As has already been said, man has a dual nature. He is a creature biosocial, a bearer of both biological and social qualities and properties. At the level of social existence and within the framework of social theory, the human problem is transformed into a problem relationship-individual And personality. This means that from the outside biological nature, man acts primarily as individual, and from the side social - How personality.

This difference in the understanding of man as an individual and personality was well understood by the Russian philosopher N.A. Berdyaev. “Personality must be distinguished from the individual,” he wrote. “Personality is a spiritual-religious category, while the individual is a naturalistic-biological category” 2. In our opinion, when explaining personality, we should talk not only and not so much about religiosity or irreligion, but about the culture and spirituality of a person in general.

A person is seen as individual as a single representative of the human race. The definition of this concept does not require any specific characteristics. An individual is always one of many, and he is always impersonal. In this sense, the concepts of “individual” and “personality” are opposite both in scope and content. The concept of an individual does not capture any special or individual social qualities of a person, therefore it is very poor in content. But it is equally rich in volume, because each person is an individual.

If we say “human individual,” we mean only the species community of all people homo sapiens and the individual

1 Fromm E. Adolf Hitler: a clinical case of necrophilia. - M.: Higher
school, 1992. - P. 27.

2 Berdyaev N.A. My philosophical worldview // N. Berdyaev about Russian philosophy
fii. - Part 1 - Sverdlovsk: Ural University Publishing House, 1991. - P. 21.

representative of the human race. But as soon as we begin to indicate some other qualities of the human individual, we certainly limit the scope of the concept, highlighting special social groups. That is, the law of inverse proportionality between the volume and content of a concept operates here. So, by saying “poor people” or “rich people”, we have already identified certain groups, separating them from others. And the more we specify the concept, the poorer it will be in scope and richer in content. As a result, by personifying the individual, the individual, we will come to the only one, individual representative of the human race. In this regard, an extremely personalized individual is personality.“Personality” is a concept very rich in social content, including not only general and special characteristics, but also individual, unique properties of a person.

It should be said that personality is social individuality. Here a person is considered not only from the perspective of his general and specific social qualities, but also from the perspective of individual social properties. After all, what makes a person a person is, of course, his social individuality, those. a set of social qualities characteristic of a person, social identity. The concept of “personality” usually does not include the natural individual characteristics of a person. And this is apparently correct. But it should be borne in mind that natural individuality influences the development of personality and its perception to the extent that the biological generally influences the social in a person.

A person’s social individuality certainly does not grow out of nowhere or only on the basis of biological prerequisites. A person is formed in a specific historical time and social space, in the process of practical activity and education. Therefore, a person as a social individual is always a concrete result, a synthesis and interaction of very diverse factors that stand “behind his back.” And the more significant a personality is and the more it can be called a personality, the more it accumulates a person’s sociocultural experience and, in turn, makes an individual contribution to his development.

Personality has a complex structure, so different approaches to its consideration are possible, which, although interconnected, also have important differences. So, in general psychology

personality usually means some integrating principle that links together the various mental processes of an individual and imparts the necessary stability to his behavior. Starting point sociological Personality research consists not in studying the individual characteristics of a person, but in analyzing the social functions (roles) that it performs. These roles are determined by the social structure of society, the social group in which the individual is included. The role concept of personality is built on this basis.

The problem of personality in science- this is the question of what is the essence of man as an individual, what is his place in the world and in history. Personality is seen here as individual expression and subject of social relations, activities and communication of people. The quality of public relations and communication has a huge impact on the formation historical type of personality, its specific state and properties. The same can be said about the influence of activity on personality. Human activity is the basis on which and thanks to which the development of the individual occurs and the fulfillment of various social roles in society. Only in activity does a person emerge and assert himself as an individual, otherwise it remains a “thing in itself.” A person himself can think whatever he wants about himself, build any illusions, but what he really is is revealed only in action. It is no coincidence, of course, that the famous Confucius not only “listened to the words of people,” but also “looked at their actions,” and the no less famous Aristotle wrote that only those “who participate in competitions” receive victorious wreaths.

In other words, the social and active characteristics of a person underlie his socialization, in the process of which the formation of personality occurs. Socialization - This is the process of assimilation by an individual of a certain system of knowledge, norms and values, allowing him to carry out his life activities in a way adequate for a given society. It occurs as a person assimilates social experience, but is carried out primarily through his involvement in certain social relations, forms of communication and activities.

At the same time, socialization is carried out both in phylogenesis (the formation of generic properties and qualities of humanity) and in ontogenesis (the formation of a specific personality). Both in terms of the historical development of man and in ontogenesis, personality is not a prerequisite, but a result of the socialization of the individual. Due to this

A.I. Leontyev wrote that “one is not born with a personality, one becomes a person” 1 . Since socialization is dynamic in nature, the personality is always process, constant becoming. A personality frozen in its formation, in its aspirations, is a degrading personality. Personality degradation also occurs when an individual is completely subordinate to someone else’s will or his actions are programmed in detail, so that there is no room for freedom of choice and action.

Since the formation of personality is based on the social and active essence of a person, depriving him of communication and the possibility of choice, a certain freedom of action, also negatively affects the development of the individual’s personality. It is no coincidence that isolation of a person from society, deprivation of communication has always been considered one of the most severe punishments. And this is understandable, because constant isolation and loneliness contradict the essence of personality. But the imposition of someone else’s will and thoughts on the individual has an even more negative impact. A person who is completely subordinated to someone else’s will and deprived (through suggestion, ideological duping, propaganda, etc.) of his own worldview, thoughts and views ceases to be a person. It is also difficult to call an individual a person who is deprived of reason and reason for some other reason. People who lack freedom of action, will or reason cannot be responsible (without freedom there is no responsibility) and should not be held accountable for their actions, because this not by them conditioned and therefore, essentially, not them actions.

We have come to a very important characteristic of personality - its moral and spiritual essence. IN The content of personality as the most important component includes the direction of its consciousness, personal orientations determined by the level of consciousness, worldview, morality and responsibility. Of course, the social environment has a significant impact on the formation and behavior of the individual. But to no lesser extent, personal orientations and behavior are determined by the inner, spiritual world of a person. It is no coincidence that they say that everyone is the architect of their own destiny and happiness. The more clearly a person’s intellectual, moral and volitional qualities are expressed, the more his life orientations coincide with universal human values ​​and the more strongly he positively influences the development and affirmation of these values.

Leontyev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. - M.: Politizdat, 1975. - P. 176.

ties, the more colorful and significant his personality. In this case, it is characterized by strength of spirit, freedom, creativity and goodness. From this side, the personality seems to rise above the natural basis and, in a certain sense, even overcomes it, leaving its mark and the fruits of activity even after biological death.

The willpower and spirit of a person, his moral goodness and purity cannot be confirmed and realized in any other way than through real practical activities and in certain social conditions. A person’s actions, which are the most important factor characterizing a person, are not words, but deeds. Apparently, it is no coincidence that even the biblical scripture speaks of rewarding “everyone according to his deeds.” It is then, when it comes to real actions, that it becomes clear how difficult and difficult it is to be an individual, to be free, honest, principled, etc. Because if an individual really considers himself a person or strives to be one, he must be responsible not only in thoughts, but above all in actions, and this is always a heavy burden. Thus, characterizing personality from the point of view of freedom is certainly necessary. Freedom is an attribute of personality. But freedom without responsibility is arbitrariness. Therefore, responsibility is not less, but to a greater extent, an attribute of the individual, because being free and responsible is more difficult than simply being free.

Individual and individuality are two words with the same root that have different meanings. Despite this, they are often confused or misunderstood.

The word individual comes from the Latin " individual"and is translated as indivisible or individual. Based on this origin of the word, it is easy to conclude that an individual is a member of one species or another. To put it even more simply, an individual is a certain species, for example, a person, a mammal, a bird, and so on. But this definition is not entirely correct, since the term individual refers more to a person and is of little use to other living beings.

In essence, every person is an individual and this identity is given to him by the fact that he was born a human. In general, the definition of this term lies in the word itself, namely the root “species”, which in this case should be taken literally.

A very similar word, which, in fact, consists of the previous one, but at the same time it has a radically different meaning and to some extent carries the opposite meaning. Individuality is a collection or set of any social, biological qualities that distinguish one person from all others. If we talk about individuality, then it is a category of difference, and the individual is a category of similarity. Individuality appears in a person during his life’s journey, and at the moment we can say that some people cannot boast of such a characteristic, since they do not differ in any way from their fellow tribesmen.

Despite the fact that individuality can also be characterized by biological differences, it would be more correct and logical in this matter to pay attention specifically to the social aspects of a person’s personality. They are the ones who can make a person different from others, give him some kind of individuality, and such biological differences as black hair or a long nose do not yet make this person different from other representatives of his species.

Comparison of terms

So, despite the external similarity in spelling and reading, the terms individual and individuality are completely different.

An individual is a class and a member of a species. Individuality is a characteristic or attribute that distinguishes a person from his species. All people are individuals, but individuality still needs to be acquired and not everyone succeeds. In addition, individuality says about a person that he is to some extent “above” others, because he is not like everyone else.

Despite their differences, the concepts of individuality, individual, person, personality are interconnected and to some extent stem from each other. So, a person is automatically an individual, but in order to gain individuality he must stand out from all individuals, for example, by his judgments, view of things, presence of a point of view, worldview. If an individual has these, then he receives individuality, which means he becomes a personality. In essence, a person without individuality is not a person, but at the same time they are not synonymous.

Personality is the characteristics that distinguish a person from other people, but to some extent they are innate. It is not for nothing that the epithets bright, creative and others can be applied to this word. These are not acquired, but innate qualities, but at the same time they can and should be developed. Personality is also the difference between a person and others, but it contains the work that a person does on himself and this is where the main difference lies.

An interesting point is that in psychology there are two uses of the term individuality:

• Individual psychological differences - here individuality is considered as the difference between a person and others at the mental level.
• Hierarchy of psychological properties - here individuality is a category, and it is at a higher level than a personality or an individual.

There is an interesting expression that gives an excellent understanding of these terms: “One is born as an individual, one becomes an individual, and one defends individuality.”

In psychology, there is an opinion that a person’s individuality is formed depending on his environment, upbringing, treatment of a child, and the experiences he received in childhood. Although opinions on this matter may differ and some psychologists are inclined to believe that individuality can be formed under the influence of other factors and not necessarily in childhood, although from the point of view that an adult cannot be remade, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which a person lived until a certain age without any distinct individual characteristics, and then suddenly acquired them.

Such cases occur only after major changes in a person's life, such as a traumatic experience or under the influence of a strong influence. But the reverse process is quite real. A person could have a certain individuality, but under the influence of the people around him or a hostile environment, he can abandon these characteristics and become like everyone else.

Conclusion

The terms individual and individuality belong to the field of psychology and have similar sounds, but different meanings. Despite the differences in interpretation, these two terms are closely related and individuality is not possible without the existence of the individual.

Individuality is a qualitative characteristic, and an individual is a concept or definition, it is belonging to a race of people. Individual is a term that refers to both humans and animals. And individuality only applies to people.

The concepts of “personality” and “individual” are widely used by people. However, not everyone understands how they differ from each other, so they are often confused. Psychology studies the properties of personality and the individual.

The difference between personality and individual

If you want to understand how a personality differs from an individual, you need to know the statement of the famous psychologist A.G. Asmolova: “ People are born as individuals, they become individuals, and individuality is defended." This saying speaks perfectly about the differences between the concepts of “personality” and “individual”.

An individual is characterized by the uniqueness that a person receives from birth (skin color, hair, eyes, facial features, physique). According to this, all people are individuals: an unintelligent newborn, an aborigine of a primitive tribe, a mentally ill person, and even identical twins, who, despite all their similarities, have their own unique ones (for example, moles).

Personality, unlike the individual, is not a biological, but a socio-psychological concept. An individual becomes a personality in the process of growing up, learning, development, and communication. Personality differences are especially noticeable in identical twins who grew up apart from each other.

Personality traits:

Another important quality of personality that is different from the individual is the need for recognition by society. For example, in Indian tribes, a person was given a name only when he performed some important act.

The main motive that determines the activity of an individual is interest. The process of cognition in this case depends on the desire or unwillingness of a person to learn the properties of an object and understand it. A person is more often guided by beliefs, which are the basis of a person’s principles and worldview.

In psychology and sociology, the problem of human formation, which is associated with the stages of his growing up, is very important. The separation of the concepts of individual and personality is the cornerstone of assessing a person’s activity. People are not only born unique, but also become unique in the process of life. To the question “what have you achieved?” Almost every person answers differently.

Individual is a unique combination of human properties received from parents at birth and acquired during life. This concept is characterized by integrity: a set of qualities without which a person will lose his identity. Special traits include details such as gender, age, height and weight, personality, eye color, skull shape, and much more.

Personality is a unique representative of the human race who has manifested himself in socio-cultural action. This is a stable system of traits that manifests itself only in the process of living in society. A person who is on a desert island retains his identity, but becomes a person only through the recognition of other members of society. This property is best manifested in Indian culture: having performed a significant action, a person receives a name, that is, public support.

Each person is an individual by nature, and he becomes an individual in the process of growing up and communicating with other people. At the same time, the preservation of the human genetic code, its transmission and development is carried out according to the will of nature. But any representative of the human race can become a person, even if he has limited capabilities (no limbs, internal organs, speech, hearing).

You can remain an individual no matter how others treat you. But recognition, authority, characteristic of an individual are those “medals” that only society can award. Torn out of society, a person quickly loses his individual traits, ceases to understand other people and even forgets his language. At the same time, the need for personalization and uniqueness is one of the highest human needs.

Conclusions website

1. Interaction with society. To remain an individual, a person just needs to be himself. But he can become a person only through social interaction, which manifests itself either in cooperation or in confrontation.
2. Adequacy. Every person is born an individual, but he becomes a personality only in the process of conscious life.
3. Quantity. There are about 7 billion individuals in the world, and individuals, according to various estimates, from several hundred to several tens of millions.
4. Confession. Every person has equal rights with other people, that is, his right to individuality is inalienable. However, individuals express themselves somewhat more clearly, receiving certain social privileges (authority, power, recognition).
5. Mindfulness. To remain an individual, it is enough to simply live, fitting into the framework of society or isolating yourself from it. The path to personality development is a conscious action, accessible only to a select few.

The concepts of “man”, “individual”, “individuality”, “personality”

In psychological science, the categories man, individual, personality, and individuality are among the basic categories. The problem of personality is central to modern psychology, and this is no coincidence; the most important theoretical task is to discover the objective foundations of those psychological properties that characterize a person as an individual, as an individual and as a personality.

Personality is the main mystery of the human world, its mystery, the fascinating thought and feeling of a reflective person, on the other hand, a working concept that is actively used in the business language of almost all professions and in everyday communication. All this sets us up for the fact that it is necessary to both perceive this phenomenon and work with the system of concepts in which it is reflected respectfully and professionally.

Figure 1 - System of personal concepts

A person is born into the world already a human being. Concept Human is the broadest, this is the main, original element of this structure, without which there are and cannot be any social actions, connections and interactions, nor social relations, communities and groups, nor social institutions and organizations.

Human is a socio-biological being that embodies the highest level in the evolution of life and is a subject of socio-historical activity and communication.

Basic characteristics of a person:

The special structure of the body;

Ability to work;

Presence of consciousness.

The concept of “man” is used as an extremely general concept to characterize the universal qualities and abilities inherent in all people. Using this concept, psychologists emphasize that a person is biological (natural) and social a being at the same time, which, through its vital activity, influences the environment.

The basis and starting point of the indicated analysis is Human as a socio-natural phenomenon.

Natural vector of human development: species in the biological classification of the evolution of life on earth; a natural creature belonging to the class of mammals; species - primates; classification categorization - Homo sapiens.

Man, as a being belonging to society, to humanity, represents humanity within himself, and this is his essence. Humanity (the human race, the human world) is a special, historically developing social, socio-psychological and spiritual community, which differs from all other material systems on the planet in its inherent way of life.

The main socio-psychological characteristic of this way of life is the “SELF...” mechanism: self-organization, self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-regulation, self-development, self-movement, etc.

A person as an individual representative of humanity is defined by the concept of “individual”.

Individual- a single representative of the human race, a specific bearer of all the psychophysical and social traits of humanity.

General characteristics of the individual:

The integrity of the psychophysical organization of the body;

Stability in relation to the surrounding reality;

Activity.

An individual is a biological organism, a bearer of the general hypothetical hereditary properties of a given biological species. The process of such internal “coordination” is well known; it was noted by Charles Darwin...

An individual is, first of all, a genotypic formation. But the individual is not only a genotypic formation; its formation, as is known, continues during ontogenesis, during life. Therefore, the characteristics of an individual also include properties and their integrations, which develop ontogenetically. We are talking about the emerging “alloys” of innate and acquired reactions, about changes in the substantive content of needs, about the emerging dominants of behavior.

The most general rule here is that the higher we climb the ladder of biological evolution, the more complex the life manifestations of individuals and their organization become, the more pronounced the differences in their innate and lifetime acquired characteristics become, especially since, so to speak, individuals are individualized.

Among these concepts, personality is a narrower concept and emphasizes the social essence of a person. Otherwise, we can say that individual- this is a “specific person” from birth to death.

Individual- the initial state of a person in phylogenetic and ontogenetic development. Personality it is considered as the result of the development of the individual, the embodiment of human qualities.

Personality is the social essence of a person. The word “personality” in English comes from the word “person”. It originally referred to the masks worn by actors during theatrical performances in ancient Greek drama. Thus, from the very beginning, the concept of “personality” included an external, superficial social image that a person takes when he plays certain life roles - a kind of “mask”, a public face addressed to others. It follows that the concept of “personality” is primarily associated with the social essence of a person.

Personality- this is a specific person who is the bearer of consciousness, capable of cognition, experiences, transformation of the surrounding world and building certain relationships with this world and with the world of other individuals.

Personality is considered as the embodiment in a particular person of social qualities that are acquired in the process of activity and communication with other individuals.

One is not born a person, one becomes a person.

That is why we do not talk about the personality of a newborn or the personality of an infant, although personality traits appear at the early stages of ontogenesis no less clearly than at later age stages.

Personality is a relatively late product of the socio-historical and ontogenetic development of man...

The concepts of personality and individuality are close in meaning. Individuality is one of the aspects of personality, therefore it is more difficult to define the concept of “individuality”, because In addition to personal characteristics, which are the main components of individuality, it includes biological, physiological and other characteristics of a person.

Individuality- a combination of psychological characteristics of a person that make up his originality and his difference from other people.

The following definition of individuality can be given.

Individuality- this is a specific person who differs from other people in a unique combination of mental, physiological and social characteristics, manifested in behavior, activity and communication.

If a person is an individual by the fact of his birth, then individuality is formed and modified in the process of his life.

Individuality is manifested in traits of temperament, character, habits, and in the quality of cognitive processes (i.e., thinking, memory, imagination, etc.). The concept of “individuality” most often emphasizes the originality and uniqueness of each person. On the other hand, in individuality we encounter those personality qualities and individual properties that everyone has, but have varying degrees of expression and form combinations.

All individual qualities are manifested in various ways of behavior, activity, and communication. A person will become a person when he begins to improve the social factor of his activity, that is, that side of it that is aimed at society. Therefore, the foundation of personality is social relations, but only those that are realized in activity.

Having realized himself as a person, having determined his place in society and his life path (destiny), a person becomes an individual, gains dignity and freedom, which make it possible to distinguish him from any other person, to distinguish him from others.

The specificity of social conditions of life and a person’s way of activity determines the characteristics of his individual characteristics and properties. All people have certain mental traits, views, customs and feelings, each of us has differences in the cognitive sphere of personality, which will determine our individuality.

The psychological structure of a personality is a holistic model, a system of qualities and properties that fully characterizes the psychological characteristics of a personality (person, individual) (Fig. 2).

Figure 2 - Man - Individual - Individuality - Personality