The level of aspiration is a person’s desire to achieve the goals that he, in his opinion, can achieve. In simple terms, it is a set of ambitions. The level of aspiration is closely related to a person’s self-esteem and self-confidence. It also depends on how much a person knows, accepts and understands himself. Now let’s take a closer look at what the level of aspiration is, how it is defined in psychology and what it is like.
What is the level of aspiration
The term “level of aspiration” was introduced by psychologist, founder of social psychology Kurt Lewin (20s of the 20th century). Let's look at the basic concepts and definitions from K. Lewin's theory:
- a previous achievement is an experience, the result of a previous action;
- choosing a goal, or determining the level of aspirations, is thinking about what goal you can set for yourself based on previous experience;
- result - a comparison of the level of expectations (set goal) and the actual result; the result may exceed the goal, fall short of it, or coincide with it;
- reaction to the result - with success, a person raises his level of aspirations, with failure, he lowers it.
In practice, there may be more reactions to the result. For example, some people with low self-esteem, even after success, a positive difference between the goal and the result, continue to set low expectations for themselves. And it happens that after a defeat a person sets himself the same or a higher goal and does everything possible to make his plans work out this time. This difference in behavior is associated not only with self-esteem, but also with a person’s temperament and character.
Thus, we can say that the level of aspiration is, in psychology, a person’s system of expectations regarding himself when performing any task.
What influences the formation of the level of aspirations? The main factors in shaping the level of a person’s aspirations are a person’s subjective experience of his successes and failures. That is, it is not the result itself that is important, but how a person relates to it. For example, one subject will focus on the very fact of losing and give up this goal, while another will say: “This time I almost succeeded. I did it clearly better than then. You just need to push a little more and everything will work out. I'll try again".
How does it manifest itself?
What is the level of aspiration? The degree of difficulty of the tasks that a person sets for himself. The more ambitions a person has, the more difficult the tasks he chooses.
However, abilities and level of aspiration are not the same thing. The latter does not always correspond to the real abilities of the individual. When and why does this happen? For example, when a person is used to living well at someone else’s expense, he is not used to working, solving problems on his own and coping with difficulties. He lacks skills and knowledge.
Often, an inflated level of aspirations is formed in children from rich families, in which the parents gave the child everything ready, did not demand anything from him, and spoiled him. The child grows up, his needs remain the same, but he himself cannot satisfy them. If parents stop helping, then the person will face disappointment, failure, and worries.
Thus, ambition is reflected in the benefits that a person wants to receive from life. These are his requests regarding professional development, training, living conditions, personal life, etc.
Irrealism, soul, art
So, if we follow the statement that unreality is a distorted or modified reality, then we can assume the possibility for every person of knowing the unreal.
Nevertheless, in order to accept reality in the form of the unreal, one must have a fairly developed and sophisticated perception of reality, sometimes esoteric knowledge, and a penchant for mystification.
Unreal flights of the soul are almost familiar to everyone; they happen during sleep. But in reality? Is it possible to overcome rationalism and create masterpieces of visual art? Of course yes.
The works of the Spanish artist Remidios Varo demonstrate the emergence of unreality into the confines of the real world.
Varieties of aspiration levels
In psychology, it is customary to distinguish two types of level of aspiration: adequate and inadequate. The latter, in turn, comes in two types: high and low. Let's look at them in more detail:
- Inflated level of claims. It arises against the background of inflated self-esteem and inadequate self-concept (inadequate self-awareness). An example of an inflated level of aspiration: participants in a music show who are confident that they will pass the casting and generally claim to win, but in fact they will only make the judges and audience laugh because they cannot sing at all.
- Low level of aspirations. It is formed in people with an inferiority complex, fears, and unprocessed traumas. For example, a musician who can masterfully play the guitar, who is periodically invited to perform in some club, bar, and who is constantly told by friends and relatives that he needs to promote himself, does not dare to go to the casting of a popular group that is just looking for a guitarist.
Unreality is a mystification of reality
Nature is a great mystifier. Just remember the Northern Lights. The visual phenomenon of fantastic flashes in the skies, unreal for us, actually has a very real background - the occurrence of magnetic storms under the influence of the Earth’s magnetic fields.
Thus, everything that goes beyond the scope of phenomena familiar to humans can be called unreal, without material evidence. To suggest that unreality is a paradox of reality.
In the concept of unrealism, it is generally accepted that “irreality” is as real and actually exists as “reality” itself.
What characterizes a person’s level of aspirations
The level of aspirations is formed in the process of activity, problem solving and analysis of the final result. It is characterized by the choice of tasks that a person sets for himself.
Simply put, if a person manages to successfully solve a problem, then next time he will set himself a more difficult goal, that is, his level of aspiration will increase. If the result of an activity does not suit a person, then he reduces his ambitions and next time takes on something simpler. Or, in case of failure, a person tries again to solve the same problem, but at the same time analyzes the reasons for the failure and works on the mistakes. Most people take on easier tasks after failure. K. Levin proved this feature experimentally.
Note! The level of aspirations is determined by the needs of a person.
Nelson Goodman and worldbuilding
Man constantly encounters the unreal, creating and modeling the world around him. According to the scientist, logician and philosopher of unreality Nelson Goodman, science and art are conductors of the unreal. The more a person is connected in his knowledge with scientific or creative activity, the faster and more successfully he travels from reality to the world of the unreal and back.
Writers, artists, psychologists and psychiatrists pay great attention to the study of the unreal in their works. They study how and when, as a result of stress on the human psyche, he becomes depersonalized, ceasing to feel the real world, becoming more and more immersed in the unreal.
In the broadest sense, unreality is a fantasy world, which is usually used to create works of the fantastic genre or to write unrealistic, surreal paintings.
According to the French philosopher and literary critic Roland Barthes:
Literature is unreality, and its task is to realize the unreality of language.
In the photo: a mirror, a guide to the unreal world, an image that is often used in fantasy literature.
How to determine your level of aspiration
To determine your level of aspirations, you can use one of the self-diagnosis techniques. For example, refer to V. Gerbachevsky’s questionnaire or use the Schwarzlander technique. I propose to take a closer look at the latest technique.
An alternative name for the test is the Schwarzlander Motor Test. This is a universal rapid test. It is used in schools, universities and in personnel selection, as well as for diagnosing employees.
The essence of the study:
- The subject is asked to guess how many plus signs he will be able to give in 10 seconds.
- Then he is given a form, the presenter records the time, and then stops the process.
- The estimated number of characters (LP - level of aspiration) and the actual number of characters inserted (UD - level of achievement) are compared. The data is entered into the same form where the subject put the pluses (see the table after the instructions).
- Another 3 times the subject is asked to evaluate his result and guess how many signs he will have time to make, and then the time is recorded. That is, the experiment is repeated 4 times in total. In this case, experiments 1, 2 and 4 last 10 seconds each, and the third – 8 seconds.
- Then the overall aspiration level score is calculated using the formula:
Method of effective self-realization
To consider yourself a happy, accomplished person, you must fully realize your nature. Few, however, know what their individual purpose is.
People are sometimes ready to perform hated duties, to live other people's lives, just so as not to take responsibility. And this is a serious problem. The main method of effective self-realization is to find your individual path and gain the courage to walk along it with your head held high.
Examples
To better understand what a person’s level of aspiration is, let’s give examples of each of the three types.
Examples of an adequate level of aspirations:
- A person wants to change his job to a more profitable one. He studies the vacancies and settles on one of them. He compares the requirements for the applicant with his skills, knowledge, and abilities. He has the experience that is required here: he knows English, “communicates” with a computer at the level of an advanced user, and generally corresponds to the described portrait. He comes for an interview and gets the job.
- An ordinary hard-working guy is looking for a girlfriend among the same ordinary women. Yes, in appearance he likes well-groomed and sometimes inflated girls (he constantly admires their photos on Instagram), but he understands that he will not attract such a lady, and she is unlikely to even look at him.
- Freelancer looking for orders. He is studying the requirements for one of the projects. All the concepts are familiar to him; he has already performed similar tasks. Only one program to work with is still unknown, but he is confident that he can figure it out because he has successfully worked with similar services. The freelancer submits an application for an order, and at the same time begins to study this program, because it will still be useful in the future.
Examples of an inflated level of claims:
- A young man who barely completed the 9th grade, never studied further and never worked for a day, comes to get a job at a large company. He is applying for the role of director. Time after time he is refused, but he does not give up and presses with the authority of his successful father: “Do you even know who my father is! He will close your sharashka office!” The young man confuses his abilities and capabilities with his father's achievements.
- A beautiful, but not the smartest and wisest, ill-mannered, uneducated girl (and sometimes not even beautiful, unable and unwilling to look after and care for herself) is waiting for the prince on a white horse. She is sure that some millionaire should take her under his wing and satisfy all her needs simply for the very fact of her existence. That is, she cannot offer him anything except her body (and even then not always), but she believes that this is quite enough to lead to a successful life.
- A 25-year-old guy refuses to work for the minimum wage, because he believes that this is not his level - he needs at once and at least 50 thousand rubles per month. But at the same time, he has only school behind him, no official work experience, self-organization and discipline are lame, many other business qualities are undeveloped, and there are also no special skills for working for the desired pay. But he continues to ignore the real vacancies for him, refuses to work on himself and continues to go for interviews with large companies. And then he complains that the whole world is against him, there is no work, and the directors of these companies are completely insolent and greedy. From time to time he creates scandals right in the offices.
Expression of individuality
Claims are an excellent way to indicate your own position on some significant issue. Every person wants recognition from others, to be unique and inimitable. The development of existing talents and abilities contributes to the overall development of the individual, the onset of his maturity, and helps to cultivate the much-needed and necessary responsibility for the actions taken. Our actions towards ourselves are no less valuable than those towards other people. Your immediate environment often helps you form a certain view of things and choose the right direction for yourself.
The level of aspirations is entirely under the responsibility of the individual. If a person does not want to, no one can help him make the right choice. You cannot live your life for your loved ones, impose a certain stereotype of thinking on them. Everyone needs to feel that their opinion is taken into account and taken into account when difficult issues arise.
