History of the formation of socio-psychological thought. Definition of instincts of social behavior Psychological theory of instincts of social behavior
I would like to put things in order in this one of the most important and confusing scientific topics, and, of course, find out their role in nature and in human society, as parts of nature; and also accurately determine their position in the general architecture of consciousness.
Unlike physics, where paradoxes are first discovered experimentally, and then a new theory is required, in the topic of consciousness the analytical approach can immediately reveal significant paradoxicalities regarding habitual judgments. And this is because there is a lot of baseless chatter on the topic of consciousness, which is quickly accepted as a scientific truth, and then gives rise to baseless judgments that become habitual. In this regard, in the topic of instincts, as a part of consciousness, many surprises will await us, called paradoxes in science, but not objective, as in physics, but anthropogenic. And one of these paradoxes is the ambiguity of the innateness of instincts. It may also seem paradoxical to consider a person’s instincts, moreover, with an emphasis on particular importance in this aspect, which many are not used to.
The analytical approach requires an underlying model and a rigorous theory. As the fundamental scientific tools, we will take the integration model of consciousness and the theories that are part of it, starting with the theory of the level organization of consciousness.
Yes, you heard right: theories included in the model, in the model of consciousness. Consciousness is a super complex object, therefore it occupies a special place in theoretical terms, and its model objectively requires many theories included in this model, which distinguishes this subject. In this sense, the phrase “theory of consciousness” is completely absurd, because the explanation of consciousness requires many theories, not just one. And the theory of instincts is one of these incoming theories, but not general and fundamental, but specific.
PLACE AND FORMATION OF INSTINCTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
According to the integration model of consciousness, instincts certainly belong to its first range, i.e. to reflexive-intuitive, consisting of the following levels:
1. signal
2. definitely reflexive
3. reactive
4.conditioned reflex
5. effective
6. associative
7. impressive
8. intuitive
9. presentational
This range covers images from neural signals to representations. The other two ranges are not given here due to their irrelevance to this topic. Let us only note that the second range extends from ideas to personalities, and the third from personalities to ethnicity.
In the above range, as in all three, odd numbers correspond to figurative levels, and even numbers correspond to connecting levels. Instincts in their primary manifestation belong to the level of reactions that are formed on the basis of combining signals with the help of an unconditioned reflex, i.e. unconditional reflex connections. Simply put, instincts are the figurative product of an unconditioned reflex. Why?
Any type of image or any image level of consciousness can manifest itself in three different phases: the thinking phase, the behavioral phase, and the perceiving phase, as described in the integration model of consciousness. In the phase of behavior, an unconditional reflex product manifests itself as a reaction, in the phase of perception - as an urge, and in the phase of thinking - as an instinct, but not the whole instinct, but its primary stage. At this primary stage, any instinct manifests itself primitively, and is difficult to distinguish from what we call a reflex, except perhaps by some prolongation, which is generally characteristic of the phase of thinking at any of the figurative levels. The instinct acquires a much greater extension in time and participation in difficult life circumstances in the second and third stages of its formation, i.e. with the participation of a conditioned reflex and a combination reflex, but only in all three phases: thinking, behavior and perception.
So, regarding the conditioned reflex, i.e. its product: both actions, desires, and drives are subject to the presence of instinct. And regarding the combination reflex, i.e. its product: actions, experiences, and impressions, the presence of instinct is also quite obvious.
From this it is clear that instincts influence our desires, experiences, impressions, drives... which corresponds to intuitive empirical truth and is unlikely to raise doubts in anyone.
After the conditioned reflex stage, instincts are further formed at the associative stage. Thus, instincts force us to experience their third stage of formation and choose a series of actions based on this. By the way, we are impressed by what is more consistent with our instincts
In order to understand more clearly the principle of operation of instincts, we need to answer three questions:
1. What is the ambiguity of innateness?
2. Why are the same instincts RELATIVELY the same in different individuals of the same species?
3. How do instincts influence our most complex life manifestations?
WHAT IS THE ambiguity of innate instincts?
Firstly, if we keep in mind the primary stage of instinct formation, then this is similar to the triggering of an unconditioned reflex, as we are too accustomed to say. In fact, a certain set of unconditioned reflex connections connect a certain set of neural signals into a single reaction. Due to the composite essence of the reaction, they occur in our country every time with some variety and originality, if we take a closer look at this problem. We sneeze differently every time, although according to the same pattern, we pull our hand away from the hot thing differently, orgasm occurs differently. All this cannot be ignored, and this indicates the clearly composite nature of the unconditioned reflex, or rather the formation of its reaction. More evidence can be read in the integration model of consciousness. Instinct, as an image similar to reaction, but not in the phase of behavior, but in the phase of thinking, has a similar composite character.
There is already a factor other than innate. And, if we take into account that there are also stages that depend on conditioned and combinational reflexes, then the innateness of instincts appears even more ambiguous. The most paradoxical thing is that we can neither deny their innateness completely nor fully recognize it. There is certainly an innately dependent component here, but there is also a variable-situational one, there is a trained one, as well as a hereditary one. Those. There is also a guarantee of the sameness of instincts in animals of the same species (including humans), but there is also an originality in each of them.
WHY ARE THE INSTINCTS RELATIVELY THE SAME?
In all animals, including humans, instincts can be considered relatively the same within the same species. Here the reader will have two questions: firstly, why does a person?; and secondly, why are they the same if the author spoke about originality within one species, and even for the same person (animal) in different situations can it manifest itself in slightly different ways?
It must be said that this work on instincts was started for the sake of human instincts, since this topic is extremely relevant due to its complexity.
Well, in different ways, it’s like, for example, you won’t find two identical trees. Let's just say that instincts within a species are relatively the same, since everything is relative.
Predetermination, of course, exists, since there is an innate component, and it creates the biochemical and physiological prerequisites for sameness, but there is another mysterious component, usually little taken into account, this is the aspect of developmental parallelism, ensured by the presence of the same internal foundations and the same conditions of formation . And, it must be said, the phenomenon of parallelism can even be very clear, often sometimes even leading to the false idea of complete predeterminedness, although in fact the predeterminedness is only apparent.
Those. in parallel, in different people, independently of each other, instincts can develop as if in the same direction. Then they will be similar at first glance, and distinguishable only at a glance with artistic attention. Again, as in the example with trees: we note the similarity of these trees by species, but the artist will distinguish them by the composition of branches and other things.
And, as we see in life, instincts really develop somewhat differently in people of different classes, different civilizations, different eras, different nationalities and just different psychotypes. Those. on the one hand we will observe small differences, and on the other - global similarities. And the main meaning here lies simply in the conditions of the formation environment in which the individual (individual) grows, develops and is educated. And the entire voluminous social set of individuals will develop in parallel conditions. Each of these environments will develop its own instinctive parallelisms, but there will also be universal parallelisms. And this is one of the reasons why instincts (especially human ones) have not been clearly described and characterized. And this is precisely the contribution of conditioned and combinational reflexes to individual development instincts. Since representatives of the same social environment will have the same conditioned and combinational reflexes (rather similar in many ways), then the instincts in their complex phase of development will be formed almost identically.
If we take an example from a completely different area, from biology, then tissue similarities, as well as the similarities of organs, sometimes greatly confused the evolutionists of the past in relation to some species of animals, when the relationship of origin only seemed, but in some cases turned out to be false, because animals with similar organs could even belong to different evolutionary branches. So the eye of an octopus and the eye of a mammal have many similarities. So, when scientifically studying systematicity in the broad sense of the word, one cannot discount these parallelisms. And with regard to the development of instincts in people, the same thing happens, i.e. on a similar basis, under similar conditions, similar instincts develop, although they might not be very similar if these people were in different developmental conditions. But, it must be said that when a professional selects a puppy for his professional needs, he looks specifically at the uniqueness of the instinctive accents in the same litter, although, of course, the general set of instincts is certainly the same.
DUE TO WHAT DO INSTINCTS INFLUENCE THE MOST COMPLEX MANIFESTATIONS OF OUR LIFE?
But a complete genetic determination cannot take place in relation to instincts, because it is unconditionally easy to imagine only a biochemical determination, since it is determined genetically quite clearly, but it is impossible to genetically determine the reaction to the shape of the body, the nature of the voice and its intonation, as well as to others life manifestations of the same order of complexity. And, if we take sexual instincts as an example due to their simpler consideration, then it becomes obvious that mental reactions to the forms of the female body are a product of not only an unconditional reflex, but also a conditioned and combined one, because the reaction to pheromones is gradually coupled and with the shape of the body, and with the character of the voice and with the type of behavior, as well as with many other manifestations, when we see, for example, that an object of the opposite sex is, as they say, flirting with us, and we instinctively react to him (the object). This can only be set indirectly with the participation of more complex reflexes and with the participation of the law of parallelism. Those. In this subsequent development of instinct in our psyche, and in the psyche of other animals too, in addition to the unconditional, two more reflexes are involved: conditioned and combinational. The fact that it comes to the associative is evidenced by the fact that there is an obvious connection to complex forms and to dynamic processes that are inaccessible to the conditioned reflex, not to mention the unconditioned one, to which only direct natural smells and immediate tactility are available. And this dependence of instincts on higher reflexes raises instincts to the level of so-called spirituality, if these instincts receive encouragement.
And it must be said that these reinforcing rewards act differently at the stages of conditioned and associative reflexes. The conditioned reflex always operates primitively, and the light of the light bulb just before feeding directly “accustoms” it to react to external influences according to the food-lamp-saliva scheme in Pavlovian style. Thus, a conditioned reflex in a person can reinforce an instinct regarding the shape of the body. But, as for ritual behavior, flirtatiousness and similar complex phenomena, this is already a clear influence of the combination reflex. In some isolated tribes, you can probably even today find very artificial changes in body shape and positive reactions to them among fellow tribesmen, unlike us, people of another civilization. And their rituals of mating behavior, as a manifestation of the combination reflex, may also be different.
But instincts, as we have already said, can also influence the so-called spiritual aspects of a person, if we do not take humanists into account and look from a natural point of view, for example, at the functions of conscience, which are inherited and cannot in any way be educated in some individuals. And others, you see, almost don’t need to be educated, i.e. they don’t even need to read out the list of commandments, because they won’t do these bad things anyway.
The beast also exhibits qualities close to the so-called human spirituality when it does not touch other people’s cubs, and sometimes saves them from starvation; when he feels gratitude, for example, to a person and contacts him. It's about instincts social group, complex instincts, instincts that regulate social behavior in packs and in society (where there is not much difference). The culture of behavior in a pack of wolves and in human society does not differ as much as humanists believe, and this is because even the culture in the notorious human society is also determined by instincts, as by some simple directive messages. Of course, culture and conscience are by no means reduced to instincts alone, but are largely predetermined by them, initiated, without which they would not work, as happens in some human individuals with corresponding genetic defects.
Parameter name | Meaning |
Article topic: | THEORY OF INSTINCTS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR. |
Rubric (thematic category) | Sociology |
PSYCHOLOGICAL DIRECTION IN SOCIOLOGY.
The basis social behavior- psychic reality. Closer to end of the 19th century V. A psychological direction emerged in sociology, which had a strong influence on its development as a science. The emergence of a new direction was associated with the successes of psychology, especially experimental psychology. At the same time, psychology, which is still in early XIX V. studied only the individual, by the end of the century it was exploring social processes and behavior of groups (communities) of people. A kind of biological reductionism, the reduction of the diversity of social phenomena to biological ones, no longer suited sociology. As a reaction to dissatisfaction with this reductionism, on the one hand, and as the emergence of interest in the problems of motivation of human behavior and its psychological mechanisms, on the other, a psychological direction in sociology arises. The psychological direction in sociology, formed at the turn of the century, had complex structure. Let us highlight psychological evolutionism, group psychology, psychology of imitation, psychology of peoples, instinctivism, interactionism (a direction that studies interpersonal interaction). An important point for researchers of scientific research it turned out that representatives of psychological sociology drew attention to the problem of the relationship between public and individual consciousness as the most significant. In general, it should be said that for supporters of this direction the main categories are consciousness and self-awareness.
Associated with behaviorism. The basis of the behavior of society and people is instinct: an innate reaction to external influences, a psychophysical predisposition. Any instinct is accompanied by a corresponding emotion, which is not conscious, but determines further behavior.
The instinct to fight is anger, fear;
I. flight - self-preservation;
I. acquisitions – ownership;
I. construction - a feeling of creation;
I. herdism - a sense of belonging: the most social and main instinct, because thanks to it people are grouped, activities acquire a collective character, the consequence of this is the growth of cities, mass gatherings, etc.
M. Dowgall identifies group intelligence as the result of evolution.
In the course of evolution, instinct was enclosed by intellect. Due to the difference between man and animal, on the basis of intellect, the spirit of reason is distinguished, which has 3 forms of spiritual interconnection:
1) Sympathy 2) Suggestion 3) Imitation
41. "PSYCHOLOGY OF PEOPLES".
At the root lies a purely philosophical concept. The main driving force of history is the spirit of an entire people, it is expressed in art, religion, language, customs and rituals. The most important thing is national consciousness, which determines the direction of activity. The spirit of an individual is not an independent whole, it is only part of the whole. Everything is decided in favor of society, the individual is only a link. Later he abandoned the concept of the “spirit of the whole” and gave a more clear concept. Next he suggested exploring the language, customs and mythology. Language contains great meanings; different languages are unique (word order, lexical meaning). Peoples think differently. Wundt created the world's first psychological laboratory for the study of individual psychology. The strata were studied there ordinary consciousness: culture, formula for everyday behavior. All studies make it possible to predict the reaction of peoples to certain external influences. Wundt contrasted individual psychology with the psychology of nations. Thinking and speech and other psychological phenomena cannot be understood outside the psychology of peoples. It must grasp the generalities in the psychology of large masses. Language, myth, custom are not fragments of the national spirit, but the very given spirit of the people in its relatively untouched individual form, which determines all other processes. Language contains general shape ideas living in the spirit of the people and the laws of their connection; myths - the content of these ideas; customs are the general direction of the will arising from these ideas. The word “myth” is usually understood to mean the entire primitive worldview, and the word “custom” is all the beginnings of the legal order. The psychology of peoples explores these three areas and, no less important, their interaction: language is a form of myth; custom expresses myth and develops it.Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, methods of psychology of peoples according to W. Wundt - ϶ᴛᴏ analysis of cultural products (language, myths, customs, art, everyday life). Moreover, the psychology of peoples uses exclusively descriptive methods. It does not claim to discover laws. Psychology, any, incl. and the psychology of peoples is not a science about laws, at least not only about them. Its focus is the problem of development (an important category for Wundt), in the case of the psychology of peoples - the development of the “soul of the people”.
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The third theoretical premise modern science about human communication can be considered the theory of instincts of social behavior, which arose from the idea of evolutionism of Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and
G. Spencer (1820–1903).
At the center of this direction is the theory of W. McDougall (1871–1938), an English psychologist who has worked in the USA since 1920. The main theses of his theory are as follows.
1. Personality psychology plays a decisive role in the formation of social psychology.
2. The main reason social behavior of individuals are innate instincts. Instincts are understood as an innate psychophysiological predisposition to perceive external objects of a certain class, evoking emotions and a readiness to react in one way or another. In other words, the action of instinct presupposes the occurrence of an emotional reaction, motive or action. Moreover, each instinct corresponds to a very specific emotion. The researcher paid special attention to the herd instinct, which generates a sense of belonging and thereby underlies many social instincts.
This concept has undergone some evolution: by 1932, McDougall abandoned the term “instinct”, replacing it with the concept of “predisposition”. The number of the latter was increased from 11 to 18, but the essence of the doctrine did not change. Unconscious needs for food, sleep, sex, parental care, self-affirmation, comfort, etc. were still considered the main driving force of human behavior, the foundation public life. However, gradually the American intellectual climate changed: scientists became disillusioned with the rather primitive idea of \u200b\u200bthe immutability of human nature, and the scales tipped in favor of the other extreme - the leading role of the environment.
Behaviorism
The new doctrine, called behaviorism, dates back to 1913 and is based on the experimental study of animals. Its founders are considered to be E. Thorndike (1874–1949) and J. Watson (1878–1958), who were strongly influenced by the works of the famous Russian physiologist I.P. Pavlova.
Behaviorism, the science of behavior, proposes a rejection of the direct study of consciousness, and instead, the study of human behavior according to the “stimulus-response” scheme, that is, external factors are brought to the fore. If their influence coincides with innate reflexes of a physiological nature, the “law of effect” comes into force: this behavioral reaction is reinforced. Consequently, by manipulating external stimuli, any desired forms of social behavior can be brought to automaticity. At the same time, not only the innate inclinations of the individual are ignored, but also the unique life experience, attitudes and beliefs. In other words, the focus of researchers is the connection between stimulus and response, but not their content. However, behaviorism has had a significant influence on sociology, anthropology and, most importantly, management.
In neobehaviorism (B. Skinner, N. Miller, D. Dollard, D. Homans, etc.), the traditional “stimulus-response” scheme is complicated by the introduction of intermediate variables. From the point of view of the problem of business communication, the theory of social exchange of D. Homans is of greatest interest, according to which the frequency and quality of reward (for example, gratitude) is directly proportional to the desire to help the source of a positive stimulus.
Freudianism
A special place in the history of social psychology is occupied by S. Freud (1856–1939), an Austrian doctor and psychologist. Freud lived in Vienna almost his entire life, combining teaching work with medical practice. A scientific internship in Paris in 1885 with the famous psychiatrist J. Charcot and a trip to give lectures to America in 1909 had a significant influence on the development of his teaching.
Western Europe at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. was characterized by social stability, lack of conflict, an excessively optimistic attitude towards civilization, boundless faith in the human mind and the possibilities of science, and the bourgeois hypocrisy of the Victorian era in the sphere of morality and moral relations. Under these conditions, the young and ambitious Freud, brought up on the ideas of natural science and hostile to “metaphysics,” began to study mental illness. At that time, physiological deviations were considered the cause of mental disorders. From Charcot, Freud became acquainted with the hypnotic practice of treating hysteria and began to study the deep layers of the human psyche.
He concluded that nervous diseases are caused by unconscious mental traumas, and connected these traumas with the sexual instinct, sexual experiences. Scientific Vienna did not accept Freud's discoveries, but a revolution in science nevertheless took place.
Let's consider those provisions that are directly related to the patterns of business communication and, to one degree or another, have stood the test of time.
model of mental structure of personality, according to Freud, consists of three levels: “It”, “I”, “Super-Ego” (in Latin “Id”, “Ego”, “Super-Ego”).
Under " It ” refers to the deepest layer of the human psyche, inaccessible to consciousness, the initially irrational source of sexual energy, called libido. “It” obeys the principle of pleasure, constantly strives to realize itself and sometimes breaks into consciousness in the figurative form of dreams, in the form of slips and slips. Being a source of constant mental tension, “It” is socially dangerous, since the uncontrolled implementation by each individual of his instincts can lead to the death of human communication. In practice, this does not happen, since a “dam” in the form of our “I” stands in the way of forbidden sexual energy.
“I ”subjects to the principle of reality, is formed on the basis of individual experience and is designed to promote the self-preservation of the individual, its adaptation to the environment based on the containment and suppression of instincts.
“I”, in turn, is controlled by “ Super-ego ”, which refers to social prohibitions and values, moral and religious norms internalized by the individual. The “super-ego” is formed as a result of the child’s identification with the father, and acts as a source of guilt, remorse, and dissatisfaction with oneself. This leads to a paradoxical conclusion that there are no mentally normal people, everyone is neurotic, since everyone has an internal conflict, a stressful situation.
In this regard, the mechanisms proposed by Freud for relieving stress, in particular repression and sublimation, are of practical interest. Their essence can be illustrated as follows. Imagine a hermetically sealed steam boiler in which the pressure steadily increases. An explosion is inevitable. How to prevent it? Either strengthen the walls of the boiler as much as possible, or open the safety valve and release the steam. The first is repression, when unwanted feelings and desires are pushed into the area of the unconscious, but even after displacement they continue to motivate the emotional state and behavior and remain a source of experiences. The second is sublimation: sexual energy is catalyzed, that is, transformed into external activity that does not contradict socially significant values, for example, artistic creativity.
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