Living space. Human living space. See what “Living space” is in other dictionaries
Although we started with a person and subsequently surrounded him with a psychological environment, it would be closer to Lewin’s idea (to go from the general to the particular) to start with the living space and differentiate in it the person and the environment. For living space is the psychologist’s universe; this is all psychological reality. It contains the totality of possible events that can influence the behavior of an individual. It includes everything that needs to be known to understand the specific behavior of a human individual in a given psychological environment and at a given time. Behavior (B, behavior) is a function (f, function) of living space: B = f(L).
“The task of dynamic psychology is to unambiguously derive the behavior of a given individual from the totality of psychological events existing in life space at a given moment” (Lewin, 1936a).
The fact that the living space is surrounded by the physical world does not mean that the living space is part of the physical world. (Figure 9-3.) Rather, living space and space beyond are differentiated and separate regions of a greater totality. What kind of totality this is - what this big universe is - finite or infinite, whether it manifests chaos or space - has nothing to do with psychology, except for one important point. Events that exist in the external region and adjacent to the boundary of living space—Lewin called this region the “outer shell of living space”—can have a material impact on the psychological environment. That is, non-psychological events can change psychological ones. Lewin believed that the study of events occurring in the outer shell can be called “psychological ecology.” (1951, ch. VIII). The first step of psychological research is to establish the nature of the events that exist at the boundary of life space, since these facts will help determine what is possible and what is not, what can happen in life space and what cannot. Levine did this work before undertaking research into people's eating habits and how they could be changed. (1943, 1951, ch. VIII).
Events in the psychological environment can also cause changes in the physical world. Between these two worlds there is a two-way communication. Accordingly, they say that the boundary between living space and the outside world has the property of permeability. A boundary resembles a permeable membrane or network—rather than a wall or rigid barrier. Let us note in passing that the physical world cannot directly communicate with a person, just as a person cannot directly communicate with the outside world. An event, before it can influence or be influenced by a person, must become a fact of the psychological environment. This is clear when looking at the drawing depicting a person completely surrounded by the space of the psychological environment.
Pointing out the permeable boundary between life space and the physical world is extremely important. Since events in the non-psychological world can radically change the entire course of events in life space, predictions based only on knowledge of psychological laws are not serious. You can never be sure in advance that some event from the outer shell will not violate the boundary of living space and will not turn the psychological environment upside down. A chance meeting, an unexpected phone call, an accident, as you know, can change the course of life. Therefore, Levin emphasizes, it is more realistic for a psychologist to understand a specific, currently existing psychological situation through description and explanation in terms of field theory, rather than trying to predict how a person is going to behave in some future.
Another property of living space should be noted. Although a person is surrounded by a psychological environment, he is not part of the environment and is not included in it. The psychological environment ends at the perimeter of the circle, just as the non-psychological world ends at the perimeter of the ellipse. However, the boundary between man and environment is also permeable. This means that environmental events can influence a person, P=f(E), and vice versa, E=f(P). Before we proceed to discuss the nature of these phenomena, another differentiation must be introduced in relation to the structure of man and the environment.
Shkuratova I.P. Personality and its living space
// Psychology of Personality. Educational manual edited by P.N. Ermakova and V.A. Labunskaya. M.: EKSMO, 2007, pp. 167-184.
2.3.Personality and its living space
1. The concept of living space
The concept of living space was introduced into psychology by Kurt Lewin in order to show that the true habitat of a person is not physical reality or the social environment, but only those fragments of them that are reflected in a person’s consciousness and on which his behavior is based. In this regard, he proposed to consider a person and his environment as one constellation of interdependent factors, and the totality of these factors was called living space.
Living space, according to K. Levin, is subject to psychological laws, which differ significantly from physical ones. For example, the distance from home to school for a student is not equal to the distance from school to home, since the house attracts him, and the school repels him. The living space of an individual is determined not so much by the material goods that he owns, but by his knowledge about the world and the ability to influence the processes occurring in it. For example, the physical space of a person’s life can be tens of square meters, but his living space can extend to cosmic limits. The breadth of living space is always associated with the scale of the worldview of a given individual.
K. Levin was the first to pose to psychologists the question of what environment a person interacts with. Materialist philosophers tried to prove that the perception of the world is the same for everyone, and there is a certain ultimate truth to which our knowledge strives. However, modern science proceeds from the recognition of the multiplicity of options for reflecting the surrounding reality, each of which has the right to exist and study.
Living space was depicted by K. Levin in the form of an oval, in the center of which there is a circle, symbolizing the inner world of the individual. Living space has two main boundaries: the external one separates the living space from the real physical and social macroworlds, the internal one separates the inner world of the individual from his psychological environment within the living space. The shell of the internal space is the sensorimotor area, which, according to K. Levin, serves as a kind of filter between the internal and external environment.
A newborn child's living space is undifferentiated: he poorly distinguishes the boundaries of his body, he has no ideas about the past and future. As children grow up, their living space expands in time and space. The differentiation between the real and unreal levels of living space begins to grow. The real level is associated with the reflection of real events occurring in the physical and social worlds, the unreal is filled with fantasies, desires and fears. The degree of differentiation of the internal and external areas of living space are interconnected. The more structured the person himself is, the more structured his idea of the world around him is.
Growing differentiation is accompanied by an increase in integration processes, which manifest themselves in an increase in the complexity and hierarchy of the organization of living space. K. Levin believed that there is a close connection between intelligence, or, more precisely, psychological age, and the degree of structure of his living space. The most rapid structuring of living space occurs in childhood and adolescence, since during this period there is a rapid accumulation of knowledge about the world and about oneself.
K. Levin called those areas of life about which a person is most aware the space of free movement. Such areas include, for example, professional knowledge. Every good specialist feels free in his own field, but when he finds himself in someone else’s professional environment, he feels like a beginner in need of the help of a professional. Under the influence of emotional stress, loss of security, serious illness, aging, regression of living space can occur, which manifests itself in a shortening of the time perspective, a decrease in the differentiation of individual areas and disintegration. This regression may be temporary or irreversible.
For a more detailed analysis, K. Levin also introduced the concept of a psychological field, which is a certain slice of living space considered at a given moment in time. A person, finding himself in some kind of life situation, interacts with a limited number of people and objects, and acts in one role, but at the same time he has a huge experience behind him, which is forever included in his living space. Therefore, any of his behavioral reactions carries the charge of this experience, and can be fully understood only as a consequence of this experience, as well as as a step in the implementation of future plans. K. Levin emphasized that the past is represented in the present psychological field by knowledge, attitudes, experienced feelings regarding those factors that currently influence the personality, as well as those substructures of the individual’s inner world that were formed earlier. The future is represented by those plans, goals, expectations that are related to what is happening at a given moment in time.
If you choose an image that would describe your living space, then a spindle is best suited. It is a stick that comes from one point, widens towards the middle and narrows towards the second end. In the same way, a person’s living space expands from childhood to adulthood, and narrows in old age. The widest part of the “spindle” occurs at the peak of a person’s life activity, when he has many social contacts, he is sufficiently informed on a wide range of issues, his inner world is rich and well structured. As a person ages, entire areas of his life space may die off: professional, political, family. They remain represented only by past memories, but have no prospects for development.
J. Kelly significantly reinforced K. Lewin’s ideas about the individual nature of the image of the world by developing the theory of personal constructs. It is based on the methodology of constructive alternativeism, according to which each person perceives the world in his own way, through the grid of his coordinate system. The units of this system are personal constructs, i.e. criteria by which a person compares and evaluates the objects of the surrounding reality. J. Kelly argues that we are not influenced by events, but by our interpretation of these events, which depends on our belief system.
In the last decade, in Russian psychology there has been an increased interest in studying the living space of an individual, his image of the world and the picture of his own life path. Nartova-Bochaver S.K. substantiates the high degree of heuristicness of the concept of “psychological space of the individual,” indicating that the state of the boundaries of one’s own psychological world largely determines a person’s attitude to the elements of the environment, i.e. his attitude in general. Depending on whether the surrounding world is perceived as alien or related, a person’s own activity in it is also structured.
2. Characteristics of the individual’s living space
K. Levin considered the main characteristics of a person’s living space to be the degree of its structure and integration, the breadth of time perspective, as well as the degree of permeability of its boundaries.
Let us consider what characteristics of a person’s living space are offered by modern authors.
A.A. Bodalev identifies three parameters of the subjective space of the world:
a) the volume or extent of this space, which is determined by what is imprinted and actualized in a person’s consciousness from the objective space surrounding him;
b) the degree of connection between the content of this subjective space of the world and the present, past and future;
c) dependence of the content richness of the subjective space of the world on the formation of the individual.
The author names a person’s age, his natural and social environment, profession, lifestyle, education and personal characteristics as factors that determine these characteristics.
L.P. Grimak identifies two realities: 1) informational-energetic and topological relationships of the individual with the surrounding living space and 2) subjective modeling of the internal psychological space of the individual, on the basis of which interactions with the real world are built. In his opinion, the primary influence on a person’s subjective comfort is exerted by such characteristics of the internal psychological space as its size and clarity of boundaries. A person may perceive his inner space as too large and unfilled, and then he will feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, the feeling of cramped space leads to the experience of lack of freedom and dependence. A full-fledged “construction” of a subjective model of a person’s living space assumes that all three of its components (past, present and future) are available, accessible to mental review and do not cover each other.
In NLP their relationship is called the time line. In particular, Ted James describes two types of timelines:
1. Anglo-European type (“next to time”), in which the time line is in front of the subject’s eyes, such that the past is on the left and the future on the right;
2. Arabic type (“through time”), in which the time line pierces a person in such a way that the past is behind and the future is ahead.
People of the first type are more oriented in the lines of their lives; they store their experiences in the form of systematized pictures of the past and find the necessary ones in their minds relatively easily. People of the second type are constantly in the present, have a poor idea of their future and are unable to productively use past experiences.
P.I. Yanichev investigated the structural properties of personal time, which are reflected and experienced by the subject.
Continuity - discontinuity. The perception of the immutability of the flow of time, the impossibility of stopping it.
Objectivity - subjectivity. Its objectivity acts for a person as the independence of his flow from his actions. Withdrawal into oneself and absorption in internal processes creates a sense of one’s own time.
Irreversibility - reversibility. The irreversibility of physical time and the reversibility of psychological time create illusions in humans.
Universality - locality. We are talking about universal time for living and nonliving objects. Along with it, there are scales and time scales.
Uniformity - unevenness. Describes the pace of time. There is a lot of data indicating a change in the speed of time due to its fullness of events.
According to the author, most adequately and first of all, children reflect such properties as continuity and objectivity. Irreversibility and universality are less well understood: half of older preschoolers believe that it is possible to end up in the past.
A well-known representative of transpersonal psychology, K. Wilber, believes that the problems of a particular person stem from where he draws the line between himself and the world around him. The wider the space of a person’s self-identification, the more content of the world a person recognizes as his own. He gives four options for resolving the question of where the boundary between the Self and the non-Self lies:
A) the level of “mask” is the narrowest territory of the Self, which is equated only to a part of one’s consciousness, to what a person presents to others;
B) ego level - the border passes between a person’s consciousness and his body, while there is a conflict between the spiritual and the physical;
C) the organism as a whole - the border passes between the body and the outside world, the soul and body are in harmony and unity, but they are opposed to the world;
D) identifying oneself with the Universe, expanding the space of one’s Self to infinity.
According to K. Wilber, any boundary becomes a source of conflict, therefore psychotherapy should be aimed at expanding the space of the Self, at achieving a consciousness of unity with other people and the world as a whole.
So, the living space of an individual changes during the course of a person’s life and has a number of characteristics that are subject to change under the influence of environmental and intrapersonal factors.
1. Width of living space. It is determined by the number of those areas of the real world that the subject considers relevant to his life and which are reflected in his picture of the world.
2. The degree of differentiation of its individual parts. This characteristic must be considered in two aspects: a) intrapersonal differentiation and b) differentiation of the external areas of life space. Although K. Levin argued that there is a direct connection between these types of differentiation in terms of severity, there is still no direct correspondence between the components of the personality and the areas of living space.
3. The degree of organization and coordination of its parts. It should also be considered in two aspects: intrapersonal structuring and organization of external areas of life space. This characteristic involves analyzing the presence or absence of a clear structure, subordination and coordination relationships.
4. Permeability of the external boundaries of living space. It can manifest itself both in openness to information and energy flow from the real physical and social worlds, and in the response information and energy flow from the subject of living space. Personality autism can be seen as a manifestation of poor permeability of external boundaries. We can assume different options for permeability, formed by the degree of permeability from the inside and from the outside: two-way good or bad permeability and one-way permeability, in which information flows worse in one direction than in the other.
5. The permeability of the internal boundaries of living space, separating the inner world of a person from his other parts of living space. Here, too, permeability is bilateral in nature, but concerns the balance between the sensory and motor (more precisely, behavioral) components of the personality. This balance can also be called impressive-expressive.
6. The degree of realism - unrealism of the living space. It is determined by the correspondence of the psychological living space to its prototype, i.e. the real world. It should increase as a person accumulates his knowledge about the real environment. A significant bias towards the unrealism of a person’s living space indicates the presence of mental disorders. Sometimes such a distorted picture of the world can serve as a source of artistic creativity, since art is designed specifically to create new spaces of existence.
7. The degree of activity in managing one’s living space on the part of the individual. In the works of K. Levin the term “field of power” appears, by which he understood the ability of one person to induce forces acting on another person. He believed that it was possible to identify the strength and boundaries of the field of power in each person. The power field of the “leader” is always greater than the power field of the “follower”. K. Levin illustrates this concept using the example of how children’s behavior changes in the presence of an adult who is authoritative for them (for example, a teacher). A person who has power over another person can induce needs in him in accordance with his goals. The field of power is always narrower than the psychological field, since in some areas a person has great power, but in others not. In the process of interaction between people, their fields intersect, and in each specific case the balance of forces changes.
8. The degree of population of the living space by people. Determined by the number of persons who are included by the subject in the living space. These are, first of all, people who are significant to him from family, business and friendly spheres of communication. But these are not necessarily people he likes. The main thing is that they were singled out from many other people according to some criterion, they were remembered by him from the past, they influenced him, sometimes by the very fact of their existence. Living space can also be populated by famous people whom a person has read or heard about, literary or cinematic heroes. It matters to the individual whether these people are persons from the past or whether they are mostly real people whom he sees at the present time.
9. Breadth of time retrospective and perspective. K. Levin noted that a small child has practically no past or future. His future is measured in hours. But with age, a person begins to look very far into his future, making long-term plans. Old people no longer have such a perspective, but they have the richness of their past, so their retrospective can be very large. However, this does not mean that two people of the same age have the same time characteristics of their living space. Retrospective is determined by how much events from the past influence a person’s behavior in the present, or, in other words, how much he learns from his past. Perspective is determined by the extent to which plans and dreams have a strong influence on actual behavior in the present.
2. The degree of differentiation of time periods. It is determined by the fragmentation of time intervals, which serve as certain milestones. For some people, the unit of analysis can be a year or even months, for others it can be five years or decades (before school, school, university, etc.). It is known that events of the recent past are more differentiated than ancient events.
3. The integrity of the time perspective and its structure. By integrity we mean the continuity of impressions of the past, present and future, in which the present is seen as a natural transition from past events to upcoming ones. With this perception of his life path, a person sees in his current actions the consequences of past experiences and the influence of future goals. As for structure, it is associated with the perception of connections between events and their categorization according to the degree of significance for the subject. Unstructuredness manifests itself in the juxtaposition of events of varying degrees of importance.
4. The degree of event saturation of the living space. This characteristic is determined by the number of events that the subject considers important milestones in his life path. D. Kelly noted that the event is not engraved with its meaning; people themselves attach a certain value to it. In accordance with this, a person who appreciates the joys that life sends him will perceive his life as rich in joyful events.
Studying a personality through these characteristics allows a psychologist to see the world through her eyes and help optimize her worldview.
3. Strategies for interaction between the individual and the environment
A person’s perception of the surrounding reality is of a subjective nature, since it is determined by the nature of the interpretation of life events. Being in the same life circumstances, some people view the people around them as leaders to follow, others as competitors in the struggle for the benefits of life, and still others as like-minded people in achieving common goals.
In psychology, there are a large number of personality typologies, but there is much in common between them, which is due to a limited set of strategies for the subject’s interaction with the outside world.
A.V. Libin, proposing a unified concept of human style, names the following as the main characteristics of human interaction with the physical and social environment.
Intensity - moderation, which characterizes the energy potential of the individual and the degree of activity in mastering and transforming the environment;
Stability is variability that determines the richness of the repertoire of behavioral strategies of an individual;
Breadth is the narrowness of the range of interaction, which manifests itself in the degree of articulation of behavior:
Inclusion is distance as a measure of the autonomy of the subject's functioning.
The most fundamental of the listed characteristics is the last one, since it is it that sets the direction of the subject’s interaction with the outside world. Within this parameter, two extreme options can be considered: distance in various forms (avoidance, withdrawal, contemplation) and active interaction with the subject environment. If we consider the area of social interaction as an environment, then active interaction will acquire two more characteristics: sign and position. As a result, we get the following diagram of the subject’s interaction with other people.
Rice. 1. Basic strategies of interpersonal interaction.
Let us consider to what extent these strategies are represented in personality typologies proposed by foreign psychologists.
E. Fromm described five social types of character:
Receptive, which is characterized by dependence on other people and passivity;
Exploiting, which is characterized by aggressiveness, the desire to subjugate other people, and egocentrism;
Accumulator, who is distinguished by a desire for isolation from other people, rigidity, restraint;
Market, which on the one hand is open to new things, inquisitive, but on the other hand cynical and devastated;
Productive is the only variant of a productive personality type that combines the main positive traits (independence, calmness, goodwill, creativity).
If we correlate these types of characters with the proposed scheme, we will find the following correspondence.
Receptive refers to the subordination strategy;
Exploitative - to a strategy of negative dominance;
Accumulative - to an avoidance strategy;
Market - to competition strategy;
Productive - towards a cooperation strategy.
K. Horney proposed a classification consisting of three personality types in accordance with the leading orientation in relationships with other people:
Compliant type (submissive and passive);
Hostile type (dominant and aggressive);
Separate type (solitary and self-sufficient).
It is easy to see that they are fully consistent with the strategies of submission, negative dominance and avoidance.
The strategies described above are especially clearly presented in typologies based on interpersonal relationships and communication styles.
According to D. Schmertz, all people can be divided into two groups, depending on how they resolve the conflict between two opposing needs: to belong to other people, to have close contacts with them and to be free, internally integrated.
He offers a classification of personalities depending on their attitude towards other people, the degree of socialization and the type of aggression. The level of socialization in his typology increases from the first type to the fourth in both columns. The first two options in both columns are characterized by external manifestations of aggression, and the third and fourth types are characterized by the suppression of aggression or its focus on oneself.
Table 1.
Typology of personalities according to Schmerz.
|
belonging to other people |
Personalities who prefer autonomy from people |
|
1.Low socialized. |
1. Isolated. |
|
2. Exploitative. Hypocritical, sadistic. |
2. Arrogant. Narcissism. |
|
3.Depressed. Passive-aggressive personalities. |
3. Detached. Passive-aggressive and avoidant. |
|
4. Seeking intimacy. Masochistic type. |
4. Submissive. |
As can be seen from the description of these types, they are also divided according to distance, sign and position in relationships with other people.
T. Leary's classification is based on a combination of two parameters: dominance-submission and friendliness-hostility. The combination of friendliness and dominance corresponds to the strategy of positive dominance, the combination of friendliness and submission corresponds to the strategy of submission, the combination of hostility and dominance corresponds to the strategy of negative dominance, the combination of hostility and submission is close in meaning to the strategy of avoidance.
The typology proposed by C. Jung is the most generally accepted in foreign psychology. It is built, on the one hand, on the criterion of the individual’s focus on the internal or external world, on the other hand, on the leading channel for obtaining information (sensation, intuition, thinking and feeling). The combination of extraversion or introversion with the dominant channel of information gives eight options for personality types. K. Jung considered the source of information on the basis of which the person builds his behavior, in other words, his mental experience, to be fundamental for determining the type of personality.
M. Myers and K. Brigg in the late 50s of the last century developed a classification of personalities based on the ideas of C. Jung, which includes 16 types. It is based on three criteria from the theory of C. Jung and one new one:
way to replenish energy (extroversion - introversion);
method of collecting information (sensory - intuition);
method of decision making (thinking - feeling);
a way of organizing interaction with the outside world (decision - perception).
Combinations of these characteristics yield 16 personality types, which the authors and their followers rely on when selecting jobs, as well as in various forms of counseling.
G. Eysenck's typology echoes K. Jung's typology. One parameter even retained the Jungian name extraversion-introversion. True, G. Eysenck emphasized that his understanding of this parameter is different, since he makes these characteristics dependent on the relationship between the cerebral cortex and subcortical formations. However, G. Eysenck’s description of introverts and extroverts is similar to Jung’s. Introverts are people focused on their inner world, while extroverts are focused on the outer world. Neuroticism - emotional stability characterizes the degree of emotional responsiveness to external and internal stimuli.
table 2
Characteristics of personality types with orientation
to the inner and outer world
|
Predominant orientation towards the inner world |
Predominant orientation to the outside world |
|
Introversion |
Extraversion |
|
Contemplation |
Activity |
|
Internal locus of control |
External locus of control |
|
Egocentrism |
Alterocentrism |
|
Autonomy |
Group affiliation |
In conclusion, we will consider what personal characteristics determine the choice of strategy for interaction with the environment.
Positive dominance. Elected by individuals focused on active interaction with other people. Feeling the strength to organize and lead the activities of other people. Confident. Energetic. Striving for creation.
Forms of interaction with other people: mentoring, management, guardianship.
Negative dominance. Elected by persons focused on subordinating other people or focused on the objective activity for the sake of which this subordination is carried out. Feeling the power to tightly control the activities of other people. Confident in their advantages in terms of competition with others.
Forms of interaction with other people: despotism, strict command.
Subordination. Elected by individuals seeking to interact with other people against the background of insufficient independence. They are not confident in their abilities, knowledge, and strengths. They are afraid of loneliness and responsibility for their actions. Passive. They can choose this position for the sake of learning, gaining experience and knowledge, then this is combined with activity.
Forms of interaction with other people: discipleship, assistance, worship, service.
Avoidance. Elected by persons focused on their inner world. Weakened by illness or age. With insufficient confidence in yourself and your abilities. Passive. Depressed. Contemplative. Self-sufficient. Independent.
Forms of interaction with other people: going to work, seclusion, hermitage.
Parity relations. They are elected by harmoniously oriented individuals who do not seek to use other people as a means to achieve their goals, but they themselves do not take the position of a follower.
Creative, with an adequate self-concept.
Forms of interaction with other people: cooperation, partnership, cooperation.
Each person in various life situations resorts to different strategies for interacting with other people, since he plays a large number of social roles, but at the same time there is a preferred strategy that best suits his individuality.
Literature
1. Bodalev A.A. General and special in the subjective space of the world and the factors that determine them // World of Psychology, 1999, 4, pp. 26-29.
2. Grimak L.P. Hypnosis in the formation of a healthy psychological space of the individual // World of Psychology, 1999, 4, pp. 81-90.
3. Kelly J. Personality Theory. Psychology of personal constructs. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2000. - 249 p.
4. Levin K. Field theory in social sciences. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2000. - 368 p.
5. Libin A.V. A single concept of human style: metaphor or reality? // Human style: psychological analysis. M.: Smysl, 1998.- 310 p.
6. Nartova-Bochavaer S.K. The concept of “psychological space of the individual” and its heuristic possibilities // Psychological Science and Education, 2002, No. 1.
7. Wilbur K. No borders. M. 1998.
8. Fromm E. A man for himself. Minsk: Collegium, 1992. - P.1-115.
9. Horney K. Neurotic personality of our time. M.: Progress, 1993. -480 p.
10. Jung K.-G. Psychological types, St. Petersburg: Yuventa, 1995. - 715 p.
11. Yanichev P.I. Development of the structure of experienced-reflected time // RPO Yearbook in 8 volumes. T.8. St. Petersburg: Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University, 2003, pp. 668-673.
12. Schmertz J. The Oderliness of the Psychodynamic Structuring of Personality //
Psychology, A Journal of Human Behavior. 1991, vol.28, no. 2, pp.15-26.
Living space and vitality of modern man
INTRODUCTION
The relevance of the research topic is determined by the fact that at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, the problem of man and his social existence, which has always been at the center of philosophical research, acquired a special meaning. The specificity of the modern socio-cultural situation is that due to the explosive expansion of design and transformation activities, the problematic nature of human existence has intensified. The dynamic transformations of social reality currently taking place have made the problem of space very relevant, which forces us to take a fresh look at it as a category expressing the most important forms of human social existence and as a factor of change in the life of society. In the emerging new philosophical ethnos, a radical revaluation of values is being carried out. Social changes taking place in the space of society cannot but affect the personal destinies of people, in connection with which the main and constant value of culture and history is recognized by the person himself, his life as a value, the priority of protecting which is currently the semantic dominant of the socio-philosophical thoughts. In this regard, the category “living space”, which is one of the most important categorical structures that is gaining relevance in modern conditions, acquires special significance.
The application and use of the category “living space” in socio-philosophical research, its thematization in new and most diverse contexts, the increase in its value and semantic load indicates the growing interest of researchers in this phenomenon of human existence. However, we are dealing with an insufficiently studied, complex and multifaceted reality, which raises the need for further in-depth study of human living space.
The topic of understanding a person in the experience of constructing space is initiated and determined by the need to search for methodological foundations and build new theoretical perspectives for studying human living space.
An analysis of human social existence in the modern world shows a deficit in the ability to understand and the partial “elimination” of a person from the living space caused by this fact, the space of his actual - subjectivized, meaningful, mastered, responsible - existence. The pulsation of events in modern life (which cannot always be studied using logical and scientific methods), possible alternatives to the future direct philosophical reflection towards an understanding of human existence, an understanding approach to the study of human living space.
The relevance of the topic is determined by the need for new theoretical approaches to understanding the phenomenon of human living space. A number of problems, such as the relationship between the categories of “life force” of a person and “living space” of a person, the use of understanding as a form of constructing a person’s living space, as an immersion in the world of human everyday life, and a number of others have not yet passed the stage of their formulation, which makes it possible to obtain fundamentally new results in the study of the phenomenon of living space.
The success of the process of a person’s self-realization and his self-determination (within the boundaries of both his own living space and the space of society) depends on how productively he overcomes the obstacles that arise, created both by the open nature of his existence and by the entire course of his own activity. Understanding in this case is the act of searching and discovering new opportunities seen in the sociocultural existence of a person for a person to realize himself, to gain his own essence.
The degree of scientific development of the problem. The problem of "life
space" is a relatively new and poorly studied problem, standing at the crossroads of geopolitical theory, ecology, philosophy and sociology and all their directions and subdivisions. Psychology also has a significant influence on the development of this category, since living space is also the direct object of its study. And based on this
% versatile affiliation it was studied haphazardly, under different
angles of view, from different positions and approaches, the purpose of which was to identify individual fragments of the phenomenon of human living space.
The term “living space” was introduced into science only in the thirties of the 20th century by K. Haushofer and owes its appearance to geopolitical problems. In the concepts of geopolitics, the state becomes a system-forming element of living space, the determining form of life of the people.
Despite the increased interest in the problem of human living space, its theoretical solution cannot be considered complete.
In addition, many aspects of a person’s living space have not received sufficiently wide coverage, primarily such as the relationship between the categories of “life force” of a person and “living space” of a person, the use of understanding as a form of constructing a person’s living space, as immersion in the world of human everyday life and a number of others, which makes it possible to obtain fundamentally new results when studying the phenomenon of living space.
Based on the relevance of the problem under consideration and its insufficient development, the object and subject of this research are determined.
The object of study is human living space. The complexity of an object is formed by the presence of conscious goal-setting human activity and its value-semantic component.
The subject of research in this work is the understanding of both the special spiritual world and the world of the individual’s actual practices in understanding social reality and as a way of social construction of a person’s living space.
The purpose of the abstract study is to analyze understanding in the study of a person’s living space and vital forces.
- Personality and its living space
1.1. The concept of living space
The category “social space” has existed in science, including in social philosophy, for more than one century. This concept has become especially popular in recent decades. And this is no coincidence: the environmental crisis, population explosions, human expansion beyond the earthly sphere, the acceleration of the rhythm of life under the influence of turbulent socio-political and anthropic processes have made the problem of space, and above all social space, very pressing and relevant.
In the methodological reflection of modern knowledge on the problems of social space, at least two different images of social knowledge function, complementing each other, the ideological and theoretical premises of which go back to historically different styles of philosophical thinking.
The interaction of living space and life world occurs through certain social institutions, processes, relationships,
in which a person is involved, thanks to which he acts in society. Living space is determined by the individual’s ability to master the content of the components and connections present in the life world. Being in the life world, a person characterizes it for himself as a world of the possible. His living space is the relevance present here and now. The transition of the possible into the actual is carried out thanks to the specifically human “world of understanding”.
Understanding acts as such a subjective principle that ensures the unity of individual changing manifestations of personality and its activities. Any formation of the “world of understanding” is a kind of fusion of the social world and the understanding activity of the subject. “The world of understanding” is the social reality mastered by man, social reality as it is understood by the individual, what significance and meaning it has for existing existence as the totality of his living space and the “horizon” (social and personal experience of the individual) of understanding.
self-understanding is constructive dialogue, communication, contact with another person. Through his own change, the individual is able to influence his relationship with other people. This social connection is a way not only to understand one’s own living space, but also an opportunity to penetrate into the life world of another person in modern society.
The concept of living space was introduced into psychology by Kurt Lewin in order to show that the true habitat of a person is not physical reality or the social environment, but only those fragments of them that are reflected in a person’s consciousness and on which his behavior is based. In this regard, he proposed to consider a person and his environment as one constellation of interdependent factors, and the totality of these factors was called living space.
The ideals and norms of the image of social space, which is commonly called classical, go back to the ideas of the Enlightenment with its characteristic “universalization of reason and progress as a means of legitimizing any forms of social cognition and action.” The principle of classical fundamentalism carries out the isolation and fundamentalization of those social relations that are considered ontologically primary in social space. Examples of the fundamentalization of the most diverse aspects and characteristics of social space, as well as various types of social relations, are the social contract, geographical location and climate, material relations of production, etc.
Living space, according to K. Levin, is subject to psychological laws, which differ significantly from physical ones. For example, the distance from home to school for a student is not equal to the distance from school to home, since the house attracts him, and the school repels him. The living space of an individual is determined not so much by the material goods that he owns, but by his knowledge about the world and the ability to influence the processes occurring in it. For example, the physical space of a person’s life can be tens of square meters, but his living space can extend to cosmic limits. The breadth of living space is always associated with the scale of the worldview of a given individual.
K. Levin was the first to pose to psychologists the question of what environment a person interacts with. Materialist philosophers tried to prove that the perception of the world is the same for everyone, and there is a certain ultimate truth to which our knowledge strives. However, modern science proceeds from the recognition of the multiplicity of options for reflecting the surrounding reality, each of which has the right to exist and study.
Living space was depicted by K. Levin in the form of an oval, in the center of which there is a circle, symbolizing the inner world of the individual. Living space has two main boundaries: the external one separates the living space from the real physical and social macroworlds, the internal one separates the inner world of the individual from his psychological environment within the living space. The shell of the internal space is the sensorimotor area, which, according to K. Levin, serves as a kind of filter between the internal and external environment.
K. Levin believed that there is a close connection between intelligence, or, more precisely, psychological age, and the degree of structure of his living space. The most rapid structuring of living space occurs in childhood and adolescence, since during this period there is a rapid accumulation of knowledge about the world and about oneself.
K. Levin called those areas of life about which a person is most aware the space of free movement. Such areas include, for example, professional knowledge. Every good specialist feels free in his own field, but when he finds himself in someone else’s professional environment, he feels like a beginner in need of the help of a professional. Under the influence of emotional stress, loss of security, serious illness, aging, regression of living space can occur, which manifests itself in a shortening of the time perspective, a decrease in the differentiation of individual areas and disintegration. This regression may be temporary or irreversible.
For a more detailed analysis, K. Levin also introduced the concept of a psychological field, which is a certain slice of living space considered at a given moment in time. A person, finding himself in some kind of life situation, interacts with a limited number of people and objects, and acts in one role, but at the same time he has a huge experience behind him, which is forever included in his living space. Therefore, any of his behavioral reactions carries the charge of this experience, and can be fully understood only as a consequence of this experience, as well as as a step in the implementation of future plans.
If you choose an image that would describe your living space, then a spindle is best suited. It is a stick that comes from one point, widens towards the middle and narrows towards the second end. In the same way, a person’s living space expands from childhood to adulthood, and narrows in old age. The widest part of the “spindle” occurs at the peak of a person’s life activity, when he has many social contacts, he is sufficiently informed on a wide range of issues, his inner world is rich and well structured. As a person ages, entire areas of his life space may die off: professional, political, family. They remain represented only by past memories, but have no prospects for development.
J. Kelly significantly reinforced K. Lewin’s ideas about the individual nature of the image of the world by developing the theory of personal constructs. It is based on the methodology of constructive alternativeism, according to which each person perceives the world in his own way, through the grid of his coordinate system. The units of this system are personal constructs, i.e. criteria by which a person compares and evaluates the objects of the surrounding reality. J. Kelly argues that we are not influenced by events, but by our interpretation of these events, which depends on our belief system.
In the last decade, in Russian psychology there has been an increased interest in studying the living space of an individual, his image of the world and the picture of his own life path. Nartova-Bochaver S.K. substantiates the high degree of heuristicness of the concept of “psychological space of the individual,” indicating that the state of the boundaries of one’s own psychological world largely determines a person’s attitude to the elements of the environment, i.e. his attitude in general. Depending on whether the surrounding world is perceived as alien or related, a person’s own activity in it is also structured.
2. Characteristics of the individual’s living space
K. Levin considered the main characteristics of a person’s living space to be the degree of its structure and integration, the breadth of time perspective, as well as the degree of permeability of its boundaries.
Let us consider what characteristics of a person’s living space are offered by modern authors.
A.A. Bodalev identifies three parameters of the subjective space of the world:
a) the volume or extent of this space, which is determined by what is imprinted and actualized in a person’s consciousness from the objective space surrounding him;
b) the degree of connection between the content of this subjective space of the world and the present, past and future;
c) dependence of the content richness of the subjective space of the world on the formation of the individual.
The author names a person’s age, his natural and social environment, profession, lifestyle, education and personal characteristics as factors that determine these characteristics.
L.P. Grimak identifies two realities: 1) informational-energetic and topological relationships of the individual with the surrounding living space and 2) subjective modeling of the internal psychological space of the individual, on the basis of which interactions with the real world are built. In his opinion, the primary influence on a person’s subjective comfort is exerted by such characteristics of the internal psychological space as its size and clarity of boundaries. A person may perceive his inner space as too large and unfilled, and then he will feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, the feeling of cramped space leads to the experience of lack of freedom and dependence. A full-fledged “construction” of a subjective model of a person’s living space assumes that all three of its components (past, present and future) are available, accessible to mental review and do not cover each other.
Their relationship is called the time line. In particular, Ted James describes two types of timelines:
1. Anglo-European type (“next to time”), in which the time line is in front of the subject’s eyes, such that the past is on the left and the future on the right;
2. Arabic type (“through time”), in which the time line pierces a person in such a way that the past is behind and the future is ahead.
People of the first type are more oriented in the lines of their lives; they store their experiences in the form of systematized pictures of the past and find the necessary ones in their minds relatively easily. People of the second type are constantly in the present, have a poor idea of their future and are unable to productively use past experiences.
So, the living space of an individual changes during the course of a person’s life and has a number of characteristics that are subject to change under the influence of environmental and intrapersonal factors.
1. Width of living space. It is determined by the number of those areas of the real world that the subject considers relevant to his life and which are reflected in his picture of the world.
2. The degree of differentiation of its individual parts. This characteristic must be considered in two aspects: a) intrapersonal differentiation b) differentiation of external areas of life space. Although K. Levin argued that there is a direct connection between these types of differentiation in terms of severity, there is still no direct correspondence between the components of the personality and the areas of living space.
3. The degree of organization and coordination of its parts. It should also be considered in two aspects: intrapersonal structuring and organization of external areas of life space. This characteristic involves analyzing the presence or absence of a clear structure, subordination and coordination relationships.
4. Permeability of the external boundaries of living space. It can manifest itself both in openness to information and energy flow from the real physical and social worlds, and in the response information and energy flow from the subject of living space. Personality autism can be seen as a manifestation of poor permeability of external boundaries. We can assume different options for permeability, formed by the degree of permeability from the inside and from the outside: two-way good or bad permeability and one-way permeability, in which information flows worse in one direction than in the other.
5. The permeability of the internal boundaries of living space, separating the inner world of a person from his other parts of living space. Here, too, permeability is bilateral in nature, but concerns the balance between the sensory and motor (more precisely, behavioral) components of the personality. This balance can also be called impressive-expressive.
6. Degree of realism – unrealism of living space. It is determined by the correspondence of the psychological living space to its prototype, i.e. the real world. It should increase as a person accumulates his knowledge about the real environment. A significant bias towards the unrealism of a person’s living space indicates the presence of mental disorders. Sometimes such a distorted picture of the world can serve as a source of artistic creativity, since art is designed specifically to create new spaces of existence.
7. The degree of activity in managing one’s living space on the part of the individual.
8. The degree of population of the living space by people. Determined by the number of persons who are included by the subject in the living space. These are, first of all, people who are significant to him from family, business and friendly spheres of communication. But these are not necessarily people he likes. The main thing is that they were singled out from many other people according to some criterion, they were remembered by him from the past, they influenced him, sometimes by the very fact of their existence. Living space can also be populated by famous people whom a person has read or heard about, literary or cinematic heroes. It matters to the individual whether these people are persons from the past or whether they are mostly real people whom he sees at the present time.
9. Breadth of time retrospective and perspective. K. Levin noted that a small child has practically no past or future. His future is measured in hours. But with age, a person begins to look very far into his future, making long-term plans. Old people no longer have such a perspective, but they have the richness of their past, so their retrospective can be very large. However, this does not mean that two people of the same age have the same time characteristics of their living space. Retrospective is determined by how much events from the past influence a person’s behavior in the present, or, in other words, how much he learns from his past. Perspective is determined by the extent to which plans and dreams have a strong influence on actual behavior in the present.
- 3.Human vitality
3.1.The concept of human vitality
In our context, vital forces are understood as a person’s ability to reproduce and improve life, holistic fulfillment of life, ensured by individual and social means in the conditions of a historically specific living space. This concept reflects the desire to overcome abstraction and alienation from the life of a specific person, social subject, their social relationships and actions. An attempt to “revive” a person and social relationships became the basis for the formation of the need to increase attention to the problem of the personal component in social life as a process of reproduction of life through the satisfaction of the lower and higher needs of individuals in the conditions of a specific living space.
Undoubtedly, the important point is that the basis for the implementation of social life is the primary social relations of ownership, use, disposal, distribution, appropriation, consumption. They are considered as integral social relations that arise when vital forces and living space are combined, have multi-level manifestations and are understood as relationships between subjects of social life, means of reproduction and its optimization. This allows us to distinguish social relations into an independent sphere and believe that they are the ones who integrate the material and spiritual life of society, a social group, and individuals.
We believe that the psychosemantic characteristics of a person’s vital forces can be described through such categories as “image”, “action”, “motivation”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”, “psychological time of the individual”.
3.2. Image category
The category of image characterizes psychological reality from the perspective of cognition and is one of the foundations for the formation and development of individual and social-group pictures of the world. The image is included in the system of life relations between man and the world. The object of perception and the image are connected indirectly, through a long chain of events occurring in the external and internal world. But the relationship between the image and the real world is manifested not only in sensations, perceptions, ideas, but also in the form of complex cognitive structures, where the image is the coordinator and regulator of human life. The image determines goal setting (models for constructing future actions, an image of the world, living space, dynamic and sustainable characteristics of behavior). Various characteristics of the image are the basis of specific psychological theories and models.
Scientific data indicate that in the emergence of images, a significant role belongs to the characteristics of the human information system (the leading representative system) and the mechanism of information processing - limitations.
A person perceives the world around him with the help of his senses - the “five channels of communication”. Usually an individual has dominance, an advantage of one of them, which leads to the formation of a leading representative perception system. For those people who have a developed visual representational system, the world around them is represented primarily by visual images. The predominance of the auditory communication channel leads to easier emergence of auditory images; sensory sensitivity – kinesthetic representation. Thus, already in the process of perception, individual pictures of the world are laid down and differentiated, mediating the differences in the vital forces of individual subjects. The predominant expression of one of the representative systems in different people leads to different models of the world that they build, and to ambiguous reactions to the same actions.
Psychological limitations when forming an image
An even greater differentiation of a person’s vital forces is associated with many restrictions in the process of forming a perceptual image. In this regard, it is worth pointing out the following psychological limitations:
* physical – inaccessible to human senses, because consciousness perceives only part of the continuous spectrum of physical phenomena;
* experience of human sociality, expressed in linguistic meanings;
* individual - imposed by personal experience, a personal limited model of the world, which is the reason for the wrong choice and is associated with the limited capabilities of the individual.
Limitations of perception are determined by mechanisms
* generalization,
* omissions,
* distortion.
The influence of the characteristics of an individual’s knowledge of himself
The strengthening of individual differences is also associated with the specifics of the individual’s psychological knowledge about himself, other people, and the world around him.
One of these features is the multidimensionality and indirectness of psychological knowledge. There are the following levels:
* specific everyday psychological experience (knowledge verified for accuracy by personal experiences) and the individual’s activity based on it;
* generalized psychological experience gained in certain social groups (family, school, work, etc.), which is included in the value system as a regulator of interpersonal relationships. This experience is represented in various kinds of social and personal stereotypes. It is partially reflected in proverbs, sayings, ceremonies, traditions, and rituals. This is an ordinary level of knowledge that forms everyday psychology, which allows one to predict the results of activity (one’s own and that of group members) in similar (closed in a social group) conditions. * scientific knowledge about people (generalized, natural, reliable, formed in scientific paradigms and categories).
To summarize, we can say that consciousness, armed with sense organs, perceives only part of the continuous spectrum of physical phenomena. The nervous system constantly distorts or omits vast areas of the real world.
Social action
The structure of human activity in society is well described by the category “social action” as a combined component of sociology and psychology. The category of action allows us to describe the structure of human activity, its components, their interdependencies and mutual transitions, and to comprehend the appropriateness of human action as the basis for the organization of behavior. Action is the basic unit of activity, which has its own structure, tactics, and style.
Social action is the simplest unit in the structure of social activity. This concept was introduced into sociology by M. Weber. He used it to denote the simplest activity of an individual, focused on the responsive behavior of people. M. Weber considered the understanding of the diversity of behavior of interacting individuals to be the most important characteristic of social action. The simplest component of action is the expectation of certain reactions from each other of all interacting people. Action without such expectation is purely psychological. M. Weber tried to distinguish between conscious and unconscious expectations of individuals' orientations. However, I was forced to admit that this can only be done theoretically, taking into account the measure and degree of rationality. He identified the following actions: goal-rational, value-rational, affective, traditional. The uniqueness of M. Weber’s understanding of action lies in his emphasis on the leading role of consciousness.
The basic ideas of M. Weber were developed in the works of T. Parsons, who practically did not distinguish between the concepts of “action” and “behavior,” referring them to an integral part of the general theory of social behavior. T. Parsons recognized the dependence of the consciousness of action on the unconscious, and the individual’s orientations to the responses of other people - on the “institutionalization” of values and “cultural patterns.” He considered the latter as forced norms of behavior and believed that social, sociocultural, socio-psychological factors determine human behavior. T. Parsons created a “general system of human action”, including in it the “social system”, “personal system” and “cultural system”. T. Parsons is characterized by a systemic (structural-functional) understanding of action. The concept of action was further developed in the late 70s and early 80s in the studies of J. Habermas. The most famous is his work "The Theory of Communicative Action". In it, he traced the theoretical evolution of the theory of social action and formulated a concept based on the idea he adopted of the gap between labor and “interaction,” the unalienated “lifeworld” and the alienating “system” of post-industrial society. According to Habermas, modern capitalist society inhibits (“colonizes”) the vital basis of interhuman communications, which should be based on the principle of “technical rationality.”
The category of “actions” is the main structural unit of social and mental activity as a combination of external and internal activity of an individual aimed at achieving a consciously set goal. In this regard, it allows us to describe the structure of human activity, its constituent components, their interdependence and mutual transitions, to comprehend the appropriateness and motives of actions as the basis for the organization of holistic behavior. In Russian psychology, mental activity is analyzed in the works of L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontyeva, A.R. Luria, S.L. Rubinstein and others.
The individual as an object and subject of social action
Considering social practice from the standpoint of a person’s vital forces, his individual and social subjectivity and applying the category of “action”, it should be noted that the individual is both an object and a subject of social action, depending on the role he plays in it, the position he occupies, and the ways in which individuality is manifested etc. As an object of social action, the individual is influenced by the environment, most often taking a passive position. This is manifested in a more rigid external determination of his behavior (refusal of decisions made, uncertainty, humility), a tendency to stereotypical reactions, and limitations in social choice; inability to find different ways of existence, even knowing ways to solve personal problems; make adequate choices, etc.
The instability of social processes in society most likely leads to the danger of people being consolidated in the status of an object of social action, since they cannot change society, or their place of residence, or their status. The consequence of this is an increase in socio-psychological tension, leading to persistent maladaptation of both individuals and entire social groups. An individual in society or a social group is often the object of social actions, since he is unable to change the severity of the social situation. Social and mental maladaptation and tension arise when a person continues to be the object of action beyond his desire.
Acting as a subject of social action, a person takes an active position and strives for a more complete realization of his subjectivity, relying on the total capabilities of vital forces and intentionality.
Category of motivation
The category of motivation describes the totality of various incentives to action, its psychodynamic and psychoenergetic data. In the works of A.G. Asmolova, A.N. Leontyev, V. Viliunas, P.V. Simonova, A.V. Petrovsky and others show the complexity and sometimes inconsistency of this category, which includes emotional, cognitive formations, etc.
With the help of relatively stable and relatively changeable parameters of motivation, goals, perspectives, hierarchy of values, decision-making mechanisms, choice of behavior and other essential characteristics of the individual and group can be described.
The category of “motivation” is one of the most important in understanding the sources of activity, but its descriptions contained in the literature are extremely diverse and sometimes contradictory.
Despite the fact that theories of motivation developed in psychological and socio-psychological coordinate systems diverge from each other and even contradict each other, they have a common understanding of human behavior as, first of all, causally determined. The causes can be identified as conditions created by the physiological state of a person and lie within the body, or originate outside it. However, as I. Israel believes, another approach to explaining mental behavior is possible - not causal. In this case, it is more correct, in the author’s opinion, to talk about the theory of action limitation. It is one thing, he argues, to search for factors of motivation, but a completely different strategy is to assume that the concept of motivation constitutes only a special vocabulary, and what is needed is research into the use of this vocabulary in some social context.
In general, motivation is understood as the totality of all motives that encourage action. It is noted that the meaningful description of motivation is limitless, because requires mention of the existence of a person, the tasks and roles that he performs, being the subject or object of relationships, etc. The psychological characteristics of motivation are also described from the dynamic aspect - the procedural and energetic aspects of the regulation of activity. Along with the substantive, dynamic aspects of mental motivation, implementing functions are also distinguished. V. Viliunas described the sources of the universal discovery and diversity of human motivational relationships: the mechanisms of instinct, the act of emotional switching, emotional fixation, emotional contagion leading to emotional imitation, etc.
Thus, a person at every moment is under the influence of many actualized relationships and motivations that make up the motivational field. The latter determines the goals and methods of achieving them, associated with the subjectively experienced image of reality.
Motivational systems
Within the motivational sphere, motivational systems are distinguished, i.e. simpler “units” that differ in the degree of universality. An example of such systems is needs. Motivational systems can be either natural or formed during life. Some of these systems, described from the perspective of cognitive psychology, are cited by H. Heckhausen. He includes among them complex mental formations associated with the manifestation of human needs, for example, for approval, communication, fixed by a set of assessments. In the motivation of behavior, this manifests itself in the forms of cognitive dissonance and causal attribution.
etc.................
Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below
Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.
PERSONALITY AND ITS LIFE SPACE. BASIC STRATEGIES FOR INTERPERSONAL INTERACTION
2. Intrapersonal factors
Literature
1. Personality and its living space
1.1 The concept of living space
The concept of living space was introduced into psychology by Kurt Lewin in order to show that the true habitat of a person is not physical reality or the social environment, but only those fragments of them that are reflected in a person’s consciousness and on which his behavior is based. In this regard, he proposed to consider a person and his environment as one constellation of interdependent factors, and the totality of these factors was called living space.
Living space, according to Kurt Lewin, is subject to psychological laws that differ significantly from physical laws. For example, the distance from home to school for a student is not equal to the distance from school to home, since the house attracts him, and the school repels him. The living space of an individual is determined not so much by the material goods that he owns, but by his knowledge about the world and the ability to influence the processes occurring in it. For example, the physical space of a person’s life can be tens of square meters, but his living space can extend to cosmic limits. The breadth of living space is always associated with the scale of a given individual’s worldview, life experience, internal attitudes, and ideological obsession.
Kurt Lewin was the first to pose to psychologists the question of what kind of environment a person interacts with. Materialist philosophers tried to prove that the perception of the world is the same for everyone, and there is a certain ultimate truth to which our knowledge strives. However, modern science proceeds from the recognition of the multiplicity of options for reflecting the surrounding reality, each of which has the right to exist and study.
Living space was depicted by Kurt Lewin in the form of an oval, in the center of which there is a circle, symbolizing the inner world of the individual. Living space has two main boundaries: the external one separates the living space from the real physical and social macroworlds, the internal one separates the inner world of the individual from his psychological environment within the living space. The shell of the internal space is the sensorimotor area, which, according to Kurt Lewin, serves as a kind of filter between the internal and external environment.
A newborn child's living space is undifferentiated: he poorly distinguishes the boundaries of his body, he has no ideas about the past and future. As children grow up, their living space expands in time and space. The differentiation between the real and unreal levels of living space begins to grow. The real level is associated with the reflection of real events occurring in the physical and social worlds, the unreal is filled with fantasies, desires and fears. The degree of differentiation of the internal areas of living space and external areas of living space are interconnected. The more structured the person himself is, the more structured his idea of the world around him is.
Growing differentiation is accompanied by an increase in integration processes, which manifest themselves in an increase in the complexity and hierarchy of the organization of living space. K. Levin believed that there is a close connection between intelligence, or, more precisely, psychological age, and the degree of structure of his living space. The most rapid structuring of living space occurs in childhood and adolescence, since during this period there is a rapid accumulation of knowledge about the world and about oneself.
K. Levin called those areas of life about which a person is most aware the space of free movement. Such areas include, for example, professional knowledge. Every good specialist feels free in his own field, but when he finds himself in someone else’s professional environment, he feels like a beginner in need of the help of a professional. Under the influence of emotional stress, loss of security, serious illness, aging, regression of living space can occur, which manifests itself in a shortening of the time perspective, a decrease in the differentiation of individual areas and disintegration. This regression may be temporary or irreversible.
For a more detailed analysis, Kurt Lewin also introduced the concept of a psychological field, which is a certain slice of living space considered at a given moment in time. A person, finding himself in some kind of life situation, interacts with a limited number of people and objects, and acts in one role, but at the same time he has a huge experience behind him, which is forever included in his living space. Therefore, any of his behavioral reactions carries the charge of this experience, and can be fully understood only as a consequence of this experience, as well as as a step in the implementation of future plans. Kurt Lewin emphasized that the past is represented in the present psychological field by knowledge, attitudes, experienced feelings regarding those factors that currently influence the personality, as well as those substructures of the individual’s inner world that were formed earlier. The future is represented by those plans, goals, expectations that are related to what is happening at a given moment in time.
If you choose an image that would describe your living space, then a spindle is best suited. It is a stick that comes from one point, widens towards the middle and narrows towards the second end. In the same way, a person’s living space expands from childhood to adulthood, and narrows in old age. The widest part of the “spindle” occurs at the peak of a person’s life activity, when he has many social contacts, he is sufficiently informed on a wide range of issues, his inner world is rich and well structured. As a person ages, entire areas of his life space may die off: professional, political, family. They remain represented only by past memories, but have no prospects for development.
John Kelly significantly reinforced K. Lewin's ideas about the individual nature of the image of the world by developing the theory of personal constructs. It is based on the methodology of constructive alternativeism, according to which each person perceives the world in his own way, through the grid of his coordinate system. The units of this system are personal constructs, i.e. criteria by which a person compares and evaluates the objects of the surrounding reality. John Kelly argues that we are not influenced by events, but by our interpretation of these events, which depends on our belief system.
In the last decade, in Russian psychology there has been an increased interest in studying the living space of an individual, his image of the world and the picture of his own life path. Nartova-Bochaver S.K. substantiates the high degree of heuristicness of the concept of “psychological space of the individual,” indicating that the state of the boundaries of one’s own psychological world largely determines a person’s attitude to the elements of the environment, i.e. his attitude in general. Depending on whether the surrounding world is perceived as alien or related, a person’s own activity in it is also structured.
1.2 Characteristics of a person’s living space
Kurt Lewin considered the main characteristics of a person’s living space to be the degree of its structure and integration, the breadth of time perspective, as well as the degree of permeability of its boundaries.
Let us consider what characteristics of a person’s living space are offered by modern authors.
For example, A.A. Bodalev identifies three parameters of the subjective space of the world:
a) the volume or extent of this space, which is determined by what is imprinted and actualized in a person’s consciousness from the objective space surrounding him;
b) the degree of connection between the content of this subjective space of the world and the present, past and future;
c) dependence of the content richness of the subjective space of the world on the formation of the individual.
The author names a person’s age, his natural and social environment, profession, lifestyle, education and personal characteristics as factors that determine these characteristics.
In turn, L.P. Grimak identifies two realities:
1) informational-energetic and topological relationships of the individual with the surrounding living space
2) subjective modeling of the internal psychological space of the individual, on the basis of which interactions with the real world are built.
According to L.P. Grimak, the primary influence on a person’s subjective comfort is exerted by such characteristics of the internal psychological space as its size and clarity of boundaries. In this connection, a Person may perceive his inner space as too large and unfilled, and then he will feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, the feeling of cramped space leads to the experience of lack of freedom and dependence. A full-fledged “construction” of a subjective model of a person’s living space assumes that all three of its components (past, present and future) are available, accessible to mental review and do not cover each other.
In NLP, the relationship between past, present and future is called the time line. In particular, Ted James describes two types of timelines:
1) the Anglo-European type (“next to time”), in which the time line is in front of the subject’s eyes, such that the past is on the left and the future on the right;
2) the Arabic type (“through time”), in which the time line pierces a person in such a way that the past is behind and the future is in front.
Taking into account the above, it should be noted that people of the first type are more oriented in the lines of their life. These people store their experience in the form of systematized pictures of the past and relatively easily mentally find the necessary picture from the images they have. People of the second type are constantly in the present, have a poor idea of their future and are unable to productively use past experiences.
At the same time, P.I. Yanichev investigated the structural properties of personal time, which are reflected and experienced by the subject, namely:
1) Continuity - discontinuity. The perception of the immutability of the flow of time, the impossibility of stopping it.
2) Objectivity - subjectivity. Its objectivity acts for a person as the independence of his flow from his actions. Withdrawal into oneself and absorption in internal processes creates a sense of one’s own time.
3) Irreversibility - reversibility. The irreversibility of physical time and the reversibility of psychological time create illusions in humans.
4) Universality - locality. We are talking about universal time for living and nonliving objects. Along with it, there are scales and time scales.
5) Uniformity - unevenness. Describes the pace of time. There is a lot of data indicating a change in the speed of time due to its fullness of events.
According to the named author, children most adequately and early reflect such properties as continuity and objectivity. Irreversibility and universality are less well understood: half of older preschoolers believe that it is possible to end up in the past.
A well-known representative of transpersonal psychology, K. Wilber, believes that the problems of a particular person stem from where he draws the line between himself and the world around him. The wider the space of a person’s self-identification, the more content of the world a person recognizes as his own. He gives four options for resolving the question of where the boundary between the Self and the non-Self lies:
A) the level of “mask” is the narrowest territory of the Self, which is equated only to a part of one’s consciousness, to what a person presents to others;
B) ego level - the border passes between a person’s consciousness and his body, while there is a conflict between the spiritual and the physical;
C) the organism as a whole - the border passes between the body and the outside world, the soul and body are in harmony and unity, but they are opposed to the world;
D) identifying oneself with the Universe, expanding the space of one’s Self to infinity.
According to K. Wilber, any boundary becomes a source of conflict, therefore psychotherapy should be aimed at expanding the space of the Self, at achieving a consciousness of unity with other people and the world as a whole.
So, we come to the completely logical conclusion that the living space of an individual changes during the course of a person’s life and has a number of characteristics that are subject to change under the influence of environmental and intrapersonal factors.
2. Intrapersonal factors
2.1 Breadth of living space
The degree of differentiation of its individual parts. This characteristic must be considered in two aspects:
a) intrapersonal differentiation.
b) differentiation of the external areas of living space.
Although Kurt Lewin argued that there is a direct connection in terms of severity between these types of differentiation, in our opinion there is still no direct correspondence between the components of the personality and the areas of living space.
2.2 The degree of organization and consistency of its parts
It should also be considered in two aspects: intrapersonal structuring and organization of external areas of life space. This characteristic involves analyzing the presence or absence of a clear structure, subordination and coordination relationships.
2.3 Permeability of the external boundaries of living space
It can manifest itself in openness to information and energy flow from the real physical and social worlds. And it can equally manifest itself in a response information and energy flow from the subject of living space. Personality autism can be seen as a manifestation of poor permeability of external boundaries. We can assume different options for permeability, formed by the degree of permeability from the inside and from the outside: two-way good or bad permeability and one-way permeability, in which information flows worse in one direction than in the other.
The permeability of the internal boundaries of living space, separating the inner world of a person from his other parts of living space. Here, too, permeability is bilateral in nature, but concerns the balance between the sensory and motor (more precisely, behavioral) components of the personality. This balance can also be called impressive-expressive.
The degree of realism - the unrealism of a person’s living space.
It is determined by the correspondence of the psychological living space to its prototype, i.e. the real world. It should increase as a person accumulates his knowledge about the real environment. A significant bias towards the unrealism of a person’s living space indicates the presence of mental disorders. Sometimes such a distorted picture of the world can serve as a source of artistic creativity, since art is designed specifically to create new spaces of existence.
2.4 The degree of activity in managing one’s living space on the part of the individual
In the works of Kurt Lewin, the term “field of power” appears, by which he understood the ability of one person to induce forces acting on another person. He believed that it was possible to identify the strength and boundaries of the field of power in each person. The power field of the “leader” is always greater than the power field of the “follower”. Kurt Lewin illustrates this concept with the example of how children's behavior changes in the presence of an authoritative adult (for example, a teacher). A person who has power over another person can induce needs in him in accordance with his goals. The field of power is always narrower than the psychological field, since in some areas a person has great power, but in others not. In the process of interaction between people, their fields intersect, and in each specific case the balance of forces changes, and, of course, this rule is unchanged.
2.5 Degree of occupancy of living space by people
It is determined by the number of persons who are included by the subject in the living space. These are, first of all, people who are significant to him from the family sphere, business and friendly spheres of communication. But these are not necessarily people he likes. The main thing is that they were singled out from many other people according to some criterion, they were remembered by him from the past, they influenced him, sometimes by the very fact of their existence. Living space can also be populated by famous people whom a person has read or heard about, literary or cinematic heroes. It matters to the individual whether these people are persons from the past or whether they are mostly real people whom he sees at the present time.
2.6 Breadth of time and perspective
Kurt Lewin noted that a small child has practically no past or future. His future is measured in hours. But with age, a person begins to look very far into his future, making long-term plans. Old people no longer have such a perspective, but they have the richness of their past, so their retrospective can be very large. However, this does not mean that two people of the same age have the same time characteristics of their living space. Retrospective is determined by how much events from the past influence a person’s behavior in the present, or, in other words, how much he learns from his past. Perspective is determined by the extent to which plans and dreams have a strong influence on actual behavior in the present.
Therefore, taking into account the material presented, we need to reflect the concept of the degree of differentiation of time periods and, in addition, determine the integrity of the time perspective and its structure, the degree of event saturation of the living space, which are expressed as follows:
The degree of differentiation of time periods.
It is determined by the fragmentation of time intervals, which serve as certain milestones. For some people, the unit of analysis can be a year or even months, for others it can be five years or decades (before school, school, university, etc.). It is known that events of the recent past are more differentiated than ancient events.
The integrity of the time perspective and its structure.
By integrity we mean the continuity of impressions of the past, present and future, in which continuity the present is seen as a natural transition from past events to upcoming events.
With this perception of his life path, a person sees in his current actions the consequences of past experiences and the influence of future goals.
As for structure, it is associated with the perception of connections between events and their categorization according to the degree of significance for the subject. Unstructuredness manifests itself in the juxtaposition of events of varying degrees of importance for each individual.
The degree of event saturation of living space.
This characteristic is determined by the number of events that the subject considers important milestones in his life path. John Kelly noted that an event is not engraved with its meaning; people themselves attach a certain value to it. In accordance with this, a person who appreciates the joys that life sends him will perceive his life as rich in joyful events.
Studying a personality through these characteristics allows a psychologist to see the world through her eyes and help optimize her worldview.
3. Strategies for interaction between the individual and the environment
living space
A person’s perception of the surrounding reality is of a subjective nature, since it is determined by the nature of the interpretation of life events. Being in the same life circumstances, some people view the people around them as leaders to follow, others as competitors in the struggle for the benefits of life, and still others as like-minded people in achieving common goals.
In psychology, there are a large number of personality typologies, but there is much in common between them, which is due to a limited set of strategies for the subject’s interaction with the outside world. Let's consider some strategies for interpersonal interaction between a person and the physical and social environment, in the conceptual understanding of their authors.
3.1 Strategies for interpersonal interaction based on a single concept of human style
For example, A.V. Libin, proposing a unified concept of human style, names the following as the main characteristics of human interaction with the physical and social environment.
· Intensity - moderation, which characterizes the energy potential of the individual and the degree of activity in mastering and transforming the environment;
· Stability - variability that determines the richness of the repertoire of behavioral strategies of an individual;
· Breadth - the narrowness of the range of interaction, which manifests itself in the degree of articulation of behavior:
· Inclusion - distance as a measure of the autonomy of the subject's functioning.
The most fundamental of the listed characteristics is the last one, since it is it that sets the direction of the subject’s interaction with the outside world. Within this parameter, two extreme options can be considered: distance in various forms (avoidance, withdrawal, contemplation) and active interaction with the subject environment. If we consider the area of social interaction as an environment, then active interaction will acquire two more characteristics: sign and position. As a result, we get the following diagram of the subject’s interaction with other people.
Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/
Rice. 1. Basic strategies of interpersonal interaction.
Let us consider below to what extent these strategies are represented in personality typologies proposed by foreign psychologists.
3.2 Strategies for interpersonal interaction based on five social character types according to Eric Fromm
Eric Fromm described five social character types:
· Receptive type, which is characterized by dependence on other people and passivity;
· The exploitative type, which is characterized by aggressiveness, the desire to subjugate other people, and egocentrism;
· Accumulating type, which is distinguished by the desire to isolate from other people, rigidity, restraint;
· The market type, which on the one hand is open to new things, inquisitive, but on the other hand cynical and devastated;
· Productive type is the only variant of a productive personality type that combines the main positive traits (independence, calmness, goodwill, creativity).
If we correlate these types of characters with the proposed scheme, we will find the following correspondence.
· The receptive type of character refers to the strategy of subordination;
· Exploitative type of character - to the strategy of negative dominance;
· Accumulative type of character - to an avoidance strategy;
· Market type of character - to competition strategy;
· Productive type of character - to the strategy of cooperation.
3.3 Strategies for interpersonal interaction based on three personality types in accordance with the leading orientation in relationships with other people according to K. Horney
K. Horney proposed a classification consisting of three personality types in accordance with the leading orientation in relationships with other people:
· Compliant type (submissive and passive);
· Hostile type (dominant and aggressive);
· Separate type (solitary and self-sufficient).
It is easy to see that they are fully consistent with the strategies of submission, negative dominance and avoidance.
The strategies described above are especially clearly presented in typologies based on interpersonal relationships and communication styles.
3.4 Strategies for interpersonal interaction based on dividing people into two groups according to the way they resolve conflict
According to the opinion expressed by D. Schmertz, all people can be divided into two groups, depending on how they resolve the conflict between two opposing needs: to belong to other people, to have close contacts with them and to be free, internally integrated.
He offers a classification of personalities depending on their attitude towards other people, the degree of socialization and the type of aggression. The level of socialization in his typology increases from the first type to the fourth in both columns. The first two options in both columns are characterized by external manifestations of aggression, and the third and fourth types are characterized by the suppression of aggression or its focus on oneself.
Table 1. Typology of personalities according to D. Schmertz.
|
belonging to other people |
Personalities who prefer autonomy from people |
|
|
1.Low socialized. |
||
|
Hypocritical, sadistic. |
Narcissism. |
|
|
Passive-aggressive personalities. |
Passive-aggressive and avoidant. |
|
|
4. Seeking intimacy. Masochistic type. |
As can be seen from the description of these types, they are also divided according to distance, sign and position in relationships with other people.
3.5. Strategies of interpersonal interaction based on a combination of two parameters according to the classification proposed by T. Leary
T. Leary's classification is based on a combination of two parameters: dominance-submission and friendliness-hostility. The combination of friendliness and dominance corresponds to the strategy of positive dominance, the combination of friendliness and submission corresponds to the strategy of submission, the combination of hostility and dominance corresponds to the strategy of negative dominance, the combination of hostility and submission is close in meaning to the strategy of avoidance.
3.6 Strategies of interpersonal interaction based on the personality’s focus on the internal or external world, proposed by K. Jung
The typology proposed by C. Jung is the most generally accepted in foreign psychology. It is built, on the one hand, on the criterion of the individual’s focus on the internal or external world, on the other hand, on the leading channel for obtaining information (sensation, intuition, thinking and feeling). The combination of extraversion or introversion with the dominant channel of information gives eight options for personality types. K. Jung considered the source of information on the basis of which the person builds his behavior, in other words, his mental experience, to be fundamental for determining the type of personality.
3.7 Interpersonal interaction strategies based on 16 personality types, developed by M. Myers and K. Brigg
M. Myers and K. Brigg at the end of the 50s of the last century developed a classification of personalities based on the ideas of C. Jung, which classification includes 16 types. It is based on three criteria from the theory of C. Jung and one new criterion:
1. a way to replenish energy (extroversion - introversion);
2. method of collecting information (sensory - intuition);
3. method of decision making (thinking - feeling);
4. a way of organizing interaction with the outside world (decision - perception).
Combinations of these characteristics yield 16 personality types, which the authors and their followers rely on when selecting jobs, as well as in various forms of counseling.
3.8 Strategies for interpersonal interaction based on personality types with a focus on the inner world and the outer world according to G. Eysenck
G. Eysenck's typology echoes K. Jung's typology. One parameter even retained the Jungian name extraversion-introversion. True, G. Eysenck emphasized that his understanding of this parameter is different, since he makes these characteristics dependent on the relationship between the cerebral cortex and subcortical formations. However, G. Eysenck’s description of introverts and extroverts is similar to Jung’s. Introverts are people focused on their inner world, while extroverts are focused on the outer world. Neuroticism - emotional stability characterizes the degree of emotional responsiveness to external and internal stimuli.
Table 2. Characteristics of personality types with an orientation towards the internal world and the external world.
In conclusion, we will consider what personal characteristics determine the choice of strategy for interaction with the environment.
Positive dominance. Elected by individuals focused on active interaction with other people, these individuals feel the strength to organize and lead the activities of other people, while being self-confident, energetic, and striving for creation.
Forms of interaction with other people: mentoring, management, guardianship.
Negative dominance. Elected by persons focused on subordinating other people or focused on the objective activity for the sake of which this subordination is carried out. These individuals feel the power to exert tight control over the activities of other people, while they are confident in their advantages in terms of competition with others.
Forms of interaction with other people: despotism, strict command.
Subordination. Elected by individuals seeking to interact with other people against the background of insufficient independence. These individuals are not confident in their abilities, knowledge, and strength; they are afraid of loneliness and responsibility for their actions. Passive. They can choose this position for the sake of learning, gaining experience and knowledge, then this is combined with activity.
Forms of interaction with other people: discipleship, assistance, worship, service.
Avoidance. Elected by persons focused on their inner world. These individuals are weakened by illness or age. They lack confidence in themselves and their abilities. Passive. Depressed. Contemplative. Self-sufficient. Independent.
Forms of interaction with other people: going to work, seclusion, hermitage.
Parity relations. They are elected by harmoniously oriented individuals who do not seek to use other people as a means to achieve their goals, but they themselves do not take the position of a follower.
Creative, with an adequate self-concept.
Forms of interaction with other people: cooperation, partnership, cooperation.
Each person in various life situations resorts to different strategies for interacting with other people, since he plays a large number of social roles, but at the same time there is a preferred strategy that best suits his individuality.
Literature
Main.
1. Shkuratova I.P. Personality and its living space // Personality psychology. Textbook, ed. P.N. Ermakov and V.A. Labunskaya. M.: EKSMO, 2007, pp. 167-184.
Additional.
1. Bodalev A.A. General and special in the subjective space of the world and the factors that determine them // World of Psychology, 1999, 4, pp. 26-29.
2. Grimak L.P. Hypnosis in the formation of a healthy psychological space of the individual // World of Psychology, 1999, 4, pp. 81-90.
3. Kelly J. Personality Theory. Psychology of personal constructs. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2000. - 249 p.
4. Levin K. Field theory in social sciences. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2000. - 368 p.
5. Libin A.V. A single concept of human style: metaphor or reality? // Human style: psychological analysis. M.: Smysl, 1998.- 310 p.
6. Nartova-Bochaver S.K. The concept of “psychological space of the individual” and its heuristic possibilities // Psychological Science and Education, 2002, No. 1.
7. Wilbur K. No borders. M. 1998.
8. Fromm E. A man for himself. Minsk: Collegium, 1992. - P.1-115.
9. Horney K. Neurotic personality of our time. M.: Progress, 1993. -480 p.
10. Jung K.-G. Psychological types, St. Petersburg: Yuventa, 1995. - 715 p.
11. Yanichev P.I. Development of the structure of experienced-reflected time // RPO Yearbook in 8 volumes. T.8. St. Petersburg: Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University, 2003, pp. 668-673.
12. Schmertz J. The Oderliness of the Psychodynamic Structuring of Personality //Psychology, A Journal of Human Behavior. 1991, vol.28, no. 2, pp.15-26.
Posted on Allbest.ru
Similar documents
Studying the problem of space perception in psychology. The main ideas of nativists and geneticists concerning this phenomenon are the figurative reflection of the spatial characteristics of the surrounding world, the perception of the size, shape of objects, their relative position.
course work, added 12/19/2011
General characteristics of the basic ideas about the psychological space of the individual, their subjectivity, properties and components. Analysis of violation of territoriality as the main violation of the privacy of psychological space in adolescence.
course work, added 06/21/2010
Periodization of human development as a subject of labor. Factors of professional self-determination of the individual. Socio-psychological and professional “spaces” of personality self-determination. The main mistakes and prejudices when planning a career.
abstract, added 04/01/2013
The concept of locus of control in psychology. The concept of interpersonal communication in psychology. The meaning of interpersonal relationships, their quality and content. Psychological characteristics of adulthood. Dominant strategies of psychological defense in communication.
dissertation, added 09/05/2012
Conflict as a socio-psychological phenomenon: essence, main types, causes. Strategies for conflict interaction. Accentuations of character: concept, typology. The influence of individual psychological characteristics of a person on behavior in conflict.
thesis, added 01/12/2014
Role-playing as a form of interpersonal interaction. Results of a study of types of interpersonal interaction among participants in role-playing games and those not participating in games. The impact on human communication of the application of successful role settings.
course work, added 11/01/2016
Principles of studying personality as a subject of life according to Ananyev. The concept of life path. Experiences, reflective character traits. The essence of the concept "event". Personal level of time organization. Ideas about fate as a life path.
abstract, added 01/03/2012
Studying the development of the problem of human interaction in psychological literature. Characteristics of the main structural components of communication and its main functions. The problem of personality formation and self-awareness in the process of social interaction.
abstract, added 10/01/2010
Basic aspects of the problem of anxiety in psychology. Concept, structure and main types of interpersonal interactions. Psychological characteristics of the period of youth. Methodological recommendations for the work of a psychologist to reduce the level of anxiety of an individual.
thesis, added 06/04/2013
The concept of a mixed-age group and the psychological and pedagogical features of its organization. Psychological features of the development of preschool children. Empirical study of interpersonal interaction of children in different age groups in a rural garden.
Loading...