Introduction
The subject of my control work reveals the basic concepts of higher nervous activity, its typology. It is known that higher nervous activity is provided by the cerebral cortex. This means that our memory, speech, attention, thinking and many other types of mental processes directly depend on correct operation cortex, its adequate perception and analysis of various stimuli.
Nervous processes occurring in the cortex have certain properties(strength, ratio, mobility), which form the individual characteristics of higher nervous activity, and therefore emphasize the individuality of each person.
The typology of higher nervous activity indicates the peculiar way in which the individual perceives the world around him.
1. Basic properties nervous processes, defining behavior
Long-term study of conditioned reflexes allowed Pavlov to distinguish three main properties of nervous processes that determine the individual characteristics of animal behavior, their temperaments. The first property is the strength of the processes of excitation and inhibition, which characterizes the performance of cortical cells. This property is determined by the limiting strength of stimulation, to which positive and negative conditioned reflexes can be formed. Some dogs easily form conditioned reflexes to both weak and strong stimuli. For other dogs, strong stimuli (a sharp bell or a ratchet) turn out to be excessive and cause transcendental inhibition at the corresponding point, easily radiating throughout the entire cortex. In such dogs, conditioned reflexes are formed only to weak or medium strength stimuli.
The second property is the ratio, or balance, of the forces of the processes of excitation and inhibition, in other words, their balance. In some dogs, both positive and negative conditioned reflexes are equally easily formed, while in others, the strength of the processes of excitation and inhibition is not the same. If the process of excitation prevails over the process of inhibition, then along with the rapid formation of positive conditioned reflexes, there is difficulty in developing differentiations, especially subtle ones; already existing differentiations are easily disinhibited. In such excitable dogs, an overstrain of the inhibitory process leads to the disappearance of all previously developed differentiations. If, on the contrary, the process of excitation turns out to be weaker than the process of inhibition, then the dog in its behavior approaches those in whom strong stimuli cause general cortical inhibition. The third property is the mobility of the processes of excitation and inhibition, i.e. the speed with which they can replace each other. In some dogs, the resulting excitation or inhibition is, as it were, a stagnant character, slowly changing to the opposite process. The transformation of a positive reflex into a negative one, and a negative one into a positive one, is difficult for them. A quick change of positive and negative stimuli can sometimes even lead to disruption of cortical activity. in other dogs, on the contrary, cortical cells easily cope with the task that requires a rapid change in the processes of excitation and inhibition; in experiment it is not difficult to achieve a mutual alteration of positive and negative reflections. This property acquires an essential, decisive value when the processes of excitation and inhibition are sufficiently strong and balanced, and recedes into the background when both processes or one of them are weak.
2. Types of higher nervous activity
Individual features of the higher nervous activity of dogs are extremely diverse, since gradations of strength, balance and mobility of nervous processes can be very different. Pavlov managed to identify four main types - one weak and three strong (additional No. 1). Dogs, whose cortical cells have sufficient strength for the processes of excitation and inhibition, Pavlov divides into unbalanced and balanced, and the latter, in turn, into animals with a mobile and inert nature of cortical processes. Ultimately, Pavlov distinguishes the following types of higher nervous activity according to the above signs: weak; unbalanced; living, or mobile; calm or inert. The weak type is characterized by a very low physiological lability of the nerve cells of the cortex. hemispheres and, consequently, the ease of their transition to a state of inhibition under the influence of incoming impulses. Excessive inhibition of cells determines the low limit of their performance. Animals with a weak type of higher nervous activity are cowardly; in response to the action of strong or unusual stimuli, they often give a passive-defensive reaction. Animals with an unbalanced type of higher nervous activity have sufficient strength of nervous processes and, at the same time, a clear predominance of excitation over inhibition. Excitation of cortical cells can reach great strength and easily radiate through the cortex, overcoming inhibition, which leads to a violation of the normal ratio of excitation and inhibition processes. Such dogs are overly excitable, aggressive, unrestrained in their aggression and difficult to educate (train) due to the easily occurring disruption of inhibitory processes, in particular differentiations. The living or mobile type is characterized by great mobility of nervous processes and, at the same time, their sufficient strength and balance. Well-defined phenomena of positive and negative induction prevent excessive irradiation of nervous processes and ensure the speed and ease of transition from one process to another. To maintain an active state, cortical cells need an influx of a large number of afferent impulses, without which their excitability decreases, and inhibition develops, which easily radiates through the cortex. Animals with a lively type of higher nervous activity are mobile, sociable, easily orientated in a new environment, react vividly to each new stimulus, without showing excessive aggression; in a monotonous, monotonous environment, they easily fall asleep. Characteristic calm or inert type - low mobility, stagnation of nervous processes with sufficient strength and balance. The process of excitation or inhibition that has arisen in the cortical cell persists for some time, without showing a tendency to rapid and significant irradiation. Animals with a calm type of higher nervous activity are unsociable, react poorly to new stimuli, as if ignoring everything that is happening around them. The above classification of types is a scheme that reflects reality only in some approximation. In life, you can observe various variations of these types. The described types of higher nervous activity can also be found in humans. Pavlov rightfully draws an analogy between these types and temperaments, once described by Hippocrates: a melancholic temperament corresponds to a weak type, choleric to an unbalanced one, sanguine to a lively one, and phlegmatic to a calm one.
3. Analytical and synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex
The mechanisms of higher nervous activity in higher animals and humans are associated with the activity of a number of brain regions. The main role in these mechanisms belongs to the cerebral cortex (IP Pavlov). It has been experimentally shown that in the higher representatives of the animal world, after complete surgical removal of the cortex, the higher nervous activity deteriorates sharply. They lose the ability to subtly adapt to the external environment and exist independently in it. In humans, the cerebral cortex acts as a "manager and distributor" of all vital functions (IP Pavlov). This is due to the fact that in the course of phylogenetic development, the process of corticalization of functions occurs. It is expressed in the increasing subordination of the body's somatic and vegetative functions to the regulatory influences of the cerebral cortex. In the case of the death of nerve cells in a significant part of the human cerebral cortex, it turns out to be unviable and quickly dies with a noticeable violation of the homeostasis of the most important autonomic functions. A feature of the cerebral cortex is its ability to distinguish individual elements from the mass of incoming signals, to distinguish them from each other, i.e. she has the ability to analyze. Of all the perceived signals, the animal selects only those that are directly related to a particular function of the organism: to obtaining food, maintaining the integrity of the organism, reproduction, etc. in response to these stimuli, impulses are transmitted to the corresponding effector organs (motor or secretory). The analysis and synthesis of stimuli in the simplest form can also be carried out by the peripheral sections of the analyzers - receptors. Since the receptors are specialized in the perception of certain stimuli, therefore, they produce their qualitative separation, i.e. analysis of certain signals from external environment. At complex structure receptor apparatus, such as the organ of hearing, its building blocks sounds of unequal pitch can be distinguished. Along with this, a complex perception of sounds is also produced, which leads to their synthesis into a single whole. The analysis and synthesis carried out by the peripheral ends of the analyzers are called elementary analysis and synthesis. But excitation from the receptors also comes to the central cortical ends of the analyzers, where more complex forms of analysis and synthesis take place. Here, excitation in the process of formation of a conditioned reflex comes into contact with numerous foci of excitation in other areas of the cortex, which contributes to the unification of numerous stimuli into a single complex, and also makes it possible to distinguish elementary stimuli more subtly. The analysis and synthesis carried out by the cortical ends of the analyzers are called higher analysis and synthesis. The basis of the analytical activity of the cortex is the process of inhibition, which limits the irradiation of excitation. As a result of the analysis of perceived stimuli, their differentiation is possible. The environment is constantly changing biological significance its individual elements with others. In this regard, the relationship between analysis and synthesis is constantly changing in the cerebral cortex. Both processes are constantly interconnected, and therefore they are considered as a single analytical-synthetic process, a single analytical-synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex.
4. Signaling systems of reality
In 6935, Pavlov wrote about the "extraordinary increase in the mechanisms of nervous activity" that occurred in the developing animal world in the process of becoming a person. In an animal, afferent impulses signal phenomena and events that directly affect the body's receptors. Such a direct signal system of reality is also inherent in man. At the same time, there is another, specially ours, human signaling system of reality. A person "appeared, developed and greatly improved signals of the second degree, the signals of these primary signals - in the form of words, pronounced, audible and visible" (Pavlov). Thus, a double signaling of reality is inherent in a person: 1. A system of direct signals of reality common with animals; 2. A special system of indirect, speech signals. Speech signals underlie a special principle, a special form of reflection of reality. They can not only replace direct signals, but also generalize them, single out and abstract individual features and qualities of objects and phenomena, establish their connections and mutual dependence, as well as the processes of their formation and change. It is this system of signals that determines the most important features of a person's higher nervous activity and makes possible "specially human, higher thinking" (Pavlov), leading to an unlimited orientation in the surrounding world, to the development of science and its practical reflection - technology. A remarkable feature of the second signal system- the speed of formation of conditioned connections: it is enough for a person to hear something or read something in a book once, so that new conditioned connections appear in the cerebral cortex. Sometimes they are so strong that they remain for many years without needing reinforcement. The second signaling system, associated in its development with mental activity, each person has features that depend on individual life experience, and is not inherited. An illustration of this is the case when children grow up among animals and are deprived of the influence human society. Such people have a sharp decrease in intelligence and the absence of the possibility of developing abstract abstract thinking. Many people ask the question: do the mind, speech, the human psyche develop if the child grows up in isolation from human society? Nature herself answered this question. Such children were physically strong, ran fast on all fours, saw and heard well, but were devoid of intelligence. "In 1920, in India, Dr. Sing found two girls in a wolf den along with a litter of wolf cubs. One of them looked to be 7-8 years old , another year 2. The girls were sent to an orphanage. At first they walked and ran only on all fours, and only at night, and during the day they slept, huddled in a corner and cuddled up to each other like puppies. The youngest girl soon died, and the eldest, she was called Kamala, lived for about 10 years. All these years, Sing kept a detailed diary of observation of Kamala. She walked on all fours, leaning on her hands and feet for a long time. She drank lacquer, and ate meat only from the floor, did not take it from her hands "When people approached her while eating, she bared her teeth like a wolf and growled. Kamala saw well in the dark and was afraid of strong light and fire. During the day she slept, squatting in the corner, facing the wall. She tore off her clothes and even in cold weather threw off the blanket. After 2 years, Kamala learned to stand, but poorly. After 6 years, she began to walk, but she still ran on all fours. Within 4 years, she learned only 6 words, and after 7 years - 45 words. Subsequently, Kamala's lexicon expanded to 100 words. By this time, she fell in love with the company of people, ceased to be afraid of the light, learned to eat with her hands and drink from a glass. Having reached about 17 years of age, Kamala by level mental development resembled a 4-year-old child "(Kuznetsov O.N., Lebedev V.I. "Psychology and psychopathy of loneliness" 1972). There are cases when children were deliberately isolated from the team. Growing up, they were no different from children who grew up among animals "About 350 years ago, the Indian padishah Akbar argued with his court wise men, who claimed that every child would speak the language of his parents, even if no one taught him this. Akbar doubted the validity of this opinion and conducted an experiment worthy of the cruelty of the eastern feudal lords of the Middle Ages. Small children of various nationalities were seized and placed one at a time in separate rooms. The children were served by silent servants. For 7 years of this "experiment" the children have never heard a human voice. When, after 7 years, people entered them, instead of human speech they heard incoherent screams, howling screams, meowing "(Kuznetsov O.N., Lebedev V.I. "Psychology and psychopathy of loneliness" 1972)
These examples show that the process of human mental development depends on learning from early childhood. A child isolated from human society does not develop a second signaling system. The influence of human society on the formation of the mental sphere of the child is very important for proper education. The more adequate stimuli a child receives, the better he develops. abstract thinking and consciousness. This is better perceived in childhood, when a certain morphological rearrangement occurs. nervous system which has huge hereditary reserves. Isolation from social environment an adult also causes known functional disorders, mental illness.
5. Particular types of higher nervous activity of a person
A person can think about various objects without reproducing their real image. However, when thinking about an object, for example, a lemon, it is good to imagine its appearance, smell and taste. In this case, the cortical process will affect the primary signaling activity more strongly, and as a result, such a concrete idea of \u200b\u200bthe lemon may arise that salivation will immediately appear. If the process of thinking is more abstract, without reproducing real images, then such a reaction does not occur. In individual people, thinking can proceed with varying degrees of participation of the primary signal activity, although in all cases the secondary signal activity, of course, retains the leading role. This gave Pavlov reason to distinguish between types of higher nervous activity, not only common to animals and humans, but also specific to humans. He distinguished three types of people, which were designated as "artistic", "thinking" and "average". The relative predominance of the signals of the first signal system in mental activity a person is characterized by an artistic type, the relative predominance of signal signals is a thinking type, their equal representation is an average type of people. The artistic type is characterized by the brightness of images that arise as a result of direct impact, live impressions, and emotions. The mental type is characterized by the predominance of abstractions, logical constructions, and theorizing. It must be emphasized that attributing a person to an artistic type does not mean weakness intellectual activity, lack of mind. We are talking here about the relative predominance of the figurative components of the psyche over the mental ones. In general, the second signal system in a person prevails over the first, and this predominance is absolute, since the role of language and thinking in people's activities is decisive and the processes of reflection by a person of the world are mediated by his thoughts expressed verbally. Therefore, with the absolute predominance of the first signal system, we meet only in dreams, with their violent emotionality and chaotic imagery, which is in no way ordered and not regulated by thinking.
What does the relative predominance of one of the signaling systems mean? If we express the absolute predominance of the second signal system mathematically, denoting it C2, and the first signal system through C1, then the dependence would have the following form C2>C1.
The relative predominance of the first signaling system over the second can be designated C2>C1 + m (where m are those structural features of the emotional and figurative comprehension of the world that distinguish representatives of this type). In turn, the mental type of a person can be designated as follows: C2 + n > C1 (where n is the structural features of an abstracting attitude to the world that distinguish representatives of this type from the rest). These mathematical relationships make it possible to see that the relative dominance of one system over another should not be confused with absolute dominance.
6. The appearance of the first conditioned reflexes
The higher manifestations of nervous activity are based on the formation of conditioned connections that ensure the flow of positive and negative conditioned reflexes. Without conditional connections there is no higher nervous activity. its appearance in the process of ontogenesis should be attributed to the moment of the formation of the first conditioned reflexes. In a premature baby, food and defensive conditioned reflexes can be formed at that period of his life, when he should not have been born yet. This indicates that a few weeks before birth, the cortical cells are morphologically mature enough to display their specific function. At the same time, during the period of intrauterine development, the environment surrounding the fetal body is extremely stable, and therefore there are no conditions that are necessary for the manifestation of a specific cortical function. These conditions appear from the moment of birth, when various new stimuli begin to act on the body, which, repeatedly combined with the action of unconditioned stimuli, can acquire a signal value. In this case, the first conditioned reflexes are formed slowly and at first they are characterized by low resistance, which can be explained by a pronounced irradiation of excitation and inhibition. By the beginning of the second month of life, alimentary and defensive conditioned reflexes become stronger and are formed to stimulate any receptors; it is possible to develop rough differentiations, i.e. to stimuli that are significantly different from each other. In the process of the emergence of more and more new positive and negative conditioned reflexes, the rate of their formation and consolidation increases. At the same time, in individual children, the rate of formation of reflexes to various stimuli varies greatly. These individual features primarily depend on previously formed conditioned reflexes. The child more easily and quickly distinguishes those stimuli that played a large role in his previous life, in other words, took a greater part in the formation of the available fund of conditioned connections. Consequently, new positive and negative conditioned reflexes are developed the faster and easier, the more similar (or similar) reflexes were formed earlier. This is one of the regularities in the development of higher nervous activity, which underlies its qualitative age-related features. In children 3-4 months old, some conditioned reflexes (in particular, food and defensive ones) appear after several combinations; at the same time, both the strength and subtlety of differentiation begin to increase. By this time, the conditioned reflex activity of the cerebral cortex becomes much more complicated. A sufficient number of previously formed connections to simple stimuli makes it possible to develop not only positive, but also negative conditioned reflexes to more complex, for example complex, stimuli. The simplest unconditioned orienting reflexes are present in children already in the first days after birth. Conditioned orienting reflexes appear much later, usually from the third or fourth month of life. In the future, they are formed very easily and begin to play a significant role in the behavior of the child. The most important conditioned stimulus that causes an orienting reflex is sound speech, signaling the presence of a person.
7. Development of speech
From the middle of the first year of life, the child develops conditioned reflexes to speech stimuli. He begins to react to the words spoken by others, which turn into signals of various unconditioned, and later conditioned stimuli. Gradually words become signals of certain actions, phenomena and relations between them. Due to the imitative reflex, pronounced already in the first months of life, the child begins to repeat the mimic movements of those around him and the sounds of their speech. The first speech noises appear - pharyngeal laryngeal, palatine, labial, etc., which then gradually differentiate, leading to the formation of phonemes, i.e. speech sounds. Each sound uttered by a child evokes afferent impulses in him both from the organ of hearing (he hears the word he utters) and from the organs of speech (vocal cords, tongue and the entire speech apparatus). These impulses, reaching the cortex, become signals that acquire the most important significance in the establishment of conditioned speech connections. The child's speech begins from the moment when the phonemes uttered by him or their combinations acquire the meaning of conditioned stimuli, becoming the same signals of direct stimuli as the words uttered by others. By the end of the first and the beginning of the second year of life, the child, often without having yet formed pronunciation individual words, begins in his speech reactions to combine two, and then three words, thus forming the first simplest combinations of words. The child learns ready-made speech stereotypes, soon making up new combinations of words. Mastering the grammar of the language, the rules for combining words into sentences begins very early, already in the second year of life. By the end of his vocabulary of children's speech reaches 200-400 words. In the future, the development of children's speech, i.e. giving the language a harmonious, grammatically correct and meaningful character, to a large extent depends on the correct construction of the speech of others.
8. The role of Sechenov and Pavlov in the development of the doctrine of higher nervous activity
I. P. Pavlov (1849-1936) I. M. Sechenov (1849-1936)
The first attempt to analyze mental activity as the physiological work of the higher part of the brain was made by Sechenov. In his remarkable article "Reflexes of the Brain" (1863) and a number of subsequent works, he proved with great skill that the external manifestation of brain activity always "reduced finally to a single phenomenon - muscle movement" and that all manifestations of human mental activity are based on reflexes. . The phenomena of inhibition discovered by Sechenov in the central nervous system served as the basis for distinguishing between cases with intensification and delay (inhibition) of reflex reactions of the brain. He considered the states of passion and affect as an intensification of a motor reaction, and he imagined an unexpressed thought as an unfinished reflex, the last link of which, i.e. movement, slowed down. Sechenov repeatedly emphasized that "the first cause of any human action lies outside it" and that "under the same internal and external conditions of a person, his activity should be the same." In other words, Sechenov recognized the determinism of all acts of conscious life. In his works, he gave a deeply materialistic physiological interpretation of human mental activity, thus laying the foundation for the future experimental physiology of the brain. I. Sechenov's studies on the reflex nature of the psyche were developed by I. Pavlov (1849-1936) in his theory of higher nervous activity. The theory of reflex activity is based on three main principles of scientific research: 1. Determinism - the causal relationship of any action. 2. Analysis and synthesis - decomposition of the whole into parts and then compiling a new whole from the elements. 3. Structurality. In his research, I. Pavlov proved that the large hemispheres of the brain are of great importance in the life of the whole organism. The cerebral cortex, together with the nearest subcortical centers, carries out complex analytical and synthetic activities. Complex temporary nervous connections are formed in it, with the help of which the relations between the organism and the external environment, as well as the activity of the organism itself, are regulated. This activity of the cerebral hemispheres I. Pavlov calls the higher nervous activity. There are two types of reflexes: conditional and unconditional. Unconditioned reflexes- congenital, they are inherited and are characterized by great constancy. Any unconditioned reflex, as an inborn one, appears immediately at the first application of the corresponding stimulus, if the central nervous system has reached the necessary degree of maturity. Conditioned reflexes are acquired throughout life, are not inherited and are much less constant. Conditioned reflexes do not appear immediately: they are developed gradually, under certain conditions. This is due to the fact that the unconditioned reflex flows through ready-made reflex arcs, and for the implementation of the conditioned reflex, it is necessary that new connections between nerve cells, called conditioned connections, be established in the cortex, and thereby a new, previously non-existing reflex arc closes. Unconditioned reflexes can be considered as specific, i.e. characteristic for all representatives of a given species, and conditional - as individual, i.e. acquired by an individual during its lifetime.
Conclusion
The higher nervous activity of a person is reflex in nature. The main qualitative feature of the functions of the higher part of the human brain is consciousness as the highest stage in the development of the psyche. Both man and animal in their mental activity reflect the phenomena of the surrounding world. At the same time, a person, reflecting the world in his mind, generalizes the observed phenomena, establishes the laws of their course. This gives man the opportunity to subdue nature and in the process labor activity remake the world. Conscious thinking, which determines the main qualitative difference between the human brain and the brain of any animal, is manifested in speech activity. in this respect, it is as comprehensive as any other, not going in this respect in any quantitative and qualitative comparison with the conditioned stimuli of an animal. Nervous processes occurring in the body have three main properties: strength, ratio and mobility. They determine the individual characteristics of human behavior, his temperament. Based on this, four types of higher nervous activity are distinguished. This classification reflects reality only in some approximation. In life, one can observe various variations of these types, since the weakness and imbalance of the nervous system can be expressed in varying degrees.
Literature
Anokhin P.K. Essays on the physiology of functional systems. - M .: Medicine, 1975
Batuev A. V. Higher nervous activity. - M.: Higher. school, 1991
Kostyuk P.G. Physiology of the central nervous system. - K .: Higher. school, 1971
Nebylitsin VD Basic properties of the human nervous system. - M.: Enlightenment, 1966
Plakhtiy P.D. Physiology of people. - Kam "yanets-Podilsky: Osvita, 2000
Starushenko L.I. Anatomy and physiology of a person. - K .: Zdorov "ya, 2003
Tkachuk V. G., Khapko V. B. Anatomy and evolution of the nervous system: Brief lecture notes. - 2nd ed. stereotype. - K.: MAUP, 2003
Images, patterns of behavior, as I. P. Pavlov wrote, represent a huge variety. But since our behavior is controlled by the nervous system, it is possible to reduce this diversity to a limited number of basic properties of the nervous system. Long-term studies dogs by the method of conditioned reflexes allowed IP Pavlov to identify and describe these properties. From the very first experiments, the difference in the behavior of the dogs was striking: some drank without resistance and remained calm in a new experimental environment for them, calmly carried the devices attached to their skin, and when they were given food, they immediately ate it. And others had to be accustomed to all this for days and weeks, very gradually. In the former, conditioned reflexes were formed quickly, after two or three combinations, in the latter, after dozens of repetitions. I. P. Pavlov suggested that for the former, the strength of irritation is a strong process, and for the latter, it is weak. With the former, an irritable process that arises in time, as, for example, at the sight of the offered food, constantly opposes secondary influences, remaining predominant. For the latter, its strength is not enough to overcome less important conditions that act as a brake on the main stimulus.
The next property of the nervous system that attracted attention was the equality or inequality of stimulation and inhibition, later called balance. Dogs with very strong excitation and weak inhibition (uncontrollable) did not tolerate experiments where it was necessary to respond positively to one sound (for example, to press the pedal), but not to react at all to a similar sound. They protested in the form of barking and destructive actions. At the same time, it was not possible to achieve a clear fulfillment of the task. There are dogs that can easily cope with such tasks. Their excitation and inhibition are at the same high altitude, this is a balanced nervous system. Thus, strong are divided into balanced and unmanaged. But strong balanced also often differ sharply in behavior. Some are mobile, sociable and reactive. Others, on the contrary, are less reactive, inactive, uncommunicative and generally slow. The basis for this difference is mobility of the nervous system the rate of formation of conditioned reflexes. Therefore, strong balanced ones can be mobile or have inert nervous system.
In the identified four types of the nervous system, IP Pavlov saw the brilliant providence of Hippocrates *, who caught the capital features in the mass of countless variants of human behavior. Isolation by Hippocrates melancholic from the mass of people meant the division of people into strong and weak. Choleric he stood out from the group of the strong for his impetuousness, i.e., inability to tame his strength, or the predominance of excitation over inhibition. Here the principle of balance is confirmed. And in comparison phlegmatic and sanguine the property of the mobility of the nervous system was manifested. These properties determine the highest adaptation of the organism to environmental conditions. Meaning strength nervous processes can be seen when unusual, extraordinary events appear in the environment, irritations of great strength. When it becomes necessary to delay, suppress the effect of this irritation and withstand extreme tension, the importance of balancing the nervous processes becomes apparent. And since the environment constantly fluctuates, often strongly and unexpectedly, both processes - inhibition and excitation - must have high mobility: the ability to quickly, at the request of external conditions, give preference to one stimulus over another, stimulus over inhibition, and vice versa.
* For more details on the types of temperament described by Hippocrates, see sec. Temperament.
The theory of I.P. Pavlov about the properties of the NS as the leading parameters of the organization of behavior and physiological individuality predetermined its exceptional promise, but at the same time caused serious criticism, in particular for the “evaluative approach”. I. P. Pavlov is characterized by the desire to consider the basic properties of NS as a scale in which one pole is positive from a biological point of view, and the other is negative. Pavlov believed that such a quality as, for example, strength, is a positive property, and the weakness of the nervous system is a defect in organization. A deep theoretical analysis carried out by B. N. Teplov made it possible to assert that at each pole there is a combination of positive and negative sides. So, for example, the weakness of the nervous system (low endurance of nerve cells) is associated with high sensitivity (the ability to pick up low-intensity signals that are below the perception threshold of individuals of the strong type), and the strength of the nervous system (endurance) is combined with low sensitivity. Thus, both poles are "competitive" and equally viable.
Brain
In all vertebrate species, the brain and spinal cord appear as a tube one cell layer thick. Three thickenings or primary cerebral vesicles appear in front of the tube. From them, the hindbrain, middle and forebrain develop. Most parts of the brain are formed from the anterior bladder, including two chambers on the left and right sides, in which the cerebral hemispheres are formed. structures forebrain usually attributed to "higher" intellectual functions. The main lobes of the forebrain were named according to their location (their main functions are indicated in brackets): occipital (vision), temporal (hearing and speech), parietal (reaction to sensory stimuli and control of movements), frontal (coordination of the functions of other areas of the cortex). The hemispheres of the brain differ in the functioning of similar, parallel sections. This phenomenon has been called brain asymmetry. The observation from daily practice. Most people prefer the right hand, which is controlled by the left side of the brain. Linguistic abilities are also associated with the left side. Therefore, it was previously believed that the left hemisphere is more important, dominant, and the right hemisphere is subordinate. AT last years it became clear that each hemisphere has its own "special talents". If the left hemisphere is responsible for operating verbal, symbolic information: reading, counting, analysis operations, then the right hemisphere dominates in such properties as musicality, recognition of complex visual images, expression and recognition of emotions, synthesis operations, generalizations.
midbrain includes the thalamus and hypothalamus. In the thalamic fields and nuclei, almost all information entering and exiting the forebrain is switched. The hypothalamic nuclei and fields serve as transmission (relay) stations for internal systems - they control information about the state of the body coming from internal organs and the autonomic nervous system.
Medulla, bridge, trunk and cerebellum form back brain. The fields and nuclei of the pons and brainstem control breathing and heart rate and are essential to sustaining life. The cerebellum receives and modifies information about the position of the body and limbs. The cerebellum stores the main programs of learned motor reactions.
The simplest movement, any thought of a person is regulated by the complex work of the entire brain.
The ability of a creature to perceive the environment, adapt to it and live in it long enough to produce offspring and thus support the existence of the species depends on the successful functioning of the brain. However, the symbolic actions of a higher order, which a person performs when he performs mathematical calculations, transform thoughts into oral or written speech, composes music or poetry, draws, dances - there is a result of the unusual properties of the human brain that have yet to be comprehended, although scientists have long been trying to penetrate this mystery.
Historians of science note that the thinkers of the past, trying to explain how the brain works, looked for analogues in the material world around them. The ancient physician Galen was one of the first to dissect the human brain. Main technical advances of his time were plumbing and sewage, based on the principles of fluid mechanics. Therefore, one can hardly consider Galen's conviction that in the brain important role fluid-filled cavities. Today these cavities are known as the cerebral ventricular system. Galen believed that everything physical functions bodies, health and disease depend on the distribution of the four body fluids - blood, phlegm (mucus), black and yellow bile. Each of them has a special function: the blood supports the vital spirit; phlegm causes lethargy; black bile causes melancholy; yellow - anger. This theory has been popular for a very long time.
In the 17th century came the conviction that this can be explained from the standpoint of mechanics. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler suggested that the eye acts, in fact, like an ordinary optical instrument.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was established that nerves and muscles have electrical excitability. However, the understanding that nerves and muscles really work, generating "animal" electricity, did not come immediately. The Italian scientist Luigi Galvani solved this problem only at the very end of the 18th century, and the German biologist Emile Dubois-Reymond returned to it at the beginning of the next century. He and his collaborators were the first to measure the electrical potentials of living acting nerves and muscles.
In the 19th century with development technical means warfare increased the number of its victims, and doctors were able to determine the exact localization of brain damage in soldiers with non-fatal head wounds. Clinical observations linking certain mental disorders to damage to certain areas of the brain continue to be the main source of critical information.
The Austrian anatomist Franz Joseph Gall took one more step in the issue of localization of sensory (sensitive) and motor (motor) areas of the brain. He assumed that everything mental capacity a person can be identified by the location of the bumps on the skull, lying above the corresponding parts of the brain. This now extinct science, called phrenology, soon lost popularity. A similar strategy in studying the brain of animals has proven to be more useful. According to its supporters, the function for which one or another area of the brain is responsible can be revealed by looking at what happens when an electrical stimulation of this area. To late XIX in. these two research approaches - the study of the consequences of brain damage and the method of electrical stimulation - allowed specialists to evaluate the functional role of the brain regions that we spoke about above.
The task of the nervous system and the brain is the regulation of the vital activity of the body and human behavior. The main load in the regulation of behavior falls on the brain, in the regulation of the vital activity of the body - on autonomic nervous system and endocrine system. The autonomic nervous system governs unconscious, automated processes such as the functioning of the heart, lungs, stomach, and other internal organs.
Endocrine system with the help of chemical agents, it controls blood volume, salt balance, oxygen and glucose concentration in the blood and, thus, determines the strength and frequency of heart contractions, blood flow to the muscles and the brain, which in turn affects the general state of the body's activity and the activation of individual its systems, for example, muscular. The endocrine system, like the autonomic nervous system, operates at an unconscious level and is not directly involved in the regulation of behavior. But the endocrine glands, which make up the endocrine system, determine to a very large extent how quickly bodily energy is used.
Thyroid acts as an accelerator, forcing the individual to work at high and low speeds. Because of the thyroid gland, some people are always on the move, others are always sluggish. The thyroid gland sets the volume of activity of the individual as a whole, regardless of what he will turn energy into.
adrenal glands act like a rocket launcher. When we need an extra push, the adrenal glands suddenly release a large supply of energy. This usually happens when we have to fight or flee.
gonads also cause energy to be released, and this energy, similar to that produced by the adrenal glands, serves as a source of power for some special purposes.
Assessing the role of the glands, we have no right to consider them a source of energy and aspirations for creation or destruction; their real purpose is to give additional ardor to these aspirations and additional energy for their implementation. Elderly people, whose glands are gradually weakening, can still create or destroy, but they usually do not have the passionate excitement and concentrated energy of a younger age.
Further, the glands have nothing to do with how the released energy is used. The glands of the adrenal cortex, for example, make the muscles of the arms and legs stronger and more mobile, but do not determine whether they will be used to fight or flee. The link between the glands and the brain is the pituitary gland, the "master gland" that governs all others. The pituitary gland sends out chemical messengers to all other glands. In turn, the lower, more “primitive” parts of the brain “give orders” to the pituitary gland, and those are controlled by the cerebral cortex.
The endocrine glands are directly involved in the emergence of emotions of fear and anger. The "master gland" secretes hormones that affect the autonomic nervous system.
To understand how the autonomic nervous system works, imagine what happens to a person who is ready for a fight-or-flight response: the pupils dilate to let in more light; the frequency of heart contractions increases, and each contraction becomes more powerful, which leads to an increase in overall blood flow. Blood drains from the skin and internal organs to the muscles and brain. Digestion slows down. The cells of the liver and adipose tissue give more glucose and fatty acids into the blood - high-energy fuel. This allows the brain to receive a large proportion of glucose. All this provides the body with the ability to actively resist or avoid that which carries a threat.
Of course, the actions of the pituitary gland and the autonomic nervous system are only part of a complex mechanism responsible for the emergence of a whole spectrum of emotions that are diverse in strength and content. Not only the endocrine system plays a role in human mental manifestations, but even such features far from mental as the type of development of the embryonic germ tubes can determine the specifics of human behavior.
It is well known that at a very early stage, the human fetus is a three-layered tube, the inner layer of which develops into the stomach and lungs, the middle layer into bones, muscles, connective tissue and blood vessels, and the outer layer into the skin and nervous system.
Usually these three layers grow at about the same rate, so the average person is the right combination of brain, muscle, and internal organs. However, sometimes one of the layers grows more than the others, in which case the activity of the individual often turns out to be connected mainly with this expanded layer.
We can say that the average person is a combination of different qualities, but there are people who are predominantly endowed with a "digestive" or "muscular" or "brain" setting. They have, respectively, a digestive, muscular or brain type of body.
People with a digestive body type look fat, those with a muscular body type look large, those with a brain type look long. This does not mean at all that the higher the person, the smarter he is. This means that if a person, however short, looks long rather than large or fat, he is most often more concerned with what goes on in his head than with what he does or what he eats; The decisive factor here is not height, but thinness. On the other hand, a person who appears fat rather than tall or large is more likely to be interested in a good steak than in a brilliant idea or a wonderful outing.
To refer to these body types, scientists use Greek words. A person with a predominant development of the inner layer, they designated the word endomorph, the middle layer - the mesomorph, the outer - the ectomorph.
In most people, all these qualities are combined quite correctly, and the following applies only to extreme cases. The types we are interested in are easier to study in men than in women.
Viscerotonic endomorph. He looks round and soft, with a big chest but an even bigger belly. It is felt that it is more convenient for him to eat than to breathe. He has a broad face, a short thick neck, voluminous hips and arms from elbow to shoulder, but small hands and feet. His pectoral muscles are overdeveloped. His skin is soft and smooth, and when he goes bald, which usually happens to him very early, the hair falls out first on the top of his head.
The best example of this type is a cheerful, well-knit person; he likes to communicate with people, participate in banquets and ceremonial meetings; he has a light disposition, affectionate manner.
Somatotonic mesomorph. If a person definitely belongs to the broad type, and not to the thick and long one, then he looks rough and muscular. He usually has large arms and legs, the chest and stomach are firm, regular in shape, and the chest is larger than the stomach. It is felt that it is easier for him to breathe than to eat. His face is bony, his shoulders are broad, and his chin is square. The skin is thick, rough and elastic, tans easily. If he goes bald, then the baldness usually starts from the side of the forehead. He loves to "go out". He has strong muscles, and he willingly uses it. He seeks adventure exercise, fights and likes to prevail in everything. He is bold and unceremonious.
Cerebrotonic ectomorph. If a person definitely belongs to the long type, then he has thin bones, flaccid muscles. His shoulders are usually stooped, he has a flat stomach with a retracted stomach and long legs. The neck and fingers are long, and the face is elongated and shaped like an egg. The skin is thin, dry and pale; he rarely goes bald. He looks like the absent-minded professor, which he often is. People of this kind are impulsive, but prefer to conserve their energy and are not particularly mobile. Such a person behaves calmly and tries to stay away from different stories. Troubles irritate him, he avoids complications. Friends understand him with difficulty.
In conclusion, let us briefly summarize what has been said. The appearance of the psyche and complex behavior of man is rooted in the process of formation of the nervous system, originating in the simplest animals; in the process of formation of the largest part of the central nervous system - the brain, traced from the development of the brain of fish to the appearance of the human brain. This is how it happened phylogenetic development of the psyche.
In individual (ontogenetic) the development of the psyche, the influence of the characteristics of the endocrine system, metabolism, and embryonic development is visible. As a rule, these features affect the “external” features of human behavior, without affecting either actions or decision-making, much less the moral aspects of human behavior. They serve only as a basis for the formation social behavior and, if I may say so, the “timbre coloration” of the melody of our life.
Temperament
The more intelligent a person is, the more he sees original people. ordinary person sees no difference between people.
B. Pascal. Thoughts
Watching other people, how they work, study, communicate, experience joys and sorrows, we undoubtedly pay attention to the differences in their behavior. Some are fast, impetuous, mobile, prone to violent emotional reactions, others are slow, calm, imperturbable, with imperceptibly expressed feelings, etc. The reason for such differences lies in temperament person, inherent in him from birth.
The founder of the doctrine of temperament is the ancient Roman physician Hippocrates (5th century BC), who believed that there are four main fluids in the human body; blood, mucus, bile and black bile. The names of temperaments given by the name of liquids have survived to this day: choleric comes from the word bile, sanguine - from the word blood, phlegmatic - mucus and melancholic - black bile. Hippocrates explained the severity of a certain type of temperament in a particular person by the predominance of one or another liquid.
The word "temperament" means "proper displacement of features." AT modern psychology this term means dynamic features of the human psyche, that is, only the pace, rhythm, intensity of the flow of mental processes, but not their content. That is why temperament, unlike, for example, the character of a person, cannot be defined by the word “good” or “bad”. Temperament is the biological foundation of our personality, that is, it is based on the properties of the human nervous system and is associated with the structure of the human body (constitution), metabolism in the body. Temperamental traits are hereditary, so they are extremely difficult to change. The main efforts of a person in the analysis of temperamental traits should not be aimed at changing them, but at identifying and understanding the characteristics of their temperament in order to know which types and methods of activity are more consistent with their natural predisposition. The fact is that temperament determines the style of human behavior, the ways that a person uses to organize his activities.
In psychology, there are two approaches to temperament: structural and typological. Representatives of the structural approach describe temperament through a set of features, characteristics, and the opinions of various authors differ in the number and name of these properties. Representatives of the typological approach believe that there are a number of types of temperament, although they also disagree on their number. Temperament has a certain set of psychological characteristics:
activity - the degree of interaction with the outside world;
reactivity- the strength and duration of the reaction after the cessation of the stimulus;
tempo characteristics - the speed of performing any actions - speech, walking, movements, etc .;
emotionality;
anxiety;
sensitivity - subtlety of perception of the external world;
rigidity-plasticity - ability to quickly reorganize in activity;
extraversion - outward orientation;
introversion - turning inward, towards oneself;
subordination-dominance - the tendency to obey or subdue, to be led or led;
neuroticism - imbalance, instability.
Psychological differences in temperament types are clearly visible from the following example.
Four friends - choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic were late for the theater. How will they behave in this situation? Choleric will enter into an argument with the usher, trying to get into his place. He will assure that the clock in the theater is fast, that the lights have not yet been extinguished, that he will not “crush” anyone’s legs and, perhaps, will even try to push back the usher and break into the auditorium.
The sanguine will immediately assess the situation, realize that they will not let him into the stalls and run up the stairs to the nearest tier.
The phlegmatic will think something like this: “Well, firstly, there was no big tragedy ... And then, the first act, as a rule, is generally uninteresting - the actors have not yet played out. I’ll go quietly to the buffet, eat ice cream, and then watch the performance in my comfortable velvet chair ... Should I run after a sanguine person on some dusty, hard benches? No, it's not for me at all!"
The melancholic will say the following to himself: “Well, well, of course, I was once again unlucky.” And, crying, will return home.
Identification of extraversion-introversion, as well as types of personality temperament can be carried out on the basis of using an adapted version of the G. Eysenck questionnaire. Each question below should be answered quickly with a yes or no.
Test
1. Do you often feel cravings for new experiences, to shake things up, to get excited?
2. Do you often feel that you need friends who understand you, who can encourage or console you?
3. Do you consider yourself a harmless person?
4. Is it very difficult for you to give up your intentions?
5. Do you think things over slowly, prefer to wait before acting?
6. Do you always keep your promises, regardless of the fact that it is unprofitable for you?
7. Do you often have ups and downs in your mood?
8. Do you generally act and speak quickly without stopping to think?
9. Have you ever had the feeling that you are an "unhappy" person, although there was no serious reason for this?
10. Is it true that you could decide on almost everything if the matter went into dispute?
11. Do you get embarrassed when you want to strike up a conversation with a cute stranger?
12. Do you ever get angry and lose your temper?
13. Do you often act under the influence of a minute?
14. Are you often tormented by thoughts that something should not have been done or said?
15. Do you prefer books to meeting people?
16. Is it true that you get offended quite easily?
17. Do you like to be in the company often?
18. Are there any thoughts that are inconvenient to tell friends about?
19. Is it true that sometimes you are full of energy so that everything burns in your hands, and sometimes you are completely lethargic?
20. Do you prefer to have fewer friends, but especially close ones?
21. Do you dream a lot?
22. When someone yells at you, do you respond in kind?
23. Do you often feel guilty?
24. Are all your habits good and desirable?
25. Are you able to give free rein to your feelings and have fun with might and main in a noisy company?
26. Is it possible to say that your nerves are often stretched to the limit?
27. Do you have a reputation for a cheerful and lively person?
28. After a job is done, do you often mentally return to it and think what could have been done better?
29. Do you usually feel calm when you are in company?
30. Do you ever spread rumors?
31. Does it happen that you can’t sleep because different thoughts come into your head?
32. If you want to know about something, do you prefer to read about it in a book than to ask your friends?
33. Do you have a strong heartbeat?
34. Do you like work that requires close attention?
35. Do you have bouts of trembling?
36. If you knew that what you said would never be revealed, would you always speak in the spirit of the generally accepted?
37. Do you find it unpleasant to be in a company where they make fun of each other?
38. Are you irritable?
39. Do you like work that requires quick action?
40. Is it true that you are often haunted by thoughts of various troubles and horrors that could happen, although everything ended well?
41. Are you slow and unhurried in your movements?
42. Have you ever been late for a date or work?
43. Do you often have nightmares?
44. Do you like to talk so much that you never miss an opportunity to talk with a stranger?
45. Do you suffer from any pain?
46. Would you feel unhappy if you could not see your acquaintances for a long time?
47. Can you name yourself nervous person?
48. Among the people you know, are there those that you clearly do not like?
49. Can you say that you are a confident person?
50. Would you be offended if someone criticized your shortcomings or the shortcomings of your work?
51. Do you find it hard to really enjoy a party?
52. Are you bothered by the feeling that you are somehow worse than others?
53. Do you find it difficult to spice up a rather boring company?
54. Do you sometimes talk about things that you do not understand at all?
55. Are you worried about your health?
56. Do you like to play pranks on others?
57. Do you suffer from insomnia?
Material handling
For each indicator, the sum of points is read (if the answer matches the one indicated in the "key", it is assigned "I"). If the total score is more than 5 in terms of the sincerity of answers, the results of the survey are not processed. Then, on a blank sheet, two axes intersecting in the center, each 24 centimeters in size, are outlined. The indicators of extraversion are plotted along the horizontal axis, and neuroticism indicators are plotted along the vertical axis (each point equals 1 cm, or one cell). The intersection of lines drawn from the marked points on the axis of extraversion and the axis of neuroticism indicates a certain temperament of the individual. The completion of the processing of materials is drawn up in the form of the so-called "Eysenck circle", which is shown in the diagram (Fig. 3).
Rice. 3. "Circle of Eysenck"
The scientific period of studying temperament in our country began with the works of I.P. Pavlov, who identified a number of properties of the nervous system and described the types as follows: sanguine - this is a strong type of nervous system (i.e., nervous processes have strength and duration, which is expressed, for example, in the great working capacity of people of this type, the ability to withstand various loads longer; these people have a higher resistance to infections and resistance to stress, etc. .); balanced (i.e., there is a balance between excitation and inhibition, they are balanced); mobile (excitation is easily replaced by inhibition, and vice versa). Choleric temperament is associated with a strong but unbalanced type (with a predominance of excitation over inhibition), phlegmatic- with a strong balanced, but inert, not mobile type, melancholic - with a weak unbalanced type of nervous system. I. P. Pavlov suggested that there should be other types of temperament, with other combinations of properties of the nervous system, that is, there are “scientific grounds” for the search for new types, but observations and practice do not distinguish them yet.
The value of I. P. Pavlov's classification is that it made it possible to distinguish in temperament the traits of temperament itself, that is, coming from the properties of the nervous system, and character traits. It was the mixture of character traits and temperament in pre-scientific descriptions of types that caused fair objections from specialists.
In the future, descriptions of temperament types became more rigorous, based on facts. So, as a typical feature sanguine distinguish high activity, emotionality, expressiveness (expressiveness) of behavior. Due to the mobility of the nervous system, a sanguine person may develop difficulty in concentrating attention, some superficiality of emotional experiences. For choleric the type is also characterized by high activity with a predominance of excitation, sharpness, excitability, and brightness of emotional experiences. Its mobility is expressed in the ease of transition from anger to fun, excitability - in imbalance, irascibility, strong emotional experiences. On this natural basis, aggressiveness, a tendency to litigiousness, an obsession with an idea can develop, but a talent for a public figure, commander, and reformer can develop.
Activity phlegmatic in external activities reduced, but endurance, performance are quite high, since he has a strong type of nervous system; simply due to inertia, low mobility of the nervous system, the phlegmatic is difficult to induce to action, you need to find a motive, interest him. Low excitability leads to non-expressive, inexpressive behavior of a phlegmatic person, poise leads to even behavior. Based on these properties may laziness, indifference to others can form, but composure, endurance, the ability to manage oneself, loyalty and devotion, constancy can also form.
Weak type of nervous system melancholic makes it less resilient. He hardly works in conditions of stress, conflict, overload, however, in calmer conditions due to the ability to concentrate, anxiety, often expressed in high feeling responsibility, he will be tireless. The internal activity of the melancholic and phlegmatic is often quite high, although external activity can be reduced to a minimum. The melancholic is endowed with the ability to empathize, the ability to observe, to systematize observations, although this is often accompanied by emotional vulnerability. The emotional experiences of the melancholic are deep and long-lasting. In what kind of life manifestation this will be expressed: in vindictiveness or a poetic gift - the question of education.
Each type of temperament has its own “relationships” with time (B. I. Tsukanov):
in a choleric person, subjectively experienced time is much ahead of real time. Therefore, he is always directed forward, into the future (the past does not interest him), he experiences an acute shortage of time. The subjectively experienced time is strongly compressed, it seems to be flying, if an obstacle arises in the way of movement, then it causes aggression and rage;
in a sanguine person, subjectively experienced time is not so much ahead of the flow of objective time. The constant striving forward (to the future) is combined with the fear of being late, not being on time. This type is also "in a hurry to live" and therefore experiences a constant shortage of time;
for the melancholic, there is neither advance nor delay in time, he is, as it were, “attached” to objective time, immobilized and inhibited in it. Figuratively speaking, this type, as it were, "stands in time", and in the absence of external changes in the movement of time, time does not exist for it. Immobility in time corresponds to external immobility, isolation and constant anxiety: “something must happen”;
in a phlegmatic person, subjective time lags behind objective time, therefore subjectively experienced time is slow and even. It is always enough, even there is some excess. He is oriented to the past, he gets used to changes slowly and with great difficulty.
A person *, as a rule, is a mixture of temperament types with the dominant of one of the components, to which the features of all other types seem to “pull together”. The applied value of the doctrine of temperament lies primarily in the application of this knowledge to oneself, the definition of those negative and positive traits that make themselves felt in one's own behavior. If you need to not only realize your “pluses”, but also actively use them in life, then there can be only one recommendation regarding the shortcomings - to constantly keep your finger on your own pulse, not letting your “minuses” out of control. For example, a choleric person must always remember that his activity can be destructive; a sanguine person needs, especially in important matters, to be a little more serious; phlegmatic - do not forget that it is still desirable to act somewhat faster and more flexibly, and melancholic - be able to separate failures from disasters, troubles from trouble, a private miss from the collapse of all life plans.
* See: Basic personality traits: Method, instructions for conducting pract. classes / LIAP; Comp. M. Yu. Ronginsky. L., 1991.
We assume that a person makes the first "rough" assessment of another person on the basis of extracting information only about his temperament, but not his character. Probably, people are equipped by nature with such a mechanism for the implementation of an express assessment of their own kind. And here underwater reefs are possible. Interpreting the characteristics of temperament, a person begins to consider them as character traits, and therefore the normal impulsiveness of the choleric begins to quickly qualify as aggressiveness; the liveliness of a sanguine person is like frivolity; the passivity of the phlegmatic is like dullness; melancholic anxiety - like psychopathy. So, be careful, remember that you first of all "read" the temperament, and in order to understand the character, you must, as you know, eat a pound of salt.
Here, by the way, it is appropriate to recall the following: temperament cannot be altered; its properties have some ductility, but it is the ductility of... steel. Therefore, you can throw thunder and lightning about the "conservative" behavior of the "limited" phlegmatic, ironically over the "pathetic" melancholic, subject the "violent" choleric to endless punishments and call for the seriousness of the "superficial" sanguine - all this is useless. It is necessary not to fight with temperament, but to find ways to ensure the possibility of realizing the merits of each temperament in practice, as well as methods to ensure cooperation and mutual understanding between people. Here is one of these methods, which we will call “complementation”: by putting, for example, a phlegmatic and a choleric person in a pair, giving the first that part of the work that is long-term in nature, and the second that which is operational, you can expect success in doing any business. In this case, people will not only be glad that the activity corresponds to their interests, but, most importantly, they will not annoy each other: yes, the phlegmatic will say, the choleric is fussing because he needs to give out products “to the mountain” every evening, and the choleric will decide something like this - the phlegmatic therefore thinks for a long time that he needs to develop the problem as a whole, and this requires a serious approach.
Purely formally, without taking into account the specifics of each individuality, when organizing working pairs, one can proceed from the following principle: it is easiest for a choleric person to work with a sanguine person, for a sanguine person with a melancholic person, for a melancholic person with a phlegmatic person.
And the last. The type of temperament is not only a source of difficulties for a person, but also a potential strengths his personality. So, if you are a sensitive melancholic, then you are a wonderful friend and, as statistics show, more often than others are capable of a sacrificial, heroic deed; if you are a phlegmatic person, then your relatives, friends and subordinates can hide behind you “like behind a stone wall”, because you are very reliable; if you are a choleric, then you can hope for the success of your life path You are good at setting goals and achieving them. Well, if you are a sanguine person, then warm sunlight comes from you, which is also necessary for people in our difficult life. And these potentials of the personality, embedded in any type - temperament, are much more than the person himself suspects.
To the representative of each temperament, you need to find your own approach, based on certain psychological principles:
1. "Not a moment of rest." This is the principle of the approach to the choleric, which is based on the use of its advantages: vigor, enthusiasm, passion, mobility, purposefulness and neutralization of the minuses: irascibility, aggressiveness, lack of restraint, impatience, conflict. Choleric must be busy all the time, otherwise he will direct his activity to the team and can decompose it from the inside.
2. "Trust but check". This is already suitable for a sanguine person who has such pluses: cheerfulness, enthusiasm, responsiveness, sociability and minuses: a tendency to arrogance, dispersion, frivolity, superficiality, over-sociality and unreliability. A nice sanguine person always promises so as not to offend another, but he does not always fulfill the promise, so you need to check whether he fulfilled his promise.
3. "Don't rush." This should be the approach to the phlegmatic, which has pluses: stability, constancy, activity, patience, self-control, reliability and, of course, minuses: slowness, indifference, "thick-skinned", dryness. The main thing is that a phlegmatic person cannot work in a time deficit, he needs an individual pace, so there is no need to adjust it, he himself will calculate his time and do the job.
4. "Do no harm". This is the motto for a melancholic, which also has its advantages: high sensitivity, gentleness, humanity, goodwill, the ability to sympathize and, of course, disadvantages: low performance, suspiciousness, vulnerability, isolation, shyness. You can’t shout at a melancholic, put too much pressure on him, give sharp and harsh instructions, as he is very sensitive to intonations and very vulnerable.
Character
... the main features that determine the individuality and character of a person are very numerous, but still their number cannot be considered unlimited.
K. Leonhard.
Accentuated personalities
Character(Greek - chasing, imprint) is a set of stable individual characteristics of a person that develops and manifests itself in activity and communication, which determines her typical ways of behavior. Those personality traits that relate to character are called traits character. Character traits are not random manifestations of personality, but stable features of human behavior, features that have become properties of the personality itself. For example, we know that in some cases a person can show courage, perseverance, truthfulness, frankness. However, these individual manifestations in the life and activities of a person are not yet features of his character. When we define character, we are not talking about the fact that some person showed courage, truthfulness, frankness, but that a person is brave, truthful, frank. This means that courage, truthfulness, frankness are properties this person; traits of his character, that under other circumstances we can expect from the person of their manifestation. Thus, the most typical, essential features of a person are expressed in character.
In the structure of character, four groups of traits are distinguished, expressing the attitude of the individual to a certain side of the activity:
to work (for example, industriousness, a penchant for creativity, conscientiousness in work, responsibility, initiative, perseverance and their opposite features - laziness, a tendency to routine work, irresponsibility, passivity);
to other people, a team, society (for example, sociability, sensitivity, responsiveness, respect, collectivism and isolation, callousness, callousness, rudeness, contempt, individualism);
to oneself (for example, self-esteem, correctly understood pride and self-criticism associated with it, modesty and self-conceit opposite to it (sometimes turning into vanity), arrogance, touchiness, self-centeredness, selfishness);
to things (for example, accuracy, thrift, generosity, stinginess, etc.).
The core of the formed character is the moral and volitional qualities of the individual. A person with a strong will is distinguished by certainty of intentions and actions, great independence. He is determined and persistent in achieving his goals. The lack of will of a person is usually identified with weakness of character. Even with a wealth of knowledge and a variety of abilities, a weak-willed person cannot realize all his possibilities.
The French philosopher La Rochefoucauld wrote in his famous Maxims: "There is nothing more colorless than the character of a spineless person."
What do we mean when we talk about spinelessness? "Strong" and "weak" characters usually determine the level of development of a person's volitional qualities. A character is called “heavy” if it contains stubbornness, reaching negativity, inertia of behavior, inertness, irritability, incontinence, rancor, great conceit. “Light” is considered to be a plastic, friendly, responsive, sociable character. However, these are too simplistic representations. In fact, any character trait overdevelopment can make a person's character deformed, unbalanced, or, as experts say, accentuated. Accentuated characters are very diverse, but their owners are always “striking”: they “are inherently ready for the special, that is, both for socially positive and for socially negative development"(K. Leonhard). These traits leave a very definite imprint on the personality. With a very strong expression of these traits, a person hardly adapts to the conditions of life. However, they also define originality personality, something that allows her to stand out from the general background. It was in this sense that La Rochefoucauld spoke of the colorlessness of a spineless person (although the word "characterless" is also used in another sense: as weak-willed, weak-willed). The talented Russian psychiatrist P. B. Gannushkin generally considered the phrase “normal character” to be nonsense: “After all, if you had a person with an ideally normal psyche under the supervision, if, of course, there was such of one kind or another. This kind of person would, of course, be “spineless” in the sense that he would always act without prejudice, and the internal impulses of his activity would be constantly regulated by external agents ... ”W. Sheldon described the“ spineless ”patient as follows: “In he has no passion and mental strength. It gives the impression of an absolute absence of mental and emotional work. It seems that all his goals do not go beyond simple existence and comfort. He easily obeys strong-willed people. When shaking hands, his hand is cold and sluggish, like a piece of fatty pork.
Test. Character
Questionnaire K. Leonhard - G. Shmishek is designed to diagnose the type of personality accentuation. It should be noted that some of the main features are actually character traits, that is, the usual types of reactions to circumstances, and some are temperamental traits. Thus, the questionnaire measures the alloy of basic personality traits: temperament and character.
Instruction. Before you a series of questions, answering which you must choose the answer "yes" or "no" depending on your idea of yourself. Don't spend a lot of time thinking about the answers, try to answer sincerely.
1. Are you often in a cheerful and carefree mood?
2. Are you sensitive to insults?
3. Does it happen that tears come to your eyes in the cinema, theater, conversation, etc.?
4. After doing something, do you doubt whether everything is done right, and do not calm down until you are sure once again that everything is done right?
5. As a child, were you as brave and desperate as all your peers?
6. Do you often change your mood from a state of boundless glee to disgust for life, for yourself?
7. Are you usually the center of attention in society, company?
8. Does it happen that you are in such a grouchy state for no reason that it is better not to talk to you?
9. Are you a serious person?
10. Are you able to admire, admire something?
11. Are you enterprising?
12. Do you quickly forget if someone offends you?
13. Are you soft-hearted?
14. When dropping a letter into the mailbox, do you check by running your hand over the slot that the letter has completely fallen into it?
16. Were you scared as a child during a thunderstorm or when meeting an unfamiliar dog (or maybe this feeling happens now, in adulthood)?
17. Do you strive to keep order in everything and everywhere?
18. Does your mood depend on external circumstances?
19. Do your friends love you?
20. Do you often have a feeling of intense inner unrest?
21. Are you in a somewhat depressed mood?
22. Have you ever had a tantrum or a nervous breakdown?
23. Do you find it difficult to sit in one place for a long time?
24. If you were treated unfairly, do you vigorously defend your interests?
25. Can you slaughter a chicken or a sheep?
26. Does it annoy you if the tablecloth or curtain hangs unevenly at home, and you immediately strive to correct them?
27. Were you afraid to be alone in the house as a child?
28. Do you often have mood swings for no reason?
29. Do you always strive to be strong enough in your profession?
30. Are you quick to get angry or angry?
31. Can you be carefree fun?
32. Does it happen that a feeling of complete happiness literally permeates you?
33. Do you think you would make a host (entertainer) in a humorous performance?
34. Do you usually express your opinion to people quite frankly, directly and unambiguously?
35. Do you find it hard to bear the sight of your blood? Does this make you uncomfortable?
36. Do you like high responsibility work?
37. Do you tend to speak up in defense of people who have been treated unfairly?
38. Is it difficult or scary for you to go down into a dark basement?
39. Do you prefer a job where you need to act quickly, but the requirements for the quality of performance are low?
40. Are you a sociable person?
41. At school, did you willingly recite poetry?
42. Did you run away from home as a child?
43. Do you find life difficult?
44. Has it ever happened that after a conflict, resentment, you were so upset that going to work seemed simply impossible?
45. Can you say that when you fail, you lose your sense of humor?
46. Would you take the first steps towards reconciliation if someone offended you?
47. Do you like animals very much?
48. Do you return to make sure you left the house or workplace in such a state that nothing will happen there?
49. Do you sometimes have a vague idea that something terrible can happen to you, your loved ones?
50. Do you feel that your mood is very changeable?
51. Do you find it difficult to report, perform on stage in front of a large number of people?
52. Can you hit the offender if he offends you?
53. Do you have a very great need to communicate with other people?
54. Are you one of those who, under any circumstances, falls into deep despair?
55. Do you like work that requires organizational activity?
56. Do you persistently achieve your goal if you have to overcome a lot of obstacles on the way to it?
57. Can a tragic film move you so that tears come to your eyes?
58. Do you often find it difficult to fall asleep due to the fact that the problems of the past day or the future are constantly spinning in your head?
59. At school, did you sometimes tell your comrades or let them cheat?
60. Will it take you a lot of willpower to walk alone through a cemetery at night?
61. Does it happen that being in a good mood at night, you get up the next day in a depressed state that lasts for several hours?
62. Do you carefully ensure that every thing in your house is in the same place?
63. Do you get used to new situations easily?
64. Do you have headaches?
65. Do you often laugh?
66. Can you be friendly even with those whom you clearly do not appreciate, love, or respect?
67. Are you an active person?
68. Are you very worried about injustice?
69. Do you love nature so much that you can call it your friend?
70. Leaving home, going to bed, do you check if the gas is closed, the lights are off, are the doors locked?
71. Are you very timid?
72. Does your mood change when you drink alcohol?
73. In your youth, did you willingly participate in amateur art circles (theater, dance, etc.)?
74. Do you regard life somewhat pessimistically, without expectation of joy?
75. Do you often feel like traveling?
76. Can your mood change so abruptly that your state of joy is suddenly replaced by gloomy, depressed?
77. Do you easily manage to cheer up friends in the company?
78. How long do you experience resentment?
79. Do you experience other people's sorrows for a long time?
80. As a schoolboy, did you often copy a page in your notebook if you accidentally put an inkblot on it?
81. Do you treat people with distrust and caution rather than gullibility?
82. Do you often have nightmares?
83. Does it happen that you are afraid that you will throw yourself under the wheels of a passing train, or, standing at the window of a multi-storey building, are you afraid that you can suddenly fall out of the window?
84. Are you usually cheerful in a cheerful company?
85. Are you able to distract yourself from difficult problems that need to be solved?
86. Do you become less reserved and feel more at ease when you drink alcohol?
87. Are you short of words in a conversation?
88. If you had to act on stage, would you be able to get into the role so that you forget that this is just a game?
Scoring
Each of the ten scales that assess personality types includes "its own" questions. Match your answers on each scale with the answers below. One point is given for each match. Calculate how many points you have scored on each of the ten scales. This figure must be multiplied by a correction factor as indicated below. A sign of accentuation (bright expression) of a feature is a value of more than 12 points.
1. Demonstrative type - characterized by the desire to stand out, be in sight, in the spotlight, live for today; characterized by impulsiveness, the ability to win the favor of others, but often exactly where it is beneficial.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 7, 19, 22, 29, 41, 44, 63, 66, 73, 85, 88;
"no" - 54.
The result is multiplied by "2".
2. pedantic type - distinguished by super-accuracy, the desire to keep order always and in everything, demanding the same from other people, the desire for positivity, solidity; special conscientiousness; avoids unnecessary dangers and excesses.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 4, 14, 17, 26, 39, 48, 58, 62, 70, 81, 83;
"no" - 36.
The result is multiplied by "2".
3. Rigid type - it is distinguished by the strength and constancy of feelings, which do not always appear immediately, but can, as it were, “accumulate”; increased self-esteem, high self-esteem, often also jealousy, inability to forgive an insult.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 2, 15, 24, 34, 37, 56, 68, 78, 81;
"no" - 12, 46, 59.
The result is multiplied by "2".
4. excitable type - is characterized by increased impulsiveness, always in a good, somewhat excited mood, except for rare periods of bad mood, in that it acts under the influence of emotions, does not always remember its obligations and debts.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 8, 20, 30, 42, 52, 64, 74, 86;
The result is multiplied by "3".
5. Hyperthymic type - characterized by a good mood combined with optimism, high activity and enterprise, sociability, charm, restlessness, a continuous stream of new ideas (both useful and harmful).
Key: the answer is "yes" - 1, 11, 23, 33, 45, 55, 67, 77;
The result is multiplied by "3".
6. Dysthymic type - characterized by a reduced background of mood, pessimism, the desire to see sooner dark sides life, some indifference to the outside world, lack of activity.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 9, 21, 43, 75, 87;
"no" - 31, 53, 65.
The result is multiplied by "3".
7. sensitive type(anxious) - characterized by a tendency to exaggerate the difficulties of life, seek approval from others, lack of confidence in one's own merits and the desire to always be such that there is nothing to scold him for, is also distinguished by impressionability, sensitivity.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 1, 27, 38, 49, 60, 71, 82;
The result is multiplied by "3".
8. Cyclothymic type - characterized by a quick change of mood, pessimism and optimism, activity and indifference, sociability and isolation, etc. Almost all actions depend on the mood: cheerful or sad. It is also distinguished by emotionality, goodwill, and the ability to restrain oneself.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 6, 18, 28, 40, 50, 61, 72, 84;
The result is multiplied by "3".
9. Affectively exalted type - characterized by a slight transition from a state of delight to a state of sadness, a violent manifestation of delight and sadness.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 10, 32, 54, 76;
The result is multiplied by "6".
10. Emotive type - is particularly impressionable and sensitive, especially in relation to how he is treated. As a rule, he feels the beauty of nature and art well.
Key: the answer is "yes" - 3, 13, 35, 47, 57, 69, 79;
"no" - 25.
The result is multiplied by "3".
Leonhard's descriptions of characters are based on the vast experience of psychiatry, systematization and generalization of many histories of the development of human individuals and are no less scientific than the classifications obtained by mathematical methods. He identified several types of temperament (which we will not dwell on) and character: demonstrative, pedantic, stuck, excitable.
The most conspicuous, striking is demonstrative type, which got its name because of the ability of people of this type to express their emotions very strongly, from the point of view of others - more strongly than they experience them in this moment. In other words, these people have the ability demonstrate your emotions. A person with a demonstrative type of character is able to force out many negative experiences from his consciousness, in particular, to completely forget what he does not want to remember (for example, cases when he acted in an unworthy way).
All people have a more or less developed ability to displace some traumatic ideas from consciousness, this is one of the protective mechanisms human psyche. However, in a demonstrative personality, this becomes the main form of behavior: she can lie without realizing that she is lying, while the lies of a demonstrative personality differ from the conscious lie of a pretending person. She does not pretend, but really, with her whole personality at the moment she believes in what she is trying to convince others. The pretender, on the other hand, has a conscious lie, so he can, for example, be distracted, and he will instantly forget about his imaginary grief. The demonstrative personality deeply gets used to the image required by the situation, it is characterized by high artistry in expressing any feeling: grief, admiration, etc. The favorite images in which the demonstrative personality reincarnates are an innocent victim; a person who was not appreciated, abused his trust, used his rare spiritual and intellectual qualities, etc .; either a benefactor of mankind, a unique specialist; gentle, subtle creature in need of relentless guardianship. The leading motive for demonstrative behavior is self-affirmation, as well as concern for prestige in the eyes of others. He desperately needs constant attention, preferably admiration, in extreme cases, the hatred of others, but an indifferent attitude is completely unbearable for him.
However, with a positive social development a demonstrative personality can become an excellent writer, actor, social worker thanks to the ability to get used to a different image, to understand another person. The ability to vividly express one's feelings contributes, for example, to teaching (some students simply adore demonstrative teachers). The excellent adaptability of this character often leads to good relations with superiors, while relations with colleagues are uneven, uneven: a demonstrative personality is very inclined to create factions within the team to fight with another part of the team in the name of justice, "the interests of the cause", etc.
The opposite of demonstrative is pedantic character. In people with this character, the ability to repress is low, so all sorts of negative images linger in their minds for a very long time. If a demonstrative person makes decisions quickly, impulsively, the process of deliberation is minimized, then a pedantic person hesitates for a long time even after careful deliberation. Negative features of this nature can be indecisiveness, fear of an accident or mistake, which makes it necessary to constantly check and double-check your actions: is the gas turned off, is there an error in the report, are the hands dirty, etc., unless, of course, these are isolated cases , but sustainable behavior. But, as you know, our virtues are a continuation of our shortcomings, and a pedantic character can be expressed in such excellent qualities as punctuality, accuracy, responsibility, foresight, prudence, concern for one’s own health, expressed in moderation, avoidance of excesses - in a word, the whole complex, which the demonstrative personality is clearly lacking.
The next character type is called stuck. People of this type are characterized by a very long delay in strong feelings (affects): rage, anger, fear, especially when they were not expressed in real life due to some external circumstances. This affect may not fade or flare up with its original intensity weeks, months, even years later. A stuck person also experiences his successes long enough and vividly, in general, this character is almost always endowed with great ambition, which can be realized as a positive feature (if success is achieved by diligence) and as a negative one (if ambition is satisfied by belittling others or using them in their own interests). In any case, people of this type are distinguished by touchiness and a long memory for insults. Unlike the demonstrative character, who is confident in his exclusivity and the recognition of others, the stuck character needs to real respect and recognition, which he will seek in any way, up to litigation. The most common “ideas”, the themes of getting stuck are: jealousy, persecution, revenge from enemies, social (legal, administrative or other) injustice, unrecognized ideas or inventions. These people can say about themselves: "I can forgive an offense, but not forget it." Leonhard notes that with the favorable development of this type of "accomplishment" of stuck personalities, they usually are above average.
At excitable personalities, just like those who are demonstrative and stuck, a very uneven course of life is often stated, however, not because they constantly avoid difficulties, but because they often express dissatisfaction, show irritability and a tendency to impulsive actions, without bothering to weigh the consequences. If you ask such people about the reasons for changing jobs or professions, you rarely hear an answer about the complexity of the work itself, other motives are usually put forward: the boss did not want to make concessions, a colleague treats you badly, low wages, etc. Work as such, in particular physical labor brings joy to these accentuated personalities, so they achieve success here. Especially clearly their excitability is manifested with deep affects. Unpleasant events, upset feelings can lead these people to extremely rash acts, but unbridled excitability with outbursts of rage is especially characteristic of them. Many of these people openly state that in a state of temper they are not able to restrain themselves, others speak about this not so frankly, but they do not deny the facts themselves.
Excitable personalities often give the impression of primitive people, that is, already by their facial expressions one can judge of low intellectual mobility, they notice only what catches the eye. Such people are often gloomy in appearance, they answer questions extremely sparingly. In a word, even here they do not know how to control themselves: maybe they would like to behave like well-mannered people, but their facial expressions and manner betray them. Failure to manage oneself leads to conflicts.
Images, patterns of behavior, as I. P. Pavlov wrote, represent a huge variety. But since our behavior is controlled by the nervous system, it is possible to reduce this diversity to a limited number of basic properties of the nervous system. Long-term studies of dogs using the method of conditioned reflexes allowed IP Pavlov to identify and describe these properties. From the very first experiments, the difference in the behavior of the dogs was striking: some drank without resistance and remained calm in a new experimental environment for them, calmly carried the devices attached to their skin, and when they were given food, they immediately ate it. And others had to be accustomed to all this for days and weeks, very gradually. In the former, conditioned reflexes were formed quickly, after two or three combinations, in the latter, after dozens of repetitions. I. P. Pavlov suggested that for the former, the strength of irritation is a strong process, and for the latter, it is weak. With the former, an irritable process that arises in time, as, for example, at the sight of the offered food, constantly opposes secondary influences, remaining predominant. For the latter, its strength is not enough to overcome less important conditions that act as a brake on the main stimulus.
The next property of the nervous system that attracted attention was the equality or inequality of stimulation and inhibition, later called balance. Dogs with very strong excitation and weak inhibition (uncontrollable) did not tolerate experiments where it was necessary to respond positively to one sound (for example, to press the pedal), but not to react at all to a similar sound. They protested in the form of barking and destructive actions. At the same time, it was not possible to achieve a clear fulfillment of the task. There are dogs that can easily cope with such tasks. Their excitation and inhibition are at the same high altitude, this is a balanced nervous system. Thus, strong are divided into balanced and unmanaged. But strong balanced also often differ sharply in behavior. Some are mobile, sociable and reactive. Others, on the contrary, are less reactive, inactive, uncommunicative and generally slow. The basis for this difference is mobility of the nervous system the rate of formation of conditioned reflexes. Therefore, strong balanced ones can be mobile or have inert nervous system.
In the identified four types of the nervous system, IP Pavlov saw the brilliant providence of Hippocrates *, who caught the capital features in the mass of countless variants of human behavior. Isolation by Hippocrates melancholic from the mass of people meant the division of people into strong and weak. Choleric he stood out from the group of the strong for his impetuousness, i.e., inability to tame his strength, or the predominance of excitation over inhibition. Here the principle of balance is confirmed. And in comparison phlegmatic and sanguine the property of the mobility of the nervous system was manifested. These properties determine the highest adaptation of the organism to environmental conditions. Meaning strength nervous processes can be seen when unusual, extraordinary events appear in the environment, irritations of great strength. When it becomes necessary to delay, suppress the effect of this irritation and withstand extreme tension, the importance of balancing the nervous processes becomes apparent. And since the environment constantly fluctuates, often strongly and unexpectedly, both processes - inhibition and excitation - must have high mobility: the ability to quickly, at the request of external conditions, give preference to one stimulus over another, stimulus over inhibition, and vice versa.
* For more details on the types of temperament described by Hippocrates, see sec. Temperament.
The theory of I.P. Pavlov about the properties of the NS as the leading parameters of the organization of behavior and physiological individuality predetermined its exceptional promise, but at the same time caused serious criticism, in particular for the “evaluative approach”. I. P. Pavlov is characterized by the desire to consider the basic properties of NS as a scale in which one pole is positive from a biological point of view, and the other is negative. Pavlov believed that such a quality as, for example, strength, is a positive property, and the weakness of the nervous system is a defect in organization. A deep theoretical analysis carried out by B. N. Teplov made it possible to assert that at each pole there is a combination of positive and negative sides. So, for example, the weakness of the nervous system (low endurance of nerve cells) is associated with high sensitivity (the ability to pick up low-intensity signals that are below the perception threshold of individuals of the strong type), and the strength of the nervous system (endurance) is combined with low sensitivity. Thus, both poles are "competitive" and equally viable.
Brain
In all vertebrate species, the brain and spinal cord appear as a tube one cell layer thick. Three thickenings or primary cerebral vesicles appear in front of the tube. From them, the hindbrain, middle and forebrain develop. Most parts of the brain are formed from the anterior bladder, including two chambers on the left and right sides, in which the cerebral hemispheres are formed. structures forebrain usually attributed to "higher" intellectual functions. The main lobes of the forebrain were named according to their location (their main functions are indicated in brackets): occipital (vision), temporal (hearing and speech), parietal (reaction to sensory stimuli and control of movements), frontal (coordination of the functions of other areas of the cortex). The hemispheres of the brain differ in the functioning of similar, parallel sections. This phenomenon has been called brain asymmetry. Confirmation is the observation from everyday practice. Most people prefer the right hand, which is controlled by the left side of the brain. Linguistic abilities are also associated with the left side. Therefore, it was previously believed that the left hemisphere is more important, dominant, and the right hemisphere is subordinate. In recent years, it has become clear that each hemisphere has its own "special talents." If the left hemisphere is responsible for operating verbal, symbolic information: reading, counting, analysis operations, then the right hemisphere dominates in such properties as musicality, recognition of complex visual images, expression and recognition of emotions, synthesis operations, generalizations.
midbrain includes the thalamus and hypothalamus. In the thalamic fields and nuclei, almost all information entering and exiting the forebrain is switched. The hypothalamic nuclei and fields serve as transmission (relay) stations for internal systems - they control information about the state of the body coming from the internal organs and the autonomic nervous system.
The medulla oblongata, pons, brainstem and cerebellum form back brain. The fields and nuclei of the pons and brainstem control breathing and heart rate and are essential to sustaining life. The cerebellum receives and modifies information about the position of the body and limbs. The cerebellum stores the main programs of learned motor reactions.
The simplest movement, any thought of a person is regulated by the complex work of the entire brain.
The ability of a creature to perceive the environment, adapt to it and live in it long enough to produce offspring and thus support the existence of the species depends on the successful functioning of the brain. However, the higher-order symbolic actions that a person performs when he performs mathematical calculations, transforms thoughts into oral or written speech, composes music or poetry, draws, dances - are the result of unusual properties of the human brain that have yet to be comprehended, although scientists have long tried to penetrate into this secret.
Historians of science note that the thinkers of the past, trying to explain how the brain works, looked for analogues in the material world around them. The ancient physician Galen was one of the first to dissect the human brain. The main technical achievements of his time were plumbing and sewage, based on the principles of fluid mechanics. Therefore, Galen's conviction that fluid-filled cavities play an important role in the brain can hardly be considered accidental. Today these cavities are known as the cerebral ventricular system. Galen believed that all physical functions of the body, health and disease depend on the distribution of the four body fluids - blood, phlegm (mucus), black and yellow bile. Each of them has a special function: the blood supports the vital spirit; phlegm causes lethargy; black bile causes melancholy; yellow - anger. This theory has been popular for a very long time.
In the 17th century came the conviction that this can be explained from the standpoint of mechanics. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler suggested that the eye acts, in fact, like an ordinary optical instrument.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was established that nerves and muscles have electrical excitability. However, the understanding that nerves and muscles really work, generating "animal" electricity, did not come immediately. The Italian scientist Luigi Galvani solved this problem only at the very end of the 18th century, and the German biologist Emile Dubois-Reymond returned to it at the beginning of the next century. He and his collaborators were the first to measure the electrical potentials of living acting nerves and muscles.
In the 19th century with the development of technical means of warfare, the number of its victims increased, and doctors were able to determine the exact localization of brain damage in soldiers with non-fatal head wounds. Clinical observations linking certain mental disorders to damage to certain areas of the brain continue to be the main source of critical information.
The Austrian anatomist Franz Joseph Gall took one more step in the issue of localization of sensory (sensitive) and motor (motor) areas of the brain. He suggested that all the mental abilities of a person can be determined by the location of the bumps on the skull, lying above the corresponding parts of the brain. This now extinct science, called phrenology, soon lost popularity. A similar strategy in studying the brain of animals has proven to be more useful. According to its supporters, the function for which one or another area of the brain is responsible can be revealed by looking at what happens when an electrical stimulation of this area. By the end of the XIX century. these two research approaches - the study of the consequences of brain damage and the method of electrical stimulation - allowed specialists to evaluate the functional role of the brain regions that we spoke about above.
The task of the nervous system and the brain is the regulation of the vital activity of the body and human behavior. The main load in the regulation of behavior falls on the brain, in the regulation of the vital activity of the body - on autonomic nervous system and endocrine system. The autonomic nervous system governs unconscious, automated processes such as the functioning of the heart, lungs, stomach, and other internal organs.
Endocrine system with the help of chemical agents, it controls blood volume, salt balance, oxygen and glucose concentration in the blood and, thus, determines the strength and frequency of heart contractions, blood flow to the muscles and the brain, which in turn affects the general state of the body's activity and the activation of individual its systems, for example, muscular. The endocrine system, like the autonomic nervous system, operates at an unconscious level and is not directly involved in the regulation of behavior. But the endocrine glands, which make up the endocrine system, determine to a very large extent how quickly bodily energy is used.
Thyroid acts as an accelerator, forcing the individual to work at high and low speeds. Because of the thyroid gland, some people are always on the move, others are always sluggish. The thyroid gland sets the volume of activity of the individual as a whole, regardless of what he will turn energy into.
adrenal glands act like a rocket launcher. When we need an extra push, the adrenal glands suddenly release a large supply of energy. This usually happens when we have to fight or flee.
gonads also cause energy to be released, and this energy, similar to that produced by the adrenal glands, serves as a source of power for some special purposes.
Assessing the role of the glands, we have no right to consider them a source of energy and aspirations for creation or destruction; their real purpose is to give additional ardor to these aspirations and additional energy for their implementation. Elderly people, whose glands are gradually weakening, can still create or destroy, but they usually do not have the passionate excitement and concentrated energy of a younger age.
Further, the glands have nothing to do with how the released energy is used. The glands of the adrenal cortex, for example, make the muscles of the arms and legs stronger and more mobile, but do not determine whether they will be used to fight or flee. The link between the glands and the brain is the pituitary gland, the "master gland" that governs all others. The pituitary gland sends out chemical messengers to all other glands. In turn, the lower, more “primitive” parts of the brain “give orders” to the pituitary gland, and those are controlled by the cerebral cortex.
The endocrine glands are directly involved in the emergence of emotions of fear and anger. The "master gland" secretes hormones that affect the autonomic nervous system.
To understand how the autonomic nervous system works, imagine what happens to a person who is ready for a fight-or-flight response: the pupils dilate to let in more light; the frequency of heart contractions increases, and each contraction becomes more powerful, which leads to an increase in overall blood flow. Blood drains from the skin and internal organs to the muscles and brain. Digestion slows down. The cells of the liver and adipose tissue give more glucose and fatty acids into the blood - high-energy fuel. This allows the brain to receive a large proportion of glucose. All this provides the body with the ability to actively resist or avoid that which carries a threat.
Of course, the actions of the pituitary gland and the autonomic nervous system are only part of a complex mechanism responsible for the emergence of a whole spectrum of emotions that are diverse in strength and content. Not only the endocrine system plays a role in human mental manifestations, but even such features far from mental as the type of development of the embryonic germ tubes can determine the specifics of human behavior.
It is well known that at a very early stage, the human fetus is a three-layered tube, the inner layer of which develops into the stomach and lungs, the middle layer into bones, muscles, connective tissue and blood vessels, and the outer layer into the skin and nervous system.
Usually these three layers grow at about the same rate, so the average person is the right combination of brain, muscle, and internal organs. However, sometimes one of the layers grows more than the others, in which case the activity of the individual often turns out to be connected mainly with this expanded layer.
We can say that the average person is a combination of different qualities, but there are people who are predominantly endowed with a "digestive" or "muscular" or "brain" setting. They have, respectively, a digestive, muscular or brain type of body.
People with a digestive body type look fat, those with a muscular body type look large, those with a brain type look long. This does not mean at all that the higher the person, the smarter he is. This means that if a person, however short, looks long rather than large or fat, he is most often more concerned with what goes on in his head than with what he does or what he eats; The decisive factor here is not height, but thinness. On the other hand, a person who appears fat rather than tall or large is more likely to be interested in a good steak than in a brilliant idea or a wonderful outing.
To refer to these body types, scientists use Greek words. A person with a predominant development of the inner layer, they designated the word endomorph, the middle layer - the mesomorph, the outer - the ectomorph.
In most people, all these qualities are combined quite correctly, and the following applies only to extreme cases. The types we are interested in are easier to study in men than in women.
Viscerotonic endomorph. He looks round and soft, with a big chest but an even bigger belly. It is felt that it is more convenient for him to eat than to breathe. He has a broad face, a short thick neck, voluminous hips and arms from elbow to shoulder, but small hands and feet. His pectoral muscles are overdeveloped. His skin is soft and smooth, and when he goes bald, which usually happens to him very early, the hair falls out first on the top of his head.
The best example of this type is a cheerful, well-knit person; he likes to communicate with people, participate in banquets and ceremonial meetings; he has a light disposition, affectionate manner.
Somatotonic mesomorph. If a person definitely belongs to the broad type, and not to the thick and long one, then he looks rough and muscular. He usually has large arms and legs, the chest and stomach are firm, regular in shape, and the chest is larger than the stomach. It is felt that it is easier for him to breathe than to eat. His face is bony, his shoulders are broad, and his chin is square. The skin is thick, rough and elastic, tans easily. If he goes bald, then the baldness usually starts from the side of the forehead. He loves to "go out". He has strong muscles, and he willingly uses it. He is adventurous, exercising, fighting and loves to have the upper hand in everything. He is bold and unceremonious.
Cerebrotonic ectomorph. If a person definitely belongs to the long type, then he has thin bones, flaccid muscles. His shoulders are usually stooped, he has a flat stomach with a retracted stomach and long legs. The neck and fingers are long, and the face is elongated and shaped like an egg. The skin is thin, dry and pale; he rarely goes bald. He looks like the absent-minded professor, which he often is. People of this kind are impulsive, but prefer to conserve their energy and are not particularly mobile. Such a person behaves calmly and tries to stay away from different stories. Troubles irritate him, he avoids complications. Friends understand him with difficulty.
In conclusion, let us briefly summarize what has been said. The appearance of the psyche and complex behavior of man is rooted in the process of formation of the nervous system, originating in the simplest animals; in the process of formation of the largest part of the central nervous system - the brain, traced from the development of the brain of fish to the appearance of the human brain. This is how it happened phylogenetic development of the psyche.
In individual (ontogenetic) the development of the psyche, the influence of the characteristics of the endocrine system, metabolism, and embryonic development is visible. As a rule, these features affect the “external” features of human behavior, without affecting either actions or decision-making, much less the moral aspects of human behavior. They serve only as a basis for the formation of social behavior and, if I may say so, the “timbre coloring” of the melody of our life.
Introduction
The subject of my control work reveals the basic concepts of higher nervous activity, its typology. It is known that higher nervous activity is provided by the cerebral cortex. This means that our memory, speech, attention, thinking and many other types of mental processes directly depend on the correct functioning of the cortex, its adequate perception and analysis of all kinds of stimuli.
Nervous processes occurring in the cortex have certain properties (strength, ratio, mobility), which form the individual characteristics of higher nervous activity, and therefore emphasize the individuality of each person.
The typology of higher nervous activity indicates the peculiar way in which the individual perceives the world around him.
1. The main properties of nervous processes that determine behavior
Long-term study of conditioned reflexes allowed Pavlov to identify three main properties of nervous processes that determine the individual characteristics of animal behavior, their temperaments. The first property is the strength of the processes of excitation and inhibition, which characterizes the performance of cortical cells. This property is determined by the limiting strength of stimulation, to which positive and negative conditioned reflexes can be formed. Some dogs easily form conditioned reflexes to both weak and strong stimuli. For other dogs, strong stimuli (a sharp bell or a ratchet) turn out to be excessive and cause transcendental inhibition at the corresponding point, easily radiating throughout the entire cortex. In such dogs, conditioned reflexes are formed only to weak or medium strength stimuli.
The second property is the ratio, or balance, of the forces of the processes of excitation and inhibition, in other words, their balance. In some dogs, both positive and negative conditioned reflexes are equally easily formed, while in others, the strength of the processes of excitation and inhibition is not the same. If the process of excitation prevails over the process of inhibition, then along with the rapid formation of positive conditioned reflexes, there is difficulty in developing differentiations, especially subtle ones; already existing differentiations are easily disinhibited. In such excitable dogs, an overstrain of the inhibitory process leads to the disappearance of all previously developed differentiations. If, on the contrary, the process of excitation turns out to be weaker than the process of inhibition, then the dog in its behavior approaches those in whom strong stimuli cause general cortical inhibition. The third property is the mobility of the processes of excitation and inhibition, i.e. the speed with which they can replace each other. In some dogs, the resulting excitation or inhibition is, as it were, a stagnant character, slowly changing to the opposite process. The transformation of a positive reflex into a negative one, and a negative one into a positive one, is difficult for them. A quick change of positive and negative stimuli can sometimes even lead to disruption of cortical activity. in other dogs, on the contrary, cortical cells easily cope with the task that requires a rapid change in the processes of excitation and inhibition; in experiment it is not difficult to achieve a mutual alteration of positive and negative reflections. This property acquires an essential, decisive value when the processes of excitation and inhibition are sufficiently strong and balanced, and recedes into the background when both processes or one of them are weak.
2. Types of higher nervous activity
Individual features of the higher nervous activity of dogs are extremely diverse, since gradations of strength, balance and mobility of nervous processes can be very different. Pavlov managed to identify four main types - one weak and three strong (additional No. 1). Dogs, whose cortical cells have sufficient strength for the processes of excitation and inhibition, Pavlov divides into unbalanced and balanced, and the latter, in turn, into animals with a mobile and inert character of cortical processes. Ultimately, Pavlov distinguishes the following types of higher nervous activity according to the above signs: weak; unbalanced; living, or mobile; calm, or inert. The weak type is characterized by a very low physiological lability of the nerve cells of the cerebral cortex, and, consequently, by the ease of their transition into a state of inhibition under the influence of incoming impulses. Excessive inhibition of cells determines the low limit of their performance. Animals with a weak type of higher nervous activity are cowardly; in response to the action of strong or unusual stimuli, they often give a passive defensive reaction. Animals with an unbalanced type of higher nervous activity have sufficient strength of nervous processes and, at the same time, a clear predominance of excitation over inhibition. Excitation of cortical cells can reach great strength and easily radiate through the cortex, overcoming inhibition, which leads to a violation of the normal ratio of excitation and inhibition processes. Such dogs are overly excitable, aggressive, unrestrained in their aggression and difficult to educate (train) due to the easily occurring disruption of inhibitory processes, in particular differentiation. The lively or mobile type is characterized by great mobility of nervous processes and at the same time sufficient strength and balance. Well-defined phenomena of positive and negative induction prevent excessive irradiation of nervous processes and ensure the speed and ease of transition from one process to another. To maintain an active state, cortical cells need an influx of a large number of afferent impulses, without which their excitability decreases, and inhibition develops, which easily radiates through the cortex. Animals with a lively type of higher nervous activity are mobile, sociable, easily orientated in a new environment, react vividly to each new stimulus, without showing excessive aggression; in a monotonous, monotonous environment, they easily fall asleep. A characteristic feature of a calm or inert type is low mobility, stagnation of nervous processes with sufficient strength and balance. The process of excitation or inhibition that has arisen in the cortical cell persists for some time, without showing a tendency to rapid and significant irradiation. Animals with a calm type of higher nervous activity are unsociable, react poorly to new stimuli, as if ignoring everything that is happening around them. The above classification of types is a diagram that only in some approximation reflects reality. In life, one can observe various variations of these types. The described types of higher nervous activity can also be found in humans. Pavlov rightfully draws an analogy between these types and temperaments, once described by Hippocrates: a melancholic temperament corresponds to a weak type, choleric to an unbalanced one, sanguine to a lively one, and phlegmatic to a calm one.
3. Analytical and synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex
The mechanisms of higher nervous activity in higher animals and humans are associated with the activity of a number of brain regions. The main role in these mechanisms belongs to the cerebral cortex (IP Pavlov). It has been experimentally shown that in the higher representatives of the animal world, after complete surgical removal of the cortex, the higher nervous activity deteriorates sharply. They lose the ability to subtly adapt to the external environment and exist independently in it. In humans, the cerebral cortex acts as a "manager and distributor" of all vital functions (IP Pavlov). This is due to the fact that in the course of phylogenetic development, the process of corticalization of functions occurs. It is expressed in the increasing subordination of the body's somatic and vegetative functions to the regulatory influences of the cerebral cortex. In the case of the death of nerve cells in a significant part of the human cerebral cortex, it turns out to be unviable and quickly dies with a noticeable violation of the homeostasis of the most important autonomic functions. A feature of the cerebral cortex is its ability to isolate individual elements from the mass of incoming signals, to distinguish them from each other, i. she has the ability to analyze. Of all the perceived signals, the animal selects only those that are directly related to a particular function of the organism: to obtaining food, maintaining the integrity of the organism, reproduction, etc. in response to these stimuli, impulses are transmitted to the corresponding effector organs (motor or secretory). The analysis and synthesis of stimuli in the simplest form can also be carried out by the peripheral sections of the analyzers - receptors. Since the receptors are specialized in the perception of certain stimuli, therefore, they produce their qualitative separation, i.e. analysis of certain signals from the external environment. With a complex structure of the receptor apparatus, for example, the organ of hearing, sounds of unequal pitch can differ in its structural elements. At the same time, a complex perception of sounds is also emitted, which leads to their synthesis into one whole. Analysis and synthesis, carried out by the peripheral ends of the analyzers, are called elementary analysis and synthesis. But excitation from the receptors also comes to the central cortical ends of the analyzers, where more complex forms occur analysis and synthesis. Here, excitation in the process of formation of a conditioned reflex comes into contact with numerous foci of excitation in other areas of the cortex, which contributes to the unification of numerous stimuli into a single complex, and also makes it possible to distinguish elementary stimuli more subtly. The analysis and synthesis carried out by the cortical ends of the analyzers are called higher analysis and synthesis. The basis of the analytical activity of the cortex is the process of inhibition, which limits the irradiation of excitation. As a result of the analysis of perceived stimuli, their differentiation is possible. The biological significance of its individual elements with others is constantly changing in the environment. In this regard, the relationship between analysis and synthesis is constantly changing in the cerebral cortex. Both processes are constantly interconnected, and therefore they are considered as a single analytical-synthetic process, a single analytical-synthetic activity of the cerebral cortex.
For a quick search on the page, press Ctrl + F and in the window that appears, type the query word (or the first letters)
Topic 1. Psychology as a science
What is the subject of psychology as a science?
consciousness
behavior
Psyche
soul
The mental properties of a person include:
thinking and consciousness
Temperament and abilities
desires and needs
emotions and will
The main functions of the psyche are:
reflection and body protection
Reflection and regulation of behavior and activity
body protection and performance
regulation of behavior and prediction
The direction of psychology, the main task of which is the application of scientific knowledge to help the population in everyday and critical situations, is called ...
Practical psychology
general psychology
social Psychology
behavioral approach
Introspection is a term for a method...
laboratory experiment
self-observation
projective tests
testing individual mental functions
Friends, more than 600 dogs of the Voronezh Dora shelter https://vk.com/priyt_dora very much in need of support! The shelter is poor, there is not enough money for food and treatment. Do not put off doing good deeds, transfer any amount right now to the “Hungry Phone” +7 960 111 77 23 or Sberbank card 4276 8130 1703 0573. For all questions, please contact +7 903 857 05 77 (Shamarin Yury Ivanovich)
Topic 2. Sensory-perceptual processes
Feelings do not include:
Integrity
sensitization
contrast
adaptation
A holistic nervous mechanism that receives and analyzes sensory information of a certain type is ...
mechanoreceptor
synesthesia
Analyzer
nocireceptor
The relation of information about the outside world, obtained with the help of analyzers, to the objects of the outside world is ...
Objectivity of perception
sensation modality
constancy of perception
The mental process responsible for the formation of a holistic image of the object with its direct impact on the analyzers:
performance
the cognitive dissonance
sensation
Perception
Human behavior, contrary to his ideas and attitudes, leads to ...
cognitive dissonance
sensory deprivation
orienting reflex
social perception
Topic 3. Integrative processes
Attention. arising as a result of a consciously set goal and requires certain volitional efforts, is called ...
perceptual
Arbitrary
scattered
involuntary
One of the mechanisms of attention - the focus of excitation, which accumulates signals in itself, and at the same time inhibits the work of other nerve centers, is called ...
Wernicke center
reticular formation
pons
Dominant
The ability to learn by forming conditioned reflexes is ...
eidetic memory
genetic memory
logical memory
mechanical memory
“An unfinished stream of information (an unfinished conversation, an unfinished business) is stored in memory” - this pattern is called ...
Zeigarnik effect
Yerkes-Dodson law
Ebbinghaus rule
James-Lange theory
The amount of attention for a person is:
5-9 objects
3-5 objects perceived simultaneously
9-11 objects
5-7 objects
Topic 4. Higher cognitive processes: representation and imagination
View properties do not include:
fragmentation
Selectivity
sketchiness
instability
Images, which are new combinations of known details and properties of objects, are ...
Representations of the imagination
representations of thinking
representations of perception
memory representations
The technique of imagination, which consists in combining the properties of different objects in one, is ...
emphasis
Agglutination
recreation
hyperbolization
In addition to humans, the following animals are endowed with imagination:
monkeys and dolphins
Nobody but a man
dolphins
dogs
The image of an object or event that satisfies an urgent need, not connected with reality - this is such a form of imagination as ...
dream
Fantasy
hallucination
typing
Topic 5. Higher cognitive processes: thinking and speech
Ways of thinking include:
imagination, idea, fantasy
convergence and divergence
synthesis, analysis, comparison
Concept, judgment, conclusion
The general ability to learn and solve problems, which determines the success of any activity and underlies other abilities, is ...
Intelligence
inner speech
analysis
thinking
In the expression of attitude to the subject (phenomenon) is ...
manipulative function of speech
incentive function of speech
communicative function of speech
Expressive function of speech
The mental selection of an essential (under given conditions) property while ignoring the remaining properties is ...
Abstraction
generalization
specification
synthesis
The variety of solutions is typical for _ type of thinking:
figurative
inert
convergent
divergent
Topic 6. Emotional sphere of the psyche
Moral, practical, intellectual, aesthetic - these are varieties ...
feelings
affects
emotions
affects
A strong and relatively short-term emotional state associated with a sharp change in important life circumstances for the subject is
Affect
passion
feeling
mood
Emotions do not include:
protective
regulating
reflective-evaluative
planning
Peripheral organic changes were interpreted not as a consequence of the emotional process, but as their cause in theory...
James-Lange theories
theories of K. Izard
theories of P.V. Simonova
Yerkes-Dodson theories
Emotions are.
Mental processes and mental states
mental properties
mental processes
mental states
Topic 7. Mental states
The nonspecific reaction of the body to any requirement of the environment causes a state of ...
depression
inspiration
frustrations
stress
It's not a psychological cause of depression...
Competitive environment
social isolation
negative thinking
Conflict in family communication
A certain relationship and interaction of the components of the psyche over a certain period of time is
Mental condition
mental process
Personality
Stress
The desire to artificially cause an undesirable reaction as a way of regulating the mental state is called ...
Paradoxical Intention
Regression
progressive relaxation
Autogenic training
The determinants of a mental state do not include:
Human temperament
Human capabilities
human needs
Objective environmental conditions and their subjective perception
Topic 8. Temperament and character
The reaction rate depends on such a property of the nervous system as ...
Mobility
Force
Equilibrium
Emotionality
E. Kretschmer called the constitutional type. which is characterized by such features as long limbs, thin bones, narrow shoulders, a narrow and flat chest, pale skin -
Asthenic
mesomorphic
Cycloid
extroverted
For which accentuation of character are all the following signs suitable?
Different behavior in familiar and unfamiliar places, the ability to have strong and deep experiences, strict moral principles, self-criticism. Low self-esteem?
Psychasthenic
unstable
Schizoid
sensitive
Hippocrates
I.P. Pavlov
Leonhard
E. Kretschmer
“A set of overly developed character traits that causes increased adaptability of the individual in some situations and increased vulnerability in others” - this is the definition ...
Character accentuations
introversion
Dynamic stereotype
Character pathologies