Features of a weak nervous system
The ability to change behavior in accordance with changing living conditions. A measure of this property of the nervous system is the speed of transition from one action to another, from a passive state to an active one, and vice versa, the opposite of mobility is the inertia of nervous processes.
According to the teachings of I.P. Pavlov, individual behavioral characteristics and the dynamics of mental activity depend on individual differences in the activity of the nervous system. The basis of individual differences in nervous activity is the manifestation and correlation of the properties of two main nervous processes - excitation and inhibition
Three properties of the processes of excitation and inhibition were established:
1) the strength of the processes of excitation and inhibition,
2) balance of excitation and inhibition processes,
3) mobility (changeability) of the processes of excitation and inhibition.
The strength of nervous processes is expressed in the ability of nerve cells to tolerate long-term or short-term, but very concentrated excitation and inhibition. This determines the performance (endurance) of the nerve cell.
The weakness of nervous processes is characterized by the inability of nerve cells to withstand prolonged and concentrated excitation and inhibition. When exposed to very strong stimuli, nerve cells quickly go into a state of protective inhibition. Thus, in a weak nervous system, nerve cells are characterized by low efficiency, their energy is quickly depleted. But a weak nervous system has great sensitivity: even to weak stimuli it gives an appropriate reaction.
An important property of higher nervous activity is the balance of nervous processes, that is, the proportional ratio of excitation and inhibition. For some people, these two processes are mutually balanced, while for others this balance is not observed: either the process of inhibition or excitation predominates.
One of the main properties of higher nervous activity is the mobility of nervous processes. The mobility of the nervous system is characterized by the speed of alternation of processes of excitation and inhibition, the speed of their occurrence and cessation (when living conditions require it), the speed of movement of nervous processes (irradiation and concentration), the speed of appearance of the nervous process in response to irritation, the speed of formation of new conditioned connections, the development and changes in the dynamic stereotype.
Combinations of these properties of nervous processes of excitation and inhibition were used as the basis for determining the type of higher nervous activity. Depending on the combination of strength, mobility and balance of the processes of excitation and inhibition, four main types of higher nervous activity are distinguished.
Weak type. Representatives of a weak type of nervous system cannot withstand strong, prolonged and concentrated stimuli. The processes of inhibition and excitation are weak. When exposed to strong stimuli, the development of conditioned reflexes is delayed. Along with this, there is a high sensitivity (i.e., a low threshold) to the actions of stimuli.
Strong balanced type. Distinguished by a strong nervous system, it is characterized by an imbalance of the basic nervous processes - the predominance of excitation processes over inhibition processes.
Strong balanced mobile type. The processes of inhibition and excitation are strong and balanced, but their speed, mobility, and rapid turnover of nervous processes lead to relative instability of nerve connections.
Strong balanced inert type. Strong and balanced nervous processes are characterized by low mobility. Representatives of this type are always outwardly calm, even, and difficult to excite.
The type of higher nervous activity refers to natural higher data; this is an innate property of the nervous system. On this physiological basis, various systems of conditioned connections can be formed, i.e., during the course of life, these conditioned connections will be formed differently in different people: this is where the type of higher nervous activity will manifest itself. Temperament is a manifestation of a type of higher nervous activity in human activity and behavior.
The characteristics of a person’s mental activity, which determine his actions, behavior, habits, interests, knowledge, are formed in the process of a person’s individual life, in the process of upbringing. The type of higher nervous activity gives originality to a person’s behavior, leaves a characteristic imprint on the entire appearance of a person - it determines the mobility of his mental processes, their stability, but does not determine either the behavior or actions of a person, or his beliefs, or moral principles.
Choleric- an unbalanced, unrestrained, hot-tempered, even unbridled personality. Choleric temperament is characterized by great intensity and vivid expression of emotional experiences and the speed of their occurrence. A choleric person is characterized by quick temper and quick-wittedness, which immediately follows violent outbursts of feelings. A choleric person is a hot-tempered, passionate person, characterized by a sharp change in feelings, which are always deep for him and capture him entirely. He experiences both joy and sorrow deeply and strongly, which finds its (sometimes violent) expression in his facial expressions and actions. Has difficulty performing monotonous work, reactions are fast and strong. He gets down to business with passion, but quickly cools down - a “don’t care” mood appears.
In communication he is impatient and harsh. Facial expressions and movements are energetic, the pace of work is fast. Often teenagers with such a temperament disrupt lessons, get into fights, and generally cause a lot of trouble for parents and teachers. These are perky, fighting, active guys. They become the ringleaders among their peers, involving them in various romantic ventures.
Melancholic- unbalanced, deeply worried about any event with a sluggish and weak external reaction. The reaction is slow. Peculiarities of melancholic temperament are manifested externally: facial expressions and movements are slow, monotonous, restrained, poor, the voice is quiet, inexpressive.
Sensitive, vulnerable, afraid of difficulties, characterized by increased anxiety. Avoids unexpected situations. Prefers to perform activities that do not require mental stress.
The feelings and moods of a melancholic person are monotonous and at the same time very stable.
Melancholic children cannot resist injustice, they often fall under the influence of others, they are teased and offended. These guys often find it difficult to work in a team. Melancholic teenagers are often timid and shy, they can easily cry.
Sanguine- a balanced personality, his reactions are distinguished by speed and moderate strength, but he is distinguished by a relatively weak intensity of mental processes and the rapid replacement of some mental processes by others. He quickly masters new professional knowledge and can work for a long time without getting tired, provided that the work is varied. A sanguine person is characterized by the ease and speed of the emergence of new emotional states, which, however, quickly replacing each other, do not leave a deep mark in his consciousness.
Usually a sanguine person is distinguished by rich facial expressions; his emotional experiences are accompanied by a variety of expressive movements. This is a cheerful person, distinguished by great mobility. The external mobility of a sanguine person is associated with the speed of mental processes: he is impressionable, quickly responds to external stimuli and is less focused and deep in his personal experiences.
A sanguine person can easily cope with tasks that require quick thinking, unless these tasks are particularly difficult and serious. He easily takes on different things, but at the same time easily forgets about them, becoming interested in new ones.
Phlegmatic people
Outwardly, a person of phlegmatic temperament is distinguished, first of all, by low mobility, his movements are very slow and even sluggish, not energetic, quick actions cannot be expected from him. Phlegmatic people are also characterized by weak emotional excitability. His feelings and moods are of an even character and change slowly. This is a calm person, measured in his actions. He rarely leaves an even, calm emotional state, he can rarely be seen very excited, and affective manifestations of personality are alien to him.
The facial expressions and gestures of a phlegmatic person are monotonous, inexpressive, speech is slow, devoid of liveliness, and is not accompanied by expressive movements.
Scientists give different definitions to concepts "extrovert" and "introvert". For the classification of K. Leonhard, priority was person's attitude to information, to the reaction to events in the external environment: extroverts are receptive to such information and react to it; Introverts, on the other hand, can largely ignore the external environment, focusing on their own inner world.
Due to the differences in approach, K. Leonhard makes the main conclusion that introvert - the personality is more strong-willed, strong, resistant to outside influence.Extroverts in this regard, they are less persistent - they are easily influenced by others and, unlike introverts, they can change their internal attitudes depending on the external environment.
Circle of friends introverts rather narrow, they are prone to philosophizing and soul-searching. Some of them oppose themselves to the environment, and therefore do not follow changing circumstances at all, falling behind the pace of life. As a rule, introverts categorically do not tolerate interference in their lives, in their attitudes and in their inner world. Such individuals are accustomed to following their principles and beliefs to the end. Extroverts adapt better to changing conditions, make acquaintances more easily and expand their social circle, and are open to new things, including new information. They are ready to sacrifice their beliefs for the sake of a certain goal and easily give in to other people. They are not prone to self-examination; some extroverts can even be accused of frivolity.
Mental self-regulation - This control of one’s psycho-emotional state, achieved by a person’s influence on himself with the help of words, mental images, control of muscle tone and breathing.
Character- this is the framework of the personality, which includes only the most pronounced and closely interconnected personality traits, clearly manifested in various types of activities. All character traits are personality traits, but not all personality traits are character traits. Character- an individual combination of the most stable, significant personality traits, manifested in human behavior, in a certain respect: 1) to yourself(degree of demandingness, criticality, self-esteem); 2) to other people(individualism or collectivism, selfishness or altruism, cruelty or kindness, indifference or sensitivity, rudeness or politeness, deceit or truthfulness, etc.); 3) to the assigned task(laziness or hard work, neatness or sloppiness, initiative or passivity, perseverance or impatience, responsibility or irresponsibility, organization, etc.); 4) reflected in character strong-willed qualities: willingness to overcome obstacles, mental and physical pain, degree of perseverance, independence, determination, discipline. Character human is a fusion of innate properties of higher nervous activity with individual traits acquired during life. Individual character traits depend on each other, are connected with each other and form an integral organization, which is called character structure. In the structure of character, two groups of traits are distinguished. Under character trait understand certain features of a person’s personality that are systematically manifested in various types of his activities and by which one can judge his possible actions in certain conditions. TO first group include traits that express the orientation of the individual (stable needs, attitudes, interests, inclinations, ideals, goals), a system of relationships to the surrounding reality and represent individually unique ways of implementing these relationships. To the second group include intellectual, volitional and emotional character traits.
Accentuation of character and personality– this is an excessive expression of certain character traits, this is an extreme version of the norm bordering on psychopathy.
Character accents: 1. Hyperthymic type. He is in high spirits, optimistic, extremely sociable, and quickly switches from one thing to another. Doesn't finish what he starts, is not disciplined, is prone to immoral acts, is not obligatory, and has inflated self-esteem. Conflict-prone, often initiates conflicts. 2.Dysthymic type - opposite to the hyperthymic type. He is characterized by a pessimistic mood, is non-communicative, prefers loneliness, leads a secluded lifestyle, and is prone to low self-esteem. Rarely comes into conflict with others. Highly values friendship and justice. 3.Cycloid type . Characterized by fairly frequent periodic mood swings. During periods of high mood, behavior is hyperthymic, and during periods of low mood, it is dysthymic. Self-esteem is unstable. Conflictful, especially during periods of high mood. Unpredictable in conflict. 4. Excitable type . Differs in low contact in communication. Boring, gloomy, prone to rudeness and abuse. Unfriendly in a team, domineering in the family. In an emotionally calm state, he is conscientious and careful. In a state of emotional excitement, he is quick-tempered and has poor control over his behavior. He is conflict-provoking, often initiates conflicts, and is active in conflicts. 5. Stuck type . He is moderately sociable, boring, prone to moralizing, and often takes the position of a “parent.” Strives for high performance in any business, places increased demands on himself, and is sensitive to social justice. Touchy, vulnerable, suspicious, vindictive, jealous. Self-esteem is inadequate. He is conflict-prone, usually initiates conflicts, and is active in conflicts. 6. Pedantic type . He is distinguished by conscientiousness, accuracy, and seriousness in business. In official relations, he is a bureaucrat, a formalist, and easily cedes leadership to others. Rarely enters into conflicts. However, its formalism can provoke conflict situations. In conflict he behaves passively. 7. Anxious type. He is characterized by low contact, lack of self-confidence, and a minor mood. Self-esteem is low. At the same time, he is characterized by such traits as friendliness, self-criticism, and diligence. Rarely enters into conflicts, playing a passive role in them; the predominant strategies of behavior in conflict are withdrawal and concession. 8. Emotive type. Characterized by a desire to communicate in a narrow circle. Installs good contacts only with a small select circle of people. Overly sensitive. Tearful. At the same time, he is characterized by kindness, compassion, a heightened sense of duty, and diligence. Rarely enters into conflicts. In conflicts, he plays a passive role and is prone to concessions. 9. Demonstrative type. Characterized by ease of establishing contacts, desire for leadership, thirst for power and fame. Prone to intrigue. Courteous, artistic. At the same time, people of this type are selfish, hypocritical, and boastful. Conflicted. Active in conflict. 10. Exalted type ( from lat. exaltatio - an enthusiastic, excited state, painful liveliness). Characterized by high contact. Talkative, amorous. Attached and attentive to friends and relatives, susceptible to momentary moods. They sincerely worry about other people's problems.
Mechanisms of development and character formation
Character usually means the totality of some outstanding mental properties of an individual person. This refers to those mental properties that are formed after the birth of a person. Temperament, for example, has physiological and genetic roots, and therefore does not relate to character, because it is largely formed before birth. He, in turn, can either promote or hinder the development of certain character traits
Character is formed in the process of personality development and its social relations.
Character traits are formed at three levels:
physiological - based on temperament,
social - under the influence of society
at the level of consciousness - self-formation of character.
The main condition for the development and formation of a person’s character is, of course, the social environment. In simple words, all those people who surround a person in the process of growing up and beyond. There is no need to talk about clear boundaries of this process, because character is “filled” with various traits throughout life.
It is worth noting that the formation of a person’s character is characterized by a number of certain conditions and features at different age stages.
Periods of character formation
Although character begins to form from the first months, nevertheless, a special Sensitive period of life is distinguished. This period occurs approximately from the ages of 2-3 to 9-10 years, when children actively and extensively communicate both with the adults around them and with peers, readily accept them, imitating everyone and in everything. During this period, they are open to almost any outside influence. Children readily accept any new experience, imitating everyone and in everything. At this time, adults still enjoy the child’s boundless trust, so they have the opportunity to influence him with word, deed and action.
For the development of a child’s character, the communication style of the people around him is important:
Adults with adults
Adults with children
Children with children.
The style of communication of adults with each other in front of a child, the way of communicating with him himself is very important for the development of character.
The child adopts the communication style and tries to adapt to it, which in turn also affects the development of character. It is generally accepted that the way a mother and father act towards a child many years later becomes the way he treats his children when the child becomes an adult and starts his own family. However, this is both true and not true. The child not only adopts communication styles, he criticizes them in his own way. How older child and the more developed his intellect and the more willingly he uses the capabilities of his mind, the more critical he is. That is why a person’s attitude to truth is always included in the core of character. The inquisitiveness of a child’s mind cannot but leave an imprint on the formation of his character.
Some of the first traits in a person’s character are:
Kindness-selfishness,
Sociability-isolation
Responsiveness-indifference.
Research shows that these character traits begin to form long before the beginning of the school period of life, even in infancy.
Later, other character traits are formed:
Hard work is laziness,
Neatness-inaccuracy,
Good faith-maliciousness,
Responsibility-irresponsibility,
Persistence is cowardice.
These qualities, however, also begin to form in preschool childhood. They are formed and reinforced in games and available types of household work and other everyday activities.
Stimulation from adults is of great importance on the development of character traits. Both low and very high demands can have a detrimental effect on the formation of character.
In the preschool period, mainly those traits that are constantly supported are preserved and consolidated.
In the elementary grades of school, character traits that manifest themselves in relationships with people are developed. This is facilitated by the expansion of the child’s sphere of communication with others due to many new school friends and adults - teachers. If what a child as an individual acquired at home receives support at school, then the corresponding character traits are reinforced and most often remain throughout his entire life. If the newly acquired experience of communicating with peers, teachers, and other adults does not confirm as correct the characteristic forms of behavior that the child acquired at home, then a gradual breakdown of character begins, which is usually accompanied by pronounced internal and external conflicts. The restructuring of character that occurs does not always lead to a positive result. Most often, there is a partial change in character traits and a compromise between what the child was taught at home and what the school requires of him.
At school, the child begins to live a full life social life, communicate with a large number of people, including those he knows little. The child’s responsibility for the results of their activities increases. They begin to compare him with other children. Therefore, it is in elementary school that such an important character trait as self-attitude is formed. School success can build confidence in one's own intellectual worth. Failures can form a kind of “loser complex”: the child stops trying because he is still a “loser”.
During adolescence, strong-willed character traits actively develop. In early adolescence, the basic moral and ideological foundations of the personality are finally formed, which most people carry through the rest of their lives. By the end of school, the character is finally formed. Further, the character is formed and transformed throughout life, but not so much that it becomes unrecognizable. Now a person becomes the creator of his character as a result of self-education.
Types of improper upbringing and character types with pathologies
Social environment, of course, a very important condition for the formation of character. But no less important is education. The role of upbringing in the formation of character cannot be ruled out, since improper upbringing can cause certain pathologies in character. Education can be classified as purposeful or spontaneous.
According to the goals, education can be divided into three types:
education for the teacher,
education for society
education for the educated.
Parenting for the caregiver is aimed at developing traits that make parenting easier, such as obedience.
The task of education for society is the formation of socially significant traits (for example, law-abiding); Education for the person being educated poses the task of forming such character traits that are beneficial for the person himself and are capable of harmonizing his existence.
Capabilities– individual psychological characteristics of a person, manifested in activity and being a condition for its success. From the level of development abilities depend on the speed, ease and strength of the process of mastering knowledge, skills and abilities, but they themselves capabilities are not limited to knowledge, skills and abilities.
General abilities are called of a person, which to one degree or another are manifested in all types of his activities. These are learning abilities, a person’s general mental abilities, and his ability to work. They are based on the general skills necessary in each area of activity, in particular such as the ability to understand tasks, plan and organize their execution, using the means available in a person’s experience, to reveal the connections of those things to which the activity relates, to master new work techniques, to overcome difficulties on the way to the goal.
Under special understanding of abilities, which are clearly manifested in individual, special areas of activity (for example, stage, music, sports, etc.).
Separation of common and special abilities is conditional. Actually, we are talking about general and special aspects of human abilities that exist in interconnection. General abilities are manifested in special ones, that is, in abilities for some specific, specific activity. With the development of special abilities, their general aspects also develop.
GIFTEDNESS- the presence of a person with favorable inclinations and abilities for any one or more types of activity. About giftedness a person can be judged by the nature of the development of abilities and mastery of knowledge, skills, abilities, by success and level of achievements in professional work.
The basis of any abilities are inclinations. Inclinations are understood as primary, natural (biological) characteristics with which a person is born and which mature in the process of his development. These are mainly innate anatomical and physiological features of the structure of the body, motor system, sensory organs, neurodynamic properties of the brain, features of functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres, etc. It is the originality of individual characteristics that acts as natural inclinations. Inclinations do not contain abilities and do not guarantee their development. They may or may not turn into abilities, depending on the person’s upbringing and activities. In the absence of proper upbringing and activity, even large inclinations will not become abilities, but with appropriate upbringing and activity, even small inclinations can develop abilities of a sufficiently high level.
B. M. Teplov points out some conditions for the formation of abilities. Abilities themselves cannot be innate. Only inclinations can be innate. Teplov understood his inclinations as certain anatomical and physiological features. Inclinations underlie the development of abilities, and abilities are the result of development. If the ability itself is not innate, therefore, it is formed in postnatal ontogenesis (it is important to pay attention to the fact that Teplov separates the terms “innate” and “hereditary”; “innate” - manifested from the moment of birth and formed under the influence of both hereditary and and environmental factors, “hereditary” - formed under the influence of hereditary factors and manifested both immediately after birth and at any other time in a person’s life). Abilities are formed through activity. Teplov writes that “...an ability cannot arise outside of the corresponding specific objective activity.” Thus, ability includes what arises in the activity corresponding to it. It also influences the success of this activity. Ability begins to exist only together with activity. It cannot appear before the activity corresponding to it has begun. Moreover, abilities are not only manifested in activities. They are created in it.
In psychology, there are three concepts of abilities:
A) the theory of heredity of abilities,
B) theory of acquired abilities,
C) acquired and natural in abilities.
1. The theory of heredity of abilities dates back to Plato, who argued that abilities have a biological origin, i.e. their manifestation depends entirely on who the child’s parent was, on what traits are inherited. Training and education can only change the speed of their appearance, but they will always manifest themselves in one way or another. www.pclever.ru
The approach to the hereditary nature of abilities is reflected in views linking a person’s abilities with the size of his brain. But these studies were not confirmed.
2. The theory of acquired abilities connects abilities exclusively with environment and upbringing. Back in the 18th century. K.A. Helvetius stated that with the help of special education genius can be formed. Supporters this direction refer to cases where children from the most backward and primitive tribes, having received appropriate training, were no different from educated Europeans.
Examples are also given of cases where a child, for some reason, is deprived of the opportunity to communicate with adults and peers. As a result, a person in the full sense of the word does not emerge from him.
The American scientist W. Ashby argues that abilities and even genius are determined by acquired properties, and in particular by what pre-program and program of intellectual activity was formed in a person in childhood and in subsequent life, spontaneously and consciously during the learning process. For one, the program allows solving creative problems, while for the other - only reproductive ones. W. Ashby considers efficiency to be the second factor of ability.
But this concept has also met and continues to meet objections. Life observations and special studies indicate that the natural prerequisites for abilities cannot be denied. In a number of professions they are especially important.
3. Acquired and natural in abilities. This concept, which combines the above theories, is confirmed by practice and special research.
Researchers divide abilities into natural and acquired. This division is very conditional. Heredity is included, of course, as one of the conditions in the development of a person, but his abilities are not a direct function of his heredity. First of all, the hereditary and acquired in specific personality characteristics form an inseparable unity; Because of this alone, it is impossible to attribute any specific mental properties of a person to heredity alone.
Feel - this is the simplest mental cognitive process of reflecting individual properties of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, as well as internal states of the body, arising from their direct impact on the senses.
Types and classification of sensations. According to the five sense organs known to the ancient Greeks, the following types of sensations are distinguished: visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile (tactile). In addition, there are intermediate sensations between tactile and auditory - vibration. There are also complex sensations, consisting of several independent analytical systems: for example, touch is tactile and muscle-articular sensations; skin sensations include tactile, temperature and pain. There are organic sensations (hunger, thirst, nausea, etc.), static, sensations of balance, reflecting the position of the body in space.
There are various bases for classifying sensations.
The most ancient classification of sensations includes five points (according to the number of sense organs):
- sense of smell,
- taste,
- touch,
- vision
- hearing.
B.G. Ananyev identified eleven types of sensations.
The English physiologist C. Sherrington proposed a systematic classification of sensations. At the first level, sensations are divided into three main types:
- interoceptive,
- proprioceptive,
- exteroceptive.
Interoceptive combine signals that reach us from the internal environment of the body. Proprioceptive transmit information about the position in space of the body in general and the musculoskeletal system in particular. Exteroceptives provide signals from outside world.
Interoceptive sensations
Signal status internal processes body. They arise thanks to receptors located:
- on the walls of the stomach, intestines, heart, blood vessels and other organs,
- inside muscles and other organs.
As it turns out, this is the most ancient and most elementary group of sensations. Receptors that perceive information about the state of internal organs are called internal receptors. Interoceptive sensations are among the least conscious and most diffuse forms of sensations. Typically, they always retain their proximity to emotional states in consciousness.
Interoceptive sensations are also often called organic.
Proprioceptive sensations
They transmit signals about the position of the body in space, thereby forming the afferent basis of human movements, playing a decisive role in their regulation. Proprioceptive sensations include:
- a sense of balance (static sensation),
- motor (kinesthetic) sensation.
Receptors for proprioceptive sensitivity are located in muscles and joints (tendons, ligaments). These receptors are called Paccini bodies.
The role of proprioceptors has been well studied in physiology and psychophysiology. Their role as the afferent basis of movements in animals and humans was studied in detail in the works of A.A. Orbeli, P.K. Anokhina, N.A. Bernstein.
Peripheral receptors for the sensation of balance are located in the semicircular canals of the inner ear.
Exteroceptive sensations
They bring information from the outside world to human consciousness. Exteroceptive sensations are divided into:
- contact (taste and touch),
- distant (hearing, vision and smell).
The sense of smell, according to many authors, occupies an intermediate position between contact and distant sensations. Formally, olfactory sensations arise at a distance from the object, but the smell itself is a kind of object (we can say that it is a cloud of gas). And then it turns out that the nose is in direct contact with this object. You can also notice that the object itself has already ceased to exist, but the smell from it remains (for example, a tree burned, but the smoke from it remains). The sense of smell also plays a huge role in the perception of the quality of the product consumed.
Intermodal sensations
There are sensations that cannot be associated with any specific modality. Such sensations are called intermodal. These include vibration sensitivity, which integrates tactile-motor and auditory sensations. L.E. Komendantov believes that tactile-vibration sensitivity is one of the forms of sound perception. Tactile perception of sound vibration is understood as diffuse sound sensitivity. In the lives of deaf and deaf-blind people, vibration sensitivity plays a huge role. Deaf-blind people, thanks to the high development of vibration sensitivity, learned about the approach of a truck and other types of transport at a great distance.
The concept of the strength of the nervous system was put forward by I. P. Pavlov in 1922. When studying the conditioned reflex activity of animals, it was revealed that the greater the intensity of the stimulus or the more often it is used, the greater the response conditioned reflex reaction. However, when a certain intensity or frequency of stimulation is reached, the conditioned reflex response begins to decrease. In general, this relationship was formulated as the “law of force” (Fig. 5.1).
It was noticed that this law does not manifest itself in the same way in animals: in some, extreme inhibition, at which a decrease in the conditioned reflex response begins, occurs at a lower intensity or frequency of irritation than in others. The former were classified as a “weak type” of the nervous system, the latter as a “strong type”. Two methods have emerged for diagnosing the strength of the nervous system: by the maximum intensity of a single stimulation, which does not yet lead to a decrease in the conditioned reflex reaction (measurement of strength through the “upper threshold”), and by the largest number irritation, which also does not yet lead to a decrease in the reflex response (measuring strength through its “endurance”).
In the laboratory of B. M. Teplov, a greater sensitivity of persons with a weak nervous system was revealed compared to persons with a strong nervous system. This gave rise to another way to measure the strength of the nervous system - through the speed of a person’s response to signals of different intensities: subjects with a weak nervous system, due to their higher sensitivity, react to weak and medium-strength signals faster than subjects with a strong nervous system. Essentially, in this case, the strength of the nervous system is determined through a “lower threshold”.
In the same research team, the strength of the nervous system began to be determined by the level of EEG activation. However, this method is technically difficult for mass surveys.
Until recently, all these methods of measuring the strength of the nervous system did not have a single theoretical justification and therefore were considered as independent of each other, as revealing various manifestations of the strength of the nervous system, as based on different physiological mechanisms. Hence the requirement to study the typological manifestations of properties using several methods at once, about than was discussed in Chapter 4. Nevertheless, a unified explanation of the various manifestations of the strength of the nervous system is possible (E. P. Ilyin, 1979), which makes equal the various methods with which the strength of nervous processes is studied. The factor uniting these methods turned out to be the level of activation at rest (judgment which was determined based on the level of energy consumption at rest - Fig. 5 2). For some people it is higher, and for others it is lower. Hence the differences in the manifestation of the “law of force”.
The strength of the nervous system as reactivity. In order for a visible response to occur (sensation of a stimulus or movement of the hand), it is necessary that the stimulus exceeds or at least reaches a certain (threshold) value. This means that this stimulus causes such physiological and physicochemical changes in the irritated substrate that are sufficient for the appearance of a sensation or motor response. Therefore, in order to receive a response, you need to reach a threshold level of activation of the nervous system. But in a state of physiological rest, the nervous system is already at a certain level of activation, although below the threshold. In subjects with a weak nervous system, the level of activation at rest is higher ( which follows from the fact that at rest they have higher oxygen consumption and energy expenditure per kilogram of body weight), therefore, they are closer to the threshold level of activation from which the response begins (Figure 5.3) than individuals with a strong nervous system. In order to bring this level to the threshold, they, as follows from the diagram, need a stimulus of less intensity. Subjects with a strong nervous system, whose resting activation level is lower, require a larger stimulus to bring the activation level to the threshold. Hence the differences between “weak” and “strong” in terms of the lower threshold of irritation (r,< г2).
The strength of the nervous system is like endurance. Repeated repeated presentation of a stimulus of equal strength at short intervals of time causes the phenomenon of summation, i.e., an increase in reflex reactions due to an increase in background activation, since each previous excitation leaves behind a trace and therefore each subsequent reaction of the subject begins at a higher functional level, than the previous one (shaded area in Fig. 5.5).
Since the initial level of activation in subjects with a weak nervous system is higher than in subjects with a strong nervous system, the phenomenon of summation of excitation and the associated increase in response (despite the constant strength of the stimulus in terms of physical parameters) will quickly reach the response limit and the “inhibitory” will occur faster. » effect, i.e. a decrease in the effectiveness of the response. Persons with a strong nervous system, due to lower resting activation, have a larger “margin of safety”, and therefore their summation can continue for a longer time without reaching the reaction limit. In addition, it is possible that the response limit for the “strong” is at a higher level than for the “weak” (this is not reflected in the diagram, where hypothetically the response limits for the “strong” and “weak” are indicated the same; the only thing is that does not fit into this scheme - this is the case when the “weak” have a greater response limit than the “strong”). Since the magnitude of the summation of excitation is determined by the duration of the stimulus (time t or the number of repetitions of stimulation n), a strong nervous system turns out to be more resilient. This means that with repeated presentation of signals (external or internal - self-orders), the decrease in the effect of responding to these signals (the magnitude or speed of reactions) in the “weak” will occur faster than in the “strong”. This is the basis of various methods for determining the strength of the nervous system through its endurance.
Two significant points should be noted. Firstly, when diagnosing the strength of the nervous system, weak stimuli cannot be used, since they reduce, rather than increase, the activation of the nervous system, and as a result, individuals with a weak nervous system are more tolerant to a monotonous stimulus. By the way, a dispute arose about this even in the laboratory of I. I. Pavlov: I. P. Pavlov believed that those dogs that quickly fell asleep in the “tower of silence”, when they developed conditioned reflexes, had a weak nervous system. However, his student K.P. Petrova (1934) proved that these are precisely dogs with a strong nervous system that cannot withstand a monotonous environment (or, as they would say now, sensory deprivation). In the end, I.P. Pavlov admitted that the student was right.
Secondly, not every indicator of endurance can serve as a criterion for the strength of the nervous system. Endurance for physical or mental work is not a direct indicator of the strength of the nervous system, although it is related to it. We should be talking about the endurance of nerve cells, not humans. Therefore, methods should show the speed of development of transcendental inhibition, on the one hand, and the severity of the summation effect, on the other.
The creation of effective and reliable methods for determining the strength of the nervous system has made it possible to carry out comprehensive studies of the nature and manifestations of this important parameter of nervous activity. In a whole series of experimental works carried out in the laboratory of B.M. Teplov, the existence of a complex of various qualities of nervous activity was shown, grouped around the strength parameter and collectively constituting a syndrome of manifestations of this property of the nervous system.
The complexity of manifestations is a necessary formal sign of the properties of the nervous system as a stationary parameter of its organization. “It is impossible to imagine such a basic property of the nervous system that would have only one manifestation. This will be a particular feature of the nervous system, but not its main property” (B.M. Teplov, 1963, p. 8). As for the strength of the nervous system, the existence around it of such a complex of manifestations and dependencies is currently undoubted, and one of the most significant attributes of this property is its inextricable internal connection with the absolute thresholds of sensations.
B.M. Teplov’s now widely known hypothesis about the relationship between the sensitivity, reactivity of the nervous system and its strength was first put forward (1955) in the form of a purely theoretical conclusion, derived from an analysis of some of I.P. Pavlov’s statements about the functional qualities of cortical cells, analysis of the effect of the methods used to increase excitability, as well as some observations by various authors on the behavioral characteristics of weak-type animals.
B.M. Teplov paid special attention to those statements by I.P. Pavlov, which discussed the causal relationship between the level of “higher reactivity” of the cortical cell and the limit of its performance. I.P. Pavlov believed that it is precisely their exceptional reactivity and, as a consequence, rapid functional destructibility that distinguishes cortical cells from other cells of the nervous system. “Shouldn’t we understand the differences between the cortical cells of the weak and strong nervous systems in a similar way?” he asks. B.M. Teplov (1955, p.6) answers this question positively. Thus, a hypothetical explanation was given specific feature a weak nervous system, consisting in a low limit of its performance and a tendency to the rapid development of extreme inhibition; these qualities were put in connection with the high reactivity, excitability, and sensitivity of nerve cells of a weak nervous system.
It must be said that at the time the hypothesis under discussion was put forward, the concepts of reactivity, excitability and sensitivity were accepted as synonymous and adjacent. Subsequently, however, a need arose for their clarification and a certain distinction, since (in order not to introduce new terms) each of them is more useful to use to designate, at least partially, a specific range of phenomena. This especially applies to the concept of reactivity in comparison with the other two concepts.
If the concepts of sensitivity and excitability emphasize the content related to the threshold of the reaction, to the minimum value of the stimulus that causes a state of excitation, then in the concept of reactivity, apparently, the main thing is the moment of the magnitude of the reaction itself, on the basis of which the presence of irritation is judged. But it is not in all cases possible to judge the magnitude of the irritation by the magnitude of the reaction. The intervention of certain factors related to both general and individual characteristics of the nervous system can lead to the fact that the characteristics of reactivity will not coincide with the characteristics of sensitivity and excitability; Thus, it turns out that a signal of lower intensity (threshold) causes a larger reaction in some vegetative components of the orienting reflex than a supra-threshold stimulus (O.S. Vinogradova, E.N. Sokolov, 1955), and it may also turn out that it is less sensitive the system will be more reactive, i.e. will give a larger reaction magnitude than a more sensitive one (as well as vice versa). It follows that when characterizing the threshold function, it is preferable to use the concepts of sensitivity or excitability rather than the concept of reactivity.
As for the difference between the concepts of sensitivity and excitability, it is more particular and boils down to the fact that the first concept is usually used when determining thresholds of sensations and, therefore, is possible only in relation to the function of the organism as a whole, and the second is more used when measuring thresholds characteristics of excitable tissues. There is obviously no fundamental difference between the concepts of sensitivity and excitability. In what follows we will mainly use the term “sensitivity” of the nervous system, meaning by this the absolute specific sensitivity of analyzers (sense organs).
It should be specially emphasized that we are talking specifically about absolute sensitivity, i.e. the value inverse to the absolute threshold of sensation, and not about discriminative (discriminative, differential) sensitivity - the value inverse to the threshold for distinguishing two objects or qualities. We have to talk about this because sometimes in discussions about the connection between the strength of the nervous system and sensitivity, the two indicated - completely different - contents of the last term are confused, which leads to the loss of the subject of discussion, to inaccurate arguments and to incorrect conclusions.
As for discriminative sensitivity, attempts made so far to connect this essential psychophysiological characteristic with the properties of the nervous system, in particular with the supposed “concentration”, the ability of the nervous process to concentrate, have not led to any clear results (M.N. Borisova, 1959). It is possible that this is due to the high level of exercise, the trainability of discriminative thresholds (B.M. Teplov, 1947; M.N. Borisova, 1957), which, therefore, are unlikely to be a function of such stable features of the organization of the nervous system as its basic properties .
But let’s return to B.M. Teplov’s hypothesis. It was first expressed in print in 1955. At that time, this extremely fruitful “idea really remained only a hypothesis, although it was based on some observations cited by various authors (I.V. Vinogradov, 1933; M.S. Kolesnikov, 1953) that indicated increased intensity and extremely difficult extinction of orientation reflexes in dogs of a weak type of nervous system (it is possible, however, that these features of orienting behavior are not due to the sensitivity of the weak type, but to the insufficient dynamism of the inhibitory process in the animals studied).
However, over the 10 years that have passed since that moment, a sufficient amount of data has been accumulated to consider the relationship between absolute sensitivity and the strength of the nervous system as an experimentally established fact. These data were obtained both in B.M. Teplov’s laboratory on humans and in some other scientific institutions on animals. Let us first present the materials of the works of the first group, and then dwell on the reports of the authors who worked with animals.
Already the initial testing of the hypothesis (V.D. Nebylitsyn, 1956, 1959a) gave quite definite results. During this test, subjects were subjected to three strength techniques. One of them is induction, the “caffeine” option, the other is extinction with reinforcement, the photochemical option, and the third has not yet been described on the pages of this work. Its essence lies in measuring shifts in absolute sensitivity under the influence of different doses of caffeine (V.D. Nebylitsyn, 19576). The basis for its more detailed development was some experimental observations of the individual characteristics of the reaction to caffeine in the sensory organs. The literature data on this matter is quite contradictory, and there is not very much of it. In this regard, we point out the works of H. Rose and I. Schmidt (N. W. Rose, I. Schmidt, 1947), S. I. Subbotnik (1945), S. A. Brandis (1938), S. V. Kravkov (1939), K. Tremel et al. (K. G. Troemel et al., 1951), who studied the effect of caffeine on visual thresholds, as well as R. I. Levina (1953) and Yu. A. Klaas (1956 ), who studied the effect of caffeine on auditory thresholds.
None of the mentioned works - except perhaps the work of R.I. Levina - makes an attempt to explain or at least somehow connect the effect of caffeine with the characteristics of higher nervous activity. Meanwhile, the basis for such an attempt could at least be the fact that in Pavlov’s laboratories the caffeine test, using the conditioned reflex method, was ultimately the most reliable and most convenient indicator of the strength of the nervous system.
The technical side of the described technique is very simple. After establishing the background level of sensitivity, the subject received pure caffeine in solution; in the first experiment the dose was 0.05, in the second – 0.1, in the third – 0.3 g.
After a 20-minute break, the measurement of thresholds was resumed and continued, depending on the nature of changes in sensitivity, for 30–50 minutes, at intervals of 2 minutes.
Experiments with caffeine were carried out every other day.
The validity of this technique was justified by comparing its results with data obtained using reference techniques—induction and extinction with reinforcement. Initially (V.D. Nebylitsyn, 1956), the indicator of strength according to this method was the magnitude of shifts in sensitivity towards increasing the latter, namely: the absence of changes in sensitivity or its small shifts, lying within 30% of the background, were qualified as a sign of the strength of nerves cells, large shifts in sensitivity - up to 300% or more from the background - were interpreted as a manifestation of the weakness of nerve cells.
However, as experimental data accumulated, we had to introduce some additions here. The fact is that for some subjects, taking caffeine causes not an increase, but a decrease in sensitivity, sometimes reaching quite significant values, which can be observed both on the visual and auditory analyzers. Based on the results of comparison with the data of reference methods, these subjects were recognized as “weak”, while at the same time, in the “strong” subjects, there were no cases of decreased sensitivity after taking caffeine.
We could conclude from this that an indicator of the weakness of the nervous system according to this method is either a strong increase in sensitivity or a decrease in it (regardless of the magnitude of this decrease). In people with a strong nervous system, caffeine intake either does not cause any change in sensitivity, or causes a relatively slight increase in it.
Let us now return to the first experimental work to determine the connection between sensitivity and strength of the nervous system. Absolute visual thresholds were measured in all 37 subjects; Hearing sensitivity data were obtained from 25 subjects. Unfortunately, not all subjects were tested on each of the three methods for determining the strength of the nervous system. Comparison of data on sensitivity and strength was carried out separately for two analyzers - visual and auditory. In 33 subjects, the strength of the nerve cells of the visual analyzer was determined by at least two experimental methods, and in 11 of them, the strength study was carried out using all three methods.
In the experimental series on the visual analyzer, we encountered only isolated cases of discrepancies between the results of testing the strength of the nervous system using various methods. In 91% of all cases, a coincidence of results was obtained, which gave us the right to divide all subjects according to the total assessment of the strength of nerve cells in the visual analyzer into two main groups. One of the groups included 15 people who showed weakness or a tendency to weakness of nerve cells, the other included 22 people who showed a greater or lesser level of the actual strength of the nervous system. We could now statistically compare the mean absolute sensitivity values calculated for both groups. The t criterion turned out to be 7.09, рlt; 0.001, which meant that there was a very clear relationship between the strength of the nervous system and absolute thresholds.
In experiments on the auditory analyzer, two methods were used to determine the strength of nerve cells: one of them was a change in sensitivity under the influence of caffeine, the other was extinction with reinforcement, where a sound stimulus was used as a conditioned stimulus. In 11 subjects, the strength of nerve cells was determined by both methods, in 13 it was determined only by the effect of caffeine on sensitivity, in 1 subject - only using extinction with reinforcement.
A comparison of both methods leads us to the conclusion that they produce essentially the same results. This, in any case, is true for 10 out of 11 subjects.
Based on the total assessment of nerve cell strength, all 25 subjects can be divided into two groups. The average sensitivity of the “strong” group is 96 conventional units. units, “weak” – 162 arb. units Calculation of the t criterion gives its value equal to 3.56 (рlt; 0.01).
Thus, the difference in average sensitivity values for the auditory analyzer is statistically less significant than for the visual analyzer, although it fully satisfies the criteria for a reasonable conclusion. The smaller value of t here owes its origin, in addition to the smaller number of subjects, to two cases of obvious exceptions from the general picture, consisting in the combination of high sensitivity with high strength of nerve cells. The reason for these exceptions may be the imperfection of the only force technique with which these subjects were studied (the direct effect of caffeine on sensitivity).
But regardless of this, it must be noted and emphasized that the negative relationship between sensitivity and strength, as follows from experimental materials, is by no means functional (in the mathematical sense of the term). In materials it is not so rare to find cases of a combination of high sensitivity with high strength nervous system and vice versa – low sensitivity with obvious weakness of nerve cells. Obviously, the matter here does not come down to the imperfection of the methods, although, probably, this factor may also play a certain role. Rather, we can think about the influence of factors in the functional state of the body, which, presumably, are capable of significantly modifying the nature of the function, especially such a subtle one as absolute sensitivity.
There is a number of experimental evidence in favor of the fact that fluctuations in thresholds occur continuously over both the shortest and very long periods of time (P.P. Lazarev, 1923; K. X. Kekcheev, 1946; P.G. Snyakin, 1951 ). Sensitivity does not remain constant even over periods of time measured in seconds and minutes; it changes from one experimental day to another. One can also assume the existence of slower, but perhaps larger, shifts over periods of time measured in months or even years. The same probably applies to the function of endurance, the performance of nervous tissue, which constitutes the main content of the strength of the nervous system.
All this leads to the fact that the measurement of the closeness of the connection between two variables, one of which represents absolute sensitivity, and the other the quantified results of determining the strength of the nervous system, never gives very high values. Correlation coefficients at best only reach values of the order of 0.7; this, of course, is not at all small, but if we take into account that the factor common to two variables, even in this case, is “responsible” for only about 50% of the variance, we will become clear how large the proportion of the total variance is due to the influence of unaccounted causes.
So, the initial test of B.M. Teplov’s hypothesis about the connection between sensitivity and strength confirmed this hypothesis and at the same time showed that the relationship between these two parameters of the nervous system is statistical in nature, not acting in the form of a functional relationship, but in the form of a correlation. In works carried out later using correlation and factor techniques for analyzing the resulting relationships, both the existence of the dependence itself and its statistical nature were repeatedly confirmed.
In the joint work of V.I., Rozhdestvenskaya et al. (1960), devoted to the comparison of all indicators of the strength of the nervous system adopted by that time in the laboratory, indicators of absolute thresholds - visual and auditory - were also included in the comparison. A feature of this work was that 38 out of 40 subjects were tested using all methods and, thus, it was possible to calculate the correlation coefficients of each indicator with each other. At the moment, we are interested in correlations between measures of sensitivity and reference indicators of nervous system strength. The latter, if we include the effect of caffeine on sensitivity, was 10. Let's list them:
1. Extinction with reinforcement of a photochemical conditioned reflex, with visual conditioned stimuli, without caffeine.
2. Extinction with reinforcement of a photochemical conditioned reflex, with visual conditioned stimuli, using caffeine.
3.Induction technique, “curve shape” option.
4.Induction technique, “fatigue” option.
5. Induction technique, “repetition” option.
6.Induction technique, “caffeine” option.
7. Measuring the effect of caffeine on visual sensitivity.
8. Extinction with reinforcement of a photochemical conditioned reflex, with auditory conditioned stimuli, without caffeine.
9. The same, with caffeine.
10. Measuring the effect of caffeine on auditory sensitivity.
As can be seen from this listing, 7 indicators relate to the visual analyzer (1–7), and the remaining three to the auditory analyzer (8–10). Rank correlation coefficients between reference indicators of strength and threshold indicators are given in Table 24, in which the numbers of methods correspond to the list just given.
When examining the table, one remarkable point attracts attention: the correlation coefficients for indicators of visual thresholds are in almost all cases higher than for auditory ones, and if lower, then by a very insignificant amount; among the former there is not a single insignificant coefficient, among the latter there are four. We, in fact, have already encountered this difference between the visual analyzer and the auditory one above, when we noted that the statistical significance of the difference between the average sensitivity values of “strong” and “weak” for the visual analyzer turns out to be higher than for the auditory one. Now, with correlation analysis of the material, this phenomenon is repeated. What are its reasons?
As a tentative explanation for some of these reasons, we can point to morphophysiological differences in the organization of the peripheral sensory apparatus of vision and hearing. If the primary processes of the visual analyzer are from the very beginning photochemical and then neuroelectric in nature, then in the auditory analyzer the first phase of processing the stimulus energy, up to the irritation of the so-called hair cells, occurs in purely mechanical processes. This difference, in general, apparently corresponds to differences in the quality of the physical energies themselves, which serve as adequate stimuli for the visual and auditory receptors. It can be assumed that the mechanical properties of the periphery of the auditory analyzer are more susceptible to the influence of various living conditions of the body than the chemical and neurophysiological properties of the retina, especially since the retina is a closed organ, reliably protected by the eyeball, and the cochlea and especially the organs of the middle ear are located in close proximity to external auditory canal. This, perhaps, determines the high frequency of non-compliance with the rule of connection between sensitivity and strength of nerve cells in the auditory analyzer, leading to the fact that the correlations between auditory sensitivity and strength techniques for the auditory analyzer are, as a rule, lower than between visual sensitivity and the results of strength determination in the visual analyzer.
Table24
Rank correlation coefficients between sensation thresholds and indicators of the strength of the nervous system (V.I. Rozhdestvenskaya et al., 1960)
Notes 1) the numbers of methods correspond to the above list; 2) plt; 0.05; ** plt; 0.01; ***рlt; 0.001.
Another reason for the low correlations of auditory sensitivity indicators specifically with the strength indicators of the visual analyzer, as well as visual sensitivity with strength in the auditory analyzer, apparently lies in the presence of sometimes serious discrepancies in the level of sensitivity and strength between both of these analyzers (see Chapter XII about this). ). This factor came out with particular clarity in the work of Z. G. Turovskaya (19636), among others, who compared in an experiment, on the one hand, some indicators of the strength of the nervous system, and on the other hand, indicators of visual and auditory absolute thresholds. The correlation coefficients obtained by her are given in Table 25, which is an extract from the intercorrelation matrix presented in this work.
Here is a list of methods for determining strength included in the comparison in the work of Z. G. Turovskaya:
1. Induction technique, “repetition” option.
2. Induction technique, “fatigue” option.
3. The effect of distracting sound stimuli on visual sensitivity.
4. Effect of distracting light stimuli on auditory sensitivity.
5.Critical frequency of flickering phosphene (CFF) when changing the intensity of the electrical stimulus.
The first two of these methods are already known to the reader; the latter will be described in the next chapter. As for the third and fourth methods, we will now briefly describe them. Their justification as methods for testing the strength of the nervous system is given in the works of L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina (1957, 1959, 1960), as well as in comparisons of these indicators with reference strength techniques (V.I. Rozhdestvenskaya et al., 1960; 3 .G.Turovskaya, 1963b). L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina, unlike some other authors, firstly, discovered the existence of significant individual differences in the direction of shifts in absolute sensitivity under the influence of heteromodal sensory stimulation, and secondly, she established that these shifts are usually of the opposite nature at the first and upon subsequent presentations of an additional stimulus.
Table25
Rank correlation coefficients between sensation thresholds and indicators of the strength of the nervous system (Z. G. Turovskaya, 19636)
Notes 1) a list of power techniques, designated by numbers \– 5, is given below; 2) plt; 0.05;gt;gt; plt; 0.01.
In ch. 4 we have already dwelled on the individual characteristics of changes in sensitivity during the first presentation of a stimulus - changes that have the nature of an indicative reaction and therefore are quite easy to extinguish. Let us recall that these changes were expressed in “strong” subjects in a decrease, and in “weak” subjects – in an increase in sensitivity. Continuation of stimulation caused an inversion of the effect of the additional stimulus, regardless of whether it was presented in short portions, only for the duration of each threshold measurement, or acted continuously for many minutes. Thus, after extinction of the orienting reaction, which usually occurs very quickly, the additional stimulus causes an increase in absolute sensitivity in individuals with a strong nervous system and a decrease in absolute sensitivity in individuals with a weak nervous system.
The described dynamics can be illustrated in Fig. 42, which shows for comparison the data of two subjects who differ in the strength of the nervous system. These differences, according to L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina, are explained from a physiological point of view by the presence in “strong” subjects of a dominant focus of excitation in the analyzer to which the threshold stimulus is addressed, and the absence of such a focus in individuals with a weak nervous system, for whom an additional the stimulus therefore acts as an external brake. Since these differences were quite definite, methods studying the influence of intermittent sound on visual sensitivity and intermittent light on auditory sensitivity were included in the comparison of a number of force methods (V.I. Rozhdestvenskaya et al., 1960), where they showed satisfactory correlations with reference indicators strength of the nervous system. High correlations of these techniques with some variants of the induction technique were also found in the analyzed work of Z. G. Turovskaya (19636). This allows us to consider indicators based on determining the nature of the distracting action of an additional stimulus as fairly reliable indicators of the strength of the nervous system.
But let's return to the data of Z. G. Turovskaya regarding the connection between strength and sensitivity.
Fig.42. The influence of long-term heteromodal sensory stimulation on the absolute sensitivity of subjects with a strong (A) and weak (B) nervous system.
Solid line – changes in absolute visual sensitivity under the influence of sound; dashed line – changes in absolute auditory sensitivity under the influence of light. Bi and Bo sensitivity levels when additional stimulation is turned off.
The abscissa axis is the serial number of changes in sensitivity in the experiment; ordinate axis – sensitivity (in%) but in relation to the “background” (L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina, 1959).
As is clear from the list of power techniques used by Z. G. Turovskaya, three of them (1, 2 and 5) definitely relate to the visual analyzer; As for the other two, precise localization of their scope of action seems difficult, since they deal simultaneously with two analyzers. This probably explains the fact that the correlations of auditory thresholds with strength indicators, although positive, do not reach the level of significance. At the same time, visual thresholds correlate quite highly with indicators of the strength of the nervous system, although not in all cases.
Thus, taking into account the restrictions introduced by the modality of stimulation, we can assume that the rule of connection between sensitivity and the strength of the nervous system, or more precisely, between visual sensitivity and the strength of the nervous system in the visual analyzer was confirmed in the work of Z. G. Turovskaya.
Table26
Individual indicators of auditory thresholds in comparison with EEG results of the extinction option with reinforcement (V.D. Nebylitsyn, 19636)
| Subjects | | | Subjects | Hearing threshold (in dB from 0.0002 bar) | Preservation of a conditioned response as a result of extinction with reinforcement (in% of the original value) |
||||
| Sound 70 dB | Sound 90 dB | Sound 70 dB, caffeine 0.2 g | Sound 70 dB | Sound 90 dB | Sound 70 dB, caffeine 0.2 g |
||||
| R.A. | 23 | 97 | 94 | 108 | L.B. | 7 | 98 | 60 | 115 |
| G.A. | 20,5 | 58 | 39 | 76 | P.V. | 6 | 27 | 31 | 18 |
| K.A. | 17,5 | 73 | 45 | 91 | M. | 5,5 | 31 | 13 | 90 |
| S.A. | 14,5 | 160 | 100 | 78 | Sh. | 5 | 46 | 27 | 140 |
| SB. | 14 | 70 | 80 | 59 | G.B. | 4 | 60 | 78 | 35 |
| P.A. | 14 | 96 | 46 | 40 | P.G. | 2,5 | 36 | 33 | 66 |
| k.v. | 13 | 54 | 26 | 95 | G.V. | 2 | 44 | 53 | 80 |
| R.B. | 12 | 103 | 55 | 93 | D. | 2 | 32 | 64 | 80 |
| L.A. | 11 | 88 | 76 | 92 | k.g. | 1 | 39 | 38 | 38 |
| R.V. | 10,5 | 52 | 63 | 63 | Average | 9,7 | 68,7 | 56,5 | 76,4 |
| K.B. | 10 | 82 | 70 | 49 | Standard Deviations | 5,93 | 31,6 | 24,2 | 28,1 |
| U. | 9 | 103 | 52 | 82 |
|||||
| P.B. | 8,5 | 62 | 102 | 92 | | | | | |
As for auditory sensitivity and strength in the auditory analyzer, confirmation of the initial data on the connection between these parameters was obtained in work using the EEG version of extinction with reinforcement (V.D. Nebylitsyn, 1963b). Here, three types of extinction with reinforcement were used: using a regular sound with an intensity of about 70 dB from the average threshold, using a louder (20 dB) sound stimulus and, finally, using caffeine at a dose of 0.2 g. Individual data for for each test subject for each test are given in Table 26.
Calculation of the rank correlation between auditory thresholds and the first type of extinction with reinforcement gave a value of p = 0.63 (рlt; 0.01), which means for individuals with high hearing thresholds a statistically highly significant tendency to maintain the original value of the conditioned response, and for individuals with low thresholds – the same tendency for the conditioned reaction to decrease as a result of extinction with reinforcement. As we see, when the sensory modalities of the stimulus used to determine the threshold and the stimulus that serves as a conditioned signal in an extinction test with reinforcement coincide, the connection between sensitivity and strength (actually weakness) is revealed quite clearly. It should, however, be noted that the correlations between hearing thresholds and the other two modifications of extinction with reinforcement turned out to be much lower: for loud sound p = 0.27 (рlt; 0.05) and for caffeine p = 0.20 (рgt; gt; 0.05). However, this fact is easy to explain. The fact is that with a loud sound stimulus, as already mentioned in the previous chapter, there is an increase in the effect of extinction with reinforcement, affecting mainly individuals with a strong nervous system, since in “weak” subjects this effect is in the form of close to zero conditioned reactions – is achieved already with a normal sound stimulus. This leads to a decrease in the range of individual differences, to the similarity of the final results of extinction with reinforcement of “weak” and “strong” individuals and, as a consequence of this, to a decrease in the value of the correlation coefficient. As for caffeine, its use, although it has, as already mentioned above, essentially the opposite effect - an increase in conditioned reactions, especially in “weak” subjects, ultimately also leads to the elimination of differences between “strong” and “weak” subjects and to the observed decrease in the value of the correlation coefficient. Thus, these two coefficients do not contradict the overall picture of fairly high correlations between sensitivity and strength.
The final (in time) touches to this picture were made by a collective study to compare a number of short methods for determining the properties of the nervous system (V.D. Nebylitsyn et al., 1965). Here, absolute visual sensitivity was compared with the EEG version of reinforced extinction, as well as with indicators that will be described in detail in the next chapter: the definition of CSF, the slope of the reaction time curve as a function of the intensity of the auditory stimulus, and the reaction time to weak auditory stimuli.
The results (Table 27) were in a certain sense paradoxical, since visual thresholds correlated positively, although significantly only in one case, with power indicators related to the auditory analyzer, and did not correlate with the previously used indicator of the CSF technique (sum of ordinates of the curve), addressed to the visual analyzer. However, the first fact does not contradict the assumption made above that visual thresholds, due to the very nature of the visual analyzer, actually from the very beginning, from the receptor apparatus, which is part of the central nervous system, should correlate quite well with any adequate indicators of the strength of the nervous system, regardless of their modalities. The lack of correlation between visual thresholds and the sum of ordinates of the CSF curve, as we believe, is caused by moments of a mainly methodological nature. If we neglect this discrepancy, it turns out that in this study, the peculiarity of which was the separate work of experimenters determining sensitivity and strength, and the absence of mutual information about the results obtained during the work, the existence of a certain connection between indicators of sensitivity and indicators of the strength of the nervous system was revealed.
Reviewing the results of a series of works carried out in the laboratory of psychophysiology, which in one form or another experimentally studied the question of the connection between sensitivity and strength, B.M. Teplov notes: “So, now we need to talk not about some hypothesis, but about what has been experimentally proven on a large material ( a total of more than 150 subjects) patterns of inverse correlation between the strength of the nervous system and sensitivity” (1963, p. 24).
Table27
Correlation coefficients between visual thresholds and some indicators of the strength of the nervous system (V.D. Nebylitsyn et al., 1965)
Note. plt; 0.05.
Until recently, experimental evidence in support of this pattern was obtained only in humans when determining the threshold of sensation using a speech report. Perhaps this is precisely what gave some polemically minded authors a reason to criticize the hypothesis, regardless of the consistently obtained facts. All the more significant are some facts obtained by various experimenters on animals (dogs) and directly supporting the pattern established in humans.
Thus, M.V. Bobrova (1960), comparing the characteristics of the rheobase and chronaxy of the muscular system of dogs with their typological features, determined according to the “small standard”, found a completely clear direct relationship between the motor rheobase (by the way, very carefully measured) and the maximum dose of caffeine , sustained by an animal. In other words, a positive correlation was found between the electrical threshold for excitation of muscle tissue and the strength of the nervous system, determined by the “classical” method - by the effect of caffeine on reflex activity. The disadvantage of this work is the small number of experimental animals (four) and, therefore, some possibility of random inference.
Another work carried out on 15 dogs and thus providing quite evidentiary material does not have this drawback (D.P. Neumyvaka-Kapustnik, A.I. Plaksin, 1964). Its authors conducted a detailed study of the indicators of electrical excitability of the neuromuscular system in connection with the typological features of the nervous system, in particular its strength. The strength of the nervous system was determined using a caffeine test, daily fasting and super-strong irritants. Based on these tests, the authors identified 5 dogs with a weak and 10 strong types of nervous system. In all animals, the rheobase of the extensor digitorum was measured, and in some dogs, the rheobase of other muscles was also measured.
The data obtained in this work are shown in Table 28, which is an extract (with some processing) from the summary table provided by the authors. A comparison of values convincingly indicates that the threshold of irritation in animals with a weak nervous system is, on average, significantly lower than in “strong” animals. Unfortunately, the authors did not use statistical criteria to substantiate the observed relationships, however, the material they provide makes it possible in one case to calculate the correlation coefficient between the strength of the nervous system as a qualitative trait (two groups - “strong” and “weak”) and rheobase as a quantitative series ( the correlation coefficient formula for this case is given by Edwards – P. Edwards, 1960). The value of the coefficient turns out to be 0.625 (рlt; 0.01); this value is approximately the same order of magnitude or even higher than the values usually obtained when working with humans.
Table28
Average values of rheobase of the muscular system in dogs of strong and weak types of nervous system (D.P. Neumyvaka-Kapustnik, A.I. Plaksin, 1964)
Note. The number of experimental animals is indicated in parentheses.
Finally, in confirmation of the connection between sensitivity and the strength of the nervous system, we can refer to the data of K.V. Kadarik (1962), who found that if in a group of mongrel dogs 84% (11 out of 13) belonged to the strong and only 16% to the weak type of nervous system, then in the group of purebred hunting hounds the opposite relationship occurs and 71% of dogs (10 out of 14) belong to the weak type. As a possible explanation for this fact, the author, referring to the hypothesis of B.M. Teplov, puts forward the assumption that the selection of hunting dogs on the basis of a developed sense of smell thereby leads to the predominance of dogs with a weak nervous system among them. We can probably agree with this, although the author did not make direct measurements of the threshold of smell.
So, materials from a whole series of experimental studies carried out on people, now significantly supported by a group of facts obtained on animals, indicate the existence of a natural connection between absolute (not discriminative!) sensitivity and the strength of the nervous system. This connection appears in the form of a positive relationship between the strength of the nervous system and the excitation thresholds of the sensory function: when the contingent of subjects is distributed according to the degree of increase in the strength of nerve cells, the excitation thresholds will also tend to increase (and sensitivity and excitability will tend to decrease). If this is so, therefore, the relationship between the upper threshold of the reaction of excitable tissue - the threshold of extreme inhibition - and the lower threshold of the reaction - the threshold of excitation (sensation, irritation) - is relatively constant and can be written as where R is the upper, and r is the lower threshold reactions.
This expression means that the range between the upper and lower reaction thresholds should ideally remain unchanged from individual to individual, but, of course, certain amendments are made to this ratio in each individual case, due to the influence of functional factors and leading to a distortion of the ratio, and in some cases, perhaps nullifying it. That is why we can only talk about the relative constancy of the ratio of the upper and lower thresholds.
Unfortunately, existing methods for assessing both thresholds do not make it possible to directly compare their values, since the quantitative characteristics of the upper and lower thresholds are given in incommensurable units (the results of an indirect assessment of this relationship are presented in the next chapter). However, positive correlation coefficients between reference strength measures have been repeatedly observed. nervous system, each of which gives an approximate estimate of the threshold of extreme inhibition, and absolute thresholds that give a measure of sensitivity, clearly indicate that at least a relative, but still constancy of the relationship between the upper and lower thresholds of the function really exists.
It follows that the strength (endurance) of nerve cells and their sensitivity can be considered, essentially, as two sides of a single parameter of the vital activity of the nervous substrate, associated with an integral, highly generalized function of response to stimulus intensity. This cardinal property of excitable tissue includes both two inextricably linked poles of the same phenomenon and the sensitivity of the system to irritation at its lowest threshold level, and the endurance of the system in relation to influence at the level of the limit of its functionality.
The material presented in this chapter allows us to approach the solution of the often discussed question of the biological meaning of the existence of a weak type of nervous system and the reasons for its appearance during the natural evolution of the animal world and humans. The opinions of different authors about the advantages and disadvantages of a weak nervous system, about its ability to ensure normal “balance with the environment” are very different. As is known, I.P. Pavlov generally negatively assessed the capabilities of a weak nervous system, calling it “greenhouse”, “invalid”, etc. The idea of the “inferiority” of the weak type of the nervous system is expressed in the works of S.N. Davidenkov (1947), N.I. Krasnogorsky (1954), B.N. Birman (1951) and others, about the insufficient “perfection” of the weak type – in articles by R.E. Kravetsky (1961), N.F. Solodyuk (1961) and others. The number of similar examples could be multiplied. However, taking this point of view, it is not easy to explain why the weak type of nervous system did not die out a long time ago in the process of natural selection, in competition with “better adapted” individuals of the strong type. Its existence in the human environment, as well as in the environment of domesticated animals many centuries ago, can still be somehow explained by referring to the absence of biologically determined competition in human society and in the living conditions of domestic animals, although even here attempts at explanation encounter certain difficulties. But the fact that individuals of a weak type are identified, say, among monkeys that have only recently entered enclosures, or among wild mice and rats that have just been taken for an experiment, is difficult to explain from the “evaluative” position taken by these authors.
Other researchers adhere to a less categorical point of view, admitting that even a weak type of nervous system has some adaptation mechanisms that ensure proper balance with the environment (D.R. Pletsity, 1957; N.M. Vavilova et al., 1961; S. I.Vovk, 1961). However, the essence of these compensatory or other mechanisms remains unclear.
We believe that the concept linking weakness of the nervous system with higher sensitivity allows us to give at least a partial answer to the question of the biological feasibility of the existence of a weak type and the mechanisms of its adaptation. It can be assumed that it is precisely the high sensitivity of animals of the weak type of nervous system, their ability to perceive such low-intensity signals that lie below the threshold of perception and, therefore, below the threshold of reaction of individuals of the strong type, that is the basis on which their competition with more resilient and, in this sense, truly “strong” individuals more adapted to life.
Indeed, lower sensory thresholds mean the possibility of an earlier orienting reaction when an enemy or food source approaches. They also mean the possibility of forming conditioned reactions to such signal intensities that are not yet perceived by individuals with higher thresholds, and, probably, the possibility of accelerated formation of conditioned connections at physically equal stimulus intensities (due to its greater effectiveness for a more sensitive system). Facts supporting the latter assumption were obtained in one of our studies, where it turned out that in persons with greater visual sensitivity and, accordingly, with weak nerve cells, conditioned photochemical reactions are formed much more quickly than in subjects with the opposite characteristic of the visual analyzer (V. D. Nebylitsyn, 19596). Similar data were presented by L.B. Ermolaeva-Tomina (1963) on the material of conditional GSR, which in “weak” individuals was formed on average 2 times faster than in “strong” individuals.
In other words, the organization of the sensory apparatus of a weak nervous system is such that it allows its carriers in many cases to avoid danger, instead of facing it face to face, to find food based on subtle signs that elude competitors, and finally to develop a system of response and behavior , based on taking into account such signals and signs that are insufficient for more resilient, more efficient, but less sensitive (and in a certain sense, less reactive) individuals with a strong nervous system.
It can be assumed that it is in these features of a weak nervous system that one of the sources of its biological advantage lies, giving it the opportunity to successfully compete in competition in those areas of life where the advantages of the sensory organization come to the fore.
Thus, in a specific example of the relationship between weakness and sensitivity, it is confirmed general rule that “each property of the nervous system is a dialectical unity of manifestations that are opposite from the point of view of life value” (B.M. Teplov, 1963, pp. 25–26).
What are the features of a weak type nervous system?
Currently, in the laboratory for studying the types of higher nervous activity of humans at the Research Institute of Psychology, which was headed by Professor B.M. Teplov, material has been accumulated that elucidates the characteristics of the weak type nervous system. In the light of the data obtained, a weak type nervous system is not a bad nervous system, but a system with high reactivity (sensitivity). Due to increased reactivity in nerve cells, the supply of functional substances is quickly consumed. However, with a properly organized regime of work and rest, the supply of reactive substance is continuously restored, due to which high productivity of the nervous system of a weak type can be ensured. Research by Soviet psychologists V.D. Nebylitsyna, N.S. Leites and others confirm this point of view, first expressed by B.M. Thermal in the form of a hypothesis.
What are the functional advantages of a weak type nervous system?
It is very significant that type weakness, as special studies have established, expresses not only a lack of strength in the excitatory and inhibitory processes, but also the associated high sensitivity and reactivity. This means that a weak type of nervous system has its own special advantages.
According to Teplov and Nebylitsyn, a weak nervous system is also characterized by the sensitivity of the analyzers: a weaker nervous system is also more sensitive, i.e. it is able to respond to stimuli of lower intensity than strong ones. This is the advantage of a weak nervous system over a strong one. The value of this approach is that it removes the previously existing evaluative attitude towards the properties of the nervous system. At each pole, the presence of both positive and negative (from a biological point of view) sides is recognized.
What is the balance of nervous processes?
In the research of the school of Teplov and Nebylitsyn, the balance of nervous processes began to be considered as a set of secondary (derived) properties of the nervous system, determining the ratio of excitation and inhibition indicators for each of its primary properties (strength, mobility, lability, dynamism of the nervous system). Along with a new interpretation of the balance of the nervous system, a new term was proposed - the balance of nervous processes.
Is it possible to talk about the independent value of psychological characteristics of temperament?
In the history of the science of temperament, the question of the value of psychological types temperament. Aristotle, for example, considered the most valuable melancholic temperament, which predisposes to in-depth thinking. The German philosopher Kant preferred a phlegmatic temperament. A phlegmatic person, in his opinion, flares up slowly, but burns brightly and for a long time, is capable of showing great will and endurance, can achieve a lot without offending the essence of other people. It is possible that the personal temperament of these thinkers, of whom the first was melancholic, and the second was phlegmatic.
In some of his statements, I.P. Pavlov attached too much importance to the type of nervous system, and, consequently, to temperament. This is, for example, his assessment of the sanguine temperament as the most perfect, since the underlying one is strong; a balanced and mobile type of higher nervous activity ensures precise balancing of all environmental possibilities; Pavlov spoke of the weak type as a “disabled life type,” which can normally exist only in especially favorable conditions, in a greenhouse environment. It should not be forgotten that Pavlov's views relate mainly to animals, and not to humans. In addition, it should be borne in mind that his views on the value of types of higher nervous activity changed significantly as relevant material accumulated in his laboratories.
What is the two-aspect nature of the psyche, its subject-substantive and formal-dynamic sides?
Another important issue in the study of temperament is the question of the relationship between the biological properties of a person, his organic basis, and the psychological “filling” of temperament. In the works of Teplov, Nebylitsyn, V.S. Merlin, the concept of two-aspect nature of the psyche was developed, the essence of which is to distinguish two aspects in the human psyche: subject-substantive and formal-dynamic.
Formal-dynamic characteristics of the psyche constitute the features and properties of the human psyche that underlie his activity, regardless of its specific motives, goals, methods, relationships and are manifested in the “external picture of behavior” (I.P. Pavlov). The dynamic features of the psyche are determined by the neurophysical properties of the human body.
The formal-dynamic features of the human psyche constitute what we call temperament.
Is the evaluative approach to temperament types valid?
From the understanding of temperament as a formal-dynamic characteristic of the psyche, it follows that the axiological (“evaluative”) approach to it is illegal. There are no “good” and “bad” temperaments; each temperament in specific types of activity has both its advantages and disadvantages. Often a weak type of nervous system is assessed negatively. However, Teplov's research showed an important advantage of a weak type of nervous system - high sensitivity, which is absolutely necessary in activity situations that require fine differentiation of stimuli. V.S. Merlin specifically noted the equivalence of the “properties of the general type of the nervous system” and the widest possibilities for compensating a person with different types of GNI for various types of professional activity.
How is temperament type related to personality productivity?
In reality, each temperament has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Thus, the liveliness, mobility, and emotionality of a sanguine person allow him to quickly navigate the environment, easily establish contacts with people, and do several things at the same time; but these same qualities often become the reason for his rash decisions, hasty conclusions, lack of patience, and habit of leaving things unfinished.
If a choleric person is able to develop great energy, work hard and hard, then he often lacks endurance and composure in a responsible situation.
The excessive calm and slowness of a phlegmatic person is good in circumstances where restraint and composure are required, but in other cases the phlegmatic person surprises others with his equanimity, which is similar to indifference.
The deep impressionability of a melancholic person serves as the basis for the development of such character traits as responsiveness, sensitivity, constancy in friendship; but the slight sluggishness of a melancholic person can be the cause of timidity and lack of self-confidence.
The initial properties of temperament do not predetermine what they will develop into - advantages or disadvantages. Therefore, the task of the educator should not be to try to transform one type of temperament into another (and this is not possible), but to, through systematic work, promote the development of the positive aspects of each temperament and at the same time help to get rid of those negative aspects that can be associated with a given temperament.
In what psychological properties ah does the individual's temperament manifest itself?
Temperament manifests itself in different areas of mental activity. It appears especially clearly in 1) the emotional sphere, in the speed and strength of emotional excitability. There are people who are emotionally responsive and impressionable. Even minor events find an emotional response in them. They respond warmly to events in public and personal life, and work with enthusiasm and passion. On the other hand, there are people with low excitability and unimpressive people. Only particularly important events cause them joy, anger, fear, etc. They approach everyday events without worry, work energetically and calmly.
Temperament also appears in 2) the speed and strength of mental processes - perception, thinking, memory, etc. There are people who quickly establish their attention, quickly think, speak, and remember. Others have a slow, calm course of mental processes. They are sometimes called slow-witted. They think slowly, speak slowly. Their speech is monotonous and unexpressive. Slowness is found in them in other mental processes, as well as in attention.
Temperamental differences also manifest themselves in 3) motor skills: body movements, gestures, facial expressions. Some people have fast, energetic movements, abundant and sharp gestures, and expressive facial expressions. Others have slow, smooth movements, sparing gestures, and inexpressive facial expressions. The first is characterized by liveliness and mobility, the second by motor restraint. 4) Finally, temperament affects the characteristics of moods and the nature of their changes. Some people are most often cheerful and cheerful; Their moods change often and easily, while others are prone to lyrical moods, their moods are stable, their changes are smooth. There are people whose moods change abruptly and unexpectedly.
How to diagnose temperament by its external manifestations?
To classify a student as a certain type of temperament, you should make sure that he has one or another expression, first of all, of the following traits:
1. Activity. It is judged by the degree of pressure (energy) with which the child reaches out for something new, strives to influence the environment and change it, and overcome obstacles.
2. Emotionality. She is judged by her sensitivity to emotional influences and her disposition to find reasons for an emotional reaction. The ease with which emotion becomes the motivating force of actions is indicative, as is the speed with which one emotional state changes to another.
3. Features of motor skills. They appear in speed, sharpness, rhythm, amplitude and a number of other signs of muscle movement (some of them characterize muscle motility). This side of the manifestations of temperament is easier to observe and evaluate than others.
On what basis is a psychological characteristic of temperament given?
The psychological characteristics of the main types of temperament follow from its psychological essence and are closely related to its definition. They reveal the features of emotional excitability, features of motor skills, the nature of the prevailing moods and the features of their change. The characteristics reveal the unique dynamics of a person’s mental activity, determined by the corresponding type of higher nervous activity.
Pavlov's teaching about the types of nervous activity is essential for understanding the physiological basis of temperament. Its correct use involves taking into account the fact that the type of nervous system is a strictly physiological concept, and temperament is a psychophysiological concept, and it is expressed not only in motor skills, in the nature of reactions, their strength, speed, etc., but also in impressionability , in emotional excitability, etc.
Each type of temperament has its own correlation of mental properties, first of all, different degrees of activity and emotionality, as well as certain features of motor skills. A certain structure of dynamic manifestations characterizes the type of temperament.
In accordance with this approach, criteria are identified for attributing one or another psychological property to temperament. Thus, V.M. Rusalov identifies seven such criteria.
Psychological property under consideration:
1. does not depend on the content of activity and behavior (is independent of meaning, motive, goal, etc.);
2. characterizes the measure of dynamic (energetic) tension and a person’s relationship to the world, people, himself, and activity;
3. universal and manifests itself in all spheres of activity and life;
4. manifests itself early in childhood;
5. sustainable over a long period of human life;
6. highly correlates with the properties of the nervous system and the properties of other biological subsystems (humoral, bodily, etc.);
7. is being investigated.
The psychological characteristics of temperament types are determined by the following basic properties: sensitivity, reactivity, activity, the ratio of reactivity and activity, rate of reactions, plasticity - rigidity, extraversion - introversion, emotional excitability.
How does temperament manifest itself in the emotional sphere?
Temperament is reflected in emotional excitability - the strength of emotional arousal, the speed with which it covers the personality - and the stability with which it is maintained. It depends on a person’s temperament how quickly and strongly he lights up and how quickly he then fades away. Emotional excitability manifests itself, in particular, in a mood that is elevated to the point of exaltation or decreased to the point of depression, and especially in more or less rapid changes in mood, directly related to impressionability. Each of these temperaments can be determined by the ratio of impressionability and impulsiveness as the main psychological properties of temperament. Choleric temperament is characterized by strong impressionability and great impulsiveness; sanguine – weak impressionability and great impulsiveness; melancholic – strong impressionability and low impulsiveness; phlegmatic - weak impressionability and low impulsiveness. Thus, this classical traditional scheme naturally follows from the relationship of the basic characteristics with which we endow temperament, while acquiring the corresponding psychological content. The differentiation of both impressionability and impulsiveness in terms of strength, speed and stability, which we outlined above, opens up opportunities for further differentiation of temperaments.
A person’s impressionability and impulsiveness are especially important for temperament.
A person’s temperament is manifested, first of all, in his impressionability, characterized by the strength and stability of the impact that impressions have on a person. Depending on the characteristics of temperament, impressionability in some people is more, in others less significant; For some, according to Gorky, it’s as if someone “torn all the skin off their heart,” they are so sensitive to every impression; others - “insensitive”, “thick-skinned” - react very weakly to their surroundings. For some, the influence is strong or weak - the effect that makes an impression on them spreads with great speed, and for others with very low speed, into the deeper layers of the psyche. Finally, depending on the characteristics of their temperament, the stability of the impression varies among different people: for some, the impression - even a strong one - turns out to be very unstable, while others cannot get rid of it for a long time. Impressiveness is always an individually different affective sensitivity among people of different temperaments. It is significantly related to emotional sphere and is expressed in the strength, speed and stability of the emotional reaction to impressions.
Another central expression of temperament is impulsiveness, which is characterized by the strength of excitations, the speed with which they master the motor sphere and turn into action, and the stability with which they retain their effective force. Impulsivity includes the impressionability and emotional excitability that determines it in relation to the dynamic characteristics of those intellectual processes that mediate and control them. Impulsivity is that side of temperament by which it is connected with desire, with the origins of will, with the dynamic power of needs as incentives for activity, with the speed of transition of impulses into action.
Nervous System Strength
The nature of human individual characteristics is twofold. Individual characteristics such as interests and inclinations are characterized by inconstancy, fluctuations, and variability. Therefore, they need to be taken into account for a very specific purpose - to stimulate their development.
There is another type of individual characteristics. They are quite stable. It is practically impossible to change them, but it is also impossible not to pay attention to them, because their influence is noticeable in activity, in behavior, in relationships with others. Such features include traits associated with individual manifestations of the basic properties of the nervous system.
The constancy of individual behavior in certain situations is the first sign that it is based on natural properties nervous system. Among the natural individual typological properties, the most studied at present are strength-weakness (that is, the degree of endurance, efficiency of the nervous system, its resistance to various kinds of interference) and mobility-inertia (that is, the speed of change and the speed of the processes of excitation and inhibition). In the presence of a strong (or weak) nervous system, mobile (or inert), different psychological personality traits may arise in the course of development, under different conditions of life, upbringing, and training.
The concept of the property of the strength of the nervous system was put forward by I.P. Pavlov in 1922. When studying conditioned reflex activity in animals, it was revealed that the greater the intensity of the stimulus or the more often it is used, the greater the response conditioned reflex reaction. However, when a certain intensity or frequency of stimulation is reached, the conditioned reflex response begins to decrease. In general, this relationship was formulated as the “law of force.”
It was noted that in animals this law manifests itself in different ways: transcendental inhibition, at which a decrease in the conditioned reflex response begins, occurs in some with less intensity or frequency of stimulation than in others. The former were classified as a “weak type” of the nervous system, the latter – as a “strong type”. Two methods have emerged for diagnosing the strength of the nervous system: by the maximum intensity of a single stimulation, which does not yet lead to a decrease in the conditioned reflex response (measurement of strength through the “upper threshold”), and by the largest number of stimulation, which also does not yet lead to a decrease in the reflex response (measurement strength through her “endurance”).
Researchers have discovered greater sensitivity in people with a weak nervous system compared to those who have a strong nervous system. This gave rise to another way of measuring strength: through the speed of a person’s response to signals of different intensities. Subjects with a weak nervous system, due to their higher sensitivity, respond to weak and moderately strong signals faster than subjects with a strong nervous system. Essentially, in this case, the strength of the nervous system is determined by the “lower threshold”. Therefore, the strength of the nervous system began to be determined by the level of EEG activation. However, this method is technically difficult for mass surveys.
Until recently, all these methods of measuring the strength of the nervous system did not have a single theoretical basis and therefore were considered as independent from each other, revealing different manifestations of the strength of the nervous system, associated, it seemed, with different physiological mechanisms. Therefore, the requirement to study the typological manifestations of properties using several methods at once was justified. However, a single explanation is possible for the various manifestations of the strength of the nervous system (E.P. Ilyin, 1979), which makes the various methods by which the strength of nervous processes is established equal. The unifying factor was the level of activation at rest (which was judged on the basis of the level of energy expenditure at rest): in some people it is higher, and in others it is lower. Hence the differences in the manifestation of the “law of force”.
The strength of the nervous system as reactivity. For a visible response to occur (feeling a stimulus or moving a hand), the stimulus must exceed a certain (threshold) value or at least reach it. This means that this stimulus causes such physiological and physicochemical changes in the irritated substrate that are sufficient for the appearance of a sensation or motor response. Therefore, in order to receive a response, it is necessary to reach a threshold level of activation of the nervous system. But in a state of physiological rest, the latter is already at a certain level of activation, although below the threshold. Subjects with a weak nervous system have a higher level of activation at rest (this follows from the fact that at rest they have higher oxygen consumption and energy expenditure per 1 kg of body weight); accordingly, they are closer to the threshold level of activation from which the response begins than individuals with a strong nervous system. To bring this level to the threshold level, as follows from the diagram, they need a stimulus of less intensity. Subjects with a strong nervous system, whose resting activation level is lower, require a larger stimulus to bring the activation level to the threshold. This determines the differences between “weak” and “strong” in terms of the lower threshold of irritation.
As the intensity of single stimuli increases, the level of activation (excitation) and the magnitude (or speed, as when measuring reaction time) of the response increase. However, subjects with a weak nervous system, having begun to react earlier than those with a strong nervous system, reach the maximum level of activation earlier, at which the largest and fastest responses are observed. After this, their response effect decreases, while in subjects with a strong nervous system it still increases. They reach the activation limit later, with a greater strength of a single stimulus. Consequently, the “upper” threshold for the “weak” is lower than for the “strong”, i.e. transcendental inhibition in the former occurs earlier than in the latter, at a lower intensity of a sufficiently strong stimulus.
A technique developed by V.D. Nebylitsyn and briefly called “slope of the curve” is aimed at identifying these differences in people’s responses to stimuli of different intensities. V. D. Nebylitsyn put forward the hypothesis that the range between the lower (r) and upper (R) thresholds should remain unchanged from individual to individual:
From the above formula it follows that both the strong and weak nervous systems must withstand the same magnitude of the gradient (increase) of the superthreshold stimulus. If we take the absolute threshold as the zero reference point for the magnitude of the physiological strength of the stimulus, then with an increase in its strength, both the strong and weak nervous systems will react in the same way: the strength of the stimulus will double, and the magnitude of the response from both the strong and the weak will increase by the same amount. and a weak nervous system.
It should also follow from this that there will be no differences between the latter when the physiological strength of the stimulus is equalized; in both nervous systems, extreme inhibition will occur with the same physiological strength of the stimulus. This means that the course of the response curve to stimuli of different physiological strengths of the strong and weak nervous systems will coincide. Thus, according to this hypothesis of V.D. Nebylitsyn, differences in the strength of the nervous system are detected because a physical scale of stimulus intensity is used, in which the same physical magnitude of the latter is a different physiological strength for a strong and weak nervous system. The reason for this, as it has now become clear, is their different background activation: the higher it is, the greater the physiological strength of the physical stimulus becomes.
However, this plausible hypothesis of V.D. Nebylitsyn remains unproven in practice. Moreover, P. O. Makarov (1955) used the difference between the upper and lower thresholds as an indicator of the strength of the nervous system: the greater the range between the thresholds (which the author took as the energy potential), the greater the strength of the nervous system. But this hypothesis also remained untested experimentally.
The strength of the nervous system is like endurance. Repeated presentation of a stimulus of equal strength at short time intervals causes the phenomenon of summation, i.e. strengthening of reflex reactions due to an increase in background activation, since each previous excitation leaves behind a trace, and therefore each subsequent reaction of the subject begins at a higher functional level than the previous one.
Since the initial level of activation in subjects with a weak nervous system is higher than in subjects with a strong nervous system, the summation of excitation and the associated increase in response (despite the constant strength of the stimulus in terms of physical parameters) will reach the limit more quickly, and “inhibition” will occur faster. effect, i.e. decreased response efficiency. Persons with a strong nervous system, due to lower resting activation, have a larger “margin of safety”, and therefore their summation can last longer without reaching the reaction limit. In addition, it is possible that the latter is at a higher level among the “strong” than among the “weak”. (This is not reflected in the diagram, where hypothetically the response limits for the “strong” and “weak” are designated the same; the only thing that does not fit into this diagram is the case when the “weak” reaction limit will be greater than that of the “strong”. ) Since the magnitude of the summation of excitation is determined by the duration of the stimulus (time or number of repetitions of the stimulus), a strong nervous system turns out to be more resilient. This means that with repeated presentation of signals (external or internal - self-orders), the decrease in the effect of responding to them (the magnitude or speed of reactions) in the “weak” will occur faster than in the “strong”. This is the basis of various methods for determining the strength of the nervous system through its endurance.
Two significant points should be noted. Firstly, when diagnosing the strength of the nervous system, weak stimuli cannot be used, since they reduce, rather than increase, the activation of the nervous system, and as a result, individuals with a weak nervous system are more tolerant to a monotonous stimulus. By the way, a dispute arose about this in the laboratory of I.P. Pavlov: its head believed that those dogs that quickly fell asleep in the “tower of silence” when they developed conditioned reflexes had a weak nervous system. However, his student K.P. Petrova (1934) proved that these are precisely dogs with a strong nervous system that cannot withstand a monotonous environment (or, as they would say now, sensory deprivation). In the end, I.P. Pavlov admitted that the student was right.
Secondly, not every indicator of endurance can serve as a criterion for the strength of the nervous system. Endurance for physical or mental work is not a direct indicator of the strength of the nervous system, although it is related to it. We should be talking about the endurance of nerve cells, not humans. Therefore, methods should show the speed of development of transcendental inhibition, on the one hand, and the severity of the summation effect, on the other.
The manifestation of a negative prognosis depending on the strength of the nervous system
From the point of view of the synergetic approach, the origins of individual psychological differences lie in the degree of expression and content characteristics of a number of systemic properties and functions. Among such functions that have significant system-preserving significance is forecasting. Moreover, this value of this function is determined by its place in the implementation of effective (i.e., supporting the integrity of the system) interaction of the system with extra-system space.
The forecast, first of all, ensures the formation of an image of the result of one’s own activity, which is necessary for constructing an action program and organizing current and final control. From the point of view of the psychology of individual differences, it is important that “the image of the required future” [N.A. Bernstein], as some ideal result and the expectation of real results of activity sometimes do not coincide. This is due to the fact that the predicted result is “derived” from the characteristics identified by the subject from the situation in which his activity will unfold, and the expected result is a semantic assessment of the situation that arises on the basis of correlating the situation with the need. Being the result of such an assessment, expectations of results depend on the current need and past experience of its satisfaction, which gives them an individually unique character and allows some scientists to talk about “expectation of performance results” as a personality characteristic.
In this context, the forecast is aimed at anticipating events that are significant for the body and, above all, potentially dangerous (threatening the integrity of the system, disturbing the dynamic balance) that require advanced preparation, i.e. adoption special measures, aimed at avoiding them or pre-setting to react to these events. Describing the emergence of anticipatory reflection in phylogeny, P.K. Anokhin begins with this form of forecast, due to the fact that its presence provides immediate advantages in the struggle for existence at the earliest stages of life development: “Organisms, having acquired the ability to anticipate the course of external events, began to adapt with the greatest benefit to future often dangerous phenomena of the external world long before these phenomena take place.”
Thus, we can believe that “dangerous” events are events that interfere with the achievement of goals and cause frustration of basic needs. Therefore, forecasting and advanced preparation of the subject based on the forecast have significant system-preserving significance. Perhaps, exaggerating a little, we can say that in the course of implementing an activity aimed at achieving a certain result, it is most important to foresee possible obstacles on the way to it and adjust the program of action in accordance with this forecast. In this case, the greater severity of the forecasting function will manifest itself in a tendency to predict negative events, which can be called a negative forecast. It must be said that a term close to the concept of “negative forecast” was proposed by S.G. Gellerstein, who spoke about “negative anticipation” in professional activity, i.e. anticipation of unfavorable developments (for example, “vision” of a picture of a possible accident, as well as its consequences).
This means that individual differences in expectations of performance results can to some extent be explained by the severity and intensity of the negative forecast. The greater severity of the negative forecast will manifest itself in a person’s tendency to pay more attention to possible obstacles, to make more efforts due to advanced preparation for meeting possible problems and, as a result, to overestimate the complexity of the goal and underestimate the future result. Thus, a negative prognosis is one of the generalized individual characteristics that gives an individual coloring to all human behavior and activity.
At the same time, a living system, including a person, differs from a non-living system in its ability to experience a state, in this case a prognosis. In humans, this is a presentation in consciousness of the nature of the forecast. If the procedural side of forecasting is not always accessible to consciousness, then the forecast in its effective expression, as a rule, is conscious. Most likely, a forecast can be represented in consciousness in two aspects: firstly, a forecast as knowledge about the content of future events; and, secondly, forecast as experiencing the meaning of future events. Accordingly, we can talk about the cognitive and personal-semantic aspects of forecasting.
Even if the specific content of the forecast is not fully realized, then its meaning is certainly represented in consciousness through emotional experience, since the function of emotional experiences is that they signal the personal meaning of events. So the meaning of future events must be represented in the mind through emotions.
The negative meaning of future events is signaled by the emotion of anxiety. In the definitions of anxiety (as a state) and anxiety (as a trait), one can indicate the two most important aspects that most often highlight different authors: firstly, anxiety is an anticipatory emotion associated with the forecast of unfavorable developments of events; and secondly, anxiety is always associated with frustration social needs. Consequently, the emotion of anxiety is primarily associated with a negative prognosis for the satisfaction of social needs, and it is likely that the intensity of the experience of anxiety will be associated with the severity of the tendency towards a negative prognosis.
Individually unique life manifestations of the forecasting function are, apparently, determined by the degree of expression and meaningful characteristics of the main parameters or properties of the system, among which there are both properties common to all living systems and specifically human characteristics, such as, in particular, the fundamental property of human awareness activity. Analysis of the general properties of open self-organizing systems gives reason to assume that the most initial property of this kind is the energy potential of the system or simply energy. Indeed, from the point of view of the synergetic approach, among the parameters of functions that describe the behavior of an open self-organizing system, its energy potential comes to the fore, which, when studying human individuality, acts as a “level of energy,” “ergicity,” and a level of mental activation. One might think that at the level of the brain, this systemic property is fixed in the strength-weakness property of the nervous system, with greater energy corresponding to a weak nervous system.
This assumption about the greater energy of a weak nervous system is supported by both psychological and physiological studies. So, according to E.P. Ilyin, the factor that unites various indicators of the strength of the nervous system and underlies them is the level of activation at rest. From this point of view, differences in the reactivity of people with a strong and weak nervous system are explained by the fact that in order to obtain some response to a stimulus, it is necessary to reach a threshold level of activation of the nervous system. Since subjects with a weak nervous system have a higher resting activation level, they are closer to the threshold level required for a response to occur, and therefore the intensity of the minimal stimulus may be less than in those with a strong nervous system. It is interesting that in the studies of E.P. Ilyin, the level of activation at rest was assessed by measuring the intensity of energy exchange (level of energy expenditure at rest), which is higher in people with a weak nervous system. This value(energy exchange rate) describes the energy characteristics of the system at the physiological level.
Energy should manifest itself, first of all, in the dynamic characteristics of the functioning of the system, namely, the intensity of activity, the severity of functions and the intensity of experiences, etc. Considering the features of forecasting from this point of view, we can assume that this function is more pronounced in people with a weak nervous system. Indeed, it has been empirically proven that individuals with a weak type of nervous system more actively use the function of predicting future events, although the interpretation of the results of these studies is opposite to our position. So, according to A.K. Gordeeva and V.S. Klyagina, a weak nervous system is characterized by insignificant energy resources, as a result of which there is a need to maintain the parameters of its functioning within optimal limits, which requires the implementation of extrapolating behavior programs.
However, energy as a systemic property fixed at the level of brain activity cannot directly determine the characteristics of higher hierarchical levels. In this case, the features of forecasting as a conscious mental process can hardly be deduced from the energetic characteristics of brain activity. It would be more logical to consider that the properties of a given (psychophysiological) level are manifested in regulatory tendencies that initially exist at the level of the brain and only as a result of the development of the system acquire functional certainty. In the course of development and learning, on the one hand, they are “embedded” into the structure of a holistic individuality, for example, due to the formation of an individual style of activity, on the other hand, formal tendencies are filled with specific content.
From this point of view, the greater propensity to make a forecast among the “weak” means a greater degree of expression of the corresponding regulatory tendency due to the high energy potential. Since the forecast of events “harmful” for the system is of particular system-preserving importance, it would be reasonable to assume that the greater energy potential of a weak nervous system is also associated with a regulatory tendency, which creates the basis for a tendency towards a negative forecast. In part, this assumption is confirmed by the findings in the study of A.K. Gordeeva and V.S. Klyagina data that drivers with a weak nervous system are more prone to “living, viewing and playing out” possible negative road situations.
At the same time, taking into account that life manifestations are determined not so much by the regulatory tendency itself, but by the result of its objectification during learning, one can think that the connections between the strength of the nervous system and the features of forecasting may turn out to be more complex than those simple and obvious dependencies mentioned above . It is likely that the severity of a negative prognosis is determined not so much by the characteristics of brain activity as by the nature of the negative experience and the characteristics of its awareness. In this case, the significance of regulatory tendencies lies in the fact that the features of awareness, experience and use of a negative forecast formed on the basis of these tendencies depend on them.
During the experimental study, at the first stage, the assumptions were tested that the strength-weakness property of the nervous system is associated with the severity of the negative prognosis. It was believed that the presence of a negative prognosis in consciousness ensures the experience of anxiety. The goal of the next stage was to study the substantive features of a negative prognosis in individuals with a strong and weak nervous system.
The results showed that the tendency to make a negative forecast is closely related to trait anxiety, while the relationship with the severity of situational anxiety is quite moderate and statistically insignificant. The tendency to experience anxiety really depends on the severity of the negative prognosis due to the fact that through the state of anxiety the negative prognosis becomes represented in consciousness. At the same time, the intensity of experiencing a negative prognosis in the form of anxiety is not determined by its severity.
Further analysis of the results showed that the tendency to a negative forecast is not associated with an indicator of the strength of the nervous system. Likewise, the strength-weakness of the nervous system is not associated with personal and situational anxiety. From the data obtained, the conclusion suggests itself that the severity of the negative prognosis does not depend on the strength of the nervous system. However, the question remains about what the content of the negative prognosis is in strong and weak subjects, i.e. how it appears in consciousness and manifests itself in behavior.
Indeed, given that the forecast is built by extrapolating into the future patterns recorded in past experience, we can assume that the strength-weakness of the nervous system will manifest itself not so much in the severity of the negative forecast, but in the nature of its substantive features, the formation of which is mediated by corresponding regulatory tendencies.
In order to test this assumption, the researchers developed and administered a series of questionnaires, the content of which was aimed at studying the characteristics of awareness of a negative prognosis and its manifestation in behavior. The subjects' responses to each of the statements were compared with an indicator of the strength of the nervous system.
As a result, a number of features of the content of the negative prognosis were identified in subjects with different levels of nervous system strength. A negative prognosis in weak subjects has a clearly expressed preventive nature, i.e. is aimed at proactive preparation for future adverse events or their avoidance. Thus, subjects with a weak nervous system are significantly more likely to give the key answer to the statements: “Having conceived a business, I try to foresee all possible obstacles and problems” (the key answer is “yes”); “I avoid difficult tasks and problems” (“yes”); “I willingly take on tasks that require great responsibility, because I am confident that I can handle them” (“no”); “When doing a new or responsible task, I constantly think about how to avoid making some mistake” (“yes”). At the same time, a negative prognosis in subjects with a strong nervous system does not have a “preparatory” content and is rather in the nature of a statement of the possibility of an unfavorable development of events. This is manifested, for example, in responses to the following statements: “I am worried about possible failures” (“yes”); “When the results of my activities are assessed by other people, I, first of all, expect criticism” (“yes”); “I feel anxious when other people evaluate the results of my activities” (“yes”); "Once in unusual situation, I feel anxious because I don’t know what to do” (“yes”).
Noteworthy is the fact that in statements characterizing “strong” subjects, a significant place is occupied by descriptions of an emotional reaction to a possible problem in the form of anxiety or worry. Probably, the lower expression of emotional assessments in statements characteristic of “weak” ones can be explained by the fact that the preventive nature of the forecast seems to reduce the subjective probability of a possible failure or problem. At the same time bright emotional assessment for the “strong” it is a reaction to vulnerability to possible difficulties and ensures the mobilization of the energy resources of their nervous system.
The analysis allows us to conclude that among the “strong”, a negative prognosis most often arises as a statement of a possible problem and the experience of this fact in the form of anxiety and worry. A negative prognosis in subjects with a weak nervous system is of a preventive nature. Its function among the “weak” is the desire to influence the outcome through advanced preparation (as, for example, it sounds in one of the questions - “foresee all possible obstacles and problems” - see above) or avoidance of difficult situations.
The occurrence of these features of a negative prognosis in the “weak” can be explained on the basis of the greater severity of the system-preserving function of prognosis due to the higher energy of the weak nervous system. Indeed, the preventive nature of a negative forecast can only arise on the basis of a greater propensity to make a forecast in general. Thanks to a more pronounced tendency to make a forecast, it becomes possible not just to state the possibility of an adverse event occurring, but also to forecast probable ways to overcome the problem.
Both the “ascertaining” negative prognosis for the “strong” and the preventive negative prognosis for the “weak” arise as a result of extrapolation of unfavorable experience into the future. Moreover, it can be assumed that the intensity of the negative forecast will be to some extent related to the characteristics of the awareness of the negative experience (for example, its significance). However, the content of the negative forecast presented in consciousness and its regulatory significance depend on the individual expression of the forecasting function. Thus, the individual characteristics of a negative prognosis are, on the one hand, a consequence varying degrees the severity of the forecasting function in brain activity and, on the other hand, the result of a person’s adaptation during his interaction with the environment.
Questionnaire to study the severity of a negative prognosis.
1. When I need to get down to business, I am always overcome by doubts, because I am not sure of success.
2. In any business I am more often lucky than unlucky.
3. Whatever I do, I succeed.
4. It seems to me that others are much luckier than me.
5. I am a lucky person.
6. Failures and misfortunes visit me more often than other people.
7. When I start a new business, I worry more about possible failure than about what is to be done.
8. I rarely ask anyone for anything, because when they refuse me, it humiliates me.
9. When I am asked for something, I usually do not refuse, because I know that if I refuse, the person will be offended by me.
10. Usually, when starting a new business, I am sure that everything will be successful.
11. No matter what I do, in the end I will fail.
12. In my opinion, I am not the kind of person you can love.
13. Most often people treat me kindly.
14. It often seems to me that it is enough to take one wrong step, and people’s attitude towards me will change for the worse.
15. Quite often I notice that people treat me better than I expected.
16. It seems to me that at any moment I can make a person treat me well.
17. Quite often it happens that I don’t get down to business because I know that I won’t be able to achieve positive results.
18. I only speak to a person first if absolutely necessary, because I am afraid that he will not want to talk to me.
19. I make decisions quickly in important matters, because I always succeed in everything.
20. For a long time I hesitate to ask anything, since I will almost certainly be refused.
KEY: 1 point is awarded for answering “yes” to questions 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20 and for answering “no” to questions 2, 3, 5 , 10, 13, 16, 19.
The strength of the nervous system in everyday life
According to academic concepts, the strength of the nervous system is an innate indicator. It is used to indicate the endurance and performance of nerve cells. The strength of the nervous system “reflects the ability of nerve cells to withstand, without going into an inhibitory state, either very strong or long-acting, although not strong, excitation.”
If we nevertheless move away from the classical definition and use the concept of “strength of the nervous system” in its semi-everyday, everyday understandable meaning, then pressure and maintenance of activity should be considered only one of the manifestations of this force, but not the only one. The strength of the nervous system also reveals itself in restraining undesirable elements of activity: the force of inhibition must balance the force of excitation. In order for the nervous system to really be able to withstand a sufficiently long-term excitation, cellular energy must be spent economically and rationally; there must be a protective, protective, constructive slowdown. Inhibition is a necessary component of overall Strength. Inhibition coordinates the activity of the nervous system.
A distinctive property of a strong nervous system is the ability to tolerate extremely strong stimuli. A weak nervous system does not hold the signal well and burns out like a candle when it cannot respond to the offender or fight back.
A person with a weak nervous system not only cannot wait (endure), he also has difficulty retaining new information (concerning himself and others) and constantly “drains” it along the way literally to the first person he meets - he discharges it externally.
A weak nervous system is not able to tolerate super-strong stimuli. It either turns off immediately (the inhibitory process prevails over excitation), or it is “carried away” without any brakes, with unpredictable consequences (inhibition does not have time to cope with excitation). A weak nervous system, however, has increased sensitivity, or high sensitivity, the ability to distinguish ultra-weak signals. A weak nervous system is characterized by the ability to finely differentiate between similar stimuli. This is its advantage over the strong one.
The negative relationship between the strength of the nervous system and the sensitivity of the analyzer equalizes the capabilities of both nervous systems. For example, teachers - owners of a weaker system - are often nervous in the classroom, behave less balanced, but, in a number of situations, better reflect the dynamics of interpersonal relationships in the classroom. Teachers - carriers of a strong nervous system - have better self-control and unimpressionability. Children painted a chair with chalk - no problem. The chair was pushed under the table. They work calmly and without hysterics. However, they feel the student worse in class.
The recent increase in the concentration of representatives of the weak nervous system is by no means a random phenomenon. In persons with a weak nervous system, conditioned reflexes are formed more quickly. They learn more easily and grasp faster, which is explained by the high dynamism of the excitatory process. Logically designed, connected by a common thought educational material a weak nervous system absorbs better. A strong nervous system has an advantage in remembering large amounts of information that is of little use for semantic processing. In a weak nervous system, the speed of searching through options for solving a problem per unit of time is higher. She adapts faster, acclimatizes, adjusts, and settles down. Persons with a weak nervous system are also more likely to continue their education.
If we consider in more detail the behavior of the weak and strong nervous systems in the educational process, we can discover a number of interesting patterns. A weak nervous system is included in educational process straightaway. With prolonged hard work, she begins to make mistakes and drops out of the process: the student gets tired. For example, in younger teenagers this is expressed in physical activity, pampering in class, if they do not change the form of assignments after 5-8 minutes. High endurance and performance of a strong nervous system are overshadowed by another circumstance. A strong nervous system is not distracted during the lesson and does not lose its efficiency, only it does not turn on so quickly, the process of getting used to it takes longer.
For a student with a strong nervous system, tasks should be presented from simple to complex. For a weak nervous system, tasks should be set in the reverse order (from complex to simple), i.e. do not read morals at the beginning of the lesson, but “take the bull by the horns.”
A weak nervous system begins to work quickly, and also quickly undermines its energy reserves and therefore continues to work at a cost. If a weak nervous system is intimidated by the complexity or volume of the upcoming work, then it can exhaust its resource psychologically or morally even before the start of real activity (having previously replayed in the head “all the horror” of the upcoming test). Secondary school teachers make a strategic mistake by escalating the situation before a final test or exam. A weak nervous system copes with a test or exam worse than it is capable of studying throughout the year, from lesson to lesson. The university education system does not leave any chance for a weak nervous system.
A strong nervous system, be it studying or some other type of activity, usually does not work at full strength. In order for a strong nervous system to turn on, it is necessary, on the contrary, to create situations of increased motivation: scare with an exam or the authorities, give a couple of “Cs” for warning (preferably publicly), hit the table with your fist, set final deadlines, announce a general mobilization or issue a Chinese warning. A weak nervous system cannot tolerate public forms of reproach, has a hard time with bad grades, cannot continue to work, falls out of the rut, goes into destructive activity, demonstratively sabotages orders, accumulates resentment or anger, and breaks down. A strong nervous system, organized in time by negative reinforcement, can show simply phenomenal results by the time of control. People with a strong nervous system are simply brutally stubborn.
When it comes to the behavior of a boss with a weak nervous system, the strength of his “cavalry charges” will decrease from time to time. At first, in relation to a subordinate with a strong nervous system, he (the boss) looks invincible and scary, then he slowly turns sour and begins to think that he, too, “doesn’t need more than everyone else,” although he still tries to create a gloomy appearance. As for the subordinate himself with a strong nervous system... (Why is it necessary to be a subordinate? Yes, because people with a strong nervous system are not in a hurry to become bosses.) So, as for the subordinate with a strong nervous system, then God forbid if such a person will one day become your boss. At first everything will be the same as under Alexei Mikhailovich Quiet, but when he feels responsibility, when he gets to know more deeply the business qualities of his yesterday’s comrades, then with consistent and methodical pressure in a fairly noble manner he will “take all the livers out of you.”
People with a weak nervous system have a natural tendency to manage and command. Firstly, they have much less patience to look at “all this stagnation” or “all this disgrace.” Secondly, they have enough sympathy and empathy to manage to enlist the support of the widest possible circle of people.
Organizational abilities are entirely built on a weak nervous system, but in order to achieve success in this matter, one must learn to consciously and creatively use one’s vital energy at a higher level. Due to a lack of self-control, many budding leaders spend their lives struggling with difficulties of their own making. Self-respect (for one’s nervous system), self-awareness (for one’s nervous system) and self-control - only this unity can give a person the strength that nature did not give him.
Of course, the strength of the nervous system is an innate indicator, but this does not mean that we should give up. Psychologists have come up with as many as 5 gradations of strength in this regard: “weak”, “medium weak”, “medium”, “medium strong”, “strong”. All variations of the weak-semi-strong nervous system are the result of repeated exposure, habituation to the stimulus, the result of conscious education and self-education. A teacher with a weak nervous system, whose children constantly paint chalk on his chair, will sooner or later pull himself together and imitate a strong nervous system. If you were born with a weak nervous system, then it will remain with you. And when you once again encounter some unusual, unusual, new strong irritant, you will again and again demonstrate to yourself and those around you exactly your weak nervous system. But that's no reason to stop!
Determining the strength and weakness of the nervous system means providing a fairly comprehensive description of yourself and others. This means behind several “random manifestations of character” of a partner to see such a cluster of properties, such a bunch of possible behavior options that this allows you to read another person like a book, predict his actions and intentions; makes it possible to feel like you are in a state of flight when others are just walking on the ground. Sometimes a few separate episodes, sketches, encounters are enough to know for sure who you are dealing with: you can rely on it or not, what you can expect in a minute, in a day, in a year, whether you can approach them on this or that issue, whether you can be friends, whether you can whether to love.
Sometimes it is believed that it is necessary to find ways to change the properties of the nervous system in the desired direction. This point of view cannot be considered correct. Firstly, we still do not know anything about the ways and means of changing the properties of the nervous system, but we know for sure that this change can only occur very slowly and as a result of a change in some biologically essential living conditions. Secondly, it is not known what should be considered desirable properties of the nervous system. A weak nervous system is a nervous system of low efficiency (in the physiological sense), but high sensitivity. Who will undertake to decide general form The question is, which nervous system is better: more sensitive, but less efficient, or less sensitive, but more efficient?
There are some activities in which the nervous system's endurance to extreme stress is critical. Such activities require individuals with a strong nervous system. But there are also types of activities where high sensitivity and reactivity are more important.
Changing the properties of the nervous system should ultimately lead to the leveling of individuality, to the desire to make all people the same.
Type of nervous activity: temperament
Research has shown that the basis of individual differences in the nervous activity of animals is the manifestation and relationship of two main nervous processes - excitation and inhibition.
The relationship between the properties of these two nervous processes formed the basis for determining the type of higher nervous activity of animals. Three properties of the processes of excitation and inhibition were established, which began to be studied when determining the type of higher nervous activity of the animal:
1. The strength of the processes of excitation and inhibition.
2. Balance of the processes of excitation and inhibition.
3. Mobility (changeability) of the processes of excitation and inhibition - the ability to quickly respond to changes in the environment.
These properties of the nervous system determine the highest adaptation of the animal organism to environmental conditions, i.e. The perfect interaction of the organism as a system with the external environment ensures the existence of the organism.
Let us characterize the main properties of higher nervous activity.
The strength of nervous processes is expressed in the ability of nerve cells to endure prolonged and concentrated excitation and inhibition without passing into a state of extreme inhibition. This determines the limit of performance (endurance) of the nerve cell.
Each nerve cell has maximum efficiency; under the influence of strong or long-lasting irritation, it weakens and becomes unable to carry out the work that it did before. The performance limit of a nerve cell is different in different animals, which indicates the strength or weakness of the nervous system.
The strength of the nervous process is characterized by a corresponding adequate reaction to strong stimuli: strong stimulation in a strong nervous system also causes strong excitation processes. The stronger the nervous system, the more clearly this pattern manifests itself. A change in the strength of the stimulus entails a change in the strength of the reaction. Reaction time decreases as the stimulus strength increases.
The strength of nervous processes is characterized by the ability to develop conditioned reflexes even under the influence of strong stimuli: conditioned reflex activity is not affected by strong stimuli.
A strong nervous system is characterized by the ability of a nerve cell to resist the prolonged action of extraneous stimuli.
A weak nervous system is characterized by the inability of nerve cells to withstand prolonged and concentrated excitation or inhibition under the influence of strong stimuli - nerve cells go into a state of extreme inhibition. Thus, in a weak nervous system, nerve cells are characterized by low efficiency, their energy is quickly depleted. In a weak nervous system, both the process of excitation and the process of inhibition are weak; a characteristic feature of a weak nervous system is that a state of inhibition quickly sets in.
A weak nervous system has great sensitivity: even to weak stimuli, such a nervous system gives an appropriate reaction.
An important property of higher nervous activity is the balance of nervous processes of excitation and inhibition, i.e. proportional relationship of these processes. Laboratory studies have made it possible to establish that in some animals these two processes are mutually balanced, while in other animals this balance is not observed: either the process of inhibition or excitation predominates.
An indicator of the predominance of excitation processes over inhibition processes is the rapid formation of conditioned reflexes and their slow extinction, in particular, the slow extinction of the orienting reflex. An indicator of the predominance of inhibition processes is the slow formation of conditioned reflexes and their rapid extinction.
Balance can be in terms of strength (performance) and balance in terms of dynamism (the speed of closing positive conditioned connections or the speed of closing inhibitory reactions).
One of the main properties of higher nervous activity is the mobility of nervous processes. The mobility of the nervous system is characterized by the alternation of processes of excitation and inhibition, the speed of their onset and cessation (when living conditions require it), the speed of movement of nervous processes (their irradiation and concentration), the speed of appearance of the nervous process in response to irritation, the speed of formation of new conditioned connections, the development and a change in the dynamic stereotype (the speed and strength of the formation of dynamic stereotypes, and if life demands, then breaking them).
Depending on the combination of strength, mobility and balance of the processes of inhibition and excitation, four main types of higher nervous activity are formed.
Based on the strength of nervous processes, I. P. Pavlov distinguished between strong and weak animals. He divided the strong into strong, balanced and strong, unbalanced. Strong, balanced ones can be fast (lively) and slow (calm). This is how a classification of types of higher nervous activity was created.
Weak type. Animals with a weak nervous system cannot withstand strong, prolonged and concentrated stimuli. Under the influence of strong stimuli, the development of conditioned reflexes is delayed or they are destroyed. Violations lead to diseases of the nervous system. The processes of inhibition and excitation are weak, and the inhibitory processes are especially weak (the nervous system of weak animals can tolerate strong inhibitions for only 15–30 seconds).
With a weak nervous system, weak irritation can cause strong excitation, strong excitation can cause a weak response, or cause inhibition, and a breakdown of nervous activity is possible, which causes a state of shock.
When exposed to strong stimuli, the development of conditioned reflexes is delayed and a generally low ability to develop them is noted. At the same time, there is a high sensitivity (i.e., a low threshold) to the actions of extraneous stimuli.
Strong unbalanced type, distinguished by a strong nervous system, is characterized by an imbalance of the main nervous processes - the predominance of excitation processes over inhibition processes. In this regard, in animals of a strongly unbalanced type, positive conditioned reflexes are quickly formed and inhibitory reflexes are formed slowly.
Strong balanced fast type. Strong irritation causes strong arousal. The processes of inhibition and excitation are balanced, but speed and mobility lead to instability of nerve connections and rapid turnover of nervous processes.
Strong balanced calm type. Nervous processes are characterized by low mobility. Animals are always outwardly calm, even, and difficult to excite.
Based on the study of the types of higher nervous activity of animals, I. P. Pavlov came to the following conclusion: “We can rightfully transfer the types of nervous system established in dogs... to humans.”
Although the properties of the higher nervous activity of animals and humans are the same, one should very carefully and only after special studies confirming the identity of the course of these nervous processes in animals and humans, transfer these properties to humans, or, conversely, transfer the properties of the human nervous system to animals. In this case, one should always take into account the social conditionality of human activity, his specifically human characteristics.
Since the type of higher nervous activity refers to natural hereditary data, this is an innate property of the nervous system, and therefore, it is not a mental, but a physiological property. On this physiological basis, various systems of conditioned connections can be formed, i.e. in the course of life, these conditioned connections will be formed differently in different people: this will be the manifestation of the type of higher nervous activity.
The characteristics of a person’s mental activity, which determine his actions, behavior, habits, interests, knowledge, are formed in the process of a person’s individual life, in the process of upbringing. The type of higher nervous activity gives originality to a person’s behavior, leaves a characteristic imprint on the entire appearance of a person - it determines the mobility of nervous processes, their stability (the dynamics of the perception process, switching and stability of attention, the range of mental activity) - but does not determine either the behavior and actions of a person or his beliefs or moral principles.
Establishing the type of higher nervous activity of people is associated with great difficulties. “Many people have the opinion that people are actually divided according to the strength or mobility of the nervous system into sharply limited groups: “strong” and “weak”, “mobile” and “immobile.” But in reality, people form a continuous series based on the strength of their nervous system, such as, for example, by height or weight... this is only a way of grouping people according to a separate property.” This method makes sense for better understanding the question of temperament, and in practice it is of great importance.
The type of nervous activity is usually called temperament.
Temperament is a manifestation of the type of nervous system in human activity, individual psychological characteristics of a person, in which the mobility of his nervous processes, strength, and balance are manifested.
The body and its metabolic system plus the nervous system (autonomic and central) are involved in the regulation of a person’s energy capabilities and his temperament, which is associated with the individual’s energy characteristics, methods of energy accumulation and expenditure.
The word “temperament” (from the Latin temperans, “moderate”) translated from Latin means “the proper ratio of parts”, equal to it in meaning Greek word“krasis” (“fusion, mixing”) was introduced by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. By temperament he understood both the anatomical, physiological, and individual psychological characteristics of a person. Hippocrates explained temperament as behavioral characteristics, the predominance in the body of one of the “life juices” (four elements):
- the predominance of yellow bile (ancient Greek chole, “bile, poison”) makes a person impulsive, “hot” - choleric.
- the predominance of lymph (ancient Greek phlegm, “phlegm”) makes a person calm and slow - a phlegmatic person.
- the predominance of blood (Latin sanguis, sanguis, sangua, “blood”) makes a person active and cheerful - a sanguine person.
- the predominance of black bile (ancient Greek melena chole, “black bile”) makes a person sad and fearful - melancholic.
Melancholic (weak type) is easily vulnerable, prone to constantly experiencing various events, he reacts sharply to external factors. He often cannot restrain his asthenic experiences by force of will; he is highly impressionable and easily emotionally vulnerable.
Choleric (strong unbalanced type) - fast, impetuous, but completely unbalanced, with sharply changing moods with emotional outbursts, quickly exhausted. He does not have a balance of nervous processes, this sharply distinguishes him from a sanguine person. A choleric person, getting carried away, carelessly wastes his strength and quickly becomes exhausted.
A sanguine person (strong, balanced, fast type) is a lively, hot-tempered, active person, with frequent changes of mood and impressions, with a quick reaction to all the events happening around him, who quite easily comes to terms with his failures and troubles. Usually a sanguine person has expressive facial expressions. He is very productive at work when he is interested, becoming very excited about it; if the work is not interesting, he is indifferent to it, he becomes bored.
Phlegmatic (strong, balanced, calm type) - unhurried, calm, has stable aspirations and mood, outwardly stingy in the manifestation of emotions and feelings. He shows perseverance and perseverance in his work, remaining calm and balanced. He is productive at work, compensating for his slowness with diligence.
This theory of temperament can be called humoral (from the Latin “humor” - liquid), i.e. temperament depends on the ratio of biological fluids in the body. Some of its modern adherents show that the ratio and balance of hormones within the body determine the manifestations of temperament - for example, an excess of thyroid hormones causes increased irritability and excitability of a person, manifestations of choleric temperament.
At the beginning of the 20th century. a constitutional theory of temperament arose (Kretschmer, Sheldon), the main idea of which was to establish its correlation with the innate constitution of the human physique. If we use the traditional names of temperaments, then it is not difficult to notice that melancholic people predominantly have a fragile asthenic physique, choleric people - varying from athletic to asthenic, phlegmatic people - from athletic to pyknic (large, calm "hulks"), sanguine people - mostly pyknic.
Somatics and the nervous system are two circuits of temperament regulation. They may coincide or diverge in each specific case, which is why there are two fundamental approaches to the analysis of temperament.
The first approach says that temperament depends on the constitution of a person’s physique (Kretschmer, Sheldon) and the characteristics of his biochemical processes (the ratio of hormones or “fluids” - blood, bile, etc., according to Hippocrates); body type and associated energy characteristics are one of the “circuits” of human behavior regulation. According to the second approach, temperament depends on the higher nervous activity of a person, the type of his nervous system.
Characteristics of the main types of temperament. The American psychologist Eysenck proposed a method for determining the temperament of a particular individual based on processing a psychological test. The test is based on two scales:
1. horizontal scale (from 0 - the extreme left point - to 24 - the extreme right point) - a scale of emotional sensitivity, characterizes the level of a person’s sociability
- 2 points or less – deep introvert – an extremely uncommunicative, reserved person;
- 10 or less, up to 2 points – introvert, unsociable, reserved person
- 11-13 points – average level of sociability, a person is not oppressed by either the lack of communication or its excess;
- 14 or more points – extrovert, sociable person
2. vertical scale - neuroticism (anxiety) scale, characterizes emotional stability - instability of the human psyche
- norm – 11-13 points – the personality is moderately emotionally stable. Stimuli are perceived adequately: if you need to - worry, if you don’t - don’t worry;
- 10 or less points – an emotionally unstable person, always worried, even when there is no need to worry;
- 14 or more points – an emotionally stable person, even to the point of emotional coldness.
The combination of a person’s personality indicators, according to the results of psychological tests using Eysenck’s method, characterizes the type of temperament of an individual:
Along with the totality of properties of nervous activity that determine a particular temperament, the following can be distinguished: mental characteristics, which in various combinations are included in the corresponding temperament.
1. Speed and intensity of mental processes, mental activity.
2. The predominant subordination of behavior to external impressions - extraversion or its predominant subordination to the inner world of a person, his feelings, ideas - introversion.
3. Adaptability, plasticity, adaptation to changing external conditions, flexibility of stereotypes. (Reduced adaptability, inflexibility - rigidity).
4. Sensitivity, sensitivity, emotional excitability and strength of emotions, emotional stability.
Psychophysiological characteristics and choice of profession
As a result of research, B. M. Teplov came to important conclusions that are of great importance for teaching practice. He points out that in the process of education one should not look for ways to change the student’s nervous system (this process proceeds very slowly and its ways have not yet been sufficiently studied), but one should find the best forms, ways and methods of education, taking into account the characteristics of the student’s nervous system.
Then the question is asked: which nervous system should be considered good? Can, for example, a weak nervous system be considered bad?
Obviously, emphasizes B. M. Teplov, everything depends on what kind of activity a person is engaged in. If in the process of work you need to show greater endurance, greater efficiency, a strong type of nervous system is more suitable for such activity; where in the process of activity it is necessary to show high sensitivity and reactivity, the weak type will cope better.
This leads to the conclusion reached by B. M. Teplov that positive personality traits can manifest themselves in both strong and weak nervous systems, but they will have a certain originality.
A strong nervous system is characterized by high performance. In other words, nerve cells can receive and transmit nerve impulses for a long time without going into an inhibitory state, “without getting tired.” A weak nervous system is characterized by low performance of nerve cells; they are depleted faster. These properties of the nervous system have corresponding manifestations in human activity and behavior. A person with a weak nervous system is most often calmly quiet, cautious, and obedient. He cannot participate in noisy, active activities for a long time, which is associated with his small reserve of strength and increased fatigue. Often prone to accuracy, he is highly impressionable. An unusual environment, the attention of strangers, mental pressure exerted on him - all this can become a very strong irritant for such a person. In such cases, he gets lost, does not find the right words, does not answer questions, does not fulfill the simplest requests. Due to their heightened sensitivity, such people are particularly vulnerable and react painfully to criticism and dissatisfaction from others. Often such people lack self-confidence, they are characterized by a fear of failure and a fear of looking stupid, as a result of which their progress towards success is significantly more difficult.
A person with a strong nervous system is seen by those around him as completely different - most often cheerful, self-confident, not experiencing stress in learning, striking with the ease with which he masters a significant amount of material. He is full of energy, tireless, constantly ready for activity. He is almost never tired, lethargic, or relaxed. When he gets involved in work, he experiences almost no difficulties; he doesn’t care about additional loads or the transition to an unfamiliar new activity. A person with a strong nervous system is distinguished by greater efficiency in the use of time, the ability to accomplish more in the same period of time than others, thanks to his endurance, the absence of stops and failures in work. Another advantage of a strong nervous system is the ability to adequately respond to super-strong stimuli, even those of a frightening nature. In persons with a weak nervous system, the normal functioning of nerve cells in such conditions is disrupted, and, consequently, activity suffers.
Thus, the strength of the nervous system ensures a person’s emotional and psychological resistance to the effects of super-strong stimuli and thereby increases reliability in extreme situations. Usually, in a difficult situation, it is easier for people with a strong nervous system to maintain composure; they are able to accept correct solution in conditions of time shortage, do not get confused. In a number of professions, this is necessary to ensure trouble-free operation of the entire “man-machine” system. There are not so many professions in which difficult, life-threatening situations may arise (test pilots, astronauts, miners, air traffic controllers, sappers, surgeons, firefighters, rescuers), but the cost of a mistake in them can often turn out to be too expensive. As special studies by psychologists show, the correctness of a professional’s actions in an extreme situation depends not so much on length of service and work experience, but on the strength of the nervous system. Only people with a strong nervous system in a non-standard, difficult situation (accidents, explosions, fires, natural disasters) are able to correctly assess the situation, maintain restraint and self-control, and find the optimal solution to normalize the emergency situation.
Thus, studying the activities of “strong” and “weak” power system operators in an emergency situation, psychologists discovered huge differences in their behavior. If the “strong” were not at a loss and took all necessary measures to prevent the spread of the accident and eliminate its consequences, then the “weak” behaved completely differently. They either left their workplace, or committed chaotic actions, which in the long term could only worsen the development of the situation, or completely lost the ability to perform any actions. In any case, them professional activity was destroyed. This was not related to length of service, age, or work experience.
Thus, when choosing a profession, the property of strength - weakness of the nervous system must be taken into account. The “weak” are not recommended to choose professions in which emergency, extreme, life-threatening situations are actually possible. Therefore, during professional consultation, restrictions may be introduced on the choice of a certain range of professions for people with a weak nervous system. However, a radical restructuring of plans for the future is not always required. The student himself can be recommended another specialty in the same profession, or, as professional consultants usually say, another job position. Even in the profession of a pilot, there are jobs that do not place too stringent demands on a person - this is an agricultural aviation pilot, a helicopter pilot. In the medical profession, such specializations as resuscitator and surgeon are contraindicated for persons with a weak nervous system. But they may be recommended the specialties of a therapist, a health doctor, a pharmacist, or a dentist. It must be said that persons with a weak nervous system also have certain advantages. Thus, many “weak” people have much higher sensitivity compared to “strong” ones, are focused on high accuracy, thoroughness in performing activities, on stricter control over the quality of performance, and cope much better, more productively and at lower costs with monotonous work. They may be recommended to work that requires high precision, thoroughness, and strict adherence to a given algorithm (jeweler, cutter, dental technician, microchip assembler, programmer). The high sensitivity of a weak nervous system is apparently due to the fact that in the musical and artistic professions many people with a nervous system of this type are found. This indicates the advantages of the “weak” in mastering professions in which the main thing is relationships with other people and communication (that is, the “person-to-person” type).
For many activities, consideration of strength-weakness properties is extremely important. For some professions, the presence of a strong nervous system is a prerequisite for the formation of professional suitability; in this case selection is necessary. For others, people with a weak nervous system might be more suitable; they are the ones who can work here most effectively and efficiently. However, in the vast majority of professions, taking into account natural characteristics is necessary not for selection, but for finding the most suitable job position or developing an optimal individual style of activity that allows you to make maximum use of natural data and compensate for shortcomings.
For example, observations of vehicle drivers showed that the work style of “strong” and “weak” differs significantly. Thus, the “weak” practically do not get into emergency situations due to the fact that they more carefully prepare the car for the trip, trying to predict any malfunction and breakdown, predicting the possibility of unfavorable situations occurring along the way. They drive much more carefully. Psychologists, studying passenger bus drivers, discovered the following fact: in the group of drivers with a high level of safety violations (accidents), representatives of the weak type were completely absent. However, the total number of drivers with a weak type of nervous system in the sample was small. Apparently, this difficult profession is more often chosen by people with a strong type, i.e. with higher performance and resistance to stressful situations. High speed performance in various types of activities is ensured by such features of the nervous system as mobility and lability (high pace, quick switching from one type of work to another, speed, good distribution of attention between different types of activities).
People with inert nervous processes have the opposite qualities. They are characterized by slowness, deliberateness, and thoroughness both when performing any activity and in movements, speech, and expression of feelings. They carefully consider any action, word, remark, respond slowly to requests, and do not immediately understand instructions. It is clear that it is much more difficult for them to do work that requires efficiency, speed, frequent switching, and making responsible decisions under time pressure. However, their individuality has a number of advantages. They work more thoughtfully, they are characterized by thoroughness, painstakingness, clear planning of actions, and a desire for order. At the same time, “mobile” people have, along with positive traits, a number of negative ones. They are characterized by haste, carelessness, the desire to quickly move on to another type of work without completing the task; they delve less deeply into the essence of problems, often grasping only the superficial layer of knowledge. All these features are not necessarily inherent in “mobile” and “inert” ones, since training and education, self-regulation, self-discipline and self-correction of behavior and activity are very important.
Psychologists who specifically studied the characteristics of the performance of various types of activities by “mobile” and “inert” people discovered that for the latter there is a certain limit in the ability to quickly perform motor tasks. But the range of professions that place strict demands on speed characteristics is small. In the vast majority of professions, finding a suitable work position, choosing the most appropriate occupations, and developing an individual style help both “mobile” and “inert” people successfully cope with different types of activities. For example, among turners there is such a division as a high-speed turner and a precision turner. The first prefers tasks that require very high work speeds. Being “mobile”, such workers love a high pace and quick transitions from one task to another. “Inert” people cannot cope with the need to work at a high pace and choose tasks that must be completed slowly, carefully, with high accuracy and good finishing. It is much more convenient and easier for them to work slowly and painstakingly. Experienced craftsmen, when distributing tasks to workers, take into account their individual characteristics, since this ultimately ensures high quality and efficiency of all activities.
The same applies to developing an individual style of activity. This was very clearly evident when studying representatives of the weaving professions. Indeed, these professions require a very high pace, because the efficiency of labor depends on how long the machine works without stopping. Stops are most often caused by a thread break and the need to change the shuttle. The faster these operations are performed, the more efficient the work. It would seem that agile weavers have an advantage here. Special observations of the work of both have shown, however, that “inert” weavers also successfully cope with their duties and in terms of labor productivity and quality of work they are not inferior to the “mobile” ones, and sometimes even surpass them. But the high efficiency of their work is ensured by its special organization, when most of working time is allocated for preparatory and preventive operations that reduce the likelihood of thread breakage. Knowing their individual characteristics, they do not allow extreme situations to arise, since it is more difficult for them to cope with them.
The range of professions that require very high speeds of work (for example, musician, circus juggler) is quite narrow. In most professions, success can be achieved by people with different rates of mental processes. However, in order for the chosen work not to be a burden, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the nervous system. It is clear, for example, that the profession of a dispatcher or salesperson will be mastered more easily and quickly by mobile people, since it requires constant switching. It is better for “inert” people to choose professions that are performed according to rarely changing algorithms and do not require haste and decision-making under time pressure.
Another property of the nervous system is balance, which depends on the degree to which the strength of excitation corresponds to the force of inhibition, on their balance. Excessive excitability with weak inhibition processes is undesirable in those professions where nervous tension is common. Such a person is predisposed to the most unexpected breakdowns, so he needs a quieter job. And, conversely, excessive braking is bad where fast pace, frequent changes, etc. are needed. Children already early exhibit congenital features of the structure and activity of the nervous system, such as the properties of nervous processes such as excitation and inhibition, namely their strength, mobility and balance. Temperament is based on these qualities.
Russian psychologists believe that the characteristics of temperament cannot be considered in isolation from the profession. Not every temperament type is suitable for every job. V. Merlin argues that there are professions for which people with certain temperamental qualities are not suitable. So, for example, the weakness of nervous processes characteristic of a melancholic person is contraindicated for the profession of a power plant control panel operator. Depending on the characteristics of nervous processes, 24 types of temperament can be theoretically derived, but in practice the most commonly observed are the four types that are known to us from the classical doctrine of temperaments. The sanguine type of temperament is characterized by energy and great efficiency; he is suitable for work in which there is a lot of variety, which constantly poses new tasks for him, he is ready to act and organize something all the time, so leadership positions are suitable for him. While working, he can easily concentrate and just as easily switch from one job to another, but is not able to delve into details and cannot stand monotony. A choleric person is distinguished by his temper and impetuosity; he performs work with great internal tension, very energetically, completely devoting himself to his activity, but distributes his enormous energy unevenly, so cyclical activity is suitable for him, periodically requiring a large, but periodic expenditure of energy, associated with tension and danger, alternating with more relaxed work. A phlegmatic person is calm and balanced, he is a persistent and diligent worker, but only in the area to which he is accustomed. A job with variety is not suitable for him, but monotonous activities (for example, working on an assembly line) do not present any difficulties for him. He works slowly, but can achieve good results thanks to his firmness, perseverance and thoughtful organization of his work. Melancholic is characterized by a low threshold of sensation and increased sensitivity to external stimuli. He has low efficiency, he does not want to take on obligations, he is afraid that he will not be able to fulfill them. Prefers to work alone. Thanks to his high sensitivity, he easily grasps and understands subtleties in the behavior of people, the world around him, as well as in art, literature, and music. A melancholic person is suitable for work that requires attention, the ability to delve into and work out the smallest details. Activities that require significant stress, significant stress, and associated with surprises and complications are contraindicated for him.
Blood type and human character
Modern scientists are trying to explain the properties of blood (or rather, belonging to one or another group according to the ABO system) not only personality type, but also family happiness, career growth, intellectual potential, stress resistance. In their opinion, temperament and character based on blood type are a reality. Over the course of several years, several thousand people were examined and certain patterns were identified in the behavior of people with the corresponding blood types.
1 blood group. The most ancient, “hunting” group. It is assumed that all humanity possessed this blood type at the dawn of its existence, when primitive people fought for survival against the elements. It was from those times, the authors of the “blood” theory believe, that modern owners of the first group have inherited optimism, self-confidence, remarkable health, disruptive qualities and all the properties of born leaders, including a penchant for risk, harshness, cruelty and the ability to go over their heads. Statistics show that more than half of US presidents had blood type O. By the way, these are the same properties that supporters of astrological knowledge attribute to Leos and Aquarius: and adherents of the sibling theory - to older brothers.
2nd blood group. It is assumed that this group, the second in antiquity, arose at a time when people switched to a sedentary lifestyle and they - for the first time in history - had a need to compromise, negotiate with neighbors, and carry out common affairs for the common good. These, on the one hand, are the most socially adapted people, those for whom the words “decency” and “justice” are not an empty phrase, who honor the rules more than others and do not forget what is good and what is bad. But, on the other hand, “second-raters” are most exposed to stress, which they carefully hide for a certain time until they “break through.” Such people strive for everyone to feel good, but since this is unlikely in reality, they often cede the first roles to representatives of other blood. By the way, astrologers endow Taurus and Capricorn with such traits.
3 blood group. It is the third blood group, from the point of view of the theory of temperament and character by blood group, that is a synthesizer group. People with this group combine in their personalities the traits of both the first (courage, determination) and second (emotional sensitivity, intelligence) blood groups. All this makes them the most flexible and, perhaps, the most successful in achieving personal goals. More than a third of self-made people have the third blood group. Researchers explain their ability to survive in the most difficult conditions by the fact that the nomadic peoples of Asia, who first developed this blood type, were less attached to place and society; they needed to constantly adapt to changing conditions, literally “roam” for the most fertile pastures and optimal climate. By the way, these are the properties of Libra and Pisces, as well as middle (neither older nor younger) siblings. The explanation of “everything in the world” through antigens that determine blood type is especially popular in Japan. Back in the first half of the 20th century, a book was published about the relationship between the properties of blood and character. Later, other studies appeared, but the most popular publication on this topic was the book by Toshitaka Nomi “You are your blood.” After its release in 1980, the question “what is your blood type?” in the Land of the Rising Sun has surpassed in popularity the traditional “What is your zodiac sign?” But, which is inevitable given its nationwide popularity, the idea began to be imperceptibly simplified and transformed into another “fortune telling by the coffee grounds”, very far from truly serious scientific research Dr. Nomi and his colleagues. So there is no point in absolute character ties to blood.
4 blood group. Main characteristics the fourth type of blood, which occurred later than others from the merger of representatives of the second and third groups (roughly speaking, during the time of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Rus' and the Arab conquest of Spain, when nomads occupied the ancestral territories of farmers) - take everything from life. It is believed that these are the most multifaceted, the most attractive to others, but at the same time the most impossible personalities for a permanent life with them. The fourth group is credited with the properties of complete scoundrels (which, of course, is not at all true) and at the same time natural diplomats. Representatives of the fourth group do not remember the evil - neither that which was done to them, nor that which they themselves allowed, they do not think about the consequences, and are not interested in small details. These are not tactics at all, however, they don’t always make strategists either. Statistics show that “fourths” often live through tragic fates (like, for example, Marilyn Monroe), but are remembered by the people who had to live next to them forever... By the way, Gemini, Scorpio, and Sagittarius have this character. Partly - Aquarius. And the youngest family members. The phenomenal popularity of the “blood-character” theory is understandable. It seems to promise: just choose the people, activities and circumstances (and at the same time the diet) that match your blood type, and everything in life will magically work out. In addition, it is tempting, just by finding out the blood type of the interlocutor, to think that you already know everything about him. Of course, in practice everything is much more complicated. In addition, the definitions of the four types of characters themselves are compiled in such a way that everyone, if desired, will find the corresponding traits in any bearer of one of the four groups - if there is a desire. But this is despite the fact that blood simply cannot help but influence us - after all, we cannot live without it.
Blood type 1 - 45% of the world's population
a) are less likely to suffer from schizophrenia;
b) are less likely to get sick with influenza A;
c) predisposed to diseases of the lungs and bronchi;
d) suffer from peptic ulcer disease (due to the characteristics of cell membranes, to which the Helicobacter pylori bacterium easily adheres, causing the development of ulcers);
e) susceptible to allergies, asthma, psoriasis;
e) have a tendency to skin diseases, as well as hypertension, hemophilia, and kidney stones.
Blood of the first group is a kind of protection against cardiovascular diseases, and it also grants resistance to caries.
Second blood group -40% of the population
a) a tendency to tumor diseases, which is why you should refrain from working at pulp, paint and varnish and chemical enterprises;
b) rheumatic diseases;
c) risk of coronary heart disease;
d) severe course of purulent-inflammatory diseases of the soft tissues of the face;
e) predisposition to gastritis with low acidity;
f) rapidly progressing pathological processes in the hard tissues of teeth;
g) diseases of the thyroid gland.
Third blood group - 11% of the population
Owners of this blood type have a strong immune and balanced nervous system and are resistant to myocardial infarction. Increased survivability. The possibility of developing pneumonia, radiculitis, osteochondrosis, predisposition to colon tumors, urinary tract infections, especially if the infection is caused by E. coli, since similarities have been noted between the structure of E. coli antigens and 3 blood groups.
Fourth group -4% of the population
Hyperemia, high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, obesity, as well as diseases associated with increased blood clotting: thrombosis, thrombophlebitis, obliterating endarteritis of the lower extremities, psychosis.
Temperament as a manifestation of the elements
According to the information that has reached us, the first of the Greek philosophers to develop the doctrine of the four temperaments was ancient Greek philosopher and the physician Empedocles from Agrigentum [c.487-c.430. BC.]. In his hylozoistic natural philosophy, he proposed a scheme for building the world from four eternal and unchanging primary substances, elements, or “roots”: fire, air, water and earth, including active and passive principles, and driving forces? love (the force of attraction) and enmity (the force of repulsion).
Element of Fire. Constant element. Key words: force, energy, dynamics. People with the highlighted element of Fire have the temperament of a choleric person. The element of Fire is one of the most powerful elements. People with a pronounced element of Fire have enormous energy potential, which it is advisable to use for creative realization. When the psyche of such people is exposed to too strong stimuli, they can lose control over their emotions and experience severe emotional breakdowns. Hysterical reactions with a tendency to outbursts of aggression are possible. To avoid such conditions, representatives of the element of Fire need to learn to manage their emotions and spend their vital energy correctly.
Element of Earth. Constant element. Key words: static, solid, accumulation. The temperament of a phlegmatic person corresponds. Representatives of this element have a stable emotional background. The reaction to external stimuli is somewhat slow, and it is difficult to emotionally shake such people. Unconscious reactions form very slowly, but for a long time. Against the backdrop of severe stress, people with a predominance of the Earth element may experience depression. To avoid troubles with mental health, representatives of this element should strive to open their emotional sphere.
Element of Air. Fickle element. Key words: contact, mobility, interaction. The temperament of a sanguine person corresponds. Representatives of this element serve as intermediaries in the transmission of information. People with a pronounced element of Air have a mobile type of nervous system; their emotions arise quickly and do not last long. The reaction to external stimuli in such people is quite smooth. It is important for representatives of the Air element not to overload the nervous system with a large flow of information, otherwise mental state disorders in the form of neurasthenia and even manic-delusional ideas are possible.
Element of Water. Fickle element. Key words: instability, elusiveness, sensitivity. Temperament type - melancholic. People with a strong element of water have excellent intuition and high sensitivity of the nervous system. They respond strongly to cosmic rhythms, especially to the phases of the moon. The psyche of such people is mobile and changeable; it reacts not only to external stimuli, but also to changes in its own body. Since people with a pronounced element of Water have a weak type of nervous system, it is advisable for them to avoid severe mental overload, otherwise they may enter a state of prolonged depression. To avoid mental disorders, it is advisable for representatives of the Water element to strengthen their nervous system, learn to respond adequately to stressful situations, and develop intuition and psychological abilities.
Representatives of the element of Fire (will)? overflowing with vital energy (prana). Was this symbol of ardor seen as high external and internal activity? expansion (diastole), expansion and interaction, influenced the choleric temperament. Fast-moving diseases, attacks, exacerbations and inflammatory processes were associated with fire signs (Leo, Sagittarius and Aries).
The element Earth (ego) is associated with everything dense in the body. Characterized by external and internal passivity: lack of expansion and interaction, personification of cold and phlegmatic temperament. In turn, fire and air were considered a symbol of the active (male) element, and earth and water? passive (female) element. There is a tendency towards salt deposition and hypertrophied bone growth.
Element Air (mind) – associated with nerves, external passivity and internal activity? expansion, but lack of interaction, forms a sanguine temperament. Representatives of air signs (Aquarius, Libra and Gemini) more often suffer from lung diseases, neuroses, and vegetative-vascular dystonia.
The element Water (feelings) is associated with fluids inside the body, the endocrine system and gastric juice. Predominance of external activity and internal passivity? active interaction, but lack of expansion and expansion, represents a melancholic temperament. Characterized by swelling, metabolic disorders, gastrointestinal diseases and genitourinary disorders.
Thus, with a pronounced element of Fire, a person is more likely to have choleric traits, and with a predominance of the element of Earth - phlegmatic; The element of Air corresponds to the sanguine type, and the element of Water corresponds to the melancholic type. The predominance of one of the elements is rarely found in people's horoscopes. More often there are mixed options, when two or more elements are expressed. When one element is more pronounced, a person more often needs psychological correction.
By the uniformity of the mixture of four elements or the predominance of some over others in it, the size, connection and their mobility, Empedocles explained the level of mental abilities and characterological characteristics of the personality of inherent diseases. All the countless properties of bodies, including mental ones, were derived from mixing in various proportions of the four above-mentioned elements. It was by the proportion and nature of their interaction in a person that Empedocles explained the level of mental abilities and characterological characteristics of the individual.
Since the human body is a microcosm, it carries within itself the manifestation of the four main cosmic elements: fire, earth, air and water. In accordance with a certain element, the signs of the Zodiac and planets are divided into the following groups.
Signs and planets corresponding to the elements of Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius (Mars, the Sun and Jupiter are the rulers of these signs).
Signs and planets corresponding to the elements of Earth: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn (Venus, Proserpina, Saturn).
Signs and planets corresponding to the elements of Air: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius (Mercury, Chiron, Uranus)
Signs and planets corresponding to the elements of Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces (Moon Pluto Neptune).
Knowledge about the predominance of a certain element in a person’s horoscope, as well as the type of temperament, can be useful to psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists for correcting behavioral reactions, as well as preventing possible pathological changes in a person’s psyche.
Is it possible to change temperament?
From all of the above, a strong impression is created that a person’s temperament and character cannot be changed. The way you were born is the way you will die! Is it really?
If we approach the problem from an energy point of view, then we can confidently say that energy is available to all people equally. There are no natural obstacles to obtaining energy from the external environment. Fire, earth, air and water are available to every person.
It’s another matter if artificial restrictions are imposed on access to energy. A person can be deprived of freedom of movement, his access to water limited, forced to live in a lethal environmental environment, etc. All these are examples of energy drain from society. Social organization has always been a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a person can only survive among his own kind. On the other hand, he sometimes has to pay an unreasonably high price for the comfort provided by this environment. The ability to balance between the interests of society and personal interests is not an easy task. But that’s why humans are given intelligence, to solve complex problems!
By properly managing your energy, not wasting it on trifles and promptly replenishing it in case of large energy expenditures, a person can live in relative harmony with the people around him. The power of intellect plays a decisive role here. It is thanks to intelligence that a person arranges his life the way he wishes, without taking his relationships with others to extremes. Only his intellect saves him from all kinds of psychic attacks and enemy attacks.
The ability to adapt to environmental conditions is a pure change in temperament. By his own free will, a person is capable of being proactive when necessary, but in case of danger, careful and unnoticeable. In conditions of excessive psychological stress, he can take a number of compensatory measures and switch to a mode of saving his own energy. Adaptation and self-regulation are two mechanisms that control the manifestation of human temperament. But for them to work correctly, you need to manage your energy correctly.
Of course, physiological characteristics play a certain role in the process of energy metabolism. But thanks to higher mental activity, a person can control this process, leveling out certain physical deficiencies. Thus, a blind person is able to compensate for this deficiency with increased sensitivity of touch, smell and hearing. Compensation for auditory functions in a child born deaf occurs due to greater involvement of visual, kinesthetic, olfactory and other systems in the work. Vibration movements also play an important role in compensating for deafness.
Compensation (reimbursement, balancing) – replacement or restructuring of impaired or underdeveloped body functions. Intersystem compensation is the increased sensitivity of intact sensory organs trying to replace the damaged analyzer. This is a complex, diverse process of adaptation of the body due to congenital or acquired anomalies.
The compensation process relies on significant reserve capabilities of higher nervous activity. This process is typical when any function is disrupted or lost, being a manifestation of the biological adaptability of the organism, which establishes its balance with the environment.
Specific human development, caused by a violation of one of the body systems and its functions, takes place against the background of activation protective equipment and mobilization of reserve resources that resist the onset of pathological processes. This is where the potential for compensation comes into play.
In abnormal children, in the process of compensation, new dynamic systems of conditioned connections are formed, impaired or weakened functions are corrected, and personality development occurs.
In this regard, L.S. Vygotsky spoke about the law of transforming the minus of a defect into a plus of compensation. “The positive uniqueness of a defective child is created primarily not by the fact that he loses certain functions observed in a normal child, but by the fact that the loss of functions gives rise to new formations, representing in their unity the personality’s reaction to the defect, compensation in the process development". At the same time, the optimal development of the functions of preserved organs replacing the affected organ, L.S. Vygotsky explains it by active functioning caused by vital necessity.
This article briefly describes scientific and esoteric approaches to the study of the strength of the nervous system and the typology of temperaments of higher nervous activity. All these studies are of undoubted interest to those who are interested in various manifestations of the human psyche. However, one should not think that a person can easily be “fitted” into one descriptive framework or another. If a person is fluent in self-control techniques, then it is unlikely that even the most talented researchers will be able to create a truthful one. psychological picture. Personality manifests itself in many ways. A strong personality constantly adapts to the challenges of the external environment and develops preventive measures in response to unfavorable forecasts. Its energy exchange is always best adapted to its environment.
Partial ways to manage vital energy are described in a number of articles published on our blog.