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Paedology

Paedology, a trend in psychology and pedagogy that developed at the turn of the 20th century and was caused by the spread of evolutionary ideas and the development of applied branches of psychology and of experimental pedagogy. The founders of P. were Stanley Hall, James Baldwin, Ernst Meumann, Wilhelm Preyer, and others. P. consists of a set of psychological, anatomo-physiological, biological, and 208 sociological approaches to child development; however, these approaches proved to be interlinked purely automatically. In Russia, P. became widespread before the October revolution, and by the late 1920s even tried to monopolise the right to child study and absorb relevant psychological and pedagogical disciplines. Despite numerous discussions and theoretical works by representatives of P., its subject-matter was not specified, and attempts to divorce it from related sciences were unsuccessful, albeit research by Soviet scholars did accumulate vast empirical material on child behaviour. In the 1930s, erroneous methodological and practical tenets on P. were subjected to criticism in the USSR.

Pain

Pain, a psychic state arising from highly intense or damaging effects threatening the organism’s survival or integrity. P. is a highly valuable acquisition of animal evolution. The clinical significance of P. as a symptom of disturbed development of normal physiological processes is exceedingly high, since some pathological processes in the human body already show themselves in painful sensations prior to external symptoms of the disease. From the viewpoint of emotional experience, painful sensations are depressive and distressing in nature, often tantamount to suffering, and serve as stimuli for various defence reactions aimed at removing external or internal irritants that had caused these sensations. Painful sensations form in the central nervous system as a result of combined processes starting in receptor formations located in the skin or internal organs, from which impulses along special paths arrive in the brain subcortical systems that dynamically interact with processes in the cerebral hemispheres’ cortex. Pain response is the most inert and intense unconditioned reaction. Painful sensations are to some extent subject to the influence of higher mental processes associated with cortex activity and dependent on such personal traits as orientation, beliefs, value orientation, etc. Numerous examples are indicative of both personal courage and ability not to succumb to P. and to act in line with high moral motives, and of cowardice, of preoccupation with painful sensations.

Pantomimicry

Pantomimicry, see Expressive Movements.

Paradigm

Paradigm, a system of basic scientific achievements (theories and methods) used as a pattern to organise research into a given sphere of knowledge (discipline) in a definite historical period. The notion was introduced by Thomas Kuhn, a US historian who distinguished various stages in the development of a scientific discipline, namely the preparadigmal (preceding the establishment of P.), domination of P. ("normal science"), its crisis, and revolutionary development involving the replacement of P., i.e. transition from one P. to another. The problems posed by P., viz., concerning a scientific discipline and its development stages, the scientific community as a collective subject of cognition, 209 etc. are studied by Soviet scientists from the viewpoint of dialectical and materialist methodology. In discussions concerning the applicability of P. in psychology, US authors have voiced the view that the early 20th century witnessed the replacement of introspective P. (the psychology of consciousness) by behavioural P. (behavioural psychology). However, this opinion is erroneous, for it gives a one-sided view of the actual development of psychology as a scientific discipline (see History of Psychology).

Paramnesia

Paramnesia, deceptions of memory, "false recollections". Most often, P. is understood to represent mnemonic disorders in which events taking place in a given moment appear to be familiar as those that had already been experienced. Emotions and affects normally play an important role in the arisal of P., as also does reassessment of one’s own contribution to the outcome of certain events in the past. Contemporary medical psychology links P. with marginal states (stress, acute and chronic tiredness), psychasthenia, and other changes in the functioning of the central nervous system.

Paraphasia

Paraphasia, a speech utterance disorder which manifests itself in incorrect use of specific sounds (letters) or words in oral and written speech. Two forms of P. are distinguished: (1) literary P., involving mistaken replacement of specific sounds (or syllables) in words and based on sensory or motor disorders in speech; (2) verbal P., involving replacement of certain words by other close in meaning, this being caused by mnemonic or semantic disorders of speech. It may also be a combination of specific elements of different words in one word (see Contamination) .

Parapsychology

Parapsychology, designation of hypotheses and concepts pertaining to psychic events whose explanation lacks strictly scientific grounding and to which psychologists primarily assign socalled extrasensory perception, i.e. reception of information otherwise than by the sense organs known to science, e.g. through telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. Studies of P. phenomena began in the late 19th century, and though they did not bring about conclusive evidence concerning their nature and mechanisms, they helped learn the psychological regularities of hypnosis, ideomotor acts, subsensory perception, phenomenal memory and remarkable abilities for mental arithmetic, etc. The phenomena which P. deals with are still the subject of discussion and evoke doubt among most psychologists, who, whilst not rejecting the advisability of continued experimental study,- are against scientifically groundless assertions and sensational statements by parapsychologists. Psychotronics is a synonym for P.

Passion

Passion, an intense, stable, and allembracing sentiment dominating over other human motives to make the individual concentrate all his aspirations and efforts on the object of that P. P’s may be caused by various factors, such as conscious ideological beliefs, 210 carnal desires, or pathological factors, e.g. in paranoia (see Fanaticism). An individual may either accept P. or condemn it as something undesirable and obsessive. The main feature of P. is its effectiveness, the fusion of volitional and emotional elements. Unity of the moral, rational factor and P. often motivates great feats and discoveries.

Pathological Doubts

Pathological Doubts, an inadequate distressingly anxious emotional experiences characterised by moral, hypochondriac (exaggerated concern about one’s health) and other contents that do not correspond to actual and possible trouble. For instance, even a slight unpleasant sensation in the stomach or a harmless epidermic disorder, makes such a subject to anxiously think of their possible malignancy. Such thoughts are also prompted by a tendency to indulge in self-analysis, and by other features of one’s character (see Psychopathies). Unlike raving and supervalent ideas, P.O. are eliminated by a proper psychotherapeutic .talk.

Pathopsychology

Pathopsychology, a branch of psychological science that studies morbid changes in psyche. When examining the patterns of change and deterioration of man’s psyche, P. compares them with the regularities inherent in normal psychic activity. Research in P. is of major significance for medical practice: the resultant data are used to perform differential diagnoses; to subject people to forensic, labour, and military expert examination; to restore the patients’ labour and social status; and to correct neurotic states, especially in child anomalous mental development. In elaborating the general theoretical problems of psychology, research in P. serves to confirm that psychic processes and personality traits form during one’s lifetime; it also shows that the biological specifics of a given disease do not directly cause mental disorders, but play the role of conditions wherein the pathological process itself, i.e. the forming of an anomalous personality, develops. At the same time, it becomes clear that disturbances in psychic activity are not simply a retrogression, a reversion to a lower level of ontogenetic development, but the forming of a new quality. The basic technique in P. is experiment, whose results are compared with the life story of the affected individual.

Pedagogic Psychology

Pedagogic Psychology, a branch of psychology that studies psychological aspects of teaching and upbringing. P.P. examines the psychological problems of purposeful forming of cognitive activity and socially meaningful individual qualities; the conditions that ensure an optimal teaching result; the possibilities of accounting for individual psychological peculiarities of students; the relationships between teacher and students, and also within the class; and psychological aspects of teaching itself (teacher’s psychology). The origin of P.P. as an independent branch of psychology was caused by the spread of evolutionary ideas in the second half of the 19th century. The 211 initial successes of experimental psychology gave rise to the hope that accounting for data obtained in psychological laboratories and application of those data in the course of teaching would substantially optimise the teaching process. This idea was outlined in initial practice-oriented P.P. works. Yet, knowledge of the laws of psychophysics, of certain characteristics of memorising and forgetting, and of reaction time indices proved clearly insufficient. The recommendations of P.P. were rather vague and scholastic. Apart from scarce experimental facts, this was also caused by the limited nature of the theoretical views of P.P. adherents at that time. The use of the biogenetic law in psychology (along with other theories of spontaneous development), having underpinned a theoretical foundation to the theory and practice of "free education", actually closed the road to elaborating ways for purposeful moulding of human personality. The behaviourist (see Behaviourism) psychopedagogical concept (its contemporary version is Burrhus Skinner’s theory) suggested an orientation towards rigid " modification of behaviour": without sufficient grounds, it assumed that it would be enough to organise a proper system of external stimulations to resolve all the issues of teaching and upbringing. In looking for a compromise between the purely biological and sociological approaches, the theory of "two factors", actually became the basic tenet underlying paedology with its faulty practice of “predetermining” child intellectual possibilities. The same theoretical foundation underlies the methodology of test examinations in the West today. Contemporary Soviet P.P. is based on the fundamental tenet that mental development is essentially assimilation of socio-historical practice, as objectified in material and spiritual culture; this is achieved through active human activity, whose means and ways are actualised in communication with other people. In this manner, P.P. research is drastically reoriented towards basing its strategy of research on active forming of mental processes and properties in the individual, rather than on recording the achieved level of mental development. Again, other P.P. aspects are also viewed in line with this general strategy. For instance, the ways and possibilities of purposeful forming of actions, images and concepts underlying knowledge and skills are studied by the theory of stepwise forming of mental actions (Pyotr Galperin, Nina Talyzina). This involves studying the means and ways of developmental training; analysing the interrelationship between organisation of teaching and the course of mental development; inquiring into the role of differentiated approach to the problem of the ability to learn; and investigating the means and ways for controlling and assessing training activity. A special place belongs to research aimed at purposeful forming of socially valuable personal traits. Being to some measure associated with the actual unity of teaching and upbringing, P.P. may be conventionally classified into the psychology of teaching (which studies regularities of assimilation of 212 knowledge, skills and capabilities) and the psychology of education (which examines the regularities of active, purposeful moulding of human personality). In recent years, researchers have also distinguished teacher’s psychology and studies of interrelations within collectives engaged in teaching and upbringing. With regard to spheres of P.P. application, one may distinguish the psychology of preschool education; the psychology of teaching children of school age with special reference to the junior, middle, and senior school ages with their essential specifics (see Developmental Psychology); the psychology of vocational training; and the psychology of higher education.

Perception

Perception, an integral reflection of objects, situations and events, one arising under the direct effect of physical irritants on the receptor surfaces of the sense organs. Together with sensation processes, P. ensures an immediate sensory orientation in the surrounding world. Being an essential stage of cognition, it is more or less always associated with thinking, memory, and attention, directed by motivation, and has a definite emotional tinge (see Emotions). One should distinguish P. adequately reflecting reality from illusions. The involvement of P. in practical activities, communication (1), and research processes has decisive significance for verifying and correcting the perceived image. The arisal of initial hypotheses on the nature of P. dates back to antiquity. Philosophers, physicists, physiologists, and men of art significantly contributed to the development of scientific concepts about P. In the late 19th century, the ideas about P. turned into major components within the contemporary system of psychological knowledge. The early theories of P. generally corresponded to the tenets of traditional associationism. A decisive step in over- , coming such views in interpreting P. i was made through the development ! by the Russian physiologist Ivan Seche- j nov of the reflex concept of psyche, i on the one hand, and owing to the ; works of representatives of Gestalt \ psychology, on the other. The latter [ showed that the most important pheno- i mena of P. (such as constancy) were i conditioned by invariable relationships ) between the perceptual image compo- j nents. Studies of the reflex structure \ of P. led to the creation of theoretical | models of P., in which an important i part is assigned to efferent ( centrifugal) processes, including motor proces- i ses, that adjust the work of the percep- [ tive system to the object’s characteristics (Alexander Zaporozhets, Alexei N. Leontyev). P. is exemplified by the movements of a hand feeling a thing, the motions of eyes tracing a visible contour, or tense thorax muscles reproducing an audible sound. Contemporary studies of the early ontogenesis of P. in man confirm the existence of several forms of P., strictly caused by the specifics of constant stimuli combinations. Yet, developed processes of P. are controlled by the objectives facing the subject. The intentional (see Intention), purposefully directed nature of these processes makes it possible to regard them as perceptual actions 213 (Vladimir Zinchenko) that allow to distinguish the informative content of a situation, in accord with which the subject may compare the perceived objects with their former reflections and descriptions stored in his memory, and thus to recognise those objects, i.e. assign them to a certain semantic class (category). In most cases, the dynamics of the process of identification is adequately described by the "law of perception" (Nikolai Lange), according to which one would first distinguish only the general and diffuse idea about an object, an idea that would subsequently be replaced by a more specific and detailed P. Recognition that takes place on the basis of distinguishing generalised, occasionally socially fixed systems of features is achieved over a considerably shorter time (fractions of a second) than the processes of initial perceptual learning, some of which may take months and years (for example, the development of reading habits). The categorisation of objects, events and situations accomplished in identification owing to interaction of P. and memory is close to and sometimes identical with conceptual categorisation. The possibility for the subject to transform the image in order to reduce it to a form suitable for decision-making also draws P. closer to thinking processes. Such often unconscious transformations may help solve the tasks facing the subject. Thus, P. is not passive imitation of an instant effect, but a creative process of cognition. At present, P. is intensely studied by psychologists, physiologists, cyberneticists, and representatives of other disciplines. Relevant investigations into P. widely use observation and experiment and involve combined methods of empirical analysis and simulation. Evidence on the functions, development and structure of P. has both theoretical and applied significance, and is used in developing data representation systems, in technical design and applied art, in pedagogy, sports, etc.

Perception and Assessment of Man by Man

Perception and Assessment of Man by Man, see Perception, Interpersonal.

Perception, Intergroup

Perception, Intergroup, social perception processes (see Social Perception), in which both the subject and object of perception come out as social groups or communities. In contrast to interpersonal perception (see Perception, Interpersonal), P.,I. is distiguished by (1) compiling of individuals into one whole that differs in quality from its component elements; (2) lengthy and considerably less flexible development (when developed, P.,I. resists external influences); and (3) schematisation and simplification of potential aspects in perceiving and assessing some other group. P.,I. is characterised by stereotype (see Stereotype, Social), highly fused cognitive and emotional components, a vividly affective tinge, and a sharply pronounced evaluative orientation. For these reasons, P.,I. is distinguished by bias (see Bias), the intergroup concepts themselves often don’t stand the test with regard to truthfulness, accuracy and adequacy. These of P.,I. characteristics are manifested in a concentrated form in such effects as intergroup discrimination 214 and ingroup favouritism. Counter to a view widespread among Western psychologists (Sigmund Freud, Theodor Adorno, and others), according to whom these effects are essentially primordial, universal and inevitable elements of intergroup relations, Soviet psychologists have marked their secondary nature in relation to activity; among other things, they demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally that these effects are dependent on the level of group development and type of joint intergroup activity, and that they are not typical for a collective.

Perception, Interpersonal

Perception, Interpersonal, = comprehension and assessment of man by man. In contrast to the perception of inanimate objects, P.,I. is characterised by greater bias, which is manifested in the fusion of cognitive and emotional components; in a more vividly pronounced evaluative tinge; and in the greater direct dependence of the idea about another person on the motivational and semantic structure of the activity of the perceiving subject. A significant number of studies on P.,I. is devoted to the forming of first impressions about another person. They elucidate regularities inherent in the “ completion” of the image of another person on the basis of available, often limited information, and in revealing the actual requirements of the perceiving subject; they also establish the action of mechanisms that lead to a distortion of P.,L (Alexei Bodalev) (see Recency Effect, Halo Effect, etc.). An important feature of P.,I. is not so much the perception of human qualities, but rather the perception of a given human being in interrelations with other people (perception of preferences in a group, group structure, etc.). The study of the role of joint activities in P.,I. is a central theoretical problem in this field of socio-psychoiogical knowledge, determining its experimental programme. The following are the most important of the P.,I. mechanisms studied: (1) identification, i.e. understanding and explanation of another person’s behaviour by identifying oneself with him; (2) socio-psychological reflexion, i.e. understanding of another person by reflecting in his stead; (3) empathy, understanding and imaginatively experiencing another person’s feelings; (4) stereotyping, i.e. the perception and assessment of another person by applying to him the characteristics of a given social group, etc. Attempts are being made to distinguish some more universal P.,I. mechanisms that help stabilise, categorise, (see Categorisation), select, and restrict information, this being a requisite for any perceptual (see Perception) process, including P.I. processes. The theory of cognitive dissonance (see Cognitive Dissonance, Theory of) and the implicit theory of personality laid claim to having discovered such universal mechanisms. Yet, neither provides satisfactory solutions (see Attribution, Causal).

Perceptual Actions

Perceptual Actions, structural units of the process of perception in man, P.A. ensure conscious distinction of a given aspect of a sensed situation and the transformation of sensory 215 information so as to construct an image adequate to objective reality and to the tasks to be fulfilled. Soviet psychology was the first to advance the concept of P.A. (Alexei Zaporozhets, 1941). Later, some foreign psychologists developed similar views. The genetic correlation of P.A. with practical actions is manifested in their developed overt locomotor nature. The movements of a hand feeling an object, the movements of a throat reproducing an audible sound, or the movements of eyes tracing a visible contour continually compare the perceived image with the original object to verify and correct that image. Subsequent development of P.A. is accompanied by significant reduction of motor components, so that, outwardly, the process of perception assumes the form of a momentary act of “discernment”. These changes are caused by the forming in a child of ramified systems of sensory standards and operational perception units that allow transforming perception from afi image construction process into a relatively more elementary identification process. Sensory standards correspond, for instance, to the following socially-developed systems of sensory qualities: scale of musical sounds, system of phonemes of one’s •native tongue, or system of basic geometrical forms. In learning sensory standards, a child begins to use them as a sort of sensory measures. As a result, sensory-perceptual processes become more accurate and voluntary.

Perseverance

Perseverance, a cyclic recurrence or persistent reproduction, often counter to conscious intention, of some action, thought or emotional experience. They distinguish P. in the motor, emotional, sensory-perceptual (see Eidetism), and intellectual spheres. A tendency towards P. is often observed in the clinical picture of local brain lesions and in speech, motor and emotional disorders. P. is also possible in distracted attention or in states of acute overstrain (see Tiredness). P. is assumed to be essentially based on cyclic excitation of neuron structures caused by a delayed signal about action termination.

Persistence

Persistence, a quality of the will aimed at steadfast achievement of one’s goal in spite of difficulties and obstacles. P. is developed by fostering in a child, beginning from the preschool age, the ability to complete some feasible task, and also readiness to make efforts to subordinate his or her behaviour to the future result, sometimes counter to the motivations prevailing at the given moment. Meaningful goals and awareness of one’s duty and responsibility for the given assignment play a positive role in fostering P.

Personal Construct

Personal Construct, a classifying and evaluating standard created by the subject with whose aid objects, in their similarity and difference from one another, are understood. The P.C. notion was suggested by Harold Kelly. By its structural content, P.C. reflects the nature of the elements of the environment interpreted by a person (events, phenomena, people) as at once similar to and differing from one 216 another. P.C’s. are distinguished according to the extent of the sphere of their use: P.C’s that are applicable only in relation to a definite insignificant class of elements, and P.C’s which reflect the most generalised evaluation of perceived objects. In accordance with their stability and invariability, distinction is made between basic and situational P.C’s. The sum total of P.C’s represents a system whose most important characteristic is its relative cognitive complexity, expressing the quantity of units comprising the system, their ramification and connection. Experimental data point to a dependence of the cognitive complexity of a person’s P.C. system on his ability to give an in-depth description and analysis of perceived objects in their contradictory unity. The P.C. method may be used regardless of its association with cognitive psychology, in the framework of which it was proposed, as a comparatively simple method of studying the process of categorisation.

Personal Relationships, Theory of

Personal Relationships, Theory of, a system of theoretical concepts, according to which the psychological core of the personality is an individual- integral system of this personality’s subjectively assessed and consciously selected relations with reality, a system that represents an interiorised (see Interiorisation) experience of relationships with other people in a social environment. The said system of attitudes determines the nature of personal emotional experiences, the peculiarities of the perception of reality, and the nature of behavioural reactions to external influences. A positive or negative experience of relationships with people would also unambiguously form a corresponding system of intrinsic personal attitudes. The concept of personal relationships was initially developed by Vladimir Myasishchev and furthered by Alexei Bodalev’s works devoted to problems of interpersonal perception (see Perception, Interpersonal). The basic tenets of the concept of personal relationships are specified in the pathogenetic theory of neuroses and in psychotherapeutic practice.

Personalisation

Personalisation, a process due to which the subject is individually represented in the life of other people and can come out in social life as a personality (Vadim Petrovsky). The need for P. is a deep-rooted and not always realised foundation of nonutilitarian forms of communication (1) (altruism, affiliation, desire for social recognition and self-assertion in a group, etc.). The chance to accomplish deeds and significant social changes, for which the individual is responsible to society, is, in effect, the determining factor in his ability to achieve P. This ability is also caused by the richness of the subject’s individuality, by the sum-total of his socially meaningful distinctions from other people. It has been experimentally proven that a full-fledged and socially positive manifestation of that individual need and ability becomes evident in collectives, where the P. of each member conditions the P’s of all. Meanwhile, in corporative groups (see Corporation) and a social 217 associations, depersonalisation of all is a condition for one leader to be able to achieve P. by his antisocial qualities. In presocialist social formations, the need for P. could only be fully realised by representatives of dominant classes, and was suppressed in the working people. Hence, throughout human history, the need for P. developed in various ideological, primarily religious forms, being essentially of class nature; as a result, dominant classes were provided with a socially wholesome life on this earth, while the oppressed were promised the life "in the other world", with alleged eternity of the free soul. The free and all-round development of man in socialist society allows the individual to achieve, through socially useful activity, positive P. in other people and by this virtue, be personally represented in social life.

Personalised Meaning

Personalised Meaning, an individualised reflection of the meaningful attitude of personality to the objects for the sake of which his vital activity is carried out, cognised as "significance- forme" of the subject’s impersonal knowledge of the world, including concepts, skills, actions and deeds that are perpetrated by people, social norms, roles, values and ideals. The P.M. notion is historically linked with Lev Vygotsky’s ideas about the dynamic meaning systems of the individual consciousness, which denote the unity of affective and intellectual processes. Introduction of the P.M. notion as a unit of consciousness (Alexei N. Leontyev) played an important role in overcoming the purely intellectualistic interpretation of consciousness as the sum of knowledge about the world, and also in solving problems of the correlation of individual and social consciousness in a person’s life. The P.M. notion is used in different spheres of psychology which study man’s relations to the world, depending on his place in society, his motives, attitudes, emotions, etc. A number of componential semantic systems are singled out: meaning-forming motives that induce a person’s activity; a person’s attitude to reality, which has acquired a subjective value ( significance) for him and which is realised in activity; attitudes which express P.M.; deeds and actions of a person that are regulated by meaningful attitudes. P.M. possesses a number of peculiarities linked with the analysis of a personality as a whole. Central among these is P.M.’s dependence on a person’s place in the system of social relations and on his social position. The determination of P.M. by the social position explains other peculiarities of the psychological nature of P.M.: the mediation of changes in P.M. by changing the activity which lies at its basis, the insufficiency of mere awareness of P.M. for changing it, and others. Since a change in a person’s social position in the world entails a reassessment of his attitude towards reality, this may,’ in a number of cases, result in farreaching restructuring of the sum total of P.M’s, Which occasionally is dramatically manifested in such phenomena as "loss of self" and loss of the sense of existence. The noted reconstructions should be distinguished from the subjective emotional experiences ( 218 sympathies, antipathies, wishes, desires, etc.) which are easily accessible and change directly under the influence of speech. Such subjective experiences (along with emotions) fulfil the function of assessing P.M., facilitating the subject’s awareness of his attitudes towards reality, their “sense” for him. When subjective experiences and P.M. do not coincide, the orientation of subjective experiences changes, and not P.M. A psychological analysis of the regularities of the formation and functioning of P.M. and—more broadly— of dynamic semantic systems is the central problem in studying the ways of a person’s development and education as an individuality (Alexander Asmoiov).

Personalism (in psychology)

Personalism (in psychology), a trend which regards personality as a subjectmatter and an object of primordial reality in opposition to its social environment. P. explains personality’s development by its primordially inherent desire for self-actualisation and inner self-perfection, and regards all mental processes solely in this perspective. P.’s idealism and teleologism prevent it from giving a scientifically sound explanation of persona• lily’s integrity and activeness.

Personality (in psychology)

Personality (in psychology), a systems quality which is acquired by an individual in object-oriented activity and communication (1), characterising his involvement in social relations. From the viewpoint of Marxist- Leninist philosophy, P. is formed in the process of social practice and, being active, appears as a whole in which cognition of the environment is realised in unity with emotional experience. P. is characterised by activeness—the subject’s striving to expand the sphere of his activity, to act beyond the boundaries defined by the situation and role prescriptions; personality orientation—a stable dominant system of motives, of interests, convictions, etc.; in-depth semantic formations— dynamic systems of meanings, according to Lev Vygotsky (see Personalised Meaning)—which are formed in the joint activities of groups and collectives; the degree of awareness of one’s attitudes to reality: attitude (Dmitri Uznadze, Alexander Prangishvili, Shota Nadirashvili), disposition, etc. A developed P. possesses a developed selfawareness, which does not exclude an uncounscious psychic regulation of some important aspects of his activity. Subjectively, for an individual, P. is his Self (Self-image, Self concept), a system of ideas about himself constructed by an individual in the processes of activity and communication, which ensures the unity and identity of his P. and reveals itself in selfappraisal, a feeling of self-respect, level of aspirations, etc. The Self concept represents how an individual sees himself at present and in future, what he would wish to be like, what he could be like if he wanted to, etc. Correlating the Self concept with the real circumstances of an individual’s life permits P. to change his behaviour and accomplish goals of self- education. Appeal to the self-appraisal and self-esteem of P. is an important factor 219 in influencing P. in the process of education. As a subject of interpersonal relations P. is examined in three aspects, which form a unity: (1) P. as a relatively stable sum total of his intra-individual qualities; symptomatic complexes of psychological properties, which form the structure of P.’s character, peculiarities of temperament, abilities (Boris Teplov, Vladimir Nebylitsyn, Volf Merlin), etc., from the point of view of individuality; (2) P. as the aspect of an individual’s inclusion in interpersonal ties, where mutual relations and interaction, which appear in a group, may be interpreted as bearers of the P. of their participants. Overcome in this way is the false alternative in the understanding of interpersonal relations as a manifestation of either a group, or P.— the personality attributes appear as those of a group, or vice versa; (3) P. as an "ideal representation" of an individual in the life of other people, even within their direct contact, as a result of transformations actively accomplished by a person in the cognitive and affective sphere of P. of other people. In his development an individual feels the socially determined need "to be a P.", i.e. to enter the life process of other people, continuing his existence in them, and displaying an ability to "be a P." that is realised in socially meaningful activity. P. is developed in activity, in the process of the socialisation of the individual and purposeful education. The task of communist education is the all-round, harmonious development of an individual’s P. This development is complex in character (mental, labour, moral, aesthetic and physical), the school, family and society playing the leading role. Important in this process is education by labour, primarily by joining in a work collective, where the necessary conditions are created for the formation of socially valuable P. qualities in productive labour (Anton Makarenko, Vassili Sukhomlinsky). The regularities and the age periodisation of the psychological development of P. (see Age) is usually described through the study of general regularities and age periodisation of an individual’s psychological development. However, the unity of psychic development and the development of P. does not imply their identity. In this connection an attempt is made to build a hypothetical model of P.’s development and on its basis age periodisation (Artur Petrovsky), in accordance with which age development is determined by the type of relations formed by an individual with his most influential reference group in that period. In preschool and early school age these are groups directed by a teacher; in adolescence— primarily groups of peers or of older children; in youth—collectives as groups with a high level of development or, in individual cases, with serious defects in upbringing, corporative groups. Western psychology absolutises the age periods of development of P., building on the basis of each of them special psychological theories of P.: psychoanalytical (see Psychoanalysis)—on the basis of absolutising the development of P. in early childhood; neobehavioural (see 220 Neobehaviourism) theories of social learning and the theory of roles—development of P. before school and in early school age; "humanistic psychology" with its accent on “self-realisation”,—on the basis of abstracting adolescent selfassertion. Thus the P. of an individual who has not yet been integrated in social life is incorrectly taken as a model of a socially mature individual. The majority of Western theories of P. are indeterminate and teleological in character, ignoring the determination of P. by real practical activity. That is why, despite some achievements in the field of technique (specifically, in the sphere of psychotherapy), crisis phenomena are characteristic of the P. psychology in capitalist countries, which is admitted by Western scientists themselves. The works of Soviet and foreign (Henri Wallon, Lucien Seve, and others) Marxist psychologists contain criticism of the idealistic and mechanistic teachings on P.

Personality Inventories

Personality Inventories, a set of methods for studying and assessing the traits and manifestations of the personality. Each of the methods represents a standardised questionnaire, a set of proposals whose content the subject (informant) may either agree or disagree with. The questions in the questionnaire are formulated so that, in responding to them, the subject would inform the experimenter of his state of health and typical forms of his behaviour in various situations, and would assess his own personality from various viewpoints, inform about the peculiarities of his relationships with other people, etc. P.I. allow to obtain information characterising the subject’s personality within a wide range of aspects: from peculiarities of his physical and mental state to his moral, and social views. P.I. are developed on the basis of one or several attitude scales. The questions are grouped so that the replies would allow to assess some individual trait or state. These grouped questions, which are called scales, are distinguished by the name of the personality trait studied (scales of anxiety, leadership, aggressiveness, etc.). The data obtained by questionnaire are directly transformed through special statistical procedures into standardised score points, normally represented in diagrammatic form. Today a great variety of P.I. have been developed depending on respective personality theories. Some of them are designed to simultaneously assess many personality aspects (for instance, MMPI—the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory); however, most of them are aimed at studying specific personality traits (Hans Eysenck’s method). In many questionnaires personal features are determined basing on the use of various factor analysis techniques (Joy Guilford’s test, James Cartel’s 16-factor test, etc.). The main shortcoming of P.I. is that the subjects, while more or less understanding the face value of their replies, may sometimes respond depending on the situation or experimenter’s demand, i.e. voluntarily or involuntarily distort the information they give about themselves.

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Personality Orientation

Personality Orientation, a totality of stable motives directing individual activity and relatively independent of actual situations. P.O. is characterised by individual interests, propensities beliefs, and ideals, in which a person’s world outlook manifests itself (see Personality).

Personality Tests

Personality Tests, see Methods of Personality Study

Personality Traits

Personality Traits, stable features of the behaviour of an individual recurring in different situations. P.T. are always marked by varying degree of prominence in different people, across various situations (P.T. of an individual are manifested in any situation), and by the potential capacity to be measured (P.T. may be measured with specially developed questionnaires and tests). In experimental psychology, P.T. such as extroversion— introversion, worry, rigidity, and impulsivity have been examined in greater detail than others. In contemporary studies, the accepted viewpoint is that description of P.T. is insufficient to understand and predict specific individual behaviour, since they provide knowledge only about the general aspects of personal behaviour (see Personality, Methods of Personality Study).

Personification

Personification, the act of ascribing human properties to animals, plants, abstract concepts, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena.

Persuasibility

Persuasibility, the degree of susceptibility to suggestion as determined by subjective readiness to become subject to and succumb to some suggestion. P. is a personal characteristic dependent on situational and personal factors. The following are among the personal traits conducive to increased P.: diffidence, low self-appraisal, inferiority complex (see Complex), submissiveness, timidity, shyness, trustfulness, worry, extroversion, increased emotionality, impressionability, weak logical reasoning, and slow mental activity. The following situational factors affecting higher individual P. are distinguished: subject’s psychophysical state (in quiescence and relaxation, P. rises, as it also does with strong emotional exilement, tiredness, and stress; maximal P. is observed in hypnosis) ; low level of information; insufficient competence in the issue discussed or in the activity concerned; a low degree of importance for the subject in question; and shortage of time for decision-making. Under "group pressure" (see Conformity), P. would depend on the level of group development. Experiments have shown that subjects characterised by P. tests as suggestible prove capable of achieving collectivist self-determination when placed in a collective, i.e. of resisting P. because their interpersonal relations are mediated by the goals and values of’ joint activities. Contemporary psychology regards P. as a heterogeneous phenomenon which manifests itself in different ways in different life spheres of the individual, depending on the content and type of activity. In certain situations, every person may prove suggestible to some degree. Two types of 222 P. have been revealed by means of factor analysis. Primary P. underlies perceptibility to self-suggestion and hypnosis. Secondary P. is linked to dependence relations, to their motivation, and to the subject’s low selfappraisal. P. is a normal feature of human mentality; however, excessive P. may disorganise behaviour and is considered a negative quality. Criticality is the opposite of P.

Phatic Communication

Phatic Communication, a contact without content, when communication is maintained exclusively for the very process of it.

Phenomenalistic Psychology

Phenomenalistic Psychology, see " Humanistic Psychology".

Phenomenon of Invested Effort

Phenomenon of Invested Effort, see Invested Effort.

Phenotype

Phenotype, any observable morphological, physical, or behavioural feature of an organism. P. is the product of gCTZo/y/je-environment interaction. Yet at different organisational levels (cell, organ, or organism) the P.-genotype relationship would differ. Normally, the term P. is not used to designate the totality of human social characteristics.

Phlegmatic Person

Phlegmatic Person, an individual with one of the four basic types of temperament characterised by a low level of psychological activeness, sluggishness, and inexpressive mimicry. A P.P. has difficulty in switching over from one form of activity to another, and also in adapting to new situations. P.P’s are usually even-tempered, and their sentiments and moods are normally stable. In unfavourable conditions, a P.P. may develop inertia, meagre emotions, and a tendency to perform monotonous, habitual actions. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov believed that P.P’s have a strong, balanced, and inert type of nervous system.

Phobias

Phobias, obsessive, inadequate emotional experiences of specific fears felt by the subject in a definite (phobic) situation and accompanied by vegetative disfunctions (tachycardia, abundant sweating, etc.). P., are observed in neuroses, psychoses and organic brain diseases. In neurotic P., patients are generally aware that their fears are unfounded, and take them for morbid and subjectively tormenting experiences they are unable to control. Psychologists distinguish nosophobia (fear of contaging some disease, say cancer, heart disease, and so on), sociophobia (fear or appearing in public, fear of blushing, etc.), fear of space (claustrophobia—fear of closed premises, agrophobia—fear of open space), and so on. If the patient fails to show distinctly critical understanding that his fears are unfounded and unreasonable, then all the above-mentioned states would more often not be P. but pathological doubts (misgivings) or raving. P, involve specific behavioural manifestations designed to avoid their object, or to reduce fear by performing obsessive, ritualised actions. Neurotic P., in which the neurotic would unconsciously “hide” from some insoluble conflict, usually arise in people 223 with imaginal thinking and, at the same time, somewhat inert and vegetatively unstable. In most cases, they are overcome after expert psychotherapeutic treatment.

Phrenology

Phrenology, a doctrine advanced by Franz Gall that human or animal mental features are associated with the shape of the skull. Its underlying idea is this: the brain cortex consists of a number of centres, each localising a given human ability (talent). When that ability is highly developed, the corresponding brain centre is developed, too, and this allegedly affects the skull configuration, allowing by means of special measurements to make a phrenological chart which shows "bumps of talents" for music, poetry or painting; “bumps” of ambition, stinginess, or bravery, and so on. In the 19th century, P. was highly popular as a method of psychodiagnosis. However, numerous autopsies showed that the skull does not at all replicate the cortex shape, and hence to determine human mental and moral peculiarities by the skull bumps and cavities would be unscientific. P. has for many years discredited the rational element in Gall’s views, namely, the principle of localisation of functions in the cerebral cortex, the principle that was later confirmed by the discovery in 1870 by Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig of psychomotor centres in various sections of the brain (see Localisation of Higher Mental Functions).

Phylogenesis

Phylogenesis, a sequence of events in the evolution of groups of organisms. In psychology, P. is understood as the process of emergence and historical development (evolution) of animal psyche and behaviour, and also forms of consciousness in the course of human history. P. is studied by animal psychology, ethnopsychology, and historical psychology (see Sociogenesis), and also by anthropology, ethnography, history, and other social sciences. In Soviet psychology, dialectical and historical materialism is the methodological foundation of the study of the evolution of various forms of consciousness. Basically, P. deals with revealing the main evolutionary stages in animal psyche (in connection with specific habitats, nervous system structures, etc.; one of the best known schemes is still that of Karl Buhler: instinct— skill—intellect); identifying the conditions of stage-to-stage transition and the general evolution factors; distinguishing the main evolutionary stages of various forms of consciousness (in connection with specific activity, social relations, culture, language, etc.); and establishing the correlations of the main stages of P. (e.g. of man’s psyche) and ontogenesis (see Mental Development) .

Physiognomy

Physiognomy, a precept alleging a unilinear correlation between an individual’s looks and his character and resultant possibility to establish his psychological characteristics on the basis of his appearance. P. originated in ancient times on the basis of the idea that human mental (moral) and bodily faculties are predetermined by nature. For ages, P. served as a premise for 224 numerous character typologies. However, both these typologies and attempts to revive the ideas of P. in the 20th century lacked scientific ground (see Characterology).

Physiology of Activeness

Physiology of Activeness, a concept that interprets the behaviour of an organism as an active attitude to the environment determined by the model of the future (result) sought by the organism. The ideas of P. of A. appeared (in opposition to mechanistic understanding of the organism as a purely reactive system) in the works of Ivan Sechenov, Charles Sherrington, Alexei Ukhtomsky, and others. Nikolai Bernstein developed P. of A, as a special trend of research. According to him, the model of the required future is simulated by the brain on the basis of information on the current situation and past experience; however, that model is not rigid, since the organism continually faces the need for probability forecast and choice of most effective ways of achieving its goal by solving its locomotion task. Having developed its behaviour programme, the organism would fight for it by overcoming the environment, whose features would be taken into consideration by introducing sensory corrections into that programme. This makes it possible to actively reconstruct behaviour by the feedback principle, thanks to which it has the nature of a reflex circle, rather than a reflex arc. Continuous organism-environment cyclic interaction is achieved at various levels of movement construction. The effecting apparatus is characterised by numerous degrees of freedom, whose excess is overcome by coordination of movements and by transformation of the effector organ into a controlled system. The ideas of P. of A. influenced the development of several sciences, including psychology.

Pictogram

Pictogram, a graphic method used in psychology for studying mediated memorising. P. was suggested in the 1930s by the Soviet psychologist Alexander Luria, and has come to be widely used in psychiatry and medical psychology as a diagnostic technique. The general view of P. comprises a totality of graphic images which the subject invents to effectively memorise and subsequently reproduce words and expressions. As a diagnostic technique, P. belongs to projective tests (see Projective Tests) since it often reflects the subject’s hidden motives, personal problems and fears. Presumably, the selection and construction of graphic images makes it possible to reveal not only mnemonic disorders, but also disturbed conceptual thinking (see Thinking, Verbal-Logical).

Pilot Study

Pilot Study, a tentative investigation conducted prior to the main research and constituting the latter’s simplified form. In social psychology, P.S. ( working term: “probing”) is applied to establish the scope and number of questionnaire items to be selected and specified, the interview time, etc. In testology, P.S. (working term: “ pretest”) serves to reveal certain main test standards. P.S. is highly important in planning experimental psychological 225 studies, making it possible to establish the directions, organisation principles, and methods of the main research, and to specify most important relevant hypotheses. In Soviet psychology, the term "exploring experiment" is used more commonly.

Placebo Effect

Placebo Effect, changes in patient’s physiological or psychological state caused by administering a placebo, a harmless preparation prescribed as a drug. P. E. shows the psychotherapeutic impact of the very fact that a medicine has been administered; it serves to establish the extent of suggestion in the remedial effect of. a new preparation. In this case, a group of subjects are told they would be given a new drug, and half of them are subsequently administered a placebo. By comparing the results for the two subgroups, one can judge of the actual efficacy of the drug. P.E. is also used in psychotherapy and in certain experimental psychological studies.

Play (Game)

Play (Game), a form of activity in conventional situations, directed towards the recreation and assimilation of social experience fixed in socially established methods of carrying out purposeful actions in science and culture. As a specific, historically rooted kind of social practice, P. reproduces the norms of human life and activities whose observance is ensured by the cognition and assimilation of object and social reality, and the intellectual, emotional and moral development of personality. P. is the prevalent type of activity among preschool children. Some forms of animal behaviour are also called P. P. is studied in psychology, ethnography and history of culture, in the theory of management and pedagogics (see Game, Business) and other sciences. The first attempt systematically to study P. was made at the end of the 19th century by the German scientist Karl Groos, who believed that P. is a preliminary exercise for instincts as applied to the future conditions of the struggle for survival (the "theory of pre-exercises"). German psychologist Karl Biihler defined P. as an activity pursued for the sake of "functional satisfaction". The Freudians interpret P. as an expression of inner instincts or drives. All these interpretations suffer from a biologicallydetermined approach. A materialist interpretation of P. was formulated by Georgi Plekhariov, who pointed out that its origins stemmed from labour. In Soviet psychology, the theory of P. which developed out of the recognition of its social nature was elaborated by Yefim Arkin and Lev Vygotsky. Tying P. in with orientating activity, Daniil Elkonin defines P. as an activity which forms and. improves control over behaviour. Distinctive features of ongoing P. are rapidly changing situations in which the object of a particular action finds himself, and equally rapid adaptation to a new situation. Children’s P. structure includes the following: the roles assumed by the players; P. actions as a means of realising these roles; the application of objects, i.e. the replacement of real objects by artificial, play objects; and real relations between the players. Role is the unit 226 of P. which serves as the pivot uniting all its aspects. A particular field of activity reproduced in P. is its plot; and that which is reproduced by children as the main aspect of adults’ activities and relations at work and in social life is the content. Through P. the child’s voluntary behaviour, his socialisation, takes shape. A distinctive feature of P. is its dual nature, also characteristic of dramatic art, whose elements are sustained in any collective P. On the one hand, the player performs real activities which require actions connected with tackling quite specific, frequently unusual, problems; on the other, some aspects of these activities are of a conventional nature, making it possible to digress from the real situation and responsibilities and numerous attendant circumstances it carries. This dual nature determines the developing effect of P.

Polar Profiles, Method of

Polar Profiles, Method of, a way of describing objects (concepts, social attitudes, social stereotypes, etc.) by selecting bipolar scales for contrasting adjectives, nouns or developed utterances (sentences), e.g. hard—soft, warm—cold, etc. By generalising the subject’s replies on the nature of a given object (softer or harder, etc.) over the entire scale, the investigator would infer his psychological attitude towards that object. Unlike the method of semantic differential, P.P.,M. does not require factor analysis and grouping of scales into larger categories.

Political Psychology

Political Psychology, a branch of psychology concerned with the psychological phenomena (moods, opinions, feelings, value orientations, etc.) of political life that’ form and reveal themselves in the political consciousness of classes, social groups, governments, and individuals and are realised in their specific political actions. Bourgeois P.P., in fulfilling a reactionary ideological function, in addition to analysing psychological aspects of current political issues (both domestic and international), claims that it develops social scientific theories designed as alternatives to Marxism, and also to orthodox and novel bourgeois sociopolitical conceptions that have discredited themselves. In Marxist psychology, many problems constituting the subject matter of P.P., such as political education, social consciousness, the psychology of ideological influence and mass political activity, are solved within the framework of social, pedagogical and developmental psychology, sociology, the theory of scientific communism, and philosophy. The works of the founders of Marxism-Leninism include the methodological principles of analysing the psychological aspects of political problems, and contain models of such analysis still having timely political relevance.

Population Method

Population Method, see Methods of Psychogenetics.

Pregnance

Pregnance, see Gestalt.

Prejudice

Prejudice, see Bias.

Prestige

Prestige, a degree of recognition by society of a person’s merits; the result 227 of correlation of socially significant personal characteristics with the value scale existing in a given group. In capitalist society, the usual indicators of P. are a big bank account, residence in an exclusive “aristocratic” district, a luxury car, mention in “high-society” news, etc. In socialist society, P. is based on socially valued characteristics, e.g. high moral standards, active participation and high achievements in socially beneficial activity.

Primacy Effect

Primacy Effect, more probable recollection of several initial elements in a series than of those situated in the middle of that series (see Sequence Effect). P.E. is studied within the framework of investigations of memory, learning processes, and social perception. Numerous relevant studies have established that P.E. depends on the scope of the material to be remembered and on its presentation rate: the" longer the presented series and the higher the presentation rate, the fewer initial elements are remembered. P.E. also depends on how repetition is organised, and on the presence of synonyms and homonyms, since these lead to selectively reduced P.E. The subject’s activity immediately after presentation would virtually have no influence on P.E., which is caused by the fact that the initial elements in the series have enough time to be stored in long-term memory (see Memory, Long-Term), due to a greater number of repetitions, and their subsequent extraction therefrom depends on how effectively they are sought in the storage. In social psychology, P.E. is studied in interpersonal perception to determine how important the sequence of information input is to assess a person (see Recency Effect; Stereotype, Social).

Probability Forecasting

Probability Forecasting, anticipation of the future based on the probability structure of past experience and on information obtained from the current situation. This involves hypotheses about possible events, each of which is ascribed a certain probability. In line with the forecast, the subject in question would preadjust to or prepare for relevant actions. In this respect, speed and precision of motion ( particularly important for operators, athletes, etc.), and speech have been studied most exhaustively. P.P. was shown to play a role in the arisal of emotional reactions. Natural disturbances in P.P. have been described in pathology, e.g. lesion of the frontal lobes of the brain, schizophrenia, etc. P.P. is of special interest in interaction with an active partner, i.e. another personality, whose goals do not coincide with those of the subject in question. In this case, P.P. should take into consideration the partner’s most probable actions, w_xhich, in turn, would rely on his P.P. P.P. thus proves to be an element of reflexion and interpersonal relations (losif Feigenberg).

Problem

Problem, awareness of an individual of the impossibility to overcome difficulties and contradictions arising in a given situation by means of available knowledge and experience. Like a task, P. originates in a problem situation. However, being a psychological 228 category, the latter conditions solely the initial stage of the subject’s mental interaction with the object, a stage involving the generation of a cognitive motive and statement of tentative hypotheses concerning ways of solving the problem situation. Verification of these hypotheses causes the problem situation to become transformed either into a P. or a task. The latter would arise when the object under study reveals an unknown thing that must be found by transforming certain conditions. A task comes out as a symbolic model of a problem situation, i.e. as something objectified that may be transmitted to another person and become an essential part of training. Transformation of a problem situation into a task or a series of tasks is an act of productive thinking. Unlike a task, P. is recognised as a type of contradictory situation involving opposite positions in explaining the same objects or phenomena, and their relationships. This is not a formal logical, but a dialectical contradiction within the same thing, phenomenon, or process, one that “splits” them into opposites, and requires the construction of a theory for resolving that contradiction. The resolution of dialectical contradictions constituting the pivot of P. is the source of scientific theories. Thus, a problem situation genetically precedes tasks and P’s. Whereas the central element in a situation is the subject, in a task and P. it is the symbolic object and contradiction, respectively. To solve a P., it must be transformed into a creative cognitive task allowing to check the models of given conscious or intuitive decisions. The concept of educational P. is used in problem training. An educational P. has the logical form of a cognitive task, which has some contradiction in its conditions, showing in excess, insufficient, alternative or partially incorrect data and culminating in a question which that contradiction objectivises. Detection of a contradiction in an educational P. (problem task) causes the trainee to experience a state of intellectual difficulty and, hence, a problem situation.

Problem Situation

Problem Situation, (1) a situation, to master which an individual or collective must find and use new means and ways of activity; (2) a psychological model of conditions in which thinking generates on the basis of a situationally arising cognitive need; a form whereby an individual is related to the object of cognition. P.S. is characterised by interaction of the individual with his surroundings, and also by the psychological state of the cognising personality involved in the objective and controversial environment. Awareness of some contradiction in the course of activity, e.g. of the impossibility to fulfill a theoretical or practical task by means of previously mastered knowledge, generates a need for new knowledge that would allow to solve that contradiction. Objectification of something unknown in P.S. is achieved in the form of a question posed to oneself to establish the initial link in the intellectual interaction of the individual with a given object. In the course of that -interaction, the 229 individual would look for an answer to the question regarding new knowledge about the object, the way of action, and about the productive development of the individual himself. Inasmuch as the individual’s “ surrounding” includes not only objects, but also a social environment, the initial question would be posed not to oneself, but to another person whose activeness mediates the individual’s development. P.S. is a central concept in problem training.

Problem Training

Problem Training, instructor-organised active interaction of the subject with problem-represented contents of training, in the course of which the individual becomes acquainted with objective contradictions of scientific knowledge, the ways for resolving those contradictions, and learns to think and creatively assimilate knowledge. In joint activities with the instructor, the student does not merely process information, but, in assimilating new knowledge, emotionally experiences that process as a subjective discovery, hitherto unfamiliar to him, by perceiving and comprehension of scientific facts, principles, methods or conditions of action, as a personal value that determines the development of cognitive motivation or interest for the subject. By creating a problem situation in P.T., the instructor simulates conditions for research activity and development of creative thinking in the student. The components of that situation would be the object and subject of cognition and their mental interaction, whose specifics would depend on the subject-matter and the didactic techniques for organising cognitive activity. Problem and informational questions would serve as means for controlling student intellectual activity in P.T. Problem and informational questions would indicate the substance of the training problem and the area wherein the student would look for knowledge previously unfamiliar to him. In P.T., the principle of problem putting is. actualised both in the subject-matter and in the process wherein the latter is developed in the training process. The first is achieved by developing a system of problems which reflect the basic contents of a given discipline, and the second by constructing P.T. in the form of a dialogue, in which both the instructor and the trainee would show intellectual activity, initiative and interest in each other’s judgements and discuss alternative decisions. In such P.T., a system of training problems and problem situations conditioned thereby would be used to simulate research activity, social interaction and dialogue of the participants. This, in turn, would create conditions for productive thinking and development of the student’s personality and social relationships (Alexei Matyushkin, et al.).

Professional Fitness

Professional Fitness, a set and structure the psychological and psychophysiological features of an individual needed to achieve socially acceptable efficacy in professional work. P.P. is formed in work and in the presence of positive vocational motivation, whose origin and consolidation is prompted by 230 awareness of its social value; the possibility to actualise one’s potentials, achieve good results, and enjoy public recognition of those results; and also by a system of material and moral incentives. In causing gratification, successful work and professional perfection arouse creative activeness to hasten the forming of P.P. and, at the same time, leave an imprint in the .worker’s personality and affect his attitude towards other people and the surrounding world. The forming of P.P. may have an infinite number of options depending on the variety of individual features characteristic of people wanting to join a given profession. As their professional skills improve, the number of individual P.P. versions would decrease, and certain objectively essential components would start to prevail in the P.P. structure, which makes it possible to distinguish a limited number of P.P. types. Hence, judging by mature specialists’ P.P., it would be incorrect to infer that it has remained the same as at the outset of their activity. It would be even more inadmissible to regard these features as criteria for selecting people for subsequent training in a given profession. The requirements of P.P. gradually change with time, and these changes are essentially caused by some new content in professional activity, chiefly connected with the latter’s organisational and technological reconstruction in the setting of increasingly rapid scientific and technological progress. This is also accompanied by changes in the level of socially acceptable efficiency, since the latter reflects a continually growing demand to raise labour productivity.

Professional Selection

Professional Selection, see Psychological Selection.

Programme-Role Theory of a Scientific Collective

Programme-Role Theory of a Scientific Collective, an approach to the formation and development of the sociopsychological aspect of a scientific collective (see Collective, Scientific), and of the structure and mechanisms of research group activities in science. It was developed by Soviet psychologist Mikhail Yaroshevsky. The key notions of the P.-R.T. of S.C. are a research programme of a scientific collective and a scientific role. P.-R.T. of S.C. is based on the following methodological propositions: the demands made by society on science underlie a programme of a scientific collective, its values and norms, which in turn determine the orientations, expectations, social attitudes and behaviour of its individual members. The programme accepted in a scientific collective plays a special collective-forming role in its establishment and development; this programme ensures group cohesiveness, regulation of interpersonal interactions and interpersonal relations therein, collective motivation of creative work, communication (1), and distribution of functions (roles) among individual group members. Interpersonal relations within research collectives essentially represent socio-historical relationships. The acts wherein these relationships are actualised, e.g. communication (2), reflexion, etc. are part of the process of scientific activity.

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Progressive (Inner) Inhibition

Progressive (Inner) Inhibition, see Retroactive Inhibition.

Projection

Projection, psychological defence (see Defence, Psychological) mechanism whereby one individual unconsciously ascribes to another person motivations, features and properties inherent in his own personality.

Projective Tests

Projective Tests, a set of techniques for integral personality studies based on psychological interpretation of projection results. In this case, projection implies not only a means of psychological defence, (see Defence, Psychological) but also the fact that perception processes are conditioned by mnemonic traces of all past perceptions. The subject would transform perceptually the situation he is in in accord with his individuality (e.g. he would interpret a drawing in line with his personality traits). Psychologists distinguish associative P.T., e.g. unfinished sentences or stories, and expressive P.T. (psychodrama; optional drawing, game, etc.). Herman Rorschach devised a most widespread associative P.T. He selected ten stimuli—ink spots to which the subject reactions were most characteristic. The spots were offered to him one after another, and he had to say what they look like and what they remind him of. Many psychologists regard P.T. as the most valuable personality tests (Methods of Personality Study), for they “portray” all the subject’s individuality and allow to examine his emotional features, neurotic responses, and so on. P.T. are very good because they make it easier to show the elements in the subject’s inner world which he is often unable to express in a straight way, and also because they allow the experimenter to orientate himself in the complex properties of another personality that are hard to assess. P.T. require extensive training in psychological theory and practice in applying the technique.

Propensity

Propensity, selective disposition of an individual towards a given activity, inducing him to engage in that activity. P. is based on a deep-rooted and stable need of the individual for a given activity, and on his desire to improve relevant skills and habits. The arisal of P. is normally a premise for development of corresponding abilities, albeit cases when P. and abilities do not coincide may also accur.

Properties of the Nervous System

Properties of the Nervous System, stable characteristics of the nervous system which, other conditions being equal, affect man’s individual mental features. P. of N.S. constitute the physiological foundation of the formal-dynamic aspect of behaviour and form the basis of behavioural patterns. Most commonly, P. of N.S. are seen in the specifics of man’s temperament. P. of N.S. were discovered by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov and formed the groundwork of the typology of higher nervous activity developed in experiments with animals. According to Pavlov’s concept, the following three P. of N.S. are distinguished: strength, mobility, and balance. With reference to man the P. of N.S. concept 232 was most consistently developed by the school of the Soviet psychologist Boris Teplov. New P. of N.S. were discovered, namely, lability and dynamism. Also discovered was the phenomenon of the partiality of P. of N.S., which served as a basis for distinguishing specific and general P. of N.S. The former characterise the functioning of individual brain analysers and brain areas, and the latter are understood in two ways: as dimensions of the functioning of the anterior, regulatory brain areas, and as the neurophysiological features characteristic of the whole brain.

Psi (T)

Psi (T), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet, commonly used to symbolise psychological science.

Psyche

Psyche, a systems property of highly organised matter, which involves active reflection by the subject of the objective world, construction by him of an unalienable picture of that world, and self-regulation of his own behaviour and activity on this basis. Events of the past, present, and possible future are represented and structured in P. At the individual level, events of the past come out in experience and memory; those of the present—in a totality of images, emotional experiences, and mental acts; and those of the possible future—in motivations, intentions, and goals, as well as in fancies, visions, dreams, etc. In man, P. is both of conscious and unconscious nature; however, unconscious P. also differs in quality from animal P. Active and anticipatory reflection by the sense organs and the brain of external objects in the form of P. makes it possible to perform actions adequate to the properties of the said objects and thereby ensure the survival of the organism which experiences a need in those objects, its search and situationally independent activeness. Hence, the determining features of P. are: reflection producing an image of the objective environment in which living creatures act; their orientation in that environment; and the gratification of their needs in contacts with that environment. In turn, these contacts, by the feedback principle, control accuracy of reflection. In man, social practice is the control level. Thanks to feedback, the individual compares the action result with the image which arises before the result, forestalling it as a peculiar model of reality. In this way, P. emerges as a single cyclic system that has a history and is reflexive in type. Reflectority signifies the primacy of objective conditions in an organism’s life and the secondary nature of their reproduction in P.; the natural transition of the system’s perceiving components into executive ones; and the expediency of locomotor effects and their “return” impact on the image. This conception of the reflectory nature of P. was initially developed by the Russian physiologist Ivan Sechenov in opposition to both the idealistic view, which had for ages regarded P. as a special incorporeal entity (see Soul), whose propelling force is concealed in itself, and to the mechanist-material view, which denied P.’s activeness and reduced 233 it to nervous processes. P.’s activeness is also manifested in reflection of reality, since that reflection assumes the transformation of physicochemical irritants that act on nervous systems into object images both in the sphere of motivations, which impart energy and impetus to behaviour, and in fulfilling a behavioural programme, which involves search and selection of options. Arising at a definite level of biological evolution, P. itself comes out as one of its factors to ensure the increasingly complex adaptability of organisms to their habitats. With the origin and development of man, P. assumed a qualitatively new structure caused by social and historical regularities. Consciousness emerged as the leading level in regulating man’s activity, and this resulted in the forming of personality, which serves as the source of supreme manifestations of P.’s activeness. Dialectico-materialist philosophy, primarily Lenin’s theory of reflection, is the methodological foundation of P. studies in Soviet psychology.

Psychedelics

Psychedelics, substances that cause psychedelic states. P. include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25), dimethyltriptamine (DRT), bufotenine, mescaline, psilocytine, and similar psychoactive hemp derivatives (cannaboids) and certain synthetic preparations (sernyl, ditrane, etc.). P. are presumed to be antagonists of neuromediators, conductors of excitation in the nervous system. P. effects can change personality and profoundly restructure the hierarchy of its motives and values. Uncontrolled administration of P. outside the clinic may lead to severe accidents.

Psychedelic States

Psychedelic States, changes in consciousness caused by the administration of psychedelics. Studies of P.S. began in the 1920s. In addition to physiological symptoms (lacrymation, nausea, rigor, etc.), P.S. are also characterised by severe mental changes, such as hallucinations in the form of light flashes, geometric figures, and transformations of surrounding objects; hypersensitivity to sounds, acoustic illusions; changes in sensations of one’s own body, and distorted perceptions of time and space [“stoppage” or “acceleration” of time (see Psychological Time), repeated emotional experience of past episodes, inadequate estimate of dimensions of objects, loss of perspective, or a feeling of “dissolution” in space]; emotional changes (elevated mood, unmotivated laughter or appeasement being typical of healthy persons, and negative emotions of affected individuals); disturbed thinking and memory (accelerated or retarded mental processes, illusory interpretation of events); and psychomotor disorders. P.S. played an important role in religious rites of ancient cultures. Systematically recurring P.S. usually lead to destructive personality changes and dangerous social consequences.

The Psychic As a Process

The Psychic As a Process, a concept developed by Sergei Rubinstein and his followers (Andrei Brushlinsky, and others) in further elaborating Ivan Sechenov’s theory of the reflectory nature of the psychic, and one that 234 reveals the principal mode in which the psychic exists. In effect, it exists primarily as a living, extremely flexible and continuous process, which is never initially fully preset and, hence, one that forms and develops to engender various products or results (psychic states and images, concepts, sentiments, solution or nonsolution of some task, etc.). P.A.P. is not reduced to a sequence of stages in time, but forms in the course of continually changing interaction (activity, communication (1) etc.) of an individual with the environment and, consequently, continuously changes and develops, reflecting ever more fully this dynamic nature of environment and taking part in regulating all actions, deeds, etc. For instance, thinking involves analysis, synthesis, and generalisation of the conditions and requirements of the problem to be solved and the methods for solving it. This continuous process results in the forming of discrete mental operations (logical, mathematical, linguistic, etc.), which thought generates, but is not reduced to. As a process, thinking is inseparably associated with personality’s mental activity (involving motivation, abilities, etc.). At each given stage of his psychological development, man acts intellectually, proceeding from already established personal motives and abilities; the further forming of motives and abilities takes" place at subsequent stages of the mental process. In this case, thinking, perception, etc. would chiefly form unconsciously (see The Unconscious). However, at the personal level of thinking, perception, etc. man would to a large extent consciously regulate these processes. The inseparable interrelationship of the conscious and the unconscious ensures P.A.P. continuity, which manifests itself in the close interconnection of the cognitive and affective components of any psychological act. The concept of P.A.P. reveals the unity of consciousness and activity, for human psyche manifests itself and forms in activity.

Psychic State

Psychic State, a concept used to conventionally distinguish a relatively static moment in an individual’s psyche in contrast to the term "psychic process" (see The Psychic As a Process), which stresses the dynamic elements of psyche, and also to the concept "psychic property", indicative of stable manifestations of individual psyche, ones characterised by persistence and recurrence in the structure of a given personality. The same manifestation of psyche may be examined in different aspects. For instance, an affect, as a P.S., represents a generalised characteristic of the emotional, cognitive and behavioural aspects of individual psyche in a definite, relatively limited time interval; as a psychic process, it is characterised by stagewise development of emotions; it may also be regarded as a manifestation of a person’s psychic properties (quick temper, lack of restraint, anger). Manifestations of sentiments (moods, affects, euphoxia, anxiety, frustration, etc.), attention (concentration, distraction), will (resoluteness), confusion, self- discipline, thinking (doubts), imagination (day dreaming), etc. also relate to P.S’s. 235 Special subjects of psychological research are P.S’s under stress (in combat, during exams or in other extremal situations, such as at the period prior to athletic competitions). Pathopsychology and medical psychology study pathological P.S’s namely obsessions, and social psychology, mass P.S’s, e.g. mass panic.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis, (1) a set of methods for revealing for psychotherapeutic purposes the specifics of human emotional experiences and activities caused by unconscious motives (see Psychotherapy; The Unconscious; Neuroses); (2) a theory developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers (see Freudianism; Analytical Psychology; Individual Psychology; Neo-Freudianism).

Psychobiography

Psychobiography, a method for psychologically analysing the personality of specific persons, primarily politicians. Initially appeared within the framework of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and was hallmarked by his disregard for the role of socio- historical factors in individual development and behaviour, and by their substitution for a biological interpretation of psychological phenomena and for psychologised explanations of social and political events. The first work in P. described the personality of Woodrow Wilson, the former US President, with Freud taking part. At present, all American presidents and many other politicians in the United States and other countries are made the objects of P., and the authors of this analytical method use the results of cognitive psychology increasingly often. In examining the personalities of men of culture, Soviet psychologists apply the psychobiographic method basing on the postulate that creative work in any area of activity is socially conditioned.

Psychodiagnosis

Psychodiagnosis, a sphere of psychology which elaborates methods for revealing the individual features of and prospects for personality development. P. began to be used in the 19th century by James Cattell, Francis Gallon, Hermann Ebbinghaus, and others. A serious contribution to P. was made by the French psychologist Alfred Binet and collaborators, who developed methods for diagnosing the level of intellectual development in children (IQ test, 1905-1911). Owing to the heterogeneity of P. sources and component elements, Western psychology gives a controversial interpretation of its tasks and has no single scientific and practical discipline of P. with its own subject-matter, theory and method. In Marxist psychology, P. is designed to develop an effective system of diagnostic methods allowing to solve the tasks posed before psychology by socialist society. At present, P. uses numerous methods to study the influence on personality of education and age; training, professional, and sporting activities; and so on. These methods may conventionally be classified into four types, viz., tests (see Intelligence Tests; Achievement Tests; Criteria-Oriented Tests; etc.), and personal questionnaires; projective techniques (see Projective Tests); and psychophysiological 236 methods. The latter serve to diagnose individual manifestations of the properties of the nervous system and to reveal the dynamic features of psyche (activity rate, ability to switch-over, duration of active working efficiency, etc.). Any psychodiagnostic method must be accurate, reliable (see Reliabity of a Test) and, most importantly, valid (see Validity). The practical efficiency of diagnostic techniques would depend on their substantial tie with basic psychological research, and also on the use of appropriate means for analysing, assessing, and measuring the phenomena to be diagnosed.

Psychodrama

Psychodrama, a form of group psychotherapy (see Psychotherapy, Group), when patients take turns as actors and spectators, their roles being designed to simulate situations of personilised meaning for the participants in order to eliminate inadequate emotional responses, train social perception (see Perception, Social), and attain deeper self-cognition. The concept and procedure of P. was suggested by Jacob Moreno (USA), who without proper justification interpreted the method as a means for solving social problems. (In Western Europe and the United States, the term “sociodrama” is also used signifying a way of eliminating conflicts in groups of healthy people). The important elements of P. are spontaneity, activeness, and improvised behaviour. P. is applied in neuroses, child neuroses inclusive, and also in psychosomatic, diseases and alcoholism, and in aggravated psychopathies and teenage deviant behaviour. Family P. s also possible. P. elements are included in behavioural psychotherapy, socio-psychological training, and business games (see Socio-Psychological Training; Game, Business).

Psychogenetics

Psychogenetics, a sphere of psychology marginal with genetics. P. studies the origin of individual psychic traits in humans to elucidate the effect thereon of the genotype and the environment. P. uses the methods of modern genetics. The most informative one is the twin method (Francis Galton, 1876), which allows to maximally level out environmental effects. Most works on P. are devoted to a variety of tests for studying the inter-individual variability of higher psychological functions, chiefly of intellect. Psychogeneticists have found the degree of kinship (i.e. the number of common genes) to be proportional to the results of many IQ tests. Basing on this, West European and American geneticists had till recently believed that man’s intellectual potential is conditioned by heredity. However, in recent years, it has been concisingly shown that P. methods are insufficient and IQ tests questionable for making such conclusions and diagnosing intellect. Most West European and US psychologists ignore the development of human psychic functions. Soviet psychologists have shown that ontogenesis involves a change of mental function mechanisms: elementary forms inherent in early stages are replaced by higher, socially-conditioned factors that are actualised with intimate participation 237 of speech. Some facts obtained in P. give ground to think that, together with change of mechanisms, the relation of psychological functions to the genotype also changes: the greater the role of specifically human factors of social origin, the lesser the share of genetic variability in the forming of individual psychological features (Inna RavichShcherbo).

Psychogenies

Psychogenies, pathologic, but reversible mental disorders arising under the influence of psychic traumas, both very acute (e.g. loss of some close relative) and weak, but persistent ones, which engender inner conflicts (e.g. controversy between sense of duty and desire) . P. also arise as a result of lengthy nervous stress, and severe somatic diseases. Conventionally, P. are classified into reactive states and neuroses (see Neuroses, Clinical). Psychogenic disorders whose intensity is not very high and which are endured without loss of working ability are called psychogenic reactions, neurotic ones inclusive.

Psychohygiene and Psychoprophylaxis

Psychohygiene and Psychoprophylaxis, spheres of medical psychology designed to afford specialised aid to practically healthy people in order to prevent neuro-mental and psychosomatic diseases, and also to alleviate acute psychotraumatic reactions (see Psychogenies). P. and P. methods involve psychocorrectional work within the framework of consultation centres, ’confidence telephones" and other organisations oriented to psychological aid to healthy people; mass examinations aimed at revealing so-called risk groups and conducting preventive work therewith; and providing information to the public. Special tasks of modern P. and P. are to help people in critical family, training, or job situations, to work with young disintegrating families, and so on.

Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics, a scientific discipline that studies the dependence of speech processes and speech perception on the structure of some specific language (or language in general). In its contemporary meaning, the term P. was introduced by the US scholars Charles Osgood and Thomas Sebeok, who relied on neobehaviourism and descriptive linguistics (the so-called Yale School). Beginning in the 1960s, American psych olinguistics were oriented to Noam Chomsky’s theory of " generative grammar"; but, beginning in the late 1970s, they have tended to reject it in favour of guests for a general psychological theory. In Britain, France, West Germany, and other Western countries, P. developed in a similar way; however, owing to their strong psychological tradition, Chomsky’s ideas did not become so widespread. In the USSR, P. began to develop in the mid-1960s, its main trend being in the theory of speech activity (examination of speech processes as a particular case of activity). The creation and development of P. was connected with a whole series of applied tasks of engineering psychology, neuro- and pathopsychology, and foreign language training (Alexei A. Leontiev).

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Psychological Anthropology

Psychological Anthropology, see Ethnopsychology.

Psychological Institutions (in the USSR)

Psychological Institutions (in the USSR), research institutes or their structural units; departments of psychology at universities (in Moscow, Leningrad, Tbilisi, and Yaroslavl); branch laboratories, and chairs of psychology at institutions of higher learning engaged in psychological research and training of psychologists. The USSR has the following four psychological research institutes: Institute of Psychology of the USSR Academy of Sciences (organised in 1971), which is the country’s central institution for psychological research; Research Institute of General and Pedagogical Psychology of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (founded in 1912); D.N. Uznadze Institute of Psychology of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR (founded in 1941); and Psychological Research Institute of the Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian SSR (established in 1945). Special departments at some research institutes ( Research Institute of the Study of Handicapped Children of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences; Research Institute for Preschool Education of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences; V.M. Bekhterev, Psychoneurological Research Institute; etc.) also study psychological problems. P.I. have postgraduate departments, issue their own publications, and run specialised councils where doctorate and candidate dissertations in psychology may be defended.

Psychological Instrument

Psychological Instrument, an element in the structure of a psychic function whose role is similar to that of an implement in the structure of human labour activity. In the cultural- historical theory, signs ("instrumental stimuli") are regarded as P.I’s. In this capacity, they basically differ from the signs (verbal and non-verbal) traditionally studied by psychology and constituting the content of memory, since the structural element ("signs without meaning"), not the content, is intentionally distinguished in the former. According to Lev Vygotsky, P.I’s are acquired by humans in the course of interiorisation of joint activity in ontogenesis.

Psychological Journals (in the USSR)

Psychological Journals (in the USSR), periodical scientific publications covering the problems and development of the science of psychology. In pre- revolutionary Russia, the following Russian-language P. J. (or journals that gave prominence to psychological problems) were published: Voprosy filosofii i psikhologii (Problems of Philosophy and Psychology) 1889-1918; Vestnik psikhologii, kriminalnoi antropologii i gipnotizma (Herald of Psychology, Criminal Anthropology, and Hypnotism), 1904-1918, from 1911 called Vestnik psikhologii, kriminalnoi antropologii i pedologii (Herald of Psychology, Criminal Anthropology, and Child Study); Obozreniye psikhiatrij, nevrologii i eksperimentalnoi psikhologii (A Review of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Experimental Psychology), 1896-1918. The journals published after the Great October 239 Socialist Revolution were as follows: Voprosy izucheniya i vospitaniya lichnosti (Problems of Personality Study and Education), 1920-1932, except for the years 1923-1925; Psikhologiya (Psychology), 1928-1932; Zhurnal psikhologii, nevrologii i psikhiatrii (Journal of Psychology, Neurology and Psychiatry) (from 1922, published irregularly); Psikhiatriya, nevrologiya i eksperimentalnaya psikhologia ( Psychiatry, Neurology, and Experimental Psychology), 1922-1923; Pedologia (Child Study), 1928-1932; Psikhofiziologia truda i psikhotekhnika ( Psychophysiology of Labour and Psychotechnique), 1928-1934 (from 1932, called Sovetskaya psikhotekhnika (Soviet Psychotechniques); Klinicheski arkhiv genialnosti i odarennosti (Clinical Archives of Talent and Giftedness), 1925-1930. The currently published P.J. are as follows: Voprosy psikhologii (Problems of Psychology), since 1955; Psikhologiya. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta (Psychology. Herald of Moscow University), since 1977; and Psykhologicheski Zhurnal ( Psychologial Journal), since 1980. Psychological problems are also presented in the journals Sovetskaya pedagogika ( Soviet Pedagogy), published since 1937; Voprosy filosofii (Problems of Philosophy), published since 1947; Zhurnal vysshei nervnoi deyatelnosti imeni l.P. Pavlova (The I.P. Pavlov Journal of Higher Nervous Activity), published since 1950; and others.

Psychological Research Equipment

Psychological Research Equipment, instruments, devices and mechanisms applied for recording and measuring mental processes, functions, and states. It includes: (1) detectors (transducers) designed to detect and transform primary signals into a form suitable for subsequent registration and processing; (2) monitor and recording devices designed either to expose the subject to a stimulus or to record the subjet’s answers; (3) measuring devices, designed to receive quantitative information on the properties of objects and phenomena. Detectors in psychological and psychophysiological research include all types of electrical, mechanical, and chemical detecting devices. Monitor and recording apparatuses include needle and dial electrical and radio gauges, mechanical equipment, photographic and cinematographic equipment, video and audio taperecorders, dictaphones, and polygraphs. Measuring devices include: (a) mechanical and electronic stop-watches, reflexometers, and chronoreflexometers to measure temporal characteristics; (b) luxmeters, anomaloscopes, taxistoscopes to measure visual characteristics; (c) audiometers, noisimeters, amplifiers to measure hearing; (d) esthesiometers and compasses to measure the characteristics of the tactile analyser. Of special importance are computers, used not only for calculation and statistical data processing, but also for direct control of the process of experiment. Computers combine gauging, monitoring, and recording functions, and are superior to all previously applied types of psychological apparatuses in accuracy, speed, and degree of automation. The application of computers increased the productivity 240 of psychological research, and in some cases eliminated the possibility of researcher’s negative influence on the course of the experiment.

Psychological Selection

Psychological Selection, decision- making concerning the enlistment of candidates whose results in psychological tests show they have more chances for being fit for professional, academic or other activity. Specifically, P.S. is applied in sports, military, space, and engineering psychology. P.S. is preceded by specifying the psychological requirements to the candidate, and by choosing test methods by analysing his future activity. The hypotheses about validity of these requirements and methods is often tested on representative samples by comparing the test results with the subject’s work efficiency. Some types of activity contain demands to specific psychic qualities that are hard to develop (e.g. those related to the properties of the nervous system). In other types of activity, every normal person may satisfy these requirements. In this case, the need for P.S. would arise when (I) the period of forthcoming human activity is to be relatively short, say, from 5 to 10 years, like in professional sports; and (2) resistance to established psychomotor, intellectual, and other stereotypes does not allow a person to master the techniques of his future activity within an acceptable period of time. In both cases, psychological tests establish the possibility to attain the needed (socially acceptable) efficiency. No matter how carefully prepared and realised P.S. is, it does not demonstrate in a definite way the candidate’s fitness for a given type of activity. To be fit, the person in question must possess positive motivation that had developed before or during that activity. The efficiency of P.S. is assessed by comparing the results of psychological tests with an external criterion, namely, some impartial indicator of efficiency; in this case, the psychological characteristic of it must correspond to the methods used in the psychological tests. Medical selection is often performed along with P.S., and the results of both supplement each other.

Psychological Service

Psychological Service, a system for practical application of psychological science in solving complex tasks of psychological expert examination, diagnosis, and consultation in industry, education, health care, public order, etc. Organisationally, P.S. takes forms of vocational guidance offices, the family and marriage service, psychological centres within the system of the scientific organisation of labour, etc. Development of P.S. is an important task of applied psychology, such as medical, pedagogic, juridical psychology, psychology of management, psychology of sport, and other areas.

Psychological Time

Psychological Time, reflection in man’s psyche of a system of temporal relations between the events of one’s lifetime. P.T. includes estimates of synchronism, sequence, duration and speed of events; their relation to the present, remoteness in the past or future; experience of compactness or extension of time, of its discreteness or continuity, 241 limited or infinite nature; awareness of age, age periods (childhood, youth, maturity, and old age); ideas about life expectancy, death and immortality, historical links of one’s own life with that of previous and subsequent generations of one’s family, society, and mankind as a whole. Fiction and philosophical literature contain abundant material for studying P.T. Several approaches may be distinguished in psychology which explain and experimentally study P.T. According to the “quantum” concept, there are different-scale subjective "time quanta" (lasting from milliseconds to decades), which, in fact, condition various experiences of time, e.g. estimates of synchronism and distinction of the psychological present. From the viewpoint of the event concept, P.T. specifics would depend on the number and intensity of occurring events (changes in internal and external media and in man’s activity). However, the “quantum” and event approaches have failed to solve a number of basic issues, namely the possibility for P.T. to reverse and be multi-dimensional; the nonlinear sequence of the psychological past, present and future; and the unit of age categorisation. To overcome these difficulties, Soviet psychologists are developing an approach, according to which P.T. reflects a complex system of mutually conditioned inter-event relationships of the “cause-and-effect” and “objective-and-means” type, not merely chronological intervals and events per se.

Psychology

p Psychology, a science about the regularities of development and functioning of psyche as a special form of vital activity. The interaction of living creatures with the environment is actualised through psychic processes, acts, and states that differ in quality from their physiological counterparts, but are inseparable therefrom. For centuries, phenomena studied by P. were designated by the general term "psyche" (soul) and regarded as a chapter of philosophy called P. in the 16th century. Evidence about these phenomena also accumulated in many other investigations, and in various spheres of practice (especially in medical and teaching practice). The peculiarity of these phenomena; the fact that they are given to man in the form of direct, inseparable emotional experiences, their particular cognisability, caused by the individual’s ability for self-observation and self-report thereon; and their intimately personal value to the subject in question were interpreted by religious and idialistic teachings as indicative of their special origin. The opponents of this view developed a materialistic tradition oriented to allying P. with natural science, one that consolidated scientific knowledge about psyche, proceeding from the advances made in studying its material substrate (sense organs and higher nerve centres).

p The successes of neurophysiology and biology led to the development of P.’s own categories; subsequently due to increased experimental work, P. began to divorce from both philosophy and physiology, given that the psychological regularities established in the 242 laboratory failed to coincide with the evidence of anatomic and physiological studies. It was proven that psychic processes, being the product of the individual’s interaction with the environment, are themselves an active causal factor (determinant) of behaviour. Whereas idealistic concepts misinterpret this activity as having a special psychological causation cognised through inner observation (introspection), natural scientific studies of genetically primary forms of psyche (and also of its pathological manifestations) established the priority of objective methods which subsequently became decisive for P. Self-observation retains the significance of an important, but auxiliary source of information on human mind, whose essential characteristic is consciousness. Being the result and function of social (supraindividual) processes, an individual’s consciousness has its own systems and semantic organisation which causes various psychic manifestations (cognitive, motivationally affective, operational, and personal properties) that differ in quality from those inherent in animal psyche. The possibility to understand cognitive processes irrespective of the individual’s reflection (self-account) is due to the fact that they arise and develop in an objective system of the individual’s relations with other people and the environment. Within the same system, by “scrutinising” others, the individual acquires the ability to judge about the inner part of his own behaviour (see the Self-Concept). Not all the components of this part are translatable into the language of consciousness; yet, they too, in forming a sphere of the unconscious, serve as a subject of P., which reveals how the individual’s actual motives and attitudes correspond to his ideas about the latter. Both conscious and unconscious psychic processes are achieved by neurohumoral mechanisms operating by physiological laws; however they take place by their own laws, not by the afore-mentioned ones, since human psyche comprises both natural and socio-cultural reality and the life of the acting individual. Activity per se is not a subject-matter of P.; nor is human activity as a whole, for it is studied by a number of disciplines. P. examines solely a specific aspect of human activity. The dependence of human behaviour on biological and social factors determines the specifics of its study in P., which develops in a “dialogue” between evidence on nature and culture, an evidence integrated in the psychological concepts used by other sciences.

p The dialectico-materialistic teaching on consciousness, being an active reflection of reality conditioned by sociohistorical practice, allowed to elaborate the basic problems of scientific P. from new methodological positions. These are: the psychophysiological problem (concerning the relation of psyche to its corporeal substrate); the psychosocial problem (on the dependence of psyche on social processes, and on its active role in actualising those processes by specific individuals and groups); the psychopraxical problem (on the forming of psyche in the course 243 of practical activity, and on the dependence of that activity on its psychic regulators, viz., images, operations, motives, and personal properties); the psychognostic aspect (on the relation of sensory and mental psychic images to the reality which they reflect); and so on. These problems are elaborated on the basis of such principles as determinism revealing the determination of phenomena by the action of their productive factors), systems quality (interpretation of these phenomena as inherently related components of an integral psychic structure), and development ( recognition of the fact that mental processes transform and change to pass from one level to another and to develop new forms of psychic processes). The elaboration of the basic problems of P. resulted in its categorial system, which includes the categories of image, motive, action, personality, etc. Psychological research is inseparable from social research, from social demands for knowledge necessary in such areas as training, educating, and selecting personnel for industry, agriculture and culture, and for stimulating individual and collective activity. In reflecting psychic reality in its original characteristics, P.’s categorial structure, is the foundation or “trunks” of the entire diversity of the ramifications of contemporary P. which appear in the form of separate branches, many of which have now acquired an independent status (see Aviation P., Military P., Developmental P., Differential P., Animal Psychology, Engineering P., Historical P., Space P., Medical P., Neuropsychology, General P., Pathopsychology, Pedagogical P., Psychogenetics, Psychohygiene, Psychodiagnosis, Psycholinguistics, Psychometry, Psychosemantics, P. of Art, P. of Science, P. of Propaganda, P. of Sport, P. of Creative Activity, P. of Labour, P. of Management, Political P., Psychotherapy, Psychopharmacology, Psychophysics, Psychophysiology, Defectopsychology, Social P., Comparative P., P. of Economics, Ethnic P., Ethology, and Juridical P.). Differential and integrational processes that turned P. into a “cluster” of branches were caused by the demands of various fields of practice which make P. run into problems related to a particular field. As a rule, these problems are complex and, hence, worked out by numerous disciplines. The inclusion of P. into interdisciplinary research would only be productive when P. would enrich the latter by concepts, methods, and explanatory principles inherent only in itself. At the same time, as a result of contacts with other sciences, P. itself is enriched with new ideas and approaches to enhance its knowledge and categorial system, which ensures its integrity as an independent science.

In the current revolution in science and technology, the transfer to electronic devices of certain functions previously inherent solely in the human brain, namely the functions of data storing and retrieving, management and control, had a serious impact on the further development of P. This made it possible to widely use cybernetic and data-processing concepts and 244 models to help formalise and mathematise P. and introduce a cybernetic style of thinking with its advantages caused by the use of logical- mathematical programmes, computers, and other devices. Automation and computerisation have sharply raised the interest in quick diagnosis and prognosis and effective use and cultivation of human functions that cannot be transferred to electronic devices, primarily creative abilities ensuring further progress in science and engineering. The study of artificial intellect, on the one hand, and of creative activity, on the other, are currently becoming important trends in P. This is accompanied by rapid development of social P. and management P. both of which solve problems concerning the role of the "human factor" in social development, in management processes, and also in research concerned with space exploration and with demographic, ecological and other urgent issues of our time. The interaction of P. with various social, natural, and applied science (both in theoretical and applied research) makes it particularly important to provide a methodological analysis of its conceptual means, explanatory principles, theories and procedures for revealing its most promising development trends. All this results in the struggle of opposite world outlooks, which fact determines the important role of P. in the current ideological struggle and its direct relationship with sociopolitical processes taking place in the world today.

Psychology of Art

Psychology of Art, the study of the psychological mechanisms of artistic activity, particularly the manifestations of personality in creating and perceiving works of art. The traditional problems of P. of A. in its different forms (music, painting, literature, theatre, cinema, choreography, and architecture) include creative work at all stages, from project to creation, perception, and assessment of the work in question. P. of A. studies processes whereby an artistic image appears, the processing of past experience, creative imagination and thinking, creative psychic states, and also the activeness and orientation of a given personality, his or her artistic abilities and talent. The works of Soviet _t psychologists from the Kharkov’ Psychological School (Alexander Potebnya, and others) were instrumental in developing the currently accepted concept that the process of artistic perception is inherently a collective one. Soviet P. of A. studies the process of artistic perception in various groups differing in age, education, cultural level, and socio- demographic features. It examines the mechanisms of psychic perception adequate to the structure of a given work of art, and also the conditions under which that process is distorted; the psychological aspects of artistic education; the forming of artistic abilities, taste, aesthetic sensitivity; and the specifics of children’s creative activity. The Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky developed an original approach to P. of A. He believed that its main problem concerns the psychological mechanisms of the aesthetic response of people perceiving a work of 245 art. In his view, this aesthetic response is programmed by the very structure of the work in question. Contemporary P. of A. uses a systems approach which allows to study the psychological aspects of a given work of art and the process of aesthetic perception in correlation and unity.

Psychology of the Blind Deafmute

Psychology of the Blind Deafmute, see Typhlopsychology.

Psychology of Creative Activity

Psychology of Creative Activity, a branch of psychological study of people’s creative activity in science (see Psychology of Science), literature, music, graphic and scenic art (see Psychology of Art), invention, and rationalisation. Methodologically, P. of C.A. is based on the principle of historicism. A special section of P. of C.A. is the study of child creative activity. Specific P. of C.A. problems concern the study of the role of imagination, thinking, intuition, inspiration, situationally independent activeness (see Activeness, Situationally Independent), and individual psychological features expressed in the course of creative activity, such as abilities, talent, ingenuity, etc., effects produced on personality by its inclusion in a creative collective (see Social Facilitation), various factors capable of stimulating creative activeness (group discussion, brain storming, certain psychopharmacological agents, etc.).

Psychology of Labour

Psychology of Labour, a science which studies the psychological regularities that govern the forming of concrete aspects of work and human relation thereto. The foundations of P. of L. formed under the influence of medicine, physiology, technology, sociology, and psychology. The inclusion of these disciplines in the study of labour was prompted by recognition of the fact that good organisation of labour could raise productivity better than intensification of labour. Each of these disciplines helped develop P. of L. and formulate its tasks. The accepted view is that P. of L. became an independent scientific discipline following the publication of Psychology and Production Efficiency (1913) and The Fundamentals of Psychotechniques (1914) by G. Munsterberg. A substantial contribution to the study of labour was made by the Russian physiologist Ivan Sechenov, whose works, such as Physiological Criteria for Establishing Working Day Duration (1897), and An Essay on Human Work Movements (1901) initiated research on rational organisation and planning of labour. However, much time was needed for P. of L. to overcome the eclectic nature of its polydisciplinary legacy and to distinguish its own subject so as to prompt new relevant investigation trends, viz., engineering psychology, aviation psychology, space psychology, and ergonomics. Investigations by Soviet scholars Alexei Gastev, Konstantin Platonov, and others helped P. of L. become established and its tasks comprehended on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist view that labour is essentially humanistic. Today, the main tasks of P. of L. are to study the psychological factors of complexity, reliability, productivity, 246 labour quality, development of personality in work, mutual adaptation of man and the implements of labour, and vocational orientation, and to determine the psychological characteristics of different professions.

Psychology of Management

Psychology of Management, a branch of psychology that studies the psychological regularities of management. The basic task of P. of M. is to analyse the psychological conditions and specifics of managerial activity in order to enhance management efficiency and quality. In the USSR, P. of M. has intensely developed since the early 1970s. At the present stage of developed socialism, the CPSU is focussing on further improving all managerial elements. Management is actualised in the manager’s activity, in which P. of M. distinguishes the diagnosing and forecasting of the state of and changes in the managerial subsystem; the forming of a programme of activity for employees, one aimed at changing the state of the managed object in a given direction; and organising the execution of decisions. In the manager’s personality, P. of M. distinguishes his needs and abilities, and also his individual managerial concept, comprising the supertask, problems, schemes and accepted principles and rules which he has set for himself. The managerial subsystem studied by P. of M. is normally represented by the joint activities of a large group of hierarchically interrelated managers (executives). P. of M. examines the coordinating methods that make it possible to transform their individual actions into integrally collective management. These methods depend on the manager’s legal rights; the interrelations of his duties; the incentives for his work; sex and age differences; human relations; and so on. The imperfect nature of those coordinating methods manifests itself in conflicts, departmental barriers, and parochialism. P. of M.’s major task is to study the psychological conditions required to make the managerial system function integrally. Inasmuch as the subject of management is the collective labour of a given organisation administered by that managerial mechanism and since the work and working conditions of these organisations essentially differ, the psychological peculiarities of management would in each case assume a specific aspect and be subject to specialised study, such as economic management and troop control.

Psychology of Propaganda

Psychology of Propaganda, a field of applied social psychology which studies regularities of human interactions in systems formed by the propaganda source and audience, and also the effects of objective and subjective factors on the course and results of this process. P. of P. examines: (1) processes involving dissemination of messages at the level of forming, fixating or changing attitudes to socially significant objects; (2) the psychological aspects of processes involving the origin and functioning of public opinion; (3) ways of inducing people to action in connection with the objects of attitudes and opinions (Yuri Sherkovin and Boris Parygin). P. of P. is designed to reveal the socio-psychological 247 characteristics of the content and form of messages with regard to the audience’s consciousness and the possibilities of specific mass media channels for optimally resolving certain social and political issues. One of P. of P.’s research problems is to study real and potential audiences from the viewpoint of their value orientations and need for information. P. of P. also analyses processes connected with perception of messages; their further processing and, finally, their acceptance or non-acceptance by a given individual. An important trend in P. of P. is to reveal the efficiency criteria of propaganda, regarded as something that serves a specific class and its political party. As an independent branch of social psychology, P. of P. was developed in the first quarter of the 20th century by American scholars, namely Bernard Berelson, Hadley Cantril, Paul Lazarsfeld, Gordon Allport, and Wilbur Schramm. While differing in detail, their works proved the same in their manipulatory approach to the audience’s consciousness, even if they did proceed from mutually exclusive idealistic and vulgarmaterialistic philosophical postulates. Today, their works have become the foundation for devising theories in manipulative propaganda and " psychological warfare", both aimed at obtaining maximal effect and characterised with minimum social responsibility. In some countries, introduction of these theories into practice is connected with propaganda of moral permissiveness, the cult of violence, exploitation of fears and prejudices, and fanning of war hysteria. The desire to make class propaganda look like objective information in the form of allegedly unbiased transmission of facts and commentaries has become an important feature in bourgeois P. of P. studies. In the USSR, initial investigations of P. of P. problems were conducted in the 1920s by several Soviet psychologists, who studied the effects of various publications on different audiences, the functioning of public opinion, and the influence of rumours on the minds of propaganda listeners at a time when the country was living through an acute class struggle, and most of the people were illiterate. With the appearance of new mass media devices, such as radio, television, etc. P. of P. began studying their psychological characteristics and potentials. Contemporary P. of P. takes into account that now that mass media technology is highly developed and millions of minds are susceptible to diversified propaganda, including that which objectively contradicts their vital interests and is conducted in the form of ideological subversion and psychological warfare, people’s psychological interaction has become highly intensified.

Psychology of Religion

Psychology of Religion, a branch of psychology that studies the psychological and socio-psychological factors which condition the specifics, structure and functions of religious consciousness. P. of R. appeared in the late 19th— early 20th centuries (Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Theodule Ribot, and others) and accumulated considerable material on the contents of religious consciousness, which includes such notions as god (spirit), paradise, hell, 248 sin etc, and also on people’s emotional states and sentiments during prayer, confession, and other rites. Soviet P. of R., which is based on Marxist- Leninist philosophy, is designed to help in atheistic work with believers, and also to elaborate scientifically based preventive measures against religious prejudices and superstitions. P. of R. uses the tenets and methods of general and social psychology, sociology, ethnography, and history of religion. The laws governing the forming, development and functioning of religious psychology are studied along the following lines: (1) the general theory of P. of R. studies religious ideology, the contents and structure of religious consciousness, the specifics of religious sentiments, and the psychological functions of religion in the spiritual life of the individual and society; (2) differential P. of R. examines religious consciousness and believers’ sentiments with account for the social environment and historical era in which they exist; (3) the psychology of religious groups examines the socio- psychological structure of religious communities; the mechanisms of communication (1), imitation, suggestion, and attitudes; and their impact on the minds, sentiments and behaviour of believers; (4) the psychology of cult studies the impact of religious rites on human mind; (5) the pedagogical psychology of atheist education, based on the achievements of P. of R., develops effective methods for atheist activities among the public.

Psychology of Science

Psychology of Science, a branch of psychology that studies the psychological factors of scientific activity to enhance its efficacy. P. of S. regards science as a socially organised sistem, a specific form of intellectual activity, whose products reflect reality in empirically controlled logical forms. Hence, P. of S. is inseparably linked with other fields of the integral "science about science", i.e. the study of the logic, history, sociology, organisation, economy, and ethics of science. This stand is instrumental in overcoming an individualistic approach to research, which, in all its aspects (intellectual, motivational, communicative, etc.), is believed to be conditioned by objective laws governing the development of science and by its historically variable structure, both objectively logical and social ones. P. of S. studies the psychological mechanism instrumental in producing scientific knowledge in individual and collective activity; examines issues related to psychological training of research personnel, to diagnosing and forming of corresponding personal qualities and orientations, and to the age dynamics of creative activity; and analyses the psychological aspects of scientific communications, perception and assessment of new ideas, and of automation (computerisation) of research. A branch of P. of S. is the social psychology of science, which studies the activity, communication (1), and interpersonal relations of scientists in different organisations and collectives with both formal and informal status. The latter include, for instance, scientific schools and "invisible colleges" ( associations of scientists working in different institutions and communicating 249 with one another through personal contacts, both oral and written).

Psychology of Sex Differences

Psychology of Sex Differences, a section of differential psychology which studies differences between individuals that are caused or conditioned by their sex, or associated with it. In addition to universal biogenetic distinctions between men and women, many of their empirically observed features have been caused by historically established differentiated masculine and feminine social roles, sex-dependent division of labour, distinctions in raising and educating boys and girls, and the cultural stereotypes of masculinity and feminity. As men and women become socially equal in reality, sex relationships based on subordination of women loose their previous nature; the sphere of joint activities of men and women expands to cause their psychological distinctions, formerly regarded as hardand-fast, to either disappear or diminish. The degree and essence of sex distinctions are not the same in different spheres of vital activity. The most significant ones were established in psychophysiology (including different physical development and maturity rates). Some psychological features in females are connected with their specific maternal functions, which manifest themselves both in their interests and correlation of their socio-productional and family functions. Many sex distinctions are altogether immeasurable, being, as they are, not so much quantitative but qualitative. Test measurements of masculine and feminine qualities are higly conventional, and the masculinity and femininity scales used represent relatively independent dimensions. Awareness of one’s sex affiliation is the initial element in the image of one’s Self. P. of S.D. has important practical significance for vocational selection (see Psychological Selection) and vocational orientation, and for solving numerous problems relating to medical psychology and the family.

Psychology of Sport

Psychology of Sport, a branch of psychology that examines various aspects of sports activities and physical culture. In the USSR, P. of S. began to be intensely studied in the 1960s and 1970s by Pyotr Rudik, Avksenti Puni, Vladimir Melnikov, et al. P. of S. also studies the psychological aspects of the athlete’s personality. It develops diagnostic techniques for selecting persons for specific sporting events and effective training methods. P. of S. also elaborates methods for providing the necessary psychological support of athlete behaviour at different competition stages. It examines the athlete’s psychic states in various complex situations. The main task of theoretical and applied P. of S. investigations is to help optimise sporting activity, which is distinguished by competitive nature, regulated by specific rules, and assessed by the public. P. of S. is also designed to develop the psychological foundations of sporting skills by teaching optimal locomotor habits and proper control of one’s body, and by fostering the athlete’s willpower and all-round development.

Psychometry

Psychometry, initially: measurement of 250 time characteristics of psychic processes. Nowadays P. is often understood to include the entire range of issues connected with measurement in psychology. In this sense, P. also includes psychophysics. An important feature of psychometric procedures is their standardisation, which implies investigations at maximally constant external conditions. Basing on the data obtained, the investigator would construct various scales of individual properties and infers the reliability and validity of a given test technique. Recent years have witnessed a tendency to develop psychometric procedures and models that make it possible to account for both variable situations and the individual peculiarities of the subject.

Psychopathy

Psychopathy, pathology of character, in which the individual is found to have virtually irreversibly pronounced properties preventing his adequate adjustment in a given social environment. P’s result from: (1) desease (brain injury, infection, intoxication, psychic trauma, etc. ), and (2) inborn deficiency of the nervous system, caused by heredity, influences detrimental to the foetus, birth traumas, etc. These injuries, called constitutional or true injuries, show up already in childhood in the form of disturbances in the emotional-volitional sphere; in this case, the intellect may be relatively intact. In adult age, the degree of prominence of P. would depend on upbringing and environmental effects. P’s manifestations are various. Despite the fact that pure types of P. are rare and that mixed forms prevail, the following classical types of P. are commonly distinguished (P.B. Gannushkin): (1) cycloids, chiefly characterised by continuous changes in mood, the cycle fluctuations varying from several hours to several months; (2) schizoids, characterised by avoidance of contacts, reserved disposition, easy vulnerability, absence of empathy, and awkward movements; (3) epileptoids, whose main feature is extreme irritability with fits of anguish, fear, anger, impatience, stubbornness, touchiness, cruelty, and propensity for quarrel (brawl); (4) asthenics, characterised by increased sensitivity and psychic excitability combined with easy exhaustion, irritability, and indecision; psychasthenics, characterised by anxiety and lack of self-confidence, and inclined to constant brooding and pathological doubts; (6) paranoiac psychopaths, who tend to form supervalent ideas, and are stubborn, egotistic, highly self-assured, and characterised by exaggerated self-appraisal; (7) hysteric psychopaths, characterised by the desire to attract the attention of other people by all means; in this case, their assessment of real events is always distorted in their own favour; hysteric psychopaths are also characterised by affectation and theatricality; (8) unstable psychopaths, chiefly typified by weak character, absence of profound interests, and ready susceptibility to other people’s influence; (9) organic psychopaths, distinguished by innate mental underdevelopment; they may be good students, but cannot apply their knowledge or show initiative: again they can "look wise" at social gatherings, but their 251 judgements are banal. There is no distinct boundary between psychopaths and normal characters. Normally, people with similar characters, but without pathological (psychopathic) prominence (see Character Accentuation), correspond to the above-mentioned types of psychopaths. Under the effect of illness or psychic traumas, psychopaths may develop acute and prolonged reactive and neurotic states (see Psychogenies), and also depressions. Adequate education, and psychotherapeutic (see Psychotherapy) and psychopharmacological (see Psychopharmacology) treatment, are of major significance in preventing P.

Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology, a branch of psychology related to pharmacology, medical psychology, pathopsychology and neurophysiology and concerned with the effects of pharmacological agents, particularly psychotropic agents, on human mind. In the USSR, effective remedial agents for treating neuro-psychic disorders and arresting raving, hallucinations, psychomotor excitation, memory disorders, depressions, etc. are developed and introduced into practice under compulsory control by the USSR Ministry of Health. A recent development has been the forming of vocational P., oriented to correcting people’s mental states under extreme conditions ( emotional tension, tiredness, adaptation to extraordinary ecological factors). In addition to clinical and physiological methods, P. also uses psychological techniques, revealing deepseated mechanisms that make psychic functions dependent on their biological substrata, the brain. The achievements of P. have important naturalscientific and philosophical significance.

Psychophysical Interaction

Psychophysical Interaction, an idealistic approach to the psychophysical problem according to which consciousness and its nerve (bodily) substrate are two independent factors influencing one another. The dualism of this concept (dating back to Descartes) is incompatible with the scientific explanation of the psychic regulation of the behaviour of man as a wholesome creature.

Psychophysical Parallelism

Psychophysical Parallelism, an interpretation of the psychophysical problem, according to which the psychic and the physical (physiological) represent two independent processes, which, though being inseparable and correlated, are not causally connected. The P.P. concept was advanced both in the systems of materialistic (David Hartley, Alexander Bain, and others) and idealistic (Nicolas de Malebranche) Gottfried Leibniz, Wilhelm Wundt, and others) views on psyche. In the former, P.P. signified the inseparability of consciousness from the brain, and in the latter—the independence of consciousness from material effects, its subordination to a specific psychological causality. In both cases, the psychophysical problem was not solved positively, since consciousness was regarded only in its relationship to processes inside the body. The reflective nature of 252 mentality, and its regulative role in behaviour, could not be scientifically explained within the framework of P.P.

Psychophysical Problem

Psychophysical Problem, broadly understood as referring to the role of the psychic in nature and, narrowly, as the question of correlation of psychological and physiological (neural) processes. In the second instance, it would be more correct to term P.P. as the psychophysiological problem. P.P. became particularly urgent in the 17th century, when scientists began to take a mechanistic view of the world, basing on which Descartes tried to explain the behaviour of living creatures by analogy of mechanical interaction. Acts of consciousness, inexplicable from such interpretation of nature, were ascribed to incorporeal, non-spatial substance. The question about the relationship of that substance to the work of the "body machine" led Descartes to the concept of psychophysical interaction, namely to the view that even though the body only moves and psyche only thinks, they may affect one another by contacting in some specific part of the brain. Hobbes and Spinoza, who spoke out against viewing psyche as a specific substance, claimed it to be fully deducible from the interaction of natural bodies; yet, they failed to resolve P.P. in a positive way. Hobbes suggested that sensation be regarded as a by-product of material processes (see Epithenomenalism), and Spinoza, assuming that the order of ideas is the same as the order of things, regarded thinking and expansion as inseparable and, at the same time, causally unrelated attributes of infinite matter, i.e. Nature. Gottfried Leibniz, by combining mechanistic picture of the world with the idea that psyche is a unique substance, advanced the idea of psychophysical parallelism, according to which the soul and . body perform their operations independently of each other, but with high precision that creates the impression that they are coordinated. They are, in fact, like a pair of watches that always show the same time, though working independently. David Hartley and other naturalists gave psychophysical parallelism a materialistic interpretation. Psychophysical parallelism became highly popular in the mid-19th century, when the discovery of the law of; conservation of energy made it impossible to represent consciousness as a specific force capable of changing behaviour at random. At the same time, Darwin’s teaching on evolution of the organic world required that psyche be understood as an active factor in controlling vital processes. This led to new versions of the concept of psychophysical interaction (William James). The late 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by the spread of Mach’s interpretation of P.P., according to which the soul and body consist of the same “elements” and, therefore, the question should concern the correlation of "sensation complexes", not the actual interconnection of real phenomena. Present-day logical positivism regards P.P. as a pseudoproblem and assumes that the difficulties involved can be solved by applying various 253 languages to describe consciousness, behaviour and neurophysiological processes. In contrast to idealistic theories, dialectical materialism interprets P.P. by basing on an understanding of psyche as a specific property of highly organised matter, a property that originates in the, interaction of living creatures with the environment and, in reflecting the latter, can actively affect the nature of this interaction. Various branches of psychophysiology and related disciplines have accumulated enormous knowledge on the diverse forms of dependence of psychological acts on their physiological substrata, and on the role of these acts (as brain functions) in organising and regulating the vital activity of men and animals (teaching on the localisation of higher mental functions’, on ideomotor acts; evidence provided by some sections of neuro- and pathopsychology, psychopharmacology, psychogenetics, etc.).

Psychophysics

Psychophysics, a classic branch of general psychology developed by Gustav Fechner. The specifics of P. is in that it explains the diversity of observed forms of individual behaviour and mental conditions primarily by the different physical situations that evoke such behaviour and psychic conditions (see Psychometry). Most developed are psychophysical investigations of sensory processes. They distinguish two areas of problems, namely measurement of the threshold of sensations and construction of psychophysical scales. Application of modern techniques for describing the subject’s work allows to account for the specifics of intrinsic activity, notably the criteria of decision-making, in addition to the sensibility of the sensory system. An example of present-day P. techniques is so-called multivariate scaling (Roger Shepard, and others), which allows to reconstruct the relative position of sensations in multi-dimensional subjective sign spaces. Such procedures are now widely used beyond sensory P., e.g. in the psychology of emotions, psychodiagnosis, psychosemantics (see Subjective Semantic Space), etc. This reveals the tendency to understand P. in a broader context and to integrate it with investigations in other branches of the science of psychology.

Psychophysiology

Psychophysiology, a field of interdisciplinary investigations abutting on psychology and neurophysiology and aimed at studying human mentality in unity with its neurophysiological substrate. Initially, the term "P." was used together with the term " physiological psychology" to designate a wide range of studies of psyche based on precise objective physiological techniques (Johannes Miiller, Ernst Weber, Gustav Fechner, Hermann Helmholtz, and others). Unlike numerous Western investigations that failed to overcome the principle of psychophysiological dualism (see Psychophysical Problem) and are limited to establishing correlations between specific psychological and physiological parameters, Soviet P. by relying on Marxist-Leninist philosophy, and also on the ideas of the Russian physiologists Ivan Sechenov and Ivan Pavlov, regards psyche as 254 a product of brain activity. The main task of P. is to explain the causes of psychological phenomena by revealing their underlying neurophysiological mechanisms. The advances of contemporary P. are due to the fact that, in addition to traditional methods (recording of sensory, motor and vegetative responses and analysis of the consequences of brain injury and stimulation), investigators widely use electrophysiological techniques ( electroencephalography, etc.) and mathematical methods to process experimental data. Within the framework of P., there are individual trends comprising the elaboration of more important problems. These are: sensory P. (P. of sense organs), P. of movement organisation, P, of activeness, P. of memory and teaching, P. of speech, P. of motivation and emotions, P. of sleep, P. of stress, P. of functional states, etc. A special trend in P. is represented by differential P., which studies the physiological foundations of individual psychological differences. The achievements of P. are widely used in clinical practice; in simulating cybernetic models and psychophysiotogical processes; and in such applied fields as P. of labour, P. of sport, etc.

Psychosemantics

Psychosemantics, a field of psychology that studies the origin, structure and function of the individual system of meanings, which conditions perception, thought, memory, decision-making, etc. P. examines various forms in which meanings exist in the individual mind, namely images, symbols, symbolic actions, and also symbolic and verbal forms; and analyses the effect of the motivational (see Motivation) factors in and emotional states (see Emotions) of an individual on the system of meanings forming in him. The basic method of experimental P. is to simulate subjective semantic spaces, the model representation of the categorial structures of individual consciousness. P. studies both the general psychological and differentially psychological aspects of the process of categorisation. In the latter case, the task of P. is to reconstruct the systems of the individual’s idea about the world by restructuring the systems of his individual and personalised meanings.

Psychosis

Psychosis, a profound (acute or chronic) mental disorder manifesting itself in distorted reflection of reality, clouded consciousness, changed selfawareness and behaviour, and changed attitude towards the environment. P. is caused by infectional or traumatic lesion of the brain, or by somatic diseases which lead to relapses of mental disorders. P. may result from constitutional or hereditary predisposition and manifest itself after some disease or psychological trauma. Some P. forms may be concomitant with pathological disorders of the cognitive and affective spheres in the form of raving, supervalent ideas, hallucinations, etc.

Psychostimulants (psychoanaleptics)

Psychostimulants (psychoanaleptics), see Psychotropic agents.

Psychotechnics

Psychotechnics, a branch of psychology that studies the concrete (applied) 255 aspects of human practical activity. P. originated in the early 1900s and was theoretically outlined in the works of the German psychologists Wilhelm Stern, G. Miinsterberg, and others, who maintained that P. was ’chiefly designed for vocational selection and vocational orientation; for studying tiredness and exercise during work; adaptation of man to machines and vice versa; for elucidating the efficacy of different ways to influence the consumer (advertisement); for training mental functions in vocational schooling and so on. In capitalist countries, P. actively helped to improve their system of exploitation and social suppression of the working people. In the USSR, P. developed considerably in the 1920s and early 1930s. Characteristically, in research work, its attention was switched over from vocational selection mainly to improvement of polytechnical and vocational training methods, organisation of the labour process, forming of skills and habits, and measures against traumatism and accidents. Outside the USSR, the concept of P. is now generally identified with the notion "applied psychology", and includes various branches of psychology of labour (industrial and engineering psychology), military psychology, psychology of commerce, and so on.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy, comprehensive verbal and non-verbal remedial effect on human emotions, judgements and self-consciousness in numerous mental, nervous, and psychosomatic diseases. Psychiatrists conventionally distinguish clinic-oriented P., aimed mainly at alleviating or eliminating the symptoms present, and personality-oriented P., aimed at helping the patient change his attitudes to his social environment and his own personality. Methods of clinical P. include: hypnosis, autogenic training, suggestion and self-suggestion, and rational therapy. Personalityoriented (individual and group) P. widely uses different ways for analysing the patient’s conflicting emotions. In individual P., the decisive factor of remedial efficacy is the psycotherapeutic contact between physician and patient, one based on mutual respect and confidence, and the physician’s ability to understand and penetrate into another person’s feelings (see Empathy). Labour therapy, group psychotherapy, and family psychotherapy, which all help enhance the patient’s competence in interpersonal relations and improve his ability for self-knowledge and selfcontrol, are widely used as methods for producing an activating therapeutic effect.

Psychotherapy, Group

Psychotherapy, Group, use of regularities characteristic of interpersonal interaction in a group and aimed at treating patients (see Psychotherapy) so as to cure them physically and mentally. P.,G. elements may be traced from many centuries ago. P.,G. as a branch of psychology originated in 1904-1905 in Russia and the United States. In the USSR, P.,G. is developing within the framework of its clinical application in treating neuroses (see Neuroses, Clinical), alcoholism, and a 256 number of somatic (bodily) diseases. A psychotherapist would explain to a group of specially selected patients the essence of their pathology, substantiate his forecasts for their recovery, and instruct them in autogenic training and relaxation. P.,G. may also be used to teach patients to interpret the symptoms and specifics of their own behaviour, etc. Besides, P.,G. envisages organisation of psychological training designed to improve communication (1) techniques. Depending on the nature of the subject of psychotherapy, it is divided into: family psychotherapy, which envisages simultaneous work with parents, children and relations; P.,G. in joint activities and in various psychohygienic clubs; and game psychotherapy. The main indication to P.,G. is the presence of neuroses with upset social ties (family and professional) and difficulties in communication and social adjustment (see Adjustment, Social), and with initial stages of alcoholism and psychosomatic diseases. P.,G. of mental diseases is necessary to rehabilitate patients, i.e. to restore their ability to work. In this case, P.,G. is combined with labour therapy, with measures designed to keep the patients busy, and with promoting their spontaneous activity and self-government in groups. In Western Europe and the USA, P.,G. is theoretically based on various trends of group dynamics (Carl Rogers, Jacob Moreno, and others). In the USSR, P.,G. is based on Marxist social psychology, which regards the psychotherapeutic group as a multi-level structure of interpersonal relations conditioned by the substance of joint activities and determined by the maxim "The Health of Each is the Wealth of All”.

Psychotoxicology

Psychotoxicology, a branch of medical psychology that studies the neurochemical mechanisms, manifestations and methods of treating mental disorders caused by chemical agents called psychotomimetics or hallucinogens (deliside, mescaline, psylocytin, etc.). Such agents have a highly pronounced, selectively damaging effect on the brain, and, even in exceedingly small doses (millionths of a gramme), cause mental disorders. The latter give rise to colourful hallucinations; to disturbances in memory, attention, thinking, and emotions; and to delirious behaviour (see Raving), general psychomotor excitation, and so on (see Psychosis). NATO plans envisage the use of such agents as combat poison substances which disable enemy soldiers temporarily. At the same time, NATO spreads the myth that such weapons are unprecedentedly “ humane” since they keep people alive. There were many cases when people who were given psychotomimetics in keeping with CIA military programmes such as Artichoke, and MK-ultra, or had used them as narcotics, had either committed suicide or were disabled for life.

Psychotropic Agents

Psychotropic Agents, chemical agents and natural products which are selectively active in relation to normal and disturbed psychic activity (see Psychopharmacology). There are 257 different classifications of P.A. depending on their chemical structure, pharmacological dynamics, clinical effect, etc. Depending on the latter, P.A. are most commonly classified into psycholeptics, i.e. substances which suppress and tranquilise the central nervous systems (e.g. aminasine, haloperidol, seduxen, etc.); psychoanaleptics, i.e. stimulators of activity, mood and work efficiency (e.g. phenamine, caffeine, sidnocarb, etc.); and psychodisleptics, i.e. substances which disorganise brain activity, (e.g. lysergic acid diethylamide, benactisine, etc.). Recently, new classes of P.A. have appeared which produce a highly differentiated effect on human mental functions, behaviour, memory and efficiency (e.g. neuropeptides, nootropes, psychoenergisers, etc.).

Public Opinion

Public Opinion, the attitude of social groups towards phenomena or problems of social life affecting common interests, expressed in the form of judgements, ideas and concepts. P.O. results from an awareness of pressing social problems and shows in a comparison and, occasionally, also in collisions of various views and stances on a given issue, in approval of and support for or, conversely, in rejection and condemnation of certain actions, deeds or line of conduct. The subjects of P.O. may be large social groups, i.e. classes, nations and peoples. The highest form of P.O. is the opinion of the whole people, i.e. national consensus on issues of common interest. P.O. is formed under the influence of mass media, though it may also emerge spontaneously under the influence of concrete circumstances and situations. In a society with antagonistic classes, P.O. is under strong pressure from all the mass media concentrated in the hands of a dominant class. In a socialist society, P.O. becomes a reliable means for expressing the frame of mind of the broad masses on urgent issues of social life, and an effective instrument for the implementing social policies of the Communist and workers’ parties.