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Psychological explanatory dictionary. Dictionary of basic psychological concepts

The problem of regulation of emotional states is one of the most difficult in psychology and at the same time refers to both fundamental and applied problems. In the course of general psychology, we will get acquainted with this problem only in a general form, since in the study of other disciplines you will repeatedly return to it.

It should be noted that there are many approaches to the study of both the regulation of emotional states and the mental mechanisms that cause stress. We will consider just a few approaches. The first of them, presented by the works of F. B. Berezin, is based on the following provisions: adaptation occurs at all levels of human organization, incl. in the mental sphere; mental adaptation is a central link in the overall adaptation of a person, since it is the nature of mental regulation that determines the nature of adaptation as a whole. Berezin also believes that the mechanisms of mental adaptation, and hence the regulation of mental states, lie in the intrapsychic sphere.

Among the mechanisms that predetermine the success of adaptation, Berezin refers to the mechanisms of confronting anxiety - various forms of psychological protection and compensation. Psychological defense is a special regulatory system for stabilizing the personality, aimed at eliminating or minimizing the feeling of anxiety associated with the awareness of a conflict. The main function of psychological defense is to "protect" the sphere of consciousness from negative, traumatic experiences. In a broad sense, this term is used to refer to any behavior, incl. and inadequate, aimed at eliminating discomfort.

Berezin distinguishes four types of psychological protection: those that prevent the awareness of threat factors that cause anxiety; allowing to fix the alarm; reducing the level of urges; eliminating anxiety. Conducted

his research revealed a regular change in the mechanisms of intrapsychic adaptation and made it possible to say that various forms of psychological defense have different abilities to resist anxiety and other negative states. Moreover, it was found that there is a certain hierarchy of types of psychological protection. When one form of defense is unable to withstand anxiety, then another form of defense "turns on". Berezin also found that a violation of the mechanisms of mental adaptation or the use of an inadequate form of protection can lead to somatization of anxiety, i.e., the direction of anxiety to the formation of pre-painful states, or to the final breakdown of adaptation. This happens because anxiety, like any other emotional state, is associated with the autonomic and humoral regulation of the body, i.e., when this state occurs, certain physiological changes occur. At the same time, it should be noted that the use by an individual of an inadequate form of psychological defense and the occurrence of hyper-anxiety is always accompanied by overstress, which is more significant in its intensity than the usual motivational one. As a rule, in this situation, a state occurs due to the blockade of motivational behavior, known as frustration.

Frustration is a mental state of a person caused by objectively insurmountable difficulties that have arisen in achieving a goal or solving a problem. It should be noted that the term ʼʼfrustrationʼʼ is used in modern scientific literature in different meanings. Frustration is often understood as a form of emotional stress. In some works, this term denotes frustrating situations, in others - a mental state, but it always means a mismatch between the behavioral process and the result, i.e. the individual's behavior does not correspond to the situation, and therefore, he does not achieve the goal he is striving for , and even vice versa, can come to a completely opposite result.

Frustrating situations that are essential for adaptation are usually associated with a wide range of needs that are not satisfied in any situation. As you already know, a need is a state of an individual created by the need he feels for something. There are various classifications of the most significant of them. P. V. Simonov, for example, distinguishes biological, social and ideal. A. Maslow argues that there is a certain hierarchy of needs, where social needs are among the highest.

The inability to satisfy this or that need causes a certain mental stress. In the case of a reorganization of a whole complex of needs or their mismatch, when a person tries to solve two or more mutually exclusive tasks, mental stress reaches its highest limits and, as a result, a state is formed that causes a violation of the adequacy of behavior, i.e. frustration. As a rule, this state arises as a result of a certain conflict, which is usually called an intrapsychic conflict, or a conflict of motives. The incompatibility and clash of opposing personality tendencies characteristic of an intrapsychic conflict inevitably impede the construction of a holistic integrative behavior and increase the risk of adaptation failure.

Emotional stress is directly connected with the situation of intrapsychic conflict. The likelihood of an intrapsychic conflict is largely due to the characteristics of the cognitive sphere. Numerous studies have shown the role of cognitive elements in the development of stress, and the discrepancy between cognitive elements (cognitive dissonance) entails an increase in tension, and the greater the discrepancy, the higher the tension, which leads to a violation of the integration of behavior.

Behavior integration is a system of interconnection between the elements of the personality's mental structure, which makes it possible to successfully solve problems in the interests of the individual's adaptation, and, first of all, to achieve consistency between his motives and the requirements of the environment. The integration of behavior is realized through such psychological formations as attitude, attitude, role structures. The intrapsychic conflict of relationships that are formed on the basis of role and personal attitudes can lead to disorganization of behavior and disruption of the existing personality structures - ʼʼI-imageʼʼ, ʼʼI-conceptʼʼ, self-esteem. At the same time, the disorganization of behavior will be accompanied by a negative emotional background, since emotions are associated with motives and ensure the implementation of certain regulatory functions, while the integration of emotions into a single system determines the nature of the emotional state.

Building an integrated behavior is an essential part of the adaptation process. Violation of behavior at any level of integration is accompanied by a decrease in the quality of mental adaptation, an increase in frustration tension and corresponding physiological changes. Depending on how integrated our behavior is, that is, holistically, consciously and subordinate to a specific goal, our frustration threshold is so high, which can be considered as a measure of the potential stability of mental adaptation and the ability to withstand emerging stress.

One of the most important constituent elements of the personality structure, influencing the level of integration of behavior, and, consequently, the process of adaptation as a whole, is the ʼʼ-conceptʼʼ. The ʼʼI-conceptʼʼ is a relatively stable, more or less conscious and experienced as a unique system of the individual's ideas about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with other people and relates to himself. As follows from this definition, ʼʼI-coceptionʼʼ is a system of a person’s relationship to himself and to the objects around him, people and other phenomena. All information that a person receives from the external environment, he perceives in the context of a system of such relations, and, based on the degree of compliance or inconsistency with his goals, from what the received information carries - a threat or approval - a person builds his behavior. It is no coincidence that the ʼʼI-conceptʼʼ is considered to be the core of the human self-regulation system. At the root of the ʼʼI-conceptʼʼ are self-esteem and the level of claims, reflecting the general orientation of the motivational sphere, focused on achieving success (achievement motivation) or avoiding failure (avoidance motivation). In turn, studies of motivation have shown a relationship between the nature of motivation and the choice of behavioral strategies, as well as the characteristics of adaptation to a changing environment. With the predominance of achievement motivation, behavior differs

the effect of visible anxiety, and vice versa, the motivation to avoid failures is accompanied by the manifestation of anxiety.

Since we started talking about the system of personality relations, it is impossible not to recall V. N. Myasishchev, the author of the concept of personality relations. According to Myasishchev, the system of relations is the core of the personality. This system is formed under the influence of reflection by human consciousness of the surrounding reality. This concept has found wide application in medical psychology, especially in the field of research and treatment of neuroses.

Neuroses - this group of neuropsychiatric disorders, psychogenic in nature, resulting from prolonged or excessively intense emotional stress. The main cause of neurosis is a violation of the system of regulation of emotional connection, caused by a contradiction between the attitudes and views of the individual and external reality, that is, an intrapsychic conflict lies at the basis of such a violation.

Neurosis, being a neuropsychiatric disorder, is accompanied by vegetative manifestations: muscle tension, tremor, heart failure, anxiety, depression, headaches, weakness. Moreover, these vegetative changes do not occur immediately, but gradually. First of all, sleep changes. It becomes superficial, the person wakes up easily. The sensitivity of a person to external stimuli gradually changes. Sound, light, conversations unusually irritate a person. Even normal-level noise can become unbearable. Increased sensitivity acts, on the one hand, as an adaptive mechanism to a lack of information, providing an influx of additional signals with which to resolve the situation. On the other hand, increased sensitivity makes a person more susceptible to any stimuli and manifests itself as excessive tearfulness, impatience, explosiveness, and also in the form of pain in response to weak signals from the internal environment that were not previously perceived.

At the same time, the main feature of neurosis is conflict. The conflict is found at the base of most neuroses and is always accompanied by extremely intense experiences. Experiences are different. For example, the feeling of one's guilt, one's omission, as a result of which a traumatic situation arose, etc.
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At the same time, it should be noted that experiences become a source of neurosis only if they are especially significant for a person. For this reason, most of the emotional or intrapsychic conflicts that give rise to illness are social in nature. For example, a person falls ill not because he has become a victim of injustice, but because the injustice (real or apparent) shown to him has violated his ideas about justice, his faith in good and evil, in the meaning of human existence.

Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, we came to the conclusion that emotional stress is most often associated with social phenomena, that is, emotional stress is an inseparable part of a person's social adaptation. As a result of our many years of experimental research on this problem, we have come to the conclusion that there are personality characteristics that determine

the success of human adaptation in a variety of conditions. These characteristics are formed in the process of a person’s entire life, and first of all, they include the level of neuropsychic stability, self-esteem of the individual, a sense of their importance to others (social reference), the level of conflict, communication experience, moral and moral orientation, orientation to the requirements of the immediate environment.

All these characteristics were found to be interconnected with each other upon detailed study. Moreover, they form one integral characteristic, which we called the personal adaptive potential. This characteristic is considered by us as a systemic property of the individual, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ consists in the ability of the individual to adapt to the conditions of the social environment. The higher the level of development of this property, the more severe and harsh conditions of the social environment a person can adapt to.

In the course of experimental studies, it was found that even in conditions of a real threat to life, people with a higher adaptive potential are not only more likely to survive, but can successfully perform their professional duties. It should also be noted that subsequently persons with a higher level of development of the adaptive potential of the individual are more likely than others to restore the functional state of the body and return to normal life.

There are other approaches to the problem of regulation of emotional states and emotional stress. We will not consider them, since in the process of studying other academic subjects you will get to know them in more detail. We will end this chapter with a discussion of the practical aspects of the regulation of emotional states.

R. M. Granovskaya divides all strategies for getting out of a tense situation into three groups: change or eliminate the problem; reduce its intensity by shifting your point of view on it; facilitate its impact through the inclusion of a number of ways.

A key role in managing one's condition is played by the awareness of life goals and the correlation of specific values \u200b\u200bwith them. The sooner a person determines his life values and goals, the more likely he is to avoid the negative consequences of sudden excessive emotional stress, since the person who made the main life choice largely determined all further decisions and thereby saved himself from hesitation and fears. . Getting into a difficult situation, he correlates its meaning with his main life guidelines. The timeliness of such weighing normalizes his condition. At the same time, a critical situation is considered against the background of a general perspective, for example, of a person’s entire life, due to which the significance of this situation can sharply decrease. There are many examples of people having accidents from which it was possible to recover within a few hours. But the reaction to them was so inadequate, so inconsistent with the personal scale of values, that significant life crises developed. For this reason, adverse effects often arise not because of the cases themselves, but because of the reaction to them.

Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, one of the basic ways to avoid excessive emotional stress is the harmonious development of a person’s personality, for

the formation of his independent worldview position. Moreover, this development begins from the first days of a person’s life, and its success largely depends on how skillfully the child’s parents build the educational process, and then teachers at school, how much the state cares about the upbringing of the younger generation, and much more.

The next way to regulate emotional states, according to Granovskaya, is to choose the right moment to make a decision or implement your plan. As you know, an extreme situation leads to a narrowing of consciousness, which leads to a violation of orientation in the environment. Anxiety, excitement change the strategy of behavior. A person struck by confusion seeks to avoid the slightest risk, is afraid to go in that direction, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ threatens with delusions and mistakes, in connection with this, he seeks to connect each new information with a similar one already known to him. In this situation, a person very often makes mistakes, making the wrong decision. For this reason, it is extremely important to learn to choose the right moment to implement your plans in a difficult, emotionally intense situation.

Another way to reduce emotional stress is to reduce motivation. For example, to refuse to achieve the goal for a while or to reduce emotional tension through an arbitrary transfer of attention, concentrating it not on the significance of the result of the activity performed, but on the analysis of the technical details of the task or tactics.

It is important to note that in order to create an optimal emotional state, first of all, a correct assessment of the significance of the ongoing event is needed, since a person is affected not so much by the intensity and duration of real events as by their individual value. When an event is perceived as an emergency, even a factor of low intensity can cause maladjustment. It must also be borne in mind that with strong emotional arousal, the personal characteristics of a person play a very significant role in assessing the event. Thus, a good forecast becomes even more optimistic for an optimist, and a bad one becomes even more gloomy for a pessimist. At the same time, in order to correctly assess the event, full awareness of it is necessary. The more information a person has on an exciting issue, the less likely it is to have an emotional breakdown. It follows that by all means you need to increase the amount of information about the problem that concerns you. At the same time, awareness should be multifaceted.

Granovskaya highlights another way to deal with emotional stress and emotional tension. This method consists in pre-prepared retreat strategies. The presence of a fallback behavior in any situation reduces excessive excitement and makes it more likely to succeed in solving the problem in the general direction. Without preparing an alternative solution, a person is unreasonably pessimistic in assessing the situation that may arise if the main option fails. Having a fallback option, in the event of the failure of the first one, it is easier for a person to accept failure and at the same time maintain an optimistic mood. Therefore, fallback strategies reduce the fear of adverse developments and thus contribute to the creation of an optimal background for solving the problem.

In addition to the listed ways out of a stressful situation, it should be borne in mind that it is pointless to fight against what is already a fait accompli. Under certain circumstances, when the continuation of efforts turns into fruitless attempts to “break through the wall with the forehead”, it is useful for a person to temporarily abandon efforts to immediately achieve the goal, to realize the real situation and his defeat. Then he can save his strength for a new attempt under more favorable conditions. In addition, in the event of a defeat, it is not harmful to make a general reassessment of the situation according to the type of ʼʼ I didn’t really want toʼʼ. Reducing the subjective significance of the event helps to retreat to previously prepared positions and prepare for the next assault without wasting energy. It is no coincidence that in ancient times in the East people asked in their prayer: ʼʼLord, give me strength to cope with what I can do, give me courage to put up with what I cannot do, and give me wisdom to distinguish one from the otherʼʼ.

test questions

1. Tell us about stress as a non-specific reaction of the body.

2. Give a classification of the types of mental stress.

3. Name the conditions for the occurrence of informational and emotional stress.

4. What are the individual characteristics in the manifestation of stress?

5. What mechanisms of regulation of mental states do you know?

6. What is an intrapsychic conflict?

7. What ways of avoiding excessive emotional stress do you know?

1. Berezin F. B. Mental and psychophysiological adaptation of a person. - L .: Nauka, 1988.

2. Granovskaya R. M. Elements of practical psychology. - St. Petersburg: Light, 1997.

3. Izard K. E. Psychology of emotions. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 1999.

4. Rubinshtein S. L. Fundamentals of general psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 1999.

5. Selye G. Stress without distress. - Riga: Vieda, 1992.

6. Simonov P. V. Motivated brain: Higher nervous activity and natural science foundations of general psychology / Ed. ed. V. S. Rusinov. - M.: Nauka, 1987.

7. Simonov P.V. Emotional brain. Physiology. Neuroanatomy. Psychology of emotions. - M.: Nauka, 1981.

8. Fress P., Piaget J. Experimental psychology / Sat. articles. Per.
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from French: Issue. 6. - M.: Progress, 1978.

Regulation of emotional states - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Regulation of emotional states" 2017, 2018.

Being at the same time an independent physiological, mental and social phenomenon, stress is essentially another kind of emotional state. This condition is characterized by increased physiological and mental activity. At the same time, one of the main characteristics of stress is its extreme instability. Under favorable conditions, this state can be transformed into an optimal state, and under unfavorable conditions - into a state of neuro-emotional tension, which is characterized by a decrease in the efficiency and efficiency of the functioning of systems and organs, and depletion of energy resources.

Stress is understood as a non-specific response of the body to external or internal requirements presented to it. It should be noted that not every impact causes stress. Weak influences do not lead to stress, it occurs only when the influence of the stressor (unusual object, phenomenon or any other environmental factors) exceeds the usual adaptive capabilities of the individual. Under stress, certain hormones begin to be released into the blood. Under their influence, the mode of operation of the organs and systems of the body changes.

Thus, stress occurs when the body is forced to adapt to new conditions, that is, stress is inseparable from the adaptation process.

Currently, it is customary to divide stress into two main types: systemic(physiological) and mental. Since a person is a social being and the psychic sphere plays a leading role in the activity of his integral systems, then most often it is psychic stress that turns out to be the most significant for the regulation process.

mental stress they are conditionally divided into two types: informational And emotional. Such a division of mental stress into informational and emotional is very conditional.

Information stress arises in situations of significant information overload, when a person cannot cope with the task of processing incoming information and does not have time to make the right decisions at the required pace, especially when there is a high responsibility for the consequences of the decisions made.

The occurrence of emotional stress associated with situations of threat, danger, resentment, etc. From this point of view, it is customary to distinguish three forms of emotional stress: impulsive, retarded And generalized. With emotional stress, certain changes in the mental sphere are noted, including changes in the course of mental processes, emotional shifts, transformation of the motivational structure of activity, and violations of motor and speech behavior.

Emotional stress causes the same changes in the body as physiological stress.

The occurrence and course of stress primarily depends on the individual characteristics of a person. People react to the same load in different ways. Among the personality traits that determine the likelihood of stress, the leading place is occupied by anxiety, which, under conditions of adaptation, can manifest itself in a variety of mental reactions, known as reactions anxiety. Anxiety is understood as a feeling of unconscious threat, a feeling of apprehension and anxious anticipation, or a feeling of vague anxiety. This sensation serves as a signal indicating an excessive tension of regulatory mechanisms or a violation of adaptive processes.

The problem of regulation of emotional states is one of the most difficult in psychology and at the same time refers to both fundamental and applied problems. It should be noted that there are many approaches to the study of both the regulation of emotional states and the mental mechanisms that cause stress.

Mental adaptation is a central link in the overall adaptation of a person, since it is the nature of mental regulation that determines the nature of adaptation as a whole.

Among the mechanisms that determine the success of adaptation are the mechanisms of confronting anxiety - various forms psychological protection And compensation.

Psychological protection- this is a special regulatory system for stabilizing the personality, aimed at eliminating or minimizing the feeling of anxiety associated with the awareness of any conflict. The main function of psychological defense is the "protection" of the sphere of consciousness from negative, traumatic experiences. In a broad sense, this term is used to refer to any behavior, including inadequate, aimed at eliminating discomfort.

Four types of psychological protection: preventing the awareness of threat factors that cause anxiety; allowing to fix the alarm; reducing the level of urges; eliminating anxiety.

The use by an individual of an inadequate form of psychological defense and the occurrence of hyper-anxiety is always accompanied by overstress, which is more significant in its intensity than the usual motivational one. As a rule, in this situation, a state occurs due to the blockade of motivational behavior, known as frustration.

frustration- this is the mental state of a person caused by objectively insurmountable difficulties that have arisen in achieving a goal or solving a problem.

Frustrating situations that are essential for adaptation are usually associated with a wide range of needs, which cannot be satisfied in any given situation. As you already know, a need is a state of an individual created by the need he feels for something.

The inability to satisfy a particular need causes a certain mental stress. In the case of a reorganization of a whole complex of needs or their mismatch, when a person tries to solve two or more mutually exclusive tasks, mental stress reaches its highest limits and, as a result, a state is formed that causes a violation of the adequacy of behavior, i.e. frustration. As a rule, this state arises as a result of some kind of conflict, which is commonly called intrapsychic conflict or conflict of motives. The incompatibility and clash of opposing personality tendencies characteristic of an intrapsychic conflict inevitably impede the construction of a holistic integrative behavior and increase the risk of adaptation failure.

Emotional stress is directly connected with the situation of intrapsychic conflict. The likelihood of an intrapsychic conflict is largely due to the characteristics of the cognitive sphere.

Building Integrated Behavior - Essential part adaptation process. Violation of behavior at any level of integration is accompanied by a decrease in the quality of mental adaptation, an increase in frustration tension and corresponding physiological changes. Depending on how integrated our behavior is, i.e., holistically, consciously and subject to a specific goal, our frustration threshold is so high, which can be considered as a measure of the potential stability of mental adaptation and the ability to withstand emerging stress.

Thus, we have come to the conclusion that emotional stress is most often associated with social phenomena, i.e., emotional stress is an inseparable part of a person's social adaptation. There are personality characteristics that determine the success of a person's adaptation in a wide variety of conditions. These characteristics are formed in the process of a person’s entire life, and first of all, they include the level of neuropsychic stability, self-esteem of the individual, a sense of their importance to others (social reference), the level of conflict, communication experience, moral orientation, orientation to requirements of the immediate environment.

All these characteristics were found to be interconnected with each other upon detailed study. Moreover, they form one integral characteristic, which was named by us personal adaptive potential. This characteristic is considered by us as a systemic property of the individual, which lies in the ability of the individual to adapt to the conditions of the social environment. The higher the level of development of this property, the more severe and harsh conditions of the social environment a person can adapt to.

There are other approaches to the problem of regulation of emotional states and emotional stress.

The next way to regulate emotional states is to choose the right moment to make a decision or implement your plan.

Another way to reduce emotional stress is to reduce motivation.

Another way to deal with emotional stress and emotional tension. This method consists in pre-prepared retreat strategies. The presence of a fallback behavior in a given situation reduces excessive excitement and makes it more likely to succeed in solving the problem in the general direction.

In addition to the listed ways out of a stressful situation, it should be borne in mind that it is pointless to fight against what is already a fait accompli. Under some circumstances, when the continuation of efforts turns into fruitless attempts to “break through the wall with the forehead”, it is useful for a person to temporarily abandon efforts to immediately achieve the goal, to realize the real situation and his defeat. Then he can save his strength for a new attempt under more favorable conditions. In addition, in the event of a defeat, it is not harmful to make a general reassessment of the situation according to the “I didn’t really want to” type. Reducing the subjective significance of the event helps to retreat to previously prepared positions and prepare for the next assault without wasting energy. It is no coincidence that in ancient times in the East people asked in their prayer:

"Lord, give me the strength to handle what I can do, give me the courage to accept what I can't do, and give me the wisdom to tell one from the other."

23. Definition and content of the concept of "personality". Correlation of the concepts "individual", "subject", "personality", "individuality". The problem of the relationship between biological and social in personality.

Most often, personality is understood as a person in the totality of his social and vital qualities acquired by him in the process of social development. Consequently, it is not customary to include human characteristics that are associated with the genotypic or physiological organization of a person as personal characteristics. It is also not customary to attribute to the number of personal qualities the qualities of a person that characterize the features of the development of his cognitive mental processes or an individual style of activity, with the exception of those that are manifested in relations with people and society as a whole. Most often, the content of the concept of “personality” includes stable properties of a person that determine actions that are significant in relation to other people.

In this way, personality - this is a specific person, taken in the system of his stable socially conditioned psychological characteristics, which are manifested in social relations and relations, determine his moral actions and are essential for himself and those around him.

Along with the concepts of "man", "personality" in science, the terms "individual", "individuality" are often used (Fig. 56). Their difference from the concept of "personality" is as follows.

Rice. 56. The ratio of the volumes of the concepts "person", "personality", "individual" and
"individuality"

Individuality- this is the narrowest concept in content of all discussed. It contains only those individual and personal properties of a person, such a combination of them that distinguishes this person from other people.

If the concept human"includes the totality of all human qualities inherent in people, regardless of whether they are present or absent in this particular person, then the concept of" individual” characterizes it and additionally includes such psychological and biological properties that, along with personal ones, are also inherent in it. In addition, the concept of "individual" includes both the qualities that distinguish this person from other people, and the properties that are common to him and many other people.

The belonging of a particular person to the human race is fixed in the concept individual. Thus, the concept of "individual" characterizes a person as a carrier of certain biological properties.

Appearing as individual , a person is included in the system of social relationships and processes, as a result of which he acquires a special social quality - he becomes personality . This happens because a person, being included in the system of public relations, acts as subject - the bearer of consciousness, which is formed and developed in the process of activity.

In turn, the features of the development of all these three levels characterize the uniqueness and originality of a particular person, determine his individuality. Thus, the concept of "personality" characterizes one of the most significant levels of human organization, namely, the features of its development as a social being.

By revising personality structures it usually includes abilities, temperament, character, motivation and social attitudes. Capabilities- these are individually stable properties of a person that determine his success in various activities. Temperament is a dynamic characteristic of human mental processes. Character contains qualities that determine the relationship of a person to other people. Motivation is a set of motivations for activity, and social attitudes are people's beliefs.

In addition, some authors include in the structure of personality such concepts as will And emotions. The fact is that in the structure of mental phenomena it is customary to single out mental processes, mental states and mental properties. In turn, mental processes are divided into cognitive, volitional and emotional. Thus, will and emotions have every reason to be considered within the framework of mental processes as independent phenomena.

Concepts " personality" And " individuality”, from the point of view of domestic psychology, do not coincide. Moreover, in domestic psychological science there are quite a lot of disagreements about the relationship between these concepts. Common in these approaches is that the concept of "personality" includes, first of all, the qualities of a person, manifested at the social level in the course of the formation of social relations and human ties.

At the same time, there are a number of psychological concepts in which a person is not considered as a subject of a system of social relations, but is presented as a holistic integrative entity that includes all the features of a person, including biological, mental And social. Therefore, it is believed that with the help of special personality questionnaires it is possible to describe a person as a whole. This difference of opinion is due to the difference in approaches to the consideration correlation of biological and social in the structure of human personality.

The problem of the relationship between the biological and the social in a person's personality is one of the central problems of modern psychology. In the process of formation and development of psychological science, almost all possible connections between the concepts of "mental", "social" and "biological" were considered. It is possible to single out several groups of concepts that consider the correlation of the social, mental and biological in different ways.

In the group of concepts in which it is proved spontaneity of mental development, the mental is considered as a phenomenon completely subordinate to its own internal laws, in no way connected with either the biological or the social. At best, within the framework of these concepts, the human body is assigned the role of a kind of "receptacle" of mental activity. Most often we encounter this position among authors who prove the divine origin of mental phenomena.

IN biological concepts the psychic is regarded as a linear function of the development of the organism, as something unambiguously following this development. From the position of these concepts, all the features of mental processes, states and properties of a person are determined by the features of the biological structure, and their development is subject exclusively to biological laws. In this case, the laws discovered in the study of animals are often used, which do not take into account the specifics of the development of the human body. Often in these concepts, to explain mental development, the main biogenetic law is invoked - the law of recapitulation, according to which in the development of an individual, the evolution of the species to which this individual belongs is reproduced in the main features.

There is a range sociological concepts, which also come from the idea of recapitulation, but here it is presented in a slightly different way. Within the framework of these concepts, it is argued that the mental development of an individual in a concise form reproduces the main steps in the process of the historical development of society, primarily the development of its spiritual life and culture.

The results of numerous studies of the patterns of human mental development allow us to say that the initial prerequisite for the mental development of an individual is his biological development. An individual is born with a certain set of biological properties and physiological mechanisms, which act as the basis of his mental development. But these prerequisites are realized only when a person is in the conditions of human society.

Considering the problem of interaction and mutual influence of biological and social in the mental development of a person, we single out three levels of human organization: level of biological organization, social level and level of mental organization. Thus, it must be borne in mind that we are talking about interaction in the triad "biological-psychic-social". Moreover, the approach to the study of the relationship between the components of this triad is formed from an understanding of the psychological essence of the concept of "personality".

It should be noted that there are many approaches to the study of both the regulation of emotional states and the mental mechanisms that cause stress. We will consider just a few approaches. The first of them, presented by the works of F. B. Berezin, is based on the following provisions: adaptation occurs at all levels of a person’s organization, including in the mental sphere; mental adaptation is a central link in the overall adaptation of a person, since it is the nature of mental regulation that determines the nature of adaptation as a whole. Berezin also believes that the mechanisms of mental adaptation, and hence the regulation of mental states, lie in the intrapsychic sphere.

Among the mechanisms that determine the success of adaptation, Berezin refers to the mechanisms of confronting anxiety - various forms of psychological protection and compensation. Psychological defense is a special regulatory system for stabilizing the personality, aimed at eliminating or minimizing the feeling of anxiety associated with the awareness of a conflict. The main function of psychological defense is the "protection" of the sphere of consciousness from negative, traumatic experiences. In a broad sense, this term is used to refer to any behavior, including inadequate, aimed at eliminating discomfort.

his research revealed a regular change in the mechanisms of intrapsychic adaptation and made it possible to say that various forms of psychological defense have different abilities to resist anxiety and other negative states. Moreover, it was found that there is a certain hierarchy of types of psychological protection. When one form of defense is unable to withstand anxiety, then another form of defense "turns on". Berezin also found that a violation of the mechanisms of mental adaptation or the use of an inadequate form of protection can lead to somatization of anxiety, i.e., the direction of anxiety to the formation of pre-painful states, or to the final breakdown of adaptation. This is because anxiety, like any other emotional state, is associated with the vegetative and humoral regulation of the body, i.e., when this state occurs, certain physiological changes occur. At the same time, it should be noted that the use by an individual of an inadequate form of psychological defense and the occurrence of hyperanxiety is always accompanied by overstress, which is more significant in its intensity than the usual motivational one. As a rule, in this situation, a state occurs due to the blockade of motivational behavior, known as frustration.

Frustration is a mental state of a person caused by objectively insurmountable difficulties that have arisen in achieving a goal or solving a problem. It should be noted that the term "frustration" is used in modern scientific literature in different meanings. Frustration is often understood as a form of emotional stress. In some works, this term denotes frustrating situations, in others - a mental state, but it always means a mismatch between the behavioral process and the result, i.e., the behavior of the individual does not correspond to the situation, and therefore, he does not achieve the goal he is striving for, but on the contrary, it can lead to quite the opposite result.

Frustrating situations that are essential for adaptation are usually associated with a wide range of needs that cannot be satisfied in a given situation. As you already know, a need is a state of an individual created by the need he feels for something. There are various classifications of the most significant of them. P. V. Simonov, for example, distinguishes biological, social and ideal. A. Maslow argues that there is a certain hierarchy of needs, where social needs are among the highest.

The inability to satisfy a particular need causes a certain mental stress. In the case of a reorganization of a whole complex of needs or their mismatch, when a person tries to solve two or more mutually exclusive tasks, mental stress reaches its highest limits and, as a result, a state is formed that causes a violation of the adequacy of behavior, i.e. frustration. As a rule, this state arises as a result of some kind of conflict, which is usually called an intrapsychic conflict, or a conflict of motives. The incompatibility and clash of opposing personality tendencies characteristic of an intrapsychic conflict inevitably impede the construction of a holistic integrative behavior and increase the risk of adaptation failure.

Behavior integration is a system of interconnection between the elements of the personality's mental structure, which makes it possible to successfully solve problems in the interests of the individual's adaptation, and, first of all, to achieve consistency between his motives and the requirements of the environment. The integration of behavior is realized through such psychological formations as attitude, attitude, role structures. The intrapsychic conflict of relationships that are formed on the basis of role and personal attitudes can lead to disorganization of behavior and disruption of the existing personality structures - “I-image”, “I-concept”, self-esteem. At the same time, the disorganization of behavior will be accompanied by a negative emotional background, since emotions are associated with motives and ensure the implementation of certain regulatory functions, while the integration of emotions into a single system determines the nature of the emotional state.

Building an integrated behavior is an essential part of the adaptation process. Violation of behavior at any level of integration is accompanied by a decrease in the quality of mental adaptation, an increase in frustration tension and corresponding physiological changes. Depending on how integrated our behavior is, i.e., holistically, consciously and subject to a specific goal, our frustration threshold is so high, which can be considered as a measure of the potential stability of mental adaptation and the ability to withstand emerging stress.

One of the most important constituent elements of the personality structure, influencing the level of integration of behavior, and, consequently, the process of adaptation as a whole, is the “I-concept”. "I-concept" is a relatively stable, more or less conscious and experienced as a unique system of ideas of the individual about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with other people and relates to himself. As follows from this definition, “I-coception” is a system of a person’s relationship to himself and to the objects around him, people and other phenomena. All information that a person receives from the external environment, he perceives in the context of a system of such relations, and, based on the degree of compliance or inconsistency with his goals, from what the received information carries - a threat or approval - a person builds his behavior. It is no coincidence that the “I-concept” is considered to be the core of the human self-regulation system. The self-concept is based on self-esteem and the level of claims, reflecting the general orientation of the motivational sphere, focused on achieving success (achievement motivation) or avoiding failures (avoidance motivation). In turn, studies of motivation have shown a relationship between the nature of motivation and the choice of behavioral strategies, as well as the characteristics of adaptation to a changing environment. With the predominance of achievement motivation, behavior differs

the effect of visible anxiety, and vice versa, the motivation to avoid failures is accompanied by the manifestation of anxiety.

Neuroses - this group of neuropsychiatric disorders, psychogenic in nature, resulting from prolonged or excessively intense emotional stress. The main cause of neurosis is a violation of the emotional connection regulation system, caused by a contradiction between the attitudes and views of the individual and external reality, that is, an intrapsychic conflict lies at the heart of such a violation.

However, the main feature of neurosis is conflict. Conflict is found at the base of most neuroses and is always accompanied by extremely intense experiences. Experiences can be different. For example, the feeling of one's guilt, one's omission, as a result of which a traumatic situation arose, etc. At the same time, it should be noted that experiences become a source of neurosis only if they are especially significant for a person. Therefore, most of the emotional or intrapsychic conflicts that cause illness are social in nature. For example, a person falls ill not because he has become a victim of injustice, but because the injustice shown to him (actual or apparent) has violated his ideas about justice, his faith in good and evil, in the meaning of human existence.

Thus, we have come to the conclusion that emotional stress is most often associated with social phenomena, i.e., emotional stress is an inseparable part of a person's social adaptation. As a result of our many years of experimental research on this problem, we have come to the conclusion that there are personality characteristics that determine

the success of human adaptation in a variety of conditions. These characteristics are formed in the course of a person’s entire life, and first of all, they include the level of neuropsychic stability, self-esteem of the individual, a sense of their importance to others (social reference), the level of conflict, communication experience, moral orientation, orientation to the requirements of the immediate environment.

All these characteristics were found to be interconnected with each other upon detailed study. Moreover, they form one integral characteristic, which we called the personal adaptive potential. This characteristic is considered by us as a systemic property of the individual, which consists in the ability of the individual to adapt to the conditions of the social environment. The higher the level of development of this property, the more severe and harsh conditions of the social environment a person can adapt to.

A key role in managing one's condition is played by the awareness of life goals and the correlation of specific values with them. The sooner a person determines his life values and goals, the more likely he is to avoid the negative consequences of sudden excessive emotional stress, since the person who made the main life choice largely determined all further decisions and thereby saved himself from hesitation and fears. Getting into a difficult situation, he correlates its meaning with his main life guidelines. The timeliness of such weighing normalizes his condition. At the same time, a critical situation is considered against the background of a general perspective, for example, the whole life of a person, as a result of which the significance of this situation can sharply decrease. There are many examples of people having accidents from which it was possible to recover within a few hours. But the reaction to them was so inadequate, so inconsistent with the personal scale of values, that significant life crises developed. Therefore, adverse effects often arise not because of the cases themselves, but because of the reaction to them.

Thus, one of the main ways to avoid excessive emotional stress is the harmonious development of a person's personality,

The next way to regulate emotional states, according to Granovskaya, is to choose the right moment to make a decision or implement your plan. As you know, an extreme situation leads to a narrowing of consciousness, which leads to a violation of orientation in the environment. Anxiety, excitement change the strategy of behavior. A person stricken with confusion seeks to avoid the slightest risk, is afraid to go in the direction that threatens with delusions and mistakes, therefore, he seeks to connect each new information with a similar one already known to him. In this situation, a person very often makes mistakes, making the wrong decision. Therefore, it is necessary to learn how to choose the right moment to implement your plans in a difficult, emotionally tense situation.

To create an optimal emotional state, first of all, a correct assessment of the significance of an ongoing event is needed, since a person is affected not so much by the intensity and duration of real events as by their individual value. When an event is viewed as an emergency, even a factor of low intensity can cause maladjustment. It must also be borne in mind that with strong emotional arousal, the personal characteristics of a person play a very significant role in assessing the event. So, a good forecast becomes even more optimistic for an optimist, and a bad one becomes even more gloomy for a pessimist. However, in order to correctly assess the event, it is necessary to be fully informed about it. The more information a person has on an exciting issue, the less likely it is to have an emotional breakdown. It follows that by all means it is necessary to increase the volume of information about the problem that concerns you. At the same time, awareness should be multifaceted.

Granovskaya highlights another way to deal with emotional stress and emotional tension. This method consists in pre-prepared retreat strategies. The presence of a fallback behavior in a given situation reduces excessive excitement and makes it more likely to succeed in solving the problem in the general direction. Without preparing an alternative solution, a person is unreasonably pessimistic in assessing the situation that may arise if the main option fails. Having a fallback option, in the event of the failure of the first one, it is easier for a person to accept failure and at the same time maintain an optimistic mood. Therefore, fallback strategies reduce the fear of adverse developments and thus contribute to the creation of an optimal background for solving the problem.

In addition to the listed ways out of a stressful situation, it should be borne in mind that it is pointless to fight against what is already a fait accompli. Under some circumstances, when the continuation of efforts turns into fruitless attempts to "break through the wall with his forehead", it is useful for a person to temporarily abandon efforts to immediately achieve the goal, to realize the real situation and his defeat. Then he can save his strength for a new attempt under more favorable conditions. In addition, in the event of a defeat, it is not harmful to make a general reassessment of the situation according to the “I didn’t really want to” type. Reducing the subjective significance of the event helps to retreat to previously prepared positions and prepare for the next assault without wasting energy. It is no coincidence that in ancient times in the East people asked in their prayer: “Lord, give me strength to cope with what I can do, give me courage to put up with what I cannot do, and give me wisdom to distinguish one from the other."

test questions

Describe stress as a non-specific reaction of the body.

Give a classification of types of mental stress.

Name the conditions for the occurrence of informational and emotional stress.

What are individual characteristics in the manifestation of stress?

What mechanisms of regulation of mental states do you know?

What is intrapsychic conflict?

What ways to avoid excessive emotional stress do you know?

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Granovskaya R. M. Elements of practical psychology. - St. Petersburg: Light, 1997.

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Rubinshtein S. L. Fundamentals of general psychology. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 1999.

Selye G. Stress without distress. - Riga: Vieda, 1992.

Simonov P. V. Motivated brain: Higher nervous activity and natural science foundations of general psychology / Ed. ed. V. S. Rusinov. - M.: Nauka, 1987.

Simonov P. V. Emotional brain. Physiology. Neuroanatomy. Psychology of emotions. - M.: Nauka, 1981.

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