The author of the theory of instincts of social behavior is. Motivational instinct theory

The third concept, which ranks among the first independent socio-psychological constructs, is the theory of instincts social behavior English psychologist W. McDougall (1871-1938), who moved to the USA in 1920 and subsequently worked there. McDougall's work "Introduction to Social Psychology" was published in 1908, and this year is considered the year of the final establishment of social psychology in independent existence (in the same year, sociologist E. Ross's book "Social Psychology" was published in the USA, and, thus, quite It is symbolic that both a psychologist and a sociologist published the first systematic course on the same discipline in the same year). This year, however, can only very conditionally be considered the beginning new era in social psychology, since back in 1897, J. Baldwin published "Studies in Social Psychology", which could also claim to be the first systematic guide.

The main thesis of McDougall's theory is that the cause of social behavior is recognized innate instincts. This idea is the realization of a more general principle adopted by MacDougall, namely, the striving for a goal, which is characteristic of both animals and man. It is this principle that is especially significant in McDougall's concept; in contrast to behaviorism (interpreting behavior as a simple reaction to an external stimulus), he called the psychology he created "target" or "hormic" (from the Greek word "gorme" - aspiration, desire, impulse). Gorme and acts as a driving force of an intuitive nature, explaining social behavior. In McDougall's terminology, gorme "is realized as instincts" (or later "inclinations").

The repertoire of instincts in each person arises as a result of a certain psychophysical predisposition - the presence of hereditarily fixed channels for discharging nervous energy.

Instincts include affective (receptive), central (emotional) and afferent (motor) parts. Thus, everything that happens in the area of ​​consciousness is directly dependent on the unconscious principle. The internal expression of instincts is mainly emotions. The connection between instincts and emotions is systematic and definite. McDougall listed seven pairs of interconnected instincts and emotions: the instinct of fight and the corresponding anger and fear; flight instinct and sense of self-preservation; reproductive instinct and jealousy, female timidity; instinct of acquisition and sense of ownership; instinct of construction and sense of creation; herd instinct and sense of belonging. All social institutions are derived from instincts: family, trade, various social processes, primarily war. Partly because of this mention in McDougall’s theory, people were inclined to see the implementation of the Darwinian approach, although, as is known, being transferred mechanically to social phenomena, this approach lost any scientific significance.

Despite the enormous popularity of McDougall's ideas, their role in the history of science turned out to be very negative: the interpretation of social behavior from the point of view of some spontaneous striving for a goal legitimized the importance of irrational, unconscious drives as the driving force not only of the individual, but also of humanity. Therefore, as in general psychology, overcoming the ideas of the theory of instincts later served as an important milestone in the development of scientific social psychology.

CONCLUSION

Thus, we can summarize what kind of theoretical baggage social psychology was left with after these first concepts were built. First of all, obviously, their positive significance lies in the fact that really important questions that need to be resolved were identified and clearly posed: about the relationship between the consciousness of the individual and the consciousness of the group, about the driving forces of social behavior, etc. It is also interesting that in the first socio-psychological theories, from the very beginning they tried to find approaches to solving the problems posed, as it were, from two sides: from the side of psychology and from the side of sociology. In the first case, it inevitably turned out that all solutions were proposed from the point of view of the individual, his psyche; the transition to the psychology of the group was not worked out with any precision. In the second case, they formally tried to go “from society,” but then “society” itself dissolved in psychology, which led to the psychologization of social relations. This meant that neither the “psychological” nor the “sociological” approaches themselves provide the right solutions if they are not interconnected. Finally, the first socio-psychological concepts turned out to be weak also because they were not based on any research practice, they were not based on research at all, but in the spirit of old philosophical constructions they were only “reasoning” about socio-psychological problems. However, an important thing was done, and social psychology was “declared” as an independent discipline with a right to exist. Now it needed to provide an experimental basis for it, since psychology by this time had already accumulated sufficient experience in using the experimental method.

Originated in the USA. The first serious central work is considered to be the book by the English psychologist McDougall, who worked in the USA, “Introduction to Social Psychology” (1920). For a number of years this book was used as a textbook in American universities. According to his theory, personality psychology plays a decisive role in the formation of social psychology.

The main reason for the social behavior of individuals is innate instincts, i.e. an innate predisposition to perceive the environment and a willingness to react in one way or another. He believed that each instinct corresponds to a specific emotion. He attached particular importance to the social instinct, which generates a sense of belonging to a particular group.

This theory was leading in the USA. The concept of instinct was eventually replaced by the concept of predisposition, but the main driving forces of human behavior, the basis public life the needs for food, sleep, sex, parental care, self-affirmation, etc. were still considered. Great importance For the development of this theory, Freud's works acquired especially the structure of personality and the driving forces of development, and the mechanisms of stress relief also turned out to be important. The theory he created psychological protection was further developed in social psychology There are currently 8 methods of psychological defense:

1) Denial manifests itself in the unconscious refusal of information that is negative for self-esteem. A person seems to listen, but does not hear, does not perceive what threatens his well-being...

2) Repression is an active way to prevent internal conflict, it involves not only turning off negative information from consciousness, but also special actions to preserve a positive self-image, i.e. a person can not only forget facts that are not acceptable to him, but also put forward false, but acceptable explanations for his actions. 3) Projection - the unconscious attribution to another person of one’s own desires and aspirations of personal qualities, most often of a negative nature.

4) Substitution - relieving internal tension by transferring, redirecting action aimed at an inaccessible object into an accessible situation.

5) Identification - establishing an emotional connection with another object and identifying oneself with it. Often allows you to overcome feelings of inferiority.

6) Isolation - protection from traumatic facts by breaking emotional ties with other people. Loss of the ability to empathize. And the most effective are:

7) Rationalization manifests itself in the form of reducing the value of the unattainable. 8) Sublimation is the translation of unfulfilled desires (sexual) into a socially acceptable direction.

9) Regression is a return to past (childhood) forms of behavior. Freud's ideas regarding human aggressiveness and methods of psychological defense found new development in the works of the American psychologist Eric Fromm (1900-1980) (“Flight from Freedom”).

We have examined the early branches of the psychoanalytic tree, forgetting about its trunk, as the first apostates from Freud did in their time. The internal contents of the trunk of psychoanalysis are the theory of instincts and the psychoanalytic theory of sexuality.

Accordingly, people's behavior is determined by the most important sexual motives. The driving force is biologically determined.

We can compare the instincts of psychoanalysis with the instincts of plants that develop from buds in the spring. With instincts...

The theory of transcendental psychotherapy. Man, Yogi, Magician, God, Absolute. What is a person from the point of view of transcendental psychotherapy?

It is an intelligent physiological being that exists at the level of the external, temporary, ordinary mind or ego.

The ego is an active, active, cyclical mind that thinks of the world as a cycle with a beginning and an end. The ego is mortal, so it sees the meaning of life only in the competitive struggle for the possession of things and benefits of the external world. The meaning of life for the ego...

In his ideological development, Freud went through a very difficult and contradictory path. Taking his first steps in the field of psychiatry, he was guided by the postulates of natural scientific materialism of the twentieth century, but as the creator of psychoanalysis, the scientist moved away from them towards the idealistic-irrationalistic “philosophy of life” (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, etc.), under the influence of which the idea of ​​the fundamental meaning for human behavior of the "psychic energy" inherent in ...

Regarding the definition of instinct, I would like to emphasize the significance of the all-or-nothing reaction formulated by Rivers; It seems to me that this peculiarity of instinctive activity is especially important for the psychological side of the problem.

I will limit myself to this aspect of the question because I do not consider myself competent to consider the problem of instinct in its biological aspect. But when I try to give a psychological definition of instinctive activity, I find that I cannot...

Everyone treats instincts differently. Some try to suppress them, others, on the contrary, live according to the laws of nature, believing that the “curve of instincts” will certainly lead to the right path. Psychologist Marina Smolenskaya talks about when instincts are good and when they are harmful.

What is good

We are all a little animals, and there is nothing wrong with that. Our instincts are practically the same, and therefore there is no need to be ashamed of our ancestors (if you still believe Darwin). Instincts force us...

Our life consists of thousands of all sorts of everyday little things. Yes, such that willy-nilly you will think about the male and female mind. Just remember how differently we approach shopping! Especially for solid ones that should last for years.

Let's say you need a new refrigerator. No, the old one still works, but I want something more powerful, more modern. You and your husband go to the store, look at a miracle of technology, discuss its advantages and disadvantages, but... don’t buy it.

When you leave the store, you...

Psychologists and neuroscientists who study the nature of emotions suggest that many moral principles of humanity grew out of the feeling of disgust, which in humans, compared to animals, has unusually developed and become more complex.

Disgust is the basis of many prejudices and prevents people from treating each other as human beings.

We all know well that many of our moral assessments and judgments are based more on emotions than on reason. It's harder to answer the question of whether it's good...

Every emotional state is accompanied by numerous physiological changes in the body. Throughout the history of the development of this area of ​​psychological knowledge, attempts have been made more than once to connect physiological changes in the body with certain emotions and to show that the complexes of organic signs accompanying various emotional processes are really different.

Freud, while still a young neurologist, became interested in the treatment of hysteria, which was one of the most common mental disorders at the end of the 19th century.

At that time, hysterical illness was perceived as a simulation. This was largely due to the fact that there was no medicine in the arsenal...

Development of instinct theory

The last of Freud's great discoveries is his theory of the life and death instincts. In 1920, while writing Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud began a fundamental revision of his entire theory of instincts. He attributed the characteristics of instinct to “compulsory repetitions” and for the first time formulated a new dichotomy “Eros - death instinct”, the nature of which was discussed in detail in the work “I and It” (1923) and in subsequent works. This new dichotomy “life instinct (Eros) - death instinct” took the place of the original dichotomy “Ego - sexual instincts”. Although Freud now attempted to identify Eros with libido, the new polarity represented a completely different concept of drives.

While working on his book Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud was still not at all convinced that his new hypothesis was valid. “You can ask,” he wrote, “how confident I am in the validity of the hypotheses set forth on these pages. My answer might be as follows: I myself am not sure and do not seek to force others to believe in them. More precisely, I do not know how convinced I am of them. Considering that Freud was trying to develop a new theoretical doctrine that threatened the validity of many earlier concepts and required enormous intellectual effort, his sincerity, so brilliantly evident in all his work, is especially impressive. He devoted the next eighteen years to developing a new theory and increasingly experienced the conviction of its correctness, which he initially lacked. This result was not brought about by the addition of completely new elements, but rather by intellectual “elaboration”; this must have further increased his disappointment that few of his followers understood and shared his views. The new theory found its full exposition in the work "Ego and Id".

The following assumption is of extreme importance: “A special physiological process (anabolism or catabolism) should be associated with each of the two classes of instincts: both types of instincts should be active in every particle of living matter, although not in equal proportions, so that some one substance would be the main representative of Eros. This hypothesis does not shed any light on how the two classes of instincts are united, mixed, fused with each other, but the fact that this happens regularly and very widely is an assumption necessary for our concept. As a result of the combination of unicellular life forms into multicellular ones, death instinct in a single cell can be successfully neutralized and destructive impulses can be directed into the outside world with the help of a special organ. This special organ would be represented as a muscular apparatus, and thus the death instinct would be expressed - although perhaps only partially - in the instinct of destruction directed towards the external world and other organisms.

With these formulations, Freud more explicitly expressed the new direction of his thought than in the book Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Instead of the mechanistic physiological approach contained in the previous theory, which was based on the model of chemically induced tension and the need to reduce this tension to a normal level (the pleasure principle), the new theory is biological in nature; it is assumed that each cell of the body is endowed with two basic properties of living matter: Eros and the desire for death. However, the principle of reducing tension is preserved in a more radical form: reducing excitation to zero (the principle of nirvana).

A year later, in The Economic Problem of Masochism (1924), Freud took another step: clarifying the relationship between the two instincts, he wrote: “The task of the libido is to make the instinct of destruction harmless, and it accomplishes this task by largely reversing it - with the help of a special organic system, a muscular apparatus - outward, onto objects of the external world. Then this instinct is called the instinct of dominion or thirst for power. Part of the instinct directly serves the sexual function, where it plays an important role: this is sadism. The other part does not participate in this outward turning: it remains inside the body and, with the help of the accompanying sexual stimulation described above, becomes libidinally connected. It is in this part that we recognize the original, erotogenic masochism.”

In the New Introductory Lectures (1933), Freud took the same position. He spoke of “erotic drives that strive to unite more and more living matter into ever larger Unities, and of the death instinct, which resists such an attempt and transfers the living back into an inorganic state.”

In the same lectures, Freud wrote about the original instinct of destruction: “We can perceive it only under two conditions: if it is combined with erotic drives in masochism or if - with a much less erotic addition - it is directed against the outside world as aggressiveness. It is important to note the possibility that aggressiveness may be unable to find satisfaction in the external world when faced with real obstacles. If this happens, she may retreat and increase the self-destructiveness that dominates within. We'll look at how this actually happens and how important this process is. Delayed aggression causes severe injury. Indeed, it seems that we need to destroy some object or person in order not to destroy ourselves, in order to protect ourselves from the impulse of self-destruction. A sad discovery for a moralist! .

In his last two articles, written a year or two before his death, Freud did not make significant changes to the concepts that he had developed in previous years. In his work “Finite and Infinite Analysis” he further emphasized the power of the death instinct. As James Strachey wrote in the editorial notes, "The most powerful inhibitor of all, completely out of our control is the death instinct". In Outline of the History of Psychoanalysis, written in 1938 and published in 1940, Freud confirmed the system of previous assumptions without any important changes.

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Theory of instincts of social behavior.

Originated in the USA. The first serious central work is considered to be the book by the English psychologist McDougall, who worked in the USA, “Introduction to Social Psychology” (1920). For a number of years this book was used as a textbook in American universities. According to his theory, personality psychology plays a decisive role in the formation of social psychology.

The main reason for the social behavior of individuals is innate instincts, ᴛ.ᴇ. an innate predisposition to perceive the environment and a willingness to react in one way or another. He believed that each instinct corresponds to a certain emotion. He attached particular importance to the social instinct, which generates a sense of belonging to a group.

This theory was leading in the USA. The concept of instinct was eventually replaced by the concept of predisposition, but the main driving forces of human behavior, the basis of social life, were still considered the need for food, sleep, sex, parental care, self-affirmation, etc. Freud's works, especially the structure of personality and the driving forces of development, became of great importance for the development of this theory; the mechanisms of stress relief also turned out to be important. The theory of psychological defense he created was further developed into social psychology; currently there are 8 methods of psychological defense:

1) Denial manifests itself in the unconscious refusal of information that is negative for self-esteem. A person seems to listen, but does not hear, does not perceive what threatens his well-being...

2) Repression is an active way to prevent internal conflict, which involves not only turning off negative information from consciousness, but also special actions to preserve a positive self-image, ᴛ.ᴇ. a person can not only forget facts that are not acceptable to him, but also put forward false, but acceptable explanations for his actions. 3) Projection is the unconscious attribution to another person of one’s own desires and aspirations of personal qualities, most often of a negative nature.

4) Substitution - relieving internal tension by transferring, redirecting action aimed at an inaccessible object into an accessible situation.

5) Identification - establishing an emotional connection with another object and identifying oneself with it. Often allows you to overcome feelings of inferiority.

6) Isolation - protection from traumatic facts by breaking emotional ties with other people. Loss of the ability to empathize. And the most effective are:

7) Rationalization manifests itself in the form of reducing the value of the unattainable. 8) Sublimation - the translation of unfulfilled desires (sexual) into a socially acceptable direction.

9) Regression - a return to past (childhood) forms of behavior. Freud's ideas regarding human aggressiveness and methods of psychological defense found new development in the works of the American psychologist Eric Fromm (1900-1980) (2Flight from Freedom).

Theory of instincts of social behavior. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Theory of instincts of social behavior." 2017, 2018.