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Echolalia

Echolalia, automatic repetition of another person’s words, as observed in some mental disorders ( schizophrenia, lesion of frontal lobes, etc.) in both adults and children. E. is also occasionally observed in normal children at an early speech development stage.

Echopraxia

Echopraxia, imitative automatic repetition of other people’s movements and acts. E. may take various forms: more often, the patient would repeat the relatively simple movements he or she sees directly, e.g. waving, clapping, etc. A form of E. is echolalia. E. is observed in schizophrenia, lesion of frontal lobes, and in organic cerebral diseases.

Economic Psychology

Economic Psychology, a branch of psychology that examines psychological phenomena associated with people’s production relationships. Marxist E.P., which is opposed to idealist concepts 82 designed to psychologise economics, proceeds from the fact that the objective regularities of social development are independent of the will and desires of individuals and, in fact, themselves determine the main features of man’s social behaviour and work. E.P. Has originated in the USSR at the intersection of psychology ( social psychology, psychology of management, and psychology of labour) and economics at a time when the CPSU set the task to shunt the national economy to intensive development. The main task of E.P. is to develop concepts and practical recommendations that could help further enhance economic efficiency. The major task of E.P, is to reveal the place of man within the structure of productive forces. In this case, man is conventionally regarded as an economic reality, i.e. from the point of view of the resources he possesses as the creator of material and intellectual values directly involved in material production. Other tasks of E.P. are to study reflection in human mind of national, collectivefarm, cooperative, public, and personal ownership; the psychological questions of distribution and consumption; human needs and their quantitative and qualitative characteristics; and the regularities governing the origination, development, satisfaction, and reproduction of those needs. E.P. studies the psychological conditions under which the economy would effectively function, and psychological prerequisites for effective planning.

Education

Education, an activity for passing on certain socio-historical experience to new generations; a systematic and purposeful influence that ensures the moulding of an individual, his preparedness for social life and productive labour. In developed socialist society, E. of individuals to impart them a communist world outlook and high moral standards, profound ideological convictions, social activeness, a creative attitude to reality and a high culture of labour and behaviour becomes a major social task. It is solved on the basis of scientific principles developed within the system of modern psychological and pedagogical knowledge, assuming its continuous progress. The need to reveal psychological laws governing the moulding of the personality is a major requisite for developing new means, forms and methods for optimising the process of E. In regarding E. as a process achieved in the interaction of those who bring up and those who are brought up, and also of the latter themselves, who are, in effect, not only objects, but also subjects of E., Soviet psychologists study regularities inherent in the moulding of man as a personality under a purposefully organised system of upbringing, and the principles, conditions and specifics of educative work with reference to various age groups. The results of psychological research in revealing specific laws that govern the purposeful moulding of the personality in ontogenesis, and orientation to the psychological possibilities of 83 the individual are designed to help improve the organisation of E.

Ego

Ego, see Freudianism.

Egocentrism

Egocentrism, the individual’s inability to alter his original cognitive stance towards a given object, opinion or idea, even in the face of information that runs counter to his past experience, because of focussing on his own interests. The roots of E. lie in the subject’s failure to understand that views unlike his own may also exist. E. is overcome by consistently developing personal ability for decentration. E. is typical of early childhood, and is, as a rule, overcome by the age of 12-14; a tendency towards intensified E. is observed in old age, too. Concrete studies examine various types of E.: (1) cognitive E., characterising the processes of perception and thinking; (2) moral E., indicating the subject’s inability to perceive the moral foundations of other people’s actions; and (3) communicative E., observed in transmission of information by the subject to other persons. In all above-mentioned areas E. may be overcome relatively independently.

Egoism

Egoism, a subject’s value orientation characterised by predominance in his life and work of selfish personal interests and needs, regardless of the interests of other individuals and social groups. An egoist treats other people as objects and means for attaining his selfish ends. Development of E. into a dominant personality trait is due to serious defects in education. If family upbringing is objectively directed to reinforcement of exaggerated self-appraisal and egocentrism, the child may form a stable value orientation based solely on his own interests, needs, emotions, etc. In mature age, such concentration on one’s own ego, self-love and total indifference to the interests of other people or social groups could lead to the subject’s alienation experienced as isolated existence in a hostile environment. Many psychological and ethical concepts accepted in the West groundlessly regard E. as an innate personality trait that allegedly serves to protect the individual in his life and work. In common usage, E. is the antonym of altruism (selflessness). Yet, Marxist theory notes that it would be a mistake to oppose altruism to E.: "The Communists do not oppose egoism to selflessness or selflessness to egoism, nor do they express this contradiction theoretically either in its sentimental or in its highflown ideological form; they rather demonstrate its material source, with which it disappears of itself." (Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 5, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976, p. 247.) To polarise E. and altruism would mean to consistently contrapose I and They, something characteristic of social formations in which exploitation of man by man, and competition of all with all, is essentially inherent. A historically progressive tendency inherent in socialist society is to remove the antagonism between I and They by introducing the unifying principle of We, which implies that what an individual does for others is 84 equally useful to himself and others, since it is useful to society to which he himself belongs. Thus,^^1^^ if one speaks of the socio-psychological regularities of individual behaviour in a collective, the alternative "either E. or altruism" proves imaginary in developed socialist society. A true alternative would be to contrapose" to both E. and altruism a behaviour in which the subject would actively regard others as he would himself, and himself as all others in the collective (see Identification, Collectivist).

Ego Psychology

Ego Psychology, a trend in psychoanalysis that developed in response to orthodox Freudianism. Unlike the latter, which regards instincts and drives as the individual’s dominant elements, E.P. maintains that the ego (consciousness) plays a more important and independent role than that which Sigmund Freud believed it did. Apart from fighting drives, the ego regulates the individual’s relationships with the environment, being a relatively autonomous entity with its own structural characteristics and its own system of defence mechanisms (see Defence, Psychological). In this case, the functions of the ego are not directly dependent on drives. In E.P., the “conflict”, a key notion for psychoanalysis, is replaced by the notion “dialogue”, which implies the individual’s “dialogue” with the environment, and original autonomy of the ego. E.P. simplifies the environment or society regarding it solely as the individual’s immediate surroundings, and reduces the process of ego development’ to adaptation. This approach fails to account for the truly social- regularities in the functioning of the individual. The chief advocates of E.P. are Anna Freud, Eduard von Hartmann, and Erik Erikson.

Effectors

Effectors, organs or systems of organs that respond (by neurohumoral mechanisms) to actions of external or internal irritants and play the role of links which actuate the reflex act. For instance, the eye iris orbicular muscle contracting under light effect would be the effector of pupillary reflex (see Conditioned Reflex).

Efficiency of a Group (Collective)

Efficiency of a Group (Collective), correspondence of results of socially useful activity of a given group ( collective) to the tasks facing it. When applied in social psychology, this concept has two definitions: a broader one synonymous with good results or success, and a narrower one synonymous with the inputresult ratio. In Western social psychology, certain structurally formal group parameters (size, composition, communication channels, etc.) and certain socio-psychological characteristics (style of leadership, distribution of roles, etc.) were disting= guished as basic efficiency factors which were studied for their effects on group productivity. Yet, the resultant evidence proved contradictory and of little use for theoretical generalisation of and practical recommendations for improving group work. Soviet 85 social psychology suggested a system of efficiency criteria typical of a group having higher level of development. The most important criterion was how the behaviour and results of group-member activity correspond to social expectations that would meet the ideals and supreme values of socialist society.

Efficient Group Emotional Identification

Efficient Group Emotional Identification, see Identification, Collectivism

Eidetism

Eidetism, the ability of certain individuals (eidetics) to retain and reproduce highly vivid and detailed images of previously perceived objects and scenes. Initial systematic observations of E. date back to the early 20th century when they were made on patients with hearin-g disorders. The study of E. was the central theme of the Marburg Psychological School (Erich Jaensch, and others), whose adherents arrived at the conclusion that, in^^4^^ preschool and younger school age, E. is a common and, moreover, a normal phenomenon. Evidence obtained chiefly by surveying numerous children was regarded to prove that eidetic images can reproduce in detail topical scenes, and are emotionally experienced as real perceptions. By the mid-1930s, publications by researchers from the Marburg Psychological Institute became openly pseudoscientific, and the Nazis used their classification of different types of E. to substantiate their personality typology. Results of recent studies fail to confirm that E. is widespread. One can speak only of relatively few cases of reliably established eidetic images, e.g. in certain (far from all) outstanding mnemonists, painters, and musicians, in whom E. is often combined with synaesthesia.

Emotional Experience (in psychology)

Emotional Experience (in psychology), (1) any emotionally-tinted state or reflection of reality experienced by an individual and directly represented in his consciousness and appearing to him as an event of his own life; (2} presence of aspirations, desires and wishes which in the individual’s consciousness represent a process of selection of personal motives and goals that help him become aware of his personal attitudes to events occurring in his life; (3) a form of activity arising when the individual cannot realise the leading motives of his life, when his ideals and values collapse, and manifesting itself in a transformation of his inner world aimed at reappraising personal existence. The first, broad meaning of E.E. goes back to introspective psychology and accentuates E.E.’s direct relationship to the individual’s consciousness. Soviet psychology has overcome the limitations inherent in subjectivist interpretation of consciousness whereby E.E. is mainly reduced to the subject’s affective states, to abrupt separation of the knowledge about reality represented in E.E. from the subject’s attitude thereto, and to the study of E.E. beyond the actual process of human vital activity. The characteristic of such a psychic fact as E.E. is indicative of its deep-rooted nature in personal life. The second meaning defines the 86 function of aspirations, desires and wishes in regulating individual activity. These forms of E.E. reflect the struggle of motives and choices of goals in consciousness. A motive subjectively manifesting in E.E. is not present therein, and this is what creates the impression that E.E. itself allegedly induces personal behaviour. In reality, however, E.E. comes out as inner signals whereby the subject becomes aware of the personalised meaning of the events taking place and consciously selects possible motives and regulates his behaviour. The third meaning of the term E.E. fixates it as a specific form of activity allowing a person to endure grave events in critical situations, and to see the existential meaningfulness of reassessing values.

Emotionality

Emotionality, a human property characterising\ the content, quality and dynamics of individual emotions and sentiments. The content of E. reflects events and situations particularly significant to the individual; it is inseparably connected with the pivotal traits of the personality in question, with its moral potential, viz. orientation of motivations, world outlooki value orientations, and so on. The qualitative properties of E.- characterise the individual’s attitude towards the surrounding world and are seen in the valence and modality of dominant emotions. The dynamic properties of E. include the origin, course, and termination of emotional processes and their outward manifestations. E. (along with activeness) is a major component of temperament.

Emotions

Emotions, a psychic reflection in the form of immediate affective experience of the vital significance of phenomena and situations caused by the relationship of their objective properties to the subject’s needs. In the course of evolution, E. developed as a means for allowing living creatures to determine the biological significance of the states of their organisms and of environmental effects. The simplest form of E. is the so-called emotional tone of sensations, i.e. direct emotional experiences accompanying specific vitally important effects, e.g. gustatory and temperature sensations, which prompt the subject to either retain or eliminate them. Affects would develop in extreme conditions, when the subject fails to cope with a situation. With regard to origin, E. represent a form of a species experience: in orienting himself to them, the individual would perform the necessary actions (for instance, avoid danger or procreate), whose purposefulness would remain concealed to him. E. are also important for acquiring individual experience. In this case, they are caused by situations and signals that precede direct E.-inducing effects, and this allows the subject to prepare for them in time. The organism’s energy mobilisation (activation) level essential for performing the functions of E. is ensured by the vegetative nervous system (see Nervous System) in its interaction with cerebral structures constituting the central nervous substrate of E. E. involve changes in the activity of respiratory and digestive organs, cardio-vascular 87 system, endocrine glands, skeletal and smooth muscles, etc. Human E. are the product of socio-historical development and belong to processes of internal regulation of behaviour. Subjectively manifesting various needs, E. motivate and direct all activity designed to satisfy them. The supreme product of human E. are stable sentiments towards objects that correspond to supreme human needs. A strong, absolutely dominant feeling is called passion. Besides specific E., events signalling possible changes in an individual’s life may also cause variations in the general emotional background—so-called moods. Human emotional life is highly variegated: E. manifest the axiological attitude to specific conditions that either facilitate or block activity, e.g. fear or anger; to concrete achievements, e.g. joy or sorrow; to existing or possible future situations, and so on. The nature and dynamics of situational E. are determined both by objective events and the feelings from which they stem (for example, a feeling of pride about a loved one, or a feeling of sorrow about his failures, jealousy, and so on). An attitude towards reflected phenomena—the main property of E.—is represented in their qualitative characteristics ( valencepositive, negative; and modality—- surprise, joy, repugnance, indignation, anxiety, sorrow, etc.); the dynamics of E. per se involves duration, intensity, etc., and their external manifestation ( emotional expression) in mimicry, speech, and pantomime. Human E. vary in degree of awareness. A conflict between realised and unrealised (see The Unconscious) E. is most often the underlying cause of neuroses. The development of E. in ontogenesis is reflected in differentiation of E. qualities; in complication of the objects that cause emotional responses; and in the development of abilities to regulate E. and their outward manifestations. Human emotional experience would change and grow as a given personality would develop owing to joint emotional experiences (see Empathy) arising in communication (1) with other people, in perceiving works of art, or under the influence of the mass media. E. play the role of regulators of human communication by influencing the choice of communication partners and by determining specific means and ways of communication. Expressive movements are also a means of communication for signalling some socially meaningful event. Though characterised by some common features, they essentially differ depending on the historical time and culture in question.

Emotions, Information Theory of

Emotions, Information Theory of, a theory, according to which human and higher animal emotions are determined by a given actual need (by its quality and magnitude) and by individual assessment of the probability (possibility) of satisfying that need on the basis of previously accumulated experience and incoming information. The individual would make that assessment by involuntarily comparing available information on means, time, resources, etc. needed to achieve his goal (satisfy that need) with information on the means, time, etc. he had received at the given moment. Ideas regarding the 88 probability of attaining a goal are essentially subjective, and this, in turn, determines the subjective nature of arising emotions. Yet, in most cases, a subjective assessment affords a more or less correct reflection of the objective probability, since, otherwise, emotions would lose their adaptive significance. Humans can forecast the probability of achieving a goal both at the conscious and unconscious levels of higher nervous activity. Increased probability of achieving one’s goal with arrival of new information engenders positive emotions, while reduced probability leads to negative emotional response. E.,I.T., suggested by Pavel Simonov, develops Ivan Pavlov’s idea about the activation of the cerebral mechanisms of emotions, when the previously formed "internal dynamic stereotype" does not coincide with the changed "external dynamic stereotype". Basing on E.,I.T. psychologists analysed the regularities and mechanisms of emotional stress in humans and higher animals, and the role of stress in forming neurotic and psychosomatic disorders; they also developed methods for objectively diagnosing the degree of emotional stress in individuals performing some crucial operation, e.g. aircraft pilots, control tower operators, cosmonauts, etc., and suggested measures for preventing that stress.

Empathy

Empathy, comprehension of the emotional states of another person through common emotional experience. The term E. was introduced by Edward Titchener, who combined in it various similar ideas about sympathy and Theodor Lipps’ concept of imaginative entry into another person’s feelings. Psychologists distinguish emotional E. based on projection mechanisms (see Projective Tests) and imitation of another person’s motor and affective responses; cognitive E. based on intellectual processes ( comparison, analogy, etc.); and predictive E. regarded as human ability to forecast another individual’s affective reactions in concrete situations. The following specific forms of E. are distinguished: common emotional experience, i.e. experiencing by an individual of the same emotional states as those experienced by another person by identifying oneself with him, and sympathy, ,-i.e. emotions experienced by an individual and elicited by another person’s feelings. An important characteristic of E. which distinguishes it from other forms of comprehension (taking roles, decentration, etc.) is its weakly developed reflexive (see Reflexion) aspect, or closure within immediate emotional experience. Empathic abilities of individuals were found to grow with greater life experience. E. is actualised more readily when individuals’ behavioural and emotional responses are similar, and also in highly anxious individuals (see Worry). In Western psychology, E. is chiefly interpreted as passive contemplative attitude towards another person’s states and emotional experience, an attitude that lacks active intervention designed to actively help the latter. At the same time, in a system of interpersonal relations characteristic of a developed collective, the subject of E. develops a stand of active interference designed to eliminate frustrations in other members of the collective (objects of 89 E.) (see Identification, Collectivist).

Empirical Psychology

Empirical Psychology, a term introduced in the 18th century by the German philosopher Christian Wolff to designate a special discipline which, unlike rational psychology with its inference of phenomena from nature and the substance of the soul (see History of Psychology), describes and studies concrete phenomena of psychic life. Wolff thought that E.P. was designed to observe, classify, and establish the natural correlations of specific facts basing on verification through experience. The basic idea of John Locke’s doctrine was that psychological cognition should rely on experience. Yet, he interpreted experience itself in an ambiguous way by dividing it into external and internal experience (see Sensualism), and this turned into a premise for the subsequent split of E.P. into, materialist (French materialism) and idealist (George Berkeley and David Hume) trends. The resultant mid-19th century E.P. (" experiential school") combined the idea of empirical observation, concrete analysis and inductive cognition of mental phenomena with the doctrine that these phenomena have special substance perceivable only through self-observation. The "experiential school" programme prepared a transition from speculative interpretation of psyche to its experimental study. Subsequently, the polysemy of the term “experience” led to a distinction between the adherents of the natural-science approach to psyche, who believed it involved real processes of consciousness and behaviour controlled by observation and experiment, and supporters of “pure” experience, who, as Lenin pointed out in his book Materialism and Empiriocriticism, reduced it to subjective phenomena. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many psychological schools were under the influence of idealist views on experience.

Engineering Psychology

Engineering Psychology, a branch in psychology investigating the processes and means of informational interaction between man and machine. The scientific and technological revolution transformed the psychological structure of productive labour, whose most important components became the perception and processing of operational information, and decision-making within a limited span of time. It was under these conditions that E.P. emerged. The basic problems studied in E.P. are: (1) analysis of the tasks facing man in the control systems and distribution of functions between man and automatic devices, computers in particular; (2) study of the joint activities of operators and communication (1) and informational interaction between them; (3) analysis of the psychological activity of operators; (4) study of the factors influencing the efficiency, quality, precision, speed and reliability of the actions of operators; (5) study of the reception of information by man and of man’s sensor “input” (see Sensory organs; Brain); (6) analysis of decision-making and the processing and storage of information by man, the psychological mechanisms of the regulation of the activities of operators; (7) analysis of 90 the processes of forming commands and the fulfillment of control functions by man, characteristics of his speech and motor “output”; (8) elaboration of the methods of psychodiagnosis, professional orientation and selection of operator-specialists; (9) analysis and optimisation of the processes of teaching operators. In the process of developing E.P. transitions were made from the study of isolated elements of activity to the labour activity as a whole, from examining the operator as a simple link in the management system to treating him as a complex, highly- organised system, from a machine-oriented approach to an anthropocentric approach. In the 1950s, the basic areas of reseach in E.P. were the processes of perceiving the individual components of instruments (pointers, scales, prints); in the 1960s, the processes of perceiving the indicators of instruments as a whole became the subject of study, and in the 1970s, E.P. moved on to examine the interaction between the operator and the multicomponent information systems. At present, the intricate processes of the mutual adaptation of man and the operated system are under investigation. This adaptation can take place at different levels depending on the degree of the responsibility entrusted to man and the complexity of the management system. The methods of individual adaptation elaborated in E.P. are also applied in education as an informational means of treating pupils with severe vision anomalies. The introduction of scientific findings of E.P. in the economy is carried out through the engineering and psychological design of the working place, control panels, means and systems of registering information. There are a number of general principles for the synthesis of such systems in E.P.: optimal laconicism, autonomy, structuralism, stress on the elements of control and management and their total correspondence, separation of the detailed and integral information in time and space, individual operative adaptation of the flow of signals to the work pace, etc. E.P. identifies external factors of the complexity of activity, psychological factors ( characteristics of the subjective image, the conceptual model of the controlled object) and psychological criteria (the indicators of efficiency, quality, reliability and the intensity of human labour). To identify and quantitatively appraise the psychological factors of the operator’s activities, E.P. resorts to a complex system of methods elaborated within different branches of theoretical and applied psychology (algorhythms, construction of general block structures, isolation of operations and actions, registration of psychophysiologic indicators and motor components, observation, self-account, interview, etc.). The introduction of the psychological factors of complexity has made it possible to overcome the limitations of the image of the operator as a "black box" which E.P. inherited in the 1950 s1960s from cybernetics and the behaviourism prevalent in bourgeois psychology. Soviet E.P. has formulated many concepts, such as active operator, involvement, the psychological system of activity, algorhythm structures, idealised systems; polysensor interaction, 91 multilevel mutual adaptation of man and machine, the transformational theory of learning, the psychological factors of complexity, etc. (Boris Lomov, Albert Krylov, Vladimir Shadrikov, Valeri Venda, Vladimir Zinchenko, etc.), (see also Ergonomics).

Epiphenomenalism

Epiphenomenalism, a doctrine according to which psyche plays no active role in the life and activity of man, being but a redundunt product of material (physiological) processes. Dialectical materialism rejects E. and regards mentality as active reflection of reality instrumental in regulating vital activity.

Equilibrium of Neural Processes

Equilibrium of Neural Processes, a property of the nervous system showing the correlation between excitation and exhibition. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who introduced the concept "E. of N.P", regarded it as an independent property of the nervous system which, in combination with its other properties (strength and mobility), forms a type of higher nervous activity. The school of Boris Teplov and Vladimir Nebylitsin regards E. of N.P. as a totality of secondary (derivative) properties of the nervous system, determined by the correlation of excitation and inhibition for each of its primary properties (strength, mobility, lability, and dynamism), which is a novel interpretation of E. of N.P.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics, the general term for a group of sciences concerned with comprehensive study of man in production activity and with optimisation of means and conditions of labour. E. includes the applied sections of engineering psychology, psychology, labour physiology and hygienics, anthropology, certain aspects of scientific organisation of labour, technical design, cybernetics, the general systems theory, the theory of automatic control, etc. The subject of E. involves the study and optimisation of man- machineenvironment systems. The methodological foundation of E. involves a systems approach allowing to obtain a comprehensive idea on the process of labour and on ways for perfecting that process in order to enhance the efficiency and quality of work, allround development of the individual, and satisfaction of the creative requirements of working people. Together with engineering psychology, E. assesses the reliability, accuracy and stability of operator’s work and distribution of functions between man and machine; studies the effect of psychic tension, fatigue, stress, and emotional states on labour efficiency; and develops methods for selecting and training specialists. E. is organically linked with designing new machinery, technological equipment, work places, interiors, transportation means and systems, visual communications, and industrial complexes. Several government industrial standards have been introduced in the USSR as regards E. and ergonomic requirements for manmachine systems, display devices, and work places.

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Ethnopsychology

Ethnopsychology, an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge that studies the ethnic aspects of human psyche; the national character, regularities of forming and functioning of national self-awareness; ethnic stereotypes; and so on. The creation of a special, essentially idealist discipline called “peoples’ psychology" was proclaimed back in 1860 by Moritz Lazarus and Heymann Steinthal, who interpreted the "people’s spirit" as a specific, closed formation expressed in the psychic similarity of individuals belonging to a definite nation, and simultaneously as their self-awareness; according to these authors, the substance of E. is to be revealed by comparative study of the language, mythology, ethics, and culture of a given nation. In the early 20th century, these ideas were developed and partially actualised in Wilhelm Wundt’s “peoples’ sychology". Subsequently, US psychologists virtually identified E. with a neoFreudian theory (see Neo-Freudianism) which tried to infer the properties of national traits from the so-called basic or modal personality, which they, in turn, associated with child education methods typical of a given culture. Contemporary E. is no single entity either topically or methodologically, and the following independent trends may be distinguished therein: (1) comparative studies of the ethnic features of psychophysiology, cognitive processes, memory, emotions, speech, etc., which theoretically and methodologically constitute an inseparable part of corresponding chapters of general and social psychology; (2) culturological investigations designed to clarify the specifics of the symbolic world and the value orientations of national culture that are inseparably associated with corresponding chapters of ethnography, folklore, study of art, etc.; (3) study of ethnic consciousness and self-awareness that borrow their concepts and methods from corresponding chapters of social psychology which study social attitudes, intergroup relations, etc.; and (4) studies of the ethnic peculiarities of child socialisation, the concepts and methods of these studies being closest to those used in sociology and child psychology (Igor Kon). Since the properties of national culture and those constituting an ethnic community of individuals are not identical, culturological and psychological studies of E. are always marked by certain discrepancies. The abstract and unfounded conclusions of many non-Soviet ethnopsychologists about the psychological features of various nations are essentially harmful, so much so that they can offend national feelings. The crucial issue facing psychologists is the degree of reliability of tests and experimental procedures used in studying ethnic communities. The further development of E., especially its sociopsychological aspects, has a major import for educating the working people in a spirit of internationalist cooperation.

Ethology

Ethology, the study of the "biology of behaviour", of the general biological foundations and regularities of animal behaviour. The concept and basic principles of E. were formulated in 93 1895 by Louis Dollo. The tasks of E. are to study the phylogenetic and ontogenetic (see Phylogenesis, Ontogenesis) properties of animal behaviour and to reveal. th.i significance of behaviour as a factor of animal evolution and individual and populational adaptation. In this case, E. gives main attention to the species-typical (instinctive) components of behaviour. Ethological analysis is based on investigation by biological methods of the integral behavioural act. The postures and movements typical of a given species are described in the form of “ethograms” (systematised “ catalogues” of locomotor activity of species). Observations’and experiments are used to establish the functional significance of these components, and external and internal behavioural factors are subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. E. gives special attention to the biological (ecological) mechanisms of behavioural acts. It also specifies associations between species and other taxa with regard to behaviour, and studies animal behavioural aberrations in extreme situations. Its accomplishments are used in livestock breeding and other sectors of the economy, and also in developing the scientific foundations of keeping animals in captivity (see also Animal Psychology, Instinctive Behaviour of Animals). Psychologists who adhere to antiMarxist "human ethology" unconditionally, albeit quite unfoundedly, apply the biological regularities of animal behaviour to human behaviour, including to all fields of social activity (see Anthropomorphism).

Euphoria

Euphoria, an elevated joyous mood, a state of complacency and unconcern that runs counter to objective circumstances and is found to involve mimic and general locomotor animation, and psychomotor excitement.

Excitation

Excitation, a property of living organisms, an active response of excitable tissue to stimulation. E. is the principal function of the nervous system. The cells that form the nervous system can conduct E. from the place where it has occurred to other places and neighbouring cells. Thanks to this, nerve cells have acquired the ability to transmit signals from one body structure to another. As a result, E. has come to be the carrier of information about the properties of external stimuli and, together with inhibition, a regulator of the activity of all body organs and systems. E. only arises when the intensity of the external stimulus exceeds the absolute excitation threshold (see Sensation Threshold) inherent in a given organ. E. is based on physical and chemical processes with which bioelectrical phenomena concomitant with E. and recordable both at the cell level and from the animal or human body surface are related. E. spreading modes are essentially dependent on the type of the nervous system: in the most primitive (diffusive) nervous system, it is conducted uniformly in various directions and gradually attenuates. In the course of evolution, the complication of the nervous system was accompanied by an improvement in the modes of E. transmission. to its terminus with no 94 attenuation, thus allowing E. to accomplish its regulatory function in the organism in an integral way. Together with inhibition, E. constitutes the foundation of the higher nervous activity. Their dynamics fits all behavioural acts, including the very complex ones, and their individual specifics determine the type of the higher nervous activity.

Exercise

Exercise, repetition of some action in order to learn it. In different training conditions, E. is either the only procedure within whose framework the individual would actualise all learned elements by comprehending and consolidating the knowledge obtained and by generalising and automatising the action in question, or one of the procedures, in addition to explanation and memorising, which precede E. to secure initial understanding and preliminary consolidation of knowledge relating to the action to be performed. In this case, E. would make comprehension and consolidation, and also generalisation and automatism of the action practices complete, and in the final account this would lead to complete mastery by the individual of that action, and to its transformation (depending on the extent of automatism achieved) into capability or skill. E. may also be performed immediately after the action is explained, i.e. without preliminary memorising; in this case, consolidation of knowledge would fully take place during E.

Existential Analysis

Existential Analysis, a method suggested by Ludwig Binswanger for analysing personality in the totality and uniqueness of his or her existence. According to E.A., the individual’s true being is revealed through absorption in himself or herself so as to select a totally independent "life project". When the individual’s openness to the future disappears, he begins to feel himself abandoned, his inner world narrows, his developmental potentialities remain beyond the horizon of vision, and he develops neurosis (see Psychogenic Disorders). The meaning of E.A. is seen in helping a neurotic realise that he is free and capable of self-determination. E.A. proceeds from the false philosophical premise that the truly personal in man is only manifest when he is free of causal associations with the material world and his social milieu (see Depth Psychology).

Expectations

Expectations, a system of anticipations and requirements with regard to execution by an individual of intragroup roles. E. represent a variety of social sanctions that bring into order the system of relations and interactions within a group. Unlike official prescriptions, functional instructions, and other behavioural regulations within a group, E. are non-formalised and not always realised by the individual. The two main aspects of E. are the right to expect that other people would behave in a manner corresponding to their role and in line with other people’s E. Psychologists distinguish prescribing E., which determine proper execution by an individual of his role, and predicting E. which determine the 95 probable nature of that role with account for the subject’s individual features in a given situation.

Existential Psychology

Existential Psychology, see Humanistic Psychology.

Experiment (in psychology)

Experiment (in psychology), one of the principal (alongside observation) methods of scientific cognition in general, and of psychological research in particular. Unlike observation, E. involves active intervention in a situation by the researcher, who deliberately manipulates one or several variables (factors) and records the accompanying changes in the behaviour of the object under study. A correctly run E. allows to verify hypotheses on cause-and-effect relations and not only simply to state the correlation between the variables. Psychologists distinguish traditional and factorial designs for conducting E’s. In the traditional design only one independent variable is changed, while in the factorial design several variables are altered. The latter’s advantage is in allowing to assess the interaction of factors, i.e. the changing influence of one variable depending on the magnitude of another. In this case, statistical processing of E. results would involve dispersion analysis (Ronald Fisher). If the examined field is relatively unknown, and a system of hypotheses is absent, psychologists speak of a pilot E. (see Pilot Study), whose results could help specify the direction of subsequent analysis. When there are two competing hypotheses, and E. allows to select one of them, psychologists speak of a crucial E. (experimentum crusis). A control E. is performed to check certain dependencies. However, the use of E. encounters some fundamental limitations caused by the impossibility in some cases to randomly change the variables. For instance, in differential psychology and personality studies, most empirical dependencies have the status of correlations (i.e. probability and statistical dependencies) and, as a rule, do not always allow to make conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships. One difficulty in applying E. in psychology is that the researcher quite often finds himself involved in communication (1) with the subject, and can unintentionally influence the latter’s behaviour. Forming or teaching E’s (see Experiment, Forming)make up a special category of psychological investigation methods, which allow to purposefully form the specifics of such mental processes as perception, attention, memory, and thinking.

Experimental Psychology

Experimental Psychology, the general term for various studies of mental phenomena by experimental methods. The use of experiment played a major role in transforming psychological knowledge and turning psychology from a branch of philosophy into an independent science. E.P. was developed by extensive studies of elementary psychic functions, viz. sensations, perceptions, and reaction time, which were started in the mid-19th century. These works were instrumental in generating the idea about the 96 possibility of creating E.P. as a special discipline as distinguished from philosophy and physiology. The initial scheme for developing E.P. was advanced by Wilhelm Wundt, who subsequently trained many psychologists from different countries, all of whom were later sponsors of various experimental psychological institutions. Whereas internal psychological processes in normal adults, analysed by specially organised self-observation (introspection), were initially regarded as the main object of E.P., subsequent experiments were performed on animals (C. LloydMorgan and Edward Thorndike), mentally ill and children. Later, E.P. studied not only the general regularities of mental processes, but also specific varieties of sensibility, reaction time, memory, and associations ( Francis Gallon and James Cattell). Thus, E.P. gave rise to differential psychology, a new trend concerned with distinctions that characterise individuals and groups of people. The accomplishments of E.P. were first purely “academic” and not used in education and in medical treatment. Subsequently, however, they came to be widely applied in different areas of human endeavour, ranging from preschool pedagogy to space exploration. The development of theoretical schemes and specific methods of E.P. was closely connected with the current general progress in theoretical knowledge, notably at the intersection of biological, technical and social sciences.

Experiment, Forming

Experiment, Forming, a method of studying changes in child psyche through active influence of the subject by the researcher: used in developmental and pedagogic psychology. E.,F. is widely used in Soviet psychology to study the specific ways in which the child’s personality forms, through joint application of psychological investigations with pedagogical search and planning of most effective forms of teaching and education. Synonyms of E.,F: transforming, creative, educating, and teaching experiment; also method of active forming of psyche.

Expressive

Expressive, indicative of or capable of reflecting an emotional state.

Expressive Movements

Expressive Movements, overt expression of psychic states, especially those involving emotion, which show in mimicry (E.M. of face muscles), pantomime (E.M. of the whole body), "vocal mimicry", i.e. the dynamic aspect of speech (intonation, timbre, rhythm, vocal vibrato), and expressiveness that may be decisive in interpreting the meaning of utterances. E.M. are often accompanied by changes in the pulse rate, breathing, functioning of the endocrine glands, etc. Man’s historical development and the arisal of purely human sentiments had a tremendous effect on the development of E.M. In the course of human communication (1), E.M. become increasingly numerous and different, assuming the nature of a figurative “language”, a specific code for transmitting the multiform tinges of sentiments, assessments, and attitudes to different events and phenomena. E.M. are 97 correctly interpreted in the course of more or less lengthy communication. Being acts of communication, E.M. turn into a means of conscious influence on people. The forms and use of E.M. depend on the existing system of social relations, and thus become an object of social control by the social environment in accord with the meaning attached to them.

Exteriorisation

Exteriorisation, a process of generating external actions, utterances, etc. by transforming a number of internal structures which had formed on the basis of interiorisation of external human social activity.

Externality—Internality

Externality—Internality, individual predisposition to specific form of locus of control. If a subject largely takes personal responsibility for all happenings in his life, explaining them by his own behaviour, character and abilities, this is indicative of internal locus of control. Conversely, if he tends to ascribe them to external factors (the environment, fate, or chance), this is indicative of external locus of control.

Extroversion—Introversion

Extroversion—Introversion, characteristics of individual psychological differences, whose extreme poles correspond to a personality’s dominant orientation either towards the world of external objects, or towards one’s own subjective world. The concepts of E. and I. were introduced by Carl Jung (see Analytical Psychology) to designate two opposite types of personality. The extroverted type directs his interests outwards, and surrounding objects attract his vital interests and "vital energy" like a magnet; in a sense, this leads to his alienation from himself, to belittlement of the personal significance of his subjective world. Extroverts are characterised by impulsiveness, initiative, flexibility of behaviour, sociability, and social adaptability (see Adjustment, Social). Conversely, introverts direct their interest inwards, towards their own thoughts and feelings, to which they ascribe supreme value; they are also characterised by unsociability, reticence, social passiveness, tendency towards self-analysis, and difficult social adjustment. The problems of E.—I. were studied most intently in factor personality theories (James Cattell, Joy Guilford, Hans Eysenck, and others), which examined them not in terms of personality types, but as a continuous scale showing the quantitative ratio of E.—I. properties in a specific subject. In the most popular Eysenck concept, the E.—I. parameter, combined with the neurotic dimension ( emotionalvolitional stability vs instability), forms the two main personality dimensions which determine all those properties. The abstract statistical approach underlying this concept created serious difficulties in explaining the causes of numerous E.—I. manifestations, which eclectically combine heterogeneous personality characteristics, ranging from impulsiveness and aggressiveness (see Behaviour, Aggressive) to ideological and political attitudes. The Eysenck-established dependence of 98 E.—I. on the properties of the nervous system entailed the reactionary conclusion that psychological and social traits are biologically predetermined. In Soviet psychology, E.—I. manifestations, critically reviewed from Marxist positions, are regarded as properties of temperament, i.e. as dynamic (not substantive) characteristics of mental processes (Volf Merlin, losif Palei, and others) that serve as premises for development of specific personal qualities.