Differences between everyday and scientific psychology. Everyday psychology

General psychology.

Lecture 1

Psychology as a science.

Plan.

1. Introduction to psychology.

2. Scientific and everyday psychology.

3. Tasks, methods and subject of psychology.

4. Main directions of psychology.

Introduction to psychology.

Psychology studies the psyche, which is the most highly organized matter. Psychology includes two halves: the object and the subject of knowledge.

Psychology is the science that studies mental activity person, influence on her external factors and interaction between individuals, based on detailed behavioral analysis. Psychology also studies the effects of external factors on mental system person and the relationship between events and emotional activity.

Psychology is a stating, creative human-science.

Stage I (pre-scientific stage - VII-VI centuries BC) - this stage is characterized by the study of psychology as a science about the soul. It was based on numerous legends, myths, fairy tales and initial beliefs in religion, which certainly connect the soul with specific living beings. At that moment, the presence of a soul in every living being helped to explain all the incomprehensible phenomena that were taking place;

Stage II (scientific period - VII-VI centuries BC) - this stage is characterized by the study of psychology as a science of consciousness. This need arises with the development of natural sciences. Since this stage was considered and studied at the level of philosophy, it was called - philosophical period. Consciousness at this stage was called the ability to feel, think and desire. The main method of studying the history of the development of psychology was the observation of oneself and the description of the facts received by a person;

Stage III(experimental stage - XX century) - this stage is characterized by the study of psychology as a science of behavior. The main task psychology at this stage becomes the formation of experiments and observation of everything that can be directly studied. It could be the actions or reactions of a person, his behavior, etc. Thus, at this stage, one can consider the history of psychology as the formation of an independent science, as well as the formation and development of experimental psychology;

Stage IV - this stage characterizes the formation of psychology as a science that studies the objective laws of the psyche, their manifestations and mechanisms.

1874(9) Approximate emergence of psychology as a science. The history of psychology as an experimental science begins in 1879 in the world's first experimental laboratory founded by the German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig. psychological laboratory. Soon, in 1885, V.M. Bekhterev organized a similar laboratory in Russia. Wundt's laboratory studied the psychological and physiological problems vision, hearing, tactile sensations, psychophysics of color, peripheral vision, color contrast, optical illusions, perception of volume, images of aftereffect, sense of time, perception of different shades of time. Special attention was given to experiments aimed at studying the reaction time. Wundt sought to convince that three stages are manifested in the reaction to a stimulus: perception, apperception, manifestations of the will. He sought to establish standard time values ​​for human thought by analyzing how much time is required for various mental processes (knowledge, discrimination, desire). The Leipzig Laboratory conducted research on attention, the duration and stability of attention. In an effort to develop his theory of the three-dimensionality of feelings, Wundt also used a rather constructive experimental technique - pairwise comparison: the subjects were given the task to compare stimuli in terms of the feelings that these stimuli evoke in them. In separate experiments, it was investigated how physical indicators (pulse rate, breathing rate) are associated with the corresponding emotional states. The lab also tested verbal associations by asking participants to respond in one word to a stimulus word. Wundt classified the types of connections (associations) that were established in the process of studying reactions to stimuli.

Life and scientific psychology, the main differences.

1. Zhiteyskaya psychology involves specific knowledge. Scientific psychology strives for generalizations, for which it uses scientific concepts. This allows you to see the general trends in the patterns of personality development, in its individual characteristics.

2. Everyday knowledge is intuitive, scientific knowledge is rational and quite conscious. Features of the ways of transferring knowledge, the very possibility of transferring them.

4.Methods of obtaining knowledge. Life - observation and reflection. In scientific psychology, experiment is added to observation and reflection.

5. Scientific psychology has extensive, diverse, sometimes unique material. The possibility of using this material in the work.

Each of us has a store of worldly psychological knowledge. There are even outstanding worldly psychologists. These are, of course, great writers, as well as some (though not all) representatives of professions that involve constant communication with people: teachers, doctors, clergy, etc. But also a common person possesses certain psychological knowledge. This can be judged by the fact that each person to some extent can understand the other, influence his behavior, predict his actions, take into account his individual characteristics, help him.

First: worldly psychological knowledge, specific; they are characterized by specificity, limited tasks, situations and persons to which they apply. Scientific psychology strives for generalizations. To do this, she uses scientific concepts. The development of concepts is one of the most important functions of science. Scientific concepts reflect the most essential properties of objects and phenomena, general connections and ratios. Scientific concepts are clearly defined, correlated with each other, linked into laws. Scientific psychology seeks and finds such generalizing concepts that not only economize descriptions, but also make it possible to see the general tendencies and patterns of personality development and its individual characteristics behind a conglomerate of particulars. One feature of scientific psychological concepts: they often coincide with everyday ones in their external form, that is, simply speaking, they are expressed in the same words. However, the inner content, the meanings of these words, as a rule, are different. Everyday terms are usually more vague and ambiguous.

Second difference worldly psychological knowledge lies in the fact that they are intuitive. It's connected with in a special way obtaining them: they are acquired by practical trials and adjustments. In contrast, scientific psychological knowledge is rational and fully conscious. The usual way is to put forward verbally formulated hypotheses and test the consequences logically arising from them.

Third difference consists in the ways of transferring knowledge and even in the very possibility of transferring it. In the field of worldly psychology, this possibility is very limited. This follows directly from the two previous features of worldly psychological experience - its concrete and intuitive character. Is life experience passed on from the older generation to the younger? As a rule, with great difficulty and to a very small extent. The eternal problem of "fathers and sons" is precisely that children cannot and do not even want to adopt the experience of their fathers. To every new generation, to every young man you have to "fill your bumps" yourself to gain this experience. At the same time, in science, knowledge is accumulated and transferred with a high, so to speak, efficiency. The accumulation and transfer of scientific knowledge is possible due to the fact that this knowledge is crystallized in concepts and laws. They are recorded in the scientific literature and transmitted using verbal means, i.e. speech and language.

Fourth difference consists in methods of obtaining knowledge in the fields of everyday and scientific psychology. In worldly psychology, we are forced to confine ourselves to observations and reflections. In scientific psychology, experiment is added to these methods. essence experimental method consists in the fact that the researcher does not wait for a confluence of circumstances, as a result of which the phenomenon of interest to him arises, but causes this phenomenon himself, creating the appropriate conditions. Then he purposefully varies these conditions in order to reveal the patterns that this phenomenon obeys. With the introduction of the experimental method into psychology, psychology took shape as an independent science.

Finally, fifth difference At the same time, the advantage of scientific psychology lies in the fact that it has at its disposal a vast, varied and sometimes unique factual material, inaccessible in its entirety to any bearer of everyday psychology. This material is accumulated and comprehended, including in special branches of psychological science, such as developmental psychology, educational psychology, patho- and neuropsychology, labor psychology and engineering psychology, social Psychology, zoopsychology, etc. In these areas, dealing with various stages and levels mental development animals and humans, with defects and diseases of the psyche, with unusual working conditions - conditions of stress, information overload or, conversely, monotony and information hunger, etc. - the psychologist not only expands the range of his research tasks, but also encounters new unexpected phenomena. After all, consideration of the work of any mechanism in the conditions of development, breakdown or functional overload from different angles highlights its structure and organization. (Gippenreiter Yu.B. Introduction to general psychology.)

The psyche is a special property of highly organized matter, subjectively reflecting the objective reality, which is necessary for a person (and animals) for orientation and active interaction with the environment, and at the human level, it is necessary to control one's behavior.

Similar information.

Herbert Spencer

Everyday psychology is a psychology in which every person can be a psychologist. After all, it is a collection of beliefs, views, sayings, customs, proverbs, aphorisms and other similar knowledge about life and people, which the main part of the population adheres to. We all know something about life and about people, about their behavior and the patterns of this behavior, thanks to our personal experience and the experience of people we know well. This knowledge is valuable in its own way, but not applicable to all situations. After all, in most cases they are based on spontaneous observations and are intuitive in nature. Therefore, what is natural in one situation is completely inapplicable to another. In other words, worldly knowledge is always concrete. But despite this, they are very useful for each of us individually and for society as a whole, since everyday psychology is always practical, since it conveys to us in a very simple and understandable form for most people the experience of many generations. Well, let's see together what everyday psychology can be of interest to us.

First of all, I would like to tell you, dear readers, that everyday psychology is not as simple as it seems, and sometimes you need to think about the knowledge that it carries in itself and that it shares with us, no less than scientific knowledge, in order to get from them favor. The same folk proverbs and sayings need to be interpreted, you cannot use them in all life situations more or less suitable for them in order to act competently and effectively. Scientific knowledge is also not universal, although science tends to generalize, so they also need to be applied in life carefully, thoughtfully, gradually. And even everyday experience is even more situational, even when it comes to your personal experience which has been repeated many times. Therefore, if you, for example, have seen many times how people responded to the good they did with evil, you don’t need to immediately adjust these observations to well-known sayings and finally decide on good deeds and reactions to them from other people. Otherwise, you will not be able to make the right decision in a situation where there is a person next to you who can adequately appreciate your kindness and give you a lot in return. But it is these people who make our life happy, it is them that we want to see next to us. And there are many such examples. So those common truths on which worldly psychology is based are not always true. Remember this.

An example of everyday psychology is intuitively drawn conclusions, thanks to observations, reflections and own experience. At the same time, it is quite obvious that our observations and experience cover only a small part of even our own life, not to mention life as a whole. In other words, we see the world through a small window, and based on what we see, we draw the same limited conclusions as our review. And our thoughts are based on what we see and know. And if we have not seen so much and do not have extensive and complete knowledge about anything, about the same life and people, for example, then it is natural that our conclusions based on our reflections will not be completely complete and accurate. At the same time, they form the basis of everyday psychology if they coincide with the same incomplete and insufficiently accurate conclusions of other people. In their own way they are true, but limited in terms of their application. The experience of each person is certainly valuable in its own way, although it is difficult to draw general conclusions about certain situations, phenomena, and events on its basis. And since many situations in life are repeated, the projectile is also very rare, but it falls into one funnel, then having in your head the experience of other people, no matter how limited it may be, is very useful. Especially if we are talking about such an experience that has been confirmed by generations. The likelihood that the advice based on this experience will be correct is quite high. So everyday psychology is beyond any doubt very practical, as it is determined by the events and conditions in which this or that “wisdom” was born, which was then adopted by society as worldly knowledge. Only you need to use such knowledge wisely - they are not instructions for execution - they are the basis for reflection.

Personally, I have great respect for worldly psychology, because I believe that no matter how specific everyday knowledge is, it can be generalized, it is possible to create a certain system from this knowledge that has its own patterns proven by practice. Strictly speaking, scientific psychology relies to a large extent on everyday psychological experience, as on experience that has been formed over many generations of people. This, you know, is quite a solid experience. Therefore, everyday knowledge can be ordered in such a way that it turns into scientific knowledge, that is, into more generalized, more accurate, verifiable and practical knowledge. In everyday psychology, many knowledge, though true, and in many ways useful, but, unfortunately, are not very well ordered. They are not flexible enough and not complete enough to be used in solving complex life situations. Some of this knowledge is not verified by practice, experiments and is based on people's belief in the truth of this knowledge. Plus, some worldly knowledge is statements that cover a rather vast area of ​​​​human life, but at the same time do not have amendments to various features a particular person and the life situation in which these statements are true. Well, you probably noticed that, say, the same proverbs, sayings and different kind popular predictions often contradict each other. Have you ever wondered why it is so? The point is not that some proverbs are correct and others are wrong, that some proverbs are true and others are not, that some predictions come true and others do not. The point is the situational nature of worldly psychology. Each specific situation with all its features is reflected in a single proverb and saying. Each specific pattern is reflected in a single prediction. Therefore, worldly knowledge is correct under certain circumstances, but not always. Life is too complex and people are complex enough to be able to represent all knowledge about them and their behavior in a few strict and inviolable laws about life. Even scientific psychology, like any science, although it strives for generalizations, nevertheless, it must be admitted that it is not capable of explaining all life situations without exception with the help of laws and regularities common to all such situations. Therefore, in any case, the analysis of this or that situation requires deep reflection on it, for its complete understanding, regardless of what knowledge we are guided by in its analysis, scientific or everyday, or both. If all situations in life could be controlled using several algorithms, if there were no uncertainty and novelty in life, then our whole life could be calculated using mathematical formulas and people could be safely entrusted to computers.

Meanwhile, a great advantage of worldly psychology is that it is always practical, since it is directly related to the events and conditions in which it was developed. There are no complex theories in it, there are only examples from life that people notice and fix in their own and public consciousness with the help of proverbs, sayings, signs, customs, rituals and the like. It follows from this that one can learn something from any person, since each of us has valuable experience that can save other people from many unnecessary mistakes. The misfortune of people is that they do not always manage to effectively transfer their knowledge and experience to other people and, in particular, to subsequent generations. And other people are not always ready to accept this knowledge and do not even always show interest in it. In general, we are very reluctant to learn from each other, preferring to teach and instruct other people rather than learn from them. Actually, it is our laziness, pride, inattention, carelessness that hinder our development. Everyday psychology gives a lot to each of us, like scientific psychology, but not everyone wants to work with this knowledge and apply it in life. Just think what successes we would achieve in life, both individually and collectively, if we willingly learned from each other's mistakes. It would just be a huge breakthrough in evolution - it would be a revolution in human development. Because today, more than ever, anyone can do it. We can all learn new things all the time, we can learn from each other without leaving home, thanks to modern information technology. But, alas, the reality is that most people, even from their own mistakes, do not always learn, thereby depriving themselves of the opportunity to achieve impressive success in life. And many of us make the same mistakes over and over again. And you and I know that history often repeats itself, and this repetition has its own purpose. Life will teach people the same lesson until they learn it. We go through many lessons several times, because we do not learn them either from the first, or from the second, or sometimes even from the tenth time. And this, despite all the abundance of knowledge that we have thanks to, among other things, our ancestors, who accumulated and passed on valuable worldly knowledge from generation to generation. That's who we are, people. Perhaps this has its own meaning - everything has its time.

We all contribute to life psychology when we actively share our experiences with others. We all have a past that taught us something, there is knowledge of life, which, of course, is not complete, but very practical. All this we can share with each other in order to enlighten each other in various fields. Many worldly knowledge is as valuable as scientific knowledge, since they point to such truths that have not changed throughout our history. Knowing these truths, a person can advance much further in his life than his predecessors, because he will already know what awaits him around one corner or another. Not all of these truths are written in textbooks, many of them are passed from mouth to mouth and constantly fall on our ears, but we are not always fully aware of them. The fact is that if a person has heard about something many times in his life, then he has a false idea that he understands what in question. But in reality, there is no awareness of what he heard, saw, read, but a person believes that he has precisely mastered this common truth, therefore it does not carry anything new for him and he does not need to pay attention to it. At the same time, a person can act contrary to this truth, but not notice it. I'm sure you've experienced this many times in your life. And they noticed, if not for themselves, then for other people for sure, that they can say one thing, speak correctly, wisely, and act contrary to what was said, without even admitting the fallacy of their actions. This I mean that we can know much of what everyday psychology tells us about from childhood, but at the same time, this knowledge, these common truths do not benefit us, because we do not follow them, and we do not follow them for the reason that we do not understand them. Watch yourself, suddenly you live just like that, when you seem to have useful knowledge, but at the same time you are not guided by them in your life. Then, perhaps, you will have a reason to reflect on what you know in order to realize it.

It should also be said that worldly psychology has much in common with practical psychology. Everyday psychology is always related to practical psychology, but practical psychology does not entirely consist of worldly psychology. It's all about the concreteness of everyday psychology, because of which it is not applicable to all situations. And practical psychology relies heavily on scientific experiments that are as universal as possible.

We can always test our worldly knowledge with personal experience, and this experience is in fact priceless. I noticed a long time ago, even after I studied psychology, that much in life can be understood only through our own experience, that much of what we are taught does not have a complete resemblance to real life. At this point, everyday and scientific and practical psychology, and indeed any science, is tested by life. Of course, we can organize experiments, we can conduct professional observations that will give us a lot of useful information that explains certain patterns of this world. And still, in the process of life, we will constantly be amazed at new combinations of certain patterns that make our life unpredictable. Therefore, I believe that each of us should value and increase our experience, which in essence is life-tested knowledge.

One should not expect one hundred percent accuracy from everyday psychology, because no matter how much wisdom it carries in itself, it is not applicable to all life situations. In general, scientific psychology is not as accurate and universal as we would like. Therefore, in any science, one must rely not only on other people's knowledge, and not even always on one's own knowledge, but also on intuition, as real scientists do. And in life, we all often have to be a little scientists, because sometimes life sets such tasks for us that no knowledge from textbooks and no experience of our ancestors will help us to solve them. This is the beauty of life - it is mysterious and unpredictable, which, although it scares us a little, makes our life damn interesting.

The concept of "psychology" has both scientific and everyday meaning. In the first case, it is used to refer to the relevant scientific discipline that studies the human psyche, in the second - to describe behavior or mental characteristics. individuals and groups of people. Therefore, to one degree or another, each person becomes acquainted with "psychology" long before its systematic study. Each of us has a store of worldly psychological knowledge. This can be judged by the fact that each person can understand the other to some extent, influence his behavior, predict his actions, take into account his individual characteristics, help him, etc. However, worldly psychological knowledge is very approximate, vague and in very different from scientific knowledge. What are these differences?

First, worldly psychological knowledge is specific, tied to specific situations, people, and tasks. They say that waiters and taxi drivers are also good psychologists. But in what sense, for what tasks? As we know, often - quite pragmatic. Also, the child solves specific pragmatic tasks by behaving in one way with his mother, in another way with his father, and in a completely different way with his grandmother. In each case, he knows exactly how to behave in order to achieve the desired goal. But we can hardly expect from him the same insight in relation to other people's grandmothers or mothers. Scientific psychology strives for generalization, for which the corresponding concepts are used.

Also everyday terms are usually more ambiguous. Once, high school students were asked to answer the question in writing: what is a personality? The answers turned out to be very different, and one student answered: “This is what should be checked against the documents.”

Secondly, worldly psychological knowledge is intuitive. This is due to the way they are obtained - random experience and its subjective analysis at the unconscious level. A similar mode is clearly seen in children, whose psychological intuition is achieved by daily and even hourly tests to which they subject adults; the latter are not always aware of this. In contrast to this scientific knowledge based on experiment, and the knowledge gained is quite rational and conscious.

Thirdly, there are differences in the ways in which knowledge is transferred. As a rule, the knowledge of everyday psychology is transferred with great difficulty, and often this transfer is simply impossible. As Yu. B. Gippenreiter writes, “the eternal problem of “fathers and children” consists precisely in the fact that children cannot and do not even want to adopt the experience of their fathers.” At the same time, in science, knowledge is accumulated and transferred much more easily, crystallized in concepts and laws. They are recorded in the scientific literature and transmitted using verbal means, i.e. speech and language.

The fourth difference lies in the methods of obtaining buildings in the fields of worldly and scientific psychology. In worldly psychology, we are forced to confine ourselves to observations and reflections. In scientific psychology, experiment is added to these methods.

The fifth difference, and at the same time the advantage of scientific psychology, is that it has at its disposal a vast, varied and sometimes unique factual material, inaccessible in its entirety to any bearer of everyday psychology. This material is accumulated and comprehended, including in special branches of psychological science.

In general, everyday knowledge is a set of publicly available and largely implicit conceptual structures - principles, rules, beliefs that have withstood a huge number of tests in social practice, in the development of culture and intercultural interactions. From this follows the dependence of ordinary knowledge on the cultural affiliation of its bearers, which contradicts the basic value of the objectivity of scientific knowledge.

At present, psychology is a very branched system of sciences. It highlights many industries that are relatively independently developing areas of scientific research. And it would be more correct to speak not about one science of psychology, but about a complex of developing psychological sciences. For example, developmental, general and educational psychology, labor psychology, genetic, engineering, social, legal psychology, patho-, neuro- and zoopsychology, etc.

For example, general psychology explores the individual highlighting cognitive processes and personality in it. Cognitive processes cover sensations, perception, attention, memory, imagination, thinking and speech. With the help of these processes, a person receives and processes information about the world, they also participate in the formation and transformation of knowledge.

genetic psychology studies the hereditary mechanisms of the psyche and behavior, their dependence on the genotype.

pathopsychology , as well as psychotherapy deal with deviations from the norm in the psyche and behavior of a person. The task of these branches of psychological science is to explain the causes of possible mental disorders and to substantiate methods for their prevention and treatment.

legal psychology considers a person's assimilation of legal norms and rules of behavior and is also needed for education.

Pedagogical psychology combines all information related to education and upbringing. Particular attention is paid to the justification and development of methods for teaching and educating people of different ages.

Social Psychology studies human relationships, as well as phenomena that arise in the process of communication and interaction of people with each other in various groups (family, school, student and pedagogical groups). Such knowledge is necessary for psychological proper organization education.

At present, the system of psychological sciences continues to develop actively (every 4-5 years, a new direction appears).

psyche antique parascientific worldly

Any science has as its basis some worldly, empirical experience of people. For example, physics relies on the Everyday life knowledge about the movement and fall of bodies, about friction and energy, about light, sound, heat and much more. Mathematics also proceeds from ideas about numbers, shapes, quantitative ratios, which begin to form already in preschool age.

But it is different with psychology. Each of us has a store of worldly psychological knowledge. There are even outstanding worldly psychologists. These, of course, are great writers, as well as some (though not all) representatives of professions that involve constant communication with people: teachers, doctors, clergymen, etc. But, I repeat, the average person also has certain psychological knowledge. This can be judged by the fact that each person can understand the other to some extent, influence his behavior, predict his actions, take into account his individual characteristics, help him, etc.

Let's think about the question: what is the difference between everyday psychological knowledge and scientific knowledge? I will give you five such differences.

First: worldly psychological knowledge, concrete; they are timed to specific situations, specific people, specific tasks. They say that waiters and taxi drivers are also good psychologists.

But in what sense, for what tasks? As we know, often quite pragmatic. Also, the child solves specific pragmatic tasks by behaving in one way with his mother, in another way with his father, and again in a completely different way with his grandmother. In each case, he knows exactly how to behave in order to achieve the desired goal. But we can hardly expect from him the same insight in relation to other people's grandmothers or mothers. So, everyday psychological knowledge is characterized by concreteness, limitedness of tasks, situations and persons to which they apply.

Scientific psychology, like any science, strives for generalizations. To do this, she uses scientific concepts. The development of concepts is one of the most important functions of science. Scientific concepts reflect the most essential properties of objects and phenomena, general connections and correlations. Scientific concepts are clearly defined, correlated with each other, linked into laws.

For example, in physics, thanks to the introduction of the concept of force, I. Newton managed to describe, using the three laws of mechanics, thousands of different specific cases of motion and mechanical interaction of bodies. The same thing happens in psychology. You can describe a person for a very long time, listing in everyday terms his qualities, character traits, actions, relationships with other people.

Scientific psychology, on the other hand, seeks and finds such generalizing concepts that not only economize descriptions, but also allow one to see the general tendencies and patterns of personality development and its individual characteristics behind a conglomerate of particulars. It is necessary to note one feature of scientific psychological concepts: they often coincide with everyday ones in their external form, that is, simply speaking, they are expressed in the same words. However, the inner content, the meanings of these words, as a rule, are different. Everyday terms are usually more vague and ambiguous.

Once, high school students were asked to answer the question in writing: what is a personality? The answers turned out to be very different, and one student answered: “This is something that should be checked against the documents.” I will not now talk about how the concept of "personality" is defined in scientific psychology - this is a complex issue, and we will deal with it specifically later, in one of the last lectures. I will only say that this definition is very different from the one proposed by the aforementioned schoolboy.

Second difference worldly psychological knowledge lies in the fact that they are intuitive. This is due to the special way they are obtained: they are acquired through practical trials and adjustments. This is especially true in children. I have already mentioned their good psychological intuition. And how is it achieved? Through daily and even hourly trials to which they subject adults and which the latter are not always aware of. And in the course of these tests, the children discover from whom they can “twist ropes” and from whom they cannot.

Often educators and coaches find effective ways upbringing, training, training, following the same path: experimenting and vigilantly noticing the slightest positive results, that is, in a certain sense, “groping”. Often they turn to psychologists with a request to explain psychological meaning methods they have found.

In contrast, scientific psychological knowledge is rational and fully conscious. The usual way is to put forward verbally formulated hypotheses and test the consequences logically arising from them.

Third difference consists in the ways of transferring knowledge and even in the very possibility of transferring it. In the field of practical psychology, this possibility is very limited. This follows directly from the two previous features of worldly psychological experience - its concrete and intuitive character.

The deep psychologist F. M. Dostoevsky expressed his intuition in the works he wrote, we read them all - did we become equally insightful psychologists after that?

Is life experience passed on from the older generation to the younger? As a rule, with great difficulty and to a very small extent. The eternal problem of “fathers and sons” is precisely that children cannot and do not even want to adopt the experience of their fathers. Each new generation, each young person has to "stuff his own bumps" in order to gain this experience.

At the same time, in science, knowledge is accumulated and transferred with a high, so to speak, efficiency. Someone long ago compared representatives of science with pygmies who stand on the shoulders of giants - outstanding scientists of the past. They may be much smaller, but they see farther than the giants, because they stand on their shoulders. The accumulation and transfer of scientific knowledge is possible due to the fact that this knowledge is crystallized in concepts and laws. They are recorded in the scientific literature and transmitted using verbal means, i.e., speech and language, which, in fact, we have begun to do today.

Quadruple Difference consists in methods of obtaining knowledge in the fields of everyday and scientific psychology. In worldly psychology, we are forced to confine ourselves to observations and reflections. In scientific psychology, experiment is added to these methods. The essence of the experimental method is that the researcher does not wait for a confluence of circumstances, as a result of which a phenomenon of interest arises, but causes this phenomenon himself, creating the appropriate conditions.

Then he purposefully varies these conditions in order to reveal the patterns that this phenomenon obeys. With the introduction of the experimental method into psychology (the discovery of the first experimental laboratory at the end of the last century), psychology, as I have already said, took shape as an independent science.

Finally, fifth distinction, and at the same time, the advantage of scientific psychology lies in the fact that it has at its disposal extensive, varied and sometimes unique factual material, inaccessible in its entirety to any bearer of everyday psychology. This material is accumulated and comprehended, including in special branches of psychological science, such as developmental psychology, educational psychology, patho- and neuropsychology, labor and engineering psychology, social psychology, zoopsychology, etc.

In these areas, dealing with various stages and levels of mental development of animals and humans, with defects and diseases of the psyche, with unusual working conditions - conditions of stress, information overload or, conversely, monotony and information hunger, etc., the psychologist does not only expands the range of its research tasks, but also encounters new unexpected phenomena. After all, consideration of the work of any mechanism in the conditions of development, breakdown or functional overload from different angles highlights its structure and organization.

I will bring short example. Of course, you know that in Zagorsk we have a special boarding school for deaf-blind-mute children. These are children who have no hearing, no vision, no sight, and of course, initially no speech. The main "channel" through which they can make contact with the outside world is touch.

And through this extremely narrow channel, in conditions of special education, they begin to learn about the world, people and themselves! This process, especially at the beginning, goes very slowly, it unfolds in time and in many details can be seen as if through a “time lens” (the term used to describe this phenomenon by well-known Soviet scientists A.I. Meshcheryakov and E.V. Ilyenkov).

Obviously, in the case of the development of normal healthy child much passes too quickly, spontaneously and unnoticed. Thus, help to children in the conditions of a cruel experiment that nature has put on them, help organized by psychologists together with teachers-defectologists, turns simultaneously into essential tool knowledge of general psychological patterns- development of perception, thinking, personality.

So, summarizing, we can say that the development of special branches of psychology is the Method (method with a capital letter) of general psychology. Of course, worldly psychology lacks such a method.

Now that we have become convinced of a number of advantages of scientific psychology over everyday psychology, it is appropriate to raise the question: what position should scientific psychologists take in relation to the bearers of everyday psychology? Suppose you graduated from the university, became educated psychologists. Imagine yourself in this state. Now imagine next to you some sage, not necessarily living today, some ancient Greek philosopher, for example.

This sage is the bearer of centuries-old reflections of people about the fate of mankind, about the nature of man, his problems, his happiness. You are the bearer of scientific experience, qualitatively different, as we have just seen. So what position should you take in relation to the knowledge and experience of the sage? This question is not idle, sooner or later it will inevitably arise before each of you: how should these two kinds of experience be related in your head, in your soul, in your activity?

I would like to warn you about one erroneous position, which, however, is often taken by psychologists with great scientific experience. “Problems of human life,” they say, “no, I don’t deal with them. I am a scientific psychologist. I understand neurons, reflexes, mental processes, and not the "throes of creativity."

Does this position have any basis? Now we can already answer this question: yes, it does. These certain grounds consist in the fact that the mentioned scientific psychologist was forced in the process of his education to take a step into the world of abstract general concepts, he was forced, together with scientific psychology, figuratively speaking, to drive life in vitro* "to tear apart" mental life "to pieces" .

But these necessary actions made too much impression on him. He forgot for what purpose these necessary steps were taken, what path was envisaged further. He forgot or did not take the trouble to realize that the great scientists - his predecessors introduced new concepts and theories, highlighting the essential aspects real life, suggesting then to return to its analysis with new means.

The history of science, including psychology, knows many examples of how a scientist saw the big and vital in the small and abstract. When I. V. Pavlov first registered the conditioned reflex separation of saliva in a dog, he declared that through these drops we would eventually penetrate into the pangs of human consciousness. The outstanding Soviet psychologist L. S. Vygotsky saw in “curious” actions such as tying a knot as a memento as a way for a person to master his behavior.

On how to see a reflection in small facts general principles and how to move from general principles to real life problems, you will not read anywhere. You can develop these abilities in yourself by absorbing the best samples contained in the scientific literature. Only constant attention to such transitions, constant exercise in them can give you a sense of the "pulse of life" in scientific studies. Well, for this, of course, it is absolutely necessary to have worldly psychological knowledge, perhaps more extensive and deep.

Respect and attention to worldly experience, its knowledge will warn you against another danger. The fact is that, as you know, in science it is impossible to answer one question without ten new ones. But new questions are different: "bad" and correct. And it is not just words. In science, there have been and still are, of course, whole areas that have come to a standstill. However, before they finally ceased to exist, they worked idle for some time, answering "bad" questions that gave rise to dozens of other bad questions.

The development of science is reminiscent of moving through a complex labyrinth with many dead-end passages. To choose the right way, you need to have, as they often say, good intuition, and it arises only with close contact with life. Ultimately, my idea is simple: a scientific psychologist must be at the same time a good worldly psychologist. Otherwise, he will not only be of little use to science, but will not find himself in his profession, simply speaking, he will be unhappy. I would like to save you from this fate.

One professor said that if his students mastered one or two main ideas in the entire course, he would consider his task completed. My desire is less modest: I would like you to learn one idea already in this one lecture. This thought is as follows: the relationship between scientific and worldly psychology is similar to the relationship between Antaeus and the Earth; the first, touching the second, draws its strength from it.

So, scientific psychology, firstly, is based on everyday psychological experience; secondly, it extracts its tasks from it; finally, thirdly, at the last stage it is checked.

excerpts from the book Gippenreiter Yu.B. "Introduction to General Psychology"

Source:
Everyday psychology
Any science has as its basis some worldly, empirical experience of people. For example, physics relies on the knowledge we acquire in everyday life about the motion and fall of bodies, about
http://www.modo-novum.ru/psiholog/znanie5.htm

Everyday psychology

The everyday life of a person is permeated with many psychological connections and relationships that create the basis for the emergence of the so-called worldly psychology.

The basis of everyday psychology is joint activity, communication and real relationships between people. The source of worldly psychology is always those people with whom we are in direct contact.

Everyday psychology permeates all kinds of art. For many people, paintings, literary and musical works, theatrical performances are an important, and sometimes the main way of understanding the inner world of a person.

Differences between everyday and scientific psychology.

IN psychological works distinguish a number of differences between scientific and everyday psychology. We present the main ones.

1. Differences in the object of scientific and everyday psychology, i.e. differences in who and what becomes the source of psychological knowledge. The object of everyday psychology is concrete people with whom we are in direct contact in everyday life.

The object of scientific psychology has changed historically and includes diverse manifestations of the human psyche.

2. The difference in the level of generalization of knowledge. Knowledge of everyday psychology is confined to specific people and specific situations, they are not generalized and situational; often expressed figuratively and metaphorically. The knowledge of scientific psychology is generalized, fixes the facts and patterns of behavior, communication, interaction of people and their inner life. They are expressed in terms that reflect the essential and permanent properties of the human psyche.

3. Differences in the ways of obtaining knowledge. Everyday knowledge of human psychology is acquired through direct observation of other people and self-observation. Scientific psychology uses a whole arsenal of methods to gain new knowledge: purposeful observation, experiment, tests, etc. The material obtained in scientific psychology is generalized, systematized, presented in logically consistent concepts and theories.

4. Differences in ways and means of transferring knowledge of everyday and scientific psychology. In everyday psychology, the transfer of knowledge is carried out by broadcasting from one person to another, more often from older to younger. Scientific and psychological knowledge is verified and ordered in scientific theories, described in scientific papers. There are socially developed and fixed ways and forms of replenishment, preservation, reproduction and transfer of scientific and psychological knowledge: research institutes, educational establishments, scientific literature, etc.

Comparison of the possibilities of worldly and scientific psychology shows the essential advantages of the latter for human studies professions. But at the same time, it is unacceptable dismissive attitude to life psychology. The generalized and scientifically expressed experience of the joint life of people acquires its significance only when it is “passed through” through inner experience, when it has become a personal property.

Source:
Everyday psychology
5.3. Everyday and scientific psychology about man
http://txtb.ru/85/14.html

Petukhov V

SUBJECT AND OBJECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE AND PRACTICE

Petukhov VV, Stolin VV Psychology. Method. decree. M.: Publishing House of Moscow State University, 1989. S. 5-11, 18-21.

Basic terms: scientific psychology, worldly psychology, human psychology, psyche, consciousness, introspection method, behavior, objective method, activity, unity of consciousness and activity, branches of psychology, psychotherapy.

When characterizing any science, it is necessary to explain its theoretical foundations, the subject of study, to show research opportunities, and practical applications of the results obtained. Let's start our acquaintance with psychological knowledge with an analysis of the very term "psychology". This term, formed from the Greek words psyche - soul, psyche and logos - knowledge, understanding, study, has several meanings.

So, in its first, literal meaning, psychology is the knowledge of the psyche, the science that studies it. The psyche is a property of highly organized living matter, a subjective reflection of the objective world, necessary for a person (or animal) to vigorous activity in it and control their behavior. The area of ​​the psychological is wide and diverse: it is also the reflection by the simplest animals of those individual properties environment, which turn out to be significant for the search for vital substances, and conscious representations of the complex relationships of natural and social peace in which man lives and acts. Consciousness is usually called the highest form of the psyche, necessary for organizing the social and individual life of people, for their joint labor activity.

In the second, most common meaning, the word "psychology" refers to the very mental, "mental" life, thereby highlighting a special reality. If the properties of the psyche, consciousness, mental processes usually characterize a person in general, then the features of psychology - a particular individual. Psychology manifests itself as a set of typical for a person (or groups of people) ways of behavior, communication, knowledge of the world, beliefs and preferences, character traits. So, emphasizing the differences between people of one age or another, professional, gender, they talk, for example, about the psychology of a schoolchild, student, worker and scientist, female psychology, etc.

It is clear that the general task of psychology is the study of both the psyche of the subject and his psychology.

Distinguishing psychology as a special reality and as knowledge about it, we note that the concept of "psychologist" - the owner of this knowledge - is also ambiguous. Of course, first of all, a psychologist is a representative of science, a professional researcher of the patterns of the psyche and consciousness, the characteristics of psychology and human behavior. But far from all psychological knowledge is necessarily scientific. So, in everyday life, a psychologist is a person who “understands the soul”, who understands people, their actions, experiences. In this sense, virtually every person is a psychologist, regardless of profession, although true experts in human relations are often called this way - prominent thinkers, writers, teachers.

So, there are two different areas of psychological knowledge - scientific and everyday, everyday psychology. If scientific psychology arose relatively recently, then everyday psychological knowledge has always been included in various types of human practice. In order to give a general description of psychology as a special scientific discipline, it is convenient to compare it with everyday psychology, to show their differences and interrelations.

This topic addresses the following key questions:

1. Comparative characteristics of everyday and scientific psychological knowledge.

2. Specific features of psychology as a natural and humanitarian science.

3. Branches of psychology and its applied tasks.

4. Forms of cooperation between scientific and everyday psychology in real life and activity.

Comparison of everyday and scientific psychology: general characteristics of psychology as a science

The fundamental condition for the existence of a person is a certain conscious representation of the world around him and his place in it. The study of such ideas associated with certain properties of the psyche, ways of human behavior, is necessary for the correct organization of the life of any society, although it is not an independent, special task in everyday practice. It is no coincidence that in the ancient teachings about man, his knowledge was combined with the development of cultural norms for public and private life. Knowledge of specific psychological patterns allowed people to understand each other, to control their own behavior.

The history of culture - philosophical, moral and ethical texts, artistic creativity - contains many wonderful examples detailed description individual psychological characteristics, their subtle understanding and analysis.

Possible examples. 1. Classical for European culture was the empirical description of human individuality in the work of one of the thinkers of Ancient Greece Theophrastus "Characters" (L., 1974): in the totality of people's everyday actions, their typical psychological portraits are determined, which are based on special traits of character and communication with other people.

2. Collection of worldly psychological observations in the Eastern classics - “Tzazuan” (lit. “mixture”, “notes on various things”, see Zazuan. Sayings of Chinese writers of the IX-XIX centuries. 2nd ed. M., 1975): typical situations that cause various emotional states.

Interest in ancient descriptions of individual characters is understandable even today, because their owners are well recognizable in everyday life, despite the change historical eras and living conditions. It is significant that everyday knowledge about character (and temperament) was generalized in the form of a fairly strict system, the classifications in the creation of which "collaborated" - through the centuries - representatives of various specialties.

A typical example. The classification of temperaments proposed in Ancient Rome doctor Hippocrates, includes the following types: cheerful and sociable sanguine, thoughtful, slow phlegmatic, brave, quick-tempered choleric, sad melancholic. Initially, its basis was not psychological characteristics, but the predominance of one of the four fluids in the human body: blood (sangva), mucus (phlegm), bile and black bile (chole and melanchole). Subsequently, the types received a psychological interpretation thanks, in particular, to the work of Kant and Stendhal, the philosopher and novelist, who different ways and on various empirical examples have identified these convenient forms of describing individuals. It is interesting that this classification in our century received new justifications in the works of physiologists and psychologists (I.P. Pavlov, G. Eysenck).

Psychological knowledge is included in many areas of human practice - pedagogy, medicine, artistic creativity. And yet these areas are rightly considered "outside" or "pre-scientific". The emergence of psychology as a special scientific discipline is associated with the formation of its own conceptual apparatus and methodological procedures.

The main difference between scientific psychology and everyday psychology is that for the latter the field of research activity is almost endless, then with the advent of a scientific discipline, sharp narrowing, a limitation fixed in a special language. The scientific psychologist loses whole layers of worldly experience for study (not always irretrievably), but the restrictions introduced create new advantages. So, for Wundt, the exact subject definition of an object that is difficult to study is connected with the ability to operationally, with the help of simple methodological procedures in a special experimental situation, isolate its elements, reproduce them under given conditions, measure (and, consequently, involve quantitative methods for processing the data obtained), to reveal the connections of these elements and, ultimately, to establish the patterns to which they obey.

With the restriction of the subject and the emergence of special methods of its study, other, also significant differences between scientific and everyday psychology are connected: 1) where and in what way psychological knowledge is acquired; 2) in what forms they are stored and 3) thanks to what they are transmitted, reproduced.

The results of experiments are also different: scientists often have to abandon their own everyday ideas, "not believing their eyes."

Attention should be paid to the fact that in the first scientific descriptions of mental phenomena, researchers drew on their personal experience. However main value of these descriptions lies not only in their insight and detail, but in the fact that they turned out to be successful generalized schemes for setting research problems.

A typical example. About one of the first "textbooks of psychology" written by a student of Wundt, the American psychologist and philosopher W. James (1842-1910), the material of everyday (including the author's) psychological experience is widely presented, as well as general models of its scientific understanding that are still relevant .

2. An extensive experience of worldly psychology is preserved and exists in accordance with those types of practice from which he received and which he discovers. It can be ordered in traditions and rituals, folk wisdom, aphorisms, but the foundations of such systematizations remain specific, situational. If situational conclusions contradict one another (for example, there is hardly a proverb to which it is impossible to pick up another, the opposite in meaning), then this does not bother worldly wisdom, it does not need to strive for uniformity.

Scientific psychology systematizes knowledge in the form of logical non-contradictory provisions, axioms and hypotheses. Knowledge is purposefully accumulated, serving as the basis for expanding and deepening the patterns found, and this happens precisely due to the presence of a special subject language.

Shouldn't be understood precise definition subject of scientific psychology as a limitation of its research capabilities. For example, scientific psychology actively intrudes into everyday experience, rightly claiming a new assimilation of social factual material. Natural, therefore, the constant requirements to accurately use the available conceptual apparatus (and only them), this protects the experience from "clogging" everyday associations.

A typical example. The scientific rigor of the outstanding Russian physiologist and psychologist I.P. Pavlov, who forbade his employees to speak of experimental animals, is natural: the dog “thought, remembered, felt.” Proper Research Animal behavior presupposes the interpretation of the results only in terms of a scientific theory, in this case, the reflex theory of higher nervous activity developed in the Pavlovian school.

3. Ordinary psychological knowledge, it would seem, is easily accessible. The advice of experienced people, the refined aphorisms of thinkers contain clots of everyday experience. However, it is not easy to take advantage of this experience: ordinary knowledge does not fix the real conditions in which it was obtained, and these conditions are decisive when trying to use what another person knows in a new situation. Therefore, so often the mistakes of fathers are repeated by their children. One's own experience, commensurate with one's capabilities and specific conditions, has to be experienced and accumulated anew.

Another thing is the experience of scientific psychology. Although it is not as extensive as everyday, it contains information about the conditions necessary and sufficient for the reproduction of certain phenomena. The acquired knowledge is ordered in scientific theories and is transmitted by mastering generalized, logically connected provisions, which serve as the basis for putting forward new hypotheses. Through the development of an experimental approach scientific experience contains facts inaccessible to worldly psychology.

Branches of psychology, forms of cooperation between scientific and everyday psychology

The connection between scientific psychology and practice is characterized by the accuracy of setting applied problems and methods for solving them. As a rule, such tasks were generated by difficulties arising in non-psychological areas, and their elimination went beyond the competence of the relevant specialists. We also note that applied branches could appear independently (including in time) from the formation of general psychological science.

Branches of psychology can be distinguished according to several criteria. Firstly, according to the areas of activity (in particular, professional), the needs of which are served, that is, according to what a person does: labor psychology, engineering, pedagogical, etc. Secondly, according to that. who exactly performs this activity is its subject and, at the same time, the object of psychological analysis: a person of a certain age (child and developmental psychology, groups of people (social psychology), a representative of a particular nationality (ethnopsychology), a psychiatrist's patient (pathopsychology), etc.). e. Finally, branches of psychology can be defined by specific scientific problems: the problem of the connection of mental disorders with brain lesions(neuropsychology), mental and physiological processes (psychophysiology).

IN real work psychologist scientific branches interact widely. For example, a workplace psychologist has knowledge of both engineering psychology (or labor psychology) and social psychology. The psychological side of school work belongs simultaneously to the spheres of developmental and pedagogical psychology. The development of practical applications of neuropsychology - first of all, the problem of rehabilitation of patients with brain lesions of a particular professional activity - requires knowledge of labor psychology.

It is clear that a practicing psychologist is just an everyday psychologist. Of course, he does not always have ready samples solve problems and must study, inventively use everyday experience, and yet for him this experience is framed conceptually, and tasks are quite clearly divided into solvable and unsolvable. It should be emphasized that the relative autonomy of applied industries from their common psychological foundations makes it possible to establish their own practical connections with other sciences - sociology, biology, physiology, medicine.

Diverse forms of cooperation between scientific and worldly psychology, a typical example of which is a psychotherapeutic session. The therapist cannot create and convey to the patient new ways of mastering his effective past, resolving internal conflicts. The patient builds these ways only himself, but the therapist helps, provokes their discovery and is present with him, like a doctor at the birth of a child. He clarifies the conditions of the discovery, tries to explain its patterns. The results of such cooperation are, on the one hand, full life healthy person, on the other hand, the development of the central section of psychological science - the study of personality.

Successful cases of self-therapy, self-comprehension and overcoming of severe mental ailments are possible, when scientific and worldly psychologists are, as it were, combined in one person.

Typical example. M.M. Zoshchenko in "The Tale of Reason" conducts a psychological analysis of the sources of his own personal crisis. He examines in detail the variants of the hidden content of affectogenic symbols, dreams and states (the outstretched hand of a beggar, the roar of a tiger, aversion to food, etc.), then gradually determines (does not “remember”, namely, determines) the trauma suffered in early childhood, and, thanks to its conscious development, self-healing is achieved. The techniques he found and applied on himself enrich the staff of psychotherapy.

Often, various therapeutic techniques are based on everyday empirical rules for controlling behavior and only then are they expressed in theoretical terms.

Interesting influences scientific concepts and concepts on everyday ideas of people about their mental life. The means of such a representation were, in particular, some concepts of psychoanalysis (affective "complex", "archetype", "internal censorship", etc.), the terms proposed to describe emotional sphere(“stress”) of the protective mechanisms of the personality (“compensation”, “substitution”, “rationalization”, “repression”). Getting into colloquial speech, these terms receive content that is not always related to their original meaning, but they turn out to be effective means of understanding and even discovering (building) a person's own individual means.

It should be noted that a scientific psychologist sometimes professionally has to become an everyday psychologist, preparation for working with some methods of diagnosing a personality, learning to correctly and fully interpret the results takes about two to three years. The practice of conducting psychological experiments is sometimes a subtle art that requires skill and intuition.

Finally, there are also psychological tests where the line between scientific and everyday psychology is difficult to establish. So, in the manuals business communication specific practical advice on adequate social behavior, interaction with other people that make contacts successful. On the one hand, these are a kind of "textbooks" of everyday psychology, on the other hand, a systematic list of results that provides material for scientific research.

Thus, the position of psychological science is determined by its two divergent traditions. The first of them - the desire to become a natural science discipline, the second - to take the place of everyday psychology. Both of these goals are incomprehensible, but each of them generates its own specific tasks.

On the one hand, in comparison with everyday psychology, scientific psychology is a special discipline that has a conceptual and methodological apparatus for studying the mental life of a person, the laws of its organization and development. The accuracy and regularity of fixing the experience gained, the possibility of strict verification and directed reproduction bring it closer to the natural sciences.

On the other hand, psychological science has features associated with the specifics of the object of study - its ability to internally reflect its states. A person's everyday ideas about himself, being the means and results of solving real life problems, can be stable and exist regardless of their scientific explanations. The humanitarian aspect of psychology lies not only in the study, but also in the practice of creating these ideas as ways to overcome conflict situations, understanding and productive development of life experience.

Scientific and everyday psychology, while maintaining fundamental differences, enter into the necessary mutual connections. psychological science, the development of which, following L.S. Rubinshtein, can be represented as a pyramid, is strong in its base. Everyday comprehension of a diverse psychological reality does not disappear with the advent of special science, and, on the contrary, is a constant source of its vital activity. At the same time, scientific achievements are actively penetrating everyday life, offering new, effective means of remembering its laws, educating and developing the individual.

Scientific psychology as a whole is an attempt to comprehend, regularly comprehend, reproduce and improve the existing and constantly developing experience of the mental life of a modern person.

Psychological knowledge and their types

The first chapter characterizes the sphere of psychological knowledge as a whole, shows their specificity in everyday, scientific, practical psychology, as well as the features of psychological knowledge contained in works of art and in various types irrational psychology.

The world of psychological knowledge

Psychology is the knowledge of the mind inner world people about psychological reasons explaining their behaviour. Under the mental phenomena understand the facts of internal subjective experience. These facts include various manifestations of the spiritual (mental) life of a person:

• cognitive mental processes (sensations, perception, representation, imagination, thinking, speech, memorization, preservation, reproduction);
• emotional phenomena (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, anxiety, stress, sympathy, antipathy, love, friendship, hatred);
• Various parties regulation of activity (needs and motivation, attention);
• mental states (inspiration, stress, fatigue, adaptation);
• mental properties of a person (temperament, character, abilities, self-awareness, a person's ideas about himself, his self-esteem and self-respect, the level of claims, a number of other personal characteristics);
• mental phenomena characterizing interpersonal relations of a person (interpersonal perception, sympathy, antipathy, compatibility, conflicts, friendship, love, suggestibility, leadership, psychological climate).

Mental phenomena are conscious and unconscious. Psychological knowledge as knowledge about the spiritual world of a person can have different sources. Five basic types of psychological knowledge differ in methods of obtaining, construction features, ways of expression and justification, as well as criteria of truth:

1. life psychology,
2. scientific psychology,
3. practical psychology,
4. art,
5. irrational psychology.

Everyday psychology

The psychological knowledge accumulated and used by a person in everyday life is called ʼʼeveryday psychologyʼʼ. Οʜᴎ are usually specific and are formed in a person in the course of his life as a result of observations, self-observations and reflections.

The reliability of everyday psychology is tested on personal experience and the experience of people with whom a person is in direct contact. This knowledge is passed from mouth to mouth and recorded, reflecting centuries of everyday experience. Rich psychological experience is accumulated in fairy tales. Many everyday observations are collected by writers and reflected in works of art or in the genre of moral aphorisms. Everyday observations prominent people, by virtue of their wisdom and ability to generalize, are also of great value.

The main criterion for the truth of the knowledge of everyday psychology is their plausibility and obvious usefulness in everyday life situations.

The peculiarities of this knowledge are concreteness and practicality. Fragmentation is characteristic of everyday psychological knowledge. Such knowledge is intuitive.

Οʜᴎ are characterized by the availability of presentation and clarity. In knowledge of this type, the inaccuracy of the concepts used is manifested. Knowledge of everyday psychology is characterized by reliance on life experience and common sense.

Everyday psychology - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Everyday psychology" 2017, 2018.