Deciphering the concept of mental reflection. The problem of reflection in psychology. Levels and forms of mental reflection

Even in ancient times, it was discovered that, along with the material, objective, external, objective world, there are immaterial, internal, subjective phenomena - human feelings, desires, memories, etc. Every person is endowed with mental life.

Psyche is defined as the property of highly organized matter to reflect objective reality and, on the basis of the mental image formed in this case, it is advisable to regulate the subject’s activity and behavior. From this definition it follows that the main functions of the psyche are the closely interrelated reflection of objective reality and the regulation of individual behavior and activity.

Reflection expresses the ability of material objects in the process of interaction to reproduce in their changes the features and traits of the objects influencing them. The form of reflection depends on the form of existence of matter. In nature, three main forms of reflection can be distinguished. The lowest level of life organization corresponds to physical form reflection, characteristic of the interaction of inanimate objects. A higher level corresponds to the physiological form of reflection. The next level takes the form of the most complex and developed mental reflection with the highest level of reflection specific to the human psyche - consciousness. Consciousness integrates the diverse phenomena of human reality into a truly holistic way of being and makes a person a Human.

The consciousness of a person’s mental life lies in his ability to separate himself, his own “I” from his life environment in his representation, to make his own inner world, subjectivity is the subject of comprehension, understanding, and most importantly – the subject of practical transformation. This ability of the human psyche is called self-awareness, and it is it that defines the boundary separating the animal and human ways being.

Mental reflection is not mirror-like or passive - it is an active process associated with the search and choice of methods of action that are adequate to the prevailing conditions. A feature of mental reflection is subjectivity, i.e. mediation of a person’s past experience and his individuality. This is expressed, first of all, in the fact that we see one world, but it appears differently for each of us. At the same time, mental reflection makes it possible to build an “internal picture of the world” that is adequate to objective reality, in connection with which it is necessary to note such a property as objectivity. Only through correct reflection is it possible for a person to understand the world around him. The criterion of correctness is practical activity in which mental reflection is constantly deepened, improved and developed. An important feature of mental reflection is, finally, its anticipatory nature: it makes possible anticipation in human activity and behavior, which allows decisions to be made with a certain time-spatial advance regarding the future.

Thanks to the regulation of behavior and activity, a person not only adequately reflects the surrounding objective world, but has the opportunity to transform this world in the process of purposeful activity. The adequacy of human movements and actions to the conditions, tools and subject of activity is possible only if they are correctly reflected by the subject. The idea of ​​the regulating role of mental reflection was formulated by I.M. Sechenov, who noted that sensations and perceptions are not only triggering signals, but also original “patterns” in accordance with which movements are regulated. The psyche represents complex system, its elements are hierarchically organized and changeable. Like any system, the psyche is characterized by its own structure, dynamics of functioning, and a certain organization.

4.2.Structure of the psyche. Mental processes, mental states and mental properties.

Many researchers focus on the systematicity, integrity and indivisibility of the psyche as its fundamental property. The whole variety of mental phenomena in psychology is usually divided into mental processes, mental states and mental properties. These forms are closely related to each other. Their selection is determined by the methodological need to systematize the study of such a complex object as human mental life. Thus, the identified categories represent the structure of knowledge about the psyche rather than the structure of the psyche itself.

The concept of “mental process” emphasizes the procedural (dynamic) nature of the phenomenon being studied. The main mental processes include cognitive, motivational and emotional.

Cognitive processes provide reflection of the world and transformation of information. Sensation and perception make it possible to reflect reality through the direct influence of signals on the senses and represent the level of sensory knowledge of the surrounding world. Sensation is associated with the reflection of individual properties of the objective world; as a result of perception, a holistic image of the surrounding world is formed in all its completeness and diversity. Images of perception are often called primary images. The result of imprinting, reproducing or transforming primary images are secondary images, which are a product of rational knowledge of the objective world, which is provided by such mental processes as memory, imagination, and thinking. The most indirect and generalized process of cognition is thinking, as a result of which a person receives subjectively new knowledge that cannot be deduced from direct experience.

The processes of motivation and will provide mental regulation of human activity, inducing, directing and controlling this activity. The main component of the motivational process is the emergence of a need, subjectively experienced as a state of need for something, desire, passion, aspiration. The search for an object that satisfies a need leads to the actualization of a motive, which is an image of an object that satisfies a need, based on the past experience of the subject. Based on the motive, goal setting and decision making occur.

Emotional processes reflect a person’s bias and subjective assessment of the world around him, himself and the results of his activities. They manifest themselves in the form of subjective experiences and are always directly related to motivation.

Mental states characterize the static moment of the individual psyche, emphasizing the relative constancy of a mental phenomenon over time. In terms of their level of dynamism, they occupy an intermediate position between processes and properties. Like mental processes, mental states can be divided into cognitive (doubt, etc.), motivational-volitional (confidence, etc.) and emotional (happiness, etc.). Besides, in separate category identify functional states of a person that characterize readiness for effective implementation activities. Functional states can be optimal and suboptimal, acute and chronic, comfortable and uncomfortable. These include various states of performance, fatigue, monotony, psychological stress, extreme conditions.

Mental properties are the most stable mental phenomena, fixed in the structure of the personality and determining the permanent ways of interaction of a person with the world. The main groups of mental properties of a person include temperament, character and abilities. Mental properties are relatively unchanged over time, although they can change during life under the influence of environmental and biological factors, experience. Temperament is the most general dynamic characteristic of an individual, which manifests itself in the sphere of a person’s general activity and his emotionality. Character traits determine what is typical for this person way of behavior in life situations, a system of relationships towards yourself and the people around you. Abilities are the individual psychological characteristics of an individual that determine the successful performance of an activity, develop and manifest themselves in activity. Mental processes, states and properties represent an inextricable indivisible unity, forming the integrity of a person’s mental life. The category that integrates all mental manifestations and facts into a complex but unified system is “personality”.

4.3. Consciousness as the highest form of mental reflection. States of consciousness.

The fundamental characteristic of human existence is its awareness. Consciousness is an integral attribute of human existence. The problem of the content, mechanisms and structure of human consciousness remains one of the fundamentally important and most complex to this day. This is due, in particular, to the fact that consciousness is the object of study of many sciences, and the range of such sciences is increasingly expanding. The study of consciousness is carried out by philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, teachers, physiologists and other representatives of the natural and human sciences, each of which studies certain phenomena of consciousness. These phenomena are quite far from each other and do not correlate with consciousness as a whole.

In philosophy, the problem of consciousness is illuminated in connection with the relationship between the ideal and the material (consciousness and being), from the point of view of origin (a property of highly organized matter), from the position of reflection (reflection of the objective world). In a narrower sense, consciousness is understood as a human reflection of existence, embodied in socially expressed forms of the ideal. The emergence of consciousness is associated in philosophical science with the emergence of labor and the impact on nature in the course of collective labor activity, which gave rise to an awareness of the properties and natural connections of phenomena, which was consolidated in the language formed in the process of communication. In work and real communication, we also see the basis for the emergence of self-awareness - awareness of one’s own relationship to the surrounding natural and social environment, understanding one’s place in the system of social relations. The specificity of human reflection of existence is determined, first of all, by the fact that consciousness not only reflects the objective world, but also creates it.

In psychology, consciousness is considered as the highest form of reflection of reality, purposefully regulating human activity and associated with speech. The developed consciousness of an individual is characterized by a complex, multidimensional psychological structure. A.N. Leontiev identified three main components in the structure of human consciousness: the sensory fabric of the image, meaning and personal meaning.

The sensory fabric of the image is the sensory composition of specific images of reality, actually perceived or emerging in memory, related to the future or only imaginary. These images differ in their modality, sensory tone, degree of clarity, stability, etc. The special function of sensory images of consciousness is that they give reality to the conscious picture of the world that is revealed to the subject; in other words, the world appears for the subject as existing not in consciousness, but outside his consciousness - as an objective “field” and an object of activity. Sensory images represent a universal form of mental reflection generated by the objective activity of the subject.

Meanings are the most important components of human consciousness. The carrier of meanings is a socially developed language, which acts as an ideal form of existence of the objective world, its properties, connections and relationships. The child learns meanings in childhood through joint activities with adults. Socially developed meanings become the property of individual consciousness and allow a person to build his own experience on its basis.

Personal meaning creates partiality in human consciousness. He points out that individual consciousness is not reducible to impersonal knowledge. Meaning is the functioning of meanings in the processes of activity and consciousness of specific people. Meaning connects meanings with the reality of a person’s life, with his motives and values.

The sensory fabric of the image, meaning and meaning are in close cooperation, mutually enriching each other, form a single fabric of individual consciousness. Another aspect psychological analysis categories of consciousness in psychology are close to how consciousness is understood in the natural sciences: physiology, psychophysiology, medicine. This way of studying consciousness is represented by studies of states of consciousness and their changes. States of consciousness are considered as a certain level of activation, against the background of which the process of mental reflection of the surrounding world and activity occurs. Traditionally, Western psychology distinguishes two states of consciousness: sleep and wakefulness.

The basic laws of human mental activity include the cyclic alternation of sleep and wakefulness. The need for sleep depends on age. The total sleep duration of a newborn is 20-23 hours per day, from six months to one year - about 18 hours, from two to four years old - about 16 hours, from four to eight years old - about 12 hours. On average human body functions as follows: 16 hours - wakefulness, 8 hours - sleep. However, experimental studies of the rhythms of human life have shown that such a relationship between the states of sleep and wakefulness is not obligatory and universal. In the USA, experiments were carried out to change the rhythm: the 24-hour cycle was replaced by a cycle of 21, 28 and 48 hours. The subjects lived on a 48-hour cycle during long stays in the cave. For every 36 hours of wakefulness, they had 12 hours of sleep, which means that in every ordinary, “earthly” day, they saved two hours of wakefulness. Many of them fully adapted to the new rhythm and remained operational.

A person deprived of sleep dies within two weeks. As a result of a 60-80-hour lack of sleep, a person experiences a decrease in the speed of mental reactions, mood deteriorates, disorientation in the environment occurs, performance sharply decreases, the ability to concentrate is lost, various motor impairments may occur, hallucinations are possible, and sometimes memory loss and slurred speech. Previously, it was believed that sleep was simply complete rest for the body, allowing it to regain strength. Modern ideas about the functions of sleep prove that it is not simple recovery period, and most importantly, this is not a homogeneous state at all. A new understanding of sleep became possible with the beginning of the use of psychophysiological methods of analysis: recording of bioelectrical activity of the brain (EEG), recording muscle tone and eye movements. It was found that sleep consists of five phases, alternating every hour and a half, and includes two qualitatively various states- slow and rapid sleep, which differ from each other in the types of electrical activity of the brain, vegetative indicators, muscle tone, eye movements.

NREM sleep has four stages:

drowsiness - at this stage the main bioelectrical rhythm of wakefulness disappears - alpha rhythms, they are replaced by low-amplitude oscillations; dream-like hallucinations may occur;

superficial sleep - sleep spindles appear (spindle rhythm - 14-18 vibrations per second); when the first spindles appear, consciousness turns off;

and 4. delta sleep - high-amplitude, slow EEG oscillations appear. Delta sleep is divided into two stages: at the 3rd stage, waves occupy 30-40% of the entire EEG, at the 4th stage - more than 50%. This deep dream: muscle tone reduced, eye movements are absent, breathing rhythm and pulse become less frequent, temperature drops. It is very difficult to awaken a person from delta sleep. As a rule, a person awakened in these phases of sleep does not remember dreams, is poorly oriented in his surroundings, and incorrectly estimates time intervals (reduces the time spent in sleep). Delta sleep, the period of greatest disconnection from the outside world, predominates in the first half of the night.

REM sleep is characterized by EEG rhythms similar to those of wakefulness. Cerebral blood flow increases with strong muscle relaxation with sharp twitching in the separate groups muscles. This combination of EEG activity and complete muscle relaxation explains the second name for this stage of sleep - paradoxical sleep. There are sharp changes in heart rate and breathing (series of frequent inhalations and exhalations alternate with pauses), episodic rise and fall in blood pressure. Rapid eye movements are observed with closed eyelids. It is the stage REM sleep is accompanied by dreams, and if a person is woken up during this period, he will quite coherently tell what he dreamed.

Dreams as a psychological reality were introduced into psychology by 3. Freud. He viewed dreams as vivid expressions of the unconscious. In the understanding of modern scientists, in a dream, the processing of information received during the day continues. Moreover, the central place in the structure of dreams is played by subliminal information, to which due attention was not paid during the day, or information that did not become the property of conscious processing. Thus, sleep expands the capabilities of consciousness, organizes its content, and provides the necessary psychological protection.

The state of wakefulness is also heterogeneous: during the day, the level of activation constantly changes depending on the influence of external and internal factors. We can distinguish tense wakefulness, the moments of which correspond to periods of the most intense mental and physical activity, normal wakefulness and relaxed wakefulness. Tense and normal wakefulness are called extroverted states of consciousness, since it is in these states that a person is capable of full and effective interaction with the outside world and other people. The effectiveness of the activities performed and the productivity of solving life problems in to a large extent determined by the level of wakefulness and activation. Behavior is more effective the closer the level of wakefulness is to a certain optimum: it should not be too low and not too high. At low levels a person’s readiness for activity is low and he may soon fall asleep; with high activation, the person is excited and tense, which can lead to disorganization of activity.

In addition to sleep and wakefulness, psychology distinguishes a number of states called altered states of consciousness. These include, for example, meditation and hypnosis. Meditation is a special state of consciousness, changed at the request of the subject. The practice of inducing one into such a state has been known in the East for many centuries. All types of meditation are based on focusing attention in order to limit the field of extroverted consciousness and force the brain to respond rhythmically to the stimulus on which the subject is focused. After a meditation session, a feeling of relaxation, a decrease in physical and mental stress and fatigue, mental activity and general vitality increase.

Hypnosis is a special state of consciousness that occurs under the influence of suggestion, including self-hypnosis. Hypnosis has something in common with meditation and sleep: like them, hypnosis is achieved by reducing the flow of signals to the brain. However, these states should not be identified. Essential components of hypnosis are suggestion and suggestibility. A report is established between the hypnotized and the hypnotizing person - the only connection with the outside world that a person retains in a state of hypnotic trance.

Since ancient times, people have used special substances to change the state of their consciousness. Substances that affect behavior, consciousness and mood are called psychoactive, or psychotropic. One of the classes of such substances includes drugs that bring a person into a state of “weightlessness”, euphoria and create a feeling of being outside of time and space. Most narcotic drugs are produced from plants, primarily the poppy, from which opium is obtained. Actually, drugs in the narrow sense are precisely opiates - derivatives of opium: morphine, heroin, etc. A person quickly gets used to drugs, he develops physical and mental dependence.

Other class psychotropic substances are stimulants and aphrodisiacs. Minor stimulants include tea, coffee and nicotine - many people use them to perk themselves up. Amphetamines are more powerful stimulants - they produce a surge of strength, including creative energy, excitement, euphoria, self-confidence, and a feeling of limitless possibilities. The aftereffects of using these substances may include the appearance of psychotic symptoms of hallucinations, paranoia, and loss of strength. Neurodepressants, barbiturates and tranquilizers, reduce anxiety, calm, reduce emotional stress, some act as sleeping pills. Hallucinogens and psychedelics (LSD, marijuana, hashish) distort the perception of time and space, cause hallucinations, euphoria, change thinking, and expand consciousness.

4.4. Consciousness and the unconscious.

An important step in studying the conscious reflection of the surrounding reality is to determine the range of phenomena that are commonly called unconscious, or unconscious. Yu.B. Gippenreiter proposed dividing all unconscious mental phenomena into three large classes:

unconscious mechanisms of conscious actions;

unconscious motivators of conscious actions;

supraconscious processes.

Among the unconscious mechanisms of conscious actions are:

unconscious automatisms are actions or acts that are performed as if “by themselves,” without the participation of consciousness. Some of these processes were never realized, while others passed through consciousness and ceased to be realized. The first ones are called primary automatisms, or automatic actions. They are either congenital or formed very early - during the first year of life: sucking movements, blinking, grasping, walking, eye convergence. The latter are known as secondary automatisms, or automated actions, skills. Thanks to the formation of a skill, the action begins to be carried out quickly and accurately, and due to automation, consciousness is freed from the need to constantly monitor the execution of the action;

unconscious attitudes - the readiness of an organism or subject to perform a certain action or to react in a certain direction; there are extremely many facts demonstrating the readiness or preliminary adjustment of the organism for action, and they relate to different areas. Examples of unconscious attitudes include muscular pre-setting for the implementation of a physical action - a motor attitude, readiness to perceive and interpret material, an object, a phenomenon in a certain way - a perceptual attitude, readiness to solve problems and tasks in a certain way - a mental attitude, etc. Attitudes have a very important functional significance: a subject prepared for action is able to carry it out more efficiently and economically;

unconscious accompaniments of conscious actions. Not all unconscious components carry the same functional load. Some implement conscious actions, others prepare actions. Finally, there are unconscious processes that simply accompany actions. This group includes involuntary movements, tonic tension, facial expressions and pantomime, as well as wide range vegetative reactions accompanying human actions and conditions. For example, a child sticks out his tongue when writing; a person watching someone in pain has a sad expression on their face and does not notice it. These unconscious phenomena play important role in communication processes, representing a necessary component of human communication (facial expressions, gestures, pantomime). They are also objective indicators of various psychological characteristics and human states - his intentions, relationships, hidden desires and thoughts.

The study of unconscious motivators of conscious actions is associated with the name of Freud. Freud's interest in unconscious processes arose at the very beginning of his medical career. The scientist's attention was attracted by the phenomena of post-hypnotic suggestion. Based on the analysis of such facts, he created his theory of the unconscious. According to Freud, there are three spheres in the psyche: preconscious, conscious, unconscious. Preconsciousness is hidden, latent knowledge that a person has, but is not present in his consciousness at the moment; if necessary, they easily move into consciousness. The contents of the unconscious, on the contrary, hardly become conscious. At the same time, it has a strong energy charge and, penetrating into consciousness in an altered form - as dreams, erroneous actions or neurotic symptoms, - exerts on him big influence. Freud believed that the true reasons for human behavior are not realized by him - they are hidden and closely related to suppressed drives, primarily sexual. Awareness of the true causes of behavior, the scientist believed, is possible only in interaction with a psychoanalyst in a specially organized therapeutic process. The study of unconscious motivators of conscious actions is associated with the name of Freud. Freud's interest in unconscious processes arose at the very beginning of his medical career. The scientist's attention was attracted by the phenomena of post-hypnotic suggestion. Based on the analysis of such facts, he created his theory of the unconscious. According to Freud, there are three spheres in the psyche: preconscious, conscious, unconscious. Preconsciousness is hidden, latent knowledge that a person has, but is not present in his consciousness at the moment; if necessary, they easily move into consciousness. The contents of the unconscious, on the contrary, hardly become conscious. At the same time, it has a strong energetic charge and, penetrating into consciousness in an altered form - as dreams, erroneous actions or neurotic symptoms - has a great influence on it. Freud believed that the true reasons for human behavior are not realized by him - they are hidden and closely related to suppressed drives, primarily sexual. Awareness of the true causes of behavior, the scientist believed, is possible only in interaction with a psychoanalyst in a specially organized therapeutic psychoanalysis.

The outstanding Russian psychologist A.N. Leontiev also argued that most of the motives of human activity are not realized. But, in his opinion, motives can manifest themselves in the emotional coloring of certain objects or phenomena, in the form of a reflection of their personal meaning. A person is able to understand the motives of his behavior without resorting to the help of a psychologist. However, this presents a special challenge. Often, awareness of a motive is replaced by motivation - a rational justification for an action that does not reflect a person’s actual motives.

Subconscious processes are the processes of formation of a certain integral product of large unconscious work, which then “invades” a person’s conscious life. For example, a person is busy solving some complex problem that he thinks about every day for a long time. Reflecting on a problem, he goes through and analyzes various impressions and events, makes assumptions, tests them, argues with himself. And suddenly everything becomes clear: sometimes it arises unexpectedly, by itself, sometimes after an insignificant event, which turns out to be the last straw that overflows the cup. What has entered into his consciousness is in reality an integral product of a previous process. However, a person has no idea about the course of the latter. “Supraconscious” are processes occurring above consciousness in the sense that their content and time scale are larger than anything that consciousness can accommodate. Passing through consciousness in their individual sections, they as a whole are beyond its boundaries.

The identified classes of unconscious mental phenomena expand our understanding of the psyche, not limiting it only to the facts of conscious reflection of reality. It should be especially emphasized that the conscious and unconscious are not opposites, but private manifestations of the psyche.

Self-test questions.

1. What is the psyche and what are its main functions?
2. What are the main levels of mental reflection?
3. What is consciousness?
4. What are states of consciousness? What states of consciousness do you know?
5. What are unconscious mental phenomena? What classes of unconscious mental phenomena are identified by Yu.B. Gippenreiter?

Literature.

1. Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology: A course of lectures. M., 1988. Bream. 5 and 6.
2. Psychology: Textbook / Ed. V.N. Druzhinina. St. Petersburg, 2003. Ch. 5.
3. Leontyev A.N. Activity. Consciousness. Personality. M., 1975.
4. Slobodchikov V.I., Isaev E.I. Human psychology. M., 1995.

FEATURES OF MENTAL REFLECTION

Parameter name	Meaning
Article topic:	FEATURES OF MENTAL REFLECTION
Rubric (thematic category)	Psychology

Etymologically the word ʼʼpsycheʼʼ (Greek soul) has a dual meaning. One meaning carries the semantic load of the essence of a thing. The psyche is the essence where the externality and diversity of nature gathers into its unity, it is a virtual compression drive, it is a reflection of the objective world in connections and relationships.

Mental reflection is not a mirror, mechanically passive copying of the world (like a mirror or a camera), it is associated with a search, choice, in mental reflection incoming information is subjected to specific processing, i.e. mental reflection is an active reflection of the world in connection with some necessarily, with needs, this is a subjective selective reflection of the objective world, since it always belongs to the subject, does not exist outside the subject, depends on subjective characteristics. The psyche is a subjective image of the objective world. The psyche cannot be reduced simply to nervous system. Mental properties are the result of the neurophysiological activity of the brain, but they contain the characteristics of external objects, and not the internal physiological processes through which the mental arises. Signal transformations taking place in the brain are perceived by a person as events taking place outside him, in external space and the world. The brain secretes psyche, thought, just as the liver secretes bile. The disadvantage of this theory is that they identify the psyche with nervous processes and do not see the qualitative differences between them. Mental phenomena are correlated not with a separate neurophysiological process, but with organized sets of such processes, i.e. the psyche is a systemic quality of the brain, realized through multi-level functional systems brain, which are formed in a person in the process of life and his mastery of historically established forms of activity and experience of mankind through his own active activity. Specifically human qualities (consciousness, speech, work, etc.), the human psyche are formed in a person only during his lifetime, in the process of assimilating the culture created by previous generations. The human psyche includes at least three components: the external world, nature, its reflection - full-fledged brain activity - interaction with people, active transmission of human culture and human abilities to new generations.

Mental reflection is characterized by a number of features˸

1) it makes it possible to correctly reflect the surrounding reality, and the correctness of the reflection is confirmed by practice; 2) the mental image itself is formed in the process of active human activity; 3) mental reflection deepens and improves; 4) ensures the appropriateness of behavior and activity;

5) refracted through a person’s individuality;

6) is of a proactive nature.

- Fundamentals of mental function. Features of mental reflection

Etymologically, the word “psyche” (Greek soul) has a dual meaning. One meaning carries the semantic load of the essence of a thing. The psyche is an entity where the externality and diversity of nature gathers into its unity, it is a virtual compression of nature...

- Psyche and consciousness. Features of mental reflection and forms of behavior at different stages of mental development in phylogenesis.

Psyche is a sacred property of highly organized living matter, which consists in the subject’s active reflection of the objective world and the construction of a picture of this world inseparable from it, and the subsequent regulation of one’s behavior on the basis of this picture (A.N. Leontyev). Psyche is the highest form...

Numerous theoretical and experimental studies of cognitive processes make it possible to distinguish three main levels of mental reflection: sensory-perceptual, representational, verbal-logical.

Sensory-perceptual level. In the system of figurative reflection, this level is basic. Formed at the very initial stages of an individual’s mental development, it does not lose its significance throughout his entire life. Of course, during the transition from one age level to another, it changes, enriches and transforms.

Sensation and perception as the initial forms of figurative reflection arise from the direct impact of objects and phenomena of objective reality on the senses. It is in these forms, as V.I. Lenin noted, that the energy of external stimulation is transformed into a fact of consciousness. The main characteristic of sensory-perceptual reflection is that it occurs under conditions of direct influence of objects and their properties on the human senses and unfolds in real time. A person perceives an object in the place in which it is located and at the moment when it acts on the senses. The emerging sensory-perceptual image appears as “imposed on our mind from the outside” (Sechenov). This reveals the “immediacy of reality” of sensory reflection, on which trust in the testimony of the senses is based.

In the process of evolution, humans have developed an extensive system of specialized apparatus (sense organs), each of which provides reflection of certain properties of surrounding objects (sensations of different modalities): visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, kinesthetic, etc. The sensory-perceptual sphere is truly a rich collection of diverse sensations. However, they do not appear as some motley mosaic of unrelated elementary images.

In the process of individual development, a person develops a certain sensory-perceptual organization (according to Ananyev), uniting the totality of sense organs into an integral system. This complex system includes a variety of constant and variable connections between sensory modalities. On their basis, unique functional organs are formed (according to Ukhtomsky), providing various types of sensory-perceptual orientation of a person in the environment.

Among the most important is the system of connections between different sense organs that provides spatial orientation. The leading role in it belongs to the visual analyzer, the labyrinthine apparatus of the statokinesthetic analyzer and kinesthesia, but also includes other analyzers.

The basis for the perception of space can be considered a person’s orientation relative to the vertical direction, which coincides with the action of gravity. The direction of gravity is the main axis of the reference system, relative to which all the characteristics of the surrounding space are assessed in one way or another.

Since, under normal conditions of human movement along the surface of the earth, gravity is constant in strength and direction, the entire system of analyzers adapts to this constant; Thanks to the connections of the analyzers with those that provide reflection of gravity, they are all “grounded”. Quite rigid unambiguous connections are formed - stereotypes, thanks to which, under normal conditions, orientation in space does not require special purposeful, consciously controlled actions; it is carried out at an unconscious level, automatically. However, in cases where discrepancies regarding the existing stereotype arise between signals from different analyzers (sensations of different modalities), this inevitably leads to a distortion of the spatial image. The consequence of such a mismatch is, for example, the illusions of roll, counter-rotation, pitching, diving, attitude, and level flight, which are well known in flight practice and described in detail. All these and other similar illusions arise naturally under certain conditions: as a consequence of the discrepancy between the established stereotype of spatial orientation and current afferentation. To overcome them, special purposeful activity, conscious control of emerging images, and the formation of a new functional organ (stereotype) in the process of learning and training are required.

It is important to note that a new stereotype does not necessarily require breaking the old one. They may well coexist and usually coexist: in some conditions one stereotype “works”, in others - another.

The second level of reflection is level of representations. Representation as sensation and perception is a phenomenon of figurative reflection. But if the sensation and perception of an object or its properties arise only through its direct influence on the sense organ, then the idea arises without such direct influence. In this sense, it is a secondary image of the object.

The level of ideas includes a wide range of mental processes, the most important among which are figurative memory and imagination. Figurative memory is the fixation and subsequent reproduction of images that arise during perception; imagination is a creative process, the creation of new images through transformations and combinations of those that are preserved in memory. In terms of its content, the image-representation, just like the sensory-perceptual image, is objective. But in contrast to sensation and perception, which are “imposed on our mind from the outside” and, due to this, are presented to consciousness as rigidly and unambiguously related to objective reality, the image-representation has, as it were, an independent existence as a phenomenon of “purely” mental activity. It has significantly less clarity and brightness than the sensory-perceptual image, less stability and completeness.

But at the same time, the formation of an idea is a new step in the progressive line of development of cognitive processes. Elementary generalizations and abstractions appear here. Based on repeated perception of objects of the same category, their features are selected: random features are eliminated, and only characteristic and therefore most informative ones are recorded. At the level of ideas, the object is isolated from the background, and in this regard, it becomes possible to mentally operate with the object regardless of the background.

During the transition from sensation and perception to representation, the structure of the image of an object changes: some of its features are, as it were, emphasized, intensified, others are reduced. In other words, schematization of the object image occurs.

An essential feature of the representation is its panoramic nature, which gives the subject the opportunity to, as it were, go beyond the limits of the present (current) situation.

During the transition from perception to representation, a transformation of the successive perceptual process into a simultaneous image occurs. What a person perceived sequentially is transformed into a simultaneous holistic mental picture. In particular, as shown by N.F. Shemyakin, when forming topographical representations, the “path map” is transformed into a “survey map”.

In the process of mental development, a person also masters special ways of mentally operating with ideas: mental dissection of objects and combining them (and their details) into one whole, combinations and recombinations, large-scale transformations, mental rotation, etc.

The level of ideas is crucial in the formation of standard images of “cognitive maps”, conceptual models, visual diagrams, plans and other “cognitive formations” necessary for performing any activity.

The third level of cognitive processes is verbal-logical thinking, speech and thought process.

Unlike the first two, which relate to figurative reflection and sensory cognition, this level is the level of conceptual reflection and rational cognition. When solving a particular problem at this level, the subject operates with concepts and logical techniques that have developed in the historical development of mankind, in which socio-historical practice is recorded. At the level of conceptual thinking, the limited framework of individual experience seems to be broken, or more precisely: the individual experience includes a huge store of knowledge developed by humanity. Thanks to this, the individual is, as it were, freed from “slavish subordination to the original “here” and “now”” (J. Piaget). The subject area of ​​individual cognition at this level approaches that which is revealed by socio-historical practice, i.e. becomes almost limitless. In the process of conceptual thinking, a person operates with abstractions and generalizations recorded in signs and sign systems. The most developed and universal sign system is language. But in the process of conceptual thinking, other historically established sign systems are also used: mathematical, graphic and other signs, as well as the rules for their use.

In a certain respect, the figurative and conceptual forms of mental reflection of reality are opposite. They are usually opposed as the sensory and the rational in cognition, but in the real cognitive process they are organically interconnected: they constantly transform into one another.

The image that regulates the conscious, purposeful activity of a person includes, in one way or another, all three levels of mental reflection. In order for a person to form an image that would provide him with the opportunity to act effectively in various situations, to find an adequate solution in each specific case, it is not enough only sensory data, i.e. sensory-perceptual information. It is necessary to reveal the meaning of this data, to identify the essential, general, and natural. In other words, from the point of view of the requirements of activity, an image becomes only when its “sensory tissue” (A.N. Leontyev’s term) is organically united with meaning, i.e. when the sensual and rational form a single alloy. An image that reflects only what directly affects the senses at the moment could not provide purposeful action; in this case environment would completely control the behavior of the subject (such a case can only be imagined theoretically).

But an image that has an impoverished sensory basis also cannot provide effective regulation of actions, especially in difficult conditions.

This means that when teaching a person any type of activity, a certain degree of combination of methods that form the sensory and logical components of the image, its “sensory fabric” and its “semantics” is necessary.

The effectiveness of the image - in terms of its regulatory function in relation to the activity of the subject - is significantly determined by the extent to which it provides anticipation, i.e. advanced reflection (according to P.K. Anokhin).

Anticipatory processes are characteristic of all of the above levels of reflection. However, the range of anticipation at different levels is significantly different. At the sensory-perceptual level, it is limited by the framework of the actual current action. At the level of ideas, the possibility of anticipation also arises in relation to potential actions. At the level of verbal-logical thinking, anticipation reaches its most complete manifestation; its range is practically unlimited. Anticipation at this level ensures planning of activities as a whole. At the same time, in a verbal-logical sense, a person can quite easily and freely move from the present to the future and past, from the initial moment of activity to the final and from the final to the initial, etc.

Thanks to the multi-level nature of the image, the object (object) reflected in it is presented to a person in the diversity of its properties and relationships. This, in turn, provides the opportunity in the course of activity to use one thing, then another, then a third, etc. property of an object or its relationship to other objects; the possibility of such transitions is the most important condition for creative solutions.

At each moment of activity, a person is aware of only a small part of the objective content that is presented in the image. When moving from one action to another (and even from one element to another within an action), the conscious part of the content also changes. A complete image from the point of view of regulation of activity is like an iceberg - at any moment only a small part of it is visible on the surface.

A.A. Oboznov identifies two levels of mental image content that regulates objective action:

1) actually significant and

2) potentially significant.

They have different degrees of awareness, and they play different roles in regulating specific actions. This study also showed that the method of performing an action and its meaning depend only on the actually significant content. The most fully realized, of course, is the actual part of the objective content of the image.

The problem of the conscious and unconscious in mental reflection is one of the most complex and, unfortunately, poorly developed. Without going into an analysis of the state of this problem and approaches to solving it, we will only note that the leading role in the formation of conscious reflection belongs to verbal-logical processes: first of all, what is included in their sphere is realized. In the course of real activity, depending on specific conditions, the relationships between different levels of reflection change, and the degree of awareness of the different components of the objective content of the image changes accordingly.

It was noted above that in the process of development in a person, certain functional organs are formed that unite different analyzers into a single system: these systems consist of rigid, unambiguous connections - stereotypes. The components of the image, which are formed according to the laws of the operation of stereotypical links, are usually not realized. However, they can become conscious with a special focus of cognitive activity, as well as with unusual (perverted from the point of view of conformity to a stereotype) afferentation created experimentally or arising in some specific conditions of activity.

It is this last circumstance that prompted us to pay special attention to the problem of the multi-level structure of the image. The fact is that in his practical activities, a human operator is sometimes forced to work in conditions of distortion of reception external influences, or rather, its inconsistency with established stereotypes. In particular, such conditions are common for a pilot: optical distortions (unusual angle of vision of objects located on the ground, great distance from visible landmarks, reduced visibility in fog, at dusk, etc.), as well as the influence of the “non-gravitational vertical”; under these conditions, preserving the objective content of the image constitutes a special task for a person.

A practically important question is how a person can solve this problem, in particular, whether he can ensure the preservation of the content of the image with the help of conscious control of sensory-perceptual processes and volitional effort.

Another, no less important circumstance is that the human operator often does not have the ability to perceive the real object that he controls. Information about an object is transmitted using instrumental signals in the form of an information model. The image of this model that appears during its perception does not, of course, coincide with the image of the real object. In this case, contradictions may arise between the idea and concept, on the one hand, and the sensory-perceptual image, on the other. A special state arises in a human operator: alienation from the object of control, the sense of reality of the physical object that he controls is lost. The control process itself is perceived by him as the “nullification” of abstract signals. A person does not control a machine (airplane), but only “moves the needles”, without imagining what real evolutions the airplane makes, what processes occur in the machine. This occurs due to the fact that the operator’s perception is not presented to a real object in all the diversity of its sensory properties, but to an abstract model of the object, embodied in a generalized but sensory-impoverished form. Alienation from the control object, loss of spontaneity in the perception and assessment of its real properties can lead to a decrease in the personal significance of the actions performed and, hence, to a dulling of responsibility, interest, etc., and ultimately to a decrease in reliability.

One of the ways to eliminate the negative impact of alienation is to form in the operator such a bright, clear and differentiated image - a representation that would allow him to mentally see real changes in the controlled object behind the instrument readings.

In conditions of alienation, violations of habitual, stereotypical connections between different sensory modalities are especially dangerous.

It was already noted above that the stereotypical sensory-perceptual components of the image, as a rule, are not realized. However, they immediately become the subject of consciousness as soon as a violation or distortion of the reception of external influences occurs. At the same time, a person is able to differentiate a real object reflected in concepts and a specific state of the sensory-perceptual sphere. The influence on human behavior of the discrepancy between these components of the image was studied in special psychological experiments. The possibility of adaptation to the distortion of visual signals (pseudoscopic perception and inversion of the retinal display) was identified and it was shown that adaptation consists in restoring the objective content of the visual image against the background of an altered “sensory tissue”, and it occurs in the form of the acquisition of certain new perceptual neoplasms, but not instead old ones, and along with them.

Identification of mechanisms for regulating human actions in conditions of changes in afferentation is of fundamental importance, for example, for designing the activities of a pilot whose spatial position image structure is

aircraft, sensory-perceptual components that are unusual from the point of view of terrestrial conditions are included, which provokes the formation of an inadequate, false image of space, the emergence of illusions of spatial position. In this case, disintegration of the levels of mental reflection occurs. To overcome such disintegration, i.e. To bring the sensory-perceptual, “representational” and conceptual components of the image into correspondence again requires special conscious efforts. At the same time, it is important that the resulting discrepancy between the levels of reflection and the corresponding components of the image becomes the subject of special subjective analysis. As is known, the sensory-perceptual components of an image are extremely dynamic. They change with changes in illumination (if we are talking about a visual image), viewing angle, state of the senses, etc. At the same time, the meaning that fixes the objective content of the image remains unchanged. This creates the opportunity to preserve an adequate image when its sensory-perceptual components are distorted. Under certain conditions, the verbal-logical level of reflection can perform an organizing and regulatory function in constructing an image and stabilizing it. In the process of training operators who are forced to work in conditions that cause unusual sensory-perceptual effects, it is advisable to teach them methods of self-observation, to form a subjective attitude toward awareness of the unusualness of the “sensory fabric” of the image in order to reduce the likelihood of a false image.

But introspection is only a special case and a specific variant of a more general form cognitive activity of the subject: purposeful cognition of reality. Its effectiveness in terms of stabilizing the image significantly depends on how and to what extent the knowledge obtained during self-observation correlates with knowledge about the object itself reflected in this image (in the case under consideration - unusual sensory-perceptual effects with the representation of real changes in the controlled object).

In this regard, we emphasize that in any activity a significant role belongs to the processes of cognition. The more fully the subject of activity is known, the greater the possibilities a person has in relation to the choice of means and methods of action with it. In any specific action, knowledge about its subject is partially realized; the action itself reveals this subject only partially. Therefore, improvement of activity must necessarily include cognitive activity. "In addition to the direct functioning of a thing, in objective action essential has a conscious attitude towards contemplation, which compensates for the limitations of the objective action in relation to perception,” wrote B. G. Ananyev, emphasizing not only the presence of a cognitive component of the objective action, but also the conscious orientation of the person performing this action towards it.

In the process of contemplation, or rather targeted observation, the image that regulates activity develops and becomes enriched. When forming such an image, information about the subject of the activity, the means, methods and conditions for its implementation is accumulated and, as it were, stored for future use. This information may not be used for a long time, but at some point (for example, in a difficult situation) it will be extremely necessary. One of the most important qualities of a master’s personality is professional observation, which allows him to constantly accumulate information about the subject of his activity for future use.

All of the above allows us to conclude that the image regulating activity has a complex structure. It is multidimensional and includes a number of levels. In the process of its formation, sensory data from different (almost all) modalities are synthesized in one way or another. However, the leading role among them usually belongs to the visual, since it is vision that provides a simultaneous spatial differentiated picture of the environment.

According to B.G. Ananyeva and S.L. Rubinstein, the figurative reflection of reality by man is predominantly visual in nature. The special role of the visual system in the processes of sensory reflection is determined by the fact that it acts as an integrator and converter of signals of all modalities. As Ananyev noted, “its versatility in integrating and re-integrating signals of any modality is amazing.” The visual image of a thing, as it were, absorbs, synthesizes, and organizes around itself the data of the other senses. This was confirmed experimentally by V.E. Bushurova.

The visual character of the image is great importance in the process of regulating the actions of a human operator: The success of decision-making largely depends on a person’s ability to “visualize a problem situation,” visually represent it and operate with visual images.

The methodological meaning of the work “image of the world” largely lies in the fact that it supplies the psychologist with knowledge of what he does not know.

In the system-activity approach to the study of mental processes, the transition from the analysis of individual sensory impressions, taken from the real process of life and representing artificial products of laboratory situations, to the development of ideas about the Image of the world that regulates the behavior of individuals in objective reality is increasingly clearly indicated. The orientation in various branches of cognitive psychology is shifting in the direction from the psychophysics of pure sensations - to the psychophysics of sensory tasks, from the world of images - to the image of the world. In Russian psychology, A.N. Leontiev’s work “The Image of the World” has acquired fundamental significance for changing the general strategy for studying cognitive processes. According to Leontyev, “... In psychology, the problem of perception should be posed as a problem of constructing a multidimensional image, an image of reality, in the mind of an individual... The psychology of the image... is concrete scientific knowledge about how, in the process of their activities, individuals build an image of the world - the world in which they live, act, which they themselves remake and partially create; this is knowledge about how the image of the world functions, mediating their activities in the objectively real world.”

The main provisions highlighted by Leontyev:

1. Activity, social nature of the image “in the process of their activity, individuals build an image of the world - the world in which they live, act, which they themselves remake and partially create”

2. The idea of ​​the subject’s activity when constructing an image of the world (closely related to the previous idea, since activity is considered by A.N. Leontiev as “a specific form of human activity”).

3. The mediation of the image of the world – by objective meanings. This provision is implemented through the introduction of the category “fifth quasi-dimension”, i.e. “filling the picture of the world with meanings.” The very fact of including meaning as the “fifth quasi-dimension” of the image of the world indicates the possibility of extending this concept to the field of knowledge. “The fifth quasi-dimension is a transition through sensuality beyond the boundaries of sensuality, through sensory modalities to the amodal world,” therefore, a transition from perception to cognition. The role of meaning is also emphasized in relation to the process of categorization, which is “the most in a general way working with social information” Meaning is an important, but not the only unit that characterizes the deep structures of the Image of the World. The point is that if at relatively early stages life path personality, the operational characteristics of an activity associated with meanings determine the construction of the Image of the World, in particular - the motives and goals of a specific activity determine what will be remembered, then subsequently the relationship between the personality and the activity changes; the personality itself, its motivational and semantic orientations for the future become the basis for the choice of motives and goals of specific activities in which the further construction of the Image of the World takes place.

4. Amodal character of the Image of the World (A.N. Leontyev). The image of the world is just as amodal, indecomposable into auditory, visual, tactile and other sensory modalities, like the objective world depicted in this image. Any existing stimulation fits into the amodal Image of the world as a whole and, only when included in the Image of the world, provides orientation for the subject’s behavior in objective reality. Asmolov is all about memory, and in his opinion, the contribution of memory to the Image of the World is primarily associated with orientation in time (physical, biological, social, psychological time).

Further study and development of the concept of “image of the world” in general psychology was mainly characterized by going beyond the limits of perception, emphasizing the social and activity nature of the image, as well as the inclusion of such spheres as emotions, motivations, etc. in the image of the world.

In the works S. D. Smirnova the image of the world is understood as “a certain set or ordered system of a person’s knowledge about the world, about himself, about other people, which mediates and refracts through itself any external influence” [Smirnov, 1985 p. 142]. Smirnov paid special attention to the differences between the “world of images”, the world of individual sensory impressions and the holistic image of the world in which we live and act (which determined the direct extension of this approach beyond the limits of perception).

Due to this division (the image of the world and the world of images), it identified two structures in the image of the world: superficial and nuclear.

1. Surface structure(ideas about the world) are processes of direct perception of objects in various modalities. This is what Leontiev called sensory tissue (or field of perception), which has the following functions at this level: 1) direct connection of a person with the outside world, giving reality to images; 2) Serves as the material in which the second formative of human consciousness is expressed - meaning “the sensory fabric of an image can be represented in consciousness in two ways: either as something in which objective content exists for the subject, or in itself” [Leontyev, 1975, p. 137].

V.V. Petukhov, when describing surface structures, makes some additions and claims that “the surface structures of the image of the world can be formed not only sensually, but also rationally” [Petukhov, 1984, p. 15]. These structures are associated with the knowledge of the world “as a special goal” (ibid., p. 15), with the construction of one or another idea about it (more or less deep). If we correlate this idea with the psychology of social cognition, in particular with the theory of S. Moscovici, then it is at the surface level that the image is constructed social world, as a set of social ideas.

2. Nuclear structure(representation of the world) is a reflection of the deeper, more essential characteristics of the world (meaning). This level (or levels) of symbolic sign representation of the world is formed in the individual psyche of the subject on the basis of assimilation of a system of socially developed meanings enshrined in language, cultural objects, norms and standards of activity. The system of these meanings forms the reflected space of human activities in real world, which are built according to the laws of this world, and are not arbitrarily constructed by the subject [Smirnov, 1985, p. 149]. Here it is appropriate to recall the statement of A. N. Leontyev that meaning appears “not as what lies in front of things, but as what lies behind the appearance of things - in the known objective connections of the objective world, in which they only exist, only reveal their properties" [Leontyev, 1983, p. 254]. Thus, at the nuclear level there is no direct construction of the social world, although this level undoubtedly influences how ideas are built at the surface level “the idea of ​​the world is the basis of human knowledge of the world (historical, cultural, etc.) in phylogenesis and ontogenesis” [Petukhov, 1984, p. 15]. This thesis is also confirmed by Smirnov, who says that “the unit of studying the image of the world is the unity of nuclear and surface structures in which it manifests itself and is psychologically consolidated” [Smirnov, 1985, p. 147].

Following A. N. Leontyev, S. D. Smirnov draws attention to the activity-based, social nature of the image of the world: “The primary formation of motive in goals and goals in the means of activity is impossible without orientation in terms of the image<…>Once started, the activity always has a reverse impact on the image of the world, enriching and modifying it. Therefore, in terms of the development of the image of the world, activity always acts as the primary and leading principle” (ibid., p. 146).

The role of the emotional sphere in building an image of the world is sufficient great attention pays attention in his concept to V.V. Petukhov, who argues that an individual’s discovery of ideas about the world for himself “occurs primarily in the form of experiences, a feeling of internal uncertainty, the self-evidence of something” [Petukhov, 1984, p. 16]. Emotional experiences accompany the presentation of an object to the subject’s consciousness, i.e. are a factor in constructing the image of the world. V.V. Petukhov also emphasizes the social content of the image of the world: “the image (or representation) of the world reflects that specific historical - ecological, social, cultural - background against which (or within which) all human mental activity unfolds."

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There are three functions of the psyche: communicative, cognitive and regulatory.

Communicative– provides the opportunity for people to communicate with each other.
Cognitive– allows a person to understand the outside world around him.

Regulatory the function ensures the regulation of all types of human activity (play, study, work), as well as all forms of his behavior.

In other words, the human psyche allows him to act as a subject of work, communication and cognition.

Speaking about mental reflection, it should be borne in mind that it is addressed not only to the present, but also to the past and to the future. This means that the reflection of the present is influenced not only by the present itself, but also by past experiences stored in memory, as well as by a person’s forecasts for the future.

In general, mental reflection has the following specific features:

This is the most complex and most developed type of reflection;
it allows you to correctly reflect the surrounding reality, which is then confirmed by practice;
it has an active character, i.e. associated with the search and selection of methods of action adequate to environmental conditions;
it constantly deepens and develops in the course of activity;
it is subjective;
it is anticipatory.

In addition, when speaking about mental reflection, it should be borne in mind that it is procedural in nature. This means that it is a continuous process unfolding over time that continues throughout a person’s life.

Mental reflection is ideal in form; it is thoughts, sensations, images, experiences, i.e. something that is inside a person that cannot be touched with hands, recorded using measuring instruments, or photographed. At the same time, it is subjective in content, i.e. belongs to a specific subject and is determined by its characteristics.

The physiological carrier of the human psyche is his nervous system. Ideas about the relationships between the nervous system and the human psyche are based on the theory of functional systems by P.K. Anokhin, according to which mental and physiological activity constitute a single whole, in which individual mechanisms are united by a common task and goal into jointly operating complexes focused on achieving the useful, adaptive result.

Psyche is a property of the brain. Connection between the brain center and external environment carried out using nerve cells and receptors.
However, mental phenomena cannot be reduced to neurophysiological processes. The mental has its own specifics. Neuro-physiological processes are the substrate, the carrier of the psyche. The relationship between the mental and the neurophysiological is the relationship between the signal as information and the signal as a carrier of information.

Every person is the owner psychic reality: we all experience emotions, see objects around us, feel smells - but few people thought that all these phenomena belong to our psyche, and not to external reality. Mental reality is given to us directly. By and large, we can say that each of us is a mental reality and only through it can we judge the world around us. What is the psyche for? It exists in order to combine and interpret information about the world, correlate it with our needs and regulate behavior in the process of adaptation - adaptation to reality. Back at the end of the 19th century. W. James believed that the main function of the psyche is the regulation of goal-directed behavior.

IN Everyday life we do not distinguish subjective reality from objective reality. Only in special situations and when special conditions she makes herself known. When images are inadequate and lead us to errors of perception and incorrect assessment of signals, for example, the distance to an object, we talk about illusions. A typical illusion is the moon above the horizon. The apparent size of the moon at the moment of sunset is much larger than when it is located closer to the zenith. Hallucinations are images that arise in a person without external influences on the senses. They also demonstrate to us that psychic reality is independent and relatively autonomous . home function of the psyche - regulation of individual behavior based on reflection of external reality and its correlation with human needs.

Mental reality is complex, but it can be conditionally divided into exopsyche, endopsyche and intropsyche. Exopsyche is that part of the human psyche that reflects the reality external to his body. For example, we consider the source visual images not our organ of vision, but objects of the external world. Endopsyche is a part of mental reality that reflects the state of our body. The endopsyche includes needs, emotions, feelings of comfort and discomfort. In this case, we consider our body to be the source of sensations. Sometimes exopsychic and endopsychic are difficult to distinguish, for example, the sensation of pain is endopsychic, although its source is a sharp knife or a hot iron, and the sensation of cold is undoubtedly exopsychic, signaling the external temperature, and not the temperature of our body, but it is often “affectively colored” so unpleasant that we attribute it to our own body (“hands are frozen”). But there is a large class of phenomena that differ from both endopsychic and exopsychic. These are intrapsychic phenomena. These include thoughts, volitional efforts, fantasies, dreams. They are difficult to attribute to certain states of the body, and it is impossible to consider external reality as their source. Intropsychic processes and phenomena can be considered “actually mental processes.”

Availability " mental life“- internal dialogues, experiences, reflections leave no doubt about the reality of the psyche. Its role is not limited to the regulation of momentary behavior, as W. James thought, but, obviously, is associated with determining a person’s holistic relationship to the world and finding his place in it. Ya. A. Ponomarev identifies two functions of the psyche in relation to the outside world: creativity (creation of a new reality) and adaptation (adaptation to the existing reality). The antithesis of creativity is destruction - the destruction of reality (culture) created by other people. The antithesis of adaptation is maladjustment in its various forms (neuroses, drug addiction, criminal behavior, etc.).

In relation to the behavior and activity of a person and other people, one should, following B.F. Lomov, distinguish three main functions of the psyche: cognitive (cognitive), regulatory and communicative; adaptation and creativity are possible only through the implementation of these functions.

The psyche serves a person to build an “internal model of the world”, which includes the individual in his interaction with the environment. Cognitive mental processes ensure the construction of an internal model of the world

Second most important function psyche - regulation of behavior and activities. The mental processes that ensure the regulation of behavior are very diverse and heterogeneous. Motivational processes provide the direction of behavior and the level of its activity. The processes of planning and goal setting ensure the creation of methods and strategies of behavior, setting goals based on motives and needs. Decision-making processes determine the choice of activity goals and means of achieving them. Emotions provide a reflection of our relationship to reality, the mechanism “ feedback"and regulation of internal state.

The third function of the human psyche is communication. Communication processes ensure the transfer of information from one person to another, the coordination of joint activities, and the establishment of relationships between people. Speech and nonverbal communication are the main processes that ensure communication. In this case, the main process, undoubtedly, should be considered speech, which is developed only in humans.

The psyche is a very complex system, consisting of separate subsystems; its elements are hierarchically organized and very changeable. From the point of view of B.F. Lomov, systematicity, integrity, and indivisibility of the psyche are the main features. The concept of “mental functional system” is the development and application in psychology of the concept of “functional system”, introduced into scientific use by P.K. Anokhin. He used this concept to explain the implementation of integral behavioral acts by the body. From Anokhin’s point of view, any behavioral act is aimed at achieving a certain result, and the achievement of each result is ensured by a functional system - the unification of individual organs and processes of the body according to the principle of interaction to coordinate behavior aimed at achieving the goal.

Etymologically, the word “psyche” (Greek soul) has a dual meaning. One meaning carries the semantic load of the essence of a thing. The psyche is an entity where the externality and diversity of nature gathers into its unity, it is a virtual compression of nature, it is a reflection of the objective world in its connections and relationships.

Mental reflection is not a mirror, mechanically passive copying of the world (like a mirror or a camera), it is associated with a search, a choice; in mental reflection, incoming information is subjected to specific processing, i.e. mental reflection is an active reflection of the world in connection with some necessity, with needs, it is a subjective selective reflection of the objective world, since it always belongs to the subject, does not exist outside the subject, depends on subjective characteristics. Psyche is a “subjective image of the objective world”.

The psyche cannot be reduced simply to the nervous system. Mental properties are the result of the neurophysiological activity of the brain, but they contain the characteristics of external objects, and not the internal physiological processes through which the mental arises. Signal transformations taking place in the brain are perceived by a person as events taking place outside him, in external space and the world. The brain secretes psyche, thought, just as the liver secretes bile. The disadvantage of this theory is that they identify the psyche with nervous processes and do not see the qualitative differences between them.

Mental phenomena are correlated not with a separate neurophysiological process, but with organized sets of such processes, i.e. psyche is a systemic quality of the brain, implemented through multi-level functional systems of the brain, which are formed in a person in the process of life and his mastery of historically established forms of activity and experience of mankind through his own active activity. Thus, specifically human qualities (consciousness, speech, work, etc.), the human psyche are formed in a person only during his lifetime, in the process of assimilating the culture created by previous generations. Thus, the human psyche includes at least three components: external world, nature, its reflection - full-fledged brain activity - interaction with people, active transmission to new generations of human culture, human abilities.

Mental reflection is characterized by a number of features:

• it makes it possible to correctly reflect the surrounding reality, and the correctness of the reflection is confirmed by practice;
• the mental image itself is formed in the process of active human activity;
• mental reflection deepens and improves;
• ensures the appropriateness of behavior and activity;
• refracted through a person’s individuality;
• is anticipatory.

Functions feelings and emotions. None psychological the phenomenon cannot be fully studied unless it is clearly defined... Otherwise, we can say that without experiences consciousness is impossible. Experience should be distinguished from the traditional psychological concept of experience, which means the direct presentation of mental contents to consciousness. Experience is presented as a special activity, a special work, carried out by external and internal actions, to reconstruct the psychological world, aimed at establishing a semantic correspondence between consciousness and being, the general goal of which is to increase the meaningfulness of life. The range of possible carriers of experiences includes many forms and levels of behavioral and psychological processes- this includes humor, sarcasm, irony, shame, violation of the constancy of perception, etc.

Any carrier of experience leads to the desired effect because it produces some changes in the psychological world of a person. However, to describe them it is necessary to create a concept of the psychological world, and every researcher who studies the processes of experience, wittingly or unwittingly, relies on an existing concept or creates a new one. Thus, we can identify five main paradigms for analyzing the technology of experience. In order to more clearly highlight the specificity of experience as a special mode of functioning of consciousness, it is necessary to name the two remaining combinatorial possibilities. When consciousness functions as an active Observer, grasping its own activity, i.e. Both the Observer and the Observed have an active, subjective nature; we are dealing with reflection. And finally, the last case - when both the Observer and the Observed are objects and, therefore, observation itself as such disappears - fixes the logical structure of the concept of the unconscious. From this point of view, widespread physicalist ideas about the unconscious as a place of silent interaction between psychological forces and things become clear. Typology of modes of functioning of consciousness

We do not have the opportunity to dwell on a detailed interpretation of this typology; it would take us too far from the main topic, especially since the main thing has already been achieved - a system of co- and oppositions has been formulated that define the basic meaning of the traditional psychological concept of experience.

Within this general sense, the greatest distribution in modern psychology received a version of this concept that limits experience to the sphere of subjectively significant. Experience is understood in its opposition to objective knowledge: experience is a special, subjective, biased reflection, and a reflection not of the surrounding objective world in itself, but of the world taken in relation to the subject, from the point of view of the opportunities provided by it (the world) to satisfy actual motives and needs of the subject. In this understanding, it is important for us to emphasize not what distinguishes experience from objective knowledge, but what unites them, namely, that experience is thought of here as a reflection, that we are talking about experience-contemplation, and not about experience-activity to which our research.

2. Reflection characteristics

3. Levels of psychic reflection

1. The concept of mental reflection . Categoryreflections is a fundamental philosophical concept, it is understood as a universal property of matter, which consists in reproducing the signs, properties and relationships of the reflected object. This is a form of interaction between phenomena in which one of them isreflected , - while maintaining its qualitative certainty, creates in the second -reflective specific product:reflected
The ability to reflect, as well as the nature of its manifestation, depend on the level of organization of matter. Reflection appears in qualitatively different forms in inanimate nature, in the world of plants, animals and, finally, in humans.(According to the book by LEONTIEV “ Activity. Consciousness. Personality" )

In inanimate nature, the interaction of various material systems results inmutual reflection , which appears in the form of simple mechanical deformation.

An essential property of a living organismis irritability - reflection of the influences of the external and internal environment in the form of excitation and selective response. Being a prepsychic form of reflection, it acts as a regulator of adaptive behavior.

The further stage in the development of reflection is associated with the emergence of more tall species living organisms of a new property -sensitivity, that is, the ability to have sensations, which are the initial form of the psyche.

The formation of sense organs and the mutual coordination of their actions led to the formation of the ability to reflect things in a certain set of their properties - the ability to perceive the surrounding reality in a certain integrity, in the formsubjective image this reality.

The formation of man and human society in the process of work and communication through speech led to the emergence of a specifically human, social in its essence form of reflection in the formconsciousness Andself-awareness. What is characteristic of reflection, which is characteristic of man, is that it is a creative process that is social in nature. It involves not only influence on the subject from the outside, but also active action the subject himself, his creative activity, which manifests itself in selectivity and purposefulness of perception.

2. Reflection characteristics . Features of the process Mental reflection is accompanied by a number of characteristic conditions, which are its specific manifestations:– Activity. Mental reflection is not mirror-like, not passive, it is associated with the search and choice of methods of action adequate to the conditions, it isactive process.

- Subjectivity. Another feature of mental reflection is itssubjectivity: it is mediated by a person's past experiences and personality. This is expressed primarily in the fact that we see one world, but it appears differently for each of us.

- Objectivity . At the same time, mental reflection makes it possible to build an “internal picture of the world” that is adequate to objective reality, and here it is necessary to note one more property of the mental - itsobjectivity. Only through correct reflection is it possible for a person to understand the world around him. The criterion of correctness is practical activity in which mental reflection is constantly deepened, improved and developed.

- Dynamism. The process called mental reflection tends to undergo significant changes over time. The conditions in which an individual operates change, and the approaches to transformation themselves change. Uniqueness We should not forget that each person has distinct individual characteristics, his own desires, needs and desire for development.

- Anticipatory character . Another important feature of mental reflection is itsanticipatory character it makes possible anticipation in human activity and behavior, which allows decisions to be made with a certain time-spatial advance regarding the future.

The most important function of the psyche isregulation of behavior and activity, thanks to which a person not only adequately reflects the surrounding objective world, but has the ability to transform it in the process of purposeful activity. The adequacy of human movements and actions to the conditions, tools and subject of activity is possible only if they are correctly reflected by the subject.

3. Levels of mental reflection. Mental reflection serves to create a structured and integral image from dismembered objects of reality. B.F. Lomov identified the levels of mental reflection:

1. Sensory-perceptual is a basic level of construction of mental images, which arises first in the process of development, but does not lose relevance in subsequent activities. The subject, based on the information received through stimulation of the senses by real objects, builds his own behavioral tactics. Simply put, a stimulus causes a reaction: an event occurring in real time influences the subsequent action of the subject and determines it.

2. Level of representations. An image can arise without the direct influence of the object on the subject’s senses, that is, it is imagination, memory, imaginative thinking. Due to the repeated appearance of an object in the subject’s perception zone, some of the most important features the first ones are remembered, weeded out from the secondary ones, which is why an image appears that is independent of the direct presence of the stimulus. The main function of this level of mental reflection: planning, control and correction of actions in the internal plan, drawing up standards.

3. Verbally logical thinking or speech-mental level. Operations at this level are even less related to the event series of current time. The individual operates with logical concepts and techniques that have developed in the course of the cultural and historical development of mankind. Abstracting from his own direct experience, from the imagination and memory of the events that took place in his life, he orients himself and builds his activities based on the experience of humanity as a whole. Those concepts, definitions and conclusions that were not produced by him. This provides the opportunity to plan and regulate events of various directions and temporal distances, up to planning the life path of an individual. Despite the significant difference between the third and the first, initial level: the processes of sensory and rational regulation of activity constantly flow from one to another, forming a mental reflection in the diversity of its levels and images.