Everyday and scientific psychology: examples, similarities and differences, relationships

Psychology emerged as an independent science in the middle of the 19th century. But a completely logical question arises: didn’t there exist psychological phenomena such as stress and neuroses before that, didn’t people communicate and conflict, didn’t there exist personal problems? Were. But this was in the nature of folk wisdom and observations. Before scientific psychology there was everyday psychology.

Wisdom or subjective understanding of the world

The peculiarities of everyday psychology are that observations depend on personal experience, incidents occurring around the individual. A person subjectively understands the features of the world, psychological patterns. Another name for everyday psychology is wisdom.

There are three sources of development of this branch of psychology:

1. Joint activities with other people.
2. Communication with others.
3. New acquaintances, relationships.

To show his life through wisdom, the subject can use different tools:

• music;
• books;
• paintings.

They help others feel the inner world of the author. The most striking examples of experienced psychologists are individuals whose work involves constant communication.

Scientific psychology

The main goal of scientific psychology is the search for new psychological knowledge about the inner world of people. Moreover, for scientific psychology, the general laws of mental life are of interest.

For many centuries, scientific and psychological knowledge has been accumulated within the framework of philosophy, biology, medicine, pedagogy, sociology and other sciences related to the study of man. In the second half of the 19th century, psychology became an independent science. Since then, she has developed a large number of her own methods of scientific knowledge aimed at studying facts, patterns and mechanisms of mental life.

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Scientific psychology is based on empirical scientific facts, that is, facts obtained experimentally. Scientific and psychological facts are characterized by objectivity, that is, they are independent of the subjective opinion of the scientist. Scientific psychological knowledge is rational and conscious. The use of empirical and logical methods of proving the truth of scientific and psychological knowledge gives them special weight. Scientific methods provide greater reliability and evidence to the acquired knowledge. In scientific psychology, there are reliable and testable ways to measure mental phenomena.

Scientific psychology is distinguished by the generality of the knowledge obtained, since it is aimed at searching for general patterns of mental phenomena. Scientific psychology is characterized by consistency and consistency. Due to the generality of the knowledge obtained in scientific psychology, it widely relies on abstract concepts and general scientific categories. To explain and prove psychological patterns in scientific psychology, experiments are often used as models of real mental processes. Scientific and psychological knowledge is presented in a specific scientific language. Scientific psychology is often called academic psychology. At the same time, it is usually divided into fundamental and applied.

1.4. Practical psychology

Its main goal is psychological help to people. The work of practical psychologists is aimed at finding ways and developing methods of psychological assistance to people in solving their life or professional problems. The main methods of practical psychology most often include psychodiagnostics, psychotherapy and psychocorrection, psychological counseling, and developmental psychological work. The subject of practical psychology is the individuality of a person and the specific circumstances of his life, a specific individual or a specific group, and not the general patterns of mental phenomena (as in scientific psychology).

The criterion for the reliability of knowledge of this type is the experience and efficiency of specialists.

The characteristics of knowledge in practical psychology can be considered specificity and practicality.

Psychological knowledge obtained as a result of practical work experience is generalized and systematized.

Another feature of practical psychology is integrity in the description of a person.

The concepts of practical psychology are distinguished by their metaphorical nature, that is, the use of terms that have a figurative figurative meaning.

In practical psychology, the influence of the psychologist’s personality on the process and results of work is significant.

Practical psychologists show great desire to popularize psychological knowledge.

What is scientific psychology

Scientific psychology is material obtained through experimentation and research. Psychology in scientific terms and theories.

Sources of scientific psychology:

• books, scientific articles and other publications;
• experiments;
• teachers and mentors passing on theoretical experience (university studies in psychology).

The basis of scientific psychology is everyday psychology. Only after noticing something in practice do scientists decide to find a scientific explanation and determine the scale of the process.

Scientific psychology provides general guidelines for interaction. For example, it is known that all people are infected by the emotions of the group; Every person’s brain reacts by increasing their mood to a forced smile. And bright colors excite the psyche of each individual, cold shades make you sad, etc. This means that you can safely use these techniques in everyday life.

Ordinary or everyday knowledge

Common or everyday knowledge is based on daily experience. It is in complete agreement with common sense and coincides with it in many ways. Ordinary knowledge involves the statement and description of facts. The sphere of the everyday is constantly expanding, this happens in waves due to the uneven development of science, philosophy, art, through the expansion of the range of known facts. Everyday knowledge has a special meaning against the background of the fact that it is the basis for all other knowledge. That is why one should not reduce his role in society and human existence.

Stage of elementary sensory psyche

In Russian psychology, the opinion has long been established that animal behavior is essentially instinctive behavior. Instincts are also associated with those forms of behavior that are acquired by specific animals during the course of their lives.

^ Instinctive behavior is a species-specific behavior that is equally directed in all representatives of the same animal species. As a rule, instinctive behavior is determined by biological expediency and consists in ensuring the possibility of existence (survival) of a specific representative or species as a whole. But it would not be entirely correct to say that the behavior of an animal is only genetically determined and does not change throughout life.

The conditions in which an animal finds itself are constantly changing, so individual adaptation exists in all animals.

A feature of animal behavior in the early stages of development is that it is always stimulated and controlled by individual properties of objects affecting the animal. For example, as soon as an insect falls into a web, the spider runs towards it and entangles it with its thread. What causes this spider behavior? The vibration of the web transmits the vibration of insect wings. As soon as the vibration stops, the spider stops moving towards its victim, but as soon as the vibration is resumed, the spider begins to move again. The fact that it is the vibration of the web that determines the behavior of the spider is proven by the following experiment: a vibrating tuning fork brought to the web causes the spider to move, while at the same time the vibration of the wings of a fly, grabbed with tweezers and brought directly to the spider, causes the spider to flee.

Several questions involuntarily arise. Firstly, what explains the incentive effect of certain properties of objects and, secondly, why is any animal behavior possible at all? The answer to the first question is simple: the vibration of the web is consistently associated with the absorption and assimilation of food by the spider - an insect caught in the web. Consequently, such behavior of animals has a biological meaning, since it is associated with the satisfaction of biological needs, in this case with the absorption of food.

It should be noted that the biological meaning of the influence of objects that excite and direct the behavior of an animal is not constant, but changes and develops depending on the specific living conditions of the animal and the characteristics of the environment. If, for example, you start feeding a hungry toad worms, and then put a match and a lump of moss in front of it, it will grab the match, which, like worms, has an elongated shape. But if you first feed the toad spiders, it will not pay attention to the match and will grab the moss. Round shapes now took on the meaning of food for her.

This stage of development, characterized by the fact that the behavior of an animal is stimulated by individual properties of an object due to the fact that they are associated with the implementation of the basic vital functions of animals, is called the stage of elementary behavior. Accordingly, this level of psyche development is called the stage of elementary sensory psyche.

Knowledge about life

So, it is important to understand that everyday psychology is far from science, it is a kind of synthesis of people’s knowledge about life, about themselves, the quintessence of experience, observations and experiences. Of course, conclusions drawn on the basis of subjective experience can hardly be objective and acceptable to others

Everyday psychology, its main features and characteristic features:

1. Specificity and down-to-earthness. Everyday psychology tends to talk about specific people and the situations in which they find themselves; it relies on the subjective experiences of specific people. Usually, as an example, they give you stories that happened to some person who found himself in a certain situation and made certain conclusions for himself (naturally, this conclusion will be relevant and useful for him, but it is not a fact that this knowledge can be widely applicable and used other people).

2. Intuitive nature of knowledge. The peculiarities of everyday psychology are that it relies on intuition, on subjective feelings, and usually no one seeks to check their feelings or try to think about them. This is most often the main limitation of intuitive knowledge - it is almost impossible to explain it to another person, “I just realized something.”

3. Insufficient depth of knowledge. People make conclusions superficially, without examining certain motives, emotions or behavior of other people. As a rule, a conclusion is made quickly, without checking its reliability (this is where fears, beliefs, proverbs, superstitions come from, when people try to follow certain rules just because someone said so; following fashion or relying on popular books or articles lives here , which do not carry any scientific knowledge).

4. The main method is observation. Most of us make conclusions about something based only on periodic, short-term observation, which is not at all consistent with its scientific counterpart. As a result, this leads to a superficial perception of reality, since everything is verified only through personal experience, and, as we know, such a method is extremely subjective and limited.

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5. Everyday psychology does not have a common terminology. The life experience of many people is connected with different times, eras, states, so everyone tends to describe this or that state “in his own words,” into which he puts his own meaning, which only he fully understands. This often leads to misunderstandings and substitution of concepts.

Such knowledge can be presented very confidently and openly, you can be convinced that a given method or point of view is correct, because it is written so in a magazine or because everyone does it. You can also be assured that this postulate has been tested by personal experience. For example, a person celebrated the New Year in a bad mood and the whole next year was not going well for him, after which he carries this knowledge to his friends as a dogma.

It is important to understand that not every person has inner instinct, insight, the ability to notice details and generate everyday psychological knowledge. Therefore, it is always worth remembering that not all other people’s knowledge can be useful for you, but sometimes you can listen and communicate with different people in order to have an idea about a certain phenomenon or learn about someone else’s experience, knowledge of which may be useful

Scientific psychology

Psychology became an independent science only in the second half of the 19th century.

Before this, knowledge from the field of psychology was accumulated in:

• medicine
• biology
• philosophy
• pedagogy
• sociology
• etc.

Psychology is the science of the soul. But since no one can give a definition to “soul,” the scientific world began to use the word “psyche.” At the same time, do not argue with the religious picture of the world.

Psyche is a property of unorganized matter, consisting in a subjective reflection of the objective world. In other words: the psyche is like a distorting lens through which we look at the world. Some have rose-colored glasses, others have binoculars.

Examples of mental phenomena and processes:

• Cognitive (imagination, thinking, speech, memory)
• Emotional (doubts, fears, inspiration)
• Various aspects of activity regulation (laziness, needs, motivation, will)
• Human Temperament
• Character
• Social relationships (likes, dislikes, compatibility, suggestibility, leadership, friendship)

Mental life can be conscious and unconscious. Conscious - one in which a person can give himself an account. The unconscious one is the one in which it cannot.

Mental processes can be voluntary and involuntary.

Method is a system of methods and techniques with the help of which the process of cognition is carried out.

Research methods in scientific psychology:

• systematic observations - external and internal (self-observation)
• experiment (natural and laboratory)
• modeling
• biographical analysis of documents
• methods of mathematical and statistical processing of empirical data
• survey (oral and written, questionnaire and free survey)
• use of tests (questionnaire test, task test and projective test)

Projection method: a person, answering questions or completing tasks, reflects his hidden personal characteristics in his answers.

Scientific knowledge is characterized by objectivity - independence from the subjective opinion and position of the scientist.

Psychology studies human behavior, his actions and activities. The interesting thing is that all this is always subjective.

And from this there is a direct consequence: if all our knowledge and perceptions are subjective, then our scientific knowledge from very objective areas is also subjective. Such as biology, physics, mathematics. If at some point we begin to better understand how our perception of reality works, it may turn out that we have been wrong about a lot of things.

Psychology understands its subjectivity. And only through this one simple thesis it becomes clear that all natural sciences are much more subjective than they seem. This is for those who believe in science, but do not consider psychology to be a science.

For some reason, it never occurs to anyone to deny the mental phenomena mentioned above. But psychology as a science is fine. Moreover, I myself had a very, very biased attitude towards her. Exactly until I began to immerse myself and go deeper into theoretical foundations that no one usually cares about.

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Irrational psychology

Irrational psychology is understood as a range of psychological knowledge that cannot be explained by scientific and generally rational methods.

Traditionally, scientific knowledge is opposed to religious knowledge. Irrational psychology also includes esoteric knowledge, based on some secret knowledge inaccessible to most people (astrology, yoga, numerology, palmistry, etc.).

The mystery of the methods for obtaining them, the lack of the possibility of a rational explanation based on scientific principles, are characteristic of esotericism. Methods of proving the truth of such knowledge are specific, irrational, and inaccessible to systematic and logical justification.

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Why do I need knowledge of psychology?

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The criterion for the reliability of esoteric knowledge for initiates is its compliance with the postulates of secret knowledge and inner conviction of their truth. For people not initiated into secret knowledge, the main criterion of truth is faith and experience of experiencing the corresponding states.

The most important feature of this knowledge is its integrity. The vagueness of the presentation and the uncertainty of the conclusions allow such knowledge to be quite plausible and applicable in any circumstances. What makes esoteric knowledge attractive is its practicality.

Much of the knowledge gained in parapsychology can also be attributed to irrational psychology. Parapsychology deals with the study of extrasensory cognition, clairvoyance, telepathy, and foresight.

1.5. Psychological knowledge in art

Psychological knowledge is found in various types of art: fiction, visual and musical arts, theater and cinema. They record a huge variety of human destinies and real psychological problems. These are a kind of “experimental situations” that were created by life itself or the creative imagination of a writer, artist, musician, playwright, director. Priority in the depiction of a person in art belongs, of course, to fiction.

Psychological knowledge in art is figurative in nature. Since psychological knowledge in art is expressed in images, they are descriptive in nature.

Psychological knowledge in art is fragmentary.

Emotionality is another typical feature of psychological knowledge in art.

The main criterion for the truth of psychological knowledge in art is the acceptance and recognition of images by the reader, viewer, and listener.

Everyday psychology

Everyday psychology is psychological knowledge that is accumulated and used by a person in everyday life.

The criterion for the truth of such knowledge is plausibility and usefulness in everyday life situations.

Differences between everyday psychology and scientific psychology:

1. Everyday experience is individual, but science strives for the universality of knowledge.
2. In life we ​​rely on empirical generalizations, in science - on theoretical generalizations that are based on the hidden properties of objects
3. Everyday experience is focused on practical effect, science is focused on knowledge as an independent value.
4. In life, methods of cognition are not developed or discussed; in science this is fundamental.

For example, if we open a public page on VKontakte with the name “Psychology” or “Quotes from wise people,” then with 99.9% accuracy we will end up in the treasury of “folk wisdom” from the field of everyday psychology. They are also reflected in books, blogs, songs, films and other types of authorship and collective creativity.

Next I will give examples of theses from everyday psychology (taken from the Internet without attribution).

I think the idea is clear. This is the same thing that girls and boys repost to themselves to show their life wisdom and share what they cannot formulate on their own. These words are of little use: they either state a fact, or reflect generally accepted moral principles, or force one to argue with them, because they are not universal.

Everyday psychology is based on the experience of everyday life, scientific psychology is based on experimental methods

In everyday life, we are forced to limit ourselves to observations and thoughts: “Why did this happen to me?” The scientific path consists of the “experiment - theory - practice” scheme and is based on scientific methods: analysis and synthesis, experiment, projective techniques.

Situation

A young ambitious manager suddenly found himself unable to withstand the gaze of a subordinate who was twice his age and enjoyed special authority among his colleagues. He will probably formulate his problem like this: “What should I do so as not to blush at a meeting and not lower my eyes like a schoolboy?”

Everyday psychology

A common answer might be: “Look not directly into the eyes, but a little higher, at the forehead area.” Even if a young man tries this method and temporarily solves the problem, such a “victory” will be imaginary.

Scientific psychology

A psychologist will solve a deeper problem, rather than eliminate its “symptoms.” There are a number of experiments in social psychology that describe the behavior of informal leaders in an organization: this is probably what a subordinate became.

Thus, Elton Mayo's experiments revealed that informal leadership is important for group activity. And the task of a leader is not to be able to suppress when communicating, but to know the resources of his team and direct them as efficiently as possible to achieve organizational goals. This is exactly what we should strive for.

Structure of mental phenomena

Mental processes

Mental conditions

Mental properties

Cognitive Sensation, perception, representation, memory, imagination, thinking, speech, attention

Elation, depression, fear, vigor, etc.

Direction, temperament, abilities, character

Emotional excitement, joy, indignation, anger, etc.

Strong-willed

making decisions, overcoming difficulties,

struggle of motives, managing one’s behavior

Mental processes

act as primary regulators of human behavior. Ps processes have a definite beginning, course and end, i.e. have certain dynamic characteristics, which include parameters that determine the duration and stability of the mental process.

On the basis of mental processes, certain states are formed, knowledge, skills and abilities are formed.

In turn, mental processes are divided into three groups: cognitive, emotional and volitional.

Cognitive mental processes include mental processes associated with the perception and processing of information. These include sensation, perception, representation, memory, imagination, thinking, speech, attention. Thanks to these processes, a person receives information about the world around him and about himself

Have you noticed that some events remain in your memory for a long time, while others you forget about the next day, and other information may go unnoticed by you. This is due to the fact that any information may or may not have an emotional connotation, i.e.

may or may not be significant. Therefore, along with cognitive processes, emotional mental processes are distinguished as independent ones.

We have the right to believe that if a certain event or phenomenon evokes positive emotions in a person, then this has a beneficial effect on his activity and condition, and, conversely, negative emotions complicate activity and worsen the person’s condition. However, there are exceptions.

For example, an event that causes negative emotions increases a person’s activity and stimulates him to overcome the obstacles that have arisen.

Such a reaction indicates that for the formation of human behavior, not only emotional, but also volitional mental processes are important, which clearly manifest themselves in situations related to decision-making and overcoming difficulties.

Sometimes they are identified as an independent group - unconscious processes. It includes those processes that occur or are carried out outside the control of consciousness.

Mental processes are closely interconnected and act as primary factors in the formation of mental states.

Mental conditions

characterize the state of the psyche as a whole. They have their own dynamics, which are characterized by duration, direction, stability, and intensity.

At the same time, mental states influence the course and outcome of mental processes and can promote or inhibit activity.

Mental states include such phenomena as elation, depression, fear, and vigor.

The next class of mental phenomena - mental properties of personality -

characterized by greater stability and greater constancy.

Under the mental properties of personality

It is customary to understand the most significant personality characteristics that provide a certain quantitative and qualitative level of human activity and behavior. Mental properties include orientation, temperament, abilities, character. The level of development of these properties, as well as the peculiarities of the development of mental processes and the prevailing (most characteristic of a person) mental states determine the uniqueness of a person, his individuality.

The phenomena studied by psychology are associated not only with a specific person, but also with groups.

Mental phenomena associated with the life of groups and collectives are studied in detail within the framework of social psychology.

Thus, the subject of psychology is the psyche and mental phenomena of both one specific person and mental phenomena observed in groups and collectives.

1.1. World of psychological knowledge

Psychology is knowledge about the psyche as the inner world of people, about the psychological reasons that explain their behavior. Mental phenomena are understood as facts of internal subjective experience. These facts include various manifestations of a person’s mental (mental) life:

• cognitive mental processes (sensations, perception, representation, imagination, thinking, speech, memorization, preservation, reproduction);
• emotional phenomena (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, anxiety, stress, sympathy, antipathy, love, friendship, hatred);
• Various aspects of activity regulation (needs and motivation, attention);
• mental states (inspiration, stress, fatigue, adaptation);
• mental properties of a person (temperament, character, abilities, self-awareness, a person’s ideas about himself, his self-esteem and self-respect, level of aspirations, a number of other personal characteristics);
• mental phenomena characterizing human interpersonal relationships (interpersonal perception, sympathy, antipathy, compatibility, conflicts, friendship, love, suggestibility, leadership, psychological climate).

Mental phenomena can be conscious or unconscious. Psychological knowledge as knowledge about the human mental world can have different sources. The five main types of psychological knowledge differ in methods of obtaining, features of construction, methods of expression and justification, as well as criteria of truth:

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Psychology of advertising activity 3

... hence behavior. An example of the formation of a dominant Since psychology is both a science and a field of practical activity, especially in terms of observing human behavior and determining the motives that motivate him to ... this concept of “value” may or may not be a category of formal logic. Usually a person satisfies his needs in increasing order. In first place are natural...

1. everyday psychology,
2. scientific psychology,
3. practical psychology,
4. art,
5. irrational psychology.

The view of science

To begin with, it is important to understand the definition of psychology as such. So, psychology is a complex science, it explores one of the most mysterious and complex mechanisms in nature - the human psyche

In this regard, this scientific discipline requires attention, depth of research, as well as special working methods.

Throughout the 20th century, this science gained momentum, developed, and found more and more new methods for studying humans. The professional view of many theorists has helped this science become one of the most influential in our time. The theoretical aspect within its framework is extremely important, because the theory gives general ideas about the world and man, which exist in almost every science.

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In the process of long-term experiments, collection and analysis of theoretical and practical data, scientific or academic psychology was formed, the main features of which are as follows:

1. Generalizations. This sign suggests that conclusions are drawn not on the basis of what one specific person experienced, but on the basis of many experiments and observations. And when a certain fact, a certain behavioral reaction manifests itself in similar circumstances in a larger number of samples, a certain conclusion can be drawn based on detailed analysis and generalization.

2. Rationalization. Scientific psychology gains knowledge through experimentation and detailed reflection on its results. Data must be rationally explained, and a cause-and-effect relationship between phenomena must be traced.

3. No restrictions - this means that the data obtained through scientific experiments is applicable to a large number of people

For example, data on the fatigue of schoolchildren, how attention functions and what is the maximum number of objects we can hold in short-term memory - all this is consistent for most of the general population

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4. Reliance on various methods. As you know, scientific psychology has a fairly large range of different methods - from content analysis to psychological experiment. When using various methods for studying the psyche and its mechanisms, data is checked in order to identify variables that influence the experiment and create the necessary conditions for research.

• Observation is long-term monitoring of the manifestation of certain signs in those observed in natural and sometimes specially created conditions.
• A survey is a collection of information from a large number of people using questions, the answers to which are processed and grouped.
• Tests are a method of quantitative and qualitative assessment of a person’s mental processes, his behavioral and emotional reactions. With the help of tests, you can assess both a person’s mental and intellectual abilities, as well as the level of his anxiety or creative abilities.
• Experiment - this method is aimed at studying specific mental phenomena in certain, specially created and controlled conditions. Almost any experiment serves to confirm or refute a theory or hypothesis.

5. Systematization of knowledge is a theoretical approach. Everything that science receives in the course of research and experiments is systematized, analyzed, on the basis of which certain conclusions are drawn. And it must be said that in order to systematize any knowledge or come to a certain conclusion, it takes a lot of time, sometimes several years.

6. The main features of the scientific approach are the presence of a single glossary and the use of a single terminology. Psychology as a science has a clear system of terms that describe certain states and processes. And this, in turn, eliminates discrepancies when one concept is replaced by another.

7. Use of mathematical statistics methods for data processing. They avoid unreliability, subjectivity, and eye-catching conclusions.

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The relationship between everyday and scientific psychology is obvious - one explores practice and accumulates experience, the other tests everything through experiment. But we should never forget that everyday psychological knowledge is not scientific, which means that it cannot always be applied by one person or another and be effective.

If we recall all the stages of the development of psychology as a science, we can say that this knowledge largely began with the use of the method of introspection, when the scientist observed himself and his subjective experiences. Based on this, many conclusions and conclusions were made.

• 1.1. Features of psychology as a science
• 1.2. Subject and basic principles of psychology
• 1.3. Methods of psychology
• 1.4. Structure of modern psychology
• 1.5. The place of psychology in the system of scientific knowledge

Topic 1. Psychology as a science

1.1. Features of psychology as a science

At all times, humanity has been interested in questions about what a person is: what determines the reasons and patterns of his actions, the laws of behavior in society, the inner world. The task of understanding how mental images arise, what consciousness, thinking, and creativity are, and what their mechanisms are, seemed intriguing. Psychology, which since its inception has been balancing between science, art and faith, seeks to answer all these and many other questions. What are the difficulties associated with its development?

Firstly, this is the science of the most complex thing known to mankind. Even the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, beginning his treatise “On the Soul,” wrote: “Among other knowledge, research about the soul should be given one of the first places, since it is knowledge about the most sublime and amazing.” And the great physicist A. Einstein, getting acquainted with the experiments of the famous psychologist J. Piaget, summed up his impressions in a paradoxical phrase that the study of physical problems is a child’s game in comparison with the mysteries of the psychology of children’s play.

Secondly, in psychology, a person simultaneously acts as both an object and a subject of knowledge. A unique phenomenon occurs: a person’s scientific consciousness becomes scientific self-consciousness.

Thirdly, in psychological research the difficult and ambiguously solved problem of the objectivity of scientific knowledge is particularly acute. Many scientists refused to recognize psychology as an objective scientific discipline, arguing that it was impossible to objectively study the subjective inner world of a person, which is directly open to knowledge only by him alone.

The difficulties of the formation and development of psychology are determined, finally, by the fact that it is a very young science. Despite the fact that questions about the essence and characteristics of the human psyche were raised in the works of ancient and medieval philosophers, scientific psychology received official formalization a little more than a hundred years ago - in 1879, when the German psychologist W. Wundt opened the first laboratory of experimental psychology in Leipzig.

The word “psychology” first appeared in the 16th century. in Western European texts. It is formed from the Greek words “psyche” (soul) and “logos” (knowledge, science): literally translated, psychology is the science of the soul. This definition does not correspond to modern views on psychological science. The title reflects ideas about psychology characteristic of the period of its origin and initial development within the framework of philosophy. According to the philosophical understanding of that time, the subject of psychology was precisely the soul - the main, essential principle of objects of living nature, the cause of life, breathing, cognition, etc.

The emergence of psychology as an independent, truly scientific discipline also occurred against the background of discoveries that were made within the framework of natural science research. Psychology arose at the intersection of two large areas of knowledge - philosophy and natural sciences, and it has not yet been determined whether to consider it a natural science or a humanities one.

The words “psychologist” and “psychology” went beyond scientific treatises and were developed in everyday life: psychologists are called experts on human souls, passions and characters; The word “psychology” is used in several meanings – it refers to both scientific and non-scientific knowledge. In everyday consciousness, these concepts are often confused.

Every person has a stock of everyday psychological knowledge, the basis of which is life experience. We can understand another, influence his behavior, predict his actions, help him. Being a good everyday psychologist is one of the important requirements for specialists in those professions that involve constant communication with people, such as a teacher, doctor, manager, salesman, etc. The brightest examples of everyday psychology are those works of literature and art where a deep psychological analysis of life situations and motives of the characters’ behavior is presented. The content of everyday psychology is embodied in rituals, traditions, proverbs, sayings, parables, rituals that consolidate centuries-old folk wisdom. In this regard, the question arises: is scientific psychology necessary, or perhaps the knowledge and experience accumulated in everyday psychology is enough to help a person overcome life’s difficulties, understand other people and himself? To answer this question, it is necessary to realize the fundamental difference between everyday and scientific psychological knowledge. Three main differences emerge.

1. According to the degree of generalization of knowledge and forms of its presentation

. Everyday psychological knowledge is specific: it is associated with certain people, certain situations and particular tasks. The concepts of everyday psychology, as a rule, are characterized by vagueness and ambiguity. Scientific psychology, like any science, strives for generalizations. For this purpose, scientific concepts are clearly defined and used, which reflect the most essential properties of objects and phenomena, general connections and relationships.

2. According to the method of obtaining knowledge and the degree of its subjectivity

. Everyday knowledge about human psychology is acquired through direct observation of other people and introspection, through practical trial and error. They are intuitive, rather irrational and extremely subjective. Knowledge of everyday psychology is often contradictory, fragmented and poorly systematized. Methods of obtaining knowledge in scientific psychology are rational, conscious and purposeful. The wealth of methods used by scientific psychology provides extensive, varied material, which in a generalized and systematized form appears in logically consistent concepts and theories. To test put forward hypotheses in scientific psychology, scientists develop and organize special experiments, the essence of which is that the researcher does not expect the random manifestation of mental processes of interest to him, but creates special conditions to cause them.

3. By methods of knowledge transfer.

The possibilities of transferring knowledge in everyday psychology from one person to another are very limited. This is primarily due to the fact that there are difficulties in verbalizing individual psychological experience, the entire complex range of emotional experiences, and at the same time there is a certain distrust in the reliability and truth of this kind of information. This fact is clearly illustrated by the eternal problem of “fathers” and “children”, which consists precisely in the fact that children cannot and do not want to adopt the experience of their elders. Each generation learns from its own mistakes. The accumulation and transmission of scientific knowledge occurs in concepts and laws, scientific concepts and theories. They are enshrined in specialized literature and are easily passed on from generation to generation.

The listed differences show the advantages of scientific psychological knowledge. At the same time, we cannot deny the need for everyday experience, which plays an important role in the development of psychology as a science. Scientific psychology, firstly, is based on everyday psychological experience; secondly, it extracts its tasks from it; thirdly, at the last stage it is checked. The relationship between scientific and everyday psychological knowledge is not straightforward. Not all professional psychologists are good everyday psychologists. And just because you become acquainted with the basics of scientific psychology does not mean that you will immediately become experts on human souls. However, constant analysis of emerging life situations using the knowledge that you will gain by studying psychology will help you better understand other people, the world around you and, ultimately, yourself.

The concepts and concepts of scientific psychology influence people’s everyday ideas about mental life. Scientific psychological concepts are penetrating into spoken language, and people are beginning to actively use them to describe their conditions or personality traits. The result of increased interest in scientific psychology in society has been the active development of popular psychology, which provides fundamental scientific knowledge to a wide audience, making it simpler and more understandable. The positive role of popular psychology is to form a general psychological culture of society and attract interest in psychology as a scientific discipline.

1.2. Subject and basic principles of psychology

The specificity of scientific knowledge is determined by the subject of scientific research and the corresponding methods that make it possible to reveal the patterns of the phenomena being studied. What constitutes the subject of scientific knowledge in psychology? This is probably one of the most difficult questions. Throughout the history of the development of psychological thought, positions on it have undergone serious changes; there is no consensus on this matter among modern scientists. In its most general form as a subject of psychology

As an independent scientific discipline, phenomena, facts and patterns of human mental life can be called.
Mental phenomena
to the internal, subjective experience of a person.
The fundamental property of such experience is its direct presentation to the subject. This means that mental processes not only occur in us, but are also revealed to us directly: we not only see, feel, desire and think, but we also know what we see, feel, desire and think. Our inner world is like a big stage on which various events take place, and we are both actors and spectators. Mental life is not limited only to internal experience; there is a whole range of external manifestations of the psyche: acts of behavior, unconscious mental processes, psychosomatic relationships and other psychological facts
in which the psyche openly reveals its properties, which makes it possible to study the mechanisms and patterns of its functioning.

Indeed, scientific knowledge requires not only a description of facts and phenomena, but also their explanation, which in turn presupposes the discovery of the laws and patterns to which facts and phenomena are subject. In connection with this, the subject of study in psychology is not only psychological facts and psychological phenomena, but also the patterns of mental life.

The study of the subject of modern psychology is based on a number of principles, which are the starting points that make it possible to meaningfully describe the object under study, plan procedures for obtaining empirical material, generalize and interpret it, put forward and test hypotheses.

The main methodological principles of psychology are:

the principle of determinism. According to this principle, everything that exists arises, changes and ceases to exist naturally. In psychological research, this means that the psyche is determined by the way of life and changes with changes in the external conditions of existence;

the principle of unity of consciousness and activity. Consciousness and activity are in continuous unity, but they are not identical to each other. Consciousness is formed in activity in order to, in turn, influence this activity, forming its internal plan;

principle of development The psyche can be correctly understood only if it is considered in continuous development as a process and the result of activity. The study of any mental phenomenon should include a description of its characteristics at a given moment, the history of its occurrence and formation, and development prospects.

The uniqueness of psychological science is determined both by the subject of scientific knowledge and by methods that allow not only to describe the phenomena being studied but also to explain them, to discover the underlying patterns and to predict their further development.

1.3. Methods of psychology

“Method is the path of knowledge, it is the way through which the subject of science is learned” (S.L. Rubinstein). The doctrine of method constitutes a special field of knowledge - methodology, which is defined as a system of principles and methods of organizing, constructing theoretical and practical activities. The methodology of psychological research of the world is represented at several levels. The basic level, which creates the basis for all subsequent levels, is the philosophical level of the methodology, represented by the most general principles of knowledge of the world and ideological attitudes. Various philosophical systems offer their own explanations of the world and methods for achieving true knowledge. In psychology, over the entire history of its development, several psychological trends, schools and concepts have emerged, which come from different philosophical positions (see 2.1–2.3).

The second level of methodology is determined by general scientific principles, reflecting the specifics of scientific knowledge of the world and science as a special sphere of human activity. The third level consists of concrete scientific principles of psychology (see 1.3).

Next come research methods, which are ways of obtaining psychological facts and interpreting them. Finally, the last level of methodology is represented by specific empirical techniques with the help of which psychological data is collected and processed.

Modern psychology has a comprehensive system of various research methods and techniques, among which there are basic and auxiliary ones. The main methods of psychology include observation and experiment.

Observation

consists of the deliberate, systematic and purposeful perception of human behavior. Objective observation in psychology is aimed not at external actions in themselves, but at their psychological content; Scientific observation is characterized not simply by recording facts, but by their explanation and interpretation. Observation can be carried out both in natural conditions of human life and in a specially organized experimental environment. The following types of observation are used in research practice:

depending on the nature of interaction with the object: included and third-party. In participant observation, the researcher acts as a direct participant in the process he is observing, which allows him to obtain a holistic view of the situation. Third-party surveillance occurs without interaction or establishing any contact with those being monitored;

depending on the observer’s position: open and hidden. In the first case, the researcher reveals his role to the observed - the disadvantage of such observation is the constraint in the behavior of the observed subjects, caused by the knowledge that they are being observed. In covert surveillance, the presence of the observer is not revealed;

depending on the nature of the contact: direct and indirect. During direct observation, the observer and the object of his attention are in direct contact; the process of indirect observation includes special means that allow one to obtain more objective results: video or audio equipment, a “Gesell mirror” that transmits light only in one direction, thanks to which one can observe human behavior while remaining invisible, etc.;

depending on the conditions of observation: field and laboratory. Field observation occurs in the everyday life and activities of the observed; laboratory work is carried out in artificial, specially created conditions;

depending on the goals: purposeful and random. Targeted observation is systematic and specially organized; random is exploratory in nature and does not pursue clearly defined goals;

depending on the temporary organization: continuous and selective. In the process of continuous observation, the course of events is constantly recorded. In selective observation, the researcher selectively monitors only certain aspects of the observed process;

depending on the order of the organization of observation: standardized and free. Standardized observation is carried out according to a specific, pre-developed scheme. Free observation does not have a set program and clear parameters.

In psychological research, self-observation is also widely used, in which the researcher’s own experiences, feelings, thoughts and images are revealed.

Each of these types of observation has its own advantages and disadvantages, and its own capabilities for obtaining the most complete and reliable data. However, in general, organizing the process of psychological observation is very difficult, since its results depend on the personality of the observer, his attitudes and attitude towards the observed phenomena. To reduce the high degree of subjectivity in obtaining and interpreting data, it is necessary to strictly adhere to the facts and clearly record them. This increases the reliability of observations and helps to avoid errors.

Thanks to the experiment

Psychology had the opportunity to overcome subjectivity in the knowledge of its subject; with the introduction of the method of experimental research, it began to develop as an independent science.

S.L. Rubinstein

Four main features of the experimental method were identified:

1) the researcher himself causes the phenomenon he is studying - in contrast to observation, in which the observer cannot actively intervene in the situation;

2) the experimenter can vary, change the conditions for the occurrence and manifestation of the process being studied;

3) in an experiment, it is possible to alternately exclude individual conditions in order to establish natural connections that determine the process being studied;

4) the experiment allows you to vary the quantitative ratio of conditions and carry out mathematical processing of data.

The following types of experimental research are practiced in psychology:

a laboratory experiment is carried out under specially created and carefully controlled conditions by the researcher; in some cases, equipment and instruments are used, which ensures the scientific objectivity of the data obtained. The disadvantage of this type of research is the difficulty of transferring the results obtained in the experiment to real life. The artificiality and abstractness of laboratory conditions differ significantly from the conditions of human life;

a natural experiment removes the limitations of a laboratory experiment. The main advantage of this method is the combination of experimental research with the naturalness of the conditions. The idea of ​​conducting a psychological experiment in the natural conditions of people’s lives belongs to the domestic psychologist A.F. Lazursky

a formative experiment involves a purposeful influence on the subject in order to develop certain qualities in him. It can have a teaching and educational character;

the ascertaining experiment reveals certain mental characteristics and the level of development of the corresponding qualities.

In addition to the above basic methods, auxiliary methods are widely used in psychology:

conversation (interview) – obtaining information in the process of direct communication. There is a distinction between a free interview, in which there is no clear plan for the conversation and there is minimal regulation, and a structured interview, where answers to pre-prepared questions are given;

testing is a psychological diagnostic that involves standardized questions and tasks. Psychology has created a large number of specialized tests designed to measure various mental properties and personality traits: tests of intelligence, abilities, personal achievements, projective and many others. Their use requires professional psychological training, since unprofessional testing can harm a person. Nowadays there are also many so-called popular tests. As a rule, they are published in newspapers, magazines, and literature accessible to the general reader. Such tests are not strictly psychological, professional tools and are intended for self-testing; no special training is required;

analysis of the products of activity, based on the general premise of the unity of internal mental processes and external forms of behavior and activity. By studying the products of activity, one can obtain important information about the mental characteristics of its subject. Products of activity that are subject to careful analysis in psychology are texts written by a person, manufactured objects and phenomena, drawn drawings, etc. Special forms of this method are graphology, which allows one to draw up a psychological portrait of his personality based on the features and characteristics of a person’s handwriting, and content analysis , which aims to identify and evaluate the psychological characteristics of literary, scientific and journalistic texts and, on their basis, determine the personal characteristics of the author of these texts. In psychology, the study of the results of human visual activity is widely used; from this point of view, children's drawings are of particular value, which make it possible to understand the emotional state of the child, his attitude to the world around him, to his parents, to himself.

In addition to the listed methods intended for collecting primary data on the development of the psyche, psychology uses methods of mathematical statistics, which act as a means of increasing the reliability, objectivity and accuracy of the results obtained.

1.4. Structure of modern psychology

Currently, psychology is a complex and branched system of areas of scientific research, the structure of which consists of many relatively independently developing branches. The expansion and enrichment of the structure of psychology is determined by the influence of two factors: firstly, the social life and activity of modern man is becoming more complex, therefore, psychology is faced with new tasks and questions, the answers to which require a thorough study of new psychological realities; secondly, the development of science itself and its research methods make it possible to constantly expand the horizons of psychology. Today there are up to one hundred branches of psychology, which are at different stages of their development and formation as independent scientific disciplines.

General psychology occupies a special position among all areas.

, uniting various fields into holistic scientific knowledge.
Studying the essence and general patterns of the emergence, functioning and development of the psyche, it represents the methodological and theoretical basis of all psychological disciplines. An important place in the structure of psychological knowledge is occupied by the history of psychology,
the focus of which is on the processes of development of ideas about the nature and essence of the psyche from ancient times to the present day.

Branches of psychology are usually classified according to different criteria.

1. Branches of psychology that study psychological problems of specific types of human activity: labor psychology

explores the psychological characteristics of human labor activity, psychological aspects of the scientific organization of labor;
medical psychology
studies the psychological aspects of health and illness, the psychological foundations of the activities of medical personnel;
educational psychology
examines the psychological patterns of the processes of teaching and upbringing;
legal psychology
is divided into forensic psychology, which studies the mental characteristics of the behavior of participants in criminal proceedings, criminal psychology, which deals with problems of behavior and the formation of the personality of the criminal, the motives of the crime, as well as penitentiary psychology, which studies the psychology of prisoners in correctional institutions;
engineering psychology
analyzes the processes of information interaction between humans and technical devices, solving problems of engineering and psychological design in the “man-machine” system;
sports psychology
examines the psychological characteristics of the personality and activities of athletes, the conditions and means of their psychological preparation; as well as industries that deal with the psychological aspects of advertising, business, management, creativity and many other types of human activity.

2. Branches of psychology that study various aspects of mental development: developmental psychology

traces the development of the psyche in ontogenesis - its sections are child psychology, adolescent psychology, youth psychology, adult psychology, gerontopsychology;
comparative psychology
studies the patterns, origin and development of the psyche of animals and humans;
psychology of abnormal development
, or special psychology, studies disorders of the mental development of a child.

3. Branches of psychology that study the relationship between the individual and society: social psychology

explores mental phenomena in the process of people’s relationships with each other,
ethnopsychology
focuses on the ethnic characteristics of the people’s psyche, ethnic stereotypes; etc.

Even mentioning a small part of the currently developing branches of psychology allows us to judge how multifaceted this science is. At the same time, psychology is a single scientific discipline based on a single subject of research and a single method and included in the general scientific context.

1.5. The place of psychology in the system of scientific knowledge

An analysis of the main trends in the development of the world community and the forecasts of many scientists agree that the first century of the third millennium will be the century of the flourishing of human sciences, the century of human science and social science. B.G. Ananyev

in his book “On the Problems of Modern Human Science” he wrote that “this is evidenced by three important features of the development of modern science, related specifically to the problem of man:

– transformation of the human problem into a general problem of all science as a whole, all its sections, including exact and technical sciences;

– increasing differentiation of the scientific study of man, in-depth specialization of individual disciplines and their fragmentation into a number of increasingly private teachings;

“Modern science more and more fully embraces the diverse connections and relationships of man with the world: nature and man, society and man, man and technology.”

In a system of certain connections, a person is studied as a product of biological evolution - the species Homo sapiens

; the subject and object of the historical process is a person in history; a natural individual with an inherent genetic development program and a certain range of variability; the main productive force of society is the subject of labor; subject of cognition, communication, management and education. The history of science has never known such a variety of approaches to the study of man. The increasing diversity of aspects of human knowledge is a specific phenomenon of our time, associated with the progress of science and its application to various areas of social practice.

Along with the process of differentiation of scientific knowledge about man, there is a counter process of integration. The tendency to combine various sciences, aspects and methods of human research into certain complex systems leads to the emergence of new border disciplines and the connection through their many previously distant areas of natural science and history, the humanities and technology, medicine and pedagogy. With the emergence of cybernetics, physical and mathematical sciences are approaching the study of man. Pharmacology is developing on the borders between biochemistry, endocrinology, physiology of higher nervous activity and psychology. At the junction between cybernetics, biology, physiology and psychology, the development of bionics takes place with its main section - modeling of brain systems, and above all environmental analyzers. On the borders between cybernetics, physiology, psychology and pedagogy, the theory of programmed learning is being developed.

Science and practice feel the need for a unified theory of human knowledge, for the rapprochement and integration of all means of human knowledge. Promoting the problem of man as a common one for all modern science radically changes the position of psychology in the system of sciences, since it is psychology that can become a link between all areas of human knowledge, a means of uniting various sections of natural science and social sciences in a new, holistic knowledge about man.

It is possible to overcome interdisciplinary disunity in understanding a person and create a general picture of his world only by considering it as a certain system. In his book “Man as an Object of Knowledge” B.G. Ananyev points out: “Human studies is an area where a systems approach is organically determined and intensively developed. Here a synthesis of knowledge must be carried out, lying, as it were, on different planes, but invariably crossing the plane of psychological knowledge. As a result, components of psychological knowledge are included in the research of a wide variety of humanities and natural sciences, and new perspectives for understanding the mental are opening up in psychology.”

Domestic psychologist B.F. Lomov

wrote that the most important function of psychology is that it “is the integrator of all scientific disciplines whose object of study is man.” The interaction of psychology with other sciences is carried out through branches of psychological science: with social sciences through social psychology, with natural sciences - through psychophysiology, comparative psychology, with medical sciences - through medical psychology, with pedagogical sciences - through developmental psychology and educational psychology, with technical sciences - through engineering psychology. , etc.

Thus, psychology has developed close ties with scientific disciplines of all groups: natural, humanitarian and technical.
Analysis of the content of psychological knowledge shows that it is not possible to accurately determine which of the above groups psychology itself can be attributed to. Psychology develops at the intersection of all three areas of scientific research. Questions for self-test
1. What are the main differences between scientific and non-scientific psychological knowledge?

2 What are the features of psychology as an independent science?

3. What is the subject of psychological knowledge?

4. What are the main research methods in psychology?

5. What is the place of psychology in the structure of modern science?
Literature
Main

1. Gippenreiter Yu.B.

Introduction to general psychology: A course of lectures. M., 1988. Lecture. 1.

2. Godefroy J.

What is psychology. In 2 volumes. T. 1. M, 1992. Ch. 2.

3. Nurkova V.V., Berezanskaya N.B.

Psychology: Textbook. M., 2004. Ch. 1.

Additional

1. Ananyev B.G.

Man as an object of knowledge. St. Petersburg, 2001.

2. Slobodchikov V.I., Isaev E.I.

Human psychology. M, 1995.

Table of contents

Comparison of everyday and scientific psychology

“Take my advice,” says your friend. “I want to share my experience to help others overcome this difficult situation,” says the blogger. In both cases we are dealing with amateurs, not professionals. The key difference between everyday and scientific psychology is that the first is private, concrete. What helped one person may be completely useless to another, and may even harm a third. This is not the only difference in directions. Let's look at them in more detail, and also talk about the connection between the directions.

Differences between everyday and scientific psychology

The two types differ in the nature of knowledge, content and methods of transferring experience. Let's look at the basics:

1. The amateur type is the experience of one person, with all its nuances. Psychological knowledge is chaotic and based on intuition. The individual receives them by chance. The experience of science is always systematized, obtained through special experiments, extensive in application, and reflects general laws and patterns.
2. Amateur knowledge lives only in the sphere where a person received it, only in the life of this person. An individual can convey his knowledge orally or in writing to other people, but still it will only be his experience, his guesses, his considerations. Traditions, rituals, sayings, aphorisms, folk wisdom, proverbs - all these are examples of storing amateur psychology. Often several sources of information contradict each other. For example, for every proverb you can find an “anti-proverb”: “Teaching is light, not teaching is darkness”, “Live forever, learn – you will die a fool.” Information from science is passed down from generation to generation, it is taught in universities, it is stored in books. Scientific knowledge is constantly deepening and expanding.
3. Amateur conclusions are tied to the situation, specific conditions and time. Using them is very problematic, not every person is suitable for this or that wisdom, and the advice of strangers does not always work. Science is not tied to time and conditions; it is methods, techniques that always work. And if special conditions are needed, then this is always said.

Thus, while one type describes certain phenomena in a versatile and chaotic manner, the other explains them through terms, concepts, definitions, patterns, and cause-and-effect relationships.

The relationship between everyday and scientific psychology (briefly)

You probably already guessed that both types are closely interrelated. Examples of connections and relationships:

• professional research is based on life experience (someone noticed something and decided to substantiate it, identify general patterns, find solutions);
• psychological science takes its tasks from everyday experience;
• The final test of scientific knowledge is the test of life experience.

Does science influence life? Undoubtedly. This is what we usually call practical psychology. We are talking about all the techniques, methods, trainings that we use in life to improve it. All scientific psychological research arises against the background of current problems of society. People suggest what they need - psychologists try to help. According to this, three types can be roughly distinguished: everyday, scientific and practical psychology. The latter combines the other two types.

Most psychologists who have received appropriate training relate to both types. Someone chooses only the theoretical part, but even in this case he is faced with everyday problems of people, because without this it is impossible to put forward and test a hypothesis. For this, everyday observation is used. In psychology, this is one of the methods that involves testing a hypothesis or research results in real conditions (not laboratory ones).

Thus, the specificity of scientific and everyday psychology is as follows: there is a need for everyday psychological knowledge for the development of psychology as a science.

Everyday psychological knowledge is concrete, scientific psychology derives patterns

Numerous television programs (“Let's get married”, “Let them talk”, “Male and female”, “About love”) are based on the same scenario. The details of the problem are discussed, experts and viewers empathize with the hero, express opinions and advice.

But are psychological problems solved in this way? No. Most often, the discussion results in a feeling of coincidence with the life experiences of the invited experts. The viewer experiences an emotion, but does not solve his problem. The same thing happens if a friend or neighbor acts as a “psychologist”.

Situation

A young mother complains to her housemate, the same age, about her four-year-old son: he has completely stopped obeying, throws around and breaks toys.

Everyday psychology

“Don’t leave it like that,” the neighbor gives universal advice. - Tell your husband to be stricter with him! Ours has now become like silk - he’s so afraid of his father.”

Scientific psychology

A professional psychologist will not give advice. First of all, he will try to find out what caused the child’s behavior. Maybe the scenes of aggression that he saw on TV? (The scientific basis for this assumption is Albert Bandura's social learning theory.) Or lack of proper attention on the part of parents? (Psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud.) Or maybe mother or father’s irritability on weekends? (“Sunday neurosis” or a manifestation of an existential crisis due to the lack of meaning in life according to Viktor Frankl.)

Having found out the reason, the psychologist will work with it, adequately selecting a correction method.

Scientific psychology: what is it

This is data that is accumulated through research and is used both in theory and in practice, that is, in life. The discipline arose in the 19th century, but life's wisdom accumulated along with the development of society.

Specifics of scientific (academic) psychology, its difference from everyday psychology:

1. The first is science. The second is someone’s views, the results of reflection, analysis, introspection, and social interaction.
2. Scientific information is closely related to statistics, mathematical calculations, experiments, experiments.
3. Scientific data is always rationally summarized and explained. They are carefully verified, confirmed, and do not depend on the emotions or moods of an individual subject or society. They are objective and impartial. As a rule, they are distinguished by a higher cultural and intellectual level.
4. Facts from science are relevant for the entire society; they take into account the specifics of certain conditions and the differences of individuals.

Next, let's look at the characteristics of everyday and scientific psychology in comparison.

Everyday psychological knowledge is intuitive. Scientific - rational and conscious

The ability to unconsciously process information allows even a one-year-old child to understand perfectly with which adults he can be capricious and with whom he cannot, but such data is not supported by either logical reasoning or evidence. This is intuition. Of course, some researchers have well-developed intuition, but they always support their guesses with the results of experiments.

Situation

The story of her ninth-grader son drives the mother to despair: “At school they complain about him: he studies well, but in class he makes his classmates laugh and disrupts classes. At home he is quiet and attentive. I feel good about him - well, he can’t behave like that! I don’t know who to believe: myself, my son or my teachers? My husband advises me to write a complaint to the Department of Education and let them sort it out. But something is stopping me from taking such a step..."

Everyday psychology

Intuitive “I feel” and “something” quite correctly prevent a woman from taking the wrong step, but she does not receive an answer to her question with the help of intuition.

Scientific psychology

What is the scientific explanation for this situation? In social psychology, the dependence of behavior on the presence of other people has long been studied and described.

American psychologist Norman Triplett noticed at the end of the 19th century that cyclists rode faster when there were a lot of people around, and slower when the park was deserted. This is how the effect was discovered, which later became known as social facilitation. It is he who stands behind the teenager’s actions, and reinforces his social motive “to occupy a certain status in the reference (standard, significant) peer group”: it doesn’t work through grades, let’s try through jokes.