The first section The object of psychology
The problem of research object is the first and most basic problem faced by every subject. It is precisely because of the uniqueness of the research object that a discipline is different from other disciplines and thus becomes an independent discipline. This section mainly discusses the general basic knowledge of psychology, such as the research object of general psychology, the system of human psychological phenomena, and the basic understanding of psychological phenomena.
First, the research object of psychology
Each discipline has its own research field and object. For example, physics is the science of studying physical phenomena; Chemistry is the science of studying chemical phenomena; Sociology is a science that studies social phenomena and so on. It goes without saying that psychology is a science that studies human psychological phenomena and their laws. Psychological phenomena are different from physical phenomena and chemical phenomena. Psychological phenomena are produced when organisms develop to a certain stage.
As we all know, people have psychological phenomena. Human psychological phenomenon refers to various forms, forms or states that people's psychological activities often show, such as feeling, perception, imagination, thinking, memory, emotion, will, temperament, personality and so on. These psychological phenomena or activities are not chaotic. From the point of view of system theory, human psychological phenomenon is a complex large-scale system with multi-level correlation.
From the three dimensions of dynamic change process, relatively continuous state and relatively stable characteristics of psychological activities, people's psychological activities can be divided into three aspects: psychological process, psychological state and personality psychology, or three subsystems. There are many subsidiary systems under these three subsystems.
(A) psychological process
Psychological process refers to those psychological activities that are often in the process of dynamic changes in people's cognition, emotion and will.
As we all know, when people are awake, they are always engaged in activities of one kind or another, such as productive labor, work, study, scientific experiments, technological innovation, literary and artistic creation, business and trade, social interaction, and even entertainment. In these activities, the first thing people have to figure out is, what are the objective objects (including people and things) dealing with themselves? Therefore, people need to constantly pay attention to, observe, think, imagine and remember these things and objects around them.
When people concentrate on observing current things, they have psychological activities such as feeling and perception. Feeling and perception are the cognition of human brain on the individual attributes and general meanings of various things that directly act on sensory organs. When people think about something further on the basis of feeling and perception, they have thinking activities; Thinking is the indirect and general reflection of the human brain on objective things, so as to further acquire the cognition of the essential attributes and internal relations of things. When the perceived thing is no longer in sight, the image of the thing will reappear in the human brain, which is called representation in psychology. The process of image re-processing and transformation in the human brain produces imaginative activities; Imagination is a unique psychological phenomenon in which people think in images and innovate things. In addition, we should also see that psychological activities such as feeling, perception, representation, thinking and imagination are a continuous process, and a psychological condition that plays an important role in this continuous process is that people will remember most things they have seen with some traces in their minds, and recall them in a certain way under certain conditions and continue to participate in various psychological activities. This phenomenon is called memory. Memory is a reflection of people's past experiences and an extremely important psychological phenomenon.
All kinds of psychological phenomena described above, in a word, are the psychological activities that people often show when they know objective things and objects.
Of course, people will never stop at knowing when dealing with things and objects around them. When people know things or others, they will also show certain attitudes, resulting in feelings and experiences of one kind or another, such as satisfaction or dissatisfaction, love or disgust, enthusiasm or indifference, joy or anxiety, joy or worry, appreciation or contempt, calmness or excitement and so on. People's various attitudes and experiences in cognitive activities are what people often show, which psychology calls emotional and emotional psychological activities.
Moreover, people are not always satisfied with the things and objects they deal with, and often need to further treat and transform objective things and objects. In order to deal with these problems, people often have certain needs and motivations according to their own understanding and experience, and make goals and plans to act. Human activity is called will action, which is dominated by many internal factors and processes, such as human motivation, intention, determination and persistence. It is also a psychological activity that people often show in terms of will.
The psychological activities such as cognition, emotion and will mentioned above are often in dynamic change, and all have their processes of occurrence, development, termination or sublimation. Therefore, these psychological activities are collectively called psychological processes. The three psychological processes of cognition, emotion and will are interrelated and mutually restricted, which constitute the whole psychological process of human beings.
Psychological process is the most important aspect of human psychological phenomenon and an important part of the research object of general psychology. People's psychological process, from the perspective of its activity structure and mechanism, has the same sex with human beings and is restricted by the law of * * *. But the psychological process is manifested in every specific person, and it will not be exactly the same. This is because people's psychological process is always reflected in their different life practices, and it is also restricted by the law of differences, thus showing different tendencies and characteristics of individual psychology.
(B) Personality psychology
Personality psychology refers to those relatively stable psychological tendencies and characteristics that a person often shows in the development and process of psychological process.
In the complicated real life, due to the differences in people's environment and education, as well as their own factors, people always have individual differences in forming their needs, motivations, interests, beliefs, ideals and values. These differences are the different personality tendencies that people often show.
Associated with personality tendency, people's cognition, emotion, will and behavior often reflect many different psychological characteristics of individuals. For example, some people have keen perception, profound thinking and rich imagination about the same thing; Others have slow perception, superficial thinking and poor imagination. Some people remember quickly and keep it for a long time; Others remember slowly and easily. Some people are good at thinking in images; Others are good at abstract thinking. Some people are good at solving problems and creative; Others follow the rules and are not good at pioneering and so on. All these differences in cognition and activity efficiency form individual differences in human ability or intelligence.
For another example, some people are irritable and easily excited; Some people are gentle and don't lose their temper easily. Some people are slow-witted and introverted; Some people are quick-thinking and extroverted. Some people have deep feelings and strong actions; Others are changeable in mood, uncertain in action and so on. These different characteristics in the dynamics of emotional and emotional psychological activities form individual differences in people's temperament.
In addition, there are people who are often lively and happy; Others tend to be sentimental. Some people are good at communication; Some people are calm and calm. Some people are brave and tenacious; Some people are timid. Some people take the initiative; Some people are passive. Some people are witty and decisive; Some people are indecisive. Some people are selfless; Some people are selfish ... and so on. All these different characteristics are often manifested in people's attitudes and behaviors, forming individual differences in people's personality.
These differences in people's ability, temperament and personality are collectively called personality psychological characteristics in psychology. Personality tendency and personality psychological characteristics are organically and comprehensively embodied in a person, which constitutes a person's complete personality psychology, or personality for short. Personality psychology is another important aspect of human psychological phenomenon and an important part of the research object of general psychology.
(3) Mental state
In the process of psychological activities, or the transitional stage from psychological process to the formation of individual psychological characteristics, there is often a relatively continuous state. This psychological phenomenon is called mental state. For example, the state of attention accompanying psychological process; The state of inspiration in the process of creative thinking; Mentality and passion in the emotional process; Hesitation in the process of confidence, determination and will, etc.
These psychological states are only some relatively persistent states in the process of psychological activities within a certain period of time, which are not as dynamic and changeable as psychological processes. It is also different from the lasting and stable psychological characteristics of personality.
Psychologists believe that psychological state is often a transitional link from the development of psychological process to the formation of individual psychological characteristics. For example, in daily life, a person often has some kind of passion, which may be just a temporary excitement; However, if this mental state cannot be actively controlled, then over time, it is easy to form relatively stable personality characteristics such as grumpy and easy to lose his temper. For another example, a person may hesitate for a while, not everything, which is a temporary psychological state that often appears; But if left to accumulate over time and become a habit, it is easy to form a relatively stable personality trait like indecision.