Social behavior

Behavior (English behavior, behavior) - from the outside, the observed motor activity of living beings, including moments of immobility, the executive link of the highest level of interaction of the whole organism with the environment.

Behavior is a purposeful system of successively performed actions that make practical contact of the body with the surrounding conditions, mediating the relationship of living beings to those properties of the environment on which the preservation and development of their life depends, preparing the satisfaction of the organism's needs, ensuring the achievement of certain goals.

The source of Behavior is the needs of a living being. Behavior is carried out as a unity of mental - incentive, regulating, reflective links (reflecting the conditions in which the objects of the creature's needs and impulses are located) and executive, external actions that bring the body closer or away from certain objects, as well as transform them.

Changes in behavior in the course of phylogenesis are caused by the complication of the conditions of existence of living beings, their transition from homogeneous to objective, and then social environment. The general regularities of P. are the regularities of the analytical-synthetic reflex activity of living beings, based on the physiological laws of the brain, but not reducible to them.

Human behavior is always socially conditioned and acquires the characteristics of a conscious, collective, goal-setting, voluntary and creative activity.

At the level of socially determined human activity, the term “Behavior” also denotes human actions in relation to society, other people and the objective world, considered from the side of their regulation by social norms of morality and law. In this sense, it is said, for example, about a highly moral, criminal and frivolous P.. Units of P. are actions in which the position of the individual and his moral convictions are formed and at the same time expressed. (V.P. Zinchenko)

Psychological Dictionary. A.V. Petrovsky M.G. Yaroshevsky

there is no meaning and interpretation of the word

Dictionary of Psychiatric Terms. V.M. Bleikher, I.V. Crook

Behavior - a set of actions, acts performed by an individual in his interaction with the environment, mediated by external (motor) and internal (mental) activity.

In psychiatry, Behavior is important, aggressive, delusional, deviant (deviating from generally accepted norms), delinquent (in violation of laws), inadequate to the environment, attitudinal (simulation, dissimulation, conscious or unconscious desire to present oneself in a certain light).

Neurology. Complete explanatory dictionary. Nikiforov A.S.

Deviant behavior - a system of actions and actions that contradict the legal or moral norms accepted in society. It can be caused by mental illness or defects in legal and moral consciousness.

Oxford Explanatory Dictionary of Psychology

Behavior - a generic term covering actions, activities, reactions, movements, processes, operations, etc., that is, any measurable reaction of the organism. For a long time, there have been attempts to establish a set of consistent restrictions on the definition of this term. This was undoubtedly prompted by the interesting, but mostly hopeless, idea of \u200b\u200bdefining psychology as a "science of behavior." The problem was that as the range of phenomena included in the field of psychology increased, there was a need to expand the boundaries of what was rightfully called "behavior."

A quick overview of the history of the discipline shows that, in general, the question of including an action in a class of things called "behavior" was decided according to how measurable it was. For example, strict behaviorists in the Watson and Skinner tradition tend to include only those reactions that are overt and observable. Hence, they would exclude hidden mental constructs of consciousness such as schemas, ideas, strategies, memory, images, etc. (with the exception of those that manifest themselves in external behavior). This approach, however, overlooks much of what seems essential to understanding human behavior, and some psychologists today tolerate such a rigid definition of behavior. A more moderate, compromise position was taken by those who are usually called non-behaviourists, they allow logical conclusions about internal states, intermediate variables, hypothetical constructions, mediating processes, etc. Remaining behaviorists in the general approach, such scientists insisted that the postulation of this latent behavior is legitimate only when it can be related to the measured one.

Even more flexible in defining behavior were the proponents of the cognitive or mental approach. Here, behavior was seen as a mental representation rather than an external measurable behavioral act. This line of action and thought processes were recognized as aspects worthy of study. For example, the language is analyzed here in connection with basic knowledge of the rules of grammar and general knowledge - this is an important feature, because it was not the external acts of speaking that can be observed that were studied.

And, finally, there is another lengthy discussion about whether physiological, neurological processes are considered behavior. The same historical pattern can be seen here. Because these internal actions were relatively sequential and definite (eg, muscle actions, reflex arcs, glandular secretions), early theorists found it convenient to call them behavior. But as the field of research has expanded to include detailed studies of things like electroencephalography, connections between specific neurotransmitters and specific neural pathways, and so on, the issue has certainly become more controversial.

subject area of \u200b\u200ba term

HUMAN BEHAVIOR - having natural prerequisites, but in its content socially conditioned, language-mediated interaction with the environment, realized in the form of activity and communication.

SEXUAL BEHAVIOR - actions and deeds aimed at establishing intimate relationships and sexual intercourse. The driving forces of P. p. Are the need to satisfy sexual desire and have children.

INadequate social behavior of a teenager - such behavior of a teenager that violates social norms accepted among adults, for example, rudeness, negligence, non-obligation, irresponsibility, refusal to fulfill their direct duties.

The concept of "behavior" came to sociology from psychology. The meaning of the term "behavior" is different, different from the meaning of such traditional philosophical concepts as action and activity. If action is understood as a rationally substantiated act with a clear goal, strategy, carried out with the involvement of specific conscious methods and means, then behavior is just a reaction of a living being to external and internal changes. Such a reaction can be both conscious and unconscious. So, purely emotional reactions - laughter, crying - are also behavior.

Social behavior - it is a set of human behavioral processes associated with the satisfaction of physical and social needs and arising as a reaction to the surrounding social environment. The subject of social behavior can be an individual or a group.

If we abstract from purely psychological factors and reason at the social level, then the behavior of the individual is determined primarily by socialization. The minimum of innate instincts that a person possesses as a biological being is the same for all people. Behavioral differences depend on the qualities acquired in the process of socialization and, to some extent, on the innate and acquired psychological individual characteristics.

In addition, the social behavior of individuals is regulated by the social structure, in particular by the role structure of society.

Social norm of behavior - this is the kind of behavior that fully corresponds to the status expectations. Due to the existence of status expectations, society can predict the actions of the individual in advance with sufficient probability, and the individual himself can coordinate his behavior with the ideal model or model adopted by society. Social behavior corresponding to status expectations is defined by the American sociologist R. Linton as social role. This interpretation of social behavior is closest to functionalism, since it explains behavior as a phenomenon determined by social structure. R. Merton introduced the category of “role complex” - a system of role expectations determined by a given status, as well as the concept of role conflict that arises when the role expectations of the statuses occupied by the subject are incompatible and cannot be realized in some single socially acceptable behavior.

The functionalist understanding of social behavior was subjected to fierce criticism from primarily representatives of social behaviorism, who believed that it was necessary to build the study of behavioral processes on the basis of the achievements of modern psychology. How much psychological moments were really overlooked by the role interpretation of the command follows from the fact that N. Cameron tried to substantiate the idea of \u200b\u200bthe role determination of mental disorders, believing that mental illness is the wrong performance of his social roles and the result of the patient’s inability to perform them as it is. society needs. Behaviorists argued that in the time of E. Durkheim, the successes of psychology were insignificant and therefore the functionality of the expiring paradigm met the requirements of the time, but in the XX century, when psychology reached a high level of development, one cannot ignore its data, considering human behavior.

Forms of human social behavior

People behave differently in this or that social situation, in this or that social environment. For example, some participants in the demonstration peacefully march along the declared route, others seek to organize riots, and still others provoke mass clashes. These various actions of actors of social interaction can be defined as social behavior. Consequently, social behavior is the form and method of manifestation by social actors of their preferences and attitudes, capabilities and abilities in social action or interaction. Therefore, social behavior can be viewed as a qualitative characteristic of social action and interaction.

In sociology, social behavior is interpreted as: about behavior, which is expressed in the totality of the actions and actions of an individual or a group in society and depends on socio-economic factors and prevailing norms; o external manifestation of activity, the form of transformation of activity into real actions in relation to socially significant objects; about the adaptation of a person to the social conditions of his existence.

To achieve life goals and in the implementation of individual tasks, a person can use two types of social behavior - natural and ritual, the differences between which are of a fundamental nature.

"Natural" behavior, individually significant and egocentric, is always aimed at achieving individual goals and is adequate to these goals. Therefore, the individual is not faced with the question of the correspondence of the goals and means of social behavior: the goal can and must be achieved by any means. The "natural" behavior of an individual is not socially regulated, therefore it is usually immoral or "unceremonious". This social behavior is "natural", natural in nature, since it is addressed to the provision of organic needs. In society, "natural" egocentric behavior is "forbidden", therefore it is always based on social conventions and mutual concessions on the part of all individuals.

Ritual behavior ("Ceremonial") - individually unnatural behavior; it is precisely this behavior that makes society exist and reproduce. Ritual in all its variety of forms - from etiquette to ceremony - so deeply penetrates the entire social life that people do not notice that they are living in the field of ritual interactions. Ritual social behavior is a means of ensuring the stability of the social system, and an individual who implements various forms of such behavior participates in ensuring the social stability of social structures and interactions. Thanks to ritual behavior, a person achieves social well-being, constantly convinced of the inviolability of his social status and the preservation of the usual set of social roles.

Society is interested in the social behavior of individuals to be ritualistic, but society cannot abolish the "natural" egocentric social behavior, which, being adequate in goals and indiscriminate in means, always turns out to be more beneficial for the individual than "ritual" behavior. Therefore, society seeks to transform the forms of "natural" social behavior into various forms of ritual social behavior, including through socialization mechanisms using social support, control and punishment.

The following forms of social behavior are aimed at preserving and maintaining social relations and, ultimately, at the survival of a person as homo sapiens (Homo sapiens):

• cooperative behavior, which includes all forms of altruistic behavior - helping each other during natural disasters and technological disasters, helping young children and the elderly, helping future generations through the transfer of knowledge and experience;
• parental behavior - the behavior of parents towards their offspring.

Aggressive behavior is presented in all its manifestations, both group and individual - from verbal abuse of another person to mass killings during wars.

Human behavior concepts

Human behavior is studied in many areas of psychology - in behaviorism, psychoanalysis, cognitive psychology, etc. The term "behavior" is one of the key terms in existential philosophy and is used in the study of a person's relationship to the world. The methodological possibilities of this concept are due to the fact that it makes it possible to identify unconscious stable structures of personality or human existence in the world. Among the psychological concepts of human behavior that have had a great influence on sociology and social psychology, it is necessary to name, first of all, the psychoanalytic directions developed by Z. Freud, C. G. Jung, A. Adler.

Freud's views are based on the fact that the behavior of an individual is formed as a result of a complex interaction of levels of his personality. Freud identifies three such levels: the lower level is formed by unconscious impulses and impulses determined by innate biological needs and complexes formed under the influence of the individual history of the subject. Freud calls this level It (Id) to show its separation from the conscious I of the individual, which forms the second level of his psyche. The Conscious Self includes rational goal-setting and responsibility for one's actions. The highest level is the superego - what we would call the result of socialization. This is a set of social norms and values \u200b\u200binternalized by an individual, exerting internal pressure on him in order to displace from consciousness undesirable (forbidden) impulses and drives from society and prevent them from being realized. According to Freud, the personality of any person is an incessant struggle between the Id and the Super-I, shaking the psyche and leading to neuroses. Individual behavior is entirely due to this struggle and is fully explained by it, since it is only a symbolic reflection of it. Such symbols can be images of dreams, slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, obsessions and fears.

C.G. Jung's concept expands and modifies Freud's doctrine, including in the sphere of the unconscious not only individual complexes and drives, but also the collective unconscious - the level of key images common to all people and peoples - archetypes. The archetypes contain archaic fears and value ideas, the interaction of which determines the behavior and attitude of the individual. Archetypal images appear in basic narratives - folk tales and legends, mythology, epics - in historically specific societies. The socially regulatory role of such narratives in traditional societies is very great. They contain ideal behaviors that shape role expectations. For example, a male warrior should behave like Achilles or Hector, a wife like Penelope, etc. Regular recitations (ritual replays) of archetic narratives constantly remind members of society of these ideal behaviors.

Adler's psychoanalytic concept is based on an unconscious will to power, which, in his opinion, is an innate personality structure and determines behavior. It is especially strong in those who, for one reason or another, suffer from an inferiority complex. In an effort to compensate for their inferiority, they are able to achieve great success.

The further splitting of the psychoanalytic direction led to the emergence of many schools, disciplinary relations occupying a borderline position between psychology, social philosophy, and sociology. Let us dwell in detail on the work of E. Fromm.

Fromm's positions are the representative of neo-Freudianism in and - more precisely, it can be defined as Freylomarxism, since along with the influence of Freud, he was equally strongly influenced by the social philosophy of Marx. The peculiarity of neo-Freudianism in comparison with orthodox Freudianism is due to the fact that, strictly speaking, neo-Freudianism is more of a sociology, while Freud, of course, is a pure psychologist. If Freud explains the behavior of the individual by complexes and impulses hidden in the individual unconscious, in short, by internal biopsychic factors, then for Fromm and Freilomarxism as a whole, the behavior of the individual is determined by the surrounding social environment. In this lies his similarity with Marx, who explained the social behavior of individuals in the final analysis by their class origin. Nevertheless, Fromm seeks to find a place for the psychological in social processes. According to the Freudian tradition, referring to the unconscious, he introduces the term "social unconscious", implying that psychic experience is common to all members of a given society, but for most of them it does not fall on the level of consciousness, because it is supplanted by a special social mechanism by its nature. belonging not to an individual, but to society. Thanks to this displacement mechanism, society maintains a stable existence. The mechanism of social repression includes language, the logic of everyday thinking, a system of social prohibitions and taboos. The structures of language and thinking are formed under the influence of society and act as an instrument of social pressure on the psyche of the individual. For example, coarse, anti-aesthetic, ridiculous abbreviations and abbreviations of "Newspeak" from Orwell's dystopia actively disfigure the minds of people who use them. To one degree or another, the monstrous logic of formulas like: "The dictatorship of the proletariat is the most democratic form of power" has become the property of everyone in Soviet society.

The main component of the mechanism of social repression is social taboos that act like Freud's censorship. That in the social experience of individuals that threatens the preservation of the existing society, if realized, is not allowed into consciousness with the help of a "social filter". Society manipulates the consciousness of its members, introducing ideological clichés, which, due to their frequent use, become inaccessible to critical analysis, withhold certain information, exert direct pressure and cause fear of social isolation. Therefore, everything that contradicts the socially approved ideological cliché is excluded from consciousness.

This kind of taboos, ideologemes, logical and linguistic experiments form, according to Fromm, the "social character" of a person. People belonging to the same society, against their will, are, as it were, marked with the seal of a "common incubator". For example, we can unmistakably recognize foreigners on the street, even if we don’t hear their speech, by their behavior, appearance, attitude towards each other; these are people from another society, and when they find themselves in a mass environment that is alien to them, they stand out sharply from it due to their similarity. Social character - it is a style of behavior brought up by society and unrecognized by the individual - from social to everyday life. For example, Soviet and former Soviet people are distinguished by collectivism and responsiveness, social passivity and undemandingness, obedience to the power personified in the person of the “leader”, a developed fear of being different from everyone else, and credulity.

Fromm directed his criticism against modern capitalist society, although he paid much attention to describing the social character generated by totalitarian societies. Like Freud, he developed a program for restoring the undistorted social behavior of individuals through the awareness of what was repressed. “By transforming the unconscious into consciousness, we thereby transform the simple concept of the universality of man into the vital reality of such universality. This is nothing more than the practical realization of humanism. " The process of derepression - the release of a socially oppressed consciousness consists in eliminating the fear of realizing what is forbidden, developing the ability for critical thinking, and humanizing social life in general.

Behaviorism offers a different interpretation (B. Skinner, J. Homans), which considers behavior as a system of reactions to various stimuli.

Skinner's concept in fact, it is biologic, since it completely removes the differences between human and animal behavior. Skinner identifies three types of behavior: unconditional reflex, conditioned reflex and operant. The first two types of reactions are caused by the action of the corresponding stimuli, and operant reactions are a form of adaptation of the organism to the environment. They are active and voluntary. The body, as it were, by trial and error, searches for the most acceptable way of adaptation, and if successful, the find is fixed in the form of a stable reaction. Thus, the main factor in the formation of behavior is reinforcement, and learning turns into "guidance to the desired response."

In Skinner's concept, a person appears as a being, whose entire inner life is reduced to reactions to external circumstances. Reinforcement changes mechanically induce behavioral changes. Thinking, the higher mental functions of a person, the whole culture, morality, art turn into a complex system of reinforcements designed to cause certain behavioral reactions. Hence follows the conclusion about the possibility of manipulating people's behavior by means of a carefully developed "technology of behavior". With this term Skinner denotes the purposeful manipulative control of some groups of people over others, associated with the establishment of an optimal reinforcement regime for certain social goals.

The ideas of behaviorism in sociology were developed by J. and J. Baldwin, J. Homans.

J.iJ. Baldwin is based on the concept of reinforcement borrowed from psychological behaviorism. Reinforcement in the social sense is a reward whose value is determined by subjective needs. For example, for a hungry person, food acts as reinforcement, but if a person is full, it is not reinforcement.

The effectiveness of reward depends on the degree of deprivation in a given individual. Subdeprivation is understood as the deprivation of something that the individual has a constant need for. As far as the subject is deprived in any respect, his behavior depends on this reinforcement. The so-called generalized reinforcers (for example, money), acting on all individuals without exception, do not depend on deprivation due to the fact that they concentrate in themselves access to many types of reinforcements at once.

Reinforcers are categorized as positive and negative. Positive reinforcers are anything that is perceived by the subject as a reward. For example, if certain contact with the environment has been rewarding, there is a high likelihood that the subject will seek to repeat the experience. Negative reinforcers are factors that determine behavior through giving up an experience. For example, if the subject denies himself some kind of pleasure and saves money on it, and subsequently benefits from this savings, then this experience can serve as a negative reinforcement and the subject will behave as always.

The effect of punishment is the opposite of reinforcement. Punishment is an experience that makes you want to no longer repeat it. Punishment can also be positive or negative, but here, compared to reinforcement, everything is reversed. Positive punishment is punishment with a repressive stimulus, such as a blow. Negative punishment affects behavior through deprivation of something of value. For example, depriving a child of sweets at dinner is a typical negative punishment.

The formation of operant reactions has a probabilistic character. Unambiguity is characteristic of reactions of the simplest level, for example, a child cries, demanding the attention of his parents, because the parents always approach him in such cases. The reactions of adults are much more complex. For example, a person selling newspapers in train carriages does not find a buyer in every carriage, but he knows from experience that a buyer will eventually be found, and this makes him persistently walk from car to car. In the last decade, the receipt of wages at some Russian enterprises has assumed the same probabilistic nature, but nevertheless, people continue to go to work, hoping to receive it.

Homans' behaviorist exchange concept appeared in the middle of the XX century. Arguing against representatives of many areas of sociology, Homans argued that a sociological explanation of behavior must necessarily be based on a psychological approach. The interpretation of historical facts should also be based on a psychological approach. Homans motivates this by the fact that behavior is always individual, while sociology operates with categories applicable to groups and societies, therefore the study of behavior is the prerogative of psychology, and sociology in this matter should follow it.

According to Homans, when studying behavioral reactions, one should abstract from the nature of the factors that caused these reactions: they are caused by the influence of the surrounding physical environment or other people. Social behavior is just the exchange of socially valuable activities between people. Homans believes that social behavior can be interpreted using Skinner's behavioral paradigm, if we supplement it with the idea of \u200b\u200bthe mutual nature of stimulation in relationships between people. The relationship of individuals with each other is always a mutually beneficial exchange of activities, services, in short, it is the mutual use of reinforcements.

Homans summarized exchange theory in several postulates:

• the postulate of success - those actions that most often meet social approval are most likely reproduced;
• stimulus postulate - similar incentives associated with reward are more likely to cause similar behavior;
• the postulate of value - the probability of reproducing an action depends on how valuable the result of this action is to a person;
• the postulate of deprivapia - the more regularly a person's act is rewarded, the less he values \u200b\u200bthe subsequent reward;
• the double postulate of aggression-approval - the absence of expected reward or unexpected punishment makes aggressive behavior likely, and unexpected reward or the absence of expected punishment leads to an increase in the value of the rewarded act and contributes to its more likely reproduction.

The most important concepts of the exchange theory are:

• the cost of behavior is the cost to the individual of this or that action, - the negative consequences caused by past actions. In everyday terms, it is a payback for the past;
• benefit - arises when the quality and size of the remuneration exceed the cost of the given act.

Thus, exchange theory portrays human social behavior as a rational search for gain. This concept looks simplistic, and it is not surprising that it drew criticism from a wide variety of sociological trends. For example, Parsons, who advocated a fundamental difference between the mechanisms of behavior of humans and animals, criticized Homans for the inability of his theory to provide an explanation of social facts on the basis of psychological mechanisms.

In its exchange theory I. Blau attempted a kind of synthesis of social behaviorism and sociologism. Realizing the limitations of a purely behavioral interpretation of social behavior, he set the goal of moving from the level of psychology to explaining on this basis the existence of social structures as a special reality that cannot be reduced to psychology. Blau's concept is an enriched theory of exchange, in which four successive stages of the transition from individual exchange to social structures are distinguished: 1) the stage of interpersonal exchange; 2) the stage of power-status differentiation; 3) the level of legitimation and organization; 4) the stage of opposition and change.

Blau shows that, starting from the level of interpersonal exchange, the exchange may not always be equal. In cases where individuals cannot offer each other sufficient reward, the social ties formed between them tend to disintegrate. In such situations, attempts arise to strengthen the disintegrating ties in other ways - through coercion, through the search for another source of reward, through submission to the exchange partner in the manner of generalized credit. The latter path means a transition to the stage of status differentiation, when a group of persons capable of giving the required reward becomes more privileged in terms of status than other groups. In the future, the legitimization and consolidation of the situation and the separation of opposition groups take place. By analyzing complex social structures, Blau goes far beyond the paradigm of behaviorism. He argues that the complex structures of society are organized around social values \u200b\u200band norms, which serve as a mediating link between individuals in the process of social exchange. Thanks to this link, the exchange of rewards is possible not only between individuals, but also between the individual and the group. For example, considering the phenomenon of organized charity, Blau defines what distinguishes charity as a social institution from simply helping a rich individual to a poorer one. The difference is that organized charity is a socially oriented behavior, which is based on the desire of a rich individual to comply with the norms of the wealthy class and share social values; through norms and values, a relationship of exchange is established between the donating individual and the social group to which he belongs.

Blau identifies four categories of social values \u200b\u200bon the basis of which exchange is possible:

• particularistic values \u200b\u200bthat unite individuals on the basis of interpersonal relationships;
• universalistic values \u200b\u200bthat act as a yardstick for assessing individual merit;
• legitimate authority is a system of values \u200b\u200bthat provides the power and privileges of a certain category of people in comparison with all others:
• opposition values \u200b\u200b- ideas about the need for social changes, allowing the opposition to exist at the level of social facts, and not only at the level of interpersonal relations of individual oppositionists.

We can say that Blau's theory of exchange is a compromise, combining elements of Homans theory and sociologism in the interpretation of the exchange of rewards.

Role concept by J. Mead is a symbolic interactionism approach to the study of social behavior. Its name reminds of the functionalist approach: it is also called role-based. Mead views role behavior as the activity of individuals interacting with each other in freely accepted and played roles. According to Mead, the role interaction of individuals requires them to be able to put themselves in the place of another, to evaluate themselves from the position of another.

Synthesis of exchange theory with symbolic interactionism also tried to implement P. Zingelman. Symbolic inter-actionism has a number of intersections with social behaviorism and exchange theories. Both of these concepts emphasize the active interaction of individuals and view their subject from a microsociological perspective. According to Singelman, interpersonal exchange relationships require the ability to place oneself in the position of another in order to better understand his needs and desires. Therefore, he believes that there is reason for the merger of both directions into one. However, social behaviorists were critical of the emergence of the new theory.

Cognition of the psychology of human behavior is a complex, multi-stage process. But at the same time, he is incredibly curious and entertaining. Psychology, in general, is an amazing science: continuously developing, it never ceases to amaze with unexpected facts about human behavior. And delving deeper into this topic, many are ready to realize that we are not as aware of ourselves as we suppose. The site offers 15 irrefutable facts of this statement as evidence.

Psychological features of human behavior: facts for the curious

1. When people are tired, they become much more honest.
2. According to research, when a modern person suddenly loses his phone, he is so much panicked that it can be compared with the experience of those people who have experienced clinical death.
3. If someone feels resentment towards you, it can cause a feeling comparable to that of pain.
4. Today, addiction to social networks in some countries is quite officially recognized as a mental disorder.
5. According to psychologists, people dream, "in the clouds," 30 percent of the time. But this is actually not a bad thing, since it has been established that people who like to dream are usually endowed with the ability to cope better with problems and, in addition, they are more resourceful.
6. Incredibly, blind people are not susceptible to developing schizophrenia.
7. Our subconscious, in fact, already knows all the answers to our questions. You just need to learn how to delve into its "storage".
8. It turns out that when reading a person it is absolutely not important in what order the letters in words are located. The main thing is that the first and last letters of the word remain where they should be.
9. Perhaps you have never paid attention to this, but almost 80 percent of our communication is occupied by complaints.
10. A person feels much happier when he has something to do. And since being busy, in fact, sets you up for a positive, try to always find something to do!
11. Paradoxically, the human brain is better attuned to creativity when tired.
12. It's hard to believe, but our thoughts become more logical and orderly when we speak or think in a foreign language.
13. Even positive events, such as graduation from college, a new job or registration of marriage, can plunge us into the abyss of depression.
14. Contrary to popular belief, a person is not able to do several things at once, because our brain can focus on only one prevailing function at a time. This indicates that we are still not allowed to think about two different things at the same time.
15. Experts' observations indicate that people with different eye colors are capable of falling in love with different speed. So, blue-eyed ones can break their hearts in a few minutes, brown-eyed ones can fall in love with two at once. But for Cupid's arrow to hit the heart of the green-eyed, it takes a lot of time, often a year. It is also known that people with all other eye colors can fall in love in only an hour.

We don't know a lot about ourselves yet. And the human psyche remains one of the most mysterious entities in the world. Despite the fact that today it is even possible to predict our behavior, relying on some rules, still a large layer of information about the psychology of human behavior still remains beyond the limits of knowledge. Scientists continue to reveal themselves to us.

A person is forced to give preference to certain behavior every minute. The choice is dictated by the subconscious. The variability of the current behavior is increased by the large energy of consciousness. With various borderline mental disorders, an unstable psycho-emotional state, experiencing negative emotions, a person, without realizing it, directs all efforts to get out of an uncomfortable state.

A positive attitude is conducive to the fact that the individual is able to perform many actions. But they are also limited by the framework of his consciousness. The environment and setting in which the founding of fundamental personal qualities takes place contributes to the absorption of certain limitations by the individual. One may not even guess about the genesis of such restrictions, but they depict a kind of suggestion coming from others.

Factors determining human behavior

The surrounding world, the external and objective environment, socially developed experience are interdependent and take an indirect part in the formation of the character of the individual and his behavior. Society is people, material and spiritual values \u200b\u200bwith which they surround themselves. Internal inexplicable prohibitions and fundamental principles of behavior are inseparable from the social group, nationality, from the individual's belonging to a certain group of people. For example, the behavior of an individual on the street, at home, is strikingly different from the behavior at work, in an educational institution.

What determines the way a person acts:

1) nationality (in ethnopsychology, the system of relations of an ethnic community, called national character, is distinguished), manifested in stable stereotypes of thinking, and an established manner of behavior:

• the Japanese are famous for their workaholism, they have a heightened sense of beauty;
• germans are always organized and economical;
• the French take time to enjoy a beautiful view, good food or an interesting film;
• finns have an excessive love of cleanliness;

2) a religion that promotes self-identification and the opposition of "ours" - "alien";

3) an individual psychological characteristic of a person (a tendency to conflicts, a calm and balanced character or aggressive towards others);

4) characteristic features of a group of people, surrounded by an individual (family, employees, classmates);

5) position in society (boss, employee, subordinate, leader);

6) a reference group or group of people, the views and attitudes of which are a guideline for a particular person;

7) self-esteem and the level of development of thinking (high self-esteem and a positive attitude exclude aggression and inappropriate behavior, and with low self-esteem, the likelihood of irritation and aggression increases).

8) the aesthetic component or how a person perceives literature, painting, music, the beauty of nature.

Being present in a certain environment, it is inherent in people to demonstrate emotions, gestures, postures that are understandable and familiar to this environment. So, imitating adults, children adopt the experience of their parents, their language, imitate the manner of behaving and reacting to external circumstances. Having appeared in a circle of strangers, a person unconsciously repeats their movements and postures, thus trying to adapt to new conditions. Psychologists call this behavior the chameleon effect: the personality seems to merge with the environment.

An interesting experiment is described in We are the Gods by the author Bernard Werber. Its essence is as follows: there are 5 primates in the cage, and bananas are tied to the ceiling. As soon as one of the animals tries to get a banana, all the primates are immediately sprayed with cold water. This is repeated several times. For each primate, which in the future will try to get a treat, the rest of the animals will rush with anger. Gradually replacing in turn all the primates who were not doused with water in the cage and they did not see how the attempts to get the banana ended, it turned out that the monkeys react aggressively to each brother who decides to get food. Similar behavior is inherent in people: we act more often according to the way.

People have certain standards of behavior. Psychologists identify several provisions that give an idea of \u200b\u200bthe behavior of a person:

1. the concept of the theory of personality traits, according to which human behavior is determined by personality characteristics;
2. the concept of behaviorism, which consists in various ways of a person's reaction to external influences;
3. social learning or imitation (parents, teachers, colleagues);
4. psychoanalytic approach to the analysis of behavior, in which the emphasis is on the subconscious;
5. cognitive methodology is the ability of a person to interpret what is happening around him in accordance with the experience;
6. gestalt - psychology - the perception of the surrounding world as an integral object;
7. the theory of group dynamics - how a person perceives himself in the circle of other people or the collective mind.

Human behavior is a deliberate act that he is able to influence as an author. This is a conscious choice of the individual. But there are many factors involved, to varying degrees, in behavioral responses and deliberate actions. Habits, value orientations can change when the environment, situation, even time of day changes. Separately, it is worth mentioning the influence of culture, media, traditions of the people on the formation of the behavioral paradigm of the individual.

Human behavior is dictated by belonging to a specific social category, which is the basis of certain actions and predictability of behavior.

1. Individual characteristics of behavior

Man as a product of nature and society is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. With respect to the topic under discussion, we are interested in a person as an integral part of a control system that is capable of making decisions and developing control actions, as well as executing them.

A person lives and acts by performing certain actions. His activities and communication with other people are united by a single concept of "behavior". In the behavior, actions and deeds of a person, his main socio-psychological properties are manifested.

A person's behavior, his actions and actions depend on:

1) biological and psychological characteristics of his body;

2) living conditions and from various influences on him, from how the interaction of a person with the world of material and spiritual culture, as well as with people around him, is organized.

To correctly explain human behavior, it is necessary:

1) know their mental life;

2) understand the interaction of the environment and consciousness;

3) be able to observe the external manifestations of the human psyche;

4) be able to interpret them correctly.

It is this knowledge and skills that form the basis of the social and psychological qualities of a leader.

The state and behavior of a person is always determined by his thoughts and feelings, reflecting reality, and by the will that guides his behavior. The science of psychic reflection of reality in human activity and behavior is called psychology.

Psyche (Greek "soulful")property of the human brain (highly organized matter) to reflect the real reality. This is something intangible, but inherent in a person (soul). The inner world of a person, his consciousness.

This is a set of mental phenomena and processes. A specific product of human activity in its interaction with the environment.

Feelings, ideas, thoughts of an individual create in him subjective images and models of the external world, which, being transformed in the brain, transform into various forms of activity and behavior. Man,

studying the functions of the brain and his psyche, he thus learns the mechanisms of his own activity, learns himself.

The mental life of a person, his inner world cannot be understood regardless of his activity. Conversely, a person always expresses an attitude towards what he knows or does. The state of the human psyche (confidence, cheerfulness, hope or, conversely, anxiety, irritation, worries) have a strong influence on his behavior and on the results of his work.

There are two types of orientation of human behavior:

Reactive;

Active.

Reactive behavioris mainly a reaction to various internal and external stimuli.

Active behaviorassociated with a person's ability to consciously choose goals and forms of behavior to achieve the chosen goals.

To control human behavior, adequate means of navigation are needed: ideas, faith, methods, etc. It is impossible to control the behavior of people without knowing and not taking into account their mental characteristics.

For a long time in psychological science, personality as a kind of isolated phenomenon was taken as the basis of theoretical analysis. Personal connections were implied, but not the subject of specific research. But man is a product of nature and society. Throughout his life, he is affected by a wide range of social factors, which are defined as the social environment. Therefore, the psychology and behavior of an individual person cannot be understood without connections (relationships) with other people.

On the one hand, people act with consciousness and will. For them, any social phenomenon has its own "psychological aspect", since social laws are manifested only through other people.

On the other hand, in the joint activities of people, certain types of connections (relations) arise between them. These relationships have a great impact on the psychology of people and are manifested in their actions, actions and behavior. Without analyzing a person's connections with other people, it is impossible to understand the behavior of an individual.

The science of society as an integral system and its individual processes and social groups is called sociology ( lat. "society, - logicSociologists have identified a number of values \u200b\u200bthat any normal person strives for.

These general needs and interests are: 1) material living conditions;

2) interesting job;

3) social stability.

These common needs and interests must be known and met!

The diverse and complex characteristics of a person can only be investigated through the combined efforts of psychology and sociology. The branch of psychology that studies the laws of behavior and activities of people, conditioned by the fact of their belonging to social groups, is called social psychology.

The decisive role in the development of the human psyche belongs to labor - the most characteristic way of interaction for a person with the environment. Man, like animals, adapts himself to the environment. But unlike them, he subjugates the external environment, that is, he carries out a purposeful, conscious transformation of the natural, industrial and social environment. It is this ability of a person that determines the main feature of his behavior - the ability to foresee events, plan actions and strive to achieve certain goals.

There are two really and functionally interrelated sides in human behavior:

1. Incentive, which provides (stimulates) the direction and activity of behavior. Stimulation of behavior is associated with the concept of motivation, which includes the idea of \u200b\u200binterests, needs, goals, motives, intentions and aspirations that a person has;

2. Regulatory, which is responsible for how the behavior develops from start to finish (until the goal is achieved) under certain conditions. The regulation of behavior is provided mainly by various processes and states.

Modern production is a complex and dynamic system based on labor collectives. The success of their production activities largely depends on the active attitude to work of ordinary members of the team, on the moral and psychological climate in the team and on the leader's ability to manage the behavior of people.

Leading people requires taking into account not only your own thoughts and feelings, but the thoughts and feelings of others.

The ability of a leader to correctly understand the behavior of subordinates, to create in the team a creative attitude and enthusiasm (enthusiasm) in solving production problems - this is the essence of the socio-organizational function of management.

A necessary condition for the successful fulfillment of such a function is the knowledge of the head of the basics of psychology, sociology and pedagogy. The leader is often faced with problems in the solution of which one cannot do without socio-psychological knowledge.

A leader in his work with people must distinguish between such concepts as a person, individuality, personality, group, collective. Orientation in these concepts will help him to more accurately imagine a set of factors that affect the employee and determine his behavior, which will help to better understand the need for an integrated approach to the organization of work and management.

In the development of technology and organization of labor, it is necessary to observe the most important qualitative characteristics of a person: his physical structure, his mental properties. The manager should always keep in mind that each employee has his own needs and interests, which determine the life position, motivate the attitude to work.

The problem of individual awareness of the conditions and goals of human activity is of great interest for organizational (social) management, for the correct understanding of the behavior of a subordinate, for the establishment of scientifically qualified relations between a leader and subordinates.

2. Mental processes

A person's contact with the outside world and his behavior take place in time, that is, they are considered as a series of various processes and states. The initial mental processes that connect a person with the world around him are cognitive, emotionally sensitive and volitional processes. Human behavior is determined by the totality of mental processes. A person thinks, feels, acts.

2.1. Cognitive processes

A person's contact with the world determines the development of his psyche. The initial form of the psyche is made up of sensations - the source of all

our knowledge of the world around us. The creation of a single image of a thing or phenomenon, the degree of its understanding is given by perception. Perception can be deliberate, purposeful in order to deeply know the object. This process is called surveillance. Observation expands and details our perception of phenomena and things, and the ability to evaluate forms a general idea of \u200b\u200bthem.

Reflection of shared experience, manifested in recognition and

playback is called memory.

The highest cognitive mental process is thinking, which is a process of reflection, a process of knowing the world.

Thinking always begins with asking a question, with a need or a need to resolve it. With the help of thinking, a person learns the general and essential signs of objects and phenomena, connections and relationships between them. Thinking enables us to anticipate the course of events and the results of our own actions. The quality, productivity of thought processes ultimately depends on a person's knowledge and on the ability to own them, on the level of development and the degree of perception of intelligence.

Modern psychology classifies its criticality and flexibility, as well as breadth, depth and speed of thought, among the most important positive qualities of the mind. The negative properties of mental activity include uncriticality, haste, slowness and superficiality of mind, inertia, routine and narrowness of thinking, as well as the inability to seek and find new ways.

A person thinks in concepts, judgments, inferences, which are expressed in words. Speech is a form of manifestation of thought, a means and process of communication. It is associated with mental processes. Any speech not only conveys a certain content of thought, but also with the help of intonation, facial expressions, gestures expresses feelings, the speaker's attitude to what or who is being said. An observant person can learn and understand a lot about the speaker from his speeches, because individual characteristics of speech reflect, to a certain extent, personality characteristics.

The leader must know the individual properties of the mental activity of subordinates.

2.2. Emotional and sensory processes

The attitude of a person (subjective reactions) to the phenomena and things of the real world is expressed by emotional experiences (emotions).

Emotions are the subjective reactions of a person to the effects of internal and external stimuli, manifested in the form of pleasure or displeasure, joy, fear, etc. They arise in the body as a result of subcortical excitations of the brain, which are formed on the basis of hereditary or acquired experience.

Emotions have arisen in the process of evolution as a means by which living beings determine the biological significance of the states of the organism and the environment. Emotions accompany almost any manifestation of the body's vital activity. They reflect in the form of direct experience the significance of phenomena and situations and serve as one of the main mechanisms of internal regulation of mental activity and behavior, aimed at satisfying urgent needs.

A person, relying on emotions, performs the necessary actions, the expediency of which remains hidden for him. Some people and events excite him, to others he remains indifferent. In one case, a person experiences pleasure and joy, in the other concern, anxious worry, and even grief.

As a person develops, emotions lose their instinctive basis and develop into stable, more complex and higher processes -

Feelings are formed on the basis of emotions as a result of a person's relationship to something and as a result of the systematic generalization of specific experiences. Feelings are deep formations of the individual. They characterize the wealth or poverty of the inner world of a person, his relationship and position in life. Feelings are the result of a person's satisfaction of certain needs and interests.

Feelings in psychology are a special type of emotional experiences that are clearly expressed objectively. They are associated with the idea of \u200b\u200bsome object - specific or generalized. Human feelings are of a cultural and historical nature, sign systems (social symbols, ceremonies, rituals, etc.) play an essential role in their formation.

Emotions and feelings make up the content of a person's emotional and sensual life. This is a special human mechanism that deepens and enriches our contacts with the outside world, expands the possibilities for our improvement. The formation of a person's feelings is the most important condition for the formation of him as an individual and personality. It is necessary to take into account the influence of this factor on a person and on his psyche, and, consequently, on his behavior and activities.

Psychology divides all the variety of feelings into three main groups:

Moral;

- intellectual;

Aesthetic.

1.In moral feelingsreflects public morality and ethics (Greek "custom"). They can act as motives and

regulators of behavior. Ethics clarifies the place of morality in the system of social relations, analyzes the nature of morality.

Conscience is a strong regulator of moral behavior, that is, an individual's emotional-evaluative attitude to his own actions. Any deviation from the norms causes anxiety, self-condemnation. Or, conversely, fidelity to norms, one's own convictions causes a state of satisfied conscience.

2. Intellectual feelings are of great importance in human behavior. They are understood as an emotional attitude to knowledge. These feelings are manifested in various emotions: surprise and bewilderment, joy and admiration, inquisitiveness and conceit, etc.

The labor process always includes elements of cognition, the search for new solutions and proceeds against a certain emotional background. It is characteristic of a person to strive to achieve important goals for him. At the same time, some ideas are reliably embodied in the desired results, for others this does not happen to the full, for others it does not work out.

All this is not only logically comprehended by people, but also perceived by them as certain experiences, which give thinking a human coloring. Various human emotions arise depending on life situations: positive and negative, deep and superficial.

3. Modern production requires taking into account andaesthetic feelingspeople. In mental processes, attitudes to the beautiful in nature, in human life and in art arise and manifest themselves.

Emotional and sensory processes have a huge impact on a person as a person and on his social role in society. "The initial reason for any action," wrote IM Sechenov, "always lies in external sensory excitement, because without it no thought is possible."

2.3. Volitional processes

A person not only thinks, feels, but also acts accordingly. A person realizes conscious and purposeful regulation of activity with the help of will.

Will is the conscious ability and desire of a person to perform deliberate actions aimed at achieving

consciously set a goal, and consciously regulate their activities by controlling their behavior.

Will is the desire to choose the type of activity, to the inner efforts necessary for its implementation. Even the simplest work activity requires volitional efforts. It is the link between consciousness, on the one hand, and action, on the other.

Will is a person's ability to overcome obstacles and achieve a set goal, it is a conscious self-regulation of one's behavior, it is a complex psychological process that causes a person's activity.

Will is, first of all, power over oneself, over one's feelings and actions. It is necessary both when performing certain actions and for refraining from unwanted actions.

Will must accompany all human activities in order for them to be effective. Where the effort of a person is required, the tension of the psyche and physical forces, the will necessarily comes into play. Volitional effort is a special state of mental stress, in which the physical, intellectual and moral forces of a person are mobilized. Each volitional effort begins with the awareness of the goal and the manifestation of the desire to achieve it.

The will of a person is manifested in actions , for the implementation of which a person consciously regulates their strength, speed and other dynamic parameters. The level of will development determines how much a person is adapted to the activities that he performs. The volitional act is characterized by the experience of "must", "I must", awareness of the value characteristics of the goal of activity.

Will rules man. Depending on what degree of volitional efforts a person spends in achieving a goal, they speak of the strength and perseverance of will.

A volitional action is always performed on the basis of a specific goal and motive.

It includes three main points: 1) goal selection;

2) drawing up a plan, that is, defining tasks, means and organizing the achievement of goals;

3) performing the action itself.

The motivation for volitional action can be both a person's own needs and the needs of society. The transition to volitional regulation of actions is necessary when insurmountable obstacles arise on the way to achieving the goal.

The main volitional qualities include the following: purposefulness, independence, decisiveness,

persistence, endurance, impulsivity, weakness, stubbornness and others.

Purposefulness is understood as the ability to subordinate one's behavior to a stable life goal. Setting accessible goals that require significant effort hardens the will. People differ from each other in the degree of volitional activity:

- some are waiting for instructions on what and how to do;

- others take the initiative and choose their own methods of action.

The autonomy of volitional activity is called independence. This volitional quality manifests itself in the ability to build their behavior on their own motivation, in accordance with their own views and beliefs. Leading a team of independent people is not easy.

But it is even more difficult if the team has a group of workers with such negative qualities of will as suggestibility and negativism. They cannot subordinate their actions to the arguments of reason and act, blindly accepting or blindly rejecting other people's influences, advice, explanations. Both suggestibility and negativism are expressions of weak will.

Life constantly sets before a person many tasks that require their own solution. Choice and decision-making is one of the links in the volitional process, and decisiveness is an important quality of a volitional person. An indecisive person constantly hesitates, because his decision has not been sufficiently analyzed, he is not completely sure of the correctness of the decision.

For volitional action, it is very important to fulfill the decision. People are not equally persistent in overcoming difficulties, not everyone brings the decision to the end. The ability to bring the decision to the end, to achieve the set goal, to overcome various external and internal difficulties on the way to the goal, is called persistence in psychology.

In contrast to persistence, a person can display a negative quality - stubbornness. In stubbornness, lack of will, the inability to force oneself to be guided by reasonable arguments, facts, and advice, is manifested.

Endurance and self-control are important volitional qualities. In control of himself, a person refrains from actions and manifestations of feelings that are perceived as undesirable, unnecessary or harmful in given conditions or at a given time. The opposite of endurance and self-control is impulsiveness.

The normal system of human behavior is based on the balance of irritable and inhibitory processes (nervous