The psychological state caused by the effect. Mental states of a person. Questions for self-examination

To maintain its viability, a person at any given time needs a certain degree of plasticity of the psyche, which contributes to the resolution of certain daily tasks. These tasks include the successful building of social relations, the effective performance of activities, which, in turn, largely depend on the flexible regulation of people's mental states.

The mental state is one of the possible modes of human life activity, which at the physiological level is distinguished by certain energy characteristics, and at the psychological level - by a system of psychological filters that provide a specific perception of the surrounding world.

In other words, self-regulation of mental states is manifested in the self-government of their functional organization in accordance with the goals and requirements of the psychological activity of the individual.

Along with mental processes and personality traits, states are the main classes of mental phenomena that are studied by the science of psychology. Mental states affect the course of mental processes, and, repeating often, having acquired stability, they can be included in the structure of the personality as its specific property. Since each mental state contains psychological, physiological and behavioral components, in the descriptions of the nature of states one can meet the concepts of different sciences (general psychology, physiology, medicine, labor psychology, etc.), which creates additional difficulties for researchers involved in this problem. There is currently no single point view on the problem of states, since the states of the individual can be considered in two aspects. They are both slices of personality dynamics and integral reactions of the personality due to its relationships, behavioral needs, goals of activity and adaptability in the environment and situation.

That is why there are requests from people to find ways to regulate their own states, as well as mechanisms that are productively corrective. In this regard, verbal (verbal) mechanisms of self-regulation of mental states are of particular importance.

An analysis of literary sources shows that in scientific discussions the issues of the functional significance of mental states were considered by such scientists as N.D. Levitov (1964); T.A. Nemchin (1983); A.B. Leonova (1984) and others. However, the dynamics of mental states and the mechanisms of their regulation have been little studied.

Chapter I. Classification of human mental states

The principle of dividing states into certain categories is explained below in Table. one

The structure of mental states includes many components at the most different systemic levels: from physiological to cognitive (Table 2):

Chapter II. Types and characteristics of the main mental states of a person according to the level of activation of the body

Waking state at rest occurs during (passive rest, reading a book, watching a neutral TV show). At the same time, there is a lack of pronounced emotions, moderate activity of the reticular formation and the sympathetic nervous system, and in the brain there is an alternation of the beta rhythm (when a person thinks about something) and alpha rhythm (when the brain is resting).

State of relaxation It is a state of calm, relaxation and rejuvenation. It occurs during autogenic training, trance, prayer. The reason for involuntary relaxation is the cessation of strenuous activity. The reason for voluntary relaxation is autogenic training, meditation, prayer, etc. The predominant sensations in this state are relaxation of the whole body, a feeling of peace, pleasant warmth, heaviness. There is an increased activity of the parasympathetic nervous system and the predominance of the alpha rhythm in the electroencephalogram.

sleep state – special condition the human psyche, which is characterized by an almost complete disconnection of consciousness from the external environment. During sleep, there is a two-phase mode of the brain - the alternation of slow and REM sleep(which, by and large, are independent mental states). Sleep is associated with the need to streamline information flows and restore the body's resources. Mental reactions of a person during sleep are involuntary, and from time to time there are emotionally colored dreams. At the physiological level, alternate activation of the first parasympathetic and then the sympathetic nervous system is noted. Slow-wave sleep is characterized by theta and delta waves of brain biopotentials.

Optimal working condition- a state that provides the greatest efficiency of activity at an average pace and intensity of labor (the state of a turner turning a part, a teacher in a regular lesson). It is characterized by the presence of a conscious goal of activity, high concentration of attention, sharpening of memory, activation of thinking and increased activity of the reticular formation. Rhythms of the brain - mostly lie in the beta range.

A state of intense activity- this is a condition that occurs in the process of labor in extreme conditions (the condition of an athlete at a competition, a test pilot during a test of a new car, a circus performer when performing a complex exercise, etc.). Mental stress is due to the presence of a super-significant goal or increased requirements for the employee. It can also be determined by a high motivation to achieve a result or a high cost of a mistake. It is characterized by a very high activity of the sympathetic nervous system and high-frequency brain rhythms.

monotony- a condition that develops during prolonged, repetitive loads of medium and low intensity (for example, the condition of a truck driver at the end of a long trip). It is caused by monotonous, repetitive information. The prevailing emotions are boredom, indifference, decreased attention. Part of the incoming information is blocked at the level of the thalamus.

Fatigue- a temporary decrease in performance under the influence of a long and high load. It is caused by the depletion of the body's resources during prolonged or excessive activity. It is characterized by a decrease in motivation to work, a violation of attention and memory. At the physiological level, the appearance of transcendental inhibition of the central nervous system is noted.

Stress- a state of increased and prolonged stress associated with the impossibility of adapting to the requirements of the environment. This state is due prolonged exposure environmental factors, exceeding the ability of the organism to adapt. It is characterized by mental tension, a sense of frustration, anxiety, restlessness, and in the last stage - indifference and apathy. At the physiological level, it is marked by depletion of adrenal hormones, muscle tension and biphasic activation of the autonomic nervous system.

Depression- (from lat. deprimo "press", "suppress") - this is mental disorder, characterized by a depressive triad: a decrease in mood, loss of the ability to experience joy (anhedonia), impaired thinking (negative judgments, a pessimistic view of what is happening, etc.) and motor inhibition. With depression, self-esteem is reduced, there is a loss of interest in life and habitual activities.

How a mental disorder is a disorder of affect. With a long course of time (over four to six months), depression is considered as a mental illness. Depression responds well to treatment, in more than 80% of cases there is a complete recovery, however, at present, it is depression that is the most common mental disorder. It affects 10% of the population over the age of 40. Of these, 2/3 are women. Depression is three times more common among people over 65 years of age. In some cases, a person suffering from depression begins to abuse alcohol (or other drugs that affect the central nervous system), goes "head first" into work.

The relationship between these states is shown in Fig. 1. The dynamics of their development plays an important role in the production activity of a person, therefore it is one of the subjects of the scientific discipline "Labor Psychology".

insanity- the mental state of a person, characterized by his inability to account for his actions and control them due to a chronic illness or temporary mental disorder, dementia, etc.

Prostration- a state of complete physical and neuropsychic relaxation of the body, which occurs after serious illnesses, severe overwork, nervous shocks, starvation.

frustration- the psychological state of the individual, characterized by the presence of a stimulated need that has not found its satisfaction. Frustration is accompanied by negative emotions: anger, irritation, guilt, etc. Distinguish:

Frustrator - the cause that causes frustration;

frustration situation; and

frustration reaction.

Chapter III. Self-regulation of the mental state

Mental states reflect the characteristics of the interaction between a person and the environment. On the one hand, when this interaction changes, the states change in such a way as to facilitate the adaptation of the organism to the environment. Thus, we can say that mental states themselves are a form of self-regulation of the psyche.

On the other hand, mental states (especially in the aggregate of their emotional characteristics) are indicators of external events. Negative states indicate that something is wrong in our actions or in our environment and needs to be changed. In this case, it is necessary to fight not with the states themselves, but with the causes that cause them. This is not the most difficult path, and people willingly resort to simpler and more harmful means - alcohol, drugs and stimulants.

To understand the ways of self-regulation of mental states, it is necessary to consider physiological mechanisms their origin and maintenance.

First stage. In the cerebral cortex, the so-called dominant (intense persistent focus of excitation) is formed. It subjugates the activity of the organism and the activity of man. Thus, in order to level this mental state, it is necessary to eliminate, defuse this dominant or create a new, competing one. In fact, all distractions (reading, watching a movie, doing what you love) are aimed at this. The more exciting the business that a person is trying to switch to, the easier it is for him to create a competing dominant.

Second phase. Following the appearance of the dominant, a special chain reaction- one of the deep structures of the brain - the hypothalamus - is excited. It causes the nearby gland - the pituitary gland - to secrete large amounts of adrenocorticotropic hormone into the blood. Under the influence of this hormone, the adrenal glands secrete adrenaline and other physiologically active substances (hormones). The latter cause a variety of physiological effects - the heart beats faster, breathing quickens, etc. During this phase, conditions are prepared for an intense muscle load (fight or run away). A modern person usually does not use the accumulated energy, and hormones circulate in the blood for a long time. Accordingly, the person feels excited. It is necessary to neutralize hormones, and the best assistant in such cases is physical education, intense muscle load.

Third stage. If the conflict has not been resolved and the negative interaction with the environment has not stopped, impulses continue to enter the cerebral cortex that support the activity of the dominant, and stress hormones continue to be released into the blood. There are two ways to regulate this state: to reduce the significance of what is happening for oneself (which does not always lead to the desired results) or to change the situation.

Some people try to cope with depressing feelings by sedatives or alcohol. Medications reduce the activity of the focus of excitation in the cerebral cortex, inhibit the activity of the hypothalamus, suppress the release into the blood physiologically active substances prevent their effect on the cardiovascular system. The safest in this regard are sedative infusions of valerian, motherwort. Alcohol leads to negative consequences.

Types of self-regulation

Autogenic training(from the Greek autos - himself, genos - origin, that is, carried out independently).

Autogenic training (AT) - active method changes in one's own state, aimed at restoring the dynamic balance of the body functions regulation systems.

It allows you to quickly remove excessive neuromuscular tension, excitement, manifestations of vegetative-vascular dystonia, headaches, lethargy, irritability, discomfort, allows you to control your mood, mobilize all your mental and physical strength to achieve your goals. The correct use of AT helps to reduce the intensity of general anxiety and other negative mental conditions, the development of physiological and psychological resistance to stress.

The introduction of AT is associated with the name of J. H. Schultz. They were asked to use this method for the treatment of neuroses, but at present he finds more wide application, for example, as a psychohygienic agent in the preparation of people working in conditions of emotional stress and extreme stress, for example, athletes, pilots.

There are several modifications of the classic AT. For example, techniques have been developed that not only reduce, but also increase the tone, mobilize a person.

Exercises of the lowest level of AT affect mainly vegetative functions. higher mental functions stimulated at the highest level of AT. At the highest level, exercises are performed, the purpose of which is to teach how to evoke complex experiences, leading to "self-purification" and healing through the neutralization of negative experiences.

Almost anyone can master AT, but it is easier for people who are able to evoke vivid vivid images in their minds.

Everyone understands how important it is to be able to manage oneself - one's mood, well-being, behavior. But not everyone knows how to achieve this in practice. Although there have been for a long time different ways, techniques, methods for giving themselves the necessary help, and in our time they are combined under common name- mental self-regulation (PSR), which says that the regulation of oneself is carried out by using the capabilities inherent in our mental apparatus - in the brain.

If speak about present stage in the development of mental self-regulation, then its beginning can be identified precisely. This is 1932, when the book of the German psychiatrist Johann Heinrich Schulz (1884-1970-) "Autogenic training" was published. He traveled to India, studied yoga, and in Germany, helping the sick, often used hypnotic suggestion. And he collected written reports from his patients about the sensations that they experienced during hypnosis sessions. After analyzing many such self-reports, I. G. Schultz discovered that there is a lot in common in the sensations of patients, and he decided to reduce this general to some specific provisions - "formulas of self-hypnosis" in order to put them into the hands of his patients already for self-help, for "self-hypnosis" . Hence the name of the method of mental self-regulation developed by him - "autogenic training": "autos" in ancient Greek means "self", and "gene-nose" - "kind, birth". Therefore, "autogenic" is translated as "self-generating" training, by doing which a person provides himself with the necessary help.

Creating autogenic training (AT), I.G. Schultz followed the precept of the famous ancient Greek healer Hippocrates, who told each of his patients this: “We are three, your illness and I. If you are afraid of your illness, feel like a prisoner of it much less "hold" her, kneel before her, it will not be easy for me to help you. healthy."

Thus, it has long been established that it is extremely important to include the patients themselves in an active struggle with their ailments. That is why the method of mental self-regulation - from AT to any other (and there are many of them now) - the method of conscious purposeful help to oneself, and not only in connection with diseases, but also in many other life situations, should be included in the clip of such mandatory skills of every modern human, as the ability to read, write, run, swim.

The practice of working in big-time sports has shown that autogenic training, created to help sick people, for a number of reasons, is not suitable for solving the problems that athletes face - people who are practically healthy. That is why, especially since the 60s, when both physical and mental stress began to grow steadily in professional sports, specialists began to develop methods of mental self-regulation that would take into account the specifics of sports activities,

Here, the method of RPS, called "psycho-muscular training" (PMT). This method, born in 1973, is very simple to learn, highly effective and allows you to use its capabilities when working with both adults and young (from 7-10 years old) athletes, who today also bear considerable physical and mental stress. .

Psychomuscular training is based on the relationship that exists between the mental apparatus (the brain) and the skeletal muscles: the more excited the psyche, the more tense, and involuntarily, the skeletal muscles become - hence, in particular, those "clamps" from which overly excited people suffer. before the start ("trembling") athletes. Conversely, when the brain is calm, the muscles also involuntarily begin to relax, as happens, for example, in a sleeping person.

But not only the brain determines muscle tone. Muscles, in turn, quite actively influence the mental state, since the biological impulses entering the brain from the musculoskeletal system are a kind of stimulus that stimulates the activity of the brain, exciting it. So, in particular, there is a warm-up, in which a large number of biological (proprioceptive) impulses begin to flow from actively working muscles to the brain, which increases the tone of the mental apparatus before the upcoming difficult activity.

The opposite picture is observed with conscious relaxation of skeletal muscles. The more relaxed they are, the less proprioceptive impulses come from them to the brain, and it begins to calm down, gradually plunging first into a drowsy state, and then into deep sleep.

The essence of psychic self-regulation, apart from many parts, comes down to two basic skills - to activate one's psyche when necessary, and if necessary, to calm it down. Moreover, the ability to get rid of excessive mental stress and calm oneself is the leading skill in the system of psychomuscular training.

Calming the neuropsychic sphere with the help of PMT is achieved through self-hypnotic relaxation and warming of the muscles of the arms, legs, torso, neck and face. As a result, the flow of signals from these muscle groups to the brain is significantly reduced, and it, not receiving the necessary activating "feed" from the periphery of the body, begins to calm down, gradually plunging into a drowsy, dream-like state.

Activation of the neuropsychic sphere is carried out by using a phenomenon that has long been known in medicine, namely, the brain, which is in deep sedation, in a state of drowsiness, drowsiness, acquires an increased susceptibility to the information entered into it. Therefore, an athlete who needs to activate himself through the mechanisms of self-hypnosis must first very quickly calm himself down to a state of drowsiness controlled by consciousness, and then, “pass” through the calmed brain such mental images that are capable of personally evoking in him the necessary mental, and along with it and physical activation (imagine yourself, for example, in the shot put circle before the last decisive attempt at the Olympic Games), experienced athletes, who have mastered the capabilities of PMT well, the entire procedure of complacency and self-mobilization takes a few seconds.

What power is used in the procedure of psychic self-regulation, in the ability to control one's mental and physical state? This power is povo. But to be completely precise, 1 is not the word itself, as such, but those divided images that stand behind the words.

What is a mental image? Suppose someone uttered the word "cucumber". Everyone who hears it immediately has the appearance of this vegetable in their minds, that is, its mental image. For everyone, of course, this image will be purely individual - one will mentally see a large cucumber, the other - a small one, someone salty, and someone fresh. But it will always be a cucumber, and not, say, a carrot. And when we hear the word "carrot", we will reproduce this vegetable in our minds, etc., etc.

What exactly is the mental image is the main psychic power affecting us, proves a simple, well-known experience. If you say - "a sour and very juicy slice of lemon in the mouth", then most people begin to salivate, although there is no lemon at all. Consequently, only the mental image of a lemon - a purely mental product - is capable of changing physical state person, causing him to this case more or less pronounced salivation. The practice of self-regulation shows that correctly selected mental images become a kind of keys that open the doors to many secrets of mental and physical processes occurring in our body. But in order for mental images to have the desired effect on us, they must be very accurate, specific, vivid and pleasant,

Mentally images can be of two types - represented and imaginary. When imagining, we “mentally see” something that once really affected our senses (vision, hearing, smell, etc.) and was fixed in memory, from which we, as it were, extract certain mental images when we want imagine them. And imagining, we create such images, which in real life does not exist. If we now turn to the same cucumber, then mentally seeing it as it really is, we will: represent it. And if you create, suppose, such an image of him - a cucumber on legs, in a hat, walking with a carrot, then this mental image will already be imaginary. We talk about imagined and imaginary mental images because in further practical exercises in psychic self-regulation, you will have to use both the first and second ones.

And now about how to practically master the possibilities of psychomuscular training.

In psychomuscular training, all muscles are divided into five groups for ease of training: muscles of the arms, legs, torso, neck and face.

Engaged in PMT in one of the three main poses. The most comfortable is lying on your back, arms (slightly bent at the elbows) lie palms down along the body, and feet slightly (20-40 cm) apart. The second pose is in an easy chair with a headrest and armrests, on which the practitioner puts relaxed hands. The third is the most inconvenient at first glance, but the most accessible. The creator of autogenic training, I. G. Schultz, called this position "the pose of a coachman on a droshky", because this pose was born from centuries of experience. large army coachmen, forced to doze while waiting for passengers, sometimes for a very long time, sitting on the goats of their carriages. It is in this position that it is most reliable to master the skills of mental self-regulation.

The essence of the "coachman pose on a droshky":

It is necessary to sit on a half chair (not leaning on the back), put your legs on full feet and slightly push forward so that between the back of the thighs and calf muscles formed an angle of 120-140°. On the hips, freely spaced, it is necessary to put the hands, but so that they do not hang down (otherwise the fingers will swell), the head should be slightly tilted forward or kept straight. The back is bent so that shoulder joints turned out to be strictly vertical above the hips, then when the muscles of the body relax, it will only bend more and more, and the body will maintain a vertical position.

For those who are new to the feeling of relaxed muscles, the following auxiliary technique is recommended: maintaining the accepted posture and closed eyes, you need to slowly clench your fingers halfway into fists and just as slowly tense all the other muscles of the hands (up to those that surround the shoulder joints). After holding the tension for 2-4 s, it should then be quickly released and listen to the sensations of relaxation spreading from the shoulders to the fingers and give it an appropriate mental image - imagined or imaginary. For example, mentally see that relaxed muscles have become like soft dough or jelly-like jelly.

To better remember the feeling of muscle relaxation, this exercise should be repeated (slowly) several times in a row. Just do not release tension, actively straighten your fingers - in this case, a new tension arises. You should also not check the degree of relaxation by shaking the muscles - when shaking, they tense up a little again.

In the very first minutes of training, everyone should find the optimal degree of tension for themselves - one that is followed by the most distinct feeling of relaxation.

The essence of PMT

The essence of the second auxiliary technique is that controlled breathing is involved to help the muscles. It is done like this. Simultaneously with muscle tension, it is necessary to take a breath of medium depth, and then hold your breath (2-4 s). Immediately with reset muscle tension calm slow exhalation begins. This exercise (keeping the eyes closed) should be done 3-6 times in a row.

Now, after carrying out the physical preparation of the muscles of the hands, you can connect mental processes- thinking and attention. The self-regulation formula that begins the study of PMT is: "My hands are relaxing and getting warm." Let us remember that it is not the words themselves, but only their mental images that have a directed effect on us,

The first words of the formula - "my hands ..." are pronounced to oneself at the moment of tension in the muscles of the hands and the subsequent delay of this tension against the background of an inhalation of medium depth. In order for the mental image that arises behind the words to be extremely accurate, you must first carefully examine your bare hands and remember all their features well - then the mental image of bare hands will take on specific clarity and the effect of self-hypnosis will be high. If you "see" your hands as something abstract, and even more so as something located somewhere on the side, outside of you, the results will deteriorate dramatically.

The word "relax" is mentally pronounced immediately after the release of muscle tension, against the background of a calm slow exhalation. It is better to pronounce this word in syllables - "ras-weak-la-yut-sya." The mental image here is always purely personal - someone "sees" their muscles just soft, someone - in the form of jelly or jelly, some imagine that their hands are made of cottage cheese or dough. Images can be both imagined and imaginary, as long as they are accurate, vivid, personally comfortable and pleasant - then they will cause the desired relaxation of the muscles.

As you know, in the cold we shrink, as if shrinking, and in the heat, on the contrary, we seem to open up, relax. That is why the word "warm-le-yut ..." is added to the PMT with the corresponding mental images. The simplest thing is to imagine that warm water spreads from the shoulders to the fingers. Whoever finds it difficult to imagine should stand under a warm shower so that the jets warm water flowed down your arms, and remember this feeling. You can imagine yourself naked on the beach under the hot rays of the sun or in a steam room (the image of the hands must be motionless). Those who know anatomy and physiology can imagine how scarlet warm flowed from the heart on the periphery through the arterial vessels, which expanded in relaxed muscles. arterial blood warming hands from shoulders to fingers.

And now let's think through the formulas "my hands relax and get warmer" in the form of a single continuous process. To do this, against the background of an inhalation of medium depth, the muscles of the hands slowly tense up halfway and the words "my hands ..." are mentally pronounced with the involvement of the corresponding mental image of bare hands. All this is done at the same time. Then, after a 2-4-second delay in inhalation and tension, at the very beginning of a calm slow exhalation, muscle tension is instantly released and the word “weak-la-yut-sya ..” is mentally pronounced, which must be accompanied by an already selected mental image of relaxation . "Seeing" this image, it must be slowly transferred from the brain into the hands - then there will be a distinct feeling of physical relaxation in this muscle group,

Only after that you need to easy breath pronounce the union "and ..." to yourself, and on a slow, calm exhalation - the word "warm-le-yut", accompanying it with an idea or imagination of warmth spreading over your hands from top to bottom. And wait until this feeling becomes clear enough.

This "passing" of the formula through your brain and muscles is supposed to be repeated during the first session 4-8 times in a row. The procedure for relaxing and warming the hands, when you read about it, seems complicated. But as soon as its practical development begins, everything becomes simple and accessible in just 2-3 minutes.

In the process of practicing PMT, attention, remaining calm and relaxed all the time, is held simultaneously on both hands and slowly, as it were, looks through them in parts, checking the degree of relaxation and warming, and then stops at relaxed and warm hands and fingers. If at some point the attention for some reason “ran away” from the hands and extraneous thoughts appeared, you need to calmly (in no case irritated) return it to the place from which it “ran away” and, without haste, continue engage in self-regulation.

You need to train daily - play with your muscles and the corresponding mental processes (words, mental images, attention) for at least 3-5 minutes several times a day, and the last time - in bed, before going to bed. The word "play" is used here on purpose, since psychomuscular training should go exactly like a game, and not like a boring, annoying job. And the more often you engage in such a game, the sooner it will not only give the desired result, but also bring a kind of pleasure, which will indicate that mental self-regulation has already begun to have its beneficial effect on the body. This pleasant feeling appears in most people after a week or two of daily exercise, after which it is no longer necessary to strain the muscles before relaxing; there is no need to follow the breath - it will become what it needs to be, and self-regulation formulas can be used only once.

Such a detailed presentation of the PMT lesson, aimed at mastering the formula "my arms relax and warm up", is explained by the fact that all other muscles (legs, torso, neck and face) relax and warm up according to the same principle, observing similar rules, only the name of the muscle group changes.

Conclusion

Self-regulation of mental states is manifested in the self-management of their functional organization in accordance with the goals and requirements of the psychological activity of the individual.

A person owes much to all mankind with his state (including mental state). The mental state is the most complex and diverse psychological phenomenon. It is a fairly stable mental phenomenon that increases or decreases psychological activity, and is also used by a person as an internal condition for self-organization in the process of his life.

Hence, the mental state is understood as "a holistic characteristic of mental activity over a certain period of time, showing the peculiarity of the course of mental processes depending on the reflection of objects and phenomena of reality, the previous state and mental properties of the individual. Considering the nature of the mental state, we draw attention to the fact that everyone In this regard, one can agree with VI Druzhinin, who noted that ""any system with a psyche is represented by its internal state..." (1994, p. 29).

Because the mental state is internal education, it is a psychophysiological property that characterizes a person in specific conditions of life situations.

What has been said can be formulated differently: the state is also a set of internal resources of the psyche necessary for the flow of natural processes.

Bibliography

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mental states- a psychological category that characterizes the mental activity of an individual for a certain period of time. This is the background against which the mental activity of a person proceeds. It reflects the originality of mental processes and the subjective attitude of the individual to the reflected phenomena of reality. Mental states have a beginning and an end, change over time, but they are integral, relatively constant and stable. K.K. Platonov defines mental states as occupying an intermediate position between mental processes and personality traits.

Mental states include joy, sadness, concentration, boredom, fatigue, tension, apathy, etc. It is often impossible to give an exact definition of the experienced state, since, firstly, mental states are multidimensional and characterize reality from different angles, and secondly, they are continuous, that is, the boundaries of the transition of one state to another are not clearly marked, they are smooth. "Pure" states practically do not exist.

What kind of mental state will arise in an individual in this moment time, two groups influence factors: environmental factors and individual characteristics of the subject. The first include the characteristics of reflected objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. To the second - the previous states and properties of the individual (features of cognitive activity, needs, desires, aspirations, opportunities, attitudes, self-esteem, values). Mental states are determined by the ratio of these factors.

States arise in the process of activity, depend on it and determine the specifics of experiences. Each mental state is experienced by the individual as a whole, as a unity of spiritual, mental and physical (bodily) structures. The change in mental state affects all these levels.

Mental states are characterized by certain characteristics . States are classified depending on which of these characteristics come to the fore at a given time. emotional characteristics reflect dominance at given state one or another emotion, their intensity, polarity (the predominance of positive or negative emotions: joy and sadness). The sign of some states is not obvious. For example, it cannot be unambiguously defined as positive or negative surprise or concentration. Emotional state is euphoria, joy, satisfaction, sadness, anxiety, fear, panic Activation States show the inclusion of the individual in the situation or alienation from it. Increased activation is manifested in clarity of consciousness, energetic behavior, the desire to solve the task, to overcome difficulties. On the other side of the pole - a decrease in the intensity and pace of movements, a decline in activity. Activation states include excitement, inspiration, elation, concentration, absent-mindedness, boredom, apathy. Tonic states reflect the tone, energy resources of the body. The tone is felt as the presence or absence of energy, a large or small resource of strength, internal composure or lack of composure, inertia, lethargy. Tonic states - wakefulness, monotony and mental satiety, fatigue and overwork, drowsiness and sleep. Tension(from English. tensionЇ voltage) states show to what extent a person needs to make volitional efforts to choose one or another behavior. The more attractive various objects are to the individual, the more more strength required to contain non-priority stimuli, the higher the tension. At low tension, a person is liberated, uninhibited, feels inner comfort, at high tension, he is clamped, he feels inner lack of freedom, the compulsion of his behavior. Tension states include states of tension, emotional resolution, frustration, sensory hunger, and stress states.

For each state, emotional, activation, tonic and tension characteristics can be recorded. All characteristics are interconnected and in most cases change in concert. For example, in mental states for which positive emotions are typical (a state of joy), there is an increase in activation and tone, a decrease in tension.

Also, mental states can be divided into classes according to which particular area of ​​the psyche they characterize the most. In this case, cognitive, emotional, motivational and volitional mental states will be distinguished. Sometimes only one kind of mental states is considered - emotional states, and the latter are considered a kind of emotions. This is not entirely true, since emotional states differ from emotions and emotional reactions in that the former are more stable and less objective (everything pleases, saddens). Emotional states, as well as mental states in general, characterize activity to a greater extent and influence it.

Due to the fact that mental states, like other mental phenomena, can be measured by various parameters, many of them cannot be unambiguously attributed to one class or another.

2.6.1 EMOTIONAL MENTAL STATES

Depending on the content and dynamics of experiences, emotions are divided into moods, feelings and affects.

Moods. The main features of moods are:

1. Weak intensity. If a person experiences a mood of pleasure, then it never reaches any strong manifestation; if this sad mood, then it is not pronounced and is not based on intense nervous excitations.

2. Significant duration. Moods are always more or less continuous states. Their very name indicates that the corresponding emotions are slowly developed and experienced over a long period. Short-term emotional states no one will call moods.

3. Obscurity, "unaccountability". Experiencing this or that mood, we, as a rule, are weakly aware of the reasons that caused it. Often we are in one mood or another, without being aware of the sources of this state, without associating it with certain objects, phenomena or events. “A person feels sad when the body is unwell, although he still does not know at all why this is happening” (R. Descartes). On the contrary, when a person is explained the reason for his mood, this mood often quickly disappears from him.

4. A kind of diffuse character. Moods leave their imprint on all thoughts, attitudes, actions of a person at the moment. In one mood, the work performed seems easy, pleasant, a person reacts good-naturedly to the actions of those around him; in a different mood, the same work becomes hard, unpleasant, and the same actions of other people are perceived as rude and unbearable.

The senses. The hallmarks of feelings are:

1. Distinct intensity. Feelings are stronger emotional experiences than moods. When we say that a person experiences a feeling, and not a mood, by this we indicate, first of all, an intense, clearly expressed, quite definite emotional experience: a person does not just experience pleasure, but experiences joy; he is not just in a mood that expresses some kind of vague anxiety - he is afraid.

2. Limited duration. Feelings don't last as long as moods. Their duration is limited by the time of the direct action of the causes that cause them, or the memories of the circumstances that caused this feeling. For example, spectators in a stadium experience strong feelings watching a football match they are interested in, but these feelings pass at the end of the match. We can again experience this or that feeling if the thought of the object that caused this feeling in its time arises in our memory.

3. Conscious character. characteristic feature feelings is that the reasons that caused them are always clear to the person who experiences these feelings. This may be a letter we received, the achievement of a sports record, the successful completion of work, etc. Feelings are based on complex nervous processes in the higher parts of the cerebral cortex: according to I.P. Pavlova, feelings "are connected with the uppermost department and all of them are tied to the second signaling system." "Unaccountable feeling" is a term that does not correspond to the psychological characteristics of feelings, which always act as conscious experiences. This term can rightly be applied to moods, not feelings.

4. Strictly differentiated connection of emotional experience with specific objects, actions, circumstances, his callers. Feelings don't have diffuse character characteristic of moods. We experience a sense of pleasure when reading this particular book, and not another; doing our favorite sport, we experience satisfaction that does not apply to its other types, etc. Feelings are most closely related to activity, for example, a feeling of fear causes a desire to run, and a feeling of anger causes a desire to fight. This "objective" character of feelings has great importance during their upbringing: feelings develop, become deeper and more perfect as a result of close acquaintance with the objects that cause them, systematic exercise in this type of activity, etc.

Feelings are distinguished by the complexity and variety of emotional experiences. Depending on their content and the causes that cause them, they are divided into lower and higher.

lower feelings associated mainly with biological processes in the body, with the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of natural human needs. An example of the lower feelings would be the pleasure or pain experienced in thirst, hunger, satiety, satiety, and also in various types of muscular activity, depending on the degree of muscle tension or muscle fatigue.

higher feelings divided into three groups: moral, intellectual and aesthetic.

moral called such higher feelings that are experienced by a person in connection with the realization of the conformity or inconsistency of his behavior with the requirements of public morality.

intellectual Feelings associated with human cognitive activity are called, they arise in the process of learning and learning. scientific work, as well as creative activities in various forms of art, science and technology.

aesthetic called such higher feelings that are caused in us by the beauty or ugliness of perceived objects, whether they are natural phenomena, works of art or people, as well as their actions and actions.

Affects. The salient features of effects are:

1. Very large, sometimes excessive intensity and violent outward expression emotional experience. Affects are characterized by excessive strength of excitatory and inhibitory processes in the cerebral cortex and, at the same time, increased activity of the subcortical centers, the manifestation of deep, instinctive emotional experiences. Rapidly developing excitation in the centers of the cortex associated with these emotional experiences is accompanied by strong inductive inhibition of other parts of the cortex, as a result of which, during an affect, a person may not notice the environment, be unaware of ongoing events and his own actions, and is transmitted to the subcortical centers which, being released at the moment from the restraining and controlling influence of the entire cortex, cause a vivid external manifestation of the experienced emotional state.

For example, that a person has an anxious mood if he is seized by some, as yet unclear and indefinite fears. We can say that a person is seized with a feeling of fear if his condition is already more definite and the cause of which is well known to him. And, finally, we can say that a person experiences an affect of horror if his emotional state, which, in comparison with the two previous ones, is distinguished by extraordinary strength and is violently expressed in external movements and internal physiological processes: from horror, a person can run without looking back or, conversely, stay in place, not being able to move.

2. The short duration of the emotional experience. Being an excessively intense process, the affect cannot last long and ceases very quickly. At the same time, three stages can be noted in its course, characterized by different features.

initial stage affect. In some cases, the affect comes on suddenly, in the form of some kind of flash or explosion, and quickly reaches its maximum intensity (Fig. 31 a). In other cases, a gradual increase in the intensity of emotional experience is observed: attention is drawn to the objects or circumstances that caused the emotion and gradually focuses more and more on them, excitation increases in some and, accordingly, inhibition in other centers of the cortex, the subcortical centers become more and more activated and themselves begin to have a strong influence on cortical processes, as a result of which a person loses self-control and, finally, completely surrenders to the strong experience that has gripped him (Fig. 31 b).

central stage when the affect develops to its climax. This stage is characterized by drastic changes and even violations normal activities the whole organism. The processes of excitation, especially in the subcortical centers, reach their higher power, deep inhibition covers the most important centers of the cortex, the functions of which are inhibited, and therefore the higher nervous processes associated with those acquired during life experience and education by the social and moral attitudes of the individual, the mechanisms of the second signaling system are violated and, accordingly, the activity of thinking and speech is upset. The ability of voluntary attention is reduced, a person is largely

Features of cognitive mental states

Conclusion

1. The essence of mental states and their classification

In this abstract work, we are faced with the goal of briefly characterizing the essence of mental states, incl. in the process of cognitive activity, based on the experience of domestic and foreign researchers. Three main tasks follow from this goal: first of all, to study the essence of mental states and their classification, secondly, to characterize the emotional and volitional mental states, and, finally, to bring the features of the cognitive mental states of the individual.

The mental state of a person is a very complex multifaceted phenomenon, which has always been the object of close attention from psychologists and other specialists.

Today, the mental state is understood as a temporary functional level of the psyche, which reflects the interaction of the influence of the internal environment of the body or external factors and determines the direction of the course of mental processes at a certain moment and the manifestation of a person's mental properties.

From the standpoint of functioning, the mental state of a person is manifested in how quickly or slowly reactions and processes occur in it, as the existing mental properties affect.

The mental state is closely related to the individual properties of the personality, since it characterizes mental activity not in general, but individually. The state of fear in one person can be expressed in mental excitement, and in another - in mental "paralysis", inhibition of mental activity. Just as mental properties are reflected in mental states, mental states can translate into mental properties. If a person very often experiences a state of anxiety, the possible formation of a personal property - anxiety.

Each mental state is an experience of the subject and, at the same time, the activity of his various systems, it has an external expression and is found in a change in the effect of the activity, which is performed by the personality. Only a joint comparison of indicators that reflect each of these personal psychological levels allows us to conclude that a person has a particular condition. Neither behavior nor various psychophysiological indicators, taken separately, can reliably differentiate the mental state. Leading place in the diagnosis of states belongs to the experiences associated with the attitude of the individual to a particular phenomenon, situation. Isolation of experiences as a visible factor in the mental state of the individual makes it possible to consider the mental state precisely as qualitative characteristic the psyche of the individual, which combines the mental processes and properties of the individual and influences them (Fig. 1).

Mental states have a reflex nature. At the same time, some of them are of an unconditioned reflex origin, for example, the state of hunger, thirst, satiety, while others (most) are of a conditioned reflex. For example, a person who is accustomed to starting work at the same time, before it begins, has a state of optimal readiness for activity, he enters the rhythm of work from the very first minute.

The basis of mental states is a certain ratio of nervous processes (from episodic to persistent typical for this person) in the cerebral cortex. Under the influence of a combination of external and internal stimuli, a certain general tone of the cortex, its functional level, arises.

Picture 1

Mental states in the structure of the personality psyche

Physiological states of the cortex I.P. Pavlov called phase states. “At one end,” he wrote, “there is an excited state, an extreme increase in tone, irritation when the inhibitory process becomes impossible or very difficult. It is followed by a normal, vigorous state, a state of equilibrium between irritable and inhibitory processes. Then follows - a long, but also sequential, series of transitional states to the inhibitory state. Of these, the following are especially characteristic: a leveling state, when all stimuli, regardless of their intensity, in contrast to a vigorous state, act in exactly the same way; a paradoxical state, when only weak stimuli act or/and strong stimuli, but only barely, and, finally, an ultraparadoxical state, when only previously produced inhibitory agents act positively, a state followed by a complete inhibitory state. Pupils of I.P. Pavlov differentiated and divided some phases into a number of additional phases.

Mental states from the outside are manifested in changes in breathing and blood circulation, in facial expressions, pantomime, movements, walking, gestures, intonation features of speech, etc. So, in a state of satisfaction, one can observe an increase in the frequency and amplitude of breathing, and dissatisfaction predetermines a decrease in the frequency and amplitude of breathing. Breathing in an excited state becomes frequent and deep, in a tense state - slowed down and weak, in an anxious state - accelerated and weak. In case of unexpected surprise, breathing becomes more frequent, but maintains a normal amplitude.

Mental states can be classified according to a variety of criteria. First of all, divide them into groups of manifestations of mental processes:

emotional states - moods, affects, anxiety, etc.;

volitional states - determination, confusion, etc.;

cognitive states - concentration, thoughtfulness, etc.

Mental states are also distinguished by depth and duration. Passion as a mental state is deeper than moods. Each state is temporary, it can be replaced by another. For practical purposes, it is necessary to distinguish instantaneous (unstable), long-term and even chronic states, or operational, current and permanent ones, for psychological diagnosis. Each state - for example, anxiety and thoughtfulness, under certain conditions, can be both operational (unstable), current (long-term), and permanent (chronic). The transition of states from current to permanent can be both positive (state of training in sports, determination) and negative (state of fatigue, confusion).

According to purely psychological signs of the state, there are intellectual, emotional, strong-willed and combined.

Depending on the occupation of the individual, mental states are divided into states in educational, labor, combat, household, extreme and other types of activity.

According to the role in the structure of the personality, the states can be situational, personal and group. Situational states express the features of the situation, which caused reactions in the psyche of the individual that are uncharacteristic of her mental activity. Personal and collective (group) states are typical for a particular person or collective (group).

According to the depth of experiences, deep and superficial states are distinguished. According to the nature of the influence on the individual, the collective (group), the states are divided into positive and negative.

By duration, mental states are long and fast. The longing of young soldiers (sailors) for their homeland can cover a period of up to several weeks, until they get used to the new conditions, do not "join" the team. The state of expectation of some significant event in some people occurs several months before its occurrence.

According to the degree of awareness, states can be more or less conscious and unconscious.

The complexity of distinguishing between types of mental states lies in the fact that it is almost impossible to place them within the same scale, to classify them according to one criterion. Each state has its own set of manifestations and signs (level of awareness, dominance of mental processes, duration, adequacy of the situation, etc.).

So, in mental states, the characteristics of mental processes and personality traits are combined and merged. Analysis of the mental state makes it possible to predict the behavior of the individual, its development and self-growth.

At the same time, all mental states are characterized by:

integrity, mobility and relative stability;

direct and immediate connection with mental processes and personality traits;

individual originality and typicality;

mismatch of personality traits and mental states, polarity.

Emotional and volitional mental states

Emotions are very important component of the human psyche, these are mental phenomena that display in the form of experiences the personal significance and assessment of external and internal situations for human life.

Emotions can significantly influence human behavior and the process of activity. The experience of the vital meaning of the phenomena and properties of the world, or emotions, is a necessary prerequisite for human activity. Emotional processes provide, first of all, the energy basis of activity, are its motives. Emotions determine the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of behavior. They also provide selectivity of perception - the choice of environmental objects that affect a person and are meaningful to him. At the same time, congenital, unconditioned reflex emotions and acquired emotions or conditioned reflex emotions are distinguished.

The world of human emotions is multifaceted. There are as many emotions as there are situations in which a person gets. In general, feelings and emotions change contrastingly in the following directions:

satisfaction (pleasant experience);

displeasure (unpleasant experience);

double (ambivalent);

indefinite relationship to reality.

Among the main emotional states mood, affect, stress, frustration and passion stand out (Table 1).

Mood is a relatively long, persistent mental state of moderate or low intensity, which manifests itself as a positive or negative emotional background. mental life individual. The mood can be joyful or sad, cheerful or depressed. The source of this or that mood is, as a rule, the state of health or the position of a person in society. At the same time, the mood, in turn, affects the attitude of a person to his environment: it will be unequal in a joyful mood and, for example, in a sad one.

Table 1

Characteristics of the main emotional states

Emotional stateParametersMoodCharacterized by the subconscious and weak expressiveness. It can be joyful, sad, indifferent. The affect is characterized by significant changes in consciousness, loss of self-control, changes in the entire vital activity of the organism. weak stresses encourage very complex activities. Frustration Conflict between the level of desires and possibilities, lethargy, depression Passion Maximum interest in the subject of passion

Affect is a strong and relatively short-term emotional state associated with abrupt change important for the subject life circumstances, which is characterized by pronounced motor, speech manifestations and changes in the functions of internal organs.

There are physiological and pathological effects. Able physiological affect a person, despite a sudden shock, is able to direct or control his activities. This affect occurs as a reaction of the body to a strong and unexpected stimulus. Most pathological affect is due to a relatively mild stimulus, such as a minor insult.

Stress (from the English stress - “pressure, tension”) is a state of a person that occurs as a response to various extreme types of influence of the external and internal environment, which unbalance the physical or psychological functions of a person.

A person can be affected by a variety of stressors, the result of which can be different (Table 2). A short stress mobilizes all the forces of a person, helps to overcome obstacles, to make an act of will, and a strong prolonged stress leads to chronic fatigue and professional burnout.

Stress, as well as boredom, disgust can be a specific emotional state of activity. At the same time, the emotional intensity and monotony of labor can be both objective and subjective, reflected only in the mind of a person.

Frustration, on the other hand, acts as a blocking of a person's aspirations, a state of unpleasant emotional tension caused by external or internal obstacles that make it impossible temporarily or permanently to realize a person's intentions. Frustration, as a rule, is accompanied by a number of negative consequences: the emergence of disappointment, despair, aggression, depreviation, etc.

table 2

Types of stressors and their consequences

Stressors Consequences Production (overload, poor equipment) Fatigue, anxiety, irritation, guilt, illness Role-playing (role conflict, lack of status) Behavioral problems, the threat of conflict Structural (weak communications, violation of hierarchy) Poor concentration, low motivation, problems with volitional actions Personal (problems in personal relationships, economic, social) Decreased self-esteem, low productivity, depression, neurosis, illness mental stress strong-willed personality

Passion is a strong, persistent all-embracing and all-absorbing feeling that dominates other motives, human needs and leads to the focus on the subject of passion of all his strengths and aspirations.

Volitional states are temporary mental states that optimize and mobilize the human psyche to overcome internal and external obstacles. Often such states are manifested in an effort of will, which reflects the strength of neuropsychic tension, which mobilizes the physical, intellectual and moral forces of a person. Positive volitional states include perseverance, determination, purposefulness, enthusiasm, and negative ones - confusion, lack of will, passivity, indecision, doubts, etc.

3. Features of cognitive mental states

As we saw in the first chapter of this work, cognitive processes are closely related to emotional and volitional processes and states.

The cognitive process is a mental process by which a person learns the world. Cognitive activity is the process of reflection in the human brain, his consciousness of objects and phenomena of reality. It consists of a series of cognitive mental processes: sensation, perception, attention, memory, imagination, thinking and speech. The display of reality in human consciousness can occur at the level of sensitive and abstract cognition.

Consequently, cognitive states are those mental states of a person that accompany the process of cognition, as the development of the surrounding reality and oneself. These include interest, concentration, thoughtfulness, enthusiasm. It is quite difficult to clearly distinguish and distinguish between each of these states, because sensory and abstract cognition closely complement each other (Fig. 2).

Sensory cognition is characterized by the fact that objects and phenomena of the objective world directly act on a person's sense organs - his sight, hearing, smell, tactile and other analyzers and are transmitted to the brain. Cognitive mental processes of sensation and perception belong to this form of cognition of reality.

The highest form of human cognition is abstract cognition, which occurs with the participation of the processes of thinking and imagination. In a developed form, these cognitive processes are inherent only to a person who has consciousness and discovers mental activity in activity. An important feature of thinking and imagination is the indirect nature of their reflection of reality, due to the use of previously acquired knowledge, experience, hypotheses, etc. The object of knowledge in the processes of thinking and imagination are internal, not directly given in the sensations of objects, patterns of phenomena and processes.

Figure 2

Scheme of the cognitive process

An important role in human cognitive activity is played by memory, which uniquely displays, fixes and recreates what is displayed in the mind in the process of cognition.

A significant characteristic of cognitive activity is emotional and volitional processes that induce a person to active actions, volitional acts.

Therefore, interest, concentration, thoughtfulness, enthusiasm can be counted among the elements of sensation and perception.

Sensation is a cognitive mental process of displaying individual properties of objects and phenomena in the human brain during their direct action on his sense organs. There are also interoreceptive sensations that come from the internal organs.

This is the simplest cognitive activity through which both animals and humans receive elementary information about the external environment and the states of their body. This is a sensation of light, color, smell, taste, touch, noise, vibration, smoothness or roughness, moisture, heat or cold, pain, body position in space, etc. This is an elementary sensitive (sensory) image. But it is also the foundation on which the image of the world is built, the sensitive fabric of the individual's consciousness. The loss of the ability to feel is the loss of channels of communication between a person and the world, as evidenced by cases of blindness, deafness, and experiments in which a person is isolated from external environmental stimuli.

So, sensation is the basis of cognitive activity, a condition for mental development, a source for constructing an adequate image of the world.

Perception is a mental process of displaying objects and phenomena by a person as a whole, in the aggregate of all their qualities and properties with their direct influence on the senses.

The process of perception occurs in conjunction with other mental processes of the individual: thinking (a person is aware of the object of perception), speech (calls it with a word), feelings (discovers his attitude towards it), will (organizes perceptual activity with a conscious effort).

Perception is distinguished by: sensory features(vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste, kinetic, pain), in relation to mental life (intellectual, emotional, aesthetic), according to the complexity of perception (perception of space, movement, time). Perception by meaning is the perception of objects and phenomena in space, movement, time.

The main properties of perception are objectivity, integrity, structure, constancy.

The interest of the individual is a motive for learning, this is the first result from the sensation and perception of new material. If at the first stage of cognition there is no state of interest among students, then most likely, the effect of the learning process will be very low. Interest has a positive effect on the emotional-volitional state of the individual. Therefore, in the process of education and upbringing, a wide variety of methods are used to increase the interest of students. The enthusiasm of the individual in the process of cognitive activity, which can be supported by emotional passion, directly depends on it.

The concentration of an individual in the process of cognition, learning is the concentration of attention, which depends on the content of the activity, the degree of interest in it, and, above all, on the individual characteristics of a person, his skills, habits. The basis is the activity and persistence of excitations in the active areas of the cerebral cortex. I. Newton, when asked why he managed to discover the law of universal gravitation, answered that it was due to the fact that he tirelessly thought about this issue. But at the same time, the methods of cognition and learning play an important role, on which the support of the intensity of excitation during the necessary time largely depends, for example, during a lesson at school or during the time that is needed to perform any other activity.

If a person has unfavorable emotional-volitional mental states, for example, stress, affect, indecision, confusion, the cognitive state will also be unproductive.

After writing this abstract work, we were convinced that the mental states of a person are temporary functional levels of the psyche, which reflect its interaction with the external environment, as well as the influence of the internal environment of the body or external factors on the human psyche. They determine the direction of the course of mental processes at a certain moment and the manifestation of the mental properties of a person and are closely related to all components of the psyche.

In fact, mental states are manifested in a certain relation, the experience of an individual relative to this or that fact, phenomenon, object, personality. A manifestation of the mental state is a change in behavior, primarily verbal, a change in some physiological and mental processes.

All mental states are classified according to the most different features, however, most often they are divided into three groups: - emotional states (moods, affects, anxiety, etc.), volitional (decisiveness, confusion, etc.) and cognitive (concentration, thoughtfulness, etc.).

Emotional states reflect the emotional background of the individual, his emotional and physiological reaction to external, incl. extreme conditions, personally significant objects, etc.

Volitional states, as temporary mental states, optimize and mobilize the human psyche to overcome internal and external obstacles.

And the cognitive states of the individual accompany the process of cognition, as the development of the surrounding reality and oneself. At the same time, in the process of organizing cognitive activity, it is important to remember that all states are interconnected and for the success of training it is necessary to create conditions for a general positive state of the psyche.

Thus, we managed to achieve the main goal of writing an abstract work, to characterize mental processes from the point of view of their psychophysiological nature, highlighting different types states, including cognitive ones. This goal was dictated by the fact that an important task modern education is the formation of a harmoniously developed, physically and mentally healthy personality. However, the success of solving this problem today is negatively affected by a number of factors: the problems of the unstable socio-economic situation of the state, the complexity of the social situation in the development of the child, the unfavorable family atmosphere and the peculiarities of parental relationships. As well as the level of professionalism and psychological education of teachers, the sensitivity of schoolchildren and students to various social influences, their emotional instability and impressionability, individual typological properties, etc. Some of these factors determine the appearance of negative mental states in children, adolescents and youth, which, in the absence of proper psychological correction, adequate changes in the conditions of education and upbringing, can transform into persistent personality traits and deform its further development, cause a deterioration in the success of educational activities, behavior, cause disruption of relationships in society.

An inadequate cognitive mental state worsens the quality of the educational and upbringing process, and vice versa, an effective emotional-volitional and cognitive state of the student's psyche contributes to better assimilation of the material, its comprehensive fruitful development.

And the specialist himself, a teacher, psychologist or social worker, a worker in the field of education and upbringing, must timely diagnose and correct undesirable mental states in himself and his colleagues.

List of used literature

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6.Kamenskaya E.N. Psychology of Personality. Lecture notes. - M.: Phoenix, 2010. - 160 p.

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Every person on the planet in every second of his life experiences a certain spiritual or mental state - joy, anxiety, sadness, peace. All these states, alternating one after another, make up human life.

The mental state of a person is a very stable, but at the same time, a dynamic phenomenon that reflects the features of the work of the psyche of a person in a specific period of time.

The concept and characteristics of the mental state

The mental state is a multicomponent combined reflection of internal and external factors in the psyche of a person without a clear understanding of their objective significance (irritability, creative inspiration, boredom, melancholy, cheerfulness, etc.). In science, the state of mind is considered as a dynamic concept, concrete only in a certain time period.

The mental state is not only emotional experiences as a reaction to an event or other factors, but also the physiological state of the body, which is reflected in the nervous, hormonal, and other systems.

The psyche of the individual is very susceptible to different kind irritants, changeable and mobile. And the behavior of an individual in a particular period of time largely depends on the characteristics of the manifestation of mental properties and processes at a given moment. It is obvious that a sad person differs from a happy one, an irritable person from a calm one. And the spiritual mental state is what characterizes these very features of the personality's psyche at a particular moment. Similar states affect mental processes, and often repeating, tend to be fixed and become an individual character trait.

In science, the concept of “mental property” is referred to as stable, fixed features, and the “mental process” is characterized as a dynamic moment, while the psychological state is a relatively stable part of the personality structure, that is, one that is stable only for a certain period of time.

Speaking about this concept, psychologists often point to a certain energy feature that affects human activity or, conversely, passivity in the process of activity. For example, fatigue-energy, irritation-calmness, etc. Also considered is such a component as the state of human consciousness: sleep or wakefulness. Special mental states that occur against the background of stress, extreme events are of great interest to modern science.

Components of the psychological state and their characteristics

Mental states have a multicomponent structure. It includes behavioral, emotional, volitional and physiological components of the psyche and the body as a whole.

At the level of physiology and motor skills, the state of mind can be manifested by an accelerated or slow pulse, changes in blood pressure, facial expressions, voice, breathing.

In the cognitive and emotional sphere, different states manifest and determine feelings with a positive or negative connotation, a way of thinking, etc.

The communicative and behavioral levels determine the character in society, the correctness or incorrectness of the actions taken.

A certain state of mind arises from the actual needs of the individual, where they are, as a rule, a system-forming stimulus. It follows from this that if external conditions allow you to satisfy your desires, a state with a positive coloring arises. If the probability of satisfying one's desires and needs is low or completely absent, negative mental states arise.

As a result of this or that experience, many motivational attitudes of the individual, his emotions, and the characteristics of the psycho-emotional sphere change.

A person experiencing some kind of mental state begins to interact with objects or subjects that, in fact, caused this state in him. Then it comes to a certain result:

• if this result is satisfactory, then his state of mind disappears, being replaced by a new one;
• a negative result leads to frustration and causes other negative mental states.

Frustration launches new motivational mechanisms of the personality psyche in order to lower the level of negative emotions. And the person begins to act with new pressure and strength to achieve positive result. If in the future it is not possible to achieve one's own goals, then the mechanisms of psychological self-defense are activated in order to reduce the level of tension.

Mental states and its types

The state of mind is a whole complex of different processes: emotional, behavioral, cognitive, which are a reaction to a certain life situation. Moreover, each such state has a pronounced individual feature.

The complexity and dynamism of the structure of mental states determine their branched classification. In addition, states often closely intersect and even overlap each other. For example, a neuropsychic state can occur against the background of fatigue, aggression, etc.

Mental states are classified according to the following criteria.

By origin:

• on situational (associated with everyday life or professional activities);
• and personal (associated with the characteristics of the psyche and character of a particular individual, for example, stormy emotional reaction choleric).

In turn, personal are divided into:

• crisis and optimal;
• borderline (neurosis, psychopathy);
• states of disturbed consciousness.

In terms of intensity:

• mild (mood);
• deep (hatred, passion).

According to the degree of emotional coloring:

• neutral;
• negative (asthenic);
• positive (sthenic).

According to the structure of the psyche:

• emotional;
• strong-willed;
• motivational;
• cognitive.

Duration level:

• momentary (state of passion);
• prolonged (depression);
• medium duration (euphoria, fear).

According to the degree of manifestation:

• physiological (sleep, hunger);
• spiritual (joy).
• psychophysiological (fear, excitement).

By level of awareness:

• conscious;
• unconscious.

Taking into account all the above criteria, a complete clear description is given to one or another state of the individual's psyche.

Along with the mental states of the individual, social ones are also considered. Thus, the public opinion and mood characteristic of a given period of time for a particular group of the population are studied.

Crisis psychological states

In the personal or professional sphere of life of every person, events occur that become for him a deep psychological trauma, a source of severe mental pain.

Such vulnerability of the individual is subjective in nature, which depends on life values, their hierarchy, and moral structure. Some individuals often have an unbalanced hierarchy of ethical values, some acquire an overvalued character, greatly prevailing over the rest. This is how ethical accentuation is formed. In simple words - the "vulnerability" of the character.

Some react painfully to infringements of their rights, dignity, injustice. Others - on the constraint of their material wealth, social status.

In the process of exposure to a traumatic stimulus, adaptive mechanisms are activated - the restructuring of personal attitudes. Own hierarchy of life principles and values ​​is aimed at neutralizing this irritant. As a result of psychological self-defense, personal relationships fundamentally change. Caused by a traumatic factor, the disorder in the soul is replaced by an organized structure and order. However, this orderliness can also be false - social alienation, immersion in the world of one's own illusions, addiction to alcohol or drugs.

Disadaptation at the level of society can manifest itself in various forms. It:

• The mental state of negativism is the predominance of negative personal reactions, the loss of positive contacts and sensations.
• The sharp opposition of an individual is a sharp negative characteristic of an individual, his behavior, a manifestation of aggression towards him.
• Social alienation is the prolonged self-isolation of a person due to an acute conflict with others.

Social withdrawal as one of negative forms mental state is manifested only in a special sense of self - a feeling of rejection, loneliness, anger. At the same time, other people and their actions are perceived as hostile. And in the extreme form of alienation - misanthropy - as hated. Prolonged or sharp alienation can lead to personal deviations: reflection, the ability to empathize with others is reduced, and sometimes completely disappears, at the same time, one's own social identity is lost.

Difficult to endure conflicts or loads, especially long ones, cause such a state of mind as depression. A person begins to experience acute depression, anxiety, disappointment, longing. During depression, a person's self-esteem decreases, and people around him are perceived as hostile to him. Depersonalization or derealization of the personality may occur. Passivity, a sense of unfulfilled duty, of one's obligations leads to painful despair.

The ratio between various kinds mental states, the course of their development affects the character and psyche of a person as a whole, and also plays essential role in the personal and professional sphere of each.