Everyday and scientific psychology: examples, similarities and differences, relationships. Everyday psychological knowledge. Differences between scientific knowledge and ordinary knowledge

It is necessary to distinguish between scientific psychology and everyday psychology.

Everyday psychology is not a science, but simply views, ideas, beliefs and knowledge about the psyche, generalizing the everyday experience of people, as well as the life experience of each individual person. There are people who understand very well, feel the psyche of other people, see the peculiarities of their mental states. Such people can be called everyday psychologists.

Scientific and everyday psychology are not antagonists, they cooperate and complement each other. This is expressed in the fact that

An everyday and a scientific psychologist are often one and the same person,

Everyday knowledge often serves as a starting point, the basis for the formation of scientific concepts and ideas,

And, on the contrary, scientific knowledge penetrates life, contributing to the solution of many life psychological problems.

6. Typology of character. Character and behavior.

Attempts to construct a typology of characters have been made repeatedly throughout the history of psychology. One of the most famous and early of them was the one that was proposed by the German psychiatrist and psychologist E. Kretschmer at the beginning of our century. Somewhat later, a similar attempt was made by his American colleague W. Sheldon, and today by E. Fromm, K. Leonhard, A.E. Lichko and a number of other scientists.

All typologies of human characters were based on a number of general ideas. The main ones are the following:

1. A person’s character is formed quite early in ontogenesis and throughout the rest of his life it manifests itself as more or less stable.

2. Those combinations of personality traits that make up a person’s character are not random. They form clearly distinguishable types that make it possible to identify and build a typology of characters.

Most people can be divided into groups according to this typology.

E. Kretschmer identified and described the three most common types of human body structure or constitution: asthenic. athletic and picnic. He associated each of them with a special type of character (later it turned out that the author did not have the proper scientific basis for this).

1. The asthenic type, according to Kretschmer, is characterized by a small body thickness in profile with average or above average height. An asthenic person is usually a thin and thin person, who, because of his thinness, seems somewhat taller than he actually is. An asthenic person has thin skin of the face and body, narrow shoulders, thin arms, an elongated and flat chest with underdeveloped muscles and weak fat deposits. This is basically the characteristic of asthenic men. Women of this type, in addition, are often short.

2. The athletic type is characterized by a highly developed skeleton and muscles. Such a person is usually of medium or tall height, with broad shoulders and a powerful chest. He has a dense, high head.

3. The picnic type is characterized by highly developed internal body cavities (head, chest, abdomen), a tendency to obesity with underdeveloped muscles and the musculoskeletal system. Such a person is of average height with a short neck sitting between the shoulders.

The classification of character accentuations in adolescents, which was proposed by A. E. Lichko, is as follows:

1. Hyperthymic type. Teenagers of this type are distinguished by their mobility, sociability, and a penchant for mischief. They always make a lot of noise into the events happening around them, and they love the restless company of their peers. Despite good general abilities, they show restlessness, lack of discipline, and study unevenly. Their mood is always good and upbeat. They often have conflicts with adults - parents and teachers. Such teenagers have many different hobbies, but these hobbies, as a rule, are superficial and quickly pass. Teenagers of the hyperthymic type often overestimate their abilities, are too self-confident, strive to show off (to brag, to impress others.

2. Cycloid type. Characterized by increased irritability and a tendency to apathy. Teenagers of this type prefer to be at home alone instead of going somewhere with their peers. They have a hard time with even minor troubles and react extremely irritably to comments. Their mood periodically changes from elated to depressed (hence the name of this type) with periods of approximately two to three weeks.

3. Labile type. This type is extremely changeable in mood, and it is often unpredictable. The reasons for an unexpected change in mood can be the most insignificant, for example, someone accidentally dropped a word, someone’s unfriendly look. All of them "are capable of sinking into despondency and a gloomy mood in the absence of any serious troubles or failures." The behavior of these teenagers largely depends on their momentary mood. The present and future, depending on the mood, can be colored either with rainbow or gloomy colors. Such teenagers, being in a depressed mood, are in dire need of help and support from those who can improve their mood, who can distract, cheer up and entertain. They understand and feel the attitude of the people around them well.

4. Asthenoneurotic type. This type is characterized by increased suspiciousness and capriciousness, fatigue and irritability. Fatigue is especially common when performing difficult mental work.

5. Sensitive type. He is characterized by increased sensitivity to everything: to what pleases and to what upsets or frightens. These teenagers do not like large companies, too gambling, active and mischievous games. They are usually shy and timid in front of strangers and therefore often give the impression of being withdrawn. They are open and sociable only with those whom they know well; they prefer communication with children and adults to communication with peers. They are obedient and show great affection for their parents. In adolescence, such adolescents may experience difficulties adapting to their peers, as well as an “inferiority complex.” At the same time, these same teenagers develop a sense of duty quite early and display high moral demands on themselves and the people around them. They often compensate for deficiencies in their abilities by choosing complex activities and increased diligence. These teenagers are picky about finding friends and acquaintances for themselves, show great affection in friendships, and adore friends who are older than them.

6. Psychasthenic type. Such adolescents are characterized by accelerated and early intellectual development, a tendency to think and reason, to introspect and evaluate the behavior of other people. Such teenagers, however, are often more strong in words than in deeds. Their self-confidence is combined with indecision, and categorical judgments are combined with hasty actions taken precisely at those moments when caution and prudence are required.

7. Schizoid type. The most significant feature of this type is isolation. These teenagers are not very drawn to their peers; they prefer to be alone, in the company of adults. They often demonstrate outward indifference to the people around them, lack of interest in them, poorly understand the conditions of other people, their experiences, and do not know how to sympathize. Their inner world is often filled with various fantasies and special hobbies. In the external manifestations of their feelings, they are quite restrained, not always understandable to others, especially to their peers, who, as a rule, do not like them very much.

8. Epileptoid type. These teenagers often cry, harass

others, especially in early childhood. Such children, writes A.E. Lichko, love to torture animals, tease younger ones, and mock the helpless. In children's companies they behave like dictators. Their typical traits are cruelty, power, and selfishness. In the group of children they control, such teenagers establish their own strict, almost terroristic orders, and their personal power in such groups rests mainly on the voluntary obedience of other children or on fear. Under conditions of a strict disciplinary regime, they often feel at their best, try to please their superiors, achieve certain advantages over their peers, gain power, and establish their dictatorship over others.

9. Hysterical type. The main feature of this type is egocentrism, a thirst for constant attention to one’s own person. Adolescents of this type often have a tendency toward theatricality, posing, and panache. Such children have great difficulty in enduring when in their presence someone praises their friend, when others are given more attention than themselves. For them, an urgent need is the desire to attract the attention of others, to listen to admiration and praise addressed to them. These teenagers are characterized by claims to an exclusive position among their peers, and in order to influence others and attract their attention, they often act in groups as instigators and ringleaders. At the same time, being unable to become real leaders and organizers of the cause, or to gain informal authority, they often and quickly fail.

10. Unstable type. He is sometimes mischaracterized as weak-willed and going with the flow. Adolescents of this type show an increased tendency and craving for entertainment, indiscriminately, as well as for idleness and idleness. They do not have any serious, including professional, interests; they almost never think about their future.

11. Conformal type. This type demonstrates thoughtless, and often simply opportunistic, submission to any authority, to the majority in the group. Such teenagers are usually prone to moralizing and conservatism, and their main life credo is “to be like everyone else.” This is a type of opportunist who, for the sake of his own interests, is ready to betray a comrade, to leave him in difficult times, but no matter what he does, he will always find a “moral” justification for his action, and often even more than one.

Close to the classifications of A. E. Lichko is the typology of characters proposed by the German scientist K. Leonhard. This classification is based on an assessment of a person’s communication style with other people and represents the following types of characters as independent:

1. Hyperthymic type. He is characterized by extreme contact, talkativeness, expressiveness of gestures, facial expressions, and pantomimes. He often spontaneously deviates from the original topic of conversation. Such a person has occasional conflicts with people around him because he does not take his work and family responsibilities seriously enough. People of this type are often the initiators of conflicts themselves, but are upset if others make comments to them about this. Among the positive traits that are attractive to communication partners, people of this type are characterized by energy, thirst for activity, optimism, and initiative. At the same time, they also have some repulsive traits: frivolity, a tendency to immoral acts, increased irritability, projectism, and an insufficiently serious attitude towards their responsibilities. They find it difficult to endure conditions of strict discipline, monotonous activity, and forced loneliness.

2. Dysthymic type. He is characterized by low contact, taciturnity, and a dominant pessimistic mood. Such people are usually homebodies, are burdened by noisy society, rarely enter into conflicts with others, and lead a secluded lifestyle. They highly value those who are friends with them and are ready to obey them. They have the following personality traits that are attractive to communication partners: seriousness, conscientiousness, and a keen sense of justice. They also have repulsive features. This is passivity, slowness of thinking, slowness, individualism.

3. Cycloid type. They are characterized by fairly frequent periodic mood changes, as a result of which their manner of communication with people around them also often changes. During periods of high mood they are sociable, and during periods of depressed mood they are withdrawn. During periods of elation, they behave like people with hyperthymic accentuation of character, and during periods of decline, they behave like people with dysthymic accentuation.

4. Excitable type. This type is characterized by low contact in communication, slowness of verbal and non-verbal reactions. They are often boring and gloomy, prone to rudeness and abuse, to conflicts in which they themselves are an active, provoking party. They are difficult to get along with in teams and domineering in the family. In an emotionally calm state, people of this type are often conscientious, neat, and love animals and small children. However, in a state of emotional arousal, they are irritable, quick-tempered, and have poor control over their behavior.

5. Stuck type. He is characterized by moderate sociability, boringness, a penchant for moralizing, and taciturnity. In conflicts, he usually acts as an initiator, an active party. He strives to achieve high results in any business he undertakes and places increased demands on himself. Particularly sensitive to social justice, at the same time touchy, vulnerable, suspicious, vindictive. Sometimes he is overly arrogant, ambitious, jealous, makes exorbitant demands on loved ones and subordinates at work.

6. Pedantic type. He rarely enters into conflicts, acting as a passive rather than an active party in them. At work he behaves like a bureaucrat, making many formal demands on others. At the same time, he willingly cedes leadership to other people. Sometimes he harasses his family with excessive claims to neatness. His attractive traits are: conscientiousness, accuracy, seriousness, and reliability in business, while his repulsive traits that contribute to the emergence of conflicts are formalism, boringness, and grumbling.

7. Anxious type. People of this type are characterized by low contact, timidity, self-doubt, and a minor mood. They rarely enter into conflicts with others, playing a mainly passive role in them; in conflict situations they seek support and support. They often have the following attractive traits: friendliness, self-criticism, and diligence. Due to their defenselessness, they also often serve as “scapegoats” and targets for jokes.

8. Emotive type. These people prefer to communicate in a narrow circle of select people, with whom they establish good contacts and whom they understand at a glance. They rarely enter into conflicts themselves, playing a passive role in them. They carry grievances within themselves and do not “splash” out. Attractive traits: kindness, compassion, rejoicing in other people's successes, a heightened sense of duty, diligence. Repulsive traits: excessive sensitivity, tearfulness.

9. Demonstrative type. This type of people is characterized by ease of establishing contacts, a desire for leadership, a thirst for power and praise. He demonstrates high adaptability to people and at the same time a tendency to intrigue (with an externally soft manner of communication). Such people irritate others with their self-confidence and high claims, systematically provoke conflicts themselves, but at the same time actively defend themselves. They have the following traits that are attractive to communication partners: courtesy, artistry, the ability to captivate others, originality of thinking and actions. Their repulsive traits: selfishness, hypocrisy, boasting, shirking from work.

10. Exalted type. He is characterized by high contact, talkativeness, and amorousness. Such people often argue, but do not lead to open conflicts. In conflict situations, they are both active and passive parties. At the same time, they are attached and attentive to friends and relatives. They are altruistic, have a sense of compassion, good taste, and show brightness and sincerity of feelings. Repulsive traits: alarmism, susceptibility to momentary moods.

11. Extroverted type. They are distinguished by high contact, such people have a lot of friends and acquaintances, they are talkative to the point of talkativeness, and are open to any information. They rarely enter into conflicts with others and usually play a passive role in them. When communicating with friends, at work and in the family, they often cede leadership to others, prefer to obey and be in the shadows. They have such attractive traits as a willingness to listen carefully to others, to do what is asked, and diligence. Repulsive characteristics: susceptibility to influence, frivolity, thoughtlessness of actions, passion for entertainment, participation in the spread of gossip and rumors.

12. Introverted type. It, unlike the previous one, is characterized by very low contact, isolation, isolation from reality, and a tendency to philosophize. Such people love solitude and rarely come into conflict with others, only when unceremonious attempts are made to interfere in their personal lives. They are often emotionally cold idealists with relatively weak attachments to people. They have such attractive traits as restraint, strong convictions, and integrity. They also have repulsive features. This is stubbornness, rigidity of thinking, persistent defense of one’s ideas. They all have their own point of view, which may turn out to be erroneous, differ sharply from the opinions of other people, and yet they continue to defend it no matter what. This classification applies mainly to adults and represents a typology of characters mainly from the point of view of attitude towards people. Having summarized observational data on the social behavior of various people, correlating them with the practice of working in the clinic (E. Fromm was a psychiatrist of Freudian orientation), the author of the presented typology of characters derived the following main types:

1. "Masochist-sadist." This is the type of person who tends to see the reasons for his successes and failures in life, as well as the reasons for observed social events, not in the prevailing circumstances, but in people. In an effort to eliminate these causes, he directs his aggression towards a person who seems to him to be the cause of failure. If we are talking about himself, then his aggressive actions are directed towards himself; if other people act as the cause, then they become victims of his aggressiveness. Such a person does a lot of self-education, self-improvement, and “remaking” people “for the better.” With his persistent actions, exorbitant demands and claims, he sometimes brings himself and the people around him to a state of exhaustion. This type is especially dangerous for those around him when he gains power over them: he begins to terrorize them, based on “good intentions.”

Describing such people as a psychiatrist, E. Fromm wrote: “The most often manifested masochistic tendencies are a feeling of one’s own inferiority, helplessness, and insignificance.” Masochistic people show tendencies to belittle and weaken themselves, revel in self-criticism and self-flagellation, and inflict unthinkable things on themselves. vain accusations, in everything and first of all they try to take the blame on themselves, even if they had nothing to do with what happened.

An interesting observation is that of E. Fromm, who claims that in this type of people, along with masochistic inclinations, sadistic tendencies are almost always revealed. They manifest themselves in the desire to make people dependent on themselves, to acquire complete and unlimited power over them, to exploit them, to cause them pain and suffering, to enjoy seeing them suffer. This type of person is called an authoritarian personality. E. Fromm showed that similar personal qualities were inherent in many despots known in history, and included among them Hitler, Stalin, and a number of other famous historical figures.

2. "Destroyer". It is characterized by pronounced aggressiveness and an active desire to eliminate, destroy the object that caused frustration and the collapse of hopes in a given person. “Destructiveness,” writes Fromm, “is a means of getting rid of the unbearable feeling of powerlessness.” People who experience feelings of anxiety and powerlessness and are limited in the realization of their intellectual and emotional capabilities usually turn to destructiveness as a means of solving their life problems. During periods of great social upheaval, revolutions, and upheavals, they act as the main force that destroys the old, including culture.

3. "Conformist automaton." Such an individual, faced with intractable social and personal life problems, ceases to “be himself.” He unquestioningly submits to circumstances, to any type of society, to the requirements of a social group, quickly assimilating the type of thinking and mode of behavior that is characteristic of most people in a given situation. Such a person almost never has either his own opinion or an expressed social position. He actually loses his own “I”, his individuality and is so accustomed to experiencing exactly those feelings that are expected of him in certain situations that only as an exception could he notice something “alien” in his feelings. Such a person is always ready to submit to any new authority, quickly and easily changes his beliefs if circumstances require it, without particularly thinking about the moral side of such behavior. This is a type of conscious or unconscious opportunist.

The typology derived by E. Fromm is real in the sense of the word that it really resembles the behavior of many people during social events taking place in our country now or that took place in the past.

General psychology.

Lecture 1.

Psychology as a science.

Plan.

1. Introduction to psychology.

2. Scientific and everyday psychology.

3. Tasks, methods and subject of psychology.

4. Main directions of psychology.

Introduction to Psychology.

Psychology studies the psyche, which is the most highly organized matter. Psychology includes two halves: the object and the subject of cognition.

Psychology is a science that studies human mental activity, the influence of external factors on it and the interaction between individuals, based on detailed behavioral analysis. Psychology also studies the consequences of external factors on the human mental system and the relationship between events and emotional activity.

Psychology is a ascertaining, creative human science.

Stage I (pre-scientific stage - VII-VI centuries BC) - this stage is characterized by the study of psychology as a science about the soul. It was based on numerous legends, myths, fairy tales and original beliefs in religion, which certainly connect the soul with specific living beings. At that moment, the presence of a soul in every living creature helped to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena occurring;

Stage II (scientific period - VII-VI centuries BC) - this stage is characterized by the study of psychology as a science of consciousness. This need arises with the development of natural sciences. Since this stage was considered and studied at the level of philosophy, it was called - philosophical period. Consciousness at this stage was called the ability to feel, think and desire. The main method of studying the history of the development of psychology was self-observation and description of the facts obtained by a person;

Stage III (experimental stage - 20th century) - this stage is characterized by the study of psychology as a science of behavior. The main task of psychology at this stage is the establishment of experiments and observation of everything that can be directly studied. These could be a person’s actions or reactions, his behavior, etc. Thus, at this stage, we can consider the history of psychology as the formation of an independent science, as well as the formation and development of experimental psychology;

Stage IV - this stage characterizes the formation of psychology as a science that studies the objective laws of the psyche, their manifestations and mechanisms.

1874(9) – approximate emergence of psychology as a science. The history of psychology as an experimental science begins in 1879 in the world's first experimental psychological laboratory, founded by the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig. Soon, in 1885, V.M. Bekhterev organized a similar laboratory in Russia. Wundt's laboratory studied psychological and physiological problems of vision, hearing, tactile sensations, psychophysics of color, peripheral vision, color contrast, optical illusions, perception of volume, images of aftereffects, sense of time, perception of various shades of time. Particular attention was paid to experiments aimed at studying reaction time. Wundt sought to convince that there are three stages in the reaction to a stimulus: perception, apperception, and manifestations of the will. He sought to establish standard time values ​​for human thought by analyzing how much time was required for various mental processes (cognition, discrimination, desire). The Leipzig laboratory conducted research on attention, duration and stability of attention. In an effort to develop his theory of the three-dimensionality of feelings, Wundt also used a fairly constructive experimental technique - pairwise comparison: subjects were given the task of comparing stimuli in terms of the feelings that these stimuli evoke in them. In separate experiments, we examined how physical indicators (pulse rate, breathing rate) are related to corresponding emotional states. The laboratory also examined verbal associations by asking participants to give a one-word response to a stimulus word. Wundt classified the types of connections (associations) that were established in the process of studying reactions to stimuli.

Everyday and scientific psychology, the main differences.

1.Everyday psychology presupposes specific knowledge. Scientific psychology strives for generalizations, for which it uses scientific concepts. This allows us to see general trends in the patterns of personality development, in its individual characteristics.

2. Everyday knowledge is intuitive in nature, scientific knowledge is rational and fully conscious. Features of methods of knowledge transfer, the very possibility of their transfer.

4.Methods of obtaining knowledge. Everyday – observation and reflection. In scientific psychology, experimentation is added to observation and reflection.

5. Scientific psychology has extensive, varied, and sometimes unique material. Possibility of using this material in work.

Each of us has a stock of everyday psychological knowledge. There are even outstanding everyday psychologists. These are, of course, great writers, as well as some (though not all) representatives of professions that involve constant communication with people: teachers, doctors, clergy, etc. But the average person also has certain psychological knowledge. This can be judged by the fact that each person, to some extent, can understand another, influence his behavior, predict his actions, take into account his individual characteristics, and help him.

First: everyday psychological knowledge, specific; they are characterized by specificity, limitation of tasks, situations and persons to which they apply. Scientific psychology strives for generalizations. To do this, she uses scientific concepts. Concept development is one of the most important functions of science. Scientific concepts reflect the most essential properties of objects and phenomena, general connections and relationships. Scientific concepts are clearly defined, correlated with each other, and linked into laws. Scientific psychology seeks and finds such generalizing concepts that not only economize descriptions, but also allow us to see behind the conglomerate of particulars the general trends and patterns of personality development and its individual characteristics. One feature of scientific psychological concepts should be noted: they often coincide with everyday ones in their external form, that is, simply put, they are expressed in the same words. However, the internal content and meanings of these words are usually different. Everyday terms are usually more vague and ambiguous.

Second difference everyday psychological knowledge is that it is intuitive in nature. This is due to the special way they are obtained: they are acquired through practical trials and adjustments. In contrast, scientific psychological knowledge is rational and fully conscious. The usual way is to put forward verbally formulated hypotheses and test the logically following consequences from them.

Third difference consists in the methods of knowledge transfer and even in the very possibility of its transfer. In the field of everyday psychology, this possibility is very limited. This directly follows from the two previous features of everyday psychological experience - its concrete and intuitive nature. Is life experience passed on from the older generation to the younger? As a rule, with great difficulty and to a very small extent. The eternal problem of “fathers and sons” is precisely that children cannot and do not even want to adopt the experience of their fathers. Each new generation, each young person has to “pull his weight” himself to gain this experience. At the same time, in science, knowledge is accumulated and transmitted with greater, so to speak, efficiency. The accumulation and transmission of scientific knowledge is possible due to the fact that this knowledge is crystallized in concepts and laws. They are recorded in scientific literature and transmitted using verbal means, i.e. speech and language.

Fourth difference consists of methods for obtaining knowledge in the fields of everyday and scientific psychology. In everyday psychology, we are forced to limit ourselves to observations and reflections. In scientific psychology, experiment is added to these methods. The essence of the experimental method is that the researcher does not wait for a combination of circumstances as a result of which the phenomenon of interest to him arises, but causes this phenomenon himself, creating the appropriate conditions. Then he purposefully varies these conditions in order to identify the patterns to which this phenomenon obeys. With the introduction of the experimental method into psychology, psychology became an independent science.

Finally, fifth difference, and at the same time, the advantage of scientific psychology is that it has extensive, varied and sometimes unique factual material, inaccessible in its entirety to any bearer of everyday psychology. This material is accumulated and comprehended, including in special branches of psychological science, such as developmental psychology, educational psychology, patho- and neuropsychology, labor psychology and engineering psychology, social psychology, zoopsychology, etc. In these areas, dealing with various stages and levels of mental development of animals and humans, with mental defects and diseases, with unusual working conditions - conditions of stress, information overload or, conversely, monotony and information hunger, etc. - the psychologist not only expands the range of his research tasks, but and encounters new and unexpected phenomena. After all, examining the operation of a mechanism under conditions of development, breakdown or functional overload from different angles highlights its structure and organization. (Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology.)

Psyche is a special property of highly organized matter, subjectively reflecting objective reality, necessary for humans (and animals) to navigate and actively interact with the environment, and at the human level it is necessary to control their behavior.

Related information.

The concept of “psychology” has both scientific and everyday meaning. In the first case, it is used to designate the corresponding scientific discipline that studies the human psyche, in the second - to describe the behavior or mental characteristics of individuals and groups of people. Therefore, to one degree or another, every person becomes acquainted with “psychology” long before its systematic study. Each of us has a stock of everyday psychological knowledge. This can be judged by the fact that each person to some extent can understand another, influence his behavior, predict his actions, take into account his individual characteristics, help him, etc. However, everyday psychological knowledge is very approximate, vague and differ in many ways from scientific knowledge. What are these differences?

Firstly, everyday psychological knowledge is specific, tied to specific situations, people, and tasks. They say that waiters and taxi drivers are also good psychologists. But in what sense, to solve what problems? As we know, they are often quite pragmatic. The child also solves specific pragmatic problems by behaving in one way with his mother, in another with his father, and in a completely different way with his grandmother. In each specific case, he knows exactly how to behave in order to achieve the desired goal. But we can hardly expect from him the same insight in relation to other people's grandmothers or mothers. Scientific psychology strives for generalization, for which appropriate concepts are used.

Also, everyday terms are usually more ambiguous. Once high school students were asked to answer in writing the question: what is personality? The answers varied widely, with one student responding: “That's something that needs to be verified on paper.”

Secondly, everyday psychological knowledge is intuitive. This is due to the method of obtaining them - random experience and its subjective analysis on an unconscious level. A similar method is clearly visible in children, whose psychological intuition is achieved through daily and even hourly tests to which they subject adults; the latter do not always realize this. In contrast, scientific knowledge is based on experiment, and the acquired knowledge is completely rational and conscious.

Third, there are differences in the way knowledge is transferred. As a rule, knowledge of everyday psychology is transferred with great difficulty, and often this transfer is simply impossible. As Yu. B. Gippenreiter writes, “the eternal problem of “fathers and sons” is precisely that children cannot and do not even want to adopt the experience of their fathers.” At the same time, in science, knowledge is accumulated and transmitted much more easily, crystallizing in concepts and laws. They are recorded in scientific literature and transmitted using verbal means, i.e. speech and language.

The fourth difference lies in the methods of obtaining buildings in the spheres of everyday and scientific psychology. In everyday psychology, we are forced to limit ourselves to observations and reflections. In scientific psychology, experiment is added to these methods.

The fifth difference, and at the same time the advantage of scientific psychology is that it has extensive, varied and sometimes unique factual material, which is not available in its entirety to any bearer of everyday psychology. This material is accumulated and comprehended, including in special branches of psychological science.

In general, everyday knowledge represents a multitude of publicly available and largely implicit conceptual constructs - principles, rules, beliefs that have withstood a huge number of tests in social practice, in the development of culture and intercultural interactions. This implies the dependence of everyday knowledge on the cultural affiliation of its bearers, which contradicts the basic value of the objectivity of scientific knowledge.

Currently, psychology is a very extensive system of sciences. It identifies many industries that represent relatively independently developing areas of scientific research. And it would be more correct to talk not about one science of psychology, but about a complex of developing psychological sciences. For example, developmental, general and educational psychology, occupational psychology, genetic, engineering, social, legal psychology, patho-, neuro- and zoopsychology, etc.

For example, general psychology examines the individual highlighting cognitive processes and personality in it. Cognitive processes include sensation, perception, attention, memory, imagination, thinking and speech. With the help of these processes, a person receives and processes information about the world, and they also participate in the formation and transformation of knowledge.

Genetic psychology studies the hereditary mechanisms of the psyche and behavior, their dependence on the genotype.

Pathopsychology , as well as psychotherapy - deal with deviations from the norm in the human psyche and behavior. The task of these branches of psychological science is to explain the causes of possible mental disorders and justify methods of their prevention and treatment.

Legal psychology considers a person’s assimilation of legal norms and rules of behavior and is also needed for education.

Pedagogical psychology combines all information related to training and education. Particular attention is paid here to the justification and development of methods of training and education of people of different ages.

Social Psychology studies human relationships, as well as phenomena that arise in the process of communication and interaction of people with each other in various groups (family, school, student and teaching staff). Such knowledge is necessary for psychologically correct organization of education.

Currently, the system of psychological sciences continues to actively develop (every 4-5 years a new direction appears).

psyche antique pseudo-scientific everyday

The emergence of psychological science can be divided into stages:

Psychology is a multi-subject science; at different stages of its development, the subject was understood differently, which certainly affected the current state of science.

Pre-scientific/philosophical psychology: Soul.

Descriptive psychology: Human spiritual activity.

Introspective psychology: Consciousness.

Behaviorism: Behavior.

Gesttelt psychology: Holistic structures of consciousness and psyche.

Psychoanalysis: The Unconscious.

Humanistic psychology: Personality.

Cognitive psychology: Cognitive structures and processes.

9 Domestic psychology: Psyche.

Psychology as the science of the soul. The first ideas about the psyche were animistic in nature, endowing every object with a soul. Animation was seen as the reason for the development of phenomena and movement. Aristotle extended the concept of the psyche to all organic processes, distinguishing plant, animal and rational souls. Later, two opposing points of view on the psyche emerged: materialistic (Democritus) and idealistic (Plato). Democritus believed that the psyche, like all nature, is material. The soul consists of atoms, only subtler than the atoms that make up physical bodies. Knowledge of the world occurs through the senses. According to Plato, the soul has nothing in common with matter and, unlike the latter, is ideal. Knowledge of the world is not the interaction of the psyche with the outside world, but the memory of the soul of what it saw in the ideal world before it entered the human body.

Psychology as a science of consciousness. In the 17th century the methodological prerequisites for the scientific understanding of the psyche and consciousness were laid. R. Descartes believed that animals do not have a soul and their behavior is a reflex to external influences. In his opinion, a person has consciousness and in the process of thinking establishes the presence of an inner life. J. Locke argued that there is nothing in the mind that does not pass through the senses. He put forward the principle of an atomistic analysis of consciousness, according to which mental phenomena can be reduced to primary, further indecomposable elements (sensations) and on their basis more complex formations are formed through associations.

In the 17th century English scientists T. Hobbes and D. Hartley developed a deterministic idea of ​​the associations underlying the functioning of the psyche, and French researchers P. Holbach and C. Helvetius developed an extremely important idea about the social mediation of the human psyche. Associationism, gestalt.

Psychology as a science of behavior. A major role in identifying psychology as an independent branch of knowledge was played by the development of the method of conditioned reflexes in physiology and the practice of treating mental illnesses, as well as conducting experimental studies of the psyche. At the beginning of the 20th century. the founder of behaviorism, the American psychologist D. Watson, pointed out the inconsistency of the Cartesian-Lockean concept of consciousness and stated that psychology should abandon the study of consciousness and focus its attention only on what is observable, i.e., human behavior. Behaviorism, neobehaviorism.

Psychology as a science that studies facts, patterns and mechanisms of the psyche. This stage (modern psychology) is characterized by a variety of approaches to the essence of the psyche, the transformation of psychology into a multidisciplinary, applied field of knowledge that serves the interests of human practical activity. Russian psychological science adheres to a dialectical-materialistic view of the origin of the psyche.

Five main differences between everyday and scientific psychology. (Gippenreiter):

1. Specificity - generality b. Ordinary psychological knowledge is concrete, i.e. are confined to specific situations, personalities, life problems, conditions and tasks of specific activities. Ordinary psychological knowledge is characterized by the limitations of tasks, situations and persons to whom they apply (parental manipulation). Scientific psychology operates with generalizing concepts that reflect general trends and the most significant features of psychological phenomena, their significant connections and relationships. Scientific psychological description is supra-situational and is distinguished by greater rigor and economy, allowing one to see fundamental patterns of development behind the variety of particular manifestations.

2. Intuitive character – logical coherence and validity. Everyday knowledge, intuitive in its origin, is not rationally justified. The subject may not be clearly aware that he has them and use them spontaneously, under the influence of chance. Scientific psychology systematizes knowledge in the form of logical, consistent provisions, concepts and theories. Obtaining scientific knowledge is inextricably linked with putting forward correctly formulated hypotheses and testing the logically following consequences from them.

3. Methods of transfer (translation) of knowledge. In the sphere of ordinary consciousness, the limited possibility of transfer arises from the concrete and intuitive nature of the knowledge itself. Each person himself acquires them in his own experience, which is difficult to convey. Effective transmission of scientific knowledge is ensured through its strict formalization in concepts and laws.

4. Methods of obtaining knowledge. Ordinary psychological knowledge is drawn from fragmentary observations and unsystematic reflection. Scientific psychology uses the experimental method. Scientific observations are organized according to strictly defined rules.

5. Sources of knowledge. Scientific psychology has extensive, varied and sometimes unique factual material, which is not fully accessible to any representative of everyday psychology. One can also add that, unlike everyday scientific psychology, it is a professional activity of a special scientific community and is subject to its laws. And if ordinary psychological knowledge is fragmentary and disjointed, then psychological science strives for a single paradigmatic foundation, i.e. trying to develop a universal system of norms and regulations of psychological cognition.

Commonality of industries (about 100) is ensured by the preservation of a single subject of scientific research: they all study facts, patterns and mechanisms of the psyche, only in different conditions and types of activity, at different levels and stages of development, in different social contexts. Basis for the classification of sections and industries: 1. The purpose of scientific activity is the acquisition or application of knowledge; According to this criterion, fundamental (basic) sections and special (applied) branches are distinguished. 2. Areas of application of the acquired knowledge in social practice or specific systems of human activity, the optimization of which is achieved through the increase in scientific data. 3. Stages and levels of mental development in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. 4. The structure of socio-psychological relations between a person and the community, individuals and groups. 5. Interdisciplinary connections, interaction with related sciences. The fundamental sections, as a rule, include: general psychology, differential psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, personality psychology, psychophysiology, as well as the history of psychology, which makes it possible to reveal the historical patterns of the formation and development of psychological knowledge, their gradual formation into an independent science. The theoretical and methodological core of modern psychology is general psychology - a fundamental discipline whose goal is to find answers to fundamental questions facing psychological science as a whole; this is a set of theoretical and experimental studies that reveal the most general laws and mechanisms of the functioning of the psyche, defining the theoretical principles and methods of psychological cognition, the basic concepts of psychology and its categorical structure. Differential psychology (the term was introduced by V. Stern in 1900) is a basic section of scientific psychology that studies psychological differences between individuals and groups, as well as the psychological causes and consequences of these differences. Representatives: Binet, Cattell, Lazursky, Jung, Kretschmer. Developmental psychology is a basic section focused on the study of problems of mental development in phylogenesis and ontogenesis. The range of scientific problems includes: problems of periodization of mental development, features of the course of basic mental processes at different stages of the formation of the human personality, the influence of biological and social factors, changes in the ratio of biological and social in a person during his life, the emergence of neoplasms during the transition from one age period to to another, age-related developmental crises, etc. Social psychology is a branch of psychological science that studies the psychological patterns and characteristics of behavior, interaction and communication of people, determined by their inclusion in various social groups. The subject of study is also the characteristics of the groups themselves. Representatives: Lazarus, Wundt, McDougall. Personality psychology is the study of the psychological characteristics of a person as a bearer of consciousness and self-awareness, a subject of activity and interpersonal relationships, as well as an individual striving for self-realization and self-development. Psychophysiology is the field of interdisciplinary research of the psyche in unity with its neurophysiological substrate - the central nervous system. Areas of psychophysiology: sensory and sensory organs, organization of movements, activity, memory and learning, speech, motivation and emotions, sleep, stress, functional states, thinking, etc. Special (applied) branches of psychology are, as it were, built on top of the fundamental ones and are developed through special development -scientific problems, their specification in certain areas of research and social practice.

Herbert Spencer

Everyday psychology is a psychology in which every person can be a psychologist. After all, it is a set of beliefs, views, sayings, customs, proverbs, aphorisms and other similar knowledge about life and people, which the majority of the population adheres to. We all know something about life and people, about their behavior and the patterns of this behavior, thanks to our personal experience and the experience of people we know well. This knowledge is valuable in its own way, but it is not applicable to all situations. Indeed, in most cases they are based on spontaneous observations and are intuitive in nature. Therefore, what is natural in one situation is completely inapplicable in another. In other words, everyday knowledge is always concrete. But despite this, they are very useful for each of us individually and for society as a whole, since everyday psychology is always practical, since it conveys to us in a very simple form that is understandable to most people the experience of many generations. Well, let's see together how everyday psychology can be interesting to us.

First of all, I would like to tell you, dear readers, that everyday psychology is not as simple as it seems, and sometimes you need to think no less about the knowledge that it carries and shares with us than about scientific knowledge in order to receive from benefit them. The same folk proverbs and sayings need interpretation; they cannot be used in all more or less relevant life situations in order to act competently and effectively. Scientific knowledge is also not universal, although science strives for generalization, so it also needs to be applied in life carefully, thoughtfully, and gradually. And everyday experience is even more situational, even when we are talking about your personal experience, which has been repeated many times. Therefore, if, for example, you have seen many times how people responded with evil to good deeds done to them, you do not need to immediately adjust these observations to well-known sayings and make a final determination regarding good deeds and the reaction to them on the part of other people. Otherwise, you will not be able to make the right decision in a situation when there is a person next to you who is able to adequately appreciate your kindness and give you a lot in return. But these are the people who make our lives happy, they are the ones we want to see next to us. And there are plenty of similar examples. So those truisms on which everyday psychology is based are not always true. Remember this.

An example of everyday psychology is intuitive conclusions drawn through observations, reflections and personal experience. At the same time, it is quite obvious that our observations and experience cover only a small part of even our own life, not to mention life in general. In other words, we see the world through a small window, and based on what we see we draw conclusions that are as limited as our review. And our thoughts are based on what we see and know. And if we have not seen so much and do not have extensive and complete knowledge about something, about life and people, for example, then it is natural that our conclusions drawn on the basis of our thoughts will not be entirely complete and accurate. Moreover, they form the basis of everyday psychology if they coincide with the equally incomplete and insufficiently accurate conclusions of other people. They are true in their own way, but limited in their application. The experience of each person is certainly valuable in its own way, although on its basis it is difficult to draw general conclusions about certain situations, phenomena and events. And since many situations in life are repeated, a shell also very rarely falls into the same crater, then having the experience of other people in your head, no matter how limited it may be, is very useful. Moreover, if we are talking about such experience, which has been confirmed by generations. The likelihood that advice based on this experience will turn out to be correct is quite high. So everyday psychology is, without any doubt, very practical, since it is determined by the events and conditions in which this or that “wisdom” was born, which was then adopted by society as everyday knowledge. You just need to use such knowledge wisely - they are not instructions for execution - they represent a basis for reflection.

Personally, I have great respect for everyday psychology, because I believe that no matter how specific everyday knowledge is, it can be generalized, and you can create from this knowledge a certain system that has its own patterns proven by practice. As a matter of fact, scientific psychology relies heavily on everyday psychological experience, as experience formed over many generations of people. This, you understand, is quite a solid experience. Therefore, everyday knowledge can be streamlined in such a way that it turns into scientific knowledge, that is, into more generalized, more accurate, testable and practical knowledge. In everyday psychology, much knowledge, although true and useful in many ways, is unfortunately not very well organized. They are not flexible and complete enough to be used in solving complex life situations. Some of this knowledge has not been verified by practice, experiments, and is based on people’s faith in the truth of this knowledge. Plus, some everyday knowledge represents statements that cover a fairly wide area of ​​human life, but at the same time do not have adjustments for the various characteristics of a particular person and the life situation in which these statements are true. Well, you've probably noticed that, say, the same proverbs, sayings and various kinds of folk predictions often contradict each other. Ever wondered why it is like this? The point is not that some proverbs are correct and others are incorrect, that some proverbs are true and others are not, that some predictions come true and others do not come true. The point is the situational nature of everyday psychology. Each specific situation with all its features is reflected in a separate proverb and saying. Each specific pattern is reflected in a separate prediction. Therefore, everyday knowledge is correct under certain circumstances, but not always. Life is too complex and people are complex enough for all knowledge about them and their behavior to be contained in a few strict and inviolable laws about life. Even scientific psychology, like any science, although it strives for generalizations, it must still be recognized that it is not capable of explaining all life situations without exception with the help of laws and patterns common to all similar situations. Therefore, in any case, the analysis of a particular situation requires deep reflection on it in order to fully understand it, regardless of what knowledge we are guided by in its analysis, scientific or everyday, or both. If all situations in life could be controlled using several algorithms, if there were no uncertainty and novelty in life, then our entire life could be calculated using mathematical formulas and the management of people could be safely entrusted to computers.

Meanwhile, the great advantage of everyday psychology is that it is always practical, since it is directly related to the events and conditions in which it was developed. There are no complex theories in it, there are only examples from life that people notice and record in their own and public consciousness with the help of proverbs, sayings, signs, customs, rituals and the like. It follows from this that you can learn something from any person, since each of us has valuable experience that can save other people from many unnecessary mistakes. The trouble with people is that they do not always manage to effectively transfer their knowledge and experience to other people and, in particular, to subsequent generations. But other people are not always ready to accept this knowledge and do not even always show interest in it. In general, we are very reluctant to learn from each other, preferring to teach and mentor other people rather than learn from them. Actually, it is our laziness, pride, inattention, carelessness that hinder our development. Everyday psychology gives each of us a lot, just like scientific psychology, but not everyone wants to work with this knowledge and apply it in life. Just think what successes you and I would achieve in life, both each of us individually and all together, if we were willing to learn from each other’s mistakes. It would be simply a grandiose breakthrough in evolution - it would be a revolution in human development. Because today, more than ever, anyone can do this. We can all learn new things constantly, we can learn from each other’s experiences without leaving home, thanks to modern information technologies. But, alas, the reality is that most people do not always learn from their own mistakes, thereby depriving themselves of the opportunity to achieve impressive success in life. And many of us make the same mistakes several times. And you and I know that history often repeats itself, and this repetition has its own purpose. Life will teach people the same lesson until they learn it. We go through many lessons several times because we don’t learn them the first, or the second, or sometimes even the tenth time. And this, despite all the abundance of knowledge that we have thanks, among other things, to our ancestors, who accumulated and passed on valuable everyday knowledge from generation to generation. This is who we are as people. This probably has its own meaning - everything has its time.

We all contribute to everyday psychology when we actively share our experiences with other people. We all have a past that has taught us something, we have knowledge of life, which, of course, is not complete, but very practical. We can share all this with each other to educate each other in various areas. Much everyday knowledge is as valuable as scientific knowledge, since it points to truths that have remained constant throughout our history. Knowing these truths, a person can advance in his life much further than his predecessors, because he will already know what awaits him around this or that corner. Not all of these truths are spelled out in textbooks; many of them are passed on from mouth to mouth and constantly fall on our ears, but we are not always fully aware of them. The fact is that if a person has heard about something many times in his life, then he has a false idea that he understands what is being said. But in reality, there is no awareness of what he heard, saw, read, but the person believes that he has definitely learned this truism, so it does not bring anything new to him and there is no need to pay attention to it. At the same time, a person can act contrary to this truth, but not notice it. I'm sure you've encountered this many times in your life. And they noticed, if not for themselves, then for other people, that they could say one thing, speak correctly, wisely, and act contrary to what was said, without even admitting the error of their actions. What I mean is that we can know much of what everyday psychology tells us about from childhood, but at the same time, this knowledge, these truisms do not benefit us, because we do not follow them, and we do not follow them them for the reason that we do not understand them. Watch yourself, maybe this is exactly how you live, when you seem to have useful knowledge, but at the same time you are not guided by it in your life. Then perhaps you will have a reason to reflect on what you know in order to realize it.

It is also worth saying that everyday psychology has much in common with practical psychology. Everyday psychology is always related to practical psychology, but practical psychology does not entirely consist of everyday psychology. It's all about the specificity of everyday psychology, because of which it is not applicable to all situations. And practical psychology relies to a large extent on scientific experiments, which are as universal as possible.

We can always check our everyday knowledge through personal experience, and this experience is actually priceless. I noticed a long time ago, even after I graduated as a psychologist, that much in life can only be understood through one’s own experience, that much of what we are taught is not completely similar to real life. Here, everyday and scientific and practical psychology, and indeed any science, is tested by life. We, of course, can organize experiments, we can conduct professional observations that will give us a lot of useful information that explains certain patterns of this world. And all the same, in the process of life, we will constantly be amazed at new combinations of certain patterns that make our life unpredictable. Therefore, I believe that each of us should value and increase our experience, which is essentially life-tested knowledge.

You shouldn’t expect 100% accuracy from everyday psychology, because no matter what wisdom it carries, it is not applicable to all life situations. In general, scientific psychology is not as accurate and universal as we would like. Therefore, in any science you need to rely not only on other people’s knowledge and not always on your own knowledge, but also on intuition, as real scientists do. And in life, we all often have to be a bit of a scientist, because sometimes life sets such tasks for us that no knowledge from textbooks and no experience of our ancestors will help us to solve them. This is the beauty of life - it is mysterious and unpredictable, which, although it scares us a little, makes our life damn interesting.