psychology" was developed for the preparation of students studying in the specialty "Psychology" in higher educational institutions.

Currently, the problem of studying human individuality is one of the central themes of theoretical and applied research in psychology. The purpose of this manual is to provide a direction for future psychologists who are beginning to get acquainted with the course "Differential Psychology", to help them navigate the available bibliographic sources.

The basis for writing the manual was the work of S.K. Nartovoy-Bochaver "Differential Psychology". Separate sections are based on the materials of the textbooks by M.S. Egorova, E.P. Ilyin, V.N. Mashkov, as well as the classical textbook by A. Anastazi.

This tutorial sets out the methodological foundations of differential psychology, its subject matter and methods. It sets out in an accessible form the classical and the latest theoretical ideas about individual variations of the psyche, which are manifested in the specifics of the organization of the nervous system, mental processes, personality traits and behavior, human life style, and various typologies of individuality.

Considerable attention is paid to the individual specifics of temperament, character, abilities and intelligence, the characteristics of gender differences. The manual includes such topics as "Sources of individual differences", "Psychophysiological foundations of individual differences", "Sex characteristics as factors of individual differences", "Individual characteristics of professional activity", etc.

Topic 1. Differential psychology as a field of psychological knowledge

1. 1 Subject, purpose and objectives of differential psychology.

Differential psychology- (from Lat. Differentia - difference) a branch of psychology that studies psychological differences both between individuals and between groups of people, the causes and consequences of these differences.

Itemdifferential psychology in the modern interpretation is formulated as follows: study of the structure of individuality on the basis of identifying individual, typological and group differences between people by the method of comparative analysis.

Based on the subject of study, differential psychology includes three sections, which are devoted to three types of differences: 1) individual, 2) group and 3) typological.

Individual differences - these are manifestations of general psychological laws at the level of an individual. Individual differences can be roughly divided into two groups: a) intra-individual and b) inter-individual.

Inside-individual differences mean: the difference between a person and himself in different periods of life; the difference between a person and himself in different situations and different social groups; the ratio of various manifestations of personality, character, intelligence in an individual.

Under inter-individual differences are understood: the differences between an individual person and most other people (correlation with the general psychological norm); the difference between a person and a specific group of people.

Group differences- these are the differences between people, taking into account their belonging to a particular community or group, first of all, belonging to large groups that are distinguished according to the following criteria: gender, age, nationality (race), cultural tradition, social class, etc. each of these groups is a natural manifestation of the nature of any person (as a biological and social being) and allows you to get a more complete picture of the characteristics of his individuality.

3. Typological differences– this O differences between people, which are distinguished by psychological (in some cases - psychophysiological) criterion or criteria, such as, for example, features of temperament, character, personality. At the same time, people are united into certain groups - types. The selection of such groups is the result of attempts to classify information about the differences between people in order to explain and predict their behavior, as well as to determine the most adequate areas of application of their abilities.

Goal and tasks differential psychology are defined based on several theoretical positions.

1.Universality of differences . Differences (intra- and interindividual) are an essential feature of human behavior, as well as the behavior of all living organisms, including humans.

2.Need for measurement when examining differences. The study of individual differences is about measurement and quantification.

3. Stability of the studied characteristics. Differential psychology studies the characteristics that are most stable over time and in different situations.

4 Determination of Behavior. By comparing differences in behavior with other known concomitant phenomena, it is possible to identify the relative contributions of various factors to the development of behavior.

5. The relationship and complementarity of the general and the special in the study of differences... On the one hand, differences manifest the operation of the most general laws of human behavior. On the other hand, "the concrete manifestation of any general law of psychology always includes the factor of individuality."

Based on the listed principles goal differential psychology in the modern interpretation is defined as “ study of the mechanisms of development and functioning of the human individuality as an integral phenomenon that exists in the field of interaction of subjective and objective realities».

The implementation of the goal is carried out by solving the following tasks: study of the range of individual differences in psychological characteristics; study of the structure of psychological characteristics of an individual; investigation of the nature of individual differences; study of various differences between groups of people; analysis of group distribution of signs; study of the sources of differences among the measured features; development of theoretical foundations for psychodiagnostic research and correction programs.

Differential psychology has areas of intersection with other branches of psychological knowledge. It differs from general psychology the fact that the latter focuses on the study of general laws of the psyche (including the psyche of animals). Age-related psychology studies the characteristics of a person through the prism of patterns inherent in the age stage of his development. Social Psychology considers the features acquired by a person due to his belonging to a certain social group. Differential psychophysiology analyzes the individual characteristics of the human psyche, due to the properties of the nervous system.

1.2 The origin and development of differential psychology as an independent science

Stages development of differential psychology: 1. Prepsychological stage(development of psychological typologies within the framework of philosophy); 2. Differential psychology as an independent science(II half of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th century); 3. Development of differential psychology based on accurate statistical measurements(the beginning of the twentieth century - the present).

Differential psychology began to take shape as an independent area of psychological science in the last quarter of the 19th century. A great contribution to the study of individual differences was made by F. Galton by creating tests to measure sensorimotor and other simple functions, collecting extensive data in a variety of testing conditions, and developing statistical methods for analyzing this kind of data. American psychologist D. M. Cattell, continued the development of tests started by F. Galton and applied the differential approach in experimental psychology.

In 1895 A. Binet and W. Henry published an article entitled "The Psychology of Personality", which was the first systematic analysis of the goals, subject matter and methods of differential psychology. As the main problems of differential psychology, the authors of the article put forward two: 1) the study of the nature and degree of individual differences in psychological processes; 2) the discovery of the relationship of the mental processes of the individual, which can make it possible to classify qualities and the ability to determine which functions are the most fundamental.

The term "differential psychology" was introduced by a German psychologist V. Stern in his work "The Psychology of Individual Differences", published in 1900. He was one of the first scientists to collect contemporary ideas about the differences between people and, on the basis of this, developed a whole concept of individual differences, and then added questions related to group differences to individual differences and designated this area as "differential psychology".

The main research method was initially individual and group tests, tests of differences in mental abilities, and later - projective methods for measuring attitudes and emotional reactions.

By the end of the 19th century, in connection with the introduction into psychology experimental method, the study of differences moves to a qualitatively new level, involving the measurement and subsequent analysis of individual and group characteristics. The following prerequisites are distinguished for the design of differential psychology into a separate independent science:

1. Opening by W. Wundt in 1879 psychological laboratory, where he began in experimental conditions the study of mental processes.

2. Discovery of the reaction time phenomenon . In 1796, thanks to the imaginary oversight of the assistant of the Greenwich Observatory, Kinnibrook, reaction time was discovered as a psychological phenomenon (individual differences were found between observing astronomers in determining the location of the star). Published in 1822 F. Bessel the results of their long-term observations of the motor reaction time of German astronomers can be considered the first scientific report on the study of the differential psychological aspects of human behavior. Later Dutch explorer F. Donders developed a special scheme for calculating the reaction time, and an increase in reaction time began to be perceived as an indicator of the complication of mental processes.

3. Using methods of statistical analysis. In 1869 in F. Galton at work"Hereditary genius", written under the influence of evolutionary theory C. Darwin, interpreted the results of his statistical analysis of the biographical facts of outstanding people, and also substantiated the hereditary determination of human abilities

4. Use of psychogenetic data- a field of psychology bordering on genetics, the subject of which is the origin of individual psychological characteristics of a person, the role of the environment and genotype in their formation. The most informative was the twin method, which was first used by F. Galton. This method allows you to maximally equalize the impact of the environment and differentiate differences depending on the source of their origin: genetic(passed down from generation to generation), congenital(relevant only to relatives of the same generation), acquired(related to the difference in environment).

1.3 Methods of differential psychology

The methods used by differential psychology can be roughly divided into several groups: general scientific, historical, psychological, psychogenetic, methods of statistical analysis.

−general scientific methods(observation, experiment) - modification of methods that are used in many other sciences, in relation to psychological reality;

- historical methods devoted to the study of outstanding personalities, the characteristics of the environment and heredity, which served as impulses for their spiritual development. Among the hysterical methods are:

1.Biographical method- the use of the personal biography of an outstanding person over a long period of time to compile his psychological portrait; 2. Diary method- a variant of the biographical method, usually devoted to the study of the life of an ordinary person and contains a description of his development and behavior, carried out for a long time by an expert; 3. Autobiography- This is a life story based on direct impressions and retrospective experience;

- proper psychological methods(introspective - self-observation, self-esteem; psychophysiological; socio-psychological - questionnaires, conversation, sociometry; age-psychological methods of "transverse" (comparison of separate groups of children of different ages and "longitudinal" (longitudinal) were used to study the daily behavior of children) sections;

-psychogenetic methods - this group of methods is aimed at identifying environmental and heredity factors in individual variations of psychological qualities, as well as analyzing the relative influence of each of these two factors on the individual characteristics of a person. Genetic analysis of the factors of individual differences involves the use of three methods: 1) genealogical, 2) foster child method and 3) twin method. 1. Genealogical method- the method of researching families, pedigrees, One of the variants of this method - genogram. In this method, along with kinship relations, they record: 1) relations of psychological closeness (close - distant); 2) relations of conflict; 3) family script installations. 2. Foster Child Method is to include in the study: 1) children, as early as possible, given up for education by biologically alien parents-educators, 2) adopted children, and 3) biological parents. 3.When using twin method among the twins, a) are monozygous (developed from one egg and therefore have identical gene sets) and b) dizygotic (in terms of their genetic set, they are similar to ordinary brothers and sisters, with the only difference that they were born at the same time);

-methods of statistical analysis techniques of applied mathematics, which are used to increase the objectivity and reliability of the data obtained, to process experimental results. In differential psychology, three such methods are most commonly used - dispersive(allows you to determine the measure of individual variation in indicators), correlative(certifies the existence of a connection, dependence between the studied variables) and factorial(designed to determine properties that cannot be observed and measured directly) analysis.

Sometimes methods of studying individuality are divided into three groups - based on the channel through which the information was received.

L - data based on the registration of human behavior in everyday life. Since even for scientific purposes it is impossible for one psychologist to comprehensively study human behavior in different conditions, experts are usually involved - people who have experience of interacting with the subject in a significant area. Estimates must be formalized and expressed in quantitative form.

T - data objective tests (trials) with a controlled experimental situation. Objectivity is achieved due to the fact that restrictions are imposed on the possibility of distorting test assessments and there is an objective way to obtain assessments based on the subject's reaction.

Q - data obtained using questionnaires, questionnaires and other standardized methods. This channel is central to personality research due to its high cost-effectiveness (it can be used in a group, automatically processing the results). However, it is not considered highly reliable.

Thus, there is no absolutely perfect way of cognizing individuality, but, realizing the shortcomings and advantages of each of the listed methods, one can learn to obtain quite reliable information with their help.

1.4 Features of psychological norms

When studying the differences, concepts appear, for the measurement of which specific methods are then created or selected. In this regard, the concept of psychological norm, very heterogeneous in its content, which is influenced by four factors:

1. Norm Is a statistical concept. The normal is that which belongs to the middle of the distribution. To assess the quality, you need to correlate a person's indicator with others and thus determine its place on the normal distribution curve. Statistical determination of norms is carried out empirically for individual groups of people (age, social and others), in a specific territory and in a specific period of time.

2. Norms are driven by social stereotypes... If a person's behavior does not correspond to the ideas accepted in a given society, it is perceived as deviant.

3. Norms Associated With Mental Health... Anything that requires referral to a clinician may be considered abnormal. It should be noted, however, that in psychiatry, the evaluative approach is discussed, and as the most significant indications of a deviation from the norm, a violation of the productivity of activity and the ability to self-regulation is taken.

4. The concept of norms is determined by expectations, own non-generalized experience and other subjective variables.

V. Stern, calling for caution in assessing a person, noted that psychologists have no right to draw a conclusion about the abnormality of the individual himself, based on the abnormality of his individual property. In modern psychological diagnostics, the concept of "norm" is used in the study of impersonal characteristics, and when it comes to personality, the term "features" is used, thereby emphasizing a deliberate rejection of the normative approach.

Topic 2. Sources of individual differences

2.1 Interaction of heredity and environment in the formation of individual differences

Determining the sources of individual mental variations is the central problem of differential psychology. Individual differences are generated by the numerous and complex interactions between heredity and environment. Heredity ensures the stability of the existence of a biological species, Wednesday- its variability and ability to adapt to changing living conditions. Different theories and approaches assess the contribution of the two factors to the formation of individuality in different ways. Historically, the following groups of theories have emerged from the point of view of their preference for biological or environmental, socio-cultural determination. 1.In biogenetic theories the formation of individuality is understood as predetermined by innate and genetic inclinations. Development is a gradual unfolding of these properties in time, and the contribution of environmental influences is very limited. F. Galton, as well as the author of the theory of recapitulation, St. Hall, was a supporter of this approach. 2. Sociogenetic theories argue that initially a person is a blank slate (tabula rasa), and all his achievements and features are due to external conditions (environment). This position was shared by J. Locke. 3. Two-factor theories(convergence of two factors) understood development as a result of the interaction of innate structures and external influences. K. Buhler, V. Stern, A. Binet believed that the environment is superimposed on the factors of heredity. 4. The doctrine of higher mental functions(cultural-historical approach) L. S. Vygotsky argues that the development of individuality is possible due to the presence of culture - the generalized experience of mankind. Higher mental functions, which are characteristic only of a person, are mediated by a sign and objective activity, which are the content of culture. And in order for the child to be able to appropriate it, it is necessary that he entered into a special relationship with the world around him: he did not adapt, but actively appropriated the experience of previous generations in the process of joint activities and communication with adults who are cultural bearers.

To date, the theory of differential psychology follows the path of clarifying the concepts heredity and Wednesday. Heredity is understood not only as individual signs that influence behavior, but also as innate programs of behavior. Programs differ from signs replacing each other under the influence of the environment in that in this case the trajectory of development is anticipated; the program contains both the time of its "launch" and the sequence of critical points.

Concept Wednesday is considered as a changing series of stimuli to which the individual reacts throughout his life - from air and food to the conditions of education and the attitude of comrades, as a system of interactions between man and the world. M. Chernoushek offers the following features of the environment: 1. The environment does not have a firmly fixed framework in time and space; 2. It affects all the senses at once; 3. The environment provides not only the main, but also the secondary information; 4. It always contains more information than we are able to digest; 5. Environment is perceived in relation to activity; 6. The environment, along with material characteristics, has psychological and symbolic meanings .; 7. The environment acts as a whole.

W. Bronfenbrenner presented the ecological environment as a system of four concentric structures. Microsystem- the structure of activities, roles and interpersonal interactions in a given specific environment. Mesosystem- the structure of the relationship between two or more environments (family and work, home and peer group). Exosystem- the environment in the space of which significant events take place (social circle). Macrosystem- subculture (values, laws and traditions that a person follows). U.Bronfenbrenner believed that the macrosystem plays a decisive role in a person's lifestyle, subordinating all "internal" systems to itself. According to U.Bronfenbrenner, the environment contains two main dimensions: activities in which the person is involved, and mentors characteristics(teachers) whom he chooses for himself throughout his life. At different stages of development, a person naturally chooses and changes his environment, and during his life the role of his own activity in the formation of the environment is constantly increasing.

Another environment structure suggested B.C. Mukhina... It includes in the concept of environment objective world, figuratively-sign systems, social space and natural reality. They also talk about language environment, educational environment(V.V. Rubtsov), which are the source of certain human achievements. The environmental influence, therefore, includes the certainty of mental characteristics by geographical conditions - landscape, climate, etc. (geographical determinism), the content of culture and subculture, things necessary and valuable for the subject, and finally, the quality and form of human communication. The assignment (personalization) of the content of the environment is an important factor in the personality and self-awareness of a person.

One of the attempts to reconcile the supporters of biogenetic and sociogenetic concepts is orthogenetic concept of X. Werner(orthogenesis is a theory of the development of living nature). According to his views, all organisms are born with functions (including mental ones) fixed at the lowest point of their development. Interacting with the environment, they acquire new experience, which, in turn, is fixed in new functional structures that again determine the minimum of interaction, but already of a new quality. Thus, the organization of the previous stages implies, but does not contain the organization of the subsequent ones.

2.2 Individual, personality, individuality as the basic concepts of differential psychology

Noting the general, particular and singular in individual development, the terms individual, personality, individuality are usually used.

Individual Is a physical carrier of a person's psychological characteristics. The individual creates the prerequisites for personality traits, but cannot fundamentally determine those qualities that are sociocultural in origin. Personality(according to A. N. Leontiev) - a systemic quality of an individual, acquired by him in the course of cultural and historical development and possessing the properties of activity, subjectivity, partiality, awareness. According to the logic of this definition, not every individual develops into a personality, and personality, in turn, is not always uniquely determined by its anatomical and physiological prerequisites.

In Russian psychology, there are several approaches to identifying the structure of individuality, the authors of which are B.G. Ananiev, B.C. Merlin, E.A. Golubeva.

As you know, the main task of individual psychology is the study of mental characteristics, properties or qualities that distinguish people from each other. Differences between people are found both in certain aspects of the psyche, for example, in the characteristics of volitional qualities, emotionality, perception, memory, etc., and in the characteristics of the psyche in general, in differences in characters. The question of the differences in the psyche and the characteristics of the characters is closely related to general psychological positions. Atomistic psychology, including functional psychology, proceeds from the difference in mental elements and tries to deduce from them the differences in personalities. Holistic psychology recognizes the dependence of the part on the whole and considers character differences as the initial ones.

The basic concept of psychology - personality and its mental activity - presupposes the development of problems, without which it is impossible to understand the idea of personality. These problems, which have not received sufficient attention in school psychology, but theoretically and practically highly important, include: problems of interests, needs, values (ethical, aesthetic), character, inclinations.

Approaching the analysis of mental activity and meeting with different properties of the human psyche, we are faced, first of all, with the question of their relative role, their connections with each other, as well as the unity that, hiding behind diversity, warns us against views of personality as a mosaic of individual properties. In developing this question, we have long been putting forward the concept of mental relationships, the decisive importance of which is proved by everyday practice in all areas, but is not sufficiently reflected in the psychological literature. Life is full of such joyful facts: as you know, the quality and success of work depends on the attitude towards it; a seemingly insoluble task is solved thanks to a selfless attitude towards one's duties: pedagogical efforts turn an undisciplined and dissolute student into an exemplary one when it is possible to change his attitude towards school and his duties; the return of the oppressed patient to life by means of psychotherapy is achieved if he begins to relate differently to what painfully disturbed his neuropsychic activity.

In pre-revolutionary psychology, the importance of relationships was put forward by Lazursky in the doctrine of "exopsychics" and Bekhterev in the doctrine of "correlative activity." At present, the doctrine of relations is gradually acquiring more and more coverage in the materials of the works of Soviet authors. The mental attitude expresses the active, selective position of the individual, which determines the individual nature of activities and individual actions. WITH it is from this point of view that we illuminate here the problems of individual psychology.

The diversity of personality raises the question, where to start characterizing it? A person manifests himself in active interaction with reality. The richer the individual, the more actively it reconstructs reality, the wider its experience, the more mediated its reactions, the more they lose their dependence on the immediate conditions of the moment and become, as it were, internally conditioned. As a result of this "internal" conditioning, actions in the same situation can have a contrasting character, depending on the individual experience of the individual. Its activity is characterized primarily by a polar attitude of interest or indifference. In turn, selectively directed activity is determined by a positive attitude - aspiration, love, passion, respect, duty, etc. or a negative attitude - antipathy, antagonism, enmity, etc. The significance of these moments in the manifestation of character was noted by many authors who took a variety of methodological positions (Polan, Lossky, Stern, Adler, Kunkel, Allport, Utitz). But their definitions of character are amorphous, eclectic, one-sided or descriptive, and therefore unsatisfactory.

Obviously, personality characteristics cannot be limited to aspirations or positive tendencies; but must be supplemented by coverage of her indifferent and negative attitudes. Relationships connect a person with all aspects of reality, but with all their diversity, three main categories can be established: 1) natural phenomena or the world of things, 2) people and social phenomena, 3) the subject-personality itself. It must be emphasized that the perception of nature is mediated by social experience, and a person's relationship to himself is connected with his relationship to other people and their relationship to him. Therefore, for the typology of characters, the features of the relationship with people are of paramount importance, unilaterally understood as the antagonism of the personal and the public by such authors as Adler, Jung, Künckel and others.

Personality is actively manifested not so much in a one-sided influence on nature and things, as in a two-way interaction of people, which forms, develops or perverts character. Along with focus, we distinguish between the structure, level and dynamics of character. Speaking about the structure of character, they usually mean such traits as balance, integrity, duality, contradiction, harmony, inner consistency, etc. Structurally united by its coordination, mutual consistency of relations, the unity of personal and social, subjective and objective tendencies. Imbalance, duality, internal contradictions depend on the inconsistency of tendencies and their conflict. The level of the personality is expressed by its creative capabilities, but it is also found in the relationship of the personality. According to Lazursky, the highest level of personality is characterized most of all by exopsyche (attitudes, ideals), the lowest - by endopsychics (neuropsychic mechanisms), and the middle - by the correspondence of exo- and endopsychics.

Needless to say, for modern psychology these formulations must be changed, and the reference to A.F. We will highlight two points. The growth of experience and the generalization of all the wealth of human culture are accompanied by the replacement of tendencies - interests, more elementary, organically conditioned, "animals", with higher, ideological, cultural ones. This rather banal opposition of lower drives to higher aspirations usually mistakenly takes into account the determining role of only one drive or another, but loses sight of the integral nature of the relationship, which is different at different levels of development.

The second concerns the orientation of trends over time. The development and growth of activity make behavior more and more internally conditioned, and a person's actions are no longer determined by the situation of the moment - the scope of the current situation infinitely expands retrospectively and prospectively. Deep perspective is a challenge and goals projected far into the future; it is the structure of the personality, its behavior and Activity, in which concrete and labile relations of an acutely current moment are subordinated to a stable relation that integrates many moments of the present, past and future.

The types of characters described by psychologists acquire a significantly new meaning in the light of the psychology of relationships.

Kretschmer's "sensitivity" and "expansiveness" is a passive or offensive sharpening of egocentric tendencies. Jung's "introverted" type is isolated from communication with a sharpened personal tendency; The “extraverted” type is objectively sociocentric with a lack of individually defined human experience.

As you know, Ewald, focusing on Kretschmer, puts forward the importance of individual moments of reaction as the basis for determining the characteristics of character; these include: impressionability, the ability to hold-retention, intrapsychic processing, the ability to respond. It is extremely easy to show the formalism and nonviability of this scheme, although it would seem to be illustrated by rich empirical material.

Isn't selfishness an expression of increased sensitivity in matters of a personal nature and complete insensitivity to other people's interests? Doesn't the regenerative capacity also vary in contrast, depending on the attitude towards the content of the experience? How can one explain that a person remembers well how he was offended, but does not remember how he offended? Less often, but still the opposite occurs. What, if not attitude, explains the ability to respond in one and the same person, manifested by an amazing intemperance towards subordinates and great restraint in relation to superiors.

The entire "reaction structure" of Kretschmer-Ewald turns out to be a dead abstract mechanism until it is revived by the content of concrete relations.

Restraint, self-control represent the volitional qualities of a person. It is accepted, and not without reason, to believe that will is closely related to character. However, how should you define volitional qualities? For example, can we say about a person in general that he is firm, persistent, stubborn, etc.?

It is well known that, while displaying unbending perseverance in some circumstances, a person in others can be very compliant. He is persistent in what is important to him, and yielding in what is not essential. Assertiveness in matters of principle is more likely to coincide with compliance in personal matters. Volitional character traits are thus measured at the level of significant relationships.

Consequently, the assessment of a person's functional capabilities should be based on taking into account the active relationship of the individual to a given situation. The condition for a meaningful characteristic therefore consists not only in the objective objective content, but in the subjective meaningfulness, i.e. the significance of the objective for the subject, in relation to the subject to this content.

Stubbornness as a characterological quality is a form of self-affirmation. At the same time, it can manifest itself both in the essential and in small things relatively, regardless of the mental level of the personality, insofar as its significance in all cases is determined by the egocentric tendency of the personality - prestige. On the other hand, stubbornness contrastedly expresses the attitude towards the influencing person. Do we not know brilliant examples of pedagogical art, magically transforming the irresistibly stubborn into soft ones like wax?

In the question of functions and individual characteristics, it is still worth dwelling on the problem of memory. Here we can note the contradiction that exists between the generally recognized value of interest for memorization and between how little interests in the nature of memory are taken into account. Ribot's paradoxically witty, although not entirely correct formula says: in order to remember, one must forget. But subjectively unimportant is forgotten, but important is remembered.

As an example of enormous memory, Cuvier is usually cited with an indication that for him the main thing was not in mechanical memory, but above all in an amazing systematization of the material. However, it is completely overlooked that both memorization and systematization occur in the field of materials of vital importance and interest.

In the characterization of memory and in the experimental study of it, this aspect is surprisingly little taken into account, while it has a huge impact on reproduction.

The problem of character, as you know, is closely related to the problem of temperament, and temperament manifests itself most of all in the dynamics of reactions, i.e. in excitability, pace, strength of reactions, in general psychological tone, which affects mood.

However, here, too, the manifestations of strength, excitability, the rate of reactions do not affect the same in different directions and are determined by the attitude to the object or circumstance that was the reason for the reaction.

Considering that the dynamic characteristics are different at the poles of active and indifferent relations, we must, of course, not forget that a person's reactions already early lose their directly affective-dynamic character and are intellectually mediated.

Patience is a compelling example. Usually this quality is attributed to strong-willed character traits. It is known, however, that excitable, expansive people of sanguine temperament are impatient. However, how opposite is the temperament manifested in interaction with a loved or unloved object! The infinite patience of a mother for a child, of a doctor for a patient is a measure of their love or consciousness of duty, and not of his temperament.

On the contrary, we constantly observe how people, showing impatience (and sometimes lack of understanding), express by this a reluctance to restrain or understand, which, in turn, results from a negative or hostile attitude towards the person with whom they are dealing. Impatience is a measure of antipathy, excessive interest, or lack of interest. A hot-tempered, hot-tempered, self-centered person may be indifferent to hurtful criticism if he is dismissive of the critic.

Persons who are emotionally excitable and expansive, experiencing deep grief, react differently or completely lose the ability to react to everything that previously worried them, they are "petrified", in their words. A heightened, painful-emotional attitude in the area of basic interests makes a person completely unresponsive in other respects.

The dynamic individual psychological properties of temperament are, at the level of a developed character, a "removed" form, the driving forces of which are determined by a conscious attitude.

Thus, the correct understanding structure of character, its level, dynamics and functional characteristics is possible only from the standpoint of the psychology of relationships.

One of the most important tasks in the study of character is to establish its material basis. In the question of the physiological-materialistic interpretation of mental processes, posed long ago, and in the question of to the material-cerebral nature of mental relations, the danger of an idealistic interpretation is obvious. Attempts to understand the bodily foundations of temperament and character, on the basis of relatively little material on the role of the biochemistry of metabolism, endocrine glands, autonomic nervous system and brain, are not only not substantiated in fact, but suffer from a naive biological mechano-materialistic approach. They do not take into account the fact that a truly materialistic understanding of character, including the individual psychology of his relationships, can only be historical-materialistic. It should combine an understanding of the material nature of character and the socio-historical conditionality of its development. Only a historical-materialistic understanding reveals the unity of ethical character and temperament. The dualist in this matter ultimately turns out to be a mystic, since, despite the physiological interpretation of temperament, he idealistically, mystically interprets the ethical character.

The study of the metabolism of the endocrine glands, the autonomic nervous system showed us how the somatic and mental characteristics expresses the psychophysiological nature of character. Research by Pavlov and a number of his students has brought us closer to understanding the brain conditions that underlie temperamental differences. These studies show us, already at the developmental level of the dog, the unity of attitude and dynamics. A dog eagerly craving food is characterized as an excitable type, determined by the dynamics of the nervous system and, in particular, a breakdown in the direction of excitement.

The opposite can be said for a weak type dog. There is no need to say that we have learned the essential here, although by no means everything about the nervous type of reaction. Less illuminated reactions of other systems (for example, sexual, self-protective) in their interconnection with food show us that the integral characteristic of the nervous type requires supplementation.

Achievements of modern science and technology allow us to believe that there are great possibilities for indicating and registering the somatic side of individual psychological characteristics. The study of the biocurrents of the brain indicates that this indicator, which directly characterizes the work of the brain and its departments, is individually expressive and, at the same time, tends to preserve individual characteristics.

The great achievements in the field of "psychophysiology of the sense organs" and movement have not yet been sufficiently illuminated in terms of characterological features, mainly based on the material of psychopathology.

These clinics orient, albeit indirectly, to some extent in the question of what changes in the psyche and how are associated with general and local disorders of the structure and function of the brain. The empirical material is so insufficient in comparison with the complexity of the problem that only the first timid steps are taken here, especially in the problem of relationships.

Regardless of this difficulty, only a correlative study of the characteristics of the psyche and the characteristics of the brain at one stage is, in principle, insufficient.

An important method for solving the problem of psychophysiology of character is ontogenetic psychophysiology, based on the study of experience and the development of mental relationships.

The legitimacy of the beginning of the study from a developed form is known, but one must be aware that it is the result of a long historical: onto- and phylogenetic development of mankind and the human individual. We have other structures, and therefore we are faced with the task of studying the development of the character and relationships of the individual, the stages and the driving force of this development. In this case, development appears first of all not as a fatal disclosure of predispositions, but as a creative process of the formation of relationships, which at the initial stage of infant development is carried out, as the theoretical considerations of old psychologists and new experience (Watson, Bekhterev, Schelovanov, Figurin, etc.) reflexes.

Initial positive or negative reactions to direct internal and external contact stimuli with the emergence of concentration, an increase in the role of distant receptors can be characterized as conditioned reflex stage of relations. Here variations and types, according to these authors, act as the dominant features of temperaments.

In the future, perception becomes an experienced source of relationships in which the emotional component is the determining one. Repeated emotional positive and negative reactions are conditionally triggered. Integrating with the speech apparatus, they pour out primarily in relation to love, affection, fear, inhibition, enmity. It - the level of specific emotional relationships.

Activity as a source of satisfaction is increasingly mediated by a selective attitude towards persons in the social environment. Relationships take on a concrete, personal character.

The development process is associated with the fact that new levels of relations are characterized by different functional and mental structures. Concrete ideas about the objects of the relationship are replaced by abstract and fundamental ones. Direct external, situational, concrete-emotional motives are replaced by internal, intellectual-volitional ones. But not only the relationship activates the function, but, on the contrary, the developing the functional structure is a condition for the realization of the relationship: need, interest, love mobilize functionality mental activity to satisfy needs and interests, but this already creates a new need, the satisfaction of which raises functional characteristics to a new level on the basis of mastering new experience, new means of activity. Striving not only mobilizes, but also develops, moving towards new achievements, which create new aspirations, and so on.

Our inner activity is manifested by a tendency towards activity directed towards the greatest interest and rising from an inner dark attraction to a purposeful, conscious need. The course of development proceeds in conditions of continuous interaction with people and in such close connection with them that the attitude towards people becomes a defining moment in the struggle of motives. The direction of activity in accordance with the interests of others early becomes the driving force of behavior and experiences. This superstructure is at the same time an internal restructuring of a person.

For the formation of character, it is extremely important to fight the direct attraction with the demands of others. Even more important in this struggle is the voluntariness of refusal to satisfy desire for reasons of a positive attitude - love, respect, or the compulsion of this refusal in connection with the fear of punishment.

As the pedagogical and psychotherapeutic experience shows, we have in the first case the strengthening of character, in the second - its suppression, the negative value of which was rightly pointed out by many authors.

No less important in development is the struggle between direct attraction and the objective and internal demand for duties, duty, conscience, etc.

In the process of development, depending on its history, relations begin to be determined by the action of a non-transitory moment, not by external conditions, but become multilateral, promising, internally and fundamentally oriented, internally consistent or contradictory.

Character traits in the process of development become stable, but not due to the inertia of habits or constitutional mechanisms, but due to the generalization and internal stability of fundamental positions. At the same time, the dynamism of relations, the possibility of their constant restructuring on the basis of a new awareness of reality, make the character as dynamic, changeable, and educated as possible.

From this follow quite clear, consistent positions on the question of variability and development of character. Pedagogy and psychotherapy show us examples of striking reworking of people with contrasting character changes. Suffice it to point to the brilliant, truly wonderful experience of Makarenko, who turned seemingly inveterate bandits into enthusiasts of collective construction projects. This striking result and less vivid experience of many good teachers and psychotherapists, who begin with establishing personal contact, changing the relationship with a pupil or a patient, rebuilding and adjusting his attitude towards himself and everything around him, show us how and how the individual face changes. a person, how dynamic the character is, how much a change in the higher, socio-ethical aspects of relations rebuilds the entire character of a person both in the content of his orientation and in the external form of his manifestations.

Hence, we can conclude that the principle of relations allows the doctrine of character to overcome formalism and take the path of meaningful study of personality.

This principle helps not only to drop in words the analytical-mechanical, splitting, functional approach, but in the unity of a person's relationship to each moment and element of a multifaceted reality, to see a true unity of character, manifested in a variety of individual individual characteristics. It allows overcome metaphysical positions in looking at character and form a correct dynamic understanding of it, eliminating the theoretical prerequisites of pedagogical fatalism.

This principle, finally, most of all corresponds to the dialectical-materialist understanding of human individuality, the awareness of the principle of historicity, which unites in a truly dialectical study both materialistic and historical understanding of mental individuality. Such a construction of the psychology of individual differences is closely associated with the reconstruction of general psychological positions and makes it possible to more correctly consider individual psychology in unity with general psychology both as its method and as an area of independent problems.

Speaking about the individual characteristics of a person, manifested in his social behavior, they usually use three terms: "temperament", "character", "personality". According to the definition given in the last, third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, temperament is “a characteristic of an individual in terms of the dynamic characteristics of his mental activity, that is, the pace, rhythm, and intensity of individual mental processes and states. Three main components can be distinguished in the structure of temperament: the general activity of the individual, his motor manifestations and emotionality ”(1976, vol. 25, p. 415). Character is “a holistic and stable individual warehouse of a person’s mental life, its type,“ disposition ”of a person, manifested in individual acts and states of his mental life, as well as in his manners, habits, mindset and the circle of emotional life characteristic of a person. The character of a person acts as the basis of his behavior ... ”(Ibid, 1978, vol. 28, p. 193).

At the first moment, it seems that the definitions of temperament and character practically coincide, however, in our everyday life practice, we are unlikely to confuse a person's temperament with his character. It is character, and not temperament, that we will call strong, weak, hard, soft, heavy, bad, persistent, difficult to bear, etc. The intuitively felt difference, the mismatch of temperament and character suggests that this difference is based on some significantly different manifestations individuality.

In temperament it is mainly expressed attitude a person to the events taking place around him. Character manifests itself in action - active, purposeful, indecisive, submissive, imitative

and so on. What they have in common is that neither temperament nor character tell us anything about the social value of a given person, they relate to what V.M. Rusalov (1985) calls the formal dynamic aspect of the psyche in difference from its meaningful aspect, which is found in the personality, since the personality is "a stable system of socially significant traits that characterize the individual as a member of a society or community" (TSE, 1973, vol. 14, p. 578). Personality includes temperament, character, and abilities of a person (his intellect), but is not limited to them, since personality is “a core, an integrating principle, linking together various mental processes of an individual and imparting the necessary consistency and stability to his behavior” (Ibid. , p. 579).

“The personality of a person,” wrote IP Pavlov, “is determined both by biological heredity and by the environment. The strength of the nervous system (temperament) is an innate property, the character (form of behavior) largely consists of acquired habits ”(Pavlov, 1954, p. 618). Let us emphasize that the physiological organization of the brain, the individual characteristics of its functioning and the content side of the psyche, which is formed as a result of social education, are not absolutely independent categories. To deduce the meaningful side of the psyche from hereditary inclinations is as absurd as to deny the role of these inclinations in the characteristics of the subject's assimilation of social experience. Straightforward determinism is doomed here in advance. It is a different matter if we move to the position of systemic determinism, recognizing that one and the same social experience offered by the environment will be assimilated differently depending on the individual, including “formal-dynamic” characteristics of the subject's psyche.

the hierarchy of coexisting motives, on which of the needs the mechanism of creative intuition-superconsciousness "works", in the terminology of KS Stanislavsky, which we will talk about in the next chapter. Above, we have already referred to Leo Tolstoy, who brilliantly guessed that it was precisely from the "motives of activity" that "all the differences of people" arise. Personal tests of the future are a system of methodological techniques that make it possible to answer the question of to what extent the value orientations of a given person are determined by his vital, social and ideal needs, focus on himself and others, tendencies of preservation and development. The dominant, that is, more often than others and longer than others, the dominant need - the "super-super-task of life" of a given person, according to Stanislavsky's definition, is the true core of the personality, its most essential feature. The completeness of satisfaction of this overriding need is usually called happiness, which makes the concept of happiness a touchstone for testing a given personality. "The alpha and omega of my pedagogical faith," said V. A. Sukhomlinsky, "is a deep belief that a person is what his idea of happiness is" (Ovchinnikova, 1976, p. 3). The difficulty of verbalizing this superconscious concept is reflected in the adage that happiness is a state when a person does not ask what happiness is.

If the initial, basic needs structure a person's personality, then individual expression and composition additional needs (overcoming, arming, imitation and economy of forces) determine its character. The need to overcome is the basis of a person's volitional qualities, the degree of satisfaction of the need for weapons gives him the features of confidence, decisiveness, stability in extreme situations. The inclination to imitate determines the measure of independence of the actions performed by a person, and the need to save energy makes the character energetic, purposeful or, on the contrary, passive, lazy, tending to idle pastime.

Just as the needs of mankind as a whole are a product of world history, the set and ratio of the needs of each individual person is a product of the history of his life, of the individual conditions of his upbringing.

niya, its ontogenetic development. With all the importance of natural inclinations and abilities, personality and character are formed under the decisive influence of a specific social environment. The individual features of the structure and functions of the brain are most directly related to temperament, or the type of higher nervous activity, in the terminology of I.P. Pavlov.

In Pavlov's approach to the problem of individual differences in psyche and behavior, two levels of analysis can be distinguished, which were not developed by Pavlov himself to the same extent.

First, it is, so to speak, microlevel, that is, the properties of the processes of excitation and inhibition of nerve cells are their strength, balance and mobility. The results of experiments with conditioned reflexes and long-term observations of the behavior of dogs led Pavlov to the idea that types of the nervous system, similar to the temperaments of ancient authors, are common to humans and higher mammals. In Pavlov's classification, a strong excitable unbalanced type corresponds to a choleric, and a weak one to a melancholic. A sanguine person is a strong balanced mobile type according to Pavlov, and a phlegmatic person is a strong balanced inert. With his characteristic observation, Pavlov noted the characteristic features of emotionality inherent in each of the main types. According to Pavlov, a strong unbalanced type is prone to rage, a weak one to fear, a sanguine person is characterized by a predominance of positive emotions, and a phlegmatic person does not at all show any violent emotional reactions to the environment. Pavlov wrote: "The excitable type in its highest manifestation is for the most part animals of an aggressive character ... The extreme inhibitory type is what is called a cowardly animal" (Pavlov, 1973, p. 321).

ness, "and emotiveness is the predominance ... of the functions of the subcortical centers with weakened control of the cortex ... the hysterical subject lives, to a greater or lesser extent, not a rational, but an emotional life, is controlled not by his cortical activity, but by a subcortical one" (Pavlov, 1973, p. . 323, 406). Having singled out “specially human types of artists and thinkers” with the predominance of the first (concrete-figurative) or second (speech, abstractly generalized) signaling system of reality, Pavlov saw the classification again based on the features of the functioning of cerebral macrostructures. Among artists, Pavlov wrote, the activity of the cerebral hemispheres, proceeding in the entire mass, affects only their frontal lobes least and is concentrated mainly in the remaining sections; among thinkers, on the contrary, it is mainly in the former ”(Pavlov, 1973, p. 411).

Today we, apparently, prefer to consider Pavlov's “specially human” types as a result of functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres, where the “artistic type” will correspond to the relative predominance of the right (non-verbal) hemisphere. The discovery of the specialization of the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain was a real triumph of Pavlov's idea of "artistic" and "mental" types as poles, between which all the variety of intermediate forms of human higher nervous activity is located.

With regard to man, Pavlov's typology underwent the most systematic experimental and theoretical development in the works of B. M. Teplov and V. D. Nebylitsyn. The results of these studies, in their briefest presentation, are reduced to the following fundamental points.

Teplov and Nebylitsyn came to a reasonable conclusion that one should speak rather not about types, but about the properties of the nervous system, the combination of which characterizes a particular individual. It turned out that the number of these properties should be significantly expanded, that the strength and mobility of nervous processes should be discussed separately in relation to excitation and inhibition, and the list of properties should be supplemented with a parameter of dynamism, on which the rate of development of new conditioned reflexes depends.

Teplov's school convincingly explained why

the so-called weak type was preserved in the process of evolution, which is why it was not eliminated by natural selection. If the strong type exhibits high stability in extreme situations, then the increased sensitivity of the weak type is no less valuable in other conditions where the ability to quickly and accurately distinguish external signals is required. Special experiments have shown that representatives of different types of the nervous system solve the same problems equally successfully, only each of them uses its own tactics of activity.

As research progressed, it became increasingly clear that the experimental techniques traditionally used to determine types only reveal private properties nervous system. The technique, addressed, say, to the visual analyzer, made it possible to diagnose the strong type in the subject, while testing the auditory analyzer characterized the same subject as a representative of the weak type. Similar contradictions were found in animal experiments. So, according to V.N. Dumenko and V.I. Nosar (1980), the ability to develop instrumental motor reflexes in dogs does not correlate with the type of their nervous system, determined by the secretory method. As a result, by the beginning of the 60s, a truly crisis situation arose in the field of typology (differential psychophysiology) of man. In an effort to find a way out of this crisis, V.D. Nebylitsyn introduced the concept of general properties nervous system, which included two main parameters: activity and emotionality (Nebylitsyn, 1968). VD Nebylitsyn believed that the activity is based on the individual characteristics of the interaction of the activating reticular formation of the brain stem and the anterior sections of the neocortex, while emotionality is determined by the individual characteristics of the interaction of the anterior neocortex with the formations of the limbic system of the brain. Unfortunately, the tragic death of V.D.Ne-bytsyn interrupted his career on the threshold of a fundamentally new stage in the development of differential psychophysiology.

A group of English researchers, which we associate primarily with the names of G. Eysenck (Eysenck, 1981) and J. Gray (Gray,

Using specially designed tests, G. Eysenck (Eysenck, Eysenck, 1976; Eysenck, 1981) identified three main parameters: 1) extra-introversion, 2) emotional stability and opposing neuroticism, and 3) psychoticism, the opposite pole of which is stable adherence to social norms. Eysenck characterizes the extrovert as an open, sociable, talkative, active subject, and the introvert as uncommunicative, closed, passive. These characteristics resemble the activity parameter in the classification of V.D. Nebylitsyn (1968). A highly neurotic subject is characterized as anxious, anxious, easily prone to anger, emotionally unstable. He is opposed by an emotionally stable personality. It is not difficult to see that neuroticism is very close to Nebylitsyn's “emotionality”. Finally, Eysenck's high-psychoid type appears as an egocentric, cold, indifferent to others and aggressive subject, while a low-psychoid one is a friendly, sympathetic, altruist who reckons with the rights of others.

Eysenck's typology can serve as another example of the existence, although far from clear and not obvious, connections between neurodynamic and content characteristics of a personality. Extra-introversion is a formal dynamic parameter. At the same time, there is a pronounced gravitation of these types to the predominant satisfaction of certain needs, especially in individuals prone to neuroticism. For example, extroverts value an active, active life. Introverts - freedom and self-respect, and neuroids - inner harmony, less concerned about external success (Furnham, 1984).

According to Eysenck, extra-introversion is based on the individual characteristics of the interaction of the activating reticular formation and the anterior sections of the neocortex. J. Gray (Gray, 1972) added the hippocampus and the medial part of the septum to these two structures. The introvert has a more developed septo-hippocampal system that inhibits behavior; in an extrovert, an incentive system formed by the lateral hypothalamus and the medial bundle of the forebrain. The degree of neuroticism is determined, according to Eysenck, by the individual characteristics of the interaction of limbic structures with the formations of the neocortex. According to Eysenck, emotional

but an unstable extrovert corresponds to the choleric temperament of ancient authors, a stable extrovert to a sanguine person, an unstable introvert to a melancholic, and a stable introvert to a phlegmatic person.

Although the determination of the degree of extra-introversion is carried out mainly with the help of questionnaires, there is evidence of an experimental study of this typological parameter. If the subject in the chamber is given the opportunity to turn on the amplification of lighting and sound stimulus at his own discretion, then introverts prefer to be in a quiet and darkened room most of the time, and extroverts, on the contrary (Eysenck, 1975). Unlike extroverts, introverts are better at reproducing material presented for memorization some time after exposure. According to J. Gray, extroverts are more sensitive to rewards, while introverts are more sensitive to punishment (Wilson, 1978). Introverts have shown stronger galvanic skin responses to an emotionally significant question (Gudjonsson, 1982). The frequency and amplitude of the alpha rhythm of the electroencephalogram is higher in extraverts than in introverts, while the level of neuroticism does not correlate with this indicator ((Deakin, Exley, 1979; Gilliland, Andress, Bracy, 1981). Registration of auditory evoked potentials led the authors to the conclusion that the difference between extra- and introverts is manifested both at the cortical and subcortical levels (Andress, Church, 1981). Investigating the individual characteristics of a number of characteristics of the electroencephalogram, D. Robinson (Robinson, 1982) suggested that the parameter the strength of the nervous system according to Pavlov and extra-introversion according to Aizen-ku is the interaction of neural populations of the diffuse thalamocortical system.During the examination of patients with lesions of the mediobasal structures of the temporal lobe of the brain, S.V. Madorskiy (1982) found that the lesion on the right is accompanied by a shift in the direction of introversion , and the lesion on the left is extraversion, since patients with a right-sided pathological process more sensitive to painful stimuli, especially if the amygdala is involved. Comparison of the features of evoked potentials to light stimuli and cardiovascular reactions with the level of neuroticism led to the conclusion that these features can be explained by the interaction of the anterior regions

new cortex, hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus (Polyantsev, Rumyantseva, Kulikov, 1985).

In recent years, there have been attempts to find analogues of extra-introversion, neuroticism and psychoticism in animals, mainly in rats. As an experimental technique, the open field technique is usually used here, where research activity serves as an indicator of extroversion, and the so-called "emotionality" (the number of urinations and defecations) is an indicator of neuroticism. The degree of aggressiveness is considered to be analogous to psychoticism (Garcia-Sevilla, 1984). M. Zuckerman believes that the basis of individual characteristics of behavior is the level of catecholamines (Zuckerman, 1984). It has been shown that activity in the open field positively correlates with the rate of development of a conditioned defense reflex in the shuttle chamber, but passive rats better retain the memory of painful stimulation after a single application (Chaichenko, 1982).

Open field behavior is associated with the functioning of the neocortex and hippocampus. This is evidenced by the results of studies on the breeding of lines of mice with different volumes of brain structures. Small volume of the hippocampus and large neocortex positively correlates with motor activity in the open field. Sedentary mice with a large hippocampus learn passive avoidance faster (Shiryaeva and Vaido, 1980; Wimer, Wimer, Roderick, 1971). On the other hand, the consequences of destruction of the limbic structures of the brain depend on the genetic characteristics of the animal (Isaacson, McClearn, 1978; Isaacson, 1980).

The specialization of the functions of the anterior sections of the neocortex, hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus, which we described in detail in the previous chapter, gave us grounds for the assumption that the individual characteristics of the activity of each of these structures and, moreover, the peculiarities of their interaction largely determine the individual (typological) features of animal behavior comparable to Eysenck's classification.

there were: 1) a relatively spacious part with an area of 33X23 cm; 2) a plexiglass "house" with an area of 16XH cm with a constantly open door and a floor-pedal, the pressure on which was automatically turned on by the time counter; 3) located next to the "house" behind a thin transparent sound-permeable partition room for a partner with a floor in the form of a metal

lattice. The entire chamber was illuminated by diffused light from a 100 W lamp installed under the ceiling of the room.

The test animal was placed daily in the large compartment of the chamber for 5 minutes and the time of its stay in the "house" on the pedals, as well as the number of appearances in the "house" were recorded. During the first 5 days, each appearance of a rat in the "house" led to the switching on of additional lighting with a 100 W lamp, located 45 cm from the floor of the chamber, and an acoustic stimulus - a tone of 220 Hz and a loudness of 80 dB. Over the next 5 days, the entrance to the “house” was accompanied by electrical stimulation of the paws of the “victim” rat with a force of 1–2 mA. The victim's irritation lasted 3-5 s at 5-second intervals as long as the test rat was on the pedal. For the last 5 days, the entrance to the "house" again intensified the lighting and turned on the sound.

An indicator of sensitivity to the cry of pain of another individual of the same species (psychoticism in the terminology of Aizenk), we considered the time spent on the pedal, which closed the electrical circuit. Extra-introversion was judged by the comparative effectiveness of two aversive influences: enhancement of illumination and sounding of a tone or signals of the partner's defensive arousal (cry, movement, release of specific odorous substances). The total average time spent in the “house” with a pedal under the action of both artificial and zoosocial aversive stimuli and the number of

that space of the camera to the “house” and back testified to the level of emotional stability (neuroticism).

The following criteria were adopted. A rat was considered sensitive to the cry of pain if it was on the pedal for less than 1 min. Extraversion was diagnosed when the time spent on the pedal under the action of light and sound was at least 1 min longer than the time under pain stimulation of another rat. The opposite relationship was regarded as introversion. The rest of the rats were considered ambiverts. We defined a rat as emotionally stable (low neuroid) if the total average time spent on the pedal under the action of aversive stimuli exceeded 1 min 30 s.

Examples of rats with the above characteristics are given in table. 1. It is clear that such a division is very conditional: the individual characteristics of the behavior of a given rat are characterized by the absolute values of the indicators we have chosen, and not the conditional boundaries between extroverts, introverts and ambiverts. These boundaries are needed only for statistical calculations characterizing the population or comparative resistance to neurotizing influences, which will be discussed below. The ratio of different types of behavior in a population of 40 examined rats is presented in table. 2.

It is difficult to say to what extent these individual characteristics of behavior depend on genetic or environmental factors, although there is evidence that the frequency of pressing the lever, reinforced by turning on the light and attenuating the noise, is 71% genetically determined in laboratory rats (Oakeshott, Glow , 1980).

In a study conducted jointly with M.L. Pigaareva, V.N. In fig. 22, graph I shows the mean time spent on the pedal of seven intact rats, for which the partner's defensive arousal signals (cry, movement, release of specific odorous substances) were more effective stimuli than increased illumination and sounding tone. After bilateral coagulation of the frontal parts of the neocortex and hippocampus (Fig. 23), these rats were observed directly against

5. The problem of individual (typological) differences

When speaking about the individual characteristics of a person, manifested in his social behavior, they usually use three terms: "temperament", "character", "personality". According to the definition given in the last, third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, temperament is "a characteristic of an individual in terms of the dynamic characteristics of his mental activity, that is, pace, rhythm, intensity of individual mental processes and states. Three main components can be distinguished in the structure of temperament. : the general activity of the individual, his motor manifestations and emotionality "(1976, vol. 25, p. 415). Character is "a holistic and stable individual warehouse of a person's mental life, its type, a person's" disposition ", which manifests itself in individual acts and states of his mental life, as well as in his manners, habits, mindset and the circle of emotional life characteristic of a person. as the basis of his behavior ... "(Ibid., 1978, vol. 28, p. 193).

In temperament, a person's attitude to the events around him is mainly expressed. Character manifests itself in action - active, purposeful, indecisive, obedient-imitative, etc. The common thing between them is that neither temperament nor character tell us anything about the social value of a given person, they refer to the fact that M. Rusalov (1985) calls the formal-dynamic aspect of the psyche, in contrast to its meaningful aspect, which is found in the personality, since the personality is "a stable system of socially significant traits that characterize the individual as a member of a society or community" (TSB, 1973, p. vol. 14, p. 578). Personality includes temperament, character, and abilities of a person (his intellect), but is not limited to them, since personality is "a core, an integrating principle, linking together various mental processes of an individual and imparting the necessary consistency and stability to his behavior" (Ibid. , p. 579).

"The personality of a person," wrote I. P. Pavlov, "is determined by both biological heredity and the environment. The strength of the nervous system (temperament) is an innate property, character (form of behavior) largely consists of acquired habits" (Pavlov, 1954, p. . 618). Let us emphasize that the physiological organization of the brain, the individual characteristics of its functioning and the content side of the psyche, which is formed as a result of social education, are not absolutely independent categories. To deduce the meaningful side of the psyche from hereditary inclinations is as absurd as to deny the role of these inclinations in the characteristics of the subject's assimilation of social experience. Straightforward determinism is doomed here in advance. It is a different matter if we move to the position of systemic determinism, recognizing that one and the same social experience offered by the environment will be assimilated differently depending on the individual, including "formal-dynamic" characteristics of the subject's psyche.

Considering the needs of a person as the primary source and driving force of his behavior, we believe that each human personality is determined by an individually unique composition and internal hierarchy of the basic (vital, social and ideal) needs of a given person, including their types of preservation and development, "for oneself" and " for others "(see Chapter 2). The most important characteristic of the personality is the fact which of these needs and how long they occupy a dominant position in the hierarchy of coexisting motives, for which of the needs the mechanism of creative intuition-superconsciousness "works", in the terminology of KS Stanislavsky, about which we will talk in the next chapter. Above, we have already referred to Leo Tolstoy, who brilliantly guessed that it was precisely from the "motives of activity" that "all the difference in people" arises. Personal tests of the future are a system of methodological techniques that make it possible to answer the question of to what extent the value orientations of a given person are determined by his vital, social and ideal needs, focus on himself and others, tendencies of preservation and development. The dominant, that is, more often than others and longer than others, the dominant need - the "super-super-task of life" of a given person, according to Stanislavsky's definition, is the true core of the personality, its most essential feature. The completeness of satisfaction of this overriding need is usually called happiness, which makes the concept of happiness a touchstone for testing a given personality. "The alpha and omega of my pedagogical faith," said V. A. Sukhomlinsky, "is a deep belief that a person is what his idea of happiness is" (Ovchinnikova, 1976, p. 3). The difficulty of verbalizing this superconscious concept is reflected in the adage that happiness is a state when a person does not ask what happiness is.

If the initial, basic needs structure a person's personality, then the individual severity and composition of additional needs (overcoming, arming, imitating and saving energy) determine its character. The need to overcome is the basis of a person's volitional qualities, the degree of satisfaction of the need for weapons gives him the features of confidence, decisiveness, stability in extreme situations. The inclination to imitate determines the measure of independence of the actions performed by a person, and the need to save energy makes the character energetic, purposeful or, on the contrary, passive, lazy, tending to idle pastime.

Just as the needs of mankind as a whole are a product of world history, the set and ratio of the needs of each individual person is a product of the history of his life, the individual conditions of his upbringing, his ontogenetic development. With all the importance of natural inclinations and abilities, personality and character are formed under the decisive influence of a specific social environment. Temperament, or the type of higher nervous activity, in the terminology of I.P. Pavlov, is most directly related to the individual characteristics of the structure and functions of the brain.

In Pavlov's approach to the problem of individual differences in psyche and behavior, two levels of analysis can be distinguished, which were not developed by Pavlov himself to the same extent.

First, it is, if I may say so, the macrolevel, that is, the properties of the processes of excitation and inhibition of nerve cells - their strength, balance and mobility. The results of experiments with conditioned reflexes and long-term observations of the behavior of dogs led Pavlov to the idea that types of the nervous system, similar to the temperaments of ancient authors, are common to humans and higher mammals. In Pavlov's classification, a strong excitable unbalanced type corresponds to a choleric, and a weak one to a melancholic. A sanguine person is a strong balanced mobile type according to Pavlov, and a phlegmatic person is a strong balanced inert type. With his characteristic observation, Pavlov noted the characteristic features of emotionality inherent in each of the main types. According to Pavlov, a strong unbalanced type is prone to rage, a weak one to fear, a sanguine person is characterized by a predominance of positive emotions, and a phlegmatic person does not at all show any violent emotional reactions to the environment. Pavlov wrote: "The excitable type in its highest manifestation is for the most part animals of an aggressive character ... The extreme inhibitory type is what is called a cowardly animal" (Pavlov, 1973, p. 321).

Basing his classification on the properties of arousal and inhibition, Pavlov is not limited to this level. He understood that the path from elementary nervous processes to externally realizable behavior lies through the interaction of macrostructures - various functionally specialized parts of the brain. Considering the extreme types - strong, unbalanced and weak - as the main "providers" of neuropsychiatric diseases, primarily neuroses, Pavlov emphasized that emotiveness is very characteristic of hysteria, "and emotiveness is the predominance ... of the functions of subcortical centers with weakened control of the cortex ... the hysterical subject lives, to a greater or lesser extent, not a rational, but an emotional life, it is controlled not by his cortical activity, but by his subcortical one "(Pavlov, 1973, pp. 323, 406). Having singled out "specially human types of artists and thinkers" with the predominance of the first (concrete-figurative) or second (speech, abstractly generalized) signaling system of reality, Pavlov saw the classification again based on the features of the functioning of cerebral macrostructures. In "artists," wrote Pavlov, "the activity of the cerebral hemispheres, proceeding in the entire mass, affects only their frontal lobes least and is concentrated mainly in the remaining sections; in thinkers, on the contrary, it is mainly in the first" (Pavlov, 1973, p. 411 ).

Today we, apparently, prefer to consider Pavlovian “specially human” types as a result of functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres, where the “artistic type” will correspond to the relative predominance of the right (non-verbal) hemisphere. The discovery of the specialization of the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain was a real triumph of Pavlov's idea of "artistic" and "mental" types as poles, between which all the variety of intermediate forms of human higher nervous activity is located.

Teplov's school convincingly explained why the so-called weak type remained in the process of evolution, why it was not eliminated by natural selection. If the strong type exhibits high stability in extreme situations, then the increased sensitivity of the weak type is no less valuable in other conditions where the ability to quickly and accurately distinguish external signals is required. Special experiments have shown that representatives of different types of the nervous system solve the same problems equally successfully, only each of them uses its own tactics of activity.

As research progressed, it became more and more obvious that the experimental methods traditionally used to determine types, reveal only particular properties of the nervous system. The technique, addressed, say, to the visual analyzer, made it possible to diagnose the strong type in the subject, while the auditory analyzer testing characterized the same subject as a representative of the weak type. Similar contradictions were found in animal experiments. So, according to V.N. Dumenko and V.I. Nosar (1980), the ability to develop instrumental motor reflexes in dogs does not correlate with the type of their nervous system, determined by the secretory method. As a result, by the beginning of the 60s, a truly crisis situation arose in the field of typology (differential psychophysiology) of man. In an effort to find a way out of this crisis, V.D. Nebylitsyn introduced the concept of the general properties of the nervous system, among which he included two main parameters: activity and emotionality (Nebylitsyn, 1968). VD Nebylitsyn believed that the activity is based on the individual characteristics of the interaction of the activating reticular formation of the brain stem and the anterior sections of the neocortex, while emotionality is determined by the individual characteristics of the interaction of the anterior neocortex with the formations of the limbic system of the brain. Unfortunately, the tragic death of V.D. Nebylitsyn interrupted his career on the threshold of a fundamentally new stage in the development of differential psychophysiology.

A group of English researchers, which we associate primarily with the names of G. Eysenck (Eysenck, 1981) and J. Gray (Gray, 1972), came to similar ideas about the morphophysiological foundations of human typology.

With the help of specially designed tests, G. Eysenck (Eysenck, Eysenck, 1976; Eysenck, 1981) identified three main parameters: 1) extra-introversion, 2) emotional stability and opposing neuroticism, and 3) psychoticism, the opposite pole of which is stable adherence to social norms. Eysenck characterizes the extrovert as an open, sociable, talkative, active subject, and the introvert as uncommunicative, closed, passive. These characteristics resemble the activity parameter in the classification of V.D. Nebylitsyn (1968). A highly neurotic subject is characterized as anxious, anxious, easily prone to anger, emotionally unstable. He is opposed by an emotionally stable personality. It is not difficult to see that neuroticism is very close to Nebylitsyn's "emotionality". Finally, Eysenck's high-psychoid type appears as an egocentric, cold, indifferent to others and aggressive subject, while a low-psychoid one is a friendly, sympathetic, altruist respecting the rights of others.

Although the determination of the degree of extra-introversion is carried out mainly with the help of questionnaires, there is evidence of an experimental study of this typological parameter. If the subject in the chamber is given the opportunity to turn on the amplification of lighting and sound stimulus at his own discretion, then introverts prefer to be in a quiet and darkened room most of the time, and extroverts, on the contrary (Eysenck, 1975). Unlike extroverts, introverts are better at reproducing material presented for memorization some time after exposure. According to J. Gray, extroverts are more sensitive to rewards, while introverts are more sensitive to punishment (Wilson, 1978). Introverts have shown stronger galvanic skin responses to an emotionally significant question (Gudjonsson, 1982). The frequency and amplitude of the alpha rhythm of the electroencephalogram is higher in extraverts than in introverts, while the level of neuroticism does not correlate with this indicator ((Deakin, Exley, 1979; Gilliland, Andress, Bracy, 1981). Registration of auditory evoked potentials led the authors to the conclusion that the difference between extra- and introverts is manifested both at the cortical and subcortical levels (Andress, Church, 1981). Investigating the individual characteristics of a number of characteristics of the electroencephalogram, D. Robinson (Robinson, 1982) suggested that in the basis of the parameter the strength of the nervous system according to Pavlov and extra-introversion according to Eysenck lies the interaction of neural populations of the diffuse thalamocortical system.During the examination of patients with lesions of the mediobasal structures of the temporal lobe of the brain, S.V. Madorsky (1982) found that the lesion on the right is accompanied by a shift in the direction of introversion, and defeat on the left - extraversion, since patients with a right-sided pathological process b They are more sensitive to painful stimuli, especially if the amygdala is involved. Comparison of the features of evoked potentials to light stimuli and cardiovascular reactions with the level of neuroticism led to the conclusion that these features can be explained by the interaction of the anterior regions of the neocortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus (Polyantsev, Rumyantseva, Kulikov, 1985).

The experiments were carried out on 40 outbred adult white rats-males, kept in a vivarium together by 10 individuals in fairly spacious cages. The experimental chamber (Fig. 21) was a wooden box measuring 33X41X34 cm. Inside the box there were: 1) a relatively spacious part with an area of 33X23 cm; 2) plexiglass "house" with an area of 16X14 cm with a constantly open door and a floor-pedal, the pressure on which was automatically turned on by the time counter; 3) a room for a partner with a floor in the form of a metal lattice located next to the "house" behind a thin transparent sound-permeable partition. The entire chamber was illuminated by diffused light from a 100 W lamp installed under the ceiling of the room.

The test animal was placed daily in the large compartment of the chamber for 5 minutes and the time of its stay in the "house" on the pedals, as well as the number of appearances in the "house" were recorded. During the first 5 days, each appearance of a rat in the "house" led to the inclusion of additional lighting with a 100 W lamp located 45 cm from the floor of the chamber, and an audio stimulus - a tone of 220 Hz and a loudness of 80 dB. Over the next 5 days, the entrance to the "house" was accompanied by electrical stimulation of the paws of the "victim" rat with a force of 1–2 mA. The victim's irritation lasted 3-5 s at 5-second intervals as long as the test rat was on the pedal. For the last 5 days, the entrance to the "house" again intensified the lighting and turned on the sound.

An indicator of sensitivity to the cry of pain of another individual of the same species (psychoticism in Eysenck's terminology), we considered the time spent on the pedal, which closed the electrical circuit. Extra-introversion was judged by the comparative effectiveness of two aversive influences: enhancement of illumination and sounding of a tone or signals of the partner's defensive arousal (cry, movement, release of specific odorous substances). The total average time spent in the “house” with a pedal under the action of both artificial and zoosocial aversive stimuli and the number of rushes from the open space of the camera to the “house” and vice versa indicated the level of emotional stability (neuroticism).

The following criteria were adopted. A rat was considered sensitive to the cry of pain if it was on the pedal for less than 1 min. Extraversion was diagnosed when the time spent on the pedal under the action of light and sound was at least 1 min longer than the time under pain stimulation of another rat. The opposite relationship was regarded as introversion. The rest of the rats were considered ambiverts. We defined a rat as emotionally stable (low neuroroid) if the total average time spent on the pedal under the action of aversive stimuli exceeded 1 min 30 s.

It is difficult to say to what extent these individual characteristics of behavior depend on genetic or environmental factors, although there is evidence that the frequency of pressing the lever, reinforced by turning on the light and attenuating the noise, is determined by 71% in laboratory rats genetically (Oakeshott, Glow, 1980 ).

In a study conducted jointly with M. L. Pigareva, V. N. Mats and T. I. Mikheeva (Simonov, 1981), we found the dependence of the above parameters on the preservation or damage of a number of limbic structures. In fig. 22, graph I shows the mean time spent on the pedal of seven intact rats, for which the partner's defensive arousal signals (cry, movement, release of specific odorous substances) were more effective stimuli than increased illumination and sounding tone. After bilateral coagulation of the frontal parts of the neocortex and hippocampus (Fig. 23), these rats showed exactly opposite relationships: the time spent on the pedal under the action of sound and light decreased, and with the cry of "victim" it increased (see graph II in Fig. 22 ). Five rats with bilateral damage to the frontal cortex, lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus (Fig. 24) were equally sensitive to the combination of sound with increased illumination, and to the partner's defensive excitation signals (see graph III in Fig. 22). These animals were characterized by fearfulness, increased aggressiveness, violent reactions to touch, along with signs of weakening of the aversiveness of open space. Rats slowly and rarely entered the "house", and when the light and sound were turned on or when a partner shouted, they left the "house" after 10–20 s. If something distracted the rat (for example, it started brushing its fur), the light, sound and cry of the "victim" lost their effectiveness.

Thus, simultaneous damage to structures

Rice. 22. Average time spent on the pedal under the action of light and sound (A, C) or the cry of a partner (B) in intact rats (I) after damage to the frontal cortex and hippocampus (II), after damage to the frontal cortex and hypothalamus (III): Abscissa - days of experiments, ordinate - time in minutes of the "information" system (frontal neocortex and hippocampus) makes rats highly sensitive to previously ineffective artificial stimuli (light and sound) and at the same time reduces their reactivity in relation to zoosocial signals about the state of another individual of the same kind. With regard to damage to the frontal cortex, lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus, the enhanced "neurotic" response to any external stimulus is combined in these animals with the inability to selectively respond to signals of various biological significance.

Evaluating the entire set of currently available facts, we are inclined to suggest that the individual characteristics of the relationship between the "information" system (frontal cortex and hippocampus) and the "motivational" system (amygdala and hypothalamus) underlie the extra-introversion parameter (Fig. 25). The ratio of the systems frontal cortex - hypothalamus and amygdala - hippocampus determines another parameter of individual behavioral characteristics, which is similar in its characteristics to the parameter of neuroticism - emotional stability. From this point of view, the Pavlovian scale of strength or weakness of the nervous system is more consistent with the scale of neuroticism, and not extra-introversion, as Eysenck believes (Eysenck, Levey, 1972).

At present, we do not have data on the extent to which all the parameters studied by us correlate with the resistance of rats to neurotic influences. In the laboratory of M.G. Hayrapetyants, only one of them was used: sensitivity to the cry of pain of another individual of the same species (Khonicheva and Villar, 1981). In fig. 26 shows three groups of rats differing in this characteristic. The stressful effect consisted in the development of a conditioned defensive reflex with a low probability of avoiding painful stimuli. This effect had a significantly different effect on the instrumental food conditioned reflexes, according to the severity of the violation of which the degree of neurotization was judged. The most stress-resistant were rats with a high sensitivity to the partner's cry of pain and a low level of anxiety (a small number of runs from one compartment of the chamber to another). The least resistant rats, in which the average sensitivity to zoosocial signals was combined with high anxiety, with the inability to identify the dominant motivation, be it the aversivity of open space or the motivation that encourages to avoid painful irritation of another individual.

Earlier, we showed that high sensitivity to signals of the partner's defensive excitation correlates positively with a small number of runs from one compartment of the chamber to another, with high motor activity in the open field test, with low “emotionality”, judging by the number of urinations and defecations in open field, and with low aggressiveness in painful stimulation of two rats (Simonov, 1976). These data suggest that the parameters of Eysenck's typology, modified to assess the individual characteristics of the behavior of rats, will be suitable for predicting the resistance or instability of these animals to neurotizing influences. Thus, the question of the role of individual characteristics of behavior in the pathogenesis of experimental neuroses will become clearer.

Further research is intended to clarify the question of the genetic determinants of the types of behavior described above. The genetic components of stress resistance are now beyond doubt (Belyaev, 1979; Sudakov, Dushkin, Yumatov, 1981).

Finally, it is quite obvious that between a motivational conflict, intolerable for this type of nervous system, and a violation of the interaction of limbic structures, leading to neurotic disorders of higher nervous activity, there are a number of intermediate neurophysiological and neurochemical links that transform psychogenic effects into a stable pathological state of the brain. ... The search for these links is now the most important and least developed area of experimental neuroscience. One of such intermediate links, apparently, is brain hypoxia, discovered during experimental neurosis in the laboratory of M.G. Hayrapetyants (Hayrapetyants, Vein, 1982). According to M.G. Hayrapetyants and his colleagues, neurotic effects lead to a decrease in the rate of local cerebral blood flow and micromorphological shifts characteristic of a hypoxic state. Under these conditions, a compensatory activation of the lipid peroxidation system is observed, which disrupts the structure and function of biological membranes. The introduction of antioxidants eliminates transient hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy, prevents an increase in cytochrome oxidase activity in the neocortex and hippocampus of neurotized rats (data from N.V. Gulyaeva).

Thus, the following sequence of events is outlined. Chronic emotional stress generated by motivational conflict leads to a decrease in the rate of local cerebral blood flow, causes a hypoxic state of the brain, which, in turn, disrupts the normal functioning of the limbic structures. The nature of the disorder decisively depends on the individual characteristics of the interaction of these structures, caused by congenital factors and the period of early ontogenesis. These features determine the direction in which the symptoms of neurotic breakdown will develop.

We emphasize that the interest in the individual characteristics of the interaction of the macrostructures of the brain in no way cancels the need to analyze the neurophysiological foundations of individual differences at the microlevel of the processes of excitation and inhibition of nerve cells. An example of this approach is the study by L.A. Preobrazhenskaya (1981) of the electrical activity of the hippocampus during the development of conditioned reflex switching in dogs. In four dogs, the instrumental food reflex was first developed by pressing the pedal with the right forepaw in response to the conditioned sound signal (tone). Then the same conditioned signal, given against the background of the action of the switch signal (noise and flickering of the fan blades), began to be reinforced by painful stimulation of the hind paw with an electric current. The dog could interrupt this irritation or completely prevent it by raising the left front paw to a certain level.

Metal electrodes were implanted under Nembutal anesthesia into the dorsal hippocampus according to the coordinates of the Lim atlas. The electrical activity of the hippocampus was considered rhythmic if regular oscillations continued for at least 1 s. On the record of the electrohippocampogram, the number of regular oscillations in successive one-second intervals was counted, comparing this number with the oscillations identified by the analyzer. In each situation (defensive and food), at least 30 measurements were made, the average value of the vibration frequency and its error were calculated.

In fig. 27 shows histograms of the distribution of each frequency of rhythmic activity of the hippocampus in four dogs in alimentary and defensive situations of experiments with switching conditioned reflexes. It can be seen that in the transition from the feeding situation to the defensive one, the hippocampal theta rhythm increases in all dogs: the histograms shift to the right. At the same time, each animal is characterized by its own range of changes in the frequency spectrum of regular activity, and this range correlates with the dynamics of the development of switching conditioned reflexes (Fig. 28). In dogs with a more frequent theta rhythm, the development of switching occurred relatively quickly and easily: they began to respond to the conditioned signal in accordance with the existing situation after 5-6 experiments (I and III in Fig. 28). A different picture was observed in dogs, where conditioned reflex activity was of an unstable, undulating character with a tendency to neurotization (II and IV in Fig. 28). Similar data were obtained in experiments with four other dogs. Animals with a relatively slow hippocampal theta rhythm were characterized by low sociability and indifference towards the experimenter. They also experienced difficulties in solving other problems associated with changing the type of activity.

The obtained facts coincide with the data available in the literature on the correlation of the dominant frequency of the hippocampal theta rhythm in rats with the level of exploratory activity characteristic of each animal (Irmis, Radil-Weiss, Lat, Krekule, 1970). Both of these parameters are fairly stable in the same rat. Thus, we can say that the range of changes in the frequency of the hippocampal theta rhythm, which is individually typical for a given animal, reflects a parameter that Pavlov designated as inertness (or, on the contrary, mobility) of the nervous system. If we take into account the role that, according to modern concepts (Andersen, Eccles, 1962), the mechanisms of recurrent inhibition play in the genesis of rhythmic oscillations of biopotentials, then Pavlov's position on the mobility of the nervous processes of excitation and inhibition is filled with specific neurophysiological content. On the other hand, the influence of the hypothalamus on the electrical activity of the hippocampus suggests that the activity of the hypothalamus-hippocampus macrostructural system and its relationship with the amygdala-frontal neocortex system are of great importance for the mobility factor in Pavlov's understanding. It has been established that the theta rhythm accompanying a person's professional activity is distinguished by individual stability in frequency, amplitude, and representation among other rhythms of the electroencephalogram (Cheliout, Sgouropoulus, Hazemann, 1979). The constancy of the intensity of the main rhythms of the electroencephalogram was noted in persons with high indicators of the mobility of nervous processes (Shevko, 1980).

In general, our hypothesis boils down to the fact that the individual characteristics of the interaction of the anterior sections of the neocortex, hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus underlie the types identified by I.P. Pavlov.

What features will characterize the behavior of a subject with a relative functional predominance of the frontal cortex - hypothalamus system? This will be a subject with a clearly expressed domination of one or another need, purposefully aimed at the signals of objects capable of satisfying it. At the same time, he tends to ignore both competing motives and signals that distract him from moving towards the intended goal. And now let us compare our hypothetical description with the description of a particular boy Sasha P., whom VS Merlin and BA Vyatkin (1976) cite as an example of choleric temperament - a strong excitable type according to Pavlov. His interests are constant and stable, he is not lost when faced with difficulties, is persistent in overcoming them. In the classroom, the boy listens intently and works without being distracted.

According to the above data, the functional predominance of the amygdala-hippocampus system will be accompanied by the difficulty of identifying the dominant motive and the readiness to respond to the widest range of objectively insignificant signals. Hence the combination of indecision, endless fluctuations with increased sensitivity, with an overestimation of the significance of external events. Isn't this Kolya M. - in the opinion of V.S.Merlin and B.A.Vyatkin, a typical melancholic, or a weak type, in the terminology of I.P. Pavlov? Kolya is painfully sensitive to trifles, is easily lost, embarrassed, not sure of himself.

The predominance of the hypothalamus-hippocampus system should lead to a somewhat paradoxical combination of a clear identification of dominant motives with generalized reactions to signals of unlikely events, to signals with an unexplained meaning. And again the description of a typical sanguine person (strong, balanced, mobile type) Seryozha T. comes to mind, who is persistent, energetic, efficient, but only in lessons that are interesting to him (the dominant motive! - PS). In uninteresting lessons, he is easily distracted, carried away by extraneous things. Seryozha easily gets used to the new environment, it is not difficult to discipline him.

If the amygdala-frontal cortex subsystem prevails in the system of four structures, we will get a subject with well-balanced needs without much emphasis on one of them. Such a subject ignores the multitude of events taking place around him. Only highly significant signals can induce him to activity. Is this not Aida N., described by Merlin and Vyatkin as an example of a phlegmatic person - a strong, balanced, inert type? She is patient, self-controlled, well-controlled. In the classroom, she is calm, not distracted. This inertia also has its downside: it is difficult for the girl to switch to solving new problems, it takes a long time to get used to the new environment.

We examined four variants of the functional predominance of structural "pairs" and found their correspondence to the psychological characteristics of Pavlov's types. There are still two possible options: the frontal cortex - the hippocampus and the hypothalamus - the amygdala.

The prevalence of the first "informational" pair will give a hypothetical subject, predominantly oriented towards the external environment and behaviorally dependent on the events taking place in this environment. Apparently, he can be called an extrovert, with the characteristic of the latter sociability, a desire for other people, a tendency to change, movement, mastering the environment (Smirnov, Panasyuk, 1977). Other features will be found in a subject with a predominance of the "motivational" system. Here the sphere of internal motives and attitudes will turn out to be quite regular in relation to external influences. And indeed, according to the description of V.M.Smirnov and

A. Yu. Panasyuk, introverts tend to adhere to previously learned ethical nlrm, they are self-possessed, strive for order, shy, uncommunicative with others.

It is easy to see that the concept of "four structures" allows you to integrate Pavlov's classification with the parameter of extra-introversion. At the same time, there is no need to identify extroversion with the parameter of the strength of the nervous system, nor to consider extra-introversion completely in isolation from Pavlov's typology. The concept of "four structures" postulates the existence of extra- and introverts with the same necessity as the temperaments of ancient authors and types of the nervous system according to Pavlov.

Of course, all the types listed above are abstractions. Real life presents us with an infinite variety of intermediate options for the interaction of the four brain structures. Here we are in complete solidarity with B. M. Teplov and V. D. Nebylitsyn, who suggested talking not about types, but about the properties that characterize this or that individuality. We are trying to understand the tendency of various types, noted by IP Pavlov, to predominantly react to one of the basal emotions from the standpoint of the theory of emotions we are developing and the classification based on it (see Ch. 3).

Since the choleric person (strong unrestrained type) is driven by a persistently dominant need, his actions, as a rule, have the traits of overcoming and combating the emotions of anger, rage, and aggressiveness characteristic of these actions. Melancholic (weak type), on the contrary, always gravitates towards defense, towards defense, often colored by the emotions of fear, uncertainty, confusion. Possessing a pronounced motivational dominant and at the same time inquisitive, seeking, open to the environment, a sanguine person (strong mobile type) experiences positive emotions more often than others. As for the phlegmatic person, for all his emotional indifference, he nevertheless gravitates towards positive emotions. And again we must emphasize that this is precisely a tendency, a preferred inclination, since representatives of any type are endowed with the entire arsenal of human emotions.

We believe that the parameters developed by I.P. Pavlov to characterize nervous processes, i.e. strength, balance and mobility, can be applied to the individual set and the dynamic hierarchy of needs. Life shows that the strength (acuteness, tension) of certain needs varies for different individuals within very wide limits. The equilibrium parameter is determined by the clear dominance of one of the needs or their relative balance. On the other hand, the degree of balance indicates the presence of conflict, competitive relations between needs or their harmonious coexistence. Finally, mobility characterizes not only the speed and speed of the change of motivational dominants, but also the range of transformation of primary impulses into secondary, derived needs, the plasticity of the hierarchy of needs inherent in a given subject.

If the individual characteristics of the functioning of the four structures of the brain undoubtedly have an innate component, which then undergoes ontogenetic transformation, then the question of the genetic element in the formation of the hierarchy of needs remains open. However, the different ease of socialization of extra- and introverts suggests that the interaction of the four structures in a certain way correlates with an individual set of needs. The likelihood of acceptance of the functions of a leader by a subject of choleric temperament is higher than that of a melancholic - a weak type of nervous system according to Pavlov's classification. And yet, the decisive role in the formation of the structure of needs undoubtedly belongs to education in a micro- and macrosocial environment. Even in animals, leadership traits are determined not by innate inclinations, but by the relationships that develop in the zoosocial group (see Ch. 1). Studies by ethologists have shown that the dominant individual is formed mainly by manifestations of subordination on the part of subdominant members of the group. Truly "the king is played by his retinue."

What has been said about the role of upbringing applies all the more to the content side of needs, to the objects of their satisfaction. The dominance of social needs in the structure of a given personality does not tell us anything about whether we are dealing with a revolutionary striving for a just reorganization of the world, or with a political maniac obsessed with the idea of world domination. Equally, the dominance of ideal needs does not exclude the selfless preaching of false ideas. Here a person appears as the son of his era, his class, as a "set of social relations", and the sphere of competence of other sciences begins than the science of higher nervous activity and psychology. However, each era showed the world titans and dwarfs, heroes and cowards, knights and scoundrels. This supreme court of history cannot be explained by mere belonging to the era.

Finally, the results of experiments on animals with sequential or simultaneous damage to various brain structures suggest that the individual characteristics of the interaction of the four structures in the case of their pathological disorder determine the main types of human neuroses described by clinicians.

According to the World Health Organization, the number of neuroses has increased dramatically over the past half century. The reason for such a sharp jump is sometimes seen in the peculiarities of life characteristic of the population of industrialized countries, in the negative consequences of the scientific and technological revolution. The etiological significance of such factors as the need to process large amounts of information with a strictly limited time for making responsible decisions, an accelerated pace of life, a violation of biological circadian rhythms as a result of the shift organization of production, long-distance air flights, etc., plus insufficient motor activity of mental, operator and managerial work, led to the idea of "informational neuroses" and even "informational pathology" of human higher nervous activity (Khananashvili, 1978, 1983).

While recognizing the important role of these factors in the genesis of chronic emotional stress (which is in full agreement with the information theory of emotions), it is also difficult for us to accept the hypothesis of an increase in the number of neuroses as a direct consequence of scientific and technological progress. "The intensification of the production process," writes BD Karvasarsky, "just like life itself, is not pathogenic in itself. That is why millions of people in the very midst of the scientific and technological revolution do not get neuroses, but they get sick more often. just those who stand aside from social and industrial life ... the level of prevalence of neuroses among employed people is lower than among dependents and pensioners "(Karvasarsky, 1982). According to G.K. Ushakov (1978), neurasthenia due to overwork is an extremely rare disease.

What is the cause of human neurotic diseases? This question was answered by I.P. Pavlov in his time. According to L. A. Orbeli, Pavlov "tried to find the cause of neuroses ... in the extreme tension of physiological reactions, which, however, is not due to the action of any physical factors, but to the action of social conflicts experienced by a given person. These social conflicts, service, family, class, etc. Ivan Petrovich, of course, attached much more importance to human mental activity than to simple physical phenomena "(Orbeli, 1964, p. 349). Analyzing the causes of neuroses, F. Bassin, V, Rozhnov and M. Rozhnova (1974) reasonably highlight the influence of interpersonal conflicts - family, age, household, work, etc. tension of everyday troubles, sometimes lasting for years - these are the most typical situations that a doctor encounters when talking with a patient suffering from neurosis. According to the Leningrad neuropsychiatric institute named after V.M.Bekhterev, among the psycho-traumatic factors, conflicts of a family-household and interpersonal-production nature predominate (Karvasarsky, 1982). Let us emphasize that contrary to the opinion of Z. Freud, who saw the cause of neuroses almost exclusively in the disharmony of sexual relations, the dominance of sexual conflicts was noted only in 15% of cases in patients aged 19 to 50 years. The clinic of neuroses practically does not encounter negative emotions arising from the dissatisfaction of purely biological needs. The emotional conflict of a neurotic, as a rule, is social in nature, and each type of neurosis is characterized by its own traumatic situation (Voskresensky, 1980).

At present, it can be considered the most reasonable and generally accepted definition of neuroses as psychogenic diseases, in the development of which the collision of especially significant, emotionally saturated relationships of a person with an intolerable life situation plays an essential role. Disturbed personality relationships are formed on the basis of the individual properties of the nervous system under the influence of an unfavorable social environment, first of all, defects in upbringing in the family (Zachepitsky, 1983). This definition, which goes back to the views of V. N. Myasishchev, is shared by B. D. Karvasarsky, M. M. Kabanov, V. V. Kovalev, A. E. Lichko, N. I. Felinskaya and many others.

In the above definition, I would like to clarify the real content with which the vague term "attitude" can be filled. According to V. N. Myasishchev, "the mental attitude expresses the active selective position of the individual, which determines the individual character of activity and individual actions" (Myasishchev, 1960). As we have shown above, the system of relations characterizing a particular personality is based on the inherent structure of a given person's vital, social and ideal needs, their dynamic hierarchy with the allocation of situational dominants, as well as motives that stably dominate over long periods of the life of a given subject. ...

Recall that the competition of simultaneously actualized and often incompatible needs is realized after the transformation of these needs into corresponding emotions, that is, taking into account the likelihood (possibility) of their satisfaction in a given situation. The assessment of the likelihood of satisfaction, in turn, can occur both at the conscious and unconscious levels of higher nervous activity. “The history of the development of neurosis,” writes A. M. Wein, “is the history of the formation of needs and the possibilities of satisfying them ...” Neurosis is “a disease of unsatisfied or unmet needs” (Wayne, 1974, p. 105).

Two factors seem to us to be decisive for the emergence of neurosis: the situation of a difficult choice, subjectively dependent on the person, and the typological characteristics of the nervous system, conducive to a neurotic reaction. Neurosis does not arise if the choice of the subject is predetermined by the obvious dominance of any need. In the case of neurosis, the vector of behavior, as a rule, is located between competing impulses or competing ways of satisfying the same need. The situation requires the subject to make a choice, and this choice turns out to be beyond his power. In experiments on animals, we experimentally showed that the strength of emotional stress is directly proportional to the total value of competing motivations and inversely proportional to the difference between them. The tension is relatively low with a pronounced predominance of one of the strong motives and can reach high values if the competing motivations of moderate strength are approximately equal (Simonov, 1976).

The end result of the impact of a traumatic situation is determined by the individual (typological) characteristics of a person. “It should be assumed,” writes GK Ushakov, “that neither neuroses nor psychoses can arise without a previous constitutional or acquired insufficiency of the corresponding functional systems of the brain” (Ushakov, 1978, p. 323). A.M. Wein (1974) points out the importance of the disorder of the functions of the limbic system in neuroses in his works.

With neurasthenia, weakening of volitional impulses is combined with heightened sensitivity, irritability. Any unexpected event - knock on the door, phone call, telegram - can cause anxiety, palpitations, sweating, muscle tremors.

Do these symptoms indicate a certain weakening of motivational structures (primarily of the hypothalamus), along with increased functioning of the hippocampus, which supports reactions to signals of objectively unlikely events?

Hysteria, on the contrary, is characterized by an overvalued idea that dominates the life of the subject. The hysteric imposes on the environment his version of the interpretation of external events. Here again, one can suspect a pathologically enhanced functioning of the hippocampus, but now combined with a powerful motivational dominant realized by the hypothalamus-neocortex system of the right hemisphere (in right-handers).

The most characteristic feature of psychasthenia is indecision, inability to quickly make a decision and be guided by it (pathological dysfunction of the amygdala?). This indecision is accompanied by suspiciousness, obsessive philosophizing, obsessive fears, hypochondria. The last group of symptoms makes one think about a defect in the functions of the frontal parts of the left hemisphere.

If we accept the general position of IP Pavlov that the main "suppliers" of neuroses are extreme types - strong, unbalanced and weak, and combine this position with the scheme of interaction of four structures, then the following will turn out. Pathology of the frontal cortex - hypothalamus system gives hysteria according to the hypothalamic variant or obsessive-compulsive disorder in the case of a predominant defect in the anterior sections of the neocortex. Disease-induced dysfunction of the hippocampus-amygdala system will lead to neurasthenia, which, as a rule, does not affect higher intellectual functions, indicating the full activity of neocortical structures. Involvement of the anterior sections of the neocortex in the pathological process in combination with impaired functioning of the amygdala will lead to psychosthenic symptoms.

Until now, speaking about the dominant need and subdominant motives, we have abstracted from their quality. But such abstraction becomes impossible as soon as we enter the field of human neurotic diseases. The pronounced "social egoism" of the hysterics is qualitatively different from the "biological egoism" of the psychasthenic, who is focused on the slightest signs of his inner painful sensations. Feelings of vague guilt and heightened responsibility, which are so characteristic of a number of cases of neurasthenia, have a particularly complex origin.

In other words, the individual characteristics of the interaction of the four brain structures, with all their significance, far from completely determine the symptomatology of neurotic diseases. In the behavior of the hysterical, who fiercely demands the attention of others, in his pretentious theatricality, a morbidly transformed social need "for oneself" clearly appears.

Concern about one's health, in which the whole world is obscured by the slightest signs of (sometimes non-existent!) Diseases, is nothing more than an exaggerated biological need "for oneself" - the basis of hypochondriacal states. Another thing is the feeling of painful responsibility that haunts the subject of guilt, anxiety and despair at the thought that "I am failing and nothing is succeeding." A chronically unsatisfied social need "for others" already dominates here.

No less clearly the significance of the quality of needs is found in the genesis of neurotic depression. We are referring to two common types of depression, anxiety depression and depression depression. Anxiety depression is based on a chronic dissatisfaction of the needs of preservation with the emotions of anxiety typical for these needs, a feeling of some kind of constant threat, an unknown danger hanging over the subject, his position in the family and at work, over his loved ones. Depression of melancholy is generated by the dissatisfaction of the needs of development, advancement, improvement of one's life position.

Let us emphasize that the needs are realized by a person only partially and far from being adequate to their real content. When a patient complains of a feeling of constant anxiety or unreasonable melancholy, he does not at all suspect that it is about the needs of preservation and development. “In the case of a person,” wrote I. P. Pavlov, “... it is necessary to find, together with the patient or in addition to him, or even with his resistance, among the chaos of life relations, at once or slowly acting conditions and circumstances with which the origin of the painful deviation, the origin of neurosis is connected with the law "(Pavlov, 1973, p. 389). We will not advance one step forward in our understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of neuroses, ignoring the sphere of unconscious manifestations of human higher nervous activity.

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1. Differential psychology

Differential psychology- (from Lat. diffgentia - difference) is a branch of psychology that studies psychological differences both between individuals and between groups of people united by any characteristic, as well as the causes and consequences of these differences.

The subject of differential psychology (DP) are the patterns of occurrence and manifestation of individual, group, typological differences. According to the definition of the founder of differential psychology V. Stern, it is the science of significant differences in mental properties and functions.

Differential psychology has a threefold structure, which includes areas of individual, group and typological differences.

Differential psychology tasks:

1. Study of the sources of variability of the measured characteristics. The area of individual differences is most closely related to this task of DP.

2. Analysis of the group distribution of features. This task overlaps with such a section of the DP as the area of group differences. Within the framework of this task, the psychological characteristics of groups are studied, united by any criterion - gender, age, racial-ethnic, etc.

3. Study of the peculiarities of the formation of types in various typologies. Associated with this task is the area of DP, which studies typical differences (type is a symptom complex, a stable combination of certain features) based on an analysis of individual typologies (for more details, see topic 8). As an example, one of the most ancient typologies can be cited here - the typology of temperament based on the predominance of a certain fluid in the body (blood, mucus, bile, black bile), and the types of temperament (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic) distinguished in this typology.

2. The place of differential psychologyamong other scientific disciplines

DP studies the individual specifics of the course of cognitive mental processes, emotions, abilities, intelligence, etc. In this area of its study, DP is in close intersection with general psychology.

DP studies the age specificity of cognitive processes, styles of reaction, explores the individual variability of the relationships of psychological, social, biological, calendar ages, the existing periodization of mental development, etc. In this area of its study, DP is in communication with developmental psychology.

Speaking about the individual variability of the properties of the nervous system, interhemispheric asymmetry, temperament, etc., DP finds its own relationship with psychophysiology.

DP studies the individual variability due to the social status of the subject, its belonging to a certain socioeconomic group, and in this area of its study is connected with social psychology.

Speaking about different approaches to understanding the "norm" and deviations from it, developmental deviations, character accentuations, DP forms connections with medical psychology.

DP examines the individual characteristics due to the ethnocultural affiliation of the subject. This area of DP is in the intersection with ethnopsychology.

It is possible to trace the connection of DP with a number of other psychological disciplines. It should only be noted that in the DP, the main emphasis is placed not only on identifying and stating certain features of the subject, but also on the factors, causes and consequences that are associated with these features.

3 . Methods for researching individual differences

Differential psychology is characterized by:

1. General scientific methods (observation, experiment).

2. Actually psychological methods - introspective (self-observation, self-esteem), psychophysiological (method of galvanic skin reactions, electroencephalographic method, method of dichotomous listening, etc.), socio-psychological (conversation, interview, questioning, sociometry), age-psychological (" cross "and" longitudinal "sections), testing, analysis of products of activity.

3. Psychogenetic methods.

There are several varieties of psychogenetic methods, but all of them are aimed at solving the problem of determining the dominant factors (genetics or environment) in the formation of individual differences.

A) Genealogical method- the method of researching families, genealogies, which was used by F. Galton. The premise for using the method is the following: if some trait is hereditary and encoded in genes, then the closer the relationship, the higher the similarity between people for this trait. Thus, by studying the degree of manifestation of a certain trait in relatives, it is possible to determine whether this trait is inherited.

B) Foster Child Method

V) Twin method

Control group method

The method is based on the study of two existing types of twin pairs: monozygous (MZ), formed from one egg and one sperm and having an almost completely identical chromosome set, and dizygotic (DZ), the chromosome set of which coincides only by 50%. DZ and MZ pairs are placed in an identical environment. Comparison of intrapaired similarities in such mono- and dizygotic twins will show the role of heredity and environment in the emergence of individual differences.

Separated twin couple method

The method is based on the study of intrapair similarity of mono- and dizygotic twins separated at an early age by the will of fate. In total, about 130 such pairs are described in the scientific literature. It was found that separated MZ twins exhibit greater intra-pair similarity than separated DZ twins. The descriptions of some pairs of separated twins are sometimes strikingly identical in their habits and preferences.

Twin pair method

The method consists in studying the distribution of roles and functions within a twin pair, which is often a closed system, due to which the twins form a so-called "aggregate" personality.

Control twin method

Especially similar monozygous pairs are selected (ideally identical experimental and control groups), and then in each pair one twin is exposed and the other is not. Measuring the differences in the signs to which the impact was directed in two twins, the effectiveness of the impact is assessed.

It should be noted that numerous studies of twins show that:

The correlation between the results of tests on the mental development of monozygotic twins is very high, in fraternal twins it is much lower;

In the area of special abilities and personality traits, correlations between twins are weaker, although here, too, monozygotic ones show more similarity than dizygotic ones;

For many psychological traits, differences within pairs of dizygotic twins do not exceed differences within pairs of monozygotic twins. But significant differences are manifested most often among the dizygotic;

With regard to schizophrenia, the percentage of agreement between monozygotic, dizygotic, and siblings is such that it indicates the presence of a hereditary predisposition to this disease. Here, the case of four monozygotic twins (Dzjan's quadruples), well-known in the history of psychogenetics, can be very interesting; all four twins, albeit at different times, developed schizophrenia.

4. Mathematical methods.

The use of methods of statistical analysis was one of the prerequisites for the separation of differential psychology into a full-fledged science. It should be noted that here, too, one of the pioneers was the famous Englishman F. Galton, who began to use this method to prove his theory of the heritability of genius.

4 ... Channels for obtaining information about personality

personality individual heredity cerebral

Sometimes methods of studying individuality are divided into three groups - based on the channel through which the information was received.

L (lif gesogd datа) - data based on the registration of human behavior in everyday life. Since even for scientific purposes it is impossible for one psychologist to comprehensively study human behavior in different conditions, experts are usually involved - people who have experience of interacting with the subject in a significant area.

It is difficult to make L-data valid, because it is impossible to get rid of distortions associated with the personality of the observer, the halo effect (systematic distortions) acts, instrumental distortions associated with imperfection of survey methods (incorrectly formulated questions) are also possible. Another disadvantage of L-data is the time it takes.

To increase validity, you need to comply with the requirements for expert assessments:

1) define traits in terms of observed behavior (first agree on what we will record as a manifestation of anxiety, aggressiveness, etc.),

2) ensure the duration of the observation,

3) involve at least ten experts per subject,

4) to rank the subjects during one meeting according to no more than one criterion, so that there is no guidance effect and the experts do not repeat their list.

Estimates must be formalized and expressed in quantitative form.

T (objestivе test dаta) - data of objective tests (tests) with a controlled experimental situation. Objectivity is achieved due to the fact that restrictions are imposed on the possibility of distorting test assessments and there is an objective way to obtain assessments based on the subject's reaction.

Examples of using T-data are the well-known experiments of G.V. Birenbaum and B.V. Zeigarnik on memorizing unfinished actions, experiments with modeling situations for the study of altruistic behavior. That is, it is necessary to create an integral objective situation for the manifestation of certain personality traits.

This data acquisition channel is also time-consuming and labor-intensive and is used more often at the pilot study stage to determine a hypothesis, which is then tested using other, more cost-effective methods.

In order to increase the validity and heuristicity of the study, it is useful to apply the following tactics:

1) disguise the true purpose of the research,

2) unexpected setting of tasks,

3) uncertainty and ambiguity in the formulation of research objectives to create a zone of uncertainty and stimulate the activity of the subject,

4) distracting the attention of the subject,

5) creating an emotional situation during testing ("This task was done with ease before you!"),

6) using the emotional content of the test situation,

7) fixation of automated reactions,

8) fixation of involuntary indicators (electrophysiological, biochemical, vegetative changes),

9) fixation of "background" indicators (physical status, level of activity and fatigue, etc.).

Q (questionnaige data) - data obtained using questionnaires, questionnaires and other standardized methods. This channel is central to personality studies due to its high cost-effectiveness (can be used in a group, automated processing of results). However, it is not considered highly reliable.

Distortions of the information received can be associated with the following reasons: low cultural and intellectual level of the subjects (it is difficult to fill out questionnaires for rural residents and children under ten years old), lack of self-knowledge skills and special knowledge, the use of incorrect standards (especially in a limited society, when a person compares himself with close, and not the population as a whole). In addition, different motivations of the subjects can lead to distortions either in the direction of social desirability (disimulation, weakening of symptoms), or emphasizing their defects (agravation and simulation).

Techniques and methods of scientific classification

The received data (regardless of the channel) can be combined (9). Suppose that we examined a certain extensive sample of subjects (Ivanov, Sidorov, Petrov, Fedorov) for psychological manifestations, which we can conventionally designate as A, B, C, D, and brought them together in a single table.

It is easy to see that Ivanov's results resemble those of Fedorov. We can combine them into one column instead of two and give a name to the personality type we have introduced (for example, IvaFedoroid). All those who resemble Ivanov and Fedorov in their psychological qualities, we can now refer to one type. That is, a type is a generalization made for a group of subjects with similar qualities. At the same time, of course, as a result of such a generalization, we lose the individual differences between Ivanov and Fedorov (for example, we ignore the discrepancy between indicators on the basis of D).

Further, we can pay attention to the fact that signs A and C, B and D take practically the same values. This may be due to the fact that there is a common factor behind these manifestations. And we can combine the columns of our matrix by assigning new names to psychological qualities - for example, instead of A and C as, and instead of B and D - bd. A stable way of behaving in different situations and conditions is called a personality trait.

And the table is reduced, and the psychologist receives data on personality types and personality traits (in a rigorous study, these procedures, of course, are carried out using factor analysis).

Ultimately, it is not very important which method was chosen to study the individual properties of a person, the main thing is that it is correctly applied and turns out to be useful for augmenting new scientific knowledge. And for this to happen, the results obtained must be generalized (the procedure for dividing a set into subsets is called taxonomy, or classification).

In the psychology of individual difference, not all typologies have been compiled with these requirements in mind. However, among empirical (non-scientific) classifications there are very interesting ones, and a strictly scientific one may turn out to be completely useless.

So, it is obvious that some methods are used to study traits, and others are used to study individuality. Therefore, in order to draw up a program of scientific or practical research, it is necessary to sequentially determine the following points:

1. What is the subject of consideration - a sign or an individual?

2. To what level of individuality does the phenomenon under consideration belong?

3. What paradigm does the researcher adhere to - natural science or humanitarian?

4. Which is preferable to use - qualitative or quantitative methods?

5. Finally, what kind of specific techniques should be introduced into the program?

5 ... The concepts of personality, man, individual, individuality and their relationship

Along with the concept of "personality", the terms "man", "individual", "individuality" are used. Substantively, these concepts are intertwined.

Man is a generic concept indicating the attribution of a creature to the highest degree of development of living nature - to the human race. The concept of "man" asserts the genetic predetermination of the development of proper human characteristics and qualities.

An individual is a single representative of the "homo sariens" species. As individuals, people differ from each other not only by morphological characteristics (such as height, body constitution and eye color), but also by psychological properties (abilities, temperament, emotionality).

Individuality is the unity of the unique personal properties of a particular person. This is the originality of his psychophysiological structure (type of temperament, physical and mental characteristics, intelligence, worldview, life experience).

The ratio of individuality and personality is determined by the fact that these are two ways of being a person, two different definitions. The discrepancy between these concepts is manifested, in particular, in the fact that there are two different processes of the formation of personality and individuality.

The formation of the personality is the process of socialization of a person, which consists in the assimilation by him of the generic, social essence. This development is always carried out in the concrete historical circumstances of a person's life. The formation of a personality is associated with the acceptance by the individual of the social functions and roles developed in society, social norms and rules of behavior, with the formation of the ability to build relationships with other people. A formed personality is a subject of free, independent and responsible behavior in society.

The formation of individuality is the process of individualizing an object. Individualization is the process of self-determination and isolation of a person, its isolation from the community, the design of its separateness, uniqueness and originality. A person who has become an individual is an original person who actively and creatively manifested himself in life.

In the concepts of "personality" and "individuality" different sides, different dimensions of the spiritual essence of a person are recorded. The essence of this difference is well expressed in the language. With the word "personality", such epithets as "strong", "energetic", "independent" are usually used, thereby emphasizing its active representation in the eyes of others. They say about individuality "bright", "unique", "creative", meaning the qualities of an independent entity.

Personality structure

Distinguish between statistical and dynamic personality structures. A statistical structure is understood as an abstract model abstracted from a really functioning personality that characterizes the main components of the individual's psyche. The basis for identifying personality parameters in its statistical model is the difference in all components of the human psyche according to the degree of their representation in the personality structure. The following components are distinguished:

· General properties of the psyche, i.e. common to all people (sensations, perception, thinking, emotions);

· Socially specific features, i.e. inherent only to certain groups of people or communities (social attitudes, value orientations);

· Individually unique properties of the psyche, i.e. characterizing individual typological features. Inherent only to a particular individual (temperament, character, ability).

In contrast to the statistical model of the structure of the personality, the model of the dynamic structure fixes the main components in the psyche of the individual no longer abstracted from the everyday existence of a person, but on the contrary, only in the immediate context of human life. At each specific moment of his life, a person appears not as a set of certain formations, but as a person who is in a certain mental state, which in one way or another is reflected in the momentary behavior of the individual. If we begin to consider the main components of the statistical structure of the personality in their movement, change, interaction and living circulation, then we thereby make the transition from the statistical to the dynamic structure of the personality.

6 ... Environment and heredity in the determination of individual differences

Determining the sources of individual mental variations is the central problem of differential psychology. It is known that individual differences are generated by numerous and complex interactions between heredity and environment. Heredity ensures the stability of the existence of a biological species, the environment - its variability and the ability to adapt to changing living conditions. Heredity is contained in the genes passed on by the parents to the embryo during fertilization. If there is a chemical imbalance or incompleteness in genes, the developing organism may have physical abnormalities or mental abnormalities. However, even in the usual case, heredity allows for a very wide range of behavioral variations resulting from the summation of the norms of reactions of different levels - biochemical, physiological, psychological. And within the boundaries of heredity, the end result depends on the environment. Thus, in every manifestation of human activity, one can find something from heredity, and something from the environment, the main thing is to determine the measure and content of these influences.

In addition, a person has social inheritance, which animals are deprived of (following cultural patterns, transferring accentuation, for example, schizoid, from mother to child through cold maternal education, the formation of family scenarios). However, in these cases, a rather stable manifestation of features over several generations is noted, but without genetic fixation. "The so-called social heritage cannot really resist the influence of the environment," writes A. Anastazi.

There are several prejudices about the concepts of "variability", "heredity" and "environment". Although heredity is responsible for the stability of a species, most inherited traits are modifiable, and even hereditary diseases are not inevitable. It is equally true that traces of environmental influences can be very stable in the psychological appearance of an individual, although they will not be genetically transmitted to subsequent generations (for example, developmental disorders of a child as a result of birth trauma).

Different theories and approaches assess the contribution of the two factors to the formation of individuality in different ways. Historically, the following groups of theories have emerged from the point of view of their preference for biological or environmental, socio-cultural determination.

1. In biogenetic theories, the formation of individuality is understood as predetermined by innate and genetic inclinations. Development is a gradual unfolding of these properties in time, and the contribution of environmental influences is very limited. Biogenetic approaches often serve as the theoretical basis for racist teachings about the primordial difference of nations. F. Galton was a supporter of this approach, as well as the author of the theory of recapitulation St. Hall.

2. Sociogenetic theories (sensualistic approach, affirming the primacy of experience) argue that initially a person is a blank slate (tаbulа gasа), and all his achievements and features are due to external conditions (environment). This position was shared by J. Locke. These theories are more progressive, but their drawback is the understanding of the child as an initially passive being, an object of influence.

3. Two-factor theories (convergence of two factors) understood development as a result of the interaction of innate structures and external influences. K. Buhler, V. Stern, A. Binet believed that the environment is superimposed on the factors of heredity. The founder of the two-factor theory V. Stern noted that one cannot ask about a single function, from the outside or from the inside. One should be interested in what is in it from the outside and what is from the inside. But even within the framework of two-factor theories, the child still remains a passive participant in the changes taking place in him.

4. The doctrine of higher mental functions (cultural-historical approach) Vygotsky argues that the development of individuality is possible due to the presence of culture - the generalized experience of mankind. The innate properties of a person are the conditions for development, the environment is the source of his development (because it contains what a person must master). Higher mental functions, which are characteristic only of a person, are mediated by a sign and objective activity, which are the content of culture. And in order for the child to be able to appropriate it, it is necessary that he entered into a special relationship with the world around him: he did not adapt, but actively appropriated the experience of previous generations in the process of joint activities and communication with adults who are cultural bearers.

The genetics of quantitative traits tries to determine the contribution of heredity and the environment, analyzing various types of variance in the values of a trait. However, not every trait is simple, fixed by one allele (a pair of genes, among which there is a dominant and a recessive one). In addition, the final effect cannot be considered as the arithmetic sum of the influence of each of the genes, because they can, manifesting simultaneously, also interact with each other, leading to systemic effects. Therefore, studying the process of genetic control of a psychological trait, psychogenetics seeks to get an answer to the following questions:

1. To what extent does the genotype determine the formation of individual differences (ie, what is the expected measure of variability)?

2. What is the specific biological mechanism of this influence (on which part of the chromosome are the corresponding genes localized)?

3. What processes connect the protein product of genes and a specific phenotype?

4. Are there environmental factors that change the studied genetic mechanism?

The heritability of a trait is recognized by the presence of a correlation between the indicators of biological parents and children, and not by the similarity of the absolute value of the indicators. Suppose research reveals a similarity between the temperament characteristics of biological parents and their adopted children. Most likely, in foster families, children will experience the influence of common and different environmental conditions, as a result of which, in absolute terms, they will also become similar to foster parents. However, there will be no correlation.

Currently, the discussion between supporters of factors of heredity and the environment has lost its former acuteness. Numerous studies devoted to identifying the sources of individual variation, as a rule, cannot provide an unambiguous assessment of the contribution of the environment or heredity. So, for example, even thanks to the psychogenetic studies of F. Galton, carried out in the 1920s using the twin method, it was found that biologically determined characteristics (skull sizes, other measurements) were genetically determined, and psychological qualities (intelligence quotient according to different tests) give a wide spread and are conditioned by the environment. It is influenced by the social and economic status of the family, birth order, etc.

The current state of affairs in the study of the interaction of the environment and heredity is illustrated by two models of environmental influences on intellectual abilities. In the first model, Zayoncz and Markus argued that the more time parents and children spend together, the higher the correlation of IQ with an older relative (exposure model). That is, the child in his intellectual abilities is similar to the one who brings him up longer, and if the parents, for some reason, devote little time to the child, he will look like a nanny or a grandmother. In the second model, however, the opposite was stated: McAskey and Clarke noted that the highest correlation is observed between the child and the relative who is the subject of his identification (identification model). That is, the most important thing is to be an intellectual authority for the child, and then he can be influenced even distantly, and regular joint activity is not at all necessary. The coexistence of two essentially mutually exclusive models once again shows that the majority of differential psychological theories are narrowly limited, while general theories have not yet been created.

7. Methods

Foster Child Method... The method consists in the fact that the study includes 1) children given up as early as possible to biologically alien parents-educators, 2) adoptive and 3) biological parents. Since children have 50% of common genes with each biological parent, but do not have common living conditions, and, on the contrary, do not have common genes with adoptive parents, but share environmental characteristics, it is possible to determine the relative role of heredity and environment in the formation of individual differences.

Twin method... The method of twins was initiated by the article by F. Galton, published in 1876 - "The history of twins as a criterion of the relative strength of nature and upbringing." But the beginning of real research in this direction falls on the beginning of the 20th century. There are several variations of this method.

8 . Asymmetry of the hemispheres as a factor in the development of personality

One of the most important individual properties is functional asymmetry and specialization of the hemispheres - a characteristic of the distribution of mental functions between the right and left hemispheres. The process of becoming asymmetric is called lateralization. Asymmetry is a property of all living things, manifesting itself in different ways - in tropisms, the direction of winding the molecular spiral, etc. (the phenomenon of asymmetry in the living world is called chirality). In animal physiology, the concept of "paw" is used (similar to "hands"), and observations show that in mammals also all paired organs have one or another degree of asymmetry, there are dominant (leading) and subordinate limbs. Taking into account the early accustoming of children to right-handedness, practical psychologists sometimes suggest focusing on the criterion of "visitation" to determine the leading hemisphere.

Cerebral dominance and dominance of the hand (ear, eye) are usually connected by contralateral relations (i.e., with the leading right hand, the left hemisphere is responsible for speech). But sometimes they also have an ipsilateral relationship (located on the same side of the body). There is no absolute dominance either - each person has an individual combination of cerebral dominance, dominance of the hand, leg, eye and ear. There are people who have equal right and left hands - they are called ambidextrous. Left-handedness sometimes brings inconvenience to a person, but it can have a different origin, and therefore the upbringing and education of left-handed children should be based on neuropsychological examination data.

Cerebral dominance in function is not a state, but a process that takes place throughout a person's life. If at the early stages of the study of asymmetry, the data of clinical practice were mainly used, then with the advent of new methods (in particular, the method of dichotic listening), it was found that any mental function is carried out due to the joint work of both hemispheres, and its anatomical substrate is presented twice - in the right hemisphere figurative, concrete level of the implementation of the function, and in the left - abstract, verbal-logical. And if at first only the principle of dominance for speech functions was noted, now they are talking about different strategies for processing information: the left hemisphere implements it sequentially, similarly, the right - in parallel, synthetically.

The left hemisphere is usually responsible for operating with verbal-sign information, reading and counting, while the right hemisphere is responsible for operating with images, orientation in space, distinguishing sounds and melodies, recognizing complex objects, and producing dreams. Since left-brain thinking is analytical, it acts by carrying out a series of sequential operations, as a result of which an internally consistent model of the world is formed, which is easy to fix in signs and words.

Right-hemispheric thinking is spatially-shaped, simultaneous (one-time) and synthetic, which makes it possible to simultaneously grasp heterogeneous information. The result of the functioning of the right hemisphere is polysemy, which, on the one hand, is the basis of creativity, and on the other hand, it makes it difficult to understand between people, since it is based more on symbols than on meanings. In men, the asymmetry is more pronounced than in women, which, apparently, limits their opportunities for compensation and learning.

The dominance of the hemispheres in the implementation of this or that function is not fixed, but depends on the content of the activity, when changing which it is possible not only to smooth out the asymmetry, but even to change the sign to the opposite. It usually defines the most developed area of the mental - for example, in the right hemisphere, emotions and intuition are better developed, in the left hemisphere - perception and thinking, however, both are capable of including different hemispheres, and the very concept of "right hemisphere" does not mean that the center of speech is necessarily located on the right - it only emphasizes the fact that the right hemisphere is most involved in the process under discussion. Depending on the ratio of dominant and subordinate functions, the structure of the personality as a whole is also formed, which was written by K.-G. Jung, and the subordinate function is often the strongest. (It is more difficult to control it, because a person in relations with the world is accustomed to relying on other information channels, and here he turns out to be defenseless. For example, a mathematician-programmer who is accustomed to interacting with the world "left-brain" may completely not control his own emotions and easily fall into a state love or affect.) In twin couples, usually one relies on sign information, the other on symbolic; domination also determines the content of typical neuroses (whether they arise in the sphere of ideas or feelings).

Right-handed people have more control over the muscles of the right side of the body, so that latent emotions can be more often seen on the left face profile. Since our culture is dominated by right-handedness, it is understandable what most modern people lack.

9. Gender in the structure of personality

On the one hand, individual characteristics are not reducible to the biological foundation, and on the other, they are largely determined by innate regulatory mechanisms. Thus, the main idea of the theory of integral individuality of V.S. Merlin and the special theory of individuality of V.M. Rusalova on the hierarchical subordination of all individual differences with the determining role of biological factors is constantly gaining confirmation. This fully applies to the psychology of sex. When studying gender problems, two terms are used abroad: seNS when it comes to the biological basis of behavior, and gendeG when they mean the sociocultural content of behavior.

Sex as a biological phenomenon refers to individual characteristics - it is determined at the moment of conception of a person, it cannot be changed. However, a person can accept or reject his gender, experience it as a reward or punishment in different ways under the influence of cultural and social influences: parents' expectations, ideas about the purpose of their own sex, its value, etc. Therefore, the natural foundations of behavior can either increase or, conversely, be inhibited, weakening the productivity of human activity and leading to the emergence of neuroses. (Recall that libido (sexual desire) in psychoanalysis was considered as the main attraction that determines human activity and is transformed through sublimation into creative energy, and in Jung's theory it began to be considered as a source of life force in general.)

As for the differences in psychological qualities in people of different sexes, they began to stand out as a subject of research relatively recently, especially in Russian psychology, focused on understanding the personality as a set of social relations. This is largely due to the fact that human culture, including psychoanalysis, was created mainly by men, and the word "man" in various languages often coincides with the word "man" and differs from the word "woman".

Both the features concerning reproductive behavior (mating behavior, reproduction, caring for offspring), and simply the quality of cognitive processes, emotional sphere and behavior can differ in the male and female groups. At the same time, ideas about gender-role psychological variations include both everyday prejudices and cultural stereotypes about what should be men and women. It is not always possible to separate real facts and everyday ideas, but attempts in this direction have been made for a long time.

So, back in 1942, K. McNemar established and statistically confirmed that girls have more developed aesthetic tastes, they have better developed speech, finer coordination, while boys have better mathematical and mechanical abilities. Girls have better fluency; women are more adaptive, educated, they have a higher level of social desirability, and men, on the other hand, are more quick-witted, resourceful, inventive. All new types of professions are first mastered by men, and only then by women. In addition, women prefer stereotyped types of professional activity, while men, on the contrary, are more likely to experience neuropsychiatric disorders in those types of activities that are stereotyped.

So, biological sex and psychological sex are not uniquely connected: it is obvious that a man can have a female character, and a woman can behave like a man. In order for a person to accept, become aware of his gender and learn to use his resources, he must successfully go through a process called sex-role socialization. (Nartova-Bochaver).

10. Biological mechanisms of sexual differentiation

The question of why boys and girls turn out has been of interest to humanity for a long time. Various explanations have been given for this. For example, Aristotle believed that the main thing is how a man and a woman caress each other, who is more passionate during intercourse. If a man is more passionate, then a boy will turn out, if a woman, then a girl.

The secret of the appearance of a child of a certain gender was revealed only in the second half of the twentieth century. with the help of geneticists.

As you know, the chromosomal apparatus is the carrier of hereditary properties. Each human cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes - 22 pairs of so-called autosom, the same in men and women, and one pair sex chromosm, which is different for them. For women, these are two NS-chromosomes (pattern XX), men have one NS- and one Have - chromosomes (pattern NSHave),T. e. male genetic sex is an heterogameticm, and female - homogametic.

The embryo is initially programmed to develop into a female. However, the presence Have-chromosomes stops the development of the yet undifferentiated reproductive organs of the fetus (which would otherwise turn into ovaries) and directs their development according to the male type, turning them into testicles.

The process of sexual differentiation begins from the moment of fertilization of the egg and goes through a number of stages, each of which has its own specific tasks, and the results of development achieved at each stage become. The main stages and components of sexual differentiation are reflected by J. Mani (1980) in the following diagram (Fig. 1.1).

Rice. 1.1. Stages and components of sexual differentiation

Genetic gender determines the true, or gonadal, sex, that is, sex, due to the structure of the sex gland (testicle or ovary). So, the pattern NSHave, characteristic only of male cells and making them incompatible with the immunological system of the female body, programs, due to the presence in Have-chromosome gene SGHave, the transformation (at 4-8 weeks) of the embryonic gonads of a male fetus into testes capable of producing sperm. In the chromosome NS patterns XX there is a gene DSS, which directs the development of the indifferent sex gland to the ovaries, which are capable of producing eggs. The appearance of the testicles or ovaries causes gametefloor (from the Greek. gametes- spouse, gamete- spouse). Thus, the gene DSS plays the pattern XX the same role as a gene SGHave at the pattern NSHave At the end of the 3rd month, the testes begin to produce the male sex hormone testosterone (androgens). Arises hormonal l , which in the embryo determines the differentiation of the internal reproductive organs (internal morphological sex ) and external genitals (external morphological sex ), as well as special nervous mechanisms, the so-called "reproductive centers", which further regulate masculine or feminine behavior person. With the onset of puberty in boys, the amount of androgens increases, since they are produced not only in the adrenal cortex, as in women, but also in the male gonads. And the more androgens in the body, the more masculine behavior manifests itself.

The hypothalamus, in which the reproductive centers are located, not only differentiates under the influence of embryonic hormones, but is itself a psychoendocrine organ; his prenatal program, focused on male and female behavior, determines the nature of his reaction to sex hormones of puberty, and this reaction, in turn, causes the corresponding semi-dymorphic behavior.

During puberty, a large number of hormones are released, which finally determine biological differences by sex. During this period, the testosterone level in boys increases 18 times, and in girls the level of estradiol - 8 times.

In the absence or lack of embryonic androgens in the corresponding critical period, sexual differentiation automatically, regardless of the chromosomal sex, occurs according to the female type. An example is the development of a child in cases where, due to the pathological influence of ecology (intoxication, radiation), the sex glands are not formed ( state of agonadism On the other hand, if the mother during pregnancy takes drugs that stimulate the appearance of the male hormone (testosterone), then the female embryo can "defeminize", which subsequently manifests itself in the masculinization of female behavior. Such girls prefer the society of boys and the games characteristic of boys, they are self-confident and independent, that is, they are defined as tomboys. All this proves that androgens play essentially b O a greater role for intrauterine sex differentiation than estrogens.

It was found that the younger the parents, the higher the probability of having a boy. So, for mothers 18-20 years old, the ratio of born boys to girls was 120: 100, and for mothers 38-40 years old - 90: 100. It also matters what kind of pregnancy: in primiparous boys are born more often; the higher the birth number, the lower the likelihood of having a son. In addition, if by the time of ovulation the sperm is already in the woman's genital tract, there is a greater likelihood of having a girl, but if it gets there after ovulation, the likelihood of having a boy increases. Already in the nineteenth century. it has been observed that pregnancy with a boy lasts a week longer than a pregnancy with a girl.

Differences in the rate of development of male and female organisms are visible already at the embryonic stage. In girls, skeletal development is faster. After birth, they are 1-2 weeks ahead of boys in bone formation. At the same time, boys at birth are 2-3% larger than girls in length and weight. (Ilyin, psychophysiology)

11. The feasibility and biological purpose of the presence in nature of two sexes

The biological purpose of men and women could be expressed very briefly: the task of men is to fertilize women, and the task of women is to bear children. This position reflects the most influential concept of the nineteenth century. - Darwinism and its development in the form of social Darwinism XX v . , which focuses on "natural selection" and the main and highest purpose of women in society - motherhood, which is an integral factor in the prosperity of the nation. As I.I. Mechnikov, for the sake of this mission, nature allows women to lag behind in development. Here is what he wrote about this at the beginning of the twentieth century: “Many naturalists are fully aware of the fact that a woman seems to correspond to a man in adolescence, therefore, is delayed at a certain stage of development. Nobody, of course, will deduce from my words, so that I assert that a woman is incapable of development. I affirm only that the progressive development of a woman should be carried out at the expense of her ability to reproduce, feed and raise children, just like the intensified activity of worker bees, ants and termites could not appear otherwise, how, together with the appearance of infertility or fertility in urgent exceptional cases, the United States provides us with actual proof of this opinion.Yankee women have long been concerned about their own development and made great strides in this regard, but they were accomplished, apparently due to reproduction and family life "(1913). Of course, I.I. Mechnikov is not about the loss of fertility as a result of the emancipation of women, but about a change in their social role in family life and attitudes towards the birth of a large number of children. It is no secret that the more educated a woman is, the fewer children she has. This is the payment for her intellectual development.

From the standpoint of social Darwinism , the majority of representatives of science and education unanimously opposed the attempts of women to achieve social equality, proving the physiologically conditioned limitation of not only physical, but also mental and social activity of women. In 1887, the chairman of the British Medical Association proposed that, in the interests of social progress and the improvement of the human race, education and other activities of women should be prohibited by the constitution as potentially dangerous, causing an overload of the female body and inability to produce healthy offspring.

Even such a progressive figure as Herbert Spencer, in his work Principles of Biology (1867), argued that excessive mental work negatively affects the physiological development and reproductive functions of women.

“Finally, women, who participate in the production process on an equal basis with men, have the opportunity to manage the life of the outside world together with them. But they still have the exclusive right to control the procreation. insemination, they will be able to solve this issue on their own. The reverse process is impossible: a woman is needed to procreate. Thus, the seemingly unshakable idea of uniting two sexes as a primary condition of childbirth is being questioned today. And when biologists and geneticists predict that soon it will be possible to fertilize the nucleus a female cell without a sperm cell, it becomes clear how close we have come to the seemingly fantastic idea of parthenogenesis, which in this case will be female.

Even if women of the 3rd millennium do not take advantage of this opportunity, it is likely that men will be sensitive to such a change in their status. Apparently, they face serious tests. Perhaps they will feel even more acutely the loss of features characteristic of their gender, their uniqueness and necessity. Therefore, we can assume that they will try with all their might to regain at least part of their former power. Biologists are already predicting the incredible: in less than half a century, men will be able to "bear" children. And this is no longer science fiction. Soon it will be necessary to radically reconsider the relationship between the sexes, the definition of their specific qualities and the relationship to their equality "(Elizabeth Badinter. - UNESCO Courier. 1986).

But in the statement of I.I. Mechnikov, there is also a biological subtext: nature regulates the development of females reproducing offspring, and there really is a mystery in this regulation. Girls have been ahead of boys in the rate of development for many years, overtake them in absolute terms, and suddenly, with the end of puberty, they begin to lag behind males in development. Why it happens? Why Should a woman be inferior in physical development to a man?

Although the role of men in the reproduction of offspring cannot be discounted, the main role is still assigned to the woman: it is she who bears the fetus, the usefulness of this fetus depends on her efforts, and the effect of these efforts is closely related to the nature of her professional and social activities, to the lack of physical and mental stress, so characteristic of a woman striving to make a professional or public career. Therefore, one can understand the fears of many scientists: will the family life and raising children suffer as a result of such aspirations. G. Spencer, guided by such fears, considered it necessary to limit the possibilities of any activity of a woman so that all her energy is devoted to a child and domestic life, since only such a way is, from his point of view, the most effective form of human organization. The Germans developed this principle in the form of three K intended for a woman: KindeG children), Kbwithhe (kitchen) and KiGwithhe (church).

As J. Williams and D. Best (1986) point out, a woman's freedom of movement was limited, since she always needed to care for babies. And since the woman was "locked in a cave", it made sense for her to do housework. At the same time, men could be absent from the hearth and therefore could engage in hunting and war. It was also beneficial because women’s engagement in dangerous activities could lead to the disappearance of the progenitors.

D. Bass (1989) and also D. Kenrick (1987), adhering to biosocial, or evolutionary, view, it is believed that traits such as masculine dominance and feminine nurturing could have emerged through natural selection and evolution. From their point of view, men were chosen for traits associated with dominance and social status, and women for traits indicating high reproductive capabilities and the ability to take care of offspring. It is assumed that such traits have a positive effect on the reproductive process and, therefore, begin to occur more often in the population. Research on mate choice in couples does show that women are more attracted to men who appear to be dominant, and men are attracted to outwardly attractive and young women, with differences across cultures. (Ilyin, Psychophysiology)

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Typological analysis of the ontogenesis of individual differences. The concept of the structure of a defect, a comparative analysis of the structure of various types of violations

5. The problem of individual (typological) differences

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