Introduction is a necessity. Prerequisites for the separation of psychology as an independent science Separation of psychology into an independent work

By the middle of the 19th century, an objective need arose for the knowledge of the psyche and consciousness to be integrated into an independent scientific discipline. In 1879, T. Ribot wrote in the book "Modern German Psychology": "We see how the time is approaching when psychology will require all the strength of a person, when people will be only psychologists, as they are only physicists, only chemists, physiologists."

In various areas of research work, ideas were formed about special laws and factors that differed both from physiological and from those that related to psychology as a branch of philosophy that has phenomena of consciousness as its subject. Together with laboratory work physiologists to study the sense organs and movements, the successes of evolutionary biology and medical practice paved the way for a new psychology. A whole world of psychic phenomena was opened up, accessible to the same objective study as any other natural facts. It has been found that the psychic world has its own laws and causes. All this created the ground for the self-determination of psychology, its separation from both physiology and philosophy. Thus, the time has come to determine the status of psychology as an independent science. At the same time, several programs for its development developed, which differently defined the subject, method and tasks of psychology, the direction of its development.

The greatest success in establishing the new science was achieved by the famous German psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920). He came to psychology from physiology (at one time he was Helmholtz's assistant) and was the first to collect and combine the achievements of various researchers into a new discipline. Calling this discipline "physiological psychology", he sought to part with the speculative and speculative past of psychology. "Fundamentals of physiological psychology" (1873-1874) - this was the name of his work, perceived as a body of knowledge about the new science. He also wrote "Materials for the theory of sensory perception" (1862), "Lectures on the soul of man and animals" (1863), a ten-volume "Psychology of peoples" (1900-1920).

Having organized the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Leipzig (1879), and later - the first special psychological institute, he took up topics borrowed from physiologists - the study of sensations, reaction time, associations. In 1881, Wundt founded the first psychological journal, Psychological Research.

Young people from many countries began to flock to Wundt. Returning home, they created laboratories there similar to those in Leipzig. Historians of psychology have calculated that 136 Germans, 14 Americans, 10 Englishmen, 6 Poles, 3 Russians, 2 Frenchmen went through Wundt's school. It became the school of the first generation of experimental psychologists.

special subject of psychology, not studied by any other discipline, was recognized as "direct experience"; the main method of psychology - introspection - observation of the subject of the processes in his mind. Introspection was understood as a special procedure requiring a special long-term training. According to Wundt, psychology "belongs to the empirical direction, ... this science must investigate the facts of consciousness, their connections and relationships, in order to discover as a result the laws that govern these relationships."

In ordinary self-observation, inherent in every person, it is difficult to separate perception as a mental process from the perceived real or imagined object. At the same time, it was believed that this object was given in external experience. The subjects were required to be distracted from everything external in order to find the initial elements of inner experience, to get to the primary elements of consciousness. When the question arose of more complex mental phenomena, where thinking and will came into play, problems in Wundt's program were immediately revealed.

In the introductory lecture to the course “On the Problems of Modern Philosophy” in 1874, Wundt put forward a program for the development of physiological psychology as experimental science. Psychology, according to him, “belongs to the empirical direction. This science must investigate the facts of consciousness, their connections and relationships, with the aim of discovering as a result the laws that govern these relationships. Psychology studies the entire content of our experience in its relation to the subject and in the properties directly introduced into this experience by the latter.

home purpose of psychology- analysis, reconstruction (decomposed description) in exact scientific concepts structures of consciousness (“architectonics”, “sensory mosaic”) of an individual. The methodological task of psychology is to dismember consciousness into its constituent elements and to find out the regular connections between them. The main directions of experimental research: physiological study of the sense organs, sensations and perceptions; psychophysics - determination of the thresholds of sensations and their distinction; reaction time; associations; feelings and emotions.

The result of Wundt's scientific research was a new understanding consciousness as “the ability to see one's sensations and images based on inner experience. Nowhere... do the facts of the reality of psychic life need for their explanation any other substratum than that which is given in them, and the unity of this life does not gain in the slightest if a substance is added to its own coherence, which... turns out to be only an abstract repetition of itself in self-founded spiritual life.” Thus, consciousness is “a combination of mental processes, from which separate formations stand out as closer connections. The state in which this combination is interrupted, such as the state of deep sleep, fainting, we call unconscious.

“Because every mental education consists of many elementary processes that usually do not begin and end at the same time at the same moment, then the connection that connects these elements into one whole ... always goes beyond its limits, so that simultaneous and successive formations ... connect with each other different, albeit less closely. We call this combination of psychic formations consciousness.” Types of consciousness according to Wundt: individual, group, national, etc.

TO properties of consciousness Wundt attributed: phenomenalism; “volume of consciousness”; combination, limits of perception; voltage; intensity; clarity and distinctness of impressions (like that of light); "threshold of consciousness". The simplest elements - “atoms of consciousness” (“indecomposable components”) sensations (“sensory content of experience”, insufficiently distinct “perceptions”) are primary, complex ones are formed from them.

Affect Wundt defines it as “a process of changing and at the same time connected feelings and ideas that flows in time.” The mood appears "with less intensity and longer duration of feelings." Feelings are momentary states of affect. Affects are components of volitional processes. Volitional process- a complete process, which includes all parts.

Phenomena of Consciousness formed by association and by apperception. Apperception is a special function of consciousness (“the center of the sphere of consciousness”, “internal power of consciousness”), which manifests itself in the mental activity of the subject (“thinking is the logical connection of phenomena with the help of apperception”) and is externally expressed in attention. Apperception determines the volitional behavior of a person, obeying the “law of creative synthesis”, i.e. apperception synthesizes individual elements, “atoms” of consciousness into a single integrity.

Thus, according to the proposed program in Wundt's laboratory, sensations, reaction time to various stimuli, associations, attention, and the simplest human feelings were studied. Based on them, Wundt formulated the laws of mental life, which he sometimes called principles. This principles: mental resultants; creative synthesis - mental is not just a sum; mental relations; mental contrasts (grouping of mental elements according to opposites); intensifying contrasts.

According to Wundt, higher mental processes(speech, thinking, will) are inaccessible to experiment and therefore must be studied by the cultural-historical method. Wundt undertook the experience of psychological interpretation of myth, religion, art and other cultural phenomena in his work “Psychology of Peoples”: “Since individual psychology has as its subject the connection of mental processes in a single consciousness, it uses abstraction ... Individual psychology is only taken together with collective forms the whole of psychology...”.

The forms of human society, according to Wundt, are “continuous historical development, leading the spiritual life of individuals together beyond the boundaries of direct coexistence in time and space. The result of this development is... the idea of ​​humanity as a worldwide spiritual society, divided... into specific groups: nations, states,... tribes and families.”

Thanks to the scientific research of W. Wundt, by the beginning of the 20th century, in higher educational institutions In Europe and America, there were dozens of experimental psychology laboratories that dealt with a wide range of problems: from the analysis of sensations and the organization of an associative experiment to psychometric measurements and psychophysiological research. Modest, lacking heuristic ideas results huge amount experiments and experiments by no means always corresponded to the funds and efforts spent. Against this research background, a whole group of scientists stood out, as it turned out later, which significantly influenced the progress of psychology. She outlined her concept in several publications of the magazine “Archive general psychology". The authorship of the works came from young experimenters who practiced with Professor O. Külpe in Würzburg (Bavaria).

Wundt's student Oswald Kulpe (1862-1915), having moved to the city of Würzburg, he created his own there, the so-called Würzburg School. Her program was a development of Wundt's. Moreover, O.Kulpe himself did not offer either a new program or a new theoretical concept. But he was an "idea generator", a participant in experiments and a test subject. Nevertheless, it was Külpe who managed to consolidate the group of experimental psychologists.

Initially, the range of experimental schemes of the laboratory did not differ from others: sensitivity thresholds were determined, reaction time was measured, associative experiments were carried out. But some, at first glance, insignificant changes in the instructions to the subject determined a further turn in the method and, as a result, the innovative style of the school.

In the laboratory, higher mental processes were studied by the method of "experimental observation", in which the subject carefully observed the dynamics of the states experienced by him. The emphasis was shifted from observing the effects of the subject's behavior on the actions he performs, to the process itself that occurs in the mind when solving some experimental problem. This made it possible to reveal the impossibility for the subjects to describe the emerging states in the categories of sensory elements - images.

It was concluded that there are not only sensory components in consciousness, but also “non-sensory components”. Moreover, the dependence of the process of solving the problem on the preliminarily emerging state, called by Külpe the “setting of consciousness”, was observed. (M. Mayer, I. Ort and K. Marbe called non-sensory elements “states of consciousness”, N. Ah singled out a special group of experiences from them, which he called “awareness”).

Thus, new variables were introduced into psychological thinking: installation- motivational variable that arises when accepting a task; a task- the goal from which the determining tendencies come; process as a change of search operations, sometimes acquiring affective intensity; non-touch components as part of consciousness (mental, not sensory images).

This scheme opposed traditional models, according to which an external stimulus served as a determinant of a mental phenomenon, and the process itself was the “weaving” of associative networks, the knots of which were sensory images: primary - sensations, secondary - representations. Novelty of the method and approaches The Würzburg school was to change the direction of the psychological vision of processes:

Transferring the emphasis from the effects of the subject's inner world, presented in the form of sensations, images, ideas, etc., to the actions he performs - operations, exercises, acts;

Fixing not the result, but tracking the process, describing the events that occur in the mind when solving any experimental problem;

A new variable was introduced into the experimental model - “the state in which the subject is before the perception of the stimulus”;

The appearance of the term “setting of consciousness” (instead of Muller's “motor setting”) as a preset for a stimulus and for a certain type of reaction;

When deciding research problem the subject had an act of judgment (the level of rationality), and not just a sense of identity or difference;

- “elementary psychophysical experience” was transferred to the category of methodological means for studying higher mental processes;

The developed methodology implied both the improvement and complication of the means used, as well as an in-depth interpretation of the results.

The latter provision was reflected in the creation by the laboratory of the method “ systematic experimental introspection". The content of the method included the following requirements: the progress of the task was divided into intervals (using a chronoscope); each of the "fractions" (the preparatory period, the perception of the stimulus, the search for an answer, the reaction) was carefully traced through the "inner vision" in order to reveal its composition. The task became more complicated, acquiring a logical character, which led to extraordinary results: a) the opportunity to follow the path of one's thoughts when solving these problems; b) the emergence of the installation - focus on solving the problem; c) unconscious regulation by the installation of the process of solving the problem; d) the absence of significant significance of sensory images in this process or their ignoring in solving the problem.

The process of developing a new methodology did not escape the flaws inherent in the introspective approach, in which, when trying to reveal the dynamics of thinking, only its final result was revealed. For this reason, some of O. Külpe's colleagues resorted to another means - to reconstruction of the mental activity itself according to the retrospective report of the subjects. N.Akh conducted a series of experiments with hypnotized subjects who, in accordance with the instructions, without remembering its content upon exiting the state of hypnosis, solved problems in accordance with it. These experiments revealed the unconscious direction and selectivity of the thought process. The results obtained prompted the researcher to introduce the concept of “determining tendency” into psychology, which indicated that, unlike association, the course of mental processes is directed by a task that gives it a purposeful character.

The concept of "ugly thinking", which served as the subject of a dispute among her contemporaries about the priority of “discovery”. Within its framework, the category of action is introduced as an act that has its own determination (motive and purpose), operational-affective dynamics and composition-structure; this category was introduced “from above” (from higher forms intellectual behaviour).

The achievements of the Würzburg school should also include the following: 1) the study of thinking began to acquire psychological contours: the presence of regularities and specific properties of thinking (and not just the laws of logic and rules of associations) became obvious; 2) a number of important problems have been posed concerning the qualitative, essential differences between thinking and other cognitive processes; 3) the limitations of the associative concept, its inability to explain the selectivity and direction of acts of consciousness, are revealed.

The subject of psychology in the Würzburg school was the content of consciousness, and the method - introspection. The subjects were instructed to solve mental problems while observing what was happening in the mind. But introspection could not find those sensory elements of which, according to Wundt's forecast, the "matter" of consciousness should consist. Wundt tried to save his program by clarifying that mental actions are, in principle, not subject to experiment and therefore should be studied according to cultural monuments - language, myth, art, etc. psychology, which, instead of this method, interprets the manifestations of the human spirit.

Almost simultaneously with Wundt, the philosopher Franz Brentano (1838-1917) proposed his own program for the construction of psychology. It was presented in his work "Psychology from an empirical point of view" (1874). A former Catholic priest, later a professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna, he was the author of the works "Studies in the Psychology of the Sense Organs" (1907), "On the Classification of Psychic Phenomena" (1911).

The scientist as the subject of psychology asserted the activity of the human psyche, his mental acts, which are the basic units of the psyche: not the actual image or result, but the mental process, not the content of consciousness or its elements, but acts. Therefore, if Wundt can be conditionally called a structuralist, then Brentano is a functionalist.

The field of psychology, according to Brentano, is not in itself separate sensations or representations, but those acts - “actions” that the subject performs (acts of representation, judgment, emotional evaluation) when he turns something into an object of awareness. Outside the act, the object does not exist. When it comes to phenomenal objects, they have existence only in mental acts. Real objects have only potential being. Therefore, "we can define psychic phenomena by saying that they are such phenomena that intentionally contain an object in themselves." According to Brentano, psychology should study the inner experience of the subject in its real and natural composition, including the actions he performs - acts.

According to Brentano, the mental process is characterized by the fact that its object always coexists in it. This coexistence is expressed in three types of acts: a) ideation - representation of an object in the form of an image (“emergence of an object as a pure act of perception”); b) a judgment about it as true or false; c) emotional evaluation of it as desirable or rejected.

So Franz Brentano subject of psychology, like Wundt, consciousness was considered. However, its nature was thought to be different: the field of psychology is not the content of consciousness (sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings), but its acts, mental actions, due to which these contents appear. One thing is the color or image of an object, the other is the act of seeing a color or judging about an object. The study of acts is a unique sphere, unknown to physiology. The specificity of the same act - in its intention, focus on any object.

The theoretical views and approaches of Brentano became the source of several branches of Western psychology. They gave impetus to the development of the concept of mental function as a special activity of consciousness, which was not limited to elements and processes, but was considered initially active and objective.

In an Austrian school, a student of Brentano A. Meinong (1853-1920) created the "theory of objects", which became theoretical basis problems of integrity in the Graz school. It should be noted that this theory made up for the well-known one-sidedness of Brentano's psychology, from which the analysis of the content side of consciousness was excluded. Another Austrian psychologist H. Ehrenfels (1859-1932) experimentally established the fact of integral formations - gestalts, which are the product of the activity of consciousness, thus confirming Brentano's theoretical ideas about acts.

Experimental and theoretical development of the teachings of Brentano received in the psychology of functions Carl Stumpf (1848-1936), a prominent German psychologist, founder of psychological institutes at Munich (1889) and Berlin (1893) universities. K. Stumpf's students different time were E. Husserl, as well as K. Koffka, W. Koehler, M. Wertheimer, K. Levin, later the founders of Gestalt psychology.

The basic concept of Stumpf's psychology is the concept of function, which corresponds to the concept of Brentano's act. In his concept, Stumpf distinguishes:

a) the phenomena of consciousness (“phenomena”) are the primary given of our experience; sensory content of “my” consciousness; they are the subject of phenomenology, being neutral for both physiology and psychology;

b) mental functions - the main subject of psychology, which should study the relationship between mental functions and phenomena;

c) relations - in their pure form, the subject of study of logology;

d) eidos as immanent objects (phenomenal according to Brentano) - the subject of eidology. They have an independent existence as a certain stage of reality, arising due to the directed activity of the subject.

In this case, it is the functions that constitute the most essential thing in mental life and represent the task of research. Phenomena are only material for the work of the soul organism. It is depending on the function that we notice in the integral phenomenon of its part, for example, a certain tone in a chord. Stumpf makes a classification of functions. Their experimental study was carried out on the material of auditory perceptions, in particular music.

Edward Titchener(1867-1927) - the creator of the largest psychological school at Cornell University, was one of the largest psychologists in the first quarter of the 20th century. He became the leader of the structural school, which considers the subject of psychology to be consciousness, which is studied by dividing into elements what is given to the subject in his introspection. The purpose of psychology is to find out the universal laws according to which the structure is formed - the “matter of consciousness”. The subject of psychology for Titchener is the elements of consciousness that are given to a person in his self-observation. Titchener repeatedly refers to the concept, conditions, reliability of self-observation in his works. The main works of the scientist include: "Essays in Psychology" (1898), "Experimental Psychology" (1901-1905), "Textbook of Psychology" (1909), "Scheme of Introspection" (1912).

The main questions of science according to Titchener: what?, how? and why? In this regard, the purpose of psychology is: a) to analyze a given concrete state of mind, decomposing it into its simplest constituent parts; b) find how these constituent parts are connected, the laws that govern their combination; c) bring these laws into connection with the physiological organization. He firmly believed in Wundt's program, while almost everyone lost faith in the possibilities of introspection and in the possibility of finding the "primary elements of consciousness."

Consciousness, according to Titchener, has its own structure and material hidden behind the surface of its phenomena (as in chemists, atoms and molecules are hidden behind “substance”). To reflect this system, a language is needed that would allow one to speak about mental “matter” in its immediate givenness and would not use terms related to information about events and objects of the external world (i.e., it is necessary to overcome the persistent “stimulus error”, get rid of objectivity). All this is achieved by long training in introspection and reporting on it.

In mental matter, Titchener distinguished three categories of elements: sensations - the simplest processes that have quality, intensity, distinctness and duration; images - traces of previous sensations (elements of representations of memory and imagination); feelings - experiences of a certain quality, intensity, duration.

According to the “contextual theory of meaning” put forward by him, the idea of ​​an object is built from a set of sensory elements, some of which can leave consciousness, forming a context, and the “sensory core” remaining in consciousness, where muscle sensations play a large role, is sufficient to reproduce the totality of these elements.

Titchener defines research rules: “It is necessary to become in such conditions that the experience produced is as little as possible accessible to external influence; one must direct one's attention to the stimulus and, having removed it, again call up in the soul the memory of the sensation. Then you need to put into words the processes that make up your consciousness of the stimulus. Thus, defining the requirements for introspection, the researcher indicates that it should not be direct.

Titchener identifies and substantiates the following requirements for introspection: 1) impartiality (otherwise the observation may be false); 2) “We have to manage our attention. Attention should neither be scattered nor wander. This takes practice; 3) "In self-observation, the body and soul must be fresh." Fatigue, physical fatigue interfere with concentration; 4) the presence of a favorable general condition. “We must feel good, pleasant, be in a good mood and be interested in our subject.”

In addition to meeting these conditions, it is necessary to use the “method of averages”. When considering affects, a combination of the method of self-observation and the physiological method is necessary. By the latter, Titchener means recording and evaluating four "major bodily effects": changes in body volume, respiration, pulse, and muscle strength.

Titchener formulates the real law of associations. In an early interpretation, it sounds like this: “One idea causes another when it contains elements that are common to it and another idea. Once formed compounds tend to persist even when the conditions for their formation are not available. Later, Titchener gives a somewhat different definition: “Whenever a process of sensation or image appears in consciousness, all those processes of sensation and image that met with it before in some modernity tend to appear with it (naturally, in the form of images). consciousness."

Thus, in his works, Titchener, among the important structural elements of the psyche, singled out and studied the association as a phenomenon and the principle of combining ideas. From the study of the features of associations, Titchener proceeds to their experimental study, and from it to the establishment of a connection with mental phenomena. In the field of evidence of psychological hypotheses and conjectures throughout its scientific activity Titchener remained faithful to viewing them through the prism of the method of self-observation.

Titchener raises the question: what was the nature of the very first movements of the organism? Answering, he gives two points of view: 1) consciousness is as old as animal life, the first movements were conscious; 2) consciousness appeared later than life, the first movements are unconscious, by nature - physiological reflexes. In the alternatives: movement accompanied by consciousness - movement not accompanied by consciousness, Titchener takes the first position: "All unconscious movements of the human body, even automatic movements of the heart and viscera, are descended from former conscious movements." The scientist explains his statement:

a) first we learn consciously (to swim, ride a bike, etc.), then we do it all supposedly unconsciously. Physiological reflexes have their "conscious ancestors in the history of the race";

b) we can do everything: hold our breath, change the pulse, dilate the pupils, etc. The realization of these skills is all a return to one's previous conscious state;

c) certain reflex movements of expressive emotional states of mind would be completely inexplicable if it were not possible for them to assume distant conscious ancestors. The sneer, the grunt of the beast, the display of the front teeth, the offensive movements of the lips.

Through his scientific work, Titchener made a significant contribution to the development of the structural school of psychology. Together with like-minded people, he collected, researched, and systematized extensive material used by modern areas of psychological science.

Functionalism as one of the main currents of American psychology late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century was the result of bringing the scientific system of knowledge in line with the objective needs of the development of a person and his social environment, that is, the result of the interaction of the logic of the development of psychology with real social practice. Heightened sensitivity to the possibility of using the achievements of psychology in various socio-cultural and economic spheres of the life of the individual and society served as an essential prerequisite for distinguishing functionalism from the emerging system of psychological knowledge.

This direction developed against a contradictory background: the cult of practicality and entrepreneurship created by the industrial machine that was gaining momentum was reflected in American psychological functionalism. At its origins was William James (1842-1910) - American psychologist and philosopher, creator of the first US psychological laboratory. The main emphasis in his concept of the phenomena of consciousness of W. James is transferred from the image to the action, which led to his leadership in pragmatism, a significant influence on the birth and development of functionalism and behaviorism in psychology.

Psychology was presented to them as a natural biological science, subject which are “mental (mental) phenomena and their conditions”. When analyzing the conditions, the interrelation of the mental and the bodily is especially emphasized, the importance of turning the researcher of consciousness to the conclusions of physiology. James considered consciousness on the basis of evolutionary theory as a means of adapting to the environment. Consciousness "enters" the game when difficulties arise in adaptation (problem situation), and by regulating the individual's behavior in a new situation (filters and selects stimuli, regulates the individual's actions in unusual conditions). He rejected the division of consciousness into elements. According to him, there is a “stream of consciousness”, which is as senseless to divide as “to cut water with scissors”. Thus, a position was put forward about the integrity and dynamics of consciousness, realizing the needs of the individual. James correlated consciousness not only with bodily adaptive actions, but also with the nature (structure) of the personality.

In the theory of personality, James singles out four forms of "I": 1) "I" material: body, clothes, property; 2) "I" social: everything associated with a person's claims to prestige, friendship, a positive assessment from others; 3) "I" spiritual: processes of consciousness, mental abilities; 4) "I" pure: a sense of personal identity, the basis of which are organic sensations. The social “I”, according to James, is determined by the conscious reactions of others to my person and indicates the inclusion of the individual in the network. interpersonal relationships. Each person has several social “I”, which occupies a middle position in the designated hierarchy.

Raising the question of self-esteem of the individual, satisfaction (dissatisfaction) of a person with life, James proposed a formula: self-esteem is equal to success divided by claims. This implied the growth of self-esteem of the individual both with real success and with the rejection of striving for it. Based on the indicated attitudes, the source of the true values ​​of the individual is in religion: the empirical social “I” is opposed to the “special potential social” “I”, which is realized only in the “social mind of the ideal world” in communication with the Almighty - the Absolute Mind.

W. James takes a step forward from a purely epistemological "I" to its systemic psychological interpretation, to its level-by-level analysis. In his teaching, he put forward a number of provisions that anticipated modern ideas about the level of claims, the motive for achieving success, self-esteem and its dynamics, the reference group, and others.

IN teaching about emotions James suggested considering emotion not as the root cause of physiological changes in the body, not as a source of physiological changes in various systems (muscular, vascular, etc.), but as a result of these changes. An external stimulus causes movements in the body (muscular and internal organs), which are experienced by the subject in the form of emotional states: “We are sad because we cry, enraged because we beat another.” Looking for bodily mechanism“human passions” emotions were deprived by James of the role of a powerful stimulus of behavior that had long been recognized for them. Emotions were derived from the class of phenomena to which motivation belongs.

IN the doctrine of the ideomotor act the scientist claims: any thought turns into movement, if this is not prevented by another thought; volitional effort is the reason why one of several ideas pushes aside others and thereby takes possession of the muscular apparatus. The subject says: "Let it be!" - and the "machine of the body" obeys him.

The action of an interested subject is the supporting link of the entire psychological system of W. James and his concept of emotions, considered in the context of the possibility of controlling the internal through the external: in case of undesirable emotional manifestations, the subject is able to suppress them by performing external actions that have the opposite direction. As the final causal factor in the new physiological scheme, which affirms the feedback between the motor act and emotion, was “willpower”, which has no basis in anything but itself. One of the goals of the study of emotional states was to turn them into an object accessible to natural science experiment and analysis. The solution to this problem was carried out by transferring the subjectively experienced to the bodily.

Another talented representative of functionalism was John Dewey (1859-1952) - a well-known psychologist, later a philosopher and teacher of the early twentieth century. His book Psychology (1886) is the first American textbook on the subject. But his article “The Concept of the Reflex Act in Psychology” (1896), in which he opposed the idea that reflex arcs serve as the basic units of behavior, had a greater influence on psychological views. Dewey justified the need to move to a new understanding subject of psychology- a whole organism in its restless, adaptive activity in relation to the environment.

Consciousness according to Dewey - one of the moments of this activity, occurs when the coordination between the organism and the environment is disturbed and the organism, in order to survive, seeks to adapt to new conditions. In 1894, Dewey was invited to the University of Chicago, where, under his influence, a group of psychologists formed who declared themselves functionalists. Their theoretical credo was outlined James Angel (1849-1949).

In his presidential address to the American Psychological Association “The Field of Functional Psychology” (1906), it was emphasized that psychology is the doctrine of mental (mental) operations; it cannot confine itself to the doctrine of consciousness, it should study the diversity of the individual's connections with the real world in cooperation and convergence with neurology, sociology, pedagogy, anthropology; operations act as intermediaries between the needs of the organism and the environment; the purpose of consciousness is “accommodation to the new”; the organism acts as a psychophysical whole.

The methodological prerequisites for the formation of psychology as a science were prepared mainly by those connected with empirical philosophy, the currents that proclaimed in relation to the knowledge of psychological, as well as all other phenomena, the need for a turn from speculation to experimental knowledge, carried out in natural science in relation to knowledge. physical phenomena. In this regard, a special role was played by the materialistic wing of the empirical trend in psychology, which connected mental processes with physiological ones.

The first version of psychology as an independent science was the physiological psychology of W. Wundt (1832-1920). He began his research in the field of perception. In Lectures on the Soul of Man and Animals, published in 1863, Wundt, together with the test, names the analysis of the goods of the human spirit as a source of psychic research. Yes, by the early 1960s. a psychology program is being formed, combining two methods - experimental and cultural-historical. Wundt's Foundations of Physiological Psychology, published in 1874, marked the beginning of psychology as an independent science. Its object is those processes that are immediately accessible to both external and internal observation and have both a physiological and a mental side and therefore cannot be explained either only by physiology or only by psychology: these are feelings and simple feelings. Immediately with Wundt in Russia, I. M. Sechenov came up with a program for the construction of psychology. The result of Sechenov's work was a new understanding of the psyche and the tasks of psychology as a science. Sechenov can rightfully be considered the founder of Russian scientific psychology.

Important place in history domestic psychology belongs to G. I. Chelpanov. His main merit is the creation of a psychological institute in Russia. The experimental direction in psychology with the use of objective research methods was developed by V. M. Bekhterev. The efforts of IP Pavlov were directed to the study of conditioned reflex connections in the activity of the organism. His work significantly influenced the understanding of the physiological foundations of mental activity.

The history of the formation of psychology as a science can be viewed as a series of various crises. The first associationist programs for building psychology according to the model natural sciences(physicists, chemists) quickly discovered their limitations. Theological and mystical concepts of the psyche for a number of reasons were taken out of the scope of scientific knowledge. As a result of the first open crisis, new directions arose (behaviorism, psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, the French sociological school, understanding psychology). Each of them opposed the main provisions of traditional psychology, the foundations of which were laid back in the 17th century by Descartes and Locke. But the general shortcoming of these trends was that they were predominantly against only one of its aspects: psychoanalysis criticized the identification of the psyche with consciousness, behaviorism did not accept the subjectivity of the subject. classical psychology and the method of introspection and declared behavior accessible to objective observation as the subject of psychology, the French sociological school opposed the individualism of associationist psychology, Gestalt psychology refuted the sensationalism and atomism of the former psychology. As a result, each of the schools, as its research program, developed only one of the blocks of the categorical apparatus of psychology, which resulted in the disunity of psychological schools in the 20th century.

Currently, psychology is at a turning point in its development. The definition of its state as a protracted crisis is due to the exhaustion of the primary, empirical programs for its construction. The condition for the further development of psychology is the analysis of the nature and status of psychological knowledge within the framework of the philosophy and methodology of knowledge.

The first version of psychology as an independent science was the physiological psychology of W. Wundt (1832-1920). He began his research in the field

perception. Of these, the book "Essays on the Theory of Perception" (1862) was compiled. In these Essays, Wundt develops ideas about psychology as an experimental

science. In Lectures on the Soul of Man and Animals, published in 1863, Wundt, along with experiment as a source of psychological research

calls the analysis of the products of the human spirit. These ideas outlined the task of the psychology of peoples that he subsequently developed. Yes, by the early 1960s. develops

a psychology program that combines two methods - experimental and cultural-historical. Published in 1874 "Foundations of physiological

psychology" of Wundt were the beginning of psychology as an independent science. Its object is those processes that are available at the same time and

external and internal observation and have both a physiological and a psychological side and therefore cannot be explained either only

physiology, not only psychology: these are sensations and the simplest feelings.

By method, physiological psychology is experimental psychology. Beginning in 1875, Wundt worked at the University of Leipzig. Here in 1879

he created a psychological laboratory, on the basis of which, two years later, the Institute of Experimental Psychology was created, from the very beginning

turned into an international center for the training of psychologists. E. Kraepelin, G. Münsterberg, O. Külpe, A. Kirschman, E. Meiman, K. Marbe studied here,

T. Lipps, F. Krueger (Germany), E. Titchener (England), E. Fiddler, D. Angell, St. Hall (America), V. M. Bekhterev, V. F. Chizh, N. N. Lange (Russia), etc. So

the Wundt school was formed, from which the history of psychology as an independent science begins.

Having subjected to critical analysis the previous understanding of the subject of psychology (as the science of the soul and inner experience), Wundt defines

about direct experience. Object and subject act in an inseparable unity: every object is a represented object (Vorstellungsobjekt).

This term plays the same role in Wundt as "neutral elements" in Mach: behind the inseparability of subject and object in experience lies the idealist thesis,

calling into question the existence of the objective world independent of the subject. According to the characterization of S. L. Rubinstein, Wundt directed psychology along

ways of its Machist reorientation.

A single experience can be viewed from two points of view. These points of view are prompted to us by the fact that each experience is divided directly into

two factors: on the content given to us, and on the way we perceive this content. Experience taken in abstraction from the cognizing subject and

aimed at identifying the relationships of objective phenomena, studying natural science. This is a mediated experience. Experience considered in its relation to

to the subject and in those properties that are attributed to him by the subject, this is direct experience, which psychology studies.

Psychology, defined as the science of direct experience, is, according to Wundt himself, a kind of empirical psychology,

because it must show the connection of the contents of experience in the form in which it is given to the subject. Thus, consciousness remains the object of study in psychology.

In his description, however, Wundt introduces new features. In contrast to the intellectualism of all previous psychology, Wundt considers the mental as

process. Here the will is taken as a typical process. Wundt calls his psychology voluntaristic, at the same time emphasizing the difference between his

systems from the philosophical voluntarism of Schopenhauer.

Since all sciences study the same subjects, but from different points of view, insofar as "one cannot admit any fundamental difference between

psychological and natural science methods. Therefore, psychology should also use experimental methods, "aimed at

to carry out an exact analysis of mental processes, similar to the analysis undertaken by natural science when applied to natural phenomena.

The experiment does not cancel self-observation, it remains the only direct method in psychology. Objective phenomena - behavior, activity -

Wundt excluded from psychology. "Man himself - not as he appears from outside, but as he is given immediately to himself" is the problem itself.

psychology. The experiment only makes self-observation more accurate.

However, not all minds lend themselves to experimental study. Wundt limited the experiment to the area of ​​the simplest mental processes - sensations,

representations, reaction time, the simplest associations and feelings. The study of higher mental functions and mental development requires other

methods. As such, Wundt considered the analysis of the products of the human spirit, which are the product of communication of many individuals: language, myths,

customs. He called this part of psychology the psychology of peoples, contrasting it with individual experimental psychology. With an introduction by Wundt

two psychologies, differing in content and methods, differently oriented - towards natural science and the sciences of the spirit, there is a split in a single science,

which was one of the reasons feature open crisis that broke out in psychology at the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century.

Wundt's psychological system included the study of the elements (sensations and feelings), the analysis of the connections between the elements and the products of these connections,

study of the laws of mental life. In this program, Wundt's atomism, characteristic of associative psychology, clearly stands out: the simplest

elements that are sensory in nature are primary, complex formations are secondary. However, Wundt struggles with the extremes of associationism: in products

associations, he draws attention to the emergence of a new quality, not reducible to the sum of properties initial elements. All associations Wundt

subdivides into simultaneous and sequential, which in turn have several forms: simultaneous exist in the form of fusion,

assimilations - dissimilations and complications, successive - recognitions and memories. Behind these kinds of associations are perception and memory.

Wundt fights against the functionalism of the old psychology and considers them as the result of a single mechanism of associations. At the same time, associations

are characterized as a passive process that proceeds without the active participation of the subject.

In Wundt's psychology there is no subject, no personality: “... everything mental is an incessant change of phenomena, constant emergence and creation ...

The facts of real mental life do not need any other substratum for their interpretation than that which is given in ourselves.

In addition to associative, Wundt distinguishes apperceptive connections. They are formed with the active participation of consciousness. Apperception is a special function

consciousness, which is manifested in the activity of the subject and externally expressed in attention. Of the totality of contents that are in consciousness, i.e.

simply perceptible, apperception, or attention, singles out the object, as a result of which its perception becomes clearer and more distinct; it is included in

a clear point of consciousness is apperceived. When apperception aims at choosing between different reasons in preparation for action, it is

will. Wundt brings together the concepts of apperception, attention and will, and even identifies them. The product of apperception are apperceptive combinations

representations. Thinking and imagination are functions of apperception. Acting as an explanation of the complex phenomena of mental life, apperception itself

not explained: its source is in consciousness itself.

The last section of Wundt's psychology is the doctrine of the laws mental life. They reflect an attempt to go beyond the description, to identify

own properties of the subjective world - Wundt calls them independent mental causality, in contrast to physiological mechanisms

mental processes.

Of all that Wundt did, the most historically significant were his introduction to the psychology of experiment, the organization of the Institute of Experimental

psychology and founding a special journal "Psychological Research" (originally "Philosophical Research"), which became (after "Mind",

founded by A. Bain in 1876) the first proper psychological journal.

Simultaneously with Wundt, I. M. Sechenov (1829-1905) came up with a program for the construction of psychology in Russia. Sechenov graduated from the Military Engineering School

Petersburg and the medical faculty of Moscow University. In a situation of intensification of the struggle between idealism and materialism, fundamental

worldview issues relating to the nature of man, soul, free will, determination of behavior, under the influence of philosophy

revolutionary democrats, especially Chernyshevsky, Sechenov carried out a number of works aimed at resolving the most difficult psychological

problems. “My task,” he wrote, “is the following: to explain the activity of an anatomical scheme already known to the reader (meaning

simple reflex - approx. A. Zh.) the external activity of a person ... with an ideally strong will, acting in the name of some high moral

principle and aware of every step - in a word, activity representing the highest type of arbitrariness.

The result of Sechenov's work was a new understanding of the psyche and the tasks of psychology as a science. Sechenov can rightly be considered the founder

domestic scientific psychology. His most important works on psychology: "Reflexes of the brain" (1863), which formulated the reflex

theory in connection with the problem of voluntary and involuntary movements; “To whom and how to develop psychology” (1873), here in polemic with K. D. Kavelin

set out general program building psychology, views on the subject, method and; "Elements of Thought" (1878), here given

natural scientific development of thinking as a result of the study of cognitive processes; articles of the 90s: "Impressions and Reality",

“Objective Thought and Reality”, “On Objective Thinking from a Physiological Point of View”, etc.

In Reflexes of the Brain, Sechenov set the task of "proving the possibility of applying physiological knowledge to the phenomena of mental life."

The solution to this problem resulted in the reflex theory of the mental. According to Sechenov, the ability to perceive external influences in the form of representations

(visual, auditory, etc.) develops in experience according to the type of reflexes; the ability to analyze these specific impressions, memory, all these mental

acts develop by reflex. The scheme of the mental process is the same as the scheme of the reflex: the mental process originates in an external influence,

continues with central activity and ends with reciprocal activity - movement, deed, speech. The mental process arises and

ends in the process of interaction of the individual with the surrounding world, which means that the influence from the outside in the form of feeling is primary. Motives abstracted

representations are not the original causes of our actions.

In explaining the psyche, one must proceed not from the psyche, despite the fact that “the voice of self-consciousness ... tells me very clearly dozens of times a day that impulses

to my arbitrary acts flow from myself and therefore do not need any external excitations.

Sechenov makes an attempt to “pull out” psychology from the closed world of inner consciousness and explain how mental processes occur,

trace the formation of consciousness in ontogeny. Thus, the reflex principle does not mean reducing the mental to the physiological. This is about

similarities between them in structure and origin. “The original cause of every action always lies in external sensual excitement...”.

The reflex approach also involves the study of the brain mechanisms of mental processes. The solution of this problem has become the subject of scientific

activities of I. P. Pavlov, A. A. Ukhtomsky and others.

Thus, with the help of the reflex principle, the mental receives its causal explanation, while maintaining a qualitative, not reducible to

physiological, characteristic. Its further development takes place in the article "To whom and how to develop psychology", written in connection with the book

historian-publicist K. D. Kavelin "Problems of Psychology". Here I. M. Sechenov formulated the task of psychology: “Scientific psychology ... cannot be

nothing but a series of teachings on the origin of mental activities. To explain the origin means to show the course of a mental act: its

beginning, center phase and end. In this interpretation of the task of psychology, there is a requirement to go beyond consciousness into a system of objective relations.

of a person with the world, to reveal the conditions that determine one or another nature of a person’s actions, to describe the external manifestations of mental phenomena, i.e.

attributed to the facts of consciousness scientifically, objectively.

Pointing to the futility of the introspective method, Sechenov develops the ideas of the genetic approach in psychology. “To follow historically the course of development

man ... from his birth into the world, to notice the main phases in one or another period and to deduce any subsequent phase from the previous one, for "from

real encounters of the child with the outside world and all the foundations of future mental development are formed. At the same time, Sechenov demands not to be limited

description, but to look for a "real-psychic lining" of the studied phenomena of consciousness.

Sechenov develops ideas about the active activity nature of sensory cognition. So, he calls looking an action: the eye releases

"feelers", which can greatly lengthen or shorten so that their free ends, converging with each other, touch the object being considered in

the subject at this moment. These materialistic ideas were defended by Sechenov in the struggle against the idealists, in particular EL Radlov. Sechenov's program

led to the study of holistic behavior. In its fundamental content, this problem is also solved by modern psychology.

At the same time, Sechenov's program, based on natural-science materialism, is historically limited. Recognizing the social

conditionality of human consciousness, noting the "successive course of development of all mental content as knowledge is accumulated", Sechenov did not

I was able to include this reality in my program. His approach outlined the path for an objective study of the phenomena of consciousness, mainly as products

interaction of the individual with the objective world.

Using the genetic method, Sechenov shows that speech is symbolic abstract thinking and volitional act of the individual, self-consciousness "I" have

their genetic roots in a system of relations open to objective observation. I. M. Sechenov had a huge impact on the world and domestic

psychology. Its traditions were continued by N.N. Lange, V.M. Bekhterev physiology I. P. Pavlov, A. A. Ukhtomsky. Sechenov's profound influence on

domestic science continues today.

The more successful the experimental work in psychology was, the more rapidly grew the dissatisfaction with the versions that the unique subject of this science is consciousness, and the method is introspection. This was exacerbated by the advances of the new biology. It changed the view of all vital functions, including mental ones. Perception and memory, skills and thinking, attitudes and feelings are now interpreted as "tools" that work to solve the problems that the body faces in life situations. The view of consciousness as a self-contained inner world collapsed. The influence of Darwinian biology was also reflected in the fact that mental processes began to be studied from the point of view of development. At the dawn of psychology, the main source of information about these processes was the adult individual, who was able in the laboratory, following the experimenter's instructions, to focus his "inner eye" on the facts of "direct experience." The expansion of the zone of cognition introduced special objects into psychology. It was impossible to apply the method of introspective analysis to them. These were the facts of the behavior of animals, children, and the mentally ill. The practice of real research work to the foundation shook the view of psychology as a science of consciousness. A new understanding of its subject was maturing. In any field of knowledge there are competing concepts and schools. This situation is normal for the growth of science. However, with all the disagreements, these directions are held together by common views on the subject under study. in psychology at the beginning of the 20th century. the divergence and clash of positions were determined by the fact that each of the schools defended its own subject, different from the others. At the beginning of the XX century. the former image of the subject of psychology, as it was formed during the period of its self-affirmation in the family of other sciences, has become very dim. Although most psychologists still believed that they were studying consciousness and its phenomena, these phenomena were increasingly correlated with the vital activity of the organism, with its motor activity. Only a very few continued to believe that they were called to search for the building material of direct experience and its structures.

The following natural-scientific prerequisites for the formation of psychology as an independent science in the middle of the 19th century are distinguished.

1. The gradual separation of psychology from philosophy, since for psychology there was a need to separate objects and methods, in particular, an orientation towards empirical methods of cognition, while philosophy, being more a theoretical science than a practical one, could not give psychology the necessary tools.

2. Introduction into psychology based on the historical need to find one’s own, different from the philosophical, method of learning new methods of research, in particular, the method of experiment borrowed from natural science, as well as mathematical methods calculation of experimental results.

3. Active development of physiology in early XIX century, which, having a specific subject of study - the human body and studying the structure of its organs, made the mental functions of a person dependent on the characteristics of its anatomy and explained the causes and mechanisms of its functioning not as a consequence of the influence and special organization of the soul, which is some kind of incorporeal and divine substance, but as entirely dependent on the characteristics of human anatomy and physiology. Not at the level of theoretical research, but directly in experience, the dependence of certain aspects of human behavior on physiological, i.e., material, factors was proved.

4. The emergence of an evolutionary approach to understanding human nature [C. Darwin's theory of evolutionary development, G. Spencer's evolutionary essenceism) led to a change in views on the understanding of the human psyche and the resulting problems of psychology.

This state of affairs in science could not but affect the views and ideas fundamental to psychology, in particular, the accepted idea of ​​the soul as a substance that controls the body or, at least, has some kind of imperishable essence.

Page 17 of 30

Highlighting psychologyinto independent science

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) - famous German scientist, organizer of science. A key moment in the development of psychology is associated with his name, since it was he who organized the first Laboratory for the Experimental Study of Consciousness in Leipzig in 1879 and the first The educational center, where one could get a psychological education - the Institute of Experimental Psychology.

Wundt was the second son in a pastor's family. Many representatives of the Wundt family became famous in various fields of science. He initially studied medicine at two German universities (Heidelberg and Tübengen), then studied physiology for a year at Berlin University, later, having already received his doctorate, worked as a laboratory assistant with Helmholtz, famous for his work on the physiology of the propagation of excitation in the nerve fiber and studies of space perception (Schultz D., Schulz S., 1998).

At an organized institute, Wundt lectured on logic, psychology, the psychology of language, cosmology, mathematical logic, the psychology of peoples, and physiology. nervous system and the brain, the basics of ethics and law (Zhdan A.N., 1997). His lectures were attended by up to 600 people. Leipzig became a place of pilgrimage for those who were interested in the problems of psychology. The Americans Stanley Hall (the founder of pedology), Hugo Müpsterberg (the founder of industrial psychology) were among those who studied, trained, or simply visited the Wundt Institute and Laboratory; German psychiatrist, one of the founders of modern psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin; the only true student of Wundt was the Englishman Edward Titchener (the founder of the school of structural psychology); founder of the Würzburg School pilot study the thinking of Oswald Külpe and his collaborator Karl Marbe; Russian scientists - psychiatrist, neurologist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev, psychiatrist Vladimir Fedorovich Chizh, psychologist Nikolai Nikolaevich Lange (creator of one of the first experimental psychology laboratories in Odessa) and many others.

Wundt formulated his ideas regarding the applicability of the experiment in psychology in the work "Essays on the Theory of Perception" (1862), and in the work "Lectures on the Soul of Man and Animals" (1863) he substantiated his conviction about the impossibility of applying the experimental method to the analysis of the products of the human spirit - language , myths, beliefs. By the mid 60s. 19th century Wundt formed an idea about the subject matter of psychology as a science, about its methods and immediate tasks of development.

The subject of psychology. Criticizing the notion that psychology is the science of the soul or inner experience, Wundt defined psychology as the science of direct experience of consciousness nia, where subject and object are inextricably linked. The direct experience of consciousness consists of two series of factors - the objective content of experience, which reflects the objectively existing external world, and the subjective experience of the subject perceiving the world. In this regard, psychology deals with two types of mental elements. Elements of objective content are sensations (heat, light, tone, hardness, taste, smell, etc.). The elements of the subjective series can be described with the help of elementary emotions experienced by the subject who perceives the world (in the range of pleasure-unpleasure), and the level of activation of the subject (excitation-sedation, tension-relaxation). According to Wundt, the diversity of the subjective world is higher than the diversity of the objective world.

Thus, the elementary components of the immediate current experience of the subject are three phenomena - sensations, feelings tivation. The task of psychology is to exhaustively describe the components of the direct experience of the subject's consciousness. At the same time, Wundt believed that the elements of consciousness (“brain atoms”) are not static and their connections are not mechanical, and consciousness has the function apperception, or "creative synthesis" and integration with respect to elemental phenomena.

In more late period of his scientific activity (the 80s, known as the philosophical decade), Wundt came to the understanding that in addition to the immediate experience of the consciousness of an individual subject, there is also a huge layer cultural and historical experience of all mankind, which psychology cannot ignore: it is language, myths, beliefs, ie. what Wundt called "the highest products of the human spirit". This line of development of psychology is presented in the 10-volume edition "Psychology of Peoples" (1900-1920). Methods of psychology. An important consequence follows from such an understanding of the subject of psychology: in order to measure the elements of the direct experience of consciousness, it is necessary to apply to an objective series of data experiment, to the second, subjective row - introspection method, for this phenomenology is open only to the experiencing subject and to no one else.

For mental phenomena associated with the cultural and historical past of mankind, as Wundt believed, only descriptive me tod research.

Topics of laboratory research at schoolWundt. In the laboratory of Wundt, the following characteristics of sensations (and perceptions) were experimentally studied: the volume of the visual field and the effects of binocular and monocular vision, color perception, sequential images, visual adaptation and light contrast. In the 90s. work began on the study of other modalities - auditory sensations (Kruger), skin and tactile sensations (Blix, Frey), olfactory and taste sensations. A division into contact and distant sense organs appeared, and hypotheses arose about phylogenetically older (contact) and "younger" (distant) sense organs. In addition, attempts were made to study the duration of elementary mental acts - sensations by measuring the reaction time. Among the scientific topics of Wundt's laboratory was a topic related to the study of not simple reaction time to physical stimuli, but reactions to speech signals, experiments that were also carried out by other researchers (F: Galton). This type of experiment is called the association experiment. Wundt classified a variety of speech responses into the following classes: a) verbal associations that arise as a result of connections established in culture (table-chair, water-river); b) external associations based on the name of objects that fall into the field of view of the subject at the time of the experiment; c) internal associations based on logical relationships of meanings (genus-species, species-species, etc.).

If we talk about the Wundt school itself, then it ceased to exist, since “he was able to attract many, but retained a few” (Yaroshevsky M. G., 1976, p. 309). Many of his students (with the exception of E. Titchener) abandoned the teacher's ideas and became the leaders of individual psychological schools and trends in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Psychology began to develop according to the laws of small groups: a group (school) was formed with an ideological leader, rigid boundaries of membership, opposed to representatives of other schools, with its own publication and organizational structure (Yaroshevsky M. G., 1976). This period of the development of psychology in Russian literature was called a crisis, but looking ahead and analyzing the development of psychology in the 20th century, we can say that this crisis has become chronic. If by the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. in psychology, there were 5 major theoretical areas (behaviorism, psychoanalysis, structural psychology, functional psychology, Gestalt psychology), then by the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. N. Smith (2003) describes 16 psychological systems that include schools as smaller units.