An important characteristic of living space. Course work: living space and vitality of modern man. Sectors of space and internal conflict
Living space
Professor Preobrazhensky from M. Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog,” as you know, lived on Prechistenka in an apartment of seven rooms and really wanted to have an eighth, as he felt inconvenienced by combining an office and a library. Until recently, the description of this apartment for any reader sounded no less fantastic than the story of the humanization of the dog Sharik. After all, in the words of another Bulgakov character, the housing issue has completely ruined us. But today a five-, six- and even seven-room apartment has become, if not an ordinary phenomenon, then quite real. For example, in Moscow, a new house was built on Michurinsky Prospekt, in which anyone can purchase a two-story, seven-room apartment. True, the assigned price sharply reduces the circle of potential buyers. The rest look at the new building with poorly concealed envy. After all, for most Muscovites, a three-room apartment is the limit of what is achievable. And a large family feels constrained even in three rooms. Some, however, looking at a luxurious new home, resort to an old trick that psychologists call the green grape principle: “Why do I need such a mansion? Households there will have to shout around, like in the forest. And how much effort will it take to clean up…” Although, in all honesty, few would refuse such housing if they could afford it. Almost every city dweller dreams of expanding their living space and increasing the comfort of their housing. True, according to psychologists, this is not the same thing. A living space does not have to be vast to be comfortable. And feelings of discomfort and embarrassment sometimes arise because the space is irrationally organized.
The problem of human living space has long eluded the attention of scientists. Only relatively recently, many of the negative phenomena associated with the growth of large cities began to be explained, among other things, by excessive population density. It turned out that residents of megacities are overly irritable, aggressive, suffer greatly from stress and depression, from all kinds of physical and mental ailments. A modern city dweller sometimes resembles a bird, sadly ruffled in a cramped cage, and sometimes he resembles a tiger, which restlessly rushes about behind iron bars and growls angrily at those around him. Of course, any comparison of a person with an animal is very conditional. However, some analogies are simply striking.
It turns out that a number of patterns identified by ethologists - specialists in the field of animal behavior - can shed light on the nature of many human problems.
You've probably had to wait in front of a phone booth when the phone is finally free. The minutes pass unbearably slowly, and it seems that the chatterbox who occupied the telephone booth is deliberately stalling for time, seeing that you are in a hurry.
According to American psychologist Barry Rubeck, it doesn't seem like it, it really is. He measured the call duration of more than two hundred people at telephone booths and found that when there was no queue, the conversation lasted an average of one and a half minutes, and if someone was waiting at the booth to talk, the average conversation duration was as much as four minutes.
According to Rubek, this is reflected on a subconscious level by the territorial instinct characteristic of many monkeys and other human ancestors. Without realizing it, the speaker views the booth as his territory and seeks to protect it from those who want to invade.
It is also known that most wild animals have a specific “escape distance”, the violation of which causes the animal to run away. The lizard runs away if you approach it within a few meters; for a crocodile this distance is approximately 40 meters. A sparrow and a crow have a very short flight distance, a deer and an eagle have a very large one.
It is clear that in the animal world this mechanism performs a protective function. If another animal dares to invade the living space of an animal, then the latter, in all likelihood, poses a threat. Man has retained this ancient mechanism in his behavior, unconsciously feeling that physical contact is fraught with trouble.
Let's observe how public transport passengers behave at the first stop of the route. Several people enter an empty trolleybus or metro car, each of them can sit in any seat. If there are at least half as many passengers as there are seats in the cabin, they will most likely be seated in such a way as to avoid direct contact with another passenger. Everyone will try to sit down so that the next seat remains free.
Let's continue observation at the next stop. Several more passengers enter the cabin. There are plenty of seats in front of them to sit on. However, those places that allow you to avoid proximity will be occupied first. And this will continue until there are no such places left. They will begin to sit next to another person only when the cabin is more than half full.
From this simple observation the obvious conclusion follows. There is a certain space around each of us that we strive to keep intact. Only the situation of a crowd of people forces us to come to terms with the violation of its boundaries. Or we ourselves, having become close to a person in the psychological sense of the word, strive for spatial intimacy - right up to a friendly or loving embrace, which, however, also cannot last forever.
Of course, for close relatives living together, this pattern is not so pronounced. Spatial proximity with parents, spouse or child is not only acceptable for most people, but also highly desirable. But human nature is such that, along with the need for close communication, each of us also experiences a certain need for autonomy, independent and inviolable existence. If a person is deprived of the opportunity to sometimes retire, to be alone with himself, this negatively affects his mental well-being, although he himself is not aware of this. Relatives begin to irritate, discontent accumulates, and quarrels break out. It is easy to find an explainable reason for all this. But the real reason lies in a person’s loss of personal space, which leads to increased tension.
We unwittingly provoke such a situation ourselves by organizing the space of our home in such a way that it all belongs to everyone and no one. In such a house, each family member can appear in any place at any time for some reason. Personal spaces constantly intersect: when starting an activity, no one can be sure that they will not be interrupted or distracted. The tension that arises in this situation can be explained simply: spatial needs are unpredictable, their intensity is too high. A person always has to be ready in order to step aside in time, answer a question, fulfill a request or coordinate intentions.
To prevent this from happening, it is enough to follow a simple strategy. All family members must enter into an unspoken agreement, according to which each is assigned a certain personal territory. It is not always possible for this to be a separate room. Then let it be at least a corner where someone from. family members acquire priority rights. Intuitively, we try to adhere to this rule: in almost every house there is, if not a children’s room, then a corner with toys, “daddy’s desk,” “mom’s chair,” etc. The establishment of such territories does not require the signing of agreements and the construction of impregnable boundaries. It’s enough to just make a rule: if a person is on “his” territory, you shouldn’t disturb him unnecessarily.
An important factor influencing mood and well-being is the arrangement of furniture, which determines what position family members will occupy in the house and relative to each other. It has been established that if the leitmotif of communication is rivalry, then people sit opposite each other, if cooperation, then they stand or sit next to each other, half-turning. Moreover, if the arrangement of furniture forces one to take one position or another, then the mutual contacts of people take on a corresponding coloring. That is, by placing a sofa along one wall and armchairs directly opposite, we are literally provoking confrontation.
Another interesting observation was made by the English psychologist L. Sommer. He began rearranging the chairs in the living room of a nursing home. Whenever a chair was moved away from the wall, the guests immediately returned it to its place.
Apparently, people don't like having uncontrolled space behind them. In ancient times, this was associated with a completely natural fear of being unexpectedly attacked from behind. Since then, this reflex has not faded away. In addition, it becomes even more aggravated in certain living conditions. Thus, one of the heroes of the film “Belorussky Station” - a war veteran, a former paratrooper - refuses to sit with his back to the door, because throughout his life he has retained an unconscious expectation of a threat from an uncontrolled space. This leads to a simple recommendation: in order to feel psychologically comfortable in any environment, try to take a position so as not to feel the emptiness with your back. It is clear that this applies to any of us. And you can save a person from some unconscious discomfort if you allow him to take a “safe” position with a “safety net” behind his back.
But over-insurance can also hurt. So, when sitting in any position, it is advisable not to rest your back against the wall, otherwise even in a fairly spacious room you will feel cramped.
Of the time that we are at home, a considerable part is spent in bed. And the location of the bed can implicitly stimulate positive or negative feelings, which are mostly unconscious, but affect well-being. And intangible “geopathogenic zones”, as a rule, have nothing to do with it. A position in which the bed is opposite the doorway can be considered extremely unfortunate. The door itself symbolizes the possibility of invasion, even if, except for those lying in bed, no one lives in the apartment. And this, in particular, can give rise to vague sensations that prevent normal falling asleep or intimate intimacy between spouses. So, to raise your vitality, sometimes it’s enough just to rearrange the bed.
The already mentioned L. Sommer experimented with the arrangement of beds. He invited new students to take a place in the dormitory, where there were 8 beds in the room - 4 along each wall. It turned out that given the opportunity to choose, preference is always given to corner beds. That is, a person prefers to sleep with his head oriented towards the angle formed by two walls. This is probably the optimal sleeping position.
In general, furniture placed along the walls creates the impression of more space. Traditionally, we place a table in the middle of the largest room, but this conceals the space and makes even a large area feel cramped.
There are many more design tricks that allow you to “expand” the room. Of course, when several people are forced to cram into a small room, no tricks will help - it is necessary to expand the living space. But in less critical cases, simple “cosmetic” measures sometimes allow you to breathe more freely.
From the book Dare to Succeed by Canfield Jack5. Life balance Life is a canvas on which, like an artist, day after day I apply new strokes, creating my own
From the book Do Less, Achieve More. Secrets of the Rain Mage by Chu Ching-NingRestore your life balance In our opinion, the most striking example of a person who worked hard and made every effort to achieve harmony is the world-famous actor Sylvester Stallone, beloved by millions of fans. This
From the book Naughty Child of the Biosphere [Conversations about human behavior in the company of birds, animals and children] author Dolnik Viktor RafaelevichTHE LIFE JOURNEY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON George Washington's life can be clearly divided into the three stages described above. Most people's lives are difficult to break down into three distinct phases; they usually overlap. In the life of George Washington there are clearly three
From the book The Power of Spiritual Intelligence by Buzan Tony From the book Stratagems. About the Chinese art of living and surviving. TT. 12 author von Senger HarroChapter 3 Life revelation and life purpose Without revelation from above, the people are unbridled. Book of Proverbs of Solomon, 29:18 Life revelation, or, in other words, life dream, understood as “the highest destiny is defined in dictionaries and encyclopedias as
From the book Romantic Essays author Luria Alexander Romanovich From the book Why I Feel What You Feel. Intuitive Communication and the Secret of Mirror Neurons by Bauer JoachimSpace He soon got used to the “oddities of the body”, and they began to bother him only occasionally, when later seizures began to appear. But other oddities appeared, he called them “oddities of space,” and he could never get rid of them. He comes up to him doctor
From the book Game and Reality author Winnicott Donald Woods8. Living space for young people and school chances
From the book The Lost and Returned World author Luria Alexander Romanovich8. Our living space I want to study the place (in the most abstract sense of the word) in which we find ourselves most of the time, living our lives. The very language we use naturally pushes us to become interested
From the book Intelligence: instructions for use author Sheremetyev Konstantin From the book The Advantages of Introverts by Laney MartyLife credo And if this principle is as hard as a diamond, then a person becomes hard as a diamond. Goltis obviously has this principle. And it is he who interests me. How Goltis thinks at the moment of the most serious test. Finally, my turn came, I asked Goltis: “Goltis, I
From the book Myths about a woman's age by Blair Pamela D.Serenity Space Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again. Joseph Campbell I have often heard others say that introverts are not aware of their surroundings. I think it's just the opposite. Most of them are sharp
From the book The Female Mind in the Project of Life author Meneghetti AntonioPart III Your living space
From the author's bookSpiritual Living Space “...whenever we feel depressed or afraid of aging, it means that we have neglected the spiritual dimension of life.” * * *What feeling do you want to experience in your home or apartment? Architects and builders can
From the author's bookLiving Space After Retirement “We cannot rely on others when planning our retirement because each of us has our own idea of where we want to be.” * * *We all seek a certain comfort in our lives. We want
From the author's book5.1. Living space In this chapter I will try to give the key to female success, to show the road leading to victory. Having examined all the psychological characteristics of a woman, let us now turn to the details: perfume, clothing, manner of speaking, leading a meeting - to everything that can be
The term “living space” is used in various fields of knowledge. For example, in ecology it denotes the territory needed by one individual of a population; in politics - the minimum area that allows the state to realize its geopolitical and economic aspirations. What is the psychological meaning of the concept?
Term in psychology
From a psychological point of view, this is not a physical place at all, having certain limitations in area. The living space of a person is only those elements of the material environment that are reflected in a person’s consciousness.
Expectations, goals, images of desired or undesirable objects, real or apparent barriers to achieving goals - all this is included in the living space (also called psychological) and influences the behavior of the individual. Therefore, they say that behavior is the main function of living space.
The author of the term is German psychologist Kurt Lewin. Living space is one of the fundamental categories in its understanding, based on field theory. Levin proposed to consider a person based on his environment, but the environment is not material or social, but reflected in the consciousness of this person, for which the concept of living space was introduced.
To explain his theory, Levin used topological categories (topology is a branch of geometry that studies the relative arrangement of figures and their elements). The living space was depicted as an ellipse, and a small circle inside it meant the person himself.
The past is knowledge, attitudes, feelings regarding the facts currently affecting the person, and the future is represented by plans and goals, but again not abstract, but related to what is now happening to the person. It is important that all these aspects are perceived as simultaneous (although in reality, of course, they have different temporal relationships) and have the same degree of influence on a person.
Considering time, Levin spoke about the zones of the present, the immediate and distant past and the future of the individual, and in space he distinguished two planes - real and unreal. The first included a reflection of what was actually happening, and the second was based on the fantasies (fears, desires, etc.) of a person.
Sectors of space and internal conflict
The boundaries of space become clearer as a person grows older. Thus, for an infant, the delimitation of living space is at a minimum level, then the space itself expands, its real and unreal plans are differentiated. It is interesting that hope is seen as the intersection of these plans in the future, and guilt is seen as their divergence in the past.
Field theory also uses the term “valence,” which is probably familiar to many from school chemistry courses, where it is understood as the ability of atoms to attach to themselves a certain number of other atoms. And in our case, valence is the ability to reject or attract, but it is not an atom that has this ability, but a certain segment of living space.
The concept of valence is important for understanding conflict in Lewin's theory. Internal conflict can be caused by three main valences.
- A person chooses between two sectors with positive valence, that is, between two desired objects.
- In one goal, positive and negative valence collide (a person wants to jump with a parachute, but at the same time is afraid of it).
- A choice between two negative valences (for example, a person does not want to do unpleasant work, but knows that otherwise he will be punished).
Conventionally, these types of conflicts are called “aspiration - aspiration”, “aspiration - avoidance” and “avoidance - avoidance”. Author: Evgenia Bessonova
Most often, the concept of “living space” is used with the word “organization,” meaning putting one’s workplace in order, distributing working time and other activities related to self-organization. No one will argue that this kind of organization and optimization of living space is very important, since without this it is impossible to achieve success in any area of life. But there is a more interesting definition of living space, which psychology gives it, and from this point of view we will consider it.
Psychology of living space
This concept was introduced by psychologist Kurt Lewin, who believed that human life takes place not so much in the real world, but in a world formed by his consciousness based on accumulated knowledge and experience. At the same time, the psychologist proposed to consider the personality and his ideas about the world as a single whole, and he called all the factors influencing his consciousness living space. It should be noted that this space does not obey physical laws at all; a person can sit in solitary confinement, but at the same time his living space will cover kilometers. Its size is influenced by a person’s worldview, and the wider it is, the more living space a person can have.
The dimensions of this space are not constant, increasing as they grow older. Most often, it reaches its maximum in the middle of life, gradually decreasing in old age. The living space may decrease in a seriously ill or depressed person; he is not interested in anything, there is no craving for new knowledge and acquaintances. Sometimes this process can be reversible.
If there are no serious illnesses and old age is still far away, you can easily expand your living space. You just need to stop being indifferent, there are so many interesting things happening in the world - scientists are making discoveries, new music, films and books are appearing, archaeologists are excavating ancient cities, this list can be continued endlessly. Our life is a book, and it depends only on us whether it will be filled with amazing stories or whether only dullness and dirt will remain on its broken, faded pages.
There are different ideas about these spaces in the literature, some are mentioned in the article “Living Space”. Suggestions are presented here that do not purport to reflect current viewpoints.
In a person’s personal space, it is advisable to distinguish the material and spiritual parts. Personal spiritual space can be defined as all a person’s knowledge, his ideas about the world, about God, his attitude towards other people. The spiritual space is largely inaccessible from society; from the outside it can be judged mainly by indirect signs. A person is capable of hiding his true knowledge, moods, and inclinations. Therefore, the inner world of one individual is objectively and at his request significantly separated from the world of another person.
At the same time, concealment, or even complete absence of knowledge and a rich inner world, does not contribute to mutual understanding in society and a person’s influence on this society. On the contrary, you can share your experience not only without harming yourself, but with benefit for everyone.
Despite the undoubted individuality of the spiritual space, it is largely shaped by upbringing and environment. A citizen often considers convictions and beliefs to be his family, but in essence they were imposed from the outside, and insufficient education and an uncritical attitude did not allow one to weed out everything random and extraneous.
Personal material space can include things and various resources (financial, housing, land, food), which are, to one degree or another, assigned to each citizen by legal or moral norms. Unlike spiritual resources, material resources are limited. If they went to one, they did not go to the other. Whatever suits one person's needs will usually work for another. Any material property is potentially the property of any person, and therefore it has to be protected.
In material space, boundaries are determined not by the properties of things, but by social norms that can change, be violated, and be trampled upon. These norms are conditional. You can have a personal desk at your workplace, a personal bank account, a garden plot, your own room in a family apartment, but all this is at the same time the property of more general structures that can change the rules at any time.
Thus, there are objective boundaries of personal space, but they are rather conditional, relative, and transitory. But, probably, this is how it should be philosophically for any phenomenon.
The living space of a person, family, organization, state, entire society is what is covered by their activities and, to one degree or another, is necessary for this activity. In particular, it covers a person’s personal space.
In living space, one can also distinguish spiritual and material parts. But here, first of all, we need to pay attention to the second, since all spirituality is concentrated mainly in the heads of living citizens, in their personal spaces. And without people, books and works of art are nothing more than a boring chronology of Egyptian dynasties.
In the broadest sense, the material living space of each person coincides with the living space of humanity - with planet Earth. Perhaps in the future it will expand to the scale of the Solar System and Galaxy, but so far the conditions there are clearly not favorable for expansion. Today it is not difficult to visit almost any country. But even if a citizen is a notorious homebody, he is still aware of world events, which certainly affect the life of even the most remote corners. Therefore, if we highlight the living spaces of each citizen, they are highly intertwined and interdependent.
The living space of one person can be divided into different levels, respectively associated with his country, city, enterprise, family, and various public organizations. Each level has its own items, resources, symbols, and rules of behavior.
Although this can be disputed, with some reservations I would include many other people in a person’s living space, and above all, his immediate environment. No matter how independent this environment may be, it is it that recognizes the rights of the individual, reflects his ideas and protects his interests. In essence, a person lives as much as he lives in other people. If he is forgotten and no one needs him, then he is no longer a person as a member of society.
Therefore, along with the development of actual spaces in meters and resources in kilograms, it is of paramount importance to study the ideas of other people, as well as promote one’s ideas if the individual considers them useful for himself and for society. When mutual understanding is established between people, then meters and kilograms will move briskly. But you won’t achieve anything alone, and even if you cut off a piece of resources for yourself by force, you won’t be able to squeeze much out of it without outside help.
Thus, the living space of other people is actually an extension of the space of one person. By influencing your neighbors, you can partially manage their economy and gain additional opportunities and gains from this. Often this mechanism is used for selfish purposes, and it is not so easy to break it. Against this background, social conflicts unfold, sometimes with implicit, and sometimes with explicit claims to dominance and expansion of living space, not only physical and material, but also in the minds of citizens.
In the modern world, the struggle for minds takes on special significance. Information is omnipresent and in itself relatively cheap; it quietly reaches the very depths of a person’s spiritual space and thus turns out to be a powerful tool for manipulating people and redistributing social wealth. Today, before sophisticated means of influence, human spirituality is more unprotected than ever. Therefore, when opening your soul to people, it is useful to take care of your spiritual space and monitor whether dangerous weeds of imposed ideas have settled in it, which at first glance are attractive, but lead to the disunity of people and are therefore destructive for themselves and for society.
So, the concepts of personal and living space, of course, do not occupy a central place in psychology and sociology, but if desired, they can reflect important aspects of personality and social development. N.V.Nevesenko
Shkuratova I.P. Personality and its living space
// Psychology of Personality. Educational manual edited by P.N. Ermakova and V.A. Labunskaya. M.: EKSMO, 2007, pp. 167-184.
2.3.Personality and its living space
1. The concept of living space
The concept of living space was introduced into psychology by Kurt Lewin in order to show that the true habitat of a person is not physical reality or the social environment, but only those fragments of them that are reflected in a person’s consciousness and on which his behavior is based. In this regard, he proposed to consider a person and his environment as one constellation of interdependent factors, and the totality of these factors was called living space.
Living space, according to K. Levin, is subject to psychological laws, which differ significantly from physical ones. For example, the distance from home to school for a student is not equal to the distance from school to home, since the house attracts him, and the school repels him. The living space of an individual is determined not so much by the material goods that he owns, but by his knowledge about the world and the ability to influence the processes occurring in it. For example, the physical space of a person’s life can be tens of square meters, but his living space can extend to cosmic limits. The breadth of living space is always associated with the scale of the worldview of a given individual.
K. Levin was the first to pose to psychologists the question of what environment a person interacts with. Materialist philosophers tried to prove that the perception of the world is the same for everyone, and there is a certain ultimate truth to which our knowledge strives. However, modern science proceeds from the recognition of the multiplicity of options for reflecting the surrounding reality, each of which has the right to exist and study.
Living space was depicted by K. Levin in the form of an oval, in the center of which there is a circle, symbolizing the inner world of the individual. Living space has two main boundaries: the external one separates the living space from the real physical and social macroworlds, the internal one separates the inner world of the individual from his psychological environment within the living space. The shell of the internal space is the sensorimotor area, which, according to K. Levin, serves as a kind of filter between the internal and external environment.
A newborn child's living space is undifferentiated: he poorly distinguishes the boundaries of his body, he has no ideas about the past and future. As children grow up, their living space expands in time and space. The differentiation between the real and unreal levels of living space begins to grow. The real level is associated with the reflection of real events occurring in the physical and social worlds, the unreal is filled with fantasies, desires and fears. The degree of differentiation of the internal and external areas of living space are interconnected. The more structured the person himself is, the more structured his idea of the world around him is.
Growing differentiation is accompanied by an increase in integration processes, which manifest themselves in an increase in the complexity and hierarchy of the organization of living space. K. Levin believed that there is a close connection between intelligence, or, more precisely, psychological age, and the degree of structure of his living space. The most rapid structuring of living space occurs in childhood and adolescence, since during this period there is a rapid accumulation of knowledge about the world and about oneself.
K. Levin called those areas of life about which a person is most aware the space of free movement. Such areas include, for example, professional knowledge. Every good specialist feels free in his own field, but when he finds himself in someone else’s professional environment, he feels like a beginner in need of the help of a professional. Under the influence of emotional stress, loss of security, serious illness, aging, regression of living space can occur, which manifests itself in a shortening of the time perspective, a decrease in the differentiation of individual areas and disintegration. This regression may be temporary or irreversible.
For a more detailed analysis, K. Levin also introduced the concept of a psychological field, which is a certain slice of living space considered at a given moment in time. A person, finding himself in some kind of life situation, interacts with a limited number of people and objects, and acts in one role, but at the same time he has a huge experience behind him, which is forever included in his living space. Therefore, any of his behavioral reactions carries the charge of this experience, and can be fully understood only as a consequence of this experience, as well as as a step in the implementation of future plans. K. Levin emphasized that the past is represented in the present psychological field by knowledge, attitudes, experienced feelings regarding those factors that currently influence the personality, as well as those substructures of the individual’s inner world that were formed earlier. The future is represented by those plans, goals, expectations that are related to what is happening at a given moment in time.
If you choose an image that would describe your living space, then a spindle is best suited. It is a stick that comes from one point, widens towards the middle and narrows towards the second end. In the same way, a person’s living space expands from childhood to adulthood, and narrows in old age. The widest part of the “spindle” occurs at the peak of a person’s life activity, when he has many social contacts, he is sufficiently informed on a wide range of issues, his inner world is rich and well structured. As a person ages, entire areas of his life space may die off: professional, political, family. They remain represented only by past memories, but have no prospects for development.
J. Kelly significantly reinforced K. Lewin’s ideas about the individual nature of the image of the world by developing the theory of personal constructs. It is based on the methodology of constructive alternativeism, according to which each person perceives the world in his own way, through the grid of his coordinate system. The units of this system are personal constructs, i.e. criteria by which a person compares and evaluates the objects of the surrounding reality. J. Kelly argues that we are not influenced by events, but by our interpretation of these events, which depends on our belief system.
In the last decade, in Russian psychology there has been an increased interest in studying the living space of an individual, his image of the world and the picture of his own life path. Nartova-Bochaver S.K. substantiates the high degree of heuristicness of the concept of “psychological space of the individual,” indicating that the state of the boundaries of one’s own psychological world largely determines a person’s attitude to the elements of the environment, i.e. his attitude in general. Depending on whether the surrounding world is perceived as alien or related, a person’s own activity in it is also structured.
2. Characteristics of the individual’s living space
K. Levin considered the main characteristics of a person’s living space to be the degree of its structure and integration, the breadth of time perspective, as well as the degree of permeability of its boundaries.
Let us consider what characteristics of a person’s living space are offered by modern authors.
A.A. Bodalev identifies three parameters of the subjective space of the world:
a) the volume or extent of this space, which is determined by what is imprinted and actualized in a person’s consciousness from the objective space surrounding him;
b) the degree of connection between the content of this subjective space of the world and the present, past and future;
c) dependence of the content richness of the subjective space of the world on the formation of the individual.
The author names a person’s age, his natural and social environment, profession, lifestyle, education and personal characteristics as factors that determine these characteristics.
L.P. Grimak identifies two realities: 1) informational-energetic and topological relationships of the individual with the surrounding living space and 2) subjective modeling of the internal psychological space of the individual, on the basis of which interactions with the real world are built. In his opinion, the primary influence on a person’s subjective comfort is exerted by such characteristics of the internal psychological space as its size and clarity of boundaries. A person may perceive his inner space as too large and unfilled, and then he will feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, the feeling of cramped space leads to the experience of lack of freedom and dependence. A full-fledged “construction” of a subjective model of a person’s living space assumes that all three of its components (past, present and future) are available, accessible to mental review and do not cover each other.
In NLP their relationship is called the time line. In particular, Ted James describes two types of timelines:
1. Anglo-European type (“next to time”), in which the time line is in front of the subject’s eyes, such that the past is on the left and the future on the right;
2. Arabic type (“through time”), in which the time line pierces a person in such a way that the past is behind and the future is ahead.
People of the first type are more oriented in the lines of their lives; they store their experiences in the form of systematized pictures of the past and find the necessary ones in their minds relatively easily. People of the second type are constantly in the present, have a poor idea of their future and are unable to productively use past experiences.
P.I. Yanichev investigated the structural properties of personal time, which are reflected and experienced by the subject.
Continuity - discontinuity. The perception of the immutability of the flow of time, the impossibility of stopping it.
Objectivity - subjectivity. Its objectivity acts for a person as the independence of his flow from his actions. Withdrawal into oneself and absorption in internal processes creates a sense of one’s own time.
Irreversibility - reversibility. The irreversibility of physical time and the reversibility of psychological time create illusions in humans.
Universality - locality. We are talking about universal time for living and nonliving objects. Along with it, there are scales and time scales.
Uniformity - unevenness. Describes the pace of time. There is a lot of data indicating a change in the speed of time due to its fullness of events.
According to the author, most adequately and first of all, children reflect such properties as continuity and objectivity. Irreversibility and universality are less well understood: half of older preschoolers believe that it is possible to end up in the past.
A well-known representative of transpersonal psychology, K. Wilber, believes that the problems of a particular person stem from where he draws the line between himself and the world around him. The wider the space of a person’s self-identification, the more content of the world a person recognizes as his own. He gives four options for resolving the question of where the boundary between the Self and the non-Self lies:
A) the level of “mask” is the narrowest territory of the Self, which is equated only to a part of one’s consciousness, to what a person presents to others;
B) ego level - the border passes between a person’s consciousness and his body, while there is a conflict between the spiritual and the physical;
C) the organism as a whole - the border passes between the body and the outside world, the soul and body are in harmony and unity, but they are opposed to the world;
D) identifying oneself with the Universe, expanding the space of one’s Self to infinity.
According to K. Wilber, any boundary becomes a source of conflict, therefore psychotherapy should be aimed at expanding the space of the Self, at achieving a consciousness of unity with other people and the world as a whole.
So, the living space of an individual changes during the course of a person’s life and has a number of characteristics that are subject to change under the influence of environmental and intrapersonal factors.
1. Width of living space. It is determined by the number of those areas of the real world that the subject considers relevant to his life and which are reflected in his picture of the world.
2. The degree of differentiation of its individual parts. This characteristic must be considered in two aspects: a) intrapersonal differentiation and b) differentiation of the external areas of life space. Although K. Levin argued that there is a direct connection between these types of differentiation in terms of severity, there is still no direct correspondence between the components of the personality and the areas of living space.
3. The degree of organization and coordination of its parts. It should also be considered in two aspects: intrapersonal structuring and organization of external areas of living space. This characteristic involves analyzing the presence or absence of a clear structure, subordination and coordination relationships.
4. Permeability of the external boundaries of living space. It can manifest itself both in openness to information and energy flow from the real physical and social worlds, and in the response information and energy flow from the subject of living space. Personality autism can be seen as a manifestation of poor permeability of external boundaries. We can assume different options for permeability, formed by the degree of permeability from the inside and from the outside: two-way good or bad permeability and one-way permeability, in which information flows worse in one direction than in the other.
5. The permeability of the internal boundaries of living space, separating the inner world of a person from his other parts of living space. Here, too, permeability is bilateral in nature, but concerns the balance between the sensory and motor (more precisely, behavioral) components of the personality. This balance can also be called impressive-expressive.
6. The degree of realism - unrealism of the living space. It is determined by the correspondence of the psychological living space to its prototype, i.e. the real world. It should increase as a person accumulates his knowledge about the real environment. A significant bias towards the unrealism of a person’s living space indicates the presence of mental disorders. Sometimes such a distorted picture of the world can serve as a source of artistic creativity, since art is designed specifically to create new spaces of existence.
7. The degree of activity in managing one’s living space on the part of the individual. In the works of K. Levin the term “field of power” appears, by which he understood the ability of one person to induce forces acting on another person. He believed that it was possible to identify the strength and boundaries of the field of power in each person. The power field of the “leader” is always greater than the power field of the “follower”. K. Levin illustrates this concept using the example of how children’s behavior changes in the presence of an adult who is authoritative for them (for example, a teacher). A person who has power over another person can induce needs in him in accordance with his goals. The field of power is always narrower than the psychological field, since in some areas a person has great power, but in others not. In the process of interaction between people, their fields intersect, and in each specific case the balance of forces changes.
8. The degree of population of the living space by people. Determined by the number of persons who are included by the subject in the living space. These are, first of all, people who are significant to him from family, business and friendly spheres of communication. But these are not necessarily people he likes. The main thing is that they were singled out from many other people according to some criterion, they were remembered by him from the past, they influenced him, sometimes by the very fact of their existence. Living space can also be populated by famous people whom a person has read or heard about, literary or cinematic heroes. It matters to the individual whether these people are persons from the past or whether they are mostly real people whom he sees at the present time.
9. Breadth of time retrospective and perspective. K. Levin noted that a small child has practically no past or future. His future is measured in hours. But with age, a person begins to look very far into his future, making long-term plans. Old people no longer have such a perspective, but they have the richness of their past, so their retrospective can be very large. However, this does not mean that two people of the same age have the same time characteristics of their living space. Retrospective is determined by how much events from the past influence a person’s behavior in the present, or, in other words, how much he learns from his past. Perspective is determined by the extent to which plans and dreams have a strong influence on actual behavior in the present.
2. The degree of differentiation of time periods. It is determined by the fragmentation of time intervals, which serve as certain milestones. For some people, the unit of analysis can be a year or even months, for others it can be five years or decades (before school, school, university, etc.). It is known that events of the recent past are more differentiated than ancient events.
3. The integrity of the time perspective and its structure. By integrity we mean the continuity of impressions of the past, present and future, in which the present is seen as a natural transition from past events to upcoming ones. With this perception of his life path, a person sees in his current actions the consequences of past experiences and the influence of future goals. As for structure, it is associated with the perception of connections between events and their categorization according to the degree of significance for the subject. Unstructuredness manifests itself in the juxtaposition of events of varying degrees of importance.
4. The degree of event saturation of the living space. This characteristic is determined by the number of events that the subject considers important milestones in his life path. D. Kelly noted that the event is not engraved with its meaning; people themselves attach a certain value to it. In accordance with this, a person who appreciates the joys that life sends him will perceive his life as rich in joyful events.
Studying a personality through these characteristics allows a psychologist to see the world through her eyes and help optimize her worldview.
3. Strategies for interaction between the individual and the environment
A person’s perception of the surrounding reality is of a subjective nature, since it is determined by the nature of the interpretation of life events. Being in the same life circumstances, some people view the people around them as leaders to follow, others as competitors in the struggle for the benefits of life, and still others as like-minded people in achieving common goals.
In psychology, there are a large number of personality typologies, but there is much in common between them, which is due to a limited set of strategies for the subject’s interaction with the outside world.
A.V. Libin, proposing a unified concept of human style, names the following as the main characteristics of human interaction with the physical and social environment.
Intensity - moderation, which characterizes the energy potential of the individual and the degree of activity in mastering and transforming the environment;
Stability is variability that determines the richness of the repertoire of behavioral strategies of an individual;
Breadth is the narrowness of the range of interaction, which manifests itself in the degree of articulation of behavior:
Inclusion is distance as a measure of the autonomy of the subject's functioning.
The most fundamental of the listed characteristics is the last one, since it is it that sets the direction of the subject’s interaction with the outside world. Within this parameter, two extreme options can be considered: distance in various forms (avoidance, withdrawal, contemplation) and active interaction with the subject environment. If we consider the area of social interaction as an environment, then active interaction will acquire two more characteristics: sign and position. As a result, we get the following diagram of the subject’s interaction with other people.
Rice. 1. Basic strategies of interpersonal interaction.
Let us consider to what extent these strategies are represented in personality typologies proposed by foreign psychologists.
E. Fromm described five social types of character:
Receptive, which is characterized by dependence on other people and passivity;
Exploiting, which is characterized by aggressiveness, the desire to subjugate other people, and egocentrism;
Accumulator, who is distinguished by a desire for isolation from other people, rigidity, restraint;
Market, which on the one hand is open to new things, inquisitive, but on the other hand cynical and devastated;
Productive is the only variant of a productive personality type that combines the main positive traits (independence, calmness, goodwill, creativity).
If we correlate these types of characters with the proposed scheme, we will find the following correspondence.
Receptive refers to the subordination strategy;
Exploitative - to a strategy of negative dominance;
Accumulative - to an avoidance strategy;
Market - to competition strategy;
Productive - towards a cooperation strategy.
K. Horney proposed a classification consisting of three personality types in accordance with the leading orientation in relationships with other people:
Compliant type (submissive and passive);
Hostile type (dominant and aggressive);
Separate type (solitary and self-sufficient).
It is easy to see that they are fully consistent with the strategies of submission, negative dominance and avoidance.
The strategies described above are especially clearly presented in typologies based on interpersonal relationships and communication styles.
According to D. Schmertz, all people can be divided into two groups, depending on how they resolve the conflict between two opposing needs: to belong to other people, to have close contacts with them and to be free, internally integrated.
He offers a classification of personalities depending on their attitude towards other people, the degree of socialization and the type of aggression. The level of socialization in his typology increases from the first type to the fourth in both columns. The first two options in both columns are characterized by external manifestations of aggression, and the third and fourth types are characterized by the suppression of aggression or its focus on oneself.
Table 1.
Typology of personalities according to Schmerz.
|
belonging to other people |
Personalities who prefer autonomy from people |
|
1.Low socialized. |
1. Isolated. |
|
2. Exploitative. Hypocritical, sadistic. |
2. Arrogant. Narcissism. |
|
3.Depressed. Passive-aggressive personalities. |
3. Detached. Passive-aggressive and avoidant. |
|
4. Seeking intimacy. Masochistic type. |
4. Submissive. |
As can be seen from the description of these types, they are also divided according to distance, sign and position in relationships with other people.
T. Leary's classification is based on a combination of two parameters: dominance-submission and friendliness-hostility. The combination of friendliness and dominance corresponds to the strategy of positive dominance, the combination of friendliness and submission corresponds to the strategy of submission, the combination of hostility and dominance corresponds to the strategy of negative dominance, the combination of hostility and submission is close in meaning to the strategy of avoidance.
The typology proposed by C. Jung is the most generally accepted in foreign psychology. It is built, on the one hand, on the criterion of the individual’s focus on the internal or external world, on the other hand, on the leading channel for obtaining information (sensation, intuition, thinking and feeling). The combination of extraversion or introversion with the dominant channel of information gives eight options for personality types. K. Jung considered the source of information on the basis of which the person builds his behavior, in other words, his mental experience, to be fundamental for determining the type of personality.
M. Myers and K. Brigg in the late 50s of the last century developed a classification of personalities based on the ideas of C. Jung, which includes 16 types. It is based on three criteria from the theory of C. Jung and one new one:
way to replenish energy (extroversion - introversion);
method of collecting information (sensory - intuition);
method of decision making (thinking - feeling);
a way of organizing interaction with the outside world (decision - perception).
Combinations of these characteristics yield 16 personality types, which the authors and their followers rely on when selecting jobs, as well as in various forms of counseling.
G. Eysenck's typology echoes K. Jung's typology. One parameter even retained the Jungian name extraversion-introversion. True, G. Eysenck emphasized that his understanding of this parameter is different, since he makes these characteristics dependent on the relationship between the cerebral cortex and subcortical formations. However, G. Eysenck’s description of introverts and extroverts is similar to Jung’s. Introverts are people focused on their inner world, while extroverts are focused on the outer world. Neuroticism - emotional stability characterizes the degree of emotional responsiveness to external and internal stimuli.
table 2
Characteristics of personality types with orientation
to the inner and outer world
|
Predominant orientation towards the inner world |
Predominant orientation to the outside world |
|
Introversion |
Extraversion |
|
Contemplation |
Activity |
|
Internal locus of control |
External locus of control |
|
Egocentrism |
Alterocentrism |
|
Autonomy |
Group affiliation |
In conclusion, we will consider what personal characteristics determine the choice of strategy for interaction with the environment.
Positive dominance. Elected by individuals focused on active interaction with other people. Feeling the strength to organize and lead the activities of other people. Confident. Energetic. Striving for creation.
Forms of interaction with other people: mentoring, management, guardianship.
Negative dominance. Elected by persons focused on subordinating other people or focused on the objective activity for the sake of which this subordination is carried out. Feeling the power to tightly control the activities of other people. Confident in their advantages in terms of competition with others.
Forms of interaction with other people: despotism, harsh command.
Subordination. Elected by individuals seeking to interact with other people against the background of insufficient independence. They are not confident in their abilities, knowledge, and strengths. They are afraid of loneliness and responsibility for their actions. Passive. They can choose this position for the sake of learning, gaining experience and knowledge, then this is combined with activity.
Forms of interaction with other people: discipleship, assistance, worship, service.
Avoidance. Elected by persons focused on their inner world. Weakened by illness or age. With insufficient confidence in yourself and your abilities. Passive. Depressed. Contemplative. Self-sufficient. Independent.
Forms of interaction with other people: going to work, seclusion, hermitage.
Parity relations. They are elected by harmoniously oriented individuals who do not seek to use other people as a means to achieve their goals, but they themselves do not take the position of a follower.
Creative, with an adequate self-concept.
Forms of interaction with other people: cooperation, partnership, cooperation.
Each person in various life situations resorts to different strategies for interacting with other people, since he plays a large number of social roles, but at the same time there is a preferred strategy that best suits his individuality.
Literature
1. Bodalev A.A. General and special in the subjective space of the world and the factors that determine them // World of Psychology, 1999, 4, pp. 26-29.
2. Grimak L.P. Hypnosis in the formation of a healthy psychological space of the individual // World of Psychology, 1999, 4, pp. 81-90.
3. Kelly J. Personality Theory. Psychology of personal constructs. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2000. - 249 p.
4. Levin K. Field theory in social sciences. St. Petersburg: Rech, 2000. - 368 p.
5. Libin A.V. A single concept of human style: metaphor or reality? // Human style: psychological analysis. M.: Smysl, 1998.- 310 p.
6. Nartova-Bochavaer S.K. The concept of “psychological space of the individual” and its heuristic possibilities // Psychological Science and Education, 2002, No. 1.
7. Wilbur K. No borders. M. 1998.
8. Fromm E. A man for himself. Minsk: Collegium, 1992. - P.1-115.
9. Horney K. Neurotic personality of our time. M.: Progress, 1993. -480 p.
10. Jung K.-G. Psychological types, St. Petersburg: Yuventa, 1995. - 715 p.
11. Yanichev P.I. Development of the structure of experienced-reflected time // RPO Yearbook in 8 volumes. T.8. St. Petersburg: Publishing house of St. Petersburg State University, 2003, pp. 668-673.
12. Schmertz J. The Oderliness of the Psychodynamic Structuring of Personality //
Psychology, A Journal of Human Behavior. 1991, vol.28, no. 2, pp.15-26.