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Mental states of a person. Mental state and general psychological state

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A person is able to carry out any activity in various modes. And one of them, as we know, is mental states.

What types of mental states are there?

All kinds of mental states are closely interconnected. And this relationship is so strong that it is very, very difficult to separate and isolate individual mental states. For example, the state of relaxation is associated with states of pleasure, sleep, fatigue, etc.

However, there are certain systems for categorizing mental states. Most often, states of intellect, states of consciousness and states of personality are distinguished. Of course, there are other classifications - they consider hypnotic, crisis and other types of states. At the same time, a lot of criteria are used to categorize conditions.

Criteria for the categorization of mental states

In most cases, the following group of criteria for categorizing mental states is distinguished:

Source of formation:

Conditions that are determined by the situation (reaction to punishment, etc.)
Personally determined states (sharp emotion, etc.)

Degree of external expression:

Weakly expressed, superficial states (mild sadness, etc.)
Strong, deep states (passionate love, etc.)

Emotional coloring:

Negative states (despondency, etc.)
Positive states (inspiration, etc.)
Neutral states (indifference, etc.)

Duration:

Long-term conditions that can last for years (depression, etc.)
Short-term states that last a few seconds (anger, etc.)
Conditions of medium duration (fear, etc.)

Level of awareness:

Conscious states (mobilization of forces, etc.)
Unconscious states (sleep, etc.)

Manifestation Level:

Psychological states (enthusiasm, etc.)
Physiological conditions (hunger, etc.)
Psychophysiological conditions

Guided by these criteria, it is possible to present a comprehensive description of almost any mental state.

It is also important to mention that simultaneously with mental states there are also so-called “mass-type” states - mental states characteristic of specific communities: societies, nations, groups of people. Basically, such conditions are public moods and public opinions.

Now it’s worth talking about the basic mental states of a person and their properties.

Basic mental states. Properties of mental states

The most common and typical mental states inherent in most people in their everyday and professional life are the following states:

Optimal working condition– ensures maximum effectiveness of activities taking place at an average pace and intensity.

State of intense work activity– occurs when working in extreme conditions.

Properties of the condition: mental stress, caused by the presence of a goal of increased importance or increased requirements, strong in achieving the desired result, increased activity of the entire nervous system.

State of professional interest- plays a vital role in labor productivity.

Properties of the state: conscious significance of professional activity, desire and desire to learn as much information as possible about the work being performed, concentration of attention on objects that are associated with the activity. In some cases, there is a sharpening of perception, an increased ability to repeat what has already been learned, and an increased power of imagination.

Monotony– a condition that develops under long-term and regularly repeated loads of medium or low intensity, as well as under repeated monotonous information.

Properties of the state: indifference, decreased concentration, boredom, impaired perception of received information.

Fatigue– a state of temporary decrease in performance that occurs during prolonged and high loads. Associated with exhaustion of the body.

Properties of the condition: decreased motivation for work and attention, increased processes of central nervous system inhibition.

Stress– a state of prolonged and increased stress, which is associated with a person’s inability to adapt to the demands of the environment. Here environmental factors play a big role, exceeding the human body’s ability to adapt.

Properties of the condition: mental stress, feelings of anxiety, ill-being, and often apathy and indifference. In addition, the adrenaline reserves that the body needs are depleted.

State of relaxation- a state of restoration of strength, relaxation and calm that occurs during, for example, prayers or reading mantras, etc. The main reason for this condition is the cessation of any strenuous activity by a person.

Properties of the state: a feeling of warmth spreading throughout the body, a feeling of peace and relaxation at the physiological level.

Sleep state– a special mental state characterized by a disconnection of a person’s consciousness from external reality. It is interesting that the sleep state has two distinct phases that constantly alternate - slow-wave sleep and fast-moving sleep. Both of them can often be considered as independent mental states. And the process of sleep itself is associated with the need to systematize the flows of information that were received during wakefulness, as well as the body’s need to restore its resources.

Properties of the state: loss of consciousness, immobility, temporary activity of various parts of the nervous system.

Waking state- a state opposed to the state of sleep. In a calm form, it can manifest itself in activities such as, for example, watching a movie, reading a book, listening to music. In a more active form it manifests itself in physical exercise, work, walking, etc.

Properties of the state: average activity of the nervous system, absence of pronounced emotions (in a calm state) or, conversely, violent emotions (in an active state).

Let us repeat that the above mental states are typical for most people. Any relationship between these conditions, as well as the dynamics of the process of their development, are of utmost importance, both in a person’s ordinary life and in his professional activities.

Based on this, mental states can be safely called one of the subjects of study in various areas of psychological science, such as, or occupational psychology.

Throughout time, people have tried to understand the essence of mental states, and these attempts do not stop even in our time. The reason for this is, perhaps, that a person and the characteristics of his personality are a great mystery both for ordinary people and for scientific minds. And one cannot help but say that today enormous progress has been made in the study of human personality, which boldly continues its path forward. But it is likely that this riddle will never be completely solved, because nature in any of its forms is truly incomprehensible.

The place and role of mental states in the structure of mental phenomena

Mental states belong to the main categories of mental phenomena, along with mental processes and mental properties.

Deals with the study of mental states psychology of conditions– a relatively new branch of psychological science that studies the nature, mechanisms, and patterns of the flow of mental states, conscious or unconscious of the individual in the process of activity, communication, and behavior. State psychology as a scientific branch allows us to consider mental, functional and emotional states not by themselves, but in close connection with mental processes and personality traits.

According to the parameters “situational - long-term” and “variability

– constancy” mental states are between mental processes and stable personality and character traits. Mental states, due to their greater constancy and duration, serve as a background for mental processes that are more changeable. Personality properties change even more slowly than states. Consequently, in terms of time parameters, states occupy an intermediate position between processes and personality traits.

Mental processes under certain conditions can be perceived as a mental state. Thus, a short-term, rapidly changing attitude is a process of attention that can be consolidated, turning into an attitude as a state that persists for a long time. The attitude, becoming a personality trait, turns into direction. The formation of stable personality traits occurs through repetition and consolidation of temporary states. For example, the development of will occurs through the repetition and consolidation of volitional states; frequently repeated anxiety, as a rule, leads to the appearance

the corresponding property of anxiety, a repeatedly experienced state of determination - to the formation of determination as a character trait, etc. This mechanism is the basis for the emergence and formation of personality traits.

Concept and general characteristics of mental state

The mental state is the general functional level of mental activity, the background against which mental processes develop. N.D. Levitov defined mental state as a holistic characteristic of mental activity over a certain period of time, showing the uniqueness of the course of mental processes depending on the reflected objects and phenomena of reality, the previous state and mental properties of the individual.

The key words of this definition are “holistic”, “time period”, “originality”, “mental processes”.

Any mental state is a holistic phenomenon that consists of many elements (motives, emotional reactions, volitional acts, cognitions, behavioral manifestations, etc.), but they do not exist on their own, but in integration and interconnection, i.e. form an integral structure.

Mental states have a beginning and an end, they change. Indeed, no object can remain in the same state indefinitely; it will invariably transform into another. Variability, periodicity, change in time– important characteristics of states.

Each mental state is unique because it is caused and accompanied by specific sensations, processes of perception of memory, thinking, imagination, certain volitional activity, and characteristic emotional experiences. In addition, the uniqueness of mental states is determined by the individual psychological characteristics of a person, determined by his past experience, ideas about the future, and depends on the situation in which the person

hits, etc. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between the categories “state” and “personality trait”. The mental state does not always correspond to a person’s character traits. Thus, a state of anxiety can be experienced by a person in certain conditions (situational), but anxiety may not be a characteristic personality trait of this person.

Mental states are inextricably linked with mental processes. The mental process can be accompanied by various mental states that replace each other. For example, a long process of solving a complex problem can cause states that replace each other: curiosity, inspiration, fatigue, indignation and, finally, joy in case of the correct solution. Without mental processes there cannot be mental states. Mental states determine the uniqueness of mental processes.

Thus, mental state- this is a temporary reflection of a situation by a person, a holistic phenomenon that is characterized by the originality of mental activity, is inextricably linked with mental processes and personality traits, manifests itself in the unity of experience and behavior and has time boundaries.

Mental states have a structure that includes four levels. The lowest one is physiological level includes neurophysiological characteristics, morphological and biochemical changes. Second level – psychophysiological- contains vegetative reactions, changes in psychomotor, sensory. Higher – psychological– characterizes changes in a person’s mental functions and mood. The highest level is social - psychological- contains characteristics of behavior, activities and attitudes of a person in a particular state. Stress, for example, at the physiological level is characterized by biochemical changes (an increase in the concentration of adrenaline, steroid hormones in the blood), at the psychophysiological level there is a feeling of tension, at the psychological level -

attention disorder, in socio-psychological terms - changes in behavior under stress (inhibited or excited).

Mental states are characterized by the following main

properties:

Activity – the dominance of individual components of the holistic state and their influence on the effectiveness of mental activity;

- reproducibility in similar situations (like a conditioned reflex) and the ability, subject to special significance and repetition, to transform into stable personality characteristics;

Controllability – personal regulation of states in the form of self-organization, self-government, self-regulation;

Autonomy - differentiation of a mental state from other mental phenomena, as well as a certain intermediate position of states between processes and properties;

Efficiency – organization of mental processes and personality traits to achieve the goals of the activity, ensuring results;

Observability – the ability to study mental states and their specificity using various empirical methods.

IN mental activity states perform certain

The function of adaptation, ensuring the interaction of the subject with the living environment (internal and external), maintaining a balance between constantly changing external conditions and the internal resources of a person.

The function of regulation of mental processes and mental properties, organization of human activity and behavior. Mental states define the range, boundaries, level and possibilities of manifestations of other mental phenomena (processes and properties). They reflect formed personality traits, properties, character accentuations, and their transformations. They coordinate the needs and aspirations of the individual with his capabilities and

resources. The regulatory function also consists in ensuring behavior and activities that are adequate for the current situation.

Function of mediation. Mental states are the link connecting mental processes and personality traits to ensure an adequate response.

Differentiation function. Mental states are associated with mental processes and properties to varying degrees, some are more associated with states, others less so.

Integration function. Mental states combine mental processes and properties. Through the repetition of mental states, an integral hierarchical set of mental processes and properties is formed, the psychological structure (“system”) of the personality is formed and consolidated, and self-regulation is mastered. All this ensures the continuity of holistic mental activity, its effectiveness and productivity in different areas of life.

The function of the development of mental properties and processes in the course of changing life activities. Thanks to this function, the psychological organization of the individual comes into line with the requirements of the professional nature of the activity.

There are many different mental states. There is no exhaustive universal classification of mental states, since most states cannot be classified into one type or another; they can be included in different subsections of the classification. The assignment of a mental state to one or another type is carried out according to the principle of dominance of one or another component in the structure of consciousness.

By degree duration states are distinguished between long-term (lasting years, months), short-term (weeks, days), short-term (hours, minutes).

By degree prevalence they distinguish states that are closed within the system (general and local), expressed externally (bright and latent), according to the location of the system in space (natural-biological or social).

According to the degree of tension, states are distinguished by the general tone (high or low), and by the tension of various components (the same or different).

By degree adequacy of the situation states are distinguished between adequate and inadequate.

By degree adequacy to moral standards distinguish between correct and incorrect states.

According to the degree of awareness of the situation and time, conscious and unconscious are distinguished.

Depending on level of mental activity is distinguished

equilibrium and nonequilibrium mental states.
			Table 2
	(V.A. Ganzen, V.N. Yurchenko, 1991; A.O. Prokhorov, 1998)

Level of mental activity		States of mental activity
States	increased	Happiness, delight, ecstasy, anxiety, fear, anger, rage, horror, panic,
mental	activity	admiration, passion, hatred, distress, inspiration,
(nonequilibrium states)		mobilization, indignation, etc.
States		Calm, sympathy, compassion, empathy, willingness, struggle
(optimal) mental		motives, concentration, insight, interest,
activity	(equilibrium	doubt, surprise, reflection, puzzlement, etc.
state)
States	reduced	Dreams, depression, sadness, sadness, melancholy, grief, boredom, suffering,
mental	activity	fatigue, exhaustion, monotony, prostration, absent-mindedness,
(nonequilibrium states)		relaxation, crisis state, etc.

Equilibrium states - states of average or optimal mental activity, are the basis for adequate, predictable behavior. Such states include a state of calm, concentration, interest, etc. Disequilibrium states are unstable states with a higher or lower level of activity that occur when the balance between the body and the environment is disturbed. IN

As a result, mental activity either increases (joy, delight, fear) or decreases (sadness, fatigue). Disequilibrium states are the cause of irrational, inadequate, aggressive, and sometimes tragic behavior.

V.A. Ganzen and V.D. Yurchenko proposed a classification of states, compiled on the basis of an analysis of 187 word terms, as a result of which three groups of states were identified (Table 3):

1. Volitional states are described in the categories of “tension-resolution.” They include practical states of a person (at various stages of work) and motivational ones, reflecting the degree of satisfaction of needs.

2. Affective states reflect the categories “pleasure and displeasure.” They are divided into humanitarian and emotional.

3. States consciousness-attention, core features of “sonactivation”. The states of this group are background and create the conditions for the entire mental life of a person.

Until now, there is no single and complete classification of conditions, so we will briefly describe those that are most often found in the psychological literature and are most important for the practical activities of a psychologist.

First of all, we need to talk about functional states. Functional status defined as background activity

The nervous system is a characteristic of the functioning of the brain. An example of a functional state is hypnosis, i.e. state of suggestion. Functional state is a necessary component of any type of activity and behavior. In labor psychology, functional states are studied from the point of view of the effectiveness of human activity.

Table 3

Classification of human mental states (V.A. Ganzen, V.D. Yurchenko)

Mental conditions

	Volitional states				Affective states			States of consciousness
Praxic		Motivational		Humanization		Emotional
		organic		state		state		States of attention
positive	negative	organic	approximately	positive	negative	positive	negative
		Hypoxia
	Prostration	Hypoxia	Sensory	Sympathy	Antipathy	Ataraxia	Excitement	Absent-mindedness
(inspiration)	Overwork		deprivation	Synthonia	Asynthonia
Inspiration	Fatigue					calm)		(concentration)
	Monotony	Sexual	Interest		Hatred			Hyperprosexia
Mobilization	Satiation	voltage	Curiosity	Admiration	Disturbance	Pleasure		(increased
Working in	Fatigue		Astonishment				Suffering	attention)
Readiness			Doubt				Indignation
(installation)			Puzzled
Activation

A.B. Leonova, S.B. Velichkovskaya distinguishes a group of conditions as a separate category reduced performance(SSRs). It consists of four main types of conditions:

fatigue is a state of exhaustion in the course of the main processes that implement activities, developing as a result of prolonged and intense exposure to workloads, with a dominant motivation to complete work and rest;

mental satiety– a state of rejection of activities that are too simple and subjectively uninteresting or meaningless, which are manifested in an expressed desire to stop working (refusal of activity) or to add variety to a given stereotype of performance;

tension/stress– a state of increased mobilization of personal resources in response to an increase in the complexity or subjective significance of an activity with the dominance of motivation to overcome difficulties, productive or destructive (motives of psychological defense or self-preservation) forms;

monotony is a state of reduced conscious control over the performance of an activity that occurs in situations of monotonous (“conveyor”) work with frequent repetition of stereotypical actions and an impoverished external environment, accompanied by feelings of boredom/drowsiness and a dominant motivation to change activities. Subjectively, it is experienced as a feeling of apathy, boredom, lethargy and drowsiness (drowsiness). Among the mental manifestations, there is a dulling of the acuity of perception, a weakening of the ability to switch attention, a decrease in vigilance, an overestimation of time intervals (time lasts a long time), etc. At the psychophysiological level, a decrease in muscle tone, a decrease in excitability and sensitivity of the analyzers are recorded. Monotony, as noted by A.I. Fukin, reduces the level of efficiency and interferes with labor productivity.

Particular attention in the psychological literature is paid to stress.

Stress (as defined by L.V. Kulikova, O.A. Mikhailova) –

a mental state of intense stress that occurs under the influence of extreme or particularly strong external influences, requiring activation of adaptive resources and protective properties of the psyche and body . The leading psychological characteristic of stress is tension. The most common manifestations include the following:

– feeling of loss of control over oneself;

– disorganization of activities (absent-mindedness, making wrong decisions, fussiness);

– lethargy, apathy, increased fatigue;

– sleep disorder (long fall asleep, early awakening). Other symptoms of stress:

– irritability, decreased mood (pictiness, unreasonable criticism);

– increased appetite or lack thereof;

– increasing the amount of alcohol consumed;

– increased consumption of psychoactive drugs (sedatives, stimulants);

– sexual function disorder;

– unfavorable physical condition (headache, heartburn, increased blood pressure).

G. Selye considered stress as a nonspecific response of the body to any demand presented to it. From the point of view of the stress reaction, it does not matter whether the situation in which a person finds himself is pleasant or unpleasant.

Stress manifestations are found in all areas of the psyche. In the emotional sense – a feeling of anxiety, experiencing the significance of the current situation. In cognitive – perception of threat, danger, situation of uncertainty. In motivational – mobilization of forces or, conversely,

surrender. In the behavioral aspect - a change in activity, the usual pace of activity, the appearance of “stiffness” in movement.

Work and work activity are often associated with stress. The most common reasons are environmental influences (noise, pollution, heat, cold, etc.); loads: physical (muscular), informational (excessive amount of information that needs to be processed and remembered), emotional (loads exceeding the level of saturation that is comfortable for the individual); monotony; significant changes at work, conflicts in the work environment; situations of uncertainty, situations of specific threat.

There are short-term and long-term stress. Short-term stress is accompanied by vivid manifestations of symptoms, rapid expenditure of “superficial” adaptation reserves and, along with this, the beginning of the mobilization of “deep” ones. Stress that is not very significant in its strength helps to mobilize the nervous system and increases the overall tone of a person. With prolonged stress, there is a gradual mobilization and consumption of both “superficial” and “deep” adaptation reserves. The symptoms of long-term stress resemble the initial general symptoms of somatic and sometimes mental painful conditions. Such stress can turn into illness. The cause of long-term stress can be repeated extreme factors.

There is a group of stresses associated with work activity. Work stress – occurs due to reasons related to work (working conditions, place of work). Professional stress– arises due to the stressful nature of the profession, regardless of the place of work. Organizational stress– arises as a result of the negative impact on the subject of the characteristics of the organization in which he works (unfavorable psychological climate, inept management, irrational distribution of job responsibilities, poor

organized information flows, uncertainty of the organization’s goals and development prospects, etc.).

How is a separate group identified? emotional states – mental states that have a pronounced subjective coloring; they are experiences from joy to suffering.

Emotional states, as V.S. writes. Agavelyan, can be good and bad (for example, mood), useful and harmful (experience of pain), positive and negative (joy, fear), can be sthenic, asthenic and ambivalent.

Thenic states are stimulants and inspirers to activity; they have a mobilizing effect on a person (he prepares for possible actions, for example, to escape in case of danger, force of impact in case of aggression). Asthenic states relax, disorganize, induce depression, aggression, panic, fear, paralyze the will, and distort activity. Ambivalent states (for example, the experience of fear and joy) are the least studied; it is believed that they can be stable.

Mood is considered as a long-term, stable mental state of moderate or weak intensity, manifested as the general emotional background of a person’s mental life (elated, depressed, etc.), or as a clearly identifiable state (boredom, sadness, melancholy, fear, or, conversely, enthusiasm, joy, jubilation, delight, etc.). Mood is manifested in a person’s activity, in his general vitality, psychological mood and is associated with the general state of affairs, life plans, interests, health, well-being, and the degree of satisfaction of basic life needs.

One of the types of emotional states is frustration - a mental state that arises as a result of the opposition of any factors that block the satisfaction of a person’s needs, preventing the fulfillment of his intentions and actions. In other words,

Frustration is caused by objectively insurmountable (or subjectively understood) difficulties that arise on the way to achieving a desired goal or solving a problem. As a result, a conflict arises between an urgently significant need and the impossibility of its implementation, followed by a breakdown in the desired behavior.

The state of frustration is characterized by acute negative experiences: disappointment, irritation, anxiety, despair, “feeling of deprivation.” A strong experience of frustration can lead to disorganization of a person’s consciousness, activity and behavior.

Frustration can be caused by objective and subjective reasons. Objective reasons may be dissatisfaction with one’s own professional work, its content and results, when a person realizes that he has not realized most of his capabilities. Subjective factors appear when life stereotypes change, when the usual order of satisfying needs is disrupted. Many events in life (change of place of residence, conscription into the army, wedding, travel, etc.) can become frustrating if as a result there is a violation of previously established habitual connections and forms of behavior.

States of severe frustration can be caused by intrapersonal conflicts. All intrapersonal conflicts V.N. Pankratov divides into four types:

1. Conflict of the “desired-desired” type, when it is necessary to choose one of equally desirable possibilities.

2. Conflict of the “undesirable-undesirable” type, caused by the need to choose between two equally undesirable possibilities.

3. A conflict of the “desired-unwanted” type usually represents a situation in which an individual’s desire for some goal

holds back fear or other negative aspects associated with the realization of what is desired.

4. “Double” conflict arises when two tendencies exist simultaneously: attraction and avoidance. It occurs in situations where one of the possible courses of action represents a desired path to an undesirable outcome, and the other is an undesirable path to a desired outcome. As a result, both lines of behavior can be assessed as either equally attractive or equally unfavorable.

The action of frustrators does not always cause frustration. In these cases, we are talking about a state of tolerance - patience, endurance, the absence of difficult experiences and sharp reactions, despite the presence of frustrators. There are different forms of tolerance. The healthiest and most desirable mental state should be considered one that is characterized, despite the presence of frustrators, by calmness, prudence, and a willingness to use what happened as a life lesson, but without much self-complaint, which would mean not tolerance, but frustration. Tolerance can be expressed, however, not only in a completely calm state, but also in a certain tension, effort, and restraint of unwanted impulsive reactions. According to N.D. Levitov, there is tolerance of the type of flaunting with emphasized indifference, which in some cases masks carefully hidden anger or despondency. Tolerance (in a broad sense, resistance to stress) can be cultivated. Human mental health actually means conscious and effective management of one’s behavior in extreme conditions.

Fear is a condition that arises in a situation of real or imaginary danger to a person’s life and is accompanied by the experience of fear, anxiety, as well as the person’s desire to avoid or eliminate the corresponding threat.

There are different types of fears. A well-known classification of fears proposed by B.D. Karvasarsky: fear of space(claustrophobia - fear of enclosed spaces, agoraphobia - fear of open spaces, fear of depth, fear of water); social phobias associated with public life (fear of blushing in the presence of people, fear of public speaking, fear of not being able to perform any action in the presence of strangers); nosophobia, fears of contracting any disease (always present in society, but especially aggravated during epidemics); thanatophobia, fear of death; sexual fears; fear of harming yourself or loved ones; “contrasting” phobias (for example, a well-bred person’s fear of loudly uttering obscene words or doing something obscene in society); phobophobia (fear of being afraid of something).

There is a division of fears into constructive - representing a natural defense mechanism that helps to better adapt to extreme situations, and pathological - inadequate to the stimulus in terms of intensity or duration of the condition, often leading to a situation of mental illness.

Panic is a manifestation of fear of a real or imaginary threat, a state of periodic fear, horror, growing in the process of mutual infection by them. Panic is a form of crowd control, but panic can also manifest itself at the individual level.

Panic, from the point of view of V.A. Molyako can be classified by scale, depth of coverage, duration, etc. By scale, individual, group and mass panic are distinguished. In the case of group and mass panic, the number of people it captures is different: group - from two or three to several tens and hundreds of people (if they are scattered), and mass - thousands or much more people. In addition, panic should be considered mass when in a limited, enclosed space (on a ship,

in a building, etc.) it covers the majority of people, regardless of their total number.

Under the depth of coverage, a distinction is made between mild, moderate and complete panic. You can experience mild panic when transport is delayed, when you are in a hurry, or when there is a sudden but not very strong signal (sound, flash, etc.). At the same time, the person maintains almost complete self-control and criticality. Medium panic is characterized by a significant distortion of conscious assessments of what is happening, a decrease in criticality, an increase in fear, and exposure to external influences, for example, buying goods in stores while rumors circulate in society about rising prices, the disappearance of goods for sale, etc. Moderate panic often occurs during military training operations, minor transport accidents, or a fire (if it is close but not directly threatening). Complete panic - panic with loss of consciousness, affective, characterized by complete insanity - occurs when there is a feeling of great, mortal danger (explicit or imaginary). In this state, a person completely loses conscious control over his behavior: he can run anywhere (sometimes right into the source of danger), rush about senselessly, perform a variety of chaotic actions, actions that absolutely exclude their assessment, rationality and ethics. Classic examples of panic are on the Titanic, as well as during wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires in large buildings, etc.

The duration of panic can be short-term, from a second to several minutes (panic on a bus that lost control for seconds); quite long, from tens of minutes to several hours (panic during earthquakes, short-lived and not very strong); prolonged, from several days to several weeks (panic after the Chernobyl explosion, during long combat operations).

Affect is a very strong and relatively short-term state, accompanied by explosive emotions, arising in dramatically changed

important life circumstances or in critical conditions when a person is unable to find a way out of dangerous, most often unexpected situations. Affect can be either negative, causing negative emotions (aggression, anger, etc.), or positive, causing positive emotions (delight, ecstasy, etc.). Negative affect can arise due to repeated repetition of traumatic events, creating in a person an impression of hopelessness. The state of affect is characterized by a narrowing of consciousness, in which the subject’s attention is completely absorbed by circumstances and the actions imposed by them. Disturbances of consciousness, as V.K. writes. Vilyunas, can lead to a noticeable dulling of sensitivity to pain, to the inability to regulate and manage one’s behavior, to imagine the consequences of actions taken, to the inability to subsequently remember individual episodes of one’s behavior and the development of events.

A special category, according to P.V. Yanshin, make up emotional states of the group, which consist of the state of all its members, taking into account the influence of intragroup processes. The emotional state of a group is a characteristic of intragroup relationships, the socio-psychological climate of the group, the emotional unity of the group, group cohesion and other socio-psychological phenomena.

Emotional states depend on many factors, both external and internal. The following factors are distinguished: changes occurring in the surrounding nature, in society, in the person himself (in his body); the influence of individual characteristics of a person; the influence of previous emotional states; influence of another person; information content.

A special mental condition is depression. This is a mental state of strong emotional depression, despondency, accompanied by

a sharp decrease in a person’s internal (mental) and external (behavioral) activity. In a state of depression, a person feels powerless and helpless to do anything in order to get out of this state (current situation). Depression can be understood as a normal, relatively short-lived and common condition in many people. It can be caused by various reasons: life’s troubles, fatigue, illness, etc. If in a person’s condition the symptoms indicated above manifest themselves most clearly and are long-lasting, taking on a chronic form, then such depression is already understood as a neuropsychic disorder.

altered states of consciousness(ISS), little studied by modern science. ASCs arise when the personality of a person in a normal state of consciousness is exposed to various factors: stressful, affectogenic situations; sensory deprivation or prolonged isolation; intoxication; changes in breathing; acute mental illness; in cognitive-conflict situations containing paradoxical sayings and instructions that are not feasible in the logic of the usual state of consciousness; in hypnosis and meditation, etc. V.V. Kucherenko, V.F. Petrenko, A.V. Rossokhin is classified as a hypnotic ASC,

trance, meditative states.

A common phenomenon of ASC is loss of the sense of personality boundaries, impaired perception of the body, its proportions, as well as impaired perception of time. Subjectively, it can speed up, slow down, and effects of moving into the past and future can occur.

According to the classification proposed by S. Kardash, ASCs are divided into expanded (RSS) and narrowed (SSS). RSS is accompanied by an expansion of the field of conscious attention. These include the state of hyper-waking and insight, transpersonal experiences.

A characteristic of CVS is a narrowing of the visual field, the so-called tunnel vision.

The main way to organize effective and optimal human life is the regulation of mental states, which can be carried out using different methods (methods). G.Sh. Gabdreeva identifies three groups of methods for regulating mental states: methods of direct regulation, methods of indirect influence and methods of self-management of mental states.

1. Direct regulation methods mental states:

– Use of pharmacological agents, so-called psychotropic drugs. They are used to correct the emotional states of healthy people, but their use leads to undesirable consequences: addiction to the drug, disruption of adequate human emotional reactions, excessive agitation or drowsiness. With long-term use, changes in personality structure are likely.

– Functional music. Music itself does not carry specific information, but its influence on the emotional sphere is enormous, which gives reason to use music as a therapeutic agent. It has been experimentally established that music can influence the cardiovascular, respiratory, and nervous systems; it increases the sensitivity of peripheral vision, changes muscle tone, a person’s mood, and increases his performance.

– Reading fiction.Bibliotherapy is a method of psychotherapy proposed by V.M. Bekhterev. Research by I.P. Pavlova, K.I. Platonov showed the enormous impact of spoken and read words on a person. While reading, a person is drawn into the world created by the writer, becomes, as it were, a participant in events, rejoices, worries, admires, laughs, thinks, worries, forgetting about his own difficulties and sorrows.

2. Methods of indirect influence for mental state:

– Occupational therapy. Work is a source of positive emotions, creates a cheerful mood, keeps a person in good shape, strengthens will and character, develops moral qualities, and distracts from obsessive thoughts and feelings. Labor is the main condition for human longevity.

– Imitation games(role-playing, business). They allow you to change the structure of your personality by forming certain character traits. The participant is asked to play the role of the kind of person he would like to be (a shy person becomes more sociable, an insecure person becomes more confident, etc.). “Game” behavior gradually becomes more and more prolonged, is transferred to ordinary spheres of communication and activity, and turns into habitual and natural human behavior.

3. Methods of self-management of mental state.These methods are based on suggestion and self-hypnosis. Suggestion - mental influence, which is carried out with a reduced degree of awareness and criticality with the help of speech and non-speech means and is characterized by little argumentation. Suggestion becomes an internal attitude that directs, regulates and stimulates mental and physical activity. The specific method of influence is self-hypnosis or autosuggestion (self-explanation, self-persuasion, self-command, etc.). A person’s ability to self-influence was substantiated in the study of the brain and its activity. Through self-hypnosis and suggestion, you can achieve objectively recorded changes in the body (the composition of the blood changes, etc.). With significant training, you can learn to control many functions of your body. The principle of self-hypnosis underlies many methods of regulating states (E.S. Zharikov, 1990):

– Autogenic training– training conducted by the person himself. The method was developed by I. Schultz. Modifications of the method are used in clinical and sports psychology, in the psychology of extreme situations, in pedagogy and other areas.

– Total Rationalization Method an upcoming event that causes excitement, fear, anxiety, etc. It consists of repeatedly comprehending the event with such a degree of detail that the uncertainty of the situation is reduced, this creates a feeling of familiarity of the future situation and actions in future conditions.

– Ultimate Mental Amplification Methodpossibility of failure.

Strengthening a negative experience (fear, anxiety) to the maximum possible extent, as a result of which it disappears, and in a real situation the person does not experience negative emotions.

– Sense of humor. It is an emotional response that turns a potentially negative emotion into its opposite, a source of positive emotion. The function of humor is also to provide satisfactory well-being in an unsatisfactory situation. The ability to see the funny in something that, at first glance, is not funny is a powerful means of maintaining the psyche in a balanced state, regardless of the difficulties that a person has to endure.

– Objectification of stress. The essence of the method is the ability to distinguish failures from catastrophes, turmoil from misfortune, personal failure from the collapse of all life plans, etc. This is the ability to objectively evaluate what in the first expression seems catastrophic.

– Re-evaluating what you couldn't achieve. This is a way to downplay the significance of the loss by reducing the value of what the person strived for. Small losses are easier to bear than large ones. Often this mechanism works automatically, but sometimes it is necessary to teach a person to reduce the value of the loss to tolerable.

Questions and tasks for self-test

1. What is a mental state?

2. How do the concepts of “mental processes”, “mental states” and “mental properties” relate?

3. What are the differences between mental states and mental

properties?

4. What types of psychological states do you know?

5. What are the functions of mental states? Give examples of manifestations of the adaptation function.

6. What types of mental states do you know?

7. What is the difference between the concepts of “stress” and “frustration”?

8. What is the structure of the mental state?

9. What methods of regulating mental states do you know?

10. Which ones do you use in your life? What is their effectiveness?

Basic literature

1. Maklakov, A. G. General psychology [Text]: textbook for students. universities and students of psychology courses. disciplines / A. G. Maklakov. – St. Petersburg. : Peter, 2010. – 583 p.

2. Psychology [Text]: textbook. in the discipline “Psychology” of the cycle “General professional disciplines” for students. higher textbook institutions, educational according to ped. specialist. / ed. B.A. Sosnovsky. – M.: Yurayt, 2010. – 660 p.

3. Psychology [Text]: textbook. for humanities universities / ed. V. N. Druzhinina. – 2nd ed. – St. Petersburg. : Peter, 2009. – 656 p.

Classification of mental states

The scientific study of any phenomenon begins with a description of its specific manifestations and generalization of such data, i.e. classifications. The need to classify the phenomenon being studied is a kind of ordering of the various facts of the manifestation of the phenomenon being studied, on the basis of which it becomes possible to identify the general provisions of its existence - structure, functions, component composition. Only on the basis of identifying general provisions can the problem of the principles and mechanisms of the occurrence of mental states be solved. The idea of the mechanism of existence of the phenomenon provides a methodological basis for its experimental study. We will sequentially consider the issues of classification, structure and functions of the mental state.

N.D. Levitov notes that any sign can be used as the basis for the classification of mental states. At the same time, he notes that there are no “pure” states; we can talk about the predominance of one or another mental phenomenon in the state. However, it is not always possible to determine the dominance of one component. Mono-states and poly-states are distinguished: the first are characterized by one or two manifestations of the psyche that are dominant at the moment - affective states (fear, anger, envy), intellectual (doubts, thoughtfulness); the latter are characterized by complex multicomponent content (responsibility, fatigue).

Mental states are distinguished by duration: operational, lasting seconds minutes; current - hours days and long-term - weeks, months and even years.

Mental states of normal and pathological are distinguished. The first are characterized by unity, balance, subordination, repeatability of structural characteristics, adequacy of mental reflection and regulation. Such states are considered harmonic. Violations in the listed characteristics lead to disruption of the function of reflection and regulation, inharmonious functioning of the psyche and, as a result, provoke the development of pathological mental states. Borderline mental states are also distinguished: neuroses, psychopathy.

From the point of view of influence on the results of activity, mental states are also divided into two groups - positive and negative.

Typical positive mental states of a person can be divided into states related to everyday life and states related to the leading type of human activity (for an adult, this is training or professional activity).

Typically positive states of everyday life are joy, happiness, love and many other states that have a strong positive connotation. In educational or professional activities, these are interest (in the subject being studied or the subject of work activity), creative inspiration, determination, etc. The state of interest creates motivation for the successful implementation of activities, which, in turn, leads to working on the subject with maximum activity, full dedication of strength, knowledge, full disclosure of abilities. The state of creative inspiration is a complex complex of intellectual and emotional components. It enhances concentration on the subject of activity, increases the activity of the subject, sharpens perception, enhances imagination, and stimulates productive (creative) thinking. Decisiveness in this context is understood as a state of readiness to make a decision and carry it out. But this is in no way haste or thoughtlessness, but, on the contrary, balance, readiness to mobilize higher mental functions, actualize life and professional experience.

Typically negative mental states include both states that are polar to typically positive ones (grief, hatred, indecision) and special forms of states. The latter include stress, frustration, and tension.

Under stress refers to the reaction to any extreme negative impact. Strictly speaking, stress can be not only negative, but also positive - a state caused by a powerful positive impact is similar in its manifestations to negative stress.

Frustration– a condition close to stress, but this is a milder and more specific form of it. The specificity of frustration lies in the fact that it is a reaction only to a special kind of situation. In general, we can say that these are situations of “deceived expectations” (hence the name). Frustration is the experience of negative emotional states when, on the way to satisfying a need, the subject encounters unexpected obstacles that can be more or less eliminated.

Mental tension– another typically negative condition. It arises as a reaction to a personally difficult situation. Such situations can be caused by each individually or by a combination of the following factors.

A number of classifications of mental states are based on identifying: levels of activation of the reticular formation; levels of mental activity of consciousness. It has been shown that the intensity of functioning of the reticular formation is closely related to the level of consciousness and productivity of activity. According to the indicators of consciousness activity, the following are distinguished: a state of altered consciousness; state of increased mental activity; state of average (optimal) mental activity; states of decreased mental activity; states of transition from activity (wakefulness) to sleep; sleep with dreams (waking sleep); deep sleep (slow sleep); loss of consciousness. Based on the identified levels of consciousness, qualitative classifications of mental states are proposed.

At the level of optimal mental activity, full consciousness is observed, characterized by concentrated, selective, easily switching attention and high productivity of mnemonic processes. When deviating from this level in one direction or another, consciousness is limited due to narrowing of attention and deterioration of mnemonic functions, and the principle of harmonious functioning of the psyche is violated. Pathological conditions do not have a level of average activity; all mental disorders occur, as a rule, against the background of a significant deviation of activity from the individually optimal level towards a decrease or increase. Altered states of consciousness are also characterized by a significant deviation from the individual optimum level of activity and arise when the individual is exposed to various factors: stressful; affectogenic; neurotic and psychotic diseases; hypnotic; meditation.

Based on the idea of the level of mental activity, states are divided into relatively equilibrium (stable), having an average (optimal) level of mental activity, and nonequilibrium (unstable) states, characterized by a correspondingly higher or lower level of activity relative to the average level. The former are manifested in predictable behavior, high productivity, and comfortable experiences. The latter arise in special conditions of life (in critical, complex and difficult periods and situations), sometimes causing the development of borderline and pathological conditions.

According to the predominance (severity) of one of the characteristics of a mental state, it is proposed to divide states into classes: a class of states distinguished by activation characteristics - excitement, inspiration, active state, state of lethargy, apathy; class of states distinguished by tonic characteristics - wakefulness, fatigue, sleep, terminal state; a class of states distinguished by tension characteristics - a state of contemplation, monotony, stress, frustration, pre-launch fever; a class of states distinguished by emotional characteristics - euphoria, satisfaction, anxiety, fear, panic; the class of states according to the level of activity is the state of mobilization - insufficient, adequate, excessive; class of depressive states; class of asthenic conditions.

As you can see, all classifications are based on certain manifestations of a person’s mental state. Summarizing the provisions of different classifications, we highlight the main thing:

level of nervous system activation
level of consciousness activity
predominant response to a situation
stability instability of states
short duration of states
positive negative influence on the activity of states
normality and pathological conditions.

Since the mental state is considered an integral mental phenomenon, moreover, it is singled out as a category of mental phenomena, it is necessary to resolve questions about its structural and functional (systemic) organization. These are questions of theory and methodology of the problem of mental states. Conceptual approaches to both understanding and diagnosing mental states largely depend on the solution to these issues. An analysis of literary sources indicates a fairly diverse interpretation of the structure and functions of the mental state.

According to some researchers, the structure of a mental state includes the purpose of an activity, the characteristics of a person’s orientation, a person’s assessment of a given situation, anticipation of the result of an activity, general tension, a general functional level, the ratio of dominant and inhibited mental components and their organization in a given structure. It is noted that the same structure of the mental state may change depending on the situation. The structure of mental states also includes affective, cognitive, volitional and mnemonic components, motivational, emotional, and activation processes. Such examples can be continued further. The above statements give reason to conclude that the structure of an integral system phenomenon can change in the process of functioning, and also that the structure is a set of components or processes of a system phenomenon.

If we turn to the provisions of systems theory and regulation theory, then the structural basis of a self-governing system is understood as the energy and information components that ensure the vital activity of the biological system. In classical reliability theory, as well as in engineering psychological theories of human operator reliability the structural basis is understood as that elemental composition without which the existence of an object or human activity under given conditions is fundamentally impossible, i.e. this is what is necessary for the existence of an object, including the ability for a human operator to perform activities. PC. Anokhin has repeatedly emphasized that the goal of a functional system at a specific point in time can change the qualitative originality of the connection (i.e., information interaction) between structural elements and this can lead to a change in the functions of structural elements in a given situation, but the structure of the system remains unchanged.

This position, in fact, is expressed by many researchers who address the problem of mental states. The mental state includes indicators of mental processes, physiological reactions, experiences and behavior. The inseparability of experiences and physiological changes in the body is emphasized. The psychological and physiological aspects of the mental state are considered components of the same phenomenon. Let us cite the statements of the authors, whose positions allow us to formulate the main provisions of the structure of the mental state.

E.P. Ilyin, defining a state as a systemic reaction, includes in the structure three levels of regulation that form a functional system: mental - experiences; physiological - somatics and autonomics and third - human behavior. The state as a holistic reaction of the individual in a specific situation is associated with the formation of a certain functional system, including experiences, humoral regulation from the endocrine and autonomic nervous systems and motor levels.

T.A. Nemchin distinguishes two blocks in the structure of the mental state – informational and energy. Information about the disposition of the individual and the parameters of the expected (needed) result stimulates brain structures that trigger activation processes of somatic regulation and provide the energetic basis for adaptation and adaptation to the situation.

V.A. Hansen identifies three structural elements in the description of a mental state - level, subjectivity, objectivity and degree of generalization. The first element of the structure implies levels of organization of the functioning of the human somatics and psyche: physiological (includes neurophysiological, morphological and biochemical changes, shifts in physiological functions); psychophysiological (these are vegetative reactions, changes in psychomotor and sensory skills); psychological (features of mental functions and mood); social psychological (characteristics of behavior, activity, attitude and consciousness are considered here). The second element of the structure reveals the presence of subjective and objective sides of the mental state: subjective - experiences, objective - everything that is recorded by the researcher. The third element is formed by three groups of characteristics - general, special and individual manifestations of personality in a specific situation.

A.O. Prokhorov raises the question of differences in the structural and functional organization of short-term and long-term mental states, but “the complexes of energy components allow us to talk about a single energy-informational structure of states.” The fundamental difference lies in the level of the energy component of the state. In the case of short-term states - high energy potential and maintenance of high activity and efficiency of all subsystems of the integral human organization when carrying out purposeful activities. In long-term conditions, there is a low level of the energy component, which is characterized by complexes of passivity, heaviness, intense emotions, and a low level of mental activity.

Thus, energy and information components should be distinguished as the basic basis of the structure of a mental state. The information component is the processes of subjective reflection of reality. The energy component is a combination of biochemical and physiological processes in the body. The process of an individual’s adaptive reaction to changes in external or internal conditions consists in the functional interaction of the levels of functioning of the somatics and psyche of a person - biochemical, physiological, mental, social psychological, the functional interaction of which constitutes the structure of the mental state. Let us recall the position of V.N. Myasishchev. The level of activation of the central nervous system, the consequence of which is the “level of activity and passivity of neuropsychic activity,” is an objective component of the mental state. The second component is the attitude of the subject, expressed in a person’s experiences associated with objects or features of the situation.

Issues of structure and function are closely interrelated. This is the basis for organizing the functioning of any holistic phenomenon. The psychological literature gives an extremely wide list of functions of the mental state and raises the question of the “multifunctionality of the mental state.” Different authors call the following functions: regulation or regulatory; integration of mental processes and psychological properties; differentiation of mental states; reflection and organization of mental processes and the formation of personality traits; replacing lack of information; organizing and disorganizing; orientation in the environment; assessing the degree of coincidence between the results obtained and the goals of the activity; coordination of needs and aspirations with the capabilities and resources of the individual; balancing a person with the external environment and, as V.A. writes. Hansen, “etc.” Indeed, the list goes on.

One important conclusion can be drawn from the above list. The role and significance of the mental state in the functioning of the somatics and psyche, behavior, activity and vital activity of a person is extremely great. Let us turn to the provisions of systems theory. The psyche as a whole is a functional system. If in such a system categories of mental phenomena are distinguished, then they are considered structural elements of the system. In this case, each category must perform its own functions that are not reducible to the functions of other categories.

Without going into an analysis of which of the listed functions can be performed by one of the three categories of mental phenomena, let’s try to answer the question: which function cannot be performed by mental processes and mental properties? And such a function turns out to be “balancing” a person with a constantly changing external environment. It should be noted that a number of authors, when raising the question of the functions of the mental state, highlight the main one, and it is the balancing function that is called this. The function of balancing is to actively organize the process of human interaction with specific objective conditions. Balance is the preservation of the nature of the dynamics and interaction of the subsystems of the psyche and soma in the time intervals between two successive changes in the environment that are significant for the subject. The balance of the subject with the social and subject environment ensures the adequacy of regulatory processes. And further, the authors conclude that, depending on the situation and personal meaning, the balancing function can be realized in the integration or disintegration of the psyche and somatics, activation or inhibition of mental activity, development or self-preservation.

The main principle of the existence of living organisms is the principle of self-preservation, which consists in preserving oneself as a whole, as a representative of the species in development (the principle of activity). The main mechanism is to minimize energy costs for equilibrium interaction with the surrounding reality. At each moment of time, energy expenditure is the implementation of a certain degree of functionality. It turns out that, depending on the degree of realization of functional capabilities, the balancing function is realized in the adequacy of adaptation (integration), inadequacy (disintegration), an increase or decrease in mental activity, etc.

In conclusion, we provide a definition of a mental state as a category of mental phenomena. Mental state is the result of a holistic adaptive reaction of the individual in response to changes in external and internal conditions, aimed at achieving a useful result, manifested in experiences and the degree of mobilization of a person’s functional capabilities.

Mental state and activity

Applied aspects of the problem of mental states include research, psychological support and support of human activity. The main research task is to assess the mental state, how and in what way the mental state “connects” the mental processes and mental properties of a person in achieving the set goal of the activity.

Based on their influence on the results of activities, mental states are divided into two groups – positive and negative. The first are associated with the processes of mobilization, the second - the demobilization of human functional capabilities. As already stated, the components of a mental state are the level of activation of the nervous system and experience. The level of activation is characterized, on the one hand, by the ratio of excitation and inhibition processes in the cerebral cortex, on the other, by functional asymmetry, inequality of activation of the left (activity or productive activation) and right (emotional activation) hemispheres. An integral manifestation of experiences in situations of activity is a feeling of confidence and uncertainty in achieving the set goal. At the same time, each person has his own individual set of experiences that accompany success or hinder the achievement of a goal.

Each of us is characterized by our own “background” level of activation, the registration of which is also not an easy matter. A person should be in comfortable conditions, rested and not burdened with any worries, i.e. in a situation where there is no need to adapt to it. Experts call this state a state of relaxation. In a specific situation, the level of activation differs from the background level. This is predetermined by the significance of the situation (motivational factor) and the assessment of the difficulty of achieving the goal (cognitive-emotional factor). Research shows that in significant situations of activity there is always a predominance of emotional activation - right-sided asymmetry, which up to a certain limit helps to increase the effectiveness of activity, but when this limit is exceeded, it inhibits productive activation and leads to a decrease in performance. In sports practice, pre-start states are divided into three categories (in occupational psychology, these same categories are considered as pre-work states):

state of mobilization readiness - the mental state is adequate to the situation in terms of the level of activation and the athlete’s experiences are concentrated on the process of performing the activity;
state of pre-race fever - the mental state is characterized by excessive excitement and a significant excess of emotional activation, experiences are characterized by chaos, the athlete cannot concentrate on one thing, various extraneous thoughts come;
state of pre-launch apathy - a mental state is characterized by a level of activation significantly lower than the state of mobilization readiness (as a rule, this is associated with the process of overexcitation and the activation of the mechanism of extreme inhibition, but cases of functional exhaustion are also possible), experiences are most often associated with loss of interest and desire for what -either do.

It should be added that the described states are characteristic not only of pre-work situations; these same states are also observed during the performance of activities. The development of a particular condition depends on a person’s personal characteristics, but is largely determined by the ability to manage one’s emotions. Even the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin, wrote “in the struggle of equals, the psyche wins.” When selecting for extreme activities, emotional stability is of great importance, and in the process of professional training, the formation of mental self-regulation skills.

Mental states that arise in the process of activity are called states mental tension. Any deviation from the state of relaxation requires additional energy expenditure and tension in the human mental sphere. There are two categories of states of mental tension - compensated and uncompensated. Both are characterized by the expenditure of functional resources in the process of performing activities. But the former differ from the latter in that after completing the activity, a restoration of “mental freshness” is observed. At the same time, there is a category of types of production activities in which psychological fatigue accumulates, for example, air traffic controllers, sports coaches, etc. Such types of activities are associated with the development of mental satiety and (or) mental burnout, and can lead to somatic and mental disorders. This process can develop, accumulate over years, or may be associated with a specific situation. The author of this section knows enough cases of both conditions. For example, mental burnout: a rescuer from the Ministry of Emergency Situations has been “in the situation of rescuing a person from a rubble” for almost six months; The outstanding track and field athlete V. Borzov, who won three Olympic gold medals for the first time in the world, could not see elements of sports paraphernalia for a year and a half. In both cases, this again caused them to experience “that” situation. An example of mental satiety: a successful businessman who works 12–16 hours a week, seven days a week, complains of loss of interest, the inability to quickly resolve emerging issues, but not so long ago it was interesting, and everything was done by itself; In sports, very often monotonous training work leads to this state. In such cases, while maintaining the skills to perform the activity, there is a decrease in the ability to concentrate on the situation and a loss of professionally important qualities.

Today, within the framework of psychological support and psychological support of activities, issues of diagnosing mental states, determining optimal individual “working” states, and preventing the development of unfavorable mental states are being resolved.

Emotional sphere of personality

Before considering emotions, we should dwell on the concepts of reflex and instinct. A reflex is the simplest form of behavior and is directly related to a stimulus. Some reflexes die off as the nervous system matures, while others serve a person throughout his life. A reflex is an automatic response to a stimulus without prior cognitive (consciousness-related) evaluation. Psychologists believe that a person has a relatively small number of reflexes.

A more complex form of behavior is instincts. They are generated by hormonal processes in the body and are a standard reaction with which the body responds to a certain stimulus. A reflex reaction is always carried out entirely to its logical conclusion, and the sequence of instinctive actions can be interrupted and changed. It must be assumed that some kind of cognitive evaluation is involved in instinctive behavior.

Instincts are especially developed in animals, to a lesser extent in humans. Most psychologists today are inclined to believe that humans do not have instincts similar to those characteristic of animals.

One of the famous psychologists at the beginning of the last century (1908, Magdgal) believed that instincts are also inherent in humans, but in a slightly different understanding of the process: every animal instinct in human behavior corresponds to a certain emotion that carries an instinct-like incentive charge. The conclusion follows from his theory: the role of reflexes and instincts in the life of animals is similar to the role of emotions in human life. But emotions at the same time do not directly determine human behavior. They are just a factor influencing his behavioral tendencies.

Human behavior is determined not only by the action of elementary needs, called physiological drives (hunger, thirst, sexual desire, the desire to avoid pain). In favorable environmental conditions, which today concern more than 2/3 of individuals in industrialized countries, when satisfying these needs is not overwhelming work, drives do not manifest themselves as motives. Today, such concepts as value, purpose, courage, devotion, empathy, altruism, honor, pity, pride, conscience, sympathy, compassion and love have been included in human everyday life. These are universal values and they are based on emotions. They are values because we are not indifferent to them. In order to appreciate something, you need to relate to it emotionally: love, joy, interest or pride.

In psychology, emotional processes are understood as processes that have both mental and physiological components, which stand out from other psychophysiological processes in that they reflect the meaning of something for the subject, and regulate his behavior, thinking and even perception in a manner appropriate to this meaning. Therefore, the most essential characteristic of emotions is their subjectivity. In consciousness, emotional processes are represented in the form of various experiences. For example, fear. In addition to the obvious mental component, it also has a pronounced physiological component (increased adrenaline secretion, sweating, slowdown of digestive processes). Fear reflects the real or imaginary danger of something for the subject, and also prepares the body for activities aimed at avoiding danger (sensations become heightened, blood flow to the muscles increases). At the same time, for example, stress, which is also a psychophysiological process, appears under any influence, regardless of its significance for the subject, and therefore does not relate to emotional processes.

In humans, emotions give rise to experiences of pleasure, displeasure, fear, timidity, and the like, which play the role of orienting subjective signals. A way to assess the presence of subjective experiences (since they are subjective) in animals by scientific methods has not yet been found. In this context, it is important to understand that emotion itself can, but does not have to, give rise to such an experience, and comes down precisely to the process of internal regulation of activity.

The word “emotion” itself comes from the Latin “emovere”, which means to excite, excite, shock. Emotions are closely related to needs, since, as a rule, when needs are satisfied, a person experiences positive emotions and, conversely, when it is impossible to get what he wants, negative emotions.

Research convincingly proves that fundamental emotions are provided by innate neural programs, and a person, growing up, learns to manage innate emotionality, transforming it.

For many years, scientists contrasted emotions and processes associated with the knowledge of the surrounding reality, considering emotions to be a phenomenon inherited from our distant animal ancestors. Today it is generally accepted that the structure of emotions includes not only a subjective component, i.e. a reflection of a person’s state, but also a cognitive component - a reflection of objects and phenomena that have a certain meaning for the needs, goals and motives of a person experiencing emotions. This implies a double conditionality of emotions - on the one hand, by the needs of a person, which determine his attitude towards the object of emotions, and on the other, by his ability to reflect and understand certain properties of this object.

A fundamental principle of human behavior is that emotions energize and organize thinking and activity, but not haphazardly: a specific emotion motivates a person to a specific activity. Emotions influence our perception, what and how we see and hear.

Each emotion is unique in its sources, experiences, external manifestations and methods of regulation. From our experience we know how rich the repertoire of human emotions is. It includes a whole palette of different emotional phenomena. It can be said that man is the most emotional of living beings; he has highly differentiated means of external expression of emotions and a wide variety of internal experiences.

There are many classifications of emotions. The most obvious division of emotions into positive and negative. Using the criterion of mobilizing the body's resources, sthenic and asthenic emotions are distinguished (from the Greek “stenos” - strength). Thenic emotions increase activity, causing a surge of energy and uplift, while asthenic emotions act in the opposite way. According to needs, lower emotions associated with the satisfaction of organic needs, the so-called general sensations (hunger, thirst, etc.), are distinguished from higher emotions (feelings), socially determined, associated with social relations.

Based on the strength and duration of manifestations, several types of emotions are distinguished: affects, passions, emotions themselves, moods, feelings and stress.

Affect- the most powerful emotional reaction that completely captures the human psyche. Usually occurs in extreme conditions when a person cannot cope with the situation. The distinctive features of affect are situational, generalized, short duration and high intensity. The whole body is mobilized, movements are impulsive. Affect is practically uncontrollable and is not subject to volitional control.

Emotions in the narrow sense are situational in nature, expressing an evaluative attitude towards developing or possible situations. Emotions themselves can be weakly manifested in external behavior; if a person skillfully hides his emotions, then it is generally difficult to guess what he is experiencing.

Feelings– the most stable emotional states. They are substantive in nature. It's always a feeling for something, for someone. They are sometimes called “higher” emotions because they arise when higher-order needs are satisfied.

Passion- this is a strong, persistent, long-lasting feeling that captures a person and owns him. In strength it is close to affect, and in duration - to feelings.

Moods is a state that colors our feelings, our general emotional state, for a significant period of time. Unlike emotions and feelings, mood is not objective, but personal; it is not situational, but extended over time.

Let's give examples.

Emotions: Anxiety, Pain, Fear, Anger, Pride, Sadness, Frustration, Confusion, Schadenfreude, Amazement, Metanoia, Hope, Tension, Uncertainty, Nostalgia, Sadness, Loneliness, Hurt, Despair, Sadness, Joy, Boredom, Happiness, Regret, Longing, Anxiety, Infatuation, Surprise, Satisfaction, Pleasure, Humiliation, Frustration, Euphoria, Enthusiasm

Feelings: Agape (represents a form of selfless love associated with concern for the well-being of others), Ambivalence, Antipathy, Gratitude, Reverence, Guilt, Attraction, Infatuation, Hostility, Resentment, Pity, Envy, Love, Tenderness, Hatred, Rejection, Interest, Contempt, Disdain, Affection, Irritation, Disappointment, Repentance, Jealousy, Sympathy, Sorrow, Storge, Passion, Fear, Shame, Trembling, Philia

Affects: Fear, Panic, Horror, Euphoria, Ecstasy, Rage

Moods: Boredom, Dejection.

Emotions and feelings are included in all mental processes and states of a person. All mental states are caused, maintained and regulated by emotions. Any manifestations of personality activity are accompanied by emotional experiences.

In light of the division of mental phenomena into processes, properties and states, the following division can be used:

emotions (process)
feelings (properties)
mood (state)

In general, due to the lack of a clear understanding of the mechanisms of the flow of emotions, there remains a strong tendency to consider emotions not as a process, but as a state. Conventionally, a single emotional process can be designated by the term “emotional state.” It can last from a few seconds to several hours. In exceptional cases, it may persist longer than the specified period, but in this case it may be evidence of mental disorders.

In addition to changes occurring in the nervous, endocrine and other systems of the body, emotions are expressed in the expressive behavior of a person. Currently, the main experimental study of emotions consists of studying the expressive component of emotions: facial expressions, pantomimes, intonation, etc.

Emotions are manifested in so-called expressive movements (facial expressions - expressive movements of the face; pantomime - expressive movements of the whole body and “vocal facial expressions” - expression of emotions in the intonation and timbre of the voice).

A number of emotional states are clearly differentiated both in terms of external objective signs and in terms of the quality of subjective experiences. General characteristics of emotions formed the basis for the creation of a number of scales of emotional states.

However, the topic of human emotions remains one of the most mysterious areas of psychology. The difficulty of scientific research of emotions is associated with the high level of subjectivity of their manifestations. We can say that emotions are the most psychological of all identified processes.

There is no consensus among scientists dealing with the problem of emotions regarding the question of their role in the implementation of life processes. Even in the times of ancient philosophy, opinions were expressed both about the disturbing, disorganizing influence of emotions on behavior, and about the fact that they represent the most important stimulating and mobilizing effect.

Today it is customary to distinguish several main functions of emotions: adaptive, signaling, evaluative, regulatory and communicative. Emotions reflect the significance and assessment of various situations by a person, so the same stimuli can cause very different reactions in different people. It is in emotional manifestations that the depth of a person’s inner life is expressed. Personality is largely formed under the influence of lived experiences. Emotional reactions, in turn, are determined by the individual characteristics of a person’s emotional sphere.

Without emotional manifestations it is difficult to imagine any interaction between people, therefore one of the most important is the communicative function of emotions. By expressing his emotions, a person shows his attitude to reality and, above all, to other people. Mimic and pantomimic expressive movements allow a person to convey his experiences to other people, inform them about his attitude towards phenomena, objects, etc. Facial expressions, gestures, postures, expressive sighs, changes in intonation are the “language” of human feelings, a means of communicating not so much thoughts as emotions.

Psychological studies have shown that a person receives most of the information in the process of communication using non-verbal means of communication. With the help of the verbal (verbal) component, a person transmits a small percentage of information, but the main burden in conveying meaning lies on the so-called “extra-linguistic” means of communication.

For a long time, expressive movements were considered only as an external accompaniment of experience, where the movement itself acted as something accompanying emotional experiences.

One of the earliest approaches to understanding the role of expressive movements was proposed by W. James and K. Lange, who formulated the so-called peripheral theory of emotions. They believed that emotions are caused only by peripheral changes and, in fact, are reduced to them. In their opinion, the expression of emotions is a purely reflexive reaction that causes changes in the body, and only their subsequent awareness constitutes the emotion itself. They reduced emotions exclusively to peripheral reactions and, in connection with this, turned conscious processes of a central nature into a secondary act that follows the emotion, but is not included in it and does not determine it.

However, expressive movements are a component of emotions, the external form of their existence or manifestation. Expressive movement and emotional experience form a unity, interpenetrating each other. Therefore, expressive movements and actions create the image of the character, revealing his inner content in the external action.

Charles Darwin made an important step in understanding the nature of the expression of emotions by applying biological and social approaches to their study. Charles Darwin's research, systematized in his work “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals,” led him to the conviction that many manifestations of emotions in gestures and facial expressions are the result of the evolutionary process. He discovered that the muscle movements with which a person expresses his emotions are very similar and originated from similar motor acts of our ancestors - monkeys.

Modern researchers agree with Charles Darwin that facial expressions arose in the evolutionary process and perform an important adaptive function.

Almost from the first minutes of life, the baby shows emotional reactions. The presence of identical emotional expressions in blind and sighted children confirmed the fact of a genetic component in emotional manifestations.

Studies of the behavior of people belonging to different cultures have found that in the sphere of expression of emotions there are both universal types of reactions and specific to individual cultures.

Functions of emotions. In modern psychology, several main functions of emotions are distinguished: signaling, evaluative, adaptive, regulatory, communicative, stabilizing, motivating.

Signaling (information) function of emotions. The emergence of emotions and feelings informs how the process of satisfying the subject's needs is going on.

Evaluative function of emotions. Emotion acts as a generalized assessment of the situation in which the subject finds himself. Emotions and feelings help him navigate the surrounding reality, evaluate objects and phenomena from the point of view of their desirability or undesirability, usefulness or harmfulness.

Adaptive function of emotions. Thanks to a timely emotion, the subject has the opportunity to quickly react to external or internal influences and expediently adapt to the current conditions.

Regulatory function of emotions arises on the basis of the information-signaling function. Reflecting and assessing reality, emotions and feelings direct the subject’s behavior in a certain direction and contribute to the manifestation of certain reactions.

Communicative function of emotions indicates that without emotional manifestations it is difficult to imagine any interaction between people. Expressing emotions through feelings, a person shows his attitude to reality and to other people in expressive movements (gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, voice intonation). By demonstrating his experiences, one person influences the emotional sphere of another person, causing him to respond with emotions and feelings.

Stabilizing (protective) function of emotions. Emotions are a regulator of behavior that keeps life processes within the optimal boundaries of satisfying needs and prevents the destructive nature of any factors for the life activity of a given subject.

Motivating function of emotions. Emotions (fear, surprise, anxiety, etc.), informing us about the nature of the influences of the external environment, encourage us to take certain actions.

Recognizing emotions from facial expressions

Full communication between people is impossible without understanding, mutual influence, and mutual evaluation of each other. In any interaction between people, first of all, it is necessary to have a correct understanding of the other person’s reactions, and possession of means that allow one to distinguish between the properties and states of partners.

All human relationships are based on emotions, and emotions are detected by others mainly through external expressions. Facial expression is central to expressive behavior. The face as a channel of nonverbal communication is the leading means of communication, conveying the emotional and meaningful subtext of speech messages; it serves as a regulator of the very procedure of communication between partners

If, in the words of Darwin, “expression is the language of emotion,” then the movement of the facial muscles can be considered the alphabet of this language. V. M. Bekhterev also noted that, unlike pantomimic movements and gestures, facial expressions are always emotional and, first of all, are a reflection of the speaker’s feelings. Many scientists have observed that the complex play of facial muscles expresses the mental state of the subject more eloquently than words.

Interest in studying the face as a source of information about a person arose back in the days of Ancient Greece. This led to the creation of a whole science of the face, called physiognomy. Throughout the history of physiognomy from Aristotle to the present day, people have believed in the existence of a direct relationship between facial features and human character. With the help of various recommendations, everyone tried to penetrate the thoughts of the interlocutor, based on the features of the structure and facial expression.

However, to date, the dependence of a person’s character and his appearance (body structure, face) has not received convincing scientific confirmation. It is generally accepted that the human central nervous system plays a major role in expressive facial expressions. The connection between facial muscle contractions and the appearance of certain facial expressions has been experimentally confirmed. Experiments have shown that artificially induced facial changes after irritation of facial muscles using electrodes are similar to natural reactions that occur during certain emotions. Thus, human facial expressions are considered as a product of nervous activity, as a response to signals from the corresponding parts of the central nervous system. The connection of facial expression with the cerebral cortex allows a person to be aware of and direct his facial reactions, as a result of which human facial expressions have become the most important tool of communication.

The importance of facial activity compared to pantomimic activity in emotional communication increases with phylogenetic and ontogenetic development. In phylogeny, these changes parallel the evolution of facial muscles. Thus, invertebrates and lower vertebrates have no superficial facial muscles at all and their repertoire of emotions is minimal. Further development of facial muscles is observed in vertebrates, reaching a high level of development in higher primates.

Numerous studies have concluded that the neuromuscular mechanisms of the face necessary to perform basic facial expressions form a developmental sequence from higher primates to humans. Indeed, the higher the position of an animal in the evolutionary series, the more emotions it can show. By nature itself, the face has a special role in biocommunication.

It is known that facial expressions and gestures as elements of expressive behavior are one of the first systems acquired in childhood. The appearance of understandable gestures and facial expressions in a child without special training indicates that the ways of expressing emotions are genetically embedded in a person.

Scientists have found that all the facial muscles necessary to express various emotions are formed during the 15-18th week of embryogenesis, and changes in “facial expression” take place starting from the 20th week of embryonic development. Thus, both mechanisms by which faces are recognized as important categories of stimuli and themselves express certain emotions are already sufficiently formed by the time a person is born, although, of course, they differ in many ways in their ability to function from the face of an adult. In other words, facial expression of emotion is an important communication system that can function from birth.

Expressive expressions are partly innate and partly developed socially through imitation. One piece of evidence that some expressions of emotion are innate is that young children—blind and sighted—have the same facial expressions. For example, raising the eyebrows in surprise is an instinctive act and is also found in people born blind. However, with age, the facial expressions of sighted people become more expressive, while in those born blind it not only does not improve, but is smoothed out, which indicates its social regulation. Consequently, facial movements not only have a genetic determinant, but also depend on training and upbringing.

The development and improvement of facial expressions goes along with the development of the psyche, starting from infancy, and with the weakening of neuropsychic excitability in old age, facial expressions weaken, preserving the features that were most often repeated in life and therefore deeply embedded in the external appearance of the face.

Having acquired certain experience of communicating with people from early childhood, each person can, with varying degrees of reliability, determine the emotional states of others by their expressive movements and, above all, by their facial expressions.

It is known that a person can control his expressive movements, therefore, expressions of emotions are used by people in the process of communication, acting as non-verbal communication means. There are large differences between people in the ability to master emotional manifestations (from complete lack of mastery (with mental disorders) to perfection among talented actors).

Throughout life, a person develops a certain system of standards with the help of which he evaluates other people. Recent research in the field of emotion recognition has shown that a person’s ability to understand others is influenced by a number of factors: gender, age, personality, professional characteristics, as well as a person’s belonging to a particular culture.

A number of professions require a person to be able to manage his emotions and adequately determine the expressive movements of the people around him. Understanding other people's reactions and responding appropriately to them in collaborative settings is an integral part of success in many professions. The inability to come to an agreement, to understand another person, to enter into his position can lead to complete professional incompetence. This quality is especially important for people in whose professions communication plays an important role (for example, doctors, especially psychotherapists, managers, teachers, trainers, investigators, diplomats, social workers, managers, etc.). The ability to understand the numerous nuances of emotional manifestations and reproduce them is necessary for people who devote themselves to art (actors, artists, writers). Understanding and the ability to reproduce is the most important stage in training actors in the art of intonation, facial expressions, and gestures, the need for which was spoken by K. S. Stanislavsky.

Modern practice of psychological preparation of people for various types of activities, their social training, for example, with the help of various training programs, makes it possible to develop competence in communication skills, the most important component of which is people’s perception and understanding of each other.

Emotional Intelligence

The relationship between emotions and cognitive processes has long been of interest to psychologists; many experiments have been devoted to this issue, but this topic still remains the subject of great debate. Points of view vary from the complete reduction of emotions to cognitive processes (S. L. Rubinstein) to the recognition of the secondary nature of emotions in relation to cognition and strict dependence on the cognitive sphere. In addition, there are still traditions of separating emotions from the sphere of cognition, presenting emotions as an independent entity and contrasting emotional and cognitive processes.

According to P.V. Simonov, any emotion is primarily determined by information (cognitive) processes. If at the level of cognition we lack information about the possibility of satisfying a need, we experience negative emotions, and, conversely, the presence of the necessary information even at the level of anticipation gives a positive emotion.

For a long time, intelligence was reduced to a set of cognitive processes, and many people still associate this term only with the characteristics of the sphere of cognition. However, intelligence is a complex psychological concept that primarily emphasizes the integrating function of the psyche. One of the criteria for the development of intelligence is the success of a person’s adaptation to the surrounding reality. It is obvious that knowledge and erudition do not always determine success in life. It is much more important how a person feels in the world around him, how socially competent he is in communicating with people, how he is able to cope with negative emotions and maintain a positive tone in his mood. It was precisely such observations, confirmed by practical research, that led American scientists to introduce the independent psychological concept of “emotional intelligence” (hereinafter referred to as EI) and attempts to develop its measurement and assessment.

The new concept was proposed by P. Salovey (Yale University, USA) and D. Mayer (University of New Hampshire, USA) in the 90s. The most common definition of emotional intelligence includes:

1. Managing your emotions and the feelings of other people (reflexive regulation of emotions). It is emotion regulation, essential for emotional and intellectual development, which helps you remain open to positive and negative feelings; evoke emotions or distance themselves from them depending on the information content or usefulness of each specific emotion; tracking emotions towards oneself and others; managing the emotions of oneself and others, moderating negative emotions and maintaining positive ones without suppressing or exaggerating the information they may be delivering.

2. Understanding and analyzing emotions - the ability to understand complex emotions and emotional transitions, use emotional knowledge. Emotion understanding is the ability to categorize emotions and recognize connections between words and emotions; interpret meanings of emotions related to relationships; understand complex (ambivalent) feelings; be aware of the transitions from one emotion to another.

3. Facilitation of thinking - the ability to evoke a certain emotion and then control it. That is, emotions direct attention to important information; help with reasoning and “memory for feelings.” Changes in mood from optimistic to pessimistic are also influenced by emotions, and different emotional states help in different ways in specific approaches to solving problems.

4. Perception, identification of emotions (own and other people), expression of emotions. Represents the ability to identify emotions by physical condition, feelings and thoughts; identify the emotions of others through artwork, speech, sounds, appearance and behavior, and accurately express the emotions and needs associated with these feelings; differentiate true and false expressions of feelings.

The components of EI are arranged as they develop from easy to more complex (at the bottom - basic, and at the top - higher).

People with high emotional intelligence learn and master most of them faster.

Perceiving, appraising, and expressing emotions is a critical part of emotional intelligence. At this level, the development of EI is determined by how a person is able to identify emotional manifestations in himself and others, as well as through the perception of works of art, has the gift of adequate expression of emotions, is sensitive to manipulation, i.e. able to distinguish true emotions from feigned ones.

Emotional accompaniment of cognition processes describes how emotions influence people’s thinking and assessments of current events. In addition to the direction of information that is significant for a person, at the initial level, the ability to anticipate certain emotions develops, and the experience of emotional experiences appears. A person can imagine himself in the place of another, empathize and reproduce similar emotions in himself, thereby regulating his behavior in a given situation. According to the authors, this is the so-called “emotional theater of consciousness,” and the better it is developed in a person, the easier it is for him to choose alternative life approaches. This is followed by the development of the influence of emotions on the general assessment of the life situation. The general emotional mood largely determines the level of tasks that a person sets for himself, and, accordingly, is able to achieve. Emotions determine thought processes; for example, the predominance of deductive or inductive thinking depending on emotional states has been experimentally established. S. L. Rubinstein wrote about this: “...thought sometimes begins to be regulated by the desire to correspond with a subjective feeling, and not with objective reality... Emotional thinking, with a more or less passionate bias, selects arguments in favor of the desired decision.”

Understanding and analyzing emotions; application of emotional knowledge. First, the child learns to identify emotions, he develops concepts that describe certain emotional experiences. Throughout life, a person accumulates emotional knowledge, and his understanding of certain emotions increases. An emotionally mature person can already understand the existence of complex and contradictory experiences due to different circumstances. It is no longer surprising for him that the same feeling (for example, love) can be accompanied by a whole range of very different emotions (jealousy, anger, hatred, tenderness, etc.). At the next level of development of this component of EI, a person already knows and can predict the consequences of certain emotions (for example, that anger can turn into rage or guilt), which turns out to be especially important in interpersonal interaction.

The highest stage of development of EI lies in the conscious regulation of emotions. I.M. Sechenov also wrote that “it’s not a matter of fear, but the ability to manage fear.” A person should be open and tolerant of any emotions, regardless of whether they give him pleasure or not. From an early age, parents teach children to manage emotions, to be able to restrain their emotional manifestations (for example, irritation, tears, laughter, etc.). Children master, to one degree or another, control over emotions and learn to regulate them within socially acceptable norms. An emotionally mature person can direct the energy mobilized even through negative emotions into development that is beneficial to him (for example, getting angry before the start of a sports competition and using this energy to improve his results). Further development allows you to reflexively track emotions not only in yourself, but also in other people. The final part of this component of EI is associated with a high level of mastery of emotions, the ability to survive strong traumatic impacts, and get out of negative emotional states without exaggerating or downplaying the importance of their impact.

Higher feelings

Currently, there is no comprehensive generally accepted classification of feelings due to their enormous diversity and historical variability.

The most common existing classification identifies individual subtypes of feelings in accordance with specific areas of activity and spheres of social phenomena in which they manifest themselves.

A special group consists of the highest feelings, which contain all the richness of a person’s emotional relationship to social reality. Depending on the subject area to which they relate, higher feelings are divided into moral, aesthetic, intellectual and practical. Higher feelings have a number of characteristic features:

the greater degree of generality that they can achieve in their developed forms;
higher feelings are always associated with a more or less clear awareness of social norms relating to one or another aspect of reality.

Since the highest feelings reveal to a certain extent the attitude of a person as a whole to the world and to life, they are sometimes called worldview feelings.

Moral, or moral, are the feelings that a person experiences when perceiving the phenomena of reality and comparing these phenomena with the norms and categories of morality developed by society.

The object of moral feelings are social institutions and institutions, the state, human groups and individuals, life events, human relationships, the person himself as the object of his feelings, etc.

The question arises: can a feeling be considered moral only because it is directed at certain social institutions, human groups, and individuals? No, since the emergence of a moral feeling presupposes that a person has internalized moral norms and rules, that they appear in his consciousness as something to which he is obliged and cannot but obey.

Moral feelings include: a sense of duty, humanity, goodwill, love, friendship, sympathy.

Among moral feelings, moral and political feelings are sometimes distinguished separately as a manifestation of emotional relations to various social organizations and institutions, teams, the state as a whole, and the Motherland.

One of the most important features of moral feelings is their effective nature. They act as the motivating forces of many heroic deeds and sublime deeds.

Aesthetic feelings are a person’s emotional attitude to the beautiful or ugly in surrounding phenomena, objects, in people’s lives, in nature and in art.

The basis for the emergence of aesthetic feelings is a person’s ability to perceive the phenomena of the surrounding reality, guided not only by moral norms, but also by the principles of beauty. A person acquired this ability in the process of social development and social practice.

Aesthetic feelings are characterized by great diversity, complexity of the psychological picture, versatility and depth of impact on a person’s personality.

The subject of aesthetic feelings can be various phenomena of reality: human social life, nature, art in the broad sense of the word.

A person experiences especially deep emotions when perceiving the best works of fiction, music, drama, fine art and other forms of art. This is due to the fact that moral, intellectual, and practical feelings are specifically intertwined in these experiences. Aristotle noted the enormous positive impact that the perception of works of art has on a person’s mental and physiological state, calling this phenomenon “purification” (“catharsis”).

In addition to the experience of beauty (or ugliness) in aesthetic feelings, a kind of reconfiguration of the mental and physiological functions of the human body is carried out in accordance with the perceived aesthetic object. As a rule, aesthetic feelings have a sthenic effect on the psyche and activate body functions. This influence is manifested in a kind of excitement when perceiving works of art.

An aesthetic feeling cannot be characterized by any one emotion involved in its manifestation. The complexity and originality of aesthetic experiences lies in the specific and unique combination of emotions that are different in their direction, intensity and meaning. N.V. Gogol characterized his humor as laughter visible to the world through tears invisible to the world.

Although aesthetic feelings are specific, different from moral ones, they are directly related to the latter, often influence their upbringing and formation, and play a role in the social life and activities of people similar to that played by moral feelings.

Intellectual or cognitive feelings are experiences that arise in the process of human cognitive activity.

Human knowledge is not a dead, mechanical mirror reflection of reality, but a passionate search for truth. The discovery of new factors and phenomena of reality, their interpretation, reasoning about certain provisions, finding new ways to solve a problem evoke in a person a whole range of experiences: surprise, bewilderment, curiosity, inquisitiveness, conjecture, a feeling of joy and pride about the discovery made, a feeling doubts about the correctness of the decision, etc. All these feelings, depending on the nature and scale of the problem being solved and the degree of its difficulty, can appear in a more or less complex form.

To pass the test, you need to look at a picture of people on a tree and choose the one that most resembles yourself. Remember the chosen person or circle him.

And now the most interesting thing is that by making your choice, you have already shown what your psychological state is now.

Each person symbolizes certain attitudes in communication that are relevant at the moment. The tree symbolizes the space in which each specific person occupies a certain place. The higher he stands, the higher you feel in the hierarchy.

If you chose figure No. 20 (it stands above all others), then we can assume that you have a mindset of leadership and high self-esteem.

The attitude towards friendly sociability is manifested when choosing figures 2, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18. These little men create the feeling that they are comfortable in communication. If you chose one of them, it means you don't mind chatting with friends.

If you choose a person with the number 1, 3, 6 or 7, then this shows that you are internally ready to overcome obstacles of various kinds. If a person makes such a choice before or responsible events, this shows the right attitude. If the mindset to overcome obstacles arises before friendly communication, think about how you compete with your friends?

The most difficult thing is for the person who chose figure number 5, since it expresses a loss of strength, severe fatigue and shyness. If you have made this choice, it means you don’t want to be active yet and need to urgently restore your strength.

The desire to relax and have fun will be demonstrated by choosing figure No. 9. With this attitude, it is better to postpone serious work for a more favorable time.

The choice of people No. 13, 21 or 8 will indicate the presence of anxious states and a desire to withdraw into oneself.

The choice of figures 10, 15 or 4 will indicate a stable position. Moreover, position No. 15 is the most favorable. This little man is at the top, he is comfortable. No. 4 is also quite stable, but it clearly lacks achievements.

The choice of figure No. 14 will indicate a clearly crisis state. Help is probably needed here.

Figure No. 19 symbolizes contact with feelings of inability to help or loss.

So, with the choices you've made and a little interpretation, you've just determined your current psychological state. This state characterizes you at the moment and may change after some time.

psychological emotional state mood

Introduction

1. Human conditions

2. Mental states

2.1 State structure

2.2. Classification of conditions

2.2.1 Stress

2.2.2 Frustration

2.2.3 Affect

2.3. Positive and negative emotional states

2.4. Occupational mental states

2.5. Mood

3. Factors in managing mental states

Conclusion

References

Introduction

The concept of “state” is currently a general methodological category. The study of conditions is stimulated by the needs of practice in the field of sports, astronautics, mental hygiene, educational and work activities. In the most general terms, “state” denotes a characteristic of the existence of objects and phenomena, the realization of being at a given and all subsequent moments in time.

The concept of “psychological state” as a specific psychological category was introduced by N.D. Levitov. He wrote: Psychological state is a holistic characteristic of mental activity over a certain period of time, showing the originality of mental processes depending on the reflected objects and phenomena of reality, the previous state and mental properties of the individual.

Psychological states are the most important component of the human psyche. Relatively simple psychological states underlie the entire diversity of mental states, both normally and in pathology. It is they - simple psychological and complex mental states - that are the subject of direct research in psychology and the object of pedagogical, medical and other control influences.

1. Human conditions

The problem of normal human states began to be widely and thoroughly considered (especially in psychology) relatively recently - from the middle of the 20th century. Prior to this, the attention of researchers (mainly physiologists) was mainly directed to studying the state of fatigue as a factor reducing the efficiency of work activity (Bugoslavsky, 1891; Konopasevich, 1892; Mosso, 1893; Binet, Henri, 1899; Lagrange, 1916; Levitsky, 1922 , 1926; Efimov, 1926; Ukhtomsky, 1927,1936, etc.), and emotional states. Gradually, the range of identified conditions began to expand, which was greatly facilitated by requests from practice in the field of sports, astronautics, mental hygiene, educational and work activities. .

Mental state as an independent category was first identified by V. N. Myasishchev (1932). But the first thorough attempt to substantiate the problem of mental states, as mentioned above, was made by N.D. Levitov, who published the monograph “On Human Mental States” in 1964. However, many mental states, not to mention functional (physiological), were not presented in this book; N.D. Levitov devoted a number of separate articles to some of them (1967, 1969, 1971, 1972).

In subsequent years, the study of the problem of normal human states was carried out in two directions: physiologists and psychophysiologists studied functional states, and psychologists studied emotional and mental states. In fact, the boundaries between these states are often so blurred that the difference is only in their names. .

The difficulty in defining the essence of the concept “human condition” lies in the fact that the authors rely on different levels of human functioning: some consider the physiological level, others consider the psychological level, and still others consider both at the same time.

In general terms, the structure of a person’s psychophysiological state can be represented in the form of a diagram (Fig. 1.1).

The lowest level, physiological, includes neurophysiological characteristics, morphological and biochemical changes, shifts in physiological functions; psychophysiological level - vegetative reactions, changes in psychomotor, sensory; psychological level - changes in mental functions and mood; socio-psychological level - characteristics of human behavior, activities, attitudes.

1 Mental level of response

Experiences, mental processes

II. Physiological level of response

Vegetatics Somatics (psychomotor)

III. Behavioral level

Behavior Communication Activities

2. Mental states

In modern psychology, much attention is paid to the problem of mental states. Mental state is a specific structural organization of all mental components a person has, determined by a given situation and the anticipation of the results of actions, their assessment from the standpoint of personal orientations and attitudes, goals and motives of all activities (Sosnovikova). Mental states are multidimensional; they act both as a system for organizing mental processes, all human activities at any given moment in time, and as human relationships. They always present an assessment of the situation and the person’s needs. There is an idea of states as the background against which a person’s mental and practical activity takes place.

Mental states can be endogenous and reactive, or psychogenic (Myasishchev). In the occurrence of endogenous conditions, organism factors play a major role. Relationships don't matter. Psychogenic states arise due to circumstances of great importance associated with significant relationships: failure, loss of reputation, collapse, catastrophe, loss of a dear person. Mental states have a complex composition. They include time parameters (duration), emotional, and other components.

2.1 State structure

Since mental states are systemic phenomena, before classifying them, it is necessary to identify the main components of this system.

The system-forming factor for states can be considered an actual need that initiates a particular psychological state. If environmental conditions contribute to the quick and easy satisfaction of a need, then this contributes to the emergence of a positive state - joy, inspiration, delight, etc., and if the probability of satisfaction is low or absent at all, then the state will be negative in emotional sign. A.O. Prokhorov believes that at first many psychological states are nonequilibrium, and only after receiving the missing information or obtaining the necessary resources do they become static. It is during the initial period of state formation that the most powerful emotions arise - as subjective reactions of a person expressing his attitude to the process of realizing an urgent need. An important role in the nature of the new steady state is played by the “goal setting block”, which determines both the probability of satisfying the need and the nature of future actions. Depending on the information stored in memory, the psychological component of the state is formed, which includes emotions, expectations, attitudes, feelings and “perception filters.” The last component is very important for understanding the nature of the state, since it is through it that a person perceives the world and evaluates it. After installing the appropriate “filters,” the objective characteristics of the external world can have a much weaker impact on consciousness, and the main role is played by attitudes, beliefs and ideas. For example, in a state of love, the object of affection seems ideal and devoid of flaws, and in a state of anger, the other person is perceived in an exclusively black color, and logical arguments have very little effect on these states. If a social object is involved in the fulfillment of a need, then emotions are usually called feelings. If in emotions the main role is played by the subject of perception, then in feelings both subject and object are closely intertwined, and with strong feelings, the second person can occupy an even greater place in consciousness than the individual himself (feelings of jealousy, revenge, love). After performing certain actions with external objects or social objects, a person comes to some result. This result either allows you to realize the need that caused this state (and then it disappears), or the result turns out to be negative. In this case, a new state arises - frustration, aggression, irritation, etc., in which a person receives new resources, and therefore new chances to satisfy this need. If the result continues to be negative, then psychological defense mechanisms are activated, reducing the tension of mental states and reducing the likelihood of chronic stress.

2.2. Classification of conditions

The difficulty in classifying mental states is that they often overlap or even coincide with each other so closely that it is quite difficult to “separate” them - for example, a state of some tension often appears against the background of states of fatigue, monotony, aggression and a number of other states. However, there are many options for their classifications. Most often they are divided into emotional, cognitive, motivational, and volitional.

Other classes of conditions have been described and continue to be studied: functional, psychophysiological, asthenic, borderline, crisis, hypnotic and other conditions. For example Yu.V. Shcherbatykh offers his classification of mental states, consisting of seven constant and one situational component

From the point of view of temporary organization, fleeting (unstable), long-term and chronic conditions can be distinguished. The latter include, for example, the state of chronic fatigue, chronic stress, which is most often associated with the influence of everyday stress.