Management methods. Personality is a systemic social quality of an individual, which is formed in joint activities and communication Systemic social quality

“It is noteworthy that until the second half of the 1930s, subject indexes to books on psychology, as a rule, did not contain the term “personality” at all.

On the present stage improvement of socialist society, the task was set to form a harmoniously developed, socially active personality, combining spiritual wealth, moral purity and physical perfection. Consequently, the philosophical, psychological, sociological study of personality acquires a priority character and attracts Special attention public because of its not only theoretical but also practical significance. […]

One of the attempts to solve this problem is our proposed concept of personalization of an individual in a system of activity-mediated relations with other people. This concept is a further development of the psychological theory of the collective. It creates an idea of ​​the psychological structure of the personality, the laws of its formation and development, offers a new methodological toolkit for its study.

The starting point for constructing the concept of personalization of the individual is the idea of ​​unity, but not the identity of the concepts of "personality" and "individual". […]

Personality - a systemic social quality acquired by an individual in objective activity and communication, as well as characterizing the level and quality public relations reflected in the individual.

If we recognize that personality is the quality of an individual, then we thereby affirm the unity of the individual and the personality and at the same time deny the identity of these concepts (for example, photosensitivity is the quality of photographic film, but one cannot say that photographic film is photosensitivity or that photosensitivity is it's film).

The identity of the concepts of "personality" and "individual" is denied by all leading Soviet psychologists - B. G. Ananiev, A. N. Leontiev, B. F. Lomov, S. L. Rubinshtein and others. , which is acquired by an individual in society, in the totality of relations, social in nature, in which the individual is involved ... Personality is a systemic and therefore “supersensory” quality, although the bearer of this quality is a completely sensual, bodily individual with all his innate and acquired properties » (Leontiev A.N. Selected psychological works, M., 1983, Volume 1., p. 335).

First of all, it is necessary to clarify why a person can be said to be a “supersensory” quality of an individual. It is obvious that the individual has completely sensual (that is, accessible to perception with the help of the senses) properties: corporality, individual characteristics of behavior, speech, facial expressions, etc. How, then, are qualities found in a person that cannot be seen in their immediate sensual form?

Just as surplus value K. Marx showed this with the utmost clarity - there is a certain “supersensible” quality that you cannot see in a manufactured object through any microscope, but in which the worker’s labor unpaid by the capitalist turns out to be embodied, the personality personifies the system of social relations that make up the sphere of the individual’s being as his systemic (internal dissected, complex) quality. They can only be opened scientific analysis, they are inaccessible to sensory perception.

Implement the system social relations means to be their subject. The child, included in relationships with adults, initially acts as an object of their activity, but, mastering the composition of the activity that they offer him as leading for his development, for example, learning, becomes, in turn, the subject of these relationships. Social relations are not something external to their subject, they are a part, a side, an aspect of personality as a social quality of an individual.

K. Marx wrote: “... the essence of a person is not an abstract inherent in a separate individual. In its reality, it is the totality of all social relations. (Marx K., Theses on Feuerbach // Marx K., Engels F. Soch. - 2nd ed., Volume 42, p. 265). If the generic essence of a person, unlike other living beings, is a set of social relations, then the essence of each specific person, that is, the abstract inherent in a separate individual as a person, is a set of specific social connections and relations in which he is included as a subject. They, these connections and relations, are outside of it, that is, in social being, and therefore impersonal, objective (the slave is completely dependent on the slave owner), and at the same time they are inside, in himself as a person, and therefore subjective (the slave hates slave owner, subjugates or rebels against him, enters into socially conditioned relations with him). […]

To characterize a personality, it is necessary to investigate the system of social relations in which, as mentioned above, it is included. Personality is clearly closely "under the skin" of the individual, and it goes beyond the limits of his corporality into new "spaces".

What are these "spaces" in which you can see the manifestations of personality, understand and evaluate it?

The first is the "space" of the individual's psyche (intra-individual space), his inner world: his interests, views, opinions, beliefs, ideals, tastes, inclinations, hobbies. All this forms the orientation of his personality, a selective attitude towards the environment. Other manifestations of a person's personality can also be included here: features of his memory, thinking, fantasies, but those that one way or another resonate in his personality. public life.

The second "space" is the area of ​​interindividual connections (interindividual space). Here, not an individual in itself, but processes in which at least two individuals or a group (collective) are included are considered as manifestations of the personality of each of them. The clues to the "personality structure" are hidden in space outside the organic body of the individual, in the system of relations of one person with another person.

The third “space” for the realization by an individual of his capabilities as a person is not only outside his inner world, but also outside the border of actual, momentary (here and now) connections with other people (meta-individual space). Acting, and actively acting, a person causes changes in the inner world of other people. So, communication with smart and interesting person influences the beliefs, attitudes, feelings, desires of people. In other words, this is the "space" of the ideal representation (personalization) of the subject in other people, formed by the summation of the changes that he made to the psyche, consciousness of other people as a result of joint activities and communication with them.

It can be assumed that if we were able to fix all the significant changes that this individual made by his real activity and communication in other individuals, then we would get the most complete description of him as a person.

An individual can reach the rank historical personality in a certain socio-historical situation only if these changes affect a sufficiently wide range of people, receiving an assessment not only of contemporaries, but also of history, which has the ability to accurately weigh these personal contributions, which ultimately turn out to be contributions to social practice.

A personality can be metaphorically interpreted as a source of some kind of radiation that transforms people associated with this personality (radiation, as you know, can be beneficial and harmful, can heal and cripple, speed up and slow down development, cause various mutations, etc.).

An individual deprived of personal characteristics can be likened to a neutrino, a hypothetical particle that permeates a dense environment without a trace, without making any changes in it; “impersonality” is a characteristic of an individual who is indifferent to other people, a person whose presence does not change anything in their lives, does not transform their behavior and thereby deprives him of his own personality.

The three "spaces" in which a person finds himself do not exist in isolation, but form a unity. The same personality trait appears differently in each of these three dimensions. […]

So, it is laid new way interpretation of personality - it acts as an ideal representation of the individual in other people, as his "other being" in them (and also in himself as a "friend"), as his personalization. The essence of this ideal representation, these "contributions" lies in those real semantic transformations, effective changes in the intellectual and emotional sphere of another person's personality, which are produced by the activity of the individual and his participation in joint activities. The “other being” of an individual in other people is not a static imprint. We are talking about an active process, about a kind of “continuation of oneself in another”, about essential need personalities - to find a second life in other people, to produce lasting changes in them.

The phenomenon of personalization opens up an opportunity to clarify the problem of personal immortality that has always worried humanity. If a person's personality is not reduced to its representation in a bodily subject, but continues in other people, then with the death of an individual, the personality does not "completely" die. “No, all of me will not die ... as long as at least one piit is alive in the sublunary world” (A. S. Pushkin). The individual as a carrier of personality passes away, but, personalized in other people, he continues, giving rise to difficult experiences in them, explained by the tragedy of the gap between the ideal representation of the individual and his material disappearance.

In the words "he lives in us even after death" there is neither mysticism nor pure metaphor - this is a statement of the fact of the destruction of an integral psychological structure while maintaining one of its links. It can be assumed that at some stage community development personality as a systemic quality of the individual begins to act as a special social value, a kind of model for development and implementation in the individual activities of people.

Petrovsky A., Petrovsky V., "I" in "Others" and "Others" in "Me", in the Reader: Popular Psychology / Comp. V.V. Mironenko, M., "Enlightenment", 1990, pp. 124-128.

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in psychology, a systemic social quality is designated, acquired by an individual in objective activity and communication and characterizing the level and quality of representation of social relations in an individual.

A.V. Petrovsky in his developments proceeds from the fact that the concepts of "individual" and "personality" are not identical. Personality is a special quality that is acquired by an individual in society in the process of entering into public relations by nature. To understand the foundations on which certain personality traits are formed, it is necessary to consider the life of a person in society. The inclusion of an individual in the system of social relations determines the content and nature of the activities performed by him, the range and methods of communication with other people, i.e., the features of his social life, lifestyle. But the way of life of individual individuals, certain communities of people, as well as society as a whole, is determined by the historically developing system of social relations. And this means that a person can be understood or studied only in the context of specific social conditions, a specific historical era. Moreover, it should be noted that for the individual, society is not just an external environment. The personality is constantly included in the system of social relations, which is mediated by many factors.

Petrovsky believes that the personality of a particular person can continue in other people, and with the death of an individual, it does not completely die. And in the words "he lives in us even after death" there is neither mysticism nor pure metaphor, it is a statement of the fact of the ideal representation of the individual after his material disappearance.

Considering further the point of view of the representatives of the Moscow psychological school on the problem of personality, it should be noted that in most cases the authors include in the concept of personality certain properties that belong to the individual, and they also mean those properties that determine the originality of the individual, his individuality. However, the concepts of "individual", "personality" and "individuality" are not identical in content - each of them reveals a specific aspect of the individual being of a person. Personality can only be understood in a system of stable interpersonal relationships mediated by the content, values, and meaning of the joint activity of each of the participants. These interpersonal connections are real, but supersensible in nature. They are manifested in specific individual properties and actions of people who are part of the team, but are not reduced to them.

Just as the concepts of "individual" and "personality" are not identical, personality and individuality, in turn, form a unity, but not an identity.

If personality traits are not represented in the system interpersonal relationships, they turn out to be insignificant for assessing the personality and do not receive conditions for development, just as only individual traits that are most "drawn" into the leading activity for a given social community act as personal traits. Therefore, according to representatives of the Moscow psychological school, individuality is only one of the aspects of a person's personality.

Thus, two main points can be traced in the position of representatives of the Moscow psychological school. First, the personality and its characteristics are compared with the level of social manifestation of the qualities and properties of a person. Secondly, the personality is considered as a social product, not connected in any way with biological determinants, and, therefore, it can be concluded that the social to a greater extent affects mental development individual.

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Personality- a systemic quality that an individual acquires in interaction with the social environment.

This interaction takes place in two main forms - communication and joint activities.

There are three main components in the structure of personality manifestations.

1) an individual is a psychosomatic organization of a person, making him a representative of the human race.

2) persona - socio-typical formations of a personality, due to the influence of the social environment similar to most people.

3) individuality - a peculiar combination of features that distinguishes one person from another.

2. Components of personality:

Temperament- features of the neurodynamic organization of the individual.

Need-motivational sphere includes: needs (human needs for life and development), motives (associated with the satisfaction of certain needs) and orientation (this is a system of stable preferences and motives that guide the dynamics of personality development and set trends in its behavior).

Emotional-volitional sphere

Cognitive-cognitive sphere

Character- a set of stable, mainly life-formed properties.

Capabilities- a combination of mental properties that are a condition for the performance of one or more types of activity.

3. Key personality traits (backbone):

Emotionality- a set of personality traits that determine the dynamics of the emergence, course and termination of emotional states, sensitivity to emotional situations.

Activity- a characteristic of a person that determines the intensity, duration, frequency and variety of actions or activities of any kind performed.

Self-regulation- a systemic characteristic that reflects the ability of a person to stable functioning in various conditions of life activity (regulation of one's state, behavior of activity).

Motivation- the motivational component of character.

4.Theory of personality.

a) Theory of traits. Psychologists often characterize people based on their traits. Personality traits are generalized characteristics, a number of interrelated psychological characteristics (emotionality, dominance, morality). In psychology, various personality typologies are used, which represent typological descriptions (psychological portraits) in terms of traits - (pessimist, optimist, introvert, etc.).

b) The theory of individual constructs. (by Kelly)

Personality is a system of individual constructs. Constructs are means, ways of interpreting and interpreting the world. They have the form of bipolar concepts (good-bad, good-evil, etc.), but they are personal inventions, interpretations imposed by the individual on reality. The functioning of the construct includes generalization, differentiation, prediction, control over behavior.

In practical terms, Kelly's approach allows you to determine the vision of the situation from the position of the subject himself and to correct his behavior, attitudes and needs by changing the system of psychological constructs.

The above two approaches to describing personality are of a statistical nature.

c) Freud's personality structure - is a dynamic model. 3 Personality contains three instances:

IT (ID)- a set of unconscious needs and desires that guide our behavior, often in addition to consciousness. It contains repressed desires, which sometimes manifest themselves in dreams, mistakes, slips of the tongue. Main components:

libido - positive love sexual impulses;

thanatos - destructive aggressive impulses.

This authority is formed in early childhood, many problems of personality development lie in this area.

I (ego)- the conscious substance of the personality, functioning in accordance with the principles of reality. It includes:

1) cognitive and executive functions;

2) will and actual goals.

This authority regulates the process of interaction " it " and " super-ego ».

She dominates impulses, but sleeps at night, retaining the ability to censor dreams.

Super-I- social prohibitions and norms, unconscious actions that are forced by the "I" to avoid destructive drives emanating from the "it".

This instance is due to the influence of a culture that opposes the biological drives of "it".

As a result, the substance of the "I" is the scene of a constant struggle between the "super-I" and "it".

G) Potential Theory. Personality can be characterized by its main potentials.

Informative- is determined by the volume and quality of information that a person has.

Moral- is acquired by a person in the process of socialization - these are moral and ethical standards, life goals, beliefs, aspirations (the unity of psychological and ideological moments in the consciousness and self-consciousness of the individual).

Creative- the available repertoire of skills and abilities, abilities for action (can be creative, destructive, productive (reproductive), as well as the measure of their implementation in a particular area of ​​activity or communication.

Communicative- the degree of sociability, the nature and strength of contacts established by the individual with other people.

Aesthetic- the level and intensity of the artistic needs of the individual and how she satisfies them. It is realized in creativity and in the consumption of works of art.

5. The concept of direction.

One of the systemic characteristics of personality is orientation- this is a set of the most important target programs that determine the semantic unity of the active and purposeful behavior of the individual. In this characteristic, two fundamental interrelated needs can be distinguished:

a) to be a person (the need for personalization) - ensures active inclusion in social ties and is conditioned by these ties, social relations.

b) in self-realization - manifested in the desire to realize one's life potential (abilities, inclinations, stock of vital energy).

The direction includes "I-concept". The psychological term "I" in Russian is ambiguous. On the one hand, “I” is, as already mentioned, the result of a person separating himself from environment, which allows him to feel and experience his own physical and mental states, to realize himself as a subject of activity. On the other hand, a person's own "I" is also an object of self-knowledge for him.

In this case, the composition of the "I" of a person includes his self-perception and self-understanding. In other words, what this person sees himself and how he interprets his actions to himself, constitutes the "I"-concept of personality. This is a kind of psychology and philosophy of one's own "I". In accordance with his "I"-concept, a person carries out his activities. Therefore, a person's behavior is always logical, from his point of view, although it may not seem logical to other people.

Each of us not only sees himself in a certain way, but also evaluates himself and his behavior. This evaluative aspect of "I" is called self-esteem.

According to studies (Taylor, 1994), people with high self-esteem think well of themselves, set appropriate goals for themselves, take into account the opinions of other people to increase their success, cope well with difficult situations. People with low self-esteem, on the other hand, do not think well of themselves, often set unrealistic goals or shy away from any goals at all, look to the future with pessimism, and react with hostility to criticism or other forms of negative feedback.

In addition to general self-esteem, each person has specific, partial, assessments of his abilities in certain areas. For example, a student may have high self-esteem in general but know that he has difficulty holding conversations with strangers and is not very musical. Another student may have low self-esteem in general, but know that he is a good goalkeeper for the faculty football team.

Research shows that the level of self-esteem of the individual is associated with the cognitive aspects of the "I"-concept (Franza, 1996). Thus, people with low self-esteem have a less clearly defined and stable "I"-concept than people with high self-esteem. The self-concept of people with low self-esteem seems to be less complex and less flexible. There is evidence that it is self-confidence is the cause of highself-esteem, and not vice versa (i.e., it is not true that high self-esteem generates a higher level of self-confidence). So, it can be assumed that the first component youjuicy self-esteem is an self-knowledge or at least thinking about knowing yourself. Another determinant of the level of sa-moo estimates, presumably, as Franzoj points out, so-means by which an individual "organizes" positive and negative information about himself in memory. It's about not only that the entire amount of positive information is compared with the amount of negative information, which generally determines the level of self-esteem. The main thing here is how this knowledge about oneself is "organized". Some individuals tend to subdivide information about themselves into separate positive and negative categories ("I am good" and, conversely, "I am not good"). Others tend to form mental categories that contain a mixture of positive and negative self-information.Research shows that if people tend to divide information about themselves into positive and negative within their "I"-concept and the former is more often recalled, then this cognitive style increases their self-esteem and reduces the level of depression. For those people for whom the positive aspects of the Self are more important, dividing information about the self into positive and negative may be part of the process that eventually eliminates negative information from memory, and this, in turn, removes such information from the Self. On the other hand, for people to whom the negative aspects of the Self seem more important, it is psychologically more acceptable to mix together in their minds positive and negative aspects of the self.

A person who has come out of the animal world through labor and develops in society, carries out joint activities with other people and communicates with them, becomes a person, the subject of knowledge and active transformation of the material world, society and himself.

Man is already born as a man. This statement only at first glance seems to be a truth that does not require proof. The fact is that in the human embryo, the genes contain natural prerequisites for the development of proper human traits and qualities. The configuration of the body of a newborn implies the possibility of bipedal locomotion, the structure of the brain provides the possibility of developing intelligence, the structure of the hand - the prospect of using tools, etc., and in this way the infant - already a man in the sum of his capabilities - differs from the cub of an animal. Thus, the fact of the infant's belonging to the human race is proved, which is fixed in the concept of an individual (in contrast to the cub of an animal, which immediately after birth and until the end of its life is called an individual). The concept of "individual" embodies the generic affiliation of a person. An individual can be considered a newborn, and an adult at the stage of savagery, and a highly educated inhabitant of a civilized country.

Therefore, when we say of a particular person that he is an individual, we are essentially saying that he is potentially a person. Being born as an individual, a person gradually acquires a special social quality, becomes a personality. Even in childhood, the individual is included in the historically established system of social relations, which he finds already ready. Further development a person in society creates such an interweaving of relations that forms him as a person, i.e. as a real person, not only not like others, but also not like them, acting, thinking, suffering, included in social ties as a member of society, an accomplice in the historical process.

Personality in psychology denotes a systemic (social) quality acquired by an individual in objective activity and communication and characterizing the degree of representation of social relations in an individual.

So, a personality can be understood only in a system of stable interpersonal relationships, which are mediated by the content, values, and meaning of joint activities for each of the participants. These interpersonal connections are manifested in specific individual properties and actions of people, forming a special quality of the group activity itself.

The personality of each person is endowed only with its inherent combination of psychological traits and characteristics that form its individuality, constituting the originality of a person, his difference from other people. Individuality is manifested in the traits of temperament, character, habits, prevailing interests, in the qualities of cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking, imagination), in abilities, individual style of activity, etc. No two the same people with the same combination of psychological features- the personality of a person is unique in its individuality.

Just as the concepts "individual" and "personality" are not identical, personality and individuality, in turn, form a unity, but not an identity. The ability to add and multiply very quickly “in the mind” big numbers, thoughtfulness, the habit of biting nails and other features of a person act as features of his personality, but do not necessarily enter into the characterization of his personality, if only because they may not be represented in forms of activity and communication that are essential for the group in which he is included an individual with these traits. If personality traits are not represented in the system of interpersonal relations, then they turn out to be insignificant for characterizing the individual's personality and do not receive conditions for development. The individual features of a person remain “silent” until a certain time, until they become necessary in the system of interpersonal relations, the subject of which will be this person as a person.

The problem of the correlation of biological (natural) and social principles in the structure of a person's personality is one of the most complex and debatable in modern psychology. A prominent place is occupied by theories that single out two main substructures in a person's personality, formed under the influence of two factors - biological and social. The idea was put forward that the whole personality of a person breaks up into an “endopsychic” and “exopsychic” organization. "Endopsyche" as a substructure of personality expresses the internal mechanism of the human personality, identified with the neuropsychic organization of man. "Exopsychic" is determined by the attitude of a person to the external environment. “Endopsychia” includes such traits as susceptibility, features of memory, thinking and imagination, the ability to volitional effort, impulsiveness, etc., and “exopsychia” - a system of human relations and his experience, i.e. interests, inclinations, ideals, prevailing feelings, formed knowledge, etc.

How should one treat this concept of two factors? Natural organic sides and features exist in the structure of the individuality of the human personality as its socially conditioned elements. Natural (anatomical, physiological and other qualities) and social form a unity and cannot be mechanically opposed to each other as independent substructures of personality. So, recognizing the role of the natural, biological, and social in the structure of individuality, it is impossible to single out biological substructures in a person's personality, in which they already exist in a transformed form.

Returning to the question of understanding the essence of personality, it is necessary to dwell on the structure of personality when it is considered as a “supersensory” systemic quality of an individual. Considering the personality in the system of subjective relations, there are three types of subsystems of the individual's personal existence (or three aspects of the interpretation of the personality). The first aspect of consideration is the intra-individual subsystem: personality is interpreted as a property inherent in the subject himself; the personal turns out to be immersed in the inner space of the individual's being. The second aspect is the interindividual personal subsystem, when the “space of interindividual connections” becomes the sphere of its definition and existence. The third aspect of consideration is the meta-individual personal subsystem. Here attention is drawn to the impact that, voluntarily or unwittingly, the individual has on other people. Personality is already perceived from a new angle: its most important characteristics, which were tried to be seen in the qualities of the individual, are proposed to be sought not only in himself, but also in other people. Continuing in other people, with the death of the individual, the personality does not completely die. The individual as a carrier of personality passes away, but, personalized in other people, continues to live. There is neither mysticism nor pure metaphor in the words “he lives in us even after death”, this is a statement of the fact of the ideal representation of the individual

after his material disappearance.

Of course, a personality can be characterized only in the unity of all three proposed aspects of consideration: its individuality, representation in the system of interpersonal relations, and, finally, in other people.

If, when deciding why a person becomes more active, we analyze the essence of needs, in which the state of need for something or someone is expressed, leading to activity, then in order to determine what activity will result in, it is necessary to analyze what determines its direction, where and what this activity is focused on.

The totality of stable motives that guide the activity of the individual and are relatively independent of the current situations is called the orientation of the person's personality. The main role of personality orientation belongs to conscious motives.

Interest is a motive that promotes orientation in any area, familiarization with new facts, a more complete and deeper reflection of reality. Subjectively - for an individual - interest is found in a positive emotional tone, which acquires the process of cognition, in the desire to get to know the object more deeply, to learn more about it, to understand it.

Thus, interests act as a constant incentive mechanism for cognition.

Interests are an important aspect of the motivation of a person's activity, but not the only one. Beliefs are an essential motive for behavior.

Beliefs are a system of motives of a person that encourage him to act in accordance with his views, principles, worldview. The content of needs, acting in the form of beliefs, is knowledge about the surrounding world of nature and society, their certain understanding. When this knowledge forms an ordered and internally organized system of views (philosophical, aesthetic, ethical, natural sciences, etc.), they can be considered as a worldview.

The presence of beliefs covering a wide range of issues in the field of literature, art, social life, production activity indicates high level human personality activity.

Interacting and communicating with people, a person distinguishes himself from the environment, feels himself the subject of his physical and mental states, actions and processes, acts for himself as an “I”, opposing “others” and at the same time inextricably linked with him.

The experience of having a "I" is the result of a long process of personality development that begins in infancy and which is referred to as "discovery of the "I". A one-year-old child begins to realize the differences between the sensations of his own body and those sensations that are caused by objects outside. Then, at the age of 2-3 years, the child separates the process that gives him pleasure and the result of his own actions with objects from the objective actions of adults, making demands to the latter: “I myself!” For the first time, he begins to realize himself as the subject of his own actions and deeds (a personal pronoun appears in the child’s speech), not only distinguishing himself from the environment, but also opposing himself to everyone else (“This is mine, this is not yours!”).

It is known that in adolescence and youth, the desire for self-perception increases, for awareness of one's place in life and oneself as a subject of relations with others. This is associated with the development of self-awareness. Senior students form an image of their own "I". The image of "I" is a relatively stable, not always conscious, experienced as a unique system of ideas of the individual about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with others. The image of "I" thus fits into the structure of personality. It acts as a setting in relation to itself. Like any attitude, the image of the “I” includes three components.

First, the cognitive component: an idea of ​​one's abilities, appearance, social significance, etc.

Secondly, the emotional-evaluative component: self-respect, self-criticism, selfishness, self-abasement, etc.

Thirdly, behavioral (volitional): the desire to be understood, win sympathy, improve one's status, or the desire to remain unnoticed, evade assessment and criticism, hide one's shortcomings, etc.

The image of the “I” is a stable, not always realized, experienced as a unique system of ideas of the individual about himself, on the basis of which he builds his interaction with others.

The image of "I" and the premise and consequence of social interaction. In fact, psychologists fix in a person not one image of his “I”, but a multitude of “I-images” replacing each other, alternately coming to the forefront of self-consciousness, then losing their significance in a given situation of social interaction. “I-image” is not a static, but a dynamic formation of an individual's personality.

The “I-image” can be experienced as a representation of oneself at the moment of the experience itself, usually referred to in psychology as the “real I”, but it would probably be more correct to call it the momentary or “current I” of the subject.

The “I-image” is at the same time the “ideal I” of the subject - what he should, in his opinion, become in order to meet the internal criteria for success.

Let us point out another variant of the emergence of the “I-image” - “fantastic I” - what the subject would like to become if it turned out to be possible for him, how he would like to see himself. The construction of one's fantastic "I" is characteristic not only of young men, but also of adults. When evaluating the motivating significance of this “I-image”, it is important to know whether the individual’s objective understanding of his position and place in life turned out to be replaced by his “fantastic I”. The predominance of fantastic ideas about oneself in the personality structure, not accompanied by actions that would contribute to the realization of the desired, disorganizes the activity and self-consciousness of a person and, in the end, can severely injure him due to the obvious discrepancy between the desired and the actual.

The degree of adequacy of the "I-image" is found out when studying one of its most important aspects - self-esteem of the individual.

Self-esteem is an assessment by a person of himself, his capabilities, qualities and place among other people. This is the most essential and most studied side of the self-consciousness of the individual in psychology. With the help of self-esteem, the behavior of the individual is regulated.

How does a person carry out self-esteem? K. Marx has a fair idea: a person first looks, as in a mirror, into another person. Only by treating the man Paul as his own kind does the man Peter begin to treat himself as a man. In other words, knowing the qualities of another person, a person receives the necessary information that allows him to develop his own assessment. In other words, a person is guided by a certain reference group (real or ideal), whose ideals are his ideals, interests - his interests, etc. e. In the process of communication, she constantly checks herself against the standard and, depending on the results of the check, turns out to be satisfied with herself or dissatisfied. Too high or too low self-esteem can become an internal source of personality conflicts. Of course, this conflict can manifest itself in different ways.

Inflated self-esteem leads to the fact that a person tends to overestimate himself in situations that do not give a reason for this. As a result, he often encounters opposition from others who reject his claims, becomes embittered, shows suspicion, suspiciousness and deliberate arrogance, aggression, and in the end may lose the necessary interpersonal contacts, become isolated.

excessive low self-esteem may indicate the development of an inferiority complex, persistent self-doubt, refusal of initiative, indifference, self-accusation and anxiety.

In order to understand a person, it is necessary to clearly imagine the action of unconsciously developing forms of controlling a person's behavior, pay attention to the entire system of assessments that a person characterizes himself and others, and see the dynamics of changes in these assessments.