There are different points of view on laws in psychology:

Psychology can only describe what is given to the subject in direct experience (phenomenology), and must limit itself to this.

Psychology must register and classify mental phenomena; psychic phenomena should be explained on the basis of the laws of biology, physiology, and sociology.

Mental phenomena really exist and are subject to specific psychological laws that can be studied by objective methods.

Psychology identifies and studies not only objective natural pre-established laws, but also actively established laws that are the product of the cultural and historical development of human activity and methods of organization social relations and are normative and conventional in nature.

In modern world scientific psychology, the third of these positions predominates. In Russian psychology, the latter position is widespread, which largely arose in the context of the cultural-historical approach to the analysis and explanation of mental phenomena by L.S. Vygotsky.

Laws in psychology are the identification and generalized definition of cause-and-effect relationships, which are established as:

empirically measured and recorded reasons (factors, conditions, interactions with other subjects, features of the subject’s practical influence on the objective world), which predetermine the formation of various mental functions in living organisms in the processes of interaction with the outside world;

unobservable mental functions, mechanisms of orientation in the world and organization of behavior, which under certain conditions necessarily cause: a) objectively observed behavioral features; b) mental phenomena subjectively recorded in the form of phenomena (in humans).

Depending on the methods of constructing explanations in psychology, four types of laws (cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies) are distinguished:

observed and recorded empirical and phenomenological patterns(causal dependencies and connections);

empirical and theoretical laws that reveal functional dynamics of mental processes over time (functional and functional-structural “psychological mechanisms”);

empirical and theoretical laws formation, structuring And development mental formations and various levels of mental orientation and organization of behavior: abilities, mental properties, etc. (genetic “psychological mechanisms”);

natural relationships between different structural levels of the organization mental functions (psychological functional systems).

4. Specifics of psychological causation

Psychological causation presupposes the establishment of hidden, not directly observable causes by virtue of which mental phenomena are formed, developed and to which they naturally obey. It is necessary to distinguish between:

reasons that naturally determine the features of formation, development, structural organization of mental functions, and

reasons that determine the patterns of functioning of established mental functions in different subject conditions and situations.

It is useful to conventionally contrast: a) the laws that govern the formation and development of mental functions in living organisms in the processes of interaction with the outside world; b) laws that determine the characteristics of the behavior of living organisms in the objective world, depending on the characteristics of the implementation of established mental functions.

In relation to the problem of the formation of psychological mechanisms for organizing and regulating behavior, there may be two types of questions.

What reasons underlie the formation and development psychological mechanisms organization and regulation of behavior and activity? How are such mechanisms formed?

How do the psychological mechanisms formed and available to the subject determine and direct behavior and activity to achieve various goals and motives?

Theoretical answers to the first type of questions will involve the development of predominantly cause-and-effect explanations; Answers to the second type of questions require the development of predominantly teleological explanations.

Can you suggest different reasons to classify laws.

1) By developing the logical structure.

2) According to the described area of ​​phenomena.

3) By degree of generality: general philosophical, general scientific, psychological, psychophysiological, etc.

4) On the “key” problems of psychology: psycho-physical, psychophysiological, psychognostic, psychosocial. (Balin, 2006, 2006).

Perhaps there are other grounds for classifying laws in psychology. The laws that can, with a certain degree of convention, be attributed to the field of general psychology are analyzed. These are the laws.

1. Atkinson on the dependence of success on the difficulty of the task and motive.

2. Atkinson on the invariance of success and failure.

3. Bardin on the distinctiveness of stimuli.

4. Bouguer-Weber on the constancy of the ratio of the increase in intensity and the initial intensity.

5. Bunsen-Roscoe on the constancy of the product of the threshold intensity and the time of stimulus exposure.

6. Weber-Fechner on the constancy of the ratio of the differential threshold to the background intensity of the stimulus.

7. Wittgenstein-Roche on the presence of typical class members within the boundaries of any class during their classification.

8. Gerbachevsky-Paley-Atkinson on the dependence of success on the level of difficulty of the task and the level of the subject’s aspirations.

9. Ganzen-Igonina on the layered structure of memory.

10. Generations about the priority in remembering your own ideas.

11. James on the patterns of retention of information by consciousness for a long time.

12. Zabrodin’s generalized law on sensation thresholds.

13. Zeigarnik of unfinished action.

14. Koffka on invariants of perception.

15. Classifications about the impossibility of the existence of a stimulus in the surface content of consciousness outside the class.

16. Lange-Wecker-Lomov on the stages of perception.

17. Marbe about the time of associative reaction.

18. Aftereffects of positive choice (Allakhverdov) on the identification of a newly arriving stimulus with the content of one of the already formed classes.

19. Aftereffects of the figure (Rubin) about the primacy of the choice already made over all possible others.

20. The superiority of the word about better recognition of a letter as part of a word, rather than in a set of randomly selected letters.

21. Breaking the template about the need to re-interpret the situation in the event of a non-standard stimulus.

22. Thorndike (effect) about the primacy of actions leading to desired consequences over actions leading to undesirable consequences.

23. Ponomarev’s transformations on the stages of system development.

24. Uznadze about violation of situational patterns.

25. Freud-Festinger on the mechanism for removing contradictions from the surface of consciousness.

26. Ebbinghaus on the relationship between the number of elements for memorization and the number of repetitions for this memorization.

27. Yuma o random events and non-random interpretation of their essence.

What do these laws say? One group of laws states the presence of any invariant relations in the psyche. These are laws 2, 14, 4, 5, 6. Another group describes the patterns of crossing any “border”: 3, 4, 5, 6, 12. The third group describes certain properties of memory: 9, 10, 13, 26 , 11. The fourth describes the patterns of material classification: 7, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 24, 25. The fifth group of laws describes the patterns of achieving results depending on a number of factors: 1, 8, 13, 22. The sixth group states the stages the formation of any mental phenomenon, its layered, multi-level nature, the influence of the whole on the element: 9, 16, 20, 23, 27.

What conclusions can be drawn from all that has been said? The first is that these laws exist, but, unfortunately, in a “raw” form. They need to be “cleaned” and generalized. The second is that, apparently, behind many laws there is something more general, fundamental. Because in many cases we're talking about about overcoming some “border”, after which the formation of a “new quality” or awareness of something occurs, then there is a temptation to present all mental phenomena as part of “consciousness”. This idea is not new. This is evidenced, for example, by the classification of the mental in ancient Indian philosophy (V. E. Eremeev, 2008). The same idea was expressed quite recently by V. F. Petrenko, speaking about the properties of consciousness (2008). The third concerns the number of these laws. How many of them can there be in total? Since laws are a kind of “alphabet of system characteristics,” it can consist of approximately 30 elements. This number can serve as a guide when searching for laws and their generalization.

Management psychology as a branch practical psychology also studies management activities. The laws of management psychology are manifested in interaction in interpersonal relationships and in group communication, and act like any law, depending on whether we know them or not, or not. The basic laws of management psychology and management activities in general are:
1. Law of response uncertainty. The law of response uncertainty is called the law of dependence of external influences of early psychological conditions. It is based on two psychological phenomena - apperent and the presence of stereotypes of consciousness. Apperent is the dependence of perception on past experience. Stereotypes of consciousness are stable opinions, assessments, judgments that inaccurately and incompletely reflect the surrounding reality and influence behavior, creating obvious or hidden communication barriers.
2. The law of inadequacy of mutual perception. The law of inadequacy of mutual perception is that a person can never comprehend another person with the completeness that would be sufficient to accept serious decisions regarding this person. Our perception is “structured” in such a way that it is almost never completely adequate, accurate and complete. We never perceive even the most ordinary object in front of our eyes entirely and completely, but always see it from a certain angle, that is, only that part of it that falls into the field of vision and directly affects our receptors.
3. The law of inadequacy of self-esteem. The essence of this law is that when trying to evaluate oneself, a person faces the same internal barriers and limitations as when evaluating other people. It is known that self-esteem is rarely adequate - it is either overestimated or underestimated. It is common for a person to overestimate himself in some ways and at the same time underestimate himself in some ways, and this leaves an imprint on the conclusions he makes about himself. Man is not only a rational, logical, reasonable being, but also an emotional, irrational, and sometimes unreasonable being, therefore hidden internal driving forces forces that force a person to act in a certain way are sometimes not realized by that person himself. That is why logical, rational self-analysis (as well as the analysis of other people) is never completely adequate.
4. Law of information distortion. Sometimes it is called the law of loss of meaning of management information, or the law of splitting the meaning of management information. The essence of this law is that management information (directives, orders, instructions, etc.) tends to change meaning in the process of moving from top to bottom. The loss of meaning of information is based on the language in which management information is transmitted. No matter how strict or precise the concepts used in a language, there is always the possibility different interpretations the same message. It has been established that oral information is perceived with an accuracy of up to 50%.
5. The law of self-preservation. The law of self-preservation is that one of the leading motives that determine people's behavior is the preservation of personal status, wealth, and self-esteem. Direct or indirect violation of dignity causes a negative reaction. For example, at a production meeting, the manager invited those present to speak on some issue. One of those present immediately responded to this proposal, but said something out of place. “You always start with stupid things,” the manager responded to this. In this situation, the consciousness of all those present instantly switches from the task of discussion to the task of protecting their own dignity. This means that a person involuntarily begins to think about how not to end up in the position of the first speaker. He stops working on the assigned task and tries to guess the manager’s position. And this reduces the creative potential of meeting participants - people, collectively solving the problem.
6. Law of compensation. Law of compensation in general view means that a person who has some shortcomings, difficulties or problems in one area of ​​life, consciously or unconsciously tries to compensate for them by working harder in another area. In relation to management psychology, this means that when high level incentives for a given job or high demands on a person, lack of any abilities to this species activity is compensated by other abilities or skills and the ability to work. If this happens unconsciously, then the necessary experience is acquired through trial and error. But if compensation is carried out consciously, then its effect can be increased. For example, underdeveloped memory can be compensated for by skillfully organized work and the use of a system for recording information: notebooks, voice recorders, weekly journals, etc.

53. In its content, management activities represent the implementation of certain universal management functions(planning, forecasting, motivation, decision-making, control, etc.). The system of these functions is inherent in any management activity, regardless of its specific type, although the degree of their severity may vary. Therefore, the invariant system of management functions is another of its main characteristics.
The main structural components of activity are such psychological formations as goal, motivation, information basis, decision making, plan, program, individual psychological properties of the subject, mental processes (cognitive, emotional, volitional), as well as mechanisms of control, correction, voluntary regulation, etc. The main means of implementing activities are actions and operations. Action is the basic unit of the structure of activity, which is a voluntary, deliberate activity aimed at achieving a perceived goal. Operations are automated and unconscious elements of actions, acting as methods of execution and determined by the conditions of activity. The presence of a constant, stable structure of the main components and means of implementing the activity in an activity is considered its most important psychological feature and is denoted by the concept of an invariant structure of activity. It, however, can undergo quite significant changes due to differences in the types and forms of the activity itself, with differences in the conditions for its implementation and external requirements for it. Because of this, in psychology there are numerous classifications of activities, differing in the grounds used in them.
Management activity is an integral and most important component functioning social organizations. Management as a special kind professional work arose and developed along with the evolution of organizations, gradually emerging as independent type.
Knowledge about control patterns, about psychological characteristics Human behavior in organizations is considered today, essentially, as an integral component of the general culture of the individual of a specialist of any profile. This is especially true for the requirements imposed on the sphere of its professional competence. Wherever the future specialist works and whatever he does, he is always included in the “world of organizations”, in the management system, occupying a certain place in it (often a leading one). A condition for its effective operation, and ultimately - life success is knowledge of organizational and management patterns.
Thus, the main structural components of management activities are such psychological formations as goal, motivation, information basis, decision making, plan, program, individual psychological properties of the subject, mental processes (cognitive, emotional, volitional), as well as control and correction mechanisms , arbitrary regulation, etc.

There are different points of view on laws in psychology. There are many positions that can be occupied by representatives of various natural sciences, psychological and philosophical directions in the analysis and explanation of mental phenomena.

Psychology can only describe what is given to the subject in direct experience (phenomenology), and must limit itself to this.

Psychology must register and classify mental phenomena; psychic phenomena should be explained on the basis of the laws of biology, physiology, and sociology.

Mental phenomena really exist and are subject to specific psychological laws that can be studied by objective methods.

Psychology identifies and studies not only objective natural pre-established laws, but also actively established laws that are a product of the cultural and historical development of human activity and ways of organizing social relations and are normative and conventional in nature.

In modern world scientific psychology, the third of these positions predominates. In Russian psychology, the latter position is widespread, which largely arose in the context of L. S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical approach to the analysis and explanation of mental phenomena (see below).

Laws in psychology are the identification and generalized definition of cause-and-effect relationships, which are established as:

empirically measured and recorded reasons (factors, conditions, interactions with other subjects, features of the subject’s practical influences on the subject world), which predetermine the formation of various mental functions in living organisms in the processes of interaction with the surrounding world;

unobservable mental functions, mechanisms of orientation in the world and organization of behavior, which under certain conditions necessarily cause: a) objectively observable behavioral features; b) mental phenomena subjectively recorded in the form of phenomena (in humans).

Depending on the methods of constructing explanations in psychology, as a first approximation, four types of laws (cause-and-effect relationships and dependencies) can be distinguished:

Observed and recorded empirical and phenomenological patterns (cause-effect dependencies and connections);

empirical and theoretical laws that reveal the functional dynamics of mental processes over time (functional and functional-structural “psychological mechanisms”);

empirical and theoretical laws of formation, structuring and development of mental formations and different levels mental orientation and organization of behavior: abilities, mental properties, etc. (genetic “psychological mechanisms”);

natural relationships between different structural levels of organization of mental functions (psychological functional systems).

When characterizing psychological laws, along with the identified cause-and-effect relationship, it is often necessary to identify and establish: a) the external conditions in which such a connection is realized; b) internal subjective factors that influence it; motivational grounds for the subject's actions; features of goal setting and self-regulation of the subject.

What are the distinctive features psychological causation?

Modern psychological theories rely extensively on both teleological and causal modes of constructing explanations (see above). In this regard, it is useful to pose the question: what is psychological causation in the composition psychological theories based on a variety of explanatory grounds and assumptions?

Psychological causation presupposes the establishment of hidden, not directly observable causes by virtue of which mental phenomena are formed, developed and to which they naturally obey. In this case, one should distinguish between the reasons that naturally determine the features of the formation, development, structural organization of mental functions, and the reasons that determine

patterns of functioning of established mental functions in different subject conditions and situations. Therefore, it is useful to conventionally contrast: a) the laws that govern the formation and development of mental functions in living organisms in the processes of interaction with the outside world; b) laws that determine the characteristics of the behavior of living organisms in the objective world, depending on the characteristics of the implementation of established mental functions.

Thus, in relation to the theoretical study of the problems of the formation of psychological mechanisms of organization and regulation of behavior and actions in higher animals and humans, there may be two types of questions.

What reasons underlie the formation and development of psychological mechanisms for organizing and regulating behavior and activity? How are such mechanisms formed?

How do the psychological mechanisms formed and available to the subject determine and direct behavior and activity to achieve various goals and motives?

Theoretical answers to the first type of questions will involve the development of predominantly cause-and-effect explanations; Answers to the second type of questions require the development of predominantly teleological explanations.

More on the topic How are laws in psychology characterized?:

1. THAT LAWS ARE BETTER THAN NATURAL CONDITIONS FOR STRENGTHENING THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IN THE UNITED STATES, AND MORAL IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN LAWS

The level of specific scientific methodology is applicable to a limited class of objects and cognitive situations specific to a given field of knowledge. The development of this level of methodological analysis is carried out by both scientific methodologists and theorists of the relevant fields of knowledge. At this level of methodological research, philosophical and general scientific principles are concretized and transformed in relation to this science and the reality that it studies. Not all creators of significant psychological theories have proven themselves to be methodologists of psychology. Among those who provided a huge impact on methodology psychological science and practitioners were V. Wundt, Z. Freud, K. Levin, L.S. Vygotsky, J. Piaget, G. Allport, J. Kelly, and in our time - R. Sternberg.

As a rule, philosophical and methodological principles do not directly correlate with the principles formulated at the level of specific scientific methodology; they are first refracted and specified at the level of general scientific principles and concepts.

Principle- these are the rules of action determined by beliefs and the norm of behavior in any sphere of life and the corresponding type of activity. The category “principle” can be used not only in relation to the subject of activity, but also to an object, including an inanimate one. For example, we can talk about the operating principle technical device. But even then we are talking about reflection in the consciousness of the subject of the fundamental, in his opinion, rules for the interaction of the parts of this mechanism with each other and the interaction of the device as a whole with the environment.

The principle has a dual role. On the one hand, the principle acts as a central concept, representing the generalization and extension of a position to all phenomena and processes of the area from which this principle is abstracted. On the other hand, it acts in the sense of a principle of action - a standard, a prescription for activity.

Principles are deeply related to patterns and laws.

Regularity is the most general form of embodiment of theoretical knowledge. Lawful means carried out on the basis of the law.

Pattern- an objectively existing, repeatable cause-and-effect relationship of certain phenomena during their interaction, which, if it is sufficiently well known, is reflected in the formulation of the law.

A psychological regularity is a psychological law that has not yet been sufficiently disclosed, which is envisaged, but cannot yet be precisely formulated.

Law– a significant, objective, universal, stable, repeating relationship between phenomena and processes.

Based on the fact that the world is a collection of material objects and phenomena located in diverse and complex connections, interdependence on each other, the most significant relationships (connections) between objects are defined as laws. It is the essential relation, inherent not in a single object, but in the entire set of objects that make up a certain class, type, set of objects of the same type, that is the law. The essential relationship between objects, phenomena or between their parties, which determines the nature of their existence and development, expresses the main feature of the law.

Universality is also the most important feature law. Universality means that any law of nature and society is inherent in all objects and phenomena without exception. certain type, level, that is, the entire set of objects and processes that are covered by this law. All material objects, from microparticles to cosmic giants, obey the law universal gravity; all electrically charged bodies obey Coulomb's law, etc.

The laws of psychology have the form of laws-trends. The variability in the manifestations of psychological laws does not negate the fact that they express something common, but this common thing acts as a tendency.

Types of laws in psychology:

· relatively elementary dependencies (for example, the basic psychophysical law);

· laws that reveal the dynamics of mental processes over time (the sequence of phases of the process of perception, decision-making, etc.);

· laws characterizing the structure of mental phenomena (modern ideas about memory);

· laws that reveal the dependence of the effectiveness of behavior on the level of its mental regulation (the Yerkes-Dodson law, which reveals the relationship between the level of motivation and the success of performing behavioral tasks; laws that characterize the levels of performance, stressful conditions);

· laws describing the process mental development a person on the scale of his life;

· laws that reveal the basis of various mental properties of a person - the laws of neurodynamics (neurophysiological foundations of temperament);

· laws on the relationships between different levels of organization of mental processes and properties (laws of relationships between different levels of organization in the structure of the individual).

Purely scientific approach requires not only to define an objective law, but also to outline the scope of its action, as well as the conditions under which it can operate, its limitations.