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Knowledge from the standpoint of psychology. Psychological knowledge as an activity. Science is a special form of knowledge

Foundations of Cognitive Psychology

The psychology of cognition, in terms of its problems and scientific achievements,
occupies a central place in the structure of general psychology. However, few
doubts that the call of the So-
krata: "Know thyself" and Descartes' formula: "I think, investigator-
but, I exist. And, of course, no one can give an exhaustive answer.
The answer to the question: "What is truth?"

At the heart of modern psychology of knowledge are the achievements of natural
scientific thought of researchers of the XX century, as well as philosophical theory
oriya of knowledge. The turning point in the development of ideas about human
century, knowing the world, was the emergence and spread of the theory
critical rationalism of Karl Popper and his students. Passive-from-
the reflective approach to human knowledge was opposed to
on the model of a person who actively generates guesses about the world around
and processing knowledge obtained in the course of search activities
ty, to correct these guesses.

Popper's theory of knowledge is based on a number of basic assumptions.

All people solve problems. Problems exist objectively.

For each problem, in principle, an infinite number of hypotheses is possible.
abstract

The problem is solved by eliminating hypotheses by trial and error.
side, i.e. during active experimentation.

A person does not know in advance which hypotheses are true and which are wrong.

Unsuccessful hypotheses are either eliminated or corrected, and the cycle
knowledge begins again.

Thus Popper's position is the opposite of inductivism,
representatives of which believe that the decisive role in cognition is played by
learning through repetition and finding the rationale for the solution. He
proclaims the primacy of the deductive approach and the two main mechanisms
mov of knowledge: the selection of guesses and the critical elimination of errors.

A person is active, he acts and in the course of his activity collides
deals with problems (for example, an obstacle or the novelty of a situation).
A person is constantly looking for information to solve problems, but
to know what to look for, he makes guesses.

A person has a psyche - a system that generates hypotheses about
the surrounding world ("variants of the world") and comparing the hypothesis with information
received during an active search.

A person generates his own subjective model of the world, or "ob-
times of the world”, according to A.N. Leontiev, which can never be half-
adequate, because induction is always incomplete.

~" "A person behaves as if he is persistently trying to guess the right
fork of the game according to which nature "plays" with him "(V.M. Allahverdov
).

To carry out the usual, automated actions in the
In a typical situation, psychic regulation and cognition are not needed. Only then-
yes, when a person is faced with an obstacle, with a new situation,
according to P.Ya. Galperin, the mental mechanisms of ori-
alignment activity. In higher animals, the approximate, search
The performance activity is independent and separated from the performance activity.

Other prerequisites for modern psychology of knowledge - quantum
.chanical revolution in physics and the emergence of synergetics. Probably-
an accurate description of events is not considered as an admission of incomplete
notes of knowledge about the laws of the world, but as an adequate expression of processes, as
a measure of the predisposition of an object to a certain behavior, internally
not inherent in the object - The range of possibilities that the object actually possesses
object, infinitely large, but in interaction with other objects (medium
doi, observer, device) only one possibility is realized from
many. The future is objectively open and not fully predictable, due to
the change of the world is irreversible, the world is open to the emergence of new realities; one hundred
powerful systems arise in it as a result of the self-organization of chaos.

A person does not live in a world of individual objects: he is a complex system
theme that exists in interaction with another system - with the natural
and socio-cultural environment. Stimulus does not affect a person, but
he actively interacts with the integral actual situation.

Finally, a huge impact on modern psychology of knowledge
provided the results of studies of psychophysiology, neuropsychology and
neurophysiology obtained in the second half of the 20th century. This period
characterized by a revolution in the field of brain sciences and neural mechanisms
the power of information processing. So the psychology of human cognition
relies on information about:

“what he knows” - knowledge about the structure of the world;

“who knows” - knowledge about the device of a person as a cognizing system
themes;

“as he knows” - ideas drawn from philosophy (theories
knowledge).

Methodological principles and the subject of the psychology of knowledge

Why does a person know? Philosophy does not answer this question.
neither science nor psychology. The psychologist tries to discover the laws
"mechanisms" of individual human cognition. Man, as in
mirror, reveals itself in the products of its own creativity. Comp-
the yuther revolution, which transformed the life of most of humanity,
changed the ideas of psychologists about human knowledge and the mechanism
the move to acquire it. The computer is the only mental
system, the only tool designed to assist
to a person in the implementation of functions that have always been conditionally considered to be
one hundred mental: deductive inference, calculation, control of the object-
mi, storage and transformation of information, etc.

Psychologists, engineers, philosophers used the principle of structural
functional analogy: the similarity of the functions of a computer and a “human in-~
knowing” allowed us to speak about the similarity of the structures that implement these functions.
shares. This is how the “computer metaphor” penetrated psychology.

A huge role in the development of modern psychology was played by the development
theory of mathematics and, in particular, its branches such as the theory of algorithms,
finite automata theory, information theory, mathematical linguistics
stick, etc. Mention should be made of the achievements of linguists who have expanded
ideas about language, grammatical and semantic structures.

This book is not accidentally called "Cognitive Psychology". Name-
The notion can be misleading because under cognitive psychology we
used to understand one of the directions in psychology that arose at the end of
50s in the USA and based on an informational approach. Psychological
the science of cognition, or the psychology of cognitive processes, is a traditional
rational area, including the psychology of sensation and perception, pa-
mind, imagination, attention, thinking, i.e. sections of general psychology.
The field of cognitive psychology, understood as a scientific direction,
much wider: from psychophysiology to social psychology and even
sociology. It is rather a general approach to solving problems that arise.
in various sciences. But another understanding of cognitive psychology is also possible.
chology, namely, as the science of the processes of acquisition, storage, pre-
education, generation and application of human knowledge.

Understood in this way, cognitive psychology embraces
along with the above processes and the processes of creativity adopted
decision making, evaluation, semantic processes, processes of understanding
speech and speech processes, systemic cognitive processes (intelligence,
metacognitive management, etc.). In the field of cognitive psychology
inevitably includes a differential psychology of cognitive abilities
properties and psychology of cognitive development. Thus, someone
Native psychology is the psychology of cognition in modern 7
stage of its development.

Let us determine which stage can be characterized as modern.

The origins of the psychology of cognition, which developed initially, like all
psychological knowledge, in the depths of philosophy, goes back to antiquity, to
works of Democritus, Plato and Aristotle. Formation of experimental

Chapter 1

in the middle of the 19th century is also associated primarily with the re-
solution of problems of cognition and consciousness.

However, despite the huge contribution to the development of psychology, its main
oppositors, their works represent to a greater extent the historical
interest. Let's give them their due.

A fundamental shift in the approach to human cognition has occurred
in the 30-50s of the XX century. It was by this time that the translation
mouth in natural science, the theory of knowledge, the first computers were created
ry, and psychology has reached a high level of development as an independent
a discipline equal in scope to other sciences.

However, inductivism is not a prejudice, but a methodological one.
the basis chosen by many researchers today. In approach to
human cognition is polemicized by representatives of two main
boards. Representatives of the first direction believe that knowledge
is carried out indirectly: a person puts forward hypotheses, is given
questions to the world, experiments; information about reality is incomplete
on initially and it needs to be supplemented and rechecked; psyche "richer"
perceived world, not all knowledge is realized. Representatives of the second
directions believe that the basis of our knowledge is the direct
perception: a person is passive, he reflects only what is presented to him
lays the world; stimulation contains all the information; psyche "poor
her" coming from the world of information, all knowledge is realized.

Of course, the division of these approaches is completely arbitrary. But it is possible in
as a first approximation, consider that the positions of neobehaviorists, cogni-
active psychologists, representatives of the activity approach, such as
A.N. Leontiev and S.L. Rubinstein, closer to the first direction
laziness. Accordingly, Gestalt psychologists (only partly!) And ecological
which psychologists represent the second direction. First position
goes to I. Kant, who argued that perception, contrary to statements
empiricists and associationists, is the result of the active work of
MA on organizing the elements of experience into a single structure. Respectively
the empiricism of J. Locke and J. S. Mill and the psychology of consciousness are
parents of the second direction.

Abstract on the topic:

Features of psychological knowledge

Knowledge about thinking will allow us to present the features of the intellect of a given person, evaluate his abilities, determining, in particular, where, in what and in what way they are most manifested: in solving practical tasks using real actions on material objects (practical or visually acting thinking) or during internal manipulations with insults (figurative thinking), and possibly in solving abstract logical, theoretical problems with the help of concepts and behind the laws of logic (verbal logical thinking).

Psychological knowledge about the state of a person includes an idea of his positive or negative emotional mood, general tone (increased or decreased), internal tension, attention features, and the nature of emotions: affects, feelings, passions and stresses.

Having learned the motivation of a person, you can also get a lot of important information about him: what are his basic needs and interests, motives for behavior, goals and values, how he makes and implements various decisions.

It is also important to have an idea about the type of temperament of a person, the nobility, for example, he is choleric, phlegmatic, sanguine or melancholic. It is even more important to know exactly the traits of character, because it is they that determine the direct behavior of a person, his actions, reactions, actions in certain social situations. Of particular interest is the identification of accentuated character traits, the degree of development of those personality traits on which the attitude towards people depends, for example, sensitivity, kindness, willingness to help, decency, honesty, etc.

Finally, far from the last role in the psychological knowledge of a person is the clarification of his attitude to himself and to the people around him: whether he is satisfied with himself and his relationships with others, loves or dislikes himself and people, satisfied or not satisfied with his place in the system of human relations , kind or firm, ambitious or without special claims, accommodating or intractable, contact or closed, comradely or uncomradely in nature.

Why is it necessary to know all this? First of all, in order to be able to establish contacts with this person, if there is a need to influence him, which can benefit both you and him.

Knowing the psychological states of a person allows you to find ways to communicate with him that correspond to his mood, and thereby avoid misunderstandings and conflicts (for example, a person at this moment is in a state of passion, stress, or is simply in a bad mood and not disposed to communicate). An idea of the motives and needs of a person will help to find a common language with him, interest him and organize interaction with him in such a way that it best meets the actual interests and needs of this person.

Having information about how a person makes and practically implements the decisions made, we can bring our expectations into line with the psychological individuality of this person. Knowing, for example, that he makes a decision immediately, without thinking, and immediately tries to implement it, communicating, interacting with him, we tune in to a quick reaction on his part and carefully think through our actions. On the contrary, if it is known that a person is not inclined to immediately make decisions and begins to act only when everything is thoroughly thought out and weighed to the smallest detail, we do not expect immediate reactions and actions from him.

An accurate idea of the temperament and character of a person also makes it possible to predict and anticipate his reactions. In addition, since the temperament and character are quite stable, it will be necessary to accept certain actions of a person as inevitable, to build personal and business relationships with him, taking into account the already formed features.

Finally, knowing the relationship of a person to himself and other people, we can either adjust to these relationships or pre-tune in order to finally change them in the right direction.

We can and should know the most about human psychology, and all this knowledge can, one way or another, be used in life. But do you need to know absolutely everything? Probably not, because, firstly, human psychology subsequently changes, so we would have to study it throughout our lives. Secondly, there is no need to know everything thoroughly. Entirely enough to be limited to a minimum of the most necessary information.

What does this minimum include? If we are talking about a person's perception of the surrounding world, then first of all it is desirable to find out how he perceives other people: what he pays attention to first of all when meeting strangers, how he perceives the individual characteristics and psychological states of other people. The same moments should be recorded when a person perceives himself as a person and individuality.

Assessing a person's attention, we must first of all take into account his persistence and switchability, because the results of a person's activity and the nature of communication with him depend on them. This same feature of attention must be taken into account when interacting with this person on a personal or business basis. Knowing in advance, for example, that a person is given an excessively inattentive, that his attention is scattered, we will be persistent, giving him this or that information, and, of course, condescending, forgiving a lot of things that we would not forgive an attentive person.

The main practical interest in human memory is its characteristics such as the volume and performance of the processes of memorization, preservation and recreation. This is especially true for short-term and short-term memory, which directly determines how much and what information a person can immediately perceive and remember, as well as how long this information can be stored in his memory after a single perception. This is important to know, for example, due to the fact that in life, in work and in communication with people, a person constantly uses short-term and operative memory. First of all, this determines how productive his work and interaction with people will be.

In addition, when studying human memory, it is desirable to additionally learn about which type of memory dominates: visual or auditory. This is necessary in order to properly build memorization in the process of study, work and communication with people. The main load in these types of human activity should be addressed to the leading type of memory, which provides the best conditions for memorization, long-term storage and fast, accurate reproduction of information.

Of the other cognitive processes of a person, it is important to have an idea of the level of his intellectual development and the dominant type of thinking: visually acting, figurative or verbally logical. The assessment of his abilities and capabilities depends on this. They are primarily manifested in those activities that correspond to the dominant type of thinking in a person.

The psychodiagnostics of his general abilities, which determine the propensity to engage in one or another type of activity, is directly connected with the study of a person’s thinking. In this regard, it is important, firstly, to detect the inclinations themselves, and secondly, to determine whether a person has the appropriate inclinations and abilities.

Studying the temperament of a person - another of his personal characteristics, it is enough to get an idea of the overwhelming type of temperament, and exploring the character - about the accented features. All this is first of all necessary for the proper organization of communication with this person. Finally, it is important to know how a person perceives himself and relates to himself, that is, his self-esteem, as well as how this person relates to people.

Note that there are quite a lot of activities that the same person could successfully engage in, and for each of them it is almost impossible to detect and correctly evaluate all the necessary personality traits, inclinations and abilities. Fortunately, this does not need to be done, because many different types of human activity are more or less well included in the following main groups: a person - a person, a person - technology, a person - sign systems, a person - an artistic image. The first group includes all possible activities, the main thing for which is the influence of man on man. The second group contains types of labor focused on the work of a person with different machines. The third group is associated with the development, creation and use of different sign systems by a person, for example, languages for communication, for mathematical programming, languages of visual symbols, etc. The fourth group includes those types of activities in which a person is engaged in various types of literature, theater or visual arts. art. Therefore, in practice, it is enough to find only the inclination that a given person has for one or two of the listed types (groups) of activities.

Among other things, it is important for us to have at least some information about a person’s needs, for example, about how developed the motivation to achieve success and the motivation to avoid failure, the need to communicate with people and the need for power. These needs determine the attitude of a given person to work, to people, to their successes and failures, and in general the main position in life.

Possibilities of psychological self-knowledge and knowledge of other people. What can a person know and what cannot a person know about his own psychology and the psychology of other people?

At this time, we have at our disposal the accumulated centuries of knowledge about human psychology. A significant contribution to this process was made by professional psychologists, as well as writers, philosophers, and representatives of other branches of science and art. Most often, people who have nothing to do with science, as civilization developed, collected and passed on from generation to generation useful information about human psychology and about people's relationships in the form of life wisdom, customs and traditions. And yet, until now, we cannot say with certainty that our knowledge of human psychology and his behavior is sufficiently complete and objective. What is the basis for such a critical assessment? The fact is that psychological knowledge relates to the most complex of all phenomena existing in the world, because a significant, or rather, most of the inner psychological life of a person takes place on the so-called unconscious level, about which we know almost nothing concretely until now.

But nevertheless, there is some reliable knowledge about human psychology.

For example, we more or less expressively know how a person perceives and remakes elementary information about the world around him in the form of sensations and images that are formed on the basis of the work of the central nervous system and sensory organs. We have access to a lot of knowledge that relates to the field of perception.

With sufficient certainty, one can judge a person's attention, his memory, and many other matters related to the use by a person of the information he has for solving various tasks. In psychology, this refers to the realms of imagination, thought, and language. In general, quite large, but, of course, that we have far from exhaustive knowledge about the psychology of cognitive processes.

Things are a little worse in the field of knowing the personality and individuality of a person, explaining his actions. About the abilities of people, for example, very little is known to this day: their nature is not completely gums, there is not enough information about how to form or change them. At the same time, we still learned how to more or less assess the level of development of a person’s abilities using various tests.

Formed many centuries ago, the idea of the types of human temperament has survived to this day. to him in the 20th century. knowledge has been added that relates to the organic foundations of temperament, as well as methods that allow for psychodiagnostics of the properties of temperament, to determine its type in a person. Approximately the same can be said about the character of a person. Knowing from the most ancient times many character traits (this knowledge is reflected in the languages spoken by representatives of different peoples), psychology only in the 20th century. learned to evaluate it using various tests. But scientists have not yet received an answer to the question of how certain character traits arise and develop in a person. And here, practical skills that relate to the management of temperament and character of a person are slightly ahead of the development of scientifically reliable knowledge about these personal characteristics.

Knowledge and explanation of a person’s motivation, his values, goals, interests and needs, firstly, in most cases, have the character of intuitive guesses, that is, scientifically not entirely substantiated assumptions and hypotheses, and secondly, they mainly concern only individual motivational formations of a person, for example, perceived needs, interests, and goals.

No less difficult is the study of interpersonal relationships. This is due to the fact that, on the one hand, knowledge of the latter is more complicated than, for example, the knowledge of mental processes, on the other hand, a branch of science that specifically studies human relations - social psychology - arose relatively recently. However, we are now fully able to assess the personal relationships of a person with other people, his business relationships, the attitude of a person towards himself or towards other people.

There are various ways to overcome the limitations that stand in the way of psychological knowledge of a person and his relationships. Some of them, such as scientific knowledge of human psychology, are available only to scientists. Others, such as life knowledge of psychology and human behavior, are in principle within the power of all educated, cultured and sufficiently experienced adults. Any person at a household level sufficient for life can master relatively simple methods of psychodiagnostics for knowing oneself, people around and human relationships. Such completely accessible methods of psychodiagnostics include, for example, observation.

As a result of thoughtful, pre-planned observation of human behavior, you can learn a lot about his psychology. To do this, you need to establish exactly what, where, when and how to observe.

A lot of useful information about the psychology of a person that interests us can be given by psychological tests.

In order to master the testing method, it is necessary to master the initial course of theoretical and methodological psychological knowledge (at least, it is good to learn a school psychology course). In addition, it is good to master the technique of applying one or another test. And finally, to learn scientifically based ways of interpreting the knowledge obtained with the help of tests, that is, to know what conclusions can be drawn about a person based on the testing.

Knowledge of psychodiagnostics will allow one to move from life knowledge of psychology and human behavior to scientific knowledge. The main purpose of this manual is precisely to help you take this important step.

How does scientific knowledge about human psychology differ from life knowledge - from those that each of us regularly receive as a result of communicating with people, gaining life experience?

Scientific knowledge is more objective and independent of individual human experience than life knowledge. Firstly, they are closer to the truth, and secondly, they more accurately beat off what is in life itself. There are many oman and superstitions in life knowledge, based only on intuition and faith. Scientific knowledge, on the other hand, is based on certainty and does not offer belief, but rational justification. Scientific knowledge in their practical application is much less likely to lead to errors than life. Therefore, in order to learn how to use the techniques even at the everyday level and with their help to obtain reliable information about a person, it is necessary to have at least a minimum of scientific knowledge about human psychology.

Sources of psychological knowledge

A person can get knowledge about himself from various sources. The first thing a person encounters in childhood is the people around him: to have, parents, relatives, what people replace them. They psychologically assess the child, characterize his behavior. The child takes these assessments on faith, refers them to himself: as a result, he develops a certain self-esteem, which, in fact, is an assessment formed by other people.

The psychological characteristics that a person gives to other people are formed on the basis of what the person himself sees, communicating with these people and studying the reviews of others about these people. By comparing his own impressions with the assessments of other people, a person forms resentments of these people. All this, taken together, constitutes the first and main source of a person's knowledge about himself and about the people around him. He uses such knowledge to one degree or another practically throughout his life, starting from the moment when he masters the language and learns to understand the people around him.

The second important source of psychological knowledge is the practical deeds and products of human activity. Evaluating them, comparing the results of one's own activity and the activity of others, a person forms an idea of his own qualities, abilities and capabilities. He develops a self-assessment of knowledge, skills, business, strong-willed and other personal qualities. Comparing the achievement of other people with their own successes and failures, a person forms resentments of other people.

The third possible source of psychological self-knowledge and knowledge of other people can be various kinds of trials and critical life situations in which a person most clearly manifests his own characteristics. Tests, which are sometimes additionally used in some cases, provide the most reliable and accurate information about a person. They are most often the only source of knowledge about such psychological properties of people that cannot be observed and evaluated directly.

As the next source of psychological knowledge, they can become a work of science, literature and art, in which the psychology of different people is embodied or represented. Yes, an important source of psychological knowledge of people are the works of talented writers - connoisseurs of human souls: by all accounts, these are Shakespeare, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and others.

Let us now consider how the cognitive psychological abilities of a person are manifested and with age as life experience is acquired. The beginning of their development is probably associated with the formation of a certain self-esteem in the child, and, as is known, it appears until about two or three years of age. Self-esteem usually arises along with the child's understanding of evaluative words that relate to human psychology, along with the first signs of self-awareness that is born. Approximately from the age of three or four, the child begins to understand and psychologically evaluate the people around her. The sources of psychological knowledge, along with the judgments of the people around him, become for him his own observations and the practical deeds of those people whom he undertakes to evaluate.

During these years, that is, approximately in the interval from two to four years, the child's knowledge of himself and of people is very poor and, as a rule, does not go beyond subjective and approximate estimates that relate to individual psychological properties and actions. Moreover, these assessments are given in limited terms such as "good" or "bad" with a simplified, one-sided understanding of the content of the evaluated properties themselves.

Starting from the age of five, a qualitative change begins in the development of self-consciousness and the next stage in the psychological knowledge of people. At this stage, evaluating the surrounding people, the child will already take into account the thoughts of not only adults, but also of the same age. In addition, in the psychological assessment of people as individuals, the child's own position begins to clearly emerge, which she defends and which in these years noticeably differs from the positions of other people. However, up to the age of seven - eight years, self-esteem and assessments of other people by the child are still quite subjective, limited and inaccurate. This is due to both the weak development of self-awareness and the lack of life experience.

This experience begins to accumulate and enrich rapidly from the moment the child enters school, primarily due to the activation and expansion of the sphere of interpersonal communication, the inclusion of the child in new types of joint activities. She gets the opportunity to discover herself and see the people around her in different situations. Accordingly, the psychological knowledge of the child about himself and about other people expands and deepens. As a result, his self-assessment and the assessments that are given to others, people, become more flexible and versatile.

In adolescence and especially in early adolescence, a person's psychological knowledge about himself and about people begins to lose the features of childishness and gradually acquire the qualities of adulthood, that is, they become similar to the assessments of adults. Both a teenager and a young man begin to fully reasonably answer various questions that relate to the psychology of people, and in these answers you can already find information about their cognitive processes, emotional states, personality traits, abilities, motives, needs, relationships.

Before graduation, psychological cognitive abilities become sufficiently developed. True, knowledge of the psychology of people remains one-sided for a long time, which is connected not so much with abilities as with a lack of life experience among young people. This experience is gradually gained during life, and, as a result, enriched, expanded and deepened - a person's knowledge about himself and about the people around him.

With age, individual discrepancies in the depth, versatility and adequacy of psychological knowledge also grow. Some people are known to have a better and deeper understanding of themselves and others than others. This is due both to their personal life experience, in particular professional, and to the general level of cultural and intellectual development. It has been established, for example, that people of certain professions - actors, psychologists, teachers and doctors - are better than representatives of other professions who are able to understand and evaluate the psychology of people.

As a rule, a person knows relatively well, for example, his own merits and developed abilities. He knows much less about his negative sides, for example, about character flaws. The latter are especially poorly understood by a person in the event that they conflict with the formed positive self-esteem and turn out to be incompatible with the morality adopted by him. Such knowledge is usually forced out of the sphere of human consciousness and stored in the subconscious, where neither he nor the people around him have free access. Psychological information that is stored in the human subconscious can become known only as a result of the use of special psychoanalytic procedures or tests, called projective tests, which allow penetrating into the content of the human subconscious.

How to learn more about yourself and other people

A person is able to know his psychology, but under certain conditions. First of all, he needs to learn how to systematically observe himself and the reactions of people to his own behavior. In order for the image of the psychological I of a person to constantly improve, self-observation must become some kind of habit for him. It is also desirable that a person constantly correlate the observed reactions of other people with his own feelings and actions, be able to expressively judge what kind of influence and what specific reaction he causes, and vice versa: what reaction of another person is a consequence of this or that specific action.

It is also important not only to observe oneself, but also to be an experimenter for oneself, that is, to consciously use various actions in order to carefully follow what reactions they cause, what psychological consequences they lead to. It is also important to learn to analyze the cause-and-effect relationships that exist between your own actions and the actions of other people.

In psychological self-knowledge, a person can be greatly helped by his own interest in how he is perceived and what other people think of him. An active and constant interest in how a person looks from the outside, a conscious desire to learn more about oneself - another important condition is constantly expanding, which deepens and refines psychological self-knowledge.

Psychological self-testing, that is, the study of oneself with the help of various psychological tests, can contribute to the achievement of this goal. Testing itself allows you to learn something about yourself that is usually hidden from everyday self-awareness, internal and external self-observation.

The first thing to do, striving for adequate psychological self-knowledge, is to constantly be interested in how you look from the outside, how your statements, gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, actions, reactions and deeds are perceived.

In order to get to know yourself better, to find out how others perceive you, you need to look at other people more often. In the same way, you can learn how your voice sounds and is perceived by listening to a well-executed magnetic recording, and you can understand how you physically look by reviewing photographs or video recordings.

Let us now discuss the conditions under which a person can better know the psychology of other people. Note that these conditions are in many ways similar to those that provide beautiful psychological self-knowledge. In the same way, it is necessary to systematically observe other people, carefully analyzing the results of observation.

In order to avoid subjectivity in the assessments of other people, it is important not to rely only on your own opinion, but to be interested in and take into account the judgments of other people. If for a person’s full psychological perception of himself it is important to observe the reactions of other people to him, then in order to evaluate other people it is desirable to observe how they themselves react to the actions and actions of others. It is also interesting to know what the person being evaluated thinks about himself and about the people around him. Therefore, various questions that stimulate different statements of a person about himself and about those around him are a beautiful means for his own psychological knowledge. Here, just as in self-knowledge, it is important to use the data obtained in the process of psychological testing.

Note that any person most clearly psychologically manifests himself in such life situations that put him before an inevitable moral choice and force him to act, quickly making a decision. These can be situations associated, for example, with a quick response to an emerging threat to the Self, psychological or physical danger, aggressive actions on the part of other people, situations that require the provision of help to people when they have to give up something especially important for themselves. If we want to know more deeply the psychology of a person, then it is extremely important to observe his behavior in such situations. The fact is that not all personal, both positive and negative qualities of a person are well manifested in ordinary life situations. They perform much better in psychologically extreme conditions.

We can get quite useful information about another person if we know how he treats people, in particular, to you personally. The emotionally indifferent subjective mood of one person in relation to another contributes to the manifestation of personal qualities that correspond to this mood. Assessing the other as a person, we must always adjust the conclusions about him, taking into account his internal attitude towards other people. A positively minded person involuntarily shows mostly positive qualities in communicating with other people. In this case, there may be a very real danger of involuntary concealment of negative properties. Negative emotional attitude, on the contrary, contributes to the manifestation of mostly negative qualities in communication with others. Accordingly, without taking this into account, we can make a mistake of a different kind: to underestimate the merits that this person has.

Let us pose the following question: “Can a person, if desired, improve his evaluative abilities in the psychological knowledge of people?” Probably, it can, but with the obligatory consideration of the following circumstances. First, the very nature of such abilities is not fully known to us. For example, we do not know exactly when they first appear in a person’s life and how they develop, whether they are based on some inclinations given to a person by nature, or whether they are completely formed under the direct influence of the social conditions in which a person lives. We also do not fully know for certain what specific signs some people usually focus on, perceiving and psychologically evaluating other people. And yet, we do know something, and this is quite enough to try to further express a number of useful tips for the practical improvement of each person's ability to correctly perceive and evaluate people.

First of all, we note that for this it is necessary to learn how to turn everything that was mentioned above into useful life habits. It is also advisable to constantly engage in psychological self-education, read more, giving preference to those writers who are deservedly considered beautiful psychologists in the literary world. The best works of art teach the viewer a deeper understanding of themselves and other people.

Literature

1. Andreeva G.M. Social Psychology. - G., 2003

2. Cole G., Skibner S. Culture and thinking. - K., 2000

3. Robert M.A. Tilman F. Psychology of an individual and a group. - K., 1999

4. Vecker L.M. Mental processes. - K., 1994

Cognitiveness in mainstream psychology

The study of the types of mental processes termed cognitive (cognitive processes proper) is heavily influenced by those studies that have successfully used the "cognitive" paradigm in the past. The concept of "cognitive processes" has often been applied to such processes as memory, attention, perception, action, decision making, and imagination. Emotions are not traditionally classified as cognitive processes. The above division is now considered largely artificial, and research is being conducted that studies the cognitive component of emotions. Along with this, there is often also a personal ability to "awareness" of strategies and methods of cognition, known as "metacognition".

Empirical studies of cognition usually use a scientific methodology and a quantitative method, sometimes also include the construction of models of a particular type of behavior.

The theoretical school that studies thinking from the position of cognition is usually called the “school of cognitivism” (Eng. cognitivism).

The enormous success of the cognitive approach can be explained, first of all, by its prevalence as a fundamental one in modern psychology. In this capacity, he replaced behaviorism, which dominated until the 1950s.

Influences

The success of cognitive theory has been reflected in its application in the following disciplines:

Psychology (especially cognitive psychology) and psychophysics
Cognitive neuroscience, neurology and neuropsychology
Cybernetics and the study of artificial intelligence
Ergonomics and user interface design
Linguistics (especially psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics)
Economics (especially experimental economics)
learning theory

In turn, cognitive theory, being very eclectic in its most general sense, borrows knowledge from the following areas:

Computer science and information theory, where attempts to build artificial intelligence and so-called "collective intelligence" focus on simulating the recognition (i.e. cognitive) abilities of living beings
Philosophy, epistemology and ontology
Physics, where the observer effect is studied mathematically

Unsolved problems of cognitive theory

How much conscious human intervention is required to carry out the cognitive process?
What effect does personality have on the cognitive process?
Why is it now so much more difficult for a computer to recognize a human appearance than for a cat to recognize its owner?
Why is the “horizon of concepts” for some people wider than for others?
Could there be a link between cognitive speed and blink rate?
If yes, what is this connection?

Cognitive ontology

At the level of an individual living being, though questions of ontology are studied by various disciplines, here they are combined into one subtype of disciplines - cognitive ontology, which, in many respects, contradicts the previous, linguistically dependent, approach to ontology. In the "linguistic" approach, being, perception and activity are considered without taking into account the natural limitations of a person, human experience and attachments, which can make a person "know" (see also qualia) something that for others remains a big question.

At the level of individual consciousness, an unexpectedly emerging behavioral reaction, “popping up” from under consciousness, can serve as an impetus for the formation of a new “concept”, an idea leading to “knowledge”. The simple explanation for this is that living beings tend to keep their attention on something, trying to avoid interruption and distraction at each of the levels of perception. An example of this kind of cognitive specialization is the inability of adult human beings to pick up by ear the differences in languages they have not been immersed in since they were young.

Cognitive as compression

Cognitiveness as a social process

Cognitiveness in a cultural context

Generalization

Knowledge and delusion. Essays on psychology research- “KNOWLEDGE AND DELUSION. ESSAYS ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RESEARCH" ("Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung") is one of the main works of Ernst Mach, devoted to the problems of the theory of knowledge, which was published in 1905 (Russian translation ...

- “KNOWLEDGE AND DELUSION. Essays on the psychology of research” (Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zuer Psychologie der Forschung, 1905; Russian translation, 1912) is one of the main works of E. Mach, devoted to the problems of the theory of knowledge. In order to… … Philosophical Encyclopedia

Cognition and reality- “KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY”, under this title, the publishing house “Shipovnik” (St. Petersburg) in 1912 in the series “Library of Modern Philosophy” published a book by Privatdozent of the University of Berlin Ernst Cassirer “Substanz und… … Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

religious knowledge- unlike science, which is characterized by a readiness for self-refutation (not always realizable) up to the basic principles, religious knowledge within any confession is usually aimed at affirming and confirming the original dogmas, the symbol ...

artistic knowledge- characteristic of art; differs from scientific knowledge in that science, as a rule, strives for the most impersonal knowledge (although this is not always the case in psychology), while art is focused on the unique personality of the creator, on his ... ... Great Psychological Encyclopedia

The word "psychology" in translation from ancient Greek literally means "the science of the soul" (psyche - "soul", logos - "concept", "doctrine"). The term "psychology" first appeared in scientific use in the 16th century. Initially, he belonged to a special science that dealt with the study of the so-called mental, or mental, phenomena, i.e., those that each person easily detects in his own mind as a result of self-observation. Later, in the XVII-XI X centuries. the field studied by psychology is expanding and includes not only conscious, but also unconscious phenomena. Thus, psychology is the science of the psyche and mental phenomena.

The subject of psychology is the psyche and mental phenomena of both one particular person and mental phenomena observed in groups and collectives. In turn, the task of psychology is the study of mental phenomena. Describing the task of psychology, S. L. Rubinshtein writes: “Psychological knowledge is an indirect knowledge of the mental through the disclosure of its essential, objective connections.”

The main task of psychology as a science is to study the features of the formation, development and manifestation of mental phenomena and processes. At the same time, it sets itself a number of other tasks:

1) to study the qualitative and structural originality of mental phenomena and processes, which is not only theoretical, but also of great practical importance;

2) to analyze the functioning of mental phenomena and processes in connection with their determinism by the objective conditions of life and activity of people;

3) to investigate the physiological mechanisms underlying mental phenomena, since without their knowledge it is impossible to correctly master the practical means of their formation and development;

4) to promote the systematic introduction of scientific knowledge and ideas of psychological science into the practice of people's lives and activities, their interaction and mutual understanding (development of scientific and practical methods of training and education, rationalization of the labor process in various types of people's activities)

Correlation between everyday and scientific psychology

The concept of "psychology" has both scientific and everyday meaning. In the first case, it is used to designate the relevant scientific discipline, in the second - to describe the behavior or mental characteristics of individuals and groups of people. Therefore, to one degree or another, each person becomes acquainted with "psychology" long before its systematic study.

Worldly psychological knowledge is very approximate, vague and differs in many ways from scientific knowledge. What is this difference (see diagram)

First, worldly psychological knowledge is specific, tied to specific situations, people, and tasks. Scientific psychology strives for generalization, for which the corresponding concepts are used.

Secondly, worldly psychological knowledge is intuitive. This is due to the way they are obtained - random experience and its subjective analysis at the unconscious level. In contrast, scientific knowledge is based on experiment, and the knowledge gained is quite rational and conscious.

Thirdly, there are differences in the ways in which knowledge is transferred. As a rule, the knowledge of everyday psychology is transferred with great difficulty, and often this transfer is simply impossible. As Yu. B. Gippenreiter writes, “the eternal problem of “fathers and children” consists precisely in the fact that children cannot and do not even want to adopt the experience of their fathers.” At the same time, in science, knowledge is accumulated and transferred much more easily.

Branches of psychology: general, fundamental, applied

Modern psychology is a diversified science. Branches of psychology are relatively independent developing areas. They are conditionally divided into fundamental (general) and applied (special).

The fundamental branches of psychology are of general importance in the study of mental phenomena. This is the basis that unites all branches of psychology, and also serves as the basis for their development. Fundamental branches, as a rule, are called the term "general psychology". The main concepts that general psychology considers are: mental processes (sensations, perceptions, attention, ideas, memory, imagination, thinking, speech, emotions, will), mental properties (abilities, motivation, temperament, character) and mental states. The emergence of general psychology as a fundamental branch is associated with the name of S. L. Rubinshtein, who in 1942 created the fundamental work “Fundamentals of General Psychology”. The fundamental branches of psychology include general psychology, differential psychology, developmental psychology, the history of psychology, personality psychology, and psychophysiology.

Applied are the branches of psychology that are of practical importance. Such branches include, for example, educational psychology, developmental psychology, differential psychology, social psychology, medical psychology, legal psychology, and many others.

Relationship of psychology with other branches of scientific knowledge

Questions of psychology have long been considered within the framework of philosophy. Only in the middle of the 19th century did psychology become an independent science. But separated from philosophy, it continues to maintain a close connection with it. Currently, there are scientific problems that are studied by both psychology and philosophy. Such problems include the concepts of personal meaning, the purpose of life, worldview, political views, moral values, and more. Psychology uses experimental methods to test hypotheses. However, there are questions that cannot be solved experimentally. In such cases, psychologists may turn to philosophy. Among the philosophical and psychological problems are the problems of the essence and origin of human consciousness, the nature of higher forms of human thinking, the influence of society on the individual and the individual on society.

A. G. Maklakov points out that, although for a long time philosophy was divided into materialistic and idealistic, now there has been a convergence of these currents of philosophy, and one can speak of the same significance for psychology of both directions. Materialistic philosophy is the main one when considering the problems of activity and the origin of higher mental functions. Idealistic philosophy, according to Maklakov, poses such problems as responsibility, conscience, the meaning of life, and spirituality. Maklakov notes that the use in psychology of both directions (materialistic and idealistic) "most fully reflects the dual nature of man, his biosocial nature."

According to A. G. Maklakov, problems of epistemology are among the problems that can be solved only with the cooperation of psychologists and philosophers. Some theories of psychology are of a psychological-philosophical nature, such as, for example, the theoretical work of the neo-Freudians. For example, the works of Erich Fromm are used in psychology, sociology and philosophy.

Psychology is closely related to the social sciences. It has much in common with sociology. Sociology borrows from social psychology methods of studying personality and human relationships. Psychology makes extensive use of such methods of collecting scientific information as surveys and questionnaires, which are traditionally considered sociological. There are different concepts that psychology and sociology adopt from each other. Many problems, such as national psychology, the psychology of politics, the problems of socialization and social attitudes, psychologists and sociologists solve together.

Social sciences such as pedagogy and history are also important for psychology. An example of the synthesis of history and psychology is the theory of cultural and historical development of higher mental forms by L. S. Vygotsky. The use of the historical method in psychology consists in studying the phylo- and ontogenetic development of mental phenomena from elementary to complex forms. The convergence of history and psychology is based on the concept that modern man is a product of the development of mankind.

Psychology is closely related to the medical and biological sciences. The use of the achievements of these sciences in psychology is based on the fact that most mental phenomena and mental processes are physiologically conditioned. The facts of mutual influence of mental and somatic on each other are known. The mental state affects the physiological. Psychological features can contribute to the development of certain diseases. The feedback is that chronic illness affects mental health.

Psychology actively interacts with a large number of sciences and branches of scientific knowledge. This interaction is manifested, first of all, in the creation of branches of psychology, which are related, applied branches of scientific knowledge, exploring the laws of objective reality from the standpoint of the subject of psychology. For example, the connection between psychology and anthropology is established due to the existence of such a fundamental branch of psychology as personality psychology; the connection of psychology with psychiatry is expressed in the existence of such branches as pathopsychology, clinical psychology, psychosomatics, and the psychology of abnormal development; connection with neurobiology, anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system is found through neuropsychology, psychophysiology; connection with genetics is expressed in the creation of psychogenetics; with defectology - in the existence of a special psychology; linguistics, interacting with psychology, gives rise to psycholinguistics; connection with jurisprudence is clearly manifested in such branches of psychology as forensic psychology, psychology of the victim, criminal psychology, psychology of crime investigation.

Structure, functions of the psyche. Higher mental functions

The psyche is a property of highly organized living matter, which consists in the active reflection of the objective world by the subject, in the construction by the subject of an inalienable picture of this world from him and in the regulation of behavior and activity on this basis.

The main functions of the psyche: a reflection of the surrounding reality, the preservation of the integrity of the body, the regulation of behavior. These functions are interconnected and, in fact, are elements of the integrative function of the psyche, which consists in ensuring the adaptation of a living organism to environmental conditions.

The structure of the psyche. Mental phenomena can be divided into three groups: mental processes, mental states, and mental properties of the individual.

Mental processes act as primary regulators of human behavior. Mental processes have a definite beginning, course, and end, i.e., they have certain dynamic characteristics, which, first of all, include parameters that determine the duration and stability of the mental process. On the basis of mental processes, certain states are formed, knowledge, skills and abilities are formed. In turn, mental processes can be divided into three groups: cognitive, emotional and volitional.

Cognitive mental processes include mental processes associated with the perception and processing of information. These include sensation, perception, representation, memory, imagination, thinking, speech, and attention. Thanks to these processes, a person receives information about the world around him and about himself. However, information or knowledge in itself does not play any role for a person if they are not significant for him. You probably paid attention to the fact that some events remain in your memory for a long time, while you forget about others the next day. Other information may generally remain unnoticed for you. This is due to the fact that any information may or may not have an emotional connotation, that is, it may or may not be significant. Therefore, along with cognitive mental processes, emotional mental processes are distinguished as independent ones. Within the framework of this group of mental processes, such mental phenomena as affects, emotions, feelings, moods and emotional stress are considered.

We have the right to believe that if a certain event or phenomenon evokes positive emotions in a person, then this has a positive effect on his activity or state, and, conversely, negative emotions impede activity and worsen a person’s condition. Nevertheless, there are exceptions. For example, an event that caused negative emotions increases a person's activity, stimulates him to overcome the obstacles and obstacles that have arisen. Such a reaction indicates that not only emotional, but also volitional mental processes are essential for the formation of human behavior, which are most clearly manifested in situations related to decision-making, overcoming difficulties, managing one's behavior, etc.

Sometimes one more group of mental processes is singled out as an independent group - unconscious processes. It includes those processes that occur or are carried out outside the control of consciousness.

Pikhichesky states characterize the state of the psyche as a whole. They, like mental processes, have their own dynamics, which is characterized by duration, direction, stability and intensity. At the same time, mental states affect the course and outcome of mental processes and can promote or inhibit activity. Mental states include such phenomena as elation, depression, fear, cheerfulness, despondency. It should be noted that mental states can be extremely complex phenomena that have objective and subjective conditions, but their common feature is dynamism. The exception is mental states caused by the dominant characteristics of the personality, including pathocharacterological features. Such states can be very stable mental phenomena that characterize a person's personality.

The next class of mental phenomena - the mental properties of the personality - is characterized by greater stability and greater constancy. Under the mental properties of a person, it is customary to understand the most significant features of a person that provide a certain quantitative and qualitative level of human activity and behavior. Mental properties include orientation, temperament, abilities and character. The level of development of these properties, as well as the features of the development of mental processes and the predominant (most characteristic of a person) mental states determine the uniqueness of a person, his individuality.

by subject:

"Social Psychology"

"The influence of professional activity on the cognitive abilities of the individual from the standpoint of the psychology of social cognition"

Introduction

Chapter I. Socio-Psychological Approach in the Psychology of Social Cognition

Chapter II. Cognitive fit theories in the psychology of social cognition

Chapter III. Study of the dependence of changes in cognitive capabilities on the specifics of professional activity

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction.

The psychology of social cognition relatively recently declared itself as an independent area of psychological science, although a person's knowledge of the world around him is one of the cross-cutting problems of culture. It is easy to see a variety of aspects that are correlated with the two most important spheres of human existence: with the sphere awareness to the reality of which he is a part, understanding the connections of both the external world and his own connections with this world and, of course, with its sphere activities in a world unthinkable without such awareness. .

One of the first definitions of the psychology of social cognition focused on the study of how people make sense of their position in the real world and their relationships with other people. In other words, from the very beginning of the existence of this field of knowledge, such an important feature of the socio-cognitive process as obtaining knowledge about the world and comprehension his.

Social cognition is always a two-way process: the perceived person at the same moment perceives the "perceiving" person, which is excluded when perceiving, for example, a table or some other object. The perceived person or any social action is changeable, which also distinguishes the object of perception from the physical object.

The process of social cognition is therefore much more complicated, and the possibilities of actually comprehending the social world are to a greater extent connected with the active action of the subject of cognition. The search for the meaning of the surrounding social world can be carried out by a person only in the process of active development of this world by him and subject to the “ability” to draw a picture of this world, which is difficult, involves many mistakes, but, as D. Myers rightly notes , "an exquisite analysis of the imperfection of our thinking is in itself a tribute to human wisdom" .

It is hardly necessary to talk about the enormous practical significance of this kind of research, especially in today's complex world. Psychology, if it really wants to help a person navigate the system of social connections and contradictions, must describe and explain those features that are characteristic of a person in comprehending the diversity of his relationships with other people, social institutions, and a complex mosaic of social phenomena. To reveal what are the psychological and social factors that make a person’s adaptation in the modern world successful or, on the contrary, unsuccessful, to help him “cope” with circumstances means to provide him with significant practical assistance for orientation in an unstable world, in conditions of radical social transformations.

In European social psychology, the development of this problem area is associated primarily with the names A. Tashfela and S. Moskovisi. Already in work A. Tashfela And K. Fraser"Introduction to Social Psychology", published in 1978, the main problems of the psychology of social cognition were identified in a specific way. Anticipating later criticism of the "American" approach, which emphasizes the study individual mechanisms of social cognition, in the work of Taschfel and Fraser were especially studied social determinants of this process. The development of the ideas proposed here is contained in the fundamental work edited by M. Huston, W. Strebe, J. Stephenson"Introduction to Social Psychology", which is today the main European textbook on social psychology. Considerable attention is paid to the problems of the psychology of social cognition in sociological work. P. Berger And T. Lukman"The Social Construction of Reality". This problem occupies a firm place at all recent international and European congresses on psychology and social psychology.

At the same time, in the traditions of domestic general psychology, not only fundamental approaches to the problems of social cognition have long been presented, but numerous experimental studies have also been carried out. Unfortunately, they have not yet been brought together and are often simply not spelled out in terms currently accepted in the field under study, although in terms of depth of analysis they are not only not inferior to modern research, but sometimes surpass them. The time has come for the institutionalization of this branch of psychology in our country, which is especially important in a period of radical social transformations.

We conducted a study of 15 middle-aged people, purpose which was the study of the dependence of the level of cognitive capabilities in middle-aged people on the predominance of mental work in professional activities.

A group of employees of a trading enterprise aged 40 to 55 years, which included 9 men and 21 women, was studied. Employees were divided into two groups of 15 people each: in the first group A, the professional activity of the subjects required intense mental work, in the second group B, professional activity did not require special mental stress. In group A, employees have an education not lower than secondary vocational, in group B the educational level is different, but does not exceed secondary specialized.

object our study was the psyche of middle-aged people.

Subject of study - cognitive processes in middle-aged people.

To determine the level of development of some cognitive processes was used psychodiagnostic method, for data processing - method of mathematical data processing .

Techniques that we used:

1. The method of "Schulte Tables" for determining the stability of attention and the dynamics of performance;

2. Method "Memory for numbers" to determine short-term visual memory, its volume and accuracy;

3. Methodology "Quantitative relations" for determining logical thinking;

4. Method "Intellectual lability" for diagnosing lability, i.e. the ability to switch intellectual attention, the ability to quickly move from solving some tasks to performing others (without making mistakes).

The empirical data obtained by us as a result of the study were intended to confirm or refute one of the hypotheses put forward by us:

H 0- in middle-aged people there is no relationship between the predominance of mental work in professional activity and the level of cognitive capabilities.

H 1 - in middle-aged people, there is a direct relationship between the predominance of mental work in professional activities and an increased level of cognitive capabilities.

Chapter I

Socio-psychological approach in the psychology of social cognition

Naturally, the psychology of social cognition grew in the most direct way from the depths of psychological science. The entire section of general psychology, devoted to the analysis of cognitive processes, is a prerequisite for the formation of the subject itself and the entire range of problems in the psychology of social cognition.

One of the first to express the idea of a connection between cognition and society was William James. From his point of view, human thought "knows" because it deals with objects independent of it. Moreover, cognition is not a passive adaptation to the outside world: “the psyche is not a mirror, even if it is crooked”, cognition presupposes interest. From James's point of view, "the correct or reasonable mental action is to establish, according to external relations, such internal relations that would favor the survival of the thinker, or at least his physical well-being." It is easy to see that the emphasis on the functions of cognition leads close to the conclusion about its role for human existence and in the social world.

Of particular importance in this respect is the tradition gestaltpsuxologist. Established in the early twentieth century. this concept opposed the then dominant behaviorism with its "atomistic" approach to psychology. Consideration of perception as an integral image of an object, identification of the dynamics of this image - the possibility of centering alternately on the figure and on the background, as well as the idea of "good" figures in perception - all this suggested the presence of a rather complex cognitive structure of the individual and his activity in the cognitive process. Although all this is correlated with any perception, the very idea of the connection between the subject and the object of perception turned out to be very productive for understanding the features of social perception.

In psychosemantics, developed on the basis of the principle of activity, the problems of the psychology of social cognition are revealed in the context of the relationship between meaning and meaning, considered in the works A. N. Leontieva, A. R. Luria and their followers. The role of needs in the perception of the world, already identified by Leontiev in animals, is being developed in humans: in order to “emancipate” an object, it is necessary to “express” it in some way, and this way is a sign, a verbal meaning. Luria therefore spoke of the "double world" of a person due to the possession of the word: on the one hand, this is the immediate objective world, and on the other, the world denoted by words. The word has a fixed content due to social convention- consent regarding it

values. Therefore, the idea of the world is always given within the framework of a certain cultural-historical system of meanings - a certain social environment, community, culture. Psychosemantics and has its subject, according to A. G. Shmeleva,"selective assimilation and transformation of meaning in individual consciousness in the process of individual activity." In this it differs from linguistic and logical semantics, which also explore meanings, but in a different way. In the psychological analysis of meaning, it is important to take into account the totality of the individual's reactions to any meaningful stimulus, i.e. including emotional and evaluative reaction.

The huge payoff of a person with a developed language is that the world doubles. With the help of a language that designates objects, he can deal with objects that are not directly perceived and that are not part of his own experience. "A person has a double world, which he enters, and the world of directly reflected objects, and the world of images, objects, relations and qualities that are indicated by words." As V. F. Petrenko rightly notes, the meaning expressed by the word enriches it with “total social experience”. Thus, developed within the framework of the theory of activity, psychosemantics reinforces the idea of social determination of the process of cognition.

The socio-psychological "section" of the problem of social cognition means at least two focuses in its study. First, equal attention to both analysis social conditions l values the process of cognition, and the analysis of the learning process social objects (i.e. how a person "works" with social information).

Secondly, and this is another side of the socio-psychological approach, attention is paid to how an ordinary person cognizes the social world. For the latter, it becomes especially relevant, according to P. Berger And T. Lukman, knowledge of everyday life. The term used by these sociologists means that ordinary knowledge is knowledge of a special kind: the authors call it pre-theoretical knowledge. It includes a set of rules of conduct, moral principles and prescriptions, proverbs and sayings, values and beliefs, and the like, for the theoretical integration of which significant intellectual efforts are needed. In other words, it is the sum of what everyone knows about the social world, and the "recipes" of behavior based on such knowledge are passed down from generation to generation. Knowledge about everyday life has two important features.

Firstly, a person inevitably finds himself, as it were, in front of two realities: “Ordinary members of society in their subjective understanding of behavior not only take the world of everyday life for granted. This is the world that is created in their thoughts and actions, which is experienced by them in quality real. The specificity of the knowledge of this real world by an ordinary person should be studied separately.

Secondly, if we are talking about the fact that “everyone knows” anyway, it is obvious that such knowledge should be mandatory. divided: not only does each subject possess it, but others are also capable of accepting a certain general structure of reflections, ideas, considerations about the objects and processes of the reality of everyday life.

People live in a common world, and therefore the reality of everyday life inevitably wears intersubjective character. Hence the conclusion about the enormous role of language in the cognition of everyday reality: its elements must be marked, moreover, in such a way that, despite the subjective origin of the signs, their meanings would be accessible to the understanding of other participants in real life. The process that can provide such a situation is the process communications, the study of which is one of the most important tasks of social psychology.

Thus, in contrast to the analysis of the scientific knowledge of the social world, which is the task of almost all social sciences, the question here is not about how to learn about the social world surrounding a person, but about how an ordinary person practically it does in everyday life. Of course, the comparison of scientific and everyday knowledge is also important: such a comparison can be useful to both.

If the statement of cognitive psychology is true that new knowledge about the world makes a person less prone to manipulation and control, allows you to see more alternative possibilities of action, then even greater usefulness of such knowledge about the social world is obvious. It is clear why, despite the "antiquity" of the problem, the twentieth century. gave rise to interest in her. The development of mass movements, the rapid pace of social change, the development of the media require from a person not only better adaptation to society, optimization of activities in it, but also a better understanding of how our knowledge about the world correlates with changes in it.

The literature discusses the question of what is actually meant when one speaks of social cognition. First, the fact of social origin this knowledge: it arises and is supported by social interaction, communication plays a decisive role in it. Secondly, cognition is social insofar as it deals with social objects. Third, social cognition socially divided, those. its results are common to members of a certain society and group, "shared" by them, because otherwise no interactions would be possible.

Cognition is social in its origin. Knowledge about the social world arises only under the condition of interaction between people, their communication with each other: even the simplest form of social knowledge - building the image of another person is already possible only with elementary interaction. More complex forms of social cognition - of other groups, of society as a whole - arise only under the condition that a person acts in a variety of social situations. Here again it is appropriate to recall the truth that a person acts in the world in accordance with how he knows it, but knows the world in accordance with how he acts in it. This means that when cognizing the phenomena of the social world, a social context is always given - a real social situation in which a person lives and acts. The most important condition for adequate knowledge in this case is the relationship between the content of knowledge, changes in it and changes in the world. The emphasis on this side of the issue was made precisely in social psychology. The proof of this is the study of the process of socialization: knowledge about the social world is laid from childhood and develops as the child acquires social experience, i.e. his actions are all in new and new social situations.

Of great importance in the origin of social cognition is the specific cultural environment, which is perceived by the child in the process of socialization through language acquisition. Language, as a tool for mastering the social world, also acts as one of the proofs of the social origin of social cognition. Consequently, the interaction itself takes place in the context of society and therefore does not directly determine the process of social cognition. A. Tashfel remarks on this: it is important to understand how different social systems influence the individual way of seeing the world in which the individual lives and acts. The social origin of social cognition makes it necessary to expand the range of questions that must be answered: the task is not only to understand a person, to understand his interactions with other people, but also to understand peace, in which these interactions take place.

The second "addition" concerns the circle of those social phenomena that act as objects of social cognition. In studies of social perception, the range of these objects was rather limited: another person, a group, a wider community. Only in the early stages of its existence did the psychology of social cognition accept such a formulation of the problem. With the further development of research, the need was established to address a wider range of objects. Since social cognition is born in interaction, and the latter is always given in a broader social context, it became necessary to analyze these interactions in various specific social "environments". Under the "environment" here you can understand a variety of fragments of reality. First, numerous specific social groups: in modern societies, for example, organizations, various social institutions (which was not specifically mentioned in traditional studies of social perception). Secondly, the “environment” is also interpreted in its ecological sense: as a natural and artificial habitat (especially since a relatively new branch, “environmental psychology”, or “environmental psychology” is more and more clearly declaring itself in modern psychology). Knowledge of the "environment" is an important factor in the orientation of a person in the social world. Thirdly, "environment" can also be understood as a linguistic environment, which is a symbolic representation of the surrounding world. Fourthly, under the "environment" one can understand the entire area of intergroup relations - their various "sections", their type.

Such an expansion of the spheres of social cognition leads close to the conclusion that it is necessary to investigate the process of cognition of the social world as a whole, to analyze the conditions and methods for constructing its image. Hence, in the psychology of social cognition, three series of “expectations” are fixed, which are included in the process of cognition of the social world by each specific subject: a general series of expectations that are generated by a given culture, a given type of society; expectations arising from prior knowledge about a particular group (nation, profession, social class); expectations about the behavior of a particular person who acts as an object of knowledge. This also gives the psychology of social cognition a certain structure and internal logic of the subject.

The third sign of the greater "sociality" of social cognition in comparison with social perception is its separation other people. This idea of "separability" of social cognition is based on two postulates:

a) in the behavior of all people there is a predictable series of similarities based on ideas about the general human nature that we have acquired in experience;

b) there are also a number of undoubted differences in the behavior of people (both in individuals and in certain types).

It follows from this that one can never have two identical opinions even about an individual person, not to mention some more complex phenomena. This is the price of "objectivity" of knowledge. That is why all knowledge is a mental reconstruction of what actually exists. .

This reconstruction is carried out by the subject on the basis of his experience, needs, intentions. Therefore, there are no two individuals on Earth whose results of cognition would be identical. Naturally, this is especially important for characterizing social cognition, since in addition to the individual experience of the individual, it also includes the experience of the group to which he belongs, and the entire “experience” of culture. Nevertheless, people must understand each other in a certain way, or at least understand what is at stake. The “separability” of the results of cognition means that, despite individual or group ideas about various social phenomena, people exist in a certain common cognitive space, they more or less share, possibly, within certain limits, the meaning of certain objects they know.

The means of developing such shared representations, values is communication. Only when it is included in the cognitive process can one answer the sacramental question: how can people cognize the same thing if everyone constructs its image individually, if in general everyone's knowledge of the world is an absolutely independent process? Social cognition, arising in the course of interaction, implies a mandatory communicative process, i.e. a process of constant exchange of information.

The most important conclusion that follows from the characterization of this third sign of the “sociality” of social cognition is that the condition for its possibility is the process of constant communication between people included in it: the image of the social world is developed jointly.

But at the same time, people are different, and therefore everyone demonstrates their individual style of social cognition. Based on the generalization of the experience of numerous studies, five main types of subjects of social cognition (in English terminology - "cognizers") have been identified.

but. rational person. It is this type that is outlined in theories of cognitive correspondence. For him, the basis of cognition is the search for correspondence, orderliness in its cognitive structures, he is rational, because he is deeply convinced that cognition should be guided by arguments, not emotions.

b. " Naive psychologist"- this is an ordinary person, described by F. Haider and S. Asch, who relies on his ideas about a certain linkage of traits in a person ("all serious people are stubborn", "all cheerful people are frivolous", "all stubborn people are pedants" and etc.). Such a person constantly “finishes” the image of what he perceives, guided by what was later called “implicit theories of personality”.

in. " Data Producer"- a person who evaluates another person not in connection with the subject's implicit theories of personality, but solely on the basis of the order in which information about the perceived is presented. It is believed that by the end of the list of fixed traits, attention weakens and the final assessment of the perceived is "algebraic linear integration of weighted rating scores." But the very rating of a person's qualities is set by culture (for example, in different cultures there will be different ratings for such qualities as "unkempt" or "aggressive", "open" or "businesslike", etc.).

G. " Cognitive miser (miser)"- a person who makes many mistakes in evaluating another person due to the excessive "frugality" of his judgments. This can be expressed, for example, in the fact that only the more accessible is retained in memory, and it is precisely this that is added to the image of the perceived. Or, like a "naive psychologist", such a miser relies on the most familiar combinations, combinations of signs (for example, "crimes" and "immigrants", etc.). Sometimes such a "miser" relies in his judgments on the apparent proximity of certain objects. The cognitive miser tends to see only the tip of the iceberg.

d. Cognitive-affective type, in contrast to the "rational", to a much greater extent relies on emotions in its assessments: it never acts "according to logic", but always - according to "psychology". According to R. Zajonc, for such a person, the statement is certainly acceptable: “Preferences do not need to be inferred.” (This coincides with the well-known thought of Pascal: "The heart has its own reason that it does not know any reasons.")

Naturally, this typology, like any typology, is rather arbitrary: it is unlikely that the described types exist in their pure form. Nevertheless, it is useful, as it allows us to further consider more specifically the question of what mechanisms a person turns on when cognizing the social world and how these individual mechanisms manifest themselves in interaction with social factors.

Chapter II

Cognitive fit theories in the psychology of social cognition

The next step was taken by the so-called cognitive correspondence theories. The totality of these theories, born in the 50s. XX century., is one of the most important orientations in modern social psychology. In its most general form, the essence of the cognitivist approach can be characterized as the desire to explain social behavior by describing predominantly cognitive processes that are characteristic of humans. In direct contrast to behaviorism, cognitivists turn primarily to mental activity, to the structures of mental organization. The main emphasis in research is on the process of cognition. The general line of communication between this process and social behavior can be traced as follows: an individual's impressions of the world are organized into certain coherent interpretations, as a result of which various ideas, beliefs, and expectations are formed, which act as regulators of social behavior. Thus, this behavior is wholly within the context of certain organized systems of images, concepts, and other "mentalistic" formations. When combining these formations into a connected structured system, a person inevitably has to make some decision, the first step of which is to assign the perceived object to a certain category.

It is easy to see that the main lines of the cognitivist approach in social psychology have their source in some of the ideas of classical Gestalt psychology, as well as K. Lewin's field theory. One of the prominent theorists of cognitivism in social psychology R. Abelson later he expressed the original program of the approach in this way: "My version of each person makes us consider him more as a Thinker than as a Doer."

Appeal to gestalt psychology is carried out along several lines: the idea of the image as a holistic formation is accepted, the idea of isomorphism, transformed here into the idea of the similarity of various aspects of interpersonal relations. The idea of the immanent dynamics of gestalt also receives a specific interpretation: the transformation of the cognitive structures of the subject (“reorganization”, “regrouping”) is understood as the establishment of such balanced structures of the individual, which are experienced by him subjectively as psychological comfort. When establishing such a balance, the principle of Gestalt psychology about the dominance of "good figures" is used. Thus, the entire traditional set of ideas of Gestalt psychology is presented in the works of social psychologists with a cognitivist orientation. They often contain direct references to the classical works of the Gestaltists, in particular to the book W. Köhler"Gestalt psychology"; many of the authors working within this orientation describe themselves as students of the Gestalt psychology school.

Naturally, the ideas of classical Gestalt psychology are not taken literally. First, because the very specificity of socio-psychological research requires their certain modification. Secondly, because modern cognitivists in social psychology are separated from classical Gestalt psychology by a rather long period of time, during which many ideas were either updated or discarded. Thirdly, because against the background of general eclecticism in modern social psychology, the boundaries between orientations are significantly softened and, thus, ideas from other theoretical orientations often penetrate into the fabric of cognitivist ideas.

However, the general tone of Gestalt psychology is inevitably present in the works of cognitivists: the call to rely on direct life experience as the first step in creating a “respectable” science, the admissibility, along with experiment, of “naive” observation data, and, of course, a general orientation towards cognitive processes as the starting point of psychological analysis .

Another theoretical source of the cognitivist orientation is field theory K. Levin. Despite the closeness of Lewin's ideas to Gestalt psychology, his concept contains such accents that are especially significant for social psychology. Unlike Gestalt psychologists, Levin does not focus on cognitive processes, but proposes research principles. personally sti and, therefore, along with the use of such a key concept as "image", develops the concept of "motive". This contains a high attraction for cognitivists - social psychologists, since the involvement of only the factor of information (knowledge) to explain social behavior is insufficient. And although the problem of the connection between cognitive and motivational processes has not yet been finally resolved, its very formulation is possible under the condition of a synthesis of classical Gestalt psychology and field theory.

For social psychology, such positions of the field theory as the idea of interaction between the individual and the environment (environment) turned out to be especially significant, which is transformed into the idea of interaction between the individual and the group, which gives reason to consider not only the perceptual structure of the individual, but also the structure of his real behavior. Cognitivists tend to assimilate the dual meaning of the concept of "field". As rightly remarked M G. Yaroshevsky,“For the Gestaltists, the “field” is a perceptual structure, it is what is perceived as directly given to consciousness. For Lewin, the "field" is the structure in which the behavior takes place. It covers the inseparability of the motivational aspirations (intentions) of the individual and the objects of his aspirations that exist outside the individual. Another idea of Lewin, directly used in social psychology, is the idea of valence: many constructions of cognitivists regarding the representation in the phenomenal field of the subject of his relations to other people exploit the idea of positive or negative valence.

Just as happened with the ideas of classical Gestalt psychology, Lewin's theory is not used "literally". Rather, here the influence manifested itself to a greater extent on the general orientation of the study - on the need to study the individual in interaction with the environment, the emphasis on "central" mental processes, respect for the experiment, including in such a complex area as the study of personality.

The core of the cognitivist orientation is cognitive fit theory. All of them are based on the basic premise that the cognitive structure of a person cannot be unbalanced, disharmonious, and if this is the case, then there is an immediate tendency to change this state. This idea is presented in different ways in different theories, but the very fact that many researchers are simultaneously addressing it is quite remarkable. The followers of these theories themselves, in a kind of credo set forth in the book "Theories of Cognitive Correspondence", note that the history of their occurrence is an illustration of a phenomenon that is often encountered in science, when several similar theories arise in a certain period of time, created by authors who do not have direct scientific results between them. contacts. At the end of the 50s. this is exactly what happened to theories of cognitive fit, which have come up under various names: balance, congruence, symmetry, dissonance. . What they all had in common from the very beginning was the recognition of the fact that the individual behaves in such a way as to maximize the internal fit of his cognitive system, and, moreover, that groups behave in such a way as to maximize the internal fit of their interpersonal relationships. The feeling of inconsistency causes psychological discomfort, which gives rise to a reorganization of the cognitive structure in order to restore conformity.

Although these theories arose only in the late 1950s, the words G. Ebbinghaus, relating to psychology in general: these theories have "a long past, but a short history." The followers of these theories themselves see their connection with the medieval concept of a logical man or with the concept of a rational man, an economic man of philosophical concepts of a later time. The generality of the approach is emphasized in the point where an attempt is made to correlate the logical and the illogical, rational and irrational in human behavior. The fact that these theses were returned to in the 1950s obviously has its own explanation: the long dominance of the behaviorist orientation circumvented this problem, while the complication of forms of social life dictated the demand for rational forms of behavior. Cognitive fit theories responded to this requirement in a specific form.

The direct sources of theories of correspondence are the ideas of K. Lewin on the nature of the conflict and the collective work under the leadership of T. Adorno "Authoritarian Personality". Levin singled out three types of psychological conflicts, which were later recorded in the experiment by Miller: "approach - approach", "approach - avoidance", "avoidance - avoidance". In each situation, the individual has an alternative choice of behavior. Thus, in the "approach-approach" situation, the state of the individual is characterized, who has to choose between two equally attractive alternatives, each of which requires a different type of action. A classic everyday example of this type of conflict is the situation of Buridan's donkey, who does not dare to choose one or another bundle of hay that is attractive to him. The situation "approach - avoidance" characterizes this type of conflict, when the same goal is presented to the individual both attractive and repulsive at the same time (in everyday language this is called "I want and prick"). Finally, the third type of conflict "avoidance - avoidance" draws a situation where you need to choose between two equally unattractive alternatives ("if you go to the left - you will be lost, if you go to the right - ... you will also be lost").

The interpretation of the choice made is well carried out with the help of theories of cognitive correspondence, which, as it were, logically continue Lewin's reasoning: a person chooses the alternative with which he quickly restores his cognitive correspondence.

As for the work of Adorno and co-authors, among the many important psychological developments contained in it (in particular, the problems of authoritarianism and related issues), one important circumstance was noted by cognitivists. In the section of the book entitled "Cognitive organization of personality", the concept of "ambiguity tolerance" was discussed, which is considered as a prototype of the idea of tolerance for inconsistency, i.e. such a psychological state of the individual, in which his sensitivity to the discrepancy that has arisen in the cognitive structure is minimal.

Based on these prototypes of the idea of cognitive correspondence, the authors turned to the development of various theories themselves. Of these, the most famous are: the theory of structural balance by F. Heider, the theory of communicative acts by T. Newcomb, the theory of cognitive dissonance by L. Festinger and the theory of congruence by Ch. Osgood and P. Tannenbaum. The theory of psychology developed by R. Abelson and M. Rosenberg stands somewhat apart.

IN theories of balanced and unbalanced structures F. Hyder, who is rightly considered one of the founders of the cognitivist orientation, the perceptual field of a certain cognizing subject is considered, in which there are: himself, another subject, to which the perceiver has a certain relationship, and the third - an object about which both the perceiver and the "other" have some - a judgment. The cognitive structure of the perceiving subject will be balanced if it obeys the everyday everyday “rule”: “we love what our friends love”, “we love what our friends don’t like”, etc. According to Haider, these maxims express the ideas of naive psychology about the essence of a person's desire for a balanced cognitive structure. Haider meticulously builds all possible models of balanced and unbalanced structures of the individual, brought together in his P-O-X scheme, where P is the perceiving subject, O is the "other" and X is the object perceived by both the "perceiving subject" and the "other" . With the help of this scheme, it is determined which type of relationship between the three indicated elements of the scheme gives a stable, balanced structure and which one causes a situation of discomfort for P (for example: “I really liked the book I read, and my best friend criticized it crushingly”).

In general terms, balance is present, according to Haider, in the cognitive system P in the event that P perceives the whole situation as harmony, without stress, i.e. if the relationship between P and the "other" (O) corresponds to the relationship of the "other" (O) to the object. In the same way, an imbalance occurs when the relation of P to the "other" diverges from the relation of this "other" to the "object". The P-O-X model thus provides a diagnosis of the cognitive structure in which the subject of perception experiences either psychological comfort or psychological discomfort. So far, nothing is said about how to overcome the situation of discomfort.

The answer to this question is theory of communicative acts T. Newcomb. Here again a system of three elements is considered: the perceiving subject (now called "A"), the "other" (B) and the "object" (X). The scheme was called A-B-X. All reasoning is carried out in the same way as it is done in Heider's scheme: A perceives as consonance (analogous to balance) the similarity of his relationship to X and B's relationship to X. The similarity of these relationships will generate attachment between A and B and, on the contrary, the divergence of these relationships will generate hostility between A and B. To bring the system into a situation of consonance (balance, according to Heider), it is necessary to develop communication between A and B , to conduct "negotiations", the purpose of which is to bring the positions of A and B closer in relation to X. Communication can lead to the return of the system to a balanced state. However, three options are possible: 1) A changes his relationship to X to make it similar to B's relationship to X; 2) B changes his relationship to X to make it similar to A's relationship to X; 3) neither A. nor B manages to change their attitude towards X (everyone remains in his own opinion), in this case, the balance can be achieved only if the attitude of A to B changes.

So, in Newcomb's scheme, it is no longer just a diagnosis of the state of the cognitive structure of the perceiving subject, but also describes some "work" that needs to be done to restore cognitive balance. Therefore, unlike the Heider model, the Newcomb model has found its practical application - it was used in the study of mass communication processes, namely, in determining the conditions for the effectiveness of "persuasive speech impact" on the consumer of information received through radio, television or the press. However, in this practical way of applying the scheme, one more of its shortcomings was revealed: the scheme allows three ways to bring the system into a balanced situation, i.e. assumes that one of the paths will "work". But it doesn't say anything about which path will be implemented? At the same time, to ensure the effectiveness of the impact through any media, not one of the three possible ways is needed, but one, the only one, the one that will ensure a change in the position of the consumer of information under the influence of the message (and, for example, not the third way, in which the persuasion will not affect the consumer - the recipient of information, and he will simply turn off the TV to achieve a "balance" in his cognitive structure). In other words, Newcomb's scheme cannot predict the direction in which relationships within the "triangle" will change: whether A will bring his system into conformity by changing B's relationship to the "object" or by changing its relationship to the communicator (i.e., to A).

The next logical step in refining the idea of cognitive matching is taken in congruence theory C. Osgood And P. Tannenbaum. Unlike the theories of Heider and Newcomb, the theory of Osgood and Tannenbaum makes two assumptions that allow predicting the outcomes of imbalanced states: B) and O to X (B to X), but also on the intensity of these relationships. So, the attitude can be positive, but of varying degrees (you can “love strongly” something or someone, just “love”, etc.). Different intensity of attitude can also lead to incongruity (incongruity). 2. The restoration of balance can be achieved not only by changing the sign of the relation P to one of the members of the triad, but by changing both the sign and intensity, and simultaneously to both members of the triad. Osgood and Tannenbaum apply the technique of semantic differential to measure the “shift” of the relation P both in sign and intensity to X, as well as the ratio of O to X. Formulas are proposed by which it is possible to calculate quite accurately how much each of the relations will “shift”. to coincide at one point and thereby contribute to bringing the system into a congruent state. The theory of Osgood and Tannenbaum gives the maximum possible improvement for the idea of bringing the cognitive structure into a state of conformity.

Somewhat falls out of this general logic cognitive dissonance theory L. Festinger, the best known and most popular of all correspondence theories. Unlike the three theories discussed, Festinger's theory deals with the cognitive structure of a single individual, and therefore no triad appears in it (that is, there is no "other"). "Conflict" is played out in the cognitive structure of one person when he has a discrepancy ("dissonance") between two elements of his cognitive structure. Festinger calls these elements "cognitions" or "knowledge". It can be "knowledge" about oneself: what one does, feels, wants or desires, what one is, etc. Other elements are knowledge about the world in which one lives: what happens and where, what leads to what, what gives satisfaction and what hurts, what can be ignored and what is important, etc. A well-known example, cited by Festinger himself, is that of a smoker who knows that smoking is harmful, but at the same time continues to smoke. Festinger lists three ways in which dissonance can be "removed" or, at the very least, reduced: quit smoking; b) change "knowledge" ("cognition", according to Festinger), i.e. convince yourself that there is no danger; c) be careful about any new information regarding smoking, make its "selection" - accept only that which neglects the dangers of smoking, and discard "terrible" stories about cancer and other serious consequences.

Festinger lists five areas in which dissonance reduction plays an important role: significantly reduces the objectivity inherent in the evaluation of alternatives before making a decision. 2. Forced consent, when a person has dissonance not because he was forced to make a decision, but he himself voluntarily allowed himself to be drawn into a decision that causes dissonance. In this case, in order to reduce dissonance, a person begins to increase the value of the performed action and, as it were, “justify” himself. 3. Specific selection of information - the desire not so much to avoid negative information (which increases dissonance), but to select positive information that reduces dissonance. 4. Disagreeing with the beliefs of a social group when it is obviously wrong, the recognition of which could lead to a decrease in dissonance. However, often, due to the interaction between members of the group, such disagreement does not arise, but, on the contrary, together with the group, a person finds new and new “confirmations” of its correctness. 5. Unexpected results of actions and their consequences, when the measure of a person’s efforts to reduce dissonance depends on how the efforts expended by him and the failure of the result are related: the dissonance is stronger when the result of a decision contradicts the person’s idea of himself. To reduce dissonance in this case, a person tends to change even self-esteem. All this indicates the importance of the phenomenon of dissonance in the real life of a person.

An important issue in the theory of dissonance is the question of its origin. It is also of great interest from the point of view of the further development of the ideas of cognitivism. Festinger suggests four possible sources of dissonance: 1) from logical inconsistency, i.e. when a person simply admits the simultaneous existence of two contradictory judgments; along with a modified example from traditional formal logic (“All people are mortal. I am a man. But I will never die”), Festinger offers another example: a person knows that water freezes at 0 0 , but at the same time believes that a glass of ice will not melt at +20 0 ; 2) because of the discrepancy between cognitive elements and cultural patterns, or, in other words, norms: the professor, having lost his temper, yells at the student, although he knows that this is an elementary violation of pedagogical norms; he must at the same time experience dissonance; 3) from the mismatch of the cognitive element with a broader system of ideas: a certain American voter is a Democrat and suddenly votes for a Republican in an election; 4) out of inconsistency with past experience: someone went out into the rain and for some reason does not get wet, although in the past, of course, the rain always “drenched”.

In the last three cases, there is no logical inconsistency - the situations do not obey the figures and rules of the syllogism, but dissonance still arises. Since an ordinary person is always considered in theories of cognitive correspondence, a very specific logic is characteristic of him. R. Abelson And M. Rosenberg called her "psychology".

Psychology is designed to provide a special nature of the relationship that arises between cognitions. In order to formulate the rules of psychology, a classification of all possible elements and relationships that appear in the cognitive field is proposed. These are “elements”: actors (the subject of perception itself, other people, groups), means (actions, institutions, responses), goals (results); the "relationships" that link these elements (positive, negative, ambivalent, neutral). The two "elements" and the "relation" constitute a "sentence". Combined together, they form a structural matrix that allows us to derive the rules of psychology. Here is an example. There are three elements A, B , C and four types of relationships: n - positive, n - negative, a - ambivalent, o - neutral. Suppose there is such a relationship between them: ApB and BnS include ApS, which means that if A positively relates to B , and B has a negative attitude towards C, then A has a positive attitude towards C. “Reasons” of this kind are rejected by logicians (from the point of view of which it should be: if ApB and BcC, then AnC), but in reality they exist: this is how people often reason in practice . Abelson notes that this refers to "a serious but not too brilliant" thinker "who argues something like this: if A does action B , and B blocks target C, it follows that A is against target C. But I always thought that A accepted target C, and now this confuses me. To confuse something confuses, but still an ordinary person argues in this way, i.e. in this case, not a logical contradiction is fixed, but a contradiction between a practical consideration and a rule of logic. It is this kind of practical consideration that constitutes psychology.

And although it is difficult to disagree with the importance of the emphasis made here, the too categorical distinction between "subjective rationality" and "objective rationality" hardly serves to enrich the theory. At the same time, the emphasis on revealing meaning as some core of the cognition process is undoubtedly one of the most significant merits of theories of cognitive correspondence. It must, in particular, be taken into account to a greater extent in the general psychological development of the problem of meaning.

With such a formulation of the question, theories of cognitive correspondence come close to a broader problem posed later in the concepts of the psychology of social cognition, namely, about working with social information in the name of understanding a certain meaning.

Although all the considered theories are called theories of cognitive correspondence, in all the reasoning begins precisely with the perception of some information, and then “work” with it takes place. The perception of another person with his opinions, positions, points of view or some other objects here is subjected to further enrichment, and this is achieved not simply by “building up” any properties of perception, but by its radical, essential “processing”. This "reworking" is rational, although rationality looks very subjective. Nevertheless, the procedure for cognition of the social world proposed in the theories of cognitive correspondence undoubtedly contains many interesting points and findings. Another thing is that the role of the cognitive principle in social behavior is exaggerated: its emotional component is practically absent. But this is precisely the weakness that is characteristic of cognitivism in its classical form as a whole. The problem of including an analysis of human behavior of emotions and motives is hardly indicated here.

Thus, the theory of cognitive correspondence, giving really a lot to work out the problems of social cognition, its structure, content, could not come close to answering the question of the relationship between cognitive activity and behavior, human activity. Nevertheless, these theories can be considered as the second component of socio-psychological knowledge, which gave impetus to further research on social cognition.

The cognitivist orientation as a whole also set the problems for further research in social psychology, associated with an emphasis on the problems of social perception, communication, attitudes, decision making, etc. Similarly, it stimulated the development of the third component, called the study of attributive processes.

Chapter III

The influence of professional activity on the cognitive abilities of the individual from the standpoint of the psychology of social cognition

BUT). Methodology "Tables of Schulte".

The technique is designed to determine the stability of attention and the dynamics of working capacity when examining people of different ages.

The subject is offered in turn five tables, on which numbers from one to 25 are randomly located. The subject searches, shows and names the numbers in ascending order. The test is repeated with five different tables.

Equipment: numerical tables, pointer, stopwatch, pencil.

Instruction: The subject is presented with the first table: "on this table, the numbers from 1 to 25 are not in order." Then the table is closed and continued: “Show and name all the numbers in order from 1 to 25. Try to do this as quickly and without errors as possible.” Next, the table is opened and, simultaneously with the start of the task, the stopwatch is turned on. The second, third and all subsequent tables are presented without any instructions.

Evaluation of results. The main indicator of the test is the table execution time. Based on the results of all five tables, a “fatigue curve” can be constructed, reflecting the stability of attention and its performance in dynamics.

Attention persistence can be determined by comparing the time spent looking at each table. If this time from the first table to the last one changes insignificantly, i.e. the difference in the time spent on viewing individual tables does not exceed 10 seconds, then attention is considered stable. Otherwise, a conclusion is made about insufficient stability of attention.

Using this test, you can calculate the performance indicator (ER), which was proposed by A.Yu. Kozyreva.

ER \u003d T 1 + T 2 + T 3 + T 4 + T 5 / 5

T 1 - time of work with the first table,

T 2 - time of work with the second table,

T 3 - time of work with the third table,

T 4 - time of work with the fourth table,

T 5 - time of work with the fifth table.

Evaluation of ER (in seconds) is made taking into account the age of the subject.

ER scoring scale

IN group A

5; 5; 5; 4; 4; 5; 5; 5; 4; 4; 5; 4; 5; 4; 3.

IN group B the following results were obtained:

4; 4; 5; 5; 5; 4; 3; 4; 4; 5; 4; 5; 4; 4; 4.

B). Method "Memory for numbers".

The technique is designed to determine short-term visual memory for numbers, its volume and accuracy. The task is that the subjects are shown for 20 seconds a table with 12 two-digit numbers that you need to remember and, after the table is removed, write it down on the form. The technique is convenient for both individual and group testing, since the procedure does not take much time.

Equipment: table with numbers, answer sheet, pencil, stopwatch, demonstration poster.

Methodical instructions. After the command to start work, the psychologist opens the tables and at the same time turns on the stopwatch. During the exposure of the tables, it is necessary to ensure that none of the subjects write down the numbers shown. When playing, make sure that no one cheats from each other. After 1 minute, the command “Put down the pencil” is given.

Instruction:“Now you will be presented with a table with numbers.

You should try to memorize as many numbers as possible in 20 seconds. After 20 seconds, the table will be removed, and you will have to write down all the numbers that you remember within 1 minute. Attention, let's get started!

Evaluation of results: By the number of correctly reproduced numbers, short-term visual memory for numbers is assessed. The norm of an adult is 7+/- 2. An indicator of 9 units or more is considered high, 8-6 is average, 5-4 is below average, 3 or less is low.

Scoring scale

IN group A the following results were obtained:

5; 5; 5; 4; 5; 4; 5; 3; 3; 5; 5; 4; 4; 4; 5.

IN group B the following results were obtained:

5; 4; 4; 5; 4; 3; 3; 4; 4; 4; 4; 5; 4; 4; 4.

IN). Methodology "Quantitative relations".

This technique is intended to assess the logical thinking of an adult and adolescents. Subjects are offered to solve 18 logical tasks. Each of them contains 2 logical premises, in which the letters are in some numerical relationship with each other. Based on the presented logical premises, it is necessary to decide in what relationship the letters under the line are among themselves. Solution time 5 minutes.

Instruction: “You are offered 18 logical tasks, each of which has two premises. In each problem, you need to indicate in what relation the letters under the line are, and mark this relationship using mathematical signs "<» и «>". The execution time is taken into account and is 5 minutes.

Evaluation of results. Evaluation is made by the number of correct answers in accordance with the school of scoring. The norm for an adult is 10 or more correct solutions in 5 minutes.

If the subject finds it difficult to solve such problems, this indicates that he has poorly developed logical thinking for quantitative relationships, i.e. he is not able to conclude from two logical premises in what numerical relationship the objects under consideration are among themselves.

Scoring scale

IN group A the following results were obtained:

7; 6; 7; 6; 7; 8; 8; 6; 6; 7; 8; 6; 8; 7; 5.

IN group B the following results were obtained:

6; 7; 6; 7; 7; 6; 4; 6; 7; 6; 7; 6; 6; 6; 7.

G). Methodology "Intellectual lability".

The technique is recommended to be used for diagnosing lability, i.e. the ability to switch intellectual attention, the ability to quickly move from solving some tasks to performing others (without making mistakes), in order to predict success in vocational training, in mastering a new type of activity and assessing the quality of work practice.

The test is intended for adult subjects and can be conducted both individually and in a group.

The methodology consists of a number of simple tasks that are read out by the experimenter (it is possible to use an audio recording of the test material). The solution of each task is given from 3 to 5 seconds, which requires the subject to have a high concentration of attention and speed of action. The answers of the subject are recorded on a special form.

Methodical instructions: It should be noted that the experimenter, before conducting the test, must carefully read the tasks and during the examination procedure clearly pronounce the number of the square in which the next task will be performed, because. the numbers of the tasks and the squares on the subject's form do not match.

Equipment: a special form for answers, issued to each subject, a pencil or pen, a stopwatch.

Instruction : “You are invited to complete 40 simple tasks, the answers to which you will record in a special form. The time of work on each task is limited to a few seconds. Be careful. Work fast. The task I read is not repeated. Attention! Getting started!".

Evaluation of results produced by the number of errors. An error is an incorrect decision or a missed task.

Scoring scale

IN group A the following results were obtained:

6; 6; 8; 6; 7; 7; 8; 5; 7; 7; 5; 6; 7; 6; 5.

IN group B the following results were obtained:

6; 6; 5; 5; 6; 5; 3; 5; 5; 6; 6; 5; 5; 6; 5.

Processing of empirical data by mathematical methods.

BUT). Processing of empirical data for group A .

IN group A the following results were obtained:

(5+5+7+6); (5+5+6+6); (5+5+7+8); (4+4+6+6); (4+5+7+7); (5+4+8+7); (5+5+8+8); (5+3+6+5); (4+3+6+7); (4+5+7+7); (5+5+8+5); (4+4+6+6); (5+4+8+7); (4+4+7+6); (3+5+5+5).

Let's calculate the total score:

23+22+25+20+23+24+26+19+20+23+23+20+24+21+18=331

a) arithmetic mean ā

ā = (18*1 + 19*1 + 20*3 + 21*1 + 22*1 + 23*4 + 24*2 + 25*1 + 26*1)/15 = (18 + 19 + 60 + 21 + 22 + 92 + 48 + 25 + 26)/15 = 331/15 = 22.06

b) variance D

D = (18 2 *1 + 19 2 *1 +20 2 *3 +21 2 *1 +22 2 *1 +23 2 *4 +24 2 *2 +25 2 *1 +26 2 *1)/15 - 22.06 2 \u003d (324 + 361 + 1200 + 441 + 484 + 2116 + 1152 + 625 + 676) / 15 - 486.64 \u003d 7379 / 15 - 486.64 \u003d 491 - 486.64 \u003d 4.36

δ = √D = √4.36 = 2.09

Average score for group A: 22.06 ± 2.09

S 2 \u003d n / n-1 * D \u003d 15 / 15-1 * 4.36 \u003d 4.67

So, the average score for group A: 22.06 ± 2.16

B). Processing of empirical data for group B .

IN group B the following results were obtained:

(4+5+6+6); (4+4+7+6); (5+4+6+5); (5+5+7+5); (5+4+7+6); (4+3+6+5); (3+3+4+3); (4+4+6+5); (4+4+7+5); (5+4+6+6); (4+4+7+6); (5+5+6+5); (4+4+6+5); (4+4+6+6); (4+4+7+5).

Let's calculate the total score:

21+21+20+22+22+18+13+19+20+21+21+21+19+20+20=298

The score obtained by the subjects in the tests will be taken as x, the number of subjects who received such a score as n.

Let's build a discrete variational series for the feature x:

Let's find distribution parameters for feature x:

a) arithmetic mean ā

ā = (13*1 + 18*1 + 19*2 + 20*4 + 21*5 + 22*2) /15 = (13+18+38+80+105+44)/15 = 298/15 = 19.87

b) variance D

D \u003d (13 2 * 1 + 18 2 * 1 + 19 2 * 2 + 20 2 * 4 + 21 2 * 5 + 22 2 * 2) / 15 - 19.87 2 \u003d (169 + 324 + 722 + 1600 + 2205 + 968) / 15 - 394.82 = 399.20-394.82 = 4.38

c) standard deviation δ

δ = √D = √4.38 = 2.09

Considering that our sample is not large enough, we calculate the corrected standard deviation.

S 2 \u003d n / n-1 * D \u003d 15 / 15-1 * 4.38 \u003d 4.69

So, the average score for group B: 19.87 ± 2.17

Conclusion

One of the main features of the period of middle adulthood is the extreme subjectivity of a person in assessing his age. However, this does not mean at all that there are no changes at both the psychological and biological levels. Changes occur and entail changes in the personal sphere.

The intensity of the involution of a person's intellectual functions depends on three factors: giftedness, education and the "social field", which resist aging, slowing down the involutionary process, or vice versa, contribute to the rapid degradation of the cognitive properties of the individual.

Features of a person's intellectual development and indicators of his intellectual capabilities largely depend on the personality characteristics of a person, his life attitudes, plans and life values.

So, we have studied a number of cognitive capabilities, in particular the properties of attention, memory and thinking in a sample of 30 middle-aged people (from 40 to 55 years old). Empirical data were converted into a scoring system, and after mathematical processing, we determined the average scores for two groups of 15 people in each of this sample. People were divided into two groups on the basis of the involvement of intellectual labor in their professional activities and its clear predominance over physical labor.

At the beginning of the study, we put forward a hypothesis that there is a connection between mental work and an increased level of cognitive abilities. To confirm this hypothesis, we had to obtain at least different data in group A, which included middle-aged people who are daily engaged in solving industrial problems of an intellectual nature, and group B, which included middle-aged people whose professional activities did not require the inclusion of intellectual tension.

This assumption was confirmed by us, since the average score in group A was 22.06 ± 2.16, and the average score in group B - 19.87 ± 2.17.

In addition, we have shown not only the existence of a correlation between mental work and an increased level of cognitive capabilities, but also the fact that this direct connection .

So, on the basis of the empirical data obtained and mathematically processed by us, we we reject the hypothesis H 0 , suggesting that in middle-aged people there is no relationship between the predominance of mental work in professional activity and the level of cognitive capabilities; And We accept the hypothesis H1 that in middle-aged people there is a direct relationship between the predominance of mental work in professional activities and an increased level of cognitive capabilities.

Bibliography:

1. Andreeva G.M. Psychology of social cognition: Textbook. - M.: Aspect Press, 2000. - 288s.

2. Andreeva G.M. Social psychology: Textbook. – M.: Aspect Press, 2002. – 364 p.

4. Rogov E.I. Psychology of communication. – M.: Humanit. Ed. Center VLADOS, 2001. - 296 p.

5. Shapar, V.B. Working book of a practical psychologist. - M.: AST, 2007. - 672s

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