Interiorization
The psychological term interiorization was introduced by French scientists. The concept meant instilling an ideology into an individual. That is, the transfer of social consciousness into the individual. In modern English-language dictionaries of psychological terms, internalization is replaced by internalization. For psychoanalysts, this is a mental process that denotes a relationship with a real or imaginary object, the transformation of an external factor into an internal one. The problem of internalization in psychoanalysis remains controversial. To this day, it has not been clarified whether the processes of absorption, identification, and introjection are identical, or whether they are carried out in parallel to each other.
In Russian psychology, the meaning of the word interiorization was given by Vygotsky as the concept of “rotation” - the transformation of external activity into the internal plane of consciousness. The development of the human psyche, according to Vygotsky’s theory, initially develops from the outside, depending on external social factors accepted in society. External collective forms of activity, through internalization, are built into the human consciousness and become individual.
Meaning of the word interiorization
Interiorization is the formation of internal structures of the human psyche through the assimilation of external social activities, the appropriation of life experience, the formation of mental functions and development in general. Any complex action, before becoming the property of the mind, must be realized externally. Thanks to interiorization, we can talk to ourselves and actually think without disturbing others.
Thanks to interiorization, the human psyche acquires the ability to operate with images of objects that are currently absent from its field of vision. A person goes beyond the boundaries of a given moment, freely “in his mind” moves into the past and into the future, in time and in space.
Animals do not possess such an ability; they cannot arbitrarily go beyond the boundaries of the current situation. An important tool of internalization is the word, and the means of arbitrary transition from one situation to another is the speech act. The word highlights and consolidates the essential properties of things and ways of handling information developed by the practice of mankind. Human action ceases to be dependent on the externally given situation, which determines the entire behavior of the animal. From this it is clear that mastering the correct use of words is simultaneously the assimilation of the essential properties of things and ways of handling information. Through words, a person assimilates the experience of all humanity, that is, tens and hundreds of previous generations, as well as people and groups hundreds and thousands of kilometers distant from him.
This term was first used in the works of French sociologists (Durkheim and others), where interiorization was considered as one of the elements of socialization, meaning the borrowing of the main categories of individual consciousness from the sphere of social experience and public ideas. The concept of internalization was introduced into psychology by representatives of the French psychological school (J. Piaget, P. Janet, A. Vallon, etc.) and the Soviet psychologist L. S. Vygotsky.
According to L. S. Vygotsky, every function of the human psyche initially develops as an external, social form of communication between people, as work or other activity, and only then, as a result of interiorization, becomes a component of the human psyche.
Subsequently, interiorization was studied by P. Ya. Galperin as a process and formed the basis of a systematic, stage-by-stage formation.
The concept of internalization is one of the key ones in modern educational psychology in the United States.
F. Nietzsche had a unique understanding of interiorization. In his work The Genealogy of Morals (1887), he wrote that “All instincts which are not allowed to come out are manifested within. This is exactly what I call internalization.”
Interiorization of communication processes
A person’s mental processes are subject to changes in a communication situation, since communication in some “latent” form is contained in them even when a person is alone. The structure of human mental functions has many similarities with the structure of communication processes. This, in turn, occurs due to the fact that mental functions are formed “in early ontogenesis during the internalization of communication processes.”
In the process of human ontogenesis, interiorization occurs, a certain process as a result of which stable, deep, synchronic structures of the human psyche are created, similar to the “a priori social forms” of the human psyche. These social mechanisms of the psyche, in turn, determine the nature of the “overlying” changing, diachronic mental processes.
Interiorization does not have a primary relationship with some specific mental process; a person perceives it in social forms.
As a result of the internalization processes, a feature of the structure of human mental processes appears, due to which their course differs from the course of similar processes in animals.
The prerequisite for interiorization is the unconscious internal plan. As a result of interiorization, this internal plane changes qualitatively, as a plane of consciousness is formed.
As a result of interiorization, a number of stable social structures of the psyche are formed, thanks to which consciousness exists. In addition, the result of interiorization is the formation, on the basis of consciousness, of certain detailed internal actions.
Interiorization, on the one hand, occurs only in the process of communication from the external plane to the internal, mental one.
The connection between communication and internalization
There is a close connection between communication and internalization: with the gradual formation of mental actions within the framework of communication between those who form and from whom they form, interiorization actually takes place and at the same time plays a crucial role in this formation. “The process of formation is the activity of one person, namely the one in whom mental actions are formed; his individual activity, and not his interaction with the “other”. This “other” acts as one of the external elements of activity.”
L. S. Vygotsky came to the following conclusion: the formation of the basic social structures of human consciousness occurs in the process of communication. In this case, the main point is the formation of what is called the symbolic-semiotic function of the psyche, the function thanks to which a person can perceive the world around him in a special “quasi-dimension”, a system of meanings and a semantic field.
The symbolic-semiotic function is created in the process of interiorization. The system of social relations is subject to internalization, to the extent that it is “recorded” and represented in the structure of communication between an adult and a child. This structure, expressed in signs, is internalized, “grown” and “transfers” into the child’s psyche. The result of interiorization is that the structure of the child’s psyche is mediated by interiorized signs and the basic structures of consciousness are formed.
Interiorized signs are acquired only and exclusively in the process of communication. However, ontogeny acts as a determinant of structure. The structure of these signs reflects their origin.
And the initial situation, the structure of which is interiorized, is communication, and the interiorized, internal structure carries within itself and in its elements a collapsed communication, called dialogism.
Dialogue as a hidden mechanism of mental functions plays a huge role; communication or closed dialogue are considered as “built-in” into the deep, internalized structures of the psyche; In addition, the signification function has a dialogic structure.
Interiorization process
Higher mental functions develop initially as external forms of activity, and only in the process of internalization do they turn into mental processes of the individual. Research in the Vygotsky school allowed us to formulate the following fundamental principles:
- The structure of mental functions is revealed only in the process of genesis, when they are formed, the structure becomes indistinguishable and goes deeper;
- The formation of mental processes reveals the essence of the phenomenon, which initially did not exist, but as a result of internalization it arose;
- The emerging essence of the phenomenon cannot be explained by ordinary physiological processes and logical schemes, but is a process that does not stop even after the cessation of the action of a particular phenomenon.
Through internalization, external signs are transformed into internal mental activity. This process cannot happen on its own. Correct mental development of a child is possible only in conditions of communication with people around him.
With the help of interiorization, a person learns to build mental plans and develop options. In other words, it gains the ability to think in abstract categories.
Interiorization of activity
Any concept is a product of activity, so it is impossible to teach it. However, it is possible to organize the learning process in such a way that the internalization of activity will occur gradually and progressively. The mental function in an initially material action, undergoing internalization, becomes part of the mental process. The mental plane is not some empty vessel that can be filled with something. The internal plan is a continuous process in a state of formation. Each new mental action is based on experience that is acquired through the internalization of activity, and the transition “from outside to inside,” according to Galperin, is the main mechanism for the formation of the mental plan. Halperin derived the main parameters of action transformation:
- Execution level;
- Generalization measure;
- Completeness of performed operations;
- A measure of skill acquisition.
Levels of execution may vary in complexity, depending on the tasks assigned. The execution of a particular task can occur at three sublevels. These are the following steps:
- With material objects;
- Through speech, both oral and written;
- In the mind.
The highest level of internalization of activity lies in the ability to perform certain actions “in the mind” without using additional tools: a book, a calculator, and so on.
Psychological mechanism of internalization
The psychological mechanism of internalization consists in the formation of an internal plan of mental actions based on external actions shared with other people, which are organized, recorded and updated with the help of language and other sign-symbolic means.
The mechanism of internalization includes two interrelated directions of the formation and development of voluntary, intentional actions (both external objective-practical and mental): a) from joint actions with other people to individual, independently organized actions; b) from external objective-practical actions to mental actions.
The first direction of development of HMF - from actions shared with other people (joint) to actions that are voluntary, intentional and individual - includes a number of stages:
· Development of the child’s ability to subordinate his actions, actions, mental functions (attention, perception, memory, thinking) to the verbal instructions of another person (adult), who sets goals and sets patterns for performing actions.
· Developing the child’s ability to organize mental functions and actions of other people using verbal instructions.
· The cross-functional combination of such skills into one new function, which allows, based on the use of speech, to independently set goals, plan one’s own actions and subordinate one’s own behavior to such plans - allows one to master one’s behavior and mental functions.
The second direction of development of HMF - from external objective-practical (material) actions to mental (“ideal”) actions on meanings (ideas and concepts) - includes a number of stages:
· Stage: a) pre-speech development in the child of objective-practical (manipulative) actions, as well as mental functions of orientation (operations) as part of objective-practical actions (attention, perception, memory, thinking); b) development of objectively related forms of sound communication - establishing the objectively relatedness of linguistic means.
· Cross-functional unification of the functions of mental orientation and speech functions - the formation of external detailed speech planning and organization of behavior: a) first in interactions shared with other people; b) then relying on one’s own (“egocentric”) speech.
· The transition from actions with material objects on the basis of external, based on the senses, indicative and research operations - to mental actions with ideas and concepts (meanings), which are organized based on external speech and external sign-symbolic means (with the help of material sign-symbolic means). symbolic means).
· The transition from actions with ideas based on external material signs and symbols - to mental actions on ideas (meanings) based on inner speech (abbreviated and hidden ways of using signs and symbols).
Regularities of formation of the internal plan of mental actions, ensuring the organization of the image of the world
P.Ya. Galperin
Mental development is initially ensured by the child’s mastery of the skills to perform objective-practical actions, the external patterns of which are set by other people in joint interactions. In this case, any practical action includes:
· The executive (muscular-motor) component, which includes executive operations and operations for correcting actions during execution.
· The actual mental component (orientative basis), which includes the operations of orientation, planning, and control.
Each type of operation provides its own specific functions:
· Orientation operations are initially provided by orienting-exploratory operations of the senses, which lead to the construction of a perceptual image of the situation.
· Operations of planning upcoming actions involve the establishment of interdisciplinary connections and relationships in the process of orientation (thinking).
· Executive operations ensure the implementation of actions in accordance with the plan.
· Control operations provide comparisons between the actual result obtained and the expected (planned) result.
· Correction operations provide corrections to an action during its execution.
As a direct sensory acquaintance with the objects of the surrounding world occurs, as well as mastering the ways of using and transforming them in interactions with other people, the child acquires a wide range of skills to record and actualize various actions and operations using linguistic and sign-symbolic means.
image of the world is formed, enriched in content and improved throughout the life of the subject , which acts as an indicative basis for organizing various actions.
As the subject masters the methods of using various sign-symbolic means, the methods of organizing mental actions are formed and improved, both in other people and in his own image of the world. – Conscious forms of orientation (consciousness) are improved. Language, signs, symbols allow the subject to actualize certain meanings (ideas, concepts), as well as organize mental operations and actions to transform them.
The internal plan of the subject’s mental actions is a variety of transformations of meanings (ideas and concepts), which are organized to varying degrees using linguistic and sign-symbolic means. To organize mental actions on ideas and concepts, the following can be used: a) external material (for example, graphic or speech) sign-symbolic means; b) mental ways of using signs and symbols internalized by the subject (inner speech, representations of sign-symbolic images, diagrams, models of varying degrees of generality and abstraction).
Interiorized sign-symbolic images, diagrams, models, in turn, can become the subject of mental transformation using other sign-symbolic means (external and internal). Hierarchical and heterarchical relationships arise between various sign-symbolic means and various levels of organization of mental actions. On this basis, increasingly complex forms of reflexive actions are formed.
Thus, the child’s mastery of different ways of using linguistic means in speech actions ensures: a) the fixation and subsequent actualization of the subject of certain semantic content (meanings, ideas, concepts) in the image of the world; b) organization of mental actions in relation to the actualized semantic content (Galperin, 1998, 2002; Salmina, 1988).
The subject's use of linguistic means in organizing an action is multifunctional: the same linguistic means can serve to organize different mental functions as part of different operational components of the action; different linguistic means can serve to organize the same mental functions and operational components of action.
· Linguistic means, being initially included in the composition of the subject-practical ones, and derivatively in the composition of the mental actions of the subject, can be used for various purposes and perform many functions: a) ensure updating and recording of indicative operations, b) planning operations, c) executive operations; d) control and correction operations.
· In turn, as part of various operations aimed at constructing and implementing an action, linguistic means can functionally ensure the selective concentration of the subject (organization of attention functions), set directions for constructing an image (organization of perception), and update the fragments of experience necessary for organizing the action (organization of memory) , serve to establish interdisciplinary relationships and connections (organization of thinking), actualize the emotional and motivational relationships of the subject, and so on.
It should be emphasized that the actualization of mental actions in a subject with the help of speech instructions presupposes the presence in their composition of various operations, the abstraction of which corresponds to the mental functions traditionally identified in descriptive (phenomenological) psychology. At the same time, the functional significance of different mental functions (operations) as part of different actions can vary significantly.
Social interiorization
In Russian psychology, interiorization means the process of transforming interpersonal relationships into relationships with oneself. The acceptance, processing and storage of sign information “inside” the psyche, based on memory, does not belong to the phenomenon of social interiorization. In the development of higher nervous activity in humans, the following stages are distinguished:
- An adult influences a child with words, encouraging him to engage in one activity or another;
- The child learns a new type of address and begins to influence the adult with words;
- The child influences himself with words.
All people, without exception, go through stages of social internalization. The child is accustomed to mental activity without the use of specific objects.
In activity theory, internalization is the transfer of certain external actions to the internal, mental plane. As a result of internalization, external activities undergo some changes, especially in the operational part.
Psychoanalysis explains the processes of influence of inter-individual relationships, the formation of the structure of the unconscious: individual and collective, which determines the structure of consciousness.
