Needs – motive – goal – tasks – actions – operations (methods) – actions of control and evaluation. Psychological structure of activity
Activity
Activity structure
Activity is the active interaction of a person with the environment in which he achieves a consciously set goal that arose as a result of the emergence of a certain need or motive.
Lecture No. 8. Human activity. Creativity as an activity
Plan:
- Essence of activity Literature: Stolyarenko L.D. Psychology
- Subject nature of the activity Kazakov V.G. Kondratyeva L.L. Psychology
- Activity structure Rogov E.I. General psychology
- Activities
something that motivates a person to act
relatively complete elements of activity aimed at achieving intermediate goals, subordinated to the general plan
what the activity is directly aimed at
Motives and goals may not coincide. Why a person acts in a certain way is often not the same as why he acts. When we are dealing with activity in which there is no conscious goal, then there is no activity in the human sense of the word, but there is impulsive behaviorĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ is controlled directly by needs and emotions.
Behavior in psychology is usually understood as the external manifestations of a person’s mental activity. Facts of behavior include 1) individual movements and gestures (for example, bowing, nodding, shaking hands), and 2) external manifestations of physiological processes associated with the state, activity, communication of people (for example, posture, facial expressions, glances, blushing faces, trembling, etc.), and 3) actions that have a certain meaning, and, finally, 4) actions that have social significance and are associated with norms of behavior. Deed- action, performing ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ a person realizes its meaning for other people, i.e. its social meaning.
The main characteristic activity is her objectivity. An object is meant not just a natural object, but a cultural object in which a certain socially developed way of acting with it is recorded. AND this method is reproduced whenever objective activity is carried out. Another characteristic of activity is its social, socio-historical nature. A person cannot independently discover forms of activity with objects. This is done with the help of other people who demonstrate patterns of activity and include the person in joint activities. The transition from activity divided between people and carried out in external (material) form to individual (internal) activity constitutes the main line interiorization, during which psychological new formations are formed (knowledge, skills, abilities, motives, attitudes, etc.).
Activity is always indirect.
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The role of means is played by tools, “material objects, signs, symbols (interiorized, internal means) and communication with other people. Carrying out any act of activity, we realize in it a certain attitude towards other people, even if they are not really present in the moment of the activity.
Human activity is always purposeful, subordinated to a goal as a consciously presented planned result, the achievement of which it serves. The goal directs the activity and corrects its course.
Activity is not a set of reactions, but a system of actions cemented into a single whole by the motive that motivates it. Motive- this is what the activity is for, it determines the meaning of what a person does.
Finally, activity is always productive in nature, that is, its result is transformations both in the external world and in the person himself, his knowledge, motives, abilities, etc. Depending on what changes play the main role or have the greatest specific gravity, stand out different types activities (work, cognitive, communication, etc.).
Human activity has the following components: motive, goal, object, actions and operations, means.
Motive of activity that which motivates it is called. The motive is usually a specific need that is satisfied in the course and with the help of this activity. Motives human activity can be very different: organic, functional, material, social. Spiritual. Organic motives are aimed at satisfying natural needs. Such motives are associated with growth, self-preservation and development of the organism. Functional motives are satisfied through various kinds cultural activities such as games and sports. Material motives encourage a person to engage in activities aimed at creating household items, various things and tools, etc. Social motives give rise to various types of activities aimed at taking a certain place in society, gaining recognition and respect from those around them. Spiritual motives underlie those activities that are associated with human self-improvement.
As goals activity is its product. It can represent a real physical object created by a person, certain knowledge, skills and abilities acquired in the course of activity, a creative result (thought, idea, theory, work of art).
The purpose of an activity is not equivalent to its motive, although sometimes the motive and purpose of an activity may coincide with each other. Different kinds Activities with the same goal may be motivated by different motives. On the contrary, at the heart of a number of activities with different ultimate goals the same motives may lie. For example, reading a book for a person can act as a means of satisfying material (demonstrate knowledge and get a well-paid job for this), social (show off your knowledge among significant people), spiritual (broaden your horizons, rise to higher levels). high level moral development) needs. So different
activities such as purchasing fashionable, prestigious things, reading literature, taking care of appearance, developing the ability to behave, can ultimately pursue the same goal: to achieve someone’s favor at all costs.
Subject activity is called what it directly deals with. So, for example, the subject educational activities are knowledge, skills and abilities, the subject labor activity– created material product.
Action They call an act, a part of an activity that has a completely independent, human-conscious goal. For example, an action included in the structure cognitive activity, we can call receiving a book, reading it; actions included in work activity can be considered familiarization with the task, search necessary tools, product development. There are objective, mental, and sensory actions.
Operation name the method of carrying out an action. How much in various ways performing an action, so many different operations can be distinguished. The nature of the operation depends on the conditions for performing the action, on the skills and abilities a person has, on the available tools and means of carrying out the action. Different people, for example, remember information and write differently. This means that they carry out the action of writing text or memorizing material using various operations.
As means of implementation activity for a person are the tools that he uses when performing certain actions and operations.
The psychologically complete structure of activity always includes:
1. Motivational-orienting component, when a person orients himself in a new environment, sets goals and objectives, and develops motives; This is the stage of readiness for activity.
2. Executive (operational) component, where a person carries out actions through various operations.
3. Control and evaluation component, where a person mentally turns back and establishes for himself whether he has solved the problems that he himself set with the help of available means and methods.
MOTIVATION
U psychological theory there are activities operational and technical side: activity - action - operation and there is a side motivational: motive – goal – task .
Each individual activity is stimulated motive . Motive is an object of need, something for which this or that activity is carried out. The subject of activity can be either material and given in perception, or ideal. We are surrounded by a huge variety of objects, and often there are many ideas in our minds. An object becomes a motive when it meets our need. The process of meeting a need with an object is called the objectification of the need. Need→item→motive.
Prompted by one or another motive to activity, the subject sets himself certain goals , those. consciously plans his actions achieve any desired result. Target - this is the image of the desired, that is, the result that should be achieved during the implementation of the activity; setting a goal means an active principle in the subject: a person does not simply react to the action of a stimulus, but actively organizes his behavior. Actions are dictated by the logic of the social and objective environment, that is, in his actions a person must take into account the properties of the objects on which he influences.
At the same time, achieving the goal always occurs in specific conditions , which may vary depending on circumstances; the goal in specific conditions is called task . Operation - a way of performing actions. Conditions mean both external circumstances (in our example - the presence or absence of a calculator), and possibilities, internal means of the acting subject (some people can count perfectly in their minds, but for others it is necessary to do it on paper ). Operations are little or not realized at all; in this they are fundamentally different from actions that require conscious control over their implementation. For example, when you record a lecture, you perform an action: you try to understand the meaning of the teacher’s statements and record it on paper. During this activity, you perform operations. So, writing any word consists of certain operations: for example, to write the letter “a” you need to make an oval and a hook, you do this automatically. But for example, for a first-grader, writing the letter “a” is an action, since his goal is to master the way of writing this letter.
Most low level in the structure of activity - this is the level of psychophysiological functions. The facility that operates has a highly developed nervous system, complex musculoskeletal system, developed sensory organs. Psychophysiological functions mean physiological support mental processes. These include a number of abilities of our body, such as the ability to sense, to form and record traces of past influences, motor (motor) ability, etc.
How do we know where we are dealing with action and where with activity?. A.N. Leontiev: activity is such processes that are characterized by the fact that the motive coincides with the goal. To illustrate this point, he gives the following example. A student, preparing for an exam, reads a book. Let's say a friend came to our student and said that this book was not needed for the exam. What will our friend do? There are two possible options here: either the student will willingly put the book down, or he will continue reading. In the first case, the motive does not coincide with the goal. Objectively, reading a book is aimed at learning its contents and gaining new knowledge. However, the motive is not the content of the book, but passing the exam. Therefore, here we can talk about action, and not about activity. In the second case, the motive coincides with what the reading is aimed at: the motive here is to learn the contents of the book in itself, without regard to passing the exam.
The term "need" was coined only in 1938 by Henry Murray.
Need- This is a form of communication between living organisms and the outside world, the source of their activity. Need as an internal essential force of the organism encourages it to carry out qualitatively defined forms of activity (activity) necessary for the preservation and development of the individual and the species. (D.A. Leontyev)
Needs are characterized by: objectivity; they are always needs in a particular object (situation). Important characteristic needs – their specific dynamics, i.e. the ability to actualize and change one’s tension, fade away and reproduce again. Due to their objectivity, needs acquire a signaling character, i.e. can be adjusted using external and internal signals.
Motive(from Latin movere - set in motion, push) - this is internal, i.e. an impulse emanating from the subject (desire, attraction, desire, desire) to certain actions, ultimately aimed at satisfying a need or achieving a desired state of the environment or one’s own personality. Motive- this is what organizes some kind of activity.
Sources of motivation:
– in the subject himself (in needs, instincts, inclinations, drives, cognitive processes, semantic and goal structures)
– in the outside world (in situations; K. Levin)
– in the processes of interaction of the subject with the outside world
Functions of motive:
1) Directing function of the motive . In adolescence, the need to love and be loved is very strong. A person (until a motive appears) until the need has become objectified a certain person, he leads an active lifestyle, attends all sorts of parties and other things, where, in principle, it is possible to meet his needs. As soon as a motive appears, an object of need is formed, behavior immediately becomes directed
2) The meaning-forming function of the motive . In order to talk about the function of meaning formation, we should talk about how the motivational sphere of a person is organized, what its structure is. Both animals and humans often find themselves in a situation of conflict of motives - when several motives arise simultaneously. Behaviorists were the first to study the conflict of motives. They studied the power of motive by pitting motives against each other. For example, a hungry rat, there is a corridor in front of it, and the floor of the corridor is skipped electricity. At the end of the corridor (she sees it) there is a feeder with food. Two motives operate simultaneously – food and desire (avoidance) of pain. How much current the rat is going to endure while running along this corridor will be an indicator of the strength of the food motive. An animal, finding itself in a situation of conflict of motives, also somehow solves this situation. But this decision always depends on one indicator, namely the strength of the incentive (the strength of this motive). Each time this animal decides what it wants more - to avoid pain, drink, eat, sleep, and so on. The motive that is stronger wins. Therefore, its behavior is not ordered.
Every time a person wins, it is not the motive that is stronger, but the one that is more important. In humans, the hierarchy of motives is formed in a specific way. Leontyev called this organization hierarchy of motives. Such a ladder in which all motives are lined up depending on their significance. No matter what is on the lower floors of this ladder, what is more significant will win. For example, a student is sitting at a lecture, he wants to sleep, wants to eat, but practically does not want to listen to the lecture, but nevertheless he does not run away from the lecture, but sits to the end. This means that cognitive or social motivation is more significant. A person is not born with a ready-made hierarchy of motives. It is formed gradually during ontogenesis.
Stages of formation of the motive hierarchyV :
1. The first birth of personality when this hierarchy itself is formed. But this hierarchy is formed under the influence of who raises the child, who is in his immediate environment and forms certain educational actions. When we teach, we give knowledge, and when we educate, we form a motivational sphere.
Bittersweet phenomenon. Signals the appearance social motives(if it weren’t for that, I would have taken it and eaten it without a twinge of conscience and would not have been upset, or would have stopped breaking the rules). The bittersweet phenomenon itself says that, firstly, social motives, secondly, their conflict begins. This conflict - the clash of motives - is the beginning of the construction of a hierarchy. There is no hierarchy at this moment yet. There is a beginning of this construction. This means that this is the first birth of personality. The bittersweet phenomenon was not discovered in some groups of children, but we see it very often in adults, because there were undeserved A's, awards obtained by deception.
Motive is a form of connection between a person and the outside world, when new types of activities appear, new motives appear. A person is constantly in this conflict in a situation of choosing between motives, in a situation of building and rebuilding his hierarchy of motives, which very often is not built according to type pyramid personality(there is one basic motive - the leader, and the rest are subordinate). Most often, a person has several such peaks (basic motives) - love, friendship, children, work, self-actualization and creativity. There are many basic motives and there is always a conflict between them, in which the personality is born, constantly develops, in which there is a need to subordinate again and again, what is more important, for example, a friend invites a student to a party and says that they have not seen each other for a long time and the need to prepare for tomorrow’s seminar , on which there will be a test.
2. The rebirth of personality - a new hierarchy is being built on basis independent choice . Puberty is an explosion of self-awareness, and a person uses reflection in order to build your own hierarchy. Leading motives or more significant motives occupy a higher place. These more significant motives have function of meaning formation, which less significant ones do not have. They give meaning to everything that falls within the scope of the meaning formation of these motives.
The concept of meaning is unstable, it is an experience of increased subjective significance of an object. Leontyev: personal meaning– the experience of increased subjective significance of the subject of events, actions that find themselves in the field of action of the leading motive.
By function they distinguish:
1) meaning-forming motives – leading motives in the hierarchy;
2) motives - stimuli that can generate emotions, but they cannot give personal meaning to what is associated with the implementation of this motive.
For example, a person’s leading motive is professional development. He chooses between jobs, each of which promises him incredible growth as a professional. In this case, he begins to focus on motives - incentives, which can be the location of the place of work, payment, relationships in the team. These motives-stimuli can give rise to very strong emotions. But they don’t form meaning.
3) Structuring function of the motive. Motives can structure activity. To do this, we must remember that in activities there are motives and goals. Target as a conscious image of a desired result or a conscious image of a future result. The most important thing for a goal is awareness. Motives are related to the goal, but there is no direct correspondence between them. Leontyev: motives encourage goal formation, but they do not directly set goals.
Depending on the motive, a person can set appropriate goals for himself. It's very visible. For example, what does a person study for - cognitive motivation (to gain knowledge) or social (to receive a diploma), to please parents or pleasantly surprise future employers. The structuring function was usually shown using the example of mental activity. It very much depends on why a person performs the thought process - for the sake of the result, for the sake of knowledge, for the sake of a social goal, in order to surpass others with his mind. When solving a creative problem (thinking that there can be only one answer and solving it quickly), when they want to realize their creative potential(multiple answers. solves different ways, does not pay attention to time). Such goals do not necessarily actually lead to the realization of motives. The so-called testing of the goal by action occurs, that is, the person thinks that these goals will lead him to the realization of the motive, but in fact they may not. They can appear as intermediate goals for the realization of the motive only in his imagination.
Quite illustrative examples are in the field interpersonal relationships. For example, a young man falls in love with a girl. In this case, his relationship with her is his motive, but he does not know how to attract the attention of this girl, how to tell her about his feelings in such a way as to achieve success. His friend offers him his own way of gaining attention: to let her know that you are in demand and very attractive to all the other girls, so when the object of his desire comes up with a request to copy the lecture, he says that he promised this notebook to that girl, then another, then Yes, he somehow has no time for her. He achieved his goal - he showed that he is very popular among the opposite sex, but does this goal lead to the realization of the motive? For some girl, maybe he does, she will decide how popular he is and want him to belong only to her. And someone will say - no, I won’t stand in this line, I won’t pay attention to him. Then it will be necessary to act in a different way - sweets, confessions, bouquets, invitations to the cinema, solving mathematics problems, and so on.
4) Incentive.
Motives and goals of activity
The motives of human activity are related to its goals. Goals and motives for actions may coincide. For example, if a student is encouraged to perform laboratory work the desire to acquire certain knowledge or skills, then here the goal and motive of his actions coincide. If a student is guided in his actions not so much by interest in the content as by the desire to receive a positive grade or avoid trouble for failing to complete a task, then the motive and immediate goal of his activity are clearly not identical.
The interdependence of a person’s goals and motives is obvious, since the goal of an activity always depends on its motive. In order for an object or phenomenon of reality to become the goal of our activity, a person must first realize that this object is related to the satisfaction of his needs, and the need for it prompts him to take appropriate action. Motive directs a person's forces in the direction of satisfying her needs.
Unlike goals, not all motives are actually recognized by a person. Along with well-recognized interests, aspirations, and beliefs in a person’s mental life, there are also personal tendencies and attitudes that are not adequately recognized, which causes distortions in worldview and behavior.
Classification of motives of behavior and personality activities
So, at the basis of any action is a need, which psychologically turns out to be a motive, which can be realized in a number of psychological variables: interests, aspirations, beliefs and attitudes. Interests are understood as motives that embody the emotionally charged cognitive needs of an individual. Interest is nothing more than emotionally charged intellectual selectivity; interest arises when its object evokes an emotional response. Interest combines the emotional and the rational.
The ratio of these components allows us to distinguish direct and indirect interests. Direct interests are associated primarily with the emotional appeal of activities aimed at the corresponding object. Indirect interests concern the results of activities. The mental component predominates in them. Direct and indirect interests are closely related.
Quantitative characteristics of interests are their breadth, depth and stability.
The breadth of interests is determined by the number of objects, spheres of reality that have lasting significance for the individual. The dispersion of interests in combination with the number of floors acts as negative trait personality. A breadth of interests is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the harmonious development of an individual.
The depth of interests shows the degree of penetration of the individual into the content of the cognizable object. Sometimes the depth of interests negatively correlates with their breadth, and then a person is said to have a little bit of everything. Superficial knowledge from many areas of reality leads to amateurism.
The stability of interests is expressed in the duration of maintaining a relatively intense interest. Sustainable interests are those that most fully meet the basic needs of the individual and therefore become essential features of his psychological make-up.
The breadth, stability and depth of interests to a certain extent reflect the direction of development of the individual’s abilities. Thus, a child’s stable interest in music, which manifests itself in constant attention to everything related to music, most likely indicates that the child has musical abilities.
Aspiration is the motives in which the needs of the individual are manifested in the conditions of specially organized activity. Moreover, this activity can be dominant for quite a long time in a person’s life. Thus, in the activities of students, the desire to finish educational institution, start working in your specialty. Sometimes - depending on the content of the goal and the degree of its awareness - the desire can take on the form of attraction or desire.
Attraction is characterized by a low level of goal awareness. It is experienced as a vague emotional outburst, dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs. Something does not suit a person in life, but she still does not know exactly what, because the train does not have a clearly identified direction towards the goal. Therefore, trains themselves do not encourage a person to engage in purposeful activity. They can only serve as the basis for orienting activity, which forces the subject, at least in general terms, to identify the “search zone” for what he is missing, to objectify his undifferentiated state, which manifests itself on the train.
Desire constitutes a more or less clear awareness of a goal. In their highest manifestations, which in psychology are often called desires, they encourage volitional actions aimed at achieving significant goals.
A factor that has motivational significance and reveals a person’s setting of certain goals is the level of a person’s aspirations - the desire to achieve goals of the degree of complexity that a person considers himself capable of. The level of aspirations is based on self-esteem, the maintenance of which has become a need for a person.
The problem of the level of individual aspirations was first posed in the psychological school. Lenin. The method of his research consists in the fact that the person being studied receives a task, for example, a series mathematical problems increasing degree of complexity. When starting work, he chooses for himself one of the graded tasks, that is, he determines the level, after achieving (or not achieving) which he is asked to indicate which task of difficulty he will choose next. This choice, after previous success (or failure), makes it possible to determine the level of aspirations.
The level of a person’s aspirations may be adequate or inadequate (underestimated, overestimated) to the individual’s capabilities. A person with a reduced level of aspirations is characterized by the so-called ugly duckling conflict, which manifests itself in lack of confidence in one’s strengths, capabilities, and abilities. An inflated level of aspirations is generated by contradictions between growing needs and the real possibilities of meeting them and, in the process of implementation, is accompanied by increased criticism, maximalism in assessing reality and emotional tension.
The decisive factor in establishing the level of aspirations is not the objective success or failure itself, but the subject’s experience of his achievements as sufficient or insufficient. According to American psychologists, the level of aspirations depends on the relationship between two opposing motivational tendencies - the desire for success and the avoidance of failure, which are part of the structure of achievement motivation. In other words, goal-oriented behavior is determined by the relationship between two tendencies - the desire for success and the avoidance of failure.
The tendency to strive for success is a multiplicative function of three variables: the motive for striving for success, the subjective probability of achieving success, and its attractiveness in a given situation. The motive for striving for success is a stable disposition of an individual to experience pride and pleasure when achieving success.
The tendency to avoid failure is a multiplicative function of the failure avoidance motive (the desire to avoid failure and shame) and the gi of unattractiveness in a certain situation.
The attractiveness of success is stronger, the lower the subjective probability of success (i.e., the more difficult it is to achieve), and conversely, the attractiveness of avoiding failure is weaker, the higher the subjective probability of success.
The predominance of one or another motivational tendency (the motive of striving for success or the motive of avoiding failure) is always determined by the choice of the degree of difficulty of the task. People with a predominance of the motive of striving for success choose tasks of moderate difficulty. If a person is focused on avoiding failure, she prefers very easy tasks (their choice guarantees success) or very difficult ones (if she cannot solve problems of this class, this does not cause her much grief, because failure with tasks that hardly anyone copes, does not give rise to shame and feelings of humiliation).
The situation in which the achievement motive is actualized is characterized as follows:
it has certain quality standards;
the result of solving problems is assessed according to these standards;
the outcome of the decision may be successful or unsuccessful;
a person understands his responsibility for the consequences.
In such a situation, the motives of striving for success and avoiding failure are updated. People with the motive of striving for success have the following characteristics;
achievement situation as a personal factor;
confidence in a successful outcome,
active search for information to judge one’s successes;
willingness to take responsibility and decisiveness in uncertain situations;
greater intensity of pursuit of the goal;
obtaining increased pleasure from interesting tasks;
the desire to do more or less difficult work, but one that can actually be completed;
lack of enthusiasm for solving complex or simple tasks;
the ability not to get confused in a situation of competition or testing of abilities;
desire for reasonable risk;
average, realistic level of aspirations;
great persistence in the face of obstacles;
aspiration level increases after success and decreases after failure
People with a failure-avoidance motive tend to seek information about the possibility of failure in an achievement situation. They take on extremely complex or simple tasks. In contrast to people with the motive of striving for success, the cause of failure is considered to be a lack of one’s own abilities, and success is explained by external circumstances.
X. Heckhausen proposed a model of the mechanism of achievement motivation (Fig. 53). As we can see from this diagram, achievement motivation is closely related to such a basic personality characteristic as self-esteem. J. Atkinson defined the mechanism of achievement motivation as “the ability to experience pride in what has been achieved.” This mechanism is actualized in the situation in which the person finds himself.
It should be noted that although there are many situations of achievement in life (for example, in academic, professional activity), the difference in motives reveals itself in the fact that some people look for such situations, others avoid them.
A person chooses a goal that corresponds to the level of his aspirations, a strategy for its implementation and performs appropriate actions. A person evaluates the result of his actions (successful or unsuccessful) by comparing them with the level of aspirations. The result can negatively or positively affect self-esteem.
Appropriate attribution (explanation of the reasons for the result) is a compensation mechanism, which makes it possible to weaken the negative or enhance the positive impact on self-esteem.
When a situation of achievement cannot be realized instantly, but requires significant effort over a long period of time
Rice. 53. in
time (for example, the growth of professional achievements), each individual result is assessed by a person from the point of view of approaching the final goal.
The characteristics of people with motives of striving for success and avoiding failure in connection with the peculiarities of the functioning of the achievement motivation mechanism are given in Table. 9.
Beliefs form the basis of today's motives and embody the conscious needs of the individual to act in accordance with his internal position, views, theoretical principles. The basis of such needs is the body of knowledge about nature, society and man, that is, a worldview. IN psychological science It is customary to associate a worldview with a person’s cognitive needs. This is truly one of the essential connections. At the same time, the worldview as the main “unit” of the relationship between man and the world is broader than the system of knowledge. This is, first of all, a conscious attitude towards the world, which covers knowledge, assessment, and actions in their unity. Worldview and associated beliefs have a complex psychological structure, which contains three main components:
cognitive (knowledge); emotional (assessment, attitude);
behavioral (will).
Belief is sometimes equated with knowledge, perhaps because knowledge is easier to discover than beliefs. In fact, knowledge alone is not enough to form beliefs. In this regard, an experiment in which a “situation of free choice” was created is indicative. Students were asked the question: “Does Lee need to do his homework?”
Table 9. c
Most children answered this question positively, explaining why this should be done. Next, the children were informed that they would not be interviewed on one item the next day. It turned out that some of them completed their homework on all academic subjects, others - history, others - only physics. There were also those who learned nothing at all.
The importance of the emotional component in psychological structure beliefs are well reflected in the saying: “Ideas that become beliefs are snares that you cannot break until you break your heart.”
And finally, knowledge that has passed through the emotional sphere is not enough; it is also necessary to teach a person to implement it.
Worldview, like belief, must be based on a more general need. Such a need, in our opinion, is the attitude towards the world. In turn, it acts as a socialized human interpretation of the general biological need of living organisms for orientation in the environment. Obviously, such a need necessarily includes a cognitive need for social contact and in the “meaning of life”.
The meaningful components of a worldview are its the most important feature. Worldview is structurally related to interests, aspirations and attitudes. This predetermines the reliance of the worldview on the life experience of the individual and individual characteristics its reflection of reality. Installation plays important role in the motivational sphere of the individual and represents a certain organization of her unconscious experience. It is a factor regulating expedient activity and personality behavior.
An attitude is an individual’s stable predisposition to a certain form of response, with the help of which a particular need can be satisfied. An attitude encourages a person to orient his activity in a certain direction and act consistently in relation to all objects and situations with which it is connected.
The attitude reflects the state of the individual, arising on the basis of the interaction of his needs and the corresponding situation of their satisfaction, ensures ease, almost automaticity, and purposefulness of behavior. As a mode of activity, attitude manifests itself at all levels of mental activity - from sensory-perceptual to socio-psychological.
Attitude can act as a fundamental factor that mediates the active interaction of the individual and the environment, primarily social. Thanks to the repetition of so-called founding situations, “fixed personality attitudes” are gradually formed, which, unnoticed by him, influence his life positions.
Examples of forms of behavior in which fixed attitudes regarding various facts are manifested public life, enough. These attitudes can be either positive (behavior junior school student who follows the teacher’s instructions is associated with the acquisition of knowledge and norms of behavior, determined by his positive attitude towards the teacher), and negative ones, which have the nature of prejudice. As an example of the latter, we can cite the so-called ethnic stereotypes, which mediate attitudes towards representatives Caucasian nationalities as belligerent, sexually aggressive, dexterous, and the like. These attitudes are the result of hasty and insufficiently substantiated conclusions drawn on the basis of certain facts personal experience, and more often - a consequence of the uncritical assimilation of thinking stereotypes (standardized considerations accepted in a certain social group).
What factors motivate social behavior personalities?
Firstly, these are learned traditions and customs.
Secondly, the system perceived and internalized by the individual life values- what a person strives for, what he orients his life towards. A person’s orientation towards certain values is made on the basis of a preliminary positive assessment if the subject has projected in his consciousness (or subconscious) mastery of them. And a person does this, taking into account not only his needs, but also the possibilities of the Path of formation value orientations may not begin from real needs, but indirectly. By adopting a system of values and life guidelines from the people around her, a person thereby lays in herself the foundations of a new need that she did not have before.
Separately, we should dwell on the consideration of a phenomenon that American psychologists drew attention to when studying social impacts, arising within small social groups and affect the psychology of the individual. According to Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance, a feature of a person's mental life is the desire to ensure that in the entire system of behavior, views, opinions, sponkuk - there is a certain correspondence between all components. Festinger emphasized the correspondence between what a person knows, what she believes, and what she does. An individual has certain opinions, views, emotional attitudes towards the phenomena of life and strives for their internal conformity
If, in the totality of our knowledge about reality, a discrepancy arises between its individual elements, then this causes psychological process, aimed at weakening or removing this dissonance. Dissonance creates a state of discomfort in a person and directs her behavior to reduce it. Dissonance can be caused new information, which a person either accepts and changes his behavior in accordance with new data, or does not accept (prevents it), or changes the objective conditions themselves.
Dissonance and the strength of its pressure on the individual are determined by which elements do not correlate with each other. If the contradictory elements of our knowledge are very significant for us - for example, we learn about such actions of a person we like that contradict our expectations - then the influence of dissonance on our behavior will be intense, in other cases it will be weak.
Having identified the most important aspects of a personality that influence the motivation of its behavior, we have shown how both clearly conscious and less conscious motives can become an element of motivation for behavior. They act either as a conscious interest, desire, belief, or as unconscious attitudes and tendencies that are reflected in behavior, in the characteristics of reasoning and thoughts, in a person’s actions.
Turning to the question of the sources of personality activity, we considered the essence of needs, which reflect the state of need for something that leads to activity. To determine the nature of this activity, it is necessary to analyze its direction.
The motive and purpose of the crime are optional signs of the subjective side of the crime. They become mandatory and therefore are taken into account when qualifying crimes only in cases specified in the law, i.e. in a specific article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code. For example, abuse of official powers (Article 285 of the Criminal Code) entails criminal liability in the presence of selfish or other personal interest, which are possible motives for abuse. Their absence excludes criminal liability for abuse of official powers even if all other signs of this crime are present. In other cases, the motive and purpose of a socially dangerous act are important in individualizing punishment and characterizing the personality of the criminal.
The motive for a crime is the internal motivations determined by certain needs and interests that make a person decide to commit a crime. The purpose of the crime is the idea of the person committing the crime about the desired result that he strives to achieve by committing the crime.
Motive and goal, being psychological categories, are closely related to each other. All human activity is determined by certain motives and goals. Criminal behavior, like any human activity, has certain motives and is aimed at achieving a specific goal. There is an internal connection between motive and goal.
The formation of a motive also involves setting a specific goal. Motive is the driving force that leads the subject to achieve a goal. At the same time, motive and goal are not the same concepts, since they differently characterize the mental attitude of the perpetrator to the act committed. If in relation to the motive one can ask the question why a person committed a socially dangerous action (inaction), then in relation to the goal - what the perpetrator was striving for. Therefore, the goal determines the direction of action.
Thus, V., who committed a contract murder, acted with selfish motives. His goal was to obtain material gain. The motive of the crime and the goal determined by these motives are one-order concepts. However, it is also possible to set other goals that do not coincide with the motives, but are necessary to achieve the final goal.
Motives and goals are always specific and are indicated, as a rule, in the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code either as the main feature of the composition, or as a qualifying and privileged feature. When specifying motive as a mandatory feature of the composition, the legislator usually uses the term “motivation” or “interest”. For example, Art. 153 of the Criminal Code provides for liability for the substitution of a child committed for selfish or other base motives. In Art. 292 of the Criminal Code (official forgery) speaks of selfish or other personal interest.
We find an indication of the motive for committing a crime in the Special Part only in qualified elements of the crime as characteristics qualifying the act. Thus, causing grievous harm to health is considered more dangerous if it was committed on the basis of national, racial, religious hatred or enmity (clause “e”, part 2 of article 111 of the Criminal Code).
More often, the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code contain indications of the purpose of the crime. For example, the purpose as the main feature of the crime is spoken of in Art. 187 of the Criminal Code, which provides for liability for the production for the purpose of sale or sale of counterfeit credit or payment cards, as well as other payment documents that are not securities. In many articles, a specific goal acts as a qualifying feature for an act. Thus, trafficking in minors is recognized as a serious crime if it is carried out, for example, for the purpose of removing organs or tissues from a minor for transplantation (clause “g”, part 2 of article 152 of the Criminal Code). Indications on the motives and purposes of the crime are also contained in the General Part of the Criminal Code. In these cases, they have a certain criminal legal significance. For example, the purpose of committing grave or especially grave crimes is indicated in Part 4 of Art. 35 of the Criminal Code when determining the characteristics of a criminal community (criminal organization). The article of the Special Part provides for responsibility for organizing a criminal community (criminal organization) and (or) participation in it (Article 210 of the Criminal Code). When deciding on the presence or absence of signs of a criminal community, it is necessary to refer to Part 4 of Art. 35 of the Criminal Code.
One of the signs of justified risk as a circumstance excluding the criminality of an act, the legislator calls a specific goal - achieving a socially useful goal (Article 41 of the Criminal Code).
Being optional signs of the subjective side, motives and goals are regarded by the legislator as mitigating or aggravating circumstances. For example, the motive of compassion (clause “e” of Article 61 of the Criminal Code), the purpose of concealing or facilitating the commission of a crime (clause “e” of Article 63).
By establishing the possibility, under exceptional circumstances, of assigning a culprit a more lenient punishment than provided for the crime he committed, the legislator first of all speaks of the need to take into account the purpose and motives of the crime (Article 64 of the Criminal Code).
In a number of cases, the legislator, although he does not name it, nevertheless implies the presence of certain motives and goals. For example, crimes such as theft, fraud, robbery and other types of theft (Articles 158-162 of the Criminal Code) presuppose the presence of a selfish goal, as is directly stated in the note to Art. 158 of the Criminal Code, which defines the general concept of theft.
In the criminal legal literature, attempts have been made to classify motives and goals according to their nature, content, on the basis of the stability of motives and goals, etc. However, these types of classification do not play any significant criminal legal role. The criminal law literature also proposed a classification “based on the moral and legal assessment of motives and goals.” In accordance with it, all motives and goals are divided into two groups:
1) low-lying;
2) devoid of base content.
The base ones include those motives and goals with which the legislator associates the establishment or strengthening of criminal liability. Thus, taking a hostage entails a more severe punishment under Part 2 of Art. 206 of the Criminal Code, if it was carried out for selfish reasons (clause “h”).
Selfish motive and selfish goal are among the basest motives. The legislator directly speaks about this in some articles of the Special Part. Thus, disclosure of the secret of adoption entails criminal liability in cases where such disclosure is made “for mercenary or other base motives” (Article 155 of the Criminal Code).
Other base motives are the motive of national, racial, religious hatred, the goal of obstructing the legitimate activities of persons administering justice (Article 295 of the Criminal Code), the goal of artificially creating evidence of a crime (Article 304 of the Criminal Code), hooligan motives (Article 213 of the Criminal Code), etc. .
The second type of motives and goals are those that are devoid of a base character. The legislator does not associate increased criminal liability with these motives and goals. These are motives of cowardice, falsely understood interests of the cause, etc. Some authors propose to call such motives asocial in contrast to antisocial (base).
However, in both cases, motives and goals, although to varying degrees, are socially dangerous, since they determine the commission of a crime and indicate a person’s desire to cause harm to legally protected interests.
As already noted, motive and purpose are signs of any intentional crime. In the literature, the opinion was expressed that in crimes with indirect intent it is impossible to find a motive, since the consequences of this crime “do not follow from the motive of the action of the perpetrator, are not determined by these motives.” Other scientists believe that the behavior of a person committing a deliberate crime is always motivated. And with indirect intent, the criminal not only clearly understands the causal relationship between the act and the consequences, but also consciously accepts them.
As a result, in their opinion, reckless crimes have certain motives and goals.
It seems that it is extremely difficult to theoretically substantiate the presence of a motive and purpose for a crime committed with indirect intent, since the consequences in these cases turn out to be a by-product of the act; the perpetrator did not strive for them, and was indifferent to their occurrence. Consequently, there was no goal setting in such cases, however, in accordance with the opinion established in theory and practice, the legislator’s indication in the article of the Special Part of the motive and purpose of the crime means that this crime can only be committed with direct intent. At the same time, the importance of motive and purpose cannot be completely excluded when committing a crime with indirect intent. However, this value, in our opinion, should be limited to the General Part of the Criminal Code.
A more difficult question is whether it is possible to talk about the motive and purpose of careless crimes.
Some scientists believe that when committing careless crimes, the actions of the subject are of a conscious, volitional nature, and therefore are motivated and purposeful.
However, the opinion of scientists who believe that in relation to careless crimes we can only talk about the motive and purpose of behavior, but not the crime, seems more correct. This point of view is supported by the fact that the legislator does not include motive and purpose among either the mandatory or qualified signs of reckless crimes. Moreover, a goal, which is an idea of a desired result, does not fit into the framework of careless guilt. At the same time, it cannot be denied that the behavior of any sane person is motivated and purposeful. However, the motives of behavior in these cases do not act as motives for committing a crime, since for the most part it is not the actions or inactions themselves that are criminal, but the social consequences that have occurred as a result of this act. dangerous consequences, which the person not only did not strive for, but did not even allow the possibility of their occurrence.
So, I., having put some girls he knew in the car and wanting to show them his ability to drive, significantly exceeded the speed, lost control, drove into oncoming traffic and crashed into a Gazelle truck. One of the girls died as a result of this collision. I. committed a crime under Part 2 of Art. 264 of the Criminal Code, - violations of the rules traffic resulting in the death of a person. Is it possible in this case to talk about the desired result that I. was striving to achieve? But the desire to demonstrate his driving skills is obvious, which predetermined a certain behavior of the subject, expressed in violation of traffic rules.
Emotions are feelings and experiences that a person experiences. Therefore, emotions are an essential component of any human activity; including criminal ones. However, only extremely strong short-term emotional arousal, which proceeds rapidly and is characterized by a significant change in consciousness, a violation of the volitional consciousness behind the actions - affect, has criminal legal significance, as an obligatory sign of certain elements of a crime.
Affect can be physiological and pathological. With physiological affect, the resulting state of strong emotional excitement is an intense (sharply tense) emotion that dominates a person’s consciousness, reduces his control over his actions, and is characterized by a narrowing of consciousness, a certain inhibition of intellectual activity. However, in this case, a deep clouding of consciousness does not occur, self-control is maintained, and therefore physiological affect does not exclude responsibility.
In the current Criminal Code, the emotional state of a person is taken into account by the legislator in three cases: 1) murder by a mother of a newborn child in a psychotraumatic situation or in a state of mental disorder that does not exclude sanity (Article 106); 2) murder committed in a state of passion caused by the unlawful or immoral behavior of the victim (Article 107 of the Criminal Code) and 3) infliction of grievous or moderate harm to health in a state of passion caused by the unlawful or immoral actions of the perpetrator (Article 113 of the Criminal Code).
To summarize the above, it can be noted that the significance of motive, goals and emotions is determined by the fact that, firstly, they can act as mandatory elements of specific crimes. Secondly, the motive and purpose can be included by the legislator in the articles of the Special Part as characteristics qualifying a crime (emotions are not provided as characteristics qualifying an act). And finally, thirdly, motive, purpose and emotions, being optional signs of the subjective side, can be taken into account by the court as mitigating circumstances when individualizing punishment.