Reflection in social psychology. Reflection in psychology - what is it? How to train and develop reflection

Reflection in social psychology is the process of cognition by the acting subject (personality or communities) of internal mental acts and states, through the way they are perceived and evaluated by other people. This is not just self-knowledge, but an attempt to find out how others know and understand the features of his personality.

In the process of communication, a person imagines himself in the place of the interlocutor, evaluating himself from the outside and, based on this, corrects his behavior. Such a mechanism of self-knowledge and self-esteem through communication allows not only to understand the interlocutor, but also to assume how much he understands you, which is a kind of process of mirror reflection of each other.

The study of social reflection

The study of socio-psychological reflection began at the end of the 19th century. In Western social psychology, it is associated with the study of experimental dyads - pairs of subjects interacting in artificial, laboratory situations.

J. Holmes described the mechanism of social reflection on the example of communication between two conditional personalities: John and Henry. In this situation, according to J. Holmes, at least 6 people are involved: John, as he really is, John, as he appears to himself, and John, as Henry sees him. These same positions are presented by Henry. Subsequently, T. Newcomb and C. Cooley added 2 more persons: John, as he sees his own image in the mind of Henry and also for Henry. In such examples of social reflection, it is a process of doubled, mirror mutual reflection by the subjects of each other's personalities.

Russian researchers such as G.M. Andreeva and others, believe that a deeper understanding of social reflection can be obtained if the object of study is not a dyad, but more complex organized social groups united by certain joint activities in real conditions.

The value of socio-psychological reflection

According to Demina, reflection in social psychology is a property of the psyche to direct a person's consciousness to the inner world, realizing and reflecting their own states, experiences, relationships, managing personal values. If necessary, reflection makes it possible to find new grounds for their restructuring and change.

But in addition to self-understanding and self-knowledge, reflection includes the processes of understanding and evaluating other people. With its help, one's consciousness, values ​​and opinions are correlated with the same categories of other individuals, groups, society and, finally, universal ones. In everyday life, social reflection allows a person to experience some event or phenomenon, let it pass through his “inner world”.

Many psychologists have given different interpretations of this phenomenon. So, R. Descartes believed that reflection enables the individual to switch from the external, bodily, focusing on the content of his thoughts. J. Locke shared sensations and reflection, understanding this phenomenon as a special source of knowledge - internal experience, contrasting it with external experience obtained on the basis of the senses.

But all definitions boil down to the fact that socio-psychological reflection is the ability of a person to look at himself from the outside, analyze his actions and, if necessary, change.

Types of reflection

Traditionally, in psychology, the following types of reflection are distinguished:

  • Communicative - a mechanism for knowing another person, in which his features and behavior, or rather ideas about them, become the object of reflection;
  • Personal - in this case, the object of knowledge is the individual himself, his personal characteristics, behavior and relationship with others;
  • Intellectual - reflection, which manifests itself in solving various kinds of problems, as the ability to analyze various ways of solving in search of more rational ones.

The work of the reflective mechanism

According to the Russian researcher Tyukov, the sequence of the mechanism of social reflection includes 6 stages:

  • Reflexive conclusion - occurs in cases where there are no other means and ways to know another person and oneself;
  • Intentionality - focus on a specific object of reflection, for which it must be distinguished from other objects;
  • Primary categorization - the choice of primary means that promote reflection;
  • Designing a system of reflexive means - the primary means are combined by a certain system, which allows for a targeted and reasonable reflexive analysis;
  • The schematization of reflexive content is carried out using various sign means (images, symbols, schemes, language constructions);
  • Objectification of the reflective description - evaluation and discussion of the result.

If the result is unsatisfactory, the process of social reflection is restarted.

The reflexive mechanism in self-knowledge is the identification of a person with another person and with oneself. In the course of it, the subject identifies personality traits, features of behavior, relationships and communication of another person, analyzes them, determining the reasons for the presence of a particular quality or the commission of a particular act, and evaluating them. Then he transfers these characteristics to himself and compares. As a result, a person more deeply understands both the personal characteristics of others and the properties of his own personality.

The process of social reflection is a complex work that requires time, effort and some abilities. At the same time, it is precisely this technique that allows one to overcome shortcomings and impart purposefulness and awareness to the process of self-knowledge.

Reflection in social psychology

In social psychology, the term "reflection" is accepted conditionally. As G. M. Andreeva writes, “in social psychology, reflection is understood as the awareness by the acting individual of how he is perceived by his communication partner.” Reflection is not just the subject's knowledge or understanding of himself, but also finding out how others know and understand the "reflector", his personality traits, emotional reactions and cognitive representations. Reflection here is a process of doubled, mirror mutual reflection by subjects of each other, the content of which is reproduction, recreation of each other's features.

Reflection as a mechanism for the process of self-regulation

The problem of self-regulation has been dealt with by Zeigarnik BF for a long time. Bluma Vulfovna considered reflection to be the mechanism of self-regulation. Reflection is the most important mechanism of the process of self-regulation, because it allows a person to take an external position in relation to himself, his actions, which makes their conscious regulation possible.

Reflection in this approach is considered as the focus of the subject on himself and his activity. "Reflection stops (fixes) the process of activity, alienates and objectifies it, which makes possible a conscious impact on this process."

In defining reflection, Zeigarnik relies on S.L. Rubinstein, who said that "reflection, as it were, suspends, interrupts the continuous process of life and takes a person mentally beyond its limits. A person, as it were, takes a position outside of it."

The role of reflection in the process of self-regulation lies in the recognition of the wrong decision model and its restructuring.

The ability to reflect

So, we have considered the main theoretical provisions in the study of reflection. We have noticed that almost every researcher dealing with the problems of reflection speaks of stopping activity as a formal sign of the transition to the reflexive level of movement of thought, of the constructive function of reflection, which consists in awareness, comprehension, rethinking of incorrect methods of action in order to correct them for successful operation. But at the same time, each researcher puts a different objectivity into the definition of reflection.

In order to assess the applicability of a particular method of studying reflection, it is important, first of all, to fix the context in which reflection is considered.

Many authors note that it is impossible to study reflection in a direct, pure form. Referring to reflection as reflection in general imposes some restrictions on the effectiveness of its study. Therefore, in order to more effectively measure reflection, such a category as the ability to reflect is often introduced and studied.

First, consider the concept of "ability". In domestic psychology, the leading definition is B.M. Teplov, who singled out individual psychological characteristics at the basis of abilities that distinguish one person from another. We mean only those features that are related to the success of the activity, and are not limited to available knowledge, skills, skills, but which can explain the ease and speed of their acquisition.

It is noted that "ability is a complex, synthetic formation, which includes a number of data and properties developed in a specially organized activity, without which a person would not be capable of any specific activity" (S.L. Rubinshtein).

The possibility of developing abilities is recognized in activities. “There can be no abilities by nature, because each person needs to develop ways, acquire them in some way in activity,” writes V.S. Yurkevich, understanding abilities as ways of performing activities.

As for the ability to reflect, it, like any other ability, develops in the context of a certain activity.

So, the ability to reflect is represented within a structure (for example, in the structure of thinking, communication).

In our work, we will explore the ability to reflect in the context of thinking, in the process of solving a creative problem by a person. Based on the analysis of the literature devoted to the study of the phenomenon of reflection, it was found that it is precisely when solving a creative problem that a person appears as an integral person (in such a situation, it is most correct to study the ability to reflect).

The working definition of reflection for us will be the definition given by S.Yu. Stepanov. We will call a person capable of reflection who, in search of a way out of a problem situation, a successful solution of a problem, can rethink "the intellectual and personal contents of his individual consciousness."

- a way of knowing oneself, used in such scientific fields as psychology, philosophy and pedagogy. This method allows a person to pay attention to their thoughts, feelings, knowledge and skills, relationships with other people.

In meditation, you can perfectly know yourself

Definition of reflection

The term "reflection" comes from the late Latin word "reflexio", which translates as "turning back." This is a state during which a person pays attention to his own consciousness, deeply analyzes and rethinks himself.

It is a way of understanding the results of human activity. In the process of reflection, a person carefully examines his thoughts and ideas, considers the accumulated knowledge and acquired skills, and considers the completed and planned actions. This allows you to better know and understand yourself.

The ability to draw conclusions based on self-reflection is a unique trait that distinguishes man from animals. This method helps to avoid many errors that occur when repeating the same actions with the expectation of a different result.

The concept of reflection was formed in philosophy, but now it is widely used in pedagogical practice, science of science, various fields of psychology, physics and military affairs.

Forms of reflection

Depending on the time taken as a basis during reflection, it can manifest itself in 3 main forms:

  1. retrospective form. It is characterized by an analysis of past events.
  2. situational form. It is expressed as a reaction to events happening to a person right now.
  3. prospective form. Reflections are subject to the events of the future, not yet occurred. These are the dreams, plans and goals of a person.

Retrospective analysis of the past in human life

The most common is retrospective reflection. It is used in pedagogy, when students consolidate the material, and in psychology, when analyzing past events to solve psychological problems.

Types of reflection

The reflexive position is divided into several main groups, depending on the object of reflection:

  • personal, including introspection and study of one's own "I", achievement;
  • communicative, analyzing relationships with other people;
  • cooperative, comprehending joint activity to achieve the goal;
  • intellectual, paying attention to the knowledge, skills and abilities of a person, as well as to the areas and methods of their application;
  • social reflection, which cognizes the internal state of a person through how he is perceived and what other people think about him;
  • professional, helping to analyze the movement up the career ladder;
  • educational, allowing you to better learn the material received in the lesson;
  • scientific, addressed to the understanding of human knowledge and skills related to science;
  • existential, pondering the meaning of life and other deep questions;
  • sanogenic, aimed at controlling the emotional state of the individual.

Professional reflection will allow you to understand what you have come to and where to go next in your career

Development of reflection

Anyone can learn to reflect. To start the process, it is worth practicing more by performing simple psychological exercises. They will teach a person to analyze everything that is happening around him, and to live his life meaningfully.

Interaction with the world

Reflection It is always a reaction to an external influence. Everything that fills the consciousness of a person came to him from outside. Therefore, the best reflection training will be interaction with the world around him: with other people's opinions, criticism, conflicts, doubts and other difficulties.

Contacts with stimuli coming from outside expand the range of human reflexivity. Communicating with other people, a person learns to understand them, and this makes it easier and easier for him to understand himself.

We need to constantly step out of our comfort zone, otherwise we will not develop.

Chat with a person who has a different point of view on important issues than yours, or who lives the opposite way of life. Start an unusual book for you in a genre that you have not tried to read before, listen to music that you were not familiar with before, and you will be surprised how much new and unusual there is around you.

Analysis of one thing

Neuroscientists believe that a large amount of information received in the modern pace of life has a bad effect on the mental functions and memory of a person. With an abundance of unnecessary knowledge, new information is poorly absorbed and interferes with the thinking process. Therefore, it is important to analyze the things and relationships that occupy a person’s thoughts.

During this training, you need to choose one subject and analyze it in detail. An interesting new book, favorite series, favorite song or, say, communication with a new acquaintance may be subject to consideration.

When analyzing things, you need to ask yourself a number of specific questions.

When thinking about the subject of analysis, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Is this item useful for me?
  2. Did I learn something new thanks to him?
  3. Can I use this knowledge?
  4. How does this item make me feel?
  5. Do I want to study it further, am I interested?

These questions will help you get rid of unnecessary things in life. They will free up useful space for more important and interesting things, as well as teach you how to focus and filter out everything superfluous on your own, in automatic mode.

Exciting questions

To get to know yourself better, write down questions that worry you on a piece of paper. These may be questions that have arisen only yesterday, or have been of interest to you for many years. Make a detailed list, and then divide it into categories.

These could be questions:

  • about past events;
  • about the future;
  • about relationships with people;
  • about feelings and emotions;
  • about material objects;
  • about scientific knowledge;
  • about spiritual matters;
  • about the meaning of life, of being.

When asking questions to yourself, make them exciting and important.

Which group collected the most responses? Think about why it happened the way it did. This is a great workout that helps to reveal information to a person that he might not have been aware of.

How to stop reflecting?

Many people believe that the tendency to reflect on a constant basis is harmful, that it negatively affects a person, but it is a natural component of the life of any person.

A person's appeal to himself, to his inner motives and desires only strengthens the will, improves the result and efficiency of any activity. However, it is important that the reflective person perform this activity: reflection without action will not bear fruit.

Reflection should not be confused with ordinary self-digging: unlike the latter, reflection is a creative, not a destructive activity.

If self-development reaches the point of absurdity and you feel that you are far from reality, you need to get rid of it:

  • reading books about self-development should not be just a hobby;
  • attend trainings less and communicate more with people, walk, communicate;
  • if the learned techniques and methods do not bring results, do not dwell on them;
  • most of the techniques are businesses that are developed for the sake of making money;
  • when you achieve your goals, leave the idea of ​​improving them.

Reflection Examples

In pedagogy

An example of educational reflexivity in pedagogical practice can be any school lesson. According to the Federal State Educational Standard, at the end of the lesson, the teacher must necessarily conduct a small survey in a symbolic, oral or written form. It contains reflective questions aimed at consolidating the material, at assessing emotions, or at analyzing why the student needs this information.

In psychology

Retrospective reflection is actively used in psychological practice. An example would be the consultation of a psychotherapist, when he asks the patient leading questions and helps him to analyze the events of the past. This technique allows you to cope with the problems and diseases caused by traumatic memories.

Analysis of relationships with relatives, friends or soulmate. A reflective person recalls events and situations related to a loved one, analyzes his feelings in relation to this. It helps to understand if the relationship is going in the right direction and what needs to be changed.

Communicative reflection is necessary to analyze relationships with loved ones.

- a way of analyzing a person's consciousness, allowing you to better know yourself. This skill distinguishes humans from animals. Interesting methods can be used to develop reflection: interaction with the world, searching for new information that is different from the interests of a person, a detailed analysis of one thing and compiling a list of issues that concern a person the most.

Reflection has always attracted the attention of thinkers since the time of ancient philosophy, in particular, Aristotle defined reflection as “ thinking directed to thinking". This phenomenon of human consciousness is studied from different angles by philosophy, psychology, logic, pedagogy, etc.

Reflection(from late lat. reflexio- turning back) - this is one of the varieties of acts of human consciousness, namely, an act of consciousness directed to its knowledge.

Reflection is often associated with introspection. One of the founders of the method of introspection, the English philosopher J. Locke, believed that there are two sources of all human knowledge: the first is the objects of the external world; the second is the activity of one's own mind.

To the objects of the external world, people direct their external senses and as a result receive impressions (or ideas) about external things. The activity of the mind, to which Locke ranked thinking, doubt, faith, reasoning, knowledge, desires, is known with the help of a special inner feeling - reflection. Reflection according to Locke is "observation to which the mind subjects its activity." He pointed to the possibility of "doubling" the psyche, distinguishing two levels in it: the first - perception, thoughts, desires; the second is observation or contemplation of structures of the first level. In this regard, introspection is often understood as a method of studying the properties and laws of consciousness with the help of reflective observation. In other words, any reflection that is aimed at studying the laws inherent in the psyche of each person is introspection, and, in turn, individual self-observation that does not have such a goal is only reflection.

In domestic psychology, almost all authors of existing psychological concepts touched on the issues of reflection. Traditions of the study of reflexive processes in certain areas of psychology are currently taking shape. To reveal the psychological content of various phenomena, reflection is considered within the framework of research approaches:

  • Awareness (L.S. Vygotsky, N.I. Gutkina, A.N. Leontiev, V.N. Pushkin, I.N. Semenov, E.V. Smirnova, A.P. Sopikov, S.Yu. Stepanov, etc.) ;
  • Thinking (Alekseev N.G., Brushlinsky A.V., Davydov V.V., Zak A.Z., Zaretsky V.K., Kulyutkin Yu.N., Rubinshtein S.L., Semenov I.N., Stepanov S.Yu. . and etc.);
  • Creativity (Ponomarev Ya.A., Gadzhiev Ch.M., Stepanov S.Yu., Semenov I.N., etc.),
  • Communication (G. M. Andreeva, A. A. Bodalev, S. Kondratieva, etc.);
  • personalities (Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K.A., Antsyferova L.I., Vygotsky L.S., Zeigarnik B.V., Kholmogorova A.B., etc.).

L.S. Vygotsky, for example, believed that “new types of connections and correlations of functions assume as their basis reflection, reflection of one’s own processes in consciousness.”

The psychological concept, in which reflection plays a leading role in the self-determination of a person, is the subject-activity approach of S.L. Rubinstein He emphasized that "the emergence of consciousness is associated with the separation from life and direct experience of reflection on the world around us and on oneself."

With the concepts reflection" and " self-awareness» S.L. Rubinstein linked the definition of personality. Giving various definitions of personality, he pointed out: “Personality in its real existence, in its self-consciousness is what a person, realizing himself as a subject, calls his “I”. “I” is a person as a whole, in the unity of all aspects of being, reflected in self-consciousness ... As we see, a person is not born as a person; he becomes a person. Therefore, in order to understand the path of his development, a person must consider it in a certain aspect: what was I? - What I've done? - what have I become? All three positions of the "I", which are at the center of understanding the personality of S.L. Rubinstein are undoubtedly reflexive. In this concept, reflection has not only the functions of analyzing what happened, but also represents the reconstruction and design of one's "I", life path and, as a result, a person's life.

According to Ya.A. Ponomarev, reflection is one of the main characteristics of creativity. A person becomes an object of control for himself, from which it follows that reflection, like a “mirror” reflecting all the changes taking place in him, becomes the main means of self-development, a condition and method of personal growth.

Among the modern developers of the torii of reflexive activity, it should be noted A.V. Karpova, I.N. Semenov and S.Yu. Stepanova.

In the approach of A.V. Karpov's reflexivity acts as a meta-ability, which is part of the cognitive substructure of the psyche, performing a regulatory function for the entire system, and reflexive processes - as " third order processes”(considering cognitive, emotional, volitional, motivational processes of the first order, and synthetic and regulatory processes of the second order). In his concept, reflection is the highest degree of integration process; it is at the same time a way and a mechanism for the exit of the psyche system beyond its own limits, which determines the plasticity and adaptability of the personality.

A.V. Karpov writes:

“The ability to reflect can be understood as the ability to reconstruct and analyze a broadly understood plan for constructing one's own or someone else's thought; as the ability to single out its composition and structure in this regard, and then objectify them, work them out in accordance with the goals set.

In this approach, reflection is a synthetic mental reality, which is both a process, a property and a state. On this occasion, A.V. Karpov says:

“Reflection is both a property that is uniquely inherent only to a person, and a state of awareness of something, and the process of representing one’s own content to the psyche.”

Reflection functions

Reflection performs certain functions. Its presence:

  • allows a person to consciously plan, regulate and control his thinking (connection with self-regulation of thinking);
  • allows you to evaluate not only the truth of thoughts, but also their logical correctness;
  • reflection allows you to find answers to problems that cannot be solved without its application.

In the works of A.V. Karpova, I.N. Semenov and S.Yu. Stepanov describes quite a lot of types of reflection.

S.Yu. Stepanov and I.N. Semenov distinguishes the following types reflection and areas of its scientific research:

  • Cooperative reflection is directly related to the psychology of management, pedagogy, design, sports. Psychological knowledge of this type of reflection provides, in particular, the design of collective activity and the cooperation of joint actions of subjects of activity. At the same time, reflection is considered as a “release” of the subject from the process of activity, his “exit” to an external, new position both in relation to the previous, already completed activities, and in relation to the future, projected activity in order to ensure mutual understanding and coordination of actions in conditions joint activities. With this approach, the emphasis is placed on the results of reflection, and not on the procedural aspects of the manifestation of this mechanism;
  • Communicative reflection - is considered in studies of the socio-psychological and engineering-psychological plan in connection with the problems of social perception and empathy in communication. It acts as the most important component of developed communication and interpersonal perception, which is characterized by A.A. Bodalev as a specific quality of cognition of a person by a person.

Communicative aspect reflection has a number of functions:

  • cognitive;
  • regulatory;
  • development function.

These functions are expressed in the change of ideas about another subject to more adequate for a given situation, they are actualized in case of a contradiction between ideas about another subject of communication and its newly revealed individual psychological traits.

Personal reflection explores the subject's own actions, images of his own "I" as an individual. It is analyzed in general and pathopsychology in connection with the problems of development, decay and correction of the self-consciousness of the individual and the mechanisms for constructing the I-image of the subject.

Several stages of personal reflection:

  • experiencing an impasse and understanding the task, the situation as unsolvable;
  • approbation of personal stereotypes (action patterns) and their discrediting;
  • rethinking of personal stereotypes, problem-conflict situation and oneself in it anew.

The process of rethinking is expressed, firstly, in a change in the attitude of the subject to himself, to his own "I" and is realized in the form of appropriate actions, and, secondly, in a change in the attitude of the subject to his knowledge and skills. At the same time, the experience of conflict is not suppressed, but aggravated and leads to the mobilization of the resources of the “I” to achieve a solution to the problem.

At a glance Yu.M. Orlova, the personal type of reflection has the function of self-determination of personality. Personal growth, the development of individuality, as a superpersonal formation, occurs precisely in the process of understanding the meaning, which is realized in a particular segment of the life process. The process of self-knowledge, in the form of comprehending one's self-concept, which includes the reproduction and comprehension of what we do, why we do it, how we do it and how they treated others, and how they treated us and why, through reflection leads to the justification of the personal right to changing the given model of behavior, activity, taking into account the peculiarities of the situation.

intellectual reflection - its subject is knowledge about the object and ways of acting with it. Intellectual reflection is considered mainly in connection with the problems of organizing cognitive processes of information processing and developing teaching aids for solving typical problems.

Recently, in addition to these four aspects of reflection, there are:

  • existential;
  • cultural;
  • sanogenic.

Object of study existential reflections are deep, existential meanings of personality.

Reflection resulting from exposure emotional situations leading to the experience of fear of failure, feelings of guilt, shame, resentment, etc., leading to a decrease in suffering from negative emotions, is determined by Yu.M. Orlov as sanogenic. Its main function is to regulate the emotional states of a person.

N.I. Gutkin in experimental study identifies the following types of reflection:

  • logical- reflection in the field of thinking, the subject of which is the content of the individual's activity.
  • Personal- reflection in the area of ​​the affective-required sphere, associated with the processes of development of self-consciousness.
  • interpersonal- reflection in relation to another person, aimed at the study of interpersonal communication.

Domestic scientists S.V. Kondratiev, B.P. Kovalev distinguish the following types of reflection in the processes of pedagogical communication:

  • Socio-perceptual reflection, the subject of which is rethinking, rechecking by the teacher of his own ideas and opinions that he has formed about students in the process of communicating with them.
  • Communicative reflection - consists in the subject's awareness of how he is perceived, evaluated, treated by others ("I - through the eyes of others").
  • Personal reflection - understanding one's own consciousness and one's actions, self-knowledge.

E.V. Lushpaeva describes her type as “reflection in communication”, which is a “complex system of reflexive relationships that arise and develop in the process of interpersonal interaction”.

  • personal-communicative reflection (reflection "I");
  • socio-perceptual (reflection of another "I");
  • reflection of the situation or reflection of interaction.

The most common ways of reflection are the expression of confidence, assumptions, doubts, questions. At the same time, all types of reflection are activated under the condition of creating an attitude to observe and analyze one's own knowledge, behavior and understanding of this behavior by others.

Reflection levels. A.V. Karpov identified different levels of reflection depending on the degree of complexity of the reflected content:

  • 1st level - includes a reflective assessment of the current situation by the individual, an assessment of his thoughts and feelings in this situation, as well as an assessment of the behavior in the situation of another person;
  • Level 2 involves the construction by the subject of a judgment about what another person felt in the same situation, what he thought about the situation and about the subject himself;
  • Level 3 includes the representation of the other person's thoughts about how he is perceived by the subject, as well as the representation of how the other person perceives the subject's opinion of himself;
  • The 4th level includes the idea of ​​the other person's perception of the subject's opinion about the other's thoughts about the subject's behavior in a given situation.

Forms of reflection

Reflection of the subject's own activity is considered in three main forms, depending on the functions that it performs in time.: situational, retrospective and perspective reflection.

situational reflection acts in the form of "motivations" and "self-assessments" and ensures the direct involvement of the subject in the situation, understanding of its elements, analysis of what is happening at the moment, i.e. reflecting "here and now". The ability of the subject to correlate his own actions with the objective situation, to coordinate, control the elements of activity in accordance with changing conditions is considered.

Retrospective reflection serves to analyze and evaluate activities already performed, events that took place in the past. Reflective work is aimed at a more complete understanding, understanding and structuring of the experience gained in the past, prerequisites, motives, conditions, stages and results of activity or its individual stages are affected. This form can serve to identify possible errors, search for the causes of one's own failures and successes.

promising reflection includes thinking about upcoming activities, understanding the course of activities, planning, choosing the most effective ways designed for the future.

The subject of activity can be represented as a separate individual or a group.

Based on this, I.S. Ladenko describes intrasubjective and intersubjective forms of reflection.

In within subjective forms distinguish:

  • corrective;
  • electoral;
  • complementary.

Corrective reflection acts as a means of adapting the chosen method to specific conditions.

Through electoral reflection is the choice of one, two or more ways to solve the problem.

By using complementary reflection, the chosen method is complicated by adding new elements to it.

Intersubjective forms presented:

  • cooperative;
  • adversarial;
  • counter-reflex.

Cooperative reflection ensures the unification of two or more subjects in order to achieve a common goal.

adversarial reflection serves the self-organization of subjects in the conditions of their competition or rivalry.

Opposing reflection acts as a means of struggle between two or more subjects for the predominance or conquest of something.

Academician M. K. Tutushkina reveals the meaning of the concept of reflection, based on the nature of its functions, - constructive and control. From the standpoint of a constructive function, reflection is the process of searching for and establishing mental connections between the existing situation and the worldview of the individual in a given area; activation of reflection to include it in the processes of self-regulation in activities, communication and behavior. From the position of the control function, reflection is the process of establishing, testing and using links between the existing situation and the worldview of the individual in this area; a mechanism for reflecting or using the results of reflection for self-control in activities or communication.

Based on the work of B.A. Zeigarnik, I.N. Semenova, S.Yu. Stepanova, the author identifies three forms of reflection that differ by object of work:

  • reflection in the field of self-consciousness;
  • reflection of the mode of action;
  • reflection of professional activity, moreover, the first two forms are the basis for the development and formation of the third form.

Reflection in the field of self-awareness- this is a form of reflection that directly affects the formation of a person's sensitive ability. It has three levels:

  1. the first level is associated with the reflection and subsequent independent construction of personal meanings;
  2. the second level is associated with the awareness of oneself as an independent person, different from others;
  3. the third level involves awareness of oneself as a subject of communicative communication, the possibilities and results of one's own influence on others are analyzed.

Reflection course of action- this is an analysis of the technologies that a person uses to achieve certain goals. The reflection of the mode of action is responsible for the correct use of those principles of action with which a person is already familiar. This analysis is a reflection (in its pure form) as it is presented in classical psychology, when immediately after any act, the reflecting person analyzes the scheme of action, his own feelings, results and draws conclusions about perfection and shortcomings.

Reflection in social psychology appears in the form of awareness by the acting subject - a person or community - of how they are actually perceived and evaluated by other individuals or communities. Reflection is not just knowledge or the subject's understanding of himself, but also finding out how others know and understand the "reflective", his personal characteristics, emotional reactions and cognitive (related to cognition) representations. When the content of these representations is the object of joint activity, a special form of reflection develops - object-reflexive relations. In the complex process of reflection, at least six positions are given that characterize the mutual reflection of subjects: the subject itself, what it is in reality; the subject as he sees himself; the subject as it is seen by another, and the same three positions, but from the side of another subject. Reflection, therefore, is a process of double, mirror mutual reflection by subjects of each other, the content of which is reproduction, recreation of each other's features. The tradition of reflection studies in Western social psychology goes back to the works of D. Holmes, T. Newcomb and C. Cooley and is associated with the experimental study of dyads - pairs of subjects involved in the process of interaction in artificial, laboratory situations. Domestic researchers (G. M. Andreeva et al.) note that for a deeper understanding of reflection, it must be considered not on a dyad, but on more complex organized real social groups united by significant joint activities.

According to L.D. Demina, reflection is a property of the psyche to reflect its own states, relationships, experiences, to manage personal values. Reflection "turns" a person's consciousness to his inner world. This helps not only to realize one's actions, relationships, constructs, values, but, if necessary, to rebuild them, to find new grounds for this.

Reflection is not only self-understanding, self-knowledge. It includes such processes as understanding and appreciating the other. With the help of reflection, one achieves a correlation of one's consciousness, values, opinions with the values, opinions, relations of other people, groups, society, and finally, with universal ones. To reflect on something means to "experience", "pass through one's inner world", "evaluate".

Common to all definitions is that reflection is the ability of a person to look at himself from the outside, analyze his actions and deeds, and, if necessary, rebuild them in a new way.

The appearance of this function of reflection is connected, if only with the fact that, like any self-organizing system, a person needs "feedback". For self-management and self-regulation, one cannot do without a well-functioning feedback system. However, reflection is not feedback itself, just as an ordinary mirror reflecting a person's appearance is not feedback in itself, but only a means, method or mechanism by which this feedback can be obtained. Reflection as a feedback mechanism in human life is not only a certain result (an image in a mirror), but also a process that is associated with internal transformations - understanding and rethinking stereotypes of thinking.

Reflection in communications and joint activities is called social reflection. Entering the position "above" and "outside" allows partners not only to predict each other's actions, but also, by correcting their actions, influence the partner, penetrating deeper into the depths of mutual understanding or, on the contrary, deliberately misleading the partner. This type of reflection is associated with simulation modeling and organizational-activity games, with the adoption of group decisions, with the study of relationship problems in an organization, etc. At the same time, the very practice of generating reflexive processes, identifying the conditions for their occurrence and functioning in the system is used in various forms of work (reflective practices, trainings). The predominant number of concrete scientific studies of reflection is connected with the study of it as a process. It is the specificity of the reflective mechanism and the variety of ways of reflection that determine the potential of the individual for personal growth and self-improvement.

In Russian psychology, this line of ideas goes back to S.L. Rubinstein, who associated with the appearance of reflection a special way of human existence in the world. Emphasizing that a person has two ways of existing in this world, he considered the first way - this is ordinary existence, when "a person is all inside life, all his attitude is an attitude to his individual phenomena, but not to life as a whole. The absence of such an attitude to life in general, it is connected with the fact that a person is not turned off from life, cannot even mentally take a position outside of it, for reflection on it. The second mode of existence is actually reflection. "Developed reflection, as it were, interrupts the continuous process of life and takes a person mentally beyond its limits ... a person, as it were, takes a position outside it. This is a decisive turning point. Here the first mode of existence ends. Here begins either the path to spiritual devastation ... or another way - to building a moral, human life on a new conscious basis.

Today, the levels of reflection in the works of domestic authors are considered differently and fundamentally different approaches to their understanding are distinguished. Considering the systemic organization of reflection, G.P. Shchedrovitsky singles out: the macro level, i.e. the level of the system itself, in which it is considered as a whole; micro level is the level of subsystems of the given system; and the mega level is the level of some system in which this system is included as a subsystem.

In the work of I.S. Ladenko, there are three main forms of reflection: retrospective, prospective and introspective. The first one serves to identify and recreate schemes and means, processes that took place in the past. In the second, schemes and means of possible activities are identified and adjusted. In the third case, control and adjustment or complication of thought processes during execution is carried out. The ability of a person, like a film, to scroll through his thoughts and actions, returning them back or looking ahead; this is the very mechanism that connects the consciousness with the subconscious or with the blocks of the very "program" that has been formed as a control substructure of our experience.

Traditionally, there are several types of reflection in psychology:

communicative - its object is ideas about the inner world of another person and the reasons for his actions. Here reflection acts as a mechanism for knowing another person;

personal - the object of cognition is the cognizing personality itself, its properties and qualities, behavioral characteristics, the system of relations with others;

intellectual - manifests itself in the course of solving various kinds of problems, in the ability to analyze various solutions, find more rational ones, repeatedly return to the conditions of the problem.

If we try to single out the sequence of work of the reflexive mechanism, then, as the domestic researcher A.A. Tyukov shows, there will be six such stages.

1. Reflexive conclusion - is carried out when it is impossible to know another person and oneself by other means and methods.

2. Intentionality (intention-orientation) - focus on the object of reflection, highlighting it among other objects.

4. Designing a system of reflexive means - the selected primary means are combined into a certain system, which makes it possible to more purposefully and reasonably test the reflexive analysis.

5. Schematization of reflexive content - is carried out through the use of various sign means: images, symbols, schemes, language structures.

6. Objectivization of the reflective description - evaluation and discussion of the result; in the case when the result is unsatisfactory, the reflection process starts again.

The action of the reflexive mechanism in terms of self-knowledge in the course of identification with another person and with oneself. Identifying with another, a person identifies his personality traits, ways of behavior, features of relationships and communication. Further, all this is subjected to a reflexive analysis, during which the reasons for the existence of a particular quality or perfect actions are identified, they are evaluated, then the process of transferring these characteristics to oneself and comparison is carried out. As a result, both the personal characteristics of the other person and their own traits and personality traits are more deeply understood.

A slightly different option is also possible. Identifying with another, a person begins to look at himself as if through his eyes, eventually discovering the difference between his view of himself and his own, which also contributes to the deepening of self-knowledge. This makes it possible to overcome the action of the laws of introjection, to form a more adequate and holistic view of oneself.

In the case of identification with oneself, a wide variety of variants of self-knowledge are possible with the inclusion of reflexive mechanisms. They are determined, firstly, by the way a person identifies with his Self: I am the knower. I - knowable, I - ideal, etc., secondly, how fully and adequately he can choose the means of reflection, create an integral system from them. Analyzing his sociability, a person notes the following features:

recognizes this quality as his strength;

standing in the position of other people, also notes the presence of this feature;

at the same time, he discovers that he (she) does not feel a special need to communicate with a wide range of people, and sociability arose on the basis of hard work on himself. He also highlights the root cause that prompted this work;

notes that, despite the ability to communicate, some difficulties remain in establishing the first contact, especially with older people;

detects some well-established programs that vary depending on the interlocutor, speech means and stamps, stereotypes, etc.

It is clear that reflection is a difficult job that requires time, effort, certain abilities. At the same time, it is reflection that makes it possible to overcome the shortcomings that identification has, to make the process of self-knowledge more purposeful and conscious. In fairness, it should be noted that in some cases, a pronounced ability to reflect can interfere, as a person begins to engage in self-knowledge, endless analysis, which does not help, but interferes with the creation of the image of the Self, generates a passive orientation in the process of interaction with the outside world.

Reflection is a human activity aimed at comprehending one's own actions, one's internal states, feelings, experiences, analyzing these states and formulating appropriate conclusions. In order for a person to understand himself, control and regulate his actions, develop his inner world, he must master reflection. Reflection includes introspection and introspection. Reflection is the main way to acquire new knowledge. Knowledge about oneself and others does not come to a person from outside, but only through oneself, through constant reflection of what is happening to you every minute, "here and now."

The meaning of all existing psychotechniques is the achievement and maintenance of a high mental, spiritual and physical form by means of directed mental concentration. Most programs aimed at developing human reflection are based on four principles or methods of self-knowledge and self-regulation.



What else to read