Differences between individual and individuality. Difference between individual and personality

Since ancient times, thinkers have tried to penetrate into the essence of the concept of “man.” To figure it out, they created different concepts for understanding its definition. As a result, we came to the general conclusion that a person is a biological, psychological and social unity. The term “person” is closely interconnected with the concepts of “individual”, “individuality”, “personality”. Let's make some distinctions between these terms to understand their essence.

Man, individual, personality, individuality

Man occupies the highest phase in the origin and development of life. The theory of human evolution is called anthropogenesis. Man is a product of nature, which is closely interconnected with society.

The biological nature of man belongs to the higher mammals that appeared on Earth approximately 550 thousand years ago. As a biological being, a person has anatomical and physiological inclinations, that is, he has a muscular, circulatory and nervous system, in addition, gender and age characteristics. But the nervous system and the processes responsible for existence are programmed so that a person can adapt to different conditions of existence.

Psychological nature includes a person’s imagination, thinking, feelings, character, and memory.

The social essence of a person includes moral qualities, worldview, knowledge, values, and skills. A person is formed as a social personality only when he comes into close contact (communication, relationships with society) with another society.

Differences between human nature and animal nature:

1. The person speaks clearly and has thinking skills. Of all the species of mammals, only humans know how to evaluate their present and think about the past and future.

True, several species of monkeys also have minor communication, but they cannot transmit information to each other about the objects around them. People know how to concentrate on the main thing in their speech.

1. A person can master creative activities, in particular:

- anticipate the development and nature of some natural processes;

- choose a role in society, model your behavior in it;

- demonstrate value-based attitudes.

Animal behavior is based on instincts; their natural actions are initially programmed.

1. A person has an impact on the environment - he is able to transform reality and create culture, that is, to form spiritual and material values.

In animals, the way of life is established by nature - they adapt to environmental conditions.

1. Man knows how to independently produce the means for material wealth.

Some animals are capable of using natural tools, but not a single species of mammal can make tools.

So, man is a unique, spiritually incomplete, universal and holistic being.

Main characteristics:

• Presence of consciousness.
• Unique body structure.
• Receptivity to work.

An individual is a representative of a person in a single genus. He is the bearer of human social and psychophysical traits.

In other words, an individual is a “person in the singular.”

Basic qualities of an individual:

• Activity.
• Resistance to the reality that surrounds a person.
• Unity of the psychophysical state of the body.

The personification of the qualities of an individual is the personality.

In ancient times, personality meant some kind of social face that a person took on when he played various roles in the theater, that is, a certain “guise”.

A personality is a certain person, prone to experiences, understanding the world around him, having consciousness and establishing certain relationships with the surrounding society.

People differ from each other by personal properties, that is, by traits inherent in one individual. The definition of “individual characteristics” denotes psychological and somatic (from Latin “body”) definitions of a person: height and figure, skeletal formation, eye color, hair, and so on.

An individual personality trait is the facial expressions of a person. A person’s face reflects not only the anatomical, but also the psychological specificity of a particular person. For example, when they say: “this person has wicked eyes”, “you have a conscious face”, they mean precisely the peculiarity of a psychological character inherent in a particular individual.

Let us summarize individually - psychological characteristics into four facets of personality:

1. Social qualities (moral orientation, worldview).
2. Biological qualities (vital needs, temperament, inclinations).
3. Individual traits that have a different mental nature.
4. Experience (a set of skills, habits and skills).

Individual and personality: differences

A person is born an individual, the status of the individual is already established in the process of development. Distinguishing between the definition of an individual and a personality will help to assess the functioning of a person.

So, what is the difference between an individual and a personality?

• Interaction with society. A person remains an individual from birth to death, and a person is formed only in interaction or opposition with society.
• Confession. All people have equal rights, that is, each person initially has his own individuality. However, personality has certain social advantages: recognition, power, authority.
• Adequacy. One is born an individual, but one becomes a person.
• Mindfulness. The path to acquiring personality status is a conscious action of the individual.
• Quantity. There are tens of millions of personalities in the world, and approximately seven billion individuals.

A person who is removed from society very quickly loses his personality traits - he begins to poorly understand other people, to the point of forgetting the language. At the same time, the development of the genetic code occurs by nature, regardless of the life changes of a person. A person can become an individual even with limited abilities.

But the term individuality is more difficult to define, since in addition to personal properties it includes the physiological and biological qualities of a person.

Individuality is a specific person who has a special combination, distinctive from other individuals, of social, physiological and mental characteristics. Their difference is manifested in human communication, actions and activity.

There have been cases in history when a person lived and was raised among animals. Such people lost their social foundation - the ability to express themselves clearly, and lost their mental abilities. Returning back to human society, they could no longer take root in it. Such cases once again prove that a person who has only a biological beginning cannot become a full-fledged individual.

The transformation of a biological individual into a full-fledged personality is facilitated by labor activity. By doing something important to society, a person can prove his uniqueness.

Individual, individuality, personality

“One is born as an individual, one becomes an individual, individuality is defended” essay.

This is a saying by Alexander Grigorievich Asmolov. It contains meaningful and very interesting concepts.

In other words, this expression can be formulated this way: from birth a person is considered an individual, with every year of life he can acquire the status of an individual, but he needs to lag behind other people as an individual. Indeed, the relationship between the concepts individual - personality - individuality in each society manifests itself at different stages of its life path.

As mentioned earlier, a person is born as an individual, that is, he has his own innate genetic differences. In the process of gaining experience, learning any skills, an individual is formed as a personality. It is possible to obtain the status of individuality only in the correlation of social and biological qualities.

For example, Napoleon Bonaparte from birth was an ordinary representative of society - he was not distinguished by physical abilities or expressiveness in appearance. However, he became a bright personality, since his fundamental goal was precisely the fight for his individuality.

You can also give an example of the life path of the popular composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven came from an ordinary family and was not particularly different from his peers. True, as a child they tried to teach him music, but there were no special hopes. But still he was able to show his unique talent in music. In addition, he was actively involved in politics and social life. He was able to prove to society his individual qualities.

Thus, based on these facts, we can conclude that the expression: “one is born an individual, one becomes an individual, one defends individuality” is very significant in human life. Only by consistently developing these concepts can we prove our uniqueness to society.

Psychology of Individual Differences

People differ from each other in character. For example, a person with a strong temperament is usually more attractive than a person with a weak temperament.

Character is an established mental property that leaves a mark in all a person’s actions. Character represents a subordinate substructure of personality. In an adult personality, the character is often already stable. As for the teenage character, it does not yet have a core.

Various life factors influence character changes.

Myths that relate to human character:

• Character is a biological manifestation in a person and cannot be changed.
• Character can be nurtured and formed through the organization of a special system of influence.
• National character, that is, this unique mental property depends precisely on the nationality of people.

However, you need to know that all myths have some truth. The basis of the character of a biological type is temperament. We receive it from birth.

There are certain standards that influence the formation of national character. Representatives of one nation are convinced that others have certain character traits. Having conducted a survey in Germany about their attitude towards the French, it turned out that one half of the Germans are convinced that the Germans are characterized by frivolity in their behavior, while the other believes that they are polite and charming.

Character traits mean various specific features of a person’s personality, changes in which are observed depending on the actions of the individual.

Let's divide character traits into some groups:

The first is the traits that form the psychological composition of the individual. This can be defined as integrity, determination, courage, honesty, and so on.

The second is traits that express the relationship between two personalities. This group includes: sociability and closedness, which may indicate prejudice towards the surrounding society or a person’s internal focus; honesty or impenetrability; correctness, subtlety, politeness and straightforwardness.

The third group is traits that determine a person’s disposition toward himself. These are self-condemnation and ambition, self-respect, unpretentiousness or vanity, resentment, selfishness, shyness.

The fourth group is traits that express a person’s disposition towards work. This group consists of assertiveness, diligence or apathy, fear of obstacles or desire to conquer them, scrupulousness, accuracy, diligence.

And in conclusion, we can say that the sequence of development of such a combination: person - individual - personality depends, first of all, on the society and environment in which a person develops and, of course, on his genetic code.

Individual, individuality, personality was last modified: December 21st, 2015 by Elena Pogodaeva

A person who, thanks to work, emerges from the animal world and develops in society, carries out joint activities with other people and communicates with them, becomes a person, a subject of knowledge and active transformation of the material world, society and himself.

A person is born into the world already a human being. This statement only at first glance seems to be a truth that does not require proof. The fact is that the genes of the human embryo contain natural prerequisites for the development of actually human characteristics and qualities. The configuration of a newborn’s body presupposes the possibility of walking upright, the structure of the brain provides the possibility of developing intelligence, the structure of the hand provides the prospect of using tools, etc., and in this way a baby - already a person in terms of the sum of its capabilities - differs from a baby animal. In this way, the fact that the baby belongs to the human race is proven, which is fixed in the concept of an individual (in contrast to a baby animal, which is called an individual immediately after birth and until the end of its life). In the concept “ individual” embodies a person’s tribal affiliation. Individual can be considered both a newborn and an adult at the stage of savagery, and a highly educated resident of a civilized country.

Therefore, when we say of a particular person that he is an individual, we are essentially saying that he is potentially a person. Having been born as an individual, a person gradually acquires a special social quality and becomes a personality. Even in childhood, the individual is included in the historically established system of social relations, which he finds already ready. The further development of a person in society creates such an interweaving of relationships that shapes him as a person, i.e. as a real person, not only not like others, but also not like them, acting, thinking, suffering, included in social connections as a member of society, a participant in the historical process.

Personality in psychology, it denotes a systemic (social) quality acquired by an individual in objective activity and communication and characterizing the degree of representation of social relations in the individual.

So, personality can only be understood in a system of stable interpersonal connections, which are mediated by the content, values, and meaning of joint activity for each of the participants. These interpersonal connections are manifested in specific individual properties and actions of people, forming a special quality of the group activity itself.

The personality of each person is endowed only with its own inherent combination of psychological traits and characteristics that form its individuality, constituting the uniqueness of a person, his difference from other people. Individuality is manifested in traits of temperament, character, habits, prevailing interests, in the qualities of cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking, imagination), in abilities, individual style of activity, etc. There are no two identical people with the same combination of these psychological characteristics - a person’s personality is unique in its individuality.

Just as the concepts of “individual” and “personality” are not identical, personality and individuality, in turn, form unity, but not identity. The ability to add and multiply large numbers very quickly “in the mind”, thoughtfulness, the habit of biting nails and other characteristics of a person act as traits of his individuality, but are not necessarily included in the characteristics of his personality, if only because they may not be represented in forms activities and communications that are essential to the group in which the individual possessing these traits is included. If personality traits are not represented in the system of interpersonal relationships, then they turn out to be insignificant for characterizing the individual’s personality and do not receive conditions for development. The individual characteristics of a person remain “mute” until a certain time, until they become necessary in the system of interpersonal relationships, the subject of which will be this person as an individual.

The problem of the relationship between the biological (natural) and social principles in the structure of a person’s personality is one of the most complex and controversial in modern psychology. A prominent place is occupied by theories that distinguish two main substructures in a person’s personality, formed under the influence of two factors - biological and social. The idea was put forward that the entire human personality is divided into an “endopsychic” and “exopsychic” organization. “ Endopsychics“as a substructure of personality expresses the internal mechanism of the human personality, identified with the neuropsychic organization of a person. “ Exopsyche” is determined by a person’s attitude to the external environment. “Endopsychia” includes such traits as receptivity, characteristics of memory, thinking and imagination, the ability to exert volition, impulsiveness, etc., and “exopsychia” is a person’s system of relationships and his experience, i.e. interests, inclinations, ideals, prevailing feelings, formed knowledge, etc.

How should we approach this concept of two factors? Natural organic aspects and traits exist in the structure of the individuality of the human personality as its socially conditioned elements. The natural (anatomical, physiological and other qualities) and the social form a unity and cannot be mechanically opposed to each other as independent substructures of the personality. So, recognizing the role of the natural, biological, and social in the structure of individuality, it is impossible to distinguish biological substructures in the human personality, in which they already exist in a transformed form.

Returning to the question of understanding the essence of personality, it is necessary to dwell on the structure of personality when it is considered as a “supersensible” systemic quality of an individual. Considering personality in the system of subjective relations, three types of subsystems of an individual’s personal existence are distinguished (or three aspects of the interpretation of personality). The first aspect to consider is intra-individual subsystem: personality is interpreted as a property inherent in the subject himself; the personal turns out to be immersed in the internal space of the individual’s existence. Second aspect - interindividual personal subsystem, when the sphere of its definition and existence becomes the “space of interindividual connections.” The third aspect of consideration is meta-individual personal subsystem. Here attention is drawn to the impact that, voluntarily or unwittingly, an individual has on other people. Personality is perceived from a new angle: its most important characteristics, which were tried to be seen in the qualities of an individual, are proposed to be looked for not only in himself, but also in other people. Continuing in other people, with the death of the individual the personality does not completely die. The individual, as the bearer of personality, dies, but, personalized in other people, continues to live. In the words “he lives in us even after death” there is neither mysticism nor pure metaphor, it is a statement of the fact of the ideal representation of the individual after his material disappearance.

Of course, a personality can be characterized only in the unity of all three proposed aspects of consideration: its individuality, representation in the system of interpersonal relationships and, finally, in other people.

If, when deciding why a person becomes more active, we analyze the essence of needs, which express the state of need for something or someone, leading to activity, then in order to determine what activity will result in, it is necessary to analyze what determines its direction, where and what this activity is aimed at.

A set of stable motives that guide an individual’s activity and are relatively independent of existing situations is called orientation of a person's personality. The main role of personality orientation belongs to conscious motives.

Interest- a motive that promotes orientation in any area, familiarization with new facts, and a more complete and profound reflection of reality. Subjectively - for the individual - interest is revealed in the positive emotional tone that the process of cognition acquires, in the desire to become more deeply acquainted with the object, to learn even more about it, to understand it.

Thus, interests act as a constant incentive mechanism for cognition.

Interests are an important aspect of motivation for an individual’s activity, but not the only one. An essential motive for behavior is beliefs.

Beliefs- this is a system of individual motives that encourages her to act in accordance with her views, principles, and worldview. Contents of needs, acting in the form of beliefs, is knowledge about the surrounding world of nature and society, their certain understanding. When this knowledge forms an orderly and internally organized system of views (philosophical, aesthetic, ethical, natural science, etc.), they can be considered as a worldview.

The presence of beliefs covering a wide range of issues in the field of literature, art, social life, and industrial activity indicates a high level of activity of a person’s personality.

Interacting and communicating with people, a person distinguishes himself from the environment, feels himself to be the subject of his physical and mental states, actions and processes, acts for himself as “I”, opposed to “others” and at the same time inextricably linked with him.

The experience of having a “I” is the result of a long process of personality development that begins in infancy and which is referred to as the “discovery of the “I.” A one-year-old child begins to realize the differences between the sensations of his own body and those sensations that are caused by objects located outside. Then, at the age of 2-3 years, the child separates the process that gives him pleasure and the result of his own actions with objects from the objective actions of adults, presenting the latter with demands: “I myself!” For the first time, he begins to realize himself as the subject of his own actions and deeds (a personal pronoun appears in the child’s speech), not only distinguishing himself from the environment, but also opposing himself to everyone else (“This is mine, this is not yours!”).

It is known that in adolescence and adolescence, the desire for self-perception, to understand one’s place in life and oneself as a subject of relationships with others intensifies. Associated with this is the formation of self-awareness. Senior schoolchildren develop an image of their own “I”. The image of “I” is a relatively stable, not always conscious, experienced as a unique system of an individual’s ideas about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with others. The image of “I” thereby fits into the structure of the personality. It acts as an attitude towards oneself. Like any attitude, the image of “I” includes three components.

Firstly, cognitive component: idea of ​​one’s abilities, appearance, social significance, etc.

Secondly, emotional-evaluative component: self-respect, self-criticism, selfishness, self-deprecation, etc.

Third - behavioral(strong-willed): the desire to be understood, to win sympathy, to increase one’s status, or the desire to remain unnoticed, to evade evaluation and criticism, to hide one’s shortcomings, etc.

Image of “I”- stable, not always conscious, experienced as a unique system of an individual’s ideas about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with others.

The image of “I” is both a prerequisite and a consequence of social interaction. In fact, psychologists record in a person not just one image of his “I”, but many successive “I-images”, alternately coming to the forefront of self-awareness and then losing their meaning in a given situation of social interaction. “I-image” is not a static, but a dynamic formation of an individual’s personality.

The “I-image” can be experienced as an idea of ​​oneself at the moment of the experience itself, usually referred to in psychology as the “real Self,” but it would probably be more correct to call it the momentary or “current Self” of the subject.

The “I-image” is at the same time the “ideal I” of the subject - what he should, in his opinion, become in order to meet the internal criteria of success.

Let us indicate another variant of the emergence of the “I-image” - the “fantastic I” - what the subject would like to become, if it turned out to be possible for him, how he would like to see himself. The construction of one’s fantastic “I” is characteristic not only of young men, but also of adults. When assessing the motivating significance of this “I-image,” it is important to know whether the individual’s objective understanding of his position and place in life has been replaced by his “fantastic self.” The predominance in the personality structure of fantastic ideas about oneself, not accompanied by actions that would contribute to the realization of the desired, disorganizes the activity and self-awareness of a person and in the end can severely traumatize him due to the obvious discrepancy between the desired and the actual.

The degree of adequacy of the “I-image” is clarified by studying one of its most important aspects—personal self-esteem.

Self-esteem- a person’s assessment of himself, his capabilities, qualities and place among other people. This is the most significant and most studied aspect of a person’s self-awareness in psychology. With the help of self-esteem, the behavior of an individual is regulated.

How does a person carry out self-esteem? K. Marx has a fair idea: a person first looks, as in a mirror, into another person. Only by treating the man Paul as one of his own kind does the man Peter begin to treat himself as a man. In other words, by learning the qualities of another person, a person receives the necessary information that allows him to develop his own assessment. In other words, a person is oriented toward a certain reference group (real or ideal), whose ideals are its ideals, interests are its interests, etc. d. In the process of communication, she constantly compares herself with the standard and, depending on the results of the check, appears satisfied with herself or dissatisfied. Too high or too low self-esteem can become an internal source of personality conflicts. Of course, this conflict can manifest itself in different ways.

Inflated self-esteem leads to the fact that a person tends to overestimate himself in situations that do not provide a reason for this. As a result, he often encounters opposition from others who reject his claims, becomes embittered, displays suspicion, suspiciousness and deliberate arrogance, aggression, and in the end may lose the necessary interpersonal contacts and become withdrawn.

Excessively low self-esteem may indicate the development of an inferiority complex, persistent self-doubt, refusal of initiative, indifference, self-blame and anxiety.

In order to understand a person, it is necessary to clearly imagine the action of the unconsciously developing forms of a person’s control over his behavior, to pay attention to the entire system of assessments with which a person characterizes himself and others, to see the dynamics of changes in these assessments.

NOVOSIBIRSK STATE ARCHITECTURAL

BUILDING UNIVERSITY (Sibstrin)

Faculty of Evening and Correspondence Studies

The relationship between the concepts of “man”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality” and “subject”

Sayapov Yaroslav

Scientific adviser:

Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor L.I. Scriabin

Novosibirsk 2013

Introduction

Human

Individual- a specific person with all the characteristics given to him by nature (gender, age, height, weight, nervous system, etc.). It manifests itself in properties transformed in the course of individual development. An individual is the smallest unit in the system of the species Homo sapiens.

Personality

Individuality

Subject

Above were scientific definitions of the concepts: “person”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality” and “subject”. These concepts can be classified as eternal. Each new generation of people, each person rediscovers them, formulates them for himself, tries to give his own version of the answer. These concepts are close, but do not coincide, they cannot be identified. In my work, I tried to consider each concept separately and in more detail.

.Consider each concept separately;

.Find the relationship between concepts.

. Human

Human- is a biological creature belonging to the class of mammals of the species Homo sapiens, endowed with consciousness, i.e. the ability to cognize the essence of both the external world and one’s own nature and, in accordance with this, act and act wisely. Man is the bearer of consciousness, which in itself is a social product. The pinnacle of human consciousness development is his self-awareness.

Let's start from this definition. Indeed, the body structure of a baby born into the world has the ability to walk upright, the structure of the brain has a potential developed intelligence, the structure of the hands has the prospect of using tools, etc., and with all these capabilities the baby differs from a baby animal and its belonging to the human race is confirmed . As already mentioned above, a person is a living biological being, and like all living things, he has an organism, a body, is in relationship with the outside world, and is subject to biological and physiological laws.

Man is a multifaceted, multidimensional, complexly organized being. He is endowed with consciousness, speech, the ability to work, create value, etc. These properties are not inherited by a person, but are formed by him throughout his life, in the process of assimilating the culture created by previous generations. The development of humanity is impossible without the active transmission of human culture to new generations. Without society, without assimilation of the socio-historical experience of mankind, it is impossible to become a person, to acquire special human qualities, even if a human being has biological usefulness. There is evidence that if children develop outside society from a very early age, they remain at the level of development of animals; they do not develop speech, consciousness, thinking, and do not have an upright gait. No person’s personal experience can lead to the fact that he independently develops a system of concepts. By participating in work and various forms of social activity, people develop in themselves those specific human abilities that have already been formed in humanity. But, on the other hand, without the biological usefulness inherent in man as a biological species, it is impossible even under the influence of society, upbringing, and education to achieve the highest human qualities.

A person is a bearer of consciousness, which means he is aware, since awareness is the result of the inclusion of consciousness on what is happening. In turn, awareness as a way of life is the ability, ability and habit to accompany with consciousness one’s current states, one’s actions, one’s activities, the course of one’s life.

And finally, self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is a person’s study of his own mental and physical characteristics, understanding of himself. It begins in infancy and continues throughout life. It is formed gradually as it reflects both the outside world and self-knowledge.

From the above, we can conclude that a child born into the world is a human being, since it has all the external signs of Homo sapiens. He is small, defenseless, but has enormous development potential. He has a natural desire for improvement and self-knowledge, which develops as he grows up.

. Individual

An individual is a specific person with all the characteristics given to him by nature (gender, age, height, weight, nervous system, etc.). It manifests itself in properties transformed in the course of individual development. An individual is the smallest unit in the system of the species Homo sapiens.

So, let's figure out what the concept of individual means. The concept of an individual contains an indication of a person’s similarity to all other people, of his commonality with the human race. It follows that every person is an individual. But it also says that he differs from others in such features as height, skin color, weight, eye color, etc. We are also talking about how he manifests himself anywhere, taking into account his individual development. Indeed, there are no people with the same external characteristics, just as there are no people with the same characters. There may be some similarities, but there simply is no such thing as a perfect match. From the above we can conclude that an individual is a single (specific) representative of the species “homo sapiens”. Individuals differ from each other not only in morphological characteristics (such as height, bodily constitution and eye color), but also in psychological properties (abilities, temperament, emotionality). Another question is from what moment a person is considered an individual. There is an opinion that a Man is born and then becomes an individual, but is this true? There is evidence that in the second month of a mother’s pregnancy, the central and peripheral nervous system begins to form in the fetus, the embryo begins to respond to pain and tries to move away from the light, which is directed directly at the mother’s abdomen. A five-month-old embryo is able to hear loud sounds, respond to caresses and words, and become frightened or angry. Thus, the behavior of the fetus completely depends on the mood of the pregnant mother, as a result of which at this stage the formation of the emotional and intellectual life of the child begins. Thus, the individual develops in the prenatal period. Thus, we can conclude that the concept of an individual is formed at its inception.

3. Personality

personal individual psychological

Personality- a conscious individual who occupies a certain position in society and performs a certain social role. The position of an individual is manifested through the system of its social relations. A person constantly acts in some role. A role is a social function of an individual. Each person is formed as an individual only in society and manifests himself in communication with other people. There is no individual outside of society. It is characterized by five potentials: cognitive, value, creative, communicative, artistic.

Translated into simple language, we can say that a person is a person who builds and controls his own life, a person as a responsible subject of will. A person is one who is not equal to his natural inclinations, who may not be their slave, but may be superior to them. Normal children, having gone through the crisis of three years, can already subordinate their immediate impulses to social norms: to what is necessary.

A person is one who is capable of consciously managing his own behavior. Among obedient children, one encounters “spontaneous morality”: a person, especially a child, may not be aware of what exactly made him act in a certain way, but nevertheless act quite morally. This is how he was raised, these are his habits. But it was not he who acted, but his habits that guided him.

A personality is one who has his own self. A large number of people live mechanically, following the drives of their body and thoughtlessly, according to patterns, reacting to external demands. If the body has good drives, external requirements are reasonable and social habits are adequate, we will have a completely decent socialized person. But - not a person. He doesn't have his own self.

A person is someone who is not just strong, but internally strong. Not just a person who knows a lot, but a smart person. Not just interesting to talk to, but a person with a rich inner world. Not just naturally gifted, but “self made” - a person who has made himself. Not just lucky, but able to be successful.

The formation of personality is the process of socialization of a person, which consists in his assimilation of a generic, social essence. This development is always carried out in the specific historical circumstances of a person’s life. The formation of personality is associated with the individual’s acceptance of social functions and roles developed in society, social norms and rules of behavior, and with the formation of skills to build relationships with other people. A formed personality is a subject of free, independent and responsible behavior in society.

At all times, people who stood out from the masses due to their internal qualities attracted attention. A personality is always a person who stands out, although not everyone who stands out is a personality. Despite the fact that each of us has personal characteristics, not everyone is called a “personality”. They say about a person with respect: “This is a personality!” when he stands out among other people with his internal characteristics that make him worthy.

Let's summarize. From the above it is clear that Personality is the same person, but taken from the side of his social significance and social activity. Personality is the most important thing in a person, his most important social characteristic.

What stands out in a person is, first of all, his social essence. Outside of society, outside of a social and professional group, a person cannot become an individual, he will not develop a human appearance, i.e. Nature creates man, but society shapes him. Depending on the manifestation of a person’s personal qualities, one can judge his positive and negative moral and spiritual qualities.

And the most important thing is that you are not born a personality, you become a personality! Or they don't...

Individuality.

Individuality- this is a personality in its originality, which distinguishes a person from other people due to the originality and uniqueness of the individual. Individuality is described by individual life history, experience, the totality of personal characteristics, and the significance of the products of activity. Individuality is the form of existence of a person. Motivation, temperament, ability and character? basic parameters of individuality.

Individuality, like personality, does not manifest itself in a person, literally, from birth. A newly born child is an individual who does not have human individuality, since he is not capable of independent individual activity. Only with age does one acquire a social personality and the ability to independently choose a life path and develop using individual methods. The essence of individuality lies in the independence of each individual and his ability to be himself in the sphere of the social system. The most important role of the innate inclinations and developmental characteristics of each individual is mediation by social factors. In the process of the dynamic influence of many qualities, one’s own personal characteristics are formed in all spheres of life. The development of individuality itself is a necessity for the movement of progress in human history. The improvement and individualization of personality are associated with the transformation of society, mutual assistance in society and the conditions of cooperation. Individuality is understood as the originality of each person; originality is manifested in the totality of personality characteristics that are inherent only to a given person.

Individuality is an indispensable and most important sign of personality. Individuality characterizes a person more specifically, in more detail, more completely. It is a constant object of research in the study of personality psychology and other areas of psychology. Usually the word “individuality” is used to define any dominant feature of a person that makes him different from those around him. Each person is individual, but the individuality of some manifests itself very clearly, while of others it is barely noticeable.

So, it turns out that individuality is a set of characteristic features and properties that distinguish one individual from another. And it, undoubtedly, does not grow on the basis of biological prerequisites or from scratch.

4. Subject

Subject- an active and cognitive individual. It is characterized by a set of activities and their productivity. Subject activity? a person’s ability to make socially significant transformations in the world based on the appropriation of material and spiritual culture, manifested in creativity, acts of will, and communication.

A person is always a subject (participant, performer) of the historical and social process as a whole, a subject of specific activity, in particular a source of knowledge and transformation of objective reality. The activity itself in this case acts as a form of human activity, allowing him to improve the world around him and himself.

The subject can show initiative and independence, make and implement a decision, evaluate the consequences of his behavior, change and improve himself, and determine the prospects for his multidimensional life activity. The subject is able to give an account of his actions, is capable of self-knowledge, self-awareness and self-responsibility. He can relate his past, present and future. The subject changes in the process of life in its own direction. There are significant individual differences between subjects.

Conclusion

The concepts of “person”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality” and “subject” are inextricably linked. They all relate, in one way or another, to humans. The only thing that distinguishes them from each other is that each concept separately characterizes a person on a certain path in life or some life situations. So, for example, the concept of man. A child is born, and he is already a person, since he has all his external signs. He is also an individual. Later, when growing up, a person becomes an individual. Personality can be said to be a description of the personal qualities of a person or personality. The subject is an actively acting and cognizing individual.

Literature

1.Psychology and pedagogy / Ed. A.A. Radugina. ? M.: Publishing house CENTER, 1997. ? 256 pp.

2. Psychology and pedagogy: textbook / Ed. E.V. Ostrovsky. - M.: University textbook, 2006. - 384 p.

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Topic 12. Man:

individual, personality, individuality

Individuals are born

become a person

individuality is defended.

Man in psychology.

So who is this MAN?

The first thing that can be noted when describing the phenomenon of a person is the variety of his properties. Man is a multifaceted, multidimensional, complexly organized being.

Man is a generic concept, indicating that a creature belongs to the highest degree of development of living nature - to the human race. The concept of “man” affirms the genetic predetermination of the development of actually human characteristics and qualities.

So, 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.

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 a biological and social being at the same time, which through its life activities influences the environment.

Basic characteristics of a person:

The special structure of the body;

Ability to work;

Presence of consciousness.

In the practice of psychology, a person is studied in several aspects (see Diagram 1).

Scheme 1. Study of man in psychology

1. Man as an individual reflects the biological essence. We are all, like all living things, part of nature. In this aspect, they consider what is given to a person by nature, what makes him belong to the human race, the human body, its structure and how it affects the psyche are studied.

2. At the same time, Human- it's always active creature. Even when we sleep, a separate part of our consciousness does not sleep, continues to digest the information perceived during the day. And a person is always engaged in some kind of activity, communicates with other people, thinks, shows mental activity (cognitive activity),

3. Third aspect of study person is associated with the fact that the child is not born in isolation, but immediately falls into society, which immediately begins to make its demands on him. Starting from the fact that the child is given a name, and from childhood they are taught: this is how you can act, but this is not possible, from birth the child perceives social roles (son, daughter, kindergarten student, schoolchild, etc.), etc. This all applies to a person as an individual - a social being.

4. And all of the above adds up to a unique individuality everyone person. Every person is unique. Each of you is unique.

But how do these concepts relate: man, individual, personality, individuality?

Individual and personality.

û What do you think personality is?

û Can every person be called a person?

What does the word "personality" mean? What meaning do we put into it? This word has its own history. Originally the Latin word "persona" (personality) meant a mask worn by an actor. The word “mask” had the same meaning among buffoons. In ancient Rome, personae were citizens responsible before the law.

In modern science, the concept of “personality” is one of the most important categories. It is not purely psychological and is studied by history, philosophy, economics, pedagogy and other sciences. In this regard, the question arises about the peculiarities of the approach to personality in psychology.

An important task of psychological science is to discover the psychological properties that characterize the individual and personality.

You, of course, never bothered yourself with the question of how an individual differs from a personality, since this topic hardly bothered you at all. However, the older you get, the more serious your attitude to the world... or maybe you just heard a debate about who can be called a person and who cannot? Be that as it may, the question has been raised - which means we need to find out the answer.

A person is already born into the world as a human being. The structure of the body of the baby that is born allows him to master upright posture in the future, the structure of the brain allows him to develop intelligence, the structure of the hand provides the prospect of using tools, etc. With all these capabilities, a baby differs from a young animal. This confirms the fact that the baby belongs to the human race.

It's safe to say that you are an individual. Just like your parents, and teachers, and that tall guy from the next house, and the beautiful girl from the top floor... However, the baby in the stroller is also an individual, so you have nothing special to be proud of: it is the privilege of a person from birth - to be not an individual, like animals , but an individual, and in order to fall into this category, you just need to have arms, legs, a head and everything that a person has (think for yourself).

The concept of “individual” expresses a person’s gender identity, i.e. any person is an individual.

Individual (from Latin indivisible) – This is a single representative of the human race (species homo sapiens), a specific bearer of individually unique, primarily biologically determined traits. The concept of an individual contains an indication of a person’s similarity to all other people, of his commonality with the human race (musculoskeletal structure, which provides the ability to walk upright, master speech, a nervous system with a certain structure of the brain, etc.). And at the same time, the concept of “individual” also indicates that this is an individual being, different from others (individual characteristics are different among people - body structure, hair color, characteristics of the nervous system, etc.).

Basic characteristics of the individual:

Age and gender:

Age and phase of life;

Sexual dimorphism (male, female);

Individually typical:

Constitutional properties (features of human anatomy, body structure);

Neurodynamic properties (type of nervous system, brain properties, etc.);

Color of eyes, hair, etc.;

Biological needs (for food, safety, etc.);

Makings;

Activity.

The highest integration of individual individual properties of a person is represented in temperament and psychological inclinations.

As we have found out, individuality is connected primarily with natural formations, with the human body, its structure. This is what is laid down in a person during intrauterine development. In general, natural, bodily properties constitute the prerequisites and conditions for the development of his internal, mental qualities inherent in man. For example, a certain structure of the larynx and ligaments is responsible for the fact that a person can speak, and some can sing beautifully.

From individual to personality.

û Answer, is a newborn person a person? Is it possible to talk about the personality of an animal?

Although it is pleasant to be an individual (after all, not an individual, right? – already good), it is not particularly honorable: you need to somehow stand out from the crowd of your kind, but how to do this? And what will happen as a result? But this is exactly the key question! An individual, that is, a person who does not want to do everything the way others do, thinks, feels and acts in his own way, is not afraid to have his own point of view, gradually turns into... personality! That is, a person is an individual, but an individual may not be a person - a sad picture, by the way.

One day, Crybaby, Mischievous, Tikhonya and Ochkarik began to think - what, in fact, sets them apart from the crowd of their kind? After all, there are a lot of schoolchildren like them, some of them even look like these four. But they are special, aren’t they? “I guess I know what’s going on,” said Ochkarik firmly. – You, Crybaby, are a very vulnerable girl, you know how to empathize with others, that’s good. You, Mischievous, are a master of all kinds of inventions, and this is wonderful. Our quiet girl is a very conscientious girl, she can handle any job this way. Well, I... - The bespectacled boy hesitated, - I’m very smart... and just try to disagree with this!!!”

û Think about it, how do you stand out from the crowd of your own kind?

Coming into the world as an individual, a person acquires a special social quality, he becomes a personality. The philosophical definition of personality was given by K. Marx. He defined the essence of man as a set of social relations. It is possible to understand what a person is only through the study of real social connections and relationships into which a person enters. The social nature of the individual always has a specific historical content. It is from the specific socio-historical relations of a person that it is necessary to derive not only the general conditions of development, but also the historically specific essence of the individual. The specificity of social conditions of life and a person’s way of activity determines the characteristics of his individual qualities and properties.

û If we give a description of a person’s personality in Ancient times, in Middle times in Western Europe, in modern times in North America, Africa and Russia, will these characteristics be the same? What will be their specificity?

Personal characteristics are not given to a person from birth. All people adopt certain mental traits, attitudes, customs and feelings in the society in which they live.

A person as an individual is a bearer of historically developed and socially significant qualities, forms of behavior, and activity. Personal qualities are always significant to other people. For example, kindness is a personal quality because it is always directed towards other people, and therefore towards society as a whole.

To the question of what personality is, psychologists answer differently, and the variety of their answers, and partly the divergence of opinions on this matter, reveals the complexity of the personality phenomenon itself.

Personality is considered as the result of the development of the individual, the embodiment of human qualities. This is the social essence of man.

The concept of personality is often divided into two categories: 1 ) personality is a human individual as a subject of social relations and conscious activity; 2) personality is a stable system of socially significant traits that characterize an individual as a member of a particular society or community.

A personality can be called a specific person who is the bearer of consciousness, is capable of cognition, experiences, transformation of the surrounding world and builds certain relationships with this world and with the world of other individuals.

The concept of “personality” implies that an individual has special qualities that he can only develop through communication with other people. This is a set of developed habits and preferences, mental attitude and tone, sociocultural experience and acquired knowledge, a set of psychophysical traits and characteristics of a person, his archetype, which determine everyday behavior and connection with society and nature. Personality is also observed as manifestations of “behavioral masks” developed for different situations and social interaction groups.

Basic personality characteristics:

Orientation (drives, desires, interests, inclinations, ideals, worldviews, beliefs, as well as will).

Experience (knowledge, skills, abilities and habits).

Individual characteristics of individual mental processes: memory, emotions, sensations, thinking, perception, feelings, will.

- Temperament.

Capabilities.

Character.

Motivation and values.

Social needs (acceptance of a person, etc.).

Social status and roles.

Conscious goals.

Personal properties of a person - a person’s life path, his social biography. A person as a representative of society, who freely and responsibly determines his position among others.

Many scientists (and others) believe that a person is a person to the extent that he is significant to other people, to the extent that he is able to give himself to other people, to leave his mark on them.

û In this context, can we talk about the PERSONALITY of the criminal?

Why is an individual worse than a person?

It's no worse. He's just one of many. He cannot be identified. Just remember the tale of the Frog Princess. At the beginning of the fairy tale, three brothers are three individuals, one is practically no different from the other: all three follow their father’s orders and shoot an arrow from their bows, all three bring young wives to the house, try to please their father, and so on. But at the end of the fairy tale, we will no longer confuse Ivan Tsarevich with anyone, he appeared before us in full height. What about his brothers? They remained undiscovered for us: which of them married a merchant’s daughter, and which one married a noblewoman is not clear. And it’s not interesting, to be honest.

In general, an individual does not make the reader want to know more about him, whereas a personality attracts attention. The situation is exactly the same in life - if you do not stand out among others, if you are not interested in anything and you do not have your own opinion and your own, original view of the world, then who needs you? Who wants to waste their time on you? Think about it!

Speaking about a person as an individual, we highlight the integrity of a person, his ability to take a certain place that is unique to him in society, in the world of other people, the ability to manage himself, his behavior and his development, and influence other people.

Personality and individuality.

Along with the concept of “personality”, the concept of “individuality” is often used. How do these two concepts differ from one another? What is human individuality?

û Without looking at further text, can you answer how you understand a person’s individuality?

The personality of each person is endowed only with his own inherent combination of traits and characteristics that form his individuality. Thus, individuality is a combination of a person’s psychological characteristics that determine his uniqueness, originality, and difference from other people . Individuality is manifested in certain character traits, temperament, habits, prevailing interests, in the qualities of cognitive processes, in abilities, in an individual style of activity.

Individuality is the uniqueness of a person as an individual and personality. Individuality is manifested in appearance, physique, expressive movements, character traits, temperament, particular needs and abilities, cognitive, volitional and emotional processes, mental states, and life experiences.

We often use the concept of “individuality” when talking about a person’s personality. However, it should be remembered that this concept does not reflect the integrity of the individual, but only emphasizes the specific features of a person that distinguish him from other people.

The prerequisite for the formation of human individuality is, first of all, the environment where he grows up, the associations he accumulated in childhood, upbringing, peculiarities of family structure and treatment of the child. Both the innate characteristics of a person and his own activity in the formation of his uniqueness are important. There is an opinion that one is born as an individual, becomes an individual, and defends individuality ()

The relationship between individuality and personality is determined by the fact that these are two ways of being a person, two different definitions of him. The discrepancy between these concepts is manifested, in particular, in the fact that there are two different processes of formation of personality and individuality.

The formation of personality is the process of socialization of a person, which consists in his mastering the social essence. This development is always carried out in the specific historical circumstances of a person’s life. The formation of personality is associated with the individual’s acceptance of social functions and roles developed in society, social norms and rules of behavior, and with the formation of skills to build relationships with other people. A formed personality is a subject of free, independent and responsible behavior in society.

The formation of individuality is the process of individualization of an object. Individualization is the process of self-determination and isolation of the individual, his separation from the community, the design of his individuality, uniqueness and originality. A person who has become an individual is an original person who has actively and creatively demonstrated himself in life.

The concepts of “personality” and “individuality” capture different aspects, different dimensions of a person’s essence. The essence of this difference is well expressed in the language. With the word “personality” such epithets as “strong”, “energetic”, “independent” are usually used, thereby emphasizing its active essence in the eyes of others. Individuality is spoken of as “bright”, “unique”, “creative”, meaning the qualities of an independent entity.

DIY

Do you want to be called a “strong personality”, “bright personality”? So what's the deal?

Do-it-yourself, or work on yourself, self-constructor, decide for yourself what you want to call the process of forging personality and individuality from yourself. It is not easy, but a person can cope with any difficulty if he wants, of course. But the main thing for you is to understand what personality and individuality are by disassembling these complex structures into separate blocks.

As we found out, 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, and this process takes many years

Personality development is a relatively slow process, and a lot of time passes before a person reaches full maturity. In order for an individual to become a person, it takes, of course, not only time. He must constantly be in the human society, enter into one relationship or another with him. It is this connection “man - society” that first of all shapes the personality. And already in the first year of life a child’s need for communication with adults. However, there are many cases where children were completely deprived of the opportunity to communicate with people, and the results of this were truly tragic.

In the middle of the 18th century. A two-month-old baby named Ivan Antonovich was proclaimed Russian emperor. His reign did not last long and ended before the emperor uttered his first word. The courtiers who overthrew Ivan Antonovich from the throne imprisoned him and kept him there for many years. No one ever spoke to the prisoner; he was completely alone. In the end, solitary confinement greatly affected his mental abilities: he could not speak and came across as a complete idiot. By age, he was already an adult, but, of course, it is impossible to talk about him as a person. Also, children who were kidnapped and raised by animals did not become individuals.

Under normal conditions, a person very early enters into relationships with the people around him, with the team, with society, and these relationships are constantly changing, developing, becoming more versatile day by day.

Personality formation also determines activity and its features. It is in activity that the necessary unity of behavior is formed, the connection between the relationships that a person has with the outside world is strengthened.

The goals that a person sets for himself are also important. More precisely, personality development guides the purpose of life. These are very familiar words, but think about their meaning again. Maybe the goal of life is simply a desire, well, let’s say, to become a professional in some industry or just to make some kind of attempt. By what a person’s main goals in life are, one can judge his personality. There has never been a case where the pursuit of a small, personal goal forged a major personality.

So, the personality, developing under the influence of the social environment, possessing unique individual characteristics, constitutes a unity of the highest order. At a certain stage of its development, a person comes into contact with higher layers of human culture - ideals and spiritual values. And then the absorption and internal processing of these values ​​leads to the formation of the spiritual core of the personality, its moral self-awareness. The process that forms this “center” of personality is never completed.

Exercise. Let's understand the terms.

Which of the following human traits characterizes him as an individual? How is your personality? How's the personality? Explain your answer.

Accuracy, slowness, sociable, good motor; nal coordination, willpower, intelligence, daydreaming, brightness of traits, laziness, pride, determination, adaptive capabilities, mathematical abilities, temperament, stubbornness, reactivity, excitability, expressive facial expressions, literary talent, focus, myopia, strength of the nervous system.

Was it always easy to attribute a characteristic to one or another concept? What caused you the most difficulty? How do you explain the difficulties you are experiencing?

û Can you call yourself an individual? If yes, then how does it manifest itself?

New concepts: individual, personality, individuality.

Test questions.

1. Define the concepts of “person”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”.

2. How do the concepts of “man” and “individual” relate? Prove that man as an individual is similar to all other people and at the same time different from them.

3. How are the historical conditions in which a person lives and the formation of his personality related?

4. Highlight those factors that are necessary to transform an individual into a personality.

5. Which people can be called a personality with a capital P these days? Are you such a person?

6. How do the concepts of personality and individuality relate?

7. Can you call yourself an individual? Justify your answer.

8. Draw and describe your idea of ​​the connection between the concepts “person”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”.

9. Choose the correct answer

9.1 The sign that distinguishes a person from an animal is:

a) manifestation of activity, b) goal setting, c) adaptation to the environment, d) interaction with the outside world.

9.2. What sign characterizes a person as a person?

a) active life position, b) physical and mental health, c) belonging to homo sapiens, d) appearance features.

10. Are Mowgli children individuals? Justify your answer.

11. Express your opinion about the statement: “One is born as an individual, one becomes an individual, one defends individuality.”

Test tasks.

Literature and sources

1. Human horns. – M.: Vlados, 2001.

2. and others. Psychology. – M.: Academy, 1999.

3. Yarovitsky V. My first textbook on psychology. – Rostov-n/Don: Phoenix, 2011.

4. Gretsov psychology for girls. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.

5. Dyachenko dictionary-reference book. – Mn.: Harvest, M.: AST, 2001.

6. Nemov: In 3 books. – M.: Vlados, 2000. – Book. 1.

7. http:///obh/00066.htm

8. http:///obh/00150.htm

9. http:///difpsi/fxiepe. htm

10. http://cito-web. yspu. org/link1/metod/met121/node3.html

11. http://www. *****/for-students/cards/general-psychology/.html

12. http://ru. wikipedia. org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C

13. http://www. *****/?Article=142

14. http:///psiforum/4--/

Diagnosis of personality traits

Questionnaire of formal-dynamic properties of individuality by V. Rusalov online

This link invites you to take a serious psychological test by V. Rusalov to identify the formal-dynamic properties of individuality. The questionnaire contains 150 questions. The online form allows you to quickly go through the procedure and immediately (without registration and SMS) find out the results.

If you decide to take this questionnaire and do not understand some of the terms in the results, write to your teacher and he will explain what the results obtained on the test mean.

It's interesting to know

Personality self-knowledge exercises

Exercise 1. “Personality Attributes”

Each participant is invited to acquire personal symbols! He must come up with, invent for himself three symbolic attributes: a pseudonym, a personal distinctive sign and a motto. The personal identification mark should be drawn on a piece of paper. It should be simple and symbolic. The motto requires brevity and imagery. An example is given: the pseudonym is “Uncle Vasya”, the distinctive sign is a shovel, the motto is “I dig deep”.

At the end of the work, everyone shows each other their drawings, discusses them and tries to give each of those gathered a characteristic. In addition, participants must evaluate how well each selected symbolic attributes. Based on a five-point system, everyone is given a score based on the totality of their chosen nickname, name sign and motto. To do this, everyone passes their pieces of paper around in a circle and everyone takes turns putting marks on them. Next, the total score is calculated and it is determined who was best able to express themselves in such a “symbolic form.”

Exercise 2. “Collective creation of a personality image”

Everyone is interested in “knowing what impression he makes on others, what associations he evokes in them, what is perceived as significant and what is not noticed at all. Everyone is invited to take part in the joint creative process of creating an artistic image of your classmate. Anyone who wants to become an object of creativity goes into the middle circle that the others form. Each participant, after thinking, says what image is born to him when looking at his classmate. Next, the presenter suggests saying what picture could be added to the created image: what people could surround him, what kind of interior or landscape formed the background pictures. What times does all this remind you of (for example, the image of a “volunteer” may make you think of a mermaid swimming in the water element and surrounded by sea creatures. Or maybe you will think of a lonely wanderer walking through the desert to an unknown destination.). In conclusion, everyone exchanges their impressions of how the game went.

Exercise 3. “Personalization Tools”

As already mentioned, a real personality is capable of producing profound changes in others. But this does not come to her right away. The first step is the ability to win the attention of others.

All participants are asked to complete one simple task. By any means, excluding physical influences and disasters of “local significance,” they must try to attract the attention of others. Everyone must act at the same time.

Then the schoolchildren determine who succeeded and at what cost. Finally, it is calculated who attracted the attention of the largest number of game participants.

Exercise 4. “Qualities that we value”

When we interact with others, we usually discover that we like or dislike them. As a rule, we associate this assessment with the internal qualities of people. Let's try to determine what qualities we value and accept in people. Each participant takes a piece of paper and marks
a group of a person who impresses him in many ways. Next, he writes down five qualities that he especially likes about this person. Then everyone reads the “characteristic” they have compiled, and everyone together tries to determine who it applies to. The presenter, summing up the results, announces which of those present were recognized the fastest, and, therefore, who was among the most popular personalities.

There are a large number of words that are similar to each other, but have different meanings. Many novice psychologists and people who love this science are interested in defining terms that are similar to the concept of “person”: individual, personality, are they the same thing or are there significant differences? This will be discussed in the article.

Human

It is important for any psychologist to understand the difference between a personality and an individual, to know their definitions, and to be able to navigate these concepts. To fully understand the differences, you must first know who a person is. According to the definition, which can be recalled from school days, a person is a being who stands at the highest stage of evolution, a subject of historical and social activity and communication. The concept is used when they mean the general qualities and abilities that everyone has.

Man is a biological and social being. Anthropogenesis is the science of its origin, which studies the process of its appearance and further development. Speaking about biological we mean its nature, which is manifested in anatomy and physiology. The social characteristics of a person are his place in social life, his connection with society, his intelligence, responsibility, and ability to work.

Individual

So, what is the difference between a personality and an individual? An individual is a single, original representative of the entire human race, in other words, a specific person. Translated from Latin as “indivisible, whole.” Its characteristics: mental and physical integrity, stability in relation to the surrounding world, activity.

There are the following individual needs (needs that prompt a person to take certain actions):

1. Natural. Needs that are necessary to preserve and maintain life. These are food, drink, sleep, the need for housing, clothing and relationships with a being of the opposite sex.
2. Cultural. Occur throughout life. As you know, a person depends on society; he needs communication and activity within it. They can be material (household items, tools, modern technology) and spiritual (desires to watch films, listen to music, go to the theater).
3. Social. Subtype of spiritual needs. It is carried out in the readiness to communicate with other people, to have status in society, the desire to be a member of a certain social group.

Personality

A person learns, develops, acquires certain skills and qualities. This is the main difference between personality and individual: the first is the social essence of the second. Initially, the word “personality” was used to describe the masks worn by ancient Greek actors during a performance. It was interpreted as an external image that a person uses while performing his role. So it is now: personality is a reflection of an individual’s social affiliation.

Personality is the niche occupied by a person, his social position. Depends on age, gender, marital status, and profession. One person can have several statuses. They can be permanent (woman, daughter, wife, mother) and temporary (bus passenger, customer, student). This characterizes the following difference between a personality and an individual - a person is born as an individual, but becomes an individual throughout his life.

Individuality

There is another concept that is easily confused with others. Individuality is a property that distinguishes each individual person. Manifests itself in communication, behavior, professional and social activities. This is the totality of those individual properties that a person is endowed with. This is a unique, special person with an original set of mental, social and physiological characteristics.

According to the Russian psychologist and teacher V.I. Slobodchikov, individuality is a separate, original world that develops without the intervention of other people. Thanks to it, a person manifests himself in all spheres of life, becomes a participant in historical and civil events, and embodies the characteristics of the entire human race.

It’s amazing how multifaceted the seemingly ordinary concept of “person” can be. Individual, personality, individuality are similar, but different words that should be distinguished if you decide to professionally engage in psychology.