Psychological features of a creative personality. Personal characteristics of a creative person

Psychological features of a creative personality

1.1 Psychological Traits and features creative personality

In the psychological literature, there are two main points of view on the creative personality. According to one, creativity or creative ability to one degree or another is characteristic of every normal person. It is as integral to a person as the ability to think, speak and feel. Moreover, the realization of creative potential, regardless of its scale, makes a person mentally normal. To deprive a person of such an opportunity means to cause neurotic states in him. According to the second point of view, not every (normal) person should be considered a creative person, or a creator. This position is connected with a different understanding of the nature of creativity. Here, in addition to the unprogrammed process of creating a new one, the value of a new result is taken into account. It must be universally valid, although its scale may be different. The most important feature of the creator is a strong and stable need for creativity. A creative person cannot live without creativity, seeing in it the main goal and the main meaning of his life.

The term "creativity" indicates both the activity of the individual and the values ​​created by her, which, from the facts of her personal destiny, become the facts of culture. As alienated from the life of the subject of his searches and thoughts, it is just as unjustified to explain these values ​​in the categories of psychology as a miraculous nature. A mountain peak can inspire the creation of a painting, a poem or a geological work. But in all cases, once created, these works do not become the subject of psychology to a greater extent than the summit itself. Scientific and psychological analysis reveals something completely different: the ways of its perception, actions, motives, interpersonal relationships and the structure of the personality of those who reproduce it by means of art or in terms of the Earth sciences. The effect of these acts and connections is imprinted in artistic and scientific creations, now involved in a sphere independent of mental organization subject.

Much attention is paid to the definition of the concept of a creative personality in philosophical, pedagogical and psychological literature: V.I. Andreev, D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya, R.M. Granovskaya, A.Z. .Kichuk, N.V. Kuzmina, A.N. Luk, S.O. Sysoeva, V.A. Tsapok and others.

A creative personality, according to V. Andreev, is a type of personality that is characterized by perseverance, high level focus on creativity, motivational and creative activity, which manifests itself in an organic unity with a high level of creative abilities, allowing it to achieve progressive, social and personally significant results in one or more activities.

Psychologists consider creativity as a high level of logical thinking, which is an impetus to activity, "the result of which is the created material and spiritual values" . Most authors agree that a creative person is an individual who has a high level of knowledge, has a desire for something new, original. For a creative person, creative activity is a vital need, and a creative style of behavior is the most characteristic. The main indicator of a creative personality, its most important feature is the presence of creative abilities, which are considered as individual psychological abilities of a person that meet the requirements of creative activity, and are a condition for its successful implementation. Creativity is associated with the creation of a new, original product, with the search for new means of activity. N.V. Kichuk defines a creative personality through its intellectual activity, creative thinking and creative potential.

Also great importance to understand the characteristics of a creative personality, it has a special formation of mental actions. After all, "creativity" does not exist in pure form, real creative activity includes a lot of technical components, the "working out" of which is one of the prerequisites for creative activity. deepening psychological characteristics of the thought process also consists in pointing out that a change in the "conceptual characteristics of objects" is often preceded by changes in operational meanings and emotional assessments, that verbally formulated knowledge about an object does not necessarily have the character of concepts in the strict sense of the word. Ya. A. Ponomarev, who made a significant contribution to the development of problems in the psychology of creative thinking, considers creativity as a "mechanism of productive development", and replaces it with such a concept as "basal extension of the superstructural-basal system". In the psychological plan of functional development, this is the study of those neoplasms that arise in activity in the course of solving a problem. That is, that includes "unconscious" or "unconscious" replaced by Ponomarev with the term "basal component". The development of emotional processes in a creative person also has its own characteristics. If we recall one of the classic schemes creative process- preparation, maturation, inspiration, verification - and correlate it with the available research on the psychology of thinking, then with all the conventionality of the scheme, such a correlation allows us to state that the first and fourth links of the creative process are studied much more intensively than the second and third. Therefore, at present, they need to be given special attention. The study of "inspiration" on laboratory models is the study of the conditions for the emergence and functions of emotional activation, emotional assessments that arise in the course of solving mental problems. For example, in psychology scientific creativity it is convincingly shown that the activity of a scientist is always mediated by the categorical structure of science, which develops according to its own laws, independent of the individual, but at the same time, a certain opposition of the “subjective-experiential” and “objective-activity” plan is allowed, which can be reproached for the epiphenomenological interpretation of “experiences” , i.e., functions of the emotional-affective sphere.

Scientists - researchers identify such main features of a creative personality as:

- boldness of thought, propensity to take risks;

* fantasy;

* problematic vision;

* the ability to think;

* the ability to find a contradiction;

- the ability to transfer knowledge and experience to a new situation;

* independence;

* alternative;

* flexibility of thinking;

* ability to self-government.

O. Kulchitskaya also highlights such features of a creative personality:

- the emergence of directed interest in a particular field of knowledge, even in childhood;

* high working capacity;

- submission of creativity to spiritual motivation;

* steadfastness, obstinacy;

* Passion for work.

V. Molyako considers that one of the main qualities of a creative person is the desire for originality, for the new, the denial of the ordinary, as well as a high level of knowledge, the ability to analyze phenomena, compare them, a persistent interest in a particular work, a relatively quick and easy assimilation of theoretical and practical knowledge, sketchiness and independence in work.

So, we can make the following common features and characteristics of a creative personality, accepted by many researchers of this problem:

1. Man is endowed with freedom of choice. He is able to choose intentions and goals. Can carry out a selection of mental operations and actions that it performs. Thanks to this freedom, man becomes a creative being.

2. Man-creator performs main reason of his behaviour. It is a relatively self-governing system; the source of its action is contained, first of all, in the subject, and not in the object. This is a unique individual; extensive motivation or spontaneous thoughts largely influence his decisions and actions, what he does and what he avoids.

3. The main driving force is the need (metaneed) to confirm one's value, also called the gubristic need. It is satisfied mainly by the performance of creative and expansive transgressions, by the creation of new forms or the destruction of old ones.

4. A person is a creator tuned to internal and external development. It is transgressions that allow shaping his personality and enriching his culture. Development is the main goal of the human personality. Without an orientation towards growth, a person whose possibilities are limited would not have a chance to hold out and would not be able to build his well-being and well-being, that is, happiness.

5. Man-creator has a limited consciousness and self-consciousness. This premise destroys the radical view of what is mental, conscious and at the same time the radical view of the unconscious mind and character (extreme psychoanalysts).

6. Man's actions, especially his thoughts and actions, have a great influence on what place he occupies in the scale of good and evil; under their influence he becomes humane or inhumane.

From a psychological point of view, it is of particular interest to distinguish three categories of a creative personality in the cognitive element:

1. The first includes judgments about the worlds: material, social and symbolic, which are intersubjective, that is, they exist objectively, regardless of the will of man. Here are not only social knowledge acquired in the process of study. A person, carrying out creative actions, also formulates personal opinions on the topic of human nature.

2. Correlative judgments (descriptive and evaluative) relate to the relationships and connections that exist between the outside world and oneself.

3. In the cognitive element there are also judgments about oneself, called self-knowledge, the representation of oneself, or the concept of the Self. From these judgments a positive or negative image of one's own personality is formed.

The cognitive element of the individual provides her orientation in the world, allows her to understand the complex connections "I - others", gives knowledge about oneself, is necessary in the process of forming a common opinion about reality, and also plays a significant role in the protective actions of the individual.

The third element of personality, hereinafter referred to as will, is the motivational element. It sets in motion the motivational process and determines its general direction, supports, interrupts or completes thoughts and actions, influences the expenditure of energy and the time of their continuation. Sources of this type of action in individual system needs, which are the most important part of the third element of personality. Activation of needs by stimuli coming from the environment, or by internal factors (sequence of thoughts) sets in motion the motivational process.

Ya. Kozeletsky classifies needs creative people, taking as a criterion the space in which they function. According to this criterion, he identifies four types of them:

o the first - vital needs (basic, natural), which are innate, genetically formed. Their satisfaction is necessary to maintain the existence of the individual and the genus Homo sapiens.

o The second group represents the cognitive needs that a person satisfies in the field of science, philosophy, literature, music, visual arts, informatics (need for competence, information, aesthetic needs).

o The third group of problems is more complex. It includes social problems that the author calls interpersonal (for example, the need for affiliation, love, brotherhood, dominance or power over others, the need for social security). This group of needs can be satisfied in the outer space.

o K last group belong to personal needs, more than others related to the inner world of the subject. They have a greater influence on the uniqueness and originality of the individual. Here the author includes such needs as the need for individual achievements, the need for self-worth, the need for the meaning of life, or transcendence.

The next component of personality is the emotional element. It is very complex and covers permanent neurophysiological and mental systems that generate emotional states and processes, affects, and moods. Unique property emotional element is that it is associated with almost all elements of personality. Value judgments are saturated with positive or negative emotions. Emotionality refers to the main dimensions of temperament and neuroticism. Emotional structures are included in motivational processes, therefore emotionality "serves" all other constituent elements of a creative personality. Kozeletsky singled out another element of personality - personal, understood by him as a deep neurophysiological, mental and spiritual structure, in which there is an existentially identical (personal) content relating to a given person.

Creativity of the subject, personality should be considered, taking into account macro-social factors: cultural, political and economic. Systemic concepts of creativity break the "personological" point of view, according to which creativity is limited human being- his knowledge, psyche or personality. In a systemic view, a person is part of a wider system involved in the creation of a creative work.

Man is represented in creativity in many dimensions, since he consists of biological, psychological and social structures, works on the conscious and unconscious levels thanks to the cognitive, emotional and volitional systems. A person is unique, lives simultaneously in the outer and inner worlds.

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Introduction

Chapter 1. Theoretical aspects of studying the psychological characteristics of a creative personality in domestic and foreign psychology

1.1 Psychological traits and characteristics of a creative personality

1.2 The essence of creativity as a psychological process, stages of creativity

1.3 The influence of creativity on the development of personality relationships

Chapter 2. Experimental study and analysis of the results

2.1 Purpose, objectives, hypothesis and research methods

2.2 Research

Conclusion

Bibliography

Applications


Introduction

Relevance of the research topic:

The formation of a reasonable person is associated with the development of gesture, facial expressions, pantomime, dance, drawing, i.e. international language of images. This language is by nature unconscious, everyone mastered it in childhood, and with its help, models of the world of any emerging personality were developed. What are the psychological characteristics of a creative person? How are these features formed, created, in what way are they expressed?

The relevance of this topic: "Psychological characteristics of a creative personality", firstly, is due to the fact that many researchers reduce the problem of human abilities to the problem of a creative personality: there are no special creative abilities, but there is a person with a certain motivation and traits. Indeed, if intellectual giftedness does not directly affect the creative success of a person, if in the course of the development of creativity, the formation of a certain motivation and personality traits precedes creative manifestations, then we can conclude that there is a special type of personality - "Creative Man". The term "creativity" indicates both the activity of the individual and the values ​​created by her, which, from the facts of her personal destiny, become the facts of culture. The basis in the psychology of creativity is the relationship between the product of creativity and its process. The product belongs to the culture, the process belongs to the individual.

Secondly, mastering the theory of creativity, techniques and methods of finding new solutions helps to realize the social significance of creativity, its social necessity, to fully reveal one's creative possibilities that create a creative person as such. Thus, our study may bring something new to the problem under study.

These circumstances determined the choice of the research topic and the main directions of its development.

Problem development:

At present, the study of a creative personality and its connection with personality traits and characteristics seems to be the most promising. Many domestic and foreign scientists V.I. Andreev, D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya, R.M. Granovskaya, A.Z. Zak, V.Ya. Kan-Kalik, N.V. Kuzmina, A.N. Luk, S.O. Sysoeva, V.A. Tsapok and others.

A lot of talent and energy was invested in the development of pedagogical problems related to the creative development of the individual, primarily the personality of the child, adolescent, outstanding teachers of the 20s and 30s: A.V. Lunacharsky, P.P. Blonsky, S.T. .Shatsky, B.L. Yavorsky, B.V. Asafiev, N.Ya. Bryusova. Based on their experience, enriched by half a century of development of the science of teaching and raising children, the best teachers, led by the "elders" - V.N. Shatskaya, N.L. Grodzenskaya, M.A. Rumer, G.L. Roshal, N. I.Sats continued and continue to theoretically and practically develop the principle creative development children and youth.

Researchers E. V. Andrienko, M. A. Vasilik, N. A. Ippolitova, O. A. Leontovich, I. A. Sternin singled out such subjective characteristics of a creative person as "human" communication obstacles, socio-cultural, status-positional role-playing, psychological, cognitive, relationship barriers. But the most significant influence in the formation of this problem was made by O. Kulchitskaya, Y. Kozeletsky presented his special self-concept of development creative way and the personality itself. Ya. A. Ponomarev singled out ten stages of the creative process and characterized them according to their significance for the individual.

Purpose and objectives of the study: the purpose of this study is to determine the psychological characteristics of a creative personality. Based on the goal, we solve the following tasks:

1. to consider and analyze the psychological and pedagogical research of foreign and domestic researchers on the problem of creativity and personality;

2. determine and analyze the psychological characteristics of a creative person;

3. make an analysis of the results of the study.

Research hypothesis: In my research, I put forward a hypothesis that a certain type of thinking prevails in a creative person and dependence on a certain attitude towards oneself as a person is established.

Object of study: creative person.

Subject of study: psychological features of a creative personality.

Research methods:

Theoretical: analysis of scientific developments in psychology regarding the issues under study, system analysis and synthesis.

Empirical:

Methodology "Type of thinking", modified by G. Rezapkina;

Questionnaire of self-attitude, V.V. Stolin, S.R. Pantileev;

And methods of mathematical statistics.

The study involved 20 students of the art studio "Vorobyovy Gory" of the Moscow City Palace of Creativity for Children and Youth, aged 12 to 17 years.

Approbation of work: at the end of the study and processing of the results, all participants in this study were familiarized with them.


Chapter 1. Theoretical aspects of studying the psychological characteristics of a creative personality in domestic and foreign psychology

1.1 Psychological traits and characteristics of a creative personality

In the psychological literature, there are two main points of view on the creative personality. According to one, creativity or creative ability to one degree or another is characteristic of every normal person. It is as integral to a person as the ability to think, speak and feel. Moreover, the realization of creative potential, regardless of its scale, makes a person mentally normal. To deprive a person of such an opportunity means to cause neurotic states in him. According to the second point of view, not every (normal) person should be considered a creative person, or a creator. This position is connected with a different understanding of the nature of creativity. Here, in addition to the unprogrammed process of creating a new one, the value of a new result is taken into account. It must be universally valid, although its scale may be different. The most important feature of the creator is a strong and stable need for creativity. A creative person cannot live without creativity, seeing in it the main goal and the main meaning of his life.

The term "creativity" indicates both the activity of the individual and the values ​​created by her, which, from the facts of her personal destiny, become the facts of culture. As alienated from the life of the subject of his searches and thoughts, it is just as unjustified to explain these values ​​in the categories of psychology as a miraculous nature. A mountain peak can inspire the creation of a painting, a poem or a geological work. But in all cases, once created, these works do not become the subject of psychology to a greater extent than the summit itself. Scientific and psychological analysis reveals something completely different: the ways of its perception, actions, motives, interpersonal relationships and the structure of the personality of those who reproduce it by means of art or in terms of the Earth sciences. The effect of these acts and connections is imprinted in artistic and scientific creations, now involved in a sphere independent of the mental organization of the subject.

Much attention is paid to the definition of the concept of a creative personality in philosophical, pedagogical and psychological literature: V.I. Andreev, D.B. Bogoyavlenskaya, R.M. Granovskaya, A.Z. .Kichuk, N.V. Kuzmina, A.N. Luk, S.O. Sysoeva, V.A. Tsapok and others.

A creative personality, according to V. Andreev, is a type of personality that is characterized by perseverance, a high level of focus on creativity, motivational and creative activity, which manifests itself in organic unity with a high level of creative abilities, allowing it to achieve progressive, social and personally significant results in one or more activities.

Psychologists consider creativity as a high level of logical thinking, which is an impetus to activity, "the result of which is the created material and spiritual values" . Most authors agree that a creative person is an individual who has a high level of knowledge, has a desire for something new, original. For a creative person, creative activity is a vital need, and a creative style of behavior is the most characteristic. The main indicator of a creative personality, its most important feature is the presence of creative abilities, which are considered as individual psychological abilities of a person that meet the requirements of creative activity, and are a condition for its successful implementation. Creativity is associated with the creation of a new, original product, with the search for new means of activity. N.V. Kichuk defines a creative personality through its intellectual activity, creative thinking and creative potential.

Also of great importance for understanding the characteristics of a creative personality is the special formation of mental actions. After all, "creativity" does not exist in its pure form, real creative activity includes a lot of technical components, the "working out" of which is one of the prerequisites for creative activity. The deepening of the psychological characteristics of the thought process also consists in pointing out that changes in the "conceptual characteristics of objects" are often preceded by changes in operational meanings and emotional assessments, that verbally formulated knowledge about an object does not necessarily have the character of concepts in the strict sense of the word. Ya. A. Ponomarev, who made a significant contribution to the development of problems in the psychology of creative thinking, considers creativity as a "mechanism of productive development", and replaces it with such a concept as "basal extension of the superstructural-basal system". In the psychological plan of functional development, this is the study of those neoplasms that arise in activity in the course of solving a problem. That is, that includes "unconscious" or "unconscious" replaced by Ponomarev with the term "basal component". The development of emotional processes in a creative person also has its own characteristics. If we recall one of the classic schemes of the creative process - preparation, maturation, inspiration, verification - and correlate it with the available research on the psychology of thinking, then with all the conventions of the scheme, such a correlation allows us to state that the first and fourth links of the creative process are studied much more intensively than second and third. Therefore, at present, they need to be given special attention. The study of "inspiration" on laboratory models is the study of the conditions for the emergence and functions of emotional activation, emotional assessments that arise in the course of solving mental problems. For example, in works on the psychology of scientific creativity, it is convincingly shown that the activity of a scientist is always mediated by the categorical structure of science, which develops according to its own laws, independent of the individual, but at the same time, a certain opposition of the “subjective-experiential” and “objective-activity” plan is allowed, which can be reproached for the epiphenomenological interpretation of "experiences", i.e., the functions of the emotional-affective sphere.

Introduction

The word "creative" is often used in both scientific and colloquial language. Often we talk not just about initiative, but about creative initiative, not about thinking, but about creative thinking, not about success, but about creative success. But we do not always think about what should be added so that initiative, thinking and success deserve the definition of "creative".

Creative thinking and creative activity are a feature of man. Without this quality of our behavior, the development of mankind and human society would be unthinkable. Everything that surrounds us is connected with the creative thinking and activities of people: tools and machines, houses; Houseware; television and radio, clock and telephone, refrigerator and car. But public and even private life people are historically based on creative achievement. This is absolutely true both for today's and for the future development of social life.

At any stage of the development of society and in any field, people face problems that require creative efforts.

What characterizes creativity? At its core, the creative process is the process by which something arises that is not contained in the original conditions. On the most significant manifestations of the development of human intellect, it can be traced that certain patterns lie at the basis of the creative process.

Personality as a socialized individual

Everyone knows that the subject of psychology is the inner world of man. Psychology itself divides a person into three "hypostases": individual, individuality and personality. Each of these concepts reveals a specific aspect of the individual being of a person. AT social sciences personality is considered as a special quality of a person acquired in the socio-cultural environment in the process of joint activities and communication. The true foundations and driving force behind the development of the individual are joint activities and communication, through which the movement of the individual in the world of people, its familiarization with culture is carried out. The relationship between the individual as a product of anthropogenesis, a person who has assimilated socio-historical experience, and an individuality that transforms the world, can be conveyed by the formula: "The individual is born. They become a person. Individuality is upheld." In the light of the foregoing, in my opinion, the phrase "psychology of personality" sounds a bit contrived. Since the "individual" has only lower (or natural) mental functions, it is quite difficult to talk about the study of the "psychology of the individual", and individuality is a concept so dependent on the "personality" that it is simply ineffective to consider the "psychology of individuality". This is approximately the same as believing in God the Son, while denying the existence of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The category of personality in psychological science is one of the basic ones. Perhaps that is why pedagogical, developmental, ethnic, organizational psychology, labor psychology and a number of other disciplines, both psychological and borderline with them: pedagogy, sociology, etc., are engaged in the study of personality. Each of these sciences provides valuable data for the development of a psychological general theory of personality, but despite all this diversity, in my opinion, it will be most effective to consider personality from three positions: personality as a socialized individual, personality as an active life position and personality in the light of temporal length.

“Socialization is the process of assimilation by an individual of social experience, a system of social ties and relations,” such a definition is given by a psychological dictionary and adds: “In the process of socialization, a person acquires beliefs, socially approved forms of behavior, necessary for him to live a normal life in society.”

LS Vygotsky put forward the thesis about the social origin of human mental functions. In putting forward this thesis, Vygodsky was forced to reconcile it with the indisputable fact of the existence of mental functions in newborns. The answer to this contradiction was the distinction between lower (natural) mental functions and higher mental functions.

Vygotsky saw the development of mental functions in the context of the Hegelian scheme of development, according to which any developing cognitive function exists initially "in itself", then "for others" and, finally, "for itself". This scheme is well illustrated by the development of the pointing gesture in infants: initially, this gesture already exists in the form of an unsuccessful grasping movement directed at the desired object. This gesture is capable of moving into the second stage if properly interpreted by adults. Then this movement acquires the meaning of "help me take it" and the child begins to use it both for the purposes of communication with close adults and for the practical purposes of mastering the desired object. The child does not yet realize that he is using this gesture as a social signal. And in the third stage, the child already uses this gesture to control his own behavior, for example, to highlight a certain fragment of the picture and focus on it.

More generally, the development of cognitive functions is seen as their transition from lower to higher mental forms, while the distinction between these forms is made according to four criteria: origin, structure, mode of functioning, and relation to other mental functions. Most of the origin lower mental functions they are genetically innate, they are not mediated in structure, they are not arbitrary in terms of the way they function, and in relation to other functions they exist as separate isolated mental formations (thus, it can be said that the lower mental functions in no way depend on socialization, on society ). Unlike them higher mental functions are socially acquired: they are mediated by social meanings, they are arbitrarily controlled by the subject and exist as links in an integral system of mental functions, i.e. higher mental functions arise under the influence of society, under the influence of the involvement of the individual in an active social life. The second and third criteria constitute a special quality of higher mental functions, denoted as awareness.

Thus we approached the problem of "personality-individual". In connection with the difference between the concepts of "individual" and "personality" in content, sometimes discussions arise: is every individual a person. For example, it is sometimes argued that only creative people are personalities; from among the personalities they try to throw out persons who behave antisocially (for example, criminals), mentally ill, etc. Some people are said to be just individuals, not individuals. Of course, a person can be creative, or it can be gray (however, each person has "creative potential" to one degree or another, because without creativity, even elementary, a person cannot solve life's problems, i.e. simply live) , can be actively transforming or passively adapting, etc. But every social individual, a person is a person, the only question that can be debatable is when a person begins to form in the process of individual development. Let's summarize what is the difference between an individual and a personality: an individual is a single representative of the species "Homo sapiens", while the concept of "personality" fixes those features that are determined by the individual's belonging to society (social quality).

Personality is characterized by a variety of properties, and this variety is natural. The mental properties of a person cannot be disclosed either as functional, or even more so as material and structural. They belong to the category of properties that are defined as systemic, and this system is society. Under the influence of the behavioral paradigm, such an approach was born: any given individual develops in a certain environment by adapting to it. This environment is a set of stimuli for the individual: physical, technical, social. Other people in relation to this individual are also considered only as elements of the environment. The "individual-society" connection is essentially no different from the "organism-environment" connection. The same laws and the same principles operate here: adaptations, balancing, reinforcements, etc. True, the influences of the social environment are more complex (than the physical), as are the responses of the individual. Thus, one can come to the conclusion that the socialization of the individual, his becoming a personality is nothing but an attempt to "survive". But you can try to go a little further. To do this, let's try to look at reflexes from the point of view of the organic and social spheres of personality. V. M. Bekhtereva shares several types of personal reflexes. Initially, there are reflexes that appear as a result of internal irritations that are extremely necessary for the body(These reflexes are more like instincts). Next come external stimuli, which also excite personal sphere, but not in the sense of the immediate satisfaction of the needs of the body, but in the sense of further providing the necessary living conditions for it (for example, a person needs to dig 12 roots to survive. After he has dug them, he, overcoming fatigue, tries to dig another 10 in reserve .) Such stimuli have a connection with the past and with the future. Thus, the personal sphere, concentrating in itself the stock of the most important past experience for the life of the organism, forms the main center of neuropsychic activity underlying the active-independent relationship of the organism to the living world. With the development of social life, the personal sphere of a person acquires, in addition to the organic, a social character, which is based on moral and social relations between people. In this way personal sphere of social character is a stepping stone for the development of the individual as "an original mental individual in the social life of peoples." That is, a personality will depend on two types of reactions to stimuli: organic (environmental impact) and social (society impact), and depending on the predominance of one or another type of stimuli, the traits of an egoist or altruist will prevail in it.

With a higher development of neuropsychism, the social sphere of the personality is the most important leader of all reactions that have a connection with social relations between people. It must be taken into account that the complex process of development of the social sphere of the personality does not eliminate the organic sphere of the personality, but supplements it and partly suppresses it. But a person, as a being not only social, but also cultural, can develop the social sphere to such an extent that it will not only prevail over the organic sphere, but also, expressed by acts and actions of an altruistic nature, will sometimes act to the obvious detriment or contrary to the organic needs of the individual. .

Despite the fact that Bekhterev's work must be considered primarily from the point of view of physiology, we can also derive some psychological patterns and reduce them to what was said earlier: summarizing this chapter, we can divide the personality as a socialized individual into three groups according to the level of development: the individual as an organism adapting to the environment; the individual as a personality developing, adjusting to society and, finally, a personality as a highly organized and highly moral being who no longer tries to "survive", but on the contrary, can act to the detriment of himself, but for the benefit of society, that is, he no longer lives for the sake of themselves, but for the sake of any higher values, be it society, God or personal ideals.

Personality as an active life position

By engaging in social processes, a person thereby changes the circumstances of his own life. In other words, the main condition for the self-determination of the individual and the conscious regulation of his life activity is his social activity. How exactly a particular person participates in certain social processes (promotes their development, opposes, slows down or evades participation in them) depends on its direction, which is formed in the process of personality development in the system of social relations. Orientation can be divided into four components: the motivational sphere of the personality, its needs, the life goals of the ability. The question of where motives come from, how they arise, is one of the main ones in personality psychology and gives rise to a variety of theories. For example, according to Maslow's concept, the basis of motives are needs, which, as the individual develops, form a kind of pyramid. At the base of the pyramid are physiological needs (hunger, thirst, sex, etc.). The next level is the need for security, but not as a manifestation of the instinct of self-preservation, but as a need for order, stability. The third level is the need to belong to a group of people, to communicate, etc. And, finally, the fourth level is the need for respect, prestige. Despite the seeming logical completeness, in my opinion, this concept has a number of shortcomings, in particular, that it considers the individual out of touch with society, snatching an abstract person from the system of social relations.

More interesting, in my opinion, in this respect is the division of motivation into external and internal, researched by V.I. Chirkov and developed by Edward L. Disey and Richard M. Ruyan.

External motivation, according to their theory - this is motivation, in which the factors influencing the behavior of the individual are outside the self of the person or outside the behavior. It is enough for the initiating and regulating factors to become external, as all motivation acquires an external character.

The student became more conscientious in doing all his homework after his parents promised to buy him a bicycle. Working on homework in this case is an externally motivated behavior, since the focus on lessons and intensity (in this case, conscientiousness) are set by a factor external to the study itself: the expectation of getting a bike.

All the buddies went to sports section and our student went. Going to the section for him is an external motivational act, since his initiation and direction are completely under the control of his friends, i.e. outside the self of the student. It is generally accepted that extrinsic motivation is primarily based on rewards, rewards, punishments, or other types of extrinsic stimulation.

Theories of external motivation are most clearly reflected in the works of behaviorists, who, in turn, originate in the studies of E. L. Thorndike. Thorndike's Law states that the attractive and unattractive consequences of a behavior influence the frequency of initiation of behavioral acts leading to those consequences. Behaviors that produce positive consequences tend to persist and tend to be repeated, while behaviors that produce negative consequences tend to stop.

The essence of the applied application of this model in practice lies in the systematic reinforcement of the desired behavior. Such a system exists in stores, when a customer who has made a certain number of purchases is given a reward that reinforces the behavior aimed at shopping in this particular store. It is important to note that systems of this type are designed to reinforce initially uninteresting and unattractive behavior that a person will not perform of his own free will. The person in this case becomes a puppet of reinforcements.

It can be unequivocally said that extrinsic motivation is primarily aimed at people who take a passive life position with a rather low social involvement.

Intrinsic motivation is a type of motivation in which the initiating and regulating factors originate from within the personal self and are completely within the behavior itself. "Intrinsically motivated activities have no rewards other than the activity itself. People engage in this activity for its own sake, and not to achieve any external rewards. Such an activity is an end in itself, and not a means to some other end."

If a student comes home and enthusiastically says that there was an interesting lesson at school and he wants to read the encyclopedia in order to participate in the discussion tomorrow, then he demonstrates an example of internally motivated behavior. In this case, the focus on the implementation of the lesson stems from the content of the lesson itself and is associated with interest and pleasure that accompany the process of learning and discovering something new.

To explain this type of motivation, many theories have been created: The theory of competence and motivation by efficiency, the theory of activation and stimulation optimality, the theory of personal causality, etc.

In the article "Revision of Motivation" R. White introduced the concept of "competence", which combines such types of behavior as groping, examining, manipulating, designing, playing, creativity. He believes that all these behaviors, during which the body does not receive any visible reinforcements, have one goal: increasing the competence and efficiency of a person. The force that determines this desire for competence is "motivation through a sense of efficiency." In contrast to external motivation, a person who prefers internal motivation, the personality is clearly more active, more involved in social activities and, as a result, more intellectual.

Numerous studies have shown that extrinsic and intrinsic motivation can significantly energize behavior and significantly change its direction, in other words, have a decisive influence on its determination. But are the effects of these two types on emotions, mental health, and other aspects of personality the same? In order to better see the pros and cons of both methods, we have drawn up a table given in Appendix 1. The most positive impact on both cognitive processes and the personality as a whole is exerted by intrinsic motivation. External motivation can have advantages in solving particular problems.

The theories of locus of causality and locus of control are very strongly intertwined with theories of motivation. At the same time, the locus of control reflects the point of application of the forces that control the results of behavior, and the locus of causality reflects the point of application of the forces that determine the behavior itself.

R. deCharms argued: "The primary motivational predisposition of a person is the desire to effectively interact with the environment. A person strives to be the root cause, the source of his own behavior ...".... As soon as a person begins to perceive himself as the root cause of his own behavior ... we can talk about the internal motivation of her activity. And accordingly, when a person perceives the reasons for his behavior as external to himself ... then his activity is externally motivated. " Thus, with intrinsic motivation, a person has internal locus of causality (causality), that is, the reasons for the behavior are within her, and she undertakes it of her own free will. From this we can conclude that a person has an innate tendency to perform such activities that give him a sense of the presence of personal causality and skill. And the use, for example, of monetary rewards leads to the fact that a person begins to believe that it is not himself, but these rewards that are the reasons for his behavior. Thus, the factor contributing to the increase in efficiency will be the availability of choice and the freedom to exercise it.

In the case of the locus of control, we are already approaching the concept of social responsibility, the main feature of which is that its object is certain public will expressed in the form of social norms and role functions. Therefore, the subject of control here is the individual himself, and the social environment and society as a whole. When making plans, making decisions, a person weighs whether these goals are feasible for him or whether he can only hope for fate or chance. One feels himself the master of his destiny, the other prefers to sail at the behest of the waves. Thus, responsibility is attributed either to external forces or to one's own abilities and efforts.

If a person for the most part takes responsibility for the events taking place in his life, explaining them by his behavior, character, abilities, then this shows that he has internal (internal) control. If he has a tendency to attribute responsibility for everything to external factors, finding reasons in other people, in the environment, fate or the will of God, then this indicates that he has external (external) control. In the formula, it will look like this: with an external locus of control, the results of behavior are under the control of surrounding forces, and with an internal locus of control - under the control of behavior. Moreover, it is believed that the internality and externality of the locus of control are stable properties of the personality, formed in the process of its socialization. For a better understanding of the above, it is necessary to introduce the concept of " responsibility". In the dictionary of the modern Russian literary language, responsibility is defined as "the obligation imposed on someone or taken by someone to report on any of their actions and take the blame for their possible consequences." From the point of view of psychology, responsibility, like modesty, sensitivity, courage, etc., is a property of the character of the individual.Let's try to determine the main signs of responsibility.First of all, we can highlight the accuracy, punctuality, loyalty of the individual in the performance of duties and her willingness to be responsible for the consequences of her actions.All this implies honesty, justice At the same time, these qualities cannot be successfully realized if a person does not have developed emotional traits: the ability to empathize, sensitivity to someone else's pain and joy. , excerpts.

So, responsibility is primarily a quality that characterizes the social typicality of a person and, as we found out earlier, there are two such types: internals and externals. After a series of studies, it was found that the inability to manage one's affairs, throwing off responsibility on external factors, i.e. the externality of the locus of control causes, as a rule, neurotic syndromes, a feeling of depression and anxiety, reducing overall life satisfaction. The internality of the locus of control, on the contrary, contributes to a more normal functioning of the personality, instilling self-respect in it. Interestingly, when questioned, both internals and externals described the ideal person as very internal, and the non-ideal person as external. In general, external people are characterized by suspicion, anxiety, depression, aggressiveness, conformity, dogmatism, authoritarianism, unscrupulousness, cynicism, and a tendency to deceive.

Summing up the division of personality types into internal and external, we can say that internals prefer leaders with a management style that allows the employee to participate in decision-making, become leaders themselves more often, groups led by internals are more productive and internal leaders themselves are more productive than externals who prefer a directive leadership style, are more likely to use coercion and threats, and have lower levels of professionalism and job satisfaction.

Personality in time

It goes without saying that the formation of a person as a person begins from the very first hours of life, because from the very birth the process of his socialization begins. The basis of socialization, as already mentioned, is the connection between individuals and the development of social skills. In part, this process depends on innate mechanisms and the maturation of the nervous system, but primarily it is determined by the experience that a person receives throughout life. Let's try to break this formation into age stages of socialization, by means of "human communities". At the same time, each human community carries out a certain joint activity, characterized primarily by the content of this activity. It should be noted that at least two people participate in the construction of any human community, and a change in the form and content of the community is accompanied by a change in partner. This change does not necessarily mean that a new community is being built with a new person. This may be the same person, for example, mother, but in a new position in life.

On the first At this stage, the child, together with his own adult (his own mother, or a person performing maternal functions), begins to build communication, at first not mediated by cultural tools, objects, signs. This unique, due to its immediacy, community is called a step revival For the formation of a bond between a child and each of his parents, the first moments of his life are of the greatest importance. The formation of this connection is based on the views, movements and especially smiles of the child. It is also known that from the second week of life, a newborn not only begins to show great interest in the human face, but is also able to distinguish the face of his mother from the face of a stranger. An epochal cultural event of this stage is that the child masters his own bodily, psychomatic individuality, inscribing himself (by the hands of an adult) into the spatio-temporal organization common life families.

Between the 8th and 12th month of life, the child's attachments begin to show clearly. He bursts into screaming and crying when he is taken away from his mother (or the person who usually cares for him) to be handed over to the wrong hands. Such a reaction of the child reflects not so much the fear of a stranger, but not recognizing in him the familiar features of the mother's face. This stage is closely related to the idea of ​​the constancy (permanence) of objects (a cognitive process that was studied by Piaget and consists in the fact that from the 8th month the child begins to actively look for an object that has suddenly disappeared). The idea of ​​constancy, initially associated in the child with the mother, then spreads to other objects, in particular to other "social objects". In addition, the constant presence of a social partner leads to the formation of a child's idea of ​​his own permanence at the age of 8-9 months.

In addition, the great importance of reliable social attachment was revealed both for the development of unfamiliar places by the child, which is greatly facilitated in the presence of the mother, and for establishing early social contacts with other children.

On the second A child, together with a close adult, masters subject-mediated forms of communication both in joint imitative-objective actions with a real partner, and in terms of visual play actions with an imaginary partner. Two epochal events stand at the beginning of a new stage of development - this is upright walking and speech - as ways of primary self-determination in the external and internal space of subjectivity. This stage of the avalanche-like mastery of cultural skills and abilities is called the stage animation in order to emphasize that it is here that the child first discovers his own self (the famous "I myself!"), realizes himself as the subject of his own desires and skills.

On the third stage, the partner of a growing person becomes a social adult, embodied in the system social roles and partially personified in such cultural positions as a teacher, master, mentor and others, with which adolescents learn the rules, concepts, principles of activity in all spheres of socio-cultural life - in science, art, religion, morality, law. It is at this stage that a person for the first time realizes himself as a potential author of his own biography, takes personal responsibility for his future, clarifies the boundaries of self-identity within being together with other people. The name of this step is personalization. Peer groups play a very important role in childhood and adolescence, especially for the development of identifications and the formation of attitudes (according to Sorensen), adolescents identify themselves much more easily with other adolescents than with older ones, even if the latter belong to the same gender, race, religion, etc. .P. Friendship and sexuality in adolescence are closely linked. Even if a teenager has fewer “good friends” than at any other age (usually no more than five), among them at that time there is a greater proportion of representatives of the opposite sex.

In the existing community, the adult adds the expectations and content of a more developed level of coexistence. Trustingly accepting these expectations and realizing them in joint activities with an adult, the child discovers in its entirety the fundamental new objectivity which is not yet subject to its independent, separate activity. The Crisis of the Development of the Coexistential Community is revealed as a gap between individual and joint forms of activity and consciousness (“I want to be like you, but I can’t become like you!”). In developmental crises, the adult orients the child to search for new ways of self-determination; on the development of a new layer of his self. And although the child's efforts are still aimed at preserving the joint status quo, however, imperceptibly for himself and in this sense - freely - he restores and implements the old system of relations on a new objectivity - open to him. It is with the restoration of compatibility on a new, adolescent accepted objectivity that the post-crisis stage of the development of the community begins - development stage the subject of one's own separateness and individual selfhood within a given community. the original living of this stage, the exhaustion of its gifts and their conversion into their new potentials is the prerequisite and basis for the transition to a higher level of development of one's own subjectivity, but now in a new form of coexistential community.

Usually married young people have the most friends. On average, their number is 7 people; they are selected according to the similarity of tastes, interests and personality, according to mutuality in assistance and the exchange of frankness, according to compatibility on the basis of the pleasure that they find in each other's company, according to the convenience of communication in geographical terms and mutual respect.

In the prime of adulthood, activities aimed at achieving life goals do not allow you to devote too much time to friendship. only the strongest ties are maintained. The number of friends is reduced to 5 or less.

With the advent of old age and in connection with the dramatic events that at this time turn a person's life upside down, many lose their life partners and risk being left out of the circle of friends. Friendships, however, are strengthened when friends in turn find themselves in a similar situation (the average number of friends a retired person has is approximately 6 people).

So, the process of self-development as an essential form of human existence begins with life and unfolds within it; but a person for many years - often all his life - may not be its subject, the one who initiates and directs this process. Each of us significantly influences the human community in which he is included, but at the same time he sometimes radically changes himself .. In addition to the age division according to the principle of community, there is also a rather interesting age division into psychosocial crises. This principle is based on the process of integration of individual biological factors with the factors of upbringing and socio-cultural environment.

According to Erickson, a person experiences eight psycho-social crises throughout his life, specific for each age, the favorable or unfavorable outcome of which determines the possibility of the subsequent flourishing of the personality.

The first crisis a person experiences in the first year of life. It is related to whether or not the basic physiological needs of the child are met by the person caring for him. In the first case, the child develops a feeling of deep trust in the world around him, and in the second, on the contrary, distrust of him.

The second crisis is connected with the first learning experience, especially with teaching the child to cleanliness. If the parents understand the child and help him control the natural functions, the child gains an experience of autonomy. On the contrary, too strict or too inconsistent external control leads to the development of shame or doubts in the child, mainly associated with the fear of losing control over their own body.

The third crisis corresponds to the second childhood. At this age, the child's self-assertion takes place. The plans that he constantly makes and which he is allowed to carry out, contribute to the development of his sense of initiative. On the contrary, the experience of repeated failures and irresponsibility can lead him to resignation and guilt.

The fourth crisis occurs at school age. At school, the child learns to work, preparing for future tasks. Depending on the atmosphere prevailing in the school and the methods of education adopted, the child develops a taste for work or, on the contrary, a feeling of inferiority, both in terms of the use of means and opportunities, and in terms of own status among comrades.

The fifth crisis is experienced by adolescents of both sexes in search of identifications (assimilation of patterns of behavior of other people that are significant for a teenager). This process involves bringing together the adolescent's past experiences, his potentialities and the choices he must make. The adolescent's inability to identify, or the difficulties associated with it, can lead to its "dispersion" or confusion about the roles that the adolescent plays or will play in the affective, social and professional spheres.

The sixth crisis is peculiar to young adults. It is associated with the search for intimacy with a loved one, with whom he will have to do "work - having children - rest" in order to ensure his children develop properly. The lack of such experience leads to the isolation of a person and his closing in on himself.

The seventh crisis is experienced by a person at the age of forty. It is characterized by the development of a sense of the preservation of the family ( generativity), expressed mainly in "interest in the next generation and its upbringing." This period of life is characterized by high productivity and creativity in various fields. On the contrary, evolution married life goes the other way, it can freeze in a state of pseudo-intimacy (stagnation), which dooms the spouses to exist only for themselves with the risk of impoverishment of interpersonal relationships.

There are, in addition, four sub-crises, the resolution of which serves "for the development of authentic generativity" (Pekk). First, we are talking about the development of a person's respect for wisdom, replacing the primacy of physical courage. Secondly, it is important that the sexualization of social relations give way to their socialization. Thirdly, it is necessary to resist the affective impoverishment associated with the death of loved ones or the isolation of children, and maintain the emotional flexibility that contributes to affective enrichment in other forms. Finally, it is very important that a person tries to maintain as much mental flexibility as possible and continue to search for new forms of behavior, instead of sticking to old habits and being in some kind of mental rigidity.

The eighth crisis is experienced during aging. It marks the end of the previous life path, and the resolution depends on how this path was traveled. A person's achievement of wholeness is based on summing up the results of his past life and realizing it as a single whole, in which nothing can be changed. If a person cannot bring his past actions into a single whole, he ends his life in fear of death and in despair from the impossibility of starting to live anew.

As Peck points out, in order for a sense of fulfillment to be fully developed, a person needs to overcome three sub-crises. The first of these is the reassessment5 of one's own "I" in addition to its professional role, which for many people until their retirement remains the main one. The second sub-crisis is associated with the realization of the fact of deteriorating health and aging of the body, which makes it possible for a person to develop the necessary indifference in this regard. Finally, as a result of the third sub-crisis, self-concern disappears in a person, and now he can accept the thought of death without horror.

In addition, five stages are determined in mental states at the approach of death.

The first of them - negation. Words: "No, not me!" - a completely normal reaction of a person is not to announce a death sentence to him.

The anger that grips the patient at the question: "Why me?" characterizes the second stage.

Then the stage begins bargain": the patient enters into negotiations for the extension of his life, pledging to be, for example, an exemplary patient or an obedient believer.

Then comes the phase depression when the patient recognizes the inevitability of death, closes in on himself and "says goodbye" to everyone close to him.

And the last stage is Adoption death, when a person humbly awaits the end.

Death itself is also shared. Life goes away in stages - in reverse order compared to how it develops.

Social death - the dying person tries to isolate himself from society, to withdraw into himself.

Psychic death is a person's awareness of the obvious end, the extinction of extraverted consciousness.

Brain death is the complete cessation of brain activity.

Physiological death is the extinction of the last functions of the body.

Mental characteristics of a person.

Psychology as a science has special qualities that distinguish it from other disciplines. As a system of life phenomena, psychology is familiar to every person. It is presented to him in the form of his own sensations, images, ideas, phenomena of memory, thinking, speech, will, imagination, interests, motives, needs, emotions, feelings and much more. We can directly detect the basic mental phenomena in ourselves and indirectly observe in other people.
In scientific use, the term "psychology" appeared for the first time in the 16th century. Initially, it belonged to a special science that dealt with the study of the so-called mental, or mental, phenomena, i.e. such that each person easily discovers in his own mind as a result of self-observation. Later, in the 17th-19th centuries, the scope of research by psychologists expanded significantly to include unconscious mental processes (the unconscious) and human activity.
In the 20th century, psychological research moved beyond the phenomena around which it had been concentrated for centuries. In this regard, the name "psychology" has partly lost its original and rather narrow meaning, when it referred only to subjective phenomena of consciousness directly perceived and experienced by man. However, until now, according to the tradition that has developed over the centuries, this science retains its former name.
The subject of the study of psychology is primarily the psyche of humans and animals, which includes many subjective phenomena. With the help of some, such as, for example, sensations and perception, attention and memory, imagination, thinking and speech, a person cognizes the world. Therefore, they are often called cognitive processes. Other phenomena regulate his communication with people, directly control his actions and deeds. They are called mental properties and states of the personality, they include needs, motives, goals, interests, will, feelings and emotions, inclinations and abilities, knowledge and consciousness. In addition, psychology studies human communication and behavior, their dependence on mental phenomena and, in turn, the dependence of the formation and development of mental phenomena on them.

A person does not just penetrate the world with the help of his cognitive processes. He lives and acts in this world, creating it for himself in order to satisfy his material, spiritual and other needs, and performs certain actions. In order to understand and explain human actions, we turn to such a concept as personality.

In turn, the mental processes, states and properties of a person, especially in their highest manifestations, can hardly be comprehended to the end, if they are not considered depending on the conditions of a person’s life, on how his interaction with nature and society is organized (activity and communication). Communication and activity are also therefore the subject of modern psychological research.

Mental processes, properties and states of a person, his communication and activity are separated and studied separately, although in reality they are closely related to each other and form a single whole, called human life.

In addition to the individual psychology of behavior, the range of phenomena studied by psychology also includes relations between people in various human associations - large and small groups, collectives.

The emergence and development of forms of mental reflection in animals

The psyche is a general concept that unites many subjective phenomena studied by psychology as a science. There are two different philosophical understandings of the psyche: materialistic and idealistic. According to the first understanding, mental phenomena are a property of highly organized living matter of self-management by development and self-knowledge (reflection).

According to the materialistic understanding, mental phenomena arose as a result of a long biological evolution of living matter and at present represent the highest result of development achieved by it. Even the simplest living beings - unicellular - are characterized by phenomena close to the psyche, namely: the ability to respond to changes in internal states and external activity to biologically significant stimuli, as well as memory and the ability to elementary learning through plastic, adaptive changes in behavior.

In the ideas of materialists, psychic phenomena arose much later than life appeared on Earth. At first, living matter had only the biological properties of irritability and self-preservation, manifested through the mechanisms of metabolism with the environment, its own growth and reproduction. Later, at the level of more complexly organized living beings, sensitivity and readiness for learning were added to them.

The first signs of life on Earth appeared 2-3 billion years ago, first in the form of gradually becoming more complex chemical, organic compounds, and then in the form of the simplest living cells. They marked the beginning of biological evolution, associated with the inherent ability of living to develop, reproduce, reproduce and transfer acquired, genetically fixed properties by inheritance.

Later, in the process of evolutionary self-improvement of living beings, a special organ stood out in their organisms, which assumed the function of managing development, behavior and reproduction - the nervous system. As it became more complex and improved, there was a development of forms of behavior and layering of levels of mental regulation of life: sensations, perception, memory, ideas, thinking, consciousness, reflection.

According to idealistic philosophy, the psyche is not a property of living matter and is not a product of its development. It, like matter, exists forever.

Stages and levels of development of the psyche and behavior of animals (according to A.N. Leontiev and K.E. Fabry), p.97.

Stages and level of mental reflection, its characteristics Features of behavior associated with a given stage and level Types of living beings that have reached this level of development
1. Stage of elementary sensory psyche
A. The lowest level. Primitive elements of sensitivity. Developed irritability. A. Clear reactions to biologically significant properties of the environment through a change in the speed and direction of movement. Elementary forms of movements. Weak plasticity of behavior. Unformed ability to respond to biologically neutral, lifeless properties of the environment. Weak, non-purposeful motor activity. A. The simplest. Many lower multicellular organisms living in the aquatic environment.
B. Top level. The presence of feelings. The appearance of the most important organ of manipulation - the jaws. Ability to form elementary conditioned reflexes. B. Clear reactions to biologically neutral stimuli. Developed physical activity (crawling, digging in the ground, swimming out of the water on land). The ability to avoid adverse environmental conditions, move away from them, actively search for positive stimuli. Individual experience and learning play little role. Rigid innate programs are of primary importance in behavior. B. Higher (annelid) worms, gastropods (snails), some other invertebrates.
2. Stage of the perceptual psyche.
A. Low level. Reflection of external reality in the form of images of objects. Integration, unification of influencing properties into a holistic image of a thing. main organ manipulation - jaws. A. Formation of motor skills. Rigid, genetically programmed components predominate. Motor abilities are very complex and varied (diving, crawling, walking, running, jumping, climbing, flying, etc.). Active search for positive stimuli, avoidance of negative (harmful), developed protective behavior. A. Fish and other lower vertebrates, as well as (in part) some higher invertebrates (arthropods and cephalopods). Insects.
B. Top level. Elementary forms of thinking (problem solving). Formation of a certain "picture of the world" B. Highly developed instinctive forms of behavior. Ability to learn. B. Higher vertebrates (birds and some mammals).
B. The highest level. Selection in practical activities special, tentative-exploratory, preparatory phase. The ability to solve the same problem in different ways. Transferring the once found principle of solving the problem to new conditions. Creation and use of primitive tools in activities. The ability to cognize the surrounding reality, regardless of the existing biological needs. C. Allocation of specialized organs of manipulation: paws and hands. Development of research forms of behavior with a wide use of previously acquired knowledge, skills and abilities. B. Monkeys, some other higher vertebrates (dogs, dolphins).

One of the hypotheses concerning the stages and levels of development of mental reflection, from the simplest animals to humans, was proposed by A.N. Leontiev in the book "Problems of development of the psyche". Later, it was finalized and refined by K.E. Fabry on the basis of the latest zoopsychological data, so now it is more correct to call it the Leontiev-Fabry concept.

The entire history of the development of the psyche and behavior of animals, according to this concept, is divided into a number of stages and levels (Table 1). There are two stages of elementary sensory psyche and perceptive psyche. The first includes two levels: the lowest and the highest, and the second includes three levels: the lowest, the highest and the highest.

Each of the stages and the levels corresponding to it are characterized by a certain combination of motor activity and forms of mental reflection, and in the process of evolutionary development, both interact with each other. Improving movements leads to an improvement in the adaptive activity of the body. This activity, in turn, helps to improve the nervous system, expand its capabilities, creates conditions for the development of new activities and forms of reflection. Both are mediated by the improvement of the psyche.

The stage of the elementary sensory psyche is characterized by primitive elements of sensitivity that do not go beyond the simplest sensations. This stage is associated with the isolation in animals of a specialized organ that performs complex manipulative movements of the body with objects from the outside world. Such an organ in lower animals is the jaw. They replace them with hands, which only humans and some higher living beings have.

The lowest level of the stage of the elementary sensory psyche, on which the simplest and lower multicellular organisms living in the aquatic environment are located, is characterized by the fact that irritability is represented here in a sufficiently developed form - the ability of living organisms to respond to biologically significant environmental influences by increasing their level of activity, changing direction and speed movement. Sensitivity as the ability to respond to the biologically neutral properties of the environment and readiness for learning by the method of conditioned reflexes is still missing. The motor activity of animals does not yet have an exploratory, purposeful character.

The next, highest level of the stage of elementary sensory psyche, which is reached by living creatures such as annelids and gastropods, is characterized by the appearance of the first elementary sensations and jaws as an organ of manipulation. The variability of behavior here is complemented by the emergence of the ability to acquire and consolidate life experience through conditioned reflex connections. There is already sensitivity at this level. Improving physical activity.

Types of adaptive behavior acquired as a result of mutations and transmitted from generation to generation due to natural selection take shape as instincts.

At the next, perceptual stage, there is a qualitative leap in the development of the psyche and behavior of animals. In the behavior of animals, there is clearly a tendency to focus on the objects of the surrounding world and the relationships between them. Motor activity is more developed, including movements associated with a change in direction and speed. Animal activity becomes more flexible, purposeful. All this takes place already at the lowest level of the perceptual psyche, which is supposed to include fish, other lower vertebrates, certain types of invertebrates, and insects.

The next, highest level of the parceptive psyche includes higher vertebrates: birds and some mammals. It is already possible to detect elementary forms of thinking in them, manifested in the ability to solve problems in a practical, visual and effective way. Here, a readiness for learning is revealed, for mastering the ways of solving such problems, memorizing them and transferring them to new conditions.

Monkeys reach the highest level of development of the perceptual psyche. A special, tentative-exploratory, or preparatory phase is distinguished in their activity. It consists in studying before proceeding to practical actions in it.

There is a certain flexibility in the ways of solving, a wide transfer of once found solutions to new conditions and situations. Animals turn out to be capable of investigating and cognizing reality, regardless of their present needs, and of making elementary tools. Instead of jaws, the organs of manipulation are the forelimbs, which are not yet completely freed from the function of movement. The system of communication of animals with each other is developing.

Having described these stages and levels, K.E. Fabry came to the conclusion that intelligence is characteristic not only of anthropoids, but also of all primates, as well as some other animals.

The further development of the psyche at the human level, according to the materialistic point of view, is mainly due to memory, speech, thinking and consciousness due to the complication of activities and the improvement of the tools of labor acting as a means of studying the world around us, the invention and widespread use of sign systems.

The emergence and psychological characteristics of human consciousness.

The essential difference between man as a species and animals lies in his ability to reason and think abstractly, to reflect on his past, critically evaluating it, and to think about the future, developing and implementing plans and programs designed for it. All this together is connected with the sphere of human consciousness. The psychological characteristic of human consciousness includes the feeling of being a cognizing subject, the ability to mentally represent the existing and imaginary reality, control and manage one's own mental and behavioral states, the ability to see and perceive the surrounding reality in the form of images.
The feeling of being a cognizing subject means that a person is aware of himself as a being separate from the rest of the world, ready and capable of studying this world, i.e. to obtain more or less reliable knowledge about it. A person is aware of this knowledge as phenomena that are different from the objects to which they relate, can formulate this knowledge, expressing it in words, concepts, various other symbols, transfer it to another person and future generations of people, store, reproduce, work with knowledge as with a special object.

Mental representation and imagination of reality is an important psychological characteristic of consciousness. It, like consciousness in general, is closely connected with the will. Consciousness is almost always associated with a person's volitional control of his own psyche and behavior.

Representation of a reality that is absent in this moment time or not existing at all (imagination, dreams ...), acts as one of the most important psychological characteristics of consciousness. In this case, a person arbitrarily, i.e. consciously, distracts from the perception of the environment, from extraneous thoughts, and focuses all his attention on some idea, image, memory, etc., drawing and developing in his imagination what he does not directly see at the moment or does not see at all able to see.

The main condition for the emergence and development of human consciousness is the joint production of the instrumental activity of people mediated by speech. This is an activity that requires cooperation, communication and interaction with each other. Individual consciousness at the dawn of human history arose in the process of collective activity as a necessary condition for its organization: in order for people to do something together, each of them must clearly understand the purpose of their joint work. From the very beginning of the emergence and development of human consciousness, speech becomes its subjective carrier, which at first acts as a means of communication (message), and then becomes a means of thinking (generalization).

First, the collective consciousness appears, and then the individual consciousness, because. having received its universal meaning, the word then penetrates into the individual consciousness and becomes its property in the form of meanings and meanings. The individual consciousness of the child is formed on the basis and subject to the existence of the collective consciousness through its appropriation.

Of particular importance for the development of human consciousness is the productive, creative nature of human activity. Consciousness involves a person's awareness of not only the external world, but also himself, his sensations, images, ideas and feelings. The images, thoughts, ideas and feelings of people are materially embodied in the objects of their creative work, and with the subsequent perception of these objects they become conscious. Therefore, creativity is the way and means of self-knowledge and development of human consciousness through the perception of their own creations.

At the beginning of its development, human consciousness is directed to the external world. A person realizes that he is outside of him, due to the fact that with the help of the sense organs given to him by nature, he sees, perceives this world as separate from him and existing independently of him. Later, a reflexive ability appears, i.e. the realization that a person himself can and should become an object of knowledge for himself.
Consciousness is not given initially and is generated not by nature, but by society.
At this point in history, people's consciousness continues to evolve at an accelerating pace driven by the accelerated pace of scientific, cultural, and technological progress. Thanks to the success of science, the sphere of knowledge and control of a person, power over oneself and the world, is expanding, human creative possibilities and, accordingly, the consciousness of people are significantly increased.

The active essence of a person is a condition for changing the psychology and behavior of people.

Activity is understood as the activity of the subject, aimed at changing the world, at the production or generation of a certain objectified product of material or spiritual culture. The creative nature of human activity is manifested in the fact that thanks to it, he goes beyond his natural limitations, i.e. surpasses its own genotypically determined possibilities. As a result of the productive, creative nature of his activity, man has created sign systems, tools for influencing himself and nature. Using these tools, he built modern society, cities, machines, with their help he produced new commodities, material and spiritual culture, and ultimately transformed himself.

Mental processes: perception, attention, imagination, memory, thinking, speech - act as the most important components of any human activity. In order to satisfy his needs, a person must perceive the world, pay attention to certain moments or components of activity, imagine what he needs to do, remember, think, and express judgments.

Modern man has many different activities, the number of which roughly corresponds to the number of existing needs. The main parameters according to which the system of human needs can be described are the strength, quantity and quality of needs.

Under the power of need, we mean the value of the corresponding need for a person, its relevance, frequency of occurrence and incentive potential. A stronger need is more significant, occurs more often, dominates other needs and makes a person behave in such a way that this particular need is satisfied in the first place.

Quantity is the number of diverse needs that a person has and from time to time become relevant to him. There are people whose number of needs is relatively small, and they quite successfully cope with their systematic satisfaction, enjoying life. But there are those who have many different incompatible needs. The actualization of such needs of the simultaneous inclusion of a person in various activities, and not infrequently there are conflicts between multidirectional needs and there is a shortage of time necessary to satisfy them.

Under the originality of the need, we mean objects and objects with the help of which one or another need can be sufficiently fully satisfied in this person, as well as the preferred way to meet this and other needs.

In accordance with the described parameters that characterize the system of human needs, it is possible to individually present and describe the totality of activities that are characteristic of a single person and groups of people.

But there is another way: to generalize and highlight the main activities that are common to all people. They will correspond to the general needs that can be found in almost all people without exception, or rather, the types of social human activity, and which every person inevitably turns on in the process of his individual development. This is communication, play, teaching and work. They should be considered as the main activities of people.

Communication is the first type of activity that occurs in the process of individual development of a person, followed by play, learning and work. All these activities are of a developmental nature, i.e. when the child is included and actively participates in them, his intellectual and personal development takes place.

Communication is considered as an activity aimed at the exchange of information between communicating people. It also pursues the goals of establishing mutual understanding, good personal and business relations, providing mutual assistance and teaching and educational influence of people on each other. Communication can be direct and indirect, verbal and non-verbal. In direct communication, people are in direct contact with each other, know and see each other, directly exchange verbal or non-verbal information, without using any auxiliary means for this. In mediated communication, there are no direct contacts between people. They exchange information either through other people or through means of recording and reproducing information (books, newspapers, radio, television, telephone, etc.).

A game is an activity that does not result in the production of any material or perfect product(except for business and design games of adults and children). Games often have the character of entertainment, they are aimed at getting rest. The relationships that develop between people in the game, as a rule, are artificial in the sense of the word, that they are not taken seriously by others and are not the basis for conclusions about a person. Play behavior and play relationships have little effect on real relationships between people, at least among adults.

Nevertheless, games are of great importance in people's lives. For children, games are primarily of developmental importance, while for adults they serve as a means of communication and relaxation. Some forms of gaming activity acquire the character of rituals, training sessions, and sports hobbies.

Teaching acts as a kind of activity, the purpose of which is the acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities by a person. Features of educational activity is that it directly serves as a means of psychological development of the individual.

Labor occupies a special place in the system of human activity. It was thanks to labor that man built a modern society, created objects of material and spiritual culture, transformed the conditions of his life in such a way that he discovered the prospects for further, practically unlimited development. First of all, the creation and improvement of labor tools is connected with labor. They, in turn, were a factor in increasing labor productivity, the development of science, industrial production, technical and artistic creativity.

When they talk about the development of human activity, they mean the following aspects of the progressive transformation of activity:

Phylogenetic development of the system of human activity.

The inclusion of a person in various activities in the process of his individual development.

Changes occurring within individual activities as they develop.

Differentiation of activities, in the course of which others are born from some activities due to the isolation and transformation of individual actions into independent types of activity.

The phylogenetic transformation of the system of human activities essentially coincides with the history of the socio-economic development of mankind. The integration and differentiation of social structures were accompanied by the emergence of new types of activities among people. The same thing happened with the growth of the economy, the development of cooperation and the division of labor. People of new generations, being included in the life of their contemporary society, arranged and developed those types of activities that are characteristic of this society.

This process of integrating a growing individual into the current system of activities is called socialization, and its gradual implementation involves the gradual involvement of the child in communication, play, learning and work.

In the process of development of activity, its internal transformations take place. The activity is enriched with new subject content. Its object and, accordingly, the means of satisfying the needs associated with it are new objects of material and spiritual culture. The activity has new means of implementation, which accelerate its course and improve the results. In the process of activity development, individual operations and other components of activity are automated, they turn into skills and abilities. As a result of the development of activity, new types of activity can be separated from it, separated, and further develop independently.

Creativity and activity

Understand the nature of creativity without understanding the essence of creativity, although there are many conflicting opinions, opinions, theories, etc. on this issue. It would be easier to postulate some provisions and define the basic concepts than to consider the views of different authors on creativity. We will adhere to the point of view of G.S. Batishchev on the nature of the relationship between creativity and activity, considering them to be fundamentally opposite forms of human activity.

  1. creative behavior (activity) that creates new environment, otherwise - constructive activity;
  2. destruction, maladaptive behavior that does not create a new environment, destroys the old one

Adaptive behavior can be divided into two types:

  1. reactive, carried out according to the type of reaction to a change in the environment;
  2. purposeful.

Both adapted and creative behavior will equally be considered constructive behavior.

All types of human behavior are equally specialized and mediated either by external or internal means. Therefore, reactive behavior and activity will differ not in the presence of certain cultural means, but in the source of activity that determines behavior.

On the fundamental difference creativity and objective activity drew the attention of many philosophers and psychologists.

In particular, Ya.A. Ponamarev considers the main feature of activity as a form of activity to be the potential correspondence between the purpose of the activity and its result. Whereas the creative act is characterized by the opposite: a mismatch between the goal (concept, program, etc.) and the result. Creative activity, unlike activity, can arise in the process of carrying out the latter and is associated with the generation of a "by-product", which is ultimately the creative result. The essence of creativity (creativity) as a psychological property is reduced, according to Ya.A. Ponamarev, to intellectual activity and sensitivity (sensitivity) to the by-products of one's activity. For a creative person, the most valuable are the by-products of activity, something new and extraordinary, for an uncreative person, the results of achieving the goal (expedient results), and not novelty, are important.

So, creativity, unlike various forms of adaptive behavior, does not proceed according to the principles "because" or "in order to", but "despite everything", that is, the creative process is a reality that spontaneously arises and ends.

The attitude to creativity in different eras changed radically. AT Ancient Rome in the book, only the material and the work of the binder were valued, and the author had no rights - neither plagiarism nor forgery was prosecuted. In the Middle Ages, as well as much later, the creator was equated with a craftsman, and if he dared to show creative independence, then it was not encouraged in any way. The creator had to make a living in a different way: Spinoza polished lenses, and the great Lomonosov was valued for utilitarian products - court odes and the creation of festive fireworks.

Interest in creativity and the personality of the creator in the 20th century is connected, perhaps, with the global crisis, the manifestation of the total alienation of man from the world, the irrational feeling that people do not solve the main problems of their existence through purposeful activity.

Probably, in order to create, you need to assimilate the pattern of activity of a person who creates. Through imitation, reach new level mastering the culture and striving independently further. Creativity requires personal cognitive conditions. But if there is no strength, the patterns of adaptive behavior are discredited, and a person is not prepared for creativity, he falls into the abyss of destruction.

Creativity, like destruction, is self-motivated, spontaneous, disinterested and self-sufficient. This is not a purposeful activity, but a spontaneous manifestation of human essence. But both creativity and destruction have a certain socio-cultural shell, since a person destroys and creates not in the natural, but in the socio-cultural environment.

Creative person

Many of the researchers reduce the problem of human abilities to the problem of a creative person: there are no special creative abilities, but there is a person with a certain motivation and traits.

Indeed, if intellectual giftedness does not directly affect the creative success of a person, if in the course of the development of creativity the formation of a certain motivation and personality traits precedes creative manifestations, then we can conclude about a special type of personality - "A person is creative."

Psychologists owe their knowledge of the features of a creative personality not so much to their own efforts as to the work of writers, historians of science and culture, art historians, who in one way or another touched on the problem of a creative personality, for there is no creation without a creator.

Creativity is going beyond the given ("Over the barriers!"). This is only a negative definition of creativity, but the first thing that catches your eye is the analogy between the behavior of a creative person and a person with mental disorders.

There are two points of view: talent is a disease, talent is maximum health.

Caesar Lombroso characterizes geniuses as lonely, cold people, indifferent to family and social responsibilities.

A man of genius is always painfully sensitive, in particular he does not tolerate fluctuations in the weather. They experience sharp ups and downs in activity.

In everything they find reasons for reflection, they are hypersensitive to social rewards and punishments, etc. etc. The list of mentally ill geniuses, psychopaths and neurotics is endless.

If we proceed from the above interpretation of creativity as a process, then a genius is a person who creates on the basis of unconscious activity, who can experience the widest range of states due to the fact that the unconscious creative subject is out of control of the rational principle and self-regulation.

Surprisingly, it is precisely this definition of genius, consistent with modern ideas about the nature of creativity, that was given by Ts. Lombroso: "Features of genius in comparison with talent in the sense that it is something unconscious and manifests itself unexpectedly." Consequently, the genius mostly creates unconsciously, more precisely, through the activity of the unconscious creative subject. Talent creates rationally, on the basis of an invented plan. Genius is predominantly creative, talent is intellectual, although both have this and that general ability.

There are other signs of genius that distinguish it from talent: originality, versatility, longevity, etc.

Hegel in "Aesthetics" proved to be an unsuccessful theorist in the field of the nature of abilities. Hegel, unlike us, could not know. However, he did not guess that the capacity for fantasy (creativity) is shaped by the environment. And the fact that anyone can be considered a scientist, Hegel proved by his own example and played the role of the Prussian Lysenko from the philosophy of the early 19th century.

Research has shown that gifted children, whose real achievements are below their capabilities, experience serious problems in the personal and emotional sphere, as well as in the sphere of interpersonal relationships.

Similar conclusions about high anxiety and low adaptation of creative people are given in a number of other studies. Such a specialist as F. Barron argues that in order to be creative, one must be a little neurotic; and, as a result, emotional disturbances, distorting the "normal" vision of the world, create the prerequisites for a new approach to reality.

In my opinion, cause and effect are confused here, neuroticism is a by-product of creative activity.

"With whom did he fight?

With myself, with myself

Perhaps this struggle predetermines the peculiarities of the creative path: the victory of the unconscious principle means the triumph of creativity and - death.

M. Zoshchenko, himself a great Russian writer, paid special attention to the problem of the life of a creative person in his book "Returned Youth".

M. Zoshchenko divides his creators into two categories: 1) those who lived a short, emotionally rich life and died before the age of 45, and 2) "long-livers"

Features of the interaction of consciousness and the unconscious determine the typology of creative personalities and the features of their life path.

Conclusion

Personality is the final and, therefore, the most complex object of psychology. In a certain sense, it unites the whole of psychology into one whole, and there is no such research in this science that would not contribute to the knowledge of personality. Anyone who studies personality cannot ignore other areas of psychology. There are many approaches to the study of personality. This is absolutely natural in a field where each experiment refers only to a particular fact, absolutely incommensurable with the complexity of the object itself. It is possible to consider a personality through a structure, it is possible from the point of view of physiological reactions, it is possible through the connection of the physical and mental aspects of a personality. In my work, I tried not to rely on any particular approach to the consideration of personality, but I tried to generalize all the thoughts that arose in me while studying a variety of methods. It is likely that my approach was initially wrong, it is possible that I misunderstood the problem, but nevertheless, for myself, I came to certain conclusions and they look something like this: an initially born individual, having only natural mental functions, gradually, through entry into society (starting with relatives, friends) is socialized, i.e. becomes a person. At the same time, the socio-cultural environment is, as it were, a source that nourishes the development of the individual, instills in him social norms, values, roles, etc. And, finally, a person who herself begins to influence society is an individual. The entry of an individual into society and his formation there as a person can be called "survival" or adaptation. Depending on how easily the individual manages to overcome the difficulties of the adaptation period, we get a self-confident or conforming personality. At this stage, the personality chooses motivation and responsibility, its locus of control becomes either external or internal. If during this period an individual, presenting personal properties characterizing his individuality to a reference group for him, does not find mutual understanding, this can contribute to the formation of aggressiveness, suspicion (otherwise, trust and justice). A person either becomes an internal (“smith of his own happiness”) , or external ("everything is in the hands of the Lord").

Quite interesting are the age-specific stages of personality development. The body has an amazing memory and, problems that arose in infancy and early childhood remain in the subconscious all their lives, i.e. everything that was “not given” to the child after birth will definitely manifest itself later.

A particularly significant period in the age development of a Personality is adolescence and early youth, when a person begins to distinguish himself as an object of self-knowledge and self-education. At this age, the judgments of other people play a significant role, and above all, the assessment of parents, teachers and peers. The young man determines his possibilities and needs, and in case of a large discrepancy between the first and second, acute affective experiences arise.

The next and, in my opinion, the last stage in the formation of a personality is the age of generativity, when a person learns to give up himself in favor of children. It seems to me that throughout the subsequent life, the personality, remaining practically unchanged, acquires more and more individual features.

And, finally, it should be noted the process of dying, which is interesting for its reverse (in relation to the formation of personality) process. that is, there is social dying, then intellectual and then physical.

In my opinion, practical purpose psychology as a science is the education of a highly moral and highly moral person, an "ideal" person. More specifically, the identification and solution of problems for the education of such a person, or in extreme cases, the education of maximum individuality in a person. I hope that the division of the process of personality formation into stages according to these three indicators (personality - as a socialized individual, personality as an active life position and personality in time) will at least help to get closer to perfection.

Talent, inspiration, skill are the most important factors of creative activity.

The general abilities of a person - intelligence, creativity, learning - determine the productivity of the corresponding types of activity that a person shows.

Creative achievements in the modern world are possible only with the mastery of culture in the area where the individual is active. The success of mastering the culture and determines the general intelligence. The further humanity develops, the greater will be the role of intellectual mediation in creativity.

List of used literature:

  1. BF Lomov "Methodological and theoretical problems of psychology". Moscow "Science", 1984
  2. Paul Fress, Jean Piaget "Experimental Psychology" Moscow "Progress" 1975.
  3. G.V. Shchekin "Fundamentals of psychological knowledge" Kyiv, MAUP, 1996
  4. E.T. Sokolova "Self-consciousness and self-esteem in personality anomalies". Moscow, Moscow State University, 1989
  5. Carl Leonhard "Accentuated Personalities" Kyiv "Higher School", 1989
  6. Psychological dictionary. Moscow "Pedagogy-press", 1996
  7. L.S. Vygotsky, Collected works v. 6 Moscow "Pedagogy", 1982
  8. V.M. Bekhterev "Objective psychology" Moscow "Science", 1991
  9. J. Godefroy "What is psychology" Moscow "Mir", 1992
  10. V.I. Slobodchikov, G.A. Tsukerman "Periodization of the general mental development"
  11. K. Muzdybaev "Psychology of responsibility" Leningrad "Science", 1983
  12. Chirkov V.I. "Self-Determination and Intrinsic Motivation"
  13. R.S. Nemov, "Psychology", volume 1, Moscow, 1995.
  14. Orlov Yu.M. "Ascent to individuality", Moscow, 1991.

creative personality student self-expression

The most important feature of the creator is a strong and stable need for creativity. A creative person cannot live without creativity and sees in it the main goal and the main meaning of his life. The term "creativity" indicates both the activity of the individual and the values ​​​​created by her, which, from the facts of her personal fate, become facts of culture.

V.I. Andreev says: “A creative personality is a type of personality that is characterized by perseverance, a high level of focus on creativity, motivational and creative activity, which manifests itself in organic unity with a high level of creative abilities, allowing it to achieve progressive, social and personally significant results in one or more activities.

One of the important traits of a creative person is the desire to do their job even better. This is due to the fact that the person is not completely satisfied with the work. But, nevertheless, considers it necessary to fix the intermediate result. An actor, musician, painter, architect, organizer, worker, etc., can relate to their work in a similar way.

A person is able to rejoice at what has been achieved, this supports his efforts, while he is able to move on.

Psychologists consider creativity as a high level of logical thinking, which is the impetus for activity, "the result of which is the created material and spiritual values." Most authors agree that a creative person is an individual who has a high level of knowledge, has a desire for something new, original. For a creative person, creative activity is a vital need, and a creative style of behavior is the most characteristic. The main indicator of a creative personality is the presence of creative abilities, which are considered as individual psychological abilities of a person that meet the requirements of creative activity, and are a condition for its successful implementation. Creativity is associated with the creation of a new, original product, with the search for new means of activity. N.V. Kichuk defines a creative personality through its intellectual activity, creative thinking and creative potential.

Also of great importance for understanding the characteristics of a creative personality is the special formation of mental actions. After all, “creativity” does not exist in its pure form, real creative activity includes a lot of technical components, the “working out” of which is one of the prerequisites for creative activity. The deepening of the psychological characteristics of the thought process also consists in pointing out that changes in the “conceptual characteristics of objects” are often preceded by changes in operational meanings and emotional assessments, that verbally formulated knowledge about an object does not necessarily have the character of concepts in the strict sense of the word. Ya. A. Ponomarev, who made a significant contribution to the development of the problems of the psychology of creative thinking, considers creativity as a "mechanism of productive development." In the psychological plan of functional development, this is the study of those neoplasms that arise in activity in the course of solving a problem. The development of emotional processes in a creative person also has its own characteristics. The study of "inspiration" on laboratory models is the study of the conditions for the emergence and functions of emotional activation, emotional assessments that arise in the course of solving mental problems. For example, in works on the psychology of scientific creativity, it is convincingly shown that the activity of a scientist is always mediated by the categorical structure of science, which develops according to its own laws, independent of the individual, but at the same time, a certain opposition of the “subjective-experiential” and “objective-activity” plan is allowed, which can be reproached for the epiphenomenological interpretation of "experiences", that is, the functions of the emotional-affective sphere.

Scientists - researchers identify such main features of a creative personality: courage of thought, risk appetite, fantasy, problematic vision, the ability to think, the ability to find contradictions, the ability to transfer knowledge and experience to a new situation, independence, alternativeness, flexibility of thinking, the ability to self-government.

O. Kulchitskaya and V. Molyako also distinguish such features of a creative personality: the emergence of a directed interest in a certain field of knowledge, even in childhood, high working capacity, subordination of creativity to spiritual motivation, perseverance, obstinacy, passion for work, a high level of knowledge, ability to analyze phenomena, compare them, persistent interest in a particular work, relatively quick and easy assimilation of theoretical and practical knowledge, schematic and independent work, the desire for originality, for the new, the denial of the ordinary, as well as a high level of knowledge.

The attitude of a creative person to objects is characterized by selectivity, emotional coloring, the attitude expresses the whole personality in its connection with one or another side of reality. "The higher the level of development of the personality, the more complex the processes of mental activity and the more differentiated and richer its relations." V. N. Myasishchev defines relationships as conscious connections of a person, it follows from this that the relationship of a person in some cases can be arbitrarily one-sided. A creative person differs from others in the ability to reliably convey his thought, convey everything to the listener (reader), fully express himself, speak out. He knows how to express the essence of what he wants to say concisely, briefly. However, strong brevity or verbosity can be a negative feature of the creator, since the thought may not be fully understood. An example of this is the story:

To one mathematician I knew, I tried to express what I felt and understood at a certain moment, generously and selflessly, sharing real inspiration with her...

She listened to me a little and said: "If you have

Fountain - shut it up, let the fountain rest”, i.e. repeated famous expression Kozma Prutkov. She believed that brevity, perhaps, is not the sister of talent, but talent itself, and that an idea can be expressed in two words, if not in one.

So, we can make the following common features and characteristics of a creative personality, accepted by many researchers of this problem:

1. Man is endowed with freedom of choice. He is able to choose intentions and goals. Can carry out a selection of mental operations and actions that it performs. Thanks to this freedom, man becomes a creative being.

2. The man-creator is the main reason for his behavior. It is a relatively self-governing system; the source of its action is contained, first of all, in the subject, and not in the object. This is a unique individual; extensive motivation or spontaneous thoughts greatly influence his decisions and actions, what he does and what he avoids.

3. The main driving force is the need to confirm their value. It is satisfied mainly through the creation of new forms or the destruction of old ones.

4. A person is a creator tuned to internal and external development. Development is the main goal of the human personality. Without an orientation towards growth, a person whose possibilities are limited would not have a chance to hold out and would not be able to build his well-being and well-being, that is, happiness.

5. Man-creator has a limited consciousness and self-consciousness. This premise destroys the radical view of what is mental, conscious and at the same time the radical view of the unconscious mind and character (extreme psychoanalysts).

6. The actions and thoughts of a person, to a large extent, affect what place he occupies on the scale of good and evil; under their influence he becomes humane or inhumane.

Thus, we can say that a creative person works on the conscious and unconscious levels thanks to the cognitive, emotional and volitional systems. Man is unique, lives simultaneously in the outer and inner worlds.

CONCLUSIONS ON THE FIRST SECTION

Creativity is the most complex form of human activity, generating something new, distinguished by originality, originality and uniqueness. The inclinations of creative abilities are inherent in any normal person to one degree or another, but not every (normal) person should be considered a creative person, this is due to a different understanding of the nature of creativity. C. Lombroso, V. Hirsch and D. Carlson say that all talented people are painfully sensitive. They experience sharp ups and downs in activity. They are very sensitive to social rewards and punishments, etc. The conclusion they come to is as follows: talent and madness can be combined in one person, which is confirmed by the relationship of creatism with neuroticism, and a genius and a talented person have common abilities, creativity of thinking can be attributed to them, but there are differences - the activity of the unconscious genius is manifested to a much lesser extent. Since creativity prevails over the intellect, the activity of the unconscious also prevails over consciousness.

Creative evolutioners come in different degrees: greater or lesser (simply talent is great talent). And different types(by quality).

The most important feature of the creator is a strong and stable need for creativity. Another feature of a creative personality is the obligatory presence of intermediate results in the activity, as well as intellectual activity, sociability, creative thinking and creative potential.

According to Michael Gelb, everyone can be creative and, without reinventing the wheel, create something new and interesting.

Today we will talk about the nature of creative people. This question is being studied by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This is one of the most authoritative experts in the field of business psychology, known primarily for the theory of flow. Csikszentmihalyi is the author of several bestsellers, including Creativity: Life and Work 91 famous person(Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People, 1996). In it, he describes 10 paradoxical traits inherent in creative personalities, which he managed to identify over 30 years of his work.

Do you want to know what distinguishes the creator from the layman? Then welcome under cat.

1. Strong but not trained

A creative person has quite a lot of physical energy, but, unfortunately, it is little spent. After all, the work of the creator is, first of all, the work of his brain. Focusing exclusively on intellectual labor makes a healthy body look weak. That is why it is important to maintain a balance of mind and body.

2. Smart but naive

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi admits that creative people are smart, they are distinguished by flexibility and originality of thinking, the ability to hear different points of view. But almost everyone naively believes that creativity can be measured by creative tests, and developed at specialized seminars.

3. Playful but selfless

Creative people love to relax. As they say, nothing hedonistic is alien to them. But when it comes to the "birth" of a new project, they are able to work like crazy. For example, the Italian artist Paolo Uccello, when he developed his famous “perspective theory”, did not sleep all night and walked from corner to corner.

Csikszentmihalyi notes that most creators work late into the night and nothing can stop them.

4. Dreamers, but realists

This is the mystery of creative people. They are great inventors, they can come up with anything, but most of them look at life quite realistically. Apparently, William Ward was right when he said that a pessimist complains about the wind, an optimist hopes for a change in the weather, and a realist sets sail.

5. Extroverts but introverted

We tend to divide people into extroverts and introverts. It is believed that the former are sociable, easily converge with people, have charisma, etc. And the latter, on the contrary, live in their inner world, where only the “chosen ones” are allowed.

But, according to Csikszentmihalyi's observations, truly creative people combine both of these traits. In public, they are the soul of the company, and in the circle of loved ones they are quiet and laconic.

6. Modest but proud

Creative people tend to be very humble. They do not expect praise - the very process of creating a new one is important to them. However, at the same time, they will not give anyone a descent and will not allow to humiliate their own dignity.

7. Masculine but feminine

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that creative people often do not fit their gender roles. So, female creators are often distinguished by a tough disposition, while men, on the contrary, are sensual and sentimental.

8. Rebel but conservative

What is creativity? That’s right – creating something new. In this regard, creative people are very often reputed to be rebels, as their ideas go beyond the usual. But at the same time, it is difficult for many of them to part with their ossified habits, change roles, and so on.

9. Passionate but objective

All creative people are passionate about their work. It would seem that passion should blind, but truly creative people always look objectively at what they do.

Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes that a creative person must adequately perceive criticism, as well as separate his "I" from his work.

10. Open but happy

One of the creative secrets of Leonardo da Vinci was "sharpness of feelings". Creators are always open to new events, even if they hurt them. At the same time, internally it is harmonious happy people because they know how to enjoy the creative process itself.

As you can see, creative people are indeed full of contradictions. But as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says, it is these paradoxes that help them adapt to almost any situation, adapting everything around them to achieve their goals.

And what paradoxical features of creative people do you know?