In the course of the development of reflex activity of the brain, new - mental - phenomena arise: sensations, perceptions, etc. Thus, a new object of study naturally arises and new tasks for its study arise - the tasks of psychology.

The reflex activity of the cortex is both a nervous (physiological) and at the same time mental activity (since it is one and the same activity, acting in different respects). Therefore, the task arises of studying it, firstly, as nervous activity, determined by the physiological laws of nervous dynamics (processes of excitation and inhibition, their irradiation, concentration and mutual induction), secondly, as mental (as perception and observation, memorization, thinking, etc.). However, here - as in general - the determining subject of science is its higher, that is, more specific, characteristic.

Each science studies the phenomena of reality in relationships specific to this science. For physiology, reality appears as a set of stimuli affecting the brain and analyzers; for psychology - as objects of cognition and action, objects with which a person interacts as a subject.

At first - before the emergence of an organism capable of responding to stimuli - being, reality exists in the form of processes and things. With the emergence of organisms, phenomena material world(things, processes) act in relation to the organisms they influence and as stimuli. This interaction takes place on an “ontological” plane. While things act only as stimuli, there is still no epistemological plan; here there are still neither objects nor a subject in the proper sense of the word. In the process of exposure to stimuli on organisms that have receptors (analyzers, sensory organs) and their response activity, sensations arise.

Stimuli reflected in sensation can act as signals without being recognized as objects. Experimental proof of this position is provided by experiments indicating that a subject can correctly respond to a sensory signal without being aware of the signal to which he is responding (E. Thorndike, L.I. Kotlyarevsky, etc.). Phenomena (things, processes) that serve as stimuli and act as such in relation to the body and its organs (analyzers) are recognized when they act as objects. Awareness of a thing or phenomenon as an object is associated with the transition from sensation, which serves only as a signal for action, for reaction, to sensation and perception as an image of an object (or phenomenon).

Consciousness itself (as opposed to the mental in general) begins with the appearance of an image of an object (object) in the special epistemological meaning of this term.

Stimuli, reflected in sensation, in consciousness, act as objects. The concept of an object is an epistemological category; the concept of stimulus is a physiological category. Since the entire scientific consideration of the world cannot be reduced to a physiological consideration of the world, but necessarily contains epistemological (and psychological) aspects, the concept of an object cannot be reduced to the concept of a stimulus.

The attitude towards an object is essential both for epistemological and psychological purposes. The difference between the epistemological and psychological points of view is that epistemology makes this very relationship to the object the subject of its study, while psychology considers the mental process in this relationship to the object.

Specific tasks of psychology begin in connection with the transition to the study of what is carried out by the brain. mental activity person. Psychology, which studies the mental activity of people, is one of the human sciences. This is a science that reveals the patterns of human mental activity carried out by the brain.

Two fundamental principles determine our approach to human psychology. This is, firstly, an understanding of mental phenomena in general, as a product of the development of the material world; this, secondly, is an understanding of human psychology in its specific features, as a socially conditioned product of history.

The question of the place of psychology in the system of sciences is usually complicated by the fact that they are trying to solve it based on the opposition of natural and social sciences, excluding any transitions between them. In the term “social sciences”, more subtle differences between the actual sciences of society and the sciences of socially determined phenomena, which include human psychology, are erased. Psychology is one of the sciences about human nature, a socially conditioned product of history. This determines the connection of psychology both with the natural sciences (primarily with the doctrine of higher nervous activity) and with the socio-historical sciences.

Since mental activity is an activity carried out by the brain, it obeys all the laws of neurodynamics: without their involvement, the explanation of mental phenomena cannot be fully realized. Psychological research can all be opposed to and isolated from the physiological study of neurodynamics; When explaining mental phenomena, all the results of physiological research of neurodynamics must be taken into account and used. At the same time, the products of this neurodynamics, the new - mental - phenomena arising as a result of it, determine a new plan psychological research, in which the processes that study the physiological doctrine of higher nervous activity appear in a new, specific quality. Taken in this capacity, they are determined by relations from which physiology abstracts.

Memorization, for example, that is, memorization organized in a certain way, considered in physiological terms, is the organization of the supply of stimuli affecting the brain. Therefore, it obeys all the laws of neurodynamics of cortical processes. However, when we explain the result of memorization by the action of these laws, we abstract from a whole series of relationships that are characteristic of memorization as a special type of mental activity. When the same process, which in physiological terms represents the brain’s response to a certain organized supply of stimuli, is considered in psychological research as memorization, new dependencies inevitably appear - dependence on human activity, on the relationships into which a person enters during this activity, to what they remember (for example, to educational material, to other people, to the teacher, school staff etc.). In these new dependencies this process and is studied by psychology. Every psychological study reveals one or another of these types of dependencies. Physiology is distracted from them. For the organization of human activity, knowledge of precisely these dependencies and the patterns to which they obey is especially important. The task of revealing them falls to psychology.

We said that physiology abstracts from the relations essential to mental phenomena as such. This means that physiological phenomena are polysemantic in relation to mental phenomena, taken in their specific properties and relationships. Mental phenomena that are different in their specific expression correspond to the same physiological process. In addition, there is no point-to-point relationship between mental and physiological processes or phenomena: each specific mental process in its physiological expression appears to be more or less complex dynamic system or a combination of various physiological processes. Because of this, it is in no way possible, without losing the specific differences of one mental process or phenomenon from others, to substitute in place of any mental phenomenon the “corresponding” physiological one as its full-fledged equivalent, capable of differentiating a given mental phenomenon from others that are psychologically different from it . The same physiological meaning of the variables appearing in the formulas of physiological laws always corresponds to a whole scale of different psychological meanings. Therefore, mental phenomena, while remaining inseparable from physiological processes, still differ from them. Physiological and psychological laws cannot be directly brought to coincidence by substituting physiological terms into psychological laws. Physiological terms are not adequate to those relationships that are expressed in psychological laws.

Subject to the physiological laws of higher nervous activity (laws of dynamics nervous processes), mental phenomena act as an effect of the action of physiological laws, just as physiological, generally biological, phenomena themselves, obeying, for example, the laws of chemistry, act as an effect of the action of chemical laws. However, physiological processes represent a new, unique form of manifestation of chemical laws, and it is this new, specific form of their manifestation that appears in the laws of physiology. Similarly, mental phenomena represent a new, unique form of manifestation of the physiological laws of neurodynamics. This specificity of them is expressed in the laws of psychology. In other words, mental phenomena remain unique mental phenomena and at the same time act as a form of manifestation of physiological laws, just as physiological phenomena remain physiological, appearing, however, as a result of biochemical research and as a form of manifestation of the laws of chemistry. Lower laws are included in higher areas, but only as a subordinate element that does not determine their specificity. This is generally the relationship between the “lower” and “above” lying areas scientific research. The more general laws of the underlying regions also apply to the overlying regions, but do not exhaust the laws of these latter. The leading laws of each area are its specific laws that determine the leading specific properties of a given area of ​​phenomena.

As a result of the disclosure of the biochemical nature of physiological phenomena, it is not their disappearance as specific phenomena, but the deepening of knowledge about them. No matter how deeply the biochemical patterns of the closure of cortical connections are revealed, reflexes will not cease to be reflexes; the same must be said about any physiological phenomena. With the progress of the biochemistry of digestion, for example, knowledge of this process will deepen, it will appear as a specific effect chemical reactions, but will remain a specific form of their manifestation - the process of digestion, in this specific form characterizing life, living beings, and not reactions chemical elements. The intrinsic nature of phenomena is always determined by their specific patterns.

Similarly, mental phenomena as a result of neurodynamic analysis appear as the effect of the neurodynamic laws of the reflective activity of the brain. But this does not abolish the specificity of mental phenomena. Because mental phenomena act as an effect derived from the action of the laws of higher nervous activity, knowledge of the laws established by mental research does not lose its significance. The relationship between psychology and the doctrine of higher nervous activity fits into the general framework of the relationship between the “lower” and “higher” lying areas of scientific knowledge.

The relationship between psychology and the doctrine of higher nervous activity is similar not to the relationship between biology and chemistry, but between biology and biochemistry. The doctrine of higher nervous activity also studies mental activity, but in a special aspect. The laws of higher nervous activity play an important role in explaining mental activity. However, they do not exhaust its laws and are not its specific laws, that is, laws that determine its leading specific properties. These are the laws of psychology.

From this understanding of the relationship between physiological and psychological patterns, physiological and psychological characteristics and brain activity, the inconsistency of a number of formulations that have become popular is evident.

It is obvious, first of all, the inconsistency of the formula in which the mental and physiological are presented as two coordinated aspects of one process. Its fallacy lies in the fact that it masks that hierarchy of primary and derivative, the basis and form of its manifestation, which expresses the essence of the relationship between physiological and psychological characteristics and erroneously presents them as equally correlated, as coordinated, parallel. Her mistake is that different “sides” are indicated and the ratio of these “sides” is not indicated.

Also untenable is the position sometimes opposed to this formula, according to which physiological and psychological characteristics are adjacent “components” of the characteristics that psychology gives to mental phenomena, while physiology is limited to their partial (physiological) characteristics. This position, with its theoretical content, expresses the concept of the old “physiological psychology,” which is both mechanistic and idealistic. The juxtaposition of physiological and psychological characteristics or the inclusion of the first in the second leads to the fact that the physiological characteristic of phenomena loses its effectiveness, since with such a juxtaposition of physiological and psychological data, mental phenomena do not appear in their specificity as a new, unique form of manifestation of physiological laws that receives its expression in the laws of psychology. Therefore, the search for the specificity of psychological patterns with such an initial position is expressed in a fundamentally incorrect opposition of psychological and physiological patterns. This illegitimate opposition and isolation from each other is only another expression of their original external juxtaposed combination.

A very common, but flawed formula is that the physiological laws of neurodynamics relate only to the material basis of mental phenomena, and psychological laws - to mental phenomena that “build on” this material, physiological basis. This formula is especially harmful and dangerous because, characterizing the physiological laws of higher nervous activity as the “basis” of psychology, in its external expression it seems close to a true understanding of the relationship between physiological laws and psychology. In reality, in its inner meaning and true orientation, it expresses a pointed dualism. It is as if in the vertical direction (from the physiological “base” to the mental phenomena that are “built on” above it) it establishes the same external juxtaposition between them as the previous formulas established in the “horizontal” direction. According to the meaning of this formula, the laws of higher nervous activity do not relate to mental phenomena at all, but only to their physiological “basis”, to physiological phenomena. According to this formula, mental phenomena do not at all act as a form of manifestation of neurodynamic laws. The connection between them is broken. This is a restoration old scheme, both mechanistic and idealistic. The entire content of Pavlov’s doctrine of higher nervous activity, the entire course of development of science, refutes the concept hidden in this formula.

This distinction between the concepts of stimulus and object, associated with the difference, on the one hand, in the physiological, on the other hand, in the epistemological and psychological aspects of the scientific consideration of the relationship between the individual and the surrounding world, is of a fundamental nature. Therefore, a simple misunderstanding of the meaning of this distinction between concepts and aspects would be evidenced by an attempt, recognizing the impossibility of substituting a simple stimulus in place of an object, to substitute a complex stimulus in its place. The latter belongs to the same plane of physiological relations as a simple stimulus; just like a simple irritant, it is not able to replace and abolish the epistemological aspect of the problem (with which its psychological aspect is also connected). This situation cannot be changed by the fact that Pavlovian physiology deals not only with stimuli as such, but also with their signaling value. This last circumstance is indeed very great importance. Thanks to him it is revealed physiological mechanism perception of those most important “functional” properties of an object that characterize it in practical relation to the life and activity of an individual. But even here we remain in the area of ​​physiological relations and physiological perception of the object. But should the explanation of a fact be its elimination? There are, of course, cases when the explanation of something that was accepted as a fact reveals the illusory nature of the supposed fact. But the physiological explanation of the perception of an object cannot be turned into a denial of those epistemological relations that are analyzed physiologically. The true scientific meaning of Pavlovian concepts and laws, of course, does not lie in the replacement and, therefore, the abolition of epistemological (and related psychological) categories.

For more information about the basic principles that define the Marxist understanding of human psychology, see the section on philosophical foundations below.

Natural experiment (psychology)

Natural experiment, or field experiment, - V psychology this is the view experiment, which is carried out in the conditions of the subject’s normal life activities with a minimum of experimenter intervention in this process.

When conducting a field experiment, it remains possible, if allowed. ethical and organizational considerations, leave the subject in the dark about his role and participation in the experiment, which has the advantage that the naturalness of the subject’s behavior will not be affected fact conducting research.

This method is specific in that the experimenter's ability to control additional variables is limited.

Literature

• Zarochentsev K. D., Khudyakov A. I. Experimental psychology: textbook. - M.: Prospekt, 2005. P. 51.

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NATURAL EXPERIMENT, as a method of psychological research, occupies a middle position between the methods of objective observation and laboratory experiment. He strives to combine the naturalness of observation conditions with the accuracy and scientific nature of the experiment. A natural experiment allows, while preserving the naturalness of human behavior, to study it experimentally, that is, to arbitrarily cause various acts of this behavior, varying their conditions or repeating the experiment in the same situation several times.

For the first time, the method of natural experiment was proposed by the professor of the St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute A.F. Lazursky in relation to children. Lazursky’s idea was that each type of child’s school activities is based on a certain functionally associated form of behavior (a psychotic phenomenon, as Lazursky said). Therefore, based on the analysis of a student’s teaching activities, it is possible to conclude about his behavior in psychological terms; eg good or bad memorization and reproduction of a poem indicates good or bad memory child; the drawing gives grounds for a conclusion about his work, etc. Lazursky, together with his collaborators, gave an appropriate functional analysis of the entire day of school activities, selected the most typical tasks from them, brought them into the system and thus organized the experiment, calling it natural on the grounds that it is carried out in natural conditions school life children. However, Lazursky did not have the opportunity to fully formalize the methodological side of the natural experiment. He equally developed the experimental materials in relation to the pre-revolutionary school. Therefore, in its edition, this method has become significantly outdated by now.

Lazursky’s work was continued by V.A. Artemov, who provided a fully developed method of natural experimentation in relation to modern labor school. According to Artemov, a natural experiment is carried out next. types of school work: 1) food processes (for closed institutions); 2) games and gymnastic exercises; 3) meetings, rallies and all kinds of holidays; 4) processes of pictorial and graphic drawing; 5) different kinds manual labor; 6) processes of learning and reproduction; 7) solution mathematical problems; 8) writing essays; 9) oral storytelling; 10) analysis of a story read or listened to; 11) natural science; 12) social science.

In these classes, the following forms of behavior are studied: 1) instincts, 2) emotional reactions, 3) motor skills, 4) installation and inhibition, 5) the formation of conditioned connections of reactions and their reproduction, 6) thinking, 7) creative processing of experience. A total of forty are examined various forms behavior.

The material for the experiment was compiled on the basis of GUS ‘a programs. It has two versions for each school group - urban and rural, each of which in turn is divided into two editions (one for starters school year, another for the end). Like any experiment, a natural experiment has three stages of its implementation: preparation for the experiment, its conduct and processing of the results obtained.

Preparation for the experiment consists of preparing the appropriate premises and materials for the experiment. Conducting an experiment involves offering children experimental tasks and recording their behavior. The latter is carried out using a special protocol, which subsequently serves as the basis for processing the results of the experiment. Registration and processing are carried out using five special stages of development of various forms of behavior. Processing the results consists of assigning forms of behavior, based on the results of experience and observation, to the appropriate stage of development. The final results of the experiment are recorded on a special graphic, the so-called “asterisk” (see figure).

In the stated edition, a natural experiment (hereinafter referred to as EE) has typological tasks. The type of behavior of a schoolchild is determined by finding the following quantities: 1) the structural combination of individual forms of behavior; 2) the “total area” of giftedness as a ratio to the conditional average development of a given group; 3) D-values ​​as the difference between the maximum and minimum development of individual forms of behavior; 4) dynamics of development per unit of time (coefficient of development). It should be borne in mind that EE is applicable to the study of any area of ​​individual and collective behavior. From this point of view, EE. is especially interesting to the doctor, since it is possible, according to the type stated above, to offer a special edition of the EE for various cases wedge, studying the behavior of patients for whom ordinary observation is insufficient, and a laboratory experiment is impossible. Behind Lately available whole line new methodological attempts in German holistic psychology, the so-called Gestaltpsychologie, some of which correspond to a certain extent to natural experiment.
Literature: Artemov V., Natural experiment, M., 1927; aka, Modern Psychology, Psychology, vol. I, c. 1 – 2, 1928; Basov M., New data to substantiate naturally - experimental research personality, Issues in the study and education of personality, 1922, century. 4 – 5; Osipova V., On the method of individual natural experiment, Psychiatry, neurology and expert psychology, 1922, century. 1; Shevaleva E. and Ergolskaya O., Children's group in the light of a collective natural experiment, Sat., dedicated. V. Bekhterev, L., 1926. V. Artemov.

5. Experimental method in psychology.

Experiment- one of the main, along with observation, methods scientific knowledge in general and psychological research in particular. It differs from observation primarily in that it involves a special organization of the research situation, active intervention in the situation of the researcher, systematically manipulating one or more variable factors and recording corresponding changes in the behavior of the subject. The experiment allows for relatively complete control of variables. If during observation it is often impossible to foresee changes, then in an experiment it is possible to plan them and prevent surprises from occurring. The ability to manipulate variables is one of the important advantages of experiment over observation. The advantage of the experiment also lies in the fact that it is possible to specifically induce some kind of mental process, to trace the dependence of a psychological phenomenon on variable external conditions.

There are such types of experiments as laboratory experiments based on simulated activities and natural experiments based on real activities. A variation of the latter is field research.

There are also ascertaining and formative experiments. The first of them is aimed at establishing the connections that emerge during the development of the psyche. The second allows you to purposefully form the characteristics of such mental processes as perception, memory, thinking, etc.

When conducting an experiment, proper experimental planning is of great importance. There are traditional and factorial experimental designs. With traditional planning, only one independent variable changes, with factorial planning - several.

Although it has undoubted advantages, experiment as a method of psychological research also has a number of disadvantages. Moreover, many of them turn out to be the other side of its advantages. It is extremely difficult to organize an experiment in such a way that the subject does not know about it. This is where voluntary or involuntary changes in his behavior occur. In addition, the results of the experiment may be distorted by certain factors associated with the presence of the experimenter and thereby influencing the behavior of the subject. The empirical dependences obtained as a result of the experiment mostly have the status of correlation, i.e. Probabilistic and statistical dependencies, as a rule, do not always allow us to draw conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships. And finally, it is not applicable to every research problem. Thus, it is difficult to experimentally study character and complex abilities.

Laboratory experiment carried out in specially organized and, in a certain sense, artificial conditions, it requires special equipment, and sometimes the use of technical devices. The most significant drawback of this method is its certain artificiality, which, under certain conditions, can lead to disruption of the natural course of mental processes, and, consequently, to incorrect conclusions. This disadvantage of a laboratory experiment is eliminated to a certain extent during organization.

Natural experiment - special kind psychological experiment, combining the positive features of objective observation and the method of laboratory experiment. It is carried out under conditions close to the normal activities of the subject, who does not know that he is the object of research. This avoids the negative influence of emotional stress and premeditation of the response. Observation is often supplemented by a conversation with the subject. The disadvantage of this method is the difficulty of isolating for observation individual elements in the holistic activity of the subject, as well as difficulties in using quantitative analysis techniques. The results of a natural experiment are processed through quantitative analysis of the data obtained. One of the options for a natural experiment is a psychological-pedagogical experiment, in which the study of the student and his upbringing, with the aim of actively forming the mental characteristics to be studied.

One of the types of experiments in psychology is a sociometric experiment. It is used to study relationships between people, the position that a person occupies in a particular group (factory team, school class, group kindergarten). When studying a group, each person answers a series of questions regarding the choice of partners for collaboration, rest, activities. Based on the results, you can determine the most and least popular person in the group.