History of economic psychology

The origins of the history of economic psychology can be found, first of all, in the works of famous economists.

Adam Smith (1723-1790), the founder of economics as an independent science, laid the foundation for theoretical ideas about the "economic man" as a selfish, rational, inclined to exchange individual.

J. Bentham (1748-1832) formulated the principle of maximizing pleasure and minimizing suffering as the basic law of human behavior.

K. Marx (1818-1883) developed the idea of ​​the leading role of social production in shaping not only the conditions of human life activity, but also the person himself.

John Keynes (1883-1946) is the author of macroeconomic theory. Its main psychological law says: the propensity to consume in society increases as incomes rise and decreases as they decrease, but more slowly (see Fig. 1), which is explained by the action of socio-psychological factors (inertness of habits and traditions). This explains the difference in the ratio of budget shares allocated to consumption and savings at different stages of the life cycle.

Fig. 1 . The basic, psychological law of John. Keynes. The share of consumption (C) in real income (Y) as it grows decreases and the share of savings (YC) increases.

In the works of these authors, the theory of a rational “ economic man ” took shape, the purpose of which is to gain profit and income. The defining feature of the concept is “economic egoism”, i.e. the desire of the subject to maximize their own benefits.

The idea of ​​“economic man” for a long time dominated economic psychology, taking on new forms. The framework of this concept did not constrain the researchers as long as they were economists.

As an independent branch of psychological knowledge, economic psychology originated in the West as an applied science to meet the needs of economic theory and began to take shape at the beginning of the 20th century.

Among psychologists, economic psychology was one of the first to start studying French psychologist Gabriel Tarde. He wrote a two-volume work on la Psychologic Economique in 1902. By definition, G. Tarda (1902) economic psychology deals with the psychological foundations of economics or, in other words, with the psychological provisions on which economic theory is based.

The German psychologist G. Munsterberg (1863-1916), better known in Russia as the founder of psychotechnics, was engaged in empirical, including experimental, research in the field of psychology of work and advertising. His work Psychology and Economic Life (1912) was translated into Russian.

George Cato was the first psychologist to focus on psychological problems at the macroeconomic level. He introduced such notions as “attitude to something”, “mood” and “expectations” into the general economic theory. In the US, he is considered the father of economic psychology. He first began to systematically apply psychological theory and methods to the study of economic problems. It was Katona who formulated one of the basic ideas of economic psychology: a purchase depends not only on the ability (economic opportunity) to make a purchase, but also on the desire to make it (psychological readiness).

In the book "Psychological Economics" (1975) the most complete description of his theoretical ideas about the relationship between psychology and economics. The main task in the use of psychology for economic research is, according to J. Katona, in identifying and analyzing internal trends underlying economic processes and responsible for economic actions, decisions and choices. An economy without psychology cannot successfully explore the most important economic processes, just as psychology without economics does not have the opportunity to explore the most important aspects of human behavior.

J. Katona proposed a general model that includes the main groups of factors of economic behavior, which, despite its simplicity and obvious behavioral inclination, defines the place of mental processes as intermediate variables mediating the influence of external conditions on economic behavior.

Objective --- Mental --- Economic

Environment behavior processes

In Russia, economic psychology was widely developed in the 80-90 years, when the question arose about the effectiveness of economic reforms. The failures of the first stage of economic reform clearly demonstrated the narrowness of the narrow economic approach, gave rise to a number of social problems (unemployment, poverty, crime, apathy), for which the knowledge and methods of practical psychology are becoming more and more popular.

Thus, an objective prerequisite for the development of economic psychology into an independent science in Russia was radical transformations, a change in economic relations, primarily in the sphere of ownership relations in the means of production, the emergence of new subjects of economic activity.

Initiatives to create this discipline and justify the need to take into account psychological factors in the economy came from leading economists, in particular L.M. Abalkina, P. Bunich, A.G. Aganbegyan, T.I. Zaslavskaya, V.V. Kulikova, P.Kh. Popov.

Psychological studies that laid the foundations of Russian economic psychology were performed: A. I. Kitov, V.D. Lopov, A.V. Filigshov. The authors of the Leningrad psychologists in the monograph Industrial Social Psychology, edited by E.S. Kuzmina and A.L. Sventsitsky in 1982, drew the attention of scientists to the aspects of economic psychology related to motivation and management of labor activity.

However, the interest of domestic scientists for a long time was mainly focused on the psychology of the manufacturer , the human factor in production, and management problems. The specificity of economic psychology, unlike labor psychology, industrial psychology, and other branches of psychological knowledge that investigate a manufacturer, is that it studies the producer and the consumer in unity . Objective links mediating the connection of two inalienable spheres of economic life — production and consumption — are wages, price, taxes, incomes, and other economic categories that, nevertheless, have a psychological meaning, a psychological component.

The organizational design of economic psychology in science occurred in the early 80s of the twentieth century, when the leading researchers (primarily Western European) dealing with the problems of economic psychology, were united in the International Association of Economic Psychology Researchers . The main task of this organization is to assist researchers through the organization of a conference, co-educational schools, the publication of the Journal of Economic Psychology.