The psychology of human personality has long ceased to be of interest only to psychologists. Specialists in astrology, theology, philosophy, literature, and sociology make attempts to understand human behavior.
Also, ordinary people strive to determine the essence of human individuality, analyze its influence on society, the principles of interaction with the world, society, nature and other areas of life.
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What is personality psychology for a person
The quality of life can be changed for the better if you better understand yourself and those around you, and also build relationships with other people in accordance with your new knowledge. And the psychology of a person’s personality plays an important role here.
According to the scientific definition, this term involves the study of the totality of individual, psychological and social properties of a person’s behavior and character, as well as the creation of a picture of the personality, its connection with the outside world, and consideration of the spiritual component.
The concept of personality in psychology has various definitions. It is impossible to adhere to a single term due to the diversity and complexity of phenomena associated with human activity.
Let's consider several definitions of personality:
- This is an active subject, responsible for his actions, with the ability to regulate life and resolve various life contradictions.
- Carrier of consciousness.
- This is a systemic quality of an individual, which is determined by involvement in social connections, the ability to experience, cognition, and transform the surrounding world.
- Personality is a complex of developed preferences and habits, mental characteristics, sociocultural experience, knowledge that determine the behavioral norms of an individual and influence his connection with the outside world.
- Personality is a set of individual psychological properties that distinguish them from other people.
Also, in the concept of “personality,” psychologists include stable character traits that indicate individuality and characterize a person as a member of society. This includes the development of abilities (communication, language, speech), the direction of aspirations and activities, and temperament. There are a huge number of these components and they all distinguish a person as an individual. To structure them, psychologists have identified 4 levels.
Personality levels
So, from what levels is the personality structure built in psychology:
- The lowest is age, gender, congenital properties of the nervous system and temperament.
- The second is individual cognitive abilities: memory, thinking, perception, learning ability, which depend on innate characteristics, as well as on the improvement of these qualities.
- The third is sociocultural experience (habits, abilities, knowledge and skills).
- The highest determines the orientation of the individual (interests, aspirations, self-esteem, beliefs).
From the above it is clear that innate and acquired qualities are interconnected.
In childhood, first the first, then the second level dominates. As a person grows and develops, his personal characteristics are filled with social skills that shape him as a member of society.
The concept of individuality in modern psychology
“Mind - feeling - will” are a classic triad in psychology. Each of these “formations” in the human psyche has its own “target” purpose:
the mind is a “tool” for cognition, acquiring information about the world;
will is an “instrument” of action, transformation of the world;
feeling is a “tool-indicator” of the benefit or harm of the influence of the external world on a person; "tool" of the relationship.
In accordance with the “purpose” of these formations, groups of basic needs that ensure human existence can be distinguished. Such needs will accordingly be the following:
— the need for information, which is a vital variable that determines not only mental health and development, but also the adaptation of a person as a biological being;
- the need for action, activity, self-realization - exteriorization of all the potential that a person has;
- the need for love, acceptance, recognition - sources of positive feelings.
If we further consider the “mechanisms” of implementation (“functioning”) of these basic mental formations, then we arrive at a categorical description of the psyche.
The realization of knowledge of the world occurs through reflection.
The ability to implement an action is provided by mental activity energy.
The ability to evaluate external influences is carried out by the “I” - self-awareness. which forms the attitude.
Are there any ideas in modern psychology about how these psychic potentials are realized?
Reflection of the external world is carried out by sensory-perceptual processes with the participation of the mnemonic process and information processing processes - intellectual processes. The set of these processes is united in psychology by the concept of “subject of activity” [7].
The question of psychic energy in psychology is currently still very far from being resolved. Although there are ideas about the energy-information mechanism of the psyche [37], for now they look more like a hypothesis than an empirically proven fact. Nevertheless, in psychology and psychophysiology there are stable ideas about some mental and physiological processes that intensify the course of activity. Such processes include attention, emotions, state, will as voluntary regulation, activation.
Neurophysiology describes the activating structures of the brain - the RF, the limbic, - the “substrates” of activation, the thalamus.
There are concepts in psychology of “energy price of activity”, “energy potential”, which are derivatives of the biological structure of a person - an “individual”.
What is self-awareness, “I”, how does a person become aware of himself - these are the least developed ideas in modern psychology.
A system of relationships that is formed as a “product” of self-consciousness, a product of “I” - in psychology is usually called such a concept as “personality”.
In modern psychology, the need to integrate all the diverse properties of a person into a certain integrity has been realized. For the first time, humanistic psychologists spoke about the need for a holistic consideration of a person, but they did not propose categories to designate this integrity.
In domestic psychology in 1969 B.G. Ananyev proposed the category of “individuality” as a system of interrelated human properties, and then BC Merliyev proposed the category of “integral individuality” as a functional constellation of human properties [7, 117].
Research by BC Merlin has shown that multi-level connections between individual biochemical, somatotypic, neurodynamic, psychodynamic and other properties are not only causal and unambiguous, but also teleological, multi-valued.
B.G. Ananiev understood individuality as a holistic multi-level system of interrelations of human properties, represented by the subsystems “individual”, “subject of activity”, “personality” [7].
“Individual” is the totality of a person’s biological properties; “product” of the biological evolution of the biological species Homo sapiens.
“Subject of activity” is a person producing material or spiritual values. The main objective activity of a person is work, other social activities - play, cognition, communication, through which the interiorization of external actions and exteriorization of the inner life of the individual is carried out. It is the balance of internalization - exteriorization that determines the structure of a person as a subject of certain activities.
“Personality” is the orientation, tendencies, relationships, and value orientation of a person. Personality is a social individual.
N.M. Vladimirova wrote that the subject of scientific knowledge of individuality is the history of the formation of integrity, harmonization of tendencies and potentials, as a result of which the uniqueness of individuality arises [42].
Human studies have shown that in the course of ontogenetic development and the life course, the individualization of the human body and personality occurs, covering all its levels.
In the early stages of development there are no stable individual manifestations.
BC Merlin wrote that the child’s individuality initially represents a diffuse and dynamically changing combination of individual manifestations. In the process of development, symptom complexes of manifestations of individual properties are formed, which then manifest themselves more often and more intensely, and then new connections between properties arise. With age, the number of polysemantic connections increases. The main system-forming function in the development of multi-level connections is performed by the individual style of activity [117].
The neo-Kantian Husserl’s idea that individuality is what distinguishes the human spirit from nature is interesting. The natural is subject to general laws, and the spiritual is individual.
Thus, we can talk about the process of individualization and the stages of this process.
If at the lower stages of the individualization process individuality exists as separate, isolated, peculiar manifestations of the individual, personality, subject of activity, then human activity, as shown by the research of Vyatkin B.A., ensures that he creates new connections between structures. The development of integral individuality is determined by the choice of individual systems of movements, operations, strategies, goals. Thus, activity and independent choice of style characterize the basic principle of the development of integral individuality. BC Merlin emphasized that a person himself creates his own individuality through his actions [117]. —
The formation of individuality occurs in the process of moving towards an independently set life goal. At a certain stage of development, a person faces the problem of self-determination - the search for his own individuality. Individuality becomes itself, freeing itself from leveling social roles.
The intermediate stages of individuality development, which are important for the beginning of an independent life path, are characterized by the formation in self-consciousness of an adequate image of “I” - knowledge of oneself, one’s individual-subjective characteristics; formation based on awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, individual style of activity and behavior, the formation of various compensatory mechanisms.
Using the concepts of set theory, one can imagine “properties of an individual”, “properties of a subject of activity”, “properties of a personality” as disjoint sets at the moment of birth, and the ontogenetic process as a process of combining these sets, superimposing them on each other until a complete “ideal” coincidence at the formation of a harmonious individuality with unlimited freedom of maximum self-realization.
The highest stage of individualization is harmonization, integration of developed, perfect structures of the individual, personality and subject of activity.
B.G. Ananyev wrote that “An individual person as an individual can be understood only as the unity and interconnection of his properties as a person and a subject of activity, in
the structure of which the natural properties of man as an individual function” [7, p. 334].
Thus, individuality is the unique uniqueness of an individual individual, taken as a whole, in all his properties and relationships. An individual is always an individual, but not every individual is an individual. Before becoming an individual, an individual must become a person.
Thus, the understanding of human integrity in Christian anthropology is reflected by the concept of “trimerism”, and in modern psychology by the concept of “individuality”.
Personality types
People differ at every level. In this regard, difficulties often arise in understanding others; contradictions, disputes, and conflicts arise at this point. To prevent this, you should have a certain amount of knowledge and combine it with your own observation and awareness.
Each person is characterized by a set of certain properties that reflect the dynamics of his behavioral and mental processes. There are 4 well-known temperaments in total.
So, what are the personality types in psychology:
- Melancholic. In such people, excitatory and inhibitory processes are weakly expressed, but neuroticism is strongly expressed. They have little energy potential. Against this background, they get tired quickly and need frequent rest. They are vulnerable and perceive what is happening acutely. Focus on their own experiences.
- Choleric. It has a high level of neuroticism, excitability and a low level of inhibitory processes. Has high energy potential. Hot-tempered, active, emotionally labile, impulsive. It is difficult to get along with people.
- Phlegmatic person. Characterized by high performance, but slow adaptation. Cold-blooded, emotionally balanced, passive and slow, has stable aspirations.
- Sanguine. Balanced personality with high adaptive abilities. Initiative, optimistic, active. Has a high energy reserve.
The study of human nature is a difficult and significant task, covering various aspects of life. But thanks to numerous studies and expanding your knowledge in the field of human personality psychology, you can qualitatively change your life.
Psychology of influence
The psychology of influence is influencing the feelings, thinking, and actions of another person using exclusively psychological means.
All of us, in one way or another, constantly feel influenced - not necessarily by some person, often it is the influence of habitual norms of behavior, the opinions of others, and upbringing laid down from childhood. It is also important to understand: we perceive the world around us subjectively, and our perception does not always correspond to the actual state of affairs. All these factors are used by people who have mastered such a subject as the psychology of influence.
People are more willing to buy a product from a seller who has successfully mastered the psychology of influence, regardless of its specifics. And all because such sellers take into account the peculiarities of human psychology and are able to effectively show the “product face”, focusing on its positive qualities, convincing potential buyers of its need.
First of all, it is useful to learn to understand exactly how they are trying to influence your personality . And this can be done not only by sellers, but also by the boss, colleagues, neighbors, even family members and relatives. Among the main known ways of psychology to influence people:
- belief,
- suggestion,
- request,
- infection,
- self-presentation,
- ignoring,
- compulsion,
- destructive criticism,
- inducing an impulse to imitate and others.
More details about some of them.
Belief
This method is considered the least dangerous and, in general, correct, because it is based on logic. It is also called the Socratic method : it was this thinker who was the first to understand that if you present your opponent with undeniable facts one after another, with which he is simply forced to agree, then in the end he will show solidarity with you on the main issue.
Infection
This method of psychology of influence is based on the influence of a strong personality who has high energy and is able to “infect” everyone around him with his ideas. This method is chosen in order to exert social influence, to lead a group of people and even the masses. Famous world leaders , under whose spell everyone who heard and saw them fell.
Self-presentation
This method of psychology of influence turns out to be effective when you need to openly declare your own competence and high professionalism in order to win some kind of selection. Self-presentation is often used in the psychology of political influence .
Evoking an impulse to imitate
A person who strives to exert psychological influence develops a certain model of behavior in himself, demonstrating qualities that will become attractive to others and which they will want to imitate. To evoke the necessary reaction, a person artificially creates one or another false behavior . As a result, the objects of influence will blindly copy and imitate. This is very clearly manifested among teenagers: they usually copy not an excellent student and an active public figure, but the most notorious hooligan, who does everything “the opposite,” “out of spite.”
Request
Sometimes a direct , simple-minded request has a stronger effect than coercion and complex manipulation. A disarmingly smiling helpless girl, batting her eyelashes, asks the young man for something - and he immediately readily fulfills her request, without thinking about the consequences. Here it is important to understand the degree of sincerity of the person asking: maybe he is also manipulating you, but more subtly?
Destructive criticism
To force a person to do something, he is subjected to harsh ridicule , insults, and disparaging assessments. Trying to avoid an unpleasant situation for him, when he is condemned and laughed at, a person tries to justify himself and does what is wanted of him.
Suggestion
Experts call this method of influence psychology one of the most dangerous , since suggestion implies influencing a person bypassing his own will, aggressive interference in the psyche .
It must be said that the psychology of influence is considered a semi-taboo topic. The fact is that it directly concerns the mechanisms of power and reveals techniques that allow you to control people. However, we live in a world where everyone influences everyone, consciously or unconsciously, and it is better if we are prepared for this.
Problems in the development of the personality of a psychologist
A professionally successful practicing psychologist who conducts diagnostic and psychocorrectional work is distinguished by a high level of development of verbal intelligence, intuitiveness, and empathy; good communication skills. A psychologist with a pronounced tendency to be detached from reality and a keen sense of his superiority over others, as a rule, treats clients' experiences with equanimity. They often revel in their power over other people and are little concerned about the consequences of their own psychotherapeutic sessions.
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In the case of insufficient development of the psychologist’s personality, one can observe a lack of internal understanding of the person and pronounced ambition. Such a specialist has very weak manifestations of the following traits: humanism, sacrifice, empathy.
Today there is an urgent need to transform the university training of psychologists. It is believed that it should be not only professional, but also personally oriented. With its help, a holistic, healthy personality can be formed, because the main tool of a psychologist is himself as an individual.
It is impossible to become a psychologist by simply accumulating theoretical knowledge and skills. A person can have good training in terms of theory, being able to carry out accurate diagnostics using various psychological methods. However, he does not always have the ability to help his clients, change and improve.
Perhaps the process of selecting applicants should be based to a greater extent on identifying humane personal tendencies, starting with professional selection for admission to the specialty “Psychology”. The next step should be for students to receive individual consultations with a psychologist from the very first days of their studies, in parallel with studying the theory. They must also attend special training sessions.
Further, in more senior courses, when a conscious choice of direction has already been made, it is necessary to continue client practice with specialists in the chosen direction. In order for such students to become real professional psychologists, it is necessary to address not only their accumulation of knowledge in their specialty, but also their value orientations and serious ethical problems. This is necessary to prevent possible self-confidence, for future psychologists to understand all the complexity and versatility of a person’s inner world.
