What is an individual in pedagogy definition. In psychology, what is an individual? The concept of the individual in psychology. Individual and development

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Man, individual and personality are the key concepts of psychology, which are no less important in social science, since man is the main element of society. What is the difference in these three terms?

Human.

Human is a biological term. This is a link in the development of living beings on our planet. Homo sapiens in the form in which they exist now existed tens of thousands of years ago. Biological, physiological, anatomical structures have not changed significantly during this time. But the difference between a modern university student and an ancient Mesopotamian hunter is obvious to everyone. What is this difference?

Individual.

Individual translated from Latin (individuum) means "indivisible". This is a specific representative of humanity, a human being, which has psychological and biological features characteristic only of it. A more extended concept individuality, that is, the combination of these biological and psychological qualities that distinguishes this particular individual from the rest.

Thus, an individual is a specific person with his own characteristics given to him from birth, individuality is already more psychological term than biological - a set of skills (character, skills, knowledge) acquired in the process of life.

Personality.

Personality- the most difficult concept. it social image of a person. It is the society that forms the personality out of the individual. This is what distinguishes man from animal. An individual raised separately from the rest, for example, on a desert island, will become an individual. But it will not become a person, because the key factor here is communication and relationships with other people. To become a person, a person goes through the path socialization, and its formation occurs throughout life.

Basic elements of socialization:

  • communication;
  • upbringing;
  • education;
  • funds mass media;
  • social control system.

In the process of socialization (personality formation), a person develops physical skills and abilities, psychological characteristics, moral factors, scientific knowledge, political worldviews, religious values, etc. Sociologist Leontiev characterized personality as a totality social relations which are implemented in various types activities. Simply put, the individual is a member of society, and in this definition - everything that can be meant by this.

The difference between the concepts of man, individual and personality.

The difference between the concepts of man, individual and personality in order. Those who are not very familiar with sociology and psychology can easily be explained with a simple example from life.

Let's say you started playing a computer RPG - a game like Fallout or Skyrim. First you choose a race - elf, dwarf or human. This is the concept of man, that is, the biological difference from other types of creatures. From the very beginning, your character has certain skills and abilities (strength, endurance, intelligence, etc.). In this form, at the very start of the game, we have an individual who differs from the rest (in many games you set these initial parameters yourself) with features given from birth. In the gameplay, your character develops, acquires new character traits, knowledge, abilities, and by the end of the game we have a hero with a certain charisma and karma, a set of skills that is completely different from the one we got at the beginning. This is what personality is.

There are many such comparisons (even with World of Tanks), but the point is to understand that a person is born, and a person becomes in the process of communication and interaction with other members of society.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Despite the fact that this concept is used by many scientific areas, biology is considered to be its ancestor.

She interprets the term as individual, a living organism endowed with characteristics and qualities that distinguish it from other types of living things. That is, an individual can be called a separate camel, a person, a ciliate shoe, and so on.

Individual of the human race studied by psychologists, sociologists, social scientists. about him and will be discussed in this article.

Definition - what is an individual

An individual in social science is absolutely any person with a set of characteristics characteristic of him that determines his belonging to Homo sapiens (translated from the Latin word individuum literally means indivisible).

Some qualities are given to him at birth, others are acquired in the process. For example, I, as a person, differ from a dog in that I walk upright on two legs, I have hands - tools that I use in my activities.

In addition to instincts, I have thinking, memory, perception, and other mental processes. I can create something new, improve the old and many other things that are unusual for a dog. Therefore, I will never become her, and she will never be me (although, who knows). She and I are individuals, but belonging to different living groups.

The individual is impersonal concept: it does not take into account gender, age, or services to the Fatherland. Everyone is born to them and continues to be such throughout life. Human? Hence, an individual.

Properties of an individual (person)

In psychology, the definition of an individual is not limited only to his belonging to the human race. An individual is someone who also belongs to a certain social group. Based on these facts, three signs are distinguished that state that we have an individual:

  1. integrity and commonality of psychophysiological traits;
  2. the ability to adapt in society and the surrounding reality;
  3. own position and activity corresponding to it.

To briefly answer the question "who is an individual", then this this particular person.

Individual, individuality, personality - what is the difference

Next to the term individual are two more close: and. Some even think that they mean the same thing, but this is not entirely true. Or rather, not at all. I will quote from the statement of A.G. Asmolov - a modern psychologist and politician:

“An individual is born, a person becomes, individuality is defended.”

To understand the essence of this phrase, let's take a closer look at the terms contained in it.

Really, all people are born individuals as members of the human race. The first part of our life we ​​try to "join" society, and for this we need to comply with the norms and rules established in this society. The last fact makes us learn to be like everyone else through imitation of adults.

First, we understand that we need to clean up toys after ourselves, then that we can’t beat the weak, and in general it’s not good to fight. We understand that elders must be respected, give way to the elderly, help those in need. It is not good to talk loudly, climb out of line, and so on.

Now you know what an individual is, but what happens next? After all, people differ not only from other representatives of the living world, but also from each other, including.

Individuality

Individual, individuality, personality - in that order, you cannot immediately jump over the step. Individuality presupposes unique set of qualities that distinguish a person from his "brothers".

That is, we acquire our individuality when we grow up and learn to live among others. The presence of individuality in a person does not always mean that he is a person.

Personality

In the process of this training, the individual acquires many of his own, specific characteristics, becomes a personality. It is the result of learning interaction with society.

It is important to add here that if everyone is born as an individual, then not everyone becomes a person.

If you want, this is the next step mental development person. Before that, you looked at others and did as they did. But the moment you decide to do something, but in your own way, and also take responsibility for that decision, personality is born.

She knows how to set goals and achieve them in her own unique ways, she is an active and therefore effective unit in society.

The personality is self-organized, highly developed and occupies a significant place in its group or society.

Brief summary

The distinction between the individual and the individual has become clear. But there is more. What can be said about this? A person is always an individual, but not always a person..

Good luck to you! See you soon on the blog pages site

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Each person is called an individual. This concept contains not only the word itself, which determines who is being discussed, but also some characteristic in the form of individual characteristics and qualities. Everyone develops in their own direction as they live. Everyone has their own set of social and personality traits. All this is reflected in the behavior that is inherent in a particular person.

All psychology is directed to the study of the individual. Although all people are different, the foundations are laid from birth the same. That is why people are similar in some ways. However, by their character, behavior and lifestyle, we can say that everyone is different.

All the problems discussed on the website of the psychological help site are dedicated to individuals. Despite all the differences between people, it is possible to single out theses on which each person develops.

What is an individual?

The concept of "individual" has a social meaning, which speaks of a separate individual, a representative of homo sapiens. What is an individual? This is a separate person who contains unique genetic characteristics, individual qualities that he develops in himself as he lives, a set of social and biological traits.

Each person is individual. This makes him an individual. Adaptation to social conditions distinguishes it even more from the animal world. On the one hand, he is biologically and socially similar to other people, which does not make him unique. His body structure is the same as that of other people. Only shapes, sizes, colors, etc. differ. He develops the same skills that other people have, which allows him to become a social person.

On the other hand, a person is genetically inclined to develop individual qualities and traits. His set is unique, not like the others. This makes him a separate individual that stands out from the crowd.

As a concept, an individual means a separate individual who has certain biological features, is considered an integral and unified structure, and also belongs to a specific type of living beings. Animals are not called individuals. Only a person receives the title of an individual by the way he was born.

All people are born individuals. However, with upbringing and development, each individual becomes a person. It is she who has her own unique set of qualities, skills and abilities that are displayed in behavior and habits.

The concept of an individual implies that a person is a complete and separate individual from the rest. He has all the tools for independent development and life. He is separated from people.

An individual is a unit of the human race that:

  • Possesses psychophysiological features.
  • Active.
  • Resistant to the environment.
  • Integral in the structure of the body.
  • Wears social characteristics.

In psychology, the concept under consideration is widely used. It denotes not only an individual, but also his character traits that define him as a person.

What is a social individual?

If a person is born as an individual, then he immediately acquires the status of a social personality. What is a social individual? This is a person who, from birth, needs contact with other individuals for his own survival and development.

Unlike animal babies, a human baby cannot take care of itself from birth. From the first days he needs care and self-care. Moreover, the development of skills and necessary social qualities is carried out long time. If the training of young animals takes from several months to a year, then the formation of an individual as an independent and independent person takes from 18 to 25 years.

The individual needs a society that will take care of him and in which he can become a person. Society itself also needs an individual, because without him it simply cannot exist.

Man is born as an individual. He becomes a person as he grows up and grows. At first, a person speaks about his desires and needs with facial expressions and gestures. However, in the process of teaching speech, which is the main criterion for socialization, verbal signs come to the fore. A person continues to use non-verbal gestures and facial expressions to complement his verbal speech and the fullness of the manifestation of his feelings.

The sooner the process of socialization begins, that is, adaptation to the laws, rules and life of the entire society, the faster the development of the individual and its adaptation will occur. The child learns in the following ways:

  • Consolidation. Through punishment or encouragement, parents show the child which behavior is considered good and which is bad.
  • Development of conditioned reflexes. Each person is subjected to "training", when he receives encouragement for his behavior ( conditioned reflex fixed) or punishment. This is how habits are formed.
  • observation and repetition. In other words, the child observes the behavior of adults and copies, adopts, imitates them. Various role-playing games are often used here, where the child rehearses, reinforces or changes the behavior that he observed in adults. Thus, useful and effective, according to the child, skills are fixed.

Each individual from birth is in certain environments that also affect the formation of his personality:

  1. The first institution is the family. Here the child receives protection, love, support. His life needs are also met. In addition, it is the family that gives the first socialization skills: how to communicate, behave? Here the child ascribes himself to a certain sex, studies sex roles. The family forms stereotypes, complexes, fears, values, etc.
  2. The second institution is kindergarten or school. It is here that the individual is treated as one of the. There are no best or worst here. The individual is evaluated according to his abilities and skills. He faces failures and successes. It is the school that forms the self-esteem of the child.
  3. Peers become the third institution. During adolescence, they crowd out family and school. If in the family and school everything is built on a hierarchy, then among peers communication takes place on an equal footing. Here social skills are rehearsed and consolidated. The child begins to adapt to society. He begins to resolve conflict situations, learns about his strengths and weaknesses. Among peers, a child can change his values ​​and outlook on life. He becomes a member of a society where he stands out for his unique qualities.
  4. The media is the last institution. He also influences each individual with his views and values, which he may adopt or not.

As the personality develops, institutions can contradict with their values, views, ways of solving the situation. The child is faced with the need to give up one thing in order to save another. When contradictions appear, he begins to rethink his views and values, forming his own set.

The reaction of a person to changes in the external environment or inside his body is the behavior of the individual. It can be conscious and unconscious. It always develops and manifests itself outside (into the external environment). It includes active actions physical body and speech regulation. It is necessarily purposeful, that is, in the head of a person, first there is an answer to the question “what do I want?”, And then the choice of action “how can I achieve this?”.

All actions are based on:

  1. Goals. A person always strives to satisfy his needs, especially if they have not been realized for a long time.
  2. Motives. There is no behavior that is not motivated. A person may simply not be aware of it sometimes.

Separately, theatrical behavior is considered, which is carried out in the process of communication between people in the virtual world. With the advent of the Internet, it began to take a leading position. Theatricality of behavior is understood as the illusion of natural actions.

The characteristics of an individual's behavior are:

  • Self-control (arbitrariness).
  • pace or dynamism.
  • Emotional expression.
  • Flexibility (changing behavior according to circumstances environment).
  • Activity level.
  • Awareness (a person's understanding of his actions).

What is individuality?

If an individual is understood as the belonging of an individual to the human race, and a personality means the presence of social skills, socialization and adaptation to society, then what is meant by individuality? This concept indicates a set of unique qualities and skills in an individual. Both mental traits and physiological features are listed here. Although often we are talking about the spiritual development of a person.

Non-identical concepts are the individual and the personality. However, it is individuality that can become part of the personality, its formation. A personality is determined by what qualities it stands out as it acts, functions, which is visible to people around who can appreciate it. Individuality rather speaks of the qualities of character, spiritual manifestations.

Personality is a social product, while the individual is biological, and individuality is the formation of qualities and skills. Personality develops under the influence of social pressure, rules and laws that each person must learn and apply.

A group is a single cell that contains several individuals. All of them are individuals, but they gather in a group for a common goal or under the influence of common interests. It has certain social characteristics that all members must obey.

  1. A person can speak on behalf of the group, which to some extent relieves him of responsibility.
  2. A person can interact with other people within the group, correct their behavior, and receive support.
  3. A person occupies a certain status. Often a hierarchy is formed in the group, where each performs a specific, clear role.

On the one hand, a person by his actions helps the group, solves its problems, develops and preserves it. On the other hand, the group regulates a person's behavior, makes him develop certain traits and skills, and influences him. Accordingly, a person must consciously approach the choice of a group, since it can contribute to his development or serve as a pretext for degradation.

Development of the individual

The individual develops biologically, psychologically and personally:

  1. Biological development involves the growth of the human body.
  2. Psychological development involves the development of qualities and individual characteristics of the psyche.
  3. Personal development occurs as education and socialization.

Every year a person changes and transforms. Here he physiologically strengthens and grows. His psyche begins to receive new knowledge, form connections for the formation of skills. A personality is also formed that develops social skills.

A person is constantly exposed to various influences in the process of his development, which can be:

  • External - these are parents, educators, the media, society.
  • Internal - these are unrest, desires, feelings, inclinations.

Outcome

The individual in the literal sense of the word means "reasonable person." From birth, an individual is assigned to the human race, which will be subjected to education, outside influence. A person must socialize so that society accepts him and allows him to live in the way that is acceptable. The result will be all those manipulations that will be directed at a person throughout his life.

(‹ lat. Individuum-indivisible, individual) - 1) an individual, a separately existing organism or a single person as a representative of the human race; 2) an individual representative of society, people, class, social group. (Dictionary, p. 96)

INDIVIDUAL

individual) - according to A. N. Leontiev - they speak of an individual when they consider a person as a representative of hominis sapientis. The concept has at least two main features:

1) indivisibility, or the integrity of the subject;

2) the presence of special - individual - properties that distinguish it from other representatives of the same species. Man (and animal) is born as an individual. It has its own genotype. Individual gonotypic properties in the course of life develop and transform, become phenotypic. As individuals, people differ from each other not only in morphophysiological features, but also in psychological properties - abilities, temperament, emotionality. 1. Man as a single natural being, a product of phylogenetic and ontogenetic development, the unity of innate and acquired (-> genotype; phenotype), a carrier of individually unique traits (inclinations, drives, etc.). 2. A separate representative of the human community; a social being that goes beyond natural (biological) limitations, uses tools, signs, and through them masters its own behavior and mental processes. Both meanings of the term are interrelated and describe a person in terms of his separateness and isolation. Most General characteristics individual:

1) the integrity of the psychophysiological organization; this sign indicates the systemic nature of the links between the diverse functions and mechanisms that implement the life relations of the individual;

2) stability in interaction with outside world; determines the preservation of the basic relations of the individual to reality, assuming, however, the existence of moments of plasticity, flexibility, variability;

3) activity - providing the ability of the individual to self-change, dialectically combines dependence on the situation with overcoming its direct influences.

Individual

The individual is a single being; the psychological individual is distinguished by a peculiar and, in a certain respect, unique, that is, unrepeatable, psychology. The originality of the individual psyche is manifested not so much in its elements as in its complex formations. The psychological individual or his individuality (see) exists unconsciously a priori; consciously, he exists only insofar as there is a conscious difference from other individuals. Along with the physical individuality, the psychic individuality is also given as a correlate, but, as already mentioned, at first unconsciously. A conscious process of differentiation is necessary, individuation is necessary (see) in order to make individuality conscious, that is, to extract it from identity with the object. The identity of the individual with the object coincides with its unconsciousness. If individuality is unconscious, then there is no psychological individual, but only a collective psychology of consciousness. In such a case, the unconscious individuality is identical with the object projected onto the object. As a result, the object takes on too much value and acts too strongly in terms of determinism.

INDIVIDUAL

Psychology in one form or another is concerned with the study of beings that behave, act, think, and experience emotions, all within the context of some social and physical environment. When such a creature is a member of the species Homo sapiens, the term individual is used to designate it.

Individual

from lat. individuum - indivisible) - 1) a person as a single natural being, a representative of the species Homo sapiens, a product of ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, the unity of the innate and acquired, the carrier of individually peculiar features (inclinations, inclinations, etc.); 2) an individual representative of the human community; a social being that goes beyond its natural (biological) limitations, uses tools, signs, and through them masters its own behavior and mental processes. Both meanings of the term "individual" are interconnected and describe a person in terms of his separateness and isolation. The most general characteristics of the individual: the integrity of the psycho-physiological organization; stability in interaction with the outside world; activity.

Individual

from lat. individuum - indivisible] - a single individual of Homo sapiens, a separate human being, the unity of social and biological, in which it is determined by a unique combination of a genetically programmed and socially acquired individual set of traits, properties, qualities. It is in connection with this that the fundamental characteristic of the individual is his ability to overcome his initially inherent biological limitations and really, while quite consciously manage his behavioral activity and control almost the entire complex of the most important psychological processes. “Both meanings of the term “individual” are interrelated and describe a person in terms of his separateness and isolation. The most general characteristics of an individual are the integrity of the psychophysiological organization; stability in interaction with the outside world; activity. The sign of integrity indicates the systemic nature of the connections between the diverse functions and mechanisms that implement the vital relationships of the individual. Stability determines the preservation of the basic relationship of the individual to reality, at the same time assuming the existence of moments of plasticity, flexibility, variability. The activity of the individual, ensuring his ability to self-change, dialectically combines dependence on the situation with overcoming its direct influences ”(A. G. Asmolov). Within the framework of socio-psychological science, the concept of "individual" is used in a meaningful connection, first of all, with the concept of "personality". First of all, this is due to the fact that the natural characteristics and properties of the individual are manifested in the personality as its basic socially conditioned elements. In addition, in a number of concepts of understanding the personality, it is the features of the actual individual representation in the system of social life that are considered as self-valuable personal incarnations. So, for example, within the framework of the concept of personalization (V. A. Petrovsky), the basic position of which is the idea of ​​unity, but not the identity of the concepts of "individual" and "personality", it is the presence of the sociogenic need of an individual for personalization that simultaneously sets both intrinsic value and interdependence three hypostases of the personal existence of an individual: 1) as a relatively stable set of intra-individual qualities (symptomatic complexes of mental properties that form its individuality, motives, personality orientations, personality character structure, temperament, abilities); 2) as the inclusion of an individual in the space of interindividual relations, where relationships and interactions that arise in a group can be interpreted as carriers of the personality of their participants; 3) as an “ideal” representation of the individual in the life of other people, including outside their actual interaction, as a result of the semantic transformations actively carried out by a person in the intellectual and affective-need spheres of the personality of other people.

The problem of the relationship between the concepts of "individual" and "personality" was also given great attention by other domestic psychologists, in particular, A. N. Leontiev. From his point of view, “the concept of personality, just like the concept of an individual, expresses the integrity of the subject of life .... But personality is a holistic formation of a special kind. Personality is not an integrity conditioned genotypically: one is not born a personality, one becomes a personality. ... Like the consciousness of a person, like his needs, ... the personality of a person is also “produced” - created by social relations into which the individual enters in his activity. The fact that in this case some of his features as an individual are transformed, changed, is not the cause, but the consequence of the formation of his personality.

It must be said that in foreign psychology, far from the "Marxist-Leninist methodology" and the theory of activity, these two "sacred cows" of Soviet psychology did not pay any serious attention to the dilution of the content of the concepts "individual" and "personality". Moreover, they are often used as completely synonymous. Instead, they seriously considered the question of how justified and correct is the "isolated" study of certain aspects of the personality or types of human activity, outside of a holistic personal context. It is in this connection that the concept of "individual" is most often used to emphasize the unchanging integrity of the subject.

One of the first major scientists who consistently promoted the idea that "...man is a single and self-consistent organism..."2 was A. Adler. It is no coincidence that he more than eloquently called his theory of personality development and the psychotherapeutic system built on its basis individual psychology.

From the point of view of A. Adler, “... not a single manifestation of vital activity can be considered in isolation, but only in relation to the personality as a whole. The individual is an indivisible whole, both in relation to the relationship between the brain and the body, and in relation to mental life. According to Adler, the main requirement for individual psychology is to prove this unity in each individual: in his thinking, feelings, actions, the so-called consciousness and the unconscious, in every manifestation of personality. Adler defined the structure of a self-consistent and unified personality as a lifestyle”3. According to many foreign experts, “in this concept, more than in any other, ... an attempt is expressed to consider a person as a whole”4. Note that the orthodox behaviorism is diametrically opposed to the individual psychology of A. Adler, proceeding from the fact that any human act is a situational reaction to an external stimulus.

From the point of view of A. Adler, the development of an individual is possible only in interaction with other people: “The leading theory in Adler is the position according to which all human behavior occurs in a social context, and the essence of human nature can be comprehended only through an understanding of social relations. Moreover, each person has a natural sense of community, or social interest - an innate desire to enter into mutual social relations of cooperation. As reported by L. Hjell and D. Ziegler, “the emphasis on the social determinants of behavior is so important in Adler's concept that he gained the reputation of the first social psychologist in modern psychology theory”6.

A. Adler attached particular importance to the social contacts of the individual in childhood. A unique part of the concept and psychotherapeutic system developed by A. Adler is the analysis of the influence of birth order on the lifestyle of an individual. The first child in the family quite naturally receives maximum care and attention from the parents, but only until the second child appears. In this situation, the firstborn enters into a struggle for parental attention, in which, as a rule, he fails: “As a result of such family struggles, the firstborn “accustoms himself to isolation” and masters the strategy of survival alone, without needing anyone's affection or approval. Adler also believed that the eldest child in the family is likely to be conservative, aspire to power and predisposed to leadership.

The middle child is already objectively included in the competition with the firstborn by the very situation of birth. As a result, according to A. Adler, the second child often “... grows up competitive and ambitious. ... To achieve superiority, he uses both direct and roundabout methods. Adler also believed that the average child may set unreasonably high goals for himself, which actually increases the likelihood of possible failures.

The youngest (last) child in the family, on the one hand, enjoys the privileges of a universal favorite and is the object of care from both parents and older children and, at the same time, may experience a strong sense of inferiority and dependence. Nevertheless, according to A. Adler, he “... has one advantage: he has a high motivation to surpass older siblings. As a result, he often becomes the fastest swimmer, the best musician, the most ambitious student. (This moment is clearly reflected in numerous fairy tales of various nations, in which it is the youngest child who achieves the greatest success - V.I., M.K.) Adler sometimes spoke of the “struggling youngest child” as a possible future revolutionary.

If the child is the only one in the family, then, being deprived of the opportunity to compete with brothers and sisters and being the epicenter of maternal care, he is often forced to compete with his father. In addition, he may experience difficulties in relationships with peers. According to A. Adler, such a child “... is under the control of the mother for too long and expects the same protection and care from others. Dependence and self-centeredness become the main feature of this lifestyle”4.

It should be noted that, attaching great importance to the order of birth and other factors that mediate the development of the personality in childhood, A. Adler did not at all consider that the individual is an unchanging product of the mechanistic "addition" of heredity and environmental influences. In his opinion, without exception, people “... have a creative power that provides the ability to manage their lives - free, conscious activity is a defining feature of a person. This creative force affects every facet of the human experience: perception, memory, imagination, fantasy and dreams. It makes each person a self-determined individual, the architect of his own life.

Although, in general, the empirical validation of F. Adler's concept has not yet been carried out, which is largely due to the breadth and abstractness of many of its provisions, a number of key points of this theory have been confirmed in many studies. So, for example, in 1973 in the Netherlands an attempt was made to identify the relationship between birth order and the intellectual achievements of the individual. “In a study of about 400 men... there was a high positive correlation between birth order and scores on a non-verbal intelligence test. First-borns outperformed the next-born children in those families with two to nine children in terms of intellectual achievement. In a similar study, it was shown that a positive relationship between birth order and intellectual achievement persists when such variables as school performance of the subjects' parents, family income, and mother's age are taken into account.

No less interesting results, also confirming the idea of ​​A. Adler, were recorded in a number of other studies. So, in particular, “... it was found that the firstborns are the leaders in the population in almost every field of academic knowledge. For example, it has been noted that eldest sons predominate among the presidents of the United States of America, while this pattern is not observed among candidates who have been defeated in presidential elections. Firstborns were especially numerous among members of the US Congress, and they also predominated among women who had degrees in medicine and philosophy.

The ideas of A. Adler were further developed in the concept of E. Erickson and a number of other foreign psychologists. It should be noted that in real socio-psychological practice, most often there is no need for a clear separation of the concepts of "individual" and "personality", and therefore their use as synonyms is quite acceptable. However, in cases where such socio-psychological phenomena as the “Lieutenant Kizhe phenomenon” and the “Kennedy effect” take place (for example, in the logic of the concept of personalization), such a dilution is not only justified, but absolutely necessary from a practical point of view.

Therefore, a practical social psychologist, in addition to purely applied professional skills and abilities, possession of modern techniques and technologies of subtle psychological impact on a group and on its individual members, it is necessary, when planning a program of psychological support and accompanying a community or organization entrusted to him, to rely on basic psychological knowledge and recognize those questions that relate to personally developing tasks, and those problems that confront him at the level, in fact, only intra-individual analysis.

The concepts of "man", "individual", "individuality", "personality"

In psychological science, the categories man, individual, personality, individuality belong to the basic categories. The problem of personality is central in modern psychology, and this is no coincidence; the most important theoretical task is to discover the objective foundations of those psychological properties that characterize a person as an individual, as an individuality and as a personality.

Personality is the main mystery of the human world, its secret, bewitching thought and feeling of a thinking person, on the other hand, a working concept that is actively used in the business language of almost all professions, in everyday communication. All this sets us up to the fact that both perceiving this phenomenon and working with the system of concepts in which it is reflected must be respectful and professionally competent.

Figure 1 - The system of personal concepts

Man is born into the world as a man. concept human is the broadest, it is the main, initial element of this structure, without which there is and cannot be either social actions, connections and interactions, or social relations, communities and groups, or social institutions and organizations.

Human- this is a socio-biological being, embodying the highest stage in the evolution of life and being the subject of socio-historical activity and communication.

The main characteristics of a person:

The special structure of the body;

Ability to work;

The presence of consciousness.

The concept of "man" is used as a limiting general concept to characterize the universal qualities and abilities inherent in all people. Using this concept, psychologists emphasize that a person is biological (natural) and social being at the same time, which by its vital activity influences the environment.

The basis and starting point of the indicated analysis is human as a social phenomenon.

Natural vector of human development: species in the biological classification of the evolution of life on earth; a natural being belonging to the class of mammals; species - primates; classification categorization - Homo sapiens.

Man, as a being belonging to society, humanity, represents humanity in himself, and this is his essence. Mankind (the human race, the human world) is a special, historically developing social, socio-psychological and spiritual community, which differs from all other material systems on the planet by its inherent way of life.

The main socio-psychological characteristic of this way of life is the “SELF…” mechanism: self-organization, self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-regulation, self-development, self-movement, etc.

Man as a separate representative of humanity is defined by the concept of "individual".

Individual- a single representative of the human race, a specific carrier of all the psychophysical and social features of mankind.

General characteristics of the individual:

The integrity of the psychophysical organization of the body;

Stability in relation to the surrounding reality;

Activity.

The individual is biological organism, a carrier of common hypothetical hereditary properties of a given biological species. The process of such internal “coordination” is well known, it was noted by Charles Darwin…

An individual is, first of all, a genotypic formation. But the individual is not only a genotypic formation, its formation continues, as is known, in ontogenesis, in vivo. Therefore, the characteristics of an individual also include properties and their integration, which are formed ontogenetically. It's about about the emerging "alloys" of congenital and acquired reactions, about the change in the subject content of needs, about the emerging behavioral dominants.

Most general rule is that the higher we climb the stairs biological evolution, the more complex the life manifestations of individuals and their organization become, the more pronounced the differences in their innate and life-acquired characteristics become, especially since, so to speak, individuals become individualized.

Among these concepts, personality is a narrower concept and emphasizes the social essence of a person. Otherwise, one can say that individual is a "concrete person" from birth to death.

Individual- the initial state of a person in phylogenetic and ontogenetic development. Personality is considered as the result of the development of the individual, the embodiment of proper human qualities.

Personality is the social essence of a person. The word "personality" English language comes from the word "person". It originally referred to the masks worn by actors during a theatrical performance in ancient Greek drama. Thus, from the very beginning, the concept of "personality" included an external superficial social image that a person takes on when he plays certain life roles - a kind of "mask", a public face addressed to others. It follows that the concept of "personality", first of all, is associated with the social essence of a person.

Personality- this is a specific person who is a carrier of consciousness, capable of knowing, experiencing, transforming the world around him and building certain relationships with this world and with the world of other personalities.

Personality is considered as the embodiment in a particular person of social qualities that are acquired in the process of activity and communication with other individuals.

Individuals are not born, individuals are made.

That is why we are not talking about the personality of the newborn or the personality of the infant, although the traits of individuality appear at the early stages of ontogenesis no less clearly than at later age stages.

Personality is a relatively late product of the socio-historical and ontogenetic development of man...

The concepts of personality and individuality are close in meaning. Individuality is one of the sides of the personality, therefore it is more difficult to define the concept of “individuality”, because in addition to personal characteristics, which are the main components of individuality, it includes biological, physiological and other characteristics of a person.

Individuality- a combination of the psychological characteristics of a person that make up his originality and his difference from other people.

We can give the following definition of individuality.

Individuality- this is a specific person who differs from other people in a unique combination of mental, physiological and social characteristics, manifested in behavior, activity and communication.

If a person is an individual by the fact of his birth, then the individuality is formed and modified in the process of his life.

Individuality is manifested in the traits of temperament, character, habits, as cognitive processes (ie, in thinking, memory, imagination, etc.). With the help of the concept of “individuality”, the uniqueness and uniqueness of each person is most often emphasized. On the other hand, in individuality we meet those personal qualities and individual properties that everyone has, but have a different degree of expression and form combinations.

All individual qualities are manifested in various ways behavior, activity, communication. A person will become a personality when he begins to improve the social factor of his activity, that is, that side of it that is aimed at society. Therefore, the foundation of the personality is social relations, but only those that are realized in activity.

Realizing himself as a person, determining his place in society and life path(fate), a person becomes an individual, acquires dignity and freedom, which allow him to distinguish him from any other person, to distinguish him from others.

The specificity of the social conditions of life and the way of human activity determines the features of its individual features and properties. All people have certain mental traits, attitudes, customs and feelings, each of us has differences in the cognitive sphere of personality, which will determine our individuality.

The psychological structure of a personality is a holistic model, a system of qualities and properties that fully characterizes the psychological characteristics of a personality (person, individual) (Fig. 2).


Figure 2 - Man - Individual - Individuality - Personality

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