Psychic reflection briefly. What is psychic reflection. Characteristics of mental reflection

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Mental reflection is a subjective idea of the world. Everything that enters the human consciousness through the senses is subjected to specific processing based on existing experience.

There is an objective reality that exists regardless of human consciousness. And there is a mental reflection, which depends on the characteristics of the senses, emotions, interests and level of thinking of the individual. The psyche interprets objective reality based on these filters. Thus, mental reflection is a “subjective image of the objective world.”

When a person rethinks his reality, he forms a worldview based on:

events that have already occurred;
actual reality of the present;
actions and events that are about to happen.

Each person has his own subjective experience, it firmly settles in the psyche and influences the present. The present carries information about the internal state of the human psyche. While the future is aimed at realizing tasks, goals, intentions - all this is reflected in his fantasies, dreams and dreams. We can say that a person is in these three states simultaneously, regardless of what he is thinking about at the moment.

Mental reflection has a number of features and characteristics:

The mental (mental) image is formed in the process of active human activity.
Enables you to correctly reflect reality.
It is proactive in nature.
Refracted through a person’s individuality.
Ensures the appropriateness of behavior and activities.
The mental reflection itself deepens and improves.

This implies the main function of mental reflection: reflection of the surrounding world and regulation of human behavior and activity for the purpose of survival.

Levels of psychic reflection

Mental reflection serves to create a structured and integral image from dismembered objects of reality. Soviet psychologist Boris Lomov identified three levels of mental reflection:

Sensory-perceptual. It is considered the basic level on which mental images are built, which arise first in the process of development, but do not lose their relevance subsequently. A person is based on information that comes through his senses and builds an appropriate behavior strategy. That is, a stimulus causes a reaction: what happened in real time affects a person’s behavior.
Presentation layer. In order for a person to have an image, it is not at all necessary that it be present here and now and that it be stimulated with the help of the senses. For this there is imaginative thinking and imagination. A person can evoke the idea of an object if it has appeared several times before in his field of vision: in this case, the main features are remembered, while the secondary ones are discarded. The main functions of this level: control and correction of actions in the internal plan, planning, drawing up standards.
Verbal-logical thinking and speech-thinking level. This level is even less connected with the present time; it can even be called timeless. A person can operate with logical techniques and concepts that have developed in his consciousness and the consciousness of humanity over its history. He is able to abstract from the first level, that is, not to be aware of his sensations and at the same time fully concentrate, relying on the experience of humanity.

Despite the fact that often the three levels function as if on their own, in fact they smoothly and imperceptibly flow into each other, forming a person’s mental reflection.

Forms of mental reflection

The elementary forms of reflection are: mechanical, physical and chemical. The main form of reflection is biological reflection. Its specificity is that it is characteristic only of living organisms.

During the transition from the biological form of reflection to the mental form, the following stages are distinguished:

Perceptual. It is expressed in the ability to reflect a complex of stimuli as a whole: orientation begins with a set of signs, and there is a reaction to biologically neutral stimuli, which are only signals of vital stimuli (sensitivity). Sensations are an elementary form of mental reflection.
Sensory. Reflection of individual stimuli: the subject reacts only to biologically significant stimuli (irritability).
Intelligent. It manifests itself in the fact that in addition to the reflection of individual objects, a reflection of their functional relationships and connections arises. This is the highest form of mental reflection.

The stage of intelligence is characterized by very complex activities and equally complex forms of reflecting reality.

Is our mental reflection immutable or can we influence it? We can, but provided that we develop, with the help of which we are able to change perceptions and even sensations.

Self-regulation

Self-regulation is a person’s ability, despite circumstances, to maintain internal stability at a certain, relatively constant level.

A person who does not know how to manage his mental state sequentially goes through the following stages:

Situation: The sequence begins with a situation (real or imagined) that is emotionally relevant.
Attention: attention is directed to the emotional situation.
Assessment: The emotional situation is assessed and interpreted.
Answer: An emotional response is generated, leading to loosely coordinated changes in experimental, behavioral and physiological response systems.

If a person is developed, he can change this behavior pattern. In this case, the model will look like this:

Choice of situation: a person decides for himself whether this situation is needed in his life and whether it is worth getting emotionally close to it if it is inevitable. For example, he chooses whether to go to a meeting, a concert or a party.
Changing the Situation: If a situation is unavoidable, then a person makes a conscious effort to change its impact. For example, he uses or physically moves away from an object or person that is unpleasant to him.
Mindful deployment: involves directing attention toward or away from an emotional situation. This is achieved through distraction, rumination, and thought suppression.
Cognitive changes: modification of how to appraise a situation to change its emotional meaning. A person uses strategies such as revaluation, distance, humor.
Response modulation: attempts to directly influence experimental, behavioral, and physiological response systems. Strategies: expressive suppression of emotions, exercise, sleep.

If we talk about specific practical methods, we highlight the following:

Neuromuscular relaxation. The method consists of performing a set of exercises consisting of alternating maximum tension and relaxation of muscle groups. This allows you to relieve tension from individual parts of the body or from the entire body.
Ideomotor training. This is a sequential tension and relaxation of the muscles of the body, but the exercises are not performed in reality, but mentally.
Sensory reproduction of images. This is relaxation by imagining images of objects and complete situations associated with relaxation.
Autogenic training. This is training in the possibilities of self-hypnosis or autosuggestion. The main exercise is speaking affirmations.

As we see, a person can decide how to relate to a given situation. However, given that will is an exhaustible resource, it is necessary to obtain energy through sleep, rest, exercise, proper nutrition, as well as specific techniques.

Psyche (from the Greek psychikos - spiritual) is a form of active reflection by the subject of objective reality, arising in the process of interaction of highly organized living beings with the outside world and carrying out a regulatory function in their behavior (activity). The central category in this definition is the active display or reflection of reality.

Mental reflection is not a mirror, mechanically passive copying of the world (like a mirror or a camera), it is associated with a search, a choice; in mental reflection, incoming information is subjected to specific processing, i.e. mental reflection is an active reflection of the world in connection with some necessity, with needs. This is a subjective, selective reflection of the objective world, since it always belongs to the subject, does not exist outside the subject and depends on subjective characteristics. You can define the psyche as a “subjective image of the objective world” - this is our idea or picture of the world, according to which we feel, make decisions and act.

The fundamental property of the psyche - subjectivity - determined introspection as the main method of its research from ancient times until the emergence of the first research centers at the end of the 19th century. Introspection is self-observation organized according to special rules.

In Russian psychology, a rationalistic way of cognition is generally adopted, based on logic and experience, which connects the psyche with the activity of the brain, the development of which is determined by the evolution of living nature. However, the psyche cannot be reduced simply to the nervous system. Mental properties are the result of the neurophysiological activity of the brain, but they contain the characteristics of external objects, and not the internal physiological processes through which the mental arises. Signal transformations taking place in the brain are perceived by a person as events taking place outside of him - in external space and the world.

Mental phenomena are correlated not with a separate neurophysiological process, but with organized sets of such processes, i.e. psyche is a systemic quality of the brain, realized through multi-level functional systems of the brain that are formed in a person in the process of life and his mastery of historically established forms of activity and experience of humanity through active activity. Thus, specifically human qualities (consciousness, speech, work, etc.) are formed in a person only during his lifetime, in the process of assimilating the culture created by previous generations. Consequently, the human psyche includes at least three components, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig.3. The structure of the subject’s mental reflection of the external and internal world.

Functions of the psyche.

The definition and concept of the psyche, analyzed above, gives an idea of the functions of the psyche or answers the question - why does the subject need a psyche?

Even W. James, the founder of the functional approach in psychology (the forerunner of behaviorism - the science of behavior) believed that the psyche serves the purpose of adapting the individual to the surrounding world and therefore reflects it. Accordingly, the functions of the psyche include: 1) reflection, 2) adaptation necessary for survival and interaction with the environment - biological, physical, social. From the definition of the psyche it is clear that it also performs 3) a regulatory function, that is, it directs and regulates the activity of the subject and controls behavior. In order to regulate behavior adequately to the conditions of the external and internal environment, that is, adaptively, it is necessary to navigate this environment. Consequently, it is logical to highlight 4) the orientation function of the psyche.

The mental functions mentioned above 5) ensure the integrity of the body, which is necessary not only for survival, but also for maintaining the physical and mental health of the subject.

Modern domestic psychologists are expanding the list of traditionally considered mental functions. Thus, V. Allakhverdov in his works pays great attention to 6) the cognitive or educational function of the psyche and considers the psyche as an ideal cognitive system. One of the famous Russian methodologists B. Lomov, based on a systems approach, identifies 7) the communicative function of the psyche, since the psyche of the subject arises and develops in interaction with others, that is, it is included as a component in other systems (an individual within a group, etc. ).

Ya. Ponomarev drew attention to the fact that human behavior can be non-adaptive (for example, creative behavior - where a person, when implementing his ideas, sometimes acts contrary to common sense and the instinct of self-preservation). Accordingly, he added 8) the function of creative activity, which leads a person to create a new reality that goes beyond the existing one.

It seems that this is an incomplete list of the functions of the psyche, that is, why and for what it is needed by an individual, personality and subject of activity. Psychological science is waiting for new discoveries in the study of mental phenomena.

Psyche- this is the essence where the diversity of nature gathers into its unity, this is the virtual compression of nature, this is a reflection of the objective world in its connections and relationships.

Mental reflection is not a mirror, mechanically passive copying of the world (like a mirror or a camera), it is associated with a search, choice, in mental reflection incoming information is subjected to specific processing, i.e. mental reflection is an active reflection of the world in connection with some necessarily, with needs, this is a subjective selective reflection of the objective world, since it always belongs to the subject, does not exist outside the subject, depends on subjective characteristics. The psyche is a “subjective image of the objective world.”

Objective reality exists independently of a person and can be reflected through the psyche into subjective mental reality. This mental reflection, belonging to a specific subject, depends on his interests, emotions, characteristics of the senses and level of thinking (different people can perceive the same objective information from objective reality in their own way, from completely different angles, and each of them usually thinks , that it is his perception that is the most correct), thus a subjective mental reflection, subjective reality may differ partially or significantly from objective reality.

But it would be wrong to completely identify the psyche as a reflection of the external world: the psyche is capable of reflecting not only what is, but also what could be (prediction), and what seems possible, although this is not the case in reality. The psyche, on the one hand, is a reflection of reality, but, on the other hand, it is sometimes “inventing” something that does not exist in reality, sometimes these are illusions, mistakes, a reflection of one’s desires as real, wishful thinking. Therefore, we can say that the psyche is a reflection of not only the external, but also its internal psychological world.

Thus, the psyche is “ subjective image of the objective world“, this is a set of subjective experiences and elements of the subject’s internal experience.

The psyche cannot be reduced simply to the nervous system. Indeed, the nervous system is an organ (at least one of the organs) of the psyche. When the activity of the nervous system is disrupted, the human psyche suffers and is disrupted.

But just as a machine cannot be understood through the study of its parts and organs, so the psyche cannot be understood through the study of the nervous system alone.

Mental properties are the result of the neurophysiological activity of the brain, but they contain the characteristics of external objects, and not the internal physiological processes through which the mental arises.

Signals transformed in the brain are perceived by a person as events taking place outside him, in external space and the world.

Mechanical identity theory asserts that mental processes are essentially physiological processes, that is, the brain secretes the psyche, thought, just as the liver secretes bile. The disadvantage of this theory is that the psyche is identified with nervous processes and they do not see qualitative differences between them.

Unity theory states that mental and physiological processes arise simultaneously, but they are qualitatively different.

Mental phenomena are correlated not with a separate neurophysiological process, but with organized sets of such processes, i.e. the psyche is a systemic quality of the brain, realized through multi-level functional systems of the brain that are formed in a person in the process of life and his mastery of historically established forms of activity and experience humanity through man's own active activity. Thus, specific human qualities (consciousness, speech, work, etc.), the human psyche are formed in a person only during his lifetime in the process of assimilating the culture created by previous generations. Thus, the human psyche includes at least 3 components: the external world (nature, its reflection); full brain activity; interaction with people, active transmission of human culture and human abilities to new generations.

Mental reflection is characterized by a number of features;

it makes it possible to correctly reflect the surrounding reality, and the correctness of the reflection is confirmed by practice;
the mental image itself is formed in the process of active human activity;
mental reflection deepens and improves;
ensures the appropriateness of behavior and activity;
refracted through a person’s individuality;
is anticipatory.

Functions of the psyche: reflection of the surrounding world and regulation of the behavior and activity of a living creature in order to ensure its survival.

– a subjective idea of the world from a personal position. Rethinking reality, one’s worldview is formed from:

events that have already occurred;
actual reality;
actions that need to happen.

The accumulated experience and reproduction of acquired knowledge settles firmly in the past. The present carries information about the internal state of the individual. The future is aimed at realizing goals, objectives, intentions reflected in dreams and fantasies.

The essence of the worldview passing through the psyche

1. Activation.

The psyche is fickle, it changes under the influence of external factors and is constantly improving in development. Everyone has their own opinion about how the world around them is built. Faced with the contradiction of other people, consciousness changes, transforms into reality, carrying a different meaning.

2. Focus.

By setting guidelines in life, a person sets himself tasks within his capabilities. He will never take on a business that contradicts his principles and does not bring him either moral or financial satisfaction of his needs. There is a deliberate effort to transform an existing substance.

3. Adjustment.

The approach and conditions may change, but the psyche is flexible to temporary transformations and adapts to any change.

4. Uniqueness.

Everyone has inherent specific motivational characteristics and goals for self-development. The view of the world is refracted through the prism of life guidelines. This prevents the study of psychological science from only one angle; it is necessary to evaluate all the qualities of different people to the same extent.

5. Anticipation.

Society creates a platform for the future, displaying surrounding objects and ongoing events in current life. It attracts only the best and most significant for subsequent introduction into activity.

6. Evaluation by the object.

Individual traits are reflected directly in thinking. Possible situations are analyzed and an attitude towards current events is formed.

There are several stages that pass in consciousness from the bodily to the sensory:

Sensory. A physical external aggressor affects a person’s cognitive processes, causing them to react with body and mind. A reaction occurs only to a significant stimulus.
Perceptual. A person unconsciously strives to display in general terms a complex of irritating elements.
The individual focuses on the cumulative manifestation, reacting to biologically insignificant stimulants that provoke the emergence of sensitivity to important stimuli.
Thoughtful. A strong relationship is established between objects. A person controls it with the help of brain function.

Stages of psychic reflection

The first one is basic. The individual is guided by his feelings and information received from others, determines his behavior in the future. His actions are influenced by objects of reality. Having passed this stage, others are raised to it. This level is never empty, it is multifaceted and constantly changing.
The second level has the main feature of creativity and imagination. This is the highest stage of mental development; a person moves to it when a new model of inferences about the world around him is created. She comprehends the actions and adds previously laid down images.
A creative person has difficulty coping with emotions; her thinking consists of continuous ideas. Artistic abilities are superimposed on the pictures that appear in the head, and their assimilation depends on subsequent interaction.
The third - its main criterion is the presence of speech. Logic and communication are associated with mental activity based on concepts and techniques used by ancestors. He pushes into the background imagination, memory, sensory images, relying only on rationality in thinking and experience from the previous generation. This allows you to plan and manage your life path.

Only by rethinking and incorporating all stages into his consciousness can a person present the world in a generalized form from a unique point of view, different from those around him. And show it through behavior: facial expressions, gestures, posture.

Psyche– a systemic property of highly organized matter, which consists in the subject’s active reflection of the objective world, in the subject’s construction of a picture of the world that is inalienable from him and self-regulation on this basis of his behavior and activities.

By, consciousness = psyche.
By, consciousness is a small part of the mind, it includes what we are aware of every moment.
. Consciousness is a reflection of objective reality in its separation from the subject’s existing relations to it, i.e. a reflection that highlights its objective, stable properties. In consciousness, the image of reality does not merge with the subject’s experience: in consciousness, what is reflected appears as “what is coming” to the subject. The prerequisites for such reflection are the division of labor (the task of realizing one’s actions in the structure of overall activity). There is a separation between the motive of an entire activity and the (conscious) goal of an individual action. There is a special task to understand the meaning of this action, which has no biological meaning (pr/r.: beater). The connection between motive and goal is revealed in the form of the activity of the human work collective. An objective and practical attitude towards the subject of activity arises. Thus, between the object of activity and the subject there is awareness of the very activity of producing this object.

Specifics of psychological reflection

Reflection is a change in the state of an object, which begins to carry traces of another object.

Reflection forms: physical, biological, mental.

Physical reflection– direct contact. This process is finite in time. These traces are indifferent for both objects (symmetry of interaction traces). According to A.N. Leontiev, destruction occurs.

Biological reflection– a special type of interaction – maintaining the existence of an animal organism. Transformation of traces into specific signals. Based on signal transformation, a response occurs. (to the outside world or to yourself). Selectivity of reflection. Hence the reflection is not symmetrical.

Psychic reflection– as a result, an image of the object appears (cognition of the world).

Images– sensual, rational (knowledge about the world).

Features of mental reflection: a) purely subjective education; b) the psychic is a symbol of reality; c) the mental reflection is more or less correct.

Conditions for constructing an image of the world: a) interaction with the world; b) The presence of a reflection organ; c) full contact with society (for a person).