THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

personality theory- this is a set of hypotheses, or assumptions about the nature and mechanisms of personality development. personality theory tries not only to explain, but also to predict human behavior.

Key questions to be answered personality theory, are as follows:

1. What is the nature of the main sources of personality development - congenital or acquired?

2. What age period is most important for personality formation?

3. What processes are dominant in the personality structure - conscious (rational) or unconscious (irrational)?

4. Does a person have free will, and to what extent does a person exercise control over his behavior?

5. Is the personal (inner) world of a person subjective, or is the inner world objective and can be revealed using objective methods?

Each psychologist adheres to certain answers to the above questions. In the science of personality, seven fairly stable combinations of such answers have developed, or personality theories. Allocate psychodynamic, analytical, humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, activity and dispositive personality theory.

founder psychodynamic theory personality, also known as "classical psychoanalysis", is the Austrian scientist Z. Freud. Within the framework of the psychodynamic theory, personality is a system of sexual and aggressive motives, on the one hand, and defense mechanisms, on the other, and personality structure is an individually different ratio of individual properties, individual blocks (instances) and defense mechanisms.

Analytic personality theory close to the theory of classical psychoanalysis, as it has many common roots with it. The most prominent representative of this approach is the Swiss researcher K. Jung. According to analytical theory, personality- this is a set of innate and realized archetypes, and the personality structure is defined as an individual peculiarity of the ratio of individual properties of archetypes, individual blocks of the unconscious and conscious, as well as extraverted or introverted attitudes of the personality.

Supporters humanistic personality theory in psychology (K. Rogers and A. Maslow), the main source of personality development is considered to be innate tendencies towards self-actualization. As part of humanistic theory, personality- this is the inner world of the human "I" as a result of self-actualization, and the structure of the personality is the individual ratio of the "real I" and the "ideal I", as well as the individual level of development of needs for self-actualization.

cognitive theory personality is close to humanistic, but it has a number of significant differences. The founder of this approach is the American psychologist J. Kelly. In his opinion, the only thing a person wants to know in life is what happened to him and what will happen to him in the future. According to cognitive theory, personality is a system of organized personal constructs in which a person's personal experience is processed (perceived and interpreted). The structure of personality within the framework of this approach is considered as an individually peculiar hierarchy of constructs.

Behavioral personality theory It also has another name - “scientific”, since the main thesis of this theory says: our personality is a product of learning. Within the framework of this approach, personality is a system of social skills and conditioned reflexes, on the one hand, and a system of internal factors: self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility, on the other. According to behavioral personality theory, personality structure is a complexly organized hierarchy of reflexes or social skills, in which the leading role is played by internal blocks of self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility.

Activity theory of personality received the greatest distribution in domestic psychology. Among the researchers who made the greatest contribution to its development, one should name, first of all, S. L. Rubinshtein, K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, A. V. Brushlinsky. As part of activity theory, personality is a conscious subject occupying a certain position in society and performing a socially useful public role. The structure of a personality is a complexly organized hierarchy of individual properties, blocks (orientation, abilities, character, self-control) and systemic existential-existential properties of a personality.

Supporters dispositional personality theory consider the factors of gene-environment interaction to be the main source of personality development, with some areas emphasizing mainly influences from genetics, others from the environment. As part of dispositional theory, personality- this is a complex system of formal-dynamic properties (temperament), traits and socially determined properties. The personality structure is an organized hierarchy of individual biologically determined properties that are included in certain ratios and form certain types of temperament and traits, as well as a set of meaningful properties.

Psychodynamic theory of personality

Describing the topography of the psyche, Freud singled out three levels - consciousness, preconsciousness and the unconscious, and the unconscious occupied the largest place both in his theory and in scientific research. Perception, thinking, memory, intention, imagination, etc. belong to the conscious side of the psyche. The content of the preconscious can be easily translated into a conscious form, just as a person is immediately aware of his name, as soon as he is asked about it. The unconscious is made up of instinctive urges, ulterior motives, and conflicts that can become the source of neurotic thoughts and actions. Freud singled out two main innate drives: "eros", i.e. life-oriented instinct, and "thanatos" - the destructive instinct of the desire for death and physical aggression. Any attraction has a motive force; "goal", i.e. desire for immediate gratification; "object" through which satisfaction is achieved; and "source", i.e. the organ with which it is associated, such as the genitals in the case of the sexual instinct. If the instincts are not naturally gratified, they are suppressed, sublimated or directed against the self. For example, if the aggressive instinct is not discharged, its pressure can turn on the "I" and cause suicide.

Freud singled out three parts in the personality structure: "Id", "Ego" and "Super-Ego". Instincts act directly on the level of "Id" ("It"). The impulses of "It" are entirely unconscious in nature and are influenced by the "pleasure principle". “Ego” (“I”), as the forming principle of personality, belongs to the sphere of action of the “reality principle”. "I" has the ability to distinguish between fantasy and objective reality, while "It" is able to satisfy its urges (for example, sexual) in dreams or fantasies, one of the functions of which is the "imaginary fulfillment of desires." The ideals and moral principles of the individual are rooted in the "Super-Ego" ("Super-I"). "Libido", the basic life force, serves as an energetic factor for all three components in the structure of the personality, however, in accordance with the principle of "psychic economy", the strengthening of one of the parts of the personality depletes the other two. The conflict between the three components can lead to mental disorders if the strong "I", the core of the personality, is not able to keep its components in a state of harmonic balance.

Defense mechanisms

When severe mental problems arise, the Self may unconsciously seek refuge in "defense mechanisms" that include repression, identification, introjection, projection, displacement, sublimation, transference, substitution, conversion, and rationalization.

crowding out it is the result of a conflict between the Superego and the It. Unsatisfied impulses are repressed into the unconscious part of the psyche. However, feelings repressed from the sphere of consciousness continue to actively influence human behavior. Over time, repression can lead to an over-intensification of normal urges, disruption of the balance of the id, self, and superego, and the appearance of neurotic symptoms and abnormal behavior in the individual. "Cure", according to Freud, consists in returning the repressed material to the conscious level, so that the patient understands the nature of his difficulties and thereby frees himself from disturbing symptoms and obsessive behavior that he previously could not control, even if he recognized it as "wrong". ".

Through sublimation repressed sexual impulses are released from their specific erotic content and, being transformed, are directed towards new, socially acceptable goals.

According to Freud, identification represents "the original form of emotional connection with the object." The emotional life of the infant consists in complete identification with the mother and with the whole environment. The first years of life are extremely significant for separating from the environment and separating those properties that belong to the “I” and those that do not belong to the “I” (i.e., the separation of subject and object). Normally, the "I" becomes more and more differentiated, but in diseases such as schizophrenia, there is a return of personal identification to an amorphous state. Being an unconscious mental mechanism, identification allows you to take as your own properties or the nature of another significant individual or object (image, symbol, idea, etc.), as well as transfer these properties from one person to another.

introjection represents the absorption by the individual at the level of his mental life of the properties of the environment. An example is the finicky housewife who feels out of place if something at home is in even the slightest mess, for example, a picture hanging slightly askew on the wall. Thanks to the mechanisms of introjection, the individual, as it were, seeks to adapt the world around him to the circle of his interests and, therefore, is very sensitive to any external details. Introjection contributes to the appeal to oneself of those emotions (for example, irritation, anger) that were originally directed to another person.

Projection consists in attributing to another person ideas and impulses that belong to the subject himself. The psychological meaning of the projection is that the individual who performs it transfers to another those of his qualities that are undesirable for him. It is thanks to the projection mechanism that a person blames another for his own mistakes, turning him into a "scapegoat". Once having translated the content of the projection into the external plane, the individual then considers it as having arisen outside. Thus, by means of projection, an objective character, or the appearance of reality, is given to that which is entirely subjective.

Mdisplacement mechanism - another form of eliminating psychological discomfort, in which emotions are switched (shifted) to a variety of objects or ideas. A student blaming a teacher for his inability to learn, or a tennis player complaining about a racket for his own mistakes on the court - all these are examples of the shift of affect from one object to another, from adequate to inadequate. This mechanism, seen both in the normal and in the mentally ill, is a ruse by which the mind protects itself from admitting errors.

The displacement of deep feelings (for example, love), directed at other people, Freud denoted by the term "transfer" (transfer). In medical practice, the transfer to the therapist of an emotional attitude towards people significant to the patient facilitates the treatment process for the doctor. The transference gives the psychoanalyst the opportunity to gain the confidence of the mentally ill person.

If there is a displacement of emotion from object to object, the main thing is the emotion itself. In an involuntary way, the choice of objects is made so that they successfully replace one another. Therefore, displacement and object selection are two aspects of the same process. Since the emotion remains essentially the same, its changing objects can successfully symbolize each other.

conversion called the transformation of a painful emotional conflict into a somatic, socially acceptable symptom. Through this mechanism, the individual gets the opportunity to remain in harmony with reality and even to satisfy the unconscious need to free himself from the tension that has arisen due to internal conflict. A mother who is remorseful for hitting a child may experience complete loss of sensation in the hitting arm. Behind the conversion hysteria are an unconscious sense of guilt and a need for punishment. In this purely masochistic defense mechanism, an external physical symptom, very painful but compassionate, alleviates an unconscious but equally painful internal struggle.

Rationalization - a mechanism by which an acceptable rational interpretation of behavior is sought, successfully masking its true motives, so that they remain hidden both from the individual himself and from others. People are often mistaken about the reasons that actually underlie their behavior and activities. For example, many men have a tendency (a sure sign of narcissism) to think and act on the basis of immediate desires, and only then look for acceptable reasons to justify their behavior.

According to Freud, the individual normally successfully passes through the following four main stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic and genital. Developmental delay at any of these stages leads to certain personality traits, and often to mental disorders. For example, aggressiveness is a defining feature of the "anal-sadistic" personality type. Problems that arise in the phallic phase of psychosexual development lead to the so-called. oedipus complex and are often accompanied by neuroses.

The mental development of a person can be considered in terms of "I-identity" ("self-identity"), or what Freud's follower E. Erickson called an identity crisis. Erickson identified eight stages in the development of a person's identity, with corresponding alternatives for resolving psychosocial identity crises at each of these stages.

Table 1. Identity crises by stage of development.

	PSYCHOSOCIAL CRISIS IDENTITIES	DESIRED RESULT DEVELOPMENT
Oral-sensory	Trust is distrust
Musculo-anal	Autonomy - shame/doubt	Strength of will
Motor-genital	Initiative - Guilt	purposefulness
Hidden sexuality	Industriousness is a feeling of inferiority	Competence
teenage	Identification - role confusion	Loyalty
Youthful	Intimate Relationships - Isolation
Maturity	Generativity - stagnation	Caring for the younger generation
Aging/Old age	Wholeness "I" - despair	Wisdom

Analytic personality theory

Freud's work, despite its controversial nature, aroused the desire of a group of leading scientists of the time to work with him in Vienna. Some of these scientists moved away from psychoanalysis over time to seek new approaches to understanding the human being. Carl Gustav Jung was the most prominent among the defectors from Freud's camp.

Like Freud, Jung devoted himself to the study of dynamic unconscious drives on human behavior and experience. However, unlike the first, Jung argued that the content of the unconscious is something more than repressed sexual and aggressive urges. According to Jung's theory of personality, known as analytical psychology, individuals are motivated by intrapsychic forces and images whose origin goes back into evolutionary history. This innate unconscious contains deeply rooted spiritual material that explains the inherent desire for creative self-expression and physical perfection inherent in all mankind.

Another source of disagreement between Freud and Jung is the attitude towards sexuality as the dominant force in the structure of personality. Freud interpreted libido mainly as sexual energy, while Jung viewed it as a diffuse creative life force that manifests itself in a variety of ways - as, for example, in religion or the desire for power. That is, in Jung's understanding, the energy of the libido is concentrated in various needs - biological or spiritual - as they arise. Like Adler, Jung rejected Freud's claim that the brain is "attached to the gonads."

Jung's views on human personality are perhaps the most complex, unorthodox, and most polemical in the personological tradition. He created a unique theory of great scientific interest, markedly different from all other approaches to the study of personality.

(As a result of Jung's reworking of psychoanalysis, a whole complex of complex ideas has emerged from such diverse fields of knowledge as psychology, philosophy, astrology, archeology, mythology, theology and literature. This breadth of intellectual search, combined with Jung's complex and mysterious authorial style, is the reason that his psychological theory is the most difficult to understand.Understanding these difficulties, however, we hope that a brief introduction to Jung's views will serve as a starting point for further reading of his writings.

Personality structure

Jung argued that the soul (in Jung's theory, a term analogous to personality) is made up of three separate but interacting structures: the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious.

The ego is the center of the realm of consciousness. It is a component of the psyche, which includes all those thoughts, feelings, memories and sensations, thanks to which we feel our integrity, constancy and perceive ourselves as people. The ego is the basis of our self-consciousness, and thanks to it we are able to see the results of our ordinary conscious activities.

The personal unconscious contains conflicts and memories that were once conscious but are now repressed or forgotten. It also includes those sensory impressions that lack brightness in order to be noted in consciousness. Thus Jung's conception of the personal unconscious is somewhat similar to Freud's. However, Jung went further than Freud, emphasizing that the personal unconscious contains complexes, or accumulations of emotionally charged thoughts, feelings and memories, taken by the individual from his past personal experience or from ancestral, hereditary experience. According to Jung, these complexes, arranged around the most common topics, can have a fairly strong influence on the behavior of the individual. For example, a person with a power complex can expend a significant amount of mental energy on activities that are directly or symbolically related to the theme of power. The same may be true of a person who is heavily influenced by his mother, father, or dominated by money, sex, or some other kind of complex. Once formed, the complex begins to influence the behavior of a person and his attitude. Jung argued that the material of the personal unconscious in each of us is unique and, as a rule, accessible to awareness. As a result, the components of the complex, or even the entire complex, can become conscious and have an excessively strong influence on the life of the individual.

And finally, Jung suggested the existence of a deeper layer in the structure of the personality, which he called the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is a repository of latent memory traces of humanity and even our anthropoid ancestors. It reflects the thoughts and feelings that are common to all human beings and are the result of our common emotional past. As Jung himself said, "the collective unconscious contains the entire spiritual heritage of human evolution, reborn in the structure of the brain of each individual." Thus, the content of the collective unconscious is formed due to heredity and is the same for all mankind. It is important to note that the concept of the collective unconscious was the main reason for the disagreement between Jung and Freud.

Archetypes. Jung hypothesized that the collective unconscious is composed of powerful primary mental images, the so-called archetypes (literally, "primary models") . Archetypes are innate ideas or memories that predispose people to perceive, experience, and respond to events in a particular way. In reality, these are not memories or images as such, but rather predisposing factors, under the influence of which people implement in their behavior universal models of perception, thinking and action in response to some object or event. What is innate here is precisely the tendency to respond emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally to specific situations - for example, in an unexpected encounter with parents, a loved one, a stranger, a snake, or death.

Among the many archetypes described by Jung are mother, child, hero, sage, sun deity, rogue, God, and death (Table 4-2).

Jung believed that each archetype is associated with a tendency to express a certain type of feeling and thought in relation to the corresponding object or situation. For example, in a child's perception of his mother, there are aspects of her actual characteristics, colored by unconscious ideas about such archetypal maternal attributes as upbringing, fertility, and dependence. Further, Jung suggested that archetypal images and ideas are often reflected in dreams, and also often found in culture in the form of symbols used in painting, literature and religion. In particular, he emphasized that the symbols characteristic of different cultures often show a striking similarity, because they go back to archetypes common to all mankind. For example, in many cultures he came across mandala images, which are symbolic embodiments of the unity and integrity of the “I”. Jung believed that understanding the archetypal symbols helped him in the analysis of a patient's dreams.

Table 2. Examples of archetypes described by Jung

archetype	Definition	Symbols
	The unconscious feminine side of a man's personality	Woman, Virgin Mary, Mona Lisa
	The unconscious masculine side of a woman's personality	Man, Jesus Christ, Don Juan
	The social role of the individual stemming from societal expectations and early learning
	The unconscious opposite of what the individual insists on consciously	Satan, Hitler, Hussein
	The embodiment of integrity and harmony, the regulating center of personality
	Personification of life wisdom and maturity
	The ultimate realization of psychic reality projected onto the outside world	solar eye

Some of the most important archetypes

The number of archetypes in the collective unconscious can be unlimited. However, special attention in Jung's theoretical system is given to the person, anime and animus, shadow and self.

Persona (from the Latin word for "mask") is our public face, that is, how we manifest ourselves in relationships with other people. The persona refers to the many roles that we play in accordance with social requirements. In Jung's understanding, a persona serves the purpose of impressing others, or hiding one's true identity from others. The persona as an archetype is necessary for us to get along with other people in everyday life. However, Jung warned that if this archetype becomes too important, then the person can become shallow, superficial, reduced to a single role, and alienated from true emotional experience.

In contrast to the role that the person plays in our adaptation to the world around us, the shadow archetype represents the repressed dark, evil and animal side of the person. The shadow contains our socially unacceptable sexual and aggressive impulses, immoral thoughts and passions. But the shadow also has positive properties. Jung viewed the shadow as a source of vitality, spontaneity and creativity in the life of the individual. According to Jung, the function of the ego is to channel the energy of the shadow, to curb the evil side of our nature to such an extent that we can live in harmony with others, but at the same time openly express our impulses and enjoy a healthy and creative life. .

In the archetypes of the anima and animus, Jung's recognition of the innate androgynous nature of people finds expression. The anima represents the inner image of the woman in the man, his unconscious feminine side, while the animus is the inner image of the man in the woman, her unconscious masculine side. These archetypes are based, at least in part, on the biological fact that men and women produce both male and female hormones in their bodies. This archetype, according to Jung, evolved over many centuries in the collective unconscious as a result of experience of interaction with the opposite sex. Many men, at least to some extent, have been “feminized” as a result of many years of living together with women, and for women the opposite is true. Jung insisted that the anima and animus, like all other archetypes, must be expressed harmoniously, without disturbing the overall balance, so that the development of the personality in the direction of self-realization is not hindered. In other words, a man must express his feminine qualities along with his masculine ones, and a woman must show her masculine qualities as well as her feminine ones. If these necessary attributes remain undeveloped, the result will be one-sided growth and functioning of the personality.

The self is the most important archetype in Jung's theory. The self is the core of the personality around which all other elements are organized and united. When the integration of all aspects of the soul is achieved, a person feels unity, harmony and integrity. Thus, in Jung's understanding, the development of the self is the main goal of human life. We will return to the process of self-realization later when we consider Jung's concept of individuation.

The main symbol of the archetype of the self is the mandala and its many varieties (abstract circle, saint's halo, rose window). According to Jung, the integrity and unity of the "I", symbolically expressed in the completeness of figures like a mandala, can be found in dreams, fantasies, myths, in religious and mystical experience. Jung believed that religion is a great force that contributes to the human desire for wholeness and completeness. At the same time, the harmonization of all parts of the soul is a complex process. The true balance of personality structures, as he believed, is impossible to achieve, at least, this can be achieved no earlier than middle age. Moreover, the archetype of the self is not realized until there is an integration and harmony of all aspects of the soul, conscious and unconscious. Therefore, the achievement of a mature "I" requires constancy, perseverance, intelligence and a lot of life experience.

ego orientation

Jung's most famous contribution to psychology is considered to be the two main directions he described, or life attitudes: extraversion and introversion. According to Jung's theory, both orientations coexist in a person at the same time, but one of them usually becomes dominant. In an extraverted setting, the direction of interest in the outside world is manifested - other people and objects. The extrovert is mobile, talkative, quickly establishes relationships and attachments, external factors are the driving force for him. An introvert, on the contrary, is immersed in the inner world of his thoughts, feelings and experiences. He is contemplative, reserved, seeks solitude, tends to move away from objects, his interest is focused on himself. According to Jung, the extraverted and introverted attitudes do not exist in isolation. Usually they are both present and in opposition to each other: if one appears as leading and rational, the other acts as auxiliary and irrational. The combination of leading and supporting ego orientations results in individuals whose behavior patterns are definite and predictable.

Psychological functions

Shortly after Jung formulated the concept of extraversion and introversion, he came to the conclusion that this pair of opposing orientations cannot adequately explain all the differences in people's attitudes to the world. Therefore, he expanded his typology to include psychological functions. The four main functions he singled out are thinking, feeling, feeling and intuition.

Thinking and feeling Jung referred to the category of rational functions, since they allow the formation of judgments about life experience. The thinking type judges the value of certain things using logic and arguments. The opposite function of thinking - feeling - informs us about reality in the language of positive or negative emotions. The Feeling Type focuses on the emotional side of life experience and judges the value of things in terms of good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, encouraging or boring. According to Jung, when thinking acts as a leading function, a person is focused on building rational judgments, the purpose of which is to determine whether the evaluated experience is true or false. And when the leading function is feeling, the personality is oriented towards making judgments about whether this experience is primarily pleasant or unpleasant.

The second pair of opposite functions - sensation and intuition - Jung called irrational, because they simply passively "grasp", register events in the external (sensation) or in the internal (intuition) world, without evaluating them and without explaining their meaning. Sensation is a direct, nonjudgmental, realistic perception of the outside world. The sensing type is particularly perceptive to taste, smell, and other sensations from environmental stimuli. On the contrary, intuition is characterized by subliminal and unconscious perception of current experience. The intuitive type relies on premonitions and guesses, grasping the essence of life events. Jung argued that when the leading function is sensation, a person comprehends reality in the language of phenomena, as if he were photographing it. On the other hand, when intuition is the leading function, a person reacts to unconscious images, symbols, and the hidden meaning of what is being experienced.

Each person is endowed with all four psychological functions. However, as soon as one personal orientation (extravsion or introversion) is usually dominant, conscious, in the same way only one function from a rational or irrational pair usually prevails and is realized. Other functions are immersed in the unconscious and play an auxiliary role in the regulation of human behavior. Any function can be leading. Accordingly, there are thinking, feeling, sensing and intuitive types of individuals. According to Jung's theory, an integrated or "individual" personality uses all the opposite functions to cope with life circumstances.

The two ego orientations and the four psychological functions interact to form eight distinct personality types. For example, the extraverted thinking type focuses on the objective, practical facts of the surrounding world. He usually gives the impression of a cold and dogmatic person who lives according to established rules. It is quite possible that Freud was the prototype of the extraverted thinking type. The introverted intuitive type, on the other hand, focuses on the reality of their own inner world. This type is usually eccentric, keeps aloof from others and is indifferent to them. In this case, Jung probably had himself in mind as a prototype.

Personal development

Unlike Freud, who attached particular importance to the early years of life as a decisive stage in the formation of personality behavior patterns, Jung considered personality development as a dynamic process, as evolution throughout life. He said almost nothing about socialization in childhood and did not share Freud's views that only past events (especially psychosexual conflicts) are decisive for human behavior. From Jung's point of view, a person constantly acquires new skills, achieves new goals and realizes himself more and more fully. He attached great importance to such a life goal of the individual as "acquisition of selfhood", which is the result of the desire of various components of the personality for unity. This theme of striving for integration, harmony and wholeness was later repeated in existential and humanistic theories of personality.

According to Jung, the ultimate goal in life is the full realization of the "I", that is, the formation of a single, unique and holistic individual. The development of each person in this direction is unique, it continues throughout life and includes a process called individuation. Simply put, individuation is a dynamic and evolving process of integrating many opposing intrapersonal forces and tendencies. In its final expression, individuation involves the conscious realization by a person of his unique psychic reality, the full development and expression of all elements of personality. Thus, the archetype of the self becomes the center of the personality and balances the many opposite qualities that make up the personality as a single main whole. This releases the energy needed for continued personal growth. The result of the implementation of individuation, which is very difficult to achieve, Jung called self-realization. He believed that this final stage of personality development is accessible only to capable and highly educated people, who, moreover, have sufficient leisure for this. Because of these limitations, self-realization is not available to the vast majority of people.

Moving away from Freud's theory, Jung enriched our understanding of the content and structure of personality. Although his concepts of the collective unconscious and archetypes are difficult to understand and not empirically testable, they continue to captivate very many. His understanding of the unconscious as a rich and vital source of wisdom has generated a new wave of interest in his theory among the current generation of students and professional psychologists. In addition, Jung was one of the first to recognize the positive contribution of religious, spiritual and even mystical experience to the development of personality. This is his special role as a forerunner of the humanistic trend in personology. Let us hasten to add that in recent years there has been an increase in the popularity of analytical psychology among the intellectual community of the United States and acceptance of many of its provisions. Theologians, philosophers, historians, and representatives of many other disciplines find Jung's creative insights extremely useful in their work.

However, Jung's theory for the most part does not rise above the level of conjecture. His main hypotheses do not provide sufficient opportunities for serious testing. This is partly due to the fact that many of his concepts are not defined clearly enough to assess their validity. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that Jung himself was skeptical about the role of the scientific method in the validation of his ideas. With the exception of the use of the method of word association in the study of complexes, Jung sought confirmation of his theory in myths, legends, folklore, as well as in the dreams and fantasies of his patients.

The few studies that test Jung's theory deal almost exclusively with his classification of psychological types. These studies make extensive use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator self-assessment questionnaire designed to measure individual differences based on Jung's typology. Experimental work using this test confirms some of Jung's predictions about differences in individual memories and dream content across personality types. However, the significance of the data obtained is reduced by the fact that the questionnaire does not use Jung's 8 basic types, but 16 different personality types, some of which are not independent. As with many of the theories presented in this book, Jung's theory needs much more empirical research if its influence in the field of personality theory is to continue.

G humanistic and I theory I personalities

Humanistic psychology, as a special area of ​​modern psychological science, arose in the early 60s in the United States. Its founders and recognized leaders were Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport and others. Born as an opposition to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic psychology very quickly gained the recognition of a large number of professionals and became a really real “third force” in modern psychology.

Abraham Maslow(1908-1970) graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a doctorate in psychology in 1934. His own theory, which the scientist developed by the 1950s, appeared on the basis of a detailed acquaintance with the main psychological concepts that existed at that time (as well as the very idea of ​​the need to form a third way, a third psychological direction, alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism).

In 1951, Maslow was invited to Branden University, where he held the post of chairman of the psychology department almost until his death. In the last years of his life, he was also president of the American Psychological Association.

Speaking about the need to form a new approach to understanding the psyche, Maslow emphasized that he does not reject old approaches and old schools, is not an anti-behaviorist or anti-psychoanalyst, but is an anti-doctriner, i.e. opposes the absolutization of their experience.

One of the biggest shortcomings of psychoanalysis, from his point of view, is not so much the desire to belittle the role of consciousness, but the tendency to consider mental development from the point of view of the adaptation of the organism to the environment, the desire for balance with the environment. Like Allport, he believed that such a balance is death for the individual. Balance, rootedness in the environment negatively affect the desire for self-actualization, which makes a person a personality.

No less actively Maslow opposed the reduction of all mental life to behavior, which was characteristic of behaviorism. The most valuable thing in the psyche - its self, its desire for self-development - cannot be described and understood from the standpoint of behavioral psychology, and therefore the psychology of behavior should not be excluded, but supplemented by the psychology of consciousness, a psychology that would explore the "I concept" of the individual.

Maslow almost did not conduct global, large-scale experiments that are characteristic of American psychology, especially behaviorism. His small, pilot studies did not so much grope for new paths as they confirmed what he came to in his theoretical reasoning. This is how he approached the study of "self-actualization" - one of the central concepts of his concept of humanistic psychology.

Unlike psychoanalysts, who were mainly interested in deviant behavior, Maslow believed that it was necessary to study human nature by "studying its best representatives, and not by cataloging the difficulties and mistakes of average or neurotic individuals." Only in this way can we understand the limits of human capabilities, the true nature of man, which is not fully and clearly represented in other, less gifted people.

The group he chose for the study consisted of eighteen people, nine of them were his contemporaries, and nine were historical figures (A. Lincoln, A. Einstein, W. James, B. Spinoza, etc.). These studies led him to the idea that there is a certain hierarchy of human needs, which looks like this:

physiological needs - food, water, sleep, etc.;

the need for security - stability, order;

the need for love and belonging - family, friendship;

need for respect - self-respect, recognition;

the need for self-actualization - the development of abilities.

One of the controversial places in Maslow's theory was that he argued that these needs are in a rigid hierarchy once and for all, and higher needs (for self-esteem or self-actualization) arise only after more elementary ones are satisfied. Not only critics, but also followers of Maslow showed that very often the need for self-actualization or self-respect was dominant and determined human behavior despite the fact that his physiological needs were not satisfied, and sometimes prevented the satisfaction of these needs. Subsequently, Maslow himself abandoned such a rigid hierarchy, combining all needs into two classes: the needs of need (deficiency) and the needs of development (self-actualization).

At the same time, most representatives of humanistic psychology accepted the term "self-actualization" introduced by Maslow, as well as his description of the "self-actualizing personality". Self-actualization is associated with the ability to understand oneself, one's inner nature and learn to "attune" in accordance with this nature, to build one's behavior based on it. This is not a one-time act, but a process that has no end, it is a way of "living, working and relating to the world, and not a single achievement." Maslow singled out the most significant moments in this process that change a person's attitude to himself and to the world and stimulate personal growth. It can be a momentary experience - a "peak experience" or a long-term one - a "plateau experience".

Describing a self-actualizing personality, Maslow said that such a person is inherent in the acceptance of himself and the world, including other people. These are, as a rule, people who adequately and effectively perceive the situation, centered on the task, and not on themselves. At the same time, they also tend to strive for solitude, for autonomy and independence from the environment and culture.

So Maslow's theory includes the concepts of identification and alienation, although these mechanisms have not been fully disclosed. However, the general direction of his reasoning and experimental research gives us the opportunity to understand his approach to the mental development of the individual, his understanding of the relationship between the individual and society.

The scientist believed that it was conscious aspirations and motives, and not unconscious instincts, that constituted the essence of the human personality. However, the desire for self-actualization, for the realization of one's abilities, encounters obstacles, misunderstandings of others and one's own weaknesses. Many people retreat before difficulties, which does not pass without a trace for the individual, stops its growth. Neurotics are people with an undeveloped or unconscious need for self-actualization. Society, by its very nature, cannot but impede a person's desire for self-actualization. After all, any society strives to make a person its stereotyped representative, alienates the personality from its essence, makes it conformal.

At the same time, alienation, preserving the "selfhood", the individuality of the individual, puts him in opposition to the environment and also deprives him of the opportunity to self-actualize. Therefore, a person needs to maintain a balance between these two mechanisms, which, like Scylla and Charybdis, guard him and seek to destroy him. Optimal, according to Maslow, are identification in the external plan, in communication with the outside world, and alienation in the internal plan, in terms of the development of self-consciousness. It is this approach that gives a person the opportunity to effectively communicate with others and at the same time remain himself. This position of Maslow made him popular among intellectuals, as it largely reflected the views of this social group on the relationship between the individual and society.

Assessing Maslow's theory, it should be noted that he was perhaps the first psychologist who paid attention not only to deviations, difficulties and negative aspects of the personality. One of the first, he explored the achievements of personal experience, revealed the ways for self-development and self-improvement of any person.

Eight ways of self-actualization according to Maslow:

1. Self-actualization means a full, lively and selfless experience with full concentration and absorption, i.e. experience without adolescent shyness. At the moment of self-actualization, the individual is wholly and completely human. This is the moment when the Self realizes itself… The key to this is selflessness…

2. It is necessary to imagine life as a process of constant choice. At every moment there is a choice: advance or retreat. Either moving towards even more protection, security, fear, or the choice of advancement and growth. To choose development instead of fear ten times a day means to advance ten times to self-actualization...

3. The very word "self-actualization" implies the presence of the Self, which can be actualized. Man is not a blank slate or malleable wax. He is always already something… Most of us most often listen not to ourselves, but to the voice of mom, dad, to the voice of the state system, superiors, authorities, traditions, etc…

4. When in doubt about something, try to be honest... Turning to yourself, demanding an answer, means taking responsibility...

5. In order to express an honest opinion, a person must be different, independent from others, must be a non-conformist.

6. Self-actualization is not only the final state, but also the process of actualizing one's capabilities. Self-actualization is labor in order to do well what a person wants to do...

7. Higher experiences are moments of self-actualization... Maslow here means the same “inner insight”, “joy from self-knowledge”, “sudden surprise from understanding”.

8. Finding yourself, discovering who you are, what is good and bad for you, what is the purpose of your life - all this requires exposing your own psychopathology. To do this, you need to identify your defenses and then find the courage to overcome them. This is painful, because the defenses are directed against something unpleasant. But giving up protection is worth it. Repression is not the best way to solve your problems.

Self-actualization is associated with the ability to understand oneself, one's inner nature, to learn to "attune" in accordance with this nature, to build one's behavior based on it. The goal of personal development is the desire for growth, self-actualization, while stopping personal growth is death for the personality, the Self.

So, the task of a person, according to Maslow, is to become what is possible - and therefore to be himself - in a society where conditions do not contribute to this. A person turns out to be the highest value and is responsible, in the end, only for being successful.

cognitive personality theory

The cognitive theory of personality is close to the humanistic one, but it has a number of significant differences. The founder of this approach is the American psychologist J. Kelly (1905-1967). In his opinion, the only thing a person wants to know in life is what happened to him and what will happen to him in the future.
The main source of personality development, according to Kelly, is the environment, the social environment. The cognitive theory of personality emphasizes the influence of intellectual processes on human behavior. In this theory, any person is compared with a scientist who tests hypotheses about the nature of things and makes a forecast of future events. Any event is open to multiple interpretations. The main concept in this direction is "construct" (from the English construct - to build). This concept includes features of all known cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking and speech). Thanks to constructs, a person not only learns the world, but also establishes interpersonal relationships. The constructs that underlie these relationships are called personality constructs (Fransella F., Bannister D., 1987). A construct is a kind of classifier-template of our perception of other people and ourselves.

Kelly discovered and described the main mechanisms of the functioning of personality constructs, and also formulated the fundamental postulate and 11 consequences. The postulate states that personal processes are psychologically channeled in such a way as to provide a person with the maximum prediction of events. All other corollaries refine this basic postulate.
From Kelly's point of view, each of us builds and tests hypotheses, in a word, solves the problem of whether a given person is athletic or unathletic, musical or non-musical, intelligent or non-intelligent, etc., using the appropriate constructs (classifiers). Each construct has a "dichotomy" (two poles): "sports - unsportsmanlike", "musical - non-musical", etc. A person arbitrarily chooses that pole of the dichotomous construct, the outcome that best describes the event, i.e. has the best predictive value. Some constructs are suitable for describing only a narrow range of events, while others have a wide range of applicability. For example, the "smart-stupid" construct is hardly suitable for describing the weather, but the "good-bad" construct is suitable for virtually all occasions.

People differ not only in the number of constructs, but also in their location. Those constructs that are actualized in consciousness faster are called superordinate, and those that are slower - subordinate. For example, if, upon meeting a person, you immediately evaluate him in terms of whether he is smart or stupid, and only then - good or evil, then your "smart-stupid" construct is superordinate, and the "kind- evil" - subordinate.
Friendship, love, and generally normal relationships between people are possible only when people have similar constructs. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a situation where two people communicate successfully, one of whom has a dominant construct "decent-dishonest", while the other does not have such a construct at all.
The constructive system is not a static formation, but is in constant change under the influence of experience, that is, the personality is formed and develops throughout life. In personality dominates predominantly "conscious". The unconscious can only refer to distant (subordinate) constructs, which a person rarely uses when interpreting perceived events.
Kelly believed that the individual has limited free will. The constructive system that has developed in a person during his life contains certain limitations. However, he did not believe that human life is completely determined. In any situation, a person is able to construct alternative predictions. The outside world is neither evil nor good, but the way we construct it in our head. Ultimately, according to cognitivists, the fate of a person is in his hands. The inner world of a person is subjective and, according to cognitivists, is his own creation. Each person perceives and interprets external reality through their own inner world.
The main conceptual element is the personal "construct". Each person has his own system of personal constructs, which is divided into two levels (blocks):
1. The block of "nuclear" constructs is about 50 basic constructs that are at the top of the constructive system, i.e., in the constant focus of operational consciousness. People use these constructs most often when interacting with other people.
2. The block of peripheral constructs is all other constructs. The number of these constructs is purely individual and can vary from hundreds to several thousand.
The holistic properties of the personality act as a result of the joint functioning of both blocks, all constructs. There are two types of integral personality: a cognitively complex personality (a personality with a large number of constructs) and a cognitively simple personality (a personality with a small set of constructs).
A cognitively complex personality, in comparison with a cognitively simple one, has the following characteristics:

1) has better mental health;
2) cope better with stress;
3) has a higher level of self-esteem;
4) more adaptive to new situations.

There are special methods for evaluating personal constructs (their quality and quantity). The most famous of these is the "repertoire grid test" (Fransella F., Bannister D., 1987).

The subject compares triads simultaneously with each other (the list and sequence of triads are compiled in advance from people who play an important role in the past or present life of this subject) in order to identify such psychological characteristics that two of the compared three people have, but are absent from the third person.
For example, you have to compare the teacher you love with your wife (or husband) and yourself. Suppose you think that you and your teacher have a common psychological property - sociability, and your spouse (s) does not have such a quality.

Therefore, in your constructive system there is such a construct - "sociability-non-sociability". Thus, by comparing yourself and other people, you reveal the system of your own personal constructs.

According to cognitive theory, personality is a system of organized personal constructs in which a person's personal experience is processed (perceived and interpreted). The structure of personality within the framework of this approach is considered as an individually peculiar hierarchy of constructs.

To the control question "Why are some people more aggressive than others?" cognitivists answer this way: because aggressive people have a special construct system of personality. They perceive and interpret the world differently, in particular, they better remember events associated with aggressive behavior.

Behavioral personality theory

The behavioral theory of personality has another name - "scientific", since the main thesis of this theory is that our personality is a product of learning.
There are two directions in the behavioral theory of personality - reflex and social. The reflex direction is represented by the works of well-known American behaviorists J. Watson and B. Skinner. The founders of the social trend are American researchers A. Bandura and J. Rotter.

The main source of personality development, according to both directions, is the environment in the broadest sense of the word. There is nothing in the personality of genetic or psychological inheritance. Personality is a product of learning, and its properties are generalized behavioral reflexes and social skills. From the point of view of behaviorists, any type of personality can be formed on demand - a worker or a bandit, a poet or a merchant. For example, Watson did not make any distinction between the development of emotional reactions in humans and the salivation reflex in a dog, believing that all the emotional properties of a person (fear, anxiety, joy, anger, etc.) are the result of the development of classical conditioned reflexes. Skinner, argued that personality is a set of social skills formed as a result of operant learning. Operant Skinner called any change in the environment as a result of any motor act. A person tends to perform those operants that are followed by reinforcement, and avoids those that are followed by punishment. Thus, as a result of a certain system of reinforcements and punishments, a person acquires new social skills and, accordingly, new personality traits - kindness or honesty, aggressiveness or altruism (Godfroy J., 1992; Skinner B.F., 1978).

According to representatives of the second direction, an important role in the development of a personality is played not so much by external as by internal factors, for example, expectation, purpose, significance, etc. Bandura called human behavior determined by internal factors self-regulation. The main task of self-regulation is to ensure self-efficacy, i.e., to perform only those forms of behavior that a person can implement, relying on internal factors at any given moment. Internal factors act according to their own internal laws, although they arose from past experience as a result of learning through imitation (Hjell A., Ziegler D., 1997). Rotter is even more of a cognitive scientist than Bandura. To explain human behavior, he introduces a special concept of "behavioral potential", which means a measure of the probability of what kind of behavior a person will perform in a given situation. The potential of a behavior consists of two components: the subjective significance of the reinforcement of a given behavior (how much the upcoming reinforcement is valuable, significant for a person) and the availability of this reinforcement (how much the upcoming reinforcement can be realized in a given situation).
Behaviorists believe that the personality is formed and develops throughout life as socialization, upbringing and learning. However, they regard the early years of a person's life as more important. The basis of any knowledge, abilities, including creative and spiritual, in their opinion, is laid in childhood. Rational and irrational processes are equally represented in personality. Their opposition is meaningless. It all depends on the type and complexity of the behavior. In some cases, a person can be clearly aware of his actions and his behavior, in others - not.
According to behavioral theory, a person is almost completely deprived of free will. Our behavior is determined by external circumstances. We often behave like puppets and are unaware of the consequences of our behavior, because the social skills we have learned and the reflexes from long-term use have long been automated. The inner world of man is objective. Everything in it is from the environment. Personality is fully objectified in behavioral manifestations. There is no "facade". Our behavior is personality. Behavioral traits of a person are amenable to operationalization and objective measurement.
Reflexes or social skills act as elements of personality in the behaviorist theory of personality. It is postulated that the list of social skills (i.e. properties, characteristics, personality traits) inherent in a particular person is determined by his social experience (learning). The properties of the individual and the requirements of the social environment of a person coincide. If you were brought up in a kind, calm family and you were encouraged for kindness and calmness, then you will have the qualities of a kind and calm person. And if you are sad and sad or have increased vulnerability, then this is also not your fault; you are a product of society and upbringing.
It is important to emphasize that the problem of reinforcement for behaviorists is not limited to food. Representatives of this trend argue that a person has his own ecologically valid hierarchy of reinforcements. For a child, the most powerful, after food, reinforcement is activity reinforcement (watch TV, video), then manipulative (play, draw), then possessive (from the English possess - to possess) reinforcement (sit on dad's chair, put on mom's skirt) and, finally, social reinforcement (praise, hug, encourage, etc.).
If within the framework of the reflex direction of behavioral theory the existence of certain personality blocks is actually denied, then the representatives of the social-scientific direction consider the allocation of such blocks to be quite possible.
In the behavioral model, there are three main conceptual blocks of personality. The main block is self-efficacy, which is a kind of cognitive construct "I can - I can't". A. Bandura defined this structure as belief, conviction or expectation of future reinforcement. This block determines the success of a certain behavior, or the success of acquiring new social skills. If a person makes a decision: “I can,” then he proceeds to perform a certain action, but if a person makes a verdict: “I can’t,” then he refuses to perform this action or to master it. For example, if you decide that you cannot learn Chinese, then no force will make you do it. And if you decide that you can do it, then sooner or later you will learn it.
According to Bandura, there are four main conditions that determine the formation of a person's confidence in what he can and cannot do:

1) past experience (knowledge, skills); for example, if before I could, then now, apparently, I can;
2) self-instruction; for example, "I can do it!";
3) increased emotional mood (alcohol, music, love);
4) (the most important condition) observation, modeling, imitation of the behavior of other people (observation of real life, watching movies, reading books, etc.); for example, "If others can, then I can!".

J. Rotter distinguishes two main internal personality blocks - subjective significance (a structure that evaluates the upcoming reinforcement) and availability (a structure associated with the expectation of receiving reinforcement based on past experience). These blocks do not function independently, but form a more general block called behavioral potential, or a block of cognitive motivation (Kjell A., Ziegler D., 1997).

The holistic properties of the personality are manifested in the unity of the action of blocks of subjective significance and accessibility. People who do not see a connection (or see a weak connection) between their behavior (their efforts, their actions) and their results (reinforcements), according to Rotter, have an external or external "locus of control". "Externals" are people who do not control the situation and rely on chance in their lives. People who see a clear connection between their behavior (their efforts, their actions) and the results of their behavior have an internal or internal "locus of control". "Internals" are people who manage the situation, control it, it is available to them.

Thus, within the framework of this approach, personality is a system of social skills and conditioned reflexes, on the one hand, and a system of internal factors: self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility, on the other. According to the behavioral theory of personality, personality structure is a complexly organized hierarchy of reflexes or social skills, in which the internal blocks of self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility play a leading role.
The answer to the security question "Why are some people more aggressive than others?" within the framework of this theory, it is formulated as follows: because in the process of upbringing these people were encouraged for aggressive behavior, their environment consisted of aggressive people, and aggressive behavior itself is subjectively significant and accessible to them.

Activity theory of personality

This theory has received the greatest distribution in domestic psychology. Among the researchers who made the greatest contribution to its development, we should first of all name S. L. Rubinshtein, A. N. Leontiev, K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya and A. V. Brushlinsky. This theory has a number of common features with the behavioral theory of personality, especially with its social-scientific direction, as well as with humanistic and cognitive theories.

This approach denies the biological and even more psychological inheritance of personality traits. The main source of personality development, according to this theory, is activity. Activity is understood as a complex dynamic system of interactions of the subject (active person) with the world (with society), in the process of which personality properties are formed (Leontiev A.N., 1975). A formed personality (internal) later becomes a mediating link through which the external influences a person (Rubinshtein S.L., 1997).

The fundamental difference between the activity theory and the behavioral theory is that the means of learning here is not a reflex, but a special mechanism of internalization, due to which the assimilation of socio-historical experience takes place. The main characteristics of activity are objectivity and subjectivity. The specificity of objectivity lies in the fact that the objects of the external world do not affect the subject directly, but only being transformed in the process of the activity itself.

Objectivity is a characteristic that is inherent only in human activity and manifests itself primarily in the concepts of language, social roles, and values. Unlike A. N. Leontiev, S. L. Rubinshtein and his followers emphasize that the activity of the individual (and the individual itself) is understood not as a special kind of mental activity, but as a real, objectively observable practical (and not symbolic), creative, independent activity of a particular person (Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K. A., 1980; Brushlinsky A. V., 1994).

Subjectivity means that a person himself is the bearer of his activity, his own source of transformation of the external world, reality. Subjectivity is expressed in intentions, needs, motives, attitudes, relationships, goals that determine the direction and selectivity of activity, in a personal sense, i.e., the significance of activity for the person himself.

Representatives of the activity approach believe that a person is formed and develops throughout life to the extent that a person continues to play a social role, to be included in social activities. A person is not a passive observer, he is an active participant in social transformations, an active subject of education and training. Childhood and adolescence, however, are considered in this theory as the most important for the formation of personality. Representatives of this theory believe in positive changes in a person's personality as social progress progresses.

According to representatives of this approach, consciousness occupies the main place in the personality, and the structures of consciousness are not given to a person initially, but are formed in early childhood in the process of communication and activity. The unconscious takes place only in the case of automated operations. The consciousness of the individual is completely dependent on social existence, its activities, social relations and the specific conditions in which it is included. A person has free will only to the extent that the socially assimilated properties of consciousness allow it, for example, reflection, internal dialogism. Freedom is a recognized necessity. The inner world of a person is both subjective and objective at the same time. It all depends on the level of inclusion of the subject in a particular activity. Separate aspects and personality traits can be objectified in behavioral manifestations and are amenable to operationalization and objective measurement.
Within the framework of the activity approach, individual properties, or personality traits, act as elements of the personality; It is generally accepted that personality traits are formed as a result of activities that are always carried out in a specific socio-historical context - A. Leontiev. N., 1975). In this regard, personality traits are considered as socially (normatively) determined. For example, perseverance is formed in such activities where the subject shows autonomy, independence. A persistent person acts boldly, actively, defends his rights to independence and requires others to recognize this. The list of personality traits is virtually unlimited and is set by the variety of activities in which a person is included as a subject (Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A., 1980).
Orientation - a system of stable preferences and motives of the individual, setting the main trends in the behavior of the individual.

The number of personality blocks and their content largely depends on the theoretical views of the authors. Some authors, for example, L. I. Bozhovich (1997), single out only one central block in the personality - the motivational sphere of the personality. Others include in the structure of the personality those properties that are usually considered within the framework of other approaches, for example, behavioral or dispositional. K. K. Platonov (1986) includes in the personality structure such blocks as knowledge, skills acquired in experience, through training (this substructure is typical for the behavioral approach), as well as the “temperament” block, which is considered as one of the most important blocks personality within the dispositional approach.

In the activity approach, the most popular is the four-component personality model, which as the main structural blocks includes orientation, abilities, character and self-control.

Orientation is a system of stable preferences and motives (interests, ideals, attitudes) of the individual, which sets the main trends in the behavior of the individual. A person with a pronounced focus has diligence, purposefulness.
Abilities are individual psychological properties that ensure the success of an activity. Allocate general and special (musical, mathematical, etc.) abilities. Abilities are interconnected. One of the abilities is leading, while others play a supporting role. People differ not only in the level of general abilities, but also in the combination of special abilities. For example, a good musician can be a bad mathematician, and vice versa.

Character - a set of moral and volitional properties of a person. Moral properties include sensitivity or callousness in relation to people, responsibility in relation to public duties, modesty. Moral properties reflect the individual's ideas about the basic normative actions of a person, enshrined in habits, customs and traditions. Volitional qualities include determination, perseverance, courage and self-control, which provide a certain style of behavior and a way of solving practical problems. Based on the severity of the moral and volitional properties of a person, the following types of character are distinguished: moral-volitional, immoral-volitional, moral-abulic (aboulia - lack of will), immoral-abulic.

A person with a moral-volitional character is socially active, constantly observes social norms and makes strong-willed efforts to comply with them. They say about such a person that he is decisive, persistent, courageous, honest. A person with an immoral-volitional character does not recognize social norms and directs all his volitional efforts to satisfy his own goals. People with a morally abulic character recognize the usefulness and importance of social norms, however, being weak-willed, often, unwillingly, due to circumstances, commit anti-social acts. People with an immoral-abulic type of character are indifferent to social norms and do not make any effort to comply with them.

Self-control is a set of self-regulation properties associated with a person's awareness of himself. This block is built on top of all other blocks and exercises control over them: strengthening or weakening of activity, correction of actions and deeds, anticipation and planning of activity, etc. (Kovalev A. G., 1965).

All personality blocks act interconnectedly and form systemic, integral properties. Among them, the main place belongs to the existential-existential properties of the personality. These properties are associated with a holistic view of the individual about himself (self-attitude), about his "I", about the meaning of being, about responsibility, about destiny in this world. Holistic properties make a person reasonable, purposeful. A person with pronounced existential properties is spiritually rich, whole and wise.

Thus, within the framework of the activity approach, a person is a conscious subject who occupies a certain position in society and performs a socially useful public role. The structure of a personality is a complexly organized hierarchy of individual properties, blocks (orientation, abilities, character, self-control) and systemic existential integral properties of a personality.

To the control question "Why are some people more aggressive than others?" followers of this theory could answer as follows: because these people in the course of their activities (educational, labor, etc.) in a certain social environment formed purposefully conscious intentions to cause physical or mental harm to other people, and the mechanisms of self-control turned out to be not developed.

Dispositional personality theory

Dispositional (from the English disposition - predisposition) theory has three main directions: "hard", "soft" and intermediate - formal dynamic.
The main source of personality development, according to this approach, are the factors of genetic-environmental interaction, with some directions emphasizing mainly influences from genetics, others - from the environment.

The "hard" direction tries to establish a strict correspondence between certain rigid biological structures of a person: the properties of the physique, nervous system or brain, on the one hand, and certain personal properties, on the other. At the same time, it is argued that both the rigid biological structures themselves and the personal formations associated with them depend on common genetic factors. So, the German researcher E. Kretschmer established a connection between the bodily constitution and the type of character, as well as between physique and a tendency to a certain mental illness (Kretschmer E., 1924).
For example, people with an asthenic physique (thin, with long limbs, sunken chest) are somewhat more likely than representatives of other body types to have a "schizoid" character (closed, unsociable) and develop schizophrenia. Persons with a picnic physique (abundant fat deposition, a bulging abdomen) are somewhat more likely than other people to have a "cyclothymic" character (sudden mood swings - from sublime to sad) and are more likely to develop manic-depressive psychosis.

The English researcher G. Eysenck suggested that such a personality trait as "introversion-extroversion" (isolation-sociability) is due to the functioning of a special brain structure - the reticular formation. In introverts, the reticular formation provides a higher tone of the cortex, and therefore they avoid contact with the outside world - they do not need excessive sensory stimulation. Extroverts, on the contrary, are drawn to external sensory stimulation (to people, spicy food, etc.) because they have a reduced cortical tone - their reticular formation does not provide the cortical structures of the brain with the necessary level of cortical activation.
The "soft" direction of the dispositional theory of personality claims that personality traits, of course, depend on the biological properties of the human body, but which ones and to what extent is not included in the scope of their research tasks.
Among the researchers in this area, the most famous is G. Allport, the founder of the theory of traits. A trait is a person's predisposition to behave in similar ways at different times and in different situations. For example, about a person who is constantly talkative both at home and at work, we can say that he has such a trait as sociability. The constancy of the trait is due, according to Allport, to a certain set of psychophysiological characteristics of a person.
A trait is a person's predisposition to behave in similar ways at different times and in different situations.
In addition to features, Allport singled out a special transpersonal structure in a person - proprium (from Latin proprium - actually, "I myself"). The concept of "proprium" is close to the concept of "I" of humanistic psychology. It includes the highest goals, meanings, moral attitudes of a person. In the development of the proprium, Allport assigned the main role to society, although he believed that traits can have an indirect effect on the formation of certain features of the proprium. Allport called a person with a developed proprium a mature personality (Allport G., 1998).
The formal-dynamic direction is represented mainly by the works of domestic psychologists B. M. Teplov and V. D. Nebylitsyn. The main distinguishing feature of this trend is the assertion that there are two levels in a person's personality, two different aspects of personal properties - formal-dynamic and meaningful. Content properties of personality are close to the concept of proprium. They are the product of upbringing, learning, activity and cover not only knowledge, skills, but also all the richness of the inner world of a person: intellect, character, meanings, attitudes, goals, etc.

According to dispositionalists, personality develops throughout life. However, the early years of life, including puberty, are seen as the most important. This theory assumes that people, despite constant changes in the structure of their behavior, generally have certain stable internal qualities (temperament, traits). Dispositionalists believe that both the conscious and the unconscious are present in the personality. At the same time, rational processes are more typical for the higher structures of the personality - proprium, and irrational for the lower ones - temperament.
According to the dispositional theory, a person has limited free will. Human behavior is to a certain extent determined by evolutionary and genetic factors, as well as by temperament and traits.

The inner world of a person, in particular temperament and traits, is predominantly objective and can be fixed by objective methods. Any physiological manifestations, including an electroencephalogram, speech reactions, etc., testify to certain properties of temperament and traits. This circumstance served as the basis for the creation of a special scientific direction - differential psychophysiology, which studies the biological foundations of personality and individual psychological differences (Teplov B. M., 1990; Nebylitsyn V. D., 1990).
Among the "rigid" structural models, the most famous is the personality model built by G. Eysenck, who identified personal properties with the properties of temperament. His model presents three fundamental properties or dimensions of personality: introversion-extraversion, neuroticism (emotional instability) - emotional stability, psychotism. Neuroticism is a personality trait associated with high irritability and excitability. Neurotics (persons with high values ​​of neuroticism) easily panic, excitable, restless, while emotionally stable people are balanced, calm. Psychotism combines personality traits that reflect indifference, indifference to other people, rejection of social norms.
Representatives of the "soft" direction, in particular G. Allport, distinguish three types of features:

1. A cardinal feature is inherent in only one person and does not allow comparisons of this person with other people. The cardinal trait permeates a person so much that almost all of his actions can be deduced from this trait. Few people have cardinal traits. For example, Mother Teresa had such a trait - she was merciful, compassionate towards other people.

2. Common features are common to most people within a given culture. Punctuality, sociability, conscientiousness, etc. are usually named among common features. According to Allport, a person has no more than ten such traits.

3. Secondary traits are less stable than general ones. These are preferences in food, clothing, etc.

Allport's followers, using various mathematical techniques, in particular factor analysis, tried to identify the number of common features in a person. The question of the correspondence of traits identified on the basis of clinical data and traits obtained on the norm using factor analysis is the subject of special scientific research (Melnikov V.M., Yampolsky L.T., 1985).

Representatives of the formal-dynamic direction as the main element of the personality distinguish four main formal-dynamic properties of the personality:

1) ergicity - the level of mental stress, endurance;
2) plasticity - ease of switching from one program of behavior to another;
3) speed - individual pace of behavior;
4) emotional threshold - sensitivity to feedback, to the discrepancy between real and planned behavior.

Each of these properties can be distinguished in three areas of human behavior: psychomotor, intellectual and communicative. Each person has a total of 12 formal dynamic properties.

To these four main properties, the so-called content properties of the personality are added (Rusalov V. M., 1979), which, within the framework of this direction, do not have their own specifics and coincide with the properties identified within the framework of the activity approach (knowledge, skills, skills, character , meanings, attitudes, goals, etc.)

The main block of personality within the framework of the dispositional approach is temperament. As mentioned above, some authors, such as G. Eysenck, even identify temperament with personality. Certain ratios of the properties of temperament make up the types of temperament.

Eysenck gives the following characteristics of temperament types:

Choleric is an emotionally unstable extrovert. Irritable, restless, aggressive, excitable, changeable, impulsive, optimistic, active.

Melancholic is an emotionally unstable introvert. Changeable in mood, rigid, sober, pessimistic, silent, non-contact, calm.

Sanguine is an emotionally stable extrovert. Carefree, lively, easy-going, talkative, sociable.

Phlegmatic is an emotionally stable introvert. Serene, balanced, reliable, self-governing, peaceful, thoughtful, caring, passive.

However, there are other points of view, according to which temperament is not a component of personality. For example, V. S. Merlin believed that temperament is a special independent psychodynamic level in the structure of integral individuality, which differs significantly from personality. Temperament covers only those characteristics of mental properties that represent a certain dynamic system (Merlin V.S., 1986). G. Allport also did not include temperament in the personality structure. He argued that temperament is not the primary material from which personality is built, but at the same time he pointed out the importance of temperament, which, being a genetically hereditary structure, affects the development of personality traits.

The formal dynamic properties of a personality are temperament in the narrow, true sense of the word, since they are generalized innate properties of the functional systems of human behavior (Rusalov V. M., 1999).

According to V. D. Nebylitsyn, from a formal dynamic point of view, temperament consists of two interrelated substructures: activity and emotionality (Nebylitsyn V. D., 1990). Certain ratios of activity and emotionality form formal-dynamic types of temperament. Activity is a measure of energy-dynamic tension in the process of human interaction with the environment, which includes ergicity, plasticity and speed of human behavior. Emotionality is a characteristic of a person in terms of sensitivity (reactivity, vulnerability) to failures.
It should be noted that within the framework of the dispositional approach, in fact, such an important personal formation as character is absent as an independent one. This concept is often identified with the general concept of personality, especially in the clinic, or with the concept of character, adopted in the activity approach, which reduces it to the moral-volitional sphere of a person. According to G. Allport, character is a social assessment of the personality, and not an independent structure within the personality.

The integrity of human behavior is characterized through proprium. A person with a developed proprium is called a mature personality. A mature personality has the following properties:

1) has wide boundaries of "I", can look at himself from the outside;
2) capable of warm, cordial, friendly relations;
3) has a positive self-image, is able to tolerate phenomena that irritate her, as well as her own shortcomings;
4) adequately perceives reality, has qualifications and knowledge in his field of activity, has a specific goal of activity;
5) is capable of self-knowledge, has a clear idea of ​​his own strengths and weaknesses;
6) has an integral philosophy of life.

Thus, within the framework of the dispositional approach, a personality is a complex system of formal-dynamic properties (temperament), traits, and socially determined proprium properties. The personality structure is an organized hierarchy of individual biologically determined properties that are included in certain ratios and form certain types of temperament and traits, as well as a set of content properties that make up a person's proprium.

(2) theory personalities, presented a person not as a being ... and understanding the development of human society. Having created theory personalities, he also advanced in knowledge...

Theory personalities (3)

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As an outstanding representative of the humanist theories personalities, his theory self-actualization personalities based on the study... . CHAPTER 7. PHENOMENOLOGICAL DIRECTION IN THEORIES PERSONALITIES Phenomenological direction theories personalities is based on...

Personality theory is a set of hypotheses, or assumptions about the nature and mechanisms of personality development. Personality theory attempts not only to explain but also to predict human behavior.

In modern psychology, there are eight main approaches to the study of personality. Each approach has its own theory, its own ideas about the properties and structure of the personality, its own methods for measuring them. That is why we can offer only the following schematic definition: a personality is a multidimensional and multilevel system of psychological characteristics that provide individual originality, temporal and situational stability of human behavior. Each theory allows you to build one or more structural models of personality. Most of the models are speculative, and only a few, mostly dispositional, are built using modern mathematical methods.

Let's consider each approach in more detail.

Psychodynamic theory of personality.

The founder of the psychodynamic theory of personality, also known as "classical psychoanalysis", is the Austrian scientist Z. Freud (1856-1939).

According to Freud, the main source of personality development are innate biological factors (instincts), or rather, the total biological energy - libido (from Latin libido - attraction, desire). This energy is directed, firstly, to procreation (sexual attraction) and, secondly, to destruction (aggressive attraction). Personality is formed during the first six years of life. The unconscious dominates in the structure of personality. Sexual and aggressive drives, which make up the main part of the libido, are not realized by a person.

Freud argued that the individual does not have any free will. Human behavior is completely determined by his sexual and aggressive motives, which he called id (it). As for the inner world of the individual, within the framework of this approach, it is completely subjective. A person is a prisoner of his own inner world, the true content of the motive is hidden behind the "facade" of behavior. And only slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, dreams, as well as special methods can give more or less accurate information about a person's personality.

The main psychological properties of individual "elements" of personality are often called character traits. These properties are formed in a person in early childhood.

In the first, so-called "oral" phase of development (from birth to one and a half years), a sharp and rude refusal of the mother to breastfeed the child forms in the child such psychological properties as distrust, over-independence and over-activity, and vice versa, prolonged feeding (over one and a half years) can lead to the formation of a trusting, passive and dependent personality. In the second (from 1.5 to 3 years), "anal" phase, the rough punishment of the child in the process of learning toilet skills gives rise to "anal" character traits - greed, cleanliness, punctuality. A permissive attitude of parents to teaching a child toilet skills can lead to the formation of an unpunctual, generous and even creative personality.

At the third, "phallic", the most important stage in the development of the child (from 3 to 6 years), the formation of the "Oedipus complex" in boys and the "Electra complex" in girls takes place. The Oedipus complex is expressed in the fact that the boy hates his father because he interrupts his first erotic attraction to the opposite sex (to his mother). Hence the aggressive character, unlawful behavior associated with the rejection of family and social standards, which the father symbolizes. The Electra complex (attraction to the father and rejection of the mother) forms alienation in girls in the relationship between daughter and mother.

Freud distinguishes three main conceptual blocks, or instances of personality:

1) id ("it") - the main structure of the personality, consisting of a set of unconscious (sexual and aggressive) urges; the id functions according to the pleasure principle;

2) ego ("I") - a set of cognitive and executive functions of the psyche, predominantly realized by a person, representing, in a broad sense, all our knowledge about the real world; the ego is a structure that is designed to serve the id, functions in accordance with the reality principle and regulates the process of interaction between the id and the superego and acts as an arena for the ongoing struggle between them;

3) superego ("super-I") - a structure containing social norms, attitudes, moral values ​​of the society in which a person lives.

The id, ego and superego are in a constant struggle for psychic energy due to the limited amount of libido. Strong conflicts can lead a person to psychological problems, diseases. To relieve the tension of these conflicts, a person develops special "protective mechanisms" that function unconsciously and hide the true content of the motives of behavior. Defense mechanisms are integral properties of the personality. Here are some of them: repression (translation into the subconscious of thoughts and feelings that cause suffering); projection (the process by which a person attributes their own unacceptable thoughts and feelings to other people, thus placing the blame on them for their shortcomings or blunders); substitution (redirection of aggression from a more threatening object to a less threatening one); reactive formation (suppression of unacceptable urges and their replacement in behavior with opposite urges); sublimation (replacement of unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulses with socially acceptable forms of behavior in order to adapt). Each person has their own set of defense mechanisms formed in childhood.

Thus, within the framework of psychodynamic theory, personality is a system of sexual and aggressive motives, on the one hand, and defense mechanisms, on the other, and personality structure is an individually different ratio of individual properties, individual blocks (instances) and defense mechanisms.

Analytical theory of personality.

The most prominent representative of this approach is the Swiss researcher K. Jung (1875-1961).

Jung considered innate psychological factors to be the main source of personality development. A person inherits from his parents ready-made primary ideas - "archetypes". Some archetypes are universal, such as the ideas of God, good and evil, and are inherent in all peoples. But there are culturally and individually specific archetypes. Jung suggested that archetypes are reflected in dreams, fantasies, and are often found as symbols used in art, literature, architecture, and religion. The meaning of every person's life is to fill innate archetypes with concrete content.

According to Jung, personality is formed throughout life. The structure of personality is dominated by the unconscious, the main part of which is the "collective unconscious" - the totality of all innate archetypes. The free will of the individual is limited. Man's behavior is actually subordinated to his innate archetypes, or the collective unconscious. The inner world of a person, within the framework of this theory, is completely subjective. A person is capable of revealing his world only through his dreams and attitudes towards the symbols of culture and art. The true content of the personality is hidden from an outside observer.

The main elements of personality are the psychological properties of individual realized archetypes of a given person. These properties are also often referred to as character traits.

In the analytical model, there are three main conceptual blocks, or areas of personality:

1) The collective unconscious is the main structure of the personality, in which the entire cultural and historical experience of mankind is concentrated, represented in the human psyche in the form of inherited archetypes.

2) The individual unconscious is a collection of "complexes", or emotionally charged thoughts and feelings, repressed from consciousness. An example of a complex is the "complex of power", when a person spends all his mental energy on activities directly or indirectly related to the desire for power, without realizing it.

3) Individual conscious - a structure that serves as the basis of self-consciousness and includes those thoughts, feelings, memories and sensations, thanks to which we are aware of ourselves, regulate our conscious activity.

The integrity of the personality is achieved through the action of the archetype "self". The main goal of this archetype is the "individuation" of a person, or an exit from the collective unconscious. This is achieved due to the fact that the "self" organizes, coordinates, integrates all the structures of the human psyche into a single whole and creates the uniqueness, originality of the life of each individual person. The self has two ways, two attitudes of such integration.

Every person has both an extrovert and an introvert at the same time. However, their severity can be quite different.

In addition, Jung singled out four subtypes of information processing: mental, sensual, sensing and intuitive, the dominance of one of which gives a peculiarity to the extravertive or introvertive attitude of a person. Thus, in Jung's typology, eight subtypes of personality can be distinguished.

Individual personality theory.

The individual psychology of Alfred Adler (1870-1937) has several key principles, based on which he describes a person:

1) the person is single, self-consistent and integral;

2) human life is a dynamic striving for excellence;

3) the individual is a creative and self-determining entity;

4) the social affiliation of the individual.

According to Adler, people try to compensate for the feeling of their own inferiority that they experienced in childhood, and experiencing inferiority, throughout their lives they struggle for superiority. Each person develops his own unique lifestyle, within which he strives to achieve fictitious goals focused on superiority or perfection. Related to this is the concept of "fictitious finalism" - the idea that human behavior is subordinated to their own intended goals in relation to the future.

According to Adler, the style of life is especially clearly manifested in the attitudes of the individual and her behavior, aimed at solving the three main life tasks: work, friendship and love. Based on the assessment of the degree of expression of social interest and the degree of activity, in relation to these three tasks, Adler distinguished types of attitudes that accompany lifestyle:

Manager (self-confidence, assertiveness, insignificant social interest, establishment of superiority over the outside world);

Avoidant (lack of activity and social interest, fear of boredom, flight from solving life problems);

Socially useful (a combination of a high degree of social interest with high activity, concern for others and interest in communication, awareness of the importance of cooperation, personal courage and willingness to contribute to the well-being of others).

Adler believed that the style of life is created due to the creative power of the individual, but a certain influence on it is the order of birth: first-born, only child, middle or last child.

Also in individual psychology, the emphasis is on the so-called social interest, namely the internal tendency of a person to participate in the creation of an ideal society.

The central concept of the whole theory of Alfred Adler is the creative "I". This concept embodies the active principle of human life; what gives it meaning; that under whose influence the style of life is formed. This creative force is responsible for the purpose of human life and contributes to the development of social interest.

Humanistic theory of personality.

There are two main directions in the humanistic theory of personality. The first, "clinical" (focused mainly on the clinic), is presented in the views of the American psychologist C. Rogers (1902-1987). The founder of the second, "motivational" direction is the American researcher A. Maslow (1908-1970). Despite some differences between these two areas, they have much in common.

Representatives of humanistic psychology consider innate tendencies towards self-actualization to be the main source of personality development. Personal development is the unfolding of these innate tendencies. According to K. Rogers, there are two innate tendencies in the human psyche. The first one, which he called the "self-actualizing trend", contains initially in a folded form the future properties of a person's personality. The second - "organism tracking process" - is a mechanism for monitoring the development of personality. On the basis of these tendencies, a special personal structure of the "I" arises in a person in the process of development, which includes the "ideal I" and the "real I". These substructures of the "I" structure are in complex relationships - from complete harmony (congruence) to complete disharmony.

The goal of life, according to K. Rogers, is to realize all one's innate potential, to be a "fully functioning person", i.e. a person who uses all his abilities and talents, realizes his potential and moves towards full knowledge of himself, his experiences, following its true nature.

A. Maslow singled out two types of needs that underlie the development of a personality: "deficient", which cease after their satisfaction, and "growth", which, on the contrary, only increase after their implementation. In total, according to Maslow, there are five levels of motivation:

1) physiological (needs for food, sleep);

2) security needs (need for an apartment, job);

3) needs for belonging, reflecting the needs of one person in another person, for example, in creating a family;

4) the level of self-esteem (the need for self-respect, competence, dignity);

5) the need for self-actualization (metaneeds for creativity, beauty, integrity, etc.)

The needs of the first two levels are deficient, the third level of needs is considered intermediate, the fourth and fifth levels are growth needs, Maslow formulated the law of the progressive development of motivation, according to which a person’s motivation develops progressively: movement to a higher level occurs if satisfied ( basically) lower-level needs. In other words, if a person is hungry and has no roof over his head, then it will be difficult for him to start a family, and even more so to respect himself or be creative.

The most important for a person are the needs for self-actualization. No person becomes so self-actualized as to drop all motives. Each person always has talents for further development. A person who has reached the fifth level is called a "psychologically healthy person".

According to humanists, there is no decisive age period; personality is formed and develops throughout life. However, the early periods of life (childhood and adolescence) play a special role in the development of personality. The personality is dominated by rational processes, where the unconscious arises only temporarily, when for one reason or another the process of self-actualization is blocked. Humanists believe that a person has complete free will. A person is aware of himself, is aware of his actions, makes plans, seeks the meaning of life. Man is the creator of his own personality, the creator of his own happiness.

The inner world of a person, his thoughts, feelings and emotions for humanists is not a direct reflection of reality. Each person interprets reality in accordance with his subjective perception. The inner world of a person is fully accessible only to himself. Human actions are based on subjective perception and subjective experiences. Only subjective experience is the key to understanding the behavior of a particular person.

Thus, within the framework of the humanistic approach, the personality is the inner world of the human "I" as a result of self-actualization, and the structure of the personality is the individual ratio of the "real I" and the "ideal I", as well as the individual level of development of the needs for self-actualization of the personality.

Cognitive theory of personality.

The cognitive theory of personality is close to the humanistic one, but it has a number of significant differences. The founder of this approach is the American psychologist J. Kelly (1905-1967). In his opinion, the only thing a person wants to know in life is what happened to him and what will happen to him in the future.

The main source of personality development, according to Kelly, is the environment, the social environment. The cognitive theory of personality emphasizes the influence of intellectual processes on human behavior. In this theory, any person is compared with a scientist who tests hypotheses about the nature of things and makes a forecast of future events. Any event is open to multiple interpretations. The main concept in this direction is "construct" (from the English construct - to build). This concept includes features of all known cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking and speech). Thanks to constructs, a person not only learns the world, but also establishes interpersonal relationships. The constructs that underlie these relationships are called personality constructs. A construct is a kind of classifier-template of our perception of other people and ourselves.

From Kelly's point of view, each of us builds and tests hypotheses, in a word, solves the problem of whether a given person is athletic or unathletic, musical or non-musical, intelligent or non-intelligent, etc., using the appropriate constructs (classifiers). Each construct has a "dichotomy" (two poles): "sports-unsportsmanlike", "musical-non-musical", etc. A person arbitrarily chooses the pole of the dichotomous construct that best describes the event, i.e., has the best predictive value. Some constructs are suitable for describing only a narrow range of events, while others have a wide range of applicability. People differ not only in the number of constructs, but also in their location. Those constructs that are actualized in consciousness faster are called superordinate, and those that are slower - subordinate. The constructive system is not a static formation, but is in constant change under the influence of experience, i.e. personality is formed and develops throughout life. Kelly believed that the individual has limited free will. The constructive system that has developed in a person during his life contains certain limitations. However, he did not believe that human life is completely determined. In any situation, a person is able to construct alternative predictions. The main conceptual element is the personal "construct".

According to cognitive theory, personality is a system of organized personal constructs in which a person's personal experience is processed (perceived and interpreted). The structure of personality within the framework of this approach is considered as an individually peculiar hierarchy of constructs.

Behavioral theory of personality.

The behavioral theory of personality has another name - "scientific", since the main thesis of this theory is that our personality is a product of learning.

There are two directions in the behavioral theory of personality - reflex and social. The reflex direction is represented by the works of well-known American behaviorists J. Watson and B. Skinner (1904-1990). The founders of the social direction are the American researchers A. Bandura (1925-1988) and J. Rotter.

The main source of personality development, according to both directions, is the environment in the broadest sense of the word. There is nothing in the personality of genetic or psychological inheritance. Personality is a product of learning, and its properties are generalized behavioral reflexes and social skills. From the point of view of behaviorists, any type of personality can be formed on demand - a worker or a bandit, a poet or a merchant. Skinner, argued that personality is a set of social skills formed as a result of operant learning. Operant Skinner called any change in the environment as a result of any motor act. A person tends to perform those operants that are followed by reinforcement, and avoids those that are followed by punishment. Thus, as a result of a certain system of reinforcements and punishments, a person acquires new social skills and, accordingly, new personality traits - kindness or honesty, aggressiveness or altruism.

According to representatives of the second direction, an important role in the development of a personality is played not so much by external as by internal factors, for example, expectation, purpose, significance, etc. Bandura called human behavior determined by internal factors self-regulation. The main task of self-regulation is to ensure self-efficacy, i.e., to perform only those forms of behavior that a person can implement, relying on internal factors at any given moment. Internal factors act according to their own internal laws, although they have arisen from past experience as a result of learning through imitation.

According to behavioral theory, a person is almost completely deprived of free will. Our behavior is determined by external circumstances. The inner world of man is objective. Everything in it is from the environment. Personality is fully objectified in behavioral manifestations. There is no "facade". Our behavior is personality. Behavioral traits of a person are amenable to operationalization and objective measurement.

Reflexes or social skills act as elements of personality in the behaviorist theory of personality. It is postulated that the list of social skills (i.e. properties, characteristics, personality traits) inherent in a particular person is determined by his social experience (learning). The properties of the individual and the requirements of the social environment of a person coincide.

Thus, within the framework of this approach, personality is a system of social skills and conditioned reflexes, on the one hand, and a system of internal factors: self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility, on the other. According to the behavioral theory of personality, personality structure is a complexly organized hierarchy of reflexes or social skills, in which the internal blocks of self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility play a leading role.

Dispositional theory of personality.

Dispositional (from the English disposition - predisposition) theory has three main directions: "hard", "soft" and intermediate - formal-dynamic, represented by the works of domestic psychologists.

The main source of personality development, according to this approach, are the factors of gene-environment interaction, and some directions emphasize mainly influences from genetics, others - from the environment.

The "hard" direction tries to establish a strict correspondence between certain rigid biological structures of a person: the properties of the physique, nervous system or brain, on the one hand, and certain personal properties, on the other. At the same time, it is argued that both the rigid biological structures themselves and the personal formations associated with them depend on common genetic factors. The English researcher G. Eysenck (1916-1997) suggested that such a personality trait as "introversion-extraversion" (isolation-sociability) is due to the functioning of a special brain structure - the reticular formation. In introverts, the reticular formation provides a higher tone of the cortex, and therefore they avoid contact with the outside world - they do not need excessive sensory stimulation. Extroverts, on the contrary, are drawn to external sensory stimulation (to people, spicy food, etc.) because they have a reduced cortical tone - their reticular formation does not provide the cortical structures of the brain with the necessary level of cortical activation.

The "soft" direction of the dispositional theory of personality claims that personality traits, of course, depend on the biological properties of the human body, however, on which ones and to what extent - is not included in the scope of their research tasks.

Among the researchers in this area, the most famous is G. Allport (1897-1967) - the founder of the theory of traits. A trait is a person's predisposition to behave in similar ways at different times and in different situations. In addition to features, Allport singled out a special transpersonal structure in a person - proprium (from Latin proprium - actually, "I myself"). The concept of "proprium" is close to the concept of "I" of humanistic psychology.

According to dispositionalists, personality develops throughout life. However, the early years of life, including puberty, are seen as the most important. This theory assumes that people, despite constant changes in the structure of their behavior, generally have certain stable internal qualities (temperament, traits). Dispositionalists believe that both the conscious and the unconscious are present in the personality. According to the dispositional theory, a person has limited free will. Human behavior is to a certain extent determined by evolutionary and genetic factors, as well as by temperament and traits.

The inner world of a person, in particular temperament and traits, is predominantly objective and can be fixed by objective methods. Any physiological manifestations, including an electroencephalogram, speech reactions, etc., testify to certain properties of temperament and traits. This circumstance served as the basis for the creation of a special scientific direction - differential psychophysiology, which studies the biological foundations of personality and individual psychological differences.

The main block of personality within the framework of the dispositional approach is temperament. Some authors, for example, even identify temperament with personality. Certain ratios of the properties of temperament make up the types of temperament.

It should be noted that within the framework of the dispositional approach, in fact, such an important personal formation as character is absent as an independent one. This concept is often identified with the general concept of personality, especially in the clinic, or with the concept of character, adopted in the activity approach, which reduces it to the moral-volitional sphere of a person. Thus, within the framework of the dispositional approach, a personality is a complex system of formal-dynamic properties (temperament), traits and socially determined proprium properties. The personality structure is an organized hierarchy of individual biologically determined properties that are included in certain ratios and form certain types of temperament and traits, as well as a set of content properties that make up a person's proprium.

Personality theories in ego psychology.

In the theory of Erik Erickson (1902-1975), the ego and its adaptive abilities are of the greatest importance. Other features of his theory, called ego psychology, include:

Emphasis on changes that occur in the process of development throughout a person's life;

Emphasis on a mentally healthy person;

The special role of identity;

The combination of clinical observations with the study of cultural and historical factors in the study of personality structure.

Central to his theory of ego development is the epigenetic principle. According to him, a person during his life goes through several stages that are universal for all mankind. The personality develops in steps, the transition from one stage to another is predetermined by the readiness of the personality to move in the direction of the further path. The society is arranged in such a way that the development of social opportunities is accepted approvingly, the society contributes to the preservation of this trend, maintaining its pace and sequence of development.

Karen Horney (1885-1952) rejected Freud's position that physical anatomy determines the personality differences between men and women, arguing that the nature of the social relationship between parents and child is a decisive factor in personality development. According to Horney, the primary needs in childhood are satisfaction and security. If the behavior of the parents does not contribute to the satisfaction of the need for security, this leads to the emergence of basal hostility, and that leads to the emergence of basal anxiety - the basis of neurosis. She called basal anxiety a feeling of helplessness in a hostile world.

Horney divided the list of needs into three categories, each of which represents a strategy for optimizing interpersonal relationships in order to achieve safety in the outside world. Each strategy is accompanied by a certain orientation in relations with other people: towards people, from people and against people.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) continued the post-Freudian trend in personality psychology, focusing on the influence of socio-cultural factors on personality. Fromm argued that a certain part of people are driven by the desire to escape from freedom, which is carried out through the mechanisms of authoritarianism, destructiveness and conformism. Fromm's healthy path to liberation is to gain positive freedom through spontaneous activity.

Fromm described five existential needs inherent in a person: in establishing connections; in overcoming; in the roots; in identity; in the system of beliefs and devotion

He believed that the basic orientations of character are a consequence of the way in which existential needs are met.

There is only one productive character; according to Fromm, it represents the goal of human development, and it is based on reason, love and work. This type is independent, honest, calm, loving, creative and doing socially useful things.

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Personality theories are various assumptions, a set of hypotheses, a set of concepts and approaches that explain the origin of personality, the determinism of its development. The theory of personality development seeks not only to interpret its essence, but also to anticipate human behavior. It provides researchers and theorists with the opportunity to understand the nature of the human subject, helps to find answers to the rhetorical questions that they constantly ask. Theories of personality in psychology can be briefly represented by seven basic concepts, each of which is characterized by its own ideas about the personality structure and properties, and has specific methods for measuring them. From this we can conclude that a personality is a multidimensional structure and a multifaceted system of psychological characteristics that provide individuality, temporal and situational constancy of human behavior. In total, there are about forty approaches and concepts aimed at studying the personality of the human subject.

Theories of personality in psychology

It is believed that the human individual is originally born as a human being. This statement appears to be true at first glance. However, it is based solely on the genetic conditionality of the emergence of innate prerequisites for the formation of human qualities and traits. So, for example, a newborn baby's body shape suggests the ability to walk upright, the structure of the brain provides the possibility of intellectual development, the configuration of the hands - the prospect of using tools. In all of the above, a newborn baby differs from a baby animal. Thus, the infant is originally of the human race and is called the individual, while the baby of the animal will be called exclusively the individual throughout its existence.

The concept of "individual" contains the generic affiliation of a person. A baby and an adult, a sage and an oligophrenic, an aborigine living in a tribe far from civilization, and a highly educated inhabitant of a developed country can be considered an individual. In other words, characterizing a person as an individual means not saying anything concrete about him. Appearing in this world as an individual, a person acquires a specific social quality and becomes a personality.

Even in childhood, the individual is included in the historically established system of social relationships. The further development of the subject in society forms such an interweaving of relationships that creates him as a personality - a systemic social property acquired by the human subject in the process of communicative interaction and objective activity, characterizing the degree and quality of representation of social interactions in the individual.

Since psychology cannot offer a single definition of personality, personality theories are actively developing in foreign psychology and in domestic science, but the most significant of foreign concepts are:

Psychodynamic theory of personality (the fundamental factor in the development of personality is innate instincts);

The dispositional theory of personality or the theory of traits, since its adherents were convinced that human subjects have certain dispositions (predispositions, traits) to a certain behavioral response to various "irritants", in other words, the followers of this direction assumed that individuals are stable in their own thoughts, constant in actions and feelings, regardless of events, circumstances, life experience;

Phenomenological (consists in the belief that the individual strives for and is characterized by a positive nature);

cognitive theory of personality (human behavior is greatly influenced by cognitive functions and intellectual processes);

Learning theory or behavioral theory of personality, the main thesis is the belief that personality is the experience acquired by an individual in the process of life.

All the above personality theories in foreign psychology try to answer the most important question of modern psychological science: what is a person, what is his essence, what drives his development.

Each of these approaches represents a specific vision, a separate fragment of the whole picture of such a complex and at the same time integral mechanism called personality.

The behavioral theory of personality is based on the belief that the environment is the source of personality development, that the personality itself does not contain anything from psychological or genetic inheritance. It is exclusively a product of learning, and personality traits are generalized social skills and behavioral reflexes.

The analytical theory of personality, in turn, formulated by Jung, is based on the belief that innate psychological factors determine the development of personality. The individual inherits from his parents ready-made primary ideas, which Jung called "archetypes".

Within the framework of domestic research in the field of psychological science, the leading role in explaining personality belongs to the activity approach, the basis of which is the subtype of objective activity developed by K. Marx. As a principle explaining mental processes, the category of activity is used in the study of various areas of mental reality. Since in the specific activity of the individual and its generation, objective expression is found not only by mental phenomena and the subjective consciousness of the individual, but also by social consciousness.

Theories of personality in Russian psychology can be united by a common main task, which was to study the dependence of the constituent elements of consciousness on the characteristics of the stimuli that cause them. Later, this two-component scheme was reflected in the formula “stimulus equals response” (S-R), which cannot be considered entirely correct, since it excludes a meaningful process that makes real connections between the individual and the objective environment. Concepts of learning do not take into account anything that falls under the definition of consciousness, feeling, imagination and will. The processes realizing the life of subjects in the surrounding reality, its social existence in all the variety of forms, are activities.

The most famous theories of personality in Russian psychology are associated with the scientific research of the supporters of the teachings of L. Vygotsky, in particular, L. Bozhovich and A. Leontiev.

The concept proposed by the domestic psychologist L. Bozhovich covers the period of personal formation from early childhood to the youthful stage. To describe the personality, Bozovic uses concepts that characterize the internal traits and characteristics of individuals. She believed that a person becomes a person who has reached a certain level of development of mental processes, who has the ability to perceive and experience his own "person" as an indivisible whole, different from the surrounding people and manifested in the concept of "I". In other words, at such a level of formation of mental processes, a person is able to consciously influence the surrounding reality, modify it and change himself.

Bozhovich, based on the definition of "social situation of formation" and the principle of "leading activity", previously introduced by L. Vygotsky, showed how in the complex dynamics of the interaction and activity of the child at different stages of his life, a certain view of the surrounding reality is developed, which is called the internal position . Such a position was considered by the supporters of this approach as one of the most significant characteristics of the personality, a prerequisite for its development.

The activity theory of personality, developed by A. Leontiev, who continued to develop the theories of L. Vygotsky and S. Rubinshtein, considered the product of social development as a personality, and the totality of social relationships of the individual carried out by his activity was considered as its basis. It is through activity that a person can influence things, nature or surrounding people. In relation to society, he acts as a person, and to things - as a subject.

Thus, in accordance with the activity aspect of the described concept, individual characteristics or properties of a personality act as components of a personality. Supporters of this concept believed that personal properties are formed as a result of activities carried out always in a certain socio-historical context. Personal traits, in this regard, are considered as socially (normatively) determined elements. So, for example, perseverance is developed in such varieties of activity where the individual shows independence.

Motives are characterized by a hierarchical structure;

Motives are characterized by dependence on the level, the higher their level, the less significant and vital the corresponding needs are, therefore, the longer they can not be realized;

As long as the needs on the lower rungs remain unsatisfied, the higher ones remain uninteresting;

Once the lower needs are satisfied, they lose their motivating power.

In addition, Maslow notes that the lack of goods, an obstacle to the satisfaction of physiological needs, such as food, rest, safety, leads to the transformation of these needs into leading motives. Conversely, when basic needs are satisfied, the individual begins to strive to realize higher needs. In other words, it is difficult to strive for self-development when the stomach is empty.

The advantages of the considered approach to personality development include focus on the individual as an active builder of his own life, having unlimited abilities and potential. A disadvantage can be considered indeterminism, neglect of the natural predetermination of human existence.

Z. Freud proposed his own interpretation of the personality, which had a huge impact on psychotherapeutic practice and theory, psychological science, and culture in general.

According to Freud's views, the activity of an individual is characterized by dependence on instinctive (subconscious urges), which include, first of all, the instinct of self-preservation and the sexual instinct. At the same time, instincts cannot find themselves in society as freely as in the animal world, since society imposes a lot of restrictions on the individual, subjecting his drives to severe “censorship”, which forces the individual to suppress or inhibit them.

Thus, instinctive drives turn out to be ousted from the conscious life of the individual, since they are considered unacceptable, shameful, compromising. As a result of such repression, they pass into the area of ​​the unconscious, in other words, as if "go underground." At the same time, they do not disappear, but save their activity, which allows them to gradually, from the area of ​​the unconscious, control the behavior of the subject, sublimating (transforming) into various variations of human culture and products of human activity.

In the area of ​​the unconscious, subconscious drives are combined into various complexes, depending on their own nature. These complexes, according to Freud, are the real cause of personal activity. Therefore, an important task of psychological science is considered to be the discovery of unconscious complexes and the promotion of their disclosure, awareness, which leads to overcoming intrapersonal confrontations (method of psychoanalysis). A striking example of such causes is the Oedipus complex.

The advantages of the considered theory of personality are in the study of the area of ​​the unconscious, the use of clinical methods, the study of the real problems of the client. The disadvantage can be considered metaphorical, subjective, focus on the past.

Topological psychology is based on the term "field" accepted in mathematical science. It explains personal behavior by the fact that various points and zones of the living space, that is, the fields in which the subject resides, exists, become motives for his behavioral response due to the fact that he feels the need for them. When the need for them disappears, the value of the object is lost. K. Levin was a supporter of this concept. He did not see the need for predetermination of a biological nature, in contrast to the adherents of psychoanalysis. Motivation is due not to the innate properties of the individual, but to his mutually coordinated actions with the field, which is characterized by the presence of several objects that are attractive in different ways.

The main modern theories of personality are represented by two of the most famous concepts, in addition to learning theory. These concepts are associated with the names of E. Bern and K. Platonov.

The essence of Platonov's concept is to consider the personality as a structure consisting of separate components, such as: orientation, experience, features of mental functions, biopsychic properties. These listed components in the process of interaction determine human behavior. E. Bern is convinced that a person simultaneously combines several types of behavioral response, each of which is activated due to the impact of certain conditions.

Freud's psychodynamic theory of personality;

Individual personality theory, created on the basis of psychoanalytic teachings by Adler;

Analytic personality theory formed by Jung;

Ego-theory of Erickson, Fromm and Horney;

A dispositional approach to personality research, which includes Cattell's structural concept of personality traits, Eysenck's concept of personality types, and Allport's research called dispositional personality theory;

The Teaching Behavioral Approach introduced by Skinner;

Socio-cognitive personality theory of Rotter and Bandura;

Phenomenological theory of personality formation by Rogers and others.

D. Ziegler and L. Hjell decided to cover in their book the concepts of personality formation that have made the most significant contribution to modern psychology.

They are convinced that the doctrine of personality should reflect the theorist's main theses about the origin of man. It is this principle that the authors were guided by when writing the book.

The work also describes the main strategies used by scientists to study personality phenomena. The authors outlined in the book practical ways to apply correlation analysis, the method of anamnesis, as well as formal experiments in order to be able to assess the validity of theoretical assumptions. In addition, they described the various assessment methods (eg, interview method, projective tests) that typically collect data about an individual. Knowledge of these methods will enable readers to comprehend the significance of evaluation in measuring subject differences.

The main advantage of this work can be considered the fact that when presenting each approach, the authors give arguments “for” and “against”.

Speaker of the Medical and Psychological Center "PsychoMed"

The variety of personality theories that emerged in Western psychological science during the 20th century also determines many views on the definition of the concept of "personality", its functioning and structure. L. Hjell and D. Ziegler, in their well-known monograph, distinguish at least nine directions in the theory of personality. This is a psychodynamic (3. Freud) and a version of this direction revised by A. Adler and C. Jung, dispositional (G. Allport, R. Cattell), behaviorist (B. Skinner), social-cognitive (A. Bandura), cognitive ( J. Kelly), humanistic (A. Maslow), phenomenological (K. Rogers) and ego psychology, represented by the names of E. Erickson, E. Fromm and K. Horney.

As noted by L. Kjell and D. Ziegler, the cornerstones of personality theory are rooted in the basic ideas of its author about human nature.

The purpose of this work is to consider the basic principles and provisions of some psychological theories of personality. This goal is achieved by solving the following tasks:

1. Describe the personality theories of the classics of Russian psychological science (A.F. Lazursky, S. L. Rubinshtein, A.N. Leontiev, A.V. Petrovsky);

2. To characterize the concept of "personality" according to the main foreign theoretical approaches (psychodynamic direction, humanistic direction, cognitive direction, and structural theory of personality traits).

Chapter 1 Domestic concepts of personality theory

Based on literature data, it can be stated that today in Russian psychology there is a widespread view of a person as an individual, personality and subject of activity, but there is no more or less generally accepted concept of personality. Let us consider successively the concepts of personality of some authors.

1.1 A. F. Lazursky’s concept of personality

The significance of this concept is that for the first time a position was put forward on the relationship of the personality, which is the core of the personality. Its special significance is also in the fact that the idea of ​​personality relations has become the starting point for many domestic psychologists, primarily representatives of the Leningrad-Petersburg school of psychologists.

The views of A. F. Lazursky on the nature and structure of personality were formed under the direct influence of the ideas of V. M. Bekhterev at the time when he worked under his leadership at the Psychoneurological Institute.

According to A.F. Lazursky, the main task of the personality is adaptation (adaptation) to the environment, which is understood in the broadest sense (nature, things, people, human relationships, ideas, aesthetic, moral, religious values, etc.) . The measure (degree) of activity of a person's adaptation to the environment can be different, which is reflected in three mental levels - lower, middle and higher. In fact, these levels reflect the process of human mental development.

Personality in the view of A.F. Lazursky is the unity of two psychological mechanisms [ibid.]. On the one hand, this endopsychics- the internal mechanism of the human psyche. Endopsychic reveals itself in such basic mental functions as attention, memory, imagination and thinking, the ability to volitional effort, emotionality, impulsivity, i.e., in temperament, mental endowment, and finally, character. According to A.F. Lazurny, endofeatures are mostly congenital.

Another essential aspect of personality is exopsychic, the content of which is determined by the attitude of the individual to external objects, the environment. Exopsychic manifestations always reflect the external conditions surrounding a person. Both of these parts are interconnected and influence each other. For example, a developed imagination, which also determines the ability for creative activity, high sensitivity and excitability - all this suggests art. The same applies to the exocomplex of traits, when the external conditions of life, as it were, dictate the corresponding behavior.

The process of personality adaptation can be more or less successful. A.F. Lazursky, in connection with this principle, distinguishes three mental levels.

The lowest level characterizes the maximum influence of the external environment on the human psyche. The environment, as it were, subordinates such a person to itself, regardless of his endo-features. Hence the contradiction between human capabilities and acquired professional skills. The middle level implies a greater opportunity to adapt to the environment, to find one's place in it. More conscious, with greater efficiency and initiative, people choose activities that correspond to their inclinations and inclinations. At the highest level of mental development, the process of adaptation is complicated by the fact that significant tension, the intensity of mental life, forces not only to adapt to the environment, but also gives rise to a desire to remake, modify it, in accordance with one's own desires and needs. In other words, here we can rather meet with the creative process.

So, the lowest level gives people who are insufficiently or poorly adapted, the middle one - adapted, and the highest one - adaptable.

At the highest level of the mental level, due to spiritual wealth, consciousness, coordination of spiritual experiences, the exopsyche reaches its highest development, and the endopsyche constitutes its natural basis. Therefore, the division goes according to exopsychic categories, more precisely, according to the most important universal ideals and their characterological varieties. The most important among them, according to A.F. Lazursky, are: altruism, knowledge, beauty, religion, society, external activity, system, power.

1.2 Views of S. L. Rubinshtein on the structure of personality

The first thing that S. L. Rubinshtein specifically draws attention to, starting to characterize the personality, is the dependence of mental processes on personality. According to the author, this principle is expressed, firstly, in individual differential differences between people. Different people, depending on their individual, i.e., personal characteristics, have different types of perception, memory, attention, styles of mental activity.

Secondly, the personal dependence of mental processes is expressed in the fact that the very course of development of mental processes depends on the overall development of the individual. The change of life epochs through which each person passes and his development takes place, leads not only to a change in life attitudes, interests, value orientations, but also leads to a change in feelings, strong-willed life. Personal changes in the course of its development lead to changes in mental processes (cognitive, affective, volitional).

Thirdly, the dependence of mental processes on the personality is expressed in the fact that these processes themselves do not remain independently developing processes, but turn into consciously regulated operations, i.e., mental processes become mental functions of the personality. Thus, attention in its specifically human form turns out to be arbitrary, and thinking is a set of operations consciously directed by a person to solve problems. Based on this context, the whole of human psychology is the psychology of personality.

The next important position for the psychological concept of personality is that any external influence acts on the individual through internal conditions that he has already formed earlier, also under the influence of external influences. Expanding this position, S. L. Rubinstein notes: “the “higher” we rise - from inorganic nature to organic, from living organisms to man - the more complex the internal nature of phenomena becomes and the greater the proportion of internal conditions in relation to to the outside." It is this methodological position, derived by S. L. Rubinshtein, that makes the well-known formula understandable: “one is not born a person - one becomes one”. The mental properties of a person are not an initial given; they are formed and developed in the course of activity.

So, for understanding the psychology of personality, from the point of view of S. L. Rubinshtein, the following provisions become important:

1) the mental properties of a person in her behavior, in the actions and deeds that she performs, are simultaneously manifested and formed,

2) the mental make-up of a person in all the diversity of its properties is determined by real life, a way of life and is formed in a specific activity;

3) the process of studying the mental make-up of a person involves the solution of three questions:

What does a person want, what is attractive to him, what does he aspire to? It is a question of direction, attitudes and tendencies, needs, interests and ideals;

What can a person do? This is a question about the abilities, about the gifts of a person, about his giftedness,

· What a person is, what of his tendencies and attitudes has entered into her flesh and blood and has been fixed as the core features of the personality. This is a question of character.

Having singled out these aspects of the mental image of the personality, S. L. Rubinshtein emphasized that they are interconnected and interdependent, that in specific activity they are woven into a single whole. The orientation of the personality, its attitudes, giving rise to certain actions in homogeneous situations, then pass into character and are fixed in it in the form of properties. The presence of interests in a certain area of ​​activity stimulates the development of abilities in this direction, and the presence of abilities, causing successful work, stimulates interest in it.

Ability and character are also closely related. The presence of abilities gives rise to a person's self-confidence, firmness and determination, or, on the contrary, conceit or carelessness. Equally, character traits determine the development of abilities, since abilities develop through their implementation, and this, in turn, depends on character traits - purposefulness, perseverance, etc. Thus, in real life, all aspects, aspects of the mental make-up of a person, turning into each other, form an inseparable unity.

1.3 A.N. Leontief

By the end of the 1970s, in addition to focusing on a structural approach to the problem of personality, the concept of a systematic approach began to develop. In this regard, the ideas of A. N. Leontiev are of particular interest.

According to A.V. Averin, Leontiev's concept of personality is characterized by a high level of abstractness. For all its difference from others, there is a common premise with them. Its essence is that, according to A. N. Leontiev, “the personality of a person is “produced” - created by social relations” [cit. by 5]. Thus, it is obvious that the basis of ideas about the personality of domestic psychologists is the Marxist postulate about it as a set of social relations.

Let us briefly characterize the features of Leontiev's understanding of personality. Personality, in his opinion, is a psychological formation of a special type, generated by a person's life in society. The subordination of various activities creates the basis of personality, the formation of which occurs in the process of social development (ontogenesis).

Leontiev did not refer to the concept of "personality" the genotypic conditioned features of a person - physical constitution, type of nervous system, temperament, biological needs, efficiency, natural inclinations, as well as acquired knowledge, skills and abilities, including professional ones. The categories listed above, in his opinion, constitute the individual properties of a person. The concept of "individual", according to Leontiev, reflects, firstly, the integrity and indivisibility of a particular person as a separate individual of a given biological species and, secondly, the features of a particular representative of the species that distinguish him from other representatives of this species. Why did Leontiev divide these characteristics into two groups: individual and personal? In his opinion, individual properties, including genotypically determined ones, can change in many ways in the course of a person's life. But from this they do not become personal, because a person is not an individual enriched by previous experience. The properties of the individual do not pass into the properties of the personality. Even transformed, they still remain individual properties, not defining the emerging personality, but only constituting the prerequisites and conditions for its formation.

The development of personality appears before us as a process of interactions of many activities that enter into hierarchical relations with each other. Personality acts as a set of hierarchical relations of activities. Their peculiarity consists, in the words of A. N. Leontiev, in “connectedness” from the states of the organism. “These hierarchies of activities are generated by their own development, they form the core of the personality,” the author notes. But the question arises about the psychological characterization of this hierarchy of activities.

For the psychological interpretation of the "hierarchies of activities" A. N. Leontiev uses the concepts of "need", "motive", "emotion", "meaning" and "meaning". Note that the very content of the activity approach changes the traditional relationship between these concepts and the meaning of some of them. The place of mere motive is occupied by the so-called motive-goal, a concept introduced by A. N. Leontiev as a structural element of the future framework of the personality.

So, there are stimulus motives, i.e., motivating, sometimes highly emotional, but devoid of a sense-forming function, and sense-forming motives or motives-goals, which also stimulate activity, but at the same time give it a personal meaning. The hierarchy of these motives constitute the motivational sphere of the personality, which is central in the structure of the personality of A. N. Leontiev, since the hierarchy of activities is carried out through an adequate hierarchy of meaning-forming motives. In his opinion, “the structure of personality is a relatively stable configuration of “main, hierarchized within itself, motivational lines. The internal relations of the main motivational lines ... form, as it were, a general "psychological" profile of the personality.

All this allows A. N. Leontiev to single out three main parameters of personality:

o the breadth of a person's connections with the world (through his activities);

o the degree of hierarchization of these connections, transformed into a hierarchy of meaning-forming motives (motive-goals);

o the general structure of these connections, more precisely motives-goals.

According to A.N. Leontiev, the process of becoming a personality is the process of “becoming a coherent system of personal meanings”.

1.4 The concept of personality A.V. Petrovsky

The approach formulated by Leontiev to understanding the problem of personality found its further development in the works of domestic psychologists - representatives of the Moscow school, including A. V. Petrovsky. In the textbook "General Psychology", prepared under his editorship, the following definition of personality is given: " Personality in psychology, a systemic social quality is denoted, acquired by an individual in objective activity and communication and characterizing the level and quality of representation of social relations in an individual.

A.V. Petrovsky in his developments proceeds from the fact that the concepts of "individual" and "personality" are not identical. Personality is a special quality that is acquired by an individual in society in the process of entering into public relations by nature. To understand the foundations on which certain personality traits are formed, it is necessary to consider the life of a person in society. The inclusion of an individual in the system of social relations determines the content and nature of the activities performed by him, the range and methods of communication with other people, i.e., the features of his social life, lifestyle. But the way of life of individual individuals, certain communities of people, as well as society as a whole, is determined by the historically developing system of social relations. And this means that a person can be understood or studied only in the context of specific social conditions, a specific historical era. Moreover, it should be noted that for the individual, society is not just an external environment. The personality is constantly included in the system of social relations, which is mediated by many factors.

Petrovsky believes that the personality of a particular person can continue in other people, and with the death of an individual, it does not completely die. And in the words "he lives in us even after death" there is neither mysticism nor pure metaphor, it is a statement of the fact of the ideal representation of the individual after his material disappearance.

Considering further the point of view of representatives of the Moscow psychological school on the problem of personality, it should be noted that in most cases the authors include in the concept of personality certain properties that belong to the individual, and they also mean those properties that determine the originality of the individual, his individuality. However, the concepts of "individual", "personality" and "individuality" are not identical in content - each of them reveals a specific aspect of the individual being of a person. Personality can only be understood in a system of stable interpersonal relationships mediated by the content, values, and meaning of the joint activity of each of the participants. These interpersonal connections are real, but supersensible in nature. They are manifested in specific individual properties and actions of people who are part of the team, but are not reduced to them.

Just as the concepts of "individual" and "personality" are not identical, personality and individuality, in turn, form a unity, but not an identity.

If personality traits are not represented in the system of interpersonal relations, they turn out to be insignificant for assessing the personality and do not receive conditions for development, just as only individual traits that are most "drawn" into the leading activity for a given social community act as personal traits. Therefore, according to representatives of the Moscow psychological school, individuality is only one of the aspects of a person's personality.

Thus, two main points can be traced in the position of representatives of the Moscow psychological school. First, the personality and its characteristics are compared with the level of social manifestation of the qualities and properties of a person. Secondly, the personality is considered as a social product, not connected in any way with biological determinants, and, therefore, it can be concluded that the social influences the mental development of the individual to a greater extent.

Chapter 2 Foreign psychological theories of personality

The views of foreign psychologists on personality are characterized by even greater diversity than those of domestic ones. L. Hjell and D. Ziegler, in their well-known monograph, distinguish at least nine directions in personality theory. The fundamental dissimilarity of these concepts is also noted [ibid]. In this paper, we will consider four of them.

2.1 Psychoanalytic theory of S. Freud

Freud's psychoanalytic theory is an example of a psychodynamic approach to the study of human behavior. With this approach, it is believed that unconscious psychological conflicts control human behavior.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, based his psychoanalytic concepts almost entirely on his extensive clinical observations of neurotic patients and also on psychoanalysis.

Freud singled out three levels of consciousness - consciousness, preconscious and unconscious - in order to describe the degree of accessibility of mental processes of awareness. The most significant psychic events take place in the unconscious (which is instinctive in nature and separated from reality).

In Freud's theory human personality includes three structural components: id, ego and superego. The id, which is the instinctive core of the personality, is primitive, impulsive and subject to the pleasure principle. The id uses reflex reactions and primary representations in order to obtain immediate satisfaction of instinctive urges. The ego is the rational part of the personality and is governed by the reality principle. Its task is to develop for the individual an appropriate plan of action in order to meet the requirements of the id within the limits of the social world and the consciousness of the individual. The ego solves this problem with the help of secondary processes of representation. The superego, which is formed last in the process of personality development, represents its moral side. The superego consists of two structures - conscience and the ego-ideal.

Theory of motivation Freud is based on the concept of instinct, defined as an innate state of arousal that seeks release. In the theory of psychoanalysis, two categories of instinct are distinguished: the instinct of life (Eros) and the instinct of death (Thanatos). The instinct has four main parameters: source, target, object and stimulus.

Freud's explanation of the stages psychosexual development is based on the premise that sexuality is given from birth and develops further, covering a number of biologically defined erogenous zones, until reaching maturity. In Freud's view, personality development passes through the following four stages: oral, anal, phallic and genital. The latent period is not a stage of psychosexual development. Freud assumed that in the process of psychosexual development, unresolved conflicts lead to the fixation and formation of certain types of character. Thus, adults with fixation in the anal-retention stage become inflexible, dull, and irresistibly tidy.

Freud identified three types of anxiety: realistic, neurotic, and moral. He believed that anxiety plays the role of a signal warning the ego of imminent danger emanating from instinctive impulses. In response, the ego uses a number of defense mechanisms, including repression, projection, substitution, rationalization, reaction formation, regression, sublimation, and denial.

Attempts have been made to establish the validity of some of the concepts of psychoanalysis. The most characteristic studies have focused on the experimental evaluation of repression and subthreshold psychodynamic activation of unconscious conflict, as well as their influence on pathological behavior. These studies have provided empirical support for certain key psychoanalytic hypotheses. However, the results of each study should be treated with caution and criticality.

2.2 Personality in humanistic theory

Under the influence of existential philosophy, humanistic psychology puts forward the interpretation of the individual as a whole, the inconsistency of animal studies, the perception of man as a positive and creative being at its core, and focuses on the study of mental health as its main principles.

As a mainstream in humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow's theory describes human motivation in terms of a hierarchy of needs.

The lower (more basic) needs in the hierarchy must be intelligently satisfied before the high-level needs become the dominant force in human behavior. Here is Maslow's hierarchy of needs in order of their dominance or necessity: 1) physiological; 2) security and protection; 3) belonging and love; 4) self-respect; 5) self-actualization.

The humanistic nature of Maslow's theory of personality is especially clearly manifested in the concept of self-actualization, the desire for the highest realization of one's potential.

Maslow also distinguished two broad categories of human motives: deficit motives and growth motives. Scarcity motives aim to reduce stress, while growth motivation (also called metamotivation) aims to increase stress by seeking out new and exciting experiences. Maslow listed several meta-needs (eg, truth, beauty, and justice) with which he described self-actualizing people, and theorized that these needs are biologically built into people in the same way as scarce needs. The dissatisfaction of metaneeds causes metapathologies. Apathy, cynicism, and alienation are some of the many metapathological symptoms seen in people who have failed to meet their metaneeds.

K. Rogers, being a representative of humanistic psychology, argues that a person in the process of development has a special personal structure of the “I”, which includes the “ideal I” and the “real I”. These substructures of the "I" structure are in complex relationships - from complete harmony (congruence) to complete disharmony.

"Real Self" - a set of thoughts, feelings and experiences "here and now"; "Ideal Self" - a set of thoughts, feelings and experiences that a person would like to have in order to realize his personal potential.

Although the "real self" and "ideal self" are rather vague concepts, nevertheless, there is a way to measure their congruence (coincidence). A high indicator of congruence indicates a relatively high harmony between the "real self" and the "ideal self" (high self-esteem). At low values ​​of congruence (low self-esteem), there is a high level of anxiety, signs of depression.

At birth, both substructures of the "I" structure are completely congruent, and therefore a person is initially kind and happy. Subsequently, due to interaction with the environment, discrepancies between the "real self" and the "ideal self" can lead to a distorted perception of reality - subception, in the terminology of K. Rogers. With strong and prolonged discrepancies between the “real self” and the “ideal self”, psychological problems may arise.

The integrity of the personality is achieved when the congruence between the "real self" and the "ideal self" approaches one. Personal integrity is the basic quality of a "fully functioning person". The meaning of education and correction of personality is the development of a holistic personality.

Thus, within the humanistic approach, personality- this is the inner world of the human "I" as a result of self-actualization, and the structure of the personality is the individual ratio of the "real I" and the "ideal I", as well as the individual level of development of needs for self-actualization.

2.3 Cognitive personality theory

The founder of this approach is the American psychologist J. Kelly. The main conceptual element is the personal "construct". Each person has his own system of personal constructs, which is divided into two levels (blocks):

1. The block of "nuclear" constructs is about 50 basic constructs that are at the top of the constructive system, i.e., in the constant focus of operational consciousness. People use these constructs most often when interacting with other people.

2. The block of peripheral constructs is all other constructs. The number of these constructs is purely individual and can vary from hundreds to several thousand.

The holistic properties of the personality act as a result of the joint functioning of both blocks, all constructs. There are two types of integral personality: a cognitively complex personality (a personality with a large number of constructs) and a cognitively simple personality (a personality with a small set of constructs).

A cognitively complex personality, in comparison with a cognitively simple one, has the following characteristics:

1) has better mental health;

2) cope better with stress;

3) has a higher level of self-esteem;

4 is adaptive to new situations.

According to cognitive theory, personality is a system of organized personal constructs in which a person's personal experience is processed (perceived and interpreted). The structure of personality within the framework of this approach is considered as an individually peculiar hierarchy of constructs.

2.4 Dispositional direction in personality theory

The dispositional direction suggests that people have certain stable internal qualities that persist over time and in different situations. In addition, it is emphasized that individuals differ from each other in their characterological features. Gordon Allport, who was the first to put forward the theory of personality traits, considered the main task of psychology to explain the uniqueness of the individual. He considered personality as a dynamic organization of those internal mental processes that determine its characteristic behavior and thinking.

Allport considered the trait to be the most significant unit of analysis for understanding and

the study of personality. In his system, a personality trait is defined as a predisposition to respond in similar ways to different kinds of stimuli.

According to R. Cattell, personality is what allows us to predict a person's behavior in a given situation.

His main organizing concept of personality lies in the descriptions of the various types of traits he has identified. According to R. Cattell's theory, personality traits are relatively constant tendencies to react in a certain way in different situations and at different times.

The spectrum of action of these tendencies is extremely wide. In other words, traits are hypothetical mental structures found in behavior that cause a predisposition to act in the same way in different circumstances and over time. Personality traits reflect stable and predictable psychological characteristics and are by far the most important in Cattell's concept.

Consider the principles proposed by Cattell for classifying traits (Kettel also uses the term factors) [ibid.].

Surface features are base features. A surface feature is a set of behavioral characteristics that, when observed, appear in an inseparable unity. Source traits, in contrast, are the foundational structures that Cattell believes form the building blocks of the very building of personality. These are some combined values ​​or factors that ultimately determine the constancy that is observed in human behavior.

Constitutional features-features shaped by the environment. According to Cattell, the original traits can be divided into two subtypes - depending on their source. Constitutional traits develop from the biological and physiological data of the individual. Cattell could argue that such behavior is a consequence of changes in human physiology and thus reflects constitutional original traits.

Traits shaped by the environment, on the other hand, are conditioned by influences in the social and physical environment. These traits reflect the characteristics and behaviors learned through the learning process and form the pattern imprinted on the individual by their environment.

Ability, temperament and dynamic traits. The original features, in turn, can be classified in terms of the modality through which they are expressed. Abilities determine a person's skill and effectiveness in achieving a desired goal. Temperament traits refer to other emotional and stylistic qualities of behavior. Cattell considers temperament traits as constitutional initial traits that determine a person's emotionality. Finally, dynamic traits reflect the motivational elements of human behavior.

Cattell is convinced that it makes sense to classify traits into common and unique. A common trait is one that is present to varying degrees in all members of the same culture. Conversely, unique traits are traits that only a few, or even one person, have. Almost all of Cattell's research is devoted to common features, but his recognition of unique features makes it possible to emphasize the importance of the unique individuality of people. He also believes that the organization of common features in a person is always unique in itself. However, we should not exaggerate the significance of Cattell's recognition of the uniqueness of the combination of traits in each individual person. In fact, he was much more interested in general principles of behavior than in the personality of a particular individual.

Conclusion

Summarizing the above, we note the following main points.

Each of the definitions of personality available in the scientific literature is supported by experimental studies and theoretical justifications. In domestic psychology, the structural approach to the problem of personality is replaced by the concept of a systematic approach; this happened towards the end of the 1970s.

Investigating the formation and development of personality, domestic psychology proceeds from the fact that personality is a social quality of an individual, in which a person appears as a member of human society. Outside of society, this quality of the individual does not exist, and therefore outside the analysis of the relationship "individual-society" it cannot be understood. The objective basis of the personality properties of an individual is the system of social relations in which he lives and develops.

The ideas about the personality of the authors we have considered indicate the dissimilarity of these concepts. At the same time, it should be recognized that the generalized idea of ​​personality from the standpoint of different authors is much more convex and multifaceted than in the original concept of the "external social image". Nevertheless, the analysis of these concepts allows us to identify common points of contact. These include the following provisions.

In most definitions, a person appears as a kind of hypothetical structure or organization. Human behavior is organized and integrated at the level of the individual. Most definitions emphasize the importance of individual differences between people. In most definitions, it is the personality that is “responsible” for the stability of behavior. It is she who provides a person with a sense of continuity in time and the environment.

A comparison of the generalized views of domestic and foreign psychologists reveals a certain similarity between them in relation to personality.

Thus, the purpose of this work is achieved, and the tasks are completed.

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"Basic Psychological Theories of Personality"

1. Psychodynamic theories of personality

The historical roots of psychodynamic theories of personality go back to Freud's psychoanalysis. Describing the topography of the psyche, Freud singled out three levels - consciousness, preconsciousness and the unconscious, and the unconscious occupied the largest place both in his theory and in scientific research. Perception, thinking, memory, intention, imagination, etc. belong to the conscious side of the psyche. The content of the preconscious can be easily translated into a conscious form, just as a person is immediately aware of his name, as soon as he is asked about it. The unconscious is made up of instinctive urges, ulterior motives, and conflicts that can become the source of neurotic thoughts and actions. Freud singled out two main innate drives: "eros", i.e. life-oriented instinct, and "thanatos" - the destructive instinct of the desire for death and physical aggression. Any attraction has a motive force; "goal", i.e. desire for immediate gratification; "object" through which satisfaction is achieved; and "source", i.e. the organ with which it is associated, such as the genitals in the case of the sexual instinct. If the instincts are not naturally gratified, they are suppressed, sublimated or directed against the self. For example, if the aggressive instinct is not discharged, its pressure can turn on the "I" and cause suicide.

Freud singled out three parts in the personality structure: "Id", "Ego" and "Super-Ego". Instincts act directly on the level of "Id" ("It"). The impulses of "It" are entirely unconscious in nature and are influenced by the "pleasure principle". “Ego” (“I”), as the forming principle of personality, belongs to the sphere of action of the “reality principle”. "I" has the ability to distinguish between fantasy and objective reality, while "It" is able to satisfy its urges (for example, sexual) in dreams or fantasies, one of the functions of which is the "imaginary fulfillment of desires." The ideals and moral principles of the individual are rooted in the "Super-Ego" ("Super-I"). "Libido", the basic life force, serves as an energetic factor for all three components in the structure of the personality, however, in accordance with the principle of "psychic economy", the strengthening of one of the parts of the personality depletes the other two. The conflict between the three components can lead to mental disorders if the strong "I", the core of the personality, is not able to keep its components in a state of harmonic balance.

2. Humanistic theories of personality

The efforts of E. Fromm, a psychoanalyst and social philosopher, were aimed at humanizing psychoanalysis. From his point of view, even if all the physiological needs of a person are satisfied, mental health depends on the satisfaction of certain specifically human needs. For a man to remain a man, the Freudian instincts must be sublimated. From the animal nature of man proper human nature must develop. In this process of humanization, the civilizing elements of culture and social interaction, also carried out thanks to culture, are of decisive importance.

Two other representatives of the so-called. The cultural school of psychoanalysis, Horney and Sullivan, emphasized the socio-cultural determinants of personality. Sullivan, for example, called his approach the "interpersonal" theory of psychiatry, thereby turning psychiatry into a branch of social psychology. Defining personality as "a relatively stable pattern of repetitive interpersonal relationships," Sullivan sought cultural causes of mental disorders.

The trend of a social approach to the explanation of personality can be traced in a movement that has been called the "third force in psychology". Psychologists such as R. May, K. Rogers, E. Maslow, V. Frankl and G. Allport emphasized the need to consider a person as an integral being, constituting a healthy, harmonious, normal personality. Using a "holistic dynamic approach", Maslow proposed a theory of self-actualization of the personality, according to which the maturity of the human individual comes in the process of realizing his personal potential. Neurosis, on the other hand, arises as a consequence of failed personal growth. Maslow identified two levels of motivation based on two classes of needs: lower (deficit) and higher (associated with personal growth). He distinguished four types of deficit needs (in ascending order): 1) physiological needs, or survival needs (food, sex, sleep, etc.), 2) the need for security, 3) the need for love and belonging (the need for friends and acquaintances), 4) the need for recognition (self-respect). Among the needs associated with personal growth, the following are identified: 1) the need for self-actualization (disclosure of personal potential), 2) the desire to know and understand (cognitive impulse), 3) aesthetic need (the desire for beauty and harmony). The needs associated with personal growth, being the main motivating factor of proper human behavior, cannot, however, be realized before scarce needs. Satisfying the latter, we relieve psychological stress and restore our balance (homeostasis), but the stress that arises from the need for personal growth most likely enhances the feeling of fullness of life. Thus, personal growth, or self-actualization, is a criterion of mental health. This is in line with Rogers' concept of the "fully functioning person" and Frankl's concept of "realization of the meaning of life".

3. Personality traits

The personality theories of G. Allport and R. Cattell attached great importance to the concept of "personality trait". (Allport's concept of "trait" corresponds to Cattell's concept of "factor".) Each person has a set of "common traits." Specific individuals can be characterized by one fundamental feature. In addition, each person has a set of more diffuse and less conspicuous secondary features. Not only every personality is unique, but also its motivational factors are unique. The development of the "I" is carried out through the passage of eight stages: 1) bodily "I", 2) self-identification, 3) self-esteem, 4) expansion of the "I", 5) image of the "I", 6) "I", intelligently coping with internal contradictions , 7) "I", asserting and developing itself, 8) "I" knowing. On the basis of such initial material as temperament, physical properties and intelligence, the personality is in a never-ending process of development and in this respect is "one in diversity." Allport formally defined personality as "the dynamic organization inherent in the individual of those psychophysical systems of the body that determine the specifics of his behavior and thinking."

4. Constitutional typologies of personality

Jung divided people into introverts and extroverts, in other words, into closed (prone to introspection) and sociable (non-reflexive). The concepts introduced by Jung stimulated interest in personality typology. Some researchers have compared body features with certain personality types. E. Kretschmer, a specialist in pathopsychology, correlated the “aesthetic” corporality (a long, thin body) with a “schizoid” personality (prone to schizophrenia), and the “picnic” corporality (full body) with a “cyclothymic” personality (prone to manic-depressive psychosis). Kretschmer's classification formed the basis of W. Sheldon's constitutional psychology (see above in the Motivation section).

5. Behavioral theories of personality

According to Skinner, human behavior is driven by the environment, not internal forces. Each individual is under the control of random circumstances that reinforce his behavioral responses. At the same time, Skinner is an optimist, because he is sure that a person is able to properly organize the environment that controls him; consequently, a person can create and remake his own nature and does this constantly, although not directly, but indirectly - through the environment - by way.

A. Bandura proposed a different theory of social learning. The main provisions of this theory are as follows. People directly control their own destiny. The effect of reinforcement on them depends on internal regulation. Such internal factors as self-awareness, purposefulness and self-reinforcement allow a person to regulate, anticipate and direct external influences. As in the norm, in cases of mental pathology, behavior is formed as a result of learning, and therefore “abnormal behavior” and “bad habits” are essentially the same thing. By using behavior modification techniques combined with self-awareness and self-regulation exercises, it is possible to replace “bad” habits with “good” ones and abnormal behavior with normal ones.

6. Erickson's epigenetic theory

From the standpoint of Erickson, the Ego is the basis of human behavior and functioning and is an autonomous personality structure, the main direction of development of which can be called social adaptation. The ego interacts with reality through perception, thinking, attention and memory, contributing to the growth of human competence. Ego development is inevitably linked to the socio-cultural context and covers the entire life space from birth to death.

A person in the process of life goes through eight stages, universal for all mankind, eight ages. epigenetic the concept of development (Greek “after birth”) is based on the idea that each stage of the life cycle occurs at a specific time for it (“critical period”), and also that a fully functioning personality is formed only by passing in its development successively all stages.