Definition, components and functions of socio-psychological attitude

When studying personality in social psychology, the most important place is occupied by the problem of socio-psychological attitude.

An attitude is a property of activity, readiness, predisposition of a subject that arises when he anticipates the appearance of a certain object and ensures a stable, purposeful nature of the course of activity in relation to a given object, i.e. psychological readiness to act in a certain way under certain conditions.

Social and psychological attitudes There are states of psychological readiness that develop on the basis of experience and influence a person’s reactions regarding those objects and situations with which he is associated and which are socially significant for him.

The concept of “attitude” should be considered not as a general attitude, position towards any object, phenomenon, person, but as a disposition - readiness for a certain behavior in a specific situation. This concept expresses a specific connection between internal and external.

Initially, it was introduced in experimental psychology by German psychologists to designate a factor conditioned by past experience (readiness to act in one way or another), which determines the speed of response to a perceived situation (L. Lange) and some illusions of perception (G. Müller, T. Schumann), and also to describe the unconscious state of readiness that arises when setting a task, which determines the direction of various mental processes.

In 1901, within the framework of the Würzburg school, G. Mayer and I. Orth, students of C. Marbe, showed that there are mental processes that cannot be described phenomenologically and that do not fall into the classes of sensations, images or feelings. They manifest themselves in expectations, hesitations, doubts, or confidence that the right path has been found in solving a problem. These processes were called states of consciousness, and when translated into English they were called attitudes of consciousness.

IN In psychology, the term “attitude” has its own meaning, its own tradition of research, and it is necessary to correlate the concept of “social attitude” with this tradition.

The study of installation has its own history of development. In Russian psychology, the study of attitude is closely connected with the names of Uznadze, Myasishchev, Bozhovich, Leontyev.

The installation problem was a special subject of study at D.N.’s school. Uznadze. The external coincidence of the terms “attitude” and “social attitude” leads to the fact that sometimes the content of these concepts is considered identical. Moreover, the set of definitions that reveal the content of these two concepts is really similar: “inclination”, “direction”, “readiness”. At the same time, it is necessary to precisely define the scope of action of the installations, as D.N. understood them. Uznadze, and the scope of “social attitudes”.

According to D.N. Uznadze, attitude is a holistic dynamic state of the subject, a state of readiness for a certain activity, a state that is determined by two factors: the need of the subject and the corresponding objective situation.

Installation in the context of the concept of D.N. Uznadze is most concerned with the issue of realizing the simplest physiological needs of a person. It is interpreted as the unconscious, which precludes the application of this concept to the study of the most complex, highest forms of human activity. This in no way diminishes the importance of developing problems at a general psychological level, as well as the possibility of developing these ideas in relation to social psychology.

Myasishchev is known for his concept of human relations. A relationship is a system of temporary connections between a person and all of reality or its individual aspects; predisposition to some objects that allow one to expect to reveal oneself in real acts of action.

According to Bozhovich, the orientation of the individual develops as the internal position of the individual in relation to the social environment, to individual objects of the social environment. Personality orientation can be considered as a person’s predisposition to act in a certain way, covering the entire sphere of his life, up to the most complex objects and situations.

From Leontiev’s position, a social attitude is determined by personal meaning generated by the relationship of motive to goal.

Social setting-- one of the main categories of social psychology. Social attitude is intended to explain all social behavior of a person. In English, the concept of “attitude” corresponds to a social attitude, and it was introduced into scientific use in 1918-1920. W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki. They also described four functions of attitudes:

1) Adaptive function(sometimes called utilitarian, adaptive) - the attitude directs the subject to those objects that serve to achieve his goals. It is associated with the need to ensure the most favorable position of a person in the social environment. Positive attitudes towards favorable stimuli. Negative - to sources of unpleasant stimuli.

2) Function of knowledge or worldview organization. This attitude gives simplified instructions regarding the way to behave in relation to a specific object. It is developed in relation to knowledge about the world. Scientific ideas + everyday ones. A system of attitudes is a set of emotionally charged elements of knowledge about the world and people.

3) Value-expressive function(sometimes called the function of value, self-regulation) - attitude acts as a means of freeing the subject from internal tension, expressing oneself as an individual;

This function is associated with the needs for personal stability. Positive attitudes are developed, as a rule, towards representatives of our personality type.

4) Energy-protective function-- attitude contributes to the resolution of internal conflicts of the individual. Associated with the need to maintain the internal stability of the individual.

Regarding the development of research in the field of attitude in Western psychology, Shikhirev identified 4 stages in this area of ​​research.

From 1918 to World War II - the introduction of the term, the growth of interest in the problem and the number of studies.

40-50 - decline in research due to a dead end in the theoretical understanding of the problem.

50-60 - recognition of dead-end crisis conditions, revival of interest and research on the problem.

The 70s were a period of stagnation associated with an abundance of incomparable facts.

In 1942, M. Smith clarified the structure of a social attitude by identifying three well-known components:

1. Cognitive, containing knowledge, an idea of ​​a social object;

2. Affective, reflecting the emotional-evaluative attitude towards the object;

3. Behavioral, expressing the potential readiness of the individual to implement certain behavior in relation to the object.

Whether or not behavior corresponding to the cognitive and affective components of a given attitude will be implemented depends on the situation, that is, the interaction with other attitudes.

In the process of human communication and social interaction, attitudes are transformed. In communication there is always an element of a conscious or unconscious desire to change the attitudes of another person

Installations form a system. Installations located in the center and forming a large number of connections are called central, focal attitudes (attitudes towards knowledge associated with the worldview and moral credo of the individual).

Main central installation- this is an attitude towards one’s own “I”, since in the process of socialization we always correlate all phenomena that are significant to us with the thought of ourselves. Setting the self-esteem of one’s own “I” turns out to be at the intersection of all connections of the system. Changing the focal setting is not possible without destroying the integrity of the individual. The concept of self is negative only in extremely neurotic people.

Peripheral settings have few connections and are therefore easier and faster to change.

When changing the setting, the following situations are possible:

v neighboring installations change in direction (from + to -);

v the importance of the installation may change;

v the principle of communication between neighboring installations may change.

The cognitive dissonance

The system of attitudes is based on both cognitive and emotional connections. A more reliable and faster way to change attitudes is to approach the problem. The logical method of changing the attitude does not always work, since the person avoids information that could prove the error of his behavior.

There is a relationship between the probability of an attitude change and the amount of information about the attitude (as the amount of information increases, the probability of change increases, but there is a saturation limit). The likelihood of a change in attitude depends on how balanced it is. A person tends to avoid information that can cause cognitive dissonance - a discrepancy between attitudes or attitudes and a person's actual behavior.

Cognitive dissonance is a condition characterized by a collision in the mind of an individual of contradictory knowledge, beliefs, and behavioral attitudes regarding some object or phenomenon.

The theory of cognitive dissonance is one of the “theories of correspondence”, based on attributing to the individual a desire for a coherent and orderly perception of his relationship to the world.

The concept of “cognitive dissonance” was first introduced by Kurt Lewin’s student Leon Festinger in 1956 to explain changes in opinions and beliefs as a way to eliminate semantic conflict situations.

In the theory of cognitive dissonance, logically contradictory knowledge about the same subject is assigned the status of motivation, designed to ensure the elimination of the feeling of discomfort that arises when confronted with contradictions by changing existing knowledge or social attitudes. It is believed that there is a body of knowledge about objects and people, called the cognitive system, which can have varying degrees of complexity, coherence and interconnectedness. Moreover, the complexity of a cognitive system depends on the amount and variety of knowledge included in it.

According to the classic definition of L. Festinger, cognitive dissonance is a discrepancy between two cognitive elements (cognitions) - thoughts, experience, information, etc. - in which the denial of one element follows from the existence of another, and the feeling associated with this discrepancy discomfort, in other words, a feeling of discomfort arises when there is a collision in the mind of logically contradictory knowledge about the same phenomenon, event, object. The theory of cognitive dissonance characterizes ways to eliminate or smooth out these contradictions and describes how a person does this in typical cases.

In the case of a balanced system of attitudes, the speech influence of another person or group operates on the principle of assimilative contrast action (If a person’s opinion is close to the speaker’s opinion, a unification of opinions occurs (assimilation); if the opposite occurs, the person becomes even more convinced that he is right (contrast)).

A person has a system of information selection: at the level of attention (attention is directed to what interests the person); at the level of perception; at the memory level.

Methods of influence

A set of techniques that have an impact on:

Needs, interests, inclinations, motivation;

On attitudes, group norms, people’s self-esteem;

The state in which a person is and which changes his behavior.

To change a person's motivation, they involve them in new activities. To change behavior, it is necessary to change the hierarchy of its motives, updating the motives of a lower sphere (regression method).

A method for creating uncertain situations.

It allows you to put a person into a state of “destroyed attitudes”, loss of oneself, and if after this you show him the way out of uncertainty, he will be ready to perceive this attitude and react in the required way. Especially if you perform suggestive maneuvers: appeal to the opinion of the majority, involvement in common activities.

The required social attitude is formed in a person:

v if he is periodically involved in the relevant activities;

v receives relevant information repeatedly;

v if he is included in a prestigious, significant group for him, in which this attitude is supported (co-optation).

To form an attitude towards the required attitude or assessment of an event, the method of associative or emotional transfer is used (include an object in the same context with something that already has an assessment, or evoke an emotion about this context)

To strengthen (actualize an attitude) capable of causing a person’s emotional or moral protest, the technique of “combining stereotypical phrases” with what they want to introduce is used (stereotypical phrases reduce a person’s attention and emotional attitude for a certain moment, sufficient for the installation to be triggered).

To change a person’s emotional attitude and state to current events, the technique of “remembering the bitter past” is effective (seeing a past life in a dark light leads to a decrease in dissatisfaction with the present day).

To discharge the negative emotional state of people in the required direction and with the required effect, the technique of “mood channeling” is used (provoking, pouring out the anger of the crowd on the “switchman”).

If the motivation, attitudes and emotional state of people are taken into account, the impact is most effective.

To change the behavior of a group, it is necessary to change group norms (group norms determine and regulate the behavior of people and the group as a whole). Active influence on group norms can be carried out by the leader or by inclusion in other activities.

Theory of the emergence of social dominance

It is believed that any impact on a person can be considered from the point of view of attitude theory. When it is of a social nature, then they speak of the socio-psychological nature of the attitude. Understanding the mechanism of action of attitudes is facilitated by understanding the operation of the principle of the so-called dominant.

Psychophysiologists are well aware that human activity is largely determined by the dominant - a stable focus of increased excitability in the cortex and subcortex of the brain. This is that same mysterious “something” that prevents or, on the contrary, forces a person to take any action in certain situations.

Academician Aleksey Alekseevich Ukhtomsky (1875-1942) studied the dominant mechanism most fully and consistently. How does a dominant arise? It is believed that the dominant goes through three stages in its development.

First stage. Dominance occurs under the influence of internal secretion (for example, puberty) and external stimuli. The dominant attracts a wide variety of stimuli as reasons for feeding.

Second stage. This is the stage of formation of a conditioned reflex according to I.P. Pavlov, when from the previous set of existing excitations the dominant selects a group that is especially “interesting” for it - a selection of a stimulus for a given dominant, as a result of which a conditioned reflex is formed.

Third stage. A strong connection is established between the dominant and the external stimulus so that the stimulus will evoke and reinforce it. The external environment is entirely divided into separate objects, only parts of which correspond to a certain dominant.

The dominant focus has a number of specific properties, some of which are used in advertising.

These properties are the following:

1. Stability over time;

2. The ability, on the one hand, to attract various external stimuli to oneself, and on the other, to be fed by them;

In a specific time interval (minutes, hours, and in some special cases - months and years) one dominant dominates,

The dominant is sharply weakened due to its natural resolution.

Dominant is an objectively existing mechanism of human thinking and behavior. But, unlike animals, a person is able to recognize, correct old and create new dominants.

Is it possible to purposefully form new dominants? Modern psychophysiology does not give an exact answer to this question. One thing is certain: the dominant is not fatal and before, for example, carrying out a serious advertising campaign, it is necessary to “clear the place” - at least, try to correct the previous dominants (it is not possible to slow them down completely). There are four main psychophysiological mechanisms for correcting old dominants:

Ш The influence of the dominant was significantly weakened by rationally sublimated activity, reflecting the essence of the focus of excitation (that is, the natural resolution of the dominant);

Ш Prohibition, inhibition “head-on”, usually expressed by self-orders such as “you can’t”, “don’t do it!”. True, their effectiveness is considered relatively low;

Ш Transferring necessary actions to automatic mode (“automation”);

Inhibition of the former dominant by the new one is the most effective technique.

New dominants can be developed through informational, emotional, and physiological influence. It is believed that the information impact is usually the weakest. It is no coincidence that the Ministry of Health’s warning “Smoking is dangerous to your health” does not work even among medical workers - the people most informed about the consequences of smoking. In some cases, it is convenient to introduce the formation of a new dominant through a physiological mechanism, in particular through muscle actions (the advice of physiologist I.P. Pavlov is to “drive passion into the muscles” - douse yourself in cold water, chop wood, go for a run).

Thus, decision-making, intuition, insights, on the one hand, and stereotyped thinking, rejection of the new, on the other, are realized using a single psychophysiological mechanism - the principle of dominance.

After some time, the dominant decreases, leaving behind stereotypes of perception, thinking and, consequently, behavior.

Stereotypes and prejudices

The clear structure of a social attitude allows us to distinguish two important types of it: stereotype and prejudice. They differ from ordinary social attitudes primarily in the content of their cognitive component.

A stereotype is a social attitude with a frozen, often impoverished content of the cognitive component.

Stereotypes are useful and necessary as a form of economy of thinking and action in relation to fairly simple and stable objects and situations, adequate interaction with which is possible on the basis of familiar and experience-confirmed ideas.

Where an object requires creative understanding or has changed, but ideas about it remain the same, the stereotype becomes a brake in the processes of interaction between the individual and reality.

Basic properties of stereotypes:

The ability to influence decision making, often contrary to logic. Thus, according to American researchers, up to 40% of people who rejected smoked fish had never tried it

Depending on the nature of the attitude (positive or negative), stereotypes almost automatically “suggest” some arguments and crowd out others, opposite to the first, from consciousness;

A stereotype, in contrast to a “need in general,” has pronounced specificity. Stereotypes can be: positive, negative, neutral (they are also called “famous but indifferent” stereotypes).

Prejudice is a social attitude with a distorted content of its cognitive component, as a result of which the individual perceives some social objects in an inadequate, distorted form. It often happens that such a cognitive component is associated with a strong, that is, emotionally rich affective component.

As a result, prejudice causes not only an uncritical perception of individual elements of reality, but also inadequate actions in relation to them under certain conditions. The most common type of such perverted social attitudes are racial and national prejudices.

The main reason for the formation of prejudices lies in the underdevelopment of the cognitive sphere of the individual, due to which the individual uncritically perceives the influences of the relevant environment. Therefore, most often prejudices arise in childhood, when the child still has no or almost no adequate knowledge about a particular social object, but under the influence of parents and the immediate environment a certain emotional and evaluative attitude towards it is already formed. Subsequently, this attitude has a corresponding influence on the content of the developing cognitive component, acting as a filter that allows for perception only that information about the object that corresponds to the already established affective assessment of it.

The corresponding life experience of an individual, emotionally experienced but not sufficiently critically interpreted, can also influence the formation or consolidation of a prejudice.

Dispositional concept of regulation of social behavior of an individual

Academician Yadov developed a dispositional concept of regulation of an individual’s social behavior.

Its main idea is that a person has a complex system of various dispositional formations that regulate his behavior and activities. These dispositions are organized hierarchically, that is, their lower and higher levels can be designated. Yadov identifies 4 levels of dispositions

1. The first level consists of elementary fixed attitudes; they are formed on the basis of vital needs and in the simplest situations (according to Yadov’s scheme, in a family environment and in “objective situations”). This level of dispositions can be designated as “attitude.” The affective component plays a significant role in the formation of dispositions.

2. The second level is more complex dispositions, which are formed on the basis of a person’s need for communication carried out in a small group, and, accordingly, in those situations that are specified by activities in this group. Here, the regulatory role of disposition lies in the fact that the personality is already developing certain attitudes towards those social objects that are included in activity at a given level. A disposition of this level corresponds to a social fixed attitude, which, compared to an elementary fixed attitude, has a complex three-component structure and contains cognitive, affective and behavioral components.

3. The third level fixes the general orientation of the individual’s interests in relation to a specific sphere of social activity, or basic social attitudes. Dispositions of this kind are formed in those areas of activity where a person satisfies his need for activity, manifested as a specific “work”, a specific area of ​​leisure, etc.. Just like attitudes, basic social attitudes have a three-component structure, i.e. it is not as much an expression of attitude towards a separate social object as towards some more significant social areas.

4. The fourth, highest level of dispositions is formed by a system of value orientations of the individual, which regulate the behavior and activities of the individual in the most significant situations of his social activity. The system of value orientations expresses the individual’s attitude to the goals of life, to the means of satisfying these goals, i.e. to such “circumstances” of the individual’s life that can only be determined by general social conditions, the type of society, the system of its economic, political, ideological principles. The cognitive component of dispositions receives the predominant expression. The proposed hierarchy of dispositional formations acts as a regulatory system in relation to individual behavior. More or less accurately, each of the levels of dispositions can be correlated with the regulation of specific types of activity. The development of the proposed concept allows us to approach the entire problem of attitudes from a fundamentally new position.

Communicative attitude of the partner - this is a kind of behavior program of an individual in the process of communication. The level of attitude can be predicted in the course of identifying: the subject-thematic interests of the partner, emotional and evaluative attitudes towards various events, attitude towards the form of communication, the inclusion of partners in the system of communicative interaction. This is determined by studying the frequency of communication contacts, the type of temperament of the partner, his subject-practical preferences, and emotional assessments of forms of communication.

or what we really tell our children

Children, like sponges, absorb not what you say to them, but what you sincerely think. That's why it seems to us that children don't listen to us. Imagine a magic car to which you say: “Go to work, my Mercedes, and quickly, otherwise I’ll be late.” And he, our car, doesn’t move, because he reads a completely different command from our subconscious: “Sleep, sleep, to hell with work, get under the covers and sleep!” We say to the child: “Treat the boy with a tangerine,” and he reads our subconscious: “Just try to squander the family property!” and grows up to be a lonely greedy man.

When parents communicate with a child, they send him subconscious directives. I will upset you, as a rule, these directives are destructive. Basically, parents are programming their child to fail.

Why is this happening? Because children are not given birth to by the happiest or the healthiest people from a psychological point of view. Even if outwardly everything is fine and they have enough money for a comfortable existence. But psychological comfort cannot be bought so easily with money. He must suffer, learn and pass the maturity exam.

The main, one might say, the main problem of all neurotics is psychological immaturity. Jung compared maturity to the initiation experienced by primitive people and members of uncivilized peoples living in communities and tribes. We don’t go through any simple and understandable initiation to the beat of drums - it’s harder for us. Often, as adults, we never become psychologically mature. Hence the problems that our children have. They are raised (oh horror!) by immature individuals who themselves have not solved a bunch of their problems. And to become mature, you need to face your unconscious attitudes and stop living according to their unkind prompting... Let's try.

Want a classic list of destructive psychological attitudes? Psychologists have translated into the language of these subconscious attitudes all the noise and screaming that we pour into defenseless children’s ears. In the language of the subconscious, there are only five such directives, but what kind!

Negative psychological attitude first: “Don’t live!”

Its synonyms in Russian:

1. I don't need a girl like that
2. I'm so tired of you,
3. If it weren't for you and your dad, I would have acted in a movie, starring, naked...

Negative psychological attitude number two: “Don’t do it!”

There's no need for synonyms here. Listen to yourself, 95% of what you tell your child begins and ends with prohibitions on any activity! “Don’t run!”, “Don’t jump!”, “Don’t stand!”, “Don’t knock!”... The child receives the main information: “No matter what you do, everything will be bad. You are a bungler."

Negative psychological attitude third: “Don’t believe!”

Don't trust men, don't trust women, don't trust your girlfriends, don't trust your friends, don't trust your companions, don't trust anyone at all. The only person who loves you is your lonely, old, sick and useless mother, who gave you her whole life. In general, the signal that the child receives comes down to an anecdotal one: “What a scary life!..”.

Negative psychological attitude number four: “Don’t be a child!”

Older children receive this directive when they have younger brothers and sisters. However, occasionally the only children in the family can hear it. This directive means only one thing. Psychologically immature parents seem to say to their child: “The children here are us (me). We gave birth to you so that you would support and care for us. You are our nanny, start your duties!”

Negative psychological attitude five: “Don’t grow up!”

This directive is given to the youngest or only children in the family, the children who serve as an outlet for their parents. It’s hard to be an outlet... Usually such children never create their own family, and if they do, it won’t be for long.

Psychologists say that all parents, regardless of intelligence and attitude towards their children, unconsciously pronounce these five attitudes.

And getting rid of these attitudes is very simple: you need to write them in large print on suitable pieces of paper and tastefully burn each piece of paper on the clean flame of a burning candle. And then write attitudes that are directly opposite to what our parents once instilled in us, like all people - far from psychological perfection.

Elena Nazarenko

Determines readiness for psychological activity and can be different, it is a dependent concept: on the individual and the period of time, spiritual motivation, expectations, beliefs, inclinations, which affects not only the specific attitude towards various objects, facts, events, opinions, but also before only on the form in which these phenomena are presented, that is, their implementation in the world of perceptions.

A psychological attitude is a certain state, which, although not the content of consciousness, nevertheless has a significant impact on its work. In this case, the current state of affairs could be defined as follows: ideas and thoughts, emotions and feelings, acts of volitional decisions are the content of conscious mental life, and when these mental manifestations begin to act, they are necessarily accompanied by consciousness. To be conscious means to think and imagine, experience certain emotions and perform acts of will. For an attitude to arise, two conditions must exist: the subject has an actual need and a situation leading to its satisfaction. If both of these conditions are present, then the subject develops an attitude toward activity. A certain state of consciousness and the content corresponding to it are formed only on the basis of this attitude. Thus, it is necessary to accurately distinguish, on the one hand, a specific attitude, and on the other, the specific content of consciousness. The attitude does not represent anything specific from this content, and, therefore, it is impossible to characterize it in terms of phenomena of consciousness.

There are internal attitudes that are determined by needs, focus of attention, as well as attitudes caused by certain external events: objective and subjective attitudes. In an intermediate position are attitudes that arose as a result of past experience related to a given subject, and persisted over a long period of time (enmity, friendship, trust, respect, etc.).

A psychological attitude is a relationship between the contemplating person and objects in which certain reactions arise not only upon repeated exposure, but also when they are expected to occur, as may be indicated by various omen signals. When studying a psychological attitude, it is advisable to conduct observations over a long period of time.

To do this, it is necessary to fix it to a certain extent, which is achieved through repeated exposure to stimuli. Such experiences are called fixing or establishing, and the attitude that arose as a result of these experiences is called a fixed psychological attitude.

THEORY OF PLANNED FORMATION OF MENTAL ACTIONS

The theory of the systematic formation of mental actions was developed by P. Ya. Galperin (1902–1988) and his followers. It contains general rules for the formation of knowledge and skills, as well as programs for their application in education.

According to P. Ya. Galperin, orientation is the most important component of action, since a correctly oriented person is likely to perform the action correctly the first time.

First of all, action was studied as an elementary unit of activity, in connection with which the concept of “indicative basis of action” (OOA) was especially emphasized.

The structure of the OOD includes:

1) knowledge about the conditions for successful execution of an action;

2) knowledge about the structure, purpose, duration of action, etc.

Different educational activities lead to different conditions for the formation of knowledge and skills.

1. Incomplete OOD - the student has an idea of ​​the action itself and the goal, but does not know what the conditions for its success are. The action is formed on the basis of trial and error and contains many unnecessary elements. This is typical for unorganized learning.

2. Partially complete OOD - the student has an idea of ​​the action, purpose and correctness of its implementation. However, knowledge is purely practical and is not included in the general system of knowledge of the subject.

3. Complete OOD - the student receives a complete picture of the action, understands its logic, and is able to independently transfer it to other areas.

According to this theory, in order to form new knowledge or skill, the following conditions must be met:

1) the subject’s motivation increases;

2) knowledge is consolidated correctly in external form (for example, in the form of visual aids);

3) the logic of knowledge, its place in the system of other knowledge is explained;

4) memorization is achieved.

P. Ya. Galperin identified 6 parameters of action, the first four are primary, and the last two are secondary, formed as a result of a combination of the first:

1) level of action execution: material, verbal, mental;

2) a measure of generalization;

3) completeness of actually performed operations;

4) measure of development;

5) reasonableness of the action;

6) consciousness of action.

P. Ya. Galperin identified three groups of actions.

1. Actions to be learned.

2. Actions that are necessary in the learning process.

3. Modeling and coding.

Training, according to P. Ya. Galperin, consists of five stages:

1) creation of a limited liability company;

2) materialized action;

3) speaking out loud;

4) talking to yourself;

5) automation of action.

Fragment from the book. Kovpak D.V., “How to get rid of anxiety and fear.” A practical guide for a psychotherapist. - St. Petersburg: Science and Technology, 2007. - 240 p.

During the course of life, on the relatively blank sheet that is our psyche at birth, our reactions to stimuli are recorded in huge quantities, and over time they turn it into a manuscript covered with many writings.

And, as the outstanding Georgian psychologist and philosopher Dmitry Nikolaevich Uznadze (1886 - 1950) established, the so-called installation, or willingness to react in a certain way in a certain situation. This concept was first formulated by the German psychologist L. Lange in 1888, but the modern concept of “attitude”, generally accepted and recognized by the scientific community, appeared later in the works of Uznadze.

Our perception of the world is not a passive, but a very active process. We see events, people and facts not objectively and impartially, but through certain glasses, filters, prisms that distort reality for each of us in a whimsical and varied way. This bias, selectivity and arbitrary coloring of perception in psychology is designated by the term “attitude”. Seeing what is desired instead of what is real, perceiving reality in the halo of expectations is an amazing human property. In many cases, when we are confident that we act and judge quite sensibly, upon mature reflection it turns out that our specific attitude has worked. Information that has gone through this mill of distorting perception sometimes takes on an unrecognizable appearance.

The concept of “attitude” has occupied an important place in psychology, because the phenomena of attitude permeate almost all spheres of human mental life. The state of readiness, or installation, has fundamental functional significance. A person prepared for a certain action has the ability to carry it out quickly and accurately, that is, more effectively than an unprepared person. However, the installation may work incorrectly and, as a result, may not correspond to real circumstances. In such a situation, we become hostage to our attitudes.

A classic example explaining the concept of installation is one of the experiments conducted by Dmitry Nikolaevich. It was as follows. The subject received a series of words written in Latin. Over a period of time he read them. Then the subject received a series of Russian words. But continued to read them as Latin for some time. For example, instead of the word "axe" he read "monop". Analyzing experience. Uznadze writes: “...In the process of reading Latin words, the subject activated the corresponding attitude - the attitude to read in Latin, and when he is offered a Russian word, that is, a word in a language well understood by him, he reads it as if it were Latin. Only after a certain period of time the subject will begin to notice his mistake... When it comes to installation, it is assumed that this is a certain state that, as it were, precedes the solution of the problem, as if it includes in advance the direction in which the problem should be resolved. ..."

Unconscious automatisms usually mean actions or acts that are performed “by themselves,” without the participation of consciousness. Sometimes they talk about “mechanical work,” about work in which “the head remains free.” "Free head" means lack of conscious control.

Analysis of automatic processes reveals their dual origin. Some of these processes were never realized, while others passed through consciousness and ceased to be realized.

The former make up the group of primary automatisms, the latter - the group of secondary automatisms. The former are automatic actions, the latter are automated actions, or skills.

The group of automatic actions includes either congenital acts or those that are formed very early, often during the first year of a child’s life. For example, lip sucking movements, blinking, walking and many others.

The group of automated actions, or skills, is particularly broad and interesting. Thanks to the formation of a skill, a twofold effect is achieved: firstly, the action begins to be carried out quickly and accurately; secondly, there is a release of consciousness, which can be aimed at mastering a more complex action. This process is of utmost importance in the life of every person. It underlies the development of all our skills and abilities.

The field of consciousness is heterogeneous: it has a focus, a periphery, and finally, a boundary beyond which the area of ​​the unconscious begins. The later and most complex components of action become the focus of consciousness; the following fall to the periphery of consciousness; finally, the simplest and most refined components go beyond the borders of consciousness.

Remember how you mastered the computer (those who have already mastered it). At first, searching for the right key required, at best, tens of seconds, if not a minute. And each action was preceded by a technological pause: it was necessary to examine the entire keyboard to find the required button. And any hindrance was like a disaster, because it led to many mistakes. The music, noises, and someone's movements were terribly annoying. But time has passed. Now these “first steps” in the distant past (approximately at the level of the Mesozoic era) seem somewhat unreal. It’s hard to imagine that it once took more than one minute to find the right key and press it. Now there is no thinking about “when to press which key,” and the duration of pauses has been sharply reduced. Everything is done automatically: it’s as if the fingers have gained sight - they themselves find the right button and press it. And while working, you can listen to the sounds of music, be distracted by some extraneous topics, drink coffee, chew a sandwich, without fear for the result, because a clear, so-called dynamic stereotype has developed: actions are practiced and controlled unconsciously.

The unconsciousness of attitudes, on the one hand, makes our life easier by “unloading our heads” from regular routine affairs, on the other hand, it can significantly complicate life if we mistakenly include attitudes that are inappropriate or have become, due to changed circumstances, unsuitable. Erroneous or inadequately used attitudes will be the cause of our unpleasant surprise caused by our own behavior, which is striking in its unreasonableness and uncontrollability.

One example of the determining effect of an attitude on a person's life is the amazing effectiveness of witchcraft in lullaby civilizations. A Western anthropologist doing field work in the Australian desert and the Aborigines crowding around him are, despite their spatial proximity, in completely different worlds. Australian aboriginal sorcerers carry the bones of giant lizards with them, playing the role of a magic wand. As soon as a sorcerer pronounces a death sentence and points this wand at one of his fellow tribesmen, he immediately develops a state corresponding to severe depression. But not from the action of the bones, of course, but from boundless faith in the power of the sorcerer. The fact is that, having learned about the curse, the unfortunate person cannot even imagine another scenario other than his inevitable death from the influence of the sorcerer. An attitude was formed in his psyche that dictated imminent death. In the body of a person who is confident that he will die in any case, all stages of stress quickly go through, vital processes slow down and exhaustion develops. Here is a description of the action of such a “death command”:

But if the sorcerer tries to do the same with one of the Europeans, at least with the same anthropologist, it is unlikely that anything will work out. A European simply will not understand the significance of what is happening - he will see in front of him a short naked man waving an animal bone and muttering some words. If it were otherwise, Australian sorcerers would have ruled the world long ago! An Australian aborigine who attended a session with Anatoly Mikhailovich Kashpirovsky, with his “good attitude,” would hardly have realized the significance of the situation - most likely, he would have simply seen a gloomy man in a European suit, muttering some words and looking intently from under his brows into the hall. Otherwise, Kashpirovsky could have long ago become the main shaman of the Australian aborigines.

By the way, the very phenomenon of Voodoo rituals or so-called zombification can be easily explained from a scientific point of view, primarily based on the concept of “attitude.”

Attitude is the general name for the mechanism that guides our behavior in particular situations. The content of the installation is ideational. that is, mental processes. It is the attitude that determines the readiness to respond with positive emotions in one situation, and negative emotions in another. The installation performs the task of filtering and selecting incoming information. It determines the stable, purposeful nature of the course of activity and frees a person from the need to consciously make decisions and arbitrarily control activities in standard situations. However, in some cases, an attitude can serve as a factor that provokes stress, reducing a person’s quality of life, causing inertia and rigidity in activity and making it difficult to adequately adapt to new situations.

Irrational stress-generating attitudes

All attitudes are based on normal psychological mechanisms that ensure the most rational knowledge of the surrounding world and the most painless adaptation of a person in it. After all, as already mentioned, an attitude is a tendency towards a certain interpretation and comprehension of what is happening, and the quality of adaptation, that is, the quality of a person’s life, depends on the adequacy of this interpretation.

Whether your attitudes are more rational or irrational depends, of course, on biological factors, but to a greater extent on the influence of the psychological and social environment in which you grew up and developed.

However, almost every person is given the opportunity to get rid of conscious and unconscious cognitive (mental) errors and misconceptions through the formation of more rational views and attitudes, reasonable and adaptive thinking. But in order to do this, it is necessary to understand what exactly prevents us from living in harmony with ourselves and the world. We must “know the enemy by sight.”

A decisive factor for the survival of the organism is the rapid and accurate processing of incoming information, which is greatly influenced by systematic bias. In other words, people's thinking is often biased and biased.

“The human mind,” said F. Bacon more than three hundred years ago, “is likened to an uneven mirror, which, mixing its nature with the nature of things, reflects things in a distorted and disfigured form.”

Each person has his own weak point in his thinking - “cognitive vulnerability” - which determines his predisposition to psychological stress.

Personality is formed by schemas or, as psychologists say, cognitive structures, which represent basic beliefs (positions). These schemes begin to form in childhood on the basis of personal experience and identification with significant others: people, virtual images - such as heroes of books and films. Consciousness forms ideas and concepts - about oneself, others, about how the world works and functions. These concepts are reinforced by further experience and, in turn, influence the formation of beliefs, values ​​and attitudes.

Schemas can be beneficial, helping to survive and improve the quality of life, or harmful, contributing to unnecessary worries, problems and stress (adaptive or dysfunctional). They are stable structures that become active when they are “turned on” by specific stimuli, stressors and circumstances.

Harmful (dysfunctional) schemes and attitudes differ from useful (adaptive) ones by the presence of so-called cognitive distortions. Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking.

Harmful irrational attitudes are rigid mental-emotional connections. According to A. Ellis, they have the nature of a prescription, requirement, order and are unconditional. In connection with these features, irrational attitudes come into confrontation with reality, contradict objectively prevailing conditions and naturally lead to maladjustment and emotional problems of the individual. Failure to implement actions prescribed by irrational attitudes leads to prolonged inappropriate emotions.

As each person develops, he learns certain rules; they can be designated as formulas, programs or algorithms through which he tries to comprehend reality. These formulas (views, positions, attitudes) determine how a person explains the events that happen to him and how they should be treated. In essence, from these basic rules a personal matrix of values ​​and meanings is formed, orienting the individual in reality. Such rules are triggered at the moment of understanding the situation and inside the psyche they manifest themselves in the form of latent and automatic thoughts. Automatic thoughts are thoughts that appear spontaneously and are set in motion by circumstances. These thoughts “delve between the event (or, as is commonly called, the stimulus) and the emotional and behavioral reactions of the individual. They are perceived without criticism, as indisputable, without checking their logic and realism (confirmation by facts).

Such beliefs are formed from childhood impressions or adopted from parents and peers. Many of them are based on family rules. For example, a mother says to her daughter: “If you don’t be a good girl, then daddy and I will stop loving you!” The girl thinks, repeats what she heard out loud and to herself, and then begins to say this to herself regularly and automatically. After some time, this commandment is transformed into the rule - “my value depends on what others think of me.”

The child perceives irrational judgments and ideas, in the absence of critical analysis skills and sufficient experience, as given and true. Using the language of Gestalt therapy, the child introjects, “swallows” certain ideas that dictate a special type of behavior.

Most emotional problems often have one or more central ideas at their core. It is the cornerstone that underlies most beliefs, opinions and actions. These central attitudes can serve as the underlying cause of the vast majority of psychological problems and inadequate emotional states.

Fortunately, because cognitive phenomena can be observed through introspection (observing one's verbal thoughts and mental images), their nature and relationships can be tested in a huge variety of situations and systematic experiments. By giving up the idea of ​​oneself as a helpless product of biochemical reactions, blind impulses or automatic reflexes, a person is able to see in himself a being prone to giving birth to erroneous ideas, but also capable of unlearning them or correcting them. Only by identifying and correcting thinking errors can a person organize a life with higher levels of self-fulfillment and quality.

The cognitive behavioral approach brings the understanding (and treatment) of emotional disorders closer to people's everyday experiences. For example, realizing that one has a problem associated with a misunderstanding that a person has shown many times throughout life. In addition, everyone has no doubt had success in the past in correcting misinterpretations - either by obtaining more accurate, adequate information, or by realizing the error of their understanding.

Below is a list of the most common harmful irrational (dysfunctional) attitudes. To facilitate the process of identifying, recording and clarifying them (verification), we recommend using so-called marker words. These words, both expressed and discovered during self-observation as thoughts, ideas and images, in most cases indicate the presence of an irrational attitude of the type corresponding to them. The more of them are revealed in thoughts and statements during analysis, the greater the severity (intensity of manifestation) and rigidity of the irrational attitude.

Installation of must

The central idea of ​​such an attitude is the idea of ​​duty. The word “should” itself is in most cases a linguistic trap. The meaning of the word “should” means only this way and no other way. Therefore, the word “shall”, “shall”, “must” and the like denote a situation where there is no alternative. But this designation of the situation is valid only in very rare, almost exceptional cases. For example, the statement “a person, if he wants to survive, must breathe air” would be adequate, since there is no physical alternative. A statement like: “You must report to the appointed place at 9.00” is in reality inaccurate, since, in fact, it hides other designations and explanations (or just words). For example: “I want you to come by 9.00”, “If you want to get something you need for yourself, you should come by 9.00.” It would seem, what difference does it make how you say or think? But the fact is that by thinking this way regularly and giving the “green light” to the should attitude, we inevitably lead ourselves to stress, acute or chronic.

The attitude of obligation manifests itself in three areas. The first is the attitude of obligation in relation to oneself - that “I owe others.” Having the belief that you owe something to someone will serve as a source of stress every time someone or something reminds you of this debt and something or someone at the same time prevents you from fulfilling it .

Circumstances are often not in our favor, so fulfilling this “duty” under certain unfavorable circumstances becomes problematic. In this case, a person also falls into a mistake that he himself created: there is no possibility of “repaying the debt,” but there is also no possibility of “not repaying it.” In short, a complete dead end, threatening, moreover, “global” troubles.

The second sphere of establishing an obligation is more important than others. That is, we are talking about what “other people owe me”: how they should behave with me, how to speak in my presence, what to do. And this is one of the most powerful sources of stress, because never in anyone’s life, in the entire history of mankind, has there been such an environment where they always behaved “appropriately” in everything. Even among the highest-ranking leaders, even among the pharaohs and priests, even among the most odious tyrants (and this attitude is one of the reasons that they became tyrants), people appeared in their field of vision who acted “not as they should.” And, naturally, when we see a person who does not act as he supposedly “should towards me,” the level of psycho-emotional indignation rapidly increases. Hence the stress.

The third area of ​​the attitude of obligation is the requirements imposed on the surrounding world. This is something that acts as a complaint about nature, the weather, the economic situation, the government, etc.

Words-markers: must (should, should, shouldn't, shouldn't, shouldn't, etc.), definitely, at all costs, "nosebleed."

Installation of catastrophizing

This attitude is characterized by exaggeration of the negative nature of a phenomenon or situation. It reflects the irrational belief that there are catastrophic events in the world that are assessed so objectively, outside of any frame of reference. The attitude manifests itself in statements of a negative nature, expressed to the most extreme extent. For example: “It’s terrible to be left alone in your old age,” “It would be a disaster to start panicking in front of everyone,” “Better the end of the world than blurting out something wrong in front of a lot of people.”

In the case of the influence of the catastrophizing attitude, a simply unpleasant event is assessed as something inevitable, monstrous and terrifying, destroying the basic values ​​of a person once and for all. The event that occurred is assessed as a “universal catastrophe” and the person who finds himself in the sphere of influence of this event feels that he is unable to change anything for the better. For example, having made a number of mistakes and expecting inevitable claims from management, a certain employee begins an internal monologue, which he may not even realize: “Oh, horror! Hv, this is the end! I will be fired! This is monstrous! What will I do! This is a disaster !..” It is clear that, thinking in this way, a person begins to create a lot of negative emotions and after them physical discomfort appears.

But it is completely pointless to consciously “wind up” oneself, oppress and suppress oneself by reasoning about what happened, perceiving it as a universal catastrophe. Of course, being fired is unpleasant. But is this a disaster? No. Or is it something life-threatening, posing a mortal danger? Also no. Is it rational to go into tragic experiences rather than look for ways out of current circumstances?

Marker words: disaster, nightmare, horror, end of the world.

Installation of predicting a negative future

The tendency to believe one's specific expectations, either stated verbally or as mental images.

Remember one famous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It's called "Smart Elsa". In a free paraphrase it sounds like this:

One day the wife (Elsa) went to the basement for milk (in the original - for beer!) and disappeared. The husband (Hans) waited and waited, but still no wife. And I already want to eat (drink), but she doesn’t come. He became worried: “Did something happen?” And he went to the basement to get her. He goes down the steps and sees: his missus is sitting and sobbing bitter tears. "What's happened?" - exclaimed the husband. And she answered: “Do you see the ax hanging by the stairs?” He: “Well, yes, so what?” And she burst into tears more and more. “What happened, finally tell me!” - the husband begged. The wife says: “When we have a child, he will go into the basement when he grows up, and the ax will fall off and kill him to death! What horror and bitter grief!” The husband, of course, reassured his other half, not forgetting to call her “smart” (in the original he even rejoiced with all his heart: “I don’t need more intelligence in my household”), and checked whether the ax was securely fastened. But the wife has already ruined her mood with her far-fetched assumptions. And she did it completely in vain. Now you have to calm down and restore your peace of mind for several hours...

This is how, becoming prophets, or rather pseudo-prophets, we predict failures, then we do everything to make them come true, and in the end we get them. But, in fact, does such forecasting seem reasonable and rational? Clearly not. Because our opinion about the future is not the future. This is just a hypothesis, which, like any theoretical assumption, must be tested for truth. And this is possible in some cases only experimentally (by trial and error). Of course, doubts are needed in order to find the truth and not make mistakes. But sometimes, getting in the way, they block movement and interfere with achieving results.

Marker words: what if; but what if; but it could be.

Maximalism setting

This attitude is characterized by the selection for oneself and/or other persons of the highest hypothetically possible standards (even if no one is able to achieve them), and the subsequent use of them as a standard for determining the value of an action, phenomenon or person.

The well-known expression is indicative: “To love is like a queen, to steal is like a million!”

Thinking is characterized by an “all or nothing!” attitude. The extreme form of the maximalist attitude is the perfectionist attitude (from perfectio (lat.) - ideal, perfect).

Marker words: to the maximum, only excellent/five, 100% (“one hundred percent”).

Dichotomous thinking mindset

Literally translated into Russian, po means “cut into two parts.” Dichotomous thinking is the tendency to place life experiences into one of two opposing categories, such as perfect or imperfect, blameless or despicable, saint or sinner.

Thinking under the dictates of such an attitude can be characterized as “black and white,” characterized by a tendency to think in extremes. Concepts (which are actually located on a continuum (in inextricable interaction)) are assessed as antagonists and as mutually exclusive options.

The statement: “In this world, you are either a winner or a loser” clearly demonstrates the polarity of the options presented and their harsh confrontation.

Marker words: or... - or... ("either yes - or no", "either pan or gone"), or - or... ("either alive or dead").

Setting up personalization

Manifests itself as a tendency to associate events exclusively with oneself, when there is no basis for such a conclusion, and also to interpret most events as concerning oneself.

“Everyone is looking at me,” “Surely these two are evaluating me now,” etc.

Marker words: pronouns - I, me, me, me.

Overgeneralization setting

Overgeneralization refers to patterns of formulating a general rule based on one or more isolated episodes. The influence of this attitude leads to a categorical judgment based on a single attribute (criterion, episode) about the entire set of phenomena. The result is unjustified generalization based on selective information. For example: “All men are pigs,” “If it doesn’t work out right away, then it will never work out.” A principle is formed - if something is true in one case, it is true in all other more or less similar cases.

Marker words: everything, no one, nothing, everywhere, nowhere, never, always, forever, constantly.

Mind Reading Installation

This attitude creates a tendency to attribute unspoken judgments, opinions and specific thoughts to other people. The gloomy look of the boss can be regarded by an anxious subordinate as thoughts, or even a ripe decision to fire him. This may be followed by a sleepless night of painful thoughts, and the decision: “I won’t let him get the pleasure of mocking me - I’ll quit of my own free will.” And the next morning, at the very beginning of the working day, the boss, who yesterday was tormented by stomach pains (which was the reason for his “stern” look), is trying to understand why suddenly his not the worst employee wants to quit so abruptly and with obvious irritation. work.

Marker words: he (she/they) thinks.

Evaluation installation

This attitude manifests itself in the case of assessing a person’s personality as a whole, and not his individual traits, qualities, actions, etc. Evaluation shows its irrational character when a separate aspect of a person is identified with the characteristics of his entire personality.

Marker words: bad, good, worthless, stupid, etc.

Anthropomorphism setting

Attribution of human properties and qualities to objects and phenomena of living and inanimate nature.

Marker words: wants, thinks, believes, fairly, honestly and similar statements addressed to inanimate objects.

Dmitry Kovpak, “How to get rid of anxiety and fear”

A person’s attitudes considered in psychology are not only his prejudice. This is a certain mood of his physical and mental strength for a particular situation or certain needs. Moreover, as noted in psychology, the attitude of personality is outside the consciousness of a person. What kind of phenomenon is this? Let's consider this issue in more detail.

Psychological phenomenon

It is already obvious to a person living in the third millennium how rapidly the world in which he lives is changing. Moreover, any newly arriving reality is invariably accompanied by certain changes. This requires changes in the people themselves. But admitting that you need to change yourself is much more difficult. In each case, a mechanism to counteract the newly created conditions begins to work in a person, which is called a psychological barrier. This is nothing more than a specific form of resistance to change syndrome, which has two sides. A person is afraid of losing his old, familiar, and at the same time he has a fear of what is unusual for him, new.

If we consider the concept of “barrier” in a broad sense, then it means a long partition that is placed as an obstacle on the way, that is, it is an obstacle. This word has a similar meaning in the field of psychology. In this science, it denotes those external and internal obstacles existing in a person that do not allow him to achieve his goal.

A psychological barrier is understood as a state of an individual in which his or her inadequate passivity manifests itself, becoming an obstacle to performing certain actions. In emotional terms, the mechanism of this phenomenon is the strengthening of attitudes toward low self-esteem and negative experiences. Psychological barriers also exist in the social behavior of an individual. They are expressed by communication obstacles, which manifest themselves in the rigidity of interpersonal and other attitudes.

How to solve the problem of barriers? This will allow us to create a broader framework for such a concept as “psychological attitude.” It is expressed in a person’s readiness to act and perceive, as well as interpret the object of thinking and perception or future events in one way or another.

What does the concept of attitude mean in psychology? This is a special vision that is the basis of human behavior and his selective activity. It is capable of regulating conscious as well as unconscious forms of personality activity in the emotional, cognitive and motivational spheres. Any attitude is formed thanks to the life experience accumulated by a person and can be both a colossal advantage and a significant limitation for him.

History of discovery

In the internal quality of the subject, a psychological state not realized by him, which is based on his previous life experience, as well as certain activity and predisposition in a given situation. The setting determines and precedes the deployment of any of the existing forms of mental activity. Moreover, its presence allows a person to react in one way or another to a social or political event.

A similar phenomenon was discovered in 1888 by the German scientist L. Lange. Further in general psychology, the attitude resulted in a whole theory developed by D. N. Uznadze together with the students and followers of his school. The stages necessary for the formation of an attitude were most fully revealed thanks to such a concept as the contrast illusion. At the same time, along with the simplest ones, researchers have identified more complex types of attitudes - social, value orientations of a person, etc.

Considerable attention was paid to the installations by S.R. Rubinstein. They discovered that this phenomenon is closely related to the unconscious.

M. Rokeach also worked on the problem of attitudes in psychology. This researcher made a distinction between a person's attitudes and his values. The latter are beliefs that sometimes apply to several situations and objects. An attitude is a set of beliefs that relate to only one situation or object.

Development of the theory

At the early stage of its study, it was believed that an attitude in psychology is one of the forms of nervous activity that is not conscious to a person. This opinion existed for quite a long time. The psychology of the attitude of D. N. Uznadze also adhered to it. This theory continued to develop in this direction. The attitude in domestic psychology was considered by the Georgian school, which included followers and students of Dmitry Nikolaevich Uznadze. This scientist not only created the theory of the phenomenon under consideration, but also organized the development of this problem.

Uznadze explained the phenomenon of perception as a reflection of reality and the behavior of a living being. This can be briefly explained as follows. Attitudes occupy the most important place in the life of every person. They influence the perception of phenomena and objects, thinking, as well as the will of a person. Before the slightest movement of the soul takes place, it will necessarily be preceded by a certain attitude. And then the act of will, perception and cognition will certainly be influenced by a person’s life experience, the goal or mood set by him. However, errors cannot be excluded. This was made possible by the experimental foundations of attitude psychology. This is evidenced, for example, by the experiment with balls. The person was asked to estimate the size of these objects. And if at first he was shown balls of different sizes 10-15 times, then in his mind the opinion formed that they must necessarily be different. After the researcher offered him the same objects, the reaction did not change. The person continued to perceive the balls as different.

Over time, it became obvious that all the patterns and facts that were considered by the attitude theory are general psychological in nature. In this regard, this direction began to claim the status of a general psychological concept.

Clarification of the term

In psychology? This is a phenomenon that has a three-part structure, which includes:

• sensory image (effective component);
• actions related to the object of assessment (behavioral component);
• cognitive factor.

According to the opinion of D. N. Uznadze’s students - T. Sh. Iosebadze and T. T. Iosebadze, the following definition of attitude in psychology can be given. This phenomenon is characterized by scientists as a mode or a specific state inherent in a holistic object. That is, it determines the psychophysical organization of a person and its modification in each specific situation, as well as his readiness to perform certain activities necessary to satisfy current needs.

In psychology, an individual's attitude and behavior are considered to be a reflection of his internal (subjective) and external (objective) state. Moreover, such a property is considered an indirect link, a certain “principle of connection” that exists between the individual states of the subject, its elements and functions.

A clearer position on this issue belongs to Sh. N. Chkhartishvili. This scientist divided the installation into primary and fixed. Both of them are easily differentiated from each other, but have different functions and properties.

Dispositional concept

There are other attitude theories in psychology. One of them is the dispositional concept of V. A. Yadov. This scientist proposed his approach when considering system-forming components that reflect human social behavior.

The concept under consideration is based on a hierarchical system of dispositions. In the triad proposed by D. N. Uznadze, V. A. Yadov replaced the attitude with the concept of disposition. This is nothing more than a wide variety of states of readiness or predisposition of a person to perceive situations. V. A. Yadov considers personality dispositions in the form of a hierarchical system formed as a result of existing needs and conditions. In this system, the scientist identified three levels. They differ from each other in their different composition and ratio of their constituent elements (attitudes, needs, operating conditions). Each level of disposition predetermines the corresponding level of behavior. Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Fixed installations

They are the ones who are at the very first and at the same time lower level of disposition. What is an elementary fixed installation? In psychology, this is the determination of the subject’s specific reactions to an objective, current situation, as well as his perception of rapidly changing environmental influences. Elementary attitudes are formed based on the basic needs of physical existence, as well as the simplest situations. This or that behavioral readiness of the individual in this case is fixed by his previous experience.

Social attitudes

A similar phenomenon is detected at the second stage of the dispositional stage. In psychology, a social attitude is a person’s need to be included in contact groups. What behavioral situations arise in this case? They are social. Such attitudes take place based on the assessment of individual public facilities. Social situations are also taken into account. At the same time, the individual commits certain actions. They are the elementary unit of behavior.

What else do we understand by the term described? A social attitude in psychology is nothing more than an individual’s stable attitude towards people, as well as towards all processes and events occurring in society. It is from this that a personality characteristic can be given.

The term “social attitude” itself in psychology has several meanings, which differ from each other in their characteristics. Thus, initially this definition meant the readiness of an individual to solve a given problem. Moreover, what was the object of the social attitude? This is the person himself, as well as the people in his environment, events and processes in society, objects of spiritual and material culture, etc.

Somewhat later, the term in question began to have a slightly different meaning. A social attitude in psychology is a stable attitude of one person or group of people towards something or someone. A careful study of this phenomenon made it clear that it is quite complex. At the same time, such an attitude began to be classified not only as a mental state of the individual, but also as its psychological property.

General orientation of the individual

Let's consider the third level of disposition. It characterizes the general orientation of the individual into a certain sphere of social action. At this level, a person’s needs regarding his social connections become more complex. For example, an individual strives to join one or another area of ​​activity, wanting to turn it into the main dominant sphere.

Here options such as professionalism, leisure or family may be considered. In this case, a person’s purposeful and consistent actions form the basis of his behavior in the area of ​​​​activity where he pursues more distant and significant goals.

Value orientations

Let's consider the highest level of the disposition hierarchy. It is characterized by the formation of value orientations not only on the goals of life, but also on the means necessary to achieve the goals. The fourth level includes higher social needs. In this case, an important factor becomes a person’s life position, into which the individual’s self-awareness is transformed. This is nothing more than the principle of individual behavior, which is based on ideological attitudes, norms and ideals, social values, as well as readiness to act.

Thanks to the dispositional theory, direct connections were established between socio-psychological and sociological human behavior. At the same time, the highest forms of attitudes according to Yadov include:

• value orientations and life concept;
• generalized attitudes towards typical social situations and objects;
• predisposition to behavior and perception in existing conditions and in a given social and subject environment.

Value orientations are understood as the attitude of a person or group of people to the totality of spiritual and material goods, considered as objects or their properties, goals, as well as means to satisfy the needs of the individual or group. This concept is expressed in the meaning of life, in ideals, and manifests itself in the social behavior of people. Value orientations reflect the subject’s attitude to the current conditions of his existence, which is the result of a conscious choice of objects and items that are significant for the individual.

Types of psychological attitudes

In psychology, human perception is classified into the following groups:

• positive;
• negative;
• adequate.

What does each of these types mean? With a positive attitude, the positive qualities of a person are assessed. Negative perception leads to consideration of only negative character traits of a person. The most optimal setting is considered adequate. After all, every person has both positive and negative personal qualities. The presence of each of these attitudes is considered by psychologists as an unconscious predisposition to evaluate and perceive the qualities of the interlocutor.

When starting their communication, people influence each other using deep psychological mechanisms. Researchers have proven that in this case a property such as infection arises. It represents the effect of enhancing the emotions of people in contact with each other. Infection occurs on an unconscious level. Moreover, most often it is observed in public, in a queue or in a crowd. For example, laughter, anger and other emotions can be contagious.

Among psychological attitudes there are also such properties as imitation and suggestion. The first one is dynamic. Its manifestations can be blind copying of gestures and behavior, as well as intonation, up to conscious imitation of behavior. Suggestion can be group or individual, occurring at a conscious or unconscious level, which will depend on the purpose of the contact. In psychology, this property is understood as a person’s ability to perceive feelings, actions and ideas conveyed to him in such a way that involuntarily they seem to become his own.

Among the psychological mechanisms of communication is also competition. It represents people’s desire not to lose face, to be no worse than others, as well as the desire to compare themselves with others. Competition creates a strain of physical, emotional and mental strength. It’s good if such attitudes serve as a stimulus for development. The worst option is when competition develops into rivalry.

The next level of human interaction is the reasoned, written or speech, conscious expression of actions, opinions and ideas with the purpose of persuasion. Such an attitude becomes effective only when it is based not only on words, but also on emotions, deeds, as well as on the effects of imitation, suggestion and infection.