A subject in psychology is an individual or a group of people who takes an active position in the transformation of reality, provokes changes in other people - objects - and in himself.
What is psychology?
The word "psychology" comes from the Greek "soul". Now this science is studying the nature of the psyche, its mechanisms and manifestations. Throughout the history of becoming the objects of attention of the discipline were both the soul and consciousness, then behavior, and now science studies the psyche with all its manifestations.
As you can see, the subject of psychology has been replaced several times, but the object has always been a person with his inherent psychological manifestations.
Like any self-respecting science, psychology, in addition to the object and subject, also has tasks, principles and methods.
Problems of psychology
The tasks of science change a little in parallel with the subject. At this stage, the following have formed:
- study of the influence of activities on the human psyche, on his interpersonal and intergroup relations;
- research of the psychological conditions of professional activity;
- studyways to influence the individual, the collective and the masses;
- establishing patterns of work capacity dynamics;
- identifying the features of individual qualities, patterns and ways of personality formation in modern society.
Object and subject
These are two opposite concepts. The concept of "subject" in psychology is the carrier of the action, an active participant in some process, and the object is the one who is influenced. The first is the active position and the second is the passive position.
For example, the subject in a woodworking activity will be the master, and the tree itself will be the object; the subject of education is the educator, and the object is the child; the subject of education is the teacher (teaching), and the object is the student. But some teachers believe that the learning process is so complex that it is impossible without the active position of the student. That is, the student is both the object (for example, at a lecture, when listening and writing down material), and the subject (when self-studying, preparing for practical or control) education.
In the sphere of "man - man" the roles of the object and the subject have a fine line and may have some metamorphoses.
Defining the subject
In psychology, this is a separate person who treats the manifestations of his psyche as objects, is capable of self-knowledge and reflection. The subject can be not only one person who sees himself from the outside and perceives himself as an object, but also a group of people, and even a wholesociety.
The subjects of psychology as a science are psychologists who conduct experiments, surveys, tests, etc.
There are several branches of psychology, and in each of them the understanding of a person as a subject of psychology will change slightly.
Synonyms in psychology
In psychology, the concepts of "personality", "subject", "individual" and "individuality" are often intertwined, confused and unjustifiably identified.
The subject can be natural, social and cultural. The natural subject is the individual, while the social and cultural subject is the individual.
Individual
This subject in personality psychology is considered as a separate organism. A newborn child is already an individual, but not yet a person, just a representative of the genus Homo.
However, at this early stage, this biological unit is something integral and can function relatively independently.
Often in everyday speech, this word is equated with individuality, which sometimes provokes ridiculous incidents, since calling a person an individual, you are unlikely to compliment him.
Personality
Only taking root in the microsociety, and then in the society, the individual begins to develop as a person. If you think mathematically, then at least two people are needed to become a social subject.
Mowgli cannot be called a person, as he did not interact with people. He developed in a society, but different, not human.
However, there are several levels of development of social subjects: at the first, mental processes are formed, at the second - intellect, at the third - general culture and upbringing, then communication and social skills develop, etc.
A well-bred person is easy to distinguish from someone who clearly lacks culture.
Personality
Individuality means a set of traits, habits, habits, reactions, attitudes and other manifestations of personality that distinguish it from all others.
Despite the fact that an individual who has not grown up to the level of personality (the same Mowgli) can have a pronounced individuality, it is still customary to call it the highest manifestation of personality.
To develop your individuality on a solid foundation, you need to grow to a personality, become a full-fledged subject of society, understand that you have successfully joined society, that you are like everyone else, and only then emphasize and develop your individuality.
Branches of psychology
Psychology has become incredibly popular these days. In the era of computer technology and artificial intelligence, humanity has become interested in studying the human soul as a comparison.
Sections of psychology are formed on the basis of whose psyche attention is focused on, in what conditions he is. Many other criteria are also involved.
If a young girl with no education in psychology says that she is interested in psychology, most likely she means the psychology of relationships or familypsychology.
The following industries can be called the most popular and necessary: general, because without it, nowhere; social; age or developmental psychology; pedagogical; medical; military; legal; gender; family; pathopsychology; differential, etc.
General psychology
The subject of this generalized industry is a person or several people who are the source of knowledge and change of reality, their distinguishing feature is activity.
The subject provokes changes both in other people and in himself, looking at himself as if from the outside.
The subject of psychology as a science will no longer be every person, but a scientist who studies various aspects of the subject of psychology.
The subject of psychology as a science is the human psyche, and there can be a lot of objects: various pathologies of development, mental processes (cognitive, communicative, emotional-volitional), mental states, properties, etc.
Labor psychology
The subject of labor activity is a person who works. It is he who is the object of study of this branch of psychology.
Labor psychology as a separate field of knowledge emerged in the middle of the last century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the worker was seen as an object of research, that is, a person who takes a passive position in his activities. He works according to strictly regulated instructions, without the possibility and risk of making decisions on his own, as well as showing creativity. InIn the second half of the twentieth century, a working person is already viewed as a subject, since he takes an active rather than a passive position.
This section of science was organized not only to analyze and monitor a person in the course of his work as one of the main areas of life, but also to further optimize the vocational training procedure, increase productivity, study work motivation and other peripheral tasks.
Social psychology
The subject in this case will be the same person, only he will be considered as a social unit.
Some researchers consider the society to be the subject of this industry, and the individual to be the object of its activity.
Social psychology studies the patterns of behavior of people in society in the course of their interaction.
In turn, this branch of psychology has three main areas of study: groups, communication in society and personality in society.
Ambiguous understanding
In a science like psychology, a person is the subject of activity, and she is also the object. Since the middle of the last century, the views of this branch of knowledge on the positions of the subject and object have changed somewhat.
A person who works, studies, communicates, used to be rightfully considered an object of research. That's right, because the attention of the one who does this - the subject is focused on it.
But if we talk about activity and passivity, then the worker, student and other active person cannot be an object. The very process of doing translates itfrom passive to active.
Therefore, now it is most correct to say this: the object of psychological research in a particular area is a person or a group of people as a subject of any activity.
Such ambiguity of the concepts "subject" and "object" can be traced in the sphere "person - person", where the latter is either an active or a passive participant in the process.
If a doctor gives instructions to his patient, and he fulfills them, he is both the object of the therapeutic process (he has a mentor who set a number of specific tasks for him) and his own subject (since he takes a pill, drinks it, makes compresses for himself, etc.).
In the case of a surgeon, the patient will only be an object in the operation process, because he is passive and under anesthesia.
Subject through object
You can consider the term "subject" as everything that is not an object, and vice versa. The subject is I. Everything that a person can point to is an object. In this case, I will never be an object. By "I" in this case refers to perception. "What is self-perception then?" you ask.
Self-perception in the course of operating with these categories is equated with the term "perception", which cannot become an object, since this is who we are. You can perceive individual objects, phenomena, and even your body - these are objects, but when we think about our perception, thoughts become objects, not perception. Therefore, the subject can be calledthe totality of all objects we perceive.
A person can separate the perception of one thing from the perception of another, but a holistic perception cannot be separated from anything and compared with nothing. Since we can compare objects with each other, compare, see some of them at the same time, but with full perception of such manipulations it is impossible.
Perception and self-perception
Perception is the process of knowing the world around us with the help of the senses. It shapes our cognition.
Images of objects and phenomena are fixed in our minds due to perception. But the way we see the world is subjective, not real.
Each person perceives the world in his own way, based on life experience, knowledge, type of temperament and a number of other reasons.
If you put a guitar in the center of the circle of the training group, then everyone will see it from different angles, therefore, the description of this item will be different.
Subjective and objective opinion
As the concept of "subject" is opposed to the concept of "object", so is "subjectivity" opposed to "objectivity".
The subject, although he takes an active position, still has one significant "flaw": he sees the world from only one point - from the position of his perception.
Let's go back to the guitar example. Imagine that people are sitting in a circle, and a musical instrument is in the center. The person to whom it is turned with its back side will be withto assert with full confidence that it has no strings, the neck does not know how it is attached, and it cannot say a word about the thickness. The one who sits opposite, on the contrary, will furiously convince the opponent that the strings are still present. Seeing a guitar in profile will have no doubt that it is a fairly narrow object, etc.
There can be a thousand subjective opinions, but only one object - a guitar. If one of the participants gets up and walks around the circle, then in this case he will be able to describe the object objectively.
Based on this equation, we can say that an objective opinion is a set of subjective ones.
Subjects of communication
In psychology, the subjects of communication are usually called an individual who has communication skills, knows how to interact with other people and has social and cultural skills.
The subject of communication can be called not only adults, but also primary schoolchildren and preschool children who, in the course of communication, try to build personal social contacts.
