32 TEACHING ABOUT PSYCHE AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Mind - reproduction of objective reality, detected by the subject in behavior and activity. In broad understanding - it is the totality of all mental phenomena. There are various degrees of the psyche inherent in all living organisms: from single-celled (protozoa) to the most highly organized - human.

All mental phenomena are associated with the activity of the brain - the central nervous system. At the beginning of the XX century. two central psychological sciences took shape on the basis of the study of empirical data (practical examinations) - the physiology of higher nervous activity and psychophysiology. The relationship of brain activity with behavioral features was considered by I. M. Sechenov. Subsequent studies of the psyche continued IP Pavlov, which formed the theory of conditioned-reflex learning. The merits in the study of psychophysiology include a number of domestic (P. K. Anokhin) and foreign (C. Hull) scientists.

N. A. Bernstein empirically argued that no primitive physical movement takes place without the participation of the psyche. The founder of the psychophysiology of learning is an American scientist K. Hull. He analyzed congenital and acquired mechanisms of regulation of adaptation to the environment and the stability of maintaining a harmonious state within the organism itself — homeostasis functions (physico-biochemical reactions that regulate the invariance of the internal environment: blood pressure level, pulse rate and respiratory movements, body temperature, etc.).

The psyche (psyche - “soul”, “butterfly”), in its narrow interpretation, is an individual image of the objective world. In other words, each individual person sees the surrounding reality in their own way, depending on the nature of the character. In the mental and physiological sense, any kind of flora and fauna has limits in the degree of mental maturation, which is detected with the help of elementary responses to external pathogens (irritability) to complex conscious actions or the application of cognitive processes in animals.

Consciousness is a form of reproduction of objective reality in the human psyche, characterized by the fact that as an indirect, intermediate factor, elements of sociohistorical practice are put forward, allowing to construct objective (established) pictures of the world. The starting point of socio-historical practice is jointly implemented activities. In the subjective formation, some components of the activity are gradually mastered by the child in common with adults.

Consciousness includes:

1) the ability to isolate themselves as an individual from the surrounding reality and their own kind;

2) individualization of knowledge for other people;

3) an adequate display of reality.