Personality and its psychological structure. What is personality in psychology, its structure and types? The psychological structure of personality includes the following elements

Knowledge of the basics of psychology can be useful to each of us in life. They will allow you to achieve your goals as efficiently as possible. Understanding the psychological structure of personality will make it possible to effectively interact with people. For this, you will also need an idea of ​​how each individual develops and what characteristics it has. this process. Knowledge about the constituent elements, as well as personality types, will also make life more harmonious, comfortable and productive. Let's try to master these fundamentals, which are so important for each of us.

What is personality?

The reality that is described by this concept finds its manifestation in the very etiology of the term. Initially, the word “personality”, or persona, was used to refer to acting masks assigned to certain types characters. In the Roman theater the name was slightly different. There, acting masks were called “masks,” that is, faces facing the audience.

Later, the word "personality" came to mean the role, as well as the actor himself. But among the Romans, the term persona acquired a deeper meaning. This word was used with the obligatory indication of the social function, which was inherent in the role. For example, the personality of the judge, the personality of the father, etc. What conclusion can be drawn from this? According to its original meaning, the concept of “personality” indicated a certain function of a person or his social role.

Today psychology interprets this term somewhat differently. She points to personality as a socio-psychological formation formed through the life of an individual in society. Man, being a collective being, when entering into relationships with the people around him, certainly acquires new qualities that were previously absent from him.

It is worth noting that the phenomenon of personality is unique. In this regard, this concept currently does not have an unambiguous definition. Thus, possessing a certain set of psychological properties that are the basis for his actions that are significant for society. The same term also means the internal difference between a person and everyone else.

Also, a personality is understood as a social subject in combination with his social and individual roles, habits and preferences, his experience and knowledge.

This concept also means a person who independently builds and controls his life, and is fully responsible for it.

Related Concepts

The term “personality” is often used with words such as “person” and “individual”. In terms of their content, all these terms are not identical, but at the same time it is simply impossible to separate them from each other. The fact is that the analysis of each of these concepts allows us to more fully reveal the meaning of personality.

What is a person? This concept is referred to as generic. It indicates that a creature is at the highest level of development of nature. This concept affirms genetic predetermination in development human qualities and signs.

An individual is understood as an individual member of society, considered as a unique set of innate and acquired qualities that he has. Those specific properties and abilities that people have (consciousness and speech, labor activity, etc.) are not transmitted to them by biological heredity. They are formed throughout life through the assimilation of the culture that was created by previous generations. No person is capable of independently developing a system of concepts and logical thinking. To do this, he must participate in labor and various types social activities. The result of this is the development of specific characteristics that were already previously formed by humanity. As living beings, people are subject to basic physiological and biological laws. If we consider their life from a social point of view, then here they are completely dependent on the development of social relations.

Another concept closely related to “personality” is “individual”. This term refers to a single representative of homo sapiens. In this capacity, all people have differences not only in their morphological characteristics (eye color, height, bodily constitution), but also in psychological properties, expressed in emotionality, temperament and abilities.

The term “individuality” is understood as the unity of a person’s unique personal properties. This concept means the uniqueness of the psychophysical structure of each of us, which includes the type of temperament, intelligence, mental and physical characteristics, life experience and worldview. This versatility of the concept of “individuality” is reduced to the designation of a person’s spiritual qualities, and its essence is associated with a person’s ability to be himself, showing autonomy and independence.

Stages of personality research

The problem of understanding the essence of man as a socio-psychological formation has not been solved to this day. It continues to remain on the list of the most intriguing mysteries and difficult tasks.

In general, various socio-psychological theories contribute to the understanding of personality and the ways of its formation. Each of them gives its own explanation of why individual differences occur between people and how an individual develops and changes throughout his life. However, scientists argue that no one has yet succeeded in creating an adequate theory of personality.

Theoretical research in this direction has been carried out since ancient times. Their historical period can be divided into three stages. This is philosophical-literary and clinical, as well as experimental.

The origins of the first of them can be found in the works of ancient thinkers. Moreover, the philosophical and literary stage lasted until the beginning of the 19th century. The main problems that were considered during this period were issues related to the social and moral nature of man, his behavior and actions. The first definitions of personality given by thinkers were very broad, including everything that is in a person and everything that he considers to be his.

At the beginning of the 19th century. problems of personality psychology have become a subject of interest for psychiatrists. They began systematically observing the personality of patients in clinical settings. At the same time, the researchers studied the life of the patient. This allowed them to more accurately explain his behavior. The results of such observations were not only professional conclusions directly related to the diagnosis of mental illness and their treatment. General scientific conclusions concerning the nature of the human personality also saw the light. Various factors (biological, psychological) were taken into account. Personality structure on at this stage began to appear more fully.

The clinical period lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. After this, personality problems came to the attention of professional psychologists, who previously paid their attention only to the study of human states and cognitive processes. These specialists gave research in the described area an experimental character. At the same time, in order to accurately test the hypotheses put forward and obtain the most reliable facts, mathematical and statistical data processing was carried out. Personality theories were built on the basis of the results obtained. They included no longer speculative, but experimentally verified data.

Personality theories

This term is understood as a set of assumptions or hypotheses about the mechanisms and nature of human development as a socio-psychological entity. Moreover, each of the existing personality theories makes attempts not only to explain the behavior of an individual, but also to predict it. Today there are several of them.

Among them:

  1. Psychodynamic theory of personality. Its second, more well-known name is “classical psychoanalysis.” The author of this theory is a scientist from Austria, S. Freud. In his works, he viewed personality as a system of aggressive and sexual motives. At the same time, he explained that these factors are balanced by protective mechanisms. What is psychological structure personality according to Freud? It is expressed in an individual set of individual protective mechanisms, properties and blocks (instances).
  2. Analytical. This theory of personality is essentially close to the conclusions of S. Freud and has a large number of common roots with them. The most prominent representative of the analytical approach to this problem can be called the Swiss researcher K. Jung. According to the theory he expressed, personality is a combination of innate and also realized archetypes. At the same time, the psychological structure of the personality is determined by the individual uniqueness of the relationships. They relate to certain blocks of the conscious and unconscious, the properties of archetypes, as well as the introverted and extroverted attitude of the individual.
  3. Humanistic. The main representatives of this personality theory are A. Maslow and K. Rogers. In their opinion, the main source in the development of a person’s individual qualities are innate tendencies that imply self-actualization. What does the concept of “personality” mean? Within the framework of humanistic theory, this term reflects the inner world that is characteristic of the human “I”. What can be called the psychological structure of personality? This is nothing more than an individual relationship between the real and ideal “I”. At the same time, the concept of the psychological structure of the personality of this theory also includes the individual level of development that the need for self-actualization has.
  4. Cognitive. The essence of this theory of personality is close to the humanistic theory discussed above. But at the same time, it still has a number of quite significant differences. The founder of this approach, American psychologist J. Kelly, expressed the opinion that every person in his life wants to know only what has already happened to him and what events await him in the future. According to this theory, personality is understood as a system of individual organized constructors. It is in them that the processing, perception and interpretation of the experience gained by a person takes place. If we briefly consider the psychological structure of personality, then, according to the opinion expressed by J. Kelly, it can be expressed as an individual and unique hierarchy of constructors.
  5. Behavioral. This theory of personality is also called “scientific”. This term has its own explanations. The fact is that the main thesis of behavioral theory is the statement that a person’s personality is a product of learning. It is a system that includes, on the one hand, social skills and conditioned reflexes, and on the other, a set of internal factors, including self-efficacy, subjective significance and accessibility. If we briefly outline the psychological structure of personality according to behavioral theory, then, according to its author, it represents a complexly organized hierarchy of social skills or reflexes. The leading role in it is given to the internal blocks of accessibility, subjective significance and self-efficacy.
  6. Activity. This theory of personality is the most popular in Russian psychology. The greatest contribution to the development of the activity hypothesis was made by A. V. Brushlinsky, K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya and S. L. Rubinshtein. Within the framework of this theory, a person is a conscious object that occupies a certain position in society. At the same time, it performs a certain socially useful function. What is the psychological structure? It is a complexly organized hierarchy of certain blocks, consisting of direction, self-control, character and abilities, individual properties, as well as systemic existential and existential qualities of the individual.
  7. Dispositional. Proponents of this theory believe that personality, as its main sources for development, uses factors characteristic of gene-environment interaction. Moreover, this hypothesis has different directions. Representatives of some of them believe that genetics has the main influence on personality. There is also a clearly opposite opinion. Representatives of slightly different directions of dispositional theory argue that the environment still has the main influence on the individual. But nevertheless, a dispositional consideration of the problem points to the personality as a complex system of temperament or formal-dynamic qualities. This also includes the basic features of a person and his socially determined properties. The psychological characteristics of the personality structure given by representatives of the dispositional theory are expressed in an organized hierarchy of certain biologically determined qualities. Moreover, all of them are included in certain relationships, which allows the formation of certain types of traits and temperament. In addition, one of the elements of the structure of psychological properties of a person is a set that includes meaningful properties. They also influence a person's personality.

Personality structure

This concept in psychology in no way affects the individual’s relationship with the outside world and society. It considers them only from the point of view of certain properties.

The concept and psychological structure of personality began to be studied in more detail in the second half of the 20th century. During this period, researchers began to imagine each person as the epicenter of the social and individual. An increasing number of domestic psychologists have begun to lean towards the idea that personality is a complex knot into which social relations are woven. This allowed us to conclude that this concept is a certain measure of self-expression, individual activity, creativity, and self-affirmation. In addition, the individual began to be viewed as a subject of history, capable of existing only in social integrity.

The main prerequisite for its formation is activity. This fact has been finally recognized by domestic researchers. What is the relationship between activity and personality? The psychological structure of activity allows us to judge it as a subjective factor. At the same time, its main product and condition of existence is the person himself, who relates in a certain way to the world around him. People's consciousness is formed based on the structure of activity, the main goal of which is to satisfy needs. The benefits that a person receives as a result of his work primarily take place in his mind. This also includes what determines the personality structure of each of us.

So what does this concept mean? The psychological structure of personality in psychology is a systemic holistic formation. It is a set of certain socially significant qualities, attitudes, positions, actions and algorithms of a person’s actions that have developed in him during his lifetime and which determine his activities and behavior.

The most important elements of the psychological structure of a person are such properties as character and orientation, abilities and temperament, life experience, personal characteristics of the psychological processes occurring in the individual, mental states characteristic of a particular person, self-awareness, etc. Moreover, all these traits are acquired by people gradually, in parallel with the process of learning social skills.

The development of the psychological structure of personality is a product of the life path traveled by a person. How does this education function? This becomes possible through the interaction of all components of the psychological structure of the individual. They represent the individual qualities of a person. Let's take a closer look at them.

Focus

This is one of the main elements of the psychological structure of the individual. What is directionality?

This is the first component in the psychological structure of personality. The orientation of a person represents his interests, attitudes and needs. One of these components determines all human activity. He plays a leading role. However, other elements of the psychological structure of the personality in the area of ​​orientation only adapt to it and rely on it. So, a person may have a need for something. However, he does not show any interest in a certain thing.

Capabilities

This is the second of the existing elements of the psychological structure of the individual. Abilities provide a person with the opportunity for self-realization in a certain field of activity. They represent individual psychological qualities of a person that ensure a person’s success in communication and work. At the same time, abilities cannot be reduced to the skills, abilities and knowledge that a person has.

After all, this element in the socio-psychological structure of the individual only ensures their easier acquisition, further fixation, as well as effective application in practice.

Abilities are classified into:

  1. Natural (natural). Such abilities are associated with the innate inclinations of a person and are determined by his biological characteristics. Their formation occurs when the individual has life experience and when using learning mechanisms, which are conditioned reflex connections.
  2. Specific. These abilities can be general, i.e., determining a person’s success in various areas of activity (memory, speech, etc.), as well as special, characteristic of a certain area (mathematics, sports, etc.).
  3. Theoretical. These abilities in the psychological structure of the individual determine the individual’s propensity for abstract and logical thinking. They underlie a person’s success in carrying out specific practical actions.
  4. Educational. These abilities have a direct impact on the success of pedagogical influence on a person, his assimilation of skills, abilities and knowledge that lead to the formation of basic life qualities.

There are also abilities to communicate with people, substantive activities related to the interaction of people with technology, nature, artistic images, symbolic information, etc.

It is worth noting that abilities are not static formations. They are in dynamics, and their initial formation and further development is a consequence of activities organized in a certain way, as well as communication.

Character

This is the third most important of all existing components of the psychological structure of personality. Character is revealed through a person's behavior. That is why identifying it and observing it in the future is not a difficult task. It is not for nothing that a person is most often judged only by his character, without taking into account his abilities, orientation and other qualities.

When studying the characteristics of the psychological structure of a personality, character appears as a rather complex category. After all, it includes the emotional sphere, volitional and moral qualities, as well as intellectual abilities. All of them together mainly determine actions.

The individual components of character are related to each other and are mutually dependent. In general, they form a single organization. This is called character structure. This concept includes two groups of traits, that is, certain personality traits that regularly manifest themselves in a wide variety of areas of human activity. It is from them that one can make assumptions about the possible actions of an individual in certain conditions.

The first group includes traits that express the orientation of the personality, that is, its goals and ideals, inclinations and interests, attitudes and sustainable needs. This is a whole system of relationships between a person and the surrounding reality, which represents methods of implementing such relationships that are characteristic only of this individual. The second group includes strong-willed character traits. It also examines emotional manifestations.

Will

The concept and psychological structure of personality include this component. What is will? This is a person’s ability to consciously regulate his actions and actions, which require a certain overcoming of external and internal difficulties.

Today, the concept of will has begun to lose scientific value in the field of psychology. Instead of this term, motive is increasingly being used, the essence of which is determined by human needs and those phenomena that are directly related to them.

Will is one of the specific and essential properties in human behavior. At the same time, it has a conscious character. This circumstance allows a person to be at a level inaccessible to animals. The presence of will allows people to be aware of the goal set, as well as the means necessary to achieve it, which are determined even before the start of activity. Most psychologists consider will to be the conscious nature of behavior. This opinion allows us to define any human activity. It can be considered one of the directions of expression of will, since such activity presupposes the presence of a conscious goal. Moreover, the basic nature of this component can be found in the structure of all human behavior as a whole, and to clarify it, it will be necessary to identify the peculiarities of the substantive side of actions, their motive and source.

Temperament

This element in the psychological structure of a person represents the dynamics and energy of human behavior. Based on temperament, the speed, strength and brightness of an individual’s emotional response are manifested.

This element of the psychological structure of the individual is innate. Its physiological basis was studied by academician I. P. Pavlov. In his works, the scientist drew attention to the fact that temperament depends on the type of nervous system, which he characterized as follows:

  1. the type of higher nervous activity is unbalanced, mobile and strong. It corresponds to the temperament of a choleric person.
  2. Alive. This is a balanced, but at the same time mobile and strong type of nervous system. It is typical for sanguine people.
  3. Calm. It is understood as an inert, balanced and strong type of nervous system. This temperament can be found among phlegmatic people.
  4. Weak. Sedentary, unbalanced and weak type of NS. This temperament is found in melancholic people.

The differences that occur between people are quite multifaceted. This is why sometimes it becomes so difficult to understand a person, avoid conflicts with him and take the right line of behavior. In order to better understand other people, the psychological knowledge presented in this article is needed, which should be used in combination with observation.

In psychology, the concept of personality is one of the most important, since this science deals with the study of man as a subject of the social environment. It has long been established that each human body is individual from a physiological and psychological point of view. The concept of individuality allows each person to be considered unique. However, this concept itself comes into force only in the process of human interaction with other people.

By personality is meant an exclusively social being that is capable of coming into contact with other individuals. Personal characteristics tend to change depending on the situation, but this concept is an indivisible structure. In psychology and psychiatry, the subject of study is the individual, in contrast to other medical sciences, where actions are aimed at human physiology.

The psychological structure of a person determines the qualities that characterize a particular person to a greater extent. The totality of such properties and parameters represents a complete psychological picture of an individual. A lot of theories are being created that try to fully embrace the structure of personality. Some of them are immediately forgotten, but most continue to develop and improve. For psychology, the most characteristic is the basic model, which is based on the starting criteria that determine personality:

  • Self-awareness. This is a person’s ability to be aware of his own “I” and its distinctive features. Self-awareness confirms that a person’s personality is unified and stable.
  • Directionality. The concept implies the presence of any main or priority goals and objectives of the individual. This also includes the attitude towards oneself, loved ones, tastes, smells, work activities and other significant components.
  • Temperament. An innate quality that is based on the predominance of the processes of excitation and inhibition of the nervous system.
  • Character. Partially hereditary, but largely acquired personality trait that determines the characteristics of behavior or response in a given situation.
  • Mental processes and states. This includes basic cognitive functions: sensation, perception, inference and others.
  • Capabilities. This refers to a person’s innate predisposition to a particular activity.
  • Experience psychological nature. Personality is capable of changing and adapting to changes in the surrounding world, as well as under the influence of experience. As you grow older, your values ​​and sometimes even your tastes change.

The intellectual abilities of the brain play an important role in the formation of personality, and their development has a positive effect on the person as a whole. You can improve most brain functions using the BrainApps resource, which contains more than 100 games developed by professional psychologists.

Formation of personality types in psychology

The division of personalities into types has been practiced for a long time. People are always trying to establish boundaries for scientific concepts and force them into classifications. For such a complex and structural concept as personality, it has still not been possible to select optimal options that fully characterize each person. It is recommended to judge a person based on several types from different classifications.

The most popular options for dividing a person’s personality into types:

  • Classification of temperaments according to Hippocrates. Includes 4 categories: sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric. It has existed for many centuries, but is still in great demand, as it allows you to make a first impression about a person.
  • Characteristics of personality types according to Jung. One of the most optimal classifications, covering 4 personality characteristics at once, which are assessed in antonymous pairs.
  • Types of accentuations or psychotypes. These classifications correspond to each other, although they were compiled by different people. It should be noted that the studies assessed individuals who were on the verge of mental illness. Accentuation implies the upper limit of the norm of a particular reaction, which at any moment can jump over the line.
  • Socionics. One of modern classifications, based on Jung's research.

Quite a lot of classifications have been created in the 21st century, but none of them went beyond a certain psychological school. Such divisions are not world famous, but they help psychologists navigate specific clinical cases.

Human personality types depending on orientation

First of all, the psychological structure of personality implies a person’s orientation towards himself or the outside world. This parameter largely allows us to assume or even determine the reaction of an individual in a given situation, thereby typing it according to other classifications.

Introverts

A distinctive feature of introverts is their focus on the inner world. They are characterized by worries and self-doubts. Such people have difficulty contacting the social environment, feel uncomfortable among the crowd, and prefer loneliness to noisy companies. In psychology, there is a direct dependence of personality types on this parameter.

Extroverts

Focus on the outside world is typical for extroverts. Such people not only love to be among people, the social factor is the most important need. Extroverts need contact with individuals and constant communication. They are open emotionally and psychologically, so they easily integrate into society.

IN modern society You won’t meet people who can be attributed to a specific type of orientation. Pure extroverts and introverts are extremely rare and are often not a variant of the norm.

Personality types according to human temperament

The distribution of personality types in psychology always begins with temperament. This parameter has been known since the time of Hippocrates, who first described 4 options for human response. Since then, the definition of temperament has been slightly modernized, but the essence remains the same.

There are 4 types of people depending on their temperament:

  • Phlegmatic person. Here the processes of inhibition prevail over reactivity. Phlegmatic people respond heavily to external stimuli, are emotionally stable, and withdrawn. Among positive qualities perseverance and high ability to work stand out. Personality orientation – introvert.
  • Choleric. In this case, reactivity processes prevail over inhibition. A person tends to overreact to the slightest stimuli. Choleric people have a hard time switching from one thing to another, but they have stable interests. Personality orientation is more extroverted, but depends on the specific case.
  • Sanguine. There is a balance in the processes of reactivity and inhibition, so a person reacts vividly to positive and negative factors. Sanguine people are emotionally open, active and resourceful, and at the right moment they know how to restrain themselves. Personality orientation – extrovert.
  • Melancholic. Among all human personality variants, melancholic people have the least reactivity, but excessively high sensitivity. The combination of these qualities leads to a painful perception of minimal stimuli. The performance of melancholic people is reduced, and perseverance is minimal. They tend to doubt themselves and give up on things they have started. Personality orientation – introvert.

Types of personality types according to Jung

The famous psychologist C. G. Jung developed one of the most accurate classifications of human personality, which is still used by most psychologists and psychiatrists. His approach involves assessing an individual according to 8 characteristics, which are arranged in pairs with opposite meanings. For example, one of the classification points is to determine whether a person is extroverted or introverted. Another 6 criteria are combined as follows: irrationality and rationality, ethics and logic, intuition and sensory. By determining the psychological structure of a particular person, experts find out the person’s proximity to one of the parameters of the couple, and after that they leave a complete picture of the individual’s psyche.

Irrationality and rationality

Irrationals perceive reality only after the fact, without thinking about the past or future. They adapt quickly to change environment and make decisions based on current facts, but not on experience. Such people know how to get out of unexpected difficult situations by activating their brain activity and quickly finding the right solution.

Personality types such as rationals are people who rely on solid life principles, experiences, successes and failures of other people. This behavior causes the slowness of adaptation of rationals to changed conditions. However, in a stable environment, they are able to quickly make a decision and give a response to the situation, since they do not continuously analyze events, but use a ready-made reaction pattern. Rationalists can develop their thinking speed with the help of special BrainApps games.

Logic and ethics

One of the personality options of a modern person is an ethicist. Individuals of this type adhere to established dogmas and moral principles. They tend to be expressive in everyday speech, embellishing reality.

Logicians assess the situation objectively, focusing on facts. They evaluate each case separately, rather than choosing a solution that is typical for all options. Ethics among logicians is not well developed, which is why people of these types interact poorly with each other.

Sensory and intuition

The intuitive perception of reality is quite weak. Such individuals are prone to absent-mindedness and uncertainty. They constantly hover in the past, make assumptions about the future, but they are not enough for the present. Special articles on the BraonApps blog will help improve your ability to fully perceive the surrounding reality, and improving your attention can be achieved by playing simple and interesting games.

People of the sensory type perceive reality in the present, therefore they live by sensations. They clearly perceive themselves and are more deeply imbued with the world around them. Their sensitivity is directed not only to mental matters, but also to physiological needs.

Types of accentuations or psychotypes

In psychology, psychotypical concepts of personality are widely used, which to some extent indicate the presence of borderline deviations. Every person has an accentuation, which is developed to one degree or another and at any moment can develop into a serious problem.

The following types of accentuations in people are distinguished:

  • Cycloid type (biphasic or cyclical mood swings from bad to good, instability of interests)
  • Labile personality type (quick and uncontrollable mood changes, which in psychology are called rapid switching; even the person himself cannot predict changes in emotions);
  • Asthenic type (a closed and serious person with a characteristic asthenic appearance, distinguished by stubbornness and poor adaptation to changing conditions);
  • Sensitive option (high demands on oneself and others, impressionability and increased susceptibility);
  • Psychasthenic personality type (distinguished by increased emotional rejection of responsibility; in psychology they are noted as reliable and reasonable people);
  • Schizoid variant (in the first place is non-standard thinking, but its consistency is practically absent);
  • Conformal type (they completely adapt to their environment and hate change);
  • Unsustainable option (rejection of work activity with a craving for an idle existence without control);
  • Hysteroid (requires increased attention to oneself, which is why he is prone to demonstrative behavior);
  • Epileptoid type (restrained personality with outbursts of anger, loves clarity and certainty in everything);
  • Hyperthymic (stable positive mood, openness and high energy).

The personality psychology of each person is a complex, branched structure. Even highly qualified specialists will not be able to identify all its branches. Insufficient understanding of how the brain works causes the continuous emergence of new theories and classifications, which positively prove themselves in practice until the first case that cannot be typed.

Are individuals born or made? What kind of concept is this, and how does the science of man – psychology – interpret it? Is every person an individual, and if not, how can one become one? Read about all this in the article.

William James is considered to be the founder of personality psychology. He owns the philosophical theory of pragmatism, from which many modern trends psychology.

James is the first transpersonal psychologist. According to his theory, personality is the interaction of instincts and habits with the volitional qualities of a person.

However, the term “personality” itself belongs to N. M. Karamzin. In his understanding, a person is the master of fate, life, a spiritually rich and original person, responsible for his actions. Based on this, it can be argued that a person is not born, but becomes.

  • Personality is a product of the social in man. At birth, a person has only a biological element, but immediately his formation as a person begins, that is, he assimilates social experience.
  • However, there are many approaches to the interpretation of the personality phenomenon. You can read more about this in the article.
  • In psychology, it is customary to distinguish between the internal and external world of the individual. You can read about the first element in the article. The external world refers to the relationship of the individual with society, the social environment, education and formation as a subject of society.

In order to become an individual, you need to make a lot of effort:

  • master speech;
  • with its help - motor, intellectual and sociocultural skills.

The formation of a person as an individual is the result of his socialization. The more information, value orientations, and traditions a person perceives and assimilates, the more developed a person he will become.

The concept of personality is closely related to the concept of the individual and individuality:

  • An individual is a person as a representative of his species.
  • Individuality is a collection of unique distinctive features person.

But what’s interesting: a person can be an individual, but at the same time not be a person. Every person is unique, but not everyone becomes a person.

Thus, if we talk about a person as an individual, we mean a social element in our nature. While when discussing a person as an individual, the biological element plays a large role.

The process of personality formation is a holistic and interconnected process of formation, interests, worldview, beliefs and ideals of a particular person.

Personality structure

The structure of personality includes orientation, temperament, character, characteristics of the course of cognitive processes and feelings.

Personality orientation

It includes:

  • interests,
  • inclinations,
  • needs,
  • motives,
  • ideals.

Direction determines the activity of the individual and the levels of its development. The main component of a person’s orientation is a worldview (a system of views on the development of society, nature, consciousness, beliefs). You can read more about this element in the article.

Temperament

This is a set of individual characteristics of a person that characterize the dynamic and emotional side of his activity and behavior. You can read more about temperaments.

Character

A complex of individual, most pronounced, stable traits. Through them, a person’s attitude to reality is revealed. Behavior depends on character.

Capabilities

These are properties of the psyche and its systems, expressed to varying degrees. The success of mastering and performing activities depends on them.

Motivational-need sphere as the basis of personality

Needs are the driving force of a person’s activity.

  • Need is the body’s need for certain conditions, without which life is impossible.
  • Motive is an objectified need.
  • A set of motives aimed at a goal is motivation.

The need to understand the world is the most important for an individual. It frees a person from the captivity of fears, misunderstandings and superstitions, and allows him to be the creator of life.

Other spiritual needs are no less significant for the individual:

  • in aesthetic pleasure;
  • in labor;
  • in social activities;
  • in communication.

The development of needs (from lower to higher) is a condition for personality development.

Aspects of personality

  • properties of the person himself, or the intra-individual aspect;
  • features of the individual’s interaction with other people, or the interindividual aspect;
  • the impact of personality on other people, or the meta-individual aspect.

Through the analysis of these aspects, one can characterize the inner world of a person.

A personality is a representative of a specific society or social group, engaged in a specific type of activity, aware of his relationship to the world around him and having certain individual psychological characteristics.

Difficulties in understanding a person as an individual

The difficulty of clearly representing and describing the phenomenon of personality lies in the ambiguity of the theory. The following problematic positions can be identified:

  • Often the personality is identified with the individual.
  • Sometimes a person is called a part inner world or features of mental structure.
  • Personality is regarded as a certain component that includes something given from birth, and some unattainable ideal, and a set of social relations.
  • As many sciences that study man as there are and researchers who ask this question, there are as many definitions of the term “personality.”

Personality is characterized by the system of its conscious relationships. IN lately It has become popular to talk not only about the influence of social and biological factors, but also about the role of the situation as a restraining element of the individual.

Afterword

Despite the fact that most scientists are of the opinion that individuals are made and not born, the question of whether all people are individuals continues to attract controversy and controversial opinions.

  • The question of whether a child can be considered a person is controversial, although humanistic pedagogy argues that, undoubtedly, it can and should be.
  • The understanding of a mentally ill person or a criminal as an individual is just as controversial.
  • Don’t the phrases “asocial personality” or “degraded personality” look ridiculous?

In the end, everyone chooses for themselves which side they belong to in these issues. In my opinion, each person (especially important for young children when raising) can be treated as a potential personality, that is, given a few points head start. However, this is possible until a person proves otherwise.

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Personality structure. Personality is a stable system of completely individual, psychological, and social characteristics. Psychology, as a science, considers only the psychological characteristics that form the structure of personality. The concept and structure of personality is a controversial issue among many psychologists; some believe that it cannot be structured and rationalized in any way, while others, on the contrary, put forward new theories of personality structure. But still, there are certain characteristics that, one way or another, exist, and they are worth describing.

It is the most important component of personality; it demonstrates all human relationships in the world. Attitude to other individuals, to some object, situation and, in general, to the whole reality that surrounds him.

– this is a manifestation of the dynamic properties of human mental processes.

is a set of individual typological characteristics that contribute to the manifestation of success in a certain activity.

The orientation of a person determines her inclinations and interests in a particular subject of activity. Volitional qualities reflect the readiness at some point to prohibit oneself, but to allow something.

Emotionality is an important component of the personal structure; with its help, a person expresses his attitude towards something through a certain reaction.

A person is a totality that determines a person's behavior. Social attitudes and values ​​play a major role in a person. It is them that society perceives in the first place and determines its attitude towards the individual. This list of characteristics is not exhaustive; in different theories of personality, additional properties can be found, highlighted by different authors.

Psychological structure of personality

Personal structure in psychology is characterized through certain psychological properties, without particularly affecting its relationship with society and the entire world around it.

Personality structure in psychology briefly. There are several components in personality psychology.

The first component of structure is directionality. The focus structure covers attitudes, needs, interests. One component of orientation determines human activity, that is, it plays a leading role, and all other components rely on it and adapt. For example, a person may have a need for something, but, in fact, he has no interest in a certain subject.

The second component of the structure is capabilities. They give a person the opportunity to realize himself in a certain activity, achieve success and new discoveries in it. It is the abilities that constitute a person’s orientation, which determines his main activity.

Character, as a manifestation of personality behavior, is the third component of the structure. Character is the property that is most easily observed, so a person is sometimes judged simply by her character, without taking into account abilities, motivation and other qualities. Character is a complex system that includes the emotional sphere, intellectual abilities, volitional qualities, and moral qualities that mainly determine actions.

Another component is the system. ensures proper planning of behavior and correction of actions.

Mental processes are also part of the personality structure; they reflect the level of mental activity, which is expressed in activity.

Social structure of personality

When defining personality in sociology, it should not be reduced exclusively to the subjective side; the main thing in the structure is social quality. Therefore, a person must determine objective and subjective social properties that form his functionality in activities that depend on the influence of society.

Personality structure in sociology briefly. It constitutes a system of properties that are formed on the basis of his various activities, which are influenced by society and those social institutions in which the individual is included.

Personal structure in sociology has three approaches to designation.

Within the first approach, a person has the following substructures: activity - purposeful actions of a person in relation to some object or person; culture – social norms and rules that guide a person’s actions; memory is the totality of all knowledge acquired through life experience.

The second approach reveals the personal structure in the following components: value orientations, culture, social status and roles.

If we combine these approaches, then we can say that personality in sociology reflects certain character traits that it acquires in the process of interaction with society.

Personality structure according to Freud

The structure of personality in Freudian psychology has three components: Id, Ego and Super Ego.

The first component of the Id is the oldest, unconscious substance that carries human energy, responsible for instincts, desires and libido. This is a primitive aspect, operating on the principles of biological attraction and pleasure, when the tension of sustained desire is discharged, it is carried out through fantasies or reflex actions. It knows no boundaries, so its desires can become a problem in a person’s social life.

The Ego is the consciousness that controls the It. The ego satisfies the desires of the id, but only after analyzing the circumstances and conditions, so that these desires, when released, do not contradict the rules of society.

The super ego is the repository of a person’s moral and ethical principles, rules and taboos that guide his behavior. They are formed in childhood, approximately 3–5 years, when parents are most actively involved in raising the child. Certain rules are fixed in the ideological orientation of the child, and he supplements it with his own norms, which he acquires in life experience.

For harmonious development, all three components are important: Id, Ego and Super Ego must interact equally. If any of the substances is too active, then the balance will be disrupted, which can lead to psychological abnormalities.

Thanks to the interaction of the three components, protective mechanisms are developed. The main ones are: denial, projection, substitution, rationalization, formation of reactions.

Denial suppresses the internal impulses of the individual.

Projection is the attribution of one's own vices to others.

Substitution means replacing an inaccessible but desired object with another, more acceptable one.

With the help of rationalization, a person can give a reasonable explanation for his actions. Formation of a reaction is an action used by a person, thanks to which he does the opposite of his forbidden impulses.

Freud identified two complexes in the personality structure: Oedipus and Electra. According to them, children view their parents as sexual partners and are jealous of the other parent. Girls perceive their mother as a threat because she spends a lot of time with her dad, and boys are jealous of their mother before their father.

Personality structure according to Rubinstein

According to Rubinstein, personality has three components. The first component is directionality. The structure of orientation consists of needs, beliefs, interests, motives, behavior and worldview. A person’s orientation expresses his self-concept and social essence, orients a person’s activity and activity regardless of specific environmental conditions.

The second component consists of knowledge, ability and skills, the basic means of activity that a person acquires in the process of cognitive and objective activity. Having knowledge helps a person to navigate well in the outside world; skills ensure the execution of certain activities. Skills help achieve results in new areas of subject activity; they can be transformed into abilities.

Individual - typological properties constitute the third component of personality; they manifest themselves in character, temperament and abilities, which ensure the originality of a person, the uniqueness of his personality and determine behavior.

The unity of all substructures ensures adequate functioning of a person in society and his mental health.

Also in a person, it is possible to determine certain levels of organization that carry him out as a subject of life. Living standard - it includes life experience, moral standards, and worldview. The personal level consists of individual characterological features. The mental level consists of mental processes and their activity and specificity.

For Rubinstein, personality is formed through interaction with the world and society. The core of personality includes the motives of conscious actions, but also, a person has unconscious motives.

Personality structure according to Jung

Jung identifies three components: consciousness, the individual unconscious and the collective unconscious. In turn, consciousness has two substructures: the persona, which expresses the human “I” for others, and the self as it is – the ego.

In the structure of consciousness, the person is the most superficial level (conformity archetype). This component of the personality structure includes social roles and statuses through which a person is socialized in society. This is a kind of mask that a person puts on when interacting with people. With the help of persona, people attract attention to themselves and make an impression on others. Behind external signs, symbols of covering oneself with clothes, accessories, a person can hide his true thoughts, he hides behind external properties. Confirmation symbols are also important social status, for example, a car, expensive clothes, a house. Such signs can appear in the symbolic dreams of a person worried about his status when he dreams, for example, of an object that he is afraid of losing in real life, he loses it in his sleep. On the one hand, such dreams contribute to an increase in anxiety and fear, but on the other hand, they act in such a way that a person begins to think differently, he begins to take the thing lost in a dream more seriously in order to preserve it in life.

The ego is the core of personality in its structure and combines all the information known to a person, his thoughts and experiences, and is now aware of himself, all his actions and decisions. The ego provides a sense of coherence, the integrity of what is happening, the stability of mental activity and the continuity of the flow of feelings and thoughts. The ego is a product of the unconscious, but is the most conscious component because it acts from personal experience and based on acquired knowledge.

The individual unconscious is thoughts, experiences, beliefs, desires that were previously very relevant, but having experienced them, a person erases them from his consciousness. Thus, they faded into the background and remained, in principle, forgotten, but they cannot simply be repressed, therefore the unconscious is a repository for all experiences, unnecessary knowledge and transforms them into memories, which will sometimes come out. The individual unconscious has several component archetypes: shadow, anima and animus, self.

The shadow is the dark, bad double of the personality; it contains all the vicious desires, evil feelings and immoral ideas, which the personality considers very low and tries to look less at his shadow, so as not to face his vices openly. Although the shadow is a central element of the individual unconscious, Jung says that the shadow is not repressed, but is another human self. A person should not ignore the shadow, he should accept his dark side and be able to evaluate his good traits in accordance with those negative ones hiding in the shadow.

The archetypes representing the beginnings of women and men are the anima, which is represented in men, the animus - in women. The animus gives women masculine traits, for example, strong will, rationality, strong character, while the anima allows men to sometimes show weaknesses, lack of strength of character, and irrationality. This idea is based on the fact that the bodies of both sexes contain hormones of the opposite sexes. The presence of such archetypes makes it easier for men and women to find a common language and understand each other.

Chief among all individual unconscious archetypes is the self. This is the core of a person, around which all other components are gathered and the integrity of the personality is ensured.

Jung said that people confuse the meaning of ego and self and give more importance to the ego. But the self will not be able to take place until the harmony of all components of the personality is achieved. The self and ego can exist together, but the individual needs certain experiences to achieve a strong ego-self connection. Having achieved this, the personality becomes truly holistic, harmonious and fulfilled. If a person’s process of integration of his personality is disrupted, this can lead to neuroses. And in this case, analytical psychotherapy is used, aimed at optimizing the activities of the conscious and unconscious. Basically the goal of psychotherapy is to work with the "extraction" of the unconscious emotional complex and work with it so that the person rethinks it and looks at things differently. When a person becomes aware of this unconscious complex, he is on the path to recovery.

Personality structure according to Leontiev

The concept and structure of personality in A. N. Leontyev goes beyond the plane of relations to the world. Behind its definition, personality is another individual reality. This is not a mixture of biological features, it is a highly organized, social unity of features. A person becomes a personality in the process of life activity, certain actions, thanks to which he gains experience and socializes. Personality is experience itself.

Personality is not a complete person, as he is with all his biological and social factors. There are features that are not included in personality, but until it has manifested itself it is difficult to say about this in advance. Personality appears in the process of relations with society. When a personality arises, we can talk about its structure. The entire personality is a connected, integral unity, independent of the biological individual. An individual is a unity of biological, biochemical processes, organ systems, their functions; they do not play a role in the socialization and achievements of the individual.

Personality, as a non-biological unity, arises in the course of life and certain activities. Therefore, what emerges is the structure of the individual and a personal structure independent of him.

Personality has a hierarchical structure of factors formed by the historical course of events. It manifests itself through differentiation different types activities and their restructuring, in the process secondary, higher connections arise.

The personality behind A. N. Leontiev is characterized as a wide variety of actual relationships of the subject that determine his life. This activity forms the foundation. But not all a person’s activities determine his life and build his personality. People do a lot different actions and affairs that have no direct relation to the development of the personal structure and may simply be external, do not truly affect the person and do not contribute to its structure.

The second thing through which a personality is characterized is the level of development of connections between secondary actions, that is, the formation of motives and their hierarchy.

The third characteristic that denotes personality is the type of structure; it can be monovertex or polyvertex. Not every motive for a person is the goal of his life, is not his pinnacle, and cannot withstand the entire load of the pinnacle of personality. This structure is an inverted pyramid, where the top, together with the leading life goal, is at the bottom and bears all the burden associated with achieving this goal. Depending on the main life goal set, it will depend on whether it can withstand the entire structure and the actions associated with it and the experience gained.

The basic motive of the individual must be defined in such a way as to support the entire structure. The motive sets the activity; based on this, the personality structure can be defined as a hierarchy of motives, a stable structure of the main motivational actions.

A.N. Leontyev identifies three more basic parameters in the personal structure: the breadth of a person’s relationships with the world, the level of their hierarchy and their joint structure. The psychologist also highlighted one interesting aspect of the theory, such as the rebirth of personality, and an analysis of what happens to it at this time. A person masters his behavior, new ways of resolving motivational conflicts that are associated with consciousness and volitional properties are formed. An ideal motive that is independent and lies outside the vectors of the external field, which is capable of subordinating actions with antagonistically directed external motives, can resolve the conflict and act as a mediating mechanism in mastering behavior. Only in the imagination can a person create something that will help him master his own behavior.

Personality structure according to Platonov

In K. K. Platonov, the personality has a hierarchical structure, in which there are four substructures: biological conditioning, forms of display, social experience and orientation. This structure is depicted in the form of a pyramid, the foundation of which is formed by the biochemical, genetic and physiological characteristics of the individual as an organism, in general, those properties that give life and support human life. These include biological characteristics such as gender, age, and pathological changes that depend on morphological changes in the brain.

The second substructure is the forms of reflection, depending on mental cognitive processes - attention, thinking, memory, sensations and perception. Their development gives a person more opportunities to be more active, more observant and better perceive the surrounding reality.

The third substructure contains the social characteristics of a person, his knowledge, skills that he acquired in personal experience through communication with people.

The fourth substructure is formed by a person’s orientation. It is determined through the beliefs, worldview, desires, aspirations, ideals and drives of a person, which he uses in his work, work or favorite pastime.

Speaker of the Medical and Psychological Center "PsychoMed"

Consciousness and psyche exist in a specific person, individual, personality. Until now we have used these words as synonyms, but in reality each of them has some specific content. There is no generally accepted opinion in their psychological interpretation, so we present a fairly generalized position developed in Russian psychology.

The main problem is that in modern science There is no holistic, sufficiently complete human knowledge. The human phenomenon is studied in a variety of aspects (anthropological, historical, medical, social), but until now it seems scattered, “not assembled” into a systematic and worthy whole.

A similar complexity extends to psychology, which, when studying and describing a person, is forced to operate with a bunch of terms, each of which is focused on a certain aspect of a single subject. Moreover, such a selective orientation is quite conditional, often and inevitably intersecting with others.

The broadest concept is “person”. This is an accepted classical scientific abstraction, a generalized name for a special type of living creature on Earth - Homo sapiens, or Homo sapiens. This concept combines everything: natural, social, energetic, biochemical, medical, cosmic, etc.

Personality is a person who develops in society and enters into interaction and communication with other people using language; this is a person as a member of society, compressed sociality, the result of formation, development and socialization as entry into society and into oneself.

The above does not mean at all that a person is an exclusively social being, completely devoid of biological characteristics. In personality psychology, the biological and the social do not exist side by side, not in opposition or in addition, but in real unity. It is no coincidence that S. L. Rubinstein said that all human psychology is the psychology of personality. At the same time, the concepts of “person” and “personality” are not synonymous. The latter emphasizes the social orientation of a person who becomes an individual if he develops in society (unlike, for example, “wild children”), interacts and communicates with other people (unlike, say, those who are deeply ill from birth). With this interpretation, every normal person projected onto the plane of sociality is at the same time a personality, and each person has several interconnected personal manifestations depending on what part of society he is projected onto: family, work, friends, enemies. At the same time, the personality as such is holistic and unified, systematically and hierarchically organized.

There are other, narrower interpretations of the concept of personality, when certain qualities are highlighted that supposedly act as necessary attributes for it. Thus, they propose to consider only someone who is independent, responsible, highly developed, etc., as a person. Such personality criteria are, as a rule, quite subjective, difficult to prove, and therefore do not withstand scientific testing and criticism, although they have always existed and will probably exist, especially in the structure of overly ideologized and politicized humanitarian constructs. The problem objectively lies in the fact that a newborn baby also cannot be called not only a person, but, strictly speaking, a person. He is most likely a “contender” for the role of Homo sapiens, since he does not yet possess consciousness, speech, or even upright walking. Although it is clear that for parents and loved ones this child initially and convincingly exists both as a person and as an individual.

The individual emphasizes the biological in a person, but does not at all exclude the social components inherent in the human race. A person is born as a specific individual, but, having become a person, he does not cease to be an individual at the same time.

Each person is unique, and for psychology this is the same basic reality as the very presence of a psyche. Another thing is that not always and not all studied mental phenomena are considered at the level of their individuality, actual uniqueness. Science is impossible without generalizations, without this or that typification, systematization, while real psychological practice is more effective the more individualized it is.

Subject- this is an indication of specific, a living, animated bearer of psychological phenomenology, activity and behavior.

The subject is traditionally opposed to the object, but in itself it is, of course, objective. The concept of the subject is one of the basic ones for philosophy, but recently it has acquired a certain updated, expanded interpretation in Russian psychology, where a special, subjective approach to the analysis of the human psyche and behavior is being developed (A. V. Brushlinsky). Thus, in accordance with the designated terminology, the human psyche can be studied and described in different, but inevitably objectively intersecting aspects: personal, individual, individual, subjective.

In modern psychology, not all of these approaches have received sufficiently complete development and clear use, especially at the level of practically oriented research. For example, in educational and popular literature the concept is used more often than others "personality psychology" as something terminologically unifying, synthesizing. Meanwhile, objective reality is much more complex. All psychological characteristics of a person are, of course, specific, but not all of them are personal in nature. For the latter, it is necessary to have specific social origins or special social projections of these psychological properties or qualities. Everything revolves around the central methodological question of the relationship and interaction of the biological and the social in the human psyche. Therefore, the problematic, conventional formulation of the criteria for human, personal, individual and individual gradations seems obvious.

Each person is multifaceted and holistic, ordinary and unique, united and fragmented, changeable and stable. And all this coexists simultaneously: in the physical, social, mental and spiritual organization. To describe a person, each science uses its own indicators: anthropometric, medical, economic, sociological. Psychology solves similar problems, for which it is necessary, first of all, to have an appropriate psychological scheme or models similar parameters that distinguish one personality from another.

Psychological structure (mental appearance) of personality(person, individual, subject) is a kind of holistic system, a model of qualities and properties that quite fully characterizes the psychological characteristics of a person (person, individual, subject).

All mental processes are carried out in a specific person, but not all act as its distinctive properties. The latter include only some of the most significant, stable properties associated with others, which have a specific projection on social interactions and a person’s relationships with other people. The task of establishing such properties is complicated by the fact that in the human psyche it is hardly possible to mathematically strictly identify the necessary and sufficient number of corresponding differentiating qualities. Each of us is in some ways similar to all people, in some ways only a few, in some ways unlike anyone else, including sometimes even ourselves. Such variability makes it difficult, in particular, to isolate the notorious “most important thing” in a person, which, of course, is grotesquely, but not without some justice, sometimes called a “non-existent entity.”

Various mental properties can be conditionally represented in the desired space at least four relatively independent measurements.

Firstly, this scale of time and quantitative variability – stability of a quality or personality trait. Let's assume that a person's mood is more changeable than his character, and the direction of his personality is more stable than his current worries and hobbies.

Secondly, scale of uniqueness-universality of the studied mental parameter depending on its representation, statistical distribution in people. For example, everyone has the property of empathy to varying degrees, but not everyone is a sympathetic altruist or, on the contrary, a convinced egoist and misanthrope.

Thirdly, a measure of the participation of the processes of awareness and comprehension in the functioning of a mental property. This is associated with such features as the level of subjective experience, the degree of controllability and the possibility of self-regulation of the psyche and behavior. Let's say one person understands and accepts his involvement in the work being performed, while another does it unconsciously, formally and meaninglessly. Fourthly, the degree of external manifestation, behavioral output of one or another quality. This is the practical, actual vital significance of personality traits. For example, both parents equally sincerely love their child, but one shows this in tenderness and overprotection, and the other in deliberate severity and increased demands.

To the named parameters of mental qualities, measures of their congenitality or acquisition, anatomical and physiological norm or deviation, age or professional conditioning can be added.

Thus, the mental space in which the mental properties of a person receive their representation and description is multidimensional, not completely ordered, and in this regard, psychology still has a lot to do to scientifically systematize them. One of the brightest Russian psychologists, V.D. Nebylitsyn, in particular, believed that the main task of differential psychology is to understand how and why each person is different from another.

In psychology, there are a large number of models of the psychological structure of personality, which are based on different concepts of the psyche and personality, various parameters and tasks of personality gradations. Many monographic publications are devoted to an analytical review of such constructions. To solve the problems of our textbook, we use a model of the psychological structure of personality, built on the basis of combining two well-known schemes of Russian psychology, developed first by S. L. Rubinstein and then by K. K. Platonov (1904–1985).

Basic psychological model of personality comes from the methodology of the personal-activity approach, is based on the acceptance of integrity and dynamic conjugation, the systematic structure of the personality and psyche, on the assumption of objective measurability and vital significance of the identified personal parameters. The main research task is to understand how and why each person differs from another from a psychological point of view. This structure includes seven interconnected substructures, each of which is only an accentuated aspect, a conditional perspective of considering the many-sided human psyche. The personality is holistic, but this does not mean its homogeneity. The identified substructures exist in real unity, but not in identity or opposition. They are conventionally singled out only to obtain some analytical scheme, a model of the psyche of a truly holistic personality.

The personality is dynamic and at the same time self-stable. It transforms the world, and at the same time it transforms itself, i.e. self-changes or develops, realizing purposeful behavior and being itself in the social and objective environment. Personality and activity exist in unity, and this determines the basic direction of the scientific and psychological study of personality.

A. N. Leontyev formulated a detailed and promising methodological triad “activity – consciousness – personality”, the specific psychological content of which is fully revealed in subsequent chapters of the textbook.

So, in personality psychology the following psychological components, or relatively “autonomous” ones, are distinguished: substructures:

  • personality orientation (see Chapters 5, 7);
  • consciousness and self-awareness (see § 4.2, chapter 6);
  • abilities and inclinations (see Chapter 9);
  • temperament (see Chapter 10);
  • character (see Chapter 11);
  • features of mental processes and states (see Chapter 8, 12-18);
  • mental experience of the individual (see Chapter 7).

These substructures can be decomposed into more detailed components: blocks, personal formations, individual processes, qualities and properties described by various categories, concepts, terms. Essentially the entire textbook is devoted to a description of the substantive content of these components of the mental appearance of a person.

  • Andrey Vladimirovich Brushlinsky (1933–2002) – Doctor of Psychology (1978), Professor (1991), Full Member of the Russian Academy of Education (1992), Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1990), Full Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (1996), Academician of the International Personnel Academy (1997 ). Student and follower of S. L. Rubinstein. Graduated from the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Moscow State University (1956). Employee of the psychology sector of the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1956–1972); senior researcher, leading researcher, head of the group on the psychology of thinking at the Institute of Psychology of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1972–1989); director of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1989–2002), editor-in-chief of the "Psychological Journal" of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1988). The author of the concept of continuum genetic psychology of the subject, who created a new version of dialectical logic, is a well-known specialist in the field of personality psychology, thinking and pedagogy. Major works: "Cultural-historical theory of thinking" (1968); "Psychology of thinking and cybernetics" (1970); “On the natural prerequisites for human mental development” (1977); "Thinking and Forecasting" (1979); "Thinking and Communication" (co-author; 1990); "Subject, thinking, teaching, imagination" (1996); "Psychology of the Subject" (2003).
  • Nebylitsyn Vladimir Dmitrievich (1930–1972) – Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences (psychology) (1966), professor (1968), corresponding member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR (1970). Graduated from the Department of Russian Language, Logic and Psychology, Faculty of Philology, Moscow State University (1952). From 1965 to 1972 he worked as deputy director of the Scientific Research Institute of Physical Education and Production of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and head of the laboratory of differential psychophysiology. Deputy director and manager Laboratory of Psychophysiology of the Institute of Psychology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Professor of the Department of General and Applied Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University (1968–1970). Made a great contribution to the creation scientific school domestic differential psychophysiology; proved the three-dimensional nature (excitation, inhibition, balance) of the properties of the nervous system and the presence of connections between the strength of the nervous system and sensitivity, with the individual psychological uniqueness of activity and behavior. Main works:"Basic properties of the nervous system" (1966); "Psychophysiological Studies of Individual Differences" (1976).