The concept of personality in cultural studies. The concept of individual human personality. The concept of personality in sociology
It is known that personality as a subject of knowledge is of interest not only to psychology, but also to other sciences that study man. Therefore, it makes sense to clarify the idea of personality that has developed in these border disciplines.
In philosophy, a person’s personality is not considered as such; one must become one. Personality is one of the central concepts of sociology. It plays an important role in the "construction" of social knowledge, helping to understand why the human world is so different from the rest of the natural world and why it remains human only on the basis of preserving the richness of individual differences between people. The sociology of personality is significantly influenced philosophical concepts and psychological theories.
Philosophy operates more with the capacious concept of “man,” which includes his biological, mental, and cultural nature. Sociologists take into account, first of all, the social qualities that are formed in people in the process of living together (as a direct product of coexistence with others), somewhat abstracting from everything else.
Psychology pays attention to the individual differences of people: their temperament, character, behavioral characteristics and assessments, studying how and why they differ from each other. For a sociologist, “personality,” on the contrary, is what makes people similar to each other (that is, they note what is socially typical in people). Thus, we can say that, as a rule, the chain person - personality - individual reflects a peculiar division of labor of a philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, although each of them (studying his own) can use any of these terms. In other words, personality in sociology is something special.
In philosophy, “personality” (read: person), in accordance with established traditions, is considered as:
1) a product (of Nature, God or Society), a product of the conditions of existence, which can only know itself and should not try to change (an adapting person, adapting);
2) a creator, infinitely active, or a meditator, changing his own terms, or controlling his imagination about the conditions of his life and about himself (a person creating himself, self-producing);
3) an actor who transforms himself through instrumental, objective activity that connects his development with outside world(a person who produces new objects and conveys his experience in objects).
In psychology, “personality” (read: individual) is the integrity of mental properties, processes, relationships that distinguish a given subject from another. For a psychologist, the potentialities of subjects are different, since both innate and acquired qualities of people are individual. Individuality reflects the uniqueness of a person’s biological and social properties, making him a unique actor (acting unit) of a certain group or community.
Both philosophy and psychology have a significant influence on the development of sociological ideas about personality, but their special view on this subject and specific terminology are used only at the level of special theories.
So, sociologists, as a rule, operate with the concepts of “social subject” and “personality” to describe social essence and social qualities of a person.
In modern sociology, personality, as a subject (which, let us recall, can be individual - identical to “personality” and group - identical to “community”), means an active social principle, a certain socio-historical type of ability to act.
It is believed that personality, as a socially typical characteristic of people, has experienced a certain emotion along with the course of historical progress. Primitive man was characterized by adaptive, adaptive activities, while modern man has a much richer functional repertoire and generally plays an active transformative role in nature and society. We can say that the personality more and more fully manifested itself, formed and filled the person, tearing him out of the world of nature (desires and passions) and bringing him into the world of creativity, comprehension and understanding of the signs of the “other”. In this sense, personality as a social quality of a person became an increasingly concentrated substance of his special (social) nature.
Introduction 3
1. The essence of the concept of “personality” 5
2. Modern understanding of personality. Personality as a value 12
3. The problem of personality in different cultures 18
Conclusion 23
References 24
Introduction
The problem of personality has always been the focus of cultural research. This is natural, since culture and personality are inextricably linked with each other. On the one hand, culture shapes one or another type of personality. On the other hand, personality recreates, changes, and discovers new things in culture.
At different stages of human thought, attempts were made to find answers to questions about man’s place in the world, about his origin, purpose, dignity, about the meaning of his existence, about his role in history, his uniqueness and typicality, and to the question of how the past, present and the future are determined by a person’s life, the boundaries of his free choice.
The most important function of culture is the function of socialization - the process of assimilation by a human individual of certain knowledge, norms and values necessary for life as a full member of society. At the same time, this process ensures the preservation of society and established forms of life. In society, as in nature, there is a constant change of generations, people are born and die. But unlike animals, humans do not have innate action programs. He receives these programs from culture, learns to live, think and act in accordance with them.
The development of social experience by an individual begins with early childhood. The patterns of behavior that parents demonstrate are consciously or unconsciously adopted by children, thereby determining their behavior for many years to come. Childhood is the most important period of socialization, during which approximately 70% of the human personality is formed. But socialization does not end in childhood. This is a continuous process that continues throughout life. This is how the social experience accumulated by the people is assimilated, the cultural tradition is preserved and passed on from generation to generation, which ensures the stability of the culture.
At the same time, each person, by force of circumstances, finds himself immersed in a certain cultural environment, from which he absorbs and assimilates a system of knowledge, values, and norms of behavior.
The purpose of this work is to study the content of the concept of “personality”, consider views on personality as the highest value and compare attitudes to the problem of personality in different cultures.
1. The essence of the concept of “personality”
The multidimensionality of the personality phenomenon served as the basis for realizing the interdisciplinary status of the personality problem, which is equally studied by cultural studies, philosophy, social and natural sciences. Individual, personality and individuality - different characteristics human studies, which are defined in various approaches.
Personality, a person as a participant in the historical-evolutionary process, acting as a bearer of social roles and having the opportunity to choose a life path, during which he transforms nature, society and himself. In the social sciences, personality is considered as a special quality of a person acquired by him in the process of joint activity and communication. In humanistic philosophical and psychological concepts, personality is a value for the sake of which the development of society is carried out 1.
Personality is a social characteristic of a particular person as a subject of social relations and conscious activity, freely and responsibly determining his position among others. It is characterized by the stability of motives of behavior and practical actions, interests, inclinations, a certain worldview that guide its activities, relatively independent of current situations. Humanity, trust in people, demandingness towards oneself and others and other positive personality traits arise in favorable conditions with successful completion of the personalization and integration phase. In the process of mastering social experience, new motives and needs of the individual are formed, transformed, and subordinated 2.
Personality is an individual person as a subject of social life, communication and activity, as well as his own strengths, abilities, needs, interests, aspirations, etc. In personality, the opposition between the external and internal life of an individual person is removed; in fact, the process of personal existence proceeds as a constant removal of the opposition between the external and the internal in a person’s self-realization. The existence of a human individual as a person is a condition for the reproduction and renewal of social processes. In philosophy, we are talking, in essence, not about personality, but about personalities. Society is considered as a connection or system of people who affirm and realize their positions, attitudes, and interests. Of course, the personal qualities of people are revealed unevenly; in different eras the ratio of the directly personal and directly collective existence of people differed markedly. However, it is important to emphasize that not only collectivity, but also personality are social forms of human existence, that in extrapersonal existence social qualities (connections, things, institutions, people themselves) cannot be synthesized, manifested, or realized. The socio-philosophical interpretation of personality makes it possible to show how the practical and theoretical formulation of the problem of personality changes in different types of sociality, how the idea of social types is revealed through different forms of connection and isolation of individuals, through different relationships between the directly personal and directly collective existence of people.
In the 20th century there are three personality concepts, Related various forms implementation of social connections and with related theories.
Concept socialization involves the interpretation of personality as a human individual, taking the forms and standards of functioning of the social system. In this case, socialization is a condition for the sustainable existence of society. One way or another, this concept emphasizes the adaptation of the individual to the structures of sociality; this leads to an underestimation of the individual’s impact on social institutions and on one’s own existence.
Concept self-realization(self-actualization, self-determination) of personality emphasizes the subjectivity of the individual person, the social significance of his “internal” resources and, by “contrast,” determines the insufficiency of deindividualized social structures. The promotion of this concept in time (70s of the XX century) coincides with the crisis of structural and functional models of sociality, with the search for resources characteristic of developed countries quality life and activities of society 3.
Within the framework of biological, sociological and psychological approaches, the determination of personality development is understood as the interaction of two factors - environment and heredity. Within the framework of system-activity and historical-evolutionary approaches, a fundamentally different scheme for determining personality development is being developed. In this scheme, the properties of an individual are considered as “impersonal” prerequisites for personality development, which in the process of life’s journey can become a product of this development. The social environment also represents a source of personality development, and not a “factor” that directly determines its behavior. Being a condition for the implementation of human activity, the social environment is social norms, values, roles, ceremonies, tools, systems of signs that an individual encounters. The true foundations and driving force for personal development are joint activities and communication, through which the individual is introduced to culture. In transforming one's actions, relationships with other people and oneself, individuality is realized and the life of society is enriched.
The relationship between the concepts of “individual” (a product of anthropogenesis), “personality” (an individual who has mastered socio-historical experience) and “individuality” (an individual who transforms the world) can be conveyed by the formula: “One is born an individual. They become a person. Individuality is defended" 4 .
Personality is a phenomenon social development, a specific living person with consciousness and self-awareness. Personality structure is a holistic systemic formation, a set of socially significant mental properties, relationships and actions of an individual that have developed in the process of ontogenesis and determine his behavior as the behavior of a conscious subject of activity and communication. Personality is a self-regulating dynamic functional system of continuously interacting properties, relationships and actions that develop in the process of human ontogenesis. The core formation of personality is self-esteem, which is built on the assessment of the individual by other people and his assessment of these others. In a broad, traditional sense - personality, this is an individual as a subject social relations and conscious activity. The personality structure includes all the psychological characteristics of a person, and all the morphophysiological characteristics of his body - right down to the characteristics of metabolism. The popularity and persistence of this expanded understanding in literature seems to be due to its similarity to the ordinary meaning of the word. In a narrow sense, it is a systemic quality of an individual determined by involvement in social relations, formed in joint activities and communication 5 .
According to A.N. Leontiev, personality is a qualitatively new formation. It is formed through life in society. Therefore, only a person can be a person, and then only after reaching a certain age. In the course of activity, a person enters into relationships with other people - social relationships, and these relationships become personality-forming. From the side of the person himself, his formation and life as an individual appear primarily as development, transformation, subordination and resubordination of his motives.
Man as a social being acquires new qualities that are absent if he is considered as an isolated, non-social being. And each person from a certain time begins to make a certain contribution to the life of society and individuals. That is why, next to the concepts of personality and personal, the concept of socially significant appears. Although this significant thing may be socially unacceptable: a crime is as much a personal act as a feat. To psychologically concretize the concept of personality, it is necessary to answer at least questions about what the new formation called personality consists of, how personality is formed, and how the growth and functioning of his personality appears from the position of the subject himself.
The criteria for a mature personality are:
1) the presence of hierarchy in motives in a certain sense - as the ability to overcome one’s own immediate motivations for the sake of something else - the ability to behave indirectly. It is assumed that the motives, thanks to which immediate impulses are overcome, are social in origin and meaning (simply indirect behavior may be based on a spontaneously formed hierarchy of motives, and even “spontaneous morality”: the subject may not be aware of what exactly forces him to act in a certain way" but act quite morally);
2) the ability to consciously manage one’s own behavior; this leadership is carried out on the basis of conscious motives, goals and principles (in contrast to the first criterion, here it is precisely the conscious subordination of motives that is assumed - the conscious mediation of behavior, which presupposes the presence of self-awareness as a special authority of the individual). In didactic terms, all properties, relationships and actions of an individual can be conditionally combined into four closely related functional substructures, each of which is a complex formation that plays a specific role in life:
1) regulation system;
2) stimulation system;
3) stabilization system;
4) display system. In the course of human social development, systems of regulation and stimulation constantly interact, and on their basis, increasingly complex mental properties, relationships and actions arise that direct the individual to solve life problems. The unity of the personality throughout the entire life path is ensured by the memory-continuity of goals, actions, relationships, claims, beliefs, ideals, etc. Western psychology considers the personality as an “entirely mental being.”
In Russian psychology, personality is considered in the unity (but not identity) and sensory essence of its bearer - the individual and the conditions of the social environment. Natural properties and the characteristics of the individual appear in the personality as its socially conditioned elements. Personality is the mediating link through which external influence is connected with its effect in the individual’s psyche. The emergence of a personality “of systemic quality is due to the fact that the individual, in joint activities with other individuals, changes the world and through this change transforms himself, becoming a personality. A personality is characterized by:
1) activity - the desire of the subject to go beyond his own limits, expand the scope of activity, act beyond the boundaries of the requirements of the situation and role prescriptions;
2) orientation - a stable dominant system of motives - interests, beliefs, ideals, tastes and other things in which human needs manifest themselves;
3) deep semantic structures (dynamic semantic systems, according to L. S. Vygotsky), which determine her consciousness and behavior; they are relatively resistant to verbal influences and are transformed in the activities of joint groups and collectives (the principle of activity mediation);
4) the degree of awareness of one’s relationship to reality: attitudes, attitudes, dispositions, etc. A developed personality has developed self-awareness, which does not exclude the unconscious mental regulation of certain important aspects of its activity. Subjectively, for an individual, personality appears as his Self, as a system of ideas about himself, constructed by the individual in the processes of activity and communication, which ensures the unity and identity of his personality and reveals itself in self-esteem, in a sense of self-esteem, level of aspirations, etc. The image of the Self represents that how the individual sees himself in the present, in the future, what he would like to be if he could, etc. Correlating the image of the self with the real circumstances of the individual’s life allows the individual to change behavior and realize the goals of self-education. An appeal to the self-esteem and self-respect of an individual is an important factor in the directed influence on the individual during upbringing. The personality as a subject of interpersonal relations reveals itself in three representations that form a unity:
1) personality as a relatively stable set of its intra-individual qualities: symptom complexes of mental properties that form its individuality, motives, and personality orientations; personality structure, temperamental characteristics, abilities;
2) personality as the inclusion of an individual in the space of inter-individual connections, where relationships and interactions that arise in a group can be interpreted as carriers of the personalities of their participants; This is how, for example, the false alternative is overcome in understanding interpersonal relationships either as group phenomena or as personal phenomena: the personal acts as a group, the group as a personal;
3) personality as the “ideal representation” of an individual in the life activities of other people, including outside their actual interaction; as a result of semantic transformations of the intellectual and affective-need spheres of other individuals, actively implemented by a person. An individual in his development experiences a socially determined need to be a person - to place himself in the life of other people, continuing his existence in them, and discovers the ability to be a person, realized in socially significant activities. The presence and characteristics of the ability to be a person can be identified using the method of reflected subjectivity. Personality development occurs in the conditions of socialization of the individual and his upbringing.
With all the variety of theoretical approaches to the study of personality, it is the multidimensionality of personality that is recognized as its essence. A person appears here in his integrity: 1) as a participant in the historical-evolutionary process, a bearer of social roles and programs of sociotypical behavior, a subject of choice of an individual life path, during which he transforms nature, society and himself; 2) as a dialogical and active being, whose essence is generated, transformed and defended in coexistence with other people; 3) as a subject of free, responsible, purposeful behavior, acting in the perception of other people and in one’s own as a value and possessing a relatively autonomous, stable, holistic system of diverse, original and inimitable individual qualities.
1. The concept of personality in philosophy, sociology and psychology.
Personality in philosophy acts as the essence of all social relations. The problem of personality in philosophy is the problem of the place occupied by the individual in society.
Personality in sociology- this is a stable system of socially significant traits that characterize an individual; it is a product of social development and the inclusion of the individual in the system of social relations through education and communication. It is obvious that the concept of personality coincides with the concept of the individual and the individual.
In psychology, personality is studied by various branches of psychological science. This is due to the diversity of personality manifestations, the inconsistency, and sometimes the mystery of human behavior. The multifaceted nature of behavior requires, in turn, multi-level psychological analysis.
The development of the problem of personality in general psychology is necessary for the integration of data on sensory-perceptual, mnemonic, mental, emotional-volitional processes. Integration of these data is necessary to clarify ideas about the sensory organization of a person, his intelligence, and the emotional sphere of his personality. THAT, personality in general psychology- this is a certain core, an integrating principle that links together the various mental processes of an individual and gives his behavior the necessary consistency and stability.
The goal of social psychology is to “understand and explain how the actual, imagined, or perceived presence of others influences an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behavior.” At the same time, social psychology studies the status and social roles of an individual in various communities, her self-perception in the context of these roles, attitudes, interpersonal relationships and perception, connections of individuals in a joint d-ti.
Significant and valuable contributions to the general theory of personality are made by pedagogical, developmental, ethnic psychology, occupational psychology, developmental psychology and a number of others.
As E. Stern noted, personality psychology as a science arose in response to the crisis of traditional Wundtian psychology, which was the result of an exhausted atomistic (elemental) approach to explaining the personality of a person. “The psychology of the elements turned out to be helpless when considering the human personality,” wrote E. Stern.
2. Understanding the subject of personality psychology in Russian psychology (B. G. Ananyev, S. L. Vygotsky, B. F. Lomov, S. L. Rubinstein).
In Russian psychology, personality is studied from 2 points of view: from the position of introducing the personality principle into the methodology and theory of psychology (means that all mental processes - attention, memory, thinking - are active, selective, i.e. depend on the characteristics of the individual (motivation, interests, goals, x-ra) and from the point of view of studying personality itself - its structure, characteristics of forms and development, self-awareness and self-esteem.
L.S. Vygotsky - one of the methodologists of psychology who devoted a lot of time to developing a program and methods for empirical research of the child’s psyche. The central category to which Vygotsky paid primary attention was the category of consciousness. L.S. Vygotsky was looking for new way in explaining mental phenomena, largely based on the ideas of Marxism. His concept was called cultural-historical. Vygotsky’s main idea was to affirm the position on the development of higher mental functions. They are formed in a child in the process of ontogenetic development in communication with an adult. Development, according to Vygotsky, is associated with the assimilation of cultural signs, the most perfect of which is the word. The form of personality, according to Vygotsky, is a process of cultural development. He wrote that one can equate a child’s personality with his cultural development. Personality is formed as a result of such historical development, and is itself historical. An indicator of personality is the ratio of natural and higher mental functions. The more cultural is represented in a person, the more pronounced the process of mastering the world and one’s own behavior is, the more significant the personality.
S.L.Rubinshtein - an outstanding philosopher and psychologist who dealt with the problems of the psychology of thinking and laid the methodological foundations of psychology, the author of one of the most popular textbooks, “Fundamentals of General Psychology.” The methodological foundations of psychology were linked by S.L. Rubinstein with the ideas of K. Marx. In the article “The Principle of Creative Amateur Performance,” he examines cognition not as contemplation, but as an active d-t. On the basis of this idea, he formulates the principle of the unity of consciousness and d-t. Rubinstein notes that not only d-t influences the personality, but also the personality, having the right to choose, takes an active and an initiative position. Raising the question of the connection between consciousness and personality required revealing how and where this connection is formed. Personality, according to Rubinstein, is the basis of this connection. An important point in the study of personality, according to Rubinstein, is its features inclusion in a broader context - not only in life, but also in life. “The essence of the human personality,” says Rubinstein, “finds its final expression in the fact that it has its own history.
Personality as a subject of life has 3 levels of organization:
1) mental makeup - individual characteristics of the course of mental processes;
2) personal make-up - qualities of character and abilities;
3) lifestyle - morality, intelligence, ability to set life goals, worldview, activity, life experience.
B.G.Ananyev - domestic psychologist, author of “H-k as a subject of knowledge”, “On the problems of complex human knowledge”. He developed the concept of age as the basic unit of periodization of a person’s life path. A feature of Ananyev’s concept is the inclusion of h-ka in a wider context than d-th - in the context of human knowledge. B.G. Ananyev proposed an anthropological approach to the study of h-ka, which was implemented through systematic and long-term genetic research. In these studies, he shows that individual development is an internally contradictory process that depends on many determinants. Development, according to Ananyev, is an increasing integration, synthesis of psychophysiological functions.
Content:
- Introduction………………………………………………………………3
The concept of personality in different cultures. History of views on personality…….4
Modern views on personality in various sciences and fields……………4
Factors in the formation of personality in society……………………………..7
Personality structure in Russian psychology……………………………8
Personality structure of various foreign authors……………………...11
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………15
List of used literature……………………………………………………..16
Introduction:
Probably, none of the concepts of social sciences is as ambiguous, uncertain and debatable as the concepts of “man” and “personality”. In everyday consciousness they are often identified. However, for scientific purposes, it is desirable to distinguish between such concepts as “person”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”.
It is advisable to use the concept “person” as a generic characteristic, that is, as belonging to the human race, as a biosociocultural category.
When talking about one specific person, the concept “individual” is used. The concept of “individuality” is used to express the uniqueness of a particular person.
The concept of “personality” reveals the social characteristics of a person, i.e. those aspects of his activity and behavior that are associated with his participation in the life of society and social groups. “Personality is the integrity of a person’s social properties, a product of social development and the inclusion of the individual in the system of social relations through active activity and communication.”
The concept of personality in different cultures:
The emergence of the concept of “personality” is associated with the emergence in Ancient Greece of a certain layer of people (craftsmen, merchants, masters of art, etc.), who, as a result of using their special abilities, were able to stand out from ancient society. Their difference from the people around them became their distinctive, albeit unflattering, personal characteristic. The very name “personality” is of Latin origin and means a mask that disguises the human “I”, the role given to the individual by society.
In Russian, the term “lik” has long been used to describe the image of a face on an icon. In European languages, the word “personality” goes back to the Latin concept of “persona,” which meant the mask of an actor in the theater, a social role and a person as a kind of holistic being, especially in the legal sense. A slave was not considered as a person; for this you had to be a free person. The expression “losing face,” which is found in many languages, means losing one’s place and status in a certain hierarchy.
It should be noted that in oriental languages (Chinese, Japanese) the concept of personality is associated not only and not so much with a person’s face, but also with the whole body. In the European tradition, the face is considered in opposition to the body, since the face symbolizes the human soul, and Chinese thinking is characterized by the concept of “vitality, which includes both the physical and spiritual qualities of the individual.
In both Eastern and Western thinking, preserving one’s “face,” i.e., personality, is a categorical imperative of human dignity, without which our civilization would lose the right to be called human. At the end of the 20th century, this became a real problem for hundreds of millions of people, due to the severity of social conflicts and global problems of humanity, which could wipe out a person from the face of the Earth.
It is interesting to note that the Latin term “homo” goes back to the concept of “humus” (soil, dust), from which a person is produced, and in European languages “man” is derived from “manus” (hand). In Russian, the word “man” has the root is “chelo”, i.e. forehead, the upper part of a human being, bringing him closer to the Creator. Consequently, even etymologically, the personal characteristics of a person carry different meanings depending on a particular culture and civilization.
History of views on personality
1) In the early Christian period, the great Cappadocians (primarily Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory the Theologian) identified the concepts of “hypostasis” and “face” (before them, the concept of “face” in theology and philosophy was descriptive, it could be called the mask of an actor or the legal role played by Human). The consequence of this identification was the emergence of a new concept of “personality,” previously unknown in the ancient world.
2) In medieval philosophy, personality was understood as the essence of God
3) In new European philosophy, the individual was understood as a citizen
4) In the philosophy of romanticism, the individual was understood as a hero
Modern views on personality in various sciences and fields:
Since the late 1930s. In personality psychology, active differentiation of research areas began. As a result, by the second half of the last century, many different approaches and theories of personality had developed. If we approach the calculation of the number of modern personality theories formally, then there are at least 48 of their variants, and each of them can, in turn, be assessed according to five parameters.
Modern views on personality in philosophy:
Personalism:
According to the logic of personalism, the existence of an individual, woven into a complex network of social relations, subject to social changes, excludes the possibility for him to assert his own, unique “I”. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of individual and personality. Man, as part of the race (Homo Sapiens), as part of society, is an individual. Nothing is known about such a person - a biological or social atom. He is anonymous (in Kierkegaard's words) - only an element, a part determined by its relationship with the whole. A person as an individual can assert himself only through free expression of will, through a will that overcomes both the finitude of a person’s life and social barriers, as if from within a person. In the sphere of ideas of personalism, a tendency is developing that will then become a commandment of existentialism - a statement about the fundamental hostility of society and the individual.
Personality attributes:
1) Will
2) Freedom
3) Mind
4) Feelings
The concept of personality in psychology:
Personality is a basic category and the subject of study of personality psychology.
Personality is a set of developed habits and preferences, mental attitude and tone, sociocultural experience and acquired knowledge, a set of psychophysical traits and characteristics of a person, his archetype that determines everyday behavior and connections with society and nature. Personality is also observed as manifestations of “behavioral masks” developed for different situations and social interaction groups.
Complex of stable personality components:
1) Temperament
2) Character
3) Abilities
4) Motivation
The concept of personality in religion:
Christianity:
In Christianity (Orthodoxy) the following are considered persons:
1) Three Persons of the Holy Trinity
2) Angels and demons (fallen angels)
3) People (as created in the image and likeness of God)
Each person, according to the teachings of the Church, incomprehensibly becomes a full-fledged person immediately at the moment of his conception in the womb. However, having appeared by the will of God, a person’s personality is eternally revealed, develops, enriches, improves (or, on the contrary, degrades and self-destructs) not only throughout a person’s entire earthly life, but also after his death and the Last Judgment, already in Paradise or in hell All people (like all spirits) are considered free and unique (inimitable, created in the image and likeness of God) individuals, including: human embryos, infants, children and others.
A person can be capable and brilliant, or he can be mediocre and gray (inexpressive), attractive and disgusting, selfless, heroic and selfish and suspicious, good-natured, loving, honest and criminal, evil, manic, cunning.
As for domestic animals and wild animals (and, even more so, plants), they are not considered individuals, but only individuals who do not have (unlike people) universal self-awareness, abstract (impartial) judgment, the desire to know the essence of things, infinite self-improvement - becoming like God, various revelations of one’s personality and creativity. That is why Christianity categorically prohibits abortion (the killing of unborn children), but is very tolerant of killing animals and eating their meat.
There are religions (Buddhism, Hinduism), where it is strictly forbidden to kill any living beings, since they are potential individuals and in one of their next lives they can become a person, that is, an individual. In addition, each person can become one with God (go to nirvana, dissolve in the abstract divine nature, stop suffering).
In modern sociology, there are two approaches to considering
concept of “personality”:
The first is when personalities mean only those people who have certain (usually positive) qualities that distinguish them from other individuals.
In accordance with another approach, each person is an individual and differs from others in his unique characteristics, as a biosociocultural being. Simply put, who he is.
First of all, there is the so-called physical personality or physical self. This body (or a person’s bodily organization) is the most stable component of personality, based on bodily properties and self-perceptions. The body is not only the first “object” for cognition, but also an essential component of a person’s personal world, both helping and hindering in the processes of communication. Clothes and home may also be considered physical personality. It is known that a lot can be said about a person from these elements.
The same applies to the so-called. works of manual or intellectual labor of a person - decorations of his life, collections, manuscripts, letters, etc. Protecting oneself, one’s body, one’s identity, as well as one’s immediate environment, is one of the oldest personal qualities of a person both in the history of society and in the history of the individual. As G. Heine said: every person is “a whole world, born and dies with him...”
Social personality develops in human communication, starting with the primary forms of communication between mother and child. In essence, it appears as a system of a person’s social roles in different groups whose opinions he values. All forms of self-affirmation in the profession, social activities, friendship, love, competition, etc. form the social structure of the individual. Psychologists note that satisfaction or dissatisfaction with oneself is entirely determined by a fraction in which the numerator expresses our actual success, and the denominator expresses our aspirations.
As the numerator increases and the denominator decreases, the fraction will increase. The British (Scottish) writer, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle said about this: “Equate your claims to zero and the whole world will be at your feet.” This principle was also cultivated (instilled) by ancient philosophers.
Spiritual personality constitutes that invisible core, the core of our “I”, on which everything rests. These are internal mental states that reflect aspirations towards certain spiritual values and ideals. They may not be fully realized, but one way or another, caring for the “soul” is the quintessence of personal development. Sooner or later, every person, at least at certain moments in life, begins to think about the meaning of his existence and spiritual development. Human spirituality is not something external; it cannot be acquired through education or imitation of even the best examples.
Often it not only “holds” the personality, like a core, but is also the highest good, the supreme value, in the name of which life is sometimes sacrificed. Need in spiritual development personality in the full sense of the word is insatiable, which cannot be said about physical and social needs. Moreover, history provides many examples of how intense spiritual life (of sages, scientists, literary and artistic figures, religious devotees) was the key not only to physical survival, but also to active longevity. People who preserved their spiritual world, as a rule, survived in conditions of penal servitude and concentration camps, which was once again confirmed by the bitter experience of the 20th century.
The identification of physical, social and spiritual personality (as well as the corresponding needs) is rather conditional. All these aspects of personality form a system, each element of which can acquire dominant significance at different stages of a person’s life. There are known, for example, periods of intense care for one’s body and its functions, stages of expansion and enrichment of social connections, peaks of powerful spiritual activity. One way or another, some trait takes on a system-forming character and largely determines the essence of the personality at a given stage of its development. At the same time, age, difficult trials, illness, etc. can largely change the structure of the personality, leading to a kind of “splitting” or degradation.
Factors in the formation of personality in society:
One is not born a person, but one becomes one. The formation of personality is influenced by factors such as psychobiological heredity, physical environment, culture, group and personal experience.
- Psychobiological heritage is a kind of raw material that, through socialization, turns into a person, an individual, a personality.
The biological factor is also a limiter for the individual, and at the same time, it is thanks to it that a unique, unique individuality is created from the individual.
- The physical environment (climate, geographical features, natural resources) primarily influences the formation of personality types, rather than the individual personality.
- Culture (in the broad sense of the word) has the most direct and profound influence on the formation and development, mainly, of the spiritual world of the individual, as well as his various social qualities.
- Group and individual experience help the individual form his “I-image” based on the perception of how other people around him evaluate him. It is on the basis of group experience, first of all, that the socialization of the individual occurs. While group experience may be similar for different individuals, individual experience is always unique and inimitable.
Personality structure in Russian psychology:
Attempts to determine the structure of personality and its components have been made for a long time. Since this subject of study, being one of the manifestations of the psyche, is intangible and cannot be touched with hands, different authors, in different psychological directions, have different concepts of personality structure. It depends on what you mean by personality. Psychology has gone through a number of stages, starting with an understanding of personality as a soul, ending with an understanding of personality as a person.
In Russian psychology, much attention was paid to theoretical aspects, in Western psychology - to practical ones. Therefore, in the works of our psychologists, the question of personality and its structure is better worked out, theoretically substantiated, and a harmonious scientific system is created. When studying today's topic, it will be convenient to rely on the developments of our psychological science.
Here a person is considered in two aspects:
1) man as an organism;
2) a person as a bearer of consciousness is a personality.
We are interested in the second aspect. How was the study of such an intangible object as a person carried out? When determining the components of something, it is necessary to understand within what whole we are doing it. In this case, the person’s personality acts as a whole. Then the elements of this whole will be personality traits - its stable mental properties. The famous psychological theorist S. L. Rubinstein writes: “A mental property is the ability of an individual to naturally respond to certain objective influences with certain mental activities.”
For further analysis, the fullest possible number of these elements should be taken into account. From the Dictionary of the Russian Language by S.I. Ozhegov, all words that can be considered as names of personality traits were written out. These words, introduced not by psychologists, but by the people, most often denoted not specific properties, but rather complex characteristics of a person, called personality traits. Many personality traits cannot be defined in one word. It is noteworthy that there were twice as many words denoting negative properties. Here is the answer to the ancient question, why there is more bad in the world than good - because the bad is more noticeable.
Trying to determine the necessary and sufficient number of substructures into which all known personality traits can be included, scientists, having tried numerous options, identified four. One of the criteria for distinguishing substructures from each other is the relationship between the biological and the social - not their share, but the significance for a given substructure. Man is a social being, so consideration of personality structure begins with substructures, in which the social side is more important, and at the end - the more biologically determined parts of the personality.
1st substructure called personality orientation. These include: drives, desires, interests, inclinations, ideals, worldviews, beliefs. The personality elements (traits) included in this substructure do not have innate inclinations, but are completely socially conditioned and formed through upbringing. The most active and stable form of orientation is beliefs. The totality of them constitutes a person’s worldview, which can be passive - it is simply available. But the substructure of orientation also includes will - it is this that can give beliefs an active character, contributing to their implementation.
2nd substructure called experience. It combines knowledge, skills, abilities and habits acquired in society through education, but with a noticeable influence of biologically and even genetically determined human properties. Not all properties included here can be considered as personality properties. A skill that is just beginning to form or a one-time action is not yet a personality trait. But typical manifestations for a given individual, as well as consolidated knowledge, skill, and even more so ability and habit, are already indisputably a property of the individual. Experience can also be passive dead weight. But thanks to individual volitional skills, he can become active when knowledge and skills are not just “known”, but also used.
3rd substructure combines individual characteristics of individual mental processes (functions): memory, emotions, sensations, thinking, perception, feelings, will. After all, we all have different memories, emotions, perceptions, etc. These individual characteristics, when consolidated, become personality traits. Some have a “fine perception of art,” another has a “leaky” memory, and a third has “a flurry of emotions over a trifle.” All components of this substructure are formed through exercise, that is, the frequency and method of using a given function. Since emotions and sensations are also characteristic of animals, we can say that in the personality traits of the 3rd substructure, the biological component begins to prevail over the social one.
4th substructure combines the properties of temperament or typological properties of a person (as belonging to a certain type). They almost completely depend on the physiological properties of the brain: the speed of nervous processes, the balance of excitation and inhibition processes, etc. This also includes gender and age characteristics, as well as personality characteristics caused by some pathology (disease). These biologically determined traits are difficult to change, but sometimes it is possible to shape (or rather, “remake”) the desired trait through training. But compensation plays a greater role here than in previous substructures - the ability to replace an insufficient or “out of order” function with some other one. For example, after watching an incendiary action movie before bed, your nervous system is overexcited, and you can’t fall asleep. Then you can “deceive” her with various tricks: “counting sheep,” imagining yourself on a hot beach, lying in your favorite “sleep” position, eating something, etc. The activity of the temperament substructure is determined by the strength of nervous processes; if you have weakness of nervous processes, then you will have a “weak” type nervous system and a temperament type with more passive behavior.
The driving force behind personal development are internal contradictions between constantly growing socially determined needs and the possibilities of satisfying them. Personal development is a constant expansion of its capabilities and the formation of new needs.
Level of personality development determined by its characteristic relationships. Low levels of personality development are characterized by the fact that her relationships are determined mainly by utilitarian, mercantile interests. The highest level of personality development is characterized by the predominance of socially significant relationships. By regulating his life activity in society, each individual solves complex life problems. Personality is revealed in how it solves these problems. The same difficulties and conflicts are overcome by different people in different ways (even criminal ones).
Understand personality- this means understanding what life problems and in what way she solves them, what initial principles for solving these problems she is armed with.
Personalities vary:
1) socialized - adapted to the conditions of their social existence.
2) desocialized - deviant, deviating from basic social requirements (extreme forms of this deviation - marginality) and
3) mentally abnormal individuals (psychopaths, neurotics, persons with mental retardation and personal accentuations - “weak points” in mental self-regulation).
It is possible to identify a number of features of a socialized personality that is within the limits of the mental norm.
Along with social adaptability, a developed personality has personal autonomy, assertion of his individuality. In critical situations, such a person retains his life strategy and remains committed to his positions and value orientations (personal integrity). She prevents possible mental breakdowns in extreme situations with a system of psychological defenses (rationalization, repression, revaluation of values, etc.).
A person is normally in a state of continuous development, self-improvement and self-realization, constantly discovering new horizons on his human path, experiencing the “joy of tomorrow,” and seeking opportunities to actualize his abilities. In difficult conditions - tolerant, capable of adequate action.
A mentally balanced individual establishes friendly relationships with other people and is sensitive to their needs and interests.
When constructing his life plans, a stable personality proceeds from real possibilities and avoids inflated claims. A developed personality has a highly developed sense of justice, conscience and honor. She is decisive and persistent in achieving objectively significant goals, but is not rigid - she is capable of correcting her behavior. She is able to respond to the complex demands of life with tactical lability without mental breakdown. She considers herself the source of her successes and failures, and not external circumstances. In difficult living conditions, she is able to take responsibility and take justifiable risks. Along with emotional stability, she constantly maintains emotional reactivity and high sensitivity to the beautiful and sublime. Possessing a developed sense of self-respect, she is able to look at herself from the outside, and is not without a sense of humor and philosophical skepticism.
Awareness of one's isolation allows an individual to be free from arbitrary transient social conditions, the dictates of power, and not to lose self-control in conditions of social destabilization and totalitarian repression. The core of personality is associated with its highest mental quality - spirituality. Spirituality is the highest manifestation of the essence of man, his inner commitment to human, moral duty, man’s subordination to the highest meaning of his being. The spirituality of a person is his superconsciousness, the unquenchable need for a persistent rejection of everything base, selfless devotion to sublime ideals.
The autonomy of the individual is its isolation from unworthy motives, momentary prestige and pseudo-social activity.
Personality structure of various foreign authors:
Personality structure according to Hippocrates:
Hippocrates is the creator of the doctrine of temperaments. The four main body fluids: blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile. Temperament depends on their ratio. The main characteristics of temperaments (Pavlov's modification): strength, balance and mobility of nervous processes.
1) Sanguine - blood predominates. Strong, agile, balanced.
2) Phlegmatic - phlegm predominates. Strong, weakly mobile, balanced.
3) Choleric - yellow bile. Strong, agile, poorly balanced.
4) Melancholic - black bile. All characteristics are weak.
Personality structure according to Kretschmer and Jung:
etc.................
The concept of L in the system. people-knowledge. Personality is the object of study of many sciences: psychology, philosophy, sociology, ethics, pedagogy, law and many others. Each of these disciplines helps to look at the concept of personality from an absolutely different sides. For example, jurisprudence examines the place and role of the individual in the legal system. Sociology views personality as a social type, as a product of social relations. And psychology studies the patterns of development and personality formation.
The most common concept is “person”. Human is a biosocial being with consciousness, articulate speech, higher mental functions, capable of creating tools and using them in the process of social activity. These specific human characteristics are not inherited, but are formed in a person during his lifetime, in the process of assimilating the culture created by the previous generation. TO necessary conditions The child’s assimilation of socio-historical experience includes: 1. The child’s communication with adults, during which he assimilates human culture. 2. In order to master those subjects that are a product of historical development, it is necessary to apply not just any, but adequate activity in relation to them, which will reproduce socially developed methods of human and human activity. Without society, without assimilation of socio-historical experience, it is impossible to acquire human qualities, even if a person has biological usefulness. But on the other hand, without being biologically complete, it is impossible, even under the influence of society, to achieve the highest human qualities.
Personality in philosophy, sociology and psychology. The concept of personality has been the subject of consideration in many branches of human science: philosophy, ethics, law, sociology, pedagogy, psychology, psychiatry, etc. But until now, all these sciences have not agreed on a single opinion and have not given a single, generally accepted definition of what is personality? This concept appeared in philosophy already at the end of the ancient period. Then it was designated by the word “person” (from the Latin persona - “mask, mask”). This term arose as an addition to the concept of “individual”. The concept of an individual implied the natural, innate data of a person. But it is impossible to reduce the idea of a person only to his biological properties. A person is a much more complex system. At a minimum, he is also the subject and object of relationships with other people, he learns, he changes depending on the social environment, development situation, etc. All this was already clear to the ancient philosophers, therefore all qualities that are not natural, they were called personal (in the modern sense - personal). The closest concepts to psychology are the concepts of personality in philosophy and sociology. In modern philosophy, personality is considered primarily in ethical aspect. It is interpreted by philosophers as a certain center, which is the unity of the content of a person’s inner world with the totality of his actions aimed at other individuals. In sociology, the individual is considered as a subject of social relations, as a unit that forms the basis of society. This approach is close to social psychology. General psychology considers personality much more broadly, not only as a subject and object of social actions. The totality of various aspects considered general psychology, allows us to talk about the individual as a subject of transformation of the world on the basis of his knowledge, experience and attitude towards it. Thus, if you still try to create a unified idea, then the concept of personality implies a specific person who is the bearer of consciousness, a social being, a subject of active reflection and transformation of the world, and at the same time an object that itself is transformed under the influence of the surrounding world. Psychology was formed later than philosophy, sociology and other sciences that formed any opinion about the concept of personality. Therefore, to a certain extent, she accepted the ideas about personality that developed in these sciences. However, having its own specific approach to the subject, psychology also gives its own definition. Personality has a dynamic functional structure. This structure includes very a large number of elements called personality traits. For the convenience of personality research, psychologists have identified a number of substructures. This is a conditional division, since in reality all these substructures are interpenetrating and mutually conditioning. However, they can still be considered relatively independent entities. Traditionally, four substructures are distinguished.
