The famous German psychologist of the XIX century. Hermann Ebbingauz owns the aphorism: "Psychology has a long past and a short history." These words perfectly reflect the essence of the historical development of the industry. psychological knowledge. After all, how independent science psychology was formed only by the end of the 19th century. However, as a special branch of knowledge, it has existed since the time ancient history. Aristotle, who wrote the first systematic treatise on the soul, is usually considered the founder of psychology. But “knowledge about the soul” (namely, this is the literal translation of the term “psychology” from the Greek language - “psyche” and “logos”, that is, “soul” and “word, knowledge”) has long been attributed to the field of philosophy, religion or medicine.

For many centuries, the soul was considered the subject of psychology. Ideas about it in all ages have been uncertain. Each researcher offered his own concept. So, for example, in Ancient Greece the philosopher Heraclitus considered the soul and mind to be composed of the world fire - the origin of all things; Anaxi-men - from the air; Empedocles - from the fusion of the roots of all things, the four eternal elements: earth, water, air and fire. Alcmaeon first suggested that the "organ of the soul" is the brain. Before him, it was believed that the soul "located" in the heart, in the blood, or even exists separately from the body. All these concepts are very far from modern ideas about psychology, however, one way or another, they contributed to the accumulation of knowledge about a person.

Aristotle was the one who first spoke about the inseparability of the soul from the body. He also talked about the existence of three types of soul: plant, animal and rational. In his opinion, in humans, all these three species coexisted together. It was a big breakthrough in the knowledge of the psyche. After all, if we translate these ideas into the language of modern psychology, then we can say that Aristotle discovered the existence of three levels - an elementary way of reflecting at the level of the simplest reactions to external stimuli, psychophysiology, for which the autonomic nervous system is responsible, and consciousness - a product of active brain activity. Thus, according to Aristotle, the soul is the active expedient principle of the living body, inseparable from it.

The struggle between idealistic and materialistic ideas about the soul dragged this branch of knowledge into the sphere of either theology or natural science. But neither one nor the other sphere could give a complete picture of a person. Only in the century before last, clear ideas about the subject of psychology, its own methodology and categorical apparatus(a set of basic concepts).

Thus, at present, the subject of psychology as a science is not the concept of the soul, blurred in its interpretation, but a more rigorous concept of the psyche. The object of the study of psychological science is the patterns of emergence and development, as well as manifestations of the human psyche. In addition, the object of psychology research includes the mental processes and states of a person, the mental qualities of a person as a biosocial system, that is, a unique creature that is a complex alloy of biological and social properties.

2. Human behavior as an object of psychological research

Human behavior has also always been the object of psychological research. This term is usually called the interaction of a person with the outside world, due to his external and internal activity, his individual characteristics and the methods and patterns of such interaction perceived from the social environment. Behaviorism should be singled out among theories of studying behavior. The peculiarity of this psychological current lies in the fact that its representatives opposed behavior to consciousness. They believed that behavior is the subject of psychology. Behaviorism is the leading trend in American psychology in the first half of the 20th century. The founder of behaviorism is Eduard Thorndike. He believed that human behavior is a function absolutely separate from consciousness. In those days, the concept of consciousness was identified with the concept of the psyche. By excluding consciousness from the number of objects of study of psychology, Thorndike thereby created the so-called psychology without the psyche. The “stimulus-response” scheme was adopted as the main scheme of behavior, i.e., human behavior was regarded as a mechanical response by their actions to some important stimulus.

Any behavioral reaction was deprived of awareness. But what is suitable for animal psychology is by no means always applicable to human psychology. Behaviorism was very weak in explaining higher mental manifestations, such as feelings, thinking, and creativity.

This trend was replaced by neo-behaviorism, which is associated primarily with the name of Edward

Tolman. He took over from behaviorists the idea of ​​behavior as a subject of psychology, but made some amendments. Between the stimulus and the response, he allowed the existence of another link - the so-called intermediate variables. Despite the fact that supporters of this theory exist to this day, most psychologists have recognized it as untenable. No matter how interesting and original the completed doctrine of man may be, it can never be taken as absolutely true. There is always a mystery in a person. Therefore, modern psychology is not limited to any one system. There are many of them, and each has its share of truth. Domestic psychology in this sense can be compared with Russian Orthodoxy. Both of these belief systems try to dogmatize as few postulates as possible. There is a basic paradigm, but private opinions are always taken into account, the system remains open to new information.

So, the opinion of domestic psychology about human behavior is that it is inseparable from consciousness and basic mental processes. This means that behavioral reactions depend on many factors: the innate properties of the individual, the qualities acquired under the influence of the social environment, the qualities developed in the process of education and self-education of a person, the level of development of higher mental functions at the moment.

3. Higher psychological functions

Higher mental functions are one of the basic concepts of modern psychology. It was introduced by the famous Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky. Higher mental functions are the most complex mental processes that are formed in a person in the course of his life. These functions are not innate, unlike the simpler ones. At birth, a person receives only the inclinations for their formation, which occurs only under the influence of society. The higher mental functions include thinking, speech, memory, will, etc. All these functions have the properties of plasticity. This makes it possible to restructure consciousness in case of violation of any of the functions. For example, a violation of intellectual development can be compensated by an improved development of memory, a violation of the will - by correction of the emotional sphere, etc. It is possible to replace the missing link with a functionally new one. It is on the basis of this plasticity and interchangeability of elements that the modern methods of medical psychology are built.

The activity approach in psychology is a theory that explains many patterns in the development and functioning of mental functions. The main representatives of the development of an active approach in Russian psychology are M. Ya. Basov, S. L. Rubinshtein and A. N. Leontiev. This approach as the initial method of studying the psyche uses the analysis of the transformation of mental reflection in the process of activity.

According to the ideas of modern psychology, the concept of activity is applicable only to a person. By definition, this concept means such interaction of a person with the outside world, in the process of which the goals consciously set by him are achieved. In this system of concepts, the simplest element of activity is action. In any action, it is customary to distinguish indicative, executive and control parts. The indicative part is associated with goal setting, the executive part, respectively, with the implementation of this action, and the control part, with an assessment of how accurately and correctly this action was carried out. Here we can draw an analogy with the reflexes described above and the multi-stage system of their recognition and control. In psychology, there is also the concept of operation. This is a more complex process in relation to the action. An operation can include several actions related to the same goal. For example, you want to drink tea. This is the purpose of your activity. To achieve the goal, you need to perform an operation - preparing a cup of tea. This operation breaks down into many separate actions, each of which has a purpose. You need to get up from your chair, go to the kitchen, fill the kettle with water, etc. In other words, your psyche performs a number of transformations of the reflection of reality in parallel with how you carry out the simplest actions that add up to a certain operation, which is a component of your overall activity.

4. Perception. Feeling

Perception in general psychology is the reflection of objects, situations or events in their integrity. It arises from the direct impact of objects on the senses. Since an integral object usually acts simultaneously on various senses, perception is a complex process. It includes in its structure a number of sensations - simple forms of reflection into which the composite process of perception can be decomposed.

Sensations in psychology are the processes of reflection of only individual properties of objects in the surrounding world. The concept of sensation differs from the concept of perception not qualitatively, but quantitatively. For example, when a person holds a flower in his hands, admires it and enjoys its fragrance, then the holistic impression of the flower will be called perception. And separate sensations will be the aroma of a flower, the visual impression of it, the tactile impression of the hand holding the stem. However, at the same time, if a person with closed eyes inhales the fragrance of a flower without touching it, it will still be called perception. Thus, perception consists of one or more sensations that create the most complete idea of ​​the object at the moment.

Modern psychology recognizes that sensations are the primary form of human cognition of the surrounding world. It should also be noted that although sensation is an elementary process, many complex mental processes are built on the basis of sensations, starting with perception and ending with thinking.

So, perception is a collection of sensations. For the emergence of sensations, an object of external influence and analyzers capable of perceiving this influence are necessary.

The concept of an analyzer (an apparatus that performs the function of distinguishing external stimuli) was introduced by Academician IP Pavlov. He also studied the structure of the analyzers and came to the conclusion that they consist of three parts.

The first, peripheral part is the receptors. These are nerve endings located in our sense organs, directly perceiving external stimuli.

The second part is the conductive paths along which excitation is transmitted from the periphery to the center.

The third part is the central part of the analyzer. These are areas of the brain responsible for recognizing the appropriate stimulus (visual, gustatory, olfactory, etc.). It is here that the impact of the stimulus is transformed into a mental process, which in psychology is called sensation.

So, the classification of sensations is built on the basis of a list of receptors, with the help of which these sensations become available.

Analyzers distinguish between two types of receptors: exteroreceptors that analyze signals coming from the outside world, and interoreceptors that analyze internal information such as hunger, thirst, pain, etc.

Exteroreceptors are the basis of perception, since they provide an objective view of the outside world.

5. Perception of the outside world

As you know, a person has five senses. There are one more types of external sensations, since motor skills do not have a separate sense organ, but they also cause sensations. Therefore, a person can experience six types of external sensations: visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile (tactile), gustatory and kinesthetic sensations.

The main source of information about the outside world is the visual analyzer. With its help, a person receives up to 80% of the total amount of information. The organ of visual sensation is the eye. At the level of sensations, he perceives information about light and color. Colors perceived by a person are divided into chromatic and achromatic. The first include the colors that make up the spectrum of the rainbow (i.e., the splitting of light - the well-known "Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant is sitting"). To the second - black, white and gray colors. Color shades containing about 150 smooth transitions from one to another are perceived by the eye depending on the parameters of the light wave.

The auditory analyzer is next in importance in obtaining information. Sensations of sounds are usually divided into musical and noise. Their difference lies in the fact that musical sounds are created by periodic rhythmic vibrations of sound waves, and noises are created by non-rhythmic and irregular vibrations.

Many people have an interesting feature - the combination of sound and visual sensations into one general sensation. In psychology, this phenomenon is called synesthesia. These are stable associations that arise between the objects of auditory perception, such as melodies, and color sensations. Often people can tell "what color" a given melody or word is.

Slightly less common is synesthesia, based on the association of color and smell. It is often inherent in people with a developed sense of smell. Such people can be found among tasters of perfumery products - not only a developed olfactory analyzer is important for them, but also synesthetic associations that allow the complex language of smells to be translated into a more universal language of color. Of great importance in people's lives is the development of the kinesthetic (motor) analyzer. Kinesthetic sensations do not have a special sense organ. They are caused by irritation of nerve endings in muscles, joints, ligaments, bones. These irritations occur when the body moves in space, during physical exertion, when performing movements associated with fine motor skills (drawing, writing, embroidery, etc.). A developed kinesthetic analyzer is important, of course, for all people. But it is especially necessary for those whose profession or hobby is connected with the performance of complex movements, when it is very important not to make a mistake.

This is followed by skin sensations, sometimes they are divided into two types: tactile (tactile) and temperature. Tactile sensations allow us to distinguish the relief and surface structure of objects with which our skin comes into contact, temperature sensations allow us to feel heat or cold.

6. Psychophysics

Psychophysics is a branch of psychology that studies the quantitative relationship between the strength of the stimulus and the magnitude of the resulting sensation. This section was founded by the German psychologist Gustav Fechner. It includes two groups of problems: measuring the threshold of sensations and building psychophysical scales. The threshold of sensations is the magnitude of the stimulus that causes sensations or changes their quantitative characteristics. The minimum amount of stimulus that causes sensation is called the absolute lower threshold. The maximum value, the excess of which causes the disappearance of sensation, is called the absolute upper threshold. As an explanation, we can cite auditory stimuli that are beyond the threshold zone: infrasounds (frequency below 16 Hz) are below the threshold of sensitivity and are not yet audible, ultrasounds (frequency more than 20 kHz) go beyond the upper threshold and are no longer audible.

Adaptation of the sense organs to the stimuli acting on them is called adaptation. An increase in sensitivity with a weak action of the stimulus is called positive adaptation. Accordingly, negative adaptation is a decrease in sensitivity under the action of strong stimuli. The easiest way is visual adaptation (for example, when moving from light to dark and vice versa). It is much more difficult for a person to adapt to auditory and pain stimuli.

The magnitude of the stimulus that causes the minimum analyzable change in sensation is called differential. The dependence of the strength of sensation on the magnitude of the stimulus is described in the law

Weber-Fechner. According to this law, the dependence is logarithmic. But this is not the only psychophysical view of the quantitative ratio of stimulus and sensation.

On the basis of sensations and perception in general, images are formed. In psychology, the concept of an image is ambiguous and is interpreted both in a broader and in a narrower framework. In the context of ideas about sensations and perception, an image can be defined as a product of the functioning of the human brain, which makes up a subjective picture of a particular object of the surrounding world based on objective sensations. In other words, sensation is an objective reaction of the organism, which is the basic element of reflection. Perception is not a mechanical sum of sensations, but their totality, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. After all, we perceive the object as a whole, without dissecting it into individual properties. The image is even more complex and subjective. It includes not only a holistic view of the object, but also all kinds of characteristics that depend on the individual experience of each person.

The ability to create images determines the fact that the process of perception underlies the formation of the basic mental functions of a person: thinking, memory, attention, emotional sphere.

7. Objectivity. Consistency

In addition, there are such concepts as objectivity and constancy of perception. Objectivity means that a specific object is always perceived. Abstract ideas do not refer to the process of perception, but to the process of thinking or imagining. From the point of view of the modern theory of reflection, the objectivity of perception is revealed as an objective quality, due to the peculiarities of the impact of objects in the external world.

Constancy of perception means that the perceived object does not change its characteristics when it moves away from a person or approaches him, is drawn in a picture or shown on a screen. For example, the visual image of an elephant, due to the adequacy of consciousness, will be the image of a large animal, regardless of whether the elephant is in close proximity to a person, it is removed at some distance, or a person sees it on TV. (Of course, in this case we are talking about an adult person who in his experience has a visual image of an elephant. A small child who does not have sufficient experience of perception, seeing an elephant and a mouse in pictures of the same size, will not form an adequate representation without additional information.) If not there is a violation of consciousness, then the visual (in this case) analyzer will correctly assess the perspective, the background on which the object is located, and the brain will give an adequate idea of ​​it. With a disorder of perception, constancy may disappear. This happens, for example, with hallucinations. In addition, distorted perception may occur. This happens with the deliberate creation of illusions - a technique used by illusionists using mirrors, appropriate lighting and other things, or with spontaneously arising illusions, when in obscure lighting a stump can be mistaken for an animal, or in a drowsy state, thunder can be perceived as gun salvos. The emergence of spontaneous perception illusions depends on many factors: personal experience, cultural traditions, social environment, the prevailing natural landscape in the area where a person lives. For example, the illusions of Europeans and Africans or urban and rural residents will differ significantly due to the above factors.

At the end of the lecture, we will review the existing theories of perception. The emergence of the first views on the nature of perception dates back to ancient times. For example, Plato believed that all objects are the materialization of the ideas of the Creator. And the perception of objects and the appearance of their images are the memory of the immortal soul, which before its incarnation was also in the world of these ideas. The idealistic approach of the ancient thinker to the views on the psyche and the process of perception subsequently did not find development in psychological science.

8. Associative psychology

In the process of the formation of psychology, the associationist approach to perception began to prevail. Associative psychology is one of the main trends in the psychology of the 17th–19th centuries. The main explanatory principle of mental life was the concept of association. This term was introduced by John Locke. It means a connection that occurs under certain conditions between two or more mental formations (sensations, motor acts, perceptions, ideas, etc.). Various interpretations of associative psychology have been given by David Hartley, George Berkeley and David Hume.

At the beginning of the XX century. in contrast to the mechanistic associative approach to the psyche and perception as its basic function, the Gestalt psychology school was formed. The concept of gestalt - a holistic image - formed the basis of the views of this school. But the concept of this school regarding the process of perception also turned out to be unviable, although it played a big role in overcoming the mechanistic nature of the associative approach. Gestalt psychology ascribes to perception the ability to transform the action of material stimuli in the external environment. Thus, according to the views of this school, consciousness is not an objective function of the psyche, based on an adequate reflection of the surrounding world. Perception is detached from the external world, perceived as a category of subjective idealism. It loses any objectivity whatsoever.

Another step in overcoming associationism was made by M. I. Sechenov. Thanks to him, in parallel with the development of the Gestalt concept, the reflex concept of the psyche developed, which is currently accepted as the basis by many foreign psychological schools. The reflex concept of reflection is a compromise between the mechanistic materialism of the associationists and the subjective idealism of the representatives of Gestalt psychology. According to her, perception is not a mechanical process, but also is not a process completely divorced from the objective realities of the world. Perception is a creative process in its own way. It combines the real properties of the perceived object and the individual characteristics of the perceiving subject. In his book “Reflexes of the Brain”, I. M. Sechenov provided a theoretical justification for the integrity of the relationship between the organism and the external environment. And in his work “Elements of Thought”, he wrote about the process of perception as follows: “An organism without its external environment that supports existence is impossible, therefore, the environment that influences it must also be included in the scientific definition of an organism.”

In the middle of the last century, an activity approach to the study of the psyche was formulated in Russian psychology. One of its main authors was Academician A. N. Leontiev. This approach is characterized by the fact that each mental phenomenon is considered in connection with human activity.

9. Memory as the highest mental function

Memory is one of the highest mental functions of a person, closely related to the rest. In the most general terms, the psychological category of memory can be defined as the totality of mental processes of organization and preservation of past experience, which make it possible to use this experience in the future. These processes, called mnemonic in psychology (from the Greek "mnemos" - "memory"), include memorization (or trace formation), preservation, recognition, recall (reproduction), forgetting.

In accordance with modern concepts of neurophysiology and biochemistry, all memory phenomena are carried out either by changing the activity of electrical excitation of the biopotentials of the corresponding neurons (short-term memory), or, with longer-term changes, at the biochemical level - in RNA and DNA molecules (long-term memory).

Memory, like any higher mental function, is associated with the individual mental properties of the individual. In addition, there is an interaction of mnemonic processes with such individual qualities of a person as experience, knowledge, skills, abilities. This connection is two-way, since memory, on the one hand, depends on these qualities, on the other hand, it itself contributes to their further development.

Memorization is the imprinting in the mind of a trace of an object. In this case, the object of memorization is understood as objects of the surrounding world, and events, and ideas, and the relationship between them, and their language display, and the emotional background corresponding to the object, i.e. any manifestation of human life is an object of memorization.

This process is the first in the chain of mnemic processes - it is necessary for any subsequent manifestation of memory.

Memorization can be mechanical or semantic. The first type is carried out by repeated repetition of mnemonic material. Well, for example, it can be cramming the multiplication table, repeating foreign words multiple times when learning a language, or repeating a sequence of some movements, say dance ones, to memorize a choreographic composition. The semantic type of memorization appears when the mnemonic material is associated with thinking. The logical train of thought and the associativity of the structure of the material are of primary importance in this type. Both types of memorization are often used simultaneously - when memorizing some material, such as lectures, or when learning by heart the text of a role. The more semantic formations are involved in the memorization process, the longer the object will remain in memory. Therefore, modern teaching methods try to avoid mechanical cramming and use logic and associations as much as possible.

10. Preservation, recognition of objects

An object can remain in consciousness indefinitely, or it can be forgotten over time. It depends on the way of remembering, and on the importance of the object for a particular person, and on the frequency of subsequent reproductions of this object. Let's return to the mentioned examples. If a dance composition represents a certain plot, and each movement serves as the development of the plot and the transmission of the image, then the artist will retain it in memory much longer than when this composition is a set of movements not connected by a common logic. At the same time, the duration of saving this composition also depends on the frequency of its performance. It is the same with the role, and with the training material. Even being logically meaningful at one time, but then no longer applicable, knowledge will quickly be erased from memory. And an example of the effect of associativity on the preservation of material is the study of a language. Mechanical listening to a recording of foreign words is much less effective than learning by associating them into any logical bundles, visual aids and live communication.

The process of forgetting is inevitably inherent in human memory. We cannot store all the information that has ever been imprinted in our minds. Part of it is forgotten as unnecessary. In addition, there is a process of ousting unpleasant, traumatic information from the sphere of consciousness. Thus, a sharply negative emotional coloring of information for a given subject is also a forgetting factor.

The next process of memory is recognition. This term is understood as the manifestation of memory during the repeated perception of an object. The simplest example is recognition by the appearance or voice of a person you know.

The process of reproduction or recall differs from recognition in that the object is remembered without repeated perception, that is, you can simply reproduce the appearance or voice of a friend in memory. And, of course, this also includes more complex forms of reproduction - recalling the studied material, the sequence of movements, the nuances of any event in your life, etc. Psychologists believe that reproduction is possible even when an object is forced out of consciousness into the subconscious sphere. Such an "extraction" of a memory can be carried out, for example, by hypnotic influence on a person.

Each person has different types of memory. The three main groups are figurative, emotional and verbal-logical memory.

Figurative memory is divided into several subspecies in accordance with the type of analyzer that creates a trace (in this case, an imprinted image). Such subspecies are visual, auditory, motor, olfactory, tactile, taste memory. Depending on the degree of development of one or another analyzer in each person, some subspecies of figurative memory prevail over the others. It is rare that all analyzers are developed in the same way.

11. Eidetic and emotional memory

As a special type of visual memory, eidetic memory is distinguished. "Eidos" in Greek means "view, image". A few people, called eidetics, are endowed with a developed eidetic memory. They have a unique innate ability, having looked briefly at any object, to accurately reproduce all the details. For example, by looking at a house they see for the first time, and immediately turning away or closing their eyes, they can tell exactly how many windows it has, which of them are lit, on which balconies clothes are dried, which curtains are on each of the windows, etc. Thus, there is an instant imprint of the object with the help of only one visual analyzer. It is believed that the ability to eidetic way of remembering can be developed to some extent through training. But this applies to people with a predominant visual type of memory. And in this case, the results will not reach the abilities shown by eidetics.

Emotional (or affective) type of memory consists in remembering, preserving, recognizing, reproducing emotions and feelings ever experienced by a person. As a rule, the impetus for the reproduction of objects of emotional memory is the memories of the events that caused these emotions. After all, every significant or insignificant event of our life is accompanied by a whole range of emotions. It is the emotional memory that allows the memories of these events to become more voluminous, more reliable. Without emotions, they would be stingy and sketchy. What can memories of the day of his wedding or the day of his mournful loss mean for a person, if he is not given the opportunity to resurrect those feelings and emotions that overwhelmed him? They would be a replay of the sequence of events, untouched by his soul, and nothing more.

In addition, the emotional coloring of memories allows them to last longer. The stronger the emotions remembered in connection with any event or object, the easier it will be to reproduce the image stored in memory. This implies the conclusion that emotional memory is inextricably linked with figurative memory. After all, emotions are connected not only with the events of life. They can be caused by a piece of music, a picture, a smell, a taste sensation, a feeling of hunger or pain. If we remain indifferent to any piece of music, we are unlikely to be able to reproduce it in our minds. If a canvas evoked an exciting and strong range of feelings in us, we will surely remember it for a long time. In the same way, we will remember and later be able to recognize the smell that aroused our admiration or disgust than the one that did not arouse any emotional reaction.

Emotional memory is especially important for people of creativity, representatives of various types of art. This is due to the fact that they, by the nature of their activity - be it painting, literature, music, or something else - are obliged to most vividly reproduce images. And in this the best assistant is emotional memory.

12. Memory anomalies

Anomalies of memory are most often in its weakening. The weakening of memory is called "hypomnesia". Hypomnesia can be temporary, arising in connection with fatigue, information overload, pain syndromes, a situation of severe emotional shock. When these factors are eliminated, memory returns to normal without psychotherapeutic intervention. It can also take more stable forms - with neurotic and some somatic disorders. In this case, memory function returns gradually after the treatment of such disorders. Here, as a rule, one cannot do without the help or at least the recommendations of a psychotherapist. In addition, it is necessary to use nootropic drugs - drugs that restore and maintain brain function.

Hypomnesia can be observed in alcoholic psychosis. This is the well-known in psychiatry Korsakov's syndrome (discovered by the Russian psychiatrist S. S. Korsakov in 1897) - a violation of memory for upcoming events while maintaining it for past events. This syndrome is also observed in old people suffering from cerebral atherosclerosis: the events of the distant past, their youth, adulthood, such people remember perfectly, but they cannot remember what they did yesterday or an hour ago.

In addition to hypomnesia, there is amnesia - complete loss of memory. It is mostly caused by brain injury. There are retrograde amnesia, when a person cannot remember anything from the part of life that preceded the disease, and anterograde amnesia - loss of memory of everything that happened after the injury. There is also partial amnesia - the loss of only one type of memory while maintaining the rest. There is another anomaly of memory - hypermnesia. In contrast to the weakening of memory, here, on the contrary, there is an increase in the possibilities of recall. In some people, hypermnesia for certain types of memory is congenital, in some it is pathological, resulting from brain injuries, against the background of high temperature or exposure to any psycho-traumatic factors. Pathological hypermnesia is manifested in the fact that the memory retains a huge amount of unnecessary and unimportant details. Moreover, such a manifestation is involuntary and does not depend on the level of intelligence. Congenital hypermnesia is characterized by the conscious ability to retain in memory a much larger amount of information than is available to an ordinary person. People with phenomenal memory are called mnemonists. The well-known Russian psychologist A. R. Luria wrote about one of these people, who has unique abilities for memorization, in the book “A Little Book of Great Memory”.

13. Interaction of memory and activity

The interaction of memory and activity lies in the dependence of the type of memorization on its inclusion in the structure of activity. Being a mental process occurring against the background of any activity, memorization is determined by the characteristics of this activity. On the basis of involvement in the activity, memorization is divided into two types - voluntary and involuntary.

The main characteristic of any human activity is orientation. Consequently, the relationship between memorization and activity is primarily characterized by the dependence of memorization on the characteristics of orientation.

The direction of activity is a conscious intention to achieve a particular goal. Intention, therefore, is the basis of a person's conscious activity, the desire to achieve the desired result in accordance with the intended program of action.

The focus on memorizing any material is called mnemonic orientation. It is divided into the following types: focus on completeness, accuracy, consistency, memorization strength. Sometimes these types act together, sometimes separately - depending on the ultimate goal of the activity. For example, when memorizing a text by heart, all four types are needed. And, let's say, when processing information, the purpose of which is to form one's own opinion about any object, it is necessary mainly to focus on accuracy and completeness, and the consistency and strength of memorization are not important.

So, if the purpose of the activity is the conscious memorization of the material, then in this case the memorization is arbitrary. If the mnemonic task is not set, and memorization is a side effect of the activity, then this is involuntary memorization. In their pure form, these two types of memorization are not so common. Usually one of the types predominates, but the second is mixed in with it.

Involuntary memorization is directly related to the process of learning in the early stages of ontogenesis, since the process of accumulating life experience occurs through the unconscious, i.e., involuntary, assimilation of information about the world around. At the later stages of ontogenesis, voluntary memorization is also woven into the learning process. This happens when a person is already capable of goal-setting in activity.

In experiments conducted by Academician A. A. Smirnov, a well-known Russian specialist in the field of memory research, the following pattern is observed - with age, the efficiency index of involuntary memorization relatively decreases. This is explained by the fact that the productivity of involuntary memorization is determined primarily by the intensity of the intellectual activity necessary to perform the activity. Children put much more effort into performing any activity. Adults, on the other hand, due to mental development, require a much lower intensity of intellectual activity, so the proportion of involuntary memorization decreases with age.

14. Attention as an object of psychological research

Attention is one of the most important mental processes. It is not an independent form of reflection or cognition. It is usually referred to the field of phenomena of perception. Attention characterizes the concentration of perception on a particular object. Such an object can be either a specific object or an idea, image, event, or action. Thus, attention is a mechanism for isolating a single object from the entire space of perception and fixing perception on it. It provides a long-term concentration of mental activity on a given object.

General psychology. Uznadze D.N.

St. Petersburg: 2004 - 413 p.

A fundamental textbook belonging to one of the classics of psychology of the 20th century and not previously translated into Russian.

Psychologists, historians of science.

Format: pdf/zip

The size: 3.96 MB

/ Download file

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Chapter first. Introduction to Psychology 26
Subject and tasks of psychology 26
Methods of psychology 33
Self-observation 33
Watching Others 37
Experiment 42
Classification of phenomena of consciousness 47
Mediated nature of mental processes 49
Chapter two. Biological basis of personality 54
Preliminary remarks 54
Constitutional doctrine 55
Internal secretion 57
Nervous system 58
The Doctrine of Localization 63
Chapter three. Psychology of installation 69
Installation 69
Fixed installation 79
Toward a General Psychology of Attitude 82
Toward a Differential Psychology of Attitude 86
Installation in pathological cases 88
Chapter Four. Psychology of emotional experiences 91
Emotional experiences 91
Feeling 94
Emotions and attempts to classify them 99
Qualitative characteristics of emotional experiences 102
Gradual characteristic of emotional experience 106
Emotional experience and the body 111
Temperament 116
Chapter five. Psychology of behavior 120
Impulsive behavior 120
Will 127
Implementation of an act of will 130
Decision act 135
The question of firmness of will 137
Motivation - period preceding act of will 143
Pathology of will 155
Other activities 159
Ontogenetic development of activity 162
Character 165
Chapter six. Psychology of perception 172
Elementary conditions and patterns of perception 172
Psychology of sensations 181
Vision 181
Rumor 185
Taste and Smell". 189
Touch modalities 190
Intermodal unity of sensations 194
Perception 197
Perception of space 211
Perception of time 215
Surveillance 219
Ontogenetic development of perception 222
Chapter seven. Psychology of mnemonic processes 226
The simplest forms of mnemonic processes 226
Immediate memory 228
Eidetic Image 230
Perseveration 233
Recognition 234
View Association 239
Forms of active memory 248
Teaching and Remembrance 249
Teaching 252
Learning Rate Factors 253
"Laws" of memorization 257
Forgetting 262
Memory 268
Psychology of testimony 271
Theories of memory 275
Memory diseases 280
Ontogenetic development of memory 282
Chapter eight. Psychology of thinking 289
Thinking 289
Practical thinking 297
Figurative thinking 308
Conceptual thinking 315
Development of thinking in ontogeny 333
Chapter nine. Psychology of attention 342
Attention 342
Properties of Attention 346
The flow of attention 353
Factors voluntary attention 356
The influence of attention 358
Attention and body 362
Pathology of attention 364
Development of attention in ontogeny 365
Chapter ten. Psychology of imagination 368
Imagination 368
Passive fantasy 377
Active fantasy 389
Fantasy in ontogeny 394
Game 396
Subsequent Development of Fantasy 402
Bibliography 404

D.N. UZNADZE

PSYCHOLOGY

Managing editor I. V. Imedadze

Moscow St. Petersburg Nizhny Novgorod Voronezh Rostov-on-Don Ekaterinburg Samara Novosibirsk Kyiv Kharkov Minsk

BBK 88.3ya73 UDC 159.9(075.8)

Series "Living Classics"

Translated from Georgian by E. Sh. Chomakhidze

This publication was published as part of the East-East project with the support of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) - Russia

and the Open Society Institute - Budapest

ANY ATTEMPTS OF INFRINGEMENT WILL BE PROSECUTED.

Uznadze D. N.

U34 General psychology / Per. from Georgian E. Sh. Chomakhidze; Ed. I. V. Imedadze. - M.: Meaning; St. Petersburg: Piter, 2004. - 413 p., ill. - (Series "Live Classics").

ISBN 5-469-00020-6

A fundamental textbook belonging to one of the classics of psychology of the 20th century and not previously translated into Russian.

Psychologists, historians of science.

BBK 88.3ya73 UDC 159.9(075.8)

Scientific work of Uznadze and problems of general psychology

Science editor's preface

The scientific legacy of Dmitri Nikolayevich Uznadze as a whole is rather poorly known to the Russian scientific community. This is more than strange, given the fact that he was a recognized classic " Soviet psychology". The research of Uznadze and his school has always attracted special attention, and the original general psychological concept of set has been the subject of numerous discussions and discussions. Ultimately, it was given the highest rating - as a large-scale theoretical system in which the category of the unconscious is most fruitfully developed, moreover, it was even considered as a "Soviet alternative to psychoanalysis." All this, however, took place in conditions when many of the author's significant works were not translated into Russian and were not published. There seemed to be no reasonable grounds for the existence of such a state of affairs, but it remained unchanged until the end of the Soviet era.

We will not analyze here the subjective and objective premises of this paradox, although from a historical point of view this would be of interest. The main thing is that, apparently, now they have been largely eliminated. The Russian scientific community has finally got the opportunity to get fully acquainted with the work of the author, interest in which has always existed and, I think, remains to this day.

The proposed book will partly contribute to the satisfaction of this interest. However, before touching directly on this work, it makes sense to characterize in the most general terms the most important areas of Uznadze's scientific work in order to remind once again how little it is known to the Russian reader and how much remains to be done to correct the situation.

The rich scientific heritage of Uznadze includes works on philosophy, pedagogy, history, aesthetics and psychology. Moreover, Uznadze took up a close study of psychological problems only after 1918, having moved to Tbilisi, where at the newly opened university he began to organize the first department and laboratory of psychology in Georgia. Prior to that, in Kutaisi, he was engaged in theoretical and practical work in the field of pedagogy, wrote history textbooks, as well as studies on aesthetics and literary criticism and especially in philosophy.

Uznadze is rightfully considered one of the founders of the Georgian philosophical school. His work in this area includes monographs on the history of philosophy

fii are works devoted to the analysis of the philosophical systems of Vl. Solovyov (written back in Germany) and Bergson (1920), as well as a number of original studies of various philosophical problems: "Individuality and Its Genesis" (1910), "Philosophical Conversations: Death" (1911), "Philosophy of War" (1914), "The Meaning of Life" (1915), "The Meaning of Life and Education" (1916). These works, written in the spirit of the philosophy of life and existential consciousness, have not lost either their relevance or scientific significance to this day. In the 1920s, Uznadze stopped his philosophical searches, no doubt because of the obvious inconsistency between his ideas and the position of the official ideological doctrine. Unfortunately, the Russian reader is completely unfamiliar with this part of Uznadze's work.

In this sense, the situation is much better with Uznadze's developments in the field of pedagogy and areas of psychology bordering on it, mainly due to the book Uznadze (2000) published in the Ontology of Human Pedagogy series. It includes a number of works by the author of different periods. Their subject matter is very diverse and, on the whole, reflects Uznadze's range of interests in this area. Although there is no doubt that many significant works are still waiting for their translation and publication. First of all, this concerns the monographs "Pedology" (1933) and, in particular, "The Psychology of the Child" (1947).

It should be noted that Uznadze fulfilled a large number of research in this area (more than fifty works), having actually developed an integral system of views covering the most important issues of both pedagogy and developmental and pedagogical psychology (Uznadze clearly demarcated these disciplines, although he insisted on the psychological justification of the pedagogical system). The pedagogical concept of Uznadze is built on a single methodological basis, which includes a precise definition of all the basic pedagogical concepts. Such a single philosophical and psychological basis was the idea of ​​a holistic and active personality as an object of education - an idea that later resulted in the well-known psychological theory of attitude. In the author's own pedagogical research, questions have been developed related to the essence, goals and objectives of education as a subject of pedagogy, the role of the school, in particular the teacher, and the family in this process, the differences between theoretical and practical pedagogy and the implementation of the main didactic principles in the organization of the latter. , and much more.

AT research on developmental and educational psychology

and the following questions were originally solved: age periodization (“the theory of the age environment”), the relationship between innate and acquired (“coincidence theory”), the relationship between learning and development, the essence of play activity (“the theory of functional tendency”), the essence of learning activity ( as a transitional form between the so-called extrogenic and introgenic forms of behavior), the development of interests (including cognitive ones), the development of technical thinking, the beginning of school age and readiness for school, etc.

Of course, in a small collection it was impossible to fully cover how Uznadze solved all these issues. An acquaintance with the works from the series of experimental studies of the twenties, devoted to some aspects of the ontogeny of thinking (grouping and formation of concepts), which were first published in German journals and brought their author European fame, makes it possible to significantly enrich the idea of ​​this. They are presented in the book Psychological research» (1966).

Uznadze's work in the field of psychology is distinguished by a variety of topics and areas. In addition to issues of developmental and educational psychology, he also dealt with

Scientific work of Uznadze

topical theoretical and practical issues of psychotechnics. Before the destruction of psychotechnics in the Soviet Union began, he had completed up to ten works in this area.

However, the main interest of the author was concentrated in the field of general psychology. Some important general psychological works were included in the book mentioned above, which until recently remained the only one published in Russia and reflecting the psychological work of Uznadze. Its second, somewhat abridged edition was published in 1997 under the title Theory of Set. But many significant and even milestone works of the author were not included in it, in particular the article "Leibniz's Petites perceptions and their place in psychology" (1919), which for the first time highlighted the author's interest in the problem of the unconscious and became central to his research; “Impersonalia”, where Uznadze, analyzing an interesting linguistic phenomenon, for the first time refers to a certain biospheric reality that has become the prototype of the installation. The biospheric point of view was thoroughly developed already in Uznadze's first monograph on General Psychology, Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology. Fundamentals and the psychology of sensations” (1925). As the name implies, it discusses in detail the methodological, theoretical and methodological issues of General Psychology, gives a thorough critical analysis the state of psychological science at that time, as well as extensive material on the psychology of sensations. Further, from the untranslated works of Uznadze it is necessary to note the book "Sleep and Dreams" (1936). Despite its relatively small size, it is replete with innovative ideas in connection with the interpretation of "complexes" and other concepts of psychoanalysis from the standpoint of the theory of set. It presents an essentially new conception of dreams, the development of ideas about the "functional tendency" begins, the idea of ​​"objectification" appears, and so on. The concept of objectification acquired its final form in the milestone article "The Problem of Objectivation" (1948). Finally, in this context, we should mention the work “On the Problem of the Essence of Attention” (1947), which sheds light on the nature of attention in a very peculiar way. All these works are made in Georgian.

As for the main work of Dmitri Nikolayevich’s life - his general psychological concept of attitude, Uznadze began theoretical work on the creation of a new psychological system from the twenties of the last century and a few years later in the aforementioned book "Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology" presented, as it were, the first (biospheric ) concept variant. Subsequently, research continued both in the direction of developing and improving the theory itself and its experimental substantiation. In the late thirties and early forties, Uznadze wrote several works summarizing the theoretical ideas and empirical data on the psychology of the attitude of the next stage of its development. These are solid articles: "On the Psychology of Set" (1938), "Studies in the Psychology of Set" (1939), the chapter "Psychology of Set" in the book "General Psychology" (1940) and "Fundamentals of the Theory of Set" (1941).

Only recently the Russian reader was able to get acquainted with the last of them. In an abbreviated form, it was included in the above-mentioned collection of Uznadze's pedagogical works. Meanwhile, these works not only make it possible to trace the historical path of development of attitude psychology, but also to understand the meaning of theoretical moves in connection with the formulation of the attitude problem itself, which was interpreted differently depending on the methodological tasks set by the author. Initially, the attitude was considered in the light of the psychophysical problem, then in the context of the so-called "postulate of immediacy" and as opposed to subjectless psychology. In "General Psi-

chology”, the emphasis is on the methodological problem of the expediency of behavior - the attitude acts as a psychological mechanism for this expediency.

In the 1940s, Uznadze introduced a number of refinements and additions to his theoretical system. In 1950, he died suddenly, but managed to create two significant works, summing up the last period of his work. Both were written in Russian and were intended for all specialists in the country. The first, largest and most famous - "Experimental Foundations of the Psychology of Set" - was published in Russian three times: in 1961 in Tbilisi in a book under the same title, and then in 1966 and 2000 in Moscow in the already noted collections. The second work, Fundamentals of the Theory of Set, saw the light of day only once, in the same book of 1961, the circulation of which was only 1,000 copies. Therefore, after more than forty years have passed since its publication, it can hardly be considered accessible to Russian readers interested in the theory of set. Meanwhile, it contains a number of important provisions that develop the theory in the direction of deepening the analysis of the specifics of the human psyche. Thus, Uznadze indicated the vector of the subsequent development of the theory of set, in the direction of which it went in the psychological school he created. This is, briefly, the state of affairs today.

Let us now turn directly to the present book, General Psychology. It is not known how long the work on it took, but it is obvious that Uznadze had to speed it up, since the work of training psychological personnel (and, in general, specialists in the humanities), which he supervised, urgently needed a Georgian textbook on psychology. The book was published in 1940, that is, in fact, at an intermediate stage in the development of the theory of set. Had it appeared later, it would certainly have taken a slightly different form in the light of the subsequent development of the theory of set, which is the core of the entire textbook. Not in last turn, bearing in mind the task of forming one's own psychological school, the author made an attempt to create a textbook entirely based on the original psychological concept. This book is of interest, first of all, from this point of view, because there are few such textbooks in psychology.

So, the author's intention was to build the building of "General Psychology" on the foundation of the general psychological theory of set. This is clearly seen already in the very structure and composition of the textbook. The sequence of chapters in it is almost the opposite of that adopted in the textbooks of that time. They usually considered cognitive mental processes at the beginning, then emotional and volitional processes, and, finally, issues related to the personality and its activities. In the presented textbook, the presentation of material on individual mental processes is preceded by a chapter on the psychology of set, which is simply absent in traditional textbooks; then follow chapters on the psychology of emotions, then behavior and will, and only after that - cognitive processes: sensation, perception, memory, thinking, attention, imagination.

This structure, of course, is not accidental, but logically follows from the fundamental thesis of the theory of set, according to which external and internal factors do not directly cause behavior and, consequently, the corresponding mental processes, but indirectly - through the set; At first, an attitude appears as a modification, an adjustment of an integral subject, expressed in the readiness of its psychophysical functions to perform a certain activity, after which a specific behavior is realized on its basis. According to the theory of installation, such is

Scientific work of Uznadze

there is a general mechanism of the work of the psyche; therefore, the book first considers the laws of attitude, and then - the laws of behavior and the mental processes included in it.

The noted principle of immediacy and its criticism are set out in the after days of the first part of the chapter - "Introduction to Psychology". It is here that the originality and originality of Uznadze's methodological approach to the foundations of psychology is manifested. The author shows that blind adherence to the principle, or postulate, of mediocrity (external reality directly and immediately affects consciousness, as well as the phenomena of consciousness affect each other), is characteristic not only of all classical psychology, but also of contemporary theoretical systems, such as behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, personology. This circumstance is the main source of their error. The rejection of this dogmatic postulate and the recognition of the mediated nature of the psyche (consciousness, activity) is an indispensable condition for the construction of a new, true psychology.

By the way, such a formulation of the question - the need to overcome the "fatal" postulate for the previous psychology, or the so-called "Uznadze's task"1 - was recognized as fundamental in the construction of other new theoretical systems, in particular the theory of activity2.

However, this task is only half the battle. The main thing is to find her the right decision, that is, to show what in reality should act as a real mediating link. According to Uznadze, this is precisely what the concept of attitude is intended to do.

In the third chapter, Uznadze refers to theoretical substantiation of this concept and to the experimental data obtained by him together with his co-workers and characterizing the main properties of the setup. These data are fairly well known. As regards the theoretical presentation of the concept of a set, the author places somewhat different emphasis in this chapter than in previous works. The reasoning here unfolds mainly around the problem of the expediency of behavior. The mediating link, again, is the subject, the mode of existence of which is its integral state - the attitude. However, in this context, it acts as a mechanism that ensures the expediency of behavior. Arising on the basis of the main factors of behavior (need, situation) and integrating their characteristics, the attitude appears as the psychological mechanism that controls behavior and, consequently, its constituent functions and processes, ultimately mediating the impact of the environment on the psyche and interpsychic interactions. Unlike mechanism and vitalism, Uznadze proposes a tripartite scheme: environment - subject (attitude) - behavior. Taking this into account, as well as the fact that in the works of Uznadze the term "behavior" acts as a synonym for activity, familiarization with this text will perhaps better clarify the position of the attitude school in relation to the formulation and solution of the problem of mediation in general and, in particular, the relationship between installation and operation.

Having considered the general installation mechanism of the expediency of behavior, the author proceeds to the analysis of particular cases of its functioning in various types.

1 Asmolov A.G. Activity and installation. M., 1979.

2 Leontiev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. M., 1977. S. 80.

groin activity, in particular impulsive and volitional. The chapter "Psychology of Behavior" is certainly one of the most interesting in the book. It contains quite a few successful theoretical moves - both in describing and in explaining the phenomenon of behavior. The analysis of the process of motivation and the distinction formulated in this context between so-called "physical" and "psychological" behavior deserves special attention. Very fruitful are the considerations that substantiate the central role of the decision-making act in volitional process. In this act, according to the author, there is a real change of attitude, the attitude towards a new - arbitrary behavior is finally formed. If there is a failure in the creation or functioning of the setting mechanism of arbitrary behavior, the problems described in the chapter occur. different kind psychopathology of the will.

In addition to impulsive and volitional behavior, Uznadze also considers other types of activity, namely: suggestion and coercion, showing their installation basis. However, the chapter lacks a detailed classification of forms of behavior developed by the author later. We can say that this classification to this day remains unique in psychological science. There is no doubt that it would supplement this chapter in a significant way.

Conscious mental phenomena and processes function in behavior that proceeds on the basis of an attitude. However, they differ significantly from each other both phenomenally (structurally), in terms of purpose (functionally), and in terms of the level of development (genetically). These aspects are, of course, interconnected and, ultimately, determined by the general mechanism of behavior. Therefore, Uznadze begins the consideration of individual mental processes with emotional phenomena, believing that they represent the initial stage in the development of consciousness, directly adjacent to the attitude as an integral state of the subject, and reflect precisely his internal state. Hence, the subjectivity and integrity of emotional processes, which distinguish them from cognitive processes that serve to differentiate the reflection of external reality. Having given such a brief formulation of the problem of the relationship between attitude and emotions, Uznadze does not delve further into the complex theoretical questions that arise here. However, he well understood their importance and constantly kept in his field of vision. This is evidenced by the materials preserved in Uznadze's personal archive, in particular the so-called "Notebooks", which he kept from 1944 to 1949. They were restored and published in the Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of Georgia4. Almost a third of Uznadze's notes contain considerations on various aspects of the psychology of emotions from the point of view of attitude theory. It should also be noted that in the mid-1940s, Uznadze prepared and delivered a special course on emotions, in which he outlined and essentially analyzed all the main views on the psychology of emotional experiences that were available at that time (a transcript of these lectures has been preserved). Based on this, one should think that Uznadze intended to write a large study on emotional phenomena, which would contain critical and positive parts.

It is difficult to say which of the numerous hypothetical considerations the author would have set forth and developed in this, alas, unrealized work; but it should be noted that some of them are quite convincing, quite consistent with the spirit

3 Uznadze D.N. Forms of human behavior //Uznadze D.N. Psychological research. M.,

4 Uznadze D.N. Notebooks // Matsne. Series on Philosophy and Psychology. 1988. No. 2, 4; 1989. No. 1. (in Georgian)

Scientific work of Uznadze

and the letter of the theory of attitude and, what is important, in this context, enrich and supplement the text of the analyzed chapter. Therefore, we will briefly detain the reader's attention to these considerations.

Uznadze was faced with the actual problem of the relationship between emotional experiences and bodily (somatic) processes, in particular the question of the nature of expressive movements. Uznadze offers next solution: Fundamental to the theory of installation is the idea of ​​the holistic nature of the individual's response to various influences. The effect of external influence extends to all spheres of the body's response (visceral, motor, mental), which is based on its integral primary change - the attitude. All individual processes are a differentiated manifestation of a holistic primary effect. In contrast to the two competing views that exist in the psychology of emotions (Wundt et al. and James-Lange), Uznadze formulates an alternative position: emotional experiences and bodily changes, including expressive movements, are not the cause or expression of each other. They are two independent phenomena that simultaneously arise from one source - the installation. However, what is objectively not an expression is used by people in the social environment as an external expression of feelings. But this became possible only due to the presence of a single real psychological basis for these various phenomena.

Without dwelling on other interesting arguments of the author (for example, on the nature of the relationship between emotional and cognitive processes, in which, in essence, the same theoretical position is realized), let us consider only how Uznadze builds a scheme of relations between attitude, behavior and emotion.

The scheme, only outlined in General Psychology and expanded in the Notebooks, is basically the following: emotions act as a specific triggering mechanism of behavior at the level of consciousness (experience) or as a “stimulus for deploying behavior corresponding to the set”5 . Thus, they seem to follow the installation and precede the implementation of the behavior.

However, in the Notebooks, this scheme develops and becomes more complicated. Emotional phenomena not only follow the attitude, but also precede it, performing the function of its subjective factor. Being an impulse, the need at the same time initially represents a more or less definite emotion. “The need is emotional,” Uznadze says.

Further, the author differentiates emotional phenomena depending on the nature of their relation to behavior; emotions that anticipate behavior and express readiness to carry out a specific activity (that is, what is said in General Psychology), and emotions that arise in the very process of behavior are distinguished. The latter are a reflection in consciousness of the features of the realization of the set in the course of behavior. In accordance with this, the question of the qualitative side of emotional experiences is solved. Since the content of the set of each specific behavior, as well as the conditions and circumstances that impede or, on the contrary, facilitate the realization of this latter, are unique in each given case, there should be just as many corresponding varieties of emotional experiences.

5 Ibid. No. 1. S. 93.

10 Science editor's preface

in the preface and making a reference to his first textbook, Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology, as a source for more complete information on this topic. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Uznadze significantly enriched this part of the chapter with new data obtained since the publication (1925) of this book.

As for the central, perhaps, question of this review - in what exactly did the originality of the attitudinal approach to the analysis of individual mental processes find its expression, then in this part we should focus on how the author solves the problem of intermodal unity of sensations. The solution of this problem in the spirit of the theory of set suggests itself, as it were. Indeed, since different modalities are experienced by a single subject, it is quite logical to look for the reason for the similarity between these experiences precisely in him, in his integral state. The installation of exactly how such a state arises as a result of the impact on the individual of the environment, that is, rather diverse sensory stimulations. In turn, the unity of the attitudinal basis determines the unity and affinity of experiences, in particular, sensations of various modalities. The same mechanism explains other phenomena from this sphere: the facts of synesthesia and the effects of the interaction of the sense organs.

Uznadze begins his discussion of perception by posing the question of the relationship between the object and the content of perception and discussing the results of his experiments aimed at solving it. These experiments revealed interesting patterns of mutual influence of the content and the subject of perception, with a clear priority after the day. The position on the fundamental role of the subject in the process of perception is the supporting structure of the entire chapter.

The author pays special attention to such a property of perception as integrity, gestalt. This is quite natural, since the psychology of attitude, in fact, is the psychology of integrity. But this is the integrity of the subject; and it is the subject as a whole, Uznadze believes, that is forgotten by Gestalt theory. The phenomenon of the integrity of perception in it is reduced to the laws of gestaltization, that is, the objective organization of the perceptual field. The author proposes an alternative formula: a complex of irritants (object) - holistic process in the subject - perception as integrity. Comprehending the installation as a mediating link, Uznadze comes to the following understanding of the mechanism of perception: a motivated subject begins to interact with the outside world, resulting in a holistic change in the subject, caused in him by objective reality. Thus, an attitude arises, which is the basis of the action and experience of the individual, including perception.

In "General Psychology" reasoning on this topic ends with this. However, the problem remains. The point is this: according to the theory of set, perception as a full-fledged mental activity, as an objective experience, must be based on the set. But the latter, as you know, arises on the basis of a need and a situation, that is, it implies a preliminary reflection, perception of the situation. This is where the dilemma arises - in order to create an attitude, it is necessary to perceive the situation, which, in turn, needs an active attitude.

The author of the set theory saw the problem clearly and persistently looked for ways to solve it. This is evidenced by several entries in the Notebooks, as well as a whole section in his latest work entitled: "Perception as a Factor of Attitude: Two Meanings of the Term." At the same time, the note gives the second version of the author's text, which indicates the special care with which Uznadze developed this problem. Its solution emerges in the context of a three-stage

Scientific work of Uznadze

perception models. At the first stage, the setting as an integral state of the subject “is preceded by some primary effect of the action of the stimulus on one of his sensory organs - an effect that cannot yet be considered as a genuine, complete perception of a specific objective stimulus localized in the external world. Therefore, it is most natural to characterize this stage of perception as the stage of observation, or, more precisely, as the stage of sensation of stimuli acting from without. In General Psychology this simplest form of perception is also described and designated as "sensory perception"; moreover, it precedes the next stage of perception both in ontogenesis and in actual genesis. The second stage of perceptual activity is the usual object perception. The highest stage is carried out at the level of objectification as an active, arbitrary process - in General Psychology it is called observation. The last two forms of perceptual activity proceed on the basis of an attitude; the first is itself a condition for the emergence of the attitude.

This theoretical construction by Uznadze, no matter what content is put into the terms “remark”, “feeling” or “visual perception”, according to some interpreters, suggests that the emergence of an attitude is always preceded by some kind of “work” or activity7. It should be assumed that this quite reasonable remark would hardly have been rejected by the author of the set theory himself. However, the whole point is whether this activity should be considered behavior (activity) or, perhaps, it would be more accurate and reasonable, following Uznadze, to qualify it as a reflex or a “reflexoid act”.

Since here we are dealing with a hypothetical construction that entails far-reaching theoretical conclusions, special accuracy of presentation is required. Therefore, we will directly quote one of Dmitry Nikolayevich's "notes", the seriousness and importance of which is evidenced by its title - "The limits of the validity of the postulate of immediacy." Uznadze writes: “It would be wrong to believe that nothing arises in the subject directly - under the influence of the environment that everything is mediated setting of the subject. It seems that in the case when the subject does not have a need or need to establish relationships with the environment, or he does not have such an opportunity ... probably, the environment still affects him and causes a direct effect in the psyche, body or somatics. We can call this effect a reflex or reflex effect. These will be: sensation -

in the field of knowledge pleasure-unpleasure- in the emotional sphere, reflexes - in the motor sphere. At first glance, it seems legitimate to observe the previous psychology, according to which sensation, feeling (pleasant-unpleasant) and reflexes are elementary contents on our psyche and behavior. However, it is legitimate only in the sense that the material from which our experiences are built is taken from here. But what exactly is being built and what specific experiences will be at each given moment, it depends on what the subject's need and the situation of its satisfaction are, creating in the subject the appropriate attitude - experiences depend on this attitude.

Of course, in reality there is no such sharp distinction between them - material and installation. Therefore, there are cases when, say, a red stimulus causes a sensation of a different color, a hard one seems soft ... The same

6 Uznadze D.N. Notebooks // Matsne. 1988. No. 4. P. 61. (in Georgian)

7 Asmolov A.G. Activity and installation. M, 1979.

12 Science Editor's Foreword

most related to pleasant-unpleasant. Motor reflexes also depend on the state of the subject.

Although the author somewhat softens his position with the last passage, it is expressed quite categorically and, in our opinion, significantly corrects and clarifies the basic position of the theory. It should be taken seriously, because, by stating the existence of such forms of activity that are not covered by the principle of attitudinal mediation, it significantly increases the explanatory potential of the psychology of attitudinal, makes it more flexible both methodologically and purely theoretically.

In the context of the problem under discussion, this hypothetical construction The author's approach allows to eliminate all the "paradoxes" associated with the possibility of non-installation representation of installation factors. Moreover, this decision concerns not only the pre-installation "perception" of the situation, but also the factor of need, to which, in principle, the paradox of primacy can also be extended. If the primary representation of the situation can be carried out in the form of a direct "reflexoid" process of "feeling", then the subjective factor of attitude can be presented in the form of a "reflexoid" emotional experience. Above, in the comments to the chapter on the psychology of emotions, it was already noted that Uznadze, in principle, admits such a possibility, speaking of the "emotionality of need."

Concluding the discussion of the chapter on perception, we note one of its features. It does not touch at all on the question of illusions of perception, while this topic is constantly discussed in all old and modern textbooks. This looks somewhat strange, since it is the illusions of perception that form the basis of the methodological apparatus created by Uznadze and his collaborators for the study of set. And hardly any other general psychological theory can say more and more weightily about the illusions of perception than the theory of set. We don't have to go far to confirm this. S.L. Rubinstein in his famous textbook, by the way, published in the same year as Uznadze's textbook, discussing the subject of illusions of perception, directly points to the experiments of Uznadze and his collaborators, which prove the attitudinal, that is, central, and not peripheral, conditioning of illusions. Be that as it may, an analysis of this issue in a broader sense could certainly better demonstrate the explanatory potential of attitude theory in the field of perceptual psychology. This, undoubtedly, would have strengthened the setting sound of the entire textbook and contributed to the realization of the author's intention.

The concept of objectivation, created in the framework of the general psychological theory of attitude in the last period of Uznadze's scientific work, could significantly transform many chapters of General Psychology, primarily those relating to the so-called "higher cognitive processes." However, it will not be difficult for the reader to notice that the outlines of the objectification model are already given in the textbook itself, in particular, where the question of the relationship between perception and thinking is discussed. Although the idea and the term appeared even earlier (“Sleep and Dreams”), Uznadze began to thoroughly develop this theoretical model in the forties. In any case, in the "Notes" the author repeatedly returns to the discussion of this topic. For the first time, the concept was presented in an expanded form in the works of the Tbilisi University, in the study “The Problem of Objectification” (1948). In recent generalizing works, it acquires a completed form.

8 Uznadze D.N. Notebooks // Matsne. 1988. No. 4. P. 61. (in Georgian)

Scientific work of Uznadze

The concept of objectification is quite well known, so let us just recall that, according to Uznadze, human activity unfolds at two levels: at the level of impulsive behavior, where the implementation of the set occurs without hindrance, and at the level of objectification, where the implementation of behavior encounters difficulties, practical activity is blocked. - which leads to an act of objectivation. Objectification creates conditions for the beginning of theoretical activity aimed at solving the problem that has arisen and, ultimately, correcting the installation mechanism that ensures the expediency of behavior. To do this, the subject activates his higher cognitive functions and, in general, reflective consciousness.

Thus, the ability of objectification radically changes the appearance of the psyche, making it specifically human. Thanks to the act of objectification, a person has the possibility of experiencing something as given, as an object. This object or situation contains the reason for the delayed behavior. Therefore, “we face the question of what it is - what we objectify, what we experience as given. And the first thing that appears first in response is the consciousness that this is the same thing that we are experiencing; we have a consciousness of the identity, or identity, of the object of our experience. “This circumstance makes it possible for a person to develop a specific attitude to the world - he begins to cognize it”10.

The cognitive process is a synthetic process. And not only because it implies the synchronized and organized work of several cognitive functions, but also in the sense that these functions interpenetrate each other, creating complex cognitive abilities and formations.

In the last work of Uznadze we find only a sketchy description of this process. Everything naturally begins with the act of objectification; it, in turn, creates the prerequisites for a very essential act, without which the further development of the cognitive process is impossible - the act of identification, or the "logical law of identity." Then, apparently, there is a focusing of attention, which is closely related to objectification (more on this below). This is followed by a process of re-perception of some properties of the situation or object that were not properly reflected in the set of practical behavior and led to the disruption of the activity. But this requires not only a re-experiencing of these properties, but also their “preduction” with the help of the word - “this is obtained, in the final analysis, as a result of the combined work of perception and logical (verbal) thinking, that is, what we usually we call observation. Observation as the initial stage of the secondary reflection of reality "is the first manifestation of the work of our thinking, or, more precisely, it is a complex process that combines the work of our sensation and our verbal thinking into one whole"".

Theoretical activity that arose on the basis of objectification cannot do without memory processes. Moreover, memory is considered not as a single and qualitatively homogeneous function in all its manifestations, but as an ability that simultaneously represents several stages of development, solving various problems in human activity. Accordingly, passive

9 Uznadze D.N. Experimental Foundations of the Psychology of Set. Tbilisi, 1961, p. 190.

10 Ibid. S. 193.

11 Ibid. S. 195.

forms - recognition, immediate memory, associative memory, and active forms - memorization and recollection. These forms of manifestation of the mnemonic function are described in detail in General Psychology. At the same time, Uznadze pays special attention to revealing the nature of representation as the main building material memory, repeatedly returning to the analysis of this issue in various texts. Uznadze's approach here again remains synthetic; distinguishing feature higher forms representations consists in their generalization, or, in other words, intellectualization.

Finally, the process of solving the theoretical problem is completed by the operations of proper logical thinking - with the help of the data of attention, observation, representation, and the possibilities of identification and nomination obtained due to objectification.

Of all the marked links cognitive activity described within the framework of the concept of objectification, the most confusing and debatable issue is the relationship between the concepts of objectification and attention. Ultimately, it comes down to the problem of attention having its own essence and independent function. In General Psychology, in the corresponding chapter, the author analyzes attention in some detail, without questioning the legitimacy of its consideration as a separate and important cognitive process. However, the need for a clear qualification of the cognitive activity that occurs at the level of objectification set before Uznadze the task of a deeper understanding of the essence of the processes involved here, and, above all, attention. In 1947, he wrote a special work substantiating a certain position on the essence of attention, which was then actually changed in The Theoretical Foundations... (although, perhaps, it did not sufficiently refute the previous point of view). Considering that this position is little or completely unfamiliar to the Russian reader, let us dwell on this issue in some detail.

Uznadze analyzes attention both from the point of view of its function and the process itself. Three functions of attention are usually distinguished: selection from the impressions that act on the subject of a certain, strictly limited number of them; concentration of psychic energy on them and, as a result, an increase in the degree of clarity and distinctness of the contents of consciousness.

Analyzing these functions, the author comes to the conclusion that none of them can be considered a specific function of direct attention. In particular, selection cannot be such, since it presupposes a process that takes into account the content of experience and proceeds primarily in line with this content. Attention, in essence, is conceived as a formal “force” indifferent to the content, capable of illuminating everything, no matter what it is directed to, like a “spotlight”. Attention cannot necessarily be connected with the function of concentration, since there are cases of an all-consuming concentration of consciousness on certain contents even in the absence of attention (for example, during the strongest emotional experiences). And, finally, regarding the increase in the level of clarity of the contents of consciousness, which, according to the author, is the main function of attention, representing, as it were, its “biological basis”. It also cannot be thought of as a direct function of attention, since the clarity of the contents of consciousness means the presence of a reflection of reality rich in details; and the reflection of reality, of course, is not a matter of attention. It is reflected by such cognitive processes as perception, representation, thinking. So, I-

Scientific work of Uznadze

the clarity and distinctness of the reflection directly depend on the level of activity of these processes.

As for the procedural side of the work of attention, it is everywhere characterized by a more or less prolonged delay in activity on an object, a greater or lesser duration of fixation of cognitive mental forces on it. Therefore, the main thing is delay, stop, fixation; if they are not, then there is no attention. They, like the attributes of selection, concentration, and clarity attributed to attention, appear to be determined by another factor. Analyzing some cases of impulsive behavior, Uznadze comes to the conclusion that the fact of their undoubted expedient course presupposes the selection of agents acting on the subject, the concentration of psychic energy on them and their sufficiently clear reflection in the psyche.

What determines all this? According to the theory of set, the fundamental mechanism for the expediency of any behavior (regardless of whether it is impulsive or arbitrary) is set. Behavior is determined by the situation indirectly - through a holistic reflection of the latter in the subject of activity, through his attitude. Separate moments of behavior, in particular, the entire work of the psyche, are phenomena of a secondary order. Consequently, at each given moment, only that which lies in the channel of his actual attitude penetrates into the consciousness of the acting subject from the environment and is experienced with sufficient clarity. This means that what attention, understood as a formal force, cannot do, then becomes a function of the attitude, which is not a formal, but a purely meaningful concept. Thus, the concept of set fully explains the existence of clear contents of consciousness that serve to realize impulsive behavior. Here, it seems, there is no need for the concept of attention.

However, as is the case in the case of a complication of the situation, where, due to some obstacle, a delay occurs, the activity stops and the cognizing consciousness is fixed on it; for this is what is usually recognized as a procedural characteristic of attention. Uznadze finds a replacement for the concept of attention in this case as well. As you might guess, this role is assigned to the concept of objectification. To this end, three functions of objectivation are specifically discussed: 1) stopping and temporarily delaying practical behavior; 2) creation of conditions for the beginning of cognitive, theoretical activity; and 3) creation of conditions for a clear and precise understanding of the objectified content by connecting higher cognitive processes to the work of the psyche.

After that, it sounds quite logical to say that attention should essentially be characterized as a process of objectification. Thus, according to the author, all the "aporias" associated with the concept of attention are removed. The text deals with two of them:

"one. It becomes clear why attention, not being essentially connected with the concept of clarity of the contents of consciousness, is nevertheless always interpreted as its necessary source. We see that it does not itself directly illuminate this or that content, does not itself increase the level of clarity of its consciousness, but, by objectifying it, gives cognitive functions the opportunity to do so.

2. With the traditional interpretation of the concept of attention, it remains completely incomprehensible how we manage to pay attention to something. For this, after all, it is necessary that what will become the object of my attention, in one way or another, has already been given to my consciousness. But something will be given to me if my attention is already drawn

16. Foreword by Science Editor

on him. With the proposed interpretation of the concept of attention, this difficulty will be removed by itself: the contents of consciousness are directly given not with the help of attention, but on the basis of an attitude; this creates the possibility of their objectification, that is, the possibility of making an object once perceived an object of further cognitive acts - an object of attention.

In a word, the functions traditionally ascribed to attention are distributed between set, objectification, and cognitive processes. The concept of attention, as such, is redundant.

In Experimental Foundations of the Psychology of Set, Uznadze begins to revise this position. In any case, he suggests that the psyche works on two planes, one of which does without the participation of attention, and the other assumes its direct participation. At the same time, it is emphasized that in both cases there is undoubtedly clarity and distinctness of mental contents.

And finally, in the Fundamentals of the Theory of Set, an attempt is made to substantiate a new point of view. The need to connect the function of attention arises at the level of objectification. Naturally, the key point here is the separation of the concepts of objectification and attention. According to Uznadze, they are closely interrelated, to the point that sometimes it is difficult to see the difference between them. However, it is still necessary to distinguish between them. Objectification is only when we stop at a certain experience, which can become the subject of our attention. Objectification provides material to focus on. However, if we single out the clarity of experience as a separate moment of this latter, then before being able to speak about the degree of its intensity, one should first have an idea of ​​the experience itself as something given, identical to itself. In other words, the prerequisite for the work of attention is the act of objectification. Attention as an independent mental process is included after objectification.

It should be noted that the above discussion leaves some questions open. The main one is to accurately determine the function of attention. Apparently, in the latest version, this is the provision of clarity of experience. But, according to previous considerations, the mental content that arises at the first level of activity, where there is still neither objectification nor attention, is not deprived of the predicate of clarity. Therefore, giving clarity and distinctness to the experience is, at least, a function not only of attention. However, as it turns out from a study specifically devoted to identifying the essence of attention, this function is directly related to the implementation of other cognitive processes. In this case, it is somewhat incomprehensible why it is necessary to duplicate it also with a special process of attention. Probably Uznadze intended to work this question. Therefore, it is now difficult to imagine how he would rewrite the chapter on attention in the light of the concept of objectification. But there is no doubt that, if he happened to do this, the changes would be significant.

The chapter "Psychology of mnemonic processes" is the most voluminous in the book. It is full of rich factual material and interesting theoretical interpretations. Here the author makes maximum use of the potential of the theory of set in explaining certain features of mnemonic phenomena. Uznadze's considerations for the most part seems quite convincing, at least

12 Uznadze D.N. On the problem of the essence of attention // Psychology: Proceedings of the Institute of Psychology Acad. sciences Gruz. SSR. T. 4. 1947. S. 163. (in Georgian)

Scientific work of Uznadze

in comparison with the alternative views that existed at that time. However, let the reader judge for himself the merits or demerits of Uznadze's approach to the process of recognition and its illusions, the process of associations and so-called "complexes", to the question of the accuracy of reproduction, to the problem of experiencing certainty in recollection, to the attitudinal version of the general theory of memory.

Here we note only one question, to which Uznadze returned more than once in the context of the concept of objectification. This is a question about the nature of representation as the basic building block of memory. In "General Psychology" this question is only touched upon in the aspect of the difference between the image of perception and representation.

Defending the idea of ​​the synthetic nature of cognitive activity at the level of objectivation, Uznadze assigns an "outstanding role" to the ability of representation, the most specific and characteristic form which are the products of our memory. The fundamental feature of memory, by and large, is that which concerns the repetition of psychic contents. The condition of repetition is objectification; therefore it is the main source of the contents of human memory. However, representation exists even before objectification. It exists in the animal and is absolutely random, individual and specific. But a representation acquires a specifically human form as a result of the mental processing of this primary form at the level of objectification, its intellectualization, which makes it “generalized”. In a word, "the process of representation, which includes thinking, is a representation attributed to a person (with the sign of generalization) - this moment of generalization is introduced into the representation by thinking"13. Thus, here we have yet another example of a true synthetic activity of cognitive functions. This time it is about cooperation between memory and thinking.

Chapter eight - "Psychology of thinking" contains fairly complete information on the psychology of thinking that existed at that time in science. It would be even more interesting if it included a theoretical model of the regulation of mental activity at the level of objectification and experimental facts related to

With installation action at various stages of the thought process. Nonetheless,

the chapter still reflects some of the original theoretical and empirical developments of the author. The latter concern the ontogeny of conceptual thinking. Here Uznadze makes extensive use of the results of his well-known experimental research in this area. As for the original theoretical approaches, this, first of all, refers to the analysis of the problem of confidence in general and, in particular, confidence in judgments undertaken by Uznadze.

Uznadze attached great importance to the solution of this problem in order to understand the essential features of the functioning of the psyche. Since the phenomenon of confidence is observed in various mental processes (perception, memory, thinking, will), the problem of its explanation acquires general psychological significance. Therefore, it is not surprising that the author refers to it twice in General Psychology. The first time he does this is in the context of a discussion of the general theory of memory. Uznadze believes that any serious theory of memory must show where confidence in the correctness of reproduction comes from. The formulation and solution of the problem here fully take into account the specifics of mnemonic processes. In the second case, when considering the phenomenon of certainty in a judgment, the problem is posed and analyzed in a broader context.

13 Uznadze D.N. Notebooks // Matsne. 1988. No. 1. P. 92. (in Georgian)

In 1941, in his general work on the psychology of attitude, Uznadze again turned to the problem of certainty, seeking to further clarify his position. What does it essentially consist of? People implicitly have confidence in the reality of perception, in the truth of a judgment, in the correctness of a memory, in the legitimacy of a decision. The question is, where does this experience come from, if reality, “nothing” is given only in perception, judgment, memory. How do we know that they correctly reflect this "something"? The situation would be completely different if we had both givens - both this “something” and its mental reflection. Then it would be possible to compare them with each other and experience the degree of their correspondence. But since the objective is given only through psychic reflection, we are deprived of such a possibility. Because of this, according to Uznadze, a satisfactory solution to this problem has not yet been found. In fact, in all previous theories, other experiences, their reproduction, or some features of their course were recognized as the source of this experience; according to them, one experience determines another. However, how can one be sure that the subjective content of an experience actually correlates with objective reality, if another experience is taken as a measure of this, which has as much in common with the objective state of things as the first. Apart from the logical and factual inconsistency, such explanations are unacceptable for Uznadze also because they are based on the theory of immediacy. “On the other hand, there are no difficulties here for the theory of installation. The fact is that, according to the main idea of ​​this theory, there is not only a mental reflection of the objective state of things, but also holistic, namely the installation, reflection. Consequently, the objective state of things is already reflected by the subject in the attitude before he reflects it in his perception, judgment, memory.

But the work of the psyche is the realization of our attitude; when it occurs without hindrance, when the psyche reflects what is reflected in the attitude, it is natural that we experience the correctness of our mental work, we have confidence that our perceptions, judgments, memories reflect the objective state of things”14.

The reader may be somewhat perplexed by the fact that the book does not contain a chapter on the psychology of language and speech, which in textbooks usually follows the chapter on the psychology of thinking. Indeed, it is difficult to fully explain this circumstance. We just have to make assumptions about this. It is known, for example, that Külpe, the eminent researcher of thought, in his comparatively early textbook on general psychology, being true to the principle of relying solely on reliable facts, but having no such, chose simply not to include a chapter on thinking in it. Probably, for Uznadze, the creation of an original textbook on general psychology also made sense, first of all, from the point of view of a new theoretical understanding and generalization of existing scientific data. Otherwise, in the end, it was possible to simply organize the translation and publication of some good textbook.

Most likely, by the time of writing the textbook, the author did not yet have an established system of ideas that would shed new light on the psychological essence of language and speech. Perhaps that is why he refrained from writing the corresponding

14 Uznadze D.N. The main provisions of the theory of installation // Anthology of humane pedagogy: Uz nadze. M., 2000. S. 187.

Scientific work of Uznadze

of the relevant chapter, postponing the matter until the subsequent edition of the book, which he no doubt intended to carry out.

However, it is clear that this issue has always been of particular interest to Uznadze. This is evidenced by the content of his first general psychological work ("Impersonalia", 1923), aimed at revealing the psychological nature of a certain linguistic reality - the so-called subjectless sentences. To this end, he turns to "a hitherto unknown area of ​​reality, which is completely alien to the opposite poles of the subjective and objective, and in which we are dealing with the primary fact of their internal, undifferentiated existence"15. This “subpsychic reality”, in which the subject-object antithesis has been removed, in this case acts as a beginning that unites sensations into a single image, and the basis of an intention to an object that is present in every perception (experience) as a secondary, derivative phenomenon. This theoretical construction allows the author to understand why and how impersonals occur. Somewhat later, in the concept of the biosphere, which became the forerunner of the theory of set, the reality predicted in this work acquired a much broader content as the basis for the expediency of the activity of living beings and even as a "principle of life".

AT In the same year, the remarkable study "Psychological Foundations of Naming" was published. Its meaning is determined by the importance of the question itself, since the fact of naming “is the moment of the final meeting of the sound complex and thought. Therefore, this moment, in essence, must be considered the beginning date of history. real language"16. This fundamental question, perhaps, was experimentally studied by Uznadze for the first time in psychological science. In particular, it was shown that the naming of objects and phenomena is by no means an absolutely random, completely unmotivated act, but has a specific psychological basis. Giving a name to one or another object, the subjects give preference to well-defined sound complexes. The identification of this pattern has outlined a new path for both the study of psycho logical questions language, and for understanding the psychological nature of speech activity. The results obtained by Uznadze were included in textbooks on psychology and stimulated extensive research in this area.

AT further Uznadze continued active research in the field of psychology of language and speech. This is evidenced by numerous entries in the Notebooks, as well as a manuscript preserved in his personal archive, completely devoted to the most important problems of language and speech (1944). Finally, on the basis of these developments, Uznadze writes a thorough study - "The inner form of language." Distinguished by its amazing depth, and at the same time by its clarity and clarity of exposition, it is undoubtedly one of the best general psychological works of Dmitrii Nikolaevich. The origin and specifics of linguistic reality, the place and role of the psychological component in the language, the relationship between linguistics and psychology, the relationship between the logical and psychological in the nature of language, the relationship between language and speech, a wide range of topics related to language creativity, assimilation, use and understanding of the language - here is an incomplete list of questions that are not just about

15 Uznadze D.N. Impersonalia // Uznadze D. Proceedings. T. IX. Tbilisi, 1986. P. 314. (in Georgian)

16 Uznadze D.N. Psychological foundations of the name // Uznadze D.N. Psychological research. M., 1966.

20 Science editor's preface

are judged, but to which quite definite and reasoned answers are given from the standpoint of the general psychological theory of attitude.

These works by Uznadze are quite well known in linguistic and psychological circles and give a fairly complete picture of his views in the field of the psychology of language and speech, which, alas, were not reflected in General Psychology.

Finally, in the last chapter on the psychology of the imagination, the author resorts to several interesting theoretical moves in an effort to develop a new perspective on some important phenomena in this area. First of all, this concerns such manifestations of fantasy work as dreaming and play.

Trying to overcome the somewhat "fantastic nature" of Freud's theoretical construction, Uznadze proposes to explain the peculiarity of dream consciousness, as well as the features of the identification of so-called "complexes" in associative experiments (see also in the seventh chapter - association and attitude), based on the concept of attitude . As the reader himself will easily see, General Psychology does this in a rather concise manner. However, in his other works, these questions, as well as the underlying serious problem correlations of psychoanalysis and attitude psychology as concepts of the unconscious are considered very thoroughly and with the proper polemical spirit. In the light of the ongoing discussions of psychoanalytic ideas about the unconscious, it makes sense to briefly recall Uznadze's position on this matter.

We find the first mention of psychoanalysis in the Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology in the context of Uznadze's general idea that "unconscious psychic experience does not exist. However, psychic experiences themselves are not sufficient to comprehend their own flow. It is beyond the power of physiological facts. The determination of the mental takes place in the so-called "biospheric reality", which, in the course of further development of the theory, is transformed into the concept of an attitude.

Later, in the treatise "Sleep and Dreams", Uznadze already thoroughly considers Freud's concept, expressing fundamental considerations in this regard. In psychoanalysis, Uznadze notes, the area of ​​the unconscious psyche does not differ in its content from consciousness. It contains the same experiences as consciousness, with the only difference being that the individual is unaware of their existence. But in this case the concept of the unconscious does not provide anything new, since whether its content is masked or not (as, say, in dreams), it essentially remains the bearer of the same content as consciousness. Unconscious psychic phenomena “already exist ready-made before they can be realized in a dream. What is the meaning of their activation in dream consciousness? They continue to exist here not in the form of representations, thoughts, desires or affects, but as a readiness to activate their functional tendency, as a setting of the subject for the emergence of experiences in their direction.

Uznadze believes that the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious is not suitable for understanding the patterns of generation and flow of the contents of consciousness, since it consists of ordinary psychic (conscious) phenomena - thoughts, desires, affects - that are devoid of the sign of experienceability, and the explanation of experience is again through experience (let even the unconscious) is impossible

17 Uznadze D.N. Fundamentals of experimental psychology // Proceedings. T. II. Tbilisi, 1960, p. 160.

18 Uznadze D. Sleep and dreams. Tbilisi, 1936. P. 58. (in Georgian)

Scientific work of Uznadze

but (recall the postulate of immediacy). To do this, it is necessary to find a corresponding reality and a concept of a completely different nature and category.

In his latest research, Uznadze returns to the consideration of the psychoanalytic concept, but not in connection with the phenomenon of dreams, but from a general psychological point of view. By this time, the attitude had already been finally recognized as a psychic reality, and the role of an alternative to any other understanding of the unconscious, primarily psychoanalytic, was attributed to it. If we have something and proceeds really unconsciously, then this, of course, is our installation, the author asserts.

According to Uznadze, the weakest point in Freud's teaching is that the unconscious is characterized in him only negatively; the sphere of the unconscious consists of the same conscious experiences, but only expelled from consciousness and now in the form of an experience devoid of the quality of consciousness. Such an unconscious is the same psyche minus consciousness. The inner nature and structure of consciousness and the unconscious are essentially the same. This is the main flaw in Freud's theory. If we are to develop a truly productive concept of the unconscious, it must be freed from the content common to conscious mental life and endowed with a fundamentally different ontological and functional content. It is this reality that is implied by the concept of attitude. Being not an ordinary mental experience, but an integral state of the subject, it underlies all conscious experience, while remaining always unconscious. The attitude is an early stage in the development of the psyche, logically and actually preceding consciousness. The psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious, in essence, does not give science anything new. This is the psyche, expelled from consciousness, that is, consciousness appears as its indispensable preliminary condition. Therefore, it does not clarify in any way the key issue concerning the emergence and development of the psyche, not to mention the fact that such an understanding of the unconscious inevitably leads us to the aporia of "unexperienced experience."

Such is Uznadze's assessment of the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious. It has both critical and positive parts. On the one hand, the illegality of such a view is shown, and on the other hand, a concept is indicated with which it can and should be replaced. Two points must be singled out here: one is how accurate and justified Uznadze's criticism of Freud is, and the second is how expedient and productive it is to comprehend the concept of attitude as an alternative to the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious.

No agreement was found on these issues, although they were seriously discussed in many studies (F.V. Bassin, I.T. Bzhalava, V.L. Kakabadze, A.E. Sheroziya, and others). Particularly rich material on this subject is contained in the well-known fundamental four-volume collection of materials from the International Conference on the Unconscious, held in Tbilisi (1979), the homeland of Uznadze, one of the deepest thinkers of the 20th century who investigated the problem of the unconscious.

The interested reader may refer to these sources. Let us only note that Uznadzev's criticism, it seems to us, is absolutely adequate in relation to the type of the unconscious that is designated in psychoanalysis as the "repressed unconscious." It is indeed often characterized by Freud as "unconscious representation", "unconscious affect" and so on, that is, as an ordinary psychic experience devoid of consciousness. Such an "unconscious

the body system has the same features as consciousness”9, and being a derivative of consciousness, of course, cannot serve as a precondition for the emergence of this latter. However, in the psychoanalytic concept, especially at a late stage of its development, another type of the unconscious psyche - the so-called "proper unconscious", represented in the personal substructure "Id". We are talking about the genetically original form of the psyche, given in the form of energy of primary needs and determining other personal and mental structures phylogenetically, ontogenetically and in the sense of actual genesis. properties and principles of action are fundamentally different from the rest of the psyche - conscious and unconscious.The characteristic of the "properly unconscious" excludes any parallels between it and consciousness (psyche minus consciousness); mechanism of expediency of behavior, acts on about again the "reality principle", while "Id" is guided by the "pleasure principle".

Therefore, one should approach the question of replacing the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious with an attitude with great caution, bearing in mind: 1) that within the framework of psychoanalysis itself this concept has a minimum of two essential from personal content; 2) that within the psychology of attitude itself there have been and still are various interpretations of the ontological status of the phenomenon of attitude (especially in connection with the possibility of its comprehension); 3) the need to take into account the meta-theoretical foundations for the formation of these concepts; the functions attributed to the sphere of the unconscious in one and the other theory, as well as the specific content and formal characteristics of the concepts and the scope of their application. In a word, we are talking about the methodological, theoretical and practical context of two completely different systems of psychology.

Otherwise, the simple replacement of the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious by the concept of attitude, which is absolutely foreign to it, will be tantamount to the destruction of this psychological system and, consequently, its complete rejection. The legitimacy and, most importantly, the productivity of such an approach can be disputed, at least until the complete inconsistency of psychoanalytic practice is shown. And here, of course, it is hardly possible to get by simply pointing out that in psychoanalytic practice, Freud apparently "really managed to touch" the factor that causes the disease. However, without giving it a positive characterization that is essentially different from the conscious psyche, he defined it only negatively - as the unconscious. In fact, he was dealing with an attitude, for it is precisely this that represents an unconscious psychic reality. Whether this is so can be seen by contrasting psychoanalysis with a system of psychotherapy that is completely and indisputably built on the principles of a general psychological theory of attitude, the emergence of which we have the right to expect in the foreseeable future.

Fantasy, as a mental process, is given the primary role in creating the bizarre world of the game. Therefore, this chapter also deals with the problems of the lemmatics of the game. However, fantasy, like other mental functions, is only a tool for the implementation of the game process, which, first of all, is a certain independent form of behavior. It can be argued that, despite the long history of studying the issue, science still remains ignorant of many secrets of this type of activity.

19 Freud 3. Basic psychological theories in psychoanalysis. M., 1923. S. 132

20 Uznadze D.N. Experimental Foundations of the Psychology of Set. Tbilisi, 1961, pp. 177-178.

Scientific work of Uznadze

General Psychology provides an excellent critique of the most authoritative game theories in existence at the time. The author believes that the main drawback of all previous theories is the lack of a correct answer to the key question: why does creature? Where does the motivation for the game come from? Such a driving force, according to Uznadze, is the so-called "functional need" - the tendency to set in motion the functions of the individual given by nature, which are not yet connected to the implementation of life tasks.

The concept of a functional tendency first appeared in Pedology, but Uznadze began to seriously develop it in the work Sleep and Dreams, which is interesting in many respects. Faced in General Psychology with the need to identify the peculiar features of various types of behavior (consumption, service, labor, learning, play, etc.), the author solves this problem literally a year later in his study Forms of Human Behavior. It presents remarkable examples of descriptive characteristics of the most important independent forms of behavior, as well as an original principle for their classification. Here, the enormous theoretical potential of the concept of a functional tendency as a motivation for self-activity, an internal, procedural stimulus of activity, was revealed. Various behaviors have been classified according to their motivational nature. One group consisted of types of behavior induced by the so-called substantial, or objective, needs (extrogenic forms of behavior), and the second - by functional, or procedural, needs (intogenic forms of behavior).

The game is a typical form of introgenous behavior. According to Uznadze, "the main essence of the game is the activation of biologically irrelevant capabilities of the child, caused by the impulse of functional tendencies"21. What does such an understanding of the essence of the game give to explain its characteristic features? Relatively little is said about this in General Psychology. But in "Child Psychology" this issue is analyzed in some detail.

In short, the advantage of the functional tendency theory is that it proceeds from a single principle in understanding all the features of play activity noted in other theories. Thus, according to Groos, play is "a preparatory school" for the future life. This is essentially true, although it remains unclear why the child does this. However, if in the case of play we are really dealing with the forces inherited by the child, set in motion by functional tendencies, the issue is easily resolved. Indeed, these forces (functions) were used by the child's ancestors in serious activities, to solve life problems that the child will have to deal with in the future. In a word, in play, the functional tendency stimulates action and, consequently, the forces necessary to solve the problems of an adult person are trained and developed. Therefore, it is understandable that the game is indeed a preparatory school for the forces needed in the future life.

According to Buhler, play is a "functional pleasure" for the child. This is also true. But Buhler does not show where this experience comes from and how it is related to the essence and nature of the game. Avoiding hedonistic interpretations, Uznadze believes that this characteristic of the game is again associated with unrealized forces and corresponding functional tendencies. Thanks to them, the child begins to play, but, playing, naturally, satisfies the functional needs.

21 Uznadze D.N. The game. Theory of Functional Tendency // Anthology of Humane Pedagogy: Uznadze. M., 2000. S. 133.

needs, which is experienced in a corresponding way, that is, in the form of functional pleasure.

The theory of functional tendency also makes clear the fact of a gradual reduction in the manifestations of play in the process of ontogeny, since the circle of functions not involved in other types of activity steadily decreases with age.

Other advantages of the game theory proposed by Uznadze can also be pointed out. However, the main thing, as it seems to us, is that, when deciding on the initiation of the game, the author does not disregard the content side of the game activity. The question of why a child plays this way and not otherwise is decided on the same basis. The content of the game is each time determined by the composition and level of formation of psychophysical forces striving for action. However, they can only be updated in a certain "age environment" organized according to economic, social and cultural factors. As elsewhere, Uznadze here also follows the principle of the inseparable unity of internal and external, from which “it naturally follows that out of all those internal possibilities that the child’s psychophysical organism possesses, the functional tendency will be most clearly manifested by those possibilities that meet the appropriate necessary conditions in environment. From this it is clear that the child does not always and everywhere play in the same way, and the types and forms of his play change in accordance with the environment. The content of the play of a village child is one thing, of a city child another; living on the coast of the sea is one thing, a highlander child is another”22. Based on the foregoing, one can doubt the legitimacy of an authoritative assessment, which sees “a serious defect in this theory in that it considers play as an action from within matured functions, as an organism, and not an activity that is born in relationships with the outside world. The game thus turns, in its essence, into a formal activity, not connected with the specific content with which it is somehow externally filled. Such an explanation of the "essence" of the game cannot therefore explain the real game in its concrete manifestations. It is obvious that it was precisely the absence of translated original texts by the author that did not allow a prominent specialist to form a more adequate idea of ​​Uznadze's views on this and not only on this issue.

One can be sure that the proposed book will serve to a better understanding of Dmitrii Nikolaevich's position on many important problems of general psychology. Of course, as tutorial to a certain extent, it could not help but become obsolete. After all, more than sixty years is a long time in science. However, some of the old psychology textbooks undoubtedly have features of enduring value. The principles of selection of material, placement of accents, manner of presentation, creating a unique creative aura, are always a subject of interest for a specialist, and not only historical, if the author is a prominent scientist. Especially when it comes to a unique textbook based on an original general psychological concept, which, despite the slowdown in development, still has its followers, continues to develop and occupies its own, well-defined niche in world psychology.

Irakli Imedadze, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, President of the Society of Psychologists of Georgia

22 Rubinstein S.L. General psychology. M., 1940. S. 496.

23 Uznadze D.H. The game. The theory of functional tendency // Anthology of humane pedagogy: Uznadze. M., 2000. S. 136.

Scientific work of Uznadze

and problems of general psychology

The scientific heritage of Dmitry Nikolaevich Uznadze as a whole is rather poorly known.

como of the Russian scientific community. This is more than strange, given the circumstances.

evidence that he was a recognized classic of "Soviet psychology". Research

Uznadze and his schools have always attracted special attention, and the original

The chological concept of the installation has been the subject of numerous discussions

and discussions. Ultimately, she was given the highest rating - as a scale

new theoretical system in which the category

the unconscious, moreover, it was even considered as a "Soviet alternative

psychoanalysis". All this, however, took place in conditions where many significant

there seemed to be no reason for the existence of such a state of affairs, one

but it remained unchanged until the end of the Soviet era.

We will not analyze the subjective and objective prerequisites here.

this paradox, although from a historical point of view it would not be unreasonable

resno. The main thing is that, apparently, now they have been largely eliminated. Russian

the scientific community finally got the opportunity to fully familiarize

remains to this day.

The proposed book will partly contribute to the satisfaction of this interest.

resa. However, before touching directly on this work, it makes sense in

describe in general terms the most important areas of scientific work

Uznadze’s quality in order to remind once again how little it is known to the Russian

the reader and how much remains to be done to correct the situation.

The rich scientific heritage of Uznadze includes works on philosophy

philosophy, pedagogy, history, aesthetics and psychology. Moreover, close research

Uznadze took up psychological problems only after 1918, having moved to

Tbilisi, where in the newly opened university he began to organize the first

in Georgia department and laboratory of psychology. Prior to that, he studied theo in Kutaisi.

theoretical and practical work in the field of pedagogy, wrote textbooks on the history

rii, as well as studies on aesthetics and literary criticism, and especially on fi

Uznadze is rightfully considered one of the founders of the Georgian philosophical

schools. His work in this area includes monographs on the history of philosophy

Science editor's preface

fii are works devoted to the analysis of the philosophical systems of Vl. Solovyov

(written back in Germany) and Bergson (1920), as well as a number of original

studies of various philosophical problems: "Individuality and its genesis"

(1910), "Philosophical Conversations: Death" (1911), "The Philosophy of War" (1914), "The Meaning

life "(1915)," The meaning of life and education "(1916). These works, written in the spirit

philosophy of life and existential consciousness, to this day have not lost either their

relevance or scientific significance. In the twenties, Uznadze ceased his

philosophical search, no doubt, due to the obvious inconsistency of his ideas with

position of the official ideological doctrine. Unfortunately, the Russian reader

completely unfamiliar with this part of Uznadze's work.

Much better, in this sense, is the situation with the developments of Uznadze

in the field of pedagogy and neighboring areas of psychology, mainly

zom, thanks to the book “Learn

ze" (2000). It includes a number of works by the author of different periods. All their topics

The paper is diverse and, on the whole, reflects Uznadze's range of interests in this area. Although

it is also certain that many significant works are still waiting to be translated

and publications. First of all, this concerns the monographs "Pedology" (1933) and, in

features, "The Psychology of the Child" (1947).

It should be noted that Uznadze performed a large number of studies

in this area (more than fifty works), having actually developed an integral system

views, covering the most important issues of both pedagogy and age and

dagogic psychology (Uznadze clearly demarcated these disciplines, although

based on the psychological substantiation of the pedagogical system). Pedagogical

Uznadze's concept is built on a unified methodological basis, including precise

new definition of all basic pedagogical concepts. Such a unified philosophical

the psychological basis was the idea of ​​a holistic and active personality as an object

education - an idea that later resulted in the well-known psychologists

the theory of installation. In the actual pedagogical research of the author,

there are questions related to the essence, goals and objectives of education as a subject

pedagogy, the role of the school, in particular the teacher, and the family in this process, differences

between theoretical and practical pedagogy and the implementation of the main didactics

ical principles in the organization of the latter, and much more.

In studies on developmental and educational psychology,

and originally solved the following questions: age periodization (“the theory of the age

dy”), the relationship between congenital and acquired (“theory of coinciding

tions”), the relationship between learning and development, the essence of gaming activity (“theo

riya functional trend"), the essence of educational activity (as a transitional

forms between the so-called. extrogenic and introgenic behaviors), development

interests (including cognitive ones), the development of technical thinking, the beginning

la school age and readiness for school, etc.

Of course, in a small collection it was impossible to fully cover,

how Uznadze solved all these questions. Essentially, it allows

get an idea about this familiarization with the works from the cycle of experimental

studies of the twenties, devoted to some aspects of the ontogeny of mice

leniya (grouping and formation of concepts), which were first published

set in the book "Psychological Research" (1966).

The work of Uznadze in the field of psychology is distinguished by a variety of topics and fields.

stay. In addition to issues of developmental and educational psychology, he also dealt with

Scientific work of Uznadze

topical theoretical and practical issues of psychotechnics. Before that,

how the defeat of psychotechnics in the Soviet Union began, he completed up to ten

ty works in this area.

gee. Some important general psychological works were included in the mentioned

above is a book that until recently remained the only one published in Russia

and reflecting the psychological work of Uznadze. Her second, somewhat shortened

new edition, was carried out in 1997 under the title "Setting Theory". But in her

many significant and even landmark works of the author were not included, in particular

article "Petites perceptions of Leibniz and their place in psychology" (1919), first published

research; "Impersonalia", where Uznadze, analyzing an interesting linguistic phenomenon

nomen, for the first time refers to a certain biospheric reality, which has become the prototype

installation. The biospheric point of view was thoroughly developed already in the first

Uznadze's monographs on "General Psychology" - "Fundamentals of experimental psycho

logic. Fundamental Foundations and the Psychology of Sensations” (1925). As appears from

titles, it discusses in detail the methodological, theoretical and

scientific questions of "General Psychology", a thorough critical analysis of the state of

of psychological science at that time, as well as extensive material on

note the book "Sleep and Dreams" (1936). Despite its relatively small

size, it is replete with innovative ideas in connection with the interpretation of "comp

lexov” and other concepts of psychoanalysis from the point of view of the theory of attitude. In her representation

Lena is essentially a new concept of dreams, the development of ideas about

"functional trend", the idea of ​​"objectification" appears, etc. Completed

The concept of objectivation acquired a new form in the milestone article “The Problem of the Lens

tion” (1948). Finally, in this context, mention should be made of the work “On the problem

Essence of Attention” (1947), which illuminates the nature of attention in a very peculiar way. All

these works are made in Georgian.

As for the main work of Dmitri Nikolayevich's life - his general psychological

logical concept of installation, then theoretical work on the creation of a new psycho

logical system Uznadze began in the twenties of the last century and already through

several years in the aforementioned book "Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology" before

put, as it were, the first (biospheric) version of the concept. In the future, research

research continued both in the direction of development and improvement of the theory itself,

and its experimental substantiation. Late thirties-early forties

Dov Uznadze wrote several works summarizing theoretical ideas and empirical

the physical data of the psychology of the attitude of the next stage of its development. This is the basis

intelligible articles: "On the psychology of attitude" (1938), "Research in the psychology

Attitudes" (1939), chapter "Psychology of Attitudes" in the book "General Psychology"

(1940) and Fundamentals of the Theory of Set (1941).

Only recently the Russian reader was able to get acquainted with the last of them.

In an abbreviated form, it was included in the collection of pedagogical works noted above.

Uznadze. Meanwhile, these works not only allow us to trace the historical path

development of attitude psychology, but also to understand the meaning of theoretical moves in connection with

posing the problem of installation itself, which was interpreted differently depending on

armor of spontaneity” and as opposed to subjectless psychology. In "General Psi-

6 Science editor's preface

chology” the emphasis is on the methodological problem of the expediency of behavior

niya - the installation acts as a psychological mechanism for this expedient

differences.

In the forties, Uznadze introduced a number of clarifications and additions to his

theoretical system. In 1950, he died suddenly, but managed to create

two significant works, summing up the last period of his work. Both

were written in Russian and were intended for all specialists in the country.

The first, largest and most famous - "Experimental Foundations of Psychology

installation" - was published in Russian three times: in 1961 in Tbilisi in the book

under the same name, and then in 1966 and 2000 in Moscow in the already noted collection

nikah. The second work - "Basic provisions of the theory of installation" - was published

only once, in the same book of 1961, the circulation of which was only 1000 eq.

samplers. Therefore, more than forty years after its publication, it

installation. Meanwhile, it contains a number of important provisions that develop the theory in

direction of deepening the analysis of the specifics of the human psyche. Temsa

In my opinion, Uznadze pointed out the vector of the subsequent development of the theory of set, in the direction

which it went on in the psychological school he created. That's it in a nutshell

the state of affairs today.

Let us now turn directly to the present book, General Psychology.

gia." It is not known how long the work on it took, but it is obvious that Uznadze will come

it was necessary to force it, since the matter of training psychological personnel (and in

scrap of humanities specialists), which he led, urgently needed

Georgian textbook on psychology. The book was published in 1940, that is, in fact

at an intermediate stage in the development of the installation theory. She will appear later, for sure,

would have a slightly different form in the light of the subsequent development of the theory of set,

which is the core of the entire textbook. Last but not least, keeping in mind the task

formation of his psychological school, the author attempted to create

study guide, completely built on the original psychological game

concepts. This book is of interest primarily from this point of view, because

there are few such textbooks in psychology.

foundation of the general psychological theory of attitude. It is already clear

in the very structure and composition of the textbook. The sequence of chapters in it is almost

opposite to that accepted in the textbooks of that time. In them, usually at the beginning of the consideration

cognitive mental processes, then emotional and volitional

processes and, finally, issues related to the personality and its activities. Before

supplied textbook presentation of material on individual mental processes

introduces a chapter on the psychology of attitude, which is simply absent from traditional

textbooks; followed by chapters on the psychology of emotions, followed by behavior

and will, and only after that - to cognitive processes: sensation, perception,

memory, thinking, attention, imagination.

This structure, of course, is not accidental, but follows logically from the fundamental

the underlying thesis of the theory of installation, according to which external and internal factors

tori do not directly invoke the behavior and hence the corresponding

mental processes, and indirectly - through the setting; mouth comes first

novka as a modification, adjustment of a holistic subject, expressed in readiness

his psychophysical functions to perform a certain activity, after which

on its basis, specific behavior is implemented. According to the theory of installation, such is

Scientific work of Uznadze

there is a general mechanism of the work of the psyche; Therefore, the book at the beginning deals with

patterns of installation, and after - patterns of behavior and included

mental processes in it.

The noted principle of immediacy and its criticism are set out in after

days of the first chapter - "Introduction to Psychology". This is where it appears

originality and originality of Uznadze's methodological approach to the foundations

mediocrity (external reality directly and immediately affects

on consciousness, as well as the phenomena of consciousness affect each other), it is characteristic

not only for the whole of classical psychology, but also for contemporary theories

tic systems such as behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, personology. it

circumstance and serves as the main source of their fallacy. Denying it

dogmatic postulate and recognition of the mediated nature of the psyche (consciousness

niya, activity) is a prerequisite for building a new, true

psychology.

Incidentally, such a formulation of the question is the need to overcome

"fatal" postulate for the previous psychology, or the so-called "task

Uznadze"

It was recognized as fundamental in the construction of other new theo

rhetic systems, in particular the theory of activity

However, this task is only half the battle. The main thing is to find the right

solution, that is, to show what should actually act as

real mediator. According to Uznadze, this is precisely what the

acceptance of the installation.

In the third chapter, Uznadze turns to the theoretical substantiation of the indicated

concept and to the experimental data that were obtained by him jointly

with employees and characterized the main properties of the installation. These data dos

well known. As regards the theoretical presentation of the concept of

breathing works. The discussion here revolves around

problems of expediency of behavior. The mediating link is again a ledge

there is a subject whose mode of existence is its integral state -

installation. However, in this context, it acts as a mechanism to ensure

chivayuschie expediency of behavior. Based on the main factors

conducting (need, situation) and integrating their characteristics, mouth

innovation appears as the psychological mechanism that controls behavior

and, consequently, its constituent functions and processes, mediating, in

ultimately, the impact of the environment on the psyche and interpsychic interactions.

In contrast to mechanism and vitalism, Uznadze proposes a three-term scheme: environment

yes - subject (attitude) - behavior. Considering this, as well as the fact that in the works

Uznadze, the term "behavior" acts as a synonym for activity, familiarity

lingering with this text will, perhaps, better clarify the position of the school

attitudes towards posing and solving the problem of mediation in general

and, in particular, the relationship between attitude and activity.

Having considered the general installation mechanism of the expediency of behavior,

tor proceeds to the analysis of particular cases of its functioning in various ti-

Asmolov A.G. Activity and installation. M., 1979.

Leontiev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. M., 1977. S. 80.

Science editor's preface

groin activity, in particular impulsive and volitional. Chapter "Psychology

denia, is certainly one of the most interesting in the book. It contains no

few successful theoretical moves - both in the description and in the explanation of fe

nomena of behavior. Particular attention should be paid to the analysis of the process of motivation and

formulated in this context, the distinction between the so-called "physical

Kim" and "psychological" behavior. Very fruitful considerations

which play the central role of the decision-making act in the volitional process. In that

setting to a new - arbitrary behavior. If a failure occurs in

creation or functioning of the installation mechanism of arbitrary behavior

The various types of psychopathology of will described in the chapter arise.

In addition to impulsive and volitional behavior, Uznadze also considers other

activities, namely: suggestion and coercion, showing their installation

basis. However, the chapter lacks a detailed classification of forms of behavior, since

remains unique in psychological science. No doubt she's essential

would complement this chapter

Conscious mental phenomena and processes function in behavior,

flowing at the base of the installation. However, they differ significantly as

phenomenally (structurally), so by purpose (functionally) and by the level of times

whitia (genetically). These aspects are, of course, interrelated and, ultimately,

determined by the general mechanism of behavior. Therefore, Uznadze begins consideration

separate mental processes from emotional phenomena, believing that they

represent the initial stage in the development of consciousness, directly adjoining

leading to the installation as an integral state of the subject, and reflect precisely his internal

early state. Hence - the subjectivity and integrity of emotional processes,

that distinguish them from cognitive, serving a differentiated reflection

external reality. Having given such a brief formulation of the problem of interconnection

attitudes and emotions, Uznadze does not delve further into the complex topics that arise here.

theoretical questions. However, he well understood their importance and constantly kept in

line of sight. This is evidenced by the materials preserved in the personal archive

Uznadze, in particular the so-called Notebooks, which he kept from 1944

Almost a third of Uznadze's notes contain considerations about various

aspects of the psychology of emotions from the point of view of the theory of installation. It should be noted that

same that in the mid-forties Uznadze prepared and read a special course

on emotions, in which he outlined and essentially analyzed all the

the main views on the psychology of emotional experiences (with

A transcript of these lectures was kept). Based on this, one should think that Uznadze

intended to write a large study on emotional phenomena, which

It is difficult to say which of the numerous hypothetical considerations the author

set forth and developed in this, alas, unrealized work; but you can't

note that some of them are quite convincing, quite consistent with the spirit

Uznadze D.N. Forms of human behavior // Uznadze D.N. Psychological research. M.,

Uznadze D.N. Notebooks // Matsne. Series on Philosophy and Psychology. 1988. No. 2, 4;

1989. No. 1. (in Georgian)

Scientific work of Uznadze 9

and the letter of the theory of attitude and, importantly, in this context, enrich and complement
yut the text of the analyzed chapter. Therefore, we will briefly hold the reader's attention
on the above considerations.

Uznadze was faced with the problem of the relationship between emotional transfers.

living and bodily (somatic) processes, in particular the question of the nature of expression

positive movements. Uznadze proposes the following solution: fundamental for

attitude theory is the idea of ​​the holistic nature of the individual's response to
various influences. The effect of external influence extends to all spheres
ry response of the body (visceral, motor, mental), based on
lies its holistic primary change - installation. All individual processes are
differentiated manifestation of a holistic primary effect. In contrast to the
two competing views existing in the psychology of emotions (Wundt and others and
James-Lange), Uznadze formulates an alternative position: emotional
experiences and bodily changes, including expressive movements, are not
are causes or expressions of each other. They are two separate
telnye phenomena simultaneously arising from one source - installation.
However, what is objectively not an expression, in the social environment
de is used by people as an external expression of feelings. But it became
possible only due to the presence of a single real psi in these various phenomena.
chological basis.

Without dwelling on other interesting arguments of the author (for example, about ha

relationship between emotional and cognitive processes, in which
ryh, in essence, the same theoretical position is realized), let us consider only how
Uznadze builds a diagram of the relationship between attitude, behavior and emotion.

The scheme, only indicated in the General Psychology and expanded in the Notebooks,

in principle, it is as follows: emotions act as a certain trigger mechanism
ma behavior at the level of consciousness (experience) or in the form of a "stimulus for deployment
behavior corresponding to the installation "

Thus, they follow

setting and precede the implementation of the behavior.

However, in the Notebooks, this scheme develops and becomes more complicated. emotional

phenomena not only follow the installation, but also precede it, performing the function
tion of its subjective factor. Being an impulse, the need is at the same time worn out
Initially represents a more or less specific emotion. "Need
emotional,” says Uznadze.

character of their relationship to behavior; emotions that preempt behavior
and expressing readiness to carry out specific activities (then
is what General Psychology says), and the emotions that arise in the very
behavior process. The latter are a reflection in the consciousness of special
nesses of realization of installation in the course of behavior. In accordance with this, the
grew up about the qualitative side of emotional experiences. Since the content
the patterns of each particular behavior, as well as the conditions and circumstances
hindering or, on the contrary, facilitating the implementation of this latter, in each

house in this case are peculiar, then there should be as many corresponding
types of emotional experiences.

weed processes. He does this quite succinctly, discussing this circumstance

There. No. 1. S. 93.

Science editor's preface

in the preface and making a link to his first textbook - "Fundamentals of Experimental
psychology” as a source of more complete information on this topic. However
However, it should be noted that Uznadze significantly enriched this part of the chapter with new

As for the central, perhaps, question of this review - what are the names

but the originality of the attitudinal approach to the analysis of individual
mental processes, then in this part we should focus on how

since different modalities are experienced by a single subject, it is quite lo
it is natural to look for the reason for the similarity between these experiences in him, in his
complete condition. The installation of exactly how such a state arises as a result of
influence on the individual of the environment, that is, quite diverse sensory
stimulations. In turn, the unity of the attitudinal basis determines the unity and
relatedness of experiences, in particular, sensations of different modality. This
the same mechanism explains the rest of the phenomena from this sphere: the facts of synes
theories and effects of the interaction of the sense organs.

Uznadze begins talking about perception by posing the question of the relationship

zi the subject and content of perception and discussion of the results of their experiments, on
guided by his decision. These experiments revealed interesting patterns
mutual influence of the content and the subject of perception, with a clear priority after

day. The position on the fundamental role of the subject in the process of perception of reality
is the supporting structure of the entire chapter.

ness, gestalt. This is quite natural, since the psychology of the attitude, according to
In fact, there is a psychology of integrity. But this is the integrity of the subject; and it is the subject
as a whole, Uznadze believes, is forgotten by Gestalt theory. The phenomenon of integrity of perception

in it is reduced to the laws of gestaltization, that is, the objective organization
perceptual field. The author proposes an alternative formula: the complex of times

stimulants (object) - a holistic process in the subject - perception as integrity.

Understanding the installation as a mediating link, Uznadze comes to the following

understanding of the mechanism of perception: a motivated subject begins to

interact with the outside world, resulting in a holistic change
subject, caused in him by objective reality. This is how the setting arises.
ka, representing the basis of the action and experience of the individual, including the
acceptance.

In "General Psychology" reasoning on this topic ends with this. od

however the problem remains. The point is this: according to attitude theory, perception
as a full-fledged mental activity, as an objective experience, should be
new to the installation. But the latter, as is known, arises on the basis of needs.

ty and situations, that is, it implies a preliminary reflection, perception of a situ
ation. This is where the dilemma arises - to create an attitude, perception is necessary.
situation, which, in turn, requires a functioning installation.

solutions. This is evidenced by several entries in the Notebooks, as well as a whole
section in his latest work titled: "Perception as an Attitude Factor:

two meanings of this term. At the same time, the note gives the second version of the author's

th text, which testifies to the special care with which Uznadze developed
raised this problem. Its solution emerges in the context of a three-stage

Scientific work of Uznadze

perception models. At the first stage, the installation as a holistic state of subjects

that "precedes some primary effect of the stimulus on one of the

his sensory organs - an effect that cannot yet be regarded as genuine
new, complete perception of a certain, localized in the external world
objective stimulus. Therefore, it is most natural to characterize this stage
perception as a step remarks, or, more precisely, as a step Feel dey
external stimuli"

In General Psychology this simplest form is reproduced

acceptance is also described and denoted as "sensory perception"; at
how it precedes the next stage of perception both in ontogeny and in
actualgenesis. The second stage of perceptual activity is the usual object
new perception. The highest stage is carried out at the level of objectification as
active, voluntary process - in "General Psychology" it is called observation

denium. The last two forms of perceptual activity proceed on the basis of the mouth.

novki; the first is itself a condition for the emergence of the attitude.

This theoretical construction of Uznadze, whatever the content of the contributions

fell into the terms "remark", "feeling" or "visual perception", according to
some interpreters, says that the occurrence of the installation is always
preceded by some "work" or activity

It must be assumed that this is quite

a reasonable remark would hardly have been rejected by the author of the set theory himself.
However, the whole point is whether this activity should be considered behavior (activity)
or, perhaps, it would be more accurate and reasonable, following Uznadze, to qualify her as
reflex or "reflexoid act".

Since here we are dealing with a hypothetical construction that entails

far-reaching theoretical conclusions, special accuracy of presentation is required.

Therefore, we will directly quote one of Dmitry Nikolayevich's "notes", oh seriously

the importance and importance of which is evidenced by its title - “The Limits of Legality
postulate of immediacy. Uznadze writes: “It would be wrong to believe that in
nothing happens on the subject. directly - under the influence of the environment that all
redacted setting of the subject. It seems that in the case when the subject does not need
or the need to establish relationships with the environment, or he does not have that
what a possibility ... probably, the environment still affects him and causes not
mediocre effect in the psyche, body or somatic. This effect we
we can call reflex or reflex effect. These will be: feeling -
in the field of knowledge pleasure-unpleasure- in the emotional sphere,

reflexes - in the motor sector. At first glance, it seems reasonable to

observance of the previous psychology, according to which sensation, feeling (with
pleasant-unpleasant) and reflexes are elementary contents on
necks of the psyche and behavior. However, it is legitimate only in the sense that from here
the material from which our experiences are built is taken. But what exactly is building
and what will be the specific experiences at any given moment, it depends
on what is the need of the subject and the situation of its satisfaction, creating in
the relevant installation,- Experiences depend on this setting.

Of course, in reality between them - material and installation -

there is no such sharp distinction. Therefore, there are times when, say, annoyance
an inhabitant of red evokes a sensation of a different color, a hard one seems soft ... The same

Uznadze D.N.

Asmolov A.G. Activity and installation. M, 1979.

12 Science Editor's Foreword

most related to pleasant-unpleasant. Motor reflexes also depend on
state of the subject"

quite categorically and, in our opinion, significantly corrects and clarifies the
sis position of the theory. It should be taken seriously, for
stating the presence of such forms of activity, which are not covered by the principle

system of attitudinal mediation, it noticeably increases the explanatory
the potential of attitude psychology makes it more flexible both in methodological,

as well as in a purely theoretical sense.

In the context of the problem under discussion, this hypothetical construction of the author

allows you to eliminate all the "paradoxes" associated with the possibility of non-installation
representations of set factors. Moreover, this decision concerns not only
installation "perception" of the situation, but also the factor of need, on which, in
In principle, one can also extend the paradox of primacy. If the primary rep
presentation of the situation can be carried out in the form of a direct "reflexology"
id" process of "feeling", then the subjective factor of installation can be
presented as a "reflexoid" emotional experience. above, in which
commentaries to the chapter on the psychology of emotions, it has already been noted that Uz
Nadze, in principle, admits such a possibility, speaking of “emotionality according to
needs."

Concluding the discussion of the chapter on perception, we note one of its features. In her

the issue of illusions of perception is not touched at all, while this topic is not
variably discussed in all old and modern textbooks. This looks somewhat
strange, since it is the illusions of perception that form the basis of the created
Uznadze and his staff of the methodological apparatus for studying the installation. And barely
whether any other general psychological theory can say more and more weightily
about perceptual illusions than attitudinal theory. To confirm this far
don't have to go. S.L. Rubinstein in his famous textbook, by the way, published
nom in the same year as Uznadze's textbook, discussing the subject of illusions of perception, directly
mo points to the experiments of Uznadze and his collaborators, proving the installation, then
there is a central, not a peripheral, conditioning of illusions. No matter how
was, an analysis of this issue in a broad sense could, of course, better demonstrate
explore the explanatory potential of attitude theory in the field of perceptual psychology
tiya. This, undoubtedly, would have strengthened the setting sound of the entire textbook and the way
the realization of the author's intention.

The concept of objectification, created within the framework of general psychological theory

installations in the last period of scientific work of Uznadze, could significantly
to transform many chapters of "General Psychology", in the first place - concerning so

called "higher cognitive processes". However, it will not be difficult for the reader
note that the outlines of the objectification model are already given in the textbook itself, in particular
sti, where the question of the relationship between perception and thinking is discussed. Although
the idea and the term appeared even earlier (“Sleep and Dreams”), to a thorough development
Uznadze began working on this theoretical model in the forties. In every
case, in the "Notes" the author repeatedly returns to the discussion of this topic.
For the first time, the concept is presented in an expanded form in the works of the Tbilisi University.

that, in the study "The Problem of Objectification" (1948). In recent generalizing works
tah it takes on a complete look.

Uznadze D.N. Notebooks // Matsne. 1988. No. 4. P. 61. (in Georgian)

Scientific work of Uznadze

The concept of objectivation is well known, so just a reminder

him that, according to Uznadze, human activity unfolds at two levels:
at the level of impulsive behavior, where the implementation of the installation takes place without interruption
spotty, and at the level of objectification, where the implementation of behavior is confronted
with difficulty, practical activity is blocked - leading to an act of object

tivation. Objectification creates the conditions for the start of theoretical activity, on
aimed at solving the problem and, ultimately, correcting
an adjusting mechanism that ensures the expediency of behavior. For this
the subject activates his higher cognitive functions and, in general, ref

lexical consciousness.

Thus, the ability of objectification radically changes the face of

psyche, making it specifically human. Thanks to the act of objectification

love, it becomes possible to experience something as given, as a certain
object. This object or situation contains the reason for the delayed behavior. That's why

“We are faced with the question of what it is - what we objectify,
what we experience as given. And the first thing that appears first in response is
the consciousness that this is the same as what we are experiencing; we have consciousness
identity, or identity, of the object of our experience"

. "This circumstance

makes it possible for a person to develop a specific relationship to the world - he

starts to get to know him

The cognitive process is a synthetic process. And not only because

implies the synchronized and organized work of several cognitive
functions, but also in the sense that these functions interpenetrate each other,
creating complex cognitive abilities and formations.

In the last work of Uznadze, we find only a sketchy description of this

process. Everything naturally begins with the act of objectification; he, in turn, created
there are no prerequisites for a very significant act, without which it is impossible to
development of the cognitive process - the act of identification, or "logical
the law of identity. Then, apparently, there is a focusing of attention, closer

in a way related to objectivation (more on this below). Followed by
the process of reperceiving some of the properties of a situation or object that
were not properly reflected in the setting of practical behavior and
led to disruption. But this requires not only re-experiencing
these properties, but also their "preduction" with the help of the word - "it gets
sya, ultimately, as a result of the combined work of perception and logical
(verbal) thinking, that is, what we usually call observation." On
observation as the initial stage of the secondary reflection of reality "is
the first manifestation of the work of our thinking or, more precisely, it is
a complex process that combines into one whole the work of our sensation and on
our verbal thinking"".

Theoretical activity that has arisen on the basis of objectification cannot

dispense with memory processes. Moreover, memory is not considered as a single and
qualitatively homogeneous function in all its manifestations, but as an ability,
representing at the same time several stages of development, decisive
various tasks in human activity. Accordingly, passive

Uznadze D.N. Experimental Foundations of the Psychology of Set. Tbilisi, 1961, p. 190.

There.

There.

Science editor's preface

forms - recognition, immediate memory, associative memory, and active
forms - memorization and recollection. These forms of manifestation of mnemonic

functions are described in detail in General Psychology. At the same time, Uznadze is special
pays attention to the disclosure of the nature of representation as the main building
memory material, repeatedly returning to the analysis of this issue in various

texts. Uznadze's approach here again remains synthetic; distinctive
the peculiarity of higher forms of representation is their generalization, or, in other words,
intellectualization.

Finally, the process of solving the theoretical problem of the operation is completed.

essentially logical thinking - with the help of data of attention, observation,
submissions and opportunities for identification and nomination received benefit
range of objectification.

Of all the marked links of cognitive activity described in the framework

the concept of objectification, the most confusing and debatable is
the question of the relationship between the concepts of objectification and attention. Ultimately, he
is reduced to the problem of the presence of attention of its own essence and independent
functions. In "General Psychology", in the corresponding chapter, the author in some detail
analyzes attention without questioning the legitimacy of its consideration in
as a separate and important cognitive process. However, the need for a clear
qualification of cognitive activity occurring at the level of objectification,
set before Uznadze the task of a deeper understanding of the essence involved
nyh processes here, and, above all, attention. In 1947 he wrote a special

work, substantiating a certain position on the essence of attention, which

paradise then in the "Theoretical Foundations ..." was actually changed (although, perhaps,
did not sufficiently refute the previous point of view). Considering that it is indicated
Since this position is little or completely unfamiliar to the Russian reader, let us allow ourselves a few
to elaborate on this issue.

Uznadze analyzes attention both from the point of view of its function and

process. Three functions of attention are usually distinguished: selection from acting
impressions on the subject of a certain, strictly limited number of them; con
centering psychic energy on them and, as a result, an increase in the degree
clarity and distinctness of the contents of consciousness.

holding the experience and flowing, first of all, in line with this content.

Attention, in essence, is conceived as indifferent to the content
formal “power” capable of illuminating everything, like a “searchlight”, regardless of whether
what it is directed to. Attention cannot necessarily be associated with function.
her concentration, since there are cases of an all-consuming concentration of consciousness
on certain contents and in the absence of attention (for example, during
the most emotional experiences). And finally, regarding the increase in level

attention, representing, as it were, its “biological basis”. She also cannot
be thought of as a direct function of attention, since clarity with

holdings of consciousness means the presence of a reflection of reality rich in details
ti; and the reflection of reality, of course, is not a matter of attention. It is reflected in such

cognitive processes like perception, representation, thinking. So, I-

Scientific work of Uznadze

the clarity and distinctness of the reflection directly depend on the level of activity of the indicator
known processes.

As for the procedural aspect of the work of attention, it is everywhere characteristic.

terisized by a more or less prolonged delay of activity on the object,
greater or lesser duration of fixation on it of cognitive mental
some forces. Therefore, the main thing is delay, stop, fixation; if they are not, then
no attention. They, like the properties of selection attributed to attention, con
centering and clarity seem to be determined by another factor. Anali
studying some cases of impulsive behavior, Uznadze comes to the conclusion that
the fact of their undoubted expedient flow presupposes the selection of acting
agents attacking the subject, concentration of psychic energy on them and enough
their clear reflection in the psyche.

What determines all this? According to the theory of installation, the fundamental

mechanism for the expediency of any behavior (regardless of whether it
impulsive or arbitrary) is the setting. Behavior is determined by
tution indirectly - through a holistic reflection of this latter in the subject de
activity, through its installation. Separate moments of behavior, in particular the whole
the work of the psyche, are phenomena of a secondary order. Therefore, in
every given moment penetrates into the consciousness of the acting subject from the surrounding
environment and is experienced with sufficient clarity only that which lies in the channel of its
current installation. This means that what attention, understood as
formal force, then becomes a function of the setting, which is not formal,
but a purely meaningful concept. Thus, the concept of installation is quite clear.
denies the existence of clear contents of consciousness that serve to realize impulsive
behavior. Here, it seems, there is no need for the concept of attention.

However, as is the case in the event of a complication of the situation, where, for reason

a certain obstacle, a delay occurs, activity stops and fixation on it
knowing consciousness; after all, this is what is usually recognized as a procedural character
attention risk. Uznadze finds a replacement for the concept of attention in this case as well. How
It is not difficult to guess that this role is assigned to the concept of objectification. For this special
but three functions of objectification are discussed: 1) stop and time delay
practical behavior; 2) creation of conditions for the beginning of cognitive, theoretical
physical activity and 3) creating conditions for a clear and distinct awareness of the object
content by connecting to the work of the psyche of higher cognitive
processes.

After that, it sounds quite logical that attention is essentially

property must be characterized as a process of objectivation. Thus, according to the

ra, all "aporias" associated with the concept of attention are removed. In the text, consider

there are two of them:

"one. It becomes clear why attention, without being essentially connected

with the concept of clarity of the contents of consciousness, however, is always interpreted as its
required source. We see that it does not directly illuminate that
or other content, does not itself increase the level of clarity of his consciousness, but, object
cultivating it, gives cognitive functions the opportunity to do so.

2. With the traditional interpretation of the concept of attention, it remains completely incomprehensible.

intelligible, how we manage to pay attention to something. For this, you need
it is possible that what will become the subject of my attention, one way or another, has already been given
my mind. But something will be given to me if my attention is already drawn

Science editor's preface

on him. With the proposed interpretation of the concept of attention, this difficulty will be removed.
it goes without saying: the contents of consciousness are directly given not with the help of attention,
and based on the installation; this creates an opportunity for them objectification, that is the possibility
to make an object once perceived an object of further cognitive acts -
object of attention"

In a word, the functions traditionally attributed to attention are distributed

between attitude, objectification, and cognitive processes. concept
attention, as such, is redundant.

In Experimental Foundations of the Psychology of Set, Uznadze proceeds

to reconsider this position. In any case, he speculates

the work of the psyche in two planes, one of which does without the participation of attention, and
the other suggests his direct participation. At the same time, it is emphasized that in both
in teas there is undoubtedly a clarity and distinctness of psychic contents.

Finally, in Fundamentals of Attitude Theory, an attempt is made to

substantiation of a new point of view. The need to connect the attention function
occurs at the level of objectification. Naturally, the key point here is
separation of the concepts of objectification and attention. According to Uznadze, they are the closest
interconnected, to the point that sometimes it is difficult to see the difference between them.

nitsa. However, it is still necessary to distinguish between them. Objectification is only
stop at a certain experience that can become the subject of our
attention. Objectification provides material to focus on. However
if we single out the clarity of experience as a separate moment of this last
go, then before you get the opportunity to talk about the degree of its intensity, the following

one must first have an idea of ​​the experience itself as something given

nom, identical to itself. In other words, a prerequisite for the operation
attention is an act of objectification. Attention as an independent mental

the process starts after objectification.

It should be noted that the above discussion leaves open some

rye questions. The main one is to accurately determine the function of attention. By
apparently, in the latest version, this is considered to be clarity of translation
living. But, according to the previous reasoning, the predicate of clarity is not devoid of
mental contents arising at the first level of activity - where
there is neither objectification nor attention yet. Therefore, giving experience
clarity and distinctness is at least a function not only of attention.
However, as it turns out from a study specifically devoted to identifying
essence of attention, this function is directly related to the implementation of other
gih cognitive processes. In this case, it is somewhat unclear why you need it

duplicate also a special process of attention. Probably Uznadze intended to

work this issue. Therefore, now it is difficult to imagine how he would have rewritten
chapter on attention in light of the concept of objectification. But there is no doubt
that if he had done so, the changes would have been significant.

The chapter "Psychology of mnemonic processes" is the most voluminous in the book. She is

full of rich factual material and interesting theoretical inter
pretations. Here the author makes maximum use of the potential of the theory of set with
explanation of certain features of mnemonic phenomena. Considerations
Uznadze for the most part seem quite convincing, at least

Uznadze D.N. On the problem of the essence of attention // Psychology: Proceedings of the Institute of Psychology

Acad. sciences Gruz. SSR. T. 4. 1947. S. 163. (in Georgian)

Scientific creativity Uznadze 17

in comparison with the alternative views that existed at that time. However,
let the reader judge for himself the merits or demerits of Uznadze's approach to the process

recognition and its illusions, the process of associations and so-called "complexes",

to the question of the accuracy of reproduction, to the problem of experiencing certainty in recollection
science, to the installation version of the general theory of memory.

Here we note only one question, to which Uznadze returned more than once.

in the context of the concept of objectification. This is a question about the nature of representation as
new building material of memory. In "General Psychology" this question is
dropped only in the aspect of the difference between the image of perception and representation.

Defending the idea of ​​the synthetic nature of cognitive activity at the level

objectification, Uznadze assigns an "outstanding role" to the ability of representation,
the most specific and characteristic form of which are the products of our
memory. The fundamental feature of memory, by and large, is that
concerns the repetition of psychic contents. The repetition condition is
objectification; therefore, it is the main source of human content.
eternal memory. However, representation exists even before objectification. It is available

in an animal and wears an absolutely random, individual and specific appearance. But
a representation acquires a specifically human form as a result of thought
processing of this primary form at the level of objectification, his intellect
tualization, which makes it "generalized". In a word, "the presentation process, including
thinking in itself is a representation ascribed to a person (with the sign
generalization) - this moment of generalization brings thinking into the representation"

Thus, here is another example of a real synthetic agent.
cognitive functions. This time it's about cooperation between memory
and thinking.

Chapter eight - "Psychology of thinking" contains fairly complete information

research on the psychology of thinking that existed at that time in science. She would still
more interesting if it included a theoretical model of regulation thinker
activities at the level of objectification and experimental facts related
with the action of the installation at various stages of the thought process. Nonetheless,
nevertheless, some original theoretical and
empirical developments of the author. The latter concern the ontogeny of the concept mouse.

leniya. Here Uznadze makes extensive use of the results of his well-known experiments.
tal research in this area. As for the original theoretical
moves, then this, first of all, refers to the analysis undertaken by Uznadze
problems of confidence in general and, in particular, confidence in judgments.

Uznadze attached great importance to solving this problem for ponies

mania of the essential features of the functioning of the psyche. Since the phenomenon

confidence is observed in various mental processes (perception, memory,
thinking, will), then the problem of its explanation acquires a general psychological
meaning. Therefore, it is not surprising that the author refers to it twice in General Psi
chology". The first time he does this is in the context of a discussion of the general theory of memory.
Uznadze believes that any serious theory of memory must show where
there is confidence in the correctness of the reproduction. Statement and solution of the problem
Here, the specifics of mnemonic processes are fully taken into account. In the second case -
when considering the phenomenon of confidence in judgment - the problem is posed and analyzed
zirovatsya in a broader context.

Uznadze D.N. Notebooks // Matsne. 1988. No. 1. P. 92. (in Georgian)

Science editor's preface

In 1941, in a generalizing work on the psychology of attitudes, Uznadze again

turns to the problem of confidence, seeking to further clarify its position. What
does it consist in essence? People implicitly have certainty about reality
perception, in the truth of judgment, in the correctness of recollection, in
solutions. The question is, where does this experience come from, if reality, “not
that" is given only in perception, judgment, recollection. How do we know that
do they correctly reflect this "something"? Things would be quite different if we had
both givens - and this "something", and its mental reflection. Then there would be
the possibility of comparing them with each other and experiencing the degree of their correspondence. But by
since the objective is given only through mental reflection, we are deprived of that
which opportunity. Because of this, according to Uznadze, a satisfactory solution

this issue has not yet been found. Indeed, in all previous theo

riyah, the source of this experience was recognized as other experiences, their reproduction
tion or some features of their course; according to them, one experience op
divides the other. However, how can one be sure that the subjective content

experience actually correlates with objective reality, if
another experience is taken as a measure of this, having with an objective position
there are as many things in common as the first. In addition to the logical and factual
value, such explanations are unacceptable for Uznadze and due to the fact that
based on the theory of immediacy. “On the other hand, for the theory of attitude there is no

what difficulties. The fact is that, according to the main idea of ​​this theory, the essence
is not only a mental reflection of the objective state of things, but also holistically

personal, namely the installation, reflection. Therefore, objective

the state of affairs is already reflected by the subject in the attitude before he reflects it in
his perception, judgment, recollection.

But the work of the psyche is the realization of our attitude; when it happens

unhindered, when the psyche reflects what is reflected in the installation, it is natural
but that we are experiencing the correctness of our mental work, we have
confidence that our perceptions, judgments, memories reflect the object

tive state of affairs"

The reader may be somewhat perplexed by the fact that there is no chapter in the book.

you are talking about the psychology of language and speech, which in textbooks usually follows a chapter, according to
sacred psychology of thought. Indeed, it is difficult to fully explain this
circumstance. We just have to make assumptions about this. It is known on
An example is that Külpe, an outstanding researcher of thinking, in his comparatively
early textbook on general psychology, being true to the principle of being based on
exclusively on reliable facts, but not having any, preferred to
I don't want to include a chapter on thinking. Probably also for Uznadze the creation
original textbook on general psychology made sense, first of all, from the point of view
perspective of a new theoretical understanding and generalization of existing scientific data
nyh. Otherwise, in the end, it was possible to simply organize the translation and publication
any decent tutorial.

Most likely, by the time of working on the textbook, the author had not yet folded

a system of ideas that sheds new light on the psychological essence
ness of language and speech. Perhaps that is why he refrained from writing the corresponding

Uznadze D.N. The main provisions of the theory of installation // Anthology of humane pedagogy: Uz

General psychology - Textbook - Uznadze D.N. - 2004

A fundamental textbook belonging to one of the classics of psychology of the 20th century and not previously translated into Russian. Psychologists, historians of science.

U34 General psychology / Per. from Georgian E. Sh. Chomakhidze; Ed. I. V. Imedadze. - M.: Meaning; St. Petersburg: Piter, 2004. - 413 p., ill. - (Series "Live Classics").

ISBN 5-469-00020-6
BBC 88.3ya73
UDC 159.9(075.8)

Free download e-book in a convenient format, watch and read:
Download the book General psychology - Textbook - Uznadze D.N. - 2004 - fileskachat.com, fast and free download.

Foreword

Chapter first. Introduction to psychology
The subject and tasks of psychology
Methods of psychology
Introspection
Watching others
Experiment
Classification of the phenomena of consciousness
Mediated nature of mental processes

Chapter two. Biological basis of personality
Preliminary remarks
constitutional doctrine
internal secretion
Nervous system
The Doctrine of Localization

Chapter three. Psychology of installation
Installation
Fixed installation
Toward a General Psychology of Attitude
Toward a Differential Psychology of Attitude
Installation in pathological cases

Chapter Four. Psychology of emotional experiences
emotional experiences
Feeling
Emotions and attempts to classify them
Qualitative characteristics of emotional experiences
Gradual characteristic of emotional experience
Emotional experience and the body
Temperament

Chapter five. Psychology of behavior
impulsive behavior
Will
Performing an act of will
decision act
The question of willpower
Motivation - the period preceding the act of will
Will pathology
Other activities
Ontogenetic development of activity
Character

Chapter six. Psychology of perception
Elementary conditions and patterns of perception
Psychology of sensations
Vision
Hearing
Taste and smell
Modalities of touch
Intermodal unity of sensations
Perception
Perception of space
Perception of time
Observation
Ontogenetic development of perception

Chapter seven. Psychology of mnemonic processes
The simplest forms of mnemonic processes
immediate memory
eidetic image
perseveration
Recognition
View Association
Forms of active memory
Teaching and Remembrance
Doctrine
Learning Rate Factors
"Laws" of learning
Forgetting
Memory
Psychology of indications
Theories of memory
Memory diseases
Ontogenetic development of memory

Chapter eight. Psychology of thinking
Thinking
practical thinking
Creative thinking
Conceptual thinking
Development of thinking in ontogeny

Chapter nine. Psychology of attention
Attention
Attention Properties
The course of the attention process
Voluntary Attention Factors
Influence of attention
Attention and body
Pathology of attention
Development of attention in ontogeny

Chapter ten. Psychology of imagination
Imagination
passive fantasy
active fantasy
Fantasy in ontogeny
The game
The subsequent development of fantasy

Bibliography