W

Wakefulness

Wakefulness, a behavioural manifestation of the activation of the nervous system and its functional state, when an individual performs some specific activity. In the cycle sleep—W. the following W. levels are distinguished; extreme level of tension; active W., tranquil W., and drowsiness, which with reduced W. level turns into sleep. Each W. level is distinguished by specific correlation of vegetative, motor and electroencephalographic activation.

Weber-Fechner Law

Weber-Fechner Law, the logarithmic dependence of the magnitude of sensation (E) upon the physical intensity of the irritant (P): E=k logP+c, where k and c are certain constants determined by a given sensorial system. This dependence was inferred by Gustav Theodor Fechner, a German psychologist and physiologist, on the basis of Weber’s Law (see Bouguer-Weber Law) and an additional supposition about the subjective equality of barely perceptible sensational differences. Empirical studies confirm this dependence only for the middle section of the range of perceived irritants values. W.-F.L. is commonly contrasted to Stevens’ Law, according to which this dependence is of exponential, riot logarithmic nature. Both formulae have been correlated by Yuri Zabrodin, a Soviet scientist.

Will

Will, conscious self-regulation by man of his activities and behaviour, one that ensures the overcoming of difficulties in achieving a goal; the subject-created additional motivations to external or internal actions in case of their insufficient motivational force. W. originates and is developed in the course of labour, when man learns the laws of nature and changes it. In performing two interconnected functions, namely, the motivational function, which ensures man’s activity, and the inhibitory function, which shows in the containment of that function, volitional acts are observed: in situations involving a choice of equally significant motives and goals that engender a struggle of motives; in the absence of actual intrinsic need for action; in the presence of external and internal obstacles, and so on. As a rule, the struggle of motives in a situation involving such a choice results in the forming of a single system of subordinated motives correlated with the goal. In this case, the comprehension of the correlations between the goals, means and results of an action, on the one hand, and the totality of its motives, on the other, constitute the basis of self-controlujNh&n. the subject in question has no actual need to act, the volitional process consists in the voluntary development of additional motives, which change the significance of his action or impart it an additional meaning through voluntary change of the significance of the acting motives (their lower or higher values) by foreseeing and emotional anticipation of the consequences of that action (see Personalised Meaning). Developed W. is a 329 specifically human function; yet, its lower levels, such as voluntary movements (see Movements, Voluntary) and delayed impulsive action, are already distinguished in animals. In idealist philosophy, W. is understood either as a supernatural phenomenon, or as a totally unconditioned human capacity to initiate and perform the needed action. Dialectical-materialist philosophy regards volitional behaviour as the acme of personal activity caused by a system of social relations and one that presupposes "the capacity to make decisions with knowledge of the subject" (Frederick Engels, AntiDuhring, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975, p. 132).

Work Capacity

Work Capacity, a person’s potential ability to perform purposeful activity at a present level of efficiency during a definite time. Work capacity depends on the ambient environment and the individual’s psychophysiological resources. Depending on the task to be performed, one may distinguish maximal, optimal or reduced capacity for work. In the course of activity, the level of work capacity changes. This change may be described graphically by a curve which shows the dependence of efficiency on the time during which work is performed. Lengthy activity is typified by the following stages of work capacity: warming up, optimal work capacity, and compensated tiredness, and final “collapse”. These stages are distinguished chiefly by observed performance. In analysing changes in the functioning of systems that ensure activity, one can trace a finer dynamics of work capacity stages, viz., mobilisation, initial reaction, hypercompensation, compensation, subcompensation, decompensation, and failure. Depending on the type of work, individual features, state of health, and professional training, the duration, alternation and degree of prominence of individual stages may vary, with some of them falling out. Correlation of work capacity stage durations is indicative of optimal organisation of work.

Work-Mediated Interpersonal Relationships, Theory of

Work-Mediated Interpersonal Relationships, Theory of a socio- psychological theory approaching interpersonal relationships in ’any adequately developed group as mediated by the content and values of objectrelated activity. It was elaborated by Artur Petrovsky and was first called the "stratometric conception". Work mediation is regarded as a systemsforming trait of a collective, one that determines its basic socio-psychological characteristics. In reaching a goal in a certain object of activity, a group changes itself, improves its structure and transforms the system of interpersonal relationships. The nature and orientation of these changes depend, in the end, on the content and values of the activity which are derived from a broader social unit. The mediation of relationships between individuals through joint activities make it possible to understand the nature of group differentiation and integration; to divide groups into types and reveal the specific traits of those having the highest level of developmen ( 330 collecfives), and to demonstrate their essential qualitative difference (by using quantitative indices) from other small groups (see Groups, Small); to orient the psychologist towards revealing the significance of the parameters of group development, thus promoting the group’s diagnosis and the prognostication of the outcome of its activity; to picture the complex, many-levelled (“stratometric”) structure of interpersonal relationships and realise the necessity of taking into account the relations of the findings to the concrete level of group processes; to characterise a collective as a group in which the individual has the most favourable opportunity to fulfil his need to be an integral personality and to develop corresponding abilities. This conception is opposed in essence to one-sided conceptions of group dynamics and to other theories popular in Western, mainly American, psychology of small groups, despite the orientation of the given scientific school. In the course of experimental research a number of notions of certain socio- psychological phenomena were put into scientific circulation, and methods revealing the parameters of a group and of the individual within a group, reflecting these phenomena, were proposed (see Methods of Personality Study).

World Outlook

World Outlook, a system of ideas of the objective world and a person’s place in it, of a person’s attitude towards surrounding reality and to himself, and also corresponding points of view shared by people, their convictions, ideals, principles of cognition and activity and value orientations. In reality, the subject of W.O. is a social group and an individual. W.O. is the core of social and individual consciousness. The development of W.O. is a significant indication of maturity not only of an individual, but also of a definite social group, social class and its party. W.O. is the reflection, general notion of the world, man, society and value attitude towards them, which determines the sociopolitical, philosophical, atheist (or religious), moral, aesthetic, and scientific orientation of a person. As a method of cognising reality, W.O. includes also vital principles which determine the nature of people’s activity. An important component of W.O. are ideals as crucial life goals. The content of consciousness turns into a W.O. when it acquires the character of convictions. W.O. is of an enormous practical importance in life. It influences norms of behaviour, a person’s attitude to work, to other people, the nature of his life aspirations, his daily life, tastes, interests. W.O. is formed both as a result of generalisation of natural science, socio-historic, technical and philosophical knowledge, and under the influence of the existing life conditions, passed on from generation to generation, together with people’s experience, in the form of common sense, spontaneous, unsystematised, traditional notions of the world. In an antagonistic society, there is no single W.O. nor can there be, for each class (for instance, the 331 working class and the bourgeoisie in capitalist society) has its own specific W.O. There those classes which are the bearers of the more progressive mode of production express an advanced W.O. Depending on whether the interests of a class coincide with the objective trend of historical development, with the data of science and social practice, its W.O. may be consistently scientific or unscientific, materialist or idealist, atheist or religious, revolutionary or reactionary in content and social significance. The core of communist W.O. is Marxist-Leninist philosophy—- dialectical and historical materialism. In socialist society, Marxist-Leninist W.O. is dominant.

Worry

Worry, an individual’s tendency to experience anxiety characterised by a low threshold; a major parameter of individal differences. W. is normally elevated in neuropsychic and severe somatic diseases, and also in healthy people experiencing the aftermath of a psychic trauma, and in many groups of individuals with deviant behaviour. Generally speaking, W. is a subjective manifestation of some personal misfortune. Contemporary studies of W. are designed to distinguish situational W., connected with a concrete external situation, from personal W., which is a stable property in a given individual; they are also intended to develop methods for analysing W. as the result of individual-environment interactions.

W\:urzburg School

W\:urzburg School, a group of reseachers led by German psychologist Oswald Kiilpe. In the early 20th century, they studied at Wiirzburg University (Bavaria) higher mental processes (thinking and the will) through laboratory experiments combined with a modified method of introspection ("experimental selfobservation", in which the subject carefully watched the states he experienced in performing each respective instruction stage). The W.S. included German psychologists Karl Marbe, Narzis Ach, and Karl Biihler, British psychologist Henry Watt, Belgian psychologist Albert Michotte, and others. The W.S. introduced into experimental psychology intellectual tasks (the study of logical argumentation and replies to questions requiring mental effort, etc.) as new objects for analysis. The W.S. maintained that thinking represented a mental process whose regularities are reduced neither to the laws of logic, nor to those governing the forming of associations. The W.S. explained the uniqueness of thinking by the fact that associations are selected in accord with tendencies created by the task accepted by the subject. The attitude that precedes the search, which some W.S. representatives considered a "mental set", and others an unconscious act (since it is hidden from introspection), was recognised to play an organising role. Counter to views commonly accepted at the time, the W.S. arrived at the conclusion that consciousness contains non-sensory components (mental actions and meanings independent on sensory images). Hence, the specific of the W.S. theory is 332 usually seen in that it has introduced into psychology the notion of imageless thought. The W.S. interpreted the process of thinking as a changeover of operations, occasionally assuming an affective tension (feelings of certainty, doubt, etc.). The works of W.S. psychologists posed a number of important problems concerning qualitative distinctions between thinking and other cognitive processes, and revealed the restricted nature of the associative concept and its inability to explain the selective character and intentionality of mental acts. Yet, they unjustifiably contraposed imageless thought (“pure” thinking) to its other forms, while ignoring that thought is dependent on verbal and practical activities. The W.S.’s idealistic methodology, which reflected the influence of German philosophers Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl, prevented its representatives from revealing the actual causes of mental processes. Data obtained by the W.S. evoked criticism from representatives of other schools of experimental psychology who also used introspection (Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener, and Georg Miiller), and this led to a general crisis of the introspectionism.