Each person at least once found himself in a conflict situation, and not only with the outside world - others, but above all with himself. And internal conflicts can easily develop into external ones. For a mentally healthy person, an internal conflict that does not go beyond the norm is quite natural. Moreover, the situation of intrapersonal inconsistency and tension within certain limits is not only natural, but also needed for the improvement and development of the individual. Any development cannot take place without internal contradictions (crises), and where there are contradictions, there is also the basis of the conflict. And if an intrapersonal conflict proceeds within the reasonable, it is really necessary, because a moderate critical attitude towards one’s own “I”, dissatisfaction with oneself, as a powerful internal engine, makes a person follow the path of self-actualization and self-improvement, thereby filling not only his own life with meaning, but also improving the world.
The scientific study of intrapersonal conflict began at the end of the 19th century and was associated primarily with the name of the founder of psychoanalysis, the Austrian scientist Sigmund Freud(1856 - 1939), who revealed the biosocial and biopsychological nature of intrapersonal conflict. He showed that human existence is connected with constant voltage and overcoming the contradiction between socio-cultural norms and biological drives and desires of a person, between consciousness and the unconscious. According to Freud, this contradiction and constant confrontation between the named parties is the essence of intrapersonal conflict. Within the framework of psychoanalysis, the theory of intrapersonal conflict was also developed by K. Jung, K. Horney and others.
A great contribution to the study of the problem of intrapersonal conflict was made by the German psychologist Kurt Lewin(1890-1947), who defined it as a situation in which a person oppositely directed forces of equal magnitude act simultaneously. In this regard, he singled out three type of conflict situation.
1. A person is between two positive forces approximately equal in size. "This is the case of the Buridan donkey, which is between two equal stacks of hay and is dying of hunger."
2. A person is between two approximately equal negative forces. A typical example is the situation of punishment. Example: on the one hand, the child must complete a school assignment that he does not want to do, and on the other hand, he can be punished if he does not do it.
3. A person is simultaneously affected by two multidirectional forces about the same size and in the same place. Example: a child wants to pet a dog, but he is afraid of it, or wants to eat a cake, but he was forbidden.
The theory of intrapersonal conflict was further developed in the works of representatives of humanistic psychology. One of the leaders in this direction is an American psychologist. Carl Rogers(1902-1987). The fundamental component of personality structure, he argues, is the “I -concept" - the idea of a person about himself, the image of his own “I”, which is formed in the process of interaction of a person with the environment. Self-regulation of human behavior takes place on the basis of the “I-concept”.
But the “I-concept” often does not coincide with the idea of ideal "I". There may be disagreement between them. This dissonance (mismatch) between the “I-concept”, on the one hand, and the ideal “I”, on the other, acts as intrapersonal conflict, which can result in severe mental illness.
The concept of intrapersonal conflict of one of the leading representatives of humanistic psychology, an American psychologist, has gained wide popularity. Abraham Maslow(1908-1968). According to Maslow, the motivational structure of a personality is formed by a series of hierarchically organized needs (see here).
The highest is the need for self-actualization, that is, for the realization of the potentialities, abilities and talents of a person. It is expressed in the fact that a person strives to be what he can become. But he does not always succeed. Self-actualization as an ability can be present in most people, but only in a minority is it accomplished, realized. This gap between the desire for self-actualization and the real result and underlies intrapersonal conflict.
Another very popular theory of intrapersonal conflict today was developed by an Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl(1905-1997), who created a new direction in psychotherapy - logotherapy(from gr. logos - thought, mind and gr. therapeia - treatment). According to him, logotherapy "is concerned with the meaning of human existence and the search for this meaning."
According to Frankl's concept, the main driving force behind the life of every person is the search for the meaning of life and the struggle for it. The absence of the meaning of life gives rise to a state in a person, which he calls an existential vacuum, or a feeling of aimlessness and emptiness. It is the existential vacuum that becomes the cause of the intrapersonal conflict, which subsequently leads to “noogenic neuroses” (from Gr. noos - meaning).
According to the author of the theory, an intrapersonal conflict in the form of a noogenic neurosis arises due to spiritual problems and is caused by a disorder of the “spiritual core of the personality”, which contains the meanings and values of human existence, which form the basis of personality behavior. Thus, noogenic neurosis is a disorder caused by an existential vacuum, a person's lack of meaning in life.
It is the existential vacuum, the feeling of aimlessness and emptiness of existence that gives rise to the existential frustration of the individual at every step, most often manifested in boredom and apathy. Boredom is evidence of the lack of meaning in life, meaning-forming values, and this is already serious. Because the meaning of life is much more difficult and more important than wealth. In addition, need, for example, pushes a person to action and helps to get rid of neuroses, while boredom associated with an existential vacuum, on the contrary, dooms him to inactivity and thereby contributes to the development of a psychological disorder.
Among the domestic scientists who have made a significant contribution to the development of the problem under consideration, one should name A. N. Leontieva(1903-1979), who with his theory about the role of objective activity in the formation of the personality, he did a lot to understand the intrapersonal conflict.
According to his theory, the content and essence of intrapersonal conflict are determined by the nature of the structure of the personality itself. This structure, in turn, is caused by contradictory relationships that a person enters into while carrying out various types of his activities. One of the most important characteristics of the internal structure of the personality is that any person, even having the leading motive of behavior and the main goal in life, does not necessarily live only with one goal or motive. The motivational sphere of a person, according to A. N. Leontiev, even in its highest development never resembles a frozen pyramid. Figuratively speaking, the motivational sphere of a person is always multi-vertex.
The contradictory interaction of these "tops" of the motivational sphere, various motives of the personality and forms an intrapersonal conflict.
Consequently, intrapersonal conflict, naturally inherent in the internal structure of the personality, is a normal phenomenon. Any personality is inherent in internal contradictions and the struggle between different aspirations. Usually this struggle takes place within the normal range and does not violate the harmony of the individual. “After all, a harmonious personality is not at all a personality that does not know any internal struggle.” But sometimes this struggle becomes the main thing that determines a person's behavior and the whole way of life. It is then that an unhappy person and an uncomplicated fate become the consequences.
These are the causes of intrapersonal conflict. Definition of intrapersonal conflict: intrapersonal conflict is a state of the personality structure when there are simultaneously contradictory and mutually exclusive motives, value orientations and goals with which it is currently unable to cope, i.e. develop behavioral priorities based on them.
It can also be said in another way: intrapersonal conflict is a state of the internal structure of the personality, characterized by the confrontation of its elements.
Thus, the following properties of intrapersonal conflict can be distinguished:
1) intrapersonal conflict appears as a result of the interaction of elements of the internal structure of the personality;
2) the parties to the intrapersonal conflict are the diverse and conflicting interests, goals, motives and desires that simultaneously exist in the structure of the personality;
3) intrapersonal conflict occurs only when the forces acting on the person are equivalent. Otherwise, a person simply chooses the lesser of two evils, the greater of two blessings, and prefers the reward to punishment;
4) any internal conflict is accompanied by negative emotions;
5) the basis of any intrapersonal conflict is a situation characterized by:
4.2777777777778 Rating 4.28 (9 Votes)
Quarrel, swearing, scandal, boycott - the first thing that often comes to mind at the mention of the word conflict. Something unpleasant, spoiling the relationship. Often this word is used in a political context: armed conflict. And it is associated with something dangerous, disturbing.
If we consider this concept impartially, without a negative connotation, we can say that conflict is a violation of balance. This is a kind of situation that is knocked out of the usual scheme of existence. If the balance is disturbed, there is a need to return it, to organize life in line with the usual scheme.
That is, a conflict is a situation that occurred as a result of an unpredictable event. This description can be applied to all conflicts in principle, whether it be a conflict between organism and environment, between man and man, between man and society, or between man and the elements.
There are numerous classifications of conflicts. A whole section of psychology deals with the study of this phenomenon and is called "conflictology". Within the framework of this article, I propose to consider conflicts in terms of their course and divide them into external and internal.
External conflicts- organism-environment conflicts. They occur at the border-contact of a person with the outside world. The balance in human-environment interaction is disturbed. This group includes all conflicts that arise between a person and something or someone external.
Internal conflicts(in psychology they are often called intrapersonal) - nothing more than a collision of our internal phenomena.
For example, the belief that one must always be polite and the desire to respond with rudeness to rudeness. By remaining polite, a person feeds his belief that he did the right thing. But he feels dissatisfaction from the fact that he did not express his true attitude, did not defend himself. In this case, he can conduct an internal dialogue for a long time in order to calm down and prove to himself that he did the right thing.
The problem lies in the fact that repeated repetition of such situations leads to a persistent feeling of dissatisfaction, and sometimes even depression.
Often, the rules, norms and beliefs learned from childhood, and the desires that a person has in the current period, collide with each other.
The right girls and boys, raised by good moms and dads, are often very vulnerable in adulthood. They were instilled with good manners, but they were not taught to listen to themselves and their desires, to defend boundaries and defend themselves.
Nurtured by caring parents who protected them from all the cruelty and ugliness of the world, in adulthood they become, at best, eccentrics in rose-colored glasses. Trusting and naive.
They are the easiest to offend and deceive.
And it is precisely in them that internal conflicts are the most, since upbringing dictates that it is necessary to behave well, and reality shows that this is not always necessary. And here you can often see incongruity - the discrepancy between external manifestations and internal needs. And this is nothing but a lie.
Lie to myself: I want one thing, but I do another. Self-deception leads to deception of others. This is how an internal conflict develops into an external one. The interlocutor on a non-verbal level feels deceit, a catch, a lie. And does not believe in the answer.
Often internal conflict is not recognized. A person experiences discomfort, but does not understand what he is connected with. The psyche is in tension, it is necessary to reduce anxiety, but the "owner" has powerful psychological defenses that prevent awareness.
And then the bodily symptom appears. This is what is called psychosomatics. All diseases from nerves is a well-known phrase. And it has a theoretical basis.
Unconscious problems are looking for a way out. Not finding a way out into consciousness, they manifest themselves at the bodily level. Due to problems in the psycho, the soma (body) reacts. Here comes the psychosomatic ailment, which include gastritis, psoriasis, eczema, stomach ulcers and other sores.
Example from practice:
Diana, 21 years old. Married, child, 1.5 years. She lives in the same apartment with her husband, mother-in-law and two sisters of her husband. She suffers from chronic nasal congestion, which is why she is forced to constantly use vasoconstrictor drops. Experiencing severe discomfort.
In the process of therapy, it turns out that for the first time she encountered this problem during pregnancy, on which she attributed the onset of the symptom. After childbirth, the symptom did not go away. It turns out that for the first time the symptom was discovered after Diana moved into an apartment with her husband and his relatives.
In the process of work, strong feelings for her husband's relatives “emerge”. Diana describes her condition: I am suffocating in this house, I don’t have enough space, I don’t have my own space, everything that is there is alien and wild to me. Then, during the experiment, a phrase is formulated: I do not want to breathe the same air with them.
Realizing this moment, Diana felt a strong relief. Gradually, the symptom subsided as we began to work on becoming aware of her boundaries, needs, and ways to make our life around her husband's relatives more comfortable.
Approximately six months later, a significant case occurred with Diana. She went to the country with her parents. The situation was tense, since Diana's relationship with her mother is rather difficult. On the territory of her parents, she is forced to constantly follow the rules and do only what her mother wants from her.
After spending the whole day at the dacha, Diana returns home by car through the rapeseed fields. Gradually, she begins to feel worse and worse: her eyes water, her nose runs, her temperature rises. An hour later, once at home, Diana feels completely ill. She is sure that she is experiencing an acute attack of an allergy to rapeseed.
But what really happened? A typical situation of "suffocation", the imposition of someone else's will, violation of boundaries causes strong resistance. Feelings towards “violators” are forbidden, as they can lead to strong affect and scandal. The psyche crushes their awareness and subsequent manifestation of feelings. Unconscious phenomena emerge along a familiar route - through a bodily symptom. Again stuffy nose, snot, etc.
In further therapy, an eco-friendly way for Diana to defend her boundaries was developed, and the symptom left her forever.
Here we see an intrapersonal conflict between the need to declare one's desires, to defend one's own boundaries, and the inability to talk about it due to the prohibition on expressing negativity and disagreement with relatives (both one's own and her husband's relatives).
As a child, the client had a traumatic experience in a family where an overbearing mother did not take into account the needs and desires of children and constantly punished for disobedience. Therefore, any disagreement with the opinion of family members was imprinted in the psyche of Diana, as fraught with punishment.
The danger of psychosomatic symptoms is that if ignored, they pass completely into the body (soma) and become chronic, becoming a real disease requiring medical intervention.
It is also necessary to mention that the model of behavior learned in childhood does not always correspond to the tasks of the modern world. Our parents lived at a time when the world around was somewhat different.
Accordingly, we were brought up to live in a society that no longer exists. Therefore, it is sometimes worth revising your attitudes, rules and principles and checking them for compliance with reality.
Clear, rigid (sedentary, settled) attitudes and rules create obstacles for creative adaptation to interaction with the outside world. Therefore, it is important to try, test new ways of behavior that go beyond the usual in order to feel the fullness of life and breathe deeply!
If a person lives in harmony with himself and the world around him, he can be called a happy person. However, if internal doubts do not give rest and even sometimes torment the soul, we are already talking about an intrapersonal conflict. We propose to understand what kind of conflict is intrapersonal.
What is intrapersonal conflict?
Experts in the field of psychiatry say that the concept of intrapersonal conflict means a conflict within the mental world of a person, which is a clash of his oppositely directed motives. Among such motives, needs, interests, values, goals and ideals are distinguished. In psychoanalysis, the main place is given to conflicts between needs and social foundations, as well as between the needs of the person himself.
Causes of intrapersonal conflict
It is customary to distinguish three main types of interconnected causes:
- Internal- expressed in contradictions between different motives of a person in the absence of agreement between the components of the internal structure.
- External- are determined by the position of the person in the group. Here, intrapersonal conflict arises because of the impossibility of satisfying one's needs.
- External, due to the position of a person in society,- are associated with such a concept as intrapersonal contradictions that arise at the level of a social microsystem and stem from the nature of the social system and economic life.
Functions of intrapersonal conflict
The following intrapersonal - constructive and destructive functions are called. The first specialists in the field of psychiatry include:
- Communicative (informational, or connecting) - people begin to get to know each other even better, understand and gradually get closer.
- The function of a stimulant and force that is able to drive social change.
- The function of promoting the formation of the necessary balance in society.
- A guarantee of the development of society by disclosing various interests.
- Help in re-evaluating old norms and values.
The second functions are:
- Dissatisfaction, performance degradation, bad.
- Disruption of communication systems.
- Loyalty to one's own group and lack of competition with others.
- The thought of the other as an enemy.
- Winning the conflict is more important than solving the problem.
- signs of intrapersonal conflict
Such a concept as intrapersonal conflict has the following features:
- All elements of the inner worldview of the individual interact.
- There are contradictions between interests, goals, emotions and desires.
- The appearance of negative reactions.
Types of intrapersonal conflicts
Psychologists call these types of intrapersonal human conflicts:
- Motivational- represents a disagreement between desires to have and security.
- Moral- there is a mismatch between personal and moral attitudes.
- adaptive- Difficulties of addiction in the professional sphere and society.
- Inadequate self-esteem- disagreements between the assessment of one's own abilities and claims of a person.
- Interrole- the inability to perform several roles at once.
- Personal-role- mismatch of own roles due to ability or desire.
- Conflict of Needs between social norms and needs.
Ways to resolve intrapersonal conflicts
Experts talk about how to resolve intrapersonal conflict. Among the most effective ways:
- Compromise- it is very important to realize everything in time and solve intrapersonal problems.
- Care- sometimes you need to “let go” of the situation and not even try to resolve it.
- Reorientation- changing your attitude to the object.
- Sublimation- the transfer of energy to a socially significant channel.
- Idealization- fantasizing, dreams, detachment from reality.
- crowding out- influence on one's own feelings, desires and aspirations to suppress them.
- Correction- an adequate attitude towards oneself and one's inner world.
A person always communicates not only with other people, but also with himself.
This happens when thinking about some ideas, imagining conversations with someone, discussing topics that are of great concern to him, and so on.
Intrapersonal conflict, examples of which are found all the time, with such dialogues with oneself is a very serious phenomenon..
Causes
Causes that provoke intrapersonal conflicts, can be viewed from three angles:
- from the side of internal contradictions of the person himself;
- from the external position occupied by him in a particular social group;
- from his external position in society as a whole.
Internal
If an individual can't find harmony within himself, then contradictions between the elements of the structure of his personality are possible.
Internal conflict depends on the level of development. The higher the level of self-criticism and the tendency to evaluate their own actions, the higher the likelihood of internal conflicts.
At the same time, it is important that the strength of the influence of several factors on a person be the same, otherwise the choice will be made in favor of the fact that does not provoke conflict.
External
These reasons are related to the role occupied by a person in a particular group. Due to certain factors, it is impossible to perform an action that is significant for the individual.
The position of a person in the general macrosystem (social, economic position) may also play a role, which may not correspond to his internal settings.
Forms of manifestation
Internal conflict can manifest itself in the following forms:
How internal conflict leads to illness:
Species and types
The classification of intrapersonal conflicts is conditional, since in their pure form none of them is present inside the individual.
In accordance with the value-motivational sphere of personality:
Classification according to social and consumer characteristics:
- conflict of needs;
- conflict between social norms and needs;
- conflict of social norms.
A conflict that has dragged on for a long time and provokes tension in the psyche and nerves is called neurotic. It is characterized by a long duration and intensity.
Intrapersonal conflict is also divides inheriting types:
- hysterical (a dilemma between "I can" and "I want");
- neurasthenic (discrepancy between “can” and “should”;
- obsessive-psychasthenic (contradiction between “I want” and “should”.
The conflict associated with the choice between two equally unattractive objects is called vital.
Types of intrapersonal conflicts in this video:
Basic psychological concepts
Different specialists considered intrapersonal conflicts in different ways.
Consider the basic psychological concepts:
Peculiarities
intrapersonal conflict has the following features:
- a person may not be aware of the presence of it in himself, compensating for this at a subconscious level with increased activity or euphoria;
- there are no strangers in this case - a person comes into conflict with himself;
- confrontation can be accompanied by stress, fears, depression and other negative experiences.
Resolution methods
How to resolve internal conflict? Although intrapersonal conflicts are resolved individually, there are typical general principles and methods for their resolution, and, given the individual specifics, they can be used by everyone.
The most important among them are the following:
How to resolve internal conflict? Find out from the video:
Examples from literature, from life
The simplest example of intrapersonal conflict is choice of profession.
Parents demand from the child that he enroll in a specific specialty, in their opinion, prestigious.
He respects their choice and does not want to upset, but wants to enter a completely different specialty. Or even go to work.
And then within himself he will painfully decide, what to do to submit to the will of the parents, but find a profession that he does not like, or make the choice that he wants, but ruin relations with loved ones.
The classic example in literature is Raskolnikov. Before committing a crime, the main conflict in it occurs between conscience and the idea of committing it. It was a constant internal struggle waged by all means of consciousness.
After committing the crime, self-loathing reached incredible proportions, and consciousness chose a way to get rid of it by projecting it onto the outside world, and disgust for its objects is distributed unevenly.
In the future, another conflict appears, in which the developed disgust for loved ones contradicts love for them.
Hate prevents love and expression of this love, love prevents the expression of hatred. The way out is alienation, which does not involve the expression of either one or the other.
The intrapersonal conflict of a person can be no less complex than. However, it must be understood that it belongs to everyone.
The result will depend on the person personally, because sooner or later he will need make a decision. Each of these decisions shapes further events, so you need to take your internal contradictions responsibly.
What is internal conflict? How to find internal conflict? Should I look for it? Expert opinion: