Individuality is the unique qualities of a person. Individuality: the art of being yourself

Topic 12. Man:

individual, personality, individuality

Individuals are born

become a person

individuality is defended.

Man in psychology.

So who is this MAN?

The first thing that can be noted when describing the phenomenon of a person is the variety of his properties. Man is a multifaceted, multidimensional, complexly organized being.

Man is a generic concept, indicating that a creature belongs to the highest degree of development of living nature - to the human race. The concept of “man” affirms the genetic predetermination of the development of actually human characteristics and qualities.

So, Human is a socio-biological being that embodies the highest level in the evolution of life and is a subject of socio-historical activity and communication.

The concept of “man” is used as an extremely general concept to characterize the universal qualities and abilities inherent in all people.

Using this concept, psychologists emphasize that a person is a biological and social being at the same time, which through its life activities influences the environment.

Basic characteristics of a person:

The special structure of the body;

Ability to work;

Presence of consciousness.

In the practice of psychology, a person is studied in several aspects (see Diagram 1).

Scheme 1. Study of man in psychology

1. Man as an individual reflects the biological essence. We are all, like all living things, part of nature. In this aspect, they consider what is given to a person by nature, what makes him belong to the human race, the human body, its structure and how it affects the psyche are studied.

2. At the same time, Human- it's always active creature. Even when we sleep, a separate part of our consciousness does not sleep, continues to digest the information perceived during the day. And a person is always engaged in some kind of activity, communicates with other people, thinks, shows mental activity (cognitive activity),

3. Third aspect of study person is associated with the fact that the child is not born in isolation, but immediately falls into society, which immediately begins to make its demands on him. Starting from the fact that the child is given a name, and from childhood they are taught: this is how you can act, but this is not possible, from birth the child perceives social roles (son, daughter, kindergarten student, schoolchild, etc.), etc. This all applies to a person as an individual - a social being.

4. And all of the above adds up to a unique individuality everyone person. Every person is unique. Each of you is unique.

But how do these concepts relate: man, individual, personality, individuality?

Individual and personality.

û What do you think personality is?

û Can every person be called a person?

What does the word "personality" mean? What meaning do we put into it? This word has its own history. Originally the Latin word "persona" (personality) meant a mask worn by an actor. The word “mask” had the same meaning among buffoons. In ancient Rome, personae were citizens responsible before the law.

In modern science, the concept of “personality” is one of the most important categories. It is not purely psychological and is studied by history, philosophy, economics, pedagogy and other sciences. In this regard, the question arises about the peculiarities of the approach to personality in psychology.

An important task of psychological science is to discover the psychological properties that characterize the individual and personality.

You, of course, never bothered yourself with the question of how an individual differs from a personality, since this topic hardly bothered you at all. However, the older you get, the more serious your attitude to the world... or maybe you just heard a debate about who can be called a person and who cannot? Be that as it may, the question has been raised - which means we need to find out the answer.

A person is already born into the world as a human being. The structure of the body of a born baby allows him to master upright posture in the future, the structure of the brain allows him to develop intelligence, the structure of the hand provides the prospect of using tools, etc. With all these capabilities, a baby differs from a young animal. This confirms the fact that the baby belongs to the human race.

It's safe to say that you are an individual. Just like your parents, and teachers, and that tall guy from the next house, and the beautiful girl from the top floor... However, the baby in the stroller is also an individual, so you have nothing special to be proud of: it is the privilege of a person from birth - to be not an individual, like animals , but an individual, and in order to fall into this category, you just need to have arms, legs, a head and everything that a person has (think for yourself).

The concept of “individual” expresses a person’s gender identity, i.e. any person is an individual.

Individual (from Latin indivisible) – This is a single representative of the human race (species homo sapiens), a specific bearer of individually unique, primarily biologically determined traits. The concept of an individual contains an indication of a person’s similarity to all other people, of his commonality with the human race (musculoskeletal structure, which provides the ability to walk upright, master speech, a nervous system with a certain structure of the brain, etc.). And at the same time, the concept of “individual” also indicates that this is an individual being, different from others (individual characteristics are different among people - body structure, hair color, characteristics of the nervous system, etc.).

Basic characteristics of the individual:

Age and gender:

Age and phase of life;

Sexual dimorphism (male, female);

Individually typical:

Constitutional properties (features of human anatomy, body structure);

Neurodynamic properties (type of nervous system, brain properties, etc.);

Color of eyes, hair, etc.;

Biological needs (for food, safety, etc.);

Makings;

Activity.

The highest integration of individual individual properties of a person is represented in temperament and psychological inclinations.

As we have found out, individuality is connected primarily with natural formations, with the human body, its structure. This is what is laid down in a person during intrauterine development. In general, natural, bodily properties constitute the prerequisites and conditions for the development of his internal, mental qualities inherent in man. For example, a certain structure of the larynx and ligaments is responsible for the fact that a person can speak, and some can sing beautifully.

From individual to personality.

û Answer, is a newborn person a person? Is it possible to talk about the personality of an animal?

Although it is pleasant to be an individual (after all, not an individual, right? – already good), it is not particularly honorable: you need to somehow stand out from the crowd of your kind, but how to do this? And what will happen as a result? But this is exactly the key question! An individual, that is, a person who does not want to do everything the way others do, thinks, feels and acts in his own way, is not afraid to have his own point of view, gradually turns into... personality! That is, a person is an individual, but an individual may not be a person - a sad picture, by the way.

One day, Crybaby, Mischievous, Tikhonya and Ochkarik began to think - what, in fact, sets them apart from the crowd of their kind? After all, there are a lot of schoolchildren like them, some of them even look like these four. But they are special, aren’t they? “I guess I know what’s going on,” said Ochkarik firmly. – You, Crybaby, are a very vulnerable girl, you know how to empathize with others, that’s good. You, Mischievous, are a master of all kinds of inventions, and this is wonderful. Our quiet girl is a very conscientious girl, she can handle any job this way. Well, I... - The bespectacled boy hesitated, - I’m very smart... and just try to disagree with this!!!”

û Think about it, how do you stand out from the crowd of your own kind?

Coming into the world as an individual, a person acquires a special social quality, he becomes a personality. The philosophical definition of personality was given by K. Marx. He defined the essence of man as a set of social relations. It is possible to understand what a person is only through the study of real social connections and relationships into which a person enters. The social nature of the individual always has a specific historical content. It is from the specific socio-historical relations of a person that it is necessary to derive not only the general conditions of development, but also the historically specific essence of the individual. The specificity of social conditions of life and a person’s way of activity determines the characteristics of his individual qualities and properties.

û If we give a description of a person’s personality in Ancient times, in Middle times in Western Europe, in modern times in North America, Africa and Russia, will these characteristics be the same? What will be their specificity?

Personal characteristics are not given to a person from birth. All people adopt certain mental traits, attitudes, customs and feelings in the society in which they live.

A person as an individual is a bearer of historically developed and socially significant qualities, forms of behavior, and activity. Personal qualities are always significant to other people. For example, kindness is a personal quality because it is always directed towards other people, and therefore towards society as a whole.

To the question of what personality is, psychologists answer differently, and the variety of their answers, and partly the divergence of opinions on this matter, reveals the complexity of the personality phenomenon itself.

Personality is considered as the result of the development of the individual, the embodiment of human qualities. This is the social essence of man.

The concept of personality is often divided into two categories: 1 ) personality is a human individual as a subject of social relations and conscious activity; 2) personality is a stable system of socially significant traits that characterize an individual as a member of a particular society or community.

A personality can be called a specific person who is the bearer of consciousness, is capable of cognition, experiences, transformation of the surrounding world and builds certain relationships with this world and with the world of other individuals.

The concept of “personality” implies that an individual has special qualities that he can only develop through communication with other people. This is a set of developed habits and preferences, mental attitude and tone, sociocultural experience and acquired knowledge, a set of psychophysical traits and characteristics of a person, his archetype, which determine everyday behavior and connections with society and nature. Personality is also observed as manifestations of “behavioral masks” developed for different situations and social interaction groups.

Basic personality characteristics:

Orientation (drives, desires, interests, inclinations, ideals, worldviews, beliefs, as well as will).

Experience (knowledge, skills, abilities and habits).

Individual characteristics of individual mental processes: memory, emotions, sensations, thinking, perception, feelings, will.

- Temperament.

Capabilities.

Character.

Motivation and values.

Social needs (acceptance of a person, etc.).

Social status and roles.

Conscious goals.

Personal properties of a person - a person’s life path, his social biography. A person as a representative of society, who freely and responsibly determines his position among others.

Many scientists (and others) believe that a person is a person to the extent that he is significant to other people, to the extent that he is able to give himself to other people, to leave his mark on them.

û In this context, can we talk about the PERSONALITY of the criminal?

Why is an individual worse than a person?

It's no worse. He's just one of many. He cannot be identified. Just remember the tale of the Frog Princess. At the beginning of the fairy tale, three brothers are three individuals, one is practically no different from the other: all three follow their father’s orders and shoot an arrow from their bows, all three bring young wives to the house, try to please their father, and so on. But at the end of the fairy tale, we will no longer confuse Ivan Tsarevich with anyone, he appeared before us in full height. What about his brothers? They remained undiscovered for us: which of them married a merchant’s daughter, and which one married a noblewoman is not clear. And it’s not interesting, to be honest.

In general, an individual does not make the reader want to know more about him, whereas a personality attracts attention. The situation is exactly the same in life - if you do not stand out among others, if you are not interested in anything and you do not have your own opinion and your own, original view of the world, then who needs you? Who wants to waste their time on you? Think about it!

Speaking about a person as an individual, we highlight the integrity of a person, his ability to take a certain place that is unique to him in society, in the world of other people, the ability to manage himself, his behavior and his development, and influence other people.

Personality and individuality.

Along with the concept of “personality”, the concept of “individuality” is often used. How do these two concepts differ from one another? What is human individuality?

û Without looking at further text, can you answer how you understand a person’s individuality?

The personality of each person is endowed only with his own inherent combination of traits and characteristics that form his individuality. Thus, individuality is a combination of a person’s psychological characteristics that determine his uniqueness, originality, and difference from other people . Individuality is manifested in certain character traits, temperament, habits, prevailing interests, in the qualities of cognitive processes, in abilities, in an individual style of activity.

Individuality is the uniqueness of a person as an individual and personality. Individuality is manifested in appearance, physique, expressive movements, character traits, temperament, particular needs and abilities, cognitive, volitional and emotional processes, mental states, and life experiences.

We often use the concept of “individuality” when talking about a person’s personality. However, it should be remembered that this concept does not reflect the integrity of the individual, but only emphasizes the specific features of a person that distinguish him from other people.

The prerequisite for the formation of human individuality is, first of all, the environment where he grows up, the associations he accumulated in childhood, upbringing, peculiarities of family structure and treatment of the child. Both the innate characteristics of a person and his own activity in the formation of his uniqueness are important. There is an opinion that one is born as an individual, becomes an individual, and defends individuality ()

The relationship between individuality and personality is determined by the fact that these are two ways of being a person, two different definitions of him. The discrepancy between these concepts is manifested, in particular, in the fact that there are two different processes of formation of personality and individuality.

The formation of personality is the process of socialization of a person, which consists in his mastering the social essence. This development is always carried out in the specific historical circumstances of a person’s life. The formation of personality is associated with the individual’s acceptance of social functions and roles developed in society, social norms and rules of behavior, and with the formation of skills to build relationships with other people. A formed personality is a subject of free, independent and responsible behavior in society.

The formation of individuality is the process of individualization of an object. Individualization is the process of self-determination and isolation of the individual, his separation from the community, the design of his individuality, uniqueness and originality. A person who has become an individual is an original person who has actively and creatively demonstrated himself in life.

The concepts of “personality” and “individuality” capture different aspects, different dimensions of a person’s essence. The essence of this difference is well expressed in the language. With the word “personality” such epithets as “strong”, “energetic”, “independent” are usually used, thereby emphasizing its active essence in the eyes of others. Individuality is spoken of as “bright”, “unique”, “creative”, meaning the qualities of an independent entity.

DIY

Do you want to be called a “strong personality”, “bright personality”? So what's the deal?

Do-it-yourself, or work on yourself, self-constructor, decide for yourself what you want to call the process of forging personality and individuality from yourself. It is not easy, but a person can cope with any difficulty if he wants, of course. But the main thing for you is to understand what personality and individuality are by disassembling these complex structures into separate blocks.

As we found out, personality is considered as the embodiment in a particular person of social qualities that are acquired in the process of activity and communication with other individuals. One is not born a person, one becomes a person, and this process takes many years

Personality development is a relatively slow process, and a lot of time passes before a person reaches full maturity. In order for an individual to become a person, it takes, of course, not only time. He must constantly be in the human society, enter into some kind of relationship with him. It is this connection “man - society” that first of all shapes the personality. And already in the first year of life a child’s need for communication with adults. However, there are many cases where children were completely deprived of the opportunity to communicate with people, and the results of this were truly tragic.

In the middle of the 18th century. A two-month-old baby named Ivan Antonovich was proclaimed Russian emperor. His reign did not last long and ended before the emperor uttered his first word. The courtiers who overthrew Ivan Antonovich from the throne imprisoned him and kept him there for many years. No one ever spoke to the prisoner; he was completely alone. In the end, solitary confinement greatly affected his mental abilities: he could not speak and came across as a complete idiot. By age, he was already an adult, but, of course, it is impossible to talk about him as a person. Also, children who were kidnapped and raised by animals did not become individuals.

Under normal conditions, a person very early enters into relationships with the people around him, with the team, with society, and these relationships are constantly changing, developing, becoming more versatile day by day.

Personality formation also determines activity and its features. It is in activity that the necessary unity of behavior is formed, the connection between the relationships that a person has with the outside world is strengthened.

The goals that a person sets for himself are also important. More precisely, personality development guides the purpose of life. These are very familiar words, but think about their meaning again. Maybe the goal of life is simply a desire, well, let’s say, to become a professional in some industry or just to make some kind of attempt. By what a person’s main goals in life are, one can judge his personality. There has never been a case where the pursuit of a small, personal goal forged a major personality.

So, the personality, developing under the influence of the social environment, possessing unique individual characteristics, constitutes a unity of the highest order. At a certain stage of its development, a person comes into contact with higher layers of human culture - ideals and spiritual values. And then the absorption and internal processing of these values ​​leads to the formation of the spiritual core of the personality, its moral self-awareness. The process that forms this “center” of personality is never completed.

Exercise. Let's understand the terms.

Which of the following human traits characterizes him as an individual? How is your personality? How's the personality? Explain your answer.

Accuracy, slowness, sociable, good motor; nal coordination, willpower, intelligence, daydreaming, brightness of traits, laziness, pride, determination, adaptive capabilities, mathematical abilities, temperament, stubbornness, reactivity, excitability, expressive facial expressions, literary talent, focus, myopia, strength of the nervous system.

Was it always easy to attribute a characteristic to one or another concept? What caused you the most difficulty? How do you explain the difficulties you are experiencing?

û Can you call yourself an individual? If yes, then how does it manifest itself?

New concepts: individual, personality, individuality.

Test questions.

1. Define the concepts of “person”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”.

2. How do the concepts of “man” and “individual” relate? Prove that man as an individual is similar to all other people and at the same time different from them.

3. How are the historical conditions in which a person lives and the formation of his personality related?

4. Highlight those factors that are necessary to transform an individual into a personality.

5. Which people can be called a personality with a capital P these days? Are you such a person?

6. How do the concepts of personality and individuality relate?

7. Can you call yourself an individual? Justify your answer.

8. Draw and describe your idea of ​​the connection between the concepts “person”, “individual”, “personality”, “individuality”.

9. Choose the correct answer

9.1 The sign that distinguishes a person from an animal is:

a) manifestation of activity, b) goal setting, c) adaptation to the environment, d) interaction with the outside world.

9.2. What sign characterizes a person as a person?

a) active life position, b) physical and mental health, c) belonging to homo sapiens, d) appearance features.

10. Are Mowgli children individuals? Justify your answer.

11. Express your opinion about the statement: “One is born as an individual, one becomes an individual, one defends individuality.”

Test tasks.

Literature and sources

1. Human horns. – M.: Vlados, 2001.

2. and others. Psychology. – M.: Academy, 1999.

3. Yarovitsky V. My first textbook on psychology. – Rostov-n/Don: Phoenix, 2011.

4. Gretsov psychology for girls. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.

5. Dyachenko dictionary-reference book. – Mn.: Harvest, M.: AST, 2001.

6. Nemov: In 3 books. – M.: Vlados, 2000. – Book. 1.

7. http:///obh/00066.htm

8. http:///obh/00150.htm

9. http:///difpsi/fxiepe. htm

10. http://cito-web. yspu. org/link1/metod/met121/node3.html

11. http://www. *****/for-students/cards/general-psychology/.html

12. http://ru. wikipedia. org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C

13. http://www. *****/?Article=142

14. http:///psiforum/4--/

Diagnosis of personality traits

Questionnaire of formal-dynamic properties of individuality by V. Rusalov online

This link invites you to take a serious psychological test by V. Rusalov to identify the formal-dynamic properties of individuality. The questionnaire contains 150 questions. The online form allows you to quickly go through the procedure and immediately (without registration and SMS) find out the results.

If you decide to take this questionnaire and do not understand some of the terms in the results, write to your teacher and he will explain what the results obtained on the test mean.

It's interesting to know

Personality self-knowledge exercises

Exercise 1. “Personality Attributes”

Each participant is invited to acquire personal symbols! He must come up with, invent for himself three symbolic attributes: a pseudonym, a personal distinctive sign and a motto. The personal identification mark should be drawn on a piece of paper. It should be simple and symbolic. The motto requires brevity and imagery. An example is given: the pseudonym is “Uncle Vasya”, the distinctive sign is a shovel, the motto is “I dig deep”.

At the end of the work, everyone shows each other their drawings, discusses them and tries to give each of those gathered a characteristic. In addition, participants must evaluate how well each selected symbolic attributes. Based on a five-point system, everyone is given a score based on the totality of their chosen nickname, name sign and motto. To do this, everyone passes their pieces of paper around in a circle and everyone takes turns putting marks on them. Next, the total score is calculated and it is determined who was best able to express themselves in such a “symbolic form.”

Exercise 2. “Collective creation of a personality image”

Everyone is interested in “knowing what impression he makes on others, what associations he evokes in them, what is perceived as significant and what is not noticed at all. Everyone is invited to take part in the joint creative process of creating an artistic image of your classmate. Anyone who wants to become an object of creativity goes into the middle circle that the others form. Each participant, after thinking, says what image appears in his mind when looking at his classmate. Next, the leader suggests saying what picture could be added to the created image: what kind of people might surround him, what kind of interior or landscape would make up the background. pictures. What times does this all remind you of (for example, the image of a “volunteer” may make you think of a mermaid swimming in the water element and surrounded by sea creatures. Or maybe you will think of a lonely wanderer walking through the desert to an unknown destination.). In conclusion, everyone exchanges their impressions of how the game went.

Exercise 3. “Personalization Tools”

As already mentioned, a real personality is capable of producing profound changes in others. But this does not come to her right away. The first step is the ability to win the attention of others.

All participants are asked to complete one simple task. By any means, excluding physical influences and disasters of “local significance,” they must try to attract the attention of others. Everyone must act at the same time.

Then the schoolchildren determine who succeeded and at what cost. Finally, it is calculated who attracted the attention of the largest number of game participants.

Exercise 4. “Qualities that we value”

When we interact with others, we usually discover that we like or dislike them. As a rule, we associate this assessment with the internal qualities of people. Let's try to determine what qualities we value and accept in people. Each participant takes a piece of paper and marks
a group of a person who impresses him in many ways. Next, he writes down five qualities that he especially likes about this person. Then everyone reads the “characteristic” they have compiled, and everyone together tries to determine who it applies to. The presenter, summing up the results, announces which of those present were recognized the fastest, and, therefore, who was among the most popular personalities.

Most of us are not us. Our thoughts are someone else's judgments; our life is mimicry; our passions - quote!

Oscar Wilde

Personality is part of the triad, expressing itself through consciousness.

Consciousness is the property of our biological computer - the brain - to receive and process information about the world around us and interact with it.

Under the shell of the personality there is individuality - the unique nature of each person, emphasizing his uniqueness and the task of the individual is to become an instrument for the expression of this individuality. If a person does not fulfill this function, then he becomes not a living person, but a mask hiding his individuality. We have seen quite a few of these masks; they were the standards of socially acceptable personalities in every era. Every day, such masks are churned out by the assembly line of the social system; they are tried on for children from childhood by parents, kindergarten, school, university, and at work. This mask contains traits of personality traits approved by society, social and socially controlled, dependent on basic external regulators, such as criticism and praise (carrot and stick). A small child, being oriented towards his parents, is dependent on their opinion. He takes on programs containing the “I-image” of what he is dictated to be as “good”, he is afraid of condemnation and punishment and craves approval, praise and encouragement, and thereby becomes an easy puppet in the hands of a social egregor. Taking other people's patterns onto his face, the child begins to perceive them as his own and implements their life programs. The weaker the individuality, the better the program takes root. Many, while living their lives, cannot answer the question: “Who am I?”, so mask programs erase their real face, forcing them to unconsciously meet other people’s expectations and live someone else’s life, not their own.

What do you know about yourself now? In addition, who your loved ones wanted you to be. What do you know about your purpose, the meaning of your individual life? Who you are? If you answered these questions without appealing to your social roles, then you are a bearer of individuality, not a mask.

Ego and selfishness

The term personality has many definitions, and many conflicting opinions: psychologists put personality in the main place, considering it the most important attribute of the psyche. In their opinion, personality is a path of evolution, the result of social influence. They believe that we are not born as individuals, but that we become them ourselves, and society and the state help us in this, presenting personality as the psychological appearance of a person as a member of society, aware of his role in it.”

Esotericists and mystics attribute negative properties to personality, arguing that personality is a mask, a screen, a false face, under which a person hides his true face, and the core of personality is its egoism, in which they see the cause of all the troubles of humanity and nature.

And again we find ourselves in extremes, from which the middle path of the Buddha will help us get out: Truth is in the middle, at the point of harmony of two extremes. Personality is neither evil nor good, it is a component of the triad, a part of our nature, without which human development is impossible at this stage. We have already passed the animal stage, in which the unconscious helped us, and are now going through the stage of social development, in which the personality helps us. In the next stage of development, at a qualitatively new stage, our spirit will help us to cognize and master the spiritual sphere (spiritual and not religious ). Without going through and learning the lessons given by the individual, a further path of development is impossible, therefore now the practices of leaving the world and immersing in nirvana are not effective, without learning to live in our world, a person will not be able to experience many other worlds that exist outside the perception of personal consciousness.

But talking, much less arguing about the positive or negative foundations of personality, is pointless if you do not define the terms.

There are two types of foundation from which personality grows, they are Ego and Egoism. These are not at all identical concepts, as they might seem at first glance. The ego centers the energy of the individual, grounding it in the personality and tying it to the body. The ego allows the individual to perceive himself as an autonomous unit, to understand and express his individuality, to feel his importance, as well as the importance, autonomy and right to life of everyone around him.

The ego enriches a person’s perception from the inside, giving him the opportunity to feel his personal boundaries and the boundaries of other people. Having an ego, we do not stop feeling the boundaries of others. It allows consciousness to feel like a drop in the social ocean, a cell in the body, where, without losing your individuality and nourishing it, you feel the boundaries of others who are as significant as you.

Egoism also centers the energy of consciousness into the personality, tying it to the physical body and identifying the personality and its consciousness with the brain, but unlike the ego, egoism closes the personality on its system and its boundaries, without noticing or taking into account the interests of others. In other words, egoism is nothing more than a focus on one’s own ego and its assertion at the expense of others.

Egoism is a virus introduced into humanity that changes the Ego, increasing its self-centeredness and grounding, and turns people into robots that keep them under control. Have you ever wondered who egoists serve? Their egoism, satisfying its whims, and being dependent on it, they rarely realize this dependence. Egoism loves worship, servility, admiration, praise, veneration, fanatical devotion, servility, servility, fear of others before oneself. Our selfish needs dictate to us the concepts of good and evil: what is beneficial is considered good; evil is something that is unprofitable.

It dominates the current personality system, and is noticeable in all spheres of life, including the spiritual, when spiritual mediators and gurus find out whose authority is truer and whose god is better. Selfishness flourishes in scientific circles: science studies the world with the sole purpose of exploiting it more efficiently. The egoism of most modern scientists tends to expand their horizons in order to demonstrate their intelligence and superiority over others, showing that they are stupider and thus assert themselves at the expense of others.

Egoism has subjugated most of humanity and its main task is to prevent a person from realizing himself and entering into harmonious interaction with the World, otherwise it will be impossible to control him.

Egoism does not allow a person to feel another; for him, only what concerns him personally matters.

The egoist sees the world around him through the prism of his own self-interest: he perceives and evaluates people by what he can extract from them for his own benefit. Our selfish needs dictate to us the concepts of good and evil: what is beneficial is considered good; evil is something that is unprofitable.

An egoist is a cell in the body that has outlined and strengthened its boundaries and claimed the right to superiority. It grows like a tumor, sucking energy from others, directing it to its own needs.

The “egoism” program has changed our ego towards greater centering and grounding of personality energy, making people scattered. Thanks to it, a person does not feel those natural relationships between people as particles of the One Whole. It changes consciousness, instilling in a person the need to pull the blanket over himself, dictating his superiority over others.

Depending on what foundation of perception of the world a personality grows on (ego or egoism), one can judge its life orientation.

Before the stage of personality development became available to people, they felt themselves to be One, being in the mother’s cradle of nature. The individuality of each constituted and complemented this universal unity, like a cell its own organism. But with the advent of the ego, this very cell finally sensed its boundaries, established and began to protect them. In life, this is expressed in the fact that our Ego identifies itself not with the Universal, but with the Personality, considering the Personality to be the most important for it, believing that the personality and its boundaries are its true essence.

The ego is oriented towards the external world, given to it in physical sensations, guided by the principle of “comfort-discomfort”, expressed through pleasure and pain.

Through pleasure, the ego feels the exaltation of its “I”, and through pain - depression, humiliation and discomfort. These two regulators make the personality predictable according to the “stimulus-response” principle and controllable according to the same principle.

How to find your individuality andfind out your real self?

Surprising and incomprehensible: the body is mine,
The brain is mine, but where am I?

To begin with, clear your ego of selfishness and discard the personal mask imposed on you from the outside. The nature of Individuality is given by existence, the nature of the mask personality is imposed by public opinion and its regulators. The personality is comfortable in society, but it is easier to manipulate. As long as you serve your Egoism, your psyche has buttons, by pressing which and making you feel pain or pleasure, you will be played like Pavlov’s dog by experts of this insidious mental mechanism.

Archetypes of personality and individuality

Society is irritated by individuality because individuality is not inherent in the sheep herd instinct. Individuality is ruled by the Leo archetype, the lion, as a rule, moves alone. The personality mask that has suppressed its individuality has the archetype of the sheep, which prefers to always be in the crowd, where it feels comfortable in the company of equals: more secure, confident and irresponsible: “ We are a crowd, and therefore no one in particular.”
Every person is born a lion, but society programs the human mind by raising people to become sheep. This gives a selfish masquerade limited personality that is cozy, pleasant, comfortable, and obedient. Shepherds raise a society of dependent slaves who are unaware of their slavery, rather than people who have dedicated themselves to freedom. And this is understandable: society needs slaves because state interests require obedience.
In order for you to feel your individuality and throw off the mask of someone else's face, let's turn to the old parable about how a sheep raised a lion cub, and he considered himself a sheep until the old lion grabbed him and took him to a pond, where he showed him his reflection to him. Many of us are like this lion - our self-image is formed not from our direct experience, but from the opinions of others. And the “personality” imposed from the outside replaces the individuality that could grow from within. We have become just a sheep of the flock, we cannot move freely and we are not aware of our true nature. It's time to look at your own reflection in the pond and make a move to destroy the image of yourself that you have been led to believe since childhood.

Evgenia Beinarovich

Since ancient times, thinkers have tried to penetrate into the essence of the concept of “man.” To figure it out, they created different concepts for understanding its definition. As a result, we came to the general conclusion that a person is a biological, psychological and social unity. The term “person” is closely interconnected with the concepts of “individual”, “individuality”, “personality”. Let's make some distinctions between these terms to understand their essence.

Man, individual, personality, individuality

Man occupies the highest phase in the origin and development of life. The theory of human evolution is called anthropogenesis. Man is a product of nature, which is closely interconnected with society.

The biological nature of man belongs to the higher mammals that appeared on Earth approximately 550 thousand years ago. As a biological being, a person has anatomical and physiological inclinations, that is, he has a muscular, circulatory and nervous system, in addition, gender and age characteristics. But the nervous system and the processes responsible for existence are programmed so that a person can adapt to different conditions of existence.

Psychological nature includes a person’s imagination, thinking, feelings, character, and memory.

The social essence of a person includes moral qualities, worldview, knowledge, values, and skills. A person is formed as a social personality only when he comes into close contact (communication, relationships with society) with another society.

Differences between human nature and animal nature:

1. The person speaks clearly and has thinking skills. Of all the species of mammals, only humans know how to evaluate their present and think about the past and future.

True, several species of monkeys also have minor communication, but they cannot transmit information to each other about the objects around them. People know how to concentrate on the main thing in their speech.

1. A person can master creative activities, in particular:

- anticipate the development and nature of some natural processes;

- choose a role in society, model your behavior in it;

- demonstrate value-based attitudes.

Animal behavior is based on instincts; their natural actions are initially programmed.

1. A person has an impact on the environment - he is able to transform reality and create culture, that is, to form spiritual and material values.

In animals, the way of life is established by nature - they adapt to environmental conditions.

1. Man knows how to independently produce the means for material wealth.

Some animals are capable of using natural tools, but not a single species of mammal can make tools.

So, man is a unique, spiritually incomplete, universal and holistic being.

Main characteristics:

• Presence of consciousness.
• Unique body structure.
• Receptivity to work.

An individual is a representative of a person in a single genus. He is the bearer of human social and psychophysical traits.

In other words, an individual is a “person in the singular.”

Basic qualities of an individual:

• Activity.
• Resistance to the reality that surrounds a person.
• Unity of the psychophysical state of the body.

The personification of the qualities of an individual is the personality.

In ancient times, personality meant some kind of social face that a person took on when he played various roles in the theater, that is, a certain “guise”.

A personality is a certain person, prone to experiences, understanding the world around him, having consciousness and establishing certain relationships with the surrounding society.

People differ from each other by personal properties, that is, by traits inherent in one individual. The definition of “individual characteristics” denotes psychological and somatic (from Latin “body”) definitions of a person: height and figure, skeletal formation, eye color, hair, and so on.

An individual personality trait is the facial expressions of a person. A person’s face reflects not only the anatomical, but also the psychological specificity of a particular person. For example, when they say: “this person has wicked eyes”, “you have a conscious face”, they mean precisely the peculiarity of a psychological character inherent in a particular individual.

Let us summarize individually - psychological characteristics into four facets of personality:

1. Social qualities (moral orientation, worldview).
2. Biological qualities (vital needs, temperament, inclinations).
3. Individual traits that have a different mental nature.
4. Experience (a set of skills, habits and skills).

Individual and personality: differences

A person is born an individual, the status of the individual is already established in the process of development. Distinguishing between the definition of an individual and a personality will help to assess the functioning of a person.

So, what is the difference between an individual and a personality?

• Interaction with society. A person remains an individual from birth to death, and a person is formed only in interaction or opposition with society.
• Confession. All people have equal rights, that is, each person initially has his own individuality. However, personality has certain social advantages: recognition, power, authority.
• Adequacy. One is born as an individual, but one becomes a person.
• Mindfulness. The path to acquiring personality status is a conscious action of the individual.
• Quantity. There are tens of millions of personalities in the world, and approximately seven billion individuals.

A person who is removed from society very quickly loses his personality traits - he begins to poorly understand other people, to the point of forgetting the language. At the same time, the development of the genetic code occurs by nature, regardless of the life changes of a person. A person can become an individual even with limited abilities.

But the term individuality is more difficult to define, since in addition to personal properties it includes the physiological and biological qualities of a person.

Individuality is a specific person who has a special combination, distinctive from other individuals, of social, physiological and mental characteristics. Their difference is manifested in human communication, actions and activity.

There have been cases in history when a person lived and was raised among animals. Such people lost their social foundation - the ability to express themselves clearly, and lost their mental abilities. Returning back to human society, they could no longer take root in it. Such cases once again prove that a person who has only a biological beginning cannot become a full-fledged individual.

The transformation of a biological individual into a full-fledged personality is facilitated by labor activity. By doing something important to society, a person can prove his uniqueness.

Individual, individuality, personality

“One is born as an individual, one becomes an individual, individuality is defended” essay.

This is a saying by Alexander Grigorievich Asmolov. It contains meaningful and very interesting concepts.

In other words, this expression can be formulated this way: from birth a person is considered an individual, with every year of life he can acquire the status of an individual, but he needs to lag behind other people as an individual. Indeed, the relationship between the concepts individual - personality - individuality in each society manifests itself at different stages of its life path.

As mentioned earlier, a person is born as an individual, that is, he has his own innate genetic differences. In the process of gaining experience, learning any skills, an individual is formed as a personality. It is possible to obtain the status of individuality only in the correlation of social and biological qualities.

For example, Napoleon Bonaparte from birth was an ordinary representative of society - he was not distinguished by physical abilities or expressiveness in appearance. However, he became a bright personality, since his fundamental goal was precisely the fight for his individuality.

You can also give an example of the life path of the popular composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven came from an ordinary family and was not particularly different from his peers. True, as a child they tried to teach him music, but there were no special hopes. But still he was able to show his unique talent in music. In addition, he was actively involved in politics and social life. He was able to prove to society his individual qualities.

Thus, based on these facts, we can conclude that the expression: “one is born an individual, one becomes an individual, one defends individuality” is very significant in human life. Only by consistently developing these concepts can we prove our uniqueness to society.

Psychology of Individual Differences

People differ from each other in character. For example, a person with a strong temperament is usually more attractive than a person with a weak temperament.

Character is an established mental property that leaves a mark in all a person’s actions. Character represents a subordinate substructure of personality. In an adult personality, the character is often already stable. As for the teenage character, it does not yet have a core.

Various life factors influence character changes.

Myths that relate to human character:

• Character is a biological manifestation in a person and cannot be changed.
• Character can be nurtured and formed through the organization of a special system of influence.
• National character, that is, this unique mental property depends precisely on the nationality of people.

However, you need to know that all myths have some truth. The basis of the character of a biological type is temperament. We receive it from birth.

There are certain standards that influence the formation of national character. Representatives of one nation are convinced that others have certain character traits. Having conducted a survey in Germany about their attitude towards the French, it turned out that one half of the Germans are convinced that the Germans are characterized by frivolity in their behavior, while the other believes that they are polite and charming.

Character traits mean various specific features of a person’s personality, changes in which are observed depending on the actions of the individual.

Let's divide character traits into some groups:

The first is the traits that form the psychological composition of the individual. This can be defined as integrity, determination, courage, honesty, and so on.

The second is traits that express the relationship between two personalities. This group includes: sociability and closedness, which may indicate prejudice towards the surrounding society or a person’s internal focus; honesty or impenetrability; correctness, subtlety, politeness and straightforwardness.

The third group is traits that determine a person’s disposition toward himself. These are self-condemnation and ambition, self-respect, unpretentiousness or vanity, resentment, selfishness, shyness.

The fourth group is traits that express a person’s disposition towards work. This group consists of assertiveness, diligence or apathy, fear of obstacles or desire to conquer them, scrupulousness, accuracy, diligence.

And in conclusion, we can say that the sequence of development of such a combination: person - individual - personality depends, first of all, on the society and environment in which a person develops and, of course, on his genetic code.

Individual, individuality, personality was last modified: December 21st, 2015 by Elena Pogodaeva

There are a large number of words that are similar to each other, but have different meanings. Many novice psychologists and people who love this science are interested in defining terms that are similar to the concept of “person”: individual, personality, are they the same thing or are there significant differences? This will be discussed in the article.

Human

It is important for any psychologist to understand the difference between a personality and an individual, to know their definitions, and to be able to navigate these concepts. To fully understand the differences, you must first know who a person is. According to the definition, which can be remembered from school days, a person is a being who stands at the highest stage of evolution, a subject of historical and social activity and communication. The concept is used when they mean the general qualities and abilities that everyone has.

Man is a biological and social being. Anthropogenesis is the science of its origin, which studies the process of its appearance and further development. Speaking about biological we mean its nature, which is manifested in anatomy and physiology. The social characteristics of a person are his place in social life, his connection with society, his intelligence, responsibility, and ability to work.

Individual

So, what is the difference between a personality and an individual? An individual is a single, original representative of the entire human race, in other words, a specific person. Translated from Latin as “indivisible, whole.” Its characteristics: mental and physical integrity, stability in relation to the surrounding world, activity.

There are the following individual needs (needs that prompt a person to take certain actions):

1. Natural. Needs that are necessary to preserve and maintain life. These are food, drink, sleep, the need for housing, clothing and relationships with a being of the opposite sex.
2. Cultural. Occur throughout life. As you know, a person depends on society; he needs communication and activity within it. They can be material (household items, tools, modern technology) and spiritual (desires to watch films, listen to music, go to the theater).
3. Social. Subtype of spiritual needs. It is carried out in the readiness to communicate with other people, to have status in society, the desire to be a member of a certain social group.

Personality

A person learns, develops, acquires certain skills and qualities. This is the main difference between personality and individual: the first is the social essence of the second. Initially, the word “personality” was used to describe the masks worn by ancient Greek actors during a performance. It was interpreted as an external image that a person uses while performing his role. So it is now: personality is a reflection of an individual’s social affiliation.

Personality is the niche occupied by a person, his social position. Depends on age, gender, marital status, and profession. One person can have several statuses. They can be permanent (woman, daughter, wife, mother) and temporary (bus passenger, customer, student). This characterizes the following difference between a personality and an individual - a person is born as an individual, but becomes an individual throughout his life.

Individuality

There is another concept that is easily confused with others. Individuality is a property that distinguishes each individual person. Manifests itself in communication, behavior, professional and social activities. This is the totality of those individual properties that a person is endowed with. This is a unique, special person with an original set of mental, social and physiological characteristics.

According to the Russian psychologist and teacher V.I. Slobodchikov, individuality is a separate, original world that develops without the intervention of other people. Thanks to it, a person manifests himself in all spheres of life, becomes a participant in historical and civil events, and embodies the characteristics of the entire human race.

It’s amazing how multifaceted the seemingly ordinary concept of “person” can be. Individual, personality, individuality are similar, but different words that should be distinguished if you decide to professionally engage in psychology.

Individuality- this is the possession of a set of certain characteristics that help to distinguish an individual from others and establish his uniqueness. Individuality includes a set of qualities that help distinguish a person from representatives of his species, as well as a phenomenology of the ways in which they are interrelated. This set of qualities develops and is shaped by the surrounding people, society, family, and accumulated childhood experience. However, what is important is the extent to which the individual will independently shape himself and follow the chosen individual path.

In psychology, individuality is a collection of qualities of perceptual processes and interests. There are expressed and hidden forms. With pronounced individuality, external distinctive features appear - an open manifestation of abilities; with internal it is assumed that the unique abilities inherent in nature do not find a place of application or conditions for manifestation. Each of the stages of development, from the borrowed and generally accepted manner of behavior to its own uniqueness in life, has its own version, its own individual pattern. Man is called to develop his uniqueness.

The concept of individuality

The concept of individuality has entered into several scientific fields and is based on different components of the definition, respectively. From a biological perspective, this concept includes the uniqueness and originality of each individual within a species, and the species itself among other living beings. Biological characteristics of individuality include genetically transmitted parameters, such as appearance, life expectancy, age-related changes, intraspecific and feminine-masculine features of manifestation.

However, regarding the human being, it is worth considering individuality as a special unique form of being in society; this allows us to move away from an exclusively biological consideration of this concept, where everything is initially laid down by nature. Since it is impossible to consider only the uniqueness of the retina or fingerprints as individuality, it is necessary to take into account social qualities and the psychological aspect; uniqueness consists of unique combinations of biological and social.

Let's dwell on the psychological characteristics. A person’s individuality appears as a set of psychological categories: temperament, intelligence, character, habits and hobbies, communication and choice of activities, features of perceptual processes. However, simply having unique qualities is not enough to understand individuality; it is very important to pay attention to the type of unique relationships between these qualities.

In psychology, individuality is the analysis (qualitative and quantitative) of a person's unique characteristics. Individuality can manifest itself in one or several areas at the same time. The difference in the degree of development and predominance of any characteristics and qualities, together with different ways to use the stored data, gives rise to the uniqueness of each.

Man is not an isolated, separate being, but a member of a collective. An individual is individual when he prefers not to be limited by collective norms, but transforms them and his own personality in order to reach a higher level.

Individual personality traits are largely considered acquired, with the exception of those few characteristics that are characteristic of everyone. The dissimilarity of each person develops and is formed from several basic components. The first component is heredity. The biological property of a living organism in humans predetermines both external signs and behavioral reactions to certain types of events. The second component is the environment. This includes the culture in which a person was born and raised, norms of behavior, ideals, and values ​​of this culture; family, where life scenarios, behavioral stereotypes, prejudices about people and phenomena originate; belonging to certain social groups. The third component is the characteristics of temperament, character, i.e. The very individuality of a person also has no small influence on the formation of further individuality.

Nowadays, the issue of erasing individuality with the help of the media is increasingly being raised, where reactions are standardized, the ability for active thinking and analysis is weakened, the variability of behavioral reactions is reduced, so everything is presented in a ready-made form, with priorities set and hints to the necessary conclusion. For people who have not formed their individuality (children, teenagers), this can lead to standardization of thinking and actions, lack of criticism and a stop in the formation of their own personality. When society imposes standards of behavior and response, it calls into question the formation of personality as such. There is a massification of consciousness, the disappearance of individuality, personal responsibility, and one’s own decisions.

A person with a formed individuality is a mature person who is quite independent, relies in decisions on his own opinion, independent of the majority, and whose motivational sphere is developed.

Personality and individuality

The concepts of man, individuality, personality within the framework of the consideration of psychology are not identical, although for a certain time they were used interchangeably. Man, individuality, personality are concepts of the same order, although their sharp division is wrong, because characterize one object. A person is inherently binary - he can be guided by both sociality and sociality.

The concept of a person reflects the type of mammal - a biosocial creature that is endowed with consciousness, thinking, has speech, logic, is distinguished by upright posture, and has a highly developed brain and sociality. From many facts it is known that children who grew up outside of human society remain at the level of development of the animals of the group that was close, even with subsequent training (the fairy tale about Mowgli is a myth). A person is born in a world where the conditions and rules of life were already formed by other people before him, and accordingly acquires adaptive abilities and skills that meet the standards of this world.

Individuality in psychology is the reflected originality of an individual, taken separately from a species, its biological properties (this description of the concept can be applied to both humans and animals). The initially inherent physiological unique characteristics of a person, as a result of socialization and development, receive enormous variability in personal manifestation. Personality is directly related to a person’s ideological position, social conditioning, and the development of one’s own uniqueness.

The concepts of man and individuality are interconnected, flowing and determining each other as separate elements. Personality is unthinkable without individuality, since, subject to social influence, a person chooses individual paths of self-expression.

Individuality is considered not together and synonymously with personality, but separately, as its independent property. The formation of personality is subordinated to individuality; A person’s reactions are determined by the non-standard nature of his consciousness and inherent characteristics.

Individuality, as a part or characteristic of the phenomenological personality, is a person’s own, unique way of living his life, appears as a way of expressing his own unique world and path, which is determined by a combination of the influence of a person’s own discretion and social predispositions. On this path of becoming unique and realizing all individually inherent potential, a personality begins to form.

The concept of personality appeared to reflect the subjective activity of a person, reflecting the life-creative orientation and social components.

The development of any form of personality in its vector of orientation differs from the vector of individuality development. The formation of personality is predetermined by socialization, the development of general norms of behavior for everyone. Individuality is manifested in the separation of a person from society, in his isolation, dissimilarity, the ability to express himself, to distinguish himself.

Personality is a human essence, whose actions have a social definition, are socially oriented, and meet spiritual, ideological and moral social norms; constant and . The phenomenology of personal qualities does not include biological qualities and those abilities that are not socially conditioned. Human personality is dynamic, a system capable of flexibility and change, while maintaining stability.

Personal development comes with the ability to adjust one’s attitude towards oneself, one’s worldview, to reevaluate and revise the experience gained due to changes in information, conditions and knowledge. The personality itself is comparable to a set of social masks (boss, father, lover, etc.). Interaction not at the level of role masks is impersonal. Personality changes occur with dramatic changes in life situations, when a person’s social role changes and it is necessary to reconsider one’s behavior, skills, and self-perception.

The combination and dualistic opposition of individuality and personality can be traced in this structure of the relationship between the biological and the social in human development:

- lower - biological factors transmitted genetically (appearance, age and species characteristics);

— perceptual features;

— human social experience;

- highest - personality orientation (character, world views, social ideas).

In childhood, biological factors that determine uniqueness predominate; over time, they become involved, and then the social aspects of determining personality characteristics take on a leading role. Changes occur thanks to the individual himself and his socialization, during which the conscious assimilation of social principles must occur.

Personality traits and qualities are stable characteristics that remain clearly manifested even when the external circumstances of the subject’s life change. Under the same conditions, completely different personalities develop, or the same different personalities remain. How everything will turn out and what it will transform into depends on the qualities initially received by the individual, the direction and aspiration of his individuality, the degree of personal development and the construction of a unique creative life path. The inner world, personal manifestation does not depend on the external introduction of facts, but on the internal work of processing incoming information.

It’s easier to be an individual, but it’s more difficult to be a person; it requires awareness, responsibility, and constant development. But such an attractive idea that everyone in society should have the most developed level of individuality poses a danger to the social system in the form of a threat to its stability.