Mental phenomena and their classification. Mental phenomena examples Psychological phenomenon which

It is necessary to distinguish between mental phenomena and mechanisms.

DEFINITION: Under Psychic Phenomena understand various features of human behavior and mental life that are accessible to direct observation.

The term “phenomenon” came to psychology from philosophy, where it usually designates everything sensually perceived (i.e., through sensations). For example, lightning or smoke are phenomena because we can directly observe them, but the chemical and physical processes behind these phenomena are not phenomena themselves, because they can only be recognized through the prism of the analytical apparatus. It's the same in psychology. What can be recognized by any untrained observer, such as memory or character, are classified as mental phenomena.

The rest, hidden, is considered Psychic Mechanisms. For example, this may be features of memory or psychological defense mechanisms. Of course, the line between phenomena and mechanisms is quite fluid. However, the term “mental phenomena” is necessary to designate the range of primary information that we receive about behavior and mental life.
Mental phenomena can be divided into objective and subjective.

Objective mental phenomena accessible to an external observer (for example, character or many mental states).

Subjective psychic phenomena accessible only to the internal observer (that is, to their owner himself - we are talking about introspection). Subjective phenomena include judgments, ideals or values. Outsider access to this area is very limited. Of course, there are phenomena that can be classified as both subjective and objective. For example, these are emotions. On the one hand, emotions are perfectly “read” by outside observers. On the other hand, only the owner of an emotion can feel it to the end, and despite external similarity, emotions can differ greatly. Moreover, a person often hides his .

In classical Russian psychology, mental phenomena are divided into three classes:

Mental processes(memory, attention, perception, etc.),
Mental conditions(fatigue, agitation, frustration, stress, etc.),
Mental properties(character traits, temperament, orientation, values, etc.).

Below, each class is deciphered and accompanied by examples.

Mental process

it is a component of holistic mental activity, which has its own subject of reflection and a specific regulatory function. Memory, for example, as a subject of reflection, has some information that must be stored in time and then reproduced. Its regulatory function is to ensure the influence of past experience on current activities.

Mental processes act as primary regulators of human behavior. They have a definite beginning, course and end, that is, they have certain dynamic characteristics, which primarily include parameters that determine the duration and stability of the mental process. On the basis of mental processes, certain states are formed, knowledge, skills and abilities are formed.
For convenience, sometimes mental processes are divided into educational ( , And ) And regulatory ( And ). The former provide knowledge of reality, the latter regulate behavior. In fact, any mental process has an “input” and an “output”, that is, there is both the reception of information and some influence. But this is the essence of psychic phenomena - they are not always what they seem.
In general, of all phenomena, mental processes are perhaps the most mysterious to understand. Take, for example, . We know exactly when we learn something, when we repeat it, when we remember it. We have the ability to “strain” memory. However, in various kinds of neurophysiological studies, not even traces of memory as an independent and integral process were found. It turns out that memory functions are greatly blurred throughout higher nervous activity.

Another typical example is . Every person has experienced emotions, but most find it difficult to define this mental phenomenon. In psychology, emotion is usually interpreted as a rather short-term subjective attitude, a person’s reaction to a particular event, phenomenon, or object. This emotion, in particular, is imprinted by values, character and other personality traits. Not very qualified observers usually tend to judge an emotion either as an emotion-cause of subsequent behavior, or as an emotion-reaction to an event. In any case, emotion is considered as something very integral, because it seems like that to us: whole, indivisible. In fact, emotion is a mental process with a rather complex mechanism. The most direct impact on emotion is exerted by human instincts - innate tendencies to act one way and not another. Behind laughter, sadness, surprise, joy - instincts are everywhere. In addition, in any emotion one can find a struggle - a clash of different instinctive tendencies among themselves, as well as with the value sphere of the individual, his life experience. If there is no such struggle, then the emotion quickly fades: it turns into action or simply disappears. And, indeed, in emotions one can see not only the motivation for some action (or inaction), but also the result of the action (inaction). If a person successfully performs an action, his behavior is reinforced, almost literally “cemented,” so that in the future he will continue to act in the same spirit. Subjectively, this is perceived as pleasure. It is important to understand that we are not given “candy”—we perceive the “cementation” of our behavior as “candy.”

Mental condition

This is a temporary uniqueness of mental activity, determined by its content and a person’s attitude to this content. At a minimum, throughout the day we are in two different mental states of consciousness: sleep and wakefulness. The first state differs from the second in a rather narrowed spectrum of reception, since the senses are in dormant mode. It cannot be said that in a state of sleep a person is completely unconscious or completely devoid of sensations. In a dream, we are given sensations, but they are greatly inhibited. However, a strong sound or bright light easily wakes us up.
One of the most important parameters of mental state is general functional level mental activity. This level is influenced by many factors. For example, this could be the conditions and duration of activity, level of motivation, health, physical strength and even character traits. A hardworking person is able to maintain a high level of activity much longer.
Mental states can be short-term, situational and stable, personal. All mental states can be divided into four categories:

motivational(desires, aspirations, interests, attractions, passions);
emotional(emotional tone of sensations, emotional response to phenomena of reality, mood, stress, affect, frustration);
strong-willed(initiative, dedication, determination, perseverance);
states of different levels of organization of consciousness (they manifest themselves in different levels of attentiveness).

The difficulty in observing and understanding mental states is that one mental state can be seen as an overlap of several states (eg fatigue and agitation, stress and irritability). If we assume that a person can experience only one mental state at a time, then we must admit that many mental states do not even have their own name. In some cases, labels such as “irritable fatigue” or “cheerful persistence” may be given. However, you cannot say “purposeful fatigue” or “cheerful stress.” It would be methodologically correct to judge not that one state breaks up into several other states, but that one large state has such and such parameters.
Mental property of personality- this is its manifestation (character trait) that allows one to differentiate the behavior of one person from the behavior of another over a long period of time. If we say that such and such a person loves the truth, then we assume that he very rarely deceives, in a variety of situations he tries to get to the bottom of the truth. If we say that a person loves freedom, we assume that he really does not like restrictions on his rights. And so on. The main essence of mental properties as phenomena is their differentiating power. It makes no sense to put forward mental properties of this kind as “having a memory” or “resembling a stream.”
It should be noted that the list of mental phenomena is not limited to processes, states and properties. There are at least more

Psychic phenomena - Various kinds of features of human behavior and mental life that are accessible to direct observation. The term “phenomenon” came to psychology from philosophy, where it usually denotes everything sensually (through sensations) perceived. For example, lightning or smoke are phenomena because we can directly observe them, but the chemical and physical processes behind these phenomena are not phenomena themselves, because they can only be recognized through the prism of the analytical apparatus.

It's the same in psychology. What can be recognized by any untrained observer, such as memory or character, are classified as mental phenomena. The rest, hidden, is considered psychic mechanisms. For example, this may be features of memory or psychological defense mechanisms. Of course, the line between phenomena and mechanisms is quite fluid. However, the term “mental phenomena” is necessary to designate the range of primary information that we receive about behavior and mental life.

It is quite obvious that mental phenomena can be divided into objective and subjective. Objective phenomena are accessible to an external observer (for example, character or many mental states). Subjective ones are accessible only to the internal observer (that is, to their owner himself - we are talking about introspection). Subjective phenomena include consciousness or values. The access of an outside observer to consciousness or the sphere of values is very limited. Of course, there are phenomena that can be classified as both subjective and objective. For example, these are emotions. On the one hand, emotions are perfectly “read” by outside observers. On the other hand, only the owner of an emotion can feel it to the end, and despite external similarity, emotions can differ greatly.

In classical Russian psychology, mental phenomena are divided into three types:

1) mental processes (memory, attention, perception, etc.),

2) mental states (fatigue, excitement, frustration, stress, etc.),

3) mental properties (character traits, temperament, orientation, values, etc.).

Mental processes are separate subprocesses of integral mental activity that have their own subject of reflection and a specific regulatory function. Memory, for example, as a subject of reflection, has some information that must be stored in time and then reproduced. Its regulatory function is to ensure the influence of past experience on current activities.

For convenience, sometimes mental processes are divided into cognitive (sensation, perception, thinking, memory and imagination) and regulatory (emotional and volitional). The former provide knowledge of reality, the latter regulate behavior. In fact, any mental process has an “input” and an “output”, that is, there is both the reception of information and some influence. But this is the essence of mental phenomena - they are not always what they seem.

In general, of all phenomena, mental processes are perhaps the most mysterious to understand. Take memory, for example. We know exactly when we learn something, when we repeat it, when we remember it. We have the ability to "strain" memory. However, in various kinds of neurophysiological studies, not even traces of memory as an independent and integral process were found. It turns out that memory functions are greatly blurred throughout higher nervous activity.

Another typical example is emotions. Every person has experienced emotions, but most find it difficult to define this mental phenomenon. In psychology, emotion is usually interpreted as a rather short-term subjective attitude, a person’s reaction to a particular event, phenomenon, or object. This emotion, in particular, is imprinted by values, character and other personality traits. Not very qualified observers usually tend to judge an emotion either as an emotion-cause of subsequent behavior, or as an emotion-reaction to an event. In any case, emotion is considered as something very integral, because it seems like that to us: whole, indivisible. In fact, emotion is a mental process with a rather complex mechanism. The most direct impact on emotion is exerted by human instincts - innate tendencies to act one way and not another. Behind laughter, sadness, surprise, joy - instincts are everywhere. In addition, in any emotion one can find a struggle - a clash of different instinctive tendencies among themselves, as well as with the value sphere of the individual, his life experience. If there is no such struggle, then the emotion quickly fades: it turns into action or simply disappears. And, indeed, in emotions one can see not only the motivation for some action (or inaction), but also the result of the action (inaction). If a person successfully performs an action, his behavior is reinforced, almost literally “cemented,” so that in the future he continues to act in the same spirit. Subjectively, this is perceived as pleasure. It is important to understand that we are not given “candy” - we perceive the “cementing” of our behavior as “candy”.

A mental state is a temporary uniqueness of mental activity, determined by its content and a person’s attitude to this content. At a minimum, throughout the day we are in two different mental states: sleep and wakefulness. The first state differs from the second in a rather strongly narrowed consciousness and “switching off” sensations. It cannot be said that in a state of sleep a person is completely unconscious or completely devoid of sensations. When we wake up in the morning, we realize quite clearly, without even looking at the clock, how much we slept. If a person regains consciousness after anesthesia, then he cannot even approximately estimate the duration of this state. In a dream, we are given sensations, but they are greatly inhibited. However, a strong sound or bright light easily wakes us up.

One of the most important parameters of mental state is the general functional level of mental activity. This level is influenced by many factors. For example, this could be the conditions and duration of activity, level of motivation, health, physical strength and even character traits. A hardworking person is able to maintain a high level of activity much longer.

Mental states can be short-term, situational and stable, personal. All mental states can be divided into four types:

Motivational (desires, aspirations, interests, drives, passions);

Emotional (emotional tone of sensations, emotional response to phenomena of reality, mood, stress, affect, frustration);

Volitional states (initiative, determination, determination, perseverance);

States of different levels of organization of consciousness (they manifest themselves in different levels of attentiveness).

Mental properties of a person are phenomena that make it possible to differentiate the behavior of one person from the behavior of another over a long period of time. If we say that such and such a person loves the truth, then we assume that he very rarely deceives, in a variety of situations he tries to get to the bottom of the truth. If we say that a person loves freedom, we assume that he really does not like restrictions on his rights. And so on. The main essence of mental properties as phenomena is their differentiating power. It makes no sense to put forward mental properties of this kind as “having a memory” or “resembling a brook.”

It should be noted that the list of mental phenomena is not limited to processes, states and properties. There are, at a minimum, social relationships - also a mental phenomenon, but not reducible to properties or other phenomena.

All mental phenomena are inextricably linked, but traditionally they are divided into three groups:

1) mental processes;

2) mental states;

3) mental properties of the individual.

Mental processes should be considered as basic phenomena, and mental states and personality traits as a temporary and typological modification of mental processes. Taken together, all mental phenomena form a single stream of reflective-regulatory activity.

Let us give a brief general description of these three groups of mental phenomena.

I. Mental processes are individual integral acts of reflective-regulatory activity. Each mental process has its own object of reflection, its own regulatory specificity and its own patterns.

Mental processes represent the initial group of mental phenomena: on their basis, mental images are formed.

Mental processes are the active interaction of the subject with the object of reflection, a system of specific actions aimed at its cognition and interaction with it.

Mental processes are divided into: 1) cognitive (sensation, perception, thinking, imagination and memory), 2) volitional, 3) emotional.

Human mental activity is a combination of cognitive, volitional and emotional processes.

II. Mental state is a temporary uniqueness of mental activity, determined by its content and a person’s attitude to this content. Mental state is a current modification of the human psyche. It represents a relatively stable integration of all mental manifestations of a person with a certain interaction with reality.

The mental state is manifested in the general functional level of mental activity, depending on the direction of a person’s activity at the moment and his personal characteristics

All mental states are divided into:

1) motivational – needs-based attitudes, desires, interests, drives, passions;

2) states of organized consciousness (manifested in various levels of attentiveness and efficiency);

3) emotional (emotional tone of sensations, emotional response to reality, mood, conflicting emotional states - stress, affect, frustration);

4) volitional (states of initiative, determination, determination, perseverance, etc.; their classification is related to the structure of complex volitional action).

There are also different borderline mental states of the individual - psychopathy, accentuation of character, neuroses and states of delayed mental development.

III. Mental properties of a person are features of his psyche that are typical for a given person, features of the implementation of his mental processes.

Mental properties of a person include: 1) temperament; 2) personality orientation (needs, interests, worldview, ideals); 3) character; 4) abilities (Fig. 3).

This is the traditional classification of mental phenomena, coming from I. Kant. It underlies the construction of traditional psychology. However, this classification suffers from an artificial separation of mental processes from mental states and typological properties of the individual: cognitive, volitional and emotional processes are nothing more than certain mental capabilities (abilities) of the individual, and mental states are the current uniqueness of these capabilities.

The concept of the psyche. Psychic phenomena

Activity. Behavior. Activity

Unity of consciousness and activity

Main components of activity

Psychological characteristics of activity

Individual style of activity

Literature

1. The concept of the psyche. Psychic phenomena

Psyche- the ability of the brain to receive information about the surrounding reality, create an image of the objective world and regulate its own behavior and activity on this basis. The work of the psyche is carried out only in the process active work human, animal. Active activity is the most important condition for the development of the psyche, i.e. its improvement, complexity, deepening.

Active reflection of reality is the most important property of a differentiated, highly organized brain with multi-level connections between different departments. It is inherent in both animals and humans. The more complex, the more formed the brain, the greater the abilities the psyche has, the more developed it is. The psyche reaches the highest, most complete level of development in humans.

Human psyche includes everything that he senses, perceives, thinks, remembers, feels, all his habits, his individuality, then, How, with the help of what means, what, in the words of psychologists, mechanisms, does it do this.

The psyche makes it possible not only to accurately reflect the features of the world around us, it allows us to foresee and predict what will happen in the future. Such leading the function of mental activity, of course, is most characteristic of humans. Thanks to this, we can imagine what will happen after some time, we can make plans, set goals, and dream. It allows us, for example, to prepare in advance for some difficult event. For example, if you don't feel like doing homework or studying for an exam, it can be very helpful to imagine your future emotional state. How will you feel when you are called and you cannot say a word. How will you feel when you are asked about your exam results? Such “emotional anticipation”, as a rule, allows you to overcome laziness and start studying.

The psyche has individual character. Mental characteristics form individuality, and all influences are refracted through individual characteristics.

Psychology studies mental phenomena: mental processes, mental states and mental properties.

Mental processes describe three main aspects of human mental life: knowledge, feeling and will. Accordingly, cognitive processes, feelings and will are distinguished in mental processes. TO cognitive processes include sensation, perception, memory, thinking, imagination, with the help of which we learn and comprehend the world and ourselves. A special place among cognitive processes is occupied by attention, which is present in all processes and allows you to concentrate and focus on something.

Feelings, emotions reflect a person’s experience of his relationship to the phenomena of the surrounding world, the events of his inner life, determine how important they are for him, for his life, i.e. establish the personal significance of a particular event.

Will, arbitrariness provides conscious regulation of behavior, the ability to act according to a consciously set goal, accepted intention.

The concept of “mental processes” emphasizes, first of all, dynamism, plasticity, variability, and continuity of mental activity.

Mental conditions- relatively stable mental phenomena. Mental conditions include cheerfulness, fatigue, boredom, joy, anxiety, apathy etc. Although mental states, like other mental phenomena, reflect the impact on a person of certain events of external and internal life, he, as a rule, is aware only of this state itself, and what caused it is either not represented at all or is vaguely represented .

Mental properties- the most stable and significant features that distinguish a person or group of people from others. Mental properties include personality traits man, his orientation, personality traits, character traits, temperament, abilities.

Mental processes, mental states and mental properties do not exist separately from each other, they interact and can transform into each other. For example, curiosity as an expression of the cognitive process can turn into a state of interest and become fixed in such a personality quality as curiosity.

The classification of mental phenomena exists in a simple, classic version. This is exactly what is used in modern psychology.

There are usually three main categories:

Mental processes.
Mental properties.
Mental states.

To understand in detail what constitutes a mental phenomenon, it is necessary to consider each of the identified groups in more detail.

Briefly about the main thing

If we briefly talk about what human mental properties are, then these are stable formations that provide one or another type of behavior inherent in each specific person. The mental properties of people are very diverse; they are formed gradually throughout life and are fixed by practice.

Mental states are understood as a specific level of mental activity, and it can manifest itself in a decrease or increase in personal activity. Any individual can experience different mental phenomena during the day, depending on this, his activity can be more or less productive.

Now it’s worth considering in more detail each of the groups of mental phenomena described above.

Processes

For people, any cognitive mental process is a channel for communication with the outside world. Any information that comes to us is transformed by the brain precisely with the help of cognitive processes. In psychology, these include several phenomena.

The simplest is . Through it, people can learn the properties of the surrounding space, as well as establish connections between objects and phenomena. It is also generally accepted that sensation is the source of our knowledge both about ourselves and about the world around us. It is worth noting that only those living organisms that have a brain can be aware of sensations.

Sensations “enter” the body through the senses, and they are very diverse. There are actual and irrelevant sensations, exteroceptive, interoceptive and proprioceptive. Any sensation has three main characteristics - quality, intensity and duration.

It is also a mental phenomenon. It represents a holistic reflection of the processes occurring in the world, while they affect the human senses. Perception is inherent only to humans and some other higher species of animals.

Perception is a very complex process, since thanks to it a person develops a holistic image of a particular phenomenon or object in his head. Let's give a simple example: a person has a pencil in his hands, he touches and sees it; thanks to this, as well as his life experience, he imagines not only his external appearance, but also the fact that he has a stylus inside.

The main properties of perception are integrity, generality, objectivity, meaningfulness, constancy and selectivity. The development of this mental phenomenon plays an important role in the learning process.

An important psychological process can be called representation. It consists in a kind of reflection of some object that you currently cannot see, but based on previous knowledge you understand what it looks like. The representation has a number of properties: instability, variability, fragmentation.

It is impossible to ignore such a property of the psyche as. It is the process of creating new images in a person’s head, which may not always correspond to reality. Imagination is very important for representatives of creative professions. By the way, a dream is considered one of the types of imagination in psychology.

Thinking is usually called the highest cognitive process. Its essence is that a person, based on the transformation of the surrounding reality, can generate new knowledge. The main function of this phenomenon is individuality, and the main source of thinking is practical experience. By the way, thinking is inextricably linked with speech, because a person thinks not in pictures or images, but in words.

Certain types of mental phenomena are mnemonic processes, which are otherwise called memory. They are studied, by the way, not only in psychology, but also in other sciences. Memory is the consolidation and preservation, and, if necessary, the reproduction of experience accumulated during life. Mnemonic processes include a person’s ability to remember, preserve, reproduce and forget.

The classification of mental phenomena also contains such a concept as attention. It is usually understood as the concentration of the psyche on some object or phenomenon. The main forms of attention are conscious and unconscious. By the way, scientists do not have an exact opinion regarding this mental phenomenon. Some consider it a separate process, while a number of researchers consider it only in conjunction with some other mental phenomena.

Emotions and feelings

Man differs from other living beings in that he knows how to experience, i.e. has feelings and . The structure of mental phenomena of this kind is very complex and ambiguous. Emotion is usually understood as a person’s experience, which is associated with whether or not he has satisfied his needs.

Feeling is a more complex phenomenon. It usually represents a whole complex of different emotions. By the way, only a person can experience feelings, and in different circumstances he expresses them differently.

It is worth noting that both emotions and feelings are very closely related to the state of the human body. In one state or another, an individual may feel differently. The simplest feelings include pleasure from the satisfaction of organic needs, and the most complex are love, patriotism, etc.

By the way, mental phenomena can be conscious or unconscious to a person. Unconscious mental phenomena are not very common, but they still exist. For example, a person may experience a sudden and out of nowhere feeling of anxiety. Unconscious mental phenomena, by the way, are inherent only to man and to no other living creature except him.

We should also talk about such a phenomenon as mass psychic phenomena. They are characteristic only of a particular social group. Moreover, it can be either a huge crowd or a relatively small group of people. Mass mood manifests itself in the life of every person, and there is more than one example of this.

Let's say fashion is what is considered beautiful and relevant in a particular period of time in a particular group. Approximately from the same series is the phenomenon of rumors - unreliable or officially unconfirmed information that is disseminated in a particular society.

Another widespread phenomenon is panic. It is commonly understood as the emotional state of people in any dangerous situation. The simplest example is a fire in a building - in most cases, people, even knowing about the evacuation rules, begin to panic and run to the exit in random order. If a leader appears in the crowd at this time, he will be able to quickly resolve the situation and prevent adverse consequences. Author: Elena Ragozina