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Decentration

Decentration, a mechanism for developing personality’s cognitive processes, moulding his/her moral make-up and perfecting his/her communicative skills, which functions on the basis of the subject’s ability to perceive another person’s point of view (see Social Perception). D. is the key notion in genetic epistemology, in which it is denned as a mechanism for overcoming egocentrism and signifies the processes of transforming the essence of the subject’s images, concepts and representations through his acceptance of other people’s possible points of view (cognitive prospects). The source of D. is direct or interiorised (see Interiorisation) communication with other people (inner dialogue) in the course of which opposing conceptions clash, impelling the individual to change his cognitive position. In their works, Jean Piaget and his followers viewed D. chiefly as a factor of the socialisation of a child’s thinking. Later the link between D. and the successful identification with the role of another person, the development level of cognitive emphathy and the effectiveness of communicative interaction was demonstrated; the inadequetly developed skill of D. may play a certain role in the appearance of a number of mental disorders, schizophrenia in particular. The level of D. changes noticeably with age: it increases in the period from childhood to adulthood and decreased towars old age. The ability to D. also varies depending on the environment: thus in professional relationships the level of D. is usually higher than in family relationships.

Decision-Making

Decision-Making, a volitional act resulting in a sequence of actions leading to achievement of a goal through transforming initial 70 information in an uncertain situation. D.-M. is the central process at all levels of data processing and psychological control within a system of purposeful activity. The main stages of D.-M. involve informational preparation of a decision (data analysis and construction of current images) and D.-M. procedure per se (forming and comparing standard and current images, image correction, choice and construction of standard hypothesis or action programme). The structure of D.-M. comprises the goal, result, ways of attaining it, assessment criteria, and choice rules. The structure and mechanisms of D.-M. are not stably universal at different levels of mental reflection. When transition is made from the perceptual-cognitive level to the speech-and-thought level, the mechanism of trying and choosing hypotheses is replaced by the mechanism of constructing conceptual models. The link between D.-M. and thinking is not unambiguous. In problem solving directly connected with practice (with production management and people, and with the system "man— machine"), D.-M. comes out as a special form of thinking. However, as a stage of intellectual action, D.-M. is the culminating point in solving any problem, including cognitive and creative ones. The D.-M. concept has quite a broad application range. In addition to general psychology, it covers psychology of management ( managerial D.-M.), social psychology ( collective D.-M.) psychophysiology ( whereby afferent synthesis is coverted into an action programme), and also a number of nonpsychological disciplines. Engineering psychology regards D.-M. as the main process in operator activity, and optimisation of D.-M. for present criteria as the principal task.

Deduction

Deduction, the progression of knowledge from the general to the particular, from the premises to their consequences. D. is closely linked to induction. Logic views D. as a type of inference. Psychology studies the development and impairment of deductive reasoning. The progression of knowledge from the general to the particular is analysed in connection with the psychic processes and the process of thinking in general. The analysis of veridity of the premises and their conclusions is an example of an empirical study of deductive reasoning.

Deed

Deed, a form of manifestation of a subject activeness determined by its socially significant results, for which the subject is responsible even in case they had not been intended. The subject’s personal responsibility is established on the basis of concrete socio-historical criteria of his potential ability to foresee the consequences of his activity. D. is a concrete form of the joint psychological and sociological description of the subject’s activeness and may be used as a unit in the psychological analysis of the personality. The personalisation of the individual within the system of interpersonal relationships is provided through D.

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Defectology

Defectology, see Special Psychology.

Defence, Psychological

Defence, Psychological, a specific regulatory system of stabilising the personality to remove or minimise the feeling of anxiety aroused by the realisation of an existing conflict. The function of D.,P. is to “guard” the sphere of consciousness against negative emotions traumatic to the personality. In a broad sense, the term "D.,P." is used to denote any behaviour removing psychological discomfort which can form such personality traits as “ negativism”, result in “false”, substituting activities (Bluma Zeigarnik, Boris Bratus) and alter the system of interpersonal relations. Understood in a narrow sense, D.,P. leads to a specific alteration of the content of consciousness as a result of the functioning of a number of defence mechanisms: repression, negation, projection, identification, regression, isolation, rationalisation, conversion, etc. More than once described in fiction (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, et. al.), D., P. as a specific psychological phenomenon was initially examined in Freudianism, which interpreted it from a premise of the priority of the unconscious, instinctive (mainly sexual) origins which, as a result of a clash with the "protective mechanisms" of the conscious Self (internal “ censorship”), are subjected to various transformations (repression, sublimation, and the like). The problem of a meaningful characterisation of the “targets” of D., P. is resolved differently by representatives of various schools of psychology. Thus, Neo-Freudianism recognised the necessity of D., P. when the subject develops a feeling of inferiority, when there is a threat to the value and significance of the personality. The personalist theories (personalism) treat D., P. as a consequence of contradictions in the Self structure and the final goal of the defence process is concord between the real content of consciousness and the Self-concept, etc. The attitude to various psychological concepts is determined by the general critical appraisal of the psychological theories of personality (psychoanalysis, neobehaviourism, etc.) within which the concepts of the essence and nature of D.,P. have taken shape. Soviet psychology tackles D.,P. problems from the standpoint of the Marxist teaching on personality. D.,P. is a manifestation of the interaction between the subject and the environment in a situation of a possible or real set-back in one’s activity, and the realisation of the need to be a full-fledged personality. It is customary to subdivide D.,P. into successful and unsuccessful. Successful D.,P. results in the cessation of anxiety-provoking impulses, while unsuccessful D.,P. does not, thereby causing a constant repetition of these impulses. The specific manner in which the defence mechanisms of both the former and latter categories are dealt with varies according to different authors.”

Delinquent

Delinquent, a subject whose deviant behaviour in its extreme form is an activity punishable by law.

Delirium

Delirium, a mental disturbance accompanied by hallucinations, incoherent 72 thought and restlessness. Usually follows the peak of certain infectious diseases and traumas affecting mental functions.

Dementia

Dementia, a defect of intelligence, a result of underdevelopment or atrophy of the higher mental junctions. Primary D. involves intellectual underdevelopment caused by a hereditary disease, harmful innate factors, or by early childhood deprivation. Secondary D. results from an atrophy of mental functions caused by lack of exercise, emotional support and the constant influence of harmful factors (social, age, medicinal disease-related). Depending on the nature of the harmful and degenerative .factors, D. may be classified as senile, alchoholic, epileptic, post-traumatic, etc.

Depersonalisation

Depersonalisation, (1) a change in one’s self-awareness characterised by a loss of identity and a painful emotional experience of alienation from family, colleagues, etc. .D. follows mental diseases and marginal states. A mild form of D. may occur in mentally healthy people under emotional stress, somatic disorders, etc; (2) any loss by an individual of the possibility to be ideally represented in the lives of other people, and of the ability to be a personality (see Personalisation).

Depression (in psychology)

Depression (in psychology) an emotional state of despondency characterised by negative emotional attitudes, a change in the motivation sphere, cognitive impressions and generally passive behaviour. A person in a state of D. experiences painful emotions: deep sadness (melancholy), anxiety, despair. Drives, motives and volitional activity (see Will) are all but lacking. D. is characterised by self blame for various disasters that occurred in the life of the individual or his relatives. The feeling of guilt for past events and the realisation of his inability to cope with reality are accompanied by a loss of confidence in the future. An individual’s self-appraisal is extremely low, his sense of time is unrealistic and as far as he is concerned it passes extremely slow. Behaviour in a state of D. is characterised by an overall slow-down, lack of initiative and fatigability; this leads to a sharp fall in productivity. In severe cases of D., suicide is possible. There are functional states of D. that may occur in healthy people within the limits of normal mental functioning, and pathological D. which is one of the basic psychiatric syndromes.

Depth Psychology

Depth Psychology, a number of trends in Western psychology stressing the primary significance in human behaviour of the so-called deep-seated forces of the personality—its drives and attitudes lying beneath the “surface” of consciousness. The better-known trends within D.P. are Freudianism. Alfred Adler’s individual psychology, Carl Jung’s analytical psychology, William Mcdougall’s hormic approach, Ludwig Binswanger’s existential analysis, and neo-Freudianism. Ideas of D.P. exerted a certain impact on medicine. Rejecting introspectionism which identified the mind with its “looks”, in the subject’s consciousness, D.P. took a stand irreconcilable with the scientific determinist approach: in its interpretation of the 73 motives of human behaviour D.P. ascribes an active, dynamic role to basically unconscious motivation supposedly inherent in the subject’s mental dynamic structure. Proceeding from the Marxist doctrine, Lev Vygotsky opposed to both “surface” psychology (studying consciousness through the introspective method, the method of self-observation) and to depth psychology “summit” psychology analysing the correlation between the system of psychological functions (including affects and the will) and the historically changeable cultural forms (see Cultural-Historical Theory).

Desire

Desire, feeling of want transformed into an active thought about possessing or accomplishing something. Providing an impulse, a D. helps define the goal of the future action and plan its realisation. As a motive of activity, a D. is characterised by a fairly clear awareness of the need, including both its objects and the possible ways of fulfilling it.

Detector

Detector, a device for detecting certain types of signals. In physiology, a D. is an afferent neuron selectively attuned to a certain signal parameter. It is tuned selectively with the participation of a fixed system of links between the neurons and the receptors or afferent neurons of a lower level. At an external signal, the maximum excitation is registered by a D. D’s of line orientation, depth, colour, direction, velocity of movement, etc. were discovered during experiments with animals. D’s are components of an analyser.

Determinism (in psychology)

Determinism (in psychology), a logical and inevitable dependence of psychic phenomena on factors that originate them. D. includes causality as an aggregation of circumstances preceding the effect and causing it, as well as other forms: systems D. (the dependence of separate components of a system on the properties of the whole), retroactive D. (the effect influence its cause), statistical D. (similar causes produce effects that vary in certain limits and subordinate to statistical laws), targeted D. (the goal that inveriably forestalls the result determines the process of reaching this result), etc. The development of scientific knowledge on psyche is linked with the discovery of various forms of D. For a long period it was oriented towards mechanistic D., which interpreted psychic phenomena as dependent on material factors or analogously to the interaction of objects in mechanism, or to the work of technical devices (machines). Despite the limited nature of the conception (psychic phenomena are only viewed as consequences of external influence), it provided psychology with its basic conceptions on reflex, associations, affect, etc. Biological D., which’ appeared in the mid-19th century, was devoted to the behaviour of living systems ( Darwin’s theory of the origin of species by natural selection) and established the view on psychology as a function necessary for their survival. While mechanistic D. regarded psyche as byproduct (epiphenomenon), it later came to regard it as an inherent component of living systems. When it was established that this ingredient was of an 74 independent causal significance, there appeared psychological D., which received, however, an inadequate interpretation in the theory of specific psychic causality allegedly opposed to materialistic causality (Wilhelm Wundt). A different approach to psychological D. can be found in the works of natural scientists (Hermann Helmholtz, Franciscus Donders, Ivan Sechenov, and others), who demonstrated that psychic phenomena (image, choice reaction, etc.) conditioned by the influence of external factors on the organism, are formed in accordance with laws that differ from physical and biological laws and, on this basis, serve as specific behavioural regulators. The introduction in psychology of the ideas of natural scientific psychological D. led to its being singled out as an independent field of knowledge studying processes dependent on their own laws. A new form of D. was discovered by MarxistLeninist philosophy, according to which the activeness of man’s consciousness is rooted in his way of life. This gave rise to the appearance of methodological requisites for the realisation of the principle of D. on the level of the psychological organisation of man’s activity. Soviet psychology put forth the interpretation of D. as the action of "external causes through internal conditions" (Sergei Rubinstein) and as the action of "the internal through the external" (Alexei N. Leontyev). The Marxist- Leninist provision that while changing the surrounding world, which is independent of man’s consciousness, through his objective activity, the subject also undergoes changes, gave rise to the basic principle explaining man’s psyche from the point of view of D. This activity simultaneously produces the “external” (products of the material and spiritual culture’ which embody man’s existential forces) and the “internal” (man’s existential force, formed in the process of their objectification in these products).

Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology, a branch of psychology that studies the age dynamics of human psyche. D.P. includes child psychology, junior schoolchildren’s psychology, teenage psychology, early youth psychology, adult psychology, and old-age psychology ( gerontopsychology). D.P. examines the age specifics of mental processes and assimilation of knowledge, and also the age aspects of the personality’s development. Given that mental development is achieved in the course of training and education, the subjectmatter of D.P. actually coincides with that of pedagogic psychology; historically, both have developed virtually simultaneously. The actual unity of D.P. and pedagogic psychology is due to the fact that both study the same object, namely, the human being, who develops and changes in ontogenesis. D.P. studies the dynamics and regularities of man’s development (see Age); while pedagogic psychology examines how man is trained and educated in the course of the teacher’s purposeful influence.

Developmental Sensitiveness

Developmental Sensitiveness, optimal course of development of specific mental properties and processes inherent in a definite stage of a child’s life. Premature 75 or delayed training with regard to D.S. may prove inefficient and produce an unfavourable effect on mental development.

Deviant Behaviour

Deviant Behaviour, a system of actions or specific actions contradicting the legal or moral norms accepted in society. The basic types of D.B. are crime and unpunishable (legally) amoral behaviour (hard drinking, money-grubbing, loose sex morale, etc.). These forms of D.B. are connected in that delinquent actions are often preceded by habitual immoral behaviour. Studies of D.B. give prominence to investigating its motives, causes, and conditions conducive to its development, and also possibilities for preventing and correcting such behaviour. A particularly important role in the origin of D.B. is played by defects in legal and moral consciousness, personal needs, the specifics of one’s character or of the emotional and volitional sphere (see Will). As a form of D.B. crime is studied mainly by criminology, which along with the data of other sciences uses the results of psychological research as well. Soviet criminology explains criminal behaviour of an individual by the combined results of wrong development of the personality and by some unfavourable situation. D.B. which does not collide with the law is also largely determined by educational shortcomings that lead to the forming of more or less stable psychological traits conducive to immoral actions. Initial manifestations of D.B. are sometimes observed in children and teenagers, and are explained by their relatively low level of intellectual development (see Intellect), undeveloped personality, negative influence of the family and milieu, and the teenager’s dependence on group norms and on the value orientations accepted in the given group. D.B. in children and teenagers often serves as a means of self- assertion, and expresses their protest against real or alleged injustice on the part of adults. D.B. may go with sufficient knowledge of moral norms, this being indicative of the need to form moral habits in relatively ,young age. In cases when D.B. is connected with men’tal diseases, not only pedagogical, but also therapeutic measures would be necessary.

Dialogue

Dialogue an alternate exchange of utterances (in the broad sense an answer in the form of action, gesture, or pause is also considered to be an utterance). In Antiquity and in the 17th-19th centuries, D. was a widespread form of philosophical and scientific works (Xenophon, Plato, Galilei, Malebranche, Dioderot, etc.). Studies of D. connected with the analysis of the social mechanisms of psyche started in psychology in the 20th century (Lev Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory, interactionism, psychoanalysis, Jean Piaget’s theory (see Geneva School of Genetic Psychology), the works of Mikhail Bakhtin, and others). Beginning in the 1970s, the psychological aspect of D. between man and electronic computer has become a widely studied field. The interest of psychology in D. stems from the fact that for a child D. (speech stirred by an adult and addressed to an adult and lined directly with an 76 action) is an initial structural-genetic component of communication (1), through language and, later, in the course of a person’s life, a universal component of communication through language. Each remark (statement) concerns a certain object (a remark about something) and is of a social nature (addressed to a partner, regulated by a microsocial relationship between partners). Ontogenetically, D. precedes inner speech (see Speech, Inner) affecting its structure and functioning and thus man’s consciousness in general.

Didactogeny

Didactogeny a negative psychological condition of a pupil (depression, depressive mood, fear, frustration, etc.) caused by the use of inappropriate teaching methods by an educator ( teacher, coach, etc.) and having a negative effect on his activity and relationships (see Interpersonal Relationships). D. may cause neuroses.

Differential Psychology

Differential Psychology, a field of psychology devoted to psychological differences both between individuals and between groups, and the reasons and consequences of these differences. D.P. originated with the development of experiments and genetical (see Methods of Psychogenetics) and mathematical methods. D.P. took shape under the direct influence of such spheres of practical activity as pedagogics, medicine and engineering. It was inaugurated by Francis Gallon who worked out a number of methods and devices for studying individual differences and for analysing them from the point of view of statistics (see Statistical Methods). The term "D.P." was introduced by the German psychologist William Stern in his work "On the Psychology of Individual Differences" (1900). Alfred Binet, Alexander Lazursky, James Cattell, and others were the first major representatives of the new trend. Tests (see Testing) became the basic method of D.P.: first individual tests and later group tests were used for establishing certain intellectual differences, and still later, with the discovery of projective tests— for measuring interests, attitudes and emotional reactions. Test processing by factor analysis methods reveals factors that indicate general properties ( parameters, measurements) of the personality’s intellect. On this basis, qualita- : live variations in the psychological traits of individuals are determined. [ The following theories are popular in i Western psychology: (1) Charles Spearman’s two-factor theory, accord- ^l ing to which any kind of activity implies both a general factor and j a specific factor, one only necessary for the given type of activity (for instance, for solving .mathematical problems, for composing, etc.); (2) the multiple factor theories (Louis Thurstone, Joy Guilford, and others) which deny the existence of the general factor and argue that there exists a broad range of initial intellectual abilities (the speed of perception, associative memory, etc.). No matter how perfect the tests and their processing, they alone are unable to explain the origins of psychological differences. In D.P. this is a disputable question. During a prolonged period Western psychologists believed that a person’s 77 abilities and character were biologically predetermined. Emphasis was placed on heredity and the formation of the organism, while the dependence between individual psychological traits and the environment was ignored. At present new approaches and methods, both experimental and mathematical, are being developed in D.P. Along with intellectual differences between individuals, differences in creative and organisational abilities, in the personality structure and in the motivational spheres are being studied on a broad scale. Much attention is paid to discovering intercorrelations (see Correlation Analysis) between psychological traits on the one hand, and physiological and biochemical properties on the other. Much work is being done in this field by Soviet researchers. D.P. is of much importance for solving many practical problems (selecting and training personnel, diagnosing and forecasting the development of certain traits, propensities, abilities, etc.).

Differential Psychophysiology

Differential Psychophysiology, a field in psychology concerned with individual psychophysiological differences. The term was introduced by the Soviet researcher Vladimir Nebylitsin (1963). In D.P. two methodological approaches are used: (1) comparison of physiological and psychological parameters received in independent experiments, and (2) study of the change of physiological functions in the course of certain activity. The conception on the properties of the nervous system as applied to man, which is the basic conception of D.P., was developed by Boris Teplov and Vladimir Nebylitsin on the basis of Ivan Pavlov’s works on the types of higher nervous activity. D.P. is characterised by: study of certain properties of the nervous system and not the types of nervous system as a whole; acknowledgement of the existence of various characteristics inherent in the same property that form a syndrome; separation in the syndrome of a single characteristic corresponding to the definition of the given property; rejection of a value approach. According to Teplov, the psychological properties of the nervous system are manifested in the form of formal-dynamic behavioural characteristics ’and, firstly, in the subject’s temperament. As a rule, D.P. regards the neurophysiological level as the initial level: the characteristics of the nervous system are viewed as an independent variable, while psychological characteristics are viewed as a dependent one. However, data is available on the possibility of opposite influences.

Diligence

Diligence, a positive individual attitude towards work. D. is manifested in personal activeness, initiative, conscientiousness, enthusiasm, and gratification in the very process of work. Psychologically, D. implies that the individual regards work as the main purpose of his life and feels constant need to work. Under socialism, D. acquires a truly moral import to make the individual aware that his work serves the common cause, which becomes his own cause, and in whose results he is personally interested. To foster D. in an individual, he or she must realise the significance and results 78 of his or her work. A major task of communist education in socialist society is to promote D. in all its members.

Dispersion Analysis (in psychology)

Dispersion Analysis (in psychology), a statistical method by which the influence of various factors (properties) on the observed (dependent) variable is analysed. The method was worked out by the biologist Ronald Fisher (1925) and was first used for estimating experiments in plant-growing. Its applicability to experiments in psychology, pedagogics, medicine, etc. was discovered later. During a D.A. the observed property is split up into independent items each characterising the influence of a given factor or their interaction. The subsequent comparison of the items makes it possible to evaluate the significance of each observed factor, as well as their combinations. D.A. is mostly used in experimental psychology to study the influence of certain factors on the subject. Analysis of mean values plays a special role (deviation from these values is called dispersion) (see Statistical Methods).

Disposition (or predisposition)

Disposition (or predisposition), the subject’s readiness to a behavioural action or to a sequence of actions. In personalistic psychology (William Stern) (see Personalism), D. means a causally unstipulated disposition (propensity) to actions, and in Gordon Allport’s personality theory—various individual traits (from 18 to 5,000) which form a set of dispositions towards a certain reaction of the subject to the environment. In Soviet psychology, the term D. is used chiefly to describe the individual’s readiness to evaluate the situation and act in conformance with previous experience (see Dispositional Theory).

Dispositional Theory

Dispositional Theory, a conception characterising an individual’s social behaviour by the state of his readiness to behave in a certain way. D.T. links the individual’s readiness to behave in a certain social situation with the social conditions under which the individual had acted previously and under which a stable predisposition to realise the subject’s needs under corresponding appropriate conditions was formed. D.T. was proposed by Vladimir Yadov. It regards dispositions as a hierarchy, the top of which is formed by the general orientation of interests and the system of value orientations, as a result of the influence of general social conditions; its medium levels are made up of a system of generalised attitudes towards various social objects and situations; the lower level is composed of situational social attitudes as a readiness to evaluate and act in concrete (“ microsocial”) conditions of activity. Higher dispositions are more stable, which is in conformity with the individual’s activity (stable traits in the way of life of large social units), they actively influence the lower-level dispositions. However, situational social attitudes in contrast to generalised attitudes are relatively independent, which provides for the individual’s adaptation to changing (unstable) conditions of activity with the preservation of his stable generalised dispositions. The latter regulate the individual’s general orientation of social behaviour, while the dispositions of 79 other levels regulate behaviour in one or another sphere of activity and the orientation of actions in regard to certain social objects and situations. In principle, that disposition which is in greater conformity with the given conditions and the goal of activity on the given scale takes on the leading role. D.T. helps establish ties between sociological and general psychological approaches to the study of the individual’s social behaviour.

Distraction

Distraction, functionally or organically disturbed ability for concentrated, purposeful activity. Sometimes, D. arises in tense mental work as a result of one-sided concentration of thought. As a defect of voluntary attention, D. may be caused by diverse factors, ranging from tiredness and absence of necessary motivation to various clinical disorders, often connected with disturbed thinking.

Distress

Distress, see Stress.

Dominant

Dominant, a temporaly prevailing reflectory system determining the functioning of nervous centres at the given moment and thus conditioning a certain way of behaviour. The D. theory was proposed by the Soviet physiologist Alexei Ukhtomsky. The term and the idea of D. as a general principle governing the functioning of nervous centres was introduced by Ukhtomsky in 1923. As a dominating centre of excitation, D. summarises and accumulates impulses passing to the central nervous system, at the same time suppressing the activity of other centres. This explains the systematic and purposeful nature of behaviour, which, while being of a reflectory type, is active and not reactive. Ukhtomsky regarded D. as a specific organ and as a functional system instead of a morphologically invariable formation. He placed special emphasis on the "system’s history", whose rhythm of functioning reproduces the rhythm of external influences. Owing to these influences, under optimal conditions, the neural resources of the tissue increase rather than decrease. The general direction of the development of the nervous system is aimed at the urgency of the signalisation and control. The nervous system reflects the objects of the environment in their spatiotemporal unity due to the fact that the spatial and temporal parameters of its activity are inseparable. A specific D. inherent in man is the "dominance of another person’s face" which Ukhtomsky opposed to the individualistic outlook.

Dreams

Dreams, subjectively experienced representations, mainly of visual modality, which regularly arise during sleep, chiefly in the phase of “rapid” sleep. The content and emotional tinge of D., the degree of the subject’s “ participation” in his own dreams are linked with the intensity of physical changes in “rapid” sleep. The brain cortex activation characteristic of “rapid” sleep is relatively more pronounced in the right hemisphere, this corresponding to prevalence in D. of spatialtemporal thinking (see Functional Asymmetry of the Brain). This is closely associated with peculiar changes in consciousness in D.: 80 reflection of objective reality and awareness of oneself as the subject of cognition is disturbed, the individual is not aware of himself as a person seeing D., consequently, he is not critical of what he perceives, even if it is illogical. At the same time, appraisal of oneself as a personality, and also emotions (sense of guilt, shame, etc.), are retained. In a figurative, symbolic form, the content of D. reflects the subject’s basic motives and attitudes. Emotional experience and retention of D. would largely depend on the individual’s personality traits and emotional state prior to sleep. A basic function of D. is emotional stabilisation. D. are an important link in the system of psychological defence (see Defence, Psychological), they temporarily attenuate the intensity of a psychological conflict and help renew orienting activeness (see Active-ness, Orienting). The positive effect of D. on creative processes is associated with this, and also with prevalence of imagery. The functional deficiency of the system "rapid sleep— dreams" is an important factor in the development of neuroses and psychosomatic diseases.

Drive

Drive, a mental state which shows the subject’s non-differentiated, unawared, or scarcely awared need. D. is a transient phenomenon, since the need represented therein either attenuates or is turned into concrete desire, intention, dream, etc. Various trends in psychoanalysis give an inadequate interpretation of the importance of D. in human psychology because they generally tend to exaggerate the role of unconscious sexual D. (see Libido).

Dynamic Psychology

Dynamic Psychology, (1) a field of psychology concerned with the motivation of human behaviour, drives, emotions, conflicts of personality, i.e. the dynamic (motivating, affective)-aspect of psychic life as differing from its intellectual aspect; (2) a trend in Western psychology which treats psychic activity from the point of view of its dynamics and activeness’. Robert Woodworth, an American psychologist and one of the leading representatives of D.P. criticised the view that the behaviour of living organisms is limited to the links between external irritants and reactions of the organism (see Behaviourism) and interpreted the psychic response to an external influence as a complex, changing act whose dynamics integrate the past experience and the variety of present conditions, both internal and external. This integration can neither be explained by the association of basic elements, nor by their automatic amalgamation into complexes, and occurs owing to psychic activity based on the drive towards a goal as the fundamental feature of all living organisms. Due to this drive (need) the organism is extremely sensitive to certain stimuli and insensitive to others. Therefore, the need not only determines the character of motor reactions, but influences the perception of the surrounding world. Proceeding from these theses, the followers of D.P. established a number of important facts in the psychology 81 of perception, the construction of movements, memory, the process of reading, etc. In all instances the important role of an attitude, which precedes the psychic process and later regulates its course (dynamics), was revealed. D.P. played a major role in the critique of mechanistic conceptions which ignored the significance of the internal psychological factors of behaviour. Yet D.P. was unable to give a causal explanation of the genesis and development of these factors and their dependence on the socio-historical conditions of the personality’s development due to its methodological limitations. Today, D.P. is no longer an independent scientific theory (or school).

Dynamics of the Nervous System

Dynamics of the Nervous System, a property of the nervous system characterised by easy generation of excitation and inhibition in the course of forming conditioned reflexes. The correlation between the dynamics of excitation and the inhibition of conditioned reflexes is determined as a dynamic balance (see Equilibrium of Neural Processes). The speed and degree of success of the individual’s adjustment to new conditions depends on D. of N.S. Dynamics as an independent property of the nervous system was discovered by the Soviet researcher Vladimir Nebylitsin (see also Lability; Mobility).

Dynamic Stereotype

Dynamic Stereotype, an integral system of habitual conditioned-reflex responses corresponding to the signal, ordinal and temporal characteristics of a set of stimuli (see Stimulus). The term was introduced by Ivan Pavlov in 1932. Nervous processes which form D.S. combine as a result-of the existent reflex response (functional state) becoming a signal for the next response and being supported by it. In case of a stable stereotype, this sequence of nervous .processes is fixated and one of a set of stimuli in different modalities may reproduce the characteristic response of the other stimuli.