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The human body is a self-regulating system that depends on the environment. Due to the constantly changing environmental conditions, as a result of prolonged evolution, humans have developed mechanisms that allow them to adapt to these changes. These mechanisms are called adaptation mechanisms. Adaptation is a dynamic process due to which the mobile systems of living organisms, despite the variability of conditions, maintain the stability necessary for the existence, development and procreation.
Thanks to the adaptation process, homeostasis is maintained during the interaction of the body with the outside world. In this regard, the adaptation processes include not only the optimization of the body's functioning, but also the maintenance of balance in the “organism - environment” system. The adaptation process is implemented whenever significant changes occur in the "organism - environment" system, which ensure the formation of a new homeostatic state, which allows achieving maximum efficiency of physiological functions and behavioral reactions. Since the organism's environment is not in static, but in dynamic equilibrium, their ratios change constantly, and therefore, the adaptation process must also be constantly carried out.
For a person, a decisive role in the process of maintaining adequate relations in the "individual - environment" system, during which all parameters of the system can change, is played by mental adaptation. Mental adaptation can be defined as the process of establishing the optimal correspondence between the personality and the environment during the implementation of human-specific activities, which allows the individual to meet the actual needs and realize the significant goals associated with them (while maintaining physical and mental health), while ensuring the correspondence of mental human activity, his behavior to the requirements of the environment. Adaptation is the result of the process of changes in social, socio-psychological, moral-psychological, mental, economic and demographic relations between people, adaptation to the social environment.
Mental adaptation is a continuous process that includes the following aspects:
- optimization of the constant exposure of the individual to the environment;
- establishing an adequate correspondence between mental and physiological characteristics.
The socio-psychological aspect of adaptation ensures the adequate construction of microsocial interaction, including professional, the achievement of socially significant goals. It is the link between the adaptation of the individual and the population; it is able to act as a level of regulation of the adaptive tension.
Psychophysiological adaptation is a combination of various physiological (adaptation-related) reactions of the body. This type of adaptation cannot be considered separately from the mental and personal components.
All levels of adaptation are simultaneously involved to varying degrees in the regulation process, which is defined in two ways:
- as a state in which the needs of the individual collide, on the one hand, and the requirements of the environment, on the other;
- as the process by which a state of balance is achieved.
In the process of adaptation, both the personality and the environment are actively changing, as a result of which relations of adaptation are established between them.
Social adaptation can be described as the absence of maintaining conflict with the environment. Socio-psychological adaptation is the process of overcoming problem situations by a person, during which she uses the socialization skills acquired at the previous stages of her development, which allows her to interact with the group without internal or external conflicts, to perform productively leading activities, to justify role expectations, and with all this , self-asserting, satisfy their basic needs.
With the activation and use of adaptive mechanisms, the mental state of the individual also changes. Upon completion of the adaptation process, it has qualitative differences from the state of the psyche before adaptation.
The first component in the structure of personality, providing adaptability, are instincts. The instinctive behavior of an individual can be characterized as behavior based on the natural needs of the body. But there are needs that are adaptive in a given social environment, and needs that lead to maladjustment. The adaptability or maladjustment of the need depends on personal values and the object-goal, where they are directed.
The maladaptivity of a person is expressed in the inability of her to adapt to her own needs and aspirations. A maladapted person is not able to meet the requirements of society, to fulfill his social role. A sign of the emerging maladjustment is the experience of a personality of long internal and external conflicts. Moreover, the trigger for the adaptive process is not the presence of conflicts, but the fact that the situation becomes problematic.
On the day of understanding the features of the adaptive process, one should know the level of maladjustment, starting from which a person begins his adaptive activity.
Adaptive activity is carried out in two types:
- adaptation by transforming and eliminating a problem situation;
- adaptation while maintaining the situation - adaptation.
Adaptive behavior is characterized by:
- successful decision making,
- showing initiative and having a clear vision of their future.
The main signs of effective adaptation are:
- in the field of social activity - the acquisition by an individual of knowledge, skills and abilities, competence and skill;
- in the sphere of personal relationships - the establishment of intimate, emotionally rich connections with the desired person.
For adaptation to be possible, a person needs self-regulation. Adaptation is adaptation to the external environment. Self-regulation is a person's adjustment of himself, his inner world for the purpose of adaptation. Thus, it can be said that adaptation causes self-regulation. Although, apparently, such a statement will not be absolutely correct. Adaptation and self-regulation are not causal relationships. They are most likely different aspects of such remarkable abilities of living systems to regulate their behavior in response to various circumstances, both external and internal. The division into two concepts occurred, apparently, for the convenience of studying this phenomenon. By the way, defense mechanisms (projection, identification, introjection, isolation, etc.) are referred to as adaptation and self-regulation.
Self-regulation concept
Self-regulation is an interdisciplinary concept. This concept is widely used in various fields of science to describe living and nonliving systems based on the feedback principle. The concept of self-regulation (from Lat. Regulare - to put in order, to establish), which in the encyclopedic version is defined as the expedient functioning of living systems of different levels of organization and complexity, has been developed both in foreign and domestic psychology. At present, self-regulation is defined as a systemic process that provides an adequate variability, plasticity of the subject's vital activity at any of its levels.
Self-regulation is a systemic characteristic that reflects the subjective nature of the personality, its ability to function steadily in various living conditions, to arbitrarily regulate the parameters of its functioning (state, behavior, activity, interaction with the environment) by the personality, which it assesses as desirable.
Self-regulation is a pre-conscious and systemically organized influence of an individual on his psyche in order to change its characteristics in the desired direction.
Nature has provided man not only with the ability to adapt, adapt the body to changing external conditions, but also endowed him with the ability to regulate the forms and content of his activity. In this regard, there are three levels of self-regulation:
- involuntary adaptation to the environment (maintaining the constancy of blood pressure, body temperature, the release of adrenaline under stress, adaptation of vision to darkness, etc.);
- an attitude that determines a poorly realized or unconscious readiness of an individual to act in a certain way through skills, habits and experience when he anticipates a particular situation (for example, a person out of habit can use a favorite technique when performing some kind of work, although he is informed about other techniques);
- arbitrary regulation (self-regulation) of their individual and personal characteristics (current mental state, goals, motives, attitudes, behavior, value systems, etc.).
Self-regulation is based on a set of laws of the functioning of the psyche and their numerous consequences, known in the form of psychological effects. These include:
- the activating role of the motivational sphere, which generates the activity (in the broad sense of the word) of the individual, aimed at changing their characteristics;
- the control effect of a mental image that arises voluntarily or involuntarily in the consciousness of an individual;
- structural and functional unity (consistency) of all mental cognitive processes that ensure the effect of an individual's influence on his own psyche;
- the unity and interdependence of the spheres of consciousness and the unconscious as objects through which the individual realizes regulatory influences on himself;
- the functional relationship of the emotional-volitional sphere of the individual and her bodily experience, speech and thought processes.
Self-regulation allows a person to change in accordance with changes in the circumstances of the external world and the conditions of his life, maintains the mental activity necessary for a person's activity, provides a conscious organization and correction of his actions.
Self-regulation is the disclosure of a person's reserve capabilities, and, consequently, the development of a person's creative potential. The use of self-regulation techniques involves active volitional participation and, as a result, is a condition for the formation of a strong, responsible personality.
The following levels of self-regulation are distinguished according to the mechanism of its implementation: 1) information-energy - regulation of the level of mental activity of the body due to information-energy influx (this level includes the reaction of "response", catharsis, change in the influx of nervous impulses, ritual actions); 2) emotional-strong-willed - self-confession, self-belief, self-order, self-hypnosis, self-reinforcement); 3) motivational - self-regulation of the motivational components of a person's life (unmediated and mediated); 4) personal - self-correction of personality (self-organization, self-affirmation, self-determination, self-actualization, self-improvement of “mystical consciousness”.
Classifying the methods of emotional self-regulation according to the mechanisms of their implementation, several groups are distinguished: 1) physical and physiological (anti-stress nutrition, phytoregulation, physical training); 2) psychophysiological (adaptive biocontrol with biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, autogenous training, systematic desensitization, a variety of breathing techniques, body-oriented techniques, meditation); 3) cognitive (neuro-linguistic programming, cognitive and rational-emotive techniques by A. Beck and A. Ellis, methods of sanogenic and positive thinking, paradoxical intention); 4) personal (method of psychosynthesis of subpersonalities by R. Asagioli, gestalt techniques of awareness of needs, personal self-organization of life time; methods of sleep optimization and analysis of dreams (gestalt techniques, ontopsychological techniques, techniques of lucid visions).
These two classifications are quite complete, cover a large number of different mechanisms and methods, and, perhaps, in practical terms, are convenient for the presentation of technologies and psychotechnics of self-regulation. But they are not sufficiently correct in theoretical terms, since they do not adhere to the principle of the unity of the criterion for the entire classification, as a result of which, when identifying subgroups, there is a confusion of concepts that belong to different psychological registers. In particular, the concepts are equated that designate certain types of mental and somatic processes (information-energy, physical, physiological, psychophysiological), individual mental spheres (emotional, volitional, motivational, cognitive) and the integrative concept of personality, which in modern psychology does not have a single generally accepted definition and is represented by a large set of concepts of various kinds. Therefore, the above classifications do not have internal integrity and categorical-conceptual clarity. Let's consider a different classification.
Self-regulation is subdivided into mental and personal levels.
There are two main levels of self-regulation:
- unconscious
- conscious.
Mental self-regulation is a set of techniques and methods for correcting the psychophysiological state, thanks to which the optimization of mental and somatic functions is achieved. At the same time, the level of emotional tension decreases, the efficiency and the degree of psychological comfort increase. Mental self-regulation helps to maintain optimal mental activity necessary for human activity.
To optimize the mental state in self-regulation, there are a variety of methods - gymnastics, self-massage, neuromuscular relaxation, auto-training, breathing exercises, meditation, aromatherapy, art therapy, color therapy and others.
Emotional self-regulation is a special case of mental self-regulation. It provides emotional regulation of activity and its correction, taking into account the current emotional state.
There are three successive stages of the formation of self-regulation of behavior in the system of personality integration:
- basal emotional self-regulation
- volitional self-regulation
- semantic, value self-regulation.
Basal emotional self-regulation is provided by unconscious mechanisms that work independently of a person's desire, and the meaning of their work is to provide a psychologically comfortable and stable state of the inner world.
Volitional and semantic self-regulation refers to the conscious level. Volitional self-regulation is based on volitional effort, which directs behavioral activity in the right direction, but does not remove the internal opposition of motives and does not provide a state of psychological comfort. Semantic self-regulation is based on the mechanism of semantic linking, which consists in comprehending and rethinking existing values and generating new life meanings. Thanks to such a conscious restructuring by the personality of his own value sphere, the internal motivational conflict is resolved, mental tension is removed, and the harmonization of the inner world of the individual takes place. This mechanism can exist only in an integrated, mature personality.
Conscious volitional self-regulation is based on a rational-effective basis and has a directive character, and semantic self-regulation is based on an empathic-understanding basis and has a non-directive character.
In structure personal self-regulation allocate motives, feelings, will, considering them as determinants of the regulation of human behavior and activity. Personal regulation, overcoming external and internal obstacles, acts as a volitional line of activity. At this level, regulation is carried out not as the action of one motive, but as a complex personal decision, which takes into account the desirable and undesirable and their specifically changing attitude in the course of activity.
There are two forms of personal regulation: incentive and performing. The stimulating reaction is associated with the formation of aspiration, the choice of direction, activity; performing - ensuring the compliance of activity with objective conditions.
They talk about three levels of development of personal self-regulation, which are the ratio of external (requirements for the performance of activities) and internal (personality traits). If at the first stage the personality coordinates its characteristics with the norms of activity, at the second stage it improves the quality of activity by optimizing its capabilities, then at the third level the personality as a subject of activity develops an optimal strategy and tactics, showing the creative nature of its activity. At this level, a person can go beyond the limits of activity, increasing the degree of difficulty, implementing such forms of personal regulation as initiative, responsibility, etc. This is the psychological mechanism of the "author's position of the individual" in professional and any other activity.
Personal self-regulation can be conditionally subdivided into regulation of activity, personal volitional regulation, personal-semantic self-regulation.
Regulation of activity... The system of conscious self-regulation of activity has a structure that is uniform for all types of activity. It includes:
- the subject's accepted goal of activity
- subjective meaningful condition model
- performance program
- a system of subjective criteria for achieving goals (criteria for success)
- control and evaluation of real results
- decisions on the correction of the self-regulation system
Personal volitional regulation characterized by management of the following volitional qualities: dedication, patience, perseverance, perseverance, endurance, courage, decisiveness, independence and initiative, discipline and organization, diligence (diligence) and energy, heroism and courage, dedication, adherence to principles, etc.
Personal-semantic self-regulation provides awareness of the motives of their own activities, management of the motivational-need-related sphere based on the processes of meaning formation.
Thanks to the functioning of the semantic level of self-regulation, the internal reserves of a person are revealed, giving him freedom from circumstances, ensuring the possibility of self-actualization even in the most difficult conditions. There are attempts to differentiate this kind of self-regulation and volitional behavior. Volitional behavior occurs in conditions of a motivational conflict, and is not focused on the harmonization of the motivational sphere, but is aimed only at eliminating this conflict. Effective self-regulation ensures the achievement of harmony in the sphere of motives. Volitional regulation is distinguished as a purposeful, conscious and personally controlled form of regulation. Semantic binding and reflection are considered as mechanisms of the personal-semantic level of self-regulation.
Semantic linking is the process of forming a new meaning in the course of a special internal conscious work of the content, by linking some initially neutral content with the motivational-semantic sphere of the individual.
Reflection is a universal mechanism of the process of personal self-regulation. It fixes, stops the process of activity, alienates and objectifies it and makes it possible to consciously influence this process.
Reflection gives a person the opportunity to look at himself "from the outside", it is aimed at realizing the meaning of his own life and activities. It allows a person to embrace his own life in a broad time perspective, thereby creating "integrity, continuity of life", allowing the subject to rebuild his inner world in a necessary way and not be completely at the mercy of the situation. Reflection, as a mechanism of the personal-semantic level of self-regulation, is a powerful source of stability, freedom and self-development of the individual. The reflective level of regulation is specially highlighted.
The processes of personal-semantic self-regulation can occur both at the conscious and at the unconscious levels. Conscious self-regulation is a mechanism for mastering one's own behavior and one's own mental processes. On the basis of awareness, a person gets the opportunity to arbitrarily change the semantic direction of his activity, change the relationship between motives, introduce additional stimuli of behavior, i.e. make the most of their ability to self-regulation. At the unconscious level, personal-semantic regulation is carried out through the functioning of various psychological defense mechanisms.
Psychological defense is understood as a sequential distortion of the cognitive (cognitive) and affective (emotional) components of the image of a real situation in order to weaken the emotional stress that threatens a person if the situation was reflected in the possible full accordance with reality. The main object of psychological protection is the positive components of the self-image. Defenses are formed to cope with intense emotions, the spontaneous, open expression of which is dangerous for a person. Defense strategies are indirect ways of experiencing and overcoming emotional conflict.
The following types of psychological defenses are distinguished: substitution, projection, compensation, identification, fantasy, regression, motor activity, suppression, introjection, repression, isolation, denial, reactive education, intellectualization, rationalization, sublimation, annulment.
The psychodynamically oriented model complements the list of psychological defenses, including in it also: hypochondria, acting out, passive aggression, omnipotence, splitting, destruction, projective identification, devaluation, idealization, neurotic denial, autistic fantasizing, dissociation, active formation, displacement, destruction, joining , altruism, anticipation, self-affirmation, humor and even self-observation.
The action of defense mechanisms is manifested in the discrepancy between directly experienced meanings that determine real behavior, and perceived meanings. The mechanisms of psychological defense slow down the process of reflection and lead to a distorted, inadequate awareness of really acting semantic formations, as a result of which there is a violation of self-control and behavior correction. Protective processes are aimed at eliminating intrapsychic conflicts from consciousness, however, conflicts are by no means resolved: meanings removed from consciousness continue to have a pathogenic effect, while as soon as their awareness opens the way to constructive self-regulation and restructuring of meanings.
Within the framework of personal self-regulation, it is also possible to determine social self-regulation... Both in the individual and in society, a huge layer of social regulation and regulation arises and constantly develops; norms of behavior and certain social roles are prescribed for each of its members. A kind of social framework is being formed, which often acts more harshly than the natural restraints themselves. Self-regulation arises as a process of mutual adaptation, the interaction of freedom and necessity. A person is already bound not only by natural restrictions, which, as a result of his activity, become less severe, but also by the necessity created by him more and more - by the whole complex of living conditions in society. Simultaneously with this process and in parallel to it, the processes of self-regulation in society are constantly becoming more complicated, aimed at its reproduction as a whole.
Emotional self-regulation
There are three levels of emotional self-regulation of the personality:
- unconscious emotional self-regulation
- conscious volitional emotional self-regulation
- conscious semantic emotional self-regulation.
These levels are ontogenetic stages in the formation of a system of mechanisms of emotional self-regulation of the individual. The dominance of one level or another can be considered as an indicator of the development of the emotional-integrative functions of a person's consciousness.
The first level of emotional self-regulation is provided by mechanisms of psychological defense, which operate at the subconscious level and are aimed at protecting consciousness from unpleasant, traumatic experiences associated with internal and external conflicts, states of anxiety and discomfort. This is a special form of processing traumatic information, a personality stabilization system, manifested in the elimination or minimization of negative emotions (anxiety, remorse). The following mechanisms are distinguished here: denial, repression, suppression, isolation, projection, regression, depreciation, intellectualization, rationalization, sublimation, etc.
The second level is conscious volitional emotional self-regulation. It is aimed at achieving a comfortable emotional state with the help of volitional efforts. This also includes volitional control of external manifestations of emotional experiences (psychomotor and vegetative).
Most of the methods and techniques of emotional self-regulation described in the literature refer precisely to this level, for example: suggestive methods (auto-training and other types of self-hypnosis and self-hypnosis), Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation, relaxation based on biofeedback, breathing exercises, attention shifting and distraction. from unpleasant experiences, activation of pleasant memories, psychotechnics based on visualization, emotional release through physical activity, labor, volitional influence directly on feelings - suppression or activation, reaction of emotions through screaming, laughter, crying (catharsis), etc.
At this level of emotional self-regulation, the conscious will is aimed not at resolving the need-motivational conflict underlying emotional discomfort, but at transforming its subjective and objective manifestations. Therefore, in essence, the mechanisms of this level are symptomatic, and not etiological, since as a result of their action, the causes of emotional discomfort are not eliminated. This feature is common to conscious volitional and unconscious emotional self-regulation. The essential difference between them lies only in the fact that one is carried out at the conscious level, and the other at the subconscious level. But, there is no rigid border between these two levels, since volitional regulatory actions, which are initially carried out with the participation of consciousness, being automated, can move to the subconscious level of implementation.
The third level - conscious semantic (value) emotional self-regulation - is a qualitatively new way of solving the problem of emotional discomfort. It is aimed at eliminating its deepest causes - at solving the internal need-motivational conflict, which is achieved by comprehending and rethinking one's own needs and values and generating new life meanings. The highest aspect of semantic self-regulation is self-regulation at the level of existential needs and meanings. This is the deepest and, at the same time, the highest level of self-regulation available to a person at the present stage of his development.
To implement emotional self-regulation at the semantic level, it is necessary to be able to clearly think, recognize and describe with the help of words the most subtle shades of one's emotional experiences, be aware of one's own needs behind feelings and emotions, and find meaning even in unpleasant experiences and difficult life circumstances. These listed skills belong to the competence of special integrative mental activity, which has been intensively studied in science over the past decades and is called "emotional intelligence (emotional intelligence)". The main functions of emotional intelligence include: emotional awareness, voluntary control of one's own emotions, the ability to self-motivation, empathy and understanding of the emotional experiences of other people, and management of the emotional state of others.
Basal system of emotional regulation
As you know, in humans, the morphological substrate of emotional regulation is the ancient (subcortical) and the most recent (frontal) formations of the brain. In evolutionary terms, the system of emotional regulation can be compared to geological strata, each of which has its own structure and function. These formations are in close interaction with each other, forming a hierarchically more complex system of levels.
In their basal (basic) foundations, emotions are associated with instincts and drives, and in the most primitive forms they function even by the mechanism of unconditioned reflexes.
This primitive character of emotional response in normal development does not always appear clearly enough. Pathological cases provide many examples of the influence of elementary emotions on behavior. In the course of normal ontogenesis, early forms of affective response are included in more complex ones.
Memory and speech play a special role in this process. Memory creates conditions for the preservation of traces of emotional experiences. As a result, not only current events, but also the past (and on the basis of them - and the future) begin to cause emotional resonance. Speech, in turn, denotes, differentiates and generalizes emotional experiences. Due to the inclusion of emotions in speech processes, the former lose their brightness and immediacy, but they gain in awareness, in the possibility of their intellectualization.
The emotional system is one of the main regulatory systems that provide active forms of the body's life.
Like any regulatory system, emotional regulation consists of afferent and efferent links (afferent and efferent nerves, i.e. nerves that bring and carry irritation). Its afferent link on one side is directed to the processes taking place in the internal environment of the organism, on the other - to the external one.
From the internal environment, she receives information about the general state of the body (which is globally regarded as comfortable or uncomfortable), about physiological needs. Along with this constant information in extreme, often pathological cases, there are reactions to signals that usually do not reach the level of emotional assessment. These signals, often associated with vital ill-being of individual organs, cause states of anxiety, anxiety, fear, etc.
As for the information coming from the external environment, the afferent link of the emotional system is sensitive to those of its parameters that directly signal the possibility of meeting urgent needs in the present or in the future, and also reacts to any changes in the external environment that carry a threat or its possibility in the future. In the range of phenomena fraught with danger, the information synthesized by cognitive systems is also taken into account: the possibility of shifting the environment towards instability, uncertainty, information deficit.
Thus, the cognitive and emotional systems jointly provide orientation in the environment.
Moreover, each of them makes its own special contribution to the solution of this problem.
Compared to cognitive, emotional information is less structured. Emotions are a kind of stimulator of associations from different, sometimes unrelated areas of experience, which contributes to the rapid enrichment of the initial information. This is a system of "quick response" to any changes in the external environment that are important from the point of view of the need-related sphere.
The parameters on which the cognitive and emotional systems rely when constructing the image of the environment often do not coincide. So, for example, intonation, an unfriendly expression of the eyes from the point of view of an affective code are more important than statements that contradict this unfriendliness. Intonation, facial expressions, gestures and other paralinguistic factors can act as more significant information for decision making.
The discrepancy between the cognitive and emotional assessments of the environment, the greater subjectivity of the latter, create conditions for various transformations, ascribing new meanings to the environment, and shifts into the unreal. Due to this, in the event of excessive pressure from the environment, the emotional system also performs protective functions.
The efferent link of emotional regulation has a small set of external forms of activity: these are various types of expressive movements (facial expressions, expressive movements of the limbs and body), timbre and volume of the voice.
The main contribution of the efferent link is participation in the regulation of the tonic side of mental activity. Positive emotions increase mental activity, provide a "disposition" to solve a particular problem. Negative emotions, most often reducing the mental tone, are mainly responsible for passive methods of defense. But a number of negative emotions, such as anger, rage, actively enhance the body's defenses, including at the physiological level (increased muscle tone, blood pressure, increased blood viscosity, etc.).
It is very important that simultaneously with the regulation of the tone of other mental processes, tonification of individual links of the emotional system itself occurs. This ensures the stable activity of those emotions that currently dominate in the affective state.
The activation of some emotions can facilitate the flow of others that are not amenable to direct influence at the moment. Conversely, some emotions can inhibit others. This phenomenon is widely used in the practice of psychotherapy. When emotions of different sign collide ("emotional contrast"), the brightness of positive emotional experiences increases. Thus, the combination of a little fear with a sense of security is used in many children's games (throwing a child up by an adult, rolling down the mountains, jumping from a height, etc.). Such a "swing", apparently, not only activates the emotional sphere, but is also a kind of method of "hardening" it.
The body's need to maintain active (sthenic) states is provided by constant emotional toning. Therefore, in the process of mental development, various psychotechnical means are created and improved, aimed at the prevalence of sthenic emotions over asthenic ones.
Normally, there is a balance of toning by the external environment and autostimulation. In conditions when the external environment is poor, monotonous, the role of autostimulation increases and, conversely, its share decreases in conditions of a variety of external emotional stimuli. One of the most difficult questions of psychotherapy is the choice of the optimal level of toning, at which emotional reactions would proceed in a given channel. Weak stimulation can be ineffective, and super-strong can negatively change the entire course of the emotional process.
This point is especially important in pathology, where there are primary disorders of neurodynamics. The phenomena of hypo- and hyperdynamia disorganize emotional regulation, deprive it of stability and selectivity. Neurodynamic disorders are primarily reflected in the mood, which is the background for the flow of individual emotions. A low mood is characterized by asthenic emotions, a pathologically increased mood - sthenic.
The level of disturbance is also important, which determines the quality of the pathological process.
So, with the phenomena of hyperdynamia, pathological emotions have a stenic character (manifestations of violent joy, or anger, rage, aggression, etc.).
In extreme cases of hyperdynamia, one can assume, as it were, "taking away" energy from other mental systems. This phenomenon takes place with short-term super-strong emotions, accompanied by a narrowing of consciousness, a violation of orientation in the environment. In pathology, such violations can be of a longer duration.
Weakness (hypodynamia) of the neurodynamic process will first of all manifest itself at the cortical (most energy-intensive) level in the form of emotional lability, rapid satiety. In more severe cases, the center of gravity of violations shifts from the higher to the basal centers, which are no longer able to maintain their own energy at the required level. In these cases, the emotional system responds to the threat to the vital constants of the body with anxiety, fear.
The emergence of such crisis phenomena is observed in various pathologies, especially often with prolonged psychogenic traumatization.
The reaction to a protracted psychogenic situation unfolds according to the well-known stress mechanism: initially, an increase in tension is observed, stimulating the usual schemes for solving the problem, in the case of their low efficiency, the mobilization of all internal and external sources is observed; in case of failure, anxiety and depression arise. The phenomena of severe emotional exhaustion can have catastrophic consequences for the vital activity of the organism.
In this regard, in the process of evolution, a special mechanism could not be created that protects the body from energy expenditures that exceed its capabilities.
One might think that such a genetically early form of defense observed in animals is behavior called "displaced activity." In conflict conditions, when a certain required behavior cannot be implemented, another type of response is activated, situationally unrelated to the first. So, for example, according to the observations of ethologists, a seagull that has just demonstrated aggressive behavior when threatened with failure suddenly stops aggression and turns to cleaning its own feathers, pecking, etc. The resulting tension finds a workaround, pours out into other forms of activity.
There are different points of view among researchers on the nature of this mechanism. Some consider "displaced activity" as a result of the action of a special central mechanism in a conflict setting that switches excitation to other motor pathways. Others believe that in this case there is a mutual inhibition of opposite states (for example, fear and aggression). This leads to the disinhibition of other stereotypes of behavior.
However, no matter how the specific mechanism of "displaced behavior" is constructed, its task is to prevent a degree of stress that is dangerous for the life of the organism.
One gets the impression that the phenomenon of "satiety" described by K. Levin has a similar defense mechanism against emotional overstrain. Signs of "satiety" are: first - the appearance of variations that change the meaning of the action, and then - and its disintegration. In a situation where it is impossible to stop the action that caused satiety, negative emotions and aggression easily arise.
Experiments have shown that satiety grows the faster, the more the situation was initially more affectively charged (regardless of the sign of the emotion: + or -). The rate of increase in satiety is determined not only by the nature of the emotion, but also by the strength of affective arousal. At the same time, if under conditions of satiety, the replacement of one action by another is still possible (which has been repeatedly confirmed experimentally), then under conditions of exhaustion, an attempt to change an action no longer gives an effect.
Thus, the most significant is the border that separates the physiological stress inherent in the normal process, from the pathological, leading to irreplaceable energy waste. Strong pathological stress poses a danger to the whole organism, the energy capabilities of which are limited. One might think that the system of emotional regulation "keeps its hand" on the pulse of the body's energy balance and, in case of danger, it sends alarm signals, the intensity of which increases as the threat to the body grows.
Levels of the basal system of emotional regulation
Interaction with the outside world, the realization of human needs can occur at different levels of activity and depth of affective (emotionally colored) contact with the environment. These levels, in accordance with the complexity of the behavioral task facing the subject, require varying degrees of differentiation of affective orientation and the development of mechanisms for regulating behavior.
Attempts to trace the patterns of deepening and intensifying contact with the environment led to the identification of four main levels of its organization, making up a single, complexly coordinated structure of the basal affective organization:
- Field reactivity level
- Level of stereotypes
- Expansion level
These levels solve qualitatively different adaptation problems. They cannot replace each other, and weakening or damage to one of the levels leads to general affective maladjustment. At the same time, excessive strengthening of the mechanisms of one of them, its loss from the general system can also cause affective deficiency.
Next, we will consider these levels, defining the semantic tasks they solve, the mechanisms of behavior regulation, the nature of orientation, the type of behavioral reactions, the contribution of the level to the implementation of tonic regulation. We will also try to trace how inter-level interactions are built and a single system of basal affective organization is formed.
Field reactivity level
The first level of affective organization, apparently, is initially associated with the most primitive, passive forms of mental adaptation. It can act independently only in conditions of severe mental pathology, but its significance as a background level is also great under normal conditions.
In line with the implementation of affective-semantic adaptation to the environment, this level is involved in solving the most basic tasks of protecting the body from the destructive influences of the external environment. Its adaptive meaning is the organization of affective pre-attunement to active contact with the environment: a preliminary primitive assessment of the very possibility, the admissibility of contact with an object of the external world even before direct contact with it. This level ensures an ongoing process of choosing the position of the greatest comfort and safety.
Affective orientation at this lowest level is aimed at assessing the quantitative characteristics of the impact of the external environment. The most important affective result here is a change in the intensity of the impact, in connection with which the movement of objects relative to him acquires a special affective meaning for the subject. Also essential here is the affective assessment of the spatial proportions of objects, their location relative to each other and the subject. One might think that it is these data that contain affective information about the potential for their movement. Spatial proportions signal the degree of stability, equilibrium of objects, the possibility of free movement between them, and at the same time guarantees the protection of the subject by nearby objects from the unexpected impact of distant ones.
The affective orientation of this level is characterized, firstly, by the fact that it occurs outside of active selective contact with the environment, in the passive imprinting of distant influences, and secondly, the fact that information in it is perceived not as a series of separate affective signals, but rather , as a holistic simultaneous reflection of the intensity of the impact of the entire mental field as a whole. Here, a certain map of the "lines of force" of the psychic field is evaluated affectively.
Affective experience at this level does not yet contain an explicit positive or negative assessment of the impression received. It is connected only with a general feeling of comfort or discomfort in the mental field. The feeling of discomfort is very fleeting, unstable, because it instantly causes a motor reaction that moves the individual in space, and is vaguely experienced only as the very moment of its initiation.
Interestingly, when trying to comprehend vague affective impressions of this level, it turns out that they are practically impossible to express verbally. The maximum that can be done in this case is to say “Something made me turn around”, or “Something I didn't like this place right away,” or “You feel surprisingly easy here.” It should also be emphasized that this form of primitive affective assessment is limited to the immediate situation, its given moment and has almost no active influence on the subsequent behavior of the subject. (Apparently, this is the very vague "first impression" for not following which we so often reproach ourselves later.)
The type of adaptive affective behavior characteristic of a given level is the least energy consuming, extremely simple, but adequate for solving the range of its tasks. The choice of a spatial position that is optimal for mental comfort is carried out unconsciously, automatically, in passive movement along the "lines of force" of the field - approaching objects that act in the comfort mode, and moving away from uncomfortable influences. An assessment of the impact as uncomfortable may not arise immediately, but as it accumulates over time.
Passive, externally determined movement can be compared with primitive psychic tropisms. The only affective mechanism of this level that protects a person from the effects of a destructive force, leading him to a position of safety and comfort, is affective satiety. As you know, it is it that prevents the onset of physiological exhaustion, which is a real danger to the body.
This is still a very primitive mechanism for regulating interaction with the environment. It is the least selective - responding only to intensity, it does not assess the quality of the impact and organizes the most passive forms of behavior. The subject's reactions are determined here only by external influences. Passively avoiding extreme irritation, he takes the most comfortable position.
At the same time, this affective mechanism, despite all its primitiveness, necessarily participates in broken forms of emotional regulation. This is understandable, since an experience of any degree of complexity includes an intensity parameter. This level largely determines human behavior in a residential environment, settling in a courtyard, a street, and the choice of a place of rest. It is possible to trace the background contribution of the first level to the regulation of the communication process, where it, by determining the affective contact distance, provides the individual with safety and emotional comfort.
This level of affective regulation probably makes an important contribution to the organization of the process of creative problem solving. The perception of new holistic structural relationships in the environment is in many ways connected with the involvement of this basal level of orientation in the search for a solution. Such a close connection of creative processes with the basal levels of affective organization may explain the presence in them of elements of unpredictability, unconsciousness, weakness of active voluntary organizations, and the feeling of a decision as an inspiration. The feeling of beauty, harmony is the first signal of the correctness of the emerging decision.
Like more complex levels of affective organizations, the first level makes its own specific contribution to the maintenance of mental activity, regulation of the tone of affective processes. As the lowest level, it provides organizations with the least energy-consuming passive reactions and carries out the least selective regulation of affective tone. Since he is most sensitive to satiety, he is responsible for relieving super-strong tension, both positive and negative, maintaining a state of affective comfort. The maintenance of such a state of rest is ensured by stimulating a person with specific, vitally (vital) impressions that are significant for this level. As noted above, they are associated with the experience of affective comfort in space, which gives the subject a sense of balance in the environment.
In addition, impressions of the dynamics of the intensity of external influences, movement, changes in lighting, spatial relationships in the environment are affectively significant at this level. This dynamics of the "breathing" of the external world, within certain limits of intensity, is not perceived by the subject as an inducement to an immediate motor reaction, but, on the contrary, plunges him into a state of "spellbinding", delivering the same feeling of deep affective pacification, peace.
Probably, he can recall his fascination in childhood with the movement of dust particles in the sunbeam, the flickering of shadows from the fence, contemplation of the ornament on the wallpaper, movement along the pattern of tiles on the sidewalk. Everyone knows the pacifying role of contemplating the glare of water and fire, the movement of leaves and clouds, the street outside the window, and a harmonious landscape. A person receives these vitally necessary impressions both in connection with the dynamics of the external world, independent of him, and with his own movement in it. However, in both cases, they are associated with a detached contemplation of what is happening around, as if immersion and dissolution in it.
In the process of mental development, the complication of emotional life, the subject begins to feel an increasing need to maintain mental balance, relieve stress. In this regard, on the basis of elementary impressions of the first level, active psychotechnical methods of stabilizing affective life begin to form.
An example of the development of methods of direct active influence by such impressions can serve as some traditional oriental ways of finding peace of mind. Stimulation of a person with elementary “pure” impressions of this level, concentration, for example, on the oscillation of a candle flame, a conscious active alternation of perception of “figure and background in the visual field, give him the opportunity to voluntarily achieve a state of deep rest, dissolution in the environment. Such techniques are currently part of the generally accepted systems of psychotherapy and auto-training.
They are also used in cases of the need for emergency intervention in the regulation of emotional processes, in medical practice, in the adaptation of an individual to extreme conditions.
In everyday life, we also experience a constant, actively protecting influence of this level, but it is carried out more indirectly, by the spatial organization of the entire environment. The harmonious organization of the interior of the dwelling, the proportions of clothing, household items, the person's house itself, the surrounding landscape bring peace, harmony to his inner emotional life. The techniques of such an aesthetic organization of the environment are accumulated in family, national, and cultural traditions. The traditional cultural way of life focuses the subject on these necessary impressions for him, helps him to appropriate psychotechnical methods of the aesthetic organization of the environment.
Aesthetic organization is essential for any way of human life. We know what importance was attached to it in traditional peasant life, what forces, despite the severity of living conditions, were spent, for example, on ornamental decoration of dwellings, clothes, tools, and household items. We also know what sophisticated development these techniques achieve with the development of civilization, how the aesthetics of architectural proportions, the layout of garden and park ensembles with their cultures of a regular or landscape style, a garden of stones, and fountains are refined. Not a single tonic and affectively stabilizing impression of art or architecture is, of course, complete without the contribution of a sense of proportionality, harmony, provided by the first level.
We can say that, performing background functions in the implementation of emotional-semantic adaptation to the environment, providing tonic regulation of affective processes, this level also carries out its cultural development.
Level of stereotypes
The second level of affective organization is the next step in deepening affective contact with the environment and assimilates a new layer of affective reactions. It plays an important role in regulating the behavior of a child in the first months of life, in working out his adaptive reactions - food, defensive, establishing physical contact with the mother, then it develops as a necessary background component of complex forms of adaptation, determining the completeness and originality of a person's sensual life.
The main adaptive task of this level is to regulate the process of meeting somatic needs. The second level establishes affective control over the functions of the organism itself, regulates psychosomatic sensations and affectively connects them with external signals about the possibility of realizing the need, fixes the ways of satisfaction. We can say that the main task of this level is the adaptation of the subject to the environment, the development of affective stereotypes of sensory contact with him.
This step in the transition to active selectivity in adaptation to the environment is due to the complication of the affective mechanism of regulation of behavior. We observe that at the first level, the behavior of the subject is entirely determined by the mechanism of affective satiety. Under his dominance, the subject evaluates the impression only by the parameter of intensity and passively obeys external influences. At the same time, his own activity is minimal. The second level limits the uniform action of the satiety mechanism and thus overcomes the dictates of the external field, provides the ability to actively isolate and reproduce certain impressions. This is due to the introduction of the second parameter of affective assessment. The affective structure of the mental field becomes more complex: the assessment of the impact by intensity begins to correct the assessment of its quality - compliance or non-compliance with the vital needs of the body. Positive experiences become more resistant to satiety, which provides the subject with the possibility of active sensory contact with the environment at all times while the need is being satisfied. At the same time, the subject acquires an increased sensitivity to any disturbances in the process of satisfying the need. Such impressions are assessed as uncomfortable regardless of the intensity of the impact. This is how primitive affective selectivity arises in contact with the environment.
At this level, signals from the surrounding and internal environment of the body are qualitatively assessed. Here sensations of all modalities are affectively mastered: gustatory, olfactory, auditory, visual, tactile and difficult to differentiate complex sensations of somatic well-being and ill-being. In this case, the most affectively significant are the elementary signals of the internal environment of the organism. It is they who, connecting with initially neutral external impressions, are affectively ordering them. So, in the affective dissemination "from oneself" there is a transformation of neutral sensations into significant ones, saturation of the external field with internal individual meaning.
In connection with the concentration of this level on the affective regulation of rhythmically organized somatic processes and on the development of stereotypes for satisfying needs based on the repetition of external conditions, this level is especially sensitive to various rhythmic influences. If the first level of affective orientation was characterized by a focus on passive simultaneous reflection of the influence of the mental field as a whole, then here the simplest temporary, successful organization of impressions is already being singled out.
As an example of the first successes of this level of affective orientation, one can single out the child's assimilation of the feeding regime, the establishment of an affective connection between the appearance of the bottle and the pleasure of eating, the appearance of an anticipatory posture before picking up, etc.
Emotional experience at the second level is brightly colored with pleasure and displeasure. How pleasant at this level are the impressions associated with the satisfaction of the need, the preservation of the constancy of the conditions of existence, the usual temporal rhythm of influences. Unpleasant, painful here are the impressions associated with hindrances in the satisfaction of desires, indicating a change in living conditions and the inadequacy of the prevailing affective stereotype of behavior. It is characteristic that here the very tension of the need, of the unsatisfied desire, is also negatively experienced. The situation of breaking the habitual affective connection and the delay of the already "declared" pleasant sensation are almost unbearable here. This level “does not love”, cannot wait. Intolerance to sensory discomfort, disturbances in the regimen are typical for young children, when the second level plays an important role in adaptation. In severe cases of early impairment of affective development, when the second level remains the leading one in adapting to the environment for a long time, a child of an older age perceives changes in the environment with fear, a violation of the usual regime, and evaluates the delay in the fulfillment of desire as a catastrophe.
Experience at this level is closely related to sensory sensation. As discussed above, affective orientation is carried out by projecting outward internal states, linking complex distant impressions with more elementary gustatory, contact, and olfactory impressions. Affective experience, therefore, here, too, is a complex combination of the simple and the complex. We owe this level of experience to synesthesia. Each of us knows that the color can be poisonous green, causing a soreness, the sound can be scratching or velvety, light-cutting or soft, and the look - sticky or sharp, the voice - rich, the face - crumpled, thoughts - dirty, etc. P. Let us recall the experiences of the hero of Chekhov's story: “While she was singing, it seemed to me that I was eating a ripe, sweet, fragrant melon” (“My Life”).
The second level has a vivid and persistent affective memory. An accidental sensory sensation can restore in a person even the impressions of the distant past. This is of great importance for a person's affective adaptation. The second level fixes a stable affective connection between impressions and creates an affective experience of a person's sensory interaction with the environment, determining his individual tastes. We can say that this level of affective organization to a large extent lays the foundations for the formation of a person's individuality, and a young child does a great job, revealing his own addictions in sensory contacts with the environment. The affective image of the world at this level of its organization acquires certainty, stability, individual coloring, but at the same time it is also a complex of associatively connected, sensually brightly colored impressions.
The type of behavior characteristic of this level of affective adaptation is stereotyped reactions. Of course, this is still a very primitive level of behavioral adaptation. Initially, it probably relies on a small set of innate standard reactions that ensure the adaptation of the newborn to the mother and the satisfaction of his organic needs. However, in the process of mental ontogenesis, an arsenal of individual stereotypes of sensory contact with the environment, habits that a person seeks to follow, is developed and accumulated. These habits determine our special manner of contact with the world: “I am used to drinking hot strong tea”, “I don’t eat meat”, “I like to swim in cold water”, “I cannot stand the heat”, “I cannot stand noisy places”, “I prefer shoes without heels "," I like to get up early "," I can not live without sweets "," I am drawn to huddle in the festive crowd. "
Affective stereotypes are a necessary background for the most complex forms of human behavior. The lack of a familiar type of paper or the loss of a favorite pen can interfere with the creative process of a scientist or writer. According to Olga Knipper-Chekhova's recollections, the absence of the usual spirits prevented her from playing the role of Ranevskaya so much that sometimes the theater management had to cancel the play "The Cherry Orchard".
Affective fixation by the subject of methods of contact with the environment gives him the opportunity to develop an optimal manner of interaction with the environment. On the other hand, however, this particular affective selectivity can also make the subject painfully vulnerable to breaking the habitual stereotype. Perfectly adapting us to familiar conditions, this level turns out to be untenable in unstable conditions. An example of such insolvency is the above example.
In the process of affectively semantic adaptation, the first and second levels enter into a complexly organized interaction. Both of them are aimed at solving a single problem of a person's affective adaptation to the environment, but the specific tasks of one are polarized with the tasks of the other. If the first level provides passive affective adaptation to the dynamics of the external world, then the second one realizes the adaptation of the surrounding to itself, establishing a stable relationship with it. Methods for solving these problems are also polar: the first adjusts to the affective perception of changes in the environment; the second - for stable signs; the first focuses on the assessment of the integral ratio of the influencing forces, the second - on the selective isolation of affectively significant signals from the background; the first organizes passive movement along the lines of force of the field, the second - his own stereotyped reactions.
The second level, as more active and complexly organized, to a greater extent sets the affective meaning of behavior and is leading in relation to the first. He can, for example, within certain limits correct and even suppress the assessment of the former, and the affective signal “too much” begins to be ignored with a positive qualitative assessment of the impression. So, a person can with pleasure swallow spicy, scalding food, drink ice-cold water that breaks teeth, etc. Here, in joint action, the affective mechanisms of the second level control the decisions of the first.
Let us now consider the contribution of the second level of affective organization to the implementation of the tonic function of the affective sphere - maintaining the activity and stability of affective processes.
The focus on active interaction with the environment is maintained at this level by the feeling of pleasure from the favorable course of internal somatic processes and qualitatively pleasant sensory contact with the environment. Strengthening, fixing, diversifying this pleasure, we maintain our activity, stability in contact with the world, drown out unpleasant sensations.
Thus, a feature of this level is that it no longer provides general balance, but selectively enhances sthenic states and counteracts the development of asthenic ones. On the basis of toning the somatic sphere, numerous methods of autostimulation are developed that support the joy of feeling the entire sensory texture of the surrounding world and the well-being of one's own manifestations in it: health, strength, colors, smells, sounds, taste, touch. Pleasure at this level, as already emphasized above, increases with the rhythmic organization of the impact.
This necessary autostimulation occurs not only in the process of natural, everyday and utilitarian contacts with the environment, very early in a person a special attraction to pleasant sensory impressions as such is formed. The infant can already begin to suck on a pacifier or a finger, in addition to receiving a pleasant oral experience. He demands his favorite bright rattle, jumps with pleasure in the crib babbling, enjoys playing with sounds. Later, this need finds expression in a child's desire for movement for the sake of feeling the joy of movement itself, in games with sensory vivid sensations - fiddling with water, sand, paints, luminous and sounding toys, in love for rhythm and rhyming words. In adulthood, we fight satiety, rhythmically tapping our feet, and in order to gain energy, we “prescribe” walks and jogging, swimming, the feeling of grass and sand with our bare feet, the smell of poplar buds, etc.
The affective mechanisms of toning the somatic sphere in the process of a person's cultural development turn into complex psychotechnical techniques for maintaining positive emotional states. Cultural traditions impose bans on primitive ways of self-irritation (thumb-sucking, masturbation) and offer acceptable samples, give direction to their development. The subject appropriates them (as well as psychotechnical techniques of the first level) under the influence of the cultural way of life. The family, national way of life can attract the special attention of the subject to the simplest positive sensory impressions: to educate, for example, the ability to get pleasure from a sip of cold spring water, the rhythm of movement of ordinary peasant work, but it can also develop an ever greater differentiation of sensory contact with the environment. Thinning of tastes can condition and develop gourmand, sybarism. These diverging trends are reflected, for example, in various national culinary traditions.
Techniques for actively stimulating a person with rhythmically organized sensory impressions are at the heart of development. Folk songs, dances, singing with their tendency towards rhythmic. Repeat, whirl, swing, jump. They are affectively saturated with ritual acts, religious ceremonies, etc. Moreover, psychotechnical techniques of this level largely nourish the development of such high cultural forms as the art of music, painting and even literature (especially poetry), since their affective influence on a person is organized rhythmically and is inseparable from direct sensory experience, an appeal to affective memory. person.
Considering above the interaction of the first and second levels in the affectively semantic organization of human behavior, we talked about the emergence of hierarchical relations between them, about the fact that the second level, as more active, begins to determine the affective meaning of behavior.
The interaction of the first and second levels in the implementation of tonic regulation of affective processes is structured differently. It is difficult to find a cultural psychotechnical way of affective regulation in which only the techniques of the first or second level would be used. As a rule, they work together. The question "who is the main one" here often sounds meaningless. What is affectively dominant in the painting - its impeccable composition, expression, shape or color? Perhaps both. What is most influential in a skillfully selected bouquet is its spatial, color organization or scent. It can be differently. The level relations here are characterized by a greater degree of freedom, they both can dominate and create an affective background for each other. Psychotechnical techniques develop in parallel and support each other in solving a single problem of stabilizing a person's affective life.
In unfavorable conditions, dysfunction of this level may appear. In a long-term psycho-traumatic situation, if it is impossible to get out of it, hypercompensatory actions may develop, subjectively drowning out unpleasant threatening impressions. This upsets the balance between the semantic and dynamic function of affective regulation, and the level loses its adaptive meaning.
An example of such dysfunction is provided by the personal observations of B. Betelheim in a concentration camp, where some of the prisoners (others called them “Muslims”) developed a tendency to sway and other stereotypical movements. By focusing on these sensations, they stopped responding to their surroundings. Similar disorders are observed in hospitalism in young children who have been deprived of contact with loved ones for a long time. Here, it is not so much acute trauma as a really irreplaceable lack of positive impressions that determines the development of hypercompensatory autostimulating actions in children, creating subjective comfort, but preventing the development of active interaction with the environment. Basically, these affective autostimulating actions are associated with rocking, other motor stereotypes, self-irritation.
Expansion level
The third level of the affective organization of behavior represents the next stage in the development of emotional contact with the environment. Its mechanisms begin to be gradually mastered by the child in the second half of life, and this allows him to move on to active examination and development of the world around him. Later, this level retains its significance and provides us with active adaptation to an unstable situation, when an affective stereotype of behavior becomes untenable.
Active adaptation to new conditions presupposes the possibility of resolving a special class of affective-semantic tasks: ensuring the achievement of an affectively significant goal in overcoming unexpected obstacles on the way to it. Overcoming obstacles, mastering an unknown, dangerous situation - affective expansion to the outside world is the adaptive meaning of this level of affective regulation.
Let us consider how the affective mechanism of this level developed. At the first level, the field affected the individual with its physical characteristics of "I", and its task was to "fit" into these influences, finding an optimal position. The second level has already introduced the assessment of the field not only in intensity, but also in quality, in the coordinates of his somatic "I".
At the third level, there is a further complication of the field structure. In it, not only objects of desire stand out, but also barriers.
This becomes possible due to the fact that positive and negative impacts are assessed here not by themselves, but in the general structure. At the same time, however, the structure itself is organized according to the law of force: its positive charge should significantly exceed negative impressions.
A holistic positive assessment of the entire field makes it possible to focus on the initially unpleasant impressions of unexpected influences. Thus, the third level "wins" from satiety and part of the negative impressions. The very emergence of a new impact, an obstacle here becomes a reason for launching exploratory behavior, searching for ways to overcome difficulties.
Moreover, the obstacle can be assessed here not only as a negative value, but also become a positive impression necessary for the subject, that is, the barrier can change the sign "-" to "+".
Active interaction with the environment makes it vitally necessary for the individual to assess his strengths, gives him the need to face a barrier8. This is the only way he can get information about the limits of his capabilities. Thus, the orientation in the possibility of mastering the situation here turns out to be the orientation of the subject in his own strength. We can say that if the first level assessed the intensity of the impact of the environment on the subject, then the third level assesses the strength of the impact of the subject on the environment.
However, the affective orientation of this level is still very limited. The subject here evaluates only the conditions for achieving an affective goal without taking into account the consequences of gratification of an instinct. This limitation becomes more pronounced with an increase in attraction, it can also manifest itself in an inadequate assessment of the possibility of overcoming an obstacle. The rigidity of the emerging power structure can cause the illusion of the availability of the desired with the most obvious evidence of the impossibility of its satisfaction.
Affective experiences of the third level are associated not with the satisfaction of the need itself, as it was at the second level, but with the achievement of the desired. They are distinguished by great strength and polarity. Here we have to talk not so much about positive and negative, as about sthenic and asthenic experiences. If on the second level the instability of the situation, uncertainty, danger, unsatisfied desire always cause anxiety, fear, then on the third level these same impressions mobilize the subject to overcome difficulties. At the same time, he can experience curiosity for an unexpected impression, excitement in overcoming danger, anger in an effort to destroy an obstacle. Threatening and uncomfortable impressions, however, mobilize and invigorate the subject only on condition of anticipation of victory, his confidence in the possibility of mastering the situation. The experience of helplessness, the impossibility of struggle, despair determine the regression of affective relations with the environment, the development of asthenic affective states of anxiety and fear, characteristic of the second level. The chances of success are assessed with a high degree of individual differences in connection with different levels of physical capabilities, mental activity of the subject, his different vulnerability in contacts with the environment.
Affective experience at the third level loses its specific sensory coloration, loses in diversity, but wins in strength and tension. It is more complexly organized than the sensory-rich second-level experience. If at the second level both the external influence and one's own reaction to it are experienced in one piece in a single affective impression, then here the experience of the tension of desire (I want - I don’t want) and the possibility of its implementation (I can - I cannot) can be differentiated to a greater extent. In the awareness of the conflict of desire and opportunity, for the first time, the prerequisites for separating oneself from the situation as a subject of affective behavior arise.
Let us compare, for example, the experience of a person on a walk, absorbing the flow of sensory sensations: freshness of air and dew, colors, smells of the environment, pleasant vigor of his movement, etc. and his own experiences during competitions at a sports distance, when he is captured by one experience of excitement, desire for victory.
Affective memory of this level becomes an accumulator of new knowledge about oneself. If the second level developed knowledge about the somatic “I”, its selectivity in sensory contacts with the world, then the third creates an affective experience of successes and failures and develops the basis for the development of the level of the subject's claims, his affective self-feeling “I can” and “I cannot”.
The separation at this level of affective experience from the immediate sensory basis gives him the opportunity to live in the imagination, independent dynamics outside of sensory impressions. Achieving an affective goal can be carried out in a symbolic plane (fantasy, drawing, play). This becomes one of the prerequisites for the development of internal affective life - the creation of dynamic constellations of affective images, their mutual development, conflict.
The type of behavior characteristic of the third level is qualitatively different from the stereotyped behavioral reactions of the second. He actively expands to the environment. An unexpected impression here does not frighten, but arouses curiosity; an obstacle on the way to an affective goal, a threat to existence does not cause fear, but anger and aggression. The subject actively goes where it is dangerous and incomprehensible. This type of behavior is especially typical for children and adolescents, when the tasks of affective mastering of the world are most relevant and are solved visually, as the conquest of darkness, depth, height, cliff, open space, etc.
Let us now consider how the interaction of the first three levels in affective and semantic adaptation to the environment is built. The task of the third level is to master a changing, dynamic environment. In this he is in solidarity with the first, which protects from unexpected super-strong influences and is opposite to the second, whose tasks include the development of affective stereotypes of behavior that adapt to specific stable conditions. Building on directly above the second level, the third pushes off from it, overcoming its limitations in adapting to the environment. Indeed, for the organization of active, flexible adaptation to the external environment, the third level must block the tendency to stereotypically respond to its impact, and in this it can rely on the responsiveness of the first level to changes in the environment. Thus, the methods of solving adaptation tasks of the third level are friendly to the first and reciprocal in relation to the second level.
In the interaction of these levels of affective organization, the third level, being the most energetically strong, plays a leading role. His affective assessment is dominant, so even negative affective assessments of the situation of the first and second levels can be suppressed or, to a certain extent, not taken into account, if the third level itself does not imply the implementation of the desired in the given conditions. For example, a situation is quite common when a person, in order to achieve an affectively important goal for him, willingly endures pain, cold, hunger, etc.
Let us turn to the consideration of the contribution of the third level to the implementation of the tonic function of the affective sphere.
The opportunity to overcome fear, to enter into a struggle arises at this level only if the subject is sufficiently confident in his success. These impressions acquire an independent tonic meaning for him. This method of affective toning reflects a new step in complicating the mechanisms of regulation of affective processes. If the second level to enhance sthenic states simply stimulates positive sensations, then the third level makes it possible to actively transform some of the unpleasant impressions into pleasant ones. After all, the experience of success, victory, of course, is associated with the experience of getting rid of danger, overcoming an obstacle, with the dynamics of transforming a negative impression into a positive one.
This affective stimulation, necessary for the subject, is carried out both in the course of the direct resolution of semantic tasks and in special autostimulation actions. An affective need for impressions of risk is formed. The drive to overcome danger, especially pronounced in children and adolescents, is reflected in the love of games with a chase, battle, a real desire for adventure - testing oneself in dangerous situations. But even in adulthood, this attraction often pushes a person to actions that are inexplicable from the point of view of common sense.
In the process of mental development, a person appropriates cultural psychotechnical methods of affective stimulation of this level. They underlie many traditional cultures of games, both for children and adults, giving their participant an immediate real feeling of excitement, determine the passion for circus and sports shows, action films. A person's need for the development of verbal methods of affective stimulation of this level is reflected in the natural development in all cultures of the heroic epic, in the desire of children for "terrible" fairy tales, in the popularity of detective and adventure literature among adults. Affective visual and verbal images of this level are one of the main nutrient media art.
Both simple and complex cultural psychotechnical methods of autostimulation are based on a mechanism called "swing". With a general positive assessment of his adaptation capabilities, the subject begins to look for a sense of danger. The overlap of the dominant danger by this general positive assessment, its discharge, give an additional powerful affective charge of experiencing success and victory. In its most smoothed form, this mechanism acts, for example, when we, sitting in a comfortable armchair, listen with pleasure to the sound of rain and wind outside the window; and the worse the weather, the stronger our affective satisfaction. But we can swing this "swing" and stronger, going in for mountaineering, alpine skiing or speleology.
In ensuring the affective stability of a person, his active position in interaction with the environment, the third level acts in conjunction with the lower levels, and the mechanisms of the three levels do not come into such an obvious contradiction here "as in solving the problems of affective-semantic adaptation. They can act in concert on the affective sphere, for example, in a work of art: as its harmonious form, sensual content and intensely developing plot.
Emotional Control Level
The fourth level of basal regulation provides a new step in deepening and intensifying interaction with the outside world. He is responsible for solving complex ethological problems of organizing the life of an individual in a community. This is especially clearly and directly observed in the organization of behavior associated with nursing, upbringing and teaching children.
The specific adaptive meaning of this level is the establishment of emotional interaction with other people - the development of ways of orientation in their experiences, the formation of rules, norms of interaction with them. In a broad sense, this level, building on the lower ones, ensures the community's control over the individual affective life, bringing it in line with the requirements and needs of others. With the advent of emotional control over affective experience, we can talk about the emergence of a person's own emotional life.
At this level, a new complication of the affective field takes place. As discussed above, at the third level, a structure of "+" and "-" is formed, but it is organized according to the law of force with the obligatory predominance of "+" and is distinguished by rigidity, difficulty of transformation. The fourth level builds a more flexible field structure. This is achieved through the introduction of a new quality assessment. Now it is set not by the parameters of the physical "I", but by the emotional assessment of another person.
Being the ethologically most significant factor, the “other” begins to dominate in the subject's affective field, and under the influence of this dominant all other impressions are rebuilt and ordered. ; makes neutral experiences meaningful.
The ability to arbitrarily change the perception of the intensity of the sensory quality of the impact makes it possible to maximally activate and deepen the subject's contact with the world, to push the satiety as far as desired. It is known how, after satiety, a person's activity is restored by introducing new meanings, incentives, praise, marks, etc. into it.The fourth level is capable of creating practically unsatisfactory systems that allow a person to waste himself indefinitely. , even if it is at odds, to a certain extent, with his subjective assessment. It is known, for example, how sincerely we find delight in many sensations, unusual and even unpleasant to us, if they clearly cause pleasure in others.
The orientation of this level is aimed at highlighting the affective manifestations of another person as signals that are most significant for adaptation to the environment. It is carried out by the direct empathy of the experiences of another person that appears at this level. A person's face, facial expressions, eyes, voice, touch, gesture become vitally significant signals. The emotionally mediated nature of the orientation allows it at this level to overcome limitations and go beyond the situation of achieving an affective goal, to assess the possible emotional consequences of an act.
The approval of people is assessed positively here, their negative reactions are negative. This is not at all as commonplace as it might seem at first glance. For example, at the third level of affective adaptation, when the subject counts in the analysis of what is happening only on his own strengths and experience, he does not single out the affective reactions of other people as signals necessary for orientation. They matter to him only as a possible source of affective toning. Irritation of others, like other unpleasant impressions, can serve as a reason for triggering the affective mechanism of the "swing" and become a source of pleasure for the child. In this case, he will tease the adult, strive to act in spite of him. Only the fourth level, which is really based in adaptation to the affective experience of other people, consistently provides an adequate response to their assessment, and this is the basis for the emergence of a person's emotional control over his behavior - joy from praise and grief from rejection.
So, along with the complication of orientation in the environment at the fourth level, the improvement of affective orientation in oneself is already taking place. If the second level establishes affective control over internal somatic processes, the third lays the affective basis for the level of claims, assesses the possibility of actively influencing the environment, then the fourth forms a sense of self, colored by the emotional assessments of other people, and thereby creates the prerequisites for the development of self-esteem.
Affective experience at this level is associated with empathy for another person, mediated by the experience of this other person and is also already an emotional experience proper. At this level, the empathy of approval or disapproval of other people begins to dominate over the feelings of "pleasant - unpleasant", "I want - I do not want", "I can - I can not". So, in a person's affective life, along with emotional control, includes the emotional experience "good" or "bad", "I dare - I dare not", "should - should not", a sense of shame, guilt, pleasure from praise. Here, as at the second level, wealth, the qualitative uniqueness of experiences again increases, but if at the second level it is associated with a variety of sensory impressions, then here it is due to the variety of forms of person-to-person contacts.
Emotional memory here, just as at the second level, organizes, stereotypes the perception of the environment. But if the second level fixes the subject's affective habits, accumulating the fund of his individual sensory preferences, here the individual emotional experience fixes the prohibitions and preferred forms of contact with the outside world, reflecting the experience of other people.
The fourth level creates an image of a reliable, stable surrounding world, protected from surprises and vicissitudes.
Such protection is provided by emotional confidence in the strength of others, in their knowledge, in the existence of emotional rules of behavior that guarantee adaptation without sudden breakdowns. At this level, the subject receives a sense of security, comfort of the surrounding world.
Adaptive affective behavior at this level also rises to the next level of complexity. The behavioral act of the subject is already becoming an act - an action that is built taking into account the attitude of another person towards him.
At this level, the affective basis for the voluntary organization of human behavior is laid. This allows the subject to be included in the interaction process. Requirements of interaction at a new level stabilize and stereotypize the behavior of the subject. Here, behavior is organized according to a complex code of ethological rules for contact, enabling a stable community life. The assimilation of forms of communication and interaction is provided by the desire that appears already at an early age to imitate the actions of a loved one. The appropriation of his power, the ability to control the situation occurs through assimilation to him. In case of failure in adaptation, the subject at this level no longer reacts with either withdrawal, motor storm, or directed aggression - he turns to other people for help.
Let us trace how the fourth level enters into the general process of regulation of affective and semantic adaptation. If the first and third levels are aimed at organizing behavior that adapts to an unexpectedly changing external world and do not rigidly fix the ways of the individual's response, then the second and fourth are adapted to stable living conditions, fixing a set of stereotypical reactions adequate for them (second level); ethological rules of communication, interaction (fourth level), i.e. adaptation tasks of the second-fourth levels are opposite to the tasks of the first-third. Building on the affective organization of the third level, emotions of the fourth level limit the freedom to choose the means to achieve an affective goal, and suppress the drives themselves, which are affectively unacceptable to other people. At the same time, the emotions of the fourth level are reinforced by the sensory affective stimulation of the second (rewards and punishments) and are based on his stereotyped reactions. At the same time, the fourth level can also "re-educate" the second, expanding the set of individual habits with collective affective experience. "Natural" preferences become socialized.
At the same time, the lower affective levels, of course, are not suppressed, they are not turned off "from the game" at all. They continue to live and signal vitally significant impressions of their line, desires, and threats, which gives a multidimensional, conflicting nature to a person's affective experiences. In the case of superpower of signals of a lower level with their especially important vital meaning, it can temporarily come to the fore, get out of control. However, in general, in the overwhelming majority of cases, a person's affective behavior is under the emotional control of the fourth level, which is proved by the very ability to build one's life in the community of other people. Normally, the emotional assessment of the fourth level dominates over the affect of all three lower levels. And for the sake of approval, praise, liking of other people, we are ready, often even with joy, to endure sensory discomfort, fear, suffering, to refuse to fulfill our own desires.
Let us now consider what the fourth level brings into the tonic regulation of a person's affective life, into the stabilization of the dynamics of his affective processes. This contribution is apparently extremely significant. The behavior of the subject is organized at the fourth level by the direct emotional reactions of other people and the emotional rules of behavior set by them. Following them provides the subject with a feeling of self-confidence, safety, and reliability of the surrounding world. Experiencing an emotional connection with people, with their emotional laws, is a powerful means of maintaining his own active sthenic position.
The impact on the dynamics of affective processes is carried out here not by transforming unpleasant, frightening impressions into positive ones, as it was at the third level, but by emotional ordering of impressions, their organization of the emotional assessment of other people.
Stimulation at the fourth level occurs in the process of natural contact, human interaction. It is associated with infection with sthenic affective states. People infect each other with the joy of contact, interest in a common cause, confidence in success, a sense of security, the correctness of the behavior carried out, the reliability of the means used. Here a person's special need for emotional contact arises, an acute pleasure from the joy of others and compassion for their deprivations. Thus, the pleasure from feeding another can be sharper than from one's own satiety. Here there is a need for encouragement, praise, emotional contact. It is these impressions that provide the subject with the necessary rise in activity, stabilize and order his internal affective processes.
In the process of mental development, cultural psychotechnical methods of stabilizing affective life are appropriated, using the means of the fourth level. They are found already in the most ancient ways of influencing the affective life of a person. So, it is known that according to ancient customs, to strengthen faith in the success of an upcoming enterprise (agricultural work, hunting, war, etc.), it was preceded by the playing of a ritual of actions that ensure this success. The most ancient forms of folklore are affectively affirming the inevitability of the triumph of good over evil, good over bad, the possibility of empathy, joy and compassion, pity, guaranteeing victory for the little and the good over the big and evil. Hence, these tendencies spread to classical and contemporary art, initially determining its humanistic orientation. On the other hand, psychotechnical techniques of this level of stabilization of affective life, maintaining an active position of the subject are also seen at the basis of the construction of religious forms of contact with the world. In its most ancient forms, belief in the existence of a higher, animate ruler stimulates confidence in the stability of relations with the outside world, which can be preserved by observing the affective rules of contact with him. In essence, the same psychotechnical functions are performed by belief in the omnipotence of man, civilization, technical progress, etc.
Considering the joint work of all basal effective levels to solve the problems of regulating the dynamics of affective life, it can again be noted that there is no such strict hierarchization of level relations, the reciprocity of their mechanisms, as in the implementation of the affective-semantic function. The fourth level, which seeks to establish its own censorship, suppressing the manifestations of the third in real semantic interactions with the environment and people, does not enter into such an obvious opposing relationship with it. In particular, the main psychotechnical technique of energization of the third level. The experience of risk, danger is easily consistent with the energizing mechanism of emotional experience of the fourth level. Together they give, for example, an affectively saturated, characteristic for all human cultures image of a heroic deed, a feat that brings happiness, salvation to a person, nation, humanity.
In energization, stabilization of a person's affective life, normally all basal levels are in solidarity and their mechanisms act in concert in one direction. In particular, for example, both a religious ceremony and secular holidays, aimed, as you know, at achieving a person's affective rise, as a rule, are carried out in a harmoniously organized space (affective influence of the first level with the influence of vivid sensory sensations, smell, lighting, music, rhythmic movements with special attention to the rhythmic organization of all influences (second level); with acute experience of moments of danger, aggressiveness, religious epic or historical event (third level); with concentration on emotional empathy (fourth level).
Impressions of any level can be affectively dominant. The contribution of psychotechnical mechanisms at each level may be different at any given moment. Psychotechnical techniques of affective energization of each level develop in parallel, interchanging, reinforcing each other. The cultural development of psychotechnical mechanisms of all levels, thanks to this type of their interaction, can be unlimited.
Thus, already at the lower, basal levels, the affective sphere develops as a complex self-regulating system that provides flexible adaptation to the environment. Depending on the level of affectivity, regulation solves various adaptation tasks that are equally vitally important for the subject, but different in degree of complexity. In solving their problems, the levels are grouped according to their focus on the subject's adaptation to stable and unstable ones.
The environment has both positive and negative effects on the individual. The emotional system, like the cognitive system, seeks to establish stable and regular connections with "plus" and "minus".
Stable connections cannot, however, exhaust all collisions of the subject with the environment. This is especially true for interaction with "minus" -influences. In relation to the latter, at the lower levels of affective regulation of behavior, the tactic of "avoidance" is used. However, such tactics limit the depth and activity of the individual's interaction with the environment. Therefore, a progressive direction of development is the development of such an interaction of the subject with a "minus", which allows him to overcome negative influences. This is due to the development of a mechanism for converting "minus" into "plus". Only as a result of this does it become possible to deepen the subject's contact with the environment, to expand into new spheres.
The emergence of two systems of affective adaptation of the subject to stable and unstable environmental conditions is conditioned by evolution, and their development is carried out differently in time and space.
Naturally developing into a single system of regulation, the basal levels in each individual case place different accents of their contribution to emotional adaptation, creating a typical, for each person his own, manner of emotional relationships with the outside world. This characteristically evolving constellation of basal levels seems to largely determine what we call the Emotional Personality of a person. So, for example, the tendency to strengthen the first level of affective regulation can be manifested in the expressed ability to perceive a holistic structure, harmony of proportions. People with an accented second level are deeply sensually connected with the world around them, have a strong affective memory, are stable in their habits. The powerful third level makes people easy-going, courageous, relaxed, easily taking responsibility in resolving a tense situation. People with a particularly strong fourth level are over-focused on human relationships. Compassionate, companionable, at the same time, they are especially aimed at observing the established rules and can experience discomfort in those unstable stressful situations that often give pleasure to people with a highly developed third level.
The individuality of the basal affective structure of a person is especially manifested in the predominant development of various mechanisms of self-regulation of affective processes. Here, outside the rigid hierarchical organization of levels, individual preferences of psychotechnical techniques of certain levels are most freely formed: love of contemplation, lonely walks, a developing flair for a perfect landscape, proportions of a work of art; or love for rhythmic movement, vivid sensual contact with the environment, or an indomitable passion for the game, excitement, risk; or the need for emotional communication, empathy.
Of course, the nature of the relationship between the basal levels is also influenced by the age characteristics of a person. These relationships also need special study. But in general terms, we can say that here, within the framework of the already established general hierarchy of levels and their individually developed manner of interaction, the accents can shift from the levels of “stabilizing” - in childhood to “dynamic” - in adolescence and adolescence, and again to “stabilizing "- mature. Probably, the affective rest of the infant and the wise old man can also be associated with the predominant meaning of the first level of affective organization; children's sensory joy of life - with an increase in the second level, adolescent and youthful activity, instability - with an increase in the third, everyday "maturity" - the fourth.
It seems that the study of the laws of the basal emotional organization can be of great importance for the development of a person's individuality, the development of a method for correcting his affective maladjustment.
Influence of the levels of the basal system of emotional regulation on various subsystems of the personality structure
When considering the personal characteristics of emotional response, it is advisable to adhere to a tiered approach to the structure of the personality, including the personality-semantic subsystem of the personality structure, individual psychological and psychophysiological.
Let us consider the dependence of the emergence of an emotional state on the characteristics of the functioning of a certain subsystem in the structure of the personality.
Psychophysiological subsystem determines the features of the internal, neurophysiological organization. Experimental studies have established differences in the emotional thresholds of people, which affects the frequency of a certain experience and expression of a particular emotion, and, in turn, affects the socialization of a person, leads to the formation of special personality traits. Psychophysiological processes ensure the work of the mental apparatus, causing inertia or mobility, balance or imbalance, strength or weakness of the nervous system, create assumptions for predicting the experience and behavior of a child under stress and tension. So more sensitive people suffer from excessive stimulation, energetic people - from immobility, slowly adapting - from surprises.
Thus, the physiological characteristics of a person can play the role of factors influencing the severity and frequency of negative emotions.
Individually - psychological subsystem reflects human activity, stereotypes of behavior, style of thinking, motivational orientation, character traits. The duration and intensity of certain mental states of a person is largely determined by his individual characteristics. Attracting attention to individual personality traits is associated with the fact that, according to V.N. Myasishcheva, “the vulnerable sides are the sources of psychogenia, and the strong are the sources of maintaining health and compensation”.
A special role in the emergence of a particular emotional state is played by personal-semantic subsystem, which determines the hierarchy of values, the system of relations to oneself and to others. The pathogenic effect is not exerted by an external effect per se, be it acute or chronic, but its significance for a person. It is the personal-semantic subsystem that most often determines the relativity of negative emotions.
Thus, based on the analysis of the personality structure, we can say that the factors of the emergence of emotional discomfort can be biological, individual and semantic structures of the personality with the undoubted priority of the latter.
Realization of human needs when interacting with the outside world can occur at different levels of activity and depth of emotional contact with the environment. There are four main levels that make up a single, complexly coordinated structure of the basal affective organization. At these levels, qualitatively different tasks of organizing behavior are resolved, and they cannot replace each other. Weakening or damage to one of the levels leads to general affective symptoms.
Let us trace the influence of the levels of the basal system of emotional regulation on various subsystems of the personality structure in the process of the emergence of emotional discomfort and its overcoming. The following is a diagram that reflects the participation of the basal system of emotional regulation in overcoming emotional discomfort on various personality substructures - psychophysiological, individual and semantic.
Table. The participation of the basal system of emotional regulation in the functioning of various subsystems of the personality structure - psychophysiological, individual-psychological and personal-semantic.
Subsystems / personality structures |
Psycho-physiological |
Individual psychological |
Personal and semantic |
Field Reactivity Level - Choosing the Most Comfort and Safety |
The action of the mechanism of "affective satiety" |
Formation of individual psychotechnical techniques |
Stimulating comfort-related experiences |
Level of stereotypes, establishing stable relations with the world |
Affective sensory |
Development of individual habitual actions |
Turning neutral experiences into meaningful ones |
Expansion level - adaptation to an unstable situation |
Congenital orientation reaction |
Development of the basis |
Value-Based Striving for Difficulty |
Emotional Control Level - Emotional interactions with other people. |
Perception change |
Formation of the originality of emotional experiences |
The value of another person's emotional assessment |
The first level of the basal system of emotional regulation - the level of field reactivity- passive adaptation to the environment - provides a constant process of choosing the position of the greatest comfort and safety. Affective experience at this level is associated with a general feeling of comfort or discomfort in the psychic field (“I don’t like something here,” “You feel amazingly easy here”). The level of field reactivity can regulate the emotional state on the psychophysiological, individual-psychological and personal-semantic substructures of the personality.
An example of the participation of this level in the regulation of the emotional state on the psychophysiological dimension can be the behavior called "displaced activity" and associated with the phenomenon of "satiety" and the phenomenon of "unmotivated" actions. For example, before a test, a child looks for something in a briefcase for a long time, then puts things on the desk, drops them, puts them out again, without giving any account of their actions.
In this regard, it is important to emphasize that all vegetative reactions during the manifestation of emotions are "calculated" for biological, and not social, expediency.
Under the influence of the level of field reactivity of the basal system of emotional regulation in individual psychological subsystem personality structure, the development of certain individual reactions in response to the intensity of the influence of the external environment (a certain distance of communication, the duration of a direct look, etc.).
V personal-semantic dimension personality structure, significant impressions are enjoyed from interactions with the environment associated with the experience of comfort, there are methods of aesthetic organization of the environment. A person is already consciously taking certain actions to calm down, to get a positive emotional charge.
The second level of emotional regulation - the level of stereotypes- solves the problem of regulating the process of meeting somatic needs.
Emotional experiences at the level of stereotypes in are brightly colored with pleasure and displeasure, and emotional regulation is associated with the choice of the most pleasant sensations of various modalities.
Under the influence of this level in the individual psychological subsystem pleasant impressions are experienced in connection with the satisfaction of the need, the preservation of the constancy of the conditions of existence, the usual temporal rhythm of influences. Situations associated with interference in the satisfaction of desire, a violation of the usual way of action, a change in living conditions cause discomfort. As an example, we can name the stereotype of the excellent student, the hard getting used to the school of “home” children. Both the student and the teacher need a certain stability of the world around them in order to feel comfortable. Researchers pay attention to the importance for the student of his place in the class, which forms a component of his personal space. If a student sits on a subjectively bad desk, which he perceives as "someone else's", then his attention is often disturbed, he becomes passive, lack of initiative.
Thus, in individual psychological a subsystem in the structure of the personality develops habitual actions, individual tastes, which help to develop an optimal manner of interaction with the outside world for oneself, to relieve emotional stress.
In the personal-semantic subsystem the structure of the personality at the level of stereotypes, regulation of the emotional state can occur with the help of amplification and fixation of pleasure, the transformation of neutral stimuli into personally significant ones, and this maintains activity and drowns out unpleasant sensations.
The third level of affective organization of behavior - the level of expansion- provides active adaptation to an unstable situation when an affective stereotype of behavior becomes untenable. At this level, uncertainty, instability mobilizes the subject to overcome difficulties. Manifestation by a person of outwardly unjustified actions towards danger and the enjoyment of the feeling of overcoming danger - these facts have been noticed and repeatedly described in fiction and psychological literature. Analyzing the desire of a person towards danger, V.A. Petrovsky identifies three types of motives: an innate orientational reaction, a thirst for thrills and a value-based desire for danger, which can be correlated with the manifestation of emotional self-regulation in the psychophysiological, individual psychological and personality-semantic subsystems of the personality structure.
So in psychophysiological subsystem personality structure, regulation of the emotional state at the level of expansion can occur precisely due to the action of an innate orientational reaction, when a person seeks a potentially dangerous object or situation in order to relieve anxiety, anxiety.
In the individual psychological subsystem personality structure, each person develops his own level of need for acute impressions - "thirst for thrills", which he can use to regulate his emotional state. In the absence of emotionally charged events in a child, “thirst for thrills” can contribute to dangerous or asocial forms of behavior. At the same time, too much passivity and "obedience" of a child can often act as a signal of a violation of normal affective development.
The value-based desire for danger can be attributed to the manifestation of self-regulation at the level of expansion in the personal-semantic subsystem. A person consciously strives for situations that are dangerous for him, because such behavior is associated with his goals, life guidelines and only by realizing it, a person achieves emotional well-being. According to F. Dolto, “you need to learn to live with anxiety, but so that it is tolerable; it can even encourage creativity. "
At the level of expansion, human behavior is influenced by emotional memory. Mobilization occurs only on condition of anticipation of victory, confidence in their success.
The fourth level of the basal system of emotional regulation - the level of emotional control ensures the establishment of emotional interaction with other people: the development of ways of orientation in their experiences, the formation of rules, norms of interaction with them.
A sense of security and stability is achieved through emotional confidence in the strength of others, in their knowledge, in the existence of emotional rules of behavior. The activity of this level is manifested in the fact that in case of failure, the child no longer reacts with withdrawal, motor storm, or directed aggression - he turns to other people for help. Of great importance for self-regulation at this level is infection with sthenic emotional states of other people: the joy of communication, interest in a common cause, confidence in success, a sense of security.
Regulation of the emotional state in psychophysiological subsystem personality structure with the participation of this level of the basal system of emotional regulation may be associated with a change in the perception of the intensity of the impact of others. This protective mechanism in this case acts as a psycho-hygienic factor that prevents the occurrence of emotional disorders.
Regulation in individual psychological subsystem in the structure of the personality in this case is associated with the formation of the originality of emotional experiences caused by contacts with people.
V personal-semantic subsystem regulation is due to the restoration of emotional balance with the help of new meanings, stimuli, praise, marks, etc. An example of this type of emotional regulation is the statement of L.S. Vygotsky on the possibility of influencing "affect from above, changing the meaning of the situation." “Even if the situation loses its attractiveness for the child, he can continue the activity (draw, write, etc.) if the adult brings a new meaning to the situation, for example, show another student how to do it. For the child, the situation has changed, as his role in this situation has changed. "
Using the results of the analysis, showing the relationship between the functioning of the levels of the basal system of emotional regulation and various subsystems of the personality structure, it is possible to develop diagnostic and corrective programs related to the processes of the emergence, flow and overcoming of negative emotional states of a person.
Various ways of overcoming negative emotions are observed depending on the activity of the levels of the basal system of human emotional regulation - from contemplation and dissolution in the environment to seeking support. Psychotechnical techniques of affective energization of each level develop in parallel, interchanging, reinforcing each other. At the same time, the basal levels create a typical, it is for each person his own, manner of emotional relationships with the outside world. For example, with a tendency to strengthen the first level of affective regulation, the ability to perceive a holistic structure, the harmony of the environment, may appear. People with an accentuated second level are deeply sensually connected with the outside world, are stable in their habits. The powerful third level makes people relaxed, courageous, taking responsibility in difficult situations. People with a particularly strong fourth level are over-focused on human relationships.
The need for optimal social adaptation in society leads a person to develop individual ways of self-regulation of his emotional state, which depend not only on the personality of a person, but also on his age.
The study revealed the following most frequent and effective strategies for coping with negative emotions of 7-11 year old students: "I sleep", "I draw, write, read", "I beg your pardon, I tell the truth", "I hug, I stroke", "I walk, I run, I ride a bike, I try to relax, stay calm, I watch TV, I listen to music, I stay on my own, I dream, I imagine, I pray. The following methods of overcoming unpleasant situations by schoolchildren are noted: to ask for forgiveness, to forget, to quarrel, to fight, to leave, not to talk, to ask an adult for help, to explain their actions, to cry.
When studying self-regulation of negative mental states by schoolchildren, four main methods were identified:
1. communication as an empirically found method of group self-regulation;
2. strong-willed regulation - self-orders;
3.regulation attention functions- shutdown, switching;
4. motor(muscle) release.
These empirically identified methods of emotional self-regulation can be correlated with the work of the basal levels of emotional regulation in the process of normalizing a person's emotional state (Table).
Table. Comparison of the methods of self-regulation by children of negative emotional states with the activity of various levels of the basal system of emotional regulation.
Levels of the basal system of emotional regulation |
Ways to Overcome Emotional Discomfort |
1. The level of field reactivity - passive forms of mental adaptation |
Self-hypnosis, passive discharge; “I stay on my own”, “I try to relax, stay calm”, etc. |
2. The second level - the development of affective stereotypes of sensory contact with the world |
Physical activity; "I hug, I stroke", "I walk, I run, I ride a bike", "I watch TV, I listen to music" |
3. Level of expansion - active adaptation to an unstable situation |
Volitional actions; creation of affective images: "I draw", "I dream, I imagine"; "I fight", "I interfere with the actions of those who cause unpleasant experiences" |
4. Level of emotional control - emotional interaction with other people |
Communication; "I'm sorry or I'm telling the truth", "I'm talking to someone", "I'm asking an adult for help" |
Conscious volitional emotional self-regulation
In Russian psychology, the concepts of "will" and "volitional regulation" (self-regulation) are often used as synonyms, since the overwhelming majority of scientists recognize the regulating function as the main function of will. The concept of will and volitional regulation basically coincide, volitional regulation (self-regulation) is a type of mental regulation of activity and behavior, when a person needs to consciously overcome the difficulties of goal setting, planning and execution of actions.
Volitional self-regulation can be considered as a certain type of voluntary control of a person by his behavior and activities. The concept of "will" corresponds to voluntary control, therefore, volitional self-regulation and will are in correlation as a part and a whole.
Emotions and will are indispensable components of management (and regulation as a particular case of management) of a person by their behavior, communication and activities. Traditionally, emotional-volitional regulation is an object of consideration in general psychology. When they talk about the “emotional-volitional sphere,” “emotional-volitional qualities,” it only emphasizes the connection between will and emotions, but not their relationship, and even less their identity. These two spheres of the psyche often manifest themselves as antagonists in everyday life, in particular, when the will suppresses the surge of emotions, and sometimes, on the contrary, it becomes obvious that a strong emotion (for example, affect) suppressed the will.
It is in no way possible to explain volitional processes only by feelings. Feelings are one of the stimuli of the will, but it is completely wrong to reduce the volitional activity of a person only to experienced feelings. However, the intellect alone, without the involvement of the senses, does not always affect the will.
In the process of regulating behavior and activity, emotions and will can act in different proportions. In some cases, the emerging emotions have a disorganizing and demobilizing effect on behavior and activity, and then the will (or rather willpower) acts as a regulator, compensating for the negative consequences of the emotion that has arisen. This is clearly manifested when a person develops so-called unfavorable psychophysiological conditions. The feeling of fatigue arising from fatigue and the desire to reduce the intensity of work or even stop it altogether is compensated for by the volitional quality of patience. The same volitional quality manifests itself in other states, for example, in monotony, if the situation requires continuation of work. The states of anxiety and doubt, what is called "confusion of the soul", are overcome with the help of the volitional quality of decisiveness, the state of fear - with the help of the volitional quality of courage, the state of frustration - with the help of perseverance and perseverance, the state of emotional excitement (anger, joy) - with the help excerpts.
In other cases, emotions, on the contrary, stimulate activity (inspiration, joy, in some cases - anger), and then the manifestation of volitional effort is not required. In this case, high efficiency is achieved due to the hypercompensatory mobilization of energy resources. However, such regulation is uneconomical, wasteful, always carries with it the danger of overwork. But volitional regulation has its own "Achilles' heel" - excessive volitional tension can lead to a breakdown of higher nervous activity. Therefore, a person should optimally combine a strong will with a certain level of emotionality.
Often, the absence of emotional manifestations is attributed to the strong will of a person. So, for example, equanimity is mistaken for endurance, self-control, courage. In reality, it is obvious that equanimity may reflect low emotional reactivity or be the result of a person's adaptation to a given situation.
Emotional-volitional self-regulation (EVS) is a system of sequential self-action techniques in order to increase emotional volitional stability in tense and dangerous situations. EMU develops and improves a number of important psychological qualities: self-control, self-confidence, attention, imaginative thinking, memorization skills. At the same time, EMU prevents mental and physical fatigue, helps to strengthen the nervous system and increase the psyche's resistance to negative influences, and increases efficiency.
The essence of EMU lies in the development in a person of the ability to independently influence their regulatory psychological and nervous mechanisms with certain exercises and techniques.
At present, great importance is attached to the development of methods of voluntary regulation of emotional states, since they are not suppressed by simple desire, but require a special regulation technique to remove them. Moreover, these techniques can be used both to eliminate conditions that interfere with the success of the activity, and to excite states that contribute to success.
The technique in which these two directions are used is called psychoregulatory training (PRT). OA Chernikova (1962) showed that voluntary control of emotions differs from the control of cognitive processes (thinking, memorization, etc.). However, it should be noted that these techniques are not associated with the use of volitional efforts and overcoming the consequences of unfavorable conditions, but are based on the challenge of certain ideas, images. Therefore, they cannot be considered methods of volitional regulation. At the same time, the development of the mentioned direction contributes to a clearer understanding of will (arbitrariness) as control, mastery of oneself.
Psycho-regulatory training is a variant of autogenous training adapted to the conditions of sports activities. It is addressed to people who are good at relaxation of muscles, practically healthy, who pay great attention to the development of coordination of movements. In this regard, the PRT does not apply formulas that cause a feeling of heaviness in the limbs. Sometimes, on the contrary, formulas for overcoming this feeling (if it does arise) are included. The main task of the PRT is to manage the level of mental stress.
Conscious semantic emotional self-regulation
Conscious semantic emotional self-regulation is usually called emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence (EI, EI, EQ) (English Emotional intelligence) - a group of mental abilities that are involved in the awareness and understanding of their own emotions and the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence is the skill of understanding your feelings and emotions. People with a high level of emotional intelligence understand well their emotions and feelings of other people, they can control their emotional sphere, and therefore in society their behavior is more adaptive and they more easily achieve their goals in interaction with others.
Unlike IQ, the level of which is largely determined by genes, the level of emotional intelligence (EQ) develops throughout a person's life. The development of emotional intelligence is a difficult job that people have encountered, but it is this job that yields great results, it is it that increases personal effectiveness.
The first publications on the problem of EI belong to J. Meyer and P. Salovey. D. Goleman's book, which is very popular in the West, was published only in 1995. The main stages of the formation of EI:
- 1937 - Robert Thorndike writes on social intelligence
- 1940 - David Wechsler wrote on intellectual and non-intellectual components (affective, personal and social factors)
- 1983 - Horvard Gardner wrote on multiple intelligences (intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences)
- 1990 - John Mayer and Peter Salovey coined the term EI and began a research program to measure EI.
- 1995 - Daniel Goleman publishes Emotional Intelligence
The very idea of emotional intelligence in the form in which this term exists now grew out of the concept of social intelligence. In the development of cognitive science at a certain period of time, too much attention was paid to informational, "computer-like" models of intelligence, and the affective component of thinking, at least in Western psychology, receded into the background.
The concept of social intelligence was precisely the link that binds together the affective and cognitive aspects of the cognitive process. In the field of social intelligence, an approach was developed that understood human cognition not as a "computing machine", but as a cognitive-emotional process.
Humanistic psychology has become another prerequisite for the increased attention to emotional intelligence. After Abraham Maslow introduced the concept of self-actualization in the 1950s, a "humanistic boom" took place in Western psychology, which gave rise to serious integral studies of personality, combining the cognitive and affective sides of human nature.
One of the researchers of the humanistic wave, Peter Salovey, in 1990 published an article entitled "Emotional Intelligence", which, according to the majority in the professional community, was the first publication on this topic. He wrote that over the past few decades, ideas about both intelligence and emotions have changed radically. Reason has ceased to be perceived as a kind of ideal substance, emotions as the main enemy of the intellect, and both phenomena have acquired real significance in everyday human life.
Salovey and his co-author John Mayer define emotional intelligence as "the ability to perceive and understand the manifestations of personality expressed in emotions, to manage emotions based on intellectual processes." In other words, emotional intelligence, in their opinion, includes 4 parts: 1) the ability to perceive or feel emotions (both their own and that of another person); 2) the ability to direct their emotions to help the mind; 3) the ability to understand what this or that emotion expresses; 4) the ability to manage emotions.
As Salovey's colleague David Caruso later wrote, "It is very important to understand that emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intelligence, not a triumph of reason over feelings, it is a unique intersection of both processes."
Reven Bar-On offers a similar model. Emotional intelligence in the interpretation of Bar-On is all non-cognitive abilities, knowledge and competence that enable a person to successfully cope with various life situations.
The development of emotional intelligence models can be thought of as a continuum between affect and intelligence. Historically, the first was the work of Salouay and Mayer, and it included only cognitive abilities associated with the processing of information about emotions. Then there was a shift in the interpretation of the strengthening of the role of personal characteristics. An extreme expression of this tendency was the Bar-On model, which generally refused to attribute cognitive abilities to emotional intelligence. True, in this case, "emotional intelligence" turns into a beautiful artistic metaphor, since, after all, the word "intelligence" directs the interpretation of the phenomenon into the mainstream of cognitive processes. If "emotional intelligence" is interpreted as an exclusively personal characteristic, then the very use of the term "intelligence" becomes unjustified.
In the early nineties, Daniel Goleman became familiar with the work of Salovey and Mayer, which ultimately led to the creation of the book Emotional Intelligence. Goleman wrote scientific articles for The New York Times, his section was devoted to research on behavior and the brain. He trained as a psychologist at Harvard, where he worked, among others, with David McCleland. McCleland in 1973 was among a group of researchers who tackled the following problem: why classical tests of cognitive intelligence IQ tell us little about how to become successful in life. IQ is not very good at predicting the quality of a job. Hunter and Hunter in 1984 estimated that there was a discrepancy of about 25% between different IQ tests.
Initially, Daniel Goleman identified five components of emotional intelligence, which were later reduced to four: self-awareness, self-control, social sensitivity and relationship management, in addition, from 25 skills related to emotional intelligence, he in his concept moved to 18.
self-awareness
- emotional self-awareness
- accurate self-assessment
- self confidence
self-control
- curbing emotions
- openness
- adaptability
- The will to win
- initiative
- optimism
social sensitivity
- empathy
- business awareness
- courtesy
relationship management
- inspiration
- influence
- help in self-improvement
- promoting change
- settlement of conflicts
- teamwork and collaboration
Goleman does not consider emotional intelligence skills to be innate, which in practice means they can be developed.
Hay / McBer's research identified six leadership styles based on a specific level of emotional intelligence. The best results are achieved by those leaders who own several management styles at the same time.
Emotional intelligence in the concept of Manfred Ca de Vry. It makes sense to tell in a few words about who Manfred Ca de Vry is. He combines in his approach the knowledge accumulated in at least three disciplines - economics, management and psychoanalysis, being a specialist in each of these areas. This is essential, since emotional thinking, and emotion in general, play a significant role, both in management practice and in psychoanalytic one.
One of the most difficult problems, which has not yet found its really adequate solution, is that where it is a question of the junction of various scientific fields, a space arises that is not covered by any of these areas, or is covered, but partially, without accounting for the role of another.
Usually, one of the ways to solve such a problem is seen by an expert commission, consisting of specialists from all related specialties for a given field, but this does not always help, since it is rather difficult for specialists from different fields to find a common language. In this case, one person has several specialties, which makes it possible to formulate ideas in the most adequate and accessible way for people who belong to different scientific communities.
“A unique mixture of motivations determines the character of each of us and forms a change in our mental life - the close relationship of cognition, affect and behavior. None of the components of this triangle can be considered in isolation from the rest. It is the holistic form that is important ”.
Cognition and affect determine behavior and action.
Emotional potential - understanding the motivations of oneself and others. According to Ca de Vry, he is an essential factor in the study of leadership. Acquiring emotional sensitivity is an experiential process.
Manfred Ca de Vry uses a clinical paradigm in his work, describing it as follows:
1. What you see does not necessarily correspond to reality.
2. Any human behavior, no matter how irrational it may seem, has a logical rationale.
3. We are all the result of our past.
“Character is a form of memory. This is the crystallization of the inner theater of a person, the outlines of the main points of the personality. "
- verbal-linguistic intelligence: good verbal memory, likes to read, rich vocabulary,
- logical and mathematical intelligence: likes to work with numbers, solve logic problems and puzzles, chess, more developed abstract thinking, understands causal relationships well,
- visual-spatial intelligence: imaginative thinking, loves art, gets more information when reading from illustrations, and not from words,
- motor-motor intelligence: high athletic performance, copes gestures and facial expressions well, loves to disassemble and assemble objects,
- musical and rhythmic intelligence: good voice, easily memorizes melodies,
- - interpersonal intelligence: loves to communicate, leader, loves to play with other children, others prefer his company, is able to cooperate in a team,
- intrapersonal intelligence: independence, willpower, realistic self-esteem, verbalizes one's own feelings well, self-awareness is developed,
- naturalistic intelligence: interest in nature, flora and fauna.
Ca de Vry mentions that emotional intelligence, according to Gardner's classification, corresponds to the combined interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences.
Unlike Daniel Goleman, Manfred Ca de Vry identifies not four, but three components of emotional intelligence: "The three most important auxiliary skills that shape emotional potential are the ability to actively listen, understand non-verbal communication and adapt to a wide range of emotions."
With reference to his experience, Manfred Ca de Vry gives the following main characteristics of people with high emotional potential. Such people build more sustainable interpersonal relationships, are better able to motivate themselves and others, are more active, innovators and creators, are more effective in leadership, work better under stress, cope better with change, and are more in harmony with themselves.
So, to summarize all of the above, it turns out that people with a high level of emotional intelligence are well aware of their emotions and feelings of other people, they can control their emotional sphere, and therefore in society their behavior is more adaptive and they more easily achieve their goals in interaction with others.
The following hierarchically organized abilities are distinguished that make up emotional intelligence:
- perception and expression of emotions
- improving the efficiency of thinking with emotions
- understanding your own and others' emotions
- emotion management
This hierarchy is based on the following principles: The ability to recognize and express emotions is the basis for generating emotions for solving specific problems of a procedural nature. These two classes of abilities (to recognize and express emotions and use them in solving problems) are the basis for the externally manifested ability to understand the events that precede the emotions and follow them. All of the above abilities are necessary for the internal regulation of one's own emotional states and for successful influences on the external environment, leading to the regulation of not only one's own, but also other people's emotions.
The five main components of EI are:
- self-awareness
- self-control
- empathy
- relationship skills
- motivation
The structure of emotional intelligence can be represented as follows:
- Conscious regulation of emotions
- Understanding (comprehending) emotions
- Discrimination (recognition) and expression of emotions
- Using emotions in mental activity
There are two different opinions on the possibility of developing emotional intelligence in psychology. A number of scientists adhere to the position that it is impossible to increase the level of emotional intelligence, since it is a relatively stable ability. However, it is quite possible to increase emotional competence through training. Their opponents believe that emotional intelligence can be developed. The argument in favor of this position is the fact that the neural pathways of the brain continue to develop until the middle of human life.
EQ and negative emotions. One of the great things about developing emotional intelligence is the reduction of negative emotions. Any negative emotion is a mistake in a person's picture of the world. The picture of the world (a term from NLP) refers to the many beliefs of a person about what our world is. As soon as any two beliefs begin to contradict each other, this causes negative emotion. Let's give an example. The person has a deep conviction "to cheat is bad", and at the same time another conviction "now I must cheat." By themselves, these beliefs do not carry any negative, but if they start spinning in the head at the same time ... then a sea of negative emotions appears: fear of making a decision and making a mistake, guilt for any of the two decisions, depression, anger at oneself, anger at people, who are involved in the situation, etc.
Developed emotional intelligence allows one to see the cause of negative emotions behind a sea of negative emotions (conflict of several beliefs), the cause of this reason, etc., and then soberly assess the situation and react to it intelligently, and not under the influence of “internal springs”. In other words, emotional intelligence allows you to quickly deal with the causes of negative emotions, rather than experiencing them for a long, long time.
EQ and leadership. Most books on emotional intelligence are about leadership in one way or another. The idea is that leaders are people with strong emotional intelligence. And that's why. First, the development of emotional intelligence allows you to get rid of many fears and doubts, start acting and communicate with people to achieve your goals. Secondly, emotional intelligence allows you to understand the motives of other people, "read them like a book." This means finding the right people and effectively interacting with them.
The power of leadership is used in different ways: either manipulating people, or doing one big thing together. Regardless of their intentions, a leader can achieve results through the forces of many people, which makes a leader more likely to succeed than a loner. This is why a leader doesn't need to have a high IQ. His EQ allows him to surround himself with smart people and exploit their genius.
EQ and business. Developing emotional intelligence helps a lot when building your business. Movement towards any goal makes a person come face to face with many fears and doubts. A person with low emotional intelligence is likely to swerve under their pressure. A person with developed emotional intelligence will come face to face with his fears and, perhaps, understand: not everything is so scary, which means he will continue to slowly move forward. A person with high emotional intelligence simply will not have internal brakes, he will “on the fly” deal with fears and will happily move towards his goals. Thus, the skill of understanding your emotions is directly related to the effectiveness of achieving your goals.
EQ and the materialization of thoughts. The average person's thoughts run in their heads like cockroaches, and behind every thought is an army of "unprocessed" emotions. In such a state, it is difficult to concentrate on one idea for a long time: it is immediately attacked by opposing thoughts (what if, and what if they think). With the development of emotional intelligence, negative emotions weaken their influence, it becomes possible to think clearly and clearly, and therefore pay main attention to the main things. Thus, with the development of emotional intelligence, a person's dreams become reality faster and faster.
EQ and personal effectiveness. Personal effectiveness is a direct consequence of the development of emotional intelligence. Personal performance can be viewed from a variety of perspectives: time management, discipline, motivation, plans, and goals. The development of emotional intelligence means the transition from a zombie to a conscious life, a movement from reactive to proactive behavior, from aimless wandering in the dark to the effective implementation of one's intentions. And it all boils down to one idea, simple by ear, but incredibly difficult in practice: understanding your feelings and emotions.
Emotional intelligence development
From the point of view of working with the subconscious, there are two groups of techniques for the development of emotional intelligence. Conventionally, they can be called:
- reprogramming
- deprogramming.
Reprogramming includes, for example, neurolinguistic programming (NLP) and hypnosis. NLP as a science studies many different techniques that allow you to "program" the subconscious mind for more harmonious work.
The second group of techniques can be conventionally called "deprogramming" - getting rid of the subconscious of unnecessary beliefs. Deprogramming allows you to become aware of hidden emotions and thus weaken the effect of beliefs ("cockroaches") on the will of a person.
Methods of "deprogramming" the subconscious:
Intuitive writing (journaling is a special case). The essence of this technique is simple: sit and write whatever comes to mind. After 15 minutes, complete delirium begins to give way to a pure stream of consciousness. And the solutions to many of the problems that caused stress and negative emotions become simple and obvious. However, it was mentioned earlier that “cockroaches” from the subconscious have powerful protection, so not all people are able to sit and write out all their thoughts for half an hour - it becomes boring, painful and uncomfortable. On the other hand, it is worth trying once to understand the disadvantages and advantages of this method.
Meditation is like passive observation of your thoughts. There are many types of meditation. One of them is being aware of your inner monologue (which is very difficult). Such meditation allows you to "catch the tail" of any negative emotions, to understand their causes and understand their ridiculousness. Programmers will understand that meditation is like debugging a program. True, unlike computer programs, the object of debugging is negative emotions, and its result is getting rid of unnecessary instructions that cause stress.
Be Set Free Fast (BSFF) is a popular technique developed by psychologist Larry Nims. The idea of the method is simple: if the subconscious mind readily fulfills the commands laid down in it, then it can also execute the command to get rid of unnecessary commands. The essence of the method is to write down and see the beliefs associated with the problem, and with the help of a special command for the subconscious to remove the emotional charge from them. BSFF can be used purposefully to enhance emotional intelligence or simply to get rid of any psychological discomfort.
The Sedona Method - Letting Out Emotions - was developed by Lester Levenson. In his bedridden state, he realized that all problems have their own key on an emotional level. Of course, the author of this method soon recovered. The essence of the Sedona Method is to identify the underlying emotion associated with a problem, feel it, and release it using a simple procedure.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is an emotional release technique. The main postulate of EFT: "The cause of all negative emotions is the disruption of the normal functioning of the body's energy system." EFT uses the impact on acupuncture points on the human body to relieve emotional stress and release negative emotions.
PEAT - Zhivorad Slavinsky's method. The methodology uses the principles of EFT and BSFF, and its essence lies in the transition from a dual perception of the world (I am not I), which gives rise to problems and stress, to a single perception (there is only the world, and I am only its manifestation). This allows you to achieve harmony with the world and with yourself.
There are three stages in the development of emotional intelligence.
The first is knowing yourself. The next step in developing emotional intelligence is learning how to manage your feelings and emotions. The third stage in the development of emotional intelligence can be a step towards mastering the following skills:
Listen actively. Listening is much more than just silently waiting for your turn to speak, nodding your head from time to time. Active listeners are busy with only one thing - they are fully involved in what has been said.
Listen with your eyes. The second skill - the perception of gestures - in general also refers to the ability to listen. But he also helps to convey their own thoughts.
Adapt to emotions. Every emotional state has a positive and negative side. Take anger, for example. While it alienates others, interferes with critical self-esteem, and paralyzes the body, it also serves as a defense against self-esteem: it creates a sense of justice and encourages action.
Emotional intelligence allows you to quickly deal with the causes of negative emotions, instead of experiencing them for a long time.
The development of emotional intelligence allows you to get rid of many fears and doubts, start acting and communicate with people to achieve your goals.
from lat. regulare - to put in order, to establish) - in the general case, the impact on the system, carried out in order to maintain the required indicators of its work, but implemented through internal changes generated by the system itself in accordance with the laws of its organization. The simplest case of S. is when the system responds to external changes with a deterministic program of actions. This type of S. is realized in technical systems (eg, autopilot), as well as in the instinctive behavior of animals. In the human body, S. is carried out according to the principle of self-organizing systems, that is, taking into account the learning acquired in the past experience. Therefore, the memory mechanism plays an essential role here, which performs the functions of both storing hereditary C codes and accumulating, generalizing and systematizing the experience acquired in the process of development. The reason; generating S. in the human body is its functional orientation. Such a reason may be a goal, supported by appropriate motives and incentives and generating directional human behavior under the control of consciousness. A directed response can also be stimulated by deviations of the physiological parameters of the body from the norm or deviations from the mental attitudes prevailing in the process of activity, causing unconscious C. The specified direction of C. in the human body is provided due to the anti-entropic (decreasing entropy) nature of its processes, which allows reproducing the necessary for its preservation unlikely conditions of the body. The most important element of S. is feedback. Thanks to a person's ability to anticipate reflection, S. is based not only on the model of what has already happened, but also on the model of the required and expected future. Moreover, the probabilistic nature of the latter encourages a person to actively adapt to the environment in order to search for and extract from it additional information necessary to maintain and develop C. experience (M. A. Kotik). From the examination it follows that various processes of S. occur in the human body both at the physiological and mental levels. Each of them has its own qualitatively specific energy and informational manifestations, which are in a complex and inextricable relationship. S. processes also proceed in close unity with self-control processes and are one of the mechanisms of high reliability of human activity. S. is often spoken about in connection with a person's ability to consciously change his state. The main methods of S. in this regard include: neuromuscular relaxation, autogenous training, ideomotor training, techniques of sensory reproduction of images, and self-hypnosis. Suggestions (suggestion), light-musical influences, various types of industrial gymnastics are used as additional techniques that contribute to the mastery of C methods. Many of these methods are widely used in production in the practice of work of psychological relief rooms.
A general idea of the structure of the ecological system was presented when characterizing the levels of organization of life (Chapter 2) and the global circulation of substances and energy (Chapter 3). Recall that a full-fledged ecosystem represents biogeocenosis - inseparable unity of biocenosis and abiotic environment. Biocenosis Is a complex community of populations of organisms of different species and different trophic groups: animals, plants, fungi, microorganisms that inhabit a certain area. Wherein population denote a set of individuals of the same species living in a given area. The entire sum of the factors of the inanimate environment (soil, air, water, illumination, etc.) determines the properties biotope- habitats of this biocenosis.
Under the influence of various environmental factors, a well-balanced biocenosis in composition, nevertheless, self-regulating and maintains internal consistency - homeostasis. The state of homeostasis is manifested in the fact that 1) organisms reproduce normally; 2) despite the high natural mortality, the number of different populations in the community is maintained at certain levels, albeit in an oscillatory mode; 3) biocenosis remains stable and reproduces itself under fluctuating climatic conditions.
Now let's take a closer look at these patterns and reveal the main mechanisms of environmental sustainability.
(1) Self-regulation in populations of organisms
Elementary self-regulation is carried out at the level of individual populations specific species of animals, plants, fungi, bacteria. The size of the population depends on the opposition of two principles: the biotic (reproductive) potential of the population and the resistance of the environment, between which direct and feedback links are established (Fig.5.5). Let us clarify this with a specific example. When the Europeans brought rabbits to Australia, the latter, without encountering predators, quickly settled in areas rich in vegetation, their numbers rapidly increasing. This was facilitated by high biotic potential(fertility) rabbits. But soon there was not enough food, hunger arose, diseases spread, and the number of rabbits began to decline. Worked medium resistance factor, which acted as negative feedback... While the rabbit population was in a depressed state, the environment (vegetation) recovered, and the process went on a new wave. After several cycles, the amplitude of fluctuations in the number of rabbits decreased and a certain average population density was established.
Rice. 5.5. Self-regulation of the number of individuals in the population
In addition to the action of the environment, the population size is self-regulated by the behavior of its members.... For example, in many rodents in an overpopulated population, the aggressiveness of individuals increases, cannibalism occurs (adults eat cubs), which inhibits further growth in numbers. There are changes in the hormonal regulation of reproduction, fertility decreases and mortality increases. These regulatory mechanisms are based on a physiological stress response driven by the release of adrenaline (see previous section). So the mechanisms of self-regulation of individual organisms are consistent with the mechanisms of self-regulation of populations.
(2) Self-regulation in biocenosis
Self-regulation is more complicated in biocenosis , since it consists of several interacting communities of animals, plants, fungi, microbes, composed of numerous populations of different species. All these populations interact on the basis of numerous forward and backward connections.
First of all, important trophic (food) connections that line up in several levels. As we found out earlier, according to the nature of food relations, all organisms are divided into three large groups, three trophic levels: producers, consumers and reducers(Section 3.4, Fig. 3.4). The pathways of the transfer of matter and energy through the food relations of organisms are designated as food chains, or food chains... These chains have a one-way direction: from the autotrophic biomass of producers, mainly green plants, to heterotrophic consumers and further to decomposers.
Power chains are of varying complexity. The number of links in each of the three levels can be different, and in many cases the chain is formed by only two levels - producers and reducers. A two-level chain forms the basis of the circulation of living matter in the forest: wood and leaf litter (the material of producers) are consumed and processed mainly by decomposers - fungi, bacteria, some worms and insects. Long chain: plants - herbivorous insects (locusts, butterfly larvae - caterpillars, etc.) - predatory insects (many ground beetles, dragonflies, bugs, wasp larvae, etc.) - insectivorous birds (swallows, flycatchers, etc.) - birds of prey ( eagle, kite, etc.) - insects, saprophages and necrophages, worms, bacteria. Complex food chains develop in marine ecosystems (Figure 5.6).
Rice. 5.6. Food chains in the marine ecosystem
Branches and sidings are possible in any food chain. If some link falls out, the flow of matter goes through other channels. For example, the loss of dragonfly larvae is compensated by water bugs - both aquatic predators. If the main type of food vegetation disappears, herbivores switch to secondary food. Omnivores and, of course, humans are especially confusing to food chains, since they are “built in” into chains at various links. So, in fact, there are not chains, but food webs- each trophic level is formed by many species. This situation stabilizes the flows of matter and energy through living communities, increases the stability of biocenoses... Nevertheless, the general direction of the trophic flow is unchanged: producers - consumers of several orders - reducers.
Now let's formulate the main idea of this section: the ecosystem food pyramid carries out self-regulation, i.e. keeps internal, ecosystem homeostasis ... The optimal number and proportion of different inhabitants of the biocenosis are established by themselves, as a result of self-regulation processes. In all populations, at all trophic levels, there is always fluctuation in the number of individuals, and fluctuations at the lowest level invariably lead to fluctuations at the next level, but in general, the system maintains an equilibrium state for a considerable length of time.
Rice. 5.7. Self-regulation of biocenosis based on food links
In fig. 5.7 shows an example of a self-regulating biocenosis. Depending on fluctuations in weather and climatic conditions (solar activity, precipitation, etc.), the yield of forage plants - producers varies from year to year. Following the growth of green biomass, the number of herbivores - consumers of the first order (direct positive relationship) increases, but already next year this will negatively affect the yield of plants, since most of them will not have time to give seeds, since they will be eaten (negative feedback). In turn, an increase in the number of herbivores will create conditions for good nutrition and reproduction of predators - consumers of the second order, their numbers will begin to increase (direct positive relationship). But then the number of herbivores will decline (negative feedback). By this time, due to the activity of various decomposers, the remains of roots and grass litter from the first wave of the harvest, as well as corpses and excrement of animals, will begin to decompose to mineral substances, which will create favorable conditions for plant growth. The second harvest wave will begin and the cycle will repeat itself. From year to year, the number of populations of organisms at different trophic levels will vary, but on average, the biocenosis will maintain a stable state for many years. This is ecological homeostasis.
(3) Sustainable development of ecological systems
As noted at the beginning, the biocenosis should not only self-regulate (judging by the above diagram, this is not so difficult), but it should have sustainability to changes in external (abiotic, weather and climatic) factors, so to speak, a margin of safety in the event of temporary unfavorable environmental conditions or even long-term directional climate change. A number of conditions will contribute to maintaining the high stability of the biocenosis: 1) high, but balanced reproductive potential individual populations - in case of mass death of individuals; 2) adaptations(adaptation) of certain species to the experience of unfavorable conditions; 3) maximum diversity communities and branched food webs: the disappeared object must be replaced by another, normally - a secondary one.
In fact, the processes of accumulation in the biocenosis of individual and species adaptations, restructuring in food webs, i.e. substitutions of some species for others, contributing to the long-term survival of the community, together make up the ecological homeokinesis- adaptive restructuring to new homeostatic states. As we remember, homeokinesis is no longer resistance, but development ... Then the whole process of a sufficiently long existence of biogeocenosis, combining homeostatic and homeokinetic phases, should be called sustainable development ... Sustainable development of an ecosystem is characterized by its self-reproducing, self-regulation of the species composition and number of individuals, dynamic resistance to changes in climatic factors.
But the process of sustainable development of the ecosystem can be disrupted... Two scenarios are most typical. Under natural conditions, the biocenosis is practically destroyed with strong, catastrophic changes in the external environment(fires, floods, prolonged droughts, glaciers and other natural disasters). In addition, the biocenosis significantly changes its appearance. with sharp changes in the composition of communities(usually by humans), for example, as a result of the mass shooting of predators, the colonization of new species, as was the case with rabbits or sheep in Australia, deforestation, plowing the steppes for monoculture, draining swamps, etc. Such disastrous events lead to the death of a significant part of the population of the biocenosis, the complete disappearance of certain species, the destruction of food connections and, naturally, interrupt the state of sustainable development. The biocenosis in its former composition ceases to exist.
In the future, there is a gradual change in the composition of the ecosystem, its transition to new quality which means the formation new biocenosis, new cycle towards sustainable development. Such an "ecological renaissance" is called succession(lat. successio- continuity), since the colonization of new species proceeds successively, from lower forms (bacteria, lower fungi, algae) to more and more complex ones (mosses and lichens, then grasses, worms and insects, shrubs, etc.). In the old place, new communities of organisms are formed, with new food connections. The process of changing the ecosystem and its development to a new state of stability occurs not only in stages, but also very slowly - depending on the degree of destruction, from decades to several thousand years.
In this way, despite self-regulation in ecological systems, nature naturally and irreversibly changes... This is a natural biogeochemical process that occurs independently of the will and human activity. When it proceeds without abrupt deviations, one speaks of sustainable development of ecosystems. This definition reflects the unity of opposites: stability, homeostasis, on the one hand, and development, irreversible change, on the other. Disruption to sustainable development means an offensive environmental crisis or disaster ... In the last 30 thousand years, environmental crises have repeatedly occurred through the fault of man. We will consider the causes and ways of overcoming anthropogenic crises in Chapter 8.
Let's summarize the problem of self-regulation and sustainable development.
Self-regulation and maintenance of homeostasis – an obligatory property of living systems of any level of complexity... The relative constancy of the physicochemical parameters of the cell is regulated and maintained. The state of tissues and organs of a multicellular organism remains within the physiological norm. The composition and number of living communities in biocenoses are reproduced. Maintaining homeostasis is based on a universal negative feedback principle.
With excessive (critical, but not catastrophic) influences of external factors on the system, the mechanisms of its self-regulation are supplemented by adaptive rearrangements, homeokinesis - the transition to reaching a new level of homeostasis... Even under normal conditions, living systems change directionally and irreversibly in the course of individual and historical development, realizing genetic and epigenetic “attitudes”, using the mechanisms of self-organization. By its essence development- a process opposite to self-regulation, as it occurs based on positive feedbacks... Stability, immutability of biosystems, on the one hand, and their gradual change, development, on the other, represent the dialectical unity of opposites, which is expressed by the concept sustainable development... With a natural and balanced course of these processes, cells function normally throughout the entire life of the body, a person in health and mind lives up to 100 years, the Earth's biosphere retains the prospect of viability for millions of years.
At the same time, cells not only divide, develop and work, but in the end they also die. Organisms also age and die. Biocenoses are destroyed and undergo successions, and eventually perish due to the cooling of the Earth and the Sun. These changes usually occur in sequence crises and disasters... They are inevitable, just as the evolution of the Universe is inevitable.
It is clear that it is possible to extend the life of a person or biocenosis, as well as the entire Biosphere, in the form sustainable development, due to the maximum possible extension homeostatic states and reliability homeokinetic mechanisms. This requires not only perfect mechanisms of self-regulation of systems, but also relatively stable environmental conditions. To a certain extent, these conditions are controlled by a person, which means that his future is in his own hands.
Self-regulation of vital functions of organisms
The concept of self-regulation. Self-regulation (auto-regulation)- the ability of living organisms to maintain the constancy of their structure, chemical composition and the intensity of physiological processes. For example, chloroplasts are capable of independent movement in cells under the influence of light, since they are very sensitive to it. On a sunny bright day with high light intensity, chloroplasts are located along the cell membrane, as if trying to avoid the effect of strong light. On cloudy, cloudy days, chloroplasts spread over the entire surface of the cell's cytoplasm to absorb more sunlight (Fig.). The transition of chloroplasts from one position to another under the influence of light occurs due to cellular regulation.
Self-regulation is carried out according to the principle of feedback, similar to how, for example, maintaining a constant temperature in a thermostat is carried out. In this device, there is the following causal dependence of thermoregulation:
Switch - heating - temperature.
By switching on and off, you can manually adjust the temperature. In a thermostat, this is done automatically, through a temperature-measuring regulator that turns on or off the heating in accordance with the readings. The temperature affects the switch through the regulator and feedback is established in the system:
Switch - Heating - Temperature -
regulator
A signal for turning on a particular regulatory system can be a change in the concentration of a substance or the state of a system, the penetration of a foreign substance into the internal environment of the body, etc.
Regulation of metabolic processes. The formation and concentration of any metabolic product in the cell is determined by the following causal relationship:
DNA - enzyme - product.
DNA triggers the synthesis of enzymes in a certain way. Enzymes, in turn, catalyze the formation and transformation of the product. The resulting product can influence the chain of reactions through nucleic acids (gene regulation) or through enzymes (enzymatic regulation):
DNA - enzyme - product
DNA - enzyme - product.
We have previously considered the regulation of the processes of transcription and translation (see § 33), which is an example of self-regulation.
Or another example. As a result of energy-consuming reactions (synthesis of various different syntheses of substances, absorption of substances from the environment, growth, cell division, etc.), the concentration of ATP in cells decreases, and ADP increases accordingly (ATP - ADP + F). The accumulation of ADP activates the work of respiratory enzymes and respiratory processes in general, and thus, enhances the generation of energy in the cell (Fig.).
Regulation of functions in plants. The functions of the plant organism (growth, development, metabolism, etc.) are regulated with the help of biologically active substances - phytohormones (see § 8). In small quantities, they can accelerate or slow down various vital functions of plants (cell division, germination of seeds, etc.). Phytohormones are produced by certain cells and transported to the site of their action through conductive tissues or directly from one cell to another.
Plants are able to perceive changes in the environment and react in a certain way to them. Such reactions are called tropisms and nastia.
Tropisms(from the Greek. tropos - turn, change of direction) are growth movements of plant organs in response to a stimulus that has a certain direction. These movements can be carried out both in the direction of the stimulus and in the opposite direction. . Οʜᴎ are the result of uneven division of cells on different sides of these organs in response to the action of phytohormones of growth.
Nastia(from the Greek. infusion - compacted) is the movement of plant organs in response to the action of a stimulus that does not have a definite direction (for example, a change in illumination, temperature). An example of nastia is the opening and closing of the corolla of a flower, depending on the illumination, folding the leaves when the temperature changes. . Nastia is caused by stretching of organs due to their uneven growth or changes in pressure in certain groups of cells as a result of changes in the concentration of cell juice.
Regulation of vital functions of the animal organism. The vital functions of the animal organism as a whole, its individual organs and systems, the consistency of their activity, the maintenance of a certain physiological state and homeostasis are regulated by the nervous and endocrine systems. These systems are functionally interconnected and affect each other's activities.
Nervous system regulates the vital functions of the body with the help nerve impulses having an electrical nature. Nerve impulses are transmitted from receptors to certain centers of the nervous system, where they are analyzed and synthesized, and the corresponding reactions are formed. From these centers, nerve impulses are directed to the working organs, changing their activity in a certain way.
The nervous system is able to quickly perceive changes in the external and internal environment of the body, and quickly respond to them. Recall that the body's reaction to stimuli of the external and internal environment, which is carried out with the participation of the nervous system, is called reflex (from lat. reflexus- turned back, reflected). Consequently, the reflex principle of activity is characteristic of the nervous system. The complex analytical and synthetic activity of nerve centers is based on the processes of the emergence of nervous excitement and its inhibition. It is on these processes that the higher nervous activity of man and some animals is based, providing perfect adaptation to changes in the environment.
Leading role in humoral regulation vital functions of the body belongs system of glands of internal secretion. These glands are developed in most groups of animals. Οʜᴎ are not spatially connected, their work is coordinated either due to nervous regulation, or hormones produced by some of them affect the work of others. In turn, the hormones secreted by the endocrine glands affect the activity of the nervous system.
A special place in the regulation of the functions of the organism of animals belongs to neurohormones - biologically active substances produced by special cells of the nervous tissue. Such cells are found in all animals with a nervous system. Neurohormones enter the blood, intercellular or cerebrospinal fluid and are transported by them to those organs whose work they regulate.
In vertebrates and humans, there is a close connection between the hypothalamus (the diencephalon) and the pituitary gland (the endocrine gland associated with the diencephalon). Together they make up hypothalamic-pituitary system. This connection consists essentially in the fact that neurohormones synthesized by the cells of the hypothalamus enter the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland through the blood vessels. There, neurohormones stimulate or inhibit the production of certain hormones that affect the activity of other endocrine glands. The main biological significance of the hypothalamic-pituitary system is the implementation of perfect regulation of the autonomic functions of the body and the processes of reproduction. Thanks to this system, the work of the endocrine glands can rapidly change under the influence of stimuli from the external environment, which are perceived by the sense organs and processed in the nerve centers.
Humoral regulation can be carried out with the help of other biologically active substances. For example, a change in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood affects the activity of the respiratory center of the brain of terrestrial vertebrates, and calcium and potassium ions affect the work of the heart.
Regulatory systems continuously monitor the state of the body, automatically maintaining its parameters at an almost constant level, even under adverse external influences. If, under the influence of any factor, the state of a cell or organ changes, then this amazing property helps them to return to their normal state again. As an example of the mechanism of operation of such regulatory systems, let us consider the response of the human body to physical activity.
Reaction to physical activity. During intense physical exertion, the nervous system sends signals to the medulla adrenal glands- endocrine glands lying over the kidneys. These glands release the hormone adrenaline into the bloodstream.
Driven by adrenaline from spleen a small amount of blood deposited in it enters the vessels, as a result of which the volume of peripheral blood increases. Adrenaline also causes the capillaries of the skin, muscles and heart to expand, increasing their blood supply. With physical exertion, the heart must work harder, pumping more blood; muscles must set in motion the limbs; the skin needs to produce more sweat in order to ward off the excess heat generated by intense muscle work. Adrenaline also causes the blood vessels in the abdomen and kidneys to narrow, decreasing their blood supply. This redistribution of blood allows the blood pressure to be maintained at a normal level (with an expanded blood bed, this is not enough).
Adrenaline also increases the rate of breathing and heartbeat. As a result, oxygen enters the blood and carbon dioxide is removed from it faster, the blood moves through the vessels also faster, delivering more oxygen to intensively working muscles and accelerating the removal of end metabolic products.
When exercising, muscles release more carbon dioxide than usual, and this in itself has a regulatory effect. Carbon dioxide increases the acidity of the blood, which increases the supply of oxygen to the muscles and dilates the blood vessels of the muscles, and also stimulates the nervous system to increase the production of adrenaline, which in turn increases the rate of respiration and heart rate (Fig.).
At first glance, all these adaptations to physical activity should change the state of the body, but in reality they ensure the maintenance of the same composition of the extracellular fluid that bathes all the cells of the body, and especially the brain, as it would be without exercise. If there were no these adaptations, physical activity would lead to an increase in the temperature of the extracellular fluid, to a decrease in the concentration of oxygen in it and to an increase in its acidity. With extremely severe physical exertion, all this happens; acid builds up in the muscles, causing cramps. The seizures themselves also have a regulatory function, preventing further physical work and allowing the body to return to its normal state.
s 1. What regulatory systems exist in a living organism? 2. How the regulation of vital functions is carried out v organism? 3. What is homeostasis and what mechanisms of its maintenance do you know? 4. What is common and different between nervous and humoral regulation? 5. What is the connection between the nervous system and the glandular system of internal secretion? 6. What changes occur in the circulatory system of the human body during physical exertion? How are these changes regulated? 7. Remember from the 9th grade biology course, what are the possible disruptions in the functioning of the human body as a result of disruption of the relationship between the nervous system and the system of endocrine glands?
Section 35. Immune regulation
The immune system plays an important role in ensuring the vital activity of the body. As you already know immunity(from lat. immunitas- immunity) - the body's ability to protect its own integrity, its immunity to pathogens of certain diseases. Specific and nonspecific mechanisms are involved in the creation of immunity.
TO nonspecific mechanisms of immunity include the barrier function of the skin epithelium and mucous membranes of internal organs; bactericidal action of certain enzymes (for example, some enzymes of saliva, lacrimal fluid, hemolymph of arthropods) and acids (secreted with the secretion of sweat and sebaceous glands, glandular mucosa of the stomach). This function is also performed by cells of different tissues, capable of neutralizing particles and microorganisms foreign to a given organism.
Specific mechanisms of immunity provided by the immune system, which recognizes and neutralizes antigens (from the Greek. anti - against and genesis - origin) - chemicals produced by cells or included in their structures, or microorganisms perceived by the body as foreign and causing an immune response from its side.
In the broadest sense, self-regulation(from lat. regulars- put in order, establish) - this is the expedient functioning of living systems of different levels of organization and complexity. The concept of "self-regulation" is widely used in various fields of science to describe living and nonliving systems based on the principle of feedback.
Mental self-regulation is one of the levels of regulation of the activity of these systems, expressing the specifics of the mental means of reflection and modeling of reality, including the subject's reflection, that realize it. Psychic self-regulation is carried out in the unity of its energetic, dynamic and content-semantic aspects.
The place and role of psychic self-regulation in a person's life is quite obvious if we take into account that practically his entire life is an infinite variety of forms of activity, actions, acts of communication and other types of purposeful activity. It is purposeful voluntary activity that realizes the whole multitude of effective relationships with the real world of things, people, environmental conditions, social phenomena, etc., that is the main mode of human subjective life. Success, reliability, productivity, the final outcome of any act of voluntary activity depends on the degree of perfection of self-regulation processes. Moreover, all individual characteristics of behavior and activity are determined by functional formation, dynamic and meaningful characteristics of those self-regulation processes that are carried out by the subject of activity. The process of formation of mental regulation is lengthy. Man's mastery of his behavior is a turn in the process of human evolution.
Personal regulation of vital functions arises in the process of anthropogenesis, when life itself becomes the subject of a relationship on the part of its carriers. A new system of the subject's relations arises - relations to their own direct relations with the world. In the consciousness of a person, not only objective reality is reflected, but also the very relations connecting him with it. These relationships can be of varying degrees of awareness, and their representation in consciousness forms a special plane of subjective reality. The personality represents a certain regulatory system that ensures that the subject separates himself from the surrounding world, structuring and presenting his relations with the world and subordinating his life to the stable structure of these relations, as opposed to momentary impulses and external stimuli. This is the essence of human self-regulation.
With all the variety of manifestations, self-regulation is a closed control loop, has the following structure:
· The purpose of the subject's voluntary activity;
· A model of significant operating conditions;
· The program of actual performing actions;
· A system of criteria for the success of activities;
· Information on the actually achieved results;
· Assessment of compliance of real results with success criteria;
· A decision on the need and nature of the correction of activities.
It is important to take into account that the general laws of self-regulation are realized in an individual form, depending on specific conditions, as well as on the characteristics of nervous activity, on the personal qualities of the subject and his habits in organizing his actions, which is formed in the process of upbringing. The goal adopted by the subject does not unambiguously determine the conditions necessary for building a program of performing actions. With similar models of significant operating conditions, different ways of achieving the same result are possible. Depending on the type of activity and the conditions for its implementation, self-regulation can be realized by various mental means (sensory concrete images, ideas, concepts, etc.).
In science, the problem of self-regulation was originally developed within the framework of will theory... The ability to regulate mental processes and states was noted in the works of Aristotle. The focus of will not only on external action, but also on attention was emphasized in the works of A. Ben, T. Ribot, W. James. However, in these works, the regulation of the performed action and various mental processes is not posed as a special problem. The idea of the regulation of behavior as a special independent process was clearly formulated in the works of C. Sherrington, who developed C. Bernard's position on self-regulation. C. Sherrington believed that self-regulation associated with human consciousness does not need a special mental education called will, and is carried out through the work of certain nerve centers associated with conscious reflection.
In general, the regulatory approach to the problem of will turned out to be closely related to the motivational approach in the concrete idea of will as overcoming an obstacle and contributed to the consideration of undesirable states as internal obstacles to activities associated with emotional stress.
The German psychologist J. Kul was one of the first to make the assumption that a special role in regulation is acquired by processes and mechanisms that support a particular motivational tendency of a person, form his intention to act, and bring him to the achievement of a goal. Among such mechanisms, Yu. Kul distinguishes the following: motivational, perceptual, emotional, behavioral control, control of attention, activation of efforts, coding and working memory. The author notes that these mechanisms are implemented most often at an unconscious level, but they can also take the form of conscious strategies.
According to Yu. Kuhl, an intention consists of a number of elements combined into a single network. The key elements of this network are cognitive representations of the present, future, and current state. If all elements are activated to the same degree, the intent is complete and the action is most efficiently implemented. If any of these elements is absent or underrepresented, then the person pays increased attention to this element (consciously or unconsciously) and additionally processes the information associated with the missing element. This is the most likely reason for the occurrence of an inferior intention, which perseverates (ie, renews itself, “loops”), but does not translate into action.
Yu. Kul suggests that there are people prone to the formation of full-fledged intentions - subjects oriented towards action, and defective intentions - subjects oriented towards the state. The latter are characterized by such a type of regulation as "self-control", which is phenomenologically manifested in voluntary attention directed at the target object and in a person's efforts to increase the level of his own activity. In this case, directive supercontrol leads, paradoxically, to a loss of control. For action-oriented subjects, another type of regulation is characteristic - “self-regulation”, which manifests itself in involuntary attention to the target object and in the absence of efforts on the part of a person. “Self-regulation” in terms of resources is a more economical type of regulation than “self-control”.
In Russian psychology, the basic principles of regulation in living systems were formulated in the works of P.K. Anokhin and N.A. Bernstein. In a general form, questions of self-regulation were touched upon by S.L. Rubinstein, A.N. Leontiev. Currently, research on the problem of self-regulation is carried out in three main areas:
· Self-regulation of activity;
· Self-regulation of behavior;
· Self-regulation of mental processes and states.
At the same time, one of the central places is occupied by the problem of self-regulation of the mental activity of the subject of activity, the development of which is carried out within the framework of the subjective approach to the study of the psyche (K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, O.A. Konopkin, V.I. Morosanova, A.K. Osnitsky and etc.). According to representatives of this approach, self-regulation is a kind of vertical, a subjective property, a coordinator of varied personal qualities, which ensures overcoming the contradictions in the functioning of a personality in activity. Regulation is a functional tool of the subject, allowing him to mobilize his personal and cognitive capabilities, acting as mental resources, to implement his own activity, to achieve subjectively accepted goals.
The core of O.A. Konopkin is an idea of an integral system of conscious self-regulation of activity, allowing the realization of subjective integrity, as well as the understanding that in a meaningful analysis of subjective characteristics, attention is paid to one or another purposeful activity that has a certain personal meaning and in relation to which a person acts as its initiator and creator.
Conscious self-regulation, according to O.A. Konopkin, this is a system-organized process of internal mental activity of a person to initiate, build, maintain and control various types and forms of voluntary activity, which directly realizes the achievement of the goals he accepts. Speaking about the individual characteristics of self-regulation, the author identifies personality structures that have a significant impact on what goals a person sets for himself, and also modulates in a specific way the individual profile of self-regulation, that is, the features of achieving these goals. It examines such qualities of the subject as independence, internal determinant, regulation of activity, the ability to be the creator of his life, as well as general self-regulation ability... This ability is manifested both in external activity (successful mastering of new types and forms of activity, etc.) and in the internal plane (awareness, understanding of the foundations of the activity being carried out). Insufficient development of this ability to a certain extent can be compensated by the formation of the necessary separate regulatory processes in a passive-reproductive way.
The structure of the general ability of self-regulation is distinguished:
· The presence of a complete functional structure of the self-regulation process;
· Internal plan of interaction with reflected reality;
· Emotional attitude to the reflected;
· Human speech development, etc.
The development of the general ability of self-regulation involves a person's awareness of his strengths and weaknesses and the maximum compensation for the inadequacy of some means of self-regulation by others - an individual kind of reflexive approach to himself.
The systemic organization of the self-regulation process (the systemic participation in it of all the psychic means of the subject) presents more opportunities for the manifestation of purely individual characteristics of self-regulation on the basis of those psychic means that a person has.
Within the framework of the structural-functional approach to the study of self-regulation processes, individual-typological differences in the implementation of regulatory functions are highlighted. In the studies of G.S. Prygin highlighted the types of self-regulation of activity: autonomous, mixed and dependent. This selection is based on the peculiarities of the functioning of the system of conscious self-regulation of activity and a certain level of development of personal qualities, united in the concept of “ effective independence».
Autonomous entities at all stages of the performance of activities, they reveal such qualities as: purposefulness, self-discipline, developed self-control, the ability to adequately assess the external conditions for the performance of activities, to actively search for information necessary for the successful implementation of activities, confidence in their personal qualities, knowledge and skills, as well as the ability, if necessary, to mobilize them to achieve the set goal - i.e. a complex of effective independence in the performance of activities.
Subjects with dependent type of self-regulation the complex of "effective independence" is poorly developed. A person cannot himself determine the correctness of the chosen method of action or assess the significance of one factor or another that affects the success of an activity; he cannot himself critically analyze the results obtained, etc. As a result, he often has to seek help from more competent people.
Subjects with mixed type of self-regulation to some extent combine the qualities inherent in these types: purposefulness, composure, developed self-control are combined with an insufficient ability to simulate the conditions for performing activities, which can lead to a mismatch between the goal and the result of the activity. In conditions of increased complexity of the activity being performed, the success of its self-regulation approaches the indicators of "dependent", in a situation of a low degree of complexity of the activity - to the indicators of "autonomous".
Interesting view of V.I. Morosanova on the self-regulation process. In her opinion, the implementation of any type of activity is provided by a certain regulation loop, characterized by individual regulatory characteristics specific to a given subject. In this sense, they are regulatory components of a specific activity. But here it should be borne in mind that any kind of activity traditionally singled out in psychology is "single", integral in its structure is very conditional. In reality, it is a diverse set of activity situations in which a person has to put forward and achieve a variety of goals, to regulate very diverse forms of activity. For example, educational activities, the main "system-forming" goal of which is the assimilation of knowledge, includes self-regulation of their activities in the classroom and at home, communication with peers and teachers, and so on. Therefore, in relation to any type of activity, it is difficult to talk about the possibility of a person's existence of a single style of individual activity.
IN AND. Morosanova considers self-regulation as the main characteristic of the subject and analyzes the stylistic features of self-regulation of activity, focusing on the personal aspects of self-regulation. The author introduces the concept - individual style of self-regulation in the voluntary activity of a person. Individual-typical features of self-regulation are determined by the personality characteristics of the subject, are modeled under the influence of the requirements of a specific activity, and on the basis of this, such a structure of regulation is formed that contributes to the achievement of an acceptable success for the subject.
IN AND. Morosanova identifies two types of self-regulation:
· Harmonious type, in which all the main processes and links of regulation are developed at approximately the same level;
· Accentuated type, in which there is a different degree of development of individual regulatory links.
The grounds for this classification are formal (structural characteristics of styles) and substantive (efficiency of self-regulation and regulatory and personal properties) subclassifiers.
A.K. Osnitsky considers the problem of independence as a subjective activity and distinguishes two types of self-regulation: activity and personal. The first type captures the predominance of object transformations in the regulation of tasks, and the second - the tasks of transforming attitudes towards objects and people.
Activity self-regulation manifests itself in the organization of efforts to improve the efficiency of actions, successful achievement of the goal, optimization of individual components of regulation in the system of increasing its efficiency as a whole.
Personal self-regulation manifests itself in the determination of their individual place in the cultural and historical tradition and those corrections that are made in determining their own positions. Both in activity self-regulation and in personal self-regulation, much depends on the formation of activity, courage and awareness, fixed in the regulation of efforts, in actions.
As source self-regulation of personality is considered the contradiction between the anticipatory and current reflection (what is planned and what is not implemented). According to K.V. Milyukhin, the decisive role of anticipatory reflection in the self-regulation of the personality can be explained as one of the factors causing the mismatch between the ideal model of the required future, which is created by the human brain, and reality. Mismatch acts as an internal impulse, as an incentive force. Behavioral and other activity is triggered in the course of resolving (removing) a contradiction.
The following are considered as self-regulation mechanisms:
Reflection;
· Semantic binding;
· Modeling the required future and creating a contradiction between the desired and the reality.
Reflection(as the subject's focus on himself and on his activity) is a universal mechanism of the self-regulation process. It stops (fixes) the process of activity, objectifies it, which makes it possible to consciously influence this process. In the process of self-regulation, reflection performs two important functions: constructive and control. According to A.I. Podolsky, reflection regulates the search for a solution to a problem, stimulates the advancement and synthesis of hypotheses, and ensures the correctness of their assessment.
B.V. Zeigarnik, A.B. Kholmogorova, E.S. In addition to reflection, Mazur distinguishes one more mechanism of self-regulation - semantic binding... They point out that the possibility of conscious regulation is set by the hierarchical structure of the semantic formations of the personality, which are a unity of affective and cognitive components. The process of self-regulation involves the restructuring of semantic formations, the condition of which is their awareness. It is conscious semantic formations that underlie self-regulation of behavior, with their help, an arbitrary change in semantic orientation, control over immediate motives, assessment and correction of actions and deeds is carried out. The process of self-regulation, which involves the formation of a new semantic system, is provided by a number of mechanisms that set the general principles of correlation between motives and meanings, motives and goals within the structure of the motivational sphere.
Semantic binding is both a mechanism of self-regulation as a component of experience and a mechanism of self-regulation as volitional behavior. However, in the case of volitional behavior, semantic linking consists rather in strengthening already existing meanings, ways of linking them with other motives and values, while in the process of experiencing a new semantic system is being formed. Establishing an internal connection with the value sphere of a person and thereby transforming neutral content into an emotionally charged meaning is a special internal work, which can be designated as the action of semantic binding. In the dynamic aspect, the result of this work is the emergence of new impulses, which receive an "energy charge" by linking the new content with the motivational and semantic sphere of the personality.
Thus, the semantic sphere of the individual, as a specially organized set of semantic formations (structures) and connections between them, provides semantic regulation of the integral life of the subject in all its aspects.
An important function of semantic formations is as follows: any human activity can be assessed and regulated by its success in achieving certain goals and by its moral assessment. The latter cannot be produced “from within” the current activity itself, proceeding from the available actual motives and needs. Moral assessments and regulation necessarily imply a different, non-situational support, a special, relatively independent psychological plan, not directly captured by the immediate course of events. This support is for a person semantic formations, especially in the form of their awareness - personal values, since they do not set specific motives and goals by themselves, but the plane of relations between them, the most general principles of their correlation. The semantic level of regulation does not prescribe ready-made recipes for actions, but gives general principles that in different situations can be implemented by different external actions.
Self-regulation is ineffective in the absence of personal meaning and the corresponding motivation of the subject. That is, the process of regulation of states with conscious regulation bears an imprint of personal significance for the subject. This allows us to assert that semantic regulation life activity is the basis of the process of personality self-regulation.
The highest level of value-semantic regulation is represented by a system of personal values, which are non-situational, stable structures. They determine the functioning of regulatory formations and are considered as conscious semantic formations. This level is called the meaningful level of value-semantic regulation.
The next level of regulation is dynamic, it is determined directly by the regulatory component (planning, modeling, programming, etc.), reflection, personality activity, emotional experiences.
In this way, self-regulation is a process of a person's conscious voluntary control of their behavior, activities, thanks to which there is a resolution of conflicts, mastery of their behavior, etc. The process of self-regulation is mediated by the work of the mechanisms of consciousness and, first of all, the reflection and transformation of the semantic formations of the personality. Effective self-regulation presupposes adequate awareness and transformation of the semantic structures of the personality that determine behavior and activity.