Lessons of self-knowledge. 4 erroneous psychological attitudes.

The root cause, so to speak, of many things that happen in life is a person’s internal attitudes, which under certain conditions turn into a person’s beliefs. Especially when it comes to concepts of willpower or strength of character.

If in childhood and adolescence you most often have to rely on the experience of your parents, friends or just good acquaintances, then in more mature years you cannot do without your own life experience and views on the world around you.

So what are these human attitudes, how do they arise and develop, and how exactly do they influence our lives? Let's try to figure it out so that, thanks to awareness of this issue, we can significantly improve the quality of our life.

Story

The concept arose after a study by W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki was published in 1918. Scientists analyzed letters from people who emigrated from Poland to the United States. It turned out that when emigrants went to a foreign country, having determined for themselves that this was a temporary need to earn money, the period of their adaptation passed slowly and, one might say, even painfully. They had a hard time learning the language and culture and for a long time they could not get along in the new place.

But there were also those who moved with the idea of ​​staying in the country forever and starting life anew. And such individuals adapted to unusual conditions much faster and more productively.

As a result of these observations, the researchers concluded that each individual consciously or subconsciously forms an internal attitude towards his own presence in the United States. And existence and motivation depend on it. This phenomenon is called “attitude”.

But this was only the beginning of studying this issue. In 1929, Lewis Thurstone created the first ways to measure installations. He began to assert the presence of an emotional factor in its structure.

There were also opposing opinions. For example, scientist V. Park believed that the state is not subject to direct observation. It is latent in nature and develops through life experience.

Besides this, there were many other theories. But the work of W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki gave impetus to their emergence and development and made the phenomenon central to psychology.

The concept of social attitude

Defining this term is not the easiest task. Discussing in Capital about such a phenomenon as the “commodity”, Karl Marx joked that it was not clear from which side to take it. The same is true with attitude. I'll go from the beginning.

From the very beginning, the concept represented the psychophysiological readiness of the human body to react to certain aspirations and stimuli. Researchers such as L. Lange, and later T. Schumann and G. Müller noticed that when an individual does the same thing, he develops a predisposition to react to a certain external event.

Around the beginning of the 20th century, the term began to be used in various branches of psychology, in particular depth. K. Jung considered this phenomenon fundamental in order to reveal the mental and mental state that influences specific types of his behavior.

But the simplest and most understandable definition was given by the same Thomas and Znaniecki. In their opinion, the social attitude of an individual is the assimilation of a certain social value, which, in essence, is its subjective awareness. In other words, it is a generally accepted norm in the form of individual existence.

Let's take freedom, for example. Each individual perceives and follows it in his own way. Therefore, a person’s attitudinal state in relation to this phenomenon will be personal.

Therefore, we can say that this is a unique form of relationship between the individual and society. At the same time, it represents both a detail of the mental structure of an individual participant and an element of a system of generally accepted values.

What is the psychological attitude of the individual?

Every thought that flashes through our heads, every phrase that we mentally repeat to ourselves, every statement or judgment we make about ourselves is our psychological attitudes.

Psychological attitudes can be long-term or short-term.

Attitudes depend on our mood, well-being, attitude towards ourselves or something, our beliefs, principles, worldview and even our desires. So, if you want to change your life today, then you can use one or another psychological attitude.

There are also psychological attitudes of the individual that contribute to its self-development.

Every psychological attitude is a command given to your brain

Psychological attitudes influence your way of thinking and focus your attention on the fulfillment of a particular desire. Setting up for success

Psychological attitudes are formed both unconsciously and consciously

When you have formed any idea about yourself, you strive - completely unconsciously - to communicate with those people, read those books, watch those films that confirm your beliefs. You can consciously use the possibilities of psychological attitudes to change your way of thinking. Change minus to plus

Formation of the psychological attitude of the individual

This process involves speaking out your desired ideas about yourself. Almost like in the movie “The Most Charming and Attractive.”

Wanting to become charming and attractive, you seem to convince yourself that this is so through regular repetitions of a certain phrase. These phrases are called affirmations, or psychological attitudes. You give a certain task to yourself and your brain to become what you want to become. Or the way you imagine yourself

When forming psychological attitudes, it is important that they do not contain tasks that you are not able to complete. Or those that, by your nature, do not correspond to you at all. One of the functions of psychological attitudes is the development of a harmonious personality, which is why it is so important to choose affirmations that do not contradict your inner self.

Make sure you are in a good mood when you say this or that affirmation. If you are tired or in a bad mood, use the setting that best suits your condition.

When speaking affirmations, it is very important what you feel at that moment. Each attitude that you pronounce should evoke a pleasant feeling in your soul. And after saying the installation, you should feel better.

Choose one or two settings. Don't use the same ones all the time, but change them regularly so that you can feel which affirmations make you feel good and are most consistent with your goals.

You can create your own personal psychological attitude, or you can use the general ones.

Approximate psychological attitudes of the individual

• "My actions are consistent with my thoughts"
• “I live in harmony with nature and myself”
• “I am full of creative ideas that bring joy and happiness to people.”

• I am full of self-confidence and believe in my abilities. • All events that happen in my life are for my benefit. • I am full of strength and energy.

• I will definitely achieve all my goals. • My inner strength and self-confidence are growing every day. • I am successful in everything. • I enjoy all events that can teach me something new.

Other psychological attitudes

• I remember the values ​​that are important to me.
• I know what I want and how to achieve it.
• I make decisions with confidence.
• I am happy and successful in work and personal life.
• I myself create positive events in my life.

• I hear my inner voice clearly and distinctly. • I am grateful to fate and happy to be alive.

When choosing a setup, use your intuition. After all, the affirmation that causes a pleasant feeling is correct for you.

Recite the mental attitude for five minutes over and over again. Feel its positive impact on your personality, how it contributes to the realization of your potential.

Talk about a setting that suits you throughout the day as often as possible. Repeat it before going to bed and in the morning immediately after waking up. Just smile and mentally say one of the psychological attitudes several times.

Psychological attitudes or affirmations?

Affirmations are one of the best and most effective methods of combating indecision and doubt. Use attitudes especially when negative thoughts begin to overwhelm you.

Doubts are also just thoughts. Doubts gain strength and power over you only when you focus on them. So are affirmations.

There is no need to fight doubts. It’s better to cast doubt aside as if it has nothing to do with you. Instead of doubting, say your favorite psychological attitude several times and smile.

A person decides for himself which thoughts to allow and which to discard. With the help of a psychological attitude, you essentially control your life.

How does a positive mental attitude help?

A positive psychological attitude improves health, improves mood and prolongs life. OPD undermines health, spoils mood and shortens life. And it all depends on which side of the talisman you use. A positive psychological attitude has served its purpose in saving more than one life, because there was someone nearby with his own positive psychological attitude. Here's an example:

The baby was only two days old when the doctor pronounced the sentence:

- The boy has no place in this world.

- The child will live! - the boy’s father objected to him. He had a positive psychological attitude - he believed that his prayer would perform a miracle. He prayed. But he also believed in himself. He didn't give up! He found a pediatrician for the child, who had his own positive psychological attitude, who knew from his experience that Nature can compensate for any physical illness. And the child survived!

I CAN'T SURVIVE THIS! ALMOST SIMULTANEOUS DEATH OF SPOUSES

Under this title, the Chicago Daily News told the following story. A sixty-two-year-old civil engineer came home from work and went to bed complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. His wife, she was ten years younger than her husband, became very alarmed and began to rub his hands to improve blood circulation. But the husband died.

“I can’t live any longer, I can’t,” the widowed woman repeated to her mother, who was with her. And on the same day she died. The revived child and the deceased widow demonstrate the powerful influence of positive and negative psychological attitudes. If we understand well that with the help of a positive or negative attitude, we attract good or evil, then shouldn’t we always set ourselves a positive attitude?

If you haven't already, now is the time to adopt a positive form of thinking. This will prepare you for any surprises. Always think about what makes life worth living. Remember: having a life goal in front of you, your subconscious motivates your mind and will to stay afloat in difficult times. Here's another instructive story for you. Her hero is Rafael Correra.

Concept and main types

Modern sociology and psychology include various definitions of social attitudes. Most often, Gordon Allport's interpretation is used to explain this term. According to the American psychologist, a social attitude is a psychological state of an individual in which the person is ready to behave in a certain way, according to past experience of “collision” with an object.

G. Allport

In the socio-psychological literature one can find 5 main types of social attitudes:

1. Perceptual. Attitude is characterized by an individual's readiness to see what he wants to see.
2. Situational, in which a person is ready to behave differently in relation to the same object, depending on the circumstances.
3. Social, aimed at an object. This attitude is characterized by specific actions of the individual, regardless of the current situation.
4. Generalized or general. The emergence of an attitude is influenced by a collection of identical objects.
5. Private or partial. An attitude towards a certain object arises on the basis of the individual’s personal experience.

Depending on the modality, attitudes are:

• positive or positive;
• negative or negative;
• neutral;
• ambivalent.

Basic functions of social attitudes

Attitudes are characterized by 4 key functions:

1. Utilitarian, adaptive or instrumental. Social installation ranks first among important attitudes. The mechanism of action is aimed at helping the individual achieve his goals. The function also helps the individual adapt to the situation, reduce losses and increase rewards. Attitude influences individual identification in a group.
2. Self-protective. Helps resolve conflicts within the individual. Protects the individual from traumatic information that can negatively affect the psyche. The function allows you to guide a person along a more “gentle” path.
3. Self-realizing. Helps a person to discover his own abilities and organize behavior in such a way as to satisfy the necessary needs. Thanks to attitudes, the individual realizes himself and begins to understand what kind of person he is.
4. Organizational. The main direction of this function is to organize the world around us. With the help of attitudes, an individual evaluates the acquired knowledge and correlates it with his own goals, interests and motives. Attitude helps to learn new information in the process of social cognition. This helps solve many problems.

Structure and components of social attitude

Scientist M. Smith in 1942 defined a three-component structure of a social attitude. It includes:

1. Cognitive component. It is characterized by the subject having knowledge about the area of ​​life to which this or that attitude relates.
2. Affective component. Expressed in emotional assessments, feelings and experiences associated with events, objects or processes.
3. Behavioral component. It is characterized by real actions that a person can perform in relation to the object in question.

Behavioral component

Attitude components can either overlap or exist separately.

Important! If all components of the structure are not in conflict with each other, then the settings can be considered consistent.

For example, the presence of a favorable background, positive knowledge and positive actions indicates the presence of harmonious attitudes. When social attitudes are inconsistent, there will be a chaos of negative information, positive attitudes, and neutral actions.

To take consistent steps, a person requires consistent attitudes. Otherwise, the individual will be tormented by ambivalent feelings, and contradictory actions will begin to dominate his behavior.

What approaches are used

The following approaches can influence the formation of social attitudes:

• cognitive;
• motivational;
• structural;
• behaviorist;
• genetic.

With the cognitive approach, attitudes are formed as a result of the individual’s desire to resolve internal conflicts that arise due to cognitions and attitudes.

The genetic direction suggests that the development of all attitudes is inextricably linked with innate personality characteristics:

• temperament;
• intellectual abilities;
• biochemical reactions.

Such “innate” attitudes are considered the most durable, in contrast to “acquired” ones.

Congenital and acquired forms of behavior

In the behaviorist approach, attitudes are understood as intermediate variables between the external world and objective stimuli. Therefore, the subject practically does not take part in the formation of attitudes. Development is carried out with the help of:

• observing the behavior of other individuals and analyzing the consequences;
• positive reinforcement;
• formation of associative connections between existing attitudes and stimuli.

Within the framework of the structural approach, the development of attitudes is carried out through comparison with the attitudes of surrounding people. The individual begins to “adjust” his own worldview and value views in order to correspond to one or another social category of persons.

For the motivational approach, the basis for the development of social attitudes is a series of balanced arguments “for” and “against” a particular attitude.

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Changing social attitudes

During a person’s life, not only social attitudes are formed, but also they change.

Additional Information. It is this feature that distinguishes attitudes from other psychological characteristics of a person.

Example, formation and change of character, abilities, temperament are carried out slowly and insignificantly throughout life, and the transformation of social attitudes can occur rapidly and repeatedly. Therefore, in order to predict an individual’s behavior, it is necessary, first of all, to pay attention to his attitudes, and not other personality traits.

The main goals of changing attitudes are:

• adding knowledge;
• adjustment of views;
• improving relationships with other people.

The best way to change attitudes is through suggestion. It can be implemented through:

• authoritative personalities;
• parents' beliefs;
• mass media.

To change attitudes, the psychological or social proximity of a particular source of information is of great importance.

Changing social outlook

Important! If a person does not have trust in the subject trying to correct his attitudes, there will be no positive result.

Also, the speed and quality of changes in beliefs are influenced by the order and content of incoming information. The first information has a stronger influence on attitudes than subsequent information. In the event that a person is warned that it is impossible to trust the initial materials, subsequently this primary information will not be taken seriously by the individual.

Additional Information. If a person first received information and then learned that it was unreliable, then in most cases this information will not be able to influence a change in attitudes.

The simplicity of the material presented is an important key to correcting attitudes. An individual will not want to understand complex and distorted information.

Psychological attitudes are an integral part of every individual. To learn how to use them for good, you need to not only be aware of their presence, but also engage in self-reflection. Deep work with your own emotions, feelings and beliefs will help you get rid of internal barriers and improve your life and relationships with society.

Changing social attitudes

Personal attitudes may change in the process of communication and social interaction. The reason for this is that in the process of communication there is always an element of influence on the other person, there is an attempt to change his attitudes. Attitudes form a system; they are interconnected, so rapid change does not occur.

In the system of attitudes, there are central focal attitudes, and there are peripheral ones, with a small number of interconnections, and these are the ones that can be changed more quickly. Focal attitudes are associated with the individual’s worldview, moral creed, and the main central attitude is the attitude towards one’s own “I”, around which the entire system of attitudes is built. The focal setting can be changed only if it is removed, which can lead to the destruction of the entire integrity of the personality.

Thus, a change in the central setting is painful and occurs very rarely.

When changing any setting, the following situations are possible:

• neighboring attitudes change in emotional sign from (+) to (-) and in intensity, which is possible for peripheral attitudes;
• possible change in the degree of importance and significance of the installation;
• changing the principle of communication between neighboring installations.

Social and political attitudes differ depending on a person's age - the older the person, the more conservative his attitudes.

The change and formation of attitudes occurs in the course of a person’s real activity, his involvement in a particular group.

Group influence is very strong and forces its members to abandon previous attitudes, thus isolating a person from society, which leads to “social collapse.” A person loses the ability to think critically and his only reality becomes the life of the group.

Little changing social attitudes gradually develop into stereotypes and prejudices.

Stereotypes are the fruit of personal experience, and prejudice is a social attitude with a distorted content of its cognitive component.

Is it possible to change social attitudes?

This question cannot be answered unambiguously, because it is still unclear how exactly social attitudes are formed. As we wrote above, there are several theories on this matter: some believe that they are formed genetically, others believe that they are acquired.

If we assume that anything can be learned, then perhaps the answer is yes, social attitudes can be changed. But to change yourself completely, you need to focus on a deep level - the level of values, moral and religious beliefs.

The sight of a cake reminds someone of a bad birthday as a child, while others remember a great time with their family. After some time, the opinions of these two people may change under the influence of future experiences. A person also likes to imitate the behavior of other people, even if he does not always admit it. Therefore, social attitudes are born and die constantly.

It takes full awareness and self-reflection to change destructive attitudes and replace them with productive ones. This process is quite long, so you will need patience.

And one last thing. Ask yourself three questions as often as possible:

• Why do I act this way and not otherwise?
• Why do I think this way and not otherwise?
• Why do I feel this way and not differently in this situation?

Answers to these questions, reflection and self-reflection will help to identify the roots of many deep attitudes and change them if necessary.

There is no place for guesswork in matters of health!

He was a young, active man and a successful car dealer. It seemed like he had a wide road ahead, but he felt terrible! Moreover, he was about to die! He even worried about a place in the cemetery for himself and made arrangements for the funeral. He put all his affairs in order. But in reality everything happened differently.

At times he experienced shortness of breath and heart palpitations, and a spasm seized his throat. From time to time he consulted his family doctor, who was a very good doctor. He advised him to have a good rest, to take life easier, to leave the risky and gambling work that he loved so much. The car dealer sat down at home, rested his body, but his fears did not leave him, and there was no peace of mind. Again and again, shortness of breath, palpitations and spasms in the throat returned to him. It happened in the summer, and the doctor advised us to go to a resort in Colorado. But the healthy climate and beautiful mountain landscape did not improve his condition, and fear did not leave him.

Shortness of breath, palpitations and spasms did not go away. A week later he returned home.

- There is nothing to guess here! - we convinced this young man (and we address the same to you, our reader). - Go to a clinic like the Mayo Brothers Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, you have nothing to lose, and this can be your salvation! Do it now!

They listened to us, and he was immediately sent to Rochester, although he was afraid that he would die on the way. And then everything became clear. The doctor told him:

- Your problem is that you inhale too much oxygen.

- Can't be!

“Jump on the spot for a minute,” the doctor asked.

Our hero jumped, and immediately began to choke, his heart rate rose, and his throat went into spasm.

“At this moment, breathe into the plastic bag or hold your breath as long as you can,” said the doctor and handed the bag to the patient.

The patient followed the instructions, and then the shortness of breath went away, the heart returned to normal, and the spasm went away. Our hero left the clinic a happy man. Now, as soon as the old symptom appeared, he would hold his breath for a while, and the body would return to normal again. After a few months, all his fears and symptoms disappeared. All this happened fifteen years ago. Since then he has never seen a doctor.

Of course, not everything is so easy to treat. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to find medicine to heal. But this search should be carried out with a positive psychological attitude and at any cost.

Your efforts will pay off in spades. This is exactly what happened to another merchant entrepreneur, and this is how it happened.

Formation of social attitudes

Let us note that their formation is gradual and sometimes even imperceptible. After all, what we generalized today becomes a firm belief for us in a couple of weeks.

Mental activity works according to a specific algorithm developed on generalizations and assessments. This program makes the functioning of the brain much easier. After all, every time a person encounters a phenomenon that is already familiar to him, he does not have to waste energy on analyzing it. Since he already has a scheme that leads to quick actions.

The main characteristic of this phenomenon is its versatility. After all, at the same time it represents skills and abilities, sensations and emotions, reactions and the desire to act in a certain way.

But attitude can not only help, but also create obstacles. Of course, with its help we focus on important things, but at the same time, such patterns can lead to the wrong path. I will help you understand what is good and what is not, and also get rid of interfering beliefs in my personal consultation.

I have already talked about how social attitudes are related to individual behavior and what it is in general. But such a complex concept categorically cannot be viewed from one angle. After all, the term exists in different areas of psychology. Which is worth mentioning.

Levels

• the simplest form – regulates behavior in everyday life;
• social;
• basic social – the individual’s attitude to his areas of life (profession and work, interests, family);
• instrumental - acceptance and inclusion in the set of norms that have developed in society.

Attitude controls activity at 3 hierarchical stages:

1. Semantic - is of a general nature and determines people’s position towards objects and events that are important to them.
2. Target. Determines the relatively stable course of functioning and has a connection with the desire to bring the task to its logical conclusion.
3. Operational. The perception of a specific phenomenon occurs through previous experience, as well as through forecasting the possibilities of productive actions and decision-making under certain circumstances.

Capacity for Change

It is impossible to say for sure about this, since it is still unclear exactly how they are formed. Of course, there are many theories, and I described the main ones above, but scientists have not come to a general conclusion.

If we rely on the belief that it is possible to acquire any skills, then perhaps we can say that attitudes are changeable. But to do this, you need to focus on a deeper level - values, religious and moral principles.

A striking example of a psychological attitude: when one person sees a birthday cake, he remembers an unsuccessful celebration, while another, on the contrary, experiences positive emotions, recalling a pleasant evening with family and friends. But over time, this perception can change, and future experiences will have a huge impact on this.

In addition, the individual, even if unconsciously, imitates the actions of others. This is why attitudes arise and disappear regularly. But in order to change them, absolute awareness and self-reflection will be required. This will help change destructive beliefs to more effective ones and resolve many internal conflicts.

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Basic information about rigid installations

In psychology, rigidity is the inability of an individual to change the nature of behavior and thinking in certain situations.

Literally, this term means steadfastness and inflexibility. Previously, the term was used only in physiology and medicine to denote the response of organs and tissues to certain stimuli. In the psychological field, rigidity is used to describe a permanent type of personality that has difficulty acquiring new knowledge and skills.

Rigid people do not change their thinking and behavior tactics even in situations where such changes are necessary. This psychological feature can significantly worsen the quality of life.

In more detail, in psychology, rigidity is described as the inability to change point of view, give in in arguments, adapt behavior to certain situations and develop emotional intelligence.

If we talk about the emotional state of a rigid person, then it is necessary to pay attention to the person’s fixation on his own feelings. Such people usually have a low level of empathy, so the ability to empathize is undeveloped or completely absent.

Emotional rigidity may be a prerequisite for the development of narcissistic personality disorder. Milder forms of this psychological trait only slightly limit personal development.

A specific example of psychological (personal) constancy is fixation on already created models of behavior and thinking. Normally, throughout life, a person constantly gains new experiences that allow him to modify cognitive and emotional patterns.

Systematic research into this condition began in the field of Gestalt psychology. More than 100 years ago, scientists described the main characteristics of this personality type. Scientists such as Charles Spearman, Milton Roach, and Kurt Goldstein have studied rigidity in detail. Today, the problems of cognitive persistence are dealt with by psychologists and psychiatrists.

Manifestations of mental rigidity in humans

Rigidity can be an innate character trait or an acquired one. In both the first and second cases, this is not a deviation from the norm of mental development, if the rigidity has not acquired a pathological character. This problem is not so much a public problem as an individual one.

Nowadays, there are more and more people with pronounced manifestations of rigidity. People diagnosed with mental rigidity are not required to register with psychiatric hospitals. They exist calmly in society, but it is quite difficult for them to adapt to new living conditions, to a new team at work, to any acquaintances, etc.

Rigidity can be a congenital character trait or acquired

The first manifestations of rigidity in a person are aggression and a high level of anxiety. A person who is not able to quickly navigate non-standard life situations, who is not able to adequately perceive new circumstances, begins to enter a state of stress. At the same time, he experiences stress not because of his perception of the situation, but because this situation occurred in his life.

How to deal with harmful attitudes

Some attitudes are so deeply ingrained in our minds that it seems impossible to get rid of them. But, fortunately, you can still fight them. This is what 4 Steps to Release “Limiting Beliefs” Learned From Childhood psychologists recommend doing.

Recognize harmful attitudes

Every time some thought prevents you from acting, makes you afraid or ruins your mood, try to stop, catch it by the tail and take a good look at it. Analyze what this idea sounds like, where it came from, where you heard it. Was the person who voiced it competent and authoritative enough, and are his words really important now?

Ask yourself questions

To work with attitudes and beliefs, psychologists suggest Limiting Beliefs by asking yourself:

• Does this belief help me be effective?
• Does this belief help me be happy?
• Does it help me build relationships?
• What will it cost me to give up this belief? What consequences will I face?
• What will it cost my near and dear people?
• Will my life improve if I change my beliefs? How will I feel then?
• I understand that I want to change my belief. What will replace it?

Formulate new attitudes and beliefs

Each installation needs to be reformulated so that it begins to motivate and inspire you. Or at least it didn’t interfere with your actions.

• “You can’t achieve anything without money and connections” → “If I were richer, it would be easier for me. But I’m capable of a lot and I’ll find a way to succeed with what I have.”
• “Public speaking is not my thing” → “Yes, now I won’t be able to speak in public, but if I practice, I will succeed.”

Take action

New attitudes need to be supported by actions, otherwise they will remain theories. After all, it was our actions (or inaction) that once helped old, harmful patterns take root.

If you decide that you can improve your public speaking skills, then you should sign up for public speaking classes or start studying on your own. And if you understand that it’s not too late to get a second degree, either at 40 or at 80, choose a university and start studying the conditions for admission. The first successes will help the new attitudes take hold - and you will understand that you are on the right path.

Installation concept. Indoor and outdoor installation

An attitude is an unconscious psychological state, an internal quality of a subject, based on his previous experience, predisposition to a certain activity in a certain situation. Is the deep content of implicit memory. The attitude precedes and determines the development of any form of mental activity. It acts as a state of mobilization, readiness for subsequent action. It is determined by the corresponding situation of the subject’s need and the need to satisfy it. The presence of a person’s attitude allows him to react in one specific way or another to a particular political or social event or phenomenon.

On the qualitative side, empirical psychology characterized attention as involuntary and voluntary. The first type of attention was usually considered to be those acts that arose in response to some external stimuli that attracted us with their excessive strength, interest, or expressiveness. If, sitting in a quiet room, I turn my attention to the sound of a shot, this can easily serve as the best example of involuntary attention. The reason for my set reactions lies not in the body, but outside it, in the unexpected force of a new stimulus, which takes over the entire free field of attention, pushes aside and inhibits other reactions.

Psychologists called internal or voluntary attention such cases when concentration is directed not externally, but internally, and the subject of attention becomes a person’s own experience, action or thought. An example of voluntary attention can be any concentration on our own thoughts, when we try to remember something, imagine something, or get down to some kind of work (reading a book, writing a letter) and completely consciously and voluntarily prepare all the necessary organs for this work.

For a long time it seemed that there was an internal fundamental difference between both types of attention and that it was entirely covered by the difference between the physiological nature of the first type and the mental nature of the second. Psychologists readily characterized this second type as internal will, as a pure act of volitional effort not directly related to bodily manifestations. Meanwhile, experimental research has shown that in the case of voluntary attention we have the same somatic reactions of breathing and blood circulation as in the first type of attention. Further, these acts are accompanied by the same cessation of extraneous movements, the same delay in activity as external attention, and the only difference between one type and the other should be considered the absence in the second of clearly expressed adaptive reactions of external organs.

But this difference is quite clearly and fully explained by the difference in the object to which attention is directed in both cases. It is absolutely clear that when attention is excited by some impression coming from outside, the body reacts by preparing the appropriate organs of perception through which this impression can be brought to consciousness. And it is also clear that there is not the slightest need for such reactions when the attitude is focused not on external, but on internal stimuli, which are perceived by us from the proprioceptive and interoreceptive fields, while external stimuli are perceived by us from the exteroceptive field.

Ordinary language captures this similarity in the expressions with which it designates these acts of internal attention. When we intensively and concentratedly remember something, we seem to listen to the words sounding inside us, and extraneous sounds and voices interfere with us in the same way as they interfere with us when we carefully listen to someone’s speech or music. Here the language consolidates the complete similarity that exists between the adaptive movements of both the ear and the proprioceptive nerve pathways during the first and second types of attention. In this case, the only significant psychological difference will be the presence in the second case of some internal stimulus, which turns out to be capable of causing the same effect of the attitudinal reaction as the external stimulus.

We will not be at all mistaken if we recognize that the difference between one and another type of attitude comes down to the difference between an innate, or unconditioned, and an acquired, or conditioned, reflex. Concentration in its elementary, simplest forms is, as observation has shown, an unconditioned reflex that manifests itself in the first days of a baby’s life and has absolutely all the typical features of adult attention. But, like any unconditioned reflex, the concentration reflex is subject to education and re-education. If the irritation that causes this reflex is always accompanied by some other extraneous irritation, then as a result of the repeated coincidence in time of both stimuli, a new connection is made in the cerebral cortex between the second indifferent stimulus and the reaction coinciding with it. Now we have formed a conditioned reflex, which will act with mechanical correctness and be evoked by a new stimulus with the same accuracy with which the unconditioned one was evoked before.

Let us assume that the concentration reflex has always been evoked in the child by the impressions coming to him from the nursing mother. If the system of these stimuli coincided each time with eye irritations coming from one’s own reactions, or with one’s own dissatisfied cry, then as a result of short training it will be enough just the feeling of the eye or the cry so that all the child’s reactions are set to food, to eating. , even if the mother was completely absent at that moment.

Thus, the external attitude, caused by an external stimulus, has now passed into the second phase, becoming an internal attitude, because it has submitted to the internal stimulus.