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Lability

Lability, a maximum number of impulses which a nerve cell or functional structure can pass on without distortion in a unit of time. The term was proposed by Nikolai Vvedensky. In differential psychophysiology L. is a key property of the nervous system, which characterises the speed of the appearance and cessation of nervous processes.

Laboratory Experiment

Laboratory Experiment, a type of experiment conducted in specially set rooms which ensures a particularly strict control of independent and dependent variables. Thanks to these conditions the results of L.E. are usually distinguished by a relatively high degree of reliability and authenticity (see Validity). Noted occasionally among L.E. shortcomings is a low degree of "ecological validity"—correspondence to real life situations.

Language

Language, a system of signs serving as a means of human communication (1) and mental activities (see Thinking), a way for personality to manifest his or her self-consciousness and to pass information down from generation to generation and store it. Historically, L. developed on the basis of labour, men’s joint activities. " Language is as old as consciousness, language is practical, real consciousness that exists for other men as well, and only therefore does it also exist for me; language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of intercourse with other men." (Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Collected Works, Vol. 5, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976, p. 44.)

Leader, Informal, (in social psychology)

Leader, Informal, (in social psychology) (1) of a group recognising his or her right to make decisions in important situations; (2) individual capable of playing the central role in 162 organising joint activities and regulating relations in a group (see Interpersonal Relations). L. may be the formal or informal head of a group. Singled out (Boris Parygin) are the following distinctions between L. and manager: (1) manager is usually appointed officially, while a leader may emerge spontaneously; (2) manager is endowed with certain rights and responsibilities by law, while L. may not be; (3) manager is entrusted with a definite system of officially established sanctions (see Control, Social), using which he can influence his subordinates; L. does not possess them; (4) manager represents his group in external organisation and solves questions linked with its official external relations; L. may be restricted in his activity to basic intra-group relations; (5) manager as distinct from L. bears responsibility before the law for the state of affairs within the group. If formal leader of a group and its informal leader are two persons, relations between them may either facilitate joint action in harmonising the group’s life or, on the contrary, rend them a conflicting character (see Conflict), which in the final analysis is determined by the level of group development (see Leadership; Style of Leadership).

Leader (Manager)

Leader (Manager), a person officially entrusted the functions of management and organisation of the activities of a collective. L. (M.) bears legal responsibility for the functioning of a group (collective) before the authority or body that had appointed (elected) him, and possesses strictly defined rights for punishing or rewarding his subordinates in order to influence their production (research, creative, etc.) results. Unlike a leader, informal, L. (M.) has officially stipulated rights and duties. He also represents his group or collective in other organisations.

Leadership

Leadership, relations of domination and subordination, influence and following in the system of interpersonal relations in a group. Relevant studies have distinguished different styles of L. and worked out a number of theories of L. The theory of leadership roles (Robert Bales) examines the role of a “professional”—a task-oriented leader and the "socio-emotional specialist", who solves human relations problems. The supporters of the theory of personality traits consider L. as caused by specific leadership traits and capabilities responsible for recognising a person as a leader. Studies conducted in accordance with this theory concentrated on revealing the specific qualities of leaders. A variant of such an approach is the charismatic concept of L., according to which L. has been bestowed on outstanding individuals as some heavenly gift (charisma). The supporters of the interactive theory presume that a leader may be any person who occupies a certain place in the system of interpersonal interactions. The question of who specifically takes on L. must be decided with consideration for the individual traits of the candidate for leader, and the personal characteristics of other members of the group and its structure, the 163 obtaining situation and the tasks being carried out. The situational theory of L. (or the group-dynamic approach) asserts that L, is primarily the product of the situation obtaining in the group and that in a very favourable, or on the contrary, extremely unfavourable situations for the group, the tasfc-oriented leader achieves better results than a person-oriented leader. In a relatively favourable situation the person-oriented leader will be more successful. The synthetic (or integrated) theory accentuates the interconnection of the main components of the process of organisation of interpersonal relations: leaders, followers (or those being led) and situations in which L. is being effected. The supporters of the above-mentioned L. theories unwarrantedly transfer the results of laboratory experiments to the sphere of real phenomena of social life. Soviet psychology is predicated on the sociohistorical causality of L. phenomena. As the studies of Soviet psychologists show, the level of group development is of substantial importance in understanding L. and its efficiency. In a collective, owing to the presence of value-orientational unity the allegedly unavoidable, from the Western psychologists’ viewpoint, counterposing of a “task-oriented” leader and a “ personoriented” leader, is removed.

Learning

p Learning, the process and result of acquiring individual experience. The notion "L." initially originated in Animal psychology in the works of the US psychologist, Edward Thorndike, and others. L. differs from study as the acquirement of experience in activity guided by cognitive motives and objectives (or motives alone). By L. human beings can gain any experience ( knowledge, capabilities and skills), and animals—new forms of behaviour. Like any gain of experience, L. includes the unconscious processes of comprehension and fixation (involuntary memorising) of the material. In animals, L. is the principal form of gaining experience, and it occurs either gradually (in repeating behavioural acts) or at once (imprinting). Goaldirected L. in animals exists only in an embryonal form (inspection of a novel situation for the future, imitation) (see Learning by Animals). In human beings, the role and significance of L. change in the process of ontogenesis. In the preschool age, L. is the main way of acquiring experience; subsequently, it recedes to the background to be replaced by study, by educational activity, even though it does not lose its significance altogether. A major factor in L. is the place of the assimilated material in corresponding activity. A person would acquire a better knowledge of some things if it is the target of his or her activity. According to some theories, there is a single mechanism of L. (by human beings and animals, in L. and study); according to others, this mechanism differs. In Western Europe and the United States; the former group includes theories of behaviourism (Edward Thorndike, J. Watson, and others), which interpret L. as a process separate from mental phenomena and cognition. It is a process of chance, blind association 164 of stimuli and actions based on readiness, exercise, reinforcement, or contingency in time.

Such theories contradict subsequently established facts showing that L. is possible without reinforcement or exercise. Theories which regard L. as a process in which mental reflection of the conditions of activity and behaviour analogous to passive establishment of new connections (Associanism), reconstruction of initially integral experience in the form of patterns (Gestalt psychology) or plans (Neobehaviourism) should also be assigned to this group. Again, the latter to a large measure comprises Jean Piaget’s theory (see Geneva School of Genetic Psychology), and also the theories of some representatives of the informational approach and cognitive psychology. Soviet psychologists and several authors in the United States and Western Europe proceed from the view that L. mechanisms in human beings and animals differ. They say that in humans, L. like study, is a cognitive process of internalising various practical and theoretical activities, in animals it involves intensive changes in their innate specific experience and its adaptation to concrete conditions.

Learning Ability

Learning Ability, individual speed and quality of assimilation of knowledge, and skills in the course of learning. General L.A. as an ability to master any material is distinguished from special L.A. as an ability to master specific types of material (various sciences, arts, and practical activities). The former is an indicator of general, and the latter of special giftedness. L.A. depends on the level of development of cognitive processes ( perception, imagination, memory, thinking, attention, speech) and on the individual’s motivational-and-volitional and emotional spheres, and also on the development of their derivative components (understanding of the contents of material to be learned from direct and indirect explanations, and mastering of the material to a degree when one can apply it actively). L.A. is determined not only by the level of development of active cognition, i.e. by what the subject can learn and master independently, but also by the level of “receptive” knowledge, i.e. by what the subject can learn and master with the help of another person who already has corresponding knowledge and skills. Hence, L.A. as an ability to learn and master given material is distinguished from the ability to cognise independently and cannot be fully assessed by its development indicators alone. The maximum level of L.A. is determined by the individual’s abihity to learn by himself.

Learning by Animals

Learning by Animals, the acquisition and accumulation in ontogenesis of the individual experience of an animal and improvement and modification of the innate (instinctive) foundation of its mental activity in line with the concrete habitat of the species. In the process of learning, animals develop the individually variable, temporal components of behaviour which impart it the adaptive lability (mobility) and variability needed for survival. This results in 165 the forming of a single behavioural act involving both innate (typical of the given species) and acquired ( individually variable) components. Sensorymotor training and habituation to longacting or systematically repeated external irritants are the most primitive forms of L. by A. In its basic form, i.e. a skill, L. by A. is characterised by the development through exercise of more or less automatised motor techniques ensuring the solution of a definite biological task. The content of skills is determined by the nature of obstacles overcome during the course of their development, while the degree of their perfection is determined by the differentiation and generalisation of the perception of conditions in which the skills develop. In training animals, skills are developed under man’s purposeful influence in line with his scheme. In animals, the required movements are reinforced (normally by giving them food) and contingent with man-made signals while undesirable movements are blocked (by punishment). When maintaining contact, L. by A. sometimes occurs in the form of imitation (see Imitation by Animals) . Most often, such L. by A. ( imitational learnim) remains within the framework of species-and-type manipulation [see Manipulation (by Animals)] and plays a certain role in forming the behaviour of young animals (assimilation of experience of adult species). A special form of L. by A. is imprinting.

Learning, Social

Learning, Social, a term introduced by behaviourists and signifying the acquisition by an organism of new forms of reactions by way of imitating the behaviour of other living creatures or observing them. L.,S. was explained in principal terms of behaviourism ( stimulus, reaction, reinforcement) and experimentally studied on animals. For instance, a white rat followed another in a labyrinth only if the latter’s reactions were reinforced by food. Subsequently, this approach was supplemented by the introduction of cognitive factors. Man was recognised to have the ability to represent external influences and actions thereto symbolically, in the form of an "inner model of the outside world" (A. Bandura). Due to this, even in cases when the individual does not respond openly and does not receive reinforcements, he, by watching reinforced actions of others, learns to imitate them. In these conditions, the acquisition of new reactions is a less protracted process than in developing usual skills. In experiments on L.,S., children were shown films with patterns of behaviour that had different consequences (either positive or negative). Depending on the nature of the observed consequences (reward or punishment), the testees imitated the pattern in varying degrees. Although in this version, the conception of L.,S. does allow for a choice by the subject of a response action, it is on the whole mechanistic and repeats the general faults of behaviourism.

Leipzig School

Leipzig School, a group of psychologists headed by, Felix Krueger, who, working in Leipzig University in the 1920s-1930s, adopted as a basic notion 166 of psychology “integrity” viewed as the “totality” of an individual, which is studied primarily by the phenomenological method. L.S. came out against Gestalt psychology on the basis that many mental and socio-cultured phenomena cannot be derived from Gestalt laws as a perceptual structure (see Perception), but represent a special integral experience inherent in the innermost depths of personality. L.S. tended towards irrationalism in its interpretation. Proceeding from the idea of developing this integrity, L.S. used it in an experimental analysis of illusions, of visual and audio perceptions (see Illusions of Perception). It was established, specifically, that the distinction threshold for changing integral objects is lower than that of separate irritants. L.S. is sometimes called the "second L.S.", for prior to it the school of Wilhelm Wundt was set up in Leipzig University in the last third of the 19th century, which owing to the use of experimental methods exerted an enormous influence on the formation of psychology as an independent branch of science.

Level of Aspirations

Level of Aspirations characterises (1) the level of difficulty, whose attainment is the common goal of a number of future actions (ideal goal);
(2) the choice by an individual of the goal of his next action, the said goal being conceived as a result of emotional experience Qf success or failure in several previous actions (L. of A. at given moment); and (3) the desirable level of self-appraisal (Self level). The individual’s desire to heighten his self-appraisal when he is free to choose the degree of difficulty of his next action would lead to a controversy between the tendency to increase one’s aspirations to achieve maximal success and the tendency to reduce them in order to avoid failure. The emotional experience of success (or failure) from having (or not having) achieved a L. of A. would entail its shift to more difficult (or easier) tasks. If, after success, the individual chooses a less difficult goal and, after failure, a correspondingly more difficult one (which would be an atypical change in L. of A.), that is indicative of an unrealistic L. of A. or of inadequate self-appraisal. People with a realistic L. of A. are self-confident, persistent, highly productive, and self-critical as regards their own accomplishments. Inadequate selfappraisal may lead to highly unrealistic (exaggerated or belittled) aspirations. In behaviour, this is seen in choosing too difficult or too easy goals, in increased worry, lack of self- confidence, avoidance of competition, uncritical view of one’s own accomplishments, mistaken forecast, and so on.

Level of Group Development

Level of Group Development, the extent of development of interpersonal relations which results in group- formation. Unlike Western psychology, which regards the time of group existence, presence of domination-submission relationships, number of group interactions, and number of reciprocal sociometric choices (see Sociometry) to be the indices of group-formation, Soviet social psychology accounts for a combination of two factors in revealing 167 L. of G.D., namely, the degree to which interpersonal relations are conditioned by the content (goals, values, organisation) of joint activities and the social nature of these goals and values (either corresponding to or preventing a given socio-historical process). Hence, collectives and groups that resemble them in terms of structure and social psychology may be assigned to higher L. of G.D., and groups based on asocial factors (various asocial associations) and diffuse groups (see Group, Diffuse) without common goals and values to lower L. of G.D.

Level of Movement Construction, Concept of

Level of Movement Construction, Concept of, see Physiology of Activeness.

Libido

Libido, a central notion of Freudianism which signifies the “in-depth”, unconscious psychological energy of an individual which is rooted in the sexual instinct. L. is seen as a dominant motive of human behaviour, which is manifested in a socially acceptable form due to sublimation, repression and other forms of " psychological defence" (see Defence, Psychological). In Carl Jung’s psychoanalytical concept, L. is a person’s irrational drives lacking sexual basis which determines his behaviour.

Lie Detector

Lie Detector, polygraphs used for an objective analysis of physiological parameters characterising a person’s highly emotional states. L.D’s were developed in the USA and are used chiefly in legal practice in interrogating lawbreakers. Transducers attached to the subject record the galvanic skin response (changes in the skin’s electric resistance), the encephalogramme (a graphic record of the electrical activity of the brain), muscular tremor, etc. During the interrogation the data gained from all the devices is recorded on a single tape, enabling an expert to evaluate the emotional state of the interrogated person more precisely than if he had simply observed the latter’s external behaviour, since it is practically impossible for an untrained person to voluntarily control his vegetative reactions. The findings thus obtained cannot be regarded as a reaction to the conjectual emotiogenic situation, since they may be a reaction to the procedure causing fear, anxiety, depression, etc. It is impossible to distinguish between “genuine” emotions and those resulting from the use of these devices. This was the cause of numerous legal errors which evoked a negative attitude towards lie detector tests. A method of recording the "affective signs" of a crime (see Contiguous Motor Technique) was elaborated in psychology prior to the appearance of L.D’s.

Lie Telling

Lie Telling, an individual psychological trait which takes the form of conscious distortion of the real state of affairs, a striving to create an incorrect impression of facts and events. L.T. contradicts universal human requirements stemming from people’s need to have a correct idea of the society in which they live, of the deeds of those around them which they must assess, of the circumstances in which they 168 find themselves. Distinguished from L.T. should be distorted knowledge resulting from undeveloped thought, inability to differentiate between one’s wish and actual facts (in children—"imaginary L.T."). Mendacity—pathological lying which is usually connected with uncritical belief in the reality of the imaginary—is a special case. As a social phenomenon L.T. is usually observed in an atmosphere of hostility, competition and suspicion between people. Differentiation of L.T. and an evaluation of its concrete manifestations is possible given a correct understanding of the motives and causes of this phenomena. As a type of relations and a psychological feature, L.T. is overcome in the course of education based on trust between the tutored and the tutors.

Linguistic Relativity, Hypothesis of

Linguistic Relativity, Hypothesis of, Edward Sapir’s and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis on the determination of perception and thinking by structures of a language. According to L.R.,H., linguistic skills and norms unconsciously (see The Unconscious) determine the images (“pictures”) of the world carried by the bearers of this or that language. The differences between the images increase with the language’s distance from each other, for the grammatical structure of a language imposes a method of categorisation and description of the surrounding world. The formative role of language in cognitive processes is also recognised in Marxist psychology, which studies the mediating influence of language meanings on the processes of categorisation in thought, perception, memory, attention, etc., but in L.R.,H. this role is absolutised, resulting in an incorrect notion of cognition "fenced off", through language structures, from the real world, in the alienation of meanings from social practice and an erroneous thesis on the identity of language and thought. However, not only language meanings but also meanings in the form of perceptual symbols, patterns take part in cognitive processes; meanings may also be expressed in the form of symbolic actions. The absence in a language of words for expressing a number of notions does not signify the impossibility of their existence in consciousness. Along with everyday speech there also exist scientific languages which use formulas, diagrams, plans, thereby removing the specifics of categorisation which result from the national peculiarities of a language. Serving as an impulse in the study of the interconnection between language and cognition, L.R..H. posed a number of important linguistic and psychological problems, without, however, giving a methodologically acceptable solution to them.

Localisation of Higher Mental Functions

Localisation of Higher Mental Functions, assigning of higher mental functions to specific brain structures (see Brain). The problem of L. of H.M.F. is being worked out by neuropsychology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and others. The history of the study of L. of H.M.F. goes back to antiquity (Hippocrates, Galen, et al.). The representatives of narrow localisationism examined mental functions as a single 169 whole that is indivisible into components of "mental abilities", carried out by limited areas of the cortex—- particular brain “centres”. It was considered that impairment of the “centre” results in the failure of a corresponding function. A logical result of the ideas of naive localisationism were Franz Gall’s phrenological map and Karl Kleist’s localisation map. These two maps presented the work of the cortex of the hemispheres as the sum total of the functions of different “centres” of mental abilities. Another trend, anti-localisationism, examined the brain as a single indifferentiated whole, with which all mental functions are equally linked. From this it followed that impairment of any region of the brain results in a general disturbance of a function (for instance, in the lowering of intellect), whereas the degree of a function disturbance does not depend on localisation and is determined by the mass of the affected brain. According to the theory of the systems, dynamic L. of H.M.F., the brain, a substrate of mental functions, works as a single whole, consisting of a host of highly differentiated parts, each fulfilling its own specific role. It is not the entire mental function, and not even its separate links, but those physiological processesfactors) which are accomplished in corresponding structures that should be correlated directly with brain structures. Disturbance of these processes leads to the appearance of initial defects involving a whole series of interconnected mental functions.

Locus of Control

Locus of Control, a quality characterising a person’s predisposition to attribute the responsibility for the results of his activity to outside forces ( external L. of C.) or to his own capabilities and efforts (internal L. of C.). The notion of L. of C. was proposed by the US psychologist Julian Rotter. L. of C. is the stable property of an individual, formed in the process of his socialisation. A special questionnaire has been elaborated and a complex method developed for the determination of L. of C., which makes it possible to reveal a link between L. of C. and other personality characteristics. It has been demonstrated that people possessing an internal L. of C. have more self-confidence, are consistent and more persistently pursue their goal, are more inclined towards self-analysis, are balanced, amiable, good-natured and independent. A disposition for an external L. of C., on the contrary, is manifested along with such features as uncertainty of one’s capabilities, quick temper, a tendency to postpone indefinitely the realisation of decisions, anxiety, suspiciousness, conformity and aggressiveness. It has been proved experimentally that internal L. of C. is a socially accepted value (an internal L. of C. is always ascribed to the ideal Self).

Longitudinal Study

Longitudinal Study, a prolonged and systematic investigation of the same subject, which makes it possible to determine the age range and individual fluctuation in the phases of a person’s life cycle. Initially L.S. (as a method of longitudinal cuts)"took shape in child 170 and developmental psychology as an alternative to the prevailing methods of determining the subject’s condition or development level (by the method of cross cuts). The proper value of L.S. was associated with the possibility of forecasting the further course of mental development and the establishment of genetic ties between its phases. The organisation of L.S. implies simultaneous use of other methods, such as observation, testing, psychography, and praximetry. Recently in child and age psychology in connection with the active development of experimental study and educational programmes it has been disclosed that the traditional type of L.S. is but of a limited significance, and it has been established that it may be efficient if it is carried out as an investigation of different variants of development.

Love

Love, (1) a high degree of a positive emotional attitude, which singles out its object among others and places it at the centre of the subject’s vital needs and interests (L. of fatherland, mother, children, etc.); (2) a subject’s intense and relatively stable sentiment, physiologically conditioned by sexual needs and expressed in a socially formed endeavour to be, by one’s personal-significant features, most fully represented in the life of another person (see Personalisation) in a way that would arouse in him the need for a reciprocal sentiment of the same intensity and stability. The sentiment of L. is profoundly intimate and accompanied by situationally conditioned and changing emotions of tenderness, ecstasy, jealousy, and others, which are experienced depending on a person’s individual traits. As a generic notion, L. embraces a wide range of emotional phenomena, distinguished by their depth, strength, object orientation, etc.—from a weakly expressed favourable attitude (see Sympathy) up to overpowering feelings, reaching the magnitude of passion. The fusion of an individual’s sexual need, which in the final count ensures the continuation of the race, and L., as a supreme sentiment providing optimal opportunities for an individual to be continued, ideally represented in a significant other, does not permit practically separating one from the other in reflexion. This circumstance explains the fact that different philosophical and psychological orientations unwarrantedly absolutised either the biological basis of L., reducing it to the sexual instinct (L. as sex), or denied and minimised the physiological side of L., interpreting it as a purely spiritual sentiment (Platonic L.). Though physiological needs are a requisite for the appearance and support of the feeling of L., however, in connection with the fact that the biological aspect of personality appears in a transformed social aspect, L. in its intimate psychological characteristics is a socially and historically conditioned sentiment, uniquely reflecting class relations and cultural features, and serving as a moral basis of the institution of marriage. Investigation of the ontogenesis and functions of L. shows that it plays a big role in the genesis of 171 personality and in the formation of the Self concept. It has been established that frustration of the need for L. results in a worsening of the somatic and psychological condition. There is a close tie between the individual sentiment of L., the traditions and norms of society and the specifics of family education—both these groups of variables are the source of the subject’s interpretation of his state. Numerous attempts have been made in psychology to investigate L.’s internal structure as a whole and the correlation of its individual components with the different characteristics of an individual. The most important of the obtained results is the establishment of a correlation between the ability for L. and the subject’s attitude towards himself. This and a number of similar facts, along with the role of L. in setting up a family, make the problem of L. exceptionally important for psychotherapy and psychological consultation, for the education and self-education of an individual.