Psychology as a science, object and subject of general psychology. Introduction to General Psychology

Qualitative study of psychic reality

Analysis of the formation and development of mental phenomena

Study of physiological mechanisms of mental phenomena

Promoting the systematic introduction of psychological knowledge into the practice of people’s lives and activities

Rice. 3. Subject and tasks of psychology

2. Analysis of the formation and development of mental phenomena in connection with the conditioning of the psyche by the objective conditions of human life and activity.

3. Study of the physiological mechanisms underlying mental processes, since without knowledge of the mechanisms of higher nervous activity it is impossible either to correctly understand the essence of mental processes or to master the practical means of their formation and development.

General psychology is of great theoretical importance, since it is designed to reveal the properties, features and patterns of the psyche and human consciousness in accordance with the basic principles of dialectical and historical materialism.

At the same time, like any true science, psychology has as its ultimate goal not just the theoretical study of its subject, but also the application of acquired scientific knowledge to practice. The task of Soviet psychology is to promote the construction of teaching and upbringing methods on a scientific basis, the rationalization of the labor process in various types of production, as well as other types of human activity.

In this regard, separate branches of psychology, or private psychological disciplines, have arisen and are developing:

1. Educational psychology, which studies the psychological characteristics and patterns of the processes of training and education of the younger generation. The tasks of educational psychology include the study of the processes of acquiring knowledge and the formation of skills and abilities in connection with the needs of school education, the psychological justification of methods, techniques and methods of teaching and upbringing, issues of developing the personality of students in the school community, psychological issues related to polytechnic education and training of students to practical activities, etc.

2. Child psychology, which studies the mental characteristics of children of different ages. The task of child psychology is to study the process of formation of a child’s personality, mental development of children, age-related psychological characteristics of the processes of perception, thinking, memory, interests, motives for activity, etc.

3. Labor psychology, which has as its task the study of the psychological characteristics of labor activity in order to rationalize labor processes and improve the organization of industrial training. Serious psychological study requires such issues as the organization of a worker’s place, the psychological characteristics of work operations (including skills) in various types of production activities, the study of psychological factors for increasing labor productivity, the study of abilities for one or another detailed profession and the patterns of their development and education. etc.

4. Engineering psychology, which has been intensively developing recently in connection with the improvement of the technology of labor processes. Of great importance in this branch of psychology is the problem of the relationship between the technical requirements of modern machines and the mental capabilities of humans - the speed and accuracy of perception processes, the volume and distribution of attention, etc.

5. Psychology of art, which studies the psychological characteristics of creative activity in various types of arts (music, painting, plastic arts, etc.) and the characteristics of the perception of works of art, psychological analysis of their influence on the development of a person’s personality.

6. Pathopsychology, which studies disorders and disorders of mental activity in various diseases and thus contributes to the development of rational methods of treatment.

7. Sports psychology, which studies the psychological characteristics of sports activity. The tasks of this branch of psychology include the psychological characteristics of various sports, analysis of the processes of perception, attention, memory, thinking, emotional processes and volitional actions in connection with the tasks of teaching physical exercises and sports training; psychological characteristics of sports competitions, the question of the importance of sports in the formation of moral and volitional personality traits of a person, etc.

8. Psychology of an astronaut, which studies the characteristics of human mental processes during space flight, including the influence on the human psyche of large physical overloads, unusual environmental conditions during space flight, the state of weightlessness, characteristics of performance during flight, in particular, if necessary, to act in conditions extreme lack of time, etc.

Thus, psychology has not only theoretical, but also great practical significance in connection with the tasks of rationalizing various types of human activity.

It is impossible, however, to consider these practical branches of psychology as a simple application of theoretically based psychological laws to certain cases of practical life. Practice not only enriches theory, but also helps theory itself to take the right path. Only in the process of solving specific practical problems put forward by life can theoretical problems of psychology be correctly posed and understood and psychological patterns revealed.

Any scientific psychological research can be successful only when it is not constructed in the abstract, but in connection with the resolution of practical problems in certain types of human activity. By studying the laws of the psyche, psychology does this not in isolation from certain types of human activity, but in connection with them and with a special purpose: to use the data of psychological research to improve these types of activity.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

General psychology is a discipline that deals with the collection of general information about the human psyche through theoretical and experimental research. It identifies the most general methods of psychology and psychological patterns, and also explains its basic concepts. General psychology is an excellent entry point into the process of studying psychology and a good source of knowledge for a specialist psychologist, which allows him to improve his professional skills. Any science, if you start delving into it, begins to seem quite complex, but at the same time interesting. But before starting to delve into this or that science, a person needs to evaluate it based on superficial knowledge in order to understand what it can give him. I believe that in this regard, general psychology is an excellent appetizer for those who want to gain an appetite by engaging in in-depth study of psychology. In this article I will tell you about the most significant points of general psychology that are useful for you to know.

Introduction to General Psychology

So, the first thing we need to understand is that she studies general psychology. General psychology traditionally studies such mental processes as: thinking, memory, attention, emotions, motivation, sensations. She also examines such mental states as: sleep, wakefulness, frustration, mood, functional states, trance. And she also studies such mental properties as: character traits, temperament, orientation, intelligence, abilities. In general, general psychology collects knowledge about the most general laws of mental life, such as: psyche, personality, consciousness, activity, skills, knowledge, abilities, habits, higher nervous activity and many others. As you can see, these are all very important studies and patterns for our lives, which are useful to know as much as possible. It is also worth saying that general psychology collects data about the human psyche, both from various applied branches of psychology and from non-psychological sciences. These data can be used not only by psychologists, but also by other scientists interested in them, as well as anyone who is interested in psychology. It is worth noting that general psychology studies not only theory, it also deals with experimental research. Thus, with the help of this discipline one can gain useful and practical knowledge about the human psyche, thanks to which any person can solve various everyday problems and tasks.

For such related sciences as: philosophy, sociology, pedagogy, jurisprudence, physiology, linguistics, computer science, art history, general psychology is very important. She finds and explains the basic patterns both in human behavior and in the course and development of his mental processes. Theoretical research of general psychology includes the study of the history of this science, various psychological studies, problems, trends, as well as certain thematic sections of psychology. And the practical course includes mastering the methods of scientific research, practical psychological and pedagogical work. General psychology is largely theoretical psychology, and practical psychology is built on its basis - this is psychotherapy, applied psychology, psychology of personality development, as well as the psychology of normal life.

Methods of general psychology

In general psychology, as in most other sciences, a variety of methods are used to obtain various facts. Basic methods are: observations, conversation and experiments. Modifications of each of these methods can also be used to obtain better results. Let's take a closer look at each of these methods.

Observation– is the most relatively simple and most ancient method of cognition. In its simplest form, this method represents everyday observations. Anyone can use it in their daily life. We can all observe people and draw certain conclusions based on our observations. In general psychology, there are several types of observation: short-term, long-term, continuous, selective and special. Long-term observation can take place over several years; you have probably heard about how some scientist observed some phenomenon for several years, after which he made certain conclusions. As for special observation, it can also be called participant observation, when the observer himself is immersed in the group he is studying.

The observation procedure consists of the following steps:

1. It is necessary to set a goal, a task.
2. It is necessary to determine the situation, subject and object of observation.
3. It is necessary to determine the method that will have the least impact on the object under study and will allow obtaining the necessary data.
4. It is necessary to determine how the data will be maintained.
5. At the end, it is necessary to process the received data.

There is external observation and introspection. External observation carried out by an outsider is called objective. It can be direct and indirect. Self-observation can be direct - carried out in the current moment, and delayed - it is based on memories, memoirs, diary entries, video and audio recordings, and so on. In this case, a person independently analyzes his thoughts, experiences, feelings, sensations. It is worth noting that for the other two methods - conversation and experiments, observation is an integral part of the study. It allows you to obtain the necessary data.

Conversation. With the help of a conversation, you can collect the necessary information about the person being examined and his activities. This can be done directly or indirectly, verbally or in writing. Thanks to this information, it is possible to determine the psychological phenomena characteristic of this person. To collect information about a person and his life, they use such types of conversations as: a conversation with the person himself, for example, through an interview, in which he answers questions prepared in advance for him, a conversation with people who know him, when they tell everything that know about this person, as well as the use of questionnaires and different types of questionnaires, when a person answers questions asked to him in writing.

The best results can be obtained through a personal conversation between the researcher and the person being examined. To do this, it is necessary, or at least desirable, to first think through the conversation, draw up a detailed plan for its conduct, identify the problems that need to be identified and solved, and what questions to ask the person being examined. In general, you need to prepare for the conversation. You should also not exclude questions from the person being examined, so if possible, you need to identify the most likely ones and prepare for them. Typically, a two-way conversation produces the best results and provides much more information for analysis than simply answering questions. The more open the conversation, the more a person can tell the researcher about himself and his life.

Experiment. This method involves the active intervention of the researcher in the process of activity of the person being examined to create certain conditions that will help identify a psychological fact. The experiment can be a laboratory one, in which special equipment is used and it takes place under special conditions. Under these conditions, the subject's actions are guided by intuition. A person may know that a psychological experiment is being conducted on him, but at the same time he may not be aware of the true meaning of this experiment unless he is informed about it. Some experiments can be carried out repeatedly on a whole group of people, this makes it possible to establish certain important patterns in the development of mental phenomena.

There is another method - tests. A person is given special tests to determine whether he has any mental qualities. The tests are short-term and similar tasks for all subjects, and based on the results of completing these tasks, the subjects are determined to have certain mental qualities, as well as their level of development. Tests are created in order to make certain predictions with their help or make a diagnosis. They should always be very reliable, have a scientific basis and reveal the most accurate characteristics.

There is also a genetic method. This method is based on observations and experiments, and is built on the results of these observations and experiments. And its essence lies in the study of the development of the psyche in order to reveal general psychological patterns.

It should be said that when using various methods, it is always necessary to take into account all the features of the problem being studied. Therefore, in some cases, along with the main methods described here, special auxiliary and intermediate techniques are used.

I recommend that everyone who is going to start studying human psychology read books on general psychology. They will help you get acquainted with this science in the most interesting way. I will not recommend specific books, because different books are suitable for different people, after all, everyone has a different basic level of development, and for some it is easier to understand one book and for others another. Look, look, read different books on general psychology - whichever one of them, as they say, will work, start studying it in detail. General psychology is an interesting science; it explains a lot in human behavior, helps us understand a lot, and allows us to learn a lot. With its help, you will learn to understand many important points for our daily life related to everything that we often encounter when interacting with other people, but which we do not always manage to understand. So don't waste time and effort studying it.

Basic concepts and terms on the topic: psychology, psyche, reflection, mental processes, mental states, mental properties, sensitivity, instinct, skill, intellectual behavior, reflection, reflex, imprinting, skill, conscious, unconscious, intuition, insight, self-awareness, self-esteem, Self-image, reflective consciousness .

Topic study plan(list of questions required to study):

1. Subject of psychology. The connection between psychology and other sciences. Branches of psychology.

2. Stages of the formation of psychology as a science.

3.Tasks of modern psychology.

4. The concept of the psyche, the structure of the psyche.

5. Consciousness as a form of mental reflection. Psychological structure of consciousness.

Brief summary of theoretical issues:

Subject, object and methods of psychology.
Psychology translated from Greek is the study, knowledge about the soul (“psyche” - soul, “logos” - doctrine, knowledge). This is the science of the laws of mental life and human activity and various forms of human communities. Psychology as a science studies facts, patterns and mechanisms of the psyche (A.V. Petrovsky). Object Psychology includes not only a concrete and individual person, but also various social groups, masses and other forms of communities of people and other highly organized animals, the characteristics of whose mental life are studied by such a branch of psychology as zoopsychology. However, traditionally the main object of psychology is man. In this case psychology is the science of the patterns of emergence, formation, development, functioning and manifestations of the human psyche in various conditions and at different stages of their lives and activities.
Subject The study of psychology is psyche. In the most general terms psyche - this is the inner spiritual world of a person: his needs and interests, desires and drives, attitudes, value judgments, relationships, experiences, goals, knowledge, skills, behavior and activity skills, etc. The human psyche is manifested in his statements, emotional states, facial expressions , pantomime, behavior and activity, their results and other externally expressed reactions: for example, redness (blanching) of the face, sweating, changes in heart rhythm, blood pressure, etc. It is important to remember that a person can hide his real thoughts, attitudes, experiences and other mental states.
All variety forms of mental existence usually grouped into the following four groups.
1 . ^ Mental processes human: a) cognitive (attention, sensation, perception, imagination, memory, thinking, speech);
b) emotional (feelings);
c) strong-willed.
2. ^ Psychic formations person (knowledge, abilities, skills, habits, attitudes, views, beliefs, etc.).
3. Mental properties person (direction, character, temperament, personality abilities).
4. Mental states: functional (intellectual-cognitive, emotional and volitional) and general (mobilization, relaxation)
Main task Psychology consists of knowing the origins and characteristics of the human psyche, the patterns of its occurrence, formation, functioning and manifestations, the capabilities of the human psyche, its influence on human behavior and activity. An equally important task of psychology is to develop recommendations for people to increase their stress resistance and psychological reliability when solving professional and other problems in various circumstances of life and activity.
In general, psychology as a science performs two main functions: as fundamental science is called upon to develop psychological theory, to identify patterns of individual and group psyche of people and its individual phenomena; as an applied field of knowledge- formulate recommendations for improving professional activities and everyday life of people.

Psychology methods: observation- purposeful perception of any pedagogical phenomenon, during which the researcher receives specific factual material. Distinguish between observation included, when the researcher becomes a member of the group being observed, and not included -"from the side"; open and hidden (incognito); continuous and selective.
Methods survey- conversation, interview, questionnaire. Conversation - an independent or additional research method used to obtain the necessary information or clarify something that was not clear enough during observation. The conversation is conducted according to a pre-planned plan, highlighting issues that require clarification. It is conducted in free form without recording the interlocutor’s answers. A type of conversation is interviewing, brought into pedagogy from sociology. When interviewing, the researcher adheres to pre-planned questions asked in a certain sequence. During the interview, responses are recorded openly.
Questioning - method of mass collection of material using a questionnaire. Those to whom the questionnaires are addressed provide written answers to the questions. Conversations and interviews are called face-to-face surveys, while questionnaires are called correspondence surveys.
Valuable material can provide study of activity products: written, graphic, creative and test works, drawings, drawings, details, notebooks in individual disciplines, etc. These works can provide the necessary information about the student’s individuality, about the achieved level of skills in a particular area.
Plays a special role in pedagogical research experiment- specially organized testing of a particular method or method of work to identify its pedagogical effectiveness. Distinguish between experiment natural(under the conditions of the normal educational process) and laboratory - creating artificial conditions for testing, for example, one or another teaching method, when individual students are isolated from others. The most commonly used experiment is a natural experiment. It can be long-term or short-term.
The place of psychology in the system of sciences.
Psychology is a field of humanitarian, anthropological knowledge. It is closely related to many sciences. At the same time, two aspects of such relationships appear quite clearly.

• There are sciences that act as a kind of theoretical basis, a basis for psychology: for example, philosophy, physiology of higher nervous activity of a person. Philosophical sciences have primarily theoretical and methodological significance for psychology. They equip a person with an understanding of the most general laws of development of objective reality, the origins of life, the meaning of human existence, form a certain vision of the picture of the world, an understanding of the causes of processes and phenomena occurring in living and inanimate matter and in the minds of people, and explain the essence of real events and facts. Philosophy makes a decisive contribution to the formation of a person’s worldview.
• There are sciences in which psychology is one of the basic theoretical foundations. These sciences primarily include pedagogical, legal, medical, political science and a number of others. The development of their problems by these sciences currently cannot be sufficiently complete and justified without taking into account the human factor, including the human psyche, the psychology of age, ethnic, professional and other groups of people.
• 3. History of the development of psychological knowledge.
  The doctrine of the soul (5th century BC - early 17th century AD)
  The doctrine of the soul developed within the framework of ancient Greek philosophy and medicine. The new ideas about the soul were not religious, but secular, open to everyone, accessible to rational criticism. The purpose of constructing the doctrine of the soul was to identify the properties and laws of its existence.
  The most important directions in the development of ideas about the soul are associated with the teachings of Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC). Plato drew the line between the material, material, mortal body and the immaterial, immaterial, immortal soul. Individual souls - imperfect images of a single universal world soul - possess a part of the universal spiritual experience, the recollection of which is the essence of the process of individual cognition. This doctrine laid the foundations of the philosophical theory of knowledge and determined the orientation of psychological knowledge towards solving philosophical, ethical, pedagogical and religious problems.

  Basic directions of psychology.
  A person in his physiological and mental formation and development goes through various stages, participates in many spheres of social life, and is engaged in different types of activities. The forms of communities of people are also diverse: small and large social groups, age, professional, educational, ethnic, religious, family, organized and spontaneously emerging groups and other communities of people. In this regard, modern psychological science is a multidisciplinary field of knowledge and includes more than 40 relatively independent branches. General psychology and social psychology act as basic in relation to other branches of psychological knowledge: labor psychology, sports, higher education, religion, mass media (media), art, developmental, pedagogical, engineering, military, medical, legal, political, ethnic, etc.

  The concept of the psyche. Functions of the psyche.
  Psyche- this is a property of highly organized living matter, which consists in the subject’s active reflection of the objective world, in the subject’s construction of an inalienable picture of this world and the regulation of behavior and activity on this basis.

  Fundamental judgments about the nature and mechanisms of manifestation of the psyche.

psyche is a property only of living matter, only of highly organized living matter (with specific organs that determine the possibility of the existence of psyche);

the psyche has the ability to reflect the objective world (obtaining information about the world around it);

The information about the surrounding world received by a living being serves as the basis for regulating the internal environment of a living organism and shaping its behavior, which generally determines the possibility of a relatively long-term existence of this organism in its habitat.
Functions of the psyche:

• reflection of the influences of the surrounding world;
• a person’s awareness of his place in the world around him;
• regulation of behavior and activity.

^ Development of the psyche in phylogenesis and ontogenesis.
The development of the psyche in phylogenesis is associated with the development of the nervous system. The level of development of the sense organs and nervous system invariably determines the level and forms of mental reflection. At the lowest stage of development (for example, in coelenterates), the nervous system is a nervous network consisting of nerve cells scattered throughout the body with intertwined processes. This is the reticular nervous system. Animals with a reticular nervous system primarily respond with tropisms. Temporary connections are difficult for them to form and are poorly maintained.

At the next stage of development, the nervous system undergoes a number of qualitative changes. Nerve cells are organized not only in networks, but also in nodes (ganglia). The nodal, or ganglionic, nervous system allows you to receive and process the largest number of stimuli, since sensory nerve cells are in close proximity to the stimuli, which changes the quality of the analysis of the received stimuli.
The complication of the nodal nervous system is observed in higher invertebrate animals - insects. In each part of the body, ganglia merge to form nerve centers that are interconnected by nerve pathways. The head center is especially complicated.
The highest type of nervous system is the tubular nervous system. It is a connection of nerve cells organized into a tube (in chordates). During the process of evolution, the spinal cord and brain - the central nervous system - arise and develop in vertebrates. Simultaneously with the development of the nervous system and receptors, the sense organs of animals develop and improve, and the forms of mental reflection become more complex.
Brain development is of particular importance in the evolution of vertebrates. Localized centers representing different functions are formed in the brain.
Thus, the evolution of the psyche is expressed in the improvement of sensory organs that perform receptor functions and the development of the nervous system, as well as in the complication of forms of mental reflection, i.e., signaling activity.

There are four main levels of development of the psyche of living organisms:

• Irritability;
• Sensitivity (sensations);
• Behavior of higher animals (externally determined behavior);
• Human consciousness (externally determined behavior).

Development of the psyche in ontogenesis. Without assimilating the experience of humanity, without communicating with others like oneself, there will be no developed, strictly human feelings, the ability for voluntary attention and memory, the ability for abstract thinking will not develop, and a human personality will not be formed. This is evidenced by cases of human children being raised among animals.
Thus, all the “Mowgli” children showed primitive animal reactions, and it was impossible to detect in them those features that distinguish a person from an animal. While a small monkey, by chance left alone, without a herd, will still manifest itself as a monkey, a person only becomes a person if his development takes place among people.

Structure of the psyche. The relationship between consciousness and the unconscious.
The structure of consciousness and the unconscious in the human psyche. The highest level of the psyche characteristic of man forms consciousness. Consciousness is the highest, integrating form of the psyche, the result of the socio-historical conditions for the formation of a person in labor activity, with constant. communicating (using language) with other people. In this sense, consciousness is a “social product”; consciousness is nothing more than conscious being.

Characteristics of human consciousness:
1) consciousness, i.e., the totality of knowledge about the world around us.
2) a clear distinction between subject and object enshrined in it, i.e., what belongs to a person’s “I” and his “not-I”.
3) ensuring goal-setting human activity.
4) the presence of emotional assessments in interpersonal relationships.
A prerequisite for the formation and manifestation of all the above specific qualities of consciousness is speech and language as a sign system.
The lowest level of the psyche forms the unconscious. Unconscious - This is a set of mental processes, acts and states caused by influences, the influence of which a person is not aware of. Being mental (since the concept of the psyche is broader than the concept of “consciousness”, “conscious”), the unconscious is a form of reflection of reality in which the completeness of orientation in time and place of action is lost, and speech regulation of behavior is disrupted. In the unconscious, unlike consciousness, purposeful control over the actions performed is impossible, and evaluation of their results is also impossible.
The area of ​​the unconscious includes mental phenomena that occur during sleep (dreams); responses that are caused by imperceptible, but actually affecting stimuli (“subsensory” or “subceptive” reactions); movements that were conscious in the past, but through repetition have become automated and therefore become unconscious; some motivations for activity in which there is no consciousness of purpose, etc. Unconscious phenomena also include some pathological phenomena that arise in the psyche of a sick person: delusions, hallucinations, etc.

Functions of consciousness: reflective, generative (creative-creative), regulatory-evaluative, reflexive function - the main function that characterizes the essence of consciousness.
The object of reflection can be: reflection of the world, thinking about it, ways a person regulates his behavior, the processes of reflection themselves, his personal consciousness.

Most of the processes occurring in a person’s inner world are not conscious to him, but in principle, each of them can become conscious. subconscious– those ideas, desires, actions, aspirations that have now left consciousness, but can later come to consciousness;

1. the unconscious itself- such a mental thing that under no circumstances becomes conscious. – sleep, unconscious impulses, automated movements, reaction to unconscious stimuli

The epicenter of consciousness is the consciousness of one’s own “I”. Self-awareness-It is formed through interaction with other people, mainly with those with whom particularly significant contacts arise. The image of “I”, or self-awareness (image of oneself), does not arise in a person immediately, but develops gradually, throughout his life under the influence of social influences

Self-awareness criteria:

1. separating oneself from the environment, consciousness of oneself as a subject, autonomous from the environment (physical environment, social environment);

2. awareness of one’s activity – “I control myself”;

3. awareness of oneself “through another” (“What I see in others, this may be my quality”);

4. moral assessment of oneself, the presence of reflection - awareness of one’s internal experience.

In the structure of self-awareness we can distinguish:

1. awareness of close and distant goals, motives of one’s “I” (“I as an active subject”);

2. awareness of one’s real and desired qualities (“Real Self” and “Ideal Self”);

3. cognitive, cognitive ideas about oneself (“I am as an observed object”);

4. emotional, sensual self-image.

5. Self-esteem – adequate, underestimated, overestimated.

Self concept - self-perception and self-management

1. I am spiritual
2. I am material
3. Self-social
4. I am corporeal

It is possible to discover and describe the general concepts and methods of psychological science that make up the content of the subject of general psychology only by abstracting from specific research carried out in special branches of psychology. At the same time, the results of research in the field of general psychology are the fundamental basis for the development of all branches of psychological science. It is these parameters that determine the subject of general psychology as a scientific and educational discipline of human cognition, research and influence.

Subject of general psychology- This human psyche, namely, its general, ubiquitous phenomena, phenomena, parameters inherent in absolutely all people. The discipline “General Psychology” studies those mental phenomena that, in the entire broad psychological norm (including, for example, character accentuation), have an almost absolute nature for all people without exception, without distinction of age, gender, social status, property status, educational level, cultural level and other characteristics. So, the subject of the scientific and educational discipline “General Psychology” is an integral complex (system) of several psychological parts (components) that make up the human psyche : 1) mental processes; 2) mental states; 3) psychological properties; 4) mental formations, 5) mental activity. All these aspects are the basic components of the psyche of any person as a representative of the species Homo sapiens.

Mental processes from the perspective of systemic psychology, according to B. N. Ryzhov, and the psyche as a system according to B. N. Ryzhov.

Boris Nikolaevich Ryzhov believes that from a systemic point of view, the psyche appears as an internal, subjective, informational system in its essence, the elements of which are various information formations and blocks, from the simplest sensations to the most complex images, concepts and ideas. B.N. Ryzhov writes that using the computer metaphor proposed in cognitive psychology, the psyche is the entire internal “software” of a subject, including “drivers”, “utilities”, “software environment” and the entire wealth of “programs” and “documents” downloaded at a given moment ". According to B.N. Ryzhov, the final, systemic function of the psyche is to prepare and issue impulses to ensure external, productive human activity aimed at the development and preservation of the biological and social macrosystem. Ryzhov B.N. writes that taking this into account, in the previous parts of the study the issues of initiation and systematic organization of productive human activity were considered, bearing in mind, first of all, the objective result of this activity and the external effect obtained in the process of the work performed. B.N. Ryzhov points out that in systems literature this direction is referred to as a functional description of systems. B.N. Ryzhov writes that in this case, as, for example, V.V. points out. Druzhinin and D.S. Kantorov, every object is interesting to us as a result of its existence. Therefore, believes B.N. Ryzhov, when faced with a new object, we are, first of all, interested in its function. Accordingly, the first description of the system should be a functional description. B.N. Ryzhov believes that the functional description mainly gives a description of the external connections of the system and the directions of their possible change. B.N. Ryzhov writes that depending on the degree of impact on the environment and the nature of interactions with other systems, V.V. Druzhinin and D.S. Kantorov identifies the following typical functions of systems: : passive existence, when the system in question represents, first of all, material for other systems; higher order system maintenance; opposition to other systems, environment; absorption (expansion) of other systems and environment; transforming other systems and environments. Ryzhov B.N. states that these functions can change over time, move from one state to another, and that the pace of these transitions can also change. Ryzhov B.N. believes that in general the temporal aspect of the functioning of systems is of particular interest and is closely related to the internal processes occurring in the system. Ryzhov B.N. states that it can be noted that the internal time of a system does not always coincide with the external time of the other systems or environment surrounding it. Ryzhov B.N. believes that, for example, in the initial stage of the origin and formation of a system, its internal time can overtake external time, since the rate of internal transformations of the system at this stage exceeds the average rate of transformations of the environment. Ryzhov B.N. postulates that from the standpoint of the environment, the development of the system under consideration in this case proceeds in an accelerated way, and from the standpoint of the system itself, external time flows slowly or even stops. In the future, the tempo characteristics of external and internal transformations may level out, and then external time may begin to overtake internal time. In old age, people often complain that time flies too quickly, whereas in childhood it often seemed like it was dragging on endlessly.

B.N. Ryzhov states that, in contrast to the functional description, the morphological and syntactic description characterizes the internal structure of the system. This description necessarily includes a description of its elemental composition and bond structure. B.N. Ryzhov says that in traditional psychology, a significant place was given to the syntactic description of the psyche. B.N. Ryzhov says that the researchers had in mind the study of subjective in nature, internal psychological mechanisms of activity, called mental processes. B.N. Ryzhov says that since the time of Aristotle, these have included attention, sensation, perception, memory, imagination, will and thinking. At the same time, says B.N. Ryzhov, according to Aristotle, will and thinking constituted a group of higher mental functions inherent only to humans, and the remaining processes belonged to lower functions, already characteristic to one degree or another of animals. Over the past almost two and a half millennia, not much has changed on this list, says B.N. Ryzhov. In any case, according to B.N. Ryzhova, and modern authors tend to identify the same processes at the general psychological level, uniting most of them into the group of cognitive processes and singling out emotional and volitional processes into a special group. But certain schools of psychology, especially the cognitive school, according to the views of Ryzhov B.N., undertook an in-depth analysis of the essence and forms of mental processes, achieving certain success in this.

According to the views of Ryzhov B.N., we are faced with the task of considering what mental processes are from the standpoint of systemic psychology, considering them as processes of organization and transformation of the mental system.

PSYCHE AND COMPONENTS OF THE HUMAN PSYCHE

Psyche- this is a systemic property of highly organized matter, initially (primarily) contained (expressed) in 1) reflection(ability, ability to reflect) the subject (person) of the objective (surrounding) world, in 2) the subject’s construction of a picture of this world inseparable from him (his) and in 3) self-regulation of the subject, carried out by him on the basis of his behavior and his own activities. These are three dimensions of the psyche : 1) mental reflection, 2) building your own picture of the world, 3) mental self-regulation. The psyche is a subjective reflection of objective reality. The psyche is a single functional system.

The concept of “highly organized matter” primarily refers to the brain. The concept of highly organized matter is defined physiologically in a broad sense as the central nervous system and in a narrow sense as the brain.

Mental reflection is a unique property of the psyche, manifested by people in the process of life activity and consisting in the fundamental possibility, the unique ability of the psyche to capture, preserve, transform and reproduce in the form of subjective images, with varying degrees of adequacy, signs, structural characteristics and various phenomenal relationships of objects. A person reflects, feels and realizes objective (external) reality and produces a reflection of subjective (internal) reality through (with the help of) mental cognitive processes and mental emotional processes.

Along with the above, we note some more features of reflection, namely – psychosocial parameters of reflection identified by Boris Nikolaevich Ryzhov. According to B.N. Ryzhov, just as an individual reproduces his own information structure through influence on his environment, so the structural features of the environment are reflected on the individual. This reflection, being the most important factor in the progress of biological systems, at the lower stages of evolution has a random, chaotic character. At higher stages of development, the reflection of the external environment acquires the features of orderliness. The emergence of mental reflection is associated with the formation of new information structures, the material carrier of which is still a biological individual, but an essential feature is the reproduction of connections in the external world. At the early stages of development, secondary information structures play only a supporting role in the life of an individual, organizing and correcting instinctive forms of behavior. But the progress of biological systems is associated with the fact that, along with genetically assimilated secondary information, the number of similar information structures formed during the life of an individual increases, through his interaction with other representatives of the species. An increase in the “bank” of information structures leads to the possibility of their interaction, correspondingly changing the behavior of individuals. The consolidation of secondary information structures into a new system, i.e., the acquisition by their totality of a special function - the organization of individual behavior, means the emergence of a new type of information systems - social.